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.

Scattered

So we don't post for two weeks and then when I do it is just to whine about being left on hold for 40 minutes (it took 48 1/2 minutes to reach someone, if you were curious). Partly we aren't posting because we are lame, and partly because we are busy with boring things and have no internet anyway. I am currently in a coffee shop downtown applying for jobs online and waiting for a transcript scan to upload. Exciting stuff.

Anyway, I only have a couple of minutes, but I wanted to say hi and that you should check back and hear all about:

My best friend's wedding (not the movie)

How I still don't fit into the small town I partially grew up in and still have the ability to make grown men that I barely know yell at me for being a "naive little girl" since I don't believe Obama is the antichrist. How dare I?!

How a poodle behaves when he finds four miniature chocolate bars in the bottom of a gift bag that I forgot all about. LIke he is on speed. That is how he acts. Except it is really sad and not funny like it sounds like it might be.

How Sergio and I played trivia at a bar with some friends and thought we did really well but ended up third to last.

and finally, how Sergio and I finally saw an Adam Sandler movie we just didn't like much at all.

So check back. We'll do better. We promise. And if not, we will at least post movie reviews sometime.

On Hold

I have been on hold for forty minutes now. Listening to extraordinarily loud classical music with the phone ear and soft rock from the bakery speakers on the other ear. C'mon Texas. Answer your phone.

THE GRADUATE............................................................ Dawn is older than me after all

June 1st turned out to be quite a day. My beautiful wife graduated with her masters degree and one of my best friends became a father (more on the fact that I have a friend with a child later). Quite a day. Good job lady.

We would feel bad if we didn't mention that in the last couple of month's our friends Sam, Nikki, and Ryan also graduated, Congrats everyone.

We Should Probably Post Something...

so here are some random thoughts and updates...

Sergio is going to make an appearance in court tomorrow. As a lawyer. In case there was any confusion.

A student shook my soda today and my first thought was that a wet willy would do this kid some good. I did not act on that thought. Instead I told him his apology wasn't worth anything and broke his spirit. Job well done.

Eliot loves his carrot. A lot. SQUEEK!

If you want to see the rest of our pictures from spring break, or the new car, we loaded them into flickr. Link on the side of the page.

Wild Dogs. Burned Out Pre-teens. Same Difference.

To choose to become a teacher is to choose to count down to summer for the rest of your life. I have realized over the last couple of weeks that even if you know you aren't going to be having a kid-like summer vacation, you will still look forward to that last day of school like a giddy ten year old. And if you wonder why, let me have you imagine what it is like to try to harness 28 to 33 raging hyenas on a daily basis and make them learn about medieval Europe. Not possible and a bit dangerous.

Just over two and a half weeks to go...
unless you go by just school days because then it is 13 and half days...
but I have to miss two days for a wedding in Georgia so...11 1/2...
and I forgot about memorial day so now we are down to 10 1/2...
which means just 84 hours.

and I think I can deal with that.

Jumanji: I'll Yell It Three Times If You Don't Read This

Dawn's next 25:

1. Get to a point in my life where I never have to take another math test ever again. And I really mean never again this time.
2. Own a horse
3. Beat Sergio at the game of Risk
4. Play golf well enough not to wonder why people play golf
5. Vacation on a sail boat
6. Really take up photography as a hobby
7. Go to a costume party
8. Have my teeth professionally whitened on a regular basis
9. Have both medical and dental insurance
10. Read the Little House On the Prairie Series to my kids
11. Conquer my fear of the telephone
12. Host a dinner party
13. Go to a spa
14. Eat at a Michelin rated restaurant
15. Sit on a porch swing and watch a storm...as often as possible
16. Kayak
17. Have an old-fashioned photo made with Sergio (like in Branson!)
18. Scuba dive
19. Ride in a hot air balloon that is not still tethered to the ground
20. Research my family history
21. Love my child as much as we love Eliot
22. Not have to wear contacts/glasses anymore
23. Paint my home obnoxious colors just because I can
24. Take one change of clothes on a vacation and buy a new wardrobe along the way
25. Have one home/town in which my children are raised

Sergio's Next 25
1. Climb a fourteener
2. Write a book
3. Fly fish
4. Move Cattle
5. Adopt a child
6. Close my eyes in a field in Montana
7. Cook a meal for my parents and my in-laws, at the same time
8. Help my niece learn spanish
9. Help my niece remember me
10. Get to know my nephew
11. Get to know my next niece
12. Brew my own beer
13. Pray for everyone but myself
14. Enjoy a wheat beer while standing in direct sunlight
15. Gawk at my wife, again
16. Hug Eliot, again
17. Enjoy a pilsner while standing in direct sunlight
18. Explain 1984 to a child
19. Play in the world series of poker
20. Explain football to a child
21. Lose the world series of poker before I get cocky and think I could do that for a living
22. Stop moving
23. Wear a bow tie and suspenders with a vest
24. Get my hair cut once a week
25. Win a Criminal Trial

Some Like It Hot. Just Not Us.

It has been hot here since Thursday. Really hot. Since it so rarely gets hot in Portland none of the apartments have air conditioning. The best thing you can do in these situations is to leave home and find things to do in either shaded areas, the car, or air conditioned buildings. None of that is a problem for Sergio and me. If we get hot we go. Eliot, on the other hand, isn't welcome to that many public places and is also covered in heavy black fur. He has been visibly miserable for days. Panting, moving from linoleum surface to rock surface to linoleum surface, and draining his iced water over and over again. The few times he has tried to sit with us on a hot couch or bed he immediately rolls onto his back in front of a fan and whines. Good times. Yesterday, Sergio and I took action to help him out. We gave him a terrible haircut to give him some relief around his head, rode around in the car with the air conditioning on full blast and stopped by PetSmart. He chose a toy all by himself despite our best efforts at getting him interested in cooler things. Yup, it's a carrot. It squeaks.

Sergio and I decided to take advantage of the weather and go for a bike ride at Sauvie Island. It has this really popular 12 mile loop that is almost perfectly flat the whole way. If you come to Portland in the spring or summer it is worth going around the loop. It is almost like stepping back in time. Very agricultural, one school, one community church, a general store. Most of the rest of the island is a wildlife preserve. It would have been just lovely if we hadn't gotten lost. Instead of doing a nice little 12 mile loop we managed to do a 24 mile out and back. This might not be a big deal for someone else, but for a girl who has used every excuse she could since starting grad school to let herself get mostly out of shape and is still coming off of a chest congestion cold...it was pretty darn hard. Now that I am no longer on the bike I think I can admit that it was mostly fun.

Eight

Eight sounds very much like an adult on the phone, has sleepovers for her birthday party, and feels ready to ride a roller coaster that goes upside down...maybe.