Champagne Toast

August 9th 2008

Cyndi celebrated her 28th birthday. We said goodbye to the Heaton family this morning, returned our rental car and caught a taxi over to the pier.

Once there we got in line, filled out our paper work and received our cards (to get off and on the boat) for the week. Finally it was time to get on board. We were greeted by a friendly staff at the doors who offered us our choice of mimosas, champagne or orange juice. A great way to start off a birthday celebration. Not long after everyone is on board it is required to have a safety drill and report to your muster station.

After the drill we got to check out our room and settle in a bit. We spent the afternoon and evening wandering the ship, enjoying the live entertainment, playing trivia games and that evenings show .

Hey Batta Batta!

August 8, 2008

Kenny's uncle got us 4th row tickets to see the Mariners / Rays game at Safeco Field. It was Yuniesky Betancourt bobblehead night. Yeah, I know you're jealous. Random fact: This was the second straight year that the road team we saw while on vacation ended up going to the World Series (we saw Boston play in Baltimore in 2007).

The starting lineups...

The field while we were getting food. Our seats were straight ahead just on the other side of home plate.

Rays star rookie Evan Longoria, whom I have since come to hate...

The one decent Seattle athlete left: Ichiro!!

New Heights

August 7th 2008

We visited the observation deck of the Space Needle which was built for the 1962 World's Fair. View from across the river.From the parking lot.At the base.Seattle from 520ft. We got to the Space Needle at a great time of day, able to see the city in both sunlight and moonlight with a great sunset in between. The sunset was amazing.

As the city lights came to life.
Enjoying the view

Goodbye Space Needle we had a lovely visit.

Out and About in Seattle

August 6th, 2008

We arrived in Seattle.For the first part of vacation we headed up to Seattle to visit friends and see the sights. We toured Seattle's underground city! Never before had we heard the stories of the terrible sewage system or the fire that took out the city. It was interesting to see how they used a tour of city which the fire destroyed in order to make money to rebuild.High on our list of places to see was OF COURSE the first Starbucks. Everyone grabbed a coffee and some photos then we moved on to Pike's Place and walked around all the booths of fresh fruit, crafts and goods for sale. Cyndi outside the museumsExperience Music Project was incredible. They have so many artifacts and cool things to try out.Next door is the Science Fiction museum so we wandered through there as wellThis is the Fremont Troll he is made of concrete and lives under a bridge that is part of a freeway he even has a real VW bug under his hand. The Fremont Troll is becoming a well known attraction.This is the Heaton family they were our gracious hosts. Everyone had a good time catching up and visiting sites. All around Fremont they had different sculpture and cement figures. Citizens come and dress them up and decorate them for fun. Here are the boys Kenny, Caleb and Hutch waiting for the bus.This is a refinery type place that caught on fire or exploded or something, the resourceful people of Seattle turned it into a park for children to play in. They repainted part of it in bright colors for all the chillins.

Paul and Cyndi goofing off.

Kenny and Paul posing for the camera

Before you vote....

Journal 11-2-08

Since we've neglected the blog a bit lately, we figured we'd enter the yearly "blog every day" contest which started yesterday. Three blogs in three days....so far so good.

Last night we went out to BJ's with the family to celebrate my grandfather's birthday as well as my own. December is too busy for everyone to get together and we all have to share a birthday dinner. This just happens to be the closest one. I got a lot of gift cards and a new biography of John Lennon that came out last week and my mom heard was really good. My mom's cousin Monica was down from San Jose to attend a memorial service this weekend, so she joined us too.

Before I had to run off to work today, we made a side trip to Best Buy to spend some of my gift cards. I got the new Guitar Hero game with a mic. I also picked up Batman Begins and The Goonies cause they were both $4.99 on dvd. I still have cards left over for another time.

Work was busy: smoking, fighting, lots of confrontations, and a kid trying to expose himself to a staff working her first day. I ended up staying 45 minutes late writing reports. I have to be back there in 8 hours so it's off to bed for now.

Computer issues...

Last week we got a deal for cable that included their cable internet service. The package wasn't much more than we were paying for our DSL internet and the required phone line that we almost never use. We agreed to make the switch.

When they came to install the cable, they had to use quite a lot of wire around half the apartment. They wanted to do the same around the other half to reach our computer too. I decided I'd just move our wireless router into the living room where it could be hidden easily enough and still not involve adding more wires.

Today I finally got a chance to go to Best Buy to get the adapter for the desktop computer so we could finally switch over. I came home, hooked everything up, and got nothing. After much frustration, I called the cable company. After over an hour on the phone with them, they figured out that their modem wasn't working right. We got it to the point where if we plugged the modem into the computer we got a signal, but the router still wasn't working.

