Word of the season

slack*er [slak-er] (n.)
1. a person who evades his or her duty or work; shirker.
2. a person who evades military service.
3. an esp. educated young person who is antimaterialistic, purposeless, apathetic, and usually works in a dead-end job.

Whoa, I wasn't expecting the vigour of the third definition. Is it just me, or does it sound just a tad bitter? Perhaps it was written by the frustrated parent of a slacker?

Anyway, I am guilty of definition #1, as it relates to this blog. I have some serious catching up to do again. I don't seem to be a very consistent summer blogger, do I? Too many other things to do.

Chris and I just returned from our honeymoon in Europe, so I will have lots of photos to post soon. Until then, here are a few snippets to fill the gaps between Cowboy's kayaking adventure and the honeymoon:

Splitting wood


Enjoying another sunny day on the water, with Finn instead of Cowboy


Homecoming BBQ at Eric & Jen's


Boating with Ben & Carrie


Backyard opera and 80's bash at Wenarto's


Starbucks Pirate Picnic


Walla Walla Wino Women



Point B Getaway at Sun Mountain Lodge



As always, click on the thumbnails to see the larger image.

Cowboys don't kayak

We rigged up a system so that Cowboy can join us when we kayak. The idea is pretty simple: pull him behind the kayak in a float tube. The problem with this idea is that Cowboy is not a big fan of being in or near the water, unless he's wading or doing his Superman-belly-crawl move. Here's our first attempt:

Step 1: Put lifejacket on Cowboy. Since he wears a full pack on hikes, this was no problem.

Step 2: Get Cowboy used to sitting in the float tube on solid ground. He wouldn't get in at first, but once I got in and encouraged him to join me, he had no problem. He was fine sitting there by himself.

Step 3: Get Cowboy used to sitting in the float tube on the dock. He was starting to get worried now, because he was so close to the water. Getting him into the tube was a little more difficult, but not too bad. Once again, he was fine sitting there...because he didn't realize what was about to happen.

Step 4: Push float tube + Cowboy into the water. Boy, he didn't like this one. It took several tries before we could get him in the water and far enough away from the dock before he jumped out of the tube and swam back.

Step 5: Get in kayak to pull float tube + Cowboy. This is the only time we got this far in the process, so I'm glad I was able to get a picture of it.

End Result: Kayak goes one direction, Cowboy goes in opposite direction. As you can see, Cowboy was tied to the tube, which was tied to the kayak...so we've got a little conflict of interests here. I think Cowboy won the tug-of-war out of sheer desperation to get back to the dock.

New Approach, Step 1: Swim alongside Cowboy to help him get used to being in the float tube by himself.

To be continued...

So long, farewell

unstable giant
windstorms crashing branches down
sorry, you must go