Vancouver, Canada, eh?

Today we decided to take our day trip up to Canada. I have never been to Vancouver (or anywhere in Canada for that matter) but have heard that it is a pretty awesome city. Tim has been several times but more for the biking part of the city and not so much for exploring. On June 1st we have to have passports to get across the border. Since neither of us have a current passport right now, we decided to take the opportunity to go up there while we still can without a passport (not like getting a passport is the hardest thing in the world, but whatever). So we had our birth certificates and Bella's shot records and we were good to go. Of course it hit me about 30 miles from the border that I didn't have our marriage certificate on me so I was a little bit worried about getting in or out of the US since my birth certificate did not match my ID. But, 2.5 hours later after leaving Seattle, we hit the border and it was no issue getting into Canada. Of course the guy was a total prick but what do you expect from border patrol?

Miss Bella getting comfy for the car ride- she did great!

And on our way out of Seattle... headed north!

I decided to drive first. I made it just across the border and Tim took over. I'm glad, too. There are crazy drivers up there in the city!

And we made it!!

We stopped just across the Canadian border to let Bella pee and to get a map of Vancouver.

Looking down from a hill to the city. It is stunning, actually... people were right!

Bella liked it too... actually she was probably more fascinated with the camera but oh well.

And approaching the city...

So I thought this was funny- "Canada's gourmet burgers & spirits?" Do I not know something about Red Robin? I thought it was an American chain. Hmm.

Entering Chinatown! Apparently it's the 3rd largest Chinatown in North America following San Francisco and New York. I had no idea but after visiting, I would believe it!

And leaving Chinatown. We also visited several other districts in downtown Vancouver but I don't have pictures. There was a lot of construction going on, presumably to prepare the city for the 2010 Olympics. The Chinatown district was the most impressive.

Headed out of Vancouver, we stopped at Stanley Park for a picnic lunch. This park was HUGE and beautiful. Not to mention, it was about 70 degrees and sunny in Vancouver. We got so lucky given that it was 50 and rainy in Seattle! It was awesome just sitting out in the sun. Definitely a perfect day.

Walking around a little trail after lunch, we saw a "Calvin squirrel" (aka: black)- something that does not exist in Seattle. We only have brown ones.

And standing by a little swamp/wetland type thing. It was really pretty.

Looking over the bridge that connects Stanley Park to North/West Vancouver.

And crossing that bridge...gorgeous mountains!

A view of Vancouver as we were crossing the bridge.

The km/h signs cracked me up. Obviously I KNOW we are in a different country, it's just one of those things little differences from the States that amuse me.

We were going to go to this thing called Capilstrano bridge, which basically just looked like a bridge you cross in the middle of the forest. We got there though and it was a huge tourist trap. So we drove up the road further and found this little park and giant dam- gorgeous, same views and so much less of a cluster than the tourist trap!

Standing at the fence looking up at a huge waterfall caused by the dam.

Self portrait. Lovely!

And looking down from above on the waterfall.

A view of a little lake a mountains. Beautiful!

Miss Bella loves being a world class traveler!

After a day full of exploring, we decided to head back down to the states. We were tired and traffic was starting to get crappy from rush hour. So we headed back not knowing if the US guys would let us in (with my whole birth certificate not matching ID situation coupled with the US being much more stringent than Canada on who they let in/out). While we were waiting in line at the border we snapped a shot of the peace arch which we didn't get on the way in.

We also got a picture of the inspection sign... and luckily, they let me back in! This guy was even more of a jerk than the Canada guy. Unbelievable!

On the way back down, we had a great view of Mount Baker. I think Mount Baker is 10,000 feet (in contrast Rainer is 14,000) so when you're driving in Seattle you can see Rainer down south and Baker to the north plus all of the ranges in between... on clear days, of course. Once we got this shot of Baker and continued to head further south, it kept getting cloudier and cloudier. By the time we were back in Seattle it was raining. We were glad we left town for a day in the sun!

