Aloha!

We leave for Maui tomorrow morning. Hopefully all of the Turkey Day traffic will have already moved through the airport by then. I think I'm all packed, but I always have that sinking feeling that I'm forgetting something really important. I figure as long as I have a swim suit, I'm in good shape. :) I'll have a full report on how we spent our days laying on the beach and snorkeling when we get back on the 4th. See ya!

Visited by a Ho

Our friends Dr. Ho (Joe) and his fiancee (Carrie Ann) came to Portland for a visit this weekend. Joe arrived Thursday night before a job interview here in town on Friday. Then Carrie Ann rode the train down on Friday night. We had some good experimentation with root beer and kahlua that night. And the next night. Satuday, we saw the new Bond flick (which was really good) and then we wandered around Saturday Market until we got too cold. Ben came over later, and we all went to Rock Creek Tavern for dinner before the really loud and not so awesome live band chased us away. Joe and Carrie Ann had to get up REALLY early today to get Joe to the airport to fly to Tennessee for another interview, so we just chilled out at home the rest of the evening. All in all, it was a good weekend!

Today we went to the spa. I got waxed; Marc got a massage. I think his experience was more enjoyable than mine. We should be starting to pack for Maui, but that hasn't happened yet. There's still time, though not much... just four more days!!

I'm behind on my blogging

Wow. I didn't realize it's been so long. Let's see what's happened since my last post...

Jury Duty - I had to go, but they only called one jury (14 people) out of the 100+ of us who were there. Eventually they decided that they didn't need anyone else, and I was released. Very unproductive.

More Baby Action - I went to my friend Denise's baby shower on Saturday. She and Leo are having a little boy in January. Denise looks great, and Leo's always completely chill.

Crappy Sunday - We went to Grandpa's old house, which is now Mom and Rory's house, to help throw out a bunch of stuff and make Goodwill runs. Though we didn't fill the dumpster they rented, we sure did make a dent in it. Note to others who may rent a dumpster: don't do it on a day that's cold, windy, and rainy.

New Schedule - After much begging and pleading, I got a temporary (until Laura goes away for maternity leave) 4 day/10 hour schedule at work. AWESOME. Wednesday is my "day off" and every other day I work from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Getting to work at 6:00 isn't a big deal--I did that for a year while Marc worked with me--but I've never had a permanent schedule that kept me at work until 5:00. It makes for a long day, but I think I'll like it as long as I go to bed early enough.

My Wednesday Off - My day off today wasn't too thrilling. We started cleaning the house because our friend Joe is coming up from San Francisco for a job interview at OHSU, and he's staying with us. We also went to a luncheon for a remodeler's group. Marc's starting to get out and network with builders and remodelers to help market his new company and product. After that, we spent most of the afternoon lounging around the house. It's really windy out there, so it's cool listening to it from inside.

Test-Taking - I couldn't help but check my work e-mail today. You never know when something's gonna blow up. Fortunately, nothing did while I was away today, but I got an e-mail from my Six Sigma instructor (why I was in Santa Monica last month) letting me know my score on the exam. 96%! Yeah, baby! I was always a good test-taker in school, and it looks like I haven't lost that touch. Yet.

Stupidness - And now, for your reading pleasure, my stupid paraphrased quote of the day. We were watching the local news earlier tonight, and they were doing a story about a man who bought a used SUV that had been totalled and had a fake title. He didn't find this out until his 16 year old daughter flipped it and killed one of her passengers. Turns out the passenger seat belt had been sliced and then sewn back together with normal thread instead of being replaced. That's the seatbelt that failed, leading to the passenger being ejected from the SUV and dying. So here comes some investigator or professional of some sort, and the news reporter asks him, "If the seatbelt had been replaced, would she (the victim) have lived?" This guy responds with something along the lines of, "I can't say that she would have survived, but she most certainly would have been saved." What does that mean? Is it just me, or is that a bit contradictory? Stupid.

Jury Duty take two

I escaped my federal jury duty a couple months ago, but I didn't get so lucky with the county. How is it that I live for 11 years registered to vote, and get called for jury duty twice in two months? Bizarre. Anyway, I get to sleep in a few minutes later than usual tomorrow, then I'll be off to the courthouse with my trusty Nintendo DS Lite and newly acquired Dr. Mario game to waste the time away.

My former boss Heather Sharfeddin (offical site, blog) has another novel out now. Though not usually the types of books that I read (contempory western/mystery), I really enjoyed her first novel, Blackbelly. I just got Mineral Spirits today, so I can't comment on it yet, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it. The funny thing about the new book is that they misspelled Heather's last name on the binding. I think this is only an issue with the first edition, but I think it's a fun quirk.

Gettin' Crafty

I tried something new on Friday evening. A group of us from work got together at a Stampin' Up demonstrator's house to make 20 holiday cards. I dabbled briefly in scrapbooking when I first moved out to Oregon, but I never learned anything formally, and I've never done much else in the way of paper crafts. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, and it was nice to do this with a group of people I know. Mary's house was set up with a large classroom downstairs. We all rotated around 6 tables to make 6 different-designed cards. It was really fun! Of course, this opens up another new door for me--sending Christmas cards. I've never done it. It always seemed like one of those things people do just because they think they have to do it. If I'm not doing something that has a real meaning, I generally don't do it. Now that I have cards that I made myself, I'm looking forward to sending them out.

