busy week

We had a great visit from Perla this week. She one a contest at work for an all-expense paid trip here to Seattle to visit her home office which we found out is the building directly across the street from mine downtown. Since she came last year, we got to skip the touristy stuff and just hang out which was really nice.
I'm now further convinced that we should get a Wii. I realize that most people who want a Wii probably have one by now but I'm a late adopter! Maybe it's the huge financial commitment that comes with it since you have to buy the console, game, and tons of controllers and accessories to actually use it. I think I've just talked myself out of it again and I should stick to board games and cards.

Canvas on Demand + Groupon = Win

This is the result of my very first Groupon I got a couple of months ago. It was a coupon for a 18x20 canvas from Canvas on Demand. You provide the photo yourself. This is a picture I took in Rome when I went with my parents in 2007. We're going to put it up in the dining room. I'd highly recommend them as an alternative to expensive art work!

labor day weekend

Our cabin in Leavenworth

The mock-Bavarian village

Wine tasting

I hope everyone had an excellent Labor Day weekend. We rented a cabin in Leavenworth with some friends and had an excellent time. Nate picked me up from work and we headed straight there Friday night. On Saturday we went tubing which was freezing but fun. The tubes we rented had mesh bottoms so you didn't have to get too wet. A separate tube was rented for our cooler resulting in fun times such as "I can fit my tube between these pilings" and numerous beachings. Sunday we went into the mock-Bavarian downtown area which is what Leavenworth is known for. We went on a wine walk and hit 5 of the 15 or so wineries that offer tastings in the village. In between we played a lot of cards and spent many hours in the hot tub. The weekend flew by and I wish it could have been longer.

We didn't celebrate Nate's birthday last weekend because one of our friends had her birthday while we were there. To prolong the celebration, we'll have Nate's birthday next weekend. Then, Perla visits next week which will cap off what has been officially dubbed Best Summer Ever. The goal from here on will be to attempt to top the prior summer to continue the tradition of naming every summer Best Summer Ever.

recommended books

I had a late-night need for a new book yesterday so we drove to Fred Myers hoping to get lucky. If you don't have Fred Myers, it's somewhere in between a Super Walmart and a Super Target. They have a few aisles of books, so not a huge selection but I figured I could find something off the best seller's list at least. It was the strangest book section I've ever seen. The shelves were constructed with rows built in that would only fit the small size of paperback. Plenty of room for for your James Pattersons and Sue Graftons but completely ignoring books that were not made in that size! I made it to the very last aisle and was excited to find a "recommended books" section. Behold! Books of different sizes! The shelf was constructed without the dividers so any sized book fit. Conclusion: Fred Myers recommended book section consists of the books that will not fit on any of their standard shelves. Based on the content of the section, I hope for their sake my conclusion was correct.

I went home without a book.