Today Tabitha went to see the v-e-t. Here is a picture of me and Tabitha. She is a tabby cat and we also call her TibTab and The Tab.  You have heard of The Edge who plays guitar in the band U2. Well we have The Tab.

After Tab had her checkup Dr. Ivy gave me an examination!  I felt so special!  Dr. Ivy is really nice and beautiful and very funny and totally awesome!  She is a professional …do not try this at home with a tiger.

OMG what are you doing Dr. Ivy???  Help HELP  HELP!   I do not need my temperature taken STOP!

We have been back in Six Sigma class again this week. Hey Mom some of this I am not understanding!

Some of these numbers are really big. Or really small. I only have 4 paws to count with.

Today we got to do an experiment making paper helicopters!

Making paper helicopters may sound like fun and games but it is totally serious! We had to set up a production assembly line, design a test experiment that covered two work shifts, build the helicopters to different specifications like different blade sizes, do a quality check, run the test, analyze the results and then confirm the results by making more helicopters. Whew!

Then when we got home there was a giant moving van in  our street! I forgot that Owen and Jill and their awesome kids are moving away! Oh no I will miss them they are the best neighbors. The company Owen works for wants him in Eastern Washington. Mom says other nice people will move in that I may like just as much. But there is no way. Jill makes the BEST cookies.

I decided it would be a good time to put the special rocks we got at the beach someplace special. That way when you see them you can remember what a fun time you had and it makes you feel happy.

Me and Mom went on a road trip! Here we are crossing the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Then later we went over another bridge! This is the Hood Canal Floating Bridge.

We went for a hike on the beach at Port Townsend.  Mom says it was time to test out how her foot is doing.

Here is a sea urchin shell washed up on the beach.

There were so many things to do at the beach! I like the way the kelp flows over the rocks. It looks like the rocks are packages wrapped up like gifts. I wanted to bring some of the rocks home with us. Mom said I could pick only ONE. And not a big heavy one.  It was hard to decide. We picked a second one out for Dixie. Dixie did not come with us because we were not sure if dogs are allowed on the trails we were planning on going on. Which is not where we ended up hiking because mom parked too soon.  But it was great! I loved the beach!  I could have stayed all day but then mom mentioned Lunch which is one of my favorite things.

We ordered soup and half a sandwich at a yummy restaurant.  I LOVE restaurants!  It was carrot ginger soup – fantastic!

There was a fiddle festival going on at Port Townsend this weekend!  We watched for a while.

There was also a street fair going on. This is what is so great about a road trip. You never know what will happen!

We walked by a house where there were deer just walking around in the yard!  I was VERY good and just looked.

Then we went to a really beautiful plant nursery named Far Reaches that mom wanted to see.

This is why red is my favorite color – don’t I look great?

On the way home we had to pay a toll. It was fun! Mom gave the toll lady some chocolates.  I did not know you could pay in chocolate.  Mom explained that she did pay with money but gave the chocolates as a gift. Also so she could say she did not eat the whole bag herself.

We went to the FIREWORKS store Mom is letting me get FIREWORKS!!

Here are the beautiful and super-nice ladies who run the store. I bet they can explode as many fireworks as they want!  I wish Mom worked there instead of in an office.

Mom is not crazy about fireworks.  When she was a little kid she stepped barefoot on a hot sparkler and is apparently now scarred emotionally for life. But guess what she bought me? Sparklers!  Ha ha!  She says at least she knows how they work and they do not go BOOM!   OMG I can hardly wait to light them!  Mom says we have to wait until it is dark.

Yippee!!!   Oh boy oh boy this is so great!  It was not quite dark yet but me and Dixie wanted to try the fireworks. Also we wanted to make sure we were in the pictures. That is very important.

Here are some of the best photos.

Also we went to see a big fireworks display; it was GREAT!  We watched from a hill near where we live. You can hardly see me in the picture! Mom said it is hard to take pictures in the dark.  I bet even Dixie could have taken better pictures than this.

Check it out!  Mom’s friend Gregg brought his Elvis gnome to work!  So mom brought me to work too so we could meet!

We rode the bike to work today. Usually when Mom takes the bike she leaves me at home.  She says she does not have room for me in her pannier because it is full of important work stuff. Like lunch and snacks. Here is a picture of us riding home after work.

Here I am in mom’s office waiting for something exciting to happen.

Today we did some errands and went to the library.  This was a different library, one I had not been to before!  It was great!  They had different books.

Also there were computers set up for kids to  use.

While mom looked around I read the news about the World Cup.

After that we went to the best park ever! There were these super fun slides!

And a cool see-saw!

I got to play with some kids at the playground!  They were not afraid of me at all. They thought I was cute.

While we were at the park we heard some explosions.  We were near the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation and they were selling FIREWORKS for the 4th of July.  FIREWORKS!  I told mom we should go get some!  But she said that explains why traffic was so bad on the way to the library…all the people going to buy fireworks.  In case you do not know lots of fireworks are not legal around here, except on Indian land. So people go there to buy them and set them off. Here is a picture of us stuck in traffic. Mom said we were not going to sit in more traffic to buy me fireworks.  She promised to take me to see a big fireworks display later. But I want to set off my own FIREWORKS!  I do not have any fingers to blow off so it would be perfectly safe.

Later we walked around the construction site near our house. Mom put on her hiking boots which was a good idea it was very muddy.

Here is a big machine named HogZilla!  hahaha!

Look at this big pile of torn-up trees. I think this is what they feed to HogZilla. You can barely see me sitting on a tree stump. Near the bottom of the picture.  Sort of towards the middle.

There is something wrong with mom’s foot. She is supposed to REST and not agggrrravate it so NO hiking. So we have not been having many adventures lately. Mom has to do foot exercises. I help.

Ha ha she has to pick up marbles with her toes!!!  Ugh, feet are ugly compared to paws.    Also mom says all this resting is making her fat. (it’s true).

After she picks them all up and puts them in the cup then me and Dixie get to play with them. I like the orange ones there are no red ones my favorite color.

Our favorite game is called Marble Mess!  ha ha ha!   Mom says this is not her favorite game.

We did get to go to a park a few days ago and I played Grassland Tiger.

It was so sunny I had to wear the Hello Kitty sunglasses.

There were ducks!!!  Or geese!!!  Or some kind of waterfowl!!! They did not want to play with me and I was a good park guest and did not chase.

Mom has been doing restful things like studying.

Look at this cool chart!  Mom says it is called a flying saucer chart ha ha ha!  All that higher education is  really paying off.

Today we went to a different class (we get a break from Six Sigma for a little while).

It was a Train the Tiger class!!  Oh wait….Mom says it was Train the Trainer, not Train the Tiger. What??!  They should have Tiger in the name somewhere.

Here I am with Diane the most awesome instructor. Also she is gorgeous. And super smart.

Aunt Darcy loves soccer and she suggested I post my photos from the World Cup.

I am a small tiger so I hope you can see me in the pictures.

We had a tailgate party at work at lunchtime today!!!  Yayyyy!  I have a tail but no one else did.  It is okay.

Brian and Ed were working the grills. Brian is an expert tailgater.  YuMmmm tigers love barbeques.

It was a potluck and everyone brought fantastic yummy things to eat. Look at these delicious strawberries.

Here I am with Brandi. She is so nice and so beautiful!  And she is eating a hot dog with BACON !!!  And peanut butter and also maple syrup on it !!!!  OMG!  I love this woman!