2012 Annual Report

Again this last year just about every day started with a three mile walk with one of the dogs in the woods around nearby Paradise Valley Conservation Area. On one very pretty snowy day we decided to risk taking both Lydia and Daphne, which of course proved to be a mistake. After a while they both ran off into the woods. After much calling Daphne showed up, but it took another hour a traipsing through the snow to find Lydia. She came charging right by me on the trail, happy as can be. We went back to alternating dogs the next day; they stay much closer to us when they're by themselves.

One of Patti's big interests has been watercolor classes, including botanical watercolors. Here are a few. She also gets together with the Garden Girls for various outings and projects; here they are at an art show and sale near Port Townsend.

We didn't do a whole lot of birding this year, but as always, kept an eye out. We joined the crowd at Ocean Shores for a look at one of the eight Snowy Owls spending the winter there. And saw quite a few others on or spring trip to Utah, at Malheur in Oregon and Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Utah.

From Facebook - March 2: We ordered four boxes of Girl Scout cookies from Sienna the other day, and Patti's just come back from picking them up. When I looked in the bag and saw only three boxes, I wondered where the fourth had gone. "I don't feel at all well", Patti replied.

In April, Patti and I took a trip down to canyon country in Utah to visit a few new spots. Here's the report.

July 9: Glad to see they've confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson, through which elementary particles are given their mass. According to my calculations, to get down to my ideal weight, all I have to do is transfer 180,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (give or take) of those puppies out of my body. Hope they don't end up in Patti. In the meantime, I wonder if I can sneak into the Large Hadron Collider.

I finally discovered who was pooping on my car (and never Patti's) in the carport: a Northern Flicker, spending the night in the rafters above.

Patti's been lobbying for a new, stainless steel, refrigerator. She thought she'd show me what it would look like in the kitchen.

In August we packed up grandkids Kiara and Sienna (ages 9 and 7) into a rented minvan for a week and a half trip to Yellowstone National Park. Here's a report with pictures.

We had the 27-year-old roof replaced at Dog's Breath Acres in the summer, the home insurance people were threatening to cancel. I discreetly asked one of the roofers how good the old installation was (since I had done it myself). He said it was pretty good and would have lasted a bunch longer.  But it took them a day and half to do what took me a whole month. No other major projects around the house this year; I've put off refinishing the floors until next summer.

In late September we finally got some rain, after 81 straight dry days, almost a record.  So my car finally got washed (see "Northern Flicker", above).

October 4: Here at Dog's Breath Acres Patti and I try to divide up responsibilities evenly. For instance, I'm in charge of dog barf and spiders, and she's got flowers and hummingbirds.

I got in about a dozen hikes this year, my mileage seems to drop a bit each year. There are some photos in our Utah 2012 report and in Best Photos 2012.

November 14: From the Wall Street Journal: "Hostess Will Launch Liquidation if Strikes Continue". I fondly remember my first Hostess Cupcake: a frozen one from the freezer out in the garage, next to one of the five gallon tubs of vanilla ice cream Dad would bring hole from Rexall pharmacy. They were always my favorite snack (never did like Twinkies), although I haven't had one for years now. By back of the envelope calculations, I figure I've eaten about 2584 of those puppies, at 181 calories per, equals 467,704 calories, or about 133 pounds of fat. [Heavy sigh.]

November 16: With Hostess going out of a business, I heard on TV that they would keep selling Twinkies until existing supplies run out. I'd guess that's five or ten years.

November 17: CORRECTION to my earlier post: change the quantity of Hostess cupcakes that I've eaten in my lifetime from 2584 to 2586.

After celebrating Thanksgiving at Dog's Breath Acres last year, we once again returned to Neskowin for a big meal with Kate and Carol and Ger and Ken. This time we brought along both dogs, who behaved quite nicely (but, of course). In keeping with tradition, there was an incident: We stopped at a dog park along the way in Newberg, Oregon, for a quick run and poop (for the dogs). Walking out of the gated area, Patti's long-billed hat knocked off a large can perched on a tall post, labeled "Butts". A great deal of its contents landed on her, which consisted mostly of water, cigarette butts, and at least one decomposed doggy poop bag.  Ohh... iccckkk!!  At the shore, the pooches had a great time with Boswell, particularly on the beach.  It was good to get the whole Saunders crew together again, but it was a devil of a time getting the dog's to hold still, unsuccessfully, for the photo.

December 1: A woman gave birth to a baby girl on a Washington State Ferry the other day, who she named "Lucy". At first I thought she should have named her after the ferry, but then I realized, but for a little bit of luck and Mike's speedy driving, grandchild Sienna would have been named "Hewitt Avenue Trestle".

We get to see the grandkids every once in a while. Patti goes down to Gig Harbor occasionally to watch the boys, Michael and Andrew. We took a short walk around nearby Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, looking for birds and taking pictures. And Sienna and Kiara visit often, sometimes spending the night. Here's a Christmas woodcut done by Sienna (with Neuma's (Patti's) help). And some portraiture (maybe of Lydia).

As I write this, mid-December, Patti's getting ready to jet off to Spain to spend Christmas in Barcelona, while I stay home to tend the pets, including Wolfgang, Scott and Joelene's gigantic (but gentle) mastiff. Scott and Joelene (both suffering from the flu) plus kids Michael and Andrew have just left for a cruise around the Mediterranean, and then a few days in Barcelona, where they've rented an apartment. They asked  if we'd like to share the apartment; I demurred (such a long trip for a few days in the city isn't my cup of tea, plus who'd look after the dogs?)  But Patti jumped at the offer, as a reconnaissance for a longer trip some day for both of us. We're going to have a big Christmas dinner after everybody gets back, on January 1st. Check out here in January for a report on how the trip went.