The House Work Resumes

So we decided we took a long enough break. We started working on the house again last weekend. Hubby did a lot of little odds and ends, one of which was to organize the garage a little better. It made a HUGE difference.


I spent the weekend working on the new office. We decided to move the office into what was going to be our guest bedroom. We decided we're going to install a shower in the half bath that's attached to the current office so that guests will have a private bath to use.


The new office had a white shelf going around half of the top of the room and a wallpaper border above it. I had to pull all the shelves down and then get the wallpaper down. I got a tip that fabric softner worked well to help dislodge the wallpaper. I also bought a little thing that pokes holes in the wallpaper so that the liquid would soak in.


I thought it would be easy since I'd removed some wallpaper round the window in the bedroom and it worked like a dream. This was a LOT harder. It took me the whole weekend to remove the wallpaper.

The last wall only came off in tiny pieces...

I thought I would have the wallpaper removed and the room painted before the weekend was up.


*sigh* I forgot to multiply the time I THOUGHT it would take by three!

Here I was almost done...I hate wallpaper!

Mammoth 2009

Our second annual Mammoth trip at the lifestyles of the rich and the famous Mammoth Lakes Monache. I hate to brag on myself, but I'm getting really quite good at snowboarding. I love my Burton Lux, it rides like a dream, except for when it makes me fall!

We started off at the local Tiki bar when we arrived for Happy Hour. They have strong Mai Tai's for $4, but served them in plastic Bud Light cups...very high class!

Hubby is awesome as always no his new Arbor Element. We had fun getting used to our new boards. He gives me a handicap by riding backward so I can keep up.

Oh yeah, that's me, and yes, that's dirt. The snow storm came early this year and there wasn't as much snow as usual, but there was hardly ANYONE there!On the gondola headed back to the Westin for lunch.

Just before my scary blue square/black diamond run!

Our friends, Peffernin and Meg-O, came to share, but because of Eric's lame company (the one hubby quit last August) his time off permission was rescinded the Friday BEFORE he was to drive out (the drive occurred on Saturday).

At the end of our last day...we're tired, but sad about leaving the next morning. We discussed squatting in the hotel room, but decided it wouldn't be good for our criminal records.

Here's a video of me shredding!!! I felt like I was going much faster than it looks...

On the drive home, we stopped by Randsburg, the living ghost town. Trust us, don't go, it's really not worth it. Although it is only a 10 minute side trip (that's total, not to get there). It was actually kind of sad and I felt like I was on the set of a horror movie.

The Keep Out sign didn't help...

From Blizzard 2008 to Rain Storm 2009

When I fly to Portland for work, I usually fly in and out of SeaTac and drive to Portland and back. This is so I can either stay an extra night with at my parent's house or stay the weekend with them.

All went as usually on Tuesday. Flight on time, it was raining, but that's typical in Washington. Got to the hotel just fine.

Worked Wednesday and then got on the road to drive up. I call my mom to let her know, she says be careful because there's been a lot of rain.

There's a lot of traffic because it's rush hour, no biggie. It's windy, but not raining that hard. It's typically a 2 hour drive, with traffic, it usually turns into a 3 hour drive, tops.

About an hour and half into it, my mom calls. I-5 is closed at Chehalis. Right when she calls, the traffic has stopped. I've hit the closure. She's very worried, but I tell her, no big. I'll go around the water.

The "around the water" took an hour and a half to figure out and I was only in Centralia by then. For those of you who don't know, they're only a little over 5 miles apart on I-5.

Just about everywhere I turned there were closed streets due to flooding. I had no idea it was that bad. If I had known, I would have just stayed in Portland and tried to drive out today (in the light!).

The drive only took four and a half hours...not bad. I'm just thankful for the GPS. I mean, sure, we named our GPS Trixie because she always tricks us into going the absolute longest or wrong way. I named my Blackberry GPS OOPS (Out of Pocket Shennae-nae) because she's totally ghetto and lies about the wrong way to go as well.

But last night, in the rain, with a closed road at every turn, OOPS pulled through and found a way for me to get home safe and sound...I'll never curse her again, well, almost never.

Little Mookie

I was taking the tree down and Little Mookie got involved...he's always trying to help.

Happy New Year

We spent the holiday in Huntington Beach at a Tiki restaurant called Kona. It was known as Sam's Seafood Restaurant until recently and then it was bought out. The new owner is dedicated in keeping the Tikiness up at the place which makes all the Tiki enthusiasts happy.

The night was filled with dinner, drinks, and Tiki bands playing.

We had great fund and stayed in the Hilton at Huntington Beach for the night so we wouldn't have to drive the hour and a half home.

I got to be sober sister so we could drive back to the hotel...hubby had great fun with his Pabst Blue Ribbon. I think it tastes horrible (Melanie, we're talking worse than Schlidt's Ice).

True to our nature, we forgot the camera, but I managed to do a few cell pics...sorry they're not very good.

Here's our first picture of the year together...the Blackberry wasn't cooperating very well...

Oh yea, I found these pics on my phone from bowling with my parents...I knew Tacoma was ghetto, but really! I admit, I had to buy the bling teeth though...it was too funny to pass up!

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???