Over the Hills We Go...

Today I took a nice little day trip over Steven's Pass (elevation 4,000 ft) on Highway 2 to Leavenworth, WA. It's a cozy little tourist town, and very fun to visit. My friend had something to pick up from someone she knew there, so she made a day of it, and invited me along!

It was glorious driving through the Cascades... dark green firs and pines lined with reds and yellows of other trees mixed among them. I was able to gawk at the scenery the whole way, because my friend drove us. It took us just about two hours to get there. Leavenworth is a "Bavarian" themed town. Even McDonald's looks classy! It's a town ordinance that all the buildings be themed to fit. After meeting her friend, we had salad and bratwurst with kraut at a great little place called the "Soup Cellar" for lunch. And after emerging from the cellar, we took a horse & carriage ride through the town on the spur of the moment. Very nice!

We poked around in quite a few little shops... I found a really neat knight figurine, and at a sidewalk art stand, I picked up a beautiful landscape photo of the region in brilliant fall color. We then visited the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum and store... with most pieces direct from Germany! They had things other than nutcrackers - this reminded me of Linda: ---------------- This of Mike:












...and this of Rodney (don't worry Rodney, it's just because of the types of movies you like). LOL!


They didn't let you take pictures in the museum itself, but I wish I could have! It had 5,000 different nutcrackers from all over the world... ranging from fancy metal ones from 1600's Europe, to Spiderman. There was a whole set of "A Christmas Carol" nutcrackers... I especially liked the Ghost of Christmas Present. This is besides the many, many different "Nutcracker" nutcrackers... in fact, when you walked in the door, there was a 6 foot tall Mouse King nutcracker. It's impossible to recall them all... there were American Civil War nutcrackers (from Europe), Star Wars nutcrackers, nutcrackers from Austria, Russia, the US, Ireland, England, France and others. They even had carved walnuts. This place was incredible!

After our tour of nutcrackers, Becky and I went hiking... or more appropriately, we went searching for the trail. The website didn't warn us that the road to the trail-head was washed out 3 miles from the start of the trail. So we parked the car and then went a mile on this little roundabout walking trail that ended up back on the road on the other side of the washout. And then we kept going on the road for about 2 miles. Becky spotted a deer right near us once! And on our way back a few minutes later, we saw it again, and I got within 10 yds! By this time it was about 7 pm, and our light was fading fast. We were in the dark for the last little side trail, and I was relieved to find that there weren't any cougars or bears running around those parts. Lions, Tigers and Bears... oh, my! So I'm making a habit about going about in strange places in the dark... this is not good.


We decided to have a bit of ice cream before leaving Leavenworth, so we stopped in for some gelato. I was bold, and had strawberry. :)

The trip back was uneventful, besides the occasional slow truck or van. I was falling asleep by the time we got to Monroe, which is just when you get back to civilization. It was neat to see all those stars on the way, though. When we were leaving the trail-head at 7:30, when it was just past dusk, the only thing I could see at first was Jupiter... and a little more than half the moon.

Jp

And the Scores Are In

My recruiter's boss drove me to and from MEPS yesterday after work, and when I was taking it, I felt like I was bombing at least a third of it. ET1 Johnson told me the national average score on the ASVAB is 48% out of a 99% possible percentile. That goes for people from High School and College. The test is in ten parts, covering English, math, paragraph comprehension, mechanical understanding, electrical understanding, among a few other topics. I took a little over two hours to complete it, with the maximum they allow being three hours. Only a few other people were taking it at the same time and they mostly breezed through it... not hardly enough time to read the questions!

I came home with a sizable headache from staring at a screen too long. My score: 94%.

My preliminary qualification: Any job I want. Wheeee!

I was starving by the time we were driving back... Once I got home, Mom and I went out to eat (our favorite Mexican place) and then we watched an episode of Foyle's War... into Monk, which we forgot about because Foyle was so good. :) Turned on Monk at 9:20, and to tell you the truth, I wasn't very impressed and I was a little creeped out at the same time (for various reasons).

As for today, I have straightened out my papers in my room and in my file folders, played a couple card games with Meg, read in my BJ's manual, and have done pretty much nothing else.

Jp

Somewhere, Over the Rainbow...

