mind games

My aunt just sent this to me, and I think it is great. I've seen some of the other mind games (is it a woman or a witch? etc.). But this one was my favorite from the list. I've never seen it before- but boy does it mess with you. Have fun trying to count the black dots!

Supreme Court Nominee

I can't help but feel like the requirements for the Supreme court nominee were those above. How can they nominate someone to the supreme court that has had no experience as a judge? Boy, I hope they look for someone more qualified than Harriet Miers. He says he picked the best candidate he could find....well, I don't think he looked very far. Here is his exact quote: "I picked the best person I could find. People know we're close." She was his personal lawyer and most recently White House counsel. They certainly are close...I'd say close enough to call cronies!

Okay, okay...I'm done now. I just think it would be so sad to have Sandra Day O'Connor replaced by Ms. Miers.

mish mash

This weekend I felt like there were multiple times when I thought-oh, I should write about this in my blog! Of course, right now I can only remember two of those times.

The big event of the weekend was giving maggie a bath. We usually take her to petsmart for her baths, but a friend gave us some allergy shampoo, so we decided to give it a try on our own. It took us about an hour to wash her twice and thoroughly towel her dry. One of us was in the shower shampooing, and the other sat on the edge of the tub and held her in there. She didn't fight it too much, although I am a bit worried about how she will do in the future. We tried to give her treats to make her associate it with good things, but she still didn't seem too happy. Weird that a water dog doesn't like to get wet for a bath. We went out after that to run some errands and when we got back, she had moved the shower curtain quite a bit--I don't know if she was trying to see what the shower was all about, or if she was expressing her displeasure at being washed. Either way, it made us laugh.

On sunday it rained most of the morning, but it slowed down after noon, and we went to the greek festival. When we got back, and I was making dinner, David called out and told me to look at the rainbow outside. It was huge, and you could see both ends of it. Until I moved to Seattle, I don't think I'd ever seen a complete rainbow from one pot of gold to another. But this was just amazing and beautiful.

Happy Birthday Suzanne!

Suzanne, I hope you have a great birthday and get through this weekend's work event.

In other news, David beat me at scrabble last night. I think his cautiousness is paying off and my impatience is costing me. The spread was about 50 points, I think. You'd think with all I read that I'd be able to come up with some good ones, but when you have RR LL NN and A in your hand...your options aren't fabulous for scoring well.

I'm going to lunch today with my co-workers and a woman from the National Science Foundation. I'm a little nervous. Sometimes I get tongue-tied in situations like this. We are going to get some feedback from her on an idea for a grant proposal. We've submitted 4 grant proposals this summer, and we are looking at submittng another one by January. Boy, I hope we get at least one of these! It would take some of the pressure off.

Last night while I was watching Smallville on the WB, I saw a preview for the Harry Potter movie. It looked awesome! Lots of cool images and fun stuff. I believe the movie opens in November, so it is coming up soon. I'm excited to see it. We'll definitely see that one on opening weekend!

Possible fun plans for the weekend: art show saturday night, greek festival sat. or sunday day

getting sucked back in...

I'm getting sucked back into TV now that they are starting to show new episodes. I quite enjoyed my summer when we didn't even turn on the TV most nights. But part of me really enjoys vegging out for an hour in front of the "boob" tube.

I know, I know, all I have to do is just not watch, or don't turn the TV on. But there are some shows that are my guilty indulgences. I really enjoy watching them. They are probably the worst shows on TV, but since we really only get 3 channels, I don't have much to choose from.

I need to get over this guilty feeling, and be okay with watching shows maybe twice a week? At what point do I become a total couch potato?

Interesting, amusing, frustrating, whatever…

Liz and I have repeatedly observed that there are an awful lot of people our age in Seattle who are driving luxury cars and living in $400,000 homes. On these occasions, we ask ourselves “what the hell are we doing wrong?” I mean…we’re pretty smart, right? Well, at least Liz is.

Anyway, I have found the answer. Check these articles out:

http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/15/pf/training_pay/

http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/2005/07/14/overpriced-cities-lifestyle-cx_sc_0715home_ls.html

In case these links have expired, I’ll tell you the gist of the articles.

The first one identifies jobs with the worst return for your investment. It singles out three careers, and guess what…Liz and I have two of them! Architects and academic research scientists make the list for their substantial education requirements, the cost of this education, and the dismal salaries that are offered after all your time and effort.

Couple that with the second article, which identifies Seattle as the most overpriced city in the U.S. (for the second year in a row), and I think we have a winner…or loser, whatever.

Kind of makes you want to pull your hair out…maybe that’s why I’m so thin on top!

paddleboat

Check out this picture of a paddle boat that we saw last week. It was really weird to see something this huge on the lake. It sort of reminded me of Cincy's "tall ships' thing that they do.

I know grams and gramps loved the Tall Ships event in cincy.

Under Construction

Hey everyone,

I just thought I'd take a minute to share some images and photos of one of my projects that's currently under construction. I've spent a lot of time in design and production, so it's exciting for me to finally see things getting built.

This is the existing house before demolition. We often tear a house down to the foundation and build up again from there. That's actually considered a "remodel", even though you're getting a substantially new house.

These are examples of images that I create for a client during design development. This project had several looks before we arrived at what you see here.

Photos of the new house roughly 6 weeks after demolition. The windows have been delivered and will probably go in next week.

Photos of the east and south views from the master bedroom. You can see a substantial amount of Lake Washington and the Cascade mountains, looking east (all the upstairs bedrooms have this view). Mount Rainier, the Space Needle, Husky Stadium, and tops of downtown skyscapers are visible to the south. And the Olympic Mountains can be seen to the west. They've got it all.

I'll post more photos when the windows and siding are done. Also, I'll post some images for another one of my projects that's still in design development. It's going to be a handsome Dutch colonial...in other words, it has a gambrel roof. I'm really excited about that one.

Thanks,
David

good deals!

Just got back from the Seattle Public Library book sale. You'll be shocked at the deals we got.

We bought 46 books for 26.50!

David even found a book in perfect condition that he has been wanting for awhile and almost bought at barnes and noble last night for 8 bucks. Yep- that book was only 50 cents at the sale.

I was out of the office all day friday on the east side of washington for work, so I wasn't able to post at all.

I think I'll start putting the books away in the bookcase, and organize them into genre's or something like that. I'm excited!

quick rant

Yesterday I stayed home sick because I was feeling sick (go figure). At one point when I dragged myself out of bed I turned on the computer to check my email. It kept on saying no dial tone. I checked the connections to the computer and to the wall-all was fine there. So, I figured I'd call David and see if he had any smart ideas about what to do. Picked up the phone and...DEAD. It had no dial tone either.

At this point I figured it had to be a whole building problem so I went down to the condo of the association president and asked if her phone was working. It was. hummphfff! What was the problem? She loaned me her cell phone (yes-we are still in the dark ages without a cell phone) and I went up to call david and the phone company.

On my way up the stairs, I remembered that the condo below us is remodeling. So, I went and knocked on the door and very sweetly asked "You don't happen to be working with the phone lines do you?" He gave me a funny smile and asked "do you live above this unit". I said yes. He said that they had cut our phone lines. He took me into the unit and sure enough it looked like a ponytail of wire that had been cut off. He said they thought they might be extra wires so they cut them.

WHAT!!!! You don't just cut wires and not know where or to whom they belong?! Seriously! As david pointed out--what if we ran a home business? We would have had about 6 hours without any way to do business. What if I was working from home instead of being sick from home? Would they reimburse me for hours lost? No. It took about 6-7 hours for them to fix it.

The owner of the condo came up to our that evening and apologized for his contractor. Of course, the contractor blamed it on the owner and the owner blamed it on the contractor. The owner brought a nice red wine from south africa as an apology and he gave me a tour of his remodeling. I won't hold it against him ---and I would have been fine with it if we had known ahead of time. Wouldn't it make sense to let someone know there MIGHT be a problem with their phone lines on a day when you are cutting wires that are coming DOWN from another unit?

alright, so it wasn't a "quick" rant. But at least I got it out.

Birthday Shout-out to Mom!

Here's wishing my mom a wonderful birthday today! She's hard at work all day today, but she'll get to spend some time with Em and Mel this weekend.

Primaries

Today is the day to vote in the Primaries here in Seattle. David is an absentee voter, so he already sent his ballot in, but I haven't been signed up as absentee (although I would like to), so I have to go to the polls to vote.

Going to the polls was a fun experience the first few times, but it is more of a hassle now than anything. Have to find a place to park, have to find the place, have to wait in line. I really need to get signed up as an absentee voter.

