Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Just what I wanted...a ballroom
So over the past month Mom and I have been getting the living room prepped to have it's flooring replaced. The carpet that was in there was 20 years old at least and was refusing to be cleaned anymore. Regardless of how much carpet washing Mom did it still stunk. So a while back we discussed what to replace it with. I wanted carpet back in there, since most of the floors on the main level are hard, but she wanted something easier to clean. I finally caved when I saw the most beautiful cherry hardwood laminate at Home Depot, as long as we could get a large area rug for in between the couch and chairs. We saved a whole bunch of money moving the furniture (and there was a lot!), pulling up the carpet ourselves and cleaning the room to ready it for the laminate. The past two days was the installation and it is truly gorgeous. I think it looks like a ballroom without all the furniture in it. Anyone need to use a fancy dress that's sitting in a closet? We will be moving all the furniture back in shortly, but until then enjoy a slide show of the living room's makeover. (Sorry I didn't have any pictures of it FULL of furniture.)
Josh Groban Live!
Sorry it's taken me so long to get to this, but as usual life has been crazy busy. Two Saturdays ago Mom and I drove over to Seattle, yet again. We have been over there so much this summer I told her we should just buy a condo...yeah right. The reason for this trip was to see Josh Groban's Straight to You Tour at the Key Arena! I was super excited for this trip mostly because I love Josh Groban's music. I was also pretty proud at how I bought these tickets. While I was at work one weekend I took my break at 10 when the tickets went on sale and bought them on my iPod touch using the hospital's wifi. Technology is pretty awesome. :)
We drove over Saturday morning and went to Bellevue Square to do some shopping. I got a cute hoodie and scarf from Eddie Bauer, Mom got some shirts for her teddy bear at Build-A-Bear Workshop and we both got soap and lotions at Bath and Body Works. They also have a Disney Store there and I went looking for baby clothes with Winnie-the-Pooh on them, but alas they only had Mickey and Minnie stuff for babies. They did have LOTS of other fun dress up clothes for older kids and I was drooling a bit. I'd like to have a girl and a boy because I wanted to buy all the princess dresses for the girl and all the Toy Story/Peter Pan costumes for the boy. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch/dinner there in the mall and as always had fabulous food and cheesecake. I had found a great deal on a hotel in Bellevue and we checked in and got our stuff up so we didn't have to haul it up there at midnight after the concert. When we left I forgot the tickets in the room and we had to go back. Then as we left for the second time I saw Mt. Rainier looking beautiful and realized I had forgot my camera!! I think that hotel has a Harry Potter obliviate charm on it because I could not seem to remember anything!!
When we got to the Key Arena they had a really nice parking garage adjacent to the Seattle Center. As we walked in I got a great picture of the Space Needle and EMP building. As we walked further into the park we came upon the International Fountain in the middle of a show. It was a lot like the fountains at Bellagio in Vegas, with music and the fountains "dancing" to it, only people could go and run under the water as it came down. It was really quite enchanting to watch.
The seats we got at the Key Arena were pretty close to nosebleed unfortunately. And the seats were horrible! I had to put one hip and then another down as I sat because I literally could not sit down normally the seats were so small. Then the next row was so close in front of me that my knees were pressing against the plastic back. Once I got in I tried not to move. The next time I'll pay for floor seats because they were just padded folding chairs which would have been much more comfortable.
The concert was fantastic regardless of the seats. We could see everything and the music filled the entire arena without blowing your ears out. It was nice to learn what the stories were behind some of the songs so you understood better what they meant.
Josh was funny and there was a question and answer part where you could text in your questions and he answered a select few. Like "If your life was a movie, who would play you and what sort of movie would it be?" He started by joking saying it would be a sci-fi/fantasy and then said in reality it would probably be on Lifetime. Or "If you were on Sesame Street what character would you do a duet with?" He said probably Elmo, though he wants everything repeated and so he'd end up singing the chorus of You Raise Me Up a dozen times. He has a pretty spot on Elmo impression too.
