Beach weekend

Sometimes it seems like you have to get away from home in order to relax. Rhonda is only off every other weekend, so it's all too easy to let that magical Saturday/Sunday time slip away. If we're hanging around the house, there always seem to be chores, projects and honeydew lists staring at us (these obligations seem to be much more pressing to Rhonda than myself!).

Last Friday afternoon, we headed down to the coast. Great news not just for us, but Jack as well; the beach is his favorite place in the world. City life is kind of rough on a dog with the leash laws, having to stay inside so much, etc. At the beach, a dog can really be a dog. The combination of the wind, the sand, the birds, the freedom and the great wide open really gets him fired up. Our buddy Vern- same guy who's doing our kitchen- has a cabin in a little beachside community called Tierra Del Mar, about an hour and a half away. We generally head down there several times a year for a little weekend getaway.

We timed our departure just right, as the last vestiges of daylight ushered us into Tierra Del Mar. After a quick stop at the cabin to drop our stuff off and get a fire going in the woodstove, we headed to nearby Pacific City for our customary beach weekend kickoff spot, the Pelican Brewery and Pub, my nominee for Brewery With the Best View in America. Great beer and pretty good food, too.

Ended the evening back at the cabin with a couple of brewskis and some tunes. Rhonda turned in early, and I curled up on the couch with a book til about midnight.

Saturday, the best day of the week! Got up nice and early, ~5:00 a.m. and got a fire going. While Rhonda got her beauty rest, the fellas headed out to the beach (about a 300 yard walk), Jack acquiver with anticipation. After 30 minutes of chasing birds and the tennis ball, he was pretty worn out. Back at the cabin, I had some cold leftover pizza, the breakfast of champions. Rhonda got up around 8:00 and we soon had the crockpot steaming (Shauna's cajun potroast recipe was on the menu for lunch and dinner). Headed into town to grab some biscuits to go at the Grateful Bread (run by some old hippie chicks) and some more treats from the Pelican. The temps were mild and the winds calm, so we were able to take several more trips to the beach and hang out in the backyard. In the late afternoon, a shower sent us inside, where we played a little Scrabble, did some reading, and played 'dueling DJs' with Rhonda's iPod/my mp3 player. Very relaxing day.

Got some rain very early Sunday, but it was clear enough for one last trip to the beach before we had to pack things up for the trip home. Stopped by the Tillamook Cheese factory for fudge and cheese curds. An afternoon of couch potato-ness ensued. I highly recommend the occasional (or not-so-occasional) lazy weekend!

Not a fun week so far

Valentine's Day was almost as romantic as our anniversary. Rhonda has come down with a bad cold that has worked her over pretty good the past few days. Hopefully we can get her nursed back to health in time for a trip to the coast this weekend.

Romantic anniversary weekend

Highlights of our 12th anniversary festvities included:

Assembling our lower cabinets (Bought Ikea cabinets for the bottom. Vern is building the top cabinets from scratch and will be building the faces/doors for the bottom.).

A trip to Home Depot.

Grouting a little patch of tile that now sits underneath the fridge (was a cabinet there before).

Dinner and cake on the couch.

Sound pretty romantic, huh? Well, to be fair, we did watch 2 chick flicks. The Notebook wasn't bad (for a chick flick)- a cute lead actress always helps. Mamma Mia had Rhonda singing along the whole time, and she wants to buy it now. Thanks (or blame?) goes to Dad for the recommendations on both movies.

In this picture, you can begin to imagine what the fridge/stove half of the kitchen will look like now. Vern will be back on Tuesday to anchor those lower cabinets and mount the base for their countertop, so we should be able to start hiding some stuff in there soon.

Kitchen remodel underway

Hard to believe we've been in the house for almost 10 years now, but it's been long enough that we've tackled most of the necessary small- and medium-scale projects. Now we've got a couple of big ones that we can't ignore any longer: remodeling the kitchen and bathroom. These undertakings are notoriously tough on the old pocketbook, so tackling them simultaneously is not an option. Up first, the kitchen. Timeframe for the bathroom is TBD.

