Wave And A Sigh

Bon Savants-Between the Moon and the Ocean

It was successful. All four Blankenships (two being of the canine persuasion) made it home safely from the coast. Which is not what happened in my alternate universe. In that version: the dogs were in a bloody heap in the driveway. And I am grateful that is not how my weekend wrapped. Keith said, "I would've told Merry...'Keep going. There's nothing in that house we need.'"

About 30 seconds after we left to go get ice cream on Saturday afternoon (we were at the coast on vacation, what do you expect?) one or both of the dogs jumped up on the wall and opened the garage door. Yes, two pit bulls were running loose in Lincoln City.

No, but the funny thing was: we were pulling up to the townhouse after ice cream and there were 2 cop cars leaving the complex. We joked, haha They're here to see us.

Well, really. An old scraggly man, VietNam vet, who "knew German Shepherds but didn't know nuthin' about pit bulls" yelled for someone to call animal control after he saw our dogs escape from the garage. And the police showed up and chased Mia and Lazlo around the townhouse a couple of times and eventually corralled them into the garage.

How this happened without Mia biting someone, I really don't know. Lazlo is of no concern. He's about as ferocious as a rabbit and will grind an organ for treats. He's easy to manipulate. But Mia's smart. Clever. She's played the Catch Me game before and also has shown us she hates a) strangers b) men c) men talking to her and d) men coming toward her. So these cops fit 4 out of 4 on Mia's Things I Hate List.

I think these policemen, who did not react as so many others do--out of fear, deserve something special. I'll have to think of what that is. But I have said 1 million Thank Yous that we came home to dogs out of breath instead of not breathing at all. It could have gone so wrong. We are so lucky.

Lesson: Don't just shut the garage door. Latch the garage door.

Everything else was tip top. We took the dogs to run off leash on the beach early in the morning and late in the afternoon when the beach was empty for long stretches. They had, what appeared to be, a fantastic time. We were unsure how Mia would react to the water, with her history of The Hurricane and all. She met the first waves cautiously, but ended up running in the water as much as Lazlo. She's a Rocket Dog. I have some video to put up in the next few days.




We were there for the Kite Festival, by chance. It was pretty cool. I'd never seen anything like that before. People from all over the country with all sizes and shapes of kites.

Lincoln City was named Kite Capital of the World by "Kitelines" Magazine.

We decided to take the long way home, so we headed south instead of north Sunday morning.

Keith @ Cape Foulweather

clouds over Albany, OR
on our way to see some covered bridges

Keith @ the 1st bridge

More in the next round...

Short Week

As we get ready to take a 4-day'er to the coast this next weekend...
a lazy post.

My friend Amber got her Master's this weekend.
Congratulations, smarty pants!
(She was valedictorian of our HS class 10 years ago.)

We stopped for a few minutes and watched
them move The Carriage House,
slower than a turtle and attracting a crowd.
"The Ladd Carriage House, regarded as one of the most important historic structures in downtown Portland, will move three blocks west this morning. The house will return to its historic site late next year, on top of a new underground parking garage. The 55-foot-tall, 530,000-pound building will be pushed to Southwest Columbia Street about 6 a.m., and then will be moved from Southwest Broadway to Southwest 10th Avenue."
More on the move at The Oregonian
including a time-lapse video of the move
(which is pretty awesome!).

The Old Church
downtown
Built in 1883
The location selected drew severe criticism from some members
who said it was much "too far out in the country."

Getting anniversary dessert from St. Cupcake last Sunday

NEXT week: photos from the coast!

Another year of wood

Wood, candy, or iron. Wood was last year, too. What's the meaning of that? Strength, maybe.

When I logged on to the Hype Machine this morning for some Anniversary Sunday Music, the first song was Happy Days by Ted Hawkins. (Click Play below and you can listen to it while you read the rest, kthxbye.)



Good way to start our 7th year married.

In Kansas City, not long after we met

The 100th Rose Festival is this weekend. The city is crawling with tourists and everyone from the suburbs descends on downtown. There was a big brouhaha about people coming to town the week before the parade to mark out "their space" on the sidewalks and streets with tape. (After the city recently passed a sit/lie ordinance that prohibits people--mostly focusing on the homeless--from sitting or laying down on the sidewalks people are allowed to reserve public space and litter, but just this weekend. Double standard-much?) So a local weekly paper decided to man a group of volunteers to tear up all of the tape because you don't save a spot for a parade. You wake your ass up early and get a good spot. (The parade didn't start until 10am.)

a participant in the Portland Mercury's No Tape Left Behind program

Of course our local media has nothing better to do than report on whether or not there were any crying kids the next morning when they found the tape was gone.

The only thing I'm remotely interested in is the Dragon Boat Races.

from Portland Daily Photo

And Keith wants to go down to the waterfront and see the ships. It's also Fleet Week. Could get some cool photos. Keith wanted to get up and walk down there at sunrise. But he was so nice to his wife on his anniversary that he took the dogs out early, came back to bed, and let her sleep until 9:30. Awww...

So we were debating whether or not this weekend would be a good time to see Body Worlds @ OMSI. All I know is I don't want to keep putting it off until it's too late. An estimated 300,000-400,000 will go through the exhibit before it leaves in a few months. But I think we're just going to take it easy today and relax at home. We're probably moving in the next couple of weeks (and then going to the coast) so maybe we should relax while we can.

And today is also my mom's birthday! Happy Birthday, Mom!

Soundtrack for the Weekend

Check out this crazy Western video for this band with some amazing guitar and Queen-esque 4-part harmony. You know we love us some Queen. This is the theme music @ Casa de Blankenship.



This is the outside of the 2nd apartment we're interested in...up Trinity off of Burnside. Behind that gate there's a slate patio and a few steps down to an apt. Mark is moving stuff out of it, so we should be able to look at it soon. Roxanne said we could look at both and decide...

I read a great book this week called This Book Will Save Your Life. It was the first book I've finished in...a while. I usually read about 7/8ths and then go, Well, I get it... and return it to the library. Several times I had to stop and think: Wow when I was reading this one.

Keith and Mia @ the Triangle this morning

I just saw a guy riding the nose of the Face in the Crowd sculpture like a bull on the west side of PGE Park. And his frat brother buddies took some flash photos. These are the people that are carousing on the sidewalk at 2am under our bedroom window. But we don't have to listen to them anymore since Keith put the a/c in the window. It's summer now. Drunk sports fans and various others bar patrons whooping it up. What ever happened to Quiet Hours: 10p-6a?! Damn kids. And did you know that garbage trucks are exempt from city noise ordinances since they are considered Industrial Noise and that's part of living on Burnside, I guess. So, either way--moving into the interior of the building on the 2nd floor or up the street in the basement I think the crashing of glass out of recycling containers will be a little more muffled. We live on a block that has 3 bars in it---there's a lot of glass. It's loud!

eastside Face in the Crowd sculpture

Also: Keith and I are very interested to see this movie called Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa if/when it comes to town. It's still in film festival rotation apparently. You can watch the trailer here.

Twenty-Five miles from town, a million miles from mainstream society, a loose-knit community of radicals live in the desert, struggling to survive with little food, less water and no electricity, as they cling to their unique vision of the American dream.

It looks crazy.

Tell me this isn't the scariest photo you've seen today:

More here.