We're in Canada Eh?

So we are in Canada now . . . We left around 5 on Friday and 4 stops and 2 smoothies later, made it to Long Beach where we hung out with Nathan's Opa and Oma. Then Saturday it was time to head to the airport. We flew to Seattle, enjoyed some great seafood, watched the sunset then took our second flight to Vancouver. Here's a few pictures from the past day or so.

Got our passports . . . ready to drive away and begin our adventure!

2005 - Matching passport stamps from Swaziland.

Didn't quite catch that one.

Americanos, newspaper, cribbage . . . Just waiting to leave LA.

Catching up on local news.

Waiting for the tram in Seattle.

More pictures and updates to come!

Farmer's Market

Last night Lauri and I went down the hill and I got to experience the Clovis Farmer's Market for the first time. We enjoyed some roasted corn, sampled many types of hummus and homemade jams . . . and had an interesting time trying to eat our persimmons.



I also bought a peach and I cannot describe to you how big it is. It probably counts as two servings of fruit. And I am very much looking forward to when it's ripe! I'm sure it will be heavenly!



After mingling around all the amazing food . . . we ended our night watching a movie about food . . . Julie and Julia. Man, I'm getting hungry just talking about all this. Maybe it's time for a snack.

Early Morning

It's not even 7:00 am here and I am sitting in my office waiting to start a distance learning class. This is the third one I've taken in the last week. Today is: Query: Beyond Essentials. It's database training. I love running queries. It's one of my favorite things working with the database. I can figure out any type of information that I'm curious about. I love building the query and figuring out how to pull the information I'm looking for out of all the records and information we have. I feel quite proficient with queries . . . so I hope there's even more I can learn from this "Beyond Essentials class".

Ok . . . off to class!

Strengths

1. Achiever
2. Significance
3. Focus
4. Analytical
5. Maximizer

If 2.5 of my 5 strengths are being sorely unused, uncultivated, and ignored . . . does that mean I'm failing in life and in my job? 50% is failing in school. Does that percentage apply to everything else?

Brunette

I have brown hair now. I needed a change.

Sorry I don't have a picture.

Mice

Over the last several weeks I have been working on catching the mice that seem to think that my house is their house.

I have now caught seven.

I have released one, killed 5, and left one alive outside on the trap for some other animal to get. The larger forest animals are probably lurking around my house since I keep throwing mice (dead and alive) outside.

To Mary Beth

This is my dear friend Mary Beth . . . affectionately known as MB. We came on full time staff at the same time and immediately were good friends. We lived life to the fullest this past year. We went on many adventures together, ran many miles together, enjoyed a lot of coffee and tea together, made snowmen together, ate many meals together, read together, had hours and hours of conversation together, talked in our sleep to each other, made "would you rathers" together . . . and just generally lived and loved life together. We had a blast. Sadly, she moved away on Sunday, but happily . . . she is going off to do great and exciting things with her life! And we will still have many more adventures together and continue to share life together for many years to come!

If this were a toast . . . now would be the time I would ask you to raise your glass. "To Mary Beth!"