Hardcori and the Blog

Holiday Hello!

2009-12-17T17:06:00.001-08:00

Hello blog,

How ya been? I must admit, I miss you. Though it is all my fault we have been so out of touch. Sorry I have neglected you for briefer posts on facebook.

I am looking forward to Christmas. Though our grand travel plans fell through, I'm still taking the whole week off and we are planning a fantastic staycation. Portland- like we've never seen it before! we're going to pretend we're tourists, take more mass transit and do more walking and exploring. I have heard there is a Wells Fargo museum in the downtown Wells Fargo building, I plan to go find out.

Now, I must go deliver some cookies to the neighbors.

Snuggie'd up for the Holiday's!

My letter to Craigslist

2009-11-04T20:24:00.000-08:00

Hi there Craigslist,

I have had an interesting experience using craigslist. I posted an ad over a year ago, I believe it was September 2nd, '08. (http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/zip/824617471.html) The ad was for free meal worms, and I was sort of panicked by this mass of meal worms in my worm bin and I posted the ad quite quickly and didn't use my craigslist account. Shortly after I had my neighbor come and take care of my meal worm issue, so I went in and deleted the ad. or so I thought..... Then I also deleted the posting emails. My mistake! I am STILL regularly getting phone calls and responses from this ad. I was under the impression that ads get deleted after 30 days. Mine seems to be out there in some craigslist vortex full of people desperate for meal worms.... who knew? I had no idea so many people would want meal worms.

In conclusion, could you please delete this ad that won't die? I don't have any more meal worms.

Thank you,

-Cori

Those disappearing chickens

2009-09-13T22:19:00.000-07:00

Here is a double yolker from Giles next to a store bought egg. Giles' eggs are stil smaller, but they sure are a lot more orange and really really tasty!

My mom was here today, and again a chicken goes missing. What is up with that? Buffy was completely disappeared, I couldn't find her. until I finally spotted her, on a little nest tucked away next to the deck! i pushed her right off to see what she was hiding, and she had laid 6 eggs! I took them all, and she sat back down and laid another one.

All from our chickens!

Small World Stories

2009-09-03T22:23:00.001-07:00

I was working on a bit of a real estate transaction, doing some late night work from home. I wanted to make sure I had the correct email address for a certain agent, so I looked up her company's website. While looking at her personal info profile I scrolled to the bottom of the page where there were three photos. The middle photo being a picture that I took of this woman playing guitar at John Henry's in Eugene, oh say, 9 or 10 years ago. I thought she looked familiar when I had met her before, but I figured it was from seeing her at open houses and such.

Today I was at a Listing Appt with my boss. Towards the end the client tells us that she has also interviewed another agent who she was referred to by a painter she knows. Turns out this agent is someone from our office who we've closed 2 or 3 transactions with recently. So maybe we'll co-list it.

I would like to get an exact number for how many realtors there are in Portland. It has got to be many thousands. I heard someone say 6,000, but not sure where they got that number. There are probably fewer now than there were a few years ago, but there are still many many Realtors out there in the Portland metro area.

Eggs!

2009-08-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

The other morning I couldn't find Giles. I went out to let the other chickens out of the coop, and seh was already gone! So I totally panicked. She has gotten out of the coop before, but usually she comes running as soon as she hears the back door open. So my Mom and jeff and I wandered around the neighborhood a bit, peeking in backyards, looking for Giles. I even set up a ladder in the backyard to look over the neighbors fence. My mom and I were in the backyard and all of a sudden she appeared, in front of the bees. My mom peeked around the bees to see if she had come out of a hole in the fence or what, and there was a nest of 5 eggs!

She also recently started doing this thing when you go to pet her, she hunkers down and sticks her wings up. It's hilarious. My mom said it's a breeding thing, that's what they do to the rosters before the rooster stomps all over them!

I wonder if the other chickens will do that too before they start laying their eggs.

Caption Contest?

2009-07-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

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'!

2009-06-06T17:03:00.000-07:00

Rosie loves her chicken babies.

Chickens

2009-05-14T20:59:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-14T20:43:00.000-07:00

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

Happy Easter Zombie Jesus Day

2009-04-12T15:01:00.000-07:00

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

Chicks!

2009-04-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-25T19:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-19T09:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-18T19:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-16T20:19:00.001-07:00

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

obsessing over chicken coops

2009-03-02T21:05:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-02-25T13:19:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-10T14:02:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-06T20:52:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-12-04T15:49:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-01T13:50:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-12T14:17:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-12T13:59:00.000-08:00

We went to the pumpkin patch.

Is my dog possessed?

A little bit late

2008-11-12T13:53:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-05T10:30:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-23T21:13:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-11T21:20:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-01T19:06:00.001-07:00

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

Meal Worms are a Hot Commodity

2008-09-02T22:16:00.000-07:00

Today I had a traumatic worm bin experience. I went out to feed the worms, and in my bin was a huge mass of wiggling meal worms. HUGE meal worms. Totally nasty! The big wiggly mass was surrounded by a huge ringed mass of the red worms. I think the red worms are eating the meal worms! I was so so so grossed out. I can handle the red wigglers, but the fatty meal worms are too gross. I couldn't handle getting in there and trying to take them out myself, so I thought I'd post them on craigslist. I wrote up my post, then called my neighbor to see if he would want them for his chickens. He did, he came over and of course the mass that would have been so easy to scoop out had scattered. Perhaps been eaten? There were still a bunch down below that had wiggled under the surface. But not nearly the huge wiggly mass that it was. After my neighbor took the worms I opened the confirmation email from craigslist and I thought I hit delete to delete the post. Then I deleted the email. But evidently, my post didn't delete. I've been getting tons of calls and emails for meal worms! One lady even called me and told me that there is a nation wide shortage of meal worms right now, so none of the pet stores have them. She says "If you get more, you could try to sell them to the pet stores. They could be worth a lot of money."

Pictures from recent adventures

2008-08-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

Evilcat's wedding

And following dance partay!

Vacay at Mercer Lake

Seafood

Rosie learned to use a diving board!

Cowfish at Newport Aquarium

A bear!

Whoops...

2008-08-04T21:42:00.000-07:00

Hello internet! Oh man, it's been over a month since a post! How pathetic a blogger am I! Well, for one thing, I have hardly even been in one place long enough to sit down long enough to type up a post. There have been 4 consecutive weekend trips to the Eugene area and around and back, along with weddings and coast trips. There has been much home organizing and furniture arranging, as well as working and wedding planning and birthday having.

