Home for the Holidays

We made it to Pennsylvania, tired but intact. The flights were actually quite noneventful, on time and little turbulance so all we have to complain about is that it's hard to sleep on a plane no matter how tired you might be. We got to meet up with Jonathan at the BWI airport and have some lunch before we headed to Harrisburg. I think I speak for all three of us when I say how exhausted we all were by the time we got to bed last night.

Today though we were all rested and ready to enjoy the family. There was coffee and bagels at Kris's, where I got to see Aunt Mare, Sue, Lori, Pam, Britini, Briana and Kayla. Later we met for lunch at the pizza place (yay! East Coast pizza! O how we have missed you) and that was another big group...Mom, Kris, me, Jay, Megan, Aunt Mare, Sue, Lori, Nicole, Kassidy, Briana, and Kayla. We don't travel anywhere lightly.

Spent a little time shopping for stuff for the gift giveaways at Kris' Christmas Eve party, then we played Apples to Apples for a little while. Now I'm ready to sleep again, even though it's still kind of early (at least for us). But I'm plumb tuckered and full of Christmas cookies so I'm headed to bed.

Santarchy

Sometimes I really love this city.



The caption for the picture reads:

Santas swarm the merry-go-round at a Wallingford park. For the tenth year of Santarchy in Seattle, over 100 people dressed up in Santa suits, met up, and spent the day wandering the neighborhood and invading bars. They handed out candy canes to kids, and spread Christmas cheer to all.

No Title

Finals are done, so the first quarter is over. Only three more, and then clinical. We got our schedule for next quarter, and so far it doesn't look too bad, but I fully expect it to change since the fall schedule changed at least three times. As of now, I only have class Monday through Wednesday which would be really cool. I'll be able to keep working on Friday, but I have to figure out when I can go in one other day. Thursday is no good, because with the book shipping schedule I whould have at least a day between the two days I work. Tuesday would be best, but I'll have to see what I can work out there since Monday and Tuesday are 10:00 - 4:00 days for school.

I slept late today but woke up with a headache, so I guess I shouldn't do that anymore. It was just really nice not to have to worry about taking a test or doing a paper today. Grades will be posted Friday and I expect I did fairly well.

Today I plan to tackle the basement and finally devote some time to getting the flood mess sorted out. Jason has made a valiant start, but I'm anxious to really get it finished. Kelsey and I will look for carpet when she gets home from school today. And then one week from tonight, we'll be heading back East for the holidays. There's a lot to do before then. I suppose I should get started.

Two days to go

Tomorrow is the Physics final, and then Wednesday is the Abdominal Scanning final and the last Pathology test. I've tried to put in as much hours as I could studying these past few days, but I've been horribly distracted. The weekends just seem so busy, especially trying to clean up the basement from the flood. The house was smelling quite mildew-y, so we had to get all the wet carpet and stuff out. Jay did most of it, I tried to help a little.

We have a new niece, Riley Ann....isn't she cute? Seriously, she might be rivaling Kelsey in the cheek department for a newborn. I can't wait to meet her.

My carpool buddy from school surprised me with a gift of dinner in a bag today...rigatoni and sauce from Williams Sonoma, some yummy dipping oil, and a loaf of rosemary garlic bread. How nice was that? She's so sweet..she said she was giving me a gift because I was so nice about giving her a birthday gift last week (gourmet popcorn and a bottle of wine). She's great, and I'm glad we're carpooling together. She's about on par with me as far as grades go, which is cool because there are quite a few that aren't doing so well, which I imagine would be tremendous pressure. Wouldn't that be awful to work so hard on pre-reqs to get a 4.0, and then fail out of the program? I think they usually lose 1 or 2 each class, but I'm hoping everyone can get it together and pull through.

Okay, back to studying. See what I mean about distractions?

Water water everywhere

Wow, what a deluge. I think I've probably spoken to most of the people the read this blog about our adventure with the "Great Seattle Flood of 07" or "The Day of the Storm Drain Reckoning", so I'll just update.

The water went out almost as fast as it came in, leaving muck and mud and ruined carpet in its wake. Really, I consider us fairly lucky. We'll have to replace Kelsey's carpet and her computer, but mostly it's just mop up work for us. We're fairly confident that there isn't anything wrong with the drainage system for the house. The mayor was on TV last night saying that Seattle's drainage and infrastructure systems just weren't up to handling that much water. Like, enough water to fill Green Lake 6 times....over 5 billion gallons. I don't know where he came up with that figure, but it sounds substantial and awe-inspiring, so I'll repeat it.

I know there has been national coverage and probably pictures of the after effects to a lot of people around here, so some wet carpet isn't all that bad when you look at the big picture. I just wish the natural disasters would bypass us for a while. Couldn't happen at a worse week either, since I have finals next week and a huge project due on Monday, so I can't help too much with clean up until next Wednesday.

Thanks for all the calls and good thoughts though...we sure appreciate it. :-) We'll see most of you really soon.

Surprise!

Everything went perfectly.

Megan came in last night, and Kelsey was spending the night at Ayla's house, so that worked out great. Megan spent the night in her new room here, and then this morning she and I went to the hotel and took over the presents and the cake while Jay took Kelsey to her guitar lesson. Megan stayed at the hotel until it was time for dinner. We got to Benihana for our reservation, and they seated us at the table, and then a few minutes later the hostess came over and said I have one more for you, and Megan was right behind her. Kelsey was so surprised, her mouth literally dropped open.



We had a great dinner, and all the Japanese men came over after to sing a Happy Birthday Japanese song and serve us fresh pineapple.



Then we walked down the street the hotel where the girls are staying for the night.
The Hotel Monaco is super cool. I got the suite, so there was a big king size bed and a sitting room with a pull out couch and awesome prints on the fabric, and animal print bathrobes for all the girls, and even a fish in a goldfish bowl. It's a pet friendly hotel, so if you don't have a pet with you, they provide one. It's sooooo Seattle.

I had made a Guitar Hero cake, and ordered a couple of cases of Jones Soda with Kelsey's picture on the bottle, and Megan had it all set out for when we got into the room.



We had cake and opened presents - Megan had an autographed poster personalized to Kelsey from one of her favorite bands, and she got Guitar Hero III from Jay and I. Then we left the girls with promises that they wouldn't squeal too loudly and be kicked out. I think Kelsey enjoyed her birthday party, and all of her surprises.

What is this, Pennsylvania?

Criminy. They said it wouldn't ever do this here. Who do I sue?



Of course, it makes a nice birthday present for Kelsey, since she's been missing the snow. Wait until she has to drive in it...in Seattle...where there are no plows, salt, snow accustomed drivers, etc.

Brrrrr

It's gotten very cold here in the PNW this week. We were supposed to have snow last night, but of course that never happened. Still, very chilly only in the 30s this weekend.

Saturday is Kelsey's birthday party. I'm making the cake tomorrow, then we're going to Benihana's with her friends Ayla and Chloe on Saturday, and then a girls night at a downtown hotel. Low key, but I think it'll be pretty fun. I can't believe she'll be 16! Holy cow.

