Brave Tif waving in the backup assist camera!

I took my car in for service and the dealership gave me a much nicer car than mine... an Infiniti M35x. It had all sorts of goodies. Tif and I had fun playing with them.

Embarrassing? Yes

I am a smart, highly educated person. I have been all over the US, but I cannot draw a map of the US to save my life. I have to say in my defense... I have gotten alot better.

Septic Toilet

Be proud... I actually used it. Jim had to hold my hand, and I was screaming the whole time! Click here to see what I am scared of....

My poor Chacos

Wet Baby!

Going after the ball

The sun was setting

In his element

My Boy

Cutee

She is smiling!

It Seemed Endless

Throwing the Ball

One Happy Girl

Like Walking on Glass

Just throw the ball!

Ol' Sandy Tongue

Down the Beach

You can see the cars parked by the water.

Jim on the Beach

Babies having a blast

Mr Heron at the edge of the gunk

Crazy Mud Glops

It was rainy but you can see the blue sky peaking through

Going to the Beach

Saturday... late in the day may I add... we loaded up the dogs and headed for the coast. Our ultimate destination was Astoria, but we took a wide swing once we crossed over into Washington. We skirted along the Columbia river and headed up the Long Beach Penensula. The Willapa Bay side was almost as pretty as the ocean side. Long Beach was a tourist trap with lots of souvenirs shops and rv parks. In fact there were very few hotels, mostly those uber seedy roach motels. There were lots of rv's and tents in town. I was surprised there weren't big pretty beach houses, but you didn't really get to any of that until you got to the tip of the penensula. We drove all the way up to Leadbetter Point which is the very tip. It was really quiet up there.

We took the dogs up above Long Beach to the Cranberry Rd beach access. The sun was going down and the tide was coming up. It was gorgeous. It had rained off and on all the way to the coast, and was generally overcast, but by the time we got to the coast it was clear and sunny. The dogs had a blast running on the beach and playing in the water. The water was actually warm. The weird thing was they allowed people to drive on the beach. There were just a few people out flying kites and getting ready to do some camping. Long Beach is home to the World Kite Museum so there were lots of strange kites out on the beach. It was pretty cool.

Unfortunately it was dark by the time we got to Astoria, but we crossed the Astoria-Megler Bridge which was really cool. We have to go back during the day to check it out.

Family Photo

Okay

I have had several run-ins with these guys. This is the only garbage truck in Portland with "Wacker" spray painted on the back. They drive like CRAP. I saw them cut off a tractor trailer at a high rate of speed, then immediately cut off a little Nissan.

I find something VERY disturbing about the "saved" stuffed animals on the side. Maybe instead of being saved they are put there as a warning to others. Either way... everytime I see these guys I stay out of their way.

Finished!

The roofers left us a present

No plywood here

The house was built when they were still using lath. We have yet to determine if the walls are lath and plaster too.

The guys are ripping off all the layers

The Culprit

What caused the roof to deteriorate.

The old roof and the new fence

Jim tore out the old fence on the gaage side of the house. It was right at the corner of the house, and made the house look really weird. He built a new one back about 6-8 feet, and then we tore out the old (rotten) one. It looks great! The other side of the house is next.

Before

The Roof Over Our Heads

During the course of the past 2 days we have had guys over here putting a long overdue roof on the house. I am so excited about it. Probably more excited than I should be, but hey... when you spend that much on something it should be appreciated. Right? It will make a world of difference though. We knew that there were some bad spots in the roof.... ummm... holes, and we determined that there were 5 layers of shingles on it. 5 layers. Why does a 57 year old house have 5 layers of shingles you may ask? That's 1 roof roughly every 11 years. Well... the original layer was green, and I mean GREEN. The second layer was a silver, almost white - I'm guessing the silver roof was the point at which the house was painted teal. Just a guess. The third layer was a reddish brown - kinda brick red. The forth layer was a gray, and the top layer was a nasty brown. With roofs like that if you ever wanted to change the color of the house you would have to re-roof, but how on earth was the nasty brown ok with the blue vinyl siding? The new roof is a dark dark gray, almost black, so we should have some flexability in color choices.

By the way... they still make a truly green colored shingle.

Now that we have a new roof we can get rid of that awful awful blue vinyl siding and put on something nice. We've got to get a new furnace before we do the siding. My sweet dad is going to wash down the vinyl so in the meantime it will look presentable. It is moldy and dirty right now. I'm kind of scared to see the actual color.

Fig Tree in the Yard

Fruit trees, nut trees, berry bushes... a dog owner's nightmare! The raspberries are gone. The currents seem to not be yummy to them. The apples are forming, and the bad ones are just starting to fall. The other 2 million are still ripening on the tree. The figs are weighing down the huge tree. They are on the limbs in buncges of 8 or 10. The hazelnuts are dropping, but many are still hanging on the tree. Oh dear... we are in for trouble. Next time we buy a house and there are fruit trees I am going to negotiate the price of having them removed in the sales contract.

What's Daddy Doing Up There?

Sherman was very concerned about Jim when he was up on the roof. Muldoone just thought god was talking to him.

Note the nice dead grass... always rains in Portland, eh guys?

Sherman Loves to Help

The Goings On

Well to catch you guys up on some stuff. We have 2 new neighbors. The house across the street sold for an impressive amount and a 50 something childless couple moved in. They have a pretty Weimer. Next door, the house that has been under construction since we bought our house, a really nice 40 something single childless woman moved in. She has a large blocky yellow lab named Hank. He is sweet, and he and Sherman love each other. Sherm does alot of yardwork with me so he and Hank have had many opportunities to visit. It is a relief that our new neighbors are nice. We are very lucky in that regard. The people across the street have a rough looking house with interesting things in the front yard, but they have been there forever. Mom noticed the 6 foot angel in the yard a little while ago and was a little freaked out by it. I think I posted a picture of it earlier. I wonder if the house has been in the house since 1925, when it was built. It seems like half the houses are owned by really old people who have been here a long time, and the other half are people that have been here 2 years or less. The county tax assessor website is very helpful for that sort of information.

My New Baby

Today I picked up my new Mac. Isn't it cute? Don't worry... its older sibling is still getting attention.

Tif's new pillow

We were bored in the airport. Our plane was delayed so we were stuck there forever. Why don't they have movie theaters or something.

Vinegar and Fries

At restaurants they put it on the table like ketchup, and at fast food places they have it in little packets like ketchup. Not too bad... it tastes like salt and vinegar potato chips.

That's the way it should be

Here we baby people, but in Canada they make the warnings a part of the packaging in a big way.

Tiffanie and her mongo Molson

Back Home

I made it home from the trip. It sure was a long eventful couple of weeks. We had a blast in Toronto last weekend. There was lots of siteseeing and lots of shopping. Then of course we had to settle in for a week of workshops back in NY. Crossing the Canadian border was not always a piece of cake. We crossed the border 6 times during the 2 weeks. One time we got on the hwy in Toronto and came to a stop. We proceeded to crawl towards the border crossing. What should have been a 4 hour drive took 8 hours. Tif and I made our own fun of course - singing, dancing, and eating large quantities of jellybeans.

Canadian border at the Peace Bridge

Everything is bigger at duty free

No.... Really?

Border Jam

This guy was sitting on his trunk smoking. His girlfriend is slowly driving the car along in the traffic that we had been sitting in for HOURS at this point.

Its a dangerous world out there

Well...

I love the bugs

From my hotel room at night

CN Tower from my hotel room