lost

US Airways lost David's bag on our trip home from Florida. We've been home now for 36 hours and we haven't heard anything from the airline, even though we've called many times and checked online. The online tool says that the bag still has not been found.

The thing is, the agent at the Orlando airport knew he put the wrong tag on David's bag, but he didn't bother to fix it. The exchange went something like this:

Agent: "Going to Seattle?" (holding 3 bag tags in his hand and looking around to see who was going to claim them. We only have 2 bags to check).
Us: raised our hands- "we are".
Agent: puts tags on the bags, puts them on the conveyor belt.
Agent: "Can I see your ID's?"
Us: Sure, here they are
Agent: Huh. that's odd. I've got an extra bag tag here. Accusingly, " you didn't tell me who you were before I put the tags on"
Me: (thinking in my head....I thought you were supposed to verify our identity before you slapped the bag tags on. Is it our job to tell you who we are without you asking? )
Agent: "Oh well, the bag will still get to Seattle." (turns his back to begin dealing with someone else).
Us: Confused...walking away...trying to feel better we reasoned that he said the bag would still get to Seattle, so we didn't need to worry about it.

US Airways apparently has the worst record for lost luggage among the national carriers. I don't doubt it given the lack of concern on their agents part.

Merry Christmas!

To those of you who celebrate-- Merry Christmas!

I hear there is lots of snow going around parts of the country-- hope those of you with snow enjoy your wonderful white christmas.

golfing for christmas?

We are thinking about going golfing. There are three 9 hole courses - I think we'll only be able to do 9 holes as we aren't really in golfing shape. It is amazing how much work golfing can be. I'm not any good, although I'd like to be better. Can't get better until you start practicing! David really wants to go golfing too. Actually- he is the impetus behind us going. Makes me think that we should try to find a nice cheap 9 hole course in Seattle and try to go more often. The problem is, it isn't usually one those thing we think about doing on the weekend (for some people it is the only thing they think about doing on the weekend), so we'll have to make a conscious effort to try and go.

never as cute on the second day

There is a sort of magic that happens at salons. They bewitch your hair to look just right and cute, and then once the clock strikes midnight the spell is over and never again will it be as cute as the day you left the salon with the new cut.

It still looks good, but I'm just not very good at fixing my hair, I guess. Maybe I can get some pointers from my fashionista sister?

haircut

I got a haircut today. It was about time. I went to a new salon that opened up in October, whose owner is a friend of one of my work colleagues. The owner cut my hair and she did a great job. The true test is the next couple of days as I figure out if I can make it look as cute as she did. I'll try to take a picture to post, or something.

Also- the shampoo was the most comfortable shampoo I've ever had at a salon- I didn't feel like my neck was being wrenched and my back didn't hurt. It was great.

The salon has a real contemporary vibe--concrete floors, italian modern furniture, and the owner designed some of the furniture pieces herself.

Did I mention that all cuts are $20? More if you want a blow-dry, but that is a fabulous price!

I know not many of my readers are in the Seattle area, but if you are- try out Ten Pachi www.tenpachi.com

ps. I was not paid for the above advertisement ;-)

Ready to relax

I've had a long week. Tuesday we planted trees, wednesday I flew to DC, thursday I participated in a site review at the National Science Foundation, today I am working all day in DC, probably mostly from coffeeshops (they only gave me until 1pm for late checkout). BUT...tonight J picks me up, and we get to hang out tonight and tomorrow in DC until I fly home on Sunday morning. I am definitely ready to relax, and am looking forward to the next couple of days.

twitchy

I've had a twitch near my eye for the past few days. I can always tell that when I start to get a twitch that means I need to move things off my plate, and do some relaxing. I think I'm going to have a hard time doing that until the holidays are over. I've got a work trip to DC next week, which slows down my work and my home task lists. I tried last night to read a fun book for awhile, but it didn't seem to help.

Well, maybe some hard labor this weekend will help? We need to dig holes in our yard for the privacy screen trees we are having delivered. That also means moving some plants to other places in the yard. Good thing we live in the pacific northwest and our ground doesn't freeze.

record rain?

