Busy Morning

This morning was busy with things I needed to do.

First up: I had to check-in for my flight to Spokane tomorrow. Yep I'm going to visit the Fam for the first time this year. I can't wait to get to the heat and no AC at my mom's house! Maybe we will stop by Costco on the way home and I will buy her a window AC. On Sunday I'm going to go and hang out at the Red Lion pool with some friends from work who happen to be going to SpokVegas to enjoy the heat (it takes all kinds). John and Nicole just bought a "pool". Mom says it is the size of a hot tub, to me that doesn't make it a pool. I think I will be chillaxing in there with cutie Elisabeth, who I hear LOVES the "pool" although to her it probably is an olympic size! Then the rest of the time I will being helping my mom stain the back deck!

Second piece of business: I had to buy tickets for my friends and myself to the So You Think You Can Dance Tour that went on pre-sale this morning. Got 4 tickets on the floor! Hopefully it will not be as crazy loud as it was 2 years ago where I was still a little deaf 2 days later!

Thirdly: I have been making sure that everything is all in place and we don't run out of anything here at work while I'm away.

Fourth: I should probably look up bus schedules to get to the airport tomorrow, I'm super bummed that the new light rail isn't open all the way to the airport yet!

Tonight I have to finish straightening up my apartment so that Terry doesn't think I'm a slob when she comes to feed Maggie. Then I should probably pack.

"Christmas morning"

Soon we are going to have to open presents in the kitchen becuase the presents are taking over the living room.

We celebrated Christmas the 26th because Mike and his finance Angie couldn't make it till then.

Here is Elisabeth trying to eat her new favorite gift, oranges in a plastic bag.

Can you find Elisabeth in all the wrapping? Here she is enjoying her first purse.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!! I hope that everyone had a great day. I spent my day plowing my grandma's driveway and watching a marathon of Star Trek The Next Generation.

Merry Christmas Eve!!

Here we are at Christmas Eve Candle Light service. Isn't Elisabeth cute in her Christmas dress that Grandma made her.

Here is Grandma wearing her fur. (I don't know if it is real or not)

How many deer are too many deer?

My grandmother's house is deer central; they come into the yard everyday about the same time. One day their were about 10 deer in back of the house. Here are some of the shots that I took during my Christmas vacation.

A young buck taking a strole through the yard.

There were 5 deer here up by the house looking for some lunch. This is taken from my Grandmothers kitchen window.

Some of the deer were having a hard time judging the distance to jump the fence, this one had no problem clearing the fence.

Icicle wars

Here is the most awesome Icicle that is coming off my mother's house! It is almost down to the snow pile!

This is an icicle on a house in Spokane that I thought was cool.

Welcome to Spokane and a lot of SNOW!!!

Holy Crap Spokane is COLD!! When I arrived in the winter wonder land it was about -16 degrees as you can see on the car temperature gauge.

You can also see that there is some much snow that their is no where to put it so they put it down the middle of the street.

This is how much snow is on my mom's car when I arrived home, she couldn't get out of her driveway so Nicole had to pick me up in the 4 wheel drive.

12/18/08

So today started out nice. It was snowing and my walk down the hill to catch the shuttle to work was beautiful. It had that lovely hushed quiet that you only get with snow. I didn't even mind to much that I had to wait 45 minutes to get a shuttle, I actually had to flag one down but that was okay because I was going to fly home to start Christmas vacation this evening.

Lovely

My day started to go down south when I happened to check the weather report for Spokane and saw that they had a record snowfall of 17 inches in 24 hours. I started to get worried that my flight might get cancelled when I saw that most of the morning flights were indeed cancelled. I wasn't too worried yet because my flight wasn't until 9 that night and the storm was suppose to let up mid morning. Around 2pm my flight was listed as delayed an hour and I was okay with that it was fine arriving later than I expected. When I left work the flight was still the same so I was hopeful. I was able to take the work shuttle downtown only to discover that no buses were going up the hill and I would have to walk in the cold and wind. I decided to call and see how my flight was doing and was saddened to find out that it was cancelled. Then I was pissed to learn that the first flight that I could get on was Saturday afternoon at 3:10!!! Damn it I want to start Christmas now not 2 days from now!!! Now I'm trying to decided if I want to try my luck tomorrow at the airport and see if I can fly out standby. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Travis is happy because now I'm going to be on the same flight that he is. He also doesn't understand why I'm mad that I have to wait till Saturday. I planned to leave after work today so that I could have the most time back home during my favorite time of year, so it bums me out that I have to wait. Plus I'm not the most patient of people.

Let me just say that the walk back up the hill was not as enjoyable as the walk down was. 1. it wasn't nearly as pretty. 2. it was much colder, my face was frozen! 3. I was irritated I wasn't going to be going home.

Not as lovely

Here I am chatting with Travis as I trek in the cold.

White Christmas? Yes. Home for Christmas? Who knows

I have no idea if I will be able to get home to ML tonight to start my Christmas vacation! Seattle is in a snow storm (Winter Freeze) and Spokane is getting DUMPED on, 17 inches in 24 hours (I don't know what their icon is yet)!!! So far my flight is not cancelled, but most flights are. I really don't want to have to go to the airport tonight to find out that my flight is cancelled. If it is going to be cancelled I would like it to happen before I try to get to the airport! I hope I can get to ML tonight so I don't have to try to deal with getting on a flight tomorrow with all the other people who's flights were cancelled today!

