Tam’s Think Tank

With Lemon, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

We had dinner with a friend last night at the Matador on 23rd.. We’d never been there before and I have to say…great place. Good food, good cocktails, and a really nice atmosphere. Not to mention that the prices were good. That’s two good restaurant finds in a week. Saturday we had dinner, with another friend, at Lorenzo’s on Mississippi. Also a great little place, good and interesting food, and prices that were decent.

I love Portland for a lot of reasons, one of which is the variety of places to go and get a good meal. Cheers Portland.

Oregon Snow, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

I’ve been messing around with manipulating some of my photographs. This was done in black and white and then the “color” was boosted up a bit. I like the effect.

This is a shot I used earlier in this blog… only a couple of entries before this actually. You can check them both out, the original and this one, to see which you like best.

Covered Maple, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

So far about 2 inches out there, but it’s snowing again and weather reports say it may continue on and off all day into tomorrow morning. Who knows how much we’ll get… all i know for now… it’s cold, snowy, and continuing to accumulate.

Blanket of Snow, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

Back to the snow pictures of this morning. And in fact, it’s snowing again out there this morning. So lovely, the snow coming down at the same time there’s a shaft of sunlight coming through the trees across the road. Very beautiful combination.

 Pagoda Ice, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

One more shot of the ice that was on everything before the snow hit last night.

Ice Covered, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

Ice… everywhere, covering everything.

I thought I’d include a couple of shots I took yesterday, before the snow. We had freezing rain on Saturday and the ice didn’t really melt.  This time of year we don’t get much sun at our place.  Our house is in this little valley… hills and tall trees all around.  Where our house is situated the sun barely makes it over the trees.  We get about an hour a day now, an hour we’re grateful for.  Other than that hour, it’s fairly dark, dark and cold.  Because of this coldish phenomena things don’t warm up much and when we get snow and ice it takes a long time to melt.

After The Snow, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

We woke up this morning to a couple of inches of snow on the ground. The snow came on top of a layer of ice we already had. It’s been cold here lately. Below freezing for the last few days. At least, below freezing at our place. We are, as I mentioned in an earlier post, up above that magic 500 ft. level. That place where they are saying, today, that we’ll get snow while everyone at a lower elevation will get rain. And in fact we have, in the last hour, gotten more snow. It’s beautiful really. The snow comes in, it clears and the sun comes out with that beautiful winter blue sky, and then the clouds move in again and we get a bit more snow. It’s going to be a quietly beautiful day.

Frozen, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

It’s been raining, freezing rain. I guess it is Oregon after all.  And yes, we do get this… this frozen falling stuff though technically it’s not really frozen when it’s falling, it freezes on contact.

I’m inside… not going anywhere.

We did venture out last night… dinner with a friend. It was nice. Driving home though was slightly stressful once we got closer to the house. We live up at 500 feet or maybe a bit higher. That magic zone when water turns to ice or snow. Seems if it’s possible in the forecast, we get it. But hey, don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. It’s beautiful. Especially when I get to look at it up close, at home… not from behind the steering wheel of a car.

I know, I know, I’m early with this post for Photo Hunt Saturday. But here’s the deal… I’m home today from work, not feeling all that well, and I have nothing better to do. Hence the post today.

About my post for this week’s theme, old fashioned… We went to San Jose last June and while there we ventured out to the Stanford in nearby Palo Alto. This place is fantastic. Admission is cheap, popcorn, snacks and soda are priced from the 50′s or so, and you get a double feature, complete with live organist popping up out of the floor during intermission. It’s old fashioned all the way around, and really incredible.If you want to join the hunt and the fun, check out the specifics at photo hunt.

Our little mister, Weston, is such a cuddly guy.  He would be happy, I think, doing nothing more than sleeping while laying down up next to one of us.  He’s doing it right now actually.  He’s laying up next to my leg, sleeping.  It’s cute.  He’s cute.  What a fantastic little fella he is.

coastradio.org, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

Here it is…. the webpage for coastradio.org who used one of my photos today as it’s photo of the day. Woo hoo!

Well folks… the coast radio website picked one of my photos as their photo of the day for today… I didn’t even submit it to them, they found me on flickr.  Go figure… but, way cool.  Check it out at Coast Radio.

Clock Tower, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

We also ventured out to St. Helens to look at a house a friend bought. His place has such a great view. I was snapping loads of pictures from the deck. I used the telephoto lens for this one, and liked the result.

Go Fly a Kite, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

These guys were flying their kites in a huge parking lot on the Columbia River. Great wind. Besides just flying them they were riding on skateboards while flying them, causing them to shoot across the lot, sometimes at pretty good speeds. Looked like fun!

The Mountain in Pink, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

Today we headed over near the airport, once again, to take some shots at sunset. The mountain was lovely.

Storm Clouds, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

Took this one yesterday. We went out driving around in the country. The clouds and sky were beautiful. Especially with these great poplar trees in the foreground.

We are in the process of trying to buy a piece of investment property. The property? A house we want to eventually be able to rent out. Let me tell ya… what a process. We looked, we offered, we got it inspected, we found a glitch, we are going to have it looked at by a construction guy (thanks Kev) who also happens to be my brother, and then we will make our final decision. And what a process it is… whew. I’m exhausted. It’s been a very busy three day weekend and I am in the need for some major quiet time. But then, that’s how I am. I need my quiet time. Especially when there’s a lot of “stuff” going on.

Now, granted, this is not highly emotional stuff in the sense that I’m not bummed, or upset, or even that stressed out about what’s going on. It’s just a lot to do in a short amount of time and we have to make sure it all gets done to our satisfaction and correctly. Coordination is the key, that combined with patience and persistence. All things we are both fairly good at it… thank you very much.

Ah, it’s Monday at 9:33 pm and I’m tired, tired but hyper. Hmmmm… I don’t feel like I could sleep, but then again if I went to bed I’d probably be out in like moments. This calls for ice cream… yep, that’s what I need. bah ha ha ha!

Flash forward 5 minutes or so and now I’m sitting here with a little bowl of chocolate chocolate chip, with carmel sauce. I work fast. Plus, the bowl is small. It is almost time to head to bed.

I did get to relax a bit this weekend. We have company… hey Khris… so we’ve been heading out to take some pictures here and there the last couple of days. He’s into photography like the two of us are so it works. I think I’ll end this post and then post some of the pictures we’ve taken over the last couple of days. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do… cheers….

Life Jackets, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

I’m posting a tad early for the photo hunt. The theme for the week… important. I looked through the ol’ archives and came up with this one I took February 2007 on a cruise ship. Nothing seems more important when you’re on a big big boat than knowing where the life rafts and the life vests can be found. Luckily we didn’t have to use them, but it was important to me to know where they were!

If you want to join the fun, check out the photo hunt site and play along.

Stop, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

I just uploaded a few pictures from what is normally Karen’s camera. I used it tonight to take pictures for the 365 project, which you can see at image – ination. Anyway… when I downloaded the pictures from the camera onto the computer I found some shots Karen took the other day as we were driving around. It was a very cool morning, fog laying low over the bridge. Nice. I really love this one.

Photo by Karen.

Ripples, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

I like this picture… gives me a feeling of calm.

Daily Ray of Hope, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

So, here it is. My published photo. Pretty exciting really!

Brunch, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

Today we ventured over to Phil and Steph’s place for a little brunch/birthday get together in honor of Steph’s recent birthday. Nothing beats great company (so thanks Mom, Don, Phil, Steph, Shelley, Katie, Maggie, and Molly), tasty food, and excellent conversation. We had a wonderful time. What a fantastic way to spend a Sunday morning.