March 31, 2000 - A lot happened this week ... Mary Ann's dad is back in the hospital and it looks like he may be having bypass surgery again. Mary Ann's sister, Jean, and two of her nieces, Michele and Patricia, came down from Alaska on Thursday. They are all worried about Ervin and Mary Ann has been a nervous wreck all week. A beautiful day today !!! Heather and I spent about 5 hours cleaning the house and yard today ... blue skies, around 60 degrees ... a great day to be outdoors, and all Zephen did was play video games :^(
March 27, 2000 - Great weekend!!! The weather turned mostly sunny and warm yesterday. As I pulled into work at 6:20 am, I had to struggle through a ton of traffic just to get into the parking garage. If you don't know already, Sunday was the implosion of the Kingdome. Harborview Medical Center has probably the best view, overlooking Seattle whilst nestled atop a hill just east of I-5. Unfortunately,The Seattle Times had published a story last Sunday proclaiming it the #1 best location for the implosion, and a local television magazine show did the same later in the week. That brought the ire of everyone at the hospital, and the retractions by the news people only advertised it further as the place of choice (hey, now no one will be there, let's go!!). It was an inconvenient time to get to work. I got all my morning chores done early and found myself a spot in the Respiratory equipment room on the 9th floor just before the event. It was quite the experience, watching a place I attended countless Mariner and several Seahawk games, just disappear before my eyes. My workmates were kind enough to let me leave early, and I got to Marla and Dan's party around 2:45. The day was beautiful and it was a wonderful renewal of vows. Mom had flown down from Alaska and I was happy to visit with her. We enjoyed the afternoon with good food and great company and I played Heather some pickleball on the court in Marla's backyard. Her house is great and Mary Ann and Heather were most impressed. Kudos have to be given to Sis, Mom, and several of her friends who helped them prepare for the party. You guys put on quite a spread and I'm glad we had the opportunity to partake in it. Congratulations, Sis and Dan, on 25 years together!!
March 22, 2000 - Heather started dance on Monday and is in Heaven. I am now the Rank Advancement Chairman of Zephen's Boy Scout Troop. I don't know what I'm suppose to do, but I'm sure I'll figure it out sooner or later. I picked up some overtime Monday and Tuesday and am just feeling dog tired. The kids are going to Nancy and Dave's this weekend. Zephen is going on a Boy Scout hike with David's troop and Heather is going horseback riding with Fallon's Girl Scout troop. I'm going to do my best to get out of work early on Sunday to go to Marla's anniversary party/house warming ... I'll be less than mud if I don't get there.
March 19, 2000 - Ow, oww .... owwww!!! Just got back from Zephen's and my weekend hike with the Boy Scouts. Did I say ow yet? We headed out early Saturday morning to a place called "Middle Creek Trail", off of a fire service road along the Snoqualmie River. It was raining hard and about a mile into the hike, Zephen was hurting, tired, crying and angry, wishing never to do another hike. The trek in for me wasn't too bad, but I did progressively get wetter and wetter as the rain got worse. We set up camp about 3 miles down the trail and everyone proceeded to put up their tents in the middle of a heavy downpour. As I set up my tent, I realized that one of our three tents did not have a waterproof tarp base, and it was the one I packed :^( I brought in two tarps with me, using one as a tent base and the other as a rain cover. That kept out any future water, but the tent was soaked from the heavy rainfall before I could cover it. The day was spent along the water on a beach covered by a tarp. The rain continued unabated and only relented to some hail later in the afternoon. The boys collected a lot of cedar and an attempt was made to start a fire, but it was like starting a fire under a showerhead. We opted for an early dinner and headed to bed at sundown. It was so very nice to get out of my wet clothes. After putting some dry clothing on I crawled into my sleeping bag and got comfortable atop two branches that were poking me through the base of the tent. A few hours later, I awoke to cold wet feet and as I flinched my legs up, my left hamstring seized into a knot the size of a softball. The remainder of the night was a feeble attempt to keep my feet warm in that the bottom of my sleeping bag was very wet. We did have a few reprieves from the rain in the night and at daybreak, it had even stopped for a while. As we finished breakfast, it began to snow and so we all made haste to break camp. Although the trek in was easy for me, my out-of-shape body was feeling the effects this morning. Zephen did much better on the trek out in that we adjusted his pack to fit a little tighter. The journey out took us through an even muckier trail with rivers of water running down it, but with each step it got us closer to home. We finally arrived at the trail head and were most relieved. With all that, Zephen and I can't wait for the next hike. I need to just go eat some muscle relaxers and I'll be good to go :^)
