Friday, August 26, 2005

Yet another day in paradise

Back at work again, but only for 8 hours today, so it feels SHORT! We had a Storm game last night, and it was a win, so we have now clinched home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Go Storm! We have another game on Saturday, which is the last game in the regular season. Should be another great game. And, it is at 330pm, so we will have time afterwards to do other things. Maybe go out to dinner or something.

Today is another mundane day at work, for the most part. I won't bore anyone with the details...

So, I have reason to believe that there is a possibility that I have people who read my blog and DO NOT COMMENT. Can we go over blog etiquette? COMMENT! I want to know who is out there and what kinds of things you want to read about.....

Okay, all about me. I have discovered that I am a passionate person and I believe in things very strongly. I have ideals, as do we all. Lately, I have started wearing awareness wristbands for causes near and dear to my heart. I have put myself at a limit of 4 on my right wrist, because that is how many I can manage and not get too clumpy or feel like a 6 year old kid.

I have had the yellow LIVEStrong wristband for about 14 months now. I got it right before the Tour de France last year, and have had it on ever since. I am sure everyone knows what this one is about, but go to www.laf.org to find out more. I wear it because the foundation supports cancer research and patient education, so that patients know what their diagnosis is, what their options are, and where they can go to get more info. Great cause, great story, check out "It's not about the bike" by Lance Armstrong. Great read.

I am also wearing a red wristband that says '1200' on it on one side, and www.tobaccofreekids.org on the other side. I wear this one because I am an anti-smoking fanatic, as I feel all healthcare workers should be. I dislike smoking. I hate the smell. Yes, I can smell it on you when you are not smoking. YOU can't, but that is because you are destroying your smell and taste receptors with all the crap you are inhaling. Trust me--I can smell it on you, and you smell horrible. You smell ghetto, whatever you want to call it. AND, you know better, which makes it worse. You subject your family, your pets, your coworkers to this stink, and it is not fair. I also hate the cigarette butts. They are everwhere. EVERYWHERE. I went hiking up Mt Rainier a few weeks ago, and there were butts along the trail. Saddest thing I ever saw. I picked them up and threw them away with my trail mix bag when I was done hiking. Was that so hard? AND, you smokers are clogging up the health care system and making it all more expensive for EVERYONE. Know what?? I don't have much sympathy when you come in with lung cancer and emphysema or COPD. Don't get me wrong, I am nice and do my best to make you comfortable and take good care of you, but I am NOT sympathetic. You knew better, yet you continued to smoke=your own fault. Anyway.....I have more of these left, and if you truly want to wear one, I will send it out free.

My third wristband that I am currently wearing is whitish/clear in color, and says "our vision is clear" in braille along one side, and www.fightblindness.org From the foundation fighting blindness. I wear this one for my mom. My mother is blind because of a genetic disorder called Usher's syndrome, and this foundation is the one that will eventually find a cure or a treatment to save vision in these people. I support that! I have several of these left, if anyone is truly interested. They come in packs of 10 for $3 each wristband.

My fourth wristband I have on now is my newest. It is red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, and says PRIDE on it. I do not remember the website of the organization where I bought this one, but it is for 'gay pride', support for people who are gay/lesbian, support for people who are too afraid to wear one because it might make them a target, support for your own sexuality being your own business, and no one elses. I read a post somewhere about someone wanting to wear one, but being afraid that they would be a target of hate crimes or horrible remarks, and I thought that totally sucked. So I wear one. And I have not had any bad comments or anything like that, just a few inquiries into what it stood for, which I am happy so share. To me, it also represents diversity, which is another of my causes.

One wristband that I had to rotate off to keep the 4-band limit was a dark green one with "Supersonics" written on it. Check out my posts from back in late april for why the sonics mean so much to me!

I also have removed my red, white, and blue wristband that said "team USA 05" on it, that I was wearing in honor of my mom participating in the world championship of paddling in Berlin in August. SInce the championship is over (she got 6th!), I took it off since I have that 4-band limit, and I needed the space! I am keeping the extra bands, not sure what I will be doing with them, but I am sure I will come up with something.

And now you know a little more about me.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Okay

All right.........really slow day at work today, so not much to report here........
Boring/easy patients, for once, which is great because I am TIRED. I did not sleep well last night, for some reason.

I have decided to make an appointment to get my hair cut/highlighted and my eyebrows and eyelashes dyed. It has been awhile. It is just so stinking expensive! I can go to the cheapie place, but I had some highlights put in once there, and they looked pretty crappy. We have so many other things going on the credit card this month, it is hard to justify it. I will talk to Ethan. He always says go ahead, no problem, so I will feel better and do it. We have to send the deposit for the house on Rockaway Beach in December this week ($250), and pay for my Orthopedic Certification exam ($220) that I will take in October, to get a $1 an hour raise, and a haircut/color/eyebrow/eyelash dye, etc will be like $150 if I go to the salon I like. Talk about spendy! Also, we need to get our plane tickets to Puerto Vallarta pretty soon, and we have Sonics and Storm tickets on a monthly payment plan, so that is also due, and we bought into a one-time time share trip to Cabo San Lucas, which is a $115 a month payment til it is paid off, so there are lots of things to juggle. AND, we want to pay off our condo, so that makes things interesting. Maybe I will just spend $12 and get it cut at supercuts across the street.

