You're on the thinnest of ice...

Who would have thought Don Draper has a sense of humor? Last year when Jon Hamm hosted SNL we were impressed, especially the "Jon Hamm's John Ham" sketch. We thought perhaps it was a fluke that he was so funny. Then he did a four episode arc on 30 Rock and he was great. Last night he hosted SNL for a second time and he was on point. Our favorite sketch (with "Sergio" as a close second) was an advertisement for a new restaurant that blends the finest pork products with the best champagne. Enjoy!

Speaking of Julie Andrews

I am reading this, Home: A Memoir of My Early Years, by Julie Andrews. I am only 10 pages in but it is absolutely delightful! I've paused to read two excerpts from the book to Ben and I do so in my best english, Julie Andrews accent. Even after only being 10 pages in I'd recommend this read to any Julie fans! HA! (I'll let you know if my recommendation stands once I'm finished.)

Another... Cannon Beach Post... Will it ever end?

Who is tired of hearing about our Cannon Beach trip? Sorry for the excessive posts on this topic, we just had a lot to say and share about the Oregon coast! Besides this post there will only be one more and then we will move on to a new topic. (Promise.) Ben and I consider this blog to be like a journal so the large amounts of photos and memories from our trips are more for us to remember and for any of you out there who are interested to enjoy!

Micah and Uncle CoCo playing with the beach ball on the deck, look how close we were to the rock!

Miss Lyd's hanging out with her Dem!

Doppelgänger

This week is "Doppelgänger Week" on Facebook, a doppelgänger is a ghostly double of a living person. Yesterday while Ben was reading an Entertainment Weekly a friend of ours was looking over his shoulder and did a double take of this picture. He and Ben can't believe how much Amy Adams looks like me (or I look like Amy Adams) in this picture. I really admire Amy Adams so I'll take it!

I've also been told I look like:

Julie Andrews or more specifically Maria von Trapp. I don't see this one as much, maybe it has to do with the hair (or Julie's lack there of) but I love Maria von Trapp so I'll take this 'look-a-like' as a compliment as well.

Now for Ben, I've alway thought Ben looks like:

Jimmy Fallon. Ben doesn't see it, do you? Think Ben sans glasses... I think you'll see it! Not only does Ben look like Jimmy Fallon but I think they have similar mannerisms watch one Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show and I think you'll understand!

Who have you been told you look like?

Hey You Guys... Another Oregon Coast Post

On our recent trip to Cannon Beach, OR we made sure to stop off in Astoria. As you've seen a few posts ago Astoria is a pretty costal town rich in history. The Lewis and Clark expedition spent a winter there, Washington Irving wrote a story about the town, in 1847 the city welcomed the first U.S. Post Office west of the Rocky Mountains (thanks wiki), and oh yeah The Goonies was filmed there.

Like most children of the '80s I have a soft spot in my heart for The Goonies. I have easily seen this movie over 50 times (although when I told this to my older brother Adam he swears the number is closer to 100... he may be right). A couple days before we left for the coast I was talking about how excited I was to see the sites from the movie when Mandy confessed that she had never really seen the entire movie before. This shouldn't be a surprise but it was, in fact here is a quick list of extremely popular movies that made me who I am (not really) that Mandy has not seen:

Back to the Future trilogy (I made her watch the first one last summer)

The Karate Kid trilogy

Rocky I-IV (who cares about V)

Indiana Jones trilogy

Gremlins I or II

To be fair, Mandy didn't grow up with any brothers and she thinks it's crazy that I have never seen The Sound of Music (in its entirety) or Grease.

Anyway, we watched the film before we left and I can report that Mandy thoroughly enjoyed it. While watching we took mental notes of what we (I) wanted to see. Mandy went online and was able to find addresses and filming locations. While most of the movie is filmed in the Astoria area there are crucial scenes filmed in Cannon Beach as well as in So. California. When we pulled into town we met a local who told us everywhere we needed to go, he even gave us a city map that had the locations printed on it (see we are not the only ones who come looking for this stuff).

