Mount St. Helens

For Labor Day vacation this year I went to Mount St. Helens, 3.5 hours away. I had never been there before.

I hiked on the south side of the volcano. It did not erupt while I was there, although I could see a little smoke.

There were many large trees knocked down.

Lava flow.
The hike ended up being much longer than anticipated, but I made it out before sundown.

House updates

I am accidentally growing a plum tree farm in my backyard.

New garage door that Joe and Linda installed for me. The door looks and works great, now I need new molding.

I am going to sew. Hahahaha.

Shutters. They arrived in paintable gray color.15 applications of primer and paint later... only 3 (second coats) left. The shutters piled in the corner near the recycling are finished!

Parents visit Seattle

The Parents visited in July. We went to Alki. It was windy but otherwise a nice day.

Had new carpet in the living room and hardwood laminate installed in the hallway.
We hiked to Glacier Basin on Mt Rainier.

The last 1/3 or so of the hike was in the snow.

Bear-Dog enjoys hiking.

Easter 2011

Broken dryer

Erin takes her first shot at fixing a clothes dryer, by replacing the drive belt.

It works! Hooray for dry clothes!

Christmas preparation

I was very excited about Christmas this year, as always. I waited to put up my tree though until Black Friday. 2 years exactly since I moved in to my house.

Then I remembered that I was supposed to take a picture of the baby bushes. So here it is. They are still babies. The grass is pretty dead now. I think it's a winter thing. The bushes are very green and doing well. I don't have to water them for the next half a year. Also there is still a little bit of snow in the background apparently.

Then I removed the flowers from the flowerboxes. I numbered them, because I am an engineer.
This is the new green vine things instead of the flowers. They look nice. Also I hung up my wreath this year, because I remembered, unlike last year.
Ignore the moss.
I hung up Christmas lights. A lot of my neighborhood did not put up lights this year. I can't remember if they did last year. But my house is festive.
View #2. I stood in the cold for 60 seconds waiting for the motion light to go off just to take this picture for you, Mom. It looks very nice.
Christmas trees in the living room!
Closer look.
And view in the dark, sort of. View in the reddish light, anyway.

Snow in November

There is funny white stuff falling from the sky. Here is a view from the front door. I believe there is a street out there somewhere. Also a driveway.

Google research indicates that it is "snow". This "snow" is several inches deep, as can be seen by the Windex bottle someone must have left outside since this summer. Also, someone really should have raked those leaves before winter arrived.

My poor rosebush is confused. It's been blooming for months.

But I am warm and cozy inside my insulated house. Let it snow!