Kalispell, MT

Adam is off in Northwest Montana, interviewing for an ortho job.  This was one of the triggers that led to our DTR a few weeks ago.  I'm wicked stressing out about it all now - what if he GETS the job?  And then what if he GOES?  Will this emotional investment in the last some months be null and void?  We fell pretty easily back into our routine (or lack there of) for the 48 hours he was back in Seattle.  And having my non-dog snuggle buddy back was pretty sweet too.  The idea of starting over after this one is awfully daunting.

We have begun planning a post-Midway reunion in Maui.  That is, if he doesn't fall in love with the Jane Goodall of albatross and I don't meet the man of my dreams (according to him) in these three months.  And let me define "planning": I have been thinking about meeting him in Hawaii for a few weeks now, and then accidentally purchased a week stay on Maui, and seriously started looking.  I wasn't even going to bring it up yet, with all the stuff on our respective radars these days.  But last night, he suggested it and I pretty much said "Yes, I will let you believe this genius idea was yours."  He's done mid-March, which happens to be spring break, which means everything is uber-expensive (but that also corresponds to the time where I will actually have a week of vacation saved up).  Oy.  But when's the last time I actually went on a real vacation?  According to Dana, too f-ing long ago.  So might as well bite the bullet and put down the cash.

Got to spend all day locked inside a 737 for engine ground runs.  Same goes for tomorrow, and I will remember to bring more layers because those things are NOT heated.  And a book.  Becuase 30 minute conditions with no online data to look at are snooze central.  Hoping to get a run in before making the airport pick up.  I feel like I need to redeem myself after Saturday's debacle.  Thankfully, I'll have at least two chances between now and Midway.

Also freaking out about the fact that I leave for my week on the east coast in THREE DAYS.  Where did November GO?  I'm stoked about the trip, but I feel like there's way more than three evenings of  stuff to take care of between now and then.  Over the Rhine at the Triple Door Friday night will be AMAZING, but will take away my evening to pack.  Good thing I have a direct flight to Boston and can take a five hour nap.

Last fricken' volleyball game tonight.  Not excited.  But it's just one more hour of playing time.  Three more games to be lost.  Then we can be done with this silliness.  Unrelated, I stopped by John R's to drop off some knives for him to sharpen.  He told me I was looking especially skinny, in kind of a concerned father tone.  I told him it was probably stress.  So then I went to Trader Joe's and got some PB Cups and Crunchy Curls for dinner.  That should take care of things.  Also made some turkey meatballs, which were not only totally healthy, totally substantial and totally a legit dinner, but also totally DELICIOUS.

Seattle Interlude

Well, the auction was a wicked success last night.  I think they raised nearly $100k.  Chance, Clint and I had a blast, and looked fabulous doing so.  I got a couple of bottles of wine in the silent auction, and didn't even intend on bidding on anything in the live auction.  Well.... it gets going and they put up a week stay in Maui.  No one is bidding, so I figure someone just needs to break the ice.  I put my my paddle for the opening bid, assuming I'm going to get outbid.  Not so much.  Next thing I know the auctioneer is saying "going once... going twice... SOLD."  Shit.  Guess vacation is planned for next year.  And it's not like a beach vacation WOULDN'T do me good.  Plus the cycling on Maui is fabulous and I'm sure I'll have no problem finding someone to go with me.  I think the condo would sleep four with an air mattress, and I might not have any problems finding three people to go with me!

Whoops.

Then Chance and I hit the Duchess with the standard troublemakers and I snuck out to go get Adam.  The wine and gingerbread martini hit me about the time I got to the airport - BAM.  No real warning, which was kind of scary.  Actually, really scary.  Don't want to play that game again anytime soon... or ever.

Slept in a bit and then delivered the cupcakes to the CX race.  Ended up not staying very long because I am Hung. Over.  Back for a nap with the pooch, and now waiting for Sunday night football to start and entertain me until Adam gets out of the hospital at 9p.  Then I'll get the full report on Belize - because I assume I didn't get it last night, but I can't be sure.

Belize, Day 7

T-Minus 8 hours until Adam's back home.  Getting excited.  Probably not as excited as Gaia though.  And definitely not as excited as Jo.  (Sorry dear.)

