Fun in the sun!!

Finally we seemed to have a taste of real Spring this last weekend here in Pacific Northwest. Lucky for Janelle and I we had a scheduled trip to our intended wedding site (less then 3 weeks remain!!) to meet with our caterer at the facility and go over wedding plans. What a treat to see the boathouse in all of it's glory on a sunny day as lots of the Bellingham folks flew kites in the park directly adjacent to the building. The scenery could not have been better as we watched ships rolling in and out of Bellingham Bay in the bright sunshine. No if only we could order up the exact same weather with an added dash of about 10 degrees of heat or so and I think we will be all set. The rest of the day we also got to hit some of the local shops that we like in this neck of the woods and I was able to buy a few goodies at one of my favorite outdoor/gardening spots "A Lot of Flowers" in town where we admired their array of seasonal plants, unique garden items, and a fun blend of various items for home and garden. All of that while spending the day outside with a little fresh air. I could spend so much $$$ in this type of store!! We did locate some great blooming shrubs (hellebore) with gorgeous flowers and some various colors. Best part, they flower in the winter to early spring to add some much-needed punch to the garden in what is typically considered an "off" season for blooms and anything showy out in the yard. Something to look for as a possible addition I think. The shopping in B-ham is quite eclectic, certainly a reflection of the town, university that calls it home, and the people that make up this gem of the Northwest. We came across some favorites but perhaps none made us laugh/smile more then this. It is answered in one simple question, what could be creepier then one of those porcelain-faced dolls that always seem to come alive in horror movies and nightmares? The answer, one you know it, seems just as simple.....That same doll wearing a flamingo costume!! Only in Bellingham faithful readers!! After a few additional stops where we were able to get our banquet license and some other errands done we capped off the trip with a great lunch at one of our favorite local places, the Colophon Cafe & Deli. Filled up with some great sandwiches and soup we had a leisurely drive home and some nice time just relaxing there. We finished the night renting Slumdog Millionare and just chilling in the house for the evening, felt really good. Sunday we were able to get quite a bit of yard-work done, the inaugural mowing of the season, and some additional plant rotation, trimming, etc.. Such a nice way to spend the day in the mid/high-60s. I think the entire block got the memo as the trimmers, weed whackers, and mowers could be heard from close to 9am until 6pm all around the neighborhood. Janelle and I also had a chance to run some errands including getting some new sheets, returning pants, grabbing a new started shrub from my co-worker Gail, and generally continuing to try and check things off our list. Some much to do so little time!! I sure hope the weather holds.

The wedding is less then a month away......seriously?!?

Where has the time gone? It is very hard to tell most days for me. Oh well, certainly have been packing them in with busy days of planning, volleyball, work and starting the garden fun for the Spring season. This last weekend we had a much deserved sunny day on Sunday and I got to luxuriate in my planned garden for several hours weeding, turning in additional soil amendment and placing a great coat of used coffee grounds across the top to act as a natural mulch and increase the nitrogen content of the soil ahead of my intended plantings. The seedlings for my broccoli and multiple pepper styles continue to do well inside and I hope to get them into the ground prior to the wedding, we will have to just wait and see if that actually happens. ;-) I also got a chance to plant all of the lily bulbs (~21 of them to be exact) in our plot next to the garden as well as some by our work shed. They are Janelle's favorite flower and I have no problem filling our available space with their gorgeous color, I hope that they take this season early enough for some blooms. I also had the opportunity to play a bunch of v-ball with all a large range of players, formats, and locations and had a great time doing them all. Friday was a more organized Moxie reverse 4's open gym at Tyee Community Center in Bellevue. Good times, saw a few faces I had not seen in quite some time and played actually pretty well, great workout event though the really dirty gym made for play like we were on ice. Not the smart day to wear black as both I an Derek March did, we needed sand timeouts!! We even got a picture (shown here) of the whole open gym crew after the fun night, this crew made even me feel tall, a nice feeling for once. Saturday was a USAV men's tournament as we hit the hardwood with 2 Madman teams finishing 3rd/4th out of the 12 teams in attendance. The guys played great, I was a little off at this one, but I felt OK by the end. Our MO for this year certainly seems to be a semi-final team for sure, just struggling to get past the 2 top teams in the region to make the finals this season it seems. Nice to have both teams continue to do so well this season though, hard to ask for any more then that. Sunday, after gardening, I had my last night of the Winter indoor league with our Bellevue team Foushee & Assoc. as we won the league once again with a 4-0 sweep on the night. Such a great group of guys and another fun season as we laugh our way through almost every weekend match. Thanks for including me in another great round guys, looking forward to the next one. Team Foushee: Loch Anderson (Founder/Sponsor), Jason Nap, Ken Deutsch, Jesse Paulson, Gary Shaub, Tony Little, Todd Moore, Matt Weaver, Mark Peterson, and Jay "Short-Bus" Phillips.

