Talk Thursday - What I Learned - And Did - This Summer

Wow. I don't think I've ever gone this long without posting. It's been a wacky summer, kids. Some ways good, some ways bad, all ways more than I wanted, I think.

I've done a lot, and a lot of nothing. It depends on which week/month it was. I promise to post some pics of our trip to DC, but in the meantime, here's what I was up to this summer.

Things I Did:

Went to Reno to see Big Bit graduate. Mom, TH, Little Bit and I made the trip and my cousin the Godmother made a detour from her vacation in order to see her Godson graduate. It was a good weekend and really amazing. Big Bit asked me if I cried afterwards, to which TH responded "How many times would you like to hear about?" Too true. All I could think of was him in his little pink and blue cap laying in my arms while I said "Hi Dude, welcome to the world." It goes so damn fast.

Got hooked on Twitter. It gives the instant gratification a distracted Type A personality like me seems to require. I've had some great interactions with people there, some famous (Kelsey Grammer), some known to many (Mike Freeman, who writes for CBS Sports Online, has written several books and apparently wants to kidnap my beagle) and some known only to me. That may have been part of the reason I haven't blogged, and I know Kris has alluded to this as well...you've kind of said things you wanted to say and that takes away from the will to write. If you don't Twitter, you might like it. If you ever do and you follow me, it's really me, warts, liberal viewpoint, Packer obsession and all. You have been warned.

Went to Washington, DC. Awesome week. Did not want to go home. Could live there if I could live in the city. Have to make much more money to live in the city than I think I can. We hit about everything you could want to, including the White House and the Capitol tours (thank you Senator Crapo, I'll never vote for you but still). Met @thewino (Kris), @htphelps (Holly) and @KingMonkeyPants (James Bond), the first two being lovely ladies who blog about life (Kris) and the Packers (Holly) and now are on Twitter as well, the latter a dear friend of Kris' who is a source of absolute joy to me with his abundant humor on Twitter. I would have taken a picture of all of them, but KMP has some sort of super secret government job and I think he would have had to shoot us had he been photographed (I keed, I keed). The whole family was taken with them, to the point that when we went to National Airport (as the locals still call it) to fly home, Little Bit sadly waved out the window of the Metro and said "Bye, Monkey."

Not something I did - but - TH won the Golden Mallet tournament. AGAIN. Friend Steve was a bit apoplectic, because it's Steve's party, on Steve's birthday (this year) and he lost that damn mallet again. He'd gained it back for all of one year.

Had our annual Fourth of July BBQ so we could all troop over to the Depot and watch fireworks. Little Bit had a friend over, friends Steve and Bob brought their kids and everyone had a blast. The amount of munitions in our driveway the next day spoke for themselves.

Went to the Braun Brothers Family Reunion weekend in Challis. Never have been, always wanted to go (an old friend of TH's used to play in their band WAY back when) and finally did. I knew Muzzie and Billy's Mom and Dad when I was little and they were very sweet.

Mom organized it and we had a lot of fun. I think we'll go back next year but I will take earplugs because while I can still party, I can't stay up until 4 a.m. with the kids from LSU; or, to be honest, the nice cowboy and his wife (older than us!) from central Washington who were riding their bicycles in the dark at midnight while TH and I had a last beer and chuckled our heads off. They were very nice though and offered us breakfast the next day.

Went to Seattle for a PACKER game - Woohoo! Okay, here's the thing, Seattle contingent, including not only family but my Packer blog buddy Cuphound - we got there Friday night, ate dinner, went to bed, got up Saturday morning, ate breakfast, went into Seattle on the light rail (we stayed by the airport), had lunch with my old boss, Jenny, who we haven't seen in over a year, went to a tailgate party that I had been invited to by the Northwest Packer Backers, met another Twitter buddy @Greg_A_Bedard who writes for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (boy was I nervous, but he's just a nice, witty, guy who likes to write about the Packers and their crazy fans like me), went to the stadium, ate, watched the game, took the light rail back, got up, had lunch and flew home. Whew. Next time I go over there I'm going to have more time and less things booked.

