Back in Seattle

Well, I made it back to Seattle. This is perhaps the first time in a really long time where I was actually a bit disappointed to leave Toronto and really dreaded coming back to Seattle. I think the issue is that there is a huge huge deadline at work for mid-January and with the snow storm that caused me to miss nearly a week of work before the holidays, I am back at work and after catching up on emails and checking on my task list, I am sitting here ready to cry. I dont' know how I'm going to get all this work done. Even without the snow storm, I wasn't sure how the work would get done. I think I'm planning on camping out at my cubicle for the next couple of weeks and going at my work like a student trying to finish up the last major term project in order to graduate. Well, one thing that UW taught was to divide and conquer so this is probably the approach I will take.

So my vacation in Toronto was actually really enjoyable. It was great to catch up with family. It is so interesting to catch up with my cousins - we've all grown up, most of us are now working and pursuing careers and interesting hobbies (home renovations is a common hobby in my family - i am really not sure why...). It is also interesting to chat with my aunts and uncles as though I'm an adult! Wow!! What a feeling :) They dont' see me as a kid anymore. That's pretty awesome. My aunts and uncles are starting to retire now so they have all this time on their hands. The way they talk about how they can sleep in the next day or go to the gym at 11am or take orchid growing classes makes me envious. I wish I had the time to do those things too :)

The flight back to Seattle was completely on time. I was truly impressed after the ordeal getting to Toronto. The next day - Saturday - we drove up to vancouver to pick up Mina. She grew. Quite a bit. The sweater I made her while I was in Toronto was much too tight. This is truly unfortunate. I will have to start a new one for her. She has lost all her baby teeth and her adult teeth have already all grown in so her mouth looks rather scary now with adult teeth. She is almost completely potty trained. She still has accidents here and there but she will let you know when she needs to go outside. She's pretty smart :). It was good to have her back though.

Next post will be a list of new year's resolutions. I know it's kinda cheesey to keep these lists becuase most people write 'em up and then forget about them by the end of January but I really need lists in order to get anything done.