New Look

I decided to change up the look of the blog.  I like the wood background, but it was a bit too busy.  I think this one is cleaner and easier to look at.  Besides, now that Josh is interested in the blog, I no longer have to entice him with lumber-porn.

I may change it some more....What do you think?

A Year Without - Planning

I was browsing online and cam across the idea of "A Year Without".  Its like a New Year's Resolution, but a little more interesting.  For an entire calendar year, you pick one thing per month to do without.  This sounds like a really fun and challenging exercise for me and I'm going to do it in 2013.  I'm hoping it will help me take less for granted and appreciate what I have.

First, I feel like I need to lay down some ground rules.

1. The "Withouts" are not cumulative.  Once that month is over I can have/do that thing again.
2. Each Without must be something that is a challenge to give up.
3. If I fail, and give in, my punishment is ___________ (???)
4. I will update the blog at least once a month about my progress on that month's Without.

Right now I'm in the planning phase and I'm having a hard time coming up with things to give up.  Here are some ideas, and my reasoning behind them.

• TV - Its really nice to veg out in front of the TV after work and chores at home.  But sometimes I do feel a little trapped by it.  This seems hard...maybe February?  Wait, I just googled it and Superbowl is in February.  That won't work.
• Spending money on anything that is not fresh food.  I was reading a blog for a bit by a woman who gave up buying anything she couldn't make herself.  This included clothes, grocery items, crafts, holiday decorations and just about anything you can think of.  It seemed like a great idea. I like it.  I'd have a few exceptions to make life bearable (I'm not going to make dog food and bills don't count), but I think this would be a good way to be more aware of waste in my life and to save money.
• Alcohol - this is a lot like TV.  On a Friday night, its really nice to have a glass of wine, or a beer with friends.  I don't drink a lot but I think it would be a good plan to go without for awhile.  I did give it up for a few months before the wedding to help get in shape, I could totally do it again.
• Sweets - I included this on the list because it is a really common challenge for most folks.  I'm not sure how hard this would be for me.  I don't really enjoy sweets, the only time I do is a few gummy candies with a glass of wine when I take a bath.  Don't judge, its phenomenal.
• The snooze button - I used to be so good about jumping out of bed right after the alarm, now, not so much.  Maybe a month of having to give it up would be a good thing and get me back in the habit of jumping out of bed.
• Store bought meals - make everything from scratch for one month.  We eat a lot of store bought food, but if I didn't have a box of pasta-roni in my cupboard and a kielbasa in my freezer, I don't know what we'd have on a night when things got too busy to plan ahead.
• Meat - I love pork, chicken, turkey, bacon, beef...this would be a tough one.  But I'd learn a bunch of new recipes
• Chips - this would be a different kind of sacrifice from store bought meals, I'm allowed to have kraft mac and cheese, but not wavy lays...hmmm...
• Popular Radio - aside from TV, I think radio is the one thing I use that causes me to waste the most time listening to things I don't care about, ads.  If I gave up all radio except NPR, and the old time radio that Josh and I have recently gotten into, I wonder if I"d feel like I was missing anything.  Music is allowed, radio is not.
• Driving a car - this seems like a really good thing to give up.  But honestly, I don't know if I can.  I have to drive to work or I'd have an hour plus long commute and I'd have to go way out of my way to find a well lit road with sidewalks.  It would also put a burden on Josh to get things from the grocery or take me places I need to be.  I need to do some thinking on a meaningful way to give up driving.
• Swearing - I'm not a sailor, but I have my moments.
• Complaining - Sometimes I mask it as venting, but its really complaining.  If I could give up complaining I'm sure it would help me be a more positive person overall.  Right?
• Surfing the web - I have a few blogs that I love to read, but what about all the random surfing?  I wonder how much time I'd have if I didn't check out all the links I would normally click on?
• Coffee - searching for ideas about what to give up, this one comes up a lot.  Like sweets though, I'm not convinced I would learn anything from not having it for a month.  I have my cup every day, but sometimes I forget it at home and I usually don't even notice until I get home.  And, when Josh is out of town I don't think I've ever made a pot of coffee, although I do buy an Americano...maybe there is some merit to this one.
• A thing - get rid of one thing every day for the entire month.  I have stuff that I keep around the house but I don't really need, why not get rid of it?  Clothes, that random trinket on the shelf, my extra hair dryer, lots of options here.
• White lies - I don't think I tell a lot of them, but maybe I tell more than I realize.  Giving them up would make sure I found out how often I really do it.

