Three two-by-fours waiting to be transformed into a ladder don’t escape Sentinel’s notice. And what better way to welcome them to the household than to use them as a pillow?
Category: To Occupy my Time
Notary!
Today is the day my Notary supplies came in the mail. I’m ready to make your signature legit!
PKO Graduates!
You might recall reading about PKO here. Or my photo-filled walk to her Senior Dessert. But today she graduates!
Small school graduations. So very different from big school graduations.
Here are the members of the Class of ’16. They each got to pick the color of their graduation gown. (Which was very hard for me; the uniformity of graduation gowns and mortarboards is the only reason to wear them. This just looks messy.)
PKO listening to her teacher’s speech about her. It was a great speech, filled with all sorts of fun PKO facts.
The degrees have been conferred and the tassels have been switched. She has two tassels because she was the recipient of an achievement award.
After the teachers made speeches about the students and the students said their thank yous, the staff sang a song to the students. In keeping with the theme of the teachers’ speeches, the song’s main sentiment was, “Yep, you’re done. Time to leave now. Door’s that way.” This theme was initially off-putting, and then quickly became tremendously fun. It was like a gentle student roast by teachers who knew the students very, very well.
PKO and the moms, TO & LK
PKO and more of the fam.
PKO with her friends.
Congratulations PKO!
Sure does look like a bunch of unfinished projects…
I got a lot done this weekend–nearly finished all my to-do list–and still I see a lot of projects. The netting needs to be put up for the bush beans. The jars need to be transferred to Leo’s garden. The bag of dryer lint needs to be transferred to the yard debris bin. The cardboard needs to be stripped of its tape and spread around the yard(s). The straw needs to be spread over the cardboard. The two pots of zucchini need to be planted. The raspberries need to be picked. The apple tree bed needs to be turned over. Those boards need to go elsewhere. And it probably wouldn’t hurt to sweep the porch.
Requiem: Purple Bowl
Oh purple bowl! You came to me in an Easter care package my mother mailed me when I was living in Somerville, Massachusetts. I don’t recall the other things in that package, but I took to you immediately. You were a big bowl, but not very heavy and you got a lot of use. I planned to keep you with me for many more years. But no. You were in the oven, doing your job of proofing bread, and I forgot about you and preheated the oven to 400 degrees. 
No bread for me. And worse, no more purple bowl. I’m sorry you didn’t get a longer life. And I’m also sorry I didn’t get to complete the last thing on my to-do list this weekend. 
Dead Relatives Tour 2016
For some reason it’s taken me a long time to notice this carved piece of art. It’s kind of 60’s cool, in keeping with the decor. That’s a far-out Jesus.
Uncle Tom is still resting in peace. I missed taking a picture of the Great-great grandparents grave.
At the next cemetery, I apparently had my camera set to “poster” again. This is Aunt Pat getting started.
And the finished product.
Then we ate Chinese food.
Requiem: Yellow Job Notebook
Once upon a time, a teacher told me to keep a notebook with all the information I would need to apply for a job. I believe this was my ninth grade reading teacher, and her name has fallen out of my memory, though I can picture her classroom, where it was located (in a school that has now been torn down) and the fact that Ryan Fitzgerald was in that class with me.
I thought this was good advice and I wanted a job, so I found a notebook and started my list. [And now I see that it can’t be my ninth grade reading teacher who told me, because the first entries were all put at the same time and I didn’t start working until tenth grade. So I’m not sure what happened there. Maybe I had a different notebook as a starter notebook?]
At any rate, I’ve kept it all these years, adding to it every time I started a job search again. In tidying last year, I set it in my inbox to transition to a Word document, because job hunting has changed and no longer do I need to fill out paper applications (thank god). I’ve finally made a word document called “Yellow Job Notebook”, but thought I would capture it one last time before I sent it on its way. Notice the addition of my typing speed and the type of printer I once owned.
Here’s the first page. Ah memories. Wild Waters doesn’t even exist anymore. Though someone has made a helpful Facebook page of Where Wild Waters Used to Be and some photos. And look at my rates of pay!
Earliest reserve times for Oregon State Parks
Back when I had the boring job (thankfully many, many years ago) I put together a table of when to reserve campsites (cabins/yurts/teepees/etc.) through the Oregon State Parks. The rules in Oregon are that you can reserve nine months and two weeks before your visit.
This table of dates has been posted on a bulliten board that was tidied away and then the table moved to the inbox, where I was going to make a blog post. And then another year passed. But here it is!
There seem to be no tables in WordPress, and I’m too lazy to make an illustration so here’s the stripped down format:
Holiday or “Holiday” (approximate date of holiday) when to reserve
New Years (1st week in January) reserve by April 1
MLK (3rd week in January) reserve by Mid-April
President’s Day (3rd week in February) reserve by Mid-May
Halfway between MLK & Memorial Day (Mid-march to end of March) June 15-30
Memorial Day (last weekend in May) August 30
Mid-July (Mid-July) October 15
First of August (First of August) November 1
Labor Day (First Monday in September) December 1
Veterans Day (11th of November) February 11
Thanksgiving (4th Thursday in November) End of February
Christmas (25th of December) March 25
Due to calendar variations, you may have to adjust the reserve dates slightly. But you get the picture.
Dance recital 2016
This year we performed a fetching number to “Steam Heat” from the 2006 revival of the Pajama Game. There were hats. We tossed them up and caught them. It was incredibly fun. 
We were tasked with all wearing vests, but the closest I could find at my local Goodwill was a sweater vest. Which I washed to get rid of the Goodwill smell and it shrunk. Oh well! I still wore it.
Afterward, Matt presented me with flowers. They were beautiful and I loved that the florist wrapped them in pattern paper.
First raspberries
Aside from the fact the raspberries are producing already, I also found a few volunteer potatoes in the compost pile. They were all delicious!