Apologies to our blog followers (our parents and about 3 other people)

Clearly, I have not done the best job keeping the blog up-to-date and fresh for our legions of fans. My apologies. If you ever decide to start reading this blog again, I promise -- but don't hold me to it -- to provide more timely updates.

Next week, we head to Montana for my "little" brother's wedding. We should have some great pictures and stories since we plan to spend a day on the river (yes, Soma will be wearing a doggie life jacket), drink excessively, and hang with family that I don't get to see often enough.

Now for a June update. Summer has arrived to Seattle. In fact, we've tied a record for consecutive days without rain. Our garden, which is in its first year and isn't quite established, is looking great and growing like crazy. Here's a peek:

Woodland garden under a cedar in our backyard.
The grass is going to be a multi-year project. Ugh! I hate grass!

I'm sad to say that I don't know what kind of shrub/tree this is, but it's gorgeous and covered sounds like a beehive with all the honey bees flying from flower to flower.

First lily of the season!

Nasturtiums! Ready for salad!

Crocosmias just waiting to bloom!

Front garden with the path we put in last fall. Next year, the garden should be fuller and more established, but it looks pretty good already!

The garden path with mature roses along the house.

One of my favorite plants: Himalayan Honeysuckle

Allium and other plants around the bird bath.
In case you are wondering why the water is dirty, I change it every couple of days but the neighborhood crows keep using it like a toilet. So much for my nice urban habitat.

Allium close up.

Rhododendron bloom in the backyard (this picture was taken about a month ago).

One thing that I've learned about gardening is that vegetable gardening is hard. Unlike perennials and a few annuals, it requires thought and planning and continued maintenance. First Lady Obama makes it look so easy! I guess it is when you have a staff.

Anyway, we grew arugula, kale, and two different types of lettuce but without a ton of success (except for the arugula). Luckily, my tomato plants are doing well and some pepper plants are blooming already. We'll see how it goes, but I'm a little pessimistic about my chances of lowering our grocery bill by growing our own food.

Until next time!

Maui Part 3, Road to Hana and East Maui

We put together a slide show of the second half of our trip to Maui. You should be able to see captions if you click on the word bubble near the bottom of the slide show screen. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Maui Part 2, Snorkel-mania!

Enjoy some photos from our snorkeling adventures in Maui!

Ryan's either waving hello or trying to point to the shark that is coming up from behind me.

Ryan is one with the ocean.

It may be tough to see, but this is one of the many sea turtles we hung out with in the water.

Turtle diving for food or fun.

Ryan acting like a turtle.

Maui Part 1

As you know, Ryan and I just got back from a fabulous Maui vacation. A month or so ago we noticed that airfare and hotels were remarkably discounted. In fact, during our visit we read an article in the local paper about how the economy has reduced tourism and hotel bookings by 15% compared to this time last year. Ever the good Samaritans, we were happy to do our part to help Hawaii's economy at this difficult time.

Now let me just get something out of the way. I hate flying. I know it's "the safest way to travel" blah, blah, blah... but deep down, I'm convinced that something terrible is going to happen when I am on a plane. Ryan scoffs and rolls his eyes in the days leading up to a trip when I say horrible things like, "Wouldn't it be crazy if our plane crashed tomorrow?" and "You wouldn't say that if I died in a horrible plane crash." I know that statements like these are irrational and perhaps a little over-the-top. But after this story, you are not likely to judge me so harshly.

We arrived at SeaTac airport on time and with the sun shining over Puget Sound. Usually, I take this as a good omen for safe travel. We boarded, settled in our seats, and took off but things seemed a little strange. For one thing, I wasn't wearing my watch. I always wear a watch so that I can look at the time when we take off and time out 10 minutes of "freak out time" and after that 10 minutes, I relax a little.

Sure enough, I wasn't wearing my watch and couldn't follow my usual take off ritual. At 10,000 feet, we did a weird turn north as if we were returning to Seattle and not going west toward Hawaii. The captain announced that the cabin pressure thingy wasn't working and that going any higher would be dangerous so we had to return to Seattle. Before we could do that, however, we had to circle Puget Sound and burn (a.k.a. dump) fuel to reduce our weight before landing. Imagine an environmentalist who works on recovering Puget Sound and other water issues and the guilt he or she must have felt about releasing fuel into an already struggling ecosystem.

When we landed, emergency crews followed us down the runway (apparently standard procedure) and we waited for a few hours for the problem to be fixed. I tried to stay cool as a cucumber. I took pictures of Ryan with my iPhone. I called a few people and cracked a few jokes. But inside, I was sure that these were my last few minutes on Earth. That's it - game over. Thanks for coming. Peace out, home skillet.

Eventually we took off for the second time. I was too fired up to read, so I enjoyed a couple of movies on the 6 hour flight to Maui. First it was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. "Not too bad", I thought as I reviewed the free movie selections on the video consoles for each individual passenger. Then about three hours in, problems number 2 and 3 struck two poor defenseless travelers from the mainland.

I was watching Slumdog Millionare and felt sick. I stopped the movie, got Ryan's attention, and told him that something wasn't right. A few seconds later I fainted (problem #2) and Ryan was understandably a little worried. When I came to, I still felt sick (problem #3)and reached for the barf bag and threw up.

Let me just make one thing clear: I am not pregnant. I have fainted in the past (the priests at St. Matthew's used to call me "Thumper" because of the sound my head made when it hit the floor during mass) and sometimes my brain needs to recharge. The vomiting thing was a little weird, but I was very worked up and the extra anti-anxiety pills that I took earlier that day without consulting my doctor probably didn't help.