I forgot to mention Wednesday evening with everything that just happened this morning! Talk about a wonderful time! Meg even came home in time to ride with us to the theater.

They had a special series of trivia playing before everything got started, like what was used to create the funnel of the twister: A. a rubber hose, B. a giant muslin stocking, C. footage from a real tornado... and one other thing... We were in there long enough to see the whole rotation.

Robert Osborne, from TCM, was our host. It was nice to see a "familiar face" on the big screen! And Angela Landsbury narrated the short intro film on the making of it. I was already liking this a lot. And then the film itself. I can't begin to explain how nice it was to see something from the '30's as if it was the '30's. I was simply transported by the whole event. They said they adjusted the picture to fit the original size it was released in, so there were blank sides to the edges of the screen. The theater was pretty crowded, but we were able to grab seats in the center of the fourth row for our party of 7.

And now I'm still singing about bluebirds flying someplace.

Jp

Up and Down

Yesterday went pretty swiftly, really. Before I knew it, it was time to leave. I listened to the President's speech (which was impressive - but I don't know if I really believe him about staying out of war...), the French premiere's speech and the last couple innings of the baseball game. I was shocked how fast they changed sides during an inning!

Even though I ate dinner pretty quickly, it was already dusk when I went out for a bike ride. I biked 3 miles south on the Sammamish River Trail with the sunlight fading fast over the western ridge. The moon was nearly nearly half-full to my right, close and big; and Jupiter was right in front of me, already bright in the twilight. I had a flashlight with me in case I needed it on the way back, but I did fine without it. It took me a half-hour round-trip, and by the time I got back to my car (at 8 o'clock) it was pretty darned dark. It was a refreshing ride. When I got home, Mom and I talked for a long while, partly because we were the only ones home. And it was very nice.

This morning... I woke up pretty early, oddly enough. I had a recurring dream about being in a class and completely forgetting assignments. I suppose I'm excited for the ASVAB (armed services vocational aptitude battery), which is, again, pretty odd.

But right when I was getting ready to head out the door from work, Zac called. He was on his way to his new station in "the fleet" in Arizona. Mom said he was pretty shaken up, as he had just found out that one of his buddies from Boy Scouts, who would come over for playing computer games and such and who was newly married, was just killed by an IED in Afghanistan... I just told Dad a minute ago. The casualties aren't just numbers anymore.

So, right after work, I'm going to go take that test. And then... I don't know.

Jp

Seventy Years Ago, Yesterday

To avoid losing my mind at work (since I had a pile of nearly a hundred documents to scan, rename, rotate and file), I listened to more than 3 hours of an entire day's broadcasting from September 21, 1939, from a radio station in Washington DC, that Mike sent me (in honor of the 70 yr. anniversary of Oz tomorrow). I learned lots of things: the song "Mama's Little Baby Loves Shortnin' Bread" is extremely racist; there was a boat race on the Potomac 70 years ago today and one of the contestant's names was 'Betty'; the French and Germans started mobilizing and skirmishing around this time that year; the movie "The Women" also was released today, 70 years ago, and there was a nightgown used in it that cost $250; I get tired of Soap Operas *really* quickly; radio stations used to say if their music was "recorded" or not. The newscasts also mentioned that the French Air Force was doing better than the Luftwaffe and that people in Checkoslovokia were revolting "so early in the war!"... These are just a few things that stuck out, and there are 15 hours to go still. I was so happy to hear "Over the Rainbow" as if it was on the radio... it was just so swell. Can't wait for Amos N' Andy and Roosevelt's speech... don't touch that dial!

Oh, yeah... and today is the first day of Fall! And it was 84 degrees! It was freezing cold (feeling) in the morning though... perfectly clear skies, gorgeous sunrise over the valley with the thick fog absolutely blazing gold... The cars crossing the valley looked like they were driving into paradise (but really it was only into Redmond), and I saw a flock of geese fly out of sight into the denseness of it. How I wished I was equipped with a camera and a whole morning off of work.

