Oliver is HERE!!!!

Leah just called. They made it to our place. Oliver is gonna nap and then the three of them will head out into our cool hood to have some lunch.
I am getting off work early today to hang out with the Beckidad clan. I can't wait to see them.

We have a fun-filled packed weekend. Today and tomorrow hanging with Oliver. Ollie and the 'rents leave Sunday. Sunday Curt is brewing beer with his buds and I think there is a cookout involved (and beer drinking) that I will participate in.
Then Monday we are meeting Dad and Hilda for brunch in the city.

Lots of pics coming soon of my little friend Oliver!!!!!!

Yikes!!!

So there was this story on Yahoo about salads. Talking about when they are not a healthy choice--which I am fully aware of. But take a look at the ones listed below. That is just nuts!

• Taco Bell's Fiesta Salad® — 840 calories and 45 grams of fat


• Macaroni Grill's Chicken Caesar Salad® — 920 calories and 69 grams of fat


• Panera's Bistro Steak Salad® — 630 calories and 58 grams of fat


• Applebee's Grilled Steak Caesar Salad® — 1,190 calories and 75 grams of fat

Soapy, soap

My Secret Pal left me some yummy soap today. She mentioned in her note to me that it may be risky giving me a soap that has fragance, but this is her favorite soap in the whole, wide world. I can't use soaps or lotions or anything like that that are too "smelly." The powerful smells give me horrible headaches. But the Alpine Milk Soap smells clean and spicy. I think I will be just fine with it.

Working from home

For part of yesterday afternoon I worked from home. Working from home there are very few interruptions--but many more distractions. But I got a good amount done and things that would have taken me much longer at work got done quickly at home. And I got to watch Oprah and wear my jammie bottoms.

Me trying to stay awake with a Go Girl energy drink.

Me working feverishly on the keyboard!

I also got to be home when another stupid earthquake hit. Just a 3.0. But I heard dishes rattling. I bet it was worse in my work building where I am on the 12th floor and the building I am in is on landfill. Fun! I have been here before when an earthquake hits rock n roll baby!

This morning at work I had 4 hours of training on Outlook. Man, I learned some cool stuff. And the guy who taught it was really funny. I am so excited to apply all the stuff I learned. Yes, dorky, I know. Thank goodness the guy was funny since that stuff can be kinda boring.

Happy belated anniversary!

Ed and Marilyn at Sunrift Gorge in Glacier.

So I remembered late yesterday that it was Ed and Marilyn's anniversary. 42 years, right? Isn't that so amazing and great. I am pretty good with remembering birthdays, but when it comes to anniversaries I suck. I remember mine and well, that is about it. Oh, and Angela and Michael's because it is Valentine's Day.

Lost and found

Yesterday when I got in the car to leave for home I could not find my sunglasses. I wear the clip-ons because I wear glasses. And I have to have sunglasses. The sun really bothers my eyes. Anyway, I drove to the grocery without them. And it put me in a bad mood. And then I had to hit the grocery--which I don't enjoy. And then my feet hurt. I got home. Looked around in the car. Took a shower, had dinner, looked in the car again with the newly charged up flashlight and nothing! I almost didn't see some people crossing the street this morning cuz of that dang sun. And if you are from Arizona you know that harsh sun where you can't see a thing--it was kinda like that, but not quite as bad. I get into work hoping I left them sitting on my desk. Nope. I open the drawer where I stash my purse and lo and behold there they are! Sweet! I was trying to figure out where I was going to buy new ones soon. Yea for finding lost items!

TLC Trading Spaces

I used to watch Trading Spaces all the time. Loved that show. Wanted to be on that show. When we lived in Phx. we lived down the street from some friends/co-workers and I wanted to sign us up. Anyway, today while sitting at a light I saw a TLC Trading Spaces truck drive by. I found it kind of exciting, even though it really isn't.

UGH!

I slept like kerap last night. I woke up around 3 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep. So about 3:30 or so I moved to the couch. The next 3 hours sleep, wake up, sleep, wake up, etc. Argh! I feel a little zombielike. I am gonna need a GoGirl later today.

HOLY #@$%!!!!!!!

Gonzales resigns. Well, about freakin time. "AG Gonzales resigns" was the banner hed on the Chronicle Web site this morning. I couldn't believe it. Gimme a break: "Bush said the attorney general's 'good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons.' " C'mon people!!!!

