Morning camera dump

Kat (or anyone!), these look so washed out!  What am I doing wrong?  The camera was either on auto or on landscape. 

Sigh.

  

Y’ocean Shores

Yo from Ocean Shores, Washington!  We arrived just as the sun was setting so I threw down my bags and grabbed Kat’s camera, hoping it would point-n-shoot as well as it composes. 

Obviously I’m doing something wrong, but nonetheless, can you tell what an amazing view we have?!

That’s the view from our balcony!

Because we nabbed what I figured was the last accommodation in Ocean Shores for the weekend, I expected the place to bit a bit of a dive – especially at only $115 a night, which is significantly less than most hotel rooms here.

But we are very pleasantly pleased with this condo!  It’s clean, nicely decorated, and it has a great living room with a fireplace and an unobstructed view of the dunes and the ocean. 

(The sound track is ocean waves; we will definitely sleep well tonight!)

It has a full kitchen…

And a cute little eating “nook” in the hallway!

Add a bedroom and a full bath (with a yummy bathtub), and it’s definitely much more condo than hotel… thank goodness!

Tomorrow morning I’ll get up early (most likely before Tom), make some coffee and head down to the beach to take some pictures – if I can figure out Kat’s Nikon D-40!  I think the safest thing will be just to keep it on “auto” for most of the photos and do some experimenting as well, once I feel more comfortable.

Yup, a weekend getaway is most certainly what I needed!  I can feel the stress melt away already…

And the winner is…

Ocean Shores, Washington. 

Why?  Because it’s the only place where we could find a place to stay at this late notice! 

I swear, the entire coastline of Washington and Oregon, as well as local mountain lake resorts, are booked solid!

We managed to find an ocean front condo (well, dune-front… that should be fun for my ankle!) that will serve as our home base.  This is the photo of our unit that I found on the internet:

And this is apparently what’s right outside our door:

My ankle hurts just looking at those dunes!

The plan is to take a side trip northward up the Washington coast and to the Olympic Rain forest tomorrow…

… and southward, toward the Oregon coast on Sunday.

I am planning on some MAJOR rejuvenation!

As soon as I finish a few status reports, participate in a conference call, and wrap up loose ends at work, we are outta here!  I’m not sure if we’ll have Internet access, but if we do, you know I’ll post daily.  If we don’t, you know I’ll post on Sunday evening.

We need a weekend away. Help us decide where to go!

It’s been an insane week.  No, actually, it’s been an insane month.

Make that six months. 

A year.

Hell, it’s been an insane 18 months!

Unfortunately, when I injured my foot in January I was forced to use up all my vacation and sick time and once those were used up I was put on an hourly schedule for about 6 weeks (with very little work), so my vacation accrual rate slowed waaay down.  Long story short, I not only have no vacation time, I’m somehow in the hole by about 70 hours!

That said, I absolutely NEED to get away.  I need to not work, to totally relax, to read a little and write a little (and maybe even shake this on-going case of writer’s block), and to spend some time with my (incredibly patient and supportive) husband who somehow puts up with me working literally morning, noon, and night.

A very intense project wrapped up today and I expect that more insanity is on the way, so there’s a window of exactly… well – two full days (Saturday and Sunday) for us to blow this joint and get away.

Can you help us think of a place to go? 

Here are the requirements:

It must be within 4 or so hours of Seattle by car.

It must be romantic.

There must be water.

There must be trees.

There must be fun activities.

It can’t be too expensive.

There must be serenity.

If Tom had his way, he’d probably prefer to go here:

But he knows that I’m looking for something more like this:

Is there any hope of a happy compromise?  (Fortunately, he’s happy to go along with whatever I want on this one.)

Ideas?  Links?  Suggestions?

The Mountain is out!*

*Pacific Northwestern lingo for “you can see Mt. Rainier from just about any point in Washington today!”  This photo was taken from atop a little hill near Willows and 124th in Kirkland. 

The weather is glorious and I’m wrapping up a big ol’ project today.  The combination of those two make for a great day!

