It's going to be a busy summer.

In order to get my head wrapped around all of the work I have to do over the next several weeks, I got all of my client work orders together and laid them out on my cutting table. Each sheet of paper represents a client project. A couple are just alterations while others are way more complicated (like making a jacket and vest from scratch), but each one is a project. Surprisingly, the calls are still pouring in. There are two new messages already on my machine this morning. I don't know if it's a sign the economy is turning around or what, but I've gotten more calls already this year than I got over the past two years combined.

Photo is from 2003, but the sentiment is still the same.

Happy Birthday, Mr Moo!

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 168

Click here for the entry form.

FYI - There are several other rounds of the movie contest still open. You can find them on the Name That Movie Contest page of my website under "Open Rounds".

We're rich!

Yeah, I wish. These are the leftover Israeli shekels from Mr Moo's business trip. There are 67.70 shekels, which is roughly 17 US dollars. We'll hang onto them until his next trip.

He woke up several times during the night, but Mr Moo ended up sleeping roughly 12 hours last night. Keeping him awake all day yesterday was difficult, but, in the end, it was worth it. He's still tired today, but the worst part is over and he should be totally re-adjusted to this time zone within another day or so now. There is method to my madness, although you'll never get him to admit it.

He brought me a pressie from Israel.

It's a little box of note paper with a small pencil. And, yes, Kelly, he really did buy me something with a cow on it.

My new glasses and our unbelievably filthy bathroom mirror.

Wow. I have never seen anyone as jet lagged as Mr Moo was today. He walked in the door just before 1300 this afternoon and he looked terrible. All he wanted was to sleep, but we both knew he needed to stay awake as long as possible if he's ever going to get re-adjusted to this time zone. I had him take a shower and put on some fresh clothes. We had a late lunch and unpacked his suitcase. He went out and ran a few errands. We cleaned up the kitchen. We just did everything we could to keep him upright and awake. We almost lost him at about 1800 (0400 Israel time), but he got up, walked around a little and pushed through it. Amazingly, it all worked in the end. He stayed up the whole day. I just put him to bed and expect he will sleep for 10-12 hours now. Poor man was so tired. I think he was asleep before I even closed the door. Goodnight and sleep well, Mr Moo.

Just chatted with Mr Moo via Yahoo IM. He's in Tel Aviv and about to board his flight to Germany. He is officially on his way home. Yay!

EDIT: He's in Frankfurt. They've just started boarding the flight to Portland. They should be landing in 11 hours at 1130 PDT.

Even though Michael Jackson has died and the world appears to be ending, I'm having a good day today. A dear friend of mine, who I had not seen in a very long time, came over today, along with her daughter, for a dress fitting. She's in a wedding in August. The dresses were ordered right before she found out she's pregnant with her second child. Oops! Fortunately, the style of the dress lends itself well for maternity (empire waist, gathered skirt front), but we still need to add some material to cover what will be her seven month pregnancy belly. Along with the dress, she brought me an extra yard of fabric from the manufacturer so we'll see what we can do with it.

After her fitting, we all went out to lunch. It was wonderful to catch up since I hadn't seen her in an age. The last time I saw her daughter, she was a newborn and now she's five. Yikes! Where does the time go? Hopefully, we won't go so long until our next visit.

Not long after I got back from lunch, I headed out again. This time to see my eye doctor and pick up my new glasses. They're still black, but I got a more substantial plastic frame instead of a wire one this time. It's quite a change and I'm still not sure I like them yet. Will be interesting to see if Mr Moo even notices when he gets home tomorrow.

I knew it was inevitable, but it's still the worst part of this whole cancer treatment thing. I didn't like it the first time we went through this and I like it even less this time around. The screaming has begun. Eight to ten hours after applying Josie's medication, I have to wash it off and the skin on and around the lesions sloughs off. The past couple nights weren't too bad since we had just started treatment, but a lot came off tonight. It hurts her terribly and she screams. And it's not just because her head hurts. I can tell by the way she looks at me that she doesn't understand why *I* am doing this to her. She's so confused and I have no way to explain it to her. The worst part is it only gets worse from here. Mr Moo said he will take over the washing part once he gets home on Friday. Thank goodness. I don't think I could finish this on my own.

