Critter Attack!

Three weeks ago Charles, Isabella and I (Dan) had an "encounter". You may know that some combination of Nancy, Dan, Charles (golden retriever) and Isabella (black pug) take a walk down in the Deschutes River canyon, which is a block from our house, each day. Before telling you about the encounter, I should set the stage a little bit.

Last winter, Charles and I diverted from the normal trails and service road to walk through one of the heavily forested areas. While walking along, I noticed the biggest deer I have ever seen standing in the path we were following. Huge antlers ...... I don't know how many "points". He was perhaps 25 feet away and just stood there looking at me. Meanwhile, Charles was behind me busily sniffing around. Using his vaunted senses and his every instinct, he failed to realize that there was a big critter in our path. When I tried to point it out to him, he continued his business at hand. When I called to him in a more pressing way, he realized there was something out of the ordinary and finally noticed the deer. He made a half-hearted run at the deer and uttered one woof. Happily the deer ran and Charles came back to check on my well being (actually to hide behind me). Only then did I recall that I had just read in the paper that morning that a woman down in California had been pretty well beaten up by a deer in what sounded like a nice suburban setting. Glad the big boy we ran into was not itching for a fight!

The stakes got a little higher 6-8 weeks ago when a couple of cougars were spotted down in the canyon where we walk. There were lots of warning signs posted, but we continued our usual walks anyway ...... albeit with a wary eye for big kitties. There was even a picture in the local paper showing one of them in someone's back yard. After a couple of weeks of keeping a wary eye, let me just say that it did not end well for the cougars when authorities got involved.

So now to the attack. Sometimes I like to play a "hide and seek" game with Charles while we walk. That means hiding along the path so that his "vaunted" senses can be honed to precision as he searches for me. (He is pretty bad at it so I usually have to call him.) Anyway, three weeks ago Isabella and I had hidden along a path and had to call Charles to alert him as to our whereabouts. After finding us, he went ahead of us scouting the way back home. In no time I heard blood curdling cries of anguish, as if in the throes of death, and scuffling about in the underbrush just ahead of us. It was Charles. A rather large doe had whupped him real good. (Mind you, Charles cries more readily than John Boehner so the cries of anguish may have been overdone.) Charles got up and could walk, but he looked like he was in pretty rough shape.

Ordinarily this would seem like the end of the story, but the deer reminded me of a kung fu fighter who takes out the first guy and then goes looking for the next guy. Well, this deer started looking for the next guy, i.e. walking toward Isabella and me with seemingly bad intentions. Fortunately, it stopped about 20 feet away. I became even more concerned when I threw a large stick at it, and it didn't move. The deer gave me a look of "What are you gonna do about it?" Screaming and hollering at it did nothing. So I backed away while looking for another stick, but most of them were old and rotten. Rather than mind its own business, the deer started stalking us as we backed away. With Charles hiding behind me, I walked away from the area looking for whatever weapons might be available ... a big rock, a stick, whatever. The deer kept stalking us, staying about 30-40 yards away. When I thought we had finally gotten away from the darn thing, there it was again..... only 25-30 feet away. This time I throw a rock about the size of a baseball at it - missed. It did not flinch. Charles was in a state of shock and could only walk along as in a daze so he was of no help. Finally we got to the place where we can get out of the canyon, and happily no deer was on our trail. You might say that I was pretty relieved.

I estimate that the deer followed us for a couple hundred yards or so. Charles was pretty subdued for a few days, but at least he did not appear to have any broken bones. My guess is that he got kicked, but I don't know. Maybe his subdued state was just paralyzing fear..... or the realization that "he got nothin", which I continually remind him of anyway.

"Peter & the Wolf"

About 2 weeks ago Amy participated in a performance of "Peter & the Wolf". Here is a slideshow of some of the performance. The last 2 photos are of her solo in the recital portion of the show - unfortunately I couldn't make them fit the slideshow so I hope you don't get a crick in your neck. ;)

Enjoy!

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The Middle School Graduate

Amy is officially a High Schooler effective June 9, 2011. She ended her Middle School years on Thursday evening with a short ceremony followed by the 8th Grade Dance. She was one of a few students honored with a Gold President's Education Award for maintaining a 4.0 grade average for all 3 years of middle school. Wow - whose child is she, anyway??

Congratulations, Amy! We love you!

Mom & Dad

Dance Velocity Show - June 4th & 5th

Here's a sample of Amy's show this past weekend. I was able to capture one routine on video - "To Tame a Lion" - you can watch it here.













Tonight, Amy graduates from Cascade Middle School. Should be some picture taking opportunities there.

