Where does the time go?

I'm kind of afraid that I am having memory lapses, but time seems to be flying this summer.  I just finally got the pictures off of my camera from our latest adventure...which was during the second week of July.  As I was putting them in the proper filing arrangement I was also moving pictures of the dry erase calendar that keeps track of our lives to the "Calendar" file for later use to put together the Christmas letter.  I noticed that I was missing April, so I went looking for it and as I moved it to the Calendar file I perused what we did that month.  It said we went to Cannon Beach and I was surprised. Really?  I don't remember even going.  So I looked back to the appropriate file dates and sure enough, there were the pictures to prove it.  Well maybe I didn't blog about it, I thought.  Nope, there's a blog in the April archives and as I read through it I do remember it being warm.  The truth is I don't even remember most of what happened in the months of May or June, though I remember going to North Carolina.  I am going to blame it on the ridiculous levels of stress at work, but really it may just be not taking enough time to relax on my part.  Mom and I have kept a pretty busy schedule lately outside of the extra day's worth of overtime on my paycheck and my goal for the rest of the summer is to finally relax.  You know do some things for me.  Eat outside on the porch, lay in my hammock, knit a pair of mittens in the time limits of the Olympics.  Easy things like that...and blogging.  ;)

So waaaaaaay back at the beginning of July, Mom and I took a vacation to the Olympic Peninsula.  This was not the relaxing vacation we had in mind back in the winter when it was planned.  We had made our reservations back then and the idea of going to North Carolina and then turning around and going on vacation again was not ours.  It just happened that way.  But it was also quite draining on funds to go to North Carolina.  To make up for our sad bank accounts we called and cancelled our first night at Port Ludlow.  We didn't have the time to get ready to go before the Monday we were leaving and we were going to be taking off late to make up for that, so Mom made the suggestion of just going Tuesday morning.  Being the planner I am I had issues with adjusting the schedule but conceded that I didn't really have the money either.

So Tuesday morning, July 10th, we took off for Seattle.  The drive was beautiful and clear until we hit the top of the pass and the clouds awaited us on the other side.

We got in line for the Bainbridge Island ferry (the first of many ferries) and tried to get into that relaxing mood we were searching for.

Once we hit the peninsula we headed straight for Port Townsend.  As we drove the clouds began to dissipate and eventually it cleared off entirely.  When we reached Port Townsend it was gorgeous!

We visited a couple of yarn shops (the first of many yarn shops), got some yummy cupcakes and wandered the downtown.  We were pretty hungry so we stopped for lunch at a nice restaurant that had waterfront dining.  Then we drove around town to see the Victorian houses that Port Townsend is famous for and saw quite a few beauties.

Then we drove down to Fort Warden State Park to see the Point Wilson Lighthouse.  We knew we needed a Discover Pass to park there and Mom went into the park office to purchase one, since we'd forgotten to get one before we left.  It pays for itself if you use it three times and on this trip we did just that!  There was a nice rocky/sandy beach out by the lighthouse and the dogs were happy to get out and stretch their legs.  We picked up agates and really started to get into vacation mode.  The lighthouse wasn't open for tours, but it was nice to visit.  We were wistful, however, for those massive lighthouses of the east coast.

After that we drove back to Port Ludlow to the Inn at Port Ludlow where we were staying the next two nights.  I found out about this place from another blog I read all the time.  The Yarn Harlot has been here numerous times for knitting retreats that last whole long weekends and I am dying to go on sometime but that's another tangent.  They "yarn bomb" the place which in essence is knitting items for statues, lamps and other random home decor.  Some of it was still up when we got there.

And the place was really very beautiful.  We had a huge room with amazing views and a big bathroom!

They also had a really nice flat screen TV with....a VCR attached to it?  Really?  I thought all the VCR's in the world had been replaced by DVD players about 10 years ago.  I mean, we have one at home, but we NEVER use it.  So the DVD's I brought with me weren't going to be very useful and we had to try and find something on television to be decent background noise, which is really very hard to do.  We also ate dinner down in their restaurant and it was awesome!  And pricey!  Mom and I split a steak and potato dinner and then split a dessert with coffee, no wine even, and we were dipping deep into our food money.  They did make broccoli taste the best I have ever eaten though.  It was baked in a creamy cheese sauce that was so good I SAVED THE BROCCOLI FOR DESSERT!  It was crazy good.  We drove into the village after that to pick up some breakfast food, since we hadn't found a bakery in town to get some donuts at.  Guess not every town can be as complete as Cannon Beach...

Catching up...

So it's time to catch you all up on the rest of my life that is not vacation!

