I'm Opie, and I Approve this Message

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Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Last night we took a break from our torn up house and headed down to the White Salmon Library for an hour of Woody Guthrie music presented by The Wanderers. What a treat! The room was packed, SRO. We got the last seats.

Carl Allen and Bill Murlin specialize in the Columbia River songs written by Guthrie when he was in Portland in May 1941. Their program includes quotes, anecdotes, and little known songs. Allen does a first person presentation of Guthrie, including a Q and A session at the end. Very entertaining.

Wednesday night we went to a geology talk and slide show on the Ice Age Floods. Lloyd picked up Bruce Bjornstad's new book On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods: A Geological Field Guide to teh Mid Columbia Basin at the book signing. Now we can do an Ice Age Floods road trip.

Plenty to do in this little town. Lovin' it.

Time to GOTV!

I voted today. We are lucky. We get to mail in our ballots.

My friends in Texas can vote now, too, and early voting is crazzzzy busy! That's a good thing, because the lines are WAY too long on Election Day and those stupid dialing gizmos take a long time to use per voter.

So GO VOTE NOW, if you can. Let's just get it done.

Good Bye Big Blue

Big Blue is gone. In its place is the new Silestone. Joe the Carpenter made a great new corner cabinet next to the stove.


Joe also extended the cabinet under what used to be a bar. Doors coming tomorrow.


Brindle thinks it looks pretty good from where she sits.


Now if we could just keep from putting stuff ON it...

Harvest Day

As promised, here are a couple of pictures from Harvest Day. I had more from the 'after party' but the didn't come out very well. Too much movement, too little light. For more pictures, check out Joel's blog.

Edith sampling the goods:



Bill working away (trying to get done before the LSU game).


We dumped the yellow bins into the big white bins. Then Employee of the Month Runner Up Ryan came with the forklift and took them away to the press.

Thanks for a Great Season

It was a terrific ride, right up to the bitter end. I never thought the Sox would get this far, seriously. It's been a long season of constant injuries, and people playing all over the field to fill in the gaps. But somehow they found a way to win. But as in all good playoffs, someone's season ends after seven games have been played. I'll miss texting Jill, IMing the kids, and calling Karen during games. All good things must come to an end. I can see Jill now, packing up the shrine for another year. Now she can use her Halloween decorations!

Congrats to Tampa Bay on their first World Series bid! Maybe now they will be able to generate enough new fans so they won't have to use all those cowbells to drown out the Red Sox Nation that shows up at their stadium.

Now all you Red Sox, go home relax, and repair your bodies for spring training!!!!!!

A Well Placed Apostrophe

Thanks for passing this along, Janet. It made my day.

Playing Catch Up

Remodeling makes it difficult to keep up with the old blog.

Obviously things went well in Boston on Thursday. They owe it all to Keara. Her first game at Fenway, back in spring of 2005, Varitek hit the winning 2 run homer in late innings. Her second game, in spring on 2008, they came from behind and won in late innings. Her third game was Lester's no hitter in May. So it stands to reason they should come from behind, 7-0, to win.

Since then, we've gotten our new counters. Small set back, the new sink has a crack and needs replacing. We took care of that today, ordered another, to arrive in a week. We'll use the cracked one until then so I don't have to wash dishes in the tub anymore. The counters look great, and we held an internment ceremony for 'Big Blue' as we dumped pieces of it into the trash trailer. Right after all the contractors left, Edie and Bill arrived from Bend, followed in short order by Mary and Syd. Not being in dinner party mode, we headed to Everybody's Brewing for dinner.

Saturday was Harvest Day at Wind River Cellars. We worked from 10 to 5, picking reisling grapes, while Mary and Syd went to the swim meet in Hood River. I personally picked 16 bins of grapes. Joel had the TV on in the wine cellar, so we alternated between the baseball game and the LSU game (Bill was happy about that). Both the Sox and LSU won, the lasagna was great (catered by Hooba), so was the wine, and Edith won TWO raffle prizes: a T-shirt and Elk Pellets (chocolate). Andrew proposed to 'turf girl' in the vineyards. It was an eventful day.

We were WAY too tired to watch Sarah Palin on SNL. I watched today online. The opening sketch was okay. I'll give it that much. But the weekend update segment where Amy Poehler does the Sarah Palin Rap...oh my. Did Palin even realize what the heck was going on???? TOO FUNNY! It was a 'gotcha' for 'you betcha'. Watch for yourself:


Today was Home Depot day (again).

