Rikki's US State Quarters Collection - and - Back in the Bay Area

Okay, many of you asked "what else do you need?" (including my mom) for my Book of Quarters, so I thought I'd post it here.


If you didn't know yet, US quarters aren't released all at the same time in their respective states. Well, not since 1999 as far as I know. The 50 State Quarters program is on a 10-yr schedule which started from 1999 and is ending in 2008 (almost there!)

As you could see, I need Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Indiana on the left page, and New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming on the right. The Wyoming quarter came out last Sept. 3rd, and Utah will be on Nov. 5th. If you click here you'll see the full schedule and what else is left to be released in the following year. I will gladly accept donations of my missing quarters - and put an end to this madness :-)

***UPDATE***
I was doing laundry this afternoon and found a South Dakota quarter. So scratch that off the list. I'm one quarter closer to my sanity.

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Meanwhile, we are back in the Bay Area (APPLAUSE!!!!) taking care of business. Did you know that your travelers are now designers? Interior designers. Goodness. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the gene! While trying to sell our condo before we left for travel, one of the "well-heeled" (read: owns his own jet) unit-owners looked at our place and liked it so much he employed us on the spot to do his office-slash-home in the building. This office has the most magnificent views of the bay, the marina, the bridge, the mountains where the sun rises; it's so big you can later view the sunset, too, on the other side of the house!


So now, instead of dealing with patients, nurses, reports and crazy people, Chris manages the suppliers, vendors, client/s and contractors while aiding me and a female colleague in design ideas and he juggles them effortlessly as if he was Philippe Starck in a past life.

He and I with my expertise in graphic design, marketing and exceptionally beyond-average-breakfast-preparation skills have been propelled into a career we both have no professional experience with (other than what we've accomplished with our own place), but definitely have lots of interest and enthusiasm for. (Who knew all those hours watching HGTV would pay off?) As for our home, we decided to keep it (it's a horrendous market anyway), and since we only have to be in Canada 51% of the time as immigrants, we can ping-pong back and forth between here and there.

By the way, I love saying "ping pong" and I happen to be very good at playing it. That is the only form of tennis I excel in, along with "Top Spin" for XBox.

But fret not, we will keep the postings coming as we have accumulated quite a lot of experiences with the places we visited, and we would love to share them with you. With this new lifestyle (and new-found freedom!) we will be able to travel and work at the same time. The posts are delayed, and hopefully we'll be able to catch up when we travel again. Just think of them like watching Friends or Seinfeld reruns that you've never seen before. You know it's out-dated, but it's still fun to watch!

Everyone, we miss you and love you all and Fox and Spencer send their licks and kisses your way!