"You should befriend some Mormons"

After reading my last post, Patrick IMed me and said "you should befriend some Mormons" - a reference to the fact that Mormons are supposed to stockpile a year's worth of food. By the way, even after somewhat extensive internet research, I haven't been able to find out exactly WHY Mormons do this - in some cases I read it's 2 years, in some I read it was just a "recommendation", etc. So I am unclear - if you happen to know more of the background of Mormon stockpiling, would you mind commenting and sharing some of the story? The first I heard of this was last month during our flooding - an older couple in Vernonia had a year's worth of food in their basement that was all ruined.

BACK TO THE STORY (gosh I get off topic easily)... after Patrick commented that I should befriend some Mormons, I showed him this link - a Mormon grocery gamer with her beautiful stock pile of one year's worth of food. Note the THREE FEEZERS: one for fruit / ice cream, one for meat, and one for veggies. Wow.

Oh and in case you're wondering what Geoff thinks about this - he seems to enjoy it! (not as much as me, but of course he's not as much of a freak as I am). He went with me to all of my stores yesterday, and agreed to go again today and do a seperate transaction so that we can get twice the amount of items allowed in one transaction (the reason we're going again is because I missed a few things when making my initial list yesterday... I am not a star grocery gamer yet). I thought he would NOT be excited about the seperate transactions, but he said it happened all the time when he worked at Schuck's and it's not big deal. YAY!

Latest Obsession

Recently when I was reading a personal finance blog, I read about thegrocerygame.com. The idea is that stores have a very predictable sale cycle (starting new again every 12 weeks), and by using sales and coupons together you can get fabulous deals on brand name items. They help you do this by showing you when the best combination of the deals is - each week they publish a list for various grocery stores and drug stores, with the deals shown for you. Green means an item is free (after coupons/rebates), blue means it is the ROCK BOTTOM price (it never goes lower than this), and black means that it's a decent price, get it if you need it, but it will go lower so wait if you can! You're supposed to stock up when you see a blue item you use... enough for 12 weeks worth, so you can get yourself through until the next sale cycle. At first you might not see a ton of savings because you're still in "stock up" mode, but after the first cycle you get through, you should see quite a bit of savings! They have a trial membership for $1 for 4 weeks, and I read that the best thing to do is save up coupons from the Sunday papers every week for a few weeks beforehand, so that you're ready to go when you start. I've been saving coupons since January 6th, and I started yesterday. This is how I did:

Safeway: spent $1.95, saved $1.30 (40% savings)
Rite Aid: spent $7.14, coupon savings $1.85 (21% savings - plus I have a $2 mail in rebate, and the savings on the Rite Aid receipt doesn't tell you the sale savings, JUST coupon savings - so it's really better than that)
Walgreens: spent $8.07, saved $14.19 (64% savings)
Albertsons: spent $58.08, saved $51.10 (47% savings)

I got tons of food, health/beauty, and household products for that... I won't list it out here to bore you though.

Today I am going to go to two stores and get the following things: 14 cans of petite diced tomatoes, 6 cans of black beans, 8 cans of chicken broth, and 8 cans of tomato sauce. And the total for all of that is going to be $14! Which I figure is pretty good… tomatoes and black beans are generally $1 each on sale (at stores that take credit cards, maybe 60 cents each at Winco but that's cash/debit only), so right there that'd be $20… without the chicken broth and tomato sauce. I am SO EXCITED. (these are ingredients that are in a lasagna soup that Geoff and I love)

This game is definitely NOT FOR EVERYONE. You can get decent deals on a lot of this stuff just by buying your paper towels / TP / etc at Costco, and for a lot less effort. However, overall you do save more playing this game than you would at Costco and I LOVE the "game" part of it. Clipping all of the coupons, organizing them, waiting for the papers to come and the lists to come out, picking out the items you want, etc. Plus I want beautiful stockpiles like these (don't worry, I realize that these are for families of like 7 people... I hope mine will be this pretty, just on a smaller scale! - also before you freak out, think about why these people have so much stuff. If they have 5 kids who eat 3 boxes of cereal a week, that's 36 boxes they need to get themselves through a 12 week cycle. So buying 40 boxes of cereal isn't as insane as it looks on first glance!). I was having trouble yesterday morning figuring out what I wanted to buy, figuring out how to read the list, making sure I had all the right coupons, etc - but once I did it was GREAT! I felt so guilty walking into my first store and handing over the coupons... but no one even batted an eyelash. It is so weird to me to hand over stacks of coupons, but it works so well! I love it. If you DO decide to try the game, I'd appreciate if you'd use me as a referral - kelly94942 at hotmail dot com. I'm having a blast... and can't wait to go shopping today! I know, I am a huge freak. But at least I'm having fun!

A dream, a quiz, and a thought

Patrick's Dream Last Night
Patrick had a dream last night that we were in Palatine (the Chicago suburb where we grew up) and we were at my house there, and there was a farm. He accidentally killed 2 pigs, and asked me to bury them. I did a bad job, and the farmer found them, and he thought "I should have buried them myself".

Moral of the story: Don't ask me to bury your dead pigs!

And answers to follow-up questions:
1. No, he did not kill me for not burying the pigs well
2. The farmer is unknown
3. He doesn't know how my house was involved other than we could park in the driveway which was extra wide (there was a two car garage and then a 3rd car spot on the driveway itself - perfect for a teenager!)
4. My house was not the farm itself, but it may have been in the backyard

A Quiz Marisa Sent Me
Marisa sent me a quiz this morning. I won't blog the whole quiz, but here are a few things I thought were interesting:

WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? I was named after Grace Kelly. I never really knew why, my mom wasn't obsessed with her or anything as far as I know. My middle name is Elizabeth, which was my great-great grandmother on my mom's side's first name. (Like if you go straight up the line of women in my family... my mom's mother is Ann, her mother was Almina, and HER mother was Elizabeth).

IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I always comment that I would not be friends with me. I don't think I'm a particularly nice person.

WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? I try not to say "no" to anything... but this is something I'm not very likely to get excited about.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? I'm not much of a cereal eater... I like lots of them though, hard to have a favorite. I enjoy Froot Loops, Honey Nut Cheerios, Life, Capt'n Crunch, etc. The last time I had cereal was probably in college though... and even then very very rarely.

DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? No... I wear sneakers to work every day and I NEVER untie them. Actually I was slightly annoyed earlier this morning because one came untied and I had to retie it. But with my running shoes... EVERY SINGLE TIME. No matter what. I always untie them. Two reasons: (1) so I don't hurt the heel of the shoe when I try to put my foot in, and (2) so I can tie them tightly enough and appropriately to support my foot.

DO YOU THINK YOU'RE STRONG? PHYSICALLY OR MENTALLY? I do actually. I think I'm both physically and mentally strong. This often gets challenged (physically) when I try to "fight" Geoff and he picks me up and throws me (gently!) on the ground or otherwise shows me how weak I am compared to him. Most of the time my levelheadedness make me feel strong mentally, and when I'm running or leg pressing a lot of weight or something cool like that I feel totally strong physically!

WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? In someone I actually meet, their intelligence. I judge it almost immediately, based on whatever information I have to go on. Usually throughout my relationship with any given person, I continue to judge their intelligence up or down (this sounds bad. I don't know how to make it sound not bad. I guess it IS bad.) If I haven't met them (i.e. someone I see in a store), I will typically notice who a person is with - kids, friends, significant other, etc. If they are alone I will note if they look like they're talking on the phone, in a rush, etc. I rarely notice physical appearance, and even less often, what they're wearing.

RED OR PINK? Pink! I LOVE pink... bright pink, light pink, any pink. This is new, in the last 3 or 4 years. I used to hate it. I try to get EVERYTHING in pink... I have a pink hat, rain coat, suitcase, etc. I tried to get a pink KitchenAid mixer, but Geoff wasn't a fan... he let me get a pink spatula and a pink knife instead. So I think in our kitchen I'm going for black / stainless steel... with a little bit of pink accent thrown in there where I think I can get away with it!

WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? Well this is a very recent discovery (like I realized it yesterday), but I am annoyed that I have to have a numerical metric to be truly effective at doing something. Like I can save money easily because you can look at your progress over time on a chart. I can plot the number of miles I have run in a week, month, year on a pretty little graph. I can't measure my relationships with people or with God that way... they're not quantifiable! So that makes me feel like I can never be good at them... although I know that I CAN and probably am. I just can't measure it. So I don't like that I have this metric obsession with all that I do. It's not necessary. (also - this probably isn't my least favorite thing about myself overall, it's just something that's bugging me a little)

WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? I definitely miss the college environment! I miss my sister the most though of any one person... I think I feel even further from her because she's in Spain, so it's hard to talk on the phone with her. Anyone else, I can call up at any time... but not her!

FAVORITE SMELLS? Nothing strong! I don't like strong smells anywhere... flower shops make me feel like I'm going to throw up. I like vanilla okay. (incidentally, I read yesterday that chocolate chip cookies make women more likely to go shopping, even if it's not in the budget). I thought of this later (when it was lunchtime so people have food at their desks) - I LOVE the smell of onion and/or garlic cooking in butter or oil!

FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? College football! Even better, Big 10 football, and the ultimate prize is Northwestern football. :) Bonus points for winning!

DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No... oddly, both Geoff and I have perfect vision. I do have these weird prism glasses though... they are a prescription but not a normal prescription. I have a muscle issue with my eyes (don't remember exactly what, it's been 5 or 6 years since I've been to an eye doctor) where sometimes it is hard for me to focus (especially when I'm tired) and I will wear these glasses to make it easier to focus. I will often go 6 months without wearing them though. If anyone else puts them on, they are like 3-D glasses in an IMAX movie. So weird.

FAVORITE FOOD? This is hard! I love food. Recently I have had an affinity for any pasta made with Italian sausage. I have discovered that I find ground beef has little flavor in anything but hamburgers (to me anyway), and I prefer substitutes - sausage in pasta, ground turkey in tacos, etc.

