Heart Day is Almost Here

Time is short, my little chickadees.....so pay attention:

Returned from Newark last night after a long 18-hour day beginning with a 4-hour delay in Newark after our aircraft cabin filled with a haze so thick I couldn't see from the front to the back of the aircraft. We returned to the gate and they determined it was copious amounts of deicing fluid filled the aircraft air intake and was creating the haze and smell. Ick. We finally left four hours late and arrived in Seattle far too late for me to make my connection to Portland -- I waited five hours for one little teeny tiny seat to become available for me to get home. Oy.

I had the super nice experience of meeting this Great Britain Ice Dancing Team yesterday. John and Sinead Kerr were some of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. They were bound for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics which begin Friday. They perform on the 19, 21, 22....so watch for them like I will be! I chatted them up on the flight and then again in the Seattle airport during (both of our) five hour layovers. Best of luck, you guys! You can see all sorts of videos and information on them here.

My sister arrives Saturday for a quick weekend visit before driving back to Boise with us next week. Mason is beside himself....pensive, waiting, panting, sitting at the door already. While she is here, we're having a good old-fashioned Valentine's Day Love-In and Smooch Fest. Nothing more than friends and food combined with everybody getting smooched on and passing the love around. If you're in Portland, you're more than welcome to join us Sunday afternoon. Smooch!! I swear to god kids, if you think your life is bad, take a look back at the posts about my sister in the link at the beginning of this paragraph.....great things can happen, no matter what. She's morphed into such a beautiful lady and has become an integral part of our lives.....something we thought we'd never have.

Mason has been with us two years as of yesterday. So say he's brought us a lot of joy in our lives would be an understatement -- as any of you with pets can easily understand. He's such a kick and such a funny little boy. The looks, the actions, the licking, the strange little things that probably no one else in the world would find funny except for us. Nonetheless, he's here to stay. Gladly. I think I'll go and wake him up right now and give him a belly rub.

I'm going to be a year older next week. I'm happy about it. It's a good time of life right now. I think it comes from learning. From experiencing. From shedding the old and taking on the new. Daily. And from migrating from "this" to "that" -- not staying the same. I think it's as much a mental game as it is physical....maybe even more so. So, here she comes.....another birthday cake!