Very pleased to announce the birth of the latest Hanson — Rory Donegan Hanson was born Feb. 20. 6 lbs, 14 oz. 19 inches. Mom and Dad came down a few weeks later to help out.
Derek is a good dad.
Almost the whole time I hung out with Derek and Bridget while the folks where here, Rory was grumpy.
Bright eyed in red.
I am a terrible dog-mom! Lily has fleas and not just kind of but a total infestation! She is miserable and I am miserable. The house is covered and she is chewing herself raw.
It’s totally my fault. Because we had a really mild winter everyone has been saying this year is a bad flea year. Yet I lagged around and was lazy about giving her her flea meds — “oh, I’ll do it after she has a bath. But no bath today. Or tomorrow.” blah, blah, blah. Next thing we know — boom! covered!
And try as I might to get rid of them — pills, drops, baths, brushing — the little bastards wouldn’t budge. So off comes her hair.
Garbage can of gross! Thing was just crawling with the little nasty demons!
Poor girl! All shaved and looks like a deer.
She thinks she looks ugly and is sad at me! That face — “Mom, why would you do this to me?!?”
The following weekend after shaving her I was suppose to go to Colorado for my 20th high school reunion but fleas and finances derailed that plan. But the shaving turned the tide and things were finally getting under control. So to not waste my whole vacation we decided to head up to Whidbey and see the folks. And a major contributing factor was the heat wave hitting Portland. Time to go enjoy some ocean breezes.
Ready to hit the road up to Whidbey. She likes to ride in the car but this ride wears her out pretty quickly. She did fit better on the seat without so much hair!
Had a great few days resting and hanging out.
Mom and Dad’s on a July afternoon — Great place to sit back and relax!
Loving the sun on Whidbey — and getting a sunburn (which peeled and was really gross.)
Grandpa and Lily spent some quality time chillin on the patio.
Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us visit and risk getting infested with fleas. We had a great time!
Last year I went to this plant sale — Master Gardeners’ Mother’s Day Sale — that everyone told me was suppose to be the end-all be-all of plant sales. But I went on Sunday afternoon and it was completely picked over. I ended up with a lemon cucumber and few tomatoes but no squash, eggplant, etc. I was really disappointed. That said the stuff I did get did great, so I resolved to go on Saturday this year.
On Thursday, I met up with some friends and mentioned I was planning this and one of my besties asked to come too. So Saturday morning I hauled my butt out of bed at reasonable time, fetched Angela and headed into the bowels of Vancouver for the sale. We both hit the motherload and I am came home with everything I wanted except for a few varieties of pepper — but they are easy to find at Fred Meyer or Lowes. Super bonus is that veggies are only $1 each — so the whole garden for less than $25!
The Plan — Many a cold winter night went into dreaming about this!
Spent all day Sunday getting things planted:
4 kinds of Eggplant, 2 winter squash (hubbard and delicata), beans and peas. And some very sad onions. Also argula and lettuce (they were planted a few weeks ago and had sprouted nicely.)
Peppers and radishes (a few weeks old too).
Tomatoes — 8 different kinds (Stupice, green zebra, lemon boy, orange, San Marzena roma, Pink, Brandywine). May be too many but I love tomatoes and they freeze well. Carrots and beets planted on the edges.
Summer squash (zucchini, yellow, patty pan) and Butternut winter squash
Cucumbers — Lemon and regular
Overall — Looking great and really excited for harvest time. And with the new irrigation system, hopefully everything won’t die!
Bonus Buy:
A happy little maple tree
Angela wasn’t really into veggies so I spent some time looking at trees and perennials with her. I couldn’t resist this awesome little Japanese maple — especially for only $9! Not sure where it is going to live yet but it makes me happy to look at!
Lily LOVES Grandma and Grandpa! They are her best pals when they come down to visit. But she has never been up to their house. I imagined that she would love to run all over their huge yard and have buckets of fun. I knew I wanted to take her but hadn’t figured out the best time to make the trip.
