Sauvies Island

It seems like our life has been all about one obligation or duty after another for ages. This weekend was all about us. Saturday we did some window shopping for household appliances, hit one of our favorite coffee shops, and then some more window shopping for a ski coat as my Mom gave me one as an IOU last Christmas.

Sunday we decided would be a day of some fun, so we got up early and headed out to Sauvies Island for a bike ride. Last time we were there was for the half marathon on July 4. It's amazing how much it has changed since last month. We practiced a few action shots on the bikes.

Since we are early birds, we are on our bikes by 9:00. Even at that hour there were still quite a few bikes on the road, and the car traffic was light.

Since this was a day to relax and enjoy life, it was a leisurely ride which allowed plenty of time for gawking and a picture or two.

We stopped and spoke with a couple of guys that had parked by a field to see what they were watching. Turns our the birds were condors. The birds were huge!

We came across a great photo opportunity with these old trucks filled with flowers.

One of the farms we rode by had scenic panels incorporated into the fence. Each one had a different scene.

Here we are in a field of some kind of hydrangea's. I'm practicing my royal wave, and Bill is practicing standing around looking cute :-)

As we were ending our ride, I shouted STOP, and we switched from cyclists to black berry hunters. Bill is studying his target, makes his move, and I enjoy the reward. These were the BEST blackberries that I have ever had.

We decided that the berries were so good that we would stop at one of the farms for some berries. We found a little u-pick place no blackberries but we did get some gravenstein apples. They too were wonderful. I think there will be an apple pie in our future sometime soon.

Then off to Sydney's for a delicious coffee before heading home where there were a few of life's little duties that required attention.

Lacey's 2 week re-check

Today was Lacey's two week re-check after all of the disappointing news that we received on August 7th. Since then, I have been watching Lacey's every move, worrying about her, wondering if her new meds were working and wondering all kinds of things. With every cough I worried more and with every special little Saluki kiss I felt joy that she was still here to enjoy life with.

Today our student met us at the door and did her preliminary exam and then Dr. Scollan came in to do her exam and give us a explanation of what they would be doing on today's appointment. The schedule for today was an x-ray and ECG to check the arrhythmia.

We left Lacey in capable hands and headed out to visit our favor places in Corvallis. We returned back to the clinic about 1:30 and were ushered into the exam room. Our student gave her preliminary report and then Dr. Scollan came in to give us the details.

The good news is that Lacey is responding well to the meds and they have helped the with the abnormal arrhythmia . We are to continue as is and come back in 3-4 months for a re-check. We have items to watch for.

Life is precious, enjoy every day.....

A few little bumps before a fabulous weekend

It’s been an interesting week. I have been secretly planning a surprise birthday party for Bill to be held after the Saluki Specialty on Friday up in Seattle. The plan was that he would take the train to Seattle to visit his granddaughter all week and then I would pick him up Friday morning on my way to the specialty. This would give me the entire week for all of the food preparation to be done so this would really be a surprise.

Sometimes, things just don’t work out the way we plan.….on Monday his client found a house that he loved and wanted to make an offer on so the Tuesday departure date was gone, but Bill hoped he could leave on Wednesday morning. Since I had no choice in the matter I just pushed my time table back a bit so that I would do all of the prep on Wednesday & Thursday. I figured it could still be done.

Tuesday morning arrived and there was the back and forth stuff and it looked like this was going to go through so the trip to visit his granddaughter had to be canceled due to all of the paper work and trying to rush through a home inspection. It now became iffy whether Bill would even be able to leave town.

The challenge was how to start working on the party without tipping Bill off. Since everyone was already invited I decided if worse came to worse I could just bring up a picture….not always necessary to have the birthday boy around as long as there is food and drink.

On Wednesday I snuck home several bottles of wine and hid them downstairs, but wasn’t able to do that with the food, so when I got home from the store I boldly walked into the house with a big bag of groceries saying that the specialty was a great time to practice new potluck items. I was totally shocked but he didn’t ask any questions, I figured he was wrapped up in the house business.

Thursday was much harder. I had ordered a couple of pies to take from the Bipartisan Café and when I came home with more groceries he wanted to help me bring them in. He opened my car door and saw two pies. The cat was starting to come out of the bag…..his mouth opened and closed several times before he got out the question I was dreading…WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I burst out in song with the only line I could remember…..WE’RE HAVIN A PARTY!

I almost pulled it off, but not quite….being the good sport he is, we spent the next several hours making dips and roll up sandwiches for his surprise birthday party. I will say by time we finished I think the sandwich technique was much better.

Friday morning arrived and we headed off to Voo Doo Doughnuts as a friend asked us to bring up two dozen for the hospitality table, then we headed off to Lava Java for coffee and off we were to Marymoor Park for day one of the Puget Sound Saluki Club specialty.

I think I worried about Lacey all of the way up. Was it the right thing to do to take her on the trip or should we have stayed home. The weather was supposed to be cool which was a plus. We had several conversations about enjoying life for what it is, and she loves to go and I love to have her with me, and she enjoyed giving little Saluki kisses to some of her old friends.

The day was wonderfully cool, we setup our tent and pen ringside and the girls watched the world go by. Specialties are always a lot of fun visiting with friends that we only see occasionally. Our day ended up nicely with Katie & Bill going Best of Opposite Sex and then we proceeded to party. Everyone was invited to come and help Bill celebrate an early milestone birthday. It was a relaxing way to enjoy friends and celebrate his birthday.