Only 2 more weeks of school before winter break. I got my ultrasound physics test back today...I thought I had failed it, but turns out I got 21 out of 20...and I DID miss some questions. I don't get how she grades, but I'm not about to question it.

I heard John got his Mini today. How exciting. I'm informed the car's name is Earl. I expect the car to have a thick redneck mustache and to always blink when you take its picture. I look forward to meeting it.

Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'....

Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I updated. The whole last week just flew by. Mom and Aunt Claire were here, we had a lovely Thanksgiving, I think they they had a pretty good trip, and now it's back to the daily grind.

Thanksgiving day we had 8 for dinner...see my last post if you forgot who was coming :-). We had lots of food, lots of wine, and lots of fun. Kelsey and Bronwyn played guitar and sang, Simon brought his Guitar Hero III game, and Darcy brought a fun game called Apples to Apples, which we played after dinner. It was all very fun but man I was exhausted when it was all done. I haven't cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for a couple of years, I kind of forgot the work involved. Jay cleaned up though, bless him, which took almost as long as cooking did.

The girls took off for Leavenworth the next day, and we had a really nice two days of shopping there. I didn't go too overboard though, just a couple of small things for the dogs and for Jay. The weather was cold but the sun was shining and the sky was blue, and the drive over the mountain through Steven's Pass was stunning.

Mom and Aunt Claire left yesterday, and although I haven't talked to them, I understand they had horribly delayed flights and didn't get back to Harrisburg until 4:30 am today. Yuck and I'm sorry :-(. I sure hope that doesn't happen to us when we fly in December.

I have two more weeks until the quarter is over. I can't believe how quickly that went too. We scanned again today and I'm happy to report that my scan partner located my right kidney, and (we think) it looks fine.

Failed Pastry

So today was the last day of class for the week. We're off for Thanskgiving, and we don't have class tomorrow either so I get a nice long 5 day break while Mom and Aunt Claire are here...which is awesome. I'm going to work late tonight to get my clinical handbook project done because it's due Monday. I'm almost done. I should probably be finishing that instead of posting here, but .... things happen.

We got to scan today for the first time. It was pretty cool, except I had a really hard time finding anything on my scan partners. I'm like.."is that the liver? What's that thing? I think that's the aorta...no, maybe it's the spine. Criminy, what's that?? Where's the kidney?" Yeah..first time, not so great.

And then it was my time to be the scan model. So as I lay on the table and pull my shirt up I just remind my young 20 year old partners that I'm 45 and I've had 2 kids. Don't you judge me! Anyway, it was good to actually get to practice what we've been studying for the last 8 weeks. I hope I'll be better next time.

After dinner I decided to practice a new pastry recipe that I got from the Russian girl that sits behind me in class. She brought them in for her birthday and they were really tasty so I thought I'd try it out Thanksgiving. We're having 8 people - in addition to Mom and Aunt Claire, some friends from Jay's work are joining us as well as Kelsey's guitar teacher. So I try out this recipe, all metric system measurements and all. It's like this yummy cream stuff layered with phylo dough pastry. FAIL. My cream part never set up, it was still really runny, and even though it tasted really good it was definitely not the finger food it was supposed to be. I think I'm sticking to apple pie and pumpkin pie on Thursday and skipping the Russian pastry.

One Class Down

The first 6 weeks are up, and one class is finished. Sectional Anatomy, final grade 91% - which is a B, and I'll take it. It was a tough class. The next 6 weeks are shaping up to be very intense, so posting is probably going to be even less. Sorry, I know how everyone so looks forward to reading updates on Beaglehaus :-).

I started back to work at the Library today for a couple of hours. I'm going to try to work there on Wednesday mornings, and on Fridays when I normally don't have school. Tomorrow though is Consortium Day. This happens once a quarter when all the second year students do presentations on stuff they've seen in clinical so far, and the first year students help them get the presentations together. It's a full day of presentations and also everyone brings a bunch of food so we can all mingle and talk. We have to dress up too, so after I'm done with this post I need to go figure out what I'm wearing tomorrow. I'm making mac and cheese for the lunch, so I need to be cooking macaroni at around 6:30 am. Ick.

Jay's been on deadline so the past few nights he's had to work kind of late, but he was home at regular time tonight, and it's been nice having a night off from homework too. We're counting down days now until we go back to PA for Christmas and get to see everyone. Jason and I haven't been home in a year, and I really miss seeing everyone. I'd love to try to make more trips home next year, if we can swing it. We'll see.

We have fire!

So readers, you may or may not know that our new house has a fireplace...but we didn't use it at all last winter because the house inspector said we needed to get a chimney inspection done. Older homes sometimes have masonry loss in the chimney, which would mean a quick house fire if hot embers got between the brick and into the house. We put off the inspection basically because we expected bad news and didn't have the money to put in a new liner.

Today though I was really missing a fire (which is weird because it was a beautiful sunny day today), so I called a chimney inspection/cleaning company to make an appointment. Turns out the guy was really close to our house when I called and didn't have any appointments after he was done at his current place, so he said he could show up in about an hour.

Good news! He said the chimney was fine, just needed to be cleaned. Yay! He took care of the cleaning, advised us to get a creasote log, and we were good to go. Apparently the mason that did our fireplace used a good design as well as good mortar, and we had "minimal pocket loss".

So..we have fire! Just in time for the cold and rainy season. Life is good.

Pie

I watched Waitress, with Keri Russell, on the flight over to Honolulu - and since watching that movie I've had this urge to bake pies. So I baked two pies over the weekend. The first was a white chocolate cream pie with a meringue top. The flavor was okay, but the texture of the chocolate cream was weird. It was more gelatinous than pudding like, and was an unappealing light brown color. I give that pie a C-.

Today I made an apple pie with a lattice top, and let me tell you people, that pie was one of the best pies I ever had. The apples weren't the best baking apples, but the flavor was fantastic, especially when paired with vanilla caramel swirl ice cream. I poured the sauce for the apples over the lattice crust so the sauce went into the spaces between the crust pieces, and all over the crust too. So the top crust was flaky, cruncy, sugary, yum. That pie has been rated an A+.

I've already achieve perfection after two pies, so there's no need to continue. I've found my signature pie.

Jason sez: Mmmmmm...Pie....AGHGAAgHAGAHGHGHAGHAHHHAHHA...

Diamond Head

This morning dawned sunny and HOT. We slept in this morning (until 7:30!) and then went to breakfast at the Shore Bird. Unfortunately, it being Sunday morning and us being later than usual, we did not get a choice spot by the sand. That's okay...every seat looks at the ocean anyway :-).

After breakfast Kelsey went in search of souveniers while Jay and I went to Diamond Head.


It's a .8 mile trail up to the top of the crater. It's not that steep going up because there are a lot of switchbacks and we scooted through that part. Then we hit the stairs. Man, there were a lot of them (99 I think). The view at the top was worth it though, it was awesome. We also witnessed a marriage proposal at the top. Sweet, but who wants to be dripping with sweat while either on the asking or the answering part of that?