So now I am 28. and in less than 6 weeks I'll be hitched.

The planning is coming along quite splendidly, though I still have moments of pure stress induced panic. There are still so man little things..... (If anyone wants to make me mix CD's of dance music, it would be greatly appreciated)

As far as random updates go, the bees are buzz buzz buzzing around, the worm population has grown and is happily munching my food scraps, the garden is going totally nuts even after sporadic watering habits.

I'll try to post some pics soon, I've been taking so many and had no time to post any!

First Beekeeper Bee-sting

2008-06-26T22:53:00.000-07:00

It was bound to happen sooner or later, right? I got into the hive the other day to feed the bees and add the second super. Some poor bee got under my veil somehow and in my collar and left half it's ass in my neck.

Here it is on the bathroom sink after Jeff pulled it out for me.

My neck and baking soda.

So it looks like I'm not allergic, that's a plus. I can' remember the last time I got a beesting, but I think i was in my early teens. Possible still tweens.

It didn't hurt that bad though, and it only hurt for a minute. then it got a litlle itchy a day or two later.

Crow baby

2008-06-10T00:29:00.000-07:00

I was doing the dishes the other evening when there was a huge commotion of crows in the backyard. They seemed increasingly agitated so I went to investigate. Rosie was at the side of the yard, obviously intrigued by something and being dive bombed by crows. Turns out there was a little fledgeling on the ground she was after. We got her inside and I asked Jeff to get a box from the basement. I got on my garden gloves, sorta herded the crow into the corner, and picked it up. While picking it up I thought it was certainly injured, it was covered in Rosie slobber and I thought it's wing was messed up. I could have sworn I saw a bone. So I put the baby in a box, and called the Humane Society, who gave me the phone number for the Audobon Society, who weren't open but wisely have very detailed messages as to what to do with an injured bird and lots of good information on fledgeling birds. So this baby bird spent the night in a box in our basement under a laundry crate and weighted down with a paint can. I provided a towel, water in a jar lid, some raw sunflower seeds, a bite of cantaloupe and a heat pad under part of the box as recommended by the Audobon Society answering machine.

It's amazing, baby birds have blue eyes! just like other baby animals!

Did you know that crows are very familial? The young live with their parents for around 2 years and help raise the next brood.

The next morning I took the baby to the Audobon society, where I waited around for the vet to examine it. They took it out, gave it a flight test, determined that it was uninjured and had probably been on the ground learning to fly for a few days. Fledgeling birds can spend 2-5 days on eh ground learning to fly and hunt for food. So what often looks like an "abandoned" baby bird is not so.

They said what I thought was a bone was a feather shaft or something and that yes, they look scared to death and broken after an experience like being attacked by a dog. Baby crow's parents were looking for him that morning, flying around our yard and cawing. It was heartbreaking. So I was very happy to hear that I should take it back home and release it under the tree where it's nest is. Which is in our neighbors yard, not ours!

I opened the lid and it sat there, then I went to give it some help out of the box and away it flew! All the way into the park across the street!

This would have been titled "Rosie strikes again" But it turned out she didn't really strike. She scared the baby, but didn't actually hurt it.

Narrow Escape

2008-05-22T10:16:00.000-07:00

I just got excused from jury duty based on discretionary standards. Whoo! That's a relief!

Worm Bin

2008-05-22T09:57:00.001-07:00

When my mom was here about a week ago we left my house to walk to the Waffle hut for lunch. From there we decided to go to the elementary school o see if Emme was out on the playground. We walked past a house that was getting some work done, and there was a trailer full of garbage with a great big wood box on top. I said "That would be the perfect worm bin!". We found the owner and asked him if we could have it, he said sure and got it out of the trash for us. It has big metal wheels and metal handles on the ends too. So I hooked Rosie to it and she towed it home!

We got out the drill and drilled some big holes in the sides for ventilation. I covered them with that permeable ground cloth that I've ben pulling up from everywhere in our yard. I hate that stuff, it's the worst temporary fix. Put cloth down everywhere and cover it with barkamulch, so the weeds can just grow on top instead. But at least I found one good use for it. It should keep the worms from crawling out the ventilation holes anyway!

We shredded a bunch of newspaper and wet it down and added peat moss as well for the worms bedding. We went to my favorite local nursery and bought half a pound of red wigglers. 1 pound is supposedly 1000 worms (no that anyone counts them!) so I should have about 500.

1 pound of worms can eat 7 pounds of scraps a week!

There it is in all its worm bin glory:

One lucky afternoon and I now have a functioning worm bin. Soon I will have fabulous compost!

Wading Pools and Slip N' Slides

2008-05-18T17:39:00.001-07:00

I love summer heat

Bees Update

2008-05-18T17:17:00.001-07:00

The other day it got warm and the bees went crazy! They were very busy bees. But it was only a great big swarm for about 20 minutes, then they went back to normal.

I had to get in the hive again on Wednesday to take out the bee box they came in and to put in more frames and feed them more sugar syrup. This time AL was m brave photog.

Here's the smoker and the hive and the pot of sugar syrup. The sugar syrup is 2 parts sugar to one cup water. I think i did 6 cups of sugar this time.

The smoker totally works! I was truly amazed. They run right back into the depths between the frames.

Moving the frames around.....

Buzz buzz bees

I think I found my queen. She's a little longer than the others. She was sort of at the end of my finger when this picture was taken, but I can't find her in the pic. Even when I try to zoom in.

Reclaiming the Yard

2008-05-18T16:30:00.000-07:00

Our backyard had been lost under butterfly bush branches for too long!
AL helped me reclaim my yard, she stacked all teh branches and we mowed. and I've been weeding....

BEFORE

AFTER

I'm a Beekeeper now!

2008-05-09T17:35:00.000-07:00

I picked up my 3 lbs of bees today.

Here are some stacks of bee boxes at the bee supply place. My bees were actually in much larger stacks!

Here they are in the back of my trunk, along with a few other bee necessities. Like a bee suit, and a hat. (The home fax/copier/scanner is not for the bees.) The lady at the bee place said "You DO NOT want to let them tip over in your car." The sound of them buzzing was pretty intense.

Hanging out in their box in my garage.

One big mass of bees in a box.

