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.

Funny Coincidence on I-5

The past couple days Rich and I have been in Medford. I needed to be there for work, and Rich came along with me so we could then go to California for the weekend. Today, we left Medford and headed back on I-5 to Grant's Pass so we could cut over to Crescent City, California to get to our ultimate destination of McKinleyville by Eureka.

We were about 2 miles from our exit at Grant's Pass, and we got behind a whole bunch of slow trucks. We couldn't get over into the left lane to pass, because the cars in the left lane were coming really fast, and Rich commented on it. I was looking at the cars, and saw a little red BMW, with a license plate of 4444BDW. I was noting the 4444, and then I realized it was Blaine! So we finally got into the left lane and had to drive really fast to catch up with him and get next to him and honk and wave. He pulled off after us in Grant's Pass and we talked for awhile. He is moving back to Portland - bought a house. Has been up the last few weekends moving stuff, but is now on his way permanently. Pretty funny to see someone you know like that on the freeway in southern oregon!

Concrete Countertops

Last weekend we finally poured our kitchen countertops. They turned out good, except the color might be wrong. Supposed to be "wine", which hopefully looks good with our purple floors. But when we took them out of the molds on Wednesday, they looked "brick". So we'll see as they get drier.

Española New Mexico

We are in New Mexico for Matt & Tammy's wedding, which was last night and lovely. Spent today hanging out at Mike & Joannie's and then a wonderful dinner at Rancho di Chimayo. Tomorrow all day in Santa Fe. Buying tile for the kitchen.

The weather is absolutely perfect. There has been lots of rain this year, so everything is very green. Joannie's garden is beautiful. We went for a walk today up to what Mary calls the sand castles. I don't even have a picture of them - i'll take one tomorrow. This is Mike and Joannie in their back yard, a cactus, and the house from down below.

My Pet Goat

While Rich was taking a nap today, and I was in the kitchen making tomato sauce, there was a little knock on our door. It was our neighbor Laurie. I should know better than to answer the door when it is Laurie. But I did.

She wanted to know if we still had goats. I said no. She said do you want one? I said I didn't think so. But she went on to explain that some other neighbors from down the road a ways are moving, and they have this little goat they need to find a home for. They think it's a girl. It's over at Stan & Laurie's house. So I say, maybe. We just lost one of our sheep, and Plato is a little lonely.

So I go over and see it. Black. Cute. And the most endearing thing is, it has a collar and a leash. We could take it for walks. So I said "Sure!" And it didn't have a name already, so I get to name it.

So I bring it home, thinking Rich is still taking a nap and I could just slip it back into the field and see how long it took him to notice. But he was awake, and in the garage, so we didn't sneak past him.

Anyway, it is not a girl. And I named it the only name I possibly could, given what day it is, and our history with goats. George.

We named our other goats, that we got in 1993, Bill and Hillary. So it only seemed fitting to name this guy George. And it is the day before Sept. 11. What was George Bush doing on September 11? It all fits.

Plato is hiding in his house, and George is way in the back by the fence under the apple tree. I'm sure they'll get used to each other, and if not, I know someone who will take him.

Harvesting

This weekend, two more batches of tomato pasta sauce canned, more pesto in the freezer, and canning pickled beets right now. We have to do something with the apples too.

We didn't do the cement countertop pour because somehow we initially calculated wrong and didn't order enough material. Short by 1/2 cubic foot. So more is on order and we'll do it when it comes!

In Memorium: Aristotle the Sheep 1993 - 2006

Very sad - Aristotle passed away today. He was almost 14 years old. He has been happy and healthy, and just hadn't been eating as much in the last week or so, but still getting around. Plato called to me today when I got home from work to come back there, and Aristotle was laying in their yard. He was outside, which is good. He just died of a happy very old age. Plato is very sad. They have always been together.