Work has been busy. Social life has been busy. This means I do not post as often as I would like. I should post some pictures soon. The weekend before last, we went up to Crystal Mountain for snowboarding. Tony & Chris took me up way high and the wind was crazy. It was blowing me around like a rag doll. I did get some great pictures of Rainier. I should post those soon.

What I did last week:

Wednesday: went out to the club and shook the booty.
Thursday: went to a friend's house for a dinner party.
Friday: left for Long Beach for the weekend. We had so much fun. Natalie's parents have a cabin that we stayed in. On Saturday, we went to the store to pick up food and then we went to lunch. After lunch, we played frisbee. It was fun! That night, we made dinner and then went out on the beach to have a bonfire and play in the waves. I didn't play in the waves, but the boys did. They were being very silly.
We left Sunday morning since we all had places to be. Natalie and I had originally planned to go to the VegFest, but we got back into town too late. As previously planned, we went over to Julie's for a bbq for awhile.

News flash: I decided to do a test this weekend. I put out a bunch of food for Screech and Persephone instead of getting a kitty sitter. My fear was that Screech was going to eat himself to death. Believe it or not, when I got home, there was food still left. Screech also had a Very Big Belly. My cat got fat in a weekend. Crazy. The great thing is is now I know I can go away for the weekend and the kitties will be OK. I have also decided to start free-feeding them again because it makes us all happier. When I got home from work today, I was able to prepare and EAT my dinner without Screech bothering me once. It was so nice. He's actually acting like a normal kitty. Yeah, he may be fat for the rest of his life and die sooner than later, but at least it will be a happy life.

Jenn & Duncan - you should read this when you have some time. I found her blog about a month ago. If you have time, read more of her entries.

Scrubbing the bathtub is not easy to do after working out. Damn that was tiring.

Before I forget, here are my pictures from the trip this weekend. I also recommend checking out Chris' pictures.

When I came home from work last night, there was a message from cousin Tom. He brought the kids out to Stevens Pass for spring break. I'm going to try and meet up with them tomorrow evening for dinner.

I have collard greens and i'm not really sure what to do with them. I just don't want greens like you get in the south and i can't find a recipe for anything different online. harumph.

I was busy busy last week. I hung out with Teresa Tuesday night, hung out with Tony Wednesday night and laundry/packed Thursday night. We left for Mt. Baker right after work on Friday. It was a fu-un trip. The snow was crappy on Saturday due to the lack of cold and precipitation and many of us got sunburn on our faces. Saturday night, it snowed a couple of inches but it made a big difference when we went snowboarding on Sunday.

Stay tuned for pictures and videos from the trip.

My back is achy. Bleh. I need a massage, but Christine is very, very busy right now. Harumph.

This week, I will be busy reading _The Brothers K_ for bookclub. We have a tentative meeting this Sunday. I'll also be going to a birthday party on Saturday.

Girl's night eating crack nachos & drinking margaritas = Fun
Making spinach & mushroom omelet with a side of potatoes = Yum
Seeing Stine & Jose' act in a play with Sandi & Jim = Fun
Going out to the club and hanging out with a bunch of cool people = Fun
Having boyfriend make you breakfast = Yum
Going to the gym and doing lots of ab exercises = Ouch
Making apple-chard quiche for some peeps = Yum & Fun
Driving eastbound to work when it is very sunny which causes people to get into accidents and makes my morning commute almost an hour = Unfun
Eating the salad I brought from home for lunch = Yum

Does anybody still read this thing?

We went snowboarding this last Saturday and I had a fantastic day. I am getting so much better. Tony & Chris even took me out on a black run. It was steep and I had to snowplow down the very steep parts, but I still made it. The rest of last weekend was spent relaxing because that is what weekends are for in my book.

This weekend, there will be no snowboarding. My bank account is not allowing it since it is still recovering from the Whistler trip. But, I do have plans to go out with Natalie & Aime tonight for some quality girl time and am going to Stine's play tomorrow night with Sandi and maybe Jim.