I'm only going to choose 12 of these.  Any input?  Any ideas I missed?  I'd love to hear them! I also need to come up with a "punishment", something that will give me some incentive not to fail.

Marriage

Josh and I have been married for about a year and a half now. We were together for 8 years before we got married, and at first I thought that nothing would change once we were married.  I was wrong.   Nothing was really any different, we still kept pretty much the same schedule, our conversations didn't change, and I don't feel differently about him.

At the same time, life as a married woman is completely different for me. We have solidified our connection to one another and announced it to the world.  It feels so good to know that we are a unit, a team, and that whatever happens we get to enjoy it, or face it together.  Even though we were committed before, it feels more official now.  Its difficult to explain, but it is the most fantastic feeling in the  world. I love Josh, I love being married, and I love having him for my husband.

I can't imagine being told that I am not allowed to marry the love of my life.  Making that commitment but not being able to formalize it, would be a denial of the basic human right to be happy, and would be a sacrifice that I didn't fully understand until I married Josh.  I am absolutely thrilled that this morning at 12:01am King County began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.  Here is an article from NPR with a picture of the first couple to receive one, they have been together for 30 years.

And a side note...the wedding industry in King County is about to explode!  Here's to hoping that everyone gets to enjoy their perfect wedding day, just like Josh and I did!

DubStep

We will not be doing this to our house this year.  Our holiday decorations will be minimal.  But this is supremely cool.

Tidbits

We've been busy, but we always seem to be busy...so in my ongoing effort to increase the frequency of blog updates, here are some random tidbits on us.

Last night Josh and I went to the gym.  I definitely felt a moment of shame when our favorite staff member said: "Hi! How's it going?  Its been awhile".  We have been doing a lot of exercising outside the gym, but he was right, it had been quite awhile.

I've been doing a lot of A.M. running.  I am not, nor have I ever been, a runner.  But, it feels great, and Leonard and I have been training together.  He is turning out to be a fantastic motivator!

The water at my office is awful, even with a Brita filter.  Since we moved into the current office, I have been carting in my own water from home.  About a month ago I launched a campaign with my boss for a water cooler, it was successful, and it has been wonderful.  Today, the water cooler is empty, I'm surprised at how much of a damper this has put on my day.  The water truck comes back tomorrow; give thanks for the small things!


On Friday we went to Wicked at the Paramount with Josh's sister and her boyfriend.  We both loved it.  I have seen Cats and Phantom of the Opera, but it was Josh's first musical.  It was a production in the best sense of the word.  The costumes, the lighting, the set design, the characters, it was all fantastic.  There is nothing quite like hearing someone belt out a song in that kind of environment.  If you get the chance to see it, I highly recommend going.

Call me crazy, but I love the rain.  The weather has been terrible here, and I couldn't be happier with it!

Josh has been working on a garage reorganization.  Right now, the garage is in disarray because he had to take everything down to build new shelving.  It really is amazing how much space all that stuff takes up when its not organized!  It may take a little while, but like all of his projects, it will look fantastic when he is finished.

Ski season at Crystal opens this weekend.  I think we may skip it and wait for the snow to fill in.  Greenwater Skis does a phenomenal job with our ski repair, but I'd rather avoid the scratches this early in the season!

Firefly

I follow an amazing Tumblr by Jesse Lonergan called Dancer a Day.  Monday through Friday he posts a drawing of a character dancing.  It's silly, it almost always nerdy, and it's completely awesome.  It gives me a smile and it makes me question my geek-cred when I don't recognize the character.

Dude.  If this doesn't make you smile, somebody must have peed on your rug.



Or this?  I mean....come on!



Its fantastic and I highly recommend checking it out.

A couple months ago Josh and I gave up on watching the newest version of Battlestar Gallactica.  A very generous friend from book club loaned me her blu-ray discs of the entire show (for longer than I want to admit), and Josh and I tried but just couldn't finish it.  Every time we started to like a character something terrible happened to them, and not in the Game of Thrones way, more like in the way of the show Lost, where it just opens up 8 more story lines none of which I have the energy to follow because I want to know WHERE THE POLAR BEAR CAME FROM???

Sorry...  Anyway, we gave up and I felt the need to redeem the sci-fi genre to Josh.

I turned to Firefly.  A coworker of mine told me about this show several years ago and I've loved it ever since.  Josh was fully on board and he enjoyed it just as much as I did.  I picked up the TV series from the library on a Friday, we watched the entire thing by the next Thursday, and I bought Serenity the following Friday.  We both love the show, and I think we will be purchasing the DVD set soon :)

The timing just happened to coincide with Jesse Lonergan asking for requests on his Dancer A Day tumblr.  Being in a Firefly state of mind, I requested:  The Crew of Firefly.

