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~ The adventures of Richard and Julie Lary

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Monthly Archives: June 2009

New Job!!!

26 Friday Jun 2009

Posted by rajalary in Microsoft

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On July 6th, I start a new job that will not only be super challenging, but stretch the limits of my marketing and business/web analytic skills. I’m going to developing programs to reach and engage exciting Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCPs) and encourage them to obtain additional certifications.

It’s going to provide me with an opportunity to use the Web, relationship marketing (email), social media… and collaboration with other teams.

Stay tuned for details!

Super excited to move away from content management!!!

No Itch’n in Olympia

22 Monday Jun 2009

Posted by rajalary in Travel

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To celebrate our seven year "civil" wedding anniversary, Rich and I spent three glorious day sailing in the south Puget Sound. Early Friday morning, we headed to Olympia and stopped at I-Hop for a yummy breakfast – eggs benedict for me and a veggie omelet for Rich. We then zipped to a Goodwill to buy a "bag of rags" for $4.99 in anticipation of having to dry off the boat.

For the past thirty days, Seattle didn’t have a drop of rain (it’s true). On Thursday night and Friday morning, however, the rain came down in sprinkles then buckets.

We arrived at Island Sailing around 9:00, somewhat eager to get on the boat, considering the drippy weather. After receiving an orientation of the areas and how to navigate out of the tricky marina, we headed down to the boat, a 30-foot Catalina. It took two trips to the car to gather up our two sleeping bags, a large duffle bag of clothes and foul weather gear (known as foulies), another duffle bag of sailing gear (vest, radio, GPS, binoculars, etc), an ice chest of food and ice (the boat had an insulated ice chest), and two plastic bins of non-perishable food, coffee, books, maps, plates, paper towels… and a luscious chocolate mocha cake with chocolate coffee beans. The latter is a must for a sailing trip! Das boot

Once everything was unpacked and put into its place, it was time to cast-off. And happily, by the time we left, the rain had ceased and the air had become muggy.

By the time, we reached open water, we needed to change into shorts and t-shirts because the gray skies had been cleared by a strong wind that was warmed by the sun. For the next few hours, we sailed at the warp speed of 4-6 knots.

Everything was perfect! Easy boat to sail. Incredible weather. Splendid wind. Little traffic and few crab pots to avoid. And glorious scenery.  

Around 5 o’clock, we picked up a mooring ball by Stretch Island. After a quick dinner (ham, instant potatoes, and salad with lettuce from our garden), we took the dinghy ashore to gather seashells and rocks.

Across from where we moored was a upscale camp site owned by the Olympia Yacht Club (below). It has a large club house along with numerous tiki huts, one of which was an outdoor kitchen.  Olympic Sailing Club

After a delightful night’s rest in the cozy v-berth, made more cozy with two huge flannel sleeping bags, we slipped on our lightweight clothing, thinking we were going to have another warm and windy day.

Nope. The gray skies had no intention of going away. In fact, they decided to spew water, forcing us to layer on the clothing and pull out our foulies. Here I am dressed from head-to-two in ghastly yellow, trying to be cheerful while my teeth chattered. Julie in raingear

In spite of the weather, I managed to doze off while reading a magazine in the drizzle. When the rain increased, Rich suggested that I go below deck, where I could stay dry while he braved the elements and motored on to our next destination. It was impossible to sail with the rain and intermittent wind.

Happily, the rain eased as we approached McMicken Island, a state park that can only be reached by boat or walking across a sandbar that connects to Hartstene Island during low tide. Personally, I would never cross a sandbar in the Puget Sound where the water is a deadly 60 degrees and tides are 14 feet from high to low.

Oh, here’s a picture of the brave captain in his snazzy foul weather gear, including grizzly beard and furrowed brow. Rich in raingear

After gobbling some lunch, we jumped in our dinghy and rowed ashore. McMicken is 11.5 acres in size with several hiking trails and a very rocky shore that is evidentially teaming with shellfish from clams to oysters. You can explore the entire island except for a small fenced off area that used to belong to the original inhabitant who wanted to claim the island for the King of Sweden (at least that’s one of the stories about the island).

