Sleepless in Renton

Robin left for England on Monday. He'll be gone for 3 weeks. I didn't sleep well on Monday night. Funny thing is for about the first 15 years we were married I slept better without him - maybe a symptom of marrying relatively late. Now I've finally gotten used to the guy I guess. He flew first class on British Airways. Full size bed in private space, turndown service, even jammies! He said it was a very bumpy flight. Poor baby, wonder if his personal crystal bottle of designer label water slipped off the engraved silver coaster?? Such a bother...

Tonight I'm off to my last Landscape Design class. I'm very excited about the design I came up with for our property. It certainly won't become reality anytime soon but now that I have a "master" plan I can gradually work towards it instead of just patching things together as the mood strikes. We'll see what my instructor thinks! The final product would result in an underground garage with access to the basement, our property sub-divided and cut down by about 1/3, and a lower maintenance but cohesive design. Wow, sounds great doesn't it???

When friends become pests

Early in the week the weekend forecast was looking grim - cold fronts approaching from the north and the south with moisture trapped in between. The SIR "Stupid Winter Training Series" ride was scheduled for Saturday morning from Stanwood and going around Camano Island. I was planning NOT to take part. My pals had other ideas. Correspondence with Mark and Peter went like this: me: I'm not riding Camano this weekend. mark: what time are we meeting to carpool to Camano? me: let's meet by phone at 6:30 in the morning. peter: you want us to call from your driveway at 6:30 when we are there to pick you up? me: silence. Later the forecast showed Camano Island might be one of the few places for some dry weather Saturday morning so I caved and went along. It was COLD but the company of Peter, Mark, Robin, Wayne, Bob and others made it all worthwhile. Gotta say, hanging out with a bunch of smart, athletic, fun, and good-looking guys in tight clothing ain't such a bad way to spend a day. Thanks for being pests!

Progress in the kitchen

We spent most of Robin's holiday break installing new countertops in the kitchen. We got a screamin' deal on Paperstone buying factory 2nds directly from the manufacturer in Hoquiam. Plenty of excitement getting the 400 pound piece unloaded from the top of rack on my brother's truck but no injuries to persons or product.

Old countertops removed










testing the new sink fit









sweet undermount sink









fine adjustments











Overall the kitchen is looking good. I especially love my new pantry and wall cupboard.