Not much to report. Maggie is still itchy. Spoke to the vet today, they are going to try a steroidal spray first before going to oral steroids. So we'll have to spray twice a day for a while and then just once a day. I wish so much that we could figure out what is causing all this itching.

Made myself a list of things to do for this week. Right now there are 17 things to do. I'm hoping to accomplish about 90% of them. Better hop to it, huh?

Scrabble

I've never been a great scrabble player. I think it is because I lack patience. I don't want to sit around and stare at the board for 10 minutes to find the best possible play. I just want to find a reasonably good play and play it and move on. David and I played scrabble last night. It was fun, but it lasted way past my bedtime. I was thinking about making up rules for "speed scrabble". You have a buzzer that goes off every 4 minutes and if you don't have a play by then you lose your turn. I guess we should get better at the game before we start making it harder.

We are not scrabble aces by any means. No memorizing of 2 letter words, etc. But we did look in the dictionary under 'x' this morning while we were eating our breakfast. Funny..I can't remember any of the words I 'learned'. one might have been xebar? I'm not sure. Probably won't ever use one. Oh well.

A day without shadows

Walking to work today, I realized that we have begun the seasons without shadow. In the wintertime here (and sometimes fall), the sky is so gray that all light coming through is diffused and creates a situation where there are no shadows. It was raining this morning so that didn't help matters. But it wasn't a hard enough rain that I had to get out an umbrella. My waterproof coat with hood worked just fine.

I can't say that the whole day has been like that. The clouds have lifted and you can see some blue sky right now. That means that there are even some shadows out there. I personally prefer days with shadows, but I accept mornings like this morning as part of the cycle of nature in this part of the country. Without such mornings, we wouldn't have the lush greenery that is everywhere here.

Forecast calls for a weekend with shadows....Yea!

delayed

I was feeling pretty yucky yesterday and so I went home from work a few hours early and slept. Thus the reason I did not post. I was feel really nauseous, and I've decided it is from post-nasal drip. I don't know what to do about that, so I'm going to ask my doctor tomorrow. I could hardly sleep last night for feeling sick. Finally got the pepto out (should have done that sooner) and it kicked in after 30 minutes or so and I finally fell back asleep.

I'm getting pretty excited about the Seattle Public Library book sale that is coming up. Next weekend they have a huge book sale that fits in an airplane hangar. Most books are about a buck, but some are 50 cents. I only have 3 books left from the last sale I went to. I told david that this time we need to bring a rolling suitcase or something for me to put all the books in. Last year we had to buy a box for a buck and I ended up carrying it around with all my books in it. Not the most ergonomic solution-but the only option we had. But this time we can plan ahead!

Clearing my plate

Okay, maybe that is not the most appropriate title. Perhaps making some space on my plate fits better. I'm feeling pretty good today. I got two big projects off my plate at work, and I'm hoping to get another one off my plate tomorrow. It feels like it has been a productive day. YEA!

Of course, I still have about 7 other projects I'm working on...but finishing three of them is a good feeling!

I made lasagna for dinner last night. It was goooood. Maggie liked it too. Oh wait, she isn't supposed to eat lasagna for dinner. ;-) But she doesn't know that, and she sneaked into the kitchen and ate more than her share of it. There is still enough without doggie slobber to eat for one more night. Would you have tried to save the rest of the lasagna for another night? We were planning to eat off of it all week, so I had to try to salvage some of it!

Gross or smart?

Four O'Clock already!

This day has just flown by. I don't know how it got to be this time and how I still have so much to do. The day started off badly and I was just sort of feeling down and not great physically either. But I'm feeling better as the work day is drawing to a close. (Is there a connection here?)

We didn't do much this weekend. Rented movies, long walk/fetch sessions with Maggie, went out to dinner last night. We went to our favorite Mexican place, aptly called "Mexico". They were having a 9/11 remembrance ceremony. They had 4 violinists playing beautiful music, a bag piper, and the seattle firefighters who had a flag ceremony... and they darkened the dining areas more than usual and had extra candles out on the table. They had little note cards on the table to write a note to the firefighters, which we did. It was a nice dinner, although I probably ate too many chips!

And then I woke up this morning to the sounds of our downstairs neighbor demo'ing part of his condo. It was 7am for goodness sakes! That really made me crabby this morning. Maybe that is where the day went wrong.

Hopefully I'll be more chipper tomorrow and have a more uplifting post. I'm just not feeling 'it' right now.

Vancouver Pics

Here are some pictures from our trip to Vancouver.

The top picture is of the bridge we walked over on our way to Granville Island. More like a highway with a sidewalk than a pedestrian bridge, but oh well. See the rain clouds in the bridge picture? We got a bit wet walking home in that rain. Just above is the main market at granville island.

Part of the city with the marina and a cool bridge.

A picture of our view from the hotel room, looking toward the left

This is the view directly outside our hotel room. Right on Robson Street.

It's Yo Birthday!

Happy Birthday Emily!

I can't believe you are getting so old! Just yesterday you were playing dress-up for hours in the closet on Jessup Road ;-) And now you are getting your master's degree in architecture! You've come a long way baby!

Vancouver was great!

David and I had a great time in Vancouver. Even though it was a little rainy on saturday and sunday (we even had to buy an umbrella on sunday), we survived and didn't let it stop us from exploring the city. And boy did we explore on foot- we walked everywhere we went. No cabs or buses for us! We were on the 37th floor of our hotel and we had a great view of the city. (Jodi-it was like the view from the Mandalay Bay club looking out at Las Vegas) Here are some highlights from the trip.

Friday night was the Pearl Jam concert. They were great, and came out for 4 or 5 encores. We lost track after the 3rd encore. The arena was packed and everyone was super psyched to see Eddie and the band. One of the guitar players, Mike McReedy (sp?), reminded me so much of a younger Jim K. We just about got high off all the pot smoke from people around us who were smoking. I think it is decriminalized in canada which is why there was so much of it around. Since we didn't get to Vancouver until 5 or so, we only walked 9974 steps (4.09 miles) that day.

Saturday was our Granville Island adventure. We decided we would walk across the bridge to the island...and we didn't realize until we were more than half way across that the bridge takes us to way past granville island market. So we backtracked after we got off the highway, and added some more steps to our pedometers. The market was great. We ate lunch at a place there and then took the aquabus back to the other side of the city (we learned our lesson about walking across the bridge). Did more walking around Yaletown and Gastown in the evening. Total steps for me: 24169 (9.91 miles walked)

Sunday we were able to go into the shops and galleries we saw in Yaletown and Gastown the previous evening. We wandered around those areas, and went and saw the Constant Gardener movie that night. Steps: 19930 (8.17 miles walked)

Monday we went to Stanley park. At first we were going to just walk around a part of the park, but when we were on our way there we saw bike rental shops with tandem bikes. David said he always wanted to try a tandem bike, and I was up for it-so we rented a tandem bike and biked all around the edge of Stanley park. We also did a ride in the inner part of the park. The tandem was fun, although I was riding in the back so it was a little scary for someone else to be in control of all the important stuff. My butt is sore today. It has been a long time since I rode a bike. Since our pedometers don't count bike riding our count is bit lower : 11804 steps, and 4.84 miles walked. We also stopped by the new premium outlet mall on the way home (They have great big name shops!), and we found David a Seiko watch that he has been wanting. It is his first "grown-up" watch. We'll keep the old ironman watch with the plastic band for memories.

I had a great time and it was truly a wonderful anniversary trip. I'll post some pictures soon-but our camera ran out of batteries on saturday, so we don't have pictures of most of the trip. Thanks to all of the well wishers who sent anniversary congratulations. We appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Off to Canada

We are heading to Vancouver, BC this weekend for a little getaway to celebrate our anniversary. We are leaving tomorrow morning. David got tickets to Pearl Jam and we've got a hotel downtown so we can do lots of exploring the city. And lots of walking. I'm going to make sure I bring my pedometer so we know how much we have walked. We also bought me some new running/walking shoes last weekend, so those will definitely be going with us too. I'll be wearing my bright white gym shoes all over Vancouver!

We'll bring the camera so we can take pictures to post here. Won't be back until monday. I hope everyone has a nice labor day weekend, and that you get to do whatever it is that you want to do this weekend.

Katrina

I am so saddened by the devastation from Hurricane Katrina. I read that New Orleans might remain evacuated for 4-5 months! What will those thousands of people who lived there do in that time? Where will they stay? How will they make money (to afford to eat)? Because when it comes down to it, food and shelter are really the most important. If you don't have those things, the rest of it doesn't matter. A set of encyclopedia's or a collection of thimbles won't provide nourishment or shelter from the rain.