They're really really pretty..... The pics just don't do them justice. They're amazingly yellow and kind of glow. I took SO MANY pictures and just couldn't quite get it. My bees are Italian bees, they're supposed to be less aggressive then the Carniolans, black bees, which were the other option. The Italians are yellow, the usual honey bee, and of course they like pasta and wine.

Got the suit! Got the hat! Got the veil! Got the gloves! Got the BEES!

When I tilt the box back and forth, the bee mass tilts too.....

First you get your hive ready. Then you pull out the can of bee food which is also the box stopper. It was really hard to get out, and my gloves are way too big. So I had to take a glove off.

I had to put the glove back on REALLY FAST because once I got that plug out those bees started flying everywhere!

Lucky for me, Tina was nice enough and brave enough to get and stay close enough to take all these pictures. Here's the rest of the audience. As soon as those bees started flying they decided that a further vantage point was probably a better idea!

Checking on the queen...... She's in her own little box. I had to pull the cork out and plug the hole with marshmallows. The bees will eat the marshmallows to release their queen.

Unplugging the bee box again!

Putting the box in the hive..... I read 3 different sets of directions on how to deal with package bees, and each said different things. I decided I liked the one that said to put the whole box in and leave it in for a week instead of the ones that say to shake all the bees out.

Putting in the feeder tray. I made lots of sugar syrup to fill the feeder tray. 2 parts sugar to one part water. Now I have to go by more sugar and make even more! I also put little wood chunks in it for the bees to float on, to prevent them from drowning in their food.

Then you dump the bee food all over the inside of the hive.

There's the bee box in the hive with 5 frames and the feeder frame.

Pretty sugar syrup everywhere!

Putting on the cover.

Yay! All done!

That was pretty intense. I had a bee inside my veil right away. But I didn't get stung! Neither did Tina, and she was only about 4 or 5 feet away from me. One landed on her arm and just hung out for a minute. When I pulled that plug and they started flying everywhere my heart started beating a little bit faster. It was pretty neat though, dealing with all those bees. I'm excited to have my own pet honeybees!
Now according to some directions I'm supposed to leave them for a week and not get in the hive at all, according to others I'm supposed to get in there after 24 hours and THEN let them release the queen, then get in there in another 24 and find the queen, and all this other stuff. I think I'll get in there in a few days to take out the queen box and maybe the bee box and check and make sure they have enough food. I'll compromise somewhere in the middle of all the varying directions.

Wedding blog

2008-04-27T13:54:00.001-07:00

I started a wedding blog for all pertinent wedding info and updates if anyone wants to check it out

Things are growing

2008-04-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

The sun came out for day, so I went out in the garden.
Our backyard is still under a pile of butterfly bush branches. I have borrowed a chipper from the neighbors twice, and both times it didn't work. First time it was broken and she didn't know, second it still wasn't working right and just wouldn't stay running.
I worked on weeding the front yard and pulling up the nasty horrible annoying weed fabric that seems to be hiding EVERYWHERE in our yard.

Exciting coming alongs:

First dahlia shoot!

the strawberries are getting crazy!

Still no sign of asparagus.......

Bees!

2008-04-09T13:11:00.000-07:00

I took a little bee keeping class..... the last class was last night. It was all really interesting, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to go ahead and do it or not. For one thing, the equipment is kind of expensive and the whole thing is a little intimidating. But then I dreamed about bees all night. I woke up and knew I wanted a backyard beehive. So today I ordered bees! 3 pounds of bees and they arrive on May 5th. So I have until then to collect my supplies and set up a hive. I have been checking craigslist for used supplies and so far I have some good leads. I may be able to set it all up for quite a lot less than I feared! I'm also comforted by the fact that I don't HAVE to set it up to harvest honey and if I do I can't do it until next summer anyway! The thing I find the most intimidating about the hive management is that every spring you're supposed to find your queen bee, kill her and smear her on the front of the baseboard of the hive. Then get a new queen be to put in the hive after 24 hours...... Something about that just really bothers me! Poor queen, works hard for you all year and then you smear her! How rude! It's so brutal!

Easter Arrivals

2008-03-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

My brother has a new companion.

We made a mad dash trip down to the Eug for Easter festivities and to meet the new addition to our family. World, drool over Baxter. Our new little fuzzy guy friend. He is way too painfully cute, and I just don't think I can post enough pictures of him to really do it justice..... but I'll try.

the best part for me was that Rosie was very nice to the puppy, they even played a little bit!

We did fun Easter Stuff too. The egg hunt, the dyeing of eggs, the making and eating of good food.....

babysitting adventures

2008-03-23T20:23:00.001-07:00

We had some kids over to party on friday night. We did some awesome sculpting, let me tell ya! This ones my fav, it's an elephant as you can see!

Here are the artists with the masterpiece:

the masterpiece itself! it is a pirate ship, and the pirate and mermaid are on their honeymoon.

the smallest artist borrowed my shoes.

Pi Day

2008-03-14T19:59:00.000-07:00

Happy Pi day! Jeff made onion pies for his classes. I didn't get to try any, evidently there weren't any leftovers!

Wedding Clothing

2008-03-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I thought i was going to work, but all the work evaporated. I called AL and we made a mad dash trip to the Gap Outlet in Woodburn, where we purchased a grip of dresses for all my bridesmaids..... We had talked about making them and I wanted to model them after the black dress I got from the Gap to wear in Anatomists wedding. AL said to me on Wednesday "They have them at the Gap Outlet in gray. And they're on sale." 24$ each. not bad, i say. and my sister found the shoes everyone's going to wear, at Target online for $20. After the outlet mall AL and I went to NW 23rd to a silk dress store where I had tried on dresses with my Mom and Sis awhile back. There was this one dress that I just really loved..... So I talked to the guy about what I wanted, the gray green color and similar style to the dress I tried on, but with a few changes. He said they only had enough of the fabric for one more dress and he was supposed to be holding it for someone else. I was SO bummed..... Then he seemed to reconsider, said that this color was only one of three choices this other woman was deciding between. So he said he would make it up for me and tell her she'll have to pick something similar or one of her other choices. I think he realized that he would make more money giving me what I wanted, especially since I said I wanted to have a tie made and some other things. So i totally lucked out, and am so glad we went in when we did because if I had gone in Saturday it might have been too late! And in the end I'm getting a custom made silk dress for $305. Wedding plans are rolling right along. It's seems so far yet so close, only 6 months from yesterday. We'll be sending out our save the date magnets real soon! I'm talking to a caterer about whether I can do a pig roast within my budget. Maybe if ALL they do is the pig..... We'll see.

