What Rich is eating for dinner

It is kind of gross and smelly. I had leftover bean soup. Yummy.

Who watches the local TV news?

We never do, but it is dark and cold out and we turned the TV on and watched the last part of the 6:00 news. The theme is, of course, be afraid, be very afraid. Tonight they had a special report on sex offenders who might lure little children into their houses on Halloween. They are not supposed to have any decorations on their house or in their yard, and no lights on. Of course, the taxpayers don't want to pay to have state or county employees monitoring them to make sure they are complying. But the "reporters" don't tell you that. They sent some "reporters" out to check some addresses, and found 2 that had decorations. They also burst people's bubble who thought they didn't have any sex offenders in their neighborhood. Everyone has sex offenders in their neighborhood.

Then, continuing with the Halloween theme, they had somebody tell us that if we didn't have our Halloween costume yet, not to stress. We could just throw something together from things we had around our house. We don't have to go out and buy something fancy. Hellooo? What IQ level of people need someone on the news to tell them that???

Then, the best part was the weather report. The guy said to check the sky about 4:00 tomorrow afternoon to see if it is cloudy, and if it is cloudy, it might rain tomorrow night...???????????????????????????????????????????????

Also we need to be afraid of deer.???????????????????????

Purple

They are getting there. In fact, I think it worked! We did the 20% vinegar solution and left it on for a few hours, and then we did several acetone with purple wood dye and some navy blue fabric dye and finally a little black. We still have to grind some to polish slightly more and get a little more of the black off, but I think they are actually almost the color of the floor now. The picture looks a little blue because there isn't enough light left on the patio this time of day.

Fifteen earthquakes in the world so far today, too. Eight of them in Alaska.

We planted out the black bamboo today too. And divided it so we have a few plants to put in the greenhouse, in case the stuff in the ground doesn't survive the winter. It is supposed to freeze tonight.

Chemistry is Fun

Today we experimented with fixing the color of the countertops, and it seems we had some luck. We figured we had nothing to lose, because we couldn't use them the color they were. Too brick red. So, one of the stains I saw for sale on the internet involved mixing their pigment with acetone. So Rich bought some purple stain intended for wood dyeing, and we mixed that with acetone and painted it on. That had some effect - it at least colored the slurry mix that we had filled the little voids with, and it kind of darkened and mottled the whole thing just a bit. Then after an hour or so, we mixed some other colorant we had - some raspberry colored paint pigment and some charcoal grey antiquing stuff left over from doing our floors - with vinegar, and put that on. That was pretty cool. It was almost dark when we rinsed it off and dried it, but it appears to have pulled some of the red out, lightening and darkening at the same time. So tomorrow we are going to play with it some more, and then I'll post a picture. We have an extra hour this weekend!
So far today there have been 15 earthquakes in the world. Two in Washington, two in Alaska. Interesting.

Wahkeena Falls Loop Hike

Today Rich and I went for a hike in the gorge with Dave and Blaine. It was a breathtakingly beautiful day - breezy, warmish, and clear.



We started about 1/2 mile west of Multnomah Falls, hiked past several falls, and then came out at Multnomah Falls. It was great! Then we had a potluck dinner at Baba's house. Now I am waiting to watch Desperate Housewives.

Earthquake!

Last night, sitting in the living room a little before 10:30, I felt a jolt like something hit the house really hard. Turns out it was a tiny little earthquake centered in the Dundee hills, just a few miles from here. Only lasted like a couple seconds. Actually it's called a micro quake. It was kind of micro exciting.

Weekends Aren't Long Enough

Friday night, hoping to come home from work and relax and watch Stargate, I learned that the to be continued episode I watched 2 weeks ago was the last for this season - the 2nd half of the season doesn't start until March. And then it's over, for good.
So we ate gyozas and re-watched the episode from 2 weeks ago.

Saturday morning, we did our civic duty and canvassed for a couple hours for Charles Lee, who is running for state representative and actually has a good chance of winning. When they did re-districting a few years ago, they sort of sacrificed Newberg to the Republicans by sticking us in the district with St. Paul and Keizer. I think they figured without Newberg, McMinnville might actually be able to elect a Democrat. (Which they probably will this time, because the guy who is running is very good.)

But ha ha ha. The Republican candidate from our area is so completely lame, and has such a horrendous voting record from last session, that Lee will probably win. He has a lot of bi-partisan support.

Saturday afternoon we cleaned house a little and went to Sears to buy a new vacuum cleaner. We also went to Sherwin & Williams to look at their acid stain product for cement. Thinking if we use a blue acid stain, we might end up with a purplish color.

