Yesterday, Mr Moo and I hiked the Fort To Sea Trail. Here's my collectible pin for my backpack:

We hiked all 6.5 miles from Fort Clatsop all the way down to the ocean. It was a really nice hike, which passed through many different habitats, and we couldn't have asked for better weather (sunny, but cool). Unfortunately, my knee wasn't too keen on the whole up-and-over-the-mountain thing and I was limping quite badly by the time we were done. By bedtime last night, it had stiffened up so badly, I could barely move. I'm still in some pain, but at least I can walk today.

Hope to have some photos posted soon. Stay tuned!

We're home. We were gone exactly 49 hours. The way Josie is carrying on, you'd think we'd been gone for an entire year. At least it's the middle of the day and we're not trying to sleep. She can cry away for a while.

We're leaving for the coast in about five minutes. Woot! Hope everyone has a good weekend. We'll be back on Sunday. Later, fishies!

We finally made a decision. We're going to Astoria, Oregon, for a couple days this weekend. We leave in the morning and will be back Sunday. Hope Josie doesn't freak out being alone for a couple nights.

It's been a long rough summer for Josie with her cancer treatments and all, but she seems to be settling back into her regular routine of napping and, well, more napping.

Yesterday was our anniversary. Since it was a Tuesday, we both had to work so we didn't really do much to celebrate. We did go to Outback for dinner, where we promptly ate way too much and gave ourselves tummy aches. Mr Moo originally was planning to take the day off. However, since I had a client fitting scheduled in the middle of the afternoon (I forgot what day it was when I set it up - oops!), we changed things around a bit. He's now going to take Friday off instead and we'll do something this weekend. Problem is, we can't decided what to do. Wherever we go, we'll end up hiking. So, do we go to the coast? The forests around Mt Hood? The volcano (Mt St Helens)? The Columbia River Gorge? Someplace completely different? There are too many places to go hiking here!

It's disgusting, but someone has to do it.

Our yard was invaded by ducks yesterday morning.



If someone hadn't moved the camera, there would have been some better captures. The ducks found the cracked corn in the tray feeder and completely cleaned it out.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 133

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"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 132


Click here for the entry form.

Oh look. Another round. Still open. Come on, fishies! These aren't that difficult.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 131


Click here for the entry form.

Round 131 is still open, too. Had some almost-but-not-quite-right answers last week. Let's see if someone can get it this week.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 130



Click here for the entry form.

Round 130 is still open. Hope someone guesses this one soon because I'm running out of usable images.

Had a very busy day yesterday. I had a website client over for several hours to work on her site, a newsletter and her laptop. We didn't get nearly as much as I wanted resolved, but we did make a sizable dent in things. Later, we went to my in-laws' for dinner. Some of Mr Moo's family, who we haven't seen in an age, were also there. Since they hadn't seen our house since we bought it, they followed us home after dinner for a visit here as well. They were, like pretty much everyone, very impressed with all of the work Mr Moo did here in the bonus room. We were quite pooped when all was said and done, and went to bed abnormally early for me, but we needed it.

Utah - May 2008

Balanced Rock in Arches National Park was very cool.



Sharky thought so, too.

Is anyone else watching the current seasons of Project Runway or Shear Genius?

While we were waiting for dinner to finish cooking yesterday evening, I looked out the patio door at the backyard and saw something new over by the vegetable garden.

Upon closer inspection and a quick search through the bird book, we determined it was a Cooper's Hawk.

We've seen hawks flying around the area before, but never one just sitting in our yard like that. He sat there for a while, checking out the pond area (probably hoping the finches would reappear at the birdfeeder), before he got bored and flew away.

I had a client pick up an alteration today. Here is a before/after photo.

It was a floor length bridesmaid gown that she wanted to convert into a regular dress. I removed the outer wrap piece, cut the skirt way down, added a faux belt and took the hem up a mile. My client shows dogs and needed it to be a dress she could move and run around in. She was happy with how it turned out. She was looking forward to wearing it to a show soon, but recently learned she's pregnant and, unfortunately, it's already too tight on her. It's going to be a while before she's able to wear it again.

Mr Moo and his dad finished up the window leak repair yesterday. All that's left to do is to paint the new siding. Unfortunately, it monsooned all day and looks to continue raining for at least a couple more days. The scaffolding has to be returned on Friday morning. Hopefully, it will dry out enough by then for Mr Moo to get the painting done.

Our garage is a total disaster area. There are tools and stuff everywhere. It's going to be a while before I can park my car in there again.

And here's an in-progress photo of the new siding going up.

Just a few more days and phase one will finally be over. Next we get to fix the holes in the ceiling downstairs.

