Detours off Britta Blvd

The 4th annual Fireworks & Fun was a full week ago on the 4th of July of course...my first party in my new kitchen! We had 26 adults, 2 toddlers & 2 dogs, so a good-sized crowd with plenty of room for everyone to have a great view from the lawn. The traffic & parking were worse because so many other local cities had canceled their festivities this year, and the fireworks might have been a slightly shorter show, but more than made up for it with the amazing finale...wow! The weather was perfect again this year, with a nice breeze making all my flags fly nicely, but due to my kitchen chaos barely being settled enough less than 24 hours to party start time, it was all-hands on deck getting the food ready!

( Fireworks & Fun 2009! )



Ready for fireworks!


When the last guests had left around 2am, I didn't even soak any party dishes, since I used Sunday as the true test of my new dishwasher...even the baked brie platter and an unrinsed gooey jam jar got sparkling clean, so it really is as good as they told me! I also enjoyed my new giant copper sink, since I was able to wash my big punch bowl and my tall lemonade jar without splashing! :D

I see now that I was bad at taking photos of people this year, and there are no photos of me at all, but that was because I was actually sitting down enjoying myself instead of roaming! The full photo album is here if you'd like to see. I hope everyone had a fabulous Fourth!

This was the whirlwind week for the new kitchen! All the painting was finished by Sunday evening, Monday I cut all the baseboards & door trim & painted them, Tuesday I installed those, went to see Spamalot, then came back & installed my magnetic door stops...unfortunately Tuesday afternoon my cabinet guy called & said he needed an extra day, so Thursday was crazy since the electrician & plumber couldn't do anything until enough cabinets were installed....

( Thursday was crazy... )

( Friday was also crazy... )


before & after


before & after

Of course even more photos are in the Brittahytta gallery, starting at page 35...

Since the electrician needs to come back anyway for a couple hours to finish the ceiling light & labeling my panel, the cabinet guy will also be back for hopefully the last time, both on Friday as I work from home...then I plan to start my backsplash tiling on Saturday, seal the stone before grouting Sunday, grout on Monday, the final sealer Tuesday, all while unpacking properly into my new kitchen...we shall see!

Lots done in a week!

Friday - passed all rough inspections, then finished living room flooring!

Saturday - finished hallway - since going backwards & fitting into such a small space took FIVE HOURS...argh! But ALL the flooring is DONE!

Sunday - Handyman Charles helped me with drywalling the pantry from 10am-4pm - thanks Charles!!!

Monday - break for Cinema Brittahytta - Galaxy Quest

Tuesday - 6 hours after work, cut & anchored rest of drywall

Wednesday- 5 hours after work, replaced leaky dishwasher valve, spackled all of kitchen patches with entire gallon of spackle!

Thursday - 4 hours after work, spackled all of pantry, including texture, another entire gallon used!




Even more photos are in the Brittahytta gallery, starting at page 32...


Tonight is a break for Margarita Friday, tomorrow I return 2 extra full sheets of drywall & buy my special order travertine tile...then caulking at the ceiling then PAINT this weekend! Cabinets should arrive either Tuesday or Wednesday, then the following day will be final electrical plus plumbing, housecleaning on Friday, then 4th of July Fireworks & Fun party on Saturday, whether the kitchen is actually complete or not!

Here we go! Hooray for kitchen updates! :D Click on each topic to read more details...

( pantry walls framed, door frame complete, all ready for rough inspection )



( rough electrical complete, all new wiring in kitchen, ready for inspection )



( new ductwork should be ready for rough inspection )



( new flooring almost finished! )



( backsplash tile selected! )



Even more photos are in the Brittahytta gallery, starting at page 27...

Now that friends have helped me move the piano & TV to the new floor, I hope to finish the rest of the living room flooring tonight. My city inspections are scheduled for tomorrow...sure hope I pass so I can continue with drywall! Wish me luck!

EDIT 6/19/09: I just passed rough inspection for everything, and I don't need any other inspections until the final, so I can mud the drywall as soon as I put it up...woohoo! Happy Friday!

