Bundled up with nowhere to go...

Ooooie! We got home from Vancouver, BC last night and the house smelled a bit. Like oil. Needless to say, something has gone wrong and we had to shut off the furnace. Brrrrrrr.... We're getting it fixed today but until then, I freeze my tootsies off. I'm the only one whose cold. Our house guests are fine, I guess since they are from Ireland, this is normal. M is always warmer than me. I'm just sitting here looking at my breath (ok, in fairness, it's not quite THAT cold) and waiting for the brilliant man to fix things. Thank god he can!

So, yep, we went to BC overnight. It's about a 3 hour drive from here. Since I'm American, I've never had to stop at the border. Since I have a husband who's changing status and two Irish friends in the car, we had to get out. We thought for a minute that M wouldn't be able to get in. The Canadian immigration guy started out a little gruff. We figured out that he was just trying to make sure M could get back IN to the States. Since we hadn't used our Advanced Parole paperwork (the US calls it 'advanced parole' as if being in America was like being in prison) (ooh, Bush is going to read that and arrest me for not being a patriot!!!! lol) before, it was all a new experience. As nice as the Canadian guy ended up being, there was a line of about 12 people and only one person working. Well, originally there were two but the girl went back and finished working on something else while we all stood there waiting for her to finish. We felt sorry for the crowd behind us because our guy had to call US immigration for a few minutes and make sure we had everything. When he came back 10 minutes later, he was much friendlier and I even begged for a stamp in my passport which he gave me crap about and then did anyway. :) When we finally went on our way, he was still the only guy working and the other 12 people were still standing there waiting.

We got to Vancouver and found our hotel, headed out to an area called Gastown looking for an irish pub. We had a quick bite, then us two couples split up and agreed to meet for dinner. M and I walked through the drug/prostitute infested neighborhood surrounding the irish pub to arrive at a chinese garden. They were closing so we asked if we could go in for the remaining 3 minutes and have a look around. It was gorgeous - this temple in the middle of the city - but I don't know if I would've paid the CN$8.75 to spend some time there. We continued around Chinatown which unfortunately, we wanted to compare to Chinatown in SF, when there truly is no comparison. There were the odd things for sale and the little bits and bobs in every Chinatown. We enjoyed walking around but it wasn't as fun as SF. We continued walking - Vancouver is a lovely city (especially if you avoid the druggy area) - right on the water with the mountains to the north. It reminded us both of La Paz, Bolivia or Santiago, Chile - the way the city and tall apartment buildings are right up against the mountains...

For dinner, I took them to Kobe which is like Benihana. It's a Japanese style restaurant where they cook the food right in front of you, the guy does all sorts of fancy moves with the knives and stuff. It's a fun experience and they loved it. The food was gorgeous and aside from the two wet blankets who were seated with us, (they usually try to put 8 people together at a table so some are strangers) we loved it. We wandered around Robson which is the main shopping drag and looked into the shops. I was surprised at how much it is like a European city rather than a US city. It reminded me a lot of Auckland, NZ - with the british influence in the stores and the clothes etc.

Yesterday we spent the day wandering the seafront and then drove back home. The stop at the border was an hour long this time but Irish did manage to get back in. There was a lot of paperwork so we had plenty of time to watch and listen to the guy next to us, who was getting refused to allow coming into the US. Now I don't know if he *knew* he was getting refused but he was giving the immigration guy attitude. All I could think was if I was trying to get *in* somewhere, I certainly wouldn't be talking to the person who could let me in like this guy was talking to the other guy. Maybe they'd been waiting awhile and he was irritated. But it seemed like it certainly couldn't help the situation.

So, I better get up and make some coffee. Typing this hasn't warmed me up at all so I'm thinking I better move around, put some socks and gloves on, and get going. I wish I had some photos of Vancouver but for some strange reason (maybe because we knew the batteries wouldn't work), we didn't bother to bring the camera!

Back from the walking dead..

Actually, I've been healthy for a few days now. I've started back up at the gym full time. I'm feeling MUCH better. Which is good. Since we have friends from Ireland visiting since Wednesday night. St Patricks Day was interesting... I mean, I've never thought about what the Irish might think of our version of the holiday.... they couldn't believe that the "Irish" pubs charged for entrance.... moreso the lines out the door at the place we were going to go. They wouldn't wait, which was probably fine, because we went to a great place in downtown Seattle and had a ball. We sat down about 3 and didn't leave until 10 that night. You can imagine the craic that was had - after many pints of Guinness and G&Ts - singing, the lot. They were having a limerick contest in the pub - we wrote about 5 of them and at least bribed the judges with a $1 and won second place, which gave us a $100 gift certificate to the place for dinner! I'll post the limerick here...

There once was a comedian named Mike
Who censored what the Irish did write
Oh the ....
and what capped it all
They bribed him to win on the night

Oh hell. I can't remember that bit. Typical of me, forgetting the punchline.... I can remember my phone number from when I was a kid and I can remember my friends numbers from 20 years a go, birthdays of strangers, etc.... but I can't remember something we did two nights ago....

Suffice it to say, we won. It was a wonderful night!

Sick, tired and TGIF

I haven't been here this week because I've been on the road and sick. I had to start back up at my first contract, so I've been going out for a few hours a day, then I come home and collapse in exhaustion. I was so excited because I got to the gym on Saturday last week, and then by Sunday afternoon I was starting to feel sick. It never fails. The minute I finally get my butt in gear to get back to the gym (and believe me, it was a struggle this time) and I immediately get sick. I went to the gym again on Monday but have been taking it easy since. It's to bed by 8-8:30 each night and finally today I am feeling considerably better. Still tired but better.

We have been watching the weather lately and hoping for snow. My girl friend is so excited for some snow, we planned to walk through it "if it snowed" and have hot chocolate at her house after the walk. It didn't snow but it's good to know we have a plan.... The weather has been random, as it can only be in Seatt1e in March, so one minute it's raining and the next the sun is shining full force. We noticed a couple daffodils finally bloomed near our front door on Monday morning, only to be shivering in the cold (and inexplicably twisted around each other, maybe to keep warm?) by Wednesday. Poor things. They were just hoping for spring.

We have our first houseguests from Ireland arriving on Wednesday, just in time for St Paddy's Day - there's going to be some boozing in our house that night. And quite possibly the next. And the next.. and the next... and possibly before that night too! lol

Hopefully I'll feel a bit better this weekend and have something more interesting to say. Just wanted to let you all know where I'd been. Cheers!

I think we're in love....

come on, you remember it, the Eddie Money song from the 80s.... (except he said, 'I think I'm in love' and really, it wasn't a very *good* song so I don't blame you for not remembering. anyhow, i'm referring to the car right now....

so sunday morning, after I picked up my friends from the airport and dropped them off at home, irish and i looked at each other and said.....

"So, do we need to go to the store today? maybe we could go to the one in Spokane (which is 350 miles across the state)"

...just so we could drive the car. :)

Instead, we hopped in the car and drove to Sn0qualm1e Falls, about 40 minutes away.



It didn't look quite like this - not as much water flowing, but it was pretty cool all the same and we did a short hike that went straight down at what seemed like a 60 degree decline. I should have taken my own photos but this one is probably better anyway. It was absolutely stunning. When we walked to the bottom, we were looking at it and a man told us that the Native Americans believe that the mist coming off the water where the fall hits are the souls of their dead ancestors.... Makes you look at things another way then, doesn't it?