Catching up from the past week

Not a lot of exciting news to report this week. I'm work a lot and trying hard not to let it take over my life right now. Steve and I took a brief trip over to Spokane this weekend. It's a quick, 40-minute flight from Seattle. We spent one night over there and then came back to Seattle last night. With my past work experience in government affairs, I was intrigued to see Republican candidate for Governor of Washington, Dino Rossi checking in for our flight on Friday night. I was REALLY hoping he would get seated next to me so I could ask him some questions, but alas, he was seated in First Class (shocker!) Darn - I could've had some fun with that...

So anyway - a few pix from Spokane - first, a VERY cool piece of art/playground equipment they have installed at their downtown's Riverfront Park (the handle of the wagon is a slide - cool!):


We had lunch at the resort on Lake Coeur D'Alene (about 30 miles east of Spokane in Idaho). It was a beautiful 75 degree autumn day, and the lake was sparkling. On the way back into Washington, we checked out the Liberty Lake area, and saw these three deer hanging out in someone's front lawn, under their apple tree munching on fallen apples. Almost a cliche eastern Washington photo - but so beautiful!


...and back to LAST weekend's trip to the coast. I posted all the gorgeous sunset and beach photos last week. So here are some of the silly ones I also took along the way. First of all, I was absolutely giddy to see this picture collage at the mall in Aberdeen. Apparently, Tom Cruise visited Aberdeen in May of 2006 for the opening of one of the Mission Impossible movies. Unsure what the connection was, but they STILL have an entire wall dedicated to the occasion. LOL - I love stuff like this:

Clearly, it was (and still is) one of the biggest things to happen in Aberdeen in recent years...probably since Nirvana went big in the 90s (Kurt Cobain was from Aberdeen)...


We also found it funny that a Mexican restaurant in Aberdeen was willing to SELL their handmade, paper drink menus to any willing patron for the super value price of $5.00:



One last thing - for those of you who remember, my dad had a heart attack back in January of this year...today he walked in a 5k breast cancer event at Alki Beach, supporting my sister, Tracy. Check out Tracy's blog for more info and photos - GO DAD!

Vacation Pix

We had a terrific trip to Washington's "Cranberry Coast". It's hard to be back. Lots of stories to tell, but little energy to tell them - so for now, some pix from the past four days:

The New "Do"

Yesterday I got my hair cut and highlighted. My sister recently got her hair cut shorter and after seeing how cute hers was, I decided to do something similar (yes, I know Tracy...I'm a "copycat" LOL). Anyway, just cutting a few inches off really shortened my morning routine today. I'm diggin it so far - and my new stylist Jessie did an awesome job on the color (if I do say so)!


In other news, I only have to work two days this week - whoo hooo! On Wednesday Steve and I are off for our first "real" vacation in almost a year...we're packing up the dogs and heading over to a condo on the Coast for a few days of rest and relaxation. I can't wait!

GO TEAM!

My sister Tracy and her friends Jen and Kim embarked on their 60-mile, Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk this morning. I am so proud of them! I will be "guest blogging" for Tracy on her site all weekend, with updates on how the walk is going....be sure to check in for the latest news...

17 Months Wishing for Lia...

New Glasses & The Wedding...

So I finally sucked it up and got a new pair of glasses. I've been wearing contacts and glasses fulltime since 1994. Most days, I wear contact lenses, but I wear the "daily wear" kind, which can get kind of expensive since you throw them out at the end of the day and they end up running about $1/day. So I've been trying more and more to wear my glasses 2-3x/week to make my supply of contacts last longer. I've been lucky in that prescription hasn't changed in the last eight years, so I just kept the same pair of glasses all that time...until finally in July, they gave up the ghost and the ear piece broke - in an "unfixable" location. Thankfully, I have good vision insurance thru my current job, so when all was said and done, I only paid $75 out-of-pocket for my new ones. I think they are cute - more rectagular than my former ones, which were more of a cat-eye shape:


Yesterday, my sister Tracy and I headed south to Tacoma for a wedding. Our friend, Rick was getting married. This was the first opportunity I've had to see many of the old friends I ran with back in high school and college - since I moved back to Seattle last spring. Let me tell you, I was more than a little nervous. In many ways, it was like the high school reunion I never had (this year would've been my 20th, but since I went to small paraochial high school, we didn't have a reunion...) And honestly, I didn't run around much with people from my own high school back in the day. My graduating class only had 39 students - 13 guys and 26 girls...most of whom had all gone to school together since kindergarten. Therefore, I was way more interested in hanging out with kids from the neighboring public high school.

So my friend Rick was getting married yesterday. To put some perspective on this, let me tell you that I met Rick on a church youth group trip to the waterpark in 8th grade! He came along with one of his friends who was in my class at the time. In high school we reconnected and my girlfriends and I started hanging out with him and his guy friends quite a bit. We remained a fairly tightknit group for years until folks started going their seperate ways as people do in their 20s. Everyone else started getting married (and later some got divorced) and through it all Rick remained the single guy. In fact even as recently as 2005, following my own divorce, I was chatting with Rick and he proclaimed himself as "forever single". At the time I was contemplating whether to move ahead with applying to adopt from China as a single...and Rick thought it was great - he even said that if I moved back to Seattle with my daughter, he would be my "manny" (male nanny). :)


Well guess who met a great girl last year and got hitched this weekend? Good ole Rick. At the rate adoption referrals are moving, he and his new wife Katie could very well have one or two kids by the time I bring my munchkin home. Maybe I will have to be Rick's nanny. :) The wedding was very fun. Tracy and I had a chance to catch up with all the old gang, meet their wives and girlfriends and in many ways, it just all felt comfortable like old times. Here's a pic of me catching up with my old friend Sam who is now the dad of three precious little boys:


Some days it is really fun to be back "home".