Candy Cane Tree

Last night Jay and I were walking to Safeway to get a few things to tide us over for the weekend (since we're getting a big storm tonight!). We were about a block from the house when we passed somebody's tree in their front yard that had candy canes hanging all over the bare branches. Among the candy canes was a small laminated sign that said Help Yourself to 1 or 2! You know, that little gesture really made me feel good. It was just so nice to be walking in the dark and the snow and come across a Candy Cane Tree, ripe for the picking. We did indeed help ourselves to a cane apiece. The girls also took advantage while walking to the store this afternoon.

The snow is really coming down here now. They actually forecasted about 8 inches of snow tonight here in Seattle. If 2 inches was enough to make this city crazy, I cannot imagine what 8 inches will do to it. With a well stocked fridge and freezer, and a stack of dry firewood next to the fireplace - we my friends, are in for the duration. Wish us luck!

Winter in Seattle

Oh the joys of snow in the city.





And I should clarify...this happened this afternoon after about a 2 inch drop of snow on the city streets. Unfortunately, due to no salting and little plowing and dropping temps, most of that snow is now ice on the steep and narrow city roads. There were two charter busses that tried to detour around a closed road, wound up careening down an icy patch and almost flying through the guardrail onto I-5 below. Luckily, nobody was hurt. The passengers all escaped out a back window and the busses are still hanging over the highway tonight while workers try to pull them back.

Curry Potato Soup

It's a rainy icky day here in Seattle. Jason is home sick and I'm still in pajamas at 1:00. Perfect day for some homemade soup.

I usually just make noodle soup when I make soup. Today I tried something different, it was totally yummy, and I'm in the mood to share. Enjoy!

3 tblsp butter
1 - 1.5 cups onion, diced into little pieces
1 tblsp mild curry powder
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 - 4 cups potatoes, peeled and diced into small pieces (I used about 6 small potatoes)
1.5 tsp kosher salt
14 oz can chicken broth
1 cup water
2.5 cups milk *
Optional: Hot curry powder or ground cayenne pepper, sprinkle of garam masala

Melt the butter over medium high heat in a large saucepan. Add curry powder and onions and saute until onions are soft. Add garlic and saute until soft. Then add potatoes, salt, a sprinkle of garam masala if you want, chicken broth, and water. Heat to boiling, turn down heat, cover and cook until potatoes are very tender. There should be little liquid left when the potatoes are cooked. Mash the potatoes (I used just a hand held potato masher and got a mostly smooth consistency, but if you absolutely can't stand lumps, use a mixer or puree in blender). Stir in milk, and add hot spices if you want some kick to the soup. Heat through until it just starts to bubble, remove from heat and serve.

* NOTE: I had some heavy cream so I used half a cup of that and then 2 cups of 2% milk.

This makes about 4 good sized servings of a rich potato soup with a hint of Indian flavor. Adjust the curry to your own tastebuds. We found a tablespoon to be a very mild curry flavor, and we added a little less than 1/4 tsp hot curry powder for a hint of heat. We also sprinkled bacon bits on top because everything is better with bacon.

Only how many more shopping days??

Schnikes, where did the days go? I don't know about your neck of the woods but the malls here are packed, economy recession be damned. Just the thought of having to go out and maneuver through the crowds makes me feel anxious. Oh, how I love the online. But even my beloved interwebs tell me that I only have XXX more days! Hurry!

Actually, I am almost done. I do plan on going out this weekend to finish up, but with small exceptions most of my stuff is in the mail or about to be. Just a few more tidbits to get done. I just hope I can get it all done by Sunday.

Today I had to do a presentation to the other sonographers at work, and the Seattle U student had to do some as well. She did so much better than me, but I don't really mind that much because they're not graded and I'm just glad to get it over with. I did my first pair of testicles yesterday! Wow..they were kinda just like the thyroid. Um, not. They all lied to me. But at least the first is done and now I won't be so nervous.

Also working on perfecting the TV exam this week. No, not television, for I would ace that. I'm talking the Transvaginal pelvic exam. Today when I did the first one on my own, I held the transducer upside down. No wonder the uterus looked backwards! The second one went much better :-)

Good to know you're not alone

Friday was the first CCD (Clinical Consortium Day) since we started clinical studies, and the first time I've had to reconnect with my classmates. It was so good to see everyone and to hear the stories they had from their clinical assigments. Some people are just flying by and some are struggling, and everyone could relate to the horror stories that each of us told. It was so good to see everyone again, I missed them all a lot. We met at 6:30 for breakfast and talking because we knew we wouldn't have that much time during the actual program to chat.

Friday night we had ice cream cake and pizza and Kelsey had some friends over to celebrate her 17th birthday. She opened presents that night and then on Saturday night we went to the Melting Pot, as per her request. We took Ayla and Chloe with us as well, and had a great time. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I would have liked because I woke up Saturday with a wicked headache that actually made me vomit a couple of times in the morning, and then kept me in bed until after 2:00 that afternoon. I was still fighting it off this morning but if did finally go away mid-morning.

Just in time for us to take a walk down to the fruit stand and pick up our Christmas tree. I think it's a perfect size and the girls decorated it quite nicely while Jay and I were at the grocery store. After we got all the stuff put away, we went out front to string lights around the front trees. It all looks very pretty, and is the first year we have had a tree since the first year we moved to Seattle. We'll miss everybody at Christmas, but I am looking forward to a quiet relaxing Christmas this year instead of the traveling we usually do.

I'm off tomorrow and I have to bake cookies for a cookie exchange at work on Tuesday, and I have to finish some presentations I have to make on Wednesday, and I also have to go to the post office and send some stuff that we sold on Amazon, and here it's almost 3:00 am and I'm not the least bit tired..and I'm quite afraid I'll sleep the day away tomorrow and not get anything done that I wanted to do. So I should probably try to go to sleep now that I've updated :-)

Thanksgiving and stuff

Lovely Thanksgiving meal. 6 pm, Turkey, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, carrots, broccoli casserole, rolls, stuffing (2 kinds!), gravy, cranberry sauce (2 kinds!), pumpkin pie, apple pie, dessert cheese, whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, and much wine. Followed by Rock Band (1 & 2!), Scene It, and Left 4 Dead. No poker, but close :-)

We ate Thanksgiving dinner until Sunday.

It was nice having 5 days off last week, and hard to go back to work on Monday. This week has been pretty good so far though. I did about 5 baby heads almost all the way through on Monday, and today I did a renal and an OB complete exam all by myself, and my CI said I did a really good job. I'm feeling pretty good about scanning these days. My BCC instructor is meeting with my CI next week, and hopefully that will go well.

Megan is anxiously awaiting Friday when her school is done for the quarter, and then she has off almost a whole month! Kelsey is anxiously awaiting her 17th birthday, and dinner at the Melting Pot followed by a sleepover. I'm anxiously awaiting Friday and CCD day at school when I get to see all my classmates for the first time since we split up in September. Jason is anxiously awaiting the return of his XBox, which should be home from the XBox hospital tomorrow.

I made the girls reservations to go back to Harrisburg over Spring Break. They will get to fly right into Harrisburg this time, instead of having to go to Baltimore or Philadelphia, so that's a definite plus. The flights are pretty sucky though, but maybe they'll have a schedule change before then.

Happy Birthday Brittini!