In the fenced off area, you can see several run down buildings along with a house that seems to be in pretty good shape with bookshelves still full of books. I was aching with curiosity to climb over the fence and peak in the house. Captain Rich, however, kept telling me it was PRIVATE PROPERTY. Drats!

After returning to our boat, we nibbled on crackers, cheese and smoked salmon the both conked out while reading. As it grew cold, Rich went below deck and I climbed into the v-berth to continue my late-day nap.

Dinner was next on the agenda, followed by more sleep. One of the best parts of being on the boat is being rocked to sleep and hearing the halyard rhythmically tapping against the mast!

The next morning brought sunshine with little wind, but many seals on a Sunday stroll (swim). The seals were a hoot to watch. Just as we were about ready to give up on the wind, it picked up, providing Rich with an opportunity to hang onto the wheel while I trimmed the sails as we tacked back-and-forth numerous times.

As we neared Olympia, we had a slight docking challenge when we went to top off diesel. Rich cut into the dock too late, leaving me with a foot or two of dock that I had to jump onto and quickly tie up the boat. If I had waited another moment to jump, I would have landed in the water!Rich making coffee

At the pump-out (sewage) dock,  a couple from another boat helped us dock. The wind was blowing us away from the dock, making it hard to get close enough to the dock for me to jump.

The opposite occurred when we pulled into the boat slip… the wind gently blew the boat towards the dock so I simply waited until the boat glide near the dock then jumped, tied off the stern then caught the line from Rich and tied off the bow. In non-sailing terms: Our third attempt to dock was perfectly executed!

Above is Rich making coffee in the boat’s galley. He’s more awake in the morning than I and much better at making coffee.

We talked to two couples on McMicken Island who live on their boats. One man, a pilot with two young children, waxed poetic about the virtues of living on a sailboat. For Rich and I, we had a splendid three days sailing, but were thrilled to get home to our full-size kitchen, bedrooms, living, dining and family rooms… along with toilets that aren’t a hassle to flush!

Wildflowers in Anacortes

13 Saturday Jun 2009

Posted by rajalary in Mount Vernon

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Six years ago, Rich and I purchased an 1.5 acre wooded lot in Anacortes, Washington, which overlooks the Puget Sound and Mount Baker. It’s also located in a gated community — Fidalgo Bay Estates — which is maintained by the homeowners.

Wanting to build goodwill so the residents will happily approve of our house plans when we start building, Rich joined the homeowners’ maintenance committee. Along with reviewing residents’ requests to cut down trees or alter their landscaping, Rich coordinates the community’s twice-yearly clean-up day.

Today was the spring clean-up. Along with pulling weeds, trimming bushes, mowing, and sweeping the community park, gazebo, and picnic area, two trailers-full of branches and blackberry bushes were cut along the road to make it easier to see oncoming traffic. Slug 1

While doing cleanup in the park, I spotted one of the Pacific Northwest’s famous Arionidea or giant slug. They commonly inhabit moist, wooded areas and elicit a squeal when spotted by a child.

This fellow was around three inches long and one inch wide when squished up to protect himself. I initially photographed him after he stuck out his head and antennae.

I returned a few minutes later to see him fully stretched out and crawling at full speed towards a shady spot. Slug 2

The Pacific Northwest is known for slimy creatures because many areas are like a rain forest. 

Rich is reading over my shoulder and wondered if anyone put salt on it… groan.

After the clean-up, I took pictures of some of the wildflowers on an empty lot across from ours. This lot, unlike ours, gets lots of direct sunlight. The flowers were very plentiful, in particular daisies and foxglove.

