Sierra's home!

She's narrating a slide shore of her pictures on the TV.  This one's called the Mona Lisa because the gun seems to follow the viewer.

Baby bunny

Aspen caught Copper mauling this baby bunny.  We are hoping that his mommy will come get him in the morning.  Or we have a new pet bunny.

Sierra's about to land!

Baby's almost home!  Plane is due to land in 10 minutes!  So excited!
Chris is picking her up, and hopefully they'll come straight home.  Mommy excited!

I made her enchiladas suizas and rice for dinner.  She's jonesing for Mexican and Asian food after three week of Irish-only.

To keep our minds off of waiting for her, we had a busy day.  Aspen and I went for a walk with Cathy at 9, then borrowed her juicer to juice all of our grapes.  We pasteurized it, then mixed 4 parts of grape juice with 1 part honey to make mead.  We've got 5 full quarts.  We've got to stir it daily for a week, then let it rest for a month.

Pat finished scraping the lawn off of the front yard inside the circle drive so we can build our little western town of sheds up there.  We're tired of the marsh in the winter and the yellow grass in the summer, so we're going to let the airport dirt provide a stable building surface and parking area for guests.

Aspen and I have been refinishing our dining table (looks awesome so far; we've completed day 2 of the process).  We went to Carl's Jr for lunch, then came home for a nap.  Paid some bills, then worked on my Psych 309 course (I needed to change some things about the class).

Then we watched Bill O'Reilly, and Grandpa Marv's letter got read!  That's his 3rd one.  I can't get one read!

I've been tracking Sierra's flights since I got up this morning, and I think I did a good job of filling the day so time would go by quickly.  And now it's almost up!  Yay!

Doing a little yard work

Gotta get rid of all the marshy areas before the trains come back.  We're having a gorgeous early fall!

Aspen and Copper, watching me work.

I'm mowing the lawn because Pat its too sore after his recreational day yesterday (poor baby).

Aspen's back after he laid on my new bed-of-nails acupressure mat.

Aspen trying to clean his intake valves to fix the weird sucking noise his car is making. He did a great job, but it didn't fix the problem.

Our newly expanded front flower bed, with stacked-stone wall.

Leather jackets and Quads

Pat and Aspen headed out early to go quadding in Belfair.  Aspen's been champing at the bit to go out since our trip to Beverly a few weeks ago.  They loaded their quads, packed their lunch, and hit the road by 8:30 am.

I chatted with Sierra a bit, and learned that she was interested in the $650 leather jacket I found at Wilson's Leather yesterday, discounted to $65. 

So I headed out to the Super Mall to pick it up, then hit Carpinito Brothers for some produce.

I got home, put my orange beets in the oven to roast, and had a PB&J for lunch.  Then I took a nap, and got to work prepping for classes.

For dinner, I had the beets with some balsamic vinegar, then made some kale chips, which were awesome.

The boys finally came back around 9 pm, full of harrowing stories of rolling their quads as they attempted to ride on trails carved by motorcycles because the quad trails were blocked by logging trucks.  Here are a few pics:

Aspen riding off to the side, so his quad can get traction on the rough hill

This is the face of a man who just got rolled by his quad

Selfie in the forest!

Aspen's artistic shot

Adios el coche de muerte

Pat sold Aspen's truck to Mike Girard for 1/4 of what he paid for it.  Mike's step-son is going to hone his mechanic skills on it.  We're just glad to have it off of the front lawn!

After a nice walk around the block with Cathy, Aspen, and the dogs, I came home and did a full-body stretch.  Then I gave all of the red chickens massages (they loved it), and then got cleaned up and settled in with some work. 

Very exciting day!  Lol

FIXED LINK: Hammy and his baby sitter

Hammy in a ball and his baby sitter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwh_yXH1OUg

Aspen's faux hawk

Reminiscent of Sanjay on American Idol!

Felling the tree by the carport

My colleague from BC in the sociology dept has a husband in the tree removal industry.  He and his lumberjack came over and felled our tree today.  Here are some photos:

Seriously. . . This has got to be my last down day!

Spent today doing very little.  I found a Rehab Addict marathon this morning, and watched and knitted while using my massage pillow and my hot bean bag on my sinuses, neck and back.  Stayed in my jammies until noon.

The tree guy came to give us an estimate on felling the big pine next to the carport.  He's going to drop it tomorrow, then Pat and Aspen will burn the limbs and make rounds of the trunk.  Not sure how we'll remove the stump.

I got into my work clothes and started dusting and vacuuming, then Sierra replied to my messenger and we started chatting.  I miss my girl!  She's having so much fun and doing such cool things.  I'm really jazzed for her.

After our chat, I did a little rearranging of furniture, then took a nap.  I was itching to get some work done, so I recorded some lectures on sensation.

Yesterday, I finished analyzing the data from three studies, and I got some interesting results.  Now to write them up!  Ugh.

When I came downstairs from lecturing, Aspen and Pat were out back, Pat shooting his bow and arrow, Aspen throwing the Frisbee for Dash and getting bit by mosquitos.  He's got every wives' tale explanation for why mosquitos love him:  he was wearing a white shirt, he has a fast metabolism, and he eats a lot of sugar.  Lol

We had some excitement in the neighborhood to the north of us today.  Apparently there was a domestic dispute, and then one of them lit the house on fire.  About 10 police cars and 3 fire trucks raced past our house, then a helicopter arrived, so we turned on the local news, and there it was!  Live!  Very exciting.  Saw the shirtless guy being arrested on his front lawn.

Now I'm watching Rick Steves, but he's in Europe, not Ireland.  Sad for me.  Maybe I can find his Ireland one on Netflix.

After 8 full hours in regular clothes, I've showered and am back in my jammies.  Tomorrow is going to be more productive!

Hammy misses his mommy

Last night, Hammy was jogging in his wheel, so I put him in his ball and brought him downstairs.  He ran around while Brodie baby sat him (she was so adorable, following him, then laying down to watch him).

At bedtime, I tried to cuddle him, but he needed to run.  Sometimes a hamster just needs to jam, you know?  So I put him back in his cage, and he jogged until I fell asleep.

When I got back from my walk with Cathy and Aspen (during which I had a little panic attack because of my breathing due to my cold - felt like I was suffocating aka having a heart attack), Pat came out and announced that Hammy was missing.

Aspen started searching his room, while I started searching the sewing room.  There he was, hiding in the corner behind my cutting table.  Pat called him, and he came right out.  Once he was back in his cage, he drank and drank and drank, then curled up in his bedding and went to sleep.

I wonder what kind if harrowing night he had?

Turns out I put his tube in the wrong hole the other day when I cleaned his cage.  He just waited until last night to take advantage of it!

Riding princess on Spring Lake

The boys and I took a paddle this evening.  What a way to adjust one's attitude!  The water was like glass, many neighbors were out enjoying their lake front, and the evening sun was perfectly warm enough.

Aspen took the lead

Pat provided maneuverability

Mt. Rainier is shrouded in clouds.

Taking a nap with Copper