Tag Archives: Oregon

Summer Time

I hope everyone has had a good summer beginning.  Ours has been below average on temps and way over on rain…icks….still waiting for summer weather…dry and comfortable.  We were in the 60s this pass Wed/Thurs and we are suppose to be hitting the 90s this upcoming Wed/Thurs.  Lets just say I’ll believe it when I see it.  I really don’t want it to hit the 90s…I want mid 80s, that is perfect.  Then our house doesn’t have that chill and we can wear shorts and tank tops.  =)

I did finally vacuum out my poor truck in about a year today.  Those spiders get into everything and left cobwebs everywhere….lol

We haven’t been up to much other then work and the normal.  We do need to get a hike in, that I would like.  Not sure where, at this time of the year the mountains and Crater Lake still have a bit of snow.  If it melting you have higher rivers/creeks to deal with when crossing.  So we have to balance that.

We will be heading up to Canada sometime this month for a bbq with our sister-in-law  Eliza and our nephews.  It will be to in remembrance of Diesel, since it has been a year that we lost him.  But it will be great to see how our nephews have grown, they are so young that they grow so fast.  I miss seeing them.

We are still doing the gym.  I know it sounds annoyingly repetitive, but considering it is so easy to fall into bad habits the fact that we are still doing a good one….I’m grateful and proud of.  It has been over 2yrs and I’ll take it.  I will say that I didn’t end the week on a good note.  I did good Mon-Wed, but Thurs and Fri I was not mentally in it at all.  I did get my cardio and weights in, but didn’t get my 20mins on abs.  It didn’t help that I didn’t do very well on my eating habits this past week.  Went over my normal daily 2k a day, so I need to do better this week. My sweet tooth and munch urges just kicked in big time….drove me nuts.

I spent the week doing my normal….working, what else?  LOL  Which is partly why I died at the gym Thurs and Fri, my brain was on that and won’t stop.

Last weekend I couldn’t get a hold of my extra sister, Sandi.  Her dad isn’t doing very well at all and is in hospice and I knew that she would be visiting and dealing with the drama that is her siblings.  I knew that they would be totally, totally stressing her out and a few of siblings are good for tearing her down……and totally negate the ones that are supportive of her..ggrrr  So I was totally stressing about getting a hold of her and checking in.  Anything to make her feel better and let her vent.

Well, that didn’t happen, so I sent her encouraging texts and my sister Melinda actually got lucky and got a hold of her.  Since I wasn’t doing to good on making contact to her, I googled her parents and got their number and made a call.  She wasn’t there, but I was able to find out what was going on and let Ma vent some.  Between me trying to get a hold of her, texting and Melinda actually making contact, it was a help to her and made her feel better.

I was not happy to hear what her siblings was putting Ma though and I knew if Ma was going through hell, then Sandi wasn’t doing too well.  =(  I let mom know that I was in her corner and whenever she needed to talk, she can vent at me.

Sandi’s siblings were totally surprised to hear that I even called Ma just to make contact, that I wasn’t too happy about what Ma was going through and then turn around and my little sister called her.  Sad, that we give her more emotional support then her some of own drama selfish siblings.  If her husband Ed wasn’t there for support, she would’ve totally lost it…no idea how he puts up with her family sometimes.  Tries and keeps peace just for her and her parents sake.

Sandi is finally back home (a state away…which is a good thing when dealing with them) and eating, trying to get a sense of her self back, I spent 3 hours on the phone with her last night.  She couldn’t hold anything down while dealing with them.  I’m going to try and give Ma a call tomorrow to check in.  I just suck at it due to the 3hr difference.  I wish I could be there to help Ma and her, those are the 2 that I really care and worry about.

My god daughter Cassie has made me feel old.  She graduated from HS, turned 19 and is now expecting her baby in Dec….wow.  I remember when Sandi was pregnant with her at my HS graduation.  I was so totally afraid that she was going to have her right there…..lol  Ended up having her a few weeks later.  I was looking at some pictures that were just taken barely 10yrs ago….damn, she has grown.

I found some paper where I can make my own postcards.  If you didn’t know, when we travel I love getting postcards and sending it to my family.  =)  So now, unless we are doing a bunch of traveling and I want to get them postmarked from that location, I can just use the pictures that we take for them.  I totally love that.  Especially when we are doing hiking around here in OR.  I spent time figuring out how to the line up everything and even printing out the addresses and messages on the back.  With my horrible handwriting I’m doing the post office a favor…..lol  I already sent out postcards from our visit to the coast in May…..grin

Our kitties are doing good. Drew and Sakura are now 2yrs old.  Drew is such a long cat and is still in the over energetic teen stage that drives his sister Sakura nuts.  Sakura has become a chunk bugger that is addicted to brushing…..grin  She is such a spoiled daddy’s girl and Drew is very much a momma boy when it comes to bedtime.  Alexis is going to be 16 this coming Oct and tries her best to ignore Drew and Sakura….lol

I’m currently half way through President Bill Clinton autobiography, My Life.  It is huge with a lot of policy thoughts and stories on where they came from.  You can tell that he likes to show where an idea came from.  It is interesting.  I have Audition by Barbara Walters and My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House by Lillian Rogers Parks that I would love to get into next.

