Hanging out in Da'Burgh

We got to Pittsburgh Christmas day about 3:30, after a harrowing drive in the rain with a rental car that did not want to stay on the road. Jason's hands were in a death grip after 3 hours of trying hard to keep us all alive, while Kelsey and I slept. (me, fitfully...as I kept jerking awake every time we slipped to see if we were all about to die. Then I'd go back to sleep).

Christmas night we had dinner at Grandma Flo's house. It was the three of us, Mary and Hugo, Grandma Flo, Ron and Gail, and Robert. Lovely evening, and really good food. The next day, Megan and Robby arrived and Robby met everyone. We all dressed up in our finery, opened stockings in the living room, and went to the Duquesne Club for dinner. The same people, without Robert, met us there, and in addition was Ron's son Jordan and Mary's brother and sister-in-law from Colorado, Glen and Joanne.

Mary and Hugo had arranged a private room with a big dining room, a living room area and bathroom, so we all had some drinks and opened our secret santa gifts (I got a quilt kit!), then had dinner. As usual, it was delicious and I felt like I needed to be rolled out of the room. We then took Robby on a tour of the place, and went to the Men's Bar for a nightcap before coming home exhausted.

The next day Megan and Robby left and it was a pretty relaxing day. Jason took Kelsey driving while I hung around the house, then that night we went to see Ron and Autumn sing at a local bar/restaurant. There was a huge crowd of relatives there too, so many more people to see and say hi to.

Tonight there are about 20 relatives coming to Mary and Hugo's for a pizza party. Unfortunately, both Kelsey and Jason got my cold and are both fighting to breath right now. I think there will be many infected people after the party tonight :-(

Back in PA

After a very long day on Tuesday, we're finally back in Pennsylvania. I feel really lucky that our flight was Tuesday and not yesterday, because Denver had a gigantic snowstorm yesterday that closed the airport, and that's where we connected through. No problems on the flight except it just takes so damn long to get across the country. I can't wait until we can teleport.

We met Jonathan for dinner Tuesday night, he drove up from State College. It was really good to see him - he's lost 60 pounds since he started running, and he looks fantastic! I don't know why some girl hasn't snapped him up yet :-) We spent a few hours catching up, but he had to drive back to State College and work the next day, so it was a short visit.

Yesterday I spent the day being miserable, as I have a cold and had a raging headache most of the day. Kelsey spent the night at Pam's, so I was in bed by 7:30 at the hotel. I had a hard time getting to sleep though because of my headache, and then when we both were finally asleep, the phone rang. The hotel mixed up our 10:00 am wakeup call with a 1:oo am wakeup call. After a lot of tossing and turning and yet more aspirin, we finally went back to sleep. Luckily, I had set my phone alarm after the 1 am wakeup call, so it went off at 10, and I feel so much better. We're now off to take my mom to her eye appointment. Maybe I can finally enjoy being home today :-)

Christmas Party

Last night was fun. We mostly just ate and bowled...and had a few drinks (I had quite the headache this morning). No Wi for us, but Jason won a $50 gift card for Best Buy, so his winning streak continues. I said yesterday that I'm no Kris Kiner...but my husband is. I think this is the fourth thing he's won, and that's just when I've been with him. Heaven knows how much stuff he's been winning without me!

Kelsey is done with school for the year tomorrow. They have an hour early release, and then that's it for 2006. I think she's really looking forward to her break :-) She seems to like school a little better this year, but I think she'd still prefer not to go to school at all...she's just ready to start college. Three more years, after this one.

Terribly icky day today, so it was nice to come home and put on some jammies and watch the recording of The Biggest Loser...holy cow, the winner lost 214 pounds! That's amazing! He looked really good, as did all of them. Good for them for getting that done. Now getting ready for The Office and Survivor. We love Thursdays :-)

Busy times

Whew, it's been a while since I posted. Time has gotten away from me. I've been super busy these last weeks getting ready for Christmas....and I don't even have to worry about a tree, or decorations, or anything! But I've been doing a lot of shopping and even if most of it has been online, it's been time consuming. I think I'm done now though.

Tonight is Jason's company Christmas party. It's at some place called Garage downtown...it's like a billiards/bowling/bar place. They've booked a private room with 6 bowling lanes, some pool tables, and they're going to have some Texas Hold'em, Blackjack, and Craps tables set up. Same as last year, you use fake money to play, you trade your winnings in for tickets, and the tickets go into a drawing for prizes. Last year they gave away an X-Box 360 as their big prize. I'm no Kris Kiner, I didn't win anything. But it was fun anyway :-) Food, free drinks, and a bit of fun. Too bad it's just for adults, so Kelsey has to stay home :-(

Less than a week until we leave for PA and a whirlwind of Christmas activity. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to update before then, so Merry Christmas!

Oh, P.S. I got an A in Anthropology! I'm so glad that class is over.

Friday Harbor

Today we woke up rather early at the campground....I guess going to bed so early makes us get up early too. The girls walked around the campsite while I made breakfast tacos. We went and got some firewood from the office so we had mid morning s'mores too :-). We decided we would take the later ferry to Friday Harbor, and then have dinner there and come home.

The ferry was at 2:40, which got us to Friday Harbor at 3:45. It was so pretty there. Kelsey and I thought it reminded us of some of the towns in Alaska that we stopped in on our cruise last summer. There was still snow on the ground, and the stores were all decorated with lights for Christmas. It really is a pretty town. The only problem was all the shops closed at 5:30, and we had decided to eat before shopping, so we didn't have a whole lot of time to see much. Then we had to wait until 6:45 for the return ferry to Anacortes. Tomorrow I'll post a picture of the girls waiting to board.

There were only about 8 of us on board for the trip home, so it was pretty quiet. We got back to the cabin about 8:30 and everyone is in pajamas already. It's just too cold to sit outside, and we're out of firewood already :-) But I think the girls had a good time, so I'll say the trip was a success.

Birthday Camping

It's the first night of Kelsey's big birthday camping weekend. It took me 45 minutes longer to drive here than I had planned on, because the traffic was so bad on I-5. We couldn't leave as early as I would have liked because Elizabeth doesn't get home from school until almost 4, so we were on the road by 4:30. Got here at 6:15, the office was closed but the cabin lights were on, and the heat was on, so it was all good. The girls helped unpack, then put on their swimsuits and headed for the hot tub while I made dinner. I couldn't find where they keep the wood, but luckily I had picked up some charcoal today at the grocery store, so I made hot dogs on the portable grill. There are actually more people here than I would have expected for December.

After dinner we had ice cream cake - quickly melting ice cream cake - and then Kelsey opened her presents from Ayla and one from me and Jason. Ayla did a fantastic job on the presents. Kelsey got a Hanson book, a guitar pick necklace signed by Taylor Hanson, some knitting supplies from Ayla's mom, and a Wentworth Miller totebag. She was utterly thrilled by all of it. She got a video camera from me and Jason, and she says it's cute, so I hope she likes it. Seems pretty easy to work.

They're now in the other room of the cabin playing a game while I relax in bed. It's only 9 pm but since I can't find any wood we're not going to be sitting outside anytime soon. Hopefully I'll be able to score some tomorrow so I can make eggs for breakfast :-)

Snowy

Back from Austin, where we had a fantastic Thanksgiving trip. The Neibert Diaries does an excellent job in recapping the holiday, so interested parties can take a gander at that blog.

I got home to a new hard drive (thanks to my brother, Dell sent me a new one instead of a refurbished one), and after many many hours yesterday, I'm back online. Hoo-ray.

