The Bellagio Tolls for Thee

DAY FOUR

Saturday morning we woke slowly and groggily, having been out on the town until rather late. We packed up and checked out of our rooms, leaving our bags with the baggage service outside the front of the hotel.

Carla set up a post at the pool and held all our miscellaneous stuff while the rest of us returned to the Miracle Mile to shop for about an hour. Gary also purchased Scott some clothes at Ben Sherman as a birthday present, while I hit a shoe store and a sale at the Gap.

We returned to the pool to collect Carla and then walked to the Bellagio to have lunch at Todd English's Olives. Our table was on the veranda overlooking the fountain, shaded by an umbrella with built-in misters. I ordered the Butternut Squash Tortelli, which turned out to be the favorite dish at our table. Just after our food arrived, the mister right above me started spitting great drips of water into my hair, my food, and my wine-glass. A quick-thinking busser wrapped a cloth napkin around the pole, covering the errant spout. We relaxed and enjoyed our lunch and several fountain shows, topped off with a bit of an impromptu family haiku battle.

Scott enjoyed a Chocolate Fallen Cake as a Birthday treat and then we were off to Bally's. By this time I was exhausted and I curled up on a bench in the lobby and took a short nap. We took refuge in Le Burger Brasserie and quenched our dehydrated throats, followed by seeing Gary and Carla off as they left for the airport.

Katie, Kevin and Scott took seats at tables in the Poker room and I made the most of the Tabasco and Wheel of Fortune slot machines nearby. Eventually it was time for Scott and I to head to the airport, so we said our goodbyes to Katie and Kevin and caught a cab.

"Your Mother Was A Hamster..."

DAY THREE

Friday morning started out with an appointment at the Salon in the Paris. I got a haircut and then met up with Erin in the lobby. We enjoyed some tasty crepes at La Creperie and then sat by the pool for an hour or so.

Once cooked sufficiently, we went back upstairs and napped until Scott returned from the poker tables. Erin gave us a ride to Caesars Palace so we could stroll along the Forum Shops. Surprisingly, I didn't find anything I wanted to purchase that was anywhere NEAR my price range, so we walked back to the Paris - much relieved to arrive back in the air conditioning.

Scott and I found sandwiches for a late lunch at the Boulangerie, then rested upstairs until it was time to get ready for the evening.

Dressed in our best, we met in Gary and Carla's room before acquiring two cabs to take us to the Wynn for our evening event.

We arrived with about 10 minutes to showtime, which was just enough for a bathroom break and quick stop at the souvenir table where I purchased an official program and Killer Bunny hand puppet.

John O'Hurley stars as King Arthur in SPAMALOT - "a musical lovingly ripped off from the classic film comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail", joined by The Lady of the Lake and the Knights of the Round Table. Whether you have seen the film that inspires the musical or not, SPAMALOT is chock-full of laughs, insults and elderberries. Scott is a HUGE Monty Python fan, and the rest of us are MP appreciators at the very least, so the show brought us much enjoyment.

Just outside the Grail Theater is the restaurant Corsa. I ordered side dishes as an entree as I wasn't very hungry, and enjoyed the potatoes very much. The Broccolini was nasty. We finished off dinner sharing a Tiramisu before taking a short tour of part of the beautiful Wynn casino.

Two Pianos, Aparte?

DAY TWO

We slept in until about 9am on Thursday, and would probably have slept longer if it wasn't for being woken by Scott's mom letting us know she was on her way to the pool. We managed to throw ourselves together and stumbled down to find deck chairs. In the water we were able to withstand the blistering heat, but only for about an hour and a half. Gary came down and took us to lunch at the poolside cafe around 11:30am.

After lunch we cleaned ourselves up and braved the strip long enough to cross the street and head into the Miracle Mile shops attached to Planet Hollywood (previously the Aladdin).

The ladies enjoyed the wonders of Sephora and then Scott whooped for joy when he saw the Ben Sherman store. I bought him two pairs of shorts and some shirts as an early birthday present, we then re-joined with Carla, Kevin and Katie and had a "snack" at P.F. Changs.

We napped for a bit and then headed downstairs to Napoleon's Dueling Piano bar. The ladies had drinks while the men had cigars and then we proceeded to a late night dinner at the Boulangerie/Patisserie nearby.

"It's Like a Heat Wave, Burning in My Heart"

DAY ONE

My second (ever) trip to Las Vegas began on the morning of July 4th. We managed to pack and finish cleaning our house within about 2 hours, then threw our luggage into a taxi and headed to the airport.

Our plane from Key West to Miami was on time, and while we waited, Scott took a Dramamine and I took a Benadryl. I managed to stay awake long enough to snap some great shots of the water and then crashed for the remainder of the half-hour flight.

Touching down in Miami we were met by a bus to take us to the gate. After off-loading into the terminal, we prepared for the 3 hour layover by eating a personal Pizza Hut pizza and finding a spot to nap. As the boarding time grew closer, we collected ourselves only to be notified by the P.A. system that due to the thunderstorms in the area, the American Airlines ramp was closed.

Our original departure time was 3:30pm and we watched the announcement board change to 4:00pm with disgust and then hope, as we boarded the aircraft at about 4:30pm. Sadly, once on board we sat at the gate for about another hour, waiting for the ground crew to finish loading our luggage. Apparently the union has a rule that if there is any lightning, the ground crew is not allowed outside. Why they think lightning would strike a person as opposed to any number of the other much LARGER objects nearby is beyond me.

Touchdown at McCarren airport was about two and a half hours later than anticipated, but we managed to get our bags and a taxi to the hotel by 8:30pm, despite the 114 degree heat.

Scott's parents, sister, and brother-in-law met us at the front door of The Paris, swapped us our bags for beverages, and we made our way to our room. We took about an hour to decompress and then took off walking for The Venetian.

If you've never been to Vegas, you don't realize how big it is. Not just that the buildings are big, or that everyone is "over-the-top", but that The Strip is several miles long. Just because you can see another casino/hotel from your own quite clearly, does not mean it is a ten minute walk.

We dodged slow tourists and finally arrived at our goal, only having to wait about 15 minutes for a table at the Grand Lux Cafe.

Dinner and drinks down the hatch, we walked at a much more leisurely pace back to our hotel, where I went to bed and everyone else went back downstairs with the intention to gamble, although Kevin was the only one that really managed to stay up. It was to his fortune though, as he won about $775 playing poker.

Out of The Desert

We have returned from our vacation in Las Vegas.

My brain is cooked.

I will regale you with tales of our escapades after a nap.

Let the Battle Begin.

I have a confession to make. I have been boastful. I have been downright holier-than-thou stuck up and proud of it.

Every day, customers ask for recommendations on how to combat the flea and tick infestation of the lower Keys. I dutifully tell them which products are the most popular, which sell out quickest, what the groomer recommends, but I invariably come to the end of my knowledge and admit that we "haven't had a problem" at our house with fleas or ticks at all.

About a month ago we took Buster to a local dog park and within about 5 minutes, I had about 30 flea bites on my legs. The next two weeks saw me covered in hydrocortizone cream during the day, and a baking soda & lemon juice paste in the middle of the night. I had to take Benadryl to even get to sleep.

A few days ago I started getting bites around my ankles. I was assuming this was due to the fact that I take the dog out, and there must be fleas where I walk with him.

Last night, I found a flea on the duvet. Tonight I found a flea on my arm. As we were dozing off, Buster spooning with Scott, Scott said "Buster has a tick." I was really hoping he meant that Buster had developed a head jerk or leg kick, but the truth is out... It was a real Tick. Gross.

The bastard was extricated and flushed. Buster will visit Bernadette for a dip tomorrow, and I will take advantage of my employee discount to purchase combative products.

The worst part of all is that I can no longer hold my head high and declare that we "don't have a problem with that." My naivety is crushed, much like the tick between folds of toilet paper.

Crafty!

As far back as I can remember I have loved making stuff. I was a footwear designer at an early age, manufacturing a ballet-style shoe from a single sheet of paper and about half a roll of Scotch tape.

Another step in my fashion design career was creating clothes for my Barbie dolls. The ribbed portion of a sport sock makes a lovely tube dress with holes cut in the sides for the arms. My mom was less than enchanted with the idea, primarily because they were her socks. Further exploits for the benefit of Barbie eventually became what my parents referred to as "the Pueblo Community", stacked cardboard boxes on their sides, each box a room that had been treated to my early stabs at interior design.

