HEAT WAVE.

It is SO FREAKING HOT HERE. We are actually only 5 degrees from Phoenix and it's SEATTLE. A city which has never broken 100 degrees. Well welcome to 80 days without rain + a hundred degree temps. That's Phoenix. WHY is the pacific northwest trying to be Phoenix minus the air conditioning?

Today Winston told me that it was 108 degrees out. I don't think it was actually that hot. I think we actually topped out at 104. THIS IS INSANE. Mostly because no one has air conditioning because Hello!? We live in the pacific northwest and it doesn't GET HOT.

It is miserable!! I can't wait to go to Kansas City in a couple of days where they are having Seattle-like weather at 75 degrees, no humidity. And if they were having 100 degree days, at least they have air conditioning.

I actually took Bella to my friends house today because she has air conditioning. I've been hosing her off about 5 times a day to keep her cool (since I'm such the animal abuser) but since I had to work today, I couldn't leave her at home. It's way too hot, even if you have a million fans. So she hung out with Gina and Dallas in the air conditioning. She was a fan. And she has the whole next week with them while we are in KC so she'll do great in this heat.

I guess at least now I know how it feels to live in Phoenix without air conditioning. People who do that or used to do that are crazy.

Sunday morning hike.

Tim and I decided to go hiking this morning. It was crazy because a) we haven't been able to hike much all summer due to his crazy work schedule and b) it was supposed to be 95 degrees today, one of the hottest days in Washington. Not ideal for hiking. But, we made it! And it was gorgeous. We just hiked Rattlesnake Ridge which has great views. It's about 6 miles. I love it!

A rant on bitches. Crazy washington bitches.

I might as well keep ranting about stupid people. Seems to be the story of my life lately.

So the other day I had a quick errand to run. I had to get ice cream at Whole Foods and then make a quick stop at AT&T since we decided to cave and switch phone services/get iphones. It's 78 degrees out and sunny (this is relevant). I decide to take Bella with me since it's a short trip.

I go to Whole Foods, run in, grab ice cream, am out in less than five minutes. Of course Bella stays in the car with the windows down. I get back and she is sitting there calmly, not panting (also relevant). She licks me when I get back in the car.

I stop at AT&T. Park directly in front of the door. I'm the only customer in there so I walk right up to the counter. Bella is in the car, with the windows down. I can see my car from the counter. I tell the guy what I want and I pay for the iphones. I notice a lady is standing by my car and who walked over to it right when I pulled up. I don't really think anything of this.

Then she walks into AT&T and here's what went down:
Crazy bitch: "Is that your mini cooper out there, Ma'am?"
Me: "Um, yeah."(as I am signing the receipt)
Crazy bitch (yelling): "well, if you don't get out there right now, I'm calling animal services on you. You should NEVER leave your dog in a car and that dog is not happy with you for leaving her in there. She is PANTING. AND NOT DOING WELL. I am calling animal services RIGHT NOW IF YOU DON'T GET OUT THERE!!!!!!!"
ME: "I'm pretty sure she's fine. I know you saw me when I pulled up and I've been here for 5 minutes."
Crazy bitch: "GET OUT THERE!! It's people like you who should never have animals and should be banned from having kids!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I am stunned. I'm done at AT&T but I was just standing there with the guy staring at here like WTF?! At this point there is a line behind me so to make it more interesting, she has created a scene in front of the entire store.

I go out to my car. Shocker, Bella is fine and is just licking me all over, barely panting. BUT, this lady is not done. She parks her piece of shit car behind mine and continues to yell at me. Wow.

I have never been treated like this before.

I can respect people who look out for animals, I really can. Because I do. But I don't think I was "abusing" Bella by leaving her in the car. I really don't. She had the windows down, it wasn't super hot, she was happy to be out of the house. I just think that this lady was completely out of line. I know I'm not "perfect" but I do think I'm a pretty good mom to Bella. I take good care of her.

And by the way, when I got home, the ice cream was still a solid block of ice. And it takes 15 minutes to get home from AT&T. Uh huh.

Seems like there are a lot of stupid people lately...

I'm pretty sure that we got raped by our landlord. We had to meet with him to do a final walkthrough. Did I talk about the sun spot before? I don't remember and I'm too lazy to look. Anyway, on the (cheap, disgusting, 10 year old) linoleum floor (which by the way is WHITE), we put a rug down. In front of the sink. Well, come to find out when the sun beats in on it every day for a year, it dyes this disgusting linoleum a faint yellow color.

I might add that a) you can't see the discoloration in a photo b) you can hardly tell when you're standing over it c) we had to buy rugs to cover burns in the floor/stains on the carpet from prior tenants.

