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

Happy Halloween!

The thing I enjoy most about Halloween is dressing up. My costume was a hit at school. It's always fun to laugh and let kids see a different side of you. I barley made it through the school day. There's just too much excitement in the air. Tomorrow will probably be worse since they stay up late and eat candy all night.
There weren't many trick-or-treaters knocking at our door. I already turned the light out because there just haven't been any. I've only opened the door 4 times! I guess our neighborhood doesn't really have any kids. People are either our age with no kids (just like us) or they've lived in this neighborhood for 30 years. Maybe I just won't bother next year. I certainly don't need more candy!
Of course, on my last trip to the door to hand out candy, guess who made a run for it? You bet...Jupiter! Stinker! He made it outside and I called for him, took his food bowl outside and shook it around. But he wouldn't come. And of course we don't have a collar on him because he never really tries to get outside. It's just that I had the door open a few seconds too long. Well, I decided to leave the dog door open with the hope he'd come back in soon. When he was allowed outside last year, he used it all the time and I hoped he remembered how to use it. I didn't have to wait long, not more than 20 minutes later he came tearing through the dog door like something was hot on his tail. Or maybe it was just too cold for him.
-h

Fondue Feast

Saturday was Alexis' birthday, so for girl's night we went out to dinner at Urban Fondue in celebration. We had 2 kinds of cheese fondue and 2 dessert treats too. Yummy! I like fondue but I'm not sure my stomach does...I won't share any more.
I had a complete "Heidi" moment on my way to meet the girls. About half way to the restaurant I realized that I completely forgot to bring Alexis' gift with me. It was left sitting on the dinning room table. I remembered the camera of course. I think I was just flustered. I get home late on Tuesdays because I have an after school study hall, I was trying to talk to my husband over the phone at least once today, I was trying to leave a little early because parking is a pain in NW and the gift completely slipped my mind. It seems that sort of thing happens more and more lately. And to think, I use to pride myself on being so organized. What's happening to me?
-h

little pumpkin

Is this really a pumpkin? Or some other type of squash? I really have no idea. This little guy was put through a lot this weekend. At Aaron and Marie's party on Friday night it was used by Gabe in the pumpkin bowling contest. After that mistreatment, I decided it needed to come home with us. I know the picture stinks. But until we have a real studio, with real lighting...this is the best I can do.

Not much is going on around here. Gabe left before 5 this morning to fly to Atlanta for the next few days. He wanted me to take him to the airport, but I said he must be crazy to think I'd get up that early! Anyway, I've been grading papers all evening. That's as exciting as it gets! Sadly, since Gabe's going to be gone you'll have to put up with my ramblings for most of the week.
-h

Found

This little yellow croquet ball has been missing since our summer barbecue. We hadn't really done any serious looking for it other than the morning after our party while we were cleaning up. I knew it would turn up eventually, and today it did. I was out wandering around the yard on this beautiful afternoon looking for something that I could photograph when I saw it. Nestled in the bottom of a clump of crocosmia, waiting to join it's siblings on the croquet stand. I thought it fitting to take it's picture in the sunny grass, it's last peak at the sky until next year.

-G

Halloween (Act 2)

After I got home from a class I had to finish today...Gabe, Josh, Danelle, and I went out to the pumpkin patch. It's the pumpkin patch we've been going to for years now because Gabe's boss knows the people who are in "charge" of the trebuchet and pumpkin cannon launching.
After watching pumpkins being launched at old cars, we had dinner at the Rock Creek Tavern. Then we came home to get ready for Halloween Party #2 at our friend Mike's house. Now I'm completely exhausted and ready for a nice relaxing day tomorrow. I feel like I haven't had a weekend to speak of. It's been go, go, go!
-h

Halloween (Act 1)

Here is my former coworker Joe opening a bottle of wine for his wife Sonya and another coworker. Joe's method was to use his pipe wrench. A little bit overkill? Maybe.

Here is Heidi and I in our costumes. Heidi is the Statue of Liberty (obviously) and I am the Stay Puft Marshmallow man from Ghostbusters. I actually got the idea for my costume after Heidi said she was going to be the Statue of Liberty. For whatever reason I thought of Ghostbusters II and the fact that the Statue of Liberty was brought to "life". That's our take on "couples" costumes.

-G

Warmth

Boy was it cold this morning! The temperature when I left this morning was a chilly 37 degrees. My back windshield had frost on it and I almost got out and scrapped it. I do believe it's much too early in the year for this sort of thing to be happening around here!
So, the cold weather got me thinking about bundling up and getting out my sweaters. Hence, the picture this evening. I'm still hoping it's too early to get out my mittens and stocking hat. I'll put that off a little longer!
-h

One of the Last

For dinner tonight we cut into one of the last tomatoes from our garden. It was probably one of the largest we had, and it's been inside for a couple weeks now. Right before the rain returned Heidi picked the last of the green tomatoes on the vine so they could ripen inside. This one turned out wonderful and made the best BTA in recent memory. Yeah, there is usually an "L" in there but we were out of lettuce, so we skipped it.

