Surgery update - Day... 30 something

Lots of folks have been asking how Dave is. I guess that must be good news - he's recovering well enough that we are no longer focusing on the recovery. He's getting around very well, and more or less isn't encumbered by his incision any more. He's doing PT twice a week and exercises the rest of the week, and the therapist says she's pleased with his progress. I think in the next week or so we return to talk to the surgeon. Sometime. I don't really recall.

He still has a lot of painful days, but no pain no gain, right? His PT is getting more aggressive, so the added pain is somewhat expected. On his best days since the surgery, he's felt better than pre-operation. It may take awhile for that to become the standard, but it seems reasonable to count on that eventually.

We are planning on taking a road trip to San Fran in the middle of July (yeah baby! sooooo looking forward to this!) and so now the only worry is whether he'll be in shape to spend prolonged time in the car.

That reminds me, we also would like to get to a SCA Event up in Wyoming over the 4th of July. The kennel is shaping up to be busy enough we're wondering how the heck to get away. But someone suggested that we had to take the trip to WY as a practice for the CA trip. Sounds good to me: Dave's recovery depends on us heading up to GLORY. :-)

Surgery update - Day #5

So the facebook updates for the first few days were all that I could keep up with, then we went totally dark over the weekend as I pretty much just shunned our electronic lives. Not a bad thing every once in awhile. But, am back to the real world today and it feels like time where an actual update, with actual information in it, is due.

Dave had surgery - a diskectomy to remove the herniated portions of his L5-S1 disk - last Wednesday morning. He was out of surgery by 9:30, in recovery by 10:30 or so in a very nice, private, corner room on the fourth floor.

He arrived in his room complaining of needing to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately, his bladder sphincter, it appears, was still affected by the anesthesia and wasn't cooperating. This caused him not only a great deal of discomfort for nearly a day, but also contributed to his elevated BP on top of everything else. All this really didn't even give him a chance to start recovering from the surgery, so it was pretty clear early on we were spending the night at the hospital. They had taken him off of his BP medication for the surgery. By that evening the BP had fallen, but not far enough for the nurse's satisfaction, so she put him back on his meds.

His room came equipped with the tiniest little fold out guest bed you've ever seen - a wide chair, really. The mattress was only about 24 inches wide! LOL. It's cuteness didn't outweigh it's uncomfortableness, however. Not that either of us had a lot of opportunity to actually sleep anyways.

Thursday morning the surgeon popped his head in to check on Dave - at 6:30 am no less. WTH? So - we were up and at'em bright and early. Dave was clearly doing much better though, so was released - pending a visit from the Physical and Occupational Therapists. The nurse was all about making us feel comfortable -- "No rush to get out of here, do you want to stay for lunch?" Well, no, not really.

You think, sitting in the hospital with nothing to do for hours on end, that you have a lot of time on your hands. But then just try and put in a movie to watch. OMG - the LONGEST movies we have ever sat through with all the interruptions! We only finished one the previous night, and as we were up at that unreasonably early hour Thursday with - again nothing to DO for hours - we put in the second one.

I'd rented 21 and BOLT, movies we'd never gotten around to seeing. Bolt seemed like a great idea - cute doggie, funny movie, right? Yeah. Also about a devoted little girl who gets separated from her beloved dog. Ouch. In hind sight we probably could have made a better choice. Oh well, at least we had all those interruptions to keep us from getting too carried away with the emotions. ;-)

The PT and OT came mid morning, had him out for his first hallway excursions. He was walking quite well. Learned how to do stairs, the log roll, get into and out of chairs by leaning on their arms. Huum, we have no chairs with sturdy arms. A trip to the thrift store that afternoon fixed that. It was the OT who described to us the 3 day rule - that the first three days after surgery are the worst. I found myself clinging to that principle the next 2.5 days.

And there it was - we went home. The trip took its toll, but we got him set up in the recliner with end tables on both sides, his reading material, crossword puzzles, a huge sippy cup of juice, his phone, his phone charger, his iTouch, and all of the remotes within reach. As he started to criticize not just what I was doing, but also our property manager - whom we could see walking back and forth across the driveway apparently working on the wrong project - I threatened to close all of the blinds so that he could just worry about himself for a few hours. Seriously, I didn't know whether to rail at him or to burst out laughing when he told me I shouldn't have brought the bag of hard candy to his chair - just a candy dish. I think/hope I went the laughing route.

