I KNOW there is someone out there who is celebrating memorial day in much the same way as me.....bored to tears, close to a computer. I am at work and have little to nothing to do, with a couple spurts of actual work.
So.
Here's the game.
What is one of YOUR memories?? Any subject, any day--just a memory. In alphabetical order.
I will start--My memory starts with an A (first letter of the alphabet--get it???). I remember Sabrina and I playing in the back yard of the house where we had a front dirt and a back weed (such a sad commentary on your housing situation when your kids totally make fun of your gardening technique by straight-faced referring to your property by front-dirt and back-weed). Anyway, I remember playing back there with Sabrina, and she was sitting on the ground and got bitten by a bunch of fire ANTS (see the letter A??).
NEXT???
Monday, May 28, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
We won the lottery!!!
Ok, so we didn't actuallly *win* the lottery, we came in second. And it wasn't exactly *we*, as in Ethan and I, but it WAS the Sonics, and we DID get the second pick in the lottery draft!!! Can you say Kevin Durant?!? I am just hoping the Blazers don't take him and leave us to get Greg Oden--we have a million feet of centers already, we really don't need another 7 footer!!
We had our first Storm game of the season on Saturday. So much fun! Our second game is tonight and I am totally looking forward to it. They are predicted to win out the West in one poll, and they sure looked it! We were down by 22 points in the third quarter after playing extra suckily, but came back and won it by 6 or so. LJ threw in a beyond-half-court shot at the buzzer that totally swished and was just the icing on the cake. We love the WNBA!!
We had our first Storm game of the season on Saturday. So much fun! Our second game is tonight and I am totally looking forward to it. They are predicted to win out the West in one poll, and they sure looked it! We were down by 22 points in the third quarter after playing extra suckily, but came back and won it by 6 or so. LJ threw in a beyond-half-court shot at the buzzer that totally swished and was just the icing on the cake. We love the WNBA!!
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Much ado about nothing....
I really have nothing to post about. Not really. Well, I did just get back from Portland for a bachelorette party. That was lots of fun. We went down on the train Friday and came back Sunday afternoon. The train is nice! We had a group of 4 seats and a table for the 4 of us who took the train down (some drove, some flew). There is a beverage cart on the train, and they served little half-bottles of wine. Lets just say that we cleaned them out.
In Portland, we stayed at the Kennedy school, a McMenamins hotel. It used to be an elementary school, but was closed down because the school needed lots of repairs and the school district had no money (in the 1970's). After sitting empty for quite awhile, it was bought up, restored and opened as a hotel. Within the school, there are 4 bars, 2 restaurants (well, 1 big one and 1 brewery/pub open late), tons of classrooms that have been turned into hotel rooms but still have the blackboards and some original pieces, the teachers lounge is now a locker room for the hot plunge pool, the library is a meeting room, etc, etc, etc. Pretty cool. The grounds are beautiful, too. Lots of green everywhere. A neat place to stay.
We had a great time there, as well as exploring the vast nightlife of Portland and trying out every martini bar known to man. I swear to god. We went to one that had a 15 page BOOK in small print with all their drinks listed out. I had one called 'Banana Bread' with chai liqueur, banana rum, vodka of some sort.....it was WONDERFUL! We all sampled each others drinks, and they were all amazing.
Anyway. Good times.
I got a bit sick Sunday, and ended up calling in sick Monday. Sore throat, zero voice, general fatigue. I swear to god--that number 3 bus is going to kill me! There is tuberculosis, etc hanging out there, I know that is what makes me sick! All those people coming to harborview on the bus, not covering their mouths when they sneeze! I take this bus to work daily and am exposed constantly. Good thing we get a free flu shot every year!
So. That is what is going on in my world. Lots o nothing. I do get to go to the trauma conference in 2 weeks, which will be lots of fun, and the Rose festival in June (and Kael's birthday), but pretty much same old, same old.
Oh, but we are going to have our housewarming party. FINALLY! After living here for a year and a half. We are thinking the weekend of June 1, since we have plans pretty much every other weekend. You are all invited!! (but let me ask Ethan if I can have a party first.....don't just surprise him by showing up. He hates when people come without calling first..........)
