My wife said to me as we were about to pickup Sugar, "She will not be allowed on ANY furniture!" For the most part, this has stayed true. Sugar got up once on the couch and after being scolded and having chairs put on the couch for two or three days, she never touched the furniture again. It was less than a month however that I caught the two of them napping on the bed on a Saturday afternoon.
Nicole and Sugar napping on a Saturday
This dog loves to nap and most of all, she will do anything to make sure she is as close as possible to the person she is napping with. She is quite the cuddler and we quickly realized that if you want to sleep in on Saturday morning, just let Sugar into the bed and she won't move until both humans are up and out of the bed.
The other day a strange phenomenon occurred. We napped as usual and upon waking up Sugar rolled over on her back and continued to sleep fully sprawled. Her lips and jowls going where gravity desired contorting her face in the opposite of it's naturally occurring direction.
I, of course, fully amused took a picture and proceeded to laugh hysterically which didn't seem to bother the dog...she continued to sleep. Showing the picture to my wife, she joined me in the hilarity until she turned the phone upside-down and we encountered this image:
It seems like forever ago now, but we spent a pretty great July Saturday with our pals Dante & Jenn. They introduced us to the deliciousness that is breakfast at Gathering Together Farm in Philomath. We knew the farm from our Farmer's Market, but had never visited. It's a must for a leisurely locally grown breakfast.
Stuffed to the brim, we headed out to the coast to let Sugar and her BFF Tynan run.
We headed back to Corvallis to catch Bobby McFerrin and the Yellowjackets at DaVinci Days. Pretty big stuff for our little town!
A perfect summer day spent with great friends. Yay!
Today, Sugar and I went on our first Adventure together. Being that it was a beautiful December day...60 degrees with a light drizzle...we headed out to Mary's Peak to explore what we might find. Not knowing what to expect, seeing that neither Sugar or I had ever been to Mary's Peak, we packed up all the necessities; Hi-lift Jack, Shovel, Ax, Flashlight, Dog Toys (including the chuck-it and squirrel), water for Sugar, water and snacks for Jim, camera, gloves and a pocket knife.
This of course would be the first chance to get the Jeep into any mud. Sugar was incredibly excited to see how the Rubicon would fare knowing there was a good chance there might be a trail or two up on the mountain. We loaded up and headed out stopping to top off the gas tank before heading the short 15+ miles to Mary's Peak Road. According to internet research it looked like the road would be left open all winter accept the short access to the very top.
Sure enough we found ourselves winding up OR34 till we reached Mary's Peak Road. We were a little let down when (in contrast to the signs) the road was in good condition and fully paved. We wound ourselves to a high point and parked in a parking lot. Finding a trail to walk we ended up in a rather dumpy area where clearly people had enjoyed shooting their guns a little too much. The ground was riddled with remanence of TV's and propane tanks, plastic and metal objects that could no longer be identified and a slew of shells from 22's to shot guns. Regardless Sugar bounded up a gravel pile to the top and raced down a sheer face before I could even reach the top. Being concerned she might take off somewhere I couldn't see, I called her, trying to make my way back down quickly only to find that she had raced back up the sheer face and tried to meet me at the top from which I had previously called her. Crazy girl.
We headed back to the Jeep excited to head back down and explore some of the dirt trails we had noticed on our way up. We came upon a little gravel road that lead us to an even more exciting trail. The trail drove straight up one of the hills and lead us to a series of moguls that many a 4x4 before had clearly attempted to mount. About 50' above was a 60 degree rock face that posed a clear and exciting obstacle. We hit the moguls in 4 high and rocked about as we made our way up, spinning a few tires here and there. Putting it in 4 low we bounded over the second series of moguls with incredible ease.
Sugar was excited at this point so we jumped out and checked things out. She headed up the trail looking at where we might go and pointed out that this might be a little more than we had intended to find. Sure, with a friend or another rig along this would be easily surmounted but we decided to shy off and put the Jeep to the test later. Today was just exploring.
