OK, wrap it up.

Last remnants of the weekend @ the coast...

Disputed Shortest River in the World

We were nearly eaten by a large caterpillar!

Then some squids invaded, with a pink owl.

This local resident was shocked at what he had seen.

some digging and socializing

Sand Mouth

the other covered bridge we found

let's get these doggies rollin'

Fourth of July is coming up and we might or might not be able to watch fireworks @ PGE Park from the table, depending on which apartment we're in by then. We fully expect the dogs to go berserk, so I don't know what we have planned. The Blues Festival starts Wednesday so we might try to catch some of that next weekend.

I'll miss the views and the people watching when we move, but the traffic and drunk fray boys down on Burnside, not so much. Today I watched a cop sit in his car in the Starbucks parking lot for over 30 minutes. Makes you wonder who's watching you when you don't realize it... And the construction workers at the apartment building this side of the Civic are still plodding along, so soon whoever lives in this apartment won't be able to walk around naked at all. Good thing we're moving.

The next big excitement, after moving, will be going back to my hometown for my 10 year high school reunion over Labor Day weekend. Eeek. And even more exciting--and a little scary--I'll be picking up 17 credits Monday and Wednesday nights and then Saturday from 9-4 at the local community college beginning mid-September. I have to take 9 200-level classes in order to apply for a program @ OHSU. I'm hoping to have them all completed or in progress by summer '08 to start their 3-year accelerated program to become a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. Nursing is one of the best fields to be in right now and will probably stay stable, if not grow, for the rest of my working life. So, in order to live in a small town comfortably, I'm going to take 4 years now and get a graduate degree in nursing. It's a little intimidating, knowing I will have to study and be disciplined, but the payoff will be so great--that will keep me going.

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.

Over the long weekend...

Keith got a new bike.

Check out this monster.
I didn't know bikes came this big.
37" tall
Check it out compared to his old bike, the black one behind it.
He says it's the perfect size and he'll keep it forever and ever.

decorated with stickers from Amanda

also, burrito night

Memorial Day

Proportional military deaths map
CLICK TO ENLARGE

With four days left in the month, not counting the unidentified body, 103 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq, according to Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, an independent Web site that monitors civilian and military casualties. (via NY Times)

• Wounded and killed soldiers broken down by state
• Attacks on Iraqis
• Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan)

• Soldiers from Idaho killed
• Soldiers from Oregon killed

Sat-ur-day.

found some chalk

checked out the river

carnival @ Waterfront Park


walked home under I-405

Check out my new widget.

The new flash widget from last.fm on the top right.
(Click on the Play button next to the song and it plays a sample.)

The fire alarm went off three times today. No fires. PFD showed up twice.

Roxanne (our apt. mgr.) said there is an opening in one of the other buildings in about a month and the owner wanted to offer it to us first. It's a daylight basement apt on the side street, off Burnside. And there's a little slate patio out there...and we would just have to go out the side gate, not down the elevator/stairs, through the front door, and down the usually-crowded sidewalk.
Very interesting...

Keith's home. Time to forage for dinner.

Black is the new black.

The deal is this: an all white web page uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59 watts. (Links are green now.)

Also, new header!

everyday, it still feels, like a Thursday, (oooooo)

(^The Futureheads)

Happy Thursday, internets. I VTO'd @ 1:00p today and also all day tomorrow, so I'm rocking the 3-day weekend. Just not the same 3-day weekend as Keith. He has Monday off; I do not. VTO is Initechspeak for Voluntary Time Off, which they offered to everyone on our contract since they're over their billing amount for the month. So I get an email yesterday saying I can have Thursday and Friday off and still have perfect attendance for the month ( = 4 paid hours) and I really planned on staying all day today, but I came back from lunch lessthanmotivated. I just couldn't stop thinking that as soon as I was off work my weekend was starting and then I just thought, Well why not just start now? I mean, come on. Procrastinator!

