Here come the Holidays!!

Here we are chugging along into December. We seem to be off to a reasonably good start to the Holiday Season. We headed up to Seattle to spend Thanksgiving with Sean's step-sister Crishna and her fiancee Paul. Sean's Dad, his friend Evelyn and Kenai made the drive from Gearhart to join the fun. There were many hands helping to prepare the meal, and the feast was enjoyed by all.

They have an amazing view over Puget Sound from their bedroom balcony, and we were lucky enough to have this fantastic sunset as an extra Thanksiving treat.

And of course, Felix needs his moment in the spotlight...looking quite content with a house full of friends and the occasional food tidbit hitting the floor.

We made it back to town for our favorite Holiday Kick off party at Matt and Kenny's house. As you can see, everyone was looking good and had a great time.

Joe headed back East this past week for a Niece's Wedding. Whether she is a Grand-niece, or Great-niece is still up for debate. But there is no question he had a good time. We were graced with having Kenai keep our pooches company, while he was spreading West Coast cheer on the East Coast. The inevitable "dog exausting" walk resulted in a couple of quality candids of our favorite Shepard.

Kenai was enjoyig her off-leash time. And I was enjoying the huge black furry ears filling my rear view mirror on the car ride home.

A few photos

I took my camera to work with me one day last week, just because I was getting the shutter bug. I didn't get anything extraordinary, but it was a fun way to spend a lunch break.

This one is just a random shot of campus from down below. I've been at OHSU 8 months as of today, and I still get lost in the hallways and stairwells. The buildings are built on top of each other, but not in a logical way...at least not my logic. If I stay outside, I'm usually okay with my internal compass, so it's just the 6 months of winter ahead I have to worry about. :0)

And of course there is always my bench shots. I had seen this bench from the bus one day, when it was completely covered in leaves. I had hoped to get a shot of it like that, but they had been cleared by the time I brought my camera in the next day. Oh well...there is always next year.

And another shot of the same bench. For some reason I like this shot from further away. Puts the solitude of the bench in perspective. (Are you starting to believe me that we have no life...yes, I did really just post two pictures of a bench)

I work in one of the older buildings on campus, and it has such an institutional feel. This stairwell in particular creeps me out. I don't know if it's the door halfway up that doesn't really go anywhere, or the window that you can't really see out of...either way, I usually try and make it a very quick trip when I have to go this way.

And, as I promised, I couldn't end this blog without some pictures of Mari in the leaves. I had taken Cooper to the dog park on Saturday, so Sean went out in the yard to hopefully get the last bunch of leaves for the year. Of course Mari loves the leaf blower, because what dog doesn't like wind in their face at 35 mph? Sean was multi-talented to be able to wield the leaf blower, and get some good shots. (this is officially Sean's first contribution to the blog - aside from being in some pictures).

Hope everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving!!

Our visitor

This is Cooper, our visitor this week, since my sister is out of town for Thanksgiving. Mari and Elmo aren't that excited that he's here, but Sean and I love our hairy little nephew.

Cooper is a little bummed that our dogs won't play with him, but he finds other ways to entertain himself. I've been taking him for car rides, and to the dog park, which helps to fill his time.

As you can see, he's very fond of tugging. It us usally more enjoyable for us if there is a toy involved, as he's got quite a grip. He also enjoys barking at each and every leaf, child or car that goes by our house. He's a total doof...but a very good boy when he's sleeping. We have him until Wednesday, when I take him to his pet hotel for a few days. We're headed out of town, and he'd be a bit much for a travel companion. We're used to the geriatric dog pack which is just a tad bit more subdued.

Don't worry though, Sean was out wrangling leaves (yes, AGAIN!). So we'll have leaf and dog pictures. We'll have to wean you off slowly, since that is about all we post about, and we're pretty near the end of leaf season. Sean was trying to get some pictures of Mari with the leaf blower...she loves that thing. Hopefully he can get those edited and ready to post in the next day or so.

Until then....I'm going back to dogsitting.

