Twilight

With all the talk about the Twilight series I was not convinced that I wanted to read any of the books. I'm not much into hype of anything...mostly movies and books, especially if the book is being made into a movie.

The Book
A couple of weeks ago as I was going thru Fred Meyer I spotted the paperback version and picked it up and read a little bit and decided to go ahead and buy it. I was interested because the setting was in Forks, WA and Tom and I spent a year not too far away from there in Aberdeen - good ol' wet Aberdeen! The story included Vampires...ooh...okay, I'll give it a shot!

I was doing okay with it until it started turning toward teen romance - UGH. Oh I know, it's all about that, but I was getting annoyed. I'm not into reading romance anything as all I really look for is a good story and for me romance in books is just a bunch of fluff. Anyway, once the story turned to Bella finding out the true nature of Edward, then it started getting interesting.

Yesterday morning I finished the book and I have to say that I enjoyed it very much - romance and all. I decided that maybe the second book would be good to start, but no one has it - of course I only visited two stores so that is just as good as everyone since I don't travel too far outside of Hazel Dell during the week. I needed a new book so during my visit to Target for the umpteenth time this week I spied The Host the latest by Stephenie Meyer. So far it is pretty good, chapters are brief, but there a lot of them. This book will keep me well occupied during our flight to Chicago.
The Movie It is unlikely that I'll go see this movie in the theater. I did watch the trailer on YouTube this week, definitely wait for it to go to DVD and put in on my Netflix.

Seattle Trip

Finally getting a post about our weekend!

Tom won a couple of train tickets at the Night Ride in July...STILL don't get that! Anyway, we had ourselves a nice little getaway, an overnight trip to Seattle. I love Seattle, but we just don't get there very much. The last time was for an American Brain Tumor Association meeting/conference - so not really that fun of a trip.

This was my first trip on a train and I really liked it a lot. So relaxing and the scenery was nice too. We got lucky with good weather which is unusual for this time of year. I was sure that we would be sloppin' around in the rain for sure, that would not have been as fun - just typical Pacific Northwest weather.

We arrived around lunch time and made our way over to the hotel, the Silver Cloud across the street from Safeco Field. After we checked in we set out to explore Seattle from a different angle. We walked and walked and walked! At least 4 miles if not more...

We had lunch at Thoa's where we enjoyed a "snack" of Imperial Rolls, Calamari (the best) and an order of Curried Fried Rice with Shrimp. All very good!

Afterwards we made our way down to Pike Street Market - checked out just how far away we were from the Stadium - FAR and then decided to head up to the Westlake Center area where there was a huge rally in opposition to the recent passage of Proposition 8 - the ban against same sex marriage. That was an unsettling scene for me so we ducked into a bookstore before heading back to the hotel.

Along our travels I wanted to take pictures of the Starbucks we passed by...a continuation of our trip from a few years ago where I found 3 or 4 in the same block, both sides the street! This year we spotted 8 and actually the one of 4th was a repeat...but still, it was Starbucks! Surprisingly, we only visited ONE coffee shop during this trip....VERY ODD!

Waiting for our train in VancouverThe Conductor
The pig outside of the Stadium which Tom tried to climb up on,
but opted just to hold on to the tail

The Qwest & Safeco Fields from Pike Place

My Favorite Vendor - gorgeous produce!

Starbucks

During our weekend get-away to Seattle I decided I wanted to get pictures of the Starbucks that we saw during our travels on foot.

Surprisingly, the only "shop" we visited was the one outside of the Borders on 4th and even then, it was not a regular cafe.

Wine Club

One of our favorite wineries in the Napa Valley would be Clos du Val. I don't know what it was about this particular winery, it could have been the swallows that were all over the place when we rode up on our bicycles as we were checking the valley out on our bikes. Tom had gone up to the building to get a closer look and spoke to one of the tasting room employees and got the low-down on the bird action.

Here is a shot of the birds...and Tom talking to the tasting room gal.

Upon our return later in the afternoon we were very impressed with the winery and the wines that they had to offer. We enjoyed our second visit so well that we decided that we would join their cellar club.

The fun part of being a cellar club member is that there are discounts on wine purchases and special invitations for winery events that happen during the year. We have yet to participate in a cellar club event, but it will happen at some point.

I love that 3 times a year we receive a shipment of 1-4 bottles of wine. We always have some really nice wine on hand when a special occasion comes up.

Our latest wine shipment - a bottle of
1996 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

Tom's Birthday Evening

Photos of the evening.

Tom waited a whole year to open up his special blend that he did at Urban Wineworks. It was pretty good and went well with our pizza.

FINALLY, the shoes he's been drooling over for MONTHS! A little cake for the Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday Tom!!!

Happy Birthday to my sweetie husband who is a kid at heart...

O.C.C.

Operation Christmas Child 2008

Goal - 350 shoe boxes Actual - 371 shoe boxes

All year long Felida members and regular attenders have been bringing in items (toys, clothes, toiletries etc) for this packing party which took place yesterday, November 8.

The fun part of this event is watching the kids packing boxes for kids that will receive these boxes and how proud they were to present their choices to the volunteers helping to keep things in order. Another fun thing was that even the teenagers were helping out - which is really cool. They could easily be hanging out with their friends, but really, on a rainy day what would their be to do?

We easily reached our goal within the two hours that was alloted to fill the box and we had more stuff leftover, but not enough essential items to continue filling boxes.

Here are a few shots of the morning

Helloooooo Mary!
Me taking a picture of Scott taking a picture of me...

Happy Felida Elves...

Me & Lila Scheer

Chronic Syndrome

I've got it bad - I am a chronic weather forecast watcher...I will search every weather website I can find and watch the weather forecast on TV only to find out that what I see when I look out the window is what the weather will be.

SO sad.

Advent Conspiracy, Part 2

The first Advent Conspiracy activity that FBC will be doing is the shoe box ministry for Operation Christmas Child. Check out the video...

Throughout the year church members have donated items to pack into these boxes - toys, school supplies, toiletries etc. This Saturday there will be a big packing party at the church and it's a great event for the whole family. Boxes will be packed for all age groups and then will be sent to a distribution center where each box will be inspected and then a bible tract will be included before being sent out.

I am looking forward to being a part of this ministry again - it should be a fun morning! Felida's goal is to fill 350 boxes - Wowie!

Here's to making a difference in at least 350 children's lives across the world.

Advent Conspiracy

This year Tom and I are changing the way we think about Christmas. Check out the video and think about how you can change your Christmas...more to come!