Now I know why the bread is always missing

The Closest I Ever Want To Be

Today Jason and Kelsey and I went to the Southcenter Mall to shop for shoes for Jason. We'd never been there before, and it's down near the airport so not close by, but a friend at work said it was pretty nice and had lots of stores, so we decided to try it out.

Jay bought his shoes, we went to Borders and got some books and about 3:00 we were kind of ready to go so we wandered out to the car and took off.

At 3:45, THIS happened.

Holy crap! Turns out the people that were in the mall were like detained and locked down for hours until they were able to leave, not to mention the running and chaos inside.

Thank you Kelsey for being bored and ready to leave, because if you weren't there, I so would have still been in the mall when the shooting happened. Even though it's not like a maniac was loose and shooting up strangers, it's still pretty scary to think about being in a situation like that. I think we'll stick to the malls closer to home from now on!

Sunday eatin'

Since I've started clinicals, we find that we don't have the opportunity to eat together as a family like we're used to doing. We don't get home until 7 pm if Jay picks me up, and I don't get home until 7:30 if I have to take the bus. By that time, Megan is usually either at work or gone out, and Kelsey is about ready for bed.

So we decided that we would go out on Sundays as a family and have either breakfast, lunch or early dinner. We're not setting a time because that's too much pressure so we just let everybody get up when they want and get ready and then we head out. We're taking turns picking the restaurant, with the one rule being that it has to be someplace we have never been to before. That way we get to spend time together and we also get to try the many restaurants available in Seattle instead of eating at the same place over and over again.

Today was my turn, and I picked Lowell's restaurant, which is in Pike Place Market. They have three stories to choose from and the windows face the sound for a great view. Once we got there though, we wound up sitting on the opposite side, on the second story, which overlooked the market proper. It was actually pretty cool because we got to sit there and watch all the people shopping in the market below. I thought it would be a place that Mom would probably enjoy sitting at all day just to watch the comings and goings below us.

After we ate, we went grocery shopping, which is our other Sunday thing to do. I did great today, spending $70 at Albertsons but saving over $100! That was an awesome percentage, and included 15 pounds of boneless chicken breasts too. Then we went to Safeway and got the .27 per pound turkey for spending over $25, so I picked up a 20 pound bird for a little over $5. Albertson's also had this awesome sale where you buy one Sara Lee pie and you get a second pie and 2 quarts of Breyer's Ice Cream for free, so the turkey and the dessert is all taken care of for Thanksgiving :-) Now I just have to work on the side dishes, and we're all ready to feast!

Doctors for all

Zac had to go to the vet today because he's been having some moving problems lately. He won't walk up the stairs, he makes us carry him. He won't jump on the couch, but instead kind of pulls himself up with his front legs. When we take him for a walk he both cries and runs at the same time. Kind of pathetic. So I took him in today and he had a physical and some x-rays and they found....nothing. His spine looks great, he's at a good weight, finally. He's actually down to 38.5 pounds, and that's from 54 his last time at the vet, and 62 pounds from when we left PA. He even weighs less now than when we first got him! But the vet says he's at a good weight for his size, and he actually took some "human" years off. He's classified as an adult, and about 51 based on size and age. But anyway, nothing wrong and the vet gave me some muscle relaxers for him to take just in case it's some kind of muscle spasm that's causing him discomfort. I'm relieved it wasn't anything serious but at the same time a little upset that we came away with no answers.

Megan spent some time at the doctor today too. She already had an appointment for a cough she can't get rid of, but before her appointment she fell down the stairs at school and seriously hurt her arm. She went in for x-rays and may have a tiny fracture, so her arm is all wrapped up and her back is all scraped up and bruised, and she's feeling pretty sore.

The rest of my day was my ChaCha day. I usually work the ChaCha thang on Fridays since I don't have to go into the hospital and can pretty much spend all day on the computer. Generally I answer over 300 questions on Fridays and that's with lots of breaks. But today was bad, and I only got in about 150.

Seems like they've initiated a 20 question limit on their users, and it seems to have slowed down the questions considerably. But there were also lots of technical issues with their servers today and I'm hoping it was the technical issues that caused the slowness because that can be fixed. If the traffic is slowed because of the question limit, that doesn't bode well for my future income potential :-(. Oh well. I still made over $480 so far for the last three weeks, and that will at least pay for Zac's vet appointment today!

Sea Change

The word of the day. Election night, and it's looking blue - Obama blue! The whole family here in Washington has been glued to the results coverage. Except for the CNN coverage and the beaming of the holograms and stuff...WTH? Thank god that 8 years of Bush is almost over, and we're looking to make history. It's almost exciting enough to make a girl want to blog!

So, it's been a while. Needless to say I've been super busy and have neglected my blogging duties. I'll try to be better in the future, but clinicals kind of wipe me out. I've been struggling in the real life scanning arena, but I think I'm turning a corner. At least I feel better about it. I have a really hard site - supposedly with the highest standards of all the sites we use. The girl that was there last year, and graduated in August says that site on my resume will definitely be a plus. But it's tough, and I won't lie - there have been tears. I keep telling Jason to buck up, it'll be fine, but he's so emotional :-) Ha. In truth, Jay has been extremely supportive and even has let me practice my scanning on him after hours.

He's busy too, working on lots of deadlines. Also, Fallout 3 came out last week so that keeps him busy when he's not working. Looks like our XBox isn't up to snuff though and we have to do something to it to keep it from crashing all the time. In the meantime, he's borrowed one from work so he can keep playing. One of the benefits of working for a game company.

Megan is working hard, and doing well in school still. She has a new boyfriend who seems like a really nice guy. They cohosted a Halloween party at his house last weekend. She went as Little Red Riding Hood and looked really cute.

Kelsey had her own little Halloween party with three friends, who all slept over and watched scary movies and ate junk and fed the 6 trick-or-treaters that we got this year. Jay and I went to dinner with Simon and Darci and then to see Zack and Miri at the movies so we would stay out of the way of Kelsey's moviethon.

Oh, and our wine and cheese party was totally awesome and we had a great time. We had plenty of wine, plenty of cheese, lots of good food and a nice little group of guests. It was tons o' fun and we got lots of great compliments on it. But now we've settled in to the start of a Seattle winter, a little cold, a bit wet, and early dark. I should have plenty more time to blog now, though, right?

I'm with Stupid

Officially the end of the 4th week of my internship and I feel dumber every day. Every single person is different than the last, so it's like getting totally reoriented to something new every hour. The only thing I think I have down pat are the procedures, the paracentesis in particular because we do a lot of them. That's the only thing that I can actually scan by myself because it's just 5 or 6 pictures.

Even today, I scanned a patient to rule out ascites, and I had to scan the patient's bladder. I see this round thing in the middle of the bladder and I'm thinking "holy cow, this guy has a big cyst!" I'm wondering if I should measure it, when my CI comes in and says that's a foley catheter. Duh.

I think I'm getting just a teensy bit better though - I'm certainly scanning a lot more each day. They let me start the exams on my own now, and then they come in after about 10 minutes to finish up. The good thing is they can watch me on the monitors so if I'm really struggling they can come in right away.

So, tonight Jay and I were watching House Hunters because we not only enjoy the show, but tonight's was about Seattle so we were anxious to see what neighborhoods they showed. At the very end of the show the couple who bought the house were having a party and announced they were pregnant, and then the camera shows all of their friends who were there celebrating....and holy crap! It was Darci! A quick stop, rewind, pause...and there she was, no mistaking it. So of course we had to call her right away to tell her we saw her on TV. She's like..oh yeah! House Hunters! She wanted to know if she looked fat :-)

That was cool...a totally unexpected sighting of someone you know on your TV. How often does that happen?