I spent the week after Mom left in Durham, North Carolina learning lots about the new Vitek instrument that is sitting waiting to be used in micro.  We have had a Vitek since I was a student, but they just keep getting smarter and smarter.  What is a Vitek you say?  It is an instrument that when a pure isolate of a microorganism is put on it with appropriate "cards" can identify the bacteria and give sensitivities to a variety of antibiotics.  Now what do I do you say?  I look at the report and approve what the Vitek says is the ID or look at it and say, "Are you kidding me?!"  Nothing is fool-proof you see and sometimes you get a "junk" answer like Sphingomonas.  So sometimes you have to do other tests or further workups or send it to the University of Washington to have it's DNA ripped apart and replicated until they can tell what it is.  Ultimately the Vitek is a miniaturization of tube tests that your profs in college made you do, plus a computer that can analyze those and compare them to known reactions to give you an ID.  The newest thing is the sensitivity software.  They use a sort of fingerprint of resistance to certain antibiotics to extrapolate what mechanism of resistance a microorganism may have.  That means that when we have a really resistant gram negative rod it may be an extended spectrum beta lactamase producer, or a carbapenemase producer, or an AmpC resistance and the Vitek software can tell us the most likely resistance mechanism.  This become important with emerging resistance mechanism that used to be able to fall through the "if, then" statements that were used to flag resistant organisms.  I just looked back at this paragraph and maybe I should paraphrase a bit better.  It does cool stuff to help me tell your doctor what drugs to give you.  There, that's better.  I tend to get a bit excited when talking about microorganisms.  :)

Here's a picture of our classroom with an instrument for each of us...

And a picture of the break-room and coffee maker which was of utmost importance to those of us still a bit jet-lagged...

And some pictures of the wonderful people in my class who made the week a ton of fun!

I flew home on Friday and got into Yakima at midnight.  Mom picked me up and I went home and slept 4 hours and got up and went to work on Saturday.  That's right, I'm dedicated!  But really it's almost impossible to get a weekend off and I had asked my supervisor if she would work Sunday for me.  I thought it was only fair that I get my butt to work that Saturday since she was being so gracious. The reason I needed Sunday off was because my cousin Justin was graduating from high school!!

I can't believe it really.  I was 12 when he was born and still think of him as "little" sometimes.  My Mom and I still say "railroad track" the way he did when he was little whenever we drive over one.  And I remember the good times, like when he was annoying and wanted to get his hands all over the computer.  I shoved him a little and he fell backwards onto his diapered bottom and started to cry.  Grammy yelled down from the kitchen table, "What happened?!"  And I yelled back, "He fell!"  Well he did...after I pushed him.  He's grown into a really fun and down to earth guy and I'm sure he will continue to amaze me.

So besides all of that the sour cherry trees decided to give us a bountiful crop of beautiful fruit!  So in my free time (haha) Mom and I have been going out and picking the dickens out of the trees.  The birds found out how good cherries tasted before we could put up the scare tape so we had to cover some of the trees with net so that we could get in on the crop.  The birds ate the tops and we picked the bottom, which we both found copacetic.  We've made a couple of pies, some cherry muffins, a galette, and freezing many bags for later.  Mom is also juicing up quite a few so that we can make sour cherry jelly, which is something I may never get enough of!

We also have quite a garden growing and have already picked plenty of strawberries.  The zucchini and peas are starting to get some mature veggies on them and the pumpkins vines are slowly taking over the long beds.  We planted garlic last fall and now they have some interesting flowers on them...wonder if I need to do something about that.  But they look like modern art!

My tomatoes look like they may have gotten frozen after we set them out.  :(  But we bought a four pitch hitters at the store in case mine never recover.  (Those are the ones that look green in the last picture...)  The tomatoes that I started are coming back slowly so we'll have to see if they catch up.

So yeah!  Life never seems to slow down around here!  I also have been knitting occasionally and here is the shawl I had with me in North Carolina.  It was going to get it's own post, but no time!

First riding in the car...

Then waiting at the airport...

And here's some fun pictures of random things from my travels...a cell phone tower disguised as a tree...

The Camden Food Co. (They like delicious smoothies too!)

And a reassuring sign as I entered the bathroom at the Memphis airport...

Check back later!  I'll have tons of fun posts coming up...

North Carolina Day 4

Welcome to my 100th post!  While I may not be as prolific a poster as Melinda (1000 and counting!!)  I'll get there yet!  And now to wrap up our long weekend in North Carolina...

On the last morning on the Outer Banks I wanted to see the sunrise over the ocean.  Living on the west coast I am used to seeing the sun set over the ocean and, on the rare cloudless day, waiting for the green "flash" right before it's gone as the sun is seen through the ocean water due to the curvature of the earth.  I was excited for my first sunrise and we set an alarm and got up with time to spare.  We walked out onto the decks that take you down to the beach and I waited with camera in hand.  There were a few other people out there who had stayed up the whole night!  As we were waiting I saw some fins in the ocean, just surface and come back down.  Sharks?  No, those would have stayed up as they swam along.  Dolphins!?  Yes! There was a whole pod of dolphins just of shore and we watched them come up to the surface for air and then dive again for breakfast.  There was also a flock of pelicans that kept coming back and forth over the water.  Obviously it was a happening breakfast spot.  Then the sky got really red...  It's coming!

