The Best Holiday Ever Made!

I love Halloween. While many people around the world find great joy in the holiday, I think I'm a little more dedicated than the average fan. Ryan likes Halloween, but he had to take some serious steps to curb my enthusiasm. For example, he put a moratorium on Halloween decorating before October 1st. He also leaves virtually all of the decorating to me so that I won't go overboard -- as if there is such a thing!

Halloween rocks my world because it's the one day of the year that has no limits or expectations. You can do almost anything you want, and the weirder it is the better. Grown ups can act like kids. Homes that are usually warm and welcoming can creepy or scary. Kids in costume get to rebel from showing elders respect by demanding candy or else. In a word, Halloween is just plain cool.

This weekend, I entered what I call "Phase 2" of my Halloween decorating. I constructed a ghost sculpture that I found on Martha Stewart's website.

Meet the newest member of the Nonerick family, Stewart.

We will have lots of photos from our Halloween this year. We have an donut party and a costume party. What are our costumes? Ryan is going as Billy Mays, and I'm going as Tippi Hedren from "The Birds."

Happy Halloween!

Leaf Peepers

Recently, Ryan and I went to the east coast for a little family bonding, R&R, and leaf peeping. For those of you who have no idea what leaf peeping is, it's an activity where city folk head to forested areas (also known as "the sticks") to enjoy a little bit of nature and a lot of maple flavored products. Lucky for us, we have family in Vermont, which saves us from qualifying as "yuppie leaf peepers" because we don't have to stay in a fancy bed and breakfast with couples like Bert and Ethel from Long Island.

Here are some pictures of our leaf peeping adventure.

Walking on an old carriage road covered in leaves.

Poor Alice!

Something about the beautiful view, colorful foliage, fresh snow, and work boots makes Ryan think about becoming a farmer. Then he realized that farmers don't have time to code.

The fiery trees seem to work together to create beautiful patterns.
It's almost as if the trees are saying "After you. No, after you."

Hangin' with Ava, Hannah, and baby Xander at our deluxe accommodations. Incidentally, their house used to be a fancy bed and breakfast. Yet more evidence that we can't avoid being yuppie leaf peepers.

We also attended a family wedding in Syracuse, but we need to get some pictures from Ryan's mom before we post about that part of our itinerary.

Thanks to Ryan's family for putting up with us for a full week! We had a great time and can't wait to see you again soon!

In loving memory of my grandfather, Gene McGlenn.

Last week, my grandfather, Archie Eugene McGlenn, passed away. To the grandkids, he was known as "Geno" or "Poppy", and he was the architect of many fond memories from spending time at the family cabin on the Swan River to riding in his convertible up "Going-to-the-Sun" road in Glacier National Park to golfing at Buffalo Hill Golf Course. In addition to his large family, he loved golf and is a member of the Montana State Golf Association Hall of Fame. For years, he would escape the cold winter weather for greener courses in Kona, Hawaii.

On Saturday, we said good bye to Geno with a small family burial service. His grave site is in a beautiful setting that includes views of the northern Rockies, swaying trees with leaves that play a soothing melody in the breeze, and good family company.

I was amazed by two things this weekend: (1) how much impact a single life can make on so many people, and (2) the remarkable fortitude and grace of my grandmother, Dorothy. Grandma Dot, as we call her, spoke about her love for Geno and also recognized a desire to live life to the fullest and explore her new independence. Her commitment to Geno was beyond description -- Geno and Dot were married for 62 years -- and she maintained a strong sense of herself that shows me she's a woman ahead of her time. Her patience, intelligence, good humor, and strength are things I admire greatly. I can only hope to be a fraction of the incredible woman she is, and I can't wait to see where life takes her in the years ahead.

Grandpa Gene and Grandma Dot at our wedding, which is on the same weekend as their wedding but 59 years later.

Grandpa Gene and Grandma Dot dancing at their 60th wedding anniversary.
Geno is wearing the same suit he wore on his wedding day!

Love you, Geno, and we will miss you! We promise to do our best to live life on the sunny side of the street!

The New Gift for the 3rd Anniversary: Dry Wall

As you know by now, we are finishing our basement. Ryan has done an amazing job tackling the first and most complicated room, the bathroom/utility room. We've put in new duct work, updated the electrical, framed the room, insulated, and this weekend we put up dry wall. As soon as this room is finished or mostly finished, we will move on to Ryan's media room. Hopefully we can get that space done in time for the MLS playoffs!

Can you tell that Ryan is really excited? His face says it all.

Ryan did a great job getting everything cut just right. I don't have that king of patience!

Safety first!

I called this device "the wedgie."

After many hours, we finally finish!

The future home of our washer, dryer, and laundry storage cabinets.

Work is tough!

