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!

Blazers (and Jimmer)

Chalupa! Chalupa!  The chant that began with almost 2 minutes to go and the Blazers sitting at 98 points and the fans hungry for the 100 points needed to get a free Taco Bell treat.  Chalupa! Chalupa! For god's sake, there is only 30 seconds to go and you have missed four tries against the frickin' Sacramento Kings (that may have been inappropriate considering we were part of the BYU alumni / Jimmer fan contingent)!  But, come on, we are talking 16,000 chalupas on the line and you guys can't manage a lay-up in trash time? Free!  We know most of you are making enough money to buy a Taco Bell restaurant (is there a word that is like restaurant but would describe a drive-thru with a plastic seating?) every quarter, but all of us above the 20th  row rarely pass up free food - what do you think attracts us to Las Vegas and cruise ships - it isn't the magic shows.....  The ten year olds that topped out at 4'6" in pre-game entertainment competition made these shots.  The losers who raced to dress up in throwback short shorts during a TV timeout eventually made a free throw and they were about as well guarded as you guys.  Wahoo! the coach sends in an eager bench warmer to send us home with a win and visions of mass manufactured Mexican sounding fare dancing in our lower bowels.  Bonus time! we all get a free short stack and 2 for 1 breakfasts at the International Opposite of Portion Control!

I am so glad the NBA season was saved and Jimmer got to come to Portland where the LDS Ensign singers performed beautifully and that spaz of a coach for Sacramento barely played Jimmer and he still was their second highest scorer.

I shall not complain....

Today was our stake conference and a change in the presidency after 10 years.  The new president is our neighbor, Steve Doty.  All work and leadership in our church is done by the members - there are no paid clergy.  We all get callings (assignments) that change usually after a year or two.  Steve Doty was a councilor to the bishop, the bishop, and councilor to the stake president over the last 15 years.  All of these are demanding and time consuming positions. He will now extend his commitment in a big way  by being stake president for the customary 8 - 10 years!

I have been teaching 14 and 15 year olds in Sunday school for like five years.  In conference today, Steve said he kind of feels like he is in the movie Groundhog Day.  He just has to keep doing it until he gets it right!  I feel like we (Karen has been teaching with me for two years) are in the same movie.  We really like the kids and have a great time, but preparing a lesson that will engage them week in and week out is a challenge.

However, I have no way to whine now with Steve's new calling - he leads and is responsible for 6 wards and probably 2000 people.  It was not like I had a right before, but forget about it now.  I am never complaining about a calling again.  I will accept a new calliing, if and when I get one, and in the meantime, will enjoy the comfort of only having to prepare a weekly lesson and teach 17 kids for an hour. I am livin' large!

MARIS THE CAT

I am allergic to cats.  I have never been real fond of cats.  We did have a cat when I was a junior in Pocatello, Idaho; I don't remember its name nor its fate.  We had a Siamese cat when I was in Hermiston; she was smart and OK as cats go except that she killed our pet squirrel, TS Nuts. And as a final introduction to the subject, I  had been known to go full Rambo (sometimes clad only in underwear or PJs) with oranges and other projectiles on cats who dared come into our yard.

Because of our large yard, we are often at the plant nursery and at one such nursery a decade ago we played with a batch of kittens that had barely began their lives of investigation away from their mom.  One of the kittens, a little calico, was a free spirit - she did her thing and did not follow the crowd.  I could not stop thinking about that kitten and a few days later I stopped by the nursery on my way home from work and brought Maris home.  Karen and the girls were perplexed.  Roger Maris is my favorite baseball player and the only player to legitimately hold the season home run record; Maris was the best cat ever and the only cat to legitimately hold the top cat spot in my heart.

Maris loved us, LOVED TO PLAY, loved to be where ever we were, and never quit being different.  Maris was really a little boy stuck in a cat's body, except that she did eat vegetables - especially red bell peppers.  I am pretty sure she often said, "Hey, what are you doin,' can I do it too, hunh, please, hunh?"
Maris was fond of lemon yogurt, my favorite flavor too.  I wish Maris was still around to enjoy a cup of yogurt together and yak about ball.  She could really chase a well-rolled ball (or nickel coin, she just loved the game).

