CAT-astrophy

The other day walking home from the pool, D and I saw one of the "resident" cats who live the in the apartment complex - Kitty.  She has a collar and is super friendly - phone numbers on the tags were disconnected.  However, we were both apaulled at the condition Kitty is in at the moment.  She's skin and bones - you can see her hip bones and her fur is horrible.  Poor Kitty.  Well, that evening C and I were watching TV when a different cat came to my back porch - also very skinny!  I put food out for this new cat, but she didn't eat at all. 

The next day I called Animal Control to see if they'd come get these kitties.  They were very nice, but stated that they couldn't do anything unless the apartment management called.  So, I called the apartment managers and left a message.  I never heard from them.  I went to the office yesterday afternoon and was told that because the owners of these cats have paid a pet deposit, they are not able to do anything.  WHAT!??!!  Basically, they don't want people to get mad over $125!  OMG!  Walking home I found Kitty and brought her into the office and asked if THIS is how the apartment complex deals with starving helpless animals!  Again, I was told that they couldn't/wouldn't do anything!  GRRRRR!!  "If mgmt see's the owners of Kitty, they will speak with them"  but they won't go to Kitty's house to talk to the owners!!  WTF!

This morning I called the Humane Society who said that I should put food out and just feed the cats.  WHAT!?!?  While I'm all for helping animals, and I do have a cat of my own, these animals need more help than I can give PLUS, why aren't their owners being held responsible!  They did say that I could bring in the cats, but more than likely they will be euthanized pretty quickly as the shelter is completely full.  While, I do feel that there too many abandoned animals and I do feel that euthanization is a humane process, I don't want an animal to just be put down and not given a chance. 

So, now I'm in a dilemma:  Do I get Kitty and take her to the shelter or do I get Kitty and bring her to my area of the complex and start feeding her?  GRRRRR!!  I'm sooo torn on what to do.   As for the other cat, I don't know what to do either.  It only comes around during the evening/night, so I have no way of catching the cat and taking it to the shelter at that time. 



 

Caves, Saves and the ER

Last Sunday we didn't have the kids, so we convinced two other friends (Cris and Christian) to go to the Ape Caves with us.  The Ape Caves are ancient lava tubes from an eruption from Mt. St. Helens.  Here's a link to read a short synopsis - it's cool!  http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/recreation/ape-cave/index.shtml

Instead of taking the main entrance and hiking up the lava tube, we hiked the 1.3 miles to the "exit" and hiked down.  Once you get into the cave by taking a steep ladder it's completely dark and I had read that it's wonderful to adventure a little ways into the cave and then turn off all lights and just stand in the complete dark and silence.  THAT was cool!  The hike was hard.  Our only light sources were the flashlights we were carrying, so it was difficult to gauge depth and footing.  After scaling up a 6ft wall, we had to then scale DOWN an 8 foot wall - in the dark!  Luckily there was another hiker at the bottom who helped the 4 of us down, however, we're all not sure what happened next, but I was last down from the wall and Cris was at the bottom waiting for me.  I turned around, smiled at him and then suddenly saw him fall.  Trying to catch himself, he scraped his hand along the wall.  It was pretty nasty.  C, being very safety conscience at all times, had packed the first aid kit.  Thank goodness b/c it was needed.  She patched Cris up as best we could in a middle of a dark damp cave and we moved on.  I don't know how Cris did it b/c the trek ahead was hard and using both hands was necessary.

2.5 hours after starting our journey, we emerged from the cave, tired, dirty, hungry and injured.  We took Cris to the ranger station to clean up his hand better and it was there we were told that 80% of injuries happen from people descending down the cave (like us) rather than up the cave - Cris was NOT happy to hear that news.  Once we saw his hand in daylight, we decided that it would be best to take him to the ER for a thorough cleaning.  THAT was an adventure in itself and we thought we may be kicked out for laughing too much.  Cris has the pictures on his camera, so those will follow later.  Some numbing, skin cutting, soaking, x-rays, a lot of pain and some Percocet, a very loopy Cris emerged from the ER with a bandaged hand with a sprained middle finger - which he proudly displayed to everyone!! 

