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.