LAST MOVIE YOU SAW? Pulp Fiction. I am embarassed to admit that, because it was such an awful movie in the sense of language, violence, sex, etc. I found it amusing though... it's hard to say if I really LIKED it, but I'd say more it was interesting. I watched it because my coworkers all love it and quote it constantly. One of them loaned it to me and so I watched it, so at least now I can understand their references to it. Incidentally, my sister and I weren't allowed to watch The Simpsons when we were little and to this day we both refuse to watch it because we're not "allowed" to. (that was the only show we weren't allowed to watch, except for The Nanny which my mom banned simply because she did not like that woman's laugh)

WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? When are you going to Alaska? I can't remember! We're going on an Alaskan cruise with my parents the summer of 2009 (I think... nothing's set in stone yet). I am reading A Thousand Splended Suns for book club... it's by the author of the Kite Runner, which I loved, and I love this one too! I'm about halfway done. I want to check out a few non-fiction books from the library - perhaps one or two about dreams, and a couple of personal finance books. I'm thinking of starting a personal finance blog (as though there aren't enough of those on the internet already!)

DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? I can fold my tongue in half and open and close it quickly like a venus fly trap. NOT like most people who can sort of roll it in half so that it makes a little O in the front (although I can do that too), but this is literally folding it in half so the edges of the right side meet up with the edges of the left side, right down to the center. It hurts my throat/neck though after I do it a few times in a row, so I don't do it often. I just did it once to test just now, and it hurt just that once!

A Thought
As you might have caught above, I'm thinking of starting a personal finance blog. I LOVE personal finance. And I'm constantly getting more and more interested in it. I think I send Geoff a new chart daily ("look at how our power bill goes down in the winter as our gas bill goes up!" "here's our projected net worth in 2043!" - two ACTUAL examples from this week). And we have set very aggressive financial goals for the next 2 years (because really, who can set precise goals on a longer time frame than that). So it'd be fun to track that, share what I know, and get advice/comments from others. I'll keep pondering it, and we'll see what happens! Let me know what you think of the idea. There are already about 648914365 personal finance blogs on the internet. And this time, that number might be real.

Fun

I am obsessed with looking at what people Google to find my blog (and I use the word obsessed loosely, since I do it only about once every 6 months... but it greatly amuses me). It so entertains me! Top 10 in the past month:
1. celery numbness
2. kate gosselin
3. jon and kate gosselin
4. beaverton and gym and "resolution people"
5. becoming a dentist
6. celery heartburn
7. fuzzy posters
8. hate kate gosselin blog
9. kellys furniture mcminnville
10. usaa

Speaking of using terms loosely, I do that a lot. I over-exaggerate a lot. I say "hate" "jealous" "obsessed" "love" - and tons of other things I'm sure - way too easily. I should work on that. I also say things like 13689063 when I mean 12 often. Yikes.

Now Geoff is dreaming

I don't think Geoff has ever told me about a dream he's had before... must be because I've been remembering my dreams more lately! But today he told me about a dream he had last night: He was paying someone for a service and I apparently thought it was overpriced. I said "this is ridiculous" and pulled out a gun and shot the guy right between the eyes. After that I ended up in jail (makes sense) and Geoff and his brother were living in their parent's house (the parents were gone). Only a bomb had gone off in the house, so there was only a bathroom and they both had to live in that bathroom. The end.

More details (based on answers to questions I asked):
- He thought the service was a taxi ride, but wasn't sure
- He doesn't know what his reaction was when I shot the guy
- He doesn't know if he was sad I was in jail or if he came to visit me
- He doesn't know where his parents went or how the bomb went off
- Geoff thought it was extra funny that I said "this is ridiculous" because I apparently say that a lot

It got worse

Read my post called "Outrage" just below this if you haven't yet.

It gets worse... I read on in the same article and read "Hillary's life was marked by grand achievements, high adventure, discovery, excitement -- and by his personal humility. Humble to the point that he only admitted being the first man atop Everest long after the death of climbing companion Norgay." Nothing wrong with that sentence/paragraph... if you don't count the fact that 8 paragraphs prior you read "Hillary's life was marked by grand achievements, high adventure, discovery, excitement -- and by his personal humility. Humble to the point that he only admitted being the first man atop Everest long after the death of climbing companion Tenzing Norgay."

Wow, thanks for taking out the first name Tenzing. That made that paragraph MUCH different than the one that came before it.

And these are just the mistakes I catch, people! Who knows what else I'm missing, even in the articles I read (I often get bored and skim, especially towards the bottom).

This article in particular is good though. I really enjoy reading about Hillary... especially his comments about David Sharp, those have always really resonated with me (from what we know, not having been on the mountain that day, as many as 40 climbers didn't stop to help Sharp because they were more interested in their own summit attempt).

Outrage

Okay - I check CNN.com probably once or twice a day depending on how busy I am, typically once first thing in the morning and once in the afternoon when things start to slow down. This is weekdays only. I read only the stories up at the top in the Top News section. (on very rare occasion I will scroll down the front page to find more articles, this is once a month at the very most). I'd say I typically read 2 - 5 articles each day. I by no means consider this extreme.

Anyway, it's come to the point where I am finding mistakes several times a week, and I find this unacceptable. Today I was reading about Sir Edmund Hillary dying, and found this mistake "The accomplishment as part of a British climbing expedition even added luster to the coronation of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II four days later, and she knighted Hillary as one of her first act."

ACTS. Not act - PROOFREAD, please. I realize you're putting out thousands of articles a day, but I'd rather read half as many articles and have them correctly written. You're not writing a blog, you're running a professional news organization. Ridiculous. I've even discussed with Patrick the possibility of starting cnnmistakes.blogspot.com or some such blog. I'd have more fodder for that than I do my real blog! Honestly though, I wouldn't be surprised if it's been done already.

Fascinating... in a weird way

So last week I was searching for the correct way to wash my satin-y cloth napkins that we used at Christmas. I came across this thread - about using cloth napkins in every day use, instead of paper napkins. I thought this was a perfect, green idea to go with my new thing of moving more towards being green. I thought that I might start to do this after we work through the paper napkin supply in the house that we currently have. I told Julie (the mother in law!) about this and she suggested putting the paper napkins in the camper where we can burn them in the campfire instead of putting them in the garbage, and that way I could start on cloth napkins now. Genius idea!

So I decided I wanted to see some other ideas from these people that brought me this cloth napkin idea. So I went back from that thread to the more broad forum - it's called Frugality and Finances, at Mothering (which is apparently a "natural family living community" - sounds like there is a magazine that this all comes from). Okay, interesting, but just because these people have kids doesn't mean their ideas can't relate to me. They're all big on Dave Ramsey (I've never actually read any of his books, but I've read so many personal finance forums and blogs and things that I feel like I have!) and have some interesting ideas. The interesting thing about this forum compared to most personal finance forums I read is that they're MORE into overall natural living than they are into finance. So for instance, even though you can often find new items more cheaply at Ikea or Target, they would prefer buying the same item used from Goodwill or a thrift store because it lowers overall consumption. Interesting.

I can see in the signatures these people use on their forum postings other things they're into - home schooling, family bed, no vaccinations, eating organic, "babywearing" (never heard of that before this forum), etc. So I back up even further into their overall Mothering forum - YIKES. Reading their discussions about all of these ways they are raising their kids are fascinating to me. Certainly things I'd (for the most part) never thought about. If I ever have kids, they would definitely be topics I would do some research into and spend some time thinking about. I mentioned them to Geoff and for most things his first reaction was "ew, no" but he also said they are things worth thinking about if you do have kids. Interesting, anyway.

So after that I stayed safely in the world of "Frugality and Finances"... still a lot of interesting discussion. There was a discussion about if teens are more expensive than babies and kids, and one mother pointed out that America is one of the only countries where braces seem to be a given for almost all kids. In most cases, they're really just cosmetic and not needed for health reasons. Stuff on gardening, stocking up your pantry, having "no spend days/weekends", etc. All fascinating to me. A woman's blog link about how she stocks her pantry, doesn't have trash service (takes her own loads to the dump instead), turns her water heater down except for laundering cloth diapers, line drys laundry, etc.

Today... I encountered a whole new kind of frugality - cloth toilet paper! I am so fascinated by these people. On many of these topics I can't/haven't even formed an opinion one way or the other about if I think these are good or bad ideas (for me, I'm not questioning if they're good ideas for those folks!), but I just love how much it makes me think.

One note about this blog: I completely generalize this entire forum... I realize they're individuals who all have their own ideas and do different things, but I am speaking in general when I say "those people". Just the feeling I get from the general nature of the discussion. Anyway though, I'll keep reading occasionally. It's certainly an interesting read if nothing else! Reveals my own ignorance to me. :)

Dreams

I have had a lot of very vivid dreams lately. Last night, I dreamed that I sold my wedding dress on Craigslist (I had BARELY posted the ad and someone wanted it right away, so I was running around trying to find the shoes and slip and all of that to go with it)... when the person came to get it, I opened the garage door and was scared because there were two people there, both fighting with each other! My old roommate was there and was like "who is this person???" and I got mad and said "It's someone from Craigslist!". The roommate thought it was someone who was moving in from Craigslist, and I'm like, it's someone who is BUYING something from Craigslist. Then the roommate started running around... turned out he had hid stuff on the property... like behind some bushes he had dug holes and buried papers in plastic baggies? Weird. I don't know what happened with the wedding dress... I woke up.

I didn't used to remember my dreams like this, and certainly not so vividly. But I really have been the last couple of months. Wonder why the change?

My SET time today was 1 minute, 18 seconds. This SOUNDS like a good time, but I was disappointed. I got the first 5 very quickly (probably my fastest ever) but then I couldn't find the last one for a while. And I was getting frustrated because I couldn't find it right away, which probably made it worse because I couldn't just relax and concentrate.