Current Mood: accomplished

Back in January I posted what house projects I completed in 2008, plus what I had planned for 2009. I've gotten a lot done already with 2009 not quite half over yet, including the most ambitious project on my list that is well underway!

( Brittahytta home & garden improvements for 2009 already completed )


( still to-do for 2009 )


( ...and last but by no means least...(fanfare please!)...the kitchen remodel is well underway, hopefully all finished before 4th of July! :D )




kitchen color story = raw copper sink, EcoTop samples (Pecan is the winner), Tuscan Bronze faucet, IKEA "antique effect" flooring

So, now you can see why I've been so busy the past few months! When not at work or doing all the other stuff I've already posted, I've been either revising layout drawings, researching & purchasing, packing up my kitchen or bashing tile off my floor! I also was wary of posting too early in case I might jinx something...the cabinet order was one of the last details to get in place for sure, but now that's in process, I feel much better that everything is underway!

The last major detail is choosing castley stone(like) backsplash tile, but since I can't install that until after the cabinets & counter are in anyway, I have a little time to go shopping. I have a general idea in my head of what I'd like (think the flagstone pattern from my Halloween walls, but more tan than gray), but haven't investigated local tile stores. I also haven't found any knobs or pulls I like enough, but at my request Richard is making me fingerpull cabinet doors & drawers, so I won't have to install knobs or pulls anyway. My parents' kitchen doesn't have hardware, and I might like the cleaner look.

From my estimates, since I don't always know what the price would be if I paid labor for what I've been doing by myself so far, I will probably get a $35K kitchen including new hallway & living room flooring for about $25K that was secured last year when our company stock was nice & high, so sure glad I sold options when I did...still not any low-budget kitchen & I could have cut more corners to be cheaper, but I think the value I'm getting is definitely worth it!

Biggest splurge = gorgeous copper farmhouse sink...almost as expensive as the fridge(!), but smiling every time I do dishes will be as worth it as the expensive teal custom paint job is every time I smile when I see the Briata, even 5 years later... :)

Best deal (so far?) = found the matching finish dishwasher air gap for $20 online but won on eBay new in box for $0.99 + $4 shipping...woohoo!

Happy Friday everyone!

Current Mood: excited

Almost three years later, I am finally finished with brick at Brittahytta! :D The whole time I was pounding this pathway this past weekend, I kept singing "The Final Pathway" to the tune of The Final Countdown! heehee...

December 2005 - boring concrete pathways from sidewalk to front porch & back side yard, no back patio, no pathway across front yard, only stepping stones from porch to side gate
March 2006 - started bashing concrete along back side yard - took until February 2007 to finish!
September 2006 - back brick patio & original pathway across back yard
March 2008 - brick stepping stones with vegetable garden along back side yard
September 2008 - pathway across front yard
February 2009 - front porch paved in split bricks
March 2009 - after bashing concrete out, front pathway from sidewalk to front door,
May 2009 - final pathway from porch to side gate, meeting original pathway across back yard!

I'm sure you've seen enough brick by now to spare you too many step by step photos! Not only do I have plenty of dry bricklaying experience during the past three years, but this pathway was easier since that stretch had been white gravel over black plastic with no irrigation since before I moved in, so the ground was flat & compacted already, and at the perfect depth to match the paved porch, so no digging required until meeting the original pathway under the side gate. This was about 10 hours work from unloading 200 bricks from the truck onto the porch & scooting gravel to the end of laying brick, since all I had to do was scoot the gravel out of the way in the correct shape, lay down weedblocker fabric & sand, and start pounding bricks...


From stepping stones to coming full circle meeting the original brick pathway at the side gate, Britthytta is now surrounded with brick that matches the front chimney!

Full photos of The Final Pathway start on page 51 of the garden gallery...


P.S. This isn't even the big news yet...stay tuned!

Current Mood: accomplished

I've been so busy lately that I'm way behind in posting so much stuff! Let's catch up first with one of the busiest weeks of my life, culminating May 9th!

