It's a cloudy day today, with a little bit of drizzle. This is probably a good thing, since the sunshine and warmth that we've had lately seems to have affected my judgement. Day before yesterday, I sat out in the sun, getting my To Do list back up today. It was actually warm enough for me, and my legs were bare and I had them propped up on another chair. Later in the evening after I got up from spending too much time on the internet (again, but that's a different story), my first thought was, "My knees are sore. I spent too much time with them pressed against the couch." Later it dawned on me, no, that wasn't the problem, I had burned my knees out in the sunshine earlier. Ouch. I don't remember the last time I've had a sunburn, and I guess I've gotten rather laissez faire about sunscreen. That'll teach me.

Then yesterday, another pretty day, I decided to go ahead and start the running regime that I've been working up to. The running was done barefoot, and I'm no dummy, I started slow (60 secs run, 90 sec walk) for about 2 laps. No, I'm not sore, but I did manage to get blisters on both heels. Another ouch. And I *knew* that I had committed to go walking with Sister No. 2 and the Smaller Niece in the evening. I just hadn't even *considered* the possibility of blisters. That's the *point* of running barefoot; it's supposed to create a more "natural" style of stride that doesn't injure you. Some internet searching revealed that one's stride may still reflect shoe-learned behavior. I'm apparently hitting the ground with the wrong part of my foot, and hence the blisters.

So, yesterday evening, I slathered on the aloe vera (for the current sunburn) and then the sun screen (to fend off making it worse) and and wore my sensible shoes with lambs wool in the heel (for the blisters), and joined the family down at the Nisqually tide flats. Sister & I walked a little over a mile while Mom & Niece listened to a lecture on Snow Leopards. I developed some small blisters along the ball of my foot, compensating for the blisters on my heels, but otherwise, I was relieved that it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Today will be mostly a day off my feet, as we're taking the Niece over to see The Boy at college. Swimming is the primary activity scheduled for this evening and tomorrow morning, and then we'll walk around the campus, and I'll get to see how well I've recovered. ;-)

Well Day 5 ended on a mixed note. On one hand, I went shopping for a couple of pairs of slacks and capris, and I found linen(!) ones, on clearance, for a fabulous price! On the other hand, when we went to go down on an outing with the Smaller Niece and Grannie, I discovered that, as I suspected at the time, putting my glasses on the loop of my scarf while I was shopping was a Very Bad Idea. In all of the putting on of clothes and putting off of clothes, and in general, trying things on, I *forgot* that I had my glasses on my scarf (instead of properly Put Away), and so they were gone.

These are not cheap glasses, nor was it easy to acquire them in the first place. As I may have noted at the time (and I'm too lazy to go back and check right now), it was almost two months between when I had the eye appointment and ordered them, and when they arrived, and then when I was finally able to schedule picking them up. They are also a very magic plastic, and pretty much disappear when you put them down, because the refraction of the plastic is so slight. This also means that they were pretty expensive, and I was not happy at the thought of having to replace them just because I'd been careless.

The outing went very well, and I'll probably write more about that later, and on the way home, we stopped at the store where I'd been, to inquire at their Lost & Found. Hooray! Sometimes you live right! My glasses were there, pretty much not bent up. Happy ending. And *maybe* now I've learned not to loop them through whatever I have wrapped around my neck at the time. (But, unfortunately, possibly not...)

I *hate* waking up late. It really gets the day off to the wrong start. Lately, waking up "late" has meant 7-ish, which, while not bad, is not the 5:00 a.m. start that I need to maintain for the fall. Today, however, I got up after 10:00, which has really thrown my day off. It was due primarily to being awake with a queasy stomach last night at 2 a.m. That was undoubtedly a result of my having popcorn and chocolate sodas for dinner, which will in theory will teach me, but possibly not. ;-)

Yesterday was Day 4 of the Great Summer Vacation, and the "Getting Things Done" score remains mixed. I am getting things done. It's only that it's just about half of what I intend/need to get done. I'm continuing to get my walk in, which is good, and we went to see the remnants of an old WS landmark, the Walker Rock Garden. We saw it a longtime ago when The Girl was little, and I'm not sure if The Boy was even on the scene yet. I'll have to dig out my old photos, At that point, the fellow who built it still lived in his house, and the grounds were fairly well maintained. Now, the house is empty, it is in the process of being sold, and only the upper level is accessible. The entire lower level has gone over to blackberries and weeds, and very little of the rock sculptures there can even been seen from under the foliage now. It's rather sad.

