And on the Seventh Day - They Still Couldn't Rest

Ever feel like you work your butt off, but can't catch a break? The hubby and I have been trying to spend a little quality time together between our insane work schedules, but lately we've been thinking that we've somehow pissed off Aphrodite. The kids were all gone for a week, but that was my 60 hour week between my two jobs. Then, when we think we've scheduled some time together, his kiddo comes home unexpectedly.

I'm not sure if it was random, or if he just didn't listen to the schedule, but if the kid had come home 10 minutes later, we would have been down the trail. I was mad because, miscommunication has changed our plans before, but not too mad, because I went to happy hour at the Irishman with my schoolmates and our program director earlier that day, and was in a pretty good mood. That and there were some awesome falls on "Wipeout" that night, and you can't help but laugh at people tumbling into the water.

The crazy work schedules have prevented us from camping this summer, too. The tents and tarps are still bundled from my Mt. Rainier trip, placed efficiently together for a summer camping trip. Summer is half way over, and I still can't see any opportunities in the near future. It's been a strange one anyway, with the cruddy June weather, working insane hours, and traveling across the mountains to check up on grandparents. The latter is tough on the hubby emotionally, but I've been through it with all of my grandparents, and will have plenty of support for him.

We have been able to landscape the front of the house and grow an amazing garden with what little free time we've had. I have snow peas and snap peas coming out of my ears, and the green beans and blueberries are about a week away. I'm really looking forward to all of the corn in September, though. There is nothing better than a fresh ear of corn from the garden with dinner.

Luckilly we've had a couple of days to catch some good hikes with the kids, and found a "private beach" off of an old path on the Sauk. The river no longer traverses it unless it's flooding, but it's a great place for a picnic. The kids skipped rocks in a old flood pool and climbed boulders, while we rockhounded and found some gnarly gneiss. I found two ten pounders both with mixed with black, but one was layered with greys and white calcite, and the other with blues. I can't wait to cut and polish them.

Here are some pictures from last week.

Time to Be Back

Here I am, back to reclaim my Saturdays. No more trips to Sequim or long road trips to Mt. Rainier or Spokane, but it's been weeks of great experiences. I've learned how to measure trees, tons of native plants, hydrology, soil science, and even got in some snowshoeing on Mt. Rainier which was a major feat. Not because I played in the snow, or camped in the mud, but because I made it up a trail from Paradise, that I couldn't even go a quarter mile on when my dad took me 20 years ago. Don't judge - I was raised a flatlander and had just moved out here. The other feat was getting one of our housewife classmates through the mud camping and packing her excessive baggage and shoes into my car. Oh, and I need to mention that I got a 3.83 out of this crazy 16 credit quarter.

My poor little car put so many miles on these last 3 months, and now I'm depending on it to get me to and from work in Arlington and Snohomish 6 days a week. I wasn't sure how working 6 days a week was going to go, but the first week wasn't so bad. Work seems to be flowing better at the pharmacy, although there are always going to be those busy days with strange situations. I'm just not as tired as I thought I would be, but I guess I'll have to wait a few weeks to really judge that.

The internship down at SnoCo Parks planning department has been great so far. I've met most of the planners now, and cannot believe how many concurrent projects they have going. I definitely need to inquire about getting some files and a clean drawer. I've run into so many familiar faces just in my first two days, it's been great.

I sat in on the depressing Sr. Ranger budget meeting and talked to Jack, my boss the last year I was at Kayak Point, as well as other rangers we had done various things with. Jack and I didn't really hit it off when he came to the park, as he changed everyone's shifts and work partners, and I couldn't really tell how he felt about seeing me in the administration office. It was nice to see him though, and catch up on life.

Then on Thursday, Ranger Tom came over to my cubicle to say hi. He's probably the most involved ranger in the community as he does raptor shows and bat box demonstrations all around the county parks and at schools. When I was in high school, I did most of my Honor Society community service with him in his Ranger Explorers program, and he got me the seasonal job out at Kayak Point after I graduated. We caught up for a while and he threw me some ideas for one of the camping projects I am working on. I wonder who I will run into next week.

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do today with my only day off. It's pretty gray and damp outside, so I'm sure some housework will be involved, but I want to try and finish my pumpkin patch before all the pumpkins I planted become too rootbound in their pots. I want to get some hiking in too, so I hope summer shows its face around here soon. Come on sun, you can do it.

Headed Down the Homestretch

I just want to let everyone know that I am still alive. This quarter has been amazingly busy, but I've pulled it off. I have one portion of a final assignment due tomorrow and then...School's out for Summer! Not to worry, with the busy schedule and lack of sleep, I've learned an awful lot, between field work and my internship. Next week I begin my 6 day work week - 4 days at the pharmacy and 2 days at the SnoCo Parks Planning Department. Even with that schedule, free time is coming soon. More to come later...

Whiners Not Welcome Here

I can definitely say that I have not been this busy since high school. Even today, I don't have time to post much, but thought I would throw out an update despite my insane schedule.

