Oh, the joys and choices of remodeling. Now we have decided we like this sink better. Pretty cool. So… trying to recall the last order so we can order this one. Bah ha ha ha ha!!! We crack me up.
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All posts for the month June, 2009
We’re starting our bathroom addition remodel. First step… take the plans into the county to get a look over and approval. Check. Next step… start buying the fixtures, etc. Our first purchase… two of these sinks. Check. Karen’s now looking at tubs. Kev is working on getting bids for the trusses. It’s a hell of a deal, this remodeling thing.
Tram, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
Down by the South Waterfront, on our way back to the truck at the end of our ride, we happened to catch the OHSU Tram taking off back up the hill.
Steele, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
The light Friday evening was beautiful. All soft and clear. I love this city.
Bible and Barq’s, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
Mysteriously there was a bible with a partially consumed bottle of Barq’s Root Beer sitting on this bench. No one around. Maybe it was an offering… sit, read the good book, quench your thirst. We did neither. We just stopped and took a photo of it. Keep Portland Weird.
Suspension, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
I think this one speaks for itself. I took it during our bike ride Friday night.
Interstate, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
We rode past the Marquam Bridge on our route biking the other night. The blue sky was stunning.
Push, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
Friday last week, after work, we threw our bikes in the back of the truck and headed down to the South Waterfront where we parked the truck, geared up, and headed out for a ride about town. We cruised through the South Waterfront area then headed toward the marina and Waterfront Park. What a fantastic ride. We had such a great time.
Next time we decided we’ll do the loop. Park in the South Waterfront area, ride to Waterfront Park, cruise down to and over the Steele, back up the Eastbank Esplanade, and back across the river on the Hawthorne. It’s a great after work ride. Doesn’t take too long and we can even stop for dinner at one of the outdoor cafes along the route. As I said… so darn much fun.
Appetizer Anyone?, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
We went over to Maggie’s place last Sunday, the 21st, for a little get together with some friends. Maggie apparently had stuff left over from her house warming party and thought getting together was a great opportunity to use it up before she went off to Sweden to see her mom. Every time we go over to Maggie’s we enjoy ourselves. From finding shelter there during the storm last year, to New Year’s eve last year, to the many many times we’ve just hung out at her place it’s always lovely. Thanks again Maggie… you rock girl.
Wildflower, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
Last Saturday we also stopped by Mom and Don’s place after lunch with the siblings. We were on a wood gathering mission. After last year’s winter we knew we needed to be better supplied with wood in case we experience another joyous long lasting power outage. So wood gathering we went. Mom and Don have quite the stock pile. They lost some big limbs in the storm last year and have also taken a few trees down themselves. It didn’t take us long to load up.
After loading I took a wander around the property with my camera. There’s always something to take pictures of there. Just so happens the wildflowers are blooming. It’s so lovely right now. Their whole place is actually. They are really turning it into quite the show place. Better Homes and Gardens is going to show up any minute.
Lunch With Family, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
Last Saturday, the 20th, we had a little family get together (thanks again Ab for planning it out!). We met at the Ram in Salem. Nice place. Really good company. We don’t get to see each other much, the seven of us. So many busy lives, so much going on for each of us. But when we do get together… wonderful. I love these people. Everyone of them, good to the last. Just a spectacular bunch. I’m so proud to be their sister. So proud to have them in my life. And I couldn’t help thinking, looking around at all of us (we missed you Kenny), that my dad would’ve loved it. My dad would’ve loved knowing we were together. I could feel him there. Laughing that throw his head back full body laugh. Eyes twinkling. He would’ve teared up. His love that big, his heart that full. My dad, our dad, made us. He lives in us, and is with each of us every day. I felt him there last Saturday. Probably everyone at the table did. There are really no words to describe it… there was magic at that table. Beautiful, harmonious, loving, happy, magic.
Nursery, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
I have been a bit remiss about posting. Nothing too diabolical behind my partial absence, just being very busy out there in the world. Living.
To sum up the last week or two I’m going to post photos taken during that time as a sort of catch up to now way of saying what we’ve been up to. These will not necessarily be in order, so bear with me. I’ll try to explain, in the body of the post, all the where when and how info.
