Kingfisher Cove

Birds, Chipmunks, a Snake, and a Cat

OH, GOOD GOD.

See this sweet picture that depicts camaraderie and pretty-darned-cuteness (with a cat-thumb)?

I took this bare seconds before Mojo was a bullet out of there chasing a chipmunk in the wood pile. He'd treed it earlier, climbed the tree after it, then held guard at the base for the longest time waiting it out. I saw Alvin (the chipmunk) perched on a branch waiting out the cat, so I coaxed Mojo to distract him (successfully - unusual!) up on the deck and that's when he climbed into the doggy bed.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alvin drop down out of the tree and that's when Mojo transformed into a bullet. Jeeze that cat is savvy. Fortunately, so is Alvin, and he zipped away into the brush, although Mojo chased after him. I would just ache if he caught one of those cute lil' thangs.

And then minutes afterward, I saw Mojo crouched down on the path between the deck and the bird habitat, and I thought he was (again) "lying in wait" for the birds. Although the birds weren't around at that moment, so I decided to go down and fill up the bird bath. That's when I noticed that Mojo had himself a SNAKE.  Yes! A snake! Granted, it was a baby non-poisonous garter-snake, but I was utterly grossed out because snakes utterly gross me out. (I don't do snakes...) And yes, he would pick it up in his jaws and carry it around.  Eeww eeww eeww! Not sure what eventually came of it. I really don't want to know.

Jeezus.

~~~~~

We ventured into town today to pick up some groceries (including a nice salmon filet for dinner tonight) and we were absolutely deluged by a gigantic gully-washer. Wipers-on-high-speed gully-washer. Then, once we got back, we realized that it hadn't rained here at all! Weird.

Couldn't Have Said It Better

One of my favorite "northwest ladies" responded thusly to an anonymous commenter on her blog:

"Anonymous,
Thanks for your feedback. I do appreciate it.

As I've said, I'm sure Sarah Palin is an intelligent, energetic and well-loved woman. That isn't the issue. The issue is whether she's ready to be commander-in-chief of this country at a point when we have many crises at home and huge crises internationally, as well.

You say, "She reminds me a lot of the way you have portrayed yourself here..." The thing is, I'd never in a million years have accepted the invitation to take on the position of VP of the United States after less than 2 years as the governor of a state with the population of Austin Texas, and having only been in the political arena for a few years beyond that -- and then, as a mayor and city council member of a town half the size of the audience who watched her be introduced as the VP candidate! And as far as her attitudes on social issues is concerned, she's 180 degrees different than me... but I am a woman, so the presumption seems to be that I'd vote for her simply based on her gender... which is so incredibly insulting!!

I'm socially progressive and liberal (pro-choice, anti-religion-in-schools, pro-gun-control, etc.), but you know what? I think her baby needs her!! How's THAT for a conservative, old-fashioned, highly sexist attitude?! As a mother, I just don't see how she could do this. I'm all for mothers working, but she's still NURSING and MY BODY, not my politics, says that's just wrong."

Thinking...

Now that we've acclimated to the initial excitement of seeing the preliminary house plans for our Harstine retirement home, we've gotten down to brass tacks and have been stewing thinking about certain aspects of the design. Overall, we continue to be very excited, but a few concerns have come to light. We're both worried about the height of the house. We understand the idea — that entering the house from the garage at the same level, plus having the entire living space all one floor, would be ideal for the fact that we're going to be old farts when we live there. (I mean, we're already old farts). HOWEVER, because of the lay of the land, that would put the house awfully high up over that gully, and one of the points of wanting to span that gully was to have easier beach access. That wouldn't be the case with an uber-tall house. We'll have to compromise somewhat (have more steps "down" to the house from the garage, for instance, in order to have fewer steps down to the gully/beach). Or have the house itself gradually step down within (like 2-3 steps from room-to-room or something) so that at least an area of the house is lower and would allow easier beach access.  There are a few other minor concerns, but that's the main one. And our desire for that may make it a bit less aesthetic (like with the nice clerestory line that ties the house to the garage).

Another suggestion from our architect that has me really really excited (but holding my breath because of cost) would be a feature in the living room (the area beneath the archway on that first rendering) that would be a "porch" with "nana-walls" so that in the summer on a warm day, it could be completely opened to the deck. Kind of like this:

Wow. I sure could go for that. Whether it's feasible remains to be seen... 

~~~~~

Took a nice beach walk earlier (found some agates and saw a small flock of cedar waxwings — we've never seen them before!) But now it's raining! What a bummer! (It was very pleasant when we were down there!) I high-tailed my laptop back inside and just now Mojo blasted in (like Kramer...) with his ears laid back and irritated. He does not like the rain.

Heh Heh.

A number of things to blog about today! First, is McBush McCain an idiot or what? (And thank you, John McCain, for being one). To everyone I've conversed with, this smacks of desperation in an attempt to pick up those 18 million Hillary votes. He obviously thinks all it takes is for his running mate to have a vagina. A right-wing, anti-abortion, gun-toting nobody who is in a first term of governor over about 25 people and a bunch of caribou is not Hillary Clinton! This is not somebody who is qualified to be president, and it isn't unreasonable to seriously consider that scenario with a 72-year-old presidential candidate with health issues! (Plus the fact that he keeps harping on Obama's youth and lack of experience? Uhm....huh?) Totally out-of-touch. Totally doesn't get it. Which sounds so familiar... (Remember Harriet Miers?)

