Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Spring Break

It's not Spring Break in Oregon if it doesn't rain...so I guess it's not Spring Break in Idaho if it doesn't SNOW??

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Happy Easter!

Well, my sweet husband was in the house for all of 10 days before he began removing walls. So we've spent Easter in a cloud of obscenities and sheetrock dust, with the warm woody scent of plywood that has been cut with a Sawzall. It started as a simple replacement of the ancient vent/fan in the bathroom (can't imagine why it wasn't working properly!). That isn't a ladder in the picture, it's the wall frame from the attic bedroom.

Happy Easter!


































































The Easter bunny didn't hide any eggs in the walls of the house, but he (or maybe one of his strung out buddies) did hide a drug pipe. The handle is bound up with black electrical tape. Niiice.



They're using that black electrical tape like it's free, for heaven's sake.

In the Shadow of Miss Ginger

Such a long wiener dog shadow!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

But I Can't See the TV from Here...

Plus, we got a new TV for the new house. I hope we'll be able to see it from across the living room.

Miss Ginger is Warming to the House...Slowly...

Miss G wasn't too hot on the new house. There is only one room that's carpeted, and she hates the rest of the house -- tile and hardwoods. It took us about two days to convince her to come into the house of her own accord. Bringing in her Craigslist loveseat helped. Hopefully she'll stay.

Angels from Heaven

About 3 p.m. we had taken a load to the garage, and I was standing deep in the truck looking at the few remaining, yet heavy, pieces left. I was tired, worn out, and just out of energy. Suddenly, at the bright end of the truck, I heard a cheery voice, "Hi!" and turned around to see the silhouette of four heads. "I'm Molly, I sort of work with your husband -- but not at the city -- I'm with a company that contracts with the city...anyway, this is my husband, and my sister, and my brother-in-law...and we just had lunch and were out driving, and I remembered him saying you were moving this weekend...and I thought if we drove around a little, we'd probably find you. Need some help?"

They all hopped in the giant truck and carried everything into the garage! And the three guys were able to hoist our giant space-foam bed up the stairs to the second floor. I am pretty sure we would not have been able to do this alone without causing serious damage to the bed or our marriage. :) A big thanks to Molly and her fellow angels.

We Are Moved!

PHEW! We are -- for the first time in 8 months -- in one place. Yep, all our crap is on one plot of land. Sure, it's still in boxes, but it's all together! My husband moved storage unit one Friday night. We moved it into the garage Saturday morning, them moved the second storage unit on Saturday, then returned the U-Haul. We moved the condo in 3 trips with just the truck and the Mini on Sunday. I finished cleaning the condo Sunday night about 9 p.m.

We had rented a 17' truck, but upon arriving, they said "Uh...sorry, we don't have that one. Here's a 26' truck." Nice. Except that we couldn't make the turn into our driveway with it. And no one else in town had anything else. SO we schlepped all our stuff from the street. Which really was probably twice as much work. Awesome.




















There were really only two casualties in the move: a clock radio that was dropped, and, sadly, one of the few houseplants that flourished under my care: the palm that Jan and Lance got us for our Beaverton house housewarming. It snapped under the gentle pressure applied to it in attempting to fit it into the truck. Not bad, considering. Sorry little palm.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Homeowners Again!

Well, it's done! We are homeowners again! The previous owners were able to get out in time with most of their stuff (OK, there's a LOAD of crap in the loft above the garage...) and we were able to gain access! Hooray! And it's reasonably clean too! Definitely as clean as I left the Beaverton house. :)

The house looks so different without all their stuff in it! Where did that hole in the wall come from? When did that orange wall appear? Is our bed really going to fit in there?? Aaah!

We had the requisite Papa Murphy's pizza in our new house, and couple of diet cokes. Cheers to our new home!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

House Day Moves Out to Thursday

Because of a lender snafu, something something, we now get the house on Thursday, March 13. I'm sure the sellers are psyched they have another day to get that case of butter out of our fridge.

I swear, a case of butter.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Final Walk-Through!

We did our final walk-through of the house tonight! Everything appears to be in order. Except that the current owners NEED TO PACK AND GET OUT! She was on site during our walk-through (which I don't think is legal...) and wanted to tell us that she really loved the house and that they had spent a lot of time fostering good karma in the house, and that she was sure we'd be very happy there. We think she might not have understood how very much work she has ahead of her in the next 48 hours! GO! Stop gabbing! PACK UP!!

