Sunny and 80, TWO DAYS IN A ROW!!!

While the rest of the country has been sweltering in 100 degree heat, it's pretty much been 60 and drizzling here since June. (Before that it was 50 and drizzling, etc.) But this weekend finally felt like summer!!! Woke up this morning to actual thunder and lightning though, and it's raining again now. *sigh*

But while the sun WAS shining, Stan & I spent Saturday morning puttering about the yard. Stan built a step up to the gazebo out of scrap wood from Claire's house and then spent the rest of the morning, well, breaking stuff.

First he "fixed" the bump on the gazebo floor where the deck has settled more than the posts. (This is right where you step into the "front door" of the gazebo.) It was only a little bump, not really bothering anything... But Stan wanted to cut a chunk out of the decking, grind the post down, and then screw the small chunk of deck back down. I wasn't so fond of that idea, and said I thought we really need to take the whole plank up and do it right, like we did with the one in the middle. Next thing I know, he's got a circular saw out, running it sideways between the deck and the post, trying to slice the post off that way!!! What he succeeded in doing was mangling the front beam of the deck. Then he put a bunch more screws in the deck to hold it to the post. So now there's a dip in the deck, screws sticking up where they didn't quite go in right (he didn't use deck screws...) and a big mess of patching material on the face beam that looks like a heron pooped on it or something!!! But there isn't a bump anymore... *face palm*

Then he went to work assembling his new Road Trip Grill. Which he broke the handle off of before it was even fully assembled. Then he tried to glue the handle while the grill was hot and got a big glob of permanent glue stuck on top. Then while we were toting it off to Woodlawn Park the screws fell out of the legs and it crashed and got all scratched up and broke the handle again. Then when we were done he put it on the back seat of the KIA where the grease pan leaked all over the car. REALLY wasn't his day...

BUT.... We were going to Woodlawn Park to see TREK IN THE PARK which makes everything better!!! Stan and I arrived about 1:30 for the 5pm show and got one of the last spots in the amphitheater! By 2pm everyone else had to sit in the field behind the stage. They are considering moving to a bigger venue next year because it has gotten so popular. People apparently were showing up at noon to claim seats even last week when it was raining. Anyway, Natalie and Phil joined us soon after and we had a cookout while we waited for show time. (Stan's grill functioned admirably despite the rough treatment, and Natalie & Phil are officially not a couple but still hanging out all the time anyway. Go figure.)

Trek was fabulous of course, and we had a marvelous time! "Mirror, Mirror" was the episode they did this year. Very creative as always. There's a part where the crew beams up from the planet and ends up on the parallel universe "evil" Enterprise, complete with different uniforms. You know how the "beaming" in the show looked like swirling sparklies? Well, they accomplished this on stage by having girls in sparkly, Treky costumes that ran around the beaming crew, changing parts of the uniforms on the crew as they went around!

Fabulous fun, and more lounging in the backyard until bedtime, enjoying every last moment of sun.

Then Sunday we woke up to more sun!!! Church, then went to Fred Meyer, then Stan & I went hiking up to Angel's Rest. Which is a much nicer hike when it's not raining. And you can see more than just clouds at the top. It's still very "up" though, but we are trying to get in shape for a Mazama mountain climbing trip to the Steens Mountains in a month. Anyway, had lunch at the top of Angel's Rest before heading home and an afternoon nap.

For dinner, Colleen and Maria came over and Stan barbequed in the back yard. I'd forgotten that the girls haven't seen the yard in a while, and they were surprised at the path and vegetable garden, etc. (They both missed Patrick's birthday party as Maria was at U of O, and Colleen was still in China.) We got to hear some more of Colleen's China trip and some about the Art Camp that Maria is working at this summer as a counselor. It sounds a lot like the Rock & Roll Camp that Eli used to go to actually.

In other news of Stan's kids, Patrick and Alisha finally set a wedding date of July 15th next year. And Alex broke his foot playing soccer and is in a walking boot type cast for the rest of the summer.

Oh, yeah, and Nick got his driver's license. On the first try. (It really helped that I know the basic route they use and had him practice that a lot. But he believes it's just because he's awesome.) Now I'm going to start teaching Maria to drive, starting tomorrow!

I'm also working at JaCiva's on Wednesday, filling in for Mimi who's got some appointment, and Tami can't fill in because she's got some wedding related appointment to go to. A few extra dollars helps as long as I can still walk afterward!

Last week I redecorated the utility room. It's now kinda cute instead of "industrial" as Lindsay put it. Nick and I painted it turquoise with a bit of pale pink trim (that 50's Florida look, lol!), cleaned off the shelves, and got turquoise baskets to put everything up on the wire shelves on, and made curtains. I like it!

And perhaps the sun will come back again tomorrow...

Little Mexico

So... the day after backpacking I headed off on a mission trip with the church group to a Los Embajadores site. This is the group we usually make the Mexico mission trips with. However, with the way things are along the border these days, they've decided that it's too dangerous to take other people's kids down there. So they started a program last year in Woodburn, Oregon. There is a very large farm worker/migrant population there. Old Town Woodburn even looks much like Mexico with all the shops and eateries and signs in Spanish. Except there's toilet paper and you can drink the water.

There were 17 high school kids and 3 chaperones. (One of the chaperones was Sharon Stevenson from OLS--we had a fun time together.) We slept on the floor of an office in an apartment complex built specifically to house farm workers and their families.

We spent most mornings working at a construction site near PCUN (which is a farm workers' union and service organization) which will house several different service agencies when it is finished. They also have a radio station there. (Some of the kids went on the air on a talk show one day.) They are building a "passive energy" building mostly on volunteer labor. Then in the afternoons we went to a community center in another apartment complex similar to the one we were staying in. They have a community center there and an activities program for the local kids similar to Portland Parks & Rec's summer programs. Complete with free lunch, which is what we ate every day, lol!!! (The boys had a chicken nugget eating contest one day with the leftovers. The results were not pretty...)

Then before dinner we had presentations on various issues such as agricultural work issues, immigration and border issues, etc. Then we'd have a fabulous dinner prepared for us by some local women at PCUN! Then in the evenings we had more presentations, discussions, etc, and also some fun time. Went swimming at the local pool (only place we could find to get a shower!), listened to a mariachi band in the park one night, went to the fireworks show in another park, and went out for ice cream at a Mexican nieveria. (I had one dip of Sweet Corn ice cream and one of Mexican chocolate... YUM!)

The most interesting and hard day was when we went to spend a day in the fields! The kids were saying how it would be so much fun to work in the fields picking berries and such. So the program coordinator said well, that could be arranged! Berry picking didn't work out, though, as strawberries were just finished and blueberries hadn't started yet. So we went to St. Josef's winery and pruned grapevines a good part of the day! I found it very interesting. But boy were we sore afterwards, as it was kind of like doing squats for 6 hours straight!!!

