Visiting Family Back East

After the cruise ended on July 20, we flew to Charlottesville, VA and spent the next week with Regina's family in Waynesboro, VA. Katie was actually more excited about spending that time with her cousins than she was about going on the cruise. She LOVES spending time with her cousins Paige, Katelyn and Matthew. She's pretty fond of Aunt Edy and Uncle Matt, too. Anyway, here's a 4-minute video of our visit.

Music:
Sunshine and Summertime by Faith Hill

and World of Wonder by Didjworks

I think I know...

I bet cashews, coconut and oat (oatmeal) are my issues! Of course, I think I will still get the ones with alcohol and weather changes... but I bet these three are problem issues. Guess we will see!

Okay, Courtney, you need to do it now!

Regina's Food Sensitivities

Regina's blood serum reacted to the following foods:

Kidney bean, buckwheat, cashew nut, coconut, cranberry, cow's milk, goat's milk, oat, quinoa, sesame, walnut, baker's yeast and brewer's yeast

* the items in red are the ones Regina and I have in common.

Travel Day

7am the phone rang to wake us up. We showered, ate breakfast and finished packing so we were headed off the ship by about 9am. Hopped into a cab and arrived at JFK shortly after that. Waited and waited some more for our 2:20pm flight to Charlottesville, VA, via Dulles. At about 2:10pm, the agent broke the news that our plane hadn't even left Dulles yet, so therefore we would be delayed. Apparently, Dulles air traffic was a mess and all flights in and out of that airport were significantly delayed. We soon realized that we would miss our connecting flight if we didn't find another way to either get to Dulles or bypass Dulles altogether and somehow go directly to Charlottesville. We ended up doing the latter. That meant we had to claim our bags, catch a cab and get over to LaGuardia. From there we caught a US Air non-stop to Charlottesville that left at about 8pm. We were so excited to finally get on an airplane, only to have our excitement snatched away from us as we sat on the runway for an hour. It was not comfy at all. Small plane, no air conditioning. Yuck. Katie is a good traveller though and handled it like a champ. We finally arrived in Charlottesville around 10:30pm. Edy (Regina's sister) and Matt (Edy's husband) picked us up and about an hour later, we arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house (Regina's Mom and Dad) in Waynesboro.

What a day! But, we made it.

Newport, Rhode Island

Umm, okay ~ hot and muggy again. We walked around the shops a little bit and quickly returned to the air conditioned ship. We're whimps, I guess...

Hard to believe tonight is our last night. We're definitely sad it's over. But, the good news is ~ we're not going home yet! We'll spend the next week in Waynesboro, VA visiting Regina's parents and her sister Edy. Katie is so excited to see her cousins. It's all she's been talking about for the last several weeks...

~ peace out ~

Provincetown, Massachusetts

Hot and muggy... ugh. We're spoiled by the cool, breezy weather in Seattle.

The ship anchored in the bay and smaller boats ferried us between the shore and our ship. I got this picture of Katie on the way to the shore. Notice the couple in the background. If you are an Amazing Race fan, you may recognize them. We saw them all throughout the cruise and we spoke to them several times, mostly because Katie loved their pink hair and simply had to let them know!

Regina, Katie and I were all absolutely miserable as we walked around the shops in Provincetown, MA. Hot, sweaty, grumpy. Even so, we managed to spend a little money. I got a tie dye hoodie from a quirky place called Shop Therapy. We also found a small convenience store where we bought another supply of diet coke for the last couple of days on the ship.

Tonight on the ship, the late show was another performance by stand-up comedian Jessica Kirson. Crazy funny.

Bar Harbour, Maine

There were many opportunities throughout the week to have portraits taken by ship photographers, so we took advantage. This one was our favorite, although there were several others we liked enough to also buy. I'll post them after we get home and I've had a chance to scan them in.

We didn't get off the ship today. Instead, we enjoyed a leisurely morning and ended up at the kiddie pool around 11am or so. We hung out there for about 3 hours, I think. We were getting hungry, so we decided to get dried off and grab some lunch.

