Jack & Susie's Blog

Our New Girl

2011-11-30T13:25:00.000-08:00

As many of you know we had to put Mac down a couple of months ago. Mac was very cool and cannot be replaced.
After too many days of coming home to an empty house we found Riley. Riley is a year old Border Terrier who has actually won a couple of shows but whose owner knew that she wasn't going to win too many more so she was just looking for a good home. We think Riley scored big time in finding us, and we are so pleased that she is now part of our lives. Being a little older and a show dog means that we are missing some of the usual puppy problems. However, Riley is a good dog who is currently a teenager. She will be great next year after she accepts some of the rules Susie and I have laid down for her.

Eric James Konrad

2011-04-22T10:38:00.000-07:00

We had a very important visitor to Administration at Central Washington Hospital yesterday. It was official since it was on all of our calendars. It was our visitor, Eric James Konrad, first visit, and he was accompanied by his parents, Becky & Darin, but not his brothers Ben & Jake who we have not met. Eric was unimpressed with the magnitude of the occassion and slept through the entire visit, but Becky and Eric looked and sounded great. This is our first visit since Eric's birth so we just needed to see both him and his parents in person to judge for ourselves. They passed the test, and we all were really glad to meet Eric and catch up with his parents. I do have to mention, however, that our whole office is a little worried about Becky and the "bath thing". We all noticed a tendency or an inclination prior to birth so suck it up, Becky!

Becky Update - Still Semi Reluctant!

2011-01-14T08:09:00.000-08:00

Becky is in her 7th month, and Anne Wagg and I thought a progress report was in order. Anne took these pictures, and I think that Becky really looks great. In my defense I usually call her "Sunshine" or "Little Miss Sunshine" and have only called her "Bubbles" once or twice.

New Camera/Semi Willing Model

2010-12-21T17:31:00.000-08:00

Becky is pregnant and getting bigger each day so I thought I should share her progress. John and I are worried that her arms won't be long enough to reach her keyboard.

Her profile is changing now that she is eating for two but she sure looks good!

"Miss Heritage"

2010-11-18T10:41:00.000-08:00

My sister, Michal Flach, has two wonderful children, Susan Peddy & Pete Flach, who both live in Birmingham, Alabama. Pete Flach and his wife Mary have 3 children and the middle one, Patrica, was just crowned Miss Heritage at her High School. This is a particularly big deal since Patrica is only a sophmore and this title is usually given to a senior. Patrica is a really special girl who I think would look good driving to High School in her Grandfather's Mercedes, but unfortunately I don't have the clout to make that happen for her. She would look good in it, however!

I guess this is her court, but I really don't know for sure.

Here is Patricia with her Mom. Patricia is really just carrying on the family tradition of beauty queens and cheerleaders. Patricia is also a cheerleader, and her Mom, Mary, was a cheerleader at Old Miss and was also "Miss Old Miss." Most of us do not understand what it must be like to never take a bad picture.

Her brother, Philip, escorted Patricia to this event which I think is very special for an older brother to do. He participated in some dance activity hence his different attire. Between them is Mary' mother, Pat Stewart. Philip has been accepted at Auburn University this fall, but is also considering some other schools who have offered him baseball scholarships.

With Patricia and Philip are Brantley and Michael Petty who are two of my niece, Susan's, four children. Brantley is a senior and is going to Auburn next year, and I think that Michael is a Freshman.

Istanbul to Nice 2010

2010-10-30T16:17:00.000-07:00

Istanbul, Turkey

The Blue Mosque

Inside the Blue Mosque
Local with Henna Tattoos
Santorini, GreeceTaormina, Sicily

Seattle

2010-06-12T15:41:00.001-07:00

We love the lights of cities at night and Seattle is one of the best!

Seattle Hotels are very pet friendly and Mac is an excellent city dog!

From earlier visits this is Pioneer Square and from the "Underground Tour" looking up at Pioneer Square

Mission Ridge

2010-03-15T09:12:00.000-07:00

Bob Ogburn, Bruce McWhirter, and I went skiing today, and it was perfect! Sunny skies with temperatures in the mid 20's and wonderful snow. What a great day. We are not golfers but some of our friends are using this wonderful weather to ski in the morning and golf in the afternoon. Isn't this just the best place in the world to live? That is Mount Adams in the background.