Hanging out

Mia, Todd, Lexie and Cooper came over yesterday to hang out. We walked around our neighborhood a bit and then found a restaurant to have dinner. It was a good time. It is always an adventure with Cooper. But he did a pretty good job at the table. He is turning 5 soon and seems excited about his Star Wars birthday party. Lexie is always so good at the dinner table. And she is fun to have a conversation with. Cooper didn't want to leave our house--that is how fun Curt and I are. :)
I always have fun hanging out with Mia and Todd and the kids. I love having little friends again. I missed that.
Mia told me the other day that Lexie was asking about me and Curt and when she was gonna see us again. Awww!
Lexie is at work today with Mia for half day and then will go with Todd for half day. No day camp and school starts tomorrow. She was showing me Neopets on the laptop. Had cool music and seemed like fun.
I told her if she got bored playing Neopets she could come up with me and do some work. HA!

So far good weekend

Girls' Night Out

My lovely pedicure. And if you look closely I have my moose jammie bottoms on.

After work Friday night Sue, Alicia and I met at Cure to get our nails and tootsies done. Cure is spendy--but it is a beautiful place. And it is fun to treat yourself to a nail spa experience once in awhile. We also got free cosmos for Spa-tini night.
Afterward we had dinner at Miyozen--sushi place. I had eaten there before and thought it was good, but not as good as my favorite sushi place--Sushiya. But this time I don't know what happened--but I really liked the sushi. It was really good. (I musta ordered the wrong things before.) I do have to say the service was lacking Friday night. And they forgot to give us one of our rolls. I don't even remember anyone coming over to see how we were doing.
Other than that it was a good night.

Housewarming

We put some of our fresh veggies from our garden in a basket to take as a hostess gift. (That and a bottle of wine.) The basket includes tomatoes, basil, chives and oregano. Isn't it cute?

Saturday I slept in. That rarely happens. I was gonna be a bum and not go to yoga. But I decided there was no reason I couldn't go to yoga. (Esp. because next weekend Robert, Leah and Oliver are here and the weekend after that we are out of town. So my workout sked will be a little wacked.)
After yoga I ran some errands. I came home and napped. Then did some stuff around the house that needed to be done.
Then last night we attended a housewarming at a co-worker of Curt's. We met a lot of cool people. They barbecued kabobs, which were excellent. Jason and Bernadette are very nice people. And they seem to know a lot of nice people, too. I met a woman who works for the company who hosts Onyx's Web site. Small world!

Today Mia and her family are coming over to hang in our cool hood and get some yummy food and hopefully share this nice bottle of wine I bought in Napa the last time I was there. Our house is a sty and I started to tackle it. But now I am procrastinating. Today I must do laundry (started), clean the house (started) and take Joey to get his nails trimmed.
And now I am hungry, so gotta have breakfast!

Good things ...

Gas at the station near our house is $2.88 and the one near work is $2.89. Not too shabby, eh?

My Secret Pal left me a small dark chocolate bar while I was away from my desk for about 15 minutes.

I am having a turkey sandwich for lunch with a tomato from the garden YUM!

And today is Friday! And I have a fun-filled weekend planned.

10 Fitness Myths Unmasked

I get these e-mails from Beachbody.com. Usually I just delete them. But this one peeked my interest. "Can you turn fat into muscle? Is the morning the best time to exercise? Will you get cramps if you drink too much water when you exercise? Can those ab machines on TV get rid of your pot belly? Spend time surfing the Internet for fitness information and, pretty soon, your head will explode from reading all the contradictions and misinformation about the best strategies to get fit. Here are some of the more popular myths and old wives' tales that have been propagated over the years." Check out 10 Fitness Myths Unmasked to see the answers. Anyway, I thought this was interesting.

Secret Pal

I came into work this morning to find a 12-pack of Vanilla Coke on my desk. My Secret Pal told me she searched HIGH and low to find a six-pack. (I have looked. I don't think they exist.) She also told me she was about ready to buy Classic Coke and a vanilla bean and let me make it.