So yesterday I thought my insurance company made a mistake - I got my statement and it said this (numbers changed for ease of demonstration):

Auto: Full balance $600, Extended plan: $100
House: Full balance $500, Extended plan: $100

I thought "oh no, are they charging me extra fees for paying monthly on my homeowner's insurance? I know they don't do that for auto, but maybe it's different with homeowner's". So I called them up and asked if there were fees (thinking I'd much rather just pay it all now than to pay monthly if there are fees involved, and wondering how I'd missed these fees all this time)... and they said "oh no, we don't charge additional fees no matter HOW you want to pay it." I said "okay, well then there's a mistake in my bill... if there are no additional fees, the monthly homeowner's bill should be $83.33". And she said "well, your auto just renewed so you have 6 months left on it... your homeowner's renews anually in June, so you have 5 months left". OHHHHHHHHHHH.... yes, that math works perfectly. So I felt a little dumb until I realized that it was a perfectly honest mistake, and it wasn't like I'd called and yelled at them or anything... and then I was just happy I called for clarification. And yet again, USAA is awesome! :)

SET

So a couple of months ago Patrick introduced me to the SET Daily Puzzle. I MUST have had this card game as a child, because it seems so familiar. Patrick and I play every day and always share our times with each other (you get a time at the end when you complete the puzzle). Somewhere along the way, we came up with the idea that the "accepted" time is under 3 minutes. Anything higher and you are deemed dumb. A few weeks ago Patrick got a time in the 4 minute range, and was annoyed that he was dumb... I said maybe we didn't have enough data when we set the goal, and on average it really does take longer to complete it than we thought. He replied that "no, lowering standards is a problem all too common in America today. I must accept that I am dumb and work to improve it". (as funny as this statement is, it actually does have some truth to it!)

I was telling this story to my mom and Geoff over "winter break" and they wanted to try it... so they did - my mom got 19 minutes and Geoff got 21 minutes. At this time I developed a new "rule"... within the first 14 times (two weeks) of doing the puzzle, you are held to no "dumbness" standard, because you're still learning how the puzzle works.

I shared with my sister yesterday... she got 7 minutes on her first try, she must be a genius... although I got yesterday's puzzle in 52 seconds, so it was easier than others. Some really are easier than others. Today I got 4 minutes, 39 seconds - dumb. My sister got 3 minutes, 53 seconds today... in her two week trial period... she is a GENIUS!

Go ahead, try it. You know you want to!

Christmas (for real this time)

Alright, I really do owe y'all a real piece about Christmas, not just that half a sentence I wrote yesterday. It was great! Gosh, now I have to think back... the Friday before Christmas was my coworker Cindy's birthday, so we went to Old Spaghetti Factory for a little birthday get together. Actually that day was pretty funny too - I had decided I wanted Honeybaked Ham for Christmas dinner the night before, so we called the Honeybaked Ham store in the morning and they had some hams available. So I told Cindy I was going to go get one, and she wanted one too so she came. Our other coworker Paul needed something from the music store in that area, so he came too, and then we went to the music store. After that we had lunch with another friend at Sweet Tomatoes. It was a lengthy "lunch hour". ;-) But it was the day before "winter break!" Geoff had to work his LAST SATURDAY on the 22nd, so I did a lot around the house in terms of getting ready for Christmas and my parent's to arrive. The 23rd was his grandmother's birthday, so we went to brunch with his family at a very nice brunch establishment (The Red Lion Inn in Vancouver). Then Geoff and I went to a "camping timeshare" presentation which was such a hoot. Without going into all of the specifics on what this program offered, the guy calculated that we spend $800 a year on camping fees (based on average rate and number of nights stayed). Fair enough. Then based on his $4500 program, he decided we'd make that back in 5 years. Ummm.... yeah, except the $4500 is like the "buy in" fee and doesn't include yearly dues of $300 (which adds up to $1500 over the course of those 5 years, thereby adding another 2 years onto that time), plus the fact that there are still nightly fees (of roughly $10) at some of the campgrounds in his program and the fact that there are no campgrounds as close as the one we typically go to, so gas prices are more expensive. I pointed these three facts out to him and all he could say was "oh... I guess your math is better than mine". HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. What an entertaining way to spend an hour. I so enjoyed myself. As a reward, we got $50 worth of gift cards to Camping World and $25 worth of Shell gift cards. Excellent. At Camping World (we went right away since it's sorta far away and this place was right next door to it) we bought Cast Iron Cookware, Domino Holders, and a Mexican Train Domino piece (same center piece and trains, we just didn't buy that whole set). We're domino people. ;-) Then we got home and Geoff's grandmother gave us a Christmas present - the same exact set of Domino Holders! I felt so bad... but it was great because it was obviously a present we really wanted, and Geoff realized it was actually perfect because this way we had 8 instead of just 4 so we could play bigger games! Then that night I played Risk for the 2nd time ever - we played two games with Geoff, Geoff's brother Trevor, his girlfriend Kristy, another friend Andrew, and stepdad Gary. Trevor easily won the first game and Trevor and I made it down to a few little men in Madagascar on the second game. It was SO close... but Trevor came out ahead. I'm now Risk-obsessed. We then went grocery shopping at about midnight (yay for 24 Hour Winco!) and then finished up the house. We slept in on Christmas Eve morning, finished up the very final last touches for the house, and then went to Geoff's parent's so he could salt-pack the prime rib. Yuuuum. I ran an errand with Gary, and by the time I got back it was time to go get my parents! We got them from the airport, and went straight to Geoff's parents. We had a DELICIOUS dinner (complete with homemade dinner rolls prepared by Geoff's mom) and Geoff's Oma and Opa (his grandparents on his dad's side) were there. Oma presented Geoff and his brother with a very special Christmas presents - quilts she had made for each one of them using their dad's clothing. They are SO cool - they are giant, made with king size sheets. The guys were so excited... they had been a part of picking out the clothing and arranging the layout of the quilts, but they didn't know they were ready and it was so cool to be there for their reaction. In fact, I am cuddled up in Geoff's right now. Definitely one of the best gifts ever (and I didn't even get it). But I DID get Lock-N-Lock (the best storage containers ever, and we know how I love to organize) from Oma. TONS of it. Yay, I love Lock-N-Lock. Oma and I are like twins... only not. Then Geoff and I made the announcement that we'd received WEDDING PICTURES and everyone gathered around with dessert and coffee to watch them on the big screen. Obviously watching them on a giant TV is not the most quality way to see your fabulous wedding pictures, but it was great to be able to watch them with both sets of parents, two sets of grandparents, and Geoff's brother. Definitely worth it to see everyone's reactions all together. It was awesome. Then Geoff, Mom, Dad, and I went to church, then home so my dad could go to bed. My mom, Geoff, and I stayed up cooking a breakfast casserole for Christmas morning (a very long-standing tradition in my house).

I need a new paragraph.

Christmas morning we slept a little late, then enjoyed our breakfast casserole. We were waiting for my sister, who was in route from her boyfriend's parent's house in Alicante, Spain, to Motril, Spain, where she lives. Once she got there, we set up a webcam and videoconferenced while opening all of our presents and stockings. It was a long process, but fun! My parents and my sister got me and Geoff all of our bedding that we'd registered for on our wedding registry - it is sooooo nice. I feel guilty sleeping on it... I'm so paranoid, like "what if I drool?!?!?!" It really is very nice. We received several "first Christmas" ornaments and lots of fun stocking stuffers, including wooden spoons for Geoff, the man who LOVES wooden spoons. And I got Paula Deen's Christmas cookbook and Geoff got a BBQ thermometer probe thing! After that we had to cook! Okay, I didn't cook, just bossed people around - sounds like me, right? We washed all of the china and crystal in our hutch - some had been used, and some hadn't, so we just got it done. Plus it looks all sparkly now anyway! We bought beautiful Christmas placemats and napkins for Crate & Barrel (wedding giftcards, yay!) that made our table look so elegant and formal and beautiful! I cannot find a link to them right now which makes me sad because I want you to see their beautiousness, but at the same time happy that they're not like 75% off. Anyway, Geoff's family came over around 5ish... we all visited for a while, and Geoff and my mom cooked (really, I did nothing. Oh, I warmed up the rolls and tossed salad. Difficult.) OH!!! I almost forgot - my mom bought these little sparkly alien ear things for us... they were so fun. She gave them to us Christmas morning, and we wore them all day, even during the video conference. And they didn't even hurt my big head. EVERYONE wore them for a while that night too, there is a picture somewhere with them... I'll have to get one of those pics from someone and post that. Too funny. Anyway, that was awesome. But we had a great dinner... Geoff prayed... and the ham was DELICIOUS. Honeybaked Ham is so great. Yum. After that we opened presents... Geoff's brother Trevor got us the deep fryer from our registry... SCARY. It is awesome, and Geoff can't wait to make buffalo wings. But I can just feel fat jumping onto me just looking at that thing in its box. Yikes. Geoff's parents got us the Coleman Road Trip grill for our camper, which I have been talking about forever. It's super cool. They also got me party lights with little trailers attached to them (seriously, the lights are trailers!) and Geoff some steak thermometers. Oh and a deep fry thermometer. Lots of thermometers for Christmas. ;-) We had picked out most excellent presents for our parents this year (at least I think so) - a Coach purse for Julie, a grill thermometer with wireless responder thing for Gary, slippers and an electric screwdriver for my dad, and an ipod shuffle for my mom. They all seemed to enjoy them, which was really cool! It was a most excellent Christmas.