Cheese and Rice that's cold!!!!!

Here is the weather forcast for ML in the next couple of days, can you say COLD!!!

Today Dec 15

Partly Cloudy / Wind
-2°

Tue Dec 16
Partly Cloudy
7°

Wed Dec 17
Snow
15°

Thur Dec 18
Few Snow Showers
16°

Fri Dec 19
Partly Cloudy
3°

Sat Dec 20
Partly Cloudy
3°

What I'm thinking right now

I’m tired today. The bus was late this morning, so I had to stand out in the cold for about 20 minutes waiting for it! Then the shuttle that I take to work left early so I missed it making me 15 minutes late to work, grrr. I have to go to an 8 hour work day/training in about an hour, meaning that I will be here till after 7pm tonight. After work I have to run to the bead store to pick up some stuff so that I can finish a necklace that someone ordered, go and buy some cat food so that Maggie doesn’t starve, do some more cleaning so that I don’t leave my house in a mess when I go to ML for the holidays. Tomorrow I’m going to a poetry reading, my friend Jim is doing a reading, and I’m really only going for him cuz poetry is just not my thing. After that I need to make 60 cookies for a cookie exchange the next day! There goes another bag or two of chocolate chips!!!

I started packing last night, 1. because I love packing, 2. because I have a lot going on this week and 3. I really love packing! I really want to be ready to leave after work on Thursday because it might snow again and then getting to the airport will turn into a nightmare because Seattle drivers are retarded and don’t know what to do when snow and ice happen. I love that I don’t have to pack much because I leave some clothes at my mom’s house ie, track pants, long sleeved shirt, winter jacket, shoes. All I need to bring are some PJs, an outfit to wear to Christmas Eve service, underwear, a pair of jeans and a nicer shirt. Because what do I wear when I’m chillazing around ML? Track pants and long sleeved shirt.

Whoa I’m very chatty today.

Hell Yeah!!!

Finally!!! S’mores have been enjoyed!!! I think they might have be enjoyed to much (if possible). We had a BBQ this weekend while I was home visiting my family and after months of wanting them I finally go to eat S’mores. I was like coming home, it was just as I remembered them; crispy, warm, melty and gooey; in a word perfection. After the first classic ones my mom and I moved on to the Graham, marshmallow, chocolate, marshmallow, graham combination. This is my new favorite way make them, tons of marshmallow yummy!!! Then I tried Nicole’s “grilled” graham and chocolate, marshmallow, graham combination; which consisted of put a graham and chocolate on the grill while toasting the marshmallow. I didn’t enjoy that one as much it was a little to melty for me; kind of like a chocolate syrup S’more.


Yummy!!


Mom enjoying her S'mores so much it is all over her face and hands!

How many trees are too many?

There is the house by my mom's that I HATE! Okay I HATE the yard, the man that lived there was insane, he kept adding trees and bushes to the middle of his yard with no rhyme or reason. Most people remove trees in the middle of their yard because it looks weird and makes mowing the yard a nightmare! So every time I would come home to visit this man had added more trees and bushes, it was ridiculous!! Late last year the man put his house on the market and I was so please because I knew whoever bought it would remove those stupid trees, I am pleased to announce that yes the trees are being removed!!! The downside to this, who would have known that there could be a downside to this, my mom’s neighbors have taken some of those damn trees and transplanted them on to there property line!!!! There is a line of Lilac bushes that separate their property and my mom's and they added like 3 more bushes(which match okay) then they added this Evergreen tree that looks exactly like a Christmas tree(and look utterly ridiculous)at the end of the line!!! I might know where we can get a cheap Christmas tree this Christmas!!!!

Chores...when do these end?

While I love visiting my family, I have decided that I like to do a sneak attack visit rather than a planned visit. When my family knows that I’m coming things tend to get saved till I get there. This time I got to help my mom wash the carpet, and sweep out my grandma’s garage, I HATE sweeping anything! I am glad that I can help out but I still like to bitch about it.

Flight home

Travis and I flew home to visit our families tonight. Here we are kicking on the plane, where we got into a slight tiff, because I was trying to tell Travis about my day and he was not looking at me, nor paying attention, I like most people don’t like telling a story when the person I’m telling it to is looking anywhere but at me. Travis contends that he can’t listen to someone while looking at them without asking inane questions like “what are your pants made out of?” “Why are you wearing your hair like that?” I say that is not true because I have had MANY conversations with him where he can look at me with no problem. The solution was that I stopped telling my story and looked out the window for awhile. I am very glad that I did otherwise I wouldn’t have got this fantastic picture of Mt Rainier!

Don’t worry dear readers Travis and I were completely back to normal before the flight was over; never underestimate the power of Sky Mall (the best air magazine around) to bring friends back together. I love to go through it and find the craziest, unneeded thing I can find. One of my favorite things is the huge crossword puzzle that hangs on the wall like a gigantic art piece.

Sky Mall how I love you!