Today this was the post:

The crew of Firefly for Kristina!

10:00am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zx89KwWsNdQz
(0 Comments) 

(Notes: 42)

  

Filed under: Firefly Joss Whedon Too many characters to tag! 

I love the Internet.  Thanks Jesse!

King Tutankhamun

This weekend Josh and I went to see the King Tut Exhibit at the Pacific Science Center.  We made a whole Sunday out of it; we started out with the Mysteries of Egypt movie at the IMAX theater, walked through the exhibit, and enjoyed a great lunch.

The movie was great. I love the IMAX theater and I get a rush out of watching footage shot from a helicopter as it swoops over rivers, on a screen that makes me feel like I am there.  The movie was informative, but Josh and I agreed that it was geared toward a younger audience.  It had a lot of images of the three Giza pyramids and I got my first look at the modern city surrounding the pyramids.  All the pictures I have seen of the pyramids have carefully avoided, or just as likely Photoshopped, the city out of the image.  Like this:

 

Seriously, I google imaged it and none of the pictures show the thriving city just beyond the pyramids.  What is much harder to find is images like this:

I can honestly say, that before we watch this movie I had no idea that there was a full on CITY just beyond the pyramids.  In retrospect, it makes all sorts of sense but I still had a different mental image of this particular wonder of the ancient world.

After the movie it was off to the exhibit.  Josh and I were so excited to see this exhibit, it is the last time that it will be in North America and I have always been fascinated by the technological advancement of the Ancient Egyptians.  First the bad:  The Science Center uses this image in all of its advertising.

Call me crazy, or possibly naive, but I fully expected to see the death mask (that's the blue and gold mask pictured above), of King Tut.  This was not in the exhibit.  We found out later that King Tutankhamun nor his coffins (yes plural) have ever left his burial site.  All of the research done on King Tut was done at the burial site including the x-rays and CT scans of the mummy.  To me, it felt like false advertising, why show an image of something we are not going to see on all of the promotional material for the exhibit?  I can understand why they used the picture of the desk mask, it's beautiful, it's iconic, and it's dramatic.  And, there was no single piece at the exhibit that really screamed "Come see King Tut", quite like this picture does.  But, it wasn't there.

Ok, no more complaining...wait, one more:  It was so crowded!!  Even with the timed entry, we ended up waiting our turn at each piece we looked at.

Now, the Good:  the exhibit was phenomenal.  The items from King Tut's tomb were at the end, and they were divided into 4 rooms, each room corresponding to a room in the actual Tomb.

I was very impressed with the way this part of the exhibit was laid out.  The exhibit featured pieces from the tomb behind glass, and behind them, printed out larger than life and as the wall, were pictures from the tomb as it was discovered.

While King Tut's tomb is remarkable because of how complete and untouched it is, it was still the victim of looters.  So, we would see pictures like the above, with things tossed on top of one another, with no apparent organization.  The neat thing was looking at the object in front of you and picking it out in the picture on the wall.  Josh and I had fun looking at a boat on display and using specific details about it to help us identify it from several boats in the picture from the tomb.

Unfortunately we were not allowed to take our own pictures inside but let me tell you that it was amazing. There were other pieces from King Tut's tomb including necklaces, earrings, a lot of statues, jars, a chair, a bed, a very cool fan, and my personal favorite - the solid gold finger and toe covers that went over the Pharaoh's fingers and toes to protect them.

At least half of the exhibit was devoted to non-Tut artifacts from Ancient Egypt.  There was a lot of beautifully detailed jewelry, it is amazing to think about people creating these pieces of art without the technology we have available today.  There were a lot of statues and carvings, and every one was amazing to look at.  Josh was very impressed with how each face looked different, they must have been pretty good likenesses to be distinguishable from one another to such a large degree.  

 

We read about how one statue in front of us had been appropriated by one Pharaoh from another, Josh pointed out an area of the carving that was deeper than the rest, and we are pretty sure that this is where the new owner rewrote his name to make the statue his own.  There was a wooden sarcophagus of a Pharaoh's wife that was beautifully carved.  It was large enough for a person to fit inside ( I suppose that's the point) - but the entire back and sides of it were covered in tiny feather carvings.  You had to get close to really appreciate the different size feathers and how the carver made them interlock.  Everything we saw on display was beautiful - even the toilet seat.

After we left the exhibit there was another room with an exact replica of Tutankhamun's mummy, and a timeline of the research done on it.  I'm not clear on why this wasn't part of the exhibit because it was completely relevant and very informative, but I'm glad it was there and I felt much better about our experience after seeing it.

