And, it snowed and it rained and it snowed . . .

We have had about 2 weeks straight of mostly snow. But we have had freezing rain and more snow and now rain again. The chains finally came off the car last night (although I needed them in the morning to get off the hill!

I was finally able to thaw the car out on Christmas day. The ice was incredible! I was able to remove the ice and couple inches of snow and then we received another 5 inches of very wet and heavy snow.

When the snow started to melt it was so heavy, as it slid off the hood of the car, it set the car alarm off! The new car doesn't like it when the emblem is moved, the other car didn't care. I don't know if that is an upgrade feature the newer caddy has that the blue one didn't have or if the blue one isn't connected. Something to figure out before we sell the blue one off.

Bill made it home, finally, last night around 10:30pm. About a week late but no worse for the wear. He spent a nice Christmas with the Mohlers and the Woods. Evidently he has shopped and been to more malls in the last week than in the prior year. I think the rest and relax was good for him! William is very happy to have his dad home as are Hy and Paul. We may have to pry Paul's feet from Bill's shoulder to get him to bed tonight!

Hope your holiday was nice and bright and fun!

Ice Ice Baby!

Well, we did receive the freezing rain as promised, during the night. I've cranked up the pellet stove this morning as there is a layer of ice built up on the sliding glass door!

It does make the trees look pretty, but the weight of the snow and ice on trees with leaves is pretty high right now. Looks like we will be fine. Glad the tree from next door came out last Saturday.

I saw the snow plow out on Franklin this morning but it didn't seem like they were scraping or sanding, not sure what the point was?! My cars are encased in a layer of ice - looks very strange.

Hy went bounding out the door this morning and his legs went in all directions, he turned and looked at me like I had played a cruel joke on him. He immediately came back to the porch and sat there. Had to clear a path to the yard and lead the way! He is happy wrapping up in a blanket on the couch and watching the cats outside!

From weather reports we have warmed to a balmy 34 degrees. But I don't really see anything melting. Maybe as the crazy people, "who just have to be somewhere", get out and about - the street will look better. For now they are just ice or thick with snow and a layer of ice on top.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow . . .

William is safely at mom and dad's for the evening and I am back in our house, making sure that things are buttoned up. The dog and bird are fed and we will finally settle down and keep entertained and warm! Thought I would snap a few pictures for folks to see that Astoria does get snow (and this week we have had it every day). Weather is calling for freezing rain tonight so wanted to get it while the snow is still coming down . . .

Hy enjoys being outdoors . . . but only if you stay out there with him! His outdoor adventures have been a little closer to home this week!

I've learned about de-icer and gravel supply this week at my new job and have purchased a set of chains for the car (just in case and they will be available Monday, if I need them!).

Bill is in ABQ an extra day due to cancellation of his flight (which is probably good because nobody could get to him!). We miss him terribly but want him home safe and sound, so an extra day with family is great and luckily he isn't sleeping in an airport terminal!

Happy Holidays!

free spirit

Here is the inside of my Free Spirit album showing Will skateboarding, biking and gasp! Resting. Of course the best picture (below) was taken by my friend Melanie (he always gives her the best shots!) This was a fun workshop and I love the flow of the album when it opens up! It's my little brag book.

Snowboarding and turning 14

William turned 14 last week and all he has talked about for months is snowboarding . . . .

Dad and I were able to successfully keep the snowboard, bindings and bag from being discovered for 7 months. We worked on this surprise for quite awhile and Will was thrilled. He can't wait to hit the slopes.

Bill took William and a couple of his friends for a boy's night out on Friday. They had a room at the Holiday Inn Express and spent the evening with pizza, arcade games and swimming in the pool. The next day they had a great breadfast and were relaxed, if not well rested. You know how boys must stay up every conceivable minute when they are together. Kudos to dad for the great idea!

It was a snowboarding day as he received the bright and fun snowpants from grandpa and grandma Burke and purchased all the accessories he needed with money sent from grammy and papa Woods. He is fully outfitted and rarin' to get on the slopes. Mt Hood has been getting some snow but not enough to open yet. They are hoping for a Thanksgiving start this year.

If I have to watch Shawn White videos one more time . . .

