Off to Portland for Christmas

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Made it to Portland in fine time. We hit the road at 0930 and made it to grandmas around 1300 with a few stops along the way(none for traffic ) after arriving at Steve and Liz's we visited and had some great home made soup. Then it was off to the Kernens (Liz's sisters family) for festivities. Well it's now around 0600 Christmas morning and I am in my favorite chair in front of the fireplace doing what I do best.

Holidays @ Bill & Robins

We picked up John at Southcenter from his bus ride home from WSU for the Christmas break. Headed down to Bill and Robins for another great chicken bbq. As you can see by the picture Robin is loving having her youngest home after some time now adjusting to the empty nest syndrome. Hopefully Adam will be coming in from southeast Asia where he has been trekking since early Oct. He is trying to get home the 17h. (Check out his blog here) We all have our fingers crossed he can score on a seat on the oversold flights from BKK/NRT/SEA. Boy will mom be smiling then. All her boys home at once. Billy, Adam, John, and Sparkey!
Anyway it's Sunday morning and this is the week of getting together with friends and family so I probably will be checking in regularly with updates.
Time to get some fresh coffee:)
Catch You Later tommy:)

Sunrise Chat

We are at home scheduling ourselves for the Christmas holidays. Had a memorable sunrise this morning. I think it was because of all the rain we have had the atmosphere is so clear. I can't remember the sun being as bright as it was this morning. I got up to take a peek and was seeing spots for 10min afterwords. As you can see in the picture the amount of light coming in. Anita is off to an annual Clipped Wings luncheon today. I think because its so nice out I will attempt to clean some of the debris that the high water and storm brought in.

Off to Spokane

It's now 0535 and I am doing my morning geek read. I have not found any must know news as yet. We are planing on getting out of here by 1000. Anita is still sleeping (smart) We are both looking forward to this adventure as there should be quite a bit of snow between the pass and Spokane. Hopefully this will make for some nice photo ops.
We finally got under way at 1020. This picture was taken at Snoqualmie Pass around noon. We had a smooth drive all the way to Spokane the roads were bare and dry all the way, Snow along the roadside all the way from the pass to Bob and Mary's. Arrived here at 2:50. It's Cold about 22 degrees at the moment and now its almost dinner time.

Good Morning Dec 1

Baby it's cold out. As usal I am happy snuggled away from the caos by the fire place with a warm laptop on my laptop (computer that is)
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It's now Sunday morning already. After a little snow shoveling we headed up the road to visit Barb and Fran Berkhart. A good time was had by all.

Sunrise

Well the dust has settled Sunday morning we had this stranger than usual sunrise The picture was taken as the sun appeared over some fog. It looked like a moonrise. The day was mainly spent vegging around the house and watching the (Lucky) Sea hawks squeak by the Rams. This morning's Sunrise was the normal sunrise that catches you eye. I always enjoy this time of the day. My morning time. A fresh pot of coffee the morning paper and my daily morning reading of selected web sites. It is the time of day that my mind is fresh "or at least as it can be" my thoughts seem clear and I am able to soak in as much information possible for me. Every morning I read about lots of geeky stuff that sends my mind whirling into the possibilities of how all this stuff comes together. Also I stumble across lots of maybe useless information, But once in a while I find some great little gem.
Here are a few web sites I visit every morning. LifeHacker Gearlog Engadget give the links a click
Tommy

Larry's Virtual Birthday

Happy Birthday Larry. Sorry you could not enjoy your party as much as we all did. The whole DeLeo family minus Adam but Brooks bo Jason did a fine job of standing in for him. We had a great dinner party and get together. Larry you are really loved. So much that everyone showed to celebrate.

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Thanksgiving Day at Bills

The Phoney DeLeo ladies Robin Anita and Brooke
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Company Coming

Company coming. Jane is coming over from Selah for Thursday's Thanksgiving festivities at Bill's. The whole family will be attending other than Larry who is under the weather. On Friday we will be having a virtual birthday party for Larry here at the house. So my duties Begin window washing, straightening up, and the main job Suck Floors.

