Hat 'n' Boots

During my Pike Place Photo Stroll with Meg-A-Rooni a couple of weeks ago (apparently I didn't blog about that trip...) I discovered this book in her car that had me intrigued.  I thumbed through it and was instantly hooked on the coolness, and oddness of the book.  The book is called Washington Curiosities. The sub title says, and I love, "Quirky characters, roadside oddities and other offbeat stuff".

We all do it. We travel the world in search of cool and fun stuff in other states, cities, or countries. Often we miss the fun stuff in our own backyard. I've been collecting things to do in my own backyard for a couple of years now.  This book, along with my love for photography and scrapbooking, has opened a whole new light for me. I spent an entire two nights reading through this book and collecting places I want to go see. Most not that far from where I live.

As you can tell by the pink stickies I have a few places I need to visit. Yesterday during our photo stroll through the Georgetown neighborhood (more on that later this week) we stopped to see the hat 'n' boots.

Photo from miscmedia.com

 The story of the hat n' boots is a simple one.  Back in the 1950's the hat 'n' boots served as a Texaco gas station.  The cowboy themed station was dreamt up and built.  The hat measures 44 feet across and the pair of cowboy boots are 24 feet tall and were elaborately painted - they served as the restrooms. Clever huh? And odd. At it's peek it was the highest grossing gas station in the state of Washington.  I surely would have driven to see it back in the 50's if I were alive and driving then. Legend has it that Elvis filled up his Cadillac while in town shooting "It Happened at the World's Fair".

Photo from Seattle Collections.

As the years passed, as you can imagine, the hat 'n' boots lost it's gleam. The landmark was headed to being demolished in until locals came together and saved it. Ahhh a Cinderella story. 

So at the end of our photo stroll, truthfully we almost forgot, we swung by the park the hat 'n' boots now live in. They have sure come a long way and look pretty good. 

I imagined giving directions to your house if you lived in that house in the back ground. "Oh I live right behind the 24 foot boots. You can't miss it."

 On to the next curiosity.

Monday again?

Oh look at that. An entire week has gone by without me gracing you with my witty, and brilliant pros. Hah.

It appears not a lot has been going on in my life. And, in fact, I've been feeling a bit abandoned by friends.  This abandonment has caused me to do some serious thinking about the quality of people in my life and decide how much effort I really want to put in to a mediocre relationship.

I am definitely a home-body these days and while I like it to some extent, I do like hanging with friends.  For the past 3 or 4 weeks "friends" I usually hang with seem to have other, more important, things going on and I have fallen to the bottom the priority list. That's fine. I get it. Life ebbs and flows. I sure hope it ebbs back up in my direction.

And before you ask, yes, I've reached out to these friends. And I've been pushed aside each time. So now I'm at the point where my stubbornness has kicked in and I'm tired of being the one to reach out. Thus my comment about mediocre relationships.  I'm tired of being the one to make the effort.

I spent the weekend doing a lot of thinking about my current situation and I've decided, I need more friends. That's the easy part. The hard part is finding more friends.  There's something odd that happens as you age, the going out and meeting new people is more difficult and seems to take a LOT more time and energy. I'm willing to put that time and energy in, but then I ask myself, "Where?" So my next step is to find the "where".

So besides my feeling sorry for myself and lonely, I did get some serious scrapbooking done this weekend. The irony wasn't lost on me that I was sitting in my scrapbook room, alone, scrapping about happier times with people I barely see these days.  In fact, at one point this weekend, I got boxes from the garage and was going to pack the entire scrapbook room up and sale it. I figured I could go on one helluva vacation, by myself, with all the stupid supplies that I no longer felt I needed. Then I took a breath and just existed for a moment. Next thing I knew, my 2012 3Day scrapbook was done. Woot!

I also managed to miss my 5K run this weekend. I set my alarm to get up super early, get there early to get good parking, and then sit in a Starbucks until it was time for the run.  When I set my alarm I set it for 6:15PM instead of AM.  I woke up about 8:15 and just stared at the clock. How could that have happened? I never sleep through an alarm.  Then I looked and found out I didn't sleep through it because it hadn't gone off yet.  Anyhow, my race started at 9:30 and the prospect of getting to Mercer Island with 12,000 or more and trying to find parking and then get to the start line was just not going to happen. So I laced up the shoes and did a little wog myself. Didn't go very far - but I got out.

This week we're upping the running by adding a day.  I really need to get to it if I'm going to jog all the 5K of the Race for the Cure. 

Monday MashUp

Thankfully, for you, I won't be singing a bunch of different songs together as one song. Though don't tempt me.

Since I last wrote last Wednesday, not a whole lot has happened, but since I know you're all dying to know just what I do with my days - I'm going to make a list.  Since none of these things really go together - well thus the MashUp

1. Pookie is doing WAY better. He's back to old spoiled self. In fact, he's a bit more spoiled than before. Go ahead, roll your eyes.  He's getting his morning food and dinner food served to him upstairs in my room. For some reason that's now the only place he wants to eat. On top of that, he WON'T drink the water from the tap - this is new.  Since I have to get a bunch of water down him in a day this wasn't going to do. So now, the poor little spoiled kitty gets filtered water - upstairs and downstairs.  Ugh. I did this to myself.

2. The Inbox is still at zero with a task bar that's growing like no body's business. I have found I'm more productive  though since I can see exactly what needs to be completed and by when.  Of course, with almost the entire team traveling last week fewer emails were sent thus allowing for the Inbox to be at zero.

3. I almost poisoned myself last night. I made this and somehow the chicken didn't get cooked all the way through. The chicken breast I used was a bit thicker, but still I had it in the oven at 400F for 30 minutes. Halfway through the meal I realized the chicken wasn't cooked on the underside by the filling.  I thought the texture had been off, but I just tried to plow through. I tend to overcook my chicken for this very reason.  So far, no real signs of food poisoning, but I was a bit concerned.

