Wednesday Download and other miscellaneous thoughts

It's the 2nd day of Spring and I woke up to 4-5 inches of snow.  Actually I woke up to Brown Eyed Man standing in the bedroom fully dressed at 3 a.m.  I wondered where he was going.  This is the third time in three weeks we've had the same encounter.  He had to go outside and clean off the satellite dish as we weren't getting any reception...at 3 o'clock in the morning.  He wakes up and can't go back to sleep so he watches tv.  What do people in Minnesota do to keep their satellite cleaned off?  I think we need some sort of heated satellite dish.

This is the view from my office window.  Not so bad here in Salem, but still snowing.  Only one rolled over car on my way into work.  A new record!  For the life of me, I can't imagine what happened to flip that car , but people do some stupid things in the snow.

Last week I had a little road trip.  Tuesday morning started out with 4 inches of snow at our house.  I drove into Salem where the weather turned to heavy rain:

I arrived in The Dalles and the weather there was great.  Clover likes to ride right behind my seat with her head right next to mine.  Sometimes her head rests on my shoulder.  I can't imagine how that can be comfortable.

Tuesday night I met up with my friend since grade school, Bobbi.  She owns a Salon in The Dalles and I needed something done with my $12 haircut from last October.   Bobbi fixed me right up.  She evened everything out and gave me some new highlights! And we only talked for 3 hours. It was wonderful and I love my hair.

Wednesday was a meeting in Hood River at the historic Columbia Gorge Hotel. 

I've only been there once for brunch so I was looking forward to seeing more of the hotel and grounds.  But it snowed like crazy so I didn't see much of the grounds and I was in a meeting all day so I didn't see much of the hotel.  I did get to see these handy ash trays in the bathroom stalls.  Nice that they accommodate multi-taskers.

And the beautiful waterfall just outside our conference room.  It's just starting to snow in the picture.  It got much worse.

I spent two nights at my parents house.  Clover got a chance to play with her buddies Barkley & Belle:

I left her with Dad and went on to Pendleton on Thursday.  You really can't drive through the Gorge anymore without running into a part of a windmill.  I've mentioned in the past how much I dislike these windmills but they really are something to see up close.

I spent some time visiting a jobsite in Pendleton.  It's right along McKay (pronounced Mick-KY, not Mick-KAY) Creek.  It was one of my favorite jobsites ever.  A nice empty field along a creek.  Beautiful.  On the way in I met a little spotty dog who lives nearby.  He barked his head off when I got out to open the gate.  He let me pet him though.  I found out later that he doesn't let the guys pet him.  He was too speedy for a photo.  I did however get some great pictures of the cow I will call "Socks".

And a stealthy, ninja-like calf I will call "Blacky".

Last but definitely not least, on my way home on Friday morning I had the opportunity to be thankful for my wonderful neighbors.  Sometimes it takes seeing how other people live for you to be thankful for what you have...and what you don't have.  Like a full size Budweiser Clydesdale Horse in your neighbor's front yard.  They even built a pedestal for it.



And now for my miscellaneous thoughts:

1. The Boy wants to move to North Dakota.  I'm torn as I don't want him to be that far away, yet I want him to have a good job and this might be the one.

2. The Girl finally registered for school. 

3. I was reading Bye Bye Pie the other day and June Gardens mentioned how she would love to talk about what's really going on in her life, but in order to protect the privacy of others she doesn't.  This leads me to two thoughts (a) Maybe I need to stop publishing my Grandma's journals as it is a violation of her privacy and that of my family members, and (b) I really want to rant about people from time to time.  REALLY. WANT. TO.  But I don't because it's more trouble than it's worth.

4. I received my pre-ordered copy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks yesterday!  I was so excited!  So excited that I couldn't decide how and when I wanted to read it.  Flip through it over supper?  Sit on the sofa and read it from cover to cover?  Take it to bed with me and read it before I fall asleep?  I settled on a combination of all three.  If you're not familiar with the Pioneer Woman, click on the link.  She's my idol.  I want to be her.  I think 99% of the people who read her blog feel the same way.

5. I have to drive to Medford tonight for a meeting I don't want to attend with some people I sometimes want to talk about on this blog and it's snowing and I don't want to go.

Happy Wednesday

j