Poinsettia

I know, I know. It's still the last day of November and fall is still here for a few more week. I just couldn't help it...there was simply nothing else I could think to photograph this evening. Gabe and I went on a 2 &1/2 hour shopping expedition this evening, what more can you expect from me? Those of you who know me well, know that shopping is just about my least favorite thing. Unless I can shop on line and not interact with a single living, breathing person. That I could do all day long!
Anyway, we hadn't really started our Christmas shopping and we figured things would be less busy tonight. I really want to avoid the madness that is shopping on the weekend during the holiday season. I'm pretty proud to say that we're about half way done! We also got an amazing deal on a "gift" for ourselves. We've been looking at getting an upholstery cleaner because Jupiter isn't exactly kind to our off-white furniture. Well, neither am I to be completely honest. How many times have I dropped some kind of food item on myself and the couch? More than I care to count. Anyway, Kohl's had all their vacuums and cleaners on sale with an additional 10% off. Plus, we had $30 in "gift cards" that we got last Friday when we were there shopping with Gabe's mom. So, we got this cleaner, which is regularly priced at $85 for....drum roll please....$32.99! Boy do I love a steal of a deal.
-h

Sewer Work in Process...kinda

This hole was dug on Tuesday, it's now Thursday night, and no further progress has been made. I'm a bit...frustrated. To say the least. I mean, it's been months of dealing with the city, the contractor and my neighbors trying to get this thing done. I just want it done, I don't want to have to think about it any more. It should be three days of work, max, for these guys to wrap this thing up. I have the cell numbers of three people in the company. Rest assure that they will all be getting calls from me, hourly if I have to, until this thing is done.

-G

Here's a sneak peak

of our Christmas cards. I started working on them this weekend and finally finished them up tonight. Now all that's left is getting them signed, addressed, stamped (after a trip to the post office to get stamps...we never use them. Thank goodness for online bill paying!), and in the mail. Hopefully that will all happen by the end of the week.
I'm never very happy with my card making abilities, but I still prefer to make them. I just feel like I can never find quite the right ones. Unless, of course, I'm willing to pay a fortune somewhere like here. Which I'm not!
-h

Riveting

Hoping to avoid taking another picture of something around the house I took the camera to work with me today. There isn't much going on in the office so after the shop guys went home I wandered around the shop looking for interesting things. A few things caught my eye, but this tangle of rivets in a box was the most interesting. There is a couple thousand of them in this particular box.

The original image was a little bland with just a bunch of gray metal so making it black and white gave it a bit more interest.

-G

Pine cone

One of my favorite holiday scents, one that really takes me back to childhood, is the cinnamon pine cone. My mom always had a basket of them by the fireplace around Christmas. When I walked into Micheal's craft store on Friday (yes...I was there on the most dreaded day of the year. But I went late enough so that the crowds were gone.) guess what smell greeted me? Well, I had to get a bag! Much to Gabe's displeasure. I'm so happy that I have these pine cones, they had to be the subject of my photo today. Plus, I think the photo turned out pretty cool!

I was thinking about making this one a "what is it" post. But the more I looked at the picture, the easier I thought it would be to figure out. Oh, well. I'll think of something good one of these days.
-h

Evening Snack

As we were walking up to the house this afternoon after a little shopping I noticed that the sun was shining nicely on the camellias in our front yard. For some reason they think it's spring and so have decided to bloom. The ants seem to really be digging whatever pollen or nectar they're finding in the blossoms. This flower only had one, but on another there was at least 10. I imagine the ants are really enjoying this early winter treat. It'll be a few more months before they get to have another snack like this.

-G

Procrastinate no more!

This afternoon we finally got motivated and got some yard clean up done. It's been dry for about a week now and it's suppose to rain all week, so we figured this would be our last window of opportunity. Plus, the yard was looking terrible! This was the first raking we've done this year. It was bad.
Other than the yard work, we haven't been up to much today. After working on the puzzle at Dave and Carley's last night, I was feeling inspired. So I got out this puzzle that Gabe got from my mom and dad last Christmas. I've been working on it most of the day on the card table in front of the TV. Gabe's been "helping" a little. Unfortunately, his idea of helping isn't quite the same as mine. Plus, he doesn't really like puzzles the way I do. I get really addicted to them. For some reason, I can't get myself to stop until they're done. We'll see if I can finish before bed or if I can get myself to stop and get to bed at a decent hour tonight. I can hear the puzzle calling me now...
-h

Puzzling

This is Heidi, Carley and Bryan finishing up a Yellowstone National Park puzzle last night. Dave and Carley hosted a game night last night where there were some games played and a puzzle completed. I stuck to the games as puzzles are just about the last thing I want to do when I have free time. I'm not sure what it is about them, they're just...boring. One of the games we played was Samurai, another German game brought to the US by Rio Grande Games.

