What’s been goin down

Mom, this post is for you.

See, I’ve been… slightly lax… in updating my blog here lately.  Blame it on our crazy schedules, blame it on Facebook and Twitter, blame it on my sheer laziness.  I saw my mom this past weekend, and she said that since I haven’t been updating my blog, she’s got no idea what has been going on with us.

So, without further ado, here is what has been happening recently.

We are presently in the middle of “wedding season”.  This past weekend was cram packed with the wedding festivites of Jess’ sister.  With family in from out of town and all the requisite wedding activities, we were pretty busy.  The service was nice, weather turned out perfectly.  Unfortunately, this is not the end of our wedding escapades.  Next weekend is another wedding for some friends.  Fortunately, neither of us are in this wedding, but Jess is on board to bake cupcakes for it.  I guess the bride asked a bunch of friends to do this… don’t ask me why.  Then the following weekend, Jess is heading up to Lewiston for the wedding of a sorority sister of hers.  The weekend after that, is a getaway reception/party in McCall for the friends who were married (with the cupcakes).  Whew.  I think that’s it.

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Murphy Comes Home

MurphyWell, we did it. After just 8 short weeks, “the puppy” has come home. Here is where I describe the ins and outs of bringing home a new puppy to two people who seemingly weren’t fully prepared for what was in store.

See, we had settled on the fact that we would reserve a puppy from Gem Doodle’s (next litter later summer/early fall ’09 if you’re interested) most recent litter. One of the offspring of Tula the poodle and Bruno the golden retriever would be ours. All we had to do was wait.

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Oregon Coast Pictures

Blogging has been sparse lately. I’m through apologizing for it. Instead, you should just subscribe to the RSS feed so you can be updated when I finally do post something new. Like this!

Behold… my favorite images from our trip to Oregon last weekend.

Please go to Flickr to enjoy the whole set, or you can click on any of these images below to view it bigger. Most of them look MUCH better when viewed larger, so I highly recommend doing that.

Without further ado…

Still

Sunset Reflection

Shooting

Yachats River Delta

Jess and the Ocean

Yachats, OR

Marcus on the Sand

Marcus on the Sand

Evening Ocean

Some background info… for spring break, Jess and I joined my sisters and their families in a house on the coast for 3 days. We found a great place in Yachats (30 min south of Newport) with a good view, beach access and a hot tub. It was fun.

We explored the area, ate sea food, enjoyed the rain, and relaxed in the hot tub.  And, I got some good photographs out of it.

We have another big week this week… mainly tomorrow, Wednesday the 1st. But that is another post!

Snowshoeing In McCall

This previous weekend, Jess and I got out of town for a couple days in our annual “post holiday decompress” trip. We usually try to get away for a weekend sometime after the first of the year just to come down a bit and recharge. This year was a little later than normal, but we still made it.

We stayed at the ‘everything old is new again’ Shore Lodge. Fresh off their failed “Whitetail” experiment, they are back to their roots. I’d never set foot in the building, but I gotta say that place is really nice. We had the authentic “McCall experience” in that we stayed at Shore Lodge, ate at Lardo’s, The Pancake House and The Mill. We also bought a 6-pack of beer at Paul’s.

Probably the most fun thing we did the whole weekend was snowshoeing. We borrowed some friend’s gear and tooled around the shore of Little Payette Lake. I’d never been snowshoeing before. Many years ago I did a little cross country skiing and snowshoeing is kinda like that. We had so much fun, we may be in the market for our own snowshoes.

We also had perfect weather. The sun was shining and the temps were in the upper 30’s. It was so nice we were able to shed our coats and de-layer a bit. Absolutely gorgeous.

Of course, I loved being out there with the new camera and playing around taking pics. Here are my favorites. Click on them to go to Flickr. Or you can view the slideshow.

Aspen Shadow

Winter Forrest

Winter Aspens

Winter Aspens

Snowshoeing Past Aspens

Aspen Matrix

How We Spent Our Evening

ist2_2356580_house_keyQuestion.  When you get the keys to your new residence, what is generally the first thing you do?

If you’re like 99.9% of the population, you probably take the 6 seconds and proudly slide that new key on your key ring.  It’s almost a symbol of your new life.  A very momentous occasion for most.

Unless you’re my wife.

Somehow, she never bothered to place a house key on her key ring, despite the beautiful little setup the builder had for us upon our move in.  Each key on a shiny little ring in a jewelery box.  Nope.  Never did it.  In fact, I even TOLD her to do it, multiple times in the past 9 months since we’ve moved in.  Still never did it.  She even has the typical “woman keyring” with a dozen or more keys on it… keys to her office and her parents house and even to a padlock to my old storage unit.  “I have a key to the rental house, though”, she said.

Why do I mention this?  Oh, I don’t know… maybe it could have something to do with the fact that we just spent the last 45 minutes locked out of our own house.

We just now regained entry with the help of a locksmith and $55.

