Pretty

Once in a while I notice that my commute has some pretty moments.


It's a rare day in winter when it's clear enough to see Mt. Rainier.


And I found this guy just hanging out in a tree along the river one day.

Huh?

What was my first clue that I'd done something wrong?

Poor Furnace

It's a little funny to say we were fortunate (in my opinion it was a huge blessing) to have our furnace go out this week. Why is that a good thing? Because this week the temperatures were above freezing. If it happened last week we would probably have some pipe damage to go along with the poor busted furnace.

It started in the evening, when I felt a bit cold, so I turned the thermostat up four degrees. I heard the furnace start making noise and thought nothing of it until Dan pointed out that the furnace kept just starting to make noise and blowing some cold air around and then turned off. Over and over again. We were a bit nervous about a problem with the gas, so I kept sneaking upstairs after we turned the furnace off and the thermostat down, but I didn't smell anything funny.

So, the next day I called and got an appointment for 2:00 in the afternoon. I enjoyed the warmth of the car heater and the warmth at work. Then I bundled up, headed home, and sat in the cold until the fellow showed up. He started up the furnace, waited for it, and then told me the igniter was broken. So, hooray, it could easily be replaced!

I then quized him all about my heater (yeah, getting my money's worth or something). I found out how the furnace works, including some of the safety mechanisms built into the furnace control board. And now I know what the igniter is. It's that thing that glows white hot an then lights the gas.

Catch Up

In no particular order, here's some things that have happened since the last time I posted anything.

Um, November? It's been more than a month. I may have a couple pictures to add later, but I've been as lax in my picture-taking as in my blogging.

Almost all of the leaves have fallen off our big tree. For the first time in years I actually climbed into a garbage can to stomp down the leaves to make more fit. (sorry, there are no pictures of this)

Thanksgiving - a great dinner and fun time at Mom's house this year, with my very first attempt at a lemon meringue pie. There was also a sour cream lemon pie and an apple crisp. I think the apple-yam casserole is possibly my favorite part of Thanksgiving.


Teaching Relief Society - it's just as nervewracking the second time as the first, but I had someone come up to me today and tell me my story and analogy that I closed with was beautiful.

Volleyball - we WON! Just tonight, we won the playoffs and No Fear is officially the city's upper B league champions. We played two matches, best of three games in each match. The first match we went 1-1 and then I served out the third game with five or six serves in a row and it felt great! The second match we won 2-0, and again I served out the final game! And even better, the other team decided not to block me the one time I hit (we have some really really great men on our team who hit so well I usually don't need to very often) well, the one time I hit I just ripped it into the short cross-court and people were diving for it and it was just an awesome kill. For me at least.

Planning Christmas - I had one very failed attempt at Christmas shopping, but now I'm regrouping. If anyone is looking for ideas for me ... I don't even know. I love socks with grip on them - slipper socks I guess they're called. And the Botanical Crewel napkins from williams sonoma - to be used for decorating purposes since they're dry clean only. Um, maybe I'll have to come up with a better list later.

Construction Project - we got together with Dan's brother and his family and built the amazing Costco gingerbread houses. They were totally cheap and way better than the ones we usually get in the grocery store. They had a house, a tree, two gingerbread men, more than enough premixed frosting - it just came out like toothpaste - in white and green, and at least seven types of candy. Eight if you count the cute little sugar wreath.


Scouts - Dan finished all his scout leader training and he got to go on his first cool activity. Cold, actually. Hiking Little Si last weekend. I made sure to get him wool socks so he wouldn't freeze as fast.

Hopefully we'll soon have a wool rug to put in front of our fireplace - it's below 20 degrees out there. Fire sounds lovely.

That's it for now. I'm sure there's more, but at least this is something or anyone who's wondered where I disappeared to.

Have a Happy

Saying Goodbye

I had to say goodbye to my Sunday School class today. It's not like I'll never see them again - just that I'm no longer their teacher.

Now I just have to figure out what the Relief Society 1st Counselor does.

