they are blessed

MYS's wedding was lovely. the location was absolutely beautiful and even though it was new mexico, the temps were only in the low 70s. it rained a little before the ceremony, to dust everything off, then the sun came out and the ceremony proceeded in a little meadow surrounded by aspen and pines. afterwards we all gathered inside the lodge and ate, danced, and talked. it rained some more.

she's such a sweetheart and i'm so happy for them both. their friends came from all over, including germany, and relatives came from far and wide. it was just a grand affair and a wonderful mix of people.

i wish them a life-time of happiness, joyful surprises, success, sexy nights, comfortable living, and love.

i don't feel like it

this is a really cute article about a guy who tried getting more in touch with his feelings. not a bad thing for guys to try. and if they could do it with this kind of humor, all the better.

movers and shakers ....

my ex-boss is moving to florida. i guess it's been almost 2 years since she retired, and she and her husband decided since their family is all back over on the east coast that they should move back that direction. she's leaving a lovely house here on two lots overlooking the bay. nothing's moving up here, real estate-wise, so it could take forever for her house to sell, but i wish her lots of luck in that regard. and i hope she's happy in her new digs!!

friends

i saw a friend last week, or rather we (five of us from work and one ex-worker) saw a friend and her mother. my friend was one of my work-mates a couple of years ago until she got a job in north dakota in a different branch. she and her mom came out here to go on a cruise to alaska.  they really enjoyed it, and it sounded like a great trip.

i hadn't met her mom before and she seemed like a really nice gal, quiet and maybe a little shy. it was soooo good to see M once again. she looked excellent and was happy and i know she loves her present job. she talked about future possibilities, but for now it seems all is very good.

getting together now and then is good for the spirit!

it was fun

what a lovely visit we had with MYS and his special friend. we've hadn't met her before, although we've read about her on his blog and seen pictures. she's prettier than her pix and sooooo slender. very smart, easy-going, a quick laugh, totally unpretentious, good-natured -- lots of positive things to say about her. we very much enjoyed having both of them around!

young people

honestly, my memory seems to get worse and worse. a young gal at work invited the husband and me to her housewarming which was to take place yesterday evening. she had sent the invite within the last 2 weeks and i had responded that we'd be there. we were to bring a dish, but no gift.

all this week i thought about what dish i could possibly bring -- the husband and i are not social butterflies and don't have a catalog of dishes to draw from. so i never did really figure something out.

when i got off work yesterday, i called the husband on my way home to see if he wanted to go to our much-liked chinese restaurant. he reminded me about our obligation. shit. since i was already almost home and wouldn't be able to figure out anything any quicker if i turned around and went to the store, i headed on into the house and opened the pantry.

i didn't have a whole lot of time to come up with something, so i finally cooked up some basmati rice while frying slices of ring sausage. i added a can of black beans and a can of corn to the sausage, then threw in a couple of handfuls of the rice. i added cinnamon, 6 or 7 dashes of pepper sauce, then sliced up some banana peppers and threw them in for good measure.

it was a really nice house-warming. i enjoy the people who were there and the new homeowner is just a neat gal anyhow. she and her husband had personalized their new home and had done a really terrific job. the interior colors were neat and up-to-date, and she had added artistic touches everywhere that were very effective.

it was a lot of fun. and my impromptu dish was tasty. thanks, husband, for remembering our invitation!

busy times we live in

i had lunch with my ex-boss last week. it was great to get caught up on a lot of things. and she told me a cute joke (below). a couple more of us are getting together with her tomorrow for supper. girls night out!!! yay!!!

joke: Moms in Group Therapy -- A psychiatrist was conducting a group therapy session with four young mothers and their small children. “You all have obsessions,” he observed. To the first mother, Mary, he said, “You are obsessed with eating. You’ve even named your daughter Candy.” He turned to the second mom, Ann, “Your obsession is with money. Again, it manifests itself in your child’s name, Penny.” He turned to the third mom, Joyce, “Your obsession is alcohol. This too shows itself in your child’s name, Brandy.” At this point, the fourth mother, Kathy, quietly got up, took her little boy by the hand and whispered, “Come on, Dick, this guy has no idea what he’s talking about. Let’s go pick up Peter and Willie from school and go get dinner.”

politics and religion

i got this from the lady who was my boss in oklahoma ....

God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael, the archangel, found him resting on the seventh day. He inquired, “Where have you been?” God smiled deeply and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, “Look Michael. Look what I’ve made.” Archangel Michael looked puzzled, and said, “What is it?”

“It’s a planet,” replied God, “and I’ve put life on it. I’m going to call it Earth and it’s going to be a place to test Balance.” “Balance?” inquired Michael, “I’m confused.” God explained, pointing to different parts of earth. “For example, Northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, while Southern Europe is going to be poor. Over here I’ve placed a continent of white people, and over there is a continent of black people. Balance in all things.” God continued pointing to different countries. “This one will be extremely hot, while this one will be very cold and covered in ice.” The Archangel, impressed by God’s work, then pointed to a land area and said, “What’s that one?”

