Seattle salute

Yesterday I experienced a really peculiar happenstance (not sure I'd label it as an adventure--more likely a mis-adventure). I was commuting from Seattle to my home about 50 miles away and found myself caught in some of the worst 'stop & go' traffic I'd ever experienced in downtown. Possibly due to the appearance of rain after 7 months of gorgeous sunny skies or perhaps because the 'bus tunnel' was recently closed for a 2 year renovation and now the buses have been diverted to surface streets resulting in gridlock all around. Regardless, the traffic was a nightmare.

I had been inching forward 'neck & neck' with several cars right around me for about half an hour and noticed that one Nissan Quest (even got the license info) minivan in particular carried 4 passengers--who all seemed to range in age from mid/late 40s to mid-60s. What was bizarre is that the passenger in the front passenger seat flipped me the proverbial single finger salute every time I passed him or he passed me. How pleasant! As many of you probably don't know, I wear a certain uniform to work and it was quite visible to these passersby. So, my conjecture is that the salute was meant toward the uniform. Not sure how to respond, I simply smiled and continued inching my way home. Gotta love freedom of speech!

What I couldn't get over is that these individuals all appeared to be well dressed businessmen who, if I could judge solely on outward appearances & the fact they were in a brand new car, probably are middle class folks. I just couldn't believe that people who, by that age in life, should be mature enough to respect other people regardless of race, religion, occupation, etc. It just struck me as being quite odd. I would expect that behavior from teenagers and young adults but not middle-aged 'professional' men. :( Now I wonder if this is a 'society' thing or just a 'Seattle' thing. So sad...

Out and about...

After a morning of school with rnrB & trkr, we headed off to explore our old neighborhood a bit. We checked on our Buried Treasure letterbox and it's doing well. While exploring the neighboring 'slough' we stumbled upon a spot that had hundreds of the tiniest little frogs ever! They were hopping all over the place. It was really neat to see. We also observed one of the most beautiful blue and purple dragonflies we'd ever seen. Cool! We miss our old neighborhood--it boasts a quiet, old-fashioned lifestyle, lots of greenbelt areas and opportunities to maintain quaint little vegetable gardens. I miss it!

Musings on the abode

Nothing like home shopping from afar!

We've been perusing real estate sites all over the DC megalopolis and aren't finding many prospects.

Now I'm leaning toward purchasing some postage stamp lot some place and perhaps building a Glide House on it. Not sure if the style would go well with very traditionally themed East Coast sentiments but the house seems to be what I'm looking for. Minimalistic, clean lines and functional with a focus on blending with the environment. Now if we could only find some land that's affordable that would serve well for a home like this!!!

As for other musings--we've continued our 'get back in shape' program. We're trying to make it a habit to run to the local 'monster' playground about a mile-1.5 miles away from home. Once there, we run around the lake a couple of times and then the kids get their 'free-for-all' time on the playground. I found a pull-up bar just the right height for adults and I've challenged myself by doing a pull-up each time we're there and then increasing the number of pull-ups in the sequence by one each return trip. Yesterday I did 3 in row! Then another 3 individually afterwards. It's sad! There once was a time when I could do dozens of pull-ups & now I'm scrambling to do just a few. :( Of course, I probably weigh about 60-80 pounds more than when I could do dozens (that was my little girl monkey gymnast phase). In college while I was swimming competitively I could do about a dozen or so (probably 25 pounds away from where I am today)--so my 3 in a row is a bit embarrassing now. Anyways, a few more visits to the playground and hopefully I can get back to that level sometime again. ;)

Movin' on (unfortunately)...

Well, we just got word that we'll be swapping out Washingtons in a few months. :(

It's a good move career-wise but extremely difficult to leave the natural beauty and incredible weather found in the Evergreen State.

We actually love the other Washington, too--especially the incredible national history contained in the area and the awesome exhibits available at the national museums. It'll be neat to get a lot of time to spend in the area without always having to rush to catch that flight to head back home.