This was taken at one of our local nurseries. We’ve spent a lot of time there recently, as we seem to every spring and summer. We tend to canvass about three or four fairly local nurseries in search of the perfect perennial or annual or tree or succulent. All in the name of beautifying our place. Personally I think it’s working as the place is looking quite beautiful right now.
Oh, and I took this with my iPhone camera. Not bad for a little thing.
The Eye, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
Thought I’d randomly post a photo I took in London in May. The London Eye is a photographers dream. Interesting structure, loads of different perspectives, and it’s situated in a fantastic spot.
We’ve been home now for almost a month. I’m missing traveling this morning. Feeling nostalgic about our time in the United Kingdom. Maybe it’s time to crack open the scotch and get a little U.K. flavor running through my veins. Before work, or after? (yeah, yeah… I’ll wait, even if I don’t want to)
I’m tired. Tired to the bones tired. It’s nobody’s fault really. It’s just that I got only three and a half or four hours of sleep. Not good. It went something like this… stay up until almost midnight, go to sleep, wake at 3:20 when the little girl pounced on me then sat there on me looking at me, take little girl out, go back to bed, little girl pounces again because apparently she didn’t do all her business, take little girl outside again, go back to bed, realize little girl had left “traces” of her “movement” on my arm where I’d carried her, get up again and go to bathroom, wash arm thoroughly, go back to bed, don’t go back to sleep for a long time, finally go to sleep, wake up again when little girl pounced on me about a half an hour after I went back to sleep, whine that I didn’t want to get up again, watch Karen get up with little girl, stay awake until about 10 minutes before the alarm went off. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how a girl gets tired.
Karen and I have a plan. We are preparing… for what you ask? For our life, where we want it to be in a year, what we want it to look like, etc. One can never really completely plan because, after all, there are so many eventualities, but we can certainly have a path we want to stick to, a game plan so to speak. So today we planned. Talked about, or more accurately, emailed about, the possibilities, expenses, path. Now I’m excited. Excited about us trying to stick to this plan. Excited about what the next year will bring. Excited about so many things. Very cool.
Objects Are Closer Than They Appear, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
At work today…
Portland Marina, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.
This last weekend was a busy one. Very busy. Good though. So I guess you’d say it was good and busy. Should I have more caffeine? LOL Probably not…
Anyway… last weekend. Thursday night we went to see Star Trek. LOVED it. Great movie.
Friday… Went to Penny and Dave’s for dinner. Penny and Dave, we love hanging out with you guys. Very relaxing, as always. Plus, you two put up quite the meal. Very tasty. Thai, our favorite. Thanks so much for the fantastic food and the wonderful company. Dinner and a movie, could there be any better time spent than that?
Saturday… We unloaded a truck full of wood and stacked it in our garden shed, which we also cleaned out before the stacking began. When the stacking was done, thanks Stacia and Kev for helping out, we headed back to Penny and Dave’s to pick cherries off of their loaded cherry tree. We haven’t pitted them yet, but we now have a new pitter. Is that a word? Pitter? I don’t think so. Oh, and thanks Penny and Dave for the cherries… they will make terrific cherry jam. Karen’s excited to get started making it. After the cherry picking we headed back home, showered and such, and then headed into the Pearl to meet some friends for dinner at the Deschutes Brewery. How to describe the scene there…. hmmm. We were seated between a bachelorette party on one side and an unrelated bachelor party on the other. Can we say loud? Can we say drinking and even louder? Can we say inappropriate behavior when a girl in the bachelorette party sat down at our table, uninvited, and proceeded to hit on someone in our party? Can we say inappropriate behavior as a guy at the bachelor party seated behind us started singing “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” at the top of his lungs with certain expletives interjected for color and amusement? Not our amusement, but his own. Man… we just ate, drank a couple of beers, and left. I think we got out of there in the nick of time. Who knows what would’ve happened next. And hey… I know it’s wedding season and all, but we saw no less than seven different parties of women traipsing around town in packs… posing for photos, wearing interesting I’m getting married really soon garb, and looking all together uncertain yet elated. Wow.