In other news, I have defeated the temptation of the jelly doughnut and signed up for a gym membership at Bally's yesterday. I am very excited! The gym is very big and it was not packed which makes me happy. I am determined to comfortably fit into my pants again! Plus, I really enjoyed being in shape last year. I had so much more energy and strength which will really help with snowboarding.

I have found that my family is surprised that I snowboard and love it. This is perplexing to me. Do you really perceive me as being lazy and not liking physical activity?

My tummy has been doing the hurty thing after I eat dinner the past couple of nights. Last night, my belly got so big - I looked about 5 to 6 months pregnant. Tony fed me tonic water and made it all better. It doesn't hurt during the day - just after dinner. I can't figure it out.

Another annoying thing - I started feeding the kitties different food and now their poop is super stinky. I don't think I'll get that food again. Stinky poo.

I have been up to much of nothing. I cooked beets for the first time ever and found out that not all beets are red. I made a beet salad and it was tasty. Work is fine; busy right now processing new apps. Went to Stine's last night and worked on her computer some more and made it happy. She lent me Buffy - Season 5 so I went to Tony's and we got our fix. Tonight, I cook up some rice and spinach stuff before going over to T's to watch Angel and South Park.

It's kinda nice to look forward to weekends again.

Before I forget once again, here is the link for video cd software for those of you who do not have a DVD player or your player doesn’t play video cd’s. Now you can finally watch my X-mas movie!

We went to Crystal yesterday for the snowboarding. All of us had a really good day. Sunny & I practiced our new skills we learned at Whistler and neither of us broke!

My birthday is in 6 weeks. If you wanted to get me something for the big 3-0 and still do not have an idea, I can tell you what I want. Snowboarding gear. More specifically – REI gift certificates. Since my birthday is towards the end of the season, I should be able to get all my stuff on sale.

Mmm. Hungry. Must go fix some food.

This picture makes me laugh so much. This is one of the pictures taken on Chris' camera at Whistler. Since Tony & I weren't there at the time and Ira took the picture, Tony photoshopped us in. Too silly. Here are the rest of the pictures Chris took during the Whistler trip.

This week was filled with the studying. It paid off because I passed my exams. I will soon be a licensed life & disability insurance agent. Weird. Anyway, the job is going well. It's nothing too exciting. I mean, come on. It's insurance.

I have enjoyed my Saturday except for not being able to get tickets to see the Pixies this morning. Damn them for playing in the small venues! After we tried to get tickets for over an hour, we gave up and went to The Globe for some brunch. It took too long and the dude forgot to write my order down and then he tried to charge me for it again when I went to go ask for my food. Whatever. At least they made it up with putting extra gravy on my biscuts.

After brunch, I came home and called the Houston family. I was thinking of enjoying the clear day out, but instead took a lovely 2-hour nap with the kitties. I just got done dying the hairs the super red - I hope it turned out since I had some visible roots. Now I must go get some cleaning done.

Snowboarding tomorrow! Yeah!

I just got off the phone with the family in Houston. It was so good to talk to dad after that scare. It's also good to hear that his heart is healthy. Now we've just got to get that stress under control!

After all that happened yesterday, I have decided to get a cell phone. Yep, yep.

Sunday and Monday sure were doozies. I did enjoy having a 3-day weekend, but MAN.

Saturday, Tony, Chris, Solomon an I ate brunch at Cafe Flora. It was my first time there. Tony & I were pondering going to see Big Fish, but decided to wait a bit more. I've only heard really good things about it and both of us are Tim Burton fans. Anyway, we laid around for most of the day and went out for an early sushi dinner. I ate a little bite of fish! Seriously! And when I say little, I mean little. I made Tony feed it to me while I squeezed my eyes shut. I was too nervous to really notice how it tasted. I am such a wimp.

That night, we met everyone out at the club and had a very good time. Happy belated Valentine's Day!

Sunday, we went out to brunch with Chris, Solomon, Julie and Will at El Greco. They have this wonderful omlete with avocado. Yum! After brunch, I took off and did a little bit of shopping at Target and then laundry all day. Sunday night, went back over to Tony's to hang out with him and Brook.