Spring is slowly inching closer!!

Even though it seems to be just creeping along for us here in Northwest I think Spring is in actuality slowly making a presence. As the trees begin to bud, the irises continue to sprout and my starter plants get big enough to head towards the garden bed. All good signs in my book. ;-) Janelle and I continue to settle make small changes now and then to improve the house, work on the outside and even get a few of our everyday items upgraded as we look forward toward our impending wedding in just about 1 month's time. The most recent of these was the purchase of some new dishes for general use, something we were in desperate need of with our dated dishes we both had brought with us. Janelle made some great choices as we went with an eclectic set of brightly colored items in the popular "fiesta" style. I really liked how they look and think having the myriad of colors certainly fits our somewhat offbeat sense of style and decoration. How could the wedding have snuck up so close without my realizing it!?! (Perhaps it is a guy thing) Lucky for us we have many of our ducks in a proverbial row as we near the date. I am excited to spend the special time with friends and family followed by a much-anticipated trip to Puerto Rico to celebrate our new life as a wedded couple. Save a spot on the sunny beach for us! I think both Janelle and I will be somewhat relieved to have planning of the wedding behind us as well as a vacation filled with relaxation time and just the 2 of us.

Regional V-Ball Updates:

As we are reaching the middle of March we are almost to the halfway point of the 2008-2009 indoor volleyball season here in the Seattle area. The usual mixed bag for me in terms of results, formats, played, etc.. My coed 6's team which I play on with my brother John and sister-in-law Amy finished second as we lost in the finale to the top team in the league from the regular season. An overall fun season once again. Way to go Happy Fun Ball!! My men's indoor league team (Fouschee & Associates) is in as close of a dogfight for our weekend league as we have been in for years. We play our final head-2-head match versus our main rival this weekend. We head into the match tied for first, should be a fun game. ;-) As for the indoor USAV club team we have had a very mixed result this season to date. Never having the same lineup once might somehow be contributing to that fact some. (No surprise huh?) That being the case we have made the upper bracket at all of the tournaments we have played, one a regional event over arch-rival Island Style, and finished third this last weekend in the most recent regional tournament. I am having a good time continuing to play at the AA/A level and remaining competitive, even if we are not in all of the finals or taking home too many top prizes. Such is life I guess as one ages and continues to try and compete with the young bucks coming up through the ranks. Madman V-ball has continued to prosper as both men's teams continue to finish near the top of tournaments and we appear to be on the verge of adding both a 3rd men's team and a women's team under the banner of the club by the end of the season. Not too shabby I think and fun to see other people excited and interested in the progress and focus we have as an organization. It has really been nice over the last several years to see some of my efforts really making what I feel is a positive impact on the regional volleyball scene as a whole. More to come as the wedding plans continue apace and we try and cram in as many things as possible into our busy lives. Hope everyone is well out there as we celebrate another St. Patrick's Day.