Next show - June 17th - "Peter & the Wolf"

On May 24th, Amy was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society at Cascade Middle School. She has worked hard these past 3 years and this recognition is well deserved. Her work ethic is really amazing to me because it is certainly not something that I am familiar with (I believe she has inherited it from her Dad).
She is in the midst of finals this week - Algebra and French today - and "graduates" from 8th grade next Thursday, June 9th. She is both excited to start High School and a bit dreading Freshman year. She has a full summer of dance ahead of her to distract from the upcoming changes in the fall. This weekend she has 2 performances with Dance Velocity, then on 6/17 a performance of "Peter & the Wolf" with Academie de Ballet Classique. At the end of July the Central Oregon School of Ballet performs "Giselle". In addition to those activities, when school ends next week she will begin private lessons with Joy Victor. It's going to be a busy summer. Hopefully, we will get in some travel in August - still working on details.



Memorial Day weekend we traveled to Portland. The primary purpose was to get new pointe shoes for Amy but there were also some decidedly more fun items on our agenda. The most important one being - dessert with Nancy & Jason @ the Vita Cafe. They are very busy with wedding plans so it was great to be able to squeeze into their weekend plans.

Of almost equal importance to one of us is a stop at a "real" mall. Then, something that we have missed out on during our last few trips to Portland - a stop at VooDoo Donuts . I'm not sure what's the real attraction of the place - the yummy donuts or the weird vibe of the place. Which ever - the place was hoppin' on Sunday! A line out the door that was not moving very fast was quite discouraging. Luckily they had a food truck set up where we bought a dozen (more than we really wanted or needed) and left the crowd behind.

A stop at the Portland Rose Gardens was welcome even though the roses are weeks away from blooming. The rhododendrons & azaleas were spectacular - very soothing to our spring deprived eyes. We left Bend, where the trees are just starting to bud - crossed the mountains - where the snow is still coming down and arrived in the green green Willamette Valley. Just lovely!

Lions & Tamers

A few weeks ago, Amy danced in a performance with Dance Velocity, her dance school where she takes Jazz and Contemporary classes. Maybe you can tell from the picture above that Amy was a lion. She danced in 5 different pieces and with all the costume changes it was quite a production.

Recital season is upon us!

Three more shows in June - so May will be a month of preparation.

More photos to come.

Weekend Away

What a weekend! It started out to be just another 3 day trip to Portland with a few noteworthy objectives:

1 - to do something fun on Amy's Spring Break
2 - to shop at a REAL mall, something that Bend is lacking.
3 - to visit with Nan and meet her boyfriend, Jason.
4 - to get Amy to an audition for the Oregon Ballet Theater's Summer Intensive.

So, on Friday we drove over the mountains and directly to the Washington Square Mall in Portland and Amy shopped to her hearts content. We even had a chance to "play" with the ipad 2 and the iphone at the Apple store. FUN! We checked into our hotel and promptly went over to IKEA for a delicious dinner of Swedish Meatballs and Gravlax (smoked salmom) mmmmmmmmm! I should note, that Amy, the vegetarian, had a veggie wrap!

On Saturday we decided to motor to the coast since we were so close and we hadn't seen the ocean since last February. We had made plans with Nan to get together for dinner so we had the whole day to explore a part of the coast we hadn't been to before. First stop - Seaside -



Amy needed to stretch her legs after an hour in the car! ;)





Next stop was Astoria, where the Columbia River meets the ocean. We took a bit of time to look at a shipwreck from 1906 - very cool!





Then, it was back to Portland to keep our date with Nan & Jason. Little did we suspect that they had some very exciting news to share with us. It wasn't until we were seated with our food and eating/conversing that I noticed a bit of sparkle on Nancy's left ring finger. I had told her when they first came in that she was glowing and looked so beautiful - now we knew why! Instead of meeting Jason, the boyfriend we met Jason, the fiance! They were barely 24 hours into their engagement - What a privilege to hear the whole story - in person! The Lord has truly brought them together in a special way and we are so very happy for them!


On Sunday, Amy was supposed to have her audition but she decided that she did not want to go thru the stress of another audition - so instead we went to church at Imago Dei, bought fresh veggies at an Asian grocery store and came home over the very snowy mountain pass.

Amy returned to school on Monday and Dan & I went skiing. Sounds fair to me! Mt. Bachelor had 12" of new powder Sunday night and it was a great day on the mountain. Pretty nice way to finish the weekend and/or start a new week! Which ever way you want to look at it.

It was a memorable weekend, to say the least!