Back to normal

It's so great having Kelsey back here, and things back to normal :-). Tonight we went to Jalisco for dinner, since it's her favorite restaurant. First, we went for a walk around Green Lake, then dinner, then on the way home we noticed that the big chain link fence that had been around the school was gone. So we decided to walk over to the school and check it out.

While we were looking through the windows, Meg tried the door, and it opened........so of course we all went in to check it out. That school is awesome. I think we were all really excited for Kelsey to start there next week.

Now Meg is playing Dead Rising, and Kelsey has gone to bed...at 9 pm! She's still on East Coast time and apparently very tired. I'm just waiting for Project Runway to start. I was crushed when Robert was auf'd last week, keeping my fingers crossed that Vincent gets the pink slip tonight.

Color me happy

She's HHHHOOOOMMMMMEEEE!!!!!
And she looks fabulous :-)

Bummer

I haven't posted for a while because I was really hoping to have good news on a house that we found...but it turns out that our landlords won't let us OUT OF OUR FREAKING LEASE! Pardon me, but I have The Rage. So this weekend was spent touring the house, procuring approval letters from financing, and then our hopes were dashed because we're RENTERS and we have NO RIGHTS.

But then, today Jay's brake light came on, so he'll need new brakes, so maybe it's a silver lining that we didn't get the house, 'cause it was price-eee.

We went to Kelsey's school today to meet with her counselor, because she didn't have a third period class scheduled. They had nuthin'. All electives, taken. And they do some kind of block class thing in the afternoon, so there's no switching those classes around because then it would completely mess up her whole schedule. It turns out that they do have a "TA" (teacher's assistant) position available third period. So Kelsey will be spending third period of the first semester working in the attendance office. Which I think is pretty cool actually. And her school is awesome. They just rebuilt the whole thing, this is the first year they're reopened. It's really, really nice. Here's a few pictures of the new theater, the 3 story library, the football field, the gym, and the student commons:









The oldest child has jumped on the blogging bandwagon...linky link here and to the right, 21 and Invincible. The blogs, they just keep coming.

Jay has these two days off, comp time, for working so hard during crunch period. You'd think he'd have dinner ready for me when I get home from work. You'd think...but you would be wrong. Ahhh..I love him anyway.

Kelsey back tomorrow night. Yippeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

The Good Dentist

My dentist is totally awesome. First off, I can walk there so major points for that. Next, their office is so cool. They have a really great pod system coffee maker with just about any flavor of coffee/tea you would like. They have bowls full of sugarless gum. They have all the most recent entertainment rags. They have a kickass fishbowl/bubble thing built into the wall. They're friendly, they're painless, and they're all good looking.

And then, today, I got a card from them...which I thought would be something reminding me I have to make a follow up appointment. But no, it was a $10 gift card for Starbucks. For referring my husband to them. Wow, now that's really cool. If anyone wants to visit the dentist while you're in Seattle, let me know, I'll refer you :-)

I'm working a buncha hours these next few weeks while my boss is at Burning Man. Actually, she doesn't leave until Saturday, but we've been really busy and she's trying to get stuff caught up before she leaves, so I've been staying more than my 5 hours, and then starting this Friday I'll work full time until she gets back. If she comes back. That Burning Man thing sounds pretty dangerous.

Today's post will end with a sweet helpin' of beagle.

Internet dreaming

Maybe this is a sign that I use the computer too much...

Last night, we woke up to the sounds of the AlphaFemale having a bit of a beagle coughing spell. I think I've heard it described as reverse sneezing. She continued couging and breathing funny for a little bit until the man finally got up and took her downstairs for a drink. When they came back up I had fallen back asleep, but soon she started again. I know I was still on the edge of sleep when I started dreaming about looking up this condition on the internet. My dream google search suggested that I cover her nose with my hand while breathing into her mouth, so I did that..she was laying at the bottom of the bed, I sat up and covered her nose, and blew gently into her mouth.

Holy crap, it worked. She stopped doing that coughing thing and didn't make another noise all night. How bizzare is that.

Snakes on a Plane...at last!