Night of Magic

2008-03-08T20:58:00.000-08:00

Jeff and I attended the PTA fundraiser event of the YEAR last night, the NIGHT OF MAGIC! It was a big ol' silent auction AND a live auction. There were fancy snack foods, lots of booze, and a 16 piece string band followed by a DJ. It was a strange scene, but was a total blast! You could buy a pint glass or wine glass (with the school name and logo on 'em) for $5 and have endless beer or wine. I was misinformed and thought there was dinner, so I hadn't eaten beforehand. There was no dinner, but I made up for that in beer and horsdouevres. We bid on a few things, Jeff and some other parents conspired to win a day with the kindergarten teacher for 4 of the kids. So those kids are pretty freaking lucky, and they're excited about that. I got myself a sweet paid of adidas for $10. Afterwards we went out for drinks with some of the other parents. It was the latest I've stayed out in a long time, and today I had one of the worst hangovers I've had in AGES. I'm just so boring these days. It often strikes me as funny and odd that I spend my time going to PTA functions and such...... The right words for all of it elude me.

Asparagus trench!

2008-03-05T17:07:00.000-08:00

Back in the garden again

2008-02-28T19:06:00.000-08:00

I love plants. I love planting plants. Today I discovered a new heaven in North Portland. I went to Pistils Nursery on Mississippi. It's beautiful. I can't even describe how happy that place made me and I'm even happier that it's really close to my house. They sell all sorts of cool plants, indoor plants and outdoor plants and air plants and garden stuff and chickens and everything. They even teach classes on keeping chickens in the city and Vermiculture and beekeeping! I think I'll start small, vermiculture for sure and MAYBE beekeeping......

We got started on some major yard work this last weekend and I am now a woman possessed. We moved our 4 blueberry bushes from the middle of the yard (not the most convenient place, not very Rosie running or soccer ball kicking friendly) to a lovely patch on the side of the yard. We made a little area next to them for an herb garden. Today I got strawberry plants (I showed great restraint, that is ALL I got at my new heaven) and I planted them around the blueberry bushes. I think I'm going to plant some asparagus and some rhubarb on the other side of the blueberries from the herbs. I think if we keep the butterfly bushes under control then the plants should get enough light there. They had some really nice asparagus crowns at Pistils, big ones. So maybe we'll only have to wait 2 years for a harvest.

In other news, I got a part time job to ensure some consistent income. It's intense, but so far it's going well. I work in an office in Multnomah Village for a Commercial Real Estate Broker and Investor, he also manages properties and assets. I've been writing up a lot of commercial leases. Our office is right next to a really nice yarn shop, so that could be trouble.

Time for a Promotion

2008-02-22T08:36:00.000-08:00

Ok here it goes, shameless promotion! I helped my dad set up some websites for their condo in Roatan. Please Please PLEASE take look and link to us!

InfinityBayCondo
RoatanCondoRental

They're both the same content, just different web addresses. If anyone has feedback/suggestions/advice it would be much appreciated.
There is a link to our flickr site on the sites,
and here are a few other pictures too:

These are of the beach and ocean on a stormier day, usually the water is flat and clear as glass.

Silly parrots!

Snorkeling

Oh Brothers

The Fam represents

quick visit

2008-02-15T17:19:00.000-08:00

Anatomist and Jack stopped by for lunch on their way to Eugene. I had a lot of work to do, but that didn't stop me from doing some baby holding.

VDay

2008-02-15T17:13:00.001-08:00

I had a great Valentine's day. I've never been a big fan of the holiday, so expectations are low, but I've gotten over hating it too. My gorgeous man friend brought me a 10 lb pag of oranges and 2 six packs of yummy beer. I was quite thrilled! We had some friends over for dinner and some trivial pursuit, it was a lovely time.

Pulling Teeth

2008-01-31T19:07:00.000-08:00

Emme had this really loose tooth for quite awhile..... so the other night we tied a string around it and she pulled it right out. Pretty exciting stuff! It was the second tooth she has lost.

Bday Party Weekend

2008-01-31T11:29:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I attended Pulpshopgirl's Dead Celebrity Party

I went as Keiko, who just happened to be the only non-human dead celebrity in the "Gone Too Soon" Publication

I had the pleasure of socializing with Anna Nicole Smith and Natalie Wood

and enjoyed some easy cheese and snacks with Patsy Cline and Sonny Bono

Saturday was Emme's 6th birthday.
We made two elaborate pirate cakes

We had a party at the rollerskating rink, and an after skate party at a pizza parlor

It was a weekend chock full of succesful celebrating!

Oh Bloggie Blog

2008-01-07T21:32:00.001-08:00

Dear Bloggie Blog, I apologize for neglecting you. It is one of my New Year's Resolutions to update you more frequently. I'll try to be a better blogger. other resolutions: get up early and walk Rosie every morning. work smarter and harder. make more money. go out more. (that will be easier if the money one pans out, and when winter starts to ease up. I hope.)
Roatan was awesome, I am currently constructing a blog for my Dad for my parent's condo, I'll let you know when it's more presentable. It will have it's own flickr site, and lots and lots of pictures. I think I took about 400 when I was there.
I went snorkelying, and Aubry and I saw a turtle and a big spotted eagle ray. The ray was a bit scary, at least when it turned and started swimming our way!
The holidays were a whirlwind, lots and lots of fun.
We had Emme on Christmas eve and day, Christmas is a lot more fun with little kids involved. We went to th eBlazer's game on Christmas with our neighbors, it was great. It was their 11th win in a row, and lots of people think thats pretty special.
New years was fun, Kungfuramone was in the PDX, and we had a bloody mary shindig New Years day at our place with lots of fun peeps who I like a lot and don't get to see enough.
The week after New Years was fun, I worked a bit and did house stuff, but Jeff wasn't working and we didn't have Emme so we pretty much holed up and watched a lot of "The Office" in our basement.
That's all for now folks.....

Back Home

2007-12-24T13:21:00.000-08:00

I'm back fom Roatan. I had a great trip! It was crazy to be in a one bedroom apartment with my entire family for a week. That's the first time all 7 of us have taken a vacation together. and we actually got along ok...... We had many adventures,

Roatan, Honduras

2007-12-21T06:34:00.000-08:00

I am on the island of Roatan, off the coast of Honduras. Staying at Infinity Bay where my parents bought a condo. It's really beautiful here, and it's really wamr now that it stopped raining. I'm going to spend today snorkeling and laying on the beach.I head back to Portland tomorrow, so I need to soak up as much sun as possible before going back to the rain.

