Christmas at the Cabin

This year for Christmas, Wren and I decided to take photos in our hideous Christmas sweaters!

We both made comics (you can see his on his blog).

We fixed up the cabin nice (Wren's cabin he's been building at the quarry), MacGyver-ed up a Charlie Brown tree with random "ornaments", 

We made dinner together.

And we each wrote a Christmas poem. Here's mine. Ehem...

It's the Cabin for Christmas!

We decide with delight

A list is created

To make everything just right.

It's groceries and bedding

And two heaters for sure!

Lights and extension cords

Are a cabins Christmas cure.

We roll into the quarry

In the Echo packed real tight

Across a newly formed river

Increasing in its height.

But we make it to the cabin

With daylight yet to spare

We get to the unpackin'

And set up with excited care.

Wren's at the generator

Makin' us some heat

I'm  on sweep n' tidy

And soon all's nice and neat.

A tiny Charlie Brown tree

Will add some Christmas light

We decorate with randoms

And what a jolly wholesome sight.

The night is getting chilly

And our stone abode is not yet warm

So dinner's a can of hot soup

And we enjoy the rustic charm.

Tummies warm and full we're ready

Stocking caps still on our head

To watch Muppets Christmas Carol

As we snuggle into bed.

Sharing Christmas in the cabin

Is such a sweet delight

I'm thankful for just everything

'Cause everything is just right.

Rivers ClownHawk Birthday

This year, River had a ClownHawk bowling party for his birthday. I of course wore Rivers moustache (he gave me his real-fake moustache years ago and is borrowing it for this picture. I'm wearing licorice.), but the name also inspired me to don my favorite clown suite, and make a balloon mohawk to compliment the look. 

 Chipps was there!

Melanie was there and she couldn't get enough of Rivers Moustache.

Who could blame her, really?

 More Moustache-love from Melanie!

Rivers Mom (Joan) couldn't get enough of Santa (Gabriel), even with the evil Krampus in the background (the Dirty Birds in disguise, who swept me away for a brief, random video shoot!)

As a good clown should, I brought a bunch of other balloons for just-in-case. They fit in perfectly at the bowling alley.

 Joan's moustache cake: the hair is made from licorice! Brilliant!

Birthdays, friends, costumes, cake, Santa, bowling, moustaches... thanks River, what an awesome party!

New Housesitting!

Wren and I have a new housesitting place. It comes with horses!

 And dog snuggling!

 And a gorgeous gazibo!

 And a Boochie (that's her name)!

 And a Jebbie!

 And being that it was winter, a frozen fountain pond!

Peoples homes and animals are just so lovely.

Moms surgery

My mom's a trooper. This year she was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and so far, she has had chemo, surgery, and now more chemo. When told that the chemo will most likely make her hair fall out she said, "Just the grey ones, right?" Then asked my dad to knit her a "Whoopie Goldburg hair hat". Here it is with my dad modeling his second blond version.

When told they would remove 3/4 of her stomach she excitedly noted how she's been trying to have that surgery (bypass) for years! Here she is with her male nurses...notice where her hands are? She is a notorious bum pintcher and typically has the staff in "stitches". Also in this photo, my mom is sporting her newly died fucia/red hair color! "You only live once!" She proclaimed proudly.

When she had her surgery and was showing off her scar, or "zipper", she bragged about how tough it made her look. I love this woman and her enduring sense of humor and optimism. 

Mom's currently in a great recovery center in Port Townsend where she does physical and occupational therapy, has a great "room" mate, and is exceeding her therapists goals. She loves a challenge, and loves to win... and she sure has been wining the hearts of everyone involved in her recovery process.

Rudolph the Baby Orca

My old friend and roommate Rudolph the cat passed away today. He was 15 years old and weighed a whopping 23 lbs! He had the fur of a bunny, eyes like saucers, and dainty feet. I have had many a belly laugh because of this cat, and am so happy he has been a part of many peoples' lives. Thanks Rudolph for the good times.

XO Rudolph!

Juggle bags!

I just opened an etsy site with my first product... a juggle bag. I made one for myself just over a year ago and it has been so great! Since then I've made two others for birthday gifts. I couldn't find any place online that sells them so realized that making Juggle Bags would be my calling, my life's goal, my million dollar baby!!! Ok, maybe it will be a fun project I enjoy for a while. So here's the link to my Etsy site, where you can see these same photos there!

We'll see if anything comes from it, but for now, I'm off to sew!

