Contacts stuck in my eye

Man, I'm lazy. I blame it on summer. I don't have any specific reason for that blame, but anyway... here's a pointless story to share just because I haven't written anything lately.

I've worn contacts for about 20 years now. Never in my life have I encountered issues like I have in the past few months. Awhile back, I rubbed my eye at work and managed to get my contact stuck somewhere in the depths of my eyeball. It took about 10 minutes before I finally got the sucker out. It was crafty--felt like it was up high, but it was actually stuck down low.

Then, last night, I was taking my contacts out. They were pretty dry (probably from the nap I took in the sun after work), and as I was pulling the left one out, the top of it stuck to my eyeball and it ripped in half. I came downstairs, Marc blinded me with his flashlight looking for it, and I eventually pushed my lids together to make it bunch out to the point where I could get it out.

That sucked.

Better late than never

That's the motto for the day. I bought a couple of birthday cards today for our sisters-in-law, and they're both going to be late by the time they get to their recipients. I'm also late in giving my Denver recap. Let's see how much I can remember.

**We got in on a Tuesday and hung out with Laura and Ron (our ever so gracious hostess and host) and enjoyed yummy Mexican food for dinner.
**On Wednesday we met up with Jason and Jodie at the aquarium--an aquarium unlike any aquarium I've ever seen before because it had TIGERS! Four of them! That was cool. We ate lunch downtown and then headed up to Red Rocks Amphitheater. We were hoping to go see some dinosaur footprints while we were out there, but there was some messed up situation where the road to the footprints was closed and we would have had to pay to ride a bus out there. So we bailed. That night the four of us met up with Ian and Leslie for dinner at Jim and Nick's. OH MY GOSH. The Pig in the Potato Patch and the cheesy dinner biscuits are to DIE for.
**On Thursday, Marc and I ventured out in the morning for a run. It's quite different running in the heat with 0% humidity. Yuck! We only made it about 2 miles before I requested that we stop and head back. That afternoon we headed up to Breckenridge with Laura, Ron, and Bailey (their whippet). It was busier than I thought it would be! We wandered around and checked out the cool shops in town, then headed back to Denver for dinner at The Berkshire--great food!
**On Friday, Jason dropped by before heading off to the airport for his flight back to NY, and he went with us and Ron to breakfast at the Delectable Egg. That evening we went to Joe and Carrie Ann's house for a BBQ. More great food--and great company! We even talked Joe and Carrie Ann into going to Manitou Springs with us the next day.
**On Saturday, we got up early and swung by Joe and Carrie Ann's, then headed off to Manitou Springs. Neat little touristy town! It really reminded me of Gatlinburg, TN. We started at the Cliff Dwelling museum and then headed into town. We played some Skee Ball and old arcade games, wandered around town, and ate ice cream. We also visited the Miramont Castle. The woman working at the entrance that day had two memorable qualities: she absolutely cannot multi-task, and she's a nut for orbs in photographs. Crazy lady. The historic house was cool except for the creepy dolls on the top floor. We had dinner at the Cliff House, where everything was exceptional besides the last bite of Joe's dinner.
**Sunday morning, we had an awesome breakfast at Adam's Mountain Cafe, then we headed to Garden of the Gods. Talk about beautiful--and very similar to parts of Moab. We headed back to Denver after that, and Laura's massage therapist came over to give me, Laura, and Marc massages--so relaxing! That night, Ron made homemade pizza, which was incredibly yummy.
**On Monday, we came home. It was an awesome week!

Oh, I almost forgot the most amazing thing that happened! A few years ago when my parents were visiting in Portland, my dad bought a bear puzzle and left it with us. I brought it out at Laura and Ron's and we all tried solving it to no avail. Then one morning, I just stumbled upon the solution! I was dumbfounded. When we were wandering around the cliff dwelling gift shop, I spotted other varieties of the puzzle, and Laura got the bird one--and she put it together, too! Woo hoo!

A tribute to Marilyn

Marilyn taught me a lot about our software when I first started at work. She was a spicy lady--always speaking her mind, entertaining with her unique brand of humor, and passing along her nearly infinite wisdom. She beat cancer several years ago, but shortly after her retirement last year, she was diagnosed again. This time she didn't make it.

