2007 Year in Review

It is time for the much awaited year in review for

As I reflected upon 2007, I realized that nothing much happened most of the time. However, I want to fill in an event for every month, so I may borrow stories from the news and just change the names around so I can pretend I was involved in the story.

In general I am happy to say I did not work for scam of a school ITT this year. I’ll be devoting a post to that experience in 2008, but in summary don’t even consider associating yourself with the school, be it as a recruiter, administrator, instructor, or student.

January – Probably my most traumatic month, my hard drive died. Let me back up a little. I didn’t use the old clunker all that much, instead opting to use one of Will’s computers (despite that my using it wasn’t an option in his list, but I can’t help that is was an option in my list). And, well, I guess I used it too much because the power cord/adapter stopped working (for the second time). While I waited for the newly ordered cord to arrive in the mail, I was forced to use my laptop with a non-functioning screen and a fan whose sound pressure was that of jet engine’s. Because of the lack of a screen I had to hook it up to a desktop screen, further forcing me to remain stationary as I worked in my cold, dark dungeon (office) in the basement. (Okay, enough complaining, I must have your sympathies by now.) Well, long story short, my hard drive decided to croak as I was working on a program due the next day. At the same time Will was racing against a deadline on a paper, so his computer was out of the question, and the power to his other computer still had not arrived. I ended up helping another classmate with his assignment in exchange for the use of his computer. I finished my assignment and made a new friend.

February – I won the lottery! Actually, I didn’t quite, I just beat some really low odds. I was on my blog obsessing over its ghettoness when I decided to hit the ‘Next Blog’ link that is in the upper left hand corner. I often check other blogs out to get ideas or to just plain steal their ideas. Well, the “next blog” was that of a college roommate and good friend I lost contact with and hadn’t seen in 11 or so years! So after shaking for about a half hour, I wrote the totally awesome Sariah, aka S-dawg, to say ‘long time no see’. Even then, I found out my email went into the spam folder. I beat the spam odds too. I am that good!

March – I won $20 in Blackjack. A married couple that I teach wanted to experience an American casino, and trying to be the best damn teacher I can be, we took a trip down to the Muckleshoot Native American casino. The environment was pretty depressing, so we only played a few games before they wanted to leave, but every game I touched I won, with a profit of $20 (that will probably be the most I ever win, so I felt I should mention in my YIR). I promised them that Vegas was not like Muckleshoot. Vegas hides the desperation and despair of its regulars with simulated cities and eras and artificial lights.

April – I have no idea what happened this month. I even looked back at my old posts for that month and found nothing meaningful. I enjoyed life in April.

May – I got what I hope is my last speeding ticket. I’m bitter about every ticket I have received. I will admit that I was guilty of every infraction, but I dislike the sting operation type ticketing. I don’t get my tickets going 100, which I have done, nor dangerously weaving in and out of traffic, which I haven’t done but have seen. I get my tickets where cars and pedestrians are sparse or non-existent; it’s just me, open road, and some cop hiding behind the bushes.

June – I got my second visitor, the one and only Sarah. It was towards the end of the month, but it still occurred in June so I’m counting it! In my almost 2 years of being in Seattle, I only had 1 other visit from my friend Mari. Everyone else comes up to visit Will, no love for the Caredog. Seeing the Sarah was great and I will return the visit with a trip to Ireland. I WILL be there Sarah

July – I got married! July 5. Although, I have no idea who Carrie Lewis is. I also don’t know why this is my shortest review.

August – Mariner Month. I attended a lot of games this month, much more than I have attended in a month for the Angels in Anaheim. However most of the games I went to were Mariner v. Angels, so that should count for something. The best game was on Mariner Monday, where the Angels kicked some Mariner a$$, ha ha. My apologies to the B-man though, the guy I went with. He’s a good Mariner fan, but I think he got booed along with me because of my Angels paraphernalia. I’ll make it up to you next season B-man.

September – I became another year older. The birthday bash was fun. I can’t say I remember much of it anymore. I was told I sang happy birthday in French to my fellow Virgo friend Janani and I still have the receipt for 5 popsicles I bought around 2 in the morning. Popsicles?

October – I started school in September, but October was the darkest month. The material in one of my courses was so novel and tough that despite my starting my assignments as early as possible, I usually finished them with only an hour or 2 to spare. In retrospect, the mental anguish was useful, as I am now well prepared for the prerequisite class I skipped, but I hated life at the time.

November – I managed to escape Seattle for a weekend for the sunshine of the California shore. Sure, I only saw the sun from my window most of the time, but I have learned to appreciate any exposure I can get to the rare golden orb.

