the wall - update

too many zeros at the end of the estimate that our contractor quoted, and enough of them for us to know that we can't stretch right now to cover it....


Linda's first thought was.. ok.. now we get a deck sooner.

the wall

Linda and I have been musing over or not to rip out the wall that seperates our kitchen/dining from our living room. The wall currently has a door in it, but we are romper room living kind of kids. We also wouldn't have to yell as much to talk. bonus. Anyway, we have a designer coming out today to give us the lowdown on document production for the project. i am psyched. The sugery will give us a view from the olympic from our kithen counter. The fireplace will spread heat through the whole day-living space. The wall is load bearing so some considerations will have to be made... not sure what yet though.

heading down to hood river and portland this weekend for a wedding. leaving the hounds here with live in babysitter. gonna miss the girls. and i want to get more of a lid over my turtles today. the weather has just turned... 2 nights ago... and frost is coming soon.

Art is ready to pick up. We framed a xmas gift from Kathy and David and the wood block print that I picked up at the garage sale a few weeks ago.

Par-tay.

oh boy, did we ever. grills rolling, spirits flowing, embers glowing. uh huh. I don't know how we ended up with all these wonderful people in our lives, but we got'em. Last night was a good reminder of this.

We ate ribs, salmon, oysters, steak, burgers, hot dogs, veggie things, sweetpatooties and on and on and on. We used our new fire pot for the first time for a yard campfire. so nice. kids running around. dogs dodging feet and snaping up bits and pieces. at one point Joe busted lulu with her snout inches away from a rack of ribs.

good times. powers of the universe are shining.

pictures

Hippo birdy 2 ewes.

Linda's birthday. 4 years of the sweet sweet love.
We are going out to Matt's in the Market tonight, the site of our first real date.

good things:

1. New 3toed box turtle Daisy is installed in the the vivarium in the spare bedroom. She is a lettuce eater and has beautiful yellow coloring on her neck and legs.

2. great art scores last weekend = japanese wood block print and pair of eskimo carved spoons close to 80 years old with a whale on one and a shark like thing on the other. Both are endowed with sea mammal peckers.

3. Excited about our 2nd appointment with the fine folks at AXA.

4. Kathy and David bought linda a gorgeous print from the Davidson Gallery. I will post pictures soon. It is entitled, appropriately, the Whisky Princess.

5. Big bbq this weekend for linda, i got tons of shopping to do on friday and saturday. Oysters for the grill, wine for the cup.

That is all for now. Got to go wake up the birthday girl.

did i mention?

that i believe that bush & co. will burn in hell for all eternity for the evil they have wrought. the folks who have disassembled FEMA need to be held responsible.

the haps.

We have been upset lately. New Orleans drowning with the American government and president acting like a lifeguard on strike. Michael Moore sums it up nicely (via onegoodmove.org) over here. It is worse than incompetence. It is a willful destruction of the good parts of America. The founding fathers revolted against shit like this.

So I turn inward. I spent the entire labor day weekend so far building my outdoor box turtle enclosure. Some pictures are up at flickr. All our little shelled buddies seem to be loving the new digs. Digger, Dozer, Hank, Humpy and Tater all have made appearances. Many snails are being consumed.

Linda and I are coming up on our 4th Anniversary of being eachothers special somebody. Who would have thought the wind could blow us so hard? Do you know how it happened?

On Sept. 15th, 2001 the world was in kind of a funk because of the terrorist attacks in NY. It was linda's bday and she was going to make the best of it and go out dancing in Portland. I was interested in going but had a race that I had committed to on Quorum with Murray and Co. No wind. Race cancelled and now I have 2 dogs (1 who wants a walk right now at 3:30 in the morning) 2 cats, 5 turtles, and the best friend and wife that any man has ever had. I am in love and I swoon.

so bad things and good things. we are beginning discussion of bomb shelters and vacation homes.