In Portland, we stayed at the Kennedy school, a McMenamins hotel. It used to be an elementary school, but was closed down because the school needed lots of repairs and the school district had no money (in the 1970's). After sitting empty for quite awhile, it was bought up, restored and opened as a hotel. Within the school, there are 4 bars, 2 restaurants (well, 1 big one and 1 brewery/pub open late), tons of classrooms that have been turned into hotel rooms but still have the blackboards and some original pieces, the teachers lounge is now a locker room for the hot plunge pool, the library is a meeting room, etc, etc, etc. Pretty cool. The grounds are beautiful, too. Lots of green everywhere. A neat place to stay.
We had a great time there, as well as exploring the vast nightlife of Portland and trying out every martini bar known to man. I swear to god. We went to one that had a 15 page BOOK in small print with all their drinks listed out. I had one called 'Banana Bread' with chai liqueur, banana rum, vodka of some sort.....it was WONDERFUL! We all sampled each others drinks, and they were all amazing.
Anyway. Good times.
I got a bit sick Sunday, and ended up calling in sick Monday. Sore throat, zero voice, general fatigue. I swear to god--that number 3 bus is going to kill me! There is tuberculosis, etc hanging out there, I know that is what makes me sick! All those people coming to harborview on the bus, not covering their mouths when they sneeze! I take this bus to work daily and am exposed constantly. Good thing we get a free flu shot every year!
So. That is what is going on in my world. Lots o nothing. I do get to go to the trauma conference in 2 weeks, which will be lots of fun, and the Rose festival in June (and Kael's birthday), but pretty much same old, same old.
Oh, but we are going to have our housewarming party. FINALLY! After living here for a year and a half. We are thinking the weekend of June 1, since we have plans pretty much every other weekend. You are all invited!! (but let me ask Ethan if I can have a party first.....don't just surprise him by showing up. He hates when people come without calling first..........)
Happy Mothers Day
A very happy belated Mother's day to all the mothers out there....I was out of town this weekend and sick Monday, so I am just now getting around to it...
Hope you all had a wonderful day!
Hope you all had a wonderful day!
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Guess who's going on vacation!!
We have officially booked our next vacation (together....Ethan is going to Vegas without me in June....and we are going to a wedding in July in Montana...but this is a VACATION).
I wanted to go somewhere for my big three-oh, but the Seahawks schedule would not permit it. We must travel in the fall when the Seahawks are on a bye week or at the very least on an away game. So. One week to the day after my birthday, we are flying out. We leave at 1015pm and fly through the night, changing planes in Miami and arriving in Puerto Plata at 230pm. Our final destination is about 10 miles away in the beautiful country of the Dominican Republic.
For those of you not in the know, the DR is located south east of Cuba, between Jamaica (to the West) and Puerto Rico (to the East). We are travelling at the end of the hurrican season, so cross your fingers for us!
We really wanted to use airline miles, and the only flight dates we could get have us staying there for 9 nights. No complaints from me! We are deciding which resort to stay at....we have been in the Riu before (in Puerto Vallarta), and LOVED it. There are three Riu resorts all in a row, all very affordable (from $82-$110 per night total, all-inclusive), and you can stay at any one of these three and go through the others, use their pools, etc. We are thinking about staying at the Riu Bachata, the slightly more spendy of the three, mostly because it IS a bit nicer, and has the big swim-up bar (the others don't), and a second beach to access (it is located on a point of land and has beaches on either side). Very lovely! Our other option is the Riu Merengue, the centrally located resort. Still pretty nice and lots of wonderful stuff. The Riu Mambo is the least expensive, and the oldest of the resorts. It looks it, a bit, but still nice.
We are leaving the DR on a Friday at 3pm, arriving in Miami at 630pm, and staying the night there before we fly out the next morning. We will stay in a hotel and go out to South Beach or somewhere for a nice dinner, then head home Saturday, getting to Seattle around noon our time.
Sound like fun? We are paying only about $1000 for the whole shebang, since we are using our miles for the flight. CHEAP!!
We will have someone stay at our house to house-sit and get mauled by the cats. Can't leave them alone that long!!
I wanted to go somewhere for my big three-oh, but the Seahawks schedule would not permit it. We must travel in the fall when the Seahawks are on a bye week or at the very least on an away game. So. One week to the day after my birthday, we are flying out. We leave at 1015pm and fly through the night, changing planes in Miami and arriving in Puerto Plata at 230pm. Our final destination is about 10 miles away in the beautiful country of the Dominican Republic.