The next day my dad got sick! Boo to him... he and Geoff both worked the next few days, so my mom and I went to Costco, watched Food Network, etc. Friday we went camping in Cannon Beach at the Cannon Beach RV Resort. I love that place, and I love the coast! It was windy and misty of course, but my poor parents ("the Texans") were especially frio. But we had a good time walking around the coast and looking in the little shops and relaxing and playing dominoes (of course). We had steak and roasted potatoes for dinner the first night, "camping breakfast" (which was invented by my mom, but she said my version was as good, which was really cool), and then went out to dinner one night). Sunday we got back, and dropped the camper off at Geoff's parents (they needed extra bedrooms!) and then went home to rest and shower. Sunday night we went to happy hour at Oba for a drink (YUM, marionberry margaritas) and then Russell Street BBQ for some tasty food. Monday was New Year's Eve... my mom and I went to Costco and the grocery store for black eyed peas. She makes fantastic black eyed pea soup. We hung out for a while, Geoff got home from work pretty early, and we went to Geoff's parent's for a New Years Eve party around 7ish. It was a blast! Tons of people there - Geoff's parents, brother Trevor, girlfriend Kristy (with her family - 2 parents and 4 other kids), sister Rebecca, uncle Mike, cousin Taylor, aunt Julie, uncle Brian, new baby cousin Nora, grandma Katie, aunt Gayle, uncle Rick, cousin Meghan, cousin Brendan, aunt Judy, uncle Jeff, cousin Hannah and her boyfriend Andrew, cousin Miriam, aunt Sarah, uncle Peter, cousin Odette, my parents, Bestema (like a grandmother... confusing family relation really)... and I'm sure I'm forgetting some! We had a great time giving trailer tours... it seemed to be a hit. Then we busted out the dominoes... the first few rounds saw several people rotating in and out (I was glad we had all 8 trays!). Several people asked us where we got the game... but really it's kind of pieced together. The dominoes themselves (really all you need, you can play with pennys as markers instead of "trains") are from Target (we have two sets, double 9's and double 15's), and everything else is from Camping World. By the time we really got going though, we played with me, my Mom, aunt Gayle, Gary, uncle Brian, uncle Rick, Geoff, and aunt Julie. It did rotate a little but that was the main crowd. My mom won like every game - with the exception of 3... I won one, Gary won one, and Geoff won one. It was so fun!! Everyone was just being hilarious... that table had so many inside jokes and it was just a great time. One of the best times I have had in a long time. I laughed so hard... I love being around sarcastic people. Since my mom was winning so much, she was getting a lot of trash talking aimed in her direction but she dished it right back, it was excellent!

The next morning we had to take my parent's back to the airport... that was sad, but we had a great visit. Then we went home and cleaned up the house and then just relaxed the rest of the day! Wednesday we just relaxed, last night we took down all of the Christmas decorations and the tree, and tonight I went to Chevy's with Addy. Geoff made himself enchaladas and watched the Legend of Zorro. I am now writing the LONGEST BLOG EVER while he plays X Box... which I don't think he's played in the past month. I apologize for the lengthyness of this blog, but I had to catch up! Geoff's last day of work at Schuck's was today! On to bigger and better things starting Monday - my company is all ready for him, he's set with his laptop, phone, headset, nameplate on his office, etc. So exciting! :)

I use too many capitals and made-up words and off-kilter grammar when I blog. I guess that's writer's prerogative though, huh? Is that the right phrase? I thought there was some phrase like writer's right or something. I can't remember. I learned it in like 5th grade.

Tomorrow I have am conducting an interview for a high school senior who is applying to Northwestern. I LOVE these interviews, I always enjoy them so much. She wants to be a biology major. I'm looking forward to meeting her! Then tomorrow night we're going to Chili's for birthday cocktails with a friend. Excellent. Oh and we are using our waffle maker for the first time tomorrow morning in celebration of Geoff's first weekend off. So excited for this weekend! Have a great one.

Christmas and the Vending Room

Christmas was great! I didn't surpass my goal of blogging more in 2007 than in 2004, but maybe 2008? We'll see. We had a great time with my parents, hosting our first Christmas dinner, camping at the coast, and having fun playing dominoes on New Years Eve. YAY.

And now a vent:

Here are 3 vending room types who are unaccaeptbale:
1. Man who gets food out of fridge, sets it down on counter as though he is waiting for microwave, leaves room, and comes back and acts annoyed that someone who was actually IN the room put food in microwave instead of him. WAIT WITH YOUR FOOD
2. Girl who gets food out of fridge and timidly waits until a different man comes in to remove his item from microwave. GET THE GUY'S FOOD OUT AND SET IT ON TOP
3. Guy who walks in to remove his food from said microwave girl was waiting for. Again, WAIT WITH YOUR FOOD

And an announcement! Geoff got hired at the same company where I work (we've known this for a month or so) and he starts on Monday! Just one more day left for him in his current job. YAY... carpool parking lot, here I come! ;-)

Crushed Dreams

So today Patrick and I were talking about Lufthansa buying a portion of JetBlue, and I was talking about how much JetBlue has grown since I did my senior project with them in 2004. I haven't followed them much in the past year, and was pleased to hear that they'd expanded to ORD (that was a big goal of theirs). I said once they really got going in places like Denver and Chicago, that would really help them out. Then I mused about why there was no airport in the middle of America. Our conversation is below, comments are welcome!


Kelly: Somebody should build a big freaking air hub in Omaha.
It'd be genius.
In the middle of everything.
Patrick: haha
do it
Kelly: Yeah right.
Patrick: or memphis
Kelly: That takes CAPITAL.
No not memphis.
It's too far east.
Patrick: NWA has a hub in memphis
Kelly: Fed Ex's hub is there.
UPS's air hub is in Louisville.
But seriously. I say Omaha.
It would be so freaking great.
Patrick: someones got to be hub in kansas city?
Kelly: It doesn't need to be a big city even.
The point is that it's the middle and moves people around more quickly.
No one needs to stay there.
Just go from there to other places.
Man people should do that.
No one is Kansas City that I know of.
Patrick: i need to research now
denver sucks as a hub i think
snow
Kansas City International Airport currently serves as a airline hub for Midwest Airlines.
Kelly: Denver is alright.
LOL Midwest airlines.
Does that airline even EXIST?
Patrick: they have cookies
and fly to milwaukee not chicago
they are supposed to be good
Kelly: lol
Patrick: there are no flights from omaha to the northwest
you should get on that
Kelly: LOL
Patrick: i chop omaha
wichita kansas
that is exactly the middle
Kelly: Is it?
I would even go to some little place.
Like Ahsgdohipgasdjn, Kansas.
Because land would be cheap and it DOESN'T MATTER WHERE IT IS.
Patrick: ha
Kelly: Think of what the people of Ahaklshgdklhg would think of me!
They would LOVE me.
Patrick: but then theyd need hotels and stuff
Kelly: I would bring tons of money.
Right.
Patrick: jobs
Kelly: There would be hotels.
Jobs would come.
They would be happy.
Public transportation. Restaurants. Rental cars.
Patrick: and people would learn to pronounce their towns tricky name
Kelly: LOL.
Patrick: their code could be HAK
Kelly: LOL why HAK?
Why not AHK?
Or ACK
I like ACK
Patrick: ha
Kelly: Should I be the geographical center of the 48 states or the 50?
Ahh forget those other 2. That's too hard.
It doesn't maximize goodness.
Patrick: ACK is nantucket
Kelly: I'll be in Lebanon Kanasas.
The geographical center of the lower 48 states lies outside of Lebanon, Kansas, in the middle of a hog farm.
Patrick: ha
Kelly: Move over hogs, my airport is coming in!!!!
Patrick: hahah
Kelly: This is genius.
I am a freaking genius
Why hasn't any other fool thought of this?
Maybe because they can't find enough people to work at the hotels and restaurnts and as ramp agents and all of that other stuff that an airport requires.
Patrick: yes
or people tend to put big airports in big cities
Kelly: Do you think that's an issue?
I realize they want the airports in cities to get people there.
But this would PURELY be a hub.
Except for the 8 people that live in Lebanon.
Patrick: i think as a UPS hub or something it would be excellent
Kelly: They would be thankful I'm sure.
No. People hub. I don't know what the problem with that is?
Just the people to work there?
Patrick: but most of the country lives in the east and flies between east coast cities
Kelly: They are already well covered.
What about the fools on the west coast?
Patrick: fools
Kelly: That want to visit their family on the east coast.
they NEED to fly through lebanon.
one might say "why not take a nonstop flight"
That is inefficient.
It is much better to take everyone from LA, SF, Seattle, PHX, PDX, and ship them all to Lebanon. Then send them to NY, Jersey, Boston, Virginia, etc.
MUCH more efficient.
Patrick: yes
do it
Kelly: Well you seem to be squelching it.
Patrick: Because of its central location and surrounding farmlands, Lebanon is a crossroads to the nation during hunting seasons with hunters traveling hundreds of miles to hunt Pheasant, Quail, Doves, Ducks and Deer.
i need to go to lebanon ks
if only there was an airport there
i want to see the monument to the center of the country
It was in October of 1887 that the residents of Old Lebanon picked up their very town, down to the foundations, and moved it two and one half miles northeast. The people of Old Lebanon moved because the Rock Island Railroad, threading its way across Kansas toward the west, missed old Lebanon.
the people of lebanon NEED transportation in their town
Kelly: NO KIDDING
And who cares about those people.
I just need them to work for me.
Patrick: all 303 of them
Kelly: Right.
EVERY ONE OF THEM.
From the age of 12 to the age of 80
Should be airport employees.
And their cousins in nearby Alkhsgdkl.
Patrick: youll need to import folks
Kelly: Yes.
Patrick: hahah yes
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/02/us/02album.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
i remember reading this article
Kelly: Interesting article.
Patrick: i think folks like him will resist the airport
Kelly: LOL.
Perhaps.
Patrick: yes
perhaps you should research the mid-america airport on the wiki
Kelly: why??
is it someone else's idea?
Scott Air Force Base?
Patrick: im disappointed with the wikiarticle
Kelly: Uh oh.
I don't want to be the Gateway to Nowhere
Patrick: haha
Kelly: Sad.
I guess starting an airport in Lebanon would be harder than I thought
(1) farmer resistance
(2) lack of workers
(3) previous failures.
actually who am I kidding? I never thought starting an airport would be EASY.
Too bad the whole world isn't made of IEs
Then we wouldn't have such resitance
Patrick: haha
"My opinion is it's never going to be much of a passenger airport but it's got potential for cargo. I think that's where the main thrust I would like to see is it go for cargo," Tiedeman said.Others agreed."There is international corn coming in and those planes need to go through international cargo. All planes need to fly with international flights and the Midwest products are in high demand," District 16 County Board member June Chartrand said.
Kelly: LAME.
Patrick: http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/articles/2007/12/06/news/sj2tn20071205-1205fhj_10yearsofmaa.ii1.txt
Kelly: I don't want to be a cargo airline.
Patrick: corn airport
Kelly: I want to be a passenger airport
I don't WANT to be a corn airport either!!!!
DANG.
Nevermind.
I quit!
Patrick: im sorry for squashing your dreams
i think this is good blog fodder for you
Kelly: LOL.
Maybe.
Oh I have 10 minutes.
I can write about it.
Patrick: you can just cut and past our analysis and invite comments

