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Company Picnic

Saturday afternoon Natharbi attended a company picnic in at Centennial Fields in Snoqualmie. It was nice to have a chance to hang out with some friends.

MJessica & Dan Debbie & grandtwins

Rachel (grandtwins Mom) & Lori

Lori's grandboy Ethan

We obviously did not stay long enough because we missed the limbo contest but we did do a little bouncing in the kid bouncing toys.

Should I or shouldn't I?

Come on, join me!

See, I knew this would be fun...

An awkward escape

Nathaniel managed his exodus with more grace

And off to the next Natharbi event....

Forgive the spacing, it's blogger.com's fault

Restaurant furnishings

Sally: Why would you hang a painting of a dog in a restaurant? And not just a bad painting of a dog, a paint by number painting of a dog?

Barbi: Yes, yes you are right! It does look just like a paint by number kit!

If you are the owner and you read this, please tell us why?

Dilettante for Dinner

On Wednesday night Natharbi took Sally of Gentleman's Consignment out to dinner. The plan was to dine at a french restaurant. I had never been there before but much to the consternation of Sally and Nathaniel with a disconnected number and no website, it appears to have closed.

Instead we made our way to Capital Hill where dined at El Greco , it was my pick. I erred. I had the moroccan chicken and I think I picked the best item. Nathaniel had the mousaka which we rated "unexciting" and Sally had fish. It wasn't cooked, was sent back and still she didn't really care for it. To their credit they did not charge for the third meal.

All the photos we have of Sally, she turns her head. I think she looks quite regal. I will have to try that.

On to dessert we strolled down to Dilettante Chocolates for the delicious fare we desired. Sally had the raspberry cheesecake and Natharbi shared this chocolate cake. We decided next time we will just start with dinner at Dilettante!

Nathaniel's "other" women

Yes, it's true. I have to share Nathaniel a little bit.

And so I introduce...

The "Other" Women in Nathaniel's life:

His Seamstress - Susan

Susan seems to be able to make anything from a photo. She is very talented. Nathaniel likes to order unique things, one of a kind things, and so he has to ahve a seamstress budget. I haven't actually met her yet but she does a great job of keeping Nathaniel in spats for Opera and Gala events and custom collars.

His Boutique Proprietess - Sally

Owner of one of his favorite stores, Gentleman's ConsignmentSally is a sharp witted quantrelle who owns a Gentleman's consignment shop on Madison. She knows men's fashion and has been in the business twenty years.

A Jammin' Football Party

Natharbi friends Barbie-girl Trish and Jammer Mel held a Monday night football party on the 10th. We were going to stop by and visit for a short time. Nathaniel had other business to attend to and I always have another blog waiting to be written but I was having such a good time I just decided to hang out and take and goof off for the evening.

Trish hadn't splurged the news with me that she is a Vintage Barbie woman, not just a little collector. She has a whole room dedicated to her Barbie collection. It's simply fabulous Dahling! They had a great spread of food, a lovely home and two funny dogs. Friend Susan and her Mom attended, Troy. Jim, I believe was one of the guitar players and a handful of other friends. Sorry, I should have written down names! I thought the music was so much fun, just sitting around drinking wine, and guys strumming guitars and playing music from memory. Sometimes a whole song, and sometimes just a verse. Trish posted a bunch of great photos that I wasn't able to get back into this morning while blogging, but you could tell it was a fun time. After viewing the photos Nathaniel was even concerned I was having fun without him....really, it goes without saying I was missing him the whole time.

Back to School

Means it is time for a party. Last Saturday, Natharbi's friend Jeanne, who is executive director at an independent private school held her Grown Up's Only Back to School party last Saturday. Natharbi thought it would be fun to take the theme quite literally and we dressed up for the occasion. On departure MiniMe1 and MiniMe2 asked with horror, "where are you going?!"

It was time for everyone to share what they did over their summer vacation. I think Jeanne made the most of her with trips to Florida and Hearst Castle. An evening of mingling, some delicious Cajun food and good wine equalled a good time for all. Here we donned our parochial school garb. Jeanne has a lot of friends. Her place was packed.

Dig those sexy red knee socks. I should be in a music video.

An excellent balcony with a view and the everyone convenes in the kitchen rule still takes over.

Sleepin' In

Natharbi avoided the post holiday traffic by leaving long after dark and getting home in the wee small hours of the morning. We caught up on regualr life Tuesday, of course, after sleeping in good and late. Mount Hood with the post vacation clouds coming in.

It's all down hill from here.

The last day of the Natharbi family bike ride for me was a lot of fun. I got to ride the bike on the easy parts and ride in the truck for the uphill. The group said the ride up this day was not as bad because it was not so steep. But I didn't feel any compulsion to try and prove my uphill riding.
The third day the ride was especially picturesque along the trail; forests and shade make for such great surroundings.