Check back later for pictures from the last few days. Not enough energy to download the camera tonight.

And now it's time to watch more baseball. One team will be done tonight. I love the playoffs. No matter who wins.

A Bad Sign

AS IF things at Fenway weren't bad enough, today there was a fire on the landmark Citgo sign, which looms over the horizon past the Green Monster. Yikes. Must be the end of days. We'd better all move to Alaska...


Things should look up for the Sox tomorrow...my special emissary (No. 1 daughter) will be at the Pahk. It's Must Win time.

BTW: GO PHILLIES!

Crop the Vote!

Greg Hughes was on his way back to Twin Oaks Airport in a rural area southwest of Portland at the end of his flying lesson yesterday. He and his flight instructor saw an interesting crop circle from about 1,000 feet:



Thanks to Baggenstos Farms for their Get Out The Vote efforts!

Second Story Men

Today was not a good day to play baseball in Boston, at least for the Red Sox. Maybe Wakefield will have better luck tomorrow.

It WAS a good day to put in a new sliding door to the deck, and two upstairs windows. And for the stock market. Finally.

Good News, Bad News

I'll start with the good news.

It's a beautiful sunny Saturday. There's a lot of new snow on the mountain.


SOX ROCK! If you missed last night's game, tune in tonight. It will probably be another nail biter. I love the playoffs. Check out Jacoby Ellsbury's post season blog. This kid can write, too.

More Good News: Phillies won again. Not that I don't want to see the Dodgers and Red Sox possibly go at it in the World Series. Great Drama. Manny vs the old team. But I don't want to see it while the Sox are still paying Manny's salary.

Even more good news: we got all six windows on our southwesterly facing side of the house in place yesterday. It was 28 degrees on the deck this morning. It's toasty in here now.

Here, Matt and Lloyd start removing the old windows:

Excellent airconditioning, with outdoor temps in the 50's. Fortunately, it was not windy or rainy.


In with the new, all by 3:30 pm. Matt gets 'early release' for a job well done.



The bad news? Still trying to keep my husband from jumping off the deck. Good thing he's been occupied with remodeling, and not checking the computer. Thanks Mike Luckovich.

Mrs. That One

Did everyone see Michelle Obama on The Daily Show last night?

I hear she was excellent on Larry King, as well, but I don't watch Larry. She's impressed me. And I was a hard sell on Obama during the primary. She also said some really nice things about Hillary Clinton in the Larry King interview, as told in this CNN write up:

"Are you happy with the way she's supporting your husband?" King asked.

"She has been phenomenal. ...She has always been just cordial and open. I've called her, I've talked to her. She's given me advice about the kids," Obama said.

"We've talked at length about this kind of stuff -- how you feel, how you react. She has been amazing. She is a real pro and a woman with character."

I feel really good about this woman being in close proximity to the Oval Office.

Progress Report

Apologies to the gang, I didn't make it to lunch today. It was a very busy day at the homestead. We had John the electrician here, Pete and Terry-the counter guys, and the usual cast of characters (Terry and Matt, who have been on the job a week now).

Last week, team Terry and Matt built a temp wall so we could stay in our bedroom at night and still breath, keeping a lot of the dust at bay (there's still plenty of dust).The last few days we have seen our first floor bathrooms and laundry room disappear, leaving behind studs and holes in the floor.

Windows going away, then coming back in the form of new vinyl energy conserving ones.The blue formica countertop cut into sections and removed so the new one could be templated.

I never thought I'd miss Big Blue so much, but a kitchen without counters is like.. heck, skip the simile, it's USELESS! There will be much eating out in the next week or so.
Now there is a gaping hole in the living room wall where a new picture window is going.

Did I tell you it was in the 30's last night? That there is new snow on Hood and Adams???

I've been knitting Lloyd an icelandic sweater in the evenings. Got a lot done last night with the debate and all. It's nearly finished. I've proudly broken the 5 year sweater jinx. I knew it was all those hot places I was living. They are not conducive to knitting with wool. Photo soon, upon completion.

Next Stop: Tampa Bay

It was a WILD wild card night in Boston. Down to the ninth inning, tied AGAIN. But this time Boston emerges victorious. Thank God. I was ready to call up Francona myself and ask why exactly did you take out Lester? But they pulled through. Whew. Sorry Angels, better luck next year. Kinda sucks when you had the best record in baseball this year. Thanks for the tune up for the Rays!