And there you have it folks. Hopefully this provides some amusement if nothing else. :)

Grad school

No, not me this time! My sister got accepted to grad school! She applied to two schools and has heard from one already - the Monterey Institute of International Studies. What a perfect school for her! It's even on the WEST COAST, which is right where I want her! I'm so excited. This is excellent news. I suppose that is all. Just wanted to share my excitement!

My blog is rated PG

Apparently, my blog is rated PG based on the use of the words pain (6 times) and crap (1 time). Fascinating.

Larry Update!

I called Larry back today... I did not mention this yesterday, but he works for Accessories4Less. I just called the only phone number they put on my packing slip (same number I called yesterday), pressed 5 again, and Larry answered on the second ring! "This is Larry!" (still no company identification, so odd!) But I told him that I received coax instead of component, so he asked for my order number, looked it up, and apologized and said he'd get the component sent out right away with a pre-paid return envelope for the coax. AWESOME. That kind of customer service, along with the speedy delivery and fantastic prices, will keep me coming back to Accessories4Less for all of my cable and other needs. :) I am also quite confident that if I had left a message for his voicemail yesterday that he would have returned my call as soon as he returned to his desk. And you can't beat Monster cables for $15 or less, especially when the same cable is $40+ at Best Buy. :)

Water!

This weekend Patrick was in town... it was great fun! Friday we had dinner at Russell Street BBQ and then a beer sampler at McMenamins. We were going to go to the Holiday Ale Fest, but we figured we could actually have a chance at tasting beer at McMenamins (the Ale Fest gets REALLY crowded on weekend evenings). Saturday we had breakfast and then went camping! Patrick and I went on a snow-filled fun hike... we were hiking up to a view point, but the trail was closed 1/2 a mile from the top. I HATE when that happens. It was fun regardless. We got about 5 inches of snow out there... we were about 7 miles south of Vernonia, the town you may have heard about that the National Guard is evacuating people from because they're all stuck! The rain started Saturday night... and didn't stop! At first I thought "great, it's melting the snow so we'll be able to get out of here tomorrow". But it rained - HARD - nonstop until we left. I know people think Oregon is super rainy, but it just does NOT rain like this. It is more of a mist than a rain usually, and never nonstop for days on end.

Monday morning we got the news that Geoff's parents had some seepage (not really a flood, like there was no 2 inches of water in the house, but just slow leaks coming in from everywhere!). So Geoff went over to help with some of the outside stuff trying to keep water away from the house as much as possible, and I helped inside with wet vacing and stuff. That evening we moved furniture, pulled up carpet, etc. I am kind of a freak and actually had fun, even though it was a bad situation, because I like cleaning, organizing, rearranging. I know, that's weird. Geoff's mom gave us an early Christmas present... all of Geoff's ornaments, one each year, for his whole life! And a new one, a wedding one for us. It was SO fun to open the box and hear all of the stories of each ornaments. Ornaments always tell a story, they are so fun!

I ordered some cables (audio cable, component cable) from an online company that I have used before and was pleased with - they are cheap (cables have one of the highest markups of any product) and my order came quickly. My order came quickly again - but instead of component, they sent a coax cable. Not a HUGE issue... but obviously I need to deal with customer service. So I called this morning, and they had an automated answer service that never identified the company that said dial 5 for customer service. So I dialed 5... got a few rings, and it went to a voicemail that said "Hi I'm Larry, I've stepped away from my desk, please leave a message." So do I leave a message for Larry? It's so sketchy! I sent an email instead... if I don't hear back in a few hours I will call Larry back I guess. Odd.

Green Update

So, the road to being green is really a tough one. Just a mind game really, I guess, for me at least. Last night we went to Crate & Barrel. I brought my green bag in... but I couldn't do it! I kept thinking "these C&B people are going to laugh at me if I give them a green bag to load my stuff in". And I didn't give them my green bag. Wow this is really embarassing to admit, but it must be done. I must share my successes and failures on the road to green.

But GREAT news on the paper bag front... starting in early 2008 we are getting ROLL CART RECYCLING. I just read this in the "trash newsletter" last night (Geoff made fun of me for reading it). Now we have these red bins that we have to sort everything into - into those paper bags as mentioned previously. Well starting next year, we will get a big bin and we don't have to do any sorting (except for glass which will continue to go in a red bin). AWESOME! It makes it easier, there is space for more recycling items, AND I don't have to use paper bags for recycling anymore. This will DEFINITELY cut down on my paper bag consumption! So that is happy news.

I thought I had some other highs and lows on the road to green, but I cannot recall them right now. I did forgo a bag at two other stores last night though, which was good.

I promise, my blog isn't going to turn into "the green blog". :)

A short story

So my sister is currently working in Spain but applying to graduate schools in the US. She went to one university for her freshman year of college, and then graduated from another university. She is trying to order a copy of her transcript from her first university's webpage, but she was locked out of her account. She didn't want to call them from Spain, so she asked my dad to call them. I don't know what happened with that, but he either didn't have time or wasn't successful. So today she asked me to call them. I asked her for the information I needed, and she gave me her school ID and social security number. This is how my call with them went:

First they asked my ID, which luckily I had… then they were like “what’s your middle name”. So I got my sister's middle name right… and then they said “what’s your birthday?” So I came up with that (it's hard translating a birthday you know into numbers!)… then they asked the last four digits of my SSN. Luckily I had THAT handy. So then they said “okay, are you a former student or current student?” I said former. They said “did you graduate from here?” I said no. Then they said well what program were you in? I said uhhhh… and they said “were you an undergraduate or a graduate” and I said undergraduate! Then they said what college? And I said “uhhh… arts and sciences?” Apparently that was right too. Then they asked when I attended… I had to think quick on that one… I came up with 2003 – 2004, which apparently was good enough for them. I think that’s all they asked me… I felt like I was on a game show, but I got it all right. She really seemed to think it wasn’t me (my sister) because she was like trying to come up with more questions. But I keep knocking them out of the park. YAY ME!!!!

Going green... SLOWLY!

Okay, so I am still going green. But it is a slow process! Last Wednesday Geoff and I bought the "green" (actually black) bags from Albertsons, we bought 2 and they will be perfect reusable bags. Plus they have handles which are nice. I read on another blog this morning - can you use a competitors bags at a different store? Can I use my Albertsons bags at Safeway? I mean, I'm sure you can, but what is the proper thing to do? Interesting.

Monday I did a BIG Costco trip - over $100 which is very rare for me. I bought organic granola (which is quite good) and Tillamook yogurt. There's another "green quandry" - Tillamook is within the 100 mile radius of me (you know, the locavore radius) - but since they distribute nationally, I assume they probably have distribution centers and whatnot outside of our 100 mile radius... and if it travels outside of the 100 miles at any time in its yogurt life, the "localness" is then moot. What a pickle.

As I was checking out, I saw these GIANT green bags, which I purchased. 3 for $3.79 or some such price. They hold 70 pounds each. Seriously. They are giant. I LOVE THEM. You could take them to the grocery store and FILL them with stuff. I was purchasing towels at Costco, and it was raining, so I was quite pleased to have my green bags so that I could keep my towels somewhat dry. They are definitely my favorite green purchase so far! Yay! :)

9 days

I was told this morning that I haven't blogged in 9 days, so I guess I better get on it!

Thanksgiving weekend was fabulous! Geoff and I got to McMinnville Wednesday night, set up camp, made some dinner, and relaxed. Thursday morning we slept in, ate breakfast, and then headed to his parent's house for Thanksgiving! It was a wonderful Thanksgiving... there were 5 of us, and we all got to visit and relax all day, and then have a great dinner. Geoff's mom came camping with us that night, so fun! She was so excited to go. Friday morning we woke up and went WINE TASTING!!! :) We went to Kramer Wine (our FAVORITE place, they know us there) and Carlton Winemakers Studio. Both fun favorites that we love. Friday evening Gary (Geoff's stepdad) came down and joined us for dinner. Geoff made steaks and we had a salad and leftover potatoes. Then we played dominoes. I love dominoes in the camper! Saturday morning, day two of wine tasting! We went to Kristin Hill Winery, Amity Vineyards, Left Coast Cellars, and Evergreen Vineyards (which is in the Evergreen Aviation Museum, where the Spruce Goose is). Kinda cool story: while we were at Evergreen, I particularly enjoyed one Pinot Noir I had. I was told that it was named for Delwood Smith, who was the father of Captain Michael King Smith, the founder of the museum that died in an accident before he finished the project. His father helped make sure the museum got started. Well, they pointed out that Mr. Smith was standing right at the entrance to the museum door, so I went over and told him I liked his wine! He asked if I was there with my family, and I said I was there with my husband and his mother. He said he would like for us to have tickets to the IMAX movie that night, she arranged for us to have complimentary admission. He was the sweetest man, I am so pleased that I got to talk to him. When Geoff was done touring the museum, I introduced him to Mr. Smith. Such fun! Gary came back again that night for more dominoes (I didn't play that time, just sat on the couch, which I love to do while camping... rarely at home though!). Then he took Julie away from us... sad. Although she is lucky, because the next morning we got up at 7 to start packing up... and the hose was frozen! This was an interesting predicament... the pipes in our trailer were fine, but the actual hose outside with the freshwater was frozen. We still aren't quite sure how to fix that problem. Sunday evening we winterized the trailer for storage and put it back in it's little home... it will come out again this Saturday!

