Kingfisher Cove

Hooky and Snow for JDub

JDub decided recently that we needed a small, relatively inexpensive digital camera that we would feel OK taking snowmobiling or out in the boat (when the time comes).  He did a ton of research and came up with this cute widdle guy (it's sitting in its widdle charger).  I mean to tell you, it's itty bitty.  And WAY CUTE.  If it was fuzzy, I'd be going "aaaawwwww!"  (Actually, I did anyway).  It was definitely less expensive than our "Power Shot", but it still wasn't what I would call "cheap-cheap".  I would certainly hate to have it drop in the drink or anything.  But because it's so small and light-weight, it packs in a pocket or life jacket or snowmobile backpack really easily. Of course, the first shots had to be of wiener dogs.  What else?  I thought he captured a dandy with this one of Bailey (click for a bigger view).  Talk about CUTE!!  Aaaaawwwww!

So anyway, JDub played hooky today and headed way up to Blewett Pass with his buddy N., and the rest of our Revelstoke sledding friends, C. and D.  They hadn't been there before and it sounds like a great place!  (I might even like it!)  A lot of snow dumped in these past few days, and so the sledding was good, but rather tough because the snow was heavy.  That often happens in Washington -- lots of water content in our snow.  Powder is extremely special when it happens.  But they weren't complaining -- they had a ball.  My cell phone rang at work about 4:30 and it was JDub telling me they'd just gotten down off the mountain and were loading up the sleds.  (And he'd left before I got up this morning).  A very long day for everyone!  I even beat him home by a good half hour, and that's after doing Curves.  He's a sore puppy tonight.  Well, and I don't think I mentioned that he majorly banged his tail-bone last week at work and if you've ever had a banged tail-bone, you'll know that it is one World of Hurt for a Long Time.  (He's also been the "butt" of a lot of jokes....) Ahem.  So the bumpiness of snowmobiling aggravated his buttox and the poor guy is hobbling tonight. But he took some pictures that made me sigh because we haven't seen fresh snow for the longest time.  So pretty. 

(click for bigger pics)

I'm So Bright, I Mean Lucky, That I Scare Myself

You know exactly what I'm talking about when you're listening to the radio in your car and an unfamiliar tune comes on that particularly grabs you and you listen and enjoy and wonder about it and then the end comes and you're poised tense for information, but the goddamned radio station breaks for a slew of idiotic commercials, then does it's own idiotic station promos, then does another slew of idiotic commercials, and then segues into another tune.  Nothing said whatsoever about "who done that tune!"  And then you get to where you're going and you're at a loss and rather pissed off because you really want to know "who done that tune"! OK, so this happened to me last night on the way to our favorite diner.  I said to JDub, "Is this something new from Alanis Morissette?  Maybe Fiona Apple?"  He shrugged, but he agreed that it was nice.  It just had a hint of Alanis, and a degree of Fiona, but they did come to mind.  So when I got home, I did some searches, beginning with Amazon.  I knew that the "chorus" of the song lyrics were "She breathes..." so I figured that might be the title of the song.  Nada.  Absolutely nothing under Alanis or Fiona (whatever happened to Fiona Apple?  I really liked her music).  I even did searches on lyrics sites, thinking it might be an older tune that I wasn't familiar with, but nothing came up there, either.  All I could remember of the lyrics were "She breathes..."  It drove me nuts, but I gave up.

So tonight we were on our way home from Starbucks and the song came on the radio again!  "Here's that song!" We waited in suspense as it ended and.... you guessed it.  Immediate idiotic commercials, idiotic station promos, and then more idiotic commercials, and then another tune.  And then we were home.  Shit!

I was bound and determined.  I still didn't recall any of the other lyrics, but I just figured I had to find it somewhere.  I went back to Amazon and thought about it.  It had to be new.  So I looked under the new-and-future-releases.  Nothing about Alanis or Fiona coming out with anything new, so I paid strict attention to women artists.  Ruled out Mariah Carey, Faith Hill, Lisa Marie Presley.... and then I saw an unfamiliar name.  So I clicked on it.  And checked out the track listings and at the very top was a song called "Breathe".  (By this time I was breathing heavily!)  I Googled her website and was able to listen to samples.  AND SURE ENOUGH!  I FOUND IT!  I'M SO GOOD!

Check it out.  Her name is Anna Nalick, and she's only 20 years old.  Be sure and listen to the sample of "Breathe".