We got back in town just in time to experience the standstill that is Seattle when there's a bit of snow and ice. Woefully unprepared with salt or sand, and with Monday Night Football featuring the Seahawks, last night was a commuting nightmare. I'm awfully lucky that it only took me two hours to get home. The Seattle Times blog has some people traveling for over 11 hours. When I got to work today, only one other person had made it in, so I stayed for the whole day to cover. Kelsey had a snow day - and she thought those days were over when we left PA!

Supposed to get colder tonight, and another storm on Wednesday, then finally get warmer. Just in time for Kelsey's birthday camping trip this weekend!

Off to Austin

Seattle weather today:


Austin weather today:


Ummm...okay, we're ready to leave. Plane takes off at 3:45 pm tomorrow. It actually hailed today, along with thunder and lightning. That is a very rare occurrence in Seattle. The dogs were freaked. It's been raining for about 10 days now, and there's a bunch more in the forecast, so we are so looking forward to some sunshine.

We're all going to do the Turkey Trot 5 mile walk/run on Thursday morning, then watch Kirk deep fry the turkey for dinner. I'm anxious to taste deep fried turkey. I wonder if it'll look like deep fried snickers?

The boy next door came over tonight for dog instructions. I sure hope they behave while we're gone, but I'm not holding my breath. We put up a baby gate barrier so they're at least confined to the downstairs area, but they can still do a bunch of damage. Stephan is pretty responsible, so I'm not that worried. I just hope they don't drive him crazy enough to say he can't watch them over Christmas.

Don't know if I mentioned it to anyone, but my computer has died. I'm still waiting for the replacement hard drive to arrive, but in the meantime I haven't really been able to update. I'm using Jay's right now, but he's pretty protective of this bad boy so I can't take too long :-)

I'll post more from Austin. Happy Thanksgiving in advance!

Quick hello

Whew, the time is really flying. There's not too much to report, it's been pretty quiet here in Seattle. We're getting ready to settle into winter...the rain is definitely here for the season. It's been cold the last couple of days too. It makes you just want to hibernate.

Jason got his laptop back yesterday, so he's once again a happy camper. I hope this time there isn't anything wrong with it, because he's so lost without it :-). Luckily (or not) they were really in crunch mode at work the past few weeks so he's had little time to miss it. That's over for now though so he gets to come home at regular time again.

Yesterday was weigh and measure day with the trainer. After 4 weeks, the scale hasn't moved much, but we've both lost inches and that's the really important part. We worked so hard, I would have liked to see more progress in the numbers, but I know we're both wearing smaller clothes so I have to be satisfied with that.

I was thinking about Pam today, and wondering how she was doing with this being moving week. She must be really excited to be getting back into her own place with the girls. I hope everything goes well for her this weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing her new place when we come home in December.

Oooh, only about a week left to go before we leave for Austin for Thanksgiving. Hello sunshine!

R.I.P. Ed Bradley

I was very sad today when I saw that Ed Bradley died. He was one rockin' reporter. I always loved that this distinguished older guy on 60 minutes had a hoop earring. Can you picture Mike Wallace or Andy Rooney wearing a hoop earring? I don't think so. Ed, you will be missed.

Change in the training schedule this week. Mark came Monday, today, and then tomorrow. He couldn't make it on Wednesday. I missed the every other day training thing. Kelsey and I did some weight training on Tuesday, but I will admit we skipped working out yesterday. She had a ton of homework, I got home late from school, and it just didn't happen. I tried to make up for no workout by eating extra light yesterday. Monday is the big day, when we get weighed and measured. I honestly haven't seen that much weight come off...like maybe 3-4 pounds...but I definitely think I'm toning up. Someone at work today told me it looked like I was losing weight. Kelsey is definitely looking like she's toning too. She got into a smaller size jeans this week.

We both have a long weekend because of Veteran's Day tomorrow. Yay! We still have a workout scheduled at 3, but nothing planned the rest of the day. It's supposed to rain again anyway, so we'll just stay in and enjoy being dry.

Election Day

Time to rock the vote people. Take advantage of your freedom and go make a choice. Even it it's raining cats and dogs.

Many happy election day returns!

P.S. Oh wow...who would have seen this coming?

On Cultural Movie-Film for making Benefits of Us

Jay and I went to see the Borat movie yesterday. Holy cow, was that ever funny. The theater was packed, and I wound up sitting next to some guy who reeked of alchohol and kept swigging from a flask during the whole movie, but I still enjoyed it. Warning though, it's not for everyone. It helps to be familiar with Sacha Baron Cohen and the stuff he's done before, and parts of it is kind of ewwww graphic, but we both liked it a lot.

Afterwards we went to McGrath's Fish House, since Kelsey was sleeping on her friend's boat again. Then I quilted the rest of the night while Jay went to a friend's birthday party. I watched Saving Private Ryan while he was gone...I thought Band of Brothers was infinitely better. I think I'm in an anti-Tom Hanks phase for some reason.

Oh, and for those who have been expecting packages from me for like.....forever - I finally made it to the post office yesterday! The nephew is getting his in two pieces, mainly because of shipping box sizes and lack of packing material. Part two is coming with me on the plane at Thanksgiving.

Thanks yous, very nice, great success.

Second lifzzzzz

Yeah, I've been hearing a lot about Second Life lately, so this being a boring rainy Friday night, I thought I'd give it a try. Very unimpressive. On the surface it sounds really cool and fun, but in reality the lag is horrible, the character interface sucks, and it was a real snooze. I did like the flying bit, but the rest is pretty lacking. Maybe I just hit it on a bad night...I might try again if the circumstances all line up right. But then again, I might just take a nap.

Neil Patrick Harris is the latest celebrity to out themselves. Good for him, and double good for all the gay gentlemen out there, because that kid is cuuute. Now if Tom Cruise could only make an honest man of himself :-).

Bad timing

So I heard from my friend Jason the other day...he's in Ft. Collins, CO right now doing his thang. He'll be back in Seattle over Thanksgiving, and he asked if I wanted to go see Bodies with that Friday. However, we will be in Austin then so I don't get to A) see the exhibition or B) see Jason. I could still see the exhibition I guess, even though my very own Jason isn't really into seeing cadavers in various life-like poses. I'm mostly bummed about not seeing my friend Jason, because I haven't seem him since the summer and I miss him.

The Anthropology test today was way easier than I expected it to be. I'm pretty sure I only got a few questions wrong, so I'm expecting an A. The study guide that she passed out for the test was totally bogus, and barely had anything to do with the test. I'll be glad when this quarter is done. Next quarter I'm taking Medical Terminology online, with the same professor that I had for Anatomy, and she was really cool so I'm stoked about that one.

The trainer session was good today....more strength training with some more cardio in between. We almost felt like not eating dinner when we were done...almost I said. Instead, we rested a few minutes, and then had meatloaf muffins and mashed potatoes. Yummy :-)

Rainy Sunday

It was supposed to be nice all this weekend, but it's rainy and overcast today. Good day to study for my midterm on Wednesday.

Yesterday was nice though, and we had a pretty full day. Kelsey and a friend went to the movies - Saw 3 - on Friday afternoon, then a sleepover at our house Friday night. Yesterday we planned to see The Prestige, but thanks to me we went to the wrong theater in Lynnwood, and we couldn't find the one it was actually playing at. So we went to Barnes and Noble and got some books, then we went to JoAnn's and got some quilting thread. We came home and walked the dogs, then Jason took us to his new office since we haven't been there yet. Then we dropped Kelsey and Ayla off at Ayla's boat so Kelsey could spend the night there.

Since Jason and I had a free evening, we decided to do something grown up. We decided to go out for drinks and tapas, and I knew just where I wanted to go. I kept passing this lounge place when driving around the U-district, so we headed there. Except we didn't know exactly where it was. We parked on the Ave, then walked south, then north, then south again, then north again. We could not freakin' find this place. We probably walked for a good 45 minutes, and then we got in the car and drove to where we thought it might be, and lo and behold there it was...we had been less than 50 yards from it on one of our side street excursions, but we just didn't go far enough!

