And now it's August

July was a fairly eventful month for us - of course we started it all with a bang on the 4th, after finding a number of very good deals at the various fireworks displays. Favorites were of course the various mortars and jumbo bees. It's amazing what can be done with a few chemicals and a cardboard tube.

We found a new (to us) swimming hole over near Stevenson, Washington, at Home Valley Park. It's been a fun retreat whenever the heat has risen, and we had fun introducing Cassie and Nick to the place. It's somewhat secluded and not too very popular, so we haven't had too much interruption while we've been there. The girls, especially, love playing along the river shore there for hours at a time.

I also got around to taking a picture of one of Eden's very favorite traffic signs that happens to be along the way. There are actually 3 or 4 of them in a row, and the curves in the road that they warn about are really not too severe, but the signs never fail to put a smile on her face. They're just so very comical, and any truck that found itself at such an angle would be in some pretty deep trouble... it's just something else.

Pat had a block party/barbecue mid-month that was a lot of fun (and tasty). It gave us a nice chance to hang out with the family, and especially to see Sean's son Nicolas. A cute kid that's not self conscious in front of the camera is a lot of fun to play with. Libby's cat Lucy is also especially photogenic, as she's proven before.

While I was waiting for my Canon Powershot 110IS to be repaired, I actually came across a wonderful deal on a fairly modern digital SLR, the Canon Rebel XS. My grandparents had actually given me a sizable amount of money recently, which let me take advantage of this. It's been a lot of fun to play with, but unfortunately after a week or so, the shutter started locking up every few shots, which is impressively annoying when you're sure you've locked down the perfect shot. So, to put it shortly, I bloody well love Canon cameras, but I've got to be a bit more picky about how sketchy my suppliers are. The good news is that the 110IS (which is an impressively capable camera for it's size) came back not too long after the SLR was returned, and a new copy of the SLR should arrive next week.

On the 23rd, I went down to my parents in an effort to trim a few hours from my upcoming trip to OIT. The weather was nice, and I didn't have any real commitments that day, so I spent most of it meandering around as much as I liked, turning on a whim and just occasionally making sure that the GPS showed me trending south. It was a nice way to spend the day, and it even finished with a nice pasta salad outside with the family, just watching the birds play around the feeders.

Unfortunately, the next day was not quite so kind. I left at 2:30am in order to make the event opening at 7am, and bumped into a curious stray dog along the way that found his breakfast in a trash bag along the road. For a while it looked like I was going to have enough time to try and take a few sunrise shots, but it was not to be. Turns out it's a lot harder to figure out exactly when the sun is going to actually pop over the horizon than I thought it was going to be, and I ended up without a clear east view when it finally happened. It was just as well though, as I made it to the parking lot at 6:56am. Bottom line, it was worth it, as I got a lot of things handled, but it cost. Final count, 12 hours on the road, 520 miles driven, and 7.5 hours at the event for the day. As a kind of bonus, I think I came across the only mountain with snow on it in July. Given the temperature spikes we've been having, that was interesting as well.

I spent the following weekend at market with Eden, which is a change from our usual routine. With the heat setting in, it was nice to be able to give her a few breaks along the way. It's always remarkable, to me, to see Eden interacting with her vendor friends - they're an incredibly tight knit and supportive group, not to mention some very talented people. Beyond all that, the various buskers are always worth shooting, as many of them have great energy while they're performing.

This past weekend was utterly amazing. We spent it camping with friends down at Cape Lookout, by Tillamook, for our friend Vash's 35th birthday. Temperatures in Vancouver and Portland had been topping 100 degrees all week, but at the coast we stayed in the comfortable 70 degree range, thanks to a permanent layer of mist that simply rose to just above the treetops during the day and came down to ground level at dark. It was great to watch it move in towards the end of the night. As Eden pointed out, it was exactly like the "Nothing" from the Never-Ending story, just eating away at the edges of our little contained world there. I had a lot of fun just hiking around in the morning to try to get some wildlife pictures before everyone else got to the trails.

