Stench

I am just warning you all that this story is a rather disgusting one, so read on at your own risk. I need to post it to get it out of my head. I am currently working on painting the kitchen cabinets for a short term fix on a much bigger project that we will be dealing with at a later date. The other night I was cleaning out the cupboards and moving some things onto shelves, and put some boxes on one of the top shelves in the kitchen. As I am going about my business I notice that the stench I caught wind of every now and then (and thought was something in the freezer) was much more pungent. The kitchen isn't that big so it didn't take long to locate the general area emanating something putrid. As I got on the step ladder to peer into the upper cabinet I see a pool of blackish liquid that has dripped down from the shelf above where I had placed the boxes. I muster all available courage to take the boxes (without looking up there) off the shelf. Dark liquid is beyond smelly and all over the bottom of the box. I decide I must take a look. As I peek up over the shelf I see a brownish, hairy mass and practically fall off the ladder.

As I contemplate shrieking at the top of my lungs, I think of the LG quietly sleeping in the next room, and the BK who would have already been shrieking at this point, and decide that someone has to be the adult. I collect myself for one more peek and step slowly up the ladder. There, lying on the top shelf is the smelliest rotten potato (with roots growing suspiciously like hair) I have ever seen or whiffed. The aroma almost nearly made me pass out on the way to the trash can. On the bright side, this story doesn't end with me shrieking, waking the LG, calling exterminators, and putting the house on the market the very next day. Below is a pic of the kitchen with after shots to hopefully follow next week. And yes, I will post pictures of the interior one of these days.

Welcome to the Jungle

We bought a house. Enough explanation as to why I haven't had time for anything else. I should mention that it is located on a corner, in the city of Portland (as opposed to out in the burbs somewhere), and it is in a jungle. One of the neighbors told us they think the reason the house was priced so well was because of all the overgrown shrubbery that had taken over. When we first looked at the backyard, we couldn't see the sky through the trees. Too bad I didn't take pictures of that. The house is an old bungalow circa 1920s which is in pretty good shape on the inside. Now that we are done painting and putting in new carpet in the upstairs and basement, I have a bit of time to breathe before packing and moving. Below are some before and after shots of Saturday in the yard. Poor BK out there with a chainsaw all day. I wish I had a picture of him cutting down one of the bushes. It looked like he was playing twister and that his left leg was going to lose to the chainsaw. Luckily the only mishaps included a run in with a power line by the driver of the truck dropping off our yellow bin, and them later calling the BK in the middle of the workday to say that all the refuse had to be at "bin level". That might have been nice to know beforehand. BK had to come home from work to stomp on the bushes that were poking out. Nice.

FRONT YARD BEFORE - Notice the big tall trees next to the house blocking all sunlight.

Notice big yellow bin awaiting its lunch.

Notice the house (if you can) and the bushes already poking out of the bin.

Ah, no more big, ugly trees. Notice ugly bushes lined neatly in a row.

Bye, bye bushes. So nice to see you little house. Now on to dressing you properly. That should only take all summer, probably fall, and next summer. Sometimes being naked is SO much better than being dressed.

Mountain Men

Yup, I've got me on of 'em. This past weekend, the BK scaled Mt. Hood. They left at 1am so that the snow would be nice and cold - less risk of avalanche - and made it back down by around 10am. This is his 4th or 5th such adventure. I think he has dreams of climbing Everest. Admirable and insane. I'm just glad that for now he is sticking with more "local" climbs. He did sweetly tell me that he thought Mt. Hood was a climb I could do. I thanked him, but added that if I liked being cold and wet, I would have spent more time skiing. You should see his poor, cracked, bleeding hands. Anyway, the pictures are amazing, so enjoy.

Grand Parentals

Now that I have a child, the only real vacation I have had (other than a weekend getaway to NYC and a soon to be trip to DC that don't include the LG) are those that involve grandparents who are happy to play, eat, walk, bathe, and otherwise entertain the LG. We had a great and busy time in Logan. Grandma and Grandpa were busy preparing to leave on a mission, and my niece was married. The BK was even able to come out over the long weekend, although I am not sure he liked his return trip much which involved driving the beat up Pathfinder back to Oregon. To say the Pathfinder is old and temperamental doesn't quite do it justice. Any of you who know my dad, however, and his previous choice in vehicles should have a pretty clear idea.

Some of the highlights from our trip include the LG spending a lot of quality time with his grandparents:


Lots of posing for pictures in Grandma's living room. My mom LOVES to pose for pictures. Hence, you can track our family history as we age in photos from the EXACT same spot in the house. The chair pose or the piano pose. Here is one of each for your enjoyment:



The LG also enjoyed teaching a few tricks to grandma and his cousins. The first picture is of him teaching Grandma to ride the tricycle. He was very adamant that she sit on it as he pointed his finger at her and yelled things that only a toddler can understand. The second is of the cousins "listening for earthquakes". This all started when the LG kept laying down on the sidewalk and his older cousin decided that the only reasonable explanation for that type of behavior was that he was listening for earthquakes. If you look closely you will see his other cousin holding out his ears to improve the audio. You might be startled to learn that they heard one.



Finally, the LG had many opportunities to practice his newest face - the Stinkeye. This photo hardly expresses the squinchiness of his eyebrows and the anger in his face when he does it, but it gives you a good idea. Luckily it is almost always followed by a lot of giggling.