Went to post last night about Summer Vacation Day 2 and apparently Blogger was down. ;-(
But this post is better than the one I wrote last night, so that's probably wound up as a good thing. ;-)

I'm spending this week trying to establish habits that I'll be able to maintain once classes start again in the fall. So, hooray! The laundry is folded and out of the front room, I've been walking regularly and the dishes got washed up last night after dinner. The To Do list is organized; now I've got to be better about tackling things *when* I plan to, instead of getting sucked into the endless wonder that is the internet. I also need to get more serious about getting to bed on time. It's been wonderful getting a full night's sleep, but I'll only be able to maintain that if I get into the habit of heading upstairs early enough.

I chickened out one more time, and still have not gone to the Cane Fencing class. This is 'fencing' as in rapiers, not lumber, btw. It is a class that teaches what amount to basic self-defense moves that can be executed with a walking stick (i.e., cane) or a parasol. Tres practical, and really cool. They meet Wednesday evenings up in North Seattle. My original excuse was not having good shoes for it and having to get up early the next day. Now that both of those have been addressed, it's time for me to screw my courage to the sticking point and get up there.

It was the last day of school yesterday, and I was in a good classroom for that sort of thing. The last day always starts out with a pancake breakfast, cooked by the teachers for the students. My contribution was general running around, trying to make sure that everyone had what they needed (extension cords, more batter, etc.) when they needed it. The day itself was short: 20 minute periods and the kids pleasant. It was a good day.

So that makes *today* the first day of summer. Now to see what I make of that. There's lots of projects that I've been putting off, with the excuse that I don't have time. With that excuse gone now, it will be interesting to see what I come up with next. ;-)

It has been amazing how good I've been feeling each day, after having been so sick. I'm still coughing, of course, but my energy level has been better than it's been for a long time. While I've considered the possibility that it is due to the contrast between feeling so sick and then not feeling sick, I actually think it is probably due to making a concerted effort to get enough rest so that I don't relapse.

Of course, that being said, I pulled pretty much an all-nighter a day or so ago to get a commitment done, and now I find I'm back in the "just a few hours short of sleep each night"-mode... AND I find that my energy level has dropped back down to mediocre.

So the challenge now is, since I know how AMAZING it felt to have had a full night's sleep, can I finally get back into the habit of GOING TO BED ON TIME ?!?!?!?!?

You don't appreciate just how good it feels to be alive and feeling normal until you've gone through a spell where you don't. Saturday I was seriously wondering how I would get through the week, since this flu had hit The Girl and Sister #2 so hard. Yesterday, I was starting to feel more normal and my temp dropped back down to where it is supposed to be. Today I actually feel alive again.

To some degree, I'm grateful for my morning coffee that gave me a little push each morning. I'm also grateful for the essential oils that I put into a mug of boiling water and sniffed three times a day (rosemary, lavender, eucalyptus and peppermint; later I added thyme and tea tree to the mix). Add my echinacea tea and throat lozenges to lots of bed rest, and something did the trick.

Now, hopefully, I won't come down with a rebound bout.

I was hoping to escape the worst of this current bug, but I succumbed yesterday evening. Rather than staying in my sinuses like it has for Mom and other family members, it's moved directly to my chest. Another friend has found she has phenumonia, so I'm going to take this seriously and rest. For the weekend, at least. I've got some commitments next week that it would be unfortunate to have to break...

Seems like there's something going round, a sore throat / chest thing that may be hard to shake. Sister #2 came down with it abruptly on Sunday, and The Girl has been trying to throw it off for two days now, as well. I used my sore throat as a rationale for having a down day yesterday. Here's hoping it doesn't last.

It is finally getting light around 5:30 in the morning and I can hear the birds outside while I'm pulling together. Seems unusual this year, although it shouldn't be. I suspect it is because it is still so cold. For a brief time yesterday, there was snow in our forecast for later in the week. It's changed back to 'showers' but it gives one cause to think. I'll be heading over to the other side of the mountains in about a week, and I still have to worry about whether I have chains in the car?!?!?

