Visiting my Sister Part 3

Well, it was now Sunday and I was going to head home, but not until later that afternoon.

We woke up again to snow..OMG, too much snow
Julie, Sarah and I went out to breakfast. The "original" pancake house, oy, far from the truth. They wouldn't make an omelet the way I wanted and...AND..they had no country gravy. I should have just walked out then. No gravy, that is unheard of.

We then dropped Sarah off and went back to Julies house to digest our breakfast.

We then took her dog Annie to the dog park.

Now, no dog is cuter than mine, but Annie is pretty dang close.

Annie just loves the dog park, she runs around and even looks for critters in the dirt, and I thought my boys were diggers...

After she had gotten all nice and muddy, we headed to the river for her to take a swim. Just watching her chilled me to the bone.



We then headed back and I got ready to leave.

My sister took me to the train station and my train was almost time time

As we headed up north, the snow started getting heavy again, I am so glad my camera has video




All and all it was a really good trip. I am glad I went

Visiting my Sister Part 2

The next morning when I got up I looked outside and saw this...
It had snowed the night before.

My sister and I were planning a trip to Albany, the town we grew up in . It is only 20 minutes from where my sister lives, so it was not that far.

In the afternoon most of the snow had melted and we headed South.

The 1st place we went was the house we grew up in, man it is a lot smaller than I remember. It has changed quite a bit, but yet it looked the same
Even the color was the same, there use to be two trees in the front, but they are long gone.

We then went downtown, to see the tree the county planted in memory of my mother. She had worked for the county for years, and when she passed away, they planted a tree and put up a plaque. When the planted the tree, it was as tall as I am. Man, has it grown


After that, we headed to my mom's best friend Anne's house. Julie was a bit tired, she stayed at Anne's and I headed over and visited the parent of my Best friend in high school. Now, it has been, maybe 15 years since I had seen them, but to me, they still looked the same as they did when I was in high school. I had a really nice visit with them

I went back to Anne's place and then we headed out for dinner. We went to my mom's favorite Chinese restaurant, Ping's I think, and a had a really great dinner.

We then went back to Anne's, who has a beautiful new house, and said our good bye's. I had to get a picture of her and Julie in front of her tree.

It was a great visit, brought back a lot of memories, a lot of good ones. How much the town I grew up in, has changed...but yet stayed the same....

updates

I have more updates coming soon

Visiting my sister

Last weekend, Dec 12th I do believe, my sister was having a Holiday party at her house, and I decide to go.

Now, it has been about 4 years since I have seen my sister and she lives in Salem Oregon, not far from the town I grew up in . So I decided to go and pay her a visit.

I took the train down, it isn't that far away, I would say about 4 hours by car. But the train was about 6 hours and was only 77 dollars round trip.

It was a great ride, and great views.

I got there about 3PM.

That night my sister had her Christmas party, it was very festive, and lots of food, most she made herself.
She even had a tree up, that her friend Sara help decorate. Julie, my sister, has all the Christmas decorations from when we were kids and it was really nice to see them all.

I helped in the kitchen a bit, and then Julie wanted a picture of us in front of the tree.

My shirt was wet because I was doing dishes. How domestic am I.
I also took some video of her place



She also had a theme, Wear an ugly sweater or dress like someone from "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". I don't own any sweaters and had only seen the movie once. But one of her friend, Brent, I think. Dressed like cousin Eddie from the movie and he looked just like him

It was a fun party, my sister has good friends.

Another year passes

I just realized that it has been a year since I started up my blog, boy does time fly, and today is the boys birthday.

Today they turn 9...9! I have had those little blessings, and pains for 9 years.

Just like last year, they got an apple for their birthday, and of course.I have pictures.


I am very blessed to have them in my life.

Leavenworth

I know it has been a long time, way over a month since I have done anything and I am sorry...I am a bad bear.

A couple weeks ago when Tom was home, we took a trip to Leavenworth, no not the prison, geesh. It is a small town in the mountains East of Seattle, it takes about 2 hours to get there. What is so great about Leavenworth is what kind of town it is. Back in the 70's when the town was alm0st dying, a bunch of investors bought up the town, and turned it in to a Bavarian village. It is that perfect place for it, snuggled up in the mountains, with a river that runs through it.

Even today, when the have new businesses come in and want to build, it has to be in a Bavarian design. It is funny to see a Subway and McDonald's that look like they should be in Germany

We went though Stevens Pass which was one of the high passes to get there. We had a lot of rain the week before, and the freezing level dropped so there was snow. It was really nice to see

Once we got there, you could see the snow in the mountains and hills. Usually the town is really crowded, but it wasn't the day we went. It was a really nice road trip.

