Dead Relative’s Tour 2013

Yes, it’s that time again:  time to put flowers on the graves of the dead relatives.  You can come along too.

In Rose City Cemetery I snapped a picture of this gravestone because someone I know has this same last name.  And Joshnston-with-a-“t” is much less common than Johnson.
 

I strode far away from the family grave to see who this large stone belonged too. From the space left on the stone, it looks like Rudolf was expecting company who never arrived.  Gravestones like this leave me a little sad.
 
I love headstones with photos.
 
A little something for the fans of the Waldorf method.  Plus, look at that great detail on the top!
 
(Argh. Didn’t rotate this one)
I was intrigued because it had fresh flowers, so someone is still coming around.  But it’s in a section of 1930s era deaths and has no headstone.  There’s a story here.
 
Basil and Basiliki are bedecked for another year.
 
The tools of the trade.  Also, this is the first year we haven’t gone in the Jeep Cherokee because my aunt has a new car.  It’s a silver car.  I can’t remember which kind.
 
That is so meta.
 
This hedge was gorgeous in color and undulated marvelously.
I wish I’d taken a bit more time to properly capture it.
 
Much speculation ensued about the family relationship here.
 
I love this epithet.  You go, Tyyne, with your double “y” in your name and all.
 
Working on Grandma and Grampa’s grave (with the new car in the background)

This year we learned that the cemetery is not providing the green vases to stick in the ground.  I flagged down a maintenance worker to ask him for one and got an earful about how the cemetery is now cheap and doesn’t want to give them out anymore because it just causes more work to pick them all up.  Then he gave me one on the down-low.  Thanks guy, you are awesome.  We will bring our own next year.

Sometimes, you just need a good grilled cheese.


All week long I’ve been craving grilled cheese.  Thanks to my sourdough starter, I keep myself in homemade whole-wheat sourdough bread, which is good for many things, but not the grilled cheese I was thinking of.  So I made a some perfect sandwich bread, bought some delicious ham, sliced up some Tillamook medium cheddar and made a pot of tomato soup to boot.

It really hit the spot.

Three sentence movie reviews: Explorers

This was a great favorite of my mother, brother and I when I was 11 and so in the present, I was happy to realize that it stars not only a very young River Phoenix, but also a very young Ethan Hawke.*  It’s still a very sweet film, worth watching for it’s totally 1985 computer generated effects and copious pop culture references.  It’s a great movie for the 8-12 year-old in your life and you, the adult might enjoy it too.

Cost:  free from library
Where watched:  At home while endlessly basting material together.

*Jason Presson, the other guy in the movie was my favorite actor of the three, at least during this viewing.   His acting was pretty contained and had the most amazing voice.  Ethan Hawke’s voice was still quite high and really bugged me by the end, but Jason Presson, since you don’t seem to be acting anymore, I hope at least you are a radio DJ or doing something with that great voice.  [one Google search and 10 minutes later, here’s a picture of him from 2008 and a bit about what he’s doing now. http://americanvirus.com/2008/08/americanvirus-30-jason-presson-on-hollywood-boulevard/]

Three sentence movie reviews: Tower Heist

I still had basting to do, this movie has Casey Affleck in it (I tend to see all the movies in which he appears) and it was there at the library.  So I watched it while sewing and it was the exactly perfect movie for just that situation.*  For once, Ben Stiller wasn’t his usual sad-sack self, which was a nice change of pace.**

Cost:  free from library
Where watched: at home.

(props for having a Casey Affleck poster!)

*Other situations it would be good for:  when you have the flu; an endless airplane ride with few movie options; film fest of Alan Alda’s lesser works; when they play it on cable and your remote is broken and you are too lazy to get up to change the channel.
**And this movie was feces-free!  Another rarity.