The wild currents are blooming like crazy around the side of the house. I really need to take some suckers and plant them closer to the front where I can see and enjoy them more. Our cherry and plum trees are blooming wonderfully. They're fruit trees so they don't have the colored blossoms, but the white flowers look luminous in the early morning light. I just hope they're not blooming too soon to get fertilized. Also along the side of the house where I don't see them: I've got some green gage plums growing. I knew there was a tree back there, but it never produces much fruit so it tends to be ignored. Last year, when all the italian plums failed to produce much of anything, I found too late that 1) I had a new group of green plums growing on the other side of the yard, and 2) they'd apparently had a wonderful season. I'll have to try to keep a better eye on them this year.

It is pretty out and sunny and it stays light until 8:00 now (thanks to the switch to daylight savings time) which I am very surprised to find that I think is is a nice change. Well, I've always known that I enjoyed how very long it stays light in the evenings at this latitude, but I usually find the drizzle to be fresh and relaxing. But today it is sunny and I'm ready for spring to finally be here. So I've been sitting in the front room with the front door open, to let in the fresh air.

But it is COLD. I finally shut the front door so that my hands could warm up a bit. This has been a very cold spring. The weather blogs that I read have noted that we have not had a day over 60 deg F yet this April. "Seattle has never failed to reach 60 degrees in April. The record fewest are two set in 1954."* (I'm assuming that he means that April 1954 holds the record, having only two days at or above 60.)

And the flowers show it. My camellias are STILL in bloom, and I haven't seen a hint of my rhododendrons yet. There have been years where the rhodies have been spent by Mothers' Day. I'm still waiting to see if they *bloom* by Mothers' Day this year. Who knows when the lilacs will open up.

But it's nice to be able to enjoy the camellias in the sunshine for a while, and the light in the evening is pleasing. And it's warm enough that I can run out in my jacket and have put the coat into the closet (at least until the rain returns). So it will do, at least for now.


* http://www.komonews.com/weather/blogs/scott/120137964.html?blog=y

If I had one piece of advice for my younger self, it would be "Do it now." Read it now, learn it now, don't put it off. If you have any sort of dynamic life at all, then there will never be time to do it later and it only piles up.

Then again, that is probably good advice for my current self, as well. ;-)

More advice:

Look at what is needed and make sure that you'll meet it.

Always take five minutes to plan what you're going to do. Taking a moment to plan is essential to making sure you haven't missed something. On the other hand, if you take more than five minutes, you're probably getting to the point where you're planning instead of doing.

Hmmm... if throwing salt over your left shoulder gives you good luck, will throwing lint over your left shoulder give you bad luck? (cleaning the house....)

Ah…. the coffee is kicking in. I can put my thoughts togethers a little bit more coherent now. This was one morning that I practically needed coffee to be able to pull together to go out to get my coffee.*

I have an excuse. It's not that I'm addicted to caffeine, although the Darling Husband would have you believe otherwise. My brain has been absolutely fried lately.

I volunteered to put together an event for our Regional Science Olympiad competition, on a subject that I knew pretty much nothing about. I've done other events in the past; I can learn enough to put together a 50 minute test, right?

Kick me if I ever put myself in that situation again.

Well, to be truthful, it is probably 'when', not 'if', and it wound up going alright. I was better pleased with the results than I was afraid I was going to be, although I could create something even better next time! ;-)

But it has meant several very late nights this past week as I try to pull together all the cramming that I've done over the past few weeks into something cohesive and reasonable. Two hours of sleep Thursday night and a short night on Friday also meant that as I was going into the Regionals yesterday morning, a migraine hit as well. Hooray for Better Living Through Chemistry; I have the correct prescription and although I prefer not to have to do it, I can stay on my feet in these circumstances, which is a Good Thing.

Pulling the event together was also compounded by the earthquake in Japan. This distracted me from working on my Science Olympiad event for far too many hours, which contributed to several of the very late nights. The Girl spent a year studying in Sendai, so we're more connected to the area than perhaps most. In addition one of her dearest friends moved back there with her husband to teach, and for the first day, we had no indication of their status.**

What a week.

