Trudy (2000-2017)

I don't even know how to start writing this post, so I guess I will start with that Trudy passed away on Saturday, October 21st in the afternoon. Matt and I were with her as she made her exit from this life. To say that we are devastated, heartbroken and grieving would be an understatement. While we love all our pets, Trudy was tremendously special to us. She came to us so needy of love, attention and medical care. She had led such a difficult life before coming to our home, all we ever wanted to do was provide a safe, warm and comforting environment - full of blankets - for her. I think we were successful.

Hubby pointed out that my very first post on this blog was about Trudy. You can read it here. In it I mentioned that whether we had five days, five months or five years we would give her a life filled with love, kisses and lots of snuggles. We were blessed with 10 amazing years with our sweet girl and our home and our lives will never be the same. We are proud and honored to have been her "parents".

Hurricane Harvey

Dear Hurricane Harvey,

Thanks for ruining my vacation and shutting down the airports, thus not allowing my sister to leave. Luckily our hotel and rental car was fully refunded and our plane tickets can be used for a trip in the future. While this is a major, crippling disappointment to my sis and I, truly hoping that the folks of Texas and Louisiana stay safe through this one.

Teeny, Tiny House: Shed (Part 2)

About this time last month, Hubby ordered a dumpster and started dismantling the old shed. It took several long days and brute strength but Hubs got it demoed with very few problems. Surprisingly there weren't any critters underneath waiting for him as we had posited. The wisteria didn't survive the demo (he took some cuttings and is trying to replant elsewhere on the property) but we knew that going in. While it was a beautiful old plant, it lived right next to the well and both of us have been concerned about its root system so close to our only water source.

The well currently has a tarp over it and we are considering more permanent options which are more pleasing to the eye. To say that we are relieved to have this eye sore gone is an understatement. It is so much easier to pull the car out of the garage now. In addition, we already are able to see more wildlife. We witnessed our very first raccoon and it was ginormous -- hands-down bigger than Lily.

As an aside: Back when I was building wooden model airplanes I quickly learned that the project always goes smoother and less stressful when you have the right tool for the job. Ever since I have always supports Hubs in making tool purchases because I know how it feels to want to accomplish something and not having the tool that would make it easier. You can literally spend days trying to rig something that would normally take minutes with the right equipment. Hubs bought a sawzall for this project and he couldn't have done it with it. Ladies, take advice from an old married lady, don't give your man grief for buying tools!

 Before

During

After

Silly Schnauzers

Both Schnauzers had their birthdays in the past month. We are now officially a home full of geriatric animals. The youngest is, of course, Churro but she isn't technically ours as she is on loan from mom-in-law. Lily is now 13, Piper is 16 and Trudy is 17.

Our veterinarian decided suddenly to retire so I have spent most of today interviewing new vets and trying to find a kind and compassionate place to discuss end-of-life plans for Trudy. While we have little reason to think that Trudy is going anywhere, there are small signs each day that she is slowing down. She isn't as active, she is grumpier than normal, and her dementia is getting harder to manage. The reality is setting in that we need to prepare...

The other dogs have been quite patient and kind towards Trudy, considering her ailment. We all have our moments of reacting poorly but overall the other dogs look out for Trudy and try to help her or at least stay out of the way.

Sweet Lily

Trudy in the Springtime

Fighting over who gets the blanket

Boney little Trudy. This sweet girl just keeps hanging on.

Those back legs just aren't working the way they used to.

Piper likes to take a shower with me every morning, than sun herself afterwards.

She is a horribly, nasty cat but sometimes she can be adorable.

Can you believe she weighs 5 lbs? Tiniest old cat I have ever met.

Teeny, Tiny House: Shed (Part 1)

Continuing with the theme of getting outdoor projects completed, we have decided it is time to tear down that old, rickety, disgusting eye sore of a shed. Before we can do that, however, we have to find a place to store the items it contains. Hubs did a great job of weeding out what we needed and should keep and getting rid of the excess (including a bunch of stuff from the previous owners). The garage is already pretty well full, so we needed an alternative.

Since it was the 4th of July holiday, Home Depot had a good deal on a prefabricated 7 ft. X 7 ft. Rubbermaid shed. So we picked that up along with 64 (12x12) pavers and within two days -- voila -- the new shed was erected and the old one empty.

The new shed and its contents are located behind the house, instead of in front and within our chainlink fence for extra added security.

Next step is renting a dumpster and than demolition! I can't wait!

Teeny, Tiny House: Front Porch Deck

Since summer is officially upon us, Hubs has been working hard to get some outdoor projects done around the house while the rain is on sabbatical. 

It is hard to see in the first picture (from the original house listing) but there is what is supposed to be a planter space right below the kitchen window (the right hand window on the front of the house). The previous owners filled it with lava rock -- that should have been an indicator, in hindsight. Two summers ago, I excavated the planter and removed all the rock, thinking that we would actually use it as a planter but as I dug I just kept discovering more and more junk. It was like the previous owners used it as a trash heap of unwanted masonry and building materials. I found bricks and concrete, nails, pottery and river rock. It was just a mess, seemingly endless and truly not worth the time to dig it all out and try to start over.

