The dog on the couch

We neglected to post anything while we were in Arizona. We had a nice little visit with Cliff and Cheryl and we finally met Dugan the dog. He is the happiest, sweetest natured dog. He can visit me any time, even if he can't help it when his nose is up on the counter. Here is a picture of him.

Merry, Merry

Someone (who will remain nameless just in case outsiders read this blog) has expressed some irritation with someone else who ends every phone call with "awesome, awesome." I thought of my someone when I was at the greenhouse the other day. I was helping a woman load her poinsettias into her car and when we finished and I turned to go back into the greenhouse she said "Merry, merry." I've never heard that before and don't know where it came from. Just thought I'd put that out here for everyone to see. "Someone" can add that to their list of crazy things people say.

FYI

There is new stuff on Camp Grand Nana

I showered-honest!

Last night I had my phone on silent while I was dong a candy demonstration for Relief Society. When I got home afterward, I opened my phone to turn the sound back on and there was a text message. I didn't recognize the phone number and the message was just two words long- "hey stinky". Hmmm. Is someone trying to tell me something? It's true that I don't shower every single day, but I do shower often enough to be socially acceptable. At least I thought I did. Perhaps the sender will someday reveal their identity, but I'm not holding my breath, even though they feel the need to when they are around me.

One step forward, two steps back

We are probably the only ones who can tell, but we were actually making some progress on getting the basement cleaned out. Lots of stuff had gone to DI and the garbage and the room was starting to look a little roomier. When we moved some stuff away from the south wall a couple of months ago, we could see that there was water damage on that wall-probably a leaky drain pipe. We figured we would just fix that up when we did the remodel on the room some day.

Last week when I was working in the fruit room I found some termites feeding on the soggy corner of a box that had a leaky container in it. That is the same wall that has the water damage. Termites love moisture, so they are probably in that wall, too. It has been almost seven years to the day since we had the house treated for termites; lucky us- we get to do it again.

So now, every room in the basement has a three foot clearance around the outside walls with all the furniture, boxes, etc. piled in the middle of each room. What a mess. Tomorrow the termite guy comes to do the entire inside and outside perimeter of the house and garage, plus the gap in the cement under the downstairs bathtub. (which means the Christmas closet has to be emptied out before he comes tomorrow.

Since things are going to be a mess, I had two companies come to do estimates on fixing that wall (again!) and fixing the damaged wall at the bottom of the stairs. If it isn't too expensive to do now, we can just leave everything in the family room pulled out of the way. Now if only I could find someone to come and tear out that fireplace at the same time I could get all the mess and dust done at once.

I had been thinking about how inconvenient this all will be, and of course, we are heading into winter so the house will be closed up and stuffy and smell like construction, and greenhouse sales will probably start before the job is done, etc., etc., etc.

Then I realized that this is probably just the nudge (more like a full-on shove off a cliff) I need to throw out more stuff and repack the things I'm not ready to throw out and really reclaim that room. The only thing I refuse to do is pick out new carpet. Dad will have to do that.

If I can just buckle down and get my Christmas sewing done, I have a pretty good shot at having that room decent again three or four weeks from now.

I am glad for many things-here are ten

For quite some time now, I have thought about things I am thankful for. I don't mean things that I am glad I have (and yes, they are THINGS) but things that I am glad were developed or discovered because I believe they make the world a better place. Some of them will seem pretty lame or trivial to most people but I believe they have each had a profound, positive impact on the world. I have come up with about twenty, but here are ten, in no particular order.

1-Inexpensive mass-produced paper
2-Printing press
3-Pencils with erasers
4-Toilet paper
5-Clean water
6-Soap
7-Antibiotics
8-Pasteurization
9-Indoor plumbing
10-Paved roads


Tell me what you think and share your list of things if you'd like to.

Open letter to a cat

Dear Kitty (you know who you are),

I know you frequently spend the night in the garage where you can do as you please, but sometimes circumstances make it necessary for you to spend the night indoors. Based on last night's behavior, it might be helpful to review basic nighttime etiquette for indoor cats.

