For Your Reading Enjoyment

I've found a funny website! Cut, paste, and enjoy.
www.girlsarepretty.com

Too Big!

Billy made me an enormous sandwich the other day for lunch. Here I am attempting to take a bite.
I got a bit of pickle and bread that time.

Snapper's Bath

Here's a bad picture documenting Sylvia's second bath following an oily mess she found while playing outdoors. Her claws made it to my chest only twice as I scrubbed her with Dawn detergent in the kitchen sink. Poor wet furry beast!

It's snowing! It's snowing!

Right around Billy's birthday, Portland had its yearly requisite Snow. Since there was no buzz beforehand, I figured it would melt within hours, so I left for work early and made my way through the gentle flurries.


Here's my view as I was stopped on the Hawthorne bridge, heading into downtown. Look at the snow already piled on my car!

Go, little subaru, go!

Unfortunately, my work closed after a few hours and I drove home mostly in first gear (5 miles- yikes!). For once, I didn't drive like a freaked-out Oregonian, which I'm very proud of.

Billy's truck wasn't having any driving, so he took the bus downtown, only to get stuck about 1/2 a mile from the bridge. Eventually he learned that PSU was closing, and alternately helped push cars up the street and hitched home.

Also, happy birthday, Billy!

Six Days of Paradise

While in Mexico last month, this is the view we saw when we woke up. For the most part, the skies were clear, the sun was out, people were being quiet (unlike at night), and there was a musician playing music on a keyboard.
The roof at the bottom left in the photograph was an open-air bar with pool table, and further left was a cafe that served breakfast, lunch and dinner.
During the day, the hotel broadcast music from two large speakers near the pool, and people lounged, swam, and puttered in the sun. We spent two days at the pool, playing tequila volleyball, reading, enjoying fruity drinks, and swimming in the ocean.

Banderas Bay had a strong enough surf to rip off one of my flippers and break the other, but swimming in it was still thrilling. And boy was it salty! I think I got my RDA of salt in just one accidentally swallowed mouthful.

Evenin' in Mexico

Ah, the beauty of a sunset in paradise!

Which is also a delicious, smoothie-like drink. Mmm, sunset in paradise- delicious AND nutritious!

This is the view from our balcony from our recent trip to Puerto Vallarta. The sun went down at around 6:30 but it stayed warm all night. 83 degrees was perfect for me, although the sun was a bit much for Billy. Our hotel room stayed humid even with the air conditioner on, but we didn't encounter any mosquitos and my hair only frizzed a little bit.

Whining about the Weather

It's 4:53 on Monday afternoon, and everything beyond my windows is pitch black.

Rain is pouring down although the temperature is a balmy 53 degrees.

Everything about the weather is a far cry from the 83 degrees we enjoyed in Mexico two weeks ago!

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.