My photo skills don't do this day justice

It was a perfect day to spend in Pioneer Park...and EVERYone had a camera! Ethan enjoyed sharing a leaf pile with some younger boys, and they seemed to love burying him. We aren't sure they spoke English, but it wasn't a problem.

Glam Dog

This dog deserves a lot more brushing than she's been getting lately!

Fall Fling

Yay, a costume party! I am such a sucker for costumes! (My keywording is terrible, but search for the word "costume" on this blog and you'll get a glimpse of how crazy I am...Ponce de Leon, Obi Wan, Sir Lancelot... I'm also crazy for theme parties.) But this year, I got off easy. When Ethan said he wanted to be Data (um, that's from Star Trek? The android? That's OK...no one else knew either) I started looking for patterns and found a whole costume for sale on eBay. About 15 bucks later, and no sewing whatsoever, I'm in business.

The high school students had some great costumes. The board-game girls took a well-deserved prize; I also enjoyed the Hannah Montana boys, the two-headed Elmo and many others. Ethan loved trying out the contra steps with all those high school girls. They are so patient and sweet with him--these are some pretty nice kids that Cliff gets to work with.

For the last song of the night, the principal made everyone get out and try a few steps, and I'm glad he was so...um, enthusiastic (obnoxious? :)) about it. We had a great workout and some good laughs as well--we needed the push!

Quiltin' bee

I got in on a fun project--making this quilt! It has me thinking that maybe I could actually get some of my piles of fabric made into something. Of course, it is easier to do with eleven people, two ironing boards, and half a dozen sewing machines.

P.S. Click back to August and scroll down a bit to see the pictures I finally got posted from our trip to see Brian and Spring.

Pumpkin patch

We used to dress Ethan up and take a zillion pictures of him at Klicker's every fall. We still try to go fairly regularly, but I suspect that more of the camera time is devoted to glamour shots of the dog.

Church barn party

Super fun time at the Dietrichs! Ethan got to do all kinds of good dangerous stuff like archery and riding the ATV. He was looking forward to the donut-eating contest most of all until the organizers decided kids would do it in pairs. I should have taken a picture of the nauseated look on his face. (The germs, Mommy! That's just gross!) See that kid sharing the gunny sack with Ethan, by the way? His mom and I had the same due date.

Cassie and her humans LOVE the dog park!

After half an hour at the dog park, we have a dog who enjoys lazing around the house and watching movies, kind of like us. Before the dog park, she paced a lot in the evenings, even with regular walks.

Of course, her favorite thing about the park is the sniffing. Oh, so much sniffing.

Oh, the filth

An hour or so after Cliff and Ethan headed off to watch the annual Mud Bowl--a game of high school football played in a well-watered field--I got a phone call. Cliff just wanted to let me know...that he had given in and decided to let the boy play in the sidelines. Apparently, Ethan was most interested in tackling freshman girls (supposedly because they were the easiest to tackle). This picture is what he looked like AFTER being hosed off by the fire department. And check out the bathwater. Ewwwww.

Is he going to do it again next year? "Mmmm-hmmm. Totally."

The Table of Contents

We don't usually find ourselves in a bar on a Saturday night...especially a bar in Waitsburg. (OK, never.) But we were assured this one had a family-friendly side and soft drinks, and I work with two guys from the band, Karl Michelbach (guitar, vocals) and Joe Osborne (bass, vocals). The third member of the band was Paul Johnson (drums, vocals). Not only are these guys extremely cute (at least in my semi-elderly opinion) they're also booky enough to perform a song based on a Somerset Maugham novel. (As the band name attests.)

Jennifer Crane opened with an acoustic performance that sounded like most of my CD collection--she's good. I wanted to turn down the volume a smidge to hear the lyrics better, but this may just mean I'm too old for live music.

The venue jimgermanbar was a great space with yummy snack food right across from the Whoopemup Hollow Cafe. They were full all evening or we would have gone for the total Waitsburg experience.

Here's what the fuss is all about

Reading the Union-Bulletin last week, I was quite intrigued by a letter complaining about a local painting project. Seems the guy is across the street from a warehouse that was recently painted by "some so-called 'artists'"...and he's not happy about it. Really unhappy. To use his word, he's "infuriated."