Looking forward to giving the apt the hose down in anticipation of/preparation for moving in a few weeks. Which we both just assume is still happening. We haven't heard otherwise. Austin, the guy who lives there now, keeps giving us things. He says because Keith is helping him build and move some things. I told Keith to tell Austin just to leave it down there so we don't have to move it twice. The other night he brought over a 50# sack of new rice. He said the rice you get in the store is old rice. !! Did you know this?? I didn't. So new rice takes less water, I guess. Maybe the internets will tell me. He also gave us a bunch of old frames from paintings, he said they came from a hotel? Anyway they are pretty cool and would probably go well in the SatMkt display plans.

cards from moo.com

Received my new cards (see above) last week and I love them. They are fantastically professional-looking, matte finish, great color, good heavyweight cardstock. They're really nice and really affordable, too. You should make some of your own! Plus, they fit (in two stacks) in the business card holder Amber gave me so that is perfect. I think I might start sticking some under some windshield wipers of cool cars I see.

new inventory @ SCRAP

Last weekend we also made a trip to SCRAP. I love SCRAP and I don't go there enough because if I did I would be swimming in random craft supplies that were parts of future unknown projects. And I don't want to get divorced. But!! I was able to score some great things that can be incorporated into a booth/display/tent/thing. Out of two big canvas postal carts full of interior decorator fabrics, leftovers, I grabbed these. Acrylic and polyester, so: easy to wash, no ironing, durable. A plastic grocery bag full for $3. Yup.

not 100% accurate color, but close

In addition: maybe about 80 (I didn't count) 12"x12" swatches--corduroy, polyester, etc. of complementary patterns that I can sew together (with batting) to make awesome potholders. With hex washers on the corner to hang them. For SatMkt! I'll post some photos once I make them, that will be better. Also, I'm waiting for some thread I bought on ebay---metallics.

I'm going to go read. I'm trying to finish Planet Simpson. I need to get it back to the library, pay my fines (an embarrassing amount, but not as much as my husbands'!) and check out some new material. My new Sun Magazine came in the mail yesterday and I read it every chance I got today...walking down the sidewalk... at lunch... on the MAX. I was nearly crushed under an SUV as I stepped out into the crosswalk (with the WALK signal) and I would have been squished with the Sun Magazine in my hand. And Keith would have asked the EMTs if they kept it when they scraped me off the asphalt and he'd read it while they patched me up in the ER. It's good stuff.

Out of last month's issue, there was a great interview with investigative journalist Greg Palast. And, of course, Readers Write (Too Close for Comfort), is my favorite feature. Keith likes the editor's Notebook a lot. Go check this stuff out and you might fall in love.
One of the other real attractions to this magazine: no ads.
Seriously.
No.
Advertisements.

No, really.

Technology: Pro and Con

Pro: internet music
I'm totally loving having an mp3 player that can hold all the music I can stuff in it. There's so much music on the internet. Wilco playing live on NPR, for instance. See, how can you go wrong? You can't. Oh sure there's a lot of bad music out there. But it's easier to avoid on the internet. With radio you don't get to choose what you hear and you end up listening to the same 4 Led Zeppelin songs and that one by ZZ Top.

Con: food you have to actually, like, cook
It's a horrible truth. We are crippled without a microwave. When I tried to heat up something to eat the other night and the door wouldn't shut I started to panic a little. But Keith, he's the man, suggested unplugging it and plugging it back in. This is the fail-safe Dummies Guide to Electronics: How to Reset Your Appliance. I heard a Click. And then the door shut tight. But the microwave she was on her last leg. My dinner went, unwarmed, into the refrigerator under plastic wrap. Thinking quickly, like steely-eyed beasts faced with a food shortage, we made a mental list of what we could eat...out of the toaster. Waffles, english muffin, toast.........

This presents a new challenge for us. Do we replace it? Even with one from a thrift store... we have to dump ours. For a maybe-fixable door problem? So I went a-hunting on the internets (at work, this new job it's not so bad) and as soon as I read "discharge the capacitor" my brain shut down and I assumed it was out of our hands. Keith isn't so sure. He gets itchy at projects like this.

