Sacrilege anyone?

I visited Vancouver, WA, last weekend and stayed with my sister Katy

at her new apartment in a really nice area of the city.

To provide me with a contrast, Katy showed me her old apartment

and neighborhood, which is not as nice.

Anyway, to the point of the photo.

Katy's old neighborhood contains a workout facility

called the "Lord's Gym", which has a HUGE picture of Christ

on the side doing a push up in a loin cloth,

with a crown of thorns, and a crucifix on his back.

I cannot believe the audacity of the owners to use that image!

I find it both uncomforably humorous and disturbing.

I mean, could this mural be any more blasphemous?!?!

Waiting for Uncle Sam...

I got our final tax-related info today and then filed online for free.

Now I'm looking forward to getting my refund in 8-14 days - whoo hoo!

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Stupid apartment living

It is almost the one-year birthday of our friend's dog, Dexter, and I recently saw these photos of when he was just a pup... which makes me resent still having only a one-bedroom apartment and a single family income, because I sooooo still want to get a dog!!

I just have to keep reminding myself that Monico is almost halfway done with school, which means he is halfway back to making a real income, and we are getting closer to the time we can get a bigger place and a dog.

Until then, I guess I will just have to puppy-sit more...


Message for Dexter: Hope you are enjoying Texas! Monico and I miss you and Amy mucho...

Monica, Seattle, and Twilight

My sister in law (SIL) Monica came to visit for Thanksgiving, staying from the weekend before until the weekend after, so we had a lot of time to play "tour guide" for her.

No weekend would be complete without a visit to Salty's famous brunch buffet! This photo was actually taken the weekend AFTER Thanksgiving, which is why the March of the Nutcrackers and the Christmas trees are part of the background.

We took the bus downtown to Westlake Center,
then rode the monorail to Seattle Center.

Atop the Space Needle. It was fairly gray day, but while at the top, the sun broke through the clouds, so you can see the variation of light and dark in the photo behind Monico and Monica.
Classic Seattle - sun and clouds!

Of course, no trip to Seattle is complete without a trip to the Public Market.
I love getting a half-dozen fresh mini-donuts whenever we are there!
Mmm...

Monico had classes and studying,
so a couple of days were only Monica and I.

On this afternoon, I took her on a speed tour of the notable sights....

Gas Works Park (Monica is freezing!!)...

The Fremont Troll...

and the Ballard Locks.

While Monico was in school,
Monica and I took a one-day trip to Port Angeles.
Monica has read the Twilight series, so she wanted to visit the town.

View of the historic portion of town.
The Victoria B.C. Ferry (not pictured) docs directly ahead.
Regarding Twilight (for those who care),
the Woolworths is one block to the immediate left in the photo,
the Bella Italia Restaurant is one block to the immediate right,
and the movie theater is to the right one block past the restaurant.

If I ever read the books, I will better understand the significance of these locations, which is why I made sure to take a photo of them while I was there!

Snow Day in December

Mid-December, when Seattle was blasted by repeated snow storms, Monico and I took the opportunity to get out of the house and took the bus downtown to take in some of the festivities.

Our first stop was at the 16th Annual Sheraton Suites Gingerbread Village. Although this is our 4th Christmas in Seattle, it was the 1st year I had heard of this free event.

This is the tree in the hotel lobby. So pretty!!

The theme was "Superheroes" and the designers could interpret that however they wished.

"Super Mario Holiday"

"A Dark Knight Before Christmas"

"Christmas Comes to Life"

"Superman Saves Santa:
The Fortress of Santatude"

"A Community of Super Heroes"

The Christmas tree outside Westlake Center.

The Merry-Go-Round also outside Westlake Center.

After we caught a movie, we headed back to catch the bus and passed by Macy's, which had this amazing lighted star on the SE corner of the building which overlooked Westlake Center.

It was incredibly cold after the sun went down, and it took Monico and I a LONG time to make it home that night (and to warm up) because buses did not run on regular routes or schedules, but it was an adventure we enjoyed together and a memory we can treasure!