Things I learned:

It sucks when your teenager really starts acting like one. It was a rough summer with Big Bit, he tended to disappear off the face of the earth once he got back from vacation with his Dad. He wanted to spend most of the summer in Reno with his friends, understandably, but he also decided that he never needed to talk to me just to let me know he was alive (much less had he done any of the things he needed to do...yeah, Mom was asking), there were a few tears and a couple of irritated conversations. If you've gotten to 18.5 years without having all this attitude, I think it surprises you even more. Thank God for my sister-in-law who provided the exact perspective I needed after one of these conversations as she had gone through the same thing - late rebellion. Now Big Bit is here, all is fine and back to a different kind of normal and he's ready to kick off Welcome Week this weekend and get in the swim of college life. I'm excited for him, but I think he might be more excited, though nervous.

Life is damn hard and I'm not as resilient as I used to be. I am grateful to have a decent job with good pay in this economy. I am glad my boss is not Sybil and her boss (and his boss) seem to like me. Still, there are many writings on the wall which say the long term prospects are not good. I'm tired of feeling underutilized and overbored. I've been working on the attitude but it's hard. (Whiner, you say? You would be right and I've said that to myself.) There is a possibility of a job on the horizon that in some ways looks promising and in some ways looks scary due to some inside info I have. I should know if I have it next week. Without divulging much, let's just say that it involves a very stable employer. And a pension. And those are very, very attractive things.

I probably don't have the patience to really learn to play piano, but God bless my friend Allen for trying to teach me.

I am technically old enough to be Aaron Rodgers' mother. Damn, that's depressing.

Our little Mario beagle has a big heart and a fierce growl. We think he may have been abused because the poor little guy recoils if you even raise your voice. Big Bit terrified him accidentally with a fly swatter of all things. But he's very dear to us already.

Little Bit has to have some testing, probably in a couple of months, because the dr. we got referred to thinks he may have borderline Asperger's. Maybe not, but maybe. And while I'm grateful that it isn't worse, because obviously things always could be, I'm struggling more than a little bit with this particular bit of news.

I'm two months from being a year older and I don't think I'm any wiser. When does that kick in, exactly?

Lastly, I found out last night that the EHFH has a tumor on his liver and has to have a biopsy next week. He's only 44. Big Bit is understandably upset and concerned (as am I, actually) so please keep EHFH and Big Bit in your thoughts and prayers. With BB starting college next week here, the timing is of course impeccable. NOT.

So, in WAY more than a nutshell, that is what's been going on. I promise to write more so as not to write a novel again. I hope you've all been well and I promise you haven't been away from my thoughts.

Lost in Idaho

Yes, you used to call me lostinutah, but these days I seem to be lostinidaho. Not in the same sense, but I know I've been remiss in trying to write anything whatsoever or comment on others blogs. Though I see some other people are having the same problem. :)

What has been going on? I don't know that it's anything specific...a tad bit of laziness, no doubt, but also just life being life and me ending up watching David Letterman, seeing the Top 10 list and realizing I'm going to be just as tired in the morning as I was the morning of the current day.

The job has been...the job. I've had a couple of nasty surprises in the last week that don't threaten my employment but do seem to confirm that it will lack the thing I like about my field - creativity. Not that I've been allowed to have much anyway, but what I did have is slowly being eliminated by our Corporate structure. (Not at me, mind you, just generally.) I have applied internally for a job that I think I would love, that is a stretch opportunity but one I had some exposure to in Utah. The person I would work for I think I would truly love to be around - she and I have bonded over our children are both going to that fine institution next year I've mentioned previously. We'll see - the recruiter for the job (same guy that was my recruiter for this job) seems to think I'll get an interview at least but the wheels of justice turn slowly.

Memorial Day weekend was a blur. We went to friend Renee's party (lots of fun) but first...we acquired a new family member.