After the dinner we all hopped the streetcar and made our way down to the waterfront and the Pride Festival. We wanted to see a band, Uh Huh Her, playing there. Again I’ll say… interesting crowd. Not terrible, just… well… interesting. I think it always happens when you get large groups of people together in a confined space and there’s alcohol. We were amazed, but great people watching. Strange. Not exactly Karen’s and my scene. Plus, the band wasn’t even that good live. The sound system was terrible. But there she was, the famous Leisha, better known as Alice, from her well known Showtime TV show, The L Word, playing the base and singing. Kinda cool. She was shyer than we thought she’d be. So we listened and then walked to VooDoo Doughnut. As we made our way toward doughnut bliss we passed a group of bagpipers. They weren’t bad. We heard them a long time before we found and saw them. We were walking along and suddenly, rounding a corner, there they were, kilts and all. We stood and listened to them play “Amazing Grace”. Nice. Then, shaking off the bounty of bagpipes (I had to say it), we rounded yet another corner and got in line a VooDoo. This place is famous. Famous as in it has been incorporated into many a television show… The Amazing Race for one. The reason? Really good doughnuts, all night hours, and strange ingredients. There’s the cocoa puffs doughnut, the fruit loops doughnut, the voodoo doughnut (glazed raised in the shape of a little guy, chocolate icing, and a chocolate covered pretzel stick to poke him with… and when you poke him there’s raspberry filling), the elvis doughnut ( maple bar with bacon on it), and then some I can’t mention here. Or better said, I could, but won’t. Tasty tasty. So we doughnuted. All of us together… standing outside grubbing away on all that sugary goodness, watching the crowd, enjoying some great blues harmonica as played by a homeless guy we all gave a bit of money to afterward because he was pretty darn good, sippin’ on some voodoo coffee… or milk, and taking turns peeking into the window where the doughnut maker magicians were hard at work. They were certainly enjoying the sweet small of success. Get it… sweet smell…. I know. Bad. The VooDoo Doughnut slogan… the magic is in the hole. And it is.
After doughnut goodness we walked ourselves back to our cars, except for Terri, who just hailed a cab and was whisked away toward home. The rest of us shmucks had to walk the 8 blocks back to our cars. Not bad though. I love walking around the city at night. There were so many people out. Great atmosphere.
Sunday… To continue this saga… We got up, earlier than we wanted to given the late hour we got home, because Weston wasn’t happy staying in bed any longer. It was something god awful, like 7:00. Grrrrrr. We decided to head to Lowe’s for deck staining supplies. We also managed to buy some deck furniture for our back deck and two umbrellas, with stands. Again I’ll use the word… nice. We got home, unpacked our goods, changed into our deck staining outfits, and the stain applying was on. Three hours of time spent on hands and knees (thank goodness for knee pads!) swabbing the deck. It was hard work, and a little back breaking, but the deck now looks great, so what are ya gonna do… obviously… you’re gonna stain the deck. We figured, after all that staining, we needed to not cook. Not cooking meant going out, which meant showering (it was the right thing to do, and much kinder to those around us). We did, went out and had dinner, and then found ourselves back at home watching a bad movie (don’t watch The International unless you have nothing else to do… and maybe even watching our stain dry would’ve been more exciting. Slow? Yes, yes it was… painfully in fact.). We ended up turning the bad movie off and looking for appliances and bathroom fixtures. We’re getting ready to get our master bath built (with the help of Kev… ) and also to replace some of our kitchen appliances. We just ordered new Jen Air inserts for the stove top. We will be going from white, which is cracked and stained, to a nice black. We’re excited. If they fit that is. Only their delivery will tell.
And that, as they say, is that. Our weekend… in a big nutshell. Hope ya’all had as great a few days as we did!
Man From Snowy River – Chase sequence – Fantastic music here and beautiful photography to go with
High Fidelity – Let’s Get It On – Jack Black doing his thing
Reality Bites – All I Want Is You – WARNING – There’s a brief speaking part that’s not in English (a person has to take what they can get with YouTube when movie rights, etc. are in effect).
