It's nice and sunny out, and I'm studying...

Ahhhh...the long weekend was fabulous. Probably not as productive as it should have been, but enjoyable none the less. I was actually supposed to have Friday and Monday off, but since several of the other people in my office were taking Friday off, I was asked to hold the fort down. After being there for a few hours, I had several people asking me why I was in since all the military people were supposed to have the day off, so I finally gave in and left. I'm sur

e life will go on without my supervision.

We watched the new Star Trek movie this weekend. It was definitely much more humorous than I expected...for true Star Trek fans, it was probably over the top cheesy humor, but I was completely amused. I was also quite impressed by the little uniforms that the female officers got to wear in the Starfleet. Why can't the US Navy have that good of a sense of fashion!! Not fair! I would love to wear a little red dress to work everyday! I actually just got the skirts to go with my uniforms a couple of weeks ago, and got the cute

little black pumps to go with that this weekend. So now I actually get to dress like a female when I go to work! It's so much more flattering, and I think it's boosting my moral and confidence in my workplace, and I think I look much more professional now. It's not nearly as cute as the Starfleeters, but it's an improvement. Whoever designed the pants for the female officers should be shot! Not cool.

Sunday we got a little reminder taste of the ol' south. We went to a birthday pig roast for a couple of guys. One of the guys is in the firm that Ryan is going to start working with next Monday, PBelemental. It was such a nice day out, and even hot enough that we were inspired to stand in the shade for most of the afternoon. The guy whose house it was at had built a pig roaster into his deck specifically for this annual birthday bash. There were also an assortment of other southern foods like okra, greens, hush puppies, and banana pudding. It was amusing to me that a lot of the people had never had a lot of those kinds of foods, but thinking back, neither had I before I spent 5 years in the south!

We spent a good amount of our free time studying for the LEED test that we're planning on taking next month. There is sooooo much to study and memorize it's really overwhelming! It was also hard to buckle down this weekend when it was so nice out and it was supposed to be a nice relaxing holiday weekend. It should not have been spent studying! Hopefully it'll all be worth it in a few more weeks.

I also dug my yummy muffin cookbook out this weekend to try out a new recipe. This time it was spiced carrot muffins. They're essentially little carrot cakes, and they were quite delicious. I also tried out some lemon blueberry scones that turned out quite delicious :)

Lopez Island

So, I had to 'work' on Saturday this weekend (lame, I know). Really I just needed to be around the area to be on call if anything bad happened that needed to be reported on base. So I had to go in Saturday morning, pick up the phone and such, do a little paper work in my office, and head home for the rest of the day to be on call. Ryan took the train up to Mt. Vernon Friday night, so we hung out in Oak Harbor on Saturday watching movies and putting together my new inversion table. I have yet to decide if it was a valuable purchase, but my physical therapist says he personally owns 3 of them (I don't know why you would need more than one) and swears they healed all of his wife's back problems, so I figured I would give it a shot.

Since we were already on the Island this weekend, Sunday, after I was officially relieved of my duties in the morning, we took the ferry from Anacortes to Lopez Island. It's one of the San Juan Islands (there are several other ones as well). We decided to go to this island this weekend because Ryan's firm has a couple of projects in the works on the Island right now. First we went to check out a project that the firm had done a few years ago. Apparently some really rich person owns a whole peninsula on the island and has created a little resort of his own. The part of it that the firm did was the pool house which is really the only thing that the public can see without going onto the private property. The building holds an olympic sized pool and that's about it. The front glass facade opens up to make it more of a covered outdoor pool in the summer. It's a pretty sweet little building that apparently doesn't get the use it deserves. I guess when you have lots of money and own a peninsula you can make expensive things like that just for kicks and giggles.

Next we ventured on to the Bumblebee house (named such because it's on Bumblebee st.). It has the most amazing view of the sound! The house sits on a cliff and has huge windows and a big wrap around deck that faces the water. It would be amazing to just sit there and stare out onto the sound all day long! The house is still under construction, but it's close to being done. Another highlight of the house is the little bath house off to the side. We peeked in through a hole and saw two little bath tubs inside the room. The roof of the bath house can open completely up so people can take a bath and stare at the stars. It would really be a pretty awesome experience! The whole complex looks awesome already, but it would be really cool to come back and see it when it's done. Or even better, it would be great to be friends with the people that own it and hang out there for the weekend!

The last site we visited was at the early stages of construction still. The project is being built into a rock, so a lot of the rock had been carved out leaving parts of it that will be incorporated into the building in different areas. One rock face will become one of the walls, and another part of the rock was acting as the base for what looked to be a fire place. So far there were just a few concrete walls starting to go up. This house also had a water view and sat up on a grassy hill. It was hard to tell exactly what it'll look like completed, so it would be interesting to go back in a few months to see it a little further along in construction. Giving the firm, I'm sure it'll be another really amazing house. Plus, I love concrete, so it has a good start in my book already!

