A man with a wedding ring!

Remember when I met the man with no wedding ring for lunch? 

This weekend I bought that poor man a NEW wedding ring.

Yes, more than 27 years after Tom and I exchanged vows and I slipped this ring on his finger…

… I bought him this very lightweight, totally scratch resistant, very manly Titanium wedding ring.

Tom’s always liked the original wedding ring.  In fact, according to him, he likes it so much that he’s afraid he’ll scratch  it (riiiiight…), so historically he only wore it on “special occasions” like weddings and job interviews.  (Riiiiight.  Job interviews?  Yeah, that was my reaction too!)

Ultimately, the original ring was just too angular and was never comfortable on his finger and after a few hours or days he just ended up removing it. 

This went on for… oh, about 27 years or so.

Some times it’s bothered me more than other times, but I’m married to a phenomenally good-looking man and, although I’m not the jealous type, I know there are women who scope out men’s left hands and I don’t want anyone thinking that this gorgeous guy is anywhere close to available! :-)

We talked about this issue as one of our “areas of conflict” at the couples workshop that we attended in February and we decided then that we’d find Tom a comfortable ring that he wouldn’t be tempted to take off.  But life got busy and we just never followed through. 

Then this weekend, when I attended the workshop again as a TGRI employee I realized that I really should look for a ring for Tom, so on the way home I found this one…

  Nice, eh?

And the best part, he actually likes it!

I don’t want to jinx things here, but I think this ring just might live a real life away from that dang jewelry box and on my husband’s finger.

We should celebrate with a lunch date, don’tcha think?

Behind the scenes at The Gottman Relationship Institute’s “Art & Science of Love” Couples Workshop

Remember way back in February, when Tom and I attended the Gottman Relationship Institute’s Couples Workshop the weekend before I started working there?  It was an incredibly positive experience for us as a couple, giving us tools and vocabulary to help us communicate and work through conflict that we both wish we’d had long before this, our 27th year of marriage. 

Amazingly enough, we really haven’t experienced any real conflict since we took that workshop – largely, I’m sure, because of what we learned there and the real-world skills (and they really are skills) we took away from that experience.

This weekend I went back to the workshop, this time as an employee and (of course) without Tom.  Again, I was mesmerized by John and Julie Gottman’s wisdom, their humor, and their very practical advice.

Instead of being a participant at this workshop, though, I was there to work. Because the Gottman’s schedule is so busy, we often use breaks during workshops to catch up on important business – which we did this weekend as well.  Of course I can’t document any of that in photos, nor can I document the couples workshop (due to privacy concerns for the couples), but I can give you a fun little “backstage tour” of KIRO TV’s filming of a short documentary piece on the Gottmans that took place behind the scenes this weekend.  The final piece will air on August 17th at 10 PM and, judging from the footage they got today, it should be great stuff!

I couldn’t take any photos during the filming, of course, but I got a few shots between takes.

 

   

The interviewer is the articulate, intelligent, and adorable Angela Russell, news anchor at KIRO TV in Seattle.  She and I were able to spend some time together which quickly went from focusing on our lives as professionals to our lives as moms.  Women do that.  Give us 10 minutes and we connect.  Hell, give us 3 minutes and we connect! 

And speaking of connections, here’s one of my favorite new connections:

One of these just floated right by our house!

It looked just like this, but silly me – I didn’t grab my camera (so I borrowed a picture from Google Images).  Next time I’ll head outside the minute I hear that “burners firing” sound and I’ll catch the picture!

H8: The Mormon Proposition

I just finished watching The Mormon Proposition, which chronicles the Mormon’s huge financial contributions to and repugnant reactions against gay marriage.

Here’s what I don’t get: how can any group that preaches love be so blatantly hateful?  It’s truly as simple as that for me, and it makes no sense.  The reason they give over and over again is that if gays were allowed to marry, “there’d be no one left.”  No kidding!  A friend of mine from high school, a Hollywood producer who I strongly suspect is behind some of the slick Yes on 8 ads (and it sickens me to realize that), said that to me!

Seriously?  If the proposition didn’t pass, the fear was that gay people would go out and recruit straight people, and straight people would be easily recruited, until there’d be “no one left”?  That implies that I’m heterosexual because of some legal mandate and if that legal mandate were lifted, I’d instantly hightail my way to a gay relationship!

By extension, it implies that THEY would do the same!  Right?

Surely they must see the insanity behind that way of thinking?

