~Silence~

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:41:10 GMT

One of the best feelings in the world: Riding a motorcycle in 90 degree weather, and then riding past a sprinkler. Oooooh so nice ^_^

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:00:47 GMT

Sea World is awesome.

That is all ^_^

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:24:54 GMT

The last week has been crazy! But so much fun :)

Tiffany was here for a visit, and we packed a whole lot of stuff into just 6 days.

First off we spent Thursday and Friday on a trip to the Grand Canyon. On the way there we stopped by Montezuma's Castle, Montezuma's well, and took a crazy backroad (dirt) from the 17 to Sedona. Montezuma's Castle is always cool, but it was neat to see it in the fall/winter instead of summer. I hadn't been to Montezuma's Well before, but it was really cool and had some awesome photo ops. Very scenic and peaceful. Schneebly Hill Road was... an experience. I'm really glad we had the truck, as the only other vehicles we saw were mostly Jeeps. It was a pretty mellow dirt road at first, and then it climbed up and over a mountain and back down the other side. Some parts were pretty freaky - I don't think they have heard of Guard Rail, but they need to do some research into that. Pics are posted on my MySpace. We stayed Thursday night in Williams, then went to the Grand Canyon the next day. Friday morning we woke up to the wind howling and the rain pissing down. Greeeat. 250 miles for this? We made the most of it and drove up to the GC anyways. At first I was afraid it was going to be a big waste of time as the entire fricken canyon was FILLED with fog. Zero visibility. We took the canyon road east and stopped at all the pullouts, hoping for a glimpse. We got really lucky around lunch time and some of the fog cleared! Still pissing down rain and blowing like a banshee, but at least we got to see the canyon. I even saw some views that I hadn't seen before, which was pretty cool. Visited The Watchtower, but I couldn't go up as I got horrible vertigo and I'm afraid of heights :) The whole trip back to Maricopa the weather was miserable. The rain was coming down so hard that after the sun went down I was really scared to drive. Passing semi trucks was the worst. We made it home, however, so that was good. Saturday and Sunday were almost completely given over to shopping, which was fun. Monday we went to the Arizona Science Center to see their Titanic exhibit. It was pretty cool, with actual pieces brought up from the bottom of the ocean. Pictures weren't allowed though. Tuesday we took a drive up to the Wildlife World Zoo. The biggest reason we went there and not the Phoenix Zoo is that WWZ allows you to FEED GIRAFFES. OMG! I was so excited. And it was SO cool!! We got some wild pics. Their tongues are up to a foot long and purple, and you reach your hand out there and they wrap their slimy purple tongue around your hand and you dump the food onto it. Amazing experience. The other animals there were really cool too, and they had some neat exhibits. I think our favorites were the Cotton Topped Tamarins (such little hams!) and the baby Ocelot. The albino aligators were cool too.

Tiffany went home yesterday and I'm not quite sure what to do with myself now that I'm all alone again. Although I did get a lot of pics cropped and posted a bunch on my MySpace, so not a complete waste.

And now - food time! :D

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 03:45:57 GMT

Tiffany... check!!
Grand Canyon... check (barely)
Rediculous amounts of wind and rain... double check
Arizona Mills mall... check

And we're only half way done ^_^

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 20:11:07 GMT

Tiffany flies into Arizona today :) She'll be here for a week, so that should alleviate some of my boredom.

Karl has been working at Chandler Harley Davidson for ten days now. He seems to like it so far. Not as a career, but as something to pay the bills for now. I'm not working yet, and I'm enjoying having the days to myself to put around the house.

I wish I was in AK so I could see Ian :(

Happy birthday Logan!

Haha random.

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:16:11 GMT

Across the Universe was a pretty darned good movie. Very odd in a few places (helloooooo acid trip!). The actors had amazing voices, so the music ruled. And it had Eddie Izzard in it! ZOMG! ^_^

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 01:00:18 GMT

We went to the Grand Canyon yesterday. Even seeing pictures and knowing that it is HUGE doesn't really prepare you for the sight. It was amazing! It really made me wish I had a wide angle lens for my camera, because there was just way to much canyon for my pictures to ever do justice. Well worth the 10+ hour drive lol.