Night #2 was even less restful than #1. I shall not dwell on that.

Day #2 was fretful. Got up early as I was scheduled to work the kennel, taking Dave's normal shifts. At one point during the night he got over chilled, so we bundled him up under blankets. Getting up he was absolutely burning up - temperature 102! I pulled the blankets off, made him drink some, and promised to be back. Fortunately our dog numbers were low enough that our staff helper could deal with the dogs herself once the breakfasts and check ins/outs were done, and I came back in. Temperature down to 101. Called the doctor - waited hours for a call back. The assistant got the info and said she had to check with the surgeon... Who - had just left. So it would be hours more. Meanwhile, given his meds she didn't think he could/should take anything for the fever.

I didn't have any staff for the afternoon shift, so I was in the kennel mid afternoon when I finally got a call back. The surgeon wasn't overly concerned about his temperature given he didn't have any other signs of body aches or inflamed skin around his bandage. But - Motrin was ok if we wanted to administer that. And, given that this was 4:00 on Friday, if the temperature went up -- go to the ER. Great. That's real comforting.

Gave him Motrin; the fever broke overnight. Night #3, actually, was a real improvement over the first two. But Day #3, Saturday, he was plagued with a lot of pain. He pretty much hunkered down for the day in bed. I watched some DVDs by myself and did some house cleaning. Not nearly enough, mind you. But some.

The surgeon had stressed that the best rehabilitation for him was walking. Starting even Thursday we'd done some walking on the property. It's almost 1/4 mile down to the mailbox - we figured it's now his duty to go collect it. It's a bit of a push coming back up to the house, but rather conveniently we have benches set up above the riding arena which are 3/4 of the way.

Sunday, Day #4, finally, really did felt better. The nights continue to improve, and he's pretty much fully ambulatory himself now: I'm not helping him get into or out of bed, etc. That evening we took off and went to a nearby nature area for our walk. Took the dog. It was beautiful. It was really nice to explore new place we'd never been to though it's just down the street and we drive by it all the time. My sister happened to call while we were out and I was reporting that yes, Dave was feeling better. "I'm still in pain," he grumbled over my shoulder. Yeah, ok sweetie. I didn't press him to admit that it would have taken a semi-truck to get him out of bed the day before, not to mention into the car and down to the nature trail -- NOR that he only took his pain meds 3 times on Sunday instead of the prescribed 4. So THERE - grumpy.

Love you. ;-D

So, I'm back at work today and he's at home to fend for himself. He has a followup visit with the surgeon on Thursday, and a tentative Physical Therapy appointment on Friday. We're hoping that by next week he'll be feeling well enough to do the clerical tasks in the kennel. Fingers crossed!

Meanwhile, it's JUNE! Boy did that sneak up on us. June is very busy on the ranch - it's our highest kennel month (traditionally) and summer camps start. To have Dave completely laid up this week is ultra inconvenient -- which makes me chaff all the more that his surgery was delayed for 5 weeks for nothing but a bureaucratic mess up back in April. GRRRR. But I shall not dwell on that.

Farewell, Baby Girl

Ten years ago David was volunteering at the Longmont Humane Society, and we had just moved into our first home with a yard. He came home one day telling me about a nice dog he'd met. I asked him yesterday what attracted him to her? He couldn't say exactly - "she was just so darn cute". Apparently we have the same taste in dogs. I remember going to visit her after work the next day. I got there before Dave, so I went back into the kennels to take a look. First thing I noticed was this friendly young dog who immediately rolled to her back asking for a belly rub -- even though there was no way I could reach through the gate to do that. I looked at her kennel tag, and it said Autumn. I asked to take her out on leash, and by the time Dave got there it was a done deal as far as I was concerned.





It was a little bit of a rocky start, bringing her home. She had been a stray, and so had several neuroses we had to figure out. The fear of loud noises and vehicles were obvious - as she would trip you up on a walk scrambling to get as far away from passing vehicles as possible. The fear of feet was a little more vague, until we realized it was feet with shoes on them that really scared her. She was so timid it was several days before we saw her break into anything faster than a walk -- but then it was a frenzy of energy, tail tucked under as she zoomed around our parking area.