4. I had lunch this weekend with a good friend who's going through a divorce.  It was sooooo good to get caught up with her and to see she's finding peace with her situation.  I really need to work on spending more time with friends - time goes by so fast now and I really want to make sure I'm working on the relationships that mean something to me.

5. Speaking on working on relationships, I got to spend a good hour chatting away with HikerGirl. Since she's moved to Montana a couple of years ago it's been hard to keep in touch. Yet we still find time via email and chatting every now and then to get caught up. 

6. The cruising bug has hit me again. The MomUnit called with a deal she was being offered by RCI. Her and the DadUnit were crazy cruisers so they seem to get all these great deals. Plus I think Carnival isn't helping the already floundering cruise industry either - so other cruise lines are trying to make up the difference by giving fantastic deals.  For a GOOD price we got a 7-10 day cruise on ANY of the 6 major cruise lines. We have 18 months to book it and 12 months from when we book it to take it. We also go a week's timeshare, and a 5 day FREE Cruise for purchasing this deal.  LOVE that. Younger Sister and Stupid-Brother-In-Law also bought in.  So where we're going, they'll be going. Yay.  The MomUnit and I are discussing Mediterranean mostly. And we're dreaming a lot. It's fun to really think about where you want to go.  BigBro and SSIL are heading to on a cruise in April 2014 to Spain and the surrounding islands.  They sent me their ports and I am all in. I'm hoping the MomUnit and Sister will find those good ports and we can get this booked.

7. Scrapbooking is moving right along.  I finished my NY / Canada trip.  The staging the pages before hand is really helpful with just sitting and getting pages done when you have time.  I started staging all the 3Day photos for Seattle and then San Diego this weekend.  Its fun to look back and smile at what a fun time being a WalkerStalker really is.

8. I realized this weekend that I've read 11 books so far this year.  4 are the book club books (I'm a month ahead on those books) and the rest are a mishmash of 250page books. I'm on target to hit my goal for this year.  It's helpful to get ahead though because the summer comes around and reading almost grinds to a halt.

That's all I've got. Now back to our regularly scheduled program (or programme if you're British).

An Empty Inbox is a Sign of Insanity

In this world we all struggle, I assume, with the obnoxious amount of information that is thrown at us every day.  In my personal life, I can manage this influx without any issue. I make the call. I do things on my time. At work, it’s a bit different. 

Like many of us working slobs, we get bombarded with emails.  I have struggled for YEARS with figuring out a way to keep my Inbox empty. I’m that person who can’t stand to have stuff in her inbox.  An inbox to me is not a holding facility for emails. It’s not a place to leave things that need to be completed. It’s an Inbox. In, review, and then out. In theory anyhow. 

I’ve read many a books on how to manage the elusive inbox.  Many of the techniques would stick with me for a bit, and then WHAM I’d go right back to using my inbox as a storage facility. 

Recently I’ve had a lot of emails come in that have required action to them and I was getting a bit behind the 8 ball in getting things done in a timely manner.  It was one of those “be careful what you wish for” situations. I needed to find something that would work for me. 

MS Outlook has an ability to set up Categories – they basically allow you to “tag” an email with a specific category.  I set up categories for all my major tasks – they’re color coded and we all know how I love me my colors. After I’d read an email I’d set the category. Then I could sort by category and work through all the tasks for that one project. 

This worked well for a while. What inevitably ended up happening is  I’d still have a bunch of emails in my inbox “waiting” for to be touched.

One book I read several years ago was called, “Take Back Your Life” by Sally McGhee and John Wittry. It’s full of great tips on how to best manage your inbox.  Their theory is you should only touch an email once.  When it comes in you should decide what needs to be done with it. Do it? Delegate it? Or Delete it? It’s a hard habit to form especially considering the amount of email that comes in. And for me, I tend to forget what the status is, or what was done with it. 

So I took they’re process and tweaked it to fit my needs. Organization is something that can be learned, and is something very personal. What’s organized to me may be a complete mess to someone else.  

Anyhow, now I use the Task option in Outlook. I love me my lists, and this allows me to keep a constant list.  It allows me to still categories my tasks, and set follow up reminders for when something needs to be completed.

My new process is easy, and I’ve been following it for a week now. 

 

A new email comes in. I read it and decide what action I need to take.

 

Is it an information only email? Yes, then it goes into my folder to read later.

 

Is it an email that requires and action? If yes, then I ask can it be done now? If not, it goes into the task list. 

 

I spend 30 minutes in the morning sorting through my email (generally – depending on how much comes this time varies).  Once the email has been sorted, I spend 30 minutes reviewing my task list and thinking about how to prioritize my day. Then I get to work.  I keep Outlook on the task page so I don’t get distracted by incoming emails.  I only go back to my inbox around noon and then again towards the end of the day.

 

Granted, I do have to go to the inbox to send emails out that are directly related to tasks I’m doing, but it’s only to send – no reading or working the inbox then. 

 

What I’ve found is:

1.     I’m not as distracted by the incoming emails. I tend to be a bit ADD about that. I’m sure that the new emails is of vital importance and I need to read it now. Not usually the case, and those emails usually are flagged with a bright red exclamation point. Which rarely shows up in my inbox.

2.     I’m way more focused on the work to be done. I have more time to actually get to my work. And I’m more thoughtful about how I approach it which makes me more efficient.

3.     I have lists. And I get to cross things off my list. THAT I love. It’s hard for me to move away from the paper list, but I’m finding this way my list comes with me wherever I go. In a meeting if a new action item is assigned to me, I can quickly add it to my task list. I can’t even tell you how many action items got lost in the pages of my notebook. Not anymore!

