This is the most coolest picture ever. Eric and I went to Pittock Mansion today for an outing. The actual mansion is pretty cool, but the views are much cooler. I think we’re going to have to picnic up there sometime soon. We had decided to go in and take a tour of the place s well. We started with the “official” tour but the lady went on and on about who made everything that Eric and I just went off ourselves. It was more fun that way anyway. I think one of the most interesting things there was the phone/intercom. Basically, servants and delivery people would intercom into a room to let the occupants know either they were there for a delivery, or that the meal was ready. I could believe all the wonderful views in the place. Man, how cool would it be to live there.

P1000489,

Awesome! Awesome

After the mansion we headed to the rose gardens for some great photos and a look at some of the most amazing roses. I’d never been there before today. it was so cool to see all the different roses. I can’t even imagine how many different ones there were. We walked all over that place and then some. Some of the pictures we took turned out really cool, like the close ups on many of the flowers. I still have a lot to learn with my camera because we tried to get this great close up shot of a rose with a few drops of dew and it didn’t come out as well as we’d have liked. Guess that’s a reason for even more of a zoom lens

All in all the day was pretty wonderful. It was nice to enjoy somethings we’d not been to and just have fun with each other and the camera. After the rose garden we headed to southeast Portland to the best tapas place we’ve found i Portland, Bar Pastiche. The food there is great! What’s cool too is their desserts are brought in from Pix, another great place to eat and for desserts. YUM! So now we’re home, Eric’s watching World cup, and I’m blogging… again

Oh, this is so random but I wanted to share a few things.

Number 1:

The BEST toilet cleaner in the the world Kaboom NEVER SCRUB! About a month ago I found these things at Fred Meyer and being the, “I hate to clean the toilet person” that I am, had to buy one for each toilet.

We have this thing with the water, the bowl gets pink from the water. I don’t know what’s in it but our beautiful toilets get pink like three days after I’ve cleaned them. This is a godsend. What’s super cool is that we don’t have to clean the bowl, there’s not more ring, and the thing lasts for 5 MONTHS woo hoo, no cleaning for me

Number 2:

The best, FREE site to track your eating and training NutriDiary. It even gives you reports. I love that it shows you how much ,cars, etc you’ve had with your food for the day. it tracks your weight, exercise and just about everything else. What’s neat too is that you can get a member ship, which opens up more features for something like $20 a year. That’s cheap! SO what do you get for that, well you can contact a dietitian and she’ll work with you to set up an eating plan just for you. there’s coaching, more storage of your information, more personalization… OK you get the picture.

Number 3:

I’m loving the Internet right now and all that I’m learning. I’m sure I’ve said it before but I’ve got a TON, and I mean a TON of RSS feeds which enable me to keep up with things in the training world, things I’m interested in and of course my hobbies. I used to think that people were crazy to have this whole Internet life and not have a life with people but I’m learning more and more just how powerful and exciting this blogging and sense of community can be helpful professionally and personally. I have a separate blog for work/training related things so that family and friends don’t have to deal with the crap from work or the ideas I’m pursuing. I’ve been blogging internally in the company for a while and have increased my network and met some great people with similar passions to myself. It’s great to find people within my company and outside the company that have similar interests. You know the whole dinner with Anthony Bourdain wouldn’t have happened if not for my increased dive into the intranet

Number 4:

I love my husband, my friends and the people in my life. Today Eric and I are going out to Pittock Mansion and the Rose Gardens. I’ve never been to either but I’m looking forward to it. I’ve got the camera all charged and ready to go. it’s going to be a great day, wish I had my polarized filter and stuff though, oh well. SO why am I writing about the people in my life and being happy? Well, I woke up this morning and just felt really good. I mean I’m happy with my life, happy where I’m at in it, what I’ve accomplished. yada, yada, yada. I just have a real appreciation right now. You know we all go through the good, the bad and the ugly but to come out of all that with your head held high, content and happy where you’re at, not worrying about tomorrow and just living and loving feels great (OK, you can stop laughing at that one). Seriously, I don’t tell my friends and family enough how much I love you, but I do love you and I’m thanks every day for you. Without the people I have in my life, I’d be more neurotic than I am.

Oh, time to go. will post pictures later.

Eric took me out to Grand Lodge to play Frisbee golf. I’d never played before and he’d heard that it was a lot of fun. So we went to play and did ok considering there were 4 weddings there that day so not all the holes were available. We took the new camera too and had a blast taking pictures, I love that camera, Eric loves that camera, we love that camera. It’s the best of both worlds, you get the ease of digital but you can also go manual and change everything just like a typical SLR. I realized that I don’t really like Frisbee golf. After we went golfing we took a tour of the place and ended up in Bob’s bar downstairs tasting wine, what a shock, and ran into some friends. What’s so totally funny is that the bartender lives over here in Orenco Garden’s too. So of course we all swapped information so we could get together some time. He boyfriend is a massage therapist. SO now I’m hooked up any time I want a massage, just give them a jingle. How cool is that!!!!

Today Eric and I went to “The Neighborhood” to check out several houses that have been built and are under the million dollar mark. We went to get ideas for our house and see what great ideas are out there. We had a blast. I think we spent something like 3 hours there looking over each and every house. I tried to take only pictures of the places we really liked but I didn’t do so well with that. We took the new camera and had a blast. Our favorite house was “The Grotto”.

,

It’s was a great craftsman house with a wonderful entry and a FABULOUS indoor pond and water feature. it was the coolest ever thing in the world. We loved how you could see it from the living room, the dining room and the office area. What was very cool was how the build took advantage of all the height and the decoration was fantastic. Oh, and the kitchen was wonderful. We took tons and tons of pictures.

,

It wasn’t until we got to another house that we fell in love with the backyard. This is a picture of the water feature in the backyard of the house we loved. We loved this backyard because it was huge, had a wonderful water feature that Eric could have his Koi in. There was plenty of grass for Baylee and/or a game of croquet or better yet a putting green. Oh, how wonderful would that be.