Before The Remodel: A Request by Jenni Hakensen

2010-02-09T09:11:00.000-08:00

Jenni: here is your request. I am sorry that I do not have any pictures available of the remodeled areas with furniture. This first image is the living room looking from the kitchen. Our house faces South toward the River so this view is East. On the left is the fireplace and past that is the front door and the hallway to the master bedroom.
This image is of the fireplace we removed. It was very large and opened in the living room and the dining room. I thought it took up too much space, but it took a long time for me to get my arms around the concept of removing it. This picture was taken from the living room looking toward the kitchen on the left and the dining room on the right.This picture is the living room taken from the front hallway. The fireplace is on the right and the kitchen is around the corner of the fireplace on the right.These last two pictures are taken of the kitchen from the living room from slightly different angles. We were able to use all the appliances in the kitchen except for the stove top which was fine except that neither of us liked it

Remodel

2010-01-28T14:30:00.000-08:00

The Remodel is almost complete. We are so pleased

Trip to Entiat Park

2009-10-19T08:39:00.000-07:00

Susie, Mac, and I set out to get some Big Horn Sheep pictures on Sunday but did not see one on this trip. Consequently, we decided to stop at Entiat Park to air Mac out. There was a big flock of those "evil" Canadian Geese there so Mac did his duty and cleared them out of the park. He does not understand why they can poop in the park and he can't. After they were all in the Columbia River Mac did his "Terrier Testosterone" dance to impress us. It was a fun day, and I am certain those geese are still shaking!

Diana Krall Concert

2009-08-31T10:54:00.000-07:00

Susie & I took Terry & Marylou Johnson to the Diana Krall Concert at the St Michelle Winery on Saturday night. We had a wonderful time eating our dinner at the winery and drinking a fine Merlot. We spent the night in Kirkland and got up on Sunday and took a tour of the Magnolia area where Terry & Marylou used to live and had a wonderful brunch at Chinook's. Great weekend with no construction.

Still working on Photos

2009-08-27T11:48:00.000-07:00

Here is another tease but I started out with about 4300 photos and have deleted my way down to 1200. This is so hard but I will make it.

We're Back from South Africa & Botswana!

2009-08-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

We are back from South Africa & Botswana, and we had a wonderful time! We are now re-adjusting to the 9 hour time difference and trying to live in a house with a major remodel going on. I have a digital camera, and consequently, have too many pictures but here is one to tease you with.

South Africa & Botswana Adventure

2009-07-06T12:38:00.000-07:00

We leave tomorrow for South Africa & Botswana! We are so excited to be going but not excited for the actual flight over there. There is a 9 hour time difference, and it will take us about 10 hours to fly from Seattle to London where we have a 5 hour layover. From London to Cape Town it is another 10 hours. I am exhausted just thinking about it. The following picture is from our 1987 trip to Kenya. I put it in to "tease" you about our trip!

YoChi Evening with Addy & Joseph

2009-06-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

Most of our crowd takes Yoga or Tai Chi from Addy Hernandez, and we have been doing it for about 5 years. Addy and her husband, Joseph, own and operate KI Fighting Concepts which is a comprehensive martial arts business. The business includes the studio where we do our Yoga but also their home where they do martial arts retreats, corporate training, video & on-line training, and various publications (see kifightinconcepts.com) . With all the martial arts work, we in the YoChi Group have complained that we need equal treatment. Consequently, we were invited to their home overlooking Lake Chelan for a wonderful evening. The view of the Lake from their house is amazing!

The house and grounds were very special. They have lived here for over 20 years and have worked hard to make the home and grounds their own and the result is very "Zen Like." We all loved their house and felt amazingly comfortable there.

Addy and Joseph are very fit as you would expect from martial arts masters but with this gym I think we would all do better with our fitness.

Our group works with Addy and we had not met Joseph prior to this evening. I think that initially Joseph was wondering 'what the Hell' Addy had done to him, but once Susie started us on a "bodily function" discussion he decided that we were pretty cool!

We want to thank both Addy & Joseph (and Blue, the Chocolate Lab) for a wonderful evening at their home!