Going back down was of course a cake walk compared to the going up portion. It took us about an hour total for up, look around, and back. According to the time estimates at the front gate, we did pretty good. We swung back to the hotel and picked up Kelsey, then hit Hilo Hatties to load up on souveniers for Kelsey's friends and Jason's work buddies. Hilo Hatties is a huge store where you can get anything you would ever think to want in Hawaii..leis, macademia nuts, seashells, hawaiian shirts and dresses, and of course monkey heads carved from coconuts. They've got it all.

When we were all shopped out we headed back and returned the car (thanks for the upgrade!), then back to the hotel for showers, which felt so good you have no idea. Now we're all dolled up and ready for our luau, which is our last scheduled activity :-(. Tomorrow is a travel and study day, so this is probably it for vacation now. I'll try to post more on the luau later. Aloha for now!

Flying like a bird

This morning we picked up our car bright and early at Enterprise. We had reserved a very small Toyota Echo for $11 a day, but they offered us an upgrade to a Mustang convertible for only $10 a day because they had an extra one that hadn't been rented. We jumped on it, since today was forecast to be 86 and sunny all day, and we had some long beautiful coastal driving ahead of us. Well, that baby wreaked havoc on our hair, but boy was that nice to be driving a convertible in Hawaii along some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

We got to the hang gliding place with lots of time to spare. Tom and Denise were fantastic instructors, and I honestly don't think we could have had a better time. Here's Kelsey flying on her turn:

Next were Jason and Kelly:



When we finally came down to earth we took off for our Movie Set and Ranch tour at Kualoa Ranch. But first we had a long leisurely drive through the coast of the North Shore. We actually got there just in time for the tour. That was pretty fun. We saw the hill from Jurassic Park where all the little dinosaurs came running down and the people hid behind the log.


We also saw where they filmed scenes from 50 First Dates, Mighty Joe Young, Lost, Windtalkers, and lots of other movies. We got such a taste for more Lost stuff that we went back towards the hang gliding place because Tom and Denise told us how to get to the set of the Lost main camp on the beach. Awesome! Not only was that area gorgeous, but we got to get really close to where they do the filming. They weren't there today because it was Saturday, but they had been there yesterday. We took lots of pictures, and also gathered a bottle of sand from the set for Megan.



It was a long and tiring day, but our best day so far I think. We're going to hike up Diamond Head tomorrow morning and then tomorrow night for our last evening we're going to a luau. Yes, I know I said earlier that we weren't going to do this, but I want to so we're going.

Pearl Harbor day

Last night we took a walk around the area near the hotel, which is full of really expensive upscale shops. We wound up finally at the International Market, which is full of really inexpensive kind of junky kiosks, where the owners jump at you the minute you stop and look at something. We wandered around for quite a while looking for a place to eat, and finally found a 50's style diner that had a fun atmosphere and Trivial Pursuit on the tables, but the food was kind of lacking.


This morning we got up pretty early and had breakfast at the Shore Bird, the restaurant here at our hotel that's right on the beach.


Oh my god, that was so pretty. We sat right at the sand, and they had a really nice buffet. We got free breakfasts with our package, so it was not only lovely but also we didn't have to pay :-). We had to meet our tour bus at 8:00, so we got to breakfast around 7:10. We were done by 7:30, so we know how long it takes to eat for next time.

We were booked on the City/Pearl Harbor tour. Turns out it was mostly Pearl Harbor, as the City part existed mostly of driving through Honolulu while "Cuz Cliff" pointed out various places he used to play as a child. No, he did show us other stuff, but the only place we were allowed out was the Ioloni Palace, and that was only for 10 minutes. Apparently tourist busses aren't allowed to discharge passengers at the Punchbowl National Cemetery (we only drove through), and Chinatown is only a couple of blocks so not worth getting out. It was only worth Cliff noting how much they were asking for pineapple.

Speaking of which, we also drove past where the old canneries were. Did you know that Hawaii doesn't produce and can pineapple anymore? It got too expensive, so they moved the operation to the Phillipines. They turned the old Dole cannery into a yuppy looking shopping center. The cannery is NOT the same as the plantation though. At the plantation, they still grow pineapples but it's just for sale to the tourists, not a worldwide exporting industry. They're really good though, we had them at breakfast.

Pearl Harbor was really busy, so we had to wait about two hours after we got our tickets until the tour. Here's me and Kelsey waiting in line:



After we got our tickets we went back to the bus for the city part of the tour, and then back to Pearl Harbor in time to do that part of the tour. That was pretty cool, and very moving. I had no idea that the USS Arizona was so close to the surface, but I didn't know that Pearl Harbor was such a shallow body of water.



Tonight we're going to take it easy, I'm going to study, and then early tomorrow we go on our hang gliding adventure.

Aloha

We're here. The hotel is really pretty and our room is very nice. There's a HUGE balcony that overlooks the central courtyard and pool. And if you look to the right, there's the ocean :-). It's not supposed to be an oceanview, but I think if you can see the ocean, then it's an oceanview room.

We were all very hungry after the 6 hour flight, so we ate as soon as we got here, which was fine because our room wasn't quite ready. The hotel restaurant is literally right on the beach, so we watched people frolic in the warm Hawaii sun while we sat broiling in our cold Seattle clothes.

Now we're changing, and off to the beach for us. More later.

Off to Hawaii

Tomorrow at 6:30 am we leave for the airport for our trip to Hawaii. Unfortunately, as it stands right now none of us are sitting together on the flight. We have two window seats and an aisle. I'm hoping we can get that changed, but I'm not counting on it as it looks like the flight is completely full.

For our East Coast friends, remember we are now going to be 6 hours behind you until we get back to normal schedule next Tuesday, so keep that in mind when you call :-)

We'll try to post pictures as we go, since I'm taking my laptop and there is supposed to be free wireless at the hotel. The weather for our trip looks like this:

Thu Fri Sat Sun

86 86 86 86 High

73 73 72 72 Low

So yeah, we're stoked. Can't wait for the hang gliding especially...we'll be doing that Saturday morning.

I had a weird dream last night that I ran into Lori and Tom at a bar here in Seattle. And neither one of them were that suprised to see me.

Aloha!

Sick...again

Last week was a quick week for school. The instructor was sick on Thursday so she cancelled classes, which means I had 5 days off. My liver test on Wednesday went great, I think. She hasn't handed back the tests yet, but I'm pretty confident I did well. It felt much better than the brain test, that's for sure.

So last night we had Kelsey's guitar teacher over for dinner, and for dog-related instruction. She'll be staying here as the beagle's primary caretaker while we are in Hawaii. Ayla is going to act as the beagle's secondary caretaker, covering lunch and after school duties. For dinner I made rouladen and garlic mashed potatoes, and we had a really lovely bottle of red to go with it. Almost immediately after Bronwyn left I started getting symptoms of a urinary tract infection, and it continued to get worse throughout the evening. Jay ran to Whole Foods and got me cranberry juice and cranactin pills, and I doused myself with those, lots of water, and some water mixed with baking soda. Around midnight I felt kind of better, and by morning (after about 10 trips to the bathroom)I felt almostly completely back to normal.