Sandpiper

After a very full weekend of playing, shopping, hiking, and packing, we finally left Monday morning for my family's trip to the beach. I spent most of Monday morning busily checking off a list of all the food: bread, hot dogs, ketchup, mustard, avacados, orange juice, chicken, rice vinegar, etc.

My sister's family met us at my mom's house and we loaded ourselves into our cars for the trip. It's a pretty nice drive, especially the road from Olympia to Aberdeen. We stopped at McDonald's for lunch, grabbed our Aberdeen groceries, and drove on out to the coast.

It was raining when we got there, so we worked quickly to unload the cars. After unpacking our clothes, books, towels, and beach stuff, I went into the kitchen to put away all the food. Then I headed down to the beach - we all did. My niece was happily playing in the sand (her favorite part of the beach). I had to walk down far enough to go wading. Brrrr! It was so much colder than Hawaii. :)

Back up in our unit, I put the lasagne in the oven and watched as my sister put together a fantastic salad. Then I heard Dan's voice from the other room, followed by my niece's voice. When I peeked around the corner, this is what I saw.


In fact, I think the kid really decided she liked Dan this week. Possibly the cutest thing I saw was when Dan was shoveling up sand to build the big sand castle and my niece shoveled right along with him. When he moved to the other side of the pile of sand she called out "Uncle Dan? Where are you?" and then walked around the pile and found him. She promptly started shoveling with him again. So here's some pictures of all of us at the beach.


Aren't the beach hats adorable? I can't believe my sister made hers - it turned out so cute!

Here are some of the fun things we saw this year: the bug in the sand, the birds running away from a dog, the hummingbird trapped in the gift shop (possibly the same one that flew into Jenny & Nick's room), and the spot where we sank deep into the sand with every step.


We had a birthday party, a beach bonfire, and a lot of time with the beautiful sunny beach.

Finished!

I started this over seven years ago. Mom stored it for me under her couch (broken into fourths) for years until I reclaimed it this summer. 3000 pieces. 47" x 31". Thank you to Annie for helping me with all the purple.

Now I'm thinking about this one.

Eyeballs

For some reason I am fascinated by close up eyeball pictures.

Jen and Seafair

With the temperatures finally dropping (from our record highs of 103-106), my friend Jen drove up from Tacoma to spend the weekend with me.

We started out our weekend by watching North and South (the Elizabeth Gaskell version, not the story based on the American Civil War). Then Saturday morning we headed over to a park in Seattle near to where Seafair takes place. We sat on our beach towels playing Phase 10 for a while - she won. Then we moved our stuff down to the steps leading into the water and we got ready to watch the Seafair air show.

Here we are having fun and cooling off with our feet in the lake.


Then the show started and we watched as a cute little plane did acrobatics. Then a really big plane came and also did acrobatics, which seemed even more amazing because it looked like it should be just a whale trying to fly. But it was really quite graceful.

And then came the Blue Angels!!! Yes, some of them are upside-down in the lower right corner picture.


Growing up, we used to hear the Blue Angels every summer while they practiced for the Seafair air show. We would hear them screaming by and it would send us running outside to look for them. Sometimes we caught a glimpse of a second or third Blue Angel following the one we heard, or sometimes they would turn around in a formation and come screaming past on their way back to the lake area (where the air show officially takes place). So it was awesome to go see their show.

After that Jen and I went shopping. We finally found the movie she wanted (the same North and South that we started watching the night before) at the third Costco we went to. Yes, there are three Costco's within a reasonable distance of my house. Four actually. We celebrated our shopping success with Costco ice cream, and then we went on to another store where Jen found some really cute shirts. Another of our college roommates called while we were there, which was a great coincidence! Perfect timing, Amy! Then we picked up a Trader Joe's salad for dinner and had a musical evening around the piano. It was really cool to have someone in the house who could actually hit those high notes.

Sunday was more relaxing - we went to church and then we came home and finished North and South. Dan's brother and family came over too, and we played a few rounds of Ziggity. We had orange chicken for dinner and then Jen had to head home. I am so glad she could come up and visit!