We have and have had a string of cats, all named after baseball players.  Rog (the feminine of Roger) came along about a year after Maris and is a very good pal.  Satch (short for Satchel) is mellow, a bit of a whiner, and a good companion, but we found him in our yard as a very little kitten who was probably thrown there and he has not ever put those issues behind him. Yogi wandered in when Karen's dad lived with us, but was not with us long.  Buddy from next door adopted us and rarely went home (who would have - our neighbors are another story).  Black kitty was a wild neighborhood cat who often slept in our carport or under the sequoia.  Then finally there is Paige (Satchel Paige would have been one of the most renown baseball players of all time had he not spent most of his looong career in the Negro Leagues).

Paige is no Maris.  In all fairness, Paige was a young teen mother who delivered a litter in a hollowed tree in our yard.  Her boys were Jackie and Frank (the Robinsons of baseball lore) who went to live with friends in the Gorge.  Paige has had a long transition to being part of the family from the outdoors of her youth and is really a pretty good kid, all things considered.  But she has a will, a strong will that got her banned from the vet for some time.  The first attempt at a capture and vet trip to be be spayed literally cost me a pound of flesh and considerable damage to our bedroom, where the final battle of the wills took place.  I warned the vet in no uncertain terms that she could not be released from her carrier prior to sedation - they thought they knew better and payed a considerable price for their professional arrogance.  We administered a potion in her food the next time she had to go - a trick she fell for only once.  There has only been one, count it, one time when I was able to grab her by the nape and put her in a carrier like a cat.

Over the last few months Karen has agonized over the delay in Paige's overdue shots and planned how each Saturday was going to be THE day she goes.  This morning Karen was able to grab her, but it was in a torso hold which works up to the point that Paige realizes the intended destination and then it becomes a  very dangerous hold.  As I pulled out the new cat carrier Paige took Karen down, I had no choice but to attempt the same torso hold as I took her from Karen and put her in the carrier - Paige took me down as well.  Paige will not be going to the vet today and we need a new tube of neosporin.

I really miss Maris.

Newt Get a Moral Compass

What can I say, this guy has the scruples of a NY pimp.  It is all about him and not about what he can really do for anyone else.  He will never be good for anyone or our country.  Ron Paul is a character, but he has character.  Newt, please, we all do things we regret, we all hope for forgiveness, but when you have gone that far off the track, you don't get to be President, period.

I was really glad it was Friday today so I could go on a date with my wife to the Tigard / Tualatin basketball game and forget about the world for a few hours.  I am very worried what my grandkids will be left with and sad that they may not have the promise I grew up with to enjoy.

Hey, but tomorrow is Saturday and I look forward to a wonderful day and all the hope that things can change!

Government Service

I have spent almost half my work life in the public sector now - geez, 19 years!  I must admit that I have been guilty of government bashing and even making the random sweeping statement. But, I have always done everything I can do as if I was on the other side of the counter or phone as a government worker.

Any big organization has its share of slackers and waste, but those types within government are by definition, more public.  Alas, when you work in government you realize that it is easy to be a target  and every day services are often taken for granted, but today my job was the perfect example of my quote, "No one wants government until they want it and then they want a lot of it, right now."

Today we had a lot of rain and were inundated with requests to "do something!"  No problem, I will get the thousands of government minions under my control who have been just hanging about to get right on that...I used to have a staff of nearly 70 now I have 19.  It is now my turn to ask the question I have heard daily for nearly three years - don't you know there is a recession?

I can't speak for every government agency at local, state, and federal levels, but yah, I know all too well what it is like to let 75% of staff go; people with families and mortgages.  My staff has been overworked and under-appreciated by the public for three years, yet each time I ask those who remain to do more with less time, resources, and thanks, because we are proud of what we can get done, they come through.

Next time you bash government, make sure it is specific and founded in fact.  If you identify a slacker and call them out, well good on you.  In return for not painting us all with the same brush, those of us who work hard every day will continue to do more and over deliver those truly public services.  What I hope none of us moves any further towards is the reliance and expectations of a government cum nanny state.  There must needs be a balance between shared public responsibilities and individual responsibilities.

NICKNAMES

In my family there have always been nicknames.  My Dad was "Rock" when he was younger and it was on his letterman's jacket.  Now I know how he got this, he has forearms like Popeye's (I would have liked to have picked those from the gene pool); broad shoulders (got those, thanks); all packaged in a 5'8" frame (out of respect Dad, I'm still going with that declared stat, but does anyone else actually buy it? and I am so grateful to have neared the 6' mark), and, by all accounts I have heard, he was West Bountiful's James Dean before there was a James Dean.