Today we went to see the long awaiting Samuel L. Jackson tour de force...Snakes on a Plane. It so lived up to my expections, and more. Actually, I thought it was not a bad movie at all. Okay, so nobody is winning any Oscars for this, but for pure entertainment value, it was better than some movies I've seen (Jay and Silent Bob, I'm looking at you). The man thought the movie was "horrible...but the good kind of horrible". The older child like it, her fiance didn't. So basically three thumbs up out of four, so unless you're planning on traveling by plane anytime soon, we recommend it for sheer campy fun.



Oh yeah.

The Tooth Fairy Better Carry a Load of Cash

The man had some oral surgery today. Apparently one of his molars was crowding a wisdom tooth and it had to come out. Behold the offender:

Believe me, it's even more disgusting up close. The thing has a hook on it! The only good thing about having your tooth pulled is that you get a prescription for some pretty good drugs. Right now he doesn't seem to need them though. It was pretty rough a couple of hours ago when the novacaine was wearing off, but he toughed it out and now he's playing Brain Age on Nintendo.

Wasn't I happy to see Marcellus leave Big Brother, and have James put up the same night? Oh yes I was. Sorry Mom. It almost made up for Vincent squeaking by yet again on Project Runway last night. What a hack.

Jus' Chillin

It's been a quiet week at beaglehaus. The most exciting thing that's happened this week is that the man bought himself a new toy to replace the one stolen by FREAKIN' HOLLAND AMERICA!!!

Ahem. Anyways, it's a kickass machine, I think. Drool over it here if you wish. Insurance money will pay for some of it, but we'll be kicking in quite a bit too. Hopefully this one will last a while. So now, I officially have the oldest, slowest, smallest laptop in the house. However, mine is a Dell, so it's a horse and works hard for me. I love it just as much as the day I got it :=)

The AlphaFemale has been a bit weird lately. She's had periods of intense hyperactivity where she is obsessed with eating grass and bundles of hair from the corners (gross, I know, but with two beagles it's hard to keep up), and licking the carpet frantically. We can't figure out if she's sick or just outrageously hungry because we've put both dogs on a diet and Zac might be eating all the food before she gets to it. Anyone ever experience this with a dog? What's up?

Just found out Spoon is going to be at Bumbershoot this year. As well as Blondie, Steve Miller band, and Kanye West. Yay! Aren't you people that don't live in Seattle jealous?

Gotta go catch Project Runway...I'm hoping we see the last of that fashion hack Vincent. He sucks.

We've been busy

The older child and I went to the Renaissance Faire on Saturday at Gig Harbor. We were very disappointed....it was much smaller than the PA Ren Faire. Mostly it was just a collection of tents in a field, no permanent structures. Okay, I can forgive that. There was no ATM machine though, and that was a problem because neither of us had brought any cash and the food vendors did not take credit cards. Okay, that was our fault. What was really disappointing though was that the "actors" were not really in character...sure, they dressed the part, but we saw them with cell phones and walkie talkies, heard them use phrases like "right on", and "what do we call you people again? Oh yeah, squires", and they didn't attempt any type of accent to make you feel like you were actually in England. We didn't stay very long, and were very jealous of the younger child who was on that same day attending a class act Ren Faire in Pennsylvania.

Later Saturday night we attended an outdoor showing of Grease in West Seattle. It was free, with popcorn provided, and we had a good time at that. So the day wasn't a total loss after all :-)

Late, late Saturday night I joined the man at a birthday gathering for one of his coworkers. I didn't get there until almost 12:30 am so most of the partiers had either already left or were ready to call it a night. We went to the Starlight lounge for one more nightcap and a round of pierced nipples (which were quite yummy) and then called it a night.

Sunday the man and I went to Vancouver to visit the Capilano Suspension Bridge. It took much longer to get there than we anticipated, because the border crossing took about 40 minutes, then we almost immediately ran into a traffic jam. It was a really beautiful day though, and once we got to the bridge, we really enjoyed it. Took lots of pictures, which are posted in the gallery for your viewing pleasure. We got home around 9, just in time for Deadwood. It was a lovely day, and it was good to have the man to myself for a few hours after this last week of crunch time.

Last thing...the beagles suggest a new linky link. For those interested in the ever fascinating world of Ripken (my quite adorable nephew), you'll want to check out The Neibert Diaries.

