Bangkok 84/72 Bend 28/20

Every evening this winter I park my car at the top of the driveway - if it looks like it might snow, or if it could possibly snow or even it could remotely possibly snow in the next state, next month. Until last Saturday night when I left the car at the bottom of the driveway and I woke up to this. For those of you who have seen our driveway you know what a dilemma this can be!

Oh wait this was the first day of Spring.... (that makes for extra heavy wet snow by the way) days like this have me looking up the temperatures around the world in the paper. Bend fit into the same category as Moscow, Oslo, Toronto.... At least it was warming up as the morning wore on so I got dug out just in time to leave for Sunday morning meeting and got some exercise at the same time.

On a more cheery note Corey, Danica and Tabor came to see us the a few weekends ago. Brought along their great friends Brian and Mari McDonald. We had a good time, lots of great food and snuggles (with Tabor), hanging out and the younger men managed to get in some snow shoeing.

Here's Tabor trying to figure out the best way to use what we kept telling him was a phone... sure he says, so where's the touch screen Ma?!

Tabor had a great time playing with the antiques.... mainly the Fisher Price farm and phone. He loved it when grampasan would run the tractor over the top of his (T's) head. I never seemed to have my camera in hand at the right time but check out Danica's blog and flickr - she managed to get a few, not of the tractor on the head but some of the fun.

Not so wild life!

Just a few of our resident deer..... wonder how we have any yard at all with these guys hanging out. I am standing on our deck and they are just (about)30 feet away - well aware that I am out here. Earlier this same day I went to get the newspaper and there was a 5 point resting much like this by the driveway less than 10 feet from the paper. He didn't get up to his feet until I was almost to the paper and then he just stood there and watched me - no sense of urgency to wander on. I was more nervous than he was.

OK, they do get alarmed once in awhile. Here our next door neighbor's Jack Russell terriers came out on their second floor deck. Once the deer figured out what was going on they settled back down as they were. Later the same day we were out in the yard and found elk scat! Haven't seen any elk in our yard but they are on the butte. The elk and the deer are really gorgeous but I do wish they would stay out in this undomesticated, natural part of our yard but nooooo, they love just about everything we ever plant - deer proof plants and all.

Oh and those deer sprays and other repellants.... we've tried the really icky ones that smell like rotten egg and putrified garlic because those are the ingredients.... hmmmm they might work if you spray the repellant on a dog and sic the dog on the deer. Mainly the spray stinks up the yard and the garage and your hands. The deer don't particularly like the taste but they have tasted (as in biting off and spitting out) every bud on our day lilies just in case one didn't have the rotten egg/garlic gunk on it.

We've read about motion sensors that will turn on a light, doubt it will work with these guys. Motion sensors that turn on a sprinkler - might work once or twice to get them to walk a few yards away. Gordon has even tried a pellet gun, but they have learned that it will sting but only for a moment, so they wait for it and then wander off. The only place they haven't bothered our plants is on our second floor deck and in the house. Waiting for the day we come home and several are sitting in the deck chairs while another is in the house gathering goodies for the gang. Given half a chance I think they just might go for it.

Just about threw in the blog towel!

i am doing this for fun, i am doing this for fun.....

for those of you who wanted to see what i was talking about in my lincoln city weekend post, my apologies for the delay.... hope i didn't lose too many of my followers.....

turns out in my ignorance i was messing with my pix in picasa and changed the settings.... hence all the white boxes with x's.... so glad it was an easy fix or i was going to quit as pulling in and organizing the photos is a challenge in the first place.... to have to re-do..... well..... hmmm..... not sure that was going to happen.... especially as i spend hours at a computer all week for work...
gotta love technology but boyza can it be a lotta trouble.....

just hope the pictures were worth the wait!!!

Lincoln City Weekend

Forgot just how wet it is on the coast - we're still about an hour away. Don't see green like this in Central Oregon!











Our beach house in Lincoln City - great place to stay snug and dry and watch the rain and waves and eat and play and relax. We did get out for several walks on the beach and then of course had to dry out and eat again.

Had to stand with my back to the wind to grab this proof that we did walk on the beach - received free dermabrasion with this walk! The next day we got soaked to our skivvies. Definitely worked off a few of the calories from all the food we ate.

Spent quite a bit of time gazing out the living room window when we weren't eating: Mo's chowder, fish and chips (at a great little-looks like nothing-place in town - J's fish and chips - the best!), Thai curry (thanks to Danica), or nibbling on a mountain of snacks or playing games, reading or otherwise enjoying our expanded family.

As you can see from these random shots poor Tabor was ignored, neglected and otherwise scorned. Unfortunately I did not get shots of much else... Sorry, Dave and Sandra and Bella were there but you'll have to go to Sandra's Blackboard to see them. So glad they were there - had a really great time.

Mom, trying to get Tabor to eat - too many distractions to waste energy eating! I should take lessons (on being too distracted to eat).

Playing with dad and oh, there's Sandra in the kitchen - she and Dave made a great taco dinner Friday night and Idaho potato breakfast on Saturday!

"Eye.."

Too bad Uncle Kevin is afraid of babies :)

Don't bug us man, grandpasan is telling me something really important.

Bonding with the cuz and auntie!

Just being cool, hanging with (some) of the guys!

Shades of days to come, just need pink jammies?

Christmas in PDX

Bet you can't guess where I spent my Christmas weekend! So much fun to snuggle and play with sweet little Tabor. Currently he's working on his fine motor skills - plays with tags and ribbon loops for hours, ok its really only a lot of minutes, on end. Give him a toy and he plays with the tag! Funny to watch him as his so intent as he manipulates the tags. His clever mommy even made his a tag blanket with great colorful loops of ribbon.