The planter sat empty for over a year while we debated what to do with it and during that time Trudy developed dementia. More times than not, we would find her shivering and cowering in "the hole" because she couldn't figure out how to get out. Absolutely heartbreaking. So Hubs came up with a genius plan, to build a small deck which we could utilize and enjoy but also keep Trudy out of the hole.

The tiny deck only took one afternoon to build and solved a world of problems for us. We like it so much that we are thinking about making a similar one on the other side to match. It would take removing the Japanese Maple tree but I don't really like it's placement in the yard anyway, so it wouldn't be a huge loss.

Now I am on the hunt for an adorable, affordable patio set that is small enough to fit on our miniature deck!

The 90s are Alive in Portland

I made a new friend on the internet. I know, weird! 

This day in age it is far more likely to receive negative feedback or hateful speech than it is to meet someone kind. I met this new friend on Instagram. She runs a Game of Thrones themed account and favors many of the same characters that I do. We quickly struck up conversations in the comments sections of her posts when one day she asked if anyone would be interested in "beta" reading a Game of Thrones inspired story she was writing. She is from the Netherlands, is fluent in Dutch but also knows English quite well. She wanted to have someone proof read and make relevant grammar and punctuation changes to her story. I offered to take a look. We exchanged email addresses and the rest is history!

Each morning for the past week, I wake up to find an email from the Netherlands in my inbox. There is a 9 hour difference between she and I so typically I am asleep when she is awake and visa versa. Each night I sit down and write an email back, proof read her latest revision and mark up her story in red (she totally doesn't mind and is such a good sport about it).

Through this process she and I have discovered interesting cultural differences, strange English grammar/spelling rules and a few misnomers. For example, she thought we used the word "supper" because she heard it in a movie (and yes, I know some people do but not as widely as "dinner"). She didn't know that there are different uses for "to", "too" and "two". I find myself often explaining to her the difference between American English and UK English which is often accompanied by a spelling difference too. She soaks it all in, often puts a smiley face next to my comments and occasionally rants about the beautiful but strange language that is English. 

I was telling Hubs about my newest venture when he gave me an affectionate smile. I questioned him why and he said that what I was experiencing was what the internet was meant to be in its purest form. That it reminded him of the 1990s when we were excited to read email because it wasn't work or bill-related. That two people - on opposite sides of the world - find a common interest, trade ideas and thoughts, and are both better for having had the exchange. His epiphany hit me immediately! He is right, the excitement and happiness I experience each day exchanging emails with my new pen pal is exactly what the internet felt like back in its infancy, before all the vitriol, anger and anonymity. 

In many ways 2017 is a better, more progressive and advanced place to live but for now -- I am going to savor the simpler days and enjoy my few moments of living in the innocence of the 1990s again -- while talking to my Dutch friend about boobs and dragons.

If you get the tv reference of this post title, than bravo to you! You are a rockstar!

Teeny, Tiny House: Firewood Shed

One infuriating thing about having neighbors, even when they are 1 acre away is that they can do things to their home, property, or land that can adversely affect your house or lifestyle. In our case, our fairly new next door neighbor decided to clear his land of almost all vegetation. Cutting down trees, clearing underbrush and chopping down bushes. Hubs and I prefer a more natural approach to our land. In Oregon, there is no sense in fighting nature, it will grow as it wishes so best just to enjoy it. Our neighbor has decided on the more hair-pulling approach and good luck to him. The downfall for us is that now we see his house, we see his cars, we see his shed, we just see him and the point of living outside of town is not hear or see each other, if possible. Hubs came up with an inventive solution. Build a firewood shed (which we desperately needed anyway) in the line of sight of his house so that we can block the view. In the future, maybe we can plant some additional foliage behind the shed to further create a barrier between them and us.

The frame of the shed went up around Valentine's Day.

It has been terribly rainy (more so than usual) so Hubs has had to work on it slowly on weekends where there is little or no rain which took until April to achieve.

Do you see our neighbor's shed?? Why? I mean just...why live on land if you are just going to chop it all down?

The old shed that is an eye sore, and frankly probably should be condemned, will be coming down this summer. It is ugly, it is home to a host of animals and insects and it makes pulling the Challenger out of the garage a headache. We cannot wait for it to be gone!

 I took this picture today, notice how beautiful and sunny it is! The flowers are finally blooming, the grass is that insane green color and the trees are getting leaves. I love spring so much!

The shed trim isn't completed yet and we still need to paint the exterior but having a place to store and season the firewood will ensure that we don't have another winter of wet, unusable wood.

The shed should hold about 5 cords of wood which is more than we should need in one winter.

You know what the most amazing thing to me is? Hubs build this out of his brain using a picture. No plans, no schematics, no dimensions, just *poof* out of his brain. Plus, he had no help (not even from me), built the whole thing with his own two hands. I am terribly impressed.

This photo was taken as if you were driving up the driveway. Can you imagine how wonderful the yard will look without that disgusting shed? I can't wait! 