I volunteered to make the bridal bouquet for Robin's wedding, then Tracia's suprise 40th birthday party was scheduled the same day in Davis, 3 hrs away! Once in a lifetime events for great friends, so I figured out a way to do BOTH! I had also been working on bridemaid Cyd's lavender dragon brocade corset to wear in the ceremony, but thankfully I planned ahead enough that the corset was finished about a week ahead. I also assisted Cyd in fitting & sewing her dress, so plenty of project chaos going on! There was also a long-awaited movie opening the same weekend, making things extra complicated, so I took 2 vacation days from work, since there was no way I was missing that either! ;)

The bouquet was elegant & simple as the bride requested, but still required planning of when to cut the roses & taking gentle refrigerated care with them, so what needed the most lead time was the birthday cake combining two of Tracia's favorite topics, music & chickens, into a Chicken Choir Cake!

( click to read how I made it through the busiest week ever... )

After about 20 hours work plus transit time...voila!


Happy Birthday Tracia!

Huge thanks to Jeff & Louie taking great photos, including the action photos of cake assembly...that never happens! :)

Full photo albums here: Dragon Corset or Chicken Choir Cake

Next you'll see why I've still been too busy to blog even after the busiest week ever...stay tuned!

Current Location: Brittahytta
Current Mood: accomplished

13 friends + advance tickets + 3 hrs in line at Metreon IMAX + great seats + uniforms & other TrekWear + so many random people wanting my photo + FANTASTIC MOVIE = fabulous evening!

No spoilers...I've got a crammed schedule, but if there's any way I get enough done before dinner, I just might see Star Trek again tonight...yes I liked it that much! :D

Now for some sleep though...

(EDIT: pix now posted here)


TrekWear unite!

My default TV channels when doing inside projects are DIY, HGTV and FoodTV, especially Ace of Cakes plus all the cake challenges they have. One of the specials back in February had wedding dress-inspired cakes with one giant corset bodice cake, and I had a brainstorm...corset cupcakes! Take two cupcakes, frost them bases together for an hourglass shape, cover with marshmallow fondant, then have a ball decorating them all differently with luster dust, candy sprinkles, dragees & icing lacing! However I had no event for which to make them, so the idea was filed away in my brain for later, like so many other brainstorms...

...then we decided on a Guinness potluck to celebrate Cyd's birthday, inspired by a Guinness porter cake recipe posted on St Patrick's Day. I decided I could make the cake recipe as cupcakes and make them into corsets, since Cyd loves corsets almost as much as she loves Guinness. :) I had leftover marshmallow fondant from the guitar cake last fall, both black & white, so I decided in case people didn't want Guinness cake, I could make white cupcakes too, color-coding the flavor with the fondant color...and so it began...

( Corset Cupcakes - Step by Step )

Voila! At last, finished Corset Cupcakes!



No two were decorated the same, so to see all the designs, you can go through the full album if you like...

These took SO MUCH LONGER than I ever expected! I had baked the cupcakes the night before since I didn't want that cutting into my decorating time, but still kneading, rolling & forming the fondant for just 22 corset cupcakes took me FOUR HOURS! By then I was wiped at 3am, so I had to sleep before continuing decorating, which continued another EIGHT HOURS right up to the party start time...whew! Now I know either to do less intricate decorating, or to plan much more time if doing this ever again...but I am quite proud of how cute they turned out! :)

Happy Friday!

When I moved in over 3 years ago, my house had no walkway across the back or front, only covered back patio space, and a boring straight concrete walkway to the front porch. Brainstorming led to my mom's idea of brick pathways around the house since my brick chimney is so prominent on the front of my house. I've always liked the charm of brick, so that idea developed into a back pathway from my gate opening into a nice open brick patio that was done in 2006, in 2006 & 2007 cracking out concrete to make room for brick stepping stones & vegetable garden along the side yard finally in early 2008, moving lawn sprinklers in the summer to add the front pathway across the house last fall (that I guess I never blogged because of book & Halloween craziness)...

...and now finally the boring straight concrete is replaced with a charming curving brick pathway!



