What to do when people are yelling at each other in foreign languages and slamming doors in your hotel

I can't sleep because the people in the hallway are slamming their doors like it's going out of style.... and fighting in some language that I can't hear well enough to figure out. So, I thought, hey - why don't I post some pictures from our crazy trip???? Besides, how else can you make sitting in a hotel room watching Husky Starcraft play Diablo 3 even geekier?? Blog while you do it and your fiancee passes out on nyquil. 

Just in case you want to see the epicness of my geekdom.

Here is our trip to Oregon/Washington in pictures: (or at least some of the highlights from the first few days as it seems I stopped taking pictures after the first few days. I'll have to illustrate the next few days for you when I get home... I do have pictures again at the end of the trip, but mostly of one sunset.)

Days 1-4ish

Multnomah Falls

Awesome mossy trees

View from the top of the falls. Not as exciting as you thought it was going to be, was it??

The other view from the top.

The set up for Grandma's Funeral

Sign in table

Pre-food food table

The lovely fall tables (did I mention that there was no air conditioning and it was 80 degrees and humid??)

Quick (longer than I thought it was going to be) update

I apologize for the formatting, i'm having phone issues....
We're driving to the Portland airport to drop my parents off for their flight home right now (I hope they make it in time....) So I thought I'd give you a quick update.
We drove up to Portland on Thursday and Friday of last week, staying the night in a Motel 6 in Idaho that I wouldn't recommend. We were running a little early to pick my parents up from the airport, so decided to go a waterfall on the way into town. We went up to the waterfall and saw that it was only a mile to the top of the falls. Of course, we decided that we wanted to go to the top. This turned out to be an interesting idea as it was actually a little over a mile of 600 ft elevation gain, hot, and humid. Bleh. On the way up, in between pants and gasps, Kev and I discussed my request for personal training sessions for my birthday. (I want to get in shape for the wedding...) It seems that he is in full support of me getting in shape (big surprise) but not a fan of working out with me (someday I will expound in my thoughts about guy body images). We made it down the mountain, with Kev luckily still in one piece, and went to grab a snack before hitting the airport. (I'll post pics of the snacks later). We found my parents at the fancy Portland airport and hit the road to head for Salem.
*ok i'm carsick, I'll write more later*

--
Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity and crazy autocorrected words.

What a weird week

I don't know about you, but I sure had a strange week!
Here are the notable points:
* 2 of 15 people in a department at work were hospitalized (for separate reasons)
* I moved offices at work, I no longer work in the 5000 degree basement!
* A private correspondence at work was somehow forwarded to the ummm, topic person. Resulting in very uncomfortable situations.
* Shep got worms. Ewww. But all is well now.
* I was able to make a fist all by myself! Yay

And finally, the weird curse that seems to hover around my birthday struck again.
My paternal grandmother passed on this Thursday. We weren't close, I don't think that I have seen her in the past 20 years. But the hard part about her passing is that it hurts my dad. I know that it was never easy on him that our families didn't get along, and he had spent a lot of time in the last year taking care of them from afar. Both of his parents had some pretty serious dementia and he had transitioned them to a group home, and then into a full care facility. One positive light is that my Dad got to visit with them last week. My grandmother had actually recognized him and had given him a very long hug. I'm so happy that he has that memory!
Here are the few memories that I have of this grandmother:
* She liked to crochet, and attempted to teach me. She was unsuccessful.
* We gave them a clock for an anniversary once.
* When we went to visit them in Arizona, she boiled a ham in milk and then forced us to eat it. To this day, I can't stand pork (except for bacon)
* She made divinity and fudge.
The part of her passing that makes me really upset though, is what I feel is the lack of support for my Dad. When he told me that she had passed, my first thought was We'll be there to help you through this. Unfortunately, it seems that the rest of my family did not feel the same. I heard the comments "I didn't like her/know her, why would I want to go?" and "I  don't need closure." These sentiments just break my heart. The comments have been made that I lack empathy and compassion (I don't agree, as I don't seem to be a sociopath) but I firmly believe that if someone is hurting, you help them and you support them. Funerals aren't for the person who passed on, they are for the people left behind. I mean, how would you feel if your mom died and the response of your loved once was "well, I didn't like her, but I'll go if I have to"?
(One theme that has bothered me for years is the way that my family supports each other. It simply doesn't come across in a manner that soothes me.)

