The Weekend

Well the weekend is over and time to get back to work. Blah. At least the weather is starting to get better by the day. And the days are getting longer with more sunlight in the evening which is always nice.

On Saturday, Emma had some certification training for work and I went to another meet-up with some local photographers. It was fun and I learned some new tidbits of information about taking pictures for portraits and working with models. I will post some pictures when I get a chance.

We also went to a fun cocktail party at a friends house with a big group of people from her work. This time the drink of choice was vodka and they enjoyed all sorts of different drinks and concoctions. I usually stay away from any of the hard stuff so I stuck with beer! I also of course brought the camera and snapped a few pictures (of which I will post later this evening).

Here are a few pictures from our weekend and one of our house on a wonderful sunny day with the new lens.

Puma, Always Willing to Smile!

So once again I had some time on my hands to play with the camera a bit. And since it was not raining I thought I would take Puma outside to play with his ball and snap a few shots while playing.




Then I decided to see how the wide angle lens did inside with him resting from his running outside.

Sick Money!!

Click on the link and check out the video. Crazy rich people are nutty!


$22 Million Tucson Home

Clean Again!!

It's always nice to see the car clean again. With the weather finally warming up a bit..took the time to clean it inside and out!

Indiana Jones Trailer!!!

Really looking forward to this!!

Bigger better video! http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/indianajones.html?showVideo=1

Tuffy The Toilet

Recently I have noticed something a little odd. Maybe its only strange to me but I thought I would share.

A house near us that was recently bought and sold has decided to sell a portion of the land to build a new "row" home right next to it. The property is only 25 feet wide so you can imagine how skinny the house is. Anyway, this isn't the interesting part. When they started to work on both homes, one being remodeled and the other one being built from the ground up, they installed a portable toilet for the workers to use. Nothing out of the ordinary of course but then again this IS St. John's and the ordinary quickly changes to strange!

What I have noticed on almost a daily basis is the fact that this toilet gets used very often by the public. I have seen people walking by use it. The mailman has used it more then once. Even people driving by stop to use the facilities. Now I can understand it maybe happening once or twice but this thing has almost turned into a public restroom!

So since I was bored and was messing with my camera I decided to take a picture to explain it a little bit better.

My TV Has No Reception!!!

The weekend is once again over and back to the working world. It was a good weekend. We managed to get a good amount of cleaning in and had some nice enough weather to get outside to work on the front yard. Nothing big just cleaning up some of the leftover leaves and bit of grass growing where it shouldn't.

We also invited some of Emma's co-workers over for dinner on Saturday night. Emma made some really great Turkey Enchiladas with salad and then some wonderful Sopaipilla's!! Man were they good (and pictures with recipe's to come soon on her blog). But of course the dinner wouldn't be a normal event in our "hood" unless one of our crazy neighbors decided to knock on the door to give us a bit of information. Ok I guess it's not "normal" for our neighbor to come over and knock on our front door but I guess you could say it would be expected! But of course what he had to say was the really nutty part. He said, "hey sorry to bother you but do you have anything to do with that truck parked out there across from my place?" And I said...."well yes our friends are over for dinner and that's their truck." For a split second I thought that maybe something was wrong but then I realized who it was that was asking the question. He is the crazy guy that lives across from us that we see occasionally yelling at other people who are parking in front of his place. And at one time last year he got sooooo upset while mowing his lawn that he was trying with every bit of hate to get as many grass clippings he could on top of the car. Mowing back and forth and back and forth shaking his head the entire time....occasionally turning back to look down the street to flip off one of my other neighbors! It turned out that car had broken down and the neighbor down the street knew who's vehicle it was. And of course we always enjoy a little drama to watch out our front window!!! Anyway back to the crazy guy at the front door. So after I tell him that the vehicle belongs to our friends he says "do you think it would be possible to have them move it because I can't get any reception on my tv!!" He continues, "I am not sure why but when ever someone parks their car in front of my place I get no reception on my tv for some reason." So I think to myself.....ok......and tell him that we will move it to our driveway instead....but of course making sure that was "ok" with him.

So I suppose the mystery has been solved of why he was so upset and makes total sense now.....NOT!!!!!!!!! Maybe he is the reason for the demise of our wonderful and very informative NEON SIGN last year.

Oh and a bit of info.....he lives in the house across the street....which he actually doesn't own and has been condemned by the city for some reason.