The people in the audience though were a bit flat. He asked a couple of people what you should do while your in Seattle. The first said she didn't know and the second said, "drink coffee." Mom and I had a bunch of better answers...Eat at the Spaghetti Factory...Go walking down at the piers...Shop at Pike Place Market...Go to the top of the Space Needle...Take a ferry ride anywhere! Must be those people who live there all the time and are jaded about what there is to do.
But truly the concert was the best I have ever been to, you didn't want it to end when it did. All the best songs, an amazing group of musicians (who did a killer rendition of Live and Let Die), and an honestly funny, generous and kind singer who should get more appreciation than he does. I'd go again in a minute. And I remembered to get a video of at least one song. Here it is. (I loaded it on to YouTube since it was so long. And there are a lot of better videos from the Seattle concert on there if you want to see more.)
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
And now back to the things that are really important...
So, as many of you already saw I passed my SM exam. Thanks for all the congrats! It was THE hardest test I have ever taken in my life and I'm pretty sure you could consider that test a form of capitol punishment. But *phew* it's done. And now back to real life!!
My garden is growing...
Mom and I put up some picket fence corners at the end of the long beds that are growing zucchini, pumpkins, corn, squash, cucumbers, melons, etc! We had this gang of magpies hanging around the garden and before the veggies started ripening I wanted to discourage them from tagging it by eating them all. When we were buying the supplies the guy at the checkout said that it would probably be cheaper to make a scarecrow. This is true, but not as pretty! I also have had bad luck with scarecrows...wasps making nests in them and in general not working. But a coworker said why didn't I take home his dirty disposable lab coat and use that. I took a clean one...and it's been working pretty good! I still like all the picket fencing though. It really makes the place look snazzy.
I also have started knitting again with a passion! There are lots of Christmas presents that are falling behind and I may or may not have bought more yarn in the meantime. I also have gotten to look more and more like my couch in the 8 months that I studied for that test and am excited to get back on that elliptical and shed some pounds! And there's the baby stuff. I have continued trekking on my path to parent-dom and finally did ovulate, so now it's all about hitting the target. I'm working on it....
Friday, August 5, 2011
Trying Something Different Trip - Part 2
Apparently no one got what I THOUGHT was funny on the post in between the trip posts. Those are the guys (Jawas) on Star Wars that say "Wootini!" I thought it was similar enough to "Zucchini!" it would be funny....so anyways.
On Sunday morning we got up a little early because we had a reservation for the Port Townsend to Coupeville ferry. The drive into Port Townsend was gorgeous and the architecture in town was beautiful!
I'm thinking a return trip is in order to stay there! We waited in the line at the ferry and I had to take a few pics of the Cascades across the sound. They were more impressive in person, but the pictures don't do them too much injustice.
It was another great ferry ride and I got to do my favorite trick. You walk in the direction the ferry is going and look out the window to the side of you. It makes you feel like you are moving at vampire speeds. We also had fun eavesdropping on a cell phone conversation to a person who obviously didn't know anything about the Pacific Northwest or Seattle. Snippets included:
"Yeah, I'm on a ferry. It's a boat that you drive your car on. No, it's taking me across to an island. No, it's not the ocean, it's like a bay or something. "
"Yeah there are these big mountains in the distance. I think they're the Cascades? No I don't see any volcanoes..." Cue volcano in the distance in front of the ferry. It WAS covered with snow, so maybe I should give him the benefit of the doubt?
When Mom and I saw the dock come into view I said we should probably go back to the car. I got up and walked over to the stairs down to the cars and I could tell no one was behind me. I looked back and she wasn't there. I walked back to look at the seats we just vacated...still not there. Finally I spotted her across the way looking for me. We both started cracking up! We must have done a cartoon move and both gotten up and split, going in opposite directions so assured that the other was behind us.
We drove to Coupeville and found the waterfront shops. We took a picture of the shop they used as Sally's store in Practical Magic. We had gotten there earlier than the shops opened, but there was a nice bakery open where we got a couple of pastries. They also had a tavern named "Toby's Tavern."
We decided if Toby would be something it probably would be a tavern. He is always so happy and ready to have a good time!