A sweeter, gentler dog we have never met. She loved people and attention - from where ever she could get them. Her standard greeting was the roll-over-and-rub-my-belly request. We called her a belly rub lush. A favored move was me on my knees and her sitting up with her paws on my shoulders. Forehead to forehead I could then rub the belly. *bliss*

She was quite the cuddler too. I remember watching entire TV shows and movies sitting on the floor with her lying between my legs or even leaning up against my chest. Saturday mornings it was typical for her to come over and sit by my side of the bed and stare at me... until I raised the covers. She'd jump up, but I swear her feet hardly hit the bed before her legs were folding underneath her and she'd be perfectly curled up in the crook of my arm. And then snoring soundly within just minutes.



Since we were both working we knew we wanted a companion for her. 6 months after bringing her home we met another dog at the Humane Society. Knowing she was shy with other dogs, we paid three separate visits to the new dog before Cisco joined our family. Even after three visits she hadn't paid much attention to Cisco in the introduction yard, until finally we were all standing around and she just swatted him a good one on the head with her paw. Ok, he's a keeper! We still kept them in separate yards while we away at work -- until the day Dave returned to find Cisco had jumped the fence into Autumn's yard. So much for that, we decided.







Cisco has ever been the clown. "Wild Man" is one of his many nicknames. Just his crooked ears makes people laugh. Autumn, though, always brings out the 'awwws' in people. Her soulful eyes have this tractor beam like pull... 'You want to pet me, I know you do.'

While they both like to sleep in sunny spots, it was Autumn who I saw snoozing in our bedroom up at Deer Trail one day. We were already working on the plan to start up the ranch, and we were looking for a name. Something that conveyed fun, had a western type theme, attractive to kids... I walked by and asked how my sun puppy was doing. Wow - great name, I thought, if only it could be adapted to horses. Thus Sun Pony was born.



~*~

Both Cisco and Autumn are approaching 12 years old - such is our best estimates. While it seems clear Cisco is going to charge right on through to the end of his life, Autumn has been slowing down. Her hearing and sight were fading. We knew when she could no longer hear the dinner bowls being filled that her inattention was not just selective hearing. Last year our vet removed a number of tumors, at least one of which was malignant. A few months ago she started really favoring her left hind leg. Our vet suspected bone cancer, and referred us up to the Animal Cancer Clinic at the CSU Vet Hospital. They took more images and agreed. But also found that it had spread to her lungs. They offered to let us enroll her in a clinical trial for a new chemo / pain management therapy for the bone cancer. Which, of course, could do nothing but attempt to slow the progress of the cancer, but also try and relieve her pain. In doing so we had to take her off of one of the pain meds she had been on. This seems to have been quite a blow. Despite tripling the other medication she had, she was back to not sleeping at night. We were now taking turns sleeping on the couch since carrying her up and down stairs didn't seem viable anymore - even without regard to Dave's back troubles.

But we persevered, hoping that their reports that this new therapy would be helpful would pan out. The study was to run a 2 month course, with Autumn receiving an IV treatment for 5 days on week 0, 4 and 8. Monday was to be her first treatment. Dave took her up there, met with the doctors, and decided to pick her up later since they needed to observe her for several hours. He called me just after lunch to report that they had x-rayed her leg again, and had found a fracture. We don't know when it happened, it could have been during the car ride up that morning, or it could have been just her trying to get around this past weekend. They said the bone had gotten so brittle that there was no hope that it would heal. Amputation just didn't seem logical to us, since we knew the cancer had already spread to her chest. And so we made the excruciating decision to drive up there and say good bye.

There is just no way to prepare for this. Even given the months of warning that we knew it was coming - we certainly didn't know it was coming yesterday. We took Cisco up with us, but there was no obvious sign he understood. He greeted her, and then wandered the room and whined as he always does when short on patience. I'm still trying to see if he's acting normal or not, but since I know we certainly aren't acting normal it's probably ridiculous to even wonder.

We've spent a lot of time today reviewing old pictures. Since half of her life was during film-camera days, it's been quite the trip down memory lane as we haven't pulled out the photo boxes for years. Pretty therapeutic, actually. We've found so many pictures that there were far too many for the blog. So we put up a separate slide show page for those of you interested in looking through them.

We'll leave you with these two photos. Close to being the first picture of Autumn we ever took, and the last. The first, along with those above, were taken on a hike with Dave's parents, while they were visiting. The second was taken last month while she was out in the kennel yards.