The place was really cool, and we had some drinks (mojitos and buttery nipples :-), and some tapas (spinach and artichoke dip, and a plate with cheese, nuts, and crackers with a variety of spreads). I thought it was called the University Lounge, but turns out it's actually called The District Lounge, so no wonder nobody knew where it was when we asked. We decided that the next time we get a visitor from out of town we'll take them there. Then we came home and watched The Wire on HBO and went to bed.

Today is just a study/work day since it's so icky out. The Halloween Beaglefest is today, but I don't think we're going to go. Although as I'm writing this, the sun is coming out, so who knows....maybe we will. As ever, I'll keep you all posted :-)

Work issues

My computer died at work. It actually died yesterday, when it wouldn't let me on the network at all, and since I do most of my work on network programs, I went home early while they worked on fixing it. Which was good, because it let me study for Anthropology....oh, and make another bag :-)



I won't bore everyone (like there's a lot of readers) with all the pictures, but for anyone that's interested, they're here if you want to see all the angles. I posted them for Meg so she could decide which one she wanted. She went with the red one, which means I get the pink one.

So anyway, today I go back in to work, and my computer has supposed to have been fixed, but I still get the same error, and can't connect to the network. Luckily for me, there's an unused laptop in the server room that they decide to set up. I say luckily because this one is smokin' fast compared to the one I've been using, and I don't feel like bashing my head against the window of my cubicle quite as often. But now I can't get on Internet Explorer. I can use Firefox, which is fine, but I can't use Messenger either which I think is tied in with the IE error, so I'm out of touch with the rest of the office. You'd be laughing right now if you knew how small our office is :-). But I'm also out of touch IM-wise with Jason. No big deal, I can still text message him, but I'm much faster on a keyboard than a cell phone.

All of my recent crafting has injured me. I have lost most of my right thumbnail. Ouch, yes it hurts. And it's damn inconvenient.

Boo-tay

The weekend weather here was beautiful, so we took advantage yesterday and went to Fright Fest at the Six Flags Enchanted Forest. It's about 25 miles south of Seattle, and we went with Kelsey and her friend. The girls had a great time, and so did we - but Jason and I couldn't help but feel the park was a little lacking in the ride department. They had two roller coasters, and the rest of the rides were the kind you might find in a carnival somewhere. We didn't make it to the haunted house because the line was sooooo long. And by 10:30 we were soooo cold. It was fun though, and I'm glad we went.

Today was craft day for me. I finally got all the pieces together to make the Bootie Bag. So this is my first attempt, and since it's not perfect, I'll keep it for myself and make a better one for Meg :-)



I picked the jeans up at the Goodwill in Harrisburg...girls size 5



The handles were the most expensive part, because I bought most of the nice beads from the bead store. The rest of the beads I took off a thrift store necklace.



The inside fabric was stuff I had left over after making bibs for Ripken



I bought the belt at a thrift store here in Seattle

I must say, I love the way it turned out. I can't wait to start another one. But not today, I have to study for a quiz in Anthropology tomorrow.

Sore

Whoa. It's amazing how much your body can hurt when it starts moving. My legs are hurtin' baby. But not as much as they did over the weekend. We had our second session with Mark on Monday. I seriously thought I might puke at the end of it, but only because I was really pushing for the last part of the workout. You know, end strong, give it 110 percent, yada yada.....blaaaaggghh. We found a bunch of workout videos on On Demand which is awesome considering that the Fall is definitely starting here in Seattle, and I hate to walk in the rain.

Sticking to the calorie limit isn't too difficult right now. The hardest thing is not having Pho. I think I might be able to have it for lunch if I have it on the days we workout with Mark, and I don't have breakfast and then I just have something light like Subway for dinner. But I think my favorite lunch, Banh Xeo, is completely out for now. Which might not be a bad thing, because it gives me a little bit of a headache after I eat it. But it's oh so good, and I'll miss it.

I don't get the whole flap about Madonna adopting an African boy. Isn't it better that the boy is going to have a good home and lots of opportunities rather than face a bleak future in an orphanage? If I was an African boy, I'd sure rather be adopted and have a house and clothing and food and college and all that jazz, even if the adoptive parents are a white couple. Maybe I don't see the whole picture because I'm white myself, but I think the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

The Property

Kelsey's friend called her yesterday and asked if she wanted to spend the weekend at "The Property". Apparently, they have a cabin or small house or something like that on a piece of land in Hoodsport, WA. It was just the friend and her mom going, so they invited Kelsey to join them. I'm so glad she's doing more stuff with her friends here. I talked to her this morning and it sounds like they're having a nice relaxing weekend.

I, on the other hand, woke up with a raging headache this morning. Jason woke up with a neck pain so bad he can barely move his head...although his has been getting progressively worse the past few days. So we made an appointment for him to have a massage - he's going to take off in about 45 minutes for that. I remember when Mom tried to find a place for a massage in Harrisburg and all she could find was erotic massage places...Seattle is loaded with massage therapists. So many it seems a miracle that you could go a day without being massaged by someone. Which is fortunate, seeing that we could get Jason a last minute appointment for one.

Oh yeah..the personal trainer. It was great. He made it pretty fun and interesting, and he says he'll switch up the workout everytime so we don't get bored. And we definitely worked...it felt really good to do something besides sit on my butt :-). We're going for a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule, with brisk 30 minute walks on the off days for now. He'll increase our off day stuff as we go, but right now he wants us to get on a daily exercise schedule. Kelsey said she'd walk while she's at The Property. Jason is going to walk with me when he gets back from his massage. It was a great start, and I'm excited to keep going. He also put us each on a 1400 calorie a day diet, and we have to journal every day what we eat. That's the one thing I hate, counting calories. It's such a pain in the ass. But perhaps with diligence, it will be a relatively smaller ass eventually.

Time to get in shape

Stephan said yes to the beagle sitting! What a relief. We're going to give him $20 a day - of course, his mother said that wasn't necessary but I insisted. It is a pretty big obligation after all, especially our December trip.

Speaking of the December trip, I made the reservations at the Sheraton today so we'll have a place to stay, and won't be crowding anyone. Right down the street from Mom, which is excellent, and a gym so Kelsey and I can keep up with our program, which is also excellent.

Today we have our first home visit from our new personal trainer. Kelsey and I will be working with him 3 days a week. He comes to the house and brings everything with him....how cool is that? We're both very excited to start, even though today won't be fun because it's weigh and measure day. He's going to take all of our measurements and work up a plan for us, and he says he does this every 3 - 4 weeks. It's kind of like The Biggest Loser without the embarrassing fact of doing it in front of millions of people on TV. I shall keep everyone informed of our progress, but our goal is to be down 8 - 15 pounds each by Christmas. So now I must go put on my sexy workout outfit (HA!)

Random

Tonight is pot luck night at Kelsey's school. She has a block class the last three classes of the day, where the same students go between Science, Language Arts, and World History. Pot luck will be dinner, dessert, and listening to some student work. We only have to bring drinks - one of the benefits of being towards the end of the alphabet.

Currently waiting for the boy next door to come home from school so I can ask him if he will beagle-sit for us while we're away at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I contacted a "kennel-free" boarding facility, but it's awfully expensive ($55 per day) and will cost us a small fortune at Christmas since we're gone from 12/19 thru 1/1. Everyone cross your fingers that Stephan will say yes.

Started a new quilt this week. Once I start quilting, it's very difficult for me to get used to sitting down without a needle in my hand. This one is a scrappy pinwheel and so far I think it's really nice. Kelsey, as usual, hates it.