Cris has most of the photos on his camera - more will be coming.

Getting to the "exit" entrance of the cave

Queen Fairyprincess

Me and Christian just inside the cave

C, Christian and Cris - just inside cave

Blind photo taken in complete darkness - luckily she was standing there!

This is the cave wall and ceiling 

Godzilla is back!!

The day after the river adventure, I picked D up from his daddy's house and we were off to a beach adventure.  Cannon Beach, here we come!  We got there at low low tide and I had never been able to walk up to Haystack Rock before, so I was VERY excited.  For those who may not know what I'm talking about, rent The Goonies movie and the large "rock" that the pirate ship sails out of at the end of the movie is Haystack Rock!!  The movie was filmed in Astoria OR and all up and down the coast of OR, including Cannon Beach.

After looking at starfish as big as our head, sea anemones and sea snails, we wandered up the beach looking for tide pools to swim in.  After an hour or more of playing, we headed back to our blanket, had lunch and then began construction on a mighty underground sand castle.  I say underground b/c C dug a big giant hole in the ground and then constructed a city in the hole.  As much as C says that she built the castle herself, she's WRONG!  She did lots of the work, but I constructed the road, the castle walls surrounding the hole and kept the kids entertained.  The kids played for a long time with that castle/hole, until Godzilla, Godzella, and Egahdzilla came along!  Then it was destroyed in a matter of seconds. 

Haystack Rock

The "Zilla's" after the distruction

Walking on water

Last Saturday, C3 and I went back to the Washougal river to play.  It was 90+ degree's in town, but perfect weather for a shady river walk/hike.  The weekend before C and I found this "spot" on the river where we could hike around.  D went to his Dad's that day, so it was C, me and her kids - it was fun to hear how confused the kids were that we wanted them to keep their tennis shoes on to go play in the river.  That is, until we got there and they figured it out.  There was a little danger, lots of adventure, waterfalls to conquer, tons of cool water fun, and I caught a frog!  And as a bonus, no one around!  We were up river from the swimming holes that everyone flocks too which made it better.   After 3 hours of fun (holy cow, 3 hours!), we stopped at DQ for some dinner and ice-cream.  I'm sure we all fell into bed that night exhausted and were asleep within seconds.

DiVine BoVine

This photo was on C's camera and we just downloaded pictures from hers to the computer.  This car pulled up behind us at the Dairy Queen on our Beach adventure day - just before we saw the "r-ug".   We were trying to be subtle about taking the picture out the rear window, not sure if we were successful.  Probably would have been just as subtle opening the sunroof and standing up to take the picture. 

Please remember that I don't live in Texas!  This is in somewheresville Oregon! 

Some 'Fair'ly Fun Times!!

Last Wednesday it was beautiful out, so I decided that D and I would venture to the Clark County Fair.  Growing up, I lived exactly 1.2 miles from the fairgrounds and I think I attending 1 fair in my entire life!  I'm not sure why because they are quite fun.  D had a blast! 

Clark County has shuttle buses offering CHEAP transportation to the fair.  For $2 per adult round trip  (kids under 6 are free), the buses leave every half hour and the bus stop was only 2 blocks from my house.  This D's second year going to the fair - 3 year for me.  We looked at and pet all of the animals - sheep, goats, cows, llama's, chickens, bunnies, pigs.  The roosters were quite vocal this year and D kept telling them if they crowed one more time he was going to eat them for dinner!  We did have chicken nuggets that evening, so they had been warned!!  D wanted to see the bee's, and we got there just as they were having a bee keeper talk.  D even asked a question - How do bee's sting?  Good question for a 5 year old.  The keeper answered him in a way that he actually understood too! 

