Hello - hello

Good morning. It is the last week of our hotel stay (as long as everything goes right). It hasn't been bad but I am ready to have my own room.  I have a finish - YAAAY!!!

Glendon Place - Tiramisu

The beads.... omg the beads.... I thought it would take a day to do them - took three. I started to feel like it would never be done. Yes, I counted the beads  - I think there are1699.  When I go back to my rotation Red Velvet Cake from Glendon Place will be in this slot. Now I am going to finish that dratted bell pull.
This weekend we went to the company picnic. It was at Oaks Park an amusement park in Portland. It was fun - I got to meet more of Scott's new co-workers. We played mini golf - Scott won, I demanded a recount but since he kept score....... The Portland Dahlia Society was having a show - wow!! 

pictures don't do them justice - some of those flowers are amazing!! There was this cute little church right before the entrance to the park .

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned that I don't like pork roast - ew so gross. I still decided to make the kalua pork from Nomnompaleo because I wanted to use the instant pot I bought (lame excuse I know) but my boys like pork so I was safe.  The original recipe is for a slow cooker so that recipe is there too if you don't have an instant pot. It only has a few ingredients and it was so good. I can't wait to make it again!! Next time I am cooking the cabbage for 3 minutes and I am going to make two heads.  I did 4 minutes and it was too mushy and one head was just not enough! I even enjoyed the leftovers - I am not a fan of reheated meat! I have made three of her recipes - kalua pig, cracklin chicken and bacon burgers and every one has been fabulous!! I am going to have to get her book!
We went to the waterfront in Portland

just after the sun went down - it was still in the upper 80's blah - but very pretty!! I found another Vancouver rock - Scott found two others but we didn't pick them up!

I have an appointment this week at a college -  I am anxious about it. I hope all my credits transfer.
 Ok, I'm off to stitch. It's almost September people!! I am ready for pumpkins and fall colors!!

HAAAAA

pictures and more pictures

We got a place!! We were starting to worry. We had signed up at several property management companies and still never managed to be first. We went and looked at an adorable 1920's bungalow that was offered to us. It was pretty big - 2100 sq feet but our headboard still wouldn't fit in the bedroom which means we would have needed storage and that would bring the rent to $2300. It had no AC and no garage. We really had a hard time letting it go - we were afraid that it was the only one we would ever get offered but I just couldn't bring myself to say yes to that much money and no AC for sure. It was 100 degrees here Saturday - 100!! yikes!! The next morning I started my daily house search and there was a new one posted - good square footage, AC, a garage but only one picture. We decided to just go for it. I called the company and had them run our application - filled out the extra paperwork and put down the deposit. We got it - it was only listed for about an hour! We still haven't seen the inside but we drove by it - looks good. I looked up the house across the street - they are all the same - and saw the layout. I think we got lucky. We have had two people tell us it took them a year to find an apartment and the people who have lived here since January - just got an apartment. It's unbelievable!
We had family come visit!!

My Uncle Joel and Aunt Carol have recently retired and are traveling the country in an RV - they love it!!  They stopped by Saturday. We went out to eat and went to Voodoo Doughnuts. We don't know many fun things to do here yet and it was 100 degrees so they just came to our hotel and we sat in the common area. It was great to see them!! They will be camp hosts at the coast for a few months - 3 hours away - so we will see them again soon!
Sunday we went to Seattle. I've always wanted to visit the Pike Market there - what a neat place!!

tons of tea!!

see the row of colored sugar? So cool!!

an entire alley of gum - pretty gross

looks like an emergency haaa

We got there early and stood in line at the first Starbucks - I bought a cup!  We also visited the Fremont Troll. It is much neater in person - I don't know why.

We ate near the Market - I wish we would have just sampled stuff from different vendors instead of going to a restaurant. The menus were odd - which is a weird thing for me to say considering the places I've eaten and really OVERPRICED!!! I'm sure you've heard about the naked Trump statues - one of them was in Seattle. It had been removed - I think they all have. The article that said it had been moved also had the address of the new location so we went to see it. I'm not posting the picture - there are several online if you wanted to see it. I mostly wanted to see it because there were only a few and they won't be around long. My husband says that while it's an interesting art installation, it is inappropriate. That kind of bullying is the kind of thing Trump does. I think he may be right. It is shaming and if it had been done to the other candidate we would have felt that it was over the line. We had a good time and the weather was great!
I almost have another finish.