Game of Thrones In Concert (includes video)

For my birthday, which passed back in March, my sister bought me two tickets to the Game of Thrones concert at the Moda Center here in Portland. I knew it was coming to town and wanted to attend it with my girlfriend Brandi but Hubs kept telling me to hold off buying tickets. I started to quickly suspect that he had something up his sleeve but was very much surprised to find that it was my sister who had splurged on tickets.

On the night of the event, Brandi and I went out to dinner, wearing our finest GoT geeky apparel; her in a shirt which said "That's what I do, I drink and I know things" (which is even funnier because she owns a wine business) and I in my Hound helm shirt. We arrived at the Moda Center right on time, found a parking space ridiculously close to the venue, found our seats astoundingly fast and even indulged in some beverages before the show.

The show itself was incredible! Hubs and I had attended Star Wars in Concert back before moving to Oregon but they have really upped their game in the past 6+ years. This was an entirely new experience which included several stages, lights, video and even fire. There was a live orchestra and choir which performed the music from the show, conducted by the composer himself Ramin Djawadi. I cannot say enough amazing things about this experience! If you ever have an opportunity to attend something similar, I highly recommend it. One downside to the Moda Center is that they did not have a space where they could set up costumes and props from the show for public viewing like in other cities. That would have just been icing on the cake to have been able to see those as well.

Battle of the Bastards

Wizard World 2017

When I went to Texas over the summer, my sis and I attended a Wizard World convention (you can read more about that here). Simply by accident and at the very last minute, I realized that Wizard World was coming to Portland, so Hubs Man and I took a day to ourselves and went "con-ing".

The first person we saw was Tatiana Maslany from Orphan Black.

I don't watch the show, but Hubs has been watching it and thinks it is pretty good.

Second was Alan Tudyk. You probably know him from Firefly but he was also K2SO in the new Star Wars Rogue One movie. He was brilliantly funny and brought "gifts" for the people who asked him questions. The best "gift" was a broken clock from his house (but at least he signed it).

The highlight of our day, no doubt, was meeting Jon (Larry Wilcox) and Ponch (Erik Estrada) from the tv show CHiPS. Both Hubs and I have fond memories of CHiPS from our childhoods. One of the earliest photos my parents have is of me standing in front of the TV watching CHiPS. They said that I would come screaming into the living room, regardless of what I was doing, when I heard the CHiPS theme music. 

When it came time for me to get a "big wheels", I refused the pink powder puff cycle with pastel tassels on the handle bars, I wanted a CHiPS cycle. So my parents got me one just like the one above for $19.99. I rode the wheels off that thing! Gosh, I wish I had the actual photos from when I was a wee tot.

Immediately after taking group photos there was a 45 minute Q&A session. It is truly rare to meet people you admired in your youth, it is even more rare for them to not disappoint you! This was their first convention appearance together and it was refreshing to see/meet guests who haven't been jaded by the convention circuit. They were funny, entertaining, honest and truly grateful to be there and meeting the fans. Both had great stories from the CHiPS days as well as stories from their lives, both professional and personal. I cannot express enough how much I enjoyed meeting them!

Overall, Wizard World is a smaller convention than we are used to. Much smaller than the conventions in Las Vegas, by far, but even smaller than the Rose City Comic Con in September. At first we thought that would be a drawback, but honestly, the smaller size made it easier to navigate and much more personal with the guests. It was easy to find seats and navigating the food/beverage/vendor area was fairly simple. I am already looking forward to Wizard World 2018!

We are still Arizonans Living in Oregon

5 years into living in Oregon and we discover, occasionally, that we aren't as prepared for inclement weather as we think. A cold arctic blast hit our area right before Christmas and we were trapped in our house for 5 days. While we had food, power, heat and water (the most important stuff), we weren't able to leave our house for work or pleasure. The driveway was treacherously slick with snow and ice, we didn't have a snow shovel and our cars didn't have chains. Even if we could get down our hill, there was no getting out of our neighborhood or onto the country road that leads to civilization. By no means is this the worst snow we have seen or even the deepest, but it stuck around the longest with below freezing temperatures. We are bracing for another cold blast on Sunday and perhaps another week indoors. We have a snow shovel and chains now, though!

Update:

That second cold blast of arctic air hit us just as predicted and this one was a doozy! Portland reported about 12-14 inches of snow. Our town got about 4 inches. The entire northwestern corner of Oregon shut down for 7 days. No going to work, no trash pickup, no mail...just nothing...for 7 days. Chains didn't help and the snow shovel didn't matter as the temperatures never rose above freezing. Hubs worked from home. I read, watched movies and tv,  and played video games but when I got a chance to leave the house yesterday after an entire week at home, it was glorious! There is something about "forced" couch surfing that isn't nearly as fun as choosing to couch surf. All the girls were troopers and did pretty well through it all. Our only issue now is that our reserve of firewood is almost gone. This epically cold winter caused us to burn through more of it than we ever expected, plus half of it got rained on unexpectedly during a storm, so that half won't be available until next winter. It will be a chilly few months in our house until spring as we must rely solely on baseboard heating now (yuck)!

I thought this was a bad afternoon...

...until this happened! She had cabin fever just like the rest of us.