GOOD TIMES!!!

Forecast

Here is the actual forecast from the National Weather Service.
This Afternoon: Periods of rain and snow. High near 38. Southeast wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.

Here is what we have right now!!



So far this year we have had predictions of snow snow snow. Some days it has fallen and others it has done nothing but rain. So today with the forecast of rain rain and more rain we get this.

Also a video from this mornings local forecast on the news. Stating that no snow is going to stick below 500 ft. and may stick above 1200!!

I NEED A NEW JOB!!

Good Morning Campers!!!

Today is Groundhog Day!! This is the day when Punxsutawney Phil comes out of his hole after a long winter sleep to look for his shadow. If he sees it, he regards it as an omen of six more weeks of bad weather and returns to his hole.

If the day is cloudy and, hence, shadow less, he takes it as a sign of spring and stays above ground for the good weather to come.

Lets hope for a cloudy day.

For more information go to http://www.groundhog.org/

And for a great clip from Grounghog Day the movie click the link below.

Good Morning!!

Winter Relaxation

I was looking at old pictures tonight and came across this picture that really shows what the winter weather does to you on the weekends when its cold and rainy outside and all you want to do is relax with a blanket and of course a warm pup!

Snow Again in Portland

Woke up to snow this morning for the drive to work. Of course it was supposed to snow over the weekend and of course it never did. Just was cold and rainy. This morning was a different story. The roads were covered and ice was in spots closer to home and to work. Was fine the entire time I was on the highway but then the side streets turned to a bit of ice but wasn't too bad.

Our weekend went well. We managed to veg out and watch some movies and some episodes of Arrested Development which were great. Emma borrowed the DVD from a friend at her work....Thanks Sadie!!

I went to another Flickr meetup with some local photographers in the area. It was all about flashes...which of course I do not have but will some day soon. It was great talking to everyone and picking their brains on what they use and like. Great experience. I only had time to upload one picture from the shoot to Flickr but might do more later on. There were 4 models about 20 or so photographers taking all sorts of shots. You can check out my shot here. And the rest of the pictures are in this group.

Puma!!

So it's been a little while since I posted a picture of Puma. He has been busy this winter.....um...walking...and playing with his ball.....and eating.....and well sleeping. Ok not THAT busy but he IS a dog.

Yesterday while I had the day off and Emma was at work I was working on some of my photos and messing with the blogs and I decided to bring Puma in the office with me and close the door. It has been crazy cold outside and I decided to bring our little space heater in the office and use that instead of heating the whole house. He didn't want to stay unless of course....I made it just perfect for him. So I brought his bed in for him to lay on, mainly because if I didn't he likes to sit in my lap while I sit at the computer. Keep in mind he is about 70 pounds!!

The sun was shining in the window and he was giving me this look. I turned with the camera and snapped this!!!



Oh and as I write this...he has his head across my lap....moaning to let him sit in my lap.....what a mistreated puppy he is!!

Actor Heath Ledger found dead!

Actor Heath Ledger is dead, the New York Police Department said Tuesday. Heath Ledger was found dead in his Manhattan apartment. The Academy Award nominated actor was 28. Ledger's housekeeper found him dead in his Manhattan apartment, New York police said.
He died at 3:26 p.m., they said.

The New York Fire Department received a call at 2:27 Tuesday responding to a "cardiac arrest call" in New York.

They found an unresponsive male dead at the scene.

Test Build

This weekend the weather was once again cold and a bit rainy but it wasn't all that bad. At least we had no freezing rain or frost on everything. I decided to start with making the desk that I had planned on building for a while for the office. I managed to get two truck loads of left over maple flooring from Pete and Jen that I am going to try and use for the top of the desk.

I thought that I might be able to just glue up the pieces together since they are tongue and groove and fit together very tight but when I started to put the pieces together they twisted and turned a bit which made it hard to keep flat. At this point I had to change my plans. Emma had a great suggestion of making a test board with some scrap MDF that I could glue and nail the boards to and then I could use it as a base for some of the pictures that she wants to take for her newly designedblog. It worked out and all the boards lined up and were nice and flat. Here is an example picture and and board itself.

