Shooting Range

Sami and Chris at the shooting range.

It's been our tradition for the last 4 or 5 years to go to the range with Chris whenever we're in Charlotte. Even though Sami doesn't practice regularly, he is an excellent shot.

Today the range was very busy, so I watched though the window and didn't shoot. I'm not very good with the handguns anyway. I'm much better with a rifle or a shotgun... something with a scope.

We Play Wii

Sami and I went over to see Chris's new condo. (There was still some stuff in boxes, so I didn't take pictures.)

Chris loves games of all kinds and so he has the Nintendo Wii. We'd never tried one before and it was a lot of fun.

First we played the tennis and bowling and boxing... Chris and Sami laughed at my boxing style, (they said I looked like I was drumming) but I got a KO on my first try!

After the sports games we tried one of the other games that comes with the Wii. The game instructs you on various positions for how to hold the remote (or Wiimote as Chris called it).

Then you have to complete the action show on screen in the alloted time. It's silly but a lot of fun.

Here Sami had to slash this log with the samurai sword.

It's amazing how the controllers work with the game... how they know what you're doing and reproduce it onscreen.

I took a video of Sami playing to give you a better idea of how it all works.

Actually Sami took a video of me too, but he held the camera vertically and movies can't be rotated the way pictures can.

Mrs. Edith's Gutters

The day after Chrismas we went over to see Mrs. Edith and take her some cake. We used to live across the street from her before Andrew was born and she is like an extra grandmother to us.

While my parents sat inside talking with her, I went outside and cleaned her gutters.

Cardinal (m) - Cardinalis cardinalis

Sami decided to stay safely on the ground and take pictures of the birds in the trees.

Actually, I'd been hoping to get some really great bird pictures on our trip. Since there are so many hardwood trees and the leaves fall off, you can see the birds pretty clearly in the winter. Also, the Cardinal is a favorite and we don't have them in Oregon.

Cardinal (f) - Cardinalis cardinalis

Unfortunately, the weather was grey and rainy for almost the entire week.

This is a good thing for NC after the long drought, but really disappointing to us. It was just like being in Oregon, except a few degrees warmer.

Merry Christmas!

Andrew, my youngest brother, loves Christmas lights. This year he managed to decorate the front of the house very tastefully.

He also decorated the tree house and the back porch. The screened in porch was just added to the house last year.

Unfortunately my mom had to work at the hospital on Christmas day. My brothers, Matt and Andrew, decided to stay up late on Christmas eve and make a special breakfast for her.

They set up the coffee maker with the timer, and made several different kinds of cookies, with hand written cards listing what kinds they were.

Daddy and Matt watching TV.

After opening presents on Christmas morning, we did a lot of sitting around flipping channels.

Andrew gave Cody the dog a giant bone.

It was so large she could barely chew on it. And on the following days she nearly woke the whole house up by dropping it on the hardwood floors in the kitchen.

On Christmas Day, Andrew cooked the turkey and Sami and I made biscuits, mashed potatoes and a rhubarb pie made from our own rhubarb we canned last summer.

We told my sister Becca that she could make the vegetables but she declined.

My mom came home just in time to make the stuffing.

Sami carving the turkey.

Sami loves to use the electric knife. My mom offered to give it to us, but we don't make turkey very often so we decided to leave it there.

If you're wondering why the cabinets look weird, it's because the kitchen is in the middle of a remodel and the cabinets have only been primed, and not painted. They used to be a dark brown.

Moon Halo.... Maybe Mars?

On our flight from Portland to Atlanta, the pilot pointed our the moon and mars but we were on the wrong side of the plane to see it.

Later, at my parents house in Charlotte I took this picture of a moon halo. Mars might be there too, but I'm not sure which bright spot it might be.

I was setting up my tripod and taking a couple pictures of it when my brothers, Matt & Andrew, came outside and said "Cool! How did you do that?" Although I'd like to take credit, it's a weather thing. When there are ice crystals up in the high-level clouds, they act like tiny prisms, bending the moonlight and making a 22 degree halo.

Port of Portland

Our friend Erica drove us to the airport today. Thanks!

As she remarked on the drive here, the name Port of Portland is pretty redundant. However, the airport is nice. No lines today, and going through security was super easy. That's our plane here, right on time. Also, there is free wireless here so we can check email, surf and make little blog posts like this one.