We took our time walking around the science center and checking out some of the other exhibits, but by that time we were too hungry to do much besides want lunch.  We found the 5-point Cafe on Yelp, and we decided to walk the 2 blocks and check it out. We totally scored when we walked in, sat down at a booth and looked up to find the Seahawks game on.  We had a great meal, several delicious beverages and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon.

It was a great day and I'm happy that we went.  Would I recommend it?   Absolutely, but I would think of it as a display of "Ancient Egyptian artifacts, including some from King Tut's tomb", not as "King Tut".  And definitely check out the 5-point on your way out!

Vieques #2 Horses

Horses roam wild in Vieques. The only fences on the island are built to keep the horses out. 

 
All the horses belong to someone, but they aren't kept in pens or pastures, they roam completely free.  The horses are everywhere, you have to keep your eyes out for them on the beach, in the park areas, and especially on the road.

























I have no idea how people know which horse belongs to which person, or even worse - how do they find their horses when they want to go for a ride?  One of the locals told us that if you try to ride one, the owner will find you in 5 minutes and tell you to get off his horse.  They must have some sort of system, but I didn't figure it out.  Horses are a big form of transportation in Vieques, it was not uncommon to pass a horse and rider on the street.

The first time we saw the "wild" horses I was so surprised I made Jim stop the car and I got out and tried to give one of the horses my apple core. The first one was not interested, he sniffed it and walked away.  I was not discouraged.  I tried again and the second one did the same thing!  This is as close as the second horse got.

Some of the horses were very well taken care of, and others seem like they might suffer a bit for their free lifestyle.  The small herd that stayed pretty close to our suite was a very healthy looking herd.  The stallion took good care of his ladies, and was very protective.  This is the stallion, he always let me approach and pet him.

It wasn't until about three days into the trip, with me petting the stallion every day that I realized what he was doing.

He would let me get as close to him as I wanted, but he never let me near his herd.  He was so calm and nonchalant about the way he would walk to keep himself between me and his ladies, that it took me awhile to notice.

After I noticed what he was doing I realized that these horses aren't pets.  They are a means of transportation, sure they are domesticated, but not like Josh's Mom's horses.  There is no way one of these guys would come up and ask for a butt scratch.


That doesn't make them any less adorable though.

Fort Stevens State Park

I had this idea in my head that I needed to get one more camping trip in before ski season this year.  About a month ago we set that weekend as October 24-26, and the Park was Fort Stevens State Park near Astoria, Oregon.  Going into it we knew it would probably rain.  We got lucky and it was dry when we arrived and it stayed clear while we set up.  But, it rained all night and this is what our camp looked like when we woke up.

 

And this is what Josh thought of it:

I was beyond impressed when he had been out of his sleeping bag all of five minutes and he started building this:

I was genuinely surprised at how well the trench worked.  It drained our picnic table area and kept the tent dry.  It rained pretty hard while we were there so we had to reinforce it a couple times, but the trench drain was a brilliant fix.

 We got the camp site setup pretty well, we had enough cover to keep dry and the place was gorgeous.

Here is me maintaining a relentlessly positive attitude while cowering under the tarp with a cup of coffee.

We took a walk down to the beach on Saturday.  All night we could hear the ocean, so we thought for sure that it was right over the hill.  The walk to the beach was at least a solid mile, but we made it!

There is so much to explore at  Fort Stevens and we didn't even scratch the surface of what we wanted to see; the weather kept us to a fairly hermit-like existence.  But, we did get to see the Peter Iredale shipwreck.  It was the biggest reason I chose this park, and it is beyond cool.  It was really windy at the beach; Josh said it was the strongest wind he had ever been in.  We could only handle staying on the beach for about 10 minutes, and this pic of Leonard is the only one we took.  Josh had to act as a wind/rain break for me to take it.

 We got back to the campsite and started a much needed fire to warm up and dry out.

We ended up making friends with the people in the background.  They were crabbing and had caught 400 over the last several days.  They gave us 4 whole crab, they brought us over and shared crab cakes and moonshine.  It is always amazing who you meet!

Leonard decided that there wasn't anywhere worth laying down except the car.  We shut off the lights and let him sleep the afternoon away.

Go Cougs! We have to represent wherever we go :)

It was a great trip.  We definitely want to go back when the weather is a little better so we can check out the rest of the park.  My first camping in the rain experience was totally worth it, now I know what its like.  And I learned a little bit about my husband and how resourceful he can be.

Josh's Birthday!