Jason has been leaving for work before 7:30 since his office move....yes, folks, that's s-e-v-en-t-h-i-r-t-y. As in, gets up at 6:30. In the morning. His desire for good parking outweighs his desire to sleep until 9. I'm not sure how to take this new pattern of behavior - I'm very confused.

Lost

I'm lost all right - WTF?? A whole new mind game this season.

The Nine - Scott Wolf is the new Dick Clark. He never ages - he's the debil.

Jay has the day off tomorrow while they build his new cube cage. We're going to have Pho for lunch when I get back from the Eastside. Love that vietnamese cuisine.

Stephen Colbert used to be funnier. I think he's had the funny beat out of him by angry Republicans.

Anthropology sucks

Did you ever have a dream where you go to take a test, and when you get there, the test is full of questions on stuff you never heard of before? Yeah...that just happened to me in real life. We had our first quiz in Anthropology today, and I swear that 80 percent of the questions were stuff we had never talked about in class. I'm supposing they were all based on the textbook, but I did read the chapters and I still didn't recall any of the stuff she asked. Not boding well for the grade this quarter.

We went to the RAM for dinner tonight. Celebrating our return to the West Coast, and helping Jason overcome his problem with his new parking assignment at the new building. He's not happy, but it could be worse. At least he got a space, even if it's not covered, or secure, or guaranteed.

Lost starts tonight, in 45 minutes. Can't wait. I think I'll have to go to the spoiler sites to find out what happened.

I'm full, and the coffeepot is beeping, so this update is O-V-E-R. Later!

P.S. Get well Carrie, we're thinking about you

Surprise

Kelsey and I flew out to Seattle on Thursday to surprise my mom for her 65th birthday. We met with Kirk and Ripken in Dallas, and were supposed to continue on to Baltimore. American Airlines had other plans though, and they wound up cancelling the flight after having us sit around for hours waiting for them to fix the navigational computer. Around midnight we called Kris and told her to turn around and go home, and the four of us headed to the Hyatt at the airport for 4 hours of sleep before getting on the next flight at 6:30 the next morning. With the new airline regulations, nobody had any carryone luggage so we had no change of clothes or any makeup or anything the next day.

We finally got to Baltimore at 10:15, but then we had to wait for Kris and Mom because they were late getting there. Kelsey and I hid behind a pillar while Kirk and Ripken met Mom and Kris. When they started moving away towards the garage, we fell in behind them and met up with them at the elevator. Mom looked at us for a few seconds, and you could see it trying to register on her face...was she really seeing this? Finally she realized it was us and there were hugs and tears all around. It was really funny, and very surprising so I guess we pulled it off.

Last night we went to dinnner at Lonestar, just the kids and grandkids and Mom. It was really nice being all together again for a while. We were all so tired though that the evening was pretty short, and everyone went to bed by 10.

I didn't pack enough clothes. Kelsey was right. I need to go get some more.

Wicked

We all went to see Wicked last night at the Paramount theater. The show was great, the sets, costumes, performers were great, and the theater was really cool. The audience in particular was one of the most enthusiastic and appreciative audiences I've ever been part of in a theater setting. It was really fun, and we're going to try to go to some more of the shows coming up this season.

On the school front, I'm not too impressed so far with my Anthropology class or my instructor. I think the subject has the potential to be interesting, but the class itself is a problem because of a couple of really obnoxious guys who think they know everything about everything and constantly interrupt the instructor with what they know about the subject. It's already a 2 hour class, and they make it almost unbearable. The instructor is kind of all over the board anyway, and they don't make it any better. It's only the second week though, so maybe it will get better.

On the Kelsey school front, today one of the counselors took her out of World History and back to the office because he found out somehow that she was working as a TA in the attendance office, and apparently that's not allows for freshmen, so he put her in Independent Living now instead.

Have fun in PA Kirk and Ripken! I'm sure you'll enjoy some cooler weather for a few days. Give Nanny Joan a big kiss from us.

We're back up

The Beaglehaus has been down for a few days...seems we had a power supply breakdown in the server machine. Of course, we didn't notice it for a few days, and nobody mentioned not being able to get on to the website so obviously it wasn't a big loss for anybody. Anyhooo, Jay had a spare power supply (of course he did :-) so he popped that puppy in last night and we were up and running again. Just in time to start taping, since The Office premieres tonight at the same time Survivor is on, so we've gotta have that faux Tivo running.

For those that didn't hear, Kelsey had to get contacts the other day. It appears she has inherited the Neibert vision after all. I thought she might escape it like her sister, but no such luck. She's an old pro at the contact thing already and doesn't seem to have any problems putting them in or taking them out.

We had curriculum night at Roosevelt High last night. Wow, that school is awesome. Kelsey's teachers all seem pretty cool, and her class sizes are really small so she should do really well this year.....like she does every year :-) She's really lucky to have such a leading edge school in which to start high school.

A Beagle in Three Acts

This Little Krissy Went To Market

This is Kris's second day here, and I think we're exhausting her. Yesterday when she got here, I took her to lunch at my favorite Pho place, then we took the dogs for an hour long walk around the neighborhood and through the woods by the house. When Kelsey got home from school we took off for Seattle Center, where we did the whole Space Needle/International Fountain thing. When we got home we had dinner, then Jay and I went to a Freshman 101 class for parents at the high school, while Kelsey and Kris stayed home to watch Big Brother. Kris went to bed right after, poor thing was exhausted.

Today when Kelsey got home we went down to Pike's Place Market to do the tourist thing around there.
It's a little cooler today, but nice for walking around the market. Kris was amazed at the fresh produce, the huge donuts, the King Crab legs, and the crazy people.

Tomorrow we're going to dinner at the Melting Pot. Is it wrong to be so excited about melted foodstuffs? MMMmmmmmm, fondue...*drool*

Now that Vincent's been disposed of on Project Runway, I don't know who to hate. I think I'll turn my energy on Jeffrey. Nobody should have their neck tatooed like that.

Camping recap

The girls and I spent the weekend at the KOA in Leavenworth, WA. Leavenworth is a town in central Washington state that decided in 1965 to "go alpine" and every single thing in town from the gas station to the Safeway to all shops and hotels sport a Bavarian village theme. Very kitschy. Jason would have hated it, but the girls and I had fun.




One shop I loved was called Kris Kringle, and it had this big Halloween display set up. I know Kris would have loved it.



We got to the campground Friday late afternoon, unpacked, and then went for groceries. We spent the night just hanging around, cooking hotdogs and playing games. Saturday we had breakfast at the campground (2 eggs, 2 huge pancakes, sausage, coffee, and OJ for 4.50), then went into town to look around. We went into almost every shop down the main drag. They were really cool and had lots of fun stuff to look at. We were also lucky(!) enough to be there during a quilt festival, so all the different stores had quilts displayed, and then at the end of town the FestHall had a showing of the rest of the quilts. Kelsey and Megan were kind enough to humor me and go into the quilt show with me. It wasn't huge, so we didn't spend a lot of time there. Then we went mini-golfing and headed back to camp because KOA was doing a free hamburger feed. After eating we made a fire and sat around roasing marshmallows for a while before bed.

Sunday we got up early, skipped breakfast, checked out, and headed for our horseback riding reservation. Unfortunately, we didn't have as much fun on the trail ride as we've had on past rides. The trail was horribly rocky and not taken care of very well, Kelsey had a real problem with the saddle on her horse, I got yelled at for trotting (not allowed at this place) and the guide was pretty much of a bitch. She lost all chances for any kind of tip, which started out at $20 and gradually went down to $0 as the ride went on. Too bad we booked the two hour trip instead of the one hour, I think we were all ready to be done before the ride was actually over.

All in all, a fun weekend. If we go again, definitely bringing the beagles because the campground was full of dogs....and so was Leavenworth.

