do you want to sleep in a car? notice i said 'sleep' and not ... ahem.

check this out.

but you have to be in stuttgart.

too much fun

now today, boys and girls, we're going to go down the bunny slope. no ... wait ... not on your back ...

just a couple more pix. moto man and his mother go riding.

moto man standing on a lookout with his sweetie and rio grande in background.

moto man standing on a lookout with his sweetie.

moto man and his 'rents at lookout.

moto man and his sweetie and mom.

i had a great two weeks off. except for the jerk who stole our credit card number and bought things with it. the flights to and from abq were uneventful, and flying first class is the only way to go.  we met the kids and ate, then whizzed up to sante fe and then beyond, to los alamos. l.a. is at about 7000 feet and is starkly lovely. i remember my dad talking about going to the boy scout ranch at piedmont nm. that's northeast of l.a. and i can see why he was so taken with the area.

l.a. itself is about 10,000-12,000 people and is incredibly vibrant. they have an excellent library, one grocery store (not counting the health food store on the edge of town), and a really big hospital. the humidity was about 12% and while my face loved it, my hands didn't.

we were going to see some cliff dwellings, but that didn't quite work out and there was too much else to do to wait around. we drove up to the caldera and i wanted to move in right away. not that there's anywhere to move -- it's a huge meadow resting just below mountain tops, but i would have been satisfied with kicking out the people at the visitor center, blocking off the roads, and having it all to myself.

just across from there, on the main road, sat two houses that survived this summer's fire. the trees behind their homes were burned less than 100 feet away. honestly, they just barely escaped the danger. (houses at bottom of tree-line)

so ... the trip was great. we checked on and identified the purchases which were made by the miscreant, and are now awaiting our replacement card. frankly, if the creep were caught and the sentencing were up to us, we would simply have him shot. we're sick of the bad guys going without justice. no patience at all anymore for the possibility of misunderstanding, bad childhood, etc. just shoot them all. but on a final note, here are a couple more pix of that lovely l.a. area.

oh, but i need to tell you about the food we had on our little cabin outing. we stopped in anacortes at this place called Adrift. it is a restaurant which buys locally and organic, and uses that stuff to produce excellent dishes!!  my favorite is the wee beet salad, which is so beyond yummy as to stun the imagination.

another place, in langley, is called the Prima Bistro and is, once again, excellent!! and our waiter was just so fun -- good-natured, affable, spoke french eloquently, and a sweetie.

we were both surprised by how much a few excellent meals had us filled up for, supposedly, days. is that typical of good food? fills you up for a long time? if so, i've been doing something wrong. not that i cook anymore, but i'm just saying ...

little cabin

the husband and i just returned form a 2-night stay at a little cabin in the woods. it was (1) fun and (2) depressing. i mean, that's the way people used to HAVE to live. ackkwwk!!!

i mean, yes, there was an indoor bathroom and it had a kitchen with a stove, sink, frig, and microwave, and there was several beds upstairs and a fireplace downstairs and a tv with which to watch movies, but... it was waaaay too easy to see how it would have been 100 years ago. dust and cobwebs hanging from the support timbers, spiders and bugs inviting themselves in for a stay, using an outhouse, washing clothes someplace, and what if the unfriendlies come for a call?

honestly, how did humans survive??? it just had to be easier in the midwest than in the northwest.

it was fun

a month ago i took 2 weeks off from work. i don't remember taking 2 weeks together before, but i really needed to do it. the first week i spent recovering from the stress at work and when the second week rolled around i was ready for my 2 weeks. ha!

at any rate, the daugher-in-law, the grandkids, and i headed over to orcas island for a 2-day get-away. we took the ferry over, stayed in a 2-bedroom cabin on the water (which afforded gorgeous views), and visited little shops where we made excellent purchases.

it was sooooooo much fun to spend time with her and the grandkids, and i'd love to make it a regular practice. i'm not sure how often we could get away, but i really want to do it!

my grandkids are so cute, smart, adorable, clever, adept and all those other adjectives that make people want to puke. they just happen to be true with MY grandkids!

culture shift

it's interesting how getting older not only gives me wrinkles, but it subtly affects my perception. i saw a headline this morning -- A 'Legit' Pirate Bay Makes Sense In Theory, If Not Practice.

i visualized a white-sand, turquoise-water, curved, private beach and wondered if someone was going to do a pirate-themed area with hotels, ship rides, walking-the-plank things, and so on. what a cute idea, i thought.

it's actually about peer-to-peer internet file sharing of music, movies, software, etc.

