fall festivities

We're going to barnaby's again for thanksgiving. It's kind of a tradition, which I hope is OK with him. We made 5 pumpkin pies. Mostly John made 5 pumpkin pies but then I got drafted to make some emergency crusts. The crusts turned out very good I think - the dough was nice and elastic and easy to roll out. I think the key is cold cold butter. The pies are dark because John uses molasses. They are also as fragrant as potpurri because John loves his baking spices, especially nutmeg. The mouth numbs as you eat these pies.

Here is a picture, a classic already, of L in the pumpkins at new seasons. For comparison, also the one from last year. Not such a deer in the headlights this year.

"that guy"

who wears cowboy boots and shorts to your wedding. Whatever, it's texas.

should I?

I have some time coming to me...because L will start daycare in two weeks. What should I do? I'm thinking about starting a book club - but only inviting people on my street. Is that too crazy? I just don't like to travel.

L has a book with a goblin story. The story goes like this: Goblin gets scared by a "bump" sound coming from a cold, dark cave. He is so scared that he jumps out of his shoes and starts running. But now he hears a "pit-pat-pit-pat" behind him. So scared now that he jumps into a hole in a tree trunk and waits. Should he look out? Should he? L nods solemnly yes. Yes, he would look out! And what did he see? Nothing but his own little shoes, who followed him as he ran. He hugs his shoes and puts them on. Who's scared of an old bump anyway and he skipped away, just like that.

teething and chewing

and the raspberries are ripe

too much

Too much!

jan and back from boulder

We just got back from Boulder visiting the paternal gpas. Louisa had fun, basked in the attention. She also got some snow experience and a little snow scratch on her nose from falling on her face. It's hard to stop a fall when you're wearing a snowsuit.

This picture is a particularly funny one of John from his dad's archives. I remember our hippy landlady had a picture of her and her friends dressed up in old timey clothes posing similar with similar jalopy.

zombie massacre

new friends

I guess the fear of spiders is not as innate as we think

daddy/baby

happy birthday Louisa!

look into my eyes...

look deeeep into my eeyyyeeeessss .... yessss, make me some squash ... squuaaashhhh....

.....and you cannot see my boogies....they are invissiblee...

yessssssss.

a true portland baby...

her eyes are the color of the Willamette River

halloween pumpkins

whoops, I wore the wrong camo...cuz you can see me, right?

baths are fun

with a nice view of teeth 1, 2, and 3.

the twelve cute pictures of christmas

Things have really gotten away from me, blogwise. I hereby pledge to post at least one cute picture for the next twelve days (to Christmas and those two shopping days).

This is a pic of Louisa at Barnaby's beach house for thanksgiving.

How did she get so cute?

grind open but closing soon! shop now!

OK, their hours have changed - now 11-7pm. Eight hours to shop. Open til everything's gone. Percent off sales in the future.

Also hearing that our quickymart minimall will be changing hands. To become more "upscale"! puke. So much for "the boys". Is this all a plot of Fred Meyer to make us shop there? Any other conspiracy theories out there?

grind closed!

The sign says "shop now" but the store is closed. Here's another daily grind photo...

daily grind down!

as in out of business as of 2 weeks from now. Shit!

100% weather

I have a slight weather habit. I don't get the weather channel or stay plugged into my local weather delivery station. I am just picky and have found the perfect weather broadcasting media for me - rainbow bright and super detailed. I just checked in to it to see when the best time would be to take a walk today. Unfortunately, we're not getting out of the dark green today and our 12 hour probability of precipitation is 100%. But check out the contrast between the purple (dark and light) snow patterns in Montana and our green marbling here on the wet side. Foggy days are nice too - the yellow really stands out. And the POP12 readings are like topographical maps of clouds. Thank you NOAA. http://www.weather.gov/forecasts/graphical/sectors/pacnorthwestWeek.php#tabs

We went to Arizona in March and in preparation I checked out the NOAA graphical for southeastern AZ. There were no colors. Was the website working? yes. But there was no weather there. Just the bland beige nothing that means "none". This picture shows the absence of weather. Makes you nervous doesn't it?

pursed ships

I (I!) have been carrying a purse. I (I!) who once infamously (and innocently) said to my purse carrying friend, "isn't that humiliating? Carrying all that stuff (implication: that you don't need)?" When I was 18, purses (and gardening) represented all that was middle-aged and booooring. What did I have against purses? I guess I thought that carrying around enough stuff that you had to have a BAG for it seemed too encumbering.

But! Now I realize that one thing that I hate is packing up to leave the house. When it was merely finding my ID and stuffing some bills in my pockets things were easy. Now that pockets wont hold my wallet, cell phone and keys (and really, some of my clothes don't even have POCKETS!) I have become increasingly frustrated. And now that I also usually am getting together the baby stuff, man! that is hard to get used to, I can't bear finding all my shit too. So I use a purse. It's one that I'm trying out, one of my mom's. I don't really think it's "me" but I dont really have time or inclination to shop. It does have lots of pockets... Yes, it does have that.