The conundrum was solved when brother Kevin emailed and said he and his family were planning a trip up to Whidbey and those of us in that neck of the woods should come up if we can. I already has some time off scheduled, so I signed us up. But there were a few challenges: First, Maren is allergic to dogs, Second, Lily doesn’t really fit on the front seat of the truck. Tried to solve problem one by having Lily groomed the day we left. Good theory but the grooming knocked loose all of her fur and she was shedding worse that usual (at least it was “clean” hair that was coating everything.) Tried to solve the truck problem by building out the front seat with my duffel bag and laid a blanket across to make it even. It sort of worked but was still pretty uncomfortable the whole way up.
But once we got there, look at all this lovely yard to run in:
A panorama of the view from the porch.
Mom and Dad’s house on Whidbey Island.
Lily checks out the potting shed. Still wearing the scarf from the groomers — so pretty and puffy and unfortunately shedding like crazy.
We spent Friday being lazy and then Saturday, Mom and I worked in the yard. Lily had a great time running around and then relaxing, watching us dig. Grandpa was weeding the driveway so she made regular trips up to see him and lick his nose.
Kevin’s family got there late Saturday night and Sunday after they went to church, we all walked down to Uncle Al’s place. Bridgette was cute and wanted to hold Lily’s leash on the walk down and got along just fine. Vivi was pretty timid about Lily but that was fine too cause Lily is pretty timid about kids. No drama yet.
Vivi likes the zipline at Uncle Al’s place.
Grandpa helps Bridgette do the zipline while Kev swings with Vivi.
At Al’s, the girls had fun playing on the zipline, swing, etc. There was a tense moment when Bridgette was screaming on the zipline and Lily got over excited. Bridgette ended up with a scratch and both Lily and Bridgette went and hid is separate trees. They were both pretty gun-shy after that for a bit. But no blood, no foul as far as I’m concerned.
Anyway, that night we all chilled out, Grandma made crab legs and we play with trains.
After a day of lots of running, Lily chills out with Grandpa and Uncle Kevin.
Lily and I left Monday morning as I had to work on Tuesday and wanted to get all the booty Mom gave me planted ASAP. We said our goodbyes and off we went. The trip home, Lily was pooped so she found a way to get comfortable on the blanket pretty early on. But she was pretty thankful to be home! Especially when neighbor Charles appeared with a treat while I was unpacking the truck.
So, traveling back in time to the first year I lived here and my first trip up to Whidbey since living here and the truckload of booty Mom sent me home with, she gave me a clerodendron. She actually first got this vine that acts like a tree from Morning Side, the farm camp place she and Dad lived as caretakers for over 2 years on Vashon Island (this could be a VERY long story, but let’s not go there today.) Anyway, she sent me home with some starts and I planted them in the back retaining wall bed next to my awesome iron gate. Things get really tall in front of there, so I hadn’t checked on them since this spring.(want a peak at what it was doing then, look back at March posts.) I assumed all was well.
On this trip to Whidbey, part of the goal was to help Mom out with whatever she needed (payback for all her help this spring and also a chance to snag whatever she needed to get rid of through division, pulling, etc. — I’m not very subtle in my mooching). She wanted to clean out the bed around her pergola, which had a bunch of lavender, peonies, and, yes, the clerodendron (among other things).
Mom’s Pergola. Super pretty. She is working on a new option to get rid of the mesh fence.
This is a clerodendron. I really love it and am wishing mine was this awesome!
I officially fell in lust with the clerodendron and wanted to bring home a few more cutting since I felt that the ones she had already given me weren’t enough to satisfy, well, my lust. But the more we talked about this plant, the more I started to have the feeling that we weren’t talking about the same thing. Mine had lantern-like white pods in the spring and wasn’t being aggressive like what Mom was describing.
Last thing I did before leaving to head home was dig up a few clerodendron runners. I got home and unloaded the truck and discovered watering them would have been a better idea. They looked pretty sad. Fingers crossed they will make it.
But now that they were on the brain, I wrestled my way back to where I thought my clerodendron was planted. Hmmm … leaves are different, seed pods where those white lantern flowers were. I snapped a photo and sent it to Mom.
This is not clerodendron
Nope, not clerodendron. In fact, “Oh, that is really nasty, highly invasive stuff. You should get rid of it right away,” she says. “And it has really deep roots.” Thanks Mom. Thanks for the nasty invasive weed! On the other hand, she did send me home with a truckload full of other awesome things, so I forgive her. Still chuckling over the fact I have been nurturing a weed for 2 years — Not the first time and probably not the last!
