Forecast for Fun

Before I begin, I need to get something off of my chest that has been bugging me for several weeks - a janitor is not an environmental technician, a garbage collector is not a sanitation engineer, and a librarian is not a scientist.  This is why - unless you took classes and tested for a license, you are not a technician of any kind.  If you do not use AutoCAD or CATIA every day, you are not an engineer of any kind, and if you do not work in a lab, in a clinic or in the field, or study results from a lab, clinic or the field, you are not a scientist.  NOW QUIT CLOGGING UP THE SCIENCE JOB BOARDS WITH YOUR BOGUS TERMINOLOGY!!!!

Ok, with that said, it's time to brag about the awesome snow going on here.  We have 16 inches so far, and plan to hit our 40 foot sledding hill on and off throughout the day.  Perhaps construction of a snow man will happen as well.  The plan is to research one paper, then play.  I think that's a good way to break up the monotony and prevent cabin fever.  If you have a four wheel drive vehicle, you may want to check out Oso today as the eagles are hanging out waiting for salmon above the river.  It's a beautiful sight.  However, if you don't have 4 wheel drive, don't go past Skaglund's Hill.  I'm not sure if you can get past it anyway, as there was a jack-knifed 16 wheeler blocking both lanes last I heard.

The weather forecast calls for snow all day and night, with temps diving tonight into the teens.  Something tells me we won't be planning rain gardens in Gleneagle tomorrow.  Unfortunately by Monday, a pineapple express storm is supposed to move in and shoot snow levels way up with a ton of rain to go with it.  Can you say flooding?

Under the Dogpile

Bleh.  That is how this week has felt.  The engineer at the parks department said yesterday, that she was "just staying ahead of the nipping dog," when it came to her projects, and I told her I felt like I was under the dogpile.  I wasn't really ready for school to start, I passed a kidney stone, and my kids were gone for most of the week.  I think the really great weekend made the week seem worse than it was, though.

In fact, Friday and Saturday couldn't have been any better.  The Hermit turned 40 on Friday, and I was able to throw together a great dinner and a cake in the matter of two days.  Wednesday, I was completely incapacitated by the kidney stone, so I decided to completely change the menu.  We went from bbq ribs and chicken to brats, hamburgers and turkey burgers.  I spiced up the Americana bbq with some easy antipasto salad with all fresh herbs, cheeses and garlic, a variety of cheeses, crackers and bread, and a mean bruschetta that was a hit with the adults and the kids.  All of the herbs and most of the veggies were from the garden, which should have about 40 ears of sweet corn ready for harvest really soon. 

After the bbq, we hit the casino with his family, and managed to stay up until 3:30 am somehow.  His brother and wife, and cousins had driven up from the Seattle area to meet the rest of us, and we managed not to lose too much money.  We had reserved a room at the resort, which was really nice, and it was great that we didn't have to drive anywhere, but hotels really need to warn people when they have all feather down bedding.  That way those of us who are allergic to it can bring our allergy medicine and sleep better, hint, hint.

On Saturday, I manned the parks table at the Centennial Trail expansion opening in Arlington, while the family hit the Bite of Arlington downtown.  Both events had a pretty good turn out, though I hope the Bite is bigger next year.  The weather was supposed to be rainy, but we had 70 degrees of sunshine instead.  Of course, the county executive canceled at the last minute, big surprise, and the parks director was on vacation, but the head planner did well handling all the PR, and the mayor and our county councilman stepped in, too.

Unfortunately on Sunday, I had to work, and that's how the rest of the week has gone.  I will top off this week with an 8 hour Biostats lab in Poulsbo on Saturday.  Exciting, right?  Like I said, I wasn't ready for school this week, so, bleh.

Keeping my Head Above the Water

Wow! Welcome back to the e-world. It's been an insanely busy summer, that didn't really feel like summer, unless you're a northwestern native, which clearly with all my complaining, I am not. Hopefully next year there will be better weather and more time off.

Lately, my life feels like it's flying by faster than I can keep up. I ended up working at my internship for most of my staycation, but I can't complain when I'm working on trails and at the fair. There have been lots of changes at work, my babies are both in middle school where I have been volunteering with the band, and the hubby turns 40 in nine days! We are going to have an awesome night of family, friends, bbq, gambling and a his-and-hers pampering at the Tulalip Resort.

My parks internship has been extended into November, and I am about to go back to the city in three weeks. Not sure how working 6 days a week with school is going to work out, but at least I only have two classes this quarter, one of which is intro to GIS, which I already took at EvCC. Of course, I have to take it again, just to get that 300-level class on my transcript, but it should be cake.

Speaking of cake, I need to get busy on the over-the-hill version. See you peeps later!

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.

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.

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.

Watch What You Say About Old People

I got my final grades today from WWU, and did much better than I thought - 3.56 baby! The most surprising grade was my US Environmental Policy grade. I got a B+ or A- on all of my policy briefs, including a B+ on my final Drug Take-back paper and presentation. Class participation must have bumped up my grade to an A-, so maybe I should talk some more in her class next quarter for an A. It's still very strange to communicate through classroom internet and video technology.

