The Last One

So this is the last post for 2006. I'm going to say a lot of things that everyone else says here, but I can't help myself. Can you believe how quickly this year has gone? Seems like it was just summer and here it is the end of the year.

2006 was not a great year overall in our household, so I'm going to skip the recap and just move on to 2007. Oh, wait. I do want to comment on my 2006 resolutions. I know myself well enough to not try for big goals, but to set reasonable ones that I'm 99% sure I can reach. Yeah, not much of a challenge there, but I really don't need anything else to make me feel worse about myself. I don't think I ever wrote them down, but my goals for 2006 were:

1. Read 120 books
2. Find 120 letterboxes
3. Listen to 120 books on tape.

So I ended up reading 129 books, finding 205 letterboxes, and listening to 119 books on tape. Yeah! I'm pretty happy with that. Two out of 3 ain't bad. And really, one book on tape under the goal isn't bad at all.

I'm looking forward to this being a MUCH better year than 2006. And to make it so, I have composed the following list of goals.

1. Read 125 books
2. Listen to 125 books on tape
3. Find 250 letterboxes
4. Get back to Flying
5. Finish some open craft projects

Nothing earth shattering on that list either, but hey, it's all stuff I need to do.

Well, ya'll have a Happy New Year!!

Just For You, Deb!

Just a Quick One

Blogger is really slow tonight, so I'm going to make this a quick post. Here is a picture of my newest nephew, Dakota. Isn't he a cutie?

It's All Over but the Credit Card Payments

Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope you all had a lovely holiday. I know I did.

We went to my parents' house for Christmas breakfast (eggnog pancakes, yummy!), a little present opening, and some together time. It was so nice. Thanks for all the great presents, Mom, Dad, & Mama, er, I mean Santa!!

In the afternoon we went over to Greg's sister's house (Wendy & Jeremy's) for an early dinner, a round of presents, and dessert. It was a very nice get-together. Technically, this was my nephew's 2nd Christmas, but the first one he was only 2 months old and wasn't really in to the whole Christmas thing. That kid got some mighty cool stuff, let me tell you! He is one sweet baby and deserves to be spoiled.

Now I have to get ready for work tomorrow. I hate it when Christmas is early in the week. I much prefer a Friday Christmas. But that's the way the (Christmas) cookie crumbles. I'm just gateful to have a job.

So Merry Christmas everyone! I hope to hear lots of good stories about YOUR Christmas!

Here are a few more Hawaii pictures for you.

Almost Here!

It's almost Christmas! As usual, we aren't really celebrating much. No tree, no Christmas cards. I got just a couple of small things for my family, but hopefully they won't mind yet another skimpy gift year. Someday I hope to be able to get back to truly celebrating Christmas instead of just surviving it.

I've been listening to "A Christmas Carol" today, read by Jim Dale. It's wonderful, of course. It's amazing to me that this story was written over 100 years ago and it still speaks to every person. It's good to listen to the original after seeing so many movies based on it. My favorite version of this story is the "Muppet Christmas Carol." I love all the little rats that work at Scrooge's.

I had to laugh when I heard that Jim Dale uses a voice very similar to Rufus Scrimjaw's voice (Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince) for Scrooge. Talk about mixing up your books!

Speaking of Harry Potter, did you see that JK Rowling released the name of the 7th and final Harry Potter book? It's called Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows. No release date yet, but a title for it is a nice Christmas present from her. All I can say is she better NOT kill off Harry.

I leave you with a couple of pictures from the trip.

Mele Kalikimaka!

Stormy

Woo-weee! We had quite the storm last night. Wild wind and rain, power transormers blowing up, trees blowing over...we had it all. We lost our power around 8:00. I was in the middle of making a beaded necklace and Cleo had just snuck up on the table, grabbed the neckace out of my hand and jumped off the other side with it in her mouth - all in one smooth motion. It was actually quite a clever move. I was not amused though, since half the beads came off the wire and scattered all over the floor. As I was picking them up, our lights went out. There are probably a million beads all over the floor in that room now. I'll bet beads on a hardwood floor aren't going to be much fun for anyone except Cleo.

Our power was only out about 2 hours. It was pretty amazing to be up in the office and watch all the flashes as power things blew up or whatever it is they do. There were all these colored flashes out there. Greg said it looked like an alien invasion.

I heard that we had wind gusts up to 70 mph in the Portland area and up to 115 mph at the coast. Mother nature is in a mood, I tell you. I keep hearing that we may have snow this weekend, but who knows if that will happen. If you work for the power company, you can rack up some major overtime, that's for sure!

Last night's storm must have dumped a ton of snow in the mountains. I fear that they aren't going to find those hikers alive that have been lost on Mt. Hood for the past week. While I feel really badly for them and their families, who goes mountain climbing in December? I ask you, is that a smart thing to do? It seems like asking for trouble to me. I guess when you go and file your hiking plan, or whatever it is you do when you mountain climb, they have FREE tracker thingys that you can carry with you, so when you get lost, searches can find you. Now, WHY don't people take them? Why? It must be a macho thing.

I know I haven't posted much about the trip. I will, I promise! I have a ton more picture to share. I've been trying to break my bad habit of spending so much time on the computer, so my blog is suffering. I will post some this weekend.

I'm Home!

I'm back from Hawaii! Didja miss me?

A quick trip overview:

Days on vacation: 18
Days on the cruise ship: 16
Days at sea: 10
Days in Hawaii: 5
Number of pictures taken: 1143 (thank goodness for digital!)
Number of emails upon return: 282 home, 350 work
Number of important emails upon return: 2 (both work and home)
Coolest shore excursion: Seahorse Farm in Kona
Favorite island: Maui followed closely by the Big Island
Cars rented: 3 in Hawaii, 1 when we got home
Number of letterboxes found: 2
Number of letterboxing injuries incurred: 0
Number of trips to the ships doctor: 1 (Greg had a sinus infection)
Number of prescriptions prescribed by the ships doctor: 6
Favorite place: Ioa Needle, Maui
Number of times we ate in the actual dining room: 3
Number of pennies smashed: 30

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure:


Greg holding a seahorse.