February was a crazy month weather-wise. First there was snowmageden and then we had a few days of some serious wind. Turns out my janky, rotting, mostly gone fence on the north-side of the yard wasn’t up to battle and toppled.
Fence lost the battle with the wind.
Neighbor Charles’ little outhouse was collateral damage. Once I got the fence panel off of it, we stood it back up and it was only a little worse for wear.
I wanted to do the grown-up thing and actually pay someone to come and build me a new fence. I mean, it is only 35 feet on a basically level area and then square it off with the back of the house with a gate. How expensive could that be?! Turns out — a lot more that I thought. I got 4 estimates — ranging from $1200 to almost $3000. Whoa folks, the cheapest is my yard budget for the whole year and then some.
I piled the panels up in a corner that is someday going to become a flower bed so I don’t care about the grass. Then I spent a very rainy day off breaking down the panels and stacking the wood. It was very therapeutic!
Thankfully, my parents wanted to come the rescue! When we were in Phoenix, I was complaining about the cost and my dad insisted that this was a job for him. So a month later, when I had so vacation time slated, they came down.
They got here on Sunday night and we started planning and scheming, then early to bed. They got up crazy early (which for me is any time before 11) and started digging out the old posts while they waiting for me to get my butt out of bed — which I did around 9. Over breakfast Dad came up with our shopping list and plan to get the stubborn posts out (and repurpose the holes for the new posts, since it turns out my dirt is insanely hard clay.) Hardware store and then Dad and I spent the afternoon setting the new posts while Mom weeded my flower beds (Thanks Mom!). Lily did a great job supervising everyone, barking at people walking by and napping under Charles’ tree. Dad and Lily really hit it off and it was fun to watch them play — kind of weird cause Lily usually doesn’t like men (it took months and a lot of treat bribes for her to like Charles!) Posts in and not much else to do, off to the hardware store again to get the pickets!
Tuesday, with the posts set, we did the rest of the framing. We decided to rent a compressor to use with the airgun (and nails) Dad brought, cause turns out I’m not super handy with a hammer! We turned the picket installation into a family affair with Mom and I doing the spacing and Dad running the gun. We were done in only a few hours! And it looks great.
This is the finished product. Basically 2 days of hard work. Looks great!
Gun returned and all of us showered and sleepy, we went to Derek and Bridget’s for dinner. Then home and bed. Dad forgot the tool he needed for the gate, so they are planning to come down for a quick trip in a few weeks to install that. With nothing left to do, they left before noon on Wednesday. It was an awesome little trip . I have the best parents!
ADDED 4/22.
As planned, Mom and Dad came down for a super quick trip to do the gate. They got here around 1 on Monday, and after a quick lunch, we started working. We already had the lumber, so Dad started building the doors while Mom and I weeded the herb bed. Because the opening was about 70 inches, we decided to do two doors that would open fence door-style instead of one big door, which would have been too heavy. Great decision — looks great. Door frames were built and hung and we were done for the day. We ate some food and then I took them out for ice cream. In bed early (I slept on the couch as the air mattress was too much bother for one night.)
Tuesday, we had breakfast and then hung the pickets. Whole project done and cleaned up by 11. They scurried to get out the door to beat traffic in Seattle. Really fast trip but lovely to have them here again! Oh, by the way, the whole project, INCLUDING feeding my parents was less than $600 — half of the cheapest estimate (and I have a pile of pickets to return, cause turns out math is still hard!)
Gate view from the street
Gate from backyard
Gate open. We had to move the board that edged the mulch but without measuring (or really thinking about it), it was the prefect length to square off the bed.
I love the french door-style! Our spacing was really perfect on the post — there is just enough room for the picket between the post and the side of the house.
Dad takes a picture of our handy work to brag to his friends (apparently they were all sad he didn’t have pix.)
Tuesday morning breakfast
I don’t get out of town very often. I don’t like to fly, am kind of a weeny about exploring new cities alone and lost my compulsion to just drive aimlessly after not driving for 8 years. On my weekends, I would rather play at home than deal with crowds and traffic. Hell, I have put less than 5,000 miles on my truck each year I have had it. So I basically stay put.