Either way, I am not hiking tomorrow. I want to sleep in! I got up early yesterday (well, at 7am, so I technically slept in, but I do not feel rested), and today I work, etc. I need a day of sleeping in! Hiking takes up a lot of time with the drive to and from, so I could use a day at home to catch up on things. Also, we have a Storm game tomorrow evening, which will be fun. Always a good time.

I somehow managed to get Labor Day weekend off, which is a sort of miracle since the previous 2 times I have requested a weekend off I have been shot down. Since the camping idea with the Merritts and Fieros fell through (time off work/anniversary and trip to Wyoming), we are staying up here. Justin organized a camping trip to somewhere in the North cascades that he has been to before, so that should be a ton of fun. We have a tent, but no sleeping bags, and pretty much NOTHING else. That is okay. We have lots of blankets. Someday we should invest in a mattress pad or sleeping bag for 2 or something. Maybe Papa has something we can borrow....

We are going to Papa's house on Saturday for a BBQ. I need to look up some wild boar recipes for some of our roasts, so I can marinate one and bring it with us. We want to contribute! I think Jobie and Ty Leigh will be there also, so it should be a good time. We will meet Cynthia, as well. It will be nice to see the new house and how it is looking, and Ethan can reacquaint himself with his minibike. I will have to remind Jobie to plug it and charge it up so Ethan can take a spin.

All in all, we are not doing much. Lots of hiking for me, lots of exercise together and separately for both of us (not going to be the chubby couple in Puerto Vallarta), so I guess we are healthier now just living our boring lives out.........Oh--we also have ANOTHER free trip to Vegas coming in the mail, in addition to the one we already had. So that is 2 now, plus Cabo and PV and I am going to go probably to Disneyland with Alexsandra sometime. Busy schedule!!
Long time no non-hiking post, but here I am back again.

We had our fantasy football draft Sunday, which went fairly well. I think I have a team that can compete. Ethan had another draft last night, which went awesome. He got almost every top player he was hoping he would get, so if he wins he knows what he is doing, and if he loses, he must have no clue!

Keeping busy at work lately, not much else going on. I will be back on my break later for more entertaining information......check back!!

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Look at my new blog!!!

It has come to my attention that hiking has taken over this blog, and I am no longer posting anything here but hiking pictures. So, I made a new blog so that this one can continue to be used without having to scroll through a billion pictures to get to the words. Enjoy!! THere is a link to the right ===>

www.nwtreks.blogspot.com

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Apparently my left leg went hiking yesterday and left my right leg behind. My entire body except for my left leg and butt feel humm ho, but my left leg must have been climbing around on it's own, because it is SORE! My quad and my butt. I admit, there was a certain amount of climbing done, but it wasn't enough that I should be sore, and especially not on just the one side. Very strange.

Enough about my butt........I am thinking of going hiking around Mt. Rainier tomorrow. The only reason I might not is that I am working until 1130 tonight, and may be fairly tired tomorrow morning, and, it is a LONG drive, almost 2 hours, and I am not sure that I should be doing that on a Friday, since I will be driving back north within the Friday rush hour period of 1pm-8pm, and that would suck. BUT....the rush may not be too terrible heading north. We shall see.

Maybe I will just stay home and scrapbook. But that does not count as exercise!!! I lost my 24 hour fitness card, and I know it is in the house somewhere, but I simply cannot find it. So I need to bring $10 with me to get a new card, and that is shameful. Oh, well. Ethan and I have started going together on the days when I either don't work and am home or I work 8 hours. He also goes at 4am 5 days a week for cardio (he just lifts in the afternoons). I could really care less about the weight training, except for my 2 favorite machines--calves and biceps/triceps. I just get on the fancy shmancy elliptical machine with a big book that will lay open on its own and plow along until Ethan is done. Keep it up!! We are determined not to be the chubby couple when we get to Puerto Vallarta in November. At this rate, we may make it. I am sure Ethan will, but my determination is always being tested. Although---I am eating much better, I have cut out a lot of sugary crap that I usually eat, and I am not drinking very much chai anymore--I found a ginseng energy sort of drink that tastes good and has no calories, so that is a start. Go, Alyca, go.