Speaking of his mommy and daddy, they are quite anxious for him to learn to crawl..... hmmm, that will be loads of fun! This weeked he did learn to deliberately roll over to his back and he's starting to sit up more.... still pretty wobbley as you can see in this great home video!....
A brief disclaimer..... granbabies make gramasans sound pretty silly so if you have a weak stomach, turn down the volume before you watch!!

While I was there I finally finished a brown knitted vest for Tabor and then failed to get a picture of him wearing it to Sunday morning meeting. Maybe he will wear it again and his mommy will get a picture for me. Now I need to finish a blue/green/white/grey sweater before he outgrows it - almost done - down to the button bands! Then I can start on something "pink" for little baby girl Wilson in Idaho!!

You think I am obnoxious now.... just wait until Gramasan has two little ones to brag about! I may be down right hard to live with!

The wimp has a new ride!

Well according to a son of ours..... you know, that oldest one who's initials start with Kevin Wilson......Gordon is a wimp (and a chicken) because he didn't keep on driving his Infiniti until the 300,000 mile mark. It only has 289,000 (too cold and snowy to go out and get the exact number) and runs well. Just starting to lose things like heater fan, dash lights, radio(Gordon says he checked the fuses) and it never did handle well in the snow. So.... for the second time in our 38 years of marriage we have purchased a new car. A few hints on buying a new car - do your homework first then go on a snowy day when they only have a few customers so not much prospect of a sale and then make them an offer that makes the dealer want to cry!

In case you can't tell from this snowy photo it is a Ford Fusion Hybrid. Turns out there is a steep learning curve to driving this - the first one being how to tell when is it really running and ready to go. The dealer forgot to tell us to look for the little green light on the dash - we sat at our mailbox last night perplexed and bewildered as it would not move. You can turn the key far enough for everything to look ready but of course the gas engine doesn't start up(that is a weird sensation to drive off without a sound)..... got turn the key just a little farther.

Here is why the poor new car is sharing the great outdoors with the other Wilson cars.... Snowing hard (again) even as we speak.

Great day to finally get cracking on some traditional holiday tasks. Just took my infamous fruitcake out of the oven. For those who don't know about this.... years ago I took Helen's (Gordon's mom) fruitcake recipe and morphed it. I just couldn't take the candied fruit and started substituting dried fruit. Quite a few years ago my recipe even made the Bend Bulletin -short article with the recipe and a photo! (must have been a slow week in the home and garden section). Anyway, it is a true fruit cake but not what you think.... although it is heavy enough to use as a door stop.

Just in case you are interested here is the recipe:

8 cups of assorted dried fruit: I usually use dried apricots, pineapple, dates, cranberries and papaya, except for this year I forgot the apricots (I was going to head to Costco and never got there) Be sure to cut up the largest fruit such as the pineapple and papaya and separate any pieces sticking together.
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
8 cups pecans

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. Put dried fruit in a very large bowl - you need room to stir (also helps to have a strong arm and a sturdy spoon). Mix up the fruit and then add flour mixture and start stirring. Make sure you stir from the bottom up - you are trying to coat all the fruit.

Beat the eggs and sugar together, add to the fruit and flour mixture. Again stir and stir until now it is all a gooey mixture. At this point at the pecans and stir again. I suppose the pecans can go in earlier but the original reciped said to add at this point so I always have.

Be prepared to get your hands into the goo.... Press mix into 3 regular size loaf pans - lined with oiled parchment paper. You can skip the parchment paper but it really makes is so much easier to get these out of the pans!

Bake at 275 degrees for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Turn out and cool on rack.

Playing catch up for the last month!

Can't believe it has been over a month since I last posted. Part of my problem is I sit at a computer 75% of my work day so sitting at a computer in the evening is not exactly high on my list. Give me a book or some yarn or a pillow and that makes a great evening.

I had hoped to get up to Portland to see Corey, Danica and Tabor (had a work meeting) but the passes were icky and we were pretty icy around here. Had to settle for calling into the meeting and looking at pictures of Tabor on my desk (and new ones on Danica's blog!) I plan to head their way for Christmas. Poor grandpasan has to work.

These are from the end of October when Tabor and I got to spend the day - just the two of us. Check out Danica's blog if you want to see anything current! Or to verify just how cute this little guy really is!

Fast forward to Thanksgiving!!
During the past month winter came upon us with a vengence. Of course Dave and Sandra and I headed over to Idaho to see Kevin and Shauna when it was the coldest. Hit Burley in the single digits and left Burley in howling wind, blowing snow across the road. But Dave is an intrepid driver and the whole trip was great! Had a wonderful time!

For those of you have been to Sandra's blog some of these Thanksgiving at Kevin and Shauna's will be repetitious and BORING.

We all took a turn or two at the lefse - a real learning curve here!

Shauna had this great plan - making snazzy watches for Sandra's birthday!

It was a bit overwhelming at first - mixing, matching, stringing, un-stringing.... until wah-lah, finished watches!

Pasta lessons from a 'lil ol' lady from Bend whose been to Italy once! Very authentic!?

Ready for the boiling water

Scout just before she does her nodding, head bobbing, dozing off move. Sorry Bella, didn't get any pictures of you but so glad you and Scout decided to get along. And I really did enjoy having you as a lap blanket dog on the long ride home.


For those of you who have made it this far.... I have a vague recollection of another reason why I don't post very often.... I have uploaded several pictures several times as I accidently delete while trying to fix fonts, alignment - where oh where is the re-do/un-do button? If you know of one let me in on the secret, please! Until next year?!