Mt. Baker fun

After work on Friday, Tony & I picked Julie up and went over to Natalie's house to meet with her and Chris so we could caravan up to Mt. Baker. We made it to our cabin around 10/10:30. Shortly thereafter, some friends of Natalie's came over to hang out for awhile (Elan, Bryan, Eugene, Raven). Somehow, all of us fit into the hot tub at the same time. Needless to say, about half of the water spilled out. Due to complications, that was the last time the hot tub got used this weekend :)

Saturday morning, we arose early and headed to the mountain for snowboarding fun. We met up with friends staying in another cabin (Jill, William, Scott, Gray). We dispersed around the mountain in the morning, met for lunch where we ran into Elan and then snowboarded for the rest of the day. It snowed all day! That night, Adrianne, Josh, Jason, Kristen and Wyatt showed up. A few more people showed up to Elan's cabin, too, and they all came over for potluck and board game fun.

Julie & I headed out to the mountain before the rest of our cabin on Sunday morning. It's hard to get so many people up and motivated at 8am! It didn't really matter since Tony, Chris, Adrianne & Josh were snowshoeing/boarding and not taking the lifts that day. With all of the snowfall on Saturday, we got some excellent fresh powder runs in the morning since we were on a lift that wasn't open on Saturday and wasn't groomed. It was so rad. We boarded so hard that day and now are exhausted. Hiking all day wore Tony out, too. We met up with about half of our total group and ate some yummy italian food before heading back to Seattle.

To sum it up, it was a successful snowboarding trip. It's been snowing in the mountains around here and it looks like Stevens Pass will be open this weekend. It actually snowed here this morning but it didn't stick. Keep sending your good snow thoughts because it seems to be working now!

Thank you for the good snow thoughts!

Utah was a-okay. I got to meet all of Tony's immediate family. They are all pretty nice and laid back. We took his 10-year-old nephew snowboarding for the first time on Friday. He picked it up so quickly and was doing extremely well by the end of the day. He's converted now - let's just hope his parents support him in his new sport. Tony has dreams of him being in the Olympics one day :)

Utah is weird, though. The mormons are all about the big family and they look down on people that aren't mormon nor have large families. A family with 4 kids is considered small. It's quite obvious why Tony had to leave because he just couldn't fit in.

Work is still busy but not as busy which is why I have time to write this now :) I spent most of my night last night organizing pictures. There is still a lot for me to do but I will get them up as soon as I can.

Mother Nature decided to be nice to us and is dumping a fair amount of snow on Mt. Baker. It's not record snowfall, but it will make for some nice snowboarding. They got 32" last weekend and are expecting about 16" more this weekend. Everyone is very excited!

So I checked out plane tickets for Memorial Day weekend and it looks like I'll be able to afford to go down to San Diego w/o taking any time off from work. Although my boss is okay with us taking time off, other people in the office have been making a big deal about it. They are so weird!

It would be nifty if Mom planned to visit San Diego at the same time *hint*hint*

More snow, please!

Whistler fun! Pictures coming sometime in the future.

We are leaving tomorrow night after work for a long weekend in Utah to visit Tony's family. We'll also be going to Park City for a day of snowboarding. Wheee!

OK, back to work. I hope to get on the computer more when I get back from this trip. Next weekend, we are going to Mt.Baker for a weekend stay in a cabin with many friends. Please send lots of snowfall thoughts our way!

I always have good intentions

Hm. I wrote this on the 18th and it didn't publish yet. Let's try this again...

A List of Things To Do always sits in my head. It is constantly growing. There are not enough hours in the day.

My days of work are filled with no free time on the internet. I have fallen behind on correspondence and I don't like it one bit. I have to decide between writing in here or writing back to someone. Yet, my chances to do either are rare.

The conditions for snowboarding have only worsened. It has been raining here like crazy and we've been experiencing record high tempurature. We have adventures on the weekend. I should be more diligent about writing about them here before I forget them. Although the conditions have sucked, we've still managed to go snowboarding every weekend. However, there will be no snowboarding this weekend since all of the resorts have closed due to the rain & warm weather.

What is up with this weird weather everywhere?

Apologies

Allow me to apologize for not responding to your email or calling you back yet. I will do it soon. Promise.

I have a head cold. Last night, Tony gave me Nyquil and I passed out in 10 minutes. I had plans to Get Things Done, but that didn't happen.

It is supposed to start snowing in Seattle tomorrow afternoon. It's been very cold here (for us) this week.

