Welcome to the "Sunshine Studio"

The transformation of the new "Sunshine Studio" into modern restive guest room is almost complete. New blue carpet in a shade midway between the curtains and the bedding help tie the room together. The bedding you don't see here because it goes onto a new Premier Raised Aerobed, which has not been put up yet (http://tinyurl.com/llxpz) But the bedding matches the light blue of the newly painted dresser. Formerly it was a 70s vivid bright yellow for 30 years, but has been remade into a cool blue "crackle" paint job that helps update the room.

Here is a close-up of the crackle effect. Steve applied 4 coats total to achieve this effect. A dark blue basecoat, a "crackle" layer, that creates the dark blue lines when applying the lighter blue paint over the top - finished with a protective top coat.

The pine headboard, seen on the left of the top photo, will be moved to the same wall as where the door is (and the blue carpet). Once it's been assembled for the guests arriving on Friday I'll post another photo.

My friend Katie's parents are coming to visit from back east (Wisconsin, Minnesota?) and we offered our home as a way for them to save some money while visiting - our homes are about a mile apart and ours has a lot more room for company. Katie's parents contributed to the guest room by purchasing the bed, which will stay here for future visits and those of other guests. Katie's baby is due in October and her mom will be coming for a visit then as well.



A view of the potted plants out the east-facing window of the "Sunshine Studio"


Getting rid of the original bed in this room opened it up to great possibility. The everyday use of this room now is as a yoga amd exercise studio, complete with stereo and a new LCD flat-screen TV/DVD player for watching recorded yoga and exercise programs. It's tucked away inside the headboard now so anyone peeking in the window won't know it's there. It was ultimately purchased for the teardrop since the laser on the DVD player we had in the trailer failed after just two years. This new unit will be kept in the studio unless it's actively being used on a camping trip (see http://tinyurl.com/nslhs)

Midsummer Musings

The past couple of weeks have been a time of adjustment and change...

I love my new "job" as a housing consultant. Since technically I am self-employed, it's hard to call it that. But in fact I am working for another consultant. I am probably working about 35 hours a week, and also am taking an online real estate licensing course for Washington State. Yes, I know...I never thought I would need a real estate license again, either. If I had ever dreamed I would be where I am today, or that the kind of work I am doing is even possible, I would never have let my license lapse in the first place (I was licensed to sell real estate from 1999-2002, and worked at Windermere Real Estate in West Seattle).

The person I work for, Linda Lane, has two other people also working for her. Right now I am working on relocation studies for individual families required to move due to circumstances out of their control. One situation is the building of the third runway at SeaTac airport. Many of the communities required to move are mobile home parks. Many will be able to move into stick-built homes in the general area, or other manufactures homes in other areas (such as Auburn). We also are representing the City of Newcastle in a road widening project (Coal Creek Parkway). We interact with all of the land owners affected and handle the purchase contracts for full or prtial acquisition of certain pieces of property. A few families are losing all of their land to the road widening project. In these cases we are also contracted to assist them in relocating. I am doing a lot of field research - both to figure out what the person's "benefit" is, that is, the amount of money they should get, often calculated by the difference in the appraised value of their property and what it costs to find a similar property in the area. Market prices are often above appraised values, so some people are walking away with hefty checks. We also help locate a new home for them if they would like us to - altho some choose their own real estate agent to work with.

We fostered an Italian greyhound named Lily for a week - but I requested she be moved to another foster home because she was not used to cats. She was so scared of Cheerio and Havana that she spent most of her time on our bed. She was a happy little dog, otherwise, very eager to please (and very food motivated). She was rescued from the Oregon Humane Society where the owner of 6 years turned in Lily and her brother Jack because she said in her notes that she was not home enough. The rescue group in Portland tried to get them at the beginning of June, but instead OHS allowed Lily and Jack to be adopted by a young couple with two small children living in an apartment. They were returned to the shelter three weeks later (so sad! IGs are SO sensitive, and shelters are loud nosiy places to be!!). This time OHS let the rescue group have them and since there were not any foster homes in Oregon, they were brought to Puget Sound. I took Lily - and she and Sophia got along great after the first couple of days (Sophia even tried to comfort Lily by going and sleeping with her, their bottoms touching). Jack was sent to another foster home in Gig Harbor. Often breaking up sibliings like this allows the submissive one a chance to flourish - and that would be Lily. Her and Sophia took very little time to make friends and everything would have been great if it were not for the felines in our household. I thought it best Lily went to another foster home although I knew another change would be hard on her. I felt staying in a house with cats would be harder! I know Lily will shine and blossom and find a really great home! I'll keep tabs on her thru my work with the rescue group.