On the way home, Winston hit 66,666 miles old. This is very impressive since I have basically only driven 16,000 miles since I have been up in Seattle. In contrast, in my few years in Phoenix, I put on 45,000.

We wore the puppy out. She decided to cuddle and pass out with Mr. Monkey on the way home and proceeded to sleep the whole night. It was way too cute. The day up in Vancouver was perfect and I'd definitely recommend that people check it out- it would be fun to spend more than a day up there as well which is on our agenda for sometime in the future. Also on the agenda for explorations north of us are Victoria, San Juan Islands, and Whistler. I guess we'll be needing those passports fairly soon after all!

A sunny day in Seattle complimented by crumpets

Today Tim and I decided to drive to Seattle. We haven't been over there in a while and since it was a great sunny day, we figured, why not? It was Bella's first trip to the Seattle scene and boy, she did not know what to do with herself.

She LOVES people and there are so many people down there, I think she was just overwhelmed. It was hilarious. She didn't even jump because there were too many people around so she couldn't figure out who to peg. We got a lot of attention... everyone wanted to pet her and talk to us about her so it was a bit of a slow go as we were walking around but she loves the attention so all in all it was a great adventure.

Sitting outside of the crumpet shop. Bella was a little cold sitting in the shade so she was hiding between Tim's legs.

Crumpets apparently are messy...

And another shot where you can see Miss B... I really love these crumpets. Their tea is amazing as well!

And a shot of Bella and I... I was trying to cuddle with her to keep her warm. She was definitely shaking!

And a close up shot... aren't we cute?

We started walking around the market and the park... where we warmed up in the sun. Bella was so distracted here. It was hard to get a picture because everyone kept walking up to her. In fact, I snapped it right before two ladies came over to talk to us.

I always love going over the bridge to Seattle to Pike Place and to the crumpet shop (which is of course at Pike). It's such a neat area and one of the reasons that I love living here. I am also glad my parents came out last August and we discovered the crumpet shop... mmm...

The beginnings of the birthday weekend

Today marks the first day of the beginning of my birthday weekend. I took off Monday-Wednesday to just enjoy time off with Tim who also took those days off from work. We don't really have anything major planned other than a trip to Canada for a little trip at the beginning of the week. This weekend will be mostly low key as Tim has a test tomorrow for work stuff.

A few days ago, Tim told me that the bakery in town that we have gotten my german chocolate birthday cake from had discontinued it. I was SO disappointed. It is the best testing cake ever- natural (of course), not to mention now it is just tradition. So I said to go and get the type of cake we had for our reception. It is equally as good, in a different way.

Well, the first surprise happened this morning when Tim got home from work (he works 24 hour shifts so he worked from 7am yesterday morning to 7am this morning). When he walked in the door, I had a funny feeling that he was up to something. He went up to take a shower but was acting very funny... like asking me if I could get him a drink of water WHILE he was in the shower. Um, that just seemed weird so I said that and told him that I didn't want to (ok, that is bitchy but I was starving and fairly grouchy, I will admit it). Plus it just seemed weird.

So we go downstairs for breakfast and I look in the fridge and see a big white box. WTF?

IT'S MY CAKE!!! And not just ANY cake, it's my german chocolate cake! YES!!!! Apparently Tim was tricking me the whole time. He claims that I am hard to surprise so he has to trick me to do it. I am not complaining, I LOVE surprises.

So after that, we had a leisurely day. We took Bella on a small 3 mile hike (which is actually a mile over the amount she is supposed to walk at one time because large breed dogs-especially boxers- are prone to hip dysplasia). We then went and bought fresh salmon and potatoes to make for dinner... of course the part I was most excited about was the cake! We never eat the cake right on my birthday, it's more fun to eat it for a week.

Bella and I after the hike. She is growing so much. She makes me look like a midget. Maybe someday I will be rid of the stupid glasses.

And another one. She was giving me a kiss and we tried to capture it. And YES... I am wearing hiking pants and a fleece. And I even have hiking shoes. I never would have believed it either. It's ridiculous.

