Harvest Time!

We have been busy all month getting our garden all harvested and canning all those yummy tomatoes for later this winter.  Around the middle of October I felt like the nights were getting a bit too chilly and Mom and I went out after work one night and got in all the tomatoes, squash, pumpkins and peppers that were left.  

We picked 6 bags of tomatoes (red and green), a bag of onions (we already had taken one bag out of the garden earlier), a bag of small peppers, 10 sugar pumpkins (for canning), 5 large carving pumpkins, a dozen baby pumpkins (for decorating), 2 large Hubbard squash, 20 small acorn and butternut squash and another 2 or 3 cucumbers.  Congrats to our long raised beds we put in this spring, you produced 3 or 4 times what we got last year!  We have been spending most of our free time trying to can and preserve all those tomatoes.  I have already made one huge stockpot full of pureed tomatoes into sauce and we have put up around 40 pints of stewed tomatoes.  And there are still three bags left!

Mom has also been canning the sugar pumpkins for pies and baking later.  As if we didn't have enough to try and preserve a co-worker mentioned they had concord grapes if anyone wanted to pick them.  So another night after work Mom and I went out and picked a box full.  He also had an apple tree laden with Macintosh's so we picked a box of those too.  I tell you I have probably been eating apples and peanut butter for lunch for about two weeks, but it's still so good every day.  I spent one afternoon de-steming the grapes and picking out any bad ones and ended up with 3 bowls full.  Mom mashed them down and got the juice out of them and we'll be trying our hand at some grape jelly pretty soon here.  We aren't usually the grape jelly kind of people, but everything tastes better homemade, right?  I'm sure I can find some takers on Facebook if we don't want to eat it all....

On the other side of things we finally got a rug for the living room and it's so pretty!!  Unfortunately the cats think so as well and have been sticking their claws all over it.  :(  Whatevs, it still is pretty and now the living room feels homey again.  

For those of you not in Washington, fall is officially here.  I had to scrape frost off my window last week (only once and it was real thin...but still....really?) and we have been firing up the pellet stove most evenings.  Luckily the days are still really wonderful, sunny and warm, but you can tell the summer heat is gone and won't be back for a good 7 or 8 months.  Yea for fall!

Last Bit of Summer...

Everyone's last bit of summer should be spent at a beach.  Our choice, of course, is Cannon Beach and three weeks ago we spent our last bit of summer there.


On Saturday Mom and I drove down to the coast and the weather was perfect!  No clouds in the sky, warm temps, barely a breeze...and everyone else thought so too.  Because of this...

We met this 10 miles out of Astoria...

Yeah, apparently everyone else thought it would be a good idea to head to the beach.  I told Mom I thought this happened last year too.  So next year we will be going on Tuesday to avoid the weekend traffic jams.  It was stop and go and we were stuck in it for about an hour.  It turns out there was an accident and that's what started the backup, but still, we're avoiding the weekends next year.


When we did make it to Cannon Beach we took a nice long walk in what would be the best weather of the trip.  We rounded up the night with dinner at Bill's Tavern and were even recognized as returnees.  The server remembered us after we ordered Blackberry Beauty beers as well as some root beer.

On Sunday we got up and headed into town for some shopping.  We headed over to Sesame and Lilies first for some soap, enough to keep us tided over until next March.  Then we headed down to Coastal Yarns and I got another couple of sets for baby sweaters along with a new book of patterns by Sirdar.  Mom got some single balls for baby hats and booties out of the same book.  Then we picked up donuts and headed back to the car.  I hadn't heard from Nicole, who was meeting us there for a couple of days with just the girls.  I called her husband Tony because I had written down her cell number and then promptly left it next to the computer at home.  The cell reception is terrible everywhere but the beach, but he managed to get me the number.  Apparently Nicole had called him earlier for the same thing...peas in a pod are we not?  I finally got a hold of her and she was in the parking lot at the hotel.  So Mom and I headed back and met her there.  We got her stuff into the room and asked her if she was hungry?  Of course!  So we all piled into the van and went back into town to have lunch at Morris' Fireside Restaurant.  After making it back to the hotel we settled in and caught up while trying to keep Emily from being too afraid of the dogs...and likewise from the dog's point of view.


