The Hussey's Blog

Mt. Bachelor

2011-02-21T19:25:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago, we took an extended weekend and drove to Bend, OR for a ski trip at Mt Bachelor. Although it hadn't snowed recently, it was sunny and beautiful giving us some amazing views from the top.

A view coming down the slope looking across to the 3 Sisters mountains (don't mind Kevin's glove in the top of the picture)

Us at the top of Mt. Bachelor, the chairlift actually was named "The Summit"

It was very cold and very windy at the top

The views were spectacular

Enso of course needed some playtime in the snow

Working hard

2011-02-21T19:22:00.000-08:00

Kevin and Enso need to take time out of their busy schedules to have a little cuddle time at the office.

Enso and Ellie...best of friends

2011-02-21T19:19:00.000-08:00

Our new Christmas Manger

2010-11-28T20:21:00.000-08:00

I finally figured out what I've been missing from my Manger set...no, it's not a fluffy little lamb, or even little baby Jesus. It's a big, furry, black and white cat with a jingle bell collar...really?

She's a perfect fit, right?

In other news, our Christmas tree is fantabulously full of presents under it. We went power shopping, followed by a session of power wrapping (which consisted of me wrapping and Kevin watching). We still have a few more gifts to go, but we put a huge dent in our Christmas shopping.

Ode to the 'Rolla

2010-11-28T20:01:00.001-08:00

Well the day has come (actually it came about 2 weeks ago), where we sold our (my) wonderful little Toyota Corolla that has been through so much with me. It's the car that I learned how to drive a manual on, lost and replaced hub-cap after hub-cap and who can forget the beautiful dent in the driver's door during that crazy Bellingham windstorm in 2006 (which had to be professionally fixed). You've been a good car to me 'Rolla, I'm sure you will continue to be a good car to your new owners.

And, just in case you're wondering, my "new" car is a Toyota Camry, same year and pretty much the same color, just the bigger and nicer version that I bought from my parents.

Seaside

2010-08-24T18:40:00.000-07:00

"Likes long walks on the beach..."

More like, "Likes racing up and down the beach on three wheels"

These were actually way more tiring than they look. Plus just when you think you're tired from riding, you now have to haul it back up the beach through all the loose sand back the the rental shop. It was fun though and completely worth it!

Summer update round 3 - camping

2010-08-11T20:31:00.001-07:00

Our first camping trip this summer was to Crater Lake National Park. Unfortunately the mosquitoes were so horrible we couldn't fathom setting up our tent and being eaten alive the rest of the weekend so we ended up staying in the lodge for one evening. Let's just say it was the most expensive "camping trip" we've ever taken. The lake, however, is breathtakingly beautiful.

Enso was thirsty

So beautiful!

This was our second attempt at camping this summer. This time we went to Maryhill State Park in the Columbia River gorge. The unfortunate thing about this trip is that the camera battery died and these are the only pictures. We did visit the Maryhill winery/vineyard a few miles away which is pretty impressive. And of course we purchased some wine!

Afternoon nap in the shade

At least we actually set up the tent this time. Bonus: no mosquitoes the size of craneflies!

That's all for now, stay tuned...

Summer update round 2 - Staff BBQ

2010-08-11T20:22:00.001-07:00

This year we had two new additions to Kevin's staff BBQ, Enso and Ellie. As you can see here they entertained themselves and the rest of us throughout the evening.

This is what it looks like to hold a very busy aussie puppy

Taking a break from all the playing. Both of them were so tanked the next day.

Summer update

2010-08-11T20:04:00.000-07:00

Since it's been a little while, here's an update on the latest and greatest of the summer... so far...

Kevin posted a few pictures of our Maui trip in April, here are some more highlights since all he thought was important is what we ate for dinner :-)

Dinner by the beach

At the Olivine Pools

While on our snorkel trip we found a bunch of sea turtles - they're a couple hundred pounds at least

A snorkel trip to Molokini Reef

The view from our Lanai

The Haleakala Crater

Paradise

2010-04-23T09:35:00.001-07:00

I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand, not a worry in the world a cold beer in my hand, life is good today...

One more day of Paradise...

Maui Dimner #2

2010-04-19T21:35:00.001-07:00

OK. So to keep the jealous them going here is what was for dinner
tonight. Tomorrow morning we are headed out to the crater to snorkle.

Maui Dinner

2010-04-18T20:43:00.001-07:00

Just to see how many people I can make jealous, here is what is on the table tonight in Maui, that is right kids, Maui. an ocean view, 75deg, steak and wine on the table. What more can a guy want?

No more leaves to pick up...

2010-03-29T18:27:00.000-07:00

So we have, sorry, had, a beautiful ornamental cherry tree in our back yard. I have been noticing over the past 6 months or so a few cracks forming in the ground at the base of the tree from the roots starting to pull out off the ground. Over the past 2-3 days we have had an on slot of rain and last night a HUGE windstorm. I came home from work this afternoon and looked out to the backyard wondering if this tree had always been leaning up against the fence. I went out to investigate to see that it was leaning about 2ft out of center from where it was the day prior, and when the wind would blow the roots were coming out of the ground and the fence was bowing. Two hours later there is no longer a tree in our backyard.

How pretty.

What wonderful color and foliage you add to our backyard Mr. tree.

Sorry, I hope this does not hurt to bad...

Snip, Snip. Saw, Saw

bye bye Mr. tree, I sure did enjoy you while you were around...

What fond memories of picking up all your leaves. I will carry those memories forever...

It just does not look the same lying there on the ground like this does it?

Now I just have to figure out what fun new tree I get to plant in its place. Always a project in the world of home ownership.

KC (The Queen)

2010-03-29T18:20:00.001-07:00

OK, so we typically do not leave our fire on all day, but the last week or so our furnace has been waiting for a new part to arrive and it is out of service. Do to this we have been running the fire almost all day and using a fan to circulate the heat though out our house.

One evening Becky and I heard something out in the fire side room and thought nothing of it. A few hours later when it was time for bed I went into turn the fire off to find that the Queen had found a new throne...

Don't look at me.

What? I am not doing anything wrong...

So the story continues... KC basically has not left her new found throne in a week.

Enso

2010-03-29T18:14:00.001-07:00

It has been almost 2 months since I brought Enso back home from Santa Rosa, it feels like it has been years all ready. He is a joy to bring to work and every patient that interacts with him leaves with a beaming smile. Even the staff love him, I can't leave the building at the end of the day without making the rounds to the nurses stations for RCM's to say goodbye for the evening.

How cute!

No comment...

He is totally a daddy's boy.

Will you throw the ball again dad? Please!

OK, Time to Update

2010-03-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

I have been told by many people over the last few months that I am a bad person for not updating the blog more often, this is me feeling bad and trying to make up for it by posting a lot of new things all at once. Forgive me blogger world...

