++ I NEVER KNEW there was so much snow on mt. ranier. i mean i knew there was snow on ranier all the time, but i didn't know there was snow on ranier at the base of ranier all the time! saturday we went hiking on ranier, but not to the top, because thats a long way. but we hiked up a ways and it was snow for the entire hike! which is great, unless you are wearing tennis shoes, which could be alright if they were waterproof (which mine weren't) or maybe, just maybe alright if they weren't waterproof, but you decided to tie them, so no snow would get in (which mine also weren't). snow is cold. i forgot that. even if you are wearing shorts and a t-shirt and there are other people wearing just shorts and no t-shirt! we were only going to hike up a mile or so, until we saw the porta-potty up on the mountain on a ridge. what is a porta-potty doing 2 miles up on a mountain? yeah i don't know. but of course once we saw it, we had to hike up to it to see it! who wouldn't? and so it was locked. the hike back down (which was the same hike as coming up, except we were going down) we hiked right next to the nisqually glacier, which honestly you can't really tell it from just regular snow (or at least not this one.) (ok, maybe a little) and was much less hiking and more a conglomeration of running, slipping, sliding, glissading , tripping, falling, and jumping down the mountain. we built a snowman, which didn't last for more than an hour before someone decided to knock it down. !!. (billy!!!) ..

heather's birthday was june 29. if you know her, email her and wish her happy belated birthday! its her 23rd! we grilled hamburgers and had potato salad and chips, and more chips and an apple pie from marie callenders, yum! and ice cream and fudge. HAPPY 23rd HEATHER!!! ++

++ AND THE CAMERA won't get here until tomorrow. but since tomorrow is saturday and its being shipped to my office, i won't get it til monday.

what do you call a he-she cross dresser? .. .. .. .. .. .. a transformer. (its a knee slapper, i know.) ++

++ I SAW A SIGN on the side of a budget rent-a-truck. it said, "moving tip #23. dolly, good. hernia, bad."

i bought a camera! .. to replace my old stolen camera. .. finally! ++

++ YESTERDAY I PARKED in a 4 hour only zone. meaning i can only park there by law for 4 hours before i must move my car. no problem. i parked at 7.00am, so ideally i should move my car by 11am. but the police never come to check at exactly 4 hours. they can't. they are way too busy checking other streets and writing stupid tickets. so realistically that gives me 4.5 hours, maybe 5 hours if i press my luck. so 11am rolls around. 11.30am rolls around. thats 4.5 hours. noon rolls around. thats 5 hours. now i'm starting to push my luck. but i'm hungry. so i eat lunch. well eating food and trying to remember something afterwards just doesn't quite ever work out .. so 5 hours later .. 6.00pm .. 10 hours since i first parked in the 4 hour zone i remember about my car. running. keys in hand. my car is still there at least. .. .. .. and .. .. .. no ticket! woohoo! yeah yeah, not a big deal you say. you've done it too. you've actually even done 10 hours in a 2 hour zone. someone else you know even did all day in a 30 minutes loading zone. blah blah blah blah blah.
have you ever done it directly across the street from the local police station?
ha. i thought not. i rule. dogs drool. ++

++ I WENT TO sedro woolley, washington. ever heard of it? yeah, probably not. its a small town. it has a population of about 8500 people. pretty small. well we stopped by the chamber of commerce to introduce ourselves to the mayor. she's a nice woman. we had to wait to talk to her though. she was on the phone busy helping out playing receptionist. does she not have enough other things on her plate to do as mayor of a city that she gets to go play telephone for a couple hours? ++