Tonight Mom prepared a really great recipe from a clipping of some kind... it was a hearty, beer flavored, pork and veggie stew... and it was incredible! After dinner Mom and I did some more reading and praying together. We're still in Romans... and Mom is just wonderful to read it with; she loves it so much. Even though she's been a faithful Christian since her college days, she said it was "good to be reminded" of the basic doctrines found there. After this we stuck in "I Love You Again" with Powell and Loy (1940), and I laughed quite hard (Mom really loved it too)! Oh, and then it was time for math with Dad, and even though he was very patient, I got really mad at myself for not understanding how to solve a couple of the problems. Stupid, stupid math! I always want to take shortcuts. And now it's late and time for bed!!!!! boo.

Jp

Notes from Two Days

Sunday was gloriously relaxing! In the morning I added pictures to Facebook and later I read in my Bluejacket's Manuel for 3 or 4 chapters. I suppose it would be utterly dry reading if I wasn't so excited about joining. I admit though, the chapter about uniforms did go by a little slowly.

In the late afternoon I headed over to my friend's house in Newcastle (by Bellevue) where we went out to eat at a nice little Mexican place within walking distance of her apartment. I really enjoyed our conversation then and after the movie we watched, which, unlike the night before, was a wonderful romantic story made last year called "No Reservations". I remembered being interested in it when I saw a preview in the theater.

Monday: Eeeeeuuuu. Particularly hard morning because of getting frustrated with lots of little things. UCR's, re-scanning data, releasing a never-ending stream of documents. After lunch (during which it is wonderful to leave for an hour), most of the work was focused on programs and reviewing manufacturing orders... I don't know if that sounds much better.

Monday evening, it was only Dad and I for dinner, so we ate out on the deck and played Backgammon before he had to rush off to something. My sister soon came home, and we fit in a game of Phase 10 before you-know-who came over. We actually went to pick him up at the bus-stop and saw a breath-taking sunset as we did, because of our clear skies. This one was brilliant orange-gold all across the western horizon and I even saw a sliver of the moon against the dark blue to the east. When Dad got home, we worked on basic math for a while, so I could remember the rules of long division, percents, decimals, fractions, and everything relating. It was remembering 10 years of school in about 10 minutes. :) I was surprised how much I had forgotten with not practicing it for so long. This of course is for the ASVAB test this Friday, after which, I will most likely forget it all again... :(

Jp

An Annotation

I had started that last post during chat, (heh), and got distracted.

Jp

As For Today

I had a bit of a struggle sleeping in today, because of my dreams and because I went to bed so early. But the latter was actually pleasant! It was pretty cloudy in the morning with a light, steady rain falling. I felt satisfaction at not having to be at the football game, which I found out later on, would have been pretty darn fun, in it's own right.

But today I decided to help Habitat for Humanity with a promotion they had going on: their first ever "build-a-thon", where they had three sites building the same weekend. I picked the closest one, in Issaquah (east of Bellevue). The forms for the foundation were setting on the site when we got there. They fed us a boxed sandwich lunch, and I was pleased to meet some very nice people from Americorps who were leading all the jobs at the site. I was surprised that we were only going to be doing site "prep" work... such as spreading hay to prevent erosion and wrapping a screen around the chain-link to make it look better (the site was right across the street from occupied homes). I got on the team of people that were filling sand bags. It was pretty tough work, compared to what I'm used to, but it was fun.

When I got back home around 4:45, I learned that the Huskies had knocked off 3rd-ranked USC! What?!!!! Yeah, I was pretty surprised and very pleased. Since I was pretty hungry from the workout I'd had, and The Olive Garden was doing those "bottomless pasta" deals... I took myself out, and although they were crowded out the door with people waiting, I got a seat at the bar right away. Had two of their new sauces on fettuccine: a marinara with portobello mushrooms, and an alfredo with spinach. Very good, indeed.

Durrrring chat, we watched an episode of WENN, an episode of Monk, and much later, a rather badly done movie that was supposed to be an amazing love story, that fell smack on its face. No real character development coupled with atrocious history-telling. Why on earth did so many people like this? Oh well. To each, his own.