Work: Our volume is up, and the new DSHS Provider One rollouts seem to be going rather smoothly. This was a surprise to me, as over time I have become very cynical of Medicaid "improvements," but this one will actually improve efficiency and streamline prior authorizations. And for once, a software rollover has occurred without big glitches, and it was the government, not private agencies, that was responsible. Take note Premera and Regence. If the state can do it, so can you.

Internship: I've been spending Thursday mornings at City Hall interning under the Natural Resource Manager. So far, I've gotten a lot of insight into the Puget Sound Partnership and county politics. We have also been planning for a community garden at the old Country Charm Dairy, and an addition to the connectivity trails in the city. Just like when I went to pharmacy tech school, there's so much that you can only learn on the job, and I'm soaking up as much as possible.

Oceanography: I've been spending most Saturdays near Sequim at the DOE's Battelle Marine Lab. Last Saturday, we waded through the seaweed beds doing a biological survey, and taking samples for a photosynthesis and primary production lab. I'm not really a seaweed person, but it was fun, and I found a sheet of Nori that was over 4 square feet! Wrap that around your sushi (yuck!). When it came time to crunch numbers after the lab, I found out that people in my group "didn't like math." Well, who does really like math? Annoyed, but wanting to get home as soon as possible after all day on the beach and pier, I busted out the Calculus as fast as I could.

Forest Ecology: The Saturdays we haven't had Oceanography labs, we've gone to the peninsula for this class. We've picked up an old DNR study from the 1960's to track Douglas Fir production versus the effects of thinning in low precipitation conditions. As I'm sure you can imagine, this is done in a stand in the Olympic rain shadow near Sequim.

This weekend, we are joining the Natural History of the NW class on Mt. Ranier. The Everett students have been excited for weeks, and we've been planning our homework around the trip. However, the students from the peninsula have done nothing but complain about the trip, and many didn't show up for class last night as they are leaving today for the trip instead of tomorrow.

They are also complaining about the cost of the camping trip, but they're staying an extra night. The only reason I can gather that they are leaving early is to have an excuse to not turn work in on time, and to complain about the cost. This is offensive to me, as my classmate and I loose 6 hours of work time to travel every weekend, and have been paying for ferry trips all quarter. Despite the time we spend traveling every week, and both having families and full time jobs, we've been able to turn everything in on time all quarter. It's been so hard not to just spout off in class lately.

Environmental Politics: This class has been taking up much more time than I thought, but is the most interesting to me. In fact today, I plan on collecting more research for my term paper about the Gulf oil spill. I picked off shore drilling as my topic at the beginning of the quarter after Obama approved a plan for exploratory drilling off the Atlantic Coast from New Jersey to Florida. Three weeks later, BP proved my point, and because of their disaster, it's been cake finding data to support my position. Hopefully all of you have joined me in a boycott of BP. Oh and don't feel sorry for them when they whine about how much they have spent in clean up so far - it's 4 days worth of profits for them.

Argh! Them Pirates got me Tranced

Haven't blogged for a while, but it's been an incredible two weeks. Last week was final exams, which included the worst one I've ever taken in Dispute Resolution class. To my surprise I got a perfect score, the first perfect score I've ever gotten on a final, but I had to work REALLY hard and give up a concert and a wedding shower in Wenatchee to do it. Why anyone would want to be a lawyer, I don't know. I get a headache just thinking about mediation.

I ran the Mercer Island 5K for Colon Cancer awareness on Sunday, and finished in 37 minutes despite forgetting my inhaler. I even ran halway up both big hills! Strangely, I felt kind of dizzy halfway through the run, which I thought was asthma, but it ended up being a horrible virus that kept me up all Sunday night, and sent me home from work on Monday with a 102 fever. So I'm thinking my time will be way better next year with health on my side.

I also have to admit, that I've been completely captivated by Michael Crichton's new book, Pirate Latitudes. I've always been a Crichton fan, so I knew I would like the book, but there's no biology, chemistry or physics in the book like his others. It does, however, have a lot of history of the Carribean and Port Royal, and a great plot full of pirates. And I love pirates!

I recommend that everyone watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution tomorrow night at 9pm on ABC. I've blogged a little about the environmental and health effects of the American Diet, but I think Jamie's done a great job putting this problem into laymen's terms, and everyone should watch it. Hey, and for those against the new health care bill - if we all ate better, health care costs would go down! Amazing.

La Vida Loco

So I've been cleaning nasty messes all morning thanks to my mom's dog Wally, who we took in about five years ago. Last year, the vet told us he had Cushing's Disease, which will eventually shut down his whole body control. I knew it was getting bad the last two weeks, as he fell while walking three times, of course I wasn't sure, because he was still trying to knock down the garbage can for a nasty treat.

But this morning, he's drank 4 bowls of water, puked 6 times, bloody pooed all over the living room, and is now hiding under the bed. I think it's time to go to the vet again, but I'm going to give it a day in case he did get into some bad garbage in the neighborhood. He and the neighbor's beagle, Mocha, eat the grossest stuff out of the neighborhood cans! In fact, Mocha even likes to drag one neighbor's poopy diaper trash into the uptight, almost retired neighbor's yard. Now that's kind of funny.

