News From Tualatin
News From Tualatin
I hate leaving you all on tenterhooks all week, (what the heck ARE tenterhooks, anyway? Sounds like a Boy Scout merit badge) but we’ve been very busy.
The Lithuanian moving men had called to say they would be here on Monday, and actually called again Monday evening to confirm that they were still coming if we were ready for them at 9:00 p.m. We like it here, and decided that it would be poor form to move in only to be evicted right away for banging around furniture late at night. So we agreed to have our stuff delivered Tuesday morning.
Sure enough, the white van of alarming size came as promised, and they moved our stuff in – a little disappointing, actually, as I had been secretly hoping it might be someone else’s BETTER stuff. The movers were as nice as they had been on the other end, and made quick work of our delivery, with everything intact and in good condition (when I say good condition, I don’t really mean good condition … what I mean is, the same condition as when we packed it up in Colorado) and at the agreed price.
They were done by noon, and we spent the rest of the day opening packages as if it were a Christmas at the house of bad children … every present was filled with a bunch of old crap we had already owned for years! Oh, well, we spotted the contents around here and there, and now it looks pretty much like home, rather than a prolonged picnic in here.
We also squeezed in some time to go see Ben, and had fun sitting on the back porch of his house playing with cooked (and cooled) spaghetti. Not eating it so much as just flipping it around and throwing it. Whee! Ben has learned new tricks, including signing in ASLAN “drink” and “more” and “eat.” And probably some others we don’t know. Verbally, it’s still pretty much “ba” and “da,” but we’re listening with imagination. He’s good at standing, and is just about able to pull himself up. He loves to imitate me when I drum on the table, a trick his mom is probably really grateful for, and likes to say “oh-oh!” with the proper inflection, as the occasion demands. Pretty often.
Wednesday, the Riley’s went out to dinner at a nice joint here called “McCormick and Schmick’s.” on the occasion of our 37th wedding anniversary. The food there is better than the name. What a great time we’ve had so far! I’m hoping the next 37 are as much fun.
We also spent a little time at a place called the “U-Pull-It.” You’re thinking maybe self-service dentistry? Or perhaps a chicken restaurant? Mais non, mon amis! “U-Pull-It” is a franchise of auto salvage yards wherein one can acquire, oh, say, just as a random example, the driver’s side electric mirror for a 1997 Ram 1500 pickup. And not for the $385 (!!!!) asked by Dodge for the replacement part, either, but for $45. Cool!
And why would one want or need such a part? Would it be because the width of one’s indoor parking space, less the thickness of that pesky concrete column that holds up the building is about equal to the width of one’s 1997 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck plus the stick-out-age of its driver’s side mirror less about 1/16”? Yes! Sigh. My poor truck.
So, we’ve been going to the hardware and furniture stores a lot, driving up to Ben’s house a lot (coincidentally where Morgan and Aaron live too!), and finishing up the myriad little tasks that make an empty condo into a home. In this case, a home for the sore and tired. But we’re close to being done with the paint-up, fix-up phase, and will soon begin the sit-around-and-admire phase, I’m told. Yay!
So, more later from the home of Crawdads and Cliff Swallows - Tualatin Oregon.
Love you guys!
Mike and Karen Riley
News From Tualatin
August 14th 2006
News From Tualatin
We have arrived safely here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, and are enjoying "camping in" in our condo using the lawn chairs and picnic supplies from our previous visit while awaiting our furniture and the arrival of the Lithuanians.
The attempt by Pakistani terrorists from Britain to spoil our trip out here to meet the Lithuanians was foiled by the quiick action of MI5 and the Homeland Security Agency, but it meant that we had to leave our seventeen gallons of personal hygeine fluids at the airport in Denver. And take my word for it, getting rid of that quantity of personal fluids before boarding a plane is a real relief.
Thanks to the understanding and generosity of Kevin McCullough, and our severe anticipatory paranoia, we arrived VERY early at the airport Thursday, but by the time we got there (six p.m. or so for a nine p.m. flight), they pretty much had things figured out, and our check-in went very smoothly. I imagine the first hour or two caught people off guard, and passengers had to scramble to transfer their shampoo and denture cream to checked luggage right at the airport. But by six p.m. everybody was cool with the new drill. For those who had to throw their liquids into the contraband collection box at the check-in counter, I understand there will be terrific deals on partially-used ointments and cremes on e-Bay later this month.
We had plenty of time after checking in to get to and then change gates, which we had to do three times for some reason. Others were complaining, so apparently, this was going on for many of the flights. Maybe gate schedules were scrambled up because of delays earlier in the day on the East Coast? Or maybe it was just that the gate agents enjoy watching folks shuttle back and forth on the concourse like the sheep in "Babe?"
Anyway, the flight was on time and smooth, and our little condo was still here and in good repair (or as good as it was when we left it, anyway!)
Karen says we're sub-letting from a family of swallows. There's a little hole for an electrical conduit in the rafters of our balcony, and some swallows have settled into it as their residence. They have four (at least) little swallow-lets squeeking for dinner at all times, which is maybe cute at first, but they also had built up a pretty good mound of former swallow food right outside of our patio door. We've cleaned that away, but we can't evict them because a) there's a law against harming swallows and wrecking their nests when there's babies on board, b) it would be the wrong thing to do, and c) they make lousy soup. Or plan is to give them notice then move them out and seal the hole when we return in November.
Friday was the first day of the Tualatin Crawfish Festival! It was also the beginning of "A Taste Of Oregon" in downtown Portland ... we compared the potential of eating whole crayfish to that of sampling barbecued steak and mushrooms, and headed right for downtown Portland. We went with the Kunzes which was a lot of fun. Ben eats about anything now, so he had fun, too. The weather is just grand - cool, clear and beautiful!
We got a call from the Lithuanian guys yesterday, and supposedly our furniture is arriving this afternoon. Or someone's, anyway; at this point I'm not that picky. It'll be kinda like Christmas opening up the boxes after they get here; toward the end in Colorado Springs, we were just throwing stuff in there at random.
Little Ben knows all kinds of new tricks since we saw him last. Just yesterday, he pulled himself up to standing all on his own for the first time. He eats with a spoon and drinks from his sippy cup, and points at everything and says either "ba" or "da" depending on whether it is a tree or an airplane. His absolute favorite is trucks, though ... my kind of kid. We already got to babysit a couple of times. Yay!
Aaron and Morgan don't seem to have any new tricks to amount to much, but they're still lots of fun, anyway.
More later on our merry adventure.
Love you guys!
Mike and Karen Riley