Tim "prepping" the cake with fresh organic raspberries- yum!

And, voila! MMMM.... It was amazing. Happy birthday weekend to me!

Enjoying the warmer weather

I was going to title this post "It's finally spring in Washington" but I figured I would totally screw up something in our weather pattern by jinxing us with that title. We have had a great string of spring days- sun, 60s, and even some 70s. It's been awesome. Even the animals are loving it. After a nice walk with Bella today, I decided to take a couple of shots at all of the animals (it's also proof that they all really do get along)...

Tyson, Bella, and Calvin. Bella and Calvin are pals. Tyson is a bit more skepitcal of her. But then again, I have determined he is just a grumpy old man type of cat who is just an ass to everyone unless he decides at any given moment that he doesn't want to be. Usually this only happens with Tim...his favorite person in the whole world.

Bella looks like she is up to no good... and no, she is not starving. She is just still growing so much that you can still see her ribs. She eats like a horse (and the "right" amount) but she grows so fast that she hasn't really filled out yet.

Bella given her buddy Calvin a hug... or tackle.

This looks like more of a nice hug. By the way, believe it or not, Calvin usually instigates these instances by batting her in the nose. It's pretty funny.

Tuckered out puppy after a long walk and playing with kitties and toys. She was passed out and snoring but the camera click woke her up. Still an adorable picture.

Happy Earth Day

Anyone who knows Tim and I would probably call us tree huggers. Ok, you do. BUT, whatever. It's how we live and we like it. We use organic everything (hair products, makeup, some clothes, laundry, soap, etc), we sleep on organic sheets, we eat organically, we recycle. We are currently looking into sustainable, eco-friendly items in which to renovate our house. Replacing items that are ok already isn't really "green" per se; however, the items we are talking about replacing (like carpet) are definitely not eco-friendly as they are and are actually quite harmful if you do the research (unless of course you get the "green" carpet... ours is not this).

I could go on about that forever but I try not to get on too much of a soap box about that on this website. The point is that even though today is the "official" earth day, I feel like every day is an opportunity to help the earth, even if you just recycle one thing.

I always feel bad because I feel like there is more that I can do to be even MORE green that I'm not doing. There are extremists out there and I am not one of them. However, I do think that the things that I DO do make a difference and I hope that if people aren't already, they start to adopt certain green habits. They are easy to pick up and what do you have to lose?

I saw a stat the other day that if everyone just bought 100% recycled napkins, 600,000 trees would be saved just from that. Think about how we could impact this earth if we all just took these little baby steps. I certainly try to do my part and hopefully today serves some sort of purpose to inspire other people to pick up little habits as well.

Happy earth day to everyone out there!

Growing like a weed...

Bella is growing like a weed. We took her to the vet a week ago and she's put on about 5 pounds since three weeks ago. She is now four months old and weighs 23 pounds. Not a huge gain but she has grown so much. Now I think it's time for her to put on some muscle to go with the bone growth. We're done with all first year shots now and just are waiting a few more weeks for puppy kindergarten to start which will be GREAT to try to tame the awesome boxer trait of "boxing" at every single person and dog she meets. It's actually kind of cute but as she gets bigger, it probably won't be a good thing. I realized this the other day when she started to do that and then I held her down but she proceeded to make a little toddler cry. I felt HORRIBLE. She wasn't even close to him, but it just intimidated him. At least she is a friendly dog... she wants to play with anything and everyone.

So far, hardly any more accidents. We have had two since the first week when we had about 6. She's been awesome in that respect. And it's a good thing too because apparently she has a sensitive digestive system. Ugh. I won't go into details but we have tried medicine that didn't really help but was supposed to "re-set" her and we tried a food that was supposed to help and nope, no luck. Now we are back to where we wanted to be on organic natural dog food with a natural probiotic to help aid her poor sensitive tummy since nothing else has worked. Hopefully this will work. It's been a challenge but apparently it's fairly common with boxers. At least we haven't had any accidents in the house... if we had poopy accidents, I'm pretty sure we would have had to tear out the carpet by now judging by the messes she's made outside. Ick.