For the last six months, I've been adding more multi-grain products to our diet to reduce the amount of wheat we eat, for the sake of my colon and food intolerances. We've also been trying to buy local as much as we can, including food and hardware store supplies. Not only because it is a green improvement, but I'm tired of the community still looking at us funny, even after 6 years of living here and volunteering at the school. I've been buying my morning coffees, when I don't make them at home, from Brandi's Coffee Stand up at the Whitehorse Store, and this morning, we had a long conversation about how what we eat affects arthritis.

I thought I was the only 32 year old with arthritis, but it's good to know someone else who knows what I'm going through. It's also nice to know there's one more mom to sit by at sporting events. We talked about carpooling to Trader Joe's in the future so we can buy gluten-free products, without feeling too guilty about driving over 30 miles to get them. I'm sure some of the locals (including the Hermit) will think we're loco, but it sucks when your finger joints swell up, and you know it's because of something you ate. I have enough problems with tendonitis from typing to have to worry about an arthritis flare on top of it.

There's tons to do on the school front. I have one term paper down, but one more with a presentation to go, and finals week is approaching fast. However, that also means that Spring Break is coming soon, and I can start my new Michael Crichton book. I have "A Civil Action" in the wings to read after Crichton's book, and I can't wait to read for pleasure once again (and watch Survivor instead of hearing about what happened). I remember when excitement for Spring Break meant I was traveling somewhere. What happened? Darn kids

It's a Wonderful Weekend

Forgive me if this doesn't start green, but last weekend was so awesome, I have to share. I know my posts have been sporadic lately, but understandably so, as my life has been non-stop lately. We also have a situation brewing that seems to be getting much more complicated than I thought it ever would, and all because of a very selfish person, that I can't say anything to. Grrrrrr...I'll explain more in a few months after it all comes together/falls apart(?).

I did take a 5 day break from work that allowed me to catch up on life a little, and enjoy my birthday which is something I rarely take time to do. In fact, I can count my awesome adult birthdays on one hand. My 21st was absolutely crazy and weird, my 29th was a drunken karaoke blast, and last Friday, the Hermit gave me another birthday I'll never forget.

He definitely went out of his way to sweep me off my feet. Last year, we had to cancel a dinner reservation, because he didn't solidify a drop-off time for the step-kid, so I told him I was going out with my girlfriends for my 32nd. It was not the first time we had to drop plans due to a lack of communication, so I was really mad. However, I decided to give him another chance after he surprised me with reservations to the Bistro San Martin, which is the nicest restaurant north of Everett to Bellingham.

I started the day by going into town, to my favorite Philipino Great Clips hair dresser so I could donate my 11 inch braid to Locks for Love. I didn't know that they cut your braid off with an electric razor, and my eyes must have been the size of saucers, because he stopped and asked if I was sure I wanted it cut, twice.

I have to admit, I was kind of nervous about short hair, after all the short hair disasters my mom made me wear in my childhood. You know, first the Dorothy Hamil bowl-cut, then just horrid, short cuts that severely needed layers to ease the mushroom effect. He did a great job with my thick, curly hair, though. I'm not used to people stopping me to rave about my hair, so I've felt rather bashful lately.

That afternoon, we caught the step-kid's JV game with my mom and step-dad and the kids. Afterwards, I got a griddle from my mom, and they took the kids to their place. We had a few hours to kill before dinner, so we hit the Tulalip Casino to blow forty dollars each. Having ADD, I hate slots, but I sat there and kept winning as I waited for the Hermit to lose his money so we could move on. Next, we hit the roullette table, and I placed my first chip on 12 for my birthday. Sure enough the ball landed on 12! I kept winning, and had to lend the Hermit chips to keep playing. When we left, we were still up $70 despite his bad luck.

We wrapped up the night at the Bistro, where we had Merlot and Ceasar salad to start. For my entree, I of course chose the Dungeness crab cakes, then felt kind of guilty the next day, as I read about fishery regulations for my Resource Economics assignment. They were absolutely delicious, but I promise no more crab cakes until the crab population stabilizes. When we got home, he gave me Ken Burn's latest documentary, "The National Parks, America's Best Idea," but I had to promise I wouldn't make him watch it again. Last fall, I hijacked the t.v. for a week to watch the PBS special.

The next day, we went shooting with the Bro-in-law on our lower property. I successfully emptied a .45 magnum nailing the target almost every time! Hell yeah! Who could be a bad-ass Ranger if she wanted to? Actually, it seems that the larger gun is easier for me to handle than the smaller calliber firearms.

Afterward, my step-sister came up for dinner with her two kids, and my 3 year old niece entertained us with a Jayden show on my piano. She cracks me up. After they left, Tay started getting ready for her first formal dance. She definitely has more fashion sense, and more of a social scene than I did in 7th grade. At that point in my life, I was only focused on good grades, softball and conquering Super Mario Brothers. Her dress was stunning, and all of the girls looked gorgeous.