A few phrases he used to describe the project:
"billboard-sized monstrosity"
"giant, brightly rainbow colored, kitschy, cartoon-looking graffiti"
"a disgusting, eye-piercing slather of infantile coloring"
"absolutely horrible"
"a Disney-style invasion of the senses"
"a shocking, over-saturated, blazing Technicolor-like palette"

The only thing I possibly enjoy more than looking at great art is looking at really, really bad art. So how could I resist?

However, the whole family was disappointed. Ethan's comment: "Are you sure this is the right spot?" Of course, we don't have to look at it every day, but it didn't quite inspire the horror we were expecting.

Please, please...weigh in on the issue with your comments: Is it eye-piercing? Offensive? Merely kitschy? Would you consider this an improvement on the blank side of a metal building or an assault on your senses?

Another Walk to Defeat ALS

This was the first year for the ALS walk to come this close to our home, so we really felt we needed to support it! (Especially since I was persuaded to go on Blue Mountain TV with Carrie Fernald and Julie Sanders Keymer the week before promoting it...) Only two things to complain about at the Tri-Cities walk: the weather and, of course, the lack of my brilliant face painting services. Maybe next year I'll just bring a table and my brushes and start messing up faces on my own. (Mothers, beware!)

We joined the Carrie's Rollers team this time and enjoyed a nice walk along the Columbia River. Cassie enjoyed meeting Carrie's schnauzer, Gracie.

Fundraising efforts

Wow...the bake sale at my office raised more than $275. Added to pledges from our friends, Ethan's fundraising surpassed his $500 goal by $50! Should I say "so far"...? Some of that money just came in today, so who knows, the total could still grow.

Sept. 27 update: Ethan's total just hit $725 (including the $60 we put towards Carrie's team for the Tri-Cities walk)! We're all having a little trouble believing this. Thanks, everybody!

Pictures my dad would have loved

I wish Dad could have seen Tom's LITTLE Troopers!

A few ALS Walk teams

Tom's Troopers, Team Todd McConnachie, Brian's Brigade, Chuck's Chicks, Sunflowers for Jeni...these were just a few of the teams representing their loved ones with ALS. I especially enjoyed Jeni's team because it was so much fun painting sunflowers on their cheeks! Talking with her daughter, I learned Jeni's house and garden were full of sunflowers and that her battle with ALS ended at 43. My age.

Getting ready for the ALS walk

We finished the team t-shirts and Cassie has her flame-themed bandana ready for the walk. The team has come a long way..."Tom's Troopers" has about twice as many walkers as last year, plus we'll be looking quite official in our bright orange shirts. Now all we need to do is raise some money!

Portland weekend

This whole weekend was about meeting Brenda, but did we manage to get a picture of her? Afraid not! We did catch Ethan helping paint a car at the arts festival, petting a snake at OMSI, and enjoying the train ride home. We are already thinking about our next Portland trip.

Fun at the fair

Typical year at the Walla Walla fair--we each scrounged up a work of art to enter (scoring 2 blue and a white ribbon) so we could attend for free. Then we spent all the money we saved on too much fair food.

We weren't terribly surprised to find the Democratic booth looking like a ghost town. (Either there are no Dems in Walla Walla or they had all snuck away from their posts to watch the Obama speech.) We also weren't surprised to find errant apostrophes on the signs in the carnival area. (PEOPLE! Just because there's an S in a word doesn't mean it needs an apostrophe!) I managed to scrape one off in item #4, but the other was too big and near the ground to get without being caught. I'll Be Back.

Crater Lake

We lined up early for boat tickets to Wizard Island and had a nice morning hike down to the lake. Unfortunately, Ethan got sick while on the boat, which cut our ride short. (The plus was he had Ranger Wendy all to himself on the way back to the dock.) The walk back up the hill would have been unpleasant on any day, but it was hot and we had a pretty sick boy to try to keep motivated. The only way he survived the drive back to Salem was our promise that Grandma would cook whatever he wanted for dinner and would take good care of him!