We're now in the race to find a home in the other WA. Of course, if we want to sell our children, our belongings and potentially future children we can afford to live exactly where we'd want to in the VA/DC/MD metroplex. But we'd rather not do that so now we're quickly surveying the possibilities of 'unique' abodes in the area and we'll try to find that 'diamond-in-the-rough'. These past 5 years, we've been living in a chaotic world that combined bucolic pastoral life spiked with short stints of stressful urban mass-population 'stuck-in-traffic' for numerous hours of days type of conditions. The pastoral aspect of the life is awesome. The urban rat-race is not. I'm a bit concerned that we'll be jumping into the 'full-time' urban rat race now and it's a bit intimidating.

Of course, it won't be permanent but we do feel that we'll be in the metroplex for about 6 years. It'll be interesting to see what unfolds.

Stay tuned to find out how our 'saga' unfolds... ;)

Beijing Bicycle

Just caught the 2001 Chinese film 'Beijing Bicycle'! Wow! Well done. It brought back vivid memories of our trip to Beijing. The film included many scenes in the Hutong--so that was really neat to see again. Incredible!

Back in Action

Had to take the car into the shop today. Nothing like blowing one of those mornings that you'd get the opportunity to sleep in, laze around, you name it and spend an hour in traffic to take your car to the shop! THEN, they dilly dally with the car and realize THEY ordered the wrong part! Ugh! So, we get to go through the ordeal yet ANOTHER time! Gotta love it!

Tried to make up for lost time afterwards. Spent some time at the beach for school--did our reading and writing watching the waves at Solo Point. Attempted a geocache at Goose Crossing. Weird. The clue for the cache was visible yesterday, we seek it out today, DNF, return to the clue and it's NOWHERE to be found. Wonder what's up... I did notice that a bunch of area letterboxers have been quite active in the geocaching realm. Hmmm...it wasn't just us!

We nabbed a quick cache in Steilacoom, then set out on a training run and was able to loop past two other geocaches along the way. So, not terribly bad for a day! We're in that time of the year when the 'rains' are due back any moment and we don't want to waste a single sunny day--hence, the attempt at maximizing our sun exposure today!

Kids are doing well. I'm tired. What else is nu? c over lamda? ;)

Amazing birthday sunset over Puget Sound!!!

This was our sunset a couple evenings ago!!! Wonder why we love this area???

like father, like son

this must be how trkee caught the 'flying bug', too?

first rollercoaster ride!

kayakin' the Puyallup!

pumpkin on parade

the grand prize pumpy at the puyallup fair! our un-state fair!

2nd day of ballet

rnrB & seastar showing off some of their ballet positions

first day of ballet

rnrB heads to ballet/jazz/tap for the first time!

fort near the fort

an industrial sized fort at sunnyside beach along Puget Sound.

sand man tug

dvn2r ckr & trkr enjoying a moment on a tug!

dancing waters at the capitol

beach forts at sunnyside

One of the many sunnyside beach forts the kids built this summer! Gotta love Puget Sound Summers!!!

dvn2r ckr in tow

Long, long ago I used to be decent at waterskiing--I'm now a bit rusty, can you tell?

double decker trkr

Splashing in the lake at lakeside!

kayaking on Whidbey Isle

dvn2r ckr, trkr & jake skywalker kayaking a bit.

Cupid, aka rnrB

rnrB enjoying the archery on Whidbey!

Deception Pass exploration

Deception Pass Bridge

We camped at Deception Pass---AGAIN!!! Yep, go ahead and twist my arm!!!

The next morning we awoke bright and early to hike around Bowman Bay--one of my all time favorite spots in the world!!!

M.V. Kittitas

On our way over to Whidbey Island in August for a great week of fun & adventure. rnrB & trkr loved the ferry rides!

Space Needle in August

Took a stroll around the needle after work one day. Lovely as usual!

Around WA and back again...

It's been a LONG time since I last posted here. We've been on quite an adventure, as usual. Work has been quite chaotic and has really imposed upon our play time. Fortunately, we've been able to enjoy the little play time that we have managed to sneak into our schedule. I'll try to post some photos of our experiences here shortly.