And back to the curse... This is now my 4th family member that has died right around my birthday..... so weird.
Here's remembering, and missing you:
Grandpa
Uncle Ducky
Aunt Ruthy
Grandma

OK, enough of this feeling and sharing. I'm off to the football game we won free tickets to....

Old Posts I never published: I wish I glitter was a color...

So, the other night, I was making some delicious spaghetti and garlic bread when my BF came home. To my surprise, he said he had a present for me! (I love presents. It could be a rock and I'd be happy) He started giving some bizarre background, like I got this from a someone at work... I don't know the rest, I was totally focused on PHAT LEWTZ!!!!
He pulled this strange baggie out of his pocket and then said the words:
"This not that ring." (I guess at this point I should let you know that BF and I have been dating for 7.5+ years, so engagement is kind of a hot topic at this point...)

Seriously, why is glitter not a color? This doesn't do my excitement justice.

 I didn't care that it wasn't that ring, my guy just gave me a sparkley thing with blue! And it totally matches the necklace he gave me the first year we were dating! It was so pretty it totally could have been an engagement ring, so I told him so.
The ring is actually 2 sizes too big for me.... and I decided that I wanted to get it sized at the shop our friend works at. I told the BF before I headed over and he told me the following.
BF: You should look at rings while you are there and tell me what you like.

Really? That's actually very exciting.... I was grinning like a cat for the rest of shift... Did he really just tell me to pick out an engagement ring?? So I headed down to the store and was talking to my friend down there. She started hugging me when I told her I got to pick out a ring, and I was so excited I was cool with that. My hand may have been shaking as I was trying things on. Weird fact though, most of the display rings are a size 6, so I tried everything on my pinky finger... Back to the story...
We sat down at the counter I looked down. I suddenly realized that there was a whole lot of bling down there and I had no idea what the hell I was doing... (I was told that men tend to faint at this point. I can see why.)

Yeah, I don't know why my head is extra fat in this pic. 

Thankfully, they seemed very prepared for my bling panic and started by showing me things and I told them if I liked them or not. We went through a ton of rings before I found one that I thought was pretty good. Then we found a simple band I liked. Then we found THE ONE!

Note: "The one" that I picked out was not actually the engagement ring that I received... the BF went above and beyond what I thought he could possibly afford. :)

What every man should learn in high school

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/senior_year

Random old post I never posted: My 5.10 Challenge

I have challenged myself to climb a 5.10 by the end of this year's climbing season. For those of you who aren't climbing savy, that's like a moderately difficult climb. The real challenge in this is that I haven't climbed at all in the past several years and wasn't much of a climber to begin with anyway. I mean that I tend to cry if there is a bulge in the rock (anything slightly resembling an overhang).
So, I'm still on the fence over keeping a public log of how this challenge goes. Let me know if it is anything you may possibly be interested in hearing about. It would be a separate page listed at the top.
Fun note, I wrote this shortly before spraining the hell out of my foot..... LOL

Random post I started several months ago

Items that I don't think you should advertise with commercials:
Vibrators
Catheters
Hemeroid Creme

(As I'm making this list, I'm realizing I really don't like most commercials anyway...)

What are you tired of seeing advertised???

ooOOOoo Shampoo!

Because I have awesome "daywalker" skin (aka transparent and allergic to everything on earth), I have recently discovered some new products that are working wonders. That's right, I've found the holy grail!
Shampoo that doesn't make me break out.
(I'm pretty easy to please)

I liked the product so much, that I decided to look into, umm, turning it into an income source.
(not to mention the plethora of things that cost money in my life right now; wedding, finger surgery, the relative living at our house)

So far, I haven't signed anyone up. I've talked to four people about it. (I may be subjecting friends and family to "practice presentations.") They all thought the products sounded great, but I haven't yet closed a deal... I go through these waves where I'm excited and jazzed and think "Hell Yeah, I can do this" and then I go through the other side of the wave... where it's hard to think that I will ever be successful at this. Honestly, I can't give up after 4 people, that's just silly. Not to mention that most of my friends are kinda poor... Living in Bozeman can do that to you.

