Last Night

Way too busy to post yesterday!

Before lunchtime I remembered about Denny's birthday special this year: a free Grand Slam on your birthday. So Dad took me out (we swung by home first for my workout clothes for tonight and the Backgammon game) and we played four games before we got our food. :) Oh, was it great! I had the turkey sausage patty and hashbrowns and the usual buttermilk pancakes and scrambled eggs, along with a tall glass of orange juice. When we got back to work, my coworker Deanna had put up some "Happy Birthday Jen" signs at the top of the stairs and on our department door... so lots of people wished me a happy birthday from then on :)

After work I went to Jazzercise, like usual, but after I got home I changed and we all headed out to Anthony's Homeport Restaurant for a yummy dinner. I had reserved a table, and even though it was on the very busy and crowded Kirkland waterfront we got parking because they have their own parking garage. My dinner came with the creamiest clam chowder! And for the entree I had garlic butter shrimp with a bed of rice and spears of asparagus. And there were baskets of the warmest sourdough bread... It was excellent!

We went straight home after dinner and after replying to my brother's "happy birthday my weird sister" post on Facebook (he even called later and wished me one audibly!), I opened a couple presents and we had some chocolate cake while we watched "The Male Animal"... LOL! It was very good!

But by the time it finished, it was just past midnight and time for bed!

Jp :)

First Birthday

The Preliminary Party

The ladies at work are so nice. Every birthday we go out and celebrate, and today we went out for mine in advance of next Thursday, since one of my coworkers will be unavailable then. We went to our regular haunt, Coho Cafe in downtown Redmond. Some people tried new things! We all have our regular favorites, and I had one of mine, the Northwest Seafood Fettuccine. It's in an Alfredo sauce with hunks of fish... I think it's halibut, shrimp, scallops, and sun-dried tomato. Mmmm. And since the restaurant gives you a dessert to share if it's your birthday, I had the baked apple crisp with ice cream and caramel on the side. Oh, gosh, that was good.

At about 4:30 I remembered about Jazzercise being at 5:30, and I hadn't brought workout clothes with me... this makes for two weeks in a row I've had to go back home and quick change and then go a little further into Redmond for the hour-long class. It was a particularly hard set today, and I felt great afterwords. I took myself out for a veggie sandwich at Panera, then came home, took a shower, then washed my bed and continued reading in Meg's dissertation. I even got to the part where she mentions Rupert and Linda in a footnote! :)

On the drive back home at 7pm as I came down 132nd St., the sun was sitting just on top of the Olympic mountains in the distance. Thin, wispy clouds melted into a golden sky above the impressive peaks. I love how you can see just the one mountain if you look west at 132nd square. It's one peak that rises out of the road as it slopes up, keeping the following stoplight out of view. It's a view I savor, especially with a sunset like today's.

Jp

Mon - Sat the Second

Monday, February 22:

I had another bizarre dream again, but this time I couldn't quite recall it when I woke up, unlike the last two nights. Today breakfast was eggs and toast, and we again didn't get up from the table until about 10:30. Checked email, and tried to quickly post all I had written so far, but for some reason blogger does not like copy/paste from a text file. Worked on the puzzle a little more, and then by 12:45 or so we were out the door to visit the North Carolina Arboretum, not far away. We toured their greenhouse, which had these sliding tables that allowed most of the space to be covered with plants. They had a neat collection of Bonsai trees, and I enjoyed it all. We then went to their main building for a temporary featured display they had talking about the science of animal droppings called “The Scoop on Poop”, based on a children's book. I think we were all a little hesitant about if it would be much of anything to look at, but it ended up being quite a fun little exhibit. I learned that it only takes an elephant 8 hours to drop my weight in droppings... LOL. We stayed at the Arboretum until 3, and then headed back home as quick as we could so we could all have lunch and I could get changed to meet my Aunt at East Henderson High School where she teaches so she could take me to the Jazzercise class she was teaching. I had a lovely time with her, as always, and will do it again when she teaches on Thursday night. When I got back home, I had a quick snack of banana bread, cucumber and turkey bologna (separately, don't worry) and then went to work on the puzzle. We watched a bunch of the Olympics as I worked on it. Starting at 8 pm, first it was the downhill jump as we waited to see figure skating. Unfortunately, that didn't come on until a LOT later. Grandma commented how sports like that were ruined for her because they're all rich kids... and I thought they were pretty boring because every competitor looked exactly alike in what they did and I didn't understand how the sport really worked, or how they could be doing any bettor or worse. By the time the figure skating had come around I was close to being done with the puzzle, so that by the 2^nd or 3^rd pair it was all done. I really do enjoy watching some of the dancing though... even if the scoring seems completely random and based on prejudices on nationality... the dancers were very beautiful and graceful, and I'm glad that the couple from Canada won... they were great!

