Friday, January 3, 2014

Road Trip

After Christmas we made a little road trip over to Sun Valley to visit friends. Normally at the end of December this would be a bad idea because the roads can be totally treacherous getting over a couple of mountain passes between Washington and Idaho. But this year, and sorry NE United States while you are buried in snow, we have no snow. Nothing! It's dry as a bone. So we packed up the car and took off. 
Here was our route:


Total time 9.5hrs door to door in pure sunshine and pure fog.
I-90 out of Seattle - pretty foggy!
Fog turns to sun over the pass near Ellensburg
All sun through Oregon


My driver and excellent road trip companion
Not much snow in Sun Valley either. This is Dollar Mountain - the kiddies ski hill
Looks like spring, not winter - we took a walk on the golf course
Who's a good puppy?
Meet Reece - a Wire Haired Pointer (4 months)
Grumpy's - a Sun Valley institution
Yes!
Very large beers at Grumpy's!
Nordic Skiing at Galena. Beautiful but not graceful. I fell on my ass several times!
Gorgeous weather!



And anything that ends with beers is good!
And the long drive home. This is near Hermiston, OR at the border of WA.
The fog was just a wall ahead of us and here it was just starting to roll over the fields.

And we drove straight into it, all the way to Yakima, then mostly dark back to Seattle.
Great trip and great catch up with friends.
Trip note: We didn't stop for food on the way over to SV. But on the way back, we got burrito's to go in Baker City, Oregon at Delicioso Mexican Restaurant . Awesome little discovery. I notice the reviews don't seem to be very nice on the google site, but the gals who helped us around 11am last Sunday were awesome, and while it's not really a "to-go" place, they were great about getting our burrito's ready for the road. So, in our opinion - great burrito's - go there!


Resolutions - Meh.

Well, day 3 of January and here's how the resolutions are going.

Got up late - threw on cords and a sweater (no jewelry, no lipstick, no thought put into it at all.) FAIL.

Nails look good. WIN.

Ruin Comcast - NOT YET. They are coming over between 1-3pm today to fix something that they didn't do right a few days ago. They are still in business, so I haven't won yet. Standby. 

And, as for budgeting, I haven't had a chance to buy anything yet so I'm in good shape. WIN. But, the day is young - there's still time to blow this one out of the water. 

Thursday, January 2, 2014

New Years Resolutions

Happy New Year! Do you make resolutions? I usually have the standards going: exercise more, eat less, boring ones…. In the past I’ve done a few good ones that were easy to keep. One year I tried to pick up at least one piece of someone else’s litter every day. One year I resolved to make my bed every day. That was only mildly successful. This year, I think it’s going to be about the details. I resolve to:

Keep up the mani/pedi. When I was younger, I used to be much better about having nice looking nails. Now it seems that I don’t really give a shit. So I walk around with chippy polish on my toes, and mostly no polish on my hands. That changes NOW. I did my nails yesterday at home, all by myself, saving the family money!!!

Plan outfits for work. I used to be better about this too. But it seems that lately I will just slap on whatever seems easy for work. Sometimes (a lot of times), it’s jeans and a sweater or shirt, all fine, but not planned with much care. And I still haven’t pulled the trigger on the “outfit of winter 2013/2014”. While all the other gals are mincing around town in cute low boots or high boots or over the knee boots in brown and black and whatever, I can’t decide what to get, so I don’t have ANY boots and I don’t look cute at all. WTF??? Why can’t I just pull the freaking trigger and get some boots? Here’s why! The boots I want are Prada and they cost $1400 f*ing dollars!!!!! Why hasn’t someone knocked them off yet so I can get them. I’m looking everywhere and apparently nobody has the balls to copy Prada for cheaper. C’mon people, I’m waiting. And hurry up, the trend is about to run out of steam before I even get started.

Accessorize. Seriously! I have cute accessories, bracelets, earrings, barrettes, hats, scarves, whatever, name it….. and I leave the house and can’t even get as far as lipstick for work. What the hell is the matter with me? Ennui? Perhaps! I have got to cute it up, man! So, I vow to make an effort. Get up a few minutes earlier, and get it done.

Ruin Comcast. Does anyone out there hate Comcast as much as I do? Those fuckers are extortionists! Your cable company may be different, but here in Seattle, we are forced to pay Comcast/Xfinity or whatever the hell they are called for lousy service and bad attitudes so we can watch Homeland. Or whatever. So, in 2014, bye bye Comcast, we’re cutting you down to basic cable and we’re closing you out for internet. We have options and you can’t screw us anymore. (We’ll see how this goes, I may be back later with a sad story about how Comcast won and I lost.) But for now, it’s on MFers!

See what a budget looks like. Yep, I said it. We are going to make a budget. For good reasons. Not because we are spending too much, but so that we can track and/or make a reasonable guess as to how much spending we should allocate where, and how much we can put away for retirement. This is a super boring one, but if you go back to how badly I want those Prada boots – you will understand that if I had a clothing budget I could actually save and get them instead of nickel and diming my way through Gap and Banana Republic for shitty clothes that don’t last. I want nice clothes and if I knew my budget I could get them. I WILL HAVE THEM. I’m not angry. :)


Ok, I think that covers it for the beginning of 2014. No need to overdo resolutions. I’ll let you know how it’s going. Should be awesome. Gotta go, It’s time to put on some lipstick. Wah!

Monday, December 23, 2013

Heee Heeeeeeeeeee Hee!

Check this out while I run around in a panic getting last minute Christmas stuff done. I hardly ever get to watch SNL, so when I saw this I laughed and laughed. Jimmy Fallon is so awesome!

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

You will bawl like a baby!


This story is so sweet that I had to share it. Now I have to go get myself together because I am crying at my desk at work. I love love!

Monday, December 16, 2013

Oh Christmas Tree

This is what we did on Saturday! There is a tree farm out near Poulsbo that is family owned and operated called Henry's Tree Farm. We have been going there to cut our own tree for the past several years. Super nice people, many many many trees to choose from and really reasonably priced. Lucky for us, it was warm and pretty dry on Saturday, so we had a nice time, and our 7 foot tree fit in the back of the SUV. No need to tie it to the roof, no fuss, no muss. 

Here are a few shots of their place and various trees.






Here is what we ended up with and a little time lapse video of how the whole decorating thing went down. Yes, in one of the photos you can see the footstool and Kit's feet. He fell asleep while I was working on the tree and I didnt have the heart to wake him up just to tell him to move his feet out of my shot. 

And, it doesn't show, but I did get the needles cleaned up and a tree skirt on the tree. It looks pretty good.









Wednesday, December 11, 2013

It's Christmas time in the city!

Seattle is all dressed up for Christmas and I love every minute of it. Here are a few pics from a little city tour we did last night. Downtown over to Queen Anne, around and back. More to come because I'm not sure I'm over it yet.

4th Avenue
Outside Hotel Andra on 4th
Construction cranes in South Lake Union

12th man! Go Hawks - combining Christmas and a little Seahawks love!
Space Needle
City views from Highland Drive QA

Even simple lights are pretty - in front of an apartment building on QA
Most well done and just gorgeous - my favorite of the night

I hope a kid lives here
Looking from QA toward Ballard



Looking south on 5th Avenue. Walls of tree lights - awesome!
And possibly the worst house ever - I'm not sure the photo will do it justice, but it looks
like Christmas threw up all over the lawn. I'm choosing to believe that the parents who live here are
so great that they let the kids decorate the entire property - no matter how embarrassing.
MORE IS MORE?