Monthly Archives: September 2006

The 1st Half

**Started 9/26/06

We are down here in Portland. The party will be starting in a few hours. So I figured I can try and start an entry. =)

We spent the week in Surrey, BC so we could visit Dieselnand his family. It is right outside of Vancouver. We haven’t seen them in a few years since their wedding.

***Restarted 9/28/06

Alright, let’s get back into it. =)

We spent some time with Diesel & Lisa in Vancouver and had a great time. The kids are growing like weeds and are as cute as hell.

We spent some time at Bear Creek Park. It is a gorgeous park and it was a beautiful day. Canadians seem to take a lot of pride in their parks and conservation, which is really cool. We spent several hours there taken pictures of it, even got a few with a bird on my hand, which was wild.

We left there Sunday and headed on down to Deception Pass Park, there at Whidbey Island. We didn’t realize that a town over was having a major biker rally. Holy cow, there was the roar of bikes every where but we got to see some really neat looking bikes. Unfortunately, we went to the wrong entrance of the park so we didn’t get to visit the area that we traditionally go to. It was beautiful just the same.

We took the ferry over to visit oue friends in Ports Townsand. We had a great little visit, exchange info we have about our online business connections & acquaintances. So that was fun. They were so nice and took us to the quaint little downtown they have for dinner and breakfast the next day. It is beautiful area and it very active in keeping the large box stores out to maintain the dignity and beauty of the area.

When we left there we took a very scenic drive down the peninsula, going by Olympic National Forest, doing a lot of stops along the way to take some pictures of the area. It was stunning. I felt right at home.

We have lucked out and the weather has been perfect….knock on wood. So we took a chance and stopped by the closes Mt. St. Helens visitors’ center. They have three of them, one 5miles in, second one 47miles in, and the third 60some miles in from I-5. The last time we were here a few years ago, that was the day it decided to become overcast and you could barely make out the mountain. But that Monday it was crystal clear and we got some great pictures of it.

When we got to Portland, we missed our turn and ended up in the heart of down town on the phone with our friend as he tries to get us where we need to go. Downtown was pretty with having a park right there in the middle of it.

We had a great time hanging with our friend Lincoln. He knows about 90% of the folks in Portland……….lol, it helps that he has been there for about 20yrs. We meet some really cool folks, hung out a lot at a local bar.
During the day Tuesday, we headed to some of the local spots and checked the area out. We were in the NE quadrant of the city and for us (after being in the Midwest so long), it remind me of how “free” an area is around a college. It is more of an alternative and free way of living and thinking. Portland is very big on their parks, conservation, supporting their artist & music community. The people are very friendly and seem to have a live and let live attitude. All which makes us consider that area for ourselves.

The party was on Tuesday night. There was about 60-80 people there. What I liked about it was that even though there were so many folks there they all seemed very respectful of Lincoln’s space. That was cool.

There was a guy there with a 12ft long albino Burma’s python and a scorpion. I got to hold the python! I’ve held them before, but it is so rare that I get the chance that I love it when I do. When we get time, I’ll post the pics. I did not hold the scorpion, there was no way. I don’t what species it was, but the handler said it would be the one you would want because its sting is no worst then a bee sting, unless you’re allergic to those.

Lincoln also arranged to have a fire eater there. She put on a really cool show and his ceiling has the scorched mark to prove it………….lol She got the crowd involved, having them help her put out little fires and putting members in the crowd on fire. Unfortunately, we didn’t want to miss any of it and didn’t grab the cameras. =( If any of our friends post the pics, I’ll see if they will let me post them here.

The majority of the party started to clear out by 3am. We crashed between 4:30-5am……I’m use to being in bed by midnight, so it was a stretch. The core members that were left didn’t crash until about 6am.

We didn’t get much sleep we had a 9am breakfast date with our friend. They took us to the Kennedy School. It use to be an abandoned school house that was redone into a couple of different themed restaurants and bars. The breakfast was great, the Kennedy School was amazing and the company was excellent. We had a great visit and Jeff was so kind and great on giving a small tour of his part of town. Thanks Jeff !! It was greatly appreciated.

I really don’t know how to describe it, but it is beautiful. Portland is a city, but really doesn’t have the “city” feel in the majority of the areas. It kind of reminds me of one big spread out town on the feel of it.

After breakfast, I was going to lay down for a nap……..after 2hrs of sleep, I really needed it. But we were so torn between our need for sleep and wanting to do some sightseeing; because once we crashed we would waste the day.

***Closing for now, we have entered the very congested City of Seattle.

News from out West

Morning from Everett Washington, that is just north of Seattle for those with out a map. We have had a really good week and really wish we did not have to go home and “back to reality” but… you know…. Ugh.

Friday we started off rocky somewhat, we use to use an off airport parking lot in Indy, which never took us more then 10 mins from parking to airline, so when I found one in Orlando I got excited thinking we would be as lucky and find another professional one like we did in Indy.

