Friday, Day 15

Woo hoo! We're in Vancouver, B.C., home of the 2010 Winter Olympics. It's still cold here, that's for sure. Instead of spotting Olympians around town, we've only seen pediatric specialists from around the world running hither and yon.


We took Random to the vet's early this morning for boarding because we didn't want to come home to find him reduced to a pile of windblown cat fur from his fights with Hobbes. Too bad we couldn't bring him to Vancouver to see Andy, but I think the prospect of five hours of Random yowling would have resulted in abandoning him in Centralia.

We explored a little before Andy's plane landed. Here's Tom at Canada Place, where Andy's conference will be held.

Getting caught up.

Sabbatical Useful Projects Running Count: Who cares!

Thursday, Day 14

Tom's sabbatical is two weeks old. I feel like baking a cake and putting two candles on it. But, of course, I can't because I'm busy packing for our weekend in Vancouver, B.C., where we'll meet Andy who will be attending a conference.


Tom, with the help of Matt, completed moving everything, except for the bed, out of the bedroom. (When the bed is finally moved, will it still be a "bedroom"? If I then put a chair in it, will it become a "chairroom"?)


The room looks awfully empty.

Tom kindly vacuumed the room before I got home from work, saving me the disturbing sight of 22-year-old dust elephants.


All that book packing and furniture moving was the easy part. Good thing we can ignore the hard part for a few more days. I hope Vancouver has a big party planned for us.

Sabbatical Useful Projects Running Total: Started-6, Completed-5.3.

Tuesday, Day 13

We recycled, donated, and released into the wild a lot of things today. There was also lots more packing. And complaining. And dust bunnies. Actually, make that dust elephants.


We couldn't figure out how to get the dresser drawers out, so we called the man who made them over ten years ago. Thanks to Google, we tracked down his new phone number. His answer: just yank hard on them. Tom and I had been too gentle, not wishing to break them into kindling. It worked and we felt a little silly. But if any of you want really pretty, well-made furniture, go to Falcon Designs in North Plains.


This is what Tallulah thinks of the whole moving thing.

Our bedroom now echoes with most of the furniture gone. The walls are mostly bare. Now we can really see the cracks.

In a few days we'll rip the carpet up and discover where the bodies are buried. Eek. It's too late to turn back now.


Sabbatical Useful Projects Running Count: Started: 6, Completed 5.28.

Tuesday, Day 12

Packing up to work on the bedroom is just like packing up to MOVE. Yuck!

And it's like dominoes! In order to pack up the stuff in our bedroom, we had to make room in Ted's old room. So his stuff had to get packed up and moved to the basement. So in order to move his old stuff to the basement, his new stuff in the basement had to be more efficiently packed. So that meant that Tom had to put together the potting table (again) that had been taken apart, so we could put boxes and stuff on it in the basement. And so on, and so on.

Tomorrow we have to go to Free Geek (for recycling electronics), Goodwill, and Booktique (public library used bookstore) with all the stuff we've "liberated" this week. Tallulah is giving you a sense of perspective by standing in front of the stuff.

Not in the picture is one of our iMacs. Tom will probably have to run next to the car because there won't be any room for him to ride.

Tom is practicing his running.

Tom walked home from the bookstore and got caught in a rainstorm that lasted all the way home. He looked like a drowned rat. Here's a picture of Tom:

Sabbatical Useful Projects Running Total: Started-6, Completed-5.2.

Monday, Day 11

1It's nice to be able to go out to dinner on a weekday and not have to worry about getting home early because of work the next day. This was Tom's actual birthday, so we took Matt and Kathy with us and went to Le Pigeon. (No fancy pronunciation when I called for a reservation: "Pigeon" was pronounced just the way we Amuricuns would.) Bacon apricot cornbread with maple ice cream. Yum.

Tom packed one more box of books. I liberated a box from Ted's collection of very useful objects that he's temporarily storing with us. I moved Ted's stuff into a more compact arrangement because there's a whole mess of stuff that needs to come down from upstairs. There's still about a shelf's worth of books to go. I hope that one day soon I will be able to say that all the books are packed. I'm getting a bottle of shampain ready for that event.

 In the meantime, here's the count. Sabbatical Useful Projects Running Count: Started-6, Completed-5.1, Contemplated-.85.

Sunday, Day 10

I had a lot of books on the bookshelf in the bedroom. Tom used ALL the boxes and only four shelves have been emptied. We better receive more boxes of books at the bookstore so I can have the empty boxes, or the kingdom will be lost for want of a nail!

Only four emptied shelves (three visible here) of books filled up all the boxes!

But this feels like progress now. Tom worked hard. The CDs are packed up. The cassettes are packed up. Now (most of) the books are packed up.

If only there weren't so many BIG pieces of furniture in the bedroom. We have to take apart the queen-sized bed, the computer desk (with shelves), two dressers, two nightstands, and a TV table. And what about the clock (that doesn't work) sitting on the floor next to the cowgirl boots?