Plumbers in Training

2007-12-10T22:43:00.000-08:00

I've had many adventures over the past few weeks, some good, some not so good.
Believe it or not, this was one of the better ones..... We had a new hot water heater put in, (Yay! tankless! Endless hotwater, it's AWESOME!) but changing out the hotwater heater kicked up some sediment and clogged the hot side of the faucet. We didn't have any water pressure with the hot water in the kitchen, not even enough to keep it running hot. So first we took apart the hot water valve under the sink, because it wouldn't shut off all the way. So we turned off the water to the house, assuming the hot water valve was goign to be our problem, took that all apart and cleaned it out. Got the wire brush stuck and had to take apart more of the valve to get the valve out, then finally put it all back together to have nothing different. though we did have a great time turning the water on and off to flush out the pipes. Jeff didn't quite believe me that it would come shooting STRAIGHT out of the wall.

Next, we took apart our faucet. We disconnected the whole big ugly old thing. Only to find out that there was no way to clean out the little pipes where the clog must be. Now since we couldn't turn our hot water valve off at the sink, since it wouldn't turn off all the way, we had to re-connect our faucet, just to leave it dangling there under the sink, so that we could turn our water back on. Because, by this time, it was late and Home Depot and Lowes were closed.

In the meantime, we also realized that our P-trap was leaking. Very poorly put together, the plastic piece going up into the first pipe that comes down from the drain was not actually secured, just kind of shoved up there...

I go to Home Depot the next day and buy a new faucet, a new valve and a new p-trap. We also had this weird water filter thing in our sink that we didn't use, so we were going to take it out. The filter dispenser was at a fourth hole, so I assumed it was a regular 4 hole sink. So I bought the faucet with a sprayer. We go to install our new faucet, and remove the water filter only to find the hole for the filter is teeny tiny. So Jeff goes ahead and manages to cut the hole big enough for our sprayer. Yay! We install the faucet with much success.

On to the P-trap:
we discover we have two, I guess I will call them female ends though its kinda hard to figure with plumbing..... two female ends that meet where there should be some sort of male end.
Another trip to Home Depot, in the meantime we have a 5 gallon bucket under the sink as our drain.
After some good advice and some cheap parts from the Depot, we manage to put the whole thing back together. And it doesn't leak!
I got to do the laundry basket full of dishes and put the garbage back under the sink, it's all much better now. It was fun, we learned a lot and it was a funny interesting debacle.

on the side of bad adventures, Rosie got in a dog fight and I owe some people a lot of $ for vet bills. That's not a fun story though. Plumbing is much more entertaining.

who knew pipe cleaners were this much fun?

2007-12-10T22:19:00.000-08:00

Xmas tree adventures

2007-12-04T14:44:00.000-08:00

tree cutting

tree carrying

Emme's a tree!

Rosie helping

ornament hanging

We got our tree out on Sauvie Island. I chatted with the tree farmer for a little while. He bought the place in the 70s with his wife and their 6 kids. They went on to have 2more kids. This last spring he fell out of one of his tall trees, really tall trees, and fractured his skull and broke his back and pelvis and other things, all in multiple places. He said that was it for his wife, and they've sold the farm. So this was their last season. He was telling us that Anthony Keidis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers flew outa few times. He didn't know who he was, he asked keidis what he did for aliving and he said "I write and sing songs." i guess keidis didn't buy the farm, he bought a downtown condo for his dad instead. Some people from California bought it. It's highly unlikely they'll be farming Christmas trees on it though.

Thanksgiving and more!

2007-11-26T14:42:00.000-08:00

here's a brief recap of the highlights of the last couple weeks:

We had a nice visit with Anatomist and baby Jack, Jack just loved Emme, it was the cutest thing. Whenever she would get in front of him he was all smiles!

(sorry I didn't rotate this picture, I'm lazy)

We visited Silver Creek Falls, looks like this is where we're going to have the wedding! We're going to see if we can rent out their Youth Camp for a weekend in September of '08.

Thanksgiving dinner at the fam's! We spent a couple of days down in Eugene, it was nice and relaxing. Just hanging around not doing much of anything. Except eating. and eating.

We had a thanksgiving sequel at our house with Jeff's family, it was fun. Kids playing Twister! it's funny to have to tell them which is their right and which is their left every time.

here's me, Emme, and a very sleepy Rosie.

Halloween addendum

2007-11-12T16:08:00.000-08:00

For those who didn't know and couldn't tell - I was dressed as Inside Out Girl. "I've got what every kid's got inside: GUTS!"

Halloween

2007-11-05T14:13:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from Halloween. It's been a long time since I've gone trick or treating!

We had a good time chasing a group of 5 year old's around the neighborhood in the dark for almost 2 hours.

squirrel jerky

2007-10-17T20:24:00.000-07:00

This morning Rosie was out in the backyard chewing on something. I saw that she had this large black thing, and I instantly knew it was something old and dead. Emme said it looked like a big piece of bark. I got some newspaper and retrieved it from her. Thankfully she let me take it. It was indeed a dried out mummified, and I assume, was a squirrel. Or a giant rat. But they're pretty similar anyway.

what a weekend!

2007-10-14T21:56:00.000-07:00

Friday morning I got up early and made my way up to Seattle for a brief visit.

I hung out with Sydney

I finally got to meet Anatomist's baby Jack! Here he is sporting the baby bolero I made for him. The sleeves are extra wide to accomodate the big biceps he's working on. This was also the first time he held a toy!

The impoetus for my trip was a baby shower for Ms. Khya, here she is sporting Jack on her shelf.

Khya and her baby daddy have a ghosts and monsters theme going on. So I designed a little hat.....

Here's it's close up

the shower was fun, I wrote some haikus:

Khya once lived a
life of booze and partying
that is now over

Baby bumps are hot
Celebrities say it's so
Khya's bump is best

I took off shortly after the shower and headed back to Portland. I got home and started cleaning.
Today I have been super duper productive! besides lots of cleaning, organizing, and tree trimming, Jeff and I went to Costco and got a Costco membership! We bought way too much food of course. Should last us through the winter...... A few weeks ago a co-worker gave me a little freezer. It's really the perfect size for an extra freezer, it's shorter than me and not too heavy. So I finally cleaned it up and we got it into the basement. To put our frozen Costco goods in of course. I suddenly feel very grown up. Like all the other stuff, the career, the homeowning, the PTA meetings and step parenting, none of it quite did it. It was the Costco membership and the extra freezer.