4.     Having a clean inbox has somehow lifted a burden off me. I feel more free and more in control of my time during the day.

I’m happy to elaborate to anyone who’s interested in more about my process (do I haven’t documented yet – but I may – don’t tempt me). It’s really very simple, but it does require discipline. That’s the hardest part I think. 

The Pookster

This last week was one I would prefer to not ever repeat. In my heart I know it will be repeated some day, but I'm going to go into denial and assume it never will.

If you've ever had a pet you'd understand. They become such an integral part of your life that you can't, and don't want to, imagine living without them.

Pookie has been part of my tribe for 17 long years. Almost 18.  He's a stinker, but a loveable cat who's made me laugh a thousand and one times, or more.  He's my bubba. 

Anyhow, he got himself in quite a pickle last Monday. He was showing signs of - well - he was stopped up.  He was lethargic and hadn't eaten. He kept trying to hork up a fur ball. And after about 8 attempts of him horking up something - mostly clear fluids -  I got concerned and took the poor little guy to the emergency vet Monday night. (Why do these things always happen after hours?)

The ride to the vet was eerily silent so I knew something was up with Pookie. 

Once there, the young, very young - I almost asked to see his credentials, vet examined Pookie.  The Pookster just sat there so quiet and controlled. Such a good kitty.  The Vet determined Pookie was dehydrated and constipated.  Apparently when in that situation cats will also try to vomit. He recommended cleaning Pookie out, fluids for the dehydration, and a shot to help with the vomiting.

The shuffled Pookie into a back room (I sat in the lobby. I had no desire to be a part of that). And about 15 minutes later they handed a very stinky, very unhappy cat back to me.

We went home and the poor little dude could barely move. The next couple of days were traumatic to me. He couldn't pick up his back end by himself, he wouldn't eat, and he just appeared to be out of it.

Just about every night I would contemplate the "what if" it was Pookie's time. It broke my heart just thinking about it.  I quickly realized that was not a scenario I wanted to consider. And yet, I know I must some day. 

I got a hold of the at home vet I use and she scheduled to come out on Friday.  Dr. Hanna is a whiz with cats.  And I was confident that if it was time to sent Pookie to the great cat climber in the sky that she'd tell me. She's kinda a no bull type of doctor and I appreciate that.

She and her assistant showed up on Friday and Pookie sauntered out to see them.  Silly cat didn't even realize who Dr. Hanna was or what was about to happen.

After some examining, blood draw and shaving of the back end. Dr. Hanna and her tech gave Pookie a little bath to clean up the back end.  The howling, and words that came out of that cat's mouth. I swear he would have made a sailor blush.  She reluctantly sat in the kitchen sink and glared at me. His eyes saying, "Oh you're gonna get it."

Once done with the bathing of the back end, we wrapped him in a towel (and by "we" I mean Dr. Hanna and her assistant) and then proceeded to give him some fluids.  Dr. Hanna's assessment is that he'll live for now. His kidneys - no surprise - are declining and of course there are options, but she wanted to wait and see how he did after this visit. 

She released him and he took about three steps from her and turned to give her what I could only assume was meant to be the death stare.  It didn't faze Dr. Hanna one bit.

Dr. Hanna also gave me some VERY EXPENSIVE, high calorie cat food to feed him over the weekend to get him to eat.  She also gave him a shot to stimulate his eating. A shot I don't want or need thankyouverymuch.

He's eating - some. Not quite as much as he was eating. His back side is shaved and looks ridiculous - I find it amusing. And somehow one side of his whiskers on his lip got cut - which is even more amusing to me. All in all, he's doing better. I'm not convinced he's out of the woods just yet, but I feel more confident about it now than last week.

I was a mess last week. I couldn't stop thinking about having to make that decision for him. Holding his life in my hands. Not a place I want to be ever. I secretly hope that I just come home one day and he won't wake up from his nap.  Until then I'm going to continue to spoil him rotten.  He sure smelled rotten last week...bleck.

Will Run for Chocolate

There are a lot of things, it turns out, that I am willing to jog for.  Chocolate is one of them. Wine would be another, and I'm hoping some day there's a Wine Race.

Anyhow, this past Sunday was my second 5K of the year. I managed to miss a 5K in February so I am hopefully doing 2 in March. The Hot Chocolate Run was the first (The Mercer Island one will be the second.)

Race day hadn't quite dawned yet when TOJ (The Other Jenn) and I were in the car heading to Seattle. Race start time was 6:45am. TOJ is not a morning person. And while I'm ok with mornings, I'd prefer them to start not in the middle of the night - which leaving my house at 5:45am is...the middle of the night.

Still we were ready. We found parking pretty quickly and found our way to the correct corral.  I had registered us for a 15 minute mile - which is slow to some folks.  In October we had done a 19 minute mile during that 5 K - but that 5K had small sidewalks and a ton of people. 

The sun began to rise as corral K got closer to the starting line.  The air horn blew and we were on our way.

Our plan was to do the first part using the Couch to 5K app and then just time our jogging after - I wanted to find out how many minutes I had actually ran. 

Right out of the gate, we were jogging, downhill. Perfect. This would help with our 15 minute mile.  We turned a corner and WHAM...a hill. This would not help our 15 minute mile.  Besides being cold, and not really a fan of hills, this hill stopped me dead from jogging. I walked up the hill.  Eventually, it went down again, and down some more, and all I could think was "what goes down in Seattle, must go back up." Great.

We jogged on and off, and I felt like I did ok.  That first hill really took the energy out of me, but I eventually found it again. 