It is amazing how long it takes to right just a few things…..lol….but that is what is going on so far around here.  =)

Oregon Coast

Well, due to our anniversary usually being on the holiday weekend of Memorial Day we try and do something the week before or afterwards.

This year we decided to finish off what we started 2 years ago and drive the last 108 miles of the Oregon coast we haven’t seen, from Newport to Cannon Beach.  In 2008 we drove from Cannon Beach to Astoria and in 2009 we drove from the California Coastal Redwoods up to Newport.  So we just needed to do the middle part.

Actually that part of 101 wasn’t as scenic as the southern part, but it definitely had it moments.  Agate Beach, Yaquina Lighthouse & of course, Cannon Beach were great.  We also totally lucked out and ended up with much better weather they it was suppose to be.

Harold got some totally stunning shots with the nikon, so I’m regretting that I put pics from both the olympus and the nikon together in one gallery.  But if you really look, you can see the quality difference, the nikon is much sharper.

But if any of my family & friends would like a full size copy of a picture that they like, just email me.

http://paulineantoinette.com/PNH/nature/2010_May_26/2010_Oregon_Coast/index.html

The link is posted on this page : http://www.paulineantoinette.com/landscapes-nature/

My Happenings for the Month

Been a while since an update. Same old same old….I have thoughts about what I want to blog about and then when I go and do it, my brain goes blank….so sad.

What I need to do, is do a draft post with just thoughts/subjects. So when I go and write one up, I have a reminder for myself.

I’ve been maintaining at the gym. Nothing earth shattering. After using the treadmill for about 18months straight, I’m getting a little annoyed on it. So I’ve been using the elliptical machine the last 2 days. I like that it is easier on my knees, feet & hands (I death grip the treadmill, no matter what speed). I also like that it working totally different muscles and so far, when I get off of it my legs feel jelly like. What I don’t like, is that it doesn’t force you keep the speed so I’m getting a good sweat but not the soaking, down pouring sweat that means I’ve burned more calories. According to the machine, I’m burning about 200 calories less and about 2 miles less then I’m use to. But I know that the speed I put on the treadmill is nothing that I would ever be capable of doing naturally without it forcing me and my death grip. So I just need to get my routine on it and with there being 2 versions of that machine at the gym, learn how to make them work the best for me.

Our kitties are still cute and ornery……grin Drew almost acts like a dog when you call him and loves to play with hubby on the cat tree. You try to correct either Drew or Sakura about something and they look at you like to say “what?” Heck, when hubby has pointed his finger at Sakura to scold her she turns around and rubs her face against it…..LOL Totally makes us laugh…..grin

Alexis is still hard at hearing, meowing (yelling/screaming) at us, because she can’t hear herself. Wondering if she is going senile, since she’ll do it in the middle of the night for no apparent reason.  She never use to make this kind of noise until she ended up sick over a year ago. Not she just hasn’t stopped…..drives us batty. I keep wondering if those 4 days at the vet for the thyroid treatment gave her separation anxiety. She hadn’t been overnight since she was fixed as a kitten 14yrs before. She is use to us traveling and leaving for a few days, but that is when she is left home with everything she is use to.  I just wish she would stop being so loud….

We had some friends come down for a visit a few weeks ago.  We took them to see Crown Point Observatory and Multnomah Falls, everyone has to see that when they visit.  =)

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We finally did some Portland things and went to Voodoo Donuts & Powell’s Books.  Wow….those donuts were awesome….grin  And a bookstore, 3 floors and a whole city block…..I loved it!  Ironically my favor subjects (politics, history, social issues)  were under my favorite color (purple).  Need to go back down there and go to the Chinese Garden and visit more of the shops.

We have had a really mild winter.  According to the news we are about 6ft below the average snow pack on Mt Hood.  That is not a good thing….that is our summer water when we go into our dry season.  Part of Oregon are under drought warnings.  It is from the El Nino….all the wet weather is going either north or south of us….California and it flooding….that is our normal winter rain. So on one hand, concerned about possible drought conditions for the summer, but it really has been nice for winter.  Everything started budding in Feb, about 5 weeks earlier then normal.

With the nicer weather, I’ve been wanting to get out on one of the nice days.  So hubby found a nice hike in central Oregon, about  2 & 1/2 hours SE of here.  It is what they call the high desert.  Boy, once you are going down 26 on the east side of Hood, huge difference in the vegetation. You get use to all the green wooded area on this side of Hood and the Gorge that it is hard to imagine it being anything else until you see it.

We also really got to see Mt Jefferson better then we see from this side.  Normally we just barely see the tip of it on a clear day from high points.

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Those smaller peaks to the south (left) of Mt Jefferson are the Three Sisters.

