Moot climbed into my luggage for the trip west. Smuggling an alligator through airport security was a lot easier than one would think. Perhaps they’d heard of her. Getting her into a restaurant was considerably more difficult. She startled a scream out of the waitress when she climbed in through the window.
Once inside she shared a drink with Me. Note the two drinks. Hence the fuzziness.
From there she hung out with Cerise and waited for Louis to come pick up the popcorn maker.
She claimed to have made this sign for the airport but I’m sure I saw OH’s hands in there more than once. 
She also helped GP with Merry’s garden.
but that was exhausting work and she required a little more energy.
Scope found some snack food for Moot down at the market 
but she was more interested in Tanji’s Sweet potato treat. 
The dog refused to share so Moot wandered of to discover why someone would wrap a tree. 
I never did hear the answer to that one.
There were plenty more adventures that wonderful weekend in Oregon but as time wore on, and her energy wound down, Moot found a sign in the mountains that it was time to go home.
This just found in Scope’s purse. A self-portrait Moot drew depicting a lovely lunch at McMinimins. Weebils wobble but they don’t fall down. 
June 27th, 2008
I arrived in Portland late Friday night to be greeted by McB and Orangehands holding up a “Dr. T” sign. I burst out laughing. That right there just about describes the weekend for me. Lots of laughter and smiles and hugs.
After collecting Mary and my luggage, we headed back to Mary’s house where the guessing of who people are started and didn’t end until late the next morning. I’m fairly sure I failed this test of CBness, but they let me stay anyways. :+)
The rest of the weekend was full of good conversation, and lots and lots of the afore mentioned laughter and hugs. I didn’t take very many pictures until Sunday afternoon when six of us (Cary, GP, McB, Lou, Pam, JenB and me*) went to the International Rose Test Garden in Washington Park. I could innundate you with pictures of roses, but I will try to restrain myself. They were beautiful and amazing! And a special thanks to GP for the lesson on roses!
I think I’ll stop now. Hope you enjoyed your visit with the roses!
June 25th, 2008
I’m too tired to write a coherent post, but the comments are over 100 and inquiring minds want photos, so here’s one for you. Yes, that is our own darling Scope in Oregon with CMS! It was a wonderful surprise.
I think everyone survived, but it was a lot of work having that much fun. I don’t mean the cooking or housework, because that was all done by kind helpful CBs. I mean meeting friends that I’ve never seen before, and talking and laughing and hugging and talking and laughing some more, sometimes until two in the morning. That’s work! I loved it.
And yes, we did make it to Powell’s. In fact, I’m a little puzzled about that bookstore. When I walked in, I heard an announcement over the loudspeaker:
Attention! If there’s a minister or a wedding officiator in the store, would they please come to the Information desk in the Gold room? Thank you.
What the heck was that about? A woman was 9 months’ pregnant and suddenly realized that she really, really needed to get married right now because her water just broke? A man who got the love of his life to say “yes” and now wants to rush to the wedding before she changes her mind? It’s one of those things that you have to wonder about.
Too tired to write more. Later!
June 23rd, 2008
I opened my mailbox yesterday to find an envelope from my mortgage company. Not normal but not Earth shaking, until I opened it. Inside was a $75.00 check. It was one of those computer generated ones that uses an entire sheet of paper, and has lots of space for an explanation, but nothing. Well, there were some internal codes, but nothing that could be interpreted by a normal person. Got online last night to see if I could figure out what was going on and it was a refund on my escrow. I think I would have preferred that it be applied to my mortgage, but I’ll take it and recycle it back. Yep, the mortgage payment is going to be $75.00 bigger in July than usual.
I already pay more than my actual payment is supposed to be. I apply an additional $28.17 toward my principal each month. It’s not an enormous amount, and it won’t get my mortgage paid off ten years early, but it’s a little something, that at the end of the year actually saves me a couple of hundred in interest, which over the life of a thirty year loan can be big money.
I wish I could say that this is something I was so smart as to come up with myself, it isn’t. My parents have done something like it for years. In fact they managed to get their thirty year loan paid off in just over twenty years by applying a little extra each month to the principal. Does anyone else do this? Not just the mortgage, but other things that over time add up to big savings?
My current favorite blog is Get Rich Slowly a money management blog. I’m finding money management being at the front of my mind more and more since I bought the house. No one warned me of this.
June 18th, 2008