Marc and I (along with tons of current and former coworkers) attended a gathering in her honor this afternoon. It was good to see so many familiar faces, and I know Marilyn would be happy to see us all together.

Cheers, Marilyn. We'll miss you.

Home from Denver

We got back from Denver this afternoon. We had a great time! Now I have to try to remember all the things we did so that I can write about them here... more later.

What? I have a blog?

I keep thinking about this blog, and I keep not writing anything. Don't know why exactly. A short recap of the last couple weeks:
- July 5 party: fireworks + lots of food + Rock Band = fun
- A busy week at work = hectic
- Deschutes' new restaurant last Friday with Adam and Shelly = yummy
- Dinner and games with the Roses last Saturday = long time, no see
- Another really busy week at work = thank goodness for vacation

We did happy hour with Rey and Greg on Friday then came back to our house and played Rock Band. Saturday was a failure of a day. Let's just say there are some crazy people in this world. Today we'll probably be doing laundry and some last-minute clean-up around the house in preparation for our trip to Denver on Tuesday.

That's all for now.

Indy

After a very lazy morning and afternoon (with Marc being the sweetest guy ever by making me breakfast), we took advantage of some free tickets to finally see the new Indiana Jones movie today. It was entertaining, but it wasn't the same as the first ones.

A couple nights ago, we had an AWESOME thunder and lightning storm, which is quite unusual for Portland. Even though it woke me up in the middle of the night, I loved it!

Let's see... now we're home again and Marc's making dinner--bacon-wrapped sausages! Yummy! Everything really is better with bacon. Tomorrow we're going to a 5th of July party which should also turn into a Rock Band party, so that'll be fun. Hope everyone reading this has or had a safe and happy 4th!

The Cat's Out of the Bag

Okay, okay... so here's the very exciting to me and probably not so exciting to anyone else news: I got a promotion! I'm now a supervisor (of only one person, but hey--that's a good way to get my feet wet in management, right?)! I'm still on the same team, and I'm still working with our knowledgebases, so all the things I love about my job shouldn't be changing much. I'll just get to experience some new challenges along with all that normal stuff.

Speaking of work, this short holiday week has been way busier than I expected. It's made the week fly by, and I can't believe that tomorrow is already Thursday. I don't think we have any plans for Friday, but we have a party to go to on Saturday and I'm going to a book club get-together on Sunday. Next week is really busy after work. We start tennis lessons on Monday, I have a hair appointment (bye bye for now red highlights) on Tuesday, more tennis on Wednesday, and the food bank on Thursday. I'm expecting the next couple weeks at work to continue being busy, so I have a feeling I'll be quite frazzled and ready for our Denver vacation later this month!

On the Road Again

Marc came over to work this afternoon and we went running--outside on the pavement--with Kristin and Chris. It's the first time I've been out on real surfaces since our 5K, and let me tell you how tired it made me. Haha! That might become at least a weekly occurrence, but I have a feeling it'll really suck when it starts to get hotter.

Speaking of hot weather... it's supposed to be quite warm in the northwest this weekend. 90s, the last I heard. We're headed up to Cliffdell, WA, for the big annual PNWX campout. It should be a fun time!

Oh, and I have some exciting news, but I can't share it publicly yet. NO I'm not pregnant... it's not *that* kind of exciting. You'll just have to wait.

One Week with the Civic

I love my little car. Again, it's certainly no G35, but it's actually very cool and an enjoyable car to drive. It now has just over 100 miles on it, and it's used about a third of a tank of gas (it was filled up at 20 miles).

Today I took Greg out for a driving lesson. I don't think he's driven since he was a teenager, so I figured the Civic was a perfect car to start learning on again. We spent an hour this afternoon driving around the parking lot at work, practicing a bit of parking, and driving the loop on the main street. He did an awesome job!

Next week is our big PNWX campout, which I'm totally psyched about. We haven't been camping at all yet this season, so it'll be fun to spend a weekend outside.

(sigh)

After a long afternoon and evening of driving different models of Civics and comparing colors, we brought one home. It's a 2008 Galaxy Gray sedan. It's nothing like the Infiniti--or any of our most recent cars--but I like it. Pictures to come...