Bye Bye Bye

One of the best nights of my life happened back in 2000. I was coaching the California HS girls JV basketball team in San Ramon, CA. We didn’t have a game for a week, so I thought we should have a little fun. I had been coaching this same group of girls for two years already, and had developed a pretty good relationship with them.

The second half of practice entailed me having a little fun with them. My girls were having a hard time understanding that we needed to take care of the ball, not be so careless with it. So, the night before, I came up with an idea. I boiled two eggs, drew some faces on them, named one Bob, and Jeff named the other some Albanian name I couldn’t pronounce even if I could remember it. So, in the gym, I pulled out the eggs and said “drop the basketballs, we’re doing the figure-8 drill with Bob!” The girls didn’t quite understand what I meant. After pulling out the eggs, they soon caught on and laughed at another of my ridiculous ideas. It was great to watch them concentrate so much, and perform a perfect figure-8 drill. After a few minutes, they started to loosen up a little and get more vocal. Before I knew it, they were playfully yelling at each other, “Don’t drop Bob!” After much laughter and desperate effort to not drop Bob, someone did drop Bob. But my point was made.

The first part of practice is what was the most memorable part, and made us more of a team. They always teased me because I would often relate my stories of being in high school and participating in sports and marching band. I would always say “how did we get 140 people on a field to make clear movements and shapes, and I can’t even get 10 of you to run a simple play?”

Since it's probably not obvious, it's the Star of David

So on this particular night in 2000, I decided to show them something fun – I broke out the band video. What I got was a lot of ooh’s and ahh’s. We were not your momma’s marching band. After the video, I read them a statement I had found on the internet about my high school’s band. It was from a former member to the current members. It said that no matter what happens with the results, it's the experience that will always last in your memory. What people will remember is the friends they’ve made, the lessons they’ve learned, and the experiences they’ve had. I wanted to impress on these young ladies that we needed to make the most of what we had, to not let the bad days or bad games, ruin what we were building. It was an emotional moment that each girl remembered throughout the season, and even brought up at the season-ending banquet. It's also an experience I will never forget.

Two reasons for this story. One, because one of our gifts to Jessie reminded me of this happy time, and the car rides to games singing along to N’Sync (thanks to Beth; say hi to Justin for me!).

Two, because of the eggs. As I take my eggs to meet the Mexican tomorrow, I hope all the Bob’s and Albanian’s are doing their best to keep things going in my little world.

Let it snow, let it snow....

Remember when you were a kid, and going to bed knowing there was a snow storm coming that may cause school to be cancelled? Then waking up to find out it was?! That whole concept went away when we grew up and started going to a real job. Your boss didn't care, there was paper to push.

Well, today was one of those great days you don't think you'll ever see as an adult. A snow day from work!

This is outside our house. While it's only a few inches, in the Puget Sound, that's a lot. It actually started yesterday, and my snow day has lasted a day and a half. I went to a doctor appointment yesterday morning, and called to the job site after to see how the roads were. They said the Army base had closed to outside traffic, so I should go home! I wasn't going to argue. Then this morning they said don't come in till 10:00. When I finally left the house, I was turned around because of a car accident that blocked one of the ways out. I wasn't going to mess with the slick roads, so I called my boss and said I wasn't coming in.

So Karl decided to call in too. We've been enjoying our morning. He changed my tires to studded tires. We then went to breakfast in Shelton, and went to Walmart. As further proof of how stupid the DOT is here, we saw a plow truck driving down the road with the plow up and pouring sand out the back. This would be normal if the road was clear and icy. But no, it was snowing and the snow was collecting on the road. A plow was needed. Anyway, we are now going to start a fire in the fireplace and watch movies. Can't compain about that snow day!

I'm having a blast!

So, as you steadfast readers are aware, I am new to this whole internet "keep in touch" movement. I recently joined Facebook too. These are big steps for me. Even for Karl, even though he's not really doing any of this. He just hears my stories. Actually, he thinks I'm crazy with all this. We went to our friends Nick and Courtney's over the weekend, and Nick and Karl were baggin' on Courtney and I for doing the blog thing. Funny how both of them got sick that night....Don't dis on the blogging!