Unexpected Moolah

So last Friday I was fooling around on Amazon Marketplace, kind of wondering how it worked and what the fees were and stuff for selling books. I put in one of my old textbooks and set up my account and did all the stuff they wanted me to do, but for some reason the credit card I chose to pay the Amazon fees was an old one. It didn't work and they popped up a message saying I needed a valid credit card. Since my wallet was ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE ROOM, I just exited out of it and totally forgot about it.

Until today, when I got an email saying my book had sold. Hmmmm....okay. So I get $50 after Amazon's totally unreasonable fees and after I put in a valid credit card to pay said fees. Still, more than I paid for it so yay. Maybe all those failing banks and mortgage companies should start going through their office and selling stuff. Oh yeah...they're selling themselves.

Hawaii already?

This weekend was taken up by two things for me, and by two things for Jason. For both of us it was Book Sale time again so me, Jay, Kelsey and Ayla worked the Saturday 9-1 shift and Kelsey and Ayla worked again today 11 - 4. This was my first time working strictly as a volunteer and not in charge of the volunteers, so it was fun for me...all I had to do was count books. The hours flew by since when I got my first customer about 20 minutes after the doors opened, I never stopped until I left at 1:00. Jason did his usual bulk counting job (once you do something one time, you really get pigeon-holed at the Book Sale), and moving boxes when there wasn't bulk counting to be done. Kelsey and Ayla counted today, but yesterday spent their time directing the line to the proper check out person.

After the sale, Kelsey's friend Chloe came over to work on their Physics project, and this is where Jason spent the rest of his time. I'm not exactly sure what they were trying to accomplish - I thought they were supposed to make a clock but not use any electricity or batteries to do so. But what they wound up with was some type of water wheel doohickey that pushes a wheel with spokes made of halves of credit cards. The water turns the wheel and then after that, I don't know what it does.

We tried to contact Jonathan for advice yesterday, but he was busy swimming and hiking and biking and generally being much more active than anyone has a right to be on the weekend.

I spent the rest of my weekend working on finding accomodations in Kauai for 16 - 18 people over the course of two weeks next August. Yeah, it's early. But I'm not one for last minute stuff if I can help it, plus I needed to jump on the award tickets through Alaska Air. Hours and hours of searching through rental web pages and craigslist and TripAdvisor and I came up with an awesome house that's fairly close to the beach and has a pool and tons of space for everyone. So I booked it today and now we're all set on housing. I think I'll stop the planning for a while, because frankly it's making me not quite as excited to go anymore :-) Kidding, still excited. Just a little sick of it right now.

Kelsey hits the college fair downtown tomorrow. She likes to prepare early too, bless her little ready for college heart. I'm awfully excited for her, and for Megan to start at UW as a junior hopefully next fall.

Tonight - The Amazing Race!

Good Karma

Today I was reading about an organization called Modest Needs. This organization takes requests or petitions from people who needs just a little hand up...not huge amounts, but maybe a utility bill paid or a month's rent or new tires for the car or something that they just can't cover. The Modest Needs organization does vetting on each request to make sure it's legit, and then they post it to their website.

When you donate to Modest Needs, you can pick where you'd like your money to go. You get "points" for your donation amount, and you can allocate those points to one or multiple requests. Most of these people are living below poverty level and are one step away from losing their job or their house or their car, and are looking for just a small bridge to get them over the hump.

Anyway, we think it's an awesome organization and we like the idea that our money goes directly to the creditor the person owes, so we know the money is going directly the cause we think it is. You can do a one time donation online, or you can send a check, or you can even sign up for a monthly pledge like we did, and that way they double your points with a matching funds grant - so your money goes twice as far!

I'm particularly impressed with this organization because I know several people who have been in this situation, where they just need a little help until their next paycheck kicks in or until their new job starts. And sometimes just a little help is all that is needed to get somebody back on track for good. So dheck them out - maybe you know somebody who could use this organization, or maybe you might want to make a small donation yourself. Everyone can use some good karma!

First Day is Done

My first clinical day is officially over and I can stop being nervous. Actually, I think it went really well. I worked with a girl named Leigh who was a real sweetheart and the day was not overwhelming - we only had 5 or 6 exams scheduled, I forget exactly how many. It seemed to go rather smoothly with no big problems coming up. The rest of the girls seem nice and we got to talk a little at the end of the day since the last patient went home by 5:30 and most people were working until 6:30.

I got up early and made dinner in the crockpot for Kelsey and Megan, then Jay and I drove in together which worked out great. I got in at 7:45 so lots of time to spare. I get $6 a day in the cafeteria so I don't have to worry about packing my lunch. Picked up almost right at 6:30 and with the light traffic on the way home we were back by like 6:45.

I saw a couple of renal exams today and also 3 or 4 OB exams at varying stages including some transvaginal exams which were interesting since they were my first. I won't get to scan this week but should be able to scan some kidneys next week. I'm going to read up on the protocol for that but it seems pretty straight forward. The setup at the hospital is pretty cool, and more high tech than where I job shadowed. Where the old place used to record exams on VCRs and take pictures which they would then show the radiologists, at Swedish everything is digital and real time. Images are saved automatically with the patients file, and the radiologists suite has a bank of monitors where they can watch each exam as it is occurring. When the sonographer goes over the exam with the radiologist when it's over, they have two big monitors there will all the exam pictures on them which they can just page through and zoom in on things and really get a good feel for the exam. That's just so cool and so much better than VCR and pictures! There are 6 exam rooms and they use 2 types of machines, neither of which I have used before but I got to practice on both of them a little bit today to get used to where the controls are before I actually start scanning.

I'm just glad the first day is over! Only a year to go!

Unexpected Free Things

The neighbors across the street were having a yard sale today. Of course, I'm nosey and I see a bunch of people in the driveway so I wandered over to see what goodies they have.

Nothing much caught my eye except for a string of lights with cool little tin shades. I think, "that'll look great on the porch, very festive." So I buy all three of them and take my treasure home. Unfortunately, upon closer inspection, one of the strings is missing 3 of the little tins so I took it back over to get my money back on that one. While I'm there, Jay joins me unexpectedly....no doubt to see what kind of crap I'm bringing home this time. Turns out we get into quite a conversation with the two neighbors Wayne and Richard because Richard is from right outside Pittsburgh and we all start talking about "back East" and then about all the other neighbors and the houses and whose house looks good and whose house looks like crap and what happened to that old lady across the street and do the busses make our house shake too? They were super nice, and then it turns out that Wayne sells custom made honeycomb cellular blinds and he has a whole bunch of them that people changed their mind on, so he says whatever we want we can just take. We took two small ones for the side windows in the living room, a bigger one for the other side of the living room and one for the skylight in the upstairs loft.

These blinds are awesome! At the MINIMUM it would have cost us over $50 each just for the small ones. And not only does he give them to us for free, but he came over to install them too!

We put the lights up on the porch and it looks great. We're having a small wine and cheese tasting party next month and the porch will be a nice place to hang out for the smokers, especially once I put a bunch of candles out there.

Lights on the porch. We continue to become Seattle.

The pictures give some idea of what it looks like, but it's not the greatest. Pay no attention to the dead flowers.