1- If you sleep on your person's bed, do not purr at night.
2- If you must purr, do not use your daytime voice.
3- If you must use your daytime voice, do not use it while sitting at the head of the bed between your persons.
4- Kneading the blankets or pillows is never an appropriate nighttime activity.
5- If you do knead the blankets, do not purr with your daytime voice at the same time. And never, never knead the blankets that are pulled up over your person.
6- Asking to go out at 4:30 in the morning and then changing your mind once you get to the open door is a serious breach of etiquette. Changing your mind again 15 minutes later and deciding you really do want to go outside after all may put your personal safety at risk.

I hope this little review will be helpful.

Guess how many

Friday I was doing some cleaning and reorganizing in the fruit room (food storage room). Lots of things were scattered around because people had been just setting stuff on shelves instead of putting items where they belong. Every now and then I would find a package of toothpicks. Over time I guess we had bought a new package each time someone needed to build a bridge or something for school. Once they were all gathered together, guess how many toothpicks I had. 2000! Keep in mind I use a toothpick every oh, two or three months. I'm think I'm set for toothpicks for a while.

What's in a name?

The other day when Dad was watching "This Old House" I heard a name that made me stop and wonder- "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, PARENTS?" The architect's name is Treff LaFleche (pronounced "la flesh".) With a last name like that you would think the parents would have named the poor kid something a lot more normal than "Treffle." I'll bet there were times when he must have wondered what his parents were thinking, too. Grades K-12 must have been tough. I honestly thought the guy must be a retired porn star or something like that.

Now I'm really curious to know- what's his middle name?

Closing in

This is the big week! Dad is finally closing in on the end of this project. It has been a long and grueling haul. Tomorrow is the end of the year for this. Next week will be the week of "cleaning up" the loose ends for everyone. Then it's goodbye to 6:00 a.m. conference calls and extra long days.

Looking ahead to behind

So today, I went to a book review. The book was "Dragon Slippers," a young adult (read: tween through teen) fantasy book. It sounded very interesting. The author, Jessica Day George, came to our review and we were asking her questions about her creative style, etc. She has pages of ideas for books and is always working on something, even though she has a three-year-old. She also is an avid knitter- scarves, hats, socks, etc. She said she is always knitting something. I commented to Karry that I never do anything. She pointed out that I hike-thats something. Well, it may be something, but it really isn't the same because it doesn't produce anything you can leave behind for your posterity. Then Karry pointed out that that may be true, but at least hiking doesn't leave you with a big behind either! We laughed about that one.

But seriously, I haven't produced much besides seven babies and can't take any credit for their successes or accomplishments. I've tried to think if I've produced anything that my kids would think was worth taking home once I'm gone and they have to clean out my house. No quilts or crafts. No woodworking projects. No paintings or pottery. No witty, insightful journal (so far, everything I've written has been pretty boring or dry.) Anything worth squabbling over was inherited from someone else.

So I guess the challenge for me is figuring out how to make some changes that will make better use of whats left of my future so that I can leave something tangible behind. (Of course, then I need to figure out what on earth I could do that would be worth hanging on to.)

Here I am again

In the past ten days I have gone to the gym four times to do physical therapy on my own. I would pat myself on the back, but I can't reach that far yet. Don't worry though, the physical therapist suggested some extra exercises for that today, so I expect to be patting myself on the back in the next week or so.

For the past two nights, 'Ui has gone into the garage of her own volition. Once it was completely her idea- she asked-really! Last night she was hanging out in the kitchen so I opened the door to the garage just a little and left it opened for a few minutes. After crouching and staring suspiciously into the dark garage, she walked into the garage just a foot or two to see what was going on and I walked towards the door, trying to look like I was doing something else, and closed it. Much better than three nights ago when she had wised up to the new night time routine, darting around the kitchen just out of reach and then streaking down the stairs to hide out in Steven's room (where she spent the entire night, thank goodness.)

