Happy New Year - Setting Goals?

This will be my last post of 2007 as I will be away from the computer tomorrow. I hope you all have a wonderful New Year. Please have a fun but safe celebration.

Do you set New Year resolutions? I don't know about the idea of resolutions. They sound so "all or nothing" and it's no wonder most of them fall by the wayside within a few days or weeks. But I am in favor of setting goals. The first of the year is as good a time as any to do that.

If you are looking for a place to list your goals and maybe track your progress I recommend 43Things. I've been a member there for a couple of years and I find the user community to be very helpful and supportive. You can write entries about your goals - or not. And it's fun to cheer other people on.

Just today I found another site that's great for figuring out your goals for the year keeping them in line with your values and what's important to you. It's in the form of an online workshop which took me about an hour or so to go through. I found it to be a worthwhile exercise. If you are interested go here and check it out.

What were the results of my online workshop? Well my top goal came out "declutter my home." Big surprise. :)

Happy New Year!

Pre-Christmas Gathering

Since our family is not able to get together on Christmas Day we gathered on Sunday the 23rd instead. It's not often that I and my two sisters get together all at the same time as everyone lives in different parts of the state. Of course our meeting place was at Mom's house in Lacey. It was great to see everyone.

My nephew DJ took this photo of Walter, me, Diega, Jozi and Mom. If you would like to see some of the other photos taken that day click on the picture and use the Next and Prev links to navigate the album.

Walter's Eyesight Not So Great

Walter had an eye doctor appointment this afternoon. He last saw his doctors 4 weeks ago. Since then he has experience a further decline of his eyesight. For a couple weeks he was seeing floaters but those have mostly cleared up. The biggest issue right now is what seems to be a fog over whatever he sees.

How does this affect Walter? At this point he has almost no night vision left. And in normal indoor lighting he sometimes becomes disoriented - something that was not a problem for him before.

Over the last several months since Walter can no longer see the big E on the eye chart there is another method they use to measure his sight. A technician positions herself across the room from Walter and holds up a certain number of fingers on her hand. Walter has to tell her how many fingers are being held up. They move the hand closer until Walter can see it. A month or so ago Walter could count the fingers correctly around 8 feet away (that distance is my own rough guess). Today Walter was only able to identify the number of fingers when they were about 2-1/2 feet away from him.

The doctor examined Walter's eye carefully. The good news is his eye pressure is normal now - about 18. And the retina looks good. But there is some inflammation in the eye and that's the only thing the doctor could see that might be causing the problem. The solution (we hope) is to increase his dose of prednisolone from once a day up to 3 times a day. He doesn't go back for another 5 weeks unless there are further problems.

We're wishing for a good result from the increased prednisolone. It's hoping and praying time now.

A White Christmas

Walter and I spent Christmas Day in Lacey with my Mom followed by a visit to my friend Sue who lives in West Olympia. Turns out that was a great place to enjoy the Christmas SNOW that fell on Western Washington. It's rare for it to snow here on Christmas Day. I read the last time it happened was in 1996.

The snow started coming down as we were driving down to Olympia. It was predicted to be "snow flurries" and nothing really sticking more than an inch, so we weren't too worried about driving in it. When snow first starts to fall it doesn't make much impact on the ground. I was pleasantly surprised to see the snow continue to fall for a couple hours after we arrived at Mom's house. Then it stopped.

I was afraid our snow dusting was over without anything really sticking, when it started back up again. Sometimes it was light and sometimes it was as though someone dumped it from a bucket. By 5:30 when we left Mom's to go visit Sue it was sticking pretty good. I was surprised to find that snow was covering not only the grass but also the freeway when we set out for West Olympia. It was significant enough people were driving quite slowly. That's a good thing. When we got to Sue's neighborhood we slid around a bit, but arrived safely. There was over an inch on the streets by then.

We made it home safely to Seattle with our "White Christmas" memories in tow.

This 15 second video is an attempt to capture the snowfall through my Mom's kitchen window. It never shows up on video quite the way it appears to the naked eye. But you can see how halfway through the video the snowfall rate picks up dramatically. That's how it went - light, then suddenly heavy for a while. You can't see the temperature on that thermometer in the window but it was around 34-35 degrees Fahrenheit. Just barely cold enough to be snow instead of rain.

