frozen tankini's and some other things about 2007

I promised to blog on thursday's. I'm going to add to that promise: I won't blog about the weather or my dog on thursdays after today. They are easy back-up posts -- as we all saw, Cuba is incredibly cute and ridiculous ( you should see the videos...) and well, I can talk about the weather for hours. Really. Now mind you, seattle has been having some interesting weather this season...but even so, linking to photos of snow, wind and power outages aren't the best blog fodder.. so on that note, here's my final thursday blog post with a bit on the weather.

So...I decided to do a Triathlon. Not just any triathlon, but an olympic-distance triathlon in Maui at the beginning of June. I'm *so excited*! I've done two sprint tri's before ... but i was honestly not sure I was in the right shape to do an olympic distance triathlon. Which, being a goal-oriented person, meant i had to do it. So I signed up via Team In Training and I start officially training in February. In order to prep, I've been swimming twice a week at the pro club. It's so much fun to be back in the pool. On Monday, I pulled my tankini out of my swim bag. I guess it had been a little bit wet from the last time I had swam. And it has been cold. Very cold. Well. My tankini was now FROZEN! Yep. What's a girl to do but swim in her frozen tankini? I had to shake out frozen bits from my swim cap too. Ah, the fun of training in a non-temperate weather zone.

Triathlon's weren't the only thing I've decided to tackle in 2007. I don't really make new year's resolutions, but i do pick focus areas. So what are my focus areas? Well, one is going to be my diet. I'm not going raw or any of those crazy things, I just want to eat good combinations of mostly organic, whole grain real foods. And lots of avocados. And blueberries. Maybe some papaya. And bacon. Always bacon... I'm also focused on optimizing my living spaces. My house is great. But now I want to tackle the outdoors. I'm going to completely revamp my yard space. I'm soooo excited. Expect at least one post on gardening. Finally, I'm going to launch at least one of my side projects this year. I can't wait. I'm so excited for 2007. So far, it's been awesome. Best year ever!

cuba libre

So, last June I got a dog. And by dog I really mean a micro-dog. A morkie to be exact. What is a morkie…well, let the Cuba FAQ explain it all!

Cuba?
Yes, that’s her name. We have a history in my family of naming our pets after locations. And she’s small, so a small name seemed appropriate. But she’s tough. So this one really fit. As far as I know, she isn’t a communist…but when she’s bad, I call her Fidel. Boys tend to call her Cuba Libre. Lately I’ve been calling her muffin. My family calls her “the morkie” and my office mate called her the “micro-dog.”

Morkie?
Yes, she’s a morkie. That’s a Maltese – Yorkshire terrier mix. Which means she’s a scruffy little mutt.

How big is she?
Well, she’s small. Really small. When I got her she was barely 2 lbs. She’s since DOUBLED in size since then to almost 4 lbs! She’s pretty much going to stay this size. It’s like she’ll be a puppy forever.

Does she have a job?
Yes. She’s the official morale generator for my team. She loves coming into the office and provides joy and humor for everyone.

What’s it like having a micro-dog?
It’s ridiculous. She has hair – not fur, so she actually gets cold and needs sweaters. She loves to go on long walks – but she’s slow. She sniffs everything. And she doesn’t really walk, she kinda hops and traipses and frolics. She provides constant amusement. And she never really barks or yaps – she’s not that kind of dog. The best part is that because of her size she can travel with me pretty much anywhere. We’ve been to California 4 times already. She loves brizzie. Everything brizzie does, she wants to do. It’s hilarious.

Net-net: she’s awesome. She may be small, but she’s all love and sweetness and a lot of cuteness.

me + weather

So, sometimes I forget that I now live in Seattle and that it might be raining or possibly *snowing* outside. Like today. I dressed as I would in California in January -- a light sweater, cute skirt and heels. I grabbed a scarf, because well, it is Seattle and out the door I went. 5 minutes later it was *SNOWING*! Yes, really. I had no idea that this could be possible. It didn't even cross my mind. I guess I am still in my Californian mindset that, on average, the weather will be pretty good and I can pretty much wear anything. This is soooo not the case in seattle. *sigh*...by the time I adapt i'll probably be back in CA!

