You've got the time -- now read the post

Brace yourself folks, a long post coming your way.

First I'll start by prattling on and on about our completely awesome weekend. And to make sure you're paying attention, I'm going to post some rather embarrassing pictures of Luke and I making animal faces into my camera.

It started with a beautiful Saturday morning spent kayaking on American Lake on Fort Lewis for about two hours. So. Great. It was sunny, and warm ... ah, wonderful. Act 2 of the day was taking a wonderful hour long afternoon nap. Mmm delightful.

But the best part was a trip up to Seattle for the Folk Life Festival. It was like every hippie in a 200 mile radius came out of their beaded curtain hideaway to hug each other and be weird together. Thousands of them. And we were there too.

That's just a few of them. Sadly, I did not get any good pictures of the really weird people we saw -- like the girl who was wearing nothing except ducktape and a scarf around her waiste (no, not kidding).

I did, however, get photos of Luke and I acting VERY weird.


Here we are pretending to be parakeets.

And rhinoceroses ... 0r rhinoceri. ... Who knew my face could even DO that?! Amazing.

But the best thing is this picture .. check out the guy in the background laughing at us:

(please ignore my 7,000 chins featured in this photo)

And in case you forgot that we could look normal:


The best part of the WHOLE THING, though, was dancing to a fabulous blue grass band after dark with a thousand or so very interesting people. Want pictures of that? Sorry! No dice.

Sunday was spent doing perfectly normal things like going to IKEA and cleaning up the 3,000 tons of crap that somehow has accumulated in the spare bedroom over the past few weeks. ... and yesterday I went swimming, ate a delicious burger, went for a walk in the woods with my boy, looked at water and made ourselves real Northwest residents by buying some way cool Teva sandals that may or may not be worn with socks at a later date.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luke will probably be switched to a new platoon come August where his primary job will be blowing stuff up.

So now I'm a little reluctant to get crazy involved with our FRG, because we'll be switching in late summer. Granted, I've heard great things about the FRG leader of this particular group, but I kind of like the people I've met so far in our current one ...

Erm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now for the time when I write random tidbits that don't mean anything to anyone, yet you read them anyway. Why? Not sure.

-- I was lazy today and only swam 60 laps instead of 90.
-- Somehow I weigh more than I have in a long time. Ridiculous and discouraging. But I dont FEEL that fat, so perhaps that's to blame on the muscle I'm building swimming and stuff? I'm going to run with that.
-- I'm getting my nails done today after work to make me feel better about the fact that Luke will be gone for the next three days "executing missions." Whatever that means.
-- I cry every time we take communion in church, and not for the reason you think.
-- This morning I made strawberry muffins with crumble top. Abigail and I will test them at lunch.
-- Luke hung a shelf for me just inside the door. It's the perfect height for me to hit my head on every time I come out of the kitchen.
-- I love Luke for many reasons. I'll spare you the details.
-- I want to buy a kayak.
~~~~~~~~~~

Abigail tagged me for this silliness, so I figured I'd oblige ... but I'm going to be evil and not tag anyone at the end. So there.


WHAT WERE YOU DOING 5 YEARS AGO:
1. Listening to really awful punk rock while finishing up my first year at Verity
2. Trying to convince people that I was NOT head-over-heals for a college friend who had just finished his degree while trying to reconcile how I felt for him with myself.
3. Saying goodbye to the Gambles
4. Being really stupid. Man my blog from this time last year makes me sound like I'm 12. What is the deal?

FIVE THINGS ON YOUR TO-DO LIST TODAY?

1. Work
2. Get my nails done
3. Clean the bathtub
4. Find some sunshine and sit in it
5. Read about Jesus

FIVE SNACKS YOU ENJOY?:
1. Wheat thins
2. Muffins
3. Tea
4. Cheese
5. Pickles from work (I must agree with Abigail)

FIVE THINGS YOU WOULD DO IF YOU WERE A BILLIONAIRE:
1. Help my brothers and sisters get through college
2. Travel to help people
3. Open a bakery
4. Fund a Christian girls journalism intern house in D.C.
5. Have a vacation home by the beach

BAD HABITS?:
1. I clean at weird times
2. I find it impossible to dress properly for whatever weather is at hand
3. Passive-agressiveness
4. I'm way selfish

FIVE PLACES WHERE YOU'VE LIVED:
1. Santa Cruz, California
2. Flint, Michigan
3. Alexandria, Virginia
4. University Park, Maryland
5. Washington, D.C.

FIVE JOBS YOU'VE HAD:
1-3. Journalist at various papers
4. Starbucks
5. Lacoste coffee house