In Case You Were Wondering...
...we haven't dropped off the face of the earth, we've just been on a mountain with dial-up Internet.
We've been in Oregon for a little over a week now. We flew into Portland last Saturday and spent the night at Joel's stepuncle's place outside of Portland. They have a nice house and a filbert orchard. This is a lesson for all of you non-Oregonians, by the way: There is no such thing as the hazelnut here. It's the filbert, and that's that. Then we drove down to Ashland the next day, which is way in the southern part of Oregon. It's only 30 minutes from California or something like that (in fact, Joel's dad works in California).
Sandy and Jim (Joel's mom and stepdad) live in a house on Mt. Ashland, and they have amazing views. Sadly, the house is not in such amazing shape. It's totally outdated, and so they're redoing it a little at a time. Right now they're planning to do the kitchen, so Joel's been having fun playing with layouts and designs. (We have watched way too many house flipping shows since we've been back!)
Today is Joel's birthday, as well as the birthday of our friend Rachel. Happy birthday, guys! I'm making Joel a birthday dinner of cherry-stuffed pork loin, buttermilk mashed potatoes, broccoli salad (of course), and cheesecake.
I also just finished a job so that feels great. We came into Ashland to the library so that I could send the files over high-speed Internet, and I'm sitting in front of floor-to-ceiling windows that look over the mountains. Unfortunately, all the libraries in Jackson County are closing in April because there aren't enough funds to keep them open, and the voters turned down a resolution to pay more to keep them open. That's 15 libraries that are closing indefinitely. I can hardly believe it--isn't the right to public libraries in the constitution or something? The libraries need some help, too: Joel tried to check out a copy of War and Peace, and there were TWO copies in ALL 15 libraries. One of them was checked out, and it was going to take two weeks to have the other one sent to Ashland. However, there were 6 copies of every John Grisham book that's ever been published, so who cares that 13 libraries in southern Oregon don't have a copy of one of the greatest classics in the world?
Here's another little tidbit about Oregon: No sales tax! It's almost like being in Korea again.
That's about it. We'll probably head down to Santa Barbara in a week, where we will have real Internet (I swear I will never take the for granted again!). In the meantime, I'll try to take some pictures of the house and Ashland, which is really quite stunning.
We've been in Oregon for a little over a week now. We flew into Portland last Saturday and spent the night at Joel's stepuncle's place outside of Portland. They have a nice house and a filbert orchard. This is a lesson for all of you non-Oregonians, by the way: There is no such thing as the hazelnut here. It's the filbert, and that's that. Then we drove down to Ashland the next day, which is way in the southern part of Oregon. It's only 30 minutes from California or something like that (in fact, Joel's dad works in California).
Sandy and Jim (Joel's mom and stepdad) live in a house on Mt. Ashland, and they have amazing views. Sadly, the house is not in such amazing shape. It's totally outdated, and so they're redoing it a little at a time. Right now they're planning to do the kitchen, so Joel's been having fun playing with layouts and designs. (We have watched way too many house flipping shows since we've been back!)
Today is Joel's birthday, as well as the birthday of our friend Rachel. Happy birthday, guys! I'm making Joel a birthday dinner of cherry-stuffed pork loin, buttermilk mashed potatoes, broccoli salad (of course), and cheesecake.
I also just finished a job so that feels great. We came into Ashland to the library so that I could send the files over high-speed Internet, and I'm sitting in front of floor-to-ceiling windows that look over the mountains. Unfortunately, all the libraries in Jackson County are closing in April because there aren't enough funds to keep them open, and the voters turned down a resolution to pay more to keep them open. That's 15 libraries that are closing indefinitely. I can hardly believe it--isn't the right to public libraries in the constitution or something? The libraries need some help, too: Joel tried to check out a copy of War and Peace, and there were TWO copies in ALL 15 libraries. One of them was checked out, and it was going to take two weeks to have the other one sent to Ashland. However, there were 6 copies of every John Grisham book that's ever been published, so who cares that 13 libraries in southern Oregon don't have a copy of one of the greatest classics in the world?
Here's another little tidbit about Oregon: No sales tax! It's almost like being in Korea again.
That's about it. We'll probably head down to Santa Barbara in a week, where we will have real Internet (I swear I will never take the for granted again!). In the meantime, I'll try to take some pictures of the house and Ashland, which is really quite stunning.
posted by AJ at 1:30 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home