08-31-13

Big weekend plans?  Yep, to paint a duplex.  As a family.

We traveled around town today in our paint grubs.  Painted for a few hours, lunch break, paint for a few hours, ice cream break, decide it is way too hot, chill for the rest of the afternoon, dinner out, then back to work until dark.

Many hands and brushes and rollers makes light work.

08-30-13

Fall sports for the kids usually gear sup right about the time my busy planning season gears up.

So this evening I packed home my laptop for some weekend overtime, but also caught the last moments of Xander's tennis practice.

Happy Friday!

08-29-13

The bathroom project is done!  Well, mostly done.  The walls and ceilings need to be painted.  But we have downstairs shower again, halleluiah!  A whole week before school starts, even!

08-28-13

Amazing how many red Toyota Corollas we see since we got one.  But, haven't seen any other red Toyota Corollas with the family decals Star Wars style!

08/27/13

It rained on our block party, but at least after the first hour.

It’s been a year since we started knocking on doors and showing love and compassion to the block we adopted.  And this year more residents came out and broke bread with us.

See all the veggies in the food line?  Trying to spread better nutrition along with spreading love!

08-26-13

Rain!

But we have plans!  A block party tomorrow evening and exterior painting this weekend!

Yet, life goes on.  Including walking the lake in the rain.

08-25-13

Eli, Anastasia’s boyfriend, came over today for pizza and games.  Boy was he relieved to see meat on the pizza after trying to wrap his brain around flexitarianism.  He caught on quick to Settlers of Catan.  And I bowed out for Risk.

Another weekend winding down, time to wind up for yet another busy week!

08-24-13

Anastasia and I zoomed up to Seattle today to attend Chelsea’s garden themed wedding shower.  It’s been ages since I’ve been in West Seattle, very old stomping grounds…

Lovely shower, fun games, great cake, long chats with Anastasia, and about a month until the big day…

08-23-13

I had visions of getting the kids to help me plant flowers on the back fence (my herbs never grew!), reseed the lettuce and spinach, and reorganize the laundry room (and maybe the basement), but kept scaling down my plans as time got shorter and shorter.  So today we did a quick flower plant.

I was hoping to get some little zinnias, but they only had mums and pansies in the small pots.  The kids picked them out and had them shoved in their new homes in now time.  Entertaining spots of color…

08-22-13

Random still life.

Anastasia and I spent a few hours at the community college for orientation, and she got her ID and parking pass.

More chores for all of us, and a very long very peaceful sunset paddle board session.

08-21-13

Anastasia's only outing today was shopping for me.  I've put a temporary crimp in her social life.  Freeing up time to rinse dishes, read novels, and visit an open house about the WA Way bridge replacement.  Look closely- the background is the new bathroom tile.  Still need grout and sealant, among other things, but getting closer!

08-20-13

Three of us Fischer’s paddle boarded this afternoon, that would have been fun photos.

A bald eagle flew toward my car this morning about six feet above the highway, that would have been an awesome photo.

But I still thought to click an interesting photo.  Today was a Highlands day, and not dealing with the rentals.  Met with the police and tried to connect with the neighborhood association regarding the day of clean-up/dump runs in the works for next month.  And, my favorite low income area has a new mural on the side of the neighborhood grocery store.

08-19-13

There is tile in the bathroom!  It looks more off white than brown here, but happy so far.  Glad I was home this afternoon to clarify the design (Anastasia noticed the lines on the wall weren't right) and be entertained by our handyman (he doesn't put much faith in our designer or dual color scheme).  I also got some of Bruce's stuff and some of my stuff done with the extra hours.

Oh, and happy 18th birthday to Eva; how did that happen?!?!?

08-18-13

Look who made dinner!  These kids can be incredibly helpful when they want to be.  Discovering Xander likes grocery shopping but not dishes.  With Dad gone, tonight we had a meal he loathes - taco pasta salad.  Anastasia missed the rainbow rotini, can't pass anything whole wheat by her!

08-17-13

The early bird gets the worm.  The early jogger gets the wildlife sightings.  I normally take the lower path, but today I decided to stay on the higher path.  Good thing, I would not have wanted to be any closer to these raccoons!

It was a running all day kind of day, no trouble getting my 10,000 steps today…

08-16-13

When I was younger I used to shop a lot.  Now I can't seem to tolerate it for very long.  It seems like a  vicious cycle of looking all over the store for things, being disappointed with the selection, then waiting forever to check out.  Headed to Wal-mart tonight for some things I need for weekend plans.

TGIF!

08-15-13

When it rains, it pours.  Or sometimes when it rains it clears up and turns out to be OK.  Busy evening, busy week, lots going on.  Tonight we had the last summer concert at the lake, with our life group and Bruce's family.