I stayed for days at a time with my maternal grandparents growing up, and my grandmother taught me to bake, sew, crochet and gave me many opportunities to make something out of something else. My cousin Josquin and I once created an entire "Macaroni Ranch" from uncooked noodles of all varieties. Last summer we brought the ranch down out of storage and after about 20 years, it still looked pretty good!

I always enjoyed clay, I remember sculpting a bust of my father that was about 3 inches tall and yellow. I painstakingly made his beard with the help of a thumb-tack.

During elementary school, the walls of my bedroom were papered with drawings of everything from the Portland, Oregon skyline done in Mr. Sketch to abstract portraits of imaginary characters - heads in triangle shape.

While in high school at a boarding school, my amateur sewing skills came in handy when girls wanted to make shorts from their jeans. Cut-offs were outlawed for their raggedy hems, but I was able to hem them easily.

A few years later I took up embroidery and my canvas of choice was denim. I covered the entire right leg of a pair of hand-me-downs with yarn and floss flowers and vines. A few friends would bring me a pair of jeans and some floss and I would return the jeans to them with the design of their choice (usually more flowers and vines).

I took up painting with acrylics about ten years ago and will complete a painting (usually an abstract of swirls and lines) every couple of years.

About two years ago I remembered that I had learned a method of finger-crochet sometime during my Pathfinder career, and started making scarves just in time for winter and Christmas that year. I then realized that several scarves side by side is a blanket and have since been crafting blankets with my hands.

I also dove headfirst into the scrapbooking rage and have been scrapbooking for about 5 years now.

When my ADD kicks in, I switch projects, which generally results in 4 or 5 ongoing projects around the house at once. At the moment I have 3 different scrapbooks started, a blanket in the works and a pair of shorts that I'm getting ready to embroider.

I'm a Lame-O

A friend of mine has started a blog. I commend him on his ambition to blog daily. I suspect that he is more focused with his "free" time than I am, seeing as my posting is becoming fewer and farther between.

If anyone is wondering (I know you aren't, just play along anyway) here is a rundown of how I spend my time...

5 Days a week I work 8 hours at The Pampered Pet, a local pet store here in Key West. Work at a pet store entails organization, cleaning, stocking, re-stocking, re-organizing, answering questions, catching fish, turtles, mice, birds and rats for sale, feeding and watering, cashiering, making signs, taking messages and special orders and a lot of running back and forth. My usual shift is from noon to close. I usually wake up around 10:30am and manage to get to sleep by about 1am. Between coming home from work and going to bed I often update the web page for the store, uploading pictures and information for new arrivals. (Pampered Pet Web Page)

The two days I don't work (usually Wednesday and Sunday) I usually sleep in until around noon, then try and spend time outside for awhile before catching up on laundry and miscellaneous house cleaning. More often than not I spend a few hours online every day, splitting my time between a forum that I administrate (BW Refugees), checking my email, checking my Myspace accounts (Personal, Music, Senior Class), catching up on the Young and the Restless since I never have time to watch it, reading various other blogs (Jim, Jake, Defective Yeti), updating my family website, updating our wedding website, and now Catster accounts for my three cats (Chou, Minx and Maui).

We are also home to a Boxer (Buster) that needs love, attention, food, water and walking, a Hamster (Tempura) that requires a cage cleaning once a week, a Betta (Won-Ton) that gets fed daily and a water change once a week, and several outdoor plants that need watering and dead-heading.

This week two baby raccoons took up residence on the porch, one of them is blind. Scott says I am running a furry soup kitchen.

Clearly, I am ready for a vacation, which I will be getting in just a few days, as I get to travel to Las Vegas with Scott for a family vacation.

Did I mention I'm planning a wedding that's taking place in 294 days?

ACK.

Not All Appetizers Are For Eating

I never had a Hamster when I was growing up. I had cats, and in 8th grade I got a dog that ended up being my mom's when I went to boarding school, but I never had a Hamster.

Working at a pet store has brought me new respect for many types of animals. I never thought that birds were anything special until I met a baby Macaw about two months old. I've also learned a lot about many types of fish, reptiles and rodents.

Something I learned about hamsters is that there are many varieties, and they don't all get along. One of the hamsters that arrived in our store is a solitary type and couldn't be kept in the habitat with the other hamsters. I watched this hamster climb the sides of the small bird cage she was in and admired her acrobatic abilities. Every night when I was doing my closing duties I would take her from her cage and carry her around with me.

Finally I decided that this hamster needed to join our menagerie and I brought her home. Scott's statement (after commenting on my insanity) was "We already have a Betta named Won-Ton, is this ANOTHER appetizer for the cats?"

It therefore pleases me to introduce the newest member of our family: Tempura the Hamster.

7 Months.

I arrived in Key West on September 18, 2006. In these last seven months I have become accustomed to living on a tropical island.

In some ways, Key West reminds me of the island of Maui. Similar weather and wildlife, but not as many volcanoes. The local wildlife is primarily chickens, which are protected.

We have settled into somewhat of a routine, spending the majority of our time together on weekends. The marina in downtown Key West is our favorite place to walk, and we often start the journey with a meal or drinks at Dante's or Pepe's, make a stop at Kermit's Key Lime Pie Shoppe, and end up by A&B Lobster House or even Island Dogs on Front street.

We make it to church up the Keys about 3 times a month and like to hit the beach at Bahia Honda in the afternoon.

The best Thai restaurant is on Key Largo and the best Grilled Cheese sandwich is at Bobalu's Southern Cafe.

We have been honored to have guests in the last few months, the first being my cousin Giselle, followed by Kirk and Denny the following week and Scott's parents a few weeks ago. We really enjoy showing off our favorite spots in the Lower Keys and finally purchased dining room chairs so we were able to make dinner a few times with Gary and Carla.

I have made the trip to the west coast twice; once with Scott in December for Christmas and then again alone in early March to sing back-up for Megan's CD release concert and finish recording my first song.

We made some friendships initially that have kind of fizzled out over the last few months, but friendships we felt were pretty shallow to begin with have proven themselves much stronger.

I have changed jobs and am now really enjoying my time at work daily and having a wonderful time working with the wide variety of creatures at the store. I am excited to be learning about many different animals and their environments, and testing myself on my knowledge of freshwater and saltwater fish.

Scott and I's relationship has only become stronger in the last seven months. When we moved here to Florida, we had only ever spent about 14 days together and that was spread out over 5 months. Our drive from Washington to Florida was the longest consecutive time we had spent together up until that point and was a real test of our friendship as well as our relationship (and our tolerance of felines). Since our engagement in December we have been steadily growing together and enjoying our family of animals.

And most importantly, the cats don't hide on top of the refrigerator from the dog anymore.

Fun With Birds

Working at the pet store has given me the opportunity to learn about a lot of animals I knew nothing about.

This is Bam-Bam... a Blue and Gold Macaw, of the parrot family. To his left is an African Grey Timneh, also a parrot. They are both about 14 weeks old and came to the store at a few weeks old when they still looked like a cross between a porcupine and a plucked chicken.

Another of the baby birds was a Green-Cheeked Conure. I called him Squik and tried not to get too attached, but he was a character and easy to love. He went to a wonderful home last week and I miss him dancing around in front of the door of his cage lecturing me to let him out to play. I don't miss him climbing up onto my head and pooping on my back.

The next day my other favorite animal - a white chinchilla - went to a great home. I am very happy for him, especially considering that he used to escape out of his cage every night at the store and would run rampant until we could extricate him from under the shelves of pine bedding.

This week we welcomed more baby birds, a few Conures, two more African Greys and an Umbrella Cockatoo.

Pet Food Update

Please go to Menu Foods website for their press release info: http://www.menufoods.com/recall/index.html

Also, please go to Science Diet's website to see info on the type of dry cat food that has been recalled. http://www.hillspet.com/menu_foods/md_Recall_03302007_en_US.htm

CNN Is Retarded.

The recent crisis over contaminated pet food has been a big pain to our store, and all stores across the country.

It was confirmed by ALL of our suppliers immediately following the initial debacle that the DRY FOOD IS FINE. It is made by a different manufacturer than the canned/pouched food (Menu Foods, Inc.).