Day Trip

Yesterday it was beautiful here, a wonderful fall day. My friend Rich that had just moved here from Santa Cruz this last summer had never been to Snoquamie Falls. Now, those who don't know what the fall are. Remember the TV show Twin Peaks, in the opening of the show it showed a beautiful waterfall and lodge. Well, that is Snoquamie Falls. It is only about 19 miles from Seattle, not that far.

We had a good time and took some pics

Me at the falls

Lodge and Falls

I took some video also, but it is sideways, and I can't fix it, but you get the idea

I made the switch

Well, kids I finally did it, I made the switch to a Mac.

I saw a Mac Mini on eBay and got it. Let me tell you, it is TOTALLY different than Window. It will take some getting use to, but I think I will like it.

It does run better, I will tell ya that.

I will keep you posted

Monday Morning

Today is my day off! I just needed a 3 day weekend, so I got one. I woke up at 5 which is sleeping in for me and when I came out into the living room and started seeing the sun come up,this is what I saw.

Walk on Alki

My friend Tom gave me a call this afternoon wanting to know if I wanted to go for a walk on Alki. Now, if you remember from my previous posts, I had pictures of Alki Beach, but I was a bit away. This time we came in from the back side, so you will be able to see what was in the distance in those other pictures.

Now, Alki is a point so it has a bit of a bump out into the sound.

Here is a map. you can see where we started and where we ended..you can also see in the middle where I live.
Click on it to make it bigger.

Now I took a lot of pics which I will put up as a slide show to the right, but I wanted to point out some things that were fun.

These are Condo's that go over the water, they are spendy, we saw some for sale the cheapest one was 500K
Then we headed to one of the beaches that is has stones instead of sand. Now the tide was out so there were some people down there. I saw this Mom and son, and it was a cute pic
We saw some art in one persons front yard. Their whole yard has all these blue glass bottles, it is really cool

Once we got to Alki, I don't know if I said or not, but there is a Small Statue of Liberty there. Then just spent 2 month making a new plaza for it and it is great.
Then we came up to the beach area, and as you can see, it is a real beach. Someone asked me if they brought the sand in, I told them, they did not.










Now, I have video on my camera, so I stood on the seawall and did a 360, so you can see it all. Yes it is bit windy.

That was my walk on Alki. As soon as the photos upload I will put a slide show off to the right

Totem Pole

Someone was looking at the picture I took from my front window and saw the Totem Pole. They asked me why it was there, and I said, because there is a park there. They asked, have you not gone down to look at it...I said "no".

Now I have lived here for 4 year and have walked by it but never stopped and looked at it.

Well, today, I did.

There is no plaque, or any reference why it is there. I did notice that it points toward my house, no wonder I have had a feeling of being watched.












While I was there I also got a picture of the Space Needle and of course the house.

New pictures of the boys

Ya know, I think it has been awhile since I put pictures of the boy on here.
I took some this morning, because I said I was going to use my camera more.
I do have to say, they are so darn cute..

Aren't they just the cutest! That is Dexter on the left and Bear on the right....and of course, here is the both of them

My yard

Ya know, I got this new camera at the beginning of the year and I really don't use it that much. So, I am going to go out more and take pics and post them here. They may not be that good, but I am learning.

I went out to my yard and took some pics of the blooming flowers. As I learn to use the setting, I am sure they pics will get better....

Lavender

Hot Lips Sage

Some Blue Flower

My Living Room Window

It has been so beautiful here the last week, I thought I would post a view of what I see out my living room window...I even made a handy dandy guide of what you are looking at.
If you click on the image, you can see it a whole lot better.

A. Qwest Field, where the Seahawks play
B. Amazon.com
C. Starbuck Central ( The Mothership)
D. SafeCo Field, where the Mariners play (behind the trees)

This is the view I see, so I thought I would share.

Terrifying Encounter

Now, don't let the title fool you, it is just the name of the You Tube video.

Listen to it, you don't have to have your speakers up loud, just loud enough to hear the people talking. Nothing will jump out or flash on the screen.

You will just have to trust me, you will thank me later......Enjoy....

I have found another one....just as good as the first!!!

What a great Game

So, tonight I went to my first Seahawks game at Qwest field, what a friggen blast.

That place is HUGE, I read it holds 67,000 people. We played the Oakland Raiders, and handed them their asses! 23-16 . I do have to say, it was getting cold and Tom wanted to go, we both wore shorts. We left at the beginning of the 4th quarter, but we heard the cheering from blocks away, and we knew we were doing good.

I had kicked myself for not bringing my camera, but then I remembered I had my cell phone with me...so there are pictures.