We continued on to Anacortes and decided we should scope out where the ships would be departing from. We drove to the location they put on the tickets to find....nothing. It was a dead end with a dirt parking lot.... We had just passed the marina so we headed back there and after a little searching Mom found some people who directed us to where the ships would be taking off from. We walked down and got to go on both ships and decided we wanted to sail on the Lady Washington. She is a wooden ship based on the original ship that Captain Gray sailed to the Pacific Northwest.
While we were walking down the docks we found a ship named Ariel. It was pretty funny because it was a crabbing ship. If Toby's a tavern, then Ariel would definitely be a crab ship.
We went back to the car and ate a lunch of crackers with the cheddar cheese from the Dungeness Valley Creamery. As we waited for the ships to depart the weather was drizzly but that kept it cool enough that the dogs wouldn't swelter while we were gone.
We got our spots on the Lady Washington and listened as the crew told us what would happen and how to stay safe, you know the drill. They used a motor to get us out of the marina and when we got out into open water the crew went to work opening out the sails.
Wow. They would climb up rope ladders to the masts and stand on a single rope untying the knots to let the sails out. Then they would pull, with all their body weight on ropes to get the sails taught and move them in whatever direction the captain ordered to try and catch the wind.
When both ships were in full sail they got back closer together and the battle began! There was a munitions guy who would load the cannon, aim the cannon at the other ship and yell "Prepare to Fire!". You were supposed to yell the same thing back and put your fingers in your ears. He'd fire the cannon and you were supposed to cheer like we'd made a hit.
We sailed around and fired cannons at each other and just generally tired to get wind in the sails. It wasn't a very windy day so the last part was a bit hard and it didn't feel like we were moving much sometimes. It was still the most fun thing I have done in a while!
The other funny thing was watching the other "pleasure" boats come around. Some would circle and circle snapping pictures. The best was this pair of guys in a little motorboat and the one in the front was busying himself with something not looking around. The guy in the back must have said something to the one in front because he looked up and just stared, mouth agape. The guy in back was taking pictures with his cell phone, but the guy in front never stopped gaping. It was like they'd sailed themselves through a time hole and ended up in the 1800's. I almost didn't take my camera! Good thing I went back for it!
The trip lasted 3 hours and we were exhausted when we got back. It was dinner time and we ate at the Rockfish Grill and Anacortes Brewery. They are a little microbrew place with great wood-fired pizzas. We had Hefeweizens, a pepperoni pizza with fresh basil on top and a chicken Caesar salad. YUM! We then drove out to the Anacortes Ship Harbor Inn. The rooms look out on the ferry terminal to the San Juan Islands and Victoria B.C. It was really nice to have some grass right out our glass sliding door so we could take the puppies to the potty easily. The view was pretty but kind of dreary with the weather. I did enjoy watching the ferries come and go and we even heard one blow it's horn as it left. The next morning the sun was out and the view was fantastic!
We packed up and I had looked in the yellow pages for a yarn store since we had some time to kill. We stopped at Ana-Cross Stitch and they had all sorts of beautiful yarns. Mom looked for some patterns for Cowichan and cabled fisherman's sweaters. I found some beautiful blue-green yarn and some 9 inch circular needles for using to make mittens, fingerless gloves and other such small diameter projects without having to use double-pointed needles. I was ready to move to Anacortes. They had gorgeous views of the ocean, moderate yearly rainfall amounts, a microbrew, a yarn store and they weren't too far from an IMAX theater. Pretty much perfect, right? We got out of town on time and drove on to the IMAX theater which was close to the Alderwood Mall. The poster outside the theater said it all.
Harry Potter was pretty amazing on a huge 3D screen, and it was a great way to end the movies.
After that we headed home with great memories, thoroughly relaxed and ready to go back!
On Sunday morning we got up a little early because we had a reservation for the Port Townsend to Coupeville ferry. The drive into Port Townsend was gorgeous and the architecture in town was beautiful!
It was another great ferry ride and I got to do my favorite trick. You walk in the direction the ferry is going and look out the window to the side of you. It makes you feel like you are moving at vampire speeds. We also had fun eavesdropping on a cell phone conversation to a person who obviously didn't know anything about the Pacific Northwest or Seattle. Snippets included:
"Yeah, I'm on a ferry. It's a boat that you drive your car on. No, it's taking me across to an island. No, it's not the ocean, it's like a bay or something. "
"Yeah there are these big mountains in the distance. I think they're the Cascades? No I don't see any volcanoes..." Cue volcano in the distance in front of the ferry. It WAS covered with snow, so maybe I should give him the benefit of the doubt?
