Dear Family and Friends, 2014

This is our house in January. It can get very cold, and it seems like the snow sticks forever in our neighborhood.  Because we are on a east slope and our house is located on the north side of the forest we get practically no sun during the winter months

A mile stone in the life of our car 100,000 miles! This happened near the Tri-Cities on the way to Joseph Oregon.  We bought our car in 2010 with about 20K miles on it.  We've come a long way. The blurriness has to do with the complexity of the junction.  We were at a major crossroads on our journey.

It so happened there was a jazz festival during our visit to Victoria.  What luck!  We listened to many a concert in the park.  Here a navy band was performing and one of the trumpet players did an excellent Lois Armstrong impersonation.  A crow splatted Tanya in the back moments before.

This is the first year we hosted a 1st of August party the day when the Swiss celebrate their Independence. My brother and his family were visiting at this time.  Friends and neighbors joined in the celebration. We lit up a fire, seared some meat, but sadly no fireworks.  They are illegal in Everett city limits.  Despite the lack of a fireworks show it was an excellent event to be repeated.

The alpen horn is a must have for the Swiss independence festivities.  Lyle is sounding a homemade alpen horn constructed out of sewer pipes. I made the mouth piece myself. It turns out that I used  too big of a drill to bore the hole. It is rather difficult to play but most people like to give it a try anyway. It was so fun hearing the different talents blowing into that instrument, creating a spectrum of sounds never heard before.  

There is a place close to Ellensburg called Table mountain that is just perfect for star gazing.

It was a cold night in the tent and we picked a weekend with too much moonlight for a good look at the night sky.

We still had a jolly good time watching the sunset and being away from any noise except the rushing of the blood through the ears and the always present tinnitus.

We encountered an Amish couple up at a lookout point and spent time conversing with them.  It turns out they are more technologically savvy than Tanya is.  They both had smart phones.  They are not Amish after all but Bretheren.  They invited us to church the next morning but we declined.  Tanya was not exited to show up at church with all of them in their plain clothes attire and me in my beer t-shirt with bleach stains and camp dirt.

Last year for Halloween I attended a party dressed as Heidi from Switzerland. This year I went as an elderly woman named Ethel. It just seems I have a neck for cross-dressing. Tanya has an eye you for details and created the ensemble complete with kleenex tucked up the sleeve, a slip slightly showing in back below the hemline, and a handbag.

Our friend Marielle is the typical fall party host.  She is originally from France, is the proud holder of a US passport, and the minute she got her new passport in the mail she took a year long contract working overseas in Switzerland.  We miss having her here and it looks like there will be no fall gathering in her absence.

In late November we had our first and last snow for the winter 2014-2015.  It was one of the most terrible winters for most ski resorts.  No more snow just lots and lots of rain.

This year we ventured into the big city for some Christmas festivities; an evening in downtown Seattle at the West Lake Center where they have a relatively tall holiday tree.  We road the monorail, dined on international cuisine at the food court and watched the tail end of a caroling contest out on the plaza.

Tanya has been using old computers for a long time. Her laptop (a PC schlep-top) was from 2006 and or the past couple years she has been using my old MacBook. That old MacBook really hit the ceiling. It couldn't be updated anymore.

There she is, Holding her brand-new MacBook Pro. This machine should serve her well for many years to come.

Needless to say, I made sure an Apple laptop was purchased.

This computer is the first item on a checklist of new homeowner projects and upgrades.  Five more items to go and we are ready to save up for something fun... Hawaii maybe? Hmmm