Work was filled with icky drama last week, but all seems better now. It's amazing what a long weekend will do for people's perspective.

Work,work,work,play,work,playplay

Work has been very busy and my nights have been filled with non-computer stuff.

Christmas was fun and relaxing.
Work has been "interesting."
New Years Eve was tons of fun. We had a few people over and then we wandered out for a night of debauchery. I would show you the pictures, but mom would see them and then i would be embarrassed!

Saturday was spent cleaning and recovering.
Sunday was spent snowboarding at Crystal. The conditions were less than ideal, but they weren't scary like Whistler.

Oh wait! I almost forgot the news that will make all of my family members worry! Christmas weekend, we got up insanely early and drove up to Mt.Baker. it was me, tony, natalie & evgenia. We met up with Chris when we got there. On Evgenia's second run, she broke her arm! Tony & I were out on another part of the mountain and didn't find out until we met up with Natalie for lunch. Nat & I got the car and pick evgenia up from the medic station and drove her back to Seattle. She was admitted into the hospital and had surgery the next day. Yes, her arm was that badly broken. She now has a plate in it.

2 friends have broken themselves this year already! It is so The Suck!

p.s. happy new year!

Then God is 7

Oh lordy I am grumpy today. I slept poorly last night due to a snoring Tony and mind that would not shut off. *grump*

Although there is no new snow, we may still go snowboarding this weekend and just deal with the crappy conditions. It's too hard to wait! We don't have any other plans for the holiday. It's all about the low-key.

This weekend was filled with pinball playing fun and dancing fun. Tony & I stayed in last night and watched the movies Safe and A Simple Plan. Both were very uplifting. NOT!

OK, lots of work to do.

Comfortable seats for my bruised butt

Tony & I are now the happy owners of a 2001 Volvo V70 Cross Country wagon. It is a joy to drive and ride in! We already have a snowboard rack on top and it's been put to use. It holds lots and lots of gear which is why we chose it.

Last week, I had a head cold. I got over it. That's the way it goes.

After work on Friday, we met up with Chris and Ira and drove up to Whistler. I am happy to report that our car easily carried 4 people, 6 snowboards and the 4 people's luggage & other gear. It was a comfortable 5-hour ride.

On Friday, it rained instead of snowed. That made for very unfavorable conditions on the mountain. It was icy like I've never seen before. Ira had just waxed his board. All signs point to trouble. He broke his wrist before he got to do one run. Poor Ira.

The only other injuries all weekend were bruises. By the end of Saturday, I was trying to board on solid ice and it didn't work so well. It was not fun. However, it did not stop me from going out on Sunday. Things were better on Sunday since I knew what runs to avoid. I remembered how to turn properly and that made me very happy.

Since the conditions were crap, we left Monday morning instead of going back out for a 3rd day. As we were leaving, it started to snow. Typical. Even though the conditions sucked, we still had tons of fun.

It's been unseasonably warm here which means no more snow for now. We'll be refraining from snowboarding this weekend since the conditions will still be poor. I'm just hoping that we'll get to go out on X-mas day.

Work has been keeping me busy which is why I haven't posted much lately. Sorry about that.

Damn

something to tell but I can't say until it's actually in our possession...

No snowboarding this weekend :(
Only shopping instead.
Picked Chris up from the airport on Friday. We all went out for dinner that night and then went back to Chris' to view his pictures from his trip.
On Saturday, it felt like I was coming down with a cold, so we stayed in.

Not much happened this weekend except for, well, maybe I'll write about it tomorrow.

The good, the bad, and the fugly

Amazingly enough, our house was in great shape by the time our guests arrived on Thursday. Tony & I made Tofurky, Tofurky gravy, gravy from scratch, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, a broccoli-parmesan dish and a spinach & asparagus salad. Everything was from scratch - Tony even made the dressing for the salad. We learned what recipe not to use again for gravy. Everything else turned out wonderfully. Sol brought more stuffing and the most delish pumpkin pie. Amanda brought a corn casserole that was straight from the south. Sandi & Jim brought pumpkin pie and cranberry relish. It was all so wonderfully yummy.

After our feast, we went over to the house where many friends live and hung out for awhile. Fun was had.

We were very lazy for the rest of the weekend. Nothing interesting to report.

Weird things are happening at work. People clashing. Arguments happening. Disappointment. Why can't everyone just get along?

The snow is falling in the mountains and we hope to get out this weekend. Next weekend will be our first trip to Whistler this season. I am so very excited! It's so nice not to have to worry about figuring out how we are going to pay for lift tickets and food when we go snowboarding like we did last season. Being gainfully employed is great!