Also, we (we being myself and a couple of Karl's sisters) began to plan a Europe trip for the whole family in 2010. We haven't decided between a cruise or touring on mopeds, but I'm sure that will get itself worked out ^_^

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 03:57:36 GMT

Endless soup, salad & breadsticks FTW! :D

Pictures

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 18:57:20 GMT

Here is a link to our trip pics ^_^

http://www.shadeofblack.com/main.php?g2_itemId=60

AZ

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 02:00:17 GMT

We made it to AZ on Monday. We've been unpacking and settling in, and its really nice. The house here is beautiful and the city that we are in is nice and small, so I feel really safe.

Oh, and yes, its HOT here. ;)

Whew

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 16:50:24 GMT

Tuesday: Left mom's house, stayed the night in Longview, WA

Wednesday: Into Oregon. Walks on the beaches, pictures of the ocean, lots of scenic driving. Stayed the night just south of Eugene, OR

Thursday: Into California. Redwoods and bad drivers abound!

Friday: Made it to Nevada! Staying with Karl's sister Havilah now ^_^

We'll be here until Monday, then its that last push to Arizona!! :D

Semi-Live from WA

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 01:31:35 GMT

Well, we made it to Washington.

We're staying with my mom I think until September 14th. Then we'll be heading to Nikki's house in California, and from there to Hav's house in Nevada, and finally to Phoenix. We're estimating getting to Phoenix around September 25th or so.

The ferry ride was fine, except it was supposed to start in Whittier. The ferry from Whittier to Juneau was cancelled, so we ended up having to drive to Haines with little notice :\ We left Anchorage around 8 pm on Thursday August 30th, and got into Tok, Alaska around 4 am on Friday morning. We found a hotel ($120 a night - what??) and crashed for about four hours, then were up and running again. Luckily for us, we didn't have any trouble getting into (or out of) Canada (btw, the Yukon is really boring - NOTHING out there at all except trees, some mountains, and a couple really fuckin big lakes). We did have to leave Karl's rifles with my dad but we should be able to have them shipped down to us later on. We got to Haines to catch our ferry from there to Juneau around 8 pm on Friday. All the hotels (what, all 3 of them?) were booked up, so we ended up having to spend the night in the trucks. Not fun, but less fun for Karl who had to sleep sitting up in the Avalanche because it has a solid center console. The truck console folds up so I at least got to lay down (sorta) We got on the ferry in Haines around 10:30 on Saturday morning, and we didn't get to Bellingham until Tuesday morning at 9 am. You run out of stuff to do on a ferry pretty quickly, but we at least had a private cabin where we could shower & sleep, which were the important things. We spent a lot of time reading, and listening to music and staring out the windows. Maybe I just had a boring experience, but South East Alaska is nothing to write home about. All dark green islands, choppy grey water, and low clouds/mist. I didn't see any whales or otters or anything interesting like that. Some birds, thats about it. We even managed to get fogged in in Petersburg and lost the only decent layover we had (3.5 hours in Ketchikan) The ferry terminals are all 3-6 miles away from the towns, so no point in even getting off the boat. Boooooooo :P

Washington is hot, and its only 80-85 degrees here. The sun is really nice though - I was getting kinda starved for it. My body isn't liking the heat. I've been really sick to my stomach and light headed, but I'm hoping I'll adjust. Its going to be even hotter in AZ so I HAVE to adjust. I'm kinda concerned about it. I'm glad we're staying here for another week so I'll be able to adjust to this heat before jumping into 100 degree weather. We'll see what happens.

We're going to the county fair on Saturday and then tubing on the Wenatchee River on Sunday, so that should be fun. Lots of small-town fun to be had around here. Thinking about hiking/biking sometime next week as well. Its kinda nice to get away from industrialized Anchorage and relax a little. Its warm enough at night that we can go out and look at the stars, and because it is so flat it seems like they are closer, or there is more of them or something. And no light pollution - that made it almost impossible to even see them in Anchorage. Just beautiful. Except they aren't in the right places because I'm used to Alaska skies lol.

