return of the empty nest hiking club!

Yep, it's true! See for yourself!

Friday Five: Storms of Life Edition

Here's me... scanning the horizon for storms. (OK, this was just an excuse to use a picture from our recent trip to South Dakota.)

I'm baaaaaaaaaack (again). My good blogpal, Processing Counselor, suggested a captcha to help solve my Asian spam dilemma, so I'm giving that a go.

Now onto this week's Friday Five!

Martha writes:
I'm listening this morning for word of Hurricane Earl. Is he coming to visit, or will he bypass my part of Maine and move further Downeast, or veer toward Nova Scotia? Should I buy those bottles of water, just in case wind brings branches and power lines down? And how many times will the tracking map change today?
Herewith, a Friday Five about the storms of life:


1) What's the most common kind of storm in your neck of the woods?
I grew up in North Dakota where the most common kinds of storms were blizzards in the winter and tornadoes in the summer -- each possessing their own special charm. Living now in the Pacific Northwest, I am trying to think of what type of "storm" we get here... and I'm coming up short. We really have super mild weather. (Of course we get lots of rain at times, but not really storm-like rain. We've also had a mild earthquake or two.)

2) When was the last time you dealt with a significant power outage?
I'd have to go back to my childhood and Dakota blizzards for this one. However, when we lost power we had a generator. On the up side we had power and warmth, but on the down side it was so darn loud that our hearing was in jeopardy.

3) Are you prepared for the next one?
Sadly, no. Because of my past experiences (see #1 and #2!), I haven't felt motivated to get a disaster kit together. But if a big earthquake hits, I'm in trouble.

4) What's the weather forecast where you are this weekend?
It's beautiful today (sunny, mid-70s), but the rain is probably rolling in tomorrow.

5) How do you calm your personal storms?
I like music and talking with friends.

you get busy, and the weeds start popping up

Well, it's pretty obvious my blog has, as of late, turned into this:



And like an abandoned lot, people have started throwing junk into it. I have had an inordinate amount of what I will call "Asian spam" with comments such as this "過去的事早已消失，未來的事更渺不可知，只有現在是真實的" that contain links to probably either viruses or porn or both.

So, for now (until I decide what to do with my poor little lot), I am going to disable comments.

(Thanks, non-spammers, for hanging in there!)

Friday Five: Decisions, Decisions

Songbird posts this week's Friday Five. She has been thinking about how we make decisions. She writes: Let's keep it simple and go with five word pairs. Tell us which word in the pair appeals to you most, and after you've done all five, give us the reason why for one of them.


Before I start, I just want to interject that I'll bet RevSS would not play a 'forced choice' game. She would answer "They are all ANDS".

1) Cake or Pie
This it tough, but I'm going to go with pie.

2) Train or Airplane
Train, and we need more of it!

3) Mac or PC
PC but only because I don't own a Mac so I can't make a truly informed decision here.

4) Univocal or Equivocal
Equivocal -- life just is.

5) Peter or Paul
Mary

And the reason for one of the above...
I like the train because you can walk around, go to the dining car, plug in your laptop, and watch the scenery.

-----------------------
cartoon from here

if you build it, they will come

Christina put together this cute little bird house (which I think was a present from Doug), filled it with seed, and placed it on the railing of their balcony deck.

picture by David

holy toledo!

Two weekends ago we went to the Winlock Egg Day Festival. Today we had the distinct pleasure of attending Toledo Cheese Days. (Yes, there is a definite food theme here.)



Sadly we missed out on the free cheese sandwiches at the Toledo Presbyterian Church, but we made up for it by having a different dairy product... ice cream.

My mom had a hot fudge sundae:


Mike had an ice cream cone:


And I went for the chocolate shake:

fourth of july flea market

Part of Longview's yearly 4th of July celebration is a flea market with lots of vendors lining the lake. I enjoy poking around but don't usually buy too much (although historically I have had a bit of a weakness for bags/luggage -- go figure). Anyway, this year I found a "Cat Sitter" DVD for $3.00. The maker of the DVD basically just lined up small animals (gerbils, birds, fish, etc.), turned the video camera on, and let it roll. I thought Soots and Mr. Tumnus (who is here visiting) would probably enjoy watching it for a few minutes, but they went absolutely NUTS for it! Here is one shot of Soots:



Best $3.00 spent ever. Although if Soots ends up shredding our tv screen, it will be the worst $3.00 spent ever.

(picture taken by Christina)