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Noah had a good time!

We took Noah out for a burger last night. He regaled us with stories of his trip:



1) Tucson is too hot and dusty

2) He enjoyed visiting his friend there

3) He saw the Mariners play in Phoenix, but Ken Griffey Jr. was nowhere to be seen

4) Los Angeles was great, but too expensive and smoggy

5) He enjoyed visiting his friends there

6) A week away was long enough



Hooray! We have a true Northwest boy on our hands!



Love,

Dee

Forced Painting

OK - it was all my fault.



I dropped a red bottle of fingernail polish on the tile in our entryway and it splattered on the wall. It looks like blood. We got all the polish off the tile, but could not get it off the wall without taking all the paint off.



Jessica then said that she was tired of the green hall and wanted it a warmer color anyway, so we are now experimenting with different colors and will soon be repainting the hall. Then, of course, we will have to repaint the family room and the dining room ... Arrrrghhhh!



This weekend we move Kathryn out of her house!



Noah comes home today. Hooray!



Got some yard work done on Sunday (after church, of course). Getting the debris out of the wooded area really makes it look nice. Got the lawn mowed, too.



As you can see, Bopcha and I finalized our trip plans to see KC and Tom. We are going to rent a car, and are looking forward to the beautiful scenery between Denver and the ZoiBoyz ranch.



Love,

Dee

Bopcha and Diana's flights to see KC and Tom

Itineraries Portland (PDX - Portland International), OR

Denver (DEN - Denver International), CO Frontier Airlines 792 Coach Friday, June 5, 2009 10:55 AM - 2:23 PM

e-Ticket Airbus Industrie A319 0 Stop(s)

Denver (DEN - Denver International), CO

Portland (PDX - Portland International), OR Frontier Airlines 799 Coach Monday, June 8, 2009 5:55 PM - 7:33 PM

e-Ticket Airbus Industrie A319 0 Stop(s)

Grrrrr....

Just lost my entire message.

Here is a short version of what I said:



I will be in Longview tonight and through most of Friday. I will be defending depositions.



I listened to the Brit. He was a very effective speaker. Scary speech, however. Gulp!



Noah is headed from Arizona to L.A. today. He flies home Monday.



JB has Friday and Saturday off.



Love,

Dee

Fastest 5K times

Sandra,



The fastest time for women was 17:34. The fastest time for men was 16:54.



My average time per mile was 13:30 - a very moderate pace, but I was truly focused on finishing without the aid of an ambulance.



Jessica made it to the top of the Columbia Tower by climbing the stairs. It is 69 flights, 1,311 steps and 788 vertical feet. She said she made it in about 30 minutes. I imagine she's pretty sore today!



I have depositions in Longview, WA on Thursday and Friday, so I will be spending the night there on Wednesday and Thursday nights. I did the down and back drive to Longview yesterday in order to prepare my witnesses. It isn't a bad drive, but it is too much to do two days in a row.



The Beaver's basketball team is in the quarter finals of their tournament! They beat Vermont by one point yesterday!!!!! They play Stanford (for the fourth time this year) on Thursday. What a great season compared to last year!



Love,

Dee

The Elite Athlete in the Family

Hello,



Diana, you look like an elite athlete - and I mean even compared to the elite Olympic athletes of this past summer :-) :-)



I think you should be highly commended for doing the marathon, it is an accomplishment!!! Even after your long exhausting run, you look so refreshed and energetic. And I know you absolutely felt that way.



I am curious what was the fastest time for the 5K?



Love,



Sandra





The versatility of a word

Hello,



I thought you would enjoy the various twists on the word "up." Bopcha, I thought you would be especially entertained. I got this from an Italian American yahoo group (based in the Northwest actually).



Enjoy! Bopcha, by the way I really like the heartfelt song you wrote, it was very touching.



________________________________________________________





>

> My Daughter is an ESL teacher. She forwarded this on and I thought

> some of you would enjoy. I sure got a chuckle.

> Carol Cima

>

> 'up'

>

> Lovers of the English language might enjoy this. It is yet another

> example of why people learning English have trouble with the

> language. Learning the nuances of English makes it a difficult

> language. (But then, that's probably true of many languages.)

>

> There is a two-letter word in English that perhaps

> has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is

> 'UP.' It is listed in the dictionary as being used as an [adv],

> [prep], [adj], [n] or [v].

>

> It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of

> the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a

> meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP, and why are

> the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to

> write UP a report? We call UP our friends and we use it to brighten

> UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean

> UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

>

> At other times the little word has a real special meaning. People

> stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think

> UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is

> special.

>

> And this up is confusing:

> A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.