On Friday night we went to a party/discussion group/open mike night at PCUN. Javier (one of the guys that worked there and a frequent speaker and runs the radio station) made ceviche with tofu instead of fish that was FABULOUS!! It was the biggest pot of ceviche imaginable!! Erubiel (in charge of the construction) played the guitar, a song that he had written in honor of the last Space Shuttle flight. Then one of Javier's friends named Rudolfo taught us some Merenge dancing, which was fun but pretty hilarious. Especially as everyone was really sore and some of the moves would have all of us groaning at the same time! Then Javier's son tried to teach us some traditional Mexican dancing (he's like 11 years old and actually dances professionally). That was REALLY hilarious as he is like 11 going on 35 and was REALLY trying to be positive and encouraging even as we were obviously failing miserably. It's kind of like Irish dancing with much fancy footwork.

Anyway, it was a great week. Got home about midnight Friday, then out the door at a bit after 4am to head to the Kent, Washington dragon boat race!! Weather was beautiful, and I ended up racing on two teams. The Bridge City Gold women's team was in need of a few more paddlers. Gold is their recreational team, Blue is their competitive team. (Blue was full of women who all look like Jill Marie, Heather's old amazingly fit swim coach.) No medals, but we came very close to one in the women's division!

Sunday we mostly had a lazy day puttering about the house. The weather has been beautiful this week. About 80 and sunny most of the time. Summer might actually be here soon!! We went to church, then stopped at a farmer's market in the Woodstock area. Got a bunch of veggies, and some of the last of the Oregon strawberries (which I am about to turn into strawberry/raspberry/rhubarb pie). Spent the afternoon in the back yard doing things like shelling peas and hanging laundry out to dry. Made a big stir fry for dinner out of some of the veggies. Oh, I now have some corn growing along with my pumpkins. Either the squirrels or jays have been taking corn out of the feeder and burying it, and some started growing in one of my newly started flower areas. So I just transplanted them to the raised beds. We'll see if the growing season is long enough to get any corn!

BTW, Heather-- as I am writing I am munching on Choc-kits and drinking some kind of wine from South Africa that has a cheetah on the label, lol!

Let's see... any other news...? Hiked up Mt. Tabor with Natalie this morning despite my still sore leg muscles. Bought "event chairs" today (the short sand chair type of folding chairs) for going to Trek in the Park next weekend and a Peter Frampton concert next month! Lindsay and Sawyer's wedding is this coming Saturday, which I will leave the Highland Games a bit early for. Jaxom will be visiting from Arizona, so Therese and I will be at the Games with the boys. Well, not Nick as he is Lindsay's "Man of Honor" so will be occupied with wedding stuff all day, lol! Eli is supposed to leave to the Navy on July 26th, I believe. Nora is supposed to get her nun's habit and a new nun name on July 27th. I don't think there's much else to share, and I'm rather tired of removing Sophie from the keyboard so I think I shall wrap this up. Adios!

Instant Karma, Parkour Beetle, and It's a Small World After All..

It actually turned into summer a few days early here in Oregon!! It's been almost 80 and sunny since July 1st, and here it is the 4th and still sunny! Weird! Anyway, we took advantage of the weather and went backpacking!

Headed out to the Clackamas River for a fairly flat hike at a low elevation so at least we wouldn't freeze overnight. Nick and I had been talking about an overnight backpack for a couple weeks but the weather kept turning nasty. Since it was now a weekend, we talked Stan into going, too. Lucky thing for us, too-- I had been reading the map to the trailhead upside-down and would have been about 25 miles off on locating it!!

So we did arrive, and headed out, trudging up every slight incline as if it were a mountain. About halfway to our destination, I started getting a blister and stopped to put on some moleskin. Stan HATES stopping for anything while hiking. I sat down on a kinda tippy log. While waiting Nick sat next to me and Stan was on the far end of the same log. When I was ready, I got up, Nick got up, and the log shifted and sent Stan rolling off backward!! He ended up in a berry bush patch like a turtle on its back--arms and legs flailing as he had the full backpack on! He was kinda grumpy about it until we got him up, relatively unscathed. Then he laughingly admitted he should have seen that coming. He sat in that spot purposely trying to tip the log up with me on it, but Nick had sat down first and it wouldn't move!! Instant Karma's gonna get you every time, lol!

Once at our charming little campsite by the river, we made dinner and hung out. We were greatly entertained by a wacky beetle that wanted to hang out in the middle of camp. Stan had used a stick to stir dinner with, and this beetle found the stick and absolutely WALLOWED all over it! Then he'd go plow directly through nearby sticks and rocks and barkdust to check out the other sticks in the area. None of them were apparently as exciting, so shorly he'd barrel directly back to the yummy stick and wallow some more! It was amazing the direct line over, under, and through everything he would take! Eventually Stan moved our Parkour Beetle and his favorite stick out of camp so we didn't accidently step on him.

It was amazing how it was a sunny 4th of July weekend and almost no one else was out hiking there. While we were camping, we only had one hiker go by on the trail. He gave a perfunctory "hi", and Nick said "hello". Then they both stopped and went, "WAIT!" "WHAT?" "WHAT?" "REALLY?" "HEY!!!" Turns out Nick knows him from PSU where they are both Geology majors, LOL!!!

So... It was a really nice time, though somehow I tweaked my back and I'm REALLY sore this morning. Not good timing as I'm leaving this afternoon for a week long mission trip with teens from church. Ce la vie...

Cats Everywhere!

The folks across the street have an additional cat AND 4 kittens now! The kittens are of course DARLING! They are about 11 weeks old and just now starting to hang out outside. Apparently Mr. T won't go in the house with them, which is why we've seen him hanging out more lately. Anyway, the momma cat is mostly medium-haired black with what looks like brownish fuzzy riding chaps on, and is named...(wait for it....)

BLACKIE!

That's Blackie with Maleka, and Baby rolling around in the background.

Then Blackie has 4 kittens. Three of them are black.


One looks just like his momma and the other 2 look just like Rhys as a baby, awwwwww......!

And then there's the last one...

Does this little guy look like Sophie or what?

By the way, Professor McGonagall still hangs out each morning.



And so do the teenager crows. :-)

Birds of Namibia 2

Here are a handful of additional birds to look for in the thornveld of Namibia...

Acacia Pied Barbet
About 7 inches long. It is colored with a red forehead, bright yellow eyebrow, and broad white stripe behind the eye. It has a black throat, white underparts and a black back with narrow yellow streaking. The immature has a black, not red, forehead. The call of this species is either a nasal "nehh-nehh", repeated at intervals, or a hoopoe-like "doo-doo-doo". Found alone or in pairs in dry broad-leafed woodland, thornveld and scrub, this common resident avoids true desert.