The Littlest Weiler

Aidan Nicholas Weiler has appeared. Weighing in at 6 lbs 15 oz and 19 inches long according to his dad. What a cutie! Apparently a long labor, so way to go Susan. The Weiler testosterone fest lives on...much to my surprise because I was almost 100% sure Susan was carrying a girl. I guess I need more practice reading those ultrasounds :-)

Anyway, congratulations Susan and John and we cannot WAIT to meet him!

Shots and Shots

I thought I was all done with vaccinations, but apparently not. I had to prove MMR vaccinations and all I could get was one from UW that showed a positive titer for mumps from 2005. I have no idea why they didn't test for Measles and Rubella, but no such luck. So I went to my doctor before NZ and got a titer for the three all over again.

Turns out when I get the results that I tested positive for the antibodies for Measles and Rubella, but NOT Mumps. I got an "equivocal" reading, which means I may or may not have the antibody, but the results were too low to say for sure. So now I have to go get the whole bloody series done. Which will interfere with my TB testing too, because I have to wait for 30 days after my second MMR to get the second TB test, and I have to wait for 30 days after the first MMR to get the second MMR, which means the second TB test won't happen for 60 days.

Fortunately, this doesn't mean I can't start on the 15th. I have to have the 1st TB by then (done, got it yesterday) and I have to have the 1st MMR by then, which I scheduled for tomorrow. As long as I remember to follow up with the second MMR and then the second TB, I can still do the internship at Swedish. Cripes. I feel kind of caught off guard by all of this, since I turned all my stuff into the school LAST September, and they never told me I might have a problem with any of this. I assumed I had all the immunization records I would need.

Moral of the story (especially for those with young children), keep those immunization records somewhere safe forever! It's a royal pain to have to prove that you've had them and then have to re-do all this stuff later if needed.

Thank goodness I can still start though. I don't know what I would have done if they would have said I couldn't start until 30 or 50 days!

Kelsey's first day was yesterday and she seemed to do pretty well....at least she didn't complain too much about the classes or the teachers. It's too bad they have to be in school this week when it's so very nice outside. Megan starts in a few weeks, but she's busy with work and stuff right now. Looks like she might get a promotion at work to second shift supervisor, which would be pretty cool with a nice raise. She's a little worried about the classes she has coming up because they look pretty intense, but I have no doubt she'll be able to handle it just fine. By the way, Megan would like to remind everyone that she is updating her blog fairly regularly, so drop by and find out what she's writing about!

Susan is in labor, so we're all anxiously awaiting word about the newest Weiler. Hopefully it will be soon!

We're finally home

Wow what a long day back. We took a 767 this time instead of a 747 and you can really tell the difference. There was zero leg room between seats, and sleeping was nigh impossible. Then customs in LA, and a 4 hour wait for our next flight to Seattle. How great it is to be home! We had a great trip, and we have lots of fantastic memories, but it's so nice to be back with the girls and the dogs and have coffee again!

I'm working on getting all of our pics into a Picasa web album, but here are some of our favorites, in no particular order -

Caving in Waitomo



The rolling hills of the Hobbiton sheep farm




60 million sheep - no, I'm not making that up



The Hangi with Jonathan as our chief



Tangariro National Park and "Mt. Doom"



The scenery all over the place



And Pippa!

Black Water Rafting and Home

Yesterday was our Black Water Rafting trip through Waitomo Caves. This was probably the most adventurous thing yet, and getting into a wetsuit was every bit as humiliating as I had imagined it would be.

Waitomo Caves is about an hour southeast of Hamilton. The day started out gray and drizzly, so it was perfect that we had planned an indoor and underground activity for the day. After dropping off Pippa at the neighbors we headed out for Waitomo.

We got there with plenty of time to spare - we had booked the 11 am trip and we arrived shortly after 10. We signed some waiver forms and waited with the rest of the 8 people in our group. Turns out it was good we booked early because they had 5 people that were on the waitlist for this trip. So after everyone was together, the guides took us down to the changing rooms and explained how to get into the wetsuits. When we were all suited up (don't worry, pics are coming), we hopped in a van and rode to the caving site. Here we had a quick lesson in using the rope for our abseil descent into the caves, then it was right to it. First was the abseil, where we used the rope to descend about 100 feet into the cave. We had to squeeze through a kind of tight space right in the middle, but it didn't last long and I got through just fine.




When we got to the bottom we walked for a bit until we got to the flying fox, which was like a zipline except in the pitch dark. That was fun. Then we got our harnesses removed and were given an inner tube which we had to hold onto our butt and jump into the river below. Even though Megan and Kelsey didn't think I'd be able to do that without the tube escaping, I managed quite well. The surprising bit to me was that we went under water when we jumped from the pressure of the drop, and DAMN that water was COLD! Here's someone jumping, and I think it might be Jonathan:



Then we used a rope line to move ourselves through the water and we had various times of swimming, walking, tubing, going down waterfalls, walking up waterfalls and general caving stuff. When we came out we had hot showers, tomato soup and bagels. All in all, we were done in about 5 hours total, about 3 of which we had spent underground. It was lots of fun and a very memorable experience.

We got home last night tired and hungry so we went to Valentine's for our last dinner here...which was not our first choice. We were going to go to this restaurant called Hydro which was recommended in the guidebooks and was said to get very busy Saturday nights. However when we showed up at the ungodly hour of 6:45 pm, the restaurant was closed. It's tough to eat out in Hamilton, choices seem mostly fast food like KFC or McDonalds or other local Takeaway places, but actual sit down restaurants are few. So when we spotted Valentines, open and actually full, we jumped. Turns out it's a pricey buffet restaurant with mediocre food but plenty of it. Although normally they only do two seatings a night, like a cruise, they let us squeeze in the first seating that was halfway over. The only downside to this was that they don't apparently replenish dishes until the next seating so we missed out on some stuff :-)

Today we're up early and heading to Auckland to bum around before our flight. We've had a lovely time and New Zealand is every bit as scenic and beaufiful as promised. The people we've met have been friendly and wonderful to talk to, and it's been great seeing Jonathan. Jay and I are both ready to get home though I think and see the girls and the beagles and our own lovely city for the last of the summer. I'll post lots of pics when we get home, but it takes so long here just to upload one that you're lucky you got that one! Next post from the states.

Tongariro National Park, Hobbiton, and Rotorua

Wednesday we got up bright and early to make the 3 hour drive to Tongariro National Park. This is supposed to be the best one day trek in New Zealand and in the top 10 of the world. Unfortunately, it's winter here, and the one day trek across the mountain turns into more than one day, and suddenly you need all manner of special equipment and a guide and everything, so we did not do that.

Instead, we opted for the one trail that was open - a 2 hour trek to Tanaki Falls and back. Of course, I'm sick now with Jason's cold, so this was going to be rough going, but we put on our winter gear (yay Sorel boots) and off we went. Turns out that the day was absolutely gorgeous, so within 10 minutes I had divested myself of hat, scarf, gloves, and fleece jacket. I pushed ahead of Jonathan and Jason since they were actually enjoying the view and taking pictures while I just wanted to finish. Jason has taken more than 1400 pictures so far! We have to edit, but the scenery here is just so beautiful that it's hard to know what to stop taking pictures of!

Anyway, we had a great day hiking on the mountains over the snow and slush covered trails, and got back after dark to Pippa and thankfully bed (for me anyway) where I tossed and turned all night trying to breath.