I decided that it would be best to see the doctor however, since we'll be away Thursday - Monday. And I was not relishing the idea of suffering from this while on a 6 hour plane ride. It turns out that I just had a "tiny" infection because my home remedies last night flushed most of the infection out. Dr. Daniel gave me some antibiotics anyway to take for three days, just to be on the safe side. Hopefully I'll be completely well by Thursday - which I fully expect to be.

Okay, quick update is over, I'm back to studying the heart for the test tomorrow.

My brain's no good

The test today was HARD! First were multiple choice, but like the kind where it says to circle all of the answers that are true, so it wasn't an easy multiple choice. And then the diagram part was not looking at images and labeling the different parts, which is kind of what we were all expecting based on last week's test - no, this week we had to draw our own images. So she says, draw a coronal view at the level of the third ventricle and label all the structures you would see - yuck! Criminy - I was just trying to remember what the third ventricle would look like when it came up on a scan, and here I have to draw it myself with all the other junk around it. Results on Thursday, I'm just hoping I pass (which is 78 or above, anything less is a failing grade here).

I was on the way to pick up my carpool partner this morning, and sitting at a red light. I glanced over to the car next to me, and this chick is smoking with her left hand, talking on the phone with her right hand, and has an open laptop in the passenger seat, screen facing her. Holy distraction batman! I'll be the first to admit talking on the phone while driving, and I occasionally also sip coffee, but I sure don't do them both at the same time and I also don't type on my laptop while doing ANY driving. She must have some mad drivin' skillz. Or else she's a dork.

Sick

Sorry I haven't updated for a while...I've been sick with Kelsey's cold. I'm just now getting to the point where I can breathe through both nostrils again, but just barely. Kelsey got over her cold, then I caught it, and then Jason did something bizarre to his neck and he could barely move all day Saturday.

Kelsey had her guitar lesson Saturday at 1, and then she went to spend the night with Ayla, so Jason and I spent the rest of the day/night on the couch. I went to Bartell to pick up a heating pad and some Ben Gay for Jay, and some Afrin for me. We were totally pathetic. Yesterday we both felt better so we did the grocery shopping for the week and then I studied while Jay played Bioshock.

I have a test again tomorrow. Every Tuesday. My last test I got a 33 out of 36, but the instructor only gave me a 31...she added the points wrong. I told her about it and she said she'd fix it, but she didn't write anything down and I honestly don't think she'll remember, but I don't want to be lame about it and remind her. So I guess I'll just take a wait and see about it. So test on the brain tomorrow and then a test on the liver Wednesday night. Whoo hoo!

I talked to Mom today and she said it's still in the 80's back in PA. It's long past the 80's here. This weekend was cold and rainy, and we've got the heat on. We'll be ready to head to Hawaii next week!

Book Sale Finally Over

It was a long three days for the volunteers, but the September Book Sale is finally over and apparently was a great success. The girls and I were there from 4 - 9 on Friday night, the Jason joined us for 8:15 - 1 on Saturday (I stayed until 3), then we all went back yesterday from 10:15 - 4. It's totally exhausting. Physically you're standing/walking on a concrete airplane hangar floor all day. Everyone's feet and legs were just aching last night. Also, I did a ton of walking, Jason was moving boxes and books all day while doing bulk counting, and Kelsey and Ayla helped with box cutting and book clean up. I'm glad it's over, and after a few hours on Wednesday I get a vacation from my library work until we get back from Hawaii.

But despite the fact that the weather was really wet and cold for the sale, it was PACKED and we were totally picked over by the end of the day yesterday. I don't know what the final tally was, but I'm sure we were somewhere near the 100K mark. Not bad for books that cost between .50 and 1.00 each!

Done with week 1

First week of school is done...it was kind of short. Class on Tuesday was supposed to be from 11:30 to 5:30, but we were out at 4. Wednesday night went from 6pm to 8:30 pm. And today was supposed to be 11:30 to 5:30, but we were done at 1:30. So it went pretty fast. First quiz is on Tuesday. My plan is to study most of the day tomorrow because this weekend is the big Book Sale at Magnusson Park and I have to be there Friday night, Saturday 9-1 and Sunday 11-4. Ugh. Then I have to work Monday for several hours too. So it doesn't look like I'll have a lot of time to study for Tuesday's quiz, but the classes were so short and we didn't go over that much, so I think I'll be okay.

It's cool being back into the school thing again. I think I'm the oldest person in my class though :-). This class is so different than when I took my prerequisites. Half the people in those classes didn't care how they did, but I can already tell this class is going to be really competitive. Not that we have to compete anymore...we're already in the program. I'll just do my best.

School Days

My last day at work was yesterday....so now I'm just going to be working at the library a few hours a week, but mostly concentrating on school. I was supposed to start on Monday night, but got an email from the director of the program the other day and it appears the Monday night class has been switched to Wednesday night, so school schedule for the first 6 weeks is Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I'll work at the library on Mondays and Fridays I guess. I finally got my last textbook yesterday, so now I'm all set. Time to get my mind back into studying and homework :-)

The Wheel turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend

For those of you that know my reading habits, you are probably aware that I have spent the last...oh, 15 years or so... reading and rereading The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. The series is up to 11 books in total now, 11 of probably some of the most enjoyable books I have ever read (book 10 was never one of my favorites, but still infinitely better than a lot of stuff I've read). The last book came out in 2005, and the next (last?) book in the series was due to come out in 2009.

Alas, yesterday the WoT community lost Mr. Jordan. He died after a battle with a rare disease, Amyloidosis. Still working on his newest book right up until the end.

My cousin Robert gets the credit for introducing me to the Wheel of Time. I can remember his exact words..."hey, have you ever read this book called The Eye of the World?" I picked it up at the library a couple of days later, and I was totally hooked. I think Jordan was on his third book by then, because I remember that I devoured the first three books back to back over a series of almost-no-sleep nights. At that time he was still putting out a book every 12-15 months or so, and each one was purchased with great anticipation and ended much too soon after it was started. While the series was still "manageable" I used to reread the entire series a month or so before a new book was scheduled to drop so I could be fresh and and ready for the story to continue.

Jason and I had the pleasure of meeting him in King of Prussia a few years back at a book signing for the 9th book. I schlepped the first 8 books of his with me, bought the 9th there, and he signed every one of them. It's the first and only time I've waited in line to meet anyone, and he was gracious and accomodating and more than willing to talk to those of us that hung around after, wide-eyed fantasy book geeks in the presence of The One, our Dragon.

So today I am sad, and spending some time at Robert Jordan's blog, reading over 1000 comments from fans on his passing. Then I am going to start the series over again tonight, and I will read each page slowly with the knowledge that this is probably goodbye, and I will thank Robert Jordan at the end for 15 years of delight.

Lesson Learned

Yeah.....don't order food samples to be sent to your home address when:

A) you have a mail slot in the door instead of a mail box outside and
B) you have dogs who are home alone when the mail comes

Although your dogs may try to convince you otherwise, this particular combination = no sample and lots of ripped up packaging when you get home. The only good part of this story is that I keep thinking how the dogs must have been absolutely ecstatic at food coming in through the door, and it makes me laugh.

Less than successful

Jay and I decided to take the dogs and go do some geocaching today, since it was such a beatiful day outside. We found four caches located within walking distance of the house, so we set out for our first geocaching outing since we got to Seattle.