OK, first. I will not go into the full story, but for those of you that know me most would say that I am really hard to surprise with things. Becky, my wonderful bride decided to take on the task of pulling off a surprise 30th birthday party back in January and did a wonderful job. I had no idea! She instilled some of my friends to help with the layer upon layer of lies that had to be thrown my way to keep me from finding out about things.

Way to go Becky!

Don't we all look like dorks in those hats?

You know you have some good friends when they give you a bottle of Boon's for your birthday... Almost brings a tear to your eye doesn't it...

Becky has told me that she will NEVER try to pull this off again because it was way to hard to keep me from finding out and she claims she took several years off her life with all the stress. I suppose it is my own fault. It sure was fun though.

It's a Boy

2010-02-13T15:39:00.000-08:00

As many of you know I have been in Santa Rosa CA for the past two
weeks going through a training course to recieve a facility dog from
CCI or Canine Companions For Independance.

I have finally made it back and would like to present the newest
member of the Hussey clan. It is a 64lb male black lab golden
retriever mix named Enso

He will be going to work with me every day helping to provide therapy
services to the patients I work with.

Avatar

2010-01-13T07:26:00.000-08:00

I did it. I have to say I had no intrest in going to this movie but
some friends invited me and you can't pass up an evening with friends.

We went to the Real 3D version and it was the darn coolest thing I
have ever seen in the theater. I would recommend everyone to go!

Birthday

2010-01-08T21:35:00.000-08:00

OK. I am pretty much going to make fun of myself here...

The 7th was my birthday and when I walked into my office that morning
I had a few gifts waiting for me from
My wonderful staff. Let me just tell you what I got. A bag of ultra
soft depends. A bottle of milk of magnesia. A bottle of stool
softener. And of course, a walker...

Ya, I know, pretty funny. I laughed pretty hard myself... Happy
birthday me.

Wine Charms

2009-12-30T16:46:00.000-08:00

This is what it looks like when you get a little over zealous with
wine charms...

Which one is Becky's???

Keep it comin!

2009-12-29T16:45:00.000-08:00

Three hours later it continues.

Bring it!!

2009-12-29T13:25:00.000-08:00

Look everyone it is snowing.

Welcome to New York

2009-12-19T12:47:00.000-08:00

Becky and I had the privilege of being able to travel to New York to see Becky's sister and family. We had some opportunities to be tourists and here are some of the pictures.

What is the east coast without Dunkin' Donuts. What is Starbucks???

If you are in New York you have to see the Statue.

Forget the torch, she should have a beer in her hand

I can not even begin to describe how flipping windy it was. The best I can do is show you this picture.

Ya Baby!

where ever possible find a brewery for lunch...

We went to the Bodies exhibit. What a cool thing to see.

You can't say you have been to New York unless you have been in the subway.

Empire State Building at night.

"Live from studio 1-A in Rockefeller center, this is the Today Show with Meredeth Viara and Matt Lauer."

If you are in New York around the Christmas time you have to go to see the tree. You and everybody else in the entire state.... Get out of my way... Move... Don't touch me... You are in my personal space...

They don't make them this big in Oregon.

We needed some Italian Food.

You know the place serves good food when Bill eats there.
No Pin Heads Allowed!

The diamond district. Sparkly...

This is Saks Fifth Avenue.

What a cool place.

We so wanted to go ice skating, little did we know that 12 million other people wanted to do the same thing. Lets just say this is as close as we got to the rink.

How Cute.

What a fun trip. It was good to see Becky's sister and family. It was also fun to see some of New York

Christmas Lights

2009-12-19T12:32:00.000-08:00

OK, I have been a bad person. It seems I am never on my computer anymore (thank you iphone) and because of this I seem to never update our blog. I decided that today was the day. Here are some of the lights that Becky and I were so excited to put up in our home.

I am sad to say that Becky and I were so excited to have a house to put lights on that we bought them in September when we made a trip to Lowes. Yes laugh, I know. I am OK with it...

What?!$@

2009-12-02T16:37:00.000-08:00

I was on my way down the stairs when I heard a "meow" coming from
A wierd area. After searching all the upstairs rooms I heard it again
and found this in our guest bathroom. I guess this teaches us to fold
the towels after they are clean in here next time.

Christmas comes early

2009-12-02T16:33:00.000-08:00

After much debate and a lot of research Becky and I bought a
treadmill. We had to send the first one back because it was broken.
The second did the trick. After breaking our backs getting it up the
stairs we broke it in today. How nice it was. Hey Terps, ours doesn't
have to be unplugged when we are done...

A stranger's kindness

2009-11-16T18:58:00.000-08:00

So tonight Kevin and I had to make a spur of the moment trip to Costco, where I can't say I've ever experienced much kindness/selflessness (most people are on a mission and can be fairly rude at times) during many shopping trips, in fact, most of the time I leave frustrated at the overall lack of courtesy from people.

We had just recently purchased a treadmill from Costco.com only to have it delivered today, damaged from the shipping - annoying. Instantly we loaded it in the truck and zoomed down the road to get there before closing and pulled up in the "loading zone" to unload this very heavy piece of equipment. It's dark and windy and people are whizzing by with carts, cars are piling up around us desperately trying to get an upfront spot and we are trying to be as efficient as possible to get out of the way. Before we can even untie the straps these two girls walk out offering to help us to move the box out of the truck onto the cart, which helped out immensely! We spent all of 30 seconds with them as they helped, thanked them and they went on their way. It was a small, simple gesture, but it made such an impression on us. So thank you, girls at Costco, for your random act of kindness!

Is it that time...yet??

2009-11-14T11:04:00.000-08:00

So for all of you tired of seeing the title "It's official, nine months until," as I am myself, finally a new post!

First of all I can't believe that it's November and we all know what's coming around the corner. Yeah start the shopping now to get a jump start on the rest of the world. Well ever since Kevin and I moved into our house, we've been excited to decorate for Christmas and have been discussing tree placement, house lights, how many lights, what color of lights, big or small, etc... well all the discussion has led to temptation to want to decorate early. I know it always been against the rules to have Christmas up and blaring before Thanksgiving even has a chance, but considering we bought all of our lights in September (we were actually kind of embarrassed in the checkout line) it's been a struggle not to start and enjoy it that much longer.

Today, we finally broke down. The outside lights have officially been put up. Of course we have wonderful reasons such as "it's not raining, it's a nice day," "we're going to be busy the next few weekends," etc. The fact of the matter is, it's November 14th and we have our Christmas lights up on the house. We have, however, made a pact NOT to turn them on until after Thanksgiving. We'll see how that goes...

It is Official... Nine Months Until...

2009-07-19T16:02:00.000-07:00

Our lives change forever...

We experience something truly magical...

we get to spend a lot of time together...

That is right folks...