>

> We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We

> seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP !

>

> To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP , look the word UP

> in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost

> 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.

>

> If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many

> ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you

> don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

>

> When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun

> comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets UP the

> earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.

>

> One could go on & on, but I'll wrap it UP , for now ........my time

> is UP , so time to shut UP!

>

> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

>

>

Finished the 5K!

My time was 42 minutes - there were hills, doggone it!



And it was raining!

Bopcha's song for Emily

Will somebody rock my baby to sleep,

I'm going away where silence is deep,

Where days are forever and light years away,

Will somebody rock my baby today.





Will somebody cuddle my baby for me,

and teach him to count while he sits on your knee



for where I am going there is no return

and my precious baby has so much to learn.



Willl somebody tell him what's right and what's wrong

And teach him to brighten his life with a song

Then when he grows up I'm sure all will see

His eyes and his smile take after me.



alternate



Will somebody show him what's right and what's wrong

and how to banish his cares with a song

Tell him to look in the mirror and see

his eyes and his smile are reflections of me.

Noah's High School Coach is Retiring!

Coaching legend Pepple retires at Mercer Island





By Joshua Mayers

Special to The Seattle Times

Call it the end of an era.



Ed Pepple, the winningest coach in state high-school basketball history, announced his retirement Friday after 42 years of coaching at Mercer Island.



Pepple, 76, who earned 952 victories in 49 years of coaching overall, said he knew all season that it would be his last.



"It's been a great run," said Pepple, whose Islanders teams won four state titles and produced players such as former NBA center Steve Hawes and ex-Duke star Quin Snyder. "Obviously you'd be crazy to stay at a job for 42 years and not enjoy it. I've been blessed to do something that I love. I have a lot of great memories and it's been a magnificent and rewarding experience for me."



Pepple said leaving those student athletes was the hardest part of making the decision. He told his players of his plans after the team's awards program Thursday night and the retirement took effect at 1 p.m. Friday.



"I've been blessed with so many great kids and players, I couldn't even begin to thank them all," Pepple said.



Rainier Beach boys basketball coach Mike Bethea, whose team played Pepple in the 2002 Class 3A title game, was shocked to hear the news.



"He's the legend as far as high-school boys basketball goes," Bethea said. "He set the standard. Every program out there has a little Ed Pepple in it."



The surprise wasn't limited to those outside the Islanders program.



"One of my assistant coaches said, 'You just cost me $1,000. I thought you'd coach for another 10 years,' " Pepple said with a laugh.



Pepple's overall career record was 952-306 (.757 winning percentage). To put that in perspective, that is more than 300 wins ahead of the next-closest on Washington's all-time list, Centralia's Ron Brown (651) and Eisenhower of Yakima's Pat Fitterer (647), both still coaching.



Pepple first told his family about his retirement plans a couple weeks before the season ended, saying he made the decision to retire before the season started but waited to avoid making "a rash decision." He was particularly interested in spending his final season with this team, which after graduating 11 seniors was not considered to be a state contender.



"Sometimes the best coaching jobs aren't the ones that translate to most wins or the highest finish," said Pepple, who called the 2008-09 campaign of the most enjoyable seasons of his career.



Of Pepple's four state championships, three were at the Class 4A level (1985, 1993, 1997) and one was a 3A title in 1999. Many contend it should be five championships, but a disputed result in the 1981 4A title game against Shadle Park gave the trophy to the Highlanders in probably the most controversial game in state history.



His 1985 team, which featured Snyder and Brian Schwabe, is regarded as one of the state's greatest teams.



Bellevue coach Chris O'Connor, whose team has shared a rivalry with the Islanders for the last couple years, said Pepple will be hard to replace in the basketball community.



"It's hard to imagine that anyone else will be able to duplicate what he's done," O'Connor said. "I really think he was the pioneer for putting Washington basketball on the map."



Eisenhower coach Pat Fitterer, who is third on the state's all-time list for wins, thinks Pepple should be in the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame.



"He's definitely been a forefather for basketball here for years and years," Fitterer said. "And he's done a lot more than just win games."



Mike Colbrese, the executive director of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA), called Pepple the "dean of coaches."



"And I've always respected Ed's perspective on education and how it intersects with schools' sports programs," Colbrese said.



While the game has changed over the years, many of Pepple's traditions — in part influenced by his time in the Marine Corps — have remained the same. Islanders players dating back to 1968 have been known for their short haircuts and maroon blazers.



For now Pepple says he intends to spend more time with his family, especially his grandchildren, and maybe go skiing. He is also involved in a start-up company that hopes to help the environment.