Our landlord told us he had to replace the ENTIRE kitchen floor due to the discoloration (and also, note that the rug was NOT that big). Come to find out the other burns and stains were caused by him when he lived there which is why the floors haven't been replaced before. So, since he has already tried to take advantage of us by raising the rent, we feel like he is just trying to take advantage of us more by trying to replace the whole kitchen floor when it doesn't need to be (or when he could just cover the spots with rugs, like we had to). He tries to tell us that we owe $1200 then realizes we are not paying for it (and knows that we are right in refusing to). So the only thing we lost was our $600 deposit which I really don't care about. For me, it's not about the money, it's just the principle. I feel like he was taking advantage of us and that's what was making me the most mad. Ugh. I'm just glad to be out of there and done with him.

Wedding!

Yesterday was our second wedding of the summer and it was absolutely gorgeous. It was Rich and Stacie's wedding up in Snohomish at Lord Hill Farms. Naturally, I forgot my camera and am still trying to round up pictures from friends who I know had theirs. In the meantime, Rich and Stacie have a couple of pictures here. They looked amazing and so did the venue. I am not even kidding you, I have never seen so many flowers in my life. Even the silverware was wrapped in fresh flowers. I love all of the little details so I was in awe the whole night at how many details these two covered from the ceremony to the reception and everything in between.

As a little history, I met Rich and Stacie when I first started my job up in Washington. I came in as a senior auditor and they were also two seniors at the time. Within my first month, I had worked with Stacie once. I learned that she and Rich met at our job several years before and were both leaving to take private jobs elsewhere. So by the end of the summer I was the sole senior! But, over the past few years we've stayed friends and have had much fun hanging out and partying outside of work and when we were home in KC last Christmas Stacie was our cats' godmother. Rich and Stacie are one of the best and strongest couples I know. It was so great to be a part of their day and to see so many friends at the same time! We had a blast.

A day in the park.

As mentioned previously we have a small park right by our house and a larger park about 5 minutes walk away, 1 minute drive. We take Bella there on hot days to throw her tennis ball for about 20 minutes, 3 times a day or so. It is enough exercise for her and it's short enough that she doesn't get too hot. And once she is hot, she stops playing anyway so there is about a 20 minute cap on these excursions. This park is great though because it's just flat and open and we can chuck the ball and she'll run forever. And usually there is no one there.

Throwing the ball for her. Notice the brown grass. Usually this park would be completely green... but since Seattle has not had any rain in about 3 months and is trying to be Southern Cali, well, we've got brown and dried out going on.

She fetches! Yep, our boxer fetches. The breeder told us that Bella's parents do not fetch at all, want nothing to do with it and to not expect that from Bella. Turns out fetch is one of her favorite games.

And throwing again......

Bringing the ball back...getting more tired.

Yep, now she's tired. She hides in the shade once she's had enough.

And another shade shot. I still can't believe how much our little pup has grown.

And seriously, is this not the cutest thing ever? She saw someone drink from the fountain and decided she wanted to. So she stood up and did it. She licks the stream of water and I think it's pretty adorable.

And we're in...

Well, we're in! Thanks to the cable guy. I had to take off work today to wait for the cable guy to show up to hook up our cable and internet. So obnoxious that they give you FOUR hour blocks in which they "might" be here. So I had a decent chunk of the day in which I got everything set up.

Here's a picture of Miss Thang (Bella) enjoying the new place. She LOVES it. She especially loves that we are 30 seconds away from a park and tennis courts. She also loves her little yard and all of the wildlife that is around here (versus our old place that was on a main road and was much more noisy). We are also about 5 minutes away from multiple trails and from another huge park and we are about a 10 minute walk from the water. It's perfect. She's laying in the sun from the two skylights that are in our upstairs. There is another skylight in the master bath. It's really nice to have that additional natural light.

And again. Hasn't she gotten huge??

Yesterday yours truly was posting about our moving adventures and I did NOT want my picture taken. This is in our office area that is not set up. So I have a makeshift floor seating until it gets put together.

And the kitchen... all set up. Much improved from the before picture from yesterday, eh?

Family room put together. Again, much better than before pictures.

And dining room all set up.

A picture of the hall way from the front door. The guest bathroom the first door on the left and the guest bedroom is the last door on the left. The laundry room is the door on the right. I will take pictures of these rooms and our bedroom/office and post them eventually.


It feels nice to be slightly (understatement) organized and in now. The only things remaining are hanging up pictures and putting together the office. I am not a person that likes to live out of boxes, obviously.