We backed our way back down the trail and headed back to the road to see what else we might find. About a mile back we found a clearly well used path off the road and bounced over puddles and through the trees till we came to a little clearing obviously used regularly for camping. Off to one side of the trail was a very small mound that had been driven over many a time leaving decent moguls that would cause anything smaller than a truck to get stuck.
We popped it back into 4 High and bounded up and over the mound with ease, spinning the tires a little as you clearly could feel the jeep teater on two wheels! Sugar was a little let down that it was that easy so we spun around for another go, pulling out all the stops. 4 Wheel Low, Anti-Sway Bar disconnected, finger on the locker button. We crawled over the little obstacle and reached the point where we had teatered on two wheels previously. The rear end spun a little so I hit the locker locking the rear end and rolling with ease once again over the hill.
A little let down at how easy it really is to get over anything in this jeep, we rolled back to the highest point and jumped out to snag some pictures. That anti-sway bar disconnect is awesome. It really does increase the travel drastically.
Even with two tires almost completely jammed into the wheel wells and the other two barely making contact with the ground this Jeep holds its own and then some. I can't wait to truly find a real trail to test it out on.
We made it home and I was quite embarrassed at how little mud we had managed to fling on the Jeep. For a lazy Sunday afternoon Adventure, we did ok though. Sugar, the Jeep and I did get muddy and had a little fun doing it. Sadly it was too foggy to get any pictures of the view but I think we had some fun. Sugar agrees and is now sleeping soundly on her pillow getting ready for the next big adventure.
There seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life that is mimicked by an abundance of specific photos in my iPhoto library. My life has become centered around one specific, very cute and cuddly white lab we like to call Sugar. She sneaks into pictures regularly. Or sometimes intentionally. She loves the tall grass. And has a propensity to lose her orange chuck-it ball. She enjoys chewing things...especially birthday hats her parents made her wear. She loves going to visit her Grandparents and pestering Tommie Thomas. She wears a cute turquoise rain jacket when it gets wet. Bottom line we have the cutest dog in the world and thought you should know. She has stolen my heart to the point I even put up with her "thwap thwap thwap" at all hours of the night hinting that she might need to go out. Yes, she flaps her ears to make just the right amount of noise to rouse you from sleep and then stares at you from the edge of the bed, waiting for someone to stir. If she wasn't so darn good it would be easy to get mad at her but all you have to do is take one look at her and your heart melts again. Welcome to my life.
(Thank you EricJohn for getting us some prints early of our pictures and I of course must mention the reason we have the best dog ever is that Sandy and Dean trained her and loved her for the first 6 months of her life. WindRiver Tails & Trails is the best boarding, daycare and training center in Missoula so if you live there, go check them out!)
18 years ago today my Mom and Freddo tied the knot. Happy Anniversary! (Incidentally, I'm fresh out of digital pictures from 18 years ago so this one from two weeks ago will have to do!)
A year ago today, we celebrated the very special wedding of our dear friends Nikki & Henry. Happy FIRST Anniversary to you! Though we didn't know it at the time, our sweet girl Sugar was being born that same day. Today Sugar turns ONE! (and she's thrilled about the party hat commemorating the occasion).
We've been lazing around Kauai all week and finally rolled into town to reclaim our pooch late last night. Thank goodness for Mimi who, in addition to taking care of Sugar all week long, also made her a special birthday treat - PupCakes! Those are dog-food "sprinkles" on top - they think of everything. We decided this wasn't the year to train her to blow out candles.
Being a dainty and refined young lady, Sugar swiped the whole thing in one bite... ...and ran it out to the backyard (where all edible treasures are taken to be devoured). Mmm, PupCake! Nom, nom, nom!
With her PupCake polished off, Sugar's patience with her party hat wore a little thin.
Happy Birthday, Sugar!! We look forward to dressing you up in silly outfits and feeding you novelty baked goods for years to come =)
You've probably noticed the "silence" around this blog lately. We're mourning a loss and it's been easier to be quiet than to talk about what happened. One month ago today (February 23rd, 2010) my dad passed away. What I find therapeutic today is to tell his story - complete with the irreverent humor and the shoot-from-the-hip honesty that characterized my Pop. I don't know whether our readers will find this of interest (or think I'm crass and tacky), but I'm really just doing it for me.
