Week in Review and Highlights

I've had one crazy week, but it's all behind me now. Here is some of the wackiness:

• I don't even know how many hours I worked last week. Even with the holiday, I know I topped 40. The DH and parents got to hear my conference calls, the BIL got to be part of my meetings, and the whole family saw me watching movies with my laptop always attached. It's ugly when there's a big deadline on December first.
• The DH and I traveled to Boise and go to spend time with my family. We also spent an evening with the Ips and an evening with the Godfreys. They are both great couples that I miss a lot being so far away.
• Thanksgiving dinner was GREAT! My family really can cook and there was too much of everything. It was also great to be in the same room with my entire family, parents, siblings, brothers and sisters in law, and all my nieces and nephews. They're all such wonderful people to be around. I think all the nieces and nephews just keep getting to be more fun too.
• A bunch of the women went to see Australia. I loved it. The cinematography was outstanding and the story moved along nicely. Even at one hour and fourty minutes, it didn't drag for a moment. And of course, I enjoy a good love story. I'd recommend it to anyone interested.
• The DH and I took two nieces to the World Center for Birds of Prey just south of Boise. It was really interesting seeing the different birds and hearing the volunteers there talk about the birds. The birds in the center now are all birds that couldn't make it in the wild.
• Had a great dinner at Flying Pie Pizzaria Gourmet Night with Whitney, Brent, and the girls. They have all you can eat gourmet pizzas in addition to all the regular stuff. YUM! And fun with such good company.
• The DH got to see three football games on Thanksgiving day and watched the BSU/Fresno State game on Friday. I can't say he got his fill of football (because he may never get his fill), but he sure got a good fix.

All in all, it was a great week with a lot of time spent with a great family and some good friends. I miss them already!

Bonding Over the Weekend

The DH and I decided to hit a movie last weekend. We were both excited that we had the same first choice -- Quantum of Solace. It's the next chapter in the ongoing James Bond series. I'll admit to being a Sean Connery fan as far as actors in the part go. Funny that he was the first. I guess he defined the stage presence. Daniel Craig is certainly different from other Bond's, but I've decided I like his ruggedness. I could go for a little more suave, but rugged is good too.

The movie is filled with chase scenes, things blowing up, and people running for their lives. There was a LOT of fire in this one. Overall, the action moved along and I enjoyed the movie. I'd even recommend it to anyone who enjoys an action flick. I've heard criticism that it's not "true" Bond like we've got to know and love, but I thought it worked.

Playing on my iPod This Week (Nov 24) -- Custom Playlists

This week, the DH and I have traveled to Boise. To help move the traveling along faster, the DH put together a custom playlist for me. He's got a real knack for building the playlists. I think it's one of his little known talents. Just so you know how clever he is, the newest playlist starts with the songs Your Song by Elton John and My Song by Brandi Carlile.

Enjoy this!

Highlights -- Better Late Than Later

I usually post highlights on Wednesdays, but that was a busy day and no posting on highlights got done. As you can imagine, Wednesday is included in the highlights though. Here's the good stuff:

• The DH's birthday. I was really excited to get him Photoshop, but now neither of us know what to do with it. I got a book with online tutorials, but that will take some time to learn. Maybe that will be a highlight in a few weeks -- figuring out Photoshop.


• We had fun with the Wright's and Leyland's at Snoose Junction Pizza in Ballard. It's such a great little place with very tasty food and no issues with hollering kids.


• A weekend with very few committments. We went to the ward play, but not much more.


• Hanging with the nephew while the brother and SIL went to her 10th anniversary at Microsoft party. We had dinner at IHOP and the nephew seemed to have a great time.


• Roasted free-range chicken from the DH's sister. She must have been an old bird -- the chicken that is. We had yummy carrots and potatos with it too and it was sure good.


• Hearing the DH talk in church, and our good friend Carolyn. They both did great!


• Home teaching the Neumann's. They're an older couple in our ward from Germany and were teenagers in WWII. They have more interesting stories than you can shake a stick at. We always have a great time visiting with them. They also sure put "trials" in perspective. I never had my friend die while we were working or throw a bomb back out the window after it fell in the kitchen. Seriously. Real stuff.