Of course, given Vash's Circled by Hounds affiliations, we couldn't get together without having the group play a few rousing tunes. Beyond the wonderful music, they're all a lot of fun to play with, photographically. Vash is a tricky one to get, as he very obviously gets absorbed by the music, making it a bit hard to catch him looking up, but it's worth it if you can manage the timing. Kathryn and Matthew, on the other hand, are hard to catch a bad photo with. They're so incredibly expressive, and obviously very in love with one another as well. It's kind of funny when they're actually playing, as they're very much in one another's personal space, making fiddle playing an exercise in constant anticipation, just waiting for the bow to finally collide. I haven't seen it happen yet, but I can't imagine it hasn't.

All in all, it's been a great month, and I can't wait to see what August will bring.

Picdump 2009-08-07 [Show image locations on map] [Fullscreen slideshow]


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MIA

Well, there's been another break since I've posted here - I'm going to have to blame that on finals, even though they've been done for a couple of weeks now. Other than cramming and recovering from said studying, we've been doing a lot! Looking back at where we left off, you folks haven't been caught up since the end of May, so let's start there!

Eden and I actually spent most of Memorial day apart this year; her family has a tradition of visiting Grandpa Dan's gravesite and sharing a meal; what with Portland traffic, she was gone almost the entire day. Since I knew I had a few hours, I decided to go get lost with a camera! I had a lot of fun just taking turns at random and watching the scenery for interesting things to shoot. I ended up mostly north of Battle Ground, and saw a bunch of parks that would be nice to work in, but of course they were too crowded with the holiday. After drifting through some amazingly vibrant clover fields, I actually ended up at Lucia Falls, and although the park itself was essentially inaccessible, there were just a whole bunch of amazing houses along the river to browse through and dream. All in all, it was a peaceful way to spend the day.

Since Eden was essentially still laid up, save for intermittent bursts of energy, I played in the kitchen a bit over the next few days, and have added a few more recipes to the list of food I can make that Eden likes. This pic is an incredibly easy pretzel recipe that I found a while ago and had been wanting to try. The results are delicious, and I've had the opportunity to make 4 or 5 batches now, each time getting better. There is a slight problem of over expansion that I'm still trying to figure out how to manage (rolling the dough down to make the twists works until about a 1 cm diameter, then the dough starts falling apart). Regardless, they've pretty heavenly with Beaver sweet hot mustard. I also made a batch of apple pies (best crust ever here) and some vegetarian lasagna that got some fairly critical acclaim. I've told the family that it's just a Betty Crocker recipe with a few liberties taken, but they insist on giving me all the blame .

Eden's nephew Nicholas arrived for the summer on the 7th, so we spent a lazy afternoon at Vivian's greeting him. He's not self-conscious in front of the camera, so I got a few good shots of him on the skateboard, as well as a few of Suzanne playing on his bike. They both were great sports.

On the 13th, Eden and I went wandering again; although we took the long way to get there, we actually ended up close enough that I had to show Eden Lucia Falls, and our possible dream homes. We spent at least a couple of hours wandering around the amazing rock formations and falls there. There were actually a number of fish jumping down the falls, but I wasn't fast enough to catch more than their splashes on the camera. The water there is pretty cool too - crystal clear at the top, with a bunch of standing foam and even what appears to be red algae bloom in one section. I also got the chance to spend a morning with Suzanne and Fizgig at the local dog park - it's awfully nice to have her home again, and we got to talk for quite a while.

The gay pride parade on the 14th was a blast, and a great opportunity to play with the camera. Nearly everyone had a great time - it really seemed like the performers were having fun. I was really impressed by the number of churches and politicians openly marching there - it speaks well for the community.
Unfortunately, there was one member of the press that did a good job of trying to ruin the parade for everyone in a two block radius; she kept on jumping in front of floats and stopping them until they posed just the way she wanted. Of course once they acceded to her demands and she finally got out of the way the float would speed past at 30+ mph just trying to catch up. Finally one of the performers got fed up with it and beaned her with an oversize soccer ball that was handy. Seriously, this guy is my hero!

