Author Archives: Pamela

Rue is a weird dog. I’m a dog person but every time Rue sees me she makes this pitiful sound that’s a cross between a yodel and a bark. Why doesn’t she run up to me to get her ears scratched?

When we went over to the house we had Shadow with us (see the arrow?) and Shadow is my friend so Rue decided I was okay this time. She kept running up to me to get her ears scratched and her tummy rubbed like a normal dog. She was very sweet but I want her to be my friend all the time.

I’ve been half-ready to update all week.

Christmas was great in terms of the travel. We picked the perfect days and other than a few sections of heavy rain on the way down, we traveled in good weather. While we were there we had plenty of rain and some slush. I normally would have been more wistful waking up Christmas morning and seeing a little bit of snow outside.

Except that the power went out on Christmas Eve so it was dark and I was cold.

My folks have a generator so the basics were covered. Aunt Janet and Meredith cooked Christmas dinner without power — they had BBQs and secret techniques and dinner was fantastic. When you are sending out good vibes for the new year, be sure to include them.

The company was fine and the food terrific so we still had a great holiday.

My sister and I wanted to do a puzzle. Some people made frowny faces and gave us a hard time. Some went so far as to not remember where the puzzle caddy was. We were able to make it happen anyway.

Then the power went out and no TV and we had lots of new friends.

Bob and I were already gone but Erin and Tim finished and tossed back in the box before they made their way home.

I have a bunch of other stuff but dinner is boiling to I have to run.

May all your Christmas wishes come true.

A couple of weeks ago I saw this article in the NYT: OMG The Hyperbole of Internet Speak.

Choice quote:

R.I.P. to the understatement. Welcome to death by Internet hyperbole, the latest example of the overly dramatic, forcibly emotive, truncated, simplistic and frequently absurd ways chosen to express emotion in the Internet age (or sometimes feign it).

I have been collecting notes on this topic although my complaint is about the media in general.

Everything that’s been around for more than 15 minutes is iconic. Minor developments are game changing. Even the most mundane stories are jaw dropping, gut wrenching, astonishing. Poor weather is horrific or unimaginable. A dispute is described as the most divisive and threatening to tear a community apart. Accomplishments “change the way America [does something] forever.” A restaurant opening is the most hotly anticipated. It goes on and on. I saw a woman describe making a routine decision as soul searching.

My favorite was an article about a venerable eating establishment that was closing after 8 months. I went and looked up the word venerable thinking I must have misunderstood its meaning. I did not.

I have no conclusion other than these developments will destroy our way of life forever.

I’ve had notes here for a post and I had grand plans for this evening but I didn’t sleep so great last night and I don’t have the energy. I tried to do a clever photo and this is as far as I got. This the Salmon River in August under extreme drought conditions. Also fires. You can feel the syrup in the air just looking at it.

I’m sorry the weather is causing my traveling plans grief but if it means snow in the mountains, I won’t complain. Too much.

There was no post for the 27th.

I thought I must have left it in drafts but nope. I guess I didn’t even save it. I remember writing it and for sure remember doing that photo because I was so proud of myself that I could paste the two photos side-by-side in less than half of an hour.

It’s a mystery.

Here is the early failure of my great fixing project. The phone and strap worked great at the match. It felt very secure.

Later I threw the whole thing in my backpack and I didn’t even notice the strap had fallen off. I took the strap out of the bag to put it in a safe place and realized that the Sugru and grommet (fastener? ringlet?) were floating right along with it.

I haven’t given up. Next fixing things day I’m going to try again.

There’s your 30 posts!

I looked it up and 2006 was the first time I posted every day in November for National Blog Posting Month. Here’s the beginning of that month.

I didn’t read through all my posts but skimmed them. So many things have changed. For one thing, I think my photos have gotten better

It feels like time goes by fast but 10 years ago was a long time. Well, technically, 9 years.

Since 06 I’ve started my current job, I went to the Clarion West Writer’s Workshop, and I fell in love with the Portland Timbers. I love my job. I’ve written a ton of stuff and still keep in touch with my Clarion friends. I still love the Timbers.

Book goes live on Thursday. Links are here. I’m working on a bunch of new stuff so more of something in the future.

I also have to link to this post from Nov 2006 because in it I complain about the Woo! girl who is the person who ends up behind us at every concert in history and screams Woo! all night long. We went to see Patti Smith last weekend although it was not a real concert, it was a book reading and she performed a few songs. This time the Woo! girl was in front of us. She’s aged really well and I appreciated her devotion to Patti and felt a lot of affection for her this time around. Later I saw her bum a cigarette off of someone outside The Hilton.

You guys can’t even fathom what a mess my photos are. They’re organized by year and general topic (“garden” “Timbers” “random”) but after that the system breaks down fast. Plus I take a million pictures of one thing, for example going after the perfect shot of a pumpkin, and then I never want to delete any unless they’re super blurry.

Like there may be some point in the future that I haven’t imagined where I need a selection of 700 pumpkin photos. I keep promising myself I’m going to sit down and prune the file and then organize better but I get so overwhelmed.

I periodically take photos of products I like so I can write about them and then never get around to writing about them.

This is the only one I could find. It’s a kitchen scrubber called a Dobie. I love Dobies. If we ever have less than 2 boxes (I buy the boxes of 3) I get anxious and have to buy a new box the next time I’m at the market. The Dobie is great for scrubbing your icky stuff off your dishes.

I don’t mind washing dishes. I don’t mind washing dishes at other people’s houses. But they must have a Dobie or at least a scrubber brush. I’m mystified sometimes how people scrub their dishes when there is nothing in the sink area for scrubbing. Then I do mind doing dishes.

I should have taken one out of the box for better illustration.

I will add that I’m not sure what my husband does when I’m not around but sometimes I will put a fresh Dobie out (Celebrate new Dobie day!) and only a few days later it will look like it was used to clean up an accident scene. That’s why I like to have so many on hand.