The first cache we had to skip because there was some guy and his dog hanging around the cache location and we couldn't search very secretly. We headed off to the second one, at the Roosevelt Pea Patch. No luck here either, and it wasn't a great idea to have the beagles in other people's garden patches anyway. So on to the third....

This one was located in the upper level parking lot over Whole Foods. But we still couldn't find it! You would think that a parking lot wouldn't have a lot of places to hide a cache, but we must be way out of practice, because we couldn't locate anything. We met another geocacher here who noticed us searching bushes and asked if we were by chance looking for a cache. We talked to her for a little while about caches in the area, and shared our coordinates for the four we were hunting that day with her. Then we gave up on this one, and decided to head for the fourth.

Well, the geocaching gods definitely were not on our side today, because we couldn't locate this one either....it was somewhere in a big field next to the highway support wall, but we could not find any trace of it, and by now we were getting kind of upset. We never had such a hard time geocaching before, and these were all supposed to be pretty easy! We headed home very dejected. By the time we got back we had been out for over 2 hours, and had walked 3.5 miles, and the dogs were ready for a drink and a lie-down.

We decided to head back to the first one by ourselves, because it's pretty close to the house and we felt we could find it better without the dogs along. HA! We couldn't find that one either, and we really tried. So it was a very less than successful geocaching day. But it was beautiful weather and we enjoyed being outside and seeing more of the neighborhood.

So cute it hurts

Not much going on this week. Kelsey's getting back into the school routine, and I'm into my last two weeks of work before school starts for me. Although I don't have much to write about, I do have a ridiculously cute picture to share:




Awww..yeah, you're welcome.

Happy Labor Day Weekend

I hope everyone is doing something fun this weekend. Here in Seattle we're taking it slow and easy. Kelsey and her friend Ayla went to Bumbershoot yesterday. They got there really early, like an hour and a half before the gates opened at 11, so they could make sure to get Mainstage passes to see Panic!At The Disco at 10 pm. And then they hung out at the Mainstage all day. Kelsey said highlights included Crowded House, The Shins, Gymclass Heroes and a local Seattle band Schoolyard Heroes. She had a really good time, but had nothing to eat all day and barely had anything to drink. She drank like a camel when she got home last night.

Meanwhile, Jay and I took the dogs for a walk around Greenlake, then he played Bioshock for the rest of the day while I lazed around watching movies and napping. We're hoping to be a bit more active today. Hoping. It remains to be seen.

Kris is having a big family picnic at her house, and I wish we could there. I guess we'll make some hot dogs here and pretend.

Watch out Seattle drivers

Well, we took the plunge today, and Kelsey bought herself a car. At least, we put a deposit down on it because the owner is going away tomorrow for a long weekend, and we need time to get to the bank and get a cashier's check together. I hope we'll have enough time to do that, since the money has to come out of Kelsey's fund in Pennsylvania. I should probably go research that on the Washington Mutual site, about how long it takes for the money to actually transfer.

Anyway, it's a nice looking car. Here's what it looks like (this is not the exact car, but it looks just like this one):



She got a 2005 Scion XB, and I think we got a pretty good deal on it. These babies seem to really be holding their value, and the prices are all over the map. I've seen them as low as 11K for one with really high mileage all the way up to 26K for a "first edition" (WTF?) low mileage snazzy orange colored one. Freakin' yuppy colors.

So, another Wyld child takes the wheel.

EwwwwwWeight Watchers

Anyone who knows me and my family knows that we're pretty much constantly either on a diet, or are about to start a diet. Since both my sister and mom have mentioned that they're about to start (after their fabulously fun and food filled shore trip), I wanted to share with them some Weight Watchers Recipe Cards from the 70's that I came across today.

What's that? You need some kind of sample to show you that clicking that link is worthwhile? How about these two:




Make SURE you look at all of them - there's a convenient TOUR link at the bottom of the page. You may never eat again.

Make SURE you look at all of them. (There's a convenient link to a slideshow tour at the bottom of the page.) You may never eat again.

Geeks Rule...Part Deux

Jay's been working hard on his deadlines all week, but today he got to go to the Penny Arcade Expo on the company. While I cannot report on this adventure first hand, Jay will report through these text messages he sent to me:

1. We're in line

2. It's amazingly nerdy in here

3. Seriously. Some of these people are dyed in the wool hardcore nerds. It's hard to look at some of them.

4. Wil Wheaton keynote at 4.

5. I just heard the end of a joke that had the punchline "so I guess you have to reinstall your operating system" HAHAHAHAHAHA

Of course, I couldn't answer because I was too busy playing Bioshock all day.

In non-geek news, my last day at my part time job is Sept. 20. They decided that 6 hours just wasn't enough. I am totally relieved. I still have the Library job, and they are super flexible...they'll take as much or as little time as I can give which is totally the kind of job I need while I'm in school. So now everything is in short time mode at work and I'm just trying to mentally gear up for school again. I have to start studying my Anatomy again because it's been about a year since my class and they hit the ground running in the Ultrasound program.

Next week I'm getting my hair cut. I'm thinking about going back to bangs.

Geeks rule

Today was an odd weather day in Seattle. Beautiful when I got up (at a shameful 9:50), overcast and drizzly by the time Jay got up (an even more shameful 11:30 - but to be fair, he didn't get home until 2:30 am). I really wanted to clean the house today - or to be more truthful, I really wanted the house to be clean today but I didn't necessarily want to be the one doing the cleaning. When Jay mentioned seeing a movie, I was all for it. Especially when he showed me the trailer - The King of Kongs: A Fistful of Quarters - a documentary about two grown men both vying for the world record in Donkey Kong. One look at Billy Mitchell and my only question was "what time is it playing?"

We're both documentary fans, especially ones that honor the geek. I mean, come on...have you see Trekkies? Absolutely.Brilliant. The first one anyway.

So the movie was playing at an independent theater near the UW. Turns out that one of the main geeks in the movie is a local boy, from Redmond. He was actually scheduled to appear live at the evening screening of the movie. The movie had previously played in Seattle during the Seattle Film Festival but we totally missed it. So glad we got to catch it this time though, because it was very enjoyable. I told Jay that I must have some kind of weak personality, because documentary filmmakers are ALWAYS able to make me feel exactly what they want me to feel. I'm so easily manipulated. Anyway, if the movie is playing anywhere near you, and you're in the mood for something light and fun, go for it.

Well, after stressing about it for almost a month, I finally broke the news to the company today that my school schedule is going to be horrendous, and it looks like I'll only be able to give them 6 hours a week, 2 each on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. It took me so long because for much of that time I was convinced that I was going to tell them that I would not be working at ALL once school started, that it would just be too much and I have to quit.

Then I felt really calm this morning, and I knew it was time to tell them, but I also knew I decided that I would offer the 6 hours and see if they agreed. It's not that much that I think it would really stress me out, and I wouldn't feel like I was really leaving them in the lurch. I figured we'd do the 6 hour thing for the quarter and then re-evaluate the situation next quarter.

So I very casually brought it up this morning and said that my schedule was going to be really intense (which it is), with a full 17 credits (12 is considered full time), and laid out the 6 hour option.

