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.