I did manage to get Willie to stop at one garage sale for me. He told me the rules were, "you can't buy anything that weighs more than you or that is too big to put in the truck." Deal, but alas there were no great deals at this particular sale.

The pinnacle of this trip was the view from Vista House. After numerous photo opportunities we had lunch and the 12 miles of downhill began. Tony shot out ahead like a rocket, at one point Natharbi questioned whether I had directed a wrong turn, but all was well…except for Nathaniel’s bike getting stuck in first gear. He pedaled like mad!

We celebrated the end of our journey with dinner, champpaagne, c!gars, good company and the best view on the planet - yes, I am repeating myself.

Small Town Movie Theatres

I've got to mention, one evening during this weekend Natharbi took an evening out at the movie theatre in Hood River. Very quaint, they had regular living room couches and foot stools for optimal date snuggling movie watching. We left the camera not expecting any photo opportunities.

Movie: Becoming Jane

Four Word Film Review: Jane loses her Darcey.

Good film, sad story...we got our Regency period dandy/quantrelle hit.

Sunday Recreation - we don't count as tourists

On Sunday Natharbi and family continued the biking and hiking journey. I want to tell you that I hopped on the bike and pedaled away like it was nothing but a thing. I had even planned on just not discussing the biking aspect of the day, but instead focus on the hiking. But, it is a lot funnier to just come out and tell you that the second day I totally wussed out. I did jump on the bike with still aching knees and thought, "I haven't even moved yet and my bottom still really hurts from yesterday's bike ride!" I was concerned. I think I made it maybe a quarter of a mile on a gradual uphill before Nathaniel had to cheer me on. Already feeling over exertion set in, embarrassed, I stopped and announced I was waiting for Willie to come pick me up. I would pick up with the group on the hiking portion. It was a good day for it, Willie needed some company while waiting and Nathaniel's bike broke about 30 minutes later so he road mine. I helped Willie navigate to the wait stops and heard to story about how Willie moved from Minnesota to Seattle right before it was time for his nap. Good thing the vehicle wasn't moved when that took him over. We stopped for lunch and the riders had a rest then on to the hiking! The waterfalls were beautiful. We went past Multnomah Falls which was infested with tourist and got a couple of photos then moved on to Horsetail Falls. Here we are on the inside cave side of Horsetail Falls. The path edge was a really high cliff that was a little unnerving to walking on the outside edge. When we got to the top we saw a dedication plaque to a kid you died falling off the cliff. He was 14, wonder what the likelihood that Glenn was screwing around when he fell off. (And for anyone thinking that is disrespectful to the dead...cry me a river.) There was another strange phenomena that occurred while we were out. I was often the lead going up hill while Tony brought up the end of the group. The reverse was to when going downhill. I was always at the back. Nathaniel decided that there was some mathematical weight propulsion rule coming into play here. In any downhill race, Tony wa the winner by a length.

I can't believe I road a bike up that hill!

Natharbi and family...Joyce, Tony and Joan set out on our 3 day biking, hiking trip under the watchful eye of Willie (Nathaniel's Dad) who drove the supply and emergency truck, and Mike (BIL) who helped transport people to and from bike beginning and end stops.

Barbi, Nathaniel, Tony, Joan, Willie, Joyce

A little history, Joyce, Joan and Tony ride bikes all the time. Mr. Nathaniel Stairmaster has ridden occasionally and this was my first ride on a bike in, oh say, 15ish years. I was a little out of practice.

We piled out of the trucks west of The Dalles, OR at a point on the Columbia Highway Historic District, hopped on the bikes and took off. Willie quite often counted the bikes out loud for us,

"2 + 3 is 5 bikes". Willie is a really cute, sleepy old man.

Joyce gave us a run down of the ride at breakfast. She did mention the hill, but I apparently didn't quite get what she was explaining. That was good or I would have been really apprehensive. The ride started out level, smooth very easy; about a third of the way into it we hit the incline toward Rowena Crest Viewpoint. By my calculations from the map sitting in front of me, it is about a 600 foot elevation gain. My knees were on fire, my a** already hurt from the bike seat and I was really just learning how to change the gears on the bike. I was greatful for my cheering section, Nathaniel, who kept telling me Natharbi secrets to keep my mind off the pain.

I thought I would die but, I DID IT! Great pride whooshed over me and the motivation to exercise much more welled up (at least at that moment.) Here is the hill looking back down from Rowena crest viewpoint.

The countryside was pretty, not too hot and the views were spectacular.

We continued on and went through Mosier Twin Tunnels.

The rest of the ride was downhill and flat. At some point we stopped for lunch and then finished off meeting Willie in Hood River, OR. This is how we found Willie waiting for us.

Hood River is a cute little recreation town with a great little ice cream place where we treated ourselves. It is apparently the capital of the world for wind sailing and a very busy place this particular holiday weekend.

We were all pretty trounced by the end of the day.

Natharbi, of course, adhered to our vacation nap tradition.