Doesn't look like they're going to go for it. But I don't feel bad about that option either :-)

***********************************

I've also been spending a lot of time putting together our itinerary for Oahu. Normally I am not a plan everything out kind of gal. I just like to make note of things I don't want to miss, and then fit it in somewhere along the way. However, for this particular trip I decided that it would be better to have stuff pre-planned because we're there for such a short time, and because Oahu is pretty small, and if you want to make sure you get to do something you'd better make reservations ahead of time.

After much discussion with the other travelers, we've decided these are the "Must Do" things:

Hang Gliding
Pearl Harbor
Diamond Head (Kelly and Jason)
Movie Sites and Lost Sites tour
Snorkeling

These are the "want to do" things":

Parasailing (Kelly and Kelsey)
Honolulu city tour
Drive around North Shore

We don't care about going to a Luau, the Dole Pineapple Plantation, the Polynesian Cultural Center, swimming with sharks or dolphins, the aquarium, the zoo, and any number of other things available to us.

So I've made reservations for all the Must Do things, combining Pearl Harbor with a city tour so we get all that done at once, and combining the Hang Gliding with a drive around the North Shore on the way to the Movie and Lost Sites tour. We're gonna be freakin' exhausted when we get home.

We're losers

Went to euchre night again at the Spectator last night. This was our third night going, and even though we split up and didn't play together all night we still managed to lose every game we played between us. One game my team was even up by 4 points, we only needed 1 more to win, and we still lost. Well, at least we still have fun even if we can't win to save our lives. I'm thinking that soon people will not want to partner with us, scared that they will be stained with the stink of our losingness.

I hear there's a big heat wave that the rest of the country is going through right now. Hmmmmmm. Except for the week that the Austinites were here, we haven't had a warm summer at all. In fact, the last couple of days were downright cool. It was only about 64 today, tomorrow is supposed to be a high of 69. I think we've been ripped off this summer. No wonder we're all Vitamin D deficient.

Good news on the furniture front. They have finally located our couch...for those that aren't informed, we custom ordered a piece from what was originally a sectional, and they sent us a loveseat instead of a couch. Maybe. It only has 2 cushions, which is usually what the loveseat has, but it's as long as a couch. The whole thing is very confusing. Anyway, the replacement couch was unmarked and sitting in the warehouse unclaimed since nobody there knew where it was supposed to be going. (I am picturing the last scene of Raiders of the Lost Arc) But it's finally been located and will be delivered on Sunday. I sure hope it's the right one, and we don't have to go through this all over again.

Oh, and watch Damages on FX. Glenn Close rocks. Check your local listings.

Thinking of Grandma Flo - all of our good thoughts and love are heading your way.

There's another deadline for Jay at work, so they've been doing the dinner thing for the employees this week. Last night was California Pizza Kitchen. Of course Jay decides he has to screw with the guy that places the order, so he asks for a Jamaican Jerk pizza, extra croutons.

This is what he got:



Don't mess with California Pizza Kitchen, and don't mess with the guy that orders the food.

D'oh!

Our family, officially Simpsonized:



And yes, I'm bored. Come home safe family.

Tuesday night card game

Since our Austin visitors got us so interested in Euchre, we thought we'd try to find some other people around here to play with. Interesting task in Seattle, since most people we asked had never heard of the game. Trust craigslist though to hook us up. Turns out there's a group of transplanted midwesterners that get together at the Spectator in Queen Anne for a few hours to play every Tuesday night.

Jay and I showed up last night to check it out. Although there's a revolving group of about 50, only 8 people (including us) were there. That's okay, since that let us have 2 games going. About half the people there were also new.....and of course not one person was from Seattle. We were actually some of the "oldest" Seattle transplants there - with 2 years, we handily beat the crime lab toxicologist who's been here 2 months, and the wine delivery guy who's been here 7 months. The group "leader", a freelance marketing and advertising guy, has only been here 5 months.

We wound up playing 3 full games, and lost all three...but we were tough competition, everyone said so :-). We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed meeting the new people, so we plan on going again - next week hopefully if things work out. How cool is that?

It's over

Well played, J.K. Rowling. Not at all how I expected the series to end, but nicely done at that. Kelsey, feel free to call and discuss.

Boy will I sleep well tonight :-)

Delicious

Went to the QFC earlier to get ziploc baggies, and discovered they were selling Harry Potter books at 12:01 am, same price as B&N - 40% discount. Wanting the new book asap, but not wanting to stand in a line for an hour at the bookstore when I have to take Kelsey to the airport at 4:00 am, we took full advantage of this discovery.

We got to the QFC at 11:53 and had paid and left the store with a brand new oh it smells so good copy of the book by 12:07.

Coffee is brewing, dogs are settled, I'm all ready to start. Talk to you in a few days :-)

Seattle's "finest"

Tonight Jay and I were running errands and stopped by the Starbucks before heading home. Shortly after we ordered, some policemen (and woman) came in and got in line. We moved over to the drink waiting area and noticed that these were no ordinary police...these were movie police. There were two young guys and a young woman, all three model-pretty. The policewoman was perky, blonde, and workin' that uniform. The two guys were crisp, clean cut and oh so cute. Then an older police guy came in, and he was movie cop good looking too...tall and authoritative, you could tell he was the captain they all turned to for advice.

I don't know if all Seattle police look like these 4, but if you're around the Roosevelt Square Starbucks around 7 pm, stop by and maybe you too will get to enjoy some eye candy with guns.

Everyone's gone

The Neibert clan headed back to Austin this afternoon, so for the first time in about a month it's just the three of us again. It's so quiet, and we're exhausted. I forgot how much energy it takes to keep up with a 2 year old, and Rip is a whirlwind. We had such a good time, and I will post pictures soon and write more in detail but right now I'm just too tired.

Highlights of the trip included the Fire Truck bed, playing in International Fountain, boating on Lake Union, the Mariner's game, the Zoo, and of course Day Out with Thomas. I don't think we had a single day where we weren't doing something. We won't see Kirk, Kristin, or Ripkin for a while so we tried to soak up as much Neibertness as we could while they were here :-). They'll be traveling for quite a while yet today so I'm sure we won't hear from the Neibert Diaries for a day or two.

Her hair's on FIRE

Kelsey got a new look for the summer. It took two days at the salon, for a total of about 7.5 hours, but we think it looks pretty cool. She's not allowed to wash it for 5 days, so we'll see how it looks after that :-). They were awesome at the salon...gave us tons of free product to keep it looking bright. The girls that worked on Kelsey took lots of pictures of their own to show off their work. When we went to the food court right after to get something to eat, the guy at Kidd Valley asked, "where'd you get your hair done like that? It looks like it's on fire!"





Jay's thinking about going blue next week.

Candy Red Buttons

Happy Fourth of July. Here in Seattle it's a lovely day, sunny and warm. We took Mom and the beagles to Marymoor Park earlier for a picnic. The dogs had a great time and the humans did as well. After we took the dogs home we went to the Uwajimaya Market in the International District to stock up on some Pocky and Japanese soda.

