Little known facts

I volunteered to give a presentation to Juvenile Offenders and their parents this week. Well, I don't really know that I volunteered it was kind of like "we need a volunteer" and everyone stepped back and I was left standing there. Then I roped in a wing woman to help. So the presentation was this week. It was on stress and visualization. Of course the whole thing gave me stress. I searched for info on the internet, put the presentation together. I threw out the visualization part, since we can hopefully all agree, visualization is a bunch of crap and Juvenile Offenders probably are not interested (in any of it really). I also made up word searches with one of those online create your own word search. Then at the last minute I ran out and got candy. In my head, I pictured the 7 offenders each with two parents sitting nicely at tables ready to listen. I don't know where I got that, I have been around long enough to know this would not be the case. When I walked in and there were more than 7 kids, it looked like some siblings had been dragged along with their older brothers. Then there was only 4 monolingual spanish mothers. They had these fancy head phones and a fabulous translater. Gotta love department of corrections. And 5 of the kids were related - cousins or something. Tough audience. So we said we suck at presenting so they are going to have to participate for candy. So they did, and it went okay. The kids said we were the best presenters ever (I think it had to do with the candy). We ended a bit early so I passed out the wordsearch. We walked out with the people running the program and I peeked back in - everyone parents and kids madly searching for words related to stress. Little known fact, juvenile offenders love wordsearches. I don't know why this is, but I think it is amusing. My boss was presenting to county commissioners (I don't even know what those are) and I gave him the rest of my word searches. I want to see if other populations love word searches. I don't think he was planning on humoring my research.

February Assessment Grade

I must exercise daily: C-

• Going a couple times a week and on weekends...this week is a big "no show"

stop eating out: B+

• We have been really good about not eating out.

learn spanish: F

• I have done nothing about this

clean more: C-

• I try.

save more money: C+

• I do actually know when and what I have to pay every month. I have a spread sheet.

get organized: C

• We function some how.

be a better employee: B

• I am pretty good. Always late, but always work through lunch. Never late for a client.

stay in better touch with friends and family: C

• Just wait until March, every weekend on the west side.

Create a home in Yakima: C

• I changed this one a little. Our life is simple, I like that. But everytime Damon says he is looking at a job in Olympia, I get a little excited.

Here they are, our little movie stars!

Loving Video Option

I have been having too much fun with the video option. This video is Damon warming up and then going around the last corner of his race in Vancouver. Having missed the first corner, I was lucky to capture the last one. I must admit I have been bugging the animals by turning them into movie stars. Kitty doesn't seem to mind, but Tarn is unhappy since most attempts have to do with throwing a toy at Tarn and watching the mayhem take place. Of course, this is all for my attempt at Oscar glory so it should be okay.

Pet day

In honor of Dairy's recovery we celebrated with a trip up to Snow Mountain Ranch. There was nobody there for the second day in a row and Tarn got to go crazy. He even had Damon to beat up on not just me. Damon also a photo of the rare occurance of Tarn and Kitty sharing a couch.

After our hike we had the ability to go for a tandem ride. I tracked down my funniest outfit for the ride. Damon tracked down his. Damon's funny outfit has a purpose. By the end of our ride my funny outfit didn't keep my feet or my a$$ from hurting.

After our hike and the 24 mile bike ride then I read a magazine with Kitty.

And today I did nothing.

Dairy Monster Lives

Dairy got very sick from a bacteria infection. My mom has been nursing him back to health slowly. She probably has not slept for two nights and both nights she thought he would pass away. He probably is not out of the woods yet but the last email said:
"Dairy just ate Iams kitten pate.........and drank a whole bunch of water. He'll be fine KC.......we will leave water in several spots and food too.......he's moving around slowly...........Dad went to Target and got a huge cat food selection.........he'll be so spoiled! We need to fatten him up!"
This is so much better than some of the other emails. I guess he jumped out of bed this morning and returned to life even cleaning himself. Here's the email:
"We took a ghost to bed last night. I just felt he wouldn't make it till morning. At 11:00 he was a ghost......1:00 took a little water......was still a ghost.......at 4:30 AM he jumped off the bed!!!!!!!! He came upstairs and I got him to eat a little tuna and chicken.....used the litter box.....came down and washed himself!!!!! HE WAS A CAT AGAIN!!!!!!!! When we took him to bed he was a light as a feather............and at 4:30 he was "cat weight" again!"

I am so thankful for my Mom and Dairy.