Place of Refuge


Banyon Tree


Kris's training tattoo.

More later.

Crazy, crazy

Whew! Things have just been nuts the last couple of weeks, both at home and at work, so I just haven't put in the time to update my little bloggie.

Work has been cray-zee. They are keeping me hopping. We are in the process of finishing our comprehensive annual financial report. I am responsible for all of the statistical section, for putting together the notes, and for finalizing the report for publishing. On top of that we have started the budget process for 2007-08. On top of that we've had a new person start, a person "let go", and another new person start. I also was away for three days at a conference, and had to cover for a co-worker while she was on vacation for two weeks. Think that's enough for any two people to do? Ha! I have more, but I don't want to bore you with the minuta of my work.

I don't think I mentioned this on my blog before, but Greg & I are going to Hawaii on November 20th. Yay! Here are the details. I sooo can't wait! And before you all wonder why on earth we are spending money on a Hawaii vacation when we have $100,000 in debt and my husband is out of work, I want it to go on record that we are using money from when we sold the house in Arlington. We promised ourselves we would take a proper vacation with some of that money. We debated and debated about putting the money we had set aside for the vacation towards the debt and decided that we had earned it and were going to take it. So nayh! I don't know how adult and responsible that really is, but that is what we are doing.

Just Stuff

Here is a link to an article about my whippet club, WWRC. Cool, huh?

I have my car back today, but the repair shop didn't do anything to it. It came off the tow truck and started right up and hasn't done anything different. Stupid thing. So now I imagine it will wait until a very inopportune moment to not start again. Did I mention I hate cars?

Um, that's it for now.

Happy Halloween!

I know, it's been forever since I last wrote. To catch you up I am going to paste in an email I sent to Deb with all the fascinating information on what I've been up to. Sorry, Deb, nothing new for you to read. I'll post some pictures from the gathering later.

Let's see what have I been doing? Last week I went to an accounting conference for three days. It was really good and I took lots of computer classes. It was downtown, though and it was exhausting to get from my house to downtown Portland and back. Parking was a big pain in the neck, too. People that drive compact cars should leave the big-car parking spots open for the big cars (say like an Expedition) and park in one of the nineteen open COMPACT ONLY spots. I spent the rest of the week trying to catch up on all the stuff that happened while I was gone. I can only guess what it will be like when I get back from two weeks on the cruise!

Greg & his mom went down to the beach Monday through Thursday last week. They rented a car and a little house and just spend a few days relaxing together.

Thursday I started having problems with my car starting. A fellow Weekender's coordinator had an open house at her house during lunch, and I was over there for a bit. When I came out I couldn't get my car to start. This very kind neighbor came over and tried to help, but he didn't have any luck either. Eventually it started right up, no idea why. I took it over to the Ford dealership in Gresham and left it overnight. It started right up for them, of course. They told me that they couldn't do anything if it wasn't doing the problem and to come get it. I get there, pay, and they go get the car for me and it won't start. At least a technician could look at it. They replaced a fuel pump relay (whatever that is) and everything was good to go. I had no problems for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday I went down to Corvallis for the Haunted Woods Gathering. It was a total blast. We had a ton of people there, lots of food, and about a bazillion letterboxes. My mom & dad went with me, and they enjoyed meeting all us weirdoes.

Sunday we took Carmen & Sophie over to my friend Debbie's house for an introduction to her 5 whippets. The girls will be staying with them while we are on our trip and we wanted to make sure everyone got along okay. They have Smoochie & Melvin, who are Carmen's littermates. They also have two puppies that are about a year old, and another "special needs" whippet. We were there for about two hours and everyone seemed to get along fine. Debbie was worried that Smoochie would be snotty to my girls since she is the house alpha bitch, but she was fine. I was worried that Sophie would be snotty, but she was fine, too. Both Carmen & Sophie grumped at Deja, the male puppy, but he is a boy and not real bright yet. I imagine he gets grumped at a lot by everyone. He's very enthusiastic. Sophie thinks it is her role in life to train puppies, so she'll be happy. They will be just fine there. I'm going to pay Debbie $20 a day for the girls to stay there. A big difference from what daycare wanted ($56 for the two)!'

Yesterday I had problems starting my car again. Sigh. I tried for several hours. Greg even came out and cleaned the battery connections and charged the battery just in case that was the problem. It wasn't. So I called a couple of tow places to see what it would cost to take the car to the Ford dealership in Gresham. I decided I didn't want to pay $75 for the hook up fee plus $3.50 PER MILE all the way to Gresham (about 25 miles), so I found an ad in the yellow pages for an independent repair shop that would tow for free if you had them do the repair work. So I called them, they came & picked up the car and took it away. I didn't end up going to work yesterday because it was 11:30 before they even came to take it over to the shop. They called me back later and said they had no trouble starting it. Sigh. They wanted to keep it overnight also, so I have been without a car today. IT SUCKS!!

Greg brought me in to work this morning. Not only does he have a cold and had to get up before 6:00, but a cop pulled him over on the way in. He can't get the bolts out of the bumper so he can put in the new license plate, so he had it taped to his back window. Eventually the tape stopped being sticky and the plate ended up on the seat. So when the cop pulled us over for not having a license plate I had to scramble around under the seat to find it. I'm guessing he saw two people in an old '74 pickup and thought "Now there's at least one outstanding felony warrant in that car." Ha ha we fooled him! He didn't give us a ticket either.

I called the shop to check on my car about 11:00 and it still was starting just fine. Stupid freaking thing!! I imagine they will call me soon and tell me to come and get it because it works fine. I hate cars.

So that's what I've been up to. 19 days until the cruise! I have a zillion things to do! I don't even have luggage yet!

