Ugly Face Wednesday: beware

Okay, Cari has come up with a new concept: "Ugly Face Wednesday". She has come up with some amazing faces and shows that she is comfortable in her own skin. So I decided to set some goals for myself, just some small ones to start thinking outside of the box myself, posting a UFW was one of them, so here goes. This is my one and only UFW. If there are any further ones, they are by accident. I bow down before Cari: she is the queen.

Football: yes!

Today was a scrimmage for several teams at Tigard HS. It was fun, but hot! I hung out with Mark in the 'crow's nest'.

He was filming for coach.

It's an amazing place to watch football from. Lots of different colored jerseys out there.

Go Tigard!

I can hear it now: 'Good game, good game, good game." You get the picture.

Lazy Saturday

Just dropped Mark off at Tigard HS for a day of football. I'll join him later to watch the scrimmages, but for now it's a lazy Saturday morning around here. Lire was hiding out behind the chair. Notice how her 'bum' leg hangs in the air. She's adapted very well to the leg, and we've kept her weight down and I think that has helped quite a bit.

Cari gave us a gift certificate to Al's, one of our favorite nurseries, we picked up tons of flowers, and Mark did a great job of planting them. Aren't these amazing? I love them.

Deacon is outside, enjoying the weather. He's hoping I'll come out and throw the ball to him.

There's a yard sale going on right outside our door, at the church next door. Lots of folks checking it out. We live on a busy street, so a perfect place to have this type of thing.

Right after I post this I'm going to work out on my gazelle. Water bottle is in place, ready to go.

I caught Lire hanging out under the coffee table. The way she lays down, making allowances for her leg, always seems to be amusing. This is one crazy cat!

A busy Saturday

Bright and early Mark and I took off, intending to spend a couple of hours at the Highland Games in Gresham. Well, at 20 dollars a pop to go in we decided that we could find something else to do. Oh, I think if you were going to spend all day there it would be a great price: lots of Scottish music and dancing and such, but we didn't want to spend that much time there. So, we decided to go to Edgefield for lunch. One of our favorite places.

Well, Mark took a wrong turn, and we ran right into a parade! Lucky for us it was easy to turn around. We thought about staying and watching, but there weren't any parking places at all.

Loved the lion on the float.

Loved watching all the groups assembling, getting ready to take part. I love small town parades, so I wish we could have attended.

We made our way to Edgefield, and we hung around until they began serving at 11.

We wandered through the hallways, looking at the art, and checking out the pool room. We've never eaten there, and it didn't open until noon, so we decided to save that experience for another time.

We wandered outside and checked out the art there.

They were having a concert on the green that night, and we checked out the set up. Amazing. Mark checks out the rules here.

Hey Steven, look. Comcast!

Ah, time for some lunch and a beer.

Needing to take sunglasses along in Oregon is a thrill. Sad, but true.

Mark is happy.

This is truly an amazing place. Beautiful and lots of history.

After going home and taking naps (lovely), we headed on to Sherwood for their Robin Hood Festival. Above is a way cool police car.

Lots of folks dressed up, and lots of horses. Okay, so they weren't real. They were still cool.

We watched the reptile guy and he was very interesting and funny. This 'little' guy he's holding was found by a dog catcher in Beaverton. Oh yes, now THAT must have been some day at work.

He had lots of snakes, both big and small. Here is the small.


And here is the BIG!

All in all a fun, busy day. With a nap thrown in. Good times my friends, good times.

Big Ole Flag

Yesterday was Doug and Megan's birthday and I celebrated their births by going into Portland and taking part in the Big Flag ceremony at the minor league all star baseball game. Intel gave their volunteers the chance to take part.

Do I know how to celebrate birthdays or not?

I arrived at the park nice and early.

Saw a big ole head.

We gathered on the field and began to practice. Hey, I said it was a big ole flag.

This gentleman kept us all in line and I have to say he did a great job.

"Keep it moving folks, keep it moving'.

I'm just waiting to begin doing my part.

We unfurled the flag as the national anthem was being sung, and right after the anthem 2 F-15s flew over. THAT was amazing.

Oh, and the San Diego Chicken showed up, to hang out with Lucky, our own little Beaver mascot.

Happy day after your Birthday Doug and Megan.

Beads and stuff

I took MAX downtown this morning to meet up with Kseniya and Jennifer and crew so we could go to the bead show in Portland. On the way I saw the Library: beautiful.

Ah, July in Portland. Nothing else needs to be said about the weather. You get the picture.

There are the towers for the Convention Center. My goal is in sight.

Beads were everywhere! Color overload my friends.

Hey dad, look what I'm wearing. The jacket you bought me: looks good, eh?

Most of my pictures did not turn out, darn it! Blurry city.

On the way back Larissa curled up and settled down. She's so crazy!

A nice summer evening

The weather this morning was rather chilly, but by late afternoon the sun came out and it was a lovely Oregon evening. So Mark and I decided to go out for dinner. As we walked out the door I noticed how well our new little tree, and the flowers, Mark planted were doing.

We decided to go to Max's in downtown Tigard. They're nice folks there and they have wonderful beer. Mark was looking at the paver stones they had down.

We both noticed the new pedestrian bridge they've built out back. Nice job.

We sat down and here is our view. Not very classy, but what ya gonna do?

I had a Reverends Daughter, a spicy beer with lots of clove. I really like it.

Hmmm....electronic cigarettes. What the heck are those?

Come to think of it, I don't want to know.

Hey Mark, remember that year at band camp???

This last week was football camp for Tigard HS. I dropped Mark off on Tuesday morning, bright and early and the coaches were loading up for the big haul over to the beach.


They arrived at Sunset Beach, by Warrenton, unloaded the guys, and got ready for some football.

It's all about the basics guys. Basics.

Okay, so not only the basics. This was a great opportunity to give the guys a chance to have some fun playing football on the beach. Okay, so basics and fun: that's what it's all about.

And s'mores. Mark said s'mores were involved during the process. Man, I should have been there for that.

Go Tigard!

Mark said the other guy give this guy a bad time cause it looks like he's always frowning. This is his usual expression. Looks like they're right, eh?

Our new coach is excited about sharing his skills with our young men. I'll miss Mitch, but it looks like our guys are in good hands, and this should be a fun year.

Wow, looks like Mark is right in the action here. Go long Mark, go long!

Having coffee with the guys. John, on the left, was Doug's football coach for two years in youth. Ron coached youth for years, and he did the announcing for youth football for a few years after that. He and I have had some fun times hanging out in the announcer's booth during games, watching ourselves some youth football. He's one of my favorite folks.

Guess Pete didn't want to be left out of the picture. Silly Pete.

I remember Beau when he was around 3, when Steven began playing youth football the summer after second grade, and Beau's dad was coaching Steven's team. This young man is one of the nicest young men you will ever meet. He's well rounded, an amazing athlete, and I know will do great things on and off the field. We have been lucky to watch him grow up. As I'm learning, this is what makes life worth living, the joys of friends and family.

Mark got home on Thursday night, tired, and ready for some sleep.

And he brought me a new Tigard sweatshirt! I'm SO READY FOR TIGARD HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL TO START. Did I get my point across? Go Tigard!