Poor Man's Photography Studio

So this is my setup for some of the photos that I have been taking recently for Emma's new Blog chefandphotographer.blogspot.com/
. We went to Ikea over the weekend and bought two $10 lights that work really well. I added some tracing paper to the front of one (removed in photo) that I used to get more light in the front and wasn't blocked by the box. The box was made by cutting out 4 sides and getting some cheap tracing paper at a craft store..$2.00

I have yet to be able to afford any flashes of any kind but hopefully that will come later. I also only get to shoot most of my photos at night and am lacking any natural light...which doesn't exist much this time of year in the wonderful northwest.

A closer look at the Setup

Icy Roads

Once again the roads in the Northwest have become icy and slick! I managed to make it to work this morning but not without being late to work. It was snowing in places which didn't help but at least I made it in one piece!

I had to take the long way into work instead of traveling over the mountain but at least everyone on the road was taking it easy and not driving like mad!!

Thank goodness for the new tires we bought for the car. I don't think I would have made it in the parking lot with the old slicks I had on the Mazda!

Tornado!!

Yesterday while I was at work, one of the guys I work with mentioned that he heard on the radio that a tornado touched down in Vancouver. I didn't think much about it but I guess it turned out to cause some damage. Our friend Paul was near the storm when it happened but he was fine. You can read about it here.

Once

Recently Emma and I received a movie called Once through our subscription to NetFlix. It was a great story and I highly recommend it to all. We have had some hits and misses with many movies that we have received through NetFlix but this one was by far one of the best. It stars Glan Hansard and Marketa Irglova who are the singers and actors in the movie.

If you see it and don't like it....well too bad....but it turned out to be a wonderful movie on a rainy Oregon day!

Oh and we also went and saw Juno in the theater....it was also a great film. Read an interesting article this morning about the author of Juno. Read it here.

New Look to Our Blog

So last night after working again on the truck to find that stupid leak that didn't get fixed the first time, I decided to mess with the blog structure and design. I had read on another blog on how to change the header and to create your own picture and title so I decided to see if I could change it. It took a while but it seems to be showing up well on the screen.....after an hour of tweaking! I also changed the main template that the blog is made up of. I hope everyone....at least the few that read this...like it.

Emma is back to work again this week. No fun. Especially since she has to work nights which means we get to see each other on the weekends. We do get to see each other for a brief amount of time at night or in the morning but one of us is usually asleep. Oh well...its not supposed to be forever...I hope!

The weather has again made it tricky for getting to work. Lately its been cold enough to snow in the higher elevations and it makes it hard to find out which way I need to get to work in the morning since I drive over a mountain each day. Luckily with the new tires on the car I can feel a little bit safer. The old ones were a little bare.

1 Year Anniversary

So yesterday was our first anniversary! We took it easy for the day but ran into a few bumps during the day. We started with a nice breakfast at one of our favorite places to eat the Tin Shed. Then we decided to start on our project of refinishing an ottoman that we got for free on Craigslist a while back. I will post some pictures later when its done.

Then I ran into a problem with the truck leaking water in the cab. It was sometime last week when we noticed that the carpet was wet and we couldn't figure out where it was coming from. It's the rainy season this time of year and when the truck was parked outside of the garage it would take on water. To make a long crappy story short, I managed to take the entire inside of the truck apart and pulled up the carpet. By this time the rain stopped and I used a hose to test out where it was coming in. With the help of my dad over the phone, we found out that it was coming in from the back window. I bought some silicone sealer and ran it along the outside. We will see how well it worked. So much for a nice relaxing day for our Anniversary.

Emma did however make a wonderful dinner of which I am sure she will post soon enough on her blog.

It's hard to imagine that it was only a year when it seems like much longer with everything that we have done. We managed to completely remodel the bathroom and the office. We went on many trips which included our Alaska cruise and many camping trips. We also installed new windows in the house. It's really been a wonderful year with everything that we have accomplished.

Lastly, I just wanted to say how wonderful it is to have Emma in my life. We really have become much closer this past year and I look forward to many many more years with her in my life. I couldn't ask for a better wife and friend!!

Happy New Year!!

So the new year has started and came with good news!! Lance and Suzanne have gotten engaged!! He called New Year's Eve with the good news from Hawaii. They are on an extended Christmas vacation staying with Suzanne's family. We didn't get many details about the nuptials ahead but I am sure they have started the planning of the big day! We are all very excited and look forward to the event!

