Weddings and the Dances that do not Relate

Nothing too interesting to report. I just cut my fingernails so I can type better. Very exciting stuff. Reid and I are going to Spokane on Friday after work for my friend TT's wedding! Well, she's actually already married, but they are having the official ceremony on Saturday. That should be fun. I'll get to see a bunch of people that I haven't seen in a long time (and people that I actually want to see too!). I dropped my dress for the wedding off at the dry cleaners this morning as the last time I wore it I got food stains all over it. I should never be allowed to look pretty and eat at the same time. It doesn't end well.

Oh, and the side explanation of my friend that is getting married--her name is Amy, but I've called her TT since..high school I think? Basically TT stands for Terminator Trudnowski because when she wasn't paying attention to her stance sometimes it just looked like she was ready to whoop some ass. You'd have to see it to understand. Anyways, so TT's new last name is Papajohn (also fun!) but you can see that that would now make her nickname TP, or, toilet paper. In high school she had all of her friends sign a t-shirt that she brought in and I had constructed a little poem that went something like "When TT goes PP she uses TP" and included a little sketch of a roll of toilet paper. Was it prophetic? No, but it amuses me nonetheless.

Last week I was walking to the bus stop and a homeless gentleman, rather than asking for some cash, asked me..."sweety, do ya have yourself a debit er credit card I could borrow?" It was very difficult to say no with a straight face. I was definitely thrown off by his question, but I thought it was funny and with the times. How many people really have a lot of cash on them nowadays anyhow?

Poor little Gev got kicked off of So You Think You Can Dance last week. Here is his last dance. 40 more seconds of your life (but worth it!!).


So I know he wasn't the best overall dancer as he was more of a street dancer, but he was definitely the most entertaining solo to watch. Unfortunately you only got to see the solos when the dancers were in the bottom 3. Anyways, America also kicked off one of the most popular female dancers Kherington. People just forget to vote for the right dancers I guess? I really enjoyed watching her dance, but I didn't like her as a person. She's the stereotypical popular girl that you don't like in high school that can get away with anything because she's popular (and probably rich too...unfortunately I'm just stereotyping her all over the place and guessing she's rich by her name and her expensive shoe addiction haha). I guess when she was playing soccer she punched another girl in the face because she "got in her way." It's that sort of thing that really bothers me, but I should quit complaining because she's off the show. Speaking of which the show will be on in a second so I have to go and watch it.

Mt. Rainier

Yesterday Reid and my friends Dan and Allison and I went on a drive down to Mt. Rainier. It was a lot of fun. We left around 9am and didn't back until about 10:30pm. It was a beautiful day and so the temperature was perfect actually up on the mountain. We did a little hike up on the northeast part of the mountain leaving from the Sunrise visitor center. Off in the distance it looked like one of the nearby mountains was erupting, which is what I was hoping for. It turns out it was only a forest fire, so that was a little sad.

Dan helping Allison to not fall in the water.

After Mt. Rainier we went to Randle to eat (which is where Dan lived for 4 years). Then we drove a long way out of the way to a road that was supposed to lead to Spirit Lake so we could see the destroyed car and the other iconic sites of the Mt. St. Helens blast, but we arrived at that road and it had gates across it saying the road was closed. That really sucked, but at least the ride was beautiful. Some of the not so beautiful things we saw were a biker who had his spandexy suit front all zipped down exposing his chest which should have really been left covered and a women that looked to be in her mid 50's at a scenic viewpoint that felt the best attire for being on a drive would be a swim suit.

Reid taking the map from me to try to prove me wrong (I couldn't find something and said it wasn't on there). It wasn't on the map. I won.

Oh yeah, and all of my Mt. Rainier pictures turned out way over exposed because I suck at photography which is why I didn't really post any. I'm sure Reid will be posting all of his perfect pictures on his blog within the next couple days so you can go and look at what I saw but couldn't capture on his site. Nope, not bitter.

Next month we're all planning on going camping to watch a supposedly really cool meteor shower. All details have yet to be decided on, but that's something to look forward to.