From what I hear on the news, we are headed for a record breaking amount of rain in 24 hours. The record amount is 5.02 inches in 24 hours in 2003. Many areas around the Seattle area are experiencing significant flooding. Here are a few pictures of areas around town that have been flooded. I keep checking our basement--luckily we are sort of up on a hill, so less likely to get that kind of flooding.

snow and now rain rain rain

December 1st we got a good coating of snow. It was so pretty on Saturday with the snow coming down. I didn't want to be anywhere that didn't have a window to look out at the snow. When we got back to our house on Saturday evening our whole back yard was covered in beautiful white snow.

When we woke up the next morning it was all gone as the snow had turned to rain overnight. I don't think it has stopped raining since then. It was coming down hard last night and has been coming down pretty consistently all day today. One of the buildings on campus thought they were going to have to evacuate after the electrical room of the building was flooded with water. Luckily the pumps started working and they didn't have shut down the power to the whole building, or evacuate anyone.

I keep checking our basement to make sure we aren't getting any dribbles of water down there. No problems so far.

found some for cheaper

There is someone selling 10 cans of Skyline on ebay for $32 + 8.95 shipping which equals about $4.10 per can....better than the prices on the cincinnati favorites website...  

they took away my chili!

I am so upset! Tonight we were going to have 3-ways for dinner. For those of you who don't know what a 3 way is: spaghetti topped with cincinnati chili topped with finely shredded cheese. In years past I have been able to buy Skyline chili in a can at a few grocery stores around the Seattle area. Fred Meyer and QFC (both owned by Kroger) used to carry Skyline. I can't tell you how wonderful it was my first year in Seattle when I found Skyline canned on the shelf at the grocery. It was a little bit of home.

For those of you who don't know, Skyline chili (www.skylinechili.com) is a Cincinnati cult classic. Other people have tried to imitate, but don't come close (Sorry all, but Gold Star doesn't compete in my book).

I sent David to pick up a few cans of it at the store on his way home from work. He called and tells me he is at the second store and neither of them have it!!! ARGHHHH. Seriously! I defrosted my hot dogs and bought buns for coneys and everything. I was ready, even craving Skyline.

So I go online to see if I can buy it online. Apparently you can, for about 5 bucks a can (plus shipping! That seems exorbitant. I know it doesn't cost that much in the store (does it?). If any of my cincinnati friends want to do me a favor and go pick up some cans and ship them to me, I will pay all costs associated. I'm sure it will still be cheaper than these online dealers, even if I pitch in $.20 a mile or something ;-)

Now what will we eat for dinner?

one step closer

We did some painting last weekend which puts us one step closer to having some 'finished' rooms. We still don't have any pictures on the walls, but David has big plans for pictures in each of the rooms, and I'll take pictures once we get some framed on the wall.


Above are two views of our dining room wall which we painted red (for the time being). We are considering changing the color to a nice blue we also picked out for the wall. When we painted the red, we knew it was a trial period to see if we liked the red.


Here is the color in the guest bedroom. While we were originally calling the color "deer hide", we came up with another name for it which is much more positive: hot cocoa powder.


And this is the final yellow color of our bedroom. It is very nice and sunny. You can also see the baseboards in many of the pictures. I think we are completely done with the baseboards, so that is exciting! oh poo, I just remembered that we haven't painted or put baseboards in our closets (which we need to do). So, that is a task for another weekend.

progress next door

Yesterday we came home from work and wa-la - the house next door had its second floor framing up. I took a few pictures this morning so I could post and show you how it looks. We have very little light coming into our bathroom window now.

cookies from a bag

Monday night I made some chocolate chip cookies (from a bag mix) and I brought them into work today--it is not even noon yet and they are almost gone. However, I think I will go back to my old way of making cookies (from scratch). I've actually been thinking about trying to not buy any more mixes like that. The more I read those Nutrition Action Updates that Dad and Suzanne subscribed us to, the more I want to only eat foods that are in their original form before I cook them. I know I don't have the energy to start making my own tomato sauce etc, but at the very least, I think I am going to stop buying cake mixes and cookie mixes, and things like rice-a-roni and pasta sides. The added benefit of not using these boxed foods is I'll be removing quite a bit of partially hydrogenated oils from our diet (and making less waste for the landfill/recycling center).

thanksgiving cartoon- pacific northwest theme

courtesy of David Horsey

our thanksgiving dinner

Our thanksgiving meal ready to be consumed.

