Missouri, Clemson, and Dresses (Saturday in Seattle)

We all hopped in the car early Saturday morning, after stopping for donuts at Happy Donuts (so good), and headed south to Seattle for some football!

One of Dru's friends, Matthew, went to Mizzou - as did both of my parents. And my dad played on their football team. They were playing Kansas that morning and the Mizzou Alumnae Association got together at a bar to watch the game.

The decorations.
(Very impressive if you think of how far away Columbia, MO was from Seattle, WA)

Mom
(It's a tiger hat)

He's all decked out.



We wore 'neutral' colors.

As I walked into the bar, on the left were all the Missouri fans and guess who was on the right?

C-L-E-M-S-O-N fans!

Go Clemson!

Funny funny. I was totally going to wear my Clemson shirt (because they were playing their rival, South Carolina), but I decided the Missouri people would think I was weird and didn't. Oh well!

Dad kazooing the Mizzou fight song.

My mom, Dru, and I left at halftime to go looking for bridesmaid dresses (my sister's my Maid of Honor) and my Dad stayed to watch the game with Matthew. They lost. Boo. But might just pull a upset and beat Oklahoma this weekend.

Go Mizzou!

We went to a lot of stores - it was a beautiful day (cloudy, but warm) and the trees were so pretty. I definitely miss the changing leaves.

Downtown Seattle

Christmas Tree

After roughly fifty dresses, I think we found the right one. Poor Dru had to try on all those dresses and listen to my mother and me discuss. She was a good sport! (Side note, we did have her try on some pretty awful dresses. Ahh, the joy.)

Headed back to Anacortes for dinner and such. It was a great day!

P.S. Clemson Won.

Finding the Fish: Sal-mon Hunting

After Thanksgiving and a good night rest, it was time to explore Anacortes and the surrounding area. One "fun" thing my mom decided I needed to see (okay, I was excited too) was the salmon run. My family seemed to think that salmon had a long 'l' sound to it; whereas, I the 'normal speaker' did not. It got old.

Anyways, we went to a neighboring town called Bellingham (which was just south of the Canadian border) to just putz around and look for fish.

Mind you, it was Black Friday - the busiest shopping day of the year - and we were in a busy town.

Looking for fish.

Where we went!



Dad and Dru

Though there was supposed to be a 10% chance of rain, it some how (the Del factor) changed into a 60% chance in the one day that I had already been visiting. It's okay though, no Florida rain shower by any chance... and it wasn't snowing. Thank you!

The salmon river.
(Don't remember the name.)

Okay. The salmon swim upriver as a natural instinct? Right? And they trap the fish somehow to artificially inseminate them and then release them back into the wild. Something along those lines.

Salmon. Can you see them?

I guess the ones with the white spots were old ones and you shouldn't eat them. Must remember that. (Ick.)

A Harbor Seal

There were also three seals swimming around the river - Jake totally would have jumped in to play with them if he had the chance.

After that, we headed to another fun little touristy town and walked around. Loved the quaint feel. Must go back in the summer!

Then back home we went! More later!

Thanksgiving Thanks

I'm in Anacortes, Washington visiting my parents and sister for the holidays - Darin is back in Orlando with Jake enjoying some peace and quite, his family-time, and getting to sleep in late. I flew in on Thursday (Thanksgiving day) on a pretty uneventful flight and got to Seattle around 2 pm. It's nice to lose those hours in the air - too bad it takes me 80+ hours to get back...

My sister picked me up from the airport and we headed up to my parents' new place. They just moved up here (in September) and it's my first visit.

Yea!

Dru's friends, Matt and Glenda, also came up to enjoy dinner with us. It's always wonderful to have extra people to (1) eat the huge amounts of food my mom cooks and (2) to talk to!

Tina the Turkey

(We always name the turkey with a 'T' name. It's a tradition...)

It's ready!

(They brined the turkey - so good!)

Mom making the gravy - one of her specialities.

How fun! A little table for us to eat at... we all fit quite well.

Cricket being the happy dog that she is.

The spread.

For Thanksgiving this year, my mom let my sister and me choose two dishes. Dru choose spinach (yak) and butter beans (double yak). I chose cauliflower and sweet potatoes. Much better ideas. On top of that we had mashed potatoes, green bean casserole (my Dad's choice), stuffing, and turkey.

Here is my plate.

Here is Dru's plate. (She's not as picky as I am).

Dru, Mom, Glenda, Matt, and Dad.

Post dinner.

(We are very full.)

Dessert!

Uncle Jinx's pecan pie and Whole Foods cheesecake.

(I swear we waited for a good 30 minutes before we ate dessert.)

Matt. Full.

Matt, I think, ate a lot. Dru and Glenda were competing with each other on who could eat the most - and though I think Dru might have done a good job, Glenda won with a steady fork and some patience.

We were all very thankful for the excellent dinner, good friends, and pecan pie.

Thanksgiving has gone and past, and it is almost December!

Time to Celebrate, Part 2

Ethiopian Style.

On Monday night, a group of us (bigger group this time) took Kerry out for another celebration/party/get-together.

He had one on Saturday too, but I had to miss it because of work.

