Post Vacation Blues

Well, vacation has been over with for a week, and I am totally bummed. I had an AWESOME time with Sis and Hannah, and had a great week in Portland as well. But, it sucks to come home to a completely empty home and a job that totally bites. I miss my family sooooooo much!!! I still don't want to move back to the big city; I just wish they could all come be with me here. Sigh...

OK, well, Sis and Hannah's trip on the train was great. Sis of course wound up with the only seat on the train that wouldn't recline and the foot rest would not come up, but Hannah was a good sport and traded seats with her Mimi when she couldn't stand it any more.

Our Hannah on the train

The train left Portland at about 4pmish on Saturday 8/23 and then went into Vancouver to pick up a few more passengers. Then they headed east along the Columbia River Gorge. Here are a few gorgeous pictures Sis and Hannah took along the way:

The train made it's way to Spokane at about 1:15am where they had a lay over for about an hour and a half. Then a train from Seattle hooked up with them and away they went, further east through the night. In the early hours, the train rolled into Montana and Glacier National Park.

Now, I pride myself on being really good with directions; I can read a map and can tell which way is north, south, east or west; I can go somewhere for the first time in the dark, then find it again three years later in the daytime. So, surely you can imagine my complete surprise when I discovered that I took a wrong turn in Roundup and went 150 miles to the east when I should have been almost to Malta, 200 miles to the north. I could NOT believe it!!!! I had to call Sis on her cell (fortunately she was in range) and tell her that I would be, oh, two hours late picking her up. Hannah said I was fired. Fortunately, Sis and Hannah both were really good sports; especially since the Malta train station is really just a wooden bench with a roof and a bathroom. There was no where for them to go, it was 103 outside and about 110 inside the little station house. Hannah had brought her portable DVD player and they passed the wait by watching a movie and soaking their hair and shirts with water when the heat just got too much. Here is the train station and some pretty sights from the trip home:
All tuckered out and getting ready for adventure!

More about our adventures tomorrow.

TTFN!

I'm baaaaaaack...

Wow - I had no idea how long I had been away! Several things have happened since my last blog, although not that much really.

If you are wondering how my lithotripsy went, it went pretty well. The second time. Yep, $16,000 a piece and I had it done twice in 30 days. The first time, the stone basically broke into three large pieces, and none of them were small enough for me to pass. So, they did it again, this time blasting them REALLY hard, and the results were five large stones and a whole sandbox full of gravel. Here are the five largest:

Ewwwww!!! I know. But hey, blogs are for sharing, right? Right! When I took them in to the doctor, I told him that I was thinking of having them polished and made into a ring or necklace. They sure were expensive, and painful, and I thought that I should at least get to show them off. Pfft.

At the end of November, just around Thanksgiving time, Ollie got her own place. She has a great job now and a cute duplex apartment. She doesn't have any furniture yet though! Well, she did order a couch, and she does have a lamp, and two twin size mattresses that she was sleeping on when she lived here. All the rest of her stuff is still in storage in California. We are still trying to work out a plan to go get the stuff, but with gas prices at insanity, who knows when she will be able to afford it!

Well, that's all the new stuff there is; told you it wasn't much. As for future stuff, Sissy and Hannah will be coming out for a visit the last week of August, then I will be going back to Portland with them to stay for a week. I AM SOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!! So is Sissy and Hannah. They will be coming out by Amtrak, and neither of them has ever traveled by train. I have taken the train from Portland to California several times, and I just love it. I cannot wait to see them!!!

Well, ta-ta for now.