Living on the Edge

And the winner is....

Anyone that truly knows me, knows that I do not rush into a purchase.  I research, read, question, test and pretty much over think it to the end of the earth and back.  I have a few resources I love to pour over online and in print.  Two being Kim Komando and Consumer Reports.  I don't know what we did before the internet!?! 

It was kind of creepy last month when the issue of Consumer Reports was all about product reviews for remodeling your home--flooring, appliances, etc.  It's almost like they were in my head and knew just what I was looking for as our house sold and the land deal was signed.

So I have been researching a new digital SLR.  I had a regular SLR for years.  Fancy lenses and all the bells and whistles. (It took me a few years to buy that one too...the money I had for it sat in a savings account for over a year accruing interest)  I was getting pretty good at it too when this digital thing happened.  The turning point was our trip to Alaska.  I didn't want to carry all the film around and I didn't want to get stuck with developing any shots that didn't turn out.  So we bought a Kodak Easyshare DX6490.

It was a work horse of a camera!  Took awesome pictures throughout out trip to Alaska and back home since then. 

My only complaint was it's inability to take pictures inside of a gym. I was sitting in the second row when I took this picture...full gym lighting.  Flash did nothing but give everyone red eye. 

The 'noise' was horrible in low light and with all the events and award ceremonies my kids have these days in gyms with poor lighting...so 5 years and many pictures later...it was time to move back to a real SLR again that I can manually set to compensate for what the Kodak can't do.  We aren't getting rid of it.  CC is already marked it as hers.  Should come in handy on those bone digs she dreams of heading up someday! 

So I was trying to decide between three cameras; the Nikon D60, the Canon Rebel Xti and the Canon Rebel Xsi.  They all had their pros and cons.  The Nikon had the most cons, so I crossed that one off the list early on.  The Canon Rebel was the winner hands down among the photography buff friends I have and the reviews I read online (yes, including Consumer Reports).  So with all the reading and researching and picking my friends' brains for information I chose....

Canon Rebel Xsi

It came with two lenses, camera bag to hold everything and directions in English AND Spanish.  So I can work on dusting off my second language even!  Anyway, what sold me was the two lenses, how easy it fit in my hand, and the light weight, even with the larger lense on it.

It is larger, just a bit, than the Xti, but lighter in weight...go figure.  It has 12 mega pixels vs the 14 or so that the Xti has, but too many megapixels will also add 'noise' to your photos and as far as increased pixelation goes...2 more mp's is not much of a difference.  I bought it at Costco because we get a great rebate and if I have any trouble with it, they have a great return policy.

I haven't gotten through the entire manual yet.  There are so many features on this camera.  Not that I don't know how to use the features, but it's just navigating the buttons to get to them :-)  But I've been playing with it none the less.  Here are a couple shots I've taken so far.

 

This one was taken south of Spokane off highway 195.  Q's friend just moved out there...it's sooo pretty!

Cricket...uh..her name...not her species. LOL!

cool old stuff around this county!

 

The neighborhood deer munching on clover.

Well, I have a lot to learn again about using an SLR...but it's coming back.  I just need to get out and find some more fun stuff to photograph!

Alexis Cohen Died....

So it's Sunday afternoon. Kind of muggy and yucky out today. The downpour of rain woke me up at 2:30 last night, so I'm a bit tired today. Wading through bills and piles of papers to sort, I hopped online and one of the news articles caught my eye. I'm not a huge American Idol fan. But the headline that one of its hopefuls died in a car accident caught my attention. I was thinking it would be someone who actually made it on the show as a finalist, but alas it was just one of the quirky youth that didn't have a chance in heck. It was one of those odd birds that they place on the show for our entertainment or to make you appreciate the ones that can really sing. Well this 23 year old young lady didn't make it. She didn't take it too well after she left the audition room and had many words and gestures to share. This video below was a funny version of her 'no thanks' speech after her audition. They have some other funny ones too....like the sham wow one! Enjoy!

Erethizon dorsatum vs canine: the ugly truth

So typepad was having one of its moments and it wouldn't let me do my picture thing the way I wanted to...so here is the story in a few photos...the truth was way too ugly to photograph fully...and it was hard to hold a camera AND a frantic 85 pound husky mix who was VERY unhappy and in EXTREME pain!

I know this is really hard to see...and it took some fine tuning in Adobe to cut the blur, but here is poor Buddy with his mouthful of quills.  He must have had over 100 of them!  He was so pathetic looking.  His mouth was pinned open to this ugly lip curled grin...and let me tell you, he was anything but happy!