Sorry the blogging was so late, we got home late last night and went straight to bed.

-G

It's all over...

Happy Thanksgiving!
We hosted the Thanksgiving feast at our house for the 2nd year. Gabe's mom came up this morning to be in charge of the stuffing, and spend the weekend. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving for Gabe without oyster stuffing! My mom, dad, sister (Tricia), her boyfriend Jory, his parents, and Gabe's aunt Dian were all here too. We had a tight squeeze in our 900 square foot house. But it was fun.
I made 2 pumpkin pies yesterday. So today we had a turkey to roast, gourmet green bean casserole to prepare (it's 10,000 times better than the one on the label of the French's onions!), cranberry sauce to cook, and stuffing to get together. My mom brought the other essentials.
I think everyone ate more than they needed. That's what this holiday is all about right? And we played some games.
I love Thanksgiving! I'm sad that it's over and we don't have very much turkey left over. I think I'll sleep well tonight. I'm exhausted!
-h

Voodoo Curse

I feel as though we've been cursed tonight. One of our favorite late night snack places, Voodoo Doughnuts, was out of doughnuts and closed. We had been up at the New Old Lompoc with a group of friends that get together on the night before Thanksgiving for some drinks. We catch up on what we've all been up to, compare notes on plans for Thanksgiving and generally just hang out. This is this 3rd year that the entire group has gotten together. Before that it was an exclusive girls-only event that Heidi, Jennifer and Alexis started. It's a fun time to get together and look back on the year and also look forward to the rest of the holiday season.

-G

MASSIVE To-Do List

Does anyone else have one? Actually, I have 3. One's for what I have to get done at school tomorrow. The second is all the things I need to get cleaned up and ready tomorrow. The third is what Gabe and I need to do on Thursday morning. The "joys" of hosting a holiday at your house. Actually, I really enjoy it. I love cooking and having people over. It's the clean up I despise. Good thing my husband is such an awesome help in that department. He's actually had a "to-do" list of errands he's been responsible to run over the last few days. Speaking of things I need to be getting done...sitting here and blogging isn't really one of them so I better stop rambling and get a move on it!
-h
I don't have anything to say about this picture. It's just the water shut off to the washing machine. Maybe it caught my eye today because I have a mountain of laundry to be doing. Or maybe it's because it's fire engine red.

Bean Counter

Really I don't count them bean by bean I guess. I count them scoop by scoop. Every morning scoops of these magical beans get ground and placed in a filter awaiting their shower of steaming hot water. This is, of course, after I've had my shower. All of this is part of my morning routine. Somehow I drag myself out of bed at 6:00 and stumble into the bathroom, barely awake enough to start the shower. Not until I'm out and dressed do I start feeling like I might be human again. The next, and biggest, step is the cup of coffee. This is my thanks to the humble coffee bean, without you I'd be even less of a morning person than I am now. I'm sure my family, friends and coworkers thank you too.

-G

No Fish For Us

This morning we got a late start. I think the 6 games of Yahtzee we played yesterday, and all of the pole watching we did, really wore us out. It could have also been all the eating we did at dinner at International C-Food Market. Or maybe it was the fact that we were up at 5:30 on Saturday morning to make the drive out to Siltcoos.
Anyway, before we got out on the lake we had to grab coffee. As Gabe, his dad, and Joanne were in the coffee shop, I decided to take a few pictures of the Florence bridge. With coffee in hand we were ready to get out on the lake again, only to be rewarded with hours of pelting rain and no fish in the boat. Even with my "high quality" Coleman rain gear, I was cold and wet in no time. I think I'm done with this whole fishing thing. It would be different if we ever caught anything. Right now we're 0 for 3.
-h

Breezy

The weather forecast Friday said that Saturday would be merely breezy at the coast. Boy did they get that wrong. It was close to the windiest I'd ever seen it at Siltcoos. The waves were so high we didn't even get to launch the boat until the afternoon, we had planned on launching around 9 or so in the morning. We had the morning to relax and play a couple games of Yahtzee. The weather cooperated in the afternoon, with very little rain and no wind. Too bad the fish wouldn't cooperate and bite our hooks...