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Closer look at the Three Sisters.  Hope, Charity, & Faith.

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That “small” peak is Mt Hood.  So not use to seeing it look so small.  =)

We went to Smith Rock State Park for our hike (this was our trail http://www.nwhiker.com/SmithRockHike.html ).  It was only 4miles….which was nice distance wise……but it had heck of a climb up and down.  That 1st miles was a witch.  No matter how much you do at the gym, it never prepares you for climbs like that.  It just totally wipes out your stamina.  We did the hike in about 3hrs.  According to wiki, they have shot several westerns there and it is “generally considered the birthplace of modern American sport climbing

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I’ve already posted all our of pics from this hike in my facebook, just need to make a gallery to post them all here.

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I actually got a good pic of hubby.

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Our traditional self-portrait.  =)

It was really great to get out of the house and our routine for a change.  I never like long drives, but we did get to see the snow on Mt Hood.  =)  With not getting our average the snow line was much higher then normal and melting.  Wasn’t even required to have chains on. We really want to explore all the different parts of Oregon for hiking.  So we are leaning towards the coast for our next day hike, since we haven’t done that yet.  We would love to get to Crater Lake for camping and hiking this year.

My Random Thoughts

Eat Me!
  • 15:46 one can not graspe the size of Powells Books until you are inside…
  • 18:30 had a long day. Got cold, wet and very tired, but now we are home. Ate and drinking while warm and dry… time to play catch up.
  • 19:54 is exhausted… watching “Up in the Air”…
  • 23:40 after living in Portland for over 2 yrs we can mark VooDoo Donuts and Powell’s Books off our list of things we must do…

What Is Happening This Month

Boy, it has been a long while since for a true blog entry.

Well, gym wise I got up to 4 incline at 8.0 speed for 25.5 and still got up to 3.76miles in 30min.  Hubby had me use a 25# weight when doing sit ups instead of my 12# medicine ball, while holding it away from my chest.  My arms and abs are feeling it.  I’m still going between 150-154 weight wise, so I think I’m at my weight.

We’ve picked up and seen Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince and The Hangover.  I need to see how the last 2 installments of the HP series….to really see how it plays out.  The Hangover was funny, but weird.  Saw Love Guru last night….wow, that was bad….lol Watching Super Troopers now…this is really bad.  Netflixs comes in handy…don’t make the mistake of buying 90% of them.  =)

What have I been doing other then working and the gym…well, not much.

I spent a few days printing up my 5 page holiday letter.  It was about 7 pages, but I played around with fonts, margins and sizing down pictures. I also reworked where I put the pictures so I could print front and back and got it down to 3 pages.  Otherwise I won’t be able to fit it into the cards….lol  I didn’t think I had that many cards to send out, maybe 60 but ended up back up to my 80.

I wasn’t planning on a tree this year, since the wonder twins climb and bent the heck out of my artifical one. I was going to get one from Living Trees….but they don’t deliver out here.  I wasn’t sure about a cut tree because I didn’t know about whether the cats would be able to knock it down.  I also did some research and fresh cut trees are carbon neutral, especially here in the NW, tree farms are everywhere and this is their crop, that mattered a lot to me.

Since I was totally down and feeling out about not having a tree, I had to get one.  I was worried about the old metal ones that I remembered from my youth.  Today’s tree stands are much better then the ones I remembered.  And a farmer was selling them not even a mile from us and had the added bonus that they were donating $2 for every tree to the local HS.  Picking out a tree was hard, they all looked good.  But I finally picked out a beautiful 6ft douglas fir that they threw in the back of my tree. Boy did it smell great in the house.  =)

The wonder twins love messing with it, but it seems too dense for them to climb it…big plus.  Drew has a thing for checking the water and digging the sheet away from the stand that I have there….lol  The goof….especially when they are playing with the toy mice.  But the bottom of my tree doesn’t look nearly as good and balanced as the top half, that lasted may be 1 day  I’m hoping that they are getting bored with the tree….they aren’t knocking the balls off as much and when we are downstairs I do spray them with the water bottle to discourage them.  I’m also wondering if it has anything with the fact that I’m unplugging the tree at night so they aren’t being drawn to the the shinny stuff.

I don’t think I’ll be using my artifical tree again.  If I don’t use it next year, I’ll probably drop it off at Good Will or Salvation Army.

I’m getting anxious for the 25th.  Can’t wait for hubby to open his gift…..driving me nuts…..lol

I ordered ice cream cake for my birthday for pick up Thurs.  Got a mini roll with mint chocolate ice cream, chocolate cake with fudge topping.  My mouth can’t wait to have some.  =)

We had some wacky cold for our area a few weeks ago……icks.  But we are now back to normal 40s-50s and rainy.  That is life in the valley.  Now if we were on Mt Hood, as you saw that 3 hikers were sadly lost, they were getting up to 30in a day in snow.  Don’t ever underestimate the power of the mountain and mother nature.