King crab legs- yummmm.
Two "colossal" scallops a piece. They were cooked just the right amount of time, but I should have spiced them a bit more than I did. Beaujolais Nouveau in the wine glasses. Butter wasn't clarified (something else I should have done but didn't feel like it--it was still good).
twice baked potatoes....more than just your regular potato.

happy turkey day!

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

David and I did some relaxing this morning- watched the Macy's Parade, and then each of us got to work- David went outside to rake leaves, mow the grass and trim the bushes. I kept the AKC best in show program on TV and watched that in-between prepping our guest room to be painted. Now Miracle on 34th (?) street just finished. I've put our potatoes in the oven for twice baked potatoes, and got out some snacks.

Thank you to everyone for being yourselves. You have enriched my life in ways you may not know.

I'm ready to leave

This weekend David and I rented a good documentary called 'Sicko'. Many of you may have already seen it, but if you haven't I highly suggest it. It is one of Michael Moore's documentaries about the health insurance industry in the US. One of the most eye-opening things is the comparison of the US health insurance and health care industry with that of Canada, Great Britain, and France (look on DVD special features for info about Norway). That alone made me want to move to a country with universal health care.

I know I'm naive and hopeful when I shouldn't be- but I think that if the social movement was large enough and we had a president who had her/his head on straight we might actually be able to change health care in this country. The more I think about it- going to a hospital really should be a social service just like having the fire department come to your house when there is a fire, or receiving your mail everyday. If you don't have the means to afford the fire department they don't tell you that for $5000 they can save your garage but it will cost you $15000 to save the house. You shouldn't have to choose what you have to lose. Why is our health any less important than our houses and belongings?

I know that the health care industry is a major multi-million/billion dollar industry and would fight tooth and nail to make sure that universal health care never comes about. Our leaders and we as citizens should be more concerned about the health of our neighbors than with the profit margins of corporations. But that is just me. Crazy talk- I know.

Watching the movie really was enough for me to consider moving to another country. I'd like to know if anyone else felt that way after seeing Sicko.

next door

Can you believe how far the house next door is? They still have another floor to add on, and then the roof. They haven't even started framing the second house on the lot. All kinds of water has collected in the basements of these houses. They better pump that water out and dry out the wood once they get the roof on or they will have some serious mold problems.

As you can see, we have pretty much lost all of our privacy in our backyard. That window is their kitchen window. We plan to plant some Arborvitae along the side to block us from their view a little bit. Hopefully it will help us feel a bit more like our backyard is actually our backyard.

In memory of my grandfather

On Thursday November 1, 2007, my grandfather Charlie Ferguson passed away. On Wednesday October 31, the doctors told us that he had only 24 hours to 3 days to live. He was in the hospital because he had a bad fall and was getting checked out. It was unexpected, but we are all happy that he did not suffer long from the pain he was in. I am so saddened by this loss and am trying to find ways to deal with my sorrow. I am not writing about this to elicit sympathy. I am writing because that is one of the ways I cope. Papa (as we called him) was a gentle, sweet, kind man who is now at peace. The funeral is supposed to be sometime at the end of this week, although a date has not yet been set. David and I will be attending the funeral. If you find my blog to be unusually inactive, please understand.

prices went down

The prices went down on tickets to orlando, but only a little bit. There are some at $525...I think that will be the best option. I think we can get at least part of one of the tickets with credit card rewards, so that should help.

On another note, is anyone dressing up for halloween? If you do, I would love to see pictures and I think it would be fun to post a bunch of dress-up pictures of friends and family (assuming you consent to my posting your image). We don't really have any dress-up halloween parties that would require a costume. We are attending an octoberfest party this weekend, but as far as I know, no costume is required.

I've heard of people dressing up as the following so far:

• Holly Go Lightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's
• The Morton salt girl
• a kangaroo
• Danny Zuco (spelling is wrong I'm sure--from Grease)
• Nicole Richie
  

What costumes have you heard of this Halloween season?

airfares suck

I don't know if I am just not looking at the right time, but everyday I check to see how much fares to Orlando for christmas cost. Jodi already bought her tickets, but the prices for our flights have been hovering around 600 per person. I'm not ready to accept that they are going to be that high forever. I think at this point that if they got to $500 per person, I'd buy them...but even that seems ridiculously high. Arghh! It makes me mad and frustrated.

great website

As many of you know, I'm a feminist. But that really has nothing to do with what I am going to tell you. Because what I am going to tell you about is interesting to everyone- man, woman, feminist, non-feminist.