Game Weekend

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Day two Started out with coffee and making plans for the day. Anita and Mary headed off to grandmas for a little TLC. That evening Steve treated everyone to dinner at Bugatti's Then we headed home for cards and Bs.

Sunday morning Liz & Steve made a killer breakfast. Then most everyone went off to church. Bob and I had to stay home and make sure the officials were not making any mistakes in Sundays pro football and taking notes to keep Jim Steve and Ardie up on what they missed while visiting God.

The Day is advancing with Football watching, Card Playing, and doing what ever you choose.

Game Day .Liz thinks everyone should be playing cards. You know it is Game Weekend.

Game Weekend

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It's off to Portland this morning for the annual Game Weekend hosted by Steve and Liz Zimmer. This weekend all of Anita's brothers, sister and spouses meet in Portland for a weekend of catching up and fun and games. Day one we all arrive Anita and Tom Drove down from Seattle, Mary and Bob Flew in from Spokane and Jim Karen Ardie and Rosa flew in from SFO

Halloween 2007

Halloween 2007 Turned out to be the biggest Gremmie night in my Rosemont history. Thanks to Dave and Julie Herness who put on a pre party for all the kids in the neighborhood and their parents. I could not believe there were so many kids of this age living here in Rosemont. There were at least 50 kids from 6mo's t0 60. It was great! I always look forward to this night as the little gremmies totally crack me up. I guess as Anita and I slowly move towards being the old guys in the hood this kind of thing really makes you appreciate living in such a great place. We have had the pleasure of watching the gremmies that proceeded this batch. Grow up to be doctors, lawyers, & Indian chiefs, But most of all well adjusted adults now with gremmies of their own. Anxiously awaiting next years gremmies.

tom.

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Getting Ready for Game Weekend

It's that time of year again when we make our annual visit to Portland for Game Weekend.


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Big Storm Predictions

Well today all the news stations were predicting a major blow. Well at 7am things look pretty calm. Then the wind started blowing. We lost power around 9am but only for an hour or so. But this was enough to send Anita and I out on a shopping trip. Mainly for some gas for our camp stove. One always needs fresh coffee. We spent a couple hours checking things out from new kitchen appliances to a bag of munchies. Well the wind got pretty strong around 2pm as you can see from the picture of the boat trying to beat it's way up the lake for shelter. It's now almost 9pm and the winds are still strong but seem to be on the decline. Life is always interesting here on lake Sammamish from the glassy calm days to the big storm days. I love them all.

Sailors Warning

Good Morning from Lake Sammamisn and Key Center. The first picture was taken from our house on lake Sammamish and The second picture from brother Bill's in Key Center this morning 10/9/07 around 7am. Boy are we lucky boy's and seem to think alike. I really tend to favor Bill's shot with Mt. Rainer in the background.
Now I guess we will just sit back and wait and see if their is merit in the saying "Red in the morning , Sailors warning."

Dinner at Bell's

Went across the lake and had dinner at Ron and Bess Bell's. Had a fantastic time. We all laughed til we had tears in our eyes. There is nothing better than sharing old times with old friends. Where O where does the the time go. I was a little uncomfortable as I pulled my hamstring while trying to take advantage of one of the last good days for water skiing. I guess now as it turns out this was the last day of skiing this season for this kid. Hopefully the leg gets a little better so I can get some more air chairing in before it gets to damn cold. But what the hey its only a matter of a couple of months and the days will be getting longer. Well ,good night ,it's way past my bedtime.

Larry And Jane

Larry and Jane. Came over yesterday afternoon for a visit, a over nighter, and a Dr. appt this morning. Larry and I watched the Seahawks beat the 49rs while Jane and Anita went on a little shop about. Then we had tenderloins tommy for dinner. I think everyone had a great time.