Take one unsuspecting kitty...

...cut away hair to expose lesions...

...adorn with lovely plastic e-collar...

...and apply medicine.

Man, it looks so simple in photos. My biggest piece of advice, if you ever have to do this yourself, is make sure to put the collar on before applying the medicine. That way, when (not if) she shakes her head furiously afterward, you don't end up with toxic medicine all over yourself and your bathroom.

Oh, woe is me! I'm so sad and pathetic!

Can I have some tuna now?

I watched a movie from Netflix over the weekend.

I hesitated when I learned Samuel L Jackson was in it. I was worried he'd start screaming about snakes, but, thank goodness, it was nothing like that. He's played some very campy characters in his career, but this was not one of them. The movie follows the "life" of the red violin from its creation in the 17th century to present day. You get to meet the violin's various owners over the many years and learn of their experiences with the instrument. SLJ plays a modern day appraiser who is investigating the violin and learning its story. It was very intriguing. Anyone else seen it?

Cancer Treatment #1 Status: Completed. Medication applied without incident.

Mommy Status: Upset. Cried the entire time.

Kitty Status: Severely pissed off. Appears ready to start killing humans in large quantities at any given moment. Subject stated she would put murdering spree temporarily on hold if given can of tuna for dinner and allowed to sleep on bed tonight. Demands will be met.

I spoke with Mr Moo, who is still in Israel on business, today. Things are still a hot mess at work and he is not going to be able to come home early like we were hoping. It stinks, but I'm just thrilled they're not extending his trip at all, which they easily could have done. He will be heading home on Friday as originally scheduled and should be walking in the door right around noon.

Today, we begin Josie's carcinoma treatment. She doesn't know it's coming still so she's contentedly sleeping on her heating pad without a care at the moment. I, on the other hand, am a wreck. I couldn't get to sleep last night for hours. I finally dozed off around 0430, but woke again at 0500. I was too tired to get up and do anything so I stayed in bed and tried to get some more sleep. Grand total, I think I got a whole three hours by the time I finally gave up and got up just before noon. I'm worried sick about how Josie is going to handle treatment this time around. It's incredibly painful and takes a lot out of her. And, at 17 years old, she's not exactly a kitten anymore. I'm worried sick it's going to be too much for her and, obviously, my subconscious is wracked with guilt. I only hope this extreme insomnia won't last for the entire three weeks of her treatment.

My FIL just called and offered to mow the lawn today in exchange for me doing some alterations for him. My FIL is da bomb.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 167

Click here for the entry form.

FYI - There are several other rounds of the movie contest still open. You can find them on the Name That Movie Contest page of my website under "Open Rounds".

I discovered a great new product not long ago. Oroweat Sandwich Thins.

They're like hamburger buns that have been smooshed flat. Depending on where you live, they're sold under different company names. It's Oroweat on the west coast, Arnold in the east and, until recently, Brownberry in the midwest. I've always liked having a sandwich for lunch, but never liked the calories. A regular slice of whole wheat bread can be 110 calories per slice. That's 220 calories in bread alone. These Sandwich Thins are just 100 calories each, which is much better.

As an added bonus, they contain no high fructose corn syrup. I made myself a turkey sammich the other day.

The Sandwich Thins are definitely smaller than regular size slices of bread, but they're substantial enough to make a decent sammich.

I told Mr Moo about them and he's looking forward to trying them when he gets home. I have no doubt he's going to laugh and say, "That's it?!" when he sees the size of them, but, for me, it's enough to get through the afternoon without becoming a crazed ravenous beast by dinner time. And I love that I can now have a turkey sammich for just 150 calories instead of what used to be nearly 300.

