I slept soundly last night. My muscles did a lot of healing. Andrew gave me a massage, which helped a lot. If all goes well, we will pour concrete this evening.

All Worn Out

The boy that I've been baby sitting is a handful. I'd say he's tired me out. Tomorrow is my last day with him until August. I think I'm going to miss him.
Yesterday, after work, Andrew and I drove to Gladstone to lay the foundation for a wall we are building for Mom. We didn't actually get to pouring the cement, but we got the form put in and bought all the cement. Eighty pound bags of concrete are not fun to move. Moving them pretty much maxed out my physical abilities. Apparently it showed. Andrew told me that my face got all red and my eyes bulged out. Mom, dad and Andrew were all worried about my back. I was too, so I was being super careful. Today, my back is pretty much the only part of me that doesn't hurt. My arms and legs sore. Super hero arms?

Kate is visiting from Astoria. Yay! I have a job, being a babysitter for a high energy 8 year old next week. Busy, busy.

Summer

I feel like the summer must be half over. Andrew and I have done so much since he finished spring term but it's been less than a month. We fixed the Honda. We went on a road trip with Mom. We sold the Honda. We bought another the Volvo. We did a bunch of work on the Volvo. We sent out wedding invitations.
 I'm am sitting in the Oasis in the shade as I write this. The chickens seem to be enjoying life. Landlord had been somewhat negligent about mowing the next door neighbor's grass. It had grown over two feet high by the time Andrew and I went over to try to mow it for them. The push mower is a Lawn Mower not a Field Mower so it couldn't do much. I went over with the clippers and cut it down by hand. It took a surprisingly short amount of time. The key is to grab a bit handful of grass, twist it and then cut it. That way each snip get about a square foot. I used the cut grass to freshen up the chicken coop. It's quite nice, I think.
There are a couple of Steller's jays who have discovered the back yard. They've been making a big racket chasing each other through the trees and just generally being awesome.
I'm not sure but I think Penny (one of the chickens) may be prone to the hickups. I have no idea if chickens even get hickups, but every once in a while she will let out a pick squawk and look startled. It looks just like a hickup to me. The others don't do it. Something to google if I remember, but for now I'm done with the computer.

Graduate School

I just checked my university email. It looks like I have been readmitted to graduate school. That's good.

Road Trip to Electric City- Dinner in Hood River

 

On our way home from electric city, we stopped in Hood river for dinner.We found a charming place called 3 rivers grill. Their food was expensive in general but they let us order off the bar menu which was more in the $10 or $12 range which was more the speed we were looking for. There was a nice view of the river. All together, I'd say it's a nice place. All together, I'd say it was a nice road trip too.

 

Andrew - "I have crazy hair!"

Andrew- "Ah yes... Indeed."

I"m hungry.

What? You want us to pose?

Okay. See we're posing!

Still posing!

Coffee is good.

What?

We're all in a picture together.

The Epic Water Pump Saga

Two weeks ago I bought a new bathing suit. It is red, black and awesome because it looks like a super hero outfit. I resolved to do pilates for 20 minutes every day so that I could wear my new bathing suit and look like a super hero. Do you know how many times I have done my 20 minutes of Pilates? None. Not once.

The day that Andrew and I sold my old Honda, we went and bought a broken Volvo. We new it was broken and we bought it with plans to fix it. It needs a new head because, it had a timing belt snap so it has bent valves. That is sad for whoever had it last but happy for us because we have a good car to fix up. By the way, the head is the top half of the engine. Engines generally come in two parts. The air and the fuel lines and such attache to the head. The fixing-it-up adventure has been full of twists and turns. We decided to replace the water pump while we had the head all taken off. That shouldn't have been very complicated, but it was. Here's how it should have gone. Take off the old water pump. Take off the old gasket. Scrub off any bits of the old gasket that are stuck to the engine block. Put on the new water pump.
That's how it should have gone. The new water pump kit didn't come with the right number of bolts. Since the water pump bolts only have to be torqued to fifteen foot pounds (that's not much), we reused one of the hold bolts. It snapped off.
That is bad, very bad. It's two tight a space to fit a drill into and we don't have the equiptment to take the engine out. There was enough of the bolt left sticking out that Andrew managed to cut a slit into it with his dremel. He and our friend Craig, who was over hanging out, backed the bolt out with a screw driver. Okay crisis averted.  
Next day, we head off to Robnuts, the local hardware store to get new bolts. Put the water pump back on. One to the new bolts strips the threads in the block. It wasn't even all the way it! (Consternation. ) WTF? Andrew inspects the bolts. "Uh, Jenny, these are two short."
Me-"but they were what came with the kit."
Well they were the wrong bolts. Back to Robnuts. New bolts and some heavy duty Lock Tight for the bolt with barely any threads. New water pump installation complete. If the water pump ever needs to be changed again is will be a pain in the arse to get that bolt off.
The head has been extra special as well. The one we got from the auto wreckers is damaged, so we have to take it back. Andrew took it apart to put new seal in it so now we have two put it back together. That will mostly be Andrew. I will bring in soda, and hand him tools. The Andrew is powered best by Subway, soda and Redbull. He tries to be healthier when he's not working on such finicky stuff. Anyway, we're getting sending the head with the bent valves to be rebuilt. In the meantime, there's the upholstery. 
So, I may not have done much to build my super hero abs but I have built a semi-permanent layer of grease into my fingers. It gets into the little cracks in my skin where it valiantly resists all scrubbing. I don't think my buffness campaign is going to work out, but I do know a lot more about cars. I may just have to wear my super hero swim suit and look like a not so ripped college student. We'll see.

Road Trip to Electric City - The Drive Home

On the road again

For the drive home, Andrew and I made Mom sit in the back seat. We convinced her to at least try it. Once there, she discovered the true glories of being a back seat driver. That is to say, she went to sleep. She won't admit it but she loved it back there. We built an awesome nest for her out of all the pillows and coats. Andrew drove and I navigated. I consulted Uncle Keith before we left and plotted a rout on a map. I chose back roads which gave us pretty views and a quieter ride. A mistake in my navigating lead us to a very picturesque gravel road with a lovely view of a vineyard. Mom started doubting our route a that point, but Andrew's phone got us back on pavement. The landscape slowly changed and I took a lot of pictures of barns and a couple pictures of Mom being adorable. 

Driving

Me looking at barns.

Mom daydreaming.

Mom - "Does my hair look funny?"

My navigation appears to have lead us astray.

Don't worry, Mom, this was just a little detour to show you this vineyard.

See look how pretty.

The windmills near Goldendale

What's the difference between a windmill and a wind turbine?

View of Mt Hood near Hood River

Road Trip to Electric City- Grand Coulee Dam

The sun is bright.

Stretch.

Did you just take a picture of me stretching?

Stop laughing at me or I'll bite you.

The visitor center had a digital model of the dam.

Here's what Andrew thinks of the digital model. 

Andrew -"Or you could just look at it."

Road Trip to Electric City- Steamboat Rock

 Steamboat rock is a hug chunk of rock that sticks up out of the Columbia River. It's on a peninsula so one can drive to it, but it appears from most angles to be in the middle of the river like a giant steamboat. There's a trail that leads to the top, and it's one of my favorite hikes in the world. The views from the top are dizzying.

It's windy up hear.

Kissy kissy

That's where we started. See how tiny the people are.