> Two Room Mates.... should I come up and make it a Third.. naw.. maybe just another trip in the next year

Tommy, would love to host you when you are in the area! We have extra bedrooms.

How long do MRE's last?  Or vinegar?  I found some vinegar that expired in 2012.  I'm cleaning the pantry of course.  I haven't done so in years.  The grime is thick.  And there are many odd ball packages of flavorings, teas, cake mixes, etc.

I just found a third bottle of vinegar.  No expiry date on it.

I also found chocolate! How bad can a two year old bar be? It tasted OK. IF this is my last post, you know what happened.

Some how I managed to get rid of about a third of the stuff in the pantry. Much of that was garbage. I'm also now using the storage jars in the pantry to store things, and not to just sit around and collect dust.

I wonder how long I can keep it this clean? Some busy night I'll forget to put the rice back into it's storage box. That will begin the inevitable cluttering. I'm sure that RO and our two room mates will help.

An artist covered an area of a local park with bio-carbon. It looks much like charcoal. The exhibit is intended to bring attention to the coal mining history of the area and to be a symbolic start to the sequestration of 30 million tons of carbon that were mines from the mountain.

Once a week I've been running a 7.5 mile loop through cougar mountain. Usually I walk up the hills and run down them or on the flat stretches.

This week I logged my fastest time yet. The run actually felt good. Usually I get tired and I have to push my self. This time I did get winded, but I didn't get tired. I also managed to run up the hills longer than usual.

Improving my trip times has a self-reinforcing benefit. Short trip times mean that my runs are less of a commitment, which lets me sneak in a few more runs every now and then.

Sping is in full force.

RO is much better. In fact he's been away for work for a few days and back.

RO has diverticulitis. He's ok, but still has some pain.

Sigh. A minor electrical change still takes me 4 hours and two trips to the hardware store.

Far country falls

It has rained heavily this month. The have been many mud slides, and fallen trees. In the news, a tiny town, Oso, has been whipped off the map from a massive land slide. I've heard of the town, but didn't know any one who lived there.

We had dinner with Christie. RO and Christie had a very bad day and needed to drink large Margaritas.

Last night, Boone's car was broken into. The window was smashed. The alarm went off and the thief drove away. They also rummaged through my truck. I always leave the doors unlocked and no valuables in it. So, no damage.

Work is busy as always. I'm constantly trying to figure out my job. Sometimes that's frustrating. I work with otherwise smart people who are not yet experienced enough. It's tough coaching them to beef up there skills to the point where I don't have to accommodate.

Spring has sprung. Weather is wonderful. Now all we have to do is the yard work that's been piling up all winter.

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Had dinner with the neighbors. As always, we had fun.

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Its warm and light enough in the evening that I can run by the falls.

In the world, a jet from Malaysia has been missing for two weeks. Russia is annexing Crimea.

Steve is moving back to Seattle. It'll be good to have him nearby again. He has always been a friend.

RO & I scared ourselves accidentally. In hind sight, it was funny.

I was having a stress dream, not a night mare, but something stressful. In real life, two raccoons started fighting out side our bedroom window. The combination caused me to cry out in my dream.

That scared RO. Me crying out and the raccoon sounds caused him to start crying out "What's going on? What's going on?"

Now I start walking up. I hear the weird raccoon sounds and I hear RO calling out "What's going on?" "What's going on?" and now I really get scared. I jump out of bed and run for the lights.

We laughed when we figured out there was nothing to be scared about. RO looked out the windows and watched the two raccoons.

Saturday a new room mate moved in. Tomorrow he is moving out. It's all good though.

This room mate works up in Alaska on a fishing boat. The job is 12 hours a day, seven days a week for a couple of months. When the ship returns to port, he'll have a month off where he lives in Seattle. 

His old lease ended and he moved in with us. Tuesday morning he fly's up to Alaska for his next stint fishing.

We had the store's nine year anniversary sale this past week. It went well. Afterwards we had a small party. Andie & Mandy joined us. We had a very fun time. After the store closed, we put good music on the speakers, then danced, drank and talked the night away.

My mother called me today with good news about the neighbors. After 45 years of living in the neighborhood, the neighbors are finally warming up to my parents. The neighbors invited my parents over for coffee.

The neighborhood my parents live in is largely populated by a close family that has lived there for hundreds of years. One additional complication, the neighbors are Anglican and my family is Dutch Protestant.

So my neighbors now trust that my parents are not one of those 'tourist' families that live in the neighborhood for a decade or so and then leave.

Weird.