We decided to try something new - Ethiopian food.

Their coffee setup...
(that nobody got because it was 7 pm at night.
Who drinks coffee that late?)

We went to this restaurant on I-drive called Nile Ethiopian, which is like the only Ethiopian food here in Orlando - or so I've been told. If you want to read a very funny review about the restaurant, click on the above link. It's quite stupid.

Anyways...

Anu, Frank, Darin, Craig, Kucku
(Kerry was late.)



Kerry



Darin

I've created a monster (or two really) when I started taking the 'fake' smile pictures. Now it's so hard not to do when smiling - and Kerry and Darin started to it as well. Super.

Craig, Anu, Kerry, Darin, Del, and Kucku



Frank
(The happy German)

If you look in the background of Frank's picture, you will see the TV we were all watching (patiently, I might add) while we waited for our food - we were all h.u.n.g.r.y. So hungry.

And rugby was on. Man. Rugby was one tough sport to watch. The All-Blacks were on, though so definitely worth watching.

And then... we got this.

Our food.
I don't know what it was. It was good though.

5

4

3

2

1

But then it was gone.

Ethiopian food was fun to eat - especially in a group. It's kind of like playing a game of survival of the fittest or trying to get to the mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving time at my house with my sister guarding them.

You had to be quick.

You have this rolled up bread stuff, injera, you take with your hands and kind of scoop up the food in it. Good times. And no utensils. I would definitely suggest trying it if you get the chance.

But we were still hungry.

So we celebrated some more at the Cheesecake Factory.

Anu, Kucku, Del, Darin
(I was happy because we were getting cheesecake!)

Honestly. Boys.

My precious.
(The tuxedo cheesecake)

Frank before the sugar coma.
(It's a giant hunk of fudge)

That was the evening. It was fun. And the food was interesting and good!

Congrats again to Dr. Kerry. Good Job!

Funny Jake

Just wanted to mention...

Jake was so funny the other night. After he ate his dinner, he became pretty lazy and wanted to sit on Darin.

(Actually he will sit on anybody on the couch - normally me because I'm his Mama and he loves me. But Darin and Kerry are good too.)

Somehow he gets into the strangest positions - and then he won't move a muscle. His butt was almost straight up in the air.

How cute is this? Man-o-man, that dog is so entertaining.

Time to Celebrate, Part 1

Wanted to first congratulate Kerry, our roommate and very good friend, for finishing his dissertation and obtaining his PhD in Chemistry!

We have smart people that live in our house... and a smart dog too.

Congrats to you Kerry!

On Friday night, we went out for the initial celebration - to Woody's Barbecue. There was just something about a Friday night eating baby back ribs for dinner.

Dinner - there were ribs under that bread...

Let me share a story with you at this point - earlier that day, I went with my friend Janice to see the wonderful, every popular movie "Twilight" (which was great by the way - go see it, especially if you have read the books...). I kind of had to leave Kerry's defense a little bit early, but he understood because he's a Harry Potter fan... So at the restaurant, I 'pretended' to bite Frank.

But he didn't do the right face... He almost looked happy. Hmm.

Here was the rest of the group. We all had a great time. Good food.

Frank and Nicholi; Paul, Kerry, and Darin



Me (cleaning my hands)

We were all quite full because Frank and Nicholi (his friend visiting from Germany) got one of those 'sharing' platters - but for four. They were really trying to ahh beef up. Ha ha. We all helped them finished their meal. It was a good night with good bbq.

More celebrating to come!

National Recycling Day

I guess today (Saturday) was National Recycling Day - or at least we celebrated it today in Orlando. (And many others did as well.) Side note: as I read more about this, I think it might just be an Orange County Celebratory Day. But whatever.

Darin and I went because we were interested in how the country recycles, and I had never been to the landfills.

What else was there to do on a Saturday? Come on.

It says rubbish. Joy.

Did you know... I can't think of anything really. I have to say it's very impressive though - this whole trash/recycling concept. Seems like a good business to get into. Just my opinion.

Anyway, onto the festivities...

This was the cardboard crusher/maker-into-cardboard-cube thing.

Cardboard!

The best part was the landfill tour. And no, we didn't have to walk around - though I definitely would have. So cool! We took a bus ride around the 1500 acres (wow!) that were currently being used. I think there were like 5 current landfills (with different grades that the guide guy kept talking about) and lot of room to grow. He said they make $33000 per month from the methane gas they sell to the power plant! Crazy!

They had birds everywhere. We saw bald eagles and turkeys. I would have been impressed to see some of the deer they have - but they sensed the hunter in Darin and hid. (kidding)

Here's a landfill they just closed/topped off.
(We drove up there - one of the highest points in Orlando. Like 160 feet?)

The view from up top!
It's a hill!

It was fun. Or at least I had fun.

Darin being patient

We got free hot dogs, got a cool tour, and got our new recycling bin (our third). We recycle a lot - can't figure out why we always have so much. Probably because Darin is addicted to Diet Coke and drinks like 4 a day. Bad Darin. Or Kerry too for the matter. Bad Kerry.

Go recycle. Yo.