African Hoopoe
About 11 inches long, this species is easily identified by the combination of a cinnamon-colored body, black and white barred wings and tail, and long decurved bill. The female is duller than the male withless white in the wings; the immature is duller than the female. The black-tipped crest is often kept closed but when the bird is alarmed it is held erect. Its call is a soft, frequently uttered "hoop-hoop-hoop". This common resident inhabits thornveld, open broadleafed woodland, parks and gardens. (This bird is frequently mentioned in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books.)

Cardinal Woodpecker
Just 6 inches long, this is the smallest woodpecker in the region. It appears black and white all over. The male has a brown forehead and a red nape (back of the neck); the female lacks the red nape. The immature has a red crown and a black nape. This bird is sometimes difficult to locate, but its incessant soft tapping on wood and high-pitched "krrrek-krrrek-krrrek" call reveal its position. It frequents a wide range of habitats from thornveld to thick forest.

Lesser Honeyguide
Overall a dull, greyish bird with an unmarked grey head, a greenish wash on the wing coverts, dark moustachial stripes and conspicuous white outer-tail feathers. The immature lacks the moustachial stripes of the adult. This bird is easily detected by its distinctive "klew klew klew" call. It occurs in woodland, forsts and thornveld, and has adapted to suburban gardens. This common resident is often seen interacting with its host, the Acacia Pied Barbet.

Redbilled Hornbill
About 18 inches long. Similar to the Southern Yellowbilled Hornbill, this species has a shorter, more slender, all-red bill. It is also slightly smaller. The display call is a "kokwe-kokwe-kokwe"; in calling display the head is lowered and the wings held closed. This bird usually occurs singly or in pairs in thornveld and mopane woodland and is the most common small hornbill in the central and northern areas.

Heather, Do What I Say, Not What I Do!

Yeah, ok, so I haven't posted anything in a week and a half. Sorry, it's just that SOOOOO much excitement has been going on here... *yawn*

So, briefly, what's been happening here the last couple weeks, in no particular order...

Finally planted some vegetables in the raised beds I built last year! One of them now contains cauliflower, green onions, leeks, artichoke, anaheim pepper, and a bunch of different kinds of tomatoes. The other one is planted to attract The Great Pumpkin come fall. It has 3 different pumpkin plants and some seeds for a 4th variety. And one butternut squash. Sure to be "The Most Sincere" pumpkin patch!!

Speaking of Pumpkins, we joined a local farm produce co-op thing (there's an actual name for it but I forget...), so we get a random box of whatever is being harvested that week on the farm. And The Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island is "our" farm! We got strawberries this week, which are FINALLY getting ripe. Usually the local strawberry season is done by now, but the weather is still like early May perhaps. Anyway, so far we've also got rhubarb, bok choy, salad greens, onions, broccoli, cabbage, and radishes from the farm.

Like I said, it's not particularly warm here yet, but at least the incessant rain has many more long pauses now. On the official first day of summer, it actually got up to 80 degrees!! That is the 3rd day so far this year that it hit 80. We've only had 12 days that hit 70. It's mostly about 65 and cloudy now. Anyway, with the decrease in rain, I've been getting out and doing much more exercise. Natalie and I have been walking up Mt. Tabor together 2 or 3 times a week. Nick and I went on a 15 mile bike ride on that glorious sunny first day of summer. (BTW, we actually saw a raccoon and a heron along the Springwater Trail bike path!) Stan and I have joined the Stumptown dragonboat team for the summer, and will be racing in Kent, Washington in a couple weeks. Ohhhhh I got spoiled being the tiller this season! I am NOT in good paddling shape! Also trying to get to yoga and pilates classes in the mornings still. Anyway, while I have lost about 8 pounds (combining work outs and Weight Watchers) I have gained a rather sore hip this week. :-(

I also have Nick working on house projects. He finished edging the planting area along the back wall with paving bricks, and is working a bit at a time on Heather's favorite project--beating dirt out of removed sod so it can go away in the yard debris recycling, YAY! :-)

Last weekend it did rain a lot on Saturday, and Stan decided to rearrange all the furniture! :-/ So now Heather's room is the tv room, (even from halfway around the world I'm bracing for the "WOT???????") and the living room is all twisted around. It all looks rather strange, especially as all the pictures are on the walls in rather odd places now. Don't want to rehang everything until we decide if it's actually staying this way for a while.

For Father's Day we hosted a brunch with all the kids currently in the country. Plus Alex's girlfriend Alix. (Who we hope will be "one of the kids" someday!) Maria made the most amazing cake!! She is quite artistic in many media! Stan really wanted to go to this automobile exhibit at the Portland Art Museum, but as it turned out, all the tickets were sold out. (It's a timed-entry affair.) So I guess they're going next Saturday. Oh, yeah, and Colleen is coming back from China on Friday next week! Once again, she actually arrives in Seattle before she leaves Beijing!

For the local wildlife report, it is crow fledging season, with the adults yelling and dive-bombing people, and many teenager crows flapping about being comically klutzy and disheveled and yelling "MEH" at people. We have this orange and white cat in the neighborhood that has taken to spending the morning sitting on our garden wall by the street. I keep suspecting Professor McGonagall is looking for someone. Maybe Jacob's destined for Hogwarts, lol!!! And one morning this week, when I hadn't seen Sophie for a while (our indoor cat), I heard banging and scratching on our front screen door. I went to tell Sophie to knock it off! She likes to hang out on the front porch and occasionally climb the screen. But she wasn't on the porch. So I looked outside to see what was making the noise, expecting to see Mr. T, the cat across the street. But NOOOOO, I look out and see SOPHIE sitting on our front steps yelling at me!! Not sure how she got out or how long she'd been outside....

Been reading the most fascinating book about the influenza epidemic of 1918. Picked it up because I'm trying to alternate "meaty" books with "junk food" ones. And it looked kinda interesting. And it was a dollar at the church book sale. Anyway, more about that later perhaps.

Today, tried to do my nails (FAIL!!), went to yoga, then Costco, then went and got my nails professionally done (keeps me from chewing on them), then to the nearby fruit & veggie stand, home for lunch (smoothie!!!), now blogging since I tell Heather I want to see hers twice a week and here it's been way longer than that for me, next up is walk to Fred Meyer for assorted items on the grocery list, then make dinner and a strawberry-rhubarb pie, then dragonboat practice! I told Nick we'd go on an overnight backpack hike tomorrow, so I better do some prep for that as well. Probably ought to water flowers, too. They've been predicting rain for 3 days straight, but there's only been clouds so far. Must run or the pie won't happen and Oregon strawberries, though way delicious, have a notoriously short shelf life! TTFN!