Wow, I haven't had anything to write about in so long this entry is kinda getting out of control. Until next time :)

August...

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 00:01:21 GMT

Its August. It is GO TIME.

Update

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 00:48:11 GMT

August 30th is getting closer.

A lot of stuff is packed. Got the Corolla sold. Ordered the cap for the truck. Things are moving along. Only a couple of minor melt downs so far, but (as they say) the night is young.

I don't know how to feel. Part of me is excited, part of me is scared, part of me is sad, part of me is wondering what the hell I'm doing - and another part of me doesn't give a crap. I'm torn.

Still need to sell my couch and chair. Anyone have $1,000 for nice furniture? Yeah, didn't think so. I'll figure something out, I'm sure.

Only five more Alaskan Saturdays... Eep!

Wed, 23 May 2007 22:06:46 GMT

I was presented with the Rookie of the Year award from Insurance Professionals of Anchorage today, which I think is pretty cool. It was to recognize my involvement in IPA, my volunteer work, and particularly my work on our logo (which I designed, drew, and donated to the association) I guess I never really realized how much I did, or how much it was appreciated.

>:(

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 22:08:23 GMT

Take a tip from me. If your boss and co-workers like you, never EVER tell them 6 months in advance that you will be leaving.

I thought I would be doing them a favor – plenty of time to find someone qualified to fill my position, plenty of time to train them before I leave to have a nice, smooth transaction. Instead all I get every day is guilt trip after guilt trip, bribes to stay, and endless attempts to sabotage my leave-taking.

What the hell?

AZ Update

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 01:08:42 GMT

Karl's parents found a house to rent in Arizona! Since we are going to be staying with them once we move down there (for an undetermined amount of time) I was excited to see it! We found pictures and floorplans and stuff online. It looks nice. I'm intimidated by the number of pools in AZ...

Anyway, we'll be living in Maricopa.

Six months to go :\

Karl's parents are leaving AK on March 29th. Pretty crazy stuff.

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 18:41:38 GMT

Its official - we bought the ferry tickets (which was extremely painful, due to the astronomical price)

We leave AK on August 30th.

I'm torn between being so excited I can't stand it, and terrified. Hehehe, such is life.

Babies @_@

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 17:14:52 GMT

This happened a few weeks ago now, but the more I think about it the more I figure it should be saved somewhere so whenever I think "Aww, that baby is so CUTE" I can come here and read it to remind myself of the HORROR.

My nephew Alex is now 7 1/2 weeks old. When he was six weeks old Havilah wanted to go to a movie with Karl and their parents, so I volunteered to babysit. I know what you're thinking - because I was thinking it too. What the Hell am I doing? Hav asked me if I was sure, and then assured me that he was a good baby and she would bring an extra change of clothes and some pumped breast milk. We all figured he would probably sleep the whole time. Tiff was coming over to help me move, so she decided that she would help me babysit Alex. We all went to Denny's and had dinner with Karl's family, and then I took Hav's baby and Hav's car and drove back to my apartment. It started out good... And then Alex realized that I wasn't his mom, and started balling in the back seat of the car. I reached my hand back there and stuck a pinky in his mouth like I had seen Hav do. And it worked! However, if I took my pinky OUT of his mouth, he commenced with the balling. So I drove all the way home with my arm stuck into the back seat.

When we got to the apartment Alex had calmed down enough to ride quietly in his carseat into the house. Where he promptly decided he hated his carseat with the burning passion of a thousand suns. So I took him out, tried the awkward hopping thing that moms do to bounce their babies. For some reason, it always works when other people do it... Do you know how TIRED you get bouncing a baby? And if you stop - they start crying. So I'm sitting there desperately bouncing this baby. After a while, he was starting to smell... Hav had said he was gassy, so Tiffany and I joked back and forth about how Alex had the farts. That was when we saw the brown smear across his back where his poop was leaking out the top of his diaper and through his clothes. O_O You've got to be KIDDING me! So we rushed around trying to figure things out. Okay, need the changing pad. Check. Diapers, check. Wipes, check. EXTRA OUTFIT! Check. We manage to get him out of his onesie (which got stuffed very quickly into a zip-lock bag) and then start the clean up process. There was poop EVERYWHERE. Up his back (almost all the way to his neck) and in every crack and crevice that you never realize a baby has until you have to clean poop out of it. Poor Alex screamed the whole time, while the two of us tried to execute the task that a mother can do with one hand while watching TV or talking on the phone. I guess its the practice... After we got him clean he was MUCH happier. Though not nearly as happy as he seems when his mom is around.