Flowers

I came back from my yoga workout yesterday (where by the way my teacher told me my Warrior II was beautiful) to find a bouquet of flowers on my desk. Mark, our new compliance manager, sent me flowers to thank me for being his admin. Wow! I thanked him and told him that Paul (compliance director) never sent me flowers when I became his admin. I won't say what Mark called him jokingly. Hee hee. It actually wasn't that bad.
My desk has that wonderful smell of fresh flowers. Love it.
And the orchid my Secret Pal gave me is starting to wilt. I let it "drink" water like Angie told me to do. But I think my black thumb is coming out once again. Dang it!

OK, now check out Marilyn's tomatoes

Ed e-mailed these to me saying, "these pics are not intended to make you feel bad, but rather to show you a portion of our crop. "

I still had to laugh. I would like to point out that my lovely mother-in-law is a Master Gardener and has been gardening much longer than her daughter-in-law. And I think the Midwest is a way better place to grow your tomatoes. Most of our tomates are to size and just need to turn red. And none of them are as big as these pictured.

Also Ed pointed out, their garden has 18 tomato plants and mine and Curt's has 6.

He said Grandma Phyllis canned 14 quarts yesterday. And apparently there are still about this many left on the vines in the garden.

Now those are some tomatoes, eh?

Check out Ann's tomatoes

Curt picked the 3 tomatoes that were ready to be picked. Here I am holding them. Nice, huh? Anyway, last night for dinner we had cod filet (made on the George Forman grill) and green beans. I also sauteed the tomatoes in garlic and olive oil and put them over my beans. Yum! That was a really good idea if I do say so myself.

Joey's Excellent Adventure--short lived

Saturday Curt was on the phone with Rachel standing next to the front door. (We have crappy cell phone service at home. So you either have to be outside or really close to outside.) Anyway, he is on the phone and looks out the screen door and sees Joey looking at him. Then says, Uh, Ann, your cat is outside. I go out there and sure enough Joey is out there. How in the H did he get out there? At that point I realized I hadn't seen him since I vacuumed. He hates the vacuum and hides. (While I am following him [you can't run after him or he will run, too] to the backyard (which is really our parking slab) I think about the twin cat in Phx. that Curt and I tried to abduct. Our neighbors had a cat that looked almost like Joey--except the doppleganger had a nip out of his ear and a different meow. Other than that they looked the same.) Well, no twin cat this time, it was really Joey. I grab him and take him back into the house. Then I am trying to figure out how he got out. Curt finally realizes that the cat had to have launched himself out of our kitchen window. There is no screen. But I never thought Joey could get out. There is something in front of the window--kinda like a dresser that we keep kitchen stuff in. And it is pretty high up. But he gets up there because now I have seen him looking out the window (I guess dreaming of that one time he was free). The window is the one I am standing in front of with my tomatoes.

10,000 plus about 20 more

Our car just hit 10,000 miles. On Friday, I knew it was close. And this morning I got in the car and was bummed to see it was at 10,017. Oh well, I missed it. But here is the kicker: We have had that car for more than 2 years. It is our only car. Shows how much we drive or don't.

Lazy Sunday--UPDATED

So yesterday I was planning on doing some shopping in our neighborhood--stopping at Rockridge Kids, a bookstore and Tootsies. But I didn't. And I was also going to hit Ann Taylor and H&M (with my gift cards) and possibly Old Navy. And I didn't. (In case you were all worried ... I went shopping on my lunch break. Got cute shoes at Ann Taylor and shoes and a belt at H&M. I wasn't into actually trying on clothes today. All of that stuff I got with gift cards thanks to my Dad and Hilda. AT was from my birthday last year. I had saved it to use when I was skinner--and I had used part of it about 6-8 weeks ago. And the H&M card was a gift of congratulations for my weight loss. Woo-hoo! I went into Old Navy briefly. Then to Barnes&Noble to get books for Aidan's birthday--my cousin Mark's son.)

What I did do was watch movies, take a nap, knit like 2 rows of a scarf, look for a place to stay in Dublin and ... that is about it. Sometimes you just need that lazy Sunday.

RED tomato babies!

Our tomato plants have finally sprouted some red tomatoes. Some of our plants had gotten so heavy with so many tomatoes that they fell over. We are gonna have a ton soon--so bring your boxes and come pick some.