This week CNN and several other news programs aired footage of a camera sweeping the shelves of a pet store and included dry food in that footage. DUMB-ASSES. The dry food is NOT contaminated.

After several concerned calls and visits from our patrons, I myself have spoken with our suppliers AGAIN and confirmed this.

I don't watch CNN anyway, but I'm certainly not going to start. Another good reason for that is that since I live in Florida, I get all the Anna Nicole news I need on local television. Gag.

Chinchilla Loving Rock Star

My new job is going very well. I am working full time at a local pet store in Key West and really enjoying the animals and my coworkers. I'm learning a lot about all our animals every day and tempted constantly to take home a Chinchilla or the female yellow lab currently in the store.

We dealt quickly with the national recall of some canned/pouched foods and all our animals are safe.

This past week I spent 8 days in Portland, Oregon. I was flown out courtesy of Kevin Brusett to sing backup for Megan's CD release concert.

I arrived on Tuesday afternoon in Portland and was fortunate to spend the afternoon being pampered at The Colour Authority before celebrating Lou's birthday with dinner and a cake from Jaciva's. Two of Lou's sisters and some other of his extended family joined us and we had a very enjoyable dinner.

Wednesday I finished the first song for my album. Jared and I spent time at The Pulpit with Jim Walker getting the electric guitar tracks done. The finished product turned out GREAT.

Rehearsals for the concert were Wednesday night and Friday night, so I interspersed them with visiting with lots of friends and my mom. We got some wedding stuff accomplished, I tried on the dress I love on Monday and Mom bought it for me! She also took Monica, Connor and I to lunch afterward at Claim Jumper, which is a fantastic restaurant, and we then proceeded to Piece Of Cake in Milwaukie to taste wedding cake flavors.

Megan's concert went very well, she was backed by Tim Ellis on 2nd guitar, TJ Arko on drums, Mike Lee on bass, and myself as backup vocalist. The audience packed the venue and screamed enthusiasm between each song. Megan's writing style is very honest and has an easy flow to it, without being at all trite or predictable. I really enjoyed learning and performing her music.

The current extra-curricular activity is preparing the household for Scott's parents visit on Saturday. Buster enjoyed a trip to Bernadette the Groomer today and smells very good. He wasn't too sure about the cleaning out of the ears, but didn't mind having his toenails trimmed at all. The cats won't be subjected to the same treatment, but we ARE trying to keep them from anointing the couch with more fur than necessary.

B.Y.O.T.

One of the first things we did after arriving in Key West was buy plants. We started with a beautiful Yellow Hibiscus tree, two pink Mandevilla and two "house" plants. One house plant has been outside for the last 3 months, and the other is dead - both due to Minx thinking they were her own private salad.

A few weeks later I decided to try my hand at container gardening for actual edibles. I had purchased a tomato growing kit for $1 at Target several months before I moved, and decided it was time to try it out. The kit included a 2-inch clay pot, some soil and some seeds. My first attempt is now 4 feet high, has several flowers and even 1 baby tomato growing.

At that same time I started seeds for lettuce. They have since grown up and been eaten.

We also purchased baby plants for oregano, basil, jalapenos, early girl tomatoes, rosemary, cilantro, italian parsley and catnip. We can't use the basil and oregano fast enough, but are enjoying cooking with fresh herbs. Scott made homemade cornbread last week with one of the first jalapenos.

The picture above is the first early girl tomato and we are anxiously awaiting it's maturation!

Life Is Rough

The weather in Key West since we returned from our Christmas vacation has been the coldest I've felt yet. The skies are often grey and it drizzles now and then.

Last Thursday was an exception. Sunny and around 80. Donna, Ray and I stopped on the way back to the office to have lunch at a pub on the Boca Chica Naval Base.

The view is beautiful and I enjoyed my grilled cheese sandwich in serenity.

I feel like I work with a Bunch of Animals.

I started a 2nd job this last week at a local pet store helping out in the office. I'm having a lot of fun and getting a few extra hours in which helps since my main job was cut to 30 hours right after Christmas. On Friday when I went into the office at the pet store, I got to hang out with a beautiful red and blue parrot named Abigail.

We spent the last two days madly cleaning our condo as the realtor had an open house today for a couple of hours. Our condo is for sale and if it sells and the new owner does not want to rent it out, we will have 30 days to move. Fortunately for us, there were no offers today.

Adventures in Doggiesitting

This is Niko. He is a baby boxer, about 4 months old. He and Buster have been buddies for a couple of months and we had the privilege of keeping him overnight while his "parents" went to Miami.

Niko has learned to sit and shake, and is working on mastering stay and lie down. He is also learning to master his bladder, which we discovered when he anointed Buster's bed as we were getting ready to go to sleep.

Our three cats didn't mind him much until he decided to chase them up the stairs, but we had foreseen this problem and put up a baby-gate so the cats could get a reprieve from his desperate requests to play with him.

Buster was very patient, even let Niko bite his ears and steal his chew toys, but was more than a little bit relieved when it was time for Niko to go home.

Website for Details

http://www.ewedding.com/v20/main.php?a=scottylovesreese

Important Stuff

A year from now we will either be married or living in the Northwest.

Let the saving begin!

Since You Asked...

What we DO know:
We are planning to get married in the Portland metro area, either this fall or the following spring. It will likely be an indoor wedding as Portland weather is not reliable enough to schedule outdoors.

Kevin Brusett will do the officiating, Monica Elie is the Matron of Honor. Scott is working on getting his attendant list finalized.

I'm compiling a guest list and it's looking bigger every moment! We're hoping to get a rough number of guests so we know how big of a venue we will need, so we can figure out a rough budget and then how long it will take to save up for it.

I've picked out a frontronner in the dress department and we've narrowed down styles for Scott. I'd like the colors to be white, deep dark red, and a deep dark orange.

What we DON'T know:
Date & Venue

I'll update as we know more...

Return to Paradise

I have come back to Key West an engaged woman.

Our trip to the west coast was very eventful, exciting, and busy! We packed a lot of visits with friends and family into 9 days.

We began our adventure on Friday, December 22 after work. We managed to finish packing and prepare the animals for our absence and get to the airport on time thanks to a ride from Brandon. We checked in and found our flight was overbooked and they were in need of people to fly the next day. Fortunately enough people jumped at the chance to stay in paradise for another day that we were able to leave on our scheduled Delta flight to Atlanta.

The planes that come in and out of Key West are of the smaller variety, and altitude and turbulence are felt stronger than on a bigger jet. By the time our two-hour flight landed at Hartsfield-Jackson International airport I was feeling a little more than quesy. We had about a two hour layover before our flight out, so we rested and I took a dramamine to face the next leg.
We arrived into San Fransisco around 12:30am and Gary and Carla picked us up at baggage claim. Once at the Cumpston house, I stayed up for about 20 minutes, long enough to discover that the box of presents I had shipped by UPS 3 day a week previous had not arrived yet. I went to bed and we agreed to try and track down the package in Menlo Park the next morning.

I woke up on Saturday when Kevin and Katie arrived from their flight in. Carla and Scott were out "shopping for dad" and trying to track down the UPS package. I heard a doorbell and found the missing package on the doorstep. Scott and Carla arrived back at the house about an hour later and we all drove together to Fogarty Winery up in the hills.

We did some wine tasting and took a couple of fun pictures on the hillside overlooking the valley.

We made our way back down to Woodside and stopped at the Woodside Bakery for lunch, enjoying fresh baked bread and wood-fired pizza with leftovers to take home.

After a nap, Gary, Carla, Katie, Kevin, Scott and myself got in the car and drove to Gary's cousin Doug's house. Doug's wife Liz and kids Ray, Cate and Jane also joined us and after homemade hors d'oeuvres we all went into downtown Palo Alto and sat down to dinner at Spago.

After ordering, Scott wanted to take a walk outside for some fresh air, so we crossed the street to a small park. It was quite cold out and Scott had not brought his jacket out of the restaurant, so we walked at a decent pace to stay warm. After making a few laps around the park we stopped next to a park bench, and after he got out of my grip, went down on one knee on the sidewalk and proposed. I must not have answered and he said "Please say yes!"

I said yes (of course!) and we went back to dinner and celebrated with the family.

We were treated to a chocolate lava cake with ice cream and whipped cream and champagne.

Sunday morning we went back to the jeweler to pick the final setting for the diamond Scott had picked out (astounding in it's own right) and did a little last minute shopping while waiting for it to be ready to pick up.

