Aaaand a Month Later.

Joey returned AND we've moved into Gnome's home.

It's not only kick a$$ on the inside but is one of the BEST locations in the community, considering we back up to some undevelopable greenbelt! So far, we only have the bedroom painted. Hopefully we'll get to finishing up the ghetto trim this weekend and I'll be able to post some pics for your admiration. Living with Joey pretty much just rocks. I do most of the laundry and magically I find the dishes are almost always clean b4 I'd even CONSIDER taking care of it (dirty dishes have always been my weak link). That's only the little stuff though, we're confirming all the little preferences we have in common. Tomorrow we'll start painting the downstairs in our earthy tone mix (yaya, Gobi desert!). Of course I'll post pics when we get that area finished-ish.

Outside of that, I started biking to work with the nicer weather. Excluding one shatty experience w/a gate guard, that's been a great experience that I plan on continuing while the weather holds…ESPECIALLY with regular topping 4$ per gallon in Seattle. My car has been having some troubles now, too. It gets 30mpg on most tanks, so I'm reluctant to let it go. As long as we stay this close to work, I think I'll try to make Prince 2 hold on for a few more years…as much as I'd love a new shiny toy, I'd rather spend my monies in other places).

During Joey's last drill weekend, I made it out to Spokane to run a 7.5-mile race with these chumps:

I'm growing pretty fond of these kids, since they're nearly as cool as my sr. year crew (and I only say nearly because I don't think I'll ever stop missing my rosies). The race was huge in the number of people run and pretty awesome considering it was in Spokane :-P I ran alright…but wish I'd been further along in training.

Last weekend we had a pretty great trip down to Westport for some camping and surfing!

It was awesomely warm and the waves were dreamy for Westport. SUCH a great workout. I'm so lucky to have the ocean near by. We finished up that weekend by organizing the garage. As domestically boring as that sounds, it felt damn good to knock down another one of our to-do's. Oh, and our garage looks kick-a$$ in the non-preppy way…um maybe you need a pic for this to make sense…

Aaaand, I got a new camera. It's the slim one on the right (the one on the left is my old one):

It's actually one of the slimmest camera's on the market right now. Kick a$$! Then I really splurged and got the waterproof housing for the camera. Hence the glorious surfing pics.

So, I'm already itching to get out of work after a terrible week. Rumors are flying around the company about layoffs. Sure, it's only reported for Cali…right now. Anyway, I'm anxious for the weekend because we're doing this ski to sea race, which is going to be simply awesome. The race goes from mt. baker to the sound, and the people on my team are pretty kick butt. I'll be running the 8-mile leg, which I'm darn excited about. We'll be spending a few extra days up in Bellingham, too. Some of the guys went to school up there so we'll be kicking it w/their peeps. All in all, it should be a GREAT 4-day weekend :-D

As for the future, I'll keep you posted on the developments in Gnome's home. 2-weekends out Joey will be in Boise for drill and the following weekend his 'rents ?might? be in town. As much as I think Joey's parents are pretty cool, I have to admit I'm nervous about their response to our choice of lifestyle. We'll celebrate Joey's b-day on the 13th; hopefully, with some camping. The weekend after that will find us white water KAYAKING (!?!!) near Portland. I'm ridiculously excited about the kayaking and hope to make it a regular hobby. Oh, wondrous summer how I've missed you!?!!

That's all for now kiddies (and mom). This little engineer is out.

I've been working a lot of (mandated) overtime lately.

So, I'm chewing "Lift {your spirits}" gum.

It has an aftertaste.

Cheers and Jeers

There's a lot to be writing about right now:
The ebb and flow of people in my life.
New begginings.
Young endings.
Leaving memories of people in the past.
Creating new memories with my future... which is what I'm going to focus on.

+3 days and Joey is home.
+6 days and we have our first home.
+10 and we will move into our home.

Have you hugged your little engineer today?

Gone, baby, gone!

This:

Minus this:

Equals this:


SO great to have this little engineer's 5-minute hair back!?!!

She thought it was an Otter

This past LONG weekend Joey, my mom, and I headed out to the Olympic Peninsula. We mostly did some easy hiking around the ocean and talked.

Though there's a LOT to say about our travels, there's not a lot I feel like writing about. Perhaps just have a peak at my pics.

Other than that, this little engineer is going to get her short hair back ASAP!

Knocking on Wood

This past Friday I finally managed a tryst with the new girlie I met a few weekends ago. Though I was leary of meeting up in a place I previously disliked and with a LOT of her long-standing gf's (some dating back to pre-school), I had a great time. So far, A is everything I respected so much in my Rose girlies yet manages to add some new WA flair. It's been a while since I've drank and danced with other women (my social diet has been roughly 90% male for the past couple of years), so I was def a little off my game…yet A made me feel welcome and included at every turn. I feel a lot like I did when I first met Elle or KJ, intrigued… and glad to be given the chance to know such an individual.

Ha. On a lighter note, A is nearly the SAME height/size as me. It's crazy to realize what a short girl looks like as she adamantly pushes her was through a crowd of drunks :)

Joey's plane just landed.

Things are really going this little engineer's way these days, peeps <Knock on wood!>

This kid is getting impatient.

<vent>
The place I live in is up on the market AGAIN. I put up with it the first 2 times and worked with the realtors and such. This time, I am NOT amused. I can't tell you how anxious I get when I come home, knowing people have been through my place w/out my supervision. Will the hellion still be there? Oh, goodness, what if they let her out? There's no way in HE11 a stranger could catch my cat if she got out (she spooks easily) and I live by some ridiculously busy streets. Unfortunately, the hellionator has no outdoor experience either…so she'd probably walk up to some aggressive dog to sniff it's snout right b4 it ate her. On top of that, I'm tired of my stuff being moved and broken. I don't pay 800$ a month to live in a $hat hole AND have to deal with this intrusion. As long as they give me 24hrs notice, I have no control over the timing either. Some people are supposed to come by @ 9am tomorrow morning. Considering that I'm going out tonight, there's a 50% chance I'll still be in bed (factoring in a 3am return to my place).
</vent>

On the positive side, Joey and I'll be moving into our own place in 4 weeks :) Also, Joey surprised me with the declaration that he has a lot more vacay to burn than he thought. He'll be returning to Seattle MONDAY to spend the week with my mother and me. My mom comes to Seattle Tuesday and will be staying a week, btw. It's been a while since I've seen my mom (the tragic x-mas visit). It'll be great to catch up and I'm glad Joey will be here so we can show her our place together. They're the 2 most important people in my life and it'll be pretty awesome to have them both in Seattle with me again. Echo would've been in heaven, too. I'm sure the hellion will turn into a royal snob (as if she isn't already) with all the attention she'll surely get.

Aaaand, with the summer rolling in, I've started planning again. Without the need to spend all my extra time and money on trips to TX (ugg!), my non-TX list is growing. In no particular order, here's the list so far:
1) Visit the McD's in AZ
2) Convince Andy & Erin to run a 1/2 marathon some where in the middle ground between FL and WA
3) Visit Elle and meet Justin
4) Convince people (Billiam?) to run the San Fran 1/2 in August
5) Hope Vince gets enough of a life back to do Vegas
6) Visit Beth and Doug in CO (perhaps for a beer festival)

Budget, budget, budget! I'll have to save enough $$$ and vacay for the finale trip to Italy in October with my mom :)

Can you feel the excitement?!!

With all of that, this little engineer is out!