Second lifzzzzz

Yeah, I've been hearing a lot about Second Life lately, so this being a boring rainy Friday night, I thought I'd give it a try. Very unimpressive. On the surface it sounds really cool and fun, but in reality the lag is horrible, the character interface sucks, and it was a real snooze. I did like the flying bit, but the rest is pretty lacking. Maybe I just hit it on a bad night...I might try again if the circumstances all line up right. But then again, I might just take a nap.

Neil Patrick Harris is the latest celebrity to out themselves. Good for him, and double good for all the gay gentlemen out there, because that kid is cuuute. Now if Tom Cruise could only make an honest man of himself :-).

Bad timing

So I heard from my friend Jason the other day...he's in Ft. Collins, CO right now doing his thang. He'll be back in Seattle over Thanksgiving, and he asked if I wanted to go see Bodies with that Friday. However, we will be in Austin then so I don't get to A) see the exhibition or B) see Jason. I could still see the exhibition I guess, even though my very own Jason isn't really into seeing cadavers in various life-like poses. I'm mostly bummed about not seeing my friend Jason, because I haven't seem him since the summer and I miss him.

The Anthropology test today was way easier than I expected it to be. I'm pretty sure I only got a few questions wrong, so I'm expecting an A. The study guide that she passed out for the test was totally bogus, and barely had anything to do with the test. I'll be glad when this quarter is done. Next quarter I'm taking Medical Terminology online, with the same professor that I had for Anatomy, and she was really cool so I'm stoked about that one.

The trainer session was good today....more strength training with some more cardio in between. We almost felt like not eating dinner when we were done...almost I said. Instead, we rested a few minutes, and then had meatloaf muffins and mashed potatoes. Yummy :-)

Rainy Sunday

It was supposed to be nice all this weekend, but it's rainy and overcast today. Good day to study for my midterm on Wednesday.

Yesterday was nice though, and we had a pretty full day. Kelsey and a friend went to the movies - Saw 3 - on Friday afternoon, then a sleepover at our house Friday night. Yesterday we planned to see The Prestige, but thanks to me we went to the wrong theater in Lynnwood, and we couldn't find the one it was actually playing at. So we went to Barnes and Noble and got some books, then we went to JoAnn's and got some quilting thread. We came home and walked the dogs, then Jason took us to his new office since we haven't been there yet. Then we dropped Kelsey and Ayla off at Ayla's boat so Kelsey could spend the night there.

Since Jason and I had a free evening, we decided to do something grown up. We decided to go out for drinks and tapas, and I knew just where I wanted to go. I kept passing this lounge place when driving around the U-district, so we headed there. Except we didn't know exactly where it was. We parked on the Ave, then walked south, then north, then south again, then north again. We could not freakin' find this place. We probably walked for a good 45 minutes, and then we got in the car and drove to where we thought it might be, and lo and behold there it was...we had been less than 50 yards from it on one of our side street excursions, but we just didn't go far enough!

The place was really cool, and we had some drinks (mojitos and buttery nipples :-), and some tapas (spinach and artichoke dip, and a plate with cheese, nuts, and crackers with a variety of spreads). I thought it was called the University Lounge, but turns out it's actually called The District Lounge, so no wonder nobody knew where it was when we asked. We decided that the next time we get a visitor from out of town we'll take them there. Then we came home and watched The Wire on HBO and went to bed.

Today is just a study/work day since it's so icky out. The Halloween Beaglefest is today, but I don't think we're going to go. Although as I'm writing this, the sun is coming out, so who knows....maybe we will. As ever, I'll keep you all posted :-)

Work issues

My computer died at work. It actually died yesterday, when it wouldn't let me on the network at all, and since I do most of my work on network programs, I went home early while they worked on fixing it. Which was good, because it let me study for Anthropology....oh, and make another bag :-)



I won't bore everyone (like there's a lot of readers) with all the pictures, but for anyone that's interested, they're here if you want to see all the angles. I posted them for Meg so she could decide which one she wanted. She went with the red one, which means I get the pink one.

So anyway, today I go back in to work, and my computer has supposed to have been fixed, but I still get the same error, and can't connect to the network. Luckily for me, there's an unused laptop in the server room that they decide to set up. I say luckily because this one is smokin' fast compared to the one I've been using, and I don't feel like bashing my head against the window of my cubicle quite as often. But now I can't get on Internet Explorer. I can use Firefox, which is fine, but I can't use Messenger either which I think is tied in with the IE error, so I'm out of touch with the rest of the office. You'd be laughing right now if you knew how small our office is :-). But I'm also out of touch IM-wise with Jason. No big deal, I can still text message him, but I'm much faster on a keyboard than a cell phone.