When I was at the women in computing conference I heard a talk by a woman entrepreneur named Paula Goldman who came up with the idea for a project with a friend and then made it happen.

Imagining Ourselves is a project based out of the International Museum of Women. In the creator's words, this project's goal is to showcase the vitality of our generation (read: younger generation) as a way of inspiring young women to action. The original project began with one question sent to women aged 20-40: What defines your generation of women? The answers came from women in 105 countries.

In the top header line of the website is a link that says "view previous themes". After the first exhibit about what defines your generation, they have done shows on image and identity, motherhood, young men, war and dialogue, culture and conflict, money, love and the future. The site is kind of addicting once you start seeing and reading other women's stories, so don't start to look at it if you only have 2 minutes. The current exhibit for October is "a film a day". everything I've seen on this website is extremely well done and should be shared with all.

the other great thing about this website is that for each piece in an exhibit there is a discussion board where people across the world can talk about issues brought up by the piece. Amazing. I highly recommend it.

no men allowed

I'm at a conference that is a celebration of women in computing, called the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

There are about 1400 attendees, and probably 100 of them (if that) are men. Thus, in multiple places around the conference hotel, the men's bathrooms have been "converted" to women's bathrooms. They put signs all over the bathroom doors and entries that say "Only women allowed"/ no men allowed. The signs also tell the men where they can go to use the bathroom. It seems like an obvious thing to do, but it doesn't always happen. I think it is great. Even with converting some of the men's bathrooms, there are still occasionally waiting lines.

blue ford mustang

I don't know how I got so lucky, but I paid to rent a hyundai accent type car and they gave me a blue ford mustang. Even the guy at the gate to my mom's neighborhood told me I looked pretty good in it. I think he was admiring the car more than me with that statement. I've never been a real car person, and I certainly never really understood the fascination of many people who just love mustangs. Maybe I never really looked at them closely before. It really is a beautiful car. Don't get me wrong, I would never trade my japanese import for an american car- but I did really enjoy driving this car. It had a good ride, and certainly looked pretty sporty. Only thing that would have been better if it was a convertible. Alas...that was not to be.

I am no longer nuts

I have decided not to do the half-marathon run/walk. It is just too close to the day of the race, and I can't seem to motivate to want to do it, so I'm taking that as a sign that I don't want to do it that much. As my friend C said today- better safe than sorry. Training that quickly could cause some injuries that would be avoided if I had longer to train.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday Dad!
I hope you have a great day- and don't eat too much cake!
Who am I kidding?...have as much cake as you want.

long morning

We are dog-sitting for our neighbor again this weekend. We got her last night after we got home from work. We weren't sure how much exercise she got yesterday, so we took her for about a 20 minute walk total. First mistake. She woke us up about 5:10 am with whining and walking around. Afraid that she needed to go to the bathroom, David took her outside. Second mistake. It seemed all she wanted to do was play. She wouldn't come in the house at all--this Playing lasted for about 30 minutes. Our backyard isn't exactly secure, although I don't feel worried about letting her run around as long as someone is out there with her. But who wants to sit outside in the misting rain at 5:30 in the morning? Luckily our neighbor has a secure dog-run where we leave her when we go out. So, David decided that if all she wanted to do was play, we would let her play in her own yard. So we put the leash on her (that was an ordeal), and David left to take her to her house. About 30 seconds later, he came back inside with leash AND collar in hand (no dog). Her collar is pretty loose, so she just pulled right out of it. I eventually got her inside with some treat bribery, and put her collar back on. I thought maybe at that point she would settle back down and go back to sleep. No luck. 5:50 am and both David and I had been awake for 40 minutes. I decided I would "trick" her into thinking we were going for a walk. We went out the front door so she didn't get excited in the back yard, and we walked around the block to her house, and I was able to get her in her dog run. By the time I got back to the house David was sound asleep. And I'm pretty sure I was back asleep within 5 minutes. I hated to put her over there, but that was the only solution that would result in all of us being relatively happy.

Training Mileage today: 4.25 miles (run/walk--mostly walking)

am I nuts?