On another note, one of my new year's resolutions is to blog every Thursday. Woohoo. I can blog on other days, of course, but i'm going to commit to Thursdays. Happy reading!

escape to CA

According to King 5, there are about 500,000 people in the puget sound area still without power. I have found the likely source of my power outage -- a set of downed trees and electrical wires on 3rd Ave. I'll flickr the picture later. It's complete madness. Apparently the east side is a complete mess. Campus may not be open on Monday. People may be without power for 3-5 days more across Putget Sound. I'm powered by Seattle City Light which has some good information on their site about the outage -- and the impact to Seattlites. Like this quote:

"Currently, City Light has approximately 57,188 customers without power, down from a high of 175,000 earlier Friday morning when approximately 50% of our customers were without service. A total of 65 feeders in our above-ground system went off line. Currently, 33 feeders have been restored, or partially restored. Feeders are the lines that bring electricity from substations to neighborhoods. Feeders can carry 2,000 to 4,000 customers each. As City Light works to restore service, be advised that some customers could be without power for as much as 48 - 72 hours.

Restoration of the main distribution lines in the northern and southern parts of our system continues, with the southern end having sustained more damage. As the backbone distribution lines are repaired the utility will shift efforts to restoration of the lateral feeds off the main distribution lines. There is significant lateral feeder work to do on both the northern and southern parts of our system, and lateral damage usually takes longer to repair.

Restoration Priorities (Order of restoring power)
1. Critical Infrastructure – Hospitals, etc.
2. Main distribution backbone (Feeders)
3. Largest Customer Count
4. Longest Duration of outage "

yeah, it's nasty stuff, so....I am escaping to CA for 22 hours on a pre-scheduled trip* to drop off Cuba for a few days and meet up with a slew of family members before we disperse for the holidays. I am sooo looking forward to a warm shower and hot curry. I can only hope that my home will have power restored by the time I return tomorrow.

* yes, this was pre-scheduled so i could get to the next status level on my mileage program.

seattle storms = wind party

so, we are in the midst of one of the most severe wind / rain storms to hit seattle ever. King 5 is all over the storm. I can't accurately describe the madness. There are trees blown over. There are loose electrical wires. There is rain. About 1 Million people don't have power. I'm one of them. It really has been madness.

It started yesterday, around 2:00 pm. I decided to avoid the traffic madness (some people were in traffic driving from redomd to seattle -- 14 miles -- for 3 hours). and go to a friend's house in redmond. While i was there the lights went out (luckily they have a generator) but then the trees started to fall down so I decided to head home before there was greater havoc and the 520 bridge closed! Yes! They closed the bridge!! Driving across it was pretty eerie. First, it was raining buckets. Second, no one was there! I guess everyone tried to avoid the traffic and went home early so for once i really benefitted from leaving work late. I picked up cuba from Sam and Steve (her god-dog parents). She loves them. Anyways, we camped out in the living room to watch the storm. At about 2 am my power went out (Cuba was pretty excited by this and barked at the lightning). It's almost noon and I'm still without power but my friend and co-worker Jenn has power so I'm over at her place. Cuba is loving it because she can play with Jenn's micro-dog tobey and their cat, Sam. They closed the microsoft campus so we are testing out the impromptu seattle office concept. My co-worker Gabe is at Tully's grabbing internet and power. Apparently they are doing brisk business while the starbucks across the street sits in darkness.

Anyways, i've got to get *some* work done. There's three of us here now - Jen, Leslee and me -- plus the menagerie. It's pretty cozy.

Here are some links to other bloggers chiming in on the seattle madness:
Impromptu Three Day Weekend - That Kid in the Corner
Windpocalypse 2006: The Aftermath - Seattle Metroblogging
The Morning after the storm - Phil Holden
Crazy Seattle Windstorm - Jasmine Park (A Clean Well-lighted space).

Update: They are now saying that it might snow.

Update2: Some pictures (via King 5):

snap!

I just added snap previews to my blog. Now when you hover over a link you'll get a preview of the web page that the link will take you to. I love these! Here are some links to enjoy!

cuteness
vitamins
snowflakes

it's december already?

how did that happen? Things have been crazy!!! Let's see:
- i got a micro-dog (look for an upcoming blog post titled the Cuba FAQ). She's awesome.
- i've been travelling like crazy: DC, NYC, CA, Vegas and more vegas...
- i hosted my entire family and then some (14 poeple and 3 dogs!) for thanksgiving. it was awesome. I learned a lot. My family is pretty cool.

I'm now sick with what seems to be my annual winter cold. I actually can't talk -- which is pretty hillarious for those who know me. My cousin is here and she finds it funny. I'm passing her notecards. yep.

Ok, we're off to brunch. I promise to blog soon!