sun and tulips

When the sun is shining in Portland anyone who isn't obligated for one reason or another to be indoors is outside.  It is like the law here.  Also it is the law for all men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five to be bare chested when the weather is this nice.  Little known fact.

All week the weather has been beautiful but sadly I've been one of those obligated to stay inside, chained to my desk, only to peer outside my office window and marvel at the blue skies.  Oh, you can bet all week I had on the saddest face you have ever seen.  But today I was released from my office prison.  We made the most of the sunshine because round these parts you never know how long it's going to last and lord knows we all need the vitamin D.

This morning was spent wandering through fields of flowers at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival (and later wandering through throngs of tourists straight off of their tour buses, yuck).  I've always wanted to see the Dutch tulip fields but the only time I've ever been to the Netherlands it was in January so ne'er a tulip field did I see.  This is likely the closest I'll ever get to fulfilling that dream.

Can I just tell you that Clio could not have been less interested in the whole thing.  All she wanted to do was watch harnessed ponies, topped with wobbly kids, slowly walk around in circles.  While I was roaming between the rows of tulips taking photos I overheard two elderly women commenting on how Leif was following Clio around as she played in the dirt.  "At that age they get all the say," one of them said as they sat on a bench, drinking from a plastic water bottle.  Never a truer sentence was uttered.

The day turned around for Clio though.  It ended up with ice cream cones and a long afternoon playing in the park.  Life sure is sweet when you're an almost two year old.

2012 in photos

I loved going through all the photos we took this year, they are good reminders of how great this past year was.  Obviously the majority of them were of a particular baby- we just cannot help ourselves.  Here are some of my favorites.

January

crochet by grandma

February

March

flooded in Kauai 

April

los angeles sunny days

May

a trip to Palm Springs

June

a dance performance by my nieces

July

job interview in portland

August

goodbye california, hello oregon

September

rockaway beach

October

raggedy lion

November

zoo lights

December

christmas tree hunting with memaw

a hike and a giant fish

Over the weekend (Friday, actually, because I have EVERY FRIDAY off work whoohoo) Leif and I met up with some dear friends to go hiking to Wahclella Falls. 

Our friends Marc and Natalie, along with their son Sam, recently returned to Portland after living in Amsterdam for the last two years.  Even though they have only been back for a week having them here makes Portland feel a little bit more like home already.

Hey Oregon, you Sexy Beast, you.

After the hike we took the kids to see Herman The Sturgeon at the Bonneville Fish Hatchery.  Sam is only about six months older than Clio but towers over her and probably weighs a good ten or fifteen pounds more than she does.  He is the most snuggly cuddly little dude.  When Clio shuns my affectionate kisses for something more appealing like a slimy wet leaf, Sam lets me scoop him up and give him hugs and zerberts.

Who is that kid in the middle?  I dunno.  Just some random kid pointing out the huge fish to anyone who would listen.

I think Clio is in love.  With Sam.  Not Herman.  Sorry Herman.

custom furniture

Have any of you ever had a piece of custom furniture made before?  I don't recommend it.  Only because it is too awesome and it is very likely that should you ever have it done then other furniture will just always seem like crap.  I admit it isn't totally sound logic: avoid something because you know how awesome it will be and you probably won't have many opportunities to do it again or you will get addicted to it and then things will really get ugly.

Leif has the same logic when it comes to massages.  He won't get them for fear of loving them too much.  He has probably watched me, one too many times, pathetically trying to get him to rub my shoulders as a sub par substitute for the Thai ladies at my favorite massage place.  Please, I beg, just five minutes.  That is all I need.  My muscles are so sore.  I'm sick folks. I need help. 

Back to furniture and having people with skill and talent make it for you.  Yup, that is what we are doing.  Josh is making a table for us.  His business is Arbor Exchange and they make gorgeous furniture from reclaimed wood.  We are going to be getting a beautiful table that we can name and make part of the family.  It is the closest thing we will ever come to having a pet thanks to my allergies and general laziness when it comes to animals.  The table will be called Sir Winston Waldorf Watson.  A stately name worthy of a stately table.

This past week I met Josh at a 95 year-old saw mill in Van Nuys (which is totally not a quaint Dutch community, btw) to look for the wood that will become Sir Winston.  It was fun.  It was educational.  It was saw-dusty.  I took lots of photos.

When I saw this red fire safety bulletin my immediate thought was, "Don't worry about the fire, man!  You have more pressing concerns.  Like your second head"  Seeing it written out isn't quite as funny as it was in my head.  Definitely it would not make it as a finalist for The New Yorker cartoon captions.

After taking all of these photos the only one of the actual slabs we picked out was with my iPhone.  I'm lame.

The tree -consensus was a pine tree- was from the Angeles National Forest.  I believe it was a casualty of the Station Fire (Josh can probably correct me if I am wrong on this) which wiped out something like 160,000 acres back in 2009.  That was a really sad time here in Los Angeles.  They barely just reopened most of the Angeles Crest earlier this year.

It is pretty phenomenal that not only is the table being made by our most awesome friend but that when we move to Portland we will literally be taking with us part of that which we love the most about this city.  

I can't wait to it all finished and customey.