Maybe I shouldn't ask that question if I don't want to know the answer. This isn't a general question, but one more specific: am I nuts to be considering run/walking a half-marathon in late november? It gives me 8 weeks to train- which isn't much time, but if I am planning on walking a good bit of it, I'm thinking that I may be okay.

I think I just need something to get excited about and get me motivated. A couple of my co-workers are planning to do the half-marathon walk, but I kind of wanted to challenge myself a bit more.

I've been out of the blog loop for the week b/c I've had my friend Jen in town. We've done all sorts of fun stuff, but as a consequence I haven't really had the time or energy to blog. We went to a cool Korean day spa called Olympus, where you pay $30 to spend time in different temperature rooms with themes, and in the 4-5 baths (hot tubs really) which are all at different temperatures. You can pay extra for all the typical spa treatments, but we just did some relaxing. I hear the body scrub is fabulous, so maybe someday I'll try that.
We then went to a pumpkin patch and I went a little pumpkin crazy (bought 5 pumpkins!).
We made butternut squash soup, tried to make a homemade pumpkin pie (didn't quite turn out-but that was probably mostly due to the fact that we substituted some ingredients)
Visited friends, ate sushi, had cupcakes from Cupcake Royale. It was wonderful.

Happy Birthday Suzanne!

It is amazing how many people I know who have birthdays around this time of year! Happy Birthday Suzanne! It sounded like you had a great day and a great weekend. I Hope you have many more happy birthdays.

I also wanted to update with a quick picture of the houses under construction next door. They have the stem walls up, and on friday they started filling in some of the dirt around the houses.

icicles

While there weren't any actual icicles--last night it felt like my nose was one big icicle. Those of you who know me well know that I get cold easily. My hands, feet and nose are the first to show signs of cold. Well, it is getting cold here, and I have so far refused to turn on the furnace. Last night when I came home from work it was about 65 degrees inside the house. By 8pm when I was starting to watch one of my guilty pleasure shows, the house temperature was about 60 degrees. I had on my coat, and was underneath a blanket on the couch. My feet amazingly were warm and I tried to keep my hands under the blanket or between my legs to warm them up, but I couldn't keep my nose warm. It was so cold! David heated up my Herbie (Thank you thank you thank you mom for making that for me!) and I put my nose in that until it warmed up.

I know it is kind of lame to be writing about my cold nose, but you have to understand how much this affects my crankiness factor. I should probably give in and turn on the heat so I am less cranky but it is still September for goodness sakes! I really don't want to burn through oil this winter.

anyway- long story short--I've got a cold nose. Pretty much all the time I am at home I have a cold nose. It makes me cranky. But I'm trying to tough it out.

Happy Birthday Mom (yesterday)

Happy Birthday MOM!

Sorry this is one day late, but you got my paper card in the mail on time, so hopefully I'll get credit for that ;-)

I think beautiful Black Eyed Susans would be perfect for your birthday...so here they are!

Subscribe?

I wonder if anyone subscribes to my blog... I totally forgot about that little option on the blog. At the very bottom of the page is a thing that says "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)". I've never subscribed to a blog, but I hear it is really helpful for folks who don't like to go and visit certain pages all the time to check and see if there is new content. I guess this feature alerts you when there is new content. I also gather it is different from RSS ( but I don't understand the difference). I should subscribe to someone's blog and see how it works. I can't believe I'm writing about this tool that I don't really even know how it works...I bet J.N.A. in St. Louis could explain it to me...

Here is some copied text from blogger explaining it (although even this uses some more technical language than I am used to)
"Atom is one name for two things: It's both a new standard for developers, as well as a syndication format or "feed" for your blog. When a regularly updated site such as a blog has a feed, people can subscribe to it using software for reading syndicated content called a "newsreader." People like using readers for blogs because it allows them to catch up on all their favorites at once. Like checking email—without the SPAM."

someone knows my secret

I think it was last week that David came to me in the morning and told me that he knew my secret. For a moment I got very scared because I couldn't think of any secret that I had.

He said, "I hear the secrets that you keep, when you are talking in your sleep". Oh crap...what did I say this time? Apparently I said, clear as day, "Can we go to the dog shelter after work?". That sounds about right, I've had doggies on my brain for awhile. So- it wasn't really a secret-and I had no reason to be scared...but he still scared me when he said he knew my secret.

