Aberrant Prose

Tripping

Four planes, four rental cars, three motels, a movie star’s guest bedroom, a Mastodon hunt, Amish horse and buggies, the tastiest chocolates by DeBrand, an Austin Convention, wine tasting at Patti and Lonnie’s, red and pink hats, the Gray PEAR family reunion, Kathy, Rylan, a picnic on Lake Samish—so many threads wove our end-of-July 11 day vacation into a fine quilt of variegated memories.

This vacation event marked a good time to update our online newsletter. Go to www.OsbornCountry.com
to read our latest news about our trip to Indiana and Washington, Rylan’s first birthday celebration, Chris’ Skee-Ball Fourth of July party, and the latest on my Mom’s movie, “Apart From That.”

July starts with a bang

July 1st found us in Southern California at the brink of a BIG party at Kathy and Tim’s to celebrate Rylan’s first birthday. July 2nd was THE party. July 3rd was Kathy’s birthday. July 4th Robert and I were transported 448 miles north to Chris’ house to celebrate the Fourth of July by shooting off fireworks in his backyard. July 4th was also the day Rylan actually turned one.

When I say BIG birthday party I am talking 67 attendees. I am talking lots of Independence Day decorations, red, white, and blue frosted cakes, balloons, bubbles, lots of sunshine, baby hands being pushed into plaster of Paris to create take home mementos, four crock pots of meat cooking overnight, an album of all of Rylan’s special moments from the past year, four double sized salads, a Kegerator of beer, two ice chests filled with drinks, a huge pile of presents, and even a slideshow on the big screen TV.

Of course the best part of the party was Rylan, the star of the day, a cute little boy who was quite well behaved considering all the noise, all the people, and all the activity. He was so good about being handed from person to person, being carried around, and just taking everything in. Watching him with his cake was great. When everyone sang Happy Birthday he just looked around wondering what the heck the big deal was. His little cake decorated like a flag definitely caught his interest. Just to be sure, his Daddy shoved his hand into the cake covering it with blue frosting. When Rylan tasted the frosting he made the funniest face. When he was given a taste of the cake itself he became much more interested.

There were cameras flashing everywhere (and several camcorders in action). I was not one to get behind. I took over 200 pictures! My most favorites are posted at www.kodakgallery.com.

The very next morning after the party was Kathy’s day. Tim fixed a special breakfast and she opened “her” presents. Then Robert and I headed home to rest from the long seven hour drive before turning around the next day to attend the barbecue at Chris’ house.

Chris was very excited to have this party. Where he lives is one of the few places left that still sells fireworks at local stands. Chris did a lot of research on fireworks and came up with a good selection to create a very entertaining show.

As it was, Chris’ party was more than barbecue and fireworks. Being the entertainer he is, he billed his party as an opportunity to play Skee-Ball as well. Since he set up his Skee-Ball to spit out tickets he decided to provide prizes redeemable for one to thirty Skee-Ball tickets! He displayed all the prizes on a nearby bookcase to entice Skee-Ball players. I saw people leaving with handfuls! Ashley was especially happy with the Snow White doll she won.

Chris didn’t stop short of providing Skee-Ball, fireworks, and barbecued hamburgers (well okay he talked his friend Pat into grilling the burgers) he also had his game room stuffed with arcades and pinball machines for everyone to play! BTW Pat, good job!

Of course the fireworks were the main focus of the party. As soon as dinner was over everyone moved outdoors (except Kenny who wasn’t quite ready to be pulled away from pinball playing). As dusk turned to dark, there were dazzling displays of snakes, flowers, sparklers, pinwheels, fountains, and more—every single item categorized, inventoried, and rated for dazzle by Kim.

Add to that perfect evening weather. It cooled off nicely without getting too cold plus there was barely any wind.

Sitting on the lawn with family in Chris’ large backyard watching a show that lasted a good hour and a half was a perfect way to celebrate the Fourth of July! The only thing that would have made it better was to somehow have shared the day with Kathy, Tim and Rylan as well.

Pictures

 

This and that: a photo blog

 

What a cold and wet year we have had. This view of the barn taken today shows just how green everything in our field still is! It was so cold a couple of days ago we actually turned on our fireplace. Yesterday, we even had a little rain!

Last Friday at the park, out of 75 pictures I took in my quest to catch Paris in a point, this is the best of only three "pointing" pictures I managed to capture.

At last! After getting the pool pump fixed (ruined from flooding over the winter) and a lot of hard work on Robert's part, the pool is clean and ready for swimming! The question is, will the weather be warm enough?

A new birdbath near the barbecue complements the pool's blue tile.

Some of our new pots planted with the beginnings of our patio garden.