Continued 7/19/06
It's street fair season...and that means one thing. ELEPHANT EARS. Steve and I went to West Fest (the annual street festival in West Seattle) Saturday morning and ate ears for breakfast. We left the dogs at home since two are too difficult to handle, especially one that is not used to crowds (Lily). Lily was picked up Saturday afternoon. So we went back on Sunday morning with Sophia because our favorite pet store, Next To Nature, had tables out in front of the store as part of the street fair and they had the right size of rain jacket for Sophia but in red (she already has a yellow one). One can't have too many rain jackets, especially in the Pacific Northwest. Steve had buried the jacket at the bottom of the box - but someone else had found it and made off with it. But I found the most adorable handmade turtleneck sweater for her - it's burgundy and has butterflies and flowers crocheted on the neck, and it's long and covers her whole behind. It's tres chic and with holes for all 4 legs a little hard to get on her (she is a stubborn teenager you know), but once on it covers her whole tummy and will keep her quite warm.

Making Home Habitable
I was touring a bunch of trailer parks in Auburn late last week wtih my boss, looking for double-wide mobile homes for sale for a client she is working with. I noticed so many of them had air conditioners! I grew up in a single-wide mobile home out in the woods, I know how hot it can get (altho trees provide nice shade). Now this may sound snooty but it's my blog and I don't care - if a bunch of trailer trash people get to have air conditioners, then I see no reason why I can't! I called up Steve and said you know Steve, since you are home all day right now, we should get some air conditioners so your brain doesn't fry. He said no, I'll be ok. I said hey! I am working at home some of the time now, too, and I won't be able to concentrate if it's 90 degrees out! So he checked them out and bought two at Home Depot - and they weren't even that expensive! We bought a small one for the bedroom (we have a lot of trouble sleeping when it is too hot), and a larger one for the livingroom - it even has a small remote control! Ok, so I didn't get one for the office...I'll use fans to blow in cold air from the other parts of the house. We used them only a little bit over the weekend, but THIS weekend is predicted to be 90 degrees out so you can bet we're going to have those babies humming!

Other improvements around the house include another upgrade to our guest room. It's current nickname is "The Sun Studio" since we got rid of the bed in there and I have it all set up for yoga and exercise ball and band work. It's sweet to have all that open floor space. Then my friend Katie asked me if the offer to put up her folks was still standing...I said sure except for one problem, no bed! So we made a deal - her folks are buying the Aerobed I wanted to get for the guest room (just at a later time). They'll have someplace real comfortable to sleep (so much better than the broken down full size bed we had in there), and it will still be there in October, when Katie's mom is going to visit again after the birth of Katie's first baby. And we'll have it for anyone else who comes to visit. We bought sheets that match the pale blue feather duvet and pillow shams I purchased last year, and we removed the patterned rug (which really threw this room off) and replaced it with a neat blue solid carpet. The bright yellow 70s dresser has been repainted (sorry mom...) an amazing blue "crackle", pale blue to match the bedding with dark blue crack lines throughout. It looks fabulous - pictures coming soon!

Big doings planned
This weekend is the big P-Patch Trust family picnic - at my house! Everyone on the Board lives in Seattle, but no one has a yard like ours. I included family and small dogs in the invite so it should be a lot of fun! And the food - I am anticipating amazing stuff! Everyone is a gardener so no doubt there will be an amazing array of fresh veggie and fruit dishes! Steve is planning a cast iron dutch oven dish for the potluck. This is the first purely social gathering of the Board of Directors since I joined. We otherwise meet once a month, have conference calls (thanks to my AccessLine, www.accessline.com), and have a planning "advance" in January. (It's what other companies would call a retreat - we just prefer to be more forward thinking.)