We also gave the cat a bath, to try to help her with her fleas. We can't use the insecticide stuff on her because of her FIV disease, and herbal stuff isn't good for cats either. She was amazingly soft and fluffy after her bath. She is always so dusty, we forgot how nice she could be when she is clean! She really didn't even mind the bath, either.

Today, Rich is polishing countertops










and I am planting seeds.

Lettuce, spinach, fava beans, and lots of flowers. I think now is the time to plant flower seeds and let them sit all winter outside just like they would do if they planted themselves. We'll see. I'm trying a lot of Lota's seeds and some of mine. And using up what I hope is the last of the tomatoes to make one last batch of tomato sauce....



And it is 5:00 Sunday and there is still so much to do... I wish I was traveling in South America instead!

Tsunamis

Another really crazy thing about the Oregon Coast is the Tsunami Warning signs that are posted all over to create panic without providing any information. There is NO information anywhere about what kind of siren would sound or anything if there was a tsunami warning. So maybe you're supposed to be listening to the radio all the time? Or you are supposed to look up on the internet for information on every little town you're going to drive through? In two different towns we visited, Eureka and Gold Beach, loud sirens went off. In Gold Beach it happened as we were heading into a restaurant, and 4 or 5 other people had just come out. We all looked at each other and sort of laughed, and asked each other what it meant. None of us knew, of course, because we were all tourists. But someone asked if it was a tsunami warning. (You can't help but think that because the signs are EVERYWHERE) So I went in and asked the guy in the restaurant, who said it was the volunteer fire siren or something. Then I went back outside and told the other folks, who were actually grateful, because I think they were a little more worried than we were.

The really silly thing is that all along the coast there are signs that you are either entering a danger zone or leaving a danger zone. But the areas where they say you are leaving the danger zone are where the road is like 20 - 30 feet above the beach instead of almost level with the beach. The big earthquake is going to cause a tsunami that is higher than 100 feet. So what the hell? We should have stopped and taken some pictures. What are those planner people thinking?

There is actually tons of information on the internet. I'm going to read it all before I go to the beach again.

Which reminds me of my previous tsunami experience. In June 2005 I had to go to nasty ugly Coos Bay for work. I got there about 8:00 pm, checked into my motel, and went for a walk. Oddly enough, I headed up the hill to see if it was any better than the rest of the town. (It was, actually.) I got back to my room about 9:00 or so, and turned on the tv. I saw some brief thing on the news about a tsunami warning being over. So I looked on the internet, and figured out that there had been an earthquake off the coast a little before 8:00 which had generated a tsunami warning. If it had come, it would have hit Coos Bay while I was on my walk. But there was nothing to indicate there was any kind of warning. People were in their yards working, people out walking, kids in the park, cars driving all over, etc. No sirens. Nothing. No warning when I checked in to the motel. I guess my point is that nothing has improved since then, in spite of lots of money being spent. There is information available if you look for it, but the only thing there for tourists is the be afraid, be very afraid stuff.

I wonder what the tsunami warning system in Peru is like.

And the countertops are still "brick" colored. We are thinking of options.

Rich Turned 60 Today!

We are in Newport Oregon staying at the Sylvia Beach Hotel in the Willa Cather room, to celebrate Rich's 60th birthday. We drove up the Oregon coast today from Gold Beach where we stayed last night, after spending 3 nights in Eureka, California. El viejo loco looks pretty cute, huh? For being 60?

We had to play a game at dinner here to get to know the other guests, where you tell two truthful things and one lie. I am a much better liar - everyone at our table believed my lie (I have 5 children) but they didn't believe Rich's lie.

The Oregon Coast is weird - how you experience it kind of depends on the mood you are in, what the weather is like, etc. From reading stuff on the internet, it sounded like Brookings was sort of a cool place, and we planned to stay there last night, thinking we might be able to kayak a bit too. We ended up driving right through, after looking around a little. Totally sucked. Gold Beach was better, and as it was past 6:00 when we got there, we stayed there. But the most beautiful place was Port Orford, where we drove through this morning. Tiny town. One art gallery with wonderful stuff, and a fantastic beach.



Then we drove north, thinking we might stay in Florence. We stopped there, went to an overpriced la de da place for a late lunch. They had pretentious Numi tea, which has no flavor, and then they served us our overpriced shrimp louies with rotten lettuce. So we went and got ice cream cones and left town and came to Newport, which was a great decision.

Tomorrow we go home to see how our countertops are looking.

We also have been focusing a lot of attention on good thoughts for Amber. I even named one of my 3 extra pretend children after her.