UPDATE: I don't hate MySpace so much anymore

I followed Rupert Murdoch's friends list to Jesus (online now!) I take back what I said about hating MySpace. Just reading the comments on Jesus's page was enough to make me forgive you, MySpace. It's good for a laugh when it doesn't take itself so seriously.

I'm going to hell, I know. But this is good stuff anyway :-)

The things you find on the internet

I can't believe how bored I am this week. The man is working late every night, the kid is in PA, the other kid has her guy back, so it's just me and the beagles. There really is some stuff I should be working on, but I cannot find the motivation to do so.

So I've been spending some time surfing some really random sites on the net. First, I googled just about everybody I know and found out a few interesting tidbits, but mostly nothin'. I spent time reading a few blogs of some very general acquaintances. I kept hitting the next blog button on blogger.com which is kind of fascinating, just to see the random junk out there (believe me, I include this little piece of junk in that group :-)

I've discovered that I really hate myspace.com. Maybe I'm just too old...but I don't even think I could get into that when I was a teenager. There's some disturbing kids out there. I wonder if these kids know that myspace is owned by this guy:


I wonder if Rupert Murdoch has a myspace page? He does!!!. People, this is hysterical. Do yourself a favor and check out his friends page. Number one is George Bush. Number four is Jesus. George Bush is THREE friends ahead of Jesus! And right this second, Jesus is online. Old Rupert has a real movers and shakers friend's list....but nestled in between Bushy, Jesus, Rumsy, and Stephen Hawking is Spanky, the erotic goldfish.

I salute you Mr. Murdoch. You done blown my mind.

(I realize that this is most likely something someone just made up, but it's the first thing that made me laugh out loud all day :-)

Seattle traffic sucks

This is not news to anyone that lives here...but seriously. 2 pm on a random Tuesday afternoon, and I-5 S to downtown is totally jammed. WTF is up with that? I had to drive to BCC this afternoon to get my residency status changed. I just don't get why the roads here are clogged almost all the time.

So I'm officially a Washington resident now, at least according to BCC. I think they were the last big hurdle. So no more out of state tuition. YAY!!! Just in time for Fall quarter, I get to pay the cheap rate. I liked being back on campus even for such a short time. I miss school. I'm only taking one online course this quarter, so I don't even get to go into the class room for this one.

I posted new pictures in the picture gallery of our trip to Rehoboth Beach. Most of them consist of Bryan digging his hole. I read a story in the news recently about a boy who almost died after HIS hole fell in on him, but luckily his Mom got a hinky feeling and saved him. Good thing there wasn't a major cave in with Bryan's hole, because that thing was deep.

REALITY SHOW STUFF
...skip this part if you don't care:
Big Brother ...yeah Dani is HOH. I really liked her in her season, but now, not so much. Don't really care much if she's in our out. Just like in S6 though, I cannot stand James. I really hope he's out soon, because his kind of game play is the kind I hate. He's hurtful and spiteful and doesn't make things fun. Go Will.

And how funny was it on Hell's Kitchen last night when Keith told Chef Ramsey that the only reason Virginia was still there was because Ramsey had a hard on for her? That was freakin' hysterical. It's funny because it's true :-)

/END REALITY STUFF

The man is coming to take me to dinner tonight. How sweet is that? Of course, he has to go right back to work after, but it'll be nice to at least see him today.

Missing the kid

I really miss the kid. It hasn't even been a week yet since I came back and left her in PA, but it feels like forever and I want her to come home. I want HER to want to come home too. I hope she wants to come home when it's time. She got her school schedule yesterday and did some comparing with some of her school friends from last year, and it turns out so far she doesn't have a single class with any of them. That sucks.

The man is working hard lately, coming home late every night because it's crunch time. I hate crunch time. I understand it, and I know it's part of the job, but when he works late every night it's tough. I wanted to go to Vancouver this weekend but looks like that will have to wait for some other time, because he'll probably have to work at least one of those days.

Come back soon kid...I don't like it when you're away.

Back on the West Coast

Got back to Seattle last night. I was on a surprisingly comfortable and on time USAir flight. I had a window seat, but the seats actually had some room between rows so it wasn't horrible. It was a nonstop which was fantastic...I wish we could always get those. Makes the trip so much quicker. It was only about 5 hours or so from takeoff to landing.