December – I successfully completed my first quarter at the UW! My sleep cycle is still recovering.

What does 2008 have in store? We shall see…

Merry Christmas

Copying everyone else, I have posted a picture of our Christmas tree. As you can see ours is not even in the same plantae division as a proper Christmas tree, but we had to improvise. Neither of us are Christmas tree type people, I grew up with a fake one and Will sometimes didn't even have one, so a tree was pretty low on the holiday to-do list. Also, do you see those Christmas lights in the background? That is pretty much the full extent of our Christmas decor. Next year you'll decorate, Carrie, next year.

The cat in the background in none other than Donny, our food lovin' kitty. I had a hard time getting him to look at me. He knows his name, but being a cat, he only responds when it suits him. I finally got him to look at me by saying "food".

This isn't much of a Christmas post, but Merry Christmas anyway. I'll post my year in review as my final post of 2007. Also, now that I have some time, my OCD is back in action! Look for revisions and perhaps some order and organization to my posts. The rambling and ranting will remain however.

Sushi Attempt 11

I left the photography up to the photographer in my tiny little family, but I made the mistake of not feeding him first. He was way more interested in me hurrying up then allowing me to properly place my "art", or even pick out the pieces that are worth photographing. He just took a quick pic of what I had on the plate thus far, grrrr. My apologies to those in the art of sushi, as I think I am breaking the rule of not displaying your rejects, never mind that I am breaking another rule by not using a mat.
Although, out of respect, I am not going post the full plate pic, it really is too ugly, rather I just cropped a few pieces out. Still lacking in the art department, but I'm going to ignore the little voice that is telling me not to put any pictures up.

Salmon Roll w/Avocado

BFF's Philly Roll (My first try at it at the Salmon/Cream Cheese combo) and Seared Salmon Roll

And just so you don't think your computer screwed up and didn't load photo2, that is what photo2 looks like. Note to self: learn to photo edit in spare time.

Update 12.07

As of today I am officialy done with my quarter! Hopefully the next few quarters won't be as much of a brain shocker. I'm all about prerequisites now.

The big question now is did anything else happen in my life besides school and whining about my difficult class?

My answer to that is not really, but I'll come up with something...

My soccer team went 1-??-1 this season. Yeah, I lost count of the games we lost. We're hoping for a better season this winter. As for me, I am no longer playing the beloved right defensive position I played as I youngster. I'm now usually the center midfielder. It's hard for me to let go of the control freakiness that made me a good defender, so I still spend a lot of time in the defensive line, and then I run my heart out to catch up to the offensive line when we get control of the ball. It's a good workout, but probably not best for the team to have an exhausted center. Sorry team, I'll get over it the defense obsession soon. Will has yet to attend a game. He's a fair weather spectator, and well, Seattle isn't exactly known for fair weather, but when he does attend, pictures there will be.

I postponed my reception type thingy, which was to be held in November. After spending my first week of school chained to my computer, I concluded that any partying would be eclipsed by my obsession over whatever program I was working on. Date of reception type thingy TBA. However, we still had tickets to California in November, so we flew to Burbank and stayed in Carpenteria instead. The main theme of me in front of the computer remained the same despite the change of location, but I occasionally rewarded my self with a nice run on the beach. I got out once to Santa Barbara to see our old friend Hector. Below are the high quality pictures of the occasion:

















And in family news, there will be a new addition in June, and it is NOT coming from me. My brother Brian and his wife are expecting child #3. With Carl's 6, Brian's 2, and Will's sister's 2, I'm a busy girl this Christmas, but I'm not complaining.

Now, for a preview of the exciting topic of my next post...




Above is how it should be done. Check the blog out Sunday for how I do it.

I Have Returned

Click on the pic for
some dancing action!

I am done!!! Well, not quite yet. I still have a final to take next week, and I need to clean up some of the code I just completed...then it's a done deal. I'm just hoping the electricity doesn't go out in some freak accident and that I don't lose what semblance I have of self discipline, by going to sleep when I really ought to 'clean up'.

This was a quarter like none other. I enrolled in the social life exterminating course without one of the prerequisites and concurrently with the other prerequisite, for reasons unknown to even me. I shall now return to the life I once knew 3 months ago.

A Confession

If you heard about the recent floods in the Northwest, then I'm going to let you in on a little secret...I caused the flooding. I finished one of my assignments way ahead of schedule, thereby disrupting the balance of the universe. My sincerest apologies.

I hope to return next week

in the meantime, I gots to finish implementing this...



