Big night out in Grants Pass

*This was supposed to post last night, but it something happened when I sent the e-mail from my phone.

Forgive the crappy cell phone picture, but it's all I had at the moment. I decided to snap a picture of where we had dinner tonight to prove that there are smewhat sophisticated places in rather humble Grants Pass. We were at Miranda Mae's tonight, a nice restaurant and jazz club. We had a great meal and got to listen to a jazz trio while enjoying our beer. It's nice to know that the whole town isn't all rednecks and old people.



I've been ejoying myself down here so far. We still almost 3 more days...sadly we have 4 days worth of things to do. Tomorrow we're headng down to Ashland to wander the town, have lunch, maybe see a movie. We're debating over going to some festival in Medford tomorrow or Sunday, and there's an Oktoberfest in a tiny little town called Wolf Creek about 20 minutes north. The Oktoberfest is, we're told, small but usually nice. The festival in Medford has local foods and beers but also things like a grape stomping competition and a "heffer futurity" (we're not what that is) that don't sound too interesting. I think we've decidedon the Oktoberfest at this point.



In any event, it's been really good to hang out with mom and just be on vacation for a while. We've not run out things to talk about, and we probably never would in 100 years.

On my way, sorta

So, here I am sitting at SeaTac airport waiting for my flight. I ended up getting here pretty early but that's OK. It gives me a little time to unwind after the work day.

I'm looking forward to the weekend with my mother, but I also have mixed feelings about the trip. Believe it not, I've not traveled anywhere on my own since Jayson and I met 11.5 years ago. It's a different experience but it's OK. I definitely need the trip to help myslef relax and unwind even for just a few days, and I think it will accomplish that. I'm looking forward to the time with Mom and she is also looking forward to it.

I just wish Jayson were more comfortable with the idea. He sees it asme running away from him, when in reality it's me just doing something nice for myself. I don't tend to do lots of things for myself so I cherish the things I do deem Todd-worthy (wow, that sounds arrogant!). I'm usually the one who gives up things for others so to have my mother give up a weekend and get me dow is a really nice gift. I'm hoping that Jayson will see that he can be OK wth time apart and that something for me isn't anything against him.

Now, what to do with the other hour and a quarter to kill before I can get n the plane...

Plank Castle Palin

That would be my name were I Sarah Palin's child, at least according to this web site. Someone has come up with a converter that takes your name and converts it to an all-American name such as Sarah has chosen for her existing children. Sadly, it's probably pretty accurate.

Sunday morning tea

Time does fly when it comes to blogging and I just realized it's been a while since I dropped any words of wisdom on this page. As usual, there has been a lot and not very much going on here. Work has been enjoyably busy; enough to keep me occupied and interested but not enough to make me run screaming from the building at 4:00 when the whistle blows. There are some big projects coming up and those should be interesting. I'm still trying to hire at least one other person for my group but can't get any candidates. You'd think people would go out of their way to work there since it's a good place.

Anthony has been looking for work lately, speaking of which. His contract at his company ended with no notice (that sucked) so he's in the job market again. He's put out a lot of resumes and had some good responses, including at least one job offer so far. So, it seems like he'll be back at work soon.

Jayson's depression has remained part of life as well. After he got back from his sabbatical in Texas he got better, then worse, then better then MUCH worse, then better...well, I think the pattern is clear. It's obvious that the issue is still out there and the illness isn't completely under control. I'm seeing it improve, which is good, but it pops up without a lot of provocation at times, and unexpectedly. I try to do the best I can to help him get better and not add to the problems, but I'm not always successful. At times it feels like my presence adds to the depression, mostly because the ways he and I interact are bad habits from the recent past. We've both been conditioned to respond certain ways - all of it during his depression - and those ways of responding don't work anymore. It can be extremely stressful wondering if what I might say or do next will cause him to go back into a depressed state.

That said, I'm taking my own sabbatical. I'm heading down to my mother's in Grants Pass, OR for about 5 days. Grants Pass is no big deal...driving past on the freeway the only things you can see are the Sprawl-Mart and some grocery stores. But, the downtown section is kinda nice and the setting is pretty. Best of all I'll get to spend some time alone with my mother, something I've not had to opportunity to do at any length in years. We always have a good time together and we never run out of things to talk about. We'll do some stuff outside the house I'm sure, but I'm guessing mostly we will stay at home, drink tea, eat, and chat. Five days should be a decent length for a visit. It should give me some time to unwind and de-stress somewhat and also just have time for me for a change, which is something that's usually sorely lacking.