Spent all afternoon making Maple Bourbon Bacon Cupcakes (v2.1).  I think the recipe is done.  They're pretty awesome, and I finally got the ratios on the frosting right.  A dozen go to the auction tonight, three dozen go to the cyclocross race tomorrow, and I'm not really sure what happened to the last dozen...  I swear there's still a few left!  John R came by to pick some up on his way to dinner with some non-auction attending folks - so MBB cupcakes are spread throughout the land tonight.

A sea of maple, bourbon and bacon.

Niki gave me some super cool jewelry to accessorize with tonight.  Skirt, heels, necklace... gonna be hot!  The plan is to attend the after party, but be totally ok with the fact that I will blow out before closing time and NOT be totally drunk because I have a hot date to get at the airport tonight.  :)

Belize, Day 6

This post brought to you by Kevin & Tracy's wi-fi.  Hanging out, making beer, shooting the shit.  Trying to figure out what the HELL bit the inside of my upper and why the HELL it's swelling and tingly.  Something from the cat that's wandering about, I suspect.

Whatever is in that little vial will

make normal beer into Gluten Free beer!

Early arrival at work for a 7a flight physiology class.  This also meant an early departure, woot!  But I woke up at 2:00 (on the nose) this morning and didn't ever go back to sleep.  So as soon as Kevin finishes making this apple/butter/vanilla/brown sugar business to go on ice cream, I'm headed home for a solid nap tonight.  I woke up with heavy things on my mind, so it was undoubtedly stress and an overactive brain that kept me up all morning.

Physiology class wasn't so bad, even thought it was four hours long.  I got a good hit off the oxygen bottle ("to make sure I knew how it functioned") before i was allowed to "graduate" the class.  We watched lots of horrible FAA safety videos, evacuation videos from the 777 and A380, and a fantastic audio conversation between a pilot declaring emergency due to hypoxia and the ATC guy trying to figure out what was going on.   The rest of the work day was uneventful - Fridays seem to be slim pickin's around the lab lately.

I did have to make a Costco run to get the fixin's for the five dozen maple bourbon bacon cupcakes I'm making tomorrow.  Is it possible to get out of that place for under a hundred bucks?  I'm starting to think not.  Then it was off to my scheduled mani/pedi, compliments of Groupon (or some similar site).  It was awesome because they decided they needed to the manicure and pedicure at the same time.  So at one point, I had three different people waiting on me.  It was very Cleopatra-esque.  Or Queen of Sheba.  Or something.  Anyway, I'm watching the woman across the room get her manicure and the gal doing her nails starts massaging her head while her nails dry.  Sweet.  I get excited and I sense the manicure woman getting behind my chair to do this massage thing.  You know in the movies and on TV where they show someone getting a massage and the massuese is doing the kung-fu chop-chop on their backs?  That is what this woman starting doing on my forehead.  It was like thwap-thwap-thwap-thwap-thwap-thwap-thwap-thwap, then she'd slap my cheeks around for a bit, then kind of do my temples, then back to thwap-thwap-thwap-thwap-thwap-thwap-thwap-thwap-thwap on my forehead.  There had to be some kind of hidden camera.  Look for me on America's Funniest Home Videos.  Because I think that show is seriously still on the air.

On the way home, it started hailing.  Then lighting, and the associated thunder.  I'm sure all of Seattle freaked out.  Cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria!  But then it was over and Gaia and I had a very short walk, because while I think the back leg is still improving, she's not quite ready for the doggie track team.

Belize, Day 5

I'm sitting in Adam's corner at the Fir.  I figured Rick and Ellen needed to see at least one of us at least once a week, so I'm here on official business.  Not too packed yet for a Thursday night, but give it time.  Chance is on his way to join me for a beer and then I will put the computer down and enjoy his fine company.