For those of you not in the know, the DR is located south east of Cuba, between Jamaica (to the West) and Puerto Rico (to the East). We are travelling at the end of the hurrican season, so cross your fingers for us!
We really wanted to use airline miles, and the only flight dates we could get have us staying there for 9 nights. No complaints from me! We are deciding which resort to stay at....we have been in the Riu before (in Puerto Vallarta), and LOVED it. There are three Riu resorts all in a row, all very affordable (from $82-$110 per night total, all-inclusive), and you can stay at any one of these three and go through the others, use their pools, etc. We are thinking about staying at the Riu Bachata, the slightly more spendy of the three, mostly because it IS a bit nicer, and has the big swim-up bar (the others don't), and a second beach to access (it is located on a point of land and has beaches on either side). Very lovely! Our other option is the Riu Merengue, the centrally located resort. Still pretty nice and lots of wonderful stuff. The Riu Mambo is the least expensive, and the oldest of the resorts. It looks it, a bit, but still nice.
We are leaving the DR on a Friday at 3pm, arriving in Miami at 630pm, and staying the night there before we fly out the next morning. We will stay in a hotel and go out to South Beach or somewhere for a nice dinner, then head home Saturday, getting to Seattle around noon our time.
Sound like fun? We are paying only about $1000 for the whole shebang, since we are using our miles for the flight. CHEAP!!
We will have someone stay at our house to house-sit and get mauled by the cats. Can't leave them alone that long!!
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
It is official or "In which Ethan's attributes are bragged upon"
Ethan is poised to be the first ever in the history of Harborview Medical Center's department of Engineering, with it's multiple, multiple divisions--the first ever black (African-American, if you must) lead/supervisor. Ever. First. Numero uno.
Engineering, in my opinion (and this entire blog is strictly *my* opinion, if you did not already know), has always been a 'good old boys' club. People gained positions of power, then hired their friends and buddies for new jobs. There are very, very few people of color. Almost no women. And never has there been a black lead. There was a man quite high in the Engineering department, but he never was a lead, never managed a shop. But Ethan might.
He is now the lockshop. The ENTIRE lockshop. On his own. They are trying to open up a new position ASAP, and Ethan is contacting locksmith friends right and left to get someone who is a really good worker to apply for this new job. He has the chance to get this shop working well, get the systems updated so that security and records are improved.
In short, Ethan will do one hell of a job. One of the greatest things about him is his relentless work ethic. He works until everything is done. The *right* way. Not the easy way. He IS Mr customer service. Back at Argens, he would talk to customers over the phone, do a great job, and when they came to pick up their orders or pay or something in person, they would ask for 'Ethan'. He assured them that he was, in fact, Ethan, but they were thrown. Weren't looking for some young black kid to be that professional, that knowledgeable. That GOOD. He won them over. By the time he left Argens, he was as sought after as Karl, his boss. He will win them over again. People are going to be amazed at how much more efficient the lockshop becomes. No more 6 month waits for new locks. No more lost records. Just efficient, polite, exemplary service performed by a master in his field. Ethan may tell you he is a journeyman locksmith, but in many eyes, he has mastered it. Combined with his skills in customer service, he is an employee worthy of recognition.
Can you tell that I am proud of him??? We have been stressed out about this coming, and we are stressed out a bit less now that he is actually the one and only locksmith, but I know in my heart that he will do an excellent job.
Send him an email to congratulate him! Tell him what a good job you know he will do!
rizonis at comcast dot net
Please do not send him spam. That would so suck.
Engineering, in my opinion (and this entire blog is strictly *my* opinion, if you did not already know), has always been a 'good old boys' club. People gained positions of power, then hired their friends and buddies for new jobs. There are very, very few people of color. Almost no women. And never has there been a black lead. There was a man quite high in the Engineering department, but he never was a lead, never managed a shop. But Ethan might.
He is now the lockshop. The ENTIRE lockshop. On his own. They are trying to open up a new position ASAP, and Ethan is contacting locksmith friends right and left to get someone who is a really good worker to apply for this new job. He has the chance to get this shop working well, get the systems updated so that security and records are improved.