 

These are the quills we were finding all around the house for days afterward.  They are on binder paper to give you some scale.  And they look sharp because THEY ARE! Buddy has this habit of coming up and resting his head on your knee.  We knew every time another one of those darn quills was working its way out because the sharp end would poke you!

 

This is what pathetic, groggy dogs do the day after being attacked by a porcupine.  They did NOT go out after dark that night either!  And for the next couple of weeks we escorted them....couldn't afford them to make another bad, expensive choice with the local wildlife!

One rather interesting fact we learned from the vet:  Porcupine attacks seldom become infected.  Some saving grace I guess!

Erethizon dorsatum vs canine

So we have lived in Eastern Washington for almost 4 years now.  Our home has been on the edge of Riverside State Park...a area that includes both Ponderosa Pine and river habitats.  If you go back to my older posts you'll see we've met moose, deer, fox, coyote, marmuts, muskrat and a variety of other creatures that we pleasantly share the neighborhood with (after all, it was theirs first!).

One little critter that we haven't seen much of is the porcupine.  Pine forests are their habitat so you'd think we'd be seeing them more often.  I think we've only seen them twice.  One HUGE one walking straight down the middle of Charles Road.  He was literally walking along the yellow line in the middle of the road.  Guess he thought he would be out of the way there no matter which way a car should come...or he was trying to prove he was sober...not sure.

One other time we saw two of them on the island across from our neighborhood park.  It was spring and they were either having a heated territory debate about whose island it was...or it's the noise they make when they are in heated passion for the opposite sex...not sure.

In our little acre of heaven we have seen NO porcupines in almost four years of life.  The dogs, 3 at one time and now two, have never had a single face to face...or face to quill experience.  I was feeling pretty darn lucky....should I say almost smug about it.  Like we have such smart dogs, that even if they did come to nibble on our pines, they wouldn't dream of messing with them because they had an innate ability to avoid them.

Well...they proved me wrong on June 6th!  They showed me that they weren't proving these past 3 years that they were too smart to mess with a porcupine...instead it was just that the opportunity had not presented itself yet!  And so it finally did at 11:30 Saturday night!  Ugh!

When I heard them barking at the back fence, I thought it was probably a coyote or fox or even the worst case scenario...a skunk! (perfect! I thought, giving skunk baths in a house we are trying to sell!)  So when I saw them circling something in the trees I was about to head over to shoo it away with a couple of rocks.  But before I could step off the deck, the first yelp came.  Not from the cornered creature, but from one of our dogs...then came the second yelp and when I called the dogs...they came running.  I resigned myself to what it was as I watched the shadowed figure circle between my two dogs.

Needless to say, when they got close enough for me to see their muzzles suddenly turned fuzzy, covered  in what looked like walrus whiskers, I went running!  They were coming right toward me! (of course they couldn't have done it before the porcupine got them!)  Watching our dogs frantically try to rub the quills out was horrible.  They were in pain and frantic...there was blood and drool flying everywhere!

 

Scenarios were running through my mind...how in the world would I get these two beasts to a vet in the state they were in.  They would destroy my Explorer.  There was no way anyone could hold them because everytime they got near us...they poked us!  Unfortunately, my husband was at work all night with the truck.  So it was just going to be mom to the rescue!

My first stop was the phone book to look up an emergency clinic...thankfully there was one about 25 minutes away in Spokane.  Next I managed to get the dog kennel from the garage into the back of my Explorer because Lucy is kennel trained.  She was the easy one.  Got the kennel in the car, and all 75 pounds of her and 50+ quills hopped right into it.  The tough one was Buddy.  As soon as he saw Lucy jump in, he did too.  Unfortunately an 85 pound dog in distress jumps in to the only logical seat in the car....the driver's seat!  Guess he was ready to take himself to the vet at this point!

Three tries and three seats later, I got him into the back of the car next to Lucy and the kennel.  Thank heavens Ford put tie downs in the back of an Explorer! I'm sure this was not what they had envisioned when Henry Ford said, 'hey let's put tie downs in the back for cargo!".  So I picked the quills from the driver seat and headed to the vet at 11:50 at night.

Well after 3:00 a.m. and $500 later...the quills were gone...mostly. Just so you know. When your dogs have as many quills as ours did (Buddy had to have close to 100 all over his lower jaw and in his gums) they (the vet) can't get them all.  The dogs tend to rub them and break them off so that they are embedded and have to work their way out.  And the funny thing is, they have little barbs, so they don't back out, they move forward...and some of them we discovered travel quite a ways forward.