It's Been a While

Sorry, sorry, sorry. I know I haven't written in 24 days. I suck. I've actually been busy. I don't have time to write right now, so I'll just say hi and I'll get back to you soon!

And Yet Another Page!

I know I haven't posted much on here lately. I haven't done anything interesting. I did a scrapbook page tonight, though. What do you think? I think the upper left corner needs something, but I made the rest of the page kind of busy.

Another Page

Look! Here are a couple of pages I managed to do all by myself using Photoshop Elements. This is the first time I've managed to do ANYTHING on this program so I am feeling pretty darned proud of myself. AND I learned how to size them so they will fit on here! What do you think??

A Page

My cousin Deb is the most amazing digital scrapbooker ever. She is always creating these beautiful pages and posting them on her blog. I just love them. I'm jealous as hell, because I can barely use my Adobe Elements program to make a page and she just dashes off these gorgeous pages with no effort. Anyway, my scrapping friends and I are terribly jealous and have been trying to show off our efforts. So far my friend Ritha is the only one to make any progress. I started a page last night, but I'm not done with it yet. I'm having fun though! Ritha shared three of her pages with me, but I can only get Blogger to let me put one of them up. I'll post mine when I finish it. In the meantime - enjoy Ritha's gorgeous page!

Carmen's Grounded

Well, we have figured out what is ailing our little blue girl. You may recall me mentioning that Carmen has been favoring her left front foot when she runs, plays ball, or chases the Frisbee. It’s been going on for a couple of weeks now, but we kept thinking it would get better on its own. We poked, prodded, bent, and otherwise manipulated that foot up one side and down the other without her so much as flinching. The outside left toe knuckle is a little bigger than the others, so I was worried that she had popped or broken it, but she never showed any signs of discomfort when I would check it out.

So Greg took her to the vet last week and he quickly diagnosed her as having a sprained shoulder. I still don’t see or feel anything, but whatever. He gave her a shot for the inflammation and an oral pain/inflammation medicine. The medication smells pretty nasty and must not taste good, but Carmen has been pretty good about taking it. The worst part is that she isn’t supposed to use the leg for THREE WEEKS. No running, no Frisbee, no ball, no walks, no dog park. She’s just to go out to potty and not play around with Sophie in the back yard. She does not understand why she has to stay home when Greg takes Sophie on his daily walk. Poor girl. She is so sulky about the whole thing. That dog pouts better than any two-year-old I’ve met!

She brings her ball to one of us every day and tries to get us to play with her. I’ve tried tossing the ball to her and just playing a little catch, but she’ll jump up to get the ball anyway, so I’ve resorted to rolling it to her down my leg or on the couch. It follows the spirit of the law and she’s not running around or jumping. Mostly. Sometimes she drops it and then dives for it, sliding on the wood floor. I’m sure that’s not good for her shoulder, but she is so persistent and annoying if you don’t play with her a little bit. She will just bounce the ball at you until you either throw it or take it away from her. She is just not a happy camper right now.

Once she is off complete restriction, she has another two weeks of only going to the dog park on leash, and gentle play in the back yard. Yeah, tell a whippet that they can only “gently” run around.

Aside from being pouty, she's doing fine.

Here is one of the very first pictures I took of her after she came home with me. Isn't she cuuute??

Raz Goes to Jail

Before I tell this story, I want you to know that it has a happy ending. You all know how I am about stories with pets...if they don't have a happy ending, I don't want to hear it. So with that said...

I was coming back to work from lunch today and got a call from my whippet & letterboxing friend Rinda. Rinda has two whippets, Raz & Rikki, who are wonderful dogs. She has been out of town for the past couple of weeks, leaving her dogs at home with a housesitter. She called me in a panic to say that a vet in Estacada where she lives had called her to say that they had Raz. Don't know the full story on this part, but I guess somehow he got out of his yard (they have a doggie door) and someone had picked him up wandering around and brought him in to the vet and they called Rinda off his tags. She's in Idaho at her mom's house and can't really do anything from so far away. She couldn't get a hold of anyone except me, I guess, and asked if I'd run out to her house and see if Rikki was out running around also. Of course, I dropped everything and headed to her house, praying the whole time that Rikki was okay if she was out wandering the streets, too. Took me for-freaking-ever to get there because of all the road construction going on, but I finally made it, found her spare key and checked on Rikki. Rikki was safe and sound in the house. Whew! Big sigh of relief.

So I checked the yard and couldn't find a single spot where Raz could have gotten out. Gates closed and locked, no loose boards, no Raz-sized holes, no digging. If he was VERY motivated there were one or two spots that might work, but there was no sign that he had dug around them or hair that had gotten caught on the fence or anything. He might have jumped the fence if something really got him wound up, but that is so unlikely as to be preposterous. All the windows were either closed or the screens were firmly in place. After a bit Ramona (Carmen & Sophie's breeder) came over and did a look around with me and didn't have any better ideas than I did on how he got out.

So it's a mystery. I'm sure we'll find out what really happened when Rinda gets home. In the meantime, Ramona sprung Raz from jail at the vet and took him and Rikki home to her house until Rinda gets back (is it just me or are there too many R's in this story??).

A happy ending anyway. The dogs are safe and sound. Whew!

I Know, I Know

I haven't posted in a while here. But I just haven't done anything worth posting about. I'm BORING, people. Haven't you figured that out yet??