For Valentine's Day, I got my weekly Starbucks date in the morning, but instead of rushing to work, I came home and made brunch with Tay. She made omlettes, and I shuffled between the stove-top and the new griddle making hashbrowns and blueberry pancakes. Of course, we wrapped up Valentine's Day with the annual bacon-wrapped steak meal. All-in-all, it was a great weekend that was much needed.

Donations Needed All Around

First off, I want to vent. I am so upset that Survivor is having a Heroes vs. Villians game during Winter quarter. Don't they know I'm in class until 9pm on Thursdays? I can't wait for March when we switch to DishNet and get a DVR!

I am doing a few things for cancer this year. Tomorrow, I am chopping of 10 inches of my curly locks for Locks for Love, which is a birthday present to myself. What better way to spend your birthday than helping others, right?

Okay, here's my plea for a donation - On March 21, I am running in the Mercer Island Rotary's 5K for colon cancer. I have a history of colon cancer on my dad's side of the family, and I had a cancerous polyp removed in 2003. I'd like to raise $300, but it would be great to get even more. If you are interested in helping visit my site: http://www.active.com/donate/preventcc/ALindemanLucas

I've also got a couple of other community projects swirling around in my head. I wish I had the time to dive into them right now, but they'll have to wait for Summer break. Darrington needs a new floor and roof on the Community Center, and Arlington officially transferred the Graafstra's Country Charm Dairy into municipal property last week. Bill Blake, the Natural Resource manager has already drawn up plans to turn it into a multi-purpose recreational area with a hiking trail, off-leash dog park, monitored swimming beach and campground. Of course, not all of the plans may come through, but what a great process for me to learn.

Tomorrow, I plan on making my resume rounds to draw on some of those internship opportunities. I'll be swinging by Arlington's City Hall to make an appointment with Mr. Blake, as well as a trip to the Darrington Ranger Station to follow up on my SCEP program application, and a stop by Darrington Town Hall to offer my EIS, NEPA and planning services. If you want to donate to the Darrington Community Center fund, let me know. I'm getting really antsy to work in the field, and right now, I'll take my hours wherever I can get them.

And for all of those people saying that Snow-maggedon is proof that Climate Change is not real - first of all, Climate Change doesn't mean there will be no ice or snow. It means that there will be more extremes in storms, snow, rain and drought as well as unpredictable shifts in the atmosphere. Second, it is an El Nino year. That's why we've had sunny and dry winter weather here in PNW. California has gotten our rain, which follows the shifted jet stream on to Texas, Tennessee, and up to the Mid-Atlantic. When I was a kid in Maryland, we had awesome snow in El Nino years - nothing new, just more extreme now. Third, just look to the poles or our alpine glaciers to watch Climate Change happen every day. And there you have it.

Feeling Better and Planning Plans

It's been a while since I've posted, but I had to kick an amazingly awful sinus infection, while somehow making it through all my shifts at work. This also resulted in the worst headache and lamest New Years Eve ever, but I feel much better now that I've finished my second antibiotic. I took the youngest to the clinic yesterday, and requested a z-pack for him, too. He seems to be kicking it now as well. The one good thing about being sick is that I was able to get through 300+ pages of my new Steven King novel, "Under the Dome," and it is turning out to be a classic King page-turner. I'm sad I have to put it aside for school now.

I've been to two of my three classes this quarter, and am going to the third tonight. On Mondays I have Environmental Dispute Resolution, which looks interesting, if he can keep us on topic. Monday night's class continued the complaints from certain Poulsbo students (who are in their 50's and going for their second Bachelor's mind you) about the Discussion Board on Blackboard from last quarter. Our class is in a much smaller teleconference room this quarter, so we had some complaints of our own about those students with our mute button on. Hopefully the park ranger can reign things in next week.

Last night I attended my Environmental Economics class with the great surprise of an on-campus professor! Dr. Burke lives in Bellingham, so she'll be at our campus most of the quarter. And while we silently deal with the technology snafus with the professors on the other campuses, those campuses had nothing but complaints last night about our technology issues. Other than that, we had a great review of Microeconomics, which I remembered all of thanks to the most awesome Professor Hu.

I'm really interested in learning how to place dollar value on non-market items such as clean air and water, so I can help the Darrington town council clean up our dirty air reputation. It's too beautiful around here to have the status of the dirtiest air in the state! I think Dr. Burke will do a great job getting us to that point. She reminds me of Dr. Pape, my Biology professor and advisor at EvCC.

A lot of younger people didn't like her, and didn't do well in her class, but if you already had a good work ethic, you could learn a lot from her and the class. She inspired me to continue my original Environmental Science degree and scrap pharmacy. I am so happy that I did, because that led me to Environmental Planning and Policy. Tonight is Intro to Planning with another one of my first quarter professors, Gail, and once again she has blessed us with not requiring a text book and posting all of her lecture power points. We love you Gail!

The Great Cat Wars seem to be easing up at our house, and both new cats are easing into their new homes, while our three other cats seem to be comfortable around them, at times. The youngest's cat, which he has named Meg, seems to be growing her fur back. She had shed a lot at the shelter. And the old grandma cat we adopted (which already had the boy name of Teddie), no longer primarily dwells under our bed. She can use her front legs to climb up to many places, and seems to be able to get away from the little devil-dog just fine.

