Hey, nice abs!

There's nothing like a trip to the northwest in August. It's still green here and the weather is nice (knock on wood) though Mt. Hood is still not visible today for our hike. We rode our bikes around the city yesterday on a little adventure. We had a little lunch down by the river and in general just chilled out. The scenery was great and the people watching was just as great. It was amazing how many Portlanders ride their bikes around.

After dragging our out-of-shapes butts back to Aunt Joy's house, we met up with Uncle Ralph to go to BodyWorlds III, the exhibit at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Being a squeamish type about blood and guts, I wondered how I would enjoy the "plastinated" bodies in all their muscle-y glory. But it was actually amazing. We saw organs, muscles, tendons, vessels, aortas, femoral arteries, etc. Most of the bodies were displayed in some artistic way, like The Archer.

Interestingly, they left the outside view of the penises, testes (they are after all supported by a little muscle) and the vajayjays and nipples. We saw brains, hearts, livers, kidneys, spleens, intestines, stomachs, appendix (they are tiny!), and everything else. We also saw healthy lungs vs. smoker lungs (all of you smokers, stop now!!).

The "plastination" technique was developed by Dr. Gunther von Hagens. People donate their bodies to be plastinized (there are 6,000 currently on the list). They put plastic polymers in all of the cells and then the bodies are posed in certain dynamic positions and then cured (i.e. baked) in those positions. This provides a great opportunity for people to learn about the body and appreciate the complexity of the body's movements and functions. Some of the bodies that are not posed are sliced into 1/2 inch cross sections so that you can view a person's entire torso in slices--which gives you an interesting viewpoint on how all your body parts work together.

Our New Party Palace

As soon as it got down to a cool 96 degrees outside, we decided we had to create a bigger space for us to be outside. So through a couple weeks of preparation (ripping out shrubs, killing slugs, moving sprinklers), we got our space ready for the new deck extension.

I'm sure L could tell more details about the process--about attaching some board to the foundation or doing the "underlayment" I think is the term. Yes, L can... Our favorite handyman was up for the adventure so, after the prep work we woke up early Thurs. morning had a few cups of coffee and we were ready to go. Pugsley, joined for a cup of joe from Jeff's thermos. He needed the energy so he could run around, get in the way, and bark at all power tools. For the underlayment we had to dig post holes, pour cement, set posts and a 4x8 beam, which fell on my leg, more bruises, drill holes in the foundation and then use anchor bolts to anchor the ledger board to the house. Once all the joists were hung the Trex could begin.




We pre-drilled to screw in all the Trex, making sure to space them. Of course, I've skipped over the endless trips to Home Depot and the carrying of all of
the supplies--Trex are freakin heavy--and the bruises I have on my forearms prove that. And then there was the stairs, the railing, the staining of the railing, and the creation of the doggy tripod ramp (I insisted; L figured out how to make it happen--now all we have to do is train the dogs to use the doggy ramp).

In short, I lost 4 days of my life, found new bruises practically every other hour, begged L to let us have a break after 2 full days (until seriously 9-10pm at night), and I couldn't be happier with the new party palace. Seriously, it's awesome. If you haven't been to visit yet, you should. We've got a few new patio furniture pieces and we have eaten outside every night since we finished. It is my new favorite thing about the new house.

Scenic Road Trip and Patty

Two of my favorite things are road trips and Patty Griffin. So when she skipped Utah on her latest tour a road trip was in order. We had been wanting to do a trip through Durango, Silverton, and Ouray for a couple of years and as luck would have it... Patty was playing in Durango. So on an early Friday morning we set off for the four corners area. Patty wasn't the only item on the agenda but a good start, there weren't any wineries in the area but there was a honey mead store (brought a bottle home for some of you to try), some great hikes, good shopping, and great food. My lastest foodie magazine had a restaraunt in Durango listed as award winning, so we had to try it out (twice :)). We also had a great sweet surprise when there was a cold bottle of bubbly in our room when we arrived. A little gift from our dear sweet Superman, who we couldn't thank enough. On day two we asked a local about a good hike, I think we missed the trailhead he described but we stumbled upon a great hike.. Haviland Lake, wild flowers, turtles, brilliant frogs.

The drive from Durango to Silverton and on to Ouray has got to be one of the prettiest in the country. There is an overlook where you are supposed to be breathing the cleanest air in the country. That point was lost on the bad hair, bad a#$ biker chick behind us who took a deep breath and then proceeded to light up another cigarette...

This short post is just for K so she will stop giving me S#*) for not blogging, and to commemorate our one month blog anniversary. We will blog about Durango and home improvements soon.. More to come.