Cassie came home for a few days before heading on to the east coast, so we took advantage of Nick's current proximity and went to visit. Apparently one of the bigwigs in Mt. Hood was a former crew member on the ship, so the town threw a big shindig as the boat arrived. The coast guard took the opportunity to do a few helicopter drills, and a few local groups set up mock pirates and British soldiers to exchange cannon fire. It was nice to see them both, and a nice preview for later in the summer, when they'll both spend some time living here.

We spent the 18th at the coast with Cassie, roasting marshmallows and just enjoying the sights. There wasn't quite enough wind to play with the kites, but it was still a good time. We finished the evening at the local Mo's, with delicious fish and chips. The girls had some fun scrawling in the sand, although Cassie's "C + N" got a bit washed away before I got a good shot of it, which of course made Cass miss Nick again!

Eden and I headed to Long Beach on the 21st on the basis of several recommendations, but unfortunately it wasn't what we were looking for. Despite a visibly burgeoning tourist industry, the beach itself was just a disappointment - pretty much just flat and nothing, even when we headed another 10 miles north to the Pacific Pines national park. I guess we're just more compatible with the Oregon coast. After that disappointment, we ended up heading back down to Cannon Beach for another marshmallow roasting session. Unfortunately, just as soon as we got the fire set up, rain clouds blew in and forced us to evacuate. Doubly unfortunate, my camera decided to abandon pocket at exactly that moment and got sand in the gearing, so there will likely not be any new shots for a while until I find a place to fix it for a bearable price.

Finally, we went down to Philomath to celebrate my birthday early with the parents, as well as a belated Mother's and Father's day. I did get a new Ipod touch, as I had requested, which makes me mighty happy. It should make studying on the go much more practical. I also got a partial diagnosis of a pain that had been bothering me in my left knee, that also happened to blossom in intensity on the trip down; it appears I have some sort of infection just waiting to invade the synovial fluid in my kneecap, so I'm on antibiotics and laid up for the next few days, as that possible invasion is apparently a Bad Thing (TM). I think that catches everything up, so I'll close here.

Picdump 06-23-09 [Show image locations on map] [Fullscreen slideshow]

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Lotsa stuff!

It's been a bit since we've made a post here, and I'm afraid there's been a lot going on - and there are photos of nearly every thing! As I mentioned the last time, Eden and I got a chance to go on a battle sail with Nick on the 10th, but in point of fact I actually went out on the 9th to try and catch the ship. I didn't get to the ship, but I did get a few good shots of boaters on the river that day.

Once we got on the ship, the next day, we spent a very pleasant three hours or so drifting up and down the river. I got a chance to play around with people shots, and had a lot of fun with it. Since the crew was used to cameras being around, I got some great photos, although I still got some of the best shots aiming from one end of the ship to the other with full zoom. The crew did an amazing job of being exactly where they needed to be, even when half the tourists were in their way. They even made a respectable effort to let some of the kids work the lines. Later that night, we took Nick out to the new Star Trek, which we all enjoyed immensely. It's definitely a different Trek, but it's good.

We also spent the morning celebrating Mother's day with the Scheans family. Unfortunately, Suzanne could not be with us, as she is currently out on a job in northern Washington, but we kept her in our hearts at Dim Sum, and afterward when we visited the guerrilla gardening tree they had planted earlier in honor of Grandpa Dan. So far no one has objected to the planting, which is nice.

The 12th was a little interesting for me. Half an hour into my A & P lab, an "active shooter" alert got called in and the entire campus essentially shut down for 45 minutes. Shades get drawn and we're all moved away from the windows. As you can see in the photos, no one really took it seriously; it was more of an interruption than a concern. Apparently the call came in that there was a suicidal man with a gun wandering around the campus. Police found nothing, which probably means that someone just wanted to skip a test.

On the 16th we went to market to see the new site, which is actually pretty spiffy. The place was swarmed, and people were actually making a lot of money. Eden was still recovering, and so wasn't selling, but it was really good to see all of her friends there. We also got to see a mini-parade celebrating the move. Not much in the way of good shots there, as we were a bit late showing up, although I did get a few of the dancers.

We also got a chance to go see Circled by Hounds for the first time in at least a month, which was awesome. Unfortunately, the lighting in the bar was far too dim for my current camera, even at maximum sensitivity and a fairly long exposure. A couple of photos were semi-salvageable with extensive processing, but that's out of perhaps a hundred or so.