The devastation from this hurricane is the worst I have ever seen. A co-worker's family is in mississippi, and she said they would be without power for probably 4 weeks! Just imagine-truly imagine what it would be like to be one of those people who have just lost everything material from their lives and has no home. I won't ask you to imagine being a person who has also lost members of their family. But to be without anything but the clothes on your back-and to not have power, clean water, etc. My heart goes out to the people affected by this hurricane.

Kate and Fran are 1 year old

Hey everyone!

My father sent us these hilarious photos of his two golden retriever puppies on their birthday. Enjoy!

Go doggies, it's yo' birthday!
We're gonna party like it's yo' birthday!

problems with blog?

Is anyone else having problems seeing the bad fruit day post? When I go to the address, the post doesn't come up until I scroll down and then scroll back up again. Weird. Frustrating. Hope it is just my computer and not a system problem.

bad fruit day

Do you know that feeling of biting into a apple/nectarine/plum/pear and it isn't good? Well, I had that experience times two. I know writing about bad fruit isn't that exciting, but it made an impression on me because I felt like I was fruit-cursed.

Just about everyday I have have an apple with my lunch. Today I brought an apple as usual. I ate my half-sandwich and then proceeded to take a bite into my apple. It was really brown inside and tasted bad. So, I threw it out. My boss had commented that I didn't have that much food, so she gave me an extra peach she had. It felt a little soft, but I thought it might be okay. I cut it in half. The pit had green mold growing in it. Pretty gross. And the outside 1/8th of the peach was really dark and looked quite bruised.

So much for fruit with my lunch. I had to make do with my half-sandwich and a few slices of someone else's peach. But it is just about my snack time, so I'm going to try a banana. Wish me luck!

I almost forgot!

I almost forgot to post a picture of maggie as a conehead. She looks so sad. I had to mess with her eyes a bit in photoshop because they were just big yellow dots--so her eyes look funny, but better than the red eye she would have had. But she is actually pretty good about letting us put it on her when we leave. She seems to be licking less, but still scratching and biting plenty. Got sick on her food again. I thought we were done with that--but I guess not. Well, here is the long awaited maggie picture.

Sleepy Sunday

Hello everyone. David and Maggie are napping and I'm feeling like I've got a ton of energy --weird, right?-- and so I thought I'd post. I took a picture of maggie taking her nap on the bathroom floor. She always naps there when she is feeling hot because the tile stays nice and cool.

I also took a picture of David napping that I won't post because he would get mad at me for posting something like that. I guess I would get mad if he posted a picture of me sleeping. But he looks so cute in the picture!!!

We steam cleaned the living room carpet this morning while maggie was at the groomers. I think it looks much better, but David can't really tell that much of a difference. I can't wait to clean the bedroom and office carpets when we finally take the rest of the popcorn ceiling down. I think for me, cleanliness is energizing.

The other picture is of some beautiful calla lilies. Our neighbor who we cat-sit for gave them to us for being "on-call" to look after the cats. She had no idea that the color was almost exactly the color of my wedding flowers--and they were calla lilies too! When I saw them outside our door, I thought it was a gift from David or a parent or someone thoughtful....but instead it was the perfect arrangement from someone who had no idea what raspberry colored calla lilies mean to me. AND, our 2 year anniversary is coming up in a little over a week, so it was perfect timing! Actually it is a plant, so I'll have to look up how to care for lilies so that I can keep them alive for many anniversaries to come. David sounded sheepish when I told him over the phone that we got the arrangement. He said he would have come up with the idea eventually. I believe him. It is just a matter of the definition of "eventually". ;-)

hairs

I'm going to get my hair(s) cut this afternoon. I have been going to a stylist I liked, but she recently raised her prices by ten bucks, so I'm trying someone new this time. The new place is also more conveniently located than the old one.

I probably should have more loyalty to my old stylist, but I just can't stomach paying more than 50 dollars for a haircut (including tip). I guess there is a part of me that looks for anyway to save money, and since my mom cut my hair for many years (and cut it well), I figure that I should probably do cheap haircuts.

Speaking of cheap haircuts, David got his 7/8 in. guard for the electric trimmer, and we cut his hair last night with it. It is the perfect length and looks great. Now, David gets the free haircuts which makes it easier for me to spend a little bit of money. (I've asked him to cut my hair but he didn't want to..too scared of screwing it up. I probably would be scared too.)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Oh boy, here we go...

Hellooo everyone!!! It's David.

First, I want to thank my lovely wife, Lizzy, for giving me the opportunity to post on her fabulous blog.

Second, I should probably apologize in advance to all her faithful readers who will be suffering my occasional ramblings. Don't worry, I'm a s...l...o...w typist, so they won't be long! Except maybe this one :)

Well, since Liz introduced the topic of politics, I’m going to grab the ball and run with it.

The other night, our neighbor shared some of her hilarious bumper stickers with us. While these weren't particularly political, I was reminded of a sticker I had seen with a very frank, political message: "IF YOU ARE NOT OUTRAGED, YOU ARE NOT PAYING ATTENTION". This one is brilliant! So, how well have you been paying attention?

Okay folks, here are a few bullet points:

- The Downing Street Memo...evidence that the Bush administration fixed intelligence to justify an invasion of Iraq (www.downingstreetmemo.com & www.johnconyers.com)

That alone should have you screaming “WHAT???” This is/was HUGE news in England and around the world, but the GOP managed to suppress the story here. They have an insane ability to ignore and/or stonewall these things until the American public is distracted by bunk like the Michael Jackson trial, and it fades from our collective short-term memory. I signed the letter from Senator John Conyers to the President, along with more than 500,000 other citizens, including over a hundred congressmen and women, demanding the president address this matter. When Dubbya finally did, his response was that he had already addressed it. HUH??? Are you kidding me!

- Bush's Chief of Staff, Karl Rove, outing Ambassador Joe Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, a non-official covert operative for the CIA...a felony punishable by 10 years in prison. (http://www.ospolitics.org/usa/archives/2003/09/02/the_valeri.php)

Dubbya said he would fire anyone in his administration INVOLVED in the outing of Valerie Plame. Then, Time reporter Matthew Cooper identified Rove as a source used for Bob Novak’s column in which the outing occurred (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20030714.shtml), and Dubbya changed his criteria to anyone CONVICTED of a crime in connection to the outing. Excuse me? I’d call that cronyism. That story faded quickly after the disappearance of Natalie Holloway in Aruba gripped the nation for weeks. The CIA has requested an investigation into the matter, but I’ll bet we’ve heard the last of it.

- Cindy Sheehan and her supporters in Crawford, Texas...all she wants to know is "for what noble cause" did her son, Casey Sheehan, die in Iraq. But, our vacationing president is far too busy riding his bike and clearing brush to answer her question. (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/opinion/21rich.html also, www.meetwithcindy.org)

By the end of this month, Dubbya will surpass Ronald Reagan for the most vacation time taken from office…and he still has 3-1/2 years remaining in his term! On top of that, he takes 2 hours from his 8-hour workday to exercise, and does his best to avoid working on evenings or weekends (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002417607_crawford03.html). All this while the country is engaged in a disastrous war in Iraq! With a death toll over 1,800 U.S. soldiers that’s steadily increasing, a bill approaching $200,000,000,000, and absolutely no exit strategy or plan for reinforcements, you would think that Dubbya and his staff are burning the midnight oil, searching for a solution! But no, he’s off mountain biking and fishing and “just hangin’ loose”. I kind of thought the office of the President of the United States of America was a little more challenging, a little more demanding!

So, what I’m getting at is why are Americans so complacent? Why aren’t we talking about impeachment, instead of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie? Dubbya lied his way into this war. There is deliberately no exit strategy, because he seeks a permanent occupation to ensure years of war profiteering for him and his cronies. He has severely strained our military, increasing the threat to national security and undermining its ability to recruit. He’s driven the national debt to a record high. Corruption and hypocrisy plague his administration and the “Party of Moral Values”…House Majority Leader Tom Delay and lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Ohio Governor Bob Taft (www.coinsforchange.com), Pat Robertson, etc. How much more are we going to tolerate? Why are we tolerating it in the first place? Dubbya’s lies and ineptitude make Clinton’s sexual indiscretion seem benign, and yet everyone was talking about impeaching Clinton. At least no one died when Clinton lied! Look, would you still have your job if you had Bush’s performance ratings?

Folks, we can’t let these scandals fade from memory. Cindy Sheehan is doing an amazing job keeping the spotlight on Bush’s lack of concern for everything Americans are concerned about. Let’s stay focused and hold him accountable! Write to your representatives and let them know how you feel. Check out Senator John Conyers’ website and support his petitions. Stay informed, listen to Air America! Unless, of course, you really want 3 more years of this…

Okay, enough already. This turned out a bit long, didn’t it? Sorry. Don’t get me started on Wal-mart :)

I promise my future postings will be much lighter. Thanks for your time and patience, and just remember Lizzy started it!