MOVING DAY

So yesterday we embarked upon the day of moving. I said I always get excited about this until it's over and that is accurate again. Yesterday was fairly exhausting. A good workout, yes. But still exhausting. We got up around 6:30 and started taking what remained in our house down (which truthfully wasn't much). We rented a Uhaul to move the big stuff like the couch, beds, etc. I think we did a total of 3 trips with the Uhaul and at that point had everything out of the old place and into the new. The Uhaul was returned at 5pm, which I thought was pretty impressive given that it was just the two of us. We got some of the big stuff put away/set up and crashed into bed at around 11pm. It was a long day but we did it!


Early on in the day- one of the first loads getting stuff out of the old place into the Uhaul to take to the new place.

A picture of the lovely truck.

This was our third and last load and consisted mostly of garage stuff. The most awkward thing of the day to move was probably Tim's tool chest (the silver thing in the picture). It was SO heavy. And somehow Tim got it into the truck himself though I still don't know how and I don't think he really does either. At this point in the day we were both operating under some sort of supernatural powers. The couch was also quite awkward as well but we did that first to get it out of the way. And the table weighs a million pounds of solid wood so that was an exciting thing to move too. I know I probably could have and should have hired movers but it seemed silly for not moving too far away. And I always think it will be fun, like I have said repeatedly... until it's all said and done and we can't move. At least we were lucky in that it was a party cloudy/sunny and cool day.

To get Bella acclimated to the new place, we took her with us on every trip. We had her crate over there on the first trip so she went with us every time. I think she was confused but she did great all day.

A view looking down on the dining room with everything sort of piled in.

And a view of the same of the family room.

Hauling literally the last box in. Tim was thrilled that I pulled out the camera at this point. We were exhausted.

And a view of the kitchen with junk thrown in. I actually got the kitchen totally organized last night. Yes! I can't wait until everything is completely done and we are settled in.

The new little eco car

As promised, here are the pictures of the new eco car...aka the prius. I still don't think I've gotten a really good shot of it but oh well. I've never purported to be an awesome picture taker and half of that is remembering to get out the camera...which, for me, always happens to be at the wrong times, wrong lighting. Oh well. This will suffice.

This picture was right after we got the prius and ran an errand to Whole Foods. Tim thought he saw something between his seat and the console and he was right. He thought it was a leaf, but nope it was a little friend that must have jumped in on the boat ride over.

Gross. He might have jumped in on the boat but he did not make it.

A view of the inside of the car.

And a view of the outside...sorry about the glare.

Driving home from the dealer.

And a view looking down on it.

These pictures don't really do the car justice. It's actually a pretty cool little car and this is coming from someone who was completely skeptical about prius' initially.

Reminiscing about arizona.

Today one of the partners at my firm and I headed down south to Tacoma to meet a client that we work with. Tacoma is about 30-45 minutes south of Seattle without traffic. I'm not really sure who decided that it was a great idea to meet at 4:30 in Tacoma on a week day. This is likely one of the worst decisions that person has ever made (and no, it actually wasn't me). Additionally, it doesn't make much sense since Jenn (the partner) and I were each coming from the Seattle area and the client works 20 minutes north of Tacoma. But regardless, the decision was made.

TRAFFIC WAS HORRIBLE. It took us 1.5 hours to get to Tacoma. I texted Jenn at one point when I was going 70mph (I was slightly ahead of her) and 2 minutes later we were dead stopped. So the text I got from her 10 minutes later was, "...and stopped." Yup.

I was immediately transported back to 2005 when I made the 1-1.5 hour commute every day to work in Phoenix when it should have taken 30 minutes without traffic max. One day it was 2 hours because old faithful decided to blow on one of the side streets (also known as a water main break). Granted, it was my decision to live where I did and to accept my job where I did and I dealt with it. And at the time I would have told you that I enjoyed being able to listen to music on the way to/from work and to enjoy tea in the mornings, make phone calls in the afternoons.

IT WAS ALL A LIE.

I was totally lying to myself and everyone else. How in the HELL could I have ever enjoyed traffic like that? I was hit by a huge baseball in the nose kind of reminder that driving for an hour and a half when it should only take 30-45 minutes is just pure torture.

We finally made it to Tacoma, however, and met up with our client. She (sadly) is my favorite client. She moved up to Seattle several years ago for a guy (does everyone do this? I swear, I have met so many people who have done this) but she came here from Scottsdale. Crazy! She has been my absolute favorite client up here for the past 3 years not only because she totally has her company running completely seamlessly but also because we do have quite a bit in common and can just talk forever- about our pasts in Arizona and whatever else we might be involved with in the present. The reason we were meeting her today is because she's moving back to Arizona at the end of the summer. So we talked all about her move back, where she's going, where she'll be working and I was totally, totally back there with her in thought. We talked about all of the places she should hit up once she's back, what to do about the 120 degree days, how awesome it will be in December to not have snow/rain/freezing issues. I guess that the plus side is that she will be back in Seattle every summer (can you blame her? Summers here are awesome!) and it's just another friend to have in Phoenix.