On our way back to the room, we stopped off at the "grown-up" pool to trade in our wet towels for dry ones. Regina noticed that Rosie was sitting by the side of the pool chatting with friends. Well, Katie had said several times since the cruise began that she wanted to meet Rosie so she could thank her for all the nice give-aways we got each evening in our cabin. So, we seized the moment and walked over to say hi. We spoke to her for no more than 30 seconds and Rosie was very low key, but didn't seem to mind that we interrupted her. I know, I know, she's completely used to it, and was practically asking for it by sitting by the public pool instead of her own private one in her suite, but I still hate to intrude. Bottom line though, we finally met Rosie!

Later in the afternoon, we took Katie to a kid's show on the ship called Dottie's Magic Pockets. They are the first children's program for kids in gay and lesbian households (and their friends, too). Dottie posed for pictures afterward. She's very sweet. Katie was thrilled.

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

We arrived in Halifax about 9am, or so. We didn't plan any excursion at this stop because we were hoping to connect with my Uncle Carl (my Mom's brother) and his wife Roxanne, who live in Dartmouth, about 15 minutes away.

This little tugboat pictured here, named Theodore Too, rushed out to greet our ship as we pulled into the harbor and sort of escorted us to our pier. I learned later in the gift shop that there are children's books about this little tugboat.

We all ate our usual breakfast in the Garden Cafe. Back in the cabin, I showered first so I could quickly make my way off the gangway and down into the big gift shop/customer service area at the pier to find a phone from which I could call Uncle Carl.

We made arrangements for Carl and Roxanne to pick us up around noon and we all had lunch together. They had to get to the airport by 2pm to pick up Roxanne's parents, so we did some quick catching up while we ate. They drove us up to the highest point in Halifax, so we could enjoy the view and it was within walking distance back to the ship, so we could get back on our own.

We took about an hour to walk leisurely down the hill, through downtown Halifax, and along the boardwalk, down to pier 21 where our ship was docked. It was rather warm and Katie was fading so of course, an ice cream cone was necessary to refresh her enough to make it the rest of the way! It was a nice way to get our exercise for the day.

When we returned to the ship, we headed straight for the kiddie pool. This might not sound all that attractive for the parents, but on this day it wasn't crowded at all, so it was actually enjoyable!


After dinner, we took Katie to the playroom while we went to a game show hosted by Ross Mathews (aka Ross the Intern from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno). It was a family-friendly game show starring kids and parents who competed to see who knew their family the best. It was cute. All throughout the cruise, we saw Ross frequently, but never did introduce ourselves. Plenty of people did approach him though and he was friendly to everyone. Nice guy.

We then went to the late show which was more stand-up comedy from Julie Goldman. Funny, funny, funny.

St. John's, New Brunswick, Canada

We were awakened this morning by the frightenly upbeat announcement from our British cruise director, Simon, that we had docked at our first port of call ~ St. John's, New Brunswick, Canada. We had until 4:30pm to explore the area before it was necessary to return to the ship.

At every port of call, there are on-shore excursions available, but we decided against it. With Katie at this age, it's difficult to find something that wouldn't completely bore her. And if Katie's not happy, nobody around her is happy! Sorry to say, but that's how it goes. We could have left her onboard in the playroom (for an extra fee, of course!), but we just decided not to do that either. We wanted to take it easy and explore as little or as much as we felt like, without having to worry about schedules or other such details.

We did manage to make it to shore though and walked around the part of town within walking distance of our pier. It was nothing much very exciting, but gave us a chance to buy some cheap, generic zyrtec (not available in the US!) and more diet coke.





Back on the boat, the show tonight was a hilarious comedy show, featuring two comedians: Julie Goldman and Jessica Kirson. I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time. I thought I would pee my pants!

Oh, and we also attended a Youth Panel on the ship, hosted by the Family Equality Council. It consisted of a panel of teens sharing their experience being raised by gay or lesbian parents. These kids were very brave to speak so candidly to a full house. I don't think there was a single empty seat there.

At Sea

The whole day today was spent at sea. Our first port of call will be tomorrow.

First thing today after eating a buffet breakfast in the Garden Cafe, we checked Katie in at the playroom. Her favorite thing. And I'm glad about that so I don't feel guilty putting her in there so much!

Today we actually went to the fitness room and worked out! I did 25 minutes on the eliptical and I think Regina did about the same.