Pop was 61 years old - too young for dying - and lost his life to melanoma (that's skin cancer to the non-oncologist crowd). Melanoma is one of the nastiest cancers. There is no cure. Chemo doesn't touch it. Radiation wouldn't matter. There are a handful of experimental biochemo treatments available, but the success rate is about 5% and it is horrible to endure. When confronted with those options, my Dad opted for no treatment at all. Our goal was quality of life, and making the most of the time he had left. Considering that he had been given 6-12 months to live in March, 2008, it's pretty remarkable that we got nearly two years with him after the cancer metastacized. Pop would certainly have attributed that success to a commitment to doing whatever he darn well pleased, and a his favorite pain-killer, Jack Daniels.
The day after he was diagnosed, Dad quit his job and "retired." Shortly thereafter he bought himself a brand new truck and a fifth-wheel trailer. The very first accessory purchased for the trailer was a customized vinyl decal:
And that pretty much sums up the attitude Pop adopted toward the melanoma. He didn't waste any time compiling his Bucket List and checking things off. Drive to Alaska? Check. Catch a 30-pound halibut, fly to the Arctic Circle, ride a dog sled, ferry down the Inside Passage? Check. Jim and I joined Pop for a week of his Alaskan adventure, and helped him celebrate his 60th birthday.
After a summer in Alaska, Pop's next trip took him south. Zion National Park? Check. Alien-watching in Roswell? Check. (And I got the care package to prove it). Decorating a cactus for Christmas with the snowbirds in Arizona? Dipping a toe in the Rio Grande? Fishing any lake they didn't kick him out of? Touring air-craft carriers in the Gulf of Mexico? Check. And finally, the big destination: Mardi Gras! CHECK. We got a box of trinkets when he checked that one off the list, too. But I think I'll save that for another time. Pop's gift-giving is...well..."renowned" to say the least, and is certainly deserving of its own post.
And still the Bucket List went on. Jack Daniels Distillery (hallowed ground)? Check. Pop even called me that day to tell me he could die a happy man because now he'd seen heaven. Double check. Non-geographical items made the list, too. Sleeping late and fishing all day? Check. Eating all the chocolate you want without worrying about the consequences? Check with hot fudge on top. Saying exactly what you think? Che...oh, wait...he'd had been doing that all his life anyway.
And then there was the matter of a girlfriend. Someone who would always attract attention for her good looks...someone who would be a loyal traveling companion, and who wouldn't nag. Check. Meet Sugar:
Yes, it is completely ridiculous for a man who has already exceeded his life expectancy to adopt a puppy. But the thing about exceeding your life expectancy is that you learn to do what makes you feel good, not what makes sense. Pop loved labs. LOVED labs. We had a sweet chocolate named Maya when I was a kid. After she was hit by a car Dad would joke that he'd trade me to the gypsies if he could just have another dog like that. So, when he started talking about wanting a puppy, I knew it would make him happier than anything else. We told Dad that we would be willing to take care of the dog if and when we were needed. He was on his way to pick up his puppy the next day. (And I'm happy to report that I have not - to my knowledge - been traded to the gypsies. Phew.)
In the end, no amount of puppy love would change the fact that Pop's days were numbered. The last six months were long and hard for him, and for us. Though we didn't know it, the melanoma had metasticized to Pop's brain. When faced with the option of a risky brain surgery that may or may not have helped matters, I went back to what I knew about my Dad. He had no interest in lying in a hospital bed, and he definitely didn't want to spend a minute doing anything that wasn't worth his precious time. So we let him go. We gave him the gift of peace, and relief, and eternal rest.
And so my Pop is "on the road again" leaving me with no doubt in my mind about his love for me, and with gratitude for the blessing of a devoted dad. May light perpetual shine upon him.
I think it's safe to assume that all our loyal readers have, at one time or another, shopped for a gift from a wedding registry. And, in reviewing the selections on all those registries, have you ever seen one without a KitchenAid stand mixer? Me neither. In fact, I really think it should be added to the standard "So, you're getting married?" line of questioning:
"So, you're getting married?"
"And when is the big day?"