Morals Morale and El Caminos

"...and the resident accidentally shot his friend, who was visiting when the suspects arrived, in the left arm.
The two men drove off in their El Camino, which was found a short time later about a mile to the west in the Wal-Mart parking lot off East Yakima Avenue. "

You may think this is a joke. But this is actually front page Yakima Herald. Damon called me on my way home from work after his bike ride on the Greenway. I was really excited to hear how his ride was, he was going to hand out McDonald gift certificates to the homeless people that he encounters on his ride. He said it was spooky, not a single homeless person on the Greenway. So I said maybe they were having Valentines parties at the homeless shelters. Do they do that? I like to think they do. And then I remembered, there was a shooting somewhere and they think they hid the gun on the Greenway. That explains it, the cops moved them out or they disappeared into the shanties.

Now to why we have McDonalds gift certificates. My work allocates $17.50 per employee for morale. So my boss asked us what we wanted to do. So we decided on Gift Certificates. Everyone wanted Walmart, but I wanted Safeway because I morally can't support Walmart (unless I need a big giant vat of purple powdered Gatorade - then my morals are for sale).

So my boss comes up with gift certificates splayed out like poker cards.
Which did you want?
Safeway.
Whoops, I got you McDonalds and it had to be two $10 gift cards so you owe me $2.50.
Do you want a check? (I am kidding - I thought she was joking)
Yes, but leave it blank I have to send it to human resources. (Obviously, not joking)

So that is how I paid $2.50 for my morale. My morale must be for sale along with my morals.

Everyday is Valentines

In search of spring....

I see it. It is coming soon. Tarn and I went to Snowmountain Ranch. The weather was perfect and there were lots of people up there. It is nice to see people using it. I always feel a little safer when there are people around. After that girl got murdered hiking I have been a little more cautious. When I am by myself I usually go to the Conservancy instead where there are more people. Unfortunately cars often get broken into up there. It also seems that the criminals have found Snowmountain. There was a broken down car with no tires today, at least a tow truck was picking up the car when I arrived. Soon I will be able to go to the little book which is my favorite-favorite. I am onto to the thief at the Conservancy and I think this is the year I am going to catch him. I know his car, I know his MO and I am going to catch him. (He broke our window and stole two tents, all of our camping gear, stoves, water filters, after Jeff's wedding - You can see I am still bitter!). I would share the details, but that is probably slander. Once I get the photos of my citizen's arrest then I will post. Below is Tarn waiting out the weather for a chance to go hiking.

Casper

We entertained for the first time in Yakima. That may seem wierd to everyone since I think we entertained every weekend at our house in Tacoma. But we finally felt that our house was set up in a way where we can host people, so we decided to host the friday night wine tasting. We cleaned the house. We bought different kinds of cheese, crackers, bread, wine and beer. Then part way through the day on Friday I called Chris and asked her to please help Damon get ready for the party. She agreed, but I was actually able to beat them here. Tarn went to doggie day care all day so he would be on his best behavior. He did okay, eventually he disappeared under the table and ate a paper plate. Casper attended the party in the form of a mostly wordless, almost 3 year old Ben, who likes to take many pictures of himself. Now the house definately needs to be cleaned again. Anyone want to come over so I'll be forced to clean again.

Oreo is pending adoption!

I haven't posted for awhile because nothing exciting has been happening - I mean nothing. I gave Tarn a bath this weekend at a car wash that has a little doggie booth. You have to pull a ramp down and then the dog sits on top of a table. Tarn would not cooperate and after pushing, pulling, begging - I had to climb on the table to get him up there. So Tarn is clean and he got a cheeseburger reward. We painted our fireplace. It turned out bad. Very bad. I got a little too fancy and bought special Ralph Lauren paint and glaze. There was a special brush and everything. I guess it is better then the magenta (pink) that Damon picked out. Maybe better. So if anyone needs a can of bright pink paint or Ralph Lauren faux linen it is all yours. We are definately in the winter funk. I think Damon is going to flip a lid if he can't ride his bike soon. But today we are very grateful for a shared sick day. We aren't that sick - maybe just in the head. We did like a bizzilion loads of laundry and cleaned to try to get rid of all the germs that are making a sick. Can't you hear me coughing - achoo! Somewhere along my life I stopped matching up my socks. My mom may say I never did, but I specifically remember having a conversation about how pointless and a what a waste of time it is to match your socks. Well today I matched my socks up. Only half of them still have a match. KC if you read this I have a work confirmation that leather jackets are back! Has anyone else noticed?