I just heard the most beautiful song this morning. I had to go look up the lyrics and post them here. For you Ipod users, go get this song, you won't be sorry. The band is Heartland. This will be a wedding staple for a long, long time, I'm sure


Look at the two of you dancing that way
Lost in the moment and each others face
So much in love your alone in this place
Like there's nobody else in the world
I was enough for her not long ago
I was her number one
She told me so
And she still means the world to me
Just so you know
So be careful when you hold my girl
Time changes everything
Life must go on
And I'm not gonna stand in your way

But I loved her first and I held her first
And a place in my heart will always be hers
From the first breath she breathed
When she first smiled at me
I knew the love of a father runs deep
And I prayed that she'd find you someday
But it still hard to give her away
I loved her first

How could that beautiful women with you
Be the same freckle face kid that I knew
The one that I read all those fairy tales to
And tucked into bed all those nights
And I knew the first time I saw you with her
It was only a matter of time

But I loved her first and I held her first
And a place in my heart will always be hers
From the first breath she breathed
When she first smiled at me
I knew the love of a father runs deep
And I prayed that she'd find you someday
But its still hard to give her away
I loved her first

From the first breath she breathed
When she first smiled at me
I knew the love of a father runs deep
Someday you might know what I'm going through
When a miracle smiles up at you
I loved her first

Movie Reviews

I watched a couple of really great movies this weekend and thought I'd share. You've probably seen them already since I wait for stuff to come out on DVD instead of seeing it in the theater, but if not, I give thumbs up on these 3!

Movie #1 The Butterfly Effect
I love movies that make you think. This one plays on the theory of the Butterfly Effect; "If a butterfly flaps its wings on one side of the world, the ripple effect could cause a tempest on the other.” I saw “Dude, Where’s My Car” and believe me, I didn’t have high hopes for Ashton Kusher in this movie. Surprisingly, he was quite good. This movie is about this guy named Evan who has always suffered from something that causes him to "blackout" during times of extreme crisis. All through his childhood he would blank out right before something drastic happens and not remember anything that happened. Now in college, he reads through a journal he used to write as a kid to notice that all of a sudden these harmful memories are coming back to him. When he goes to ask his childhood sweetheart about it she doesn't want to talk about it. He finds out however, that he can actually tap into his past and change what happened in these events. Unfortunately, every time he changes the past, even in the slightest way the future is also affected. I won’t give away the ending, but it was surprising. I totally recommend this movie. I sat down to watch just a few minutes of it while I was eating ice cream before going to bed and ended up watching the whole darned movie. Good thing it was a weekend!

Movie #2 The Island
OMG! This movie is amazing. How did I miss it before? It’s a cross between Logan’s Run, the Matrix, and Coma. It’s about Lincoln Six-Echo who is a resident of a seemingly utopian but contained facility in the mid 21st century. Like all of the inhabitants of this carefully controlled environment, Lincoln hopes to be chosen to go to the "The Island" - reportedly the last uncontaminated spot on the planet. But Lincoln soon discovers that everything about his existence is a lie. He and all of the other inhabitants of the facility are actually human clones. Lincoln makes a daring escape with a beautiful fellow resident named Jordan Two-Delta. Relentlessly pursued by the forces of the sinister institute that once housed them, Lincoln and Jordan engage in a race for their lives to literally meet their makers. Yeah, okay, I stole that description off of imdb. The whole idea is intriguing. The sets are marvelous, technology fantastic, and there are some truly amazing chase/crash scenes. Greg and I give it 2 thumbs up. I wish I could find a novel of it, but I can’t find any reference to it being a book before a movie. Dang.

And movie #3 Detroit Rock City
You all know that I like those silly high-school coming of age movies. This one fits the bill perfectly. It takes place in 1978 when four members of a high school band called Mystery do everything they can to attend a KISS concert in Detroit. In order to make it to the show they must steal, cheat, strip, deal with an anti-rock mom and generally do whatever it takes to see the band that has inspired them to be musicians. The soundtrack to this movie is so great. They did a good job of suiting the song to what was happening in the movie and keeping it pretty close to the right era. I went to order it on Amazon, and found out that who ever created it totally screwed it up. Instead of using the original versions of songs like “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC, they have Marilyn Manson singing it on the soundtrack. WTF?? I’ll just have to make my own, I think, with the REAL songs. I’m not a huge metal fan, but this movie has a lot of good ones in it.

This is SO COOL!

Guess what I just discovered I could do? I can download letterboxing clues on to my PDA! Isn't technology great?

Whew. It's Back!

Well, LBNA is back up and running. Talk about putting a lot of letterboxers out for a week or so. You should have seen the complaining on the lists! Sheesh. We all need a 12-step program.

Here is one of the clues to a letterbox series I did with my friend Maiden. She carved the stamps and I did the clues. So, can anyone answer the following questions:

Part 1: How many pennies are needed if they are placed on a chessboard as follows: One penny in the first square, two in the second, four in the third, eight in the fourth and so on doubling the amount with each square?

Part 2: 'Here lies Diophantus,' the wonder behold. Through art algebraic, the stone tells how old: 'God gave him his boyhood one-sixth of his life, One twelfth more as youth while whiskers grew rife; And then yet one-seventh ere marriage begun; In five years there came a bouncing new son. Alas, the dear child of master and sage After attaining half the measure of his father's life chill fate took him. After consoling his fate by the science of numbers for four years, he ended his life.' How long did he live?

Part 3: A rabbit puzzle: A rabbit falls into a dry well, thirty meters deep. Since being at the bottom of a well was not her original plan, she decides to climb out. When she attempts to do so she finds that after going up three meters (and this is the sad part) she slips back two. Frustrated, she shops where she is for that day and resumes her efforts the following morning—with the same result. How many days does it take her to get out of the well?

To get the clues to this spectacular box, you must provide me with all three answers. Can you do it?

Pet Update

Cleo lost her collar about a week ago. Greg thinks she teamed up with the dogs and got them to take it off and hide it somewhere. She runs around here in "stealth kitty" mode and is just loving it. I really need to go and get another collar for her. She is very sneaky without a bell.

Carmen hurt her foot somehow. I can't figure out what is wrong with it, when she chases the ball or Frisbee, she keeps coming up lame. She yelps and won't put weight on it. I just can't find anything wrong. No bumps or bruises, nothing noticably wrong, nothing feels hot or broken or torn that I can tell. Guess I'll have to take her to the vet and do a "toss test."

Sophie is fine.

End of update.

The Explanation

Remember my post a week or so ago about the guy who went all crazy at Greg at the dog park? Well, I’m here to tell you the rest of the story today.