When Mom and I saw the dock come into view I said we should probably go back to the car. I got up and walked over to the stairs down to the cars and I could tell no one was behind me. I looked back and she wasn't there. I walked back to look at the seats we just vacated...still not there. Finally I spotted her across the way looking for me. We both started cracking up! We must have done a cartoon move and both gotten up and split, going in opposite directions so assured that the other was behind us.
We drove to Coupeville and found the waterfront shops. We took a picture of the shop they used as Sally's store in Practical Magic. We had gotten there earlier than the shops opened, but there was a nice bakery open where we got a couple of pastries. They also had a tavern named "Toby's Tavern."
We decided if Toby would be something it probably would be a tavern. He is always so happy and ready to have a good time!
We continued on to Anacortes and decided we should scope out where the ships would be departing from. We drove to the location they put on the tickets to find....nothing. It was a dead end with a dirt parking lot.... We had just passed the marina so we headed back there and after a little searching Mom found some people who directed us to where the ships would be taking off from. We walked down and got to go on both ships and decided we wanted to sail on the Lady Washington. She is a wooden ship based on the original ship that Captain Gray sailed to the Pacific Northwest.
While we were walking down the docks we found a ship named Ariel. It was pretty funny because it was a crabbing ship. If Toby's a tavern, then Ariel would definitely be a crab ship.
We went back to the car and ate a lunch of crackers with the cheddar cheese from the Dungeness Valley Creamery. As we waited for the ships to depart the weather was drizzly but that kept it cool enough that the dogs wouldn't swelter while we were gone.
We got our spots on the Lady Washington and listened as the crew told us what would happen and how to stay safe, you know the drill. They used a motor to get us out of the marina and when we got out into open water the crew went to work opening out the sails.
Wow. They would climb up rope ladders to the masts and stand on a single rope untying the knots to let the sails out. Then they would pull, with all their body weight on ropes to get the sails taught and move them in whatever direction the captain ordered to try and catch the wind.
When both ships were in full sail they got back closer together and the battle began! There was a munitions guy who would load the cannon, aim the cannon at the other ship and yell "Prepare to Fire!". You were supposed to yell the same thing back and put your fingers in your ears. He'd fire the cannon and you were supposed to cheer like we'd made a hit.
We sailed around and fired cannons at each other and just generally tired to get wind in the sails. It wasn't a very windy day so the last part was a bit hard and it didn't feel like we were moving much sometimes. It was still the most fun thing I have done in a while!
The other funny thing was watching the other "pleasure" boats come around. Some would circle and circle snapping pictures. The best was this pair of guys in a little motorboat and the one in the front was busying himself with something not looking around. The guy in the back must have said something to the one in front because he looked up and just stared, mouth agape. The guy in back was taking pictures with his cell phone, but the guy in front never stopped gaping. It was like they'd sailed themselves through a time hole and ended up in the 1800's. I almost didn't take my camera! Good thing I went back for it!
The trip lasted 3 hours and we were exhausted when we got back. It was dinner time and we ate at the Rockfish Grill and Anacortes Brewery. They are a little microbrew place with great wood-fired pizzas. We had Hefeweizens, a pepperoni pizza with fresh basil on top and a chicken Caesar salad. YUM! We then drove out to the Anacortes Ship Harbor Inn. The rooms look out on the ferry terminal to the San Juan Islands and Victoria B.C. It was really nice to have some grass right out our glass sliding door so we could take the puppies to the potty easily. The view was pretty but kind of dreary with the weather. I did enjoy watching the ferries come and go and we even heard one blow it's horn as it left. The next morning the sun was out and the view was fantastic!