Birds of Namibia

Here's a few birds for Heather to look for in Namibia! I'm starting with some medium-sized birds that my book says live in the CCF area and may have some green on them...

Diederik Cuckoo
(7 inches long)

This bird can be distinguished by the contrasting bottle-green and white plumage, broad white eye-stripe, white spots on the forewing and red eye. The immature has a conspicuous red bill. During the summer the 'dee-dee-dee-deederic' call is heard around the colonies of the weavers and bishops that these birds parasitize. This common summer visitor occurs in open grasslands with stands of trees, in thornveld and exotic plantations, avoiding extreme arid regions.

European Bee-eater (11 inches long)

This is the only bee-eater in the region with a chestnut crown and mantle. In flight a dazzling array of colors can be seen; it has a chestnut to golden back contrasting with torquoise-blue underparts and almost translucent rufous wings. The immature differs from the adult by having a green back and pale blue underparts. Groups in flight utter a far-carrying, policeman's whistle-like, characteristic 'prrrup' call. This common summer visitor occurs in thornveld, open broad-leafed woodland and adjacent grassy areas.

Swallowtailed
Bee-eater (9 inches long)

This is the only bee-eater in the region to have, as the name indicates, a forked tail. It is also identified by its yellow throat, blue collar, blue-green underparts and blue tail. The immature shows the forked tail, but lacks the yellow throat and blue collar. It utters a soft twittering, and calls 'kwit-kwit'. A common resident of Namibia, this bird frequents a diverse range of habitats from semi-desert scrub to moist, evergreen forests.

Lilacbreasted Roller (13 inches long)

In flight this bird shows a range of pale and dark blues in the wings. The lilac breast and elongated, pointed outertail feathers can be seen at rest. The immature resembles the adult, but lacks the long outertail feathers. When displaying, the male utters harsh squawks and screams. It occurs in a range of habitats from thornveld to open broadleafed woodland and is frequently seen on telephone wires and poles along roadsides. It is common in the more wooded and thornveld regions of Namibia.

Purple Roller (13 inches long)

This is the largest roller in southern Africa and is easily identified by its broad, pale eyebrow stripe and lilac-brown underparts streaded with white. The immature is a duller version of the adult. In display flight this bird utters a harsh, repeated 'karaa-karaa' while flying with an exaggerated, side-to-side rocking motion. It is found in dry thornveld and open broad-leafed woodland. This roller is a common resident in Namibia, with some local movement in certain areas of the region.

Soooo, the first couple of birds turn out to be listed as summer birds, but sounds like the others hang about year-round. The crimson-breasted shrike is listed as about 9 inches long, btw. I'm guessing the common green birds around CCF are Swallowtailed Bee-eaters, but let me know!

Cool Runnings (Except with Dragon Boats instead of Bobsleds)

It's Rose Festival Dragon Boat Race weekend! With our ragtag bunch of beginner paddlers we hoped to:
1. Have enough paddlers show up to fill most of the boat.
2. NOT come in dead last. Or something like 20 seconds behind everyone else in our heats. If we keep our fingers crossed and do extraordinarily well, we're hoping MAYBE we can get a medal in Division 4. (Even though you generally have to beat a blind team, a deaf team and the Special Dragons to get there. *sigh*)
3. Have some decent weather.
4. Eat lots of Fran's rice balls.
5. Have some fun!

About half the team showed up for our last practice on Wednesday night. Not unusual. Every practice we wonder if we will have the minimum of 10 show up to be able to go out on the water at all. Often Fran recruits a couple people from other teams, or even random tourists, to go out with us so we can practice at all! Everyone was told to show up on race day NO LATER THAN 8:30 am. Preferably 8:15. Or earlier. Lennie contacted everyone else later to let them know.

Race Day. 8:30 am. We arrive at our tent. Stan looks around and asks, "Well, do we have enough people to go out?" Of the 25 people on the roster, there are 5 at the tent so far. Plus Austin is rumored to be off smoking somewhere, and Lennie, Fran and Keegan are at the coach's meeting. That's 9.... So almost enough! (Of course a full boat requires 19-- 16 paddlers, a tiller, a caller, and a flag catcher.)

Thankfully the day's off to a slow start as there are random boats anchored in the Willamette along the race course! So while the race officials move the finish line and the Coast Guard tries to get the boats moved, we do have more time before our race anyway.

By 9:30 (our original marshalling time) we're still a bench short and we haven't heard from either of the flag catchers.

As we head to the marshalling area, two more paddlers show up and Robert the flagcatcher calls Keegan and says he is there but can't find us. The paddlers didn't bring their team shirts. Lennie goes back to the tent to round up a couple extra shirts. Robert finds us, but is wearing the red team shirt from 2 years ago. Lennie goes back and gets him a shirt, too! Now we're off to our first race!

The first heat we got 3rd place, with 2nd & 3rd VERY close. We were ECSTATIC not to be last!! Then the next heat we got 2nd place!!

We were placed in Division 3, which was in itself a big improvement from last year. We were happy with that even though it meant we probably wouldn't get any medals this year.

Sunday morning. Quarter final race. We're matched with teams that had similar times to our best the day before. We feel we have a good chance of getting a 2nd place, or at least the "fastest 3rd" and advancing to the semi-finals. If we can get a good start. And keep the timing together. And no one pulls out. Yeah, we could do it.

We're lined up at the start in lane 2. The boat in lane 1 is awfully close to us and starts to draw right just as the starter judge calls alignment and the horn blows...

GO!! Our right side paddles are occasionally intertwined with Lane 1's left. I am on my lane, though, with the flag sited right between the dragon horns, and I am NOT moving out of their way unless we will actually crash! We are exactly even all the way down the race course, with rarely more than a foot or two between the paddles! With that craziness going on beside us, we have no notion of where the other 2 boats are compared to us. Stay the course, don't crash, stay on the lane, don't crash, watch the flag, watch the paddles, don't crash, flag..... As Robert climbed onto the dragon head, all I could see was his hand and the oncoming flag...GOT IT! Apparently the boat in Lane 1 had to veer off slightly to the right to get their flag, so we WON THE QUARTER-FINAL! And... broke 3 minutes! 2:57 was 10 seconds faster than the day before!

I was surprised how exhausted I was when I got off the boat! Clyde, who runs the tiller clinic, was standing on the dock when I got off the boat. I gave him a big hug and said "Thank you SOOOO much for that tiller clinic!!!" He looked a bit surprised and said, "So...it was helpful then?"

Rob came back to the tent a while later with the line-up for the semi-final race. All the other teams in our heat had previously beat our best time by at least 5-7 seconds. We told each other that if we could pull together all the best of what we've done so far, we could get a 2nd place and move on to the finals. WE CAN DO IT ZEN!!!!