The movie begins with the Fertelli's busting Jake out of jail. The area looks pretty much the same although the jail is no longer in use.

Same jail, different color.

As the Fratelli's race from the cops through the streets of Astoria they somehow make it to a truck rally on Cannon Beach some 30 min away.

This was right outside the beach house. Wish I would have seen a rally but somehow I don't see that ever happening again due to fact that now the rock and the area surrounding it is a protected Marine Garden and Bird Sanctuary.

The museum where Mikey and Brand's dad (that's him raising the flag) works is actually the George Flavel House and right across the street from the jail.

Here I am on the porch.

The Walsh's home looked virtually the same except for the notable absence of the gate opening contraption. I was happy to see that the Astoria Country Club wasn't allowed to tear it down and build a golf course. This was perhaps the most surreal stop on our tour because that house and its landscape is pretty iconic to me.

I thought this picture was more appropriate to post than the one of me doing the "Truffle Shuffle".

Next door is Data's house. 1985.

Richard "Data" Wang's house 2010.

The people who now live in the Walsh's home are pretty cool about the fact that nerds from all over want to come and see their house. Aside from having their address listed on the cities tourist map, they also have this sign posted in front of their long driveway.

Mikey, Mouth, Data and Chunk are on the hunt for One Eyed Willie's treasure in Astoria but really they are searching in Ecola State Park. Which I hear is beautiful on a clear day but when we were there it was very wet and foggy so we couldn't see it all. Oh well, a reason to go back!

If you are wondering why all the previous pictures are only of me it's because at every location when I would ask if Mandy wanted to take a picture she would say "no, this is your thing." She was so nice to spend a day of her vacation geeking out with me. So here we are at Ecola State Park, cold, wet and having a blast.

Word of the Day

...and all the people caterwauled because we hadn't blogged in two days!

Ben and I have subscribed to a "Word of the Day," app on my IPod. We try to use the word two to three times a day to help broaden our vocabulary. It's been fun so far! Our word today was:

Caterwaul- to make a harsh scream or yell

Don't be a troglodyte, sign up for a word of the day email too!




Sorry for not posting... We'll be better the rest of the month.

The Puzzle

The first night we were in Cannon Beach my niece Lydia found a 1000 piece puzzle in the house game cupboard. She brought it out asking if we could do it, I explained that it being 1000 pieces it might be too hard but we could give it a try. My intention was to complete the outer rim with her before she went to bed and then we could put it away and find a new (smaller) puzzle in the morning. While we were waiting for dinner (pizza) Lydia, her dad (John), and I started putting the out rim together. Lydia lost interest pretty quickly but it became apparent to me (and to John, I think) that we weren't going to be putting this puzzle away any time soon. Pizza arrived and John and I were frantically trying to get the outer rim complete. We had caught the puzzle bug. We ate our pizza and then immediately got back to the puzzle. We all had our own strategies or plans of attack. The puzzle was a Thomas Kinkade painting and John noticed the windows on the house had a distinct look so we starting searching for window pieces. I thought I'd start with one of the large trees that had cherry blossoms on it. John and I got a few pieces in place that night and then decided to continue in the morning. By morning several others had caught the puzzle bug my dad, and sister Carrie were just as obsessed with working on it. Lydia would come over occasionally saying that she really wanted to help, so we got in the habit of leaving a few "previously placed" pieces out for her to put in the puzzle. She loved it! We worked on this puzzle all weekend long Carrie, my dad, and I stayed up until 2 one night puzzling away. When Ben and I were leaving Sunday night the puzzle wasn't complete, but I was promised the rest of the group that was staying one more night would do there best to complete it. I got a text later that night saying they finished it in the wee-hours, but they did leave the last 4 pieces out for Lydia to put in in the morning. Thanks Lydia for initiating a fun activity that lasted all weekend long!

