Well just look at us!
I love this picture. It was taken in Portland while visiting friends in 1999 or 2000. We were living in Bend at the time. Jim and Kem were the friends we were visiting and we always had such a fun time with them whether they came to our home or we went to theirs. Jim and my hubby had been friends for quite a number of years before I came on the scene. But we all fit like pieces in a puzzle. The day this photo was taken we had all been to downtown Portland. We took the Max and went to a pool hall a big one and played pool for a couple of hours and had brews. Then we went to the White Elephant restaurant I think it was called. An old establishment with an bizarre flair. All of this was near the river in downtown. I remember Jim ordered oysters on the half shell with some sort of sauce off to the side for an appetizer. Oh I dislike oysters but I went along and had one. I more or less gulped it down and almost choked when it slid down my throat.
The rest of meal was wonderful in this unusual but totally Portlanda style restaurant. Then we rode the Max back to Kem and Jim's and walked to their home from the Max station it was not that far. A really fun weekend and good memories.
Kem and Jim moved to the small town of Elgin in eastern Oregon. We had plans to go see them but it is a long way from here and we never seemed to have the window of time it required to make the trip worthwhile. We miss them. We call on the holidays.
I am off this morning for my grocery shopping and banking. Then home to water yards and work in the office for a while to do a little catch up.
Tonight for dinner I am making an old favorite of ours. It is sausage polenta casserole. I will take a photo this evening and post the recipe tomorrow. I think I may have posted it before but if so it was years ago. I love this casserole as it is juicy with peppers and zucchini and onions and I can use our homemade roasted tomato sauce.
I am going to buzz off now as there is much to do this morning and I want to be out of the house before ten.
Have a good day it is so pretty here I am "loving it"!
This is my first selfie. Look at the size of the camera no cell phone photo for this gal.
I took this last summer looking into the hallway mirror.
Did you know that selfie is now in the dictionary? Seriously.
I have spent the morning with Comcast. A tech was here for over three hours. We upgraded our dvr's so that envolved other things needing upgraded as well so all is compatible. Good grief my whole morning was shot. And who knows if I will ever be able to operate the new remote. The entire format on our cable is now different. I am a dummy when it comes to technology and truthfully I think most folks my age are. My children even though are both in their fifties now are both quite good with all the new technology and of course my grandkids have lived their lives immersed in it.
Hubby and I have yet to get our new phones. We were going to do that some months ago but as you can it is not a priority. But when we do we will more than likely get some kind of smart phone or we will be considered as obsolete as our phones.
I am fixing Asian fare this evening in my kitchen. I do not make Asian food that often as I am not comfortable making it. I usually do not have the needed seasonings and condiments on hand. This evenings meal is a quite simple one. It is sirloin steak marinated in soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil and a couple other ingredients. Then sliced and fried hot in a black iron skillet to med-rare. Then an array of veggies are quickly fried, and then a sauce is made from the marinade and thickened and all is put together and served over rice with a scattering of scallions. Quite simple but it sounds like something I would enjoy. I will share the recipe if it something I will make again.
I stayed as busy as I could while the tech guy was here. So the house is tidy and office chores completed for the day. I have made my menu and grocery list out for tomorrow. So all that leaves me to attend to is cleaning the inside of our pick-up. I have pulled it up into the driveway so I can vacuum it out then I need to Armor All the dash and sounding areas and clean the windows. Cleaning rigs is a chore I really do not mind if the weather is not cold. It was gray this morning but the sun is out now so it is pleasant outdoors.
Well I am needing some fuel in this old body have not had a thing but a bowl of Cheerios this morning. I think I may have a little leftover salad and add a semi hard boiled egg to the top of it. That would make quite a nice lunch.
Later.
This is my daughters lovely dining room top and a partial view of her kitchen and nook area. The nook table was her dining table when the children were at home. She keeps this table as it has so many joyful memories for her.
I am showing these photos as she does and always have done such a great job of decorating. She just has the touch so it appears as if I passed something along in the gene pool. However I wish my house was always as clean as Gina's. And the older I get the more lax I become with house keeping. From the time Gina was small she kept her room immaculate, plus she helped me with housework and occasionally dug into her brothers wreck of a bedroom and cleaned it. What a cleaner she is.
