Christmas 2008

This Christmas season took us to Tacoma to spend the holidays with my mom. We were very fortunate. About an hour after we landed it started snowing and pretty much snowed for 2 days straight. I've never seen so much snow in Tacoma and never seen it stay around for so long. Typical snow is no more than 3 - 6 inches and it melts within 24 - 48 hours. We had a white Christmas and that was the best part!


This is the first snow plow I ever remember seeing in Tacoma!

On Saturday night we got together with Liz, Mel, and Brian. Liz then flew off to Northern Virginia to spend the holidays with her brother and his family. Luckily she got out, but over 6 hours delayed. On the way home from dinner, we drove through downtown Tacoma and found this big Christmas tree decorated with blue lights. It was too much to resist so we got out, made snow angels, and had a snowball fight.

We were kind of snowbound the first few days because my mom lives at the bottom of a very steep hill and it got very icy very fast. We tried to snowboard, but there wasn't quite enough snow to make it.

Here's hubby prepping our snowboards for street boarding...

I wasn't feeling very photogenic after my failure in street boarding. I was bummed there wasn't enough snow...Some picks of my mom's house and street after the last flake had finally fallen...

Christmas day was spent with mom making Korean food (I was in heaven, I haven't had mom's home cooking in a while). We picked up my step-brother and brought him home for Christmas. It turns out low riding Hondas don't do well in the snow.

Nothing like mom's home cooking!My step-sister couldn't make it because of the roads...but we still managed to have a good time opening presents even though she wasn't able to be with us...

My parents showing off their new matching Disneyland mugs...go us!Hubby had been wanting this mug for a while...my parents were kind enough to get it for him...

My brother and his new awesome car calendar!

We did get to make it out to Chrystal Mountain to try out the new snowboards. Man am I out of shape! I'll be hitting the treadmills from now until Mammoth so I won't suck so bad at Mammoth!

The last day we were there my parents, hubby , and I went bowling! I forgot how much fun that is! I got a TURKEY (3 strikes in a row). That's only the second time I've ever done that!

For those we didn't get to see, I'm so sorry. It's always so hectic that there's just never enough time. The snow really threw a wrench in things this year, but next time, you'll be the first on my priority list!

When we got home on Sunday, Santa had come! Hubby got a carving set to make Tiki's out of wine corks and a Tiki Christmas CD. Little Mookie got a new collar with this new address on it and some littel furry mice (fake, of course). He's already eaten one, I mean COMPLETELY eaten it! I guess I was bad this year. At least I didn't get a lump of coal!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Another Travel Story

So I travel a lot...I'm a Chairman on US Airways which is their very top level of frequent flyers. I actually am so top that they give me a free club membership every year so I don't have to sit at the gates, but in the luxury of the club with free non-alcoholic beverages, snacks, and quietness.

I also get bumped to first class on just about every flight I'm on (unless I try to get home early and change my flight the day of). The way this works is that for Chairman, 7 days before the flight, if there are first class seats they bump you. For Platinum it's 5 days, Gold it's 3 days, and Silver it's 2 days.

I realized on my ride through the rain from LA to San Diego that I hadn't received the email noting if I had been upgraded for my trip to Tacoma for Christmas. Also, your travel companion is bumped as well.

I got home and went online to check the itinerary. The web said that the flight schedule had changed, call the 800 number listed. I called, it was out of service.

Another nice thing for being a Chairman is they have a special concierge line to call so you don't have to wait on the reservation line for an hour. I called the concierge line and Kathy, my friendly helper, informs me the flight from Las Vegas to Seattle was cancelled in November and why didn't I call to reschedule sooner?

Because no one emailed or called me.

Some should have.

Well no one did.

Well, you can either fly out early that day or you have to wait until Saturday. Of course, there would have been a greater selection in November if someone had contacted me like they should have.

That's her fault, not mine so why am I the one being inconvenienced? Earlier doesn't work for us. My husband works and he can't just leave earlier because he wants to. Also, if I had wanted to leave Saturday, I would have booked for Saturday.

She then proceeds to do the airline apology speech and I then have to interrupt her and remind her that I fly her airline weekly and I can't believe that's how they would treat such a frequent flyer.

Now, I don't like to pull the Chairman card, but I do when I have to.

So the best they can do is change my 7 PM Friday flight to a 6:45 AM Saturday flight (layover in Phoenix, arriving at 2 PM) and she's so sorry, would I like a free round trip ticket?

No! I have 500,000 miles on the airline so a free ticket means nothing to me. She can upgrade us to first class. Again, I have to remind her I'm a Chairman so we'll be upgraded if seats are available. Unless she can magically find me a flight at around the same time, then there's nothing she can do so just rebook it.