Jury Duty

You can't be called to serve jury duty for twelve months after you serve. So, thirteen months after my last jury duty I went again. Lucky me. At least I was in downtown Seattle instead of Kent - it's a whole lot closer. I hopped on the bus on the morning of July 27 and found my way to the courthouse by 8:00. My friend from work was there at the same jury duty as me!


I wasn't too worried, since the last time I had jury duty there were only two trials and the longest one was two weeks long. I started to get worried when they called 75 people into one trial and then 118 people into another. I was number 12 of the 118. The judge asked us if a three week trial would be a hardship. I explained in my turn that we had a vacation coming up that third week, already paid for, with my sister's family joining us to go out of town. But the judge decided that I wouldn't be released from the jury for that. He said there were a lot of long trials (three weeks and longer) so they couldn't let us all go.

I sat in the courtroom stressing out for the rest of the day (except the lunch break where I walked down to Pike Place Market in 92 degree weather). And I stressed all evening and all night. See, this trip to the ocean is a family tradition lasting the last 29 years. We'll celebrate my niece's 4th birthday there, walk for hours on the beach, build sandcastles, etc. I tried to take Dan's attitude and say "well, it's not so bad because we did get to go to Hawaii" but I wasn't very successful. Plus it sounded like a very messy, very nasty trial. And the guy on trial sat there laughing and smiling, which was creepier than I can express in words. One lady (who was seriously my angel for that day) made sure I went and got lunch and talked with me when I was stressed - I am so glad she was there!

Finally, right before lunch on the second day the voir dire was over and the prosecution and defense each could excuse people on peremptory challenges (no reason required). And the prosecution excused me. Phew! I was so relieved! So I went back to the jury room and was immediately called into another three week trial. As juror number 2. Seriously? But this time the new judge excused me for my vacation. I waited around in the jury room one more time, and then I actually was one of the maybe 40 people who went home without being on a jury.

24th of July Weekend

Dan and I like hiking, but he never wants to go to the same place twice. So we're always looking for a new place to go. On July 25th, it was Dan who found us a hike - the Big Four Ice Caves up in the Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. We called up his brother and so their family came with us on our hike. It was an hour and a half drive, with a small parking fee to hike the trail (which we didn't figure out online - good thing we had a few dollars with us). Here's the important part - the pictures!

Nearing the end of the trail we could see the mountain with waterfalls running down it all over the place, and then we could see the big ice cave - look closely to see the people near the entrance.

Here we are on the trail. Note who is holding the baby.

And here we are in the opening of one of the smaller ice caves; the fuzziness in the pictures is actually the ice vapor. It is freezing cold in there! Which made it absolutely amazing on a hot summer day.
(I think we look like giants in the land of the little people - you may have to click and view the image full-size to see this. If I just lifted my hand up through the roof of the cave I could catch one and keep them for a pet.)

So how much fun did we have? This much!

12:34:56 - 7/8/09

Happy 4th

I suddenly realized I had saved this post as a draft and never finished it. Oops.

This 4th of July weekend we:

Canned cherries, dried cherries, made cherry fruit leather, made cherry frozen yogurt, and froze a bunch of cherries to use in smoothies.


Went hiking in Twin Falls State Park, where we almost went passed the stairs leading down to the big waterfall.


Kayaked 11+ miles, going across Lake Washington and up the Sammammish River, where we saw two bald eagles fly right over us and land in the nearby trees. We also saw fish jumping in the lake.


Went out to dinner at Mediterranean Kitchen prior to going to see the fireworks in the downtown Bellevue Park!


My favorite part about the fireworks is that they are accompanied by the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra.

Wednesday was good

I didn't run into any real traffic on the way to work.

I went out to a farewell lunch for some friends at work, and when the server accidentally put my meal on the manager's check (he was paying for the people who were leaving, but the rest of us were paying for ourselves) - the manager was really nice and just said to leave it there.

On the way home, I was driving across the 520 bridge from the sunny side to the shadowed side when I looked down at the dark steel gray water. There was no blue at all. It was an amazing color. And on one side of the bridge the water is all calm, while on the other side there were whitecaps from all the wind.

Enough people showed up to play volleyball, so I got to play for the first time in a month!