The other day, I was driving home westbound on Center Street. When I came to 4th west the light was green so I started my right turn. A car in the eastbound left-turn lane decided to make a left turn at the same time, and the driver flipped me off for getting in her way! Hello! I was the one who had the right-of-way! Some people.

Little J has been here for two days in a row. He has gotten pretty interactive and fun. He loves the barrel of monkeys, or just the barrel or just the monkeys or any combination. I introduced him to the slinky today. Pretty entertaining.

They found my foot, they found my foot!

We have been copying our family videos to DVD. I made it all the way through the VHS tapes last week. (yes, we did get the infamous nose-picking episode) When I tried to start copying the 8mm tapes, the 8mm deck wasn't working right so we had to take it to the shop. Fortunately it only needed cleaning and adjusting. When I brought it home and put back on the rack, it was wobbly. One foot was missing. I took it back to the shop. They thought I must have lost it myself. I was sure it wasn't wobbly when I brought it in. They said check your car and house. I did and told them the foot must be their problem. This morning they called to say they found my foot. Hurray!

Stay tuned for more family video updates.

Lots of little thoughts

Because of the Japanese Beetle, we planted gardens at Michael's house and Jeremiah's house this year. We planted too much and this is the first year we have had more tomatoes and squash than we could use. I froze some of the tomatoes, but mostly we gave them away. There are lots of older fixed-income people in our ward and I took a big box of produce to church every week and set it outside the Relief Society room with a package of bags and a sign that said "please help yourself." It was fun to watch the people get their little bags of green beans, squash, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. I would think "come on, take more, have plenty. I don't want to figure out what to do with this stuff." and they would be commenting to each other, "oh my, I hope I can eat this much!" Anyway, the gardens are basically done. I am a pretty lazy gardener, so I am glad for me. But I am sad for all my little old friends.

I am speaking to a group of science teachers at their Professional Development Day in two days. Hhmm... how do you make beetles, chemicals, nematodes, inverse distance weighting and EPA/APHIS/USDA/UDAF/GIS and Bayer Chemical sound interesting for 50 minutes (x 2 sessions)? No matter how many different pictures you use in a powerpoint, a beetle is still a beetle.

'Ui has been relegated to the garage at night again, now that the weather has cooled off. The little stinker just can't leave us alone at 3 in the morning. If only she would make the connection, she could stay in.

I am looking for a pumpkin bread recipe like the bread at Kneaders. So far, close but not quite. I'm not sure my waistline can handle all the recipe testing.

Say it ain't so, Shepherds! I will miss Shepherd's Cakes and Candies. They closed at the beginning of the month. They were my go-to store for high-quality chocolate, little tiny zip lock bags and other specialty cake and candy making items. The new occupant of the shop, a party supply shop, will carry chocolate until the end of the year, but they aren't open yet. I hope they carry the brands I like. Of course, after years of not doing any chocolates, I had just agreed to do a simple chocolate class for relief society next month. Hope the new store really does open in time like they said they would so that I can stock up in time. Now . . .where to find those nifty little zip locks? Guess I will have to hide my supply and ration them out.

I planted a few pie pumpkin plants so that we could enjoy some stuffed pumpkin dinners this fall (and one or two amazing pumpkin pies). I haven't tried one yet to see if they are any good (my sweet potatoes were NOT good- too much water maybe), but there must be over 30 little sugar pumpkins out there. Hhmm... maybe my little church friends?

Three lame geeks

Just in case you were worried, we are still here doing the same old same-old. Today was General Conference Sunday and Liz has come to stay because she doesn't have to work tomorrow. It occurred to her just a few minutes ago that the three of us are lame geeks because all three of us are sitting on the bed, each with our Macbooks, playing the very same computer game (mahjong) when we really should have been going to bed early.

It's been a while since either of us posted, because we just don't ever have anything clever or interesting to write about.

