Is my cape fluttering?

ABC Wednesday and more!

Z is for Zipline

The ride of your life!

ABC Wednesday is brought you by the lovely Mrs. Nesbitt.

Also today is the inaugural edition of the Monthly Ho-Down for Spud lovers over at Noble Pig! Do stop by!

ABC Wednesday

Y is for Yacht.

Sorry, I don't have any rhyms or poems or anything. I'm short of sleep and not getting to all my bloggy friends this week. I can't wait until Friday when it's all over!

ABC Wednesday comes to us from the lovely Mrs. Nesbitt, who used the same Y word today. Except her picture is prettier! Drop by to see other Y words!

Miss you all!

PS~

YYYARGHHH!

Why I'll never go to sea!

Although we had a lovely time touring sailboats at the Tall Ships festival in Victoria, as we went below decks, it became very clear that there was a reason I had never left my family and run away to sea (Although I admit, I considered it once or twice!). The following shots should illustrate my reasoning:

The bunks. This vessel slept 36 I believe. The little nets are not hammocks, it's for stowing your gear. (Do you love all the nautical "speak" I picked up "below decks"?) The bunks were short enough that I do not believe I would have been able to straighten my legs. And I don't think the Brute Squad would have enjoyed the nets all that much!

And you thought Boeing bathrooms were small and devoid of luxury! (note: no shower!)

The Galley: This is a nice one too. Lots of sink space and cupboards. I have become spoiled by the kitchen I currently have. And our final stop on the tour....

The captain's cabin! TOG is standing IN it. Note the bar over his head for the sliding curtain? The rather large bunk behind him? The porthole? No, I could not back up any further for this shot, I was standing in the galley!

Thanks for touring with me! On a personal note, I've got a huge project I'm working on this week, and I'll be squeezing posts in and visiting other blogs as much as I can, but I won't have much breathing room until Friday, so please bear with me!

In keeping with our nautical theme today, The Brute Squad:

 

It's a good thing they love me!

Asthmagirl out!

How Asthmagirl Terrifies Herself

It's an undeniable glitch in my programming that every now and then I creep out of my safe little cocoon and want to try something totally out of character. I tell myself how much fun it will be, that it'll be totally fine and then once I start down that path I'm pondering "what in the world was I thinking"!

Such was the case Sunday in Canada. I had talked to K3 about doing this. Surprisingly, she agreed and so I booked the activity. It wasn't until we got there that she started to feel a little trepidation. I was fine... TOG was fine. They explain the equipment and take you on this little training course, the bunny hill, they call it. Everyone feels confident and then they take you to the top. As we started down, I found myself in the unique position of comforting K3 and urging her on and doing some big time positive affirmations about getting myself through the course in one piece. I told TOG afterward that the only way I got through the first few lines was that I couldn't see another way to get down from the course! 100 feet up in a tree on a two foot platfom with no ladder? The only way off is to slide down a steel cable at 45 miles per hour? Whose idea was this?

What am I talking about? Zip lining! Have you ever zipped? No? It's very high octane, at least for me it was. The two things that bothered me the most were 1) you have to go against every natural instinct when they tell you to step off a platform 150 feet in the air. Self preservation is a distant memory! 2) If you catch a crosswind or shift your weight, you may spin and come in backwards. This give you that dizzy carnival ride feeling in your neck if you're going fast enough. (Oh, you're going fast enough!)

Now, there are pictures. Just remember that when you're in a zip harness, gravity takes hold, all your weight shifts downward in sheer terror and your butt looks bigger.  It's all smoke and mirrors. Trust me, my butt is much smaller. And the camera adds pounds too. Just so we're clear!

This is one of the shorter zips. But at the platform behind me in the trees, you step off over a rather steep gully. Don't look down! I became a pro at looking at the tree tops!

  

This one's a blur, because a) K3 was shaking from her ride and b) I was moving fast and hadn't hit the brake yet (the red block on the line in front of me, which keeps you from coming in for a landing at 40 miles per hour).

This was early on, and I'm still trying to show K3 how fun it is. Note the lack of commitment on her face!

This is right after the longest line (which you see behind us. It also has the longest landing pad (because you go so fast). Just remember, I am much thinner than it looks. Very thin. And note that K3 finally has her confidence! She actually didn't build enough speed and rolled backwards on the longest line. The guide went out to get her. Because she survived it, she's now worry free! (TOG said you should have seen her eyes when she started to roll back out!)

For the live movie of what it's like to zip, you can log on here! Then come back and tell me how excited you are to try this!

Yours in zip-line safety,

Asthmagirl

PS~ As we were leaving for the top, I held up the party while I grabbed my inhaler. Turns out, it was a really good idea. It was in the 90s and muggy. Still the lungs cooperated so I can't complain! I think they may have cooperated out of sheer terror. "Look, we're fine... just get us out of here!"

Sunday

I took this shot of Mt. Rainier while sitting in my car Friday morning.

It was such a clear day and the mountain was so large and beautiful in my windshield in that moment, it almost didn't seem real. I was oddly thrilled when the light turned red and I could scramble for my camera! I'm sure the people behind me thought I was some kind of a nut!

Enjoy your day! I'll be home tomorrow!

The Heart of the Home

OMG! You're here! I mean, I knew you were coming, but I forgot to tidy up last night. Well.... you may as well see the house in all it's "lived in" glory! Welcome! I just put the coffee on and I'm thrilled that you're here for a visit!

