Back to Home Improvement
Inspired by Chris and Chrissy's latest home improvements, I decided to tackle the only remaining surfaces on the 1st floor that we have not worked on.
Here's what it looked like when I started on Saturday afternoon:
This is the little hallway that leads from our living room to our bathroom and bedroom (door at the end of the hallway). Previously, on a wallpaper stripping rampage I had ripped off the top layer or two of wallpaper--it was a vinyl of some type that came off in gigantic swathes once you got hold of a corner. That was the easy part. When stripping wallpaper from all the other rooms on the first floor, we learned the value of a rented steamer for those stubborn papers from the 20s and 30s. Nate had to catch up on some stuff at work so I did most of it myself. It took me about five hours on Saturday afternoon to take off the remaining 2 layers of wallpaper.
Ideally I would have scrubbed the walls down right away while the wallpaper residue was still moist. However, I was too tired to do any more on Saturday.
On Sunday afternoon, between various other committments we managed to pull up the carpet. Before our home community came over Sunday evening, I pulled out most of the staples and the tack strips in the doorways. (Note to self: ALWAYS pull the tack strips in the doorways first! Remember all those holey socks you made for yourself in Mishawaka?) There's still more work to do, but I think it already looks a lot better. And, fortunately, we didn't find any nasties under the carpet like Chris and Chrissy did!
A "Free Dog" is Not Cheap
The other weekend when we went to Bend (and apparently made my friend Nathalie jealous), Keegan stayed with my co-teacher Stacey. Stacey is the proud owner of a supersized Black Lab that we lovingly call the Baileymonster. Bailey is inordinately fond of and enamored by Keegan so that he attempts repeated humpings of her. Fortunately, although she is significantly smaller than Bailey, she's faster than him and can usually get away from the unwanted attention.
But just once last weekend, she didn't get away fast enough and Bailey brought down all of his weight on her poor little toe on the back left side. At first we didn't think anything about her foot injury--dogs get hurt all the time and are remarkably resilient. But when she was still compulsively licking it a week later we took a better look at it. Her whole toenail/claw was cracked and smashed. So today Nate took her to the vet and they took the toenail off down to the quick so it can heal more cleanly. As we paid yet another unexpected vet bill, we thought about how this was probably just Keegan getting her cosmic payback for her treatment of the gentle River earlier this year.
But I do feel sorry for her. The poor thing looks so pathetic with her blue booty of a bandage on her foot and a big conehead to keep her from licking it. Good thing I'm a special ed. teacher because now I have a dog with an orthopedic impairment AND her learning disability is clearly revealing itself. She can't figure out how to manuever her giant conehead around the house. She gets stuck on doorways. She can't go up the stairs because she doesn't hold her head high enough and the cone catches on the steps. She can't figure out what's wrong so she just stares mournfully at me. Looks like I'll have to write an IEP for her. (ahh, special ed. humor....unfortunately, so few will ever appreciate it)
d
Portland's Best #1
Portland's Best: Tea Shop
We stopped by the Tao of Tea today for a little snack and to stock up on yummy tea. I am partial to Moroccan Mint, and I also bought a canister of Cranberry Orange tea to try. We had some excellent chai as well as samosas. It had been a long time since I'd had a chance to have Indian food and I just couldn't wait for the samosa to cool. The top of my mouth is burned raw, but, boy, was that worth it!
Run Away with Me...
Two single-minded people can disconnect from each other as they pursue their own goals and priorities. So sometimes they need to get away from all the distractions to have a moment to enjoy each other's companion and realign their trajectories. That's what we needed to do this past weekend so we went to Bend.
Bend is about 3 1/2 hours southeast of Portland on the other side of the Cascade Range. We headed out Saturday morning through the Santiam pass. It was a misty, moisty morning. We drove up through the Doug Firs and the brilliant aspen trees. There are few of the glowing reds of a Midwestern autumn, but the golds are resplendent against all the green.
As you pass through Santiam and start to descend on the east side, the rain and mist miraculously disappear and you are in piney woods and high desert. We stopped in Sisters which I can only describe to the Hoosiers who read this as "the Shipshewana of the West" complete with it's own annual quilt show. Instead of Amish horse and buggies though, the theme is cowboys and broncs.