This is Mario, our new evil pet. (Those of you who parent or grandparent Ninentdo addicts will get the name.) He is a 2 year old Beagle, who was a stray at the shelter and we nabbed him. We were going to wait until we got back from our trip to Washington D.C. to celebrate Big Bit's graduation but Beagles don't come through the shelter very often so we nabbed him. Friend Ra will watch him while we're in Reno and a little bit of the D.C. time when Mom is on a Harley ride to Elko.

We also went (late) to my uncles(s) and aunt(s) anniversary party. A supposedly brief lunch at Flatbread Pizza went sadly awry. In addition, I hate really paper-thin crust pizza. Shan't be back. Sorry to the family for showing up for the last 1/2 hour but I did enjoy seeing everyone. Then, we got to go see the new house my dad is having built. It's small, but cute, and when he retires and can't live in his company-provided housing anymore he will have a nice place to live. Sorry, no pics, but once it's done I'll nail some down.

Now - getting ready for graduation (I AM OLD) and our trip to DC. Big Bit has been another distraction (though always welcome) - he was having extreme bouts of senioritis and resenting authority (granted, the authority he was resenting I couldn't live with, so totally understood). To his credit, he got through it all and is great, but I appreciated the fact he wanted to talk to me about it all. I don't take that for granted by any means. Sometimes you see parents and their children grow apart and you wonder - how does that happen? I'm not sure. I don't want to experience it with my kids, so I plan on working hard at appreciating their worlds, even when I don't agree with them.

Back on a Sunday, Big Bit's college orientation on a Monday and then - off to D.C.! We were fortunate enough to score White House tour tickets through Senator Crapo - now if I just see an Obama I'll have a big grin on my face. I know. As if. And I know he's not perfect, okay? Thank you. Looking forward to seeing all the wonderful, inspiring sights that I've seen briefly on work visits to the D.C. area and much more that I've never been exposed to.

I also hope to meet up with Holly and Kris, a couple of ladies met through the blogosphere - we'll see how things shake out but it might be a lot of fun.

So, while I've been totally offline, I haven't been inactive. Hope all is well with everyone's world as well.

Frazzled

I'm feeling frazzled. Vacation was wonderful, enjoyed the beach, the Hydes and meeting Cele - but haven't had time to post any pics. Got back Friday night (really early Saturday morning), had to get ready for a bbq at our house Saturday night thanks to our friends who had so much fun at the housewarming they decided it would be a great place to see fireworks! (And, it is, it's a walk across the street to the Depot where you have a clear view of the whole show.) We really had fun with everyone (again, so busy no pictures - I have to have a more low-key party) but that meant Sunday we were FRIED and since then it's been work, work and my stressed out stomach keeping me awake nights.

I promise to write more soon and post photos, but in the meantime I appropriated this one - I'm glad I didn't try to take any of the fireworks because mine never turn out and (credit Idaho Statesman) others are much more talented. This literally was the view steps from our house. Boise is AWESOME.

More soon!

I Have An Excuse

I'm on vacation. That's why I haven't blogged. Um, well, except that I just started vacation yesterday and it's been about two weeks since last post. However, as one of my coworkers and I discussed last week (she, too, is off this week), there has been serious vacationitis going on for us for two weeks.

We're going to Oregon with our good friends the Hydes - and, all things coming together and the creek don't rise, I'll get to meet Cele! Hoping to connect with cousin Kristi as well.

But mostly, I'm just going to sit - in a hot tub, in a beach chair in a restaurant booth, with a book or without one and just BE. I never took a break between jobs and although London was wonderful, that sort of trip isn't relaxing. It just can't be done in six days and have any relaxation associated with it! So I'm really looking forward to just being for a while.

Have a great week!

What a Week!