In short, Ethan will do one hell of a job. One of the greatest things about him is his relentless work ethic. He works until everything is done. The *right* way. Not the easy way. He IS Mr customer service. Back at Argens, he would talk to customers over the phone, do a great job, and when they came to pick up their orders or pay or something in person, they would ask for 'Ethan'. He assured them that he was, in fact, Ethan, but they were thrown. Weren't looking for some young black kid to be that professional, that knowledgeable. That GOOD. He won them over. By the time he left Argens, he was as sought after as Karl, his boss. He will win them over again. People are going to be amazed at how much more efficient the lockshop becomes. No more 6 month waits for new locks. No more lost records. Just efficient, polite, exemplary service performed by a master in his field. Ethan may tell you he is a journeyman locksmith, but in many eyes, he has mastered it. Combined with his skills in customer service, he is an employee worthy of recognition.
Can you tell that I am proud of him??? We have been stressed out about this coming, and we are stressed out a bit less now that he is actually the one and only locksmith, but I know in my heart that he will do an excellent job.
Send him an email to congratulate him! Tell him what a good job you know he will do!
rizonis at comcast dot net
Please do not send him spam. That would so suck.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Where Alyca pats herself on the back
After massive amounts of research (admittedly, the vast majority was done by Ethan, but since he has no blog I get to be all publicly excited about it), we have decided that we are/will be financially secure.
In 14 years, we will have the mortgage paid off (if we keep this mortgage). If we refinance, we may be able to get that down to 10 or 11 years.
So, if we have kids, and if we do so in the next year or two, we will have no mortgage payments anymore when they are in middle school. Imaging having $3k a month to start putting away at that point towards their college education. We are not worrying about starting a college fund now. Maybe something later, but we will be ok.
The first summer after we pay off the mortgage, we are so totally taking a massive vacation. Take the kids to Europe for a couple weeks, or maybe Australia. Something just a ton of fun, our big reward for living within a budget and paying off the mortgage.
We are so stinking proud of ourselves for being able to do this. Paying a bunch extra to the mortgage each month. EVERY month. Since we got the house. Even when we built up credit card debt (which we JUST paid off). That is priority number one, and we don't ever skip. This is mostly because of Ethan, of course; the world's most responsible person. I personally have stomped and thrown fits because I want to spend money instead of saving it, but he generally wins, because he IS right......(but don't tell him I said so)
Ethan also looks at our retirement info on a weekly basis and logs where we are. We have 10% of our paychecks going into TIAA/CREF and Fidelity mutual funds, etc, and over the last 7 months we are averaging a 12% return/increase. Suze Orman, Ethan's financial guru, says to expect 8%. Even if we average 8% over the next thirty years, based on what we put in each month we will have $1.8million when Ethan turns 60. Plus, we have pensions that will pay us $5500 a month total if we wait until we are 63 to take them. If we take them early, they go down by 3% for every year before that.
So. We are retiring at 58. Not sure if that is when I am 58 or Ethan, but 58. We need to build up enough savings to pay for life for a couple years so we don't need to access our pensions for as long as possible, but that is it.
We are planners. We think ahead. Waaaaaaaaaayy ahead. We discuss things to death before even considering actually *doing* them. We overplanned our relationship before we got married. We talked about buying a house for MONTHS. We have been talking about having kids and how we will raise them and how we will deal with a multitude of situations with them for YEARS now. We plan. We talk. This is a good thing. Maybe things won't work out exactly as we expect, but at least we have put some serious thought into it and considered what is to come.
This is my big exciting post to myself about being financially responsible. There is a payoff in the end, if we (okay, *I*) can be patient enough to wait for it. I always want to spend, I see things I want. This is why I am not getting them. I will look back on this post and remind myself what it is we are doing. This is why we have a budget and live below our means and have no furniture in our extra bedrooms. We will buy things one at a time, over time, and end up with nice things that we really like.
We can do it. It will be so totally cool if we do!!!
In 14 years, we will have the mortgage paid off (if we keep this mortgage). If we refinance, we may be able to get that down to 10 or 11 years.
So, if we have kids, and if we do so in the next year or two, we will have no mortgage payments anymore when they are in middle school. Imaging having $3k a month to start putting away at that point towards their college education. We are not worrying about starting a college fund now. Maybe something later, but we will be ok.
The first summer after we pay off the mortgage, we are so totally taking a massive vacation. Take the kids to Europe for a couple weeks, or maybe Australia. Something just a ton of fun, our big reward for living within a budget and paying off the mortgage.
