Vermont or Bust!!!!

Well friends, you will not be hearing from me for a while...I'm off to Ohio tomorrow night, then driving to VT with Megan on her school break. Of course I have a million things to do tonight, take the garbage out, clean out the fridge, pack, get music together, and get some sleep! Should be a great trip and as usual I'll take more pictures than actually necessary. Can't wait to see you friend!

Sneezes

Something weird has been happening to me lately...after I sneeze, immediately there is a smell. Kind of a musty, pet odory gross smell. This is a new experience to me, although I googled it and it seems to be quite common. Maybe I have an infection? I don't feel like I do. Anyway, it's gross and I'm wondering if this has happened to any of you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!

A birthday of the past:

Ok this isn't a birthday picture, but I like it. Ok Aaron. My ears do stick out a little.


In the last year I have:
Driven across the US with Aaron to relocate him at school

Moved to a beautiful place

Spent my first Thanksgiving without my family in Minneapolis...we cooked up a storm!


Learned to knit


Started batiking again


Took a photography class


Got a macro lens and starting shooting more insects


Visited beautiful Mexico


Spent some time in Minnesota, also beautiful


Some things to look forward to for the year to come:

Moving to Eugene
Starting dental hygiene school!
Getting my arm feeling better
Driving to Vermont with Megan
Aaron moving home!
No work for 2 years!
No work or school next summer!
Planting a garden next spring
Megan moving home!
Travels?
New friends!

The closest thing I'm getting to a garden this year

Kathy gave me a bunch of dahlia tubers and this is the first to show its pretty face. I think it's absolutely beautiful. I hope I'm here long enough to see what the others will look like.


My first red tomato! It's got a bit of blossom end rot, but still exciting!

Early Birthday

My birthday is Monday, so my parents came to Corvallis today to celebrate. We went to the farmer's market, which is where I took the picture of the beautiful lily. Then we walked around downtown for a while and had lunch at the Vietnamese baguette shop. I had to pop into work for a bit, then we drove home, they napped while I worked on putting together a stepping stone I had made my mom a few years ago. It froze this year and needed to be be reconstructed. My mom took it with her to finish, so I don't have a final picture, but I do have a before. It's too bad because it looked really nice all shiny and clean. Then we stopped by Garland's Nursery and went on an old growth hike near my house. On said hike we saw a Swainson's Thrush and a Hutton's Vireo. It was great, I find the birds, they identify them. After that we went to Tarntip for some Thai food and home for cake and ice cream! Juanita stopped in for some conversation. It was a really nice day, and my mom made me a beautiful, delicious cake!

Christian the Lion

Have you guys seen this video? Chris showed it to me today, I guess it was highlighted on the Today show, or something similar...it is absolutely amazing and heartwarming. It makes me cry every time. Sorry I don't know how to embed youtube, but here is the link:

Christian the Lion

PYREX!!!

I am beginning to pack up, and I gathered together all the Pyrex. I love our Pyrex collection. We also have a full set of these. I love these dishes and can't wait to live with Aaron and use them! They are currently residing at the Gallagher household until I move back to Corvallis. Aaron found them in Minnesota at a thrift store for $45! I'm not sure how many pieces...maybe 50? When my parents were out for my cousin's wedding, we jumped on the opportunity to get them back to Oregon.
These are our pieces we have gathered here and there. The only thing we really splurged on is the primary set. It's so hard to find the red bowl! Aaron has a more beat-up set as well, although I think he broke his red bowl recently... fortunately it was one I found it half buried in the yard of an abandoned house near ours. It was so faded that it was pink and soft, not red and shiny.

I definitely still want a set of new dot bowls, but seriously who doesn't?

Weekend Update

Saturday I volunteered at a bike ride fundraiser for MS. I had a fun time, we had food, water and bathrooms for the riders. I directed them in and made sure they knew how to get back on the route as the left. I also got a cool shirt for helping!

Today I went to daVinci Days, we started out at the mud bog. I guess the mud was pretty brutal this year, only a few made it through unassisted, and even with a ton of people pushing, it still took a long time to get them through. The FunGuy:


Rat Tattoo Eee, check out their giant whisks!


A mob of children "helping" the sculpture off the course


A woman posing for some artists

This is made out of 7 oz of glass. It was amazing and I have no idea how they move it from place to place as it is huge.



There was a lot of sidewalk art this year, this was my favorite


One of my favorite Corvallis trees, walking under it is like going under a huge blanket of cool leaves.


This sculpture breathed flames!!!

This was the beautiful sky the other evening as I was driving to Albany


The moon rising last night, during our 4 hour power outage. I probably would have missed it otherwise!