Probably simple for the experienced programmer, for some reason I can't seem to get it right and I trashed a day's worth of code, leaving me well behind the pack now. Oh well, if I have to stay up late it just gives me an excuse to indulge in the seasonal peppermint mocha. There is a bright side to everything!

Happy Halloween

I don't know who is scarier, this mummy boy above (my eldest nephew, Clay, don't worry I'll put some normal pics up later) or me after 2 days of sleeping only 3 hours each night. I say me. Luckily I only need to wear all black today, my pale, lifeless face and deep dark circles are will be enough to achieve the fresh from the grave look.

Candy Review II

My life has obviously been disrupted when I have only purchased 3 bags of candy in 2 months, with 2 of those being last month. But I must go on with life and proceed with one review, which sadly is negative.

Given my satisfaction with the Dark Twix, I decided to continue my journey into darkness with Snicker’s Dark. Now, before I say anything about the candy, I must express my dissatisfaction with the bag. It’s supposedly a variety pack, but the proportion of regular Snickers to the two other versions (Almond and Dark) is about 5 to 1. It may as well be just a Snickers bag that exclaims “With 3 or 4 of our limited edition, DARK!” My complaint may sound hypocritical given my problem with bagged candy, but I feel I should still be able to pilot my own demise. So with that said, my review is based only on an exclusive 5 pieces.

I’m sure the reason for the limited number is that they don’t want you to realize the Dark version tastes the same as the Milk one. Yes, about all I can say about Snicker’s Dark is that there is a slight difference only when you first place it in your mouth. This is related to the reduced sweetness of the Dark, so of course it’s going to stimulate a different set of buds. The coating is just not prominent enough to influence the overall flavor, which is a mix of nougat, peanuts, and caramel. Perhaps a thicker coat or more subtleness in the inside would have made a difference. MilkyWay, did a great job creating their dark version by eliminating the chocolate nougat, and replacing it with a contrastive vanilla.

So if you are looking to buy candy for your trick or treaters and want leftovers you can still eat or if you need to take the “yucky ones” away from your kids. I’d go with the lower-in-fat original 3 Musketeers and MilkyWay Dark.

Did Carrie from TCM fame pass away?

For the last two weeks I would have said 'yes'. I don't recall a time I've been busier. Most of this is due to my two courses. Well, more accurately, one. The workload of one of my classes is quite reasonable, and I feel my programming classes adequately prepared me. But the other class...oh boy. The lectures may as well be given in Russian, except with Russian I actually understand a few phrases. My only consolation is that past students have felt the same way. Supposedly it makes better sense later on in the program. We’ll see. In the meantime I must be content with the 20+ hour assignments, where ¾ is just spent deciphering it all.

But enough complaining…I have a candy review to write, a nephew to show, and the Red Sox to take a jab at. Actually I can do the latter now, the Red Sox have the second highest payroll in baseball. If they win the World Series it should be of no surprise, just as you expect McDonalds and Walmart to outperform the local competitors.

Go Rockies, but if you are 0-3 by Sunday, at least do something to injure the ever annoying Manny Ramirez!

UPDATE: In all fairness, the Red Sox are not like McDonalds. The latter uses inferior ingredients, the former has good players and an awesome pitcher. It's just that the former has the money to buy the best to quash the competition. I still stand by my call of violence on Manny though.

Boo to Boston!

My picks now that my beloved Angels have been swept by the Red Sox:

Rockies v. D-Backs: Anyone is fine, both are from the West and the favored teams of my Mother and Mother-in-law respectively.

Red Sox v. Indians: Go Tribe!

Red Sox v. Yankees (if they can pull off that miracle): Sox!

AL v. NL(World Series): NL, Rockies or Diamondbacks

Oh, the weather outside is frightful

...but the fire is so delightful

and since we've no place to go

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..,

hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
{humming the next line}

WAIT!!! What am I doing? Oh yeah I remember, this was the song that was playing when I was at the store today and I can't get it out of my head. This song is annoying enough, but in early October!?! There are two holiday themes before Christmas people. I know there aren't many Halloween or Thanksgiving songs to play during that time, but that doesn't mean you have to go right on to Christmas music. Please, go back to the cheesy Elton John stuff.

I can't blame the store completely. They were probably confused since it seems Western Washington pretty much gave up on doing autumn this year. It was all prepared coming early in September, but I think it got bored and let old winter take over. Get out the coats, it's going to be a cold one.