Next quarter should be interesting, as I don't have a science class for an easy B. No, my science class is Environmental Economics, considered a mathematical science. Oh boy - hopefully Uncle D will be helping me again. I never thought in my life that I would end up taking 3 Economics classes.

On the pharmacy front, I correctly identified a tablet my cousin found in his couch in Mississippi over the phone. My sister called me on Saturday as I was leaving work. She was spending a few days at his house, and they had found the tablet earlier that day. My cousin has young kids and teenagers, so he was concerned on both fronts. She described it as a small and yellow tablet with a 7 on one side and nothing on the other.

Before I go any further, I have to explain my family history a little. I was the only product of my parent's second marriages, who had teenagers that were the same age from previous marriages. My aunt had 3 kids that were spaced years apart, so on her side, I have a cousin that is the same age as my oldest siblings, and a cousin that is only 6 years older than me. Okay enough of dysfunctional brady bunch.

Anyway, I told my sister that it sounded like an 81 mg aspirin, "the kind that we give old people." So my sister repeats to my cousin, "she said it's an aspirin, an old person aspirin." To which my cousin replies, "I have aspirin, but I'm not an old person." Then he kept interjecting old comments into the background while I told my sister I would look it up at work the next day.

About an hour later, I got a text message from my sister, that it was our aunt's aspirin that she had lost and couldn't find. And my aunt, bless her heart, is kind of old. Then on the next line, "but Wayne still doesn't appreciate you calling him old." Never gonna live that one down.

Welcome to the Hotel Reptilia

So I was going to start this blog off sweet, and serious, but I just have to let everyone know I have a squatter wintering under my house. Three nights ago, I thought I heard a frog while I was reading, but the Hermit didn't hear a thing. He did take the opportunity to equate me to a cat-lady with all of my reptile yard statues, art and nick-nacks - ha ha so funny, now I hear them.

However, our Siamese, Fokker, would not leave the bathroom this morning. When I went in to investigate what el gato loco was up to, I caught him trying to remove the floor vent for the central heating system. I know that sounds weird, but the cat thinks he is our child and has hands. As I stood there, I heard the croaking again, only this time much louder. It was very much the call of a Western Toad, and if he wants to winter there, and can somehow get in and out, then go for it buddy.

We had a great Thanksgiving with the Hermit's family in Wenatchee yesterday. On the way there on Wednesday, I kept thinking of my friend Jen, and the long drives we would put in to hang out after her parents moved her to Mount Index (yes the mountain, not the town) in our Junior year of high school. We had fallen out of touch the last year and a half, since she went to the dark side and took a job in Boise with Supervalu/Albertsons. I'm sure most of you won't understand that, but the Hermit and I both left that company with a sour taste.

But Jen's a great gal, and has 2 great boys with her hubby. With me in school, and her in a new busy corporate job, we just lost touch. Well lo and behold I get home last night, sign onto Facebook, and there's Jen with a friend request! How random and great is that?!

In Wenatchee, the hubby was able to kick back and hang out with his aunt and cousins, which is something I've been trying to convince him to do for a while. After dinner yesterday, we all pulled out our cell phones and exchanged numbers, email, facebooks, etc, so he has no excuse to not get out and do something once in a while. He was also able to spend some quality time with his grandpa, who's Alzheimer's is progressing more rapidly than the Hermit thought.

It's such an ugly disease, and most relatives don't realize how fast detioration can be. I've lost all my biological grandparents, but am lucky to have Granny on my step-dad's side and Ruth on my step-mom's side still around, and the hubby's grandparents. Harold, my step-mom's dad recently passed away from Alzheimer's and Ruth was diagnosed right around the same time as the hubby's grandpa. It's so hard to see such bright people get so confused, and the frustration that happens on all sides.

I've always loved hanging out with blue-hairs. My paternal grandparents were 70 when I was born, and my grandpa used to golf-cart me around Sun City Center Florida to hang out with the other old guys when we would visit. My favorite customers are mostly older adults, and I love talking to them, no matter what they want to talk about. You can always get a good laugh, or learn something. So it was good to visit with his grandparents this week, and keep his grandpa company.

And speaking of blue-hairs, it was good to talk to my dad yesterday, too, (ha ha just kidding?). We got some good ideas for a family project next summer, and my siblings on Dad's side are gonna love it! Uncle D and Dad will get it as a present, and they will have the option of ordering their own. I've got to get to the Seattle Public Library to get some historical documentation, so I can put together an album of our old family photos from the teens, twenties and thirties. My great-grandpa was a prominent lawyer, lumber tycoon and Seattle downtown developer after the historic fire. I have pictures, but no stories. I also want to get some info from UW regarding my grandparents' pictures from their college years in the twenties, before they graduated and grandpa whisked grandma off to live in Hawaii.

And speaking of UW, I'm taking sides in the Apple Cup for the first time since I moved here 20 years ago. I really didn't care when I moved here, as I will always root for the Maryland Terrapins, but I've been trying to respect the Cougs since I've worked for my employer the last 8 years. But my grandpa was UW ROTC, in football and crew, and my grandma was one of the first women to receive a Master's from the UW Information Science School (or whatever they call Librarian School), and my step-siblings have been rooting for them for a lifetime. So here it goes - GO HUSKIES!