Finally we got to Maui. I was feeling better but both of us were tired. We went to the rental car check-in only to find out that Ryan's driver's license expired on his birthday back in early March. I rented the car, no problem, but Ryan did have to charm the ticket agent when we were leaving Maui and he didn't have valid photo identification.

After the crazy trip to Maui, we relaxed, snorkeled, hiked, explored, slept, ate, and drank for a week. For the first half of the week we stayed in Kihei, a town in south/central Maui. Kihei (pronounced key-hay) is not a resort-ridden town like other parts of the island but it is a popular tourist spot.

In Kihei, we snorkeled, explored parts of western Maui, hiked over a lava flow from 1790, and sat on the beach. Every morning, we ate breakfast at the Kihei Cafe, which we highly recommend (try the french toast with bananas and macadamia nuts and coconut syrup) before heading out for the day. Kihei is in the sunny and dry part of the island, and a couple of Seattlites had to get used to the intensity of the tropic sun that pounded us for 12 hours everyday.

For me, the highlight from the Kihei portion of our trip had to be seeing more than a handful of turtles swimming in the ocean. I think Ryan would agree because he couldn't get enough! Later in the week, he went snorkeling on his own while I sat on the beach. I almost started calling him Jacques Cousteau. In a past or future life, he is destined to host a nature show. I know it!

Later in the week, we braved the Hana Highway and stayed in the much more remote eastern Maui town of Hana. Look for pictures and accounts of that part of the trip in the next day or two. We'll also post pictures from our snorkeling adventures once we get them from the developer.

In the meantime, here are some images from Kihei. Enjoy!

Day one and we already look relaxed.

On the first day, we saw a full rainbow and Ryan took a picture from the convertible.

View #1 from our condo at the Maui Lu. Pretty sweet, eh?

View #2

I found a great little reading cove in the beach surrounded by lava rocks.

Just one of the many beaches we enjoyed during the trip.

Unbelievably clear water!

A few episodes of "This Old House" and Ryan is ready to rock the basement!

One of the reasons we loved our house when we bought it last year was the potential to finish off the basement and add some extra living space. The basement already had a working toilet in what we affectionately called "The Privy", a box that looked remarkably like an outhouse.

A couple weeks ago, Ryan rolled up his sleeves and got to work framing out what will eventually be a half-bathroom/laundry room. The goal is to have a toilet in a nook with a Craftsman style half wall separating it from some cabinetry, a sink, and the washer and dryer.

I've learned that Ryan and I have very different working styles (something that you can probably tell after a few months of reading this blog). I like to have everything planned out with a plan B and plan C just in case something goes wrong. Ryan likes to take things as they come. Needless to say, I'm staying out of the basement project as much as possible. Instead, I've been focusing on the garden (pictures to come) and gearing up for warmer weather.

Anyway, here's a few pictures of the start of the project and the current view of our basement. Enjoy!

Laundry area in full use and The Privy

No, Ryan did not clog the toilet.
I think he's goofing around with a plunger -- toilet jokes get him every time.

The new hallway
The brown things in the photo are some curtains that we've rigged to keep Soma out of the construction zone.

Despite the fact that our basement is in a somewhat major transition, we've decided that we need to leave town. On Friday, we're leaving for Maui to get a little sun and relax after an insanely busy few months (ok, more like two years). Surfing, cocktails, a good book, the beach -- what else do you need?

She's a maniac! Maniac! I know-o...

As of last week, my life began to return to normal. I worked (mostly) 9-5 days and came home with energy left over from my day. I turned my attention back to the garden, and thanks to Ryan's amazing help, we've completely renovated our front garden.

I didn't get a good "before" picture (sorry, Amy!), but I found this photo that was taken when Ryan's folks came to visit in January. The focus of our garden reno was the overgrown mass of shrubs and juniper on the right hand side.

You may not be able to tell from this picture, but the garden was completely overgrown and overwhelming.

Ryan unloading dirt after a trip to our favorite place, Pacific Topsoil, which allows you to dump your garden waste and pick up soil in one stop!

The new garden!
We kept the conifer on the right but trimmed it significantly.
Once we get a few more plants and the garden is established, it should look like a natural woodland garden with a few wild and not-so-wild flowers!

And in the rest of the garden...

On top of our garage (a future deck with table and chairs), I put an Evergreen Clematis in a big container with plenty of room to climb.

Loads of blossoms in our tree just waiting to burst.
The 70-degree days we've been having caused this tree to explode. Pictures to follow very soon!

Camellia in full bloom!

Perhaps the Biggest Test to Our Marriage

Last night, UConn (Darcy's alma mater) played Syracuse (Ryan's hometown team) in an epic 6-overtime battle. As you can imagine, the game was intense and emotional. Some things were said that we can't take back. For example, "How could you support the Cuse? Devendorf is a douchebag!" and "UConn is a bunch of lazy kids that don't move on offense." We've spent a lot of time this morning apologizing to each other and trying to move on, and I feel good about our chances to make it through this bad spell.

Ok, that's a little overdramatic. It was a great game and we couldn't believe what we were watching.

I took a few poor quality photos on my iPhone. Sorry for the blurriness -- it was dark and I'm sure my hand was influenced by my nerves.

Jonny Flynn shooting free throws in the sixth overtime.

Freshman Kemba Walker Stunned

Ryan's joy and his security blanket.

I'm not a happy camper.

On to the big dance!