Speaking of views and mountains, I decided to take pictures of and share with all of you how Reid does his laundry. He washes his clothes just fine, but that next part in which you fold your clothes and put them away is something he has not done more than a couple of times since we lived in the dorms. I have folded his clothes and put them all away for him once since we've lived here just to get him started in the process, but it didn't last. He will go and put his stuff away when we are to have his friends over, but that's it. I do want to acknowledge that Reid is usually pretty good about keeping the kitchen clean and taking out the garbage--and sometimes mowing the yard haha (and spider killing...that's an important part of home maintenance here). I would just really love to have a spare bedroom back and not feel we need to close the door when there is company. :) Love you Reid!!

Kona in the background giving scale to the mountain of clothes on the spare bedroom bed.

Days Go By

I haven't really had too much going on, so not much to talk about (not that that will stop me). I've been working a few really long days between the two jobs this past week. 7am to 8:30 or 9pm twice this week and my normal long days are usually only 7am to 5pm. I'm really enjoying this year's season of So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD). Watch Gev dance for his life! It's only 38 seconds of your life. I'm a sucker for a spaz dancer.



I'm excited for the X-Files movie to come out later this month. I really don't think I remember much about what happened in the later seasons, but I imagine they'll dumb it down so we forgetful fans can remember. I'll at least try to find the last episode so that I can semi-refresh my mind. Also, the last Stargate SG-1 movie comes out at the end of this month. Life is good in geekville.

My friend Tommy brought me home some fry sauce from Arctic Circle in Idaho since they don't have that fast food place anywhere on this side of the state. That definitely livens up our fridge.

In a couple of weeks I get to go to Spokane for my friend Amy (TT)'s wedding! Reid and I are going to bring the pups and stay with Dad and Barbie. I'm interested in seeing if they enjoy swimming in their pool. Gosh I'm exciting.

Goodnight General

So there will probably be only one or two people that read this that will know who I am talking about, but on June 29th actor Don S. Davis passed away due to a massive heart attack. This depresses me more than it should and warranted several texts to some friends with large quantities of sad faces. Don S. Davis played General Hammond on my favorite show Stargate and also played Scully's dad on my past favorite show X-Files. I never met him or anything, but through watching A LOT of dvd extras (and watching the show for 10 years) and behind the scene interviews he really seemed like a true gentleman and an awesome guy. RIP Don S. Davis--wish there were more people like you in the world.

This morning I started to ride the bus again. Gas is too expensive so I gots myself a bus pass. There is a park and ride about 6 minutes from the house. Well, not so much as an official park and ride as a church parking lot that allows commuters to park there on the weekdays (not like they're using the lot, right?) which I find very nice. It's about a half hour bus ride and I'm very happy I don't get motion sickness so I can read while on the bus. Also, its really nice to not have to pay attention to rush hour traffic.

Yesterday the temperature was in the mid 80's so Reid and I took the puppies to the creek that's behind the house. Its not directly behind the house as you have to take a few different roads to get there, but it is in the same general direction. Kona loved it, not a surprise. Zoey loved it too! It was very cute. She forged the creek like a champion and was very proud of herself. She was almost to the point of swimming. Not on purpose of course, but she had a tendency of just walking and not watching where she was going so she would be hitting deeper parts on accident and hence almost swimming.

I have a lot of pictures from Georgia that I didn't post--mostly out of laziness and how a lot of pictures I take need an explanation of some sort. Maybe I'll post them. No promises. While Chrissy and I were in Georgia Reid let me use his flickr account. I have my own special folder just for that vacation that you are welcome to look at HERE

Ignore the face. I was workin' it.

Its a sign of the times...

Chrissy and I have seen a few interesting signs while we have been down here.

Also, here is a giant doored restroom inside the lighthouse visitor's center.

Oh yeah, and here's the lighthouse. Its supposedly haunted which makes it 10 times more awesome.

We rented bikes today. They even came with baskets. No handlebar tassels were available. I asked.

Chrissy had to pull over when Chris called her so that we could avoid an accident.

And just because I can, here is a picture of Chrissy airing out her armpits as bike riding is serious workout business--but mostly this was due to it being 96 degrees out.

Sunday

Today was a much slower day. This morning Mumsy made us breakfast that consisted of bacon, eggs and biscuits. Then we took a while getting ready to go to the beach (ok, so I took a while and everyone was getting impatient with me--in my defense its not like the ocean was going anywhere). We have one beach chair and two towels. The problem was that mom wanted to be really close to the water, but it was all very wet and wave rippled sand which doesn't pose the best situation for the towels. I tried not to be on my towel for too long since the water was seeping through. Chrissy and I went out and swam for a little bit. The water was actually too warm...that's right...Melissa is saying that something is TOO warm.

