Walk the walk

Good news from my end. I've been walking the dogs lately, and I'm finding that i really enjoy it. I mean don't get me wrong, I come home all sweaty and gross, but I'm finding myself feeling better coming home then I did before I left. The dogs are really enjoying it too. They look forward to getting out as much as I do. Hopefully I'll keep up with it and shag a little weight off my behind.

Another lovely little picture I took while in Rockaway. This is one of my favorites.

Cheese

About 15 miles south of Rockaway is the town of Tillamook. The land of cheese, trees and ocean breeze. For those of you that don't know, Tillamook is world famous for Tillamook cheese. Every time we go, we stop at the cheese factory. I've done this since I was a kid and my parents took me.




They have a great gift shop and free samples of cheese, which I have to say is my favorite food group. When you go upstairs you get to watch people make and package the cheese, always fun to watch.


Of course they don't do just cheese, but an array of diary products which are very tasty, and in fact, we actually only buy tillamook cheese and ice cream. I find it to be far superior to other brands. I'm sort of a dairy snob.

If you ever stop in Tillamook, go there. It's fab.

The Trip

For those of you who have never had the joy of going to the Oregon coast, I have a little photographic tour so show you just how amazing it is.

We went to Rockaway Beach, Oregon. Which is about 200 miles and a 4 hour drive away from where we live. We ended up taking 101 south the whole way, which I rather enjoy. I think it's the most scenic route but it's definitely slower than I-5.

When we left home it was cold and drizzly, but had cleared up and was beautiful just as we reached the top of Neahkahnie Mountain. The views are spectacular.


We got into town safely and got to our condo that we had rented while we were there. It's right downtown with a lovely ocean front view. After we'd checked it out, we went back downstairs to unload the car and passed another family who was going to their place. When we went back to the condo, the same family was unlocking the door to the condo we rented. We told her that we had rented that one and she informed us that she owned that condo, had a timeshare and that we would have to leave. Essentially telling us to go away and fend for ourselves. Once she found out that we'd already been inside and that we had no intention of leaving, she stomped off to the realtor that rented the condo out to find out what was going on.

We called her too after the obnoxious woman had left and Barb (the realtor) told us she was on her way to the office now to find out what was going on. She told us she'd call us back in about 15 minutes. 10 minutes later the obnoxious woman came back, told that there had been a misunderstanding and that Barb was looking for another place for us to stay.

We went to Barb's office, which was right across the street and found out that woman showed up at the last minute without calling to find out if the condo had been rented. We had wondered if they had double booked it and just didn't say anything. That was not the case at all. In fact this was the first time that anything like that had happened to them. She really bent over backwards to find us a great place and make sure we were satisfied. She found a great ocean view house for no extra charge, and in fact, she paid the difference for the house and paid for use of the hot tub as well. I couldn't speak anymore highly of Barb and her company. In fact, she told us that because of what happened to us, she will no longer rent out that condo, so that what happened to us won't happen to anyone else.

Here's where we were suppose to stay:
http://www.tcroman.com/V1040/V1040.htm

Here's where we ended up staying:
http://www.obvr.com/greatescape/greatescape.php

We clearly traded up. I sent her a great email to thank her for what she did. Companies generally only hear from people if something goes wrong, rarely do they hear if their company went above and beyond and did the very best they could in a difficult situation.

Once that passed we did what we usually do, beach, cheese factory and what not. But that's all for tomorrow.

Home Again, Home Again

We made it home safely at about 10:30 on Monday night. We're still pretty exhausted from the vacation and traveling so until later when I get my groove back, here's a lovely picture we took while in Oregon.

Wait until you hear the stories.....Well, just the one story.

On our way

We're on our way home today. We may stop and do something along the way, not exactly sure as my psychic abilities aren't developed yet. We'll probably get in late tonight, and we still have to pick up the dogs on the way home. I'll tell you all about our fabulous adventures tomorrow as well as showing you all some fab pictures. See you tomorrow!

A new obsession

I've had various things that I've obsessed over in my life, I had a brief thing with the Lord of the Rings movies, still some of the best movies ever made. I also, being a young girl, had various obsessions with boys in hollywood. But nothing could possibly top the one I had with the Backstreet Boys. It started when I was 16 and ended when I was a little past 18, with the introduction of a real life boyfriend. It encompassed all aspects of my life, just ask the bff, she was right there with me. But after that, I never really had anything that again. I had things I liked, things I enjoyed, somethings I thought were pretty great. But, ladies and gentleman, Pinup Girl has aquired a new one: the Twilight book series.

I have several friends in their early teens all the way into their early 20's and they were all talking about this book called Twilight. After DAYS of having to listen to them, I decided I would pick up the first book and see if I liked it. I ended up getting the first 2 and finished them both 36 hours later. That's 1061 pages. Yes, I actually added up the pages. I'm most of the way through the 3rd book, and the fourth and last book comes out August 2nd. Guess who's going to be at the bookstore at midnight to buy it? I really don't think I need to hand you that obvious answer.

I will not give you plot or characters or anything like that. I will say that it's based in the little town of Forks, which is close to me. I'll also say that while it's geared towards teens, the subject matter can be considered for people older than that. The books are not for everyone, of course, but if you're opened minded you'll really enjoy it, I think.

There are 4 books all together: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. They are written by Stephenie Meyer and you can find them at any major bookstore right now. So, if you're looking for an easy read that sucks you right in, these might work for you.

I hope so, I'm tired of being the only one around me locally that reads these.

Outakes

Things are always pretty funny when I get together with my family. We joke and laugh together and of course the hilarity ensues, so with that I give you the birthday party outtake pictures. With a few faces you might recognize.



And of course, a few shots of the birthday girl.