I believe that the Mormon Church owes the gay community – especially their OWN gays (and there are plenty of them… though suicide steals far too many) – an apology, and I believe that Prop 8 should be repealed in California.  I know it’s perhaps naive and optimistic to believe that an institution full of hate like the Mormon Church could decide to embrace a community full of love like the gay community who want to marry, but can you imagine the impact it could have?  Can you imagine if they decided to teach love and acceptance instead of hate and bigotry?

I know quite a few Mormons who would welcome such a change, and who have told me as much.  (Yes, I do have Mormon friends…)  They don’t want to be perceived as hateful bigots – and as individuals, they are not hateful – but their church mandates their actions and threatens to ostracize them unless they give of their money and their time to furthering the church’s hateful philosophies.

Order The Mormon Proposition from NetFlix (or anywhere), watch it, and let me know what YOU think!

Aching to return

Gotta. Get. Back.

To my friends at Microsoft:

Please, please, please correct this:

Thank you.

July 6th: The first day this year that the temperature in Seattle hit 76 degrees!

And what happens?  Everyone comes out to play!

After riding 21 miles with Tom yesterday, I walked 3 miles around Green Lake with Elisabeth today. Last time I swam was a half-mile on Saturday.  So I’ve had at least a day of rest between legs of this upcoming Danskin triathlon, and I’m totally exhausted.  Can I really do all events back-to-back in one day a little over a month from now? 

Paddle boards…

…and paddle boats.

Yeah, just a tad crowded.  But hey, we’re Seattleites… we’re a friendly crowd!

We were just innocently walking around the lake and somehow we ended up at Ben & Jerry’s.  I am sooo confuuuused! ;-)

 

See that white bump?  That’s…

THE Mountain!  I just love it when “the Mountain is out.”

Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter – like in the 80’s.  I will be complaining.  79 is about the most I can handle.  (Yes, I DO intend to stay here…)

Wanna ride bikes?

Fortunately, Tom’s answer was “Yep!”

This is how far we rode today:

And this was our route (there and back):

And here are a few pictures I took along the way:

For photos I took on my previous ride (so didn’t include here), click here.

This is where the Sammamish River enters Lake Washington – right in an industrial area.

(If you were a bird riding on my shoulder, this is what you’d see.  We’d be chattering away the whole time, wouldn’t we?!)

 

If I won the lottery and lived in a house right on Lake Washington, I’d take hot tubs in that hot tub nightly!

 

You know that obnoxious Volkwagon commercial where people smack each other and say “Blue one!”  “Red one!”  Well, I was pretty much doing that with houses along the shores of Lake Washington that were right along the trail.  Only I wasn’t smacking anyone, and instead of naming colors, I was just plain stating my desire: “Want THAT one!  Like THAT one!”

Tom and I decided we should play the lottery once in a while.

After riding about 10 miles, we came to Matthews Beach Park – which is only a few miles from where I work!  Could I really ride my bike to work and back? Would my co-workers be willing to sit in the same room with me?

At Matthews Beach, some people in wet suits were practicing lake swims and I realized that I better get my butt in the water soon if I want to be prepared for this Danskin Triathlon next month.  (Gasp!  Oh my god – it’s next month!)  I love swimming and can swim forever… in a pool.  I have a feeling the cold temperatures of the lake and the distinct lack of a straight black line to follow is going to totally throw me!

Looking back from whence we came:

    

We rested for a few minutes at Matthews Beach Park and then headed back.  The skies blued up and the sun came out just as we headed back.

 

Yes, I continued to play the “What if we lived here?” game.

If we lived here, this guy would hang out on my deck all day.

Have I ever mentioned that I love, love, love living in Seattle?

 

Tom doesn’t love it quite as much as I do. He’s a Southern California boy and misses incessant sunshine and beach weather.  I’ll take Seattle over Southern California (where I went to school and lived for 10 years) OR Northern California (where I grew up) any day.  No offence to any of my California friends (or my California husband… but seriously – how could anyone not LOVE Seattle?)

This is the Kenmore Air “port.”  All seaplanes, all the time.  You can fly from the “top” (North end) of Lake Washington to the San Juan Islands any day of the week.  We really need to do that!

Here’s a seaplane coming in for a landing now!  (Unfortunately, I didn’t catch the descent to the water, only the landing on the water…)

Once we got back to the Sammamish River, we knew we were almost home.  I kind of wanted to ride further southward toward Marymoor Park, hoping that “The Mountain” was out.  But 21 miles was enough for one day.

I wish this park and this playground had been around when our kids were little.

So I’m no longer worried about the bike leg of the Danskin Triathlon next (gulp!) month.  In fact, I have a feeling that I might have found a hobby that will last beyond that day.