The next day we started off our day going to the fabric store, Center Diamond.  I picked up a new bag pattern and picked out some fabric to make it up with and had Nicole do the same.  Then we went to town and back to the yarn store and I got another set of yarn for a hat and scarf set.  We also had Nicole pick out some donuts and we went to lunch at Bill's again because Nicole had to try the beer.  We went back to the room and had a nice walk on the beach, even though it was cloudy.  Then Nicole and I sat on the beach and Emily played with her sand toys.

That evening we all went over to Wayfarer's Restaurant and we had a reserved table by the window.  We had calamari and clams and mushroom ravioli and Caesar salad and a whole bottle of white zinfindael.  Even Emily liked the deep fried calamari, though she didn't know what it was.  After dinner we went over to the pool and played there for a while. Mom hung out in the hot tub and Nicole and I jumped in there right at the end.  Emily has a lot of fun playing in the pool, though she tried many times to get out of Nicole's grasp.  That kiddo needs swimming lessons for sure!

The next day we drove into Seaside and again did a little shopping.  We stopped at the Croc store and I got Emily a little pair of Crocs with fuzzy lining which are so cute!  We also went to the Under the Big Top toy store and Emily enjoyed the wooden train set they had out.  

We ate at Pig 'n Pancake and then drove back to Cannon Beach to go to their farmer's market.  We got vanilla pudding and blackberries and raspberries.  They had cookies and other yummy bread treats.  The day had turned sunny and warm, but we all really wanted to go to the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  So we piled back into the car and drove down 101 to Tillamook.  We went up and watched cheddar being packed from huge bricks into baby loaf and 8 oz. packages. 

Then we shopped in the store and got lots of tasty cheese, cheese curds and cheese spread.  We also got ice cream of course.

And had our pictures taken in the baby loaf van.

Then we drove back to Cannon Beach and managed to catch the last light of a sunny day with an excellent walk to Haystack rock and back.

The next day Nicole had to go back home.  Her and Emily left in the morning for the long drive back to Medford.  Meeting up every year is definitely something we'll have to make a tradition out of.  There are lots of places to see!  That day Mom and I lazed around mostly.  We knit, we watched movies, we walked the beach and we ate all we could so we didn't have to pack it all home.  Ultimately we were pretty boring.  But all vacations must come to an end and we packed it all up that afternoon since we were returning home the next day.  As we drove home on Thursday the leaves were turning and the chill of autumn was in the air.  It was time to get home and pick tomatoes and pumpkins and squash and can it and freeze it and pack it away for the winter.

Just what I wanted...a ballroom

So over the past month Mom and I have been getting the living room prepped to have it's flooring replaced.  The carpet that was in there was 20 years old at least and was refusing to be cleaned anymore.  Regardless of how much carpet washing Mom did it still stunk.  So a while back we discussed what to replace it with.  I wanted carpet back in there, since most of the floors on the main level are hard, but she wanted something easier to clean.  I finally caved when I saw the most beautiful cherry hardwood laminate at Home Depot, as long as we could get a large area rug for in between the couch and chairs.  We saved a whole bunch of money moving the furniture (and there was a lot!),  pulling up the carpet ourselves and cleaning the room to ready it for the laminate.  The past two days was the installation and it is truly gorgeous.  I think it looks like a ballroom without all the furniture in it.  Anyone need to use a fancy dress that's sitting in a closet?  We will be moving all the furniture back in shortly, but until then enjoy a slide show of the living room's makeover.  (Sorry I didn't have any pictures of it FULL of furniture.)

Josh Groban Live!