Yesterday afternoon Greg took the girls to the park. They always go to the big open area first so the girls can stretch their legs and then wander the trails looking for bunnies. It gives the girls a chance for a good run and Greg gets some exercise too. So after they got in to the park and were in the open off-leash area Greg came upon the crazy guy (Greg just told me his name was Charlie) and his dog (Buddah). Greg went over to talk to him about the “incident” not to start a fight or anything, but just to clear the air. "Are you the gentleman I ran into about a week ago?" he said. Charlie said, (I’m paraphrasing here, these aren’t his exact words), “Well, I wasn't any gentleman. I owe you an apology for acting like I did last week.” Talk about taking the wind right out of Greg’s sails! “How I acted was uncalled for, out of line and very rude. I totally over reacted, but I didn't know what happened until later. I’m deaf as a post and didn’t hear you ask me to grab my dog, I only heard you say ‘well don’t hurry or anything’ and thought you were just rudely trying to get us to hurry up to our cars to get out of your way so you could go down the sidewalk. I talked to my buddy about it later, and realized what you had really said and I felt bad that I had acted the way I did.”

Of course, Greg is totally taken aback by this, since in our experience people never seem to apologize for stuff. He said he didn’t even remember saying “well don’t hurry or anything” and I didn’t until he told me. So he says “Hey, I appreciate that. Both of my dogs have been attacked at this dog park and they feel very vunerable and are very defensive when they are on leash and around other dogs that aren’t. They were feeling threatened by your dog and protective of me and the car and I was just trying to stop a problem before it started.”

I guess Charlie apologized all over the place and they came away good buddies. Isn’t the world a crazy place? Here we thought this guy was totally wacked and it turned out he just misunderstood the situation. He told Greg to be sure and apologize to me for him, too.

I think my faith in people been restored just a tiny bit. It was nice of Charlie to apologize and clear the air. He could have just been a jerk about it and ignored us if we met up at the park, but he didn’t.

We Did Something Fun!

We finally got out of the house on Sunday and did something fun. I know, it’s amazing isn’t it? We did something fun together! We put the dogs in the car and drove up to the north side of Mt. St. Helens. We visited the south side a few years ago and were amazed at how desolate it looked . We chose to go to the north side this time since neither of us had ever visited the visitor’s center or the observatories. It was a really nice drive and some of the views were just breathtaking. It’s amazing how different things look from the other side of the mountain. Since the mountain blew on the north side, nothing in the blast zone survived. It was all washed away in the mudslide and everything else that gushed down the mountain and into the Toutle River. On the south side, it just got the blast part, so there are millions of logs laying on the ground like toothpicks. The Forest Service didn’t replant anything in the blast zone area, but the majority of the land from I-5 about to the edge of the blast zone is owned by Weyerhaeuser. They lost a lot of logging camps, equipment, and trees in the eruption, and had to take out a bazillion dead logs. In 1981 they started replanting millions of little baby trees, so there are all these new trees on the drive up. None of them are older than 25 years, so huge stands of young trees are all about the same size. As we were driving along we’d come to these whole hillsides of these Nobel Firs that are all about the same size. It was a really bizarre sight, because it looks like one of those 3D pictures that you have to squint and cross your eyes to see.

The observatories were nice. Greg said it was amazing how much money could be generated from a natural disaster, as all the observatories had gift shops that sold the usual gift shoppy type things. Happily for me, that included a penny machine in all but one place! So I came home with 12 new Mt. St. Helens smashed pennies. I had to fend off a couple of little kids to get to the machines, though.

Greg got some terrific pictures, which I include here for your viewing pleasure.

This is the bridge at the very edge of the "Blast Zone" (sounds like a ride at Disneyland, doesn't it?).

The land heading up to the mountain. Isn't it amazing how bare it looks?

The view from Johnson Ridge Observatory. The mountain is about 5 miles away from us here.

Old St. Helens put on a little show for us while we were there. This is the lava dome, and yes, that is steam coming out of it. She doesn't like us to forget she's an active volcano!

A lovely over-all view.

These are the 3-D trees. You can kind of get the effect in the picture. Weird, huh?

Okay, I have to go listen to the B52's now. Somehow I have "Hot Lava" stuck in my head. Wonder why?

Letterboxing

You will notice that I have taken the main letterboxing site (www.letterboxing.org) link off my page here. No, I have not decided to give up my favorite hobby. I just took it off temporarily because the site isn't working. Apparently they get too many hits on this site now and the server they are using can't handle it. So the webmasters have had to take the site down. I think they are searching for a new host or something. The new site will be linked here as soon as it is back up and running.

There have been many unhappy letterboxers out there the past couple of days, let me tell you! We can't get our clues that will take us to our "fix" for our addiction! It's terrible!

I have replaced the link with Cute Overload, which is a great website that puts up very cute pictures. It's a nice change from the bad news that's everywhere else on the web.

Too Much Coffee??

We took the dogs to the park today and had the weirdest encounter with a guy there. We had just gotten out of the car and were leashing up the girls, when these two guys were walking towards with their dogs to their cars that were parked in front of ours. These guys were both probably in their late 50s, early 60s. One guy had a Rotteweiler on a leash, and the other one had a Boxer that was leashed, but the guy had dropped the leash and was letting the dog walk about 15 feet in front of him. The Boxer was coming towards us with his head down and ears back and wasn't looking at all friendly (I learned a lot about dog body language in Sophie's class last month, ya know, and this was not friendly dog language). Greg had both the girls on leash by now and they were barking and pulling while he was trying to back away from this dog. I walked ahead and tried to distract the dog, but had no luck. I was just about to say something when Greg said "Hey! Can you get your dog?" This old guy went ballistic on him. He got right up in Greg's face and said "What's your f-ing problem?" Greg said "Your dog is coming at my dogs." And this guy just flipped. "My dog won't hurt your dogs, he's not doing anything!" He yelled.

