John's Letter

Friends that Visited
A week from last Friday (the 4th) Pat & Darci, Jay & Kristen, all came over. The girls went to see a movie, and the guys just hung out. Time went by really fast, and we had a lot of fun. Pat stayed the night, then met up with Darci for the rest of the weekend in which they made their relationship “official.” Saturday night Dan Blazquez came to visit us.

He has been working a lot and the night before he was with some friends that wore him out. Janel and I had slowly spent the week overcoming congestion, and were not as energetic either. So, we all relaxed by playing board games and watching a DVD. Dan left in the morning of Superbowl Sunday, and Janel and I watched the game. (my current favorite ad was not played in the game. There is one by Volkswagen, that is a remake of Singing in the Rain (uses another web page and quicktime, its awesome though) which uses a guy that was a favorite college link (uses windows media player automatically) to be watch and pass around.) Later that week, Tim and Scott came to visit in it brought along another WSU friend, Dave.

(2.10.05) Scott

Dave


Tim blows a bubble with some nasty gum

Cloak & Dagger
For christmas Janel got me the DVD of 1984's Cloak & Dagger. We found it online for 10 bucks. It was released back in November. The movie starts immediately when put in a player. At the end it loops, it doesn't even have a menu. I still like it anyway. I keep forgetting the kid from ET is in it, and the girl was a friend of one of Kristen's friends.

Caroline's Birthday
For her birthday we got her the board game 90's Triva Pursuit. We were all in Wenatchee including Janel's Aunt and Uncle, Jim and Cindy (not respectively).

Wine in Wenatchee
Saturday morning we headed over to Jason & Carolines (we carpool). Whenever we carpool that early in the day, we always stop in North Bend for breakfast. Pulling into McDonalds I had the only item I somewhat like there, the sausage mcgriddle. Its pancake-like bun has bits of syrup in it.

The road over the pass was dry. You can definitely see why some farmers are worried about water. Janel's dad thinks that by June the overall severity will be clear. In a later conversation he mentioned that he will do just fine. The water running by turns on his property (a swell or something to that effect) and he can also move his pump further if need be. He said that one time he tried to lease half of the water off, but it was informed that was all are none, so he couldn’t do it.

Upon arrival we learned that more people were coming in addition to Jim and Cindy. Jim's sister Linda, her husband Greg and their eldest son Conrad (and his girlfriend). They're daughter, Jennifer, whom I knew at WSU, was vacationing in New Zealand. Jim and Linda's mother, and Janel's dad's mom, were sisters. Duane and Jim have grown and act like brothers.

We hit six places in Chelan and called it a day. Last year Jim and Cindy wanted us to join them (for what seems to be an annual thing) in the tri-cities for a chocolate and wine tasting event, but we didn't go. Anyway, the guys took one vehicle and the girls in another. Overall, my favorite wine came from the last place. Straight out of a barrel, and sadly, none of that had been bottled. When we arrived at the last place, the building was packed. A gentleman outside informed us that if we went through the field to a small warehouse, a guy was out there serving wine and answering questions. Sure enough, this guy comes out and greets Jason, Caroline and myself. We weaved our way in between barrels and discovered there were about eight other people inside. The guy then introduced us by name to each individual person by their name. That was incredibly impressive, especially since I couldn't remember the guys name from just the door. He served us wine using what they call it wine thief (looks like a turkey baster). This was also different because instead of getting a sip or two, everyone had full glasses. Later on, we managed to sit inside the main building to eat some crackers and cheese. They let their dog roam wherever it chose. At one point the dog rested its head on my leg, attempting to beg for food, but instead began to fall asleep standing there.

The Wine Thief

Jason, Janel, Duane, Jim and Linda

Cindy and Susie are being closely watched

Think he wants something?
Later, we celebrated Caroline's birthday, played a rough game of Trivial Pursuit, then the next morning Janel's grandparents, and her Aunt Loraine came over to have breakfast.

Pat & Darci
When we arrive back, I heard from Pat that he and Darci spent the weekend together. They both like the Mariners, they both work in radio, they both are Catholic (and have already been to each others churches). She's met his parents, and they seem to magically hit it off together. She is a Husky, and he is a Coug, but sometimes they let that slide. They like to me with us and have dinner together sometime, but we figure we'll give that a couple months.

(2.12.05) Pat & Darci

Valentine’s Day
Last week Janel made it clear that she didn't really want to be celebrating Valentine's Day. We agreed to exchange cards, and maybe have dinner somewhere…Last Tuesday, Janel had a huge See’s chocolate craving (which Mom and Dad eight hours they heard after a box arrived just in time, I too had picked up a box for her as well). So her chocolate fix was amply satisfied. Then we had the weekend in Wenatchee, and came back still not having made up our minds about dinner. In addition to a card, I got Janel and apartment pet (a stuffed dog), and we both drooled at the idea of eating teriyaki, so we did.

Friends in Conversation
Alex Zaveruha has recently graduated from Western and has been looking for a job in sales. He lives in Bellingham, super close to Jake, and his girlfriend lives in Olympia. So we will probably all meet up sometime soon.
Ned Kandzor called me when some friends were over and invited us today Sonics game set for last Thursday against Sacramento. We didn’t go, but hopefully will have an opportunity since Ned and I will be meeting sometime soon anyway. That was the last home game that they won.
Autumn Hewitt (a WSU friend going out with Jason), noted she wanted to visit us since she will be in the area during spring break. So we will see how that goes.
Another WSU friend, Ann Woods, will be performing in a standup comedy act sometime in March. The event is called Optorock (yuk yuk) and it's like a talent/variety show with about 300 people attending. She has been going to school to become an optometrist.
Since Janel has the whole week off and we haven't heard from him, we will probably call Jerry to see if he’d like to see movie or have dinner something.

Janel’s FBLA
On Tuesday Janel had students participating at an FBLA Regional conference. Out of 12 students, two receive first, one received second, and two received third. All eligible to go to State. That was also exciting because this was Lindbergh's first year of FBLA.

Closure
That’s everything I can think of, can’t wait to see almost everyone in Oak Harbor this weekend!