March 17, 2000 - We had a scare today. Mary Ann had called me at work around noon, crying and upset, after finding out her father was being airlifted from Harrison Hospital (in Bremerton) to Madigan Hospital (south of Tacoma). Apparently, he had a heart attack last night and he was displaying some changes in mental status (possibly having a stroke). I left work and Mary Ann had called in at Bartells. We were relieved to find him doing well and spent the afternoon at the hospital visiting him. Today was the day of the talent show at Heather's school. Although she performed in the early show this morning, she unfortunately missed the afternoon show because of all that was happening with her grandfather. Mary Ann said her dance group did well and Heather was adorable and beaming throughout. Given that Zephen is getting a lot of attention due to Boy Scouts, we have decided to sign Heather up for dance and she will start Monday. You can only imagine how excited she is about that :^)
March 16, 2000 - Hey, everybody. I went to REI on Tuesday with the Boy Scouts and Zephen kicked butt. The Pinnacle at REI is 65 feet high and has varying climbs ranging in difficulty from a 5.4 to a 5.11. Some of the REI staff work as belayers and they set aside Tuesday for groups like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to use the wall in 2 hour stretches. They supply you with the climbing shoes and harness and you're good to go. Zephen was initially hesitant, but decided to try a 5.7 climb. After some difficulty with the hard portion, he went right to the top of the pinnacle. He followed that with the 5.6 and then the 5.5. With time running out, he tried a 5.8, but was out of gas and didn't have the strength to make it through the ugly part of the climb. Zephen now has a new passion and we may have to look into that in the future. I talked with Nancy and Dave and they're going to raft with us on the Wenatchee River in June. I've pretty much got us equipped for our hike this weekend. Both Zephen and I are fired up to get going.
March 13, 2000 - I had a good weekend at work ... took the Emergency Room and it was hopping yesterday. My feet were just dog tired last night when I got home. I talked with Dave about the aquarium stand last week and it looks like about 2 weeks or so before their fish store gets his stand in. I cannot wait to get this tank up!!! I spoke with my sister, Marla, Friday night, and she is having a house warming/25th anniversary party several weekends from now. I had initially though it was next weekend, but it looks like it falls on my weekend to work. I'm going to try to figure some way to make it in that they are renewing their vows and I thought it would be special to attend. One of my work mates, Fred, has organized a river rafting party in June and it looks like Mary Ann and I are going to go. It's a class III river with lots of waves and I think it will just be too much fun. I had received a letter and some e-mail's from my Aunt Lowella in regards to a Teegardin reunion this June in Indiana. I talked with my brother, Tim, and Marla, about it, and I think I'm the only one that looks like a possible no-show. It falls right in the middle of my long stretch at work and, unfortunately, all the vacation time has been gobbled up for June. I'm still going to try to figure something out. I'm slowly outfitting us with more and more backpacking supplies and Zephen and I should be ready for our first Boy Scout hike next weekend. I'm really looking forward to doing some hikes and what better group to learn from than the Boy Scouts.
March 9, 2000 - Busy week ... Mary Ann and I hit a sale at GI Joes Sporting Goods on Monday and got us some new packs and some camping odds and ends. We also picked up some stuff at the Scouts Store for Zephen. Zephen's first scout meeting went well and I had the opportunity to talk with several of the active parents (they're already trying to talk me into chairing some committees). The troop is very active, with lots of stuff planned over the year. Zephen has his first campout two weekends from now and next Tuesday the boys are going to REI to climb the wall (REI has a climbing wall in their store). I'll be driving some of the boys on Tuesday and will be participating on the campout the following weekend. Hopefully, this will be a good experience for Zephen and me. I also picked up a new pantry and kitchen island at Sam's Club. It's been very time consuming to build and makes our kitchen rather eclectic, but it surprisingly works. I moved our 15 gal. hexagon aquarium into our bedroom last night and rearranged the living room for our 65 gal. tank. Now pictures and wall lights are off-center all over the house :^) The nice thing about the new additions is that it has given a separation between our kitchen and living room and really makes it attractive. Well, Mary Ann is telling me I gotta go .... so, gotta go
March 5, 2000 - Everything is looking good for getting Zephen into Boy Scouts. I plan to take him to his first meeting tomorrow night. We are hoping he'll take to it and achieve a lot. I talked to my friend, Dave, about his aquarium stand. It looks like I'm going to buy him a new stand and some live sand and, in return, I get his old stand and his coral. He's even throwing in another filter. So, it looks like later this week we'll have to get fired up and get the tank going. I just hope we can figure out where to put it. If it goes well and I get it established, I may convert our 15 gal. hexagon tank to a reef tank next year.
February 2000
December 1999/January 2000
March 2000