Josh's Birthday was on the 9th.  He is *redacted* years old, and I think we celebrated in style!

The Saturday before his birthday we went out to dinner at one of Josh's favorite places, The Ram, and enjoyed some delicious beer, food, and watched the Huskies do worse against the Ducks than the Cougs.  Its unfortunate though, because when the Ducks play the Huskies is the ONLY time you will ever catch us rooting for the Huskies.  After that we went to our local dive bar, the Star Lake Tavern.  Its has old office chairs, pool tables, darts, a view of the Star Lake in the day time, and an obese beagle.  We love it.  On his actual birthday we met up with a couple of friends in Seattle and watched a screening of a ski movie by Powderwhore.  The movie was fun to watch and it got us both pumped up for the ski season!

But, the highlight had to be his present.  I was a bit skeptical at first, but now that I see it in action, it is pretty cool.

That is a John Deere 4010J Traveling Yard Sprinkler.  They don't sell them anymore so I had my first ebay bidding war to bring it home for him.  Happy Birthday Josh!

Leonard and Josh

Watching Josh and Leonard play is one of my favorite things to do.  They chase each other around the yard like wild animals and it brings a smile to my face every single time. They usually start with a little wrestling.

Leonard is definitely biting Josh here, but Leonard never hurts him, its just part of the game!

Then Leonard takes off!

 The goal for Leonard to get as close as possible to Josh without getting caught.

 Getting Tired...

Its extra funny to watch, because Leonard does not play with me like this.  This is definitely a Leonard and Josh activity.  I've been trying to get the perfect picture for a long time, and these are the closest I've come so far.  But, I still don't think this really captures what I'm after.  Here is a video so you can see what I get to see!

Painting Progress

This has been the summer of painting the house.  At first it seemed easy.  pressure wash it, spray it, done.  See look - here is me thinking there is fun to be had in this project. 

We were very wrong.  What we thought was "house painting" became an "exterior restoration".  We quickly realized that our home had two coats of paints, none newer than 1975, and no primer anywhere.

First Josh pressure washed it.  The paint flew off the house, not everywhere, but enough to terrify us.  Wasn't paint supposed to stay on the siding?  We spent a full afternoon cleaning up the unexpected paint chips from the flower beds.  Ok - this means we have to scrape it.

We started scraping and realized that the pressure washer didn't even come close to removing everything.  Entire pieces of siding were stripped down to bare wood.  But not all of the paint would come off, leaving very clear defining lines between bare wood and painted sections.  We were lamenting this fact to a few friends when someone we hadn't met piped up and told us we should sand the house too.  It would make it less obvious where we had been unable to remove the old paint.  Damn - this means we have to sand it.

So we scraped, and sanded the entire house.  Everything that could be reached from the ground, I did.  Everything that could be reached from the scaffold, including every single tail, Josh did.

After it was scraped and sanded we decided we should spot prime it.  I decided to tackle that project while Josh redid the trim. 

Can you see the primer on Leonard's head?   A little later he managed to give himself a skunk stripe.  Its extra funny because I threatened to do it earlier in the day!  We had to take him to the groomer to get that off.

So, while I put primer on every spot of bare wood, Josh restored the trim around the windows and doors.

We also decided to paint the front trim white, before we painted the rest of the house.  This was a wonderful idea!  Of course, hindsight being 20/20, why did we only think to do this for the front?  As with most things we do, Leonard helped.

Then, finally, after longer than I really want to admit, it was time to paint.  We were discussing this with my Papa when he told us that back brushing makes it look so much better.  I was devastated, no more steps!  No more tools I want it to be done!!  But, Papa had the tools, and he had just painted his house and it looked so good...shoot...now I have to follow Josh and back brush.

 

Our plan was to prime the entire house on Saturday, and spray the color on Sunday.  We woke up on Saturday morning and it was raining.  OMG.  Can we catch a break?  It was a light rain so we decided to prep anyway and hope it went away.

Taping everything off...

 

Putting plastic down...

The primer layer!  Maybe we could just leave it white?

Josh after the primer layer.  Hooray for masks!

 

 

The sprayer setup.  We have a very kind coworker of Josh's to thank for the loan of the sprayer.  THANK YOU!

The man in action.

Go-go gadget back brush!

Taking off the tape!

Josh after the color layer.

Yay!

The weather cleared up, and we were able to prime and spray our entire house!  It looks fantastic!  We are so happy to be done, and we are very proud of ourselves for accomplishing this Herculean task.  Now, that said, we still have to paint the door and do a 2nd coat on the back trim.  So, I will save the final reveal until then...