All of my recent crafting has injured me. I have lost most of my right thumbnail. Ouch, yes it hurts. And it's damn inconvenient.

Boo-tay

The weekend weather here was beautiful, so we took advantage yesterday and went to Fright Fest at the Six Flags Enchanted Forest. It's about 25 miles south of Seattle, and we went with Kelsey and her friend. The girls had a great time, and so did we - but Jason and I couldn't help but feel the park was a little lacking in the ride department. They had two roller coasters, and the rest of the rides were the kind you might find in a carnival somewhere. We didn't make it to the haunted house because the line was sooooo long. And by 10:30 we were soooo cold. It was fun though, and I'm glad we went.

Today was craft day for me. I finally got all the pieces together to make the Bootie Bag. So this is my first attempt, and since it's not perfect, I'll keep it for myself and make a better one for Meg :-)



I picked the jeans up at the Goodwill in Harrisburg...girls size 5



The handles were the most expensive part, because I bought most of the nice beads from the bead store. The rest of the beads I took off a thrift store necklace.



The inside fabric was stuff I had left over after making bibs for Ripken



I bought the belt at a thrift store here in Seattle

I must say, I love the way it turned out. I can't wait to start another one. But not today, I have to study for a quiz in Anthropology tomorrow.

Sore

Whoa. It's amazing how much your body can hurt when it starts moving. My legs are hurtin' baby. But not as much as they did over the weekend. We had our second session with Mark on Monday. I seriously thought I might puke at the end of it, but only because I was really pushing for the last part of the workout. You know, end strong, give it 110 percent, yada yada.....blaaaaggghh. We found a bunch of workout videos on On Demand which is awesome considering that the Fall is definitely starting here in Seattle, and I hate to walk in the rain.

Sticking to the calorie limit isn't too difficult right now. The hardest thing is not having Pho. I think I might be able to have it for lunch if I have it on the days we workout with Mark, and I don't have breakfast and then I just have something light like Subway for dinner. But I think my favorite lunch, Banh Xeo, is completely out for now. Which might not be a bad thing, because it gives me a little bit of a headache after I eat it. But it's oh so good, and I'll miss it.

I don't get the whole flap about Madonna adopting an African boy. Isn't it better that the boy is going to have a good home and lots of opportunities rather than face a bleak future in an orphanage? If I was an African boy, I'd sure rather be adopted and have a house and clothing and food and college and all that jazz, even if the adoptive parents are a white couple. Maybe I don't see the whole picture because I'm white myself, but I think the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

The Property

Kelsey's friend called her yesterday and asked if she wanted to spend the weekend at "The Property". Apparently, they have a cabin or small house or something like that on a piece of land in Hoodsport, WA. It was just the friend and her mom going, so they invited Kelsey to join them. I'm so glad she's doing more stuff with her friends here. I talked to her this morning and it sounds like they're having a nice relaxing weekend.

I, on the other hand, woke up with a raging headache this morning. Jason woke up with a neck pain so bad he can barely move his head...although his has been getting progressively worse the past few days. So we made an appointment for him to have a massage - he's going to take off in about 45 minutes for that. I remember when Mom tried to find a place for a massage in Harrisburg and all she could find was erotic massage places...Seattle is loaded with massage therapists. So many it seems a miracle that you could go a day without being massaged by someone. Which is fortunate, seeing that we could get Jason a last minute appointment for one.

Oh yeah..the personal trainer. It was great. He made it pretty fun and interesting, and he says he'll switch up the workout everytime so we don't get bored. And we definitely worked...it felt really good to do something besides sit on my butt :-). We're going for a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule, with brisk 30 minute walks on the off days for now. He'll increase our off day stuff as we go, but right now he wants us to get on a daily exercise schedule. Kelsey said she'd walk while she's at The Property. Jason is going to walk with me when he gets back from his massage. It was a great start, and I'm excited to keep going. He also put us each on a 1400 calorie a day diet, and we have to journal every day what we eat. That's the one thing I hate, counting calories. It's such a pain in the ass. But perhaps with diligence, it will be a relatively smaller ass eventually.

