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.