Greg was just gaping at this guy who had gone from stress level 1 to 10 in an instant and said "Well, they don't know that! They are on a leash and he isn't." And they guy said something else nasty. Greg said, "Don't start something you aren't going to finish." This guy, who wasn't much taller than me goes right up to Greg and says something like "I'm going to finish anything I start!" Greg took a step towards him, and the guy picked up his dog's leash and loaded it in the car.

We just gaped at him. It was so weird. What a stupid thing to freak out about. Usually we try to keep the girls away from other dogs when they are on leash and the other dogs aren't. Dogs just react differently when meeting another dog on a leash than when they are off, and a dog on leash with a dog off leash showing signs of being unfriendly is never a good combination. Besides, Sophie can be quite snotty to dogs when she's on leash, especially when she is resource guarding her car. The weirdo guy didn't even think that MY dogs might have been the problem, not his.

Anyway, it was just weird. You can't even go to the dog park without meeting weirdos anymore. I don't know what the guys problem was, but I think he needs to cut back on the coffee.

Cuuute!

Look! Whippet puppies! Aren't they cuuute?



These are the newest Dreams Whippets puppies. There are 5 boys and 2 girls.

They are related to both my girls, but I'm not clear how. Let's see. Mom is Jazz (Dreams She Got The Jazz). Her dad is Eddy (Ringdove Black Adder) and her Mom is Breeze (Summer Breeze Mirage). Eddy is Sophie's grandpa. Breeze is Sophie's Mom's littermate. What happens when your grandpa and your aunt have kids? Okay, that's just weird. Factor in that I think Eddy is dead, things get even weirder. So that makes these puppies, um, second cousins?

Dad is Buster (Dreams Bustin Loose). His dad is Rusty (O'ochigea's Vitalis) and Mom is Crystal (Winsome Crystal Blue). Crystal is Carmen's mom, so that makes her and Buster half-siblings. So I guess these puppies are cousins to her, too. Luckily, Rusty's lineage is not represented in my girls's line, so we don't have to figure that one out!

Consanguinity is weird, isn't it? I even had a chart and I couldn't figure it out.

Okay, now that I've brought out the big words, my work here is done.

Kris out.

Boring

I know, I've been really boring lately. I just haven't been doing anything worth blogging about. I've been going to work, coming home, doing a few chores, and then going to bed.

Oh, wait! I did do something fun. Three weeks ago I took my grandma to see "42nd Street". This show was our first show of the Broadway Rose Theater Company season, and my friend Julie was in California and couldn't use her ticket. So she gave it to me and I thought my grandma would like to go. We had a lovely "date." I picked her up and took her out to dinner. Nothing fancy, just Sherri's, but she liked it. She loved the play and was so excited to hear all those old familiar tunes. She said she remembered seeing the movie in the theater when it first came out. It came out in 1933, I think, so she would have been really young. I even found out that she used to tap dance! I never knew that. It was a fun evening for both of us.

Then last weekend we had our second play of the season, "Sisters of Swing." The second musical they produce is always a review of some kind. This one was all about the Andrews Sisters. Lots of great music and a terrific story. I had no idea they had started so young or done so much. I know my grandma would have liked this one, too, and I was going to take her for her birthday, but all the rest of the performances are completely sold out for the rest of the run (which isn't that long, really).

So this weekend we are going to our first 2006-07 season plays at the Lakewood Theater. This one a musical version of A Midsummer's Night Dream. Should be interesting. They never do a bad play there.

Okay, so I'm not as boring as I thought. Stay tuned for more excitement!

Sad

This is the saddest thing I have heard about in a long time. Sorry to make you all sad by reading it, but I can't get it out of my mind. Those poor dogs. The poor owners, too! It just breaks my heart.

It just goes to show you that you can't be too careful in this heat.

Thank goodness it is cooling down now, but it doesn't help those poor greyhounds now.

Hot

I'm hot. It's 100 degrees outside. I hate it when it gets this warm. I know, many people have it worse, I appreciate that. I didn't even want to go letterboxing today, that's how hot it was.

Thank goodness I have air conditioning. I bless the person that invented it!

Weird

I bought a little hand-held sudoku game at Walgreens yesterday. It was only $5.99 so I splurged. I pulled it out of the package and found the "user instructions" on the back. In bold all caps, it says "FOR HOUSEHOLD USE ONLY" on the very front, right under the picture of the game. What does this even mean? I can't put it out on the floor for use in Las Vegas? I can't use it professionally? Can you even do sudoku professionally?? Sometimes I really do wonder what happens to cause a company to put such warnings on things.

I got one of those Allied moving kits at Costco and right under the picture of a moving truck it says "MOVING TRUCK NOT INCLUDED". How stupid do you have to be to think there might actually be a real truck in this box?? Okay, maybe you could think there would be a model one, but really.

One Step Closer

We are one step closer to having the floors done! Today we had carpet put on the steps. What do you think?









It's a really short berber. It looks pretty good. We just need to finish the landing and the trim and we can check one more spot off the list!

Here's A Funny Site

http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/

I Hate Traffic

Did I mention lately how much I loathe traffic? I drive about 20 miles each way to and from work each day. My route takes me over an expressway, I-205, I-84 and various surface streets. There are rarely any traffic problems when I go to work, and it takes about 40 minutes to get there. If there are problems, it's usually something major.

Coming home is a different story. At least once a week I get stuck in pretty major traffic. It usually takes about an hour to come home. Today it took three. Yes, THREE HOURS. I left work at 4:00. When I got on I-84 traffic was backed up to 181st, which is about 5 miles from the I-205 merge. So I got off the freeway right there and went Airport Way. It took me over an hour to get to Costco on Airport way, which is only about 50 blocks. I was sick of sitting in traffic at that point so I went in to Costco and shopped. I was there about 45 minutes (it's now 5:30) and it took me until 6:45 to get to the onramp. It's only a couple of miles and it took over an hour to get there. GRRRRR!

I still don't know why it was so bad, but this might have something to do with it.