If you were in Western Washington did you enjoy our "White Christmas"? It didn't last long, but it was so pretty coming down.

Home - Merry Christmas!

This is that wonderful time of year when so many of us head home - either in body or spirit. For me home is wherever my loved ones are. Walter and I will be spending Christmas Day with my Mom in Olympia.

About a year ago I came upon this wonderful video entitled "Home" by Happy Slip. I've been waiting a year to share it with you. There are some delightful scenes in it that made me smile and I hope they do the same for you.



Where is home for you? Wherever is your home and wherever you will be spending the holidays, I wish you all the season's best including a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Meet Ally

A couple years ago I wrote about my brother-in-law Bill who is very talented with pieces of wood and carving implements not to mention sandpaper and paint. Bill has continued to hone his skills and he has developed into quite the artist.

I heard from my mother that Bill was working on an alligator. He had shown it to her when the carving was done but before he painted it. When I was in Olympia on Monday he brought over the finished product to show me. He had spent 10 hours on painting alone. If you click on the pictures below you can see them up close. He did the tiny speckled effect with a toothpick. The white paint is luminescent so it glows in the dark.

I think it's fun to examine Bill's artwork closely because there are always details that you wouldn't expect. The alligator's eyes are pretty bloodshot, and if you were to look closely at the teeth you would see they have a little blood on them too. I'm not sure why the pupils are 9's, but I'm sure there is some significance there. He thought about carving toes but that would have made them fragile so he thought it better to paint on the toes.

Bill tells me he has several more projects in progress including a 6 foot tall dragon. For each piece he can tell you where he found the piece of wood and what kind it is. It is amazing to me that someone could look at a boring piece of stump or branch and see something of beauty waiting to be revealed.

You have quite the talent, Bill. Keep up the great work!

Hot Cocoa Party at Elliott's House

Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of paying a visit to my little friend Elliott and his mom and dad Cynthia and Doxey. We had wonderful hot cocoa (Ghirardelli's!) and some yummy banana bread that Cynthia made.

Elliott showed me this special ornament he made in daycare/school. If you look closely at the picture you can see the ornament is a small frame with a picture of Elliott inside. The frame itself has special sparkly glitter that Elliott added himself (with a little help from his dad).


Elliott's parents used to take monthly birthday pictures of Elliott sitting in the "big red chair" next to Samuel, his teddy bear friend. Lately, however, it's been difficult to get Elliott to stop moving long enough to sit up next to Samuel. We made a few attempts to get the sitting pose last night, but Elliott has a little too much energy to just sit where you put him. Instead I got a few prone shots of the squirmy wormy boy with his more sedate bear. I like this one.


To cap the evening off I had to get a picture of the family Christmas tree. The branches start nice and low to the ground so Elliott can enjoy it too.


To see more pictures from the evening just click here and use the Next or Prev links to navigate the album. There are also a few more pictures over at Elliott's blog.

Thank you to Elliott and his mom and dad for having me over. It was a fun time!

Visit to Cabela's

Last Tuesday night on our way home from Lacey we stopped at the new Cabela's store. It's the first Cabela's outfitters' store in Washington state, and what a store it is! The chain got its start catering to hunters and fishermen but has expanded to include gear for lots of outdoors activities. They also have lots of great outdoor appropriate clothing if you're looking for something special to keep you warm and dry.

The place is huge. For me it was more like a tourist attraction than a store. Right in the middle is a great big man-made mountain. And all over this mountain are stuffed animals, taxidermy style. We saw several kinds of deer, wild turkeys, a musk ox, bears, a sea lion, beavers, a moose, and a bunch more animals that I can't remember. Underneath the mountain there is a small aquarium containing trout.

On the upstairs level you will find a safari area where they have an elephant, zebra, lion, and other African animals. Also on the second floor you will find an archery shooting range and a deli/restaurant. The deli is an interesting visit in itself serving up such delicacies as elk, ostrich, venison bratwurst and bison bratwurst. I had a wild boar sandwich. No, it didn't taste like chicken ... it tasted like ham! If you are not an adventuresome eater, not to worry. They also have "regular" food like turkey, roast beef and chicken salad sandwiches not to mention chili dogs and pizza by the slice.

