The New Oregonians

: joshandjessica; November 10th, 20:38

Our cats are terrible.

Really.

Just look at them.

Lets talk about Astrid, shall we?

Astrid suffers from a problem where she feels as though everything that is in our apartment belongs to her and her alone.

Take, for instance, our food.

"Mine."

Or, Josh's shoes.

"Mine."

It doesn't matter that she can't wear shoes, or that she definitely is not allowed to eat people food. They still belong solely to her.

Emmet suffers from a similar problem.

Did you know that the only reason that we do laundry is so that Emmet has a clean, fluffy place to sleep?

That's what he seems to think, anyway.

Emmet also likes to leave his toys laying wherever you would be most likely to step on them.

Aside from just being terrible, our cats even have terrible hobbies.

Emmet's hobbies include:
-Yelling at spiders
-Yelling at bouncy balls
-Yelling for dinner
-Yelling for snacks

Astrid's hobbies include:
-Yelling at squirrels
-Yelling at feather sticks
-Yelling for dinner
-Yelling for snacks

Don't believe me?

Check it out:

"MeeEEEeeeeeEEoooOOoooooW"

"YeeeEEEeeeOOOOooooWwwwwwL"

So if they are so awful, why do we even bother keeping them around?

Well, they are pretty cute.

Okay, maybe not.

Alright, world. That's it. Four blog posts in a row, and I'm out of ideas.

What would you like to know about, World?

Pumpkin Carving!

: joshandjessica; November 9th, 18:53

So.

Now that we've picked out our exceptionally awesome (and extremely heavy) pumpkins, what's next?

Carving them, of course.

I'm sure you're well aware that Josh and I are extremely smart and good looking, but did you know that we are also very, very talented?

Seriously. Look at how good these are. Mine is on the left, Josh's is on the right.

Incredible.

Even Emmet was impressed.

"Great Job."

Emmet can be very encouraging.

As my good friend Teena pointed out, the weather here has been really very nice. This has been great for things like growing pumpkins, but not so good for things like carving pumpkins.

The warm weather can turn pumpkins from awesome jack-o-lanterns...

...into horrifying monstrosities.

Josh, my very wonderful husband, was then kind enough to clean up the awful mess while I hid inside and took pictures of his suffering.

Yuck.

Pumpkin Patch

: joshandjessica; November 8th, 20:03

A few weeks ago, Josh and I ventured to Lonepine Farms to have a fall adventure.

First, we had to check out the goats, who had a very elaborate set-up.

Fancy, right?

The main attraction, other than the goats, was the corn maze.

We also met some of our friends at the farm, because we wouldn't dare venture into the corn maze on our own.

Of course, there were lots of rules to follow.

And for good reason. There were tons of dangerous things in the maze. Like, a bus.

And, a tunnel-thing.

Actually, the most dangerous thing about the corn maze was mud.

But there was also plenty of very deadly corn.

And rather than taking a map to help us through this maze, we just wandered around lost. For a really long time.

In desperation, we started leaving clues behind, to help us find our way out.

Two-thousand hours later, we finally made it out. Everyone was alive.

After this grueling excursion, the only logical thing to do was to walk another ten-thousand miles to pick out a four-hundred pound pumpkin.

All I really wanted to do was catch a ride on the..cow-train-thing...but Josh said no.

So we walked.

For forever.

The problem, as you can see, was that all of the good pumpkins that were near by were taken. Only the most questionable pumpkins remained within a 10-mile radius.

We finally found pumpkins that were suitable for carving.

Awesome, right?

Now, do you see that horse-drawn cart behind me?

Yeah, that one.

The one that any sane person would ride back to the farm so that they wouldn't have to haul their enormous pumpkins back to the farm?

Instead of doing the logical thing (you know, riding on the horse-cart), we decided to keep walking.

Good thing I am so very strong.

Where has the Summer Gone?

: joshandjessica; November 7th, 13:19

By now, you know that this summer my parents visited Eugene, my brother visited Eugene, we went to the coast a bunch, and we attended a number of naked bike rides. But what else happened this summer?

Well, for starters, we drove to beautiful Butte, Montana.

For a day.

We actually drove all of that way to meet Josh's parents and to take care of some vehicle-related things, but we also had an afternoon to take in the sights.

Apparently, in Butte, that means going to the Berkley Pit.

The Berkley Pit is, of course, a pit. That used to be a mine. But now is just full of water.

Josh was more excited than the rest of us to get there, I guess.

Later this summer, I also participated in the annual Eugene Celebration parade.

The good news is that it isn't even really embarrassing to wear a silver unitard in public.

Our whole group looked awesome, of course.

But that didn't stop Josh from finding a parade entry that he would rather hang out with.

We had a booth at the Eugene Celebration as well, featuring a fantastic wheel-of-fortune wheel.

This wheel was hand-crafted by our very own Josh.

We also moved into a duplex, and Emmet was really thrilled.

Can't you tell?

Astrid enjoys the place--the bigger windows really allow her to connect with the local wildlife.

But that's it.

What did you do this summer?

A Family Visit

: joshandjessica; August 19th, 20:10

Last week, my parents came to visit, all the way from Minnesota.

Of course, having visitors meant that we got to do fun and exciting things.

Like...couch shopping.

Okay, so that's not really exciting. But we needed a couch, and this is the one we got. Fancy, right?

Anyway. We did actual fun things, like visit Florence.

We learned interesting things while there, like that drowning isn't fun.

And that we should be on the look out for killer whales.

Yikes.

Florence was also a great place to drink a bloody mary while eating clam chowder.

Adequate nourishment is important to keep your strength up in order to climb up the world's biggest sand dune.

It was not an easy climb, and it was every man for himself. Sorry, mom. You're on your own.

Going down the other side was much easier.

Believe it or not, all of that sand did eventually lead us to the ocean.

We spent some time collecting shells and other beachy items.

I took some time to design a sand castle of superior strength and architectural integrity, built to withstand even the toughest of foot-smashings.

..Or not. Oops.

We also did some whale watching, and this time, we saw an actual whale.

Wait for it.

Wait for it.

Whoa.

Okay, so maybe it's not such an impressive picture, but watch this.

Enhance.

Pretty cool, huh?

But it gets even better.

Enhance.

Maybe not.

But I still feel that a whale sighting made our beach day a success.

After the beach, it was back into the car. A two-door, by the way. Very spacious.

But I guess there was enough room to take a little snooze.

The next day, we went to the Saturday Market to check out some fruits and veggies.

My mother appeared to be confused by the sheer number of tomato options...

...so it was good there was a chart to direct her.

We also checked out a food festival that had surprisingly little food available.

It did have plenty of beer, however.

And free Vitamin Water.

And, geese?

My parents also posed for their Christmas card pictures, I guess?

A day later, we headed into the mountains for a nice, leisurely drive.

Except that, instead of driving, we sat in our parked car and waited for a road crew to paint lines on the narrow road.

For an hour.

The good news was that everyone else seemed to be having just as much fun as were were.

Eventually, we made it to our destination.

The Moon!

Actually, Josh told me this was not a funny joke, because I guess this place was where some astronauts trained. But really, I think that makes my joke even better.

In reality, we were at the top of some mountain pass that was a lava flow or something strange like that.

Which, of course, is the first place you'd expect to see a lava-castle.