Jp

Just Another Week

Going back to work on Monday was a real drag. It's not too surprising as the weather had changed to dull overcast and there I was having to get a ride to Building 93 for those ridiculous electronics samples that we had thought we'd never get into again. So they were stored in the dirtiest, darkest, dankest little corner of the warehouse that could have been found. Since this was the fourth time this year we had to do this, and the second in two weeks, I thought it profitable to bring them back to my building. Funny thing, on Tuesday, the next day, I needed to get into them again. I was impatient to put a photo album together from Sunday, so I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning finishing it, and that affected me adversely for the rest of the week.

Now this next bit may be a little shocking to some, so be warned (it's not my fault).

Although Meg and Jason have only been "a couple" or whatever they call themselves, for just over a month, they've already decided to get married next year. Just to set minds slightly at ease, they have known each other for over ten years. The odd part is that they are not "officially" engaged yet, because of getting a ring, but they have set a date... the first weekend of August, 2010... oh, dear, are they silly! So I have agreed to be the photographer for this event, and for my "pay" and as part of Christmas, Mom and Dad got me a DSLR camera for doing so. So the news for Tuesday this week, is that it came in the mail! :) That was a complicated way to talk about a package arriving!

Even for all this, I've been pretty un-motivated to do anything this week. All the days pretty much felt alike, except for Wednesday evening, when I read with Mom, took a nap and then talked with Mike. Thursday was dull, but I decided to start reading my Bluejacket's Manuel again, and I'm getting more motivated as I go.

Friday was better after work. I relaxed, talked with Mom and busied myself by taking pictures in my room, which I'm planning to put together in an album for you to see. I also planned dinner: marinated & grilled chicken tenderloins with grilled mushrooms, asparagus, broccoli & cheese and buttered bread. That was nice! And I also brought home some strawberry ice cream to enjoy during Monk.
My impression of Monk: Eh.

Last night I went to bed early because I was still quite tired. I dreamed all night about my girlfriends from Jr. High and Highschool up to my senior year in college (they suddenly stopped the friendship short that year). I dreamed of them becuase the younger one of the two is getting married today in southern California... and my dream was really lovely. Her older sister and I were having a grand time hanging out together, although we both remembered what had happened. If only this was real.

This morning it's rainy and cool out, although it's been sunny for most of the week. And our neighbor just painted their house yesterday...

Jp

A Day in Paradise

...Here is a Facebook album of the trip...
created 9/15/09 in the early AM... yawn.

Wanted to do something with today. Yesterday (Saturday), I played cards with my sister, watched the Husky Game on TV, got take-out Chinese for lunch, and updated my book lists before chat, during which I watched Cyrano de Bergerac. A nice, slow, sit-down sort of day.

Unlike today! I had thought on Friday that I'd like to go see Hurricane Ridge on the Olympic Peninsula this weekend, so that's what I set out to do. Woke up at 8:30, saw people as they left for church, and waited for my Mom to get up, so she'd know what I was doing. Turned out she was not busy at all today, so she came with me! We had a quick little breakfast of peaches and toast, and took off just in time to catch the 10:45 Edmonds Ferry. After getting to Kingston, we were the last ones off of it.


The sky was absolutely, clearly cloudless; we could see the Olympics from across the Sound, as we sat aboard the ferry and talked about our various Saturdays. For the 84 mile drive, we listened to an unabridged reading of "The Silver Chair" from The Chronicles of Narnia, by Jeremy Northam; I love his Puddleglum voice. We actually finished the thing by the time we got to Kenmore on our way back! Very nice indeed!

Upon reaching Port Angeles, we headed first for the waterfront where we found the last of the Washington aquariums that I hadn't been to. There was a little beach, and a paved waterfront walkway that looked very nice, but my goodness! the aquarium itself was just fabulous! It's not technically an aquarium, but a science research center that has tanks of animals that the public can come in and look at. They had a basket sea star, which I have only seen once before, and part of a squid that had washed up on a beach a week before. It was frozen, but we could touch the beak and the little teeth in the suction cups on the tentacles. Yikes! I wouldn't want to swim with one of those! They also had a ghost shrimp under a microscope connected to a small TV screen. Oh, my! And the Lion Nudibranch - which I had never seen before! Wow! At first we were the only people in the place, so the volunteer lady talked with us for quite a while about the animals, photography and many other things. :) Gosh, we ended up taking almost 2 hours there!