Saturday looked to be a sunnier day than Friday so I started worrying a little about Lacey and the heat, but there was a nice cool breeze. Since we had such a late judging time, we stopped at the Brown Bag for breakfast, and while the food was good, the portions were ridiculous. It would be interesting to know how much food they actually throw away as I didn’t see plate go by that couldn’t have fed two or three people. Then it was off to our latest coffee shop find: Kahili Coffee in downtown Kirkland. Great atmosphere and LOVED their coffee. Then off to the show.

Since everything was already set up, all we had to do was walk the girls in and raise up the tent, and we were set for another day of watching and showing. Saturday turned out to be Kayla’s day. I couldn’t have asked for her to do anything better and the judge must have thought the same as she awarded Kayla Best of Breed.

All that was left was tearing down the set up, repacking the suburban and heading home. All three girls were tired and slept all the way home. It might have been a bumpy start to the weekend but it turned out perfect.

Opportunity Knocks

Yesterday we drove by a nursery that was going out of business to see the price of arborvitae. We have quite a few in our yard and several have died.

They had a great prices on the arbs so we decided to get them. They also had Western Red Cedar trees at an amazing price, and Bill thought that they would be a great screen along the road with the hope to not only provide privacy but maybe muffle a little of the road noise.

So we bought 16 arbs and 7 large Western Red Cedar trees that all had to be planted immediately. It required two trips. The arbs are now "resting" in the garden until we can plant them and the 7 cedar trees have been planted. Let me tell you it is hard work to dig big holes for trees in hard dirt. The trees are in a little rough shape from being out all summer but we are hoping that they will recover and grow happily in their new home.

You can't see much in this picture, but the trees are in their new home.

Clouds

Who knows why we actually had a camera with us at the time, but we thought this cloud looked just like a shoe and couldn't resist taking a picture.

Bike Ride up to Estacada

After a hard weekend of slaving over the pressure cooker and tuna and a rough day at work, on Monday we decided to go for a bike ride up to the North Reservoir in Estacada. It's one of the nicer rides in the area as cars are not allowed on the road, the scenery is beautiful and it is peaceful.

This is my first attempt at taking photos while riding my bike. I think I need to work on the technique a bit.

Tuna

This is our third year of canning our own tuna. The first year Bill's Uncle Joe & Aunt Jerry showed up how and then last year we did it on our own, and it was such a success that we did it again this year. It was an early morning as we wanted to get home and put the first batch in the canner.





We started off early on Saturday morning and drove down to Warrenton to pick up the tuna. .

As always our trip started off to a visit to a coffee shop. This time we went to Java Lava in North Vancouver where they have award winning Barista's and serve Stumptown coffee. Then it was off to Jon's Seafood market & Smokehouse for the tuna. It was 53 pounds of whole tuna and they did the cleaning of the fish so we took home only the loins

Then we headed home with a stop at another coffee shop in Astoria and a bakery for a treat on the way home. Once we got home the process began. Bill set up the pressure cooker out in the shed as we use propane to cook with and the tuna really smells so it's nice to keep it outside.

we pack the raw tuna in the jars and then take them out to the shed to cook. Once the pressure cooker gets up to the correct pressure, then it takes 100 minutes to cook, and then several hours to cool down.

Luckily for us, we now have enough tuna to last for the year.

Lacey's 3 month re-check

Friday morning Lacey & I headed down the road to Corvallis for her 3 month check up. She has been on her heart medications for 3 months and this visit was a follow up to see what was happening. Unfortunately Bill was busy so this was just a girls only road trip.

We arrived a bit early and went for a walk. Lacey was not impressed with the cow in the pasture so we headed another direction only to find our student trying to flag us down as they were ready for us.

The two previous doctors were not available so we had yet another doctor to review the case. As it turned out, he doctor was the head of the cardiac department, so I think she was in pretty good hands.

The normal routine is that we leave Lacey for the appointment and then come back several hours later. This time the doctor said she should be finished by noon.

I tend to be a bit of a worry wart and since I was alone this time, I wasn't really in the mood to visit any of the regular places, but I did anyway. I hit Sibling Rivalry first and found some nice stuff but it just didn't entice me, then it was off to the bike shop, once again nothing really caught my eye, then off to Grass Roots Bookstore. I found some unusual cards but nothing I couldn't do without. About 11:30 I received a call from Lacey's student letting me know that she was finished but I couldn't pick her up until 1:00. So I figured my last stop would be our favorite coffee shop, where I sat down with a white mocha and worked on this blog.

I arrived back at the school at 1:00 and the doctor came in and gave me the news that Lacey now had a different arrhythmia and needed to go on yet another medication to try and control it. He pulled up a chair in front of me and gave me a very matter of fact description of what was going on and what could happen and then sent me on my way, saying he'd be seeing me in two weeks for a recheck to make sure the new meds were working, and off we went.

As soon as I got home Bill & I headed off to Fred's to pick up her new prescription. We are now watching for side effects.

As I continue to say, if you did not know she was sick, you would not know she was sick. Tonight she was outside wandering around the yard, when she saw a cat. Lacey was not impressed with the cat and let everyone know it.

She's still a sassy little girl!