Pizza for lunch again but this time at "Pizza My Heart" in downtown Palo Alto, where we bought t-shirts for $5 each and got a free piece of pizza.

Christmas Eve dinner was Potato Cheese soup, salad and paninis. We watched The Devil Wears Prada and then went to bed around 1am.

Christmas morning Scott's sister Katie and her husband Kevin ran yelling "Santa was here! Santa was here!" through the house at about 7am. There was a beautiful sunrise through the trees as we opened our stockings and gifts.

There was a little time for naps before Doug and his family came over for hors d'oeuvres, and then a quick dinner before Gary delivered Katie and Kevin to the airport for a flight back to Portland.

Scott and I stayed up for a little while and then went to bed, only to be woken up at about 12:30 to pile into the car and leave for our drive north. We hit rain going through San Fransisco and it didn't let up until it turned to snow just south of Weed. The snowflakes were about 3 inches in diameter and blowing sideways. We braved the blizzard and it got better by the time we reached Yreka, coinciding with daylight.

We finally pulled up to my mom's house in Clackamas right after noon on the 26th. The first visit was to Monica and John Paul's house, where we watched the kids open their presents. Mom had asked that we be back to her house by 5pm to begin preparations for our pseudo Christmas Eve traditional evening. Our evening began with dinner and the traditional lighting of the advent wreath candles, and ended with opening yet more presents and crashing into bed around 10:30pm.

Morning of the 27th we drove across town to the home of Keith and Julie Thomson, parents of Scott's brother-in-law. After opening gifts and enjoying homemade shortbread, we proceeded to Scott's Grandma Virginia's house minutes away and opened MORE gifts.

Once we said goodbye to Virginia, we drove back across town and stopped at the Ouchida house for about a half hour, where we discovered that Britt and Dan got engaged about two hours after we did.

We dashed out to the Oregon City McMenamins to have lunch with Tiffany at about 3pm, and then made our way back to Mom's house to nap.

Applebees off 112th in Vancouver was our destination for dinner with Andy, Adam, Kelli and Sarah Rodriguez. They enjoyed their "Chou-lendars" and we shared engagement stories.

Thursday morning we met Britt and Dan for breakfast at Jam On Hawthorne and then enjoyed a couple of hours with TJ, Michelle and Taylor at their home in Milwaukie. We had just enough time to drive to Mom's to change and then head to The Ram in Lake Oswego for lunch with Carla, Grandma Eloise and Scott's other cousin Jane.

In the short amount of time between lunch and dinner, I had the opportunity to spend my Target gift card and a little time at Bridal Exclusives in Clackamas Promenade and may have found THE dress.

7pm found Lou, Mom, Scott and myself parking in the lot at Riverplace, and braving the very cold wind to walk down the plank to the Marina Fish House (previously Newport Bay). Gary and Carla joined us shortly after and we enjoyed a fantastic meal capped off with Gary and Lou sharing a berry cobbler.

Friday morning we woke early and drove to Monica and John Paul's house, visited for a few minutes and then delivered Sammey to Brusett's house for a birthday party. Kevin agreed to perform our ceremony, whenever it ends up being.

It was great to see the girls at my old office for a few minutes before heading south into Portland.

Scott dropped me off at my hair appointment and then we grabbed lunch on the way to visit Julie and Ella. Ella is 4 1/2 and very smart. It was great to catch up with them and we were sorry Keith wasn't able to be there.

I dropped Scott off with Andy and spent the afternoon at the downtown Clark County Title branch saying "hi."

I met Roxy and her family and Tony at the Spaghetti Factory in Vancouver for dinner, and then sped to Tualatin to meet the gang at Hayden's Lakefront Grill.

JVA rocked the place out and I even got to play a little cowbell before TJ took over. It turned out to be a bit of an un-official engagement party, attended by Monica & John Paul, TJ, Andy, Travis, Pete, Jen, Chad, Bill, Bob & Chelsea, and Matt and Tiffany. We stayed until the very end and finally got to sleep around 1am.

Saturday morning I got up at 7am and went to Bridge City for rehearsal before singing and playing keyboard for worship during church. Mom and Lou brought Scott for the service and I got to hold Connor for about 1/2 of the message.

Scott and Sindos' wedding started just after 2pm a few miles away and then we had a small window of time to pre-pack for our flight out. The wedding reception was at the Oswego Lake Country Club and we bailed after dinner was served.

Packing up and loading out managed to only take us about a half hour, helped by the fact that we decided to ship a lot of stuff from Portland to Key West so we didn't have to cram it into our luggage.

We arrived at Bob's house around 9pm and had an hour to hang out with Rachel & Gary, Mike & Erin, Monica & John Paul, Brooke & Nate, Andy, Bob & Chelsea, Chris and show pics of Chou to Jeff.

After a round of goodbyes, Bob dropped us at the airport and we checked in for our flight back to Atlanta.

Scott gave up some toothpaste and lotion at security, and we were able to board our plane without having to wait too long.

The three hour layover in Atlanta was taken up by napping, especially after I took a dramamine, which knocked me out hard.

The flight to Key West went quickly and smooth, considering I was sleeping.

Shaunta picked us up and we were happy to get home and greet the kitties right around 1pm.

Countdown to Christmas - 6 days

We are leaving Key West for California in just 3 days. All that remains to be done at home is pack and clean, as we are having guests over New Year's Weekend.

We'll put our Christmas tree out on the back porch before we leave so it can have some sun.

I found this festive fellow enjoying his holidays on our front porch last night. I googled him and he's quite common to the area - a Spiny Orb Weaver. Not harmful, good with bug catching.

Anyone want one for Christmas? He's about the size of a dime.

Countdown to Christmas - 10 days

One week until we depart for California. We've been notified of a little added time to our layover in Atlanta, but the rest of the plans are still looking good.

We finally got a new key to our mailbox and were able to receive the mass buildup of Christmas cards (and bills) that were waiting.

The last two UPS shipments of presents are going out today, and my company Christmas Party is tonight.

We are enjoying near 80 degree weather every day, and only a little rain. I recieved a text message from one of the tenants in my Vancouver house "you have a tree in your driveway" but I verified with my co-owner that everything is ok, and they only lost power for about 5 minutes.

The picture is from Scott's Christmas Party last weekend.

Countdown to Christmas - 12 Days

I have 2 Christmas presents left to buy or make, 3 boxes of presents to ship out to their destinations.

We attended Scott's company Christmas party on Saturday night, and my company Christmas party will be this Friday evening.

I've been decorating at work since the first week of December, and it's looking very festive, if just a little hodge-podge.

The stockings are laying under the counter with care... or in the case of the dog - hung on the cupboard handle, and in the case of the cats, hung on the wine rack above their dishes.

Chou still sits under the table, even though the fort of presents has been dismantled.

Scott and I are each working just 7 more days and then we depart for San Fransisco.

Countdown to Christmas - 21 Days

The tree is up and decorated, 90% of the presents are made or purchased.

I watched one of my two yearly Christmas required movies on Saturday night: Mixed Nuts. It's a Nora Ephron film with a ridiculous plot and great cast. Steve Martin, Rita Wilson, Madeline Kahn, Adam Sandler, Juliette Lewis, Anthony LaPaglia and Liev Schreiber. I believe the movie was in theatres the Christmas season of 1994.

My other favorite is White Christmas (not Holiday Inn) with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney.

Countdown to Christmas - 25 Days

3 weeks from tomorrow we will fly to San Fransisco to spend Christmas with Scott's parents.

We're looking forward to spending the holiday in parts of the country where you can tell a little easier that it's winter.

We purchased our Christmas tree Tuesday night and will hopefully get it inside and decorated this weekend. From the picture, it looks like we are giving lots of flip flops as presents this year.

In actuality, all the presents that are already wrapped are sitting under the kitchen table, and Chou likes to hide behind them.

I'll Be Home For Christmas

You can count on me...

Scott and I will be heading out of the Key West airport after work on Friday, December 22nd and flying to San Fransisco by way of Atlanta, arriving around 11:15pm. We'll enjoy the weekend and Christmas Day with Scott's family, and then pile in their vehicle and drive to Portland.