Going Home (Awesome Vacation Day 8)

We actually packed up the Monday evening so that we could head out to the Hukilau Cafe for breakfast. I had Hawaiian sweet bread french toast, and Dan had fried rice with eggs and spam.


Then we put all our stuff in the car and drove off, stopping just a bit down the road to see Laie Point. There was an explanation of the legend of the point - something about a monster that was defeated and it fell in five pieces, making up the five islands around the point.


We drove a ways and stopped at this macadamia nut store, where we sampled various flavors. They were all really good - especially the ones covered in chocolate!


Then off to the airport. We were there in plenty of time. We were asked to take an earlier plane (by about 20 minutes) to make room for some folks who were missing their connecting flights. So we had a few minutes to look around from the Maui airport before we got on the long flight home. So, here's pictures of our very short stay in Maui. There were mountains and then some very agricultural looking land.


My brother picked us up at the airport - we got in pretty late at night - and he dropped us off at home. We set our alarms to wake up for work and prepared to return to real life the next day. With a really nice tan.

Awesome Vacation Day 7

Monday morning we woke up super duper early so that we could get on the road and get down to the southeast part of the island before there was any traffic. And it worked too. Today it really sank in - this was our last full day in Hawaii and our last full day to spend with our friends! Our trip was 500% better because of our friends! Thank you!

We spent the rest of the day driving from one thing to the next and enjoying ourselves. First stop, Halona Blowhole:


Next up, snorkeling Hanauma Bay. Aren't we lovely? Those masks are really a fashion statement. There weren't nearly as many fish as Shark's Cove, but the bay is in a lovely caldera and we saw a sea turtle! Sometimes a little closer than we meant to - we think the sea turtle may have been trapped by the low tide and was just waiting for the water to rise enough to let him/her out.


After snorkeling for several hours, we hiked back up the hill to the parking lot.


Then we headed out for a quick lunch at Taco Bell. After lunch our friends dropped us off at the Sea Life Amusement Park. It's small and doesn't really compete with all the other water attractions on the island (hello, there are real beaches) but it did have an okay dolphin show and they let us swim with the stingrays. We also saw their dolphin show while we were waiting for our turn with the rays and we saw a sea turtle up close through the aquarium window.

First we waded in and petted the stingrays while they swam past our legs - following the food the handlers were giving them. Then we put on the snorkeling masks and swam / floated in the water with the rays for another 20-30 minutes. It was kind of eerie when a big stingray appeared right below you in the water, only about a foot away. They seemed to like swimming up underneath your feet and then appearing in your vision once they're already halfway along passing underneath you. One stingray came up to Dan and bumped into his mask!



Our friends found the next stop - I'm glad they thought of it because I hadn't heard of it. We went to the spitting cave - you had to know to follow a little path between two houses down to the rocky cliff area and then we walked out along a little point of the cliff so we could look back at the cave. Here's my favorite video I took of it:



While we were watching the spitting cave we looked out into the ocean and saw this guy!


To finish off a very busy day we went out to eat. Our friends had gotten a recommendation for an Indian restaurant - it was delicious!

Awesome Vacation Day 6

A relaxing Sunday. At least it was relaxing after we made it to really early morning church. We woke up, dressed up, and walked to church. It was already very warm before 8AM. In Sacrament meeting we got to sing along with Aloha 'Oe for those who were moving out of the area. Every meeting and talk started with a big Aloha, echoed by the congregation or classroom. After church we walked over to the Laie Temple.


I love the flowers on the temple grounds. The missionaries actually go out and collect flowers to give to the visitors.


One of the missionaries serving at the temple took us through the visitor's center to see the Reflections of Christ photographs. After that we explored the rest of the visitor's center - Dan liked looking at the Book of Mormons in different languages and I watched some short movies with our friends. Their daughter really liked the movie about cupcakes, so I saw that one two or three times.

We walked home, stopping to look at some houses with history markers, and then we took afternoon naps. When we woke up, it was time for some Ratatouille for dinner. Yum! After dinner I made my lei, carefully threading ribbon through the kukui nuts and then tying knots for spacers. How cool to make my own Hawaiian souvenier!