Anyway, since I'm at work, and really bored, I figured I'd post something. I was always a little leary of the whole internet movement to post your life story for all to see. You never know who's going to be lurking. But alas, I gave in and here I am. So after figuring out the whole concept of Facebook, I joined. And I have had a blast ever since. I just found a couple more friends on there that I haven't seen or talkd to in eons. Talk about blast from the past, and make me realize my age. Yikes! What's scary is how many people actually have been living right near where I do, or where I visit all the time. To think all these years I'd say "I wonder how so-and-so is doing?" I could have driven down the road to find out. It's amazing what technology has afforded us these days. Karl and I were talking the other day about the prophets of old who saw these days. After a few minutes of wondering what that would have been like, we said, "No wonder they fell into a stupor for three days!" Who could have imagined. The scary thing is I still remember getting my first e-mail account when the concept was just coming out. Now we have cell phones that show live tv. It's a crazy thing, but it sure is fun!

Bet you don't see this at your job...

On Thursday, I was bored sitting at my desk, so I decided to walk around the job site. There’s not much to look at, we just broke ground. I decided, while watching an excavator scrape a miniscule amount of dirt out of the way that watching dirt work is like watching a pot of water come to a boil – not very exciting, but it got me out of the office. So I wandered off. Not five minutes later, this flies in and lands on the job site:

I was too awestruck to think to take out my phone and take a picture, so you get one I found on the internet. The whole jobsite stopped and watched as this helicopter did a touch-and-go landing. Just another exciting feature of working on an Army base.

We have moments like this every now and then. By the luck of the draw, our jobsites have ended up not far from firing ranges and artillery ranges. So there are some days where we’ll go a few hours hearing nothing but gun fire. As well as days we feel the ground shaking every five minutes when artillery is fired and then lands. Some hit a little harder than others, but it keeps us awake. Our project on the north end of the base is being built on an old artillery field, so you can imagine the surprises we’ve dug up. They have unearthed seven UXO’s, unexploded ordinances. Most have not been a big deal, but one was potent enough, they made us clear the job site and then detonated it in place. I know one thing, I wouldn’t want to be an excavator operator who digs up one of those.

Our garage - a new adventure

Karl and I have only taken on two construction projects so far in our marriage. As you can imagine, both ended up in boisterous conversations on who's idea was better. You can't mix a mechanical engineer who's dabbled in construction projects his whole life with a project engineer who spends 5 days of her week managing... construction projects. Needless to say, our porch cover and food storage closet were completed, and much tribulation throughout the process made it more satisfying.

The reason I tell you all this is the reason we started this blog. This past weekend, we embarked on our biggest project to date - a new garage. We don't have one, which means one of the bedrooms in our house is actually a storage room for a large portion of Karl's tools and car parts. Plus, as you may have heard, it rains every now and then up here, so I'd like to have a dry place to park my car. Seeing as we both work way too much, I had a contractor give us a quote to do it. After picking my mouth up off the floor after seeing his number, we decided to do it ourselves and save some money.

Several people have requested progress photos of the work, so check back periodically to see what we've been up to. It's hard to see, but here's the before picture:

And here goes Karl:

The excavator was as big as our house. It came a little bigger than Karl planned, but he made do:

I had to get in and show Karl how it was done:

This is Karl after I taught him.......
So here's where we are for now. Karl dug in drainage ditches around the garage footprint, which is the flat part in the middle. Then dug up some more dirt, and a few trees to move over the drive up to the back of the property. Because of the slope of the land, Karl had to work the dirt slope just right to keep everything draining properly.
And for good measure, here's a view from the top of our yard on one of the few days it hasn't rained recently.

We've joined the tech age!!

We are here! And as proof of my ignorance on how to use a computer and the internet, I had typed up my first post, and then managed to lose it before posting. Go figure. I'm a mere 33 years of age, I shouldn't be this stupid in how to do this stuff. Technology has left me behind. We only recently upgraded our cell phones to ones that do more than answer and make phone calls. And we haven't even come close to figuring out all the bells and whistles that come with said cell phones. It could have a rotary dialer for all I care (Jessie, ask mom to explain the rotary dialer. It went the way of the 8-track. Which reminds me of the Neil Diamond "We're Coming to America" 8-track I used to listen to at Marla's. But I digress...). So we have created this blog to join the techy world.

When deciding on a title for our blog, I consulted with my wonderful husband. I figure I will be the one managing this thing, but it's about us, so I'll get his input. We tossed around many ideas, including "We're not white trash", but Karl said people would think that would mean we are white trash, and that's not cool. He's from Maine, I'm from Kentucky. It fits. So we settled on Marriage is Bliss. Because that made us both laugh. Knowing our marriage, and how the two of us operate, that title doesn't quite fit. In the three and a half years we have been married, we've learned more about each other, and ourselves, then we could have ever imagined. We haven't had any kids yet, though each of us think the other is a kid. Until that happens, we'll keep working, playing, and loving life in the Pacific Northwest.