On the 17th we went up to Woodland to see the Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens. The flowers were pretty amazing, but unfortunately I forgot to reset my camera's sensitivity from the night before, which killed about half of the shots. After that, we went up to the old Cedar Creek Grist Mill and got some great shots there too. Eden had some luck there as well, from what I've seen over her shoulder.

Yesterday was an eventful day as well - we set out for the coast around noon, but were stopped by a blowout of one of Eden's tires... one of the ones that wasn't showing excessive wear. We'd been putting off replacing her tires for a while, but it was obviously time to get around to it, so we went to Costco and threw money at the problem (successfully). After that, we headed down to Manzanita beach. Wonderful views, but the wind was just too darn high - at least 30-40 mph. You can see in the photos that it was nearly blowing the sailcarter over. Given all that, we went back up to Cannon beach and tried out Eden's new kite. She had a whole lot of fun with it, and I captured a number of her smiles (which I unfortunately can't share right now). On the other hand, other subjects, such as the kite itself, were very photogenic.

Two more bits to share before I close - I stumbled across a recipe for a quick and simple ice cream analog that's really quite tasty. So far we've done strawberry (incredible... just awesome!) and peach (not quite as good - comes out as a cross between creamsicle and peach.) If you have a few moments, you should really whip up a batch to enjoy. A cherry version will be next, as soon as we have room in the freezer.

2009-05-22 Picdump [Show image locations on map] [Fullscreen slideshow]

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Life on the edge

Eden has continued to get marginally better each day this week. There's definite progress being made, as she's actually approaching comfort for a reasonable portion of the day. At this point there's hope that she might be able to go to the new Star Trek movie with friends this weekend, though that's not sure at all. We'll see.

We also got a bit of a surprise today, as Cassie's boyfriend, Nick, showed up out of the blue. Apparently his ship will be down at the marina over the weekend, and he had the day off today. He decided to hop on his bike (which was down in the hold... somehow this just wasn't in my picture of gear for a tourist-based tall ship) and head on over. It was really nice to see him, even for a little while. To some extent, it felt like a piece of reality sliding back into place to have a good friend come visit. Eden and I have been pretty isolated, especially this past week. We just haven't been getting the chance to visit with those we love, and Vancouver is just far enough out of Portland that we don't spend a lot of time down there, other than errands and school.

As for myself, the week has been fairly sedentary, other than studying and taking care of Eden. During spare time, I'm continuing to explore (and study, in various forums, videos, and ebooks) photography. I'm really enjoying it, although the more I learn about how the processes work, the more I'm wishing that I had an obscene amount of money to spend on gear. The camera I'm working with right now falls into the category of "prosumer", which is to say, it takes wonderful pictures and actually gives me a lot of control over manual and semi-manual settings (Even more so with the CHDK hack), but it's a single collapsable lens, rather than a true SLR.

It's very cool to me to be learning this - I can feel it changing the way I look at things, and often, bring out details in scenery that I might otherwise miss (Eden will confirm, I am NOT the most observant person, by nature). It kind of feels like I'm tapping into a creative aspect of myself that I haven't had access to before. I'm sure I'm already driving Eden up the wall with this semi-obsession, but it's just a whole lot of fun to play with. Among other things, it's giving me a full measure of appreciation for the sheer volume of mechanical and mental adjustments our eyes and brains make automatically.

I was lucky enough to have some time today to take advantage of a nice sunny hour or so, as well as a clear night with a full moon. I took the car out just to drive and look for interesting things to shoot. The first stop was a kind of marsh created by a new housing development having moved around spare dirt and tree stumps - the place was just fenced off, apparently until the developer wanted to add another sheaf of houses. In the meantime, a small ecosystem has sprung up. Unfortunately, the numerous birds in the area declined to pose long enough for me to focus, other than one long distance shot you'll see below. After that stop, I found a beautiful abandoned barn up by 189th ave & 87th st. Seems to me that a lot of the damage might be from the incredible windstorms we've had over the last few years. Finally, I spent some time tonight playing with exposures shooting at the moon. Even at full 10x zoom, it didn't fill up terribly much of the image, so the four shots you see below are just cropped down to 800x600. I'll have to wait until I can get a better camera to get more detail.

