07-31-16

Sunday seems to be chore day.

7-30-16

Always seeking adventure, we went to Portland for a Pokemon event.  A pubcrawl.  We hit 3 of the stops, joining few hundred people.  It was fun to see the bars catering to the Pokemon crowds, with music, the Pokemon cartoons, and special Pokemon themed drinks.  Not our normal scene, we are getting old for sure...

07-29-16

Visited the county fair after dinner.  I always enjoy the plants in boots...

07-28-16

The theme of today is traffic.

Had a long meeting day at Oregon Garden, and another scorcher of a day, so didn't want to walk outdoors.

Headed home, but hit traffic after traffic.  Stopped for dinner in Multoma VIllage then stopped at Lloyds Center to walk indoors out of the heat.

Left Silverton at 4:30pm, arrived home at 8:30pm, yucko!

07-27-16

The theme of today is waterfalls.

I took a vacation day for us to head south to my Oregon Garden meeting.  We stopped at Tualitin, Woodburn, Silverton, and Silver Falls.

We had intended to do a 5+ mile loop trail, but it was hotter than heck, so we cut it a few miles short.  Still saw loads of waterfalls, including two we could hike behind.

07-26-16

Pretty views.  A little warm, but a nice breeze at the lake, so a-walking we do go...

07-25-16

No water, ran out while life overfloweth.  Funny how much you rely on cold water when it is hot and hot water to make oats in the morning.

07-24-16

We did plenty of fun things today, but one of the not so fun things Bruce tackled was pulling carpet from one of our vacant rentals.  Tenants insist on having small dogs, and small dogs like to wreck carpet... stinky!

07-23-16

Took plenty of photos today, but this is a favorite.  

As we wander around Portland, we are seeing these pianos that are marked "play me".  And people are.  This guy was particularly good, set a great mood for the Pokemon gather at Mt Tabor.

There was a fantastic view of the city that the photographer was trying to capture.  When I tried to get it all, the lighting wasn't right.  But I like this one with the forest, as we enjoyed all the shade as we hiked around in the heat.

07-22-16

TGIF!

Forgot to take photos of the family before they headed north again...

Took this photo to accompany y BiggerPockets blog post, a Friday tradition.  Ray sent big photos of all the damage from his standpoint at his moveout.

07-21-16

We have house guests.  Nieces and nephews.  Who love water!  Played in fountains all day in Portland, and the pool in the afternoon and evening.  Summer fun!

07-20-16

Took off work early to help with a messy themed kids event at church tonight.  I mixed a ton of colored shaving cream, the kids loved slipping on the Twister board.

07-19-16

Long one day trip to Springfield.  Spent some time looking at logs.

07-18-16

Happy anniversary to us!  Nothing special to celebrate, followed our normal routines, every day together is special in its own way.

07-17-16

Pokemon Go released to Canada today, so down went the servers again.  We saw this screen a lot today.  Walked Cathlamet anyway.

07-16-16

I gave these two big raccoons a wide berth on my morning jog.  They creep me out.

07-15-16

Headed to Vancouver this evening for a retirement party.  My boss of many years, Jennifer is now spending more time in her garden and on the golf course.

She was presented with a landscape photos with a log truck in it, and we wrote notes on the back of the frame.

The only thing that is constant is change...

07-14-16

Concerts at the lake draw an even bigger crowd that Pokemon Go!

07-13-16

Pokemon Go has officially been out for one week now.  And the enthusiasm has not let up.  The gyms are working better.  Still freeze up, but can usually get back in quickly.  

Today I hatched 3 eggs, took over a gym twice (solo!), caught my first Taurus (finally!), not level 19, and got a medal for catching my 500th Pokemon.  Playing casually.. the intense me would be installing a lucky egg and leveling and evolving Pokemon at the lake while trying to overhear play strategy and not stop until I hit level 20... :). 

07-12-16

Sean & Melissa, our Ingress friends, sell jam and jelly at the farmers market.  They specialize in unique flavors, their signature item is jelly flavored with the Mountain Dew line.  This orange marmalade is more my style, although I would like to try their coffee one...

07-11-16

No matter how disgusting Kraft dinner is, it is still what I want when I don't feel good.  Like today.  Barely handled work, came home and crawled in bed.  Bruce was kind enough to make (brand name) mac and cheese with peas... but no hot dogs!

07-10-16

Team Blue!  This is Samantha, who is team blue with us in Ingress, and is now also team blue with us in Pokemon Go.

Except it is not cool to use the colors, we have to use the actual names.  Team Mystic!

The game is getting press for being active, but it is too much standing around for my taste.  I can't throw pokeballs straight when I'm on the go...

07-09-16

We walked 11 miles on Saturday.  Mostly in Portland, mostly chasing Pokeman.  We caught a bunch, and also came across a Shakespeare play in the park and this musician in a small park.  New game, but same fun adventuring and time with Bruce!

07-08-16

Friday night we had a charity event to attend.  I saw it on Facebook, it looked like fun, so we invited friends.  The friend ended up in the hospital so we had to go solo.

They were selling mystery boxes for $20 to raise money.  Mine had a few hersheys kisses, we laughed at the cost per kiss as we enjoyed them.

I didn't realize that Salvation Army did so much more than Christmas red kettles in our community.

07-07-16

Xander turned skateboard dude.  When I asked him why he got it, he said because Ronnie got one.

07-06-16

Sorry Mom.  Sorry daughter.  Sorry friends.  Sorry to-do list.

Pokemon Go released in the US today, and we had some fun with it.  This was downtown, where we ran into other Pokemon players as we raced to claim gyms.

At least we did make it to Bible study!

07-05-16

What a difference a day makes!  The booths are down, the people are gone,t he trash is overflowing.  The trails aren't quite opened back up.  It's amazing how fast the lake gets back to normal, but the morning after really looks like the morning after.

07-04-16

Happy 4th of July!

Started with the parade, and enjoyed the lake from there.

07-03-16

I walked a mile or so today just by rushing back and forth on a 10 foot long path.

"Go, go, go!  Over the wall!  Through the tire!  Get low to the ground, army crawl, under the ropes!  Good job, keep your head down!"

Last year our church did carnival games for the free kids activities at Go Fourth.  This year it is a color blast obstacle course. Slap a white T-shirt on them, paint them up with patriotic war paint, pair them up, and throw colored powder at them as they negotiate the obstacles.  

The kids love it, and more entertaining for the volunteers too... *splat*!

07-02-16

The cardboard boat regatta is normally in the evening, we enjoy it over a picnic dinner.  This year they were able to have it in the daytime, we enjoyed it over a picnic lunch.  Outdoor temp in the 60's, water temp 42.  Plenty of sinkings to keep us entertained.

07-01-16

The calm before the storm.  The vendors are setting up for another busy Go Fourth festival.