Other things......the cats are being awfully cute lately, but that is always there. Ethan refuses to help me in my quest to put the mini jersey and mini Seahawks helmet on Shadow for a photo op. He would only hate it for a minute, and forget all about it, but he won't help me and I can't do it on my own. Trust me, it would be adorable. Boo is even doing better. He now sports a full back of hair, no more bald spot, and he is softer and drooling less. I think Shadow finally taught him how to swallow. He was actually a hang-out Boo-kitty the other night, which is rare for him. Usually, he wants to Meow (or Me---) at us and drool and flick his drool on us then go sit on the top of the couch and watch us. Now, on occasion he will relax and just sit in our laps and not freak out. The Shadow-man is also adorable, but he always has been. I love it when he plops on our feet and rolls over so we can scratc his belly while turning his head upside down. So cute! And, he smiles. He has a sorta permasmile where his little mouth turns up on the ends, and he is so expressive! You can totally tell what mood he is in by his ears, eyes and tail. His tail may be short, but he uses every last inch of it.
Check this out..... http://technorati.com/

This is a search engine that only searches through blogs. SOrta interesting. You can search your name and it will come up in wherever someone is writing about you in a blog. Or other things. I found this website when reading a story about Cindy Sheehan, the woman whose son was killed in Iraq who is camping out in front of Bush's ranch in Texas waiting to speak with him about the war. Give her more press!! If this stays in the forefront of the news, it cannot be ignored and SOME sort of reaction has to happen. Not that I think this will change Bush's war policy, being a lame-duck president, but at the very least it will continue the discusion about what exactly is going on in this country, and maybe get people thinking about what sorts of elected officials we want to have.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005


Per Jobie's Request

Denny Creek

Today, Jobie and I headed out on a hike. Our original intent was to go to Rachel Lake in the Eastern part of Snoqualmie pass. However, Jobie got us completely lost. I hate to throw it out there like that, but it was all his fault. He had the map and was directing me along the forest service roads, and we got lost. So.....we drove around these increasingly primitive roads and decided that we had no idea where we were. Nevertheless, we stopped the car atop a high ridge and found a stream. We took a few photos there, then headed back to the car. Yet ANOTHER wrong turn had us quite decided that we did not need to go to Rachel Lake, so we headed over to Denny Creek, which is along the Lake Melakwa trail. About 45 minutes along or so, you get to the creek crossing, so we decided to head up there for some photo opportunities. We had such a good time! Talked about everything under the sun, took some great photos and did some exploring. We definitely want to go back there again, perhaps with our significant others, and perhaps at another time of year when there is more water, for a different look at the water scene.

Surveying his domain.

Jobie going off-road. We got a bit lost looking for our Lake, so we found our own beautiful areas to observe.

Jobie standing above our hidden, lost little creek

Action shot of Jobie crossing the creek

Goofing off at our hidden creek

Another shot of young Mister Frodo

We found this cool tree with exposed roots on one side, and decided it looked just like the scene in the Fellowship of the RIngs where the Hobbits are hiding from the Nazgul. Jobie is portraying a very large Frodo.

Falling into Denny Creek

Crossing Denny Creek

JObie just after stepping into Denny Creek, giving him a nice moist shoe for the entire trip.

fungi

Jobie showing off his balancing skills

Squrrel running up a log.

Our first mushroom sighting!!

Beautiful bluish berry I photographed while waiting for Jobie to return from "the urinal" he spotted near the creek.

Denny Creek, as seen from a side path off the main trail just after we left the parking lot.

Pretty red mushroom along the path. We saw so many mushrooms! It was almost a mushroom expedition, we saw so many!!

Crossing Denny Creek

Okay, JObie actually SITTING on the bridge railing.

Jobie sitting on the railing of the first bridge we came to over Denny Creek

Dewy mushrooms on the end of a stump

Jobie looking up into the big beyond--------

Pretty green leaf with reddish spots

Look--a gynormous stump just off the the path....

This requires more investigation

Climbing up the huge stump

What is inside?? Just rotten wood.

Leaving the gynormous stump behind

First glimpse of I-90 as we headed up the trail

Tall purple flower

Cool looking pink strawberry sort of looking mushroom. Not in focus!!!!! So sad..

Beautiful red berries on Devils Club

Beautiful red berries again

A fungus among us. Definitely the biggest one we saw all day.

Massive mushroom from the south

Look, a lovely specimen of fungus. Tasty.

Yummy??? Perhaps not.

No, Jobie---don't eat it!!!

Jobie out on a limb trying to get a first picture of Denny Creek

Jobie and I at Denny Creek. I had to totally race over to get into this picture after setting the timer on the camera.

Me NOT falling off a log as I traverse Denny Creek. You can see the bridge in the background

Jobie by a little waterfall

Jobie by a waterfall, with his face visible!! His hat was on most of the time, so it is hard to see his face well.

Jobie by a little waterfall (no face)

Jobie by a waterfall with no face, since his hat brim covers his face. What can I say....I am sure he is not squinting!!

Jobie WAY down at the bottom of a series of small waterfalls on Denny Creek

Jobie is NOT thrilled that he just slipped into the water.

Jobie after falling in the water ( I never fell in!! Pbbbbbtttt!!!)

What a goofball! He kept climbing up dangerous areas to get pictures. THey had better turn out well!!