I was also reminded of Phoenix due to the place that we met for happy hour (other than the fact that it looked out over the Puget sound). This place was CRAWLING with people that you would see in North Scottsdale. Older ladies trying to look 25 (read: fake everything), younger ladies trying to snag an older guy with money, and money bags old men all over just trying to decide who to pursue (mostly it involved the younger ladies- including us at one point, although we obviously weren't there to snag a man- but the younger ladies getting attention elicited dirty looks from all of the older generation). It was totally cracking me up. It reminded me of many north Scottsdale experiences that I had.

Needless to say, I left happy hour feeling rather nostalgic for that hot, dry city that I loved so much for several years. I miss it. I miss the people, I miss the sun, I miss the places I went, things I did, I even miss the dryness. I don't know that I'd trade it for what I have now up here in the beautiful pacific northwest but, there will always be a very special place in my heart for that desert city...even the traffic, though the memories of that are memories that I am glad I don't have to visit often.

Miracle? Maybe... maybe??

So I wrote here about how the vet wanted to run additional tests for Bella's tummy issue. And I also ranted about how ridiculous these millions of tests were, where do we draw the line, how much do we do, and why aren't we treating?

Well, after this call from the vet we had the weekend to decide what to do. We happened to run out of Bella's special hypoallergenic food on a Sunday, a sunday that we met our friends at the dog park to play. I told my friend Gina that I had run out of food and was just giving her the stuff we used to feed her because at this point, nothing was really helping anyway and I needed to get some calories into her. Gina mentioned that she would bring the food she feeds her boxer as it is a high protein, high calorie food and if nothing else would get a considerable amount of calories into Bella. Perfect.

So we leave the dog park and I just give her the new food from Gina. No point in trying to switch gradually, she's already shitting her brains out every day.

A half hour later, I take her to poop and she has the most perfect poop I have seen in MONTHS.

W.T.F. I'm stunned.

She doesn't poop again that night (when usually it would be spray fountains of poop 3-5 more times in a night. Sorry if that's TMI). Again, I'm dumbfounded.

I think she's just having a good day but the next morning, I give her the same food again. PERFECT POOPS ALL DAY.

I have been hesitant to post about this because I don't want to jinx it somehow but it looks like we have found the solution. She has been on this new food for a couple of weeks now and I kid you not, she has put on 5-10 pounds. Easily. She is not emaciated anymore, you can see no ribs. She is scarfing up her food like she's been starving (which, pooping that much, she probably has been).

The only difference in this food? There is 0% grain. None. Nada. Our poor little puppy has had a grain allergy all along.

Oh, and the vet "specialist" (ha) was treating her with a hypoallergenic food that is 100% GRAIN BASED because "most animals have protein allergies." Initially I had asked her about the grain allergy because I thought, like people, animals would only have the grain allergy. The vet said, "No, it's very rare. Most animals are allergic to protein sources." APPARENTLY NOT and enjoy that $2K that we paid you for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Guess it makes sense that on the hypoallergenic GRAIN food, there was no improvement in the slightest.

Did I mention how freaking glad I am that we followed our gut in not going through with those additional tests?

We finally have a healthy, happy, growing puppy. I can't even tell you how excited and happy I am that she is so healthy. It is such a relief.

7.6.09...puke, cars, and new houses.

Yesterday morning did not start off well. I decided to take the day off since there were what seemed like a million personal things to attend to and it was easier to do if I had the whole day off. Plus, why not? Four day weekend? Yes please.

That morning Tim got off work and while he was driving home I decided to go get my blood drawn for a myriad of tests that they were going to do for me that are standard (by the way, according to my doctor the HIV test is now standard. Is that just a Washington thing? Does that seem weird to anyone else out there?) Anyway, I've been putting this off since my annual physical two weeks ago because I have to be fasting to get it drawn and I'm always in too much of a rush to go to the doctor before work. So this morning, I was fasting and didn't have to go to work so it was the perfect opportunity.

I decided that I would take Bella with me since I knew we would have a busy day in which she would be stuck in her crate most of the day. So I take her down to the garage, put her in the back of the mini, and get in myself. All of a sudden, OUT OF NOWHERE, I hear BLEEEUUUCH. WTF? I turn and luckily I am out of range but the effing dog is PROJECTILE VOMITING. IN. MY. CAR. ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME?! I mean, come on! DOG. If you are going to vomit, especially projectile, PLEASE, next time, gag or something. There was no warning. It was like all of a sudden you are sitting in your house and BOOM! Tornado sweeps it away. No warning. Not fair right? (I am catering to my midwest readers at this point). The point is that she did not give any warning. At all. So I have a mess of vomit ALL OVER my car. Winston somehow managed to protect me from getting shot but GROSS. I was TRYING TO BE NICE by taking her even though I know she is not a morning person. Thanks Bella, I'm now even more aware that you hate mornings. Noted.

