Things we learned in Hong Kong*

*Please see the other half of this list on yimfay's blog



1. Beware of Stairs
3. Skinny girls have jiggly legs.
5. Puffy pantaloon shorts are in (the ones made from jeans are extra gross).
7. Guys in HK like/have "messy" hair.
9. KFC is everywhere...seriously, everywhere!
11. When entering the subway you walk on the left (cars drive on the left too).
13. There are glass wall barriers in the subway so that no one will fall in the gap (phew!)
15. You'd better know how to use chopsticks...or else.
17. Toothpicks are everywhere...and are used after every meal.

Snowshoeing!!!

Craig, from work put together a snowshoeing outing over the weekend...which was SO MUCH FUN! I am now completely addicted to snowshoeing. In fact I'm going to have to purchase some for myself! It's just so great to be able to go hiking up in the mountains in winter and not have to worry about falling through the snow or slipping and sliding down hills. We went out with a pretty good sized group, I think there were seven of us and two dogs (Guinness, of course, and Ali's dog Sam) and we went up the Denny Creek Trail. We didn't quite make it up to the top of the trail, which brings you up to an alpine lake, but we did see a beautiful creek and pretty big waterfall. We also had lunch on a large snow field which was pretty spectacular. One of the best parts of the day was coming back down the mountain cause it turns out that Ali is just as crazy as I am...we both love racing down after a hike! And with our snowshoes we were able to run down the ice and snow without fear of falling..it was AWESOME!!! So of course, now we're starting to talk about the next snowshoeing adventure :-) But this time we're thinking of going off trail. Can't wait!! In the mean time here are some pictures from this latest outing:

Ali and Sam:


Some waterfall action:


The snow was a wee bit deep...this is a foot bridge across the stream, just to give you an idea of what we were walking on:


The group hiking up the trail before we needed snowshoes:


Craig on the BIG snowfield where we stopped:

The Soccer People

I was just eating my lunch and reading some articles online when I came across this one by one of my favorite bloggers: Rootless Cosmopolitan

It's awesome, and if any of you follow international sports, especially soccer (or football as the rest of the world calls it) you should enjoy this article as much as I did.

Duh!

This cartoon brought to you by David Horsey and today's issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

more snow

Woke up to a winter wonderland in my neighborhood this morning. We got more snow early this morning, but the surprise part is that Fremont got about two or three inches! Normally I don't get any snow at my house, when the rest of the city gets a couple of inches Fremont and Ballard get just a dusting since we're right at sea level. Although, apparently my house is up a bit higher than Ballard cause as I walked in to work this morning there was less and less snow the closer I got to the studio. Took some pictures on my way in...while there wasn't a lot of accumulation, the dinosaur and flamingos at Archie McPhee's were looking a bit chilled with their blanket of white. And while this latest snow fall is nothing compared to the storm hitting the east, it's still a lot more than we usually get. But by this afternoon or evening, I'm sure all this snow will be gone. The temps are supposed to finally get back up into the 40's later today and it's supposed to rain...so bye bye snow!

Surprise! This one's for Dan:

Sorry for the lack of reading material on this blog. I've been super busy, then I was on vacation, then I was busy again dealing with work. And I've also just been plain lazy. But I'll do my best to be better at posting on this blog...and I'll try to get Guinness to update his blog as well for anyone that checks out his site.

Anyway, to try and motivate myself to post more often I thought I'd get some new pictures up (cause I'm sure everyone is sick of seeing the same ones for the past several months).

These were taken on a recent hike up around Tiger Mountain. It was a great hike, and a really beautiful day with blue skies and sunshine. I will admit to complaining about how much "up" there was in the hike...Josh, be sure to read the elevation gain a bit more carefully next time. ;-) But the view and the snow at the top was worth all the pain. We started the hike with the regular lush green forest of Western Washington:



But the more we climbed up the more snow started piling up. By the top this is what it was like:



And from the very top we could see the Olympic Mountains in the distant west (the really small lumps in this picture):



Plus there were the rest of the Cascades to the east, and their foothills:



This is why I love Washington, even if the current weather is pissing me off...you east coasters can really take back your weather now...please! I miss having the ability to walk around without a coat during most of the winter!