We'll see how it goes. I'll keep you updated. If nothing else, I should come out of this with some interesting stories....


*ahem*
Oh hey, and if you are interested in natural cleansers, cleaners, make-up, etc with a 100% satisfaction, shoot me an email... :)

Practicing my couch potato skillz

I tried to go on a very short hike yesterday. It nicely showed me that getting my heart rate even remotely excited can be painful. In fact, between that and accidentally torquing my finger on one of the dogs today, I've been doing quite a bit of hanging out on the couch today.

I seem to be spending my time watching one of two shows (since one boy is upstairs watching season 7 of StarTrek and the other is watching Samurai X, I actually get to watch something I'm a bit interested in).

Show #1 was a short marathon of Criminal Minds. Even though they were just random episodes, I found it to be pretty addicting (if a bit creepy). My only real complaint is the blonde chick that works with the computers. Is anyone else seeing a really strong resemblance to the awesome lab tech lady (Abby?) on NCIS?

VS

Who do you prefer?? I think I like Abby... she seems to have more spunk.

The other think I've been watching during this holiday of crappy TV is.... Restaurant: Impossible. Here is what happens in every episode:

Muscly guy walks into a restaurant. He makes them clean. He teaches them how to make a pie or something else crazy simple. He tells the decorating bimbo (I'm sorry, but it's true) what he wants to happen. She says it will take $500,000 and six months. He responses with "you have two days and $10,000. She seems surprised for some reason. He gets mad that they are slow at transforming the dining room. The put the chairs in at the last minute. Everything ends up kittens and rainbows. 

I have to make the comparison to Kitchen Nightmares.

VS

I have to say, I infinitely prefer Gordon... Even with the editing that Fox inflicts on us (the BBC version is waaaay better) Not to mention that Gordon's makeovers don't look like they immediately need to be made over. 

What do you think? Have you seen any copy cat shows lately???

Did you know that calling in an OR staff is expensive?

Well, I assume it is.
I don't actually know how expensive it will be. The PT guy who was bending my finger the other day told me that his lowest guess would be $7K. Gag. So far only I've only seen ~$5k worth of charges come in, but it has only been a week...

Sometimes it's hard to believe that a pinky finger can be so freaking expensive.

Thank goodness I have health insurance that started on 8/1! Though I am certainly wishing that the maximum out of pocket was a whole lot lower than $3000...

The finger is starting to feel better, and the bruises are starting to fade. My stitches are scheduled to come out on 9/7. That will be pretty cool. :) Though I'm not sure how long I'll have to wear the splint. My finger still really does not like to be straightened, and it's really unstable and weak without my friendly splint.

Do you know what really drives me crazy though?? When I hear the comment "It's only your pinky."
Let me tell you, your pinky is way more important than you would think. Not to mention that you really don't want to hear this from your fiance who is simply not wanting to do something when he says this. It might give some people the idea to assist you in experiencing some of the following:
You can't really wipe the counter or do dishes until you get your stitches out (I don't think he'd mind that).
It's really lame when you want to give someone a thumbs up and it always looks like the "hang loose" sign.
It is very difficult to cut things with knifes or butter bread without a pinky.
Did you know that the strength of your grip comes from the pinky side of your hand? It has nothing to do with the "all important" thumb. That means carrying things, opening jars, and picking things up all tend to be painful activities.
Wiping. 'nuff said.
And finally, contrary to popular belief, playing a "staff flutie" with your version of the Lord of the Rings theme continually does not have healing powers for pinky fingers (or sinus infections). It actually causes more pain since making a fist hurts and you aren't supposed to have any impact on your joints....

OMG, he's playing it again. Excuse me while I ....

What could possibly be better than one, possibly murderous puppy?

Two puppies!

I'll admit that the timing was a little odd. I mean, I think most people resent their pets when they try to kill them. Me on the other hand, I went out and found Sir Maki a new friend!

Meet my new baby!

Shep (I hate his name, but Kev is insisting that I can't change it) is a 1.5 year old Aussie. He was an owner surrender, they said they didn't have enough time for a dog and had gotten as a gift as a puppy. I think it's weird on their part, but their loss is our gain.