It was during one of our "walking" sections when we turned the corner, up a little on ramp and WHAM the Battery Street Tunnel.

Side note: Have I ever mentioned I have a wee phobia about tunnels? Yah. Hate them.

The Batter Street Tunnel was built before the dawn of man - ok maybe not, but it sure looks like it.  As we approached it I informed TOJ of my phobia and she just laughed saying she'd distract me. 

Its a long tunnel too, I might add.

Approaching the Battery Street Tunnel

See I was so scared the camera shook.

Once in the tunnel we were approaching the 2 mile mark and it was about then that I was successfully doing mind over matter. I was forgetting how grungy, and unsafe this tunnel was.  It was also then that TOJ said, "Man this tunnel is old and falling apart."  Not helping! 

We made it through to the other side and we were in the home stretch.  We walked up an incline and jogged down the other side. Once down the other side we probably had .4 miles left. We could see the Seattle Center. The finish line was reachable.

I walked part of the route to the Space Needle (up hill again) then I said to TOJ, once we hit the Space Needle we jog.  So we jogged...and we made it. WOOT!!!!

Now to the fun part...the chocolate.

They put the yummy stuff another half a mile away I swear.  Maybe not, but it sure felt like it. 

We got these little bowls that had a cup of hot chocolate, a banana, some pretzels, a wafer cookie, a rice crispy treat and a small bowl of liquid chocolate. Fondue!!! OMG...I couldn't wait to dig into that.

I think I'd consider doing this race again.  Though they really need to start it later, AND they need to not do the tunnel. Blech.

How'd I do with running? Well, I think I ran more than I did last time.  We managed to maintain a 15 minute mile (according to RunKeeper we were maintaining a 15.2 minute mile).  I ran the 16 minutes of the Couch to 5K app AND we ran an additional 19 minutes.  Woot.  That's WAY better than last time.

Next race will be just that much better.

I value that.

A thousand years ago, (okay like 1992 or so) I attended a training class while working at Boeing. Another team member and I signed up for this class that was basically getting to your core and finding out what makes you tick at work and at home. I've taken several classes like this and find I always find something new about me.

In that class on the first day we were given a list of "values". We had to write on a paper plate one value. We had 5 plates.  As soon as we were all done, the instructor asked us to give one away. That was hard. I honestly don't remember all of them but I do remember struggling over which one I'd give away.  Then every day we came to class we had to give a value away. The instructor had these grand stories about what would happen if we didn't. It was hard. Very hard. These are things that you truly hold to be part of who you are. 

By the end of the week, I had integrity left.  I do remember giving up family on the day before and it was hard to decide between the two.  It took me a while to think about what my family would want me to do. In the end I held on to "integrity".

In this team offsite we had a stack of 200 cards. Each card had a word or phrase on it. The instructor have us 2 minutes to find 6 that would describe our core values.  He asked us to not "think" about it and just react.  Most of the team started flipping through the cards one at a time. I tossed mine on the floor and scattered them.  Glancing down at them words would rise to the top and those are what I chose.

When the two minutes were finished I was a bit surprised at what lay in front of me. Not because I don't think they're core values, but rather because I felt really good about them being my core values.

In no particular order:

Creativity - This should go without saying.  I firmly believe that creativity is something I need in my life to feel fulfilled.  Without it, the world would be grey and dull to me. I use creativity in so much of my daily life that it's a bit frightening that it was the first word that popped out to me.

Family - This goes without saying. Without family I would be nothing.  I may not always like all of them, or agree with them, or spend as much time with them as I'd like. But at the end of the day, they're family.  People who stand by you and love you unconditionally regardless of how crazy you may be.

Do what you say - This one did surprise me a little.  And yet it doesn't.  It is the one thing that drives me the most crazy about people. When they say they're going to do something and then they don't. I hate that feeling of being disappointed and bummed because they didn't follow through. That being said, I know that I too have to work on this one.

Inspiration - This one and volunteer bounced back and forth with me.  Finally I decided on inspiration because that's what I want to be for someone.  If my actions, my words, my deeds can inspire just one person to be a better person, then the just got a little bit brighter.  Being part of the 3Day family I'm surrounded by inspiring people and I think because of that, they make me want to be better too.

Health - This one in 1992 would not have been in my core values.  I find it mildly amusing and not at all surprising that it's here now. This one by far of all of them is the biggest struggle for me. And yet it's the one that I think stands out as the most valuable one. Without health your life stinks. Things you can't do, people you can't inspire, creativity you can't explore...none of that is possible if you don't have health.

and the last one...

Integrity - after all these years I am proud to see it still there.  Have I always lived my life with integrity? Nope. Not likely. I think you'd be hard pressed to find any one of us who has "always" lived with integrity.  But like an old friend, I know that it is something that I value not just in me but the people I surround myself with.

So what now?

After that exercise he asked us to define what we meant by our core values.  For a person with "creativity" in her core values my definitions weren't all that creative. From there we had to list our values on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being I am living the value at the highest and one being I am not currently living this value. 

Wow. This part was a bit more difficult than all the others for me. I had to use my "integrity" value and actually rank how I was living this for all the world to see.

I approached this much like the cards. I just went with my gut reaction. Ignore that I did it backwards. I thought 10 was not living it and 1 was living it.  Pays to read the instructions. But you get the point. Health wasn't as much "living" as I thought. Creativity is a daily part of my life so that one I have no worries. Do what you say wasn't nearly as full as I thought either.

Looks like I've got some work to do. Do you know what your core values are? Do you live them?

EEE Voila!

For some inexplicable reason I have that phrase stuck in my noggin and every time I do something, or someone does something I say, "EEE voila!" As in, "ta-da" as in "finite" as in I need to stop.