Geoff came home from basketball Monday night and collapsed on the bed. Apparently he had pulled a muscle during basketball and was in quite a bit of pain. He wasn't even able to go to work on Tuesday, and he asked me to come home to help him get lunch and things. This from a man who has such a high tolerance for pain that he grew up getting his mom into trouble with his doctor! He would have horrible ear infections and the doctor would scold his mother, saying "you need to bring him at the FIRST SIGN of pain!" She would say "but this WAS the first sign!" He just wouldn't feel or complain of the pain until the ear infection was so bad that he could no longer ignore it. So he was definitely in a lot of pain. He took ibuprofren and I got him a heating pad to put on there and by last night he was able to walk around and stretch it out a little bit. It's still hurting him quite a bit, but he did go to work this morning.

I put out a few Christmas decorations last night... our house is finally starting to come together in terms of being more organized and cleaner. The guys still have some things at our house, particularily in one room that we will use as the office, so we haven't been able to finish everything. Once the things are out of the office, we will give it a good cleaning and then set up desks, computers, filing cabinets, etc. :) That will be so nice... I am REALLY looking forward to having an office again! I tend to "office" quite a bit. I also spent about 3 hours on Sunday "de-guyifying" the bathroom. To be fair, it was NOT that dirty... I just really scoured it from top to bottom. I'm quite sure that if I went to that level of detail in my bathroom, it would take 3 hours as well. And I enjoy cleaning, so it was not too bad. I have also been vacuuming the house much more frequently than usual, and Geoff's parents have a steam cleaner that they said we could borrow. I'm looking forward to that too! Hopefully we will do that in the next couple of weeks, and after we steam clean we will get the Christmas tree (remember the one we picked out in September? it's still waiting for us!). Patrick is coming on Friday and we will still be "in process" when he is here, but we have a room all set up for him so at least he'll have his own space. And a nice clean bathroom! Very exciting. :)

Sad Day!

Over the weekend I got an email from the Hood to Coast organization stating that we were not selected to run Hood to Coast in 2008. They got 1700 applications postmarked on "Opening Day" (aka the ONLY day) this year, and they only select 1000 teams (based on a lottery). I have so enjoyed running H2C the last 2 years, and we already had a great team set up for 2008, including 5 out of town friends. The good news is, they have a "loser's lottery" where you can mail in your application a week in advance the following year along with a note that says "DENIED 2008" and it "increases your chances of getting selected". Whatever that means, although I do know people who have had success with the loser's lottery. So I'm a little bummed, but it will be okay. Geoff and I are tentatively planning on running a half marathon in June. Which is NOT the same, but it will be fun regardless.

Other than that, the weekend was a blast! Friday afternoon we headed down to Lincoln City for fun with friends. We stayed in a house called Stairs to the Sea with 4 other couples. Friday night we played dominoes, talked, and just hung out. Saturday morning we watched Northwestern lose to Illinois (sad) and had homemade biscuits and gravy. For couple's weekend, we have one couple prepare each meal and they are always delicious. Then we headed to the outlet mall... we got some new shoes and sandals (note - I just had to try like 10 different ways to spell sandals before I figured out the right one) for Geoff and a few Christmas presents. We hung out for a while, played more dominoes, and then had a Thanksgiving dinner. :) The couple that was in charge of dinner Saturday night wanted to make a big turkey dinner with all of the trimmings, so they did. I liked it - but only because I didn't eat the turkey. ;-) Well, I had 3 little pieces because I figured I needed some protein. That same couple is also 4 months pregnant... they find out the sex of the baby today! They are from Eugene so they are big University of Oregon fans, so they said right after their appointment, they are going to go buy a little Ducks outfit for the baby - pink if it's a girl, green if it's a boy. After that we went to the casino - we all did horribly! Geoff and I usually play about $10 each at the casino, and usually come out about $5 - 10 ahead combined. This time we both lost our $10. That was sad. But, we figure it's about the same as going to a movie... roughly $10 each for a couple of hours worth of entertainment. So it's not so bad. Once every 6 months or so I suppose that is acceptable. Sunday morning Geoff and I made breakfast and then everyone packed up and left.

When Geoff and I got home - there were no boys. And missing couches, chairs, and beds in the guy's rooms. There was other evidence of boys, however. A little while later 2 of the guys showed up - they had rented a UHaul to pick a lot of their stuff up and move it out. They are all moving in with their respective parents. They all still have various stuff at the house - clothes, DVDs, kitchen stuff, etc. They said they planned to move that out over the course of the next couple of weeks. WEIRD!!! It was sad... and I am NOT used to having the house so empty. When I first moved in, I lived all by myself and was never scared, but last night even with Geoff there I was like "what was that? Did you hear that?" So Geoff and I spent last night working on some of the things we wanted to do (cleaning, rearranging, etc.) when the guys moved out. That wasn't planned, but Geoff rarely has a weekend off and we figured we might as well take advantage of it. There is still tons to do, but now we can take our time and just do a little bit here and there. Last night was the first night Geoff and I have spent alone in our house. All weird.

Geoff and I are going to start trying to do at least one "green" thing a day. Preferably one each, but I'm okay with starting slowly (I say "I'm okay with" loosely... usually I'm either do something all the way or don't even bother... so this is difficult for me to try to pace myself, but I think it's the best way to effectively do this). Yesterday we used our reusable Ikea bags (we went to Ikea to get a few things we had planned to buy when the guys moved out). And that is all.

Random Thoughts

I heard a commercial on the radio yesterday - it was for those Fred Meyer reusable bags that I referred to the other bag. They said that just one reusable bag can save up to 120 bags a year. Then they said the average family uses 400 bags a year - so with just 3 reusable bags, you wouldn't have to use any more disposable bags. I found this absurd - yes, it would be true if every time you went to the store you used 3 bags... but don't you think it's a lot more likely that most people do little trips to the store frequently (using one or two bags) and the occasional trip to the store where they use 6 - 10 bags? In addition to the varied number of bags used by individual families, there is also a size discrepancy between families. A family of one or two probably uses 1 - 2 bags a lot more often, where as a family of eight might use 10 bags every time. So the whole "buy 3 bags and never use a disposable bag again!" thing is ridiculous.

I have been doing a lot of reading this week on "going green", eating organic foods, and eating locally. There is so much fascinating information out there on these topics. I read a very interesting exchange on this blog about the pros and cons of eating locally - "Is there something wrong with supporting non-local businesses? Do you really think the boutique Sauvie organic vegetable farmer, who drives a BMW and lives in the West Hills, needs the business more than the poor broccoli grower in Chile? I have never understood that attitude. Just because people don't live in Oregon doesn't mean they're not people." Very good point. Counterpoints though, are obviously the amount of fuel and resources it takes to ship that broccoli from Chile to Oregon. They went back and forth about we shouldn't feel we're entitled to strawberries when they're out of season just because we're Americans... well then should we feel entitled to be dry when it's raining in Oregon? You can and probably will be, thanks to "civiliation and technology". There was talk of the economic benefits to the worldwide economy vs. the local economy. I won't go into all of it, but it really was extremely interesting to me. My dad also brought up how difficult it is for someone in Texas or Arizona to eat locally - not as much produce grown there. Also, poorer people cannot always afford the organic banana - but they need banans, so we should be thankful that there are ways for them to get organic bananas. The subject certainly isn't black and white, but it is very interesting. :)

Couple more thoughts...

A few more things I thought of after my post... (my head never stops... although I WILL stop blogging after this).

I get wine newsletters from several vineyards. At least two that I frequent: Kramer (We are certified LIVE! We practice sustainability.....Low Input Viticulture & Enology. Kramer Vineyards is designated Salmon Safe.) and Montinore (In 2001 we switched to organic practices and in 2003 moved on to biodynamic farming. We're hoping to be certified Biodynamic for the 2008 vintage. We've seen a big difference in the vineyards and the wines are much more expressive since we began using biodynamic practices), are organic and earth friendly and stuff like that. YAY. I can drink wine in my new movement. ;-) Ha.

Also... the world kinda seems like a cycle... there is such a trend to go "back to the basics" and get back to local stuff and eating what comes from the land and all of that related stuff. It's interesting. Not that everyone is wanting to do that, but it's just interesting to watch the cycles of history. There's so much globalization, and also a push from some to become more localized.

Becoming a locavore

I come up with the strangest notions! First I was thinking of becoming a dentist... then a pharmacist... now a locavore. Don't worry, this one isn't a new career.

And before I begin (this sentence is actually being written when I'm about halfway through), this blog may seem kind of hypocritical. That's because I am just throwing around ideas in my head... I have certain thoughts, but don't necessarily do them myself, and sometimes don't even know where I stand on these things. So I'm just writing down all of the things I'm throwing around in my head right now.

