Caption Contest?

We've been Baxter sitting. He's nice to the chickens, he seems to really like their house because he keeps busting in there and then he can't get out. Sometimes they stay and hang out, other times they do not.

Chicken's Free Rangin'!

Rosie loves her chicken babies.

Chickens

They'll be 7 weeks old on Sunday. It's totally amazing how entertaining they are. and that they all have different personalities.








I feel like I haven't been around much on the ol' internet. Facebook took over for blogging a little for me. I've been super busy, as always, only now also working lots and lots. Loving my new job! and we're still dealing with the stressful life stuff that seems like it's never going to be resolved. seems to me the court system really sucks.

Pie

Having my sis around totally rocks. This is what I came home to last night:

Happy Easter Zombie Jesus Day

Our chicks are one week old today! and they are getting tail feathers! They grow so fast, they look bigger every day.

Chicks!

We got our new babies! Everybody, meet Willow, Buffy, Xander and Giles.



Buffy is a Buff Orpington, Willow is a Rhode Island Red, Xander is a Black Australorp, and Giles is a Plymouth Barred Rock.



They are 3 days old, and are just the tiniest cutest balls of fluff.



We got them today from Livingscape.









They have nap attacks, where they just fall asleep instantly on their feet. Sometimes they wobble.







Then, they wake up and peck around, and sometimes run really fast for no apparent reason.

Bees Last Week

I got into the hive last week to feed the bees. Evidently, they're making honey! They built a bunch of comb inside their feeder, so I had to bust it out in order to fill the feeder.

The comb on the right side there is the stuff built in the feeder.



Lots of bees. This was the first time that I have had a panicky sensation when getting in the hive. Very instinctual, "oh no lots of buzzing, stinging insects spilling out everywhere....." But I got over it. This pic is the bees before getting smoked.



The smoker really does work.



I put on the queen excluder under the honey super to keep her from laying eggs in the honey.



This is the comb I pulled out of the feeder. Some of it had honey in it already. It's quite tasty! It's actually totally amazing, it tastes green. Like flowers smell..... That may sound crazy but it's the only way I can think of describing it.





I also had a couple of helpful assistants.

not SO dumb

Well Pocketmac sorta worked, I've got my blackberry syncing with ical, and ical syncing with google cal, so it''s doing what I wanted it to do there. Yay! I'm a little annoyed that I have to plug it in to sync, I was really hoping it would sync automatically with bluetooth. Since I finally got it connecting with bluetooth, now for apparently no reason whatsoever. Still haven't figured out the photos thing, but I feel I made some major progress.

technology and me

I usually consider myself kind of ok when it comes to technology things. I'm no fancy hacker or anything, but I can set up a wireless network and generally get things to work. But it doesn't seem to be so with the case of blackberry/mac compatibility. I finally got the bluetooth to find each other. But it still keeps clicking off to disconnected. I try to "browse the devise" and it says its not browsable. But why? I just want two things: I want to get my calendars on my phone and computer to sync, and I want to be able to retrieve any photos taken with my phone. ISync isn't compatible, and the "Missing Sync for Blackberry" is like $40 that I don't want to spend. I can plug my phone in to my computer with the little cord thing, but that doesn't seem to do anything but make my phone angry about not having enough power to properly charge or something. So now I'm attempting to download pocketmac for blackberry. I don't know how I'll get it to install from the computer to the phone...... since all this bluetooth and plugging in doesn't seem to be doing much. I have had my stupid phone for ages now, like a year and a half or something, and never just taken the time to figure all this crap out. THIS is why! It's SO frustrating! and it makes me feel stupid and inept. It would probably be a whole lot easier if I paid for the internet service and had that to do all this with, and it's probably the major feature of the whole damn blackberry anyway, but that's just too rich for my blood. Sure makes the iphone and g1 tempting.... I would assume the iphone would gladly syn with ical, and i bet the g1 syncs nicely with google cal.
ARGH!

Crankytastic

I am so cranky..... so so cranky. Just can't shake the cranky.

obsessing over chicken coops

this is the artistic egg shaped chicken tractor from the yard and garden show. It was pretty dang cute, but totally impractical.