So we all know that the birthday of our nation is the most dangerous holiday of the year. We here in Seattle are doing our part. The Japanese soda that Kelsey likes has this cool opening where you screw off the top, and then use this plunger thing in the top to push a marble down through the opening into the bottle which allows you to then enjoy the tasty sugar beverage.

On the side of the bottle is a warning:

• Ask an adult to open the bottle for you.
• Do not try to remove the marble from the bottle to avoid injury.

CANDY. RED. BUTTON.



Out comes the pocket knife. 2 minutes pass. Out gushes the blood. A trip to the emergency room loomed large, but we settled for a butterfly bandage instead.



The patient is now resting calmly, although is still dreaming of getting the marble. We hope your Independence Day has less bloodshed.

Cruise update

Well, we're all back from vacation :-( The time goes much too fast when we're all together, and it seemed like we had just boarded the ship when it was time to leave everyone again.

We had an absolutely wonderful time. We met Carol (Hugo's sister) and her husband Fred - they were truly lovely people, and great fun. Also met Robert's fiance, Kristen. They make a great couple, and we enjoyed getting to know her.

The weather could not have been better the whole time we were away...calm winds and smooth seas all week. The ports were all very interesting, although my favorites were definitely Newport and Bar Harbor. Newport because of all the beautiful homes, including the two Vanderbilt "cottages" that we toured, and Bar Harbor because it was just so pretty. But we also loved Halifax and the Titanic Connection tour and Kennebunkport (the Bushes, elder and junior, were both in residence. I can't say much about St. John because I did not get off the ship that day. For the life of me I can't remember why though. I'm pretty sure it's because it was a short day, and we had the Pinnacle Grill lunch on the ship as well as the On Deck for the Cure walk that afternoon.

Pictures are up in the gallery. Here's a sample for those that don't feel like wading through all roughly 200 of them.







Beagles are in good shape, Mom came through and spoiled and pampered them. Although the way they carried on when we got home, you would have thought she had them locked in a closet all week. Oh how nice to sleep with a beagle again :-)

Off to Boston

So we leave tonight, on the redeye to Boston. Kelsey's done with school for the summer, Mom's got her bus schedules worked out for getting around town, we're almost all packed, and we can't wait to catch up with everyone on the ship. Beaglehaus most likely will not be updated for a week, but since the majority of beaglehaus readers will be on the ship, that shouldn't be a problem :-)

Boeing posted pics of it's new 777 in the Seattle Times today. Check out their First Class suite:



Definitely not what our seats will look like tonight :-)

Prairie dogs are cool

Especially when people mess with them.

Count your blessings

Yesterday afternoon was pretty much the first really nice day since Mom got here, so we went to Pike's Place Market to walk around outside and enjoy the sunshine. It was packed, since it's prime tourist season, but we were lucky enough to get a parking spot smack dab in the middle of the market walk.

We hadn't walked very far before we observed some lady, she looked to be around 40 I think, dressed in shorts and a t-shirt....start digging in the trash for food. She didn't look like the typical Seattle homeless person, she looked relatively clean and well-fed, but she literally dug through about a foot of trash before coming up with a paper bowl half full of lo-mein and then started eating it.

After I got over my initial revulsion, I started to wonder how you get to that point where you're DIGGING through trash for food...it's not like it was just sitting on top of the trash (ala George Castanza and the eclair), it was buried underneath a whole bunch of other trash, and she STILL ate it. Is that better than panhandling? If I was starving and those were my only two options, which would I choose? But there's also shelters and food kitchens galore in this city, so I can't imagine that one would be reduced to trash diving unless there was some kind of mental illness in place...right?

In any event, it made me sad, and it lingers in my memory. Seeing something like that really does make you feel lucky for what you've got.

Never mind

Okay, I got the letter today. It was a thick packet, so I knew right away it was good news. Yippee, the Ultrasound people want me too! So now I really do have to make a choice between the two. I'm going out with my friend Jason tonight to talk to him about Ultrasound, then I'm going to call my cousin's ex-wife to talk about Radiology. Then I'm going to throw darts while blindfolded at both letters to see which one sticks.

Mom's here, and we've already run her ragged on her first day. I think she's looking forward to bed :-)

I waited all week for this?

All week, I waited for this day. June 15. Magic time. The day when I'll find out if I get in the Ultrasound program. They promised. I actually checked the mail eagerly all week, just in case they were early. But alas, no.

So today is the day. A vague feeling of excitement mixed with dread all morning. Cleaning the house to take my mind off it. Then, while in the kitchen...that sound. The sound of the letters hitting the floor as they fall through the mail slot in the front door. No warning barks, because the walking door alarms are outside.

I hurry to the living room...there it is, I see the corner of the envelope from school. This is it! Huddled on my knees in front of the door, I can't even spare the time to stand up.

It's a bill. For summer tuition. Nothing else. What the....??? They promised! I'm checking my email again because they said they'd let us know by June 15! Oh...they said they'd send the letters on June 15. Damn. The AlphaFemale is not happy.

Happy Flag Day!

I love Flag Day, don't you? The flags in the yards, on the porches, the presents, the cake, the candles. It's all grand.

Not much is going on out here lately, we're just in waiting mode...waiting for visitors, waiting for the cruse, waiting for the trips back east. Lots of waiting. While we're all waiting, I thought I would share some images of the beautiful Pacific NW with everyone. The photographer is the owner of the company I work for, and his pictures are pretty good. Enjoy!

Bill's Pics

Here comes the sun

The sun has finally broken free for about the first time this week,and it looks like it's going to be a nice warm day. We've had a string of cold and rainy the last few days, which has been great for the grass but not so good for us. So today, I get to cut the grass and pull weeds. Don't you wish you were me? Then I meet Kelsey's guitar teacher at noon for a walk around Green Lake.

Oh, also, I asked her if she would be interested in dog-sitting for us in October while we're in Hawaii, and in December when we're home for Christmas, and she said sure...so I'm going to go over the specifics with her today and see if she's still interested. If so, great relief - as always when we have to go away and find someone to stay with the beagles. Yes, we could just put them in a kennel, but there really aren't any kennel kind of kennels out here. They're all "doggy camp" or "doggy spa" or something like that, and they cost a fortune, especially for two dogs...minimum cost of $55 per day from what I've found. So finding someone willing to come and stay with them at about $20 per day is a bargain.

One more week until Mom gets here. Gotta start cleaning :-)

Donkey!

Kelsey and I just finished watching Hell's Kitchen. What a sorry lot of chefs they have this year. I can't believe they have a line cook from the Waffle House on the show. I may never have worked in a kitchen but I find it hard to believe that there's any chance that a Waffle House line cook can run a multi-million dollar 5 star kitchen in Las Vegas. We want to know why Wayne didn't try out for this show? I'm sure he wouldn't have broken down in tears, like that one guy Aaron.

We're definitely all on cruise countdown right now. We haven't actually started packing yet (we do have almost three weeks, after all!), but we're mentally packing. I think we'll try to get all our clothes together in the next week to ten days so we know what we're missing, if anything. I can't wait to see everybody.