Girls' Night Out

Friday night I hung out with my friends Sue and Alicia. Alicia used to work with us--and we haven't seen her since she left Onyx. We were also going to be joined by our friend Toni. But, unfortunately, her nephew has been very sick. We were first to get manis/pedis and cosmos and then go to dinner. The three of us get to the nail place and are told our appointments were canceled. We don't know why, but for some reason Toni canceled all of our appointments and not just hers. So we rescheduled for next Friday night and headed to dinner early. We ended up having fun and just a very relaxing dinner at the Townhouse.

Seeing old friends

Last night Curt and I hung out with his buddy Rachel who he knew the first time he lived in Portland, our friend Eric, who Curt knew when they lived and worked in Raleigh-Durham about 10 years ago, and my friend Bridgette, whom I have known since we were 5. She and I lived in the same neighborhood and went to the same elementary until my parents divored and I switched schools for 5th grade. But we were at the same junior high, high school and even college.
We all had fun at Albatross. Bridgette and I just found out that we both live in the Bay Area. So it was cool to hang out and catch up and talk about the old days.

I've gotten hip to the Mothership

I am now linkedin. So I can link up with everyone I ever worked with or know or know through someone else. Anyway, check me out. Wanna be linked to me? You know you do. I am still figuring all of this out. I am still trying to figure out why I signed up for Facebook (you know, the adult version of Myspace--though I am on Myspace, too--really rarely ever check that one, though). I am still trying to figure out the Facebook thing. And my Myspace page is really boring. No flashy pics or music. I actually signed up for Myspace because that was the only way I could comment on my brother's blog. And all the Chihak cousins are on there--so that is kinda cool, too

I also just recently got an invitation to join Good Reads. Now, this is really cool. You can write reviews on books and your "friends" can see and strangers can, too. So far I think I have reviewed 8 books. This is definitely good to do when you are bored.
Let me know if you want me to invite you to be my friend. :)

Oh, and I have to pat myself on the back for getting up early to go to yoga before work this morning. For some reason I was wide awake about 30 mins. before I had to get up. 5:45 and I am awake. WTH!!?? So right about now I am ready for a nap. Good thing I have my free Starbucks coffee from work.
I also went to kickboxing last night--my third time. I am feeling less and less stupid.
This week I have been a little slacking in the working out. But I am getting back on track.

Another gift from my Secret Pal. I received a cute frame with a note saying that maybe I could use one of my vacation photos in it. What a great idea!
Oh and Jodie asked me what I have given my person. I am pretty sure she doesn't read my blog. But just in case she does I will wait until after the revealing lunch, which is Sept. 13.

Thank God you are not Karl Rove. Another great column by the San Francisco Chronicle's Mark Morford.

Happy Friday (if it is your Friday)! If it isn't sorry, sucka! :) hee hee I know, not nice.

You know you're a Weight Watcher when ...

I was perusing the WW message boards and someone started this one.
These are the responses so far. Some are pretty funny. (Minor editing involved.)

You know you are a Weight Watcher when ...

• You literally lick the plate of every scrap because you counted those points and you're eating every stinkin' one of them!
• You drank enough water this summer to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
• You start to feel like you are dealin summin ... summin ... getting out the cups and measuring everything!
• Your kids ask how many points is that? Are you really going to eat it?
• You attempt to type "PBS" and your fingers automatically type "PB2."
• It takes you 2 hours to grocery shop because you are using your points calculator on everything.
• Your boyfriend (husband/significant other) knows the points system.
• You can't get any work done during the day because you're addicted to the WW boards!!!!
• You bring your sub home from Subway and measure to see if it's a full 6 inches. If it's not, you curse the sandwich artist in your head for ripping you off!
• You check the Starbucks nutritional information before you tell your co-worker yes (or no) to a coffee break. (Gotta make sure you have enough points for whatever drink you want and if you don't you find one worth fewer points.)

Here is the link if you are curious. And maybe more comments will appear.
Also feel free to add your own You know you're a Weight Watcher when ... in the comments.

2.99

So gas is actually less than $3 here. I seriously don't remember when that last happened here in the Bay Area. There is a Shell station near our house. Monday it was $3.01 and yesterday I noticed it was $2.99. The Shell station near work is anywhere from 5-15 cents more than the one near home. But this morning its sign read $2.99. I better stock up.