I have spent a lot of the last two months working on getting my neck to behave itself. All that physical therapy is so time consuming! And it cuts into my regular workout time. I didn't seem to have any trouble putting in the time 2-3 times a week when I was paying for it. Now that I am working on my own, I am having a really hard time scraping together the self-discipline to stick with it. Something always interferes. Oh, well- nothing to do about it except keep trying.

More Blogs

We have added a new blog for Camp Grandma (When grandchildren are with Grandma). You can find the link in the left or you may use this link.

Home again-Gone again

As you all know, we have been home for 5 days. In three days we will be on the road again to Wyoming to be the photographers/videographers of our Stake youth trek. Then we will be home with no plans to go anywhere for at least a few months.

Once we are back we will post a few stories and pictures of our Glacier trip. Just too tired right now!

Glacier

We are on another trip. It is nice to be in the Empty Nest and free to use up all the vacation days doing fun stuff. This time we are off to Glacier National Park. We have Liz with us (she likes to hike to unreasonable places with us) and she has been lots of fun.

Moms neck/back/arm still hurts, but she is being a brave little soldier. It is beautiful here, wonderfully green with waterfalls and plants (trees and flowers) everywhere. We drove from Orem to Missoula, MT the first day, then on to Kalispell the second day and tonight we are in Columbia Falls. This is one of those trips where you change hotels every night. But hopefully, we will be able to do some fun stuff.

Tomorrow is a little hike (6 miles +3,000 feet gain) to Sperry Chalet It should be a good hike, we are expecting great weather and with three of us, no self respecting bear should want to share the trail with us.

Life is good, it is amazing to be in the mountains to see the creations of Heavenly Father.

Home Again

It is nice to sleep in your own bed. We traveled over 2200 miles (in the RAV4) as well as I bet at least 400 miles in the bus. But all was well we are safe and sound. Other than almost hitting an orange barrel in a construction zone, the trip was completely uneventful (at least from those scary kinds of events). It is a great blessing to be able to travel so far safely.

Mom makes it sound like I am depressed by the Utah scenery. It isn't that, I just wonder how I ended up in the desert when I really don't like the desert. But then you would have to ask why I hike the Grand Canyon when I dislike the scenery there as well. I guess you can't always do things the way you would like, sometimes you just have to adjust to the world around you.

We have a great job, the house is paid off and life is pretty good. I enjoy my Church job and am close to the majority of my family. I guess things are pretty good. But I will still visit the "green places" on this earth.

Road Trip - Day 13

Home again, home again. Today we have traveled home. We left arid Ontario, Oregon and drove through arid Idaho to get home to arid Utah. We took a short scenic drive along the Snake River, which was pretty arid but did have a stretch where lots of springs come out of the cliffs above the river. When we got back to Utah, Orland was pretty overwhelmed and dismayed by how arid and unattractive it is here. It will take some time to adjust, but I think he will feel better just in time to go spend 10 days in Montana, where it is not so arid. We'll help him make the adjustment again just in time to go to Wyoming for three days. It's OK, it's arid in Wyoming, too, so he won't have to make any adjustment when we come back.


Here is a picture of one of the springs along the Snake River.

It is always a little worrisome coming back home because not only is it the part of the trip where the vacation ends, it's the part of the trip where you find out what went wrong while you were gone. Did something die, run off, break, etc? In this case, a few plants did die, but they were no big deal. A few were wilted because I need to adjust their timer. The lawn is pretty dry because I forgot to set the timer back to the right number of minutes after the yard was sprayed. It will green up quickly now that I have reset that controller. Tomorrow I will check the two vegetable gardens. Then we'll spend the next week getting ready to do it all again.

We will not be posting every day now that we are back home, but we will post when we have something interesting happen. It may not be interesting to anyone else, but it will be interesting to us. That's what it's all about, right?

Road Trip - Day 12

Today we went to Silver Falls State Park and walked a trail loop along the Silver Creek that went past six waterfalls and two trickle/seep falls. Lots of shade, birdsongs and greenery. The water in the creek reflected the silvery morning light. Just a beautiful hike. The trail took us behind three of the waterfalls. There are more waterfalls in the park but we took the short loop. Definitely a place to go back to. There is some kind of lodge and some campgrounds in the park. Maybe we will recruit some company for our next visit. Any takers?