( This was a major effort, since this time was ALL by myself! For details click here to keep reading... )

concrete haulaway = free
labor = free (exhausting though!)
weedblocker fabric = $5 (didn't use the whole roll so really less)
brick = leftovers from previous purchases + $35
8 bags sand = $32

...so for only $72 cost I have a brand new pathway, but that's not quite fair since I knew I would be doing this project eventually, so it was really prepurchased by buying 3 full 520-brick pallets, two for the back patio, and another one last year for the front pathway (since I was paying a delivery charge for new doors anyway), then saving the leftovers stacked out of the way by my garbage cans. I definitely saved labor cost by doing it all myself, and I can always be proud when showing off my new pathway! :)

I can't tell you how much better I like my front yard now! Still plenty of details to tackle, like filling in with good planting soil along the new path in spots, but it looks so much better now! I still have about 25 ft left from the porch to the gate to meet the first pathway, then I will have pretty brick surrounding my entire house...yay! :)

Current Location: Brittahytta
Current Mood: accomplished

Last year was the first year my dad was retired, and my mom wanted to go to Stitches West, so the plan was for both of them to come stay at my house, I would take some vacation days, and my dad & I would build the two gates I asked for as Christmas presents while my mom was at the conference. This worked well enough last year that Stitches Project Weekend has become an annual tradition. This year my mom even brought a friend for the conference, so I had 3 guests for Mardi Gras, then only a couple days later, another 3 guests, so I'm glad my guest room & office have gotten good use!

When I make my wish list of projects to do, it is truly a wish list of things I want done eventually, but usually a stretch goal I don't expect to complete, so I prioritize, plan out what we think we can do in the time we have vs. daylight hours, and see what we can do. We actually got EVERYTHING done on my list this time...wow! Thanks Dad! :)

To read details about each project, click the links.


Day One (only afternoon/evening):

( site survey & shopping )

( leaky sprinkler valve )

( new kitchen light )


Ugly old kitchen track light before...now prettier & brighter new kitchen light!



Day Two:

( proper drainage from 3 downspouts )


Drain ditch in process


( paving front porch to go with new brick pathway )


Voila! Front porch before I moved in & now! So much more charm than the pebbly concrete before!




Spillover Day Three (morning only):

( hallway linen closet doors closing properly )


Linen closet doors with new hinges that match my hallway doorknobs...and should I repaint the fronts but leave the insides of the doors the "painted desert" effect as house history? ;)


( restabilize pipe organ )


( old kitchen light installed on wall switch in garage )


Track light from kitchen now illuminating the garage


( new fridge water supply valve in kitchen )


new water pipe extension through garage wall...and the valve moved inside ready for a new fridge!


( stabilize screened patio structure to be ready for outdoor patio carpeting )


so...

leaky sprinkler valve = $13
new kitchen light = $175
proper drainage from 3 downspouts = $60
paving front porch to go with new brick pathway = $144
hallway linen closet doors closing properly = $25
restabilize pipe organ = $0
old kitchen light installed on wall switch in garage = $4
new fridge water supply valve in kitchen = $35
stabilize screened patio structure = $0

...project weekend with Dad = priceless! :)


P.S. I did get the living room, dining area & hallway all painted with a "wheatland beige" base coat then a hand-rubbed "wam oats" topcoat all in January! Those photos are here if you'd like to see...

Current Location: Brittahytta
Current Mood: accomplished

I know that Onyx likes avocado, but are you kidding me?!?



I came into the kitchen & saw this...he had pulled the whole bag of avocados off the counter onto the floor, and had already eaten through the woven plastic bag and THROUGH THE SKINS of two avocados! Sheesh! I hope he didn't eat too much of the rind!

Current Location: Brittahytta

Sorry for the delay in the party recap, but I've had 6 houseguests in 7 days, so I've been a bit busy since the party!