We are going back to Maui!!!

What, did you think I would say we were having a baby??

Sorry, to disappoint you...

We are heading back to the beautiful island of Maui.

8 days 7 nights of pure Paradise.

We are SSSSOOOOO excited!!!

Smell so good...

2009-07-13T19:25:00.000-07:00

These are some of the lillies picked from our yard. Within about 10
minutes the entire house was so thick with the wonderful Lilly aroma
it was as if you were in a tropical garden. I love these flowers!!!

How Stinkin Cool!!

2009-07-05T19:34:00.000-07:00

So Becky and I were on our normal evening walk around the lake. We had
just past one of the grassy areas where there is a path to get to the
lake trail when Becky did a double take on something and turned around
to go look at what ever this thing was. As we got closer we realized
it was one of the lake turtles. How cool. If turtles could be cute
this one was.

Sunday Golf

2009-07-05T19:29:00.000-07:00

Becky and I decided to hit the lynx this afternoon. OK so it was a
putt-putt course, but it is still golf. I will tell you I won by one
stroke, I will not tell you how bad either of our scores were...

4th Weekend

2009-07-05T07:37:00.000-07:00

What a fun weekend. Our great friends the Terps came down from Bellingham for a family gathering and were able to spend a few days at our house as a launching point for everything. This gave us the chance to spend some great time with them. We made it out on the Lake for an afternoon enjoying the 90+ degree weather, we went wine tasting in the Willamette Valley, and just sat around doing a bunch of nothing.

While they were busy with family on Saturday Becky and I had our own little 4th party.

What is a party without a fire. Check one.

We have the music, wine, and fireworks. Check two three and four.

Let the party begin!!

Sorry, only safe and sane fireworks this year. The are not much fun compared to the illegal variety, but still love to smell the smoke.

Lastly on the list was some Smors. Check five.

Yum.

It was fun to have everyone on the block out in the street lighting off fireworks. We went over to our neighbors after we had lit all of our off and watched everyone else light them off over the lake.

We did not make it to bed until 12:25 that morning. I can't believe I made it bast my bedtime of 9:30!! We were so proud of ourselves.

Seattle Museum of Flight

2009-07-05T07:13:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago Becky and I made the venture to Seattle to spend the day with her Parental Units. We went to the Seattle Museum of Flight. What a fun place to see. I would recommend everyone going there if they have never been. It is well worth the trip!

There was a special event the weekend that we were there. This plane that you see in the picture above is called Zero G, or the Vomit Comet. This is the NASA training plane for astronauts to get used to no gravity space situations. The plane goes way the heck in the air and takes a nose dive back to earth. It does this over and over again to allow the people on board to experience zero gravity.

Perspective for you... Basically you are free falling to earth inside a Boeing plane. The reason you experience "no Gravity" is that the plane is falling faster than you are...

Becky's dad and I were almost interested in going on this little trip. We than found out that it was $7,500 per person. That ended that dream...

Here is the only Concord on the west coast of America. This plane cut the travel time from the US to Britain in almost half. Now that is a fast plane!

Those are some big Rolls Royce engines.

This is the Air Force One that was flown by Kennedy prior to being shot. It is the actual plane that Lyndon Johnson was sworn in on. That famous picture of him at the entrance to the plane with his hand on the bible, yep, this is the plane. It was really fun to walk through. Amazing how far the technology as come since this baby was in the air. It was like walking through a time capsule.

Becky and I got a chance to walk in space.

I was able to sit in the cockpit of a mock fighter jet.

Becky got the same chance to sit in the cockpit, I think she thought it was a race car... You would have to ask her about this one.

New Car

2009-06-27T11:51:00.000-07:00

I decided to get rid of the Jeep this weekend and trade in for
something with a drop down roof. What do you think???

Good Morning

2009-06-27T05:34:00.000-07:00

Just another beautiful lake sunrise. What a way to start the day!!!

Blueberries Anyone??

2009-06-22T19:58:00.000-07:00

This is the first 50 give or take berries off of our bushes. I wish I likes them, they look great and we have a TON still to come!

Staff Gathering

2009-06-22T19:37:00.001-07:00

I would like to think that I am a good boss, so to buy off the love of those who work for me I wanted to throw a Staff Gathering at our house this past week. I invited everyone from work over for a BBQ and we ended up with 8 people over. It was a lot of fun. Here are some highlights.

The reason for the "Gathering." Let the party begin.
The weather was about 65 or so and overcast. It was perfect weather for an all afternoon-into the night fire.

Long story short... For those of you who know what Horse-Balls is this is what a rescue mission into the tree looks like when someone drastically misses the target.

When the tree climbing mission comes up as a failure this is what the second effort looks like with a kayak paddle standing on top of a chair placed on top of a picnic table. Yes, that is right, you read it correctly.

After several attempts the Horse-Ball was rescued safely and the game continued...

Awesome!

Just to prove that Becky had a beer from the Keg.

When Horse-Balls became to much of a liability the Boccie Ball set came out.

What is a good Keg without a cigar.

You know the new relationship has potential for a future when there is interdigitation.

Until you take a picture of the said interdigitation and they start to repel from each other.

This was a much calmer game. No lost balls on this one.

LOOK, this is number two for Becky! Way to go babe!

The repelling continued after the interdigitation. We think things still have a chance.

The night continued with everyone around the fire singing songs. OK, not really, but we did have some Smors and the Keg did get finished. What a night...

Full Bloom

2009-06-10T21:01:00.000-07:00

Out path around the lake is just beautiful right now with all the wild
flowers in bloom.

Our First Rose

2009-05-27T16:21:00.000-07:00

I just picked the first rose of the year from one of our rose bushes.
There are four more about to pop and another dozen that will come.
This is just on the one bush. These roses smell sooooooo good!!!

What's for dinner

2009-05-25T17:10:00.000-07:00

Another rough weekend playing on the lake and soaking up the 75deg
sun. The tan lines are getting more distinct every day. Life is
wonderful

After a long day nothing is better than a cold beer and fish ok the
grill.

New Pets

2009-05-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

Unhappy Cat

2009-05-18T14:33:00.000-07:00

We Love Our Lake

2009-05-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

We had a great weekend. To cap everything off Sunday evening we ordered out some Chinese food and took to the lake in our raft to eat dinner with a bottle of wine. What fun.

The wind was blowing just enough to carry the boat almost all the way across the lake by the time we were done with dinner. There were several people watching us and I know they were thinking "how fun!"

What was not so fun was having to paddle back across the lake on a full stomach...

1st Annual Micro Brew Festival

2009-05-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago I went over to a friends house to have what we are calling

The 1st Annual Micro Brew Festivity. It all started when Mike (my friend) went on a road trip through several states and came back with a case full of micro brews from all over the place. He wanted to have some people over to sample the world of beer from outside the northwest. It was a great evening of food, cigars, and of course beer.

