Gone South

Straw Bale House Update: It's been busy! Friday the 15th, the garage slab was poured. We ended up hiring the finishing out, mostly because of my fear of concrete (pour days are stressful) and also the lack of labour. The slab became a priority as we need the storage space. Clay arrived the same day to take charge of the plumbing operation. The in-slab portion of the plumbing is a bit tricky. If you make a mistake, it's jackhammer time! (thanks Clay) The skylight is still waiting for installation and the daring feat will be attempted as soon as I can drum up enough bodies.
The following Friday, (after a brief holiday) we arrived home (from vacation?) with something in excess of 5 tonnes of St Astier hydraulic lime, which we picked up in Seattle. Trans Mineral out of California had shipped it to Seattle for us... we then rented a (35 foot) truck and picked it up on our return from Portland. (an adventure in itself) Canada Customs wasn't too interested in 5 tons of white powder coming across the border, but were more than happy to collect the GST.

Kari + Ash left for Portland on Friday the 15th for Kari's conference. Ashley tagged on and power shopped in the mall next to the hotel for a few days. Tuesday, I flew down to meet them at McMenamin's just outside Portland. I had never heard of the place before. It's an old "Poor House" converted into a .... hotel/hostel/brewery/distillery/winery/golf course/poolhall/spa/theater. I'm not quite sure how to describe it. The rooms are the old wards and cost about $80/night. There's no TV or phone in the room and the biffy is down the hall (on the left). They have concerts on the lawn every weekend, with the likes of Ringo Star, Sheryl Crow, Billy Idol, Black Crowes, John Butler Trio, and BB King performing concerts at very reasonable prices. There's a theater, several pubs, (8, I think) restaurants and a pitch n' put golf course, where they encourage you to drink on the course.
The next night we ended up in Olympia and again Kari found us some unusual acommidations at the Swantown B+B, which looked like something out of the Munsters.

* I made it through the Olympics with my boycott intact (if you don't include 5 minutes of the closing ceremonies.) yawn.

What is a Canadian? A Canadian is a fellow wearing English tweeds, a Hong Kong shirt and Spanish shoes, who sips Brazilian coffee sweetened with Philippine sugar from a Bavarian cup while nibbling Swiss cheese, sitting at a Danish desk over a Persian rug, after coming home in a German car from an Italian movie... and then writes his Member of Parliament with a Japanese ballpoint pen on French paper, demanding that he do something about foreigners taking away our Canadian jobs.