Saturday we did some preparatory shopping for our trip to Maui. I got my own fins, mask, and snorkel so that I won't have to rent them. It's one of those things where if you snorkel often enough, it's fiscally advantageous to take the plunge and buy your own gear. Thanksgiving Day, our departure date, won't come soon enough, but it sure is getting close!

Sunday has turned into a "neaten up the house" day. We aren't doing full-fledged cleaning since that just happened a few weeks ago (and if you've ever been to our house, you know that we don't really clean it that often). But it is nice to pick things up every once in awhile so that we can at least see the tabletop, counters, and closet floor. :)

Happy Halloween! (one day late)

Halloween was awesome at work. My dead/corpse/ghoul bride costume was a hit. There were a few people who didn't even recognize me. Haha! Laura helped tons with my makeup and hair, and she contributed my bouquet. It was wonderful when the fire alarm went off for a drill and I had to tromp out to the parking lot all decked out like that.

Otherwise, things are pretty uneventful around here. We didn't get any trick-or-treaters last night because we forgot to turn on our porch light. Of course, even if they had tried to ring the doorbell, we wouldn't know. We disconnected it after it tried to set our house on fire.

Ghost town hunting and weekend catch-up

Friday we went on our ghost town hunt. It wasn't totally what we were expecting, but there were some interesting highlights from the trip: seeing and photographing Multnomah Falls in the fog, lots of pretty changing-color trees, gorgeous views of Hood, Adams, and St. Helens, and just being outside in the crisp fall air. The ghost towns we wanted to explore weren't what they were cracked up to be because they were all on private property. That prevented us from doing some hands-on exploring, but Marc got lots of nice pictures. When we got back in town we met up with some of the guys from work at Buffalo Wild Wings for some happy hour action.

Saturday was relatively uneventful. We shopped all over town for new skiing/boarding jackets. I finally chose a light purple Burton jacket and picked up some new pants. Marc bought a coat, but in true form, wasn't sure it was what he wanted, so we went back today to buy another. He'll wear them around for awhile and then decide what to return. Marc is a coat and jacket whore. I keep threatening him that I'm going to enact a law that for every coat he buys, he has to donate or sell two that he already has. Now all we have to do is pray for good snow this year.

Today we visited Aaron and Robyn and their newborn twin sons, Logan and Zachary. They were very quiet babies--at least for the hour that we were there. My attitude toward babies is more and more like my attitude toward dogs. I love them, but I'm really glad when they belong to someone else. It's fun holding a baby, but I'll pass on the feeding, diapering, cleaning, etc. Aaron and Robyn are very happy, and I just know that they're going to be wonderful parents. Too bad we've lost our greatest game-playing buddies though.

All of my current ebay auctions ended today, so I've been busy this afternoon and evening getting stuff prepped to send out. I only sold half of the stuff I put up, but I netted about $180, so I think it was worth it. Now I'll have to decide if I want to relist anything or just donate it all away.

Another long weekend

A friend of ours was looking for some people to do some exploring--old mines, power stations, trails, etc--in southern Washington this Friday. Marc said to me, "Too bad you have to work." That sounded like a challenge. I asked on Wednesday for the day off on Friday, and I received. Score. So tomorrow we'll be out and about, hopefully seeing some cool stuff, and surely seeing lots of pretty autumn leaves. At least we don't have 20 inches of snow on the ground, like in Denver.

I'm always on the lookout for funny t-shirts. I recently got Marc a Meh shirt, and I picked up Pluto Replies. In the Think Geek newsletter I got today, I about L'ed MAO at this one. I just may have to get it.

In diet news, I'm a mere 4 pounds away from my goal weight. We have just over 3 weeks until we finish the BFL program, so I'll have to work a little harder these final weeks. Even if I don't make it to my goal, it's still nice just feeling healthier and being thinner than I've been in awhile.

Increasing my Dorkiness

I became a bit more of a nerd today. I got a Nintendo DS Lite. Amazingly, my parents have had one of these for several months now. I researched them awhile ago but resisted getting one. Then we saw a commercial the other night, and it renewed my interest. After watching a few sell on ebay for more than it would cost to buy it in a store, I figured there weren't any smoking deals to be had. I was at Fred Meyer for some other random crap I needed today, and I stopped in to see if they had the DS. They did. Plus, they had a buy 2 get 1 free deal on some games I wanted. I couldn't pass it up. It seems like a pretty nifty little machine, and it will certainly come in handy on our plane ride to Maui in a mere 30 days (and counting...).

Stupid questions

Okay, I'm a fan of the Extreme Home Makeover show. It's cool to see what the design team comes up with, and the family always seems to be a deserving one. Ty Pennington asks some really stupid questions, though. Take last night's episode. Here's a family with something like 7 daughters. They also had a son who had some kind of cancer and died when he was 8, I think. The details don't matter for the purpose of this blog. Anyway, whenever they start talking about "Jimmy boy," the parents and sisters cry. Here comes Ty with the stupid (paraphrased) question: "Does it make you sad to think about Jimmy?" or something absurd like that.

Gimme a break.

Of course the family is sad about the child being dead. Why would someone even ask that question? I don't know the answer, other than to think that someone, somewhere thinks it makes for good TV. Bah.