Politics

Up until today, I have not serenaded you with my political leanings, although I have wanted to at times. I'll still try to be as respectful as I can when I post about political issues, because I know everyone has different ideas/ideologies, and I respect that.

But I saw this political cartoon yesterday and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share it all with you. (Taken from SeattlePI.com from yesterday's paper. Cartoon by David Horsey.) This just sort of captures how I feel about W right now.
He is ignoring the situation at hand. That's all I'll say about it.

Crazy head

There is too much going on in my head to discuss. I think I told em or C. about this...it is this feeling of not being able to keep anything in your head. You think of something you need to do/buy/make appt. for and you tell yourself that you won't forget and you'll remember to do it. But about 30 seconds later, you've completely forgotten about whatever it was, and if you say...wasn't there something I was supposed to remember?, you can't even recall what it was after many minutes of hard thinking. I think it is my brain's way of saying "slow down-you are overloading me". I've started the list making process, but now I've got about 3 lists all in different places, and none of them contain an item I just thought of and will probably not be able to remember later today. I'm not convinced it is age. I think it is a sense of being overwhelmed--and not even overwhelmed by important emotional issues, but just by the nitty gritty of everyday life. Oh well.

In maggie news, her ear infection is getting better, and she is starting to eat her new food with some regularity. The doctor says we are going to wait and see if this growth will go away- they only found evidence of inflammatory cells. However, they didn't really get a good chunk of the growth, so it might still be some sort of benign or malignant cancer, but we will wait and see if it goes down before they do some serious cutting.

That is all for now. Happy "hump" day!

update on Maggie and Grandma

Things aren't much improved with Maggie. She is still licking/scratching, and has even figured out a way to lick her front AND back paws while she has the e-collar on (That is one flexible doggie). Add to that the fact that she doesn't like her food, and got sick on it twice, and she is really not a happy camper. She hardly ate at all yesterday, but this morning she did eat most of her breakfast, so that made me feel better.

Also, I wanted to say Happy Birthday to my Grandma who celebrated her birthday this past saturday. I won't say how old she is, in case she doesn't want anyone to know...but suffice it to say that she has made it through many decades! Way to go Grandma! You are as young as you think you are!

new blogger?

So, I've invited David to blog on this site as well. It makes more sense than him having his own blog. So now friends and family can get both of our perspectives on things. I think the posts will be differentiated by our usernames-so you should be able to tell who is writing what.

I'm thinking that the content of the posts will be different enough that you'll be able to tell who is who. Hope no one minds this expansion of the lizzy life blog. I guess technically it should change names-but that is too much changing going on and it would be hard for people to keep up.

Another Pooch Tale

We took Maggie to the Vet this morning. Her scratching and licking was getting worse, and we also noticed a growth on her foot. She is in pretty bad shape. Here were the results from the vet visit.

Growth on paw was biopsied and sent off to a lab for testing. Doc says they will check for cancer and that the growth is worrisome. Not sure when we'll get the results.

She has a really bad ear infection. Again, the doc said that the bacteria in her ear was the more difficult stubborn kind, and that we need to be really diligent about cleaning out her ears everyday and applying some medicine they gave us.

The raw spots from her licking were shaved, and we are to put an antibiotic on those daily as well. They also gave us an e-collar (elizabethan collar) to prevent her from doing further damage to herself. She has to wear it whenever we are not around to monitor her.

Since the allergies seem to be getting worse, they are putting Maggie on a very strict diet of special food for 6 weeks. She can have no treats, supplements, people food, during that time--she can only eat the approved food from the vet. It will probably be tough for a while. That means no peanut butter in her Kong toy! She loves that peanut butter! And the antihistamines we are supposed to continue giving her have to be given without the usual sneaky cover foods. We have some canned food from that vet that we can use for the pills, but we'll see how long that lasts.

I'm being a stressed mom right now. There are just so many things that are wrong with her that it is really worrying me. I'm also worried about remembering all the things we need to do for her everyday. And worrying about the trip we are taking in 2 weeks.

So, sorry to bore you all with my doggie digressions but she is just about the only thing on my mind today.

Dr. Jen

My friend Jen is now officially a Ph.D. She defended her dissertation today and was passed. Congratulations Jen! She was amazing to persevere the way she did. She rocks. And she did it in 6 years- a pretty short tenure for the soc program.

I think she deserves a standing ovation!

home again home again jiggidy jig

We got home from Sinclair island last night. It was a beautiful weekend, and we got plenty of time to hang out on the beach and collect rocks and sea glass. We also ate like there was no tomorrow. I think my stomach will take awhile to recover from all the eating. Every meal was a feast-like thanksgiving.

I'll update more later but for now I have to go catch my bus to go home from work.

bitty booties

Maggie now has licked raw a spot on her front paw -again on the pads of her feet. We put a sock on it yesterday to keep it dry so it can begin to harden again, but she just licked the sock till it was soaking wet. So, we went out and bought doggie clothes.

Well, they are only doggie booties. They are waterproof so that any licking won't get the paw wet, and they tighten with velcro around her ankle. But she hasn't taken it off her paw yet, so that is a good sign. I wanted to take a picture of her this morning before I left for work so I could post it, but I didn't have time.

Tomorrow we are heading off for a weekend with David's work to sinclair island, which is in the San Juan Islands. So, no posting until next tuesday. (Unless I post a pic or something this evening)

tidbits from retreat

I think I mentioned last week that I was doing a retreat with work. Well, one of the things that we received was a report on our behavioral style. It was called a DISC inventory. So, I thought I would share some of the things it said about me. Some of them are totally true, others I think may be true from other people's perspective, but not from mine. Here we go...See if you concur with my natural behavior that I bring to the workplace (and presumably, to other parts of my life)

• She uses her strong steady tendencies to accomplish her goals
• Elizabeth may not project a sense of urgency like some people with different behavioral styles
• Others who work with her can depend on her
• She likes to set her own pace
• Once "in the groove" of an established work pattern, Elizabeth can follow it with seemingly unending patience
• Elizabeth is often seen as practical and objective
• Making plans and following those plans is important to her
• If she is shown the benefits, she will consider new procedures
• Elizabeth is more motivated by logic than emotion
• She projects a good poker face
• Basically introverted, she will "engage" in social conversation when the occassion warrants.
• She can be sensitive to the feelings of others and is able to display real empathy for those who are experiencing difficulties

So what do you think...do these fit me?

They also listed "Do's" for communicating with me (tips for those who need it ;-) Here are a few:

• Take your time and be persistent
• be prepared (wow that makes me sound evil)
• Limit your use of gestures ( I wonder what that means?)
• Be accurate and realistic
• Provide a friendly environment
• Watch carefully for possible areas of early disagreement or dissatisfaction
• give her time to verify the reliability of your comments
• use scheduled timetable when implementing new action
• define clearly (preferably in writing) individual contributions

just another day

Not much going on here. I'm working on a grant proposal that has to be finished by this friday. It still needs some serious tweaking for it to be good. The idea is great, but if it doesn't read well for the reviewers, they won't want to fund it.

In my personal life, it is all pretty much the same. We did find out today that the other person's insurance will accept liability for the car accident. YEA!!! So we won't have to pay anything out of pocket. Thank goodness. Also, the shop where we take it is within walking distance of our condo. So, at least that may work out okay.

Not much else. My brain is tired from all the thinking today, so I'm going to make this one a short one.

updates on monday

So, we still haven't heard from the other folk's insurance company regarding the damage to our car. It was good enough to drive down to Mt. Rainier this past weekend, so the damage is mainly superficial (hopefully).

The wedding we went to was fabulous. It was the most relaxed wedding I have ever been to. It was all outside in a beautiful site south of Mt. Rainier, in a town called Packwood. The wind was blowing pretty hard through the valley, but it slowed down as the night went on. The bride was beautiful- and the groom looked so happy. I thing they had a great wedding and hopefully they will have a wonderful honeymoon on the Yucatan peninsula.

We went for a hike on Mt. Rainier's sunrise point side. It was great- about 3.5 miles, and wonderful views along the ridgeline, and two lakes along the way. Unfortunately, I forgot to put sunscreen on my shoulders and now they are sunburned. David's head got a little burned too. Oops!

We picked Maggie up on the way home from the mountain, and she was so funny. I think she really liked it at the boarding place. When David and I walked up to the fence where most of the dogs were being kept, all of the dogs except Maggie rushed over to greet us. But maggie just stayed where she was, looking up at the person that was throwing the ball for her. She didn't even look at us until we called her name. Then she looked over and sort of stared at us for a few seconds before she realized who we were. Then she came over to the fence as well. But she was so into playing fetch that she just ignored us. She slept well last night, and seemed to be pretty tired even this morning. I think they really ran her alot. I like this place alot. It seems that Maggie likes it too!