As soon as I get her out of the car, she pukes more. All over the garage.

If anyone knows me, you know my rather large (understatement) aversion to puke. My roommate and I were perfect for each other in college because we never puke. Nope, not even with drinking. It was actually maybe the most important criteria for each of us, and luckily we became great friends after we determined that criteria was met. The point is that I hate puke. I don't puke, I don't deal with puke, I used to run out of the room screaming when the cats puke. Let's just say that I win the nobel prize in dealing with puke after this experience. I have come a long way in the puke department. I didn't once feel like I was nauseous myself. I just cleaned it up, put Bella back to bed and went on my way.

There were no issues with having my blood drawn surprisingly, since last year it took about 5 sticks and subsequently three weeks for the bruises to heal. No. Fun. This year there was only one poke and 4 vials of blood. Ick.

When I got home, Bella seemed to be feeling better so either she just ate something bad or was just telling me that she would not prefer to go anywhere in the mornings. Who knows. But she scarfed down her breakfast like she hadn't eaten in years...probably because she lost any reserves she had. Ok, sorry, no more references to the puke experience.

After Tim got home, we went to the Toyota dealership to sign the paperwork, trade in the FJ and get the new car! Yes! It only took about 2 hours which was AWESOME. It took us 6 hours with the FJ. Of course, total the prius probably took us that long but it makes it so much better when you don't do it all in one day. The new car is pretty freaking sweet. We love it. I have pictures to follow, just don't have them uploaded now.

I also have an interesting story to follow after we left the dealership but I'm going to wait on that one too because it's really better told with the pictures.

After we got the new car (eco-duncan) and ran our errand, we then went to our new place to do a walkthrough with our new landlord. Everything looks fabulous and we can't wait to move in. It's very exciting.

It was a very productive day and even though it started off on a bit of a rocky foot, we couldn't be happier with everything else. We love our new little eco-car and we can't wait to move in to the new house... in, holy crap... a freaking week. Like I said, pictures to follow. Soon, I promise.

35 years....

Happy anniversary to my mom and dad who are celebrating 35, repeat THIRTY FIVE, years of marriage today. That is quite the milestone and I can only hope that in 35 years our marriage will be as strong as theirs.

Happy 4th!

I forgot to mention yesterday that before the beach I WAS slightly productive.

I had bought a million (ok, like 60) tubs from Target when we made the move from Iowa to Arizona. I inherited these tubs when I made the trip from Arizona to Washington. I used them a year ago when we moved to our new house. Turns out they have been a great investment.

After we moved (and some before we moved) last year, we allowed certain members of Tim's family (try all but one) to "borrow" our boxes. Apparently in each of these 3 cases borrowing was code for: "Here, I spent several hundreds of dollars on these boxes that helped me efficiently facilitate my moving but hey, no problem, you can have them to "borrow" and then just conveniently refuse to give them back."

Lovely.

I have two, I repeat TWO of these boxes left and various members of Tim's family have the remaining 50 boxes. But the heartache of trying to get them back is not worth it to me. They can be replaced.

So, Friday morning I ventured to target with Bella, in the mini cooper to load up on boxes. Not an easy thing to do when the boxes are big and the car is small. But I managed to fit in a grand total of 16 boxes. Pretty good, huh?!

This morning Tim got off work and while he was taking a nap after not sleeping all night, I ventured out (again) to Target to get more boxes since I knew from experience that 16 would not be enough. This time I just got 19 so that we would have 35. Perfect.

I got home and even though we had enough boxes to start packing, who wants to pack on the 4th?? So we headed right back out to the beach again since it was another perfect day. We came home and made a huge pasta salad filled with veggies and feta cheese (yum!) and then settled in for a fairly quiet 4th of July. We didn't really feel like going out since Tim had to work the next morning which means getting up at 4:30am.

So not an incredibly exciting day but then again, the 4th of July has never been my favorite holiday either and it definitely has a different feel in the pacific northwest than it ever did back home in Missouri. But, regardless, happy 4th to everyone out there!

Moving. So I'm going to beach. Stat.

Since I have today off I know one thing: I should be packing. We are moving. In a week.

I have no idea where to start. Tim is working.

So I decided that the best place to start is to go to the beach. It is completely sunny and mid-80s. Beach weather. Not packing weather. Plus we technically have a week and a half, right?

So I packed up Bella, texted her buddy Dallas the boxer (and my friend Gina) and headed to the beach around 1pm. Gina and Dallas made it out around 2:30pm. Dallas and Bella played and played and played... and then swam and played some more. It was fabulous.

