And Now it is almost Thanksgiving!

So I had an excuse in August for not posting since spring and that was that we were so busy - I am going with that excuse one more time and then if I do not do better you can publish rude comments.

First off, I have been busy at work and then doing extracurricular activities like baking these cupcakes to celebrate testing of our 700th home duct system (A million and a half square feet) as part of a grant program.  I also made the same cupcakes the next week for our Sunday School class.

I was chair for the welcoming event of a national conference held in Portland the third week in October as well as I had two sponsorships to promote Clark County (where I work) and our Planet Clark program.  You can see more about those if you go to PlanetClark.com.  The welcome event held at the World Forestry Center was a great success.   We had three venues with food cart food, voodoo doughnuts, ruby jewel handmade ice cream sandwiches, a 17-piece band called "Five Guys Named Moe," and more positive comments about it being the best welcome event they had ever attended than you could count.  Our sponsorship booth in the industry expo at the Oregon Convention Center was a whopping success as well; we gave out back packs, ceramic travel mugs, thumb drives, and info to at least a 1000 people.  It was great seeing everyone tote our bags around for the week!

Before that event could take place I had a committee meeting in Ft. Worth and since it was fairly close, I flew back thru Tulsa and visited my Mom and Dakota in Springdale AR.  I had never been there and got to put names and views to people and places in the almost three days I had there.  Dakota had just returned from his mission and we even went and found a car that he bought.

Ft. Worth

Me and Mom

 We visited and had a good time and no trip would be complete with my Mom without a visit to the mall.  We each bought the other birthday presents.  Mom got a new bead (baseball mitt) for her Pandora bracelet and I got a new Yankee cap with "Joe DiMaggio #5" embroidered on the side.  You really did not think one of my blog posts would be without a baseball reference did you?


Then back to the ongoing saga of busy, there was Halloween in there too.  Why do clowns get such a bad rap?  I had fun being a crazy clown?  My hidden squirt gun tie nailed several folks...I was surprised they were so surprised - I was a clown for gosh sakes!

Well then that brings us up to November and Karen and I spent the Veterans Day weekend raking and trucking stuff from our yard.   Then this weekend, our 21st wedding anniversary on the 16th fell on Friday and we used a gift certificate that Karen got as a gift at work to a fancy 6 course meal restaurant and it was delicious!  All the courses came out individually with full plate decor and detailed description of the many unusual ingredients (my main course was braised venison with a chocolate sauce and Karen's was skate with a cream butter sauce with details I have forgot (you can google Genoa if you want to see what the menu looks like).  But, this will actually be a very memorable anniversary as, after dinner, Karen was having chest and back pains that persisted when we had been home for a while so we called the advice nurse and then were instructed to go to the emergency room!  They got Karen right in, did all the tests, then had us wait for a doctor all to be told there was no detectable problem.  We got home about 2:30 in the morning.  We don't get ill often and so this was more than we wanted to experience, but better safe etc., and we will always recall the 21st!


Our newest granddaughter is just a couple of weeks from entering the world.  We will go down in early December!  Well, another blog or two this week to report on the rest of November and Thanksgiving.

FIVE MONTHS LATER

Okay so I have no idea what happened, but 5 months have sped by since we last posted a blog entry - to the day.  Oh wait, maybe I do know!  I turned our carport into a garage after 54 years (well only 20 of that have I had any control).  The garage has a very cool looking door (thanks to Jeff for coming down from Moscow to hang it after getting us a good deal on its purchase) and is completely finished inside.  The garage had to be finished in order to have our house painted for only the second time since we moved in.  Everyone really likes the color Karen picked it goes really well with our gardens, but it would probably not translate in a subdivision.

And right before the garage door, I put in a sliding doorbetween our kitchen and the laundry room.  Karen has a love-hate relationship with my projects.  If I may, it turned out very nice and provides for a cozy kitchen and a barrier to laundry noises.   Oh, and that reminds me, in the middle of the garage project, Karen comes out one Saturday and tells me the dryer is not working; it was shot and so we bought a replacement set.  Well, there is more to that story too.  Our washer has always emptied into in our laundry tub and I have had a in-the-wall box for some time and I decided that if I was going to have new equipment is was going to be right, so I tore into the wall and plumbed in the box and then had to rebuild the wall.  When it is written in on sentence you really can't get the scope of the work involved, but let's just say it put the garage project back some.

Oh and lest I forget, we had a garden party here for the Relief Society in May and Karen worked very hard to ready for that while she let me stay on projects (I did get some unnecessary flak for the timing).

We also had a visit from Dad and Lynda that came just in time for the finale of the garage (well at least the exterior).  We toured a bit, went to Saturday Market, the coast, played some games, and generally had a great time.

Tilt your head to the left to simulate someone who knows how  to rotate a picture in Blogger

Then we went on a trip to Moscow to visit and see Cody graduate.  Grandma Mickey had come up so it was a mini reunion. We got to watch porn with Grandma Mickey (you will have to inquire for details!)

The next thing to hit the list was preparing for a visit from Megan, Spunky, and Zippy.  In order to have both little ones in the baseball and exercise room, we needed to get the exercise equipment into the proposed gym which had formerly been our "shop" room off the the laundry room headed to the new garage.  So we organized and moved stuff to the attic (the garage has pull-down stairs to the attic now too) and the workshop.  We put down a rubber floor that looks great compared to the old concrete and Kenny moved all the exercise equipment one day by himself!  Viola!

So now it was back to the baseball room which got a new rug and bed and is now a guest bedroom with a heavy baseball theme!

Then came the week of July 4th and a visit from Megan, Spunky, and Zippy!  Oh but before they get here we had to buy a bouncy house - how can you have kids over and not have a bouncy house?

We went to the lavender festival

We went to the coast

We dressed up for the 4th

And then off to the rodeo!