There is an Italian Greyhoud Midsummer Picnic in Lacey on the 29th, so we took it as an opportunity to try another camping trip, this time at Millersylvania State Park, about 15 miles south of Olympia. We've camped overnight only one night so far this year (remember the 4th of July holiday weekend and the killer mosquitoes?? yeah...) Sophia acts sort of bizarre ever since whenever she senses or hears a bug around her, she whips around and tries to catch it in her mouth. She's a little afraid of the whole camping thing right now. So we thought we better get out camping again before Labor Day weekend (when we are scheduled for a resort spot on Moses Lake). We go down Friday afternoon, go to the iggy playdate/picnic on Saturday, and then return home on Sunday. It should be a nice, easy, relaxing trip.

We threw together an impromptu weekend to San Francisco upon hearing of Steve's Great Aunt Lil's 90th birthday celebration in Pacifica, CA (just south of SF). It's one of those things - we just had to be there. We've been married almost 9 years and have not once visited his mom's family in CA, despite the warm correspondence between us over the years. I was going to ask my friend Tracy to housesit, but Steve suggested we drive down and take Sophia with! What fun! So we are taking a "leisurely" drive down and will go along the Oregon coast and through California's Redwood Forest (someplace I have never been!!). We booked dog-friendly lodgings for the whole trip. We'll overnight in Oregon one night, CA for two, and then we haul ass back on I-5 all day that Sunday. I am really looking forward to it! Oh, and we are taking a unique approach to our transportation. Steve joined FlexCar for free (something arranged through King County for unemployed job seekers), and for $50/day rental with FREE GAS we're driving a Honda Element. So based on 1,800 miles for the trip, which would cost us about $200 in gas, we're getting a larger vehicle for the same, and saving the MINI Cooper wear and tear in hot weather. There will be lots of room for the dog, our things, and a cooler full of food!

Well, that's it for now. I need to head home and take Sophia for a walk, and go to a Board meeting tonight (Sophia is going with...) I will put up pictures of the guest room as soon as it's done!

Oh, Switch! We will miss you.

Tonight we had the regrettable job of burying our beloved Switch. He ranges pretty far from home, and even tho he has been rolled by a truck and survived in the past, something with four wheels was too fast for him this afternoon. I got the call shortly after I got home, before 6 PM. A kind stranger stopped and called the number on his tag. Steve went and brought him home.

It's been less than a year since we lost Persi in the same way. This time it is a little less traumatic. One, I wasn't standing right there when it happened, with a cat that lived long enough to get up and run up the street before expiring on the side of the road. This time I had someone to tell me he was there and was gone - it was a little easier than witnessing it, experiencing the panic of running home for a blanket and calling Steve, who was just moments away coming home from work. But that doesn't make it any less sad.

I will miss Switch keeping me company in the garden. He liked to dig with me, and run up trees, and play scaredy-cat with the hose when I was watering. After Persi was gone, Switch took over guard cat duties, getting into scraps with the nearby ferals. In fact, Switch was healing from a recently amputated tail - the vet had to take the last two inches off, he got it caught in something (or someone did something bad to him) and there was so little attached it wasn't possible to save it.

There are always inherent dangers when allowing your cat(s) outdoors; it actually guarantees a shorter life span by several years if a cat spends anytime outside the home. But Switch was not one who was going to be kept indoors. Persi came to us as an outdoor cat. We saved Switch from an indoor situation. He had been found abandoned in an apartment in east Renton, the tenants were being evicted. It was December 2003 and there was no electricity! He was happy to come home with us. But spring came around and he saw Persi sitting outside in the sun, and I was out working in the garden. He spent two weeks at the back screen door yelling his head off. We finally took him to the vet for all his shots and set him free upon the world. He wouldn't have had it any other way.

It doesn't stop me from trying to make Steve promise that our next cat will stay an indoor cat.