When we left 3 hours later, I think we were all exhausted. And boy, was I tan. In three hours my tan came right back.

I do not feel guilty in the slightest for not packing one thing.

And another development...

I guess we just like to do everything at once...

We have been looking at different places to live for a while for a number of reasons:
1) We live on a fairly busy street right now
2) We would like to have a yard for the puppy now that she is getting bigger.
3) We don't LOVE our place. It's just a good area to be in.

We've kind of been back and forth about it because:
1) We have had a really great relationship with our landlord and even though our rent is higher than most places around us, we like him and have been happy to pay him.
2) We really like our location and don't want to move out from it.
3) We don't want to buy (market here is still falling and I believe it will continue through next spring- seems to be the general consensus among my real estate clients. Additionally, for what we can get now, it's still ridiculous. Try at least $400K for a 1960 rambler that needs an extreme makeover. Some are going for $380 but these are short sales which you probably wouldn't even want to set foot in. No thanks).
4) We don't really want to go through the whole moving process again.

HOWEVER, our decision was made for us. Just the other day I received an email from aforementioned cool landlord telling us he was going to have to raise the rent anywhere from $50-$200. I flipped shit. We are already paying a mortgage in rent at $1600- welcome to Seattle! There is NO WAY in hell I am going to pay $1800 for rent for a 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath townhome when similar townhomes are going for $1400. That's just dumb.

So I promptly started looking around for something new. And found it right away. Just so happens there was a showing that very day from 2-3pm. It's perfect. It is bigger, has a yard for Miss Bella, has a cooler layout, has a side by side garage (no more tandem!) and has infinite more storage. Plus it's just nicer- hardwoods, granite, new appliances, wood blinds, etc. It's also in a much nicer, quieter neighborhood and we are even closer to the water. AND the kicker?! It's $100 cheaper than we are paying now. I was sold. We don't have to buy and we get to move to a nicer place where we will be paying less? Sweet.

I was even more sold when I met one of the landlords- a lady about my age who moved here from Australia to be with her husband. We hit it off right away. I love her.

SO, needless to say, I let the first landlord know right away. It just sucks because I felt like he was trying to take advantage of us and we had had such a good relationship. Oh well, he can have fun trying to rent that thing out above market in a market where there is SO much available to rent. We have the old place through the 31st and I committed us to moving in to the new place on the 15th so that the new couple doesn't lose out on 2 weeks of rent (we really wanted this place- it is so perfect for us right now. It's the best I've seen!) We're doubling up a bit but we are so ready to move up a little bit and we're so excited about the new neighborhood. So, July 14th, we get to do the whole process again. I always get excited because I love to throw stuff away, organize, de-clutter and I actually love the workout of moving. It's exhausting but it is probably the best workout around. I know, I'm a freak but it's fun for me until it's over and then I can barely walk and vow to never move again.

Productive saturday.

So Tim and I are both guilty of getting these crazy ideas every once in a while. 3 months ago I had the crazy idea to get a puppy. Next thing you know, we are flying to Idaho and then back... with a 12 week old boxer and are absolutely, totally unprepared for puppy-parenting.

The other day Tim says to me, "So, I think that we should get a new car. Trade in the FJ."

My response, "HUH?!"

We JUST got that car a year and a half ago and it is a sweet ride. I mean, true, it gets horrible gas mileage and is the one part of our life that is completely opposite of environmentally friendly and it would be perfect for off roading which we don't really do. And Tim has an hour long commute each way thus enhancing it's crappy gas mileage BUT STILL. It's just a cool car.

So I was shocked.

And then he dropped an even bigger bomb: "I want to look at the new 2010 prius."

WHAT?! You're looking at trading in a cool SUV for a prius? Seriously? Granted the prius is very environmentally friendly but there is also a huge stigma attached which I was shocked that he wanted to associate with.

But, being the nice wife that I am, I went along with it, to humor him. Or so I thought. We went to the Toyota dealer where we got the FJ and test drove a new 2010 prius. I'm not even kidding you, these cars are AMAZING. They have an eco mode, an electric mode, and a power mode if you need it. And honestly, it probably has more space than the FJ. It has some zip too. And the new models just look cool. Plus I am a sucker for the "made from all sustainable materials" thing. And that's not even mentioning the 600 miles it gets per tank of gas. I was completely and totally blown away.

Apparently a lot of people are too. To get one, you have to put it on order. They are in pretty high demand especially in Washington because there is a law in place that says that you don't have to pay sales tax if you have the car before July 31 (only on the prius, no other car). On a $30K car, 10% sales tax- it's a pretty big chunk of money.