Here are all the beers we sampled that evening.

I lost track, how many beers did we sample??? Ya, lets just say that by the end of the Micro brew Festival it was a good thing Becky was there to drive me home...

This was our rating board. As you can see we are all beer snobs and take our scoring very seriously. Nothing touches a Northwest micro brew!

Turtle

2009-04-30T16:30:00.000-07:00

I have been out on the lake for the past two days paddling around in
my kayak and I got a picture of this guy with my phone. Our lake is
full of fun stuff.

Our Wonderul Lake

2009-04-26T20:59:00.001-07:00

We could not wait any longer. On the way back from our trip to Bellingham we stopped at Cabala's in Lacy and looked at some boats to enjoy our lake a little bit more. I have been looking for while now on the Internet and in several stores but just could not find the right thing for the right price. Until to day that is...

Our first boat. Does not quite go fast enough to pull a tube, but if you row really hard she throws up a pretty big roster tail. OK, not really.

Our maiden voyage on the lake. Hard to believe that in April we can be out on the lake soaking up the sun.

What fun!! I imagine this thing will be getting a lot of use this summer.

Back to B'Ham

2009-04-26T20:53:00.001-07:00

This weekend we made the trip back to our old stomping grounds in Bellingham. It was great to be back and see some friends. There was lots to catch up on.

A trip to Bellingham would not be complete without a beer from Boundry Bay. YUM..

We made an E-Vite to everyone from Bellingham and had a BBQ at the Terps. It was a great way to see everyone in a short trip. We lucked out with the weather.

It was wonderful to see everyone and catch up. We look forward to our next trip and also to have our friends come down to visit us in Keizer.

Color in the yard

2009-04-26T20:46:00.001-07:00

Our yard if FULL of wonderful plants and flowering bushes. Things continue to pop new color every day. Only about 1/3 of the flowering plants have started to bloom. We are so excited to see what else starts to flower as the summer comes.

Parents in Town

2009-04-26T20:43:00.000-07:00

My parental units game to visit two weekends ago. It was great to see them and wonderful to have them come see the new house. The weather was wonderful. We spent the entire weekend in the backyard just enjoying the sun and warmth. My parents helped with some yard work and things look wonderful.

Swim anyone??

2009-03-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

Look some peeps hatched and are swimming a bowl of Easter goodness.

Before... After...

2009-03-22T18:56:00.001-07:00

So as many of you all ready know we bought our house and this play set pictured below came with it. We were not sure what to do with it but knew we wanted it gone. I have always wanted a patio/fire pit area when ever we finally got a yard and I knew this would be the perfect location.

So thanks to Craigs List it was gone in about 12 hours and I now had the money to build my master piece.

Before...

After...

Here she is. It took about 8 trips to Lowe's and two different Home Depot's and about 1000 brick to complete.

I spent the better part of a week doing all the prep work and laying the brick. There were several days after working on it that I thought I would never get out of bed the next day because I hurt so bad.

It is done though. I can't wait to have some people over and have a BBQ.

These were new when I started the project. I had used them one time to mow the yard. They are a little worn now. This is how my body feels after a week of manual labor!

The first fire! How wonderful. It was an occasion for a cigar.

Ode To Dustin...

2009-03-17T19:30:00.000-07:00

My wonderful friend Dustin from Bellingham brought me on board with the yearly Irish Car Bomb for St. Patrick's day. It is not the same this year without a partner to drink one with, but this blog is in his honor. This one is for you Dustin...

The Guinness to start.
Preparing the whiskey shot.

Irish Bailey's Cream to top off the whiskey shot.

In to the Guinness it goes

Glug... Glug...

That is all folks. The Irish Car Bomb for the year. Thank you Dustin for the memory. When you come and visit we will have to share one.

Our Home

2009-03-17T16:56:00.001-07:00

I have been asked to place some pictures of our home on here for people to see so here ya go.

The front of our lovely new home.

Our backyard, minus the play set just sold on Craig's list. Patio/fire pit to come, can't wait.
Ya, can't beat livin the lake life.

As you walk in and turn right this is our fire-side room.

looking through the fire-side room into the dinning room.

From the dinning room looking through to the kitchen and living room, and out to the deck.

Better kitchen view.

Better living room view.

Up the stairs. Ya baby stairs inside the house, not three flights outside to get to your front door.

Our futon room/extra bedroom.

Guest bedroom. Please come and use!

Office.

Master. This think is HUGE!

I left out the 3 bathroom, laundry/utility room/garage, and some random other stuff. I figured this would force people to come and visit to see the rest.

Portland Sunday

2009-03-16T17:07:00.000-07:00

It was a great weekend. The play set in our back yard is now gone and
I can start on the patio firepit project. I am excited to start on it.

Becky's dad came for the weekend. It is always good to see family. It
is also nice to have a house that allows enough space to have people
over.

On Sunday Becky and I along with some friends of ours went to see
Wicked the Musical. We try to go see things like this several times a
year but this was our first in the Portland area. The last musical we
saw was Phantom of the Opra in Seattle. I was not to sure what to
expect but I loved it.

What a Weekend!!

2009-03-09T16:20:00.000-07:00

What a busy weekend. Craig's List has been good to us again. We put the play set on Craig's list Saturday night and by Sunday at noon I had a check in my hand and it was sold. How fun. So Sunday I spend several hours out in the yard prepping the thing to be picked up. I was well into the project when it started to snow, and then rain, and then hale, and than the wind picked up. It was miserable. It was one of those times though were you just had to suck it up and get through it to finish the project.

No kids, that is not dandruff on my jacket, that is snow, in March no less!
I can't wait for this thing to leave and I can start to put together my brick fire pit area.

My body was so sore when I was done with the day that I decided to brake in the jacuzzi tub with my achy body and a bottle of wine. I don't think this will be a regular occurrence for me, but it was kind of fun. :)

What a weekend. I spent every day outside in the yard planting flowers and shrubs, cleaning the waterfall and pond, taking apart the play set, putting together the shelving system in the garage, and several other projects. Monday came way to fast.

Have you ever noticed???

2009-03-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed that when your smoke alarm battery starts to die
and begins to beep at you to replace it that it is 2:00am?? Why does
the battery never die at 5:00pm when you are able to change it??

Well by now you van guess this was my experience last night.

Of course I tried to ignore it and just as I would fall asleep it
would wake me up again. I tried to have will power and place a pillow
over my head, but this just muffled it and I would start to have this
weird beeping sound show up in my dreams. It started as an odd bird
chirp, and evolved into a bomb about to go off or something weird. To say the least my
night sleep was not very sound.

Oh, it gets better....

When I finally got up for my morning routine. I tried to pin point the
guilty alarm but it stopped. Yes, that is right it stopped. The
solution this evening after work is going to be to change out ALL the
alarms. Let's see it keep me up tonight!!!