She loves their new place for the location in the Oregon City area with a lot of eateries and shopping and almost everything you would ever need nearby. The neighborhood is quiet and all the houses and grounds are maintained so well.
I power walked this morning. I made my thirty minute route in twenty minutes. I think the caffeine kicked in as I was walking. So the walk is over the house is tidy and now on to some deep cleaning. My husband will be home early afternoon today as he is finished a floor and is now installing the base boards. A lot of the time he has to remove the base and reattach it or sometimes he installs totally new base as he is doing today. Then tomorrow early is off again on a new job of refinishing red oak hardwood flooring. After this job is completed we are off to the coast for a few days. That makes me smile :)
We have signed a new contract with Comcast once more. When one contract ends we negotiate for a better plan. This time we are paying almost thirty dollars less for all of the premiums channels as well as every sports channel available. It was funny last evening as we had hundreds of movies to choose from and we could not find one we agreed upon.
This is the only incompatibility we have in our marriage and it has always been so since the day we met. We do not like the same kinds of movies. Now hubby will watch movies without me during the afternoon or early evening when he is not working and that is fine by me as I love reading. But I never a watch a movie without him as I never have the TV on during the day. So after dinner I like to find a movie to watch together well believe me this is no easy task. So what we invariably do is compromise with one another and watch something neither of us like! What a nightmare this is sometimes. So last night I watched something mediocre and he went to sleep which is typical. I love watching a good film and have missed some award winning films because we cannot agree. So a little snag there that will probably never be worked out unless I am willing to watch the television during the day, which I am not.
Well I must get some bathroom throw rugs into the washer and get on with some drudgery chores.
Have a good Tuesday.
Ciao.
I just got home and had a bite to eat. What a busy morning. I was at the insurance agents office at nine this morning. Then on to have the oil changed in my rig then to Trader Joe's for three very full bags of groceries. Now all is stashed away and I will not need much at Freddie's on Thursday.
It is very pretty day here. The sun is bright sitting in it's field of blue. There is a warm breeze the chimes are softly tinkling. I will walk when this post is finished and then clean the deck this afternoon. Hopefully the wind will not pick up and I can do my spray painting of garden and lawn decor.
We are dining on grilled chops this evening with Soyaki sauce. This is a staple I buy at Trader Joe's and I have been without it for a while now and have so missed it. While the chops grill I brush this sauce on every time I turn them. It is a dark brown glaze with terriyaki, toasted sesame seeds, ginger, garlic and other tasty ingredients. Sides of sticky rice and green beans will complete the dish.
Well the day is just to beautiful to sit at the computer. I must get out and smell the late spring air and see what my walk has to offer today. Every day is different.
Hope your having a nice day.
I may have posted this photo before but it is gorgeous so I cannot help but post it again.
We will have our vacation in this area come July. We are very excited to spend time with my son on his property and take drives to places like this.
Mike my son spends a lot of time fishing the Little Deschutes as pictured above and also the Big Decshutes. It is going to be a working vacation for my husband as he will be refinishing floors in a home in Sunriver. We will be there six days and three of those days he will be working. That will give my son and I a few days together which is nice.
We have morning clouds this morning. Not that I mind I feel relaxed and content this morning. I love Sunday's for the simple reason I never feel pushed to do a thing. I will walk today and do simple house chores and I need to get my paperwork together for our new insurance agent as I have an appointment with him at nine tomorrow morning.
Our dinner last night was perfect for what we were craving. We had mac and cheese with a big salad with my Russian dressing. A very satisfying meal as neither of us wanted meat. Tonight we will have the remnants of last nights meal but with the addition of a small chicken fried steak.
Well there is not much to say so I will go take a shower and lace up those walking shoes and get my walk out of the way.
I think today I will laze away the day in the quiet house reading. Ah sounds quite appealing.
Have a super Sunday.
I had such a great visit with my son this morning. We were on the phone for well over an hour. Oh how we can chat. We talk about everyone and everything from cooking to fishing to house cleaning and wine selections.
This photo was taken a fews years ago at Belknap Hot springs. Many of my family gathered there in the hotel and on the river in RV's. A great time was had by all. We soaked in the hot pools, walked on the many trails, rode mountain bikes roasted wieners and had campfire at night. We need to do that again.