The first two weeks we found quills in all sorts of places around the house and in the garage. They would also appear coming out of Buddy's chin and Lucy would cough and sneeze because they were working their way through the roof of her mouth!

It's been about 5 weeks now after the incident and believe it or not, we just pulled another one out of each of them!   Now we get to see if they are smart and have learned from their expensive, painful lesson.  I sure have!  If they do it again, I may have to think whether they were meant to Live on the Edge with us!

Rathdrum Parade 2009 Part 2

Here is the second part of the pictures from the parade yesterday.  If I caught any of your loved ones in my pictures for the day, let me know and I'll be happy to email you the picture!

 

What real teachers do in the summer?  Hang out with more kids of course!  This is one of my fellow teachers from our 1st grade teaching team.

 

Even the trains wanted to get into the parade!

 

Is this the short bus? We apparently have very small children in town. just kidding!

 

Oh here is the real bus...CC is looking on...she doesn't have to ride one because her mama drives her to school now every day :-)

 

And in a small town...they still throw candy to the kids...or on a hot day, frozen otter pops hit the spot!

 

Q really liked this car...it's yellow!

 

The Octo-mom will need this bike for her kids in a few years!

 

Some more pretty horses...and riders!  But more horses means....

 

Horse poop to clean up!  These horses apparently ate plenty this morning!

 

The Lakeland Soccer Club must have just seen the movie, UP!  Fortunately, enough of the girls were sucking the helium that they didn't float away!

 

So many opportunities for the kids to be in the parade...soccer club....

 

Dance and cheerleading teams...

 

And in the Inland Northwest there are lots of church groups.  This one is from Sheperd of the Hills Lutheran right here in Rathdrum.

 

Animals are also a big part of any parade.  Who can't resist a cute miniature horse?  The girls are already planning which animals they want to do for 4-H! 

 

If they had their way, our 6 acres would resemble the Ark!

 

Hey DD...look at the toys the Kootenai County Sheriffs Department gets to play with!

 

Watching this pony walk...it looked like it was part moose!  It had the longest legs that had the same awkward looking gait as a moose.  It was really weird.

 

This little guy was sooo adorable!  Athol has a great bagpipe and drum group.  They were a delight to listen to....and there was a woman playing the bagpipes too!

 

You'll notice they were wearing sunglasses....

 

not sure if these were prescription or not!

 

Another dance/cheer group.  This made my mommy hackles rise cuz I hate when they do lifts over pavement.  One fall to the asphalt and a young life could be dramatically altered forever!  But they were good.

 

Very North Idaho...there are Democrats in Rathdrum.  I actually know some of them, but they weren't represented in this parade.

 

This was a cool entry...looked like it drove right out of the show M*A*S*H*.

 

The people standing next to me said that the gentleman in the uniform was really a retired 3 star general!  He had quite a presence that's for sure.

 

My favorite...it's a garden shop!  Only thing better would have been if they had passed those plants out!

 

Cool old car...and great advertisement.  The Old Rathdrum Jail is open for tours.  We toured it after the parade.  Fun history....I can't wait to share that in future posts.  I hear Rathdrum has some claims to fame.

 

And this parade ended with all the fire engines in town :-)  I'm sorry if you missed the fun this year.

Next July, come on out and enjoy the fun in North Idaho for Rathdrum Days 2010.

Rathdrum Parade 2009 Part 1

Life in a small town can be a lot of fun.  Things don't have to be expensive and complicated to make memories.  I love a small town because you can have a sense of being connected to a community.  You can go to the grocery store or the gas station and run into someone you know. 

Today the girls and I spent the day in Rathdrum, the town we are building our (hopefully) last home. Or may be we should say...to hopefully build our home...but that is a story for another post.

Our day started with the 5K run/walk.  It was a nice morning for it.  Not too hot and definitely not cold.   We did the walk....my feet and my knee don't do running to well these days.  But it was hot enough to walk!

After we did the run at the crack of dawn (8:00 a.m.--the girls consider this early during summer!) we got a bite to eat and a cold drink then headed over to Main Street to watch the parade.  I wasn't expecting it to take too long...but it had quite a few entries.  Here is a recap of many of the entries for those who would like a taste of Small Town America!

 

Unlike the last parade I went to in Spokane, this one started with a color guard!!  And everyone stood and honored it too!

 

This town definitely honors those who have served past and present.

 

and future!

 

 

We have naval interests in North Idaho because of Farruget.

 

Rathdrum's Mayor, Vic

 

Idaho doesn't just grow potatoes!

 

And lots of horses too!