Rosie pic time

2007-10-11T14:21:00.000-07:00

Kindergarten Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

2007-10-11T14:13:00.001-07:00

On top of the hay pyramid

In the hay maze

on the hay ride

warty pumpkins?

Baltimore!

2007-10-11T14:01:00.000-07:00

Jeff and his Momma

My first ride in a limo

These ladies boogie down! Some of these dancing beauties are about 75 years old!

Jeff and his uncle, the father of the bride

It was a flash in the pan trip, but it was a total blast!

patience

2007-10-04T16:36:00.000-07:00

Lately I feel like I'm always waiting. Waiting for some kind of answer/plan/timeline/date. I'm waiting today to see how our childcare plans will work out to find out whether or not we're flying to Baltimore tomorrow at 5:30 am. We have the tickets, but might not be able to use them. Waiting to see whether or not I need to pack...... I'm waiting to find out other things to figure out when I can plan a wedding. When we can pick a date. Everything is on hold and I'm so tired of waiting. I seem to possess a patience I either did not previously have, or it's just never been tested this way. I give full credit to my mom, I'm sure I learned it from her.
I have been overwhelmed this week with our stuff, as well as with co-workers, close friends, and family who are dealing with tragedy. So much in one week, it's unbelievable.
But when the worst happens to people you know and love it does seem to have the effect of bringing out the good things and putting many other things in perspective. I know I am lucky lucky lucky and I will wait and wait and wait if that is what I have to do.

storytime

2007-09-25T15:26:00.000-07:00

Ahoy Matey's!

2007-09-23T17:18:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the Portland Pirate Festival. It sure was piratey! We got to see Captain Bogg & Salty, which was very exciting. If you have never heard them I recommend picking up an album. We also saw parrots, sword fights, puppet shows, big ships, pirate treasures and cannon battles!

dancing a pirate jig

treasure hunters

a pirate and his parrot

a true pirate parrot

a parrot and a pirate

argh ye scurvy scallywags!

pirates pirates everywhere

bling bling

2007-09-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

Thar it is. He went and popped the question and I said yes!

Actually, I think what I really said was more like "Oh baby you know I will."

what's new

2007-09-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

Emme started kindergarten today! This picture really sums it up.

I built a patio over the last week. With a little bit of help. We're trying to get corsican mint to grow in between the rocks.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting this goat:

and this llama:

but that's another story.....
I am enjoying taking pictures with my new digital camera, the Canon SD1000. It's the simplest feature-less camera ever, totally basic point and shoot. At first I thought I'd hate it, but now I love it.
Of course a million other things have been going on. Some I just don't feel are appropriate to blog about and some are too boring and then there's so many other things that don't get blogged because I'm just too dang busy!

inexcusable

2007-08-22T15:42:00.000-07:00

I know, the length of time I have been gone is inexcusable. Though I'll try to make excuses: oh so so so busy busy busy, and moving, and no internet at home for way too long.
There. That's done.
Instead of trying to update all the stuff that has happened over the past month +, (anatomists wedding was a blast, moving into my new house has been great, work has been ok-good) I'm just jumping right back into the swing of things.
Friday I'm going golfing. Today I went to Goodwill with a co-worker to assemble our golf costumes. I don't golf, this is a company golf event we are attending. So I bought a few clubs at the Goodwill because I think it will be cheaper than renting some, and more entertaining to have old clubs with funny names. I got a pink skirt with white polka dots and attached undershorts, all brown saddle shoes, a white polo shirt with thin bright multi-colored stripes, and i will add my own plaid hat and argyle socks.
I'll try to take pictures.
And this leads me to my technology issues. Today I have been trying to solve them, or at least take the necessary steps. I have had many technology issues lately. Lucky for me, kungfuramone may be solving one of the biggest. Back to my old complaints of not being able to use the multiple listing service because it's not mac compatible, KFR just might be hooking me up with an old PC laptop so I can work from home. HALLELUJAH! Now this is BIG people, BIG!!!! Because in the upcoming weeks I may be hanging out quite a bit with the wee Emme before she starts kindergarten and the office is not a very fun place for her. So being able to work from home will be so so great! As for my other technology issues, my old Pentax digital camera kicked the bucket. So I am ordering a new camera. I found a great deal on the Canon SD1000. My Powerbook has been randomly shutting itself off because the Operating System has been quitting unexpectedly. So I am getting an external hard drive to back everything up before I have the operating system re-installed. I'e been needign to buy an external hard drive for ages anyway, because I have tons of photos that need storing. I'm also trying to get Jeff's old Emac working wireless and need either an old airport card, which I've seen from $90 - $130, or a USB wireless adapter which I think i found for $30. I feel I have accomplished a lot in one afternoon of floor time. I did get a call today, from someone trying to sell me a technology class for Realtors! HA!
now, after this EXCITING post, did you miss me or what?

Success story

2007-07-18T21:31:00.000-07:00

Today I signed for the sale of one home and the purchase of another. Pretty eventful day!
My trip to the Eug was productive, we readied Alder st for its change of ownership. Also the timing was good, because my brother Braden had to get lung surgery. So I'm glad we were down there to visit him in the hospital. He was still there when we left, but hopefully will go home tomorrow. He has to go home with the tube in his side. His lung collapsing has been much more severe than mine was.
Now to toot my own horn: "Toot! toot toot!" I did some math today, and once my sale and purchase fund and close I will have done over $1,000,000.00 in Real Estate transactions. I think that's pretty good for my first 7 months!

Where Have I Been?