That meant a call to the router's manufacturer. After another frustrating hour plus on the phone with "Vincent" from an Indian call center, we are back online. I hope it lasts, because I was told that was my one courtesy call before they start charging me for it.

Happy Halloween!

Gizmo, the orange dinosaur! Roar!

Homecoming Weekend

On Friday October 24th I counted down the minutes till I could jet out of work, hop in my car and fly down the freeway to SD. Why you may ask? For because my dear TK came all the way from Colorado for a whirlwind of a visit. Once I made it to mom's I chatted with T and Richard for a few before he took off for the evening. T and I headed over to Subway to grab some sandwiches. Picked up Tiffany and went over to our Alma Mater Serra High to see the "Q dawgs" 2008 homecoming game. Our good buddies Erin and her daughter Hadley as well as Tif's parents and sister all met up for a mini reunion of sorts. We had a good time hanging out and watching our boys in a victorious fight against La Jolla!

The game itself was a nail biter. There were punches thrown, shirt grabbing and swinging around of players. A failed field goal attempt that would have tied the game when we were down by 3 because a La Jolla player some how tackled the ref! It all came down to the last minute and a half when Serra made some great gains and completed a couple awesome passes. We thought they were going to have to kick it and settle for a tie but the boys pulled it together and were able to pull out a win. Final score of 21-17!

On Saturday we slept in a bit, did some shopping my mom found a shirt that looked really good on her, sadly we did not find any pants that were petite in length and I got a beautiful shirt that looks really good on me (thank you TK) Ineed to go shopping more often with T (did I really just say I NEED to go shopping?), we rented a couple movies, and enjoyed just hanging out together.

Sunday began with church. We grabbed a quick lunch and then headed out to the harvest festival at Del Mar fair grounds. Mom, T and I looked around at all the incredible and some scary (fish) sculptures that people had created. Both Mom and TK picked up some lovely necklaces and a ring. Before long the three of us had to head home where we packed up, had dinner, took back the rentals, took a spin around Tierrasanta since it has been 8 years since TK has been back and then I bored T with hundreds of photos from Alaska. Too quickly it became time to head to the airport so that T wouldnt miss her plane.

See you in November friend.

10th Annual Idyllwild Camping Trip in October (AICTO)

Will have to wait. All the people at Pauls work snatched up all the weekends in October so we will not be able to visit this month. We are planning on figuring out a weekend soon when we can go up and camp before it starts to get too cold.

We did celebrate our 9 year dating anniversary tonight by going out for come BBQ, buying some picture frames from Target and then cosing up on the couch to watch the BL.

For your reading pleasure and to refresh your memory you can read TSOU. :)

New posts should return soon and I promise that in the next month we will get our Alaska trip with photos posted! Things have just been so crazy with the packing and the moving and the unpacking along with work.

...

Maybe the 101st try will be the lucky one...

Name me.... (feature stolen from Job Tate)

I am under 45 years old.
I love the outdoors.
I hunt.
I am a Republican reformer.
I have taken on the Republican Party establishment.
I have many children.
I have a spot on the national ticket as vice president with less than two years in the governor’s office.

Fo real doh?

For AMY (saw this on FARK and thought of you)

Chesterton cops say woman had merchandise in pants

By Times Staff Saturday, September 27, 2008
CHESTERTON From "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" to "Death Row" the titles of DVDs stolen from Kmart seemed to foreshadow the luck of one would-be shoplifter.A Michigan City woman pulled 19 items out of her pants -- including 10 DVDs -- Thursday after police were called to investigate a theft report.A loss prevention agent at Kmart, 750 Indian Boundary Road, on Thursday stopped Tina Yeakey, 32, of Michigan City, and her friend in the parking lot for suspected shoplifting.

According Chesterton police, the investigating officer dumped out Yeakey's purse and found two dental kits, a bottle of cologne, one toy car, 12 packs of Ponds Facial Strips, a bottle of antifungal cream, two fingernail kits and two bottles of foundation primer were stolen from the store.The officer then asked if she had taken anything else. She replied "no," according to police.When informed that she would be patted down by the officer, Yeakey unbuttoned her pants and pulled out 10 DVDs, a Play Station video game, a pair of white tube socks, a black and red bra, a black and red pair of women's underwear with the word "pouty" printed on them, three pairs of size 4T boys underwear and two women's rings.Yeakey also handed over to police a utility knife that she used to open the packages in the store.Yeakey was charged with felony theft and misdemeanor conversion. She was taken to Porter County Jail, which has no death row.

Yeakey's friend was not arrested. Police said she had no stolen items in her possession and surveillance video showed her friend did not assist her in concealing the items.