Jeesh.

Well, our first day at Harstine has been rather interesting! It all began last night when we were crawling into bed and discovered that the bed was wet. A strong rain storm this past week caused (resulted in?) a leak in the roof over the bed area, and of course it was my side that got the brunt of it. Dear JDub spent a l-o-n-g time blowing my hair dryer over all the bedding, and I'm sure it made a big improvement, but it was still damp when I finally climbed between the sheets. I ended up putting a big quilt on my side to lay on and wrap over me, and it worked out OK...not the best night's sleep I've ever had, but it could've been much worse. (Would have been!)

Then today, we headed into Olympia and met with our architect. (That sounds sorta snobby, "meeting with our architect.") Truth be known, I would have never thought in a million years that I'd ever be in the position of "doing business" with an architect, but here we are! What's pretty cool is that the architect we're working with — a woman — is someone I have known for a long time being in the industry I'm in (architectural/engineering marketing) because she used to work for a commercial architectural firm that the engineering firm I worked for at the time did a lot of business with, and I dealt with her a lot back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She even remembers Nate, when he was around 4-5 years old when we'd stop at their office in the mornings or evenings and drop off drawings — Nate always insisted on carrying them inside the office. (Pretty cute little Opie-kid).

Anyway, she has been very busy creating our preliminary house plans, and not having a clue what to expect, I was blown away to see what she'd come up with! JDub was, too.  It's true that we've been very clear as to what we have in mind, so I knew that if she'd been paying attention, she should be on the mark. And boy, is she! Here is a rendering of the "front" of the house (like you were standing on the beach and looking at it):

It spans the gully, so it's a "bridge house", hence the pole foundation. It's not as big as it looks — just 2,100 square feet (except the attached garage/shop/studio on the left is an additional 720 sq.ft. and is 3 floors tall).  There will likely be a little tweaking involved, but we are very close! There are very few issues and we are so excited! For the first time, I have an image in mind and I can peer outside here and actually imagine it. SEE IT! The way it will probably happen is this: We'll  have the garage/shop/studio built first. The studio, which is the top floor, will take the place of our camping trailer, which will have to be pulled out/torched to accommodate the construction. We have seven years yet before we can retire, so we will also have the pole foundation and decking (I think) built around the same time, with the actual house to follow down the road (after we sell the house we currently live in).  Hopefully the housing market will have improved by then and we'll actually get some equity out of that house! Especially since we also need to invest a significant amount of money into it to do some improvements and repairs.

Yup, the cost makes me nervous as hell. But we have both been pretty good (JDub very good) at planning for retirement, and we'd had a financial analysis done earlier this year by a highly-recommended advisor who determined that we Can Do This.

Here's looking at it from the back side (meaning that the water is in front of you, beyond the house — and that left side actually is anchored on another slope, similar to the right side, although that doesn't show here):

Man. I wish I could wiggle my nose and have this happen Right Now. (Reminder: check that lotto ticket....)

Weather: Crappy.

Hallelujah! Can You Say "Long Weekend?"

For as not-awful as this work-week was, it was awfully busy and so tonight at Harstine I'm still trying to switch gears, power down. Very happy to be putting forth that effort, though!

It's so quiet here. Makes me realize just how much noise there is in my day-to-day life. It's been two weeks since we've been here (JDub had to work last weekend), and it's been three weeks since Mojo has been here. I had a little "chat" with him last night, told him to be home when I got home today so he wouldn't miss the bus and he could go for a "ride to the beach." (I really did do this, and I have done this before using the "ride" and "beach" word over and over again. Certainly the dogs know what "ride" means, and cats are equally as intelligent, if not more so). At any rate, as soon as I walked inside the house, here was Mojo eating some food that JDub had just put down for him — because Mojo had just come inside!  Almost (!) like he'd heard my car coming up the road and made a beeline for the pet door! JDub got off work a little early today and called him as soon as he got home, but he didn't show. So he took a nap and afterward went out and called him some more — still no Mojo. And then minutes before I got home, here he comes! I said to JDub (matter-of-factly), "It's because I had that chat with him last night." Needless to say, Mojo is very happy to be here. He owns this place, you know.

The downside is that the weather isn't great, nor is it supposed to be throughout the time we're here. In fact, Saturday is due to be quite cold, getting down to the 30s at night! Cloudy, cool, and breezy out there tonight, so we didn't have a deck fire.  I do believe fall is here already. It's sure looking/feeling like it.  Sniff.

Wow. It Was A Good Day.