We should arrive in Portland sometime on the 26th (ETA TBD). The only plans set in stone so far for the Portland part of the trip are that we are pretty booked up for Saturday the 30th. We'll be attending church at Bridge City that morning, and then attending a wedding and reception in the afternoon and early evening. Our plane leaves at about 11:15pm Saturday night, so we're hoping to hang out a little with the gang before catching our ride back to Key West.

Friday night we'll crash with Monica and John Paul, and I'm hoping to get in a trip to Colour Authority so I look a little blonder when we get back.

I'd love to have dinner with the Bob's World crew also on Friday if possible.

The interim will be spent largely with my Mom and Lou, with a possible trip up the gorge to Walla Walla/College Place. My cousin's twin boys are keeping their mother on bed rest as they'd like to make their debut a little earlier than due (January 12). If they've arrived by then, we'll probably make the trek to meet them.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, we are enjoying our new couch, delivered Friday afternoon. I've already napped on it twice.

Our house is shaping up and looking more home-like every day, come visit!

Time Flies and Cockroaches Don't

It's almost been two months since I arrived in Key West.

I've enjoyed a major festival (Fantasy Fest), visited the local Starbucks (which is privately owned and does not take Starbucks cards), gone to the beach once, to Miami twice, almost quit my job, been locked out of the house three times, gone to the pool three times, been late to work a few times and early a few times too.

Life is pretty normal, except for discovering a cockroach on it's back in the bathtub as I was turning on the shower. He's now working with the cast of the new movie "Flushed Away."

The drive from Key West to the mainland is beautiful. The speed limit is 45 for about half the trip, so while it's only about 130 miles, it takes a good 3 hours. There's never a time where you can only see ocean, the longest stretch over the water is the Seven Mile Bridge.

The most authentic Mexican restaurant in the area is Salsa Loca. Considering how far we are geographically from Mexico, it's nice to find good Mexican food! The servers are all older white ladies, but whoever is doing the cooking definately knows what they are doing.

On Halloween evening Scott and I enjoyed dinner at Monty's, which is an outdoor bar and restaurant right on the boardwalk. We enjoyed a taco salad and watched the sunset, then walked on the dock out to a boat that was moored but had it's underwater lights on. There were 6-8 Tarpin fish swimming and dining on minnows in the light. It was an incredible view. We sat on the dock and watched them for a good half hour and then got 50 cents worth of fish food out of a dispenser and tried to feed them. They weren't interested.

Media Review

TV
Heroes - NBC: Great show. Hard to pick up in the middle but I'm all caught up in it even though I never saw the first episode.

Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip - NBC: I really enjoy this show. I like the dynamic of Amanda Peet, Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry together. Wacko with a little drama thrown in. And it's great to see that Wings guy as a bit of an butthead.

Books
Running With Scissors - I know the movie just came out also, but two Saturdays ago I spent the afternoon reading the entire thing. A true account of the teenage years of the author, raising himself with the help (or hindrance) of a psycho psychologist and even more psycho mother. I'm looking forward to the movie even though I know it can't possibly be as good as the book. WARNING: It is a graphic book. And I don't mean pictures.

Get Fuzzy - It's true, I like a comic strip. This one features Rob, a poor schlub working in advertising, his dog (mother was a sharpei and father was a lab) Satchel and siamese cat Bucky. I bought two compilations on my own and was given two more as a birthday present. There are four more I'm going to have to acquire.

Movies
Jackass 2 - Had to close my eyes to keep from throwing up a few times.......

One Month

As of tomorrow morning, I will have been a resident of Florida for one month.

I've been working at a new job for about 3 weeks, and recently had some issues there that have inspired me to continue to keep my eyes open for another position elsewhere.

The dog and cats are getting comfortable with each other, even being willing to share space on the bed together. Chou has come down off the refrigerator, but it looks like he has taken to eating Buster's canned dog food and regurgitating it back up.

Our condo is shaping up nicely, we're adding furniture as we can and enjoying the four decks attached to our unit. I've also been enjoying the small pool located in the middle of our complex.

I do miss having certain things nearby; Old Spaghetti Factory's closest location is in Georgia, and Costco, Old Navy, WalMart and Target are all in Miami, but there are new fun local places too.

A Dream Come True...

You may think yesterday was Saturday, but it was Murphy-Day.

We attempted a purchase at K-Mart with a check from a brand-new local account. Apparently brand-new accounts limit the initial number of checks you can write, so the check was declined and we left the store without our silverware, curtain rods, spatulas and strainer.

Later I discovered the long-awaited debit card in the mail and went back to K-Mart with cash (just to be safe). I carefully re-selected all of our purchases and checked out.

As I was loading the new silverware into the dishwasher, I discovered that one box had 12 soup spoons and 8 knives instead of 4 sets of knife, big fork, little fork, big spoon, little spoon, and the OTHER box was short a big spoon.

We went back to K-Mart for the third time (a charm) and from the SINGLE last box of that style of silverware on the shelf, created two full boxes.

Meanwhile, back at Good-News Ranch, we bought a mattress and box springs which were delivered FREE the same afternoon.

I have now slept on a REAL bed and eaten my cereal with a REAL spoon. I can die a happy woman.

The New Frontier

Frida, the office Pomeranian is asleep on the floor. She belongs to Donna, who hired and is training me. Donna is negotiating an add in the Yellow Pages with the Bell South guy.

Today is my second day at SeaTech Electric, Inc. located on Rockland Key. They are an electrical company that does government contracts. They have business all over the Keys, the U.S, and even embassies outside the country.

I am the Assistant to the Director of Finance (Donna). She has been overwhelmed with work over the last few months and got authorization to hire an Assistant.

It's good to have an intellectual outlet finally, I've been basically on vacation for almost a month. While it's nice to have a break, I've been a little stir-crazy the last week or so.

We'll make our first venture back to the mainland this weekend to pick up the BMW and make a Costco run.

At Home in Key West

I've been home for one week as of yesterday.

We commemorated the event by spending the afternoon on Picnic Island - which is really a sand bar. The water is shallow enough to just anchor and wade around. We enjoyed a few games of frisbee (I was knocked in the head only once, remarkably) and I don't know if anyone was counting, but I should have gotten double points for landing the frisbee on the bow of a strangers boat.

Apparently we left our brains in the northwest, because even though we are now living in Florida, neither of us has purchased any sunscreen. Fortunate for us there was a mother with two children on our adventure, and she provided a menu of spf 30 and spf 50 for our enjoyment. I chose some 30, but not soon enough and am a bit pink.

Scott's furniture arrived today, moved off the truck in about 2.5 hours. I have unpacked two boxes of dishes and glassware and started the dishwasher running. I am greatly looking forward to putting clothes away in a dresser in the closet, and not just in organized piles on the master bedroom floor.

We are now one step closer to the dream - sleeping on a real bed. The bed frame arrived with everything else today, but the movers would not bring the mattress or box springs as they had mildewed in storage while in North Carolina. We will have to purchase a new mattress and box springs, along with a couch, since it's predecessor (I've always wondered if this word literally means "previously deceased"...) was also denied transit due to mold.

We have a full set of dishes, glasses, chargers, a toaster, what I think is a juicer, and some other various kitchen items. There is also a lovely set of tables that include a small dining table, a coffee table and side table.

The cats are getting used to the dog, on Thursday night Maui (the siamese) "kissed" Buster (the boxer) briefly. Progress from hissing. Chou can usually be found on top of the refrigerator, although we are doing our best to discourage this. Minx ate some of Buster's dog food yesterday, I don't know if it was because she felt she hadn't had enough cat food or if she was just trying to get Buster to notice that SHE is the alpha dog.

Road Trip: Day Seven and Eight

Sulpher LA to Key West FL

This long-push-drive-through-the-night thing is crazy. The much needed hotel room was enjoyed until right about noon on Saturday. We had slept long and hard, and once we had packed everything out, discovered that we had lost the room key while looking for my phone. About a half hour down the road I noticed the room key on the dashboard. ooops. That thing is going in the scrapbook!

We made it across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and rolled into Florida around 7pm central time. I sent a bunch of bulk text messages to let everyone know we had made it to the home state safely and had about another 12-15 hours to go.

Having a cat that has her own internal clock is interesting. I don't mind being reminded to feed them on time, but when she decides that everyone should be in bed, she means business! We had a full encore of the night two nights before, where she ran around the car yelling and running on the windows. Not conducive to my attempt at sleeping, which was already much hindered by the fact that my legs are a lot longer than the space I had to put them in.