It is such a wonderful morning. I have just come in from watering my flowers and herbs. There is no breeze today and all is quiet outside. Only the jays are chattering away. Yes the the pair is still here we saw them yesterday afternoon. I am so thankful for that but regardless a bird lost to a cat is still a bird lost and it saddens me.
We had a great day yesterday a play day of sorts. Though hubby did work around here yesterday before we left for lunch. We had good mexican fare and a couple of beers and came home to sit on the deck in the sun. I looked at my newest magazines as we chatted away. It is hard for me to sit still without my hands doing something. So usually I am looking through magazines or working puzzles.
When the sun left the deck late afternoon we sat on our little sidewalk adjacent to the back yard. The sun is there until it goes behind the arborvitae late in the day. When the sun was no more we came in and played a game of golf on the Wii. We always enjoy that. Hubby was happy he got an eagle. I did not play too well we tied at 1 under par. Not bad but considering my record 8 under par and hubby's is 9 under par the 1 under was not good. Maybe too much wine in the sun for accurate play.
So today is mine to do as I choose. Lovely! However I have no plan. I may extend my walk and because it not windy today I should do some spray painting on my decor items for the yards and garden. I have a couple of birdhouses I paint each year and my milk can and few other metal items an old lantern and a sunflower. They are so bright and cheery after being painted anew.
For dinner this evening I have one thought in mind. I thought a nice salad made with crispy romaine hearts, black olives, artichoke hearts and red onion, dressed with my mother's Russian dressing. I have not made this dressing for quite some time and my husband is a fan so he will be pleased. But what to serve with it. Maybe a couple of grilled pork chops or perhaps mac and cheese. I need to see what I am feeling hungry for right now the mac and cheese seem to please. Hmm a poet perhaps?
So I am going to go and enjoy this awesome spring day. I hope you are having a lovely day as well.
I think it is a sad state of affairs when I look on FB and a friend has posted a photo of a blue jay that has been torn from end to end and beheaded with it's organs strewn about. It all came about because her cat killed the bird and she posted the photo and a very tasteless comment trying to be humorous. Good Lord. This is the not the first time she has done this. Now I just had to comment back, I felt it my duty to say my piece and stand up for the birds. So I let her know how sad this was and to post a photo was not a good thing to do. Also I mentioned that household cats kills hundreds of thousands birds each year and many bird species are dwindling in numbers due to cats.
I only hope that the mutilated bird I saw posted is not one of the pair that we have here at our house. There have been the pair for the past two years. And we are quite sure they have a nest with babies at the moment. We love them in our neighborhood. Dee our neighbor feeds them so they spend time in our trees and on deck also. They are always chatting it up big time. I will have to watch and see if there are still two. We only live four houses away from the murder scene. Yes it is murder, domestic cats do not normally eat what they kill it is just their instinct to hunt and the thrill of the kill and usually in a cruel manner.
I will say seeing that photo has quite upset me this morning. I so love wildlife and enjoy watching and listening to them. It is very sad that some folks are so callous and indifferent to the death of a living creature.
My husband had a doctors appointment today for a physical. He is home now mowing lawns and catching up on a few things outdoors. Then we are off to lunch. We are going for Mexican food so I will not need to make dinner this evening as the portions are large so we will bring food home. We will spend the afternoon on the deck and I will watch for the two birds. Oh how I hope they are still together.
It is pretty today with some clouds but it is breezy once again. We are moving into a summer mode now you can see the lawns are not quite as lush green and overall the foliage is slowly fading.
Did I mention I am switching all of our insurance except our business insurance to Safeco. We have Farmers now and have had them for over thirty years. Safeco came in cheaper than anyone and with two and half more times more liability coverage than Farmers. So all should be done in a few days. The savings is right under $1200.00 a month. That fact is just amazing to me. I have heard that if you are with a company for a long time there are no kudos for doing so. In fact our insurance has gradually been going up each year. With clean driving records and no accidents go figure that one out! Well we are through with Farmers......yeah! I am a happy woman anytime I can save us dollars.
Well I will go and put myself together for my lunch date with hubby. I always so enjoy our time together. We are so lucky we found one another in this lifetime.
Have a good day.