Exploring 05-07-09
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Catching up

The last few weeks have been extremely busy, and stressful, so I haven't been blogging nearly as much as I should have, or wanted to. Most of my responsibilities are finally caught up for the moment, and I'm just keeping Eden company, so I thought I'd bring you up to speed.

Eden and I went down to Klamath Falls a few weekends ago for the welcoming event at OIT. For most things, it just confirmed what we already knew or suspected. The foremost of these items is the thought that Eden will not be living with me down there - it's extremely isolated; perhaps 2 hours or more to get to any major city (Eugene would be the closest) and not a whole lot actually there. Honestly, if it weren't for the college and Crater Lake nearby, I don't think that the city would be much of a blip on the map. Regardless, I should be fine while I'm there, as I'll have no choice but to concentrate on school, which I think is a good thing, and Eden will be staying with her parents. It's not ideal, but it'll do for the moment.

We arrived late on Friday, and spent the evening at the Majestic Inn and Suites. It was an incredibly disappointing and upsetting experience - the rooms were awful, the bathrooms a joke (toilet impossible to access, shower tiny with a 30 second heat supply at most) and apparently the rooms had just been flea bombed. As Eden is allergic to such chemicals, this was a big big problem. Given how late it was and the fact that we'd prepaid through Expedia, we had to put up with it for sleep, but we checked out immediately in the morning. I simply can't imagine how many people they had to bribe to get the reviews they have online.

In any case, we made it to campus on time and got a rundown of what things might look like in the fall. I'm going to have to take the full 4 year experience, even as a transfer student, which ends up being both good and bad. The good is that I'll be able to space out some of the supporting classes, the bad is that I'll be away from Eden so much and may actually have to be out of state for my 4th year externship. I did get a bit more detail on the specialties, and it's looking more and more like MRI is where I'd like to head, although I won't have to make that decision for sure for a couple of years. We got a chance to look at the dorms as well - they're pretty run down, but I think they'll be the best choice for now, at least for the first term - maybe a shared apartment in the city after I make some friends.

We took the time to go and see Crater Lake after the session, and didn't regret it at all. The views were amazing, as you can see below. There was also a huge amount of snow, for it being mid-April. We went and watched "17 again" at the local theater for a low impact evening, then went to the Aspen Inn Motel, a charming little place that Eden found. The two ladies that ran it were very personable and friendly, and we felt very welcomed. The little cabins were impressively efficient. The only complaint might have been for the stiffness of the mattress, but really, it netted out as a very positive experience. The inn was actually just a few miles south of Crater Lake and as you can see, the area is very peaceful. It's reassuring to know that at least there'll be an escape available in range, when I need it. It also seems like I'll have plenty to play with in learning more about photography.

We actually didn't get a chance to get too very many pictures while we were there, thanks in part to a nasty experience Eden had with some stinging nettles in trying to get a shot of some old telephone poles in Klamath Lake. On the other hand, we got a bunch of great photos on the way back at a rest stop in Oakridge, of all places. There were hordes of butterflies taking in the sun and it was just a very serene place. It didn't hurt our moods any that the local Dairy Queen had hand dipped Dilly Bars as well.

Later that week I got a chance to introduce Eden to my mother's sister, Betsy, which is something I've been looking forward to for a long time. They're both just such neat, crafty people that I knew they'd get along great. I even got to take a few pictures of my lovely wife after the meal at Rose's, which is something she very, very rarely lets me do. Perhaps after I get more of a chance to practice at portraiture.

Last weekend was Eden's first time back to market, which went pretty well for it being such a very slow weekend overall. It was nice to get to hang out with friends for a while and the pace wasn't too hectic. Among other things, we got to see the cutest little girl tethered to her father by a monkey on her back (see photo) - she was incredibly energetic, just running in a straight line until her dad picked her up and turned her around, then back the other way. Of course this continued for most of her visit.