Mid Page News

Well I suppose I do have some relevant news but nothing to write of it yet. I just started school again, this time at UW. I am now in the computational linguistics program, so we’ll see how well my programming classes prepared me. My only observations thus far are the political views on campus, or should I say ‘view’. Every new university I attend is more liberal than the previous, though it’s hard not go anywhere but left from BYU. Fresno was mixed, you had the Jesus freaks preaching to you between classes, anti-war meetings in the afternoon, and minority type marches in the evening. I have yet to spot the elusive college Republicans at the UW, but I saw numerous left of center groups, each with their own effigy of their most hated Republican. So where is this diversity you speak of UW? Well I don’t know about you, but I am getting bored just writing this, so on to the next point.

I joined a soccer league a month ago! We’ve played two games so far and are 1-1; I don’t know what to say about that yet. Either way the season goes I like my team, I’m having fun, and it’s a great workout. I’ve been running and doing weights for quite a few years, so I thought I would be in shape, but I was exhausted and my muscles in pain after both games. I couldn’t have been ignoring that many muscles, could I’ve been? I’ll put some pictures up as soon as I allow Will to attend one of the games. Yep, I’ve forbidden him until I get at least some of my skills back. Maybe this weekend…

Candy Critic

For the lack of anything better to write (or pictures to accompany my post), I’m going to review some new Halloween treats that I’ve tried.

3 Musketeers snack size, variety pack (Mocha Cappuccino, French Vanilla, Strawberry)

If you have a sweet tooth and want to lose weight this is the candy to eat. 3 Musketeers is one of the few chocolate concoctions that are relatively low in fat. Unfortunately, that’s not why it’ll help you lose weight. All three flavors taste nasty. Not only will the candy never make it down, but your lunch will be coming back up, especially after the Mocha one. My guess is that they combined their standard nougat mixture with a chapstick of each respective flavor. Even 3 Musketeers is remaining silent about their newest confections, without even a mention of the pack on their website.

Twix snack size, variety pack (Original, Triple Chocolate, Dark Chocolate)

I’m not a big fan of Twix. I never cared for the cookie part. If I wanted a cookie I would buy a cookie, not a candy bar. Nevertheless, in order to get the bags of candy at $2.50, I had to buy two. Also, the two new flavors intrigued me.
Triple Chocolate – Well it’s a Twix. It tastes slightly different than the original. Yet, I am still asking why. Without the caramel in a Twix, one just has a chocolate covered cookie, so why add chocolate caramel to the cookie and coating when one who likes Twix probably does so for the caramel + cookie combination. The chocolate caramel adds no contrastive properties, just more chocolate upon chocolate. It’s like Snickers using chocolate covered peanuts instead of regular ones.
Dark – This one was actually decent. The paring of bittersweet chocolate and sweet caramel makes it an easy pleaser in my world. And, I must remember that I am in the United States, where good chocolate is as rare as a sunny day in Seattle. So Twix Dark ranks high when buying ‘American.’

More reviews as I buy more candy for my young students (or so that is the excuse).

For the Birthday

I'm posting some pictures of my oldest niece Catie, aka CatieBug, still in the single digits at age 9 (double digits are overrated my love).

Workin' it on the dance floor...

Showin' it...

Throwin' it...

The TCM Returns

As I said in my last post, there are times I’d love to have a mob on hand, mainly to deal with people, companies, or situations that annoy me. Last Friday (and now today as well) was one of those days.

I haven’t seen a doctor in years so I decided I needed a complete check up. Among the tests was a blood draw, something I absolutely fear and hate. Even writing about is getting me lightheaded, but I will toughen up for the sake of my readers.

The sight of human blood makes me queasy, but when I see my own leave my body into a tube, it’s unbearable. I told the nurse, as she was gathering her tools, of my distress. Every time I have had my blood drawn, my statement of discomfort prompted the nurse to talk to me. As mindless as the chatter may be, it gets my mind off the impending draining of my lifeline. I learned to look the other way myself, but most have also directed me to a poster to stare at.

This nurse acknowledged my statement with a quick grin and complete silence. She started to preparing my arm, and not a word was spoken. I knew then I must fend for myself. I was within stretching distance of a magazine, so stretching for dear life with my free arm, I managed to grab a fashion magazine. Such a desperate act should have been indication number 2 that it’s critical I get my mind off of the draw, but she didn’t react to the very clear number 1, so it was no surprise that she still said nothing.

I rummaged through pages, finally landing on a makeup review (note to self: remember to check out Chanel blush). I survived the ordeal, but less than optimally. It’s much harder to direct my mind towards a passive activity, like reading, from an actively worrying state. In addition to reading, I had to shake my left leg to divert the attention away from my constrained right arm. Isn’t that all a bit weird to you nurse lady!