Since I last posted it doesn't seem like a lot has happened, and yet 7 days have gone by.

Here's a couple of updates for you.

Update 1: Weight loss
I'm sure you've noticed that I've not been chatting about this much. Its because there isn't much to chat about. I stopped being motivated back in July after the DadUnit passed.  Thankfully I've kept the 30lbs off since then, but haven't really made any effort to lose more. 

That all changed this weekend. Somehow I found some motivation tucked away in a closet and I'm trying to use it before it expires.  Back on the wagon.

Update 2: The death of a camera
When Blueberry and I went out to see the eagles on the Skagit River it was pouring rain. My camera got a little wet. And it died. I tried the rice thing for several days. Nothing. So I started the search for a used/refurbished camera body. Finally I found one that was just a body and the newer version of my dead camera.  This lesson cost me some $$ I wasn't planning on spending. Ironically last year BigBro sent me a link to buy body armor for my camera. I was aghast that it cost $50 for a camera condom. So I said no thank you. Turns out that $50 would have saved my hide. I have a camera condom now.

Update 3: Cirque du Soleil - Amaluna
I've now seen 8 Cirque du Soleil shows. All of them have wow'd me and left me saying,"Do these people have any bones?"  This one, however, not so great. I kinda felt cheated in a way. While the arcobats and stunts were amazing in and of themselves, they weren't OMG.  And this one seemed to have a lot of time killers. I don't know. For me I felt like the tickets were way too expensive and the show as just OK.  If you've never seen a Cirque show you'll likely like it. It is still amazing, and the costumes...wow...but if you've seen any other Cirque shows you might not be as wow'd.

Update4: JC
I didn't post it when it happened because it was still very raw for me. My dear friend JC died on Feb 10th of cancer. I'm still fighting with the "WTF?" emotions that go along with losing someone so young. It seems so unfair to his wife and boys that they now have to go on without him. He was well loved and will be truly missed.  A couple of schoolmates actually made it to the funeral for him. The community all came out to support JC and his family. The roads were lined with service personal (military, police, fire, etc) all there to pay their respects to a man who died way too soon.

Update5: Couch to 5K
If you can believe it, because I sure cant', I'm running for 8 minutes straight. I know for many of you "runner" types that's no big deal. To me, it's a huge deal.  My pace is still slow, but I'm still putting one foot in front of the other. I managed to not find a 5K in February that fit my schedule, so I'm doing 2 in March. The first one is this Sunday, the Hot Chocolate Run.  This particular 5K starts...STARTS at 6:45AM. Who in their right mind is up and ready to jog at that time of the morning? All I can say is they'd not only better have hot chocolate at the end of the run, but they'd better have some vodka to put in it.

There...that's all there is.

The Eagles

This weekend Blueberry and I took off to head up to see the Skagit Valley Eagles.  Apparently the Skagit River is home to hundred and hundreds and hundreds of bald eagles that come down from Alaska to feed. 

I say apparently because we didn't see hundreds and hundreds of eagles. I had in my head that I'd see several eagles in a tree and thought how cool that would be.  Turns out that is not what happened.

We took off at the butt crack of dawn to get up there for our 10am departure. In typical Seattle February weather it was raining. The rain, on the way up, varied in how much rain there was. At times we'd have just a mist and others it would be a down pour. All I could think was we're gonna get soaked.

We found, barely, the Shell station and got ourselves ready to go.  The tour company was there and ready to get us on the water. They put us in this old, very old, shuttle that had more dirt in it then anything I'd seen in a long time.  I was pretty sure the dirt was holding this thing together.  We grabbed our life jackets (also caked with dust and dirt - but I kinda expected that of life jackets) and were hussled off the old, musty shuttle and in to this 1970's van that had seen better days.

This is Blueberry looking for eagles. She's being dramatic of course.

The van was disgusting. Dingy, musty, dirty, and well, in a word, gross.  I didn't want to touch a thing in this van. And all I could think was, "Do they not know what vacuums are here in the country?"  Our tour guide, Dave, chatted us up a bit on our way to get in the boat. He seemed nice and happy to be doing what he was doing. He's spent years on the river and said he knew it inside and out.

We stopped at a boat launch and had to hike a bit to the water through a trail of mud. I was thankful I had my hiking boots on.  They were keeping me dry and relatively clean. There on the waters edge was this big raft.

Dave gave no safety talk or nothing, just said, "Here's how you get in the boat." I was first in line so I hopped on in and rolled my way to the back of the boat.  Dave was paddling right behind Blueberry and I.

And we were off.

Did I mention it was raining? Yah, still raining. 

We hit the water, which was calm because this girl is not interesting in white water rafting.  A couple of ripples in the water was all I wanted to see.

Dave was an expert at finding the eagles. I'd say he had an eagle eye...hahahaha.

Ahem.

Our critter count was:
21 eagles for the back of the boat
22 eagles for the front of the boat -they apparently saw one they didn't point out to us
9 ducks
2 Canadian geese
and 3 river otters.

The Skagit River, even in the rain, is beautiful.  The fog was hanging low which made for an eerie kinda feel to the area. And of course with the rain, it was already grey and dark.

After our 3 hour tour that lasted only 1 hour and 45 minutes, we docked and we hopped out. We were all cold, wet, and frozen.  All any of us could think of was getting back into that dingy, gross van and getting warm.

Dave hopped out of the boat, got us all out and said, "Where's the van?" As if any of us knew.  There was no van there to pick us up. 

Dave called the van-dropper-offer and asked. The van-dropper-offer said he'd be there in about 5 minutes.  Fine. I could wait 5 minutes.