We are so stinking proud of ourselves for being able to do this. Paying a bunch extra to the mortgage each month. EVERY month. Since we got the house. Even when we built up credit card debt (which we JUST paid off). That is priority number one, and we don't ever skip. This is mostly because of Ethan, of course; the world's most responsible person. I personally have stomped and thrown fits because I want to spend money instead of saving it, but he generally wins, because he IS right......(but don't tell him I said so)
Ethan also looks at our retirement info on a weekly basis and logs where we are. We have 10% of our paychecks going into TIAA/CREF and Fidelity mutual funds, etc, and over the last 7 months we are averaging a 12% return/increase. Suze Orman, Ethan's financial guru, says to expect 8%. Even if we average 8% over the next thirty years, based on what we put in each month we will have $1.8million when Ethan turns 60. Plus, we have pensions that will pay us $5500 a month total if we wait until we are 63 to take them. If we take them early, they go down by 3% for every year before that.
So. We are retiring at 58. Not sure if that is when I am 58 or Ethan, but 58. We need to build up enough savings to pay for life for a couple years so we don't need to access our pensions for as long as possible, but that is it.
We are planners. We think ahead. Waaaaaaaaaayy ahead. We discuss things to death before even considering actually *doing* them. We overplanned our relationship before we got married. We talked about buying a house for MONTHS. We have been talking about having kids and how we will raise them and how we will deal with a multitude of situations with them for YEARS now. We plan. We talk. This is a good thing. Maybe things won't work out exactly as we expect, but at least we have put some serious thought into it and considered what is to come.
This is my big exciting post to myself about being financially responsible. There is a payoff in the end, if we (okay, *I*) can be patient enough to wait for it. I always want to spend, I see things I want. This is why I am not getting them. I will look back on this post and remind myself what it is we are doing. This is why we have a budget and live below our means and have no furniture in our extra bedrooms. We will buy things one at a time, over time, and end up with nice things that we really like.
We can do it. It will be so totally cool if we do!!!
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Hello everyone!
Yes, I am still here. I have much stress and do not find the time to sit down and relax and blog things as of late, for which I am eternally sorry. I will endeavor to do better.
We are on the verge of excellent news in some fronts, of which I will not speak of until later this week, once things are more certain. I know this makes no sense whatsoever, but I am sure there are a few of you who have an idea of what it is I mean.
Ethan and I are doing quite well. Trying to figure out some kind of vacation for this fall, because I am in NEED of a vacation!! I haven't been on an actual week long fly somewhere just for fun vacation sine last June, and I seriously need a break! We are probably going to Puerto Vallarta in late October (during the Seahawks bye week) to stay in our timeshare, since that is the cheapest way to go, and we are obligated to use our actual timeshare every other year, or to rent it/sell it for that year. Every opposite year we can exchange and go anywhere. I really want to go somewhre for my big "twenty-ten" that is coming up, but it is on a Tuesday and we have home Seahawks game the Sunday before and after my birthday, which we are not willing to miss. We pay around $120 per game and have such a great time, every time--not gonna miss that! Much less constrictive than the Sonics games since there are so few of them.
So, I have told Ethan that I am taking of the day before and the day after my birthday (as well as my birthday itself), actually I have one of those days off anyway, but whatever--there will be three days off in a row. He is to plan something. Anything. We can take the Clipper up to Victoria for a couple nights, we can have a fabulous dinner somewhere here, we can do ANYTHING, but we ARE doing SOMETHING, and he is planning it. Maybe the dinner train to the Columbia Crest winery. Something. I will have to remind him that I was in fact serious about that.
As for the Sonics.
We did not get Season tickets for this upcoming season, nor do we plan to. We had season tickets for I believe 6 years. Something like that. Maybe 5. I will have to think. Anyway--we are done. The new management is moving the team. Now they are bringing up Vegas as an option, along with their original intent of Oklahoma City. This next season will be our last. Ethan and I do not want to support these liars. As much as we love the team/players, we cannot financially contribute to the people who are ripping them away from us. It totally sucks. We have decided that we will bite the bullet and become semi-Blazer fans. We can go down there for a couple Friday or Saturday games each year, and watch games on TV so we are not totally screwed out of the NBA, but that is about it. It totally sucks. At the last home game of this season, we illegally brought in our little camera and took some movies of the inside of the arena (I would post them but I still cannot find the connecting cable). I have a panorama video of the entire inside of the arena from our seats, views of the retired jerseys, shots of Ethan and I in our seats one last time, even a short video of the opening tip-off. It was really sad. We stayed until halftime then left, since we were getting totally blown out and did not want our final memories to be of our team totally sucking. We are going to get some single-game tickets for this next season--we really want to go to the last game of all, but it won't likely be in *our* seats.