We headed down to the dock, loaded the boat, and had a while to wait as the Portland Spirit wanted through the race course. While we sat there we took a couple pictures, and Fran gave us the MOST AWESOME PEP TALK EVER. "You guys have done just AWESOME this season," she began. "This will be our last race together, but you have all done SO good and pulled together SO well..."

"FRAAAAN!!!! Ok, we might have been thinking it, but we weren't going to SAY it! What kind of a pep talk is that?!?" "Oh!", laughed Fran, putting her hand to her mouth. "Did I really say that out loud?"

So...we lined up in Lane 4, got off to an awesome start, and all four teams were dead even all across the race course. Nearing the end of the course, I thought we MIGHT be pulling ever so slightly ahead! So I called the end of the race a little early, with a "WE'RE IN THE LEAD!! FINISH IT WITH EVERYTHING!!"

Fran can never hear me call the finish, but Keegan at lead stroke can, so she always looks up and repeats it to Fran. Keegan told me later that while looking at the other lead stroke, she could see the three other dragon heads even with us through the whole race. But between the time she looked up at Fran and looked back at Rob, the other dragons were gone.

We had actually surged forward that much! WE WON the semi-final race by more than 2 seconds!!! Time: 2:53. Apparently the race announcer was going on excitedly about how they'd never seen anything quite like this!

Ya know, we might actually be able to win this! Wouldn't it be great to be able to present PCC with a trophy that says 1st Place!! (Lennie's been working really hard to get the school to pitch in more money for the team--they paid all the entry fees for 2 races this year plus a bus to go to Olympia this year. He's looking for more races and some team equipment for next year...)

Final race. We're feeling pretty good about this one. "Paddlers prepare to start...GO! "ONE! TWO! CRACK! Suddenly we're not going anywhere. Keegan says she looked at the other boats and thought, "Where are they going?!?" A couple people in the middle stopped paddling. Timing was way off. Ryan turned and shouted something to Lennie, who was in the back row. Lennie stopped paddling and yelled up the boat. Sky quit paddling, and with a paddle HANDLE held aloft, turned and yelled "WHAT DO I DO NOW????"

Lennie handed the extra paddle up to our powerful midstroke, but by then there was no catching up. Apparently the paddle broke in spectacular fashion on about the 3rd stroke and pieces of it flew and hit other paddlers. No one was injured but everyone was quite startled! Sky had tried to just keep paddling with the handle, having been programmed by Fran that, "No matter what happens, the most important thing is to keep in time!"

We actually came in just a couple seconds behind the rest of the pack. Keegan and Sky were pretty bummed about losing until Sky got to carry the broken paddle around, and get everyone's awed reaction to the story!! And we do have a 4th Place trophy, medals, and something else no other team has--the Power of Thor Trophy and a really great story about how to lose an epic race in epic fashion.

The Endless To-Do List

People often ask "what have you been doing lately?" and I find myself saying, "not much, but I've been really busy!" which always makes me wonder what in the world I'm wasting all my time on. So I decided to actually make a list of what I DID do today...

Wake up at 4am when Nick's alarm went off. (Apparently he thought he might do some last minute studying for finals...*sigh*)
Get up and have coffee with Stan, get dressed to let Nick drive to school. (Driving practice. Though he decided to take the bus to study more.)
Filled out additional financial aid paperwork for MHCC. Spent 45 minutes on hold to find out which on-line form they wanted me to use.
Breakfast (cereal)
Yoga class
Reschedule a bank appointment as I am double-booked for this evening (oops)
Process a return of defective shoes to Zappos, including repacking defective item.
Take package to UPS Store
Return a purse (grandma purchase) to JC Penney
Fill out an online survey to get airline miles
Eat lunch (cottage cheese & pineapple, not too time consuming)
Answer a number of text messages from my mom
Water new plants and spread bark dust
Look into international phone card options so I can call Heather on her cell phone in Namibia (more time on hold to call for the details...)
Check Facebook a few times. Wish my niece Ashley a Happy Birthday. Check to see if Heather has a new blog post. Several times. (HINT HINT HEATHER!!!!! YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY BEAT THIS BLOG FOR "NOTHING EXCITING" SO THERE! JUST DO IT!)
Pay a couple bills (Wheaton's bookstore, PGE)
Chase off a guy at the front door very determined to sell us steaks
Return a pile of Claire's junk mail
Clean off the mailbox 'cause a bird pooped on it. A big bird.
Play phone tag with Natalie throughout the day (we're supposed to go for a walk, but it's now 2:30...)
Check Colleen's Blog to see if there's a new entry (no, but she just posted on Sunday.)
Notice that AAAAAACK! I have another follower on my blog! Oh! Hi Naida! :-)
Load and run dishwasher (including redoing the "clean" party dishes that Sophie wallowed on this morning...)
Take the party dishes out to the shed and pack in the bin they belong in
Talk to my mom on the phone
Do a couple loads of laundry
Walk up Mt Tabor with Natalie. (We finally connected)
Make dinner for Stan
Shower, change clothes, etc.
Go to meeting at church for upcoming Los Embajadores mission trip I'm chaperoning. THAT took up 3 hours...
Stop at Fred Meyer to buy birthday card for Nora Nordmark (a belated one by now... Can't just send her an internet greeting while she's off becoming a nun!)

Highlights of Tomorrow's List:
Water Aerobics class
Read with the 2nd graders at Holy Family School
Drive down to Eugene to move Maria back from U of O for the summer
Dragonboat Practice! (last one before Rose Fest this weekend!)

Darn! No lounging about watching tv and eating bonbons...

What a Fabulous Summer it Was.... *contented sigh...*

It actually hit 80 degrees on Saturday!!! AND it was sunny!!! Started off the morning with Therese, having COCONUT LATTES at Starbucks! While I was lounging around gabbing and sipping coffee, Stan was at home digging out turf from the yard where we planned to put in a walkway.

Then I headed home and Stan & I went off to dragonboat practice. In warm sunshine!! It was glorious, but also the biggest challenge I've had yet as tiller. The wind was also blowing pretty hard, lots of speed boats were out, and the river is still really high with the current running really fast. I was actually sore the next day from hauling on the till so hard! Anyway, the funniest thing was... Well, it seems every time we run a practice race there is some slow-moving vehicle that decides to park right in the middle of the race lane. We've had fishing boats, stand-up paddle boards, rafted speed boats, a sailboat, a paddle boat, kayaks, etc all decide to hover there when it's race time!! Well this time beats all, though...

A PLANE ended up sitting in our way!!! (This picture was taken before we went out on the boats...)

Then we went home and mostly finished the path project. I'd forgotten quite how warm 80 degrees is! (I'm NOT complaining!!) I say "we", but really Stan did most of the work. I mostly piled sod, went to the store for supplies and cooked dinner.