Juggling our schedules should be interesting for this month as all three kids are playing basketball, and I'm back at school. So forgive me beforehand if I forget something, the calendar looks like a clusterbomb hit it.

Feeling Old and Boring

Life feels as if it is at a standstill around here. Even though there is always laundry or some other chore to do, it has just been us and the pets since the 26th. One benefit of no kids at home for days is the concept of leftovers for dinner. I made a huge Christmas dinner, and even though the chicken was gone that night, we've been pairing the sides with my mom's leftover ham, and have been eating quite well.

To our surprise though, the youngest wanted to come home from his dad's last night, and the step-son called last night wanting to come home today. It's kind of weird, but we've always told them, we're just a phone call away and will always pick you up. I think they are more vocal now that we both recently began defending their right not to go to BioParents houses. It's one thing when they are young kids, but they all have their own lives and friends now that they are older. Both the hubby and I were forced into visitations as teens, so we've begun letting them make their own decisions about them. We still feel they should visit, but if their schedule only allows a day rather than a weekend, well we've decided to be firm and have their backs if needed.

I continued my pattern of watching old movies throughout my Winter Break, with my new Monty Python Holy Trilogy dvd's over the weekend. Since the break I've watched the original "The Day the Earth Stood Still," the original "Taking of Pelham 1,2,3," "Elmer Gentry," and many other oldies including countless Christmas classics like George C. Scott's "A Christmas Carol," "A Christmas Story," and of course "It's a Wonderful Life." I know it sounds boring, but sometimes I'm overwhelmed by all of the special effects, and want a classic story. The hubby also got me the new books from Steven King and Michael Crichton (yes, I know he's dead, tired of hearing about it) for Christmas. I've finally got some decent fiction to read.

I know what you're thinking - nothing about the World Climate Talks in Copenhagen? No, not really. I lost hope in them when we were following the pre-political preparation in class. Our politicians, for some reason think that they can dictate policies to us and the world. But here's a clue - people react best to peer pressure, and if you want to make a real change, you need to start small and work from the bottom up.

World talks will get no where until we can figure things out at home, and that includes your city and county. I have more hope for the Puget Sound Partnership than the Kyoto Protocol. I have some nasty words regarding the new developing country fund, since we need a major infrastucture overhaul at home, but I don't want to sound too cynical. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

I'm not ready for next quarter yet, as the Amazon textbook order will be placed tonight. I feel like I need one more week off, but alas class starts on Monday. I do have a lead on a SnoCo parks internship, though. They are planning on making major changes and restorations at my old stomping ground out at Kayak Point County Park, and the Parks Department is requesting a couple of interns. I would love to work out there again, but I hope they don't get a new entrance sign. That's some great maitenance aid craftsmanship from 1996, I mean the routing and paint job is amazing! Sunshine and I worked for hours on it. :) I'll keep you posted on the new opportunity.

Where All the Grey Hairs Come From

As I'm typing this, I'm watching the Ida/Nor'easter pound the life out of all my favorite Maryland and Deleware Beaches. Some of them are already flooded. I've seen live shots from Virginia Beach, O.C., Rehobeth Beach and Cape May. Fifty years ago there were dunes and tidal marses to absorb these kinds of storm surges. Yesterday, at Nags Head, they were pumping sand during the storm to save an entire barrier island beach and its real estate from washing away. These resort towns need to seriously rethink development.

Life has been running tight lately, but I finally have two big projects under my belt and only 3 more to finish. One of my classmates is in two of my groups, in two different classes, and has been MIA for the last few team meetings and both classes. I'm starting to get nervous, but at least we can cut his content out of our wetland project and still have plenty of data, and I took some of my extra time off of work this week to research his part of our PSP Whidbey Acion Area project. Hopefully, one of my team-mates will be willing to use my notes to write his portion if needed.

Life at home has been busy, too. Tay has become active in her student government and yearbook, and baked goodies for her class fundraiser this week. I had my head buried in my laptop on Wednesday, so she took care of it all by herself. It's cool to watch your kids do responsible things out of choice, and come into their own.

The stepkid, on the other hand, has gone back to lying about homework and blood sugar checks, and had words with his mom last weekend. We're trying to back her up with things, but we have also been dealing with the ridiculous tantrums of, "why won't you drive me to town EVERY DAY so I can see my girlfriend?" The kid thinks he's justified in seeing the girl everyday, because his cousin has spent almost every day of the last 3 years with his girlfriend. However, the Hermit's nephew has also become ineligible for sports his Senior year, and may not graduate on time because of the girl he's been with since fifteen.

After watching that fiasco we decided the responsible, healthy thing to do for our kids, is not to let them spend every minute of every day together with their boyfriend or girlfriend. I'm not sure what's worse, though, the tantrums or the first break-up. Between what my siblings went through with nieces and nephews, to horror stories about my classmates' teenagers, I'm kind of scared.