All of the MooCams are running again. Finally. I think.

They're working over here at least. Let me know if you have any trouble viewing them.

Yes, my name is John and I was wondering if I could get some clothing made for me. I'm an adult baby and I need adult baby clothes made for me. I need a lot of different style clothing made for me. I was wondering if you might be able to give me a call. My number is XXX-XXX-XXXX.

Will someone please tell me why I keep getting calls like this? Sorry, buddy. Not in a million years.

What a difference a couple days can make.

It's nearly 50 degrees cooler than it was two days ago. (FYI 65.6 F = 18.7 C) Not only is it decidedly cooler, it's also raining. Don't be mistaken, however. Mr Moo and his dad are still out working on the house. They've hung some plastic sheeting to protect the window area and have moved their work/cutting area into the garage. They are two determined enginerds.

About an hour ago, Mr Moo noticed the patio light was on and had been for some time. We looked out the bedroom window to see if we could see what was triggering it. I don't have any recent MooCam images of it, but we know the skunk has been visiting a lot lately because it's been digging holes in the lawn like crazy (much to Mr Moo's dismay). We expected to see the black and white "kitty" plodding along out there. Imagine our surprise when a coyote ran into the yard, paused and looked up right at us! We both gasped at the sight, which scared it, and it took off. I checked the cam archive, but there weren't any pictures of it. It must have been too fast to trigger the motion sensor. Bummer.

After Friday and yesterday's sweltering heat, Mr Moo and his dad were very relieved to see the temperature drop a little today. It was still hotter than an oven out there on the scaffolding, but it was definitely a lot more bearable. They got a lot done today.

They patched and resealed all around the window, added a whole bunch of moisture barrier stuff, hung the tar paper over the plywood, got the new window trim up and replaced the broken shingles on the downstairs overhang. It's my understanding that my FIL will be back over first thing in the morning and they will begin tackling the siding. Our house is covered with hardiplank, which is a wood and concrete composite siding. Yes, concrete. It's fire, wind and termite-resistant, which is great for the house, but makes for a nightmare when you have to install it. Unlike vinyl or aluminum siding, you can't just cut it with a pair of tin snips. You have to use a special blade on the circular saw and it's still a pain in the butt. I'm sure there will be plenty of bellyaching going on tomorrow.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 132

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Do you remember the horrible leak we had in our downstairs front room over the winter?

We determined water was getting in behind the upstairs window, working its way through the walls and eventually coming out through the ceiling downstairs. Well, Mr Moo and his dad started working to fix the leaks this weekend.

They had to take everything off the side of the house all the way down to the plywood. What a mess. Thank goodness they had the foresight to rent and erect the scaffolding. It would have been an impossible job if they only had ladders.

Matt Zaffino, a meteorologist here in Portland, attempted to explain how hot it was going to be today on the late news last night. After showing a viewer photo of the sunset, which was beautiful pinks and reds, he said:

Do you know the saying "Red sky at night, sailor's delight"? Well, we have a new saying for Portland. "Red sky at night, it's going to be Africa hot tomorrow!"

EDIT: 111.4 F = 44.1 C

The reason I had to buy a new keyboard is because Mr Moo recently built me a new PC.

My old system was crashing way too often and the hard drives were starting to fail. It was time. Here are all the pieces parts before he started putting it together:

My new PC is soooooo nice. It's much faster and doesn't crash every five minutes. Amazing! I'm still struggling to get all of the drivers installed and program parameters reset, which is why the MooCams have been off so much lately. I hope to have that remedied soon.

A package arrived for me today.

I wonder what could be in it.

It's my new keyboard!

Isn't it purty?

It's a Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard. I don't really care about all of the gaming functions on it, but I do like that the characters on the keys light up. The primary reason we purchased this particular one is the key layout. Manufacturers are starting to resize and move keys around on a lot of the newer keyboards. We tried a wireless Ativa keyboard, but the left SHIFT key was designed so poorly, it never registered my key press. There's also a move towards a giant DEL key and new positions for PAGE UP/DOWN, HOME and END. I'm too old and set in my typing ways for all this change. Leave me my old school keyboard!

We applied the last dose of Josie's medicine today. Her treatment is officially over! Yay!!! Granted, she has to wear the "oven mitt" on her leg for a few more days to make sure she doesn't scratch until the skin is completely healed, but that's it. What a long month it has been. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the carcinoma is completely gone (one spot still feels a little bumpy), but it's been knocked way back. Hopefully, it won't flare up again and she'll live out her days with a little texture on her head.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 131

Click here for the entry form.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 130


Click here for the entry form.

Silly me for thinking this one was going to be easy. Round 130. Still open!