Time to get in shape

Stephan said yes to the beagle sitting! What a relief. We're going to give him $20 a day - of course, his mother said that wasn't necessary but I insisted. It is a pretty big obligation after all, especially our December trip.

Speaking of the December trip, I made the reservations at the Sheraton today so we'll have a place to stay, and won't be crowding anyone. Right down the street from Mom, which is excellent, and a gym so Kelsey and I can keep up with our program, which is also excellent.

Today we have our first home visit from our new personal trainer. Kelsey and I will be working with him 3 days a week. He comes to the house and brings everything with him....how cool is that? We're both very excited to start, even though today won't be fun because it's weigh and measure day. He's going to take all of our measurements and work up a plan for us, and he says he does this every 3 - 4 weeks. It's kind of like The Biggest Loser without the embarrassing fact of doing it in front of millions of people on TV. I shall keep everyone informed of our progress, but our goal is to be down 8 - 15 pounds each by Christmas. So now I must go put on my sexy workout outfit (HA!)

Random

Tonight is pot luck night at Kelsey's school. She has a block class the last three classes of the day, where the same students go between Science, Language Arts, and World History. Pot luck will be dinner, dessert, and listening to some student work. We only have to bring drinks - one of the benefits of being towards the end of the alphabet.

Currently waiting for the boy next door to come home from school so I can ask him if he will beagle-sit for us while we're away at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I contacted a "kennel-free" boarding facility, but it's awfully expensive ($55 per day) and will cost us a small fortune at Christmas since we're gone from 12/19 thru 1/1. Everyone cross your fingers that Stephan will say yes.

Started a new quilt this week. Once I start quilting, it's very difficult for me to get used to sitting down without a needle in my hand. This one is a scrappy pinwheel and so far I think it's really nice. Kelsey, as usual, hates it.

Jason has been leaving for work before 7:30 since his office move....yes, folks, that's s-e-v-en-t-h-i-r-t-y. As in, gets up at 6:30. In the morning. His desire for good parking outweighs his desire to sleep until 9. I'm not sure how to take this new pattern of behavior - I'm very confused.

Lost

I'm lost all right - WTF?? A whole new mind game this season.

The Nine - Scott Wolf is the new Dick Clark. He never ages - he's the debil.

Jay has the day off tomorrow while they build his new cube cage. We're going to have Pho for lunch when I get back from the Eastside. Love that vietnamese cuisine.

Stephen Colbert used to be funnier. I think he's had the funny beat out of him by angry Republicans.

Anthropology sucks

Did you ever have a dream where you go to take a test, and when you get there, the test is full of questions on stuff you never heard of before? Yeah...that just happened to me in real life. We had our first quiz in Anthropology today, and I swear that 80 percent of the questions were stuff we had never talked about in class. I'm supposing they were all based on the textbook, but I did read the chapters and I still didn't recall any of the stuff she asked. Not boding well for the grade this quarter.

We went to the RAM for dinner tonight. Celebrating our return to the West Coast, and helping Jason overcome his problem with his new parking assignment at the new building. He's not happy, but it could be worse. At least he got a space, even if it's not covered, or secure, or guaranteed.

Lost starts tonight, in 45 minutes. Can't wait. I think I'll have to go to the spoiler sites to find out what happened.

I'm full, and the coffeepot is beeping, so this update is O-V-E-R. Later!

P.S. Get well Carrie, we're thinking about you

Surprise

Kelsey and I flew out to Seattle on Thursday to surprise my mom for her 65th birthday. We met with Kirk and Ripken in Dallas, and were supposed to continue on to Baltimore. American Airlines had other plans though, and they wound up cancelling the flight after having us sit around for hours waiting for them to fix the navigational computer. Around midnight we called Kris and told her to turn around and go home, and the four of us headed to the Hyatt at the airport for 4 hours of sleep before getting on the next flight at 6:30 the next morning. With the new airline regulations, nobody had any carryone luggage so we had no change of clothes or any makeup or anything the next day.

We finally got to Baltimore at 10:15, but then we had to wait for Kris and Mom because they were late getting there. Kelsey and I hid behind a pillar while Kirk and Ripken met Mom and Kris. When they started moving away towards the garage, we fell in behind them and met up with them at the elevator. Mom looked at us for a few seconds, and you could see it trying to register on her face...was she really seeing this? Finally she realized it was us and there were hugs and tears all around. It was really funny, and very surprising so I guess we pulled it off.

