2002

I had made it to Seattle, Washington! This was right after I had graduated with my BSN, and had cut all my hair impossibly short on a whim.

I lucked out the one day that it was clear enough to get a shot of the space needle.

The rest of the days it rained, which made for a very quaint lunch with Heather. She had just moved there from Dallas, and I had driven with her in a huge Uhaul with her car on the back, and her dog in the front seat, sneezing on me periodically. Great trip though!

Karijalena

 Karijalena was born on June 27th, 2012!!!

 Her big sister, Kirsiella, is pretty proud of "her sissy Kari".

 I got to hold this little cutie for hours on end and enjoy those cute little fingers...

 ...and impossibly tiny feet and toes!

 She is so tiny, 7 pounds 13 oz, but she can bob her head about!

 Kirsi, at age 2, suddenly looks like a big kid!

 She is so beautiful!

Oh, but it is nice to hold a newborn!

May 20th, 2012 A bike ride

Little clover, how sweet you are!

With school out, I was finally able to take advantage of the beautiful day and go for a bike ride.

I took the time to stop and smell (or rather photograph) the flowers.

The weather could not have been better! Blue skies, light clouds, slight breeze.

I found this "art" to be intriguing. The underpass had been painted by someone, and then God decided to add the bright accents of the yellow, orange and red flowers to add depth to the painting. Nice touch!

The tide was low, exposing all it's treasures.

I sat on the grass and read for a few to relax after my ride. More stopping and smelling the flowers.

Good ride!!!

Years ago, in 2003...

I've done some traveling in my time. How is it that so many capitals have the same shape?


1st pic: Sacramento 2003. Second, Washington DC also in 2003.





One of my desires was to have New York Pizza in Central park. Above, that goal was ticked off my "life to do" list.






Another one...Ice skating in Rockefeller Center. That has been checked of since 2003!

Challenge: New floors! (May 20th-31st, 2012)

The time had come to replace the old, nasty, dirty, cat-urine soaked, stained carpet, so I rolled up my sleeves and went for it!

After ripping up the carpet (a great work-out, by the way), I pulled up the carpet pad, which was disgusting.

The base-boards and the carpet tacking boards were even harder! I was thoroughly amused to see the previous colors the room had been: Before I painted the walls "cream in my coffee," they had been peptobismol pink (as you can barely see on the right side ~1 in over), then "masking tape blue", and then a near seafoam green, and then putty pale.

Did I do this project alone? No! I had a helper!!! She made sure I got the moisture barrier down right.

And then the work of laying boards down began.

One of my friends had clued me in that laminate has patterns, and to identify which boards were which, and then give them names and a number, so as to make a pattern and make sure 2 of the same board was not placed right next to each other. Good advice! Mine ended up being 1. Paisley 2. Heart 3. Angels choir 4. Child drawn dog running 5. Heavens rays 6. Kayak 7. Man jumping for joy.

I figured it would take a day to pull up the carpet, the padding, sand down the floor, and then have the moisture barrier laid. Then another day to put down the boards. HA!!! Try a day for each item! Except that it took 3 days to get the boards down. 2 days to sand the old carpet glue off the concrete. 1 day to pull up the carpet tacking strips.

But slowly and surely things started to come together. Cessa made sure of it.

Eventually I made it to the last row. I had bought a circular saw and a jig-saw. I figured that class in woodshop, along with all the advice from friends who had done their floors would be good enough. Ha! I couldn't figure out how to get the saw onto the circular saw, and that thing was HEAVY!! So it's getting returned. The jig-saw was perfect!

I'm obviously not a carpenter, and apparently my idea of 1/4 inch is a lot bigger than the tape measure, so I ended up with huge gaps! All the guys I talked to said to pull everything up and do it over. All the girls said to just cut little pieces to fit the holes. Girls won that debate!

And, see? You can't hardly tell! It helps that this is in the closet!

A new coat of paint (which I conveniently had in my closet and matched well) went up (before I put in the new flooring), and baseboards were put down.

I swept up the mess, and stood back to admire my handiwork!

Again, I am not a carpenter, and am very prone to getting hurt. I was expecting major injuries involving loss of blood and limbs while doing this project. Nope! A blister on my ring finger from touching the very hot blade of a bent jig-saw blade...

...and one slightly smashed pointer finger from the hammer putting back the baseboards. Not bad!

Then there was the master-bedroom. I needed new carpet too.....BUT....I went ahead and hired someone to put that in for me. They finished in 2 1/2 hours start to finish. I had to smile. So much easier, and it looked great!!! It is so nice to have new flooring in!

 

Last day of class: April 21st, 2012

Heather and I on our last day of class...

The gerontology group: Randi, Dr. Crummy (the instructor), Maryanne, me, Sandra, Shawn, and Raquel.

We presented our portfolios, and thoroughly enjoyed our last day in class.

Local Dives

It was such a beautiful day out the other day, so I blew off all the other stuff I should have gotten around to doing, and went here instead.

I was worried that the water would be too cold, or too cloudy, but I was wrong on both accounts! Beautiful water with a nice light surge.

I brought out my camera in it's underwater case, and began snapping up pics of some of the locals.

Some were a lot bigger than I was expecting, and I enjoyed the surprises.

Of course, the crown jewel of the sea, the garibaldi, took up most of my attention and interest.

It was such a nice, relaxing day in the sun! Not just my opinion either, as you can see...