Well, I think it's time to fix breakfast, or rather go to the market to get food with which to fix breakfast. Happy Sunday y'all.

Google images meme

Via Romach... I didn't feel like being overly productive at work today so I took advantage of him tagging all his readers to do this. You're supposed to:

A) Answer the question below then do a Google Image search with your answer. Choose a picture from the 1st page of results and display it with little explanation.
B) Tag 5 people to do the same once you’ve finished answering every question. I don't normally tag people online so anyone who feels compelled (and hasn't done it yet based on Romach's tagging) should do it.

1. The age you will be on your next birthday : 41

2. A place you want to travel to : Myanmar (Burma)

3. Your favourite place : Venice, Italy

4. Your favourite food : Mashed potatoes

5. Your favourite pet : Basenji

6. Favourite colour combination : Hunter green

7. Favourite piece of clothing : Jock strap

8. Your all time favourite music : Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Seans

9. Favourite TV show : The Simpsons. It's become very common, but I still like it.

10. First name of your significant other : Jayson

and Anthony

11. Which town do you live in : Seattle

12. Your screenname / Nickname : Grrrowler

13. Your fist job : Bus boy

14. Your dream Job : Naval architect

15. One bad habit that you have : I crack my neck

16. Worst fear : Drowning

17. Things I would like to do before I die! : Go skydiving

18. The first thing you would do if you get £1,000,000 : Buy a bigger boat

19. My husband(s): Jayson and Anthony

20. What present would you like for your next birthday? A hairy cowboy would be nice...

Are they trying to tell us something?

It's no surprise that there were plenty of derogatory URLs registered as soon as Palin was chosen by McCain to be his eye candy running mate. What is a surprise is where a URL like sarahpalinsucks.com leads to. Maybe the MacCain campaign is simply making an admission about what we already knew.

Dear Russians: Lighten up already

There surely must be bigger problems in Russia than the undermining of the culture by a cartoon. What is it with these nationalists and religious groups that take themselves SO seriously? Even a cartoon making fun of how serious they take themselves is taken too seriously and they get up in arms over it. In this case the TV station that shows South Park in Russia is being taken to court. What a great use of the court's time and resources. Just lighten the hell up...

Did the Puyallup

It's become something of a tradition that we go the Puyallup Fair (whose slogan is "Do the Puyallup"). Yeah, the name is funny but that's the name of the town it's in. Generally we spend more time looking at the exhibits and the crappy stuff for sale in the various buildings, but this year seemed to be all about the rides. Oh, it was also about crappy deep fried food, but that's the same every year. It's always exciting to see what they will decide to deep-fry next, although this year I didn't notice anything new. In years past we had deep-fried pickles, deep-fried Snickers bars, and deep-fried Twinkies. I was hoping to find deep-fried butter but was sorely disappointed.

Anyway, the rides. Usually we'll do only one or two, but this year we hit pretty much everything we wanted to ride. Jayson likes to go in circles and I like to go up and down and upside down. Anthony doesn't seem too picky. So, he and Anthony got to go in circles while Anthony and I went up and down. OK, that sounds funny, but you get the point. Oddly, Anthony and I were a little light-headed after we rode our final ride, which went both around in circles, then up and down, then around in circles again. Of course, who wouldn't be light-headed after that?

Surprisingly we spent about 6 hours at the fair, thinking we'd only be there about for a couple or three. Was a fun day, but we were beat by the time we got home. Here's a few pics from the day:

Forgive the crappy quality from my cell phone

Meet the newest member of the family

No, not Anthony.

Jayson decided that we needed another cat, and lo and behold we have another cat! He's an 8 month old solid black cat that he saw at the shelter yesterday when he stopped by to see about volunteering. He's a cute little black number and after only an hour he's already acclimating very well. I wasn't sure about having another pet of any type, but if he fits in well it will be nice to have him. He's not too wild for being so young which means he's already somewhat in sync with the existing dog and cat. It will be interesting having a new pet, and he is very sweet. So, our household now has six in it!