Anyway, that's my traffic rant for the day.

Ode to Bastet

Today would have been Bastet's 11th birthday. We got Bastet in College Station, Texas when she was just a couple of months old. It was sometime in the fall of 1995. Greg & I can't remember the exact date. We both remember that it was the same time Ann came down to stay with us. We adopted her from an animal shelter there in College Station. Her sign said she had been picked up off of the streets and we had to wait three days before we could adopt her, just in case she belonged to someone. They didn't know exactly how old she was, but we figured about 3 or 4 months at that time, and chose July 4th as the day to celebrate her birthday.

We went to the shelter a couple of months after our little Calypso died during surgery. There were many kitties there to be adopted, but Bastet was the one for us. The first time I saw her she was leaning up against the side of her cage looking all sweet and innocent. Somehow we just knew that she was the one.

We had just moved into the duplex when we got her. She was quite the little spitfire. BC didn't know what to make of her at first, and I don't think he was too thrilled to have her around. We never even had to think about what to name her. She was always rather imperious and commanding. I loved the character of The Cat Bastet in the Elizabeth Peter's Amelia Peabody series. So Bastet she became.

Bastet soon became "Stetty." We rarely called her by her real name (we're big on nicknames in this family). I often called her my little princess or the goddess. She had the goddess personality down pat.



As I did with BC, I'm going to list some of the things I loved about Bastet.

1. She loved to take a shower with you. She would sit on the edge of the tub and bat at the water droplets and they flowed down the shower curtain. She liked it if you wiggled your finger and played "shower mouse" with her, too. We had more shower curtains that had to be trashed because of holes from her teeth.

2. She was such a daddy's girl. She would come in and talk to Greg when he was on the computer until he picked her up and held her. She could get very demanding about it if she didn't get her way. She was most content when she was with him.

3. She was a chatterbox. Bastet always had something to say about everything. She had a great meow, too. I loved to hear her talking to us. I really miss that.

4. She was a great slimer. Even though we've repainted much of the house since she left us, there are still Stetty marks on the doors and some of the corners from her rubbing her cheeks against them.

5. When we moved from the duplex we found a bazillion milk jug rings under the washer and dryer. We dubbed these "Stetty rings". She did love to bat those around. She would also play soccer with Greg with bits of rolled up toilet paper.

6. She had a wonderful purr. Very loud.

7. In the last few months of her life she would come in and sleep in me. I think she was using me to stay warm, but I enjoyed it. She'd sleep on my chest and purr when I petted her. She stuck like a limpet when I would roll over or move in the bed. She loved nothing better than someone taking a nap during the day.

8. She had attitude. Or is that cattitude? She was a very cool cat. So much of an individual. So different from BC. So very catlike.

9. From the time we got her she always had to help you make the bed. We made a game out of it. She would play "bed mouse" with us on each piece we put on the bed. She didn't enjoy sleeping under the covers, but she loved to play under them when I was making the bed.

Of course there are many more things that were great about her. I know it's been especially hard on Greg since she died. It was so hard to let her go when her time came. That damned kidney disease. It took her from us too early.

I love you and miss you so much, Stetty. I hope you are healthy and happy and waiting for us with Mr. Bunny over the Rainbow Bridge.




Bastet
July 4, 1994 - July 7, 2005
You are forever in our hearts.

Happy Fourth of July!

It's the Fourth of July. I mean this in the most American way possible, but I really hate this holiday. Everyone in my neighborhood goes nuts with fireworks, firecrackers, and other noisy and irritating ILLEGAL fireworks. Greg hates them, too. He is such a light sleeper that it will be almost impossible for him to get to sleep tonight. And I have to go to work tomorrow. There is nothing like being kept awake until midnight because your neighbors felt the need to burn up a couple of hundred dollars worth of noise makers.

Okay, that's it for my rant. Here are some more pictures of my kids doing what they do best...snoozing.

Maryhill

I went to a letterboxing gathering this weekend in Maryhill, Washington. There is a nice museum there and a replica of Stonehenge. It is about 100 miles from here, and it's amazing how much the landscape changes in that short distance.

I picked up 50 new stamps: 25 letterboxes, 12 travelers, 6 new exchanges, 1 event stamp and 6 cooties. Pretty good haul, huh? Met some great people, and had a great day. Here are some pictures.

This is the Columbia River looking east towards Maryhill.


Looking west downriver towards Portland. That's Mt. Hood there.


Letterboxing buddies, Kuku, Cat's Meow, Campfire Lady, Sarah, and one other girl whose name I can't remember.



There are all these peacocks on the grounds of the Maryhill Museum. Isn't he handsome?

I Forgot

I forgot to tell you that I got a new pair of sunglasses. Costco had a $15.00 off coupon, so I was able to use some birthday money I had set aside to buy them. Here's what they look like:



I totally love them. Here's what the web site says about them:

They feature the best lenses available on any sunglass and offer maximum protection on the road. They feature an extended lens which covers the blind spot perfectly.

In addition to this, they offer skull fit arms which provide maximum comfort especially when combined with the rubber nose pads which prevent the sunglasses slipping on the nose bridge. The great thing about the Monza sunglasses is they come with polarized lenses as standard and the polarization is amazing. Never before has glare been combated so well which gives your eyes a well earned break, even in intense summer light. Premium Polarized ® lenses contain a polarized film embedded into the lens which blocks 99.9% of reflected light and eliminates glare.

As with all Serengeti sunglasses, the lenses feature Serengeti's famous photochromic protection. The lenses lighten in overcast conditions and darken in bright sunlight which give perfect vision at all times. They also feature Serengeti's patented Spectral Control ® Filter which blocks 95% of troublesome blue light waves and reduces eye fatigue.

Besides that they are cool.

Phew! Carmen has really stinky farts tonight. I'd better go take her outside. Ta!

It Truly Is A Small World.