Little shake

A little after midnight we had a little quake. I had actually forgotten about it until I saw the story on Sfgate.com. It's funny. It woke me up. It really didn't phase me and I went right back to sleep. It was much smaller than the one we felt a couple of weeks ago--that one was violent and I thought it was the BIG ONE!

Tuesday Night Social Club

A few months ago Curt, our friend Cyrus and David had drinks, oh and I was there, too. Cyrus was meeting David for drinks at Ben and Nick's. The Rockridge BART station is right near Ben and Nick's. Curt has to walk by Ben and Nick's to get home. (While searching for a link to Ben and Nick's I came upon this site called Beer by BART. These two guys tell you about good places to have beer that are near a BART station.)
Anyway, so Curt was walking by the bar and Cyrus saw him and invited him to have a drink. Then Curt called me and I walked over to join them. David was new to the area so we thought another meeting would be good. Everyone invited someone else the next time. At first we were meeting every Tuesday, then every other. And now it is probably about every 3 weeks or so. Different members get to take turns picking the place we meet. It is all East Bay.
I think the biggest group was 13 and the smallest has been 3, I think.
Anyway, last night we met at Cato's Alehouse, which is run by the Ben and Nick guys or something like that. We had a good group. Not too big or too small.
We had two newbies, Alexis (who Curt works with) and Kelly, who is from Curt's hometown and just recently moved to the city. We had a good time, good drinks, yummy snacks and good laughs. Glad Kelly came. And I look forward to seeing her again soon.

Lovely orchids and cat grass

I came into work today to find a lovely orchid from my Secret Pal. My SP also gave me cat grass for Joey. Meow!

This definitely brightened my day.

Congrats to Erica and Casey!

Erica and Casey recently got engaged! Woo-hoo! Luckily I got to chat with Erica about it before Curt and I went off to Glacier. We are so happy for them.
Maybe we can recreate this pic at their wedding. :)
We can't wait for the big day you two!

Would you like some chocolates?

OK, now imagine a sweet and adorable 4-year-old named Jackson (pictured with his new stuffed animal big horn sheep that he named Eric John Poff; aka Eric Curt Poff; aka Fancy Curt Poff) asking you, "Would you like some chocolates?" in a British accent. It was so cute and hilarious.

Curt and I got into Kalispell late Saturday night (Aug. 4). We got to Lake McDonald Lodge about midnight.
About 8 a.m. Sunday we were woken up and told we had slept long enough. Ugh!
Anyway, we met the whole family for breakfast.
Then we all packed up and headed to Many Glacier Hotel. On the way we made a few stops. We had lunch and took a nice hike at Logan Pass. We saw big horn sheep, mountain goats (mamas and babies), marmots and some other animals.
We got to Many Glacier Hotel on Sunday afternoon. There was a great lounge area with an amazing view. From those seats (with our drinks) we got to see some grizzlies on several occasions.

On Monday Susan took Madison to the doctor. She had an ear infection. The rest of us went on a hike around Swiftcurrent Lake. As we started our hike there was a sign reminding us that we were in grizzly country. We had a bear bell--aka bear dinner bell. Apparently if you are noisy you likely won't encounter a bear. We never saw any on our hike--thank gawd! The hike was nice and the view was amazing. We pretty much walked in a circle around the lake back to our lodge.
Monday evening we celebrated the birthdays: Curt's mom, Marilyn, turned 60 this year and Grandma Phyllis turned 80. We even had shirts to wear. So we had a nice dinner in the dining room and then cake for dessert.
Afterward we had a bellman take the family pic. In the area we took the pic they had tables set up with puzzles. Jackson, 4, loves puzzles. So we worked on one for a bit. Jackson put together some tough pieces. So I taught him, "Go Jackson. It's your birthday." He modified it to "It's my birthday. Not really. Party anyway."
The kids and I watched a movie before bed.

