Brr!

Wow, it's so cold here! Billy thinks Mt Scott is at a different elevation than the rest of the city since the weather seems to be different than other SE neighborhoods. (It's official- I just checked. We're 1 degree colder than Mt Tabor, and 14 degrees colder than downtown. Yikes!)

Today our computer room was 51 degrees, the roof is icy, and the windows are covered with condensation. Luckily our heater is pumping out nice hot air and the cats are mixing it through the house by running and jumping everywhere.

Mittens just discovered the water droplets on the window and is pawing and staring at them. Aren't cats cute?

And so it starts....

The sleeping, that is!
Hooray for the reduced hours of winter, the chilly weather, and the hot meals that all make us want to cuddle up in bed and sleep more. I've been fighting off a cold for over a week now, trying to sleep it off, and Billy- well, he loves to sleep regardless of the season. Even Sylvia's getting in on the action.

Gravity, why dost thou take my catnip from me?

Sylvia and Mittens love their new condo. It's perfectly placed in the middle of the action- right outside the kitchen door for observation of food preparation, and in the dining room with a clear shot into the living room.
Sylvia's curious as to how she's going to get her catnip body pillow off the floor and back in her paws.

Update on Sylvia

Our weatherproofing had its first major test last week as we had a night of high wind and rain.
We discovered that the ceiling in the dining room was cracked because there was a leak, not because the previous little boy hit it with his basketball. Silly us!

Billy got up on the roof and discovered that the siding was rotten, so he covered it with a temporary fix of plastic and goo. Hopefully it'll last us through winter and we can tear off and replace the siding come springtime.

The East window right above our bed is drafty enough to move the blinds, so last weekend I put up the plastic-wrap stuff. I can still see it moving when the wind blows, but at least it doesn't get in.

Sylvia is at the stage where she's getting bored in the house and gets into everything.
I can tell when she's about to do something because I'll catch her staring at it. Like last week when she thoughtfully gazed at the toilet paper roll. I left the bathroom and two minutes later found said roll strewn across the landing floor.
Sylvia!
Later that day I found her actually dipping into the toilet. Such a curious beasty!
She's not allowed to sleep in our room at night because she insists on trying the door to the Secret Closet of Mystery even though it's ALWAYS closed. (She got inside a couple of times and frolicked throughout the insulation and rafting, and since then it's been a forbidden, exciting playground.)

Hopefully she's downstairs napping right now and not eating plants, playing with her food or knocking things over.

And the rain rain rain came down down down...

We disconnected our downspouts and haven't installed our new rain barrel yet (thanks, Dad!), so in the meantime Billy set up a sophisticated and intricate water diversion system. (See above)
The water runs down the downspout and into a metal trough, then through a dirt trough, finally ending on a bunch of rocks.
We watched it in action this weekend during a relaxing rainy day. We had planned to dig holes for the front yard fence but the posthole digger is MIA, so we were just as happy to take a quick peek into the backyard and then retire to our cozy house.

Gutters Galore

Billy's biggest task this summer was to ready the gutters for the fall. Especially bad was the one on the back dormer, as it didn't reach to the end of the roof and the rain poured down willy-nilly.

Upon closer inspection, Billy discovered that the fascia holding the gutters was rotten, so not only did he need to fix/replace the gutter, he had to replace the fascia. He spent days gathering, cutting, and painting boards, and then affixing them to the edges of the roof. Hampering his progress was a small but active wasp nest, which had to be removed (with mint oil spray) before he could proceed. After attaching everything, he caulked the inside of the gutters, and voila! They're ready for rain.

Weatherize while the Sun Shines

Well, the windows that I worked so hard to strip this summer (for about 3 hours) are finally reinstalled for the rainy season. (Notice that I never got around to painting them.)

This weekend we're having a respite from the grey we had last week, so everyone and their dog was at Home Depot, buying up all the weather stripping. Luckily I found plenty at the second storeI visited, and I went to work, gingerly nailing the vinyl strips to the outside of the window. You have to look closely, but it's there. Take that, cold wind!

Sylvia Snapper helped, too.

It's Gorge-ous!