Work today was a total circus.  Which shouldn't be surprising.  The plastic bacon made an appearance, which is grounds for an epic day.  The FNG was back for a very brief cameo between a long work trip to California and his standard Friday off.  He is my sanity there these days.  Ironically, the voice of reason, even.  I keep being thrown into projects midway through, which makes it difficult to know what's been going on and where we're headed.  And I feel like there's a lot of reinventing the wheel and a lot of faking it at times to prevent myself from looking like a dumbass.  Today, in fact, I had the most vague request from some flight test folks and responded with an equally vague answer, also noting that I had not even SEEN the work order yet, but if someone would enlighten me, I'd be happy to go into specifics.  It's all been very frustrating lately.  But also highly entertaining.  I mean -- plastic bacon.

Snuck out early to drop off some auction related stuff at PRC for the big bash Saturday night.  And then volunteered to deliver a dozen maple bourbon bacon cupcakes for the "dessert frenzy."  Good to be back in touch with the guys over there and somewhat (but not engulfed) back in the community.  The challenge will be staying sober enough Saturday night to pick Adam up at midnight-thirty.  Chance and Clint will undoubtedly not be helpful in this endeavor - in fact my job at the auction is to get Clint drunk and bidding on stuff.  I have a feeling I am the sacrificial lamb in this situation.

PS, by the way: Rick just stopped by to say hi.  He's on kitchen duty, but came and sat down for a few minutes.  He's adorable.  And I love him.

And I leave you with this tonight - I don't know who gets the original credit, but I got it from Zana via Will.  And it made me laugh so hard I cried.

Like giving a grizzly your Subaru.

Belize, Day 4

You know what's possibly better than finding money in your pocket?  Finding drugs in your pocket.  Because admit it, that's probably what you were going to buy with that cash-money anyway.  Granted, asprin & tylenol don't have a lot of street value... but you get the idea.

I had dinner tonight with one of my newer friends from the rowing club.  We went to Blue Glass - a small plates place & cocktail bar near the Ballard Goodwill.  Great conversation, and a great reminder of how far into the rowing world my little tentacles stretch.  We talked a lot about tribes and the need for social interaction and that sense of community.  Strangely enough, we then bumped into Lisa and another COGnative cyclist, who repeated exactly that sentiment.

Today Pat & Fred both bailed out on me for the standard lunchtime run date.  Guess that's payback for all the times I bailed on them.  But today it was sunny & 60+ degrees - c'mon boys!  So I set off to do some interval work on my own.  But I ended up running with the only other woman in the building that runs, and really only 'cuz she happened to be heading out at the same time as me.  She went longer than I intended, but I figured since we were holding a steady pace, no big deal.  Mother Shitnuggets.  She ran me into the ground.  The woman is a machine.  By the time she was done with me, my legs hurt, my back hurt, my lungs hurt.  I limped around the rest of the day.  To top it off, she went another 20 minutes after she dropped me off at the gate and WASN'T EVEN BREATHING HARD.  I am rethinking my earlier statement about having any sort of badass embedded in me.

I have to say though that the highlight of the day was being butt-dialed by Zana.  Not just once, but TWICE.  Two big butt dials for this girl.  I thought maybe she had called because some sort of proverbial shit had hit the fan this morning, so I called back as I was making breakfast.  Nothing really, just some phone-in-pocket action.  But what a kick-ass way to start my day - a little bit of Zana.  THEN she left me a TWO MINUTE message of pure pocketness while I was out getting my ass kicked on the pavement at lunch.  And it was amazing.

Belize, Day 3

Today I drove the 4Runner to work.  I figure if I have to move the thing every few days, I might as well do more than drive it a couple of feet and practice my parallel parking skills (which are already awesome, PS BTW).  Plus, this can be payment for babysitting it for the week.  Anyway, it's like driving a LazyBoy on wheels.  A LazyBoy with a built in remote control, kegerator and bidet.  Well, maybe not that far - the 4Runner doesn't actually make you a beer.  But compared to the Jeep - it's like riding on clouds.  Sexy, big ass, mow you down if you get in my way clouds.

We're doing some pre-test practice runs for an upcoming GVT at the lab.  Basically what happened today was a couple of guys pulling on a couple of strap wrenches in a manner than had them all giggling about masturbation.  And all the associated comments.  It's official: boys never grow up.

