New Walk to Work

Back in October, I started parking at a nearby shopping center and walking the 9/10s of a mile to campus. This gave me a little exercise and also saved me a bit of money on parking.

I've really enjoyed my walk to work, but lately I've gotten pretty bored with the usual routes. I decided on my short days (M & W) I would park at Bethany Village and take a different path to work. Actually I've looked at a couple ways to get from point A to point B. Here's another option.

This new path is longer, a little over 2 miles. I tried it for the first time this week. I wasn't sure how long it would take and I overcompensated. I arrived at work 15 minutes early, before the library even opened. The walk to campus was great. The moonlight was sparkling on the snowy path. I didn't try to take any pictures because it was dark and I thought I needed to hurry. The walk back to the car was ok. I saw a couple hawks in the distance, but the snow had melted and the sky was grey.

More Snow

I walked out the door this morning to discover my truck under snow. It wasn't too much, but still I went back inside to check online and see if the school was closed.

It was open as usual, and actually there was less traffic than normal. Nice.

Sidewalk in front of Rock Creek Campus

It was just getting light as I was walking from the shopping center to campus.

Raccoon Tracks

Some little critter, probably a raccoon (Procyon lotor) had been walking along the sidewalk before me.

Birthday at the Salon

Melissa and Erica had plans to get their hair cut at the salon on Sunday. Since it was my birthday (and I hadn't bothered to cut my hair in like 6 months), they decided to kidnap me and get mine cut too.

Anyway, we took some befores: Me, Melissa, Erica and this one was the after.

After getting our hair done, we wandered around the mall. Erica bought a big clay vase and we cut bamboo from our yard to put in it. Then we had leftover cake and wine from the party.

Happy Birthday to Me

We had my birthday party at our house on Saturday night. I made my favorite German Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Fudge Icing, Sami made 3 kinds of pizza, and we had other assorted snacks.

I was busy being the birthday girl, so I didn't take any pictures during the party. Sami did take this one of me blowing out the candles (we only had to light them 4 times) and another of the cake.

It was a good party. Eric, Aaron, Amanda (in the pink) & her husband Derrick, Sopan & Keren & baby Rivka, Erica & Melissa, and Hyung-Jin were all there. You can't really tell from the photo, but we managed to get our house really clean and everyone was impressed. I even managed to make a cool little flower arrangement with flowers and herbs from the yard.

Christmas Comes Again

Two weeks ago I got a cool birthday present from Agnes - she sent a book about birds of the middle east.

On thursday I got this card and I was very confused. I was sitting there looking at the envelope thinking... "but she already sent me a birthday card and it's too early for valentine's day"...

Well, I opened it and it was actually a christmas card. I don't know what took it so long, but it was worth the wait. The flashing lights are very cool

Ducks on Ice

Mallard (m) - Anas platyrhynchos

It was another cold clear day and I stopped by rock creek park on my way home from work.

Ice has started to form on the edge of the lake and the mallards were hanging out there. The light was incredible.

Young Gull

Mallard (f) - Anas platyrhynchos

Moss on a Rock

The bright sun seemed to make all the colors more saturated. The green was greener, the red was redder, the white was whiter, and the male bufflehead was positively iridescent.

The pied-billed grebe was still pretty well camouflaged, but I was able to see the markings on his bill.

Hooded Merganser (f) - Lophodytes cucullatus

Rose Hips and Grass

Red-winged Blackbird - Agelaius phoeniceus

Frozen Fountain

Fountain at Rock Creek Campus

On my way to Spanish class I noticed that the fountain had frozen. Those poor fish must be cold!

I wonder if Multnomah Falls is frozen yet. I have zero interest in trying to ice climb myself, but I would like to drive up and watch the next time it does freeze.

Great Views, No Photos

Yesterday (Monday) was Martin Luther King Jr day and I had the day off from work. I made plans with Melissa and Erica to go over and see their new place on the river in North Portland. We had planned to go biking along Marine Drive.