Even though from RSVPs I had been wondering if this year might beat out 2005 for the smallest Mardi Gras, there were 24 of us letting the good times roll, including two of those under 2 years old, so a good turnout, especially considering the weather turned a bit nasty with wind & rain right at 7pm. There were very few costumes this year, only Cyd the Bar Wench, Kaye in her corset, the Barbieri family, Robin & Charles, and myself, but a few others came with some purchased masks. Everybody who came said they had a great time, so that's what counts! :)

I hadn't made the Tricolor Scrolls in many years, so I decided to try again with different purple, green & gold contents, which were a big hit! My secret new cookie idea was lifesize edible stick masks, including some iced plain white for guests to decorate for us all to vote for a prize for Best Edible Mask. I knew this would be a great kid party idea, but you never know depending on the mix of adults who might come who might be enthused or not. Well, I had more people wanting to decorate than I had space for them to work, so I think I will work the kinks out of the concept & try again next year! I did get my prize medals finished, from supplies I had bought 2 years ago or earlier, so I was glad for that!

And the winners are...

Who Got Da Baby? Ashlyn did!
Best Mask/Most Creative Mask = Robin's gorgeous beaded wire mask
Best Costume = The Bollywood Barbieris
Most Creative Costume = Charles the Frat Boy with Beads
Best Edible Mask = Cyd (perhaps sympathy votes?)


Mardi Gras Fairy Princess Britta displaying the new lifesize mask cookies


( More details if you're curious...  )


I had to get everything cleaned up from the party & back to normal before Thursday when my parents were arriving with an extra person for Stitches West & project weekend...whew! But that's another story...Until then, you can see all the Mardi Gras 2009 photos in this album...

Thank goodness for the long weekend! I still have a long ways to go, but I have made great progress in getting the Mardi Gras Masquerade ready for this coming Saturday! My fairy costume is very nearly done, some tedious handstitching left on the top of the bodice, and details like adding ribbon to the mask & things, but at least wearable already! I could have been further along, but I really wanted to do the wings a certain way, which took something like 12-16 hours of handstitching I swear! :P A lot of the food is ready to go, but since I'm making new cookies which are a surprise, they are taking longer & more ingredients since they are oversized. All those need to be decorated tonight after work but at least I have 50 baked that haven't broken. There were more that were either attacked by stealthy kitties (tag-teaming ganging up on me isn't fair!) or just broke from being too thin in places.

( party prep so far, starting 2 weeks before party day: )

...still LOTS to do, and I haven't even set up the webcam yet since the weather has been so bad I'm not sure it should go on the screened patio this time, even though that was an excellent spot at Halloween. Wish me luck getting everything done! :)

P.S. I have used my new "kitchen computer" for two recipes already and I love it! :D

Current Location: Brittahytta

Last year I saw this fancy new "kitchen center" Pandigital PANTV1512 15.6-Inch Kitchen Technology Center Digital Picture Frame on Popdgadget & thought it would be a nice space-saving idea to replace my bubble-style iMac kitchen computer for recipe use...however it seemed a bit expensive & overkill since I don't think I'll need an HDTV in my kitchen! The cabling for HDTV service would be annoying so not worth it. Wifi would be nice though...so since I've built up some free Amazon money from my Visa, I thought I'd look for it in case it came down in price yet. Nope, still $400. However the "you might like" Amazon suggestions showed the lesser expensive Pantouch digital photo frames with preloaded recipes from Bon Appetit, one drastically on sale for only $130 ...aha! Completely within the free money I have right now! I couldn't find the wifi USB dongle on Amazon, but I did find it on Bed Bath & Beyond online for $30, so I figured to order the frame, see if I could put my own recipes on it easily enough, then I could always add on the wifi later if I wanted it.

So for a third of the cost (free for me!), this can be a photo frame to put elsewhere if I'm not cooking (in addition to the internal memory it has slots for several types of media cards, plus for a USB thumb drive), plus I can move this around the kitchen wherever is most logical for that recipe. It does have to plug in for power though so can't go absolutely anywhere. This model only comes with the black frame, but it is removable, so I can always make my own prettier frame surround for it if I want to. For the extra cost for the "kitchen center" it would have been built-in wifi, HDTV-ready with a larger screen size, and more preloaded recipes, but I don't think I need all that. I added a couple books & a DVD I've been saving on my list to combine for free shipping, and I still have some free money left. The books showed up earlier last week, so I've already finished reading one of them. :)