Brainard Lake, September 1998



At Happy Tails, April 2009

And so concludes her tale. Autumn who was dubbed our Baby Girl the day we learned that we could pick her up from the Humane Society. We got her Labor Day weekend, which is our wedding anniversary. The first time we had to leave her alone in the house was to go out for our anniversary dinner. I'm certain all future anniversaries will include a toast to the pup who brought so much to our lives. We will always love and miss you, Autumn Gold.

We have a date

Dave's surgery will resume on May 27th.

We're not terribly pleased by the date: the first time around we could schedule 2 weeks out. Now for some reason it's 4 weeks out. But, it's scheduled. Yea.

Meanwhile, we've been getting ALL the productivity we can out of Dave before he's laid up with recovering. ;-D You should see what we did yesterday! That'll be another post, due shortly.

As We Figured

So, the bad news is I'm seeing red, and no doubt my blood pressure is through the roof.

The good news is that this is all over stupid bureucratical BS rather than Dave's actual health. We spoke with the Cardiologist this afternoon. Nice guy. Really - personable, seemed to take an interest in his health... Only didn't quite grasp the purpose of our visit. A month ago when Dave saw him, they'd discovered that his cholesterol had mysteriously taken a significant down-swing. That's all great, even though it's quite odd that we didn't knowingly change anything to bring this about. He still wants Dave to lose weight... yeah yeah yeah.

(would be nice if he could walk or move without pain - thus allowing him to exercise... but details!)

Anyways, today he started right in on all those stats, again. And finally he says - so diet may really be your next best option since we're already using the other preventative factors to their maximum utility. So, would you like to see the Nutritionist?

I was really, nearly falling out of my chair. What we would like -- is an authorization to proceed with surgery!

Oh yeah, sure. But don't you want to talk to the Nutritionist? Read my lips - NO. I want to know why they 1) thought there was something funky with his tests last week enough to call you to consult, and 2) why you said Dave had to come in for more testing in order to do that consult.

Oh, well, the other doctors, of course, don't have access to Dave's history, and for some reason when he weighed in on the consult he didn't dig into the history either. For what he said today? Was that the 'abnormality' in Dave's ECG has been around for at least 2 years and is normal for Dave.

Well - that is possibly an over simplification. He did say there is an abnormality in his ECG that has been there for 2 years, but that the nuclear imaging test they did on him this week prooved once again that the abnormality does not indicate a mal-functioning heart. Good to know.

Now, can we make you an appointment for the Nutritionist?


Meanwhile Dave has been on the phone to try and get his surgery re-scheduled.

Weeks delay

So the cardiologist called this morning. Make that A cardiologist - the doc Dave usually sees was not available for some reason. The nurse started out saying things were fine to proceed with the surgery, and was going on to say she'd contact the orthopedist's office to tell them that when she paused. And then said -- No, no, sorry about that, the doctor has changed his mind. You need to come in for tests.

So, get in line to see the cardiologist, and then back in line to schedule surgery -- which has never been a speedy process in our experience. Assuming that all these tests don't rule out the surgery altogether? Dang, hadn't thought of that - is that a possibility? We still don't know what it was in the EKG that has everyone concerned.

View from the inside

I knew Dave Cullen has been running ragged for several weeks now, doing all the press for his new book, "Columbine". I knew this because I have been helping him by updating his website, but being able to get a hold of him to find out what needs to be done next has been a challenge.

But as the frenzy winds down, he's blogged about his tour experience -- and it made me guffaw. Then chuckle; shake my head in amazement; preen; and then want to give him a hug. :-)

Not So Fast

So, on Tuesday's pre-op exams, Dave's EKG aparently warranted his cardiologist's sign off before the orthopedic surgeon would proceed. So the surgery was cancelled to be rescheduled. I've been putting off posting here, until we knew more... a day and a half later, we still don't know any more except that no one seems to be able to actually communicate with anyone else. Last news we heard, about an hour ago, is that somehow it is Dave's responsibility to get the test results to his cardiologist to review. Sorry? Couldn't someone have mentioned that on Tuesday? >:(

Then Fix It

Last year at this time Dave's back/sciatica started giving him a lot of pain. We were concerned what this would mean for our trip to England in June, so he excellated his visits to professionals. He had been working with a couple physical therapist and a chiropractor, but finally an orthopedist took some images of his back (duh - good idea) and found a herniated disk. Actually, thinking back now I don't think that diagnosis happened until after we came back from England... That was really terrific news because for months no one could really isolate what the cause was and we feared it was MS related and possibly untreatable.

