A stand-up job

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Merridee

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

A Wild Time

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Merridee

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 Thaw

Posted on February 16, 2014 by Merridee

Still a little shell-shocked from the snow storm and with the melting came a muddy mess. Then suddenly, Spring is on its way! It felt like almost overnight my whole yard was ready to wake up and get growing.

Hellebore are blooming and the daffodils burst out of the ground and grew 4 inches in a matter of days! And the pulmonaria are setting out new growth!

Things are growing again!

If I had more time in my life, I would be getting a seriously itchy green thumb! Eager for spring but there are a few things I need to get off of my docket first.

Snowmageden

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Merridee

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!

Scourn

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Merridee

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!

Christmas trees of a different kind

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Merridee

A few days before Christmas I was getting ready for work when someone knocked on my door (and Lily went wild barking). Thinking it would be UPS delivering the crock pot I bought myself as a Christmas present, I was surprised when I opened the door and there was a long skinny package bag there. On opening it I remembered that several months ago I had given a donation to the Arbor Day Foundation and they would send me 10 trees. Well here they were — not 10 but 12 little twigs that were suppose to be trees. The biggest was about 28″ tall and the shortest maybe 8″. 3 Eastern Redbuds, 4 White Flowering Dogwood, 3 Goldenraintree, and 2 Crapemyrtle. Here is a gardening challenge — getting these little sticks to someday become a flowery forest.

I didn’t have time to deal with them then, so I stuck the bunch is a vase of water and proceeded to slog through the next 2 weeks of work. On my second day off after the work marathon (first day was spend entirely in bed being ULTRA lazy), I had to come up with a solution for what to do with all of these twigs.

A bucket of baby trees — but what to do with them?

I found places for 3 of them (dogwood in the front berm, crapemyrtle south of the driveway and goldenraintree in the herb garden southwest corner) but I want the rest to go in beds I haven’t dug yet — along the back fence and near the back of the house. So I had to stick them some where and the only bare patch I could think of was the garden.

Most of my new little trees will have to live in the garden until I can come up better plan.

That will do for now.

And that crock pot I was expecting. It came the following day. Here is the first thing I cooked in it —

First crock pot adventure. Louisiana-style short ribs with spicy cole slaw. YUM!

short ribs with spicy cole slaw. Pretty yum! I think I am going to like this new toy but I am going to rename it the slow torture device — it makes the whole house smell AMAZING while the food is cooking!

HO! Ho! Ho-hum

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Merridee

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 Spare Room

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Merridee

As I mentioned the weather was pretty crappy during this vacation, so I had to come up with inside projects. And my spare room has been on the to-do list for ages. I really want a cute space for those few times a year that people actually come and visit me. And I have all of my awesome extra furniture just shoved in there not really being particularly cute. And the number one reason is, as always, CEILINGS SHOULD BE WHITE! Every time I look in there or even walk by, the poopy brown dark cave impression given by the hated taupe walls and ceiling is just depressing. I can even see hints of it from the hall or even laying in my bed and looking out the door. The brown had officially worn out any shred of welcome it never had. Time to paint.

I had been debating about color and had the same hang-ups I had with my bedroom — had to be cheerful and make the room feel bright. And this room is even more challenging because it faces north and is even more dreary than my room (which is why I chose my room as the master in the first place instead of the other even though it is larger). And just like the debate with my room, I ended up at the same solution — go with a known winner, cream. So the same color as my room, Chapel Wall with Sugar Dust ceiling. 3 days of painting and a room transformed.

Cast off extra furniture includes inherited red love seat, which presented problems when pondering alternate paint colors.

I bought these curtains from Ikea ages ago and were suppose to include hem tape but it didn’t so I had to get creative with a swag instead of my standard straight. Sorry about photo quality — even in the middle of the afternoon it is still kind of dark in here (but it IS November, so kind of expected.)

Moved my desk from the living room.

Love the new rug, also from Ikea, and Lily likes hanging out in here too.

Not fully decorated yet. And I need to figure what to do about a bed. I’m torn between a sofa bed or going to mattress discount place and getting a real bed. On the to-do list. Even so, it feels so much brighter in here, which spills out into the hall. Still work to do but I am happy to have made some progress.