There was a guy about 30 feet away from us fishing and while we were there he caught a baby black tip shark. It was comforting to know that there was someone that close to us actually trying to lure fish into our area. He was just catching and releasing things with his son or grandson and it turned out that that same baby shark had been caught before since it had a different hook in it's mouth. The fisherman took both hooks out and threw him back into the water.

Our fisherman beach neighbors.

Chrissy and I spent a little bit of time starting a hermit crab rescue shelter in a tide pool. This basically consisted of 5 hermit crabs that we pulled out of shallower areas and put them in a deeper area so they could crawl around on each other, which they did. Actually I think they were just checking out each other's shells to see if anyone was home and if it happened to be an empty shell they would have inspected to see if they wanted to make that their new home. They kept grabbing and rolling each other's shells with their little bitty claws. It was cute. No names were assigned.

Once I was tired of laying on a wet towel I went back toward the condo and then decided to swim in the pool (where there were available lounge chairs for me!) and there was no one else in the pool at the time which made it more appealing. Chrissy and Mom followed. The water in the pool was cooler than the ocean and was very refreshing. I was very content. Mom and I also compared skin color on our legs. I think it is very apparent I have Dad's skin tone.

From the pool we watched a storm start to roll in which included a lot of thunder to be heard, but only a few lightning strikes to be seen. Also, a giant ocean liner thing floated on by really close to shore. I don't know how I didn't see it coming, but I was a bit startled by it just appearing in my line of sight.

It pretty much rained the rest of the day. Chrissy and I walked in the pouring rain to the little shopping village about 20 blocks away. Chrissy got herself a purse. It was all very exciting. Then we went back to the condo for a little while and then we had Dairy Queen for dinner. And that is pretty much it for Sunday. Happy Father's Day to my Daddy Dearest.

We be cruisin' ya'll

Today (well, Saturday) we went on a 5 hour gambling cruise. To be able to gamble here you have to get into international waters which took about a half hour. We almost missed the cruise and would have for certain if it weren't for mom's speeding...and the employee letting us in a locked gate and escorting us down to the boat (where a different employee proceeded to yell at us and tell us that we could get arrested for doing that rather than telling the escorting employee they did something wrong). Then when we got onto the boat I realized that I didn't have my ID with me which was required. I had left it in my carry on bag since I had just been through all the airport fun on Friday. Lucky for me I have an old non-valid ID in my wallet with my old last name on it. I keep it in my wallet because my last name on that one matches what it says on my debit card since I haven't gotten my last name changed with my bank yet (because it requires both of my parents to sign and fax things or for me to get an entirely different account--and I'm lazy) so I have it if anyone ever decides to card me when I use it.

This was the gate that was locked that the employee let us through on our way on the ship.

It was pretty fun...just like a casino except when you get bored you go out on deck and watch dolphins and jellyfish in the water. They also fed us buffet style. The whole cruise cost $10 each, so that's not bad. Also, all 3 of us shared a special bingo card and won $100! Ok, so there were 3 winners so they gave us $35 and an ugly bingo t-shirt, but still... And there was a little bit of drama with Chrissy and her bingo pen that she bought and having to let mom use it, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Us on the way home.

On the way home Chrissy (like a lady) needed to spit a loogie out the window. She was in the front seat and it didn't get very far as it splatted itself across my back seat window. It was pretty gross so I will share it with you.

We then got blizards from DQ and went back to the condo where Chrissy and I proceeded to the beach access stairs even it was high tide and they were submerged. We just sat on the stairs and let the waves hit us. It started to hurt after a while since we were being flung back against the stairs so we gave up. Then we were cold and went into the jacuzzi tub together since it is ginormous (bathing suits on..nothing creepy jeez).




Later there was lightning off in the distance and I spent a while trying to figure out how to use Reid's old camera to do pictures of it on long exposures, but as I had tried to explain to Reid I didn't have anything to set the camera down on since I was literally standing IN the ocean as I was taking them. I took some with the camera on the dock, but it wasn't at a good angle for where the lightning was coming from since there were buildings in the way. Tomorrow is supposed to be stormy all day so maybe I'll get some better shots.

Artist's portrayal of how a picture of lightning would look if one didn't have a tripod and was standing in waves. Notice the Scottish Terrier taking offense to the pink lightning above his head.