Switch was always a very hungry cat. He never got over being abandoned with inappropriate food, lacking the proper nutrition at a young age. He was grabby, and could reach the edge of the counter and dangle by his claws trying to get something from you. He had an incredible attitude that switched instantly from loving to fighting. Thus his name, which Steve figured out within just hours of his first arrival in our home. He was a punk, a bully, but so adorable and loving when he was in the mood it was impossible to not dote on him and appreciate his positive traits. In fact, since we lost Persi he even started taking over lap duty in the evenings on Steve's lap - the biggest thing Steve missed after Persi was gone.

Switch was twitchy yet he had his routine. After coming in from his morning romp (or any outdoor period), he would hunt me down and run up on my desk, up my arm and onto my shoulder, around my head and down the other side to lay curled up in my arms. It kept me from getting ANYthing done. But it only lasted a minute or two. He had an amazing yummy outdoor kitty smell and he would purr so loudly. And suddenly he would be done and would jump down and go off by himself, or play with Havana or a toy, or terrorize Cheerio.

Switch was so possessive about food that he left a small toy in each of the cat feeders downstairs. It was his way of reserving them for himself and the other cats always had to eat around his toys. You could take them out all day, he would just put them right back in.

Switch spent much of his time staring at the ground at his feet. You would never know from a distance he wasn't a statue or in a trance. You had to be outside and real close by to notice that the ground beneath his feet was actually moving, the mole living beneath the cedar tree tunneling somewhere new. He has spent his entire life trying to catch that mole.

And that's where we have buried him, under the cedar tree, in his favorite spot, forever a sentry against invading mole folk. I knew exactly which cat statue I wanted to mark his grave, and exactly where to find it (barely before closing time). It will be a daily reminder of the joy he brought into our lives. I've placed it on his grave, along with his food dish toys and a candle that will burn all night.

Sharing my grief makes the load lighter. It will help his memory live on, for me and for others.

We're becoming foster parents!

After volunteering with IG Rescue NW since the beginning of the year, I/we are venturing into the realm of fostering. A pair of IGs arrive from Oregon on Saturday and Steve said it was ok if we took in and worked with the little girl, Lily.

She needs to lost some weight (you can see fatty tumors in the photo) and I am sure she could use some structure and training. I hope she and Sophia get along. Steve's one condition is that Lily sleeps in a crate at night (and not under the covers like Sophia does). Steve's at home during the day right now, too, so he will get to spend lots of time with her and make sure she and the cats get along ok.

This will be a fun adventure! I look forward to improving her and making her a great dog for her next family.

Outdoor Games

Mosquitoes: 47
Humans: 12
Canine: 10

Winner: MOSQUITOES


Our camp site in Carnation.

We went to our 3rd Teardrop 4th of July in Carnation. We arrived on Friday night, earlier than we normally do. And we came home after dinner the next night. The mosquitoes were SO bad both Steve and Sophia were covered with bites. We left our teardrop out there and came home to enjoy the rest of our 4-day weekend. We returned to Carnation on Tuesday afternoon to pick up our teardrop and enjoy the potluck dinner with the campers that managed to outlast the mosquitoes.

Some of the classic cars we got to ride in up and down country roads. 

We went for a ride in a horse-drawn wagon on the 4th of July. This ensemble was in the Carnation Parade earlier in the day. 

Do you have any idea how many ferry boats ply Puget Sound? It's a lot... 

We took the free shuttle and the Elliott Bay Water Taxi for a trip to Seattle's waterfront and the Pike Place Market on July 3rd. 

Linda Kelson loved driving the Studebaker 

Red, white and...boo! say our helpless pooches

By MOXIE
AS TOLD TO ATHIMA CHANSANCHAI, P-I REPORTER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/276068_doggone03.html


The first time I heard it, I was only a pup.

I was small but spunky, so my owners called me Moxie. I am a friendly dog, but I developed a pit-bull snarl and used it on anyone who tried to take my toys away.

I even nipped an ankle here and there. Don't even THINK about touching my bone.

