citrusgreentea

Wed, 31 May 2006 14:29:05 GMT

Saturday, Emily and I went spelunking in the Ape Caves on the southern slope of Mount St. Helens looking for a letterbox. I had never been caving before, except for my visit to the Thurston Lava Tube in Hawaii when we visited Jerry and Cathy in January. (Actually, once as a child I visited Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.) The Ape Caves are actually a lava tube too, in fact the third longest in the world and I had never even heard of it before this. We hiked more than half the way into the Lower Cave (about 3/4 a mile in) and back out, and then Emily hiked alone on to the entrance to the Upper Cave where the letterbox was supposed to be hidden, but no luck. It was a great time anyway. We wore headlamps and carried lanterns, and saw brown bats at the entrance. The walking was very rough but we made pretty good progress. We were both hoping the current crater activity at the summit wouldn't progress into an eruption while we were inside the Caves! It has been 26 years since the May, 1980, eruption.

The rest of our Memorial Day weekend was spent working in our yard. We have much to do before Jane's wedding in September. The excitement is building!

Sun, 09 Apr 2006 01:27:39 GMT

I am an Income Tax Day Baby and my three wonderful daughters just gave me an incredible birthday gift early: an 8 pound Oreck Vacuum Cleaner! Wow, how can anyone get excited over some cleaning appliance? But really, it is so neat, it will make cleaning fun! It is neon green, and comes with a separate hand-held vacuum cleaner with attachments which cleans just everything. And a special gift came with the purchase: a cordless steam iron. Now, I feel like the best dressed homemaker.

Our 28th Anniversary!

Sat, 18 Mar 2006 15:14:04 GMT

Emily and I are going to Daniel Smith again today to attend another demonstration on Chinese ink painting, and to pick up my prize in a drawing I won, which never seems to happen to me! I am excited to see what it is. Although my main interest is watercolor, I also love ink drawing, pastels and gouache.

And today is our anniversary so I am planning a special dinner. Both Emily and Marsha will be here to help with the festivities, but Emily has tonsilitis, so she may just sleep.

Back to my old routine

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:10:03 GMT

I just spent four days visiting with my sister in Vancouver, WA. We have been working on a quilt for my daughter Jane's upcoming September wedding. We actually began more than a year ago, but haven't worked on it like we should have. So, now the rush is on. It has been a real adventure designing blocks and assembling them. Jane has seen the quilt in the making and has contributed by designed a block herself. But now I am back at home and beginning the tedious task of taxes. And looking out our windows and seeing snow. Yuck. At least the sun is shining, so maybe it will melt soon.

The Calm After the Storm

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 20:32:40 GMT

Today is Sunday, and the blue sky and sunshine are very welcome. Even though it is cold, it is nothing compared to the high winds and freezes of the last two days. We were without power since early Friday and it was a real adventure: oil lamps, candles, flashlights, battery operated radios and t.v. and mp3 players and cell phones. Not exactly roughing it, but still not convenient. Emily and I went to the Health Club to shower Saturday morning, and to Starbucks in the afternoon with our computers to use the internet and recharge our cell phones. The power came back on by 4 p.m., just as we discovered an outside hose bib had sprung a leak. Then, with no cell service (due to damaged cell towers we guess) for Bill to talk us through plumbing repairs (he was in Bellingham getting our house there ready to sell), he returned early to fix the problem and drove back up today to finish chores. Things couldn't get much worse, I think. At least we had cleared away all fir trees from our property here before building, so the wind didn't do any damage to our landscaping or house, but that was not the case for some of our neighbors. I'll bet a lot of yard cleanup will be going on today. We have only one more night of temperatures in the high teens, and then we return to our more normal weather. We have all gotten a lot of reading done and surprisingly have slept well during the really dark nights (house temperature was 56 degrees). I am just glad it is over.

Funny as can be

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 14:54:45 GMT

Some people are like Slinkies: they're not good for much but you can't keep from smiling when they fall down the stairs. (compliments of Cliomouse)

Watercolor Seminar

Sat, 04 Feb 2006 23:30:18 GMT

Emily and I went to a watercolor seminar at Daniel Smith in Seattle today because the topic was painting Hawaiian flowers and waterfalls. Pretty timely I think.