Oh, and Heidi can be seen wearing the lovely rain gear featured in my post from Thursday.

-G

Dried Chilies

We left for Eugene about 5:30 on Friday. Just in time to wait in the parking lot that is the I-205/1-5 South interchange. It only took us 3 hours to get to Tom and Joanne's place. A trip that should really never take more than 2 hours. Yuck!
It was nice to relax once we got there. I noticed a bunch of dried chilies they had in a big bowl. One of their friends grows really great chilies and then Tom and Joanne dry them and grind them up into chili flakes. Let me tell you, these chilies are spicy. A little flake goes a long way. I thought the colors and texture made a great photo.
-h

What is it?

So, what do you think it is? It seems like Heidi and I will be needing to use whatever it is this weekend.

On another note, can you believe that Thanksgiving is next week? I could have sworn it wasn't for another couple weeks. Time really has flown by this month.

-G

Well Used

I was looking through my "bin" of art and craft supplies tonight. Opening that bin is like taking a step back in time. As soon as I open it I can smell the distinct fragrance of crayons. There's nothing like the smell of crayons to take you back to simpler times. I really needed that tonight. The end of the trimester is less than a week away and I have MASSIVE amounts of work to grade and not nearly enough time to get it all finished. I've already been at it for 3 additional hours this evening and now I'm starting to get a massive head ache. That's all I'm going to be able to handle. Maybe I should treat myself by watching this evenings installment of America's Next Top Model. I think I've earned some completely mindless entertainment.
-h

Best. Smelling. Mess. Ever.

So I was on the couch watching something on TV when I hear an, "uh oh," from Heidi in the kitchen. Shortly thereafter she says I should come see something. Before I could even round the corner into the kitchen I could smell what had happened. She had spilled...cinnamon. Like I said, it was the best smelling mess ever.

I was actually pretty fortunate for this photo opportunity to fall (har har) into my lap this evening. I wasn't coming up with anything to shoot, and this provided a great opportunity. My payment for being able to shoot this accident was having to clean it up. Seemed fair enough to me.

-G

Stamps

I've been thoroughly enjoying my day off today. I got up late, had a few cups of coffee, graded some papers, and ran some errands. I was bugging Gabe last week to call in sick today since he had to work, and he never calls in sick. On Friday he told his boss he was thinking about calling in on Monday (his boss is an awesome guy) and his boss just told him to take an unofficial "vacation" day. Basically..."don't come in." Then, Friday before Gabe left, a couple meetings had to be scheduled for this morning and now since no one in the office knows where he is...they haven't been leaving him alone. Meaning, he's really working from home today. So much for a "vacation" day.
-h

Happy Birthday Steve!

Today was Steve's (Heidi's dad) birthday so we went over to the west side of town to visit, play games and eat dinner. The big present Steve opened was a new GPS unit for the car. Hopefully he'll never be lost again. We played a couple games of Ticket to Ride, I won one and Steve won the other, I figured it was nice of me to let him win at least once on his birthday. This picture is of the card that Heidi and I got him. It was the top 10 phrases used by dads, Heidi felt that #1 was pretty fitting, it was "go ask your mother."

-G

Vine

It was a beautiful sunny fall Saturday. Gabe and I should have gone out to the yard to rake up some leaves, but we've been relaxing instead. I woke up this morning with the beginnings of a cold...sore throat, stuffy nose, yuck!
We did go out with Mike to the Hair of the Dog Brewery anniversary sale. We tasted a few beers, and since it's one of Gabe's favorites, he went pretty wild. This brewery doesn't have mass distribution. So even though it's brewed just a few miles from our house, it can be hard to find. Gabe's found it at a few places around town but now he has his own private stash. I wonder how long it will last.
-h

A Man and His Beer

Notice how he cradles it like a baby. Because, to him, it is. At least, it was, until he tried my beer. I had a porter on tap this evening and Dave brought the Vinter Varmer from Laurelwood. Both were very good beers, but somehow there was beer left in Dave's growler. I guess all the research and effort I put into making beer has actually turned out for the better.