Chase Rooster

That would be my name if Sarah Palin was my mother.

Think I'm kidding? Go to the Palin Baby Name generator, type in your name, and see what comes out. Come on. It's kind of a fun thing to do in this silly season. Very silly.

Not to spoil the fun for my siblings, I'll leave out their middle names...and recreate my mother calling us for dinner when we were kids playing outside in our Kool Aid gang neighborhood:

'Chase, Duct, Rot, Smoke, Wesson, Steak and Shaver!'

(Sorry, Mark, it really did come out Rot...it sounds better with your middle name, Pipeline.)

Update: I heard from Duct Idaho and Wesson Scalper, who loved their new names. Wesson hopes she was named for the gun and not the oil. She was unable to access the generator for some Comcast reason, so I told her that her middle name indicates it's definitely for the gun. Besides, Alaskans don't use Wesson oil, they use whale blubber.

Cue Music: Cover of the Rolling Stone

I don't think John McCain is gonna be buying any copies for his mother...

A not so pretty picture of McCain is painted by Tim Dickinson in his October 16 cover piece "Make Believe Maverick". It's long. It's unnerving. Even the parts from McCain's own memoir. Worth taking the time to read, though I doubt any McCain supporters will. They should. We need a president with a 'disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty' like we need another term of W.

Long Night

Last night we headed over to Hooba's to watch the game. Had the TV section all to our selves as the football crowd vacated. Good thing we watched the Pats at home, they were watching something else at Hooba's. Hooba hit a home run with his red beans and ham soup on a cold and rainy evening. We wisely headed home after the sixth inning. Little did we know there would be six more...I had a feeling it was going to be another thriller. And it was. So the good news is, we get to watch baseball again tonight! I'm not into any more bad news. The stock market is bad enough. I have to keep Lloyd away from the Quicken files, lest he head for the deck and leap....

Take THAT Rally Monkeys!

My sweetie and I went out for our 27th anniversary dinner last night at the Good River Restaurant in Mosier. It's our new 'nice dinner' place. As I sipped my O'Reilly's Pinot Gris, waiting for the Alaskan Rockfish to arrive at the table, my cell phone buzzed. It was Jill, with an update on the ballgame. I got in a little trouble for texting at the dinner table, but after 31 years of full disclosure of my Red Sox 'condition', I was forgiven.

I stifled my thumbs, put the phone on silent, and waited til I got home to watch the rest of the game. I was not disappointed. Another excellent game that went right down to the wire. And once again, the boys from Beantown came through, much to the huge disappointment of the LA fans. The Rally Monkeys seem to have lost their magical powers. What can I say? The Sox are firing on all cylinders right now. May it continue back at Fenway, on Beckett Sunday.

I love the playoffs.

News Flash for Sarah Palin

Nuclear is pronounced:

NOO' - CLEE - AR

I can't take another person in the White House who can't pronounce this word.

PS: Don't you know what an Achilles Heel is??????

Great Start to ALDS

Jill's shrine worked. The game was definitely worth staying up for if you were on the east coast. Or the Gulf coast, like Jill. I got to bed at normal time, but was too wired to get to sleep easily.

It was a classic pitcher's duel for most of the game. It could have gone either way. Jon Lester was stellar, stepping up to the No. 1 spot in place of ailing Josh Beckett. Masterson and Papelbon did their parts in relief.

There were stunning fielding plays, like Jacoby Ellsbury's diving catch (how does he DO that?) and Youk's quick recovery of a blooper to first to nail Guerrero at third in a base running mistake (will he be the Angel's Bill Buckner?).

And then there was Jason Bay (Manny Who?) and his two run smash in his first playoff at bat to put the Sox in the lead. Late inning insurance runs didn't hurt, either.

Thank God for Baseball. It gives us a break from crashing stock markets, debates, talking heads, and Caribou Barbie. No wonder Jon Stewart has been so furious lately. With no New York teams in the playoffs, I'm afraid Indecision 2008 might do him in. He needs to adopt a team, for his mental health!

It's Soxtober!!!!!

Jill's got her shrine up. The faithful are ready.

Game One, Red Sox vs Angels, tonight with Lester on the mound.

Oh yeah, it's great to be on the west coast. Start time for my friends back east? 10 pm.

Sorry to rub that in....