2 weeks and counting . . .

Well, it is 2 weeks from today when I start my new job. My replacement started today and so it will be hectic to download as much information as possible but this means I'm one step closer.

I'm excited to make the move to our Job Corp Center at Tongue Point. This is a great opportunity for me and I get to stay with the same company, just transferring divisions. I'm looking forward to learning a whole bunch of new things!

So, if you don't hear from me in the next couple weeks . . . I'm busy training my replacement - or I could be spending time with mom and dad!

The folks were in Idaho yesterday, expect them in Astoria by Wednesday. They had their stopover in Denver so dad could have his emergency gallbladder surgery! Very lucky they were where they were at that point in time. Cousins John and Deanne took great care of Dad! He said they got him to a great facility and Deanne made sure he was well taken care of! Not the way to catch up with family, but soooo glad that family was around to help them out! I felt helpless just waiting for news. I'm already having reservations about the whole RV'ing thing. Now I have to wonder where my teenager and my parents are each night!

Well, more a little later on!

Mom & Dad's new Home

Dee and Larry will officially be headquartered from their new Allegro as of October. The final papers on the house are scheduled to be signed on Tuesday Sept 30th and the final garage sale is underway this weekend.

The Burkes will be travelling to Oregon to

complete the vehicle registration mid-October and to finalize their "home base" address/Post Office Box etc. I think they are finally in the home stretch and it sounds like liesurely road trip is what is called for. The fall will be a nice time to break in their new rig and finalize plans for theirnext road trip!

So the wireless laptop is fired up and ready, the cell phones are in use and mobility is calling!

A Boating we did go

We took the boat out on the Columbia this morning! It was very relaxing and the weather was nice if not stellar.

We saw sea lions on the bouys and lots of smaller boats out fishing (catch and release only at this point - don't really see the point in that!).

Bill has a new slip at the front of the mooring basin and he likes the slip and location much better.

William even took a turn at the helm. The one nice picture of William (all the others he was mugging).

Clean Windows

Who knew that clean windows can make such a difference? It has been quite awhile since the outsides of our windows have been clean. Bill had all the windows cleaned this week (inside and out - which is a bonus because I thought only the outsides were being cleaned). Wow! I can't beleive the difference! Even with overcast weather, we seem to have more light coming in.

I also wanted to show off my nearly stripped window frames! I just have a small amount to strip and then some additional sanding to complete. Someday I will actually be able to stain and seal these frames! We've chosen paint colors and will redo the dining room sometime this fall (where did the summer go?!).

Bill took the boat out yesterday and we are hoping for good weather tomorrow so we can take a picnic lunch and take the boat out for a family outing. I know it isn't the skateboard park but William will just have to get over it!

School starts Tuesday and we finished the shopping before the real craziness took hold. The only thing I need to purchase is a white dress shirt. Who would have thought that you couldn't find one for a teenager. Everyone has told me to shop on-line (these are the stores locally, mind you). So, JC Penney's has some nice shirts on sale for $10 each - we will buy 2 and hope that I measured correctly. William is 5' and barely 90 pounds. Offers some interesting challenges since he has his father's long legs but no waist to speak of. I think we finally got him into 12 regulars and 14 slims this year. His big thing is skinny jeans (they are the skin tight jeans that some skateboarders prefer) except skinny jeans for William still aren't skin tight - they look very nice on him because they actually fit his frame!

Well, we officially paid off the braces Friday! Yeah! It looks like William will be out of the braces by Christmas. He wears bands right now to pull his bite together. The bands are brightly colored and he can match his mood, clothes or whatever. I'm ready for the bands to go away as I find them all over the house!

I love the smell of green chili roasting in the morning

A big burlap bag showed up in a box at our house last night! Yipee!

The chilis received from Lois are beautiful and roasting up just fine. It will be a day of roasting, sweating and packaging our green chili! I'm sure the neighbors will be hungry all day.

It seems a bit early this year but school is just a week away and our short summer is going to be over before we know it.

Sunrise in Astoria

Just wanted to share our pretty sunrise this morning.