We went to NW Portland for Pizza and Purse shopping

And the Zoo

And we had so much other fun we are ashamed!

After we said goodbye we spent July just goofing off, gardening, and going to baseball games....so that is what happens in 5 months when you are not paying attention to your blog!

Civilized vacationing

After a week's vacation to sunny Arizona we are back in the real world.  However, I have settled on a new vacation strategy which is to vacation from Wednesday to Wednesday.  This gives you a two day week before vacation and a two day week after vacation making for a civilized departure from, and soft landing to, the real world.  The other bonus is that air travel on Wednesdays is very civilized; fewer intense business types, hardly any four-generation family groups with all of their needs and machinations, and the plane is not stuffed to overcrowding, thus reducing the chance that you will be sharing a seat with someone you were so hoping was going to keep on down the aisle as you avoid eye contact and fiddle with crap in the extra seat as if it might be occupied.

The weather in Arizona was perfect 80's.  Spring training baseball was in full swing.  Poolside was relaxing.  Our book selections satisfying (I devoured four).  There were many visitors from the northern midwest and Canada allowing me to brush up on my Lawrence Welk-inspired accent (Ay dunno what it is aboot tha way theey talk that fascinates me soo).  We have acquired tans and I was a bit smarter (Karen always is) and used sunscreen to avoid most of the burn.  I know, tanning is bad, but what isn't?

We took a four mile walk most days and snagged a grapefruit from a tree (delicious), a golf ball, and saw the culmination of a high speed chase which involved two girls in a truck, a spike strip, and a dozen cop cars.  We went to our favorite restaurant, Los Dos Molinos, three times.  The original is in the former home of early movie cowboy, Tom Mix and is very funky.  We went the other two times to a new location in Chandler and struck up a conversation with the granddaughter of the founder and her husband who run this location owned by her aunt who had a location in NYC for ten years.  They are pretty interested in coming to Portland and we invited them to stay in touch.  They are a neat couple in probably their early 30's with four kids (3, 5, 6, & &7!).  They are definitely over-achievers, but so friendly, not at all pretentious, and not wound (they should sell their secret).  We would like to see a location here (although would it take away the mystique - we visited a Krispy Kreme once after they arrived and it was a vacation favorite too).

Home is nice though.  The pussy willow is blooming and all manner of bulbs are out getting ready to display themselves.  The cats are back in their routine (or are we just in their routine?).  Now I guess it is time to get to work and do a few things before the weekend escapes.

Gaaga's Birthday

Gaaga's Birthday is almost here (you may notice that Maaga is now Gaaga thanks to some newfound language skills by Tamsin - I think we should stick with Gaaga, don't you?).  She was born in 56 and her age will match her birth year in 2012!  We are going to a basketball game as BYU visits University of Portland.  More to follow on her birthday tomorrow!

Apparently in this establishment......

I really like the E-trade commercial with the junior jump-up in the crib who is bemoaning the fact that he was in his crib because, "Apparently riding the dog like a pony is frowned upon in this establishment." So with that in mind, reading Karen's comment to my last blog where it is confirmed that I am in the dog house, you know how I feel.  I thought I made a pretty good case for my purchase, but "Apparently in this establishment......".  How does that saying go?  When you realize you are in a hole, the first and most important thing to do is stop digging.  Did you just hear that shovel fall to the ground?

So on to today's blog.  Karen and I saw the movie Man on a Ledge.  I would highly recommend it for suspense, twist and turns, and a good story.  The other I would recommend is Hugo.  The book is a combination of novel and graphic novel; the movie follows the book very closely and improves upon it, especially around the character of the station inspector played by Sacha Barron Cohen.  I agree with the Oscar nominations.  The nominations for The Descendants are well deserved, as well.

Not exactly an exciting blog, but that is what is going on here.







 

Resolutions

I have decided on a new plan for resolutions, besides just not having them.  I have decided that they should be a late January activity. It is entirely too cruel to go cold turkey right after the season of treats.  I think my logic is very well founded and fits my rationalization for not getting around to it until now.  Alas, the time has come and I will be getting up a little earlier.  So as long as I am going to suffer, I might as well throw down a challenge and if anyone wants to go head-to-head and make a little side bet, just let me know.  This is not exciting blogging, but it serves me well because I have put it down in writing and will feel the need to report.

Katie and Karen hosted a book club meeting tonight discussing A Return to Modesty (apparently a good book where the author proposes that women should probably have not taken the freedoms thing so far when it came to modesty, as it has led to some unintended effects on society - I have not read it, but Karen does not read non-fiction and she could not put this one down).  This left Ken and I to our own devices and considerable fun playing off the subject of the book combined with the fact that this is national opposite day.  We did not carry out any of our proposed mayhem and instead went shopping at Nordstrom Rack, yep that it what it has come to at this point.  Actually, Ken and I both like to shop much to our spouses chagrin - which is not fair because many women complain that their husbands have
no interest.  Pick a lane, any lane ladies....

I scored a very cool dress shirt that has a NY Mets icon on the back, baseball buttons, and ball stitching.  Ken had told me about seeing this shirt in early December and I had no hope that it would still be there.  I am planning to justify the purchase, under the post-holiday spending lockdown, by the fact that I won a Visa gift card using my coke cap points and the shear karma of the shirt still being on the rack - I will report how this works out.  Just my luck, tomorrow is probably national dog house day.

Come on!

My day at work was a bit of a challenge, thus this will be a short post.  I admit I did not listen to the state of the union address, but I need me some of that hope and change that is long overdue.  Come to think of it, about three years overdue.  Coincidence? Me thinks not.  I am tiring of the "new normal" which translates to doing the job of two or three.  My staff has it worse, all the good ones do the work of three or four.

Good night and good luck!