Training day #1 for the Seattle Danskin mini-triathlon 2010

About two days before I broke my ankle last January, my sister-in-law Marcy called from Idaho and asked if I was interested in joining her in August for the Seattle Danskin mini-triathlon. It’d be an attainable goal, she promised, since it was only a half-mile swim, a 12-mile bike ride (all flat!), and a 3-mile run (or walk). I told her I’d definitely think about it, knowing that it’d be a great goal and something I really should do to finally get off my butt and move.

Then I broke my ankle and couldn’t walk again until March. I’m still limping, but I am, indeed, walking (relatively) long distances! (Kat made me walk a mile with her yesterday and, I admit, it felt great… everywhere but my ankle.)

Marcy continued to train for the mini-triathlon and on Sunday she came to Seattle from Idaho to “compete” – which is probably the wrong word because the emphasis is much more on fun and estro-friendship than on competition.

This is the first sight I had of Marcy in over a year:

I realized how much I’d missed her the minute I saw her!

While we waited for Marcy to come around the corner toward the finish line, we also saw these people (and, er, non-people!):

Truly inspiring stuff!

We decided that next year, we’ll make this a mother/daughter event. Marcy and her daughter Tina, along with some of their mother/daughter friends, will join Elisabeth, Kat, and me.

Anyone want to join us? (Daughter not required…) I will need big-time support to get off my butt and spend 30 minutes a day swimming (easy – love it), biking (not hard – like it) or running/walking (next-to-impossible – hate it!). We could train in our own neighborhoods most of the time and then meet, maybe monthly, for a group swim and/or bike and/or run… and some shopping, or spa-ing, or eating!

Anyone? Anyone? Lynn? Tonya? Margaret? Susan? Anyone??

My new toy

After weeks of drooling over Peter’s new iPod Touch and then enduring the agony of watching Kat buy one too, I knew that in order to protect my reputation as Geek Queen of the family, I had no choice to go out and get an iPod Touch of my own.

So today I did exactly that!

Yes, I am, in fact, in love. It was love at first sight and it promises to be a torrid love affair!

I immediately downloaded my e-mail, my contacts, my calendar, my music, and a bunch of apps – including, of course, Facebook.

I also downloaded Urban Spoon so we can easily find local restaurants that serve exactly the type of food we’re craving…

… and I downloaded Bump (invented by Elisabeth’s friend!), which allows me to just bump my iTouch to someone else’s in order to to “beam” a contact to them…

…and Convertbot, which converts just about any unit to any other unit.

But my favorite app (so far, anyway) is iGlow Stick, which turns my iTouch into a glowstick, but only after I “break” the stick and shake my iTouch! It’s incredibly inventive (and useful, too)!

You’ll surely be hearing more from me about my beloved iTouch! But maybe I need to hear more from YOU! What apps do YOU recommend?

In which Käthe Kruse gets a package in the mail

Käthe awoke from a deep slumber this afternoon when a package arrived with her name on it.

No really, it’s true!

The package was from my aunt Ulli who recently visited us, and who has a Käthe Kruse doll herself that she was given for Christmas when she was a little girl of six, in Chemnitz, Germany.

Käthe was beside herself with excitement and proceeded to rip into the package.

“Slow down there, young lady!” I suggested. “Your present isn’t going anywhere!” But there was no stopping her. Käthe knew that any package from Ulli would surely contain…

…yes! A quilt! Käthe’s very own quilt, handmade by Aunt Ulli! Before we knew it, Käthe had wrapped herself in the beautiful quilt made just for her.

“Can you see me now?”

“Hey, there’s something written on this inside! Can you please read this to me?” (Such good German manners.)

“It’s made just for ME!” Käthe exclaimed excitedly. “Thank you, Ulli!” She repeated it over and over again.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

And then, Käthe spent the afternoon playing with her beautiful new quilt.

Of course the first thing she did was make a fort. (Kid plus blanket always equals fort!)

And then there was some Hide-and-Seek…

And some hanging out with friends…

And then Käthe insisted on introducing her new Ulli quilt to our Ulli quilt. It was a touching moment of deep quiltness.

Quilt love permeated the household all afternoon…

…until Käthe got sleepy and asked, “If I sit with my new quilt at the piano, will someone play me a lullaby?”

And before we knew it, Käthe was wrapped cozily in her beautiful new Ulli quilt…

…and fell fast asleep. And if no one’s woken her…

…that’s where she is still, sleeping soundly after the most exciting day she’s had in a very long time.