Sunday we got up and went to church. Then we did much work preparing the yard and cleaning house in order to host Patrick's birthday party at 5pm. I made some food, too, though Patrick's mom brought a lot of the food. It was actually quite nice! Let's see... it was Stan & I & Nick, Alex & Alix, Patrick & Alisha, and their friends Dylan & Nicki and their 2 little ones Devin and Elizabeth (they are 4 and 2), and Trey. Val and Teresa & Leo, Mary & Ladd and Edna. I'm so glad it didn't rain!! About 8 o'clock as the party was winding down it started sprinkling, then a distant thunderstorm!We sat in the gazebo for a long time watching the lightning. It never really did rain much here, but it was a good show.

Today I finished planting flowers in the newly constructed pathways. I also met with the faculty advisor for the Travel & Tourism certificate program at Mt. Hood Community College. HOPEFULLY I have everything filled out that I need from him now, as it took months (literally) to manage to set up a meeting with him. Then he was 35 minutes late to this one. But I'm excited to do this next year. Stan's off getting a haircut, Nick's taking his Physics final and I'm about to heat up some leftovers for dinner before we head off to dragonboat practice. (Rose Festival is this weekend!!!)

Now it's back to being drizzly and about 58 degrees out. Summer was great while it lasted...

I Can't Figure Out How to Post a Comment on My Own Blog!

I give up. Ok, so I will make a new post to answer Heather's comment on the Birthday BBQ post. :-(

You reminded me--you must get me a fridge magnet! At CCF's museum store if they have them or wherever the opportunity should arise.

I love the bird photos, and as a matter of fact I have been "birding" all afternoon! I just posted some names and info about the ones I could identify on your Facebook album.

I can't believe I didn't post about the Indy 500 winner! No, Helio Castroneves didn't win this year. But it was wild! Here's the story basics courtesy of the LA Times:

Dan Wheldon won his second Indianapolis 500 in a wild finish in which California rookie J.R. Hildebrand had the victory in his grasp but crashed on the final turn.

Hildebrand, conserving fuel when others were forced to pit, passed defending winner Dario Franchitti with only a few laps remaining and was leading Wheldon when the white flag came out to signal the final lap at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

But as the 23-year-old Hildebrand entered Turn 4, he slammed into the wall. He kept his car moving forward but not fast enough to prevent Wheldon from passing him to reach the checkered flag first.

"I just kept pushing," Wheldon told a television audience after he took a gulp from the celebratory bottle of milk in Victory Lane. Choking back tears, he said, "I never gave up. It's just an incredible day."

Hildebrand settled for second, Graham Rahal was third and Tony Kanaan fourth.

Wheldon, a British driver, won the Indy 500 in 2005, but after winless seasons in 2009-10, he failed to get a full-time ride this season. But a group led by veteran driver Bryan Herta hired Wheldon to at least drive in this year's Indy 500.

So basically, Hildebrand's crashed car at least kept moving forward and it slid across the finish line in 2nd place!

In other news, it's still raining. (Not really news by now.) I survived going to the gym this morning for the first time in about a month. We're planning to work this weekend on making the path in the backyard from the deck to the gazebo and shed, so I went shopping for some of the supplies. Lindsay is supposed to come over for dinner tonight and not sure yet what we're having. (It was going to be chicken salad, which would ordinarily be ok minus the chicken part, but I already put bacon and eggs in it. Lindsay is a vegetarian if you'll recall, and I don't really want to make her pick bacon bits out.) BTW, did I mention before that Lindsay and Sawyer have handed their honeymoon planning off to...Nick and Jordan???!?!? Scary!!

I also think I managed to change the settings on this blog to notify Heather by email when I post. Let me know if it works! I just can't figure out how to make it let me post a comment on my own blog!!

I Don't Love Dragonboats as Much When It's 40-Some Degrees and Raining and the Team is Whining

*Sigh* I probably don't need to go on much more about that. It was so... whiney... we actually went back into the docks 15 minutes early. *Sigh*

In other exciting news, it's actually NOT raining at the moment but is expected to again momentarily. HOWEVER... If the weather report is correct, we should actually see 2 days of 80 degrees and sunshine this weekend!!!! Then it's supposed to go back to cool and rainy though. The rivers are higher than at any time since the Flood of 1996. Plants (including wine grapes, oh no!) are growing almost 2 months behind what's normal. We've also had a number of black bears wander into Portland and Vancouver in the past week or so. Tualitin Elementary School was closed yesterday as they tried to remove a bear hanging out on the playground! He was safely relocated back to the coast range, and another one hanging out in Vancouver was taken to the Mt. St. Helens area last night. Apparently the plants they usually eat are extremely slow to come out this year due to the weather, so bears are wandering into town looking for food. It's still snowing in Government Camp, too. Pretty much the weather here is still about the same as it was spring break.

Nice weather over the weekend would be particularly nice as we're supposed to be hosting Patrick's birthday party on Sunday, including some of Alisha's family (Patrick's soon-to-be inlaws that we have not even met yet). Patrick and Alisha have planned a wedding date in August 2012, but they're now talking of moving it up sooner. I don't think we're expected to come up with any cows, though. ;-)

The K103 radio DJ's are at Disneyland today! WANT!!! One more month and I will start planning my birthday trip next year. Gotta wait 'til we're in the 11 month window in order to do the plane tickets. We should have enough Alaska miles to get 3 free tickets I hope.

Yesterday I read with the 2nd graders, and now I want to know how that Goosebumps book ends, aaargh! Then I went to Ross to try and find some pants. Despite spending a couple hours trying on an entire cartload of stuff I came home empty-handed. Today.... hoping my Photographic Guide to the Birds of Namibia arrives today as scheduled. Before then I'm going to try to get myself to the gym, which I kinda haven't done in about a month. Between all the travelling (Hawaii and Massachusetts) and Grandma visiting, I've really gotten off track. Though Nick will also want to drive to school shortly. (Still trying to get enough practice in to get his license.) If I'm going to make it to yoga class I better run get ready now BYE!

I LOVE DRAGONBOATS!!

So just a quick update between printing boarding passes for my mom's flight home tomorrow and Stan wanting the computer to look at rack systems for the KIA. We bought a kayak today! Yellow for me... matches the rest of my fleet, lol! Stan ordered a red one for himself which will hopefully arrive at REI in a week to 10 days from now. (He really wanted the "stan blue" one, but they were all out even for special order.)In the absence of a car rack we kind of just stuffed it in the trunk and bungeed it everywhere. (Stan was concerned that we didn't have a red flag to dangle on it, but I am certain NO ONE would be able to claim they didn't see 4 feet of BRIGHT YELLOW kayak poking out the back of the car like a lemon colored land shark.)

We also got much of the shed cleaned out. Shed cleaning usually occurs every time my mom visits. The cars all get extraordinarily clean as well. Anyway, the shed went from can't-get-in-the-doors to can-actually-stash-2-kayaks-and-still-walk-through!