I've been looking at lots of different coops and I think jeff and I have decided on a chicken ark or tractor style coop. An A-frame one that we can move around the yard. I'm so excited to get chickens!

Needle Roll!

I made myself a needle roll for my knitting needles. Much better than the black plastic box I had them all jumbled up in.
I found this pattern/tutorial by lupinbunny.
I made a few mistakes, and a few modifications. I'm still a little confused about what I did differently than the pattern, but somehow it seems different. Though all in all it turned out well. I added the fourth pocket with velcro closures. and I taught myself a little crochet so I could make the strap closure. I made the big white button out of sculpey. It was a pretty fun project, I haven't had a real sewing project in a long time.
A few things I would do differently if I was going to do it again: make it wider, make more wide pockets, make the two lower pockets shorter, make the velcro pockets deeper, make the fold over flap longer. Oh, and I would NOT use cheap pink chalk to mark lines with. I really had to scrub to get it to come off, and then my needle roll took FOREVER to dry!

yeah yeah

I know, it's been awhile. I've no excuse, except I'm lazy.

This morning I got up at 3 am to take my sis and pulpshopgirl to the airport. They're going to mexico, and yes, I'm kinda jealous, but it's ok.
This morning I took Emme to school and then ran off to a home inspection for some clients. There were many cooks in the kitchen, cooks being inspectors of various types, the buyers themselves, buyers family members, and myself; the kitchen being less than 600 sq. ft. of house.
Afterwards I went home to arrange a few more inspections. One being a plumber who said he could come right away, another being an electrician who will come out same time as the plumber but tomorrow.
So I get to the house to let the plumber in, but forgot he was the plumber and took him to the electrical box, saying "I don't know much about electricity but I think the whole panel has to be replaced." He looks at it and says, "You think you need a whole new panel?" I say, "Yeah thats what the home inspector said." He said, "Well that's great, but I'm a plumber."
Yay for not enough sleep!

Best Date Ever

Jeff and I went out last night, down to 21st St. We had dinner at a sushi place where we ordered a boat of sushi. It was hilarious, our sushi came on a boat! I didn't have my camera with me but I did take pictures with my phone, unfortunately I seem to be blackberry disabled. I can't get mobile blogger to work anymore and I can't get my computer and blackberry to communicate..... alas. I don't know the numeric password to my macbook because my password has letters in it! WTF?

After the sushi on a boat we snuck into the premiere of The Auteur at Cinema 21. We had to sneak in see, because it was sold out. It was really fun, the director and the actors were there and a ton of people who worked on the film. We skipped out on the after party though, didn't really feel like going. The movie is really good, it's really funny, as long as you're not offended by naked people or making fun of porn. It's filmed in Portland and is fun, not just because of all the familiar places but I do enjoy that aspect of it.

New glasses!

A little while back I very tragically stepped on my glasses. I loved those glasses. I bought those frames at Puttin' On the Ritz in Eugene for $8, and got the lenses put in them for $15. That was like 9 or 10 years ago! Then the other day I put them on my night table to take a nap, somehow knocked them off, and when I got up I stepped right on them. Tragedy!



Boo! Broken glasses! Tape totally does not work, I tried it.



So I had to wait until I was on Jeff's insurance, then I went and got some new glasses. I got these at Erstwhile Optical downtown. They have "vintage stock", which have never been worn. They're new old glasses.





I like the fancy little side things.



They were only supposed to take 2 weeks, and into the third week I got a call saying I could come pick them up the next day, but that was tuesday and we were leaving town that evening for Turkey day. So I went in on Saturday, and they weren't ready! I was not pleased, but to assuage my annoyance the guy gave me a free pair of glasses! So I got some more normal-ish frames. They're really comfortable.



and here's a gratuitous cute Rosie picture.

Turkey Day Vacay

Emme is way into matching again..... Aubs came to Ptown for the weekend and the few days before Thanksgiving. We went on a Target shopping spree to get matching clothes for the three of us. Lucky for us, Aubry and I fit into the larger sizes of some childrens clothes! These are our two main matching outfits:





We also did lots of crafts while visiting at my parents.
We made a wreath out of cookie cutters:



I made this cherry pie for our Thanksgiving dinner. It's made with cherries from my grandma's tree that i picked in the spring, pitted and froze.