Brain Drain

I was so stupid this morning.  My alarm went off, which means it was the, oh, 8th time or so that I'd slammed down the snooze button (I'm so bad), and I got up and shuffled into the shower.  Afterward, I turned on the TV (which I listen to every morning -- can't see it from my vanity area) and proceeded to "put my face on".  In the midst of that I suddenly thought: "How come the Today Show isn't on?  How come it's still the local news?"  And then I peered at my watch and realized that I was up a half hour earlier than I usually am!  What the?  Obviously I'd been dreaming about hitting my snooze button.  Or else, I lost track of how many times I'd hit the damned thing, and didn't bother to look at the time.  Jeeze. I felt so cheated!  I could've had another half hour of sleep!  Crap!

So, I got to work a half hour early and it was actually a good thing.  I have a lot on my plate right now.  I'm working on two beastly projects at the same time, with overlapping deadlines, and I don't know about you, but I'm not so good about multi-tasking.  I mean, little multi-tasking stuff isn't bad, but the Big Stuff taxes me.  Mostly I get confused!  I'll get so totally, 200%, put-the-blinders-on focused on one of the projects and suddenly I'll get a call about the other one, and I'm lost.  I can't remember anything about it.  "Oh, you're returning my call?"  Jesus, what did I call them about? Oh crap oh crap oh crap.  There are so many millions of details between the two projects and I have to be meticulously organized so I don't confuse those details.  And "organized" is not my middle name.  (It's a lot of work to be organized!) I so admire people who handle organization so easily.  It comes naturally to them.  Maybe even a bit of OCD going on, which I think has its benefits.  I may have some mood issues, but I can tell you for an absolute fact that OCD isn't a factor, not one bit.  You can put that in your pipe and smoke it. Heh.

So I feel brain-drained tonight.  It wasn't a bad day, just very busy.  Zapped.  It's sad because "work" gets the best part of me.  Not a lot left over when I come home.  It just really seems unfair.

JDub's playing hooky tomorrow!  (Speaking of unfair!)  With all this stormy weather we've been having, we've also had a BUNCH of snowfall in the mountains.  So he and his buddy N. are going snowmobiling at Snoqualmie.  We all thought the season was completely done and over with, but we got a reprieve.  Many of the ski resorts are re-opening this weekend, starting Friday -- boy have they taken a hit this year.  I'll just bet you that our office will be bare on Friday!

My highlight of the week will be tomorrow, because it's payday.  Man!  I have suffered terribly this month.  I'm not exactly sure why -- I haven't made any out-of-the-norm purchases.  Haven't been shopping or careless.  I guess it boils down to just not making enough money.  (People shouldn't have to work so HARD and not make ENOUGH money!)  You know what I mean?

   

ZAP!!!

Sure wouldn't have wanted to be in the Space Needle today!

Update: "Now, lightning hitting the Space Needle is not particularly rare -- at least, in the sense that while thunderstorms are fairly rare here, when they do occur, the Needle is a favorite target, due to its height. And the engineers at the Space Needle were ready. They designed the top to have 25 lightning rods (24 on the rim plus the main tower) to safely channel the energy away. Still, probably made those eating a late lunch jump a bit." ...Scott Sistek, Weather Producer for KOMO News 4

Blick.

I guess we had our spring in January, February, and early March. And now we’re having our winter. It has been cold, and wet, and windy, and nasty. And I’m tired of hearing: “Well, you know, we really need the rain…” Sigh. I do know this. And it’s true that the first, oh, day of this yukky weather felt kind of refreshing. Many parts of the rest of the country (and Toronto!) are finally getting a glimpse of spring. And yes, you all deserve it. You’ve suffered. And now it’s our turn to suffer. Even though it’s stuff you don’t have to shovel. (However, there have been a number of folks around here in the past couple of weeks who have had big trees fall on their houses from the wind. That's worse than shoveling).

So, it was a rainy day and a Monday. Never a good combination, as Karen Carpenter used to sing about. Didn’t she have a heart attack due to an eating disorder? I was thinking today that if something good could come out of this Terri Schiavo fiasco, it might be a focus on what can happen to people with eating disorders. Better watch out, Mary Kate! (Or was it Ashley?)

Work is heating up again, too, so April looks to be quite stressful. Oh joy.

But, another word about books! I ran across this article on MSNBC that might interest a lot of you readers. Reviews of new books coming out this spring (some are already out). I now have a list of books that sound very intriguing. Amazon, here I come!

(Note:  You can find more of these cute little "International Bloggers' Comment Week" ditties over at Elisabeth's, and she made 'em!)

