Friday, September 25, 2009

The In-Laws Visit!

The in-laws came for a short visit the weekend before my husband had surgery, for some last minute fun in the sun before going under the knife!

The three of us floated the Boise on the last day the city had it open for floating. Floating was supposed to stop the previous weekend, but the weather was so glorious it was extended...as if just for us! Thankfully, Art played the roles of Pikop and Dropov.

We also visited Boise's weekend-long art festival, "Art in the Park," where over 250 artisans set up booths and sell their wares.

I got a new pressed flower necklace. And a shave ice. :)
Literally, Art...in the Park.
I just love my husband's new summer chapeau.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Random Trip Photos

Sister and Taline running like crazed lunatics. Good times.

How awesome is this cool fabric-printed photo calendar from 1982 that's decorating the shop.

Check out that advanced technology!
Sister and I attempted some chicken trickery. We hung bread in the fence above what we thought they could reach.

They didn't seem all that aggravated.
I love this photo of Tiny Mom and I!

I also love that there's a salmon balancing on my head.

Frightening Little Children

When we were little we LOOOOOVED playing dress up. Once, when we lived in LaGrande, sister and I (ages 6 and 4) were all dressed up and were so dang cute we were photographed on the street in our neighborhood by the LaGrande Observer.

I'm wearing a red satin tutu. Sister's wearing a hot pink half-shirt with fringe on the bottom.

Our newspaper debut.
Mom graciously collected a bunch of dress-up clothes for Taline.

As there was no one her age to play dress up with her, we begrudgingly picked out a few things...just to make her feel more comfortable.

OK, not really. We rooted through that bag of wigs and tulle like we were looking for money. We might have even scared Taline a little in our dress-up fervor.

But after all that, she didn't want to come and be presented to "Living Room Society."

So, we took off our get-ups and returned to our evening. BUT WAIT! Taline decided she might want to play!
So we feverishly dressed again, hoping our wee comrade might be compelled to join in!
But in the end, mostly her Mom, Aunt Amy and Auntie Poo wearing pumpkin wigs and boas and squealing like stuck pigs was a little much for her.
We did it for Taline....REALLY. ;)

Off to the Beach!

After we finished canning the tuna, we decided to head to the beach proper...to cool off with a dip in the water...maybe work on our tans...

HA HA HA HA.




Do you remember the awesome Henry Weinhard's TV ads where the two guys sitting on the beach in the driving wind and sideways rain drinking beer and "watchin' hotties" on the Oregon coast, and then the camera flashes on two shapes obscured by the rain, yet wearing yellow rain slickers. "Check out the body on her friend..."

Meow.

Despite rain and cold, the sun did come out. And it was beautiful.



Taline didn't want to take off her boots and wade into the water, but seemed to have fun playing on the beach.
It was even windy and cold at Nehalem Bay, where sometimes it's more protected and even calm.
We decided to not venture out to the end of the pier, which was swaying and bouncing, and would likely have tossed Taline out to the crabs!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

And then we Wait...

While watching the canner and waiting for the tuna to be done, there's lots of important stuff to be done.


Like...standing aroung gabbing!

And having lunch and gabbing...
And learning how to crochet...
And gabbing!

From the Sea to the Jar

Fish is awesomely gooey and weird. And fun to play with.
You have to divvy up the oily belly fat among all the jars, lest you end up with a jar of super rich belly fat.

Which lead us to begin to refer to it as "unwanted belly fat." Which yielded rounds of laughter every time it was mentioned.
These were Sister's jars. She got one fish. Stacey got one fish. I got two fish. Mom got two fish. None were redfish or blue fish.
Canning fish is messy. Thus, best done in the garage.
My haul, safely back in Boise for storage!

Everyone Gets a Job in Operation: Tuna Preservation

Our master tuna canner managed the entire process, and began by outlining the fine details of hacking up the beast.

OK, we were lucky to just show up and get down to business. Mom and Dad did the hard work of going down to the docks and ferretting out the fish, hauling it home, and preparing it for us.
Space took on the responsibility of cutting up the filets o' fish.
Sister did some cutting, but really focused her talents on jar stuffing. With a little help from Taline.
I had the MOST important job -- cleaning the fish from the rim of the jar and making sure it was free of nicks.
Taline was a great help with my other job, adding a wee bit o' salt to each jar.

Dad did lots of behind-the-scenes work, and did an excellent job of watching the canners.

A Tuna Labor Day!

I hope your Labor Day was stupendous. I hopped in the little yella car and pointed her west...toward the sea! The drive was spectacular.


On the agenda?

Tuna. As evidenced by mom's very short list.
The tuna canning crew!
Let the stinky fish face making begin!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Shoulder Surgery...Warning: Pics of Guts Follow!

Way back during softball season, my sweet husband was playing outfield and threw all the way into home. He got the out. It was awesome.

'Cept he tore a ligament in his shoulder. A re-injury from Navy days, actually.


Through the wonders of technology, here are amazing pics of my husband's insides.

You might have though it was all the jewelry he's bestowed on me. Nope. I married him for his stunning ribcage.

In preparation for the big event, we secured a truckload of pharmaceuticals. Apparently this is an extremely painful surgery to recover from, and only recently were patients not kept overnight on a morphine drip.

The nice doctor took about 48 pictures of the process, from start to finish. Here's the actual injury...a "bucket handle tear." Not sure what that means, but that's a pretty good tear.

The doctor cut the ligament, and then like his shoulder was a big fishing fly, he used fancy purple thread and tied it in place!
Holes on both sides, but looks like the artwork will remain unmarred... if maybe like someone was shooting at it.
Take one wiener dog and call me in the morning. OK, and a couple oxycontins and some valium.
I don't know specifically what this one is, but it's such a pretty shot. When I told the doctor that he looked at me like I was a lunatic.
Back to doing my best Nurse Ratched.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Oh my Ducks. :{

Well, my Ducks might have had a rather sad showing at the big BSU game, but we had fun at the tailgate event, which welcomed 400 Duck supporters! I have driven by BSU games [the stadium is about 2 miles from our house] but I have never seen anything like the fever pitch that occurred at this event.

But... I mean... really... BSU Coach Peterson WAS a coach for Oregon from 1995 to 2000. AND for the PSU Vikings [my sweet husband's alma mater] in '93 and '94... So.... Really... ;)

A sea of green and yellow. :)
My handsome date looked a bit like an assistance coach. I told him to tell folks he was the special teams coach. ;) Tho that person wouldn't likely be drinking beer at the alumni event...
[Former] Coach Belotti offering a rah-rah speech.
AND my night was a success! My only real goal was getting my pic taken with the Duck!
YAY!!!

J0n and @my's Infinite [Meat-Cutting] Playlist

So when we were packaging up our kill, we had our computer in the [unfinished] basement...sooo.... what music to play... for cutting meat?

I found nothing inspiring. I ended up playing some old Cowboy Junkies.... a little The Fray... some Infamous Stringdusters... Nothing really hit a... nerve? Chord?

But I continued to muse on it well after the fact. Then a conversation with sister pointed out the obvious... Duh. Slayer. Slaughter. Red Meat. Maybe even some Meatloaf.
And lastly...some of my actual faves....The Killers.

:)