Ocean Shores Beach Trip

20 July 2010

We finally got out of town. It was the first time since Amy and I moved here that we pulled up stakes and got ourselves a change of scene. My Mom got us a condo to rent for several days and we shared the costs. We had a much more elaborate vacation than the camping trip we had planned on, and for even less than we had planned to spend.

There isn't much to tell. We ate junk food, played on the beach, read books, and generally did what we pleased. It feels good to just play. It's a secret to life that I think we forget or have shamed out of us at age 11 or so.



John and I had fun building Disneyland in sand. I couldn't have had a better partner since he's the only one I know who knows the park as intimately as I do. We only had the energy to build Main Street, the Castle, the Tiki Room, and the Jungle Cruise. IT was mostly recognizable and we had a lot of fun. Did I finish? No, and that's okay. Did I know it was just going to get wrecked? Of course. It's a sandcastle. After all, that's what cameras are for.

One of the highlights was having our niece Lorena around to entertain us all. She's cuter by the day, and is able to do more for herself all the time. She especially lights up around Grandma, her aunt Amy, and her uncle John. She has a sweet disposition and just loves to be part of the fun.

Amy and I decided to break away from the group on one of the days to visit Lake Quinault in the Olympic National Forest. It was only about an hour and a half away, and well worth the trip.


We went on a short nature trail through the rain forest that took us over a beautiful gorge, all under a canopy of trees that have been around since the time of Columbus. We spent some time on the shore of the lake.


The water was so clear you had to resist the temptation to bend down and take a big drink of it.

We came back yesterday rested with full health points and ready to take on our work again. Meanwhile, we'll look forward to going back while the last of the sand in our shoes slowly vanishes.In the final day we managed to stop in at the Star Wars shop in Aberdeen. It's full of previously owned collectibles in varying condition. I was pleasantly surprised to find items identical to some from my own collection in poorer condition retailing for much more than I might have thought. I resisted the temptation to walk out with a few unpackaged storm troopers, but I doubt I'll always be leaving empty-handed if I ever manage to go back.

-Tom

Amy models a wildflower found in the rainforest

This driftwood guitar was out in front of a winery on our way to Westport

These deer came to visit almost every day while we were staying in the condo.

A Touch Of The Dizzies

ATTENTION: This post is WEEKS old! When I say "last Monday" I mean June 7th. Ya. We're slackers.

Amy's had a lot excitement these days. I suppose that's putting it kindly. She's had increasing spells of vertigo over the last few years, and we finally got her to an ENT to find out what's going on. He says it sounds like Minear's disease. If that sounds familiar to you, you might be remembering that the astronaut Allen Shephard had the same condition.

It's a building up of fluid in the inner ear that puts pressure on the ear drum. It tends to cause ringing in the ears, vertigo, dizzyness, and permanent hearing loss.

Yeah.

Scary.

We don't have an official diagnosis yet, but Amy's had a hearing test. She came out with normal hearing, so that should serve as a baseline, but we're going to get her back to the ENT to see what's next.

Meanwhile, Amy's having to stay on a low-salt diet. It's tough for her, and I try not to rub in the fact that I can eat salty things and she can't. I'm trying to support her however I can, though, and this is mainly accomplished by nagging and pestering her about keeping track of her sodium in-take. Like any diet change, she has good days and bad, but I like to think we're making a difference. Worst case scenario? She could be legally deaf in a few years. I don't see that as too likely, but it is possible. Best case scenario? She's going to live with this all her life, and we'll always have to be aware of it. It might be a while before we take another flight on an airplane.

Meanwhile, our lives go on. I'm getting a lot of freelance work, and Amy keeps getting plenty of clients at Massage Envy. We miss our nieces and nephews and think about them a lot.

Amy and I had a great date last Monday. Since we had to go to Seattle for her hearing test anyway, we made a day of it and had lunch after her test. We also stopped in at Twice-Sold Tales in the capitol hill neighborhood, a used bookstore we've both been wanting to check out. Amy had to drag me out. We both walked away with a little something at a fraction of the price it would have cost at, say Barnes and Noble.