As it turned out, the UPS people said they would be delivering Sami's new projector for the home theater between 10 and 2 pm. The note from UPS said that someone would have to be home to sign for the package. So I agreed to wait. I was really hoping they would come early.

On Sunday Sami and I did yardwork and cleaned up the area along the south side of our garage. The old stairs and other wood from the hot tub had just been sitting there since last fall. Anyway, we took the stairs apart and loaded them up into the truck so we could plant the free grapes on the south facing wall of the garage.

So, I used Metro's online tool to find a recycler. Apparently there aren't a lot of places that take treated wood. I found one in Vancouver, WA that was accepting treated wood and not charging any fees either. Vancouver is just across the bridge so it should only be a 15 minute drive or so from the recycling center to M & E's new place.

Unfortunately things didn't work out quite so easily. I waited until 2:50 PM and the package from UPS didn't arrive. I finally gave up on it. Driving east on 26 and north on 405 was no problem, but as soon as I got on I-5 north, traffic stopped. It was horrible. Around 3:45 Melissa called me to see where I was. I told her I was stuck in traffic and trying to take the wood to the recycling center. She said "Oh, you have wood? do you have any that we could use for a gate for our deck?" I told her yes, I'd stop by the house first so she could grab what she needed for the dog gate.

I got off the highway and ended up turning the wrong way on Marine drive. I realized that traffic was only getting worse and called Melissa to tell her that I was sorry and I didn't think I could get to her place and the recycling center by 5 PM. I tried to get back on I-5 north but there was so much traffic in front of me that I couldn't see the sign and ended up on the wrong lane. Ironically I ended up going the right direction on Marine drive and found myself in Melissa's neighborhood. So I stopped by and dropped off some wood for the gate. Then Melissa got in her car and led me to the exit to get back on the highway. It took 30 minutes just to get up the ramp to the highway. By the time I was finally moving again, it was 4:50 PM. Fortunately I had a good idea of where the recycling center was and so I didn't make any more wrong turns.

At 5 PM, I realized I was going to be too late. I knew I was nearby, but not there yet. I remembered I had called the recycling center earlier to confirm that they took treated wood. So the phone number was still stored in the memory of my phone. I called them and asked if they were closed already, explaining that I'd gotten stuck in traffic. The girl who answered asked me how far away I was. I told her I was in front of the Lowes. She said I was only a couple blocks away and agreed to hold the gate open for me. So lucky.

When I arrived, the girl told me they couldn't take the 2x6 beams with the joist hangers on them because it was too much metal. I said ok, and figured oh well, at least I'd only be carrying the three beams home with me. I started unloading the wood from the stairs and a man in a blue truck drove up. He said "Hey, I saw you going north on I-5 and figured you were heading up here... I was wondering if I could have those 4x6 beams you're getting rid of. I could really use them for this deck project I'm working on." I said "Great! I'm happy to get rid of them, I'm glad you can use them". And so he loaded them up into his truck and I was able to leave the recycling center with mine completely empty.

It was nearly 6 PM by the time I arrived back at Melissa & Erica's place. So it was already dark and I didn't get take any pictures of the houseboats or the sunset on the water. I was pretty disappointed, although it was cold yesterday, it was very sunny and Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens looked stunning covered in snow. There was also a full moon that started rising while the sun was still in the sky. A perfect day for taking photos, but I didn't get any. Actually I tried to take a couple while I was sitting in traffic, but my windows were too dirty for the camera to focus properly. And my arm was too short to roll down the passenger side window in the truck.

Dinner was wonderful. Erica made her first pot roast ever, and it turned out great. I'd brought over a basket of stuff I'd canned during the summer for a housewarming gift and we ate some vanilla pears for dessert.

I'd brought over some of the lettuce and spinach seeds that I planted last week and after dinner Melissa and Erica each started a tray. They should grow well on the nice sunny deck if Star (the dog) doesn't get into them.