I always start briefly when I see a guy in a cowboy hat or cowboy boots. Living in the Pacific Northwest doesn't seem like "The West" until you go east (if THAT makes any sense!). Bend is half cowtown, half ski bunny village. It reminded me a little of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We roamed around some shops and galleries in downtown Bend, and then had a lovely Portuguese-inspired dinner at Cafe Sintra. Nate had mussels and clams for an appetizer and a flank steak with portobello mushrooms. I had a Portuguese stew with white beans and shrimp and proscuitto and sausage and chicken. Yum! We stayed in a ski resort called the Inn of the Seventh Mountain. It's the off-season so we had a roomy suite at a discounted rate.
Sunday morning we slept in and had a fabulously good breakfast at the Alpenglow Cafe. I happen to love breakfast food. I think the Egg may be the One Perfect Food Given Unto Humans. I also happen to love the fact that eggs are pretty hard to screw up. Only the greasiest of greasy spoons can make them inedible. On the other hand, making supremely wonderful egg dishes is an art form and the Alpenglow has mastered it. Nate had the Eggs Benedict and I had Huevos Rancheros. Usually we share tastes of most of our food, but there was no sharing this meal. It was too good to sacrifice even a bite for your one true love. :)
We drove back to Portland through the northern pass up around Mount Hood. We returned a little more relaxed, a little more rested, and ready to face another intense week. Nate's multi-million condo project in San Jose, California, is beginning the "wrapping-up" stages so he expects to be quite busy the next two months. I'm back in the thick of being a learning specialist with all the daily crises that come with the job as well as the added benefits of teaching in a high-income, high-expectation community. But no more about that tonight.
-d
p.s. Nate posted some more pictures of our trip to Bend on Flickr.
treehugger post of the day....
two articles from recent issues of the Daily Grist email.
Cizik Matters
We Like Bike
Gas prices push U.S. bike sales to near-historic peak
Glory be: More bicycles than cars have been sold in the U.S. in the past 12 months. That's about 19 million bicycles -- nearing the 20 million sales peak during the early 1970s oil embargo -- and roughly $5 billion to $6 billion in business, according to the trade organization Bikes Belong. Though concern for the environment may factor into the two-wheeler surge, one bike-shop owner pins the new jones for cycling primarily on spiking gas prices. Sales of some auto brands, however, are holding high despite rising fuel costs: Hummers are on track for a year of record sales, thanks in part to the introduction of the H3, barely more mileage-conscious than the H2. The military-inspired vehicles project power, freedom, "and being able to go where I damn please," says auto industry researcher Wes Brown. "It's not just 'Let me by.' It's 'Get out of my way!'" If you're on one of those new bikes, watch out for Hummer-driving halfwits with a baseless sense of entitlement.
straight to the source: TerraDaily, Agence France-Presse, 02 Oct 2005
straight to the source: Houston Chronicle, David Kaplan, 01 Oct 2005
All in the family
It seems that blogs are cropping up in our family. Nate's brother Chris and his wife Chrissy are blogging about their new old house in Indianapolis, and Nate's cousin Melissa is blogging about life in Pennsylvania. I love being able to sneak a look into what is going on in their lives.
d
This is the little hallway that leads from our living room to our bathroom and bedroom (door at the end of the hallway). Previously, on a wallpaper stripping rampage I had ripped off the top layer or two of wallpaper--it was a vinyl of some type that came off in gigantic swathes once you got hold of a corner. That was the easy part. When stripping wallpaper from all the other rooms on the first floor, we learned the value of a rented steamer for those stubborn papers from the 20s and 30s. Nate had to catch up on some stuff at work so I did most of it myself. It took me about five hours on Saturday afternoon to take off the remaining 2 layers of wallpaper.
Ideally I would have scrubbed the walls down right away while the wallpaper residue was still moist. However, I was too tired to do any more on Saturday.
On Sunday afternoon, between various other committments we managed to pull up the carpet. Before our home community came over Sunday evening, I pulled out most of the staples and the tack strips in the doorways. (Note to self: ALWAYS pull the tack strips in the doorways first! Remember all those holey socks you made for yourself in Mishawaka?) There's still more work to do, but I think it already looks a lot better. And, fortunately, we didn't find any nasties under the carpet like Chris and Chrissy did!