Amazing

2009-03-02T14:44:00.000-08:00

Wow, every now and than you just have to pull the car over and marval
at something. Today was that kind of day. This picture does it no
justice, this was an amazing rainbow extending completely across the
sky as bright as can be.

What a Week...

2009-03-01T18:03:00.001-08:00

The first week in our new home is finally over, and what a busy week it has been. We started the moving in process at about 2:00 pm on Friday and I am even amazed myself when I tell you that EVERYTHING was done and put away by 4:00 pm on Sunday afternoon. The only thing we did not do was pull wall stuff up. We just needed to rest. It is not easy doing that kind of thing the older I get....

By Wednesday this past week everything was up on the walls, the work bench in the garage was organized, and all there was to do was sit back and enjoy things. We are still amazed that it is our home. At night Becky and I will sit by the fire after dinner and just be in awe of it all.

The first week in our new home came to a close with a visit from my sister, her husband, and my nephew. It was good to see them.

On to a new week and a new adventure. It will be time to start mowing my lawn soon, and getting out in the yard to play. I can't wait. It is supposed to rain all this week though so I will be waiting a little longer than I would like.

The Deed Is Done...

2009-02-13T18:01:00.000-08:00

Well, it is official. We signed our lives away today at 4:00. We are
the proud owners of a new home. Yes, that is right, we now rent from a
mortgage company for the next 30 years.

So what did you do for Forced Affection Day (Valentines Day)???

I bought my bride a new house....

Can you top that????

Is it time for spring yet???

2009-02-10T09:15:00.000-08:00

It is snowing again in Keiser. Yes that is right the ground hog saw
it's shadow that little twit and now it is snowing again. Why can't it
be spring??

New Record

2009-02-09T20:51:00.000-08:00

Well we are supposed to close on the house this week and as a part of the purchase it is coming with a new washer and dryer. Well, seeing as how we just bought a used set 6 months ago we needed to sell them. In comes Craig's List. I posted the sales add at about 2:45 this afternoon and as of 8:15 this evening they are in someones van heading down the road. Ya, how about that for a quick sale. Way to go Craig's List.

Bye bye washer and dryer. I hope you are treated well in your new home....

SHE PASSED!!!

2009-02-05T14:50:00.000-08:00

It is official. Becky passed her test and is now licensed in the state of Oregon. WAY TO GO.. A little stress has lifted from the Hussey household.

What a Wierd Cat...

2009-02-05T14:43:00.000-08:00

So for those of you that ever came over to the condo you all understand how KC the cat loved her fire and how much she would just melt in front of it. Well, she has been going through withdrawals ever since we moved. We bought a Vornado to heat our place as cheap as we could and it has taken KC the better part of the winter to realise it was going to attack her if she got to close. She has now fallen in love with the thing and can be found in front of it just about any time of the day.

Becky and I came home one day and noticed that the whiskers on one side of her face were no longer the same length as the other, as if someone cut them shorter. Well, with a little investigation we found out that she put her face a little to close to the Vornado and got her whiskers inside the grill which happened to melt them off about 1.5 inches shorter than the other side. Kind of funny, kind of sad..

The joys of having animals for entertainment...

New in the Hussey World

2009-01-29T19:22:00.000-08:00

Lots of new things are going on in the Hussey World. Becky has started her new job. She has been at it for two weeks now. She is taking her lisencure exam this Monday. To say the least she is a little nervous. Life in her world will be MUCH smoother once the test is done.

As if her studying for a test that will effect the rest of her working life and starting a new job on a temporary permit that will be pulled if she doesn't pass leaving her unemployed is not enough stress in the Hussey homeland we decided to add one more thing to the mix...

No silly, she is not pregnant. Are you kidding!!! We would be crying if that was the case...

We bought a house.. That is right. We close the middle of February.

The whole process of us getting this baby is very long. Lets just say that there were a lot of ups and downs, a lot of pinching arms to make sure we were not dreaming, and a lot of sleepless nights when our minds would not turn off just thinking about things.

It is all over though. The inspection came back flawless, the appraisal is done, all we are waiting on is to sign the paperwork and move in. Ya, the whole moving thing kind of sucks.

To give you a few specks on our new homestead: It is 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2500 square feet of pour wonder. We are not sure what we are going to do with all the room, we don't even come close to having enough furniture for the place. We will post some more pictures when we move in.

Maui Waui

2009-01-18T17:54:00.000-08:00

Well, We made it back from Maui. There were several conversations about staying indefinitely... Becky officially has the Maui Fever. It was a wonderful trip, the weather was around 80 +/- every day. It was a little hazy but the breeze was perfect to keep the humidity down. We had one storm that came in during the night that brought thunder, lightning and tons of rain, but it was clear and dry by that afternoon. I have placed only a handle full of pictures on here to just give a quick glimpse into our trip.

Let the trip begin. Some of the views from the plain leaving SeaTac were incredible!!
What would a plain flight to Maui be without a few drinks and movies on the iphone?

This was our personal beach looking fro the deck of our condo. It was a perfect place to play.

This is the view from the living room of our condo. I suppose it will do....

Our first Maui sunset. PERFECT!!!

What is Starbucks???

We made several driving trips while in Maui. This going around the Northwest side of the island. It had all types of beaches from white sand to rocky shores where the waves crashed in.

There are several blow holes on the island. this is one of them we made it to. The tide was not in our favor, but it was still really incredible to watch this sucker blow. During good tide conditions this baby blows 70ft. in the air.

What more can you ask for?

Who you lookin at???

Every day or so we would see new cruise ships come in. They would off load at Lahaina Town. This is the ultimate touristy area where you can spend more money on garbage than anywhere else on the island. There are more jewelery and clothing stores than you can count. It is busy and lots of fun to just walk around and watch things happen.

Of course we had to have lunch here. I can't say it was the best burger, but the view was pretty cool.

Run Forest Run......

We started the morning early to drive the road to Hana. Up till now we had this for a rental car. We named it "The Pimp Mobile" I do not need to explain why. We decided to go to a car wash to clean her up for the drive. Well.....

Out the other side of the car wash came this baby. We decided to keep her for the rest of the trip. May I make a recommendation that if you ever make it to the islands it should be a must to have a Jeep as a rental car.

The road to Hana was beautiful. I would recommend everyone to do it if the chance arises.

There are tons and tons of waterfalls. Most of the falls were pretty low for our trip.

DANGER...DANGER...

This entire area was one big lava field right on the water. There were lava tubes that went out to the ocean, the only black sand beach in Maui, and incredible shorelines of jagged lava flow for the waves to crash into.

We went on a catamaran out to Molokini Reef to do some snorkeling. It was a great trip out just basking in the sun on the deck and looking back at the island and the islands around us.

