Trying to stay distracted.

Well friends, here we are. Approaching day 9 out of 20 during Erik's absence. He's out in Idaho, being a river guide on the Main Salmon River. It's really hard when he's away. I'm used to it by now, we've spent a lot of time apart during our years together, sometimes months at a time. But, no matter how used to it I may be, it doesn't stop from sucking.

So, here I sit, in beautiful Portland. I'm sorry, but I'm going to talk about the weather for a second. As most of you know, Portland is a rainy place. It rains for about 8 months of the year. It's grey. It's gloomy. It's depressing, sometimes. But, let me tell you about the summers. It sits at about 80 degrees, the sun shines, it's not humid, beer festivals abound, and everything is green and lush. This city really shines in the summer months. I'm really happy that they've arrived & are here to stay for a while.

However nice it may be in PDX, I was able to escape the city life for a weekend and travel to Colorado to see my good friends Dave and Nancy Slattery. They live out in Gilpin County, which is west of Golden and outside of Nederland. Their place is super nice and the view was unreal. But at almost 10,000 feet, the view is always amazing. I could see Long's Peak from their back deck. There's nothing like looking out into the Rockies every morning.

It was a great time to get away. I was able to visit and catch up with my dearest friends and mentors, and we made great progress on our ministry project! It's coming together & we have some clear vision. I have LOTS of writing to do, though! I was also able to lend them my great bartending skills for a night, since they threw a party for their county commissioner's re-election. If any of you readers are from Gilpin County, you need to re-elect Forrest Whitman. He's a rad dude & makes a killer batch of green chili.

Nancy and Dave also have the coolest dogs on the planet. They have Boaz, a french mastiff, and Kanah, a bull mastiff. They are both awesome & perfectly trained. Kanah is the sweetest dog ever, and Boaz is as alpha-dog as they come. Here's some pictures:

The mighty Boaz:

The beautiful Kanah:
Here's me and Boaz hangin' out:

So the last 9 days have been pretty good, all things considered. But with 9 days down, that means I have 11 days left to paint my downstairs! On that note, I'm going to start prepping the living room with blue tape and drop cloths.