08-14-13

Crazy day, especially for Bruce.  And no end in sight...

But, I got a nice respite from work and home hassles by taking a half day woods tour this morning.  I feel like belting out a Julie Andrews tune "the field are alive with the sound of logging..."

We could see so much on this hillside - in the very back a feller buncher harvesting trees (can't see), the red machine in the foreground is a tailhold (anchoring the lines), the yarder (mechanized, no choker setters), a loader moving the logs into decks, and another loader loading a company log truck.

08-13-13

We have three of our eight tenants living on the edge so to speak, but today we got hit out of the blue with a fourth.  All the neighbors but us knew that they couldn’t come up with rent so they moved out.  Leaving carpets full of pee, a fridge full of food, and this lovely ceiling with a hole and broken light fixture.  Time for Craigslist, cleaning supplies, and more head scratching…

08-12-13

The kids went to Mt St Helen's today, we went to Kalama.

Kalama was entirely a Northern Pacific railroad creation. It was unofficially born in May 1870 when the Northern Pacific railroad turned the first shovel of dirt. Northern Pacific built a dock, a sawmill, a car shop, a roundhouse, a turntable, hotels, a hospital, stores, homes.  It boasts a 140 foot tall totem pole, one of the tallest single-log totem poles.

We were there to walk barefoot in the sand.

08-11-13

Another day away from home.  Today up to Milton to visit with Aunt Gwen and cousin Mark from New York (and Boston).  The count got up to seventeen relatives for dinner, including meeting little Chase for the first time.

A and X have visited them in New York and they have come to Washington to visit many times, so it was fun to walk down memory lane and catch up on video games, sports, colleges, pets, TV shows, and how much all the kids have grown.

08-10-13

Long day.  Peaceful day.  Fun day.  Reflective day.

I got up and headed to the fair grounds to get set up for Relay for Life.  Participated in opening ceremonies, enjoyed an espresso, walked a lot of laps, visited with folks, gave blood and lifestyle data for cancer research, ate a lot of junk food, instigated putting Anastasia in jail, enjoyed our no vegetable team BBQ, and supported the Mr Relay cross dressers.

Too many people impacted by cancer, happy to do a small part to help fight it.

08-09-13

Bye bye bathtub!  The guys did demolition today, in preparation for the contractor coming to redo our bathroom.  Breaking up the cast iron tub with a sledge hammer had them both sweating buckets.  And so the adventure begins...

08-08-13

We met up with our small group tonight at the park to enjoy a eclectic picnic meal and play Frisbee Golf.  Bruce randomly marked posts and trees with yellow tape and we wandered around cheering and groaning.  Another lovely evening in the Pacific Northwest, even if the day started with rain.

08-07-13

Emergen-C, coming out my ears.

This year I started taking it once a week, more often if I started feeling sick, as part of my health goal.  Awhile back my naturopath suggested I take it daily.

That’s  a lot of Emergen-C!  Sometimes I drink it at work, sometimes at home, and sometimes Bruce blends it with fruit in his Ninja.

08-06-13

Happy National Night Out!  Did you see people in a puppy, squirrel, and McDuff the crime dog costumes today?!?  Barbara and I did!

We hosted an adopt-a-block booth at the park in the Highlands tonight, giving out info and wooden turtle tops.  Nice weather day for it and nice that the family popped in to visit.

08-05-13

Mondays can be as daunting as Fridays can be exciting.  At least the weather was wonderful today.  Chased the sunset around the lake in pursuit of a photo, here's a different perspective.

08-04-13

I don’t like Portland nearly as much as Seattle, but I gotta say I LOVE the food in Portland!  Bruce and I had a couples massage class in Portland and Xander got dropped off at Lloyds Center to shop, so the three of us ate at the Tin Shed Garden Café.

Bruce spied this entrée with all my favorite things – lentils, kale, sweet potato (in a curry sauce, served over rice) in a bed of fresh spinach topped with raisins, peanuts, and avocado.  Yum!  Bruce and Xander had appetizers – pork sliders, potato cakes, mac & cheese, and crostini with artichoke dip.

08/03/13

Xander and I spent a very long and fun day visiting G&G and Stacy and purchasing a plethora of shoes.  Stacy showed off her new swim skills and she and Xander tuckered themselves out in the pool.

08-02-13

The bathtub is in.  The tile is in.  The fixtures are purchased.  The contractor is scheduled.  We are on target to get our bathroom remodeled by Labor Day, just barely.  And to think, earlier we were slowing down the project so it wouldn't be happening during 4th of July!

Here's the guys muscling the tub into the house...

08-01-13

Back at the lake again.  My photo prompt today was Quintessential Summer, and what screams summer more than outdoor concerts in the park?!?  The Journey songs only held our interest for awhile, but it's a Thursday night tradition...