Josie's medicine has arrived from wherever in the world they ship it from (I think it was India this time, although the customs label was in French) and I have confirmed boarding arrangements with the vet for next month so we will be starting her next round of cancer treatment tomorrow. For those of you unfamiliar with the situation, Josie, our kitty, has squamous carcinoma in situ (cancerous lesions) on her head above her right eye. We will be using the medicine to, basically, burn the sores off her head to allow new healthy skin to grow in its place. We've done this treatment once before, but started reducing the frequency of the application too soon. The lesions were greatly reduced, but not eliminated and now they're back again. This time, we'll be dosing her every single day for 21 straight days instead of switching to every other/every third day after each week. Hopefully, it will be intense enough to rid her of these sores once and for all. So, tomorrow morning I will be shaving part of her head, suiting her up with her e-collar and applying the first dose of medicine. She's going to be so pissed at me.

The reason we needed to sort boarding with the vet before beginning is because we're leaving for a five day trip to Crater Lake on July 16. While we will be done with the medication, Josie will be sporting some serious sores and scabs still at that time. She needs to be constantly supervised to keep her from scratching her head and I don't feel comfortable leaving her alone for several days while she's wearing the e-collar in case she gets stuck or runs into trouble somewhere. By leaving her at the vet's office, we know she will be monitored well and, if she were to scratch and do damage to her head, she couldn't be in a better place. It's going to cost a small fortune, but I'll sleep better knowing she's there.

EDIT: She's been granted a reprieve. Decided to wait until Monday morning to start treatment.

A couple new photos of my netbook now that I've taken all the stickers and protective coverings off.

It is positively monsooning here at the moment. Time to put on the hip waders and get the ark out of the garage.

What do they call it when a bird lays its eggs in the nest of another type of bird so it doesn't have to raise its own young? I think I just witnessed firsthand evidence of that. A tiny junco was just in the tray feeder on the patio feeding its "baby", which, no exaggeration, was twice the size of the junco. Poor little junco was doing its best to feed this monstrous child. I'm amazed it has time and strength to feed itself after all that.

Mr Moo and I tried out and successfully used Yahoo Messenger to "call" each other today. We weren't sure if it was going to work because his internet connection through the hotel is spotty at best, but it worked just fine. It was nice to hear his voice for a change, although he couldn't hear me for the first several minutes because he had something muted by mistake.

Friday and Saturday are the official weekend in Israel so he had today off. He and his co-worker still went to work for a while though. Things are not progressing well with the hardware he's there to test. He's at a point where he's basically sitting around twiddling his thumbs while he waits for other people to fix their pieces parts. He still has plenty of other things to work on (different projects altogether), but that's stuff he could be doing back here at home. I think he's going to set up a meeting with the powers that be to see about coming home soon. I don't know all of the details, but it really does sound like it's a waste of time, money and resources for him to stay on there any longer. Cross your fingers for them to decide to send him home in the next few days. I miss him and the lawn really needs mowing. :-)

For those interested, Mr Moo is still in Israel on his business trip. I've been chatting with him online at least once a day since he left. Unfortunately, things are not going well at the moment. For starters, the crate of stuff they needed to set up early got delayed for a number of reasons and was not there when he arrived, which means he left early for nothing. When the stuff finally did arrive, they started having all sorts of problems. I'm not sure if they're testing individual chips, entire motherboards or something in between, but he said things weren't loading/booting properly (aka, not at all) and it was a disaster. Originally, we were hoping things would go well and he could come home at the end of this week, but there is no way that is going to happen now. We'll be lucky if he gets to come home by the end of next week. Sigh. In the meantime, I get to continue living my wild and debauchery-filled bachelorette lifestyle. Well,if you consider sleeping in the middle of the bed and living in my pajamas debauchery, that is.

I've been beyond sleepy for several days and I couldn't figure out why until today. We all get a little extra tired at certain times (like after lunch), but I've been falling asleep at my desk kind of tired all day long for days now. It got so bad I had to start taking naps, which has totally messed up my nighttime sleeping again.