Oh, yeah, dragonboats! It actually got over 60 degrees out this afternoon and THE SUN came out just in time for dragonboat practice! Jeffrey the Blue Heron greeted us at the boat, there were piles of Canada Geese with herds of fluffy, adorable babies, and swallows feeding babies in nests under the Ross Island bridge! Beautiful evening. The river is really high--the walkway to the docks, which is usually at about a 45 degree angle, is nearly horizontal now. The water is up almost to the walkway around Waterfront Park. It's not flooding like in 1996 by any means, but higher than at any time since then I hear.

Stan is hovering...I must go!

Birthday Barbeque Success

Sooooo.... It actually stopped raining for a little while yesterday, and we actually were able to have an outside barbeque for my birthday! At least we managed 1 hour & 18 minutes before the rain started and we retreated to the house. (It was only about 55 degrees out so too cold to hang out under the gazebo once the rain started...) Attending were Natalie, Therese & John, Nick and Stan and Grandma, Patrick and Alex & Alix. Alex & Alix came by on their way back into town from Bend. They went to Bend to see a Death Cab for Cutie concert and had camped at Tumulo State Park--where it snowed! Natalie gave me a very silly pair of wine glasses in a leopard print. I think I will ask her where she got them--those would be great to donate to the cheetah auction in October, along with a bottle of wine perhaps. I think there's one from South Africa that has a cheetah on the label even. Oh yeah! The CCF Gala in Windhoek is on July 15th so Heather will still be in Namibia for it! That according to the event calendar on the CCF website.

Spent this morning watching the Indianapolis 500 which was pretty great this year. I put out my race flag, which is bigger and lighter than most of my decorative flags. So it was fluttering in the wind a lot and Sophie kept growling at it!!

Otherwise have had a pretty lazy day. Took grandma to JoAnn and Value Village and have seen way too much television. Was enjoying America's Funniest Home Videos until she got annoyed that I was laughing. *sigh* Ordered a guide to the Birds of Namibia so I can try to identify the bird photos that Heather sent me. :-) Went to REI with Stan to return a couple items and looked at kayaks.

Nick's out having tea with Lindsay at Townsend's. Stan went to church tonight since we were watching the Indy 500 this morning.

Damien called me from England for my birthday! And Natalie also gave me a pile of refrigerator magnets from England, including a ROYAL WEDDING FRIDGE MAGNET!!!!!

We Don't Need Sunglasses in Oregon. Just Rain Gear and Fleece. In May.

Yes it is the END of May and still 40-some degrees out. Grandma arrived Tuesday. I still couldn't get the top back on the Jeep right so I had to fetch Grandma from the airport in rain and 48 degrees with the top KIND of on and only one window half zipped in. She was actually a good sport about it and just pulled out a scarf to keep her hair from getting messed up!

We've mostly been shopping and cooking and watching TV. Kirstie Alley did NOT win Dancing With the Stars and Scotty DID win American Idol. Oprah Winfrey did her last show. And Sara Palin is talking about actually running for President. That ought to liven up the news if she does!

Got some of Heather's Africa pictures printed out and started a photo album for Grandma. And a scrapbook for here. Needs some Lion King stickers. Definitely.

Grandma wanted to buy clothes for my birthday. (Of course--though I really prefer to get flowers for the yard this time of year.) So we went to Penney's and I found 2 dresses I quite like! I'll be wearing them for weddings and Broadway shows, etc this summer.

Stan just accused me of writing an essay (I'm typing on my phone while in bed) and started reciting the Gettysburg address. I found I could pick up after the first paragraph and recite most of the rest of it--I had to memorize it in 7TH GRADE! My brain is so full of unnecessary stuff!!

Also went to a meeting for Los Embajadores, which Sharon Stevenson is apparently still chaperoning but Steve is not. Officially registered for classes at Mt Hood Community College for fall. Read with the 2nd graders. (Mostly they were practicing reading mass parts because they were in charge of the school mass the next day.) Had dragonboat practice in cold drizzle on a high river with a racing current and a lot of wind. That was a good challenge actually. The kind where it wasn't boring but I didn't crash or fall in. Aaaand I continue to shovel out the house. Tomorrow I must really get on that as Stan is having a barbeque for my birthday on Saturday. But of course it's supposed to be cold and rainy.

Oh, yeah, Natalie came home from her trip to see Damien in England to find that her boyfriend Phil had moved out. Then she got laid off from her job. So starting next week we have plans to get together during the days and get some serious exercise.

Now the day sums up with my heater on, the windows open, the cat curled up on a blanket beside me and I'm typing a blog on my phone while at the same time trying to discuss who is Arab and who is not in the Middle East with Stan. I feel it would be helpful to have Liz's input. Or at least Google's. GOODNIGHT!

Then the Whole House Exploded

So the main task for the last few days has been shoveling out Heather's room, which was filled to the brim with stuff removed from Claire's house at the last moment before the house sale, boxes and suitcases of stuff Heather sent home from school, and random extra furniture. Except for the game table, all is removed from Heather's room enough that Grandma will be able to use that space now. HOWEVER, we now can't use much of the rest of the house.Note where Sophie is... *sigh* She's SOOO predictable!

So now I have a Jeep full of stuff to take to Value Village on the way to the airport to pick up Grandma.

Oh, btw, while I was going through Claire stuff I did a little research on two oil paintings she had. On the back they have a date (October 16, 1930) and some other writing in a foreign language.

Found out they are paintings of a couple of landmarks in the town of Hoorn in the Netherlands. There doesn't seem to be an author's signature anywhere, but it says (I think)"Baart's Kaashandel" where Baart seems to be a surname and kaashandel means a cheese merchant! So the mystery is still not completely solved...

The Hoofdtoren (a tower from the 1500's)

Oosterpoort, the last remaining city gate, also from the 1500's

Dinner with the President

Stan is eucharistic minister at church this morning so we had to be at church a half hour early so I'm blogging in the bathroom at church, lol! Anyway, yesterday I had coffee at Starbucks with Therese. It was great to see her for the first time in a LONG time, and super exciting that Starbucks had COCONUT LATTES back after a 4 year absence! I actually did a happy dance. Therese ordered one, too, and the barista says, "But you're not QUITE as excited about it though?" And Therese says "Actually I am, but I'm a bit more shy".

Then it was off to dragon boat practice where I didn't crash or fall in and we ran two practice races. We were the last boat out and had to haul in the practice flag buoy which was a bit of an adventure. Never did that before.

Then in the afternoon we headed up to Mt. Hood to the Mazama Lodge for a dinner and show. They had an actor who plays Teddy Roosevelt doing a dinner speech. He was very good and it was a very enjoyable evening. Max was all dressed up and playing maitre'd at the door. The food was fabulous of course. There's still snow up there, btw...

