SOLD

My mom and dad have sold their house - YEAH!!! So now the planning for the big move begins. I am SO excited, and to top it off - its Friday of a three-day weekend. Too bad its like 90 degrees here. But hey, I don't really have to think about work for a solid 2 days, notwithstanding the mountain of paper and crap to do on my desk. Glory be - I just love Memorial Day. I think I might have to go by a flag for the front yard , to go with the new fence which is still a work in progress.

Been a long time gone

Okay, it has been a crazy couple of weeks. First there was Phoenix. It is very hot in Phoenix, the houses are all short and there is a lot of sun. Now I know I have lived in the Pacific NW too long in that I am complaining about seeing the sun, but Phoenix sun is just plain too hot - I felt the carcinoma starting as soon as I got off of the plane.

As for the activities in Phoenix, let's just say there is a reason why they call the yearly gathering a "retreat" rather than, let's say, a rocking good time, but oh well, time out of the office is still time out of the office. Plus, Gail and I got to try a very cool restaurant and check out (if only briefly) Taliesin West.
Then, it was back to PDX and the rain, rain, rain, hail, torrential downpour, and more rain. The best part about coming was of course seeing Josh and Melo, but it was also the awesome taxi pick up and dinner service a la the Rushers. (Jenn - you make a mean crabcake!!).

While I was off playing (well, more like sweating) in Phoenix, Josh and the crack work team was hard at work tearing down the chimney. Action shots for the kiddies:

The start of the adventure:

Oneeeeeeeeeee. . .




Twooooooooooo. . .




Three!!!!!!!:





Note: All proper safety precautions were used in the making of this latest pile of rubble, and much fun was had by all:





Thanks to Rob, Seth, and Ted-dad!

We have to rent a cherry picker when I am home next time!! Then there was work, but that's just boring, icky, hate it, SSDD, so the good news is today is MY FRIDAY. (I am a big believer in the classic demotivator(tm): hard work may pay off later, but procastination pays off now.) Anyways onto the coast for the weekend and the annual WC seminar at Salishan. Me, Josh and Melo hitting the road and outta dodge, if only for a few days. But hey, we have to come back because there's another dumpster (make that #4) coming on Monday.

TGMO (or, Thank Goodness Monday's Over)

Yikes - I seem to have billing amnesia each month as the deadline comes to enter in all my time. Yes, I know I am supposed to keep track of it and I use my smarttimers and all, but really, no one should track their time in 6 minute increments. It is just not natural, and a big pain the butt, too.

All right, that's done (til next month, there's a reason I especially like months with 31 days). It was a busy weekend, and if we weren't already sore enough from dragon boat practice, why not add a little gardening to the mix? Let's just say that the last owners of the house left us with heirloom weeds (and a boatload, literally, of cats, an outboard motor and a whole host of other garbage filling up 2+ dumpsters, but I am not bitter or anything).

These "heirloom" weeds have roots that are a wonder of science. Especially in the front, where they seem to have formed a web that would make Spiderman proud. Personally, I think they should be studied for their starfish-like powers of regeneration since no matter how much of their root system we pull up or cut off, they keep coming back. But this weekend we took a stand, kind of like D-Day for the front sections. The pictures don't do it justice, and I have to keep reminding myself that gardening is a work in progress. (And, I just discovered that if you right-click on the pictures and chose "view image" you will be able to see the weeds in upclose detail - exciting!) Personally, the Zen-garden crap is lost on me, I prefer the gallon plants that are already somewhat grown with flowers. Josh is the one with patience to grow from seed (and I must say, the nasturtiums he planted which have already sprouted are sort of cute, but they better flower soon or they are outta here - just kidding, sweetie (but seriously)). . .

The area left of the stairs in mid-weed

Note the cute dog, not a weed but likes to eat them. What you cannot see in the mess of green is a little formerly forelorn stonecrop plant, which was previously under the cover of some of the largest shamrocks in the world and the killer Spiderman-web of weeds. Poor little plant, no wonder he seems a bit stunted.




TA DA after the weeding is done and all the plants are in!

And, we got to plant two of the hops to start covering the stone wall:





And finally, we got the tree from the neighbor down the street planted. We can't remember the tree's name, but the small pink and white flowers smell like tiare (ahh, Tahiti) and when you rub the leaves, they smell *exactly* like peanut butter. Weird, but true:



And I guess one of the things the prior owners did not totally mess up with either their active attempts or felonious neglect are the roses. (Actually, I think the fact they did just about nothing is what saved them):

Too Good To Pass Up

Being a lawyer, I've heard most of the standard lawyer jokes and generally gloss over the routine articles of an attorney stealing her client's money or running away with his client's soon-to-be ex wife, but these two are pretty good and a bit out of the ordinary:

1. Everything you wanted to know about Gilligan's Island and the law here - now why couldn't I have had to proof read and cite-check this type of article in law school???

2. The old lawyers suck story with a different twist (at the expense of the lawyer, of course) here

Enjoy - my chosen but not preferred profession is generally good for a few laughs now and then.

Pazookie

Ahhh, the wonders of crafting. Jenn, Sarah and I spent the bulk of yesterday after Dragon Boat practice crafting and it was mighty fun (and surprisingly productive). Sarah got two sides of her fish cat toy knitted, Jenn put together a ton of scrapbook pages ranging from Cabo to some high school-era shots of Rob (including some pretty funny pictures of Josh, Greg and the gang from back then), and I managed to get all the Cabo pictures in a book. Now, for writing in notes and all that journaling, maybe I'll just rely on the awesome photo DVD scrapbook Jenn and Rob put together - it is so cool, it almost makes me want to get a Mac. But, then I would have trouble playing Diablo and couldn't just ask the hubby to fix it (since I seemed to have skills in breaking Macs). But dang, those are some cool looking computers and they have great graphic programs.

Anyways, after much crafting and then hemming and hawing (spelling?) about what to do next, we wound up at BJs (or JBs, as Jenn likes to call it) with a very attentive waiter and his pazookie and a wonderful thing called Framboise and a beer sampler. Needless to say, not much more crafting was done, but fun was had by all.