We'll be back. I think I could have spent the whole day there, not to mention half my monthly pay.

-Tom

New Lace

It's finally finished and blocked! I've been working on this latest lace project since Christmas.


I've never worked on anything this large before, so I allowed myself time to switch over to other projects to give myself a break from it time to time.


Doing the same pattern over and over for so long gets rather monotonous.



This is the first time I have ever done a knitted on border. Though I think it does add a lot, HOLY COW - it was difficult to figure out on my own.




Well, I guess I'll have to start another lace project soon to do in tandem with the half-dozen other projects I've already got on the needles. :D

-Amy

Spaulding family visit in March and other updates

Okay, I have a confession. Tom sent me this hugely long blog several weeks ago, and because of computer issues, doctor's appointments, a busy schedule, and me just being so dead tired when I get off of work, I took this long to find photos to go with the posts so they could finally go live. Yes, I know; totally lame excuse. Hope you enjoy. I tried to post a ton of pictures here to make up for the fact that the blog has been such a disappointment.

-Amy



Our spacious 800 sq ft apartment has seen as much traffic per square foot per day as SeaTac airport. (and 97.24% of statistics are made up on the spot)

Amy’s family came to town in March, just one event in a month that’s left our heads spinning, hence the reason for our nonexistent posts.

Nearly the whole gang showed up. We played host to Amy’s parents, her brothers Jeff, Devin, Jeff’s wife and two kids, and Amy’s sister Summer.

Only Summer actually stayed with us, but everyone spent plenty of time here. We really missed Matt and his family, not to mention Tanner (who’s teacher deserves whatever she gets for not letting him come).

Anyway, I don’t think our place could have held too many more.

We had a lot of things on our itinerary, and very few things on that list went undone. We didn’t actually spend much time in the apartment.

On our first day out in the city, we went down to the waterfront. Nothing went quite according to plan, but we all had a good time. We spent some time browsing at Elliott Bay Book Store.

Kim and Becky stayed there entertaining themselves while the rest of us headed down First Avenue, stopping for a Cow Chip cookie, and browsing around at the Utilikilt store.

We even paused for a photo op in front of the totem pole in Pioneer Square.

We headed back to the cars and I picked up Kim and Becky so they could join us for lunch.

We all headed out to Discovery Park (no relation to the famed cable channel) and had a weenie roast.

Jeff and Ryan worked at impressing each other with handstands. Some of us threw the Frisbee.

The next day we were back in Seattle and we all took a ride on the Bainbridge Island ferry. Ella and Leo had fun imagining mermaids swimming in Puget Sound.

We all loved the great view of the city, and the Olympic Mountains were bold and clear to the west.

We had a great picnic lunch on the waterfront and took a look around the oddities and tchotchkes at Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe. I was especially impressed by a highly detailed model of an English village made entirely of cork.

The next day, Jeff and his family, Devin, Ryan, Amy, and I went to Boeing museum of flight. It had been some time since I’ve been there, and there was more to see than we could get in. I was especially geeking out over the new World War I exhibit.

Everyone pitched in to help buy and cook meals and nobody had an excuse to go away hungry. By the end, I think everyone was exhausted, but pleasantly so.

We had a great time hosting everyone and showing off our new stomping grounds. For us, it was also a great excuse to get out of the routine and experience the beautiful place we live in.

Amy and I have been getting through life just fine. It’s been a struggle to adjust our routines and get back into the groove of things. Our efforts for fiction have been woefully neglected as a result.

We had Amy’s brothers and a friend of theirs staying for a short time while they get their work situation figured out. It was quite a fiasco for them. As for us, we just enjoyed having company around. Ryan stayed with us for a few weeks, and I must admit I especially enjoyed that. I’m used to being completely alone during the day, which is fine, but it was a nice change to have someone else in the room. I worked on my articles and Ryan worked on his manna or whatever it is they do on World of Warcraft.

To further shake things up, Amy recently changed her work schedule. She cut back a little on her hours, which she badly needed to do. Now she gets a somewhat shorter day on Thursday. She also starts earlier on Saturday and finishes at 5 pm, which is great. It’s good to see her a little more often and I think it’s working wonders for her to see daylight more often.