Awesome Vacation Day 5

We started off the day with pancakes for breakfast! After breakfast we attended BYU Hawaii graduation. You know you're starting to get used to the heat in Hawaii when the air conditioning starts to feel cold. So anyway, everybody wears a lei to graduation. Students and faculty. After the graduation ceremony we wandered around the campus a bit, stopping for some pineapple juice and cookies. The administration building (I think) had this huge mural up on the wall representing Kapi-olani, who defied the local volcano deity Pele, stating that her god (Jesus Christ) would protect her. She lived.


Here we are enjoying the beautiful campus. And we just couldn't resist the second picture. Tradition, you know.


Next we went out to lunch at Giovanni's. Shrimp. Yum. Very messy. I didn't really dare touch a camera with such dirty fingers. We signed the truck, which must be painted nearly every week to keep up with the number of people signing it all the time. But it's tradition. We stopped at a local produce stand to try some papaya, grapefruit, apple bananas, and freshly sliced up coconut. My favorite was the coconut, followed by the apple bananas - they had more flavor than regular bananas.


Then our friends dropped us off one beach up from Hukilau Beach and we walked along the beach until we found a spot where we wanted to swim. It was the perfect day at the beach. The sun was warm, the water cool, the waves were big enough to knock you over if you weren't careful. It looked just like this.


Dan thought it was funny to let the waves roll him back and forth in the shallow water - it looked like he was stuck in a spin-cycle. I liked falling into the oncoming waves only to have them drag me back upright. And we even saw a sea turtle swimming about 30 yards off-shore.

After we had been swimming a while, our friends came out with us. They headed back as it got close to dinner time, and we reluctantly packed up, showered off, and followed their tracks towards home. There we had Hawaiian haystacks with fresh pineapple for dinner, did a bit more laundry, and watched some Pride and Prejudice. Well, I did. I think Dan went for a book or something at that point.

Awesome Vacation Day 4

Friday morning. Hawaiian sweet bread for breakfast. Strawberry-guava jam. Mmmmm. Friday we spent with our friends. First we drove north on Kamehameha Highway up to the Turtle Bay resort, where we stopped for the 10 minute tour. The resort is beautiful - the grounds, the building, the beach, and the wedding chapel. At least, the wedding chapel is beautiful as long as it has some serious air-conditioning. Otherwise it's just a fancy greenhouse. A fancy greenhouse with a beautiful view out over the water. No, we didn't see any turtles.

Then we hopped back in the car and drove to Sunset Beach, where we got all ready for some swimming and snorkeling. Which we did - at Shark's Cove.


My one half-regret is that we didn't bring a waterproof camera. But, on the other hand, I didn't spend my time worrying about taking pictures. Instead we just swam with tons of incredible bright, dark, pale, pink, striped, dotted, skinny, fat, slow, fast fish. We went out into the cove and back in twice - the second time the waves picked up a bit, so it made the path back through the rocks a little more adventurous.

We had lunch at Hale'iwa Beach Park, and then we went into Hale'iwa, which is a fairly touristy town. Lots of shops and some restaurants and stuff like that. The girls went shopping while the men waited in line for shave ice. Dan and I shared a raspberry rootbeer chocolate shave ice. Tastes fantastic. Then we headed out to the Dole Pineapple plantation to see how pineapples grow and to go through the incredibly huge maze. Even with a map of the maze, it still took us an hour to make it through!


Then we were off to Costco in Mililani for a pizza dinner. After that we did a bit of souvenir shopping, including picking up the supplies for me to make my own kukui nut lei. Back at home we did some laundry and hung it out to dry before collapsing, I mean ... before resting up for the next day.

Waikiki (Awesome Vacation Day 3)

Thursday morning Dan figured out that it was much quieter if we shut the window facing the roosters. So we slept a lot better. We had crepes for breakfast with our friends and then we took off for a day on our own. Bus 55 took us along the windward side of the island with lots of great views of the mountains and water until it went into downtown Honolulu, where we got off a block early (my fault). But we found the B Bus anyway (after a quick stop in Macy's) and we rode off to the beach. Waikiki.