I force Tom to watch the show "Hoarding" to inspire us. Today I read a review in the New York Times of a book about hoarding. I immediately went upstairs and packed two bags of books to donate. I didn't even have to read the actual book (saving me money); just the review sufficed.

Sabbatical Useful Projects Running Total: Started-6, Completed-5, Contemplated-.9

Saturday, Day 9

We're watching Hobbes, queen of the cats. We're also watching "Open Your Eyes," the Spanish film that was remade into "Vanilla Sky" with Tom Cruise. I think it's more fun to watch Hobbes.

We started the day by attending the funeral of Chan. He moved to Oregon from China about 25 year ago and started teaching tai chi. Our teacher is one of his many students. One of Chan's dictums is that you are a better student if you also teach. It must be one of those "little grasshopper" Eastern things

Chan was about 80 years old when he died, but he looked much younger. He liked to make sound effects while he students performed. I think he must have been a happy person. He certainly smiled a lot.

We've just started learning the 108-form. Our teacher, Bryan, was learning the form himself from Chan. Bryan had only gotten to about the 80th movement. It takes years to learn the form, so we probably have a couple years worth of material before our teacher runs out of movements. Then we're stranded. And so it goes.

Sabbatical Useful Projects Running Count: Suspended temporarily.

Friday, Day 8

It's getting so I can't tell what day of the week it is anymore. It's so weird having Tom home all the time. One of these days I'm going to forget to go to work because I will think it's a day it isn't.


Today Tom planted the flower seedlings that have been growing in our basement -- with the light on all the time so people probably thinking we're growing illegal substances.

We're ramping up the enthusiasm to pack all the books in our bedroom. So far it has been just talk, no action. That's not completely true. I brought home two more boxes today from work. We have many, many boxes. Many, many empty boxes.

After having watched "Up in the Air" this evening, we're depressed. Maybe we should have watched "Up" again instead. Or sung a few bars of "Up on the Roof" or "Up, Up and Away." Up in the air=down in the dumps.

Sabbatical Useful Project Running Totals: Started-5, Completed-5, Contemplated-1.

Thursday, Day 7

It has been a week now. Let's look at what Tom has accomplished.


1. The top of his dresser is clean.
2. The cassette of "Violins at Breakfast" is gone.
3. We have more rags.
4. Hmm. Give me a moment. Oh, well. We'll come back to this list.


Tonight was the season finale of "Project Runway," and a Vancouver designer won. He was punk and his family was suburban. He made Tim Gunn jump on a trampoline in his backyard. Here is a picture of Tom doing an impersonation of Vincent D'Onofrio watching "Project Runway."

Oh, I know.


4. There are boxes all over the upstairs.


Sabbatical Useful Projects Running Count: Started-4, Completed-4, Contemplated-1, Running Water-1, Running around the neighborhood-5, Running off at the mouth-1, Running out of things to say-0, Running around in circles-0, Running away with the show-1.

Wednesday, Day 6

Baby steps. Baby steps.


We have cassette tapes we haven't played in ten years. Today's assignment for Tom was to go through the cassette tapes and toss the ones we didn't want to convert into digital files. Out went "Roben Ford," "David Sanborn," and "Breakfast with Violins." What are those? you ask. Exactly. You've never heard of them, have you? But I also found Boyz II Men in the discard pile! Maybe I'll sneak it out later. Looking at the dusty tapes certainly brings back memories. (Roxanne, you don't have to put on the red light . . . hum de dum de dum.)


We went to Cirque de Soleil tonight. The contortionists were amazing but creepy in a stylish sort of way. Like watching a geek show performance. While bent in two backwards, one of them walked her feet around her head. Words cannot describe ... and cameras were prohibited, so your imagination will have to suffice.

If you don't want to see me cry, don't ask about taking the trolley home afterwards. It's a long, sad end to an otherwise productive day.


Sabbatical Useful Projects Running Count: Started-4, Completed-4, Contemplated-1.

Tuesday, Day 5

Tom walked to the bookstore with me. The skies were dark, but we beat the rain. Five miles there. Then Tom walked back home. Another 4.2 miles. He still had energy to complete his assigned task for the day: clean off his dresser. I wish I had thought to take a "before" picture, but I didn't. It was like the Stygian stables, and Tom "Hercules" Cave managed to clean it off.

We're a little bit closer to actually working on the bedroom.

Sabbatical useful projects count: Started-3, Completed-3, Contemplated-1.

Monday, Day 4

It's true that the car started to turn off the highway at Tom's office, but we wrestled it back on course. We were heading down the highway to a BFS (big f***ing store) to get a turntable so I could transform our vinyl records into mp3s. This is a project I've been working on for years. This is my fourth device, and it looks like the fourth time is the charm. But anyway, I digress.


Today was the true test of what it's like to be on sabbatical.