You know how when you get so close to the end of a big project you start to get antsy to finish? Well, it's all I want to do and I am so close!!! AHHHHH then there is beading AHHHHH Scott had ordered some patterns for my birthday but it was going to be past my birthday so he cancelled it and ordered something else - well, the order was not cancelled so I got a post birthday gift - lucky me!!YAY

There are a bunch of people in Vancouver that paint rocks and hide them. They have a Facebook page. I accidentally found one but didn't look it up right away. When I did look it up I saw that there were sugar skulls hidden in a cemetery so we went and found them.

Cute idea - not as cool as letterboxing but some of the art is very pretty! I kept one - you can keep them, rehide them or leave them where you found them.
Portland has an international test rose garden - where they test new varieties. It is a fabulous park!!

There is always some bridal party having pictures done there. There are also Rhododendrons - gorgeous!!
I bought a new toy - an Instant Pot. They are all the rage right now - pressure cooker. I have made roast, rice and oatmeal in mine. Tonight I am making Kalua pork from Nomnompaleo. Skinnytaste also has recipes for the Instant Pot.

Perfect for tiny kitchen cooking - and doesn't put off much heat! The kitchen at the hotel is smaller than my walk in closet at my old house haa haa
I think that is all we've been up to. I hope you are having a good August. Thanks for stopping by - I gotta go stitch!!!

Surprise?!?!?

I had planned on saying "surprise!! We moved to Portland Oregon!!"

 but right now we're kind of in limbo and actually in Vancouver Washinton! I suppose no move ever goes smoothly, but I tell you what, I am a little worn out. We decided to rent a U-Haul because it was $13,000 to $15,000 to have a moving company move us. We could do it with U-Haul for a third. I called the U-Haul place the day before and asked if she was going to be there at 8 - my reservation time - or 9 - when they open. She said she would be there at 8. We got there at 8 and she wasn't there - when she did show up 20 minutes later - after I called her - she said " I don't know why they booked you for 8 - I don't open until 9"  All I could do was keep my mouth shut to keep from yelling at her that I had called her just for this reason and I had movers at my house that I was paying .....grrrrrr. So we rented a 26 foot U-Haul and we hired some  guys to come out and load the truck for us. Half way through the day they decided that we needed a second truck. Trying to find a U-Haul on a Thursday at 2 o'clock in the afternoon to go all the way to Oregon is a little bit of a trick. First I called U-Haul and they said they had no trucks available - busiest moving weekend of the year. I called Budget and they said they had a truck available so we jumped in the car and we drove 40 minutes to pick it up. We got to the office and the man said he would not honor a recent reservations. I was so mad!! So we took a chance and went to the U-Haul down the street and they said they had a 20 foot we could use!! When we got back I started cleaning and Scott started painting (we had patched all the holes from all my pictures). 

We didn't get out of there until late. We took one of the trucks and stayed at a hotel. The next day we had to be out of the house by 12 so that the new owners could do a final walk-through  - we got out of there at 11:53!!The signing went smoothly. We stayed at a hotel that night and left for Oregon the next day. The first three states went fine.

 We stayed in Omaha the first night, Cheyenne the next. The trip took longer than mapping told us it would because we were in two big trucks!  We drove through two bad storms - one I couldn't see Scott in front of me and the other we had to pull over because the wind was too strong!!

When we got to Cheyenne Wyoming my mom, Scott's mom and dad, nephew Avery and his aunt Tina came out to meet us!!!

We had coffee and pie and then Scott's family left and went back to Colorado. My mom stayed at the hotel we were at - we got to have breakfast with her the next day before heading out.  It was great to see everyone!! We got all the way across Wyoming only stopping twice for gas and both times I had rude people at the gas station. One guy called me a bitch - no kidding -  because I put gas in my U-Haul and I started to walk to the front of it and his crazy wife behind me start yelling at me to move my vehicle. Seriously - yelling - who does that?  I don't know about you, but having someone yell at me makes me less inclined to do their bidding so I went in - got a drink - went to the restroom and when I came back out he mouthed it at me in my side view mirror. Then the next place we stopped for gas some guy comes in to the gas station and and says "Do you know who owns these U-Hauls? They need to move them I need a gas pump." When I get gas I sit there and patiently wait and if it's taking too long I'll move to a different pump. I never would think to harass people. What a miserable bunch of jerks. I won't even get into how badly people drive - cutting us off even through we stayed in the slow lane. So we got into Utah and I had a blowout on my U-Haul.

