Naughty Katie!

Hello! Wow time flies. I can't believe that the last time I posted was in October. Its now December. Ok. In my defense, it is early December, but yes, its been a while. ;-) Lots to tell you about. What a busy time. October went by pretty uneventful. But November was very busy. I was allowed to attend a conference in Chicago. Becuase it wasn't set in stone that I would get to go, I didn't say anything to my family. So I flew into Chicago and then took the a shuttle van to the Quad Cities. I did work closely with my friend Darla and her husband to make sure my parents were there and surprised. Darla came down from Dubuque and had mom take her out to "get something from her friend", mom had to take Grandma to her hair appointment close to that time, so it was Darla, Grandma, and Mom in the car. They waited for Darla's "friend" to show up. I came up in the van, got out and walked up to mom's car and knocked on the window. She looked up and I think I surprised her! Needless to say there was tears (on both parts) as well as dumbfounded looks. I think she just kept saying "How did you get here" I kept replying "on a plane". What made it even more of a surprise was the night before I came, she had called me on the computer (video phone) and had me do a tour of my place for some friends of theirs . She couldnt understand how at 8pm I had showed her my house and by 230pm the next day I was standing in front of her. It was great! What made it even better was that it was my parents anniversary that week, so I made this a great anniversary present! After the initial shock wore off, it was time to surprise dad. So we found out he was at a store and we set off to surprise him. I went into the store and walked up to him, and then "accidentally" bumped into him. Now, according to Jon (Darla's husband who was talking to dad at the time) if you could have seen dad's face as I bumped into him (before he knew it was me), it was like "how dare someone run into me'. He turned around and saw it was me, he had a big smile on his face. It was nice! So all in all it was a great time home. It was short, but a welcome treat for all. Thanks Darla & Jon for all the help to pull it off!

The conference was ok. I learned some, but it was busy and not much time to see the city. I had a great hotel room. Right on Wacker drive and Michagan ave. My window looked out at the Sears Tower and the Hancock Building. I took some great pictures, I'll try to post them here. I came back to Seattle, only to find out that my co-workers had moved my stuff to another desk. So I had to get re-settled. I just kept thinking only 6 more weeks and then I go home again. Yeah!!

So that brings me to this week. Yikes. Well, I've said that the weather is weird here, but who would have thought this. This past weekend: Saturday snow (at my house only about 10 minutes of fluffy flakes) in places a few inches (big for them!hehe). Then Sunday, rain off and on with some pretty big wind gusts. Monday rain, lots and lots of rain. Oh yeah, wind, lots and lots of wind. About 30 miles from me there was an 87 mph wind gust. Down in Oregon it was over 100mph. Yikes. Monday's rain total (as of 6pm) 3.5 inches in Seattle (a little less where I live). Well, guess what. It turns out that, although they do get lots of rain out here, they aren't prepared for this much at once (about 1/2 inch per hour), so floods. Lots and lots of flooding. Yeah, roads washed away, sink holes, mudslides, and in the mountains....Avalanche. The flooding is nuts. There are entire cities that are completely cut off from civilization. They have the Coast Guard and the Navy helping out. Ok, no...the big destroyer ships are not going through downtown, but they did have the Navy helicopters using night vision to try and find people. They tried to drop medical personnel to the city that was cut off, but the wind was too much. Like I said, its a zoo out here. Today it was still raining, but we did get a few hours of dryness (even the sun popped out!). They finally got some supplies to the people in that city but it was via a ladder placed from one side of the sink hole in the road to the other. A firefighter tied to a rope, walked across it to bring water. The people on the other side were not allowed to leave (the ladder was not heavy enough for more people). They are still trapped. Can you imagine? Oh the best part....I-5 the major interstate used to go from Seattle to Portland is closed. Yep! About 20 miles of it is closed. Its about 10 feet under water. So, if you want to get to Portland (normally a 100+ mile trip) you now have to go back across the mountains (with avalanches) and down, so its now about a 400 mile journey (if you can get through). Oh, one other thing to make things great, no train service either. Mudslides have ruined the tracks. To top it off most of the ferries are now not running due to holes in the ships. Yep, the 1920's Ferry's had holes in the the hull, so its a no go for a while. Just to put this in perspective they havent had a rain like this since 1996. It really hasnt been that long ago. Amazing! If you want to see some amazing pictures go here : http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/photogalleries/localnews2004052250/1.html

and here: http://www.komotv.com/news/12112881.html?video=YHI&t=a

Well, thats about all for now. I hope all is well with you! Please post a comment if you have read this. I wasnt sure if anyone was reading this, so I stopped. I have had a person or two ask me when I was going to post again. So nice to know some people do read it. Special thanks to Cathy, my loyal comment girl! Thanks! Well, so long for now. I will try to get on a regular schedule again! Have a great holiday season!