I got the digital photo frame yesterday, so I connected it to my computer to see how the recipe files worked. It's not the most elegant navigation system, and I might end up using the remote more than the touch feature since it's only around the border, but we'll see. It will not display text files or PDF, even TIFF, only JPEG, so I will have to convert my text recipes to images to view them, but that's a big plus for scanning from cookbooks or magazines since no conversion to text necessary! To see if it was worth the effort, I took quick & dirty screencaps of most of my online Mardi Gras recipes to see if I could read them. The included USB cable worked fine, mounting as "Pandigital" on my Mac desktop, so I could just drag & drop files to copy them over to the 512MB internal memory, eject the USB drive, then it would reboot automatically after it disconnected. Hooray it worked! The image isn't huge, but still larger than recipe index cards. ;) I definitely would not go any smaller than the 10.4" diagonal image size though if you're going to use one for your own recipes. Unfortunately my nice sale price has gone up $100, but you can still get the frame without the Bon Appetit preloaded recipe collection for $200. The king cake recipe was too long for a screencap, so I cobbled that together in Photoshop (InDesign would have been better but I didn't want to deal with it with my headache last night), and now all my Mardi Gras recipes are on my new "kitchen computer" in time to use for the party in 2 weeks!

In other Mardi Gras news, my fairy wings are complete enough to wear but I would like to embellish them more...but since the dress & bodice are barely begun, those will come first. The Creole Chicken Skewers are prebaked & in the freezer, and the spinach ball goop is in my fridge ready to be rolled into balls & frozen. Glad I have a 3-day weekend inbetween to decorate & make party food! :)

Little did I ever expect to be designing a tattoo! hp_jenorama has done so well over the past year and a half that she wanted to commemorate her weight-loss journey with a tattoo, so last week she asked if I could draw her a phoenix feather for her wrist, free creative license. I was very honored to be asked since I knew this meant a lot to her, so I started sketching ideas right away. After the first four sketches & color patterns, we discussed which she liked best, then I sent her these, and now as of tonight, it's already on her arm, looking great! The tattoo artist did a fabulous job enhancing the details from the original concept, and the shading is great. She's really happy with it, which is the best part of course!


Phoenix feather tattoo concept artwork


Phoenix feather tattoo!

In other news, fabric has been found in my stash plus $9 of sale brocade, so my winged fairy costume for Mardi Gras will be started this weekend...and hopefully finished with any luck!

Current Mood: pleased

I'm still recovering from my latest illness, but I decided to take stock of last year's home improvements and organize my thoughts for this year. I thought I didn't get much done on my house last year, but now it looks like I did after all! In rough chronological order...

( Brittahytta home & garden improvements in 2008 )

( Brittahytta home & garden improvements for 2009 )

( farther future because timing will be tricky, plus not all kitchen decisions made yet anyway )

Speaking of the kitchen, one part I am struggling on is the sink. I hate stainless steel, and I want warm colors in my kitchen, not a white enamel sink that will stand out as too bright against all my warm tans & beiges. I cannot find any enamel sink darker than "biscuit" which is still too light. I found a gorgeous natural stone travertine farmhouse sink with a carved apron, but I am worried a bit about the cleaning care. I have seen some custom-painted fireclay sinks, but none in designs I like enough. Why can't someone just paint a fireclay sink to look like stone? Or why can't they let ME paint one myself, then fire it for me? heh...If anyone comes across any sinks you think I might like, please let me know!

Once I find a sink I think I might be close, but the timing is tricky, since I have to have half my house unusable for quite awhile, since the flooring can't be done until the existing kitchen is dismantled, and as you know I have party schedules to work around... ;) Unless I have decisions finalized by Mardi Gras to be able to start work, which is only a month away, I won't be able to start until after next Mardi Gras. At least the summer parties I can work around having no kitchen since the parties are out back or on the patio, I have a fridge out there already, I do have a sink in the garage and can move appliances like the microwave to the patio too.

...and speaking of Mardi Gras, I have to get an invitation out, since the party is now only one month away!