"And where are you having it?"
"Have you found THE dress?"
"And for what color KitchenAid will you register?"
And therein lies the source of our current culinary conundrum. The age-old question: what color will your KitchenAid be? What could possibly be more definitive of our lives together? Okay fine. Wedding vows, and then the color of our KitchenAid. But it's still right up there! These suckers last forever, so you have to LOVE the color you buy, and you have to promise yourself that you will still love it in 30 years.
So we find ourselves in a quandry. What color mixer will enter into this lifetime partnership with us? Though I am almost always the first to default for something colorful over something plain, I initially answered this question in the most practical way possible:
White. It's classic. It goes with everything. It will disappear into any kitchen decor we ever dream up. And you just can't get sick of white. White was the practical choice. I even talked SoundGuy into it long enough to zap it with the scanner at Target.
But the more I think about it, the less enthusiastic I've become about boring old white. (And, in fairness, SoundGuy has been against it all along). Why would we choose white when these things come in the most delicious colors? I'd hate to mosey out to the kitchen for my morning coffee only to be confronted with the fact that, when given the opportunity to be interesting, I chose to be boring. ACK! Thirty years with a boring mixer? Perish the thought! I'd sooner beat my cake mixes by hand. *swoon*
So we've entered into the delicate process of discerning what color suits us best. It's created some pretty interesting conversations with our married pals, and I think it's safe to say that there is a story (and an act of compromise) behind everyone's mixer. It's been a hot topic among my grad school friends lately as Nikki & Henry made the big purchase (Blue Willow) - to the point that the girls' KitchenAid colors have become their handles. Example: "Dear Blue Willow, Granite here! Just checking in to see if you have heard from Pistachio about Erik's job offer..." You can see why it's super-important for us to get this figured out. I'm still "Nicole" in these emails. That's almost as boring as being the girl who chose the white mixer.
Loyal readers, we need your help! We've narrowed the pool to four colors, but we're stuck at an impass and can't make up our minds.
SoundGuy has weighed in as an advocate for Granite: The more this thing starts to resemble a power-tool, the more he likes it. If we choose Granite, I'm pretty sure my husband will grunt at it every time he walks through the kitchen. It already happens when we pass a lifted 4x4 on the hiway, but that's a story for another time.
We both like the Empire Red:
It's so classic! And red is my most favorite color. Our current microwave happens to be red, and the coffee pot we have on our registry is a little bit red as well, so there's a "matchy-matchy" arguement to be made for the red.
And then there's Cobalt: Also a classic, yes? It doesn't really go with anything we have, but it's just a nice color. And what's wrong with a nice cobalt mixer jumping out at you from amongst the decor?
And, finally, there's this quirky Ice Blue: I'm really drawn to it's retro feel and the "I don't match a darn thing" quality that comes along with it. But will I always feel that way? Over the course of 30 years it will go from retro to "so last year" to "they make nice quilted cozies to cover those, ya know" to "remember when I used to bake" to "hip" and back to "charmingly retro" all over again. I don't know if I can endure it.
Weigh in, friends! Cast a vote for your favorite. While you're at it, tell us what color your mixer is and why. Those are usually pretty good stories ;)
We backed our way back down the trail and headed back to the road to see what else we might find. About a mile back we found a clearly well used path off the road and bounced over puddles and through the trees till we came to a little clearing obviously used regularly for camping. Off to one side of the trail was a very small mound that had been driven over many a time leaving decent moguls that would cause anything smaller than a truck to get stuck.
A little let down at how easy it really is to get over anything in this jeep, we rolled back to the highest point and jumped out to snag some pictures. That anti-sway bar disconnect is awesome. It really does increase the travel drastically. 
Even with two tires almost completely jammed into the wheel wells and the other two barely making contact with the ground this Jeep holds its own and then some. I can't wait to truly find a real trail to test it out on. 
We made it home and I was quite embarrassed at how little mud we had managed to fling on the Jeep. For a lazy Sunday afternoon Adventure, we did ok though. Sugar, the Jeep and I did get muddy and had a little fun doing it. Sadly it was too foggy to get any pictures of the view but I think we had some fun. Sugar agrees and is now sleeping soundly on her pillow getting ready for the next big adventure.
There seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life that is mimicked by an abundance of specific photos in my iPhoto library. 
My life has become centered around one specific, very cute and cuddly white lab we like to call Sugar.
She sneaks into pictures regularly.
Or sometimes intentionally.
She loves the tall grass.
And has a propensity to lose her orange chuck-it ball.
She enjoys chewing things...especially birthday hats her parents made her wear.
She loves going to visit her Grandparents and pestering Tommie Thomas.
She wears a cute turquoise rain jacket when it gets wet.
Bottom line we have the cutest dog in the world and thought you should know. She has stolen my heart to the point I even put up with her "thwap thwap thwap" at all hours of the night hinting that she might need to go out. Yes, she flaps her ears to make just the right amount of noise to rouse you from sleep and then stares at you from the edge of the bed, waiting for someone to stir. If she wasn't so darn good it would be easy to get mad at her but all you have to do is take one look at her and your heart melts again. Welcome to my life.
(Incidentally, I'm fresh out of digital pictures from 18 years ago so this one from two weeks ago will have to do!) 
Though we didn't know it at the time, our sweet girl Sugar was being born that same day. Today Sugar turns ONE!
(and she's thrilled about the party hat commemorating the occasion).
Those are dog-food "sprinkles" on top - they think of everything. We decided this wasn't the year to train her to blow out candles.
...and ran it out to the backyard (where all edible treasures are taken to be devoured).
Mmm, PupCake! Nom, nom, nom!
And that pretty much sums up the attitude Pop adopted toward the melanoma. He didn't waste any time compiling his Bucket List and checking things off. Drive to Alaska? Check. Catch a 30-pound halibut, fly to the Arctic Circle, ride a dog sled, ferry down the Inside Passage? Check. Jim and I joined Pop for a week of his Alaskan adventure, and helped him celebrate his 60th birthday.
After a summer in Alaska, Pop's next trip took him south. Zion National Park? Check. Alien-watching in Roswell? Check. (And I got the care package to prove it). Decorating a cactus for Christmas with the snowbirds in Arizona? Dipping a toe in the Rio Grande? Fishing any lake they didn't kick him out of? Touring air-craft carriers in the Gulf of Mexico? Check. And finally, the big destination: Mardi Gras! CHECK.
We got a box of trinkets when he checked that one off the list, too. But I think I'll save that for another time. Pop's gift-giving is...well..."renowned" to say the least, and is certainly deserving of its own post.
Yes, it is completely ridiculous for a man who has already exceeded his life expectancy to adopt a puppy. But the thing about exceeding your life expectancy is that you learn to do what makes you feel good, not what makes sense. Pop loved labs. LOVED labs. We had a sweet chocolate named Maya when I was a kid. After she was hit by a car Dad would joke that he'd trade me to the gypsies if he could just have another dog like that. So, when he started talking about wanting a puppy, I knew it would make him happier than anything else. We told Dad that we would be willing to take care of the dog if and when we were needed. He was on his way to pick up his puppy the next day. (And I'm happy to report that I have not - to my knowledge - been traded to the gypsies. Phew.)
And may the fish keep biting.
The more this thing starts to resemble a power-tool, the more he likes it. If we choose Granite, I'm pretty sure my husband will grunt at it every time he walks through the kitchen. It already happens when we pass a lifted 4x4 on the hiway, but that's a story for another time.
It's so classic! And red is my most favorite color. Our current microwave happens to be red, and the coffee pot we have on our registry is a little bit red as well, so there's a "matchy-matchy" arguement to be made for the red.
Also a classic, yes? It doesn't really go with anything we have, but it's just a nice color. And what's wrong with a nice cobalt mixer jumping out at you from amongst the decor?
I'm really drawn to it's retro feel and the "I don't match a darn thing" quality that comes along with it. But will I always feel that way? Over the course of 30 years it will go from retro to "so last year" to "they make nice quilted cozies to cover those, ya know" to "remember when I used to bake" to "hip" and back to "charmingly retro" all over again. I don't know if I can endure it.