So apparently he wanted to grace me and my brothers with our own monikers, but they were so numerous and random that they never really stuck and I can only remember two right this minute, both anointed on Jon, Wax and Tomato, hence why my mind has blocked them as a survival response.  You really can't claim a lot of street cred with Wax.  My Dad is a fairly creative, out-of-the-box thinker (a trait I am proud to have inherited), but failed him in the nickname realm.

Jeff got a sketchy nickname courtesy of Bud, but Shitty parlayed the derisive slam into a humorous and street-worthy moniker.  Along the way I got names like JT (for Jim time - a rude comment on my punctuality), AJ Snake (my original attempts at backing a trailer took circuitous paths), and finally Bean (that is a longer story).  Shitty and I still use these nicknames talking to each other - we are just programmed to enjoy nicknames.

Megan and Katie have been victimized.  Their original shared name was shrimps (we played shark and shrimps in the pool when we first met) and later it morphed to the squirrels. The ones that stuck are MG and KT, but I still can't resist an occasional "Dork" which is my universal term of endearment (and has been telegraphed across a gym or football field with a giant D created with both arms).

I could not resist carrying on the family tradition.  Camryn was originally "Dingleberry," but with it's farm yard connotation was not a favorite and in retrospect is worse than Wax.  Her current one is Spunky Winkerbean or Spunky.  Tamsin is my Zippy.  I am fairly confident they will always be my Spunky and Zippy and I will be their PopPop (I swear this was Camryn's first words while we waited in a corner of Crate and Barrel when she 6 months old).  Zippy is also carrying on the tradition, anointing Karen with Maaga - not sure if it will stick nor if Karen has warmed up to it.

Coming full circle, I greet my Dad with the old standby of Pops most of the time.  For years and still occasionally, I call him Suede.  I returned the favor of a nickname based on his life long avocation as a salesman and his penchant for all things entrepreneurial - it is still my favorite term of endearment.

And I always call Karen Honey because she is mine.

Storm Team 12! Oh My!

First off, please notice that our first post has a new picture as my choice was vetoed.  In my defense we do not take many pictures of both of us.  The new photo is from our late November ride on the Polar Express.

And with that segue, to the subject of this post - winter weather.  For those of you who live, or have lived, where it really snows as a usual occurrence, you really need to view a TV clip from a Portland station.  You would think that we were going to get several feet and become stranded when a few flakes fall.  The local Fox station titles their coverage Storm Team 12 and they post a reporter on the overpass at about a 1000 ft. elevation and report on the individual flakes they see - sending the city into pandemonium.

The schools are closed.  The tire stores are inundated with folks buying chains and studded tires prior to rushing the grocery for stores of survival provisions.  That part is just goofy, but the roads are just plain frustrating.  We get snow just about every year, yet it is as if every driver just came to the mainland from some tropical locale and are seeing and driving in the white stuff for the first time.  They slip, slide, crash, and just go nuts!  They drive like it is opposite day - slam on the brakes, turn away from the slide, and all while they move at 5 mph.

I now use the term "Storm Team 12" to describe any hype perpetrated for effect.  You see it on the news, you see it in advertising (especially for legal ads), and we all have friends or co-workers who have gone beyond exaggeration.

We are under a snow alert tonight that started earlier today with predictions of a foot of snow and when we wake up in the morning it will probably be a dusting, yet we will have to get on the road before the "islanders" ruin the commute.  Wish us well.

Remnants of Christmas

Every year we run across something that we forgot to put away from Christmas - a candle holder or small decorative item.  This year we found a couple of those, but we knew of one thing that we did not put away for which we could not account - a small felt basket with some chocolates.  We knew Spunky had found it after an amazing several days and had partaken in its riches, but we had not seen it since.  Well, the mystery is solved!  Karen found it on the window sill behind the couch where Megan had finally put it to keep the dentist bill in check.  And still two chocolates!

This is the second mystery associated with this basket.  It appeared on my desk at work, but I had no idea who was the little elf.  I asked others who had received them, but no one knew the identity of the giver.  That mystery was only solved after I returned to work and happened to see a few of these behind one of the permit center supervisor's desk and she owned up that she and the other supervisor had conspired and had kept it a mystery.

In the years to come the little red basket will have to be the hidden treat tradition (we just hope we remember where we hide it if the kids don't!).

We are now bloggers!

It is not that we do not want to do more with media, but a blog had to wait until we could give it at least a little attention.  We do not do fbook, but we might be doing something even better and we will let you know more soon.

We want to keep everyone a little more informed about what we are doing and hopefully delight our granddaughters.  More to follow