And speaking of the Hermit, he let Tay cook a vegetarian meal on Monday, and was respectful in an argument I thought he would lose his head in. I was so happy with him. Last night, he even took the step of filling in on an ex-coworkers bowling team while I was at school. I was SO happy he got out of the house to do something fun. Not that Lowe's isn't fun, but it just leads to more work at home.

Tonight we're supposed to get the first snow of the season, along with a big windstorm. The mountains are thick, and white already, so ski season should be good this year. My awesome mom-in-law gave us four pairs of skis, and I've got decent snow gear now, so I really can't wait for winter break to try it all out!

Now that you've heard all my excuses for the last couple of weeks, I will get back to the Green Expressions, I swear. I did finish my report on Geoengineering, but it's so strange and new, I'd like to know more about it before I post anything publicly. Tomorrow I will post information about the danger of global Nitrogen saturation and why using Genetically Modified crops to help solve the situation is a bad solution.

A Little Bit of This With a Little Bit of That

I was planning on posting an opinion on geoengineering today, but it's just not ready. In fact, I think it may have to be the sacrificial lamb this week in class. There are so many major projects due soon in all 3 of my classes, that one of my weekly projects will have to be late. I still have kids and work, and life goes on. I was really proud of my 4.0's, but I will be happy to get B's this year.

Speaking of kids, Darrington 7th grade girl's volleyball completed the season undefeated. Tay was an ace server, thanks to my buddy Coach Eric and the UMES Lady Hawk serve. And kudos to Coach Eric as the Lady Hawks are rated the number one serving team in the nation!

That finally gives me a good thought about UMES, though, as the last one I have was a pretty bad one. My 6th grade GT teacher was a hippie that took us on a Science trip to see research animals and learn how they are tagged for experiments. I know, right? How is that was a good idea? My friend Karen tagged her chick right through its wing artery, so I grabbed it and held pressure to it's wing while it peeped and peeped. The research professor then took it from me and broke it's neck. Great memories.

Since I'm being random, I had a dream last night that I was rowing. Not in the big 8 man boat, but in a 4 man scull. We were gliding so fast downriver, and the water was completely calm and empty. I've been avoiding oceanography and hydrology, because I'm guilty of loving water sports, and I don't want to hear my impact. I can avoid it again this spring by taking Forestry, which none of my classmates want to take, but I keep having water dreams. I should just buckel down and take the class. It will probably be easier to get through it with the same group of people anyway.

And speaking of school, I have to mention that the Hermit has become a domestic god! The best part is that he is enjoying learning how to cook. I've been adding roasts, and whole grain pasta dishes on nights here and there, but he's been getting better at using fresh ingredients, too.

I went back out to the wetlands on Sunday, but won't share any pictures as they are for our Power Point data, and kind of boring. I will post info on geoengineering soon, and please understand if it seems as if I have checked out, but I have a ten page paper due on Monday.

Good News and Bad News

This last week has been full of bad news and sickness. Our whole family came down with some kind of a virus that hit my kids with asthma pretty hard. And now it looks as if the hubby may have some kind of secondary throat infection. Just as everything seemed to be coming together with our Ecology field project, bad news kept coming and coming.

First, I found out that today's class was cancelled because my professor's husband had passed away from cancer. Then, my sister called to let me know my great-nephew had been diagnosed with Cerebral Palsey, and that he had suffered a stroke in-uetero. I can't imagine what my niece and her husband are going through, but I have been to the ER multiple times with all 3 of our kids that each suffer from a chronic illness, and I know all the tests and results can be exhausting.

Then I went to a urologist today to find out why I have recurring bilateral kidney stones, and found out that it is probably some kind of metabolic disease. So they gave me a list of foods that I'm supposed to avoid which really conflicts with my low-cholesterol diet. I am proof that small people who exercise can inheirit high cholesterol, so it really is important to get that yearly physical. I had to make another appointment with my regular doctor just to figure out what to eat. For now, I'm drinking lots of water, but I have to avoid all black tea, chocolate, nuts, berries and ground pepper. Those are in my top 10 favorite foods!

There was some great news this week, as I mentioned above, my Ecology group is getting a big help from the DNR! One of my neighbors is a Forester for the agency, and has set me up with GIS maps of our study areas, and official DNR guides. She is also planning on coming with us on Saturday, and bringing her GPS for detailed mapping. One of the sites she helped me select has a beaver dam in a lake, that has created a dry path dividing the lake, and the water level on each side is higher than the trail. I can't wait to get pictures of that!

Back to Work, Slacker

Back from a hiatus of full-time work weeks and kid time. Right now, it's band before school and sports after school for them, and with my school schedule, I know we won't see eachother much during the week. So I decided to spend the last 3 weeks of of my summer vacation free time to spend with the kids and the Hermit, because I knew my school schedule would make everything even more crazier. Is that a word?

I did successfully get the Hermit to go to Tapper's wedding (which was gorgeous), and then go to a high school football game afterward last weekend. He was kind of in the doghouse, though after making a big deal about traveling to his sister's wedding next spring. Hopefully, he's turned a new leaf over in the socializing world and will stay with us. Okay, so it's not that bad, but the neighbor and I like to give him crap.