But one day, I heard a terrible noise that turned me into a quivering coward. Kaboom! Kaboom! It sounded like my owner's car exploded.

It went on and on. It sounded like thunder, but so much closer! I couldn't stop shaking. I peed on the carpet and ran into the basement. I didn't come out for hours.

It happened again the next year. I was outside playing with a ball when I smelled smoke, heard a whistle, then Bam! My ears hurt so badly, I howled like a cat in heat. I dug myself out of the yard, crawled under the fence and ran out into the street.

People were yelling and screaming and holding sticks of fire in their hands. I ran and ran and ran, in search of quiet.

The next day, I ended up in the dead-end alley of a dog pound. Me and some other 14 freaked-out losers who eventually reunited with our owners through our collar IDs.

We hate Fourth of July.

And we're not alone. Every year officers at the Seattle Animal Shelter round up an extra 50 to 75 dogs and cats (but who cares about them?) after this so-called celebration of independence.

Days before that dreaded day, many of our owners take us to our vets, who give some of us Acepromazine or Valium to take the edge off, so by the time the fire show starts, we're blissed out.

The holiday is our war zone, when we turn into Tasmanian devil dogs for a few hours. As soon as the match hits the fuse, it ignites the perfect storm of doggie distress: intense, loud noises, flashing lights and smoke everywhere.

So my freak-out wasn't anything unusual. That doesn't make it any better.

See, canines like routine and consistency. We like to know when our owners will take us on walks and feed us. This whole Fourth of July thing throws us for a loop-de-loop.

One year, my owners took me to see the big flashy lights. They thought it would be OK for me to see it and get used to it.

Wrong, so wrong.

They left me in the car, where it was too hot, and those horrible sounds surrounded me. I think I had a panic attack. I couldn't breathe and I started circling around the station wagon. By the time they got back, I had barked myself hoarse and torn up all the cushions.

My owners have learned to keep me inside at our house. They turn on the TV or the radio and sometimes even put me in my carrier. I can still hear a little bit of the terrible noise, but it's not so bad.

Not like my buddies down the street, like Butch. He's a big basset hound who was used to guns as a hunting dog but who flew out of a second-story window when the big balls of fire lit up above his house.

Or Jasper, a mastiff who barreled through his screen door and howled for miles and miles until a passing traveler picked him up on the highway. He had to go see a doggie shrink afterward, someone my owners called an animal behavior consultant.

I love to play fetch, but my owner knows better than to toss those crackling fire sticks. I've heard some dogs haven't been so lucky and the sticks exploded in their mouths!

Damon was a Boston terrier that bolted when some kids next door sent a bottle rocket into his yard. The little guy actually chewed his way through a fence! No one ever saw him again. There was talk he might have made it all the way to New York.

I envy the dogs whose owners give them treats when the fireworks go off so they're not scared.

I still have flashbacks every time I hear a loud noise.

So this year, my owners have not only given me a happy pill but they're staying home with me. They'll shut the windows, crank up the air conditioning and hold me between them on the couch. We'll all watch the box where the fire things will light up the screen.

And we'll watch it on mute.

TIPS FOR PET OWNERS
Keep pets indoors and in a secure location. To help drown out the sound of fireworks, turn on the TV and radio, or turn on the air conditioning or fan.

If you think your pet will react negatively to the noise, consult with your vet and see if a tranquilizer or sedative should be administered before the holiday.

Do not take your pet to watch the fireworks and do not leave it in a car while you're watching the show.

Make sure your pet is properly registered, licensed, tagged, micro-chipped or otherwise easily identified.

If a pet wearing its license shows up at the Seattle Animal Shelter (206-386-7387), the owner is notified. If an officer finds a licensed pet, it will be returned to its owner. The shelter will be closed on the holiday, but officers will be on duty from 3:30 p.m. to midnight to respond to 911 calls.

If your pet reacts badly to the fireworks, contact these animal hospitals, which will be open on the holiday: Animal Critical Care and Emergency Services, 11536 Lake City Way N.E., 206-364-1660, or the Emerald City Emergency Clinic, 4102 Stone Way N., 206-634-9000.