We will spend the night in Ontario, Oregon- right on the Idaho border. If we have time tomorrow, we may take the scenic drive along the Snake River near Twin Falls. Then we’ll push for home. Home to see what has died and what is thriving in each garden, finally see the Tommy and Jonah (who were too jet-lagged to visit before we left) and be amazed at how much Little J has changed in just two weeks. Home to get ready for the next trip. Since we wish we could stay on vacation, we will probably feel like our Glacier trip came just in time!

Here are some pictures from our day, including a view of the back side of water- but better than the view on the Jungle Cruise.

Road Trip - Day 11

Today we went to church with Chris. Their branch has a nice little chapel. After the block of meetings we hung out for a few hours and visited with Chris and Terry. We found that we all enjoy cruises and Orland and Terry share a keen interest in home solar power. They plan to keep in touch whenever one of them comes across something new or interesting about solar. Orland clued Terry in to Home Power Magazine, on-line solar radiation calculators (for figuring out how much energy can be generated based on the conditions that are normal for your area) and to the classes and seminars available the Real Goods alternate energy center.

We had a nice little drive up the coast and inland to Salem. Tomorrow we will spend the first part of the day at Silver Falls State Park and then head part way home.


Here is a set of road signs that we thought were so funny we had to turn around to take a picture.














When we got to our Motel in Salem, these cars were in the parking lot. They are Plymouth Prowlers. As you can see, two of them have little matching trailers. Pretty fancy!

Road Trip - Day 10

Today we visited the International Rose Test Garden and the Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother, both in Portland. The rose garden had lots of roses. Since it is mostly a test garden, there wasn’t really landscaping, just lawn and walkways with lots of square flowerbeds that had lots and lots of roses. These are some of the roses that Orland liked the best.





Here is a sign that I thought was kind of funny- oh, the image it brings to my mind!












The sanctuary had a grotto with a statue of Mary. It is a Catholic sanctuary, retreat and monastery with gardens and sculptures. It was interesting to see a different perspective. There wasn’t much about the joy of the gospel, atonement or resurrection; the focus was more on lots of sorrow. Of course, we were only seeing one small garden and one perspective.

We got to ride the MAX again and really enjoyed it. It would be great if we had something like that in Utah Valley. So nice to just get on, relax and then get off at our destination.

We got to Waldport late in the evening and visited with Chris.

Road Trip - Day 9

Today we spent the day at wholesale nurseries again. One was a major producer of specialty trees and shrubs, one a producer of dwarf and miniature conifers and shrubs, one is the largest shade tree producer in the United States. After a late lunch, we went to the largest garden center in the Pacific Northwest. It was really interesting to see the behind the scenes production at the nurseries. One also had a beautiful display and memorial garden and the other a large arboretum.

Here is a picture of the big machine that drives through the fields over the 14' tall trees to dig them up and shake them loose from the soil in the late autumn so that they can store them in giant coolers as bare root trees until they ship them in the spring. Tomorrow we will go to the International Rose Test GArden and then to a place called the Grotto. AFter that the bus heads to the airport and we catch the train back to the hotel to pick up our car so that we can go see Dad's cousin.

Road Trip - Day8

Somebody today commented on how much they liked our matching shirts yesterday and wondered if I made them.


Today we went to one of Oregon State University's research and experimental stations. It was interesting to see how they set up testing for pest and disease resistance for trees and berries. We also went to the Oregon Garden in Silverton. The city needed a way to use their treated waste water before it went back into the environment (it is too warm to just dump it into the creek) and some garden organizers were looking for a place to grow a public garden that had a source of irrigation water. So the city pumps their treated water to the garden. The garden built a series of wetlands at the top of the property (all nicely landscaped). After the water moves through the wetlands, the water is stored and used for irrigation and other water features. By the time they use it in their sprinklers and catch it again at the bottom of the garden (80 acres of garden, eventually 240 acres) the water is at least 10 degrees cooler and a little less fertile and it runs out into the local creek. The garden gets good water year round and the city avoids daily fines for releasing warm water back into the creek.

