More Birthday................

The birthday continues with an official birthday cake from Beaverton Bakery and a mail delivery of 18 beautiful roses from Vicki and Steve.  Am I spoiled?  Oh, yes..................  Tomorrow night Roger is cooking again and Saturday Lori and Pam arrive for a decadent weekend.  Life is good...............................................

A Double Special Birthday Day..... And Celebration Of Life.........

This morning Roger had his "graduation" from cancer treatment.  We met with the oncologist and learned that the CT scan reveals no cancerous lymph nodes remaining so the chemo was very successful.  Next Wednesday, the port will be surgically removed and the doctor said that in about a month Roger will feel back to his normal self.  We're extremely grateful for the good news.  Of course, there will be follow up visits and ongoing monitoring but, for now, the worst is over.

My birthday today is another cause for celebration.  I am thankful for good health, stamina and loving family and friends.  I've been receiving phone calls, lovely birthday messages and cards all day and my granddaughter and her mom sent a gorgeous flower arrangement.

Roger treated me to lunch at Paragon where I enjoyed a glass of Syrah with squid ink pasta sauteed with shrimp and red peppers and chard.  It was delicious and very unusual.  Tonight he's in charge of dinner so I'm being thoroughly spoiled! (as I should be, of course).

Before and After

A before and after

photoshop creation.

Now, it's 

practice,

practice,

practice...........

 

Canadian Visitors

Thursday Roger's cousin, Ahmad and his two daughters came from Vancouver BC for a short visit.  Ahmad and Roger are close friends so they enjoy spending time together and talking, talking, talking.  The girls are twelve and sixteen and their only request was to go shopping so Friday we set out on the streetcar to the new downtown Target that opened about three weeks ago.  The streetcar stops right in front of the store.  It's one of their favorite stores so they knew exactly what they wanted and where it was located so, much to my surprise, they were finished in less than an hour.

Our next stop was Brasserie Montmartre where we enjoyed lunch.  Since we had time, we continued through downtown to do some more shopping at Sapporo and Forever 21 and then we took MAX back home so they could experience both the streetcar and the train.  Meanwhile the "boys" went shopping for food so Roger could fix an authentic Iranian kabab dinner so it was a great day!

After breakfast this morning they are on the road back to Vancouver so the house seems really quiet.

Pictured are Ahmad, Roger, Arya and Dena.

A Collaboration and Other Stuff

It's said that "time goes fast when you're having fun" so............ I'm trying to remember whether the last week was "fun" or not.  Thursday a much needed change was made in our living room where the old "clunker" air/heat was removed and a new unit installed.  It's small and unobtrusive way up on the wall close to the ceiling and the huge heat pump is gone.  In its place I'm having a low book case built to fill the space and I won't have to worry about tile replacement and repairs to the wall.

Roger had his last chemo on Thursday so that's cause for celebration  Next week we'll meet with the