On the ortopedist's advice, and also out of a reluctance to rush into surgery, he has not had any treatment. It has been imaged again, and while the herniation has shrunk, the pain is not any better.

SO: Dave is scheduled for surgery next Thursday. From what the surgeon says, it's the simplest back procedure: a diskectomy. They go in from the back, into the spine, and remove the portion of the disk that is pinching the nerves. If all goes well he'll be out the same day. We discussed some other procedures, disk replacement and fusion, but since Dave's pain is almost entirely in his leg and not in the back, he said those were much more invasive procedures and less applicable for his situation.

He'll be on recovery for at least 6 weeks following that. Fortunately we've recently had some good luck hiring new kennel staff (bad luck too - thankfully the good seems to have outweighed the bad). So he is ever so joyful about getting to be the one to stay in the office to play customer service rep. Not!

Keep your fingers crossed, it would be a long time in coming if he finally gets some relief.

A 'Why Dun It'

A few days ago I was discussing a new book I'd just started reading. It was one I've been anticipating for a year or so. Not because I'm a big fan of the topic, for in fact I was somewhat nervous about the topic. No, I've been acquainted with the author for about 3 years and it's been really interesting to see the publishing world from the author's point of view. It's his first book, and anytime we talked about it he was so effusive I couldn't help but await publication with great anticipation.

The book is "Columbine" - the culmination of Dave Cullen's years of studying the tragedy, what lead up to it and the aftermath it spawned. Later this month is the 10th year anniversary. When the question was posed - why wait 10 years to publish the book? Dave laughed and confessed it was a LOT of information to assimilate. He chuckled, saying how especially exciting it was to get a book contract. And then extend for a year. And then another year... But then he grows introspective and admits that frankly, the story was still developing. It took years for much of the evidence to be released, during which time the drama of the aftershocks was still in much fluctuation. It was in conjunction with the 5th anniversary, 2004, that the psychological / psychiatric evaluation results were published. The killer's journals released in 2006. The permanent memorial wasn't completed until 2007.

Anyways, I was discussing the book, admitting that I hadn't know what to expect. It's a volatile topic, one I wasn't sure I was eager to dive back into. Living in Boulder at the time I don't recall ever trying to follow the story - but it permeated our lives for a very long time. I do remember the moment when I heard the breaking news.

There is a very large cast of characters -- the high school had 2000 students. Add to that the families, faculty, media, community members and law enforcement that are all intimately intertwined. Without thinking, I'd said it was a heck of a Who Dun It. Except, of course, we know exactly WHO, and yet the story Dave weaves remains spell binding. That conundrum puzzled me. Until, at the book signing I attended in Boulder last night, Dave said that he'd aimed to write -- "certainly not a Who Done It, but a How Dun It; a Why Dun It." Yes, exactly, that's it.

Dave focuses on a few dozen central characters and presents an incredibly personal view of events from their different perspectives. What is becoming one of my favorite lines of the book:

Mr. D had one major objective on Friday; Eric Harris had at least two. Mr. D wanted to impress on his kids the importance of wise choices. He wanted everyone back alive on Monday. Eric wanted ammo and a date for prom night.

Mr. D is the well loved principle of Columbine who, the Friday before before Prom, gave the students a pep-rally talk about not drinking and driving. The attacks happened the following Tuesday. The passage continues:

Eric and Dylan planned to be dead shortly after the weekend, but Friday night they had a little work to do: one last shift at Blackjack {a pizza delivery joint}. ... "Once I graduate, I think I'm gonna quit too," Eric told a friend who'd quit the week before. "But not now. When I graduate I'm going to get a job that's better for my future." He was lying. He had no intention of graduating.

Dylan had a bright future. He was heading to college, of course. Several schools had accepted him, and he and his dad had just visited Tucson. ... The decision was final; his mom was going to mail the deposit to the U of Ariz on Monday.