Right before Mr Moo left on his business trip to Israel last week, we headed out to do a little Geocaching one morning. Most of the caches were in well-maintained parks, but there were a couple in wooded and overgrown areas. I still don't know where, but I got into some poison ivy/oak/sumac at one point and my legs are now covered in a lovely rash. Last weekend, the itching got so bad I was waking up in tears and thought I was going to lose my mind. I headed over to Walgreens to pick up some anti-itch cream before I went all postal and ended up on the news.

Every day this week, I've been slathering this cream on my legs from ankle to underwear at least twice per day, sometimes three times. Just for kicks, I took a closer look at the active ingredient this morning: Diphenhydramine Hydrochloride. That's the same active ingredient as my sleep aid! It's basically Benadryl in cream form. No wonder I've been falling down asleep all week. On the bright side, it's doing a really good job controlling the itching. I just have to be careful not to drive anywhere right after applying it. The rash is finally starting to clear up. Hopefully, I'll only need the cream for a few more days.

These were taken a few days apart. Kitty cat or raccoon? I can't decide.

I bought a new DVD tonight:

It was on sale for only $6.99. Can't go wrong at that price. Can't ever go wrong with Daniel Day-Lewis either. Love him! That reminds me - I really need to pick up a copy of Age of Innocence. Such a gorgeous movie.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 166

Click here for the entry form.

I'm currently sitting on my patio on a gorgeous almost summer evening. The sun is shining. There is a gentle breeze blowing. My kitty is contentedly sleeping in a sunbeam. Even the parakeet is enjoy being outdoors. We've all had dinner. Our bellies are full. My netbook is working perfectly. Life is good. If only Mr Moo were here, too, it would be perfect.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 165

Click here for the entry form.

Is anyone else as frightened as I am by what's happening in Iran right now? It's not good. Not good at all.

I sent Mr Moo to Israel with a travel bug as an incentive to find at least one cache to make the drop while he's there, which he did yesterday. He uploaded the photos for me in the afternoon. There aren't a lot of caches in the area, but we found a good one in the hills on the outskirts of Haifa. It started out with a short hike...

...which led to an amazing view.

That's the Mediterranean Sea in the distance. Sharky went on the trip with Mr Moo and helped him find the cache.

Amazingly, Mr Moo actually remembered to leave the travel bug in the cache.

I'm so bummed I didn't get to go on this trip.

The shark came with us Geocaching last weekend.



We even saw a coffee place he claimed to own.

When we went Geocaching last Saturday, we found some neat things...

...several really nice urban parks hidden throughout Sherwood...

...an old (horse?) post that's been overtaken by a tree...

Horsies!

...a giant snail...

...and a yellow spotted millipede.

I was going to post this yesterday, but my headache kept me away from the PC all day. Anyhoo, my new netbook is here!

It arrived late Wednesday afternoon. Fortunately, Mr Moo walked me through all of the router settings before he left so I could get it on the wireless network. I still can't get over how tiny it is.

Those are one inch marks on my cutting mat. It's a touch over 10" wide. It will fit perfectly in my carry-on bag. I can't wait for our next trip to try it out on the road.

I had a dull headache all day yesterday. I took a bunch of ibuprofen, which did nothing. I should have paid attention and put two and two together then, but I didn't. I went to bed with the hopes I could sleep it off and woke up to a full blown migraine this morning. It was so bad I almost couldn't get my meds out of the package. Since my stomach was empty and I was still half asleep, it took a little longer than usual for the meds to work, but they kicked in eventually. My head is loads better now, but I'm still feeling a bit zombified and probably will for the rest of the day. Bleh.

I chatted with Mr Moo for a little while this afternoon. He and his co-worker had the day free so they hired a guide for a tour of Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee. I sent him information to upload his photos to my website's server. The hotel only allows him one hour of free internet access per day and he was running out of time to try it today. He's going into work tomorrow and will try to get them uploaded then. If he's successful, I will post some of them soon.