Pink flowersDaisies   PinkWhiteFuschia

Completion of a Huge Project

11 Thursday Jun 2009

Posted by rajalary in Microsoft

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Today, the dramatically revised Microsoft Learning Web site went live. It took over eight months to review, compress and and rewrite over 900 pages. The result site has less than 150 tabbed pages.

My role included:

  • Developing the strategy for how to revamp the content
  • Designing the templates, which included tabs, introductory sections, tables and other user-centric elements
  • Helped develop the initial site map and navigation based on analyzing how the pages could be compressed
  • Oversaw the revision of over 100 of the pages; wrote 50 pages myself
  • Created nearly 30 thumbnails (images)Learning Site_Cert Benefits
  • Collaborated with dozens of people; managed four vendors who helped write and edit the pages along with enter them in a content management system
  • Created numerous spreadsheets and presentations
  • Agonized over the user experience and made quite a few last minute navigation changes

Above is a screen capture of the Certifications Benefits page, featuring tabs, related link boxes, tables, nifty thumbnail and introductory paragraph, and a wonderful color scheme.

Now that the site is live, and I’m two weeks short of being at Microsoft for two years (how time flies), I can start looking for my next opportunity to make a difference… hopefully, not revising a  900-page Web site!

My Aunt’s Son

11 Thursday Jun 2009

Posted by rajalary in Uncategorized

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Many of my relatives died in Hitler’s concentration camps. An aunt from Hungary lost her son and husband. Having barely survived after contracting typhoid, she made her way to America, married, opened a small motel with her husband, and lived a full life in Banning, California.

When she died, along with inheriting some of her dishes and collectibles, I received a small box of photographs and papers. Many of the papers were written in Hungarian and German. Some came from the Red Cross. Among the papers was a photo of her young son. He must have been three or four years old, in a horse-drawn carriage, dressed in lederhosen with ringlets of light brown hair.

The picture haunts me. This beautiful little boy must have been horrifically frightened when he was separated from his mother and lead to a gas chamber with dozens, if not hundreds of crying children. His lifeless body then shoved into an oven or tossed into a mass grave. Aunt Betty's son

So when I hear denials that the Holocaust happened or read about white supremacists like James Von Brunn bursting into the Holocaust Memorial with a rifle in hand, I gasp. My chest tightens and I become queasy.

I think of my aunt’s beautiful son. She never talked about what happened, not even mentioning his name. But, I can’t stop thinking about him and I cling to the only remnant of him… a black-and-white photo taken on a spring day in Hungary. His innocent smile may have been one of his last.

Four Lazy Cats and a Raccoon

02 Tuesday Jun 2009

Posted by rajalary in Cat Diaries

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Rumors abound that Rich and I have been feeding raccoons. There’s no evidence however that this is occurring. Raccoon

We do admit to  feeding the handful of wild cats that often visit our backyard. And no doubt, they’re fairly large cats with fluffy tails and black masks. And yes it’s peculiar that they pick the food out with their paws then place it in their mouths. But they’re not raccoons!

Here are our "domestic" cats enjoying the sunshine under our blueberry bushes, which are temporarily in buckets until we can build planter boxes for them in Anacortes… and install rain barrels to collect water for a drip system.

To the far left is Lunetta who came from Texas. She was dropped off at our house during the full moon (lunar) when she was 3-4 weeks old. She’s a rather haughty cat so it’s no wonder that she’s sleeping by herself!

At the top, right is Zephyra who was also left at our Texas house a few months before Lunetta. There was a light breeze (zephyr) Four lazy catsthe night I heard her weak cries outside from our open bedroom windows.

Pu’Yi, my amazing silver-point male Siamese is in the middle. Jujube is Texas trailer trash. He came from a litter of eight kittens, born across the street from our house. He’s the rough-neck of the bunch and was recently spotted, along with Zephyra, on a neighbor’s balcony. They evidentially jumped onto the our fence, walked along it until they got opposite the roof of a neighbor’s house, jumped onto the roof then easily walked across the roof and climbed onto the balcony!

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