Found!

J woke me this morning to tell me that our front door had blown open in the night and Fergus had escaped and was missing! Our cats are strictly indoor cats and Fergus especially (bless his stupid heart) has no "street skills" so I was very worried. We spent about an hour searching the neighborhood and calling his name before J had to go to work. I made up some fliers for the poles in our immediate neighborhood. As the hours ticked by, I was convinced I'd never see him again. Michelle suggested that instead of walking around calling for him, I just sit quietly on the front porch and wait. She said it sounded weird but had worked for them when their cat went missing. I tried it, sitting with some ginger ale and my book, and after an hour and a half he came running up the alley happy to be home! He's dirty and scared and will most likely need to sleep off his little adventure.

Sick

Sick all day. Horrible. When I get sick I feel like I will stay that way forever, even though I know that can't be true. A little ginger ale before bedtime helped...

J, Working

Tonight we went to see Harry Potter in IMAX. On the hottest freaking day of the year, we waited outside in line for over an hour. J, of course, passed the time working on his windows mobile phone. This is the face he has on when he works on his windows mobile phone. It's part concentration, part mild concern, part frustration I think.

Then, he catches me photographing him "at work".

Fern

Just a little fern near my table at lunch.

Annie

Our last day at the beach house, I owed Susan a portrait session of her dogs in exchange for my bicycle that she gave me last year and because she always lets us stay at the beach house and because she's awesome and I would do it for her anyways. But, she wanted me to photograph her dog Annie who is, I think, 14 years old.

Annie was once a great agility dog, with a box of winning ribbons to show for it.


She looks so sweet and happy (and she is!) but she rules the roost even with 5 other dogs around. She's the boss and they're all a little afraid of her.

Michelle, pondering.

M, T, and Dogs

Family photos wrangling dogs are even harder than ones with three year olds and babies.

Sunset

We decided to sit and watch the sunset from the dunes. It wasn't a particularly good sunset, but it was a nice thing to do anyways.

Wally

Finally, some super handsome pictures of Wally! He's been on the blog before but usually in low-light-blurry-sad-faced conditions. He was so happy and excited to be off-leash on the beach.

Sand

.

Beach

S'all.

Oregon

All day long, there was a low fog just hanging on to the beach, all the way down the coast of Oregon. So, J didn't get to see much on his first coast road trip. We did stop at this one scenic overlook though where the curved beach was far enough inland that the fog was sitting just offshore.

Session

Second stop, lunch!

Ft. Clatsop

First stop on the way down the coast, Ft. Clatsop National Memorial where Lewis and Clark camped for the winter once they made it to the Pacific Ocean. It's a small little national park but well done and interesting. We both learned some things and enjoyed our time.

Camping Coffee

Camping coffee was good, and I think our little minimalist foray into camping alone was a success. I was sad it was only for one night though and after another bike ride it was time to break camp and hit the road.

Firemaster II

Firemaster strikes again! I am so amazingly good at making fires. Last night, after dinner, a raccoon stole our marshmallows off the table so there were no s'mores for us this camping trip. This morning, I built another awesome fire so that we could use our ONE POT to boil water for french press coffee.

Peter Iredale

Ft. Stevens is a great state park right on the water. It has a lake, forests, beach access (with it's very own shipwreck) and nine miles of paved bike trails through nature that were just awesome. The beach was really really socked in with fog though. It's not hard to see how a ship could run aground in bad weather here. This is the Peter Iredale.

Fire Master!

So, while J was "Tent Master", I was "Fire Master" because I love to make the campfire and I'm really really good at it.

We decided (due to a combo of our trying to be minimalists and the lack of pre-trip-planning) to go as low-key as possible on the camping. So, I cooked a pot of chili at home (an old-school family camping technique) and we brought only ONE POT to heat it up over the fire.

Oh yeah, minimalist dinner is served!

Camping Alone!

Finally, we drove to nearby Ft. Stevens and set up camp in their very lovely state park. It was small and quiet and weird and lovely to have a tiny little campsite all to ourselves. J was dubbed "Tent Master" and had the tent up in about 5 minutes.

J, Working

So, in recent years, J has had to work remotely every time we go on vacation. It sucks but it's part of life right now unfortunately. So, I usually spend the day driving and making silent hand gestures while he spends the day having horrible work conversations on the phone. I took his picture while he worked at the coffeeshop. This is one of his expressions that I love though.

J Drinking Coffee XXVI

The latest installment in the "J Drinking Coffee" Series.

Astoria Coffeehouse

It's a cute little place. And they brew a wicked Stumptown hairbender.

Astoria

For one of our usual summer vacations, we head down to the beach house in Oregon with T, M, and S. It's a long drive so I prefer to go the scenic route along the coast and break it up with stops. This time, J and I are going to camp for one night outside of Astoria. We have never camped alone before. We have always gone in the protection of Camp Yuppie. First, we stopped in Astoria for some coffee while J, ahem, finished up working.

900

This is photo #900 in the photo-a-day-project.

And now I am off to the beach for a much needed vacation...! :)

Orchid III

This orchid has been blooming for a ridiculously long time. It's starting to embarrass itself, frankly. I first shot it on March 13th, with blooms 1, 2, and 3. Then I shot it on April 6th with blooms 1-7. It sent out even more blooms last month and now 7-10 are still brightening my day. I can't believe it.

Mushroom Skirt

I finally finished the "Mushroom Skirt", named for it's cute mushroom pattern - not the cat, that I've been working on for weeks. It was supposed to be a 5 minute skirt - ha! It's filled with mistakes (not the least of which is that I cut the pattern upside down) but I don't care. I will definitely be wearing this all weekend at the beach.

Brunch

The boys, and Michelle, out to brunch after the race. I ordered blueberry pancakes, a side of bacon, and a side of hashbrowns.




If you're looking for the blog post at the start of the race (to go in chronological order), start here.

T and J

And finally, a shoutout to our sherpas/spectators/adoring fans T and J! J, once again suffered through a 4:45 AM wakeup call, T made bagels and pumped up bicycle tires, they photographed, held signs, cheered, and took us out for brunch after the race. Without these guys, none of these blog posts would have been possible because I wouldn't have finished the swim and I wouldn't have pictures to talk about.

Comic Strip

I'm just going to let this cute little series speak for itself:

We Rock

I am a big fan of the "put your medals on and get your picture taken" finish.

M (me): Total=1:49:16, Swim=26:11, T1=3:05, Bike=47:37, T2=1:49, Run=30:34
M (Michelle): Total=1:39:32, Swim=19:09, T1=2:51, Bike=44:56, T2=1:42, Run=30:53

The Full Marathon (Face)

In our house, we affectionately refer to this particular "face" of mine as "The Full Marathon Face". Meaning, the full-on completely ridiculous expression that I put on ONLY at the finish line of big races. This is almost identical to the photo from my marathon finish from 4.5 years ago. It's horrible and unflattering, but my face never lies and this is what it says at the end of the race. Oddly enough, I never even feel like I am smiling, I always feel like I am running hard and looking awesome.