We also went to Monrovia Nursery. The Oregon location is Monrovia's largest producer. Today they estimated about 22 million plants on site. It is huge and well-run.

We walked, walked, walked and walked. But had a very nice day. Funny thing, the Oregon gardens is just one block from the turn off to Silver Falls State Park, our next destination (Monday) after the trip.

Road Trip - Day 7

Nerd Alert! Nerd Alert! Cover your eyes, Liz! Today we wore our matching shirts. We got lots of compliments and positive comments. I would say that is a reflection on the group we are traveling with, except that when we went to get a hamburger for dinner, a mechanic at the Burgerville also liked our shirts.


We went to the Bonneville Dam today where there are also fish ladders and locks for boats to pass through. We watched fish go up the ladders and looked at some lampreys that were suctioned on to the viewing window.




We also went to look at sturgeon. Then we went to Multnomah Falls for lunch at the lodge and then to a Japanese Garden and a Chinese Garden. Both were beautiful. We ran out of time and didn't get to the Rose Test Garden, but we will do that on Saturday if we can squeeze it in. I caught an interesting insect inside the bus at the Falls, but he chewed his way out of my ziplock bag before we got back to the motel :(

Our bus driver is from the Ukraine and he is fun to listen to.

Road Trip - Day 6

Today the rest of the group arrived. We rode the MAX to the airport and met them at the baggage claim and then we all got on the bus. We went to two wholesale nurseries and went to dinner at a cooking school. Nice day, interesting plants, good food. Here is a picture of a greenhouse full of little, tiny, baby trees. And another picture of the strangest tree of the day. Hard to believe, but it is a maple. It just looks like a green stick.

They have a very nice bus with air-conditioning. You sit on top of the world, looking down at all of the cars. We just hope we don't freeze in the next few days. Life is good. We may be the youngest people on the tour. Today we had to help a little lady across a drainage ditch, she must be 80+, but she is out doing stuff. I hope I will be as active when I am her age.

Road Trip - Day 5

Well, we have arrived at our motel in Portland. Today we got up early and left Laurie and Gary's house at about 6:30 to head down to Tillamook where there is a massive hanger where there were blimps during WWII. Since steel and aluminum was needed for ships and planes, the hanger was built of wood. It is huge and you can see all of the wooden trusses from the inside. The building covers seven acres. We will post a picture later.

Then we went to a fish hatchery. There wasn't much to see except lots of tiny fish. There was a sign warning about a cougar that had been seen in the area, and there weren't many other people around, so we didn't go wandering around looking for any bigger fish.

We went to a couple of cheese factories and then up to Canon Beach. It is a really big beach with some big rocks. We also went to Lewis and Clark National Park for a few minutes. We decided we will have to go back another time because there were some interesting hikes that sounded pretty easy but we didn't have time for them.

We did lots of driving and looking. Very pretty scenery. We decided that this is an area where we could live if we needed to find another job someday. So our day was long but it wasn't super busy. It was just nice to be together.

Road Trip - Day 4

Today is Sunday. So, no big road news to report. We are staying with our friends in Portland Laurie & Gary. Laurie was Meredith's roommate (we started out as teenage friends in the same ward in Arizona) at BYU and was key to the ultimate success of our courtship. What a wonderful family they have created in these years since BYU. They have two daughters who are wonderful girls (one married with a daughter - grandchildren, gotta love them!), doing the things they should do.

It is hard to forecast how things will turn out for families. But their daughters have a wonderful heritage of great parents, good teaching and spiritual roots. What a wonderful start.

Laurie and Gary have been so good to us, so kind and hospitable. You couldn't ask for finer people. What a wonderful day four...