Just remember family, I love you very much and you can yell at me when I get back.

When did that happen?

I'm the oldest of 3 kids, I'm in my late 20's, the middle one recently turned 22 and now my youngest sister just turned 18, on Sunday. This of course brought it all home of just how old I am now. I remember vividly my mom and dad bringing her home as a baby. She was great. I bonded with her really strongly despite the 8 year age difference. And now here she is, a legal adult, able to do things that I think she shouldn't because in my mind she continues to be the 4 year old that I took care of because my parents were working.

So I want the know when the hell this happened. I feel like I was just in middle school. The BFF and I running to the playground to swing. And now I'm suddenly approaching 30 *gasp* and wondering why I can't stop time and just enjoy life for a moment. But time refuses to listen to me and the years keep going by faster and faster.

I'm wondering why at 26, I feel so old.

Suprise!

Ogre and I are headed to the lovely Oregon Coast. We just decided to go one night and found a condo to rent on the beach with 2 weeks notice. How lucky was that. We're leaving Friday morning and we'll be back Monday night. The doggies won't be coming with us, they'll be playing and running around on a farm while we're gone, and hopefully exhausted when we come back. People have asked us why we're not bringing them and I equate it with taking kids on vacation. (Bear in mind, I have no children) It's fun to take the kids and you'll still have fun, but you can't do everything you'd like cause you have them with you.

So, I've set up a couple of posts to 'go off' while we're gone, and I would ask one tiny favor. What would you like to know about Pinup Girl? What should I blog about? Frankly, I'm still pretty new to this so I'm fast running out of things to discuss.

I'll leave you with this lovely picture we took years ago on our 1 year anniversary to Rockaway Beach, OR.

The Hike

Ogre and I went on a wonderful hike up in the mountains on the 4th. We hiked along side the Taylor River and got about 3 miles in before my new hiking boots rubbed my heel raw and we had to turn back. We also forgot about mosquito repellent but I got out with only one on my elbow.

The trail was very rocky all the way in but at certain points little creeks crossed over the trails which gave the dogs the opportunity to drink along the way. The trail was an old logging trail at one point and a developer had planned to put houses along there, but thankfully the deal fell through and it was made into a hiking trail.

I caught this picture of the river as we hiked in.

The dogs had a great time but had a hard time walking over the large rocks in the middle of the path. We asked a ranger on the way out why the trail wasn't in better condition, and we were told that not enough people used the trail to consider making it in better shape.


There's a small campground right next to the trail head and we stopped to eat a small lunch and I grabbed the camera to take pictures of some of the flowers.


I have no idea what the red flower is, but it really grabbed my attention. It's quite beautiful.

I hope everyone had a safe 4th. Have a great one.

Funk

Pinup Girl has been in a funk the last few days. Thus no posts. However, the Ogre and I had a wonderful and safe 4th. We enjoyed the local fireworks show in town. We also went for a hike, but I still have to upload those pictures. I'm also running out of things to post about, so while I gather my thoughts and upload some pictures from the behemoth, please enjoy these pics of Dove as a puppy trying to make friends with my Mother in Law's cat.

I know you all need your basset fix.



Have a great day Everyone!

What's a Basset Hound?

When we went to the beach this weekend, we had a lot of people stop and ask us about the dogs. Most people just want to pet and touch them. We had several requests for people who just wanted to pet their ears because they 'looked so soft'. Which they are.

While we're walking the dogs around we also hear a lot of comments. "Oh my gosh, what kind of dogs are those."
"Look at the weiner dogs!" Are you kidding me? "Oh, can we pet your beagles?"

"Those are bloodhounds right?"

So I decided to put together this helpful guide to help you tell the difference between those breeds of dogs, and the basset hound.

This is a basset hound:

Angus is fairly deceptive because he's whats known as a 'long legger'. Notice the long body, short legs, long wide muzzle, very long ears, and the very saggy skin. He has all of those things to help him scent.

Now for those breeds that aren't basset hounds:

This is a Dachshund.

Much shorter legs, shorter ears, long pointy muzzle. The only thing these two have in common is the long body. Not even close to the same dog.

Bloodhound:

Much taller, not so long bodied, same long ears, but clearly not a basset hound.

Beagle:

This is a bit trickier. Both are short, both have longer ears, but there is one major difference: the length of the body. While beagles are short with longish ears, basset hounds are much longer in the body, have much longer ears, and much shorter legs.

Just to summarize:

These are basset hounds:


These are not basset hounds:


Now the next time you see a basset in public, you will definitely be able to tell that it is in fact a basset and not a beagle, bloodhound, or dachshund.

The New Camera

For the last few years I've been using a decent camera that takes pretty good pictures. It wasn't until recently that it became a problem. It still took decent pictures but now the delay between pictures was 10+ seconds. I like to do a lot of wildlife photography and having to wait that long between shots just wasn't cutting it anymore. So when we decided we'd be going to the beach, I told him it was time for a new camera. He balked a little bit but didn't fight me too hard on it.

We stopped on the way there and I picked out a new one. I got a Kodak EasyShare Z1012 IS. It's so unbelieveably fab. It takes such brilliantly clear pictures without any delay. I love it super hard.

Here's some pictures of the old camera:


Notice the major problem with this camera? It's viewing window is only about an inch wide and an inch tall. Like I said, it still takes great pics but it's just not as good as it once was. Now the Behemoth:


Notice the difference in the picture quality? I love the new camera. I have the ability to change the shutter speed and such with this camera, but at the heart of the behemoth, it's a fancy point and shoot. Which is what I think I like most about it.

What was your last electronics upgrade, or any upgrade for that matter? How wowed were you by the difference in the old and the new? Pinup Girl must know.