Now I'm just waiting for another sunny day off so I can go over there and do the biking and picture taking that I'd planned for the MLK holiday.

Cool Sconce

My SBAP class met at Earth Advantage the past two days. We had a bunch of classes on insulation and lighting and stuff like that. They have a light lab there where you can see how different lights make colors look. Also we got to see a cool LED can light.

In the classroom, they had a bunch of these cool art sconces. I wasn't terribly impressed with their art, but I thought the fixtures from Visa Lighting were very cool. (We took down an ugly traditional sconce in the home theater room, and I think it would be great if we could replace it with something like this.)

It's Alive!

Baby Salad!

It popped up today while I was at work. Nearly all of the arugula is up and some of the green deer tongue lettuce too.

Since the sun is out this afternoon, I put the tray out on the picnic table for a couple hours. Maybe they'll straighten up a bit.

Erica

I'm not sure which variety this one is, but it's very pretty, and always the first thing to bloom in the new year.

It's very hardy too. I'm pretty sure we've backed over it a couple times since it's in the corner of our front yard right next to the driveway.

Laurustinus - Viburnum tinus

Thanks to Kathy for figuring this one out!

I like this plant, and so do the birds. It's the only thing in our backyard that blooms this early in the year.

Rhubarb

Looking forward to tasty pies this spring.

Frosty

Rose hips - Rosa rugosa

The air this morning was crisp and fresh with a strong scent of fir. I think the ice must have broken a lot of the small tree branches and let the sap loose.

The roses that were blooming just three months ago are now bright jewels in a tangle of crystallized stems.

Southern Red Oak - Quercus falcata

I liked the way the frost outlined the oak leaves.

This tree is native to the East coast, so it must have been intentionally planted here at Rock Creek.

Snow... Almost

Common Wintergreen - Gaultheria procumbens

I woke up this morning and everything was so bright I thought I'd seriously overslept. I hadn't though, there was snow... sort of. Ice on the car windows and a little snow sticking to the roofs and street.

American Robin - Turdus migratorius

I didn't have time to take pictures of our own yard this morning (as I hadn't planned on finding the icescraper and scraping windows), but I did get a couple on my walk from the shopping center parking lot to work.

It was a little strange because the sidewalks and the roads, especially the neighborhood ones, had iced and the grass was green and uncovered.

Winter Gardening

Sami found some coupons online for 10$ worth of free plants from Lowes. So we each went, twice.

We got three different grapevines, a gooseberry, a black currant and a red currant. (Yes, we already have a big old grapevine and some currants, but they did so well last year, we thought we'd plant more)

I also moved the sage and rosemary to the area near the heat pump because they've gotten so big they've crowded out the other herbs.

Indoors, I started several different kinds of lettuce and spinach in plastic trays. (Lettuce and Spinach grow basically year round here. We were just too busy to plant any last fall)

I also started a couple peas and beans and some different types of flowers that should attract butterflies and (more) hummingbirds. Some of the flower seeds were really old and may not grow, but I figured if they don't, it's still early enough to plant more.

Hopefully the seeds will do well. The should since they're near the heat vent and the french doors in the dining room.

Searching for Sunshine

The first day of classes is always a rough day for me at work. More than 100 phone calls and tons of questions about logging on in the computer lab and printing... I put 6 reams of paper in the printers in the first 4 hours.

I got off work at 1 and it wasn't raining so I decided to stop by Bethany pond for a walk and to see if there were any new birds. I only saw the regulars so I headed towards home and stopped at Commonwealth park on my way there.

Double Crested Cormorant - Phalacrocorax auritus

These birds are reasonably common and easy to spot sitting up in telephone poles or old trees. Sometimes you see them splashing around in the water.

Commonwealth Lake

Not much sun here either, but at least it wasn't raining.

I saw the usual widgeons, male and female mallards, and canadian geese. Lots of birds just walking around in the soggy grass pecking and finding stuff to eat in the mud.

There was a large flock of gulls too. According to whatbird.com there are several terms for a group of gulls, including flotilla, gullery, screech, and squabble.