We packed up and I had looked in the yellow pages for a yarn store since we had some time to kill. We stopped at Ana-Cross Stitch and they had all sorts of beautiful yarns. Mom looked for some patterns for Cowichan and cabled fisherman's sweaters. I found some beautiful blue-green yarn and some 9 inch circular needles for using to make mittens, fingerless gloves and other such small diameter projects without having to use double-pointed needles. I was ready to move to Anacortes. They had gorgeous views of the ocean, moderate yearly rainfall amounts, a microbrew, a yarn store and they weren't too far from an IMAX theater. Pretty much perfect, right? We got out of town on time and drove on to the IMAX theater which was close to the Alderwood Mall. The poster outside the theater said it all.
Harry Potter was pretty amazing on a huge 3D screen, and it was a great way to end the movies.
After that we headed home with great memories, thoroughly relaxed and ready to go back!
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Trying Something Different Trip - Part 1
This spring Mom and I were discussing how we needed to go on a vacation that was different from our usual trips to the cabin and Cannon Beach. No disrespect to either places but we were feeling a bit rutted. So I had researched things to do in Washington State and found out that the Lavender Festival that they have yearly in Sequim was going to fall on a weekend we had off. We had already put in our vacation time for the year and figured we could do this trip in our usual 3-day weekend. (Working every other weekend gives you one day off every week, ours just happens to be Monday.) We also had always wanted to do a trip to visit the places where movies/books had been filmed/located in Washington State. This in much less cryptic terms means we wanted to visit Coupeville, WA (where they filmed parts of Practical Magic) and Forks, WA (if you don't know what book series made this town famous you should be ashamed...) I had also seen that two tall ships, the Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain, were in Astoria in May but we weren't able to go. So I visited their website and found out they travel up and down the Pacific coast and were going to be in Anacortes the weekend we were planning our trip. If you ever get the chance, or just are looking for something fun and interesting to do, you should definitely go on one of these amazing sails! So our trip was planned...Sequim, Forks, Coupeville and Anacortes. There was just one problem we found out about closer to our trip...Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was also coming out that weekend. Being the girl that had stood in long, and sometimes freezing, lines to get tickets on opening day, and also once being the nerd sitting close to the front of the line in a lawn chair reading the said book that was to be the movie I was going to watch, it was going to be a heinous crime against humanity that I NOT see the last Harry Potter movie on opening weekend. Thankfully a co-worker said, "You won't be doing those things all day. Go see the movie in the evening. You'll be on the west side." My brain started firing and came up with something special that we do not possess on the east side of the Cascades...IMAX. I started freaking out! This would be the answer, the most honorable thing to do for the last movie, in four words...Harry Potter IMAX 3D. And so it was set.
We left on Friday afternoon and drove over the pass in beautiful weather. By the time we got into Seattle though it had clouded up and was drizzling a little. We stopped and ate at our favorite restaurant, The Old Spaghetti Factory. This also made it easy to get to the ferries since it is down close to the waterfront. We were taking the ferry to Bainbridge Island, not just because it shortens the trip, but because we LOVE ferries. We ended up waiting a bit for the 7:20 ferry, but it was prime knitting time for me, and puppy holding time for Mom.
The ferry ride was fun, but it was definitely not weather that made you want to stand out at the front. We had more fun standing next to the car and watching the froth churned up by the ferry.
When we got to Bainbridge we started chasing the light of day. I drove to Sequim and the mountains that we came upon were amazing, as was most of the scenery on this trip. We got to Sequim about 9:30 and fell into bed.
On Saturday we started out going to the Lavender Festival in the Park. They had a raptor recovery center showing their owls and eagles that would not be able to return to the wild. They were all very interesting and terribly intelligent.
We did some shopping there, bubble bath, lotions, and lip balms, and then set out to go to some farms. The first one we stopped at was Graymarsh Berry Farm that had fresh strawberries and beautiful lavender fields. (I loved the purple car there too!)
Then we drove out to the Dungeness Valley Creamery for some milk, which we later turned into pudding to go with the strawberries, and some tasty cheddar cheese. Next we stopped by Oliver's Lavender Farm. So beautiful! They had gorgeous lavender plants and a beautiful gazebo. There was also a house that had these lavender plants lined up in front of it looking like something out of France. Mom picked up some royal purple lavender plants for around our house.