This year they had motocross and motorcycle tricksters as the entertainment.  We arrived at the pavilion just as the tricks were happening.  HOLY COW!  It's one thing to see these things on TV, but another to see a motorcycle flipping in mid-air live.  D now wants to ride a motorcycle and do the tricks. 

After the show, we headed to the carnival.  D really wanted to ride the mini roller coaster (Wiggly Worm), so I went on with him.  He was fine the first time around, the second time he wasn't happy and on the final time (it goes around the track 3 times) he was screaming to get off!!  He went on some of the more tamer kiddie rides and then we went to the Tilt-A-Whirl.  Ummmm, yea, he was bawling at the end of the ride.  Which is unfortunate because the TAW is my favorite ride ever!!  It didn't help that we were spinning faster than the final spin of the washing machine.  So, we meandered over to the quite tame giant Ferris wheel. 

We ended our day with ice-cream and watching the Big Air Dog jumping compete (dock jumping) before loading on the bus and heading home.  

On the bus

Waiting for the scary Wiggly Worm to start

On the roller coaster - hard to take a picture! He's not happy.

Tilt-A-Whirl fun - or it was in the beginning.

Tuckered out from Fair fun!

Retail rant

As everyone knows, I've been working part-time at Kohl's for about 1.5 years now and I just have a few pet peeves for customers from the workers perspective. 

• At 9:45 at night, when we close at 10pm, don't ask the ridiculous question:  Is this the only register open on this side?   DUUUUHHHHH!!  We're closing in 15 min!  Maybe you should have brought your stuff to the register 15 min ago when I didn't have a line.
• I want to go home too.  I've been standing at the register for 4 hours or more, and I don't really want to be there longer than I have to, so please when you hear the announcement that we're closing in 15 min stop shopping and go check out.  You can come back tomorrow. 
• I really don't want to touch the damp money that you have just removed from your bra, sock, back pocket or where ever you had it on your body!!  Wallets are made for a purpose. 
• Don't shift side to side on your feet and sighing when you do have to stand in line.  Lines happen - deal with it or leave!
• Don't bring an entire cartfull of clothing to the register, wait in line and THEN decide what you're going to keep or not!  
• Write your check while I'm ringing up your items.
• Back to the CLOSING time shopping.  As retail clerks, just because you, the customer, has left the store, it doesn't mean that my work is done and I get to leave.  I have to take all the clothes that people abandoned or didn't want to purchase (when they got to the register) and return them to where they belong in the store.  I have to take all the hangers to the storage room and sort them, clean the counters and then go help the floor associates straighten up or fold clothes so the store looks great for the next day.  I don't leave for 30-45 min after the store closes! 
• Utilize the price scanners within the store.  
• I HAVE to ask you if you want a Kohl's charge.  It's required.  Be polite and just say no or lie and say you have one but won't be using it, even when I have to ask again.  Again, I HAVE to do it...

While I really do like working retail, these are just a few of the most common things I encounter almost every time I work.  Most of the time, customers make me smile and laugh.  Even those of you who are rude - we just laugh AT you later. 

Adventure Sunday

I had to work both Saturday and Sunday night, so with limited time C and I decided to just take a Sunday drive and see where we end up.   As we got to an intersection, we switch on who was giving directions.  Somehow we ended up on an old logging gravel road heading up a mountain. Amazing views, large potholes and a pit stop happened along the way.  There was a time where we really wondered where we were and what if we got "stuck".  How would we tell someone where we were?  Here's how the conversation would go:  "Ummm, well there is a large pine tree to my left and a bunch of ferns to my right.  Oh!  We're just below the circling hawk." 

Standing in a large pothole

After much driving we had been following a stream (what we thought was a stream) for a while and found a path that allowed us to go play in the water.  Not thinking that we were going to end up hiking, I had only worn flip flops, but it turned out to be a pretty good thing for walking the "stream". 

Just before she got her feet wet from the holes in her shoes

 

 

I got my feet wet

As it turned out, we had been wading in the Washougal River.  About 1/2 mile down the gravel road was Dougan Falls.  We plan on taking the kids back to the river to play this weekend.  This time, I'll wear proper shoes. 