Kris gets here tomorrow and I can't wait!

That's my bag, Baby

I won't comment on Big Brother other than to say I won't be watching the finale. I didn't watch last night either (it's good to be on the west coast!). Instead, I made bags to cheer myself up.

I started with a pattern I saw online, and it looked pretty simple. It was a good way to practice lining and piecing, so I gave it a shot. I'm actually pretty happy with the way it turned out except the opening is a bit on the small side. Jay says that's a good thing, because it'll prevent a lot of crap from going into the bag. Anyways, it'll be more for spring, since it's so pink and flowery:



I put a little pocket on the inside, and used a really pretty green and pink flowered cotten for the lining:



Next, I made a messenger bag for school. I only have one class this quarter, and the messenger bag I was using is really big, so I made one that'll be perfect for holding just a couple of books. Thank God I don't have to lug that Anatomy textbook around this quarter!

The messenger bag was actually pretty easy, because I found a really good pattern on crafster.org. I also had some great fabric that was perfect for the Fall/Winter months. I decided to jazz this bag up by using a belt for a strap instead of making the straps.



I put a little pocket on the front flap to hold my bus pass, and used this egyptian looking stitch around the pocket edges to give it a little flair.



I lined the inside with a cheery yellow/gold color, and put two pockets, one for pens and pencils, and one on the other side for whatever.



Perfect size for my books!



I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I love the belt as strap look. The only thing I might have done differently is used some interfacing on the fabric to give it just a little bit more stiffness, but it's not something I'll stress about because I think it's awesome and I will definitely use it.

Okay, that's it for the bag stuff for a while. I have to go pack now, because the girls and I are going camping this weekend and we're leaving in a few hours. I'm a bit excited because it turns out there's a quilt show where we're going to be, so I'm all over that.

So Crafty

Yesterday I made a bag. It was just a practice bag, I want to try to make a bag for school to carry one or two books, since I have a light quarter this time. So I practiced using the lovely burnt orange tie-dye material that in a fit of madness I bought ten yards of last year. I've already used some of it to start a dog quilt for the back of the car, so I thought I'd use some more to practice.

So, okay, it came out a really weird shape, and I decided it was just right to take videos in when we go back and forth the video store.


So I learned how NOT to do the handles, and I learned a little bit about stitching and gussets, so I will attempt another with the nicer material that I got at the going out of business sale at Hancock's the other week. But not today, because we're going shopping for back to school clothes, just as soon as everybody gets up and dressed. Seeing that it's after 11 am, I hope that will be soon.

Last free weekend

School starts on Tuesday. Kelsey is having a sleepover tonight with a couple of her friends, then she's going to a picnic tomorrow, and then Monday we're going to go school shopping. Why wait until the last minute, right? Appparently, the teachers will tell the kids on the first day of school what kind of school supplies they need, so all she's got right now is a calculator.

Today was hot..hotter than it's been most of the summer. Kelsey and I walked around the track at her school for a while and I was seriously sweating by the time we were done. I actually ran too....a quarter mile! That's right, some serious running going on out here.

Made a meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner, then we dropped the girls off at the movies - John Tucker Must Die - while we went to the bookstore. Apparently, John Tucker does NOT die in this movie. Sorry to be a spoiler.

IF you want to know, use your mouse and highlight below to see Big Brother vital information:

You may or may not already know that Boogie won HOH after the double eviction on Thursday...he put up Janelle and Erika, big surprise. Janelle won POV tonight. Looks like a Boogie, Will, Janelle final 3. I would absolutely love it if Janelle turned it up and kicked out Will, but not bloody likely.

Back to normal

It's so great having Kelsey back here, and things back to normal :-). Tonight we went to Jalisco for dinner, since it's her favorite restaurant. First, we went for a walk around Green Lake, then dinner, then on the way home we noticed that the big chain link fence that had been around the school was gone. So we decided to walk over to the school and check it out.

While we were looking through the windows, Meg tried the door, and it opened........so of course we all went in to check it out. That school is awesome. I think we were all really excited for Kelsey to start there next week.

Now Meg is playing Dead Rising, and Kelsey has gone to bed...at 9 pm! She's still on East Coast time and apparently very tired. I'm just waiting for Project Runway to start. I was crushed when Robert was auf'd last week, keeping my fingers crossed that Vincent gets the pink slip tonight.

Color me happy

She's HHHHOOOOMMMMMEEEE!!!!!
And she looks fabulous :-)

Bummer

I haven't posted for a while because I was really hoping to have good news on a house that we found...but it turns out that our landlords won't let us OUT OF OUR FREAKING LEASE! Pardon me, but I have The Rage. So this weekend was spent touring the house, procuring approval letters from financing, and then our hopes were dashed because we're RENTERS and we have NO RIGHTS.

But then, today Jay's brake light came on, so he'll need new brakes, so maybe it's a silver lining that we didn't get the house, 'cause it was price-eee.

We went to Kelsey's school today to meet with her counselor, because she didn't have a third period class scheduled. They had nuthin'. All electives, taken. And they do some kind of block class thing in the afternoon, so there's no switching those classes around because then it would completely mess up her whole schedule. It turns out that they do have a "TA" (teacher's assistant) position available third period. So Kelsey will be spending third period of the first semester working in the attendance office. Which I think is pretty cool actually. And her school is awesome. They just rebuilt the whole thing, this is the first year they're reopened. It's really, really nice. Here's a few pictures of the new theater, the 3 story library, the football field, the gym, and the student commons:









The oldest child has jumped on the blogging bandwagon...linky link here and to the right, 21 and Invincible. The blogs, they just keep coming.

Jay has these two days off, comp time, for working so hard during crunch period. You'd think he'd have dinner ready for me when I get home from work. You'd think...but you would be wrong. Ahhh..I love him anyway.

Kelsey back tomorrow night. Yippeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

The Good Dentist

My dentist is totally awesome. First off, I can walk there so major points for that. Next, their office is so cool. They have a really great pod system coffee maker with just about any flavor of coffee/tea you would like. They have bowls full of sugarless gum. They have all the most recent entertainment rags. They have a kickass fishbowl/bubble thing built into the wall. They're friendly, they're painless, and they're all good looking.

And then, today, I got a card from them...which I thought would be something reminding me I have to make a follow up appointment. But no, it was a $10 gift card for Starbucks. For referring my husband to them. Wow, now that's really cool. If anyone wants to visit the dentist while you're in Seattle, let me know, I'll refer you :-)

I'm working a buncha hours these next few weeks while my boss is at Burning Man. Actually, she doesn't leave until Saturday, but we've been really busy and she's trying to get stuff caught up before she leaves, so I've been staying more than my 5 hours, and then starting this Friday I'll work full time until she gets back. If she comes back. That Burning Man thing sounds pretty dangerous.

Today's post will end with a sweet helpin' of beagle.

Internet dreaming

Maybe this is a sign that I use the computer too much...

Last night, we woke up to the sounds of the AlphaFemale having a bit of a beagle coughing spell. I think I've heard it described as reverse sneezing. She continued couging and breathing funny for a little bit until the man finally got up and took her downstairs for a drink. When they came back up I had fallen back asleep, but soon she started again. I know I was still on the edge of sleep when I started dreaming about looking up this condition on the internet. My dream google search suggested that I cover her nose with my hand while breathing into her mouth, so I did that..she was laying at the bottom of the bed, I sat up and covered her nose, and blew gently into her mouth.

Holy crap, it worked. She stopped doing that coughing thing and didn't make another noise all night. How bizzare is that.

Snakes on a Plane...at last!