As luck would have it, Vern, a good friend of ours, is a contractor who does a lot of kitchen work. He'll be handling the 'skill' portion of things- building/installing cabinetry, countertops, sink, dishwasher, etc. (the fact that we'll have a dishwasher again is perhaps my favorite part of this whole deal!). The role of Rhonda and I largely involves 2 tools- hammer and crowbar. You can definitely save some dough doing your own demo. Our approach is basically to demo and rebuild half the kitchen at a time, so some functionality is retained (and we don't have to pull every pot, plate, fork and glass and stack them up all over the house).

New appliances have been bought, but are mainly just in the way.

Here's a peek into how the demo has been going.

Today, Vern patched drywall into that big bare section of wall (the floor linoleum we inherited with the house was also applied on top of the wall behind the stove- pure genius). Also, he framed/drywalled off the doorway from the kitchen to the middle of the house. We decided to close off that doorway to gain some counter/cabinet space. Hopefully this will end up being a wise decision.

More soon.

Oscar Combs: Aug. 2008- Feb. 2, 2009

We'd hoped to start this blog with something happy, but life has a way of punching you in the gut when you least expect it. We lost our little buddy Oscar today to a sad disease called Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP).
He was such a gentle and cute boy that we all fell in love with him shortly after his arrival (well, at least Rhonda, Jack and I did- George is another story). He was only with us from 11/14/08 through today, but you can learn a lot about a cat in a short amount of time. For example, here are a few things we learned about Oscar:

• As you can see above, he figured out that keyboards area great place to stay warm.
• He was incorrigibly, aggressively affectionate. He didn't nuzzle you so much as he attempted to implant his snout in your nose or mouth.
• His ears were 2 sizes too big for his head.
• He had a very interesting swirl pattern on his sides, not the stripes you normally see on orange cats.
• He taught an 85-lb dog that a 5-lb cat could be his best pal.
• The tip of his tail had a crook to the right.
• His powers of persuasion were strong. Somehow he convinced George- who didn't exactly welcome Oscar with open arms- to give up his prime corner window real estate on the upstairs couch.
• He had a funny habit of cocking his head to one side while he chewed.
• There are multiple pillows on the bed, and they all belonged to him.
• He preferred dry food (including Jack's) to the cracky goodness of canned.
• Based on the sound of his purr, there's a fair chance he was related to either a dove or an Ewok.
• Jack's water tasted better than his own.
• His favorite sparring partner was Jack's snout, although his wagging tail was fair game, too.
• Like any Combs man, he didn't like to rush unnecessarily through a bathroom session. With the way he played around in there, sometimes it was hard to tell whether it was a litterbox or the sandbox.
• Even George (in fairness, still smarting from the loss of Arthur) was beginning to fall victim to his irresistable charms, in baby steps.
• He thought the bed covers made a nice tent.
• He smelled like sweet fresh laundry (probably because of all that time under the sheets).
• To be such a small cat, the house sure feels a whole lot emptier without him.

Here are a a few photos photos from Oscar's time with us. Click "show info" at the top and brief descriptions/comments will appear with the photo. Use the "options" button or pause to slow things down. The first few were taken with a cell phone, so the quality is inconsistent.

This is a good reminder for us to not take our loved ones (four-legged, two-legged or otherwise) for granted. Thanks to everyone for the supportive thoughts, kind words, and "flinging us up" (in Mamaw's case).

What will this blog be?

Starting one of these blogs isn't exactly the most original idea in the world. We're planning on sharing some (hopefully) interesting accounts of Portland, home remodeling, travel, pets, and other miscellaneous stuff. We figured it would be a fun way to help keep family and friends in the loop about what's going on with us. It will probably take us a while to find our groove.