More Yay! than Unh!

Unh! Broken toe as a result of trying to give Keith a hug. I don't know if he's worth it. I taped it to its neighbor toe. Still feeling crippled, though.

Yay! Zompire Undead Movie Festival with our friend Patricio. Some excellent short films, then The Lost Boys (we missed the first part to go to Sam's Billiards, see below), then more shorts.

30 year old Chilean metalhead Patricio
single, or as he says, "Free"

My favorite short film was "Recently Deceased." Watch the trailer here.

Jim doesn’t know how he died or why he’s back from the dead. He does know that he needs to water the plants, take out the trash, and figure out what the missing piece of his to-do-list says before he rots away or his killer kills him again.

It was actually really funny. A sense of humor is important when dealing with the Undead.
See: Shaun of the Dead.

We left before it was over and went out the front doors of the theater to see our bus waiting at the light across the street. Awesome timing. Home, out with the dogs, asleep by 2!

on our way to The Zompire Film Festival
waiting on the #12 bus
this is on E. Burnside looking west

Yay! a new vegan treat--cheese sauce. Not so much a cheese sauce as a cheese-like sauce. But delicious. Here it is featured on a focaccia bread pizza with veggie pepperonis and sausage. Mmmmm.

Yay! We made it to Crane Taking Down Day! We watched the Civic grow up and get a shell and even innards. Then we watched this other building (yellow) go up, all 5 stories. Hoping all the while that we would be home on the day they were ready to dismantle the crane. Because look at that thing, it's enormous.
What happened was: a bigger crane. Kind of a letdown. But still interesting. First some guys crawled up to the top of the crane and loosened all of the bolts or whatever was holding the thing together. (We could hear them with their pneumatic-ratchet-things.) Then this Monster Crane was parked between the Civic and PGE Park and they started lifting it piece by piece. They started Friday night and finished Saturday.

dueling cranes

Unh! Stamps going up AGAIN! I'm always complaining when stamps go up. Why not just round up to a dollar each and give us a 5 year break. With rates expected to go up again this year, they trick you into thinking that Forever Stamps will save you. I don't like their gimmicks. So I buy X amount of dollars of stamps and then either you don't end up using them after all or the USPS goes belly up and then you're SOL. "The agency is in a "death spiral" with increasing rates causing declining volume." Eek!

I had a confusing time with (not) buying stamps Saturday and Keith was getting annoyed at me. So I took a panorama while he was yawning. Then I realize I forgot my bus pass at home, so we had to walk back and get it and then wait for the bus again.

Yay! It looks like we will be moving sooner--like next month. Our Vietnamese neighbor has to be out by the 9th, so then they will paint and do all that. Then we can move in! No more Burnside noise, cooler, a little outdoor space, a change of scenery, new decorating opportunities. So exciting, yes. We were almost swayed into looking at one on the 4th floor on the opposite side of the building from us that we were told has fantastic views. Mt. Hood, the city, all of that. But there's another couple on that hall with 2 dogs and that's just asking for trouble. So we'll stick with our gut and take the 2nd floor apartment. I really like moving. Especially when it's 2 floors down with an elevator. Keith predicts we can move in half a day.

Yay! Loving my new mp3 player, all 6GB. I have put 80% of our music on it, plus friends' podcasts, and other internet radio and it's not full yet. Like that guy on Monty Python who eats and eats and eats: Mr. Creosote.

And now for something completely different.

There are five Iraqis in a boat in the middle of the ocean. Right in the middle of their boat is a huge spike with barbs all around it and razor edges. The Iraqis don't like it being there, but they don't dare remove it because getting near it is very dangerous and, besides, it is kind of holding the boat together.

Forty Americans pull up alongside in a much bigger, better equipped boat, and they see the spike and the predicament the Iraqis are in. Partly because they think the spike is dangerous to the Iraqis, and partly on the theory that it could be dangerous to other boats, they decide they must remove the spike. Five Americans jump in and swiftly knock out the spike, because despite it being dangerous, they have excellent spike-removal tools.