Soon-to-be FOUR College Students in the Family...

After driving to PSU with Nick (his driving practice) I spent the morning doing Mt Hood Community College's online orientation and then drove out to MHCC to meet with an admissions person, take my college transcripts so I don't have to do placement tests, etc. I wore my Boston sweatshirt which the admissions advisor was very excited about as she is from Boston! Anyway, I can officially register for Fall term next week now.

It's a Jeep-top-down kinda day! Though I did have the top down AND the heat cranked this morning as it was still in the upper 50's. Probably pushing 70 and sunny now and I'm working in the yard again. Planning out a walkway to the gazebo and shed from the deck. Sophie's napping in the shade.

Got an email from Colleen today. She had her visa extended a month so she can do some traveling in Chinaafter she is done with her job at the end of May. She's been reading Heather's blog, too. (Blog, Baby, Blog!)

Got some wildflower seeds, from Norton, Massachusetts btw, that I think I will fill one of the raised beds with. I liked having wildflower bouquets handy last year!

This weekend it's. supposed to rain again, so then it will be time to clean up the "guest room" for Grandma's arrival next Tuesday. It's kinda stuffed full of random stuff from Claire's house mostly ...

But for now enjoying the rare Portland sunshine!

I'm a REAL tiller now!

Yeah.... I managed to get dumped in the Willamette at dragonboat practice last night! Exact same spot that Keegan did it, pulling out of the dock where the wind and the current suddenly kick in. The good news is that it was almost 70 degrees out, and the only real injury was to my ego!

Otherwise I have spent most of the last couple days working on the yard, weeding and planting as it hasn't been raining.

About to put the top down on the Jeep and go run some errands. I think I need to go to a really far away grocery store today... Nick wants to make Monte Cristo sandwiches tonight, and we're pretty much out of all the staples so gotta go!

I just love the view from back here...

I LOVE TILLING A DRAGONBOAT! Last night we had our first practice at flag catching. Three runs with three different catchers and we got all three!! I also managed to get out of the docks without incident AND parked without having to draw! :-)

This morning I let Nick drive to school, then treated myself to Starbucks. By that time it wasn't quite so drizzly so I've been planting and weeding the yard. A bunch of the stuff in the planters at the end of the driveway have died off so I started to replace them. Found out why they're dying off-- the planters are filled with sand instead of dirt!! So I have to dig them out and fill in with dirt first. Aaaargh! That will happen another day for most of it as it's raining again now.

Now for an exciting afternoon of laundry and housecleaning... Then I'm cooking a chicken peanut satay stir fry for dinner. A little different even though it's technically stir fry and rice AGAIN....

While Heather's on a plane...

After several days of packing, sorting, mailing, and foisting Heather's posessions off on various roommates, we finally headed off to Logan Airport this morning. ("Morning" is used in the technical sense... 3 am doesn't feel like morning!) After she checked bags and headed for security, I had a good portion of the day left in Boston with a rental car. So I decided to head off to the Concord/Lexington area. I've never been there before but have often intended to.

First I needed to find a gas station. I tried to use my GPS but had a really hard time navigating in Boston with it. There are so many layers of roads, overpasses and tunnels that it all looks like spaghetti on the screen! Anyway, I did manage to find a station before I actually ran out of gas . It wasn't the one my GPS intended me to find, but as a bonus there was a Starbucks next door!

By the way, I didn't have any trouble with traffic in Boston-- I don't know what everyone complains about! (Ok, so maybe it WAS 6 am on a Saturday morning...)

So with my Caramel Macchiato in hand I headed to Walden Pond! I sipped my coffee beside the peaceful, morning-misty pond with only the birds and a couple fisherman around. I spent about an hour strolling all the way around the pond and checked out the site of Thoreau's cabin. It is nice and pretty and peaceful but not in any way remote! There's traffic noise, airplanes flying over and a train going by periodically near the site of the cabin. Apparently that train was there when Thoreau lived there as well! He would walk about a half hour along the tracks into town to visit his parents most days.

Then I headed off to Concord and Lexington, where the first battles of the Revolutionary War were fought. Both towns are typical New England towns, with Colonial houses, a picturesque downtown with a small common and a bandstand. There was a plant sale going on in Concord with some tempting offerings, but yeah, how would I get them home? There was a little cemetery nearby that I poked around in a bit. Most of the headstones actually predated the Revolutionary War! Most of them were engraved with the winged death head familiar from the old Puritan graveyards in Boston.

I headed toward Lexington through the Minuteman National Historic Park. The visitor center had a really great multimedia show describing the events in detail about the battle that took place along the road from Boston to Concord and back again. Then I headed back out to actually see some of those sites. As I was pulling off the road to stop at the site where Paul Revere was captured by the British while on his "Midnight Ride", the radio station on my car radio randomly played "Stars and Stripes Forever"!! Awesome...

The flight home was extremely uneventful and I spent all day Sunday being LAZY!!! Now I'm off to plant some flowers that I bought before heading to Massachusetts.

Cheetahs, Dragons and Babies... Oh My!

Spring finally arrived this weekend! (Our annual 2 days of it...) I am finally spending a little of it outdoors. I have tilled up the raised beds in the backyard and discovered that the hummingbirds are still around. Stan mowed the lawn and is now vacuuming out the cars.

Stan had a good time at the St Martins dragonboat race in Olympia. He even came home with a medal! (Ok, so apparently everyone got a medal...) St Mary's Academy was there, too, but Missy was not. I had thought to get my paddle back. Anyway, there is a girl on our team this year named Nana who usually paddles on the Hampton Woods team. They aren't paddling at Rose Fest this year so she joined PCC. Stan was talking about you being on the SMA team and she says, "Oh I think that's the team we ran into during a Rose Fest race a few years ago". LOL!!!!

Today I went to JaCivas for cake decorator Lonielle's baby shower. She got some really cute baby clothes. There was a tiny t-shirt that said "I Still Live with my Parents" and a onesie that said BUDDAH BELLY and had a picture of that statue like the one at that Chinese restaurant we frequent.Her mother-in-law raises alpacas and had a tiny beanie had made from alpaca wool. She also got a denim western shirt style onesie from the feed store in Battleground, lol!

Turns out Lonielle's sister-in-law is a travel agent and about to graduate from Mt Hood Community College in the same program I'm thinking of doing next year. It was good to pick her brain for a bit.

I already told you all about the cheetah thing so I won't repeat it here since this is a bit time consuming to type on my phone!

Think I'll sign off and go get a beer. Goes so well with thinking about yardwork...

This is a test. This is only a test. :-)

Ok, so the most non-technical member of the household is about to be the first to set up a blog. Let's see how it works...