This last week has been pretty hard on Eden, as she'd had a migraine starting on Monday that just kept on getting worse and worse until we finally had to take her into the ER (without insurance!) on Friday. After 10 hours, a CAT scan, urinalysis, blood cultures, and finally a spinal tap, we found out that she almost definitely has viral meningitis. We're still waiting on a couple of cultures to come back on Monday to rule out bacterial meningitis, which is a potentially deadly variant, but for the moment we're assuming it's viral. Unfortunately, there's no cure for such things other than the body's natural defenses, so we're working with narcotics and anti-nausea meds for the next week or so. The painkillers she's on don't actually do much to dull the pain, but they do seem to pull that nice trick of making the pain less important. Functionally this means that Eden is isolated upstairs in her sister's room, holed up with as many episodes of Power Puff girls and Steel Angel Kurumi as she can stand. Fortunately the meds are encouraging her to sleep intermittently, which hopefully helps the time pass a little more easily for her.

We were actually supposed to spend the weekend at her Aunt Pat's, taking care of her pets while she's out of town, but requisite bedrest has changed the plan a bit. Yesterday Lucky spent most of the day up in Washington hanging out with Fizgig, and today I spent some time down south in the garden with the pets and a camera. I think I got some great shots, especially of Lucy-Fur, but you folks can be the judge. Regardless, I got to spend some time in Pat's hammock, so it's been a pretty good day.

Pet Sitting at Pat's [Show image locations on map] [Fullscreen slideshow]

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Lots of new photos!

It's been a while since I've had a chance to make an update here - I'll post some actual content in a little while, but for the moment, here are a bunch of photos from the last few weeks. I think the cherry tree in front of the Scheans household is especially impressive, as is the depth of the snow at Crater Lake in the middle of April!

2009-04-28 Picdump [Show image locations on map] [Fullscreen slideshow]

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Introductions

It occurred to me earlier today that while pretty much everyone reading this blog will know both Eden and I, very few have had the opportunity to meet everyone in our current household, since we're now living in Washington. Accordingly, here are a few mugshots.


The actual Scheans/Nichols house.


Our gracious and kind hosts, Suzanne Scheans (aka "The Steamfitter Princess", a leader in the pipefitting community and longstanding member of UA 290) and Jon Nichols (aka "Nichols!", a representative for Icynene and co-owner of Bold Venture) As part of their wedding present to us, they're letting us stay with them in the downstairs level until I head off to college again this fall, which should provide substantial savings on rent, etc.


Jon's daughter, Cassie and her boyfriend Nick. They're both sailors, currently down in California, and live intermittently upstairs between ships.


Fizgig the poodle, the final member of the upstairs crew.


Luna (aka "Tuna", "Tuna-face", "Face") - Eden's original cat, and the alpha of the pack. Definately a one woman cat and a little touchy, but she's warmed to me fractionally every year I've known her.


Mei Mei (aka "Little Sis", "Maims") - Eden's other cat, picked up between the times when Eden and I have lived together as a companion for Luna. She's always been a little feral and shy of humans since an accident in kittenhood left her hanging by one pinned paw for an unknown length of time. Lately though, she's gotten almost cuddly. It's a nice change.


Piranha (aka "P-town") - my surviving cat from my time in Japan, a genuine Japanese bobtail. His original name was actually Valentino, but escapades from before he was fixed led to a name change. Now he's a friendly old thing, and performs admirably as a nurse cat whenever someone doesn't feel well.


Michael (aka "Mikey", "Mikey-pants", "Pants", "Fuji-Nose") - One of the two kittens that Suzanne bought me for my last birthday as companions for Piranha. Extremely playful and fluffy, but not always the brightest.


Amber (aka "Amby-Pamby", "Kittler") - Remember that kid in school who spiked a growth spurt when they were like 6? That's Amber. She grew like crazy and just couldn't seem to get used to her body, leading to some pretty clumsy behavior. These days she's just very.... sturdy. Not fat, you understand, but DENSE. The Kittler moniker comes from when we were first introducing the households - she decided that the bed was a place for purebreds and that only white and black cats could be there. Piranha apparently squeeked by as a half-breed, but Mei Mei was out. Now they get along fine, of course, and it's fights between Piranha and Mei Mei that we hear. Go figure.