Scott was getting tired, and as he was driving, I finally convinced him to pull over so we could both nap for an hour and maybe the cats would calm down as well. We were on the Florida Turnpike at this point, at about 5:45am on Sunday, so we pulled into one of the many Service Plazas, filled up with gas and tried to sleep.

Minx was not to be fooled. She knows the difference between people napping in a car in a parking lot and being AT HOME in a real bed. What had worked two nights before was not to be. I finally tuned out the meowing, but about 35 minutes into the experiment, Scott got out and walked off his frustration. I gave him a few minutes, got out and ushered him back into the car, and took over the drivers seat.

I drove for about an hour and a half and then handed the wheel back over to Scott, who was fully awake by this time.

We enjoyed the sunrise somewhere between Orlando and Miami, and I fell asleep shortly after.

I tried really hard to stay awake to enjoy the drive out over the Keys, but was feeling pretty crummy and a little nauseous, so I crashed out and Scott woke me up as we pulled onto Roosevelt Boulevard.

Our condos are just a mile or so down Roosevelt and we pulled in safely to the carport. I snoozed in the car while Scott took just the necessary items and the cats upstairs and then he came to fetch me.

I stumbled up the stairs and then he carried me over the threshold. Very sweet.

We napped for about 3 hours and then met one of Scott's coworkers for dinner at Kelly's.

Thus endeth the Vancouver, Washington to Key West, Florida saga.

Road Trip: Day Five and Six

Scottsdale AZ to Sulpher LA

My alarm went off at 6:45am so we could make it to breakfast at Dad & Heather's by 7:30am. We turned into the Thunderbird Adventist Academy campus at about 7:40am and parked in the shade (the cats we left at the motel). Heather had prepared eggs, and pancakes with strawberries or an assortment of jams. Just before we sat down to eat Dad opened the last two years worth of Christmas presents: a foot massager for Heather, Pooh and Tigger jumpers for Makayla, and a new watch for Dad, along with an M&M scrapbook.

Dad handled the requisite interrogation of Scott's worthiness while I watched and took pictures of Makayla enjoying her breakfast. Her clothes enjoyed it, too.

After breakfast we took pictures of me and my little sis and Makayla and I opened the goodie bags Dad had brought home from his trip up north on Southwest Airlines: plane shaped cookies and a set of honorary pilot's wings for each of us.

We headed back to the Motel with the intention of taking a nap before getting back on the road. When we opened the door to our room, Chou was there waiting happily to greet us, so I put food in the dishes for the cats' "second breakfast". Chou remained alone at the buffet and our concern grew as we searched the suite for Minx and Maui. Not in the closet, not in the bathroom, not in the sitting area, not in either of the windows, not behind any of the furniture, and not even meowing. When we left for breakfast we had left the "do not disturb" tag on the door to avoid an escape courtesy of Housekeeping. Scott and I went downstairs into the courtyard and I searched in the plants while Scott notified the manager of our situation. The manager informed us that there IS a way to get under the bed (the bed frame from all appearances is solid), and he would come help us look in a couple of minutes.

Back upstairs, the mattress and the box springs were dismantled to reveal two very guilty looking beasts. They were pulled out, the bed was put back together and we napped until about 1:15pm.

Loaded in and ready to go, I had found Chou and Maui and deposited them in the crate, but couldn't find Minx. We ensured that the bed hidey-hole was not accessible and finally discovered her behind the dresser.

The 101 loop south took us to 202 south and then back to 10 east. We got off on the Baseline exit and found our way to Duff's office, where Duff and Denise were waiting to visit for a little while before Denise had to go let the kids in the house after school and Duff had appointments.

We were out of Tempe by 4pm and headed east. I was driving for this leg and made it for about an hour and a half and didn't feel so hot, so Scott took over.

Just above Las Cruces, New Mexico, we pulled into a rest area to shuffle some things around, feed and water the cats, relieve ourselves, take pictures of the city lights and switch drivers. While Scott was searching for the flashlight, Minx managed a daring escape (maybe she sensed that we were near the state prison) and took off toward a small building. Scott hollered at me and took off after her. I shouted "don't chase her!" so he stopped, went back to the car to shut the door so the other two hooligans wouldn't get out, and I followed Minx around the building for two laps before Scott came back and went the other way and caught her.

I drove as far as Van Horn, Texas and we switched again so I could take out my contacts and try to sleep. I had pulled the down comforter out of the trailer and tried to fashion a bed in the back half of the car, taking care not to put my feet in the litter box. By this time Minx had decided that it was well past everyone's bedtimes (something she's always kept track of at home) and became very agitated. It was pretty hard for me to sleep on an incline that was much less than comfortable, and it didn't help that Maui wanted to snuggle, Chou kept standing on my chest to look out the window, and Minx was still yowling.

Around 6:45am (now Friday morning) we stopped to rest at a lonely gas station in the middle of nowhere. We slept for two hours after I sprayed more Feliway (a cat pheromone that has a calming effect) in the back of the car and Minx calmed down and went to sleep,

At 8:45am we got back on the road, Scott still driving, and I managed to sleep for another two and a half hours. We stopped for brunch at a McDonalds, had salad and continued on our way. Side note: my two cheeseburgers-without-the-burger had meat in them the first time around, and my Bacon-Ranch-Chicken-Salad-without-the-chicken-but-with-the-imitation-bacon-bits-that-were-NOT-imitation-bacon-bits had to be dismantled to get all the icky bacon off it.

We had discussed taking Highway 290 to bypass San Antonio, since Highway 10 takes a pretty deep turn to the south before heading back up to Houston. At the appropriate junction we headed off onto a beautiful country highway 290. I don't know if it was any faster overall, we ran into traffic in several small towns and some construction. We made it into Austin and through and then into Houston and got back on the 10.

After hour upon hour of driving and short naps, we decided to spend the night somewhere where we could all stretch out. My legs were feeling crampish and Maui was acting lethargic, not wanting to eat or drink in the car.

5 attempts at motels that apparently don't take pets, and we finally found a La Quinta in Sulpher, Louisiana. Everyone is resting and comfy and we're going to spend a relaxing evening. We only have 18 hours left to Key West of driving time

Road Trip: Day Four

Corona CA to Scottsdale AZ

Scott and I both woke up at about 9am and went outside to grab some stuff from the trailer. Inside Audrey was making breakfast – eggs, bacon, and cinnamon bread from a farmers market near her work. We enjoyed breakfast and fresh coffee around the table with Audrey and Crit, sharing stories about funny things we had said lately and were proud of. Crit left for work, we got ready for the day and then talked with Audrey for a bit while I trimmed Maui and Chou's claws.

I had decided it would be a fabulous idea to get a baby-gate to put behind the front seats in hopes that the cats would stay in the back half of the car unless we allowed them to join us up front. From Audrey's house we stopped at WalMart to get said gate, and were on our way at about 2pm.

I was the pilot for the day, so my wonderful co-pilot attempted baby-gate installation. Success! For all of about 10 minutes and then Chou just wriggled underneath it and was in Scott's lap again.

Mapquest said that Corona to Scottsdale should take about 6 and a half hours again, but by now we had learned that we were running about an additional hour for every Mapquest 3 to 4 hours, so did not expect to arrive in Scottsdale until 10pm or even a little later.

We filled up on gas in Indio, and again in Blythe at the recommendation of my dad. Gas was $2.88 in Indio, and $3.27 in Blythe. Just past Blythe is the Arizona border and the next gas station advertised $2.43.

We saw many beautiful and interesting sites, ranging from the sunset and a first lone cactus, to an exit sign that said "State Prison next exit. Do not pick up hitchhikers."

Once in the Phoenix metro area, we took the 101 loop north and found our motel, rolling in at about 9:30pm. We had chosen this motel from the AAA "Traveling with Your Pet" handbook and had made reservations about 12 hours previous. We checked in, hauled animals, gear, and animal's gear up to the second floor, and enjoyed a two-hour Mythbusters Movie Myths episode before heading for bed.

Road Trip: Day Three

Woodside CA to Corona CA

Scott again woke up before me, at about 9am, and again let me sleep, but this time only until 10am. Gary was getting ready to go to work and Carla suggested she take us to breakfast. We took some pictures outside the house, said goodbye to Gary, and headed down the hill into the township of Woodside.