She then insists I talk to her manager so that this can be logged as this is a huge error on their part. She puts me on hold for 15 minutes at which time I find a flight that leaves at 7 AM, goes through Las Vegas, and gets us in at 12 PM. WTF!?!

She gets back on to tell me her manager is on and then I ask why she's booking me on a flight through Phoenix when I can go through Vegas and get in earlier. She says the weather is bad in Vegas and she' not sure if it will clear up by Sat. HELLO!!! The weather is just as bad in Phoenix right now! I told her I wanted the Vegas flight so she booked it...

I then ask about my return flight. She says it's the same and reads it back to me. It's not the same, now it's at about the same time and all, but still, they've changed it and not informed me and I tell her as much. She tells me it's not big deal since it's at about the same time. I kindly tell her it is a big deal because it's about her airline's customer service and how they suck at it. She apologizes for the computer error again.

The manager then asks me how he can help and I say he can't. Unless he can find me a 7 PM flight to Seattle for Friday then there's nothing he can do. He apologizes for the computer glitch and I told him those are hollow meaningless words and they don't fix anything. Also, putting an angry customer on hold for 15 minutes only makes them angrier, it doesn't calm them down and diffuse the situation.

Would I like a $100 travel voucher?

No! I have 500,000 on your airline, a $100 travel voucher gets me nowhere.

Well, I can upgrade your return flight now (one week earlier than normal).

Hello, I'm Chairman, we would have been upgraded anyway, but whatever.

Supposedly he's writing it up for Executive Upper Management, whatever that means...

*sigh* Is it too much to ask to be on the flight I paid $600 a ticket for???

New Dishwasher and Little Mookie

If any of you recall, when we moved into our place, the dishwaser didn't work. The bottom water thing didn't spin and the water didn't drain. We called our home warranty people (thank you again Kevin Dalzell) and had them come out to fix it. You know it's old when you're told your dishwasher is an antique and gross and the fix it guy would just buy a new one.

So we did! It's a Kenmore Elite (#3 on Consumer Reports - Thanks Tige for turning us onto Consumer Reports). It was a little expensive, but worth every penny. You can't even tell it's running it's that quiet. It even has a delay so you can program it to start later...We've had it since last Thursday and I love it!

Here's a few Little Mookie pics and a video. He's so stinking cute sometimes I can barely stand it!
I'm not quite sure why he does this sometimes, but rolling back and forth is amusing to him...


An action shot, he'd be so embarasses his butt is showing...

Third Annual Disneyland Trip

Last Saturday hubby and I took our annual trip to Disneyland. Every year MIL gives us tickets (she gets free tickets since retired from there).

I then get to go and spend the day being a kid...this year was no different.

We hit the things we always do...Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, Matterhorn, The Enchanted Tiki Room. We even took in a couple of the shows. They have this thing where they teach kids to be a Jedi, pretty cool. There was also this hillbilly band/comedic act. We even rode the Mark Twain Steamboat for the first time!

This year I joined the ranks and got one of those badge necklace things for the pin trading (I couldn't help it, they're so cool!)

Then I spent time getting the Christmas candy together and wrapping presents. Why does stuff like that take so much time!?!

It's such a different experience when you have a whole room you can spread out in and don't have to clean up right after!!!

The Christmas Tree

We put up the first Christmas Tree in our house!

This tree is awesome...we bought it in 2004 for $20 at Big Lots. It even sheds, that's how awesome it is.

We considered getting a real tree this year for our first year in our new house, but we can't let go of the last piece of our poor rental lives...it's almost like the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree...it even leans from the weight of the ornaments and lights!

Here's hubby bending the limbs around trying to make it look fuller.
Me in my lovely work from home attire (yes, that's my CWU sweatshirt from college)

We pulled out all of our ornaments and decorated and lit it up. The only thing we didn't have was eggnog.

The Housewarming...

On Saturday we had our first party, a combo housewarming and my 30th birthday. Of course we got so excited neither of us took pictures.

We had 20 people in the house and it felt more like 5 - 10. I can't remember the last time I went to a house party and didn't feel totally cramped. If anything we picked a good party house!!!


And yes, I'm now 30 years old, yuckity yuck!

Introducing the Great Room

And it is done! I cannot tell you the joy we feel. We've been able to clear out the sunken room as well and get that set up. If you can't remember the before, go back to the Jamestown Court post from September (http://muscolinofam.blogspot.com/2008/09/jamestown-court.html)...all the before pics are there...
Every morning is full of excitement and wonder when we wake up to our new house.
There's still so much more work, but we're ready to take it on now that we've accomplished our first room...here we come yard!

The housewarming party is on November 15th, if you're in the area feel free to stop by...it's a combo housewarming and Dirty Thirty for me...I'm planning on wearing all black.

It's good to see Little Mookie enjoys the new set up just as much as we do!!!
Can I just tell you how comfortable the bay window seat is?