We got off the bus right by the police station on the beach. Immediately we were approached by someone offering surfing lessons, but we weren't ready to try that. Instead we just went swimming. The water wasn't exactly warm like a heated pool, but it was definitely not cold. Nothing like swimming in the waters of the Pacific Northwest beaches. The bottom dropped off really quickly, which surprised me, but it made for some great waves crashing into the beach. We went out about 5 yards and the water was up to my waist. Ten yards and I could barely touch. Fifteen yards and we were swimming. It was gorgeous. Big swells would pick us up, or white foaming water would crash over and into us. We could swim out and back in or just float in place.

I know, I know - you're wondering at this point where the pictures are. Well, we didn't bring a camera, but have no fear, there are pictures coming up.

After maybe an hour we came in from the water and went wandering further down the beach. There are just bunches of beaches all connected together along in front of all the hotels or along Kalakaua Ave. We walked west along the beach, passing the Sheraton Moana Surfrider, the Outrigger Waikiki, the Sheraton Waikiki ... down almost to the Fort de Russy beach. About two hotels before that beach we turned and walked between the hotels to the street. We wandered our way back through the streets, looking at the various shops everywhere. Tons of shops. Why would you go shopping if you're next to that beautiful beach? Well, anyways, we ended up finding lunch in the international district back along Kalakaua. Gyros and a coconut smoothie. Coconuts don't "smooth" very well, but it left a nice residue in the bottom of the cup to munch on. Dan got a little worried as I enjoyed looking at the different stalls and shops we passed, but we made it safely back to the beach where we started.

We were a bit tired, so we hung out at the beach out of the sun for a half hour before we started our surfing lesson. That's right, we tried to surf. We got ourselves a couple of lessons at a group rate, and then we were the entire group! So the two of us headed out into the water with Junior after a brief land demonstration of "how to stand up on a surfboard".

We lay on our boards and paddled out into the water. Then we took turns riding the waves in towards the shore. Here come the pictures.

Dan, on his second or maybe third try. He claims he had to jump off at the end because he was going to run into someone.

On my fifth or sixth try:

While Dan was busy surfing:

I was busy falling. And feeling kind of foolish. Well, a lot foolish. But then, after lots of practice falling, on the seventh or eighth try, Tada! I surf!

But never fear, I managed to find other ways to feel foolish. Like this:

That's right - I took out a kid. A cute little kid. Not that I could see her at all because I was mostly facing the other way, but that's no excuse really. The only thing I can say for myself is that I'm glad she jumped before our boards collided. She was safely off in the water before I even knew there was a problem.

And how does it feel to surf? Our faces say it all:
Concentration, Fear, and Exhilaration!

For those who only read this blog for the pictures, well, the pictures are over for this post. Sorry. But just in case I lost the piece of paper where I wrote everything down, I'm going to keep typing here.

After surfing we were ... not hungry. We'd probably tasted a little too much saltwater. So we headed the other direction down the beach and passed some girls playing two-on-two volleyball, a stage that was evidently for later that night, a really calm beach due to the big old breakwater wall build out in the water, a pier where kids were jumping off into the waves and one guy was snorkeling, down to Kapiolani Park and the Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial. Where were changed back into street clothes and turned around. We checked out a quilt shop, but it was more of a "quilted knick knack" shop. We stopped at Haagen Dazs and had some cookie dough and cheesecake (two flavors) ice cream. By 7:30 it was clearly getting darker and time to head home. We wandered around to find a bus stop, since Kalakaua was a one way street down by the beach. We found a B Bus heading back into town and took it. However, the bus went back on a parallel street a few blocks over, so we were lost. The bus driver told us to get off at Punchbowl, and we did. Then we walked a couple blocks and found a bus stop where I asked one lady if she knew how to find the 55 going circle island. She was really nice and told us to go back to the previous corner and turn right, walk down the hill, and stop where there's a bus stop with a bunch of people at it. She was right! We caught the bus and headed back north. We rode home through the dark, proud of our day's adventuring.