The Babbling Brooks

Our Week

That January thaw that our builder told us about seems to be here. He was right about that and he is probably right that we will be back in the deep freeze in a couple of weeks. It was a balmy 44 degrees in Eureka on Wednesday. We got several more inches of snow in the last week and probably have about 4 feet now.  We've noticed that it felt warm, a relative term. It was still in the low 30s, but by Wednesday night the thaw began and we had giant icicles and ice blocks crashing off the roof.

                                                                                       

Wednesday we went to Eureka. The plan was for John to work with Paul (our builder) on our neighbor's home while I did errands downtown. We'd have lunch in town and then John would heat up the Champ and take a flight to get himself current. We headed out to Gateway Village and found Paul hard at work. He and John started snapping lines on the subfloor to mark the walls.

 

I watched awhile, took some photos, and rubbed Oreo's ears while enjoying the view of the mountains from our hilltop perch.

    

After a bit I hiked down the hill (ok, I slipped and landed on my a** first, then I figured out it would be easier to hike down through the woods than to walk down the icy driveway) and got in the Beetle to head to town and do some errands. It started right up and immediately died. it did it again. And again. And again. I called John. He said, "Hmmmm, wait a few minutes and try again." I did. It started right up and immediately died. I hiked back up the hill (this time taking the route up our own driveway which was covered with snow, not ice...and then across the woods (note the elk tracks!) to the neighbors. We decided to call AAA and have it towed to town (9 miles). After a confusing call due to my 253 area code cell phone and having just transferred my membership to Montana, they finally found me and sent Brian from Ted's Body Shop out to get me.

Just as the Beetle was getting comfortably settled onto the tow truck, John and Paul came sledding down the neighbor's driveway in Paul's truck. So, John rode to the garage with Brian and I rode to town with Paul. Paul dropped me off at Cafe Jax and went to get John. I was surprised to see them pull up to meet me in separate vehicles...John in the Beetle! Seems it started right up at the garage. They'd plugged it into the diagnostic machine and couldn't find anything wrong. What??? Did I forget how to drive??? I had already thought it was odd that this would occur the day after we'd had the instrument cluster replaced in the Beetle (maybe you remember the series of car mishaps last summer) and was beginning to think that something had been loosened or whatever. After lunch John and Paul headed back to the job site, I walked to the bank then back to the car to go to the post office. It started right up and immediately died. It did it again. But...this time I noticed a symbol light up on the dash that I had never seen before. A Beetle...with a key. Out came the owners manual.  Gee, the key has a security code in it that must match the car or guess what....the car will shut itself off. To make a way too long of a story shorter...turns out that the dealer has to reprogram the keys when they replace the instrument cluster. Gosh, don't ya think it would make sense to tell you to bring all the keys? John had to take both keys back in this morning and have everything reprogrammed.

John was able to get back in the saddle and take the Champ for a flight this week. He built a contraption for heating the engine with a propane heater and it started right up. He was happy to get in the air again. He's hoping now for some clear weather to fly it from Eureka to Ferndale Airport at Bigfork for it's annual inpection.  It's been foggy the last couple of days, but the forecast looks better for tomorrow.     

Yesterday (Thursday) it was back up to Eureka. John went out and worked with Paul at the neighbor's for a few hours again. He is going to learn a lot and will be putting it to use being the "hired help" for Paul when he builds our house.They got the first wall up. Speaking of our house, John and I visited a couple of appliance dealers in Kalispell this week. We had thought we may want to spring the cash for high-end kitchen appliances. We got starry eyed and are thinking we will probably go with Viking. They just announced a package deal and if we order the whole kitchen (30" gas range with convection oven, 36" refrigerator with bottom freezer, 30" venting hood, 24" dishwasher, and microwave all in stainless steel) by March 31 we can save $1500. Looks like we'll be storing appliances for awhile:) We are really enjoying the convection oven here at Dorothy's!

We attended our second line dancing lesson last night in Trego. We've had a lot of fun both times and hope to keep going every week. Today I visited the local scrapbook store in Columbia Falls and tonight John is at Poker Night in Stryker. Paul and his friends play every Friday night from Labor Day to Memorial Day and he invited John to join in.

We're lovin' it here in Montana...the snow, the scenery, the quiet, and the people! Here's a few images to leave you with...taken at Dickey Lake yesterday (15 miles south of Eureka) and Ptarmigan Village today (where we are staying).

   

Slurp Your Blog Into A Blurb!