Trip to NC

For the next week, we'll be writing our blog from 4936 Broad Hollow Drive.

This picture is from our trip last year. Sami really enjoyed playing with the dog, Cody. We decided to take Daddy and the dog geocaching with us. Daddy really enjoyed it. Cody didn't like walking in the woods and refused to go any further.

Anyway, if you're in Charlotte between Christmas and New Year's and want to meet up with us, post a comment, send an email or call us.

Looking forward to Sauna

We had hoped to have the sauna installed in time for a Christmas sauna, but because of the difficulty scheduling the plumber, we didn't make it. Anyway, we're starting to get really excited about it.

Sami's mom, Anneli, sent us these beautiful sauna bench linens. They just arrived yesterday. Thank You!

Also, Sami managed to find some tar soap (not common here in the US) and it smells delicious!

Oh My D-Lux Chocolate Chip Cookies

I seem to have gotten into the Christmas spirit. That means I'm baking cookies!

Yesterday I made Sami's favorite Oatmeal and while I will always love my favorite Chocolate Chip cookies, I decided to try out a new recipe for Coconut Crispy Chocolate Chip cookies.

Missing Addresses

I had the day off today, so after shopping and running errands I decided to write christmas cards. Yes, I know it's late, we've received several already.

Anyway, I've discovered that approximately 75% of my address book is wrong. So all of you that have moved in the past year or so please email me with your addresses.

Backyard Birds Bathing

New Camera Test - Extreme Fog

I got my new camera yesterday. It's actually my christmas present, but we wanted to test it out and learn how to use it before we left town for the holidays.

I stopped by Commonwealth Park this morning for a few minutes on my way to work. It was extremely foggy, so my pictures were pretty bad. I haven't learned all the settings for the new camera and I haven't tried out the editing software that came with the camera. I didn't have time to play around this morning, so I just used the AUTO setting.

American Coot - Fulica americana

This was the first time I'd seen a coot out of the water. They look like ducks when you see them swimming but they don't have webbed feet.

This one was sticking his beak down into the mud and pulling out grass or algae or something. All the other coots were diving for their breakfast.

Mikontalolights

Mikontalo (map) is the biggest apartment building in Finland (or at least everyone claims this to be true... I don't really know). It's located near Tampere Technical University in Hervanta, a suburb of Tampere, Finland. Sami and I have both lived there at different times. Anyway, the building is going through some renovations and some students decided to "create the world's physically largest colored graphics platform". Very Cool.

UPDATE: Eric told us he'd read of students at Brown doing a smaller non-color version in 2000.

Home Theater - Vinyl Tile Removal

We've peeled up about 3/4 of the vinyl tile and our trash bin is full. Hopefully it won't take us too much longer to pull the rest up.

Unfortunately we had to leave the screen in the room because we built it there and it's too big to remove without disassembling it.

We had to pull the baseboards off to get the carpet and pad out. We decided to cut the bottom 2 inches off of the paneling so we could seal the joint where the foundation wall meets the slab. The cut will be covered up by baseboard when we're done.

Sami found this old Highlights magazine from 1975 in the wall. The kid who read it must be in his 40's by now.

Got Him!

Anna's Hummingbird - Calypte anna

Yesterday, I watched this little guy go back and forth between feeder and the pear tree where he was hunting insects.

Home Theater - Soggy Carpet Removal

We never managed to get the carpet dry... the pad had been acting like a giant sponge. Yesterday we removed the baseboards, pulled out the carpet and pad and discovered... nasty vinyl tile that had been painted white at some time. We're still working on prying that up so we can seal the concrete slab and install some other floor covering.

It was sunny yesterday afternoon, so we tried to save the carpet by laying it out on the car to dry. It seemed to be working... until we got up this morning and it started snowing. Looks like that carpet is definitely a goner.

Sauna Project - Flood!

Friday evening Melissa and Erica came over to help remove some more drywall in the laundry room (to prep for plumbing work).

Yesterday Sami and I worked on installing the tile in the laundry room. We marked out the layout, cut the edge pieces and tiled the corner where the water heater will be moved...

We woke up to find our pretty tile job underwater... Don't know if we have to rip it up and start over, or if it will dry out ok.

Our bathroom and our home theater room flooded too.

Unfortunately, the carpeted home theater room was packed full of stuff since we're in the middle of several projects. We had to move everything upstairs.