But, whatever, it was over, my blood was being sent away to the lab, and I could finally break my 12 hour fast. …Well, I thought way too soon… I should have waited a week for such a positive thought. I was informed today that someone screwed up. There was a blood mix up, and I have to go in again to get it drawn all over again. I thought blood mix ups only happen in movies and to OJ Simpson?!?

I much more frightened than ever before. One, I figure the nurse was silent because she needed the concentration, which makes me think she is inexperienced. Now I am worried she’ll have trouble finding the blood vessel and/or she’ll inadvertently inject some air bubble into me and kill me. Two, who mixes up blood? Not in the history of me or Will (since he has been around longer than me) have we had such an experience. I’m betting it was on this nurse’s end. I don’t want to go back!

To make matters even worse, I really need to get it done this week. I start school next week, and just don’t have the time. So my choices are Wednesday, right after the physical torture of the dentist, and because I’ll have to fast, that pain and distress will by accompanied by hunger and a hunger headache; Thursday, my birthday and a busy work day, but since I’m worried she’s going to kill me, it seems too morbid to go on that day; or Friday, the day of my and my friend’s party. That last day is only an issue, because usually I am in a zomibified state after any medical work. That is completely my hypochondriac self’s fault, but still…Damn you woman!

------------------
Going back to last Friday, though, there was another thing that annoyed me, selling via guilt. A lady came by around 8 and gave some schpeel about second chances, and how she has cleaned up her life and wants a second chance. According to her, her second chance requires me to buy magazines off of her. I told her we already have what we need and wasn’t interested. She proceed to explain that it’s not about buying magazines you’ll actually read, it’s about helping her get back on her feet again. She then showed me pictures of her kids. I wished her luck and said she would probably have no problem finding other buyers on this street to help her meet her selling quota, but I just wasn’t interested. That’s when she really tried to play the guilt card, and asked if I had kids. I stole the bait and threw the line back to her. I told her I didn’t and that she could come back when I did. She left in a huff.

I’m usually more polite to salespeople as I know it’s their job, but I don’t like it when one’s sales strategy is emotional manipulation. Now, if she had tried to sell me something I needed, like chocolate, I would have been more receptive. However, if she had told me I had to buy it for the survival of her and her kids, I’d still turn it down.

Well, that’s it for whining. My next post will have a much more cheery tone.

The Big Anniversary

Get out the champagne or sparkling cider, because it’s celebration time! Not only was it the two year anniversary of my blog last month, but it was my two year anniversary of being in the great city of Seattle. Now it’s September, but great things have happened in September, so we can celebrate this month too. So what did I do to celebrate the anniversary…well, basically nothing. That’s why the time is now.

So I promised I would do something a little different. I didn’t say it would be cool or astonishing, just different. So the big difference is that I link to some old posts and a few new ones. Whoo hoo! I know you can just scroll down or hit the appropriate archive link to find them, but I’m just saving you the time. It’s the least I can do.

On the topic of celebrations you can view some wedding photos here. I took way too long to put these guys up so they are being relegated to a link on the main post. Also, honeymoon 1 is here.

Lastely, I will now finally answer the big question as to why “torch carrying mob” (TCM asks: Has anyone actually asked that? Carrie: That’s not really important).

I created the blog while taking a break from packing all of Will’s junk (yep, that’s right Will’s, not Carrie’s, she packed her stuff in no time. In all fairness, though, I did delay the whole ordeal a week by getting pharyngo-conjunctival fever, then passing it on to Will). Originally I think I named it Caredog’s Adventure and intended to keep a log of my departure and arrival in Seattle. I gave a final farewell to Fresno in my first post here and a summary of my first few days in Seattle here.

However, somewhere between Fresno and Seattle the image of a torch carrying mob came to mind. I believe it was after 12 hours of driving and a couple energy drinks. The image made me laugh because the kind I had in mind is the type from movies and television. The mob usually consists of local yahoos trying to run the person questioning their beliefs out of town (TCM asks: So you’re entertained by the thought of idiots with torches and pitchforks. Carrie: Yes, I’m easily amused.). Secondly, I wouldn’t mind having my own torch carrying mob, though the educated variety, to threaten real foes like ITT, or minor ones like the barista who failed to decaf the mocha I ordered around 8pm two weeks ago.

With that I was going to turn the blog into a vigilante-type sounding board, but it never took off. The name, however, still remains. Maybe someday…

Weddin'

I held on to the wedding photos so long that I don’t like any of them (it's the makeup I can't get over). But I shall share a few with you anyway. Some may be replaced, like the one with my parents, so I’ll wait until November for that one.