So I NEED my coffee this morning*** to help recover from the migraine and the events of the past few days.

And that's my story and I'm sticking with it!


*Saturdays and Sundays I get my coffee out at the local coffee shop. It supports a locally owned company^ and gets me up and dressed.

^no, not Starbucks. ;-)

** While we have not heard directly from them, we have heard indirectly that they are alright. Specifics of what 'alright' consists of are still pending. We have not yet heard about other acquaintances there. It also turns out that The Girl had another friend in Tokoyo who is also fine. I didn't even *know* I needed to be worried about her!

*** as I sit here drinking my (very rare) second cup of coffee (decaf - I'm not THAT bad).

Batten down the hatches; we're in for a blow.

The weather forecasters have been promising a return to rain all week. More specifically, Cliff Mass is predicting the start of spring, duly noting that our spring tends to be cool, wet, and last until July. (http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2011/03/weak-convergence-zone-and-sun.html)

I hadn't heard much in the way of predictions for thunder, but we've gotten that as well. There was a peal yesterday afternoon (and also quite a downpour; glad I didn't have to be outside in that!) and another this morning which quite upset the Black Cat.

Today the forecast is for winds. Sounds like another good day to stay inside.

Of course, what I'm really watching is Friday's forecast. The Boy returns home over the mountain pass with a schoolmate driving. Fortunately, all current signs point to that being the best day of the bunch, with actual sunshine as part (although not all) of the forecast. I'm reasonably sure that given the mid-day start that they plan to have, they will be fine. I'm also working very hard on learning to let go and not to worry...

I saw an old friend yesterday. Our fathers had gone through their medical residency together, way back in the day, and the two families stayed in contact as both added kids pretty much in parallel. L. & I paired up as the two oldest sisters, then her brother was pretty much Sister No.Two's age, and their youngest sister was in line with our youngest (leaving Sister No.Three kinda unpaired again, but we all ran around together anyway, so it really didn't matter).

L. and I also had kids pretty much in parallel; her boy is the same age as The Girl and her girl is a couple of years younger than The Boy. But life was busy and we didn't keep in as close a touch as our parents had, so I've only seen them once or twice since coming back to the Puget Sound area, with mixed results. Both families seemed to be going in different directions, and with young kids and both sets of parents working, there wasn't a lot of time to keep up with each other.

Several weeks ago, she dropped me a note on Facebook (love it or hate it, Facebook has brought an amazing number of people back in contact) telling me that they'd be up in this area for a few days as their boy was graduating from his technical training program up here. Was there any chance we could get together?

I admit to trepidations. Would we have anything to talk about? Had we gone too far in completely different directions? Were we just trying to maintain contact based on our parents friendship?

We managed to pull our schedules (alright, I admit it: *my* schedule) together in the same direction yesterday afternoon, finally. Sister No.Two came up and she & I met L., her husband, their daughter and their niece on the waterfront. The two girls split up from us oldsters (How did we manage before cell phones?!?) and so the "grownups" spend the afternoon wandering around Pike Place Market, just chatting and catching up. Her husband has a wonderful sense of humor and it was good to catch up. The Darling Husband and The Girl joined us in the evening on a wild restaurant hunt (there was *no place* in the area that didn't have a 2 hr wait!); we finally checked one of my favorite places and found we could get in. The evening was late, the food was good and a nice time was had by all. We'll have to not let so long a time pass before the next time we get together. It was good to see them.

I have disappointed a cat.  We just got home, after a 2+ hour traffic jam, and I wanted to get some cocoa.  My World's Greatest Megalomania mug* was upstairs from when I had cocoa last night.   As I was heading up to get it, I heard The Girl exclaim, "Look at the happy cat!"  I called back, "Which one?"


"The one following you", she replied. 


Yes, the Black Cat was bounding up the stairs after me, thinking that I was heading off to bed.   I don't even think he registered that it was early; he was just happy that I was going in the right direction.  Poor sad kitty is still upstairs, sitting in the dark, waiting....


I feel moderately guilty.


* the best mug for cocoa, of course.

