It's Rainy - This Must Be Oregon

I awaken to the pitter patter of a light rain on the roof; that, along with the sound of the water flowing over the rocks in the little stream next to my bedroom window are enough to decide to enjoy my coffee - hazelnut-flavored in honor of Oregon - and stick inside until it clears up a bit.

Not the same desire in Lincoln's mind!  He's scampering out as soon as Mom says it's okay.  He truly enjoys lying under the rig and watching the world go by.  It appears that if I 'introduce' him to a new spot (yard) while on the leash, he can then find his way back home without any trouble when he goes out.  I hope I'm not being under-cautious but he does love being in the great outdoors.

Oh, I stopped writing for a moment because my granddaughter, Addison, called from Colorado Springs, where she's teaching Fourth Grade in the Teach For America program.  What an ambitious young lady; she's loving her first profession after graduation from Loyola Marymount in May.  This young woman is going to go far; I just know it.  She has such an appreciation for life, a true adventurous spirit and energy and enthusiasm that know no bounds.

Here's an adorable, and a little out of focus (a picture of a picture) photo of Addison, age 8 and younger sister, Holland, age 6, holding the twins, Malia and Samantha, age about 4 months in Summer 2000.  Check out Holland's shoes; they're Aunt Alice's.

And, here's Addison (right) at brunch in Antigua, Guatemala while visiting me and meeting new friends, from L to R:  Ana (my teacher at Antigueña Academia), Maureen's friend, age 16, Maureen (Guatemala friend from Minnesota), Katy, age 20, Ana's daughter and Addison, age 20.  The entire conversation was in Spanish, at which Addison is proficient.

Back to today's goals (I use the term loosely!):
*Work on my Adobe Elements 11 application and use - still need to tweak the look of this blog.
*Work on my 1Password application (an application that generates a secure ID and password and stores them in a virtual vault) - enter log in information for highly visited accounts needing password protection.  I don't know about others but I have so many different passwords I have to maintain a (Excel) spreadsheet, that's password protected, to try to keep up with them all.

I emailed Harry and David, headquartered in Medford, Oregon, about 20 miles from here and asked to participate in a tour of their kitchens tomorrow in the late morning.  I love lots of their products and have given them for gifts, you know, for the person who has everything, for years.  I just may have to buy some Moose Munch or Baklava or  Riviera Pears or ??? to bring back to Floribunda.  I'm also going to stop at Home Depot in Medford to buy some unglazed ceramic tiles to place in my gas oven to help prevent over-browning when I bake cakes, casseroles and the like.