Hike to Punchbowl Falls

Here are some pics of our hike to Punch bowl falls on Memorial day.

The water was very cold.

Metlako Falls

And we end with a picture of my beautiful wife.

Mike Tyson has nothing on me.

Portland Rose Festival started this weekend with the city fair and a fireworks show over the Willamette river. While at the festival I wanted to channel my inner fighter and get my face painted similar to Iron Mike Tyson but with something a little different that would make it more Bennett like. Hence the butterfly.

It actually made the fair a lot of fun. I have never had so many people give me weird looks, and I have got a lot of weird looks in my life.

When the Moffats Came to Town

Andrew, Christine and Michael came by and gave Katie and I someone to talk to besides ourselves. It was wonderful having them here as we wnt to the beach, the Columbia river gorge, downtown, the Pittock mansion and a few gardens. I am still disappointed that Christine never ate from the gluten free food cart but, but now they have a reason to come back and visit again.

What we do with a Sunday afternoon and a dictionary

So Bennett and I were sitting around this afternoon, me studying a dictionary and Bennett contemplating suicide (or as I like to call it, watching the Yankees lose). I asked if he would like to write some stories instead. We gave each other 5 words from the dictionary. Each of the words had to be used in the opening paragraph of a possible short story. Read on for amusement.

A Teacher Gets Fired

By Bennett Johnson

Vocabulary Words

Recondite: not easily understood, obtuse

Psychograph: graph or chart of personality traits

Melisma: an ornamental phrase of music sung to one word over several notes (such as the "Gloria" in Angels we have Heard on High). (Bennett's definition: crappy singing.)

Interloper: meddler, interfere for selfish reasons

Horologe: devise such as a clock used for telling time

The student was definitely recondite. He had been disturbing class for weeks in the oddest ways. "Seriously," thought the teacher, "who can keep a melisma going under their breath for 45 minutes? If I were to make a psychograph of his behavior it would be a painting you could hang in Satan's den in Hell. But today that will all change, for today, I become the destructive interloper." The teacher laughed to himself as he glanced at the horologe, "Only a few minutes left."

Twenty-One days on a Horse Named Fiddles

By Katie Johnson

Vocabulary Words
Jennet: small Spanish saddle horse
Operose: Involving great labor

Ophidia: of, relating to or resembling snakes

Thrombus: a clot in the chamber of the heart

Excresence: an abnormal outgrowth or enlargement, such as a wart

On the fifth day of riding the jennet accross the Mengabi Desert, the horse spoke to Ferdinand with her many headed, ophidia like tongue. On the seventh day, he perceived his newly acquired thrombus had developed feelings and was pouting due to unfair treatment from the other organs. On the fifteenth day he operosely gave birth to a hairy excresence. He named it Suzy.

Captain Jasper Fagnally and the Stupendous Swamp Gang

By Bennett Johnson

Vocabulary Words:
Bilk: to defraud or swindle, one who cheats, to evade payment
Calotte: a skullcap, especially worn by the Roman Catholic priest
Calypso: a sea nymph who delayed Odysseus for 7 years
Coadunate: closely joined, grown together, united
Levorotation: counterclockwise rotation especially of a plan of polarized light


Jasper had grown fond of Calypso, you could even say their relationship had coadunated nicely. They had been bilking their way across the bayou for weeks now, taking suckers for every last penny and laughing about it over crawfish and absinthe under a bright Cajun moon. Many people said it wasn't natural for a man to grow so close to a sea nymph, especially one that wore a calotte, which resulted in their being chased from Shreveport for sacrilege. But as Jasper lay tied to an old ship's helm, spinning with a slow levorotation under the hot sun, ready to die, knowing their luck had run out, he was glad to call Calypso a friend.

I Got All My Vocab Words in One Sentence

By Katie Johnson

Vocabulary Words
Itasca: a lake in NW Minn., source of the Mississippi River
Misanthrope: one who hates or mistrusts human kind
Campanology: the art and study of making and ringing bells
Anasarca: A general accumulation of serious fluid in tissue and body cavities
Querulous: complaining, grumbling, peevish


The querulous misanthrope sat fishing on lake Itasca thinking of campanology while trying not to think of his anasarca. He slowly came to the conclusion that campanology and anasarca were not that different after all. And that made him feel slighly better.

(Bennett wanted me to title this: What's that Ringing? It's Anasarca!)

Happy Mothers day!

Hope it was better than touching this donkey!

I dislike moving

I dislike moving.

Lake Havasu Take 2

We went to Lake Havasu again with Craig and Kathy Moffat. Michael loved playing in the water, but we forgot a bathing suit so he played in his onesie.

Easter

Here is Michael at Kingman's Easter Egg Hunt. He's so happy he has 1.5 eggs. Once he got 2 eggs (one in each hand) he stopped "hunting" Mommy picked up the rest for him.

Another picture of me on a sunny day in Portland

Here's another picture to prove that it was (in fact) a sunny today in Portland. And yes, I sat and read in it for 3.5 hours.

The most beautiful day in the world (or at least Portland)

Get a good look at this! There were no (I repeat... none!) clouds in the sky today. After church, at around 1:30 or so, Bennett and I sped over to the park and sat in the sun reading and taking pictures (I did the reading, Bennett the photographing). Oh, lovely. It was so lovely that when Bennett came over and said he was going home because it was 5:00 and time to make some dinner, I said I would walk home. It was an empty threat (we live a good 10 miles from the park) so I had to go away from my sunny, heavenly, holy, warm, luxurious sanctuary. I've been told all summer and fall days are like today. Can such mythical tails be true? The sun has almost become a foreign, glowing object to me. What is this mysterious orb casting warmth to our rain sogged planet? If the stories are true, it might make sloshing through 5 months of rain and mud worth it.

I didn't know they exploded...

Let's just say there is a reason for tinfoil. Unbeknownst to me, there truly is.