Last night we went to dinnner at Lonestar, just the kids and grandkids and Mom. It was really nice being all together again for a while. We were all so tired though that the evening was pretty short, and everyone went to bed by 10.

I didn't pack enough clothes. Kelsey was right. I need to go get some more.

Wicked

We all went to see Wicked last night at the Paramount theater. The show was great, the sets, costumes, performers were great, and the theater was really cool. The audience in particular was one of the most enthusiastic and appreciative audiences I've ever been part of in a theater setting. It was really fun, and we're going to try to go to some more of the shows coming up this season.

On the school front, I'm not too impressed so far with my Anthropology class or my instructor. I think the subject has the potential to be interesting, but the class itself is a problem because of a couple of really obnoxious guys who think they know everything about everything and constantly interrupt the instructor with what they know about the subject. It's already a 2 hour class, and they make it almost unbearable. The instructor is kind of all over the board anyway, and they don't make it any better. It's only the second week though, so maybe it will get better.

On the Kelsey school front, today one of the counselors took her out of World History and back to the office because he found out somehow that she was working as a TA in the attendance office, and apparently that's not allows for freshmen, so he put her in Independent Living now instead.

Have fun in PA Kirk and Ripken! I'm sure you'll enjoy some cooler weather for a few days. Give Nanny Joan a big kiss from us.

We're back up

The Beaglehaus has been down for a few days...seems we had a power supply breakdown in the server machine. Of course, we didn't notice it for a few days, and nobody mentioned not being able to get on to the website so obviously it wasn't a big loss for anybody. Anyhooo, Jay had a spare power supply (of course he did :-) so he popped that puppy in last night and we were up and running again. Just in time to start taping, since The Office premieres tonight at the same time Survivor is on, so we've gotta have that faux Tivo running.

For those that didn't hear, Kelsey had to get contacts the other day. It appears she has inherited the Neibert vision after all. I thought she might escape it like her sister, but no such luck. She's an old pro at the contact thing already and doesn't seem to have any problems putting them in or taking them out.

We had curriculum night at Roosevelt High last night. Wow, that school is awesome. Kelsey's teachers all seem pretty cool, and her class sizes are really small so she should do really well this year.....like she does every year :-) She's really lucky to have such a leading edge school in which to start high school.

A Beagle in Three Acts

This Little Krissy Went To Market

This is Kris's second day here, and I think we're exhausting her. Yesterday when she got here, I took her to lunch at my favorite Pho place, then we took the dogs for an hour long walk around the neighborhood and through the woods by the house. When Kelsey got home from school we took off for Seattle Center, where we did the whole Space Needle/International Fountain thing. When we got home we had dinner, then Jay and I went to a Freshman 101 class for parents at the high school, while Kelsey and Kris stayed home to watch Big Brother. Kris went to bed right after, poor thing was exhausted.

Today when Kelsey got home we went down to Pike's Place Market to do the tourist thing around there.
It's a little cooler today, but nice for walking around the market. Kris was amazed at the fresh produce, the huge donuts, the King Crab legs, and the crazy people.

Tomorrow we're going to dinner at the Melting Pot. Is it wrong to be so excited about melted foodstuffs? MMMmmmmmm, fondue...*drool*

Now that Vincent's been disposed of on Project Runway, I don't know who to hate. I think I'll turn my energy on Jeffrey. Nobody should have their neck tatooed like that.

Camping recap

The girls and I spent the weekend at the KOA in Leavenworth, WA. Leavenworth is a town in central Washington state that decided in 1965 to "go alpine" and every single thing in town from the gas station to the Safeway to all shops and hotels sport a Bavarian village theme. Very kitschy. Jason would have hated it, but the girls and I had fun.




One shop I loved was called Kris Kringle, and it had this big Halloween display set up. I know Kris would have loved it.



We got to the campground Friday late afternoon, unpacked, and then went for groceries. We spent the night just hanging around, cooking hotdogs and playing games. Saturday we had breakfast at the campground (2 eggs, 2 huge pancakes, sausage, coffee, and OJ for 4.50), then went into town to look around. We went into almost every shop down the main drag. They were really cool and had lots of fun stuff to look at. We were also lucky(!) enough to be there during a quilt festival, so all the different stores had quilts displayed, and then at the end of town the FestHall had a showing of the rest of the quilts. Kelsey and Megan were kind enough to humor me and go into the quilt show with me. It wasn't huge, so we didn't spend a lot of time there. Then we went mini-golfing and headed back to camp because KOA was doing a free hamburger feed. After eating we made a fire and sat around roasing marshmallows for a while before bed.

