Katherine Turns 80!

One of Janet's Thursday volunteer friends just turned 80 years old and it happened to be on their regular Thursday.

Janet wanted to make a surprise for Katherine, so covertly called her to make sure she was going to be at work on the 18th.  Then she let some staff members, Tracey, Julia  and Cook Dave know it was a special day and they were on board.  All systems go!

Janet sneaked into the kitchen with the cake and and hid it in the frig.  At coffee time, out came the cake with staff members singing Happy Birthday.   Then, in came some non-active volunteers who have volunteered with Katherine for years.  Katherine was super happy!

Janet was afraid 79 more candles would set off the smoke detectors!

From left - Ginger, Barb, Birthday Girl Katherine, Janet, Erin, staff member Tracy and Doreen.

They have two new fancy pants convection ovens at work which have yet to be installed.  The current ones are about 25 years old and are working on borrowed time.

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It's that time of the year!  Zucchini and squash!  Galore!  The very inventive cooks at Janet's volunteer job always manage to find a use.

This little cutie pie lives next door to us.  His name is Wolf and he loves, loves, loves me!  He has a little stuffed doggie toy that he has named Emma and gives his little doggie water from his sippy cup every night before bed and shares his soother.  My fan club is growing by leaps and bounds!

Janet and Phil's oldest couple friends, Brad and Laurie came for a quick overnight visit.  We walked to the beach, had a BBQ at home and went out for sushi.

They have known Brad and Laurie for 42 years!  Ouch!

 They brought with them $1M worth of maple syrup!  They have a cottage in Prince Edward County in Ontario and a neighbour makes maple syrup from other neighbours trees.  The bottle is even numbered!

Enough about Janet!  Let's move on to me and how incredibly cute I am.  I went swimming today and caught some sticks that Janet threw into the ocean for me.

Not to mention my really cute stick chewing pose.

It's all about the bum in the air and just so you know, not all sticks are created equally.   Move over, Watty Man!

This little cutie pie lives next door to us.  His name is Wolf and he loves, loves, loves me!  He has a little stuffed doggie toy that he has named Emma and gives his little doggie water from his sippy cup every night before bed and shares his soother.  My fan club is growing by leaps and bounds!

Janet and Phil's Excellent Biking Adventure

Janet hasn't been on her own bike once this year and it is now 15 August.  So, going "trail" riding on a bike she is completely unfamiliar with sounds like a super idea, right?

For sure!  Also, don't forget that Janet has never been trail riding before.

It started out well enough.  They loaded the bikes into the Volvo and drove the the "trail head". It's important to use all the trail biking lingo a guy can lay his hands on for the big adventure!

Turns out Janet is more suited to the wide open road and even the lingo couldn't save her.   She envisioned wide trails with grassy, Alpine meadows on either side of the trail.  About 5 minutes in, Janet crashed and had to walk the bike out.  They ended up getting separated from each other with no means of communication.  It didn't end well.  The peace and tranquility of the woods was punctuated with many bad words in loud voices!

Landing spot.  The trail was really narrow and covered with bramble on nearly all sides.  When Janet told Bronwyn they had gone to this trail, Bronwyn said "you went THERE!?!"

 Part of the injuries sustained.

The cut eventually closed in, but had a fair size gap at the beginning.

 Janet's left leg looks like it is a survivor of a tour in Iraq and Afghanistan.  In addition to the bike cut, there are numerous scars from when she tripped in a lava field last January that don't appear to be going anywhere.

Phil fared much better.

 

Watty Man and I played at least twice a day for extended periods of time.  It was fun!

Super cool thing about Hood River - dogs on the patio!  Yes!  Hola, Amigos, we are at one out of four visits to Hood River Taqueria.

 Then, bad news!  Watson had to go home.

See you soon, Buddy!

We stayed for a couple more days to explore some of our old haunts.

We spread some of Noodles ashes at her favourite locations.

 This was the first place they stayed in Hood River.  I lived in Camp USA then, but went up to visit.  This was most assuredly one of Rockers and Noodles favourite spots - end of a quiet road, surrounded by cherry and pear orchards.

It's no longer a vacation rental.

This is in the early stages of an orchard.  There was a small horse paddock here and Rockers was afraid to walk by them.

They have many cool bridges in the Hood River area.

This is the "Bridge of the Gods".  There may have been beautiful view from the bridge deck, but Janet had two choices - stare down at the floor of the car or look out the window and throw up.

This is the Lewis and Clark Bridge.

Check out this cute mosaic tile puppy, Lucky!

Watty Man was an all tuckered out puppy dog.

My First Solo Road Trip

We went on another road trip and this time, sadly, I had the whole back of the car to myself.  We went to Hood River!

Janet loves life on the edge!  As as a result, she makes a reservation for every single ferry she embarks on.  They left on the 6:10AM ferry to Port Angeles and who would have thunk!  If it hadn't been for the reservation, they would have been cooling their jets at the ferry terminal for four hours!  There is precious little that Janet likes more than waiting at ferry terminals when $17 would have saved her sorry ass.

Here we are, not even close to the entrance and it's 5:45AM!  The ferry is departing is 25 minutes and we aren't even at the ticket booth!

Black Ball Ferry really knows how to pack them in!  Sometimes, it's almost impossible to slip between two vehicles.

Guess what was waiting for me in Hood River?  Watty Man AKA Watson!  He tried and tried his very hardest to engage me in playful activities, but I was firm.   He needs to show some respect as I am now the most senior dog and have spent the better part of my life deferring to the other canines in our family.   He really wanted to be pals, so I agreed to share the sectional with him.

I let him guide me on a small walk in White Salmon.

Basically all Watty Man does is wreak havoc 24/7.  Whilst he is the proud owner of about $5M in toys, he still prefers the "freebies".

Janet is shocked at long his legs are!

After a 20 + year hiatus, Phil decides it's time to take up windsurfing again.  This won't be pretty.

Team Illingworth rigs up the board!

One rigger, one foreman!

It was a fairly decent start.

Lookin' good!

The end - not quite so glorious!  He said he wanted to throw up, but had nothing on his stomach!

He went to bed at 7PM!

We felt it was important to be team players, so helped out to the best of our ability.  Assisted Phil with his "Seven Minute Workout Program".

Watty Man watched the peeps hot tub from up above.

Why can't I join in on the fun?

We took a couple road trips.  First to Trout Lake.  This was pretty much a non starter.  We drove to the Historic Trout Lake Inn, which was locked up tight.  Further, there is no "lake".

Then, we drove to Maryhill Museum.  We went on the Washington side of the river, which is a two lane road.  The Oregon side of the river is an Interstate highway.

 We thought Janet was going to have a heart attack as much of the two lane road is a shear drop off to the Columbia River.  Granted, there was in Janet's opinion, a flimsy guard rail that MIGHT prevent a cyclist from perishing.  We doggies are thinking that the guard rail must have passed some Washington State DOT inspection.

The Museum - it was hotter that hell outside and despite having window vents and a shady parking spot, Janet wasn't comfortable leaving us in the car.  She left Phil in the museum to take us for a walk.  Guess what?  Dickhead Phil, who packed us in the car, forgot to bring our leashes!  Now, Janet is seriously pissed!

Sam Hill's original intent was to build this as a mansion for himself, but turned it into a museum prior to residing in it.  Janet says it's the coolest collection of stuff on three floors that she has ever viewed in 15 minutes!

OK, OK, I finally succumbed.  I did the Turkey Head a solid and played with him.  Even though I'm
10 1/2 years old, I can still kick butt!

All tuckered out!

Watty Man, your eyes are closed.  Just lie down and go to sleep!