01-28-03

1973-2003
 Today we said good-bye to our faithful olive green 1973 Hotpoint dryer and bought a new Whirlpool dryer, which is just as noisy, but at least it dries the clothes. Joe and I spent an hour just getting it set up. And you wouldn't believe the crud I found behind the old dryer (but not ONE lost sock! Where are they?)
I tried to work at Starbucks today but I left at 7:30. Tomorrow I have work at Johnston Architects plus class. Wish me luck.
I have gone through a box of Kleenex and a bottle of Nyquil and still feel awful. I actually watched the President's speech tonight, but I'm too exhausted to have an opinion.
Tonight I took pictures of Sean and Joe and told them to be hammy.

2003-
I guess that's hammy? (Amy, those are your tulips) Good-night.

01-27-03
What a weekend!
Thursday night my classmate Ann stopped in to 6rms and held her own quite well. During the night we made numerous plans for the weekend - two birthday parties (one a surprise) and a show the next night.
Friday morning I woke up with the hint of a cold and dismissed it since I had so much to do. Bad idea.
Friday night a whack of us went to see Hint Hint, the Walkmen, and Hot Hot Heat. Since there were so many of us, I talked through the night over the music (which reminded me exactly why Jon and I learned sign language!) and I made my sore throat worse. Besides that, Jason was back in town from Japan (he toured with Juno!), Shane was back in town from Vancouver, and Hot Hot Heat is one of my favorite bands, so you can imagine the bee I had in my bonnet running around and being a social butterfly (huh - that was two insect phrases in one sentence). [I'm on Nyquil, sorry.]
After the show I spent a lot of time just being a groupie. The drummer for the Walkmen made me laugh my head off and Hot Hot Heat charmed me as they always do. There was also a party after the gig - I got home at 3:30 am.
Saturday morning I paid the price. I could hardly talk and my ears were clogged from my sinuses AND the loud music the night before. All I could think of was all the things I needed to get done that day. So every time I would endeavor to do something, I'd have to lay down an hour later. It was a strange day. I managed to make one batch of cookie dough and get Amy's birthday gifts (the big 3-0!) and Sean and I headed to Amy's parent's house, which is in our neighborhood.

Amy's party was nice - we all sat around and made fun of each other like we always do. I was grumpy and sickish most of the night.
By 10:30 the party was winding down and it was obvious that we'd be transferring the group to our house. We were only a few blocks away, and Sean had recently received a case of Pacifico beer from a Kinko's customer, which we wanted to get rid of.
We trailed on over to our place and cheered Amy at midnight. Both Joe and Shane called to say they may be coming over. Emily and I made peanut butter cookies at midnight and we impressed ourselves:
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1-2 tablespoons flour (I didn't measure)
350° for ten minutes.
We ate them all - even the ones that fell on the floor.
Joe and Bev finally showed up with a card and tulips for Amy - at one am. They had already left. (The tulips look lovely in my living room!)
The next morning I was still sick as a dog and raring to go to the next party - this time a quasi-surprise birthday breakfast for Julie (the big 3-5!) at Rosebud Restaurant.
I was impressed that we weren't all sick of each other from being together for four days straight.
(Or.... maybe that's why I'm so sick?!?)
Jon and Amy headed off to Bellingham to eat at one of her old college haunts and Sean and I headed home so he could watch the Superbowl and I could lay down and blow my nose raw and complain about it.
Somewhere in there I made another batch of cookies. I don't know why.
That afternoon we had Jason over for dinner. He got us playing cards and some cool animal stickers from Japan. Sean made a good dinner and I made some mediocre cookies. (I don't stop!)
When it came time for Sean or I to drive Jason home, we were about ready for rock, paper, scissors when Jason offered to stay over. Relieved, I downed a major glug of Nyquil and went bye-bye.
This morning, I felt so much better! Work and school? No problem!
Until I got there.
I was finally asked to leave by 1:30.
I figured I would just sleep until class.
Instead, I slept and blew my nose then slept and had WACKO Nyquil dreams (Marc Hall - you and I were stealing cool rhinestone chokers from dead hookers while skipping school) and slept and.... well, you understand. I ended up missing class - we were learning layers tonight and I REALLY wanted to attend that class. Tomorrow I get to open Starbucks at 4:15 am and try NOT to get a bloody nose while stocking the pastry case.
[Schnurff.]

 01-21-03
It was time to shave Dominique (I wonder how this page will show up on search engines now!) She's been covered in clumps because her hair is pure fuzz underneath. Surprisingly, she purred all the way through it. I kept telling her she'd look beautiful and I think she believed me. Because of all the attention she got, we brushed Jalen and Hobbes as well.
I got some pictures from Debra, so someday I will make Dayment Family and Govan Family cast pages for this site. So for those family members out there (you know who you are!) please send pictures for me to scan. Birthdates would be good, too!
And for the Starbucks customers, I know I've been saying it for months, but I WILL update the Starbucks page soon! I'm trying!!