Billy's mom (Hi Linda!) visited a couple of weeks ago. We took her to the usual must-see places in Oregon- the coast, the gorge, our favorite breakfast spot, Billy's work. I love playing tour guide because it gives me an excuse to visit the places that I love in Oregon.

Here's a shot facing East up the Columbia River Gorge, taken from the Vista House. Built in 1918, it was recently reopened to the public and houses great old light fixtures and stained glass, a pictoral history (of what, I don't know- I skipped that part), a little convenience counter, and a huge old bathroom. There is also an information counter with very friendly ladies.
You can tell that it's late summer by the sandbars in the river. The river's much more full in the springtime.

Silver Falls

Recently, a friend and I drove to Silverton to see the falls. Silver Fall State Park has several falls, some of which were owned privately and donated to the park in recent years. The walk meandered from above where the falls start, behind the falls (see the people walking?) and down below to the pool.

There were miniature caves (5' x 3' and smaller) behind the falls, and large holes in the rock that were caused by the freeze/thaw cycle.

If you get a chance, take the drive and see the falls. They're amazing.

We're Back

Greetings, loyal (and patient!) readers! After a long and restful nap, we've decided to get up and do some work. Here is a photo of our side yard with its now-dormant lawn perennials that have already bloomed. We're planning on turning this part into raised beds to grow fruit and veggies. I found some very nice untreated wood recently when I was visiting a friend (it was piled neatly in the street with a sign that said free- untreated!) so we're hoping to have those beds made in the next few weeks so we can put in our fall crops. If you look very closely on the left hand side you can see our mini raised bed that contains our 5 blueberry bushes (thanks, Steve and Mitzi!) that didn't fare well in the hot weather. Billy brought them to the house so we could water them daily and tend to their poor little burned leaves. They're doing well now, and we hope to add to our collection of bushes and have an actual crop next year.
We're also planning on killing most of the lawn in the front yard and putting in more garden and a little fence to keep kids out and have safe, non-dog area for the kitties.
Billy has also been working on the fascia in the back, since it was rotten with the gutters falling off. He's ready to prime and paint them (he made the sawhorses last week) this week. We also got a front screen door from our favorite used building materials store, The Rebuilding Center. Unfortunately, we measured wrong and Billy will have to shave 1/4" off the side. But once we install it, we won't have to worry about stray cats coming in and spraying! Yay for pee-free furniture.

Drowsing

This weekend's heat gave everyone in our house an excuse to be lazy. Here you see the most graceful evidence (ahem) of relaxing. Sylvia peeked at me while I was taking this shot, but she went right back to doze after I left.

So . . . Full . . .

I'm sure this is a picture of Jimpson in the Autumn, not this weekend after downing too many fourth of July weenies.
Thanks to Cute Overload for the pic.

Celebrate Freedom from Household Tasks!

Right...
Thanks to all the revelers who helped us warm our new house!
(And boy, was it warm!) We had a successful party with many people from our lives who came and ate, chatted in English and Spanish, tortured Sylvia (the under-10 set), and admired our house as we proudly conducted tours.
After cleaning up from the debauchery, we took a day off from housework (except for making cobbler from the leftover blueberries), but today we're back at it again. Billy went to our community garden and to his dismay, our blueberry bushes were on the verge of mortal dehydration. He dug them up and brought them home, and they're currently resting in our shady home nursery with moist rootballs.

We took a long trip to Home Depot today and purchased some items for summertime- another pair of roof jacks, some planks to make raised beds for the blueberries, paint stripper, etc.
Since the raised bed project had missing tools, I decided to get to work on the upstairs bedroom windows. Stripping, repainting, and weatherizing those old transom windows will take awhile but hopefully I'll be able to finish it before the chill sets in.
For the actual paint stripping I used heavy-duty rubber gloves, but while scrubbing with denatured alcohol and steel wool, I used normal household rubber gloves. Although the instructions didn't say I should even use gloves, the alcohol ate right through them by the time I was almost done. Luckily I only had a tiny burn where the stripping solvent had snuck onto my hand.

Little Red Car

Here's my subie, getting one of its twice-yearly baths. Sylvia is looking on in the bottom right-hand corner.