Every year, my office goes on a river trip for a few days. For me, it's a chance to relive my days as a whitewater guide and get some incredible therapy. I know it sounds cliche, but when I get on a river, I'm reminded that I can't control everything and sometimes I have to "go with the flow" (pun intended). In my day to day life, I try to control everything. Ryan will gladly attest to this, and in fact, he deserves a lot of credit for putting up with my incessant questions about the basement remodel, his job, his bowel movements. Actually, I don't need to ask Ryan questions about his bowels, I'm all to aware of the health of Ryan's digestive system.

Anyway, when I get on the river, I immediately switch to a mode where I try to work with the river and not against it. For example, we were running Wapinitia Rapid, a class III rapid that has large waves and a couple of large boulders in the middle of the river that you have to get around or risk flipping or wrapping your boat, when I got pushed off my line going into the rapid. Usually, I like to scout class III rapids if I haven't seen them before, but that didn't happen in this case.

The river pushed our boat farther left than I wanted, and unfortunately, that put our boat in the perfect position to hit a massive boulder. I screamed a command to go left and quickly realized the river did not want me to go that way and we were seconds from hitting the threatening boulder. After I shouted an expletive that rhymes with "duck", I quickly realized what the river was doing and commanded my boat to work with the river instead of against it. It was an ugly run, but we made it and the river didn't punish me for trying to tell it what to do.

To see a few pictures of our boat in Wapintia Rapid, click here and look for photos 17-19. In case you are wondering what I'm wearing, we had a costume night and I'm borrowing a colleague's "Aunt Edna" costume from National Lampoon's Vacation with Chevy Chase. I'm wearing a housecoat over my life jacket and a pink curler in my hair. Classy!

Here's a link to another picture of us running Boxcar Rapid, another class III drop with a big juicy hole (the whitewater you see me hitting in the photo).

I love our annual trips on the river. Not only are they fun, but they are a great reminder that you can have the most rewarding experiences in life can happen when you aren't in control.

Ryan enjoying the view at our camp on night 3 of our trip.

River feet!

The beautiful Deschutes

Relinquishing control is probably easier when you've had a PBR.

Scouting Whitehorse Rapid

A momma dear that really needed a drink.

Our friend, Alex, likes to live dangerously!

A "trust" game for team building.

Decisions and Art Projects

The last month or so have been crazy for Ryan and I. In addition to hosting visitors from the east coast, putting in new duct work for our basement remodel, cheering on our new MLS soccer team (the Sounders), and managing the grounds of our estate, I have been dealing with some career-related questions.

Back in late June, I found out that my position was being reduced to 60% time starting in mid July. The economic downturn has been hard for lots of folks, so I consider myself lucky to still have a job at all. On the plus side, I have Thursdays and Fridays off, so I have more time to catch up on things like reading, painting, and projects around the house.

A few days after I received the news of my time cut, I was recruited for another position with another organization. It's been a long and hard decision, but today I decided to stay at my current job because of some very interesting longer term opportunities in policy work.

During the stressful job decision process and with extra time on my hands, I decided to transform a cheap piece of Ikea furniture into a sophisticated "antique." Here is the before and after:

BEFORE

AFTER

I've learned a couple of things about myself this month. First, I have a clearer vision of what I want for my career in the near-term. Second, the fumes from painting projects are good for self medicating and reducing stress, which probably explains Martha Stewart's professional success. Finally, I've officially become "old" because antiquing furniture is more therapeutic than drinking with friends, dancing all night, and passing out just short of your front door. I can live with doing old lady things, but I'm a little disappointed that painting furniture leaves you just as dirty as drinking excessively and sleeping in or near your own bodily fluids.

Ryan and I are off to my organization's annual river trip this weekend. We're very excited to get on the river and for the traditional "Costume Night." This year's theme is a tribute to John Hughes and his movies. Ryan is dressing as Cousin Eddie from the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation movie (picture him in a robe because "the shitter's full"). I was planning on going as the principal from the movie "Uncle Buck" with a huge mole on her face, but tonight I found the same outfit that Cousin Eddie's wife, Catherine, wore at Christmas dinner at our local thrift store, so now we have a couple's costume.

Stay tuned for pictures!

Visitors from DC!

Last weekend, our good friends, Bonnie and Joe, came to visit from DC. Bonnie and I went to law school together and Joe and Ryan used to be part of an informal "Beer and Ideas" inventing group along with another friend, Byron. Bonnie and I also went to law school with Byron's wife, Amy.

Actually, this could get confusing, so I'll break it down.

Law School Pals: Amy, Bonnie, and me

Beer and Ideas Geeks: Joe, Ryan, and Byron

Byron and Amy are married and Joe and Bonnie are married.

OK, now that we've got that straight, check out this movie that I made of a hiking adventure on the Snoqualmie River. But before you do, let me just say that record companies are LAME for many reasons one of which is the fact that they are now blocking all audio from home movies uploaded to YouTube that include clips of songs they own. As you will see, music is essential to a story and to convey emotion on film. Ugh!