I started my Junior year at Western yesterday, only to learn I won't get an A in Ecology. I know, right? Amy with a B in a BioScience? I was so proud of my 4.0's but the professor said he rarely gives A's and I'm not willing to sacrifice all my relationships in my life to maintain a high GPA.

I'm still not sure if night school is the right course of action. I'm going to finish this year at the WWU Everett Extension, but I think I'm going to transfer to main campus in Bellingham next year. The driving time is just 30 minutes more, but I won't be getting home between 9-10 at night after leaving my house at 8 am. I think morning classes and closing at the pharmacy would be better suited for this morning person. I've never really been a night owl. I like my sleep, and I love to get up early and seize the day.

Field work this quarter will be interesting. I'll be closing the store Friday nights, and then getting up SUPER early on Saturdays to catch the 7am ferry in Edmonds. Our site is all the way up near Sequim, and I have to return that night so I can work on Sunday. We have to decide what we're going to study, how we're going to collect data, and then present our conclusions to all 4 Huxley campuses. I'm so used to my science teachers giving us very detailed labs, so this will be really fun.

You can look forward to some controversial posts this quarter, too. I have to write over 20 papers between my two law classes about environmental issues. Next week we begin with Seattle's plastic bag controversy. That's right Greg Nickels prepare for a verbal Smack Down. You've gone about things the WRONG way, but that's what happens when you try to go Green without the help of experts.

No kids?! No Fun.

This was supposed to be a weekend of adventure, that turned into a weekend of sleep. The kids were all scheduled to be at their other BioParent's houses, and it is gold panning season in our local streams. We had planned an over-night trip onto FR 49 to pan the mountain streams. Instead, I had a painful day at work on Friday, that turned into true trauma Friday night.

I had all the symptoms of a kidney stone all day at work, but I really didn't know how much pain I was in for, or I would have driven straight to the ER after work instead of suffering it out med-free at home. But I got through it with yoga breathing mixed with blubbery crying, only to find out on Saturday with a CT scan that there are at least 5 more. In our "greatest healthcare system in the world" it is going to be 2 weeks before I can see a urologist.

In the meantime, I just have to deal with the unrelenting back pain and wait. I've decided to work anyway, because it can be up to 3 weeks before they all make their way through my system, and in the meantime will get some bloodwork done to see if there's an underlying cause. I really think it's because we don't take enough time to drink or take a break in the pharmacy, but we'll see.

So with this downtime, here are some pictures from the last 3 weeks...

Blueberries on the vine

More Blueberries from the backyard

My tomato/cucumber pot

My herb pot - sage, thyme, cilantro and grape tomatoes

It is supposed to be sunny on Sunday, so I'll take some updated pictures.

Weeks of Adventure

It has been difficult to post lately due to both computer and time issues. I need to take a day to clean up my hard-drive, but who wants to do that when it's warm and sunny outside? I wanted to post a blog about our Sloan Creek picnic and adventure up FR 49, but the blog was blah without the pictures my computer just couldn't upload.

My sister came to visit us from Maryland a week ago, and I kicked her butt on the Boulder Creek hike, and spent a day on the Pilchuck River with our mom and step-dad. But once again, the computer wouldn't cooperate when it came time to upload the pictures. In fact, today is the first day this week I've had to sit down and start my day slowly. The kids were in the SnoCo Parks Totally Tech camp last week, but the north Everett shuttle was canceled, so we've been driving to McCollum Park in Mill Creek every day this week. They made some cool animated movies and wrote a couple of video games (along with swimming and kayaking).

On Wednesday, we drove up Segelsen Ridge behind us (behind Mt. Higgins), determined to find Higgins Creek. On our way up, I spotted a wild fire on the Southeast ridge of Mt. Higgins and called it in. We've had 4 lightning storms in the last week, and on Thursday had 11 fires in the Darrington area. The fires on Higgins and Jumbo are out, but Gold Mountain and Whitehorse Ridge are still burning, and I'm not sure where the other fires are located.

We found really large fossils at a shale slide on Segelsen Ridge that day, and stopped within a mile of the crystal site we were headed for. The Hermit didn't trust my map skills and didn't want to go down the Forest Road I told him to turn on, so we ended up picking through some dry creekbeds and finding some sparkly sandstone rocks. When we got home, I showed him my map and compared it to his gemstone map, and he was really bummed he didn't listen to me.

So today, I have to go back up the scary road and this time go all the way to Higgins Creek. Actually there are some spectacular views of the river valley and the surrounding peaks, including Whitehorse, and the road is only scary on Segelsen Pass, but scary it is! I have no problem with heights when I'm walking or biking, but on a horse or in a car, it really freaks me out. Lake Cavanaugh Road has nothing on these cliffs. I felt like I was on the Highway of Death in Peru, okay maybe not that bad, but let's just say I had some anxiety issues.