We still have one more season of the Storm to go to. It feels different to go to those games, almost like they have a different ownership. There is a petition and some rumbling going around to see if the new ownership would be willing to give them up, use them as a payment to break out of their lease. It will be millions of dollars to break their current lease, and the Storm is only worth about 10 mill or so. Maybe we can keep them. That would feel like a victory of sorts. We totally love going to Storm games. Such a different atmosphere. Very kid friendly--maybe TOO kid friendly, they market it so much. But good, wholesome, hard fought basketball with some of the very best players in the world. It is highly unlikely that they will be able to stay here, but I won't give up hope just yet.
So, sports. Done with that for the moment.
Home improvement. Working on it. I killed of the back lawn and am waiting for it to actually die so I can churn it up and smooth it out and yank out the sagebrush crap back there. I am putting down that fabrid that weeds cannot grow through, then covering the whole lot with bark chips. I am going to get six or seven huge planters and plant things that I want to have growing back there. It is such a wierd space, this is the best we think we can get it, short of bringing in a dump truck with several loads of dirt to fill out the back part of the hill so we can extend the yard. THat would be quite spendy and still we would not barely use it, so we are sticking with the bark chips.
I watched a show on the DIY network called "grow it and mow it", all about lawns. They suggest that for the front yard to be salvaged, I should "Kill it and Till it", rather than trying to kill the weeds and save what grass I already have. So I am going to do that. I will spray it on Wednesday, and Ethan thinks he may have some coworkers with tillers that we can borrow. Once it is tilled, we can fix some of the slope that is there by bringing some of the soil from the street end of the yard back towards the house end. It will still be sloped, but not nearly as much, and it will be a SMOOTH slope, nut the lumpy bumpy crap we have now. After tilling, I will spread the seed (ryegrass is recommended by the show for the Seattle area), cover it with some mulch and water away. Hopefully by mid to late summer I will have a not sucky lawn.
We are still on the lookout for lamps for our living room. There are so many styles out there! I want something fancier for the sofa table, and something simpler for the end table. We at first thought we would get matching lamps, but now I think it would be cool to have something more dramatic on the sofa table, since it is what you see when you first come inside. Still looking.
We also have a wall collage of picture frames of various shapes and sizes. Some are multi-picture frames with space for 3 or 4 5x7s, some are single picture frames. We got them from Ikea and they are all simple black frames with white mats. We played around with then and used math and a calculator and string for measuring to get them placed on the wall the way we want them. Sadly, the empty frames have been on the wall now for 2 months with no pictures inside of them and no hangars attached. Just propped up on thumbtacks. We need to figure out what kinds of pictures we want--pictures of US, pictures of friends and family, nature pictures from my hikes......?? Maybe a combo of all of them? We are working it out. We want to have that done before we have our housewarming party. Which is ridiculous. We have been here FOREVER and are going to have a housewarming pary. Whatever.
So. No party next weekend because there is a wedding shower for Justin and Kim Sunday morning. Not the next weekend because I am supposed to go to Portland on the train for a bachelorette party for Kim at one of the McMenamins places there. Not sure exactly where--I should call her. Maybe the next weekend. We shall see.
Let's see. Boo is puking again. He is due for his annual checkup anyway, so maybe I will take him in Wednesday. Although, Shadow has scratched his inner ears so much lately that he is bleeding a bit, so we need to take him in, too. He gets earwax buildup (Boo doesn't), so I am thinking that is what he is itching. They somehow got ear mites a couple years ago, which was weird since they never go outside. Maybe that is it. Who knows. I am sure they will charge me $75 no matter what the answer is. Poor Boo. I think more and more about putting him on the kitty valium. He is just so frantic. And pukey. I have him on the totally expensive $30 a bag sensitive stomach cat kibble, and he STILL pukes. He is just so skinny. Not sure what my options are at this point. Is there a MORE expensive anti-puke cat food out there I am supposed to try?? Probably. I swear, he does it on purpose just to irritate me. I need to ask Sabrina again what the stain remover she was raving about is called, and where I can get it. He only pukes on the carpet, NEVER upstairs where it would be easy to clean. Then he drags any and everything he can over the top of it in a pile, so I know JUST where to look. He is so odd.