Not much with us to report. We have been taking it easy and hanging out around the house and enjoying our time together. Emma has had the past 2 weeks off and I have had 8 of those days off as well which was really nice. Since she has been working nights and will continue to do so after the holiday break, we are getting in as much time together as we can. Puma is really enjoying having us at home as well even though he would like to be outside more but with the weather this time of year it can be hard.

I have been practicing with taking more pictures of the wonderful goodies that Emma has been making. She has been updating her blog with some of the pictures that I have taken which is fun to read about the food. How lucky am I to get to eat all the wonderful food that she creates!!

Updated!

OK she finally posted some blog entries!!

Take a look here!

Oh and the Portland weather people are just about the worst forecasters in the world of guessing the weather!!!!!

"The National Weather Service as of Wednesday afternoon is projecting 3 to 7 inches of snow in the metro area, with the West Hills and higher elevations on the east side likely to see the biggest accumulations."

We barely had any rain!!!!!

Lost, Starts January 31!!!

So news came out yesterday that "LOST" was going to return Jan 31st! Of course it doesn't say anything about new episodes but hopefully they will be. Here is what is posted on ABC:

The band of friends, family, enemies and strangers must continue to work together against the cruel weather and harsh terrain if they want to stay alive. But as they have discovered during their 70-plus days on the island, danger and mystery loom behind every corner, and those they thought could be trusted may turn against them. Even heroes have secrets...

Juno

Got to actually talk to Emma last night before we fell asleep. She mentioned this movie called "Juno". So I thought I would post the trailer. Looks funny.

Candy Making!

On Sunday we went over to Paul and Kristin's house so that Emma and Kristin could get some holiday cooking done. They made all sorts of goodies to send out to family and friends.

We got to spend more time with Mia which was nice. Last time we saw her she was asleep the whole time but this time she was awake off and on. I only held her for a short while since I always manage to make her cry but Emma got to hold her for a long time while Kristin was in the kitchen cooking away.

It was a nice afternoon hanging out and sampling all the goodies that were being made.

Puma Portrait

So tonight while I was at home....alone and with nothing to do really, I decided to take a few pictures around the house. Being that it was dark and the light wasn't all that great I decided to mess with the settings on my camera. I really haven't taken the time like I should to change a few settings here and there while I am actively shooting "film". I started with a few pictures around the house and then moved to a subject that could move and well...Puma was the only thing around! I would normally need my flash but this one turned out well. Tilted the lamp shade on it's side and changed the settings to be more sensitive to light.

Maybe someday I will have a baby to practice with ;)

Can anyone guess what was said to get this look from him? And if you don't comment....well then I may never answer!

Flooding!

So if you haven't heard, Oregon and Washington have recently been slammed with a crazy storm that has left many in certain areas flooded or damaged. I found some pictures on Flickr of the flooding in Centralia Washington. Luckily we got a ton of rain but it left in a hurry!

Interstate 5 is still currently closed because of standing water!!!

So the Thanksgiving Holiday went well. Emma and I traveled down to Pleasanton California to stay with Ingrid. We left early Thanksgiving morning around 3:30 am and arrived shortly after 1pm. The drive was nice since traffic was low and only ran into a little fog and ice but nothing too scary.

We had a nice dinner for thanksgiving with all the goodies that you would expect. Emma and I were both fighting a cold so that wasn't fun but we were both able to eat our share of yummy dinner. Some pictures of the day are here.

The next day most of use went and took in a movie "Dan in Real Life". It was a great flick and was a good day for a movie. That night Gail and Greg prepared a nice dinner for everyone and Steve and Kelly provided the drinks. Margaritas were the drink of choice for the evening. Not a good choice on my part since I rarely have anything other then beer but I had a few of them. Turns out it had a huge impact on my "senses" and I ended up taking a dive early in the evening. The pictures here and the one below give you a bit of a clue as to how the evening went. The next night was the night of Greg and Gail's ceremony. It went really well and we all had a nice time. More pictures can be found here.

Emma ended up making a wonderful feast as well as Greg and Gail providing the venison for the great meal.

Thanksgiving!

Well we are headed down to California for the Thanksgiving break. We are leaving early tomorrow morning and hopefully will get there in the afternoon. I have been sick for the past week but I am hoping that I will get better soon so I can enjoy the time off. We will see. I will take lots of pictures and update this when I get the chance again.

New Office in a week!

