Where Is It?

Tonight we went to a dinner party with some GeoCaching friends. Geocaching is my family's new hobby. You can go to www.geocaching.com and find of list geocaches in your area. Then you need a GPS to enter the coordinates and then go and find them! It's deceptively easy.

One of our favorite things about GeoCaching is finding trackables. Trackables are items that have a unique ID engraved on them. You log in the trackable code and you can see all of the places that it has been. Next you log in where you drop it off. It's fun to look at a world map crisscrossed with lines and discover that the trackable you are holding has traveled 50,000 miles!

Tonight my son traded some trackables that we had found with others at the party. He entered one of the codes and came to tell my husband that this particular trackable had been to Columbia!

My husband asked, "Where is Columbia?"

My son replied confidently, "Canada!"

My husband was confused. I laughed.

Then I said, "I think you are thinking of British Columbia."

My 7 year old chimed in, "Beautiful British Columbia!"

Just like the license plates say.

We see a lot of Beautiful British Columbia license plates around the Seattle area.

But we have never seen a license plate from Columbia.

Let It All Out

There are days when I find myself complaining a lot.

Today is one of those days.

One of those days when nothing seems to go right. Not that something awful happened, just nothing went exactly as planned.

Yesterday I made an appointment for acupuncture. I spoke with the clinic owner, asked if he took my insurance and made an appointment for today. The procedure went ok. Afterwards I was told that I had to pay $25 because my insurance doesn't cover acupuncture. Umm... but my insurance does in fact cover acupuncture. Turns out that the clinic does take my insurance for other things but they are not contracted for acupuncture. So why did the owner tell me that he took my insurance when I asked about an acupuncture appointment???

I stopped by the store on my way home. I needed milk and wanted to get a few of the sale items. They were out of stock of some of the sale items and I forgot to get the milk.

I hate when I'm at the store looking at something on the shelf and a few minutes later I look up and realize that someone is waiting for me to move out of the way. Don't they know that I don't have eyes in the back of my head?? Why can't people say "excuse me" anymore?? Or at least do a pretend cough so that I know they are waiting for me to move. Am I the only who hates that? Does everyone else just keep a lookout for people that may want to get past you in the grocery store aisle?? I feel like I need to yell "cover me" whenever I stoop down to check the price on the lower shelf.

I hate when someone stops at an intersection and they don't have a stop sign. There is one intersection in the grocery store parking lot that is like this. 2 ways have a stop sign and the other 2 do not. Those 2 lanes should not stop at the intersection. It messes everything up when one of those 2 lanes stops. No one knows what to do at that point. Since it becomes a free-for-all, next time I may just run them over.

A bird left me a present on my car. On my car door handle. Thanks, birdie.

After my adventures at the acupuncturist and the store and the parking lot, I ordered my favorite sandwich from this wonderful Vietnamese restaurant near my house. Warm tofu on delicious bread.... Yum! I picked it up and brought it home. I opened it. I found beef inside. I ordered tofu. I'm a vegetarian.

I think it may be a conspiracy.

I'm supposed to go to chess club soon. I wonder who will be out to bug me there.

Anyone want to let it all out and share your pet peeves? I promise not to tell ;)

My Secret Admirer

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm wondering if anyone received an email today from their secret admirer. I did. I don't usually open emails that have subject lines about a "secret admirer" or "someone is looking for you" or "someone loves you" or "we're going to send you $1M and then you send it back to us." Especially that last one.

But today I knew the sender of my "secret admirer" email. I get emails from this person regularly. My admirer included a picture of himself. He's an older man, but looks young. He has great skin, but he could stand to lose some of the fat around his middle. And he could really use a good tan. I've heard that he tastes delicious covered in butter.

Did anyone else get the same email?

I have a feeling that I'm not the only one with this secret admirer.

My secret admirer has a way of getting around.

Anyone else who has subscribed to the Pillsbury newsletter may have gotten the same email from the same secret admirer.

One Solution

Since injuring my back, I have been using a lumbar roll when driving. I got this Tempurpedic one below. This $50 Tempurpedic one.

I feel like it does help. It forces me to sit up and puts that arch in my back. Did I mention that it cost $50? My kids call it my "peanut" because of the shape.

I like to leave it in the car so that I don't forget it when I go out. But recently we've been hit with some extreme cold temperatures here in the Pacific northwest. It was 30 degrees when I woke up this morning! And the grass was covered in frost. I just wanted to put that out there for all of you who are enjoying the negative degree temps through out the rest of the country. I'm not bragging, just rubbing it in a little mentioning it. (Please keep in mind that if you live in Miami, Hawaii or Southern California, your comments may be accidentally deleted. It is my blog after all.)

My pillow was frozen when I got in the car this morning. It was more like a rock than a pillow! Maybe I should bring it in the house overnight. For a while I would bring the pillow in the house with me each time I came home. Then my kids started using my pillow as a very expensive indoor football.

I believe the term "indoor football" is an oxymoron. Not only did I enjoy watching my pillow be tossed around and barely miss knocking over the TV or landing on the stove while I was cooking dinner, I also never could find it when I was ready to go somewhere. So I went back to leaving it in the car.

This morning it was frozen solid.

I have a solution. I will be moving to Aruba next week.

Et tu, Brute?

I have been feeling a little old lately. I had to walk with a cane when I ruptured the disc in my back. I had to go to therapy at a nursing home to help with my back. I was taking more medications than everyone at Seattle Grace Medical Center combined! Okay, I may be exaggerating a little on that last one, but not the others.

And now this??

I came down with bronchitis over the weekend and the pharmacist filled my prescription into one of those bottles with the big lids. The big lids for certain people who have trouble opening lids. The big lids that make it easy for old people (like me apparently) to open their medication.

Et tu Brute pharmacist?

My husband is still laughing.

You Can't Lose

My kids (ages 7 and 8) were so excited about the Super Bowl. I'm still not really sure why. We live in Seattle, and we're not Packers fans or Steelers fans. This year we didn't even have any big plans for the game, no Super Bowl party to attend.
We did watch the game yesterday. My 8 year old had decided he wanted the Packers to win. My 7 year old copies everything the 8 year old does, so he also wanted the Packers to win. My husband thought the Steelers had more of a chance to win, so he took their side.About halfway through the third quarter my 7 year old starting cheering, "Go Pittsburgh! Go Pittsburgh!" over and over again. I said, "I thought you were cheering for the Packers."
The look on his face said it all. He was cheering for the Packers. You know, the Pittsburgh Packers. My husband and I laughed at how he had all of his bases covered.
My 7 year old thinks he knows everything. Last week he came home from school and told me that winter is almost over because the ground hog didn't see his shadow. "That's right," I said. He replied very proudly, "only 6 more days of winter left." So mark your calendars everyone and get your sandals and sunglasses ready!