Throughout the book Dave masterfully intersperses chapters from the killers' backgrounds, leading up to the attack, with stories of the victims, survivors and the ongoing investigation. Beyond any other impression, I was so taken with how smoothly it reads. For some very uncomfortable scenes, never the less I could not put the book down. (I do recommend having tissues handy)

I managed to finish a mere 15 minutes before the book signing -- LOL. I was surprised, I guess, to find that most of the people who attended had not yet read it -- well, not the ones who asked questions at least. ;-) The book focuses a lot on the myths that were set into place very quickly, and which have been so pervasive several are still prevalent even though they have long since been disproved. For example that Eric and Dylan were social outcasts, taking out their vengeance upon those who had bullied them. Quite simply, nothing could be further from the truth -- and yet I think that was the very first question posed from the group.

One thing really got me at the signing -- I had not anticipated that Dave would bring his photocopies of Eric and Dylan's journals. These documents obviously play a huge role in the book, and it was incredibly erie to thumb through the pages and pages of hand written notes and drawings. Dave's copies were highlighted and dog eared, so it was easy to flip through and find the many sections that he's quoted or discussed in the book. It gave me chills.

The story is horrific, heartbreaking, and maddening. The book is seamless, clear, and a comprehensive view never before presented.



Columbine
An Essay Dave wrote on writing the book.

Forever Yearning

Below is the video that Heath directed for Ben Harper's "Morning Yearning". It's a beautiful song, and it is captured with incredible artistry in the video. On this day of thinking of Heath and all that he brought to us, I'm struck with a yearning I fear will never fade.

And so as it does in so many ways, his art is best left to speak for itself.




Thank you, Heath.

So that's FOB

Just about a year ago we joined up with our neices, Kelsey and Sara, to see Fall Out Boy in concert. See them we did. Hear them -- not so much. (grrr) The acoustics in the venue were so poor we will never see another concert in a stadium that holds thousands of people.

So when we heard FOB was coming to town again our ears were cautiously pricked. When we heard they were coming to play in a 1400 person theater? OMG we jumped on those tickets.

And then we heard one of the warm up bands was Meese - a local Denver band that we're fans of and we got more excited for the show. It took several weeks before they lined up / announced the second band on the ticket... and when that turned out to be The Academy Is... we just couldn't have been more excited. Three bands we totally wanted to see!

And then we heard the parade of lights was the same night... things nearly came crashing down. But then we figured that we typically make it to concerts too early and end up getting borred waiting around anyways - so we'd go down after the parade. In the end it worked really well, we still got to see the 2 most popular songs from Meese, and then all of TAI and FOB.

FOB just blew us away. Such a completely different show than the first time. We had a fantastic time.


The guys have choreographed light-up guitars they use for "I Don't Care". Was way cooler than the picture suggests, tho. ;-D

Keeping it Regular

So there's this group out there promoting the act of blogging, and has thus issued a challenge to folks to blog every day in a month. The month of November, actually - so they are well on their way into this challenge -- amusingly called Na Blo Po Mo. (National Blog Posting Month)

Now, exactly why they think it's a good thing to encourage daily blogging, I'm not all that sure. And the thought of doing so myself was so ludicrous that I never got beyond the incredulity. But I have been thinking that I need a schedule to aim towards, to keep me writing. And to keep you visiting.

So I've decided to blog once a week. Ideally by Wednesday. And isn't it convenient that I already have 4 week's track record! ;-D

Here's to seeing ya around --

Working, and Playing in Washington

The Dark Knight (for any of you have been living under a rock) is the latest Batman movie that came out in July, staring Heath Ledger as Joker. You can imagine how highly anticipated it was amongt my cronies, being Heath's last completed role. (We're now eagerly awaiting the release of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus -- which he was shooting at the time of his passing.)

Anyways, I'd mentioned to my Boeing contact that it sure would be great to have to be in Seattle that week so I could catch the opening with my girlfriend Ruth. Really, I mentioned it only tongue in cheek, but Cathy scheduled for Laura, my brokie friend whose been working with me for the past few months, and me to come up that week! :-D not only that, but she planned a day to take us sight seeing around the Hood Canal, over on the Olympic Pennisula, in celebration of our recent milestones. Dave even flew up to join us, so we had a grand visit.

Early in the week Laura and I grabbed dinner down at the Mukilteo Ferry Landing, and walked the beach by the public boat ramp a bit before the sun set. There's a large beach there with a bunch of drift wood logs pulled up around fire pits. It's quite the popular hangout spot.