Okay. Hope you all feel quite updated and all that. When my personal stress levels die down a bit I will be blogarific once more.
Yes, I am still here. I have much stress and do not find the time to sit down and relax and blog things as of late, for which I am eternally sorry. I will endeavor to do better.
We are on the verge of excellent news in some fronts, of which I will not speak of until later this week, once things are more certain. I know this makes no sense whatsoever, but I am sure there are a few of you who have an idea of what it is I mean.
Ethan and I are doing quite well. Trying to figure out some kind of vacation for this fall, because I am in NEED of a vacation!! I haven't been on an actual week long fly somewhere just for fun vacation sine last June, and I seriously need a break! We are probably going to Puerto Vallarta in late October (during the Seahawks bye week) to stay in our timeshare, since that is the cheapest way to go, and we are obligated to use our actual timeshare every other year, or to rent it/sell it for that year. Every opposite year we can exchange and go anywhere. I really want to go somewhre for my big "twenty-ten" that is coming up, but it is on a Tuesday and we have home Seahawks game the Sunday before and after my birthday, which we are not willing to miss. We pay around $120 per game and have such a great time, every time--not gonna miss that! Much less constrictive than the Sonics games since there are so few of them.
So, I have told Ethan that I am taking of the day before and the day after my birthday (as well as my birthday itself), actually I have one of those days off anyway, but whatever--there will be three days off in a row. He is to plan something. Anything. We can take the Clipper up to Victoria for a couple nights, we can have a fabulous dinner somewhere here, we can do ANYTHING, but we ARE doing SOMETHING, and he is planning it. Maybe the dinner train to the Columbia Crest winery. Something. I will have to remind him that I was in fact serious about that.
As for the Sonics.
We did not get Season tickets for this upcoming season, nor do we plan to. We had season tickets for I believe 6 years. Something like that. Maybe 5. I will have to think. Anyway--we are done. The new management is moving the team. Now they are bringing up Vegas as an option, along with their original intent of Oklahoma City. This next season will be our last. Ethan and I do not want to support these liars. As much as we love the team/players, we cannot financially contribute to the people who are ripping them away from us. It totally sucks. We have decided that we will bite the bullet and become semi-Blazer fans. We can go down there for a couple Friday or Saturday games each year, and watch games on TV so we are not totally screwed out of the NBA, but that is about it. It totally sucks. At the last home game of this season, we illegally brought in our little camera and took some movies of the inside of the arena (I would post them but I still cannot find the connecting cable). I have a panorama video of the entire inside of the arena from our seats, views of the retired jerseys, shots of Ethan and I in our seats one last time, even a short video of the opening tip-off. It was really sad. We stayed until halftime then left, since we were getting totally blown out and did not want our final memories to be of our team totally sucking. We are going to get some single-game tickets for this next season--we really want to go to the last game of all, but it won't likely be in *our* seats.
We still have one more season of the Storm to go to. It feels different to go to those games, almost like they have a different ownership. There is a petition and some rumbling going around to see if the new ownership would be willing to give them up, use them as a payment to break out of their lease. It will be millions of dollars to break their current lease, and the Storm is only worth about 10 mill or so. Maybe we can keep them. That would feel like a victory of sorts. We totally love going to Storm games. Such a different atmosphere. Very kid friendly--maybe TOO kid friendly, they market it so much. But good, wholesome, hard fought basketball with some of the very best players in the world. It is highly unlikely that they will be able to stay here, but I won't give up hope just yet.
So, sports. Done with that for the moment.
Home improvement. Working on it. I killed of the back lawn and am waiting for it to actually die so I can churn it up and smooth it out and yank out the sagebrush crap back there. I am putting down that fabrid that weeds cannot grow through, then covering the whole lot with bark chips. I am going to get six or seven huge planters and plant things that I want to have growing back there. It is such a wierd space, this is the best we think we can get it, short of bringing in a dump truck with several loads of dirt to fill out the back part of the hill so we can extend the yard. THat would be quite spendy and still we would not barely use it, so we are sticking with the bark chips.