The early stage of a sunflower fort for Rylan.

Robert and Chris building a trellis for a Honeysuckle vine in Chris' backyard. The goal: To hide neighbor's messy yard.

The Chelsea Garden is enhanced with a new tree bench.

Plenty o’ pots

Almost two years ago when Robert cut down our two Sycamore trees I have wanted to replace them with something significant. Without the trees it is more evident how boring our patio really is. No regrets about cutting the trees though. Even with lost shade on the patio not having to clean up leaves all the time is really, really nice—Sycamores like to drop leaves, goads of them, from the moment they start leafing in the spring until early December, Every time we turned around we were vacuuming them off the patio, cleaning them out of the pool and picking them out of the surrounding landscaping.

Once the Sycamores were gone, we talked about what could be done to add more interest to the patio: Build an arbor to match the one on the pool side of the pool house; add a cloth-like canopy between the garage and the back door; or buy a bunch of pots for flowers and bushes.

Actually I had thoughts of flowers and bushes in pots even before the Sycamore trees came down. In 2003 I planted a slew of Sunflowers, Cosmos, Marigolds, and Baby’s Breath in old plastic pots giving the patio a splash of color and interest. Ever since I have been touting a nicer-looking patio garden to Robert telling him I’d save my mad money to buy a drip system for it. Keeping my ’03 patio flowers from drying out and dying was a constant challenge.

In 2004 I planted flowers on the patio again, fewer though, knowing how much work it was to water them.

In 2005 I was more motivated yet somehow our summer, enveloped in travel and busyness, zipped by too quickly. This year I again voiced my interest in doing a patio garden and drip system using something nicer than cheap plastic pots. At first I didn’t get much reaction from Robert leaving me to think he wasn’t taking me seriously. Then a couple of weeks ago I found him on his computer drafting up a scale drawing of the patio!

We arranged cutouts of pots on a print of the patio drawing hoping we could figure out what would work best. That didn’t really help so last week we went on a pot-shopping venture!

Our venture took us to three different cities. In the end, we decided deep blue pots we saw at our first stop were the pots we really liked. We bought three in different sizes to bring home to make sure our patio agreed. It did. They were perfect. Yesterday we went back to buy a bunch more!

Now we are looking forward to figuring out exactly where to place our fifteen new pots and what to plant in each!

Painting for a change

Not too long ago, I decided it was time for a change; that is, tiime to add more color to our living room. I think it had something to do with having been to Orange County recently and seeing the popularity of earth-like tones in shopping malls, restaurants, and even at Kathy’s house.

After picking out color swatches, deciding on just the right shade, buying paint yesterday, pulling out old rollers and brushes from a cobweb -filled cupboard in the green house, I painted the wall behind the piano and TV in the living room a brick-brown tone today!

Robert helped me set up by moving out the piano and components, Paris asked, “Do you really think you can paint with a puppy in the house?” Fortunately being a warm day, she ran off to take a nap and forgot all about getting into the paint and tearing up the newspapers I spread all over the carpet.

It has been a long time since I have put on my painter cap to paint anything around here! I had forgotten how much I enjoy this type of project. To me, it was a great way to spend Mother’s Day.

The new, darker color adds a new dimension giving the living room a nice, welcome feeling of depth and warmth. I am really liking it!

Fishing

Yesterday with another indoor-bound day upon us, Robert and I started talking about how we could make room in the office for the 50 gallon fish tank we took down when we remodeled our living room in 2000.

First, we decided to move the drafting table to the back bedroom (this after taking out the twin bed). Next we moved the conference table to the spot where the drafting table was. We put the Xerox color laser printer and the copy machine on top of the conference table.

Moving the Xerox printer was a challenge. We scratched our heads trying to figure out how the heck we were going to do it. It is extremely heavy and between the two of us we can barely lift it. There was no way we were going to carry it from one side of the office to the other. Then, almost in the same instant, we both spotted the rolling filing cabinet we brought home from a visit to Kathy's last year. That and a wide board worked perfectly! I told Robert, "I knew there was a reason we brought this filing cabinet home!" At the time I had no idea what I was going to do with it, give it to Chris maybe. Chris wasn't really interested so it has sat tucked away in the corner of the office ever since, just waiting for its day to come. And at last, it did! We have no idea how we would have moved that printer otherwise. Even with the cabinet, it was tough just lifting it the short distance from the craft table down to the cabinet then lifting it up onto the conference table. It was an absolute breeze wheeling it across the room though!

Next, we moved Robert's desk and the flat file to the west side of the office setting them at ninety degrees to the wall. Finally we moved the craft table to line it up alongside the flat file and his desk.

