Hidden

Just a pillow on a blanket on the floor...
...Just a 14 year old, three pound chihuahua IN a pillow on the blanket on the floor.

Pita likes to hide in blankets so that when you collapse onto something your heart stops halfway down because you might be about to land on her and not know it. This is my in-laws dog.

Rededicating

I hope somebody still checks the blog from time to time. We have been a little preoccupied lately with moving, traveling, job-hunting, and other expected and unexpected events. Energy levels have been low. This is just a little note to say we will be focusing on the blog again and to check back for more frequent posts. They may not be better, but they will be there!

These Colors are Like My Dreams, Red, Gold, and Green

We painted. And this is what happened. Three walls in our living room are yellow or "Brass," and two great big walls are green or "Sweet Annie." Because the room had to be painted with semi-gloss, the yellow is what Sergio refers to as "Nacho cheese." And that is pretty much right on. But we both really like it anyway. It makes the room so much more homey than the normal sanitorium white walls of most apartments.

Unfortunately, the kitchen chairs turned out funny. They were meant to be bright red. Think Fire Engine. Instead they turned out Watermelon. Or maybe Salmon. This is what happens when you buy $3 Oops paint at Lowe's thinking it will work just fine. I was quite disappointed at first, but have since learned to like the fruity chairs. We also have a bright red bowl on the table, pumpkin orange measuring cups hanging from a shelf, and tomatoes on the table. Our kitchen is a cacaphony of oranges, reds, and pinks.

So now I can mark one thing off of my list of fifty things to do before I croak. I painted my house obnoxious colors just because I could.

Movies

The Dark Knight ♣♣♣♣
We thought it was awesome.

Lars and the Real Girl ♣♣½
We enjoyed it. Not everyone will.

Where in the World Are Dawn and Sergio?

Little Rock.

We have been to Dallas and seen our apartment. We painted and cleaned and tried to get to know as much of the city as possible in five days, with mixed results. And then we turned around and came up to Little Rock.

All of these things deserve a post of their own but we can't seem to get internet anywhere right now and our pictures are trapped on our computer. This is my parents computer, if you were wondering.

Good things about Dallas so far:
Grilled cuban sandwiches
spicy thai that delivers
good food on every corner at affordable prices
our apartment
our neighborhood
the pool
the building Sergio will be working at

Bad things about Dallas so far:
no free wifi
the tollway
loopy one way streets
the insane heat
sprawl

On a different note, my nephew is two now. I wish I had internet on the right day or could post a picture now, but this will have to do. Happy Birthday David! It turns out that two likes to push noisy things around the house, spin cars in chairs, and hit golf golfs (golf balls) with spoons (golf clubs).

Flash Update and Some Pics

Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, and Missouri are done. Taking a brief break in Fayetteville to barbecue, visit with friends, and finally see the first baby of the group. We'll be checking out Dallas and our new apartment by Friday afternoon.

Home Stretch

My brain is mush. Why are the last three weeks of grad school the busiest and hardest we have had the entire time? Seems like bad planning. Sergio is bored silly waiting on me to finish class and can we GO already? I have no idea how to make that last sentence grammatically correct. Because my brain is mush.

We are out of here tomorrow as soon as my classes are over at 1:30. Phew.

Dawn has the Cheekbones, I Have the Cheeks

This week we tackled the NEED TO DO's. Yard sale and donation trips on Saturday, cleaning out closets and junk every other day, and now we are back to donating and maybe selling more books. We also attempted to load my old trunk into the car to be shipped on Greyhound, but learned a lesson in square pegs and round holes. We aren't sure what to do about that at this point.

And it has been very hot, leading us to take cold showers, eat every meal outside the house, and not dry my hair. Here is dinner out, non blow-dried hair, after a cold shower.

Getting Things Done

Sergio and I have a list of items that we are trying to check off before we leave Portland in two weeks. TWO WEEKS! This list involves things like swim in Oneonta Gorge one more time, go to the coast again, eat pho, shop at the Saturday Market, and so on and so forth. This is our WANT TO DO list. It has very little to do with our NEED TO DO list, which involves things like sell our stuff, donate our stuff, throw away our stuff, clean, turn utilities on or off, change our address, figure out our new address, and so on and so forth. In fact, that NEED list is being avoided with all of our combined might.

Last weekend we marked one thing off of the WANTS, though. We drove out to the coast on Sunday and walked around the cute town portion of Cannon Beach. We explored all the funky sea life attached to Haystack Rock (if you blow on the seemingly inanimate objects it turns out they will either move or spit). We had lunch at a brew pub next to a fire place (because it is still cold and windy on the coast). After that we bought a small kite at a kite store and drove further up the coast. We got out at a little space in the trees that had a hiking trail down to a secluded surfer's beach and we hiked. Along the way we stopped to marvel at the enormous slugs (a practice that just never gets old), and at one point came face to face with a little black and white snake. We were less fond of this. A little further down the path we saw another of the same sort of snake in the path, but not until we were quite close. Sergio, the snake, and I all jumped about a foot, but Eliot never noticed a thing. He's an awesome guard dog. As soon as we got to the beach we realized it was anything but secluded and turned right around. We stopped a little further up the road at a quiet wind-surfers beach called Manzanita. It was here that we let Eliot off of his leash, set up the kite, attached it to the dogs harness and let him fly the kite all day long. Yes, it is so very easy to fly a kite on the windy beaches of Oregon that a mini poodle can do it. Everyone should try this sometime. Eliot spent about an hour fetching a huge stick out of the water while pulling a kite. He slept well that night.

It was a lovely day and certainly something we will miss about this part of the country.

Told You We Could Manage Movie Reviews

You Don't Mess With the Zohan ♣
There were two jokes in the whole movie. They just used them over and over and over again. The worst part was that Zohan is an alpha male character instead of Sandler's normal "quirky guy the world has spit on" character. It was hard to find the charm that usually accompanies his movies.

National Treasure II ♣♣♣½
I don't know why people give these such a hard time. A little history, a lot of adventure, and a healthy dose of the absurd. What's not to like?

Get Smart ♣♣♣½
We thought it was really funny. A perfect summer afternoon movie.