Tuesday morning we all had breakfast. Then most of the gang (minus Jackson, Grandma P and me) went on a horseback ride. Grandma P and I weren't interested and Jackson was too young. He seemed excited to have special time with me. So it worked out--I was worried he would feel left out. Jackson and I worked on the puzzle some more. Then back to mine and Curt's room to watch a movie and have "one piece of chocolate." At some point we decided to get ice cream at Heidi's. We invited Grandma P along. We all had some yummy ice cream. We finished watching the movie. Then everyone came back from the horse ride.
Most of us went to Heidi's to have lunch. Good ol' hot dog, cheetos and Huckleberry cream soda. (While at Many Glacier I had all of the huckleberry signature drinks: soda, martini, daquiri and margarita.)
After that I hung out with the kids while grandpa took a nap and grandma got cleaned up. Eventually I went down to the lounge area and met Curt for a drink. He had spotted a mama grizzly and her cub. We ended up seeing 4-5 grizzlies on the mountain. It was really cool. (And I was more than happy to be inside and view them from far away.)
Tuesday night we headed to an Italian restaurant. We had a yummy dinner. Back to the lodge. We all got in our jammies and Curt and I watched Peter Pan with Jackson and Madison. (Thank goodness we brought laptops to watch movies since we had no TVs.)

Wednesday we all headed out. We had our last breakfast together. Then the Philly Poffs and Curt's parents and Grandma all headed out. The Philly Poffs were driving back to Kalispell to catch a flight later that day. Ed, Marilyn and Grandma Phyllis were driving to Spokane to fly out the next day.
Curt and I got our stuff together, made a last visit to the gift shop and headed north.

We arrived in Waterton about 12:30 or so. Check-in at the Prince of Wales wasn't until 3 p.m. So we found a bar to have lunch in: Fiery Lounge. We tried a really good beer called Traditional Ale. I had an Alberta Beef burger. Good stuff! Curt had fish and chips. Afterward we walked around the town and then headed to our hotel to check in.

Thursday morning we headed to the marina for a 10 a.m. boat tour. We really enjoyed the tour. Our tour guide, Keith, taught us lots of stuff. He told us how to tell the difference between a grizzly and black bear. (Color is not always a factor.) He told us that there are 4 glaciers left in Waterton and 26 in Glacier. In 25 years they will be gone. (And what are you going to do about Global Warming Mr. President? Oh, that's right. Leave it for the next president to fix.) Anyway, the ride was really nice and beautiful. We stopped at Goat Haunt--which was on the U.S. side. (And in the photos I refer to this place as Ghost Hunt--oops! Oh, Goat Haunt population 10.) We didn't have a lot of time to walk around. Curt and I asked a guy to take our pic. He refused!!! He wanted to get back on the boat. What a weirdo! It wasn't like it was going to take 10 minutes. That is the first time anyone has ever refused to take a pic for me. Anyway, the ride back was a little windy--but still wonderful. The sun was shining. It was a beautiful day.
After the tour we walked around Waterton. Then we hit Zum's for a fried chicken lunch. Man, it was so good! Our server warned us that it would take 20 minutes because it was fresh chicken. She told us it was worth the wait and man, it was! After lunch we headed back to the hotel. I napped. After that we got cleaned up and headed to high tea in our hotel. The tea was yummy and the finger foods were really good. Later that evening we had drinks in the lounge and some appetizers for dinner (since we had eaten so much during the day).

Friday morning we got our stuff together. Took some last few pics. Then back into town for breakfast at New Frank's Restaurant. The food was pretty good and cheap.
After breakfast we headed south to Kalispell. We had a little bit of a wait at the border crossing. Santana questioned us. He asked us if we were traveling with more than $10,000. We both laughed. He asked us a few other things--nothing as amusing though.
We stopped for a hike at St. Mary's Falls. It was an easy little hike and gorgeous at the end. Then we kept on trucking and were in Kalispell by 2 or 3 p.m. We checked into our lovely Days Inn hotel with wireless Internet, TV and cell phone service!!!
We had a light dinner that night at a brewpub. I had cajun steak fingers and their homebrewed root beer. Both were delish.
Saturday we packed up and did a little shopping and then headed to Whitefish. We walked around and looked at some shops. It was Huckleberry Days there--so there was a little festival going on.
I found some p.j. bottoms with bears and moose. The moose ones weren't quite what I had seen. But they will do. I couldn't decide on which ones so I bought the moose ones and the bear ones. After that we headed to the airport. Had lunch. Went through security. No line. We got to our gate and saw there was a lounge in there. Sweet! Well, their definition of lounge is much different than mine and Curt's. So we just listened to our iPods and I knitted.