I had some PT done yesterday against my dr's advice. To my credit, I'm between a rock and a hard place, I'm not supposed to do anything until I'm seen by a specialist. Well I don't have an appointment yet because I have to wait for my referral to go through, but I do know that they are booked until September. September! I start school in September. I was up at 4:30 this morning because I couldn't sleep through the pain. I'm taking a ton of Advil and still pain and inflammation. Well the PT appointment totally aggravated my radial nerve. So painful and swollen today. My good elbow:


My bad elbow, as noted by the nerve bulging out.

A visual for you medical types out there.

Ew

So this house has tons of these skinny legged spiders that aren't scary, but they make these big tangly gross webs all over the place. I kill them when I see them, but there seems to be a never ending supply. Imagine my horror to find like 100 babies in my closet along with 3 adults. I created a massacre. The perfect thing when you are trying to wind down for bed. Ugh, well at least the next generation has been stunted.

Shiny New Five Dollar

As some of you know I don't wash my car very often. It's not high on my priority list. But today it was time for it's annual cleaning. But not only did I wash it, I got ALL the pitch off, AND I waxed it, all with just my right arm!! I never thought that pitch was going to come off, but apparently all you need is alcohol. It took a little rubbing, but not bad at all. I really should have taken a before and after. She looks beautiful, like 1600 bucks! I still need to clean out the inside. I think I'll wait until it's not 95 out any more. I got super fried, like 2.5 hours in the sun during peak hours with no sunscreen fried. Not very smart of me.


The succulents outside my door are blooming and they look wonderful. I love the stalk.



From the top of Bald Hill a few days ago.

Ooooh man my shoulders hurt already...bad Erin

New Place

Since the craiglist post is deleted, here are the pictures of my new place. It is small, but I think it's the right size for one person. Or so I say now before I try to get all the stuff I own in. The kitchen is big and wonderful, I hate having a tiny kitchen. The bedroom is decent sized, and the backyard is big, there is plenty of room for plants, although I'm missing the gardening season. I love all the nooks and crannies everywhere for trinkets. Maybe I shouldn't have gotten rid of some of those salt and pepper shakers...
I'm excited for the change.
I think I'm going to bite the bullet and get my car fixed. It's going to be cheaper than getting a new car, plus then I would have to deal with selling, buying, the DMV, insurance, etc. And I know the history of this car, if I get something else, a new problem might pop up. Too bad $1600 could have been a vacation. Or a nice camera. There is something to be said for reliable transportation too I guess.

Stress

Today was somewhat stressful.
I woke up at 6 as I do in most mornings, in pain. My arm hurts constantly. Sometimes I get an hour here or there where I don't feel it. I'm getting anxious about what I'm going to do once I'm in school and I need my arm. I injured my radial nerve in February. I've been told it "can take a long time to get better". At this point I just try not to use it much, but I think I need to get a sling for it. I'm starting to get tingling in my thumb and finger. I really really hope it gets better sometime. I can't rock climb, play volleyball, hold the phone how I normally do, lift, reach, hold, keep my arm in one position for a long time, on and on and on.
So I found a place to live...it's pretty great: http://eugene.craigslist.org/apa/746780466.html
I have put a substantial amount of money down, but not heard from the guy. He called two of my references, and told them both I had the place. But he never told me. I'm comforted by the fact that we have a mutual friend, but it's still worrisome. And why is the craigslist ad still up? (Just a few minutes after I posted this, it was deleted. Yay! But still no call...) I left him a message to fax me a rental agreement if everything is good. That was this morning.
Today I also found out my car's transmission has a leak. $1200 to fix it. I get one more paycheck for the next 2 years, all the rest is coming from loans. Not the best news. There are a few other things that should be done as well. I may be getting a new car. Or something. Either way it's not budgeted for.
A good thing for today? Aaron's mom called me to let me know I could have all their raspberries for the next week. I got 8 cups and I'm going to make jam.

Apparently I'm good with a shotgun. Who knew.

I should have known a bbq at the Jones' would be anything but ordinary. I shot a shotgun for the first time and hit a clay pigeon on the second try. I hit another one not too many tries later as well. It's good to know if I ever need to kill a bird to survive, I can do it. The look on my face is hilarious by the way. So focused!


Toby found this awesome tiny praying mantis. So little and fast!

Blueberry Pizza

It's blueberry season! I went picking at Blueberry Meadows yesterday and made blueberry pizza for a bbq today. It's shortbread crust with a sweetened cream cheese layer, a layer of blueberry sauce and topped with fresh blueberries. Total Gallagher favorite.


Aaron, this is the cactus we gave your parents last year, so pretty and big! You can't see it, but the stamen is in the shape of a white star.


I found this June bug in an unlikely and unlucky place, right outside the door to the City Limits country store. I very rarely go in there, so I thought it was pretty fortuitous for this guy that I did. I moved him across the street to a field. I'm not sure he was doing so great anyway, his antennae are all folded up, and he didn't weigh very much.


Off to the bbq!