Reports are coming in that they finally found Clemmons. The one who was being sought for murdering 4 Lakewood Police Officers.  Seattle Officers tracked him down to a South Seattle neighborhood and they shot him after seeing a gun and him trying to flee.

King5.com article

It’s been a few years.  5 days a week.  Almost 52 weeks per year.  I drive the same route to work.  Now some days I may alter the way I go.  It all depends on traffic accidents, weather etc.  But for the most part it’s the same way.  Most of the time it’s rather boring.  I see the same ole stuff every day.  I pass by warehouses, homes, oil rigs, industrial equipment shops, parks, downtown Fort Worth, you get the idea.

I know most things are static, I get that.  Maybe I’m not wide awake while driving.  Either way I have to make it 28 miles to work.  At least when I was in Seattle I had huge tall trees and awesome mountain scapes to look at. 

Is your drive to work the same all the time?  What do you see when you drive back and forth to work?

We are trying to figure out what we should do this summer.  We usually make an annual trip up to Seattle to see my family.  Now we have or maybe I should say I have thought about it, but there is so much going on I’m not sure we can get away for at least one week and head up that way.  Also thought about checking out some Las Vegas hotels since my cousin still lives in Vegas. Hmmm, another idea was to head down south to Fredericksburg, Texas to a bed and breakfast. (I found a Gluten-free one)

I really wish we could go one a REAL vacation, but we are trying to save up as much money as possible since we are hopefully adopting a child this year.  Maybe we should just take a few short weekend trips, instead of expensive long range flights..  Hmmm  we will have to continue the debate on this one.

Well the day is finally here.  What we have all been waiting for.  Now it’s time to show the rest of the country that you deserved this opportunity years ago.

Tonight Sounders FC kick off the start to the MLS season hosting the New York Red Bulls.  Should be a fun game to watch.  Seattle should do great (I hope).  Tonight kicks off what we all hope will be an extraordinary season and a potential playoff run.

I myself am bummed out that I live so far away so I can’t be there in person to watch it, but I have many friends who will be there, so they better take some good pictures, lol.  However when Seattle comes to Dallas in March I will be there..!!!

Go Sounders…………………..

A little bit ago I was talking about our overgrown weeds in our lawn.  Last night I finally had a chance to go to war on them.  I was only able to tackle the front and side of the yard but it’s progress right.  Got them all mowed down and was able to finally get some weed killer and fertilizer on the grass.  So hopefully we will see some results soon.  Not to mention that it’s about that time of year where if we do not get any rain, I will have to start watering the lawn, ack..  We really need a sprinkler system.  Just wish they didn’t cost so much!

The MLS kicks off tomorrow night.  I’m pretty excited about the MLS this year.  Not just because it’s soccer and I love soccer, BUT my home town has a team this year and I’m excited for them.  Trust me if I still lived in Seattle I would be at that home opener/season opener tomorrow night.  I hope they do well this year and talk has it that they may make it to the playoffs this year.  Seattle Sounders FC baby.  My other favorite team is FC Dallas.  Pretty much since I live in the area and have been going to games the last couple of years.  And of course in May Seattle will be coming to Dallas so I am GOING to this game, for sure!  And I’m sure I will go to some other ones as well.  So the season kicks off tomorrow night with Seattle Sounders FC hosting the New York Red Bulls and then the rest of the teams start off this weekend.  Go Sounders..!!!

We have been following the Iditarod this last 9-10 days and it’s been pretty exciting.  I was checking the updates and live GPS they have this year and it was showing what we figured would happen a few days ago.  Looks like Lance Mackey will win the Iditarod this year.  A couple hours ago he left White Mountain after a mandatory 8 hour layover/rest period and is on his way to Nome.  Unless something MAJOR happens he pretty much has this victory wrapped up.  The second and third place looks to be a pretty close one and they are into White Mountain checkpoint less than 30 minutes of each other.  Sebastian Schnuelle checked in with 14 dogs and John Baker with only 10.  It might be a good race for second later tonight.

I’m not sure it will happen, but we would love to fly up there next year for the ceremonial start and re-start of the race.  Maybe even meet a couple of mushers but I’m sure they are far too busy for that.  Good luck Lance and the world will see you in a few short hours under the arch.

Related Links:
MLS Soccer
Iditarod

It all started about 4am when the alarms went off and we hurried to get ready in time for the shuttle to pick us up.  Once we got to the airport I slightly freaked out since there were hundreds of people in the ticketing area.  Thankfully they all were not going to the same airline as us.  Security was very light at 6am and in fact we just walked up with no line to wait in.  Then the normal wait before boarding, etc.  So as we begin to board and we pass through the first area my wife and I heard a crackle in the radio and they said to halt boarding for a potential maintenance issue.  “Oh great” was our first thought.  So what we did was sit or should I say stand in between the plane and the boarding area on the Jetway.  I knew from past flying experience that if we got on the plane we were stuck and they would not let us off for any reason.  So we just stood there watching these people look over the plane.  After awhile we asked the boarding agent if we could come back out to the seating area and she said if we did they would have to take us off the plane.  “oh great”  So now we wait in limbo.  After awhile we hear that there is a dent in the plane and they are talking with corporate about it and people on the ground were taking pictures, etc.

So to make a longer story shorter, they finally take everyone off of the plane and we go find some comfy seats and sit it out while they fix this dent.  We were supposed to take off at 7:30am and I think we finally made it about 1:30pm.  So we had a nice 6 hour delay.  What we were really worried about was the pending storms that were going to hit Seattle.

Yep we didn’t beat them, in fact in snowed about 1″ I do believe before we got there.  I swear we were going to slide off of the runway.  As I sit and write this on Christmas Eve, It’s snowing again.  So far 2″ this morning on top of the 10-12″ we already had on the ground.  So looks like this will be a white Christmas after all.

It’s so beautiful to watch but we are stuck with a car that is not snow worthy.

More trip updates later.

When we got ready to head up to Seattle for Christmas we ended up having to take 3 bags to check on the airlines.  We have 1 big bag and 2 medium bags.  The airlines as you might know charge for extra checked bags.  I wish we would have thought about it sooner so we could have just bought another big bag so we could have only checked two.  So while we are here we are going to check out some big pieces of luggage and maybe even some Samsonite luggage.

Alaska only charged us $25 for our extra bag, so we are thankful for that, but if we can get through the snow and possibly buy a bigger bag.  That way we will not get charged for our flight home.

Well 18 days now till I get to go home for the holidays.  I’m looking forward to seeing my family.  The last time I saw my parents was back in April when my mother had her surgery (which she is doing awesome by the way).  And the last time my wife was back in Seattle was almost 1.5 years ago.  We both are looking forward to seeing friends and family members that we haven’t seen in a really long time.

Time will start to go by fast and I guess we better get out the Samsonite luggage and start the packing process.  This time of year it’s hard to pack as Seattle is cold, damp, more cold, etc.  Not what we are used to in Arlington.

Another bonus this year is my dad is close to or near to the finish of his ‘34 Ford Truck.  I’m hoping it will be done by the time I get there so I can drive it.  He has had it my whole life and just now has had the time and money to get it back in running order.