Here's a smattering of what we experienced. It was a great trip, though one I personally probably didn't appreciate as much as I should. It's a genetic habit. I often find it hard to live in the moment, mostly because I'm so worried about what the men in my life are experiencing. I need to let it go. I know (insert Craig Ferguson's Scottish accent here). Keep telling me that, okay? P.S. The formatting on this stinks, but I'm getting tired, so it's going out there and I'll mess with it later.

First, we stumbled off the plane at 7:30 a.m. London time. We managed to make it to the hotel around 10 a.m. after stumbling our way through immigration (the line that went on forever) and onto the tube.

Thankfully, the hotel had our room ready, which was a surprise, so we went up, showered and generally tried to get ourselves oriented with it being daylight and all. Then, we went and found the first cool thing - the BEST CHINESE FOOD EVER. It's in London. All over the place, but particularly in Chinatown. Big Bit and I can vouch for the fact it's better than Chinatown in San Francisco. It's better than the Chinese food in Chinatown in Singapore, for heaven's sake. This was the first time we ate Chinese, but it wouldn't be the last. This was a pleasant surprise to me - I'd not made it to this end of London in my brief weekends there.




Then, it was on to see "Spamalot". TH and I saw this in Salt Lake City over a year ago. We could get cheap (read, seats that were in a scary steep balcony) for their Boxing Day show in London and we figured the boys would enjoy it - they love The Holy Grail and the Killer Rabbit. We all tried to nod off a bit, but we enjoyed the show and the theatre it was in was truly killer.

Oh, what else? We went to the British Museum (lots of pictures of mummies and so on, that I won't post here at this time), more Chinese Food. Oh and the Tower of London. Here's Big Bit taking a picture of more of the Tower. It was pretty cool.









Here's where the Crown Jewels are. We couldn't fit it all in the first day as the line was too long, so we went back another morning to see the jewels - got in right away. My father in law is right, they're cool but not worth standing in line for. We had bought an annual pass that got us into several palaces, going one time to the Tower all but paid for it, going twice more than paid for it, and we weren't done yet!







Next, Harrod's and Kensington Palace. Harrod's was AWFUL - I'd never seen it so crowded. All of London was crowded, actually. We left there fairly quickly and went to Kensington. Like many American females of my age group, I got up in the middle of the night to see Princess Diana get married and also to see her funeral. I felt very close to her, sometimes you marry a prince and he turns out to be a big fat frog and he has a mean mother who tries to help him take your kids away from you. Sorry, I digress.


The Palace itself is impressive, but the amount they really have for display is fairly small - the highlight, for me, being several of Diana's dresses on display, including the one she wore when she danced with John Travolta. She was very, very tall and very very thin.

The bits wore themselves out. More than once.


















We went on the Eye on New Year's Eve - our wedding anniversary. I don't like heights so I wasn't impressed but we all agreed it was something you should do at least once. It was kind of foggy that day, so most of the pictures weren't that great. (the one at the beginning of the post did, however).


Then - fireworks. We were still trying to figure out the camera, but TH got a couple of good ones, at least. They were magnificent, AND we didn't have to be in the crowd of drunks for four hours with no food, bathrooms or drinks! Yes!


























The last day we went out to Hampton Court Palace, which Cardinal Wolsey built and King Henry VIII stole. And it is very cool indeed.


Last, but not least for now, I leave you with a picture of the ice rink at Somerset House. In the movie Love Actually (my favorite ever!), this is a prominent shot at the beginning of the movie. And it was very cool when we walked in the courtyard and it looked like a scene from the movie. Just perfect.

Preview

Much more to come (once I find the memory chip TH apparently took out of the camera) but here's a preview kids - those of you who get Christmas cards from us or will this year will see this shot again - it's too good not to distribute.

Aren't they just cute?

Survived

Well, we survived the trip - more to come later, I wasn't able to post while there because my stupid work laptop has an issue with Google...it wouldn't let me sign in. We flew back into Salt Lake Friday night, and of course, what else was going on but a SNOWSTORM. (Have I ever mentioned I hate snow in Utah? I think so.) We stayed the night there rather than trying to get our jet lagged bodies home, which had the nice side result of getting to eat at Acme Burger, which is one of my favorite places in Salt Lake to eat.