To read the rest of this Thinly Veiled Allegory, click here.

Dogs, you are ON Notice!

Let it be known, and I have, that recently there have been some unacceptable behaviors that we need to discuss. And by discuss I mean: LISTEN UP.

Your contributions to the organization are numerous and valuable. However, sometimes a certain disregard toward certain undergarments of a certain member of uppermanagement threatens to disrupt this mostly-harmonious vibe we have going on. I know you will claim in your defense that it is simply your nature that requires you to devour my undies, chewing, endorphins, blah blah blah. However, this is nothing I have ever seen on Mutual of Omaha/Jeff Corwin/Jack Hannah. Dogs do not stalk underwear in the wild.

Please, for the common good, I have to demand that you please stay out of the laundry. (And the trash! I don't need a contact lens case stabbing the arch of my foot any time before it's Turn On The Light Time (after 5:00a). I don't need light to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Unless I am concerned about Bouncing Bettys.)

Apparently this is a common issue (the eating of the garments) with your kind. When I Google "dog eat underwear," there are 1,220,000 results. Frankly, that' s no excuse! You must adhere to the stated rules of this organization if you see yourselves here long-term. Lazlo, you've been onboard longer than Mia and you certainly know what is expected of you in this relationship. Please take seriously your responsibility to be a good model for Mia. She grew up running the streets of New Orleans, for Todd's sake!

Me, having to clean up your puke right now--probably because you ate my underwear!-- I don't consider that courteous at all. Oh, I see, pieces of the kitchen rug, too. Well, I guess that clears up that.

Let's see a change in attitude around here, team. Come on, we're better than this!
I don't want to have this conversation again. Savvy?

News Hounds

More photos from Kansas.com

One thing I don't miss is TV. Anything that's worth seeing is on the internet, or I'm too cheap to pay for it anyway (ie HBO/Sopranos). Keith and I were glued to the news this weekend. I woke up and read that a KS town was demolished by a tornado. But tornados happen there often. Then we saw photos and read more reports of the damage.

"The National Weather Service classified the tornado as an F-5, the highest category on its scale. The weather service said it had wind estimated at 205 mph, and carved a track 1.7 miles wide and 22 miles long." ~Boston.com

Keith, of course, has more ties to the town; it isn't far from his hometown. We've driven through there every time we've traveled from KC to Sublette and back. And it will certainly look different the next time we are through.

Me, my weekend was amazing compared to that. I got to stay indoors when I wanted to, go out when I wanted to, and go grocery shopping and watch movies. I didn't have to hide in a cellar and listen to an F-5 tornado obliterate my home.

From McSweeney's Internet Tendency:

What People Said Tornadoes Sounded Like Before the Invention of
the Freight Train (in Reverse Chronological Order).

Steam locomotives

Horse-drawn carriages

Roman chariots

Horses

Really heavy men jogging

Brontosauruses

Tornadoes

Also:

In Kansas, the governor said the state's response was limited by the shifting of emergency equipment, such as tents, trucks and semitrailers, to the war in Iraq.

"Not having the National Guard equipment, which used to be positioned in various parts of the state, to bring in immediately is really going to handicap this effort to rebuild," she said.

Weekend Update

West Burnside
waiting on the bus
9:30p Friday

The Bagdad on Hawthorne, home of the Midnight Movie

(actually the eleven o'clock movie)

waiting on the bus to go home
1:25a Saturday

vegan breakfast!
waffles, sausages,
potatoes, toasted roll
carb fest 2007!
9:30a Saturday

new bag, bday gift from my seester!

Let's Go!
Getting our grocery on @ WinCo in Beaverton.
3:45-5:00p

$101 later:
lots of produce and bulk items
some healthy snack items for work
so I don't turn into a cubicle veal

and tonight's sunset started out like this