Western Gull - Larus occidentalis

Click here to see the whole bird.

Although the Western Gulls are quite common, I was a little surprised to large flocks of them at Commonwealth. On previous visits, I had seen only Ring-billed Gulls.

When you look closely, the Western gull has a red spot on the lower part of his bill, a yellow eyelid and dark eyes.

The Ring-billed gull has a black band on his bill, red eyelids, and yellow eyes.

American Coot - Fulica americana

This is another common bird I've pictured in previous posts.

Here you can clearly see his red eyes, dark red frontal shield on his forehead and the black band on his beak.

Apparently the collectives for coots are codgery, commotion, fleet, shoal, and swarm.

If you liked those, check the Repository of Collective Nouns for more.

Pied-Billed Grebe - Podilymbus podiceps

These are also common birds, but trying to take a picture of one is like trying to take a picture of the loch ness monster.

They're small, dark and fast and they hide in the vegetation or dive down into the water almost as soon as you've spotted them.

I've never seen more than two or thee grebes at a time, but the collective for these birds is "a water dance of grebes". That sounds like it would be very cool to see.

Darts at Max's

Sami had a gift certificate to Max's Brew Pub and he decided we should take Aaron our to dinner to thank him for feeding our fish and watering our plants while we were gone.

We ordered a beer sampler, they had some pretty interesting flavors. The raspberry stout was surprisingly good, and so was the chocolate stout.

The food was pretty good, but they didn't have the Gourmet Mac-N-Cheese that was on special, and they wouldn't take Sami's gift certificate. Apparently the deal ended in November.

Just as we were getting ready to leave, we noticed the dartboard. I know I'm bad at darts, so I made a rule that if bounced off and fell on the floor we could have a second (or third) try. That helped a lot. We had fun playing cricket and I didn't lose by such a wide margin. Maybe I should buy Sami a dartboard for the home theater room for his birthday.

Oh, and Max's definitely wins the award for worst lighting ever. At least our table was near the window surrounded by cheery christmas lights.

Lights Out

The wind during the past day or two has been incredible.

Around 6:30 PM, the power went out. I wasn't concerned, just lit a few candles and it looked so nice I started taking pictures.

For some reason it didn't occur to me to call the electric company and tell them our power was out. Luckily someone else must have.

Cyclamen

Sami came home around 8 and started to worry. He was afraid of being cold at night and searched everywhere for the inverter so he could power the pellet stove from the car battery.

He didn't find the inverter, but the power came back around 8:45 PM just when we were leaving the house.

Aaron's friend Veronica had a bunch of free tickets to Harvey's comedy club, so we saw a hypnotist make a group of volunteers do really stupid things. It was pretty funny, but not as good as the one we saw at University Towers.

Missing Geocache!

While we were in NC for the holidays, I received an email from some Portland geocachers. They had solved the puzzle to our first cache hide, Kielikurssi, but couldn't find the cache and told us it looked like the area had flooded in recent rains.

I stopped by the cache site to check on it and found the lower portion of the path completely underwater. It's very likely our cache has floated away, but we won't know until things dry up a bit. As I returned to the car, I saw this cool mushroom.

Happy New Year!

Sami and I did a bad job of planning for New Year's Eve. It wasn't until around 8 PM that we started thinking... "Hey, what should we do tonight?"

Unfortunately most of my friends from high school weren't in town for the holidays and we didn't have a lot of options. We asked Matt what he was doing and if he had any fireworks. He said yes, and brought some out that he had bought in South Carolina on sale after the 4th of July.

About 20 minutes before midnight, I got my camera and tripod set up and ready to take pictures. Then I went to get Matt. Although his light was on, he was totally asleep in his bed. About 5 minutes before 12, I ran downstairs and found Sami still in the shower. So we didn't start shooting the fireworks off until around 12:15. Unfortunately some of them had gotten damp or something so only about half of them still worked. Next year, we really have to plan better.