“That’s Washington State, the most glorious place on earth. There are beautiful mountains, rivers and streams, lakes, forests, hills, and plains. The people from Washington State are going to be handsome, modest, intelligent, and humorous, and they are going to travel the world. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking, high achieving, carriers of peace, and producers of software.” Michael gasped in wonder and admiration, but then asked, “But what about balance, God? You said there would be balance.” God smiled, “There’s another Washington. Wait ‘till you see the idiots I put there.”

who's that cute blonde?

i saw my ex-boss two weeks ago -- she looks great!! it's obvious retirement agrees with her -- i didn't get a chance to do more than say hello and don't know what-all she's been doing, but she looks relaxed, refreshed, and renewed. it was nice to see her again!

clear the way ....

billy goat gruff got sick last week. he told me wednesday that he didn't feel very good -- his tummy was bothering him. and he was out thursday and friday. yesterday he told me he'd had food poisoning. from eating grapes. grapes from chile. i said 'didn't you wash them?' and he said, 'oh yeah, very thoroughly.' and then went on to explain there's some kind of fungus or bacteria or something that can be on the grapes and can get IN the grapes and no amount of washing can get rid of it and if you eat it -- bam!! you are sick sick sick. he said the doctor told him that throwing up nothing was hard on your body (and you always get to that point with food poisoning) so you should try drinking gatorade and keep drinking it until the problem goes away.

food poisoning is always an unpleasant experience and one which, ideally, should only be suffered through once. i wonder how many people are lucky enough to have that statistic?

uh ... what ... uhhh, where ....

my work friend, mr billy goat gruff, had knee surgery last week. it had been giving him quite a bit of pain for quite a while and he finally said enough was enough. he came through it fine and is back home with his sweetie of a wife. we miss him at work. trying to find answers when he's the one who has them puts us at a distinct disadvantage.

just color us muddling on ....

many things

we've been busy lately doing several things, one of which is building a pergola on/over our deck. you can go to http://www.gardenstructure.com/p/Pergola_Plan_with_Optional_Screens.html to see what the plans look like, although since our space isn't that big, the plans are just an idea of what the finished product will look like. but it will be nice. the fellow doing the work is young, experienced, and very good, so we're going to be happy. and he's going to finish off the front porch post the same way he's doing the pergola posts, so things will tie in nicely. when it's all done, i'll include a picture.

after that's finished we are going to do some landscaping around that quadrant of the yard to see if we can work up some kind of privacy in this tiny space we have. i'm excited about all of it.

my girlfriend got their house sold and immediately found a nice one on camano island, with views! they are going to love their new place and i'm so happy for them!

my new computer is excellent and i've decided i'm going to have to buy a new computer every two years, just like some people buy a new car regularly. this thing is fast and the monitor is wide and the graphics are great. not too crazy about office 2007, but what can you do. and vista sorta sucks, but meh.

life goes on.

accomplishment

when i got my new computer, we decided to give the husband's to this little gal at his work and to put my old one at his desk. we had to get an adapter so he'd be able to do the wireless thing.

it's been a bit of a confusing affair since we don't know anything about computers. i e-mailed our computer guru that we had the part and he e-mailed me a link to use. so i went online and pretty soon he had control of my computer.

we chatted online a tiny bit, then he printed out a page with some numbers on it for me. i asked what i should do next. there was a brief pause and then he said 'answer the phone'.

then the phone rang. it cracked me up. so an hour+ later (including some frantic searching for a cat5 cable cord -- which we did have believe it or not) everything was working and a-okay.

i love my computer guy.

coincidental events

My Older Son and daughter-in-law had an unusual experience earlier this week. she had emergency surgery for an ectopic pregnancy. they didn't even know she was pregnant until the morning of the surgery. she'd been having some bleeding, then started feeling a lot of pain. after seeing several doctors, they admitted her, and decided to do the surgery that afternoon.

she lost about 5 liters of blood (it had collected in her abdominal area), but they got the situation under control and she came home the next day. her mom went over to stay and help out.

the grandaughter's first birthday party is sunday (the birthday is really monday) and dau-in-law still wanted to have it, so we're heading down tomorrow. it will be fun and if dau-in-law needs to rest that won't be a problem.

the grandaughter is getting big and is into everything. she's a smart little puppy and i expect that won't change. they're going to need to be on their toes to keep up with her.

since they hadn't realized about the pregnancy, it wasn't traumatic to lose the baby. a friend told me that the same time dau-in-law was having her experience, my friend's son and girlfriend (who was 5 months along) lost their baby. s and r were very upset about it and since the baby was beyond 20 weeks old, a funeral service needed to be involved. they handled the whole thing in a very spiritual way which i loved hearing about. s is a very sensitive young man and i figure he will work through the experience just fine. i haven't met r, but i'm sure she's a lovely person -- a perfect complement to a wonderful young man. it just wasn't their time yet.

and the universe marches on.