We had a fun time looking around and visiting one corner called the "general store" where I purchased some homemade fudge to take home (yum!). Were also looked at some of the prepackaged "outdoor survival" food for our emergency kits. It was interesting to me that a high percentage of food that is considered "outdoor survival" is actually some form of candy. Except for the fudge we managed to resist.

If Cabela's sounds like a fun place to you, I really recommend you give it a visit when you are in the area.

Of course I brought my camera and took a bunch of pictures so I could share with all of you. Here is a little slideshow for you.



Visit to Cabela’s 12/07

Elevator Encounters

It can be fun to talk to people in elevators. It is my opinion that we as a society are too isolated from one another. Especially in the big cities (like Seattle) people don't talk to strangers at all. We are lacking a certain connectedness people used to have with one another. Of course it's not that way everywhere. People in smaller towns and some other states can be quite friendly on the street or any place they meet up with a stranger.

In order to do my part to change this just a little bit, I like to talk to people in elevators. If I get in an elevator and there is one other female in there, 90 percent of the time I make a point to talk to her. Sometimes I chat about the weather, sometimes I'll compliment her on her bag or cute outfit, or generally talk about something going on in the world or just in the building that day. People almost always react in a very positive manner. They are happy that someone took a moment to say something kind, and sometimes they take the conversation even further.

About a week ago I was riding up in the elevator and got stopped when a tall and striking woman got on. She had a fabulous long cardigan sweater on with beautiful ruffling all the way down the front. Very dramatic. I started up a conversation with her about it. It was a really fun chat and she seemed really happy to get the compliment. When she stepped out on her arrival floor she told me "you made my day!" And of course I was happy with that little moment of connection as well.

On Friday I got on the elevator in the middle of the afternoon to go down and get something to eat. It was late and I hadn't gotten lunch yet. The elevator stopped to let someone on. This time it was a male. Judging by his attire (suit and briefcase) and the fact he was coming from a law firm floor I suspected him to be an attorney. He no sooner got on the elevator than he said to me "You SMELL good!" ?!!

I was totally surprised. And at first I didn't know what to say in response. So I stammered "are you sure that it's me?!" He replied "well something smells good!" Then after a moment he added "it smells like candy. Something smells like candy!" While he was making these exclamations someone else got on the elevator. I tried to think what he could be talking about while doing my own inhale/smell test. Sure enough, something smelled good. But shoot, I've been smelling that all day. Wait ... that means it probably IS me! It was then that I remembered.

When I arrived at the office that morning I decided to use a room spray in my office. I have a collection of 4 sprays. I thought it would be festive to use the Christmas scent, but in my sleep-deprived state I had grabbed the gardenia one. I sprayed it up in the air, but of course the scent landed on me. When I realized it was the room scent that had been following me around all day, I explained what had happened to the guy in the elevator. He just kept exclaiming "Smells good!" and "Smells like candy." Too funny!!

Regardless of the scent, it was a really fun bit of human contact and this time someone else made MY day. I think I laughed to myself all the way down the street.

Of course I don't talk to people who have their eyes and thumbs glued to a Blackberry or other mobile device. I usually think "I sure hope that's a very important email you're reading because you don't know what else you might be missing out on." I feel a little sorry for them.

When was the last time you spoke to someone in an elevator? Or if you don't ride elevators, how about a store clerk? Or any stranger you meet in a day?

Storm Devastation

As I described in my previous post we were fortunate to come away unscathed by the devastating series of storms that hit southwest Washington on Monday. Tens of thousands of people, especially in Kitsap, Lewis, Grays Harbor and Mason counties were not so lucky. With the storms came widespread flooding, power outages and 6 deaths.

The Centralia area in Lewis County was one of the hardest areas. Floods engulfed one-third of the town of Centralia and completely shut down an 11 mile stretch of I-5 for more than 3 days. I understand the water was 10 feet deep along 3 miles of the freeway. The Seattle PI quoted a volunteer who was helping to get supplies to people who need them as saying "I've lived here 26 years, and I've never run a jet boat down I-5 before. It's pretty unbelievable."

My sister Jozi, who lives in Centralia was fortunate to have her home spared. My cousin Rhonda was not so lucky. It took several days before any of the family members heard from Rhonda. When I started writing this post a few days ago I was going to call it "Where's Rhonda?" because she seemed to be missing. Fortunately she is found and she and her husband are safe, staying with friends. But they sustained major damage to their home which they recently finished renovating.