After lunch, we spent the rest of the day hiking through some of the parks. We saw a little island off of the island we were on that was covered in seals bathing in the sun. Tara thoroughly enjoyed all the running around, and even got a little sore again the next day from climbing up and down the cliffs. The whole island was just full of beautiful views, and it gets me excited to check out the other islands in the sound too. These island are where they filmed 'Free Willy' too, but I didn't see any whales this time. I am definitely going to have to do a whale watching cruise at some point if I don't see one on my own soon!!

My Lady Loves

I just got home from an absolutely fabulous weekend with my favorite Auburn ladies! Mari Michael's mother graciously offered up her lovely home on the beach in Perdido Key to house our festivities (thank you so much!). I flew into Atlanta Thursday afternoon and met up with Liz and Evelyn and we road tripped it down to the Florida pan handle. It has been way too long since I've seen my girls, so it made for a great 6 hour drive of catching up and preparing for the weekend fun. We finally made it to the house a little after midnight to be greeted by Laura, Lindsay, and of course Mari Michael. Again...it has been WAY too long! (i think I'm getting excited all over again just writing this post)

Friday we had some serious work to do on the beach. Liz and I had both brought our Twilight books and it was amusing to see how many other people that we didn't even know with their Twilight books on the beach. I suppose it is appropriate beach reading. We also participated in some pretty hardcore hula hooping on the beach. Excellent abs workout :)

Friday night Brucie, Mari Michael's mom, hosted a lovely little cocktail party on the deck and several other people joined us. Did I mention that the weather was PERFECT and the moon was FULL! So beautiful! Towards the end of the evening we even took a nice 'long walk on the beach' and it was amazing to see the moon reflecting off of the gulf.

Saturday was another really rough day at the beach joined by even more friends and 'professional beach goers'. We had gone grocery shopping Friday afternoon and somehow devoured every last bit of food we, and others, had brought. I'm not quite sure how that was accomplished, but it was impressive. Due to our depleted food source, we went out Saturday night and had dinner on the back deck of a place right on the water. Mmmmm...seafood. You would think I have had enough of that in Seattle, but alas, it never gets old. Dinner was followed by the Flora-bama bar. Apparently I can't handle the craziness too well anymore, so I unintentionally fell asleep as soon as we returned home, which was probably a good thing since we got up relatively early to head back to ATL. We wanted to make it back to Atlanta in time to see Liz try on wedding dresses...it was so much fun, and obviously she looked soooooo beautiful! Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures, otherwise I obviously would have.

After 5 hours of sitting on a plane with the start of a cold and a really scratchy throat, I made it back to Seattle at a little after midnight. I got to watch 'Bride Wars' on the plane...good, but I'm glad I don't have to waste a Netflix on it now. It was a great and much needed trip and now it's back to reality...lame. At least I can look forward to a long weekend in 2 weeks and DC in 5 weeks!!

Pooped Pammy

I think I may have had a little too much excitement lately! This past week I was in a training class at one of the other Navy bases on Washington. Instead of staying on base, I chose to stay in Seattle and commute there everyday. It's really not a bad commute since half of it is just sitting on the ferry and then there's a 30 minute drive afterwards. It was nice being able to come back to Seattle every night (much more exciting than Oak Harbor) but waking up at 5:15 to catch the 6:10 ferry was a little rough. By the end of the week, I was already pretty exhausted.

Friday afternoon we went to an open house for an architecture firm that Ryan is trying to work for. They actually had asked him to build a model for the open house but since he is already employed by another firm, he's not allowed to work for anyone else yet. The project hasn't begun construction yet, but it was interesting to see the old building before it was renovated to see how much work was going to go into it.

Friday night we went to a Davis Sedaris reading. It was FABULOUS! He read about 5 or 6 short stories that he had written, and they were all completely hilarious. I think his voice and reading abilities just add an extra effect to the words. He's had about 3 or 4 nights of readings in Seattle, and all of them were completely sold out. I'm really glad we were able to make it to this one. Definitely worth it!

Saturday I got my hair cut, and I love it! I just put highlights in this week too, so I am more than ready for my Girls Weekend at the Beach next weekend! Unfortunately the rest of the day was rainy and gross, so I didn't get to show it off much outside.