Road Trip - Day 3

Today we have seen the sights in the Columbia Gorge. It is beautiful. We also went up on Mt. Hood. My mother hiked Mt. Hood as a young woman. I rode up in Laurie and Gary's minivan as an older woman. There is a beautiful old lodge and ski facility above the tree line. People are still skiing and the parking lot was full of skiers either pulling on or taking off their ski clothes. Skiing is one of those hobbies where there is always lots of gear you can spend money on.

We drove around and looked at lots of waterfalls. At one of the falls, we did a one-mile round trip up to the upper portion of the falls where you can go back behind the falls. From there you can look down the ravine and out across the Columbia River. Very beautiful. Liz would like it here. Today's high was about 69 or 70 degrees. I wore my long sleeves all day and even had on my white, hiking overshirt for a while.


We also took a 3 mile loop to a small lake called Mirror Lake. It was a beautiful trail with lots of fir needles packed into the ground on the trail- so quiet to walk on. At the little lake there was a fabulous view of Mt. Hood. One of the best things on the hike was the dogs. Every few minutes we came across someone with a happy dog, out for a romp on the trail. We stopped to talk to one couple in particular who had a mixed breed dog. I looked down at the dog and used "the voice" to say hi to her. She perked up and wagged her way over to me for a meet-and-greet. A minute or two into our conversation with the couple the dog began to whine and whimper, looking up the trail, restless to get on the move but waiting for permission to move on. After a minute she was given the OK and went bounding up the trail ahead of her people. It sure did make us miss our Northgate.

Between the Lake and the waterfalls we went for a drive on the FruitLoop- a highway through an area with orchards and fruit stands. We stopped at one for some samples and got fresh cherries and apricots for the road. Then we went to the town of Hood River, where we stopped for lunch at a little pizzaria. I had one slice of the best pizza I have ever eaten- green onion, sundried tomato and feta cheese on a perfect crust. It was tender and crispy on the bottom but not heavy or bready. We split a chocolate mousse filled canolli afterwards. It was OK, but the pizza was great. If you are ever in the town of Hood River, Oregon, stop for pizza at Andrew's on Oak Street.


After lunch we crossed the street to a little shop called "Made in the Gorge." We browsed through the shop looking at arts and crafts from local artists. I found two great metal gecko sculptures, but I left them there. It's too early in the trip to settle on my souvenir. I also saw a metal sculpture that reminded me of Liz. It was cut out of a huge saw blade. Gary thought the metal teeth of the blade represented her not-so-inner rage toward birds- especially quail, the most deceitful of birds. I thought the word 'welcome' above the little quail family was poetic irony. I couldn't think of a place where we could hang it, so we left that there, too.

Thoughts on the Summer Solstice

I was going to write a bit about the Summer Solstice on the 21 June. But, as usual for me, I am a bit late. But I believe my thoughts on this subject to be noteworthy so will add them anyway.

This year the Summer Solstice occurred on 21 June at 11:11 am Mountain Daylight Time. The Summer Solstice is my favorite day of the year, because it is the very longest amount of daylight of any day during the year. As I thought about it for a few minutes, I realized that it would be logical to assume that the Winter Solstice (21 Dec 2007 11:09 pm) would be my least favorite day of the year.  That determination out of the way I realized that the 21st of December is our wedding anniversary! How lucky am I? My wife saved me from my least favorite day of the year by marrying me on that day. So, I guess I have to pick the 20th or the 22nd for the least favorite day.

Seriously, it is very difficult for many people to cope with the short days of winter. I remember hating the winter, but not knowing why. Then we had an opportunity to learn how the seasons effect the mood of some people. It at least gave me understanding into the challenge. Since then, I am learning to deal with the short days. I often visit with people who share the same affliction. I believe that the understanding of the problem can be a great blessing in someone's life. Unfortunately, sometimes people understand the problem, but don't take action based on the knowledge they have aquired. I have decided to take action. I have found that walking makes a huge difference in my health. So, walking is my "medicine" for the winter days. A little exercise seems to keep the wolves of winter at bay. As with most things in our lives, understanding is the first step.