Thread

I really like playing around with our macro lens...I just wish we had a way to get better lighting. Maybe if we ever win the the lottery some day. I guess there's pretty much no chance of that ever happening, since you actually have to play in order to win. Anyway, I like the way this shot turned out. I think it looks more like a spool of yarn then a tiny bit of thread. That's the beauty of the macro.
-h

Potatoes

Potatoes that are boiling to be exact. As our side dish tonight we had some red potatoes with parsley and butter, one of my favorite ways to eat them.

Every time I type "potatoes" I think about two things. One, Dan Quayle misspelling potato while he was running for president. And second, Samwise in Lord of the Rings being upset at Gollum for not knowing what "taters" were.

Anyway, our All-American meal, meat and potatoes was delicious tonight.

-G

Night Light

Crazy foggy night we're having isn't it?
I drove over to the west side for girl's night and I was driving through fog...in the dark...both directions. I hate that!
Well, I'm completely out of ideas to photograph. I took this picture as I was leaving Sarah's house with the hope that I could change it to black and white so it would actually look good. No luck. Now it's late and way past my bed time, so this is simply the best I can do today.
Hopefully Thursday will bring me some inspiration!
-h

Still Fall...

It seems like we've been posting "fall" pictures for quite a while now, but it really hasn't turned to winter here yet. I mean, the rain hasn't started yet, and there are still colorful leaves on some of the trees. One of those is the ginkgo that Heidi and I brought home this spring. It's doing it's fall ritual and turning an amazing golden yellow. It's too bad there isn't any daylight while I'm at home anymore, a picture of the whole tree would be nice.

-G

Soap Malfunction

When Gabe refilled the dish scrubber, guess what he failed to do?

I couldn't help but laugh...Gabe didn't find the situation as humorous. Probably because he's the one who had to clean it up.

So, we've spent much of our day cleaning up around here. Laundry, dishes, washing the car. It's pretty amazing how neglected things get when I'm back in school. We did take the time to roast a delicious herb chicken this evening. It's so nice to make a big meal on Sunday evenings because we have the time to devote to cooking. I wanted to bake some of my favorite pumpkin bread today. Maybe I can still get that done tonight.
-h

Red Fish, Blue Fish...No Fish

Today, Heidi and I went salmon fishing with Josh down in Tillamook Bay. During the first hour or so on the water we saw 3 fish brought in to boats, but that was about it for the bulk of the day. Only towards the end of the day did we see more fish get reeled in. In total we saw maybe 10 fish, and when you think about the fact we were surrounded by 200 or more boats, it was a slow day. That isn't too say we didn't catch anything. Josh managed to pull in two crabs, a rock with a sponge like growth on it and a seagull. With the quantity of boats that were on the water the seagulls gather and try to eat everyone's bait, which is herring. While checking on the condition of his bait, Josh's herring was near the top of the water and a seagull thought it looked tasty. The hook just barely caught on it's foot so there was no harm done. Heidi also managed to catch a crab, I was the only one who didn't catch a thing.

For those of you who have never seen the boats fishing in the bay, it's pure insanity. There are 4 boats at a time trying to launch, trucks with trailers and boats are lined up everywhere and people are certainly not as friendly as they could be. Once you are on the water it's like a traffic jam on Highway 26 at rush hour, except with boats. It's certainly not the relaxing activity that fishing should be.

-G

Hello Cap'n

Gabe and I had some grocery shopping to do tonight...I know, who goes grocery shopping on a Friday night? We do. We needed to get some things for our fishing trip tomorrow and we have to get to bed early. So, we went down to Fred Meyer, gotta love your one stop shopping! Neither Gabe or I are huge breakfast cereal eaters, we're more yogurt and fruit kind of people...but I couldn't resist the Cap'n Crunch when we walked by. And I decided to have a small bowl for dessert. But something happened to my crunch berries! When did they turn to any color other than red? These are not the crunch berries of my youth. Fortunately they still taste the same, even with soy milk. I even almost did the trick my sisters and I use to do because we didn't like to drink the milk leftover. You just keep pouring a little more cereal in until there's no milk left. But I resisted the urge! I guess sugar in the form of cereal goes a lot further now.
-h

Inked

Not quite what I think of when I hear inked, but it's kinda close. What you see here is one of my real pet peeves. Printer ink cartridges. They're just such a pain to deal with. We typically buy them in packs at Costco, but you never go through them at the same rate, so sometimes we end up with more than one spare at a time. And then there is the fact that our printer has two different black ink cartridges. What's that about? I know this is something pretty dumb to rant/complain about, but I just can't help it.

-G