I chatted online with Mr Moo a few hours ago. He had a few minor flight delays, ended up with a rental car that looks like it's been in a Bourne movie and hit rush hour traffic on the way out of Tel Aviv. Aside from all that, he made it to the hotel without issue. He and his co-worker had just had dinner and he was going to do a little bit of work before heading to bed. I can't even imagine how jet lagged he must be. Tomorrow and Saturday are the weekend in Israel. Since a crate full of the hardware they need didn't get shipped in time, they're going to have some free time and are thinking about taking a guided tour around the area. I sent Mr Moo with a travel bug and some information about a Geocache in the area so he might take a hike and try to find that, too. I'm not sure what their game plan is for Saturday. Now that I know they've got time on their hands, I'm really bummed I wasn't able to tag along on this trip.

I went to check where Mr Moo's flight was a few minutes ago, but the website I was using doesn't track flights once they leave North American airspace and enter the North Pole area.

It looks like he's still over Canada somewhere, but he's not. According to the website, his flight landed in Frankfurt literally three minutes ago. They left Portland a little late and are a little behind schedule. Instead of two hours, he only has about an hour and a half to wait for his next flight now. Assuming, of course, that flight leaves on time. The Lufthansa website says it's still on time, but we all know how quickly that can change. I'm not sure if Mr Moo will have time to contact me during his layover, but I'm hoping he can shoot me a quick email at least. If not, I'm sure he'll send something once he gets to his hotel in Israel and it will be waiting for me when I wake up.

Where in the world is Mr Moo?

Oh, look. There he is. 8 hours and 54 minutes to go on the first flight. Poor boy.

Mr Moo just left for the airport for his business trip to Israel. He originally wasn't going to leave until Friday, but it got moved up a couple days. He has a 10+ hour flight to Germany, a two hour layover and a four hour flight to Tel Aviv. With the time change, he'll arrive there sometime tomorrow afternoon, which is still the middle of the night here. That's some serious jet lag. As of right now, he's scheduled to return home on the 26th, but that can, and more than likely will, change once he gets there. If things go well, he could be home in a week. If not, he could be gone for three. Cross your fingers for things to go well.

I considered tagging along on this trip, but the schedule was moving around so much, we decided it was too risky. We didn't want for me to get locked into certain dates only to find out he wasn't going to be there until three weeks later or something. Maybe next time.

Mr Moo's good friend, the black and white "kitty", has visited our yard several times over the past few days.



We have no problem if he wants to nibble on the cracked corn or get a drink from the bird bath. However, he's been tearing up the lawn something awful looking for grubs and other snacks. Mr Moo is about this close to going all Caddyshack on him.

As a very berry early birthday present, Mr Moo and I ordered one of these for me this weekend:

It's an Acer Aspire One AOD250 netbook. I've been wanting to get a small notebook for a while now to take on trips for me to use for journaling and posting photos. It didn't have to be super powerful or have gigantic memory or anything. Just something small and bare bones. Mr Moo has a laptop, which we usually take along when we travel. However, it's a work laptop so I'm not supposed to use it. Not that he ever stops using it long enough for me to get online anyway. My brother-in-law suggested a netbook while we were visiting them in South Carolina. I hadn't heard of them before, but after a quick bit of research, I knew they were exactly what I was looking for. Over the past few weeks, I did a lot of homework to determine which make and model was going to be the best bang for our buck. We decided on the Aspire One Ultra Thin last week. It's barely 10" across and weighs less than three pounds - perfect for putting in my carry-on bag when we're traveling. Amazon had reasonable prices plus we had a couple gift cards to use (bonus!) so we ordered it from them. The order was placed on Saturday and it's zooming its way to our house as I write this.

We were hoping it would be here before Mr Moo leaves on his business trip tomorrow, but that's not looking likely. Will be interesting to see if I can get it to connect to our network without him.

Other highlights from our hike to the summit of Saddle Mountain...