Scrap that

Ok, so I'm going to try to create a scrap book of our Florida/Disney adventure.  Just after I returned, I found a Disney scrapbook kit on sale at WalMart., so I'm currently printing pictures and (hopefully) start the book tonight after D goes to bed.  The last scrapbook I 99% completed was my wedding album, and you all know how that ended.   While I'm VERY proud of that album, it took me almost 8 years to complete - however, it still really isn't all that complete as all the pictures I wanted to add weren't added to the book.  I'm just not that creative.  I tend to over think, thus making the process much longer and more painful that it probably should be. 

I have watched people scrap and they make it look so easy and simple.  I WISH!! 

Well, wish me luck.  Maybe if I find this painless, it'll be a new thing for me!!  I know many people scrap online and I have a MOMS Club mom who actually creates online scrapbook kits, so maybe I'll try one of those too.  YIKES!  This could go bad....but I'm really hoping for GOOD!!

Summer Sun and Fun

It's hard to believe that it's August already.  The Pacific Northwest has experienced a pretty crappy summer so far.  It's been pretty cold.  I've been wearing jeans and a sweatshirt in the mornings, but by afternoon it's capri's and a t-shirt - capri's, not shorts!!  Grrr

Although the weather has been BLAH, it hasn't stopped us from having some good ol' summer fun.  Every Thursday, a local park has "concerts in the park" and we've attended 2 so far - FUN!  The first week was a great band who played covers from the 70's and 80's - they also included a costume change during intermission!  While playing the 70's tunes, they were dressed in bell bottoms, platform shoes and fro's, then they returned from intermission and they were in 80's dayglo wear!  It was fun!  The kids danced to the tunes.  Last week Quarterflash was there!   Yep, Harden My Heart band - apparently they are from Portland.  It was nice too. 

C and I headed to the beach one Sunday as an "almost' last minute trip.  We thought of it the day before, however, a night of drinking left us less than ready bright and early in the morning.  It's OK because we got ourselves together and off we went to Seaside.  Our adventure started off with an adventure.  C had a craving for DQ, so she loaded it into the GPS and it said 5 miles off the highway was a DQ.  Uh-huh, 5 miles plus a few more and it was more than just getting off the highway and take a right and a left.  On the way to the DQ, we found a (self named) Rug.  An 1/2 RV and 1/2 VW Bug.  C and I have been playing the "Slug Bug" game for a while, but we had no idea whether the Rug would count.   We shopped in the stores, dipped our toes into the frigid cold water of the Pacific Ocean and laughed at the people we saw.  For a long time, we have been collecting "pennies" on all of our adventures.  The pennies are the ones that get flattened in a machine while being engraved with a picture from the area.  I got C a penny holder from Disney, but didn't get one myself, so I was on a mission to find one - and I did.  After our day out and collecting some pennies, we were headed back to Vancouver when C noticed a website on the back of my new penny holder.  It told of where to find all penny machines in the USA!!  We actually missed 2 penny machines in Seaside, so we turned around (we were only at the gas station in town) and sought out the machines.  It was just before closing time, so we had to hurry!  Once the pennies were found, we headed to Camp 18 for some yummy food!  We then explored the old logging camp before heading home - which was an adventure in itself.  There was a major accident on the highway and we were detoured south about 25 miles.  All well, it was fun.

This past Sunday we loaded up the kids and headed to Bonneville Dam and fish hatchery.  It was really cool - I had never been there.  We watched fish trying to swim up the fish ladders and work their way through the "maze" to get upstream.  I really would like to go back and watch the salmon run.  At the fish hatchery we saw Herman the Sturgeon - 11 foot long, 500 pound, 70 year old white sturgeon.  Very fun as well. 

The Rug

Seaside beach

 

 

 

 

 

Camp 18 photos

Concert at the park

Bonneville Dam/fish hatchery