Visit to Spokane

Headed off to Spokane on Thursday to Help Bob and Mary close down the cabin for winter. The picture was taken the prior weekend when Becky came to visit.

Everyone around here is high spirts. The weather has been good except for a little rain the afternoon and evening of the cabin clean out. This morning (Sunday) I got up to see that winter is really here. No snow but the thermometer is reading 32. Played a few rounds of cards and it seemed that Bob and Anita were on the good luck trail because they kicked our @$$ two out of three games. I am thinking that Anita and I will be heading west later this afternoon. But one never knows. I have 4 months before my next dentist appointment and I can always change that.

I have not been clicking many pictures. But I should get some good mug shots today.

Brook and Adam Visit Home

This has been a long time in the coming. Brook is getting settled in in Boise. She is getting ready to start her first career job in social services. She tells us she is even getting business cards with her new hard earned title LMSW (Licenced Masters Social Work) Wow are we proud of her! She was in town for a visit and to gather things she needs for her new life.
Adam is in town after a summer in Alaska and now working on a sardine fishing boat out of westport. He will head back to Westport in a week or so to finish his commitment on the boat which should last thru Oct. Any we had a good time and it was great seeing the kids.

Grandma's 92nd Birthday

Celebrating Carolyn's 92nd Birthday in Portland. Had a nice quiet Birthday party at Steve and Liz's. Grandma was looking good as usual. Also attending the celebration was uncle Paul Zimmer from San Diego.
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The Proper Way to End Summer

Doesn't this look like the Perfect way of Tommy to end his summer? Looks like it ,or not.ItIS!
Went out this morning for some Sep fun on the water. Hopefully there are a few more of these days left in me and 2007. By the way I think Anita is becoming quite the photographer

Old Friends

Thought we should get together with old friends. Ron and Bess Bell, Dorr and Judy Cross, And Virginia Brown. It was really something to think we have been friends for over 40 years now. Life sure does not get any better than that. We laughed about old and new times. Really not much had changed we were all the same people. All of are retired now and the conversation once or twice got off on the taboo health and ageing subjects, But were really more centered around what we did and what we are doing. All in all it was a GREAT long overdue gathering. Which in the future I hope we do more often. Thanks to everyone coming together and making this happen. Click HERE for more photos

Dennis Visit

Had a Great supprise this afternoon. The Dennis family stopped by to say HI! Had a good visit ceatching up on our friends. Brad caught a duck and the kids did a little tubing.
If you would like to see all the pictures click HERE.

Dr Behymer

The Himer stopped by for a visit. Jerry Behymer stopped by for an overnight on his way back from Cordova. I picked him up around midnight. We had a good morning of visiting. Sounded like he had a great trip to Cordova to visit his family. We dropped him off at the airport around 10am then headed out ot a gathering on Lake Tapps. GOOD seeing you DR. B

Sun Flowers

This is a picture of a bouquet of sunflowers. I liked the picture so much I am using it as my wall paper at the moment. All is pretty quiet around here after a full day of college football yesterday. The Sep calendar is filling up with things to do. So hopefully there will be more meaning full posts happening on this blog.

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The Fay Boys

The Fay boys . The Fay's our old nabighors stopped by for a visit. They now live in San Diego. All looked good the kidletts growing up. Aidan became a official boat driver.Had a great with old friends

Eclipse

Got up this morning to checkout the moon eclipse. This shot was taken at 3:00am. It reminded me of my old working days. "getting up at odd hours in odd places" It was more than worth the wait. The moon did as advertised it turned a shade of red. Cool huh? Well it's time to get back to the sack as we have out of town company coming later today.

Good Night All

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The Morning After

It's the morning after the big event. Things are back on track Steve working , Anita Xwording the high tech way. Looks like we will all be heading out of Spokane today.

Mary's Birthday

The PARTY has started. A great day was had by all from the party at the Dimond lake cabin to the final gifts back home in Spokane