But now it is past curfew... and time for bed.

Tuesday, February 23:

Banana bread and cereal for breakfast this morning... and not quite as long a morning talk. We soon headed out to go take a look at Chimney Rock, northeast of where my grandparents live by roughly 15 miles. It's something I've always wanted to do ever since the first time I've come here. And was it a perfect day for it as well! There were clouds in the sky, but we could still see for miles. We finally found the park after winding along the highway for what seemed like forever. Once we got there, it was only 2.5 miles up the hill before we came

to the visitor's center. Only mom and I went up the elevator to the top of the rock... my grandma isn't too keen on heights. And I was the only one who went on the rock itself, but it was worth it. What a view! From an elevation of 2,280 feet I saw the entire valley with the long, stretched out lake and the blue ridge mountains off in the distance. They had the nicest collectible patch for my collection as well.

When we got home, it was pretty late in the afternoon. We had a tiny snack, and I took a nice, long, lovely nap as my mom talked to my sister on the phone. When I woke up, she was just finishing, and it was time to get dinner in the oven. I read a little while it was cooking, and then for dinner (tater-tot casserole, with hamburger, onions, cheese and cream of mushroom soup) we sat in the living room and watched their latest from Netflix, disc two of Captains and the Kings from 1976. I had never heard of such a thing, and it was very interesting. We watched all four episodes.

Wednesday, February 24:

A wonderfully slow day, really. Pretty much all of the day was taken up with meals at home and my working on the next puzzle, a maze of red and green plants around a red and green lizard. Mom and Grandma worked on making bracelets out of beads, and Grandpa worked outside. For our evening enjoyment, we watched another movie that I brought along, “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day”. It's a romantic comedy from just a few years ago. I had first watched it on the plane going to Beijing. After the movie was over and everyone else went to bed, Grandpa and I stayed up and watched a bit of MSNBC, when they were talking about the healthcare issue of the following day. And I have to say that it really informed me as to what was going on. I generally don't pay much attention to the news since it's mostly entertainment. One of the hosts made a very moving point by talking about what he just went through with his father's illness.

Thursday, February 25:

Today after breakfast we went for a shopping trip to Biltmore Square Mall. We went to Belk's where, after a short half-hour, I found three new tops and a new pair of blue slippers, the kind with a back that don't fall off your feet. We then re-grouped and braved the icy wind and scattered flakes of snow to go to Dillard's at the other end of the mall. There I found the softest pajama set I had ever felt. It's blue and white plaid shirt and pants made of Portuguese fleece. And the best part: it was about 70% off the tag price (it's an outlet store) and only cost me $12 total. I also found another top that was a beautiful blend of purple, orange, red and white. For lunch we went across the street to “Papas & Beer”, a very successful, local chain of Mexican restaurants. I had a tasty grilled chicken burrito and we shared lots of guacamole. I worked more on the puzzle when I came home before we had to leave so I could go to Jazzercise again with my aunt. What a workout! I loved the planks and pushups we did... my triceps are rather tired! It was a lovely time to talk just with her while driving back and forth! When I got home, I made myself a sandwich and we all had some ice cream. Since we were out of movies to watch, we just watched TV. Grandpa had it on the MLB channel and we watched a program by Ken Burns about the history of baseball in the episode “The Seventh Inning” about the 1940's and 50's. I sure wish I could have experienced it back then. It was purer; it wasn't all about money.

Friday, February 26:

Today we went to Walmart. It is sort of a novelty for me, since the only one near where I live is at least a half-hour away to the north. We just don't ever go there. In browsing, I found some neat prints of fabric... one a fall maple leaf print and the other two different fish prints. I also found a $3 woven shirt and a $5 black leather jacket... yeah, real leather. I was a little surprised. We took the long way home and then I worked on the puzzle more. For dinner we had sandwich kits that my grandparents had picked up at Walmart, and mine was a yummy Parmesan cheese and turkey that I added a slice of tomato to. Pretty soon my aunt came by and we all left for Asheville to watch one of our favorite local actors in a play called “True West” by Sam Shepard. Goodness, it was strange! It was about desperation, power, discontentment and insanity, all highlighted in the lives of two brothers, one educated and one not, who switched roles when their circumstances changed. There were many parts that were very funny, but the ending left the younger, educated brother strangling his older brother. And I think we are left to assume that they just never stop fighting each other, but it was hard to tell.

