Testing in a different browser

I've given up on Windows Live Writer.

I didn't mean to give up on it; I meant to uninstall and reinstall it, in an effort to get it to work again. But now that I dumped it, I'm given error message after error message, preventing me from re-installing it. So I'm trying a new browser (Chrome) to see whether I can figure out this NOT-WYSIWYG-ness of Blogger.

Bear with me.

I have to type blocks of copy, inserting photos along the way. What topic allows me lots of photos? Oh, I know!

Amoosh! (Baby Alex's name for animals. In this case, Shasta and baby Quinn)

So far, so good. (And I could even drag and drop!) But what happens if I add a whole bunch of photos?

I miss Boo! (Enough of a text blog for testing purposes?)

Five amoosh! 

Maybe Blogger works better in Chrome because Google owns both Blogger and Chrome. So far, this is not a frustrating experience.

Simon has a way of throwing things off - often literally... off a counter. So I'll live dangerously and post a few photos of him, seeing if I can disrupt the force.

Wow! I could drag and drop multiple photos at once - though I can't insert a break without inserting a caption.

Maybe I should reign things back to the safe zone. Posting a few photos of Boo (rest his kitty soul) should do that:

Wasn't he handsome?

Know how much I miss him? THIS much:

Damn that coyote!

He had very little pride. Or he was just pretty lazy.

Yeah, this is pretty much how I feel about Boo.

Good thing I have this girl to keep me company:



Not that she is a squishy, quintessential Golden puppy anymore. She's all grown up!



But she's still dang cute! Just like her big sister, Shasta... who is getting so OLD!



So this was fairly painless. Unlike writing blog posts with Blogger on Firefox, I have not been pulling out my hair and using flowery language, trying to get the output to match the input. This is good news! I just might begin to blog a bit more now.

Four Seasons of Suncadia - Winter: check!

It's been almost a year since we first heard about Suncadia. Last February, at the Seattle Home Show, we learned that this "Suncadia" place we'd heard about in passing for many years, isn't a retirement community at all (seriously, for some reason that's what we thought); it's actually a resort community for families, with lots of people who own second homes there and some, even, who live there year-round. AND, we discovered, there's a private community at Suncadia, called Tumble Creek, where homes cannot be rented at all, where the lots are bigger, and where it's generally just a lot quieter and more private, but equally as beautiful.

 Long story short, we visited quite often in late winter and spring, and closed on our new property at Tumble Creek in June. We visited often in the summer and even once in the fall, but never saw Suncadia in the "dead of winter" - though we'd seen photos like this:

 The annual Owners' Meeting was today, so we decided to visit Suncadia in all its winter glory.

Snoqualmie Pass had looked iffy for the past few days, with news of a winter storm approaching, but the drive to Suncadia was just about as quick (80 minutes) and easy (all freeway) as it is in the summer.

The road was wet but no problem at all...

 ...even as we reached the summit - where there's still no skiing, but I have a feeling there will be soon!

Quinn loved the ride and didn't mind the cold at all!

Just as we thought, Suncadia looked beautiful in the snow!

Inside...

...and out.

After the annual Owners' Meeting, we headed out to our property at Tumble Creek.

Shasta and Quinn loved the snow!

 

 

Yeah, we loved it with them!

Our lot looked smaller in the snow for some reason -- or maybe it just looks smaller without the full foliage of summer. But we still love it. I can just see us in a cozy Pacific Northwest Lodge style home on this lot someday, watching the snow come down, all warm inside by the fire... (Yes, I'm a romantic!)

Of course we had to walk the "Spiritual Path" out to "Inspiration Point." I have a feeling this will be our daily morning and/or evening walk when we live here! The trail starts right across the road from our lot and leads to the most amazing view!

By the time we returned from our walk, we were both getting concerned about the worsening weather over the pass. Good thing we left when we did, because our drive home looked something like this:

I'm not sure I've ever been so happy to see RAIN!

So Suncadia passed the "winter" test - just like it passed the spring, summer, and fall (all beautiful!) test! I'm looking forward to this:

(Image borrowed with appreciation from www.suncadiaresort.com.)