What I really like about this new arrangement is that Robert's messy desk will now pretty much be hidden behind the flat file. To hide it even more I suggested we put a partition between his desk and the craft table. He wasn’t too keen about that suggestion. Maybe he thinks I am trying to hide him too!

With the new arrangement the office looks so open and airy. We now have lots of space on the south wall for the aquarium plus room for a futon as well. Right now Madison's bed, the office armchair and two office chairs are sitting there. I am not sure where they will go after the aquarium is set up and we get a futon. Robert, jokingly I think, said we could build a doggie bed into the bottom of the aquarium cabinet.

I decided getting a futon and putting it in the office for extra sleeping accommodations would work well since the back bedroom has now become the “baby” room. Having the crib and a bed in the back room doesn't work if, say, both Rylan and Chris are here at the same time. We considered putting the crib in the guest room except it makes it hard for Kathy and Tim to go in and out without disturbing Rylan when he is sleeping.

With the twin bed out of the back bedroom, there is now enough space for Kathy to walk and rock Rylan. We will now put the twin bed up in the barn loft for the day when Rylan is older.

We are looking forward to a tank full of colorful fish to keep us company along with Paris and Madison while we work in the office. Before that can happen though Robert will have to build a cabinet for the tank and before he can build a cabinet the garage needs to be cleared out; there are still a few arcades in the way (yep, I am fishing for something here).

Closet Whittling

Most of us have it…especially those of us of the female gender: The intention to go through our closet and clean out that stuff we never wear, stuff we bought on impulse, wore once and shrugged our shoulders realizing how awful it really looked once worn, stuff given to us at Christmas we feel we should hang on to and wear whenever we see the person who gave it to us but then forget, stuff we bought on sale because gosh it was such a good deal but not so good when we realized it didn’t match anything else we had, stuff we are sure we will fix that has a broken zipper, a missing button or a ripped seam that needs sewn.

It is crazy all the apparel that gathers. And gathers. In my lifetime, about a total of three times, I have actually, usually by way of boredom, taken to spending a good stretch of time going through clothes and throwing out about 1/3 of what is in my collection. Now if you figure on the average I buy about ten to twelve new garments a year (I really am not much of a clothes shopper so this is actually generous) and I am sixty years old (subtract 10 years of my life to when my parents pretty much had say over what was in my closet) that comes up to around 600 items of clothing. Add to that reducing the inventory by 1/3 every so often I am now down to 300 items of clothing. That is probably about right if I poke around in all the boxes and underneath the stack of shoes and in the shelves and look deep into my dresser drawers. I guess socks, underwear, coats, hats, and shoes don’t really count so let’s make it 250 items.

Now of that 250, I pretty much stick to wearing only about ten different things day in and day out. I get stuck on favorites, the clothes I feel most comfortable in. I have what I call daytime pajamas, right now it is an orange colored cotton shirt I found at Value Center and a loose pair of elastic waist aqua pants. With a work-at -home job I do not have to go out much so don’t have to be challenged with coming up with a whole variety for away-from-the-house excursions. So why hang on to all these clothes?

Just the same I keep adding more items, which means buying more clothes hangers. I keep telling myself to set aside a weekend morning to clear it all out. Too daunting though.

Thus I have devised a plan. Every weekend when I do laundry and hang those same ol’ same ol’ outfits up I will search out four items that have hung on hangers the longest, even if I actually like the garments, out they go. If I haven’t worn something in ten years why keep it?

Of course, with this plan, my closet will become very empty forcing me to go shopping for more clothes. I suppose as long as I keep throwing out four items a week and not buying more than four a week I will break even. Plus…I will finally have plenty of clothes hangers!

Hiking the Annadel

With Meteorologist Leigh Glaser telling us to expect a high of 70 for yesterday, Robert and I decided it would be a great day to go on our first day-hike of the year. Although Annadel State Park is quite popular with bikers and horseback riders we decided a Friday in February would work out okay.

Leigh was right on the mark (rare for a meteorologist). Yesterday was perfect for hiking. And sure enough we came across very few bikers (six or so) and only two horseback riders.

After giving Paris and Madison their walk at the nearby park, breakfasting, packing sandwiches, Gatorade, granola bars and apples we hopped in our car for a scenic drive enjoying sunny vineyards. Although still barren of leaves there were many deep green, grassy fields to offset the vineyard’s winter look as we headed west past Sonoma and then north.

In spite of it being a bit chilly after finding the trailhead and heading up the hill (California mountain) it wasn’t long before the effort of climbing had us shedding outer wear.