Here's what happened: last night Geoff and I were watching Jon and Kate Plus 8, as we do every Monday night (don't ask me why he likes it, but I'm glad he does). Well, Kate Gosselin is kind of freakish... she feeds her family almost entirely organic foods, always packs them snacks and lunches, and is REALLY big on what she feeds her family. It is talked about very often... she frequently says things along the lines of "we make sacrifies elsewhere so that we can give our children this wonderful gift". There are two episodes every Monday night - the first one last night was about how they were going to an organic farm to buy half of an organic cow to feed their family for a year. It was kinda cute actually, the kids were hilarious while they were at the farm. On the second show, some chick named Sara Snow was coming to meet with Kate for a day. I'd never heard of her before, but apparently she (like the Gosselins) also has a show on Discovery Health. She is apparently some sort of organic / green lifestyle expert, and was coming to show Kate even more about how to incorporate organic foods into their diet and also into their entire lifestyle (such as organic clothing, organic cleaning supplies, etc.). It was freakish. I know that Geoff and I get the organic bin every couple of weeks, but we get it mostly out of convenience, not because we specifically care about the food in it being organic - although we're both willing to admit that some of the food DOES taste better. I have often mocked my friends who try to eat mostly organic foods - calling them "hippie freaks". So I kept thinking "this is hippie freakish, this is hippie freakish".

Then I couldn't get it out of my mind!

So today I am thinking about becoming more organic / living a green lifestyle. I am not really sure what you call these things yet. :) And I am not committing to it, and certainly shouldn't be blogging about it, but I am blogging because I think it's interesting and because I want to share my thoughts. So we already eat almost exclusively organic fruits/vegetables/herbs. Sara Snow said it's easiest (or she recommends, or most people, or something) to start with meat and dairy. Those seem like the LAST things I would want to do - maybe because I happened to see the price of organic ground beef at Costco the other day. Although when I order garlic in our organic bin it is usually $1 - $1.50 per bulb, and I saw it at Fred Meyer a few days ago at 3 / $1 (non-organic). So yes, obviously eating organically is much more expensive. But I am thinking of going to organic bread. That seems like a next good step for me, and I can order it in the organic bin. And possibly even buy it at Costco... and I like anything I can buy at Costco! I have read articles in Costco Connection (the Costco magazine) about how they like to carry a lot of organic products. (and why wouldn't they, it's the new genius money-making trend). Anyway, so I'm thinking of going to bread. I don't know what I would do after that. I am kind of confused about the organic household cleaners thing... Sara was talking about how we breathe in all of these strong cleaners and toxins and chemicals and it is bad for our respiratory systems. I do agree with that (so did Geoff actually)... it kind of goes along with my belief that we use way too many antibiotics and other medications. I try to limit my use of medication as much as possible (getting Remicade every other month bothers me to no end... although I do COMPLETELY understand the value of using medications when appropriate). I still use painkillers if necessary, but I try to really evaluate why I'm using them - okay, I have a headache. Am I hungry? Am I tired? Is there something else my body is trying to tell me that I can fix before I try to use a pill? I've done that for probably a year or so. But I absolutely will still use pain killers, cold medicines, etc. I just try to make sure I'm keeping my use in check.

Got off topic there... so off topic I need a new paragraph. Anyway, so the household cleaners: I do agree that cleaners could be bad for us. She recommended using 1 part vinegar and 4 parts water. I like that idea. And yet... it seems so "hippie freakish" to me. Why can't I get past the association in my head? She and Kate were cleaning mushrooms yesterday, and Kate was freaking out about having dirt on them... I was like GREAT, dirt is good for you. I think that another reason everyone is so sick all the time is because everyone tries to sanitize stuff and then when you get one germ in your body you don't know how to respond to it. So I was all about the dirt, and think it'd be cool to just use a basic cleaner. But then you'd have to mix it, and that seems crazy, and I dunno. But they do sell mixer bottle squeezie things at the Dollar Tree. So I could maybe handle that. That's another thought. (now no one is going to come to my house to eat ever again, huh?)

Then I thought of those reusable bags that they are pushing at Fred Meyer these days. For 99 cents (sometimes on sale 2 / $1), you can get reusable bags, instead of using paper or plastic bags when you go grocery shopping. I want to get those. I already have the reusable Ikea bags that are 59 cents each. They are awesome bags... huge and cool. So maybe some grocery store ones would be good. But what about my recycling? My recycling company still makes us sort - so I use paper bags for that. I do have three bins though, so I'm thinking when the fellas move out that we will have less recycling and therefore we can do glass, paper, plastic one week, and then cardboard, aluminum, and (???... paper again I guess) the next week. Other than that, I can't think of a single thing I really need paper or plastic bags for. Even when I went to Target or some other store... I surely could use reusable bags. My Ikea bags would be perfect for that.

I shared some of my thoughts with my friend Patrick. He said "you are becoming a locavore?" I asked what that is, and he referenced a New York Times blog from this morning that he said talked about a locavore, which basically means "crunch folk who only eat locally grown foods". (Patrick's definition). The organic bin tries to use locally grown foods when possible, although I know it's not all locally grown. Apparently the Google cafeteria offers locavore-friendly food. But I don't know if I'm there on that one yet.

I also told Geoff via text message:
Me: "I am writing a blog about how I kinda want to become a green freak like Sara Snow."
Geoff: "Please don't. She scared me."
Me: "Why?"
Geoff: "You can be green, just don't be like her. She was a freak."
Me: "Okay! Will you be green with me?"
Geoff: "I suppose so."
Me: "You don't sound thrilled."
Geoff: "Was I supposed to? I am thrilled!"
She really WAS a freak. But we both thought she was fantastic with all 8 of those kids, and I did kinda like her ideas.

Then I told my sister. She said this:
"Confusing.. One day you dont care about the environment..the next day you are going to become an organic hippie freak? However, I support you in the organic lifestyle..that is great! Better for your body, esp since you have Crohn's... probably better for you esp.. I am a HUGE supporter of small farms.. I LOVE farmers markets.. co-ops.. things like that. Fresher food.. better for you.. better for the farmers.. helping to keep small farmers around.. so that its not all huge companies that take over the place.. I very much support free range chickens too... and if it were feasible in my life right now I would love to only eat free range chickens.. It is much more expensive though. Anyways.. congrats"
She's a fan, which is no surprise to me. She's kinda a hippie freak herself.

Anyway... just my thoughts for today. I kinda thought this was amusing, especially Patrick's, Geoff's, and Christine's responses (don't worry, I told them all I was going to blog what they said, so I really don't just blog people's conversations to me randomly). So I guess we'll see where this "journey" takes me... might just be a dead-end right around the corner, but you never know.

Documentation

I just realized how often I write lists in my blogs of what's "to come", and sort of rehash the same things over and over. It helps me organize my thoughts. So I am sorry you are subjected to my constant PLANNING. Thanks for reading anyway. :)

Happy weekends!

This weekend was a blast. :) Friday night we went to a fundraiser play/dinner at Bethel Lutheran Church in Portland. Great fun! I so adore the heart of churches in the city. It touches my heart! Dinner was interesting... Jello salad with cottage cheese, very very salty meatloaf, oddly spiced carrots... hmmm. I didn't eat much. As we crammed our chairs into the teeny tiny space in the church basement to watch the play, I thought "this was fun... don't know about coming back next year...". Then I watched the play. HI-LAR-I-OUS. I rarely laugh out loud at "planned" humor (TV, movies, etc. ), but I did laugh out loud a couple of times during this. Now I can't WAIT for next year.

Saturday morning I woke up and watched the Northwestern game. YEAH for beating Indiana! I took a nap Saturday afternoon because I was going out with Katie and Kristie that night. Katie and I had dinner at Henry's, then we met up with Kristie at Oba and then went on to the Thirsty Lion. We ran into a coworker and a friend of his at Thirsty Lion, so we had fun chatting with them all night. And it's funny - I RARELY go out downtown, but we always run into this same coworker. He has been at Henry's 3 times in the last year and a half when I've been there... and I've been there about 3 times. I saw him at Henry's, but didn't say hello... so when we saw him walk into the Thirsty Lion, Kristie went and said hello to him. We had a nice table in the corner, which was good for checking out the scene in the entire place. Very fun. GREAT music. Some band called the Remakers or something was playing... Oh, I googled it. Must be the Remasters. Anyway, they were good! Lots of fun 80's and early 90's music. I got home at 2:30 AM! See, I'm glad I took the nap. I haven't stayed out that late in FOREVER.

Sunday I slept late - I was bummed because I had wanted to go downtown to go to church at Bethel. I went to lunch at Noodles, and then read for a while. Geoff got home early and we went to happy hour at Henry's. Yes, I had just been the night before, but I wanted to get out. And it was our 1/4 wedding anniversary... how lame is that? I like excuses to go downtown. :) We had great fun! We had a seat in the bar where Geoff could watch football. In sad news, I discovered a hole in my FAVORITE sweater. I was like "this is ridiculous! This is a very expensive J Crew sweater!". Then I remembered that I got it when I was a senior in high school or freshman in college... at least 7 years ago. Yikes. And Geoff was like "you wear it ALL THE TIME". Good point. But still. I am sad. Then Geoff said "maybe you can go to J Crew and buy a new one"... yes, because they OFTEN carry the same sweater 7 years later. Ha. :) Although J Crew does have a pretty classic style, so it's reasonable to assume I could find something similar. And Geoff discovered that half the buttons on his phone no longer work. And it made a burning smell. Drama.