Latest Update at 11:00 a.m. Thurs. 2.24.11 (below)

I am *not* getting anything done!  My excuse is the "snow event" that we're supposed to be getting... I just don't see it.  The satellite water vapor images show a pretty distinct band of "no water vapor" over us and to the north.  This sorta matches with the patches of blue sky overhead and the fairly consistent lack of snow shown in the highway cameras up and down the I-5 corridor, all the way to Canada.  

 But I don't pretend to be a meteorologist...  heck, I had to look it up to make sure I was spelling it correctly (and to make sure that I wasn't referring someone who predicts meteor showers...).  So, I'm sure that we'll get our weather event... I just can't see how it's going to develop in the satellite pics.  

3:11 p.m. Update:
Scratch that.  I went out for a quick walk right after posting, and there were teeny tiny flakes just starting to come down.  Now, 30 minutes later, it is definitely snowing. The satellite water vapor image still shows minimal moisture overhead, so that's new insight into using that image. 

5:30 p.m. Update: 
After a brief period around 4:30 where it looked like things were going to let up, the preciptation restarted as tiny ice drops and has dusted the ground and rooftops white.  It's getting dark, and harder to tell now whether it is still ice or has turned to rain, but it is still coming down as a fine steady sprinkling of something.  Glad I don't have to go out on the roads tomorrow. 

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 23, 2010 -  7:00 a.m. Update
Well, nothing happened overnight, and I'm still not seeing a source of water vapor on the satellite images... not that I have any expertise in interpreting those at all, of course.  It's still cold, so the grass has kept its ice.  Any of the hard surfaces, like fence tops, appear to have lost theirs.  The sky is dark and grey, more than it was during yesterday's snow, actually.  So we'll see what happens...

8:45 p.m. Update
Oh my.  We has snow.  Lots of it, and it's coming down consistently.  I have no idea when it started. Guess that's what I get for monitoring it via the computer pages instead of the window.  My excuse:  I fell down an Jonathan Coulton rabbit hole at 6:00 and only came up for air just now...

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 24, 2010 - 7:15 a.m. Update
Seattle appears to continue to be mostly in the snow shadow, and we didn't get nearly the amount that I'm reading other areas (like Renton) got.  There's maybe a little more than an inch.  The grass is sorta covered, and the roads are white; not really enough to even be pretty.   

11:00 a.m. Update
Every time I've written that it's snowing, it's stopped.  So this time I'm just going to look the other way and pretend that I don't see it....

I woke up the other morning, and my first thought was, "Man, that dream really felt like I was awake. But I know I was dreaming because that situation wasn't real."

But, then, later I woke up, got up and started my day. So, now, I'm wondering. I *know* the first dream really was a dream. But the first waking, I'm not so sure. Was I dreaming that I woke up or not? And I'm not sure how I could ever figure the answer out...

I've realized for a long time that, at least for me, the memory of something works the same, whether it is a memory of a dream or of an actual occurrence. But I'm usually pretty sure which one it is, unlike this time...

Oh that Black Cat.

I've mentioned before that I strongly suspected the Black Cat of ringing the door chimes just to get me to get up and play with him. He appears to now be expanding his repertoire.

He ran the door chime again this morning, and when I got up to let him out he dashed back into the living room and looked at me. O.K., so I shut the door, and am walking back towards my chair, and he dashes off into the hallway. Starting to suspect something, I follow him. Sure enough, he's at the foot of the stairs. *Now* I'm certain I know what he's up to, so I start upstairs. He wants someone to snuggle with on the bed. Sure enough, as soon as I'm up a stair or two, he zips past me and is waiting there on the bed as I come in. Silly kitty.

We have a snuggle and he settles in beside my head, just like we were going off to sleep, purring madly. Sadly, I'm not a kitty cat, and I have stuff to get done instead of sleeping all afternoon. (So instead of working on all that stuff, I'm typing this. Go figure. ;-)

Our HS Science Olympiad Invitational was yesterday, and I pulled my Remote Sensing event off. In some ways this year was better than others, in that I felt that my questions were structured with more thought as to what I really expected them to know.