• Hitting the gym like it's going out of style. I ran a bunch yesterday. Ouch.

I'm sure I've missed some, but those are a few high points.

And here's one I forgot to add last week. The DH asked me to make a bowl cake for one of the guys at work for his birthday. The guy loves to play pool, so we gave him a 9-ball. Fun, huh? The DH said the guys at work thought it was fantastic.

Internet Woes Be Gone!

I'm posting this using my brand new, lightning-speed, cable internet. I haven't tried hooking up the wireless router yet, but at least we have internet again. I'm hopeful that this will be the answer I've been looking for. At least for now, it's a good thing.

Happy Birthday to the DH!

Today, the DH turns 52 -- and most will be surprised, because he really doesn't seem that old in body or spirit. In celebration of the man and his birthday, I was going to write 52 things about him, but decided that was just a bit much. So here is my top-10 list about the DH:

1. He is one handsome man. He doesn't think so, but he's just wrong.
2. He is a great friend. He would give you the shirt of his back if he thought you needed it (and probably has done just that at some point for someone).
3. He is very loyal.
4. He never turns down an opportunity to serve others. I love that he is so willing to give of himself and he's well known for it.
5. He loves me even though I can make it hard sometimes.
6. He makes awesome scrambled eggs and is a really good cook in general. Don't laugh at the good scrambled eggs -- he doctors them up until it's a culinary delight.
7. He supports me in the things that I do, even when some of them mean spending time away from him when he'd rather we were together. Sometimes he even pitches in to help me so he can hang out with me when I'm meeting my commitments.
8. He really cares about the underdog. I get frustrated about it sometimes (when the underdog calls at 7:30 on a Saturday morning), but I'm so impressed with the care he has shown to some of the people who just need someone to root for them.
9. He takes his commitments very seriously. If he says he'll do something, he'll do it.
10. He's strong in body and spirit. He has worked through some major obstacles and come out fighting.

I love the guy and I know I'm not alone. So, here's the shout out to the DH for 52 years!

I Love the Library

As a child, I loved to go to the library. I remember spending cool summer days in the basement of the old library. The children's section was downstairs and you had to go through a separate entrance to get to the lower level. I don't think I ever saw the main level. It was an old Carnegie library and I loved it.

I don't know when I first started to read, but I'm pretty sure my love affair with reading started very early on. I always wanted to take home a big stack of books and then we had rules about how many books we were allowed to check out. I think my limit was five books.

In elementary school, for a while, we went to the library once a week. I loved going and I can still remember the smell. Then we'd go once a month on Monday for family home evening. The books were all checked out for a month, so the whole family would gather up our library books and head to the library to get more. Oh, the trauma for everyone when one of us couldn't find all of our books! Even though the fees were small, they seeme huge to us as children.

I also remember being part of the summer reading program for several summers at the library. I think one summer, it was a Jr. Great Books reading club and I was introduced to many new and different genre and authors. I ate it up. I can still remember staying up reading until far into the wee hours to finish books before they were due or before I went back the next time.

I loved the Boise Public Library and still do. It's been a few years since I've been there since I relocated, but I still have so many great memories of my library there. I had a library card from before I could remember and finally got rid of it several years after moving to Seattle.

I've been in Seattle for eight years now, and just this weekend, I finally got a library card. The Seattle Public Library system is fantastic and I've been meaning to do it for years. Now I've finally got it!

Playing on my iPod This Week (Nov 17) -- Madeleine Peyroux

I was introduced to Madeleine Peyroux on a radio station I listen to and immediately fell in love with the retro styles. It's great music to listen to while I'm working as it's fairly calm and relaxing. I need help relaxing while I work!

This video is for Dance Me to the End of Love. It's a delightful little ditty.