To start, I almost didn’t make it to the “laid back” wedding (I think laid back only occurs when you elope). I had my nails and make-up done by my stylist on the Eastside in Kirkland. On a normal day that may spell disaster if I want to return to Seattle in a timely matter, since during the afternoon rush hour it usually looks like this -where black means you’re SOL:




It was the Independence day holiday weekend so I figured the roads would look more like this:




But, since weddings aren’t supposed to be relaxing and everything ran smoothly before that point, someone got into an accident on the westbound lane of the bridge, and the traffic situation looked more like picture 1, but worse. Reduced to one lane, it took me an hour and a half to get to Seattle. By then it was too late to go home, change into my wedding gear, get my rings, and find the number and name of the judge that was to marry us. I had to get to the courthouse as is and hope my parents and Will were able to not only take an inventory of what I needed, but to also find it....was everything found or did I get married in jeans and a dirty t-shirt???

Okay enough with the writing. Here are some pics.


What did we just do?


Sexy Sarah


Sexy Sariah


Makeshift Wedding cake


We had to dance at least once

Honeymoon

For our honeymoon we backpacked along the northern coast of the Olympic Peninsula. It's a national Marine Sanctuary, meaning no development whatsoever, preserving 135 miles of a coast rich with sea life. My pictures with bad lighting nor my poor choice of words can capture the beauty.














Along the way a soccer ball washed up on shore. Good job orchestrating that one Will. I was stoked!









It looks like just a picture of rocks below, but if you click on the picture and make it larger, you can see the back of a bald eagle perched upon the far rock.

New Phone

So I ran out of time for my Blog Anniversary post, too much baseball work in the way. I'll still post it when I get back from my backpacking outing, but it'll be anti-climatic. I know you have all been at the edge of your seats since I announced it.

I got a new phone and new phone number. I'll be sending emails and such with all the details. I took a couple pics with my camera. One of me at the "library" and one of Donny. Now that I see the pic up close, looks like a stain on the chair. Bad Donny!

Mariners Monday

So Mayor Greg Nickels declared Monday, August 27, 2007, as "Mariner Monday". Here's an article about it from the Puget Sound Business Journal:

To support one of the most important homestands in recent Seattle Mariner history, Mayor Greg Nickels has proclaimed Monday, Aug. 27 as "Mariner Monday."

The Mariners, currently second in the American League West division, open a three-day homestand against the division-leading Los Angeles Angels in a series with postseason implications.

On "Mariners Monday," team officials are urging Seattle residents to wear Mariner caps, jerseys and T-shirts, as well as Mariner blue items, to work and school.

"We'd love to see a sold-out Safeco Field filled with Mariners Blue for that crucial three-game series with the Angels and give the Mariners a true home-field advantage," said Chuck Armstrong, Mariners president and COO, in a statement.

All I got to say to that is Bah! I prepared for today and the entire series (you bet I am going to at least one of the games this week!) with my red Angels gear. I really do like the Mariners, but those guys must know where their place is, which isn't in first. I wish them the best of luck in the wild card race.

And killing two birds with one stone (so violent), here's a pic of the niece for the month. It's Alaura, but I have her up again for obvious reasons. Her Dad done learned her right!

Voter Pamphlet

It’s voter pamphlet time! In California it wasn’t a big deal, but I have found the King County pamphlet quite entertaining. I can always count on some assortment of freaks running for office. I suppose that happens when you don’t see the sun. However, they must have had some success at the mental clinic since the last pamphlet, because there were only two nutzoids this time around.

First is Goodspaceguy Nelson, running for a seat on the Seattle city council. He was in last November’s election for the United States Senate, so he’s obviously on a mission to get his ideas out. He’s a sci-fi fan and he refers to Earth as Spaceship Earth. I like sci-fi, though I wouldn’t consider myself a fan, but the whole Spaceship Earth thing kind of scares me. Don’t believe me, check out the link to his page http://colonizespace.blogspot.com
I suppose he makes some good points in his King County message (not the Senate one, he is 80% freak here), and he’s a libertarian, but the name and the references ('sheeple' for people)… I try to tell my friends libertarians are normal, but I really need you libertarians to help out by actually being that.

Next is Edwin B Fruit, running for the director’s position in the Seattle School District no. 1. This is what Edwin had to say in his statement. You know, where you say what you are going to do and why you are the best candidate for the position:

As a candidate of the Socialist Workers Party I present a working-class alternative to the Democrats and Republicans.
Workers face an unrelenting offensive by profit-driven employers who are driving down conditions of life and work and seeking to undermine solidarity among working people.
The imperialist wars from Iraq to Afghanistan and all theaters of the “war on terror” – are an extension of these assaults on the living standards of workers here.
The resistance today by working people to these assaults – shown by the May Day mass mobilizations for legalization of immigrants in the last two years – points the road forward: rely on our collective power and organize independently of the capitalist parties to advance the interests of toilers worldwide. I invite you to get involved with the Socialist Workers Party campaign. Visit the Socialist Workers Party campaign newspaper at www.themilitant.com.

