The Last One

So this is the last post for 2006. I'm going to say a lot of things that everyone else says here, but I can't help myself. Can you believe how quickly this year has gone? Seems like it was just summer and here it is the end of the year.

2006 was not a great year overall in our household, so I'm going to skip the recap and just move on to 2007. Oh, wait. I do want to comment on my 2006 resolutions. I know myself well enough to not try for big goals, but to set reasonable ones that I'm 99% sure I can reach. Yeah, not much of a challenge there, but I really don't need anything else to make me feel worse about myself. I don't think I ever wrote them down, but my goals for 2006 were:

1. Read 120 books
2. Find 120 letterboxes
3. Listen to 120 books on tape.

So I ended up reading 129 books, finding 205 letterboxes, and listening to 119 books on tape. Yeah! I'm pretty happy with that. Two out of 3 ain't bad. And really, one book on tape under the goal isn't bad at all.

I'm looking forward to this being a MUCH better year than 2006. And to make it so, I have composed the following list of goals.

1. Read 125 books
2. Listen to 125 books on tape
3. Find 250 letterboxes
4. Get back to Flying
5. Finish some open craft projects

Nothing earth shattering on that list either, but hey, it's all stuff I need to do.

Well, ya'll have a Happy New Year!!

Just For You, Deb!

Just a Quick One

Blogger is really slow tonight, so I'm going to make this a quick post. Here is a picture of my newest nephew, Dakota. Isn't he a cutie?

It's All Over but the Credit Card Payments

Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope you all had a lovely holiday. I know I did.

We went to my parents' house for Christmas breakfast (eggnog pancakes, yummy!), a little present opening, and some together time. It was so nice. Thanks for all the great presents, Mom, Dad, & Mama, er, I mean Santa!!

In the afternoon we went over to Greg's sister's house (Wendy & Jeremy's) for an early dinner, a round of presents, and dessert. It was a very nice get-together. Technically, this was my nephew's 2nd Christmas, but the first one he was only 2 months old and wasn't really in to the whole Christmas thing. That kid got some mighty cool stuff, let me tell you! He is one sweet baby and deserves to be spoiled.

Now I have to get ready for work tomorrow. I hate it when Christmas is early in the week. I much prefer a Friday Christmas. But that's the way the (Christmas) cookie crumbles. I'm just gateful to have a job.

So Merry Christmas everyone! I hope to hear lots of good stories about YOUR Christmas!

Here are a few more Hawaii pictures for you.

Almost Here!

It's almost Christmas! As usual, we aren't really celebrating much. No tree, no Christmas cards. I got just a couple of small things for my family, but hopefully they won't mind yet another skimpy gift year. Someday I hope to be able to get back to truly celebrating Christmas instead of just surviving it.

I've been listening to "A Christmas Carol" today, read by Jim Dale. It's wonderful, of course. It's amazing to me that this story was written over 100 years ago and it still speaks to every person. It's good to listen to the original after seeing so many movies based on it. My favorite version of this story is the "Muppet Christmas Carol." I love all the little rats that work at Scrooge's.

I had to laugh when I heard that Jim Dale uses a voice very similar to Rufus Scrimjaw's voice (Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince) for Scrooge. Talk about mixing up your books!

Speaking of Harry Potter, did you see that JK Rowling released the name of the 7th and final Harry Potter book? It's called Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows. No release date yet, but a title for it is a nice Christmas present from her. All I can say is she better NOT kill off Harry.

I leave you with a couple of pictures from the trip.

Mele Kalikimaka!

Stormy

Woo-weee! We had quite the storm last night. Wild wind and rain, power transormers blowing up, trees blowing over...we had it all. We lost our power around 8:00. I was in the middle of making a beaded necklace and Cleo had just snuck up on the table, grabbed the neckace out of my hand and jumped off the other side with it in her mouth - all in one smooth motion. It was actually quite a clever move. I was not amused though, since half the beads came off the wire and scattered all over the floor. As I was picking them up, our lights went out. There are probably a million beads all over the floor in that room now. I'll bet beads on a hardwood floor aren't going to be much fun for anyone except Cleo.

Our power was only out about 2 hours. It was pretty amazing to be up in the office and watch all the flashes as power things blew up or whatever it is they do. There were all these colored flashes out there. Greg said it looked like an alien invasion.

I heard that we had wind gusts up to 70 mph in the Portland area and up to 115 mph at the coast. Mother nature is in a mood, I tell you. I keep hearing that we may have snow this weekend, but who knows if that will happen. If you work for the power company, you can rack up some major overtime, that's for sure!

Last night's storm must have dumped a ton of snow in the mountains. I fear that they aren't going to find those hikers alive that have been lost on Mt. Hood for the past week. While I feel really badly for them and their families, who goes mountain climbing in December? I ask you, is that a smart thing to do? It seems like asking for trouble to me. I guess when you go and file your hiking plan, or whatever it is you do when you mountain climb, they have FREE tracker thingys that you can carry with you, so when you get lost, searches can find you. Now, WHY don't people take them? Why? It must be a macho thing.

I know I haven't posted much about the trip. I will, I promise! I have a ton more picture to share. I've been trying to break my bad habit of spending so much time on the computer, so my blog is suffering. I will post some this weekend.

I'm Home!

I'm back from Hawaii! Didja miss me?

A quick trip overview:

Days on vacation: 18
Days on the cruise ship: 16
Days at sea: 10
Days in Hawaii: 5
Number of pictures taken: 1143 (thank goodness for digital!)
Number of emails upon return: 282 home, 350 work
Number of important emails upon return: 2 (both work and home)
Coolest shore excursion: Seahorse Farm in Kona
Favorite island: Maui followed closely by the Big Island
Cars rented: 3 in Hawaii, 1 when we got home
Number of letterboxes found: 2
Number of letterboxing injuries incurred: 0
Number of trips to the ships doctor: 1 (Greg had a sinus infection)
Number of prescriptions prescribed by the ships doctor: 6
Favorite place: Ioa Needle, Maui
Number of times we ate in the actual dining room: 3
Number of pennies smashed: 30

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure:


Greg holding a seahorse.


Place of Refuge


Banyon Tree


Kris's training tattoo.

More later.