At 11am we went to a polital panel about Relationship Recognition and the State of our Movement. It was hosted by the Family Equality Council and offered a political update on the GLBT marriage movement. One of the speakers on the panel was the woman whose partner suffered a fatal stroke the day before they were to leave on the R Family cruise out of Miami in February last year. They were very clearly discriminated against by the hospital staff because of sexual orientation. Right up front, a hospital representative announced to the patient's partner and their kids that Florida is NOT a gay-friendly state and that they would not be allowed to see the patient because they are not considered to be her family. I'm happy to say they are suing.

The show tonight was Sheena Easton. Remember her? I know, she's no longer a big name entertainer. But, I remember her from my teenage years when she was a huge star. It was an entertaining stroll down memory lane.

All Aboard!

All three of us slept in the same bed last night. Even though it was a king size bed, Regina and I still got kicked, jabbed and pushed to the edge of the bed as Katie did gymnastics in her sleep. Even so, we all woke up excited for our first day on the boat.

We decided to eat breakfast items we had brought with us, rather than going out. I showered first and after I was all ready to go, I wandered down the street to a little deli/market/whatever-you-call-it and bought numerous bottles of diet coke for Regina to enjoy on the cruise. On the boat, soda doesn't flow freely, but rather, it is about $2 per can. As we all know, Regina loves her diet coke, so it was cheaper to buy it off the boat and bring it on with us.

Unfortunately, I felt a migraine coming on as the day progressed. I had one yesterday too, probably due to the lack of sleep the night before, but imitrex did the trick. I felt good by the end of the day yesterday and I even felt pretty good this morning. Even so, by the time we got to our cabin, I had an awful migraine. I took an imitrex and crawled into bed. I slept for somewhere between 2 and 3 hours and woke up feeling pretty good, although groggy and was able to go to the show with Regina. Katie went to the playroom while we enjoyed the show.

Vacation ~ Day 1 ~ Travel

After only 4 hours of sleep last night, we somehow managed to get out of bed at 4am and were actually ready for a 5:30am ride to the airport. Our non-stop American flight from Seattle to JFK left on time and got us there as scheduled. We were all tired and managed to pass some of the time in the air by sleeping.

After waiting forever for our bags, we were finally in a taxi to our hotel. We stayed at the Doubletree on Times Square. Our room overlooked the square. Awesome!

We went to dinner at Langan's Bar and Restaurant in NYC just down the street from our hotel. Dinner was yummy and we were refreshed after our long flight enough to wander down the street to explore the huge, three-story Toys R Us. It has a ferris wheel in the middle of the store, that stands the full three stories tall. Of course, we took a ride. Katie was all grins and giggles.

On our way back to the room, we contemplated visiting the M&M store, but decided we were wiped out and really just needed to get to sleep...

Almost Ready for Vacation!

We are so excited about going on our two week vacation (first week on a cruise to Canada out of NYC) and the second week seeing family in Virginia! Katie is more excited about seeing her "cousins" (she is grouping cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents into it all) that she doesn't really want to go on the cruise!

I should have tried to pack earlier in the week but it has been so hot that I can't seem to do much when I get home. Today it cooled off so I can easily pack... but that has been exhausting! I over packed the first go around and now I think I have it just right. If it is cold in Canada I will just need to buy clothes! I haven't gotten much sun this summer so I need to get a tan so I don't look too goofy.

I am off to Seattle tomorrow and then we leave early Saturday morning. Look out NYC, here we come! Hey cousins - see you in two weeks!

Foster Kitten Update

Max (10 weeks old) and his Mom.

Sparkle (about 12 weeks old)

Sparkle's sister

Sparkle's other sister

Since we're going on vacation for two weeks, I'll be taking all the kitties back to the shelter on Thursday. I sure do hate to take them back before they are ready to adopt, but I don't really have a choice.

If you live in the Seattle area and are interested in being a foster family, give 'em a call. They need more foster homes!

Captain Katie

The pictures below really came out nice. It was a great day to be out -- not too sunny, not too cold -- and we had a great time. Just as we approached Bill Gates' home, Katie wanted to go up top. She quickly noticed the Captain and wanted to say hi. She walked up to the open door and proudly said hi. They chatted for a few minutes and she returned with the biggest smile. A few minutes later, she came to me and said that we should go see the Captain as she was worried the Captain would be lonely if we didn't go see her.