40 minutes later after we started hiking up the road to the shell station in the rain and the wind, here comes the van.  The van-dropper-offer hopped out of the van, and started walking down the road.  I'm sure he wasn't interested in the wrath of 10 very wet, very cold, very frozen people. Dave got us in the van and cranked the heat. He apologized over and over again. 

As soon as we got back to the shell station, Dave announced he had received instructions from the owner to give us all a free tour. Oh goody, we get to go back and have a free tour! 

I turned to Blueberry and said, "I'll only come back if they can guarantee we get to ride in this dingy, gross van again." Blueberry just rolled her eyes at me.

After we got our wet clothes changed, we were starving.  A friend of ours had recommended the Birdview Brewing company.  So off we went.  We were starving and so ready to be warm and cozy.

This little place was, let's say, interesting. I have no doubt they brew good beer. There were many patrons in this place having a pint, or growler, or two.  I wasn't really interested in beer since I still had a two hour drive ahead of me. I just wanted food.

The "kitchen" in this place was basically a half wall off to the side and this older woman, working at a snail's pace making food.  Their menu was short and simple, as I would have expected. But the kitchen is what struck me as odd. 

The counters, were covered in food items. Bags of bread, condiments, a HUGE tub of butter, more bread, more plates, lettuce, sliced tomatoes, bags of chips, etc. It was crazy. Her "stoves" were basically two Panini presses that were so coated in grease and gunk that you couldn't really tell if there was a grill under there or not. The other cooking service was basically a flat griddle pan that was on full time, and sitting precariously close to the bags of bread.  I turned to Blueberry and said, "If the water didn't get us, this will."

I ordered a turkey sandwich with Swiss cheese and bacon. Blueberry ordered a grilled cheese. It took an hour to get our meal. And Blueberry's grilled cheese was basically two large slices of sour dough bread and two small slices of cheese.  We paid our bill and we got outta there determined to find a Starbucks.

Despite the wind, the rain, the cold, the 40 minute wait, the few birds, and the crazy lunch we had a great day.   I mean it's not every day you get to look this cool.

Oh and the cold, wet part of this trip killed my camera.  It's d-e-d dead. I'm afraid I'm going to have to fork over some $$ for a new one. Or a used body if I can find one.  Still, this camera isn't that old and I'm so mad at myself for not taking MORE precautions. It's sitting in a bunch of rice right now...let's hope it does the trick.

February Sunday Dinner

Occasionally a Sunday dinner comes together with no issues and turns out to be fantastically fun. This last Sunday dinner was just that.

Mostly the same usual suspects. Conversations ranged from sleeping naked in bed (don't ask) to bad neighborhoods to live in to family dynamics and back to sleeping naked in bed.  Again, don't ask.

The conversation this time seemed to flow so smoothing and effortlessly. Everyone adding their two cents in, and a few adding in a like a whole dollar worth (who name rhymes with WigRow).

The food was outstanding - if I do say so myself. I decided Sunday dinners were about comfort food a lot of the times. The combination of attendees often dictates what I'll make for dinner. This time around I decided comfort food was going to be the name of the game. So I made Shepherd's Pie. And what a hit it was. Queen PopUp brought spinach dip for an appetizer. Um, yum. S&C brought salad. Or more appropriately they brought items to make a salad and C then made the most kick ass salad of all time. It rivals Blueberry's kick ass salad.

Sorry for the yellow tint. I didn't have too much to drink that I should have forgotten to check my white balance. But there ya go. I had a few other things on my mind. Which I'll get into in a later blog.

So you can see, there was plenty of food for the 9 of us.  I figured a 9X17 pan of Shepherd's Pie would be plenty.  I mean I am a Wraspir and Wrapir's are known for notoriously cooking large sums of food.

Apparently my Wraspir heritage didn't plan on the salad being kick ass, and the Shepherd's Pie being unbelievably good. And it was delicious. It's definitely a recipe I'll do again. I'll be adding it to the cooking blog some day soon.

But the star of the show, in my humble opinion were the Nutella Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches.

What started as just a plan to use up a jar of Nutella and make cookies, turned into a thought just before I fell asleep one night about putting ice cream between two Nutella cookies. And the ice cream sandwiches were born. They...were....fantastic. While the cookies were not low-cal, the ice cream was. So I figured it countered the calories of the cookies and therefore the entire dessert was calorie free. And yes, the sky is pink in my world.

I just wanted to add one more gratuitous shot of the Nutella cookies.

Drool....

So as I mentioned, the February 2013 Sunday dinner will go down in the history books as one of my favorites. 

Seattle SIL, P-Dot, C, S (behind the kerchief), me, BigBro, Pantry Goat, Mr. Queen PopUp, Queen PopUp and Blueberry.

Blogger has a mind of its own

I was bored last night and so made some updates to some OLD blogs. For some reason, Blogger then posted them as new blogs instead of old blogs.  I've since deleted them altogether...so ignore the new blogs you may or may not have seen yesterday. They weren't "new".

Occasionally I do like to go back and read what was going on in my life at a certain point. Its not all interesting, but its my story all the same.

I've been having an ongoing conversation with a friend about life and how people approach it.  We all have those friends, like me, who try to be very planful about my life and my direction. Spontaneity isn't something I do well.

Then you have the friends who just flop through life with no real direction or plan. 

And of course, you've got all the friends who are in between.

The discussion I've been having is about which is "right".  Should you be planful? Should you be spontaneous? Should you just let life happen?

Just typing those words "just happen" sends shivers down my spine.

Look, the way I see it is this...this is my one chance.  I have to have control over it so that what I want out of life I get.  All the planning, the thinking, the doing, that's what life is all about isn't it?

At the end of my life, I'd like to look back and not have any regrets.  Well, serious regrets - I think we all have some minor regrets. 