Today we went to see the long awaiting Samuel L. Jackson tour de force...Snakes on a Plane. It so lived up to my expections, and more. Actually, I thought it was not a bad movie at all. Okay, so nobody is winning any Oscars for this, but for pure entertainment value, it was better than some movies I've seen (Jay and Silent Bob, I'm looking at you). The man thought the movie was "horrible...but the good kind of horrible". The older child like it, her fiance didn't. So basically three thumbs up out of four, so unless you're planning on traveling by plane anytime soon, we recommend it for sheer campy fun.



Oh yeah.

The Tooth Fairy Better Carry a Load of Cash

The man had some oral surgery today. Apparently one of his molars was crowding a wisdom tooth and it had to come out. Behold the offender:

Believe me, it's even more disgusting up close. The thing has a hook on it! The only good thing about having your tooth pulled is that you get a prescription for some pretty good drugs. Right now he doesn't seem to need them though. It was pretty rough a couple of hours ago when the novacaine was wearing off, but he toughed it out and now he's playing Brain Age on Nintendo.

Wasn't I happy to see Marcellus leave Big Brother, and have James put up the same night? Oh yes I was. Sorry Mom. It almost made up for Vincent squeaking by yet again on Project Runway last night. What a hack.

Jus' Chillin

It's been a quiet week at beaglehaus. The most exciting thing that's happened this week is that the man bought himself a new toy to replace the one stolen by FREAKIN' HOLLAND AMERICA!!!

Ahem. Anyways, it's a kickass machine, I think. Drool over it here if you wish. Insurance money will pay for some of it, but we'll be kicking in quite a bit too. Hopefully this one will last a while. So now, I officially have the oldest, slowest, smallest laptop in the house. However, mine is a Dell, so it's a horse and works hard for me. I love it just as much as the day I got it :=)

The AlphaFemale has been a bit weird lately. She's had periods of intense hyperactivity where she is obsessed with eating grass and bundles of hair from the corners (gross, I know, but with two beagles it's hard to keep up), and licking the carpet frantically. We can't figure out if she's sick or just outrageously hungry because we've put both dogs on a diet and Zac might be eating all the food before she gets to it. Anyone ever experience this with a dog? What's up?

Just found out Spoon is going to be at Bumbershoot this year. As well as Blondie, Steve Miller band, and Kanye West. Yay! Aren't you people that don't live in Seattle jealous?

Gotta go catch Project Runway...I'm hoping we see the last of that fashion hack Vincent. He sucks.

We've been busy

The older child and I went to the Renaissance Faire on Saturday at Gig Harbor. We were very disappointed....it was much smaller than the PA Ren Faire. Mostly it was just a collection of tents in a field, no permanent structures. Okay, I can forgive that. There was no ATM machine though, and that was a problem because neither of us had brought any cash and the food vendors did not take credit cards. Okay, that was our fault. What was really disappointing though was that the "actors" were not really in character...sure, they dressed the part, but we saw them with cell phones and walkie talkies, heard them use phrases like "right on", and "what do we call you people again? Oh yeah, squires", and they didn't attempt any type of accent to make you feel like you were actually in England. We didn't stay very long, and were very jealous of the younger child who was on that same day attending a class act Ren Faire in Pennsylvania.

Later Saturday night we attended an outdoor showing of Grease in West Seattle. It was free, with popcorn provided, and we had a good time at that. So the day wasn't a total loss after all :-)

Late, late Saturday night I joined the man at a birthday gathering for one of his coworkers. I didn't get there until almost 12:30 am so most of the partiers had either already left or were ready to call it a night. We went to the Starlight lounge for one more nightcap and a round of pierced nipples (which were quite yummy) and then called it a night.

Sunday the man and I went to Vancouver to visit the Capilano Suspension Bridge. It took much longer to get there than we anticipated, because the border crossing took about 40 minutes, then we almost immediately ran into a traffic jam. It was a really beautiful day though, and once we got to the bridge, we really enjoyed it. Took lots of pictures, which are posted in the gallery for your viewing pleasure. We got home around 9, just in time for Deadwood. It was a lovely day, and it was good to have the man to myself for a few hours after this last week of crunch time.

Last thing...the beagles suggest a new linky link. For those interested in the ever fascinating world of Ripken (my quite adorable nephew), you'll want to check out The Neibert Diaries.

UPDATE: I don't hate MySpace so much anymore

I followed Rupert Murdoch's friends list to Jesus (online now!) I take back what I said about hating MySpace. Just reading the comments on Jesus's page was enough to make me forgive you, MySpace. It's good for a laugh when it doesn't take itself so seriously.

I'm going to hell, I know. But this is good stuff anyway :-)

The things you find on the internet

I can't believe how bored I am this week. The man is working late every night, the kid is in PA, the other kid has her guy back, so it's just me and the beagles. There really is some stuff I should be working on, but I cannot find the motivation to do so.

So I've been spending some time surfing some really random sites on the net. First, I googled just about everybody I know and found out a few interesting tidbits, but mostly nothin'. I spent time reading a few blogs of some very general acquaintances. I kept hitting the next blog button on blogger.com which is kind of fascinating, just to see the random junk out there (believe me, I include this little piece of junk in that group :-)

I've discovered that I really hate myspace.com. Maybe I'm just too old...but I don't even think I could get into that when I was a teenager. There's some disturbing kids out there. I wonder if these kids know that myspace is owned by this guy:


I wonder if Rupert Murdoch has a myspace page? He does!!!. People, this is hysterical. Do yourself a favor and check out his friends page. Number one is George Bush. Number four is Jesus. George Bush is THREE friends ahead of Jesus! And right this second, Jesus is online. Old Rupert has a real movers and shakers friend's list....but nestled in between Bushy, Jesus, Rumsy, and Stephen Hawking is Spanky, the erotic goldfish.

I salute you Mr. Murdoch. You done blown my mind.

(I realize that this is most likely something someone just made up, but it's the first thing that made me laugh out loud all day :-)

Seattle traffic sucks

This is not news to anyone that lives here...but seriously. 2 pm on a random Tuesday afternoon, and I-5 S to downtown is totally jammed. WTF is up with that? I had to drive to BCC this afternoon to get my residency status changed. I just don't get why the roads here are clogged almost all the time.

So I'm officially a Washington resident now, at least according to BCC. I think they were the last big hurdle. So no more out of state tuition. YAY!!! Just in time for Fall quarter, I get to pay the cheap rate. I liked being back on campus even for such a short time. I miss school. I'm only taking one online course this quarter, so I don't even get to go into the class room for this one.

I posted new pictures in the picture gallery of our trip to Rehoboth Beach. Most of them consist of Bryan digging his hole. I read a story in the news recently about a boy who almost died after HIS hole fell in on him, but luckily his Mom got a hinky feeling and saved him. Good thing there wasn't a major cave in with Bryan's hole, because that thing was deep.

REALITY SHOW STUFF
...skip this part if you don't care:
Big Brother ...yeah Dani is HOH. I really liked her in her season, but now, not so much. Don't really care much if she's in our out. Just like in S6 though, I cannot stand James. I really hope he's out soon, because his kind of game play is the kind I hate. He's hurtful and spiteful and doesn't make things fun. Go Will.

And how funny was it on Hell's Kitchen last night when Keith told Chef Ramsey that the only reason Virginia was still there was because Ramsey had a hard on for her? That was freakin' hysterical. It's funny because it's true :-)

/END REALITY STUFF

The man is coming to take me to dinner tonight. How sweet is that? Of course, he has to go right back to work after, but it'll be nice to at least see him today.

Missing the kid

I really miss the kid. It hasn't even been a week yet since I came back and left her in PA, but it feels like forever and I want her to come home. I want HER to want to come home too. I hope she wants to come home when it's time. She got her school schedule yesterday and did some comparing with some of her school friends from last year, and it turns out so far she doesn't have a single class with any of them. That sucks.