A Book Meme! (Margaret Tagged Me, Now I'm IT)

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be? "The Lion’s Game" by Nelson DeMille, because even in the midst of incredible tension, John Corey’s smart-ass wit made me cackle with laughter.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character? I was completely in love with a character named Jordan in James Kirkwood’s "Good Times, Bad Times”. Jordan was such an extremely dimensional character, that to me, he was real. And of course there are Joe Morrelli and Ranger in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series who both totally sizzle with--well, they sizzle.

The last book you bought is: A Spenser paperback called “Bad Business”. Normally I buy hardbacks, but money has been tight! Plus, there hasn't been anything out lately that grabs me.

The last book you read: “Silent Partner” by Jonathan Kellerman. I just wrote a post about it here.

What are you currently reading? Well, I’m reading the Spenser book (“Bad Business”) right now, but that reminds me that I need to line up a bunch more to read afterward because I’m pretty close to being done with it.

Five books you would take to a deserted island: “Lord of the Rings”, “Dune” (just the 1st one), “Good Times, Bad Times”, “Shogun”, “Prince of Tides”. However, I’m never all that jazzed about re-reading many books. Does this deserted island have a book version of Netflix available? (Ha, Bookflix! Hmm…)

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 people) and why? Grace, Pam, and Karen -- if they haven't been "tagged" already, because I'd be interested to learn what they all like to read.

Way Cool!

Found this from A Flying Leap, and created it here! (It's fun!)

Spring Cleaning and a Child Prodigy

This was me today.  This is something I've been wanting needing to do for a very long time.  I've gone through my closet before and tossed a few things, but nothing like this.  I went through all my drawers as well as the closet, went through all my shoes and I mean to tell you, I was brutal. I currently have 8 or 9 garbage bags full of clothes to donate. I now actually have HANGERS!!  And room to peer at my clothes instead of getting all pissed because nothing in the closet would budge left or right.  And I found things I'd forgotten about, too.  Yes, there were some items I'd been holding onto just in case I ever got itty tiny bitty again, but I figure now, if I ever get itty tiny bitty again, I'll buy new clothes.  I'd deserve them. (But, I'm not holding my breath).  I'd settle for getting back down to a medium.

At any rate, it sure feels good to have that done.  My one accomplishment of the day.  Woohoo!

So afterward I went browsing on the internet and read about this 10-year-old girl who is a child prodigy in art.  I thought, hmmm, wonder what her work is like?  And I clicked on the link to her website.  Oh. My. God.  Do you see this?  She was 8 years old when she painted it!!  Check out her other work -- it's all absolutely amazing.  Gives me goosebumps.

What A Difference Two Weeks Make

Remember this? (March 13th....)

Now this.....

What mountain? What water? What view?

Going Postal. I Mean Insurance Company.

JDub:  I’m calling because I received a notice that our auto insurance has been cancelled.  I’d like a reason why.

Barbie, the Insurance Agent:   Oh!  Well!  Let me check here.  Let’s see…. Oh!  Not to worry, your payment was received and the cancellation order has been cancelled.

JDub:  This isn’t the first time this has happened, and it's really unacceptable.  Since 2000, we have paid over $15,000 to XXX Insurance Company, and we have never filed a claim.  Why would you treat a customer this way who has paid that much money to your company, without ever filing a claim?

Barbie, the Insurance Agent:  Oh!  Well!  That is a lot of money.  Oh my.

JDub:  So why is this happening?

Barbie, the Insurance Agent:  Well, let’s see…. it appears that you only paid a partial payment in January….

JDub:  That was the bill for over $1,000 that we weren’t expecting all in one shot, due to adding our son’s truck.  Tell me, if you received an unexpected bill for $1,000, would you be able to pay it all at once?

Barbie, the Insurance Agent:  Oh!  Well, that’s a big bill – probably not.

JDub:  And two weeks later the balance of that bill was paid, right?

Barbie, the Insurance Agent:  Oh!  Yes, you are totally current.

JDub:  I really don’t care if I’m one day late, or two weeks a “little behind” on a payment.  History shows that we are totally responsible, including not having made a claim.  And after all these years with your company [since the 1980s] I resent being treated like an 18-year-old kid who screwed up on his cable bill.

Barbie, the Insurance Agent:  Oh!  Well, it’s all automated you know.  The computer really doesn’t take all of this into consideration….

JDub:  There are other insurance companies out there.  And we have an excellent record.  I’m just saying.

Barbie, the Insurance Agent:  Oh!