This morning we got up early again to start out for Rotorua. On the way we did the Hobbiton Movieset tour. This is the only place left in New Zealand where any of the Lord of the Rings sets still exist. There are 17 of the original 34 Hobbit holes still there, including Bilbo's house, Bag End. The farm that they filmed this on is breathtaking. There is literally nothing around it except rolling hills and valleys and streams and sheep and it looks like a painting from all directions. Another beautiful day too, with a blue sky and shining sun. The movie tour was fun and afterwards we watched a sheep shearing and then took off for Rotorua.

Here we went to the geothermal spa first, where I had a mudbath soak, then a sulphur spring soak, and then a massage while the boys toured the park and made wood carvings. Then we all went to a traditional Hangi concert and dinner by the Maori people (which is kind of like a Hawaiian luau) and that was really fun. They needed one of the tourists to act as the Chief of our "tribe" and that person was Jonathan! So we got the benefit of being the chieftan's family, and we got front row seats to the show to watch Jonathan accept the peace offering from the tribal warriors and then he gave a speech. It was pretty awesome and we all had a great time. Dinner was fantastic, having all been cooked underground in a steaming pit for about 5 hours.

Now we're at the Cactus Jack Backpackers for the night....our first time in a hostel type place. (That's hostel as in youth, not hostile as in takeover). Tomorrow we're gong to try to go to Taupo and kayak through the Maori carvings on the lake. It should be another awesome day. I hope I can breathe a little better by then.

More later, with pictures probably not until we get home. Internet is tough here in En Zed.

Greetings from Waikato University

Okay, we're in New Zealand. I'll update everybody on the events so far.

Our trip to LA was pretty uneventful, and was in fact one of the smoothest flights I've ever taken. Huzzah for Alaska Airlines. We arrived right on time in LAX and began to seek out the International Terminal.

What a process that was. When we got off the plane in LA, there was absolutely not one sign that pointed the way to the International Terminal and we had to ask no less than 3 people how to get there. Eventually found our way to a parking garage where we had to go down to level 3 and then make our way to this cross walk that was kind of tied in with the parking arms to get into the terminal and still no great signage. Once in, we had to go through security again, but there was only like 2 people ahead of us so it went very quickly. The terminal itself was quite empty with only one small cafe open with premade sandwiches and salads, and one small magazine shop to be had. We spent a little over 3 hours there before boarding the gigantic 747-300 series for our 12 hour flight to Auckland.

We were in the way back, row 70 J&K, which was a two person row. The plane was only about 75% full, so as soon as the plane took off and the seatbelt sign was turned off, there was a mad dash for empty rows and prime laying down space. We weren't fast enough, so were stuck in our little two person seats. After a dinner of chicken cacciatore and salmon, we each watched a movie and then fitfully slept for the next 8-9 hours, had breakfast, and endured pretty horrible turbulance for our last hour into Auckland.

Where it was POURING. Like, really bad. So when Jonathan picked us up we went right away to indoor activities. Sky City for breakfast, and a really quick trip to the casino where I won $9! On to the aquarium, and then to the museum. On the way into the museum, Jason and I both had our umbrellas broken by a huge gust of wind that just snapped the things in half. Right inside the museum door was a large container filled with other broken umbrellas so we deposited ours there with the others.

We finished with the museum around 12:30 or so, and rode back to Hamilton to rest up at Jonathan's house. It took about 1.5 hours to get there, and we got a tour of the place, met Pippa the dog, and deposited our bags in the master bedroom. Rested a bit, and then Jonathan and Jason went to the grocery store and then to play soccer while I took a shower and hung out with Pippa at the house. Bed by 10, and a good night's sleep and we were ready to go the next morning.

Today we have spent all day at Waikato University, where Jonathan teaches. He had to be here to teach a lab for 3 hours today so Jay and I explored the university while Jonathan worked, then we all went to lunch at a little cafe nearby and came back so that Jason can help Jonathan work on a computer issue. I can see the twon of Hamilton from where I'm sitting now, tantalizingly close and yet too far to walk to. The skies are gray but it's actually not that cool out and at least it's not raining.

So that's it so far...we haven't seem much of the country except what we passed through to get from Auckland to Hamilton which was mostly full of sheep. Most of our activities will be scheduled for Wed - Sat, when Jonathan has off completely. I will post more later when we have some better pictures to go with it!

Off to Down Under

We're off in about 3 hours. We fly to LAX and then we have a 3.5 hour layover there, then our big 12 hour flight to Auckland. We're in row 70 on the Qantas flight, which is a two person row so Jay will get the aisle and I'll get to snuggle up to the window where I hope to sleep for most of the flight.

Our bags are all packed, including one that's just chock full of Jonathan's stuff...10 cans of gatorade powder, 6 cannisters of Crystal Light, batteries and barbecue sauce. That bag will be nice and empty for the return trip! Then there's a second bag that's just full of winter stuff and a third gigantic bag with the rest of our clothes that will hopefully cover all manner of weather.

Jonathan will meet us outside customs at Auckland, or else he'll be in the McDonalds. Either way it will be freakin' early! We're sorry that he has to drive up to pick us up at 5 am, but if we have to be tired, so does he. Especially since he and Jason are scheduled to play soccer that very night, and nobody should have the advantage.

So we'll probably post more when we're actually IN New Zealand, which won't be until Sunday their time - which I think is Saturday for us, but I'm still confused about that whole thing.

Pictures and random things

First some pictures from PA last week.









There are lots more I hope to get on the gallery soon. This week has mostly been spent so far in getting ready to leave again. On Monday I got my emmissions test done for the Mazda so I could register it, then I went to Swedish to turn in all my volunteer stuff. Turns out I didn't have my Measles or Rubella vaccination OR titer, so I am trying to get an appointment at the lab to get that done before I go. So far, no luck in getting a call back after TWO days!

I took care of paying all the bills that will be due while we're gone, put together the start of the trip journal with the information on all the stuff we want to do while we're there, and pulled out a bunch of winter clothes to pack. Jonathan said the Tongariro Crossing got snow last week, so we'll need some good boots and waterproof pants for that day. And no, we don't plan on trekking to the summit, just some good several hours walks around the national park there. I think anything that requires crampons and an ice axe is definitely out. I still have a bunch of gear from when I did the dogsledding trip so I think I'm well outfitted. Jay's taking mostly ski stuff but we'll pick stuff up there if we need it.

Other than that, we'll need swimwear for the black water caving tour and raincoats for the unpredictable showers...the weather doesn't look very cold for when we're there unless we go higher in elevation, mostly just like Seattle in the late fall and we're used to that.

Today I want to finish getting our stuff together and make sure we have the stuff that Jonathan requested we bring along. The girls are going to Oregon today for a Jack Johnson concert so they won't be back until late and I won't have to worry about making dinner so I can get a lot done today.

Last night was a total battle for Trixie - us versus fleas. She was overrun and miserable last night, so we sprayed her nether regions good with the flea spray and then we put the last bottle of flea-be-gone over her back and that just sent her insane. She wouldn't stop running around and rolling over on her back and rubbing herself on anything she could find, in addition to panting like crazy. We tried to go to bed but she just couldn't keep still and so at 12:30 I got up to bathe her, thnking that maybe the medication was irritating her skin. I soaked her good, lathered her up good, and let her sit like that for about 5 minutes while I paid special attention to her legs and feet. Finally rinsed her off, dried her good with a towel, and the difference was immediate. She went up under the bed and was asleep and quiet the rest of the night. She still looks good today, no sign of the fleas returning yet. Whew.