01-12-03
I took some pictures today!
I thought I'd show you an update on our ditch. It's a bit difficult to see, but there are new trees planted along the road side of the ditch. When it rains for a long time, that swale in the front fills with water and drains slowly. The rock area fills with rainwater and flows down to Carkeek Park, into the Puget Sound.
When they were planting the trees, I asked what kind of trees they were. They said "I dunno - I don't have any tags." So it will be fun to figure out all of the trees this spring. They planted a row of trees across the street, too!
I hope they put some sort of groundcover over the netting. If they don't, I will.
We finally picked out some shelving for the new bathroom. After we painted last month, we didn't want to put up the old fixtures, so we had nowhere to put anything except for the thin, flimsy metal shelves on the back wall.
We bought this thing at Lowe's for $17.
Yesterday's shopping was quite an experience. First, I went to PetSmart, and it seemed to be Exceptional Creature Week or something. One tank had these salamander things with two front legs and a fish tail fin. Their tank was only about two inches full of water, with gravel and high rocks along the back. They could crawl all the way up the sides of the tank. Sharing the tank with them were these bright green and red toads, who were entertaining enough just sitting there, but once in a while one would jump really high and land on another's head, and they'd both just sit there for a while. It happened multiple times, like maybe that's how they stay warm or say Hi or something. I loved it.
In the aquarium plant tanks they had a little baby goldfish. He was size of a fat orange grain of rice. He was precious and had this huge forest of a tank all to himself.
Also at PetSmart, bunches of new weird lizards. One was a little guy with double rhino horns. Awesome. It took me forever to get out of there!
After this I headed to Lowe's, and again, it was like Exceptional Plant Week. They re-arranged the plant area since buying out Eagle Hardware, and it seems that half of the (few) plants they offer now are these specialty plants. One plant was a stick, about 18 inches high, with multiple sticks hanging from the top - almost like a broken umbrella. Upon further inspection - it's a pussywillow! One was blooming little baby puffs on it! When I find the space, I want one. Also at Lowe's, blooming jasmine vine wired on loops (which I want), and tons of bright orchids (which I kill).
After finally pulling myself away from this exceptional expedition, I came home to see Sean cleaning the fish tank. We had these bushy plants in there that liked the tank's environment WAY too much, and the tank became a terrarium and the fish were constantly trudging through this jungle. So Sean was scooping out all of the plants, then took out the big hunks of wood, then he starts scrubbing the walls. Then he gets the siphon, then he hooks it up to the utility sink, then he realizes that the utility sink no longer has any faucet handles (they both corroded so badly that they just snapped off). So now he's searching for the pipe wrench so he can turn the faucet on, but Shane went up to Vancouver and he doesn't know which tools are where, and then I come home. Being the female that I am, I'm spending ten minutes talking about my 15 minute expedition to buy cat litter and a fan vent (which means that I come home with cat litter, cool glowy tank eggs, two aquarium plants, a golden pothos plant, a new white pot for said plant, spider mite killer spray for my jade plant, a grow light bulb, and a fan vent which is the wrong size). Then he finds some sort of tool to turn on the water, then we both walk back over to the tank.
Consider how many things happened there.
The plecostomas was sitting on the dining room table. Just sitting there. Waiting for someone to see him. I screamed (I do that). Sean picked him up by his tail and he did that fish twisty thing that they do and popped right out of Sean's grasp and landed back on the table with a thud. The second try, Sean got him back into the tank.
I checked him today. He's still alive. Those things are SO cool!

Some time in the last few months, I complained to Marc that my oven sucks. It really does. I have avoided replacing it because it is also a cool vintage metal oven and I have my priorities. Well, that, and the landlord would have to buy it (and every month we have something that we are making the landlord pay for). It's this funky small square built-in oven and has a temperamental thermostat, no oven light, no broiler, and gives you an upper-body workout just opening the oven door. But it looks cool.
Anyway.
Marc got me an Easy-Bake oven for Christmas. I think I must've told him about the many recipes available online for these things. We're talking like thirty PAGES of listings on Google. If anyone has some creative Easy-Bake Oven uses, please let me know. I WILL conquer this thing.
Marc also got us a dice rake (a la Las Vegas) for our new huge gaming/dining table that Shane and Sean built. Isn't he thoughtful?
Does anyone out there have a car Marc can have? His is trashed. Thanks.

1-10-03
We made it back in one piece!
Upon return I did about six loads of laundry, unpacked, and spent two days putting all of the vacation pictures online. Oh, and I pet my cats for a long, long time.
Class started Monday, now in Dreamweaver MX.
I've already planned the next trip - ten of us are going to Vancouver for Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. It's nice to have a trip already planned out for the post-holiday blues.
The beauty on the left is our Christmas gift from Sean's Mom. We've been dreaming about this thing for a long time and soon I'll be cranking out batches of cookies in my sleep. I've already searched the web for a copy-cat recipe for Dad's (brand) crunchy oatmeal cookies. I will keep trying until Sean swears it's exactly right. They don't sell them in the states.
This picture was taken right before we left - Julie had a Christmas party and we all snuggled in to watch Christmas Vacation.
Our big news in our group is: Matt and Fernanda are engaged! Matt was in Brazil visiting Fernanda (they've been separated since August) and came back a husband-to-be! Now we just need Fernanda here so we can throw a giant engagement party.
By the way everyone - I have e-mail set up for this website now so you can send an e-mail to dayment at daymented.com and I'll get it!
Marc, Emily, Josh, Matt, Loretto
Me, Sean, Julie, Jon, Noah, Alexandra, Kolja