So Pacific NW types...a friend of mine's heading to Portland and Seattle for a month and wants to know what to see/do. I suggested Powell's and Pike Place Market, respectively, but I don't know good restaurants or what have you. Help?

Powells is fantastic, obviously. I can send you some fun restaurant recs for various mood themes as well. We have tons of amazing gardens here because the rain has to count for something besides setting off my allergies like whoa. An entire day can be spent in the Hawthorne District. And the Pearl District too. Multnomah Falls is breathtaking. Mt. Hood is pretty as is the Hood River, a wee drive but if they are here for a month... And if they are here for that long, I would highly rec a trip out to the coast which is a couple hour long drive.

Man, I love this area.

Not one. Not two. But three. THREE dried puddles of urine in the floor this morning when I woke up with Olivia at quarter to five in the a.m. We let the dogs out before we went to bed at midnight.

Having aging pets just sucks.

Things will be better after coffee, yes?

skimmity skimmity skip

waves

So, now I want to see pictures of Jilli at The Ball - although I gather that the photos didn't do her justice. Stupid photos. t mememememememe

Meanwhile, I was sufficiently excited about New Hair (well, okay, and the school secretary told me off because I need to take a gazillion photos of my kids before the Yearbook goes to press, plus I'm going to India in a couple of weeks) that I went out and bought a new camera. A whole new camera! That is mine! This is very exciting.

As is the tried and trusted habit of people who have a new camera, I ran around my flat taking photos of - well, largely of me, actually. With slightly smudgy I-have-been-teaching-all-day-and-it's-32-degrees-celsius-in-the-shade remnants of makeup, and a haphazard assortment of tops. But there are also some pictures of the flat, which I'm trying to upload now. Slooooowly.

Anyway - LOOK! New hair!

Gorgeous haircut, Fay.

Things will be better after coffee, yes?

Yes. Unless you get my yesterday. I hope and pray you don't get my yesterday. The coffee pot didn't explode, did it? If it didn't, you should be safe. I think that was my curse. My coffee pot CURSED me. Evil coffee pot.

Fay, GORGEOUS! And lovely flat! I love that mirror. Also, I don't think I ever saw your F2F pictures before. I think I would have remembered Jilli in a bear hat. So cute! I added you as a friend in flickr. I am, surprise, surprise, vw bug.

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I ran into my neighbor, Angela, this morning. Now, it's been raining here, which makes the little creatures get very wet, even when it's no longer raining. Unfortunately, my little creature doesn't seem to understand that he's wet and shouldn't jump on my very nice elderly neighbors while wet and sandy. Fortunately, Angela is just lovely and loves little creatures, so it's all good. But, she walked off with little wet paw prints all over her.

She really cracks me up. She's probably around 80, walks everywhere, takes full care of a great big house, and sits in her living room people-watching much of the day, which is how she "knows" me and my patterns and knows exactly when I'm going to walk by so she can run out and chat.

Today she was kinda nosy, which was extra cute. She asked about school, then asked how I paid my rent (if my mother paid it...I think in her mind, I don't have a father :)). I said, no, I pay it. And she's all, "How?" I almost said that I was independently wealthy as a joke, but then I decided that was mean. So, I said the truth...student loans. She got the you-kids-these-days look on her face and walked away.

Then she turned around and reminded me that I might want to wash my hair today. Which made me laugh and laugh and laugh. I think she's taken me on as a project.

Fay's hair is as HOTTT as she is.

Conversation this morning with DH:

Me: "Did you give Mac her medication last night with dinner?"
DH: "No. I haven't given to her in a quite a while"
Me: "?!!"

A little bit later I explained that I cleaned 3 puddles of urine up off our living room floor, I asked him why he had stopped giving our aging, incontinent dog the medication that will prevent her from pissing in the floor. I had to calm down enough to not choke him to death.

His reply: "I don't know. I thought YOU'D stopped giving it to her, too."

Who stole my husband and replaced him with a 10 year old???

Oh, dear, Cash. That man. What are we gonna do with him?

He apologized but I just can't understand why he would just bail like that and not say anything. I was so upset this morning. I thought she was going in spite of us giving her medication. I was pondering for over two hours whether or not we'd have to euthanize her because of her age.

It's all the mathing. It's eaten his brain.