 It was scary and it happened on a downhill portion where all the semis were getting into the lane closest to us because they had to go through the Port of Entry to be weighed. We moved down to the Port of Entry, called U-Haul and they had somebody come out and fix it. It wasn't that big of a deal, just a little scary. The scariest part of Utah the last hill into Salt Lake City - it's a 6% grade for more than 10 miles - with other cars speeding around you. I couldn't see anything because it was dark  - it was terrifying!!! We got to my favorite restaurant in Utah 4 minutes before they stopped seating. The Red Iguana mmmm. The next day we drove to Boise. We had a little extra down time at this hotel which we all needed.

Snake River in Idaho

 We got to Vancouver Washington the next evening. We booked an extended stay hotel so we could look for housing. The housing here is like nothing I have ever seen!! We went to look at a couple houses - I couldn't figure out why the property management places were not very receptive to showing houses.  It is because it's a waste of time. By the time you have gotten in to see it - it's already been leased.  You have to fill out applications at all the management companies - at $50 a person - so that when a property that you have seen on their website comes available that you like you can put your application "on that one" if you are lucky enough to be first then they start the process but so far we have not been first on any of them. One family in the hotel we're staying in has been here since January. CRAZY!!  Once we figured out that it was going to take longer than a week to find a place to live we had to find a storage unit for our stuff and take the U-Hauls back (which is when we found out that the guys we paid to load didn't know how to load a truck - yay) and then we had to move from the more expensive one room hotel room to a studio. It is still $100 a night - yikes!! The damn cat - he did fine in the truck

 I didn't even really need to drug him I think I drugged him 3 out of the 5 days we were on the road. The problem is once we get to hotel he starts freaking out. The first night he meowed all night so nobody slept. The next night I put him in the carrier and he was quiet. The next night he stayed in the truck. One night I snuck him into the hotel and at 2:30 am I was in my pajamas sneaking him back out to the truck because he would not shut up. Our first night in the studio he paced all night - absolutely annoying.

 Last night he finally was ok - good thing because I'm ready to throw him out. Especially since he makes more than half of the houses we look at unavailable and the ones that will accept a cat want $700 to $1000 extra plus $25 a month rent. grrr. So far we love the area. The weather is actually pretty nice and on the few days it's been in the nineties (which is not typical for this area) it's a dry heat - it's nothing like the wet heat of Indiana. The rest of days it's been nice and cool, a couple of days it's been a little drizzly and I really love that. I also love that it is beautiful and it smells good. We have eaten out a lot and the food has been really good at every one of them. It is more expensive though. Like Salt and Straw ice cream - crazy flavors like pear and blue cheese - Scott and Ryder loved that one!

Vivi's Vietnamese or any of the food truck courts!!   Por Que No tacos and aqua fresca - coconut cucumber mmmmm

We hit two diners since we left Indiana - one I won't even talk about because it was so disgusting. The other we ended up by accident and it was delicious. The Tin Shed Garden Cafe

We even went to Voodoo Doughnuts 

 One thing you learn here is how to wait in line - so many people.  We did go out to the ocean last Saturday - LOVE that!!! We are about an hour and a half from it!!

We ate halibut at the Old Oregon Smokehouse in Tillamook OR (no website). So tasty!!

I haven't had much time to stitch. I thought I was going to be riding in a U-Haul for a week. I've stopped the rotation that I had going and just worked on one project at a time because it's just easier that way. I will get back to it - maybe this week. I did manage to finish Pleasant Unity by Stoney Creek and it's cute.

surprising what a difference backstitch makes

Glad it's done - after 13 years in the WIP box. The only things in the WIP box now - two Teresa Wentzlers!!  Now I am working on Tiramisu by Glendon place. I did have a happy stitchy mail day!!  I bought fabric for two of my birthday gifts and a magazine. A friend - Monica - sent me a pattern YAY! Thank you Monica!!

Well, I better go surf my house sites so I don't miss any good ones!! I hope you are all enjoying the last days of summer. Welcome to the Pacific Northwest!!