*sigh*

sheesh

well, i've tried to get the pictures from our resort escape posted, but it's not easy. i mean, the pictures are all on the computer, but i finally decided there were so many i couldn't realistically put them on the blog, so i thought i'd put them on flickr. shit. what a frickin pain. i have wasted the last hour trying to get them sorted out, but it's a herculean task to sort on flickr. yeah, yeah, i went to the help thing and did what they said and the result was exactly nothing. nothing changed. when i have been away from it for awhile, i will try again. or maybe i will choose another venue.

one of these days, the pix will be up.

one more trip ...

well, that's all for now. i still need to post the resort trip but it's going to take time to go through the pix and with all the overtime i've been working, it's a weekends-only kind of thing. and then things keep getting put into my weekend time. drat! but i hope to get them up soon -- it was an incredible get-away!

it was great!

i'm going to try to bring you up-to-date on the lovely places around here a person can go, to enjoy themselves, without all the glitter and bright lights that usually come with a vacation. all 6 of us were able to arrange our schedules to get together, almost like old times!

this summer's trip took us to a place close-by the northern loop of the cascade mountains. we rented this little number:

this next picture shows the view from one of the back windows (a huge, 2 stories-of-windows type of house) -- there's a shallow river out there just beyond the grass and rocks:

the interior of the house was gorgeous and comfortably decorated -- with three bedrooms and two full baths and all the utensils, towels, etc. we needed:

this is the view of the back of the house at sunset:

and this is a view of one of the dramatic sunsets over the mountains:


and this is the view of one of the little up-the-mountain trails you can drive up and see forever:

isn't it all beautiful?! and don't even suggest i'm being paid to advertise for this. are you kidding? who would take money to say this is beautiful when you can see for yourself that it is. at any rate, if you think you'd like to know more about this place, e-mail me and i will let you know how to find the particulars.

the getaway

the girlfriend and i had a good trip down on hood canal by poulsbo. we got to watch a submarine go past the house three times, accompanied by two coast guard boats, a tugboat, and two container ships. it was interesting and intriguing. i'll post pictures when she sends them to me -- we used her camera since i forgot mine.

we did some shopping in poulsbo, ate at a really great restaurant (although some of the reviews i read later really dissed it -- we loved it), and explored port gamble. the weather was good with some sun and some sprinkles.

the house itself was lovely and just right for two people or two couples. it had two bedrooms with queen beds and two big bathrooms, a nice-size kitchen with tons of pots/pans/dishes/glasses/spices/etc, two couches and two chairs with t.v. and a music system and music, a dining table and four chairs, plus lots of windows and two decks with a beautiful yard in a very quiet neighborhood which made everything pretty darn great.

you might want to try it sometime.

and a good time was had by all ...

there's nothing quite like getting together with family. since My Younger Son lives in new york and is busy with grad school, and My Older Son lives in everett but is busy with his job and family, getting everyone together for more than two days can be impossible. BUT -- we all got together last week and enjoyed five days on the other side of the mountains!

we stayed at a new, two-story log cabin which was situated right next to a small river west of mazama. with mountains surrounding us and being 7 miles from the nearest grocery store (but just two blocks from a grass landing strip), we felt secluded and mercifully free from the noisy kids, barking dogs, and drunken adults one might find at other vacation places.

we weren't completely free from pests, though -- in fact, we'd forgotten how very annoying it is when flies are around. to say nothing of wasps, mosquitoes, and other buggy things. so i mostly stayed indoors, especially since the temps got into the high 90s and low 100s.

it was fun to go wade in the river, but really, who needs flies?! i'm just glad we live on this side of the mountains and don't have to put up with them.

the grandaughter was adorable, of course, and a side trip into winthrop was fun. i hope we can get together again next year, or the following year at the latest. being with good people is one of life's greatest joys!!!

faster and faster and faster ....

wow -- there's no time for anything anymore. the husband ordered something for the park, but it's probably going to arrive while we're gone. i ordered something for me to wear while we're gone, but they screwed around and didn't get it shipped 'til yesterday so it's probably going to arrive while we're gone. there's a very important person who's coming to visit our workplace, but that person is going to arrive while we're gone. not that my being gone matters to my workplace, but still ....

we -- both kids, spouse, grandaughter, and us -- are going to head over the mountains to a vacation home by a river/creek/stream and spend about 5 days. we're looking forward to having a lot of fun!! the only problem is that it's supposed to be about 100* while we're there. shit. hot temps and i don't get along. but we're bringing portable air conditioners, so maybe it won't be too bad. and with all the right people there, it can't help but be good!!

and right in the middle of getting ready for our trip, a friend is having her open house (to her new condo) and i'm supposed to bring food and a gift. ppppthththth! i have no idea when i'm going to get the food ready, but the gift hasn't been gotten yet.

one of these days things will slow down.