We trained her to ring a bell anytime she goes outside and she has been great about that. She just runs to the door and jumps up and rings away. The two accidents we had involved her being extremely tired and forgetting to ring the bell (and us not watching her sniff away). Oops.

So... so far, so good. She has been a great puppy. I just can't believe how fast she is growing! She is so much fun though and we get so many compliments on her for her looks and how friendly she is to other people and to kids especially. It's been a lot of fun.

See some more current pictures below.

She has decided that she likes to pull every single toy along with her whole bed and all blankets out of her "house" (aka crate) right in front of us to get us to play with her. This was the first day she did it and it totally cracked me up.

Chewing on her bone along side her bed.

Here you can see how much longer she has gotten.

April 15 came and went...

Anyone who is an accountant understands the significance of the day April 15, even if we aren't all "tax" accountants. Anyone who works in public accounting reap the benefits of April 15... generally it means shorter work days, not working weekends, and a total shift in the attitude at the firm as a whole. It also usually means time off on the 16th and a "after busy season party" on the 15th. This year was no exception for our firm.

The week of the 15th was fairly relaxed for us. We had our after tax season party in downtown Seattle and took off the 16th from work. It was great. Of course for us "audit monkeys" (as my friend Jill so affectionately puts it), our busy season isn't technically over. This is no exception for me. I have still been fairly busy working but the lack of weekend work has made me more than happy. Plus, it's better to be busy than out of work in this economy, right?

See pictures below of after busy season party. Tim was there... but he apparently was designated photographer for the four pictures that were taken with my camera. Four is better than nothing.

Group shot. Someone had the brilliant idea that Washington red apple shots were a must. Fabulous.

"Maybe it's maybelline..." Nice action shot.

Group shot of us all prior to red apples.

And again. Cracking up at who knows what.

All in all the night was a success. Who can really complain about celebrating the end of working long hours?

Hoppity hop hop...

Happy Easter to everyone out there. It wasn't a great weekend for Easter egg hunts since we got all of our nice weather out of our system last weekend. Or WE didn't per se, but Seattle did.

This weekend we were stuck back in rain and cold. Next weekend we are supposed to be back to sunny and warm. That sounds great given that we are working no more Saturdays. Nor are we working much towards the end of this week since April 15 symbolizes the end of busy season. It's really more the final end for tax people but we (the audit people) keep busy through May-ish. But expectations shift a bit so it's a lot easier even if we are still busy. And we all celebrate "the end" by getting the 16th off and the "after busy season" party on the 15th .

Tim's working today and I'm just taking it easy. Since it's raining and I want no more exposure to creepy stalker dude, we aren't going on any walks today. We did go to the pet store which Bella was definitely all about. She made friends with a little french bulldog who was about her age (but much, much smaller). She also got new toys.... one of which was a turtle who she beheaded in about an hour after we returned home. It was hilarious to be quite honest.

We also worked out some at home. I decided that I need to get back in shape (this is my post-busy season 'get back in shape' kick that happens every year after not doing much for the prior 3 months). Bella apparently likes the floor exercises. Actually she likes to attack me while I am doing them. And then we wrestle and I throw Rupert (her new bear toy) and she gets him and then attacks kitties and then promptly remembers I am trying to do crunches so attacks me. And, repeat. Her little cycle cracks me up. Again, one of those times I wish I had a video camera in the house.

We have also been drinking a lot of tea and reading. It's been fabulous. It has been by far the quietest Easter I think I have ever had. Back home in Missouri, we'd always have tons of family over and it would just be a crazy day. I love that but I loved this quiet, relaxing day as well. It was wonderful. Hope everyone out there had a fantastic day as well.

Stalker.

I had a really creepy experience on Friday afternoon.