And though we didn't get too many suggestions, we've all decided we'd rather stay in a quieter area of Oahu instead of Waikiki beach, so I'm currently searching for condo rentals, since there really aren't any hotels anywhere else except Turtle Bay Resort, but that's super expensive so we definitely aren't staying there. But it's fun looking :-)

Happy Anniversary Mom!

Decisions, decisions

So let's say, hypothetically, that you were going to Hawaii, specifically Oahu. Would you stay in a downtown hotel near Waikiki beach or rent a condo on the North Shore?

Waikiki beach is crowded and touristy, but is right in the middle of everything. The North Shore is isolated and quiet, but beautiful (it's where they shoot Lost) Both cost about the same, so that's not an issue.

In this hypothetical situation, you have use of a car so you wouldn't be "stuck" at the isolated place, but you'd have to drive about an hour to get to the touristy areas. If you stayed at the touristy areas, you'd have to pay for parking at the hotel, and you'd have to drive about an hour to get to the pretty part of the island.

Let's hear it people.

Highly Recommended, Two Thumbs Up

Wow, what a great little overnight trip! We got up really early (5:10 am!), and got to the Clipper for check in with plenty of time. The Victoria Cipper was a really nice way to ride over to Victoria, and we wound up sleeping for a good part of the trip. When we arrived in Canada, it was a quick trip through customs and then out to the parking lot to meet our tour. Turns out that there were only 4 of us signed up to do the tour that day, so they brought the "small" limo:



The other couple on the tour was Annie and Storm. Annie is originally from Virginia, Storm from South Africa. They both work on a private 175 foot luxury yacht. The Battered Bull, based in Ft. Lauderdale, but they travel literally all over the world...France, Monaco, New Zealand, Tahiti, everywhere you can think of. They were such a great couple and we had a blast traveling around the wineries with them. Check out the link for the boat....man what a way to travel.

Our first stop was at a cidery called Merridale Cider House. Our guide was Roz, and she showed us around the estate, how they pressed the apples, and then we had a tasting of their hard ciders and apple wines. They were all delicious, and we bought the Cidre Normandie, a very dry white apple wine, and the Winter Apple, a fantastic dessert port that was wonderfully sweet and buttery, along with a bunch of smaller bottles of various hard ciders which we drank in the limo throughout the rest of the tour. Who could imagine that they could make apples into such yummy drinks! Here's Jay and I posing in front of some of the apple trees:



We piled back in the limo for short ride to the Oceanfront Grand Resort, where we had a lovely three course lunch that included a wine pairing with each course. It was a beautiful day, and we sat overlooking the water while we enjoyed our food and wine. We were a little late getting back to our limo because we spent so much time talking over lunch that eating took a little longer than usual I guess. Once in the limo, Storm opened the bottle of Normandie white that he and Annie had purchased at the Cider House, and shared it with Jay and I while we traveled to our next destination, Cherry Point Vineyards. This was a lovely vineyard with some truly wonderful wines. Here's our tasting host Thomas:



We tasted several whites and reds at this vineyard, all medal winners for them. We purchased a blackberry port, a really sweet dessert wine, and their Ortega, a slightly sweet white that we both really enjoyed.

Next stop was the Godfrey-Bronwell Vineyards. This is a relatively new vineyard, and the most "laid back" of all the places we visited. Bill, the owner, was our host for the tasting. Here he is with Annie and Storm:



We purchased the Colette here, a white that was a mixture of Bacchaus, Chardonney, and Pinot Gris. Not as dry as some of the others, it's a crisp light white.

Our last stop of the tour was Silverside Farms, where they make sweet wines made entirely from berries, no grapes. Bill and Jean Aten are the owners here and Jean was our host for our tasting. We loved this place, not only because of the delicious wines and the lovely location, but because Jean provided a great big bowl of dark chocolate buttons to enjoy with our wine tasting. We purchased a bottle of the blueberry wine, and Annie loved it so much that she bought 4 bottles! It was a nice place to end the tour, as everything was kind of like dessert.

When we got back to Victoria around 6, we made plans to have dinner with Annie and Storm at a restaurant right on the harbor. There was a yacht race the next day, so there were lots and lots of boats to look at while we drank mojitos and ate dinner.



After dinner we walked around the harbor for a little while, hugged Annie and Storm goodbye, and went back to the hotel. We were in bed by 10, tired from the tour, the food and the alcohol, but we had a fantastic day with great weather, great wine, and great people to hang out with. We were back home by 2:30 the next afternoon, so a short but absolutely wonderful little holiday.

Wine for everybody!

Tomorrow morning, Jason and I are taking off on a wine tour of southern Vancouver, and then spending the night in Victoria. We are taking the Victoria Clipper from Seattle to Victoria, which is about a 3 hour tour, a 3 hour tour. Then we'll board a chauffered "luxury" bus (haha) and visit 4 different wineries in Vancouver, have lunch at a resort by the ocean, and get back to Victoria around 6pm. We'll spend the night and come back on the clipper the next day at 11:30. So, just a short break, but one we are very much looking forward to. I'll post pics when we get back.

Kelsey is going to stay home with the doggies, since you have to be 19 to go on the wine tour. I think she'd be pretty bored anyway. Hopefully Ayla can stay over with her so she's not completely alone. The dogs don't talk very much and so are not great company.

Comp time

Jay gets to have almost the whole week off because of the absolutely insane hours they've been putting in at work. He had to work yesterday, but was home by dinner, and now he's off until next Tuesday, Monday being a holiday and all. Of course I put him to work right away on the bathroom :-). Right now, he's busy scraping the door trim. We might actually have a completely finished bathroom by the end of the week. I really did want to start on the backyard this week, but I don't think that will happen. There's just too much to do.

Kelsey is so looking forward to the end of school. One month from today and she's done. They seem like to they have to go so much longer than PA (I think they're done June 6 or something like that), but then again they get much longer breaks throughout the year, so it really does even out. She doesn't see it like that of course, she just sees that she has to go longer.

It's been kind of cool and a bit rainy here the past couple of days so we've been really lazy lately. I have to start cooking again now that the whole family will be home for dinner. Tonight is pork loin braised in milk. With mashed potatoes for the vegetarian.

Time for Meg to leave

I'm taking Megan back to the airport this morning, in about an hour. We really enjoyed her visit with us, but it was way too short. Last night at dinner she talked about how short it was and we had a difference of opinion as to why she didn't stay a week. She claims I only offered these few days, while I claim I asked her if she wanted to go home Wednesday or stay until Saturday, and she said Wednesday. Either way, it's too late now since she has to be back at work on Friday for a mandatory meeting. We all wish she was staying longer though. Oh well, we'll see her again in about 6 weeks when we go on the cruise.

The doggies are enjoying the lovely Seattle spring sunshine. Ignore the backyard, that's next on our list for fixin'.

Bathroom update

Okay, I finally got some pictures of the bathroom remodel to share. Here we have a couple of shots of what the bathroom looked like before we started. Note the very small space between the toilet and the tub....a knee breaker.

Construction time. We took everything out down to the studs, including the ceiling. Yuck!

Here's the finished product. Keep in mind that we still have to finish the trim around the floor and the door, but it's so much better, and we're happy we did it every time we take a shower.