Yarg! I am a Pirate!

I've had one too many tootsie rolls today. Why aren't they all gone yet?

My brain is thinking about all I need to do at home tonight. Our place is not ready for people to see on Thursday. I must finish finding places for all of my crap, go grocery shopping, clean, cook and bake. I would like to be on my way to the gym right now, but Tony is in the middle of something. I will be patient.

Tony made a little movie out of some of the footage he took at Mt. Baker on Sunday. Watch it here. It doesn't look like any local resorts will be opening this weekend afterall :(

Guess what? Exciting news! I got a raise today! Yay! It also looks like I'll be getting to do some Project Management. Very exciting for me!

Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay!

Mt. Baker is opening on Sunday! Tony & I reserved a cabin for Saturday night :) I am so excited to try out my new gear.

This is going to be a busy winter. We have an out-of-town snowboarding trip planned each month and are talking about going to Utah in February.

Working out has been going really well. Tony decided that he really likes weight training, so we stopped doing as much cardio and started doing more weight training. I just know this will help with soreness from snowboarding. I guess we'll find out on Sunday!

I am so excited about getting back out on the mountain. I have missed it so much this summer!

Carrots make my hair orange

I put things in my mouth that I know are not good for me whatsoever. Like a brownie. Tony bought us Vietnamese Iced Coffees this morning and also purchased a couple of brownies. It took me all day to eat mine.

And then we had pizza for lunch.

Tony is a bad influence! Bad Tony!

I'm eating carrots now in hopes that my body will forgive me for the rest of the crap I've put into it today.

Doodeedoodeedoo

Friday night, Tony & I had our first visit to 24-hour Fitness. That night, we were scheduled to meet with trainers. Well, Tony's trainer didn't show up. All we did is talked to the trainer I was scheduled with. She didn't take us through a routine or anything. It was a waste of time. We didn't have much time to work out that night since we had plans to go to Sunny's for a movie night.

Saturday, we had brunch at Broadway Grill and ran a couple of errands. After getting back home, I unpacked for a couple of hours and then we went to the gym for a little bit. Before heading home, we picked up some food at the grocery and invited Chris over for dinner. He hung out for awhile and then Nat & Cody came over to retrieve him for a night of dancing. I would have liked to have joined them, but we are watching our funds right now. After they left, we just hung out and watched the TV.

We stayed in on Sunday; most of my day was spent unpacking. Amanda came over that night and brought Ju-On (the original The Grudge). It wasn't as scary as the American version, but it was fun to see the similarities & differences.

Yesterday was our first long workout at the gym. I made Tony use the weight machines and I made him work hard! He was pretty exhausted afterwards, but I think it was because he hadn't eaten enough all day. Before we went to the gym, I had my second appointment with the endocrynologist. They drew some blood and will test it to see if I'm on the right dosage of medication. He was surprised that I hadn't lost any weight since starting the medication. *shrugs*

Coming to terms with the next 4 years

You all know that I am a liberal, left-wing Democrat. There is nothing Republican in my beliefs. I can deal with having a Republican president, but not this one. He lies about really important things like why he took us to war. He's arrogant. Listening to the press conference this morning on NPR, he made clear once again that he is clueless.

I worry about laws being passed that will restrict my rights.
The Patriot Act is one of the scariest legislations to come out of our government in years.

This administration scares me with what they might do in the next 4 years.

It is hard for half of this nation to figure out why their fellow American voted for Bush. 20someoddpercent did because he is a Christian and they voted because he has Morals. That's a bunch of hooey to me. He's a president that took us into war under a false pretense and now hundreds of thousands of people have died. How Christian is that?

So half of this nation can ignore the horrible things this administration has done to this country. They probably think what has happened is so bad.

It makes me want to cry, so I try not to think about it. Everyone has their reasons on why they made the choice they did.

OK, I was not planning on making a ranty post. I could go on and on and on and on, but I will not. It's probably good that Kerry didn't get elected so Bush is the one who is responsible for cleaning up the messes he has made. I (and many others) fear that he doesn't know how.

I did some unpacking last night. The process is slow, but it will get done. We want to try and have a housewarming party before Chris heads to Chile for a few weeks. It would be good to be settled before snowboarding seasons starts. As of today, it looks like Crystal will be opening on the 20th. Guess what I'll be doing for Thanksgiving? Yep - snowboarding.