The man is working hard lately, coming home late every night because it's crunch time. I hate crunch time. I understand it, and I know it's part of the job, but when he works late every night it's tough. I wanted to go to Vancouver this weekend but looks like that will have to wait for some other time, because he'll probably have to work at least one of those days.

Come back soon kid...I don't like it when you're away.

Back on the West Coast

Got back to Seattle last night. I was on a surprisingly comfortable and on time USAir flight. I had a window seat, but the seats actually had some room between rows so it wasn't horrible. It was a nonstop which was fantastic...I wish we could always get those. Makes the trip so much quicker. It was only about 5 hours or so from takeoff to landing.

It was so good to be home and see the man and the the beagles. I loved visiting the family, but it is so nice to come home and enjoy the much cooler weather and the peace and quiet :-). Even our corner homeless guy worked late last night so I got to see him too.

I started back to work today...I got a new place to sit, a little work cube all my own. I also had a paycheck waiting for me. Yippee!! I haven't had a paycheck in over a year. I worked a little longer then 6 hours today, then I came home and spent the next 4 hours cleaning. The house smells so nice and clean now. I've been trying to figure out how to get some of the doggie smells out of the oriental rug. Today I tried baking soda, vinegar, mild soap, chili pepper, and italian seasoning. I think maybe I made it smell like something the dogs would like to eat now.

I got to see some old coworkers while I was back in PA. It was really nice getting to talk to them again and hear all the gossip. You miss that so much when you move away from it all. One of my friends said he's going back to Paris in the fall (for the 3rd time) and wants to buy an apartment there this time. I am so utterly jealous....but good for him. Hey, if by any chance he's reading this....can I get a cheap rent out of this deal??

Going out for Indian tonight...mmmmmm, butter chicken...

Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot

The young one and I are in PA right now. Oh my god, is it ever hot here. I almost forgot how the Pennsylvania summers are..temps near 100 with almost as much humidity. Just walking outside makes you sweat. Although I hear that Seattle is nearing 90 degrees this weekend, so it's almost as bad there.

It's good to see the family again. Even though they're all pretty crazy (and I do include myself in that), it's nice to be around so many people that you love. I miss that in Seattle. I'm here for about 2 weeks, and tomorrow we leave for the beach. East Coast beaches are so much better than Washington state beaches. We're only going for a couple of nights, I wish it was longer...but I'll get to see my other cousin there who is coming down from New York to meet us there, so that will be cool.

I miss J and the beagles very much. He sent me a bunch of pics yesterday, which helped a bit, but I still miss them.

In Big Brother news, looks like James is HOH this week. Mom lurves James so she was pretty happy. We are cautiously optimistic...we don't really trust James, but better him than some of the other non-S6 group. Can you believe Mom doesn't like Howie or Janelle? What?? How can you like James and not like Howie or Janelle? She's insane.

You can't get a mojito in Harrisburg anywhere except Charlie Brown's...but they make a pretty good one, so if you're in town, go there.

The Biggest Beagle

We went to Beaglefest 2006 yesterday. It was a beautiful day to be surrounded by dozens of beagles. We weren't there 10 minutes when they announced the contests for Smallest Beagle and Biggest Beagle. YES!

Smallest Beagle was first...there were 3 major contenders. Nobody had a tape measure, so "guess a number" was used as a tie breaker. Then it was time for the Biggest Beagle contest. Of course, it was no contest at all. Zac was far and away the largest beagle there. The other beagles were so intimidated that they didn't even come up for the judging. He was awarded a container of treats, and a certificate.



Beaglefest was awesome, and the dogs had a great time. Even Trixie, who seemed much more social when surrounded by those of her own kind rather than the strange beasties she sees at the dog park. Pictures don't do it justice, but maybe can help you imagine what it's like to have so many beagles in one place.

Prostitution and choking on the chicken

People in this town seem to love bumper stickers. Some cars are absolutely covered with them...kind of like a driving billboard. Today on the way home from the gym I passed an old beat up Honda with a bumper sticker that said "Never wear panties to a party" and right next to it was another that declared "Legalize Prostitution". Guess we know what this gal is up to.

What up Kaysar?? Our favorite Iraqi is HOH on Big Brother All Stars this week. Even though the Chenbot tried to get that boring Daughter of the Moon in there instead. Good thing they actually show these competitions, or who knows what kind of shenanigans Julie would pull?

I think the older child has some serious problems with her throat. She can't eat a freakin' piece of chicken without it getting stuck somewhere on the way down. I believe she needs her esophagus stretched out like her grandpa used to do. Maybe then it wouldn't take her 2 hours to eat dinner :-)

The younger child announced this week that she's going to be a general surgeon. Thank you Grey's Anatomy.

Money Money Money Money........MONey

I am employed again. I got part time job at a small software company, 20 hours a week doing assistant/bookeeping stuff. I start on Monday. It's a Monday - Thursday schedule for 5 hours a day, so I still get to do my jobshadowing at the Eastside clinic on Fridays, and plenty of time for my online classes this quarter.

I'm actually looking forward to working again. I appear to have the potential to be incredibly lazy, and I was beginning to be fearful that I would literally sleep the summer away without having someplace to be every day.

I joined a gym last weekend...almost as soon as we came home from the cruise. I went to the gym everyday on the ship, and realized how much I missed the routine of working out. The part time job will fit in great with that too...I'll just go right to the gym on my way home, spend an hour, and I'll be done with it. That still puts me home by 3:00 so I still have plenty of time to be lazy if I want, or do school work which is probably better.

We're going to a barbecue today at my study friend's house. I have to make a dessert. Which means I have to shop for dessert items. I'm making some triple chocolate chip fruit pizza thing. Looks delish in the book. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Back from Alaska

If you just want to see pictures instead of read about the trip, you can go directly to the picture gallery. But you'll miss a stellar trip recap.


We just returned from a one week cruise to Alaska aboard the MS Zaandam (aka the JC VaanDam) This trip was courtesy of the man's very generous mom and stepdad. On board were me and the man, the girls, the man's brother and sister-in-law, and the aforementioned parents.

The trip by and large was wonderful. We had a terrible thing happen to us the first day. Something very valuable to us was stolen (or lost) between luggage check in and delivery to our stateroom. Most disappointing was the utter lack of concern shown to us by Holland America. They seemed to just want us to get through the week and off their ship so they wouldn't have to deal with us anymore. Seriously, the people at the front desk would literally flee to the back when they saw us coming.

Other than that, Alaska was very cool. It really only rained one day while we were there, during the ziplining adventure. That was in Juneau, which besides the ziplining was our least favorite stop on the cruise.

If you're interested, check out our zipping videos by clicking on one of the names below:

Kelly

Susan

John

Megan

The next day was cruising Glacier Bay. The sun was shining and the air was so crisp and clean that we spent most of the day out on deck just staring at the glaciers. They didn't look the same as the glacier that the man and I walked on during our honeymoon in Banff, but were cool in their own way.

In Sitka, we took a whale and sea otter watching trip. Again, it was a beautiful sunny day, and we saw whole colonies of sea otters, harbor seals, and humpback whales so close we could almost touch them.

Ketchikan is a pretty little town, known mostly for being the 1st Alaskan town and a big salmon place. No salmon were running while we were there, but we enjoyed a horse-drawn trolley ride around the touristy part of town and spent some time later enjoying the sunshine and walking around the shops. Again, it was a beautiful day but we didn't have a lot of time to spend in Ketchikan.

Victoria was the last day of the cruise. We were only there from 8pm - 11:30pm, so we didn't have many daylight hours to see the city. We really liked it there though, it was so clean and pretty. We decided we'd definitely take a weekend trip back there since it's so close to us. Maybe we'll have High Tea at the Empress hotel.