PA Trip

Holy cow, it's been a while since I updated this. I'm finished with the first year of the program (yay!) and ready to start clinicals on September 15. I'll work 4 days a week, Mon-Thur for 10 hours each day, and it works out great because then Jay and I can drive in together and hopefully drive home together too.

Kelsey and I spent a week in Pennsylvania visiting my family. We kept fairly busy, with trips to Hersheypark, City Island, Memorial Lake, playgrounds, cookouts, shopping, and lots of relatives. We had a great time and got to see everyone, even my cousins Rob and Sue came down from New York, and Kirk and Krispy and family came in from Austin. It was fun but also good to get home again today. We caught a very early flight from Baltimore today, so we were up at 2:30 am to drive down there and I'm feeling pretty tired right now. The first thing I did when I got home was go grocery shopping :-)

I have a couple of days to unpack, do some laundry and repack the winter stuff for New Zealand. I had a moment of panic today when I thought about visas...I KNOW I checked and we didn't need them for New Zealand but for some reason I had this feeling that I read it wrong or something and that we wouldn't have enough time to get them....turns out we don't need them, and everything is cool. Jay said he checked last week too so we must be on the same wavelength about the trip :-). We have our Jonathan bag ready to go with all the stuff he wants from the states that is either too expensive or not available there.

I'll try to post pics tomorrow when I'm more awake. I think I'm probably good for another 45 minutes and then I'm asleep for sure.

Last week!

Well, I'm going into the final week of school. I had my instrumentation final in lab on Wednesday and my advanced OB final last night. We have three more days of classes when we do Patient Care from 9 - 5 and than that's it! I met with my clinical instructor at Swedish Hospital on Wednesday afternooon. She seems pretty nice and the place seems really busy and overwhelming, but I know I'll start out slow so I'm not particular worried - okay well, just a little bit I guess.

Brianna is back home, safe and sound. We all had a good time while she was here. I don't have pictures to post yet, I'm hoping to get some from Megan because I know she took some. While she was here, we went downtown to the Space Needle and Seattle Center to the Bite of Seattle festival - an orgy of food, drink, and music where we all ate way too much. We also went to Pike Place Market and the waterfront, and introduced her to our favorite little donuts. We all went to the outdoor Cinema on the Lawn to see Bring It On, and that was a lot of fun, everybody there was really into it. They had a photo booth set up where you could dress like the cheerleaders from the movie and get your picture taken, so the girls all did that. Finally we went to a Storm game (they won, yay!) and Brianna really enjoyed that since she's so involved in basketball.

The rest of her visit was kind of lazy - it wasn't really all that warm the week she was here, so the girls just hung out at home watching One Tree Hill on DVD. But that was just as fun for them to just be with their cousin. All in all, a good trip I think and we were all sad to see her go back home.

Tomorrow we're going to drive down to Portland for the day. Kelsey and Ayla are going to a concert, so we're just going to make a day of it since we've never been there, take a look around, have some dinner, and come back after the concert is over. Hopefully it will be a nice day and a nice drive.

Clinical Site!

Today Katherine gave us our first rotation clinical assignments. I got Swedish Medical Center at First Hill, which is exactly what I was hoping for :-) I wanted to do Swedish for my first rotation because it's one of the busiest imaging centers in the Northwest, so I will learn a LOT. Plus it's right downtown, and depending on what hours I have to be there, Jay and I might be able to carpool in and then I can take the bus home. How awesome is that?

I'm really nervous about starting clinicals, but really excited too. I'm mostly nervous because there will be such a big break this summer before we start on September 15, and I'm afraid I'll forget all I've learned in the month that I won't have held a transducer in my hand. But I am excited to actually get into the "work" environment even though I won't be getting paid :-). Katherine said we should be starting to scan a little bit by the end of the first week, and scanning through our own exams by the end of the Fall quarter. That seems so fast to me - I just hope I'll be ready.

The girls went to a concert last night and got home tired but having had a good time. Kelsey is downstairs resting right now while Megan is reading on the front porch. We bought tickets to go see the Storm (women's basketball) play while Brianna is here. We always like to go see them, it's a lot of fun and I think more fun than men's basketball. And since we won't have the Sonics anymore after this season, the Storm will be our only basketball choice anyway. Frankly, I'm much happier that it's the Sonics leaving and the Storm staying.

Going to start the turkey burgers for dinner. Later!

Finally summer

I'm writing this blog while sitting on the front porch enjoying an absolutely gorgeous Sunday morning. We've finally hit summer here in Seattle, so each day is blue skies, sunshine, a cool breeze, and a temperate 80 degrees. As I heard someone say yesterday, summer in Seattle is my favorite week of the year.

We redid our porch yesterday. Since we don't really have the funds to landscape the backyard the way we would like, we decided to concentrate on the front of our house. So we got some outdoor rugs for the porch floor, some of those cool solar shades to pull down in the afternoon when the western view bakes us, a couple of new chairs and tables and some cushions and pillows and lots of flowers. I feel like a genteel old southern woman now when I sit out here. All I need is a mint julep. It's so pretty. We worked really hard from when we got up until around 9:30 when we finally got to shower and take the beagles for their promised walk. So today we're going to take it somewhat easy. I have some school work to finish and Jason is going to rig up something to attach our portable grill to the back porch, and we have some grocery shopping to do, but other than that it will be an easy day compared to yesterday. We may even take the beagles to the park if they're good :-)

Next Saturday Brianna is coming so this week I have to work on getting the spare room ready for her. We figured she'd probably sleep with Kelsey most of the time, but we want to have a place for her to get away for a little privacy if she needs it. The girls are so excited for her to get here, and we have all kinds of fun outings planned....outdoor movies at the Space Needle, Pike's Place market, Seattle Center, the dogpark, Greenlake where maybe we'll do some paddleboats, Golden Gardens park - which is the closest we have to a beach here - where hopefully we'll be lucky enough to grab one of the firepits and have a cookout on the beach. I think she'll have lots of fun the 10 days she's here, and we're all looking forward to it.

Happy 4th of July!

Oh my...has it really been almost two weeks since an update? And with so much going on too.

Let's see...I'll just start with random things.

Megan had a baseball fly into her windshield while driving past Greenlake this past Monday. Luckily it didn't come through and she handled it like a champ with no other damages due to her flying off the road in shock. Luckily the Little League coach came out right away and they're going to pay the deductible ($250) and insurance will cover the rest. All Star Auto Glass was already at the house on Tuesday and fixed it right up. Megan is such a magnet for that kind of weird stuff.



I've started my last quarter, and had my first test tonight which went well. It's hard to believe I only have 5 weeks to go, and then I get to actually go and scan on real people. How scary. My carpool friend has volunteered her husband's scrotum for the whole class to practice on. We'll be doing that on Wednesday. It's very kind of him to offer himself up like that, because without him we'd have no practice on testicular scanning, which is apparently something we'll be doing a lot of in the hospital.

Jason and I took a quick ride to Snoqualmie Falls last weekend - it was really hot and quite a hike down to the water. I had no idea that we would actually have to climb over a railing onto the rocks, and I had worn my travel/hiking skirt that day. I wasn't going to do it, but I knew Jay wanted to so I braved it and made it, and it was very cool. The hike back up was a bit rough and I had to stop and rest a couple of times, but it was a nice way to spend the day outside and celebrate summer finally coming to Seattle.