See, after work we decided that we would go to the gym and work out.  No biggie, we do this multiple times a week.  However this time the garage door somehow locked when it closed upon our exit.  My guess is the lock mechanism wasn’t turned all the way open or something.  Anyway, when the door shut, it locked.  We got back from the gym only to find it immovable.  Oh shit.

Even worse, the hide-a-key we had in the front of the house for just such an occasion, wasn’t there.  See, this exact occasion happened to my lovely bride a few weeks ago and she retrieved that key to let herself into the house.  As I lifted the rock to get the key I was greeted by the sight of bare dirt.  No key.  Well gee… I don’t suppose you remembered to replace that key you used to get in the house did ya?  Apparently not.

Here I am, in shorts and a sweatshirt perusing my work bench for something that might be able to open the door.  Like I’m friggin MacGyver or something and am going to miraculously figure out how to pick the lock with a nail, a wasp trap and can of spray paint.  Unfortunately, I did not have these skills.  What I did have was an iPhone.  The iPhone again saves the day, as I was able to look up locksmiths.  Finally, the forth number we tried (yes, I had her call) we found someone who could come out in just 25 minutes.

As I only had shorts on and was freezing, I got back into the car and started it up simply for the heater.  Jess had the one good idea… we had beer in the fridge.  So, I partook.

Jess then told me that she was “taking 80% of the blame for this”.  Like somehow this was my fault, despite the fact that I did take those 6 seconds and have a key on my ring.  We were driving her car.  Thus, no key.  She then relented and accepted 90% of the blame, to which I assigned the other 10% to the lock itself.  My favorite quote from her was, “I didn’t have a key to my old house either!” like that somehow made this all ok.

Finally the locksmith arrived and it a few short minutes he was inside and it was all over but the fifty bucks we owed him.

Ahh… never a dull moment around the Haberman household.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to have a dozen keys made and hiding them all around the garage and yard.

25 Random Things About Me

randomangleOk, so if you’re on Facebook at all lately, you’ve probably seen these notes floating around.  The whole premise is, you get “tagged” by someone writing their 25 random things, then you gotta respond in kind with 25 of your own things, then tag 25 other people… so on and so forth.

I figured, in addition to posting them on FB, I’d also post them here on my blog, since I never seem to write much here anymore (something I’m trying to work on… but can’t promise anything at this moment).  I will say this will probably be a little (a lot) more verbose than a lot of the notes you read.  I can’t help that.  Just how it is.

Edit:  I wrote like 3500 words.  So sue me.  You don’t gotta read it…

So, here goes… 25 Random Things About Me.

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Good-bye Goldy

We had to put Goldy down today.  Can’t write much more that this.   Goldy, I wish I could be eloquent and give you the send-off you’ve earned, but I can’t.

At least your joints will no longer bother you, you’ll again hear the birds chirp, the back door will always be open, and you can have all the food you can eat.

We’ll miss you, girl.

Goldy

goldy2

goldy3

goldy5

Beard Final Judging with Pictures

Hello all,

Regular readers, and those that scroll down a bit, have seen the whole beard fiasco play out before them.  Well, now you can see all the Wirestone beard participants complete with before and after photos of each one.

http://itchyface.blogspot.com/2008/12/beard-judging.html

Let me tell you, there are some PRICELESS shots over there.

I can honestly say, now that I’ve shaved that damn thing off, that it was somewhat fun to be a part of.  Now, we’ll find out how I rank in the judging.  My guess would be not well.

Beard, Beard Go Away…

Ding dong the witch is dead!

Ok, that might be a bit strong, but the beard is gone.  Literally circled the drain a approximately 7:30pm, Friday December 12th.  I cannot adequately describe just how heavenly it was to lose that thing.  I feel like a new man.  I feel faster.  Younger.  Cleaner.  Smarter.

Amazing.
If this is your first visit, some background:

Genesis
Kickoff
One Month In
Hatred

Since they say a picture is worth 1000 words, then this post will be something like 21,000 words.  All of these photos were taken by my lovely assistant and wife, Jess. So long “muppet kisses”! Without further ado…


Pregame

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Extreme Makeover – Beard Edition

I know, I’ve been slacking terribly. The blog has suffered in direct proportion to the length of my horrible beard-hair.  It must know how much I hate it.  How much I want to write about how bad it sucks.  Obviously, the beard has achieved sentience and is now taking greater and greater control of my life.

Beard, let me tell you something… your days are numbered.  Come Friday, you will be little more than scattered hairs clogging my sink.  An ignominious end for such a constant and horrific part of my life for the previous 2 months.  What follows are the observations and dislikes about having just such patchy carpet on my face.

Early on, it was itchy.  Like really itchy.  Normally, I shave about every three days or so since I don’t have the follicle coverage to require daily shaving.  So, towards the end of the first week, I really wasn’t in too much discomfort.  However, this quickly escalated.

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