la vie en rose

Well, it's been awhile since I posted - sorry Bridgey. I was gone for Father's Day weekend and last week was a bit hectic. Where was I for Father's Day? With my father, of course! And 1500 other Democrats at the State Convention.


I was elected as an alternate at the Legislative District caucus to go to the Congressional District caucus and the State Convention in Spokane. The Convention was awesome.

Look - it's Governor Gregoire!

Mayor Greg Nickels was the Convention Chairman and both Senator Patty Murray and Senator Maria Cantwell spoke, as well as Governor Christine Gregoire (complete with marching band - just like old timey politics!). John Kerry was supposed to be the keynote speaker, but he attends every funeral for soldiers killed from Massachusetts, and that Saturday happened to be one. Senator Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota came instead and boy, was she funny! She told us how indebted she was to Patty Murray for being her mentor and how, at a Freshman Senators luncheon Patty Murray introduced herself and gently told her that the soup that she had taken from the buffet line was, in fact, a bowl of Thousand Island dressing. She also told a story about her husband being the only active male member of the Senate Spouse Committee: one day she saw him walking down the street with a pink box in his hands. She pulled over and asked him what on earth he could be doing and he nonchalantly replied, "I'm going to Jim Webb's wife's baby shower." She also had some really motivating things to say about being a Democrat - if we care about the environment and renewable energy, healthcare for everyone, early childhood education, mandatory sick days and paid maternity leave, sound foreign policy and all the things that Democrats are passionate about, then we need to spread the word. Whoever thinks that the chances for a female president vanished with the end of Hillary's campaign should listen to Senator Klobuchar.

Since Hillary just suspended her campaign, that means that her delegates still get to be seated (though she has encouraged them to go for Obama). I saw one woman's t-shirt that read, "I'm a Hillary supporter and I'm voting for Obama." She got a lot of pictures taken of her. I ended up sitting in front of a mother/daughter team of Hillary supporters - now I'm not saying all Hillary supporters are snarky and condescending, but holy crap, these 2 women were snarky and condescending! Luckily most everyone else was feeling the Obama love. Check out this banner that this woman made:



The craftsmanship on it was amazing! She hand-sewed every piece on. It was really heavy.

This cute guy wanted everyone to make sure they were supporting his ol' Irish buddy, Brock O'Bama.


After the Convention my parents picked me up and took me to my brother's new house that he's fixing up. It's a cutie!

He bought it with all the furnishings as well, so it's been quite an adventure for him and my parents to muck it out and redo the interiors. But their efforts have been paying off, because it really is turning out to be a nice little place!

The kitchen is being remodeled next year, so in the meantime my mom and I put in some fresh shelf paper. They don't make ovens like that anymore (probably because it's a little weird)!


After gutting the basement and pouring some new concrete, my dad and brother were hard at work painting it.



I was so mad they weren't wearing masks. I mean, come on! I work at a construction company - I know the L & I safety rules about heat exhaustion and unsecured loads and all that and I know that if all your nose hairs end up coated in paint, you should have been wearing a mask!

That night we made root beer floats in some old brandy glasses that my mom found at my brother's house. My dad got the fattie one.


At this point in the night we were all laughing pretty hard (paint fumes? sugar high?) and the massive root beer float about put us over the edge. That, and my brother decided to show me how flat his hair can lay, especially when he parts it in the middle.


Maybe not the best time to fix my dad's hair. You might think he's nervous, but he swears he was just cold. And nervous. He doesn't have much to work with. Don't worry, I made him look like the stud that he is.