The boat could hold about 60 people, we only had 20 or less on this trip.

The water was crystal clear and 75 degrees. It was so fun to snorkel with fish everywhere around you.

On the way back we found several pods of whales that came within 200 feet of the boat or so. They were MASSIVE animals.

You can't go to Maui without going to a Luau. This was my date.

It was a pretty good show. The foot was wonderful. Everyone should go once in their lives to something like this.

What a cute couple!!!

It was a wonderful trip and we will definitely be back in the future. One week is not enough!!!!

Hawaii

2009-01-07T10:02:00.000-08:00

This is my birthday/hawaii vacation gift from work. She is now our
therapy mascot at work. Her name is Layloni.

Happy New Years

2008-12-31T19:25:00.000-08:00

Welcome to dinner...

Beer

2008-12-31T15:27:00.000-08:00

So a few friends and I have gone through the process of making some
home brew beer over the course of the last month or so. Today after
work I decided to open the first bottle. It was pretty good. I do not
think we will win any awards for it, but not to bad for some novice
brewers.

Leaning Tree of Keizer

2008-12-22T16:30:00.000-08:00

This is the tree outside our apartment. It should be standing about 30
ft tall, but with all the ice is only about 15 ft tall right now.
Trees are coming down all over the place because of all the ice rain.

It keeps coming

2008-12-22T13:37:00.000-08:00

So the snow continues to fall. We have gotten another 4 inches since I
came to work this am and it is still coming down. Everyone is taking
bets on how many cars will get stuck in the median today. The current
count is 5. My money is on 7 wish me luck.

Keizer Snow

2008-12-21T16:45:00.000-08:00

So one of the tough things about moving to the Willamette Valley for us was knowing that the winters are really mild. I am not sure how we lucked out this year, but this is our first winter in the valley and we got snow. It has snowed off and on for the past week or so and is supposed to continue to stay cold through Christmas. This was the first heavy snow that came down last week.

This is the bottom of our stair case with fresh snow.

Look, my first Oregon steps in the snow :)

Swim in the pool anyone???
How about a run around the lake???

What a cute couple. There are those REI jackets again...

This is one of the business buildings around the lake. We thought the lights looked great for Christmas, they just look even better in the snow around Christmas.

How cool.

This was pretty early in the snow fall, there was probably 3 inches on the ground. By the end of the night there was about 5 inches.

This is one of the major intersections in Keizer. Everyone was slipping around. I can't say that Oregon drivers are very good in the snow.

If she started flapping her arms do you think she could fly away???

Forget Footprints in the Sand, we do Footprints in the snow...

How cute.

We have had several more snow storms come through since this one. We have played in them all. We love winter.

The new Slay

2008-12-21T16:42:00.000-08:00

Santa has given up on the slay this year. He decided to enter the 21st century. We saw him testing the new Harley last week....

Oregon Coast

2008-12-21T16:30:00.000-08:00

It seems I forgot to post our trip to the coast. It was a Saturday Morning in November and Becky and I had nothing to do. We hopped in the Jeep and just started driving. A little over an hour later we ended up in Lincoln City. It was a wonderful day. The beach seemed to go on forever. I am used to the Washington coast were there are logs everywhere on the beach. It was weird to not see any logs.

It was not the warmest day, but the views were still great.

There is nothing like the roar of constant waves as they come in.

What to have for lunch???

Nothing like a brisk Northwest day in November walking up and down the beach on the coast of Oregon with your Starbucks and REI jackets. Don't ya just love it?

We just had to stay to watch the sunset. What a cool place to go for the day. We will definitely be back!!

Happy Day

2008-12-14T08:20:00.000-08:00

We woke up this morning at a friends house in Portland to a wonderful
view if the city and snow falling. How cool.

Birthday Desert

2008-12-12T18:45:00.000-08:00

How about that for a special birthday post dinner sweet something. Two
individual Molten Chocolate cakes and a bottle of Powers Port. For
those of you that know us well you know that it is always difficult to
find an excuse to open a good bottle of wine. We figured the combined
new job and Becky's birthday was finally a good enough reason.

I am a Bad Blogger

2008-12-11T18:06:00.000-08:00

I know, it has been a long time since I have added something. I except that I am a bad Blogger, but hey it is the Christmas season and I should get some forgiveness....

So the best news I can pass on is that Becky excepted an official job offer today. She should be getting the acceptance letter in the main Monday and once signed will be official. How about that. Not even out of her program yet and she has a job. Who says the economy is bad??? OK, maybe looking at the health care field is not a good perspective... She still has to pass her Licensure exam, but she should be taking the test prior to going to Hawaii in January and know if she passes or not. Her first official day of work will be The Monday after we get back. Pretty cool hu!?

Beyond that everything is status-quo. Hope all is going well for everyone around the holidays.

Funny

2008-12-03T18:04:00.000-08:00

It is that time of year when you pull out the boxes that have
collected dust for the last 10 months. What fun would it be if our cat
was not "helping"

Christmas Time

2008-12-03T18:02:00.000-08:00

It is officially the Christmas season and that means it is time to
torture the cat again with the bell collar. Let me tell you how much
she loves it....

DONE

2008-11-19T20:08:00.000-08:00

Are you done with all of your Christmas shopping. We are :)

Silver Falls

2008-11-19T16:12:00.000-08:00

This weekend we went for an afternoon hike to Silver Falls. It is a state park in Oregon about 30 minutes away from Salem. We went with our friends Cory and Ritchie. There are a ton of trails you can hike, we went on just one very short one. There are ten falls total in the park ranging from 30 feet to over 170 feet. This one is the second tallest at 177 feet. It was incredible.

It is tough to tell from the picture, but the rock bowl that has been created from the water running over the edge is just massive.This is looking from the top down the falls. Imagine kayaking and hitting this baby on your way down the creek. Not a fun trip to the bottom.

What a cute couple.

The wind coming out of the bowl was enough to blow your hat off.

there is a trail that actually goes behind the falls. If you look closely you can see people on the trail to the left of the picture and the railing along the trail.

This is from behind the falls.

The rock bowl was sloped outward from the trail. I don't even want to know the amount of tonnage above us as we walked under the falls.

Lets just say staying dry under the falls was not an option.

WETNESS!!!! we were so wet.

We all thought the little hike was awesome and are looking forward to going back in the spring and take the long hike to get to all ten falls.

Christmas Tree Round-up

2008-11-19T16:04:00.000-08:00

One our way to Silver falls this weekend we ran across the coolest thing. We say a helicopter running back and forth and could not figure out what it was doing. Upon closer investigation we saw it pick up a bundle of Christmas trees and run it over to the loading zone across the hillside. It would than run back to the trees, pick up another pile and run it over to the loading zone again. It just kept going back and forth. It was amazing how fast it went. We all felt bad for the people on the ground because they had to keep up with the helicopter .