"It's time to ride off into the sunset," Pepple said.



Spring! Where is it???

It is officially spring now, but I'm not sure I actually see the signs. It is overcast and cold, and we are expecting rain. The fun run is this weekend and I am afraid we are in for some muddy trails.



Noah has his last final today. Then he and three of his Mercer Island buddies head to Arizona. They got tickets for spring training - now that Ken Griffey Junior is back with the Mariners, their interest in baseball has picked up!



Jessica made green tea ice cream and mango and sticky rice desserts. Yummmmm! I absolutely LOVE the mango and sticky rice combination. Plus she made a main dish that is vegetarian and full of Asian spices but no salt. I just ate some cold here at work and it is good. I love it when JB cooks. The kitchen is a mess, but it is usually worth it!



Well, it is almost time for my work out run with Bev. Gulp! Some days it is tolerable and some days it is downright hard. No rest for the weary.



Hang in there, Sandra! Your heart attack really WILL be work related!



Love,

Dee

Way too busy



Hello everyone,



I'm sorry I haven't written on the blog in a while. It has been beyond busy at work. I am working really long days. In fact the job has been so all consumming that I sort of had to give up on my photography class. I have time to take pictures, but then I really don't have the time to go in the darkroom for hours and hours to develop them. Boo hoo!!



So instead I get to spend my days and weekends crafting "appropriate" e-mail messages to people at work and trying to cover everything that is expected of me. I would like to say more, but Sid continuosly reminds me to not say too much on the blog which can be publicly accessed. Too bad, because I really do have such good work stories, in fact they are ones that everyone can relate to because we all have them - nobody is lacking their share of tales of horror at work.



Thanks to Diana and Bopcha who keep a nice steady stream of messaged going on the blog. If it were not for you, the blog could become rather bare. It is always such fun to read everyone's messages. Diana and Bill, I also now feel that I should do the Mary's Peak hike. Of course, I can not be as well prepared as Murray because I have no idea what I should bring on a hike like that.

Although perhaps the items you need to be safe at Mary's Peak are the same as what you would need in the rough city of Philadelphia. :-) :-) Maybe I would be prepared after all.

Perhaps this year, Sid would be willing to do the hike with me?? That would work well??



Kay, being able to finally go to a less stressful place such as Corvallis sounds wonderful . You must be sighing many sighs of relief. Do you think the little creatures will like being in the big open land? I am assuming that they will adapt wonderfully.



By the way Bopcha, thanks for your nice explanation of the dogs on the farm - the one where you had to explain that you were not being sought after by stray dogs. I was confused but you were very nice to recognize that sometimes we make assumptions about what others know.

Sid just laughed at me for being so "uninformed" but at least you were there to be patient and explain what was going on. I felt pretty stupid for taking your comment so seriously. Thanks.



Have a good rest of the week and good luck with packing the U-Haul.



Love,



Sandra







Interesting way to handle a layoff





Layoff news causes heart attack — employee gets comp

March 16, 2009 by Sam Narisi



Posted in: Benefits Law,



In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, State and local law

Should employees get workers’ compensation benefits when they develop health problems caused by job-related stress? Yes, according to one court.



Here’s what happened in this recent case:



A 60-year-old employee was told her job was being eliminated after 25 years of working for the employer. She started crying and got permission from her boss to take the rest of the day off.



At home, about an hour after getting the news, the woman suffered a permanently disabling heart attack. Her doctor said she’d been healthy and that the incident was caused by the stress of hearing she was losing her job.



She was awarded accidental disability benefits. The company appealed, arguing she wasn’t eligible because the injury didn’t occur as a result of her job duties.



But the court sided with the employee’s doctor.



It was undisputed that the heart attack was caused by the woman’s conversation with her boss. And since that conversation occurred “during the scope of her employment,” the heart attack was directly related to her job and the woman was eligible for disability benefits.



Cite: Retirement Board of Salem v. Contributory Retirement Appeal Board

Way to Go, Murray!

Gee, Murray really sets the bar high. Now Bill and I are going to have to do that hike! I think we will wait for warmer weather, however.



Saw another good movie (yesterday, with Jessica - she had the day off). Second House on the Left. It is a scary movie, but quite well done for that type of movie. I'm pretty sure Kay will want to go.



We are currently scheduled to help Kay load her U-Haul on April 4, 2009. I will be both happy and sad. Happy that she will get to live a less stressful life in Corvallis, and sad that she will not be close to me.



Got to watch Noah and Gavin and their recreational basketball team play last night. It was a ton of fun, and Noah's shot was really falling.



Love,

Dee