We got home about 11:30ish. Today we lounged and did laundry. And tomorrow it is back to work.
I may be editing this if I realized I forgot to write about something. This was a lot of stuff to remember.
Oh, I can't forget links to pics.
Mine on Shutterfly.
Curt's on Flickr, which are pretty much the same as mine.
And Ed's on Flickr. They all flew into Spokane to visit friends and then drove from there to Glacier.

We're home

So it is already technically Sunday since it is after midnight.
But I am still gonna say we got home tonight (as in Saturday). It was a long day and we are glad we are home.
Our flight out of Denver was delayed. Then the captain made up some time. But then we had to circle the area because the airport wasn't ready for us or something dumb like that. And we could watch our flight on the little monitor. So we could see the circles the plane kept making.
The flight from Kalispell to Denver was fine. That Kalispell airport is small--3 gates. And you have to walk outside into your plane. And the plane is one of those 50-seaters. The United Denver/SFO flight is kinda a honker plane. Curt and I coulda upgraded to Economy Plus or Business Class. But it seemed way too expensive for the short flight. If we woulda known it was gonna be about an hour longer than it should have been we may have considered.
I will post pics probably tomorrow. I am too tired to do all of that right now.
Good night!

Help me help you

Well, not really.
But can you help me with two things?
I have only made 9 cents in August with my Google ads. I made $13.39 in July. No pay out until I get to 100 buckaroos. So please click and please click often. (I suspect Aug. has been low since you all knew I would be out of town and not likely blogging.)
My other request. I found the cutest dancing green moose pajama bottoms at a little gift shop in Waterton (that is where we stayed in Canada). Unfortunately they only had larges. I found some moose pajama bottoms at the Prince of Wales Hotel gift shop, but the moose weren't dancing and they were 45 bucks. If anyone finds pajama bottoms or even fabric close to this description I will be forever indebited to you. There was a gift shop at the tiny Kalispell airport so I may have luck there tomorrow.
TIA!!!!

Checking in

So Curt and I finally have Internet access, cell phone service and TV!!!!!
We are still in Montana. We are no longer at the park. We are staying at a Days Inn in Kalispell for the night. We fly out for home tomorrow.
Curt just came back with Taco Bell--7 layer burrito for me. I haven't had one of those in years. I used to live off those things while in college.
I think for dinner tonight we are going to try to find a steak place.
We had a great time with Curt's family and our time alone in Canada.
I will give you all the details when we get home.
I will tell you that we saw lots of wild life: marmots, big horn sheep, mountain goats, grizzlies and other little animals.
It has been a beautiful and relaxing week.

Off to vacation land

Tomorrow Curt and I take off for Glacier National Park. (And yes, we will take lots and lots of pics.)

We are meeting Curt's parents, grandma, his brother, sister-in-law, niece and two nephews for a family vacation. We are celebrating Marilyn's and Grandma Phyllis' 60th and 80th birthdays this year.

While with the whole family we are staying at Many Glacier Hotel. At the end of the family time, Curt and I are heading to the Prince of Wales Hotel on the Canadian side.

We return back to civilization next Saturday (the 11th). We likely will have very limited if any wireless service. If we do, I will blog a few times. If not, you will hear from me when we get back.

Drink up those points

Yesterday was my Day 7 of my week with WW. So whatever Flex points I have left I gotta use them or lose them. Well, I still had a lot of points at dinnertime. So I made some pasta with olive oil, garlic, mushrooms and brocolli. Yum! And I had one of the beers from my movie basket from my Secret Pal. That baby is a 24 oz.! 6 points. Gulp, gulp!
And I have noticed that my S.P. has given me a lot of alcohol. I did list on my questionaire drinks I like. But man, my S.P. must think I am a boozer!

Cocktail hour in my cube

I come in to work today and find a cute little gift bag with 2 small bottles of gin, a small bottle of tonic, a lime and cocktail napkin.
I love my Secret Pal!

***********22***********

I did it! I earned 22 stars for the month of July. I have to say joining the gym has been a really good decision. I actually go about 5-6 times a week. I love the variety of classes. And Onyx pays me 25 bucks a month to join the gym. So I am really only paying $14 a month for my membership. Tonight is spin. Tomorrow is kickboxing. Ugh! That class kicked my butt last week. I could barely walk on Saturday. My calves were so sore.