Those are the updates from the weekend. until tomorrow....

breaking news

Just wanted to let you all know that our new car has already had its first accident. David was hit today, by another motorist who didn't look and check their blind spot. He is fine- it wasn't a big accident. the front passenger side of the car is a bit scraped up, but the car is still driveable. We haven't heard from their insurance company yet (hopefully tomorrow).

In better news, we are heading down toward mt. rainier tomorrow (saturday) for our friend's wedding. It will be alot of fun, I'm sure. We are going to go for a hike sunday morning before we head back to seattle.

I'll update later when we find out more about the car.

Lunch with a friend

Today I had lunch with a friend who was in Seattle for a mutual friend's wedding. We went to Chipotle--that mcdonald's owned mexican restaurant. It is actually the most healthy mexican I think you can eat. It was really yummy. I had a chicken burrito bol (yep-spelled without a w). I don't know how many calories it was, but I didn't feel too heavy after eating the WHOLE THING!

It was great to catch up with my friend. He is working in Indiana at Purdue and just made it through his first year as a "professor". I'm sure it will get easier here on out...(I hope it does, for his sake). He is the person who took a picture of me that I used on my online profile that helped me meet David. In fact, that picture that S. took is one of David's favorite pictures of me. It is from the Zoo, and I'm sort of hanging out with a monkey sculpture (which reminds me of my own dear monkey -you know who you are).

anyway, I'm not sure I'll have much time over the next 2 days to post. My work is having a retreat. And it is supposed to be in the 90's-and we'll be in a building without air conditioning, but has something called "air chillers". Whatever that means. We'll see if they can chill the air enough.

poor pooch

Maggie has been doing a lot of itching/scratching/licking lately. We figured it might just be from the heat, and since she wasn't licking anything raw, we didn't concern ourselves with it too much. However, last night as I was reading harry potter, I heard her licking and looked down to see what she was doing. There was a completely hairfree spot that was red and raw on the inside of her hind leg. I felt so bad for her!

We've been giving her some antihistamines to help with the itchiness, but it is obviously getting worse. David is taking her to the vet today to see if they can do anything else for her. We can't figure out what the itching is from. When we first adopted her, she was doing a lot of scratchng, but we figured it was from the stress of a new place, etc. and it did subside after awhile. Well, it is back! We haven't really been giving her anything different than before, so we aren't sure what it could be.

I just want to make it better, but I don't know how. And she can't tell me what is wrong. Poor Maggie-She looks so sad.

bragging again

Here I go again. It seems like all I ever do on here is brag or complain. Hopefully, I brag more than complain, if only because I'd much rather share the positive things in my life than the crappy ones.

So, yesterday David and I went to Banana Republic to spend a gift certificate I had received. I tried on 3 different pairs of khaki colored pants---and all 3 fit! Not only did all three fit (and by fit, I mean that they didn't gap at the waist, weren't too tight around thighs etc.) but all three were in a size smaller than I typically consider myself. I actually brought 3 pairs of my regular size into the dressing room, and I had to ask the attendant to get me those same pants in one size smaller. How cool is that! I hope they don't shrink--then they won't fit. So it was 2 triumphs-one is being a size smaller at Banana, and the other is finding pants that actually fit well and don't need major alterations!

Hope you don't mind my bragging!

yawning

Does anyone know what is the biological cause of yawning? I was just talking to my co-worker and I swear I was yawning every 3 minutes. and these weren't just little yawns--these were the kind that make your eyes scrunch up and make them water. It was really kind of embarassing. I was enjoying talking to her but it sure didn't look like it.

I thought it was something about white blood cells not carrying enough oxygen or something. But I can't remember now. I just know that recently I have been having yawning fits, and it makes me think that maybe something is funny inside me. Maybe I'm forgetting to breathe or something like that and the yawning is compensating? I know people don't really forget to breathe but you know what I mean.

Any info anyone can provide would be awesome. Also, I'm wondering if anyone yawned while reading this--since it is contagious ;-) maybe just reading about it will make you yawn?

Eat right flash

A thought for the day taken from my Self magazine.

"Capsaicin, a compoind found in chiles may battle cancer by stopping tumor cell growth, a study from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine notes. Spice up your meals to stay healthy"

That is just one more reason for you to ask for "4 stars" when ordering your thai/chinese food. Let the bald head sweating begin! My nose starts running whenever I eat spicy food. Guess I'll just have to bring along a tissue!

Making Do

I saw something just a couple of hours ago that made me smile. A man rode by on a bicycle while I was walking to an appointment on campus. Instead of one of those straps that holds your pant leg away from the gears, he was wearing a binder clip on his pants to keep them away from the gears. He was an older kind of dorky guy--and it just made me laugh that he decided a binder clip would do the job. And it did do a pretty good job. Looked pretty funny though.

Reminded of the simple things

This may seem like a weird association- but bear with me....

Last night we re-sealed our limestone slab that is our bathroom counter. We've been meaning to do it for months and I finally put my foot down and said-Let's just do it. This means that for 72 hours, we can't use the sink. We probably could be careful and use it, as long as we didn't put any type of staining material down...but we are being extra super duper safe and not using it for 3 days.

That means that we've moved all bathroom acoutrements to the kitchen sink. For some reason, when I was brushing my teeth this morning in the kitchen, I got this feeling of being thankful that I have a sink to spit in. It was almost like I felt that I (and most people), needed to be taken out of my routine (or brought down a notch) to remind me of how good I've got it. It was different, and a thought that has obviously stayed with me just about all day, so I figured I'd write about it.

Staring me down

I'm sitting at work, trying to be productive (and doing better at it than yesterday), while the book I am currently reading sits on my desk just staring at me. I finished Lady Chatt...so now I'm on to Dan Brown's "Deception Point". There is nothing like a good thriller to drive you nuts at work. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't read it for an hour over my lunch break. But now I sit here and try to control my urge to pick it up and read it during the work day. I can put it in my backpack, but it still calls out to me from there. "PICK ME UP" and "READ ME" are the voices I usually hear ;-)

Anyway...I only have an hour and 15 minutes till I can go home--surely I can make it until then? Maybe I need to go take a quick walk outside and get some fresh air....maybe I can take the book with me on the walk...*sneaky laugh* no-no that would just make things worse.

Looking forward to a nice weekend- Weather should be good-but then again, it usually is here in the summertime.

Cool building

My tummy has been feeling bad this morning, so I went over to the new computer science building on campus to get a bagel from the coffee shop there. Usually bread helps calm my stomach down. I walk by this building just about every day but I had never been in it until today. I thought the outside was cool, but the inside is much cooler. There is this fabulous atrium/student commons area that has these awesome staircases, and suspended walkways. Here is a link to some pictures of it. The pictures don't do it justice. It is really beautiful inside. I'll have to take David over there some day and see what he thinks. Amazing what a beautiful piece of architecture can do to your mood.

Not quite as I expected

I mentioned in my post yesterday that I'm reading Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence. I bought it at the book sale because I had read that he was very pro-women's sexuality, and the feminist in me wanted to read some of his work. So, I expected some degree of openness about sexuality, but not too much, given that it was first published in 1928. But holy cow! This book is so much more explicit than I thought it would be! I mean, it is not pornography by any means; and the words used to discuss sex aren't words people would use now (unless they were in a doctor's office). There are times when I'm reading it on the bus (which is the main place I get time to read), and I get kind of embarrassed about what I'm reading. There is another book that he wrote...I think it is called "Women in Love"; and I'm wondering if it is as explicit as this book. I'm sure it has similar themes--sexual freedom, the importance of instinct over reason, etc.

Anyway, I just had to comment on the book- as it has been very different than I expected it to be.

endorphins

We are doing a lot more driving the past 2 days than we did before. In fact, I think we would probably just go driving with no destination in mind if we couldn't think of anything. It just feels good to be driving the new (used ) car. David has done most of the driving so far, but I'll get to have some fun driving too. I asked him the other day, "so, which of us will be the first to get a speeding ticket in this fun new car?" He answered- "It is not going to be me". And yet, it is hard not to have a little "fun" when driving.

In other news, the melons here are really ripe and yummy right now. We bought a honeydew and cantaloupe last night (we needed a reason to drive the car), and I cut them up, and they were wonderful. Very juicy and flavorful. Go out and git you some!