Tim was working and I was wrapping up our time at the client from hell (yep, finally). We leave fairly early and I am in a great mood. We have made great progress and I feel fantastic about where we are in the process. It's early and it's sunny so I go home to take Bella on a walk.

We go on our normal walk... through this little woodsy section of our walk which is a little boardwalk through untouched wetlands and woods. We get to the middle section close to the exit where there is an opening and a gazebo. We stop to let Bella go potty.

I look up and this dude is walking towards me. He yells, "Hi, remember me... we met the other day."

Um.... thinking, thinking... nope, pretty sure I have never seen you before in my life.

"Remember, I had two rottweilers?"

Um, nope. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a great memory for remembering people. That coupled with the fact that I have not had time to go on many walks around our house lately (unless it's been a rare chance with Tim), I KNOW that is not accurate that I have met him before...or even seen him for that matter.

At that point he reaches into his pocket...

As my heart rate doubles, I'm thinking, HOLY.HELL, GET ME OUT OF HERE.

He pulls out a camera.

"Can I take your picture?"

WTF?

Um, I guess. What the hell else am I supposed to do? I was caught off guard and at that moment in time yelling "NO!" and running away didn't seem totally appropriate.

He says that "his wife loves puppies at this age so he wants a picture of the puppy." My loyal , protective dog (ha!) is going nuts with the new person, wanting to play with him. We need to work on her protective skill. And by the way? His wife? He made a point to mention her about 100 times. I thought it was just a little weird.

So he takes the picture, tries to get me to tell him my name (no fucking way... sorry mom for the f-bomb), continues to small talk while I walk (aka: half jog) away.

I have had interesting experiences before but to me, this was just creepy. I'm pretty good at reading people and when things like this have happened before, it really isn't weird to me. But this? This just scared the shit out of me for whatever reason.

So at that point, we cut our walk short.

We turned around and walked on the streets home (by houses... you know so I wouldn't be alone in the woods with creepy stalker dude).

On the way home, on one of the main streets I see him AGAIN. He is taking pictures of us in front of us down the road. He sees that I see him and he HIDES. BEHIND. A. FUCKING. TREE. BUT CONTINUES TO TAKE PICTURES.

Before: Weird. Now: TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY FREAKED OUT.

We turn down the closest street we can to take a side route home. I assess that this guy is not in the best shape in his life and the puppy and I can surely out-sprint him if it comes to that. So we do. And we go into the house the back way, shut all of the blinds, and call it good. Meanwhile, my legs feel like jello and I am contemplating whether or not that night I should sleep with one of my samurai swords (aka: one of the knives in the set we have in our kitchen). I also was thisclose to calling the cops. Honestly. That might sound ridiculous but I did NOT like the feeling I got about this guy. And if somehow my hunch was right, well, then I probably helped someone somewhere. Except for I didn't call. Because I didn't want to deal with it. And I convinced myself that I was probably off base or too sensitive or something. Maybe I should have.

And, I keep telling myself that I overreacted on the one hand but on the flip side, I know I have never been so creeped out in my life. It was just weird. If nothing else, it was a small dose of what it must be like to be a celebrity and all I can say about that is thank god I am not famous. That? That would SUCK.

In a state of awe.

The past four days people in Seattle have been walking around with perma smiles on their faces. You might think they have just been smoking a ton of pot (which in some cases may be true) but in all reality, we are all high on bountiful sunshine. We have had highs in the upper 60s/low 70s for the past four days and cannot seem to get our minds around the fact that even though it snowed last week as an April fool's day joke, somehow mother nature felt guilty enough to give us the equivalent of the best of southern Cali weather. And what. the. hell. Um, we'll take it.

Of course it may not be so much as an "I'm sorry for the snow" but a "buckle up bitches, enjoy the tease." Later this week we are supposed to return to 40s/50s and rainy and this morning I even heard the potential for rain/snow mix at the beginning of next week. I'm skeptical they can ever predict out but the point is that this nice weather won't last and won't probably be back until, um, July. Regardless, we have made the most of it.