I get there's a lot to say for being spontaneous. I'd love to have a bit more of that and a bit less control freak.  It's a struggle... let...me... tell... you. It is one thing I've been actively working on. Sadly, there aren't a lot of opportunities in my life to be spontaneous.

So what am I trying to say here:

First, it's your life. Live it! Which ever type of person you are - you have to own it.

Second - maybe try a little enlightenment and try to push out of your comfort zone into Opposite World and try to be a little like what you're not. I.e. spontaneous when you're not.

Third - You only get one chance. As Nike said, Just do it!

And Now Back to our regularly scheduled show...

It's been a weird couple of days for me. With current situation of a good friend heading into hospice and bracing for the phone call, my life has taken another unexpected turn to re-evaluate who I am, what I'm doing, and why.

Its sad to me that it takes a major trauma for me to re-evaluate. But I don't think I'm alone in that. I think it might just be the way life is, and that I should just go with it. Its not like you can schedule soul searching into your daily life. Or could you?

I don't have a lot to really talk about today, but felt like I needed to express something. So I'm stealing an idea from Beagle Babe and going to write about what is currently going on.

The idea here is you take a moment each week and write about a few things that are currently happening. You'll get the picture...just keep reading.


WATCHING:
The super bowl...okay so I ignored the first hour of the super bowl, then decided to turn it on to watch the commercials.  Really uneventful commercials for the most part.  A couple caught my eye and got me all teary eyed - Clydesdale commercial and Jeeps commercial about working with the NSO and bring our military folks home.

READING:
Just finished We Need to Talk About Kevin. Brutal book. Great book. Tough read, but it was a good read.  It's about a mom who's son commits a high school mass murder.  Rather odd timing to start reading it considering the Sandy Hook situation.  Finished that and hopped right into Beautiful Creatures.  I've read some mixed reviews on this supernatural book and so felt I had to give it a go myself. So far, I'm hooked.

LISTENING:
A little bit of this and a little bit of that with regards to music. With recent events dumping me on memory lane, 80's music seems to be the main theme this week. 

MAKING:
I'm finishing up my 2012 scrapbook and specifically the Vancouver portion of 2012.  Then I decided I needed to take photos of every scrapbook page and organize them so I have them should anything happen to my scrapbooks. That is a project in and of itself.

FEELING:
A bit nostalgic.

PLANNING:
Oddly my planning this week is around food. I've got to get back on the wagon of losing weight. I've maintained, and I'm fine with that, but I still need a couple more pounds (read about 50) to get off me. 

LOVING:
Project 365.  I decided to do it again this year and haven't quite found my rhythm yet.  I will say though I love that every day I think about what photo I want to take. 99% of my photos so far have been with the iPhone.  Soon, very soon, I'll get the big camera out.

Its never easy to say goodbye...

In fact, sometimes its one of the most painful things we as humans have to do.  But alas, it's time for me to say goodbye to another friend who's losing his battle with cancer.

My heart is breaking into so many pieces as I type this.  I just cannot imagine a world with out MG in it. 

MG came to Wa for work and we got together to have beers - I think this was in 2007 or 2008. I can't remember

I met MG at TASIS my junior year. We were in many of the same classes since the junior class was so small.  My first real memory of him was sitting in American History class and him passing a note to me asking me what I wanted to be when I grew up. That note got passed back and forth between us a dozen times during class.  At the end of it I was going to draw maps in history books and he was going to drive cabs.

A lot has changed since those days.

Hello 80's. Prom night. That's me on the left, MG, and best friend CN.

He was one of my many Mike crushes.  I've had so many crushes on boys named Mike that I've lost count.  But I adored him.  He was so kind, gentle, sarcastic, and a bit nerdy at times that I just couldn't help myself.  It would never be though. We'd grow to become such great friends that dating just wasn't in the cards.  I'm glad now because I shutter to think what a break up in high school would have cost me. 

Through the years we've kept touch periodically.  And yet no matter the amount of time that went by we could pick up our conversation as if time hadn't passed.  I cherish those times now.

MG is dying. He was diagnosed with melanoma a couple of years ago and kept from us just how bad it really is.  I've only just learned that he won't be with us much more than a couple of weeks.  Hospice is his home now. 

In my walk down memory lane tonight I pulled out my year book from my senior year. TASIS was different in that each senior, or two seniors got a page they got to design and write whatever they wanted to and put whatever photos they wanted.

Naturally I wrote something to MG:
"Mike - Thanks for "caring"...our inside jokes have kept me laughing all year.  I will return now to the "real Washington" where apples and slugs rule the world.  I love ya Verde. I probably don't even realize yet how much you've impacted me life."

Hmph! If I had only known.

MG wrote this to me (and I cry now as I type it):
Jennifer - As far as I'm concerned there are no words to describe how I feel about you. I've thought about it since St.Moritz and I realize that I don't deserve a friend as good as you. I love you and I'm going to miss you lots (and that still doesn't say what I feel)."

Well MG...I love you and I'm really going to miss you too.  Be in peace my friend.

1997 Class Reunion - 10 years

2007 Class Reunion - 20 years

There's a new blog entry coming...

and here it is.

I know I've been less than chatty on this blog and I'm really trying to be better at it. Each time I sit down to start a new blog it sounds boring, and or doesn't make sense.  So I delete it and deem it necessary to wait a day to write it.

Next thing I know, it's been a week.

So what's happened since last we spoke. Holy crap it's been two weeks. 

1. The Getting Started Meetings for the 3 day has started. These are one of my favorite parts of the 3day events. They're basically meetings for folks who are thinking about signing up to come to and learn about the 3Day. As volunteers we stand around and answer questions or provide comic relief, depends on the meeting. Then we watch a video and we cry. Every. Single. Time.

