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JannaAnne Wordpress Blog

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Trying to sleep in the pit of DEATH

Have you ever tried to cool down a large, open aired house that has been baking in the sun for 5 days with no open windows and no circulating air? Let me tell you, I have never been to hell and I hope to never GO to hell, but this had to be as close as it gets!

We left Sacramento a cool, breezy 75 degrees. We spent 5 days in cloudy, misty 58 degree Washington. We come back to a 98 degree, suffocating Sacramento and a 8 month old boxer who is having a near death experience because she has never experienced heat before.

So then you ask yourself, do you turn on the AC and try and fill up this empty space with cool air and know that you are charging up your cooling bill as you do it? Or do you open some windows, turn on a few ceiling fans and try and circulate the hot air around in hopes of stirring up some cool air?

Decisions decisions...we have lived in this house since November and this is the very first night that we have had to deal with this. Amazing...so we chose the later option and had the worst night of sleep EVER. I was so hot and grumpy the next morning it wasn't even funny. Following night we took the high road. Turned on the air as soon as we got home, windows closed tight as a drum until the air outside dropped below 80 then opened them up and let in some breeze and turned on the fans...I slept like a baby and so did my pup pup...

Next stop: Whole House Fan...hum baby!

Seattle gets an A for awesome, Sacramento gets a B for better?

As Derek and I took off on yet ANOTHER adventure (I don't think I ever wrote about our recent Mexican Riviera Cruise) I left the wide-world of social networking to spend some much needed time with my immediate and extended family. The reason for the season was the graduation of my youngest cousin from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wa. She has been apart of the graphic Design program at WWU at was not only graduating, but displaying her wares (DESIGN wares) at a portfolio viewing over the weekend...HERE is a bit of what we saw from her workings.

My family, consisting of my husband and I, my parents and my brothers family (three kids in tow) all flew in to Sea/Tac and then cruised up Washington a few hours to B-Ham as we came to call it. Washington is beautiful country if you have never experienced it. We did our best to fit everything we could in to 4 days of Wa Wa state bliss...So what did our trip look like? {Enter Word Cloud}

Cloudy Skies, rental car (20-inch blades on the Impala), flashing lights, Washington State Trooper, "License & Registration", Bellingham (B-Ham), janky hotel, beautiful Western Washington University, Subaru's, hippies, artists, self-expression, When was the last time you showered? logos, printing press, family, Olive Garden, garlic fries, wine, Dairy Queen, The Liqueur store closes at 8pm? Wal-Mart, hard hotel bed, continental breakfast, pedicure, Starbucks, 100-proof vodka, graduation party, Alternative Library neighborhood, naked bike ride (yes) Rumba the 117 lb Labradoodle, The Bellwether Hotel, the harbor, the rock jetty, "Danger, do not cross, Do not Walk" Me and my 5 year-old niece: the climb, the fall, the scrapes, the bruises (me not her) The mosquitoes, the lounge, the family brunch, the family photos, Seattle at last, Stella the English Bulldog with the worlds worst under-bite, old friends, new friends, Game 6, BBQ, wine, the lookout, tourist Seattle, Pike's Public Market, the fish throwers, the very first Starbucks, The monorail, Seattle Science Museum, Mariners game, Elysian Pub, Potato croquettes, sweet yam quesidillas, scalpers, patron, The Black Swan, creepy, sleepy, airport, return home....

98 degrees? WTF happened while I was in Seattle?

So much time gone by...

I hate that I haven't posted in forever. I suppose I can say that there is only so much time to write in a day and currently I am writing a weekly column for the Sacramentopress.com, updating 4 Twitter sites daily and 5 facebook sites daily plus doing all of my other daily work...
I have also enter the world of writing competitions.

I say that gambling on the fact that my husband is not going to read this because I haven't even told him!

I penned a story not long ago and entered it into a Writers Digest writing competition...I won't know until nearly October if anyone liked it, but I took a bold step and did it anyway. I have had a few people review the story and so far their reviews have been positive. If the story wasn't so long, perhaps I would be bold enough to post it here. Or maybe I am using its length as an excuse not to...

Anyway, I have found myself restless recently and I am not sure what my next move is. I think it is a professional restlessness, but if affects life as a whole. Personally, life is fantastic. I love being married, owning a home and having a dog (even though I want to kill her on a daily basis.)

So what is my next move? How do I cure a restless spirit? I don't know. When I find out I'll let you know.