2007-07-13T20:12:00.000-07:00

My apologies for being a neglectful blogger, I didn't mean to be away for so long! I have been to Eugene and back a couple of times. Had a fun 4th, did the Butte to Butte with my parents, Jeff, and my brother Braden. Also the 2 Saif's, my parents exchange students from United Arab Emirates. They're cousins, and tehy're both named Saif. One of the Saifs came in 40th with the runners! We were all very impressed. He didn't even train! He doesn't even run regularly. After the Butte to Butte we helped my sister move back home. I had to kick her and her friends out of my old house, since we sold it and all. After moving all day in the heat, and then lazing about, Jeff and I lost all motivation to do anything productive. We went to bed outside on the deck, listened to fireworks squeal and probaby fell asleep around 10.
I just got back from a quick daytrip to Eugene for a closing for some old friends. Very exciting! They got a great house in Glenwood, it's an awesome house with a gorgeous yard and has CRAZY low taxes. The lowest I've ever seen and probably the lowest I will ever see. Glenwood is in the process of doing a huge urban renewal plan, it's pretty awesome! Look for amazing riverfront development coming soon to Glenwood near you......
I am also heading back down to Eugene on Sunday, will spend a few days down there finishing everything up at the Alder house and signing papers for it's sale.
This evening I'm going to go see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I'ma little disappointed in myself for not going the other night at midnight when it came out, but I'm a working girl these days. Tonight will be more fun as tehre is a bigger group going now too. I am also realy excited, because I found a bookstore in Anacortes that is having a midnight release party next Friday. See, i will be at Deception pass for anatomists wedding. I was quite worried about not getting my book, but now I'm getting my book and you can guess what anatomist and pope urbane are getting for wedding presents!

Big Cori and Little Cori

2007-07-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

Friday morning one of the first things Emme said to me was "Cori, I want to look like you." I said "Really, in what way?" and she said "The clothes!" She insisted that we match that day. So we wore dark blue jeans, light blue t-shirts, red jackets, and black shoes, and we put black clips in our hair in the same place. I was kind of amazed we managed to match as well as we did. She came to the office with me that day, so I had a 5 y.o. mini me. It was hilarious. She would even insist that we button or unbotton our coats the same. Such attention to detail! She started calling herself little Cori and then I was of course Big Cori. (I really wish I had pictures...)

In other cuteness:

Emme and Rosie

Rosie and Cholumley playing!

Rosie has gone from barking like crazy and nipping at Emme, to doing tricks for her and snuggling with her at night. Amazing improvements, I am totally thrilled and relieved.
Rosie and Cholumley have also come a long way in their friendship. They play! They chase each other around, and Cholums will roll on his back and bat at her face! He also does this hilarious rev-up thing with his back legs, and then he charges her! I lvoe that Rosie makes kitty friends. She's not so good with doggie friends, but at least there's some hope. I think we might have to get her a kitty. It'd be better than getting another dog.

it looks like I bought a house....

2007-06-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

It's super cute, and right across the street from a park, and down the street from a bigger park......
We are set to close on July 23rd. I'm just crossing my fingers that it all works out!

I've been super busy, lots of work, househunting and purchasing, voyages to various places, and more to come this weekend and so on.....I'm exhausted! by the time it's 8 pm all I want to do is go to bed. I went to bed really early last night, it's weird going to bed when it's still light out.

Bill Clinton is a playa

2007-06-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

I put this picture as a repeating tile on my desktop in my profile at work. So when I log into the work computers I get 12 Bill's a winkin' at me. I'm finding it inspirational. Also, I've decided to stop logging out. So that when the computer falls asleep after I use it and someone goes to wake it up to use it themselves they'll get a little glimpse of winkin' Bill. I just want to share the love.

Wheelin' and Dealin'

2007-06-14T15:13:00.000-07:00

I love my job.
It's the weirdest strangest scariest hardest job I have ever had. But it's been new and interesting every day, and I am learning so much and finding it all incredibly rewarding. I want my lifelong profession to include helping my friends make the biggest purchase and best investment of their lives. That makes me happy.
It's been a good week.
I got a full price offer on Alder, so far it's looking good. I'm house shopping now. got a real little hot cake to go look at this evening. I've also got a smattering of people I'm helping find property and negotiate other properties. Business is good, life is good.

back from the eug....again

2007-06-11T15:23:00.000-07:00

Another grand weekend in Eugene has come and gone. I had an open house on Saturday for my Alder St house. it went pretty well, it was fun. This one woman came by who lives up on Kincaid, and she was looking around looking a little out of sorts, after a few minutes she said "Oh! I've been here before!" Turns out she looked at it when it was for sale before, when I bought it. She was very impressed with it now! She said the backyard is against her old friends yard, and she really wanted to be able to buy it back then but it needed too much work. I told her we did all the work, now she can buy it. She didn't seem that interested though. and now it's double the price. It was a funny experience.
We attended bradens graduation that night, congrats to Braden on graduating high school! and Austin's birthday was Sunday, congrats to Austin for turning 23!
Sunday afternoon we went rafting. Not just regular rafting though, we dressed up like pirates! Lots of red and white stripes and bandanas. We piled 11 people into our rubber raft. It's a 10 person raft, we had 10 adults plus one 5 year old. It was a heavy boat. But we had a great time! my mom took pictures, I'll post some when I get them from her.
and today, i got my first Realtor paycheck. Pretty sweet. the first of MANY more to come!

many adventures and goings-on

2007-06-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

I've been all over the place, and have been a neglectful blogger. here are a few pics of a few of the things i've done lately.

Braden's eagle scout court of honor

the flags were falling, he rescued the flags instead of the table with all of his stuff on it. that's just the kind of good boy scout he is! sorry....thats EAGLE scout now!

this is the out-house house he built for his eagle scout project

we also did some hiking and swinging in the woods that weekend:

some playing with Aubs's old collection of beanie babies:

emme's in there somewheres.....

Raven's birthday party was a super afternoon in the park:

there were more cute babies and good lookin' peeps than should ever be allowed in one place.

the inauguration of the softtub:

featured mojas, pulpshopgirl, myself, and cristaliano.......

in other news:
We closed on my first transaction! Congrats to my uncle, he is the proud new owner of a duplex in jefferson. Great little investment property, the rents cover more than the mortgage. Just Great. and I gotta say props to me for getting him a screaming deal on it. That's right, 15k below asking price. It was on the market for awhile. Things don't move very quickly down there.
There's been quite a bit of interest in my house in Eugene, so that's promising. I'm holding an open house this saturday. Should be fun!
Grindhouse totally rules. go see it.

sellin' da houses

2007-05-30T19:04:00.001-07:00

I've listed my house in Eugene.