I've got car on the brain, so not much more I can write about right now. EXCEPT... Can't wait for Harry Potter to be delivered. Although we decided that David gets to read it first, and I can read Dan Brown's Deception Point first. But I have to get through Lady Chatterley's Lover first. I thought D.H. Lawrence had some classic books I needed to read so I bought 2 of them at the big seattle public library book sale. And even though this book is interesting, it isn't really holding my attention all that well. But I need to finish it so I can start something better. I no longer read 3 books at a time like I used to in grade school.

Don't I look happy? It is a pretty cool ride. I love that we own a wagon / albeit a compact wagon. Maneuverability is great with this car.

David looks super cool with the new car. I'm not sure if you can tell, but we gave him a buzz cut a few days ago. His hair is super short now!

Here is a picture from the back/side. You can see the cool curves, and the name on the back. We look so cool driving this car!

Look at all the space we have if we need it! The back seats go down so they are perfectly level with the back. And the front passenger seat goes down pretty far too.

Plural of Matrix?

David and I have been laughing and joking about the plural of matrix. We know in math the plural is matrices, but when you are talking about a name of something, it kind of sounds like it should be Matrixes. For example, if we said "We're going to look at matrices today", would anyone know what we were talking ab out? Probably not. But if we said "We're going to look at Matrixes today" they might know that we were going to look at cars. Anyway we get a laugh out of it everytime we have to say the plural of matrix.

In other news from the car front...we bought one. We decided to go with a Toyota Matrix. It is a 2004 model, with 24k miles on it. It is gray--sort of charcoal gray or maybe a brownish gray. I'll get a picture of it and post soon. I'm excited about it. It is a great car in my opinion. But as with all big purchases, David is having some buyer's remorse. I think he'll get over it in a few days. I want to take Maggie out in the car today to the dog park and see how she likes it.

We've had an exciting weekend so far, and I think today we will just relax a little bit and get a few errands done.

cool doc'

I have such a cool doctor. Sometimes I think she is not a doctor at all, from the way she talks. Of course, her signature and script give her away a little bit... I went to her today for a follow-up on the meds I am taking. It seems they are working as they should-my pain level is lower than when I first went in almost 2 months ago. She said that her goal is for me to be comfortable with being in my body...that I should want to be in it, even if there is still a little bit of pain. What a holistic thing to say! When she brought a refill prescription back into the room, she told me that I should take some credit for getting better. While the pain meds are helping, she said that some people would have given up, and I deserve credit for perservering and getting myself to a place with less pain. What a cool thing to say to a patient! I mean really!

And then as I walked from my appointment to work I saw that the mountain was out. (For non-seattleites, that means that Mt. Rainier is visible) Even though it isn't an especially clear day, there was a break in the clouds and I could see Mt. Rainier from campus. That makes it an even better day.

The slimyness begins

Well, I figure that this weekend will be our big car shopping weekend. We'll probably do some negotiating and maybe even buy the car. I'm a little worried about the negotiating bit. I've been reading everything I can get my hands on about this part of process, but it still scares me. What if I say something wrong? I know that I won't allow them to talk payments or trade-in until we have settled on a price. And since we've been approved elsewhere, we don't have to worry too much about getting screwed on interest rate inflation. But the slimy used car salespeople still kind of scare me. One article I read from consumer reports said that these used car people have all sorts of tricks to get you to let your guard down and re-direct your attention away from the important stuff, so that your decision is based on feelings and gut desire.

I was thinking that I'd have the best negotiating ability when I had PMS and was cranky...but since we can't plan our car buying around that since we don't have a functional car..that won't work. Well, I'll just come armed to the hilt with printouts from online and checklists of questions I want to ask. And, I'll make sure I read everything carefully that they put in front of me. This is the first time I've bought a car... and I'm a little bit scared!

more car stuff

While I was away in Florida, our car broke. A light went on in the dashboard which basically means that our battery isn't re-charging itself when we drive the car. Luckily, David was able to get the car back to our house before it konked out. So, we are on a mission. Find a car and buy it...soon.

We actually went to a Toyota dealership last night to look at the Matrix and the Corolla. We can't decide. the matrix is really practical with all its cargo room, and would make trips to home depot easier. But, david doesn't like the way it looks, and it doesn't get as good of gas mileage as the corolla. Also, since it is fairly new, there are only a few years of reliability rankings for it. The Corolla comes highly recommended from Consumer reports and gets great gas mileage for a non-hybrid car. It has a huge trunk, but might make hauling skis or 2x4's more difficult,even though the seats go down in the back. I think we'll go test drive them tonight.

We also got pre-approved for an auto loan, but I'm not sure if the rate is good or not. Does anyone have a sense of what a good interest rate is for a 48 month auto loan? I want to see what kind of rate we can get at other places too, before we decide to go with this lender.

summer, summer

There is something about the summertime that makes me want to drink iced tea. In fact, I know I'm feeling like it is summertime when I make my first pitcher of iced tea (which I did about 2 weeks ago). I made a fabulous flavored tea, using a few decaf tea bags, a couple of peach tea bags, and one ginger tea bag to give it a little spice. It was really yummy. And recently I had some decaf iced tea that had used a few mint tea bags. That was really good too!

It seems that there are 2 kinds of people, sweet tea, and unsweetened iced tea people. I believe that division happens somewhere south of Michigan, but I'm not sure. Anyone I've known from the "south" has to have sweetened tea. And many Northern folks like their tea unsweetened. Now, I may being a bit too simplistic in this characterization, but I'm calling it as I see it.

Likewise, people can be divided into sun tea folks and regular old brewed tea from the kettle. The sun tea people say that their tea just tastes better. I would argue that maybe their tea tastes better because of all the microbes that grow in it in the warm water all day. (Yuck!) Studies have shown that sun tea has many more bacteria that grow in it while it is brewing all day in the sun. But I guess they aren't bad enough to make anyone sick, otherwise people would stop making the tea that way.

I'm definitely a sweetened/ brewed with boiling water from the kettle kind of girl. Although, these days I use a mix of sugar and splenda to make it a bit more healthy than I used to.

the pits

What is it about airports that bring out the worst in people? Even just going to an airport to pick someone up or drop someone off can show you the worst of humanity. People are mean, selfish, and totally self-absorbed. I try to do my best to be an extra nice person when I am at the airport, as if to make up for the other yahoo's who do their best to be extra crabby. Maybe my niceness will rub off on them? I understand that airports are stressful, and that everyone wants to get to their destination as quick as they can, but why is it necessary to cut in line or push on the seat in front of you? Oh well...just a little observation. What is it that makes you crabby in an airport?

The wall is finally finished! The stuff on it may be moved, but this is just the first go round on seeing what we like on the shelves. Doesn't it look good? Now we no longer have an excuse for not going to the gym. We were using the wall as our excuse...and that just won't work anymore.

Here is a detail shot of the bottom of one of the shelves. Isn't the bracket great? Looks nice against the wood.

Pedometer Update

I've been trying to wear this pedometer every day this week. I missed a day, but here are my stats so far:

Monday: 8234 steps, 3.11 miles
Tuesday: forgot to wear it.
Wednesday: 10257 steps, 3.88 miles
Thursday: 10797 steps, 4.08 miles
Friday: currently 3385 steps, 1.28 miles with more than half the day to go.

I'd say I'm doing pretty well. I like walking, so it is easy to rack up the steps. Plus, I don't really drive anywhere most of the time, so I probably do more random daily walking than most people. (Get off bus, walk 3/4 mile to work etc.)

Hope you all have a great fourth of July weekend. Jodi is coming into town tomorrow, so I can't promise much blogging, but I'll try to post a picture of our completed wall sometime this weekend.

Burly grrl

I used a power tool last night. Now, I'm not a complete power tool virgin. I've used electric drills to tighten screws before. But last night I used a power sander. In fact, I believe it was random orbital sander for those of you who know your stuff. It was kind of fun! My hand was vibrating for about a half hour after using it, but it felt good to know how to use it. The wood shelves we were sanding look great.

We decided to go with Cherry wood (did I already say that in a previous post?). And the grain is very nice. We also stained the shelves last night (around 10:30 pm, and david put the polyurethane on one side of them this morning. We've got this very tight plan that revolves around very close timing. Today, David will go home for lunch, and to walk maggie, and will put a coat of polyurethane on the other side. Then at 5pm, we'll lightly sand and re-coat one side and then at 10pm we'll re-coat the other side. Then by friday they'll be ready. Just thinking of all this makes me tired. It is not especially hard work, but just taxing in a weird sort of way.