Right after that, we walked to a nice restaurant right on the waterfront and treated ourselves to CCCLT sandwiches (as opposed to BLT, and no, that's not the Civilian Conservation Corps - that would be Cheddar Cheese, Crab, Lettuce & Tomato) on sourdough bread along with a crab dip appetizer. It was very crabby, and we were extremely happy.

Next up, we got a little lost trying to find the trail-head for the mountain, but found it on the second try; signage was a little lacking in this town. Anyways, it was 17 delightful miles up a winding, wide road, with lots of overlooks. Here's a great site with lots of pictures from the entire park. We saw a pair of deer on the side of the road once, and got out at only one of the many overlooks. When we got to the top, there were deer all over the place! Mostly mommies with fauns! So adorable! We spent a while in the visitor's center, watched their 20-minute movie, shopped at the gift shop, then drove the rest of the road along the crest to the picnicking area and hiking trail at the end. Driving down the mountain felt a little more precarious at times, since there weren't always guard rails, and going downhill, the lane was on the edge. Pretty fun really! :)

Back in town (yes! we made it!), Mom and I stopped and had Mexican for dinner. I had a chicken enchilada (we both had small dinners), along with some guacamole with our chips. On the road back, it started getting dark fast. By the time we were crossing the bridge across Hood Canal, they had these signs up saying that the Ferry wait was 2 hours! That frightened us a little, but we pressed on, and found out they were lying! We made it on right away.

What an adventure! I'm so very glad I had company!

Jp

Clean Teeth, Clogged Roads

Although it was Friday, I was dreading it a little: I had Dentist Appointment right after work. Now last night I stayed up much too late... Mom and I watched a 1940 Jimmy Stewart film, 'The Mortal Storm', about the Nazis. It was a little strange to try and accept good old Jimmy as a German, and the sometimes over the top storyline, but I liked it. And it saddened me, because I know that much worse things than that actually happened to people (it was whitewashed for '40's audiences... that and not much detail was known about what was really happening. I tried imagining a movie like Schindler's List coming out in the '40's... Nope, doesn't work.) - Wow, okay, after that, Dad came home and we stuck in our NetFlix... 'The Gathering Storm', an HBO number on Churchill from 2002. A modern TV movie, set at the very same time... and we didn't do that on purpose.

So, back to today, I totally missed my alarm and woke up too late to get the extra hour in before my dentist appointment, so I'll have to go back in this weekend to keep myself honest. We only get paid for 8 hours for Labor Day, so it tacks on an extra hour to Friday since we work 9 hour days. Hey! At least I was actually rested!

Last time I saw the dentist I got hopping mad. They did this new procedure, where they stuck this tool up into my gums in order to measure them somehow to tell me if they were in any way diseased or receding. And that happened to be the time where I had not been as faithful at brushing, because of my schedule with photography class, so of course, they bled all over the place when they measured them. I think I recall being on the verge of tears, it hurt so bad. So today, I just told the hygienist up front, "No measuring." I had to really convince her that I was, in fact, serious. And supposedly, I had done a better job at brushing as well, and she told me the difference was "like night and day" and that they barely bled at all... No duh! She didn't poke them to death... correlation? Hmm.

I was so relieved it went so well and without blood being donated by the quart. I went straight home as I was starving from not having eaten, and it being 2 pm. After a sandwich and a single game of Backgammon, in which Dad finally beat me (barely :), I rushed off to the Navy in Bellevue to finally get measured for my height & weight with the female Army recruiter. And then she turned out not to be there but said she'd get there an hour later. So I turned in my forms and took off to stop by the bank and the Crossroads Mall. Picked up a gorgeous hardbound copy of Narnia, a book of little quotes called "Wisdom of the Founding Fathers" and a photography book of the "Wildlife of Washington", all bargain books at B&N. Got back to the recruiter's a little later than when she had said, and she still wasn't there! But we got an appointment set up to take the ASVAB at MEPS next Friday after work, and we found out that I'm only 5 lbs. over the initial weight limit. The BMI is what we were trying to find out, but my recruiter said we'll just do that at MEPS next week. The Physical is the next thing to get done before signing up with the Delayed Program, and that may be next Saturday, but we're not sure.

