Into the wild...

Or not so much. Dev and I just returned from a weekend camput with our neighbors Terry and Sara in the Diamond Mill OHV area in the Tillamook State Forest. We camped about 3 miles in, on the less popular section of off-highway vehicle road (read: dirt bikes and ATVs) that winds it's way through the state forest. So the day stayed mostly quiet and we felt like we were pretty remote. (Cheers to Jake and Sarah and Warren and Toni for finding this really awesome spot last year.)

We had all five of the dogs (our three plus Conner and Lily) and lots and lots of food.We hiked. And laid around. And read. And cooked. Terry took me rock-hopping down the river which was a lot of fun. And we found a couple of really good swimming holes for future visits.

Aside from a little rain this morning and little less that optimal sun yesterday, the camping was quite satisfactory.

Someone else likes my bike!

Funny how little things can give you a lasting grin.

I went to a meeting at the Portland Building hosted by the Portland City Transportation Department last night. The Department needs volunteers to do bike traffic counts during peak traffic times on Portland's bikeways so that they can show usage numbers and justify creating more bikeways. A good cause and one for which I'm happy to volunteer.

Anyway, I came out of the meeting and was unlocking my bike. And the guy who had unlocked his bike (locked up right next to mine) commented "Nice bike." Now, he had a Bianchi Velocity that was lighter and faster. He liked mine because of the brazons that allow for mounting luggage racks and fenders. We chatted al ittle bit about different bikes and how you really can't have too many bikes. He went his way and I went mine, but his comment had me grinning for few minutes thinking about "greener grass."

Stand Down!

So paintball worked us over. The mercury hit mid 90's with a sweltering 80 something percent humidity. I felt like I had gone home to Texas to play the game. But all ten of us valiantly soldiered on and sacrificed so we could hurl little plastic pellets of dayglo paint at 200 mph at each other.

And it was worth every drop of sweat.

Splat Action Paintball has many many acres of mock-combat fun. They have some forest and thicket fighting areas. They have a place called the village with structures for cover and crossfire. They even have a fort/fortification for a game named Attack and Defend.

The defenders start out inside the fort which has 360 dgrees of walls and netting (which stymies direct hits from paint balls) and two towers (for spotting and sniping). However, the defenders cannot leave the fort at all during the course of their first life. The attackers can attack from any direction. And when they are killed, the dead attacker must trudge back to base to "respawn" and then march back in to rejoin the fray (so the attacking force never truly loses).

Here's kicker. When a defender dies, he doesn't leave the game. Instead, the defender goes to the attacking team's home base and comes back to life and joins the attacking force. So as the deaths mount inside the fortress, the press of the assault becomes heavier. The increasingly desperate situation of the defenders adds significant tension to this game and heightens the anxiety level of the scenario.

We (all ten of us) were soaked with sweat and sporting multiple welts from the paintballs by the end of the day (though Jake won the "most number of welts sustained in a single volley" award - he got hit by 9 paintballs at one time in the speed round).

Line up, Soldier!

Tomorrow is paintball.
Tomorrow is the first time I play paintball.
Tomorrow should be fun.

Even with the record heat here in the great northwest - projected to hit a hundred degrees or higher.

Council Crest Hike Pics posted

You can see them here

Council Crest Hike

Dev and I took Cowboy out on Saturday for a shortish 3.8 mile hike to the top of Council Crest in the west hills of Portland. The shady trail took us through some pretty gorgeous canyonland to the highest point in Portland. The day was crystal so we could see Mt Hood, Mt St Helens, Mt Adams, and (a big surprise to me) Mt Ranier!

I'll have pictures posted later today or tomorrow.

See "The Matador"

Really. That's all. See The Matador

Pick(axe) of the litter

Sometimes it really is the little things.

Devon and I built some garden boxes on the left side (as you face the front) of the house yesterday. We had to break up the turf over on that side. and then level it. Then build the boxes. Then fill them with bricks and dirt.

Anyway, I get ahead of myself.

I have a few garden tools, but it turns out that I don't have a mattock. And a shovel just could not efficiently break up the sod in the yard. So we had to go buy a pick yesterday. Now, I haven't used a pick since I was a teenager. I had forgotten exactly how much fun the heft of those tools provides.

*swing*
THUNK
*swing*
THUNK
*swing*
"AHHHH!!!!! My foot! My foot!"

Just kidding!
I guess I'm trying to say I like my new toy.

Beating a dead man's chest

Dev and I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest tonight.

Noisy. Fun action. Good special effects. And Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow.
Not enough Caqptain Jack for my taste, but I love the character and Depp's interpretation. -grin-

If you liked the first one, you'll like this one. We enjoyerd it immensely.

Except

We went to a 5 PM show. Don't do this unless you like kids kicking the back of your seat, pulling your hair and talking for 90 minutes of a two hour movie. Like the little blond brat behind Dev.

So go see the movie. After 8 PM. At a movie theater that serves alcohol. (Just in case).

Whale Watching in Victoria

Dev and I went whale watching in Victoria. We originally signed up for a tour with Eagle Wing Tours on some pretty cool looking speed boats. They, unfortunately, did not have enough people sign up that mornign to go out on the tour - something about gas porices being too high or something. They referred us to another company named Springtide Tours. Now, Springtide uses Zodiac Boats.

Dang.

The tour price was almost worth it to ride in those boats for 3 hours. Our skipper Mike said that we hit about 40 knots on the way back to dock. Which translates to about 45 mph. Which is pretty zippy on choppy bay waters.

Like I said: Dang!

Did I say that?

Did I say I was going to post stories about the honeymoon? -sigh-
Crazy week. I'll start cranking out some words.

Oh, and our wedding photographer Michelle Burke has a page here where you can view and order pictures from our wedding.
Go to the drop down menu and look for Devon & David
Our password is Apple

Here's Dev's comments:
"Just a quick thank you to everyone for making our wedding day such a special occasion. It was great to see everyone that made it and we hope you had as much fun as we did. For those who couldn't be here, we hope to see you soon. Below is the link to the website with all the pictures. I'll warn you now...there are a lot of them!

Feel free to browse if you're interested. You can also order pictures from this site along with a 5" x 5" coffee table book with up to 20 pictures. The books are pretty cool if you're looking to order more than just a few pictures."

Wedding Pictures are up

At least the wedding pictures from our camera. I also have pics from the hike the day before AND the hike with my groomsmen (a wicked evil hike inadvertently labeled "moderate"). And pics from the reception. And from the fun stuff on the honeymoon.

You can see them here.

Rob has his pics up here.

Ann Marie has her pics posted here.

If anyone else has some photos of the wedding, send me the link and I'll post it. Or put the url in a comment on this post.

Funny thing happened on the way to Canada...

We (Devon and I) took a right turn on Welches Road in Welches, Oregon and had a wedding. With mountains. And family members. A cake. And golf carts. Thus the hiatus in my writing (though if I were a *truly dedicated* narcissist, I would have found a way to have internet access in order to publish tales of our journey).

We should have pictures of the festivities and links to pictures and even more picture posted as the week progresses. We might even get some pictures and stories about the honeymoon posted.

To all of you who made it to the wedding - thanks again for coming and helping us have the best time of our lives!

Ciao!