Some random thoughts about the trip -

First, London is really beautiful and I think everyone enjoyed the trip. I have to say I've had enough testosterone surrounding me for a week that I need some serious time to myself. Which is why my plan for tonight is to send TH gaming with his friends, Big Bit to his room and Little Bit to the XBox so I can be ALONE.

Sixteen year old males take longer to get ready than sixteen year old females. I'm not kidding.

Europeans who travel to London on holiday are rude and pushy. Not Britons, mind you, Europeans. Americans, at least ones traveling to London, are polite, try to maintain personal space and say "excuse me" frequently. And I'm not just talking about us, mind you, I saw this repeatedly as there were a lot of marching bands from the U.S. in London for the New Year's Day parade. TH and Big Bit both commented we heard more "foreign" and U.S. accents all week than we did British accents.

The BBC has a lot of useless programming. Although I did see Judi Dench more than once, and that's always cool.

I love the magazines there. They are more vapid and superficial than People Magazine if you can believe it, thus they are my guilty pleasure while there.

The fireworks were AMAZING and thanks to a columnist in the U.K. Guardian who I read a few hours before we headed out, I found the best way to get to see the fireworks without having to wait four hours in the "viewing area" - go on the tube to the Vauxhall Bridge, watch them from a short distance, then go back to the tube and ride quietly to your destination while the crowds all fight each other by the Eye. Bless you, good man, bless you.

I highly recommend The Mitre pub on Craven Terrace. It's got nice staff, it's kid friendly and the food is very good and affordable.

Happy New Year everyone, hopefully pictures tomorrow!

I Hate Crowds

Okay, so I'm from Idaho. I'm my father's daughter. I hate crowds. I don't mind being in a big city, I can handle being in line at Disneyland, but I hate the crush of people, not being able to walk freely.

Keep in mind those facts as you view the video below. It's a long video, but if you get through about 3 minutes you will see the hideous crush of people on the Thames on New Year's Eve as the fireworks happen. I love fireworks, this will be my 14th wedding anniversary and we'll be in London, the Husband, the Bits and I, so I'm not complaining, per se. I'm not. But I may need to ward off a panic attack.

Vegas Baby!

So...because I've officially checked out (mentally) at work - with all apologies to my boss (the anti-Sybil) I wish I could focus more, but I can't.

Since I am really not worth much the rest of this week work-wise, Little Bit and I are off to Las Vegas for two days to join TH at his conference/seminar that he gets to attend, though our illustrious employer can't afford to let him work out of Boise permanently. I know, the logic boggles the mind.

He's staying at The Luxor which has a great swimming pool with a bar(!) and the Inclinators (elevators that go up the corners of the pyramid shaped hotel). The weather will be in the 80's and the people watching will be fun. TH won't get to spend a lot of time with us but Little Bit and I will keep each other plenty entertained. Perhaps we'll drive race cars at the NASCAR Cafe.

Plus, JetBlue had tickets for $60 round trip! Little Bit and I have our bags packed and we're ready to go roll with the Rat Pack. I'm sure it's the last time we'll get to go to Vegas for a long time, so I'm pretty excited.

And...it's not Utah. Hee hee.

What's Going On

Wow, there has been a lot going on...here's an update on the familial (and other) happenings of the last few weeks...

• D-Will re-signed with the Utah Jazz for maximum money (max=more than I will ever see in my lifetime). He will be here at least 3 more years. Which is way longer than I want to be here, but I heart him anyway.


• Little Bit marched in the Fort Herriman Days parade with the Scouts, handing out flags. It was 9 a.m. when the parade kicked off and hotter than you-know-where. I walked with him most of the way. Whew. He argued the whole way over there about doing it, but he enjoyed it in the end, I think. They have quite the deal here for their celebration, including a killer fireworks show the last night after a free concert. Unlike our friend Scott, we did not smuggle Kokanee beer into the park for the fireworks, though it DID cross my mind.