Sunday I ran another half marathon. Actually, I don't even know if I can qualify it as a run this time! It was almost and hour away and it was a pretty early race, so once again I had to get up super early. We had hung out with some friends the night before so I didn't get to sleep as early as I probably should have. So I was pretty much just fighting to stay awake while I ran. Luckily it was a beautiful day outside for a run, unfortunately all I could think of was that it was a beautiful day to take a nap in the grass too, and was very tempted to just do that instead of run. Somehow I finished though and took a little nap in the car before I even attempted to drive home. After a couple more naps, we ended up walking around the water front. Ryan just got a new Digital SLR camera, so we had fun taking pictures the rest of the afternoon, and I was enjoying being in a tank top and flip flops! I am definitely ready for some serious sleep this week though so I can prepare to party all next weekend in Gulf Shores starting on Thursday!!! WOOOOHOOO!

Pooped Puppy

Tara got her first "camping" experience this weekend. So, it wasn't really camping, but we went to the Rolling Huts in middle northern Washington this weekend. The huts are a series of structures designed by Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen (who Ryan works for). Because of a land use issue not allowing permanent structures to be built in the land, they were put on wheels. They don't actually move anywhere, but theoretically they could.

We drove up there Saturday morning. There were 8 people going, so I had 4 in my car, and Tara got to hang out in half of the trunk. It's a good thing I've got my wagon now! She did really well back there. The route that we took went through a mountain pass that had just been opened the night before, so there were huge mounds of freshly cleared snow on the sides if the road. It was a really beautiful drive. It took about 4 hours to get out there to the middle of nowhere. Tara was thrilled to get out and run around the huge field where the huts were. When the other car got there, we played a little Frisbee and Tara decided to play monkey in the middle. I've never seen her run so fast! You go girl! I think that's what made her so sore the next day. We wanted to do some hiking before it got dark, so we headed out to find a trail head that had been recommended to us. It was supposed to be halfway between where we were and the next town. Apparently we missed it and ended up in the town. It was a cute little touristy town done up to look like an old western town. We figured we would find the trail on the way back, but missed it again and just ended up going to a river bank and walking around for a while. Every view in this area is unbelievable.

Back at the huts that night, we grilled out and hung out on the back deck for the rest of the night. It was an amazingly clear night, and being out in the middle of nowhere, the stars were soooo bright!

Sunday morning we met with one if the people who works for the huts who was going to give us a little tour of the owners' vacation home which is also on that site and designed by OSKA. The inside is pretty small and cozy. The highlight of 

this project, besides the breathtaking location, is the movable panels on the outside of the house. When the owners are gone or want to close up for a while, there is a mechanical system that closes panels on the exterior to make it a solid box. while we were there, the panels were open, and there were massive windows to frame all of the amazing views in the mountains. After the tour we walked around the area and Tara decided it would be fun to go on a swim in the strongly currented river at which time Ryan got to run in after her, getting lots of clothes wet, and save her. She's not the smartest puppy ever.

When we got back to the huts, we decided to go for a little hike in the woods close to the camp. I don't think Tara was very good at this either. She wasn't amused by the lack of a path most of the time. She did however enjoy swimming in a much calmer part of the river. We took a break and played fetch with Tara into the river. It was mostly snow melt, so the river was freezing! Finally Tara realized that and I had to rub her down to warm her up, after which we headed back to camp. The ride home a little later was, one again, breathtaking. We stopped a few times to snap a few good shots of the landscapes.

To see many many more pictures, go here.

Oh the yumminess...

I had a little baking frenzy last night :) We're going on a little trip this weekend to The Rolling Huts, so I wanted to make a few snacks for everyone, but I may have gone a little overboard. I ended up making M&M cookies, Banana Bread, Applesauce Muffins, and Cinnamon Scones. The night, however, was almost a disaster when about halfway through cooking the cookies I lost power. Apparently someone had crashed into a power pole on Hwy 20 and all of Skagit County and parts of Whidbey Island lost power. I actually thought I may have blown a fuze or something, but I checked that and called in my power outage to find that several other people had called it in as well. Luckily in came back on within about and hour. So I took a little break from the cooking, snacked on a little cookie dough, and read a little of the 4th Twilight book. I made quite the mess in my little kitchen, but I think the results were worth it. Hopefully I can get lots of people to help me eat all the goodies! If not this weekend, I have training all next week that I'm sure I can get rid of the leftovers at!

Girls Weekend #1! [seattle style]

We had a fabulously girly weekend in Seattle! Mom and Tara arrived Friday afternoon. Tara did a great job on the plane. No barking at all, but she was definitely excited to get out of her little crate! After packing up my car, we headed back to the apartment where we had to sneak Tara in the garage door. Dogs over 35lbs aren't technically aloud in the apartments, but i suppose she's not 'technically' living there either. Hopefully we won't get in trouble for it. We just need to teach her not to back when she hears noises in the hall. She's not so used to the apartment life. After getting the dog settled, mom and I headed out on the town to grab a good seafood lunch by the sound and then head to the library (cause mom's a nerd) and several bookstores. The Seattle Library is actually a pretty famous building by Rem Koolhaas. I have been less than impressed by it's appropriateness as a library, but i was excited to come across the 4th floor this time which is completely different than the rest of the library. It has bright red walls, floors, and ceilings and feels like you're walking through someones stomach. It's very confined and provides a nice contrast to the utilitarian openness of the rest of the building.