We chose to hike Annadel this time deciding it has been long enough since we last hiked (September 2003) it would look new to us again. We also wanted to see the boggy Ledson Marsh without the low laying-fog we experienced on our last visit. We were sure we would see an entirely different scene being wintertime. Did we ever! Not only did we find much more water, a great expanse of its surface was covered in an eerie red carpet of plankton.

We also wanted to check out the Gordenker Quarry having missed it on our last Annabel hike. We worked harder to find it this time. What a disappointment—the few rock piles we found were not even worth a picture. As we walked through the deep dark woods toward the quarry I commented to Robert, “This is the kind of terrain where ticks are likely to hitch a ride.”

As always on our day-hikes we look for wild life. In this arena we were not disappointed. We spotted close to a dozen deer and a bundle of turkeys gobbling as they ran from us. They were either gobbling at us or gobbling in response to one male turkey, headed over a log, fanning out his feathers to give us a glimpse of his tail feathers in rounded color.

On our way back down, although not wild life per se, we met a Llama on the path, fully packed, being led by a hiker on foot. This is the first time we have ever seen a Llama on any of our hikes! Fun.

When we do day-hikes we also look forward to discovery of a variety of wildflowers. Unfortunately the end of February is too early. Throughout our entire eight-mile, four-hour hike we found just a few outbreaks of very tiny white flowers, hard to glimpse if one is not looking.

We were home by five, our bodies quite worn out yet our souls very refreshed from the healthy outdoor experience.

And sure enough, I bet while we were walking down that path to Gordenker Quarry, a tick hitched a ride. On me. Feeling soreness on my right hip I checked to discover a tiny black tick digging into me! Because he hadn’t been there long, (long enough to hurt though) I was able to tug him out. I bagged him into a zip lock (the fate of all ticks we find). Robert and I immediately stripped, threw all our clothes into the washing machine and showered.

This morning I woke to discover the spot of the tick entry to be purple-red, swollen and still sore to the touch. This has been an unusual tick experience! Most of the time when we find ticks on us they are just crawling around. Only one other time have we had them burrow and then they didn’t cause pain or swelling. We are thinking it was because we were able to get to them sooner given we hiked at a park close by (across town).

Even with the hassle of ticks (and often poison oak) now that Robert is healthier and stronger I am sure we will be taking more and more day-hikes, I am betting the next hike will happen when another good weather kissed opportunity comes along!

Photos

Dogs Blog Too

Today Paris wanted to know what I do on the computer all the time. When I told her I iChat, email, surf, write blogs, keep a journal and do design work she wanted to know more about the blogs. When I told her she decided she wants to write blogs too. Here is her first one:

“Life is good. Especially I have managed to wiggle myself onto the sofa in the evenings now. It all started because Mom likes to pick me up and hold me. I know. I am little so it makes it easy for her to do this. No complaints here. About a month ago I wanted her to pick me up and cuddle me. She wouldn’t. She was on her laptop. So I started to lay across her chair with my legs dangling off the end. That was fine for a while. I still wanted to be in her lap and after a few nights of partial sofa occupation only, I slowly eased my back feet up to get all fours into her lap. Surprisingly she didn’t stop me. I am sure it’s because I am just too cute. And cuddly.

Even though she finally started letting me into her lap a lot of times she would just tell me to “move away” and if I didn’t she’d get out that bottle of water she keeps on the table next to the sofa and threaten to squirt me. I hate that bottle!

Well of course it didn’t take me long to try Dad. I discovered his recliner is really the place to be. Now that Mom has given in he has too. He never threatens me with that squirt bottle either. Now I spend most of my evenings on his recliner while he watches TV or does his number puzzles from the newspaper.

Yes, this dog’s life is good.”

Beddie Bye Bye Time

We bought a new bed yesterday—a very nice one! Robert recently came to the conclusion our waterbed is too uncomfortable (after 33 years). Seeing a flyer in the paper for a rare sale on Temper-Pedic beds at Sleep City made him decide we ought to go look.

Not only did we look, we purchased! After checking out five different styles and laying on them to decide which one we thought was best, the salesperson cornered us. He told us if we bought the bed not only would we receive a $125 rebate from the flyer he would also give us Sleep City’s online $150 rebate!

There is more. On each bed sat a cute brown teddy bear stuffed with the same material as the Temper-Pedic mattresses. Very cushy! While the salesman was making his offer I asked if we would get a teddy bear too. Wanting to close the deal he told us, “Sure, I can do that.” After we bought the bed I was given my very own teddy bear to take home! I have named him Neil after my Daddy.

Neil is so soft and cuddly I just want to keep and hold him on my lap all the time. Sadly, since Paris has other ideas, he will pretty much have to stay up high.

Our new bed will be delivered this afternoon. I am so looking forward to getting out of that waterbed!