Wrong. It took 45 mins from parking the car to getting to the gate and that was after another guy and I loaded/unloaded the bags since the driver was worthless and way too slow, so needless to say we will not be using this one again.

So we go to the Delta gate and see NO LINE! What a first that is, when we try to check in we find out the Delta flight we bought was actually being flown by Alaska Airlines so we needed to go to AA and of course that is the farthest point in the airport from were we was standing…. Grrrrrr….. we got there, hot, mad, sweaty and tired, after a 10 minute wait we find out one bag is 2 lbs over which is the bag we had 2 bottles of Champaign we was brining to friends as a house warming gift… more on this later.

So we have to move things from 1 bag to the other and finally get it good weight wise and then head to the gate where we find out its going to be 30 mins late…. Grrrrr….. Nothing else really for the 6 long ass hours flying, we watched Xmen 3 which was pretty damn good but not as good as X2.

After we get to Seattle we get our car (Buick Rendezvous which looks like an Aztec which is what we got the last time we came to Seattle, both cars I never seen or heard of until we go to Seattle) and drove to Vancouver BC and visited some friends for 2 days. We did some site seeing and bar hopping and had a nice cookout, nothing too exciting.

Sunday we drove to Whidbey Island WA and took a ferry to Port Townsend to site see some more, there was a large biker rally in the area so we saw 1000’s and 1000’s of bikers which was neat, but annoying since it was constant noise. We had a tradition of going to a park near where I use to live, but we thought it was in a different area and had drove past it, and when we realized we passed it we already spent too much time and had to go, so tradition has been broken.

We then arrive at Trixie’s and Tucker’s and had a nice tour of their town and had a good dinner and conversation all night and we left the next morning for Portland.

Monday we stopped at Mount St Helens and got some really great pics of it since it was crystal clear out, the last time we was there it was so cloudy we did not see the mountain and just took our time to get to Portland which was a nice scenic drive and we stopped a few different times for pics and just to look.

We arrive in Portland around 4PM and thanks to crappy google directions take a right when we needed to take a left and after a long tour down town Portland we finally found the bridge we needed and get to our friends place.

Portland is a very unique city and has the friendliest people I have ever seen anywhere. It has a very “live and let live” attitude about it which appeals to us in so many ways. Nordy took us out to dinner at a friend’s Mexican restaurant and we tried new food we never heard of and it was by far the best Mexican we have ever had, just an all around kick ass dinner.

Pauline and I then went to Washington Park and saw the Japanese garden and Rose garden as well as a Vietnam Memorial park and just did some general site seeing. We wanted to go to the zoo, but we were dead tired, and it was getting to the point of either we leave now, or deal with rush hour in a city we hardly know.

We headed back to Nordy’s where we all 3 decide to take a “nap” which ended up to be 3 hours long. We wake up around 7pm, Nordy cooked us a nice chicken dinner and then we went to the strip club again.
Thursday we left after breakfast and drove back to Seattle getting here later then we wanted, we sat around and talked with friends and then go out to a nice dinner and site seeing a park or two.

Friday we head to down town Seattle and see the Fish Market and saw some crabs and fish thrown, and then walked a few blocks of the market area and then went to the Seattle Aquarium and Space Needle. We took well over 600+ pictures since it was just perfect day weather wise, in fact this whole trip has been perfect weather wise, not a bit of rain.

Tonight is just a chill out, we went to dinner and came back, every one is down stairs watching tv and I am ready to crash. Tomorrow is Purdue/Notre Dame which I hope turns out better then I am expecting, and thankfully it is on national tv so we get to watch it live.

‘BOILER UP!

Tomorrow night we are going over to FarL’s house for a BBQ and just a chill out with some friends and Sunday we head back to down town Seattle to our hotel where we plan to get a shoot in and then walk down town Seattle for a bit and get a feel for the city. We did a lot of site seeing today, so there is no feeling of “rush” Sunday, we can just walk a leisurely pace and do whatever.

We have a shit load of pics to go over and I hope to have then ready to post by next weekend, we are suppose to get back into Orlando 11:45 PM Monday night, but who knows how well that will go.

More later…

Current Mood: tired

Trip Update

**Finally got time and found connection

**Written in flight.

It has been a crazy the last 10 days.

My boss had her vacation last week, we are short at work and then I spend a day in a company meeting in my boss’ place. So, of course, we fell behind and everyone was stressed. We did end better then we had started and in fact we started this week much better then the last one, so that was cool.

At the company meeting I had turned off my phone for it, well when I went to turn it back on it stated “requires service, call 1-866……..” and none of my buttons worked. Took forever to figure it out, but a few weeks ago I had dropped my phone while opening it to make a call. Well the hinge didn’t appreciate that and partly snapped out of place. My phone continued to work and I figured we would wait until we got back from vacation before having it replaced. Wrong, didn’t happen. Once I shut it down, it was all over.