Dave got in Thursday evening, to news that Laura and I had gotten tickets to TDK that nght at midnight. We already had tickets to see it with Ruth on Saturday, at the IMAX, but couldn't resist whan we found midnight tix available at the nearby theater. So we had dinner, went back to the hotel and napped (because we are late-night wussies), then out to the movie.

It was fantastic! After all the build up, not to mention the fact I'd been waiting for this movie for over a year, I was afraid my expectations would be too high. Not to mention afraid of my emotions at seeing Heath again. But all fears were unfounded - Heath so owns that movie. He completely transforms into that character -- something that is no small feat, as brokie after brokie attested that they really can't see Heath underlying that role. It is ALL Joker. And all FABULOUS.

Friday morning Cathy picked us up and we had a wonderful day touring the Hood Canal, one of Cathy's life long favorite haunts. We started out with Cathy apologetically saying that Cliff, her husband, thought it necessary to take us over the Tacoma Narrows bridge. Absolutely I said! Shoot, I saw the video in high school physics class, and think about it frequently when I'm at Sea-Tac airport, so that was a necessary trip as far as I was concerned too.



The narows aren't nearly as narrow as I'd thought! LOL. Didn't get good pics, as we were temporarily camera-less, having given our camera to the horse camp program and our new one still on order. So I took some w/my phone, which I have just never been impressed with. Thankfuly Laura had hers that day. All the good pictures, below, came from her.

We stopped at a number of beaches, Cathy showing us how to dig for clams. They hadn't brought their clam pot, so no steaming clams on the beach for us, but we had fun watching Cathy go after them.



Many beaches were covered with oyster shells were certainly impressive and unique to us. And covered with shore life as well of course.





We stopped in the really cute town of Hoodsport and went wine tasting, had lunch and did some shopping. I got a call, here, from my buds who had gathered in Chicago to see the movie... I was so torn when they'd invited us but we were already locked into the Seattle plans. :-( At the winery we bought some rhubarb wine and raspbery wine - both really yummie, perfect for drinking on the beach later.







Heading back we took the Kingston - Edwards ferry, then met up for a late diner with Ruth at one of our favorite seafood restaurants near Boeing. (LOL - interestingly enough back down at Mukilteo Ferry landing!)





What a day!

We really enjoyed seeing the movie again on Saturday, that time in an IMAX theater -- though by now having seen it 4 times I'm not really of the opinion that IMAX is better. Though I do admit the flying scenes really are spectacular. Never the less, it was great to see it with Ruth, and we managed to stop for a beer and burger after the show before we skeddadled back to the airport.

The Dark Knight

Original art by my incomperable friend, Ruth, with whom I will be seeing TDK on Saturday!!! SQUEE

A Week in the Life - Wednesday

Last day for my Week In the Life Postings! -- Hope you've enjoyed them. :-)

Essentials - 11:44 am


Killing Time - 2:46 pm


Smoothie Man - 2:58 pm


Head Start - 6:24 pm


Surreal Train - 6:24 pm


Surprise Greeting - 7:04 pm


On Our WAY!!! - 7:17 pm

Week in the Life - Tuesday

Nearing the end of this little experiment - and, wow, it seemed so easy to begin with! LOL.

Dewey - 5:49 am


Lets Talk - 7:22 am


Mowing Crew! - 2:22 pm


On the Barbie - 7:18 pm


Sunset - 8:26 pm


Work Day #2 - 8:43 pm

Week in the Life - Monday

Cuteness - 11:26 am


WHY HAVE I NOT SEEN THIS UNTIL NOW??!! *swoons* - 12:38 pm


ME, ME, ME! Take a Picture of ME!! - 2:34 pm



Newcomers - 2:36 pm


Now Hear This - 2:37 pm


Workin it - 4:23 pm


Pretty.Odd. - 4:23 pm


Packing - 11:59 pm

Week in the Life - Sunday

Sunday, for reals this time! ;-) However, not a terribly picture-worthy day.

Up - 3:56 pm


Apprentices - 3:58 pm


Dinner - 4:03 pm



Chasing 4 escaped horses up and down the road

Oh, right. I didn't exactly stop to take pictures of that adventure. :-\

YUM! - 7:49 pm


Sigh of Relief - 9:59 pm