No Camera, No Pictures

Erika took the camera to Seattle. And then the battery died. So no new pics from this coast or the other. Just do a Google search for "Seattle." I bet there are plenty of beautiful pics of that fine city elsewhere on the intarweb. In the meantime, check out Mike and Cait's blog. I hear a rumor there is a video of Emma floating around where she is clearly saying "hi."

Oh, and while I'm thinking about it...if you ever try to embed a stapler in a Jell-O mold make sure that you quadruple the amount of Jell-O for best results. Just sayin'.

Arbor

There are so many positive things that came out of our housesitting gig. Things like not having to pay rent or mortgage for a fiscal year or two can really open doors. Stumbling into that little opportunity certainly helped us open the door to our house.

If there was one drawback to our job as semi-pro housesitters it was that we had to store our stuff for the duration or our tenure. We like our stuff. That's why we have it. Of course, at the same time, we helped to fill the dumpster that was parked outside our place while we were doing the renovations with stuff we realized we didn't want. So after we heaved the stuff we didn't want anymore into the dumpster, we could turn our attention to the stuff we did want. This arbor is a perfect example.

We were married over 5 years ago, at a winery, on a little hill overlooking the Hudson Valley. As picturesque as the panarama was, Erika asked her father to build what would turn out to be this arbor for us to get married under. At the time it looked like part of the landscape, but the next day we returned to the winery and dismantled the arbor. Eventually we brought it back to New Hampshire (where it remained in storage), then to Portland (where it remained in storage). Finally, now that we're in a place that we plan to stay in for a decade or so, the arbor assumes its place on our property.