I watched a show on the DIY network called "grow it and mow it", all about lawns. They suggest that for the front yard to be salvaged, I should "Kill it and Till it", rather than trying to kill the weeds and save what grass I already have. So I am going to do that. I will spray it on Wednesday, and Ethan thinks he may have some coworkers with tillers that we can borrow. Once it is tilled, we can fix some of the slope that is there by bringing some of the soil from the street end of the yard back towards the house end. It will still be sloped, but not nearly as much, and it will be a SMOOTH slope, nut the lumpy bumpy crap we have now. After tilling, I will spread the seed (ryegrass is recommended by the show for the Seattle area), cover it with some mulch and water away. Hopefully by mid to late summer I will have a not sucky lawn.
We are still on the lookout for lamps for our living room. There are so many styles out there! I want something fancier for the sofa table, and something simpler for the end table. We at first thought we would get matching lamps, but now I think it would be cool to have something more dramatic on the sofa table, since it is what you see when you first come inside. Still looking.
We also have a wall collage of picture frames of various shapes and sizes. Some are multi-picture frames with space for 3 or 4 5x7s, some are single picture frames. We got them from Ikea and they are all simple black frames with white mats. We played around with then and used math and a calculator and string for measuring to get them placed on the wall the way we want them. Sadly, the empty frames have been on the wall now for 2 months with no pictures inside of them and no hangars attached. Just propped up on thumbtacks. We need to figure out what kinds of pictures we want--pictures of US, pictures of friends and family, nature pictures from my hikes......?? Maybe a combo of all of them? We are working it out. We want to have that done before we have our housewarming party. Which is ridiculous. We have been here FOREVER and are going to have a housewarming pary. Whatever.
So. No party next weekend because there is a wedding shower for Justin and Kim Sunday morning. Not the next weekend because I am supposed to go to Portland on the train for a bachelorette party for Kim at one of the McMenamins places there. Not sure exactly where--I should call her. Maybe the next weekend. We shall see.
Let's see. Boo is puking again. He is due for his annual checkup anyway, so maybe I will take him in Wednesday. Although, Shadow has scratched his inner ears so much lately that he is bleeding a bit, so we need to take him in, too. He gets earwax buildup (Boo doesn't), so I am thinking that is what he is itching. They somehow got ear mites a couple years ago, which was weird since they never go outside. Maybe that is it. Who knows. I am sure they will charge me $75 no matter what the answer is. Poor Boo. I think more and more about putting him on the kitty valium. He is just so frantic. And pukey. I have him on the totally expensive $30 a bag sensitive stomach cat kibble, and he STILL pukes. He is just so skinny. Not sure what my options are at this point. Is there a MORE expensive anti-puke cat food out there I am supposed to try?? Probably. I swear, he does it on purpose just to irritate me. I need to ask Sabrina again what the stain remover she was raving about is called, and where I can get it. He only pukes on the carpet, NEVER upstairs where it would be easy to clean. Then he drags any and everything he can over the top of it in a pile, so I know JUST where to look. He is so odd.
Okay. Hope you all feel quite updated and all that. When my personal stress levels die down a bit I will be blogarific once more.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Don't everyone freak out
Yes, I am posting pictures of my furniture. I had a lovely video made up of it all, but I still can't find the cable to connect that camera to my computer so I have finally given up and decided to take still pictures and post them.
We are still working on getting the right accessories (lamps, mostly), but getting there.....
We are still working on getting the right accessories (lamps, mostly), but getting there.....
Table and chairs. The legs are black but sort of aged so that in places the brown of the seats and tabletops shows through. It is a 'butterfly' table because you can pull the ends of the table out to access the leaf that flips out from underneath the table like a bird or a butterfly flapping their wings.
The coffee table opens up so you can use it as a sort of dining table and eat while you are on the couch. The only problem is that our couch is too short and we feel like kindergarteners when we do this. There are some compartments underneath the top where we store our remotes, and there are two small drawers in the very bottom facing the couch that we are currently using to store coasters.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
I really want it!!
We are looking at replacing our sliding glass door with this much cooler option. We would do wood rather than white, and is would be AWESOME! The cats could look out the window still, we could open the side windows for some fresh air, and it has actual locks and security so we won't be robbed!
Monday, April 09, 2007
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