rachel@home

Pictures!

I installed a nifty new program that manages all my pictures, and imported all of my current pictures into it.

I know I have a lot of older pictures that should be uploaded into there too, but that won't happen tonight!

The new picture hq is here, plus, I've added a link on the sidebar for constant, easy access.

My Brush With the Law

Saturday, I decided that I didn't want to be cooped up in the house, and that I was up for something new. So I bought a map of Washington at the bookstore, a bottle of water and some snacks at the grocery store, grabbed my camera and was off.

I usually go north when I go driving places, so I decided that I'd go south, just to be different, and I wanted to stay off of the freeway. I wound my way down Coal Creek Parkway and found a little road called the May Valley Road, that looked promising and interesting. So I took it, and I drove slowly, and was pleased that the roads were deserted and that there was no one behind me. I'd stop now and then to take pictures.

Eventually I wound up driving through Black Diamond, Enumclaw, and then by a dam, whose name I can't remember. It was closed, so I couldn't follow the sign that said, "viewpoint". After I came out on the other side of the dam, I was near Buckley, and I was trying to go further south, and stay away from the cities, but it seemed like no matter which way I went I was following signs that led towards Puyallup. I didn't want to go to Puyallup!

After turning around a few times, I found a little road that didn't say I was going to Puyallup. It didn't really say where I was going, but that was okay. Although it had been hailing earlier, and then raining (It rained the hardest when I stopped to take pictures near a river that was posted with big warning signs saying, "Water may rise suddenly!") it was sunny then, and then sun was just starting to go down, and a golden light was spreading over the trees. I just had to take some pictures of it.

I pulled off of the road, but wasn't really pleased with how I'd been able to park. But I figured I'd be quick, and there was no one around. So I started snapping a few shots, and not even a minute later, a sherriff in an SUV stopped across the road from me. He got out, waited for a couple of cars to go by, then walked across the road.

I was sure I was going to be in trouble. I was all prepared to apologize for parking on the side of the road and be sent on my way. But the light was still wonderful, so I took some more pictures while I made his way across the road. He finally got across, and I looked over at him suspiciously. What was he going to say to me?

As it turned out, he wasn't going to say much of anything. When he got across the road, he opened his mailbox, pulled out the mail, and glanced through it. He saw me watching him, and asked me what I was taking pictures of. I told him that the light was so pretty, falling through the trees. He agreed, crossed the road again, and went on his way.

No jail time in rural Pierce county for me. This trip, at least!

Here's one of the golden light pictures I took:

And the rest of the pictures from the trip are here.

Organizing For The New Year

In the last couple of weeks, I have been slowly and sporadically making progress towards getting stuff organized.

This weekend was definitely a breakthrough!

Over the last two weeks, I reorganized both of our bathrooms by getting cabinets to go in the bathrooms. This did cut down on the amount of space available, and there wasn't that much to begin with, but it has made a huge difference in keeping the bathrooms clean.

This week, I have been tackling my bedroom. I am quite shocked at how much stuff I had managed to spread around in places where it didn't belong, and I picked most of that up and took care of it today. I even found my insurance card, so now I can go to the doctor, if I need to! Katrina looked at my desk tonight and said, "Wow, where did you put all the stuff?"

Here's the cabinets. I must say that I risked life and limb to take these pictures too, because you know that 40% of all household accidents happen in the bathroom, and the bathroom is so small, I had to stand on the edge of the tub, and use the mirror and the digital screen on the camera to point and shoot.

I cleaned out my closet, and thought long and hard about how many 5-foot long cable cords I needed, and in the end, figured that I could get by with just one, so I threw the other half-dozen away. My closet is not going to be your first choice of locations during an earthquake, but everything is pretty well organized in there, even if it is stacked all the way up to the ceiling.

My pièce de résistance of the weekend, however, was my solution for storing spray bottles of various substances. There's a shelf in my laundry room that has always bugged me, because it's really high up, and there's lots of room underneath it, but no second shelf, so I have felt like all that space was being wasted.

Tonight, a couple of spray bottles were sitting on top of the washing machine, and I glanced up at the shelf to grumble to myself about how inefficient it was, and I thought, you know, I could almost hang these spray bottles off the edge of the shelf, because it's one of those white coated wire shelves. So I tried a couple, and they stayed, but they didn't feel very stable to me. Then I got a big one, and it also sort of stayed, but then I had a real brainstorm. If I had hangers that would hook onto the shelf, and were bigger, these bottles would stay perfectly! It didn't take me very much time to dash off for my ball of twine and make some loops and hang up all of the spray bottles that I could find.

They look so festive, too:

Rachel's Tip Of The Day

So besides dealing with the cats knocking down the Christmas tree the other night (yes, I know the date, yes, I took it down last night, or actually, the girls took everything down and I just carted it off to the trash), I have discovered a new way to make melted cheese sandwiches.

My previous method:

Time Flies...

when you're having fun, when you're sleeping, or sometimes, just when you drop your alarm clock on the floor.

Which was what happened last night. I thought nothing of it, picked it back up, set it within easy view of the bed, turned it on, and went to sleep.