It was so good to be home and see the man and the the beagles. I loved visiting the family, but it is so nice to come home and enjoy the much cooler weather and the peace and quiet :-). Even our corner homeless guy worked late last night so I got to see him too.

I started back to work today...I got a new place to sit, a little work cube all my own. I also had a paycheck waiting for me. Yippee!! I haven't had a paycheck in over a year. I worked a little longer then 6 hours today, then I came home and spent the next 4 hours cleaning. The house smells so nice and clean now. I've been trying to figure out how to get some of the doggie smells out of the oriental rug. Today I tried baking soda, vinegar, mild soap, chili pepper, and italian seasoning. I think maybe I made it smell like something the dogs would like to eat now.

I got to see some old coworkers while I was back in PA. It was really nice getting to talk to them again and hear all the gossip. You miss that so much when you move away from it all. One of my friends said he's going back to Paris in the fall (for the 3rd time) and wants to buy an apartment there this time. I am so utterly jealous....but good for him. Hey, if by any chance he's reading this....can I get a cheap rent out of this deal??

Going out for Indian tonight...mmmmmm, butter chicken...

Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot

The young one and I are in PA right now. Oh my god, is it ever hot here. I almost forgot how the Pennsylvania summers are..temps near 100 with almost as much humidity. Just walking outside makes you sweat. Although I hear that Seattle is nearing 90 degrees this weekend, so it's almost as bad there.

It's good to see the family again. Even though they're all pretty crazy (and I do include myself in that), it's nice to be around so many people that you love. I miss that in Seattle. I'm here for about 2 weeks, and tomorrow we leave for the beach. East Coast beaches are so much better than Washington state beaches. We're only going for a couple of nights, I wish it was longer...but I'll get to see my other cousin there who is coming down from New York to meet us there, so that will be cool.

I miss J and the beagles very much. He sent me a bunch of pics yesterday, which helped a bit, but I still miss them.

In Big Brother news, looks like James is HOH this week. Mom lurves James so she was pretty happy. We are cautiously optimistic...we don't really trust James, but better him than some of the other non-S6 group. Can you believe Mom doesn't like Howie or Janelle? What?? How can you like James and not like Howie or Janelle? She's insane.

You can't get a mojito in Harrisburg anywhere except Charlie Brown's...but they make a pretty good one, so if you're in town, go there.

The Biggest Beagle

We went to Beaglefest 2006 yesterday. It was a beautiful day to be surrounded by dozens of beagles. We weren't there 10 minutes when they announced the contests for Smallest Beagle and Biggest Beagle. YES!

Smallest Beagle was first...there were 3 major contenders. Nobody had a tape measure, so "guess a number" was used as a tie breaker. Then it was time for the Biggest Beagle contest. Of course, it was no contest at all. Zac was far and away the largest beagle there. The other beagles were so intimidated that they didn't even come up for the judging. He was awarded a container of treats, and a certificate.



Beaglefest was awesome, and the dogs had a great time. Even Trixie, who seemed much more social when surrounded by those of her own kind rather than the strange beasties she sees at the dog park. Pictures don't do it justice, but maybe can help you imagine what it's like to have so many beagles in one place.

Prostitution and choking on the chicken

People in this town seem to love bumper stickers. Some cars are absolutely covered with them...kind of like a driving billboard. Today on the way home from the gym I passed an old beat up Honda with a bumper sticker that said "Never wear panties to a party" and right next to it was another that declared "Legalize Prostitution". Guess we know what this gal is up to.

What up Kaysar?? Our favorite Iraqi is HOH on Big Brother All Stars this week. Even though the Chenbot tried to get that boring Daughter of the Moon in there instead. Good thing they actually show these competitions, or who knows what kind of shenanigans Julie would pull?

I think the older child has some serious problems with her throat. She can't eat a freakin' piece of chicken without it getting stuck somewhere on the way down. I believe she needs her esophagus stretched out like her grandpa used to do. Maybe then it wouldn't take her 2 hours to eat dinner :-)

The younger child announced this week that she's going to be a general surgeon. Thank you Grey's Anatomy.

Money Money Money Money........MONey

I am employed again. I got part time job at a small software company, 20 hours a week doing assistant/bookeeping stuff. I start on Monday. It's a Monday - Thursday schedule for 5 hours a day, so I still get to do my jobshadowing at the Eastside clinic on Fridays, and plenty of time for my online classes this quarter.