Mom passed out in the hotel after a long day of traveling and not adjusting to the time change while I went to pick up the rest of the girls Friday night! It was already pretty late when they got in, so we just hung out at the apartment for a little while with a little wine. Luckily Saturday morning didn't come too early. We headed out around 11 to hit up several of the parks in the outer edges of Seattle. First was a bit of a hike through Discovery Park in the Magnolia neighborhood. We hiked down to the beach and saw an old lighthouse at the point of the park. There is also the historic grounds of Fort Lawton. By the time we got back to the car, we had worked up quite an appetite. We headed over to the Ballard neighborhood to find some good/cheap seafood by the water. We ended up eating right by the Ballard Locks which was another thing on my list of things to do! After we ate, we checked out the Locks and even got to see a boat being lowered into the sound. I'd love to go back when the salmon are traveling to see them jumping up the Locks! Next we headed over to Freemont to check out the Freemont Troll! We ended up just parking the car in Freemont and spending most of the rest of the day there. We walked down by the water where there are a lot of houseboats. It's the area that the houseboat from 'Sleepless in Seattle' is supposed to be. I don't think we saw that one, but we saw lots of other ones! It's amazing how much they look like normal houses that just happen to be floating in the lake.

A little further down the water front is the Gasworks Park. There's a little hill there that a lot of kids like to fly kites on, and it was no exception when we were there! The actual park used to be an industrial park where there was a gasification plant for the city of Seattle. Now most of the machinery is still there, but fenced off, and some is accessible to play on. The rest of the area has been turned into a grassy park. I think we pooped ourselves out with all the walking around all day, so the rest of the day was very relaxed...starting with a riveting viewing of 'The Holiday' in the hotel room. Still one of my faves! Mom was out for the rest of the night, so the rest of us got some good Mexican then took a bottle of wine back to the apartment for a few mean games of uno! I think Kimberly rigged the deck cause she won most of the games!

Sunday was another big day of walking around. This time we just walked through the city. We started out making the rounds through the Pike Place Market. We had to stop by the first ever Starbucks and grab a cup of coffee!
Then we just wandered through the market. It's tulip season so there are all kinds of gorgeous flowers out at the market! I ended up buying a dozen tulips later that day. They're so pretty! We headed over to the Space Needle after the market. I'm so glad Ryan and I got our annual passes. We have definitely gotten our money's worth out of them already! It makes it free for each of us and one guest to go to the observation deck which is normally $18 per person each time and we only paid $30 for each membership. Needless to say, I am quite proud of the purchase :)

After the needle, we just happened to be close to one of my favorite pizza places, Zeeks! So we had to sample the goodness and K&L needed a taste of some of Seattle's finest micro brews :) Then we headed towards the water via the sculpture park and walked along the sound for a while. We ended up meeting up with Ryan at the architecture firm that he works at so that everyone could get a tour of it. It's a really cool office especially if you've never been in an architecture firm before as my visitors had not! We ended up going back to the market afterwards in search of a Swedish bakery that Lauren had heard about, only to finally find it and it was closed. I got my pretty flowers though, and mom got her 'mounds' cookie. By that time it was almost time to say adios to half the girls :( We took Kimberly and Lauren to the airport and Mom and I headed up to Oak Harbor for the night so that she could see my sweet digs.Tara was definitely excited to see grass when we got to my house. She's been really confused in the city, and has so far pooped on the sidewalk every time since she can find enough grass anywhere! I've got her a little poop baggie dispenser now so I can clean up her little mess wherever it happens. Monday morning Mom and I took the ever so extensive tour of Oak Harbor. We drove around the base and I took her down the road by the water where I always see eagles. Not to disappoint, we saw 3 or 4 eagles then too! We drove through the rest of Oak Harbor, which took a whole 10 more minutes to see everything, and decided to pack up and head back to Seattle. On the way out, we stopped by the deception pass park. The bridge that I pass over every time I drive to Seattle is still beautiful to me. This time we went down to the park so I could see the view of it from water. It has beautiful views driving over it too. We stopped by the Seattle outlet mall on the way back too. If I actually needed to buy something it would have been much more exciting, but this time it was just a tease that I had to resist in my efforts to conserve my funds. When we got to Seattle, we took Mom to the Mexican restaurant around the corner since she missed out on it the other night. Then we played a few sweet games of Yahtzee at the apartment! I'm pretty sure I dominated this time. At this point, girls weekend came to an end and we took mom back to the airport.

Now I can't wait to go on my next girls weekend in Gulf Shores in less than 3 weeks!!