For the next two hours, we alternately fed him, burped him, changed him (two more times), rocked him, bounced him and cuddled him - all the the same result. Ceaseless crying. Every time we would finally get him to drift off to sleep, he would realize what we were doing and burst into a hiccuping, sobbing wakefulness. By the time we figured the movie was over, I was about to have a mental breakdown. I had Tiffany call Karl when they didn't show up by the time I had estimated they should have been there. She talked to him for a minute, and then hung up the phone and stared at me. And said "Karl says they are going to get ice cream." I'm pretty sure my eyes lit on fire, and I snatched the phone from her and called him back. He answered the phone and I said (calmly) "YOU'RE GOING TO GET FUCKING ICE CREAM?!?!?" Karl was laughing. I don't think that helped the situation, except that it told me that he was joking. I told him "We SERIOUSLY need a mommy here!!" and he assured me that they were on the way back to the apartment. So after about three hours, I gratefully gave Alex back to his mom.

It was a humbling experience. Looking back, I can laugh (especially about the poop leaking through the onesie part) BUT I have come to the conclusion that babysitting a newborn is one of the more effective types of birth control... :)

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 21:20:12 GMT

Its snowing :(

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 17:23:13 GMT

I can't wait to go to Arizona in May for Hav's wedding. I have never been there and I think it will be exciting and I get to spend some time with Nikki and Tanner and hopefully Lucas, too. I think we're planning on flying down there a week before the wedding so we can spend some time with our friends before doing all the family stuff. Karl's parents should be settled in by then (Hav and Karl's parents will be moving down to AZ at the end of March) I hope that Karl likes it down there. With his parents living there, and Hav living in southern California, and Nikki and Rob living in southern California, maybe he'll finally agree to move. Maybe?

I love Alaska. It is a beautiful place, and I'll probably come back someday, but for now, there is nothing I want more than to get the hell out of here. I've been trying to do that for six or seven years, now. Ever since I lived that one year in Washington I have wanted to experience something other than this cold dark state. Its even more acute now that winter is coming on again. This morning there was frost on the ground. Yesterday in Peshastin, WA where my mom lives, it was 80 degrees. I'm not saying I don't want a winter. I'm saying I don't want a winter that lasts 6 months. Anyways, nothing I haven't voiced before. So...

Dear Arizona,

Please impress my husband so I can get the hell out of this shithole.

Love, Lindsey.

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 00:27:10 GMT

So... Does anyone in Arizona have a floor that might be available in May? Karl and I will be in Mesa for Havilah's wedding but we can't stay with Hav's family because they have all sorts of people staying with them already.

Anyone? Eh? Eh? Will provide free entertainment ;)

Sat, 09 Sep 2006 00:27:25 GMT

My new nephew Alex (or would that be Alecz?) was born last Sunday. He spent last night in the hospital because he has jondice. I guess he almost had to have a blood transfusion because the iron level in his blood was so low. Luckily, it didn't come to that, but he IS going to have to stay for another night, just to be sure he's going to be okay. I guess it is a pretty common problem among newborns. Still, poor Havilah is a wreck. I can't even imagine. And her husband doesn't get back in until the 19th. But. It seems like everything is going to be okay.

^_^

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 16:47:00 GMT

Q: What is the easiest way to get your technically inclined husband to work on your fritzed-out computer?

A: Play on HIS computer until he gets the hint.

Muaha.

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 21:53:48 GMT

I am realizing that my semester of French in high school has totally ruined me for Spanish... We went over some basic stuff last night... The alphabet, numbers 1-30, days of the week, months of the year. All my responses were instant - and in French. ;_; Then I had to clobber the French down and try to come up with responses in Spanish. How frustrating. I'm going to have to fight with it...