Then just the tiniest piece popped up!

And continued to get bigger...

Until we had a full on red sun rising over the ocean.  What's that saying?  "Red sun at morning sailor take warning?"  Maybe it always rises red?  We didn't end up having any bad weather, but there were some amazing clouds behind us as we walked the beach and I kept taking more pictures.

After about an hour on the beach we got back to the room, cleaned up and packed up and were on our way.  We decided to go to the Roanoke Island Festival Park we had missed the day before since they opened at 9 and we had all day to get the car back to Raleigh.  It turns out on a Sunday there aren't a lot of people there at 9 AM, so we had the park pretty much to ourselves.  We walked through the native american dwelling recreations and got eaten by mosquitos pretty bad.  Then we headed out to the Elizabeth II, a recreation of ships that were used during the time the first colonists came to America.  It is a working ship and they've taken it down to the southern part of the Outer Banks and back.

It was quite small and would have been very cramped to bring over all the people and supplies they would need to start a colony.  There were two men on there in character and they told us all about how things worked (they didn't have wheels to steer the ship, just a pole attached to the rudder), where the people would have been on the long voyage (staying in the hold and not allowed on deck and it being so cramped you'd sleep sitting up) and why it's dangerous to cook on a ship (wood+pitch+flame=bonfire!).  We then moved on to the colony recreation where we had the best time!  The only person there was the blacksmith, but he was quite a character.  He made a square nail for Mom right in front of our eyes, which she considers the best souvenir she got.  He also had a hat and armor that they would have worn and it was really heavy!  We both tried it on...

He also showed us a lathe that they would have used to make furniture legs and other decorative pieces.  It was a lot of fun and quite easy to use!

Then we talked a bit about the area and how much we liked it.  We told him we would have to rent a "cottage" and make it through a hurricane before we'd decide to move.  He said that everyone knows the categories of hurricanes but to the people that live through them they mean something different.  Category 1 means you buy a 6-pack of beer and wait it out.  Category 2 means you by two 6-packs of beer and wait it out.  Category 3 means you buy a keg of beer and wait it out and a Category 4 means you buy a keg of beer, put it in the back of your truck and drive like hell!  He also showed us the water line on the back of the smith-house that was from the height of the flooding from Hurricane Irene.  He said it was such a damaging hurricane, not because of the rains, but because the winds pushed the waters from the sound out of the bay and then when they ceased, it all ran back in and flooded.  We told him that from living on the west coast and always hearing about tsunamis we knew that when the water recedes out that far that it's a BAD sign.  He was really fun to talk to and we got to feel a bit of North Carolina hospitality.

Around 11 we headed out of town because we were driving down to New Bern before we made it back to Raleigh.  We seriously drove over half of North Carolina while we visited, good thing it was unlimited mileage on the car!  The reason we were going to New Bern was to visit Mom's college friend Annie, whom she hadn't seen in 40 years!  They had always kept in touch with Christmas letters and such over the years but we had never made it to North Carolina before.  Not the type of people to waste an opportunity we wanted to see her while we were there.  As we drove south towards New Bern we got to see a lot of the countryside.  The area is very agricultural and it was fun to see things like tobacco being grown in fields on the side of the road.  We got a little lost on our Google Map directions when we got to New Bern and ended up driving through the old town a bit.  What fantastic buildings and architecture!  Too bad it was while desperately searching for a road sign.  Mom called Annie and she helped us get on the right road and to her house.  We had lunch with her and her husband Stroud and got to love their two little dogs Maybelle and Paris.  It was a such a wonderful visit!  Mom and Annie picked up like they hadn't seen each other in a couple of weeks, rather than years and we all had fun watching the squirrels in the backyard chase each other and perform daring feats to get to the bird feeders.  They have some small houses out at the back of their yard, a koi pond and lots of feeders which bring in birds I had never seen before like cardinals (SO red!) and orioles!  The visit was all too short and Annie invited us to come back for another vacation and they'd take us to the lighthouses along the south of the banks that we'd missed, especially Cape Lookout.  We are seriously considering it because we fell in love with North Carolina!

It was time to get the car back to Raleigh and we got to the Enterprise rental place just a few minutes before 8 PM when it was due!  Enterprise called the Embassy Suites that I was staying at and we were shuttled to the hotel that I'd call home for the next week.  Mom flew out the next morning and went back to work while I stayed for training.  That next week was a lot of fun for me, learning new things, meeting great people and just enjoying time away from work.  Watching the morning news programs was fun also since they kept you up to date on the new Iron Man movie that was being filmed close by.

More on that and what else has been keeping me busy to come!