Tom threw away three old running shorts. We cut up four of his old T-shirts into rags.

Running Count of Useful Projects: Started 2; Completed 2; Contemplated 1.


P.S. We picked up some boxes to (theoretically) pack up our bedroom.

Sunday, Day 3

Last night "we" watched "Community," an NBC show Andy told us about at Christmas. It's hilarious. To celebrate his ability to stay up really late if he wants to ... Tom slept through it. It was 8:00 p.m. He was in bed by 10:00, after having gotten kicked every two minutes by me to wake up and watch the show.

Ted came over to eat matzoh at Kornblatt's with us. While we were walking, Ted asked Tom if it felt weird to have stayed home on Friday. Tom said it had been like a three-day weekend so far and tomorrow would be the real test. They then launched into a 15-minute work discussion of something to do with printer lines, shields, and pins. The only thing I understood was "and then we could plug it into the floor." And maybe I didn't even understand that because in my world things are plugged into the wall. Listening to their discussion was like listening to "Holmes on Homes" on HGTV: "And we'll have to run a 4x8 laminate along the truss line and hollow out the core for an APC for the EVG through to the upstairs." Huh?

Tom illustrating a printer cable point.


Tom and I talked about starting to work on our bedroom. That means packing stuff up, ripping up the old carpet, patching the cracks, and painting the walls. That's why so far it's just talk.

What else did Tom do? He ran, he carried the seedlings from the basement to the great outdoors, he moved chairs at the bookstore for an author signing, he cheered the Blazers on to victory in their first play-off game.

Tom cannot fathom that I want to blog his sabbatical. It will be so borrrrring, he says (see last paragraph). Have you thought about skydiving, I say. Ha, ha, he said. This is the last laugh which I am making: Hah! Just wait until he finds out I signed him up for a lesson on Thursday.

Sabbatical Useful Projects: Started-1, Completed-1, Contemplated-1

(P.S. Just joking about the skydiving lesson.)

Saturday, Day 2

When we were walking across England last year, the only person whose feet stayed dry was Frank. He had La Sportiva boots. When I got home I got me a pair of them thar fine boots. When it snowed unexpectedly this past winter and I had to walk home in the slush because all traffic had come to a standstill, I fortunately had my La Sportivas on. My feet were warm and ... dry. Yay! Today was REI's membership day with a 20% off coupon, so Tom bought a pair of La Sportivas. He can't pronounce the name of his boots, but his feet won't care ... they'll be dry. Now if only there were a bog to tromp through.

I think Tom made it all the way to 7:00 a.m. this morning before he got up. I was excited because he won at poker last night. It wasn't in the big game but a side game after he was eliminated. Stepping Stone, here we come! We were walking home after our big filling $14 breakfast, and I finally asked him how much he had won. Three dollars, he said. Next time I'll ask him how much he won before breakfast.

Our front porch planter now has bright red geraniums and some sort of lime-colored creeping stuff. It looks very nice, and I approve of Tom's Saturday project.

Sabbatical Usefulness Count: Projects Started: 1; Projects Completed 1.

Tom's Sabbatical, Day 1

What do you call a person who is taking a sabbatical? A "sabbatee"? That sounds like a shoe. Also, isn't a sabbatical supposed to be taken after seven years? Tom has been at the PLF for 25 years. He's getting three months off, so shouldn't he really be getting (3x~3.6) 10.8 months off? He probably wouldn't want to go back to work if that were the case. I told him he must work until Andy is a bona fide doctor and can support us in the style to which we would like to become accustomed.


So what did Tom do on his first day? He said he was going to sleep late. He slept until ... 7:30. Oh, wow, she said sarcastically, you really pulled that off.


We went to the Friendly House gym to work out. As we were getting ready, I said it would take me 20 minutes. I was ready in 20 minutes; Tom was not. "I didn't think you'd really be ready in 20 minutes," he said. So I went to the gym alone. Tom said he'd catch up. Forty minutes later, I spotted Tom entering the room. I was done and told Tom I was leaving. Great, he said, I'll come with you. Wait a minute, you just got here, I said. No, I've been here for a while, he said earnestly, I just stepped out for a drink of water. Oh, right, I said sarcastically (again with the sarcasm). But he looked innocent (and earnest), and there was water dripping from his mouth.


When I got home from work, I was greeted by a pair of muddy shoes in the window. What the heck? I was working in the yard and the shoes got muddy, he said, and I'm drying them out. Our cat Random thought they were put in the window for him, and he was busy inspecting them. Other people have flowers or lamps in the window. We have muddy shoes and cats.


He's treating himself to a poker game as I write this. It's late and that usually means he's doing well. Oh, boy, maybe there'll be pancakes at the Stepping Stone Cafe tomorrow ... his treat! Or maybe he's lost in the serpentine streets of Northeast Portland. Then it's cold cereal for breakfast instead.

Before