Weekend at Jane & Colin's Atomic Ranch

Last week was a roller coaster.  The week started out with a leak in my Mom's bathroom.  We own her house, so that's bad news (work and money) for us.  We knew the floor had gotten soft around the toilet and thought we had some time to fix it, but then my brother put his foot through the floor.  Doh! 

Next....our Tercel (which I bought new in 1994) overheated the very next day.  This is the car Julian drives to work every day.  Julian tried to fix it, and instead broke off a rather important bolt.  We took it to a shop, and found out we'd blown a headgasket - double doh!  This is after spending a lot of money about a year and a half ago to have the engine rebuilt.  Luckily we found out it was still under warrenty and the shop split the cost with us.  Good news!  Unfortunately, we delayed picking our car up until the end of that weekend, and arrived to find someone had tried to steal it and busted several screwdrivers off in our ignition.  So much for a reasonable repair bill.  We had another $200 tacked on to get a new ignition.

Then my Grandpa died a few days later.  This was very sad, but he was nearly 93 and his health had been declining for years since he had dementia.   

Luckily, we had our trip to see Jane, Colin, and their beautiful son Anton, in Corvallis that weekend to look forward to.  We had a really wonderful, and long overdue, trip.  They used to live here in SE Portland, and moved to Jane's hometown of Corvallis a few years ago.  We'd been wanting to visit them ever since and finally made it!  Jane has a wonderful garden - see her blog at www.thefruitsofmylabor1.blogspot.com.  And their house is seriously amazing.  We had a really good time  atching up with them, walking around Corvallis, eating the awesome meals that Jane made, and drinking lots of wine.  They have such a beautiful (and huge!) home, it was like a swanky bed and breakfast.  Hank seriously loves Anton - we will definitely be going back soon.   

Hank in front of a bronze dog statue downtown Corvallis

Anton in his super awesome Mexican wrestling mask and cape combo (Julian was coveting this!)

Hank with his new friend, Anton.  We're in their beautiful backyard.

Jane, holding Hank, in their kitchen.

Julian, me, Hank, and Anton

Colin and Anton

Me and my buddy, Jane

Cigarran family picture: Anton, Jane, and Colin

Jane's showing us around her garden

Of course I had to include some house pics - here is their formal entry - check out that ceiling!

Here's their formal living room, where Julian's modeling their furniture.