YUM

2008-11-18T18:25:00.000-08:00

This is what a perfectly BBQ tri tip roast looks like. What are you
having for dinner????

Stupid Cat

2008-11-13T20:15:00.000-08:00

Becky was taking the towels out of the dryer to fold them and the sheets were still warm and toasty, I guess it was just to much for a cat to resist.....

She doesn't look too cozy does she...?

Weekend in Portland

2008-11-13T20:02:00.000-08:00

This last weekend we met up with my good friend Mike Quinn for a weekend in Portland. We stayed at the Double Tree next to the Loyd center and had some fun.

Mike had a wedding to go to on Saturday evening so I took Becky to dinner at a place called The Portland City Grill. It is on the 30th floor on this huge building. The views were incredible. We got there early enough to see the sunset and all the city lights come on.

The restaurant took up the entire 30th floor. We had a table looking over the river and into East Portland. It was even better when it got dark

Starting off the evening with a Lavender Cosmo. It was yummy.

Now that is a steak. It was sssssooooooo GOOD.
I knew dinner was going to be expensive, I just would not have bet this much.

It was worth it though.

It was a fun weekend hanging out with Mike in Portland. We were able to drive around and see the water front quite a bit. Portland is a fun town.

Portland

2008-11-12T12:44:00.000-08:00

I am in Portland today at the Hilton downtown for a course. I had to
laugh a little bit, why you ask...

Nothing says Portland like rain and the home office of Nike Town
across the street from where my class is at the Hilton....

X Mas

2008-11-09T10:41:00.000-08:00

You know it is the Christmas season when Starbucks starts using the
seasonal cups.

Good Friends, Great Wine.

2008-11-02T14:17:00.000-08:00

Our good friends Dustin and Abby came to visit this weekend from Bellingham. Of course it had to be the first rainy weekend in the last two months.... We went wine tasting at three different vineyards. It was a wonderful weekend full of good friends and great wine. This is Dustin and Abby at one of the vineyards. All the beautiful color in the background is the grapevines changing color.

What a view!!

Fall is one of my favorite seasons. It was amazing some of the colors on the maple tress and grapevines.
Dustin and I thought about taking one of the barrels, we figured they would not even notice it missing. We quickly realized we would not have a prayer trying to lift one of those things.

What a cute couple. What... That is Becky and I....

The girls got a little giggly after the second stop. It was all down hill from there.

What a weekend. We are blessed to have friends that are willing to drive 5+ hours to come visit us down here in Keizer. We had a lot of fun.

Every gathering has to have a crazy picture. This one wins the prize.

Yes We Are Still Alive....

2008-10-23T17:53:00.001-07:00

It has been a while since I have posted something. Sorry. I can't say it is because we are to busy. We are just lame...

Becky is done with her first of two 7 week clinicals this week. She is very excited to be on her last one come Monday.

We continue to try and get connected in the community. I found am old friend who was on staff with me at Malibu years ago here in Salem. We went over for dinner the other night and it was wonderful to get out and be with friends!!! We are excited to spend more time with them and get connected more.

Becky and I went to a place called Bauman Farms a few weekends ago. For all of you Bellingham folks it would be on the lines of the harvest Party destination we go to only ten times bigger. The pictures that follow are just a few things there.

We started off by getting our faces painted. I am not sure they did a good job.
There was a ten acre or so corn maze. It was OK, you could tell that a bunch of high school kids had gone through and made their own trails. We forced ourselves to not cheat.

We played a game of checkers. I won...

Forget the apple sling-shot. This place had an apple canon. It was pretty cool. Lets just say I would not want to stand in front of this thing!!!

This is the smaller one.

The best part was the "dark maze." It was inside 3 greenhouses. they placed who knows how many hay bails in them and covered the whole things with tarp. It was SOOOO DARK!! They recommend that you bring in a light to be able to see. Maybe next year we will bring the light.... It took 45 minutes to get out of the things. It was incredible. I do not get claustrophobic, but I was getting close by the end.

We did not go on it, but they had a giant bouncy thing that looked pretty fun. We figured we were a little old for it and would get bad looks from the parents.

What is a farm without goats that climb up the ladder??

It was pretty fun. A beautiful 70deg. October afternoon. What more can you say.

It is getting close

2008-10-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

I know it is not even Halloween yet, but I could not help it....

On another note.... Costco gas in Salem is down to $2.59 a gallon.
Keep going down baby!!!

WOW

2008-10-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

Could it be true??? Did I really pay less than $3 a gallon. What kind
of wonderful dream am I in???

Driving Sucks...

2008-10-06T15:16:00.001-07:00

This weekend Becky and I drove to Seattle to see Phantom of the Opera at the Paramount Theater. It was a great show, and we are really glad we went, it was just the rest of the trip that was not so much fun...

We drove up to Kirkland on Friday and the trip that should have taken about 3 1/2 hours took 6 thanks to an accident investigation on N I-5 North of Vancouver. We drove less than 10 miles in over 2 2/3 hours.

Dustin, when is my third lane coming????

On Saturday we had planned on going to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner prior to the show. We left in PLENTY of time to account for normal crappy Seattle traffic to get to the restaurant in time to have a 15-30 minute wait time and still make it to the show in time. Until... After taking the 405 off ramp to 520 it was instantly a parking lot. It was this way all the way across the bridge. Why? It was windy and the water was crashing over the bridge and the entire thing was swaying back and forth. Everyone was going 10 miles an hour because you could not control your vehicle if you were going any faster.

Dustin, when is the new bridge going to be done????

We made it to the restaurant about 20 minutes later than we wanted to and by than there was up to a 50 minute wait to be seated. Ya, probably not going to work... We ended up eating in some random place inside the convention center. There was only 6 people in the place. I am happy to say that we did not get sick after eating there.

The rest of the weekend was great, minus the Huskies getting killed by Arizona, and the Seahawks not even showing up to play football...

What Can You Say

2008-09-26T18:36:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my Friday, need I say more?

I DID IT!!!!

2008-09-22T16:40:00.001-07:00

I DID IT!!!!

For those of you that don't know I have been studying my ass of the past few months getting ready to take the Oregon State Licensure test to be able to practise in the state. Kind of important if I wanted to keep my job past the three month temporary permit I was issued from Oregon....

This past Saturday I did the deed. I went to take the 200 question four hour test in Portland. I finished in about three hours and when I was done I was not sure if I failed or failed miserably (I am not sure anyone leaves a test like this feeling as though they have nailed it).

According to the paperwork that I had to go though I was not going to receive my results for two plus weeks. But, this morning at about 8:30 I got a call from the Oregon Sate Physical Therapy Licencing Board saying that I passed with flying colors. YYIIPPEE!!!!