-G

jack-o-lanterns

Alexis, Jen, and Sarah came over for our annual girl's night pumpkin carving event. We've been doing it every October since we've been having girl's night. And we've been having girl's night a long time. I think we're on year 7? We also roast all the seeds that come out of our pumpkins. That's my favorite part...Yummy! So now that my pumpkin is done...it's time to last minute hunt for a costume. Oh, the joys of last minute holiday shopping!
-h

Full Attack

I got home from Guy's Night tonight with no pictures in hand, and nothing I could think of to take a picture of. Then it happened. Jupiter went into full attack mode on a paper bag he had found earlier tonight next to the refrigerator. What you can't really tell from this picture is that he ran full speed into the bag and slid three feet across the floor inside the bag. Of course, then he just kinda laid in it for a while.

I'm pretty sure we've posted pictures of Jupiter attacking paper bags before, but oh well, he's just too funny. You'd think he was a kitten still with some of the things he does.

-G

That's gonna hurt!

When Gabe got home this evening the first thing he did was pull up his shirt and show me this.
The story goes like this: he was going down hill, coming around a corner and there was a slick rock sticking out of the bank. The front tire of the bike slipped on the rock. Which sent Gabe falling into the handle bars. Therefore, creating this nice looking bruise.
And to think...I told him more than once to be careful. He's not 16 anymore! I think he's going to have a tough time getting out of bed in the morning!
-h

Mountain Biking

On Friday five of us made the drive down to one of the best mountain biking areas in the US. It just so happens that I grew up there as well. It's Oakridge, Oregon I'm talking about for those who don't know where I grew up or aren't familiar with mountain biking hotspots. This picture was taken at the end of the day on Saturday after we had battled snow, rain and elk hunters. The first ride I wanted to do unfortunately started at a pretty high elevation, so high that we were riding in 4" of snow and weren't even near the trailhead. While we were riding on the road towards the trail, we passed a group of elk hunters all standing around looking at a truck that had been put in the ditch. They were really surprised to see us. Once we decided the snow was too much for us we headed to a lower elevation ride, Larison Rock. Dave broke his chain on the ride and I had no rear brakes, so it made for an adventurous trip. This picture is after the last ride of the day, Aubrey Mountain. It was a little more work than I had remembered, but still a fun ride. I think everyone had fun, and I was impressed with how well Mike and Bryan did with very little biking experience.

-G

New Puppy

And nope, it's not ours. This is my mom's new yellow lab puppy, Flora. She's 8 weeks old now and quite a handful. As soon as I put my shoes down she picked one up and dropped it in her pile of toys, claiming it as her own. Prying it away from her was a bit of a challenge, I had to make sure and stay out of the way of her sharp teeth. Shoes had to live out on the front porch or up high out of the way so she wouldn't take them. Typical of puppies this age, Flora is pretty clumsy, more than once I watched her "fall" down the back stairs. Her big feet kept getting in the way I guess.

-G

Leather

Apparently leather is the traditional anniversary gift for the 3rd anniversary. We've not been buying anniversary gifts for each other, instead we buy something for both of us. Leather proved to be pretty tough, we had a lot of trouble coming up with something. Our first idea was some sort of luggage since we both like to travel. We decided it was too expensive and would get beat up too easily for it to be worth it. Our next idea was...nothing really. Chairs were out, shoes were out, belts were out, clothes were out, leaving us with not much. Then, Heidi struck gold and found this from Pottery Barn. It's proving to be much better for me to toss my wallet and phone into instead of whatever flat surface I can find.

Spicy and Scary

After dinner I was trying to figure out what to take a picture of. So, I decided to look and see what we had in our crisper drawer that might make an interesting photo. There wasn't much in there. Some celery, a lemon, some parsley, half a white onion and a half eaten green pepper. Obviously, I grabbed the pepper.
I really like the way this picture turned out. It is fitting since there are only 14 days until Halloween. It totally looks like some scary green jack-o-lantern. I love the seeds as teeth. Thinking about Halloween...Gabe and I still don't have costumes or know what our party plans will be. We always do like to wait for the last minute!
-h

3 Years Ago...

on this day, Heidi and I got married. It was a wonderful day that was a lot of fun, and is great to think back on. It couldn't have been more perfect.



Today we celebrated by having some nice appetizers at home that Heidi put together. Brie, goat cheese, apples, Asian pears, crackers and wine. It was almost dinner itself. After our "snack" we headed out to dinner at Higgins. I chose it because I used to walk by it almost daily when I was in school and it always had a great looking menu in the window. Plus, they have a huge beer list. After dinner we swung by Pix Patisserie for some dessert. It was a great way to spend our anniversary together, doing something we both love, eating.

Love you Heidi!

-G

Colorful Foliage

I've been admiring the colorful trees in our neighborhood, so I went for a walk this evening in between rain showers. I was looking for the perfect leaf to photograph but had trouble finding just the right one. It's difficult to find a truly perfect leaf on the ground and I didn't want to pull one off of someone's tree. So, my leaves all have their own imperfections. I think the small imperfections in these leaves give a little bit of interest to the photograph.
-h

Star Trails

I'm cheating a bit with this one, it was actually taken last night, though it was getting pretty late when I took it. At last I got to put our tripod and remote to good use. This is a 30 minute exposure of the Big Dipper and surrounding stars. Out at the lake the sky was amazingly dark and full of stars, so many that it was hard to pick out familiar constellations. I was hoping to have the North Star in the frame, so there would be a distinct focal point that all the stars were spinning around. Since it was my first try at something like this, I'm not to concerned. I'm excited to try some more things like this in the future. Though, I'm not too excited about standing out in the cold waiting for the shutter to close.

-G