 

The girls loved these little cars.  They sounded just like the go-carts at Triple Play.

 

Everyone needs a fairy godmother to grant your wishes!  Rathdrum apparently has their own.  Wonder if she knows the tooth fairy?

 

and don't forget the high school cheerleaders.  And who follows cheerleaders?

 

Well high school football players of course!

Well...time for bed.  Part 2 will be tomorrow :-)

Apartment Life

We began a new adventure and added a new meaning to Living on the Edge:  Apartment Life.

It seems that selling a home never goes smoothly.  We had hoped to have it all completed by now! We ended a vacation early and busted our behinds to pack up and be out of the house before the end of escrow.  15 days later and we are still 'selling' our house.  Escrow closed on June 30th....NOT!

It's not our end that's the problem, it's the buyer's lender.  Lesson #1:  Never use a lender from out of your geographic area.  The buyers are moving a lender from Yakima and they use underwriters from Chicago or somewhere like that.  It's just added so many complications to their loan.  And I now know more about the lending/purchasing/selling process than I ever wanted to know!  Escrow closed on June 30th and here we sit in an apartment more than two weeks later still paying to water the lawn as well as paying the mortgage on our supposed 'sold' house.

Living in an apartment is very different.  They are nice buildings.  Luxury apartments they are called...which simply means that they don't have section 8 tenants.  That makes the climate of the place very different.  We chose a two bedroom place on the ground level, since we are hoping to be in our house by Halloween (ok, maybe by Thanksgiving is more hopeful at this point).  I have a few tomato plants on our back patio as well as some of my flower pots.  It's actually fairly roomy, but one bathroom takes some getting used to...it will be very interesting once school begins and there are 3 girls getting ready for school...one of which is a teenager!

Another thing to get used to is the noise....Happy Feet is running back and forth in the apartment above us even as I type this!  The 3 year old granddaughter seems to spend a lot of time up there!  I think they need to walk her like I walk our dogs! Ha ha!  DD is funny, he said "Honey, there's so many people--so close!"  I know what he is feeling--I can't wait for life on 6 acres and fewer neighbors!

Speaking of walking, I've already worn out a pair of sneakers walking our dogs.  We do 2-3 miles every morning and evening to keep 80 pound dogs exercised. When I say 'we', I mean myself and the dogs.  No chance that I can get anyone else to rise at 7:00 in the morning. I miss letting them out the back door at 10:00 at night! (whine, whine...and that's not just the dogs!)  

The girls discovered a funny benefit to living here.  We can actually call on a phone and have pizza delivered to our door!  My sister-in-law gave them a book when they were little called, Hi Pizza Man.  We used to read it together and they never understood it because we didn't have pizza delivery.

The biggest upside is the pool!  Lots of swimming is happening this summer.  Q's going to be renamed Freckles any day now.  And CC is showing her Poppy's genes--the tan goddess herself!  The fish in them is coming out.  DD has no trouble having nothing to do...I on the other hand am not sure whether I like it.  So I've been staying busy looking for carpet, wood flooring, kitchen cabinets and so on for the new house.  It keeps me busy, and I'm learning a lot about that end of things as well.  So far, the number one thing I've learned is that this will be our LAST house!

Well, I'm sure there will be more apartment adventures to share along the way....

I've Been Lost On The Edge!

Hello blog world.  Sorry I've been gone.  I've missed you.  Please don't be jealous that I've delved into the world of Facebook and Twitter.  Yes...I was sucked in...hook, mouse and laptop...give me bejeweled, Lexulous and Scramble and I'm happy for the evening.  Or catching up with 'grown-up' versions of all my old friends...there's always something to keep me busy.

But it's summer...well at least between the days when it's only 60 degrees!  And I have all these plans to catch up on my fun hobbies.  We are living in an apartment so there're no lawns to be mowed, no flower beds or vegetable rows to be weeded.  No house chores and those we do have only take a fraction of the time in a 2 bedroom apartment.  One curiosity is the fact that we seem to have more laundry to do now?!  Not sure why.

Why do I know it's summer?  It's not the warm weather, that is kind of hit or miss.  It's the amazing thunder and lightning shows we've had!  Here's a couple shots from a couple weeks ago...

This is at about 11 p.m. at night!  The lightning just lit up the sky so it looked like the middle of the day!

This is my favorite one!  It looks like it's wrapping around the tree.  Thankfully it's not!

Here is a close up of it.  Reminds me of when we are putting the lights on the Christmas tree.

Lightning is soooo cool!  Only thing that would make it better: never having to worry about it starting a fire!