My meeting was 90 miles from home, so I like to let Harold know when I’m on my way home. I had gotten a hold of sprint and fact testing things out the lady was kind enough to call him and let him know that I was on my way. That was really cool.

When I got home, I had to deal with getting a new phone before we left, I even tried to get the express and have it delivered by Monday. Some one screwed that up and we didn’t get it until Tues. My old phone still received power so we hoped that they would still be able to transfer my numbers and stuff. WRONG….gggrrr… I lost everything. Of course, we didn’t think about downloading Harold’s info, which would’ve been too easy…….doh

Right now I have an old phone bill with all the numbers I’ve called in my back pack, copy a bunch off ofHarold’s phone, so when I get time I’ll try re program my phone. I’m so not looking forward to it.

I’ve been going nuts trying to make sure we had everything packed and with the 50# limit. Hopefully I didn’t miss anything. Even though one baggage’s was 2# over….gggrrr We had to bust the zip tie off and move stuff from that one bag to another, annoying.

I did finally get a hold of Sandi and catch up with her while packing. She didn’t know that my phone had died. Cassie then hit me up for her school fundraiser………….lol At least they are catching up with the times, it is all online. I told her that her timing is horrible due to us traveling. But I’ll try to get something from her so I did my godmother part. =)

I was able to answer most of my private messages, responses on pichunter, and do my football picks last night. I really should respond to my emails, and then they will be saved into the outgoing box. As soon as I get internet they can take off. Just not sure how much “privacy” I have on the plane with out anyone looking over my shoulder.

Today we will be driving to Vancouver to visit Diesel and his family and few of our friends. I’m so looking forward to the mountains. =)

I had a few more thoughts to write out the other day, but don’t remember what they are…..lol….no surprise there. Hopefully we will have internet connection tonight so I can get this posted. Keep your fingers cross.

**Written during drive to Vancouver from Seattle.

Took us forever to get our luggage, but the Seattle airport always seems good for that.

We just hit Mount Vernon; still have about 2 hours before we get to the hotel.

I’ve been watching the scenery go by. It is great to see hills, thick forests with towering pine trees, it is 62 degrees and we are encountering some fall colors. It is pretty.

Until we started to consider moving from Indiana to Florida, I had to think if I could handle the vegetation in that state. I love seeing and experiencing different areas, but I’ve always had some thick woods nearby. After being in Florida for two years, I’ve finally figured out why I have a draw to actual wooded areas.

I had spent the first 7yrs of my life in Germany. My dad was a sgt./ssgt, it was the 70s with the oil embargo, and he had a wife and 2 kids to support. We couldn’t afford to do a lot of the things that families could do.

We lived off post with a heavily wooded area behind the house, so for family time and something to do we would go walking through the trails down the nearby village. We would collect pine cones and just enjoy ourselves. Hell, until I was much older I thought pine cones were a german thing since I had never seen them anywhere else……..lol

The room I shared with my sister had a window in the ceiling where you could see the pine trees towering over the house. Use the scare the hell out of me when it was storming at night……lol

But over time it had grown on me, having wooded areas is what me feel at home. Maybe that is why I really want us to move to this part of the country. Food for thought.

Wierd Blog

There is a post below this with some big pics.  It made my blog go funky.  =)

Sometimes I surprise even myself with my brilliance…

Today I get ready to go outside to mow the yard when I walk past the sliding glass door to the patio I notice my arch nemesis staring at me. But watching me wasn’t good enough for her, she had to get right up to my door less the 6” from me and as a slap in the face, she touched my door and pressed her nose on my glass….NOW IT’S PERSONAL!I went into the office looking for anything I could to defend myself from her murderous rampage, when it dawned on me, get the camera and get evidence. So I grab my trusty Nikon and run out side and block the door from her escape, she jumped all around KNOWING I had her where I wanted her…AH HA! ADVANTAGE ME!

Then I noticed a huge hole in my offense, one that if she exploited would spell certain doom for me… yes, in my haste for vengeance I over compensated and left myself wide open for the killing blow…

I left the door to the house wide open, and she was closer to it then I was….

F***!

I quickly tried to out flank her on the left side and retreat back into my safe house, but she out flanked me on my right and got away stopping only to laugh and give me the finger as she jumped over the fence and made her escape…. Ok… she won this day, but I swear, my vengeance will be fulfilled…

The first two pics are of the frog that lives in my patio, I have removed him many times only to find him again so I guess he wants to live there more then I want him out. When we moved here the cactus was just starting the tall part at the 2nd “knob” and in just over a year and a few months has grown to over 7’ tall. Ive seen him swimming in the pool many times, I would think the chemicals in there would kill him, but obviously not.

Pic 1

Pic 2

And here SHE is…. I had to lighten the first pic Aup so you could see her, I am still learning how to be faster with the adjustments to take better pics, and she wasn’t exactly standing still for me to “take care of her”…

Pic 3

LOOK AT THE MURDER IN HER EYES!

Pic 4

  

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