Here's the very clear warning about staying on the boardwalk and off the rocks:



Here's what everybody thought of that:




And here's the falls, with a fisherman:



Jason got a promotion! He'll be leading the new physics team, so he'll be managing about 3 people. I'm very excited for him, and proud that he's doing so well at work. Even though he apparently acts like a big giant grouchy old man, (or crotchety old curmudgeon, take your pick) they do appreciate that he does good work. And he gets a salary bump, which is always welcome, although we have no idea how much. It'll be a grand surprise.

We had our three year anniversary yesterday. We didn't do anything special though, since our trip to New Zealand is like our special birthday, anniversary, Christmas gift to each other for like the next three years. We'll probably go out to dinner at some point but that'll be it.

Speaking of weddings, Jason is headed to Wisconsin on Saturday to go to Ben's wedding. I couldn't go because I have class on Monday and the wedding is on Sunday with no way to get back in time for school. I'm sure he'll have fun though visiting with Ben. It's supposed to be pretty hot in Wisconsin. He'd better pack shorts.

Another random thought, and I know it doesn't matter to any of you...but the car next door has this really annoying car alarm that has been going off EVERY FREAKIN' NIGHT/MORNING for like the last 10 days, and it's driving us crazy. 1:15 am, 4:30 am, 5:45 am, 6:00 am - it's always at least one of those times and most nights/mornings it's two of those times, and why won't the college kid that owns that car disable it or something? I don't know how much longer we can take it. I think we'll have to start leaving passive aggressive notes on his windshield.

Last thing: Jonathan made it to New Zealand and blogging about his year abroad here if anyone is interested. Look for a cameo appearance by us at the end of August!

I Don't Want No Scrubs

Today was the start of summer quarter - last one before clinicals start! It's only 7 weeks, so real short. Lots of lab this quarter so we can get as much scanning time as possible before we have to do it on real patients. Our instructor told us that we have to start wearing scrubs to school, just as if we were in a hospital setting, so Heidi and I went scrub shopping after class. They really do make some cute looking ones! I got two pairs of pants and three tops, and that'll be my outfit three times a week until mid August. Yay, elastic waist pants!

Meg comes home tomorrow - we've missed her. Kelsey was in Aberdeen with her friend most of last week and is enjoying her summer break so far. Jay and I are counting down the days until we go to New Zealand....his boss is actually moving there too, he got a job working for the company that will be doing the new Hobbit movie. Jason is immensely jealous and said we should look into moving there as well. If I didn't have another year of school.......but Kelsey said even though that would be kind of cool, not a lot of bands tour New Zealand so she didn't think she'd be up for that. Looks like we'll stay here a while longer :-)

And to end the day...beagle porn:

Glamping Report

What a great weekend. The weather was absolutely fantastic - really, the first nice weekend we've had this summer. It was warm and sunny and so relaxing. We left the house right on time at noon and were on the road to Anacortes for our 1.5 hour drive to the ferry terminal. Got to the ferry and got in line with all the other mainland people looking for some island fun.


Loaded up the car on the ferry and had a lovely one hour ride across the strait to Friday Harbor. Then it was a mere 10 minute drive or so to the Lakedale resort. Check out our Glamping Tent!




And the view from the front of the tent across the lake to the lodge!


Lovely, isn't it? We made hamburger foil packets for dinner and smores for dessert, courtesy of our cozy fire, and enjoyed some cosmopolitans courtesy of Smirnoff. By the time we were ready to go to bed it was FREEZING! We utilized both the duvets and some blankets and were soon warm and toasty.

One bad thing about camping is the close proximity of neighbors, especially those with young crying children that like to get up at 6:30. However, we managed to block out the cries and sleep until 10:30. We missed the continental breakfast because we slept so late so we used our shower tokens (2 dollars for 5 minutes of hot water), got dressed and headed to town for breakfast. We ate at this cute restaurant right on the water and celebrated my birthday morning with champagne mimosas and a great breakfast in the sun.


The rest of the day we just explored. Drove around the island and just stopped wherever we felt like it...stops included Lime Kiln point, where we watched for whales and saw a lighthouse (and a dolphin and a sea lion, but no whales), then we stopped at the English Camp, where the British were stationed during the 50 year "Pig War" that decided which country the San Juan Islands would belong to (we won!), and finally Roche Harbor. Roche Harbor is on the opposite end of the Island from Friday Harbor and is a really cute quaint little town. We sat on a deck by the marina and had some beers while listening to some live music and watching the boats.



We came back home fairly early on Sunday, since we managed to wake up early enough to catch the breakfast and the 11:00 ferry service back to Anacortes. It was a wonderful birthday weekend and very relaxing.

Oh, and grades - I'm still waiting on one, but it's two A's and two A-'s so far.

One down, Three to go

Vascular final today - absolute killer. Probably one of the hardest tests I've ever taken. I have no idea how I did, but not my best work by far. I'm pretty sure I passed though, and therefore passed the class so I'm not super worried. Just glad it's over. Tomorrow is the Echo final, Wednesday my Pathology final, and Thursday OB/GYN final. I sure hope none of them are as tough as the one I took today. The Echo final won't be bad I think - and our teacher is treating us to pizza after the test is done, and we'll eat while we grade it so we'll know our final grades right away. Cool.

Can't wait until Friday, and off to San Juan Islands!

What a week

The quarter is winding down but the work is definitely getting harder. These past two weeks have been a blur of tests, tests, more tests, and other projects. It was nice having 4 days off for Memorial Day but I spent most of it studying. Okay, we did take Saturday off and enjoyed our super weather, so it wasn't all work. Kelsey got a new mattress set since Memorial Day is apparently the time to buy mattresses. Hers was so old and ripped up I can't believe she was still able to sleep on it. But she says her new one is awesome. Too soft for me though. She just gives me the eye when I ask her if it's too soft for her, so I guess that means it's not.

Meg is doing really well in school still...she got a 96 on her math test the other day! Math! How exciting is that. Both girls are doing so good and we're so proud of them.

So my car went in for the 90k checkup two weeks ago. I specifically asked them to check the struts for me. They did all the stuff that comes with the checkup and tune up and told me that the struts were weak but not leaking and did not need to be done anytime in the near future, but would need done at some point. So we paid around $1200 for the work that they did do, and left. We ordered 4 new tires online because they also told me at the dealership that I needed two new tires, so we decided to replace them all at once. Called after the tires were delivered to the house, and made an appointment to go have them put on. They called later and said that I needed to have my struts replaced immediately, and also a CV boot needed to be replaced right away too because it was cracked. Something they NEVER mentioned when the car was there TWO WEEKS ago!

Total for new struts and new CV boot...$1400. I said to just put the tires on, I was picking up the car. I did some research for a good mechanic in Seattle, and found reviews for this little Japanese man with an auto shop downtown that apparently does everything he can to keep the costs down. So I have an appointment there on June 17. I only have to drive a few more days until then so I'm hoping that nothing major will fall off or fly out of the car before my appointment. I'm crossing my fingers that he'll be able to do the work for less money than the dealer. I really want to keep driving my car for another 7 or 8 years if I can....it's all paid off, and only has 98000 miles on it after 9 years, so I might be able to do it, especially here where the bus is such a great option. I'll keep you all updated, I'm sure everyone is on the edge of their seat to learn the outcome :-)

It's Hot

Yesterday a strange glowing orb appeared in the Seattle sky...one we had not seen for quite a whle. In one day, the complaints in the house went from "I'm cold" to "It's hot in here".