Jackie Brown – Across 110th Street – Opening credits of the movie
Pulp Fiction – Girl You’ll Be a Woman Soon – WARNING – drug overdose scene in this clip right near the end – I absolutely love Tarantino’s film making.
Once – Falling Slowly
Trainspotting – WARNING – Foul language alert
Kill Bill Vol. 2 – Goodnight Moon – Quentin Tarantino knows how to use music in his films
Moulin Rouge – Come What May – This is a great song, and I was totally surprised to learn these two could sing.
Chicago – Cell Block Tango
And, of course, a couple of additions because I never stop at 10…
Immortal Beloved – Ode To Joy (love the visualization of ode to joy… beautiful film making here)
Duets – Cruisin (cheesy, sort of, but who knew Gwyneth could sing… not I, until this)
Sometime today it happened. Or maybe it was yesterday, later in the day. Not really sure. What I am sure of is that it did happen. I’ve crossed over people. I’m surpassed the 50,000 page view mark. When I looked at the stats just now I was at, well… you can see by the title of this little missive how many hits I’ve had. 50,046. Pretty amazing.
Total Film has built a top 40 movie music moments of all time, counting down from 40 on the first page to one, on page 14. Check out their list to see if your favorite made it in, if you agree… or not. There are YouTube clips from each, pretty fun to watch them again. I think I’ll try and see if I can come up with my personal top 10 in the next week or so. Check back to see what I’ve chosen. For now just enjoy their list. It’s a walk down movie music memory lane. Say that three times fast….
Wow… what a week. Seems like since we’ve been back home it’s been a little crazy in and around our house. Two weeks of bliss in the UK with Mary and Martin, with them and away from all the regular daily responsibilities, chores, life moving craziness. Don’t get me wrong… we have a terrific, wonderful, fantastic, full, beautiful life. We do. I wouldn’t trade anything in my life, currently, for any other possible way to be. I have it good. I know it. It’s just that our life moves quickly… busy. It’s grand and great, but sometimes it’s tiring. Especially when the dogs are restless, the phone rings late night or early morning (which we are both subjected to from time to time in our jobs), and it’s a bit too hot to sleep without the fans going full steam ahead. Again… not really complaining… just saying… whew. What a week huh? (this is where I start to smile and laugh cuz really… I’m very very happy)
I’m sitting here right now, iPod blaring, and I mean blaring. It’s lunchtime at the office. No one here right now but me. I have the road trip play list on shuffle. Currently it’s Travis busting out “Big Chair” through the most excellent JBL iPod player. The sun is shining outside, with a few clouds I admit, but shining. Other than the music it’s quiet in here. I like it. Pretty peaceful for the work place and all.
I just glanced at the numbers again. How can I help it when I’m this close (holding thumb and finger less than and inch apart) from making the 50,000 mark. Looks like less than 30 to go. And, by the way, my own page views don’t count so don’t you go thinking I’ve been clicking the Tam’s Think Tank bookmark 50 times a day to get to the big number. That wouldn’t work… at least that’s what the WordPress peeps say. Almost there…. picture confetti and such at the end of the day today… there will definitely be figurative confetti.
As for our weekend… and let’s just start with last night. The pre-weekend evening out. We went to see Star Trek. Loved it. Seriously. Good romp of a movie. I’m a trekkie from way back. Since the beginning, when the original show aired. I was very young, but remember my dad laying on the living room floor, face close to the screen (he had to, he was legally blind), and me sitting there with him, not really knowing what I was watching, but loving the whole thing. I thought, last night just as the movie started, Dad would love this. And, he would have.
The rest of the weekend… dinner and a movie with friends tonight at their place. Should be fun. We haven’t spent time with them in a long while. I’m anxious to meet the new members of their family, Ricky and Lucy, their new pups. Then tomorrow… time spent with friends having a bite to eat, checking out the festival downtown, and then an outdoor evening concert by the band Uh Huh Her. We’ll see how that goes. Sunday… not sure. We have more work to do on our place. Always. Probably try to stain the deck that I pressure washed this week. Though I hear it might rain. Hmmmm… rain and an outdoor concert. We might have to rearrange our plans for concert going if that’s the case. Or not. We are, after all, Oregonians. Proud to get rained on.