Yep, that's what I said. Fellow bloggers....Check out www.blurb.com and become a Blurbarian. If you've ever wanted to print out your blog, this is the place for you. I've found that my blog has replaced my journal, but I really wanted it in printed form (much handier when I am scrapbooking :). This site will print it for you in book form. You can use their template and "slurp" it (their term) into your book. They have templates for blogs, cookbooks, etc. and it's easy. You need to download their beta software (BookSmart) and then have at it. It's pretty intuitive if you know your way around a computer. I was a little confused about some things at first, but it didn't take long to figure it out and I've only had to go to the help section a couple of times. Of course, you could take the software tour that is offered, but that would be like reading the owners manual! I've decided I'll print my blog at the end of each year and put it on the shelf with my scrapbooks! Have fun!

A New Look!

I'm still learning, but I like this better and it should be easier on the eyes. I upgraded my account and now have more choices, including spreading my words all the way across your screen instead of just the middle third. I'll be posting about our week and putting up some photos in the next day or two. Let me know how you like the new look!

It's FREEZING!

That's right! It's all the way UP to 32 degrees, 52 degrees warmer than before. We got another 4-5 inches of snow last night and it is beautiful up here on Big Mountain. The trees are covered in the white stuff. This car from Florida hasn't moved since we got here. John is thinking the owner has gone home for the winter:) Downtown Whitefish looks so pretty in a new coat of snow. Someone at the Mackenzie River Pizza Company took the time to build a snowman with some special touches from the kitchen :)

Double Tagged!

Alisha and Tracy tagged me on this one!

• Three people/things that make me laugh:  My grandson(Legend), stories as told by Char :), puppies
• Three things that scare me:  drivers that don't pay attention, huge bugs, Nancy Pelosi
• Three things I love:  John, my family, free time
• Three things I hate:  second-hand smoke, feeling cold, rap music
• Three things I don't understand:  remote controls, body piercings (other than ear lobes), stereo systems with bass so loud it hurts your ears
• Three things on my desk:  my laptop, printer, a huge mess
• Three things I want to do before I die:  way too many to pick 3!
• Three things I can do:  decide quickly, scrapbook, learn new things
• Three things I would like to learn:  Photoshop Elements, the violin, quilting
• Three favorite foods:  pizza, tall decaf nonfat no-whip 4-pump Starbucks mocha (6-pumps for a grande!), fish tacos at the Cheesecake Factory 
• Three beverages I drink regularly:  mochas, caffeine free diet Pepsi, water
• Three TV shows/books I watched/read as a kid:  Little House on the Prairie series, The Bobbsey Twins series, Wonderful World of Disney

Tagging Gail and Arleen! Go for it!

Fresh Snow and Dinner at Mambo's!

We woke up this morning to freshly fallen snow and it is so pretty. It's warmed up to a balmy 23 degrees! It snowed off and on all day. Our Mickey balls are wearing cute little snow caps :) I love that this snow is so dry and fluffy. No more of that heavy, wet stuff I grew up with. This stuff is fun and so much easier! John's been keeping a fire in the wood stove and we are cozy and warm.

We celebrated "First Kiss and Engagement Day" today with dinner at Mambo's. We have always celebrated at Mitzels in Kent, scene of the previously mentioned, but 11 hours is a little far to drive :) So, we are substituting Mambo's in Whitefish. I'd mentioned this place last fall. It is the BEST Italian food we have found anywhere. Who'd have thought you'd find this in Montana??? They start each meal with garlic bread that is hot and cheesy.   We shared a spinach salad and ordered our favorite Piazza Santo Pietro pizza (pesto sauce, shrimp, red onions, yummy cheese) and the Chorzee (mussels with linguine in a seafood broth), also to share. The gnocche topped it off perfectly...deep, dark chocolate balls quickly deep fried in a very light crust and served with light whipped cream. Yummmmmmm!

We finally met our neighbors today! No, not here...at the gym! John happened to see them leaving for work this morning and saw them walk into the gym while we were there this afternoon. Nancy and Danny seemed very nice. Hope we'll get to know them better. The gym...yes, we're back at it. We found a really nice one that takes month-to-month payment without a contract.

Welcome to Montana!

We have been initiated into the Montana winters!Don't know what the overnight temperature was Thursday night, but as we drove to Eureka yesterday we watched the outside air temperature reading drop to -19 degrees (missed the picture of that one).  Our breath was forming ice on the inside of the windshield. It took 25 minutes to warm the car before we left and I am really appreciating those heated seats in the Beetle!