We also made a gingerbread house. Santa has been abandoned by is reindeer, so sad....



Emme had a tree stuck to her shirt at one point!



Jeff carved the turkey, free range organic happy turkey. Thanks, Mom!



Baxter has grown into a big happy fatty snorty guy.



He and Rosie got along really well. Good cousins!



He's got a beautiful British smile.... the top row of his teeth are staggered like shark teeth! Gotta love that underbite, too.



So snuggly! The vibrations of his snoring are so soothing.....



Bulldog club! "Doggie evolution" or maybe devolution....



Tramp-O-line!



Spence's golden birthday on Thanksgiving.... I made him this hat with a little elephant on it.

Keep 'em coming

I'm having a bit of an off day. Been working really hard, but nothing's quite gelling. I try to stay positive about all this stuff. But I have this transaction that's so close and now seems to be falling apart. So sad. I found a new gray, well, really it's white, hair today. I'm blaming this specific situation. So now I"m back at home after driving around, hanging out at the office, talking to way too many people trying to keep this thing together. I have more work to do. I should get out and go door knock my neighbors or something too. It's hard to get out and do that in the first place, but it's extra hard to do in this rainy windy weather. I really want to snuggle up with Rosie and take a nap. Or just hang out and knit. I got some jumbo size 19 circular needles, so I can bust out on some plastic bag bags. Suh-weet.

Even before Halloween

We went to the pumpkin patch.







Is my dog possessed?

A little bit late

Halloween pictures!

We went nuts with the yard decorations. I put up about 12 tiki torches.



We dressed up as "bikers" or "greasers" or something..... What's important is that we matched with Rosie.






Fear the army of children!

Amazed and Relieved

Yaaaaaaayyyyy!
It's like a whole new America.
I got rid of all my cheesy American flag stuff when it became so associated with Bush and the war and all that. Now I want it back! I have renewed hope for our country.

I'm edumacated

I just attended a really interesting City Council Candidates Debate between Amanda Fritz and Charles Lewis. After that was an explanation of the Ballot Measures by the League of Women's Voters. It was organized by the Arbor Lodge Neighborhood Association which I have recently gotten involved with. It was a really informative and cool meeting, and I was a little surprised at how few people were there. Well, maybe not surprised. But it was kinda sad.
Anyway, I like both Charles Lewis and Amanda Fritz, but I'm voting for Amanda Fritz. She's a badass, has tons of experience, and I think she'll do a bang up job of it. Also, voting no on 61 and yes on 57. These measures somehow contradict each other, and reportedly the one that gets the most votes will win..... 61 bad, 57 good. or maybe not good, but the lesser of two evils?
ooh ooh and NO on 64!

In other news, I am really going to try to post more. I have pictures from pumpkin patching to post soon.
I still don't know what i'm going to be for Halloween! and it's getting down to the wire!
I'm considering Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Morticia Addams.
I've been busting my butt with working lately. Going to start door knocking my 'hood and meeting my neighbors!
I've re-decided that I want to make this career work, and to do that, I have to make it WORK. Like, treat it like a full time job and be WORKING. That may often mean just getting out there and meeting people. Prospecting is the hardest WORK part of this business. The easiest thing to not do, and probably one of the more important things TO do.
So wish me luck!

Real life/Cyber friends

So.... when someone deletes you from their "friends" list on their blog, are you no longer friends? Should you be insulted? Should you assume that the "friendship" is over? Should you give up on inquiries and any more attempts at hanging or reaching out? Seems kinda harsh to me....... Are all attempts at maintaining some kind of relations officially over when you're deleted off the "friends" links list?

Back on the Blogger again!

Yeah, I know I've been MIA.  I was kinda busy.  Getting married and stuff.  I don't know what to say because I just can't sum it up, except it was a fabulous weekend.  and I'm really happy! 

I posted some pictures, though I don't have the OFFICIAL ones yet, except this one:



Photo courtesy the lovely and talented fine human being and a great friend Rick Gersbach