Friday, September 23, 2005

News from Tualatin

News from Tualatin
 
In response to numerous requests:
 
The Kunzes
2523 SE 28th Ave.
Portland OR 97202
 
No travelog today, just some pix attached.  These have been reduced to keep download times reasonable.  If you want the dottier versions, let me know.
 
M.

posted by Mique @ 12:26 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

News from Tualatin

News from Tualatin
 
I just get that creepy feeling that we're re-living the lives of the folks in Pompeii.  "What volcano?"
 
Karen and I went for a drive today, and gave the Kunzes the day off from us.  Since Aaron is home for a few more days, Morgan has someone to fetch and carry all day for a while, so we drove around Mt. Hood in our recently restored pick-up truck.
 
The mountains here are weird in several ways for yokels raised in the Rockies.
1)  They're lonely.  There isn't really a "range" of them, except in the cooking sense.  Each former (and potential next) volcano stands by its pointy little self.
2)  They're pointy.  All these mountains have pointy little heads.  Except Mt. St. Helens, which USED TO, but blew it all to hell a few years ago - I found it on my car a couple of days later.  Now it looks more like a Colorado mountain.  To it's everlasting shame, no doubt.
3)  They look REALLY tall.  In Colorado, the moutains top out above 14,000', sure, but here, although Mt. Hood is "just" 11,000-something, it's base is much lower, so it looks real tall.  It IS real tall.
4)  They're barren looking.  Above timerline, all mountains are bare of trees, but in Colorado, there is a progression from forest to scrub to alpine meadow, to lichen forest, and finally to plain ole rock.  Here it goes straight from Evangeline to Mt. Baldy.  And timberline is lower here (it's further north), so this also makes them look taller, again.
 
Mt. Hood is way beautiful, though, all the way around.
 
Oh, and one other tourist-bureau observation: there are a LOT of trees here!  Case you didn't know.
 
Back to Benjamin.  The Kunzes report that he has acquired the taste for crying.  When wet.  When poopy (I knew you wanted to know).  When hungry.  When tired.  When lonely.
 
I told Aaron and Morgan that impending parenthood was like that first long rachetty hill on a roller-coaster.  I think the ride is well under way.
 
All are well, and Ben is growing day-by-day.  Morgan, on the other hand, is shrinking.  She reported that she was actually able to clip her own toe-nails yesterday.  Whoo-hoo!
 
More later.
 
Love to everyone -
 
Mike and Karen

posted by Mique @ 10:13 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

News from Tualatin

News from Tualatin

Benjamin is growing apace, gaining weight and learning Greek. He had some issues with Billy Reuben, whoever that is, but old Bill has left now, pretty much.

Ben has learned the trick of waiting to "mark his territory," so to speak, until he is out of his diaper, and can therefore mark the maximum amount of territory at one time.

Morgan and Aaron are getting upwards of three hours of sleep at a time, now, so they look a little less like something from the swamp. Benjamin, on the other hand, really sleeps like ... uh ... like a baby, I guess. When we saw him last, he was wearing his Chicago Cubs onesie. Is the poor kid doomed to a lifetime of disappointment? Aaron says no, Benny's gonna be on the World-Series-winning Cubs' team. In 2025 or so.

It's reallt getting to be Fall now. There's a place on I-5 (the north-south interstate through Portland) they call "The Curves." It's even on the official signs that way: The Curves. As if there aren't curves anywhere else. Anyway, these are pretty curvy curves, as the road is following the river's course. Being a north-south route, these curves positively guarantee that you will be staring directly into the setting sun at this time of the year at some point on your journey out of Portland. Major traffic jams occur due to this "sunshine" slowing. I'm glad we have our truck back, because I don't wimp out like that - I just keep on keepin' on. If I don't stay in my lane, that's the other guys' problem.

Another weird naming thingie they have hereabouts is a town up the Columbia Gorge called "The Dalles." That second word is pronounced like pals, not Dallas. But it always gets the "The," it's part of the town's name! I'm entranced with this! Whenever I see a sign indicating a turn-off to The Dalles, I'm pulled toward it as if it were a magnet. My favorite thing is, when you're actually passing through The Dalles on the highway, you also pass through a suburb called "West The Dalles." Ain't that great?

Ben as a child, several days ago (oh, and Morgan, too!)

Love to everyone -

Mike and Karen

posted by Mique @ 8:28 PM 0 comments