Sophie's class went well on Wednesday. Everyone was very impressed at Sophie's recall story. It was impressive, I just hope it wasn't a fluke. Sophie does seem to enjoy the class. There is a malamute, a German Shepard, a Vizla, and a German Shorthaired Pointer in her class. I really like the German shepherd's mom. We've talked a lot during class, but we just know each other by our dog's names. She's Josie's mom, I'm Sophie's mom. Last week we were chatting about people who have dogs that do sports, and she mentioned she knew a gal that showed and coursed Basenji's. Since one of my friends at work shows & courses Basenjis, I asked who it was.

"Julie Leicht." She said.

I stared at her. "Oh yeah, I know her, too. I work with her. How do you know her?"

She stared at me. "I work with her, too."

"You work with her? Where do you work?" I said, wondering when Julie got a second job I didn't know about.

"City of Gresham." Says Josie's Mom.

More staring in disbelief. "YOU work at the City of Gresham?? I work at the City of Gresham. I'm in the Accounting department. What's your name?"

Okay, to make a long conversation full of staring and repeating the same thing back and forth, we determined we both worked at the City of Gresham. She's a police officer, which explains why I didn't recognize her (Police & Fire are housed in a different building than the rest of the City departments) and she didn't recognize me. We both live in Vancouver, we both take our dogs to A Dog's Life Doggy Daycare, and we both work at the City of Gresham. What are the odds?? She lives about 3 miles from me. It really is a small world!

After class I was craving an ice cream cone, so I went to this little place I had seen near the daycare. I'd never been there before, but they advertised fresh made custard ice cream. They had a drive through, so I didn't have to get out of the car even. I placed my order and got up to the window, and the two young gals working the drive through were admiring Sophie. They gave her a puppy cone, and were impressed at how daintily she licked it. It was funny. Sophie acted like it was no less than her due. I think she likes having an admiring public.

It Might Be Working!

I was across the street tonight talking to my neighbor when all of the sudden Carmen & Sophie came zooming towards me at top speed. They were supposed to be in the house, but I must not have gotten the door shut all the way and the wind blew it open. While they went running down the street chasing another neighbor's cat (sorry, kitty), I flew in the house searching for my car keys. As I ran to the door to get in the car and start the Sophie Chase, Carmen came up to me and went back in the house. I grabbed the clicker and the stinky treats that Sophie likes on my way to the car. I only had to drive down two houses to catch her. I clicked the clicker, called her, and she came up to me. When she realized I had her stinky treats, she actually let me pick her up and throw her in the car! Woo hoo! A Sophie Chase that lasted less than two minutes - and that included finding my car keys!

Yay Sophie! I'm so proud. I can't wait to tell her teacher.

Skunked!

I hate it when I go looking for a letterbox and can't find it. I had dinner with my parents last night and afterwards we went up to Mt. Tabor to find two boxes. Got skunked on both of them. Grrr! So I emailed the planters today. Der Mad Stamper wrote back that he had removed the box for maintenance and forgotten to update the clues, and Calli-K wrote back to say that yes, the box was gone. Sigh. I hate not finding boxes!!!!

Here are some pictures I just took of my kids. Aren't they cute??

Who Thought of This One? They Ought to be Shot.

I went to Costco tonight. It's always so much fun to go there. While I was on the shampoo aisle, there was a lady, her mom, and her toddler, who was just old enough to walk on her own. Cute little kid. Unfortunately, the ladies weren't really watching her. So she's running around all over the shampoo aisle getting into stuff. She has on these little baby sandals that squeak like a squeaky toy ever time she takes a step. Every. Time. Yes. EVERY SINGLE TIME. Maybe you haven't gotten the full horror of the situation. Let me try again. EVERY SINGLE STEP this child took her shoes squeaked.

I want to know who on earth thought that squeaky shoes would be a good idea on a toddler. I figure it must have been a man with no children. Even worse, who would BUY such a thing? "Oooh! Looky, Marsha! Shoes that squeak with each step my child takes! I've got to have those! I don't care WHAT they cost." Right. I was ready to remove her shoes and hide them after two minutes of exposure, and I'm sure if I'd stuck around longer I would have gone completely around the bend.

Okay, all you moms speak up. Would you buy them for your toddler????

I Resisted

My letterboxing girlfriends Maiden1974 and Camp Fire Lady invited me to go letterboxing with them today. Yes, on a workday. Maiden is a teacher so she is out for the summer, and CFL is a "domestic engineer" so they have all this free time to go letterboxing WITHOUT ME. They encouraged me to have the "letterboxing flu" but I managed to avoid it. It was VERY tempting though.

I got my teeth cleaned this morning. I love how teeth feel after getting cleaned. I decided since I was close by that I'd go look for a letterbox, but had no luck. I was going to go up to Mt. Tabor to find the beginning of a trail, but for some unknown reason the City of Portland closes the park to motor vehicles on Wednesdays. WTF? Who closes a park to vehicle traffic on Wednesdays? And why? So the squirrels can have a neighborhood party in the streets? So, no box for me!

Sophie's class was good today. She was really good. We went to the park afterwards and went looking for bunnies. We were stumped, though. No bunnies. Well, we'll try again next week.

Still Using the Back Up Pair

I didn't get a new pair of sunglasses over the weekend. Still using the crappy back-up pair.

Just in case you wanted an update.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there! I went and did a little research and found out how Father's Day actually got started.

Sonora Dodd, of Washington, first had the idea of a "father's day." She thought of the idea for Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909.
Sonora wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart. Smart, who was a Civil War veteran, was widowed when his wife died while giving birth to their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state.

After Sonora became an adult she realized the selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent. It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices and was, in the eyes of his daughter, a courageous, selfless, and loving man. Sonora's father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910.

President Calvin Coolidge, in 1924, supported the idea of a national Father's Day. Then in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day. President Richard Nixon signed the law which finally made it permanent in 1972.

Pretty cool, huh?

Oh, and a Couple More

I was having trouble posting my pictures last night on here. I have a couple more pictures of the "supervisors".