Well we have been busy once again working on something around the house. This time it was the office. We were planning on selling the futon to make more room to move around and to be able to have a bigger desk for both of us to work on (which I still need to design and build). We have a temporary table in place until I finish it. We bought a "Craigslist Special" chair for $25 and covered it with a slipcover from Pottery Barn by using a gift card that we had since the wedding. I refinished the floor and installed new base and crown molding and managed to complete it all in a week. It turned out pretty well except the floors are a bit too shiny. We bought a gloss and it just happened to look like glass when I was done. Oh well. I am sure it will dull up with walking on it and with the pup running back and forth on it. I could always dull it down a bit with some steel wool but we will see. Right now you can really see a difference where the old meets the new.

Here are some pictures of the floor and room before and after.

The Windows are IN!!

The window installation went well. I somehow managed to measure right on all the windows and they fit without any trouble. Normally on most of the projects that we tackle, we have one thing or another that comes up but this was by far the easiest project. It was pretty much taking the old out and fitting in the new. I installed the last window on Sunday morning and later that day we went to the dump to get rid of the old windows and trim. I enjoyed tossing the windows into the mass piles of debris and watching the windows shatter. Emma wasn't that into it but I enjoyed myself. I admit, it was a little sad to see such old windows be broken but then again they were so old and pretty much run their course. Plus we are enjoying our new windows so much already. Just having screens on the windows is wonderful.

I started on the window trim on the inside Sunday night. It turned out pretty well. Of course I had never done anything like that before and was mainly going off a picture I had seen on Flickr. Here is a few pictures of the before and after. I also put up more pictures here.


BEFORE (Old window with trim removed)


AFTER (New window and trim)


New Look!

Windows and Weather

Fall is here! And with fall comes cooler weather. Oh and the rain! But its a nice change and the colors all around are always amazing to see. I recently took Puma to the park and on the way back I stopped to take a few pictures of the St. John's Bridge. It was a very foggy morning which makes it fun to take a few pictures.



We also recently special ordered some windows for the house. We are installing them on our own which is turning out to be not as bad as we thought. Luckily I measured correctly and they fit just right in the old frames. They will be a nice change from having original single pane windows that pretty much had no temperature control at all. They also had no screens so when they were open.....they were OPEN!! I have 4 of them installed and hopefully will have the rest done by the end of the week.

Run Pete Run!!!

Pete coming in for a drink
Originally uploaded by ryan_nowell

So on Sunday Emma and I went went down to join Jen and her family in cheering on Pete in his run in the Portland Marathon! It was fun seeing everyone running and the families cheering them on! Pete completed the race in 3:50:50!!! Great job Pete!!!

After the race and later in the day, Emma cooked a wonderful dinner for Pete and and the usual crew. She made Lasagna and salad and an Apple Tart desert. It was a great way to end a Sunday.


More pictures can be seen here.

Also, mom and dad pointed out that GoogleMaps has completed a good portion of StreetView for the Tucson area. I then went to see if they had done anything in the Portland area. Looks like they didn't miss much.

GO Cubs!!!

Let the Games begin!!!

Not much to report

So nothing exciting has been going on with the Nowell household. Emma is working a lot and we haven't had any projects that we are working on either. Only thing we do have planned is putting in windows as soon as we get enough money saved up and take the time to install them.

Puma is doing well and he is his normal self. Playing of course is his main concern in the morning and when I get home from work.

The new house numbers are up to replace our neon light that was smashed. Hopefully it will not be touched but who knows.

John and Ben went to the coast last weekend and took his jeep on a nice drive on the beach. Check it out here.

I promise to update this more often!

GRRRRRR

A couple of weekends ago we had the pleasure of watching some pups for some friends. Nina was one guest that was a little angel.......until.....this happened!!!!



Just kidding. She was just particular about holding her a certain way. Here she is being her normal self.

Bye Bye Neon Sign

Apparently not everyone is a fan of our neon sign out front for our house numbers. Last night during the night someone decided to remove a portion of our sign with a broom!! Not that its a huge deal except for the fact that someone would actually do something like that but I guess the "hood" we live in its not that out of the ordinary. We got upset at Puma last night because around 2:30 in the morning he went nuts barking....which he rarely does. I didn't get up since I thought it was just someone walking outside, which I heard but didn't think anything of it. Maybe a nice flood light will go in its place.