Next we headed off to Forks. The drive was about an hour and 20 minutes, taking us through Port Angeles. It also took us by Lake Crescent, which is this amazing long lake, the road curving around it, with views straight out of a Twilight novel.
It also appropriately poured on us during the drive...in amounts I cannot believe. Rain coming down so hard the wipers couldn't keep the windshield clear. It did stop raining by the time we made it to town so I could take the requisite picture of the Welcome to Forks sign...
...and then we stopped at the store in town that pawns all things Twilight. There was plenty of people my age or older in the store, so thankfully I wasn't too out of place. I got a few things, one being a "Stupid Shiny Volvo Owner" keychain that is definitely going on my keys when I get my Volvo. Then we drove around the town, mostly following the touring van, and finally found the Forks Chamber of Commerce building. They had found an old red Chevy truck and called it "Bella's Chevy" when the books came out, but now they also have the Chevy truck that they used in the movies parked out front. It was pretty cool...and that's our blue van parked next to the movie truck, just to prove we were there :0)
We drove back to Sequim and ate at the Applebee's in town and I got to pickup my favorite souvenir, two lavender colored Adirondack chairs. They're just plastic, but you'd never find that color where we live. And every time we'll sit in them it'll remind us of this fantastic trip.
More to come...
We left on Friday afternoon and drove over the pass in beautiful weather. By the time we got into Seattle though it had clouded up and was drizzling a little. We stopped and ate at our favorite restaurant, The Old Spaghetti Factory. This also made it easy to get to the ferries since it is down close to the waterfront. We were taking the ferry to Bainbridge Island, not just because it shortens the trip, but because we LOVE ferries. We ended up waiting a bit for the 7:20 ferry, but it was prime knitting time for me, and puppy holding time for Mom.
The ferry ride was fun, but it was definitely not weather that made you want to stand out at the front. We had more fun standing next to the car and watching the froth churned up by the ferry.
When we got to Bainbridge we started chasing the light of day. I drove to Sequim and the mountains that we came upon were amazing, as was most of the scenery on this trip. We got to Sequim about 9:30 and fell into bed.
On Saturday we started out going to the Lavender Festival in the Park. They had a raptor recovery center showing their owls and eagles that would not be able to return to the wild. They were all very interesting and terribly intelligent.
We did some shopping there, bubble bath, lotions, and lip balms, and then set out to go to some farms. The first one we stopped at was Graymarsh Berry Farm that had fresh strawberries and beautiful lavender fields. (I loved the purple car there too!)
Then we drove out to the Dungeness Valley Creamery for some milk, which we later turned into pudding to go with the strawberries, and some tasty cheddar cheese. Next we stopped by Oliver's Lavender Farm. So beautiful! They had gorgeous lavender plants and a beautiful gazebo. There was also a house that had these lavender plants lined up in front of it looking like something out of France. Mom picked up some royal purple lavender plants for around our house.
Next we headed off to Forks. The drive was about an hour and 20 minutes, taking us through Port Angeles. It also took us by Lake Crescent, which is this amazing long lake, the road curving around it, with views straight out of a Twilight novel.
It also appropriately poured on us during the drive...in amounts I cannot believe. Rain coming down so hard the wipers couldn't keep the windshield clear. It did stop raining by the time we made it to town so I could take the requisite picture of the Welcome to Forks sign...
...and then we stopped at the store in town that pawns all things Twilight. There was plenty of people my age or older in the store, so thankfully I wasn't too out of place. I got a few things, one being a "Stupid Shiny Volvo Owner" keychain that is definitely going on my keys when I get my Volvo. Then we drove around the town, mostly following the touring van, and finally found the Forks Chamber of Commerce building. They had found an old red Chevy truck and called it "Bella's Chevy" when the books came out, but now they also have the Chevy truck that they used in the movies parked out front. It was pretty cool...and that's our blue van parked next to the movie truck, just to prove we were there :0)
We drove back to Sequim and ate at the Applebee's in town and I got to pickup my favorite souvenir, two lavender colored Adirondack chairs. They're just plastic, but you'd never find that color where we live. And every time we'll sit in them it'll remind us of this fantastic trip.
More to come...
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