Snow Days!!!

So today marks the 7th day that I have worked in a row. Not that big a deal but when you consider that I have been at work since Wednesday at noon....and haven't left....well then you can wonder what the heck am I up to? Well, it turns out that global warming has taken a vacation and decided to hit us with some on and off again crazy weather!

The managers at work decided that since the weather was supposed to be pretty crazy and a majority of people who I work with have a hard time getting to work when roads are icy, they had some of us volunteer to work straight through. 4 of us said yes and have been "camping" here since Wednesday. Its been slow which is nice but its been a bit long. I don't mind too much since they are paying us 24 hours a day to be here. Sleeping in the conference rooms isn't much like camping but we have been entertaining ourselves with movies and games.

I was again messing around and decided to get a picture of the truck a little after I went for a drive in the snow.



73.5 hours down....and hopefully 57 to go!!!

Snow Day 2008

So of course on a day that it snows I would volunteer to work. It was supposed to come in last night but ended up starting to snow when I left for work. Wasn't bad at all either. I few slippery spots. The drive home was another story. It was 25 degrees out when I left and all the snow was blowing around like mad!!! The truck of course did a great job in 4 wheel drive and the new tires I had bought before our camping trip this past summer was money well spent.

I of course had my camera with me and snapped a few shots while and work and on the way home.






Should be an interesting week since the highest its supposed to get for a day temp it around the freezing point. Good times. 5 days of work still to go!!

Christmas Tree

On Sunday Emma, Puma and I went to our favorite tree farm in Hillsboro near my work. Its Andy's Tree Farm. Its just an older gentleman with his dog Rosie selling some trees that he has on his property.

I was messing around taking pictures of the tree after I put the lights on. Turned out to look pretty interesting.

Coco & Co. Truffle

First example from a recent photo shoot for a chocolate truffle company that is starting up and needed some shots for her new website.

Emma came with me to help with the set up and placement of the truffle's. It was a really great time.

More to come later when her website is complete.

Patton

Last Friday I contacted Jen at work about her pup that she is currently fostering. I had seen him a few times since she has brought him with her to work once in a while and I wanted to see if I could get some pictures of him to add to my portfolio. He is just so cute and a really great boy.

He never stopped but for a few seconds since he is so full of energy being a puppy and all. Here are some pictures if you hadn't seen them in my photo stream.




And if you happen to live in Portland and are in need of a cute pup, you can go here for more info!

Election Day!!

No long lines or finding your polling place to go vote here in Oregon but I am not complaining! I will enjoy the day and take advantage of some free coffee!!

Angel's Rest

So yesterday we headed on out to take in the wonderful weather that we have been having. Yes its been cool but its been sunny and dry which can be wonderful this time of year. We decided on going to Angels Rest east of Portland.

On the drive out along highway 84, the wind really started to pick up. Leaves and all sorts of debris on the road was flying around like mad! The car was pushing back and forth with the wind blowing like crazy. The wind can really get going through the Gorge but it was a bit much. We both laughed when Emma said "well we picked a good day for a hike."

After getting to the trail head we decided what the heck. The trail wasn't too windy since some of the places were shielded by the trees and canyons. A few places once we got higher were a little nuts and we had to keep an eye on Puma so he didn't get blown off the trail.

All in all the weather was nice....when the wind calmed down and the hike was really nice and had some great views.

Afterward we headed to Fire On The Mountain for some delectable fried chicken wings, sweet potato fries, and some lovely beer!

Here are some pics from our day!

Apple Display!

On Sunday Emma and I worked on getting a few more photos done for her blog and it was a nice day outside. We had set up the wine barrel to use to display a few items along with some apples from our recent trip out to Sherwood Orchards. Emma was messing around with Puma since earlier in the day he found an apple in the front yard and started to munch on it of course. It was a bit rotten so we took it away from him. Anyway, since we were messing with more apples, we decided to let him pick his own apple from the pile and sure enough he did!

Apple Picking!

On Sunday, we decided to head on out to Sherwood Orchards to pick some apples. A big group from Emma's work headed on out as well to meet up. Turned out we managed to pick most of our apples before most of them showed up so it turned into a short trip but was fun and it was a great day.

The orchards where we went had tons of different types of apples and pears. It was fun to go to the different trees and try a small apple to see how different the flavors were. My favorite's were the Spitzenberg and the Fameuse...I think. We tried so many its hard to keep track.

I manged to snap off a few pictures while picking. The weather was so nice and warm...for this time of year.