Sidenote of explanation: I talk in my sleep. Often. So it is possible that I could say things that I don't mean or that mean nothing or that I don't necessarily want anyone to hear. I haven't had any real problems with my nighttime talking other than waking David up, so I shouldn't be too worried about saying something that would get me in trouble.

nervous

I'll remain deliberately vague about all this because I'm about to blog about work which is a patented no-no. It is not like I'll be saying bad things about work..just talking about a neutral topic.

I have a conference call tomorrow which I am supposed to lead that is supposed to have people representing 25 different universities around the country. This is for a project I am the lead on here at work. I'm nervous. I have never done anything like this before, and I always worry that my style of meeting (get to the point, move through the items, be done early) isn't conducive to certain things. When I'm on calls with other leaders sometimes I just want to move on from a topic, but people keep beating a dead horse. So, I certainly will not change my style completely, but maybe when I ask if anyone has questions or comments I'll make sure I count to 10 before I move on. I'm still nervous. It isn't like I don't know this stuff inside and out-but new stuff is scary.

update on construction next door

I took this picture on saturday, and what it currently looks like is dramatically different. They poured concrete into these molds on monday and yesterday they started putting up the form work for the walls. You can see in this photo that the house furthest from us is set back from the one by us. They were spraying what David said was a release compound on the plywood sheets and it stunk. Of course it seemed like the smell was drifting directly into our house. So we went for a walk last night after work in the hopes that the smell would dissipate by the time we got back.

Happy Birthday Emily!

Happy Birthday Emily!

If I were there, I'd bring you flowers like these

I hope you have a wonderful birthday and enjoy your birthday weekend, whatever you do.

taking a break and Happy Anniversary

You may have been wondering where I've been. Well, we've been taking a break from doing work on the house. We haven't even gotten around to caulking yet. It has been nice to come home and actually be able to decide what to do or not do. Last night I finished reading a book I had started a month or so ago. However, I think all this relaxing is making me lax about other things as well (like writing here).

In other very important news, it is our 4th Wedding Anniversary today. We are going out to dinner at a cute little Italian place near our house where the server knows us and has even invited us to a showing of his art.

But no dinner or card or flowers could express how happy I am to be with David in this relationship, making a life for ourselves. (Am I trying to make an excuse for not buying David a card..well not really, but if it helps...). A toast to my sweetie--who makes me smile and laugh more than anyone else ever has!

kitchen is really really almost finished

Plumbing is installed (David rocked!) and I used the dishwasher twice already. I did lots of handwashing and threw all kinds of stuff in there so that I could start putting things away in our cabinets. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

one more step into the 21st century

I am excited to report that David and I have finally taken one more small leap into the 21st century. We are no longer connected to the internet at home by dial-up. We finally have a high speed connection! This is the second such move we have made (cellphones were #1). All we have left is to get more than two or three channels on our TV. I think we'll stay without cable a little longer until we get used to the amazing speed of our internet.

It seems that in order to stay in the information age you have to be willing to spend almost $200 a month to stay connected. I would guess that quite a few people pay more than that per month because they have the fancy souped up plans. I'm not that old (really!), but to have gone from landline phones to "crackberry's" seems like a big leap. I'm sure that by the time I'm ready to retire there will be something even more suited to staying connected. Well, at least I can say that because we are slow adopters, we get the benefit of lower prices and fewer buggy machines ;-)

Today is sink and garbage disposal install day. We went to look for plumbing supplies last night and it was quite overwhelming. The number of little brass couplings/unions/T's/elbows with different types and sizes of connectors was amazing. Hard to find what you need. I could only stand in front of them at the store for too long before I started getting a little cranky. I know David will do a good job and I'm glad that I'm just a helper on this.

dining room

If you ignore the half painted wall and the lack of baseboards, our dining room is looking pretty kick-ass! We bought the rug this weekend (I love it) and David installed the Bubble lamp last night. I can't wait to finish painting and get the baseboards on! The chairs are very comfortable and we bought some really cool placemats.

productive

David and I had a great weekend. We got lots done on the house, and bought a rug for under the kitchen table (it looks great). My comment to David about the rug was that our house is starting to feel like 'home'. We start sealing the granite countertop tonight and will be installing our new dining room light and installing the floor transition pieces (I think they have a specific name, but I can't remember it). Over the weekend we put the pulls on all the cabinets and I cut some shelf/drawer liner from IKEA to fit all the drawers/shelves. I would love to start filling some of the cabinets. I always like the part when you get to unpack the kitchen boxes after a move and decide where everything goes. I think we are going to change the location of some things...I'm looking forward to figuring it all out.

