I have gotten a bit of flack lately because I have not posted since November. I am a baaaad blogger when we are not in Italy.
Time seems to be flying by. We have been incredibly busy with all sorts of activities since we returned to Whidbey Island.
The first incident of note occurred the night we arrived home. We were in bed and asleep at about 7 pm on Monday, November 15 and at 9 pm an incredibly fierce storm blew through. Our neighbors were amazed we slept through it but jet lag will do that. I woke up at 2 am a bit disoriented not least because the power was out. Fortunately, we have a small generator so, later in the morning, I was able to get on the computer and do some work. The wood stove in our family room kept that part of the house toasty warm. Periodically we hooked up the refrigerator to the generator. Tuesday night we even hooked up the TV, satellite box and one lamp. It was not bad except we had no water. Our well pump is 220 power and the generator is only 110. We were extremely thankful when the power came back on Wednesday at about noon. Hot showers have never felt sooo good.
Ski season arrived early and we were on the slopes in early December. This photo of Dom at the top of Alpental ski area was taken last Saturday with my new Iphone. The early snow took a holiday about January 1st and the conditions have been mixed since then. We were surprised how good it was last weekend. This week there has been a couple of feet of new snow in the mountains (and up to a foot in the lowland areas--we have about 2 inches here) so we are excited to get up there this coming weekend. It should be superb and sun is forecast again for Saturday. The sloping peak behind Dom is Mt. Snoqualmie.
This is a photo of Denny Mountain from the base area at Alpental. I think it was taken in early January. We had a number of very cold, clear days early last month followed by quite bit of rain. It was taken with my Iphone as part of an app I have been using that records my ski day--number of runs, speed, elevation, time--all sorts of interesting information.
The social circuit at Alpental has been in full swing most weekends. This photo and the next were taken at a party we had the last weekend in January. It was the annual joint January birthday party and we had about 25 people at my parents' "cabin.". It was a fondue party with two types of cheese fondue, meat and vegetable fondue, chocolate and caramel dessert fondues. Red wine was spilled at least three times and a lot of chocolate cake ended up in the carpet as well.
This is the party "mosh pit." They swore they were just tickling people. Right! The post party reviews were great.
Winter on Whidbey Island can be spectacularly beautiful. I caught this incident of ships passing at midday in December. It is the Victoria Clipper roaring by a U.S. Navy vessel on its way to the base at Bremerton or Everett. The Olympic Mountains usually don't photograph very well but this shot was taken about 9 am with the rising sun shining on them from the east. I know the time because the Clipper goes by every day at 9:05 am.
We had a great Christmas. Our celebration was at my parents' at Alpental and we were joined by my sister, her family and my brother, Charlie. Even though we were away for Christmas Day I still like to decorate our house. We found a small artifical tree that a former tenant left at our commercial building in Issaquah and I decided I was done with real trees. After setting it up on a small table it was just big enough to hold all my favorite ornaments. It was sooo much simpler than getting a real tree. The artificial one even fit in the storage cubby where we keep the ornaments and other decorations.
Along with a welding helmet for the welding class we took this winter (I was a welding star!), Dom gave me an electric pasta machine for Christmas. Here I am making authentic Tordelli Lucchesi--traditional meat filled pasta. The recipe I have makes loads so I froze the finished product and we have enjoyed tordelli about once a week since early January. It is almost gone now so I will soon start craving the real thing.
I joined a group called Ladies of the Beach. The ladies walk every Monday morning. The routes are mostly along the shoreline of Whidbey Island. There are about 35 numbered walks and doing all of them means you have circumnavigated the island. So far I have done four numbered walks but this time of year about half the walks are in the woods somewhere on the island because the weather and tides made beach walks difficult. This picture was taken from Rocky Point just south of Oak Harbor last Monday. It was chilly but no rain.
The majority of our time (or at least Dom's) has been spent working on our master bathroom remodel. It might not look like it but a lot of progress has been made. The above photo shows the new window with the double vanity area to the left of it. To the right of the window is a 3 ft. x 4 ft. shower alcove. On the far left you can see out the door and into the bedroom area. On the far right you can just see into the toilet room. I am taking the photo from what will be the walk-in closet area. I hope to begin taping and mudding next week.
This photo is taken from the bedroom door and shows the work area. We moved into the guest bedroom on the other side of the house and converted the master bedroom into the staging area with a makeshift work bench and a lot of tools. We hope to have the project substantially done before we leave for Italy.
In the midst of all of this we are trying to keep things moving towards the purchase of our new condominium in Capannori near Lucca. It has been frustrating because we were assured in October that the one thing that needed to happen before we close would be done by the end of the year. Here we are at the end of February and it is still not done. The building was originally built on leased land and the condominium owners are in the process of buying the land from the owner. That has to happen before we close. We had some positive news last week so we hope things move along so that we can complete our purchase in mid-April. Our tentative plan is to go back about April 11th and stay for six weeks. However, we have hesitated to make travel arrangements before we have a firm date for closing. We will see how things work out.
In the meantime, there is lots of work to do around here, more skiing and more fun with friends.
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