Saturday, February 27th:

I stayed in my new pajamas through breakfast and had another wonderfully relaxing day. Reading and puzzling and watching the horrible news about the disaster in Chile. I got all the hard part of the puzzle done and started work on the lizard before we stuck in the next disc of "Captains and the Kings" that had arrived from Netflix the day before. Before we got to the end, we stopped and went to see my aunt and uncle's house for drinks and snacks and to see the remodeling before going out to eat. There was a little snow around their pond/lake and a record twenty mallard ducks quacking and flapping around on it. My cousin Gus, who is a very friendly black lab, really wanted to play. So while we were all looking at the downstairs, my aunt threw a ball to him at the top of the stairs and he caught it and bounced it back down to her... it's one of his favorite games. LOL

Dinner was at a Greek pizza place and half of us had personal pizzas and the other half had huge plates of spaghetti. I was a pizza person. :) The food was good! My aunt and uncle treated us all.

Back at home we watched the end of "Captains" and I worked a bit more on the famous puzzle... gosh, are you tired of hearing about it?... I just loved sitting there and working on it. It's so fun and relaxing when I'm not beating my brains out trying to find a piece. I did stop after a while and then picked up my Navy book to read while Grandpa and mom were watching a James Taylor concert on TV.

What a time we've had! What a glorious break!

Jp

Everything is Going Swimmingly

Work has calmed down for the moment, I cleaned off most of my desk before calling it quits today. I've straightened out most of my monetary affairs, received my American Express credit card in the mail, bought a new laptop at $100 less than I thought it would be (yet, I will still get the deal with the credit card), found out last night that I don't have to worry about framing prints until next quarter (yey!) and went to Jazzercise this morning for the first time in nearly two months. Golly! The light was different outside afterwords! Like night and day! And then I found this beautiful place to photograph between Jazzercise and work... a little stream next to an abandoned railroad track... a little restored wildlife area in the middle of industrial parks! That was so fun and random.

Lord, life is easy right now! Thanks!

Jp

Munday

Well, here we are again. My brother did not ship yet, because of a technicality that even his recruiter can't believe. You've got to love the military! So... another 2-3 weeks.

At work I started training more for my third job again... I've finally been given access to all the screens I need, so my head is pretty full. So along with the regular jobs of quality-checking documents and coordinating the handling of rejected hardware, I'm also going to be responsible for releasing documents such as hardware drawings in our system so they will be available for production. Phew!

Tomorrow I'm going into work early so I can leave early so I can work in Photoshop in the lab at school before class. I so need to buy it from the Bookstore! I hear there's a student discount...

Couldn't believe the weather! After our dusting of snow yesterday, the sky was crystal clear last night, so this morning it was 23 degrees when I went to Jazzercise. Brrrrrrrrr!

My eyes are shutting, so I think I'll call it a night.

Jp

Bon Appetite

I feel like this week has been slowly crawling by. Maybe because the stuff at work is mind-numbingly boring, or maybe because I didn't have class to rush off to last night. Anyway, it's only Wednesday and I still have another 9 hour workday until Friday can be brought. But tomorrow night I do have class to rush off to, so perhaps that will speed it up. The weekend is sure to fly by, since I have to go to Seattle on both Saturday (for the last home game) and Sunday (for a different band gig).

Last night I occupied myself by making a couple pumpkin pies for the family. I had to go to Safeway to pick up one of the cans of pumpkin, and it turned out to be $1.99 for just one 15 oz. can! Holy cow! But it was just one, so I got it (while the crust was chilling) and then mixed up the two batches when I got home. The one can we had from the pantry turned out to be expired as of June 2008, but mom shrugged that off as irrelevant for canned pumpkin. And it tasted great for desert after the leftovers we had for dinner tonight. Thanksgiving usually heralds the coming of pumpkin pie at my house, but as my sister and I are going to North Carolina for the holiday, I wanted to have some still.

At work today, the company had a turkey dinner served for lunch. It was potluck style, with employees bringing side dishes, salads, drinks and TONS of deserts. There is always so much food... I had the turkey with gravy and stuffing, a roll of rye bread, three different salads, a pesto pasta, a little bit of tasty Brussel sprouts (baked with oil and herbs - YUM!), strawberries, fruit salad, and only a tiny bite of my boss's chocolate cheesecake, a fudge cake and a tiny slice of apple pie to finish it off. And because I knew all this was scheduled for today, I made myself go to Jazzercise this morning, even though I stayed up way too late again.

Jp