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.