once-a-year

for our annual trip this year, mary and i went to port townsend. i had this thing about wanting to ride the train, so i took amtrak from bellingham to edmonds, got off, met mary, got in her car, drove around the block to get in line for ferry tickets, and 10 minutes later we were on the ferry which, nicely, is right-next-door to the amtrak station. thirty minutes later we got off the ferry and took a lovely 30 minute drive to port townsend. life doesn't get any better than that.

we stayed at fort worden which is a big, beautiful campus with old buildings, some of which are for admin purposes, and some of which are rentable -- duplexes, little houses, rv and tent sites, and a hostel.

we stayed in a little house which had a kitchen, living room, bathroom with shower and towels, and three bedrooms. the kitchen was fully equipped, all we needed to bring was the food.

the weather was perfect -- sunny and around 70*. we checked out the whole fort worden area including the castle (a three-story stone house which can be rented but has only 1 bedroom), the lighthouse, and the observation balloon building. the balloon building was a real stumper -- it is about 3-stories tall with huge doors on one end and several balconies on one side. we finally found the info which explained it was used to house observation balloons for three years back around 1918 and that it is now a pavilion. no further explanation, however, as to whether it's used or rentable or what. very curious building.

we shopped in port townsend (the fort is on the outskirts of town) which has lots of wonderful shops and eateries. there was a health food store for provisions and a goodwill for books.

our favorite eating places were Victorian Square Deli (underground) and the Landfall Restaurant with a gorgonzola and carmelized onion burger which is absolutely to die for!!!

i decided i really liked the town and when i came home i told the husband i thought we should move there. he readily agreed. so as soon as this housing market shows some energy, we will revisit the issue and get serious about maybe making a change. i expect it to be no sooner than 2-3 years, though.

an excellent vacation and one which recharged our batteries. yay for girlfriend get-aways!

coming right up

the girlfriend and i are taking our annual trip this weekend. we used to be gone for a week, but we're both so popular these days that it has been cut back. friday i'm taking the train south and when i get off the train i'll head next door to the ferry, meet her, and off we'll go into the wild blue. then we'll head back to civilization on monday, do some final things, and go our separate ways.

i expect to have a lovely time with lots of catching up, eating of wonderful foods, reading, and touristing.

next agenda: scotland!

progress...

my work area is a reception area, complete with several two-minute chairs (you can only sit in them for two minutes before you need to get up and walk around), a couple of counters, some reading material, an office hallway, a door to a conference room, and a window to the main hallway upon which the elevator opens. the window starts about waist-high and goes up about three feet.

at any rate, the other day one of the officers i talk with poked his head in the front door and asked if i'd seen the escalator they'd put in out there in the hall. 'what?' i asked, amazed. 'i'll show you,' he said and turned and got on the down escalator whereby he smoothly traveled down past the window. in short order he came back up the escalator as i was laughing my head off.

he stuck his head back in and said, 'they put in an elevator, too,' and stood behind the window, reading an imaginary book, and descended. pretty quickly, still reading the same book, he ascended back to our floor.

it was hilarious and i am going to have to ask him to do it again the next time i see him!

the old and the new

my co-worker, Mr. Billy GG, decided to start his own blog. if you're interested in reading the rants and ramblings of an old, opinionated, irish dude, go here. personally, i think he's going to get tired of it real fast, but we'll see. he has some good thoughts as well as some which are way out there. and it won't be hard to figure out that he's a republican.

we're off to see the wizard...

today was m's last day at work. she's moving to north dakota which is closer to her roots as well as her family.

my boss, patty cake, had several weeks ago asked me to come up with some decorating ideas, and since we were combining the going-away party with a potato salad throw down which someone decided should be a competition, she asked me to come up with a voting booth.

a voting booth?? for days i tried to figure out what kind of voting booth, how big, made of what, etc. and finally i came up with the perfect solution. i got some gauzy old curtains and hot-glue gunned them to an old wide-brimmed hat .... voila! instant voting booth!

i was so pleased with my solution since it was light-weight as well as extremely portable. when i showed it to patty cake yesterday, she was stunned. but not because she was awed by my great idea -- she was stunned because she had meant for me to come up with a voting box. something to put the votes in.

well, shit.

anyhow, i wish m the best in her new position, new town, and new friends. new adventures are always exciting.

grease is the word

Mr. Billy GG at work is letting his hair grow. it's a tad bit bald on top surrounded by grey and pretty white hairs. it's below his collar these days, with lots of bounce and turning under of the ends, and i keep telling him he needs to put it in a pony tail. i think he's reluctant to torque off the big boss by doing that, so he just wears it shaggy. i think it would look great in a pony tail. maybe it just needs to get a little bit longer before he gets up the nerve.

the other day i convinced him to let me put it in a pony tail while we were talking in the mailroom. i gathered it back and tried to put the rubber band on without pulling his hair, and one of the chiefs chose that moment to walk through. she saw what we were doing and gave me a look like, 'oh it's just the girls braiding each other's hair again', shook her head and walked on. hahahahaha....

it just needs to get a little bit longer.