We met our friend, Roy, at Cafe Jax in beautiful downtown Eureka for lunch and then had a meeting with our builder, Paul (Meadow Creek Homes). We'd been to Paul's new house once before and I thought I knew exactly how to get there. I was close :) On the way, we had a scenic detour over snow and ice covered roads and John got some winter driving practice. A couple of phone calls later (including some back tracking to get a signal) for directions and we were there. We had a great visit discussing our sketched plan and Paul displayed some genius moments in creating extra space for an office for John and moving the guest bathroom making it less costly and probably larger. He'll be starting work on the actual plans and we should be able to see them in a month or so. We are excited!!

A cozy fire, a mocha, and snow!

We've made it to Montana! We have arrived safely at our friend's place at Big Mountain (Dorothy, did you know that you have a peek-a-boo view of the lake in winter?!) I woke up this morning to exactly the thing I've had in my head for so long....sitting by the fire drinking my mocha and watching the snow outside. There is plenty on the ground here at Big Mountain and a fair amount down in Whitefish. Today we drove to Eureka to collect our mail and put some things in storage. There was very little snow there, just as we expected. The snow started to disappear about 10 miles south of Eureka. The Tobacco Valley is the banana belt of western Montana. There was a little more at our property (9 miles north of Eureka) than in town. We collected some things from the travel trailer (including my scrapping supplies!) and John petted the airplane. I'm sure he'll be out taking it for a spin ASAP! We are settling in for a few days with plenty of groceries as a storm is coming our way. No use driving to town if we don't need to! (BTW, the new STARBUCKS is OPEN in KALISPELL!)

Happy Birthday to Me! The Princess Stays At The Castle :)

Well, ok, it was 4 days ago on the 3rd, but I've been busy! John and I celebrated in Victoria, BC with a stay at the Empress Hotel and a winter visit to the Butchart Gardens. When I was 5 my grandma took my sisters and I to Victoria on the Princess Marguerite. We got off the boat and the first thing I saw was a fairy princess castle, the Empress!  Oh how I hoped we were staying there. No, we walked on by to a little hotel on a back street (still a great visit...I can remember it after 46 years!) I've always wanted to stay there and this time we did. Was I impressed? Not really. The room was very pretty and the bed was oh so comfortable, but the closet door was hinged to close itself and kept hitting us in the butt, the shower curtain was one of those that sticks to your wet skin, the deep soaking tub would only hold 3 inches of water cause of where the overflow drain was, and the water was not hot enough for a good soak, internet service was $13.95 per day, and local calls were $1.50 each. Verdict...a nice time, but I'd never pay those overinflated prices for a room (we had certificates we'd gotten at a school auction last year). We had a nice day at the gardens. We want to visit in each season and this was our first time in winter. We saw pansies and berries on the holly and Skimmia. There wasn't much else blooming. It would have been better in 3 or 4 weeks when the witch hazel, heath, etc. would be out. But....they were still decorated for Christmas. Lots of greenery and sparkly red bows. And they had displays of the 12 days of Christmas. It was fun to walk around the gardens and look for them. We had a fancy dinner at Pestores (another certificate) right across from the Empress on the first night (the 2nd). For my birthday, I wanted to go to Julia's Place...a great little Italian restaurant we've been to a few times. We walked up there at dinner time and ackkk! they'd gone out of business. Hmmm..what to do?? We walked around a little and found Nautical Nellie's. Yum! It was awesome. We both had steaks and they were just as good as The Chop House in Chicago or The Metropolitan in Seattle. The ferry crossing over the Strait of Juan de Fuca on the Coho Ferry was a little rough each way due to high winds, but we both managed to keep our stomachs in check :)

We arrived back in the US and have stayed the last few nights with our dear friend, Elaine. Friday was "take care of business day". We picked up our crate of mail from my sister's in Tumwater, closed our Tumwater PO box, visited the Sumner post office to redirect our mail from Tumwater to Eureka, and took care of our banking. We think we've covered all those bases for the move. We'll have go bank shopping in Eureka (Yes, we have a choice. There are 2!) and get all our automatic deposits and payments redirected.

We had a wonderful day Saturday visiting our friends, Mary and Jerry, at their cabin in Carbonado. We arrived for lunch (yummy quiche!) at 11:30 am and swapped stories till 5:30 pm when it was time to leave for our dinner with Gary and Val at the Hunan Garden. Thanks to all of them for a wonderful day and some awesome food!

Today (Sunday) John took Trevor to a movie while Cindy caught up on some shopping and enjoyed her free birthday desert at Borders. Afterward we gave Wendy and Brian a much needed parenting break and stayed with Trevor and Zachary while they went out. The boys grow so fast! Zachary is walking and almost talking now!