Today we're going to my friend Geoff (H, not M)'s house to watch Monday Night Football! Sounds like there will be a good crowd of people there... very exciting. Geoff H. also has a cell phone on our network that he no longer uses and said we can have, so Geoff M. will have a new phone to use until June when we're due for a refresh. Oh, and to make it even MORE exciting, Geoff G. will be there too. Yes, I know an oddly high number of people named Geoff. It's fun when they're all in the same room together. Sometimes Jeff G. comes too... but I don't think he'll be there tonight. :)

I am SO excited for the next few weekends... actually pretty much the rest of the year. I gave you some of the scoop last week, here's a little more:
November 16 - 18: Couples weekend in Lincoln City!
November 21 - 25: Thanksgiving / wine weekend!
November 30 - December 2: Patrick weekend! He's coming Friday morning and we're going to Holiday Ale Festival in Portland that day (it's in Pioneer Courthouse Square in these big clear tents with lots of heaters... very fun!). Then we're going camping Saturday and Sunday.
December 7 - 9: (maybe the weekend after) Camping with my coworker Cindy and her family! They bought a new RV this weekend at the RV show so we are going to go on their maiden voyage with them. So excited!
December 21 - 23: Most likely the weekend the guys move out of our house, so lots of cleaning/rearranging/etc in preparation for my parents to get in on the 24.
December 24: (this isn't a weekend, I'm cheating) My parents arrive! We'll have dinner at Geoff's parent's house
December 25: Christmas dinner at OUR house... so exciting! We'll have 9 people, which is a good number to start with for our first Christmas dinner. I am SO SO excited to have both sets of our parents at our house for Christmas. I know this will probably be a rarity, so I will enjoy it while we have it!
December 28 - 30: Camping with my parents at the beach!
December 31: New Years Eve party at Geoff's parent's house

Did you count all the camping in there? 4 times in 6 weeks - in the winter! I love it. :) And I love that we actually USE our camper. So fun!

Thursday

The RV Show was excellent. Geoff's mom found her perfect RV - the Winnebago Vista 32K. It was such a great RV! And Geoff and I did not see ANYTHING that we liked more than our Tango, which was happy. We really do feel that we have the perfect fit for us! It was great fun.

So remember yesterday how I blogged about how Geoff's mom won't read my blog? Well not 4 hours after that I mentioned something (not related) about my blog to her in an email and she said "okay, I'm going to read your blog now!" I was like "NOW?!?! I just blogged about you NOT reading my blog - too funny." Check out her comments below. She is hilarious!

My mom had a dream last night that Geoff and I had twins - a boy and a girl! They were premature, and we were at my parent's house. My mom's sister (who died this June) was there, and my great grandmother Mebe (who died about 10 years ago) was there. My mom was a psychology major so she usually has some theory on dreams, but she said she had nothing on this one. Cool though!

A trip down memory lane... Mebe's name came from my grandfather (her son in law). When he married my grandmother, he wanted a name to call his mother and father in law. Their last name was Ebert - so he came up with Mebe and Febe - for Mother Ebert and Father Ebert. Everyone then started calling them that - grandkids, great grandkids, etc. I love that story. Mebe was also born in 1900 which is SO cool because you could remember how old she was (if it was after September) because she'd be as many years old as what year it was. I think she died in 1997 (maybe 1998) but she was 97 years old when she died. When we went to her house (Febe died a few years before I was born and she lived in an apartment) she always had a candy jar with Andes mints in them - the great grandkids loved that. And she always had a cocktail! She also took us out to Mexican food at this EXCELLENT restaurant, and in her younger days (you know, like 92 and younger) she would drive us in her 1970's Buick. There were no seatbelts in the backseat! I love it. I loved Mebe. :)

Excellentness

Yesterday afternoon I read a VERY VERY funny email that was forwarded to me. Turns out it was actually from someone's blog - he has a 1977 JC Penney catalog and proceeds to make fun of the clothing. Quite amusing, though perhaps slightly offensive. I thought Geoff was going to roll off the bed last night he was laughing so hard while reading it.

This morning I was reading Matt's blog and saw a link to a blog that reflects on the overuse of quotation marks. You MUST read it. It's too funny. And then another blog that reflects on the overuse of the word literally.

Just all around a couple of funny days. The parenthesis one is my favorite though! It reminds me of when someone writes .99 cents on a sign. DANG THAT'S CHEAP! Less than a penny? Really? AWESOME! I'll take 10.

Onward... I tried to kill my mother in law last week. I cannot believe I forgot to tell you all about this. Okay, not really... but you know that pizza recall? Yeah, we definitely had a midnight snack in the camper of that exact same pizza. I'm the worst daughter in law ever!!!! Happily, she's still alive. And going to the RV show with us tonight!!!!

But she won't read my blog. I can't tell you how disturbed I am by this. I think it's not that I care if she actually reads it, but I'm just more bugged by the fact that she WON'T read it. She said that she doesn't want me to feel that I can't vent about her on my blog because I know she reads it. But I don't want to vent about her, and even if I did, it wouldn't be on my blog anyway. This paragraph makes no sense. It makes no sense because I can't describe exactly WHY it upsets me so much that she won't read it. All I know is that I wish she just weren't against reading it. So this is me, venting about her not reading my blog. ;-)

Big update

Man lots of stuff going on! Last weekend (October 25 - 30, if you call that a "weekend") we went camping. When we first told Geoff's mom about the camper she was kinda like "okay... great for you guys... not so much for me!" She's never really been camping before and wasn't all that excited about it, but we got her kinda excited by talking about our camping trips, our excitement for the camper, how nice it was, etc. So she said she would come camping with us for the first two nights (Thursday and Friday) of our camping trip. She met us at our house and we drove to the campground - only about 30 minutes away. We had salmon and artichoke for dinner the first night... rough camping trip, huh? We also worked on a puzzle and talked a lot... Geoff watched Air Force One because "he doesn't like puzzles". The next morning Geoff actually started working on the puzzle, and enjoyed it! We just hung out all day... had a giant breakfast, set up the awning and the party lights, "peeped" on people (involves watching other campers, especially on Friday afternoons as they try to back in their rigs without crashing into anything and as they bring out all of their stuff which is fun to watch), etc. That night we had steak and roasted potatoes for dinner... then sat around the campfire making up stories about the people we were peeping on ("oh, see those people next to us? That is Grandma Lily and Grandpa Jack with their grandkids Bill and Jane, they are babysitting while the parents have a romantic date night"). It went on and on, it was HILARIOUS. Geoff's mom and I were making up the craziest, funniest stories, while Geoff just sat there laughing at us. Geoff says we play off each other quite well and it's very fun to watch. We had such a grand evening! Saturday we hung out in the morning, then went to Oma's (Geoff's grandmother) 70th birthday party! That was so fun, and I got to hold the baby! I love babies. Only to age 2 though! Geoff's mom "HATED" camping so much (that was a running joke all weekend... "but I HATE camping!!!!") that she stayed Saturday night too! Sunday morning Geoff went to work, and she and I finished a second puzzle, read, and she knitted. And did more peeping, of course. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, Geoff and I did some hiking around the state park, hung out, and relaxed! We forgot our bikes which was super annoying, but we WILL remember them next time. There are so many awesome bike trails in that state park!!

Now that Geoff has worked on the puzzle, he's become obsessed! We went to Rainy Day Games and got a 2000 piece puzzle of Times Square which is currently taking up the dining room table. It's great! And I've been going to jigzone.com when I have some free time during work to do a quick puzzle here and there. I love puzzles, I'm glad Geoff does now too!

This weekend was great. Friday night we went out to dinner. Saturday I watched Northwestern lose to the Hawkeyes... that was brutal. Geoff came home pretty early and then we worked on the puzzle while we watched the University of Oregon / Arizona State game. Saturday night we went out to dinner at a place called Bugatti's and in came the Roloff parents with some friends and their film crew! It was cool to see that, and watch for us on TV. The only problem is that they had to turn on the lights very brightly in what is normally a very dimly lit restaurant. It wasn't a problem for us, but it sure would be annoying to have to go EVERYWHERE with those bright lights. Yikes! Then we had to tell Addy and Cindy immediately because they both love Little People Big World. Sunday Geoff got up early to have breakfast with his stepdad Gary... they had a good conversation about life, work, etc. They always have a good time at breakfast together. We went to look at new houses (I LOVE looking at new houses, and particularly like this developer). Then Geoff talked to our roommates and told them that we're at a point in our life where we really want to live on our own. They were very gracious and kind and willing to move out. It works out rather nicely timing-wise - my parents are coming to town for Christmas and New Years, so it will be nice to have some space in the house for them. It will be sad for us to have the guys to move out, but overall I think it will be a positive thing for us.

Upcoming for us:
This Wednesday: RV Show! We're taking Geoff's parents with us, I'm ESPECIALLY looking forward to Geoff's mom seeing all of the different types of RVs. We "trained" her pretty well to recognize the different ones outside when we were camping, but she hasn't seen the inside of a lot of them, and I think she'll really enjoy some of them - like the big monstrosities and then the babies like this one.

Friday: a play/dinner fundraiser event at an inner-city church downtown, again with Geoff's parents. I'm excited because I LOVE inner-city churches.

Saturday: I'm hanging out with my friend Katie, I'm SO excited because I haven't seen her in 100 years!

Next weekend: couples weekend! Our friends Kendra and Beau rent a beachhouse every year and invite couples to go along for a weekend of fun with them. We went last year and had an absolute blast, so we're very much looking forward to this. Each couple is in charge of one meal, so they really bring their "best of show" and so it is a weekend of good eating and good friends! (with a trip to the outlet mall thrown in!)

Following weekend: wine weekend! Okay, some might call it Thanksgiving. ;-) Every year at Memorial Day and Thanksgiving, the wineries here host big wine events. Geoff's mom and I have made it a tradition to go. This year, it's getting even better! Geoff and I are taking the camper down to a nice RV park in wine country Wednesday night. Thursday night we'll go to Geoff's parents for Thanksgiving - they have a new kitchen this year and it's her first Thanksgiving in her new oven (well, Thanksgiving itself might not be in the oven). We'll help them clean up afterwards, and then *hopefully* (if all works out) both of Geoff's parents will join us in the camper Thanksgiving night. Friday morning we'll hit our favorite wineries - Kramer is ALWAYS our first stop and over Memorial Day we discovered Carlton Winemakers Studio which we enjoyed and will go to again. We'd normally stop at a few more places, but this year we have SATURDAY TOO!! So Saturday we'll go to new places that are further south than we'd normally go - but because we'll be staying in the area, it will be no big deal. VERY exciting. It will be fun to have a nice relaxing weekend with Geoff and both of his parents. Very much looking forward to it! Should be a great November this year. :)