Visitors from Minnesota!

Beth and Lesley visited this last week and we had a ton of fun catching up with our friends from Minnesota.



This is us, unsuccessfully doing some crabbing in Florence, Oregon. Sara reverted to her childhood ways and chased me with an angry crab. She and Lesley had the only two permits so they spent their time doing all the work while Beth and I cheered them on.

This is a photo of my new gangsta boyfriend in the blue who was also crabbing with his friends. We were invited to his pajama party but respectfully declined as our focus was the crabs we wanted to catch from the dock and boil for dinner. He was relentless and even made me some art as seen in the second photo below. It's a red heart made of zip ties. I am still not completely sure why he was hitting on me since I never showed any more of myself than my green "stay puffed" outfit. He must be the kind of guy who buys mystery grab bags.

This is Sara working very hard at getting those traps out to sea. Nice form huh?

Our one keeper for the day, a blue bungie cord.

For those of you who haven't done crabbing yourself here is a quick tutorial. You bait your traps with the stinkiest and most disgusting thing you can find and then throw them out in the river. After pulling them up you have to measure each crab that may be big enough. You can only keep the boys so flipping them over to analyze the markings is the next step.

Then you stop and pose for some photos to show the world how much fun you're having.

Finally when you have figured out that you just spent 5 hours in the cold and haven't pulled up a single crab big enough to keep, you go to the local crap shop and pick up a couple REALLY big delicious ones for dinner.

The next photos are of our wine tasting excursion at King Estate Winery. We had a lovely lunch and did some yummy tasting.

Lesley was amazed by the berries we grow here on trees in Oregon. We told her they taste just like apples.

The final 10 photos are of the Eugene Holiday Market. Can you spot a theme?

Now it's clear that you can tie dye anything!

This week is similar to most. A pic of a dog and a couple projects around the house. We'll start this week's blog with Gabby the fire worshiper. Our mornings have been very chilly and Gabby has been taking full advantage of what we call "the babysitter." She will sit in front of this fire all day if we let her...unless there is a deer anywhere on the property.





This deer, directly outside the front door, for instance, sent her into a tail spin.

There are 3 things to notice about the photos of the house. The first, we are getting very close to having a fully sided house! Second, notice in the first photo, the door is in!!!! Yippie!! And third, in both photos.....LOTS OF SUN!! Though chilly we did get some Vitamin D this weekend!

Finally this week's blog includes Sara fixing Bingo's chair project. As you may be able to tell by the tv, I was keeping up on my college football scores!

We couldn't find any blue crushed velvet so we figured that unless you are Deb, Mary Anne, or Lesley you'd never notice the panel is black until we can find some blue...and honestly we're really in no hurry since none of them live here to give us a hard time about it.

Just a quick, and exciting post this week! The siding is finally going up!! We won't be, "those neighbors with the giant beer cooler in their yard" anymore (thank goodness)!





On a sadder note, Bingo has a minor case of incontenance, which who doesn't really, say on a hard laugh or big sneeze. It is probably due to her age and her status of being a girl dog who has been fixed. We are sure it will go away as it is already showing signs of improvement. In the mean time she is sporting a new fashion for 18 month old boxers. It is a designer, Diaper by Sara! On a cute note it makes her think she is a lap dog.

Halloween Weekend 2008

Halloween 2008 was a blast. Sara added an H to her name and went as Sarah Conner from Terminator 2. She really played the part with the wicked guns (her bicepts) and the silly string automatic. I was the little known Edith Prickley from SCTV (or Second City Television). After finding ONE person all day who knew who I was, I started telling people that I was the church lady.

We started the evening at John and Sherry's where we met up wtih Page and Tim (dressed as the pimp and an employee). John was the pink cowboy and Sherry the Russian Lady, though we never did here her speak it. I think she just wanted to be warm and drink Vodka.

As usual, the party at Todd's was fabulous. We danced all night with Richard Simmons to early rap songs like, Busta Move and I like Big Butts! All Said, a good time had by all.

Saturday morning we helped Colleen move into her fabulous new house. We were very busy so didn't get a lot of photo opps in but here are a couple shots of Colleen getting smashed in between some matresses and Bill leaping with joy that he had done such a thing.

Sunday we did the usual around the house things. I cleaned and blogged and ate bon bons (well, a lactose free, soy ice cream sandwich) and Sara firred out the guest house so the siding can be started! :-)