That’s great Mr. Fruit, just what the school needs! By the way, how about changing the last name to Nut?

Don't mix the S and P

or youz going to hell http://torchcarryingmob.blogpsot.com/

Question

TCM: So where is this new kind of post you promised us today on the 2nd Anniversary of your blog?

Carrie: It's coming...but how about we call it blog anniversary weekend?




More multiple personality evidence:

Soon

...what a meaningless word in Carrie's world. But seriously folks, I'm going to upload the promised pics and do something a little different for my 2 year blog anniversary on Thursday. Yep, 2 years and I still haven't given my blog any particular focus or personality (unless you consider multiple personalities a personality), but hey I warned you it was lame and may remain lame. Personally, I think it's awesome.

Copying my awesome friend Sariah, who always puts pictures up on her post, here is a pic of Will and I at a Mariners game two weeks ago. My shirt was actually pink, but we sat up so high it became the color you see. J/K, I'm an Angels fan (but I do support the M's when they play other teams) and I was just showing some love for my guys. Unfortunatley they lost, but they tied it up with 3 runs in the 9th and forced 3 more innings. Ha, ha to all you who left in the 8th thinking Seattle had won. Okay, maybe they still beat Anaheim, but not as soundly as you thought. See what I mean about the multiple personalities.


An Angels fan and a Mariners supporter sharing a rare moment of friendship

A Summer's day

Another beautiful August day in Seattle

Temp Post

So, I still haven't done the wedding, honeymoon post and it is now past our one month anniversary. I figure if I get a few things out that will be progress. Honestly though, I don't care for most of the wedding pictures. Either I'll look good in it or Will will, we don't seem to have any where we both do. Oh well, that gives Summer some work. So here is a sneak preview...

You_Don't_Know_What_You_Got_Until_it's_Gone

My_Spacebar_doesn't_work!

Not sure what to title this

The issue isn't that I am lazy, rather it's a similar four-letter word that starts with b, ends with the same letter y, and for all you language geeks, shares the same voiced dental fricative when expressed in speech, but in writing the graph is a the voiceless one. Ooh, the mystery and excitement of linguistics! NOW READ THE CORRECTION AT THE END OF THIS POST.

I'll get some pics up of the wedding and related items while it is still somewhat relevant, even though it probably isn't anymore, soon. By soon I mean this next week. This is an improvement in my use of the term 'soon'. Usually it's anywhere from 1 - 6 months. I'm slowly working on making the soon = 'less than a week' coorespondence real.

I'd talk politics but I still have nothing to say. Sadly, the only thing I've done in that direction was rank the candidates according to their looks. Some distracting link I pressed while checking my Yahoo mail. I'm so behind on paperwork, but yet I couldn't resist. But just FYI, my top 3 were 1 Gen. Clark, 2 Mitt, and 3 Edwards. Bottom 3 were Dodd, Richardson, and Fred Thompson. Wonderful, eh? Who needs to be informed when you can just go by looks. At least that takes Clinton out of the running.

So in the meantime, here are some more niece pics. I am taking a break from my eldest brother's kids since there are so many and moving to my other older brother's (also, my number 2 bro SIL rarely sends me current ones, so I actually have some now that are relatively current rather than newborn ones of Aby). The young one is year and a half year old Abygail, "Aby". The blondie is 6 year old, uber gregarious, Alaura. Do all my 8 nieces and nephews have thier names start will either an A, C, or L? Yes. I'm going to have a kid just to break it up.



Left: Aby watching from the sides.


Right: The Girls














****CORRECTION: One must wonder if English is my native language and if I really did teach a writing course when they are subjected to the ill-formed nature of my prose. I have no idea what I was "on" when I wrote the following:

The issue isn't that I am lazy, rather it's a similar four-letter word that starts with b, ends with the same letter y, and for all you language geeks, shares the same voiced dental fricative when expressed in speech, but in writing the graph is a the voiceless one.

It should read:

The issue now isn't that I'm lazy, rather it's a similar sounding four-letter word. This newer word to describe me starts with a b; ends with the same letter as the old word, y; and, for all you language geeks, when spoken, the third sound in both terms share the same voiced dental fricative. However in the new word's written form, the graph is the voiceless one.

Sounds just as geeky but at least it makes better sense, and now I can relax.