We enjoyed a meal at Buck's Restaurant, convincing our server to allow us to order breakfast even though it was one minute past the 11am cutoff time. Carla and I both had the Woodsider Omelet, with Jack cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and topped with avocado. Scott had a Divine Omelet, which had meat and onions. Our meals were served with grilled red potatoes.

After breakfast Carla dropped us back at the house and we decided to take a nap before heading out. We slept a little longer than planned, but were on the road by about 4pm.

Central California is a big place. Mapquest estimated our journey should take about six and a half hours, so we hoped to arrive around 11pm or 12 at the latest. We headed out with Scott driving and made our way onto I-5 South. Our plan was to take I-5 down over the grapevine into Los Angeles, but had noticed several signs for at least 100 miles notifying us that I-5 was closed at Highway 138.

Since the map and directions we were working with didn't say anything about 138, or where it is in relation to our plans, we continued on hoping that we would magically figure things out. Just south of 99 joining I-5, we stopped for a little bit of Taco Bell at a Travel America, and were informed by a helpful truck driver that 138 was totally stopped up and no one was going anywhere. We purchased a California map and after talking with a different Mr. Helpful Truck Driver, decided to go ahead on I-5 to 138, and then take 14 down in to the basin.

Once on 138 it was clear that whatever the problem had been there, it was gone now and we were nearly alone on the way over to 14. Coming down the mountain into L.A., there was a close call for everyone on the road with a large amount of scrap metal spread all over the freeway.

We finally made it back to I-5 below the wildfires that had caused the original detour, and caught 210 to 57 to 71 into Corona, with Minx asleep on the dashboard. We pulled up to Audrey & Crit's house around 1:30am. Cats and accoutrements were hauled in and everyone went to bed, Chou under the covers.

Road Trip: Day Two

Yuba City CA to Woodside CA

Scott was up by 9am and smartly let me sleep in until about 11am. While waiting for me to finish my beauty sleep, he and Carrie went to Starbucks in town.

Once I awoke, I made my way into the kitchen to find that Grandpa Lysinger had already been giving Scott the Spanish Inquisition (except I think Scott may have expected it a little bit) which I'm pretty sure he passed, considering that when we left, Grandpa told me that I'd "better hold on to this one". Smart Grandpa.

We prepared ourselves for the day and then went out for lunch with Dixie and Grandpa to a great chinese place in town, enjoyed crispy tofu, egg fu yung, vegetable chow mein and vegetable fried rice. Very tasty.

After lunch we decided to let the cats stretch their legs a bit since they had slept in the car (IN THE SHADE WITH WINDOWS DOWN, DON'T FREAK OUT). We put them each in a harness and on a leash, which lasted for several hours with Chou and Maui, and about 10 minutes with Minx. At the earliest opportunity she crawled under the Uhaul and wriggled out of the harness. That is when I told her that if she wouldn't wear the harness, she goes in the crate. She doesn't seem to object to the crate too much.

When the yard boy was ready to mow the front lawn we retired to the back porch, where Maui and Minx chilled in the crate in the shade and Chou got out of his harness and roamed free for an hour or so. He investigated both ends of the porch but pretty much just laid happily on the cool concrete.

Carrie arrived home from school around 5:15, I opened my birthday cards and presents, and we got on the road after taking the obligatory group pictures.

We traveled west on 99 to I-5 and then took 80 into and through San Fransisco. We paid $5 to go over the bay bridge (great nightime pics) and then hit 101 towards San Jose.

We arrived at Gary & Carla Cumpston's house around 9:45pm and got the cats settled into our room. We took a tour of the home, which has recently been totally overhauled and remodled from pseudo-internment-camp to a lovely quintessential California hills home. There is even a beautiful view of the valley.

Once Gary arrived from the airport, we sat down to a great meal outside by candlelight of salsa/sour cream pasta and awesome salad.

Hit the hay around 11:30pm and called it a night. Until there was meowing and running on the windows courtesy of Minx, but she chilled out around 1am.

Road Trip: Day One

Vancouver WA to Yuba City CA

We finally left Vancouver with Scott driving around 4pm on Sunday (10th) and our first stop was on the side of SR 500 to make sure that Scott's wallet was indeed in his backpack and not on the bakers rack at home. After the successful discovery of the wallet IN the backpack, we continued on to I-5 and into Portland, where we stopped at a gas station off Broadway to fill up on gas and meet Bob and Chelsea to say goodbye (and collect a swimsuit I had left at Bob's).

Rush hour traffic in the south end of Portland was avoided for the most part, and we made it to Riddle by about 8pm. We stopped for a fill up (courtesy of the $100 Chevron card given by my co-workers) and a snack at McDonalds, and continued on into California with me driving.

Traveling with three cats has been easier than expected, once they realized the door to the crate was open, Chou came right out and after checking out the entire car, decided my lap was the best place to be. Maui came out and also decided my lap was the place to be (thankfully Scott was still driving). Once Minx came out, she decided the best spot for her was on the floor on the drivers side under Scott's legs. So far she has not gotten under the pedals, but we plan to discourage this as her main hang-out.

Going through the Siskyous our attention was drawn to a truck in the fast lane which notified us with useful hand gestures that the door on the Uhaul was open. Thankfully nothing had come out, we secured the padlock and carried on.

I got tired and needed to take out my contacts, so we took advantage of another Chevron to fill up again and switch drivers.

Also about this time we kicked all the cats into the back where Chou made himself comfy in the front of the crate, Maui huddled up in the back of the crate, and Minx had the whole kitty bed to herself.

Scott was good for another couple hours and then I took over so he could nap for about an hour.

The final switch was around 2:15am and at 2:34am we missed the exit to take Highway 20 towards Yuba City. Thankfully there is another exit not far down the road and our turnaround only took a couple of minutes.

We rolled into Yuba City at about 3:45 in the morning. We greeted Carrie and Dixie briefly, parked the car where it would be in the shade all morning, and opened the windows.

We enjoyed the best night of sleep either of us have had in several weeks, thanks to a feather bed on top of the air mattress.

To Me...

It's been my 30th birthday for about 45 minutes. My kitties are snuggled nearby and I made some progress packing tonight.

Suddenly I am stressing about my decision. Not questioning it, but still a bit scared.

It's all coming together.

As I start my next-to-last day at work, there's not a lot to do. I have farmed out all my files and am now at the point where I'm just helping out and answering the phone.

I have found a renter for my bedroom and now need to find a renter for the other available bedroom.

I have reserved the Uhaul trailer and marked out a space in the garage the size of the trailer, so I know what I have to work with.

Almost all of my clothes and personal items are packed up, and I have packed for the Dave Matthews outing as well.

I feel like I'm ready to go to Key West NOW and have to wait. It's a very surreal feeling.

Goodbye...

I only have three more working days with Clark County Title Company. I have really enjoyed my job here over the last 5+ years, and will miss my co-workers very much.

Props to Consuela, Goldfish, Teets, Jones Balones, Beyonce and Lee Ann. You have made every day at work a hilarious adventure, and kept me sane (as sane as I can be, anyway).

ouch

I have a horrible headache.

I'm Not Scared

Some people ask me why I'm going all the way to Key West. "Just for a guy?"... no, not JUST for a guy. Mainly I'm going because I can.

I have a great job here in Vancouver that I really enjoy. My boss has virtually guaranteed my job back and I've had another job offer for when/if I come back to Vancouver. I'm excited about the opportunity to check out the rest of the job field and broaden my skills.

I have a great house I just purchased in March. I am not going to sell it for a couple of years, and in the meantime will rent it out.

I love the northwest and have pretty much always lived here. I am really looking forward to living somewhere completely different and am not that concerned about heat and humidity. I like hot weather, and as long as I can sleep in AC (which my house does not have, but the apartment in Key West DOES), I'll be fine.

The cats are going with me, and technology will keep me in contact with friends and family in between visits.

AND the guy. He's fabulous and compassionate and intelligent and funny. And I'm in love with him.

So, I'm NOT scared to move to the opposite corner of the country, I'm excited!

Adventures Are Us.

The plan is being finalized...

I will be buying a hitch for my car and renting a U-Haul trailer to get the rest of my stuff to Florida.

I still need to get rid of the desk and the bed otherwise they will just be stored in the garage until I need them.