Day at Lake Chelan

2009-06-15T10:47:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday Marylou & Terry Johnson invited a lot of us to their place on Lake Chelan. We started off with an excellent Brunch around 11 AM and then went wine tasting at a couple of the many wineries located around the Lake. We started at Benson Winery where Susie and I purchased half a case of wine and the picture below from Bob Ogburn is at Vin du lac Winery where we had lunch and listened to music. If you look closely you can see Mac under the table looking for anything we might have dropped, and consequently, he missed the picture but did not miss the good times. We returned to the cabin around 4 PM and hung out until Marylou & Terry made us a wonderful Salmon Dinner. It was a great day and Mac slept all the way home. It is such hard work being cute all day!

Olympia Trip

2009-06-10T09:57:00.000-07:00

Central Washington Hospital is in the process of issuing bonds to help pay for a new patient tower we want to build. We had a major roadblock with the State and had to travel to Olympia to ask the Washington State Health Facility Authority for an exception to its policy. Steve Jacobs, CFO, Mike Romine, Controller, Si Bautista, Board Chair, and Marc Heminger, Board Member all traveled to Olmpia where we met John Woodward from Merryl Lynch to represent our waiver request. We were successful so we are almost there with out financiang and a wonderful new tower!

Bay Area Weekend with Family

2009-06-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

Susie and I got to spend the weekend with some of her brothers and sisters and their families in the San Francisco Bay Area. Of course it was all about the nieces so we attended a dance recital and then ate and drank too much. It was a great weekend! Of course I did not have my camera so these pictures are all from my cell phone. We had to have ice cream and Zoe really enjoyed hers.

Here is Zoe in Granny Jo's walker.

Spending the day shopping and eating and shopping is really tiring.

Saturday was the Dance Recital and our little Zoe was the star!

I have other nieces who are also cute and nice, but they were not as coorporative when it came to picturs. Here is Alex smiling for me.

Although when they do smile they are really sweet and attractive!

Memorial Weekend Hike

2009-05-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

Bob Ogburn and I took a hike to see the wild flowers. Great hike! I forget the name of the flowers below but Bob said that they were endangered. Update from Bob: That very pretty flower was Lewisia tweedyi, a member of the purslane family (portulacaceae, which is fairly closely related to the cactuses). It is fairly rare and mostly found in the Wenatchee mountains. Whatever you do, don't pick any or try to transplant them.

This is the view from near the top of Birch Mountain at about 3600 feet.

We had a great weekend. I rode my bike on Saturday and took a hike with Bob on Sunday. Susie and I went to the movies and saw "Angels & Demons" and then went to dinner at "South" in Leavenworth. Monday we went kayaking on the Columbia and then barbarcued that evening. It was a great weekend but required a few Ibuprofen since each sport used different muscles.

Trip to Grand Coulee Dam with Wilf Woods

2009-05-18T18:58:00.000-07:00

The Evans', Hamilton's, Johnson's, and Ogburn's successfully bid on a guided trip by Wilf Woods on the geological history of North Central Washington including a special tour of the Grand Coulee Dam. Wilf's father was instrumental in the creation of the Dam and one of the lakes created by the Dam is named after him – The Rufus Woods Lake.

The major geological features of North Central Washington were formed by as many as 100 flash floods caused by ice dams failing and walls of water over 300 feet high surging into our valley. Wilf is so knowledgeable and did an excellent job of explaining how it happened and showing us evidence of all those activities throughout our tour. We thoroughly enjoyed our day with him.

One of our first stops was to the home of some friends of Wilf's who have a “killer view” to the north on the Columbia River above Crescent Bar. We learned about "erratics" and "eskers" and a host of other geological things, and Wilf held our attention all day.

By the way, the Grand Coulee Dam is one of the largest concrete structures ever build and is the largest hydroelectric facilities in the United States. When the Dams in China and Brazil are completed it will drop to the 4th largest hydroelectric facility in the World. The Grand Coulee Dam was built to irrigate the Columbia Basin and that is still its primary duty although it generates over $1 billion annually in revenues from its electricity generation. We were told that when the Dam was in full operation, the equivalent of twelve Colorado Rivers flows through it each day. Thanks Wilf for a wonderful day!

Mission Ridge

2009-05-07T17:02:00.000-07:00

Jack at Mission Ridge. This photo was taken by Bob Ogburn and yes that is Mount Rainier in the background

Kayaking

2009-05-06T13:14:00.000-07:00

We are getting the Kayak ready for more trips on the Columbia this summer

Early Morning in Wenatchee

2009-05-06T08:33:00.000-07:00

I took these pictures this morning from our deck.