After we cleared the whole basement out (and turned the rest of our house into a huge mess), we found this crack in the foundation wall under the stairs.

We're hoping it's the only one, but actually it seems like the water is coming from the joint between the foundation wall and the slab.

Unfortunately I think the only thing we can do right now is to buy a sump pump and get the water out of our crawl space so it won't keep flowing in.

Hungry Hummingbird

One of the hummingbirds showed up today. We couldn't get a good picture because it was dark and rainy (actually it snowed this morning, but didn't stick). We figured you could see how fast and hungry he was in this little video.

Easy Walk at Commonwealth Park

Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias

Although Sunday was supposed to be rainy, it turned out very nice and we decided to go for an easy walk at Commonwealth Park (map).

Just as we entered the park, a man asked us if we were getting good pictures and pointed us towards this heron way up in a tree.

Double Crested Cormorants - Phalacrocorax auritus

In the water, the cormorants were making a scene, showing off and charging at each other, circling around and going at it again.

We saw this bird at Fernhill wetlands the other day, but didn't get a good picture then.

Ring-Billed Gull - Larus delawarensis

Where did he hide his feet! ?

You've seen pictures of this type of bird from my last trip to Commonwealth. It's got a very distinctive ring on the bill.

There was a small flock of these gulls and they were very tame. Unfortunately lots of people feed the birds here even though it is against the rules.

Sami (and his shadow) taking pictures of the birds.

Since we only have the one working camera, I was picking out different kinds of birds with the binoculars while Sami took most of the photos.

Like last time (click to see more photos), we also saw lots of mallards, domestic mallards, wigeons, and geese. We also saw some coots, and got a slightly better picture than at Fernhill.

Buffleheads - Bucephala albeola

Don't you just love a bird called a Bufflehead?

Anyway, it's the smallest diving duck in North America, and it likes to nest in woodpecker holes.

--------------

Oh, Sami figures my new camera should be a Pansonic Lumix DMC-FZ18, with double the zoom.

Song Sparrow - Melospiza melodia

We see these cute birds quite frequently, but they're fast and like to hide in the brush, so it's hard to get a good picture. Sami did a great job with this one.

Deck the Halls

We decided to go ahead and put the small artificial tree up this year even though we'll be going to NC for Christmas. Not all of the lights from last year were working so I went ahead and got some of the new LED ones. They look pretty good and they're super efficient.

Another year, when we're actually home for Christmas, we'd like to go out in the forest and cut our own tree. You can buy a permit for only 5$ to go and pick out a tree from one of the national forests.

Hike to Warrior Rock Lighthouse

On Saturday, the weather was supposed to be warm and sunny. We decided to go to Sauvie Island. We'd been there a couple other times to pick berries and to geocache. The wildlife area is supposed to be a great place to see birds, especially in the fall and winter.

We decided to park at the end of Reeder road and hike the trail to Warrior Rock Lighthouse. The map is from our copy of Best Easy Day Hikes - Portland, Oregon. It's a nice flat hike with some sections along the beach and others in the forest.

As soon as we got out of the car, it started sleeting. Not a good sign, but we were already there and properly dressed so we decided to keep going.

Snow Geese - Chen caerulescens

and

Canada Geese - Branta canadensis

When we were about halfway up Reeder Road, we saw all these geese grazing in the fields. As it turned out, they were nearly the only birds we saw the entire day.

Poor Little Fish

I was surprised to see this little guy just laying on the beach. He was dead already, but I would have figured some bird would've been glad to have such an easy dinner.

Normally Sami doesn't like to hike, but he decided that this trail was flat and therefore OK. We hiked a total of about 7.5 miles

Black Cottonwood - Populus balsamifera ssp. trichocarpa

The trail was completely covered in these beautiful yellow hearts.

Interesting orange mushrooms

We are now the owners of two very good mushroom books, All That the Rain Promises and More and Mushrooms of Northwest North America. Although I searched both books to try and identify this species, I still have no idea what it might be.

Warrior Rock Lighthouse seen from River View cache.

The lighthouse didn't seem so exciting, so we continued past it to a nearby geocache.

Just as we arrived at the cache site, this kayaker approached the tip of the island. We waited for him to pass before retrieving the cache.

