Undressing on the bus

So, I just don't get it. It's cold outside, you're wearing a jacket. You get on the bus. You take off your jacket and the fleece you were wearing under it. Now you're in a short-sleeve t-shirt. You fold your clothes and place them under the seat.

I mean, sure, the bus is warm, but it's no sauna. I just don't get it...

Long Time

No see!

Looks like i haven't posted in over a month! Sorry about that for all of you waiting with baited breath.

What have I been up to? Let's see:

• We went to Ireland at the end of November to visit family and see everyone in Killarney.
• While we were there we left the kid with the family and went to Rome with Jeff and Mindi!
• Got snowed in by Snowpocalypse 2008! Sorry, no photos...
• Managed to drive to Idaho and spent Christmas with My dad, his wife and my grandmom.

Ireland was very nice, I've been there a many times now. Mostly spent time with the family hanging out. Not too much partying, though there were a couple good nights. It was way freaking cold, must be the dampness, but it's way colder than Seattle. We got to see everyone and see the neices and nephew.

Rome was great, we'd never been there and we saw a lot of great things. It's amazing to see all these things you see in movies and read about in books up close. It was also great to see and hang out with Jeff & Mindi, they are great travel companions for us (we hope they feel the same!). The thing that amazed me about Rome was the food was so great. Even when what I ordered wasn't exactly what I was expecting, it was still very good. I kept saying that there was no where else I could have 10 meals and not have a single disappointment. If you know me, you know what I mean!

We went and saw the Vatican, which was amazing for many reasons. We also saw the Colloseum and Palantine hill which were very cool. Our last full day we took it slow; slept in, got breakfast in bed. Hit the Pantheon during the day (we'd been there a couple times at night when it was closed). We went to the spanish steps and hung out for a bit. Which reminds me of the only annoying part of rome...

The street vendors and rose jerks. These are people who come up to you and pressure you into buying some piece of junk they're selling. The rove jerks are even worse... They come up to your wife (in my case) and hand her three roses and say they are gifts because she is so beautiful. Of course their next step is to come to you and ask for money. Luckily my wife doesn't really go for that kind of thing (especially not two day old wilted flowers) so she would try to avoid them, one guy I did give 2 Euro to, he then kept badgering me for more and I said no. Then he took the roses away from my wife! We both thought it was classic! We then left and placed the wilted flower somewhere to die a peaceful death. Of course all through the trip we were accosted by these jerks. We were much more forceful after the first time. Poor Jeff actually gave the first guy 10 Euro! (SUCKER!)

After Rome, it was back to Ireland for a few days before heading back to Seattle. We had a great time in Rome and definitely want to go back to see the things we missed this trip (catacombs for sure!)

Snowpocalypse 2008 was fun! It's funny how when Seattle gets a few inches of snow the whole place shuts down. Being from Denver I always have to laugh. Of course, out here the snow almost instantly turns to ice and Seattle is fairly hilly, so it really is difficult to get around.

The first night a guy came down our hill and slid into my car, YAY! Amazingly, he only hit the tire, no body damage at all. Of course he bent the tie rods which needed to be replaced. But he came back and gave me his information after sliding the rest of the way down the hill to where he lives. Took a few days to get it fixed which was a pain, but it's all good now. We worked from home a few of those days, but did manage to get in to work once... After a 3 hour journey.

Then we were off to Idaho where my dad and his wife had come to spend Christmas with my grandmom. I had been looking to spend Christmas in Seattle with friends, but this kind of trumped that. The drive over was fairly hair raising, but we made it without crashing. Took 8 hours though which sucked. The drive back was much better, took 6 hours which is closer to normal. We had a good time seeing my family for a day or so. It had been a while.

So, that's what I've been up to the past month. Now I'm back at work, trying to get all the stuff finished up that I missed while I was gone.

I'm hoping I'll post more frequently in the new year as I'm getting myself a new netbook which should allow me to use my time more efficiently.

I'm going to try and get a year-end post up soon, so keep watching!