Word has it that they didn't have much time to leave. Someone pounded on their door in the middle of the night to let them know they needed to evacuate immediately. By the time they got dressed the water was flowing into their house. The waters eventually reached their windows so you can imagine how much damage was sustained. Since the waters receded they have been taking things that can be salvaged to Rhonda's mother's home in Elma to dry out. I hope they can make their home habitable once again, but I know it will take much hard work and lots of money for the repairs. I can only imagine they are heartbroken over this.

Jozi lives near the Skookumchuck River which did not rise as high as the Chehalis which is near Rhonda's home. Still, it's nerve-wracking waiting to find out if your home will be safe. Jozi lost a day and a half of work because of the freeway shutdown and not wanting to get stuck in Olympia if her route became completely impassable. She described a couple days of constant helicopter noise. You see, helicopters came from near and far (even from California) to help in the rescue effort. Over 300 people were rescued by helicopter from their homes.

Flood waters also caused road closures on the Kitsap Peninsula. Bremerton got a record 12+ inches of rain.

These storms were not only full of rain but high winds as well. Hurricane force winds hit on the coast causing over 50,000 customers to lose power - about 30,000 of them in Grays Harbor County. My cousin Karen lives in that area and she had to evacuate her apartment. Not because of flooding, but because the wind took the roof off the apartment building! The coastal area was completely isolated from road access because of flooding and had to endure days without power. Two days ago there were still 16,000 without power. Since the storm the weather has turned cold. What a miserable situation.

Lewis and Grays Harbor Counties were recently declared federal disaster areas. I'm planning to donate some money for the relief efforts. If you find yourself in a position to do the same and would like to help, King5 has a page here with a great list of ways you can help.

Trip to Oly on Monday

Our trip to Olympia on Monday was a bit of an adventure as that was the day the local storm was in full force. Driving down we experienced lots of rain and wind. The experience involved a bit of white knuckle driving as we made our way down I-5 through low spots full of standing water, rooster tails that surprised us by covering the windshield beyond visibility, and winds that pushed the car to and fro. We were thankful that the new Honda has new tires on it so we didn't have to worry about hydroplaning as much as we would have with the Saturn. On the other hand, it has a higher profile than the Saturn so we felt buffeted by the winds a bit more.

We made it to Olympia safely though, and were happy to discover that Mom's power had returned the evening before. We picked her up from Sue's house and took her off to her doctor appointments. By the time we left at the end of the day the storm was subsiding and fortunately Mom's power was still on. We left her at her home secure in the knowledge that she would be safe and plenty warm.

Mom's appointments went fine. Yesterday she went back to the eyelid surgeon for a follow-up and he said everything looks great. If you look closely at this photo you will see that she has a bit of a shiner under her right eye. That's from the surgery, I promise. No one popped her. :)

Some Crazy Weather

We are having a few days of crazy weather here in Western Washington. Yesterday it snowed. Not a lot, but it was accompanied by stronger than normal winds so the snow seemed to come down fast and furious. I couldn't grab the camera fast enough to catch it at its peak. But below is a 15 second scene of the snow falling outside the office window.

Today it has been raining a lot and tomorrow another storm is expected with heavy rains and high winds. The wind was with us some today too, and my mother's power went out. We are thankful for my friend Sue who took Mom home to spend the night with her. Mom has two doctor appointments tomorrow so we will pick her up in the morning. Hopefully the power will be back by then and will stay on.

The wild weather should make for an interesting drive to Olympia. We will probably get to see how our new car fares in fowl weather.

Mom and Diega Doing Well

Mom had her lower right eyelid surgery on Tuesday. It went really well (the procedure took only about 15 minutes). This is a picture of her in the recovery bed and she got to go home shortly after this photo was taken. The nurses thought she looked pretty cute with her white eye patch. They told her the white eye patch means she's a GOOD pirate!

Once the patch was removed the area looks great - just like she has a black eye. Her surgeon did a good job at tightening up the lower lid so she should no longer have a problem with constant eye infections.

Diega is doing well too. She got to go home from the hospital on Thursday. She's in a fair amount of pain yet but getting a little better each day. She's gradually adding more solid foods each day - today she had crackers in her soup and some applesauce.

We're all glad that everybody is on the mend. Thanks to everyone who sent their prayers and well wishes our way.