On Monday, we wanted to go snowboarding, but the conditions sucked. It's been to warm and sunny here lately. So, I got another day of sleeping in :-) Tony and I went out to lunch with Chris at our favorite Vietnamese place. The food was so spicy that Tony cried. Another big yum! I pretty much studied for the rest of the day before heading home and learning that dad was in the hospital. No more studying for me that night. I was tootoo worried.

I just had to lock Screech in the bedroom because he was trying to eat my yam. Freak. I should go let him out before the neighbors complain.

I was planning on doing a catch-up post, but now I'm in no mood. Too worried :-(

For your reading pleasure, I will be writing in great detail about my Whistler trip. I’m feeling verbose today.

Thursday, 2/5/04 – It was my last day of insurance class (thank maude) and we got out a little late. I raced home in bumper-to-bumper traffic and did all those last minute things one must do before going out of town for the weekend. I tool on over to Tony’s and we load up the car and head to Chris’ house. Ira beat us there. We loaded up Chris’ car and hit the road.

We stop in Bellingham for some tasty Thai food. Mmm…Thai food. Shortly thereafter, we crossed the border with barely a question. The drive was uneventful until our ascent on the mountain. It was snowing pretty steadily and the plow trucks were still trying to tackle it. Thank maude Chris has 4-wheel drive. We slowly made it up the mountain with no major catastrophes. By this time, it was about 1am. We hung out for a little while to unwind before going to bed.

Friday, 2/6/04 – We arose early to be at the customer service place to buy our express passes at 8:30am. I found out that lessons were only $8 more, so I bought one. Sunny, Scott and I took an all-day lesson together and learned how to connect our turns without falling down every time. Great progress was made and we had tons of fun as always. After the lesson, we head back to the condo to meet up with everyone.

After everyone got cleaned up, we headed over to Gray and Will’s condo where we feasted on pasta and stuff with the whole SeaTown gang (there was a total of 16 in our group). Julie, Jeremiah, Tony and I headed back early cause we were tired. We mellowed for the rest of the night before going to bed.

Saturday, 2/7/04 – Another early morning! Scott, Sunny and I left after all the other kids since we weren’t planning on meeting up with Gray and Lorian until 9. We got down to the Village a little late, but so did Lorian & Douglas. We waited for Gray, but he never showed up that morning. Off to the slopes we went to practice our new skills. Lorian hadn’t been skiing since last season, and her boots were making her feet fall asleep. And then Sunny ragdolled something fierce and broke herself for the rest of the day. We ate lunch and Scott & I did a few more runs before meeting Sunny, Lorian and Douglas down in the village. After a short stop into Lush for smelly stuff, we had a quick beer at the pub before heading back to the condo.

All the other kids went out for sushi while Tony & I stayed home due to our tight budget. We hung out for a while until they called us to tell us where to meet them. We did a little club hopping in the Whistler Village and had too much fun. Chris, Tony and I headed back to the condo around 1:30am, but not before stopping for some of the best veggie dogs ever. Yum!

Sunday, 2/8/04 – We got to sleep in – no snowboarding today. Plus, everyone was pretty hung over from the previous night’s festivities. Everyone packed up except those in Chris’ car and we ate brunch in the Village. After the other kids left town, we hung out and took our time leaving. No one was ready for the weekend to end. On our drive home, we stopped several times to enjoy the breathtaking beauty of the place. We left reluctantly, but we’ll be back next season.

The unfun stuff: We got stopped crossing the border and the car was searched.

If you made it through all that, kudos to you! Here are the pictures I took.

Hi there. We got back last night from Whistler. It was so much fun. I'll give the details later. I've been pretty beat since getting back. I promise to find the time for stories very soon.

Just for Jenn & Duncan: madmadmadmadmad!

Funfun snowboarding on Sunday. I was super tired when I got home an actually got to bed at 10pm. I had to be up earlier than usual this morning since I started my insurance class at 7:45am. I was late. The drive took longer than expected. I learned lots about life insurance today. Oh boy. It was fun. Really. No, not really. But at least the instructor is entertaining.