Oh- and we saw 2 movies (rentals) this weekend. "Hot Fuzz" is really funny if you can understand their accent throughout the movie.

swim pics

Everyone is clamoring for more triathlon pictures, and I've got a lot of the pre-swim and some post-swim, so here you go. I'll have to find good bike and run ones later.

Here is a general picture of what the swim start looked like. People went in waves by cap color. I really like this picture because the waves are right in line behind each other. Light blue, then pink, then purple. The purple caps were for the mixed age group, which I was in. I thought I'd be doing the tri with friends but I ended up doing it alone (but with thousands of other women ;-). There were like 7 or 8 waves just for the purple caps. I wanted to get it going and not stand there in the cold for too long so I ended up going in the second wave of purple caps.


Can you see me waving? We have a few pictures like this, but where I am a bit more hidden. They are sort of like those kids picture books where you are supposed to find the hidden guy or item.

I'm peeking my head above the others above. We were all shoved in tight together. It was probably a good thing because it kept me warmer that way. The rain was only sprinkling at this time. Or maybe I just didn't feel it because I was a bit nervous.

What can I say...I'm proud to be a triathlete!


Look for me in Pink/white and with the dark googles above. I'm splashing water over my shoulders because I didn't want to be totally shocked by the cold water when I got in. I think it helped because I didn't get my breath taken away quite as much as I would have expected.

What is everyone else looking at? What? There is a race going on here? I'm happy just posing for the pictures. It was really good to have David right there. It did keep my mind off the task to be accomplished which was a good thing for my first time, I think.


This is a part of the course out in Lake Washington. It doesn't look that long, but when you are in the middle, it sure feels long.


You can see me in pink climbing out of the water. I was kind of dizzy getting out and I almost fell over a bit. That is what I've got my hands out like that--trying to balance and steady myself.


and finally...I decided to jog my way back to my transition area. I'm not sure the jogging helped that much because that first transition was about 10 minutes! that is long!

destruction

So, this is what our next door neighbor's house looked like this morning. It no longer exists.

When we got home last night we talked to one of the contractor's assistants and he showed us the survey marker which makes it pretty clear that the fence that was torn down was theirs, not ours. So, the only fence we own is the one on the back alley which is is in the worst shape of all of them. The part that worries me about losing the fence is that we wanted to get a dog soon, and I don't know if they will adopt to us now...


This picture is from our backyard looking toward our house and the spot where our neighbor's house used to be. It is so empty!


I took this picture from our front door. See how close they are to us? It was really loud this morning, but all that dust was luckily blowing away from our house.

furniture arrival

I could hardly believe my eyes yesterday when the furniture we ordered 8 months ago was finally delivered. I was at home to accept the delivery. It all looks great.

(To tell the truth, I was a bit freaked out about the color) The table, chairs and barstools are all cherry--and they have the reddish orange look of cherry. I got a little worried about how they would clash with our red oak floor and our alder cabinets. I even got David a little worried. But he went home early to check out the furniture and told me that I was worrying for nothing and that it all looks great. The receiver assembled the furniture and everything but 2 chairs were assembled correctly. We'll fix the 2 that were done wrong.

We will need to get a rug for under the dining table, but we already were planning to do that.

We also purchased a new light fixture for above the dining table. It is a george nelson bubble lamp. See below for picture.

Also, our neighbor to the south, as some of you know, is planning to knock down the current house and built 2 houses on the double lot. Well today apparently they knocked down the house and took our fence with it. The fence destruction is problematic because we have been looking to adopt a dog, and the rescue places won't want to place a dog with us until we have a secure yard. I'll have to wait until I get home to know more about what it looks like. I'll take some pictures...

I did it!

