no more link to Texas

My Dad moved back to Oregon from Texas and I'm pretty happy about that. I'll admit that I am not the best at calling or visiting my family, but they are definitely important to me. I honestly can't remember how long ago my Dad even moved to Texas, but I am pretty sure it has been several years. The reason I can't recall very well is because for much of that time my Step mom, LaNora and my sister, Adriane have been living here in Oregon after a brief relocation to Texas. With them here, my Dad visited quite often. I actually think I saw him more often while he was living there than before he moved. I guess that means that I'm not necessarily excited because now I will see him a lot more, but instead I'm excited because now I won't have to spend money and use vacation time to go to Dallas, Texas. I can't say that the Dallas/Fort Worth area is a place that I have ever had a desire to visit. I would visit Austin and probably also San Antonio, but Dallas and Houston are two places I have never really considered for a vacation. But it doesn't matter now because I no longer have any reason to go to Texas.

Last weekend he came over and helped me install a new gutter over our patio. When the patio was installed, the drain for the gutter was covered with concrete so I wanted to reinstall that gutter in order to reroute the rainwater to the opposite side and off of the patio. I also wanted to see if installing gutters was easy enough to do without hiring someone else to do it. The installation wasn't all that difficult, but the way the roof is on my house, it may or may not drain correctly. It rained a bit yesterday and I went outside to see if there was water coming out of the downspout. There was. Hopefully in a stronger downpour it still works well.

So, not only did I get some work done on the house, I got to spend a bit of time with my Dad. Maybe there will be more of this in the future ... there are definitely plenty of projects to work on.

delicious beer

Yesterday after work, we met Kathie and her husband Trevor downtown on the waterfront for the Oregon Brewers Festival. The way it works is that you buy a mug and then you buy tokens. The tokens allow you to buy either a taste of a beer for 1 token or a full beer for 4 tokens. Trevor had a bunch of tokens that he shared with me and I decided not to waste my time in lines only getting tastes. I had 4 full beers that were all strong and hoppy. They were delicious and other than the huge amount of people at the festival, it was a pretty fun time. The only problem was that since the beers were so strong and I hadn't eaten anything for a few hours, I got pretty drunk. Afterwards, Kathy, Trevor, Ally and I went to Cha Cha Cha and had some Mexican food. It helped quite a bit with the drunkenness, but it wasn't quite enough. After dinner, we said goodbye to Kathy and Trevor since they now live in Bend and we probably won't see them again for a while. I went to bed shortly after getting back home. Ally isn't much of a beer fan (other than Pabst) so she was sober and decided to go out for a friend's birthday. I have spent most of today at home doing hardly anything. It has taken me pretty much all day to get over my hangover. I haven't really had a headache or felt ill or anything, I've just been tired and I keep falling asleep for a few minutes here and there while watching TV. The beer fest was fun, but I wish it hadn't ruined my whole Saturday.

workin' for the weekend

It is almost the weekend ... woohoo!!!!

I'm excited because this week we had a patio installed in our backyard which means we can start enjoying the weather in the comfort of our backyard without sitting in chairs that are on lumpy and uneven ground. The same can now be said about our BBQ grill which also has always been used on uneven grass ... fire + dead grass + uneven ground = potential for disaster.

Ally and I have also begun talking about quite a few little projects around the house that we would like to start spending time and money on. If we can keep focused on goals, we should be able to start making some small changes around the house.

For now, I will leave you with this comic that made me laugh.


marriedtothesea.com

anybody out there?

The one thing I hate about having a blog is the paranoia it brings about in me that no one is reading. This feeling is only heightened by the fact that I don't ever get any comments. I feel like I am typing this stuff out for me and Ally to read and no one else. I hope that isn't true.

I've been back to work for almost a week now since my week off. The week has gone quickly, and the mini-vacation I took seemed to do exactly what I hoped it would ... help me relax. I seem to be less tense at work, and less tired when I get home from work. That's exactly what I needed.

Last Sunday, we tried to have a BBQ since the weather was nice and Shain and Deana were in town still. The problem is that we decided to start it early (2pm) in an effort to not keep Tim awake too late since he starts work around 5 in the morning and usually goes to bed around 7pm. I'm not sure if this is simply too early for most people, or if we legitimately forgot to tell people, but only 2 people showed up before 5pm, and they were both Tim's friends. Even after 5, not too many people showed up anyway.

I guess another big reason for the low turn out at the BBQ is simply that Ally and I are too busy these days to really have too many good friends. Of course we have friends, but it's not like it was in college or even when we were 25. There simply isn't time in anyone's lives these days to spend too much time just hanging out. The same goes for our friends and acquaintances too. Everyone has their own schedules and their own lives to live. It wouldn't seem so bad if I had a legitimate hobby that I spent time working on ... or if I knew how to work on projects around the house. I spend a lot of time while Ally is at work and Tim is sleeping watching TV or scouring the Internet looking for any and all new info on the Oregon Ducks football team. I can't wait for August 30th, when the Washington Huskies come to Eugene for the first game of the season.

a quick update with pics

We are back home from our short vacation to Astoria. It was quite a bit of fun. We relaxed quite a bit but we also went to see a 101 year old shipwreck, an old gun battery fortress, Seaside and Haystack Rock. I had quite a bit of fun. Click the pic below to view the photo album.

Astoria June 08

We went to Seattle after that, and celebrated Shannon's birthday and got to see their baby, Drake. He's absolutely beautiful, but you'll have to take my word for it ... for some reason we didn't take any pictures in Seattle. We also visited Slye at his new apartment in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle. He's nervous about being in a new city, but his neighborhood seems absolutely awesome, so I think he'll be just fine once he gets his bearings and makes a few new friends.

Last night we went to a 4th of July party at a friend's house. There was great food, tons of fireworks and then the night was capped off with fire breathing and fire dancing. It was a lot of fun. Click the pic below to view the photo album.

4th of July 08