The long days seem to have the reverse effect on my moods. I love the summer, in fact, I wish it would last forever with winter never coming. I guess if we could have everything we wanted the law of unexpected consequences would take effect and we still wouldn't be happy. However, this summer I plan to enjoy every long day that I have.

Road Trip - Day 2

Oregon is slow. After breezing through Idaho at a steady 75 mph we are now enjoying the agricultural scenery in Oregon at a modest 55-65 mph. I can say ‘now’ because I remembered that I had a never-before-used little piece of technology in my computer bag- a 12-volt adaptor. I had drained the battery on my laptop while working on a little document for the dept. of ag/extension office and put my laptop away until I could plug it in tonight. A couple of hours later, as I contemplated my contribution to tonight’s posting, I realized that I could actually work on it in the car, because I had the adaptor. How handy!

Talk about serendipity! We pulled in to the Chevron station in Pendleton and guess which little restaurant was attached to the mini-mart/gas station. No, not Wendy’s, not McD, not even Burger King, Taco Bell or Subway. It was a Baskin Robbins! Yes, my favorite guilty pleasure, right there at the gas station. I strolled over to the building fully intending to take a flying leap off the healthy-eating wagon with a double or triple dip hot fudge sundae for lunch but by the time I got to the counter, I had settled on just a little hop off the back of the wagon with a single dip of Nutty Coconut. I chose the Nutty Coconut, my second favorite flavor, because I realized that I could have my favorite, chocolate chip, in a pre-packed quart at home any time. Nutty Coconut doesn’t come in a pre-pack so I don’t usually buy it. (Pre-packs are more economical, you know.) Since I couldn’t be practical, I decided to be different. OK, so getting my second favorite flavor isn’t really being different but it wasn’t being the same either. Mmm, it was good. (Professional ice cream connoisseur in a closed vehicle- do not attempt this at home.) As a side note to my fellow dieters/healthy eaters-by the time I finished the cone, I realized that I would have forced my way through at least the last half of that sundae if I’d gotten it and not really enjoyed the forced feeding. But I would have been stuck with the extra calories anyway. Food for thought.

Road Trip - Day 1

One good thing about being "empty nesters" is the freedom to go on a trip whenever you want (as long as it fits your work schedule.) Oh wait, what about the cat? Who will watch, feed, let her out, in, out and in all day, scoop the liter box...? Who will make sure the house doesn't flood, the birds don't starve and the landscape doesn't burn up for lack of water? So now when we want to go somewhere, it is get a house sitter instead of baby sitter, leave the itinerary with our adult children so they know where we are at all times and endure everyone (both our children and parents) reminding us to "be careful while you are driving". The more things change, the more they stay the same... (since the cat is self-tending for a long weekend and the sprinklers run themselves and the birds can hunt for insects we could actually go away for a few days without the sitter.  We tried it once and it worked fine, but 'Ui was glad for both the company and the great outdoors once we got back.)

We are finally away after a full day at work. We traveled 250 miles today to Twin Falls. The goal was to "get outa Dodge" and chew a few hours off of the 12 hour trip to Portland. Everything was wonderful. The Rav4 is a great travel car, gets great mileage and is fun to drive. We would have added a picture, but it was dark when we got here. Tomorrow we will take a picture of the Snake River gorge and link it up. It is amazing.  You are just driving along the flat, then suddenly there is this gorge where the river is in the bottom of a little canyon with vertical sides about 1/2 mile across.

The windshield was perfectly clean when we started. However now it looks like it has been through a terrible rain storm with very dirty, buggy rain drops. Driving into the sun it was just about opaque. Tomorrow we will wash it when we get gas.

You gotta love the 75 MPH speed limits. Once we were out of the city we set the cruse control and it was nothing but pure driving fun. Mom clipped from magazines. We gotta go on more trips. Her "to be clipped" pile is getting out of control. I am not sure what she does with the clippings, but she kept talking about grilled shrimp recipes, so it can't be all bad.