All in all, a great trip. We really enjoyed being able to spend some time with the family and catching up on everyone's lives. Now if we could just get some of those people to move here...yes, architects, we're talking about you :-)

Check out My People's Picture Gallery if you want to see some of the pics of the trip...be forewarned, there are many. Editing is not our forte.

Happy Easter

Easter morning...the young one is home safe and the older one is off to celebrate her 21st. I hope she gets home safe too. We tried to give her the responsibility lecture at the airport but she was a little impatient with that. If she reads this, she'll know we're still thinking about it! It's so good to have the kid home. We missed her terribly. I know she had a good time back east, but I can't even imagine her being gone for over a month this summer. That will definitely be hard.

First big test in A&P tomorrow. I turned in all my paperwork for the Ultrasound application last Tuesday...the deadline was Friday. Now I just have to wait until early May when the letters go out. Based on what I've heard, I am preparing myself for a rejection letter. Apparently, in the Allied Health programs, there are so many applicants that they may just be looking at the ones that have already completed all of their prereqs, and not look at any that are still completing them this quarter. If that happens, I'll just finish up, work for a year or so and then apply again. So I'm going to tentatively start a job humt.

Speaking of jobs, J got a promotion last week. I'm so proud of him. He's been with the company less than a year and they promoted him already. He's been working so hard, it's nice to see it rewarded. The extra money ain't half bad either :-)

Happy Easter everyone!

Back to school

Well, this is the last day of spring break. Tomorrow is back to school day, at least for me. The young one has break next week, and is headed off on a plane by herself for the first time ever. She's nervous, but she's smart....she'll do great.

Yesterday we went to the passport agency to get a passport for the kid and to change the name on mine. Turns out I need a whole new one, even though mine is only 2 years old. So another $62 to the gubment. At least my picture on the new one is much better. With all the fees, passport agency processing, US fee, picture fee, etc, turns out it was over $200 just for two passports. Guess we'd better use them. Living so close to Canada though, I'm sure we will. The new passport rule for Canada goes into effect the end of this year, so we'll need them to cross the border after that. Actually, the man and I are considering a trip to BC next weekend after dropping the kid off at the airport. We've heard tell of a Dutch Pancake restuarant there. It's only a three hour drive.

If anyone back home is reading these entries, post a comment! I'd like to know you're at least interested sometimes in what's going on here. I know, I know...you're all super busy with your own lives. Me too. But c'mon, throw me a bone every once in a while.

Speaking of bone, here's some Alpha Female love for you:

Fatassco Fridge

Finally back online. We had a small problem with the fans on our server...they died a not so slow death until we really couldn't turn the server on at all except to make sure we were taping Family Guy. New fans arrived today and were promptly installed......ah, the silence.

Finals are over. I had the A&P final at 9:30 and the Algebra final at 11:30. Now I get 10 whole days off. I'm not technically off the whole time though, because I promised the Vascular lab I'd go in during break and finish up my projects before I start going to the Eastside specialty clinic when the new quarter starts. I'm hoping it won't take more than a day or two to do that. I'm definitely taking off tomorrow though. I shall be watching Grey's Anatomy Season 1, which my mother in law was kind enough to send us. I have to watch it fast because the older child is threatening to take it home with her.

Now for an appalling discovery, what J is calling the refrigerator manufactured by Fatassco:



You have got to be kidding me.

Finals

I haven't been posting because all I have been doing is studying for finals next week. I only have to take tests in two classes - I was supposed to write a final paper for my online course, but it the instructor said today that it was optional. At least I think he said that. He said he would only grade it and average it in if it would make a difference in our final grade. I'm pretty sure that means that we don't have to do it at all, but I'm trying to clarify that.

One thing I've discovered ..... if I don't call the folks back home, then there's no contact, 'cause they sure don't call me. Got a few emails, but no phone calls.

The Sopranos was awesome. If you didn't get to see it, that's too bad. If you've never seen it, you can get all past seasons on DVD now, so you should be heading to the video store as soon as you can. Sundays are something to look forward to again.

More later, probably after finals.

Harry Potter, Tony Soprano

Today was a major study day for me because I have two tests tomorrow and a paper due in Biomedical Ethics. So Miss K had herself a Harry Potter marathon. We picked up the new one on Wednesday and she watched all of them in order.

Luckily, the marathon was over by 8:30, because The Sopranos returns tonight after a 2 year absence. I feel a little bad that I'm this excited about a television show.

It wasn't all TV today though, because it was absolutely beautiful out today. We took the dogs out to walk around Green Lake.....man was it crowded. Everyone is hungry for sunshine.

Oh, and J bought new shoes today. This is a major occurrence, and therefore worthy of noting.

My brother-in-law is a hate dealer

John registered his porsche today and Georgia decided he looked evil....yes, he's a hate dealer all right.

Ribbon Candy Hair

Today on the bus I sat behind an African American woman with fascinating hair. It looked like long shiny strands of old fashioned ribbon candy. I couldn't stop staring at it. It looked so cool, but I can't imagine the time it would take to do something like that to your hair. It looked real but maybe it was extensions - I can never tell. Yesterday on the bus I sat across the aisle from a really stinky guy. Sometimes the bus is interesting, and sometimes it's gross. Today was a more interesting day.

Pictures are up in the gallery of Mary's visit last weekend. There aren't many, but she wasn't here very long either.

Loving a gamer

Something fun for this rainy day....the man sent me this, and I think it's hysterical. If you've ever loved a gamer, you might recognize these guys. Check it out: Tripod

Also for fascinating reading, check out a website called Post Secret, where people send in postcards with deep, dark secrets. There's a book about them too, which is now on my wishlist.

Too much food

Last night we went to the Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant. It was fun, but I personally ate way too much of the cheese and bread fondue, so could barely eat the meat course, and couldn't even look at dessert. Then today we went to brunch at the Space Needle, which was really nice, but I was still full from last night so I could barely eat half my meal there.

After the Space Needle we took Mary to Pike's Place Market so we could make sure she hit all the key tourist areas of Seattle. Too bad it wasn't a little warmer today - but they still had the water going at the fountain outside Key Arena, and kids were still running around getting soaked.

How did Brokeback Mountain NOT win Best Picture? Shocking....I must rent Crash again, and this time I'll watch it. Good for Phillip Seymour Hoffman though, he's cool.

Visitors

We're getting a visitor tomorrow! The man's mom is coming in from PA for a convention, and will be staying with us a couple of nights. Since she's never been to Seattle, we're going to do the best touristy things. We'll have brunch at the Space Needle, and go to Pike's Place Market. We don't get visitors very often, so we're very excited. At the very least, it's given us an excuse to finish our unpacking (from 7 months ago!) Since we decided to stay here for at least another year instead of buying a house we thought it would be cool if it actually looked like we were living here instead of just traveling through. Also finally got some new pictures posted in the gallery from Christmas and our Mt. St. Helen's trip. I'm still trying to get the Vegas pics up but the server is fighting me. Managed to get about half of them posted before it punked out again.

I'll be spending tomorrow at the Sew Expo in Pyallaup. I'm taking a class on machine quilting and something called "It's not a quilt until it's quilted." Truer words were never spoken.

Vegas, Baby

We just got back from a long weekend in Vegas with my brother and his wife. We didn't lose too much, and we easily achieved our goal of collecting 50 unique hooker cards - making it a fairly successful weekend. Finally got to see the Star Trek Experience too, which was cool but I'm really glad we bought the half price tickets, because $40 is kinda steep for the museum and two simulator rides. The best part of the experience was the Warp Core Breach, a 10-shot fishbowl o' fun!


We discovered that Vegas has about a 4 day shelf life. No matter how much fun you're having, in 4 days you just want to go home.