You voted, RIGHT?!?!?

I came in a little late today so I could go vote to avoid the after-work lines. I haven't been this anxious about a presidential election EVER. This election is bringing out so many first-time voters. All I can say is WOW. We are having people over tonight to watch the election coverage since we have cable.

On Friday, I totally had the intention to do some moving and cleaning. But then, we started talking about going to see The Grudge with Chris. Guess what we did? It was a Very Scary Movie! I loved it!

Saturday, we slept in because our new bed is too fabulous. After finally dragging ourselves out of bed, we tooled on down to my house to deal with that. Chris came over and helped us move a couple of car loads of crap. That night, we went to a Halloween party at Ira, Joel and Mark's house. It was fun even though we didn't have the time or money for a costume.

Sunday, I got up early-ish to go back to my old place to clean. After I was done with that, I went home and got Tony and then we did the same to his place. We finished about 10pm.

It was an exhausting weekend and our new place is an absolute wreck. I'm trying my best not to get too stressed about it, but it's hard. I have so much crap that it almost brings me to tears.

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The Blogger server has been going down lately :/

The move of the Big Furniture on Sunday went smoothly. All friends agree that our new place is awesome. I still have lots of crap at my old place; it's overwhelming me. I wanted to sort through it all and give away lots, but I just don't know if I'll have the time. Maybe I'll kick some major ass on Saturday and get it all done. If I don't, it's all getting thrown in the car and sorted later.

We shopped for a bed for a week and finally came to a decision on Monday. Our bed was purchased and delivered on Tuesday morning. It is glorious!

There was a little episode on Tuesday. The plan was for me to go to work at the normal time and Tony stay home to wait for the bed to be delivered. After the arrival of the bed, Tony couldn't find Persephone. To make things harder, our electricity went out and we had yet to bring over a flashlight. I go back home to pick Tony up and he tells me that Persephone is missing. I'm thinking she ran out the door when the delivery guys were there. We look for her for awhile - inside and outside - calling out her name the whole time. No Persephone. We had to stop and go back to work. After my boss left, we left early to go home and search some more. After combing the neighborhood and house, we gave up and Tony started making a flyer. I started doing stuff around the house when Persephone sauntered out from her New Super Secret Hiding Place.

Bad Kitty for not coming out when we called her!

Anyway, we LOVE our new place. Come and visit, ok?

In other news, it's 43 degrees outside right now.

Too tired for my own good

Coffee is the only thing barely keeping me awake. I feel like I didn't sleep at all last night. We went out to see The Cruxshadows. I spent most of the night catching up with everyone. It was fun. So many people from Florida have moved to Seattle the last couple of years. And, they all love it.

I am not alone.

I think I must leave soon before I fall asleep.

Time escapes me

I'm sorry for not updating lately. I stay busy at work and haven't sat in front of a computer at home in some time.

Tony's mom left this morning. We didn't get to San Juan Island this weekend as hoped due to rainy weather. We did, however, eat lots and lots of good food. Vietnamese, Flying Fish, The Capitol Club, Mae's and more.

A friend from college, Tate, is in town for a visit. We hope to hang out Thursday night and Saturday for brunch. I haven't seen him in years!

The rest of my time will be dedicated to the packing and moving thing. The first thing we moved in? Flowers! Yesterday, I took over stuff to clean with and dirty laundry. The machines at our new place are half the cost at our current apartments. I'm going to hang out there tonight and do a load of laundry while wiping things down. The place is clean, but the drawers and shelves are a bit dusty. We're moving the big stuff on Sunday and will be taking things over all week long. We are also shopping for a new bed since both of our beds are 15 years old and worn out.

OK, much work to do. I miss my commute-home conversations with Mom & Jenn.

Good things

My apologies for the lack of updates. Work has been keeping me busy which is A Very Good Thing. I am enjoying the work and atmosphere. All is good.

My life has been watching The Debates, watching The News, watching Documentaries, listening to NPR, thinking about all of you that are far away and lamenting not talking to you on the phone enough, getting adjusted to The New Job and stuff.

Tonight is Eric's 30th birthday party. It shall be fun. We got him new pool balls for their pool table since the current ones suck. We are hoping that they won't mind if we watch a bit of the debate tonight :-)

Tony's mom is coming to town on Tuesday. We will spend time this weekend cleaning his place. We get the keys to our new place next week! Have I started packing? No! I have acquired many boxes, though. I hope to spend some time this weekend doing the packing thing.

OK, must get back to the work thing now.