Archive for the ‘Weather’ Category

Will Those Teeth Really Fit?

Posted by julie on Thursday, 17 January 2013, 9:46

Will all these enormous, grown-up teeth really fit into this little mouth? Sylvan’s fingers are blue from his forensic science Daring Boys Club. His eyes are bloodshot from skiing this weekend (I need to buy him larger goggles; his head is too big for kid-size ones. That big brain that reliably beats most grown-ups at chess has to fit somewhere.)

While Sylvan was losing his fifth tooth and picking an Army duck from the secretary’s supply for birthday and missing tooth kids, Leslie and I ventured up to Marys Peak, the highest mountain in Oregon’s Coast Range.

You probably won’t see much in this photo, other than the ocean of clouds covering the valley. That’s Mt. Jefferson to the left, and the Three Sisters to the right, at the horizon in the Cascades. Leslie researched the mirage we saw that distorted the mountains. It was a fata morgana. It made the mountains look STRANGE. We could see Rainier, St. Helens, and Adams up in Washington state. It was an amazingly crystalline day.

We’re above the clouds on a foggy, cold, dank Willamette Valley Day. Yay! I’ve now climbed two mountains of my 40 for the year. Yay! I’m with a fun, adventurous friend. Yay!

Leslie found this guy at the end of our hike. We’re not sure if he was there at the beginning. Yes, we saw more than one logging truck on the way up to the Marys Peak trailhead.

Merry Christmas! Joyful Solstice! Happy Hannukah! (insert favorite winter holiday here)

Posted by julie on Tuesday, 25 December 2012, 0:19

We’ve been busy this month. Here’s a sampling:

Hmmm, I can’t put captions on the photos anymore. But please do notice:

  • that Elena wore cowgirl boots and Sylvan wore shorts to see Santa (who’s growing up in Oregon?).
  • that Sylvan was very excited to get a tree, and they were both very excited to read next to it the day we put it up. You should note that we cut this gorgeous Grand fir for a grand total of $14 (including two hot chocolates). Again, that’s Oregon.
  • that Elena is going to be so happy when she can read so she can sing Christmas songs by reading the lyrics. She is trying very hard in this photo.
  • that we just spend the last two days in the Winter Wonderland of the Oregon Cascades. Unbelievably powdery piles of snow! (For birders, we saw many mountain chickadees, some flittery wrens, a northern flicker, mergansers, a hairy woodpecker, an osprey, and we heard a bald eagle.)

One reason to live in Eugene

Posted by jonesey on Friday, 13 July 2012, 17:08

Because this starts on July 4th, like clockwork, and doesn’t let up until October 1.

90-day forecast

Five hot things

Posted by jonesey on Thursday, 8 December 2011, 5:54

San Diego. April 2011.

I worked on a grant application in my hotel room for 12 hours that day.

My creative wife. This project took her no time at all. She is amazing.

No, not the little girl, you sick puppy. *Behind* the little girl!

Thank you, Mr. Lawyer.

!

Hell freezes over

Posted by jonesey on Sunday, 20 November 2011, 17:05

“I’ll never have a cell phone” slowly turned into “Well, unless I could get an iPhone. Those things are pretty nice” and then into “I’m going on this long trip by myself. I should probably get a cell phone. You can’t find a pay phone anymore, for one thing.”

A long-lost Best Buy $10 gift card from a friend turned into a Wire-style burner phone, then a little trip to tip-land turned that into this:

Julie joins the 21st century. And not a moment too soon.