And since I discovered I was pretty much dead in the water until the help desk figured out how I could edit some Matlab files (that is, of course, after they figure out what Matlab is), I took the online health assessment, which is something Boeing mandates annually.  Good news is that they give you $50 gift card to some merchant of your choice (Hello, Amazon!), bad news is that then the "health coaches" call you every three days to see how you're doing on improving your life.  This year's assessment gave you an end score and things you can improve on.  Even with a score of 96 out of 100, they still told me to drink less, exercise more and lose weight.  Epic fail.

Fat & Lazy Alcoholics, unite!

Bernie then told me he wasn't even going to bother to take the assessment, because he didn't need his computer insulting him like that.  I don't blame him.

Last UnderDog volleyball game is tonight.  I've decided that I really don't like rec-league volleyball.  I've definitely gotten better in the last six weeks, but I'm not having any more fun than when I really sucked.  It might even be worse now, because my teammates make a big deal ("Awesome job, Jeny!  Great shot!  Good work!") when ever I get the ball over the net.  And they keep pressuring me into blocking spikes and spiking at the net myself.  Um, no.  I might have a little bit of badass in me, but I like my nose intact as is, thanks much.  And there's inevitably always someone on the other team that played seriously in college or high school and is jumping around "staying loose" and aiming to break my nose at the drop of a hat.  Jerks.

Belize, Day 2

Apparantly one of the shop managers was out pheasant hunting over the weekend and shot his calf off.  This was the main topic of discussion at work today.  All day.

Gaia tore a ligament about a month ago running up the stairs at Adam's place, and since he kept insisting that she didn't NEED to go to the vet, I used this week as the perfect opportunity to take her.  Gaia LOVES the vet.  Probably because they gave her treats and didn't stick a thermometer up her ass.  This vet happened to specialize in holistic healing and -- doggie acupuncture.  Gaia was a champ (ate lots of treats, fell asleep during treatment and didn't eat any cats) and is now passed out on the floor.

The needle is not photoshopped to look like a unicorn point.  It's real.

Dinner was halibut and sauteed carrots & parsnips with rosemary and honey.  But since I didn't have any rosemary I used curry powder instead.  Dinner was the epilogue to lunch of leftover carmelized carrot risotto.  I don't even LIKE cooked carrots, I don't know why I keep cooking them.  Probably because I got a free five pound bag of carrots with the Chinook book.  Why?  Because Adam is a closet coupon fiend.

Belize, Day 1

Yesterday morning Adam left for Belize.  WHAT. A. RELIEF.  I had been stressing over any and everything anticipating this week.  Well, maybe not this week in particular, and maybe more so everything that's been going on up to this point and the lack of a future plan.  Sleeep - real actual recouperative sleep - has escaped me for a while now.  Last night I crawled into bed at 9:30 and didn't move again until the dog's stomach made such loud, weird noises that she woke me up before the alarm this morning.  I finally feel like I can focus and function like a normal human being again.  Sleep, good.

Let's recap yesterday's adventures though:  Head of the Lake Regatta in the morning.  Perfect day to be sittingin a launch watching some rowing:

Doesn't suck.

Then a nap.  Not so epic, but the best 90 minutes of sleep I've had in a long time.  You'd think that even this little nugget of rest would rejuvinate my brain cells, but I still dropped more than my fair share on the Patagucci Pro Deal yesterday afternoon.  Dinner was perfectly grilled chicken coated in spices and a large squash of some sort roasted and pureed with maple syrup.

The real highlight of yesterday though was when I decided that the hairs on my upper lip were quite noticible and that I should use some Nair to remove them.  I've done this in the past - no big deal.  In fact, I know Adam even endorses this plan.  So off I go to the bathroom, slather some on, and immediately feel the burn of chemicals on my face.  I think maybe this is burning a little more than normal, but wait it out the instructed five minutes on the bottle.  As I begin to wash it off, I now know that something is terribly wrong.  The burning isn't stopping.  Every tiny muscle movement in my face reminds me that I just put harsh chemicals on my upper lip.  An emergency application of petroleum jelly settled the burn down, albeit temporarily.  I think I'm going to be nursing this until Adam returns next week.  Thankfully I was a bit sun & windburned from my launch sitting that it's not all THAT noticable today.  Otherwise I would most definitely have a chemical burn mustasche - appropriate for Movember - but not hot.  Not even a little bit.