Oh no… it’s almost one. Almost time for me to turn back into a worker bee and get back to it. Court at 1:15 today. Fun fun.
I’ll leave this post with Josh Radin on the iPod singing “One of Those Days“. Seems kind of fitting. Kismet.
Yes folks… only another 108 views and I reach the 50,000 page view mark. Not that many in the grand scheme of pro blogging, but for a little ol’ amateur like me… kinda cool.
This might be coming from out in left field… or maybe I should say from the outfield… bah ha ha ha!! So corny. Anyway… I had my iPod rolling today at the office and this tune came on. Love it. Very toe tapping. Check it out and let’s all flash back! Woo Hoo! I see all those head nods happening in front of your screens.
The Outfield – Say It Isn’t So (Official Music Video) – Watch more funny videos here
I was cleaning out my wallet today and sharing what I’d cleaned out with my work com padres. I recently “moved” into a smaller wallet so as to avoid the Castanza wallet syndrome. You know the Castanza wallet syndrome… an enormously huge and fatty wallet that is so big, holding all cards and receipts you’ve somehow collected over the past 12 years without ever having cleaned it out, you can’t hardly fit it into a pocket, or even use a small dolly to carry it. That wallet. I had one of those. Sort of. I had a wallet, receipts built up in the wallet, it became a big fatty of a wallet, and it was a pain in the butt. Literally, if I had to carry my wallet in my pants pocket for any reason. So I changed. Before we flew off to England I decided I needed a sleeker, smaller, easier to carry wallet. I needed to down size. I did. Now I have a small, petite, fits all the cards I need and some occasional folding cash, in small amounts, and it never gets big wallet. There is one place in my new wallet, however, I tend to slip “stuff” into. You know stuff… receipts, stubs, train tickets. That stuff. That’s the stuff I cleaned out today.
I was recounting, to my work posse, what I’d removed and Chris said to me… what does what you had in your wallet say about you. Stacia then said… sounds like a blog entry to me. So, here it is… the list of what was in my wallet, besides the usual cards and ID. I will leave it to you to say what it means about me. And here we go… One ticket stub for Pink Martini at the Schnitzer; one ticket stub from seeing Romeo and Juliet at the Globe in London; train tickets from England; and REI receipt; an All About Pets store receipt; a business card from Held (vegan belt makers who make belts from old treadmill track and who sell their stuff at Saturday Market); receipts from several vendors at Saturday Market where we bought art, funky pottery, hats, and a jumper; receipt from the Whiskey Shop in Edinburgh where we purchased one fantastic bottle of single malt scotch and two authentic whiskey drinking glasses; London Underground ticket; a five pound Bank of Scotland note; and lastly, a coffee receipt.
That’s what was in my wallet… what’s in yours?
Here we all are… waiting. Doesn’t really matter where as all waiting rooms are the same. Bad coffee, bad lighting, loads of people, weird smells, and the loud person. The loud person can be man or woman. I’ve experienced both. This particular loudy is a woman. A woman who’s knitting and talking simultaneously. Special.
We can all hear her. Clearly. We now know about her expected life span, her kids, her conversation with some percieved uppity person she once encountered. We know it all. Know it all and don’t want to. She keeps talking away and knitting. The people sitting next to her look like deer in the headlights. They are attempting to be polite by nodding, smiling, and adding an appropriately placed chuckle now and then. They are cringing. We all see it. Feel bad for them. Except, of course, the loudy. She sees nothing. Has no awareness of her impact. Has no idea we are all just wishing our names would be called so we could get up and leave this place. Ah.. That’s the dream…
I wonder… Always… Is she, are they, like this everywhere?The answer… Yes. Yes they are. Maybe it’s a nice life. Saying what you want to, wherever you happen to be, so loudly the people everywhere near you, and not so near you, can hear. Oblivious to the fact that people are simply longing for quiet. For peace. People are longing to be anywhere but near you, in the waiting room.