Garage Glam-up

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Merridee

When I moved in a year ago, the garage was, obviously, just a catch-all and staging area for all of the junk, etc. I did a minor attempt at organizing so I could find the things I need and just left it at that. Over the last year, I figured what things need to be handy and what needed a better long-term home so I could find it if I need it but I wasn’t digging through the same boxes, piles, etc. when I was looking for stuff. My other major hang up was with the cupboard next to the furnace. This thing was probably built in the 60s and has the solid-as-a-Mack truck construction typical of the era but because of the spacing of the shelves is kind of useless — nothing seemed to fit right.

Just piles of stuff everywhere

I wanted to do real hooks on the wall for the garden tools.

This is pretty organized but I just wanted to show off my badass washer and dryer — they sing to me!

So during a random November vacation when it was generally a little too chilly to be outside I decided to tackle this project. I started with grand ambitions of one of those TV DYI shows and then got bored and just ended up doing a basic tidy. I did however clean out the cupboard and put in shelf paper (already purchased when I thought I wanted to line the back of my open kitchen cabinets with it and then decided that would be too busy.) Shelf paper in, I organized all of the random stuff that wanted to get out of the way, mainly painting stuff and bottles of project goo — spackle and hole patch, WD-4, paint thinner, etc. Looks pretty good.

Not much in here cause nothing fit but what did, was a mess.

Cleaned out and lined with shelf paper

A detail of the shelfpaper. Pretty cute. but should ponder the idea of painting the wood.

All filled up again. Used paint trays from the other project during this vacation.

I gave up on the hooks for now. Maybe later. But I did hang the broom holder.

I put away all of my random buckets of project supplies and reserved the tables for the tools I use a lot — aka the drill bag, etc.

Good enough for now.

Lily-kins

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Merridee

Lily is my sweet, sweet angel and we have tons of fun. OK, mostly she just lays around and watches what I am doing — she has excellent supervisory skills. Or she chills on the couch while I am at work and barks at the mailman, who she is sure is plotting against house and home. She also loves to bark at neighbor Charles and then goes and begs at his door for the treats he SPECIFICALLY buys for her (whore!). Usually she gets a walk at least 5 out 7 days, and when she doesn’t she has been in the yard with me all day and we are both pretty beat. She loves to meet me at the door and racing around the back yard barking at stuff. And she also loves belly rubs, eating cat poop and wookie yells when she thinks we are going for a walk. And even when she doesn’t want to sleep on the rug by my bed, she always comes and says goodnight before heading back to the couch. We have a pretty good thing going on here.

But every once in a while I worry she is feeling neglected — the looks she can give when I leave and she knows it isn’t for work (she always knows!) can break my heart! In the summer, I didn’t want to bring her with me cause my little black truck can get crazy hot fast. But now that things are cooling down, I let her run short errands with me. No worries about getting all of that girth up into the cab — she flies in like it is her birthday surprise!

She is looking pretty sad cause we are home after running errands. But she was all smiles on the road. She did get kind of twitchy when I ran into a shop really fast — acted like she thought I had abandoned her.

So she likes the car but she usually isn’t very interested in where we end up. I tried taking her to the dog park, Sauvee Island, etc., a few times and usually we get there, she runs around for less than 5 minutes and then comes and stands by me like she is ready to go. Since she doesn’t really play fetch, doesn’t do water, and after the sniffing, isn’t really into other dogs, it gets boring for both of us pretty fast.

But I do like to take her with me when I go and hang out at Shirley’s house and since that is where Lily used to live, I know she is welcome. (Other friends’ houses, things can get sticky — haven’t risked a Cosmo the cat and Lily introduction yet, and often where I go is not where I stay and don’t want to leave her alone in a strange place while we are out playing.) Lily is always thrilled to see Shirley but then she quickly remembers this is the evil place that caused her to lick half of her arm hair off. Part of me thinks it is good for her to remember how good she has it now. Shirley’s other dog Merlin is Lily’s arch-enemy — only Merlin is too dopey to understand. They don’t really fight, but that is because Lily hides under the table. But she does get really clingy with me and will even sit outside the bathroom door to make sure I am not leaving her there.

Lily quickly remembers why she doesn’t like it at Shirleys — Once her hellos to Shirley are over she is ready to go.

The arch-enemy. Not plotting evil but just a spastic doof. He is a collie like Lily and can be smart but usually he is just a pain in the butt.

Shirley’s little boy Logan almost always gives me a lecture about how Lily is his dog and I can’t take her home with me again. Then he forgets and, much to Lily’s relief, I take her home with me again.