I finished the triathlon. I also did it in the rain. Not just regular Seattle rain, but regular pelting/pouring rain. And I was very happy with my time. I was hoping that it would take me about 2 hours, but once I started getting nervous I sort of let that goal go. But when I was at the race I realized that I could definitely do it in under 2 hours. And that I did (just barely 1:56:36). I didn't push myself super hard, but I did run the whole run part, which I was very proud of. Here are just a handful of pictures to give you an idea of what my race was like. There is a picture from every leg. I'll post more once I decide which others I like best.

Here I am before the race trying to be tough ;-) David did a great job taking pictures throughout the race so I think I've got one like this from the very end, I'll have to edit it for posting.

Here I am at the swim start. I wasn't feeling that nervous--at least- not as nervous as I thought I would feel. The swim was definitely harder than I thought it would be.

Heading out with my bike for the bike start...I was waking the bike instead of running, so I probably lost some time there. Actually my first transition was something like 10 minutes because after I got my bike and got ready I realized I had to use the bathroom. And boy, it is hard to put on socks when your feet are all wet. (and the towel you brought to dry them is wet from the rain too)

And here is the run start. I was pretty pleased that I ran the whole way (even up a big hill!)

the hours count down

I'm no longer counting days to my triathlon, now I'm counting hours. The triathlon begins Sunday morning so I've got about 40 hours until the race, I think. This morning I decided I needed to only think positively about the race. So whenever I get a thought along the lines of "what the hell am I doing" or "who got me into this", or "I'm going to get eaten by a sea monster" I try to tell myself that it is going to be fine, and my bike won't break down and I won't drown and if I have to, I'll walk the 5K run. So, some possible mantras for race day are:

I can do it
I am strong
Hear me ROAR!

Any ideas for other mantras? I like these, but they aren't grabbing me like I thought they would.

in progress photos

Here are a few pictures of our not fully completed kitchen and bar area. We are using blue painters tape to open the cabinets b/c we haven't yet put the door pulls on yet.... we'll get there.
Last night we cut and put the plywood down on this countertop. We had bought a sink, but when we got it out of the box it was humongous! I pushed for this big sink, but I guess I didn't consider how it would look in the context of the rest of our fairly small kitchen. So, we are going to take the big sink back and buy one that is more normal sized...I think it would be 24 or 27" across. Once we get the sink we can cut the hole for the sink.

We laid out a few of our tiles to see what they would look like. It was so great to walk into the kitchen this morning and see these tiles and imagine the day when this would finally be over ;-)

Two views of the bar (one above and one below). This is all finished except for the backer board and tiling which will happen next week. Our tile guy said he would come on monday or tuesday and he can thinset the backboard onto the plywood then.

oh, the beautiful island

I didn't want to leave the island we visited this weekend. It was so wonderful and beautiful and relaxing. Even my boss told me I looked extra happy and relaxed today, my first day back at work.

However, my stomach is starting to give me some problems...I think it might be because the triathlon is THIS WEEKEND! Just a wee bit nervous, I guess. I did go for a run 2 of the days we were on the island. It was pretty cool to just run through the woods and not see another soul for the whole time.

almost open for business

The bar we are building between our kitchen and living room is almost open for business. Last night we installed the plywood substrate that will make up the bottom of the bar, as well as a wood trim piece. It looks good even though it is just plywood. You have to have a little imagination, but I can totally see what it will look like finished and it will look awesome! All that is left is to put on the hardibacker and then tile it. Tiling is supposed to start for the whole kitchen somewhere around August 20th. We haven't got the plywood substrates down in the kitchen yet, but I think we may work on that before the weekend (tonight). I know I need to take a picture of our progress. Or....maybe I'll just wait until we are totally done and then I'll post before and after pictures. Hmmmm... does anyone have a preference as to seeing the progress on the kitchen?

photos from columbus

About a week and a half ago, I went to see my dear friend from high school, Mikie (she now goes by Michael Ann), and her family: Her husband Dave, son Carter and new daughter Ella. Here are a few pictures from the visit.

Michael Ann and Carter-- they were trying to move a sailboat pond yacht with the power of the wind....they needed a bit more wind...


Here is sweetie-pie Ella. I felt totally helpless when she was crying and I couldn't get her to stop. In the background you can see one of their dogs, Buffy (she's a cock-a-poo).

Here is Dave and Carter after Carter played in the fountain at the outdoor shopping area.

They are such a cute family, and it was so great to see them. I can't wait to watch the little kids grow up!