Current Location: at work
Current Mood: accomplished

After 11 months with nary a cold, now from September to today I have been sick every month! Is this because I don't have whiplash & months-long car repair issues dragging me down this year? My sleep isn't much different than last year...please let me get well & stay well again! *sigh*

Current Mood: sick

Saturday was a frustrating day. We wanted to get going by 9am, so when I woke up hearing movement in the kitchen, I jumped up, took the sheets off my bed & started packing, but my mom was on the phone with Good Sam requesting a tech to come out. This RV has had constant problems with the levelers, and they had worked on the drive up, but now 3 came up but one was stuck down, and we can't drive with a leveler down. My dad learned on their last trip how to crank it up by hand, but it takes about an hour underneath in the mud, so he decided to use the service they've already paid for & wait for the tech to arrive. 3 hours later, the tech still wasn't there, Good Sam tracked him down, and another 2 hrs he showed up, then needed to leave to buy the right tool...so finally after 3pm we finally left Woodway! Sheesh!


Hired help doing the dirty work handcranking the last leveler up so we can finally get on the road!

At least while we were waiting so long already packed, I said we didn't have a photo with Grandma, so here we are...


Grandma & Britta in Woodway, with the dogs trying to squeeze in the photo

It's not very safe driving with risk of ice overnight, so with a break for a quick dinner out at BJ's Brewery for Dad & me since he needed a driving break, we only made it to Woodburn south of Portland, where I beat Mom again at Scrabble, and without levelers and such wind & rain overnight I had trouble getting to sleep and felt a bit seasick! We got going on the road again before 9:30am so made it to Medford by lunchtime when we ate in the RV after filling up at Costco, then over the still-snowy Siskiyou Summit in fairly clear weather. Oddly enough the coldest weather & only snow falling was all the way south of Dunsmuir near Mt Shasta, but the roads were still clear. We made it to Redding by 5pm, free wifi again, Mom finally beat me at Scrabble (I'm still ahead 2 of 3 games though!), and my mom & I watched the Sound of Music on TV while my dad realized he'd never paid attention to the movie before, but still gave up only halfway through watching. ;)


Still plenty chilly south of Dunsmuir by Mt Shasta

Tomorrow we should get to Sacramento sometime in the afternoon, then it's presents & dinner with my brother before I can drive to my house, so I'm not sure if I'll make it back the same night or sometime on Tuesday...I will be glad to see my kitties again & sleep in my own bed!

Current Location: Redding, CA

Christmas Eve morning we woke up to even more snow, which was great fun for Elsie, especially visiting the horse when he'd venture out of the barn, but required us to dig out the driveway enough so my dad could drive to get some last-minute groceries, let alone for our relatives to arrive later for dinner & presents. The driveway is probably 150ft long up a hill, and the snow was about 8" deep, so with a little help from my mom, my dad & I spent about an hour shoveling two tracks for tires, then more on the flat by the carport for turnaround and parking for more vehicles later. After my dad tested by getting the van down the hill in the tracks, I was already so overheated I was shoveling in my t-shirt & still sweating, but I kept going for another hour thinking that it would be better if it was clearer where everyone needed to park. I was also hoping the exertion might sweat my cold out of me, but my nose just kept dripping! At least it was a valiant pre-emptive attack against dinner calories, right?


Shoveling snow in Woodway, WA


( Christmas Eve Wedgie Revenge! )


Clouston Christmas Eve



( Christmas Day with Peterson cousins )


Britta holding little Solveig



( Merry Christmas Mom = most frustrating computer project ever! :P heh... )


Merry Christmas Mom! Dismantled 12" PowerBook, ready for new 250GB internal drive!


Today was a lazy day taking down my grandma's tree & trying to help her put away all her decorations since we're trying to wait out another day of snow before we try to get back on the road home. It was snowing several times today with large clumps again, but it's obviously getting warmer since the snow is more slippery & crunchy instead of the nice powder when we arrived. The dogs like the powder much better than this icy stuff. I hope everyone had a nice Christmas! Wish us luck getting home through more snow!

Current Location: Woodway, WA