I'm actually looking forward to working again. I appear to have the potential to be incredibly lazy, and I was beginning to be fearful that I would literally sleep the summer away without having someplace to be every day.

I joined a gym last weekend...almost as soon as we came home from the cruise. I went to the gym everyday on the ship, and realized how much I missed the routine of working out. The part time job will fit in great with that too...I'll just go right to the gym on my way home, spend an hour, and I'll be done with it. That still puts me home by 3:00 so I still have plenty of time to be lazy if I want, or do school work which is probably better.

We're going to a barbecue today at my study friend's house. I have to make a dessert. Which means I have to shop for dessert items. I'm making some triple chocolate chip fruit pizza thing. Looks delish in the book. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Back from Alaska

If you just want to see pictures instead of read about the trip, you can go directly to the picture gallery. But you'll miss a stellar trip recap.


We just returned from a one week cruise to Alaska aboard the MS Zaandam (aka the JC VaanDam) This trip was courtesy of the man's very generous mom and stepdad. On board were me and the man, the girls, the man's brother and sister-in-law, and the aforementioned parents.

The trip by and large was wonderful. We had a terrible thing happen to us the first day. Something very valuable to us was stolen (or lost) between luggage check in and delivery to our stateroom. Most disappointing was the utter lack of concern shown to us by Holland America. They seemed to just want us to get through the week and off their ship so they wouldn't have to deal with us anymore. Seriously, the people at the front desk would literally flee to the back when they saw us coming.

Other than that, Alaska was very cool. It really only rained one day while we were there, during the ziplining adventure. That was in Juneau, which besides the ziplining was our least favorite stop on the cruise.

If you're interested, check out our zipping videos by clicking on one of the names below:

Kelly

Susan

John

Megan

The next day was cruising Glacier Bay. The sun was shining and the air was so crisp and clean that we spent most of the day out on deck just staring at the glaciers. They didn't look the same as the glacier that the man and I walked on during our honeymoon in Banff, but were cool in their own way.

In Sitka, we took a whale and sea otter watching trip. Again, it was a beautiful sunny day, and we saw whole colonies of sea otters, harbor seals, and humpback whales so close we could almost touch them.

Ketchikan is a pretty little town, known mostly for being the 1st Alaskan town and a big salmon place. No salmon were running while we were there, but we enjoyed a horse-drawn trolley ride around the touristy part of town and spent some time later enjoying the sunshine and walking around the shops. Again, it was a beautiful day but we didn't have a lot of time to spend in Ketchikan.

Victoria was the last day of the cruise. We were only there from 8pm - 11:30pm, so we didn't have many daylight hours to see the city. We really liked it there though, it was so clean and pretty. We decided we'd definitely take a weekend trip back there since it's so close to us. Maybe we'll have High Tea at the Empress hotel.

All in all, a great trip. We really enjoyed being able to spend some time with the family and catching up on everyone's lives. Now if we could just get some of those people to move here...yes, architects, we're talking about you :-)

Check out My People's Picture Gallery if you want to see some of the pics of the trip...be forewarned, there are many. Editing is not our forte.

Happy Easter

Easter morning...the young one is home safe and the older one is off to celebrate her 21st. I hope she gets home safe too. We tried to give her the responsibility lecture at the airport but she was a little impatient with that. If she reads this, she'll know we're still thinking about it! It's so good to have the kid home. We missed her terribly. I know she had a good time back east, but I can't even imagine her being gone for over a month this summer. That will definitely be hard.

First big test in A&P tomorrow. I turned in all my paperwork for the Ultrasound application last Tuesday...the deadline was Friday. Now I just have to wait until early May when the letters go out. Based on what I've heard, I am preparing myself for a rejection letter. Apparently, in the Allied Health programs, there are so many applicants that they may just be looking at the ones that have already completed all of their prereqs, and not look at any that are still completing them this quarter. If that happens, I'll just finish up, work for a year or so and then apply again. So I'm going to tentatively start a job humt.

Speaking of jobs, J got a promotion last week. I'm so proud of him. He's been with the company less than a year and they promoted him already. He's been working so hard, it's nice to see it rewarded. The extra money ain't half bad either :-)

Happy Easter everyone!