The problem with the traffic was that by the time I left, it was rush hour. My recruiter said they needed an official transcript, so I just kept going on 520, and went and picked one up in Seattle. Took another 45 minutes to get home.

Gosh, and when I got home, we stuck in 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' and got it done right before Monk. When I suggested it, I hadn't realized that it was exactly what we did this same night a month ago in Norman... watching Danny Kaye late into the night. Except instead of outstanding Italian pasta, we had grocery store pizza for dinner :)

Monk was great tonight. Different feel right off the bat, starting with Monk solving a case. Watching him lose and regain his courage was very nice, even though the trial scene was ridiculous. Nothing like getting a rock expert in to say what kind of rocks they were. Duh! I guess that's common with recent episodes though. Dumb mistakes with facts, but really touching scenes. We can demand perfection, though, can't we? Monk certainly would. Oh, and really loved Randy tonight. I like it when he's allowed to be a real person and not just a joke!

What a day. And it was 87 degrees without a cloud in the sky! Yikes! No, no! SEPTEMBER, please, not SUMMER!

Jp - says goodnight to a brilliant Jupiter, still in the southern sky.

War's Over!

Hey, it's time to celebrate, even if they don't care in Times Square.

Thanks for a walk back in time, Mike! And congratulations on finishing
a 6+ year project!

And I just got a call from Mike, my recruiter, about two minutes ago: No records on me at the processing station! So preliminarily, I am good to go! Wheeeeee :)

Jp

Ugghh

Yep. Work was great. We had one of those 2+ hour "all hands" meetings. We figured it cost the company $120,000 to do one of these things (with all the labor hours and rentals), and then they say, "Oh, we're saving money by not providing cookies with the drinks." No joke. And they tell us something that could have been sent over email. I'm just glad they had hot chocolate.

In general, work was slow the first day back. But I did get stuff done today, and that feels good, at least. Mom's having a little trouble with her back, but she did a great meatloaf and baked potato dinner anyway. I took care of the dishes afterwards... it was all I could do. She amazes me all the time.

Jp

Back At It

Well, it was a pretty good game. At least they played with heart all the way through (scoring in the final seconds) instead of giving up as they've done in the past. Way too many penalties though. Maybe it's better this way: a slow turn around that becomes a habit of winning instead of a miracle win that makes the player's heads too big for their shoulders. Yeah, but a loss is a loss. Oh, well. It was a solid four days of Husky Football. I think beyond going to a rally or two, I'll only do a couple more of the games this year... Oct. 10 against Arizona and Nov. 28 against WSU. But we'll see.

My holiday weekend seemed only a regular two days, since that's all I had really "off". But my goodness, am I grateful for it! I slept in all the days, and had a pretty relaxing time in general.

Sunday, I had a lovely visit with a friend of mine, saw her new apartment, watched "Good Morning, Vietnam", played Phase 10 and listened to a lot of Christian music as she copied it from me and we laughed and talked into the night (there was a gorgeous sunset out her window - light yellow sky, bright pink-edged clouds, and a huge purple cloud bank on top of the dark outline of fir trees - ahhh!)

Yesterday was pretty slow. After getting up, and eating breakfast with the whole family, for once, :) I finally figured out how to take care of that pile of stuffed animals I had on my floor and I went shopping at Fred Meyer and found all sorts of good deals... the 60% off kind. Upon returning home, we watched our Netflix movie, "The Right Stuff" which Dad had seen before, but Mom and I had never seen all the way through. Yeah, they use 'Jupiter' when John Glenn blasts off. And it was a pretty darned good movie. Afterwards, Dad hit the sack and Mom and I did a little reading and praying. I suggested we read through Romans, and we did the first two chapters. I love Romans... it's difficult in parts, and it's usually surprising... even though I've read it a bunch. Jesus's teachings are so unnatural for us to follow: "Love your enemies", etc., and I need to be continually reminded of them in order to obey them.


So I've had my share of Football and Cold War era films this weekend... and here we are in another, albeit abbreviated, week. Yay.

[Here's a picture of my room, semi-picked up, at the least intimidating angle (you should see my desk and dresser to the right!) - and that's the bed on the extreme left. Just thought I'd add it as I was adding the other picture.]