Sorry it's taken me so long to get to this, but as usual life has been crazy busy.  Two Saturdays ago Mom and I drove over to Seattle, yet again.  We have been over there so much this summer I told her we should just buy a condo...yeah right.  The reason for this trip was to see Josh Groban's Straight to You Tour at the Key Arena!  I was super excited for this trip mostly because I love Josh Groban's music.  I was also pretty proud at how I bought these tickets. While I was at work one weekend I took my break at 10 when the tickets went on sale and bought them on my iPod touch using the hospital's wifi.  Technology is pretty awesome.  :)

We drove over Saturday morning and went to Bellevue Square to do some shopping.  I got a cute hoodie and scarf from Eddie Bauer, Mom got some shirts for her teddy bear at Build-A-Bear Workshop and we both got soap and lotions at Bath and Body Works.  They also have a Disney Store there and I went looking for baby clothes with Winnie-the-Pooh on them, but alas they only had Mickey and Minnie stuff for babies.  They did have LOTS of other fun dress up clothes for older kids and I was drooling a bit.  I'd like to have a girl and a boy because I wanted to buy all the princess dresses for the girl and all the Toy Story/Peter Pan costumes for the boy.  We went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch/dinner there in the mall and as always had fabulous food and cheesecake.  I had found a great deal on a hotel in Bellevue and we checked in and got our stuff up so we didn't have to haul it up there at midnight after the concert.  When we left I forgot the tickets in the room and we had to go back.  Then as we left for the second time I saw Mt. Rainier looking beautiful and realized I had forgot my camera!!  I think that hotel has a Harry Potter obliviate charm on it because I could not seem to remember anything!!

When we got to the Key Arena they had a really nice parking garage adjacent to the Seattle Center.  As we walked in I got a great picture of the Space Needle and EMP building.  As we walked further into the park we came upon the International Fountain in the middle of a show.  It was a lot like the fountains at Bellagio in Vegas, with music and the fountains "dancing" to it, only people could go and run under the water as it came down.  It was really quite enchanting to watch.

The seats we got at the Key Arena were pretty close to nosebleed unfortunately.  And the seats were horrible!  I had to put one hip and then another down as I sat because I literally could not sit down normally the seats were so small.  Then the next row was so close in front of me that my knees were pressing against the plastic back.  Once I got in I tried not to move.  The next time I'll pay for floor seats because they were just padded folding chairs which would have been much more comfortable.

The concert was fantastic regardless of the seats.  We could see everything and the music filled the entire arena without blowing your ears out.  It was nice to learn what the stories were behind some of the songs so you understood better what they meant.  

Josh was funny and there was a question and answer part where you could text in your questions and he answered a select few.  Like "If your life was a movie, who would play you and what sort of movie would it be?"  He started by joking saying it would be a sci-fi/fantasy and then said in reality it would probably be on Lifetime.  Or "If you were on Sesame Street what character would you do a duet with?"  He said probably Elmo, though he wants everything repeated and so he'd end up singing the chorus of You Raise Me Up a dozen times.  He has a pretty spot on Elmo impression too. 

The people in the audience though were a bit flat.  He asked a couple of people what you should do while your in Seattle.  The first said she didn't know and the second said, "drink coffee."  Mom and I had a bunch of better answers...Eat at the Spaghetti Factory...Go walking down at the piers...Shop at Pike Place Market...Go to the top of the Space Needle...Take a ferry ride anywhere!  Must be those people who live there all the time and are jaded about what there is to do.  

But truly the concert was the best I have ever been to, you didn't want it to end when it did.  All the best songs, an amazing group of musicians (who did a killer rendition of Live and Let Die), and an honestly funny, generous and kind singer who should get more appreciation than he does.  I'd go again in a minute.  And I remembered to get a video of at least one song.  Here it is.  (I loaded it on to YouTube since it was so long.  And there are a lot of better videos from the Seattle concert on there if you want to see more.)