Bricks and other debris at the North end of Sauvie Island

There were several fan shaped concrete slabs and an old broken down pier at this end of the island, but I haven't found any information as to why they were there. I can only assume they were part of homes or businesses built before this was a wildlife area.

Boise Cascade Mill

We headed to another geocache on the west side of the point and came across this mill. It's not on the island, but across the Multnomah Channel in St. Helens, OR.

Natural Bird House

On our hike back Sami noticed this hole in an old snag. Some bird definitely lives there. However, like all the other birds, he was not to be seen on this hike.

Barge heading South on the Columbia River

Snowberry - Symphoricarpos albus

Sometimes we forget that Portland is a major port. Then we see a boat like this and we're reminded once again.

Sunset at the Eastside Viewing Platform

We couldn't walk beyond the platform into the wildlife area because it's hunting season, but we did see a very nice (and very quick) sunset.

Ironically, it's mainly the hunters and not the birders or other environmentalists that pay for the protection of these great wildlife areas.

Fernhill Wetlands

Tree Swallow - Tachycineta bicolor

Saturday afternoon, the weather was cold but beautiful so we decided to go to one of our favorite parks, the Fernhill Wetlands.

We didn't see the tree swallows on this trip (photo from 4 July 06) but they're just so cute I couldn't resist posting an old one. Click for a close-up and to see flying tree swallows.

Domestic "Blue Swedish" Mallard - Anas platyrhynchos

When we first entered the park, we saw a flock of mallards with a bunch of weird ducks mixed in.

Sami was sure we'd discovered something new, but I'd read this article on Manky Mallards
so I knew we were looking at domestic and hybrid mallards. We also saw a "Bibbed Mallard".

Great Egret - Ardea alba

and

Green Winged Teals - Anas crecca

The Great Egret is the symbol of the National Audubon Society. It flies with it's neck pulled back in an s curve.

Great Egret in flight and standing alone.

Juvenile Gull

The young gulls all look sort of similar and don't even have the same beak and leg colors as their parents so I couldn't identify this one.

Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias

and

Common Mergansers (f) - Mergus merganser

The great blues are the largest herons in the US and they are fairly common in our area. Another picture of the great blue here.

The mergansers are tough little diving ducks, with sharp toothlike projections on their bills. Apparently gulls like to follow flocks of mergansers and steal the fish they caught. Although we witnessed several successful dives for fish, we didn't see any being stolen. Picture of the merganser flock (including males).

Bald Eagle - Haliaeetus leucocephalus

We saw several bald eagles on this trip. Adults with the classic white heads, not the confusing young ones with brown heads like we saw at Tillamook.

-------------------

We also saw a Double Crested Cormorant - Phalacrocorax auritus

Unfortunately the cormorant photo is not very good because it was so far away.

Northern Shoveler (f) - Anas clypeata

The shovelers have giant shovel-shaped bills with comblike projections that they use to filter food from the water.

It's interesting to watch them feeding because groups of shovelers swim around in a circle to create a kind of whirlpool that swirls food up from the bottom of the pond.

Hooded Merganser (m) - Lophodytes cucullatus

The Hooded Merganser has a fancy crest that it can raise and lower (this one is raised).

Another interesting fact: the Hooded Merganser can change the refractive properties of its eyes to see fish underwater. Kind of like those Moken Sea-Gypsy children that dive for pearls.

American Coots - Fulica Americana

Although they look and act like ducks, they're not, they're part of the rail family. Also, they don't have webbed feet.

Oh, and they have some seriously ugly babies.

Northern Pintails - Anas acuta

I think the pintails are probably the most elegant ducks we have in Oregon.

More pintails swimming.

Male pintail on land.

Canadian Geese - Branta canadensis

These are the most common geese in the US. They're everywhere, usually in large quantities. Some of them migrate north or south depending on the season, others live here year round.

Actually there are a lot of different subspecies but they're so similar you need to be an expert to tell them apart.

Green-Winged Teals - Anas crecca

This was my first time seeing Green-Winged Teals. They were incredible and had such amazing colors.

Sami's binoculars are 18x, so we got a good view of them. It made me really want an even better camera with a telephoto lens.

American Kestrel - Falco Sparverius

Just as we were leaving the park, I saw this young Kestrel. It's the same kind of bird we saw at the Wild Arts Festival last week.

Full Moon

Although it got dark early and we were only in the park for about 2 hours, we saw an incredible variety of birds. We should definitely go back more often.