Hanging Andrews Lights

We flew in from Panama to Portland and it went from sweating day and night, to freezing my cahootzies off. We stepped out of the airport and it was freezing! We waited with our cold shuttle bus for EVER. Then, we missed our connecting bus so had to stand outside for 20 minutes in super freeze-town. I put on all the clothes I could, and rediculously wrapped 3 shirts around my head to stay warm. Then we got off at the wrong stop and had to walk like 10 Portland-sized blocks. Then we got in my van with no heater and drove to Andrew and Gretch's. Then, at long last, we were warm. Aaah. It was too cold to think about pictures when you're an ice-cycle, but here are fun pics from the next day!

Andrew with Isa, Wren with North.

We bought Dave's Wicked Good bread in bulk, and got these two kids, for free!

Uncle Wren guessing how many fingers North is holding up.

A heated (well, don't let the shorts fool you, it was still cold) game of HORSE.

North awesoming.

Pretty sure this is wren landing a back-flip ball-toss.

Post light-hanging handiwork check.

North. Awesoming again.

It sure was fun hanging out, and I'm sure I'll get used to the cold again. Brrrrr.

Panama Comin' Home

Wren and I are just finishing up our warm, interesting, fun 6 days in Panama. Here are some random nightcaps. Like seeing this building, a Frank Gehry design (he designed the EMP in Seattle).

One adventure was taxiing to the Metropolitan Natural Park. We din't end up going in because the price was out of our range, so we decided to walk back. At one point Wren steers us in a direction and I suggest it might not be safe. He assures me it's fine. Not 2 minutes later, 4 police walk up to us and inform us (in Spanish, so I can't really understand so Wren is translating for me) that the area is not safe, and they will walk us through the area and then drive us themselves to our hostel. Wren passes on the police ride (to which I astonishingly reply, "What?! That would have been awesome!" They flag down our taxi, and we make it home safe.

On another walk, it starts raining at an angle! Notice the dry side of the tree? Well, there was somehow no dry side of me, but once the rain let up, the heat went back to work, and we were almost completely dry once we reached the hostel.

On one of our walks, we saw this metal seamstress.

During our adventures we try and take awesome pictures... this ones a winner in my book.

The morning we left we caught a 5:15am taxi, had three flights which included 4 security checks (one stop included two checks!), encountered a meat-sniffing dog (like the kind that look for drugs) whose owner confiscated wrens sausage and lunch, one screening took my fork, I had a pat-down, and we almost missed one of the two connecting flights! Finally we are on our last flight to Portland. This is a happy Wren.

Once in Portland, its FREEZING BALLZ! We have to take a shuttle to the tram, then wait 20 minutes for a bus (where I pillage my clothes and put on another pair of pants, and wrap 3 shirts around my head because it's FRAAZING BALLZ!), then walk 10 minutes to my van, and drive 20 minutes to Andrews house. Whew! Total travel time was 19.5 hours! Good times!

Panama: The Island of Flowers

On the final day of our Panama trip, Wren and I took an hour ferry to Isla Taboga (Island of Flowers), a sweet, sandy-beached island.

 The water was so clear and so warm!

Wren hung the hammock under a shady tree, so when we weren't in the water, we were there or lying on the sand in the sun as we read our books. I also enjoyed watching the crabs dig into the sand, or pick things off the rocks to eat with their pincers.

 We walked around just long enough to find this place... which probably says Bella, but suuuure looks like it says Della to me!

We decided we want to go back to that island.

 It sure was nice.

Panama City by bike

Wren and I are on our last leg of our Panama adventure, and Luna's Castle is our final home here. It's great, they have a small "movie theater", lots of space for hanging out, and...

Bikes to borrow!

So we went on an adventure to find the post office, but first stop, Donald RUMP's Hotel (tee-hee!), which as of today, is the tallest building in Panama City.

It looks like this.

Another cool building was this beaut, the F&F Tower, ranked 7th in 2011 Emporis Skyscraper Awards for its architectural excellence. Pretty snazzy.

It was such a beautiful day for a bike ride. And because of the bikes, we discovered an awesome park that we walked around later.

Wren likes to add geo-caching to our adventure's list, so we did, and guess who found it? Me!

We also found the best and cheapest batidos (milkshakes) in town. I think we had one every day. Afterwards, that was our bike gang name "!Los Batidos!" It just sounds so awesomely tough.

Eventually we found the post office and made it home safely.

 Thanks Luna's Castle for the great adventure mobiles!