Sylvia Snapper's New Pants

Here's Sylvia climbing through the garden, frolicking with the pinecones and helping us garden. Isn't she getting fluffy?

Imminent Art House

Great news! We're painting the upstairs hallway! What luscious color have we chosen, you ask? Is it a classy, muted tone as befits the privacy of our second story? Is it a relaxing color that will set the tone for our slumber?
Shriek this: No!
It goes more along the food color that we've established throughout the rest of the house, but this is no food color found in nature like guacamole and corn. Kraft Macaroni and Cheese is the best way I can think to describe it. The instant after you pour in the powdered sauce, as it greets the milk and melted butter and begins to blend, THAT is the color of our upstairs hallway.
Please refrain from licking the wall.

So Hot!

Tonight it's 10:06 pm and still 86 degrees on our second level. Today was a scorcher at 102, and the house is just starting to cool off. We've been taking advantage of the basement and its cool 70 degrees. Billy worked on a painting and I watched dvds with Sylvia.
Friday we spent a little time in the garden with the cats. Mittens helped Billy plant the hostas, then she rolled around on the sidewalk while Sylvia hung around.

Practically Vacation

This week has felt like a vacation now that choir is over. We had two shows within six weeks, and I was just starting to get used to not having weekends at those intervals.
This past show was cake compared to our last show at the Grotto. For both we had two rehearsals during the week (7-10pm) and shows on both Saturday and Sunday.
This weekend we had super-easy music that was mostly jazz standards and medlies of Ellington and Gershwin tunes. (Mmm, medlies.) We got to use music stands, sing without a conductor, and talk to each other onstage. Eduardo and I were front and center so we were instructed to smile and interact with the audience. For me, that meant pasting on a big grin, making eyes with various audience members, and swaying to the beat (although I get easily distracted by the music so am apt to forget to sway, snap, or dance at any given moment.). Afterwards, a board member commented that I looked like I was having a great time up there. I gave her a combination of show-biz truth and personal cynicism: "Really? That's a relief, because they told me I needed to smile more."
Despite having all this extra time this week, I haven't really done any projects. Shame on me! I did vacuum and scrub the downstairs bathroom floor and walls yesterday, but that's not exciting news.
Sylvia has stepped up her campaign to Get Outside, and despite my feet blocking her way has run out several times at inopportune moments, including yesterday when she ran out and disappeared under the car which was parked in the street.
Billy's toe is healing. The scab fell off last week and I apologize for not getting a picture of it. Yes, it would have been gross, but who doesn't like gross?
A friend's cousin grew a massive scab one summer when he was staying with her family (we were in high school) and her mom saved it, gilded it, and sent it to him in a jar, suspended in liquid. Not surprisingly, she didn't get thanked. I guess not everyone appreciates gross after all.
Today Billy has a job interview for summer term. Hopefully he'll have an income!

Hooray for Birthdays!

Hooray for art, as well. Tonight Billy and I picked up my new art print by Brenda Dunn, discovered at the Rose Martini Party (Thanks, Steve and Pam!) and purchased from Muse Art + Design on 42nd and Hawthorne. She does simple rendering of women, colors them, and makes prints onto woodblocks. They're quite adorable and amazingly affordable, and I'm looking forward to buying more. Brenda also has a new store on 42nd and Hawthorne called Garment, which features all locally-designed women's clothing and accessories. Reach her at pinupbrenda@hotmail.com, and come to our house to see them in person!

Last Show of the Season

Loyal readers, please forgive me for the short notice I'm about to give you. Although somewhat blurry, the flier on the right advertises David York Ensemble's last show of the season, which is this very weekend!
We will have a silent auction with lots of neat stuff, many solos by the more gregarious members of the choir (not including yours truly), and ensemble pieces featuring the music of Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, and George Gershwin. There will also be a champagne toast on both Saturday and Sunday.
This is going to be a fun, relaxed show which'll be more fun for those who don't dig the classical music scene.
Plus my birthday is on Sunday! What a great present it would be to see your happy, smiling, champagne-filled selves in the audience. It's at the Old Church in downtown Portland at 8 on Saturday, 5 on Sunday.
See you then!