We've lived here about three years. A little more than three years ago DOT finally bought our previous home after threatening to do so for a number of years. (I believe there was discussion about putting a freeway through the master bedroom?) Unfortunately DOT doesn't have much of a sense of humor, so once you accept their offer (on Dec 23rd) you have 6 weeks to be gone or they start charging you rent to live in your house. So you're limited to what is on the market at that time. This house was the pick o' the litter. There's things I like about it and things I don't. What I do love about it, is the great room concept.

This is where everything happens! The Great Room!

Family room, kitchen and dining combined! The home of great football games, holiday meals and chaos. This picture is taken from my office door which provides a builder grade tissue paper sound proof wall so I can get tons of work done while the family cavorts and frolics in the family room! Also, there are an abundance of blankets for the Brute Squad because they get chilly in the winter. In the summer, they like to burrow into the blankets in the morning.... thusly:

Now, follow me into the kitchen and we'll look at the great room from the other direction (nearer the coffee pot)!

Note the mess on the counter? Excellent! Hiking food from last weekend and puppy biscuits setting on the wine rack. Asthmagirl runs a clean galley on this ship! The one thing I love about this kitchen is the proximity to the action. With family over, they can sit in the dining room and chat you up while you're working! (Because in Asthmagirl's house, family knows better than to throw off my control issues kitchen groove!) Down on the end... that's the door to my office. It's not nearly clean enough for the tour! Now, let's move toward the middle.

These are the stairs of doom. Do not go down these in flip flops first thing in the morning. The only saving grace to falling down these stairs is that you roll into the dinette set which prevents you from hitting the glass slider! But that floor is harder than it looks... just sayin'.

Here's a better shot of the dining room table... the repository for everything that comes in the house, I swear. Some people (the old goat, cough, cough) even hang their clothing upon the chairs DAILY. Apparently, we have a very casual attitude about keeping this table clean. I do like the pub height though. It's a very laid back look. Maybe it's casualness invites clutter and laundry... who knows! At least we haven't begun tap dancing upon it!

Okay, turning and looking back into the kitchen... here it is. The generic builder grade kitchen. We did end up buying a new stove (The Behometh!) this year because the old one bit it, but other than that, no changes. It's one main virtue? Size. You can cook the whole turkey dinner and lay it out buffet style on the island and not feel cramped. This is the first time in my life I've had a kitchen that's big enough!

 

Ah, the family room! Pull up a chair. The chair and the sofa both recline and let me just say, it's easy to fall asleep! The clutter on the floor? Dog toys. Lots of 'em! The Brute Squad loves the dog toys! Also note the pile of papers under the table. Yeah... it might be nursing school home work from middle girl. I know there's a Bon Apetite under there and I think a hiking magazine. And a dog dish. Because that's where the youngest Brute takes her meals.

Please note the fireplace. This keeps us warm during storms when we lose electricity. The gas fireplace, stove and hot water heater keep us from being total heathens warm, clean and fed til the power comes back on. However this fireplace was not installed correctly when we moved in. The exhaust was venting into the walls instead of outside. We kept smelling this hot wood smell but thought it would go away. Finally the framing got hot enough that the house caught on fire. That was three days after we moved in. For the next month, we had builders and contractors and fire damage folks in and out of the house putting things back together. I had to move the lungs into a hotel for a while because of the smoke damage and the builders were nice enough to pay for my room as well as fixing the house.

The fireplace is also a wonderful location for a holiday photo!

I hope you enjoy the rest of your home tours! Thanks for dropping by the open house and thank you Mrs. G. for hosting the event! Coffee anyone? Scones?

ABC Wednesday

U is for Ultra.... she's quite mega smart

U is for Urchin, she'll steal your heart

ABC Wednesday is from the fertile mind of Mrs. Nesbitt.

Asthmagirl Gardens

After much discussion, TOG and I have decided to finish the side of the house before finishing the back. He spent a few hours last week clearing part of it and I don't want to see it fill back in while we tackle some hard stuff.

Here is the side of the house yesterday morning... It's supposed to be raining (and I know you're enjoying the dandylions and clover!) These shrubs were installed by the builder and other than hiding all the electrical boxes on that side, they just don't cut it. They're out of there!

Here is the yard about noon yesterday. 

Here is the yard this morning. I was too tired to take a picture of it last night. This morning it actually is raining!

The remainder of this side should be finished by tomorrow. We're going to install ground cloth with a gravel pathway back to the gate. So really, no gardening involved the rest of the weekend. Just moving rocks around. Joy!

Hope you're all enjoying your holiday weekend!

Asthmagirl out!

Goat Hotel

Again with the rural shots. I was minding my own business taking a picture of something completely different when I saw this. I was laughing so hard I could barely focus.

No, I haven't showed The Old Goat yet, but I'm sure he would get a kick out of it.

 

Flea, I haven't forgotten about the meme. I did finally find a picture, but there's a bit of a story that goes with it and I want to take the time to get it right.

Have a wonderful day!

Company Logo

I think I've mentioned that I work in a pretty rural area. Ocasionally I see things that set my mine racing. Yesterday I was behind this vehicle.

I'm not too big of a dope, so I quickly concluded that it was likely a septic pumping truck! This was confirmed when the truck turned and I could see the name on the side. When I took the shot I was simply amused. Upon further reflection, I wondered what other scenarios this little guy could cover?

I could put him on the door to my office to let people know that commercial scents really do make me sick. I got a tech call yesterday in which the woman had just applied scented hand lotion - "I thought it would be okay as long as I kept my door shut"... No, I'm sorry. It's especially not okay when you then call me because your computer froze up. And this is why we have a NO scent policy.

Other thoughts... "I shouldn't have eaten that last racoon"!

Or... "Does this truck make me look fat"?

What are your thoughts on this fine cloudy morning? Inquiring minds want to know!

Asthmagirl Out!