Walking fool

David and I recently bought these cool pedometers that measure not only steps, but also aerobic steps (taken at a fast pace or for longer than 10 minutes). They are so cool. I'm wearing mine today and I've already logged 3721 steps. It is more than a third of the way to my goal! I've also walked about a mile and a half already today. It really is motivating. When I think, should I take the bus or walk? It is easier to say "walk" when I've got my pedometer on, because I want to rack up the steps.

bragging rights

My colleague just came to my office and told me good news. In April I went to a conference in Las Vegas and presented a paper on the career outcomes of science and engineering graduates. There were 3 other presenters in the session I was in. Audience members filled out short surveys which asked about the presentations of each person. My colleague, who had to analyze the data from the surveys, said that my session was the most highly rated session in the whole conference (people liked it best) and that I had the highest ratings within the session. That makes me feel awesome! I knew when I presented the paper that I did well, but it is always good to get external feedback on a presentation. Who's da bomb?--Liz is!

spring cleaning

Today David finished cutting out our shelves. They look fabulous. We may get them planed and then we'll have to do finish sanding and stain and/or polyurethane. We decided to go with Cherry. I think they will look great.

While David was cutting out the shelves, I started to wash down our walls. When we did the sanding of the mud on the wall project, the dust got everywhere. So, before Jodi come s to visit this next weekend, I thought I better clean things up a bit. So here is what I want to know. I remember hearing about spring cleaning from my grandparents, and hearing about actually washing down walls (I think Dad has stories about this). Has this just become extinct as a rule? I don't remember washing down any walls at home as a kid. Maybe because it is such hard work. I know my right arm is going to be tired tomorrow. But there is something kind of cathartic about it...having a clean place to live always makes me feel better. I'm not sure I'll ever do it again just as a spring cleaning thing, but if we make a mess with another home improvement project, I'll probably take up the sponge and bucket again. But I think next time, I'll enlist some help.

cars cars cars (and wagons)

I think I'm getting old. I'm actually looking at wagons as a possibility for our next car. Sure, they aren't your granny's wagon with the paneling on the side, and they are compact (some are considered 5 door cars (like my old white sentra with the hatchback). But still, they are a wagon. Weird.

Of course, being the crazy organizer that I am, I have created an excel spreadsheet with 3 pieces of vital information for different makes and models. Price, city mpg, and highway mpg are the 3 main things I'm looking for right now. Given, we are looking for a used car, but I figured that by looking at the prices of new cars, it would give me sense of the cost. Doing so allowed me to rule out many of the options. Here are the cheapest ones... but still not in the KIA category. NOTE: I've included american made cars as well...I'm trying not to be a car snob.

Make/Model city mpg hwy mpg price (starting msrp)
Chevy Aveo Wagon 27 35 9455
Toyota Echo 33 39 10455
Saturn Ion 26 35 11430
Nissan Sentra 28 34 12900
Toyota Corolla 30 38 13780
Ford Focus 26 35 13860
Toyota Matrix 28 33 14860

Since we'll be doing mostly city driving, the top 5 for city mpg are (in order):
toyota echo, toyota corolla, pontiac vibe, toyota matrix, nissan sentra.

We will of course want to do more research, and David is a picky one about cars.. If he doesn't like their design then he excludes them from consideration. But, I figure we need to keep the cost around this amount since you can easily add another 5K on in taxes etc. We'll keep looking. I'm liking the echo right now (good price, great mileage)...it will feel like we are driving back in italy in a tiny compact car. I'll make sure I check out consumer reports before we make any decisions.

Well, gotta go catch my bus home. My boss told me to go home early. YEA!!

Here is the update on the wall that I know everyone has been waiting for. The mudding and sanding is done...we've painted our finish coats of paint, nailed up the trim and touched up the paint on the trim. Last night david made some prototype shelves out of cardboard to make sure that the ones we make out of wood will work. The two bottom ones are just one piece of cardboard, but the top one gives you a better sense of how thick the piece of wood will actually be. There will be one more shelf above the one you see there, but since we wanted to make sure the thickness of the wood would be okay, we used the top one and fused it with another one to make a thicker shelf. We'll go buy the wood tomorrow and work on the shelves this weekend. We are getting there!

I feel hopeful

This morning I saw a new physical therapist. The last time I saw a physical therapist for my back was over a year ago, and my new primary care doctor suggested I go again, but to a different one. This physical therapist seemed to be very good. That is, he gave me confidence in what he was saying. He seemed to really know what he was doing too. Actually, he suggested that the pain I am feeling down my leg is probably due more to scar tissue from the herniation blocking the nerve from coming out of my spine than from an actual bulging disc. I thought, wow! that is something I haven't heard before. He also said that most people with sciatica pain find sitting to be very uncomfortable, and standing is much better. However, I am the opposite...sitting is more comfortable and standing starts to really hurt after about 5 minutes.

Apparently there is a ligament on the back of my spine that is also causing some pain. Oh yea, and I have osteo- arthritis in my spine as well. Basically, when I bend forward, the disc bulges out and causes pain..when I bend backward the ligament obstructs the nerve and causes pain. I"m in a catch 22. And then there is also this scar tissue which is constricting the sciatic nerve.

However, he seemed to think that in a couple of months he could have me where I was able to bend over without pain. I have 3 exercises to do..one of them I am supposed to do every hour! I also found out that I'm pretty strong, other than my abdominal muscles. So, the other two exercises are for my abdominals.

I see him again in about 2 weeks. Hopefully by then I'll show some improvement! But I have to be diligent about these exercises.

The Fremont Solstice parade was this past weekend on saturday. It is an all human powered parade--no cars or motors anywhere to be found. Often they have some really neat costumes that have been made specifically for the parade. Here are some robots that David thought were really cool. To the left is one of the "first aid women" who were giving the parade walkers some water and treats.

The following pictures are of a few of the "nekkid" bicyclists. Many of them use body paint to cover up although some were just stark nude. Hopefully you'll be able to tell who she is painted as. She was my favorite by far. Wonder woman! I always wanted to be wonder woman when I was a kid.

Leopard bicyclists. This was one of our favorite designs from the parade. I like the allover painting.

Another photo from the Fremont Solstice Parade. People did some amazing body painting.

Foggy

I feel like I am in a fog today. I think part of the problem is that my home is currently in chaos and whenever that happens, my mind becomes chaos as well. We worked all weekend on the wall project and I'll try and post some pictures tonight. But that also means that the house is a mess, and my desk is a mess and I can't seem to keep things together in my head. I need a master list with everything I need to remember or think of so that I can stop stressing about it. I've written a few lists already, but they deal with such disparate topics, that putting them into a master list seems like it wouldn't work.

One thing david and I did alot of talking about this weekend was getting a new car. Of course, this would be a new "used" car...but still. We have some favorite car manufacturers, but we need to do our research. It has to be in our price range for a fairly recent model that has fairly low mileage. And then, we'll do our consumer reports research on just a couple of the final models to make sure that the year we buy isn't a specifically bad year for that make and model. I think we have decided to go ahead and get this new car this summer before we drive the GMC Jimmy into the ground. It would be much better to be able to make a decision without the pressure of not having a car, and having to pay for a rental car. And, all told, the Jimmy probably isn't worth more than a couple hundred bucks, once all the repairs that are needed to it are taken into account. We might be able to get more for it from a scrap yard. :-)

Here are the requirements: good gas mileage, can carry 2x4's (inside or on roof rack) or skis, low mileage (20K - 40k), dependable, easy for maggie to get in and out.

Any ideas?

Nothin' but blue skies

Beautiful day out here in Seattle. Blue skies, occassional fluffy white clouds, and temperatures that feel like 75 degrees. Today is a day I want to leave work and go for a long walk by the lake taking in the beauty around me. Alas, my paycheck won't come if I don't put in my time. Anyone want to come visit Seattle? The summer is great time to do it!

So, I have a kind of yucky, kind of funny story about Maggie that David told me last night. When he got home from work, I was already there. This is sort of how the conversation went (with a little embellishment).

D: If I were you I wouldn't get to close to Maggie's mouth
L: Other than slime, what is wrong with her mouth? (Liz gets a little scared that maggie has rabies or something)
D: Oh, just that Maggie had a nice little snack on our walk at lunch today
L: Huh, what kind of snack?
D: Well, she ate a pile of shit!
L: What?
D: Yes, she went to go sniff a pile of poo, like she usually does, and before I realized it, she had put it in her mouth. I told her no, and to drop it, but she had already devoured it.
L: Oh my gosh. That is disgusting (Laughing)
D: It was as big as a softball--a lot of shit!
L: Really that big?
D: Yep, I got so mad that she ate it that I took her home after that. (Feeling disgusted that our dog apparently eats shit)
L: Well, hopefully she hasn't ruined her appetite for dinner!