Jp

What Day is it? Gameday!

Go Dawgs! (actually, that's how it really is spelled - no points taken)
We put the W in there to reference that we're from Washington... and our logo is a giant W. So today starts the 2009 season...
Good Night, and Good Luck! We've nowhere to go but up. :)

Thursday's practice ended up being just fine. We didn't do too much new stuff, since the only thing we had left to learn was the last drill for the last song. But yesterday... oh, dear, yesterday. I was so entirely worn out. And I slept in a bit and got to work even a little past our later start time... LOL! So when work was finally over, I just wanted to fall over. But I had lunch instead. And then Mom and I had a nice time reading and praying together. And then I checked email for the first time in a while (while at home) and then played Dad a game of Cribbage. Ooh boy, was I impatient with Dad counting all of his ridiculously good hands. He had pairs all the time, once a five card run, and a couple of times, hands with more than 12 points (6 points is a pretty good hand).

So after all that I lay down for about 10 minutes before I had to jump up and go to rehearsal again. But I put myself in a good mood by not caring if I got there on time (I needed to get some meat for dinner - in the form of a burger). So I did a quick drive through, and continued on to the U. When I got there, there were people charging 7 bucks to park where I usually do for 4... so because I wasn't there for the soccer game, the guy let me in for nothing (because my Husky Card was $0.50 short) - what a nice guy! I don't know if I would have made it in if there wasn't a soccer game! Thank the Lord for that! And so I got there pretty much on time anyway, because the traffic was light, and I ended up not being stressed. Yeah! And that was the last practice! (Well, except for the one today, before the fans get there. :) Oh, and because the Halftime show is all Jimmy Buffett songs, we're playing 'Cheeseburger In Paradise' and making:

for one of the 21 pages of charts we have for the show. I am luckily part of the meat. During 'Fins' we make a wave formation and a part of the band makes a big shark fin that goes after the cheerleaders. :) It's a fun time.

When I got home last night (and remembered that there was no new Monk) I went right in my room, put my horn and bag down on my disorganized and messy floor and crashed on my bed for an hour or two before my sister got home and I came out to visit for a moment.

This morning I slept in! And good thing too. Hmm, I've had breakfast, cleaned the bathroom, put all my junk away in my room, and shown my sister & company the Pigs Is Pigs movie after they read the story. LOL! Thanks for the links, Mike!

Jp

And a Couple More Days

Hello, September!

I remember I did not particularly like Tuesday. My period had just started and it hurt like a bear. And I tried to get a flight to Asheville for Thanksgiving for my sister and I, using my 2 for 1 coupon through Delta. Of course, they wouldn't let me get the afternoon flight (the only one that would work) but only the red-eye that would put us there late, Thanksgiving morning. And the best return flight left two days after we had to leave. Boooo! And besides all that, there was anticipation for a couple things on Wednesday night. The day was just barely tolerable in general. I had meant to go to bed earlier than I did on both Monday and Tuesday... :) but Tuesday's late-night culprit was another movie: "Broken Arrow" with (cough) Mr. Boynton (lol).

Wednesday I got up a smidgen late for work, and therefore stayed a smidgen late after five. But that's definitely not what I was looking forward to. No, I was anticipating the first marching band rehearsal for the first (and only) football game this weekend where I get to march with the varsity band for Pregame and Halftime. We've officially dubbed it the "Varsity-Alumni Game", or V-A game. We learned all of the Pregame charts and the visiting school's fight song in the first hour-and-a-half, and we had a half-hour music sectional on halftime music, and then we learned the first chart for halftime, completing the three-hour practice. I didn't have time to eat dinner beforehand, because I had to stay at work so long... but I never got very hungry all night long, strangely enough. I think it was the excitement.

Today, all us ladies took our boss out to lunch at our usual place for a belated birthday. It was a good time... I tried something new! And like always, it was good. We got to talking about school, and they were very curious how I was taught, being homeschooled all the way through high school. It was a very nice time together. Tonight I packed a sandwich for dinner to eat in the car on the way... another rehearsal tonight! Hooo-rah! Hopefully, it will be fun again... it's always hard to get excited after the initial couple hours of practice. :)

Jp