Temps hit 85 for us yesterday, with more of the same forecast today. That's it though, it'll be back down to the mid 60's by Sunday and next week more rain. But we'll enjoy it while we can...we plan to either go to Golden Gardens beach today, or may head down to the University Street Fair to hang out for a while. Yesterday Megan and I took the dogs to the park. Anyone who's been here over the summer knows that on sunny days, Seattleites head outside to lay around like pale fish and soak up some Vitamin D. Here's a picture of one of the local parks, which looks the same as every stray piece of grass available yesterday.



Last week was rough on all of us I think..I had three tests and they were all pretty hard I think. It's a relief not having to worry about tests today. Meg is having a rough time with the no smoking, but she's hanging in there for now. Jay is back to crunch time at work so he's putting in long hours again. Kelsey is just counting down the days until school is over :-(

Mom is having a carotid-to-carotid bypass on Wednesday. They elected not to do any open chest surgery, which I think is a good thing. So they'll just run a bypass from her left carotid artery, which is still working pretty good, to her right carotid artery, and hopefully that will better perfuse her brain and she'll be good to go again. She said yesterday that she's hoping to go home either today or Sunday and then back on Wednesday for the procedure. We'll all think good thoughts.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers (and mothers-to-be) I know! I hope you have a wonderful day today and that you're all spoiled by those around you. I am going to spend my day studying for the three tests I have this week, while my girls have promised to make dinner and (maybe) clean the house. I'm crossing my fingers :-).

Home from Baltimore

NOTE: I do not have any pictures, because we forgot our camera. I know, we're idiots, so sorry.

It was definitely a whirlwind weekend. We got up super early on Thursday morning (3 am!) to catch our 6 am flight to Atlanta, where we met up with Susan and John. The flight to Atlanta was decent because we got exit row seats, plus a two seat row so we were all by ourselves...and Delta has this cool thing now where you have a personal video player for each seat and you can play trivia with the rest of the plane. Jay and I made a decent showing in trivia, never winning but always in the top 5 or so.

After we got to Baltimore, we hit a grocery store and then made dinner for the Weiler clan (Susan, still need that orzo recipe!) and then we hit the RV to sleep. On Friday, Susan and I went to the bridal tea while the Weiler boys went to a railroad museum. The tea was really nice and I think Kristen appreciated the bead ceremony thing we did.

After tea we dropped some people off at their hotel and then went in search of a mall because I forgot to bring my black dress shoes for the weekend. Once we actually found the mall, after a quick trip to Camden Yards (lost), Susan got a dress and I got a pair of shoes in less than 20 minutes. When we got back to the Weilers, Jason had found my black dress shoes in another bag. Bummer - another pair of shoes for no reason :-).

The rehearsal dinner was at the Holiday Inn at the airport, where just about everyone was staying. There were a lot of people there - almost half of the wedding invitees I think. We finally met up with Hugo and Mary there. Mary got her hair done differently and it looked really cute.

Saturday we met picked up Mary and headed to Inner Harbor. It was cloudy and cool when we first got there, and looked like rain - and Kristen had an outdoor wedding planned. After we walked around a bit and had lunch, it turned into a pretty nice day. We dropped Mary off and headed back to the Weiler's to change, and then were ready to go at 3:23 - and then discovered that the wedding was at 4:00. So there was a bit of panic that we were going to be horribly late because we didn't even know how to get to this place. Turns out we got there at 3:45 with plenty of time to spare, as we were actually early compared to most guests. Met up with Grandma Flo, Ron and Gail at the wedding, and that's who we sat with at the reception.

The reception was lots of fun, with tons of swing dancing. We tried, but we were terrible at it so no swing dancing for us. We took advantage of a couple of slow dances but that's about it. There were lots of Kristen and Bob's friends from the dance scene there though, and the band was the Boilermaker Jazz Band, and I guess they're pretty well known in the dance world - so everyone had a great time. We got home around 10:30 or so, chatted with John and Raellen for a few minutes, and went to bed.

Sunday was leavin' day - Susan and John had a pretty early flight, so Mary came by around 9 and we had a huge breakfast at the Weilers. She stayed for a bit then took off to drive back to Pittsburgh. Jay and I enjoyed the sunshine and the quiet for a few hours then Jonathan and some of his friends came to pick us up and take us back to BWI, where we sat with them for awhile and had some lunch. The plane took off at 6, we were back home here at 10:30 and the weekend was over.

Whew, that was a lot to cram into a few days. So glad I don't have school until Wednesday. I'm now going to listen the lecture I missed on Thursday and work on my paper. In my pajamas. Which is how I plan to spend the day.

We're a lot like you

These ads by local insurance company PEMCO are hysterical, because living in the PNW for about three years now, I can recognize almost every one of these profiles. I think we used to be profile #100 but I might be turning into #23 now. Anway, worth a little time to look at if you're bored, and appreciated even more if you've been here.

Not much going on

We finally had a nice day yesterday. The sun was shining, it was about 76 degrees, just all around nice to be outside. I took Megan into the lab at school to practice scanning the abdomen. I think she had fun looking at all of her organs...she certainly seemed surprised at where most of them were located! When we got home we did some yard work and walked to Safeway to get some stuff for dinner, then we watched Ocean's Thirteen. Kind of boring, but that's how we roll.

Today was spent mostly studying, with a trip to the grocery store thrown in. We had awesome savings today, spent $87 and saved $123. We stocked up on hamburger this time around too.

Jay went to an office party on Friday night, a kind of going away thing for someone who is leaving the company. Apparently a couple of coworkers insulted his Paradise Air shirt that he got in Hawaii from the hang gliding place. They told him it was ugly. Ugly! What the?.... He was quite understandably a bit ticked off. I personally think he has much uglier shirts than that one.

I have a couple of tests on Wednesday, and we start a new vascular class tomorrow, but then we're taking off on Thursday morning for Baltimore and Bob and Kristen's wedding. We're looking forward to seeing the family, and really hoping that Mary and Hugo can make it so we can see them too. I'm glad my tests are this week so I don't have to worry about them while I'm gone. I do have a midterm in echocardiography that following Tuesday, but I'll have plenty of study time on the plane.

That's it for the update, and don't say you weren't warned by the title that it wouldn't be too exciting :-)

Happy Birthday Megan

Today is Meg's 23rd birthday....holy cow! I can't believe she's 23! Seems like just yesterday she was a little girl in pigtails and red rhinestone shoes. She wanted me to make her favorite meal for dinner so we had meatloaf and mashed potatoes and rolls and salad, and a birthday cake. Here are some pics of the day to enjoy. First off, Megan and Luke get ready for the salad course:



Kelsey and Ayla goof around:



Seattle hail - in April. Come on!



Meg opens presents after dinner:



Cake time!





All in all, I think it was a pretty good birthday. Even Zac enjoyed it:

Beagles, beagles

Sometimes they're just so cute you have to take many pictures. So I'm sharing some of them with you. The quality isn't great because they're all cell phone pics, but you get the gist.

Zac tends to the really cute pictures.....



....while Trixie is more a camera ham.





Sometimes they're worth all the trouble. Sometimes.