Enchanted Love

Thanks to a promotion by Comcast I now have the next 6 months of Starz movie channel for free, and have watched the movie "Enchanted" for twice in the last 24-hour period!

I have been in love with Patrick Dempsey since 1987's "Can't Buy Me Love," but seeing him dressed like a prince while dancing and singing to Amy Adams is too much for my swooning heart to take...

Ahhhh...

Happy Birthday...

You did what with your hair?

Again, this happened back in October....

With a lot of PTO left before it expired at the end of the calendar year, I took a "mental health" week of vacation the week of Halloween and (essentially) vegged around the house.

It had been several weeks since my last hair coloring, so I thought I would take care of that as well. Having wanted to experiment with coloring my hair a darker shade than what it has been for years, with the hopes that I wouldn't have to spend so much time continuing to do highlights, I thought this week of at-home time was the perfect opportunity to play around with color, especially since I color my own hair.

Well... this is what happened.

This is a photo of my hair BEFORE coloring.

Another BEFORE shot of my hair to get the back.

And this is the AFTER.

While I realize that it turned out nice, it just didn't look like me. But, for those of you who have also colored your hair extremely darker or lighter, it is a bit of a shock and takes some getting used to before you can judge whether or not you like it. Well, after 5 days, I decided I missed the blonde Melissa and proceeded to spent a lot more time and money to get my golden hair back.

Oh, and although Monico didn't hate this as much as when I chopped off my hair to my chin in Spring '07, the expression on his face when he saw me drying it was priceless, as his jaw literally dropped and he could only say "uh... that is NOT blonde!"


P.S. In case you were wondering - it is SO much easier to color your hair dark then it is to lighten.

P.P.S. to my cousin Rachel: It took me 2 blonde colors and a highlighting kit over several days to get ALMOST back to my starting color... and I was freaking out the whole time thinking about the time that [newlywed] you burned your scalp by trying to go blonde on your own before you turned to a salon for help. Those are the kind of life lessons that stick with you... even after almost 11 years have passed since you did that... Thanks!

Old photos - still fun

I have fallen behind on my blog entries, so I am going to try to play catch-up and post photos from the past couple of months. This blog is devoted to late October, when Monico and I went to the corn maze at Craven Farms in Skykomish, Washington. The Maze was made in the shape of the state of Washington, with the maze itself the highways and freeways in the state.

This is the photo printed in the paper of the maze. you can see the pumpkin patch area is directly above the maze, where B.C. would be. The farm house and barns are located in the "Pacific Ocean" to the left of the maze.

This is the pumpkin patch. Fairly picked over by the time we made it to the farm (on October 25th), but still a lot to choose from.

I thought this was so adorable! It is a train ride for little kids in "cattle carts."
I don't know the cost, but I can't imagine it would have been much.

This is part of the farm house and barn area where they sold goods and food and the portapotties were located.
LOOK HOW BLUE THE SKY WAS THAT DAY!! The weather was ideal.

To get to the maze entrance, they take you on a hay ride in these
tractor-pulled covered-wagons around the bottom of the state
and drop you on the Washington/Idaho border.

This is the Washington/Idaho border... just a reminder not to bring fruit from Idaho because of the Apple Maggot Quarantine. (hehe)

Monico waiting for me at the Spokane starting point. There were actually 3 entrances: Clarkston, Spokane, and... well actually I don't remember the third, but you can see the sign off in the distance behind Monico.

They had photos for nearly every town, including state parks and mountains. Although this one says "Tri-Cities" only, there were also plaques for Richland, Pasco, and Kennewick individually too.

I hope I don't have to explain this joke to any of you.

I couldn't believe it - even the fake Sunnyside looks run down!
But, at least it didn't smell like cow poop...

Even Batman took the opportunity to explore the maze that day...
(this kid was too cute not to capture!)
The end of the maze.

Me and my man.

We treated ourselves after the maze. They have the greatest baked goods available, many of which have either cinnamon or pumpkin. Clearly unable to choose, Monico took the pumpkin pie and I got the cinnamon roll...
and then we shared!

It was Monico's first corn maze, and thankfully he enjoyed it,
so it will be easier to convince him to go back again next year!