Lion. We followed a feeding truck around so all of the animals came up to the fences to get their dinner.
That said, I have been promising sister Gretchen and brother Kevin that I would venture down to Phoenix for a visit some time this spring. Running the idea past Mom and Dad, we agreed it would be fun for them to try to be there at the same time and have a partial family reunion. Making the plans were complicated but we finally found a weekend that would work, and away we flew.
On Friday, while Gretchen was at work, the rest of us went to a Safari park where they keep rescued (mostly) African animals.
This is the grizzly bear. There were also 2 black bears, which were much smaller and cuddly looking.
Tiger. They had a ton of them and even a few white ones.
After following the meat truck, we went into this enclosure with the vegetarian animals — antelope, zebras, ostrich, and giraffe. They gave us a leaf to feed the giraffe and you could hold it out with your hand or put it between your lips and they would “kiss” it off with their 16″ tongues. The first one we met rejected me.
My new giraffe boyfriend. He kissed the leaf right out of my lips. That is the most action I have seen in a while!
And they had a month old baby zebra. Which was so cute I almost cried!
Baby Zebra! SOOOOOO cute! I love baby animals so much!
The rest of the vacation was pretty low key. We got rained out of a baseball game (Rained out in Phoenix — Crazy talk!). We spent a lot of time just chilaxin and watching Kevin’s little girls play.
Vivi and Dad playing blocks.
Vivi likes to sit at the tall counter stools. She’s just chillin’ with Grandma.
THE SNOWPOCALYPSE IS HERE!
In the 11 years I have lived in the Northwest, there has been a few snow storms. Most are basically a non-event. But the snow and ice storm of 2003 was awful. A December storm brought several inches of snow but then we had freezing rain and the snow had an inch of ice covering it. I lived 2 blocks away from work and ended up helping cover for people who just couldn’t make it in. Another storm in 2008 brought snow a few days before Christmas. That started out fun with Karaoke at the Abli and walking home in the blizzard was truly a lot of fun and one of my favorite Portland and Rex Hamilton memories. However the next few days of taking the bus to work was miserable — standing in the freezing waiting for buses and the Max. This winter, we had a small storm mid-December and that was my first time driving my truck in the snow. Took it slow and things were fine. Thinking that would be it for snow for the year, I didn’t bother to get anything to put weight in the back of the truck. Stupid!
Already 5″ of snow on Thursday night
But this is one of the worst storms I can ever remember! Even when I lived in Colorado. And it is even worse because Portland and Vancouver don’t have the tools to deal with it. It started on Thursday morning, catching most people off guard and resulting in horrific traffic problems (dozens of accidents and a 30-car pileup where a man was killed). By the time I left work Thursday night, the roads were basically empty of cars but it was still slick and scary. There was 5″ on the back patio table. But Lily and I had fun shoveling the sidewalk.
Friday, the snow had stopped for my drive in and the plows had been working all night, so not too terrible. And I filled the back of the truck with what ever I could find to add some weight — big flower pots and a few cinderblocks. But the snow started again Friday afternoon. That drive home was also a nail-bitter but I took the time to stop at a 7-11 to get some supplies. I am ready to hunker down and wait it out.
Snow on Saturday morning. About double from Thursday night.
Saturday, I didn’t have to work (sad for those who do — especially Marsha, who was suppose to be on vacation but decided to postpone it and then switched with me Tuesday for Saturday so I could work on our software upgrade — sorry Marsha!). Snowing hard all day and the inches are mounting.
The snow and cold didn’t seem to bother Lily. But once she was done with her business, she wasn’t very interested in being outside anymore. “Come on Mom. The couch is waiting!”
Then around 4:30, the heavy snow changed to sleet and freezing rain. Everything is getting covered in a layer of ice. I had been very feebly considering going to a birthday party but that sealed the deal on staying put. I don’t know what is about being forced to stay in, but I always feel the need to bake. I had some leftover cookie ingredients — a.k. white chocolate chips, coconut — from my Christmas-time baking adventures, so cookie time! Spent the rest of Saturday night curled up watching movies and worrying about how people at work would get home — All public transportation was canceled and there was a half-inch of ice over the snow on the roads.