Lazy

After 2 weeks of not working and a honeymoon, I am beyond lazy. I can’t even believe I managed to write a sentence or two. While my honeymoon consisted of a lot of physical exertion (It’s not the exertion you are thinking of, I do maintain some class on this blog. We were backpacking), there was little mental. Now I’m having trouble accessing my cognitive functions, as they liked the break as well. Oh well, I'll find them soon.

So in the tradition of laziness, here are a couple pics from the actual laid-back (that wasn’t so laid-back, story and more pics to follow sometime) courthouse wedding. I am too lazy to get the ones off our camera, so I am using ones my friend sent me. Also, were are not taking our wedding pictures until our November party, I've left the professional stuff to my talented friend Summer, so they are all pretty amateur until then. In the meantime don't be surprised if you see poorly doctored up versions. Doctoring there will be.

Do you want to play 'Let's get Married'?


Okay!

Single

Well, I had to write something on the last day of my singlehood or singledom (I think the proper suffix is -ness, but I'm all about language change). However I don't really have much to say. It's been busy these last 3 weeks, I'm not sure how I could have handled a full-on wedding. I feel excited, though nervous, nervous about expressing my emotions in front of people. Well, this is getting too serious (I can't even express anything to my imaginary blog audience) so here are couple pics of my retro hippie friend Sarah and I picking and eating berries on a recent hike.

Sarah's a-pickin' and I'm a-n-eatin':

Can't really see the Sarah, but she's one hot lady. Here's one of the both of us, but I look weird and high. I was high on nature, I promise.

Lacey

Thanks Sariah for reminding me of my niece/nephew feature. It’s good if I can follow through with at least one thing in my life. (BTW to those I have recently emailed, since this is somewhat related, when I say tomorrow I usually mean anywhere from a few days to a week).

I haven’t received any real recent pictures of my niece Lacey, aka Lace Face, but here are some from a few months ago. Lacey, almost 7, is number 3 of 6; a true middle child with an older brother and sister, twin younger brother and sister, and another younger brother. She’s a girly girl, but she has a roughneck side of her as well. I remember when she was younger, any new toy she had would eventually turn into a weapon to be used against her unsuspecting older siblings.

Right : Lacey with her baby Brother (he almost looks bigger than her)

Left: Lacey and friend at a dance. She gets out more than her aunt.

Freedom at Last

I have finally completed my quarter from hell! I must say, I’ve never spent so much time on one
course, and still not get an A. Yes, despite my good efforts I don’t think an A is in the future. I turned in all but two fully functional programs, with the incomplete two missing a few specifications here and there. I could go into it but I’m sure I would bore you if I haven’t already, but just imagine if you had a computer game and it only ran once. One try and that is all you get. Yep, that was my program.

While this certainly won’t be the most difficult class I will have had to take on my road towards geekdom, this class will be the largest leap. The course is designed to weed out programmers from non programmers. When I couldn’t fully complete my third and fourth assignment, I feared there would be a hoe in the horizon. I would have to quit programming and begin a life of prostitution. Oh wait, I was being metaphorical, I thought I was a weed and feared the garden hoe, but I was reassured of my floral status on subsequent programs.

I know to most people in this course, passing was not a big deal. To me, however, it was a much needed boost in confidence. I gave up some dreams when I decided to pursue computatonal linquistics (misspelled on purpose), and I knew, coming so late into the game, I would probably never be a stellar programmer. I like to excel and stand out, and I chose a path that will make that difficult. I wasn’t the best in this course, but I’m happy I was among the survivors. Now just remind me to delete this post when I start looking for jobs. Because I, Allison Johansson from Detroit, Michigan don’t need this coming back to bite me.

There was some unfortunate fallout from this course. 1. I gained a pant size. Well not quite, but I’m bursting in them. My lean muscle mass has decreased and I’m gaining weight. Yes, you may blame my love of ice cream, chocolate, and cheese on it too, but I’ve been eating that crap for years. While I was taking this course I barely worked out and spent most of my non paid time in front of the computer. I need my exercise to maintain my junk food lifestyle. 2. My friends got married in February and I still haven’t sent them their wedding gift. 3. I am addicted to the worst form of caffeine: coffee. Sodas couldn’t quite deliver, and tea was just too healthy. Coffee transforms me into a nervous freak, but it does wonders to me in the idea generation department. 4. I decide to get married in early July. I figured any date after this course was over was plenty of time. It’s less than 3 weeks away, what was I thinking! My apologies in advance if the party consists of a bunch of pizza, but hey, everyone loves pizza right?

Pictures accompanying this post were provided by the Will man.