Dog Blog

We continue to have beautiful fall weather, so I was feeling optimistic on Saturday morning and thought I'd take Mari and Elmo out and try to get some pictures of them. Mostly because when I don't have my camera with me, they always do something photo worthy. Unfortunately, having a camera with me and getting a good picture are two very different things.

Mari is tough to capture sometimes, because she's always looking for something to chase, or bark at, or dig in, or run around, or herd...you get the idea.

Then there is Elmo. Even though he moves pretty slow, he's hard to catch, because everything is swinging to and fro. A video of him running towards us would be a lot better representation of his beauty in motion, but until we get that...a photo will just have to do.

We ventured on to a lovely area where both dogs could be off leash for a while. Elmo had his nose to the ground, so I figured my best bet was to get Mari in action. I was pleading with her to give me a decent shot, something out of the ordinary, and then she starts getting sassy. She's been practicing her runway walk, which I have to admit is getting much better than it was.

I thought after her beauty pose, we should go for talent...and this is what we got.

I gave up.

Fast forward to Sunday...and you guessed it...more leaves to deal with. I spared Sean the yard paparazzi while he was working, and got more dog photos...because who doesn't love pictures of my dogs?

Mari loves to "help" with the leaves. You'd think with those herding instincts I would have figured out a way to get her to help with leaf round up, but without thumbs, she's useless with a rake.

And this begs the question...does Elmo help with the yardwork too?

You bet he doesn't...not when there is a fluffy bed covered with a blanky.

At least he moved off of the couch for a few hours. It really wears him out to have to lift his head occasionlly and yawn, or even get up to get some water!!

He wanted it known that he doesn't find me amusing at all. He's a good boy for putting up with me.

So yeah...life IS that exciting here. Leaves and dogs, and dogs in leaves, dogs sleeping...I tell ya what, we're going to have to try and liven it up around here soon...

Next week will be pictures of paint drying...

Lucky shot

We have had the most beautiful weather for the past few days, so I grabbed my camera and took it to work with me on Friday. I had been meaning to take it with me for the past month because the fall colors were stunning this year , and we have some great views from up on the hill. There was still enough color to show up in the pictures yesterday, but not quite as spectacular as they were. Since I didn't think it was very nice to take pictures of patients, I headed outside and got some shots of the tram in action.

So yeah...that's about it for today. Stop yawning!!! It was either this, or a before and after or my pruning job. Even better would have been a photo documentary of my trip to the yard debris drop off...oh yeah...it is that exciting. I did take my camera on a walk with the dogs this morning, but they weren't cooperating in giving me adorable shots of them. I'll take a peek at the pictures tomorrow and see if any of them turned out.

And......DONE.

Weekend work

Well, the theory was to get signed up for a blog and then update it at least once a week, even more often when we had something interesting going on. Turns out...we just aren't that interesting...Who knew? (Yeah...I can hear all the comments now)

But, in the interest of actually posting something, I grabbed my camera and got some quick shots of our Sunday "fun" this past weekend. I would like to pretend that eventually we'll have something exciting or even mildly amusing to post...but I'm not sure we can live up to that. But, keep checking back, we just might surprise you!

I attacked the tree that dropped the obnoxious amount of leaves in the front yard. I'm not much of a prune-ologist, but it looks better than it did. Sean decided to battle the leaves.

After having such a great time outside, we moved inside to try and replace our lovely 1970's era hollow core doors.

Turns out, all of our interior doors are about 29 inches, and thankfully they only sell 28" or 30" doors at Home Depot. We had to shim the bajeezus out of the 28", but it is level, it closes perfectly, and most importantly, it isn't butt ugly. And amazingly enough, we completed this task without one argument. That itself is impressive.

And I can hear you all thinking it..."What was Elmo doing while Sean and Chandra were working?" Well, don't worry...I caught that too.

We'll do our best to make next update more exciting. Until then...

New Blog - old story

Well, I finally got my priorities sorted and started a new blog. First post will be short and sweet for testing.