2. This month started the first of a dinner club I started. The Landlords, Blueberry and I many, MANY moons ago used to go and try new restaurants all the time. Then we stopped when I got poorer.  Then we kept saying we were going to do it. Then we never did. So sometime last December I suggested we pick a day every month and we go out and try new restaurants. Being the good PM I am I created a schedule of who picks in what month.  Mr. Landlord picked a Japanese Tappen Yaki place in Bellevue called - cleverly - The Japanese Steak House. It was a good, and I ate a lot.

3. Also that week was our first book club meeting. As with everything it seems, we chat about doing it and then nothing happens.  Again with the PM hat, I put together a schedule and the first book was chosen.  The schedule also included that whomever picked the book that month hosts the book club. 

January we red Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (same writer who did Seabiscuit). The book is a WWII story about one guy and his survival.  He's lost at sea after his plane goes down and is a POW. It's a fantastic read and I highly recommend it.

Book club ended up being at my house even though Seattle SIL picked the book - she had other more complicated things to deal with so I offered. We ate tacos and sat around talking about everything under the sun, oh and we talked about the book too.

4. I got a cold. Then nothing happened for 5 days. I'm still recovering from said cold, but I feel way better.

5. Seattle SIL had her first fund raiser for the 3day this past weekend and hosted an All day scrap.  I have been "staging" my scrapbook pages for several weeks now and it felt good to actually do some scrapping.  Blueberry made fun of my overly organized staging process - but hey, I got about 16 pages done to her 8. So there.

I could provide you a process doc of what I go through to be prepared to scrap, but I'll spare you. I'm nice that way.

6. I received some bad news yesterday that I'm still trying to process. I'll eventually blog about it, but just am not sure what to say about it just yet. Let me just say this. You here the phrase all too often, "Live each day as if it's your last" - do it. And if there's some friend or family member you've been meaning to reach out to and see - do it. Just do it.

There's a Party on the roof...roof top of the wold...

Happy Tuesday. If you have no reason to be happy today, just think, you're alive.  That is reason enough. That and you're reading this blog.

First things first, Sunday dinner came and went.  The usual suspects were there this month and for some unexplained reason everyone was super chatty. It might have been the wine (we polished off 4 bottles somehow) or it just might be that this crowd is starting to feel too comfortable with each other. Either way, it was a great Sunday dinner. Not that all of them aren't great, but this one felt...well more special.

Dinner was Roasted Lemon & White Bean Hummus (OMG Sooo Good), Bloody Mary Flank Steak (delicious!), twice baked potatoes (molten hot), Balsamic Green Beans (I need to make these daily).  I managed to not have too many left overs - much to the Pantry Goat's dismay.

Usual Suspects - Left to Right: BigBro, Queen PopUp, Seattle SIL, Mr&Mrs. Atlanta, Mr. QueenPopUp, Pantry Goat, The Landlords, the Yank, PhotoGirl and moi.

In other non-food related news, I've got big news.  For some of you, you'll probably roll your eyes and think it's no big deal, but for me, its a big deal.

I ran for 5 minutes straight yesterday! Twice!

I know. I know. Some of my marathon friends are like, "So what?" but for a girl who's not a runner, and who struggled with running for a minute even, this is big. 

TOJ (The other Jenn) and I finally decided to move forward in the Couch to 5K. We're now on week 4. I won't even discuss how long it took us to get here, the important part is we're here.  The jump from week 3 to week 4 is significant in the amount of jogging time.  The max jogged in one straight time was 3 minutes, then we jumped to 5. I was completely convinced I couldn't do it. But TOJ kept telling me (aka distracting me) stories and before I knew it Ursula (that's what I call the voice on the app) said it was time to walk. 

To say I was stunned would be putting it mildly. My legs burned, and my breathing was normal. All in all, it was a good jog.  Cold. But a good jog.

I'm starting to think I might actually be a jogger yet. I've had my doubts.

Resolution Run

Happy Friday everyone!  This week went by in a blink of an eye and boy am I glad. Work was crazy this week...crazy in a good way.  I got a lot accomplished and discovered I am a data geek underneath all this project managers clothing. Who knew?

You may recall that one of my goals this year is to become a jogger/runner. And part of that goal was to run a 5K every month with the plan to actual RUN the entire 5K for the Race for the Cure.  The Couch to 5K program has been stalled, then progressed, then stalled, then progressed, then stalled and we're about to progress again. Well, last Sunday was my first 5K. I was ready. I was pumped. And then I got sick.

 

The Redmond Resolution run was a small, easy little 5K jog.  Well for some. TOJ (the other Jenn) and I still did it. Though admittedly I didn't jog as much as I had hoped. I couldn't breath very easily and didn't really want to push it. But we did it and we finished.  We did the first half by using the Couch to 5K program, then planned on jogging two minutes on, two minutes off.  Suffice it to say we barely made the program, let alone jogging the additional. My deal, however, was I would jog to and over the finish line. And we did.

The route took us South onto the Sammamish trail and back to the Redmond Athletic Club where they had an exercise challenge - we chose to skip that. Then the route took us North onto the Samamish trail again. This time part of the route was what they called the Concrete Coffin. Basically a four story parking garage where you run up the stairs to the 4th floor, ac

ross the top floor, down the stairs, up the ramps to the 4th floor then down the ramps and out. TOJ did it, I chose to not given my lack of breathing capacity.

We finished with style though and the weather held out for us. It only started to sprinkly slightly when we crossed the finish line. 

When I got up in the morning I was hoping TOJ would have a headache or a reason to not do it. I just wasn't looking forward to it. But in the end I'm so glad I did it.  I felt ok after - I'm sure the Starbucks helped.