I'm back

I think I had my best night of sleep last night since about a week ago. Finally back in my own bed. Even though the hotel I stayed in had fancy Tempur-pedic mattresses, I didn't sleep very well while I was in Portland. Lots of tossing and turning. It was also pretty lonely. My first night alone after David left I just went to the grocery store and bought some food rather than going out to eat by myself. I know...I should be strong enough to eat out by myself. For the most part, I am strong enough. But after you have a full day of eating every other meal by yourself, you really don't feel like eating one more meal in a restaurant, sitting alone. So, I kept the TV company (rather, the TV kept me company).

Today I'm back to the world of routine and work. This is not a bad thing. I like routine. Usually routine makes me feel balanced and steady and stable. I know what is expected of me, and I can deliver. I know that I have to take Maggie out for her walk every morning. I know the bus schedule so I can catch the appropriate bus. I know I've got to figure out what we are going to eat for dinner tonight. These things are good because they remind me that I've got responsibilities and they allow me focus on other things. I know I've got a good 20 minutes on the bus everyday to read my current book, or sit and think, and having that time helps me to maintain some sanity.

standing with microsoft

I'm standing at the Microsoft email checking station. Finally got the opportunity to check my email! thank goodness...I was starting to suffer from withdrawal. But the line is getting longer and longer as I stand here. Starting to make me feel guilty.

David and I had a great time friday and saturday here in Portland. Had a couple of great meals and went into some really cool stores. The quality of construction here in portland, esp. in the pearl district is just so much better than in Seattle. I'm not sure what makes it that way, but you get much more for your money than in Seattle. Still expensive, but just higher quality.

I also had a revelation at the Gelato store...yes we ate gelato! There are two kinds of gelato people...the kind that choose the same flavor each time (fragola, frutti di bosca) and other who like to try something new everytime. I truly love to try new flavors. I can't help but think I"m missing out on a really good flavor because I haven't tried it yet.

Well, the guilt is getting to me. I'm going to finish up and let someone else check their email.

Time for some fun

I'm heading down to Portland today. Can't wait to go. David and I will get some tourist time on saturday and maybe get to do some of the Rose Festival activities. David's list of things he wants to do go in this order: Eat gelato, go to Powell's bookstore.

I may not be quite as active on the blog until I get back to Seattle. I'm not sure what kind of internet access I will have.

Have a great weekend!

Only Everything

Some of you may know that the title of today's post is the name of a band from Cincinnati Ohio. Jim, a good friend from high school, was a huge impetus for this band getting going and staying going. They play regularly in the Cincy area...but here is the big news. They are playing 3 shows with Dave Matthews Band!!! They played two already, one in St. Louis, and another in Chicago. They still have one more on June 15th in Cleveland. They are "Movin' on up"!

You can check out their website at www.onlyeverything.com . I just want to wish Jim and the band the best! I knew from the time he sang a song to me in his bedroom that he was destined for big things! Oh, those were the days. Good memories.

medical establishment

I get so frustrated with the whole medical establishment sometimes. Today is one of those days. Luckily it is not a "frustration with the insurance industry" day. Those days are much worse. No, this is just a simple...why is it that when you need to see someone it almost always takes a month to get an appointment? Sometimes, you have to wait almost a month just to get the referral for the appointment, and then you call for the appointment and they tell you their next available appt. is 3 weeks away. I understand that there are many people who have health issues more important or more time sensitive than mine. I just get frustrated feeling like I'm getting the run-around. But they've got you between a rock and a hard place. They say their next appt. is 3 weeks away, and you can either say okay and accept the delay or you can say no-that is not acceptable, I need to see a doctor sooner and they tell you sorry, can't fit you in.

I recently heard about a relative of a co-worker who has been diagnosed with a fairly lethal form of colon cancer. Apparently this guy only has a 30% chance of not dying from the cancer. In my opinion, I would expect the doctors to jump on this issue and get down to business with treatment options etc. But no, this guy's next appointment to discuss treatment options is...guess when...3 weeks away! How deathly ill do you have to be to get medical attention in a timely manner?

Shameless

A little secret most of you don't know: I love celebrity gossip!

I know, I know it is all just made up stories meant to boost or bring down people's careers. But, there is something about it that makes me love it. I check MSN's gossip page just about everyday, and love to page through trashy magazines in lines at the grocery store.

I suppose it is similar to the reality TV craze. People are by nature curious creatures. We like to see what other people do with their lives...what they eat for dinner, how they discipline their children, etc. Normal everyday people like me don't have cameras interrupting intimate and/or mundane moments of the day. But then here I am posting all this information about myself on the world wide web....do I wish I was a celebrity? Absolutely not. I'm much too much of a control freak to be a celebrity. I think the pressure of being always in the public eye would get to me really quickly.

I have to remind myself that what I know about celebrities from the gossip column is not really what is happening in their real life. But a girl can dream, can't she?

Fair trade?

My boss just came into my office and offered to trade me 2 pieces of Fran's chocolate for a piece of cinnamon gum. I said certainly and gladly gave up the gum. It was perfect timing, as I was craving chocolate after lunch. Sometimes things just work out like that. YEA!

And for all of you who are interested, the court case in Washington state over the governor's election is finally over. A judge has ruled to not overturn the results of the election, which means that Christine Gregoire (D) can stay in office, and Rossi (R) must finally (hopefully!) give up on the governor's seat. I must say I am happy that this is over. Now we can move forward with the business of keeping this state in good shape.

Here is the third design. Similar to the first, but re-done to make construction easier. There was also an alternate for the first design, but I'm not going to post that one. It is very similar to the first one. BTW---David wanted me to post all these ideas.

Here is the second design- alot more traditional...the idea was to get some storage out of the deal with cabinet below. My least favorite.

Here is the first design for the wall. Many of you have already seen this design.

This is a better view of the brackets in the wall. Next steps: Mud, re-mud, and mud again...interspersed with sanding. Then paint wall, cut wood, stain and varnish and attach. Wala..it will be beautiful!

Brackets we cut, filed, drilled holes, sanded. Aren't they beautiful? Such handiwork.

We are ready to mud the wall now. This is a huge improvement over the last picture I posted. David has accomplished alot of work.

Thankfulness

I got back from walking maggie and playing fetch with her and I realized how thankful I was to have such a good dog. On the way back from the park, we saw one dog who would not come when called (one thing maggie is good at), and another dog who apparently likes to pee on concrete. I am thankful that maggie is a "civilized" dog and likes dirt or grass to do her business. She can be exasperating sometimes, but when you see how other people's dogs act, you become thankful for what you have.

It should be like that for everything. Look around you ... there are many people with much less, more difficult situations than the one you are in now. Be thankful for the life you have and the goodness that is in it.

Strawberry Taffy

I can't plead ignorance. I knew when we adopted Maggie that she would become a big part of our lives. I'm glad that she has...she is a sweet, loving dog that I can't imagine living without. However, I am still amazed at how much of our time she takes up. And, how different our lives are now that we have her.

We used to go to the gym on a regular basis (about 5x per week). Since we got maggie we have probably gone all of 5 times total. I find it frustrating because I feel very guilty for not spending time with her after she has had a long day alone, but I also need some time to do things that make me feel better. Yes, I do take her for walks, but that doesn't compensate for the weight lifting or cardio I was doing. I come home, make dinner, take maggie for a walk, and all of a sudden it is 8pm. And that is a good day. If I have to stay at work past five, things get pushed back about an hour.

I've considered waking up at 6am to get some gym time in the morning, but I just can't bring myself to get up that early. Plus David won't go with me if I go that early. Some of the dilemma is a time issue (there isn't enough of it). But that excuse doesn't always work because the gym is open 24 hours. So if i wanted to, I could go work out at 9pm. But I think the majority of it is a guilt issue. I feel guilty for leaving her.

If I am going to get my back better, I am going to have to get to the gym with greater regularity than I am currently going. arghh. I feel pulled in two directions!

faux imposter

Earlier today I was feeling like an imposter. Sitting in my office, working on a grant proposal (which sounds much fancier than it is). I had to call and make a reservation for a rental car for my conference in Portland, and I kept thinking...They are not going to let me book a car with this corporate account. Surely they will realize how young and inexperienced I am and not let me book this car. But they did let me book it, and they even faxed me a confirmation. Wow! I have a fax number that people can fax confirmations to. I feel so grown-up.

And then an undergraduate student came to ask me some statistics questions. These are the moments when I get really nervous, because this is what I am supposed to know and be good at. What if she asks me a question I don't know the answer to? Well, I was able to answer all of her questions and even draw her a pretty picture of what her data probably looked like. It was fun. I'll admit...I did consult a textbook for a quick minute, but hey-if she didn't know the answer, what is wrong with me double checking myself? It was almost like I was a TA for the intro to methods class again. It felt good to use some of this knowledge in my head!

So maybe I am not such an imposter after all. Thank goodness for days like today.