Whidbey Isle & beyond!

Today we're heading to Whidbey Island--not terribly far North of Seattle. We'll be playing and exploring the area for about a week. It will be a nice opportunity to leave the pressures of the daily grind behind. I won't have internet access for most, if not the entire, time we'll be up there so I just wanted to post a note about it. We plan to letterbox a little bit of the time. Not much, though, because we'll be in 'summer camp' for the entire family so we'll be having fun at the lake.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Perseid Meteor Shower, Violins & other interesting musings...

Last night, I took trkr out to enjoy the Perseid Meteor Shower in all of its glory. We had a beautiful clear starlight sky, perfect for enjoying the meteor shower. In our first hour of observing it, we counted 15 meteors! Then, I decided to grab the sleeping bags and we spent the night outside--camping without all the fuss beneath the beautiful star-scape.

This past week had been awesome, despite having had to go back to the office for a couple of days. I've done my best to squeeze in as much as summer as I possibly could before the good weather heads South for the Winter. I spent a couple of days with a good friend who just returned from modern day Babylon. It was nice to hang out with her again. Boy, have we both been around the world and back a few times, literally, since we last saw eachother. Things have changed quite a bit but it was so great to see that so many things are still the same!

I picked up the violin again. Now, it's been a LONG time, something like 24 years!!! I'm definitely rusty on it but it feels good to be able to make some music again. I worked my way through some scale sets, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Frere Jacque, The First Noel and a few others--but I definitely need some more practice. It's so sad that I've basically forgotten how to read music (quickly). I can't wait to get back into it a bit and challenge myself with trying new music every so often. It definitely lifts the spirit!

I've also caught several great films recently (they're new to me) that I checked out from the library (you can't beat the price!!!):

The Dreamlife of Angels--a French film (dramatic)
The Seagull's Laughter--an Icelandic film (dramatic)
Whale Rider--was it New Zealand?
Secondhand Lions
Laws of Attraction
La Stanza del Figlio--Italian drama (tearjerker)
My House in Umbria--HBO movie set in Tuscany, based on the book by the same name
Dark Blue World--a Czech romance/drama/history (very well done--beautifully made)

If you're looking for some interesting movies, you may enjoy these--I certainly did. They're a blend of drama, foreign, romance--definitely chick flicks! Nice way to spend some time when my brain just needed to 'rest'.

Well, tonight's trkr's 'potty party'. It seems he's finally decided to eschew the 'pull ups' for big boy undies. We'll commemorate the momentous occasion with a potty party. I spent the morning making a 'potty' cake. Lemon pound cake with lemon icing. I'll post pictures later! We'll play a few games--pin the undies on the person (sort of a game) using toilet paper as the blindfold and then there's also an option to pin the diapers on the trash can, as well.

Anyway, so that's where life has led me recently. It's been quite an adventure these past few weeks!

Turkish Moon & other interesting musings...

We capped a delightful day beneath a Turkish Moon. It was a sliver of a moon with brightly shining Jupiter to 'our' south of the moon (just like you see on the Turkish flag). An interesting sight to behold! We spent the evening enjoying the beauty of Tuscany in "My House in Umbria"--it brought back many wonderful childhood memories of many different summers spent in Italy as we took a month-long swimming break between our double swim season years each year we lived in Europe. What awesome memories we have of Italy. It was nice to have a couple of hours to remember them, via this beautiful movie. After we departed Umbria, we returned to our night sky--this time wondering where our slivered moon went. We couldn't find it anywhere in the sky but we could see hundreds of stars and a handful of planets. How incredible! Summers in the Pacific Northwest are awesome!!!

Interesting things we've experienced over the past couple of days. Yesterday, we awoke to see a falcon perched on the deck railing just a few feet outside the kitchen window. A few days before we'd enjoyed observing an eaglet in a nearby aerie; I checked on the aerie driving home from work on Thursday and our eaglet friend had flown away. :( As we headed down to the beach yesterday we came across a parakeet just perched on a railing along a trail. It was absolutely beautiful. I presume it was somebody's pet who'd snuck out of his home. He wasn't at all afraid of me (or the children) so it's probably quite likely he'd been a pet. Then, on my 70 minute run early this morning, amid the fog hovering over Puget Sound, I spied a sea lion doing somersaults in the water. Then, I caught a band of raccoons sneaking into somebody's backyard. This area is certainly full of life--of all sorts!!!

Finished, I hope...

At last.....insert Ella Fitzgerald's famous lyrics here!

Then, insert Ella's lyrics from one of my favorite songs, Summertime, here!

Because that's what I finally get to experience now, albeit briefly as Pacific Northwest summers are short and sweet.

Early yesterday morning I completed my final exam on the 'big project' that turned this season into my 'bummer summer'. Since then, I've done my best to play 'catch up' and experience a little bit of summer while the sun is still shining before the 'big rains' come.

In a 50-day span minus a 4 day business trip to Boise and a handful of 'work days' at the office I drudged my way through 20 exams, 4 papers and 1 major project consisting of 8 hefty sub-components. Now, I'm waiting with bated breath for my results--hoping and praying that I won't have to 'resubmit' any of the suspenses.

Well, once I put the exams into the envelope and applied the postage stamps--I was off to the beach to splash around in Puget Sound's icy waters. Then, we trudged our way back up the hill to settle into finishing "The Seagull's Laughter" (a dramatic icelandic film about an empowered women) and then "Whale Rider". Nothing like two cool-themed movies to help deal with the dog days of summer! ;)

Today, it was back to the beach for another round of splashing around in the icy water and we'll cap off the evening with the movie "My House in Umbria". Whew, so I do get to experience a little bit of summer. I was starting to feel like the girl in Ray Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day" and I was the one locked in the closet. :( Fortunately, at least, until I learn I may have to resubmit some parts, I'll get to experience a little bit of summer before the fall appears.

Enjoy the summer, y'all! I'll post pictures and notes about our recent trip out to Boise shortly. We visited one of the most beautiful spots in the world--and nobody seems to know about it!

Almost finished...

It's been a while. A LONG while since I last posted. I've been involved in attempting to complete a major work related suspense. It's a course I have to complete to ensure I'm eligible for future promotions and that I can stay in my job to the point I'll be eligible to receive a pension. It's a 3 year long correspondence course that in essence I'm trying to complete in 2 months. Of course, the 3 year aspect comes from it being a phased course that involves four hour classes each week and one weekend a month for at minimum 2 of those 3 years. Then the other phases are completed in 2 week 'stints' around those two 'full' years. Well, I got caught in the turmoil caused by the 'powers-that-be' desiring to modify the course. In essence, they're completely overhauling the course effective this next year and anybody who is enrolled in the previous course (regardless of how long they'd been in it) has been given the suspense to either complete it by a certain date or start over with the 'new' course. Was I going to repeat some of the work I'd already done on the course? No way! So, my originally planned 'relaxing' summer grew into the 'bummer summer' of all time. 6 weeks and 18 tests, 4 papers, 1 extended project later--I'm 2 exams away from having submitted all the requirements for this course. Of course, it hasn't been very fun. Mostly 18 hour days of straight studying with breaks to eat and sleep. Ugh! So, this has been the reason why I haven't posted anything in a while. I will post photos of a recent trip we took to Boise once I complete the course and can actually spend some 'thinking' time on it. Until then, pray that what I've submitted satisfies the requirements and that I won't have to 'revisit' any of the tasks. ;)

Til then--hopefully I'll complete this very soon,

dvn2r ckr