I learned some stuff while grading the responses, particularly to anticipate that someone might me helping me score the event. I actually had a key that let me use the two parents who showed up unexpectedly, which was good. Among my lessons learned was the realization that if I'm having the students 'estimate' an answer, I need to think about what the reasonable range of answers should be. Based on my working the problem beforehand (a lessoned learned from previous experiences!) I had established what I thought was a reasonable range, but looking that the student answers, next time I'll base it on percentage and put the range in the key. I wound up rescoring several parts of the tests after my volunteers had left, because I felt that my original criteria was too tight.

A major impact on the test creation was that I was called into a sub job unexpectedly on Thursday so I didn't have that day to finish things up. Then, Friday night, when I finally got to pick the test up again to finish pulling it together, it dawned on me that I was basically rewriting the same event as I had created three years ago. Well, that would be fine, except that two of my current team had been there and would possibly be more familiar with the material (always a concern when I'm responsible for the event).

So, at 10 o'clock at night, I find myself having to completely redirect my efforts, after having taken two weeks to pull my background material together for the other approach. It came together, but was not as polished as I would have liked. But independent of how I thought it came off, my students told me that they felt it was a better event than the one from the Invitational that they'd attended two weeks ago.

At least, I'm not responsible for creating the event for the Regionals next month. That's when it really gets to be a balancing act, to help my team prepare for an event that I'm creating and still be fair to the other teams.

The other things I learned were more specific to how to present the questions, and my team *will* have the advantage of discussing that with them when we meet over the next few weeks. And it's fun to be back. I've missed working with the kids this last fall.

"I need to be productive", I sez to meself, "I need to pick a task off my DO TODAY list and get it done. "Ah", sez I, "Get V-day kit from closet and send to niece. That will be quick and something I can cross off. Fifteen minutes tops, and then I'll be off onto the next task."

Four hours later, I have the V-day making kit ready to slip into an envelope to mail (albeit a *large* envelope)... AND I've filled the recycle bin with old software boxes that I've been saving for twenty-some years.

No, I don't consider it "hoarding" if the stuff is tucked away somewhere in an organized fashion and this habit of keeping the box has actually saved me money (~$75, when once I needed the bar code off my Norton Utilities software to prove that I deserved the new version at a much lower cost since it was an upgrade). Also, silly me, I always figured that if I resold the software that it would be better/nicer if I could also provide its box and all the associated paperwork. So I saved it.

But with Mac going to the Intel chip and OS10.5, all that lovely backwards compatibility is gone, This knocks any thought of any one ever wanting any of this software completely off the table, so resale isn't an issue. And even if it were, all the resalers just throw the CDs in jewel boxes anyway...

So the boxes are history. I *think* I've checked to make sure that there aren't any other irreplaceable items, like serial numbers needed for installs and whatnot. It's been quite a big step, and made quite a big space in the storage closet. Which opens up a place to put some of the other stuff I have piled around the house ... remember, it's not hoarding if it's tucked away neatly someplace out of sight. ;)

But I still need to get something done off my list.

Well, I finally did it! I bought a new camera today, a Canon Powershot SX130 IS.

My old Canon Powershot A75 ran into problems about two years ago, and I've been making due w/D's SLR ever since. Better quality photos, yes, but no video capability, no autofocus, and much heavier.

After much waffling about getting the Canon G12 (effectively SLR quality w/o all the lens and weight), it dawned on me that what I really wanted was something that would zoom. I've been bugging The Boy to get the SX130 since Xmas, when it was on sale for 25% off. The sales went off last Saturday, or so I thought. I guess that Canon is just moving the instant rebate around the various vendors? Anyway, the Sunday adverts showed it still on sale for $200 at the various Office stores around. On a whim, I checked the Really Great Camera Repair shop we found this summer and HURRAY! they had the rebate as well. I'd much rather give them my business than one of the Big Box stores, so I hied myself over there and walked out 30 minutes later with their last SX130. FINALLY!

It was a gorgeous day, so I took advantage and stopped on the way home to make some test shots. While there are some things that I can improve, test shots are posted at Flickr.com/photos/rainycity1. Check out the maximum zoom compared to the regular view. I am a happy photog.

Oh, and yes, my last grade was posted today, so my masters program is formally done. I found out that my teaching certification will be in the mail tomorrow. So, yeah, there's that, too.