We'll be leaving for Montana and our temporary digs at Big Mountain just outside of Whitefish in the morning. The Big Mountain web site says there is 12 feet of snow and we are just below the resort, so we are expecting a lot at Ptarmigan Village! We hope to make it there tomorrow night, but if the road conditions aren't good we'll spend the night somewhere and arrive on Tuesday. See you all then!

Catchin' Up!

Over a week since I blogged...and for good reason! We've been having way too much fun and there's been no time. This will be a long post :) and you may have missed the last one on 12/24 with John's beach adventure. Check the photos!

Saturday, Dec. 23rd: The 6 of us went whale watching with the Pacific Whale Foundation. It was a great tour, the weather was perfect, and we saw several humpbacks. We were lucky that two of them surfaced close to the front of the boat.   After seeing the whales we had a quick bite to eat at the Blue Marlin at Ma'alaea Harbor and headed to Lahaina for the Warren and Annabelle's Magic Show. If you're like me, magic shows aren't all that interesting. This one is different! John had read about it, it had really great reviews, and we all decided to go. Annabelle the ghost starts the evening in the parlor with piano tunes (she takes requests) while you eat pupus and enjoy beverages.

Then you move into the 78 seat theater and the real fun begins. Warren Gibson is not only a magician, but a stand-up comic. His close-up magic tricks are amazing and we were laughing the entire two hours. (John was given a dinner certificate for answering a trivia question about Mayberry, RFD and we had a yummy chinese lunch a few days later :) Who would ever think of going to a magic show on Maui? We wouldn't either, but we all recommend this! It was a riot!

Christmas Eve we enjoyed a true Hawaiian luau at Old Lahaina Luau. We'd highly recommend this one to anyone going to Maui. The food and the show were outstanding. The tables each seated 8 and when we were escorted to ours we noticed that the other couple at our table were James and Jean Brooks. When they came back to the table we introduced ourselves as "also the Brooks". We asked where they were from and were astounded when they said Libby, Montana. By Montana standards they are our neighbors! They have family in Eureka! Who'd have guessed??? It was a great way to spend Christmas Eve and we made some new friends.

We had a great family Christmas. Since we were traveling we'd agreed that everyone would bring stockings to fill with gifts. I got some ribbon and we hung them on chairs as we had no fireplace. Santa found them and they were filled to the brims.    Afterward, we headed off to Hana. Although John and I had been more than once, it was the first time for the rest. John volunteered to drive one of the cars and we headed off in Susan and David's convertible with the top optimistically down. The sky to the east look ominously dark. The weather turned out to be fairly reasonable and we only wimped out twice and put the top up for a bit. We had a picnic lunch at Waianapanapana Park where John and I had stayed in the cabin and continued on to Charles Lindbergh's grave at Kipahulu. Corki and Fred headed straight back to Kihei and the rest of us took it a little more leisurely with stops for coffee and waterfall visits. Meanwhile, Corki heated up the scalloped potatoes Susan had put together the day before and got the ham in the oven. By the time we got back, there was a delicious Christmas Dinner ready to eat. It was a great day and we all had fun.

Tuesday was an easy day for everyone...shopping, beach, and pool! Wednesday was our last day on Maui. Susan, David, John, and Cindy went on a submarine ride off shore from Lahaina.   They took us to 133 feet and to 2 reefs where we saw schools of tropical fish and some divers exploring a sunken ship. It was a fun ride for us non-divers. Afterward, we met up with Corki and Fred and ended the trip with a sunset cruise. Perfect way to end the week!

John and I flew back to LAX on Thursday, December 28th. Yes, we were ready to come back. We'd had enough aloha in the last two months. Our plane was later getting in than expected (what's new?) and it was after midnight before we arrived at Gigi and Darrell's in San Juan Capistrano. We had a wonderful visit with them as always, but way too short. We got to meet Darrell's brother and his family which was an extra treat. They are nice people just as those of you who know the McDougals would expect. We all had a nice little Christmas celebration around their beautiful tree.

We left for Washington late Friday morning and took 2 overnights to get here, arriving at Lynn and Arthur's on Sunday afternoon. They had some nice little gifts waiting for us including......a BIG bag of contraband Starbucks Mocha Powder!! Nice to know someone who knows someone :) We had a great time at their New Year's Eve party and are staying here till tomorrow. We saw Brad for a few minutes this afternoon and got some shopping done. (Need to get those things that are not available to us in rural Montana :) Tomorrow we will be taking the ferry to Victoria for my birthday and will return on Thursday for a few days with Elaine P. We are acclimating to the colder weather in anticipation of the cold and snow we are going to find at Whitefish! We were commenting this morning, though, about how "refreshing" it is! Hope you all had a Happy New Year's!