Nothing earth-shattering, but I was able to spend most of my day thoroughly focused on the one thing that I enjoy doing the most — our office newsletter. I work hard at making it matter and not making it a piece of fluff (although interesting). Because of that, it is quite time-consuming and takes a lot of effort since I pretty much seek out all the content, write all the articles, take many of the photos, and lay it all out. When I have other priorities on my plate, it feels like a huge burden. But I've had the freedom of  blocks of time to devote to it the past few days and I have loved-loved-loved the adrenalin rush! It's 99.9% complete and my goal was to have it finished by tomorrow (my last work-day of the month), and my goal will be met! Why do I enjoy this task? Because unlike my previous job when I was also responsible for the company newsletter, here I have  total creative control and content control, and I am 100% trusted with that control. I don't have a micromanager criticizing every damned stupid thing or interjecting her Twilight Zone demands. It's mine, and I am respected for its quality and its relevance. Only when you are allowed to soar can you actually soar.

So, tomorrow should be a good day, too (besides the fact that we leave for Harstine after work). The newsletter will be electronically distributed, and we will attend our quarterly in-person marketing meeting at our corporate office which I think will be interesting and entertaining (if a little Dilberty), plus we always have a nummy lunch. I've missed the last two quarterly meetings due to deadlines and also vacation, so I'm looking forward to attending with Ms. Jodie Foster. It will be her first quarterly meeting. (She's such a gem!)

Oh! And today at my favorite branch office we had a potluck lunch (I brought my oriental cabbage salad which completely disappeared) and we had GRILLED SALMON! One of our staff is a member of the Makah Tribe and she scored a couple of huge hunks of fresh salmon caught around Neah Bay and it was truly to die for. One of our cute young engineers grilled it on our office barbecuer. What an incredible treat!

Today was one of those (admittedly rare) days when I felt pretty darned good about my job.

Welcome Back, 'Puter!

OK, so it cost a little over $300 to have it fixed. (Grrr). The only "fix" for overheating was to get a "notebook cooler" platform with extra fans that the laptop now sits on top of. It's...OK. It'll be cumbersome to haul back and forth between Harstine, but I can live with it. It's much quieter without the laptop fan going a gazillion mph constantly, and the fan platform thingy is quiet, too. I do have to type somewhat elevated, but it's not uncomfortable (yet). And then, I went from 512 mb of RAM to 2 gig! While it's not a mind-blowing difference like you would expect, there is a difference, and it's nice to have my resource-heavy applications open quicker. I'm sure that a faster processor is what would make the biggest difference, but I'll see how long this hangs in there for me and then it'll be time for a new laptop. So, mind-blowing comes later. I bought myself some time, anyway.

It's only Tuesday? Jeesh, I'm so looking forward to Thursday night when we head to Harstine for an extended Labor Day weekend. Don't have to be back to work until the following Wednesday! I'm not sure how the weather will be (they keep changing the forecast), but regardless, it'll be nice to get away. Always is. The final hurrah of summer. (*sniff*)

I already sense fall. And the tilt of the sun is doing its September thing. (When the sun's out, that is...)

Tonya's Yearbook! (subtitle: in which Tonya gets ridiculously carried away with inanity)

So, Pam over at Beancounters pointed me in the direction of this "create your yearbook pictures over the ages" site, and as you can see, I took it a bit far. But it was fun! I've always wondered what I would have looked like with the long straight hair that I coveted but could never have. Or "big hair" that was so popular in the '80s. Truth be known, I have a 7th grade picture that looks very much like the photo with glasses (mine were white cat-eye...) And does the photo with the flip hair style look like Mary Tyler Moore or what?

Go yearbook yourself here! (And you don't have to get quite as carried away as I did...)

A "Clean and Articulate" Ticket!

In many ways it comes down to this: Listening to Barack's and Joe's voices for the next 4-8 years will sound like music to my ears. McCain's voice drives me up the wall with his monotone/denture-whistling and if he were to choose Joe Leiberman as his running mate, I'd have to stab my eardrums with a fork.

I think this is a strong and intelligently-considered choice, and I'm continuously impressed with Obama's wisdom. More than anything, we desperately need wisdom!

And if you think it's a given that a democrat will raise taxes, consider this (via Karen over at Verbatim):

"For those of you out there who earn more than $2.87 million per year (are you reading my blog on your private jet?), McCain will decrease your taxes by 4.4% and Obama will increase your taxes by 11.5%. If, on the other hand, you earn less than $18,981 per year, McCain will decrease your taxes by 0.2% and Obama will decrease your taxes by 5.5%. Think on that, in one of your  houses, if you can remember how many you have."  [Here's the graphic].

Better Than Nothing

Argh! My laptop is at the laptop-doctor and it won't be "discharged" until Monday! Yes, I am thankful that I have my work laptop as a backup, lame as it is. (The screen is so little!) And since I don't have Live Writer, I'm having to use the Typepad compose feature which intensifies my frowny lines.

BUT...it's a good weekend to be taking care of this because we won't be able to head to Harstine (JDub has to work). I would have no internet access there whatsoever with this computer (no slot for the T-Mobile card).  So, I'll stop bitching and moaning about it now because things could be much worse.

And after all, it's Friday! Yay! Always a good thing.

Soon after I got home from work, Mojo blasted through the pet door (like Kramer...) and bumped my legs and meowed (he's really not much of a meower) as if saying, "It's Friday night! I'm here, see? Can we go to Harstine now?" He missed out last weekend, if you recall. Poor guy.