We were both so impressed, we decided to get one. It just makes sense in so many ways. Lucky for us, there was a car on route that would get to us before July 31 (thus the no sales tax). It had everything we wanted minus the sun roof- navigation, gray, bigger wheels, etc. I know I suck at explaining car stuff but it was one step under the highest package (which included the sun roof). We were happy. So this new little baby will be here in a few weeks.

Later in the day we decided to go on a hike and to the beach. We were talking about eco-duncan (as we are calling the new prius) and also about Winston (my 2005 mini cooper). Winston is almost at 70,000 miles and I have had him for 5 years. We were talking about how we will need to fix several thing on him in the next several months: his brakes are squeaking (new brakes/pads); he is due for a new clutch; needs a new windshield (it's cracked); needs a detail desperately.

Once we started adding everything up, we started thinking, holy crap. That is going to be thousands of dollars. We went home and jumped on the mini website (as well as Kelly blue book). Old Winston is not worth as much as we thought he would be. And the new Winston's are pretty cool.

Next thing we know, we are driving down south to the mini dealer and are ordering a new mini for me. Again, it just makes sense and I'm not sure why I didn't do this sooner. The old mini is just going to continue to depreciate and we are going to have to throw so much money into it. Better to trade it in now and get as much as we can out of it and get a new car in return. Plus, by doing this, we actually save on monthly payments especially considering how much we would have to put into repairs.

So, I got a new "spicy" Winston. He will be red with a black top and I am going to tint the windows. He has the sport package, the premium package, and the cold weather package along with the souped up stereo system, blue tooth, ipod adapter, etc. Basically everything but the navigation which looks stupid in the minis because it takes up the whole circle in the middle of the dash which I think detracts from the authenticity of the mini. It basically has everything I couldn't afford 5 years ago including the dual pane sunroof which I am probably most excited about.

He is being built and will be here from England in a couple of months... now hopefully old Winston can just hang on until then. His brakes are not sounding too good....

Needless to say, it was a very exciting day. Tim and I are so spontaneous but, again, everything we did today just makes sense for us. Not to mention, it will just be fun to have two new cars!

A word on traffic and idiots. Same thing.

So Tim and I were driving down south on an afternoon where there would otherwise be no traffic. On this particular afternoon, we are SHOCKED to find traffic in an absolute gridlock. We sit there and look at each other, like, seriously? WTF.

After 40 minutes of this nonsense, we have made it about 2 miles and we find the culprit. Traffic is stopped because presumably some asshole ran out of gas and he is sitting on the freeway in a lawn chair READING A GOD DAMN BOOK. On. the. freeway. Are you out of your mind, dude? Not only are you retarded because you could get killed sitting there (why not read in your car?) but you seriously just wasted 40 minutes of my time in which now I have no feeling in my left foot from riding the clutch so hard going 5 mph in stop and go traffic.

But of course the logical thing to do is for everyone to stop and gawk so maybe I shouldn't blame this idiot entirely.

Pancreatic blah blah blah, what?!

So we were told that we would have an answer in 5 days about Bella's tummy problem. Only a few days pass and we get a message. Unfortunately we were out to dinner on a Friday night and it was from an unknown number so I didn't answer my phone. I call her back on Monday and here is what she tells me: She wants to run another $300 test to determine if Bella has pancreatic enzyme insufficiency. A disease, which, if she happens to have will have a $200 price tag for treatment. FOR EVERY MONTH for the rest of Bella's life. I do not mind the price so much, it just brings me to tears that she would have to be on medicine forever.

I just can't believe it. I mean, seriously. Are. you. kidding. me.

I mean, part of me thinks that maybe we should also test for brain tumors while we're at it. For all we know, her brain is just screwed up. Isn't diarrhea a symptom of everything? I'm sure we have at least another 200 tests we could do. I mean, hell, maybe she has cancer. Let's test for that! We'll biopsy her leg because maybe that's giving her diarrhea.

I know I'm making light of the situation but COME ON!

It's just getting ridiculous at this point. I did my research on the pancreatic insufficiency. Basically it's a disease in which the pancreas doesn't produce the enzymes that help to digest food. The symptoms are "cow pie" (lovely, I know) type diarrhea and extreme emaciation/weight loss (both of which Bella has). BUT the diarrhea is chronic and doesn't go in cycles like Bella's does. Also, this insufficiency is most common in breeds like German Shepherds, not boxers. In fact, it is rarely ever seen in boxers and it's mainly genetic. Seems like that would be a consideration.

Sigh. It just doesn't seem to really fit. Not like the boxer colitis or food allergy seem to.

