Author Archives: Pamela

I haven’t been able to FTP into this account starting last Friday.

Right now I’m overwhelmed by things that don’t work. Last night it was the iPod which I managed to figure out relatively quickly.

All weekend I wasn’t in the mood to phone my hosting support to get the problem solved.

Just now, I FINALLY phoned and sit on hold and blah blah blah. And then he couldn’t find anything wrong and now it works.

Argh. Grumpy-making.

Tons going on so if I post at all, it will be half-assed posts like this.

Today’s photo is from the deep archives. This is Uncle Barry, Auntie Janet and me at what I believe is the famous camping trip to the Olympic Rain Forest. (Just in case you don’t click through, I’ll tell you that average rain fall is 220 inches a year.) I think the photo was taken by Aunt Aileen.

We drove out to the beautiful Olympic National Forest and set up camp and then enjoyed a lovely hike where we took this photo. We returned to camp and it began to rain. We were prepared for this and sat under our dripping tarp making our dinner and exclaiming how fun it was to be out camping in the rain.

After dinner we huddled on a picnic bench under our shelter and placed bets on how long before the sagging tarp fell and how much water had accumulated at the bottom of our tents.

After dessert we pulled up camp, threw everything in the car and drove home and slept in warm, dry beds. In the morning, Auntie made pancakes and we reminisced about our wonderful camping trip.

I’m not an Olympics person.

When I was younger I enjoyed watching but now it feels like it’s not about sports. It’s just about the U.S. winning. And the commentators make me want to stick forks in my ears.

I’ve watched about 3 minutes of the current games and every time I turned on the TV it was synchronized diving. Why is this even a sport? Why not synchronized bowling?

I’m going to invent the sport of competitive vacuuming and start a training camp at my house.

1. C-Tran has new buses.

I finally rode on one for the first time this week and I can’t say that I love them. They’re like the anti-tardis meaning smaller on the inside than the outside. It seems like there are less seats. And the seats are nicer but there’s no place to put my stuff so I have my big giant bags stuff on my lap.

2. My sleep habits returned to normal almost immediately after the workshop. In Seattle my bedtime was 1am or later and I had a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep. I was afraid when I got home it would be like jetlag or that I was broken and would never be able to sleep properly again. Nope. I go to bed at 9pm. It’s fantastic.

On the way to work I got to watch a lady total her shiny Mercedes right in front of me. We were on the freeway right at the I5 – 405 split. She zoomed by me and drifted into my lane. She was probably looking at the directions on her PDA. She kept drifting … drifting … wham! Right into the back end of one of those trailer rigs that carries a bunch of cars. This one was empty. Blew a tire. Thankfully she kept control and made it to the shoulder. When I passed her she looked very unhappy.

Then a guy was puking in the weeds next to the parking lot.

I wonder what else is in store for today.

Dealth Valley Chipotle: Have you heard of these chips? Bob had a bag sitting in the chip area when I got home and I opened them right away. Highly recommended.

Bob took a photo of a squirrel on our roof. At this time of year there are these weird nut trees around the neighborhood and the squirrels get into a frenzy chasing each other out of the trees and running back and forth dragging the nuts all over the yard. They’re so excited about it they forget that they’re afraid of humans and will run right by me when I’m watering or working in the yard: which creeps me out. Aren’t they just giant rodents with big fluffy tails?

Now I’m convinced there are squirrels living in the house and it’s only a matter of time before one runs out while I’m working on my story or watching TV and will run over and bite me. Then I’ll turn into a frothy mouthed zombie and the rest of the summer will be ruined.

Yesterday I went to the Farmer’s Market for the first time since I’ve been home and I wanted to buy everything.

I settled for one giant bag of things. Today I’m making my favorite lentil and chard soup and I just noticed that I only have orange lentils which should make it interesting. It’s between that and split peas.

We desperately need a Bobs Red Mill run.

I’m also making beets and some sort of salad I can take to the office for my lunch.

The only thing I managed to make yesterday was bread so I still need to make cookies and granola. I thoroughly enjoyed not cooking for 6 weeks but I’m glad to be at it again.

Okay, time to get to work on this story. I had it open on my computer yesterday and every time I walked by I would stick my tongue out at it. Today I need to get some work done.