Saturday, January 16, 2010

Wayback

You probably know this already since everyone and their dog (literally) seems to have a Facebook page, but this week is supposed to be wayback week and you're supposed to change your profile picture to a retro one of you as a kid. Seems a bit silly, but after a while it really started catching on and there are some pretty hilarious and cute photos popping up.

I decided to dig up some old photos, scan them in, upload them to Facebook, and tag all my friends. Here are a few of the ones I scanned in.

1983 Brownies - Check out the beauty we had for a troop leader (HI MOM!)


1984 Brownies - Currently my Facebook profile picture!


1986 Abby's Pizza Fastpitch Softball Team


1989 or 1990 Shockers Fastpitch Softball Team


1992 Summer Breeze Dance



1991 JV Tennis


1992 Varsity Tennis

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Watch Out For 900 UQX

Wow, I am still a bit shaken after my experience this morning during my commute.

I hate commuting via car, I've mentioned this before, but today my commute tops my list of all time worst experiences.

I don't tailgate. In my book it is unsafe and rude to the person in front of you. As I was merging from the West Seattle Bridge onto I-5 this morning I was probably 3 car lengths behind the person in front of me. This apparently infuriated the man driving the compact car behind me. He had been tailgating me for about a mile, but as we approached the merge he began to flash his lights (seriously!) and narrow the already short distance between our vehicles.

Trying not to be rattled, I maintained my speed, which apparently infuriated him further. At this point he sped into the shoulder, around me on the right, and then cut directly in front of me, dangerously close to my front bumper.

Of course I was a bit freaked out so I hit my horn. I continued to honk at him as he came to a stop, in front of me, now on I-5, in the middle of rush hour. He then put his car in park, ON I-5 (!!!), got out and began yelling at me, pointing at his watch (apparently he was in a hurry, such a hurry that he had time to stop ON I-5), and flipping me the bird.

I'm sure I looked like an idiot as I slowly took my hand off the horn and sat their with my mouth wide open and a look of surprised disgust on my face.

Finally, after he had made his point (??!?) he got back into his car, began to drive forward, and then cut off the car next to him on the left and sped into the morning.

In a moment of clarity during the event I managed to memorize his license plate. Dear West Seattle-ites, keep an eye out for 900 UQX, he's on the verge.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Expedia Volunteer Day Video

Here is a video that Megan Prine put together from last weekend's volunteer event. Thanks Megan!

Monday, January 11, 2010

Give A Day, Get A Disney Day

On Saturday I was treated to a crazy surprise. 

I was signed up to volunteer with a group from Expedia, Inc. (the parent company of my company) at Northwest Harvest through the Seattle Works Program.  I've volunteered at Northwest Harvest so I was pretty sure I knew what we'd be doing.  But oh no, I was not aware of who would be there....

Mickey Mouse! 

A whole group of Disney representatives were there to kick off the Disney Give A Day, Get A Disney Day Tour!

It was great, we were given Mickey Mouse ears to wear, a What Will You Celebrate sweatshirt, a Mickey Mouse Rice Krispy treat, and a coupon for one free day at any Disney park!  But the best best gift of all was Mickey Mouse and the Jaminators (drumming janitors) in attendance!

You can learn more about the Disney Give A Day, Get A Disney Day Tour here.

Sunday, January 03, 2010

Christmas Recap

Wow, the holidays just flew by this year. It went so fast I feel like something monumental should have been accomplished, but no, not really, just a wonderful low key holiday season spent with our wonderful friends and family.

We started off the holiday season on December 19th with a trip to Olympia to celebrate with Chris's family. We opened gifts and celebrated Chris's birthday with a yummy chocolate cake that Angie made (way to go Angie!). We were spoiled, as usual, and Jet received many wonderful gifts including his very own quilt!

On the 21st, Chris and I celebrated his actual birthday with a quiet dinner at Jak's in West Seattle. Super yummy as usual.

Then it was the 23rd and we celebrated the end of the Christmas Ship season with a huge group of our Argosy family on the Goodtime III parade boat! It was a beautiful, calm evening and the choir was amazing. We had such an amazing time.

The 24th was spent in the kitchen getting ready for Christmas dinner with my parents. They showed up in the afternoon and we enjoyed a wonderful Prime Rib dinner. Jetty was so excited to see his grandparents I thought he was going to wiggle out of his skin. Percy was in love with the presents and the tree and slept in front of it all day and night:


Christmas day we lounged around and opened gifts. We were again spoiled and so were the pets. Here is Jetty and Grandpa on Christmas morning watching Chris open a gift.


Once we'd powered through our pile of gifts we decided that it would be fun to go downtown and catch a showing of Sherlock Holmes. It didn't dawn on us that everyone else in Seattle would have the same idea. We arrived at around 1:30pm only to find that the next available showing was at 7pm. Needless to say we didn't feel like hanging around that long so we stopped in at Starbucks and enjoyed a holiday latte and headed back to West Seattle. On the way back we decided to drive along Alki, and on a whim pulled into Jack Block Park. The sun was out, the wind was calm and the view of Seattle was incredible. We explored the park for a bit, walking off some of our holiday calories, and finally headed back home happy and refreshed. Turned out much better than sitting in a dark movie theater!

Saturday the 26th we all took a trip south to Portland to continue the celebrating with Jeff, Sara, Ella, Sadie and Esme. It is such a treat to be able to spend even just one night with the entire Jones family. Jeff and Sara spoiled us with an amazing dinner, as usual, and some great wine. And the girls were quite entertaining.

Sadie, Aunt Courtney, Ella

Love these girls!

I just had to break out my new Cabin Cozy and display my Gossamer impression for the girls. They LOVED it.


Sadie had to try it out.

Jet and Ezzy were fast friends, they are just about the same size!

She's got the Jones hair for sure.


Sunday we returned to Seattle to attend the Wedding reception of Kat & Kevin at West Seattle Bowl. What a fun idea for a wedding reception. We had a blast, and oddly the only picture I snapped was this one of Chris and James.


On Monday we decided to hit the road again and spend a night at the Anderson Island Cabin before we had to return to work. It was cold, very cold, but oh so beautiful. No fish to be found so we spent most of the time watching DVDs and playing card games. Jetty LOVES the cabin.
We had to keep reminding him not to swim.





After we returned from the island it was back to work. Chris worked on New Years Eve so I stayed home and watched TV and turned in around 9pm. Pretty standard. Now we're finishing off the holiday weeks with a couple quite days at home, cleaning, organizing, game playing, and relaxing. Tomorrow it is back to the grind. Another year of celebrations come and gone. I can't say enough how lucky I am to have been able to spend it surounded but our amazing friends and family.
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