Now I have the privilege to pay the state of Oregon a yearly fee to have a job.

What a cool deal!?@$ %

Anyways, the good part is I AM DONE. I do not have to study anymore, take anymore tests, or worry about what happens if I don't pass.

Whom ever said once you are out of college you don't have to study or take tests anymore was full of crap!!!

My actual License is in the mail, but here is the proof.

Grapestomp #2

2008-09-22T16:17:00.001-07:00

Trying to be locals and all Becky and I decided to check out the local Gape Stomp. We went to the Willamette Valley Vineyards which is supposed to be one of the biggest wineries in Oregon. This weekend was the annual grape stomp so it was perfect.

What a grand entrance. Once you go past this you weave your way up this REALLY steep hill for about 1/2 miles traveling through row after row of grapes.

YUM!

Having only been to the Champoux Vineyard Grape Stomp we assumed all events were run at least similar. We were wrong. As you can see you are in a team of two. You have one stomper and one cleaner. The one person stomps for three minutes straight. The second persons job is to continue to clean the 1/2 inch hole at the bottom of the barrel to allow the juice to flow through. At the end of the three minutes that is it. You pull away your gallon jug and that is all you get. No squeezing or pouring out the rest of the juice. There were a lot of people. Every half hour all day Saturday and all day Sunday they had at least 5 teams.
The average team had close to one full gallon of juice. I heard from the people around that the typical winners have a gallon and a half of juice.

They were not giving tours this weekend due to the Stomp, but we got to walk through the cellar area. WOW, talk about a lot of wine. There was row after row after row of the stuff.
All I needed was a straw.

To get into the Stomp was a $5 per person fee. To stomp was $10 per team. For the entrance fee you got a wine glass to take home and were able to go to the tasting room and sample six wines from Pino Gris to Reds to dessert wine. They were very different than what we are used to. I liked them, Becky was not a fan of them all.

The vineyard also does a lot of weddings and special events so there were a lot of really cool seating outside and a huge events room inside. The woodwork was incredible.

Off of the main tasting room there is a 6+ story spiral staircase that goes up to a lighthouse type look-out. This is from the ground looking up the staircase.

Not a bad day. We both agree that this event just doesn't come close to the Champoux Stomp though.

It Had To Happen

2008-09-21T19:37:00.000-07:00

Well you knew it could not last forever, I would have been ok if it
did though. This afternoon while sitting by the window eating lunch at
the Ram in downtown Salem it started to rain. Granted it was still 64
degrees, but it did rain. The three weeks that we have been here so
far have been nothing but sun and warmth. I suppose fall has to come
eventually.

YUM

2008-09-20T18:37:00.000-07:00

Now that is a beer! Nothing like a Mac & Jacks.

What The #?%@!!!

2008-09-20T10:38:00.000-07:00

So typically if someone says, "guess what? I saw a hot air balloon this morning." You would not think much of it. You would picture them looking up into the sky and seeing one high above them.

Well, I got one better for you. "Guess what? I saw a hot air balloon this morning."

What the #%$@!!!!

At about 8:30 this morning coming across the lake about ten feet above the water, and only missing the top of the house by 30ft.

Ya, not the typical picture of a hot air balloon in my book....

More Stuff!!!

2008-09-18T19:06:00.000-07:00

As if we did not all ready own enough stuff to pack around with use we
decided to add to the mess. I am not sure the next time we move we
will be able to fit it in one 26ft Penske truck.

For those of you that helped us move you can be witness to this. The
latest purchase may just put us over the edge. Only the next move
will tell, and hopefully this is not I'm the near future.

So, with that prelude out of the way here is our latest purchase. Np
more packing laundry bins up and down the stairs, all three flights.
No more setting your timer for 30 minutes to perfectly catch the
buzzer as your laundry is done. No more hoping that you will run out
of quarters in the change jar with clothes to dry still

We are the proud owners of slightly used, I like to think of it as the
trial period to make sure the appliances are not lemons, washer and
dryer.

May our laundry washing days be marry from this point on. No more
excuses on wearing the same underwear two days in a row because you
community washer and deter were busy. No more reason to have stains on
the front of your shirts because you did not think it was worth it to
wash just one article of clothing. Yes, yes, we are free from the
confines of quarters and community laundry mats. What a country we
live in.

Grapestomp 08"

2008-09-14T20:56:00.000-07:00

Welcome to grapestomp 08' It is exactly what is sounds like. Every year a bunch of our friends converge on the Champoux Vineyards in Eastern Washington for a fun weekend of stomping grapes, drinking wine, and just hanging out with friends. This is my second year of the event, but Becky has been there from the beginning since 2005. This year we brought 20 people in our group, some all the way from Miami Florida.

The event starts with team strategy meetings to see who has been practicing what techniques in the grape stomping off season.

Each team of 3 people gets one minute each to stomp 10 pounds of grapes in the half wine barrels lined in cheesecloth.

This is one of the teams in action. Leg work man. Takes lots of training.

After all three people in a team have stomped you get 45 seconds to squeeze as much juice out of the cheesecloth as you can. The winner is the team with the most weight in juice. Pretty simple. It takes years of perfecting the magic to become a winning team.

I personally think the extra drag from the hair is why this team did not finish in the top three this year. Disappointing finish... From last years championship winning team to simply knocked out of the top 5 finishers. No hair next year. You don't get extra weight for style, just more juice....

I am proud to say that the top three teams this year all came from our group of friends though. No it was not rigged, pure skill.

When the stomping is over all the teams gather for a BBQ meal. This year we were told there was going to be a film crew taping the festivities for some show. It turns out they were taping for a pilot reality TV show about three girls traveling to wine country for the weekend. Several of us are now TV stars because we were in the filming.

Do the two girls to the right of the picture look familiar?? They should. The one to the far right is the old Sleep County USA spokesperson, and the one to her left is the new one. "Sleep Country USA, why buy a mattress anywhere else. DING." It was kind of fun watching the filming throughout the day. All three girls are from the Seattle area.

After the BBQ we go to a beautiful park down by the Columbia river to play. This year we got a great game of volleyball going on. After you get hot from that the cold water of the river is never so bad.

The Champoux Vineyard is owned by one of our friends Aunt and Uncle. We get a Little special TLC when the day is over and get to come back to spend the night at the Vineyard and sample some wine through the evening while we hang out with everyone. They are the nicest people you will ever meet, and their backyard is the most BEAUTIFUL place for hanging out in the warm evenings of Eastern Washington overlooking the grape rows.

This was the lineup of this years sample wines. Let's just say there is always an open bottle to try, and there are some AMAZING wines to sample.

It was a wonderful weekend with friends, hanging out, drinking wine, and just being. But tomorrow is Monday and we all must go back to work.

The winners can gloat in there victory, and the losers have to rethink their strategy for next year and wonder what went wrong this time...