We both walked up and introduced ourselves to Captain Karen. Within a few seconds, Captain Karen asked Katie if she wanted to drive. Katie couldn't get in the drivers seat quickly enough! She had the biggest grin on her face and drove the boat across the lake and under the 520 bridge - about 20 to 30 minutes! As the Captain explained things, Katie listened and asked questions. When Katie asked how she drove when it was dark outside, the Captain explained how they used sonar and then pointed to the machine. Of course, Katie wanted it on so she turned it on. We saw the shore, the bridge and all the boats. I think I liked that part better than Katie did -- but she was the smart one that asked to turn it on!

During "her turn at Captain," she also talked with another Captain as he called in to Captain Karen (he was in the boat behind us). Katie talked with him for a few minutes. Just as it was time to switch back to Captain Karen driving the boat, Suzie came up and snapped the picture.

During her "drive," Katie told me that she was now ready to drive the car. When I told her she wasn't big enough to reach the pedals -- she thought for a minute -- then said that I could do the pedals while she drove! I think I convienced her that she needed to wait a little bit!

Cruisin' on the Fourth

~ click on the image to enlarge ~

Curves ~ Weight and Measurement Update

Good News!
Since Jan 23, this is what I've lost:

7.25 inches

12.25 pounds

2% body fat

Yippee!

Rub With Love

Have you tried this? Got a huge tub of it at Costco, having never tried it before (risky, I know), and I'm happy to report that we love it! So far, we've had it on grilled salmon and tonight we're trying it on grilled chicken breasts.

Week #2 of Food Elimination Diet

The other day Katie told me she can take care of herself. So, I asked her if she can drive herself to school and she said, "Well, no." "And, can you cook your own dinner", I asked. She thought about it for a second and admitted, "No, I can't. But, Mom you have to help me to take care of myself!"

This is week #2 of my food elimination diet. I'm surprisingly satisfied with the foods that I can have. I was concerned that I'd spend a lot of energy fighting cravings for all the foods I can't have right now. That's a relief. So far, anyway.

Almost every day this past week, I woke up with a pounding headache. Some of them migraines. However, today I woke up feeling good and felt good all day! Wow, what a treat. Maybe it's the beginning of feeling better.

I messed up a few times during the first week when I unintentionally ate food on my elimination list because it was hidden and I either didn't read the label closely enough or forgot to read it at all! For instance, it never occurred to me that wheat would be in soy sauce! Or, canola oil in peanut butter! And, some companies put wheat in deli meat. Good grief. Even though I made a few mistakes that first week, I haven't made any this week, that I know of.

Just another 100 degree day!

I am in Portland this weekend and they were calling for great weather... it is sunny and 103 by my car thermometer! I just got back from getting a massage - it was really relaxing and a great way to get out of an apartment without air conditioning. Suzie did the same thing in Seattle and Katie is off with her favorie (okay only) sitter playing in the park.

I need to go into the office and finish the employee quarterly meeting presentation so perhaps I will do that tomorrow. For now, I am just relaxing and thinking about shopping this evening to get out of the heat and to pick up the last few things for vacation. I can't wait... we are headed to NYC for a night and then off to a Canadian cruise for a week. We then head to Virginia to visit with Mom and Dad as well as my sister and her family. Katie can't wait to see her cousins (I actually think she believes they are all her cousins - Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents!). She is so excited about the trip. It will be nice to spend two whole weeks with them.

It is starting to get a little hard being in two different cities. Work wants to help get all of us comfortably in Portland so they asked me to look around and see if I can find a house or something bigger to lease (they are paying for my corporate apartment but it is just too small for everyone). I started to check a few things out and will use my HR staff to see what they can find out. I would love more square footage, a garage and air conditioning!

Katie is done with dance and on to soccer. She loves it and has worn her soccer uniform almost every day since she got it a week ago. I looked all over and couldn't find anything close in the stores that resembled a soccer outfit (it would be nice to change clothes!) so I looked on the tag and ordered more matching set in six different colors. I am sure that everyone on the east coast will only see Katie in a soccer outfit! They get here on Wednesday. I don't think they will have the soccer ball on the front but they will all have her number (2) on the back.

Well... off to eat dinner. Enjoy the weekend.