White chocolate chip, coconut cookies. I didn’t have any regular white sugar (I know, super weird), so I used raw sugar. Gave them a nice molasses note. Yum! If only I wasn’t out of milk. Sad.
Sunday, the rain and snow had stopped and things were starting to melt. Big icicles hanging from the eves and trees. Lily quickly decided she did not like walking on the ice-covered snow and dropping through the crust. After a progress report from people at work — one stayed at a hotel, one sleep in the lady’s lounge at work and the rest braved it, but everyone was safe and drama free — I foraged through the freezer for food to cook for dinner. Bratwurst with caramelized onions and tomatoes over pasta didn’t turn out too bad but I wished I had ground the caraway seeds instead of keeping them whole. Oh, well. Not bad for punt. By late Sunday night the big thaw was officially on but I stayed curled up and watched season 4 of Downton Abbey. Looks like I survived the storm.
That said, there is a reason I don’t live in Colorado anymore — Snow, I loath you!
Nothing like the close confines of a car trip to showcase the pungent filthiness of Lily. It was a lovely, sunning, winter day, so she got a bath. Even after spending hours drying in the sun watching me work, she had still not decided if she was ready to forgive me yet.
Poorly Lily is seriously feeling sorry for herself and cursing my name!
Now all clean, she’ll get a brushing with the furminator (which for some reason, she does not love) and then she will beautiful, puffy and suggliable!
As a rule, I don’t usually get very excited about holidays. Growing up our family never made that big of deal about them. There are some exceptions but generally it was moderate build-up to moderate let down. And working in newspapers for so many years, I have come to think of holidays as a lot of extra work in the build-up and then having to be at work instead of enjoying the day with my family. It’s made me a bit of a Scrooge.
But I LOOOOVE Christmas lights. Since moving out on my own, even during the years I knew there wouldn’t be presents or other festivities, I have almost always put up Christmas lights. This year, I knew the holidays were going to suck because we would be seriously short-handed at work and I would spend the 2 weeks of Christmas and New Years toiling away. So I took the week before Christmas off and tried to get my festive impulses out of the way.
House looks super festive with Christmas Lights!
This neighborhood goes all out on Christmas lights and I think I made a reasonable showing, especially compared to my immediate neighbors — Charles (northside) had a string across the front of the house and Jason & Liz (southside) string around their front porch.
I also spent 2 days of my vacation making about 8 dozen cookies of all different kinds and all were at least somewhat delicious! Then I made cookie plates and delivered them to all of my neighbors — They were all grateful and impressed! I took the rest to a Christmas party at Adam and TJ on Saturday night. It was a lovely evening and all of my Rex Hamilton children were there (except Ryan, who just moved back to Wisconsin). Fun, festive fun!
Then, Sunday was SUPPOSE to be my Christmas, with fancy dinner, open my few presents, possibly phone calls to the fam and maybe a movie while having a couch snuggle with Lily (she got a furminator for Christmas and I was eager to try it out!). But not to be. Woke up Sunday morning and was puttering around when work called and said someone was sick with the nasty flu that was wandering around, so I had to go in. Christmas Cancelled!
That was the start of a horrible 16 day stretch of working 12 hour days with half of the copy desk either out with illness (damn that flu!) or on vacation (damn you Micah for letting so many people be off at once!). But at least the final day was fun. My good friend, and shasta daisy contributor, assistant Metro editor Mr. Dave Kern retired. We had a grand Columbian send off with songs (Mr. Editor guy to the tune of American Pie — so awesome!), nice speeches (mine was a good mix of funny, yelling and weepy) and cake! The following night there was a big to-do with more singing and seeing lots of old Columbian folks. I even chatted with a few people that held my position back in the day — one guy had it BEFORE I WAS BORN — that was surreal!
Mr. Kern rocks out at his goodbye party at Scott Hewitt’s house. Sorry the photo is so blurry — I was laying on the floor shooting up.
Glad the holidays are over for another year! Even if that means I have to take down the Christmas Lights!
The Overall[s] Adventure 
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