Little Bit also learned to ride a bike the same week. I know, he's 9 and he can't ride a bike? He just had never really tried to learn, he had a "trailer bike" that hooks onto the end of The Husband's and he rode that for several years, just riding along with Dad. He's now too big to even try that, so we had to resort to forcing him to learn. He did great!

First the preparation:


Then he's off!


The week after the 4th, we went to McCall, ID camping. I love McCall, there is a state park right on Payette Lake with flushing toilet, showers and power. We tent camp, but I draw the line at not being able to take a shower! Plus, it's right by town so we went to the brewpub there, found a great pizza place and also got to relax by the beautiful lake.

Lots of swimming, so Margarita and the Bits were very happy indeed.

Then, it was home for TH and I, the bits stayed with Grandpa & Pattie, then with Grandma.

We had grand plans...we planned on seeing family in Boise but due to my family of men's famous inability to get moving faster than snails, we barely had time to see the Father In Law and then drop the boys off at Grandpa's.

We picked them up Saturday, met Mom in Wendover. We were planning on going all the way to get them and seeing my grandmother. As usual, I double booked myself and realized we had tickets to see The Police in SLC on Saturday, so didn't make it to Idaho. But we will in a couple of weeks for Shakespeare.

Before the boys came back we actually got to relax a bit, even with work. Rita and Bucky even joined in the relaxation.






Oh, I forgot. All they do is relax. What a life!

We're all home together now - Little Bit will enjoy his last week of freedom before
4th grade kicks off. Time does fly.

Going Back to Cali

Wasn't that a LL Cool J song? Why is it I know a LL Cool J song? Scary.


Anyhow, The Husband and I used to go to Wine Country pretty much every year. We often took Big Bit, as he was small and enchanted with the birds, butterflies, flowers etc and loved, even then to eat at fine restaurants. (another good story about Big Bit I must post someday involved him eating very properly in a nice restaurant at 18 mos old).

Little Bit, we took once or twice and then we couldn't afford to get out of Dodge for several years. So this is probably our first visit in seven years, and the first one he remembers. He does NOT like to eat at fine restaurants. He likes cheeseburgers. Period. So we had to be creative. And buy a $10 cheeseburger here and there (ouch!!!).


As promised, pictures. Here's Little Bit at a store at Fisherman's Wharf, where we went immediately upon deplaning to have lunch:















Then, it was off to wine country. Here's the boys actually sitting together without fighting. It does happen once in a while:


It was so beautiful, warm but not too, sunny, etc. etc. This is a view from Jack London State Park, which was really cool:



Not to mention, we saw an exact replica of an Italian castle that V. Sattui Winery built a few years ago, it is used as a functioning winery but you can tour it. It even has a chapel that looks like a Renaissance period chapel. Remind me to quit drinking wine because these guys have WAY too much money.

Little Bit had fun pretending to be an archer:



Here's another view:




I hated to get on the plane. In fact, I did everything possible to avoid getting on the plane. Not really, but I did consider running off to become a server in a tasting room in Napa Valley while I attended the Culinary Institute of America.

First vacation I've had in years where I wasn't checking the BlackBerry every 10 minutes. And it was AWESOME. The boys had fun (all three of them) and so did I. Wish I was back right now.

New Masthead

Not that I am no longer a Packer fan (just don't think it will shut off) but I am in search of a new masthead, so for now it's Big Bit, Little Bit and my amazing grandmother. All three of them are pretty awesome people.

Been on vacation until tonight. It was pretty damn hard to come back. We were in the Bay Area and let me tell you, there are many things about Cali that are pretty cool. It was green, people were friendly, though a bit taken aback at the wineries when we said we were from Utah. Then we had to clarify we "live" there we're not "from" there.

Pictures coming from the trip - Little Bit went nuts as a potential paparazzi and we have lots of photos.