Sunday we got up early, skipped breakfast, checked out, and headed for our horseback riding reservation. Unfortunately, we didn't have as much fun on the trail ride as we've had on past rides. The trail was horribly rocky and not taken care of very well, Kelsey had a real problem with the saddle on her horse, I got yelled at for trotting (not allowed at this place) and the guide was pretty much of a bitch. She lost all chances for any kind of tip, which started out at $20 and gradually went down to $0 as the ride went on. Too bad we booked the two hour trip instead of the one hour, I think we were all ready to be done before the ride was actually over.

All in all, a fun weekend. If we go again, definitely bringing the beagles because the campground was full of dogs....and so was Leavenworth.

Kris gets here tomorrow and I can't wait!

That's my bag, Baby

I won't comment on Big Brother other than to say I won't be watching the finale. I didn't watch last night either (it's good to be on the west coast!). Instead, I made bags to cheer myself up.

I started with a pattern I saw online, and it looked pretty simple. It was a good way to practice lining and piecing, so I gave it a shot. I'm actually pretty happy with the way it turned out except the opening is a bit on the small side. Jay says that's a good thing, because it'll prevent a lot of crap from going into the bag. Anyways, it'll be more for spring, since it's so pink and flowery:



I put a little pocket on the inside, and used a really pretty green and pink flowered cotten for the lining:



Next, I made a messenger bag for school. I only have one class this quarter, and the messenger bag I was using is really big, so I made one that'll be perfect for holding just a couple of books. Thank God I don't have to lug that Anatomy textbook around this quarter!

The messenger bag was actually pretty easy, because I found a really good pattern on crafster.org. I also had some great fabric that was perfect for the Fall/Winter months. I decided to jazz this bag up by using a belt for a strap instead of making the straps.



I put a little pocket on the front flap to hold my bus pass, and used this egyptian looking stitch around the pocket edges to give it a little flair.



I lined the inside with a cheery yellow/gold color, and put two pockets, one for pens and pencils, and one on the other side for whatever.



Perfect size for my books!



I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I love the belt as strap look. The only thing I might have done differently is used some interfacing on the fabric to give it just a little bit more stiffness, but it's not something I'll stress about because I think it's awesome and I will definitely use it.

Okay, that's it for the bag stuff for a while. I have to go pack now, because the girls and I are going camping this weekend and we're leaving in a few hours. I'm a bit excited because it turns out there's a quilt show where we're going to be, so I'm all over that.

So Crafty

Yesterday I made a bag. It was just a practice bag, I want to try to make a bag for school to carry one or two books, since I have a light quarter this time. So I practiced using the lovely burnt orange tie-dye material that in a fit of madness I bought ten yards of last year. I've already used some of it to start a dog quilt for the back of the car, so I thought I'd use some more to practice.

So, okay, it came out a really weird shape, and I decided it was just right to take videos in when we go back and forth the video store.


So I learned how NOT to do the handles, and I learned a little bit about stitching and gussets, so I will attempt another with the nicer material that I got at the going out of business sale at Hancock's the other week. But not today, because we're going shopping for back to school clothes, just as soon as everybody gets up and dressed. Seeing that it's after 11 am, I hope that will be soon.

Last free weekend

School starts on Tuesday. Kelsey is having a sleepover tonight with a couple of her friends, then she's going to a picnic tomorrow, and then Monday we're going to go school shopping. Why wait until the last minute, right? Appparently, the teachers will tell the kids on the first day of school what kind of school supplies they need, so all she's got right now is a calculator.

Today was hot..hotter than it's been most of the summer. Kelsey and I walked around the track at her school for a while and I was seriously sweating by the time we were done. I actually ran too....a quarter mile! That's right, some serious running going on out here.

Made a meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner, then we dropped the girls off at the movies - John Tucker Must Die - while we went to the bookstore. Apparently, John Tucker does NOT die in this movie. Sorry to be a spoiler.

IF you want to know, use your mouse and highlight below to see Big Brother vital information:

You may or may not already know that Boogie won HOH after the double eviction on Thursday...he put up Janelle and Erika, big surprise. Janelle won POV tonight. Looks like a Boogie, Will, Janelle final 3. I would absolutely love it if Janelle turned it up and kicked out Will, but not bloody likely.