On the trail. You can see how steep the hillside is. There was a lot of switchbacking and you have to be very careful in many spots because, if you fall, there's nothing to stop you.

Some type of Indian Paintbrush. There were a lot of wildflowers just starting to bloom all over the mountain. Unfortunately, it was much too windy, misty and just plain yucky for me to take photos.

I was beyond exhausted already when we stumbled across this mile marker. An hour into our hike, one mile down, one and a half more to go to the summit, plus 2.5 back down to the car still. I believe my exact words were, "That's it? You've got to be *bleep*ing kidding me!"

I spotted this guy crossing the trail on the way back down. That's my foot for reference. Bear in mind I have tiny feet. This was the biggest slug I've ever seen. He was a good 6-7" long. Ick!

When we set out for Saddle Mountain on Saturday, the sky did not look good, but we still had hope things might clear up a little by the time we reached the summit.

Our spirits were high when we set out...

...and we found a few nice views from the lower elevations.

However, the closer we got to the top, the thicker the cloud cover became. By the time we reached the actual summit, it was so bad we could hardly see each other, never mind anything else.


This was our "view":

Supposedly, on a clear day, you can see all the way to the ocean. Oh, well. At least we did it. We averaged a whopping 1 mph on the way up, which, given the difficulty of the trail/weather and my pathetically short legs, is fantastic for us. I'm sure we'll do this one again before we go to Glacier. We need the practice and I still want to see the view!

Ah, yes, the po-po story.

We were on the main road heading to Saddle Mountain and probably about 20 minutes away from the turnoff. We ended up behind a dark blue Audi that was moving along just fine at first. After a few minutes, we noticed his speed started getting erratic. He would alternate between zooming along well over the speed limit and going 10-15 mph below it. Not long after both Mr Moo and I commented on it, he drifted over the center line into the oncoming lanes of traffic. No one was coming in the other direction, thank goodness. We've all gotten distracted farting around with radio and such while driving before so we gave him the benefit of the doubt. The first time. It wasn't very long at all before it happened again. And again. And again. After about the fifth time, I had seen enough. We didn't know if he was drunk, falling asleep or just a really bad driver, but it didn't matter. At the rate he was going, it was just a matter of time before his luck was going to run out and he was going to kill someone. I called information and had them connect me to the non-emergency number of the Oregon State Police, where I gave all of the pertinent information. We passed the guy right after I made the call and were glad to be away from him.

Right before we turned off for Saddle Mountain, we saw a police cruiser go zooming past us in the other direction. We knew they had to be looking for Mr Audi because they don't dink around with suspected drunk drivers on that stretch of road. Far too many people have been killed there because of people crossing the center line. Since we knew he wasn't far behind us and we had plenty of room on the side road, we pulled over and waited. Within a couple minutes, Mr Audi went driving by. Sure enough, about 30 seconds after that, the police car followed with all his lights going. Score! Short of getting back on the main road and following them, which we didn't want to do, we weren't going to see the stop so we carried on to the mountain. We aren't sure if that kind of stuff is public information so we didn't call to find out what happened. It very well may be there was nothing wrong and we overreacted. However, if he really was drunk or suffering from some sort of medical issue, he was taken off the road one way or another. Either way, I know we did the right thing.

We climbed the mountain today. Woot! To be honest, it was rather miserable, but it was good practice. It didn't really rain much today, but it collected in the trees and dripped on us almost the whole way up so it might as well have been pouring. When we got to the summit, it was blowing a gale and was totally socked in with clouds. Not a single sun break anywhere. (The weatherman - he lies!) There was no view of anything and we could barely see each other. With the wind and the wet, the trail was very slippery and the climb up and down was treacherous in a lot of spots. We both fell a couple times. Fortunately, neither of us went over the side of the mountain. Phew! We still had a good time though. It was good to get outside for a while even if it was cold, wet and windy. Best part of the day was watching all the smiley happy youngsters in their shorts, t-shirts and totally inappropriate shoes go skipping past with looks of disdain for us old people with all of our gear on the way up, and seeing them on the way back down all soaking wet, freezing and covered in mud. Priceless!