So I'm going to attempt to upload a few pictures for you, and we'll see how it goes:

Mt. Higgins fire 7/29/09

Top of Round Mountain taken from Segelsen Ridge

View of Whitehorse from Segelsen Ridge

What do you know? It worked! I will post pics of the rest of our adventures later.

Nasty Boys

I had the best dream last night. With all the celebrity deaths last week, being nostalgic is understandable, but even my iPod seems to be in nostalgia mode. I washed my car Saturday to the tunes of Bon Jovi, GNR, Bob Marley and Eric Clapton. Not one modern song played, it was wierd, but cool.

Anyway, I was a kid again, in my parents old house in Maryland. Since someone was watching something lame on the only t.v. I was up in my room rocking out to Janet Jackson's Nasty Boys. Then, somehow I knew my BFF Joi was there to pick me up, so I went downstairs and we went to the beach with an unknown driver. After swimming and boogie boarding, we went up to buy an ice cream bar from the Good Humor guy. When we got our ice cream the guy gave us piles of mini Hershey bars, too, and when we opened the wrappers, there was even more candy wrapped up with the ice cream. Then I woke up - is that an awesome dream or what?! If I were to analyze it, I'd say it's time to call Joi and say whaddup.

I mentioned that I washed my car on Saturday, but I also detailed it. The hubby was in the doghouse after canceling our date, because he didn't feel like going into town, and I didn't feel like laying around the house with him. So I had some long island ice teas with the neighbor gals, and after playing Desperate Housewives for a while, I got off my pity party and made the Hybrid shine inside and out. So we decided that from here on out, the hubby will now be known as the Hermit. In fact, all the guys in the neighborhood got a name that day, but I think the Hermit fits so well, I'm keeping it. Ha ha - shouldn't act that old before you're 40!

Final Lap - Losing Steam

Life has been full of work lately, as there is no rest for this weary soul until June. I actually have to try and get ahead in my homework, as I've committed myself to the Darrington 6th grade Ecology Retreat. We are leaving Thursday morning and returning Friday afternoon with 2 days full of forestry, beach cleaning and wetland studies on Camano Island. This time, as a volunteer, I get to sleep in a bed, and not on the floor.

The kids all have projects due at the same time in two weeks, right during dead week. This should be interesting. We have found some cool things while researching Tay's family tree project. My great-grandparents from Seattle were major developers during the turn of the 20th century. I had no idea how many neighborhoods, apartment buildings and hotels they built, that are still around. I'll post more about it when we get it all compiled.

I just saw a story on a 66 year old that it due to give birth in a month. You have to ask yourself, how many of these older women having babies are just looking for someone to take care of them when they start falling apart. What a life for a teenager - wiping your parent's nether-regions, constantly running them to doctor's and physical therapy appointments, and staying home everynight in case they fall. It was bad enough being a teenager while you mom's in full menopause. Seriously - grandmas - don't have babies.

Robots, Snow and You Can't Fool Me

I can feel a break coming...so close...gonna make it. I have just one paper left to write, a 3 page, single spaced reflection paper on our projects and teamwork in Engineering. We ended up losing the robot sumo contest, but we found out that one group cheated between rounds, and a rule change half-way through would have given us more wins. They decided that just one wheel off the arena counts as a loss half-way through the contest and that you couldn't win if your robot drove off the arena after pushing off the opponent, so we should have had another two wins. Oh well, it was fun.

I will upload the killer movie I made for our presentation to YouTube on Thursday, since I promised all the boys in the class I would. I knew with nothing but guys in the class that Ozzy's Crazy Train was the perfect track for the movie. We ended up with a perfect score on the presentation, so I'll take the A+ over the bragging rights any day!

I recieved an email from the Environmental Science program at WWU's Huxley College, asking me to go ahead and send in my Huxley application. That must mean my Western application is close to approval. Sweet!

Prospects for my garden are looking bleak, however. I usually have a grand garden every summer, but we have to move it this year to an area that still needs stump removal. We've seen parts of our lawn for a few hours, but it never fails to snow again once it almost melts. I think 3 months of snow on the ground is quite enough. We have had a lot of family nights inside playing Rock Band, Mariokart, and even Texas Hold 'Em.

On the work front, we had 3 stolen blanks for Oxycodone brought in last week. It started on Sunday when Dr. London and I recieved some DUR's from the gal's insurance alerting us to her large amount of recent narcotic purchases, but the lady was really insistant that we didn't get ahold of her I.D. We found out from the doctor's office the next day that she had stolen a narcotic pad from one of their desks. So she was not arrested, but didn't get any drugs from us and she was flagged county-wide. It really set a grumpy mood for my week at work.

On Friday, Dr. Alix and I helped bust two members of a local OxyContin ring, and luckilly the owner of the pharmacy showed up while we were waiting for the cops, because it was all women working again. Those situations usually don't scare me, but Dr. Alix is a newbee and so were the clerks I was working with, and the suspects were both large men. I didn't want to give anything away to the forgers, but I did try to keep the girls behind the second counter until the police showed up. Just 3 more years of dealing with these Oxy morons and then I'm on to other places.

Thursday...YouTube...Robots