On a dorky side note: I have scoured the internet to show you the painting from the puzzle but there are too many paintings to go through. I wanted to show you because John and I discussed that Mr. Kinkade might need a lesson or two in the 4 seasons. The particular house had snow on the roof, but flowers in full bloom throughout the garden and no snow on the ground. Some things become perplexing when you've stared at a puzzle for as long as we did!

Out With Class

Can't wait to see what's next...

Whoops!

For all of our fans out there... (HA!) I forgot to hit "post" on our posting for Wednesday, January 20th so it looked like for a day or two that we didn't post on the 20th. A promise is a promise and I wanted to alert all of you that we did have a posting for that day. (I know, like anyone out there really cares.) For the 3 of you that are paying attention make sure to scroll down and see the post from the 20th, there are some GREAT photos if I do say so myself!

Potty Talk

William (the 3 year old boy I nanny) has been making frequent trips to the potty today... not really sure why, but I'm glad he is excited to "go on the potty!" It seems everytime he 'toots' he yells, "I gotta go potty" and we run to the bathroom.

During one of our many trips to the bathroom today he asked if he could flip up both lids to the potty and just sit on the rim. I said no, because he might fall in.

Then he said, "Is it chompy in there?"

I said, "Where?"

He said, "IN THE POTTY!" with great annoyance at my ignorance.

I said, "No, I don't think it's chompy I just don't want you to fall in the poopy water."

He said, "Oh... then you have to get a new William?" with a very concerned look on his face.

I responded, "No, William you are the one and only William we could never replace you!"

He then gave me a big smile!

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Watch out for those toilet bowls everyone... I hear they can be quite chompy.

Peter Iredale Shipwreck

Before Ben and I headed back south to Cannon Beach we were advised to stop off in a little town called Warrenton and see the Peter Iredale shipwreck. It had been drizzling all day so I wasn't too optimistic of this little adventure. We really lucked out and got to see an amazing sunset and discovered one of the coolest things I've ever seen on the Oregon Coast. The Peter Iredale Ship ran ashore in 1906 while it was on its way to the Columbia River, it was abandoned and the wreckage is still visible from the shore. We were told by one local that after a big storm even more sand is washed away and you can see more of the ship. Enjoy the photos! If you ever find yourself in Warrenton, OR we highly recommend stopping to see this!

Astoria

We got up Friday morning and headed 20 miles up north to a little town called Astoria. Our main reason for going to Astoria was to see all the "Goonie" sights, I'll have to ask Ben to blog about that later. It was a wet day but I think we got the most out of this tiny coastal town. Our first stop was the Astoria Tower atop Astoria's highest hill.

When we arrived I was feeling like it might be a waste to climb to the top because it was so foggy and rainy. After going into the visitor's center and discovering that it was only one dollar for us both to climb I quickly changed my mind! Such a deal!

Quick side note: When my family was in Pisa, Italy a few years ago we wanted to climb the Leaning Tower. We found out it was fifteen euro per person to climb! That seemed a little steep (no pun intended) to me but I was quickly humbled when I reached the top. My favorite photos from the trip were taken on top of the tower!

 

 

We paid our one dollar and started the 164 step climb to the top. The actual climb was very easy it was the narrowness of the stairs that made it a bit hard. It felt like you were spinning in circles as you were climbing which made me pretty dizzy!

When we got to the top we realized we were above most of the rain and fog, it was a nice break from the drizzle. This photo is looking out on Young's Bay and downtown Astoria.





Once we came down I convinced Ben to do the standard "Pisa" shot. Anyone who has been to the Leaning Tower of Pisa can relate to these photos. On the lawns at the leaning tower there are tons and tons of tourists taking pictures of them "holding up" the tower. I thought it would make for a funny shot in Astoria, OR. We got quite a few weird looks from passersby but I think it was worth it!