I’ve been getting more clients these days. When it rains, it pours. The orders seem to be coming in all at once, so they’ve been keeping my fingers flying. I guess that makes a decent, relatively plausible excuse for getting behind on the blogs. I re-repledge to do better in the future.

Bringing us to the present . . .

This weekend has been another adventure. My cousin Carrie and her new husband James have been in town for a family party. Abby and Jeremy were in town, not mention my Dad who was here to visit his new Granddaughter. You’d think it was Christmas time with all the family buzzing around here these days.

Amy had a great birthday. We went out to dinner, did a little shopping. My brother made her a great big cake and I gave her a good, long, full-body massage. The perfect gift from the husband who has no money to the wife who has no energy. We had a nice evening renting movies; Julie and Julia, and Where the Wild Things Are. We’re pretty wild and crazy people, we know, but quiet evenings suit our budget and our disposition.

-Tom

Updates From The World Of The Criminally Cute

The time has come for an update on our adorable nieces and nephews. Not being able to have children of our own right now, Amy and I really especially enjoy our role as aunt and uncle in the lives of five cute little kids, so we're taking this opportunity to share what's going on with them. So here they are in no particular order.

Amy's brother Matt and his wife Deneal have two little cuties: Ashton is 6 and Tally Paix is almost a year old now.

Recently Deneal took them out on a picnic in a huge meadow. I'd love to know just where this is since I lived in that part of California for two years and never saw the like.


Anyway, Tally Paix had a blast eating grass and Deneal got off some gorgous photos of those kids.

Deneal, if you're reading, that eye and that camera could be making you some extra cash.


If I had a kid I'd chuck Sear's portait studio and just have you follow my kids around for a few hours. These photos are just incredible. And hey, there's a lot of money in kid photography. There's gold in them thar diapers. But I digress.

Ashton just turned 6 and this last year Amy and I began our tradition of sending our nieces and nephews as many dollars as they are old along with a card. He made the sweetest call to Amy, leaving a voicemail on her phone that just melted our hearts. "I hope you have a good time hearing me say that I love you . . . as much as I love you!" You just can't beat the sweet sincerity of little kids. Their complete dearth of irony is a gift in this crazy world of ours, at least Amy and I sure think so.

Amy's other brother Jeff has two kids with his wife Crystal: Leo who's also 6, and Ella who's 3.


Unfortunately Ella's had some real health problems with her kidneys. The other day Crystal was explaining to Amy over the phone how they have to keep Ella constantly hydrated to prevent infection. At the sound of the dreaded "h" word Ella shouted "NO HYDRATED!"


I don't think I've ever heard anyone under the age of 10 use that word, let alone a 3-year-old so that was hillarious. Anyway, the poor thing has to go to the bathroom constantly, so she's put herself on the fast track to complete potty training. Good on ya, kiddo. Sorry about all the grief your system's putting you through, but at least there's a silver lining there.


Elanie poses with Devin's dog, Chloe. Yes, Chloe is wearing a shirt. No, Devin didn't put it on her. It's actually a dolly shirt that Crystal put on the dog and tried to get Ella to confess. She wouldn't do it, haha.


Leo continues to be way too resourceful for his own good. While Grandma and Grandpa Spaulding were watching him recently he managed to turn down all the dials on all the refrigerators and freezers.


As a result he inadvertently defrosted a whole turkey. Guess Thanksgiving came early for them! Wish I could have been there, I love turkey.


And last, but certainly not least my Sister Abby's recently-adopted daughter Lorena continues to be cute enough to make the Gerber baby consider a career change.

Speaking of which she just cut her first teeth recently and had her first sleepover at her Grandma Fawcett's (my mom) without her mom and dad. Amy and I spent an afternoon visiting with my mom, my brother, and her. She's very well-mannered and just loves to be in on the fun. I couldn't quit thinking about how nice it was to cuddle her and play with her. We all had our turn with her. She's just a jewel.

Strangely enough Abby reports that when Lorena got home all she wanted to do was be held and play.

Wonder why. Hmmm. It's a mystery.

-Tom