Unfortunately, my clock has two different alarms, and when it fell on the floor, it bounced to the other setting.

I discovered this when Abby came in at 8:08 and said, "Mom, why didn't you wake us up?"

Oops.

We raced around like crazy people for the next ten minutes, and then dashed to the car, where we managed to arrive at the school before the first bell rang. Thank goodness we live close! The girls were spectacular in their hustling this morning. The only downside for them -- now I know that they can hurry when they want to!

Digging Into 2004

Now that all the excitement of the rollover from 3 to 4 is over and the snowstorm has come and gone, leaving us with just a little bit of slush on the sides of the street, it's time to think about what 2004 will hold, and what's going to be different in 2004.

Upcoming Events:

It Snowed!

This morning, I woke up at 6:30 am to check and see if it was snowing yet. I was most disappointed when I looked out the window and saw that there was still NO SNOW. I checked the school status, and found out that it was closed. So I looked out the window again, and still couldn't find any signs of snow.

But it was 6:30, so then I turned off my alarm and went back to bed.

Two and a half hours later, the snow had started falling. It was a very fine, powdery snow early on, and then changed to fatter flakes, as seen here:

Abby made plans to meet a friend at the park that's a few blocks away, and has a big hill, so we walked down there, and we weren't the only ones who thought that the park was a good place for sledding:

I am still not entirely convinced that the snow isn't trying to avoid me, as there was a whole lot more of it in other places. Here's the view in Bellingham:

Tomorrow I will try to go to work, although maybe sort of late. The pictures of the roads tonight are really scary looking, and I'm not sure I want to put my winter driving skills to the test.

More Snow Pictures.

If you have snow pictures, email them to me! I'd love to add them.

New Year, New Look

I have tinkered and tinkered and finally come up with a new look for the site.

I have ringing endorsements from the girls. K. likes the background image, and A. is glad that I'm branching out from using just purple and green. In case you've forgotten already what the old version looked like, it's still available here. I plan one day to add a sort of photo log along the other side of the page, but I ran out of redesign energy before I got that working the way it should.

It's supposed to snow a lot tonight, and I am so tired, but am also wanting to stay up and watch for the snow. I think sleep is going to win out, though.

I left work early today and stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home, where it was packed tighter than it was two days before Christmas. Apparently everyone has envisioned being completely snowed in. I, for one, am certainly hoping that tomorrow will be a lovely snow day. The only snag in this plan is that people kept scheduling meetings for tomorrow at work. Don't they know it's supposed to snow?

Abby reported that her teachers were visibly excited at the thought of a snow day tomorrow. She said one of them was even dancing around about it. I keep checking to see if they've reported the schools closed yet -- there's no snow, but that hasn't stopped them in the past -- but so far, nothing has been reported. We are all sleeping with our toes crossed tonight!

Partying Like It's 2004

We had a nice weekendlet up in Bellingham, in spite of the fact that it did not snow while I was there, but started snowing almost immediately after I left. The snow is avoiding me, I guess. It was supposed to snow here tonight, but so far, I have not seen any. It was raining earlier, and seems to be holding steady at 38 degrees. I really wanted a whole bunch of snow!

I had at least two conversations with my brother that went something like this:

Me: Does or says something completely unremarkable.
Him: Looks at me weird.
Me: Why are you looking at me weird?
Him: I always look at you weird.

Finally, I quit asking.

Despite weather worries, the trip there on New Year's Eve and the trip home today were completely uneventful. The drive home had some really pretty parts -- we drove through hills where all the trees were sprinkled with snow, making it look like a winter fairyland. Further south, it was sunny and cloudy and the sun was streaming through the clouds, with a pinkish sort of light, the kind that looks like heaven is about to open up.

When we got home, I finally got the girls' computer set up so that they were able to play their new Sims game, and then they alternated back and forth between the computer and the shows that I had taped for them while they were gone, which was mostly The Simpsons. How they did it is that one would play the game while the other would watch the show, then they'd switch. I was in the bedroom, where the tv was running, so I got to listen to each show twice. While I like the Simpsons as much as anyone, I was starting to get a little bit tired of it.

After that we went shopping for organizational bathroom stuff for the girls' bathroom, which is sadly in need, and supplies for what will hopefully be a snowed-in weekend. Although I have my doubts about that. While at Target, we found all sorts of wonderful items so that the girls' 2004 bathroom will be magnitudes cleaner than their 2003 bathroom.

After choosing the shortest line, and unloading this large collection of items onto the belt, the couple in front of us, who were out with their three-year-old child at 10pm, decided that now would be a good time to apply for the Target card.

But eventually, we got out of there and went to the grocery store, where I listened to the girls argue about Mad Cow disease, and if we should have beef stew or vegetable stew tomorrow night.

While we were in Bellingham, we taught the girls how to play pinochle, which was really fun. At one point, Katrina picked up her cards, looked at them, and then whistled just like Grandpa Thompson used to do sometimes while playing cards! They caught on to pinochle really fast (it must be in the blood!) and we had a lot of fun with that.

Oh! I also got an electric teakettle while at Target, although I haven't tried it out yet. But tomorrow I am planning on drinking many hot beverages.