Boys and Scooter

Here are a couple pics of the boys on the scooter. Bill is making sure that the scooter gets some "ride time" while I practice and get ready for it. He likes to pick William up at the skatepark on it. They look pretty good on the scooter! William was hiding from the camera and I knew they were coming so I was in the middle of the street, set up for a shot and the neighbor's decided at that exact moment to leave. I had to move, missed the rounding of the corner, William saw me and hid, and the perfect shot was blown. I think the close up of Bill is nice though! You can see a glimple of my gold helmet on William's head. The ad said flames but I liked that it looks graphic and NOT like flames! Who knew there were so many choices in helmet types and colors - took me a week to settle on one!

Update - Greg & Nick Pic

Here is the picture I took of Nick with Greg Grunberg. I took 3 pictures but only one turned out good. I'm glad this one was okay or Melanie would have shot me ;)

Greg was very nice and got down to Nick's level to make sure we got a good picture. At first Nick didn't want to go over an talk to him but we pursuaded him and then Greg was so nice that Nick forgot why he didn't want to go over in the first place.

Band From TV

A little about the Band from TV Melanie, Nick and I went to see on Saturday:

http://www.bandfromtv.org/

Greg Grunberg (drums), a veteran of shows such as Alias and Felicity and currently starring in the NBC hit HEROES

Teri Hatcher (vocals) currently starring in the ABC hit DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES

James Denton (guitar), currently starring in the ABC hit DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES

Bob Guiney (vocals), who appeared on THE BACHELOR and is currently seen on TLC's DATE MY HOUSE

Bonnie Somerville (vocals), starring in ABC's new fall series CASHMERE MAFIA

Jesse Spencer (violin) currently starring in the FOX hit HOUSE

rounding out the band are accomplished musicians Chris Kelley, Barry Sarna, Jon Sarna, Chris Mostert and child-star turned bass player Brad Savage.

So my interesting note of the night was that I found an all access pass just lying around and was able to get into the arena area about 40 minutes early, save us up front seats and then go down on the field to get closer pictures (although the pics from our seats were pretty good!). I just wish my camera talent was better. I probably took about 100 pictures and only 3 or 4 are really good. I also was able to get a picture of Nick with Greg Grunberg at the baseball game. He was very nice and takes a great pic (that picture is on Melanie's camera, so I have to get a copy!) I tried hard to get decent pictures of Greg on the drums all night but he wasn't in the best of lighting and his drum kit was almost always in front of him.

We had a great time singing along with songs Like Mama Told Me, Temptation Eyes and the Devil Went down to Georgia (Jessie plays a mean electric fiddle!).

SCOOTER!

Yes, we finally picked it up and it is home.

We had a pretty long day yesterday driving up to Portland and back. Bill is think about getting one as well (still working the motorbike trade).

I still need to pass my endorsement tests and get plenty of practice as this is a whole new experience for me! I also need to look for a helmet. Wasn't really liking the helmets at the dealership and was just tuned in to getting my scooter at the moment.

Taking the written test this conming week (hopefully Tuesday!) and then it is practice, practice, practice!

Pier Park

We went to Portland yesterday to get the scooter! On the way home we stopped at a fairly new (Oct 07) Dreamworks park off the St John's bridge. The Pier Park skatepark is pretty cool. Three separate bowl areas and a grinding/trick area. The deepest bowl has a full pipe. Pretty cool with a 11 1/2 " drop in at one end and a 9 1/2 ' exit at the other end. William dropped in at the 11 1/2' end and popped out on the other side but lost the grip on his board which slid back into the bowl. He had to go in to get his board and had a hard time getting back out - there is a ramp but you have to get a running start just to hit the hand holds (someone finally helped him by grabbing his board so he didn't have to climb and manuever the board). He decided that bowl was too much work!

The park is in a pretty industrial area of Portland and was a different experience with nobody wearing helmets and the only person with pads was a 50 year old man! Here is William in one of the bowls (sans helmet)! It is funny how he can blend in and start chatting with others so easily at almost every park.

We also stopped at the St Helen's skatepark on the way home. Seems like a brand new area with bikers and skaters. Pretty nice trick areas and nice bowl transitions.