HELP!

We have a beautiful CLEAN white fridge that we have to sell because we dont have room for it at our new place. Problem is we need to have it out of our old apartment by Monday afternoon! If you know anyone who might be interested we will be around all day tomorrow and I will be around on Sunday. Make us an offer we cant refuse.

Fundraiser

My school is doing a fundraiser through Cherrydale. They have a wide variety of items for purchase. If you see something you would like to purchase let me know before you buy it so I can sign up your email address, that way our school gets credit for the sale.When you recieve the email from the company make sure you click on the link where it says that the school information will be automatically put in for you. The sale goes through Oct. 6th. You can look at the products at http://www.cherrydale.com/

Thanks for your support

Gizmo got a collar

This is a Christmas collar I bought for Meeko a couple years ago. Since Meek has out grown it and never really showed an interest in it I brought it home to try it out on Gizmo. I must tell you it is quite hilarous to watch this for hours on end. He will also pick it up and carry it from room to room. He enjoys hiding it under the recliner and then sneaking up on it to attack it.

Almost There

BTW

Garage Sale

My moms house

THIS SATURDAY!

730am - 1pm

Spread the word.

Playtime

He likes to hang out on the couch and stalk, sleep and play. Isn't he just the cutest!

Our family is growing!

Now he just needs a name! Any ideas? So far we've heard (Orange) Julius, Finn, and Ollie. We have to come up with something before "the boy" sticks.

We're on our way...

Day 1 of moving didn't start as early as I thought it would. I went to pick up the keys at 9am and found that we both had to sign a ton of paperwork before we could get them. I drove back home only to find a message from Cyndi saying that she could leave work for a bit to meet me there. I didn't even walk in our old place. I just turned around and went back to the new place. I guess I should look into a Bluetooth thingie.

Anyway, we got everything signed and inspected by noon. Cyndi went back to work while my dad and I both loaded up our cars and took the first batch of boxes. Cyndi joined us after that for a Carl's Jr. lunch and round 2 of boxes. Just as we finished that load, Bradley made it to our old place to help with load 3. Bradley and dad left after that. We went to get a little dinner and pick up a few things from Target. We made a late trip back to the new place to set some things up and sort out some of the stuff that was just piled into the smaller bedroom.

Tomorrow morning we can pick up the moving truck at 8:30am and then we'll move the bigger furniture and some things we have in storage in our garage. I'm hoping it will go smoothly. I know I'll be exhausted this week, and really wish I had some time to rest especially after the craziness this past week. I'll have to remember to blog that another time.

Three Short Days

And this will be the view from my apartment.

This is the layout of our new place

Here are photos off the website of what our place will look like.

The DL for the move on Saturday Sept. 13th Paul and I will be up around 6am to begin the move with the help of Brad. The boys will go rent a truck and then we will begin loading it. Anytime the rest of you who are so generously donating time to help us move can filter in when ever you are up and ready. You can give us a call on one of our cells to find out where we are at that time (if you don't have our numbers leave a comment and I will get them to you)

Friendly Affairs

I have some very wonderful friends that I do not get to see very often. I would just like to tell them what a pleasure it is when I get to see them and how much I think of them while we are not together. You all rock! Here are just a couple that I recently saw for some hang out time.


IHOP- Kelly and I met up for breakfast while I was in Vegas the week before school started. We didnt have long to chat as she had to get the kiddos to basketball games. I am glad she was able to drive over and meet me. Hopefully I will be able to see her next week as well

Labor Day- I was invited over to Marc & Tiff's new place for some BBQ, conversation, and games. The girls broke out the cards and a couple board games while the mens BBQ'ed and hung out. It was a great time to relax before the beginning of the school year.

Afternoon before 1st day of school- Kathleen (who used to work at the MS with me moved on to greener pastures down in the OC) and I have been trying to get together for much of the summer but due to travels and family goings on we never got our stuff together. Finally on the 3rd we made a lunch date to catch up. We met up over at Pat & Oscars had some good food and sat and talked for about 2 hours. We decided we should do this at least once a month. She is someone who I just sort of clicked with at work (I think it was our being Boston fans that first got us talking) she became my BTSA provider and we really enjoyed the time we got to spend together.

It's official...

After 7 years here, P&C is moving to a new home base. We're not going too far though. The new place is near Cerritos College. Besides getting away from the horrible maintenence issues here, we'll also be getting an extra bedroom, a dishwasher, and can have critters, all without leaving the area.

The big move will be on Saturday the 13th. We'd love some help even if you can only come for a little while. We'll feed you and everything. Good times. Let us know if you can make it so we can figure out a plan. Thanks!