What we don't understand is why we have to run all of these (ahem, expensive) tests before treating. I mean, seriously, we could rule everything in the world out by a million different tests but why not start with the disease that is most common in boxers (BOXER colitis). Treat her for that. If the treatment works, we know that's what it is. If not, THEN go to the next item on the list. And test. There is no harm in the treatment (it's an antibiotic). It just works or it doesn't. Seems like the best option.

Not test, test, test, until we hit. That is expensive and it doesn't make the puppy any better in the meantime.

So we are frustrated. This "specialist" is just seeming to be going down the checklist while meanwhile costing us thousands of dollars while promising to "find the cure" and telling us to "consider returning the dog to the breeder since she is a defective puppy." (At this point you should imagine me sitting in front of her with both of my middle fingers pointed at this stupid vet. SHE is the one charging us literally at least $2K for trying to FIND what's wrong. We just want the puppy we love to be better. Return her?? Eff you, man).

She is just being ridiculous. So we are calling our original vet to get her second opinion. If she concurs with this specialist, we will have the tests done through the original vet. Since the "specialist" is really not doing anything special there is really no need to stick with her. Anyone can shoot darts in the dark. And if that's the case, we'll go back to the first vet that we know and love.

The first of the bunch for this wedding summer...

There are about 6 weddings this summer that I know of, right on track with the amount of weddings that have happened every summer for about the past 6 years. As many of my friends are entering the baby zone, I thought originally that this summer would be lighter for weddings. But nope, does not appear to be so. We are going to definitely two of these weddings, possibly three.

The first was our good friends, Holly and Justin, on June 20, 2009. Tim went to school with Justin which is how I met Holly. However, Holly and I became good friends during the year that Tim and Justin were in school and she lived/worked over here in Seattle. Now they live east of the mountains in Wenatchee, Washington. We decided on their wedding day that we would go over earlier in the day to explore Wenatchee. Plus, it was a rainy day in Seattle (the first in about a month) and typically east of the mountains it's hot and sunny so we thought it would give us ample time to get out of the rain and enjoy the sun.

Here's a shot of the mountains just after we went over Blewitt pass. To get to Wenatchee from Seattle, you cross two mountain passes: Snoqualmie and Blewitt. Both were gorgeous on this day.

Tim drove to Wenatchee, I promised I'd drive us home. He had to get up for work at 4:30am Sunday morning and the wedding ceremony didn't start until 7:30pm so we knew it would be a late night. The thought was that if I drove, he could get some sleep on the trip home.

Just getting into Wenatchee. I had never been here before. Strangely, it reminded me of a weird hybrid cross between the midwest and Phoenix. It was small like the midwest and everything was "mart"... (Wal-Mart, Bi-Mart, K-Mart, etc) but the terrain was much like Phoenix (aside from the huge river flowing through the middle of the city).

AND... we made it! Who knew it was the apple capital of the world? Not I.

And another sign. I think they like to make sure you know where you are. Even though there are no other towns of this size even remotely close (thus also reminding me of the midwest)...

We found a little park by the river that was great to walk Bella through (yep, she came with us- she is a great car rider!) There was a little sculpture garden/trail that we wandered through. Right before we headed to the wedding we spent a frustrating 30 minutes here trying to get the damn dog to pee. She would not. Stubborn.

One of the sculptures that Tim took a picture of. It's overlooking the river and in the background is East Wenatchee.

And another sculpture...

There was a HUGE fire that day in town. It looked like a 3 story brick building had burned to the ground. I was fascinated. You would think Tim would have been, but nope, it was me that was totally enthralled. The streets were shut down around the fire so all I have is just one of the ladders shooting water onto the building (there were about 6 water ladders total coming at the fire in all directions).

The wedding was on a golf course in East Wenatchee so here is the bridge as we crossed the river from Wenatchee to East Wenatchee en route to the wedding.

The beautiful bride and her dad, getting ready to walk down the aisle.

Getting married... It was SO windy out. And usually Wenatchee is warm but it was FREEZING on this day. Like 60 degrees. So cold. At least it was sunny!

And one more picture of the bride and groom. Of course after this, we all headed to the reception... where I proceeded to take no more pictures. We didn't stay long at the reception as the wedding got over around 8:30 and we took off about an hour later so we could get home in time for Tim to get a couple of hours of sleep (it's about a 2.5 hour drive).

After we left the reception, we decided to take Bella pee. She was going NUTS. She did not know what to make of the blowing wind/dust. It was HILARIOUS. I was sitting in the car taking pictures of T and B because I was freezing my ass off.

Tim and Bella with an awesome backdrop. All in all, it was a great day. It was fun just to relax and explore and have some time in the sun. And of course, it was awesome to be able to be there for Justin and Holly on our wedding day. We love them and think they are a great couple and their wedding was absolutely gorgeous. It was a great start for the beginning of wedding season 2009.