New Cannon Beach Skatepark

I took William, Alberto, Pierre and John to the new Cannon Beach Skatepark on Sunday. We arrived about 10:30am and there weren't that many skaters. Since the skaters were little guys, my boys took over the bowl within a short timeframe and had the little guys in awe. here are a couple of pics of the guys in action.

Will, of course, was the first to jump something! My quote for this bowl is it tiny but mighty because I think everyone fell at some point. The bowls are tight with lots of good turns and plenty of grinding space.
About 12:30 the bowl started to get conjested so we hit the road and went to Seaside. By that time, the marine layer was burning off and we had sun for another couple of hours of skateboarding. Seaside wasn't as fun after Cannon Beach.

By 3pm we were back home - the best bowl! I dropped the guys off at the park and when dad went back after 5:30pm to pick up Will - he showed him some new tricks and dropped in the deep (12 foot) end of the bowl!

Boy's Road Trip to Las Vegas

Bill and William headed for Las Vegas on June 27th to attend the Beatle's convention. Before they left, I asked William if he could e-mail me pictures of the trip and I could post them on the blog. Well, I only received one from the actual convention

. . . and it was set up not really the final booth!

The Beatle's fest wasn't all we hoped it would be, expensive to get in and the venue wasn't easily assessible in the hotel. Leason learned.

The boys did have a nice stay at the condo Lois outfitted them at - thanks Mom/grandma for the nice digs! William decided the master bedroom was his for the stay. Both enjoyed time at the pool.

Here are a couple of other pics going to Vegas (notice they are mostly Oregon sites)

The guys hit Six Flags in San Jose on the drive home. That was a complete success! Thank goodness, because I haven't lived down that Six Flags in Dalles closed because of flooding when William and I visited 3 years ago!

Bill took William to a skateboard park in San Francisco and William got to try a different skateboarding experience (oh yes, the skateboard was one of the first items packed for the trip!). Bill said that some kids tied their jeans around their butts and left jockey shorts for the top half showing (sounds lovely) and that they called themselves little gangsters! Glad that isn't going on in Astoria!

John had the boys stay over in Napa with him and they enjoyed a good evening of barbeque and (I'm sure) stories of their youth.

Boys arrived home July 4th at about 7:15am, tired but having had another grand adventure!

Catching Up!

Okay, I am terribly behind . . . I know, I know!

I've hired a new accounting clerk and she started last week! It was hectic but I made it through a month doing double duty.

Paul Lee flew the coop a few weeks back. He was determined to get out and did. He wouldn't answer Bill and left on a fairly rainy day and that evening it was 49 degrees over the evening. I was not hopeful of his return, but Bill kept searching for him. No Paul the next several days and Bill finally placed an ad in the newspaper in case Paul decided to cozy up to someone and was just awaiting a "LOST" ad. The ad ran for a week, no word! Paul had been gone for 2 weeks and the weather was awful - mostly raining (and raining hard) weather never reached 55 during the days and the evenings were in the mid to low 40's. The day before Bill was ready to haul off the cage/home, he received a call . . .

Yep, Paul is back! He flew uphill about 3 blocks to a constructions site for Randy Stemper's new home and was wandering around on the roof. Eventually he saw this guy that kind of looked like a younger version of Bill and decided he needed to go down and be on that guy's shoulder. The guy took a liking to this very friendly and strange bird who just hung out with him the rest of the day and they went home together. He bought a small cage and kept Paul safe, warm and fed. This guy doesn't get the paper so he didn't see the ad Bill placed but a buddy of his did and so the day after the last ad ran, he was told the owners were looking for the peach faced lovebird. Paul and Bill were reunited and Paul has been catching up on people food, green chili and coffee since arriving back home (he was on bird seed while on his walkabout!).

Baseball!

I don't think that we have ever had such a rough baseball year! The weather has been extremely uncooperative. We had one game prior to May 3rd and then a double header Saturday morning. Pictures are of William at bat and behind the plate. His position seems to be catcher this year. We managed to get in a game last night as well (home after 9:30pm - Yawn).

I believe we a 1 win and 3 losses for the season. Been tough to get any practices in as well. We really haven't had more than one practice a week. The other Babe Ruth team seems to get them in like clockwork. Teams are pretty large for Babe Ruth with 17 and 18 on each team. Makes it harder to get playing time.