Highlights (and Lowlights)

It's been one heck of a week! Last Thursday I had to drive up to Smoky Point in the rain and rush-hour traffic for a meeting and didn't have the good sense to try to carpool with anyone else who was going. That was just me being a bit loopy. For once, the DH and I didn't have much at all planned for the weekend. It was good not to have any obligations, but we were thrilled when Fred and Cathy called and invited us to play Settlers of Cattan with them on Saturday evening. We went out to Mexican and then went over and played -- and the DH won! There were a couple of very experienced players who thought they had the strategy down, but the DH beat them out anyway.

On Saturday, we also had our internet connection go out again. And, again, AT&T doesn't have customer support on the weekends, so I had to wait until Monday to call to get it fixed. I was on the phone from 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. and they finally got it up and running. While I was getting ready for work, I left the browser window open and when I went to close things down at 8:30, the internet connection was gone again. I had to get to work though, so I had to wait until evening to call again. I was on the phone for over an hour in the evening before the support agent told me that I can't get a signal because I'm too far from the signal. Funny... I wasn't too far from the signal last week, or for the last few years for that matter. At any rate, he said he was sorry, it wouldn't work. Period. Good luck getting internet.

Tuesday I did a little research and found out that Qwest and Verizon DSL are also not available at our house. That leaves HughesNet satalite (which apparently is only a bit faster than dial-up), ClearWire, or Comcast. I found out that Costco carries ClearWire, so I thought we might get a deal on that, but also thought I would at least call Comcast to see what it would cost. I was expecting that it would be more expensive than I wanted to pay, but found out that if I bundle internet, local, and long-distance calling, then it's actually $8 more than I was paying for AT&T DSL. It's also faster than DSL or ClearWire, so now I'm committed. We get Comcast internet next week (waiting 7 days to transfer the phone number to Comcast).

The rest of the week has been crazy work and Relief Society meetings, so I'm ready for another weekend.

Reading and Reviews

While in Hawaii, I finished Three Cups of Tea, but I also read Twilight. I've both lived through my own teen angst and read about it, and this is another story showcasing teen angst with the added excitement of vampires. I completely understand the hype with tweens around this book. I'm a little confused at the many adult women who seem to be completely enthralled with this book though.

The closest I can come to serious discussion of this book is to say that it is a great gateway into Harlequin romances. As far as a quick and easy read with a story that keeps you interested, it works. The funniest thing about this book is that the DH read about every third page over my shoulder and got the story without having to read the whole book.

I appreciate the interest and I plan to see the movie, but Twilight is mediocre writing at best. (Sorry Ann!)

So, now I'm moving on to other reading. I'm looking at the stack of books and trying to decide what's next. Let me know if you have any suggestions. I can go to the library if it's not already sitting on my shelf waiting for me to get to it.

Playing on my iPod This Week (Nov 10) -- The Jayhawks

I know the DH had his fill of The Jayhawks when we went to see them live, but I still love them! They're great. I have several of their albums and I enjoy just about everything they've released. They're Alt Country, so it isn't for everyone, but I think it's great stuff.

This video is one of my favorite songs, Tailspin. I like it better on the album than on the YouTube video, but you get the idea.

Highlights of the last seven days

I love this country! I love the democratic process (even if it does seem confusing). Today I listened to both speaches from Barack Obama and John McCain given last night after the election results were in. One of the highlights of this race was John McCain's consession speach. What a fantastic speach from someone surely disappointed in the results. He showed such diplomacy and true courtesy and respect for the office of the President. Another highlight was the speach given by Barack Obama. I loved this quote from his speach:

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other.

I know not everyone who reads my blog shares my political opinions, but today I am thrilled for a new president-elect who I believe does bring new hope.

In addition to the amazing speaches those two men gave, other highlights include having my husband return from a weekend away for a Raider's game, an uneventful Halloween, getting all the goods for some Christmas gifts I'm working on, and fun with the nephew's Halloween party and a movie afterwards with the SIL.

It's been another great week and I feel blessed. It's a good feeling.

Oh, What a Relief It Is!

The DH and I watched some DVR tonight and saw how many political adds there were. They were SO annoying. Now, we don't have to see them anymore for quite some time. Hallelujah!