I feel like I am already on vacation. Work has become primarily doing cleanup so no one who comes along after me has to deal with it, and closing the few files that need to close by the end of the month.

Monday I have a BBQ to attend, Wednesday night is one of my last performances with Ella Mental, the 31st is my last working day. The next day the cats go to the vet to get their health certificates to travel, and I'll drive up to George, WA on Sunday the 3rd for my first Dave Matthews Band concert EVER!

The following day Rikki and I will head to Walla Walla/College Place where I will meet up with my mom and have farewells with all the family in the area. Mom and I will head back to Portland/Vancouver on the 5th, the 6th is my 30th birthday, 2am on the 9th Scott arrives at PDX, and that night is Comedy Sportz and Papa Haydn.

Traversing the countryside

Originally the plan was to drive to San Fransisco in my car and pick up the BMW being given to Scott by his parents, and drive both over to Florida.

Scott's parents said they would ship the BMW so Scott and I can drive in one car (mine) which sounds safer and more fun anyway, so Scott is now flying into Portland on September 9.

If I ship all my stuff in boxes to Key West, we'll probably spend a good $350 to send them.

I can buy a hitch for $119 and have it installed ($?) and rent a 4x8 Uhaul trailer ($203) to pull all the way.

I can sell my car here and rent an SUV or Minivan for about $800.

Anyone have advice?

Dental Adventures, Part II

Back to the Dentist today. Another crown.

I was shot twice, pried numerous times, drilled, scraped, lasered, and glued.

My face feels like I've been beat with a chain.

I'll be eating potato salad and guacamole, thank you.

Dr. Edwards is still the best dentist in town though...I'm not complaining or anything.

All Gone

I just woke up from a three-hour nap. The last 10 days have been fun and friend filled with guests from all over here for the Bob's World Message Board BBQ.

Dani, here in the states from New Zealand, picked up Jordan in Fresno and they made they're way to my house via Highway 1/101. They arrived on the Tuesday before last. Rikki, from Abbotsford BC, Canada arrived the next Tuesday, and Aaron and Kelsie arrived from St. Paul Alberta, Canada (by way of San Fransisco road trip) on Friday.

Friday's event was an enchilada dinner at my house, attended by the houseguests along with John, Tony, Roxy and Jessica. We enjoyed the enchiladas by the light of video clips of the Flight of the Conchords and Russell Peters. After I went to bed, Terry stopped by to greet everyone.

Saturday after church was the BBQ... John was back, with his son Jesse. Tony returned as the grill master and Roxy re-joined us along with buckets of potato salad. Terry and his sons Alex and Andrew joined us and took the initiative to set up the Ultimate Croquet set. David came all the way from Lake Oswego, Jim arrived from Bremerton, Bob and Chels (with Blake, Megan, Michelle and TJ in tow) from Portland and Milwaukie, Bobby McGhee finally flew into Portland at about 11pm.

We were treated to breakfast at Elmer's this morning by the guest of honor and then everyone continued on their way... Rikki drove back to Abbotsford, Jim went back to Bremerton, Dani and Jordan and headed south back to Fresno, Aaron and Kelsie left for Pasco on their way back to Alberta.

Now I have no excuse to start sorting and packing for my move to Florida. I have started four piles.

1. Take with me in the car to Key West
2. Ship to Key West
3. Pack up and store
4. Get rid of (sell or give away)

The Best $6 I've Ever Spent

I went to the Clark County Fair last night with my coworkers. I paid my $5 to park, $8 admission, and $25 for an unlimited ride bracelet (with which I rode 3 rides). I spent $6.50 on raspberry lemonade and french fries, and later $4 on a large coconut and mango shaved ice.

I had a great Fair experience, but the best expenditure of funds was the $6 I handed over for the "power jump". The attached pic is my fellow escrow officer Tamara as she is preparing to be flung into the air.

For a mere $6, you are hooked into a harness while standing on an inflated trampoline. Your harness is attached to bungee cords which are then tightened and you are pulled into the air.

One of the facilitators grabs your feet and pulls you down, stretching your bungees, and then releases you and you FLY! Awesome. Unbelievable. The most fun I've had in YEARS. I did back flips and screamed for joy.

If you get the chance to take part in antics such as this, spend the $6. It's worth it.

Stuff for Sale...

I need to get rid of a bunch of stuff... some will be given away, some I'd like to sell.

$50 - Corner desk, two parts, shelf top on desk bottom.
$10 - tall, narrow bookshelf, probably 6x1x1.
$300 - CA King bed and 2 sheet sets that fit it.

I'll add more as the list grows and changes.

I'll also be giving away some clothes and shoes... clothes 8-12 and shoes 9-10.

And the Countdown Begins.

37 days until departure for Key West, Florida.

An apartment/townhouse has been decided on and confirmed, including approval of the wild kingdom.

I am now starting the sorting and selling/giving away/packing and storing process, with more claimants for my stuff coming out of the woodwork daily.

Details go marching on and on...

My official last day of work for Clark County Title is currently scheduled to be August 31st. If I have managed to pack up my house by then, I will probably work the following week (excluding Labor Day) just do have a little extra money.

Scott is nailing down housing right now, and is buying a plane ticket to come out for my birthday, arriving in Portland on September 8th.

My birthday party is on the 9th and we will head out of town on the 10th.

Stops scheduled:

• Yuba City, CA to visit Walt, Dixie, Carrie & Grandpa Lysinger
• San Fransisco, CA to visit Gary & Carla Cumpston and pick up the other car
• Phoenix, AZ to see Dad, Heather, meet Makayla, and maybe see a few AZ Bob's World-ers.
• possible stops in Texas to see Frakes family and/or my highschool buddy JT.
• Little Rock, AR to enjoy a respite at the home of Melva Hicks, gracious mom of my good friend Kiri.
• ???? There's a crowd in the Carolinas that want to meet me... so that may be a detour.

AND... I already have a potential job starting to look like a good possibility!

If anyone is interested in stuff... I will be giving away and selling a bunch of stuff. Clothes, some furniture, etc.

My plants are pledged to my mom and Kirsten, and I'm giving all my yarn to Michelle A. and Christina.

Progress and Timelines...

Scott will be heading to Key West as early as the 11th of August. He has been researching aparments, condos and houses to rent in the area, the trick is finding a place that will accept a dog and three cats!

I am planning to work here until August 31st, but if I can manage to get everything packed up by then, I will work through to September 8th. We are hoping that Scott can fly into Portland on the 9th to be here for my birthday celebration and then we will leave on the 10th or 11th.

The plan is to drive together in my car to San Fransisco (stopping in Yuba City, CA) where we will pick up his car from his parents and head east. We'll stop in Phoenix to see my Dad and Heather and meet my baby sister Makayla. Then we'll continue the trek east across Texas and Louisiana, etc. We may be able to connect with Frakes family in Texas too... which would be great!

I have potentially two renters lined up for my house, which is what I need, so I'm not too nervous about that either.

Over the River and Through the Woods

To Florida we go...

I Decided. Yes. It's true. I am willing to move to Florida.

Here's the scenario for those who haven't heard about this yet...

My boyfriend Scott has been offered a very lucrative position for a company in Key West, Florida. He has worked for this company before in this location and enjoyed it very much.

After a lot of thought, planning and prayer I have decided to join him. I will be keeping the house I just bought with my roomate in March, and I have been guaranteed a job if/when I come back.

This is not a permanent move, it is 2-4 years. I will probably work full time until my personal debts are paid off and then my plan is to work part time and go back to school, which I've been wanting to do for a long time.

Am I throwing everything away for a guy? No. I'm not throwing ANYTHING away, I'm just not taking everything with me! If I had decided not to go to Key West, Scott would decline the position.

I will be able to travel to the west coast multiple times a year to visit family and friends, and if for any reason I hate living in Florida (Riiiiiiiiiight) we will move back.

Scott is now in the negotiating stages of the accepting process and then once he is out of the Marines (August 13), he will head down and find us a place to live. I won't be leaving until after my birthday.

Love you all... and when you're done visiting Jake and Kara in Hawaii, come visit me in the Florida Keys.

Moving across the county is a heavy decision. And I still haven't made it.

If I move, do I keep my house and rent it out or do I sell it and lose money?
If I move, do I put the majority of my stuff in storage or sell it or take it with me?
Do I move my cats?
Do I keep my car or sell it?
Do I get a job? Full time? Part time?

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!