Friday, November 25, 2005

For Davinie

Just a quick fix.....the clone stamp copies another area of your image over the top of what you want to get rid of........since there is a lot of red, I picked some of it and cloned away. NOt perfect, but this was the 5 minute version, and more time would make it better....

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Inspired by Sabrina

Okay, I got to thinking about Sabrina's list, and I decided to do one of my own....I want to have 100, but I only can think of 50 so far......


1. go to New Zealand
2.visit Athens and Rome
3. go Scuba diving
4. ride in a hot-air balloon
5. become a good IV-putter-inner
6. take pictures that people want to pay for
7. become a charge nurse
8. give Ethan a gift that is so perfect, it makes him speechless
9. have babies (only 2)
10. watch the Seahawks win the Superbowl
11. buy a house with a big yard and plenty of space
12. cook dinner * every * night, and take leftovers to work for lunch
13. buy a teeny tiny SUV for more car room
14. keep a clean house
15. take more diversity classes at UW
16. catch something BIG at work, and help save a limb or life
17. have a photography studio set up in my garage
18. get another kitty for Shadow and Boo to play with
19. go to Hawaii
20. teach my kids to accept people for who they are
21. learn to sew clothes for my kids
22. finish my quilt!!!
23. get back a body I can be proud of
24. watch every episode of Little House on the Prairie
25. scrapbook *all * of my old pictures
26. Watch the Sonics win the NBA championship
27. take a Caribbean cruise
28. take some geography classes
29. win a photo contest
30. visit the Smithsonian with mom
31. learn to like seafood, at least SOME of it!!
32. figure out how to not be scared of people
33. inspire someone to be a nurse
34. make up a recipe so good, people pester me for it
35. raise polite, respectful kids
36. go back to Alaska to see more glaciers and icebergs
37. go on an overnight hike on Mt. Rainier
38. be a wonderful wife
39. go parasailing
40. take some history classes
41. get my annual holiday language wall made into a permanent ‘welcome’ display
42. watch all the Star Wars movies back to back
43. take a vacation somewhere warm with the entire family
44. hike all the trails in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness
45. get professionally fitted for a bra (hey—Oprah says to!)
46. buy a boat
47. go camping on Orcas Island
48. stop at an accident scene and help someone
49. be part of another study that saves lives
50. learn how to pick a lock

I have done it

For the first time in the history of me, I have done it. I made a New Years resolution (actually ON New Years), and I kept it! I think the difference is that I didn't resolve to exercise or eat healthier or be nicer or some other abstract thing. My resolution was to get Ortho certified. There was a test in April (not nearly enough time to study for), and one on October 15. So I bought the $85 book and paid for the $220 test and studied away. Actually, I am a crappy studier, so I put it off until the date began to loom, then I crammed. I am a really good crammer. On the day of the test, which is held at only like 25 cites across the country (luckily for me, that includes Seattle), tons of people from all around the Pacific Northwest showed up, but of all of them, I was the ONLY one who was there for the Ortho certification. Most of the others were for the Med/Surg certification, and some were there for a dialysis/kidney certification. Anyway, I was the ONLY one, and I am now one of only TWO Ortho certified floor RN's at work. (out of the hundred or so that work there) Pretty cool! AND.....I get my $1 an hour raise. Yippee!!!

I thought for sure I had not passed--this was the hardest test I have ever taken!! My floor is trauma orthopedics, so I know all the trauma stuff and sports injuries, but there were a ton of things on oseoporosis and arthritis and pediatric stuff like cerebral palsy and rickets and dwarfism. Not stuff I had a clue about. But I got my results Sunday night, and the number needed to pass was 96, which is roughly 70% correct, and I had 116, which is over 1 standard deviation above the passing level, so apparantly I do have a clue. I just don't have a clue that I have a clue, if you know what I mean!!

So.....go me!!

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Okay, non-sports post coming.....

Hi!! I am still here!! I can write as well as post pictures and my personal basketball analysis.

Mexico was a blast! We had such a good time. Justin and Kim were a lot of fun. We thought we would maybe see each other once or twice a day, have meals together or something, but we ended up spending our entire trip together, for the most part. It was nice to have the last couple days to ourselves, but we would definitely do a couples-trip again. I would have to say that the worst part of the trip was the bugs, especially the bees and the dog-sized cockroach we saw on our last day. But, all the bees flying around the sweet liquor bottles don't bother you so much once you have a few shots of said liquor rolling around inside of you, so that was no problem.

The other sucky part of the trip was coming home. Apparantly, two days AFTER we left, Alaska Airlines emailed us and changed our return flight. So, we missed it. And ended up getting home at 1am. Which sucked. BUT.....I emailed them and complained, and they gave me 7,500 airline miles as a 'sorry' gift. Cool! I now have enough miles for 2 free flights anywhere in the US that Alaska airlines flies (40k)

And, now I am at work, and I am holding the aide's phone because she is helping one of my patients take a shower. It will tie her up for 10-15 minutes, and she would be totally harassed if she had the phone, so I am doing her stuff for a while. Getting ice packs and popsicles, wash up stuff, and moving a bed so far. So....gotta go, but I will update again tonight...........

Sonics rant.......

I know this will make no sense to those who read my blog, but it will make me feel a bit better by posting it..........

WHY is Johan Petro getting all these minutes!?!?? I understand letting him start, since he is 7 foot and can jump, but that is it!! Reggie led the league in rebounds per 48 minutes last season, and now he is a DNP-coaches decision?!?!! How the hell does that happen? The knock against Reggie is that he is not an offensive player, and he can't shoot freethrows. Well, the latest description of the rookie Petro is that he is not an offensive player, and can't shoot freethrows. Put Reggie in!! You get a similar game, but MORE rebounds and he is a scrapper, whereas Petro is a little scrawny and gets pushed around. I don't like the rotation AT ALL. I don't care that we won last night--Reggie should be playing, and so should Danny, for that matter. Not a ton of minutes, but these two should NOT be languishing on the bench. I'm telling you--Weiss is suspect. Too offensively focused, and we are just ignoring defense completely. I LOVE Collison and what he is bringing to the team, but there are some problems here!!!

Monday, November 14, 2005


fountain. Lots of edited photos coming up.......

fountain closeup

I know there are TONS of repeats here. These are all the retouched photos. I will add the rest as I get them done. There WILL be some new ones.........eventually.......

another repeat

Edited out a couple sitting on a bench on the walkway. Can't even tell, can you?!!


breakfast........yes, everyone is hungover

edited out a family getting their picture taken


















Me at the fountain

my camera is hard to get used to, so unless I am taking the picture, they tend to be blurry.......

bathroom