John's Birthday!!

Yesterday was John's birthday and we celebrated with a party and Pete and Jen's for the evening. It was great to see everyone again and to see John since he has been living up north in Seattle.

We of course talked about old times in our previous jobs and places we used to live(John and I were roommates for a year and a half). We had a great dinner...thanks Pete and Jen...and Emma made a chocolate cake that is always so yummy!

Here are just a few pictures from the evening.

Again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!!!

John, Always wishing to win the Lottery!!

Portland Marathon 2008

So once again the Portland Marathon came and went. And once again Pete ran all 26.2 miles in a 3:49:44!!! Blow my mind that people can do this.

It was really amazing to see more then one location this time for the race. I met up with Jen, Ashley and her boyfriend Brian down near the 5 mile marker. Emma dropped me off a little bit away from the race since most of the streets were closed downtown. On the way down to meet up with Jen, I managed to come upon the starting section and the lead group in the race. A large group of drummers were pounding away and the runner flashed by in an almost sprint of a pace! Then a moment after that a huge group of runners went by so closely packed it seemed like it would be hard to run and not trip on the person next to you.

It was interesting to see the runners at this point. Everyone was smiling and feeding off of the large crowd that gathered to cheer them on. I say interesting since in the past, I would go down to the St. John's Bridge which I think is the 17.5 mile marker and a majority of runners don't look too thrilled to be subjecting themselves to the torture.

Here are of course some pictures of the event. It was a blast seeing the runners progress along the course.

Voting?

Emma and I are registered to Vote. Are you?

Dimples Design Studio

www.dimplesdesignstudio.etsy.com

A couple of weeks ago I was asked by some friends to get some photos taken for a new clothing line that they have created. We took lots of pictures of both the girls and some separate shots of the clothing on its own. It was fun and the kids were great to work with. Here are some pictures from the session and you can visit their site for more pictures and to buy some if you are interested. Here is some more info from the site:

We are a mother-daughter design duo committed to quality, original design. Our introductory line is hand-stamped, organic children's clothing. Each design is drawn and hand-carved into rubber material. We brush quality textile paint onto the stamp and then apply it to the shirt. Because of this process, no two are exactly alike. Slight color variations are to be expected. The shirts are all heat-set and soften with each wash.

Camping Cottage Grove Lake

After a few days of no internet connection and some time editing some of the photos from the trip weekend before last, I can finally update the blog with some pictures of our trip down to Cottage Grove Lake.

It was a great time. Emma and I arrived on Saturday afternoon since we both are still working nights. The weather was a bit on the chilly side but I was ok with that since it meant more time to chill out by the fire and to relax. We only managed to get out on the boat a few times since the wind was blowing a good amount of the time.

On Sunday, all of us guys headed out while the weather was calm. The wind had finally died down the night before and managed to stay that way until the next day. We tooled around on the water for a good amount of time getting in some great rides. After we got back and were relaxing for a bit, we noticed that some storm clouds we starting to form across the lake in the distance. Pete and Nick made the suggestion that we should probably head down to cover the boats in case it rained. Just after that lighting struck and the wind started to pick up. The boats got covered not more then about 2 minutes before all hell broke loose! We all ran back to the campsites and scrambled to make a quick shelter next to Cliff's camper and pull everything in that was about to be soaked! It was quit amazing how quickly we all worked to save everything from blowing away and to build a shelter out of a tarp and canopy.

After the quick storm the weather calmed down and it stayed pretty clear the rest of the time.

Thanks again to everyone for inviting us along and letting us go for some great rides!!

Here are some pictures from the trip. And go here for some more pictures!

Say What!

Well we returned from our trip down to Cottage Grove Lake and I was going to post about our days of camping and water skiing but our internet connection at home was dead. So that will come later.

Tuesday night after Emma and I got home from work, we turned on the tv to a dead connection. It stated that it would return shortly. I also went into the office and looked at the modem and it also showed a dead connection. We waited a bit but gave up since it was time to go to bed anyway.

The next morning we checked again and the same thing was on the tv screen that the service would return shortly. In the past our connection at times for the internet would go out once in a while but not the tv. So I decided to go outside and see what I could figure out. I looked at the connection in the giant box we have outside and all looked normal. Then I noticed this bar or wire sticking out the side of the house. I thought....how did that get there? I went back inside to have Emma come out and take a look and then we both noticed that something was wrong. A cable used to be connected to this bar....wrapped around it and then ran out to the electrical pole and connected up to the cable. It was missing? So odd we thought. Then I remembered that when they installed it a few days after we moved in...this cable was stretched and pulled tight across the street. I opened the gate and looked for signs of the cable....and sure enough...the cable was there, just wound up in a pile next to the electrical pole.