It's kind of sad to be selling it, but also kind of exciting. It's such a great house. I just don't want to live in Eugene. I want to buy a house in Portland.

new knits

2007-05-18T22:24:00.000-07:00

travel bag for Auna

octopus for Sophia Jane

co-ed baby showers are best

2007-05-15T16:58:00.000-07:00

backyard baby shower for anatomist and pope urbane! it was super fun, mad-dash trip up to seattle. worth the 6 hours of driving! pulpshopgirl laughed so hard she cried!

so jealous of these knitting skillz:

I busted out the digi SLR, it's been awhile since I've gone about shooting an event. It was fun! some of these need touching up, but i'm too lazy.

cupcake

2007-05-15T16:18:00.000-07:00

a brief affair

2007-05-09T18:05:00.000-07:00

I lost my phone on saturday night, and sunday freaked out and ended up buying a blackberry. Now, I cannot afford this expenditure in the first place but needed something and didn't want to waste my upgrade thingie. Lucky for me Jeff found my phone later and I have now returend said blackberry. It was a brief and somewhat frightening affair. I know now why they call it a crackberry. I was debating on keeping it, because I thought it might be great for work, (driving directions especially). But then it kept blinking at me every time I got an email. It was horrible.
I have good news too - I have had two accepted offers, and now have two transactions in the works. I found my friend a great house in Beaverton, and got my uncle a duplex in Jefferson - at $14,000 below asking price. I was pretty excited when that one got accepted right off the bat!

Portland wanderings

2007-04-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

We live in such a pretty city.

the biggest remote

2007-04-25T19:02:00.000-07:00

I went over to my friend Zoe's the other day, and she has the biggest remote I've ever seen. and it's powerful! I pointed it at the wall opposite of her television, and tv turned on! Wow-ee!

craft partay

2007-04-19T14:10:00.000-07:00

craft parties are always fun.

back to bizzy

2007-04-16T13:39:00.000-07:00

I've jumped right back into business and busyness. The running around starts to feel like running in circles. I've been working, showing houses, shopping for houses, driving all over Portland. I'm getting to know this city pretty well. I'm trying to get some reading and research done this afternoon. I am quite behind on my magazine reading, I still have the last issue of Outside to read and I just got the new one! I also picked up the new issue of Portland Monthly, the cover is 20 best neighborhoods, and there is a whole bunch of well laid out data on real estate in 120 Portland area communitites. I'm doing my homework......I also found this really cool map! If you want to invest in property in Portland, buy in those yellows! and of course, come talk to me about that.
I've got more houses to go look at this afternoon.........gotta skee-daddle

cross dressed trivia

2007-04-11T16:39:00.000-07:00

We choked at trivia, despite our cross-dressed efforts for bonus points. We did really great the first round, we were in 2nd place. But then things went so so wrong. I don't even want to talk about it, I don't want to re-live the pain. But check out our awesome cross-dressed outfits for gender-themed trivia! Yep, we look GOOD!

not permitted

2007-04-09T22:43:00.000-07:00

It looks like we did not get permits to raft the Rogue this summer. AL and I both applied and my Dad and his friend Alan. Here's where it gets weird: I downloaded the list of people who got permits, it lists last name and first initial. There was a Larson, J. and a Martin, A. So we assumed that at least my Dad and Alan had gotten permits. But when I asked my dad about it he said it wasn't them. It was a different A. Martin, and a different Jeff Larson! So if we want to raft the Rogue Wild and Scenic we have to do it before May 15th. It may be a little cold...... or we can go after Oct. 15th.

one of my favorite things

2007-04-09T16:00:00.000-07:00

I love shoes. And I love getting good deals on things. I really love getting good deals on expensive shoes. I got this pair of Keen's for $40. that's more than 50% off! and they're sample shoes. So inside they say "Sample, not for resale". That just makes them extra fun.

vacation

2007-04-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

I just got back to Portland today. Jeff and I went to Canada and went backpacking in the Juan de Fuca park. It was awesome. The trail was really cool, very challenging. Lots of up and down in and out of canyons, steep stuff. We hiked about 16 or 17 km. Our first night we got to the park really late and still had to organize and pack our packs. So we started on the trail in the dark, hiked 2 km to the beach and set up camp. I think it was about midnight when we got to the beach.

-AND- I actually uploaded a whole bunch of pictures to my Flickr account. I've had one awhile, but never used it until now. Besides the few Rosie pictures I posted last August. Check out my pictures!

moving sucks

2007-03-26T09:29:00.000-07:00

I feel as if there have been previous posts of the same title...... most likely because that's what I have to say about moving.
This has been the most disorganized I have ever been for a move. Though I'm sure it could be worse. All my stuff has gone back to pulpshopgirl's garage, where it was residing a mere 6 months ago. Only this time, I will also be moving into a bedroom! as soon as the painting is done. One more coat for the ceiling and the trim. The walls are a beautiful orange, truly fantastic. They may even be more orange than my old room at my alder st. house in eugene.
The last week has been a blur of working, scraping, spackling, painting, and shuttling people to the airport. I had a great super quick trip to Eugene last weekend. My parents spent two weeks in Roatan, where they bought a condo that is under construction at Infinity Bay. Looks pretty nice there! I'm looking forward to going someday.
I'm really looking forward to next week, Jeff and I are going to go camping in Canada! We're going to go check out Juan de Fuca park on Vancouver Island.

sky of the 5

2007-03-18T20:57:00.002-07:00

2007-03-18T20:57:00.001-07:00

2007-03-18T20:53:00.001-07:00

Drove to the eug today, the clouds were amazing!

blog-GRRRR!

2007-03-13T16:05:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to upload pics to blogger, but its not working. grrrr...... what I've been up to lately: I have no idea. Last night Jeff and I went to my firend and office mates home, we played snooker on her husbands 100+ year old snooker table. It was awesome. they made tawsty salmon and green beans for dinner, and I drank too much whiskey. Good times, good times.
So when I was down in Scio at my grandmas, we were going through the garage a bit trying to find the old papers from the survey of the lot that they had done quite awhile back. We did end up finding them, which is great. I also found a knitting machine! and my grandma gave it to me, it's a Light Knitter model LK 100. I have no idea how to use it and of course it didn't come with a manual. I haven't been able to find one yet on the internet, but I also haven't spent much time trying. I'm excited to get it set up and give it a try, i think I will wait until i am fully moved in with Pulpshopgirl. No point in setting up that crazy machine when i'm just going to put it back in its box and move it in a week and a half. We've been working hard on fixing up Pulpshopgirls upstairs. Scraping wallpaper, spackling, sanding, lots of scraping......We've got to really bust some ass so my room will be ready to move into. Lots more spackling scraping sanding to do before we can texture and paint! whee! I'm excited. i have lots of good pics, but like i said.....they're not wanting to post.