Oven mitt on her leg. Bandage on her arm.

Will this ever end?

Josie's vet visit summary:

He's pleased with how her head looks. We're going to finish up this treatment and see what happens in the coming months. If it starts to grow back, we'll consider another, but much shorter, round of meds when the time comes. I hope it doesn't come to that.

He's concerned about her weight loss. She's dropped almost another half pound since we were there a few weeks ago. We're not sure if it's the meds, the cone, the stress of the whole treatment process or what. He wants me to try to fatten her up over the next month to make sure it's not a kidney or other serious issue.

I mentioned she complained when I was touching her arms the other day. He took a closer look and found a sizable growth on her right forearm. He punctured it with a syringe and checked the contents under the microscope. Official diagnosis: basal cell cyst. We went with the quickest and most effective treatment - freezing. He did it right there and then. Josie now not only has to wear her "boot" on her rear leg, she's now got a lovely bandage on her arm, too. And she's loving every single second of it. Not.

We're about to head out for Josie's check up with the vet. She has no idea we're even going anywhere because I haven't put her regular collar on yet. She is going to be one unhappy kitty in approximately two minutes.

Our friends were back last night.

Good thing we got the electric fence up last weekend. Otherwise, I have no doubt we'd have no corn left.

I took things very easy yesterday and my back is very grateful for it today. I spent most of the day lying on the bed. It was boring as frell, but the best thing for my back. I did manage to get through a good chunk of my "to be read" magazine pile at least. Mr Moo was kind enough to stop at the store on his way home from work to buy me a heating pad. I spent the rest of the evening with it and Mr Moo watching the brain rot downstairs. Like I said, I was bored out of my mind all day, but the rest was exactly what I needed to do. While it's far from totally healed, my back is feeling loads better today. I still can't bend at the waist very far and looking straight down brings the spasms back, but at least I'm able to sit up without crying. Small steps.

Hello, kitty.

A poem by Moo.

Back
is killing
me.

Lying
in bed.

Nothing
on but
Showgirls.

Death
would be
better.

Since she has two whole days between medicine doses now, I made Josie a little "boot" so she can spend some time without her e-collar on.

I padded the foot area with extra fabric and a layer of thick felt. That way, even if she does scratch at her head, her claws can't do any damage. She still has to wear her cone at night since we're not awake to watch her and on days when we apply medicine, but, otherwise, she gets to be free. I think she's pleased.

We have officially entered phase three of Josie's carcinoma treatment. We are now applying her medicine every third day. There are three doses and only eight days left. Yay! This is a photo I took about 10 days ago.

Believe it or not, this was a mild day. It has looked much, much worse. You can see the two black areas where the cancerous cells are located. As of today, the one closest to her ear looks really good. The lumpy bumpies are all gone and it's nice and smooth. The other area has a ways to go still. We'll be paying the vet another visit on Friday for a status check. If he even thinks about suggesting we do another round of this medicine, I'm going to choke him.

I spent almost the entire day yesterday outside in the yard pruning, weeding, watering and cleaning up.

I got loads done, which felt great. Unfortunately, my back doesn't feel the same. I had a massive sneezing fit last week where I sneezed approximately 30 times in roughly a two minute period. I sneezed so hard and for so long, I strained a muscle in back. That combined with all the work I did yesterday, apparently, was a wee bit too much for it. It's now a full on muscle tear/pull. If I sit up perfectly straight, I'm fine. The second a lean over or even look down, forget it. It's absolutely killing me. The best part is I can do absolutely nothing about it except wait for it to heal. Joy.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 130

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Mr Moo took me to a very late showing of The Dark Knight last night.

It was most excellent. It was also very long, so make sure you empty your bladder before you go. We went to the 11:00pm showing and didn't get home until 2:00am. You know a movie is good when it's two and a half hours long, but it only feels like 15 minutes. I totally didn't want it to end. I love, love, love that they've re-tooled this series to be more like the comic book. It's dark, disturbing and wonderful. I'm not going to rant and rave about Heath Ledger because I'm sure you've all heard enough about that. I'll just say I think the whole movie was perfectly cast and leave it at that. My big dilemma now is... Who exactly am I going to leave Mr Moo for?

Jason Bourne? Tony Stark? Bruce Wayne? Oh, decisions. Decisions.

From this year's Chick-fil-A calendar, One-Hit Wonder Cows:

Burger consumption is a global problem, and these animated hombres did their part to put it to rest. They played only the best venues south of the border, but American promoters feared that their bilingual hit wouldn't translate in the States. So these mariachi musicians of the midway proved once again that everyone speaks the international language of chicken.