Something had severed the connection!!!!!

All we can figure out is that a large truck...or bird....or crazy neighbor or someone trying to tell us we need to lay off the cable tv managed to rip the cable right off the house!!! Luckily it didn't cause any damage, except for a few dozen leaves whipped off the maple tree.

The comcast fella came to our place and restored our connection back to the world!! He made sure to make the connection a little higher this time and also mentioned that the silly squirrels in the "hood" were busy trying to ruin our connection anyway so we were going to lose our connection soon enough.

Oh Joy!

Oh Joy!
Originally uploaded by Ryan Nowell Photography

Well I didn't get a chance to talk about how Puma bruised his tail on our last trip. It will have to wait till we get back from our Labor Day weekend trip down to Cottage Grove Lake for which we are about to leave for!!

Have a great weekend and stay safe!!!

Vacation On The Metolius

If you have checked our blogs lately and saw some pictures in the upper right hand portion of the blog.....you may have noticed some pictures from our recent vacation to Central Oregon. Emma and I both had the week off and we decided to head on out to central Oregon to camp and go on some nice hikes.

The first part of our trip we stayed at Cold Springs Resort. It was a cool place to stay and right on the Metolius River north of Sisters. We rented a "cabin" which was really a trailer made to look like a cabin with 2 rooms a kitchen and a bathroom. It was actually really very nice and cozy. The walls were covered in wood paneling and the kitchen was filled with everything that you would need for the weekend!! We liked it so much the guy running the place almost talked us into staying a few nights longer with some big discounts. But we already had our camping gear and wanted to get out and about.

So after the "resort" living, we packed up our gear and headed out to find the perfecet spot! Turns out that spot was only about 2 miles up the road called the Gorge Campground. It too was on the river and only 10 feet away. We really had a great amount of choices since it was in the beginning of the week and everyone was at work. Crazy part is we actually questioned ourselves on whether we picked the BEST one! So glad we stayed put.

Here are some pictures if you haven't seen them already....and i know you haven't....:)


Burnt trees near Round Lake

Cool cabin near a trail we were on. On the Metolius

Our "Cabin" #28

The Metolius River

View from our campsite.

I will post more when I upload more pictures to Flickr and tell you all about how Puma injured his tail!!!

Oh and thanks Jen for giving me a hard time for not posting....it worked!

Weekend Continued.....

So our weekend continued to be filled with more activities that we had planned. thinking we would be home most of the weekend turned out to not be so. While at Flugtag Emma received a text from a co-worker that a B-day party was going to start at 4. So we all headed over to our place to let out the dogs (oh that's right.....we were watching Nina and Marco again while their parents were out of town). Anyway, we went to the party which was really fun. I took the night off from taking any pictures so I have none to post.

The next morning after recovering from all the yummy food and home brew, we finally decided to tackle our wine barrel project. We had picked up some wine barrels from another co-worker (see post) and decided we were going to make some planters out of a few of them. The idea was to cut them in half down the center and use each piece as a planter for some more veggies to grow in the back yard. It sounded easy and the idea was great since one half costs $30 each at Lowes but it turned out to be a bit harder then we had planned. Of course with anything that we decide to do on our own has to have some sort of custom modification.

We first had the idea of using the new jigsaw or reciprocating saw and just cut down a line in the middle. Well of course that worked for about 30 seconds until we found out that after you cut one board of the barrel, the pieces pinch the blade and cause it to kick back. The design of the barrel is such that it really is only held together by the bands that go around and the grooves that each piece sit in. So we stopped to think about what to do next. TIME TO GOOGLE IT!!!

We found suggestions all over with people suggesting hand saws all the way up to chain saws! Well that didn't help.

So we moved on to figuring it out our own way. We ended up using a hand saw (goodwill special) to cut a line around the entire barrel and then finish with the jigsaw. It worked well but had to wedge a screw into each board after cutting 3/4 of the way through so as to keep it from again pinching the blade.

Once it was cut in half we added holes in the bottom for drainage and placed them in the garden.

My arm is still killing me from all the hand sawing. I must be wimpy compared to the folks back in the day that had nothing but hand saws. Maybe sitting in front of a computer doesn't help either!