This week is going to be busy. Whistler this weekend! Yay! It is going to be so much fun. There is going to be 8 of us just in our condo alone. Craziness. Tomorrow night, my kitty sitter is coming over (Natalie) around 7pm so I can show her the ropes. Then, Tony and I are going to Trader Joe's to get food to take with us this weekend. Then, I must go to Stine's to try and get her modem to work. After I upgraded her to 2k on Saturday night, I found that her modem driver doesn't work with the OS. And, the driver was not on the modem installation disk. Must get it from the internet and burn it to disk before going over there tomorrow night. Wednesday, I get to do laundry and packing. We are leaving shortly after work on Thursday and getting back late on Sunday.

That is what my week looks like so far. I am very excited about the weekend trip. It's gonna be mad amounts of fun ;-)

I'm not too good with getting to bed early.
It never did snow this week.
Work has been going well. I'm still not as busy as I would like to be, but that will hopefully change soon. I have been told that they are happy with me so far.
Next week, I will be in insurance class Monday through Thursday and then off to Whistler. Wheee!

I went out to dinner with Teresa tonight. We went to this place on 45th called Kabul. It's Afgan cuisine - unlike anything I have had before. I had this really tasty eggplant. Yumyum.

This weekend will be pretty busy. Tomorrow night, we are going to a going-away party. Saturday - brunch, oil change, goodwill to drop off stuff, hang out with Stine and fix her computer/maybe get a massage. Sunday is snowboarding. Sweet.

Bad me not updating yet this week. I must go to bed now. Will post tomorrow night.

I have mad amounts of food in my kitchen now. Since I'm working once again, I should be able to get back on a schedule and eat regularly again. I made vegetable stew today to take to work with me. Mmmmm...stew.

This weekend was on the mellow side. Friday night, Tony and I hung out at his place watching the evil TV. He has a tentative phone interview tomorrow and wanted to study on Saturday, so I made a trip to Target where I spent too much money that I don't have yet. But it was all on stuff I needed. I came back home and dyed my hair. I think people at work are going to be shocked because I got the impression that they think I'm a natural red head. That night, I went over to Tony's and Chris & Amanda came over. We watched Underworld. We all thought it was entertaining for a vampire/werewolf movie which was surprising since it didn't do so well in the theaters.

Now I can't decide if I'm tired. Am I tired? I shall go read and try to go to sleep. I didn't sleep so well this weekend. My body has already adjusted to getting up at 7am even when I go to bed at 2am. Like last night. I hate to think that I can't sleep in on Saturdays and Sundays. I love the sleeping in.

It is meant to snow next week. Yay!

Work has been picking up. Debbie, operations manager (and also my boss), has been out of town the past couple of days. I've gotten to use her computer and have actually been working. There are lots of processes we do when it comes to insurance coverage & agent credentialling. Is that even a word? Anyway, I've been learning all of the procedures and stuff that I will be doing. It seems easy so far - it just takes good organizational skills. I have mad organizational skills.

The commute across the bridge is weird. It doesn't take me as long in the mornings, but I think that's normal. But, the time it takes me has varied by 10 minutes which annoys me a little bit. My commute home definitely takes longer. It took me an hour yesterday! I'm really not complaining, but I do think I'm going to look into the bus and also carpooling. I really don't like to drive that much.

Oh yeah. If you watched/listened/read the State of the Union on Tuesday, Bush mentioned Association Health Plans:
"On the critical issue of health care, our goal is to ensure that Americans can choose and afford private health care coverage that best fits their individual needs. To make insurance more affordable, Congress must act to address rapidly rising health care costs. Small businesses should be able to band together and negotiate for lower insurance rates so they can cover more workers with health insurance. I urge you to pass Association Health Plans."

If it does get passed, it means the company I work for could expand nationally. Now that's some growth!

I should try and get to bed now. I'm looking forward to sleeping in this weekend :-)