The chickens have been relocated, and they took their chicken house with 'em.

We know so many folks who have recently gone through this same process to create the next stage in their lives: Mom and Dad building their retirement wonderland, Chris and Kristin on their big Kansas Adventure, Aisha and Jason building their perfect new home, Kathryn and Stephan off to England...so many folks know first-hand the challenges of transition housing...and the excitement of reaching a goal!!

I'm very excited for so much things! For walking to work! For living on the edge of the foothills! For having deck access again! For locating the other half of my clothes! For moving into our second house and our big Idaho adventure!

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Sunday Adventure Day: A Trip to Oregon!

On "Sunday Adventure Day" we went to the Reynolds Reservoir/Hemingway Basin area just past the Snake River and played around on the rocks for the first half of the day. Climbing on rocks is such fun! For the second half of Adventure Day we went...to Oregon! Hee hee! We went to the Owyhee Reservoir via the Leslie Gulch access. SO mind-blowingly amazing.

It's such fun to have so much new stuff to explore!
























This is the Lake Owyhee Reservoir, and the spot on the water is a tiny airplane that flew through the canyon and then came down and skimmed the water before pulling back up. It was kind of cool, and also kind of scary!

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Fifteen Minutes of Fame!

OK, more like off-and-on for two and a half hours. My company does an annual corporate sponsorship night on public television, where 16 employees spend the evening taking phone pledges during the fundraiser.

We were on the set from 8 until 11 p.m., taking pledges, taking tours of the studio, and partaking of a delicious spread of Hawaiian catering. The show on TV for the first part was a three tenors concert, and after that, a special on Pete Seeger. I was lucky enough to share a table with my charming friend Paula. When you took a pledge for more than $125, you got to pop a balloon on the air!

I took three notable pledges:

  1. A very sweet older lady who pledged $125. Later in the call she mentioned that she was friends with Pete Seeger. A little more research yielded that I was speaking with prominent folk singer and Idaho resident Rosalie Sorrels!
  2. A call from a nice man who wanted three CDs sent to three addresses: one in Ketchum, one in Seattle, and one in Manhattan. I asked if one of the addresses was his, and he responded with "They're all mine!" He continued: "Let's see...400 Park Avenue, Apt 6, New York...96421...Uh...does that sound like a New York zip code to you?" Uh...sir...if you live on Park Avenue, you likely have someone who can tell you what your zip code is, no?
  3. The guy behind me (who kept making bunny ears behind my head!) went on a studio tour and I had to answer his phone, and took a $2500 pledge!! The crew asked Paula and I to pop all the balloons at our table for that one! Whoo-hoo! I was very scared we were going to look like doofuses, chasing balloons around the air with pushpins, perhaps knocking the table over, maybe one of us tumbling over top of it, onto a host. Awesome.

We took in nearly $14,000 in pledges during our short show!


























What am I looking at? Is that white dot an apparition? Is Paula trying to shoo it away with her pen? Madness!

A big thanks to my photographer, who spent part of an evening photographing the television. Hee hee!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

OK, so I'm not the photog in the family... :)



























































Sunday, March 2, 2008

Adventures at the City of Rocks!

The three of us woke up Sunday morning with a need to get out of condo (10 more wakeups!) So we piled into the Cooper and made our way to the City of Rocks, a National Reserve about 180 miles southeast of Boise, and a major rock-climbing destination. It's a surreal place that looked like something out of a scene from Lord of the Rings.

Miss G enjoyed running free without her leash, as the only other person we ran into was a nice park ranger with whom we chatted for a while. On the way home, we ran into a BUNCH of deer. And snow began to blow across the road, which was a little scary in the Cooper. It was awesome to get out of Dodge.

















Playing Around Town



















We spent a few hours playing around town a few weekends ago, messing around and having fun. Toot had fun at Barber Park, about 3 miles from our condo.
Later we wandered around downtown having a good time with the local culture.








































At the end of the night we went out to dinner, and I took my fancy wiener dog purse. As we had a fancy downtown window seat, (to see and be seen!) I couldn't help but position it in the window as though it was looking out. It amused us to no end.