Over the weekend we took Bella on her first hike. It wasn't really a "hike" hike so much as a very challenging 6 mile walk that we ran part of the way. She was a little trooper and loved it. Sunday while Tim worked Bella and I did errands and played outside some more and yesterday we got even more sun/outdoors time in. It has been fabulous. This weather makes me miss Arizona so much. I love the sun and warmth. Today I am even wearing short pants and shoes with bare feet. It's getting crazy. Tomorrow we'll be back to boots and sweaters.

Below are some pictures of a playdate Bella had with her cousin Buck a couple of weekends ago (on another rare nice day). It wasn't as warm as it has been the past few but it was still sunny! Bella had a great time playing. She ran and ran and ran for two hours straight and then just passed out. It was too cute.

Chasing buck through the backyard.

There are chickens that live next door to Tim's sister. Bella couldn't figure out what exactly they were (and no, his sister doesn't live in the country). She actually just lives in one of the most liberal neighborhoods in Seattle. We love it over there. There is so much character.

Bella and Buck fighting over a monkey.

Bella and Buck attempting to be nice and "share" the rawhide.

And on Sunday- Tim getting ready to leave for work and Bella saying goodbye.

Amused

Yesterday I was driving through town after leaving Trader Joes with Bella in the car. We pass a gas station and hear tons of honking. We both jump.

We look over to see a range rover who has tried to drive out of the gas station with the pump still in his SUV. The other patrons at the gas station tried to warn him of this via honking. BUT he didn't listen, the pump flew out and hit his range rover. He jumped out and stood there looking at the damage on his car (we were stopped at a light and got to witness this whole event).

All I can say is seriously? You don't realize you haven't taken the pump out?

I try to be fairly tolerant of most people but come on. What an idiot.

Happy April fools day!

It's the first day of April and guess what that means?

IT SNOWS IN SEATTLE!!

You think I am joking but I kid you not. It literally snowed today. Big white flakes. I think mother nature is playing a huge freaking April fool's day joke on us. Unbelievable.

To say I am ready for summer would be an understatement.

A word on power outages

Seattle is known for its power outages. If it gets windy here, the power is most assuredly going to go out. I'm not sure why this is... if it's older lines, lines that aren't underground, high winds, cross winds, I don't know.

The other day the power was out for about 4 hours. I was walking Bella through the park by our house and saw the pole bent at 90 degrees. My first thought: I guess that explains the power outage. The power guy saw Bella and walked over to pet her and say hi. I then took the opportunity to ask when the power would be back on and his response was, "oh in a few hours." Perfect.

A few hours later the power is back on. It really doesn't matter a whole lot to us when it's off because our stove/oven is gas and so is our heat. So we just light some candles and talk or read and can still cook dinner just fine.

HOWEVER what is not fine is when we go to bed at 11pm and then at midnight we hear BRRP BRRP BRRP as loud as possible. W.T.F. We just went to bed? How the HELL is the alarm already going off?

Ooops.

We forgot to reset the clock to our normal wake up time and just hit the "set" button without considering the power outage and the fact that the alarm would be reset to midnight. Too bad we don't have a secret video system in our house. I bet it was hilarious to watch us both shoot up straight in bed with almost simultaneous heart attacks.

Certainly something is wrong about this picture...

Back at the client from hell today and we walk down the block to get lunch in a nearby mall that has a ton of various restaurants, upscale shops, etc. I am wearing a fairly heavy sweater and am still freezing.

I notice at all of the shops, the clothing items displayed are shorts, flip flops, sleeveless tees. Um, excuse me?

Did someone not inform these stores that it is still winter in Seattle until about, July?

I have never understood this about retail. How come spring clothes start to come out in December and fall clothes start to come out in July? Just the mere thought of wearing shorts right now makes me want to go hide under a pile of 10 blankets until we finally get appropriate "shorts" weather on about July 12th, when it hits 70 degrees...which if you would have asked me a few years ago when I was living in Phoenix was NOT shorts weather and was still sweater weather. Bizarre.