EDIT: Forgot to mention we got someone pulled over by the state police on the highway on the way to the mountain. Wheee! More on that later.

And, we're off to a late start yet again. Sigh. Actually, it's not such a bad thing. It's very cloudy out. If we were at the top of Saddle Mountain right now, I doubt we could see much more than each other. There's a possibility of some sun breaks this afternoon. Hopefully, we'll summit in the midst of those. Now, it's time to finish loading up my backpack and head out the door. Later, fishies.

Tomorrow, we're going to climb Saddle Mountain.

Given that it's going to take an age just to drive to the trail head combined with the fact that I hike slower than a turtle, we're figuring it's going to take most, if not all, of the day so we need to be up and at 'em as early as possible. We're going to do as many hikes like this as we can this summer in preparation for our trip to Glacier National Park at the end of August. The weather isn't supposed to be very cooperative for tomorrow, but, hopefully, it won't be too cloudy to see anything.

Just found out the husband of a dear friend of mine was killed in a motorcycle accident earlier today. They were on vacation and he crashed into a guardrail. I can't even begin to imagine what she must be going through right now. Such a harsh reminder of how precious and fleeting life can be.

I picked up a new sewing job this morning. J is getting married on Halloween during a costume party. She and her husband-to-be are dressing up as Beauty and the Beast. She already has a yellow dress that will work perfectly with some modifications, which I will be doing. Her fiance, however, has nothing but the pants so I will be making a coat (blue velvet - kill me now), vest, shirt and cape for him. She also wants some fur pieces to attach to his hands and boots. I will be making Three Musketeer outfits for the three groomsmen and possibly a Sleeping Beauty gown for the sister of the groom. It doesn't look like much when I write it down, but it's going to be a LOT of work. Don't worry. I shall be posting lots of progress photos as I go.

The Emergency Broadcast System has been activated in the greater Portland metro area because of severe thunderstorm and possible tornado activity for the next few hours.

The wind is howling and the power has cut out once already. It's going to be a fun evening. Think I'm going to shut down for a while just to be safe.

I can see! Had an appointment with the eye doctor this afternoon and he dilated my eyes. I tried to get online when I got home, but trying to read anything was impossible. Six hours later and I'm just now able to focus up close. Things are still a little fuzzy, but I'm managing.

Since they're right next door to each other, I made an appointment to see my orthodontist today, too. I've noticed my retainers have started feeling stretched out lately and my teeth are on the move again. It was time to get new ones - retainers, that is, not teeth. Since they keep molds of my teeth at the office, I just had to make an appointment to pick them up. They were ready to go when I got there. The appointment lasted all of five minutes since all I had to do was try them on. It was quick, but awful. I almost passed out from the pain because they were so tight. I knew my teeth had moved some, but I had no idea it was that much. I wore them most of the afternoon until the headache got unbearable. Should be loads of fun trying to sleep with them tonight.

El Chupacabra visited our yard again a couple weeks ago.

Look for the reddish blurry shape straight behind the hosta plant. Where is Mulder when you need him?

We registered our very first Geocaching travel bug last night, "Cowley the Cow Ornament".

Every travel bug has a tag with a unique ID number. There's a page on the Geocaching website for people to log whenever they pick up or drop off a travel bug from a cache. By doing so, you are able to watch the travel bug travel (hopefully) around the world. We're hoping to drop Cowley into a cache to start his adventures this weekend.

Seattle, Washington - May 2009

From this year's Chick-fil-A calendar, The Bovines in Blue:

Cowlumbo
Don't be fooled by his slovenly appearance and slow-witted ramblings. Lt. Cowlumbo leaves no bun unturned, solving the most gristly cases before the ketchup even dries. Beef eaters, beware! Cowlumbo will be all over you like a bad horsefly.