We had Club seats, Tom got a really good deal, and this was taken up in the club area.....

These are our actual seats, we had some pretty good ones.....


I took a pic of Tom when he was not looking....
And here I am right before the kick off.


I really want to go to more games. This was the last pre-season game so the tickets were cheaper. The same seats we had during this game were cheaper, regular season are 150 dollars..OUCH. Looks like we will be sitting with the common folk next time. :)

Hot For Words

So, I was looking around on youtube.com the other day and was looking for things to watch while I was at work.

I saw this one that was called nincompoop, and it has this rather good looking blond woman on the the video, now, beign a gay man this usually doesn't catch my eye, so I clicked on it

I was floored!!

Her name is Marina Orlova, and she is 27, and is from Russia,and she’s a philologist! Don't worry, I had to look it up also. It’s someone who studies linguistics and etymology. So I watched the video, it is so cool. Check it out.



She has 261 videos, and counting, and I have seen just a few. She has a website HotForWords.com I suggest you check it out. You might learn something, I did.

So I joined her site, and can't wait for the next Lesson to come out. I even got up the nerve and sent a request for the saying "whatever floats your boat" and where that phrase came from.

My First One

Well, this will be a 1st for me. This Friday I am going to my 1st Seahawks game!!!! Last year, I was finally explained how football work and I understood...now I am a big fan. This is a Preseaon game, which is fine by me, I went to look online for regular season ticket but they were all sold out. Thank god for Stubhub.

I will let you know how my 1st NFL game went.

Complete story

Here is the complete story from the Tacoma news tribune, the reporter really went into detail,

http://www.thenewstribune.com/front/topstories/story/447494.html

News already

They already have the story up about my trial

here is the link

http://www.thenewstribune.com/front/topstories/story/446896.html

Jury Duty Over

I am finally done with Jury Duty. 3 weeks long but it was well worth it.

We sided for the plaintiff

Here is the news story the Tacoma Tribune release yesterday

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/444800.html

I will post what the say tomorrow about the verdict.

Quick update

Not much going on, I am still on the trial. It has been over 2 weeks. They said closing statements will be on Monday, and deliberation will start after that.

One thing I didn't know until the 1st day, but there are 14 jurors. Before jury selection even started, they had selected 2 alternates, and after closing we find out who they are. Those 2 will not go into deliberation, they get to go home. I hope I a not an alternate, I want to deliberate.

I will keep you updated.

OY!

I know it has been a long time since I posted, not much really going on.

But now there is.

I have Jury duty....First time EVER!!

Everyone kept on saying..oh, you won't get picked, you will go in, they will question you..then it will be over.

Well, kids, I got selected. 2 1/2 week civil trial for wrongful termination. It is a high profile case, so it is kind of fun. There are parts that are boring, and is really hard to stay awake, but all in all, it is kind of fun.

Other than that, not much other going on.

The weather has been nice. I need to go on more walks.

Rugby....hmmmmm

Maybe I should look into Rugby...wonder if all their games are like this..

Evolution of Dance

I had seen this a couple years back and came across it again. It is so funny, I had to share.

This Morning

This was taken about 5:30am this morning from my front window.

Why I love Living in Seattle

Today is one of the days why I love living in Seattle.

I got up this morning and decided to talk a walk down on Harbor Blvd. towards Alki Beach.
Now West Seattle is a peninsula which goes out in to Puget Sound, so there is water all round.

My walk starts out pretty uneventful, in a small industrial area, then you come around the corner and you see downtown Seattle.
You see that for a while then it you start to see an area called Queen Anne, old part of town, beautiful houses.
As I keep walking, next is Magnolia. There is park there called Discovery Park, great place for hiking and it also has an active Military Base.

All this is on my right hand side, on the left are condo's

Now, there are still some old original houses down there, but they get bought and put condo's up. The condo's run about 1 million plus, because of the view you get

As I am walking..I am getting passed by Joggers, skate boarder, skaters, and bicycles, it is a very popular area when it is nice.

After I pass downtown, I come up on the Olympics. Everyone knows about the Cascades on the east side, but on the west side, are they Olympics, on a good day if you are in the right part of town you can see both, but the Olympics are just as beautiful
I am coming around the corner, and I am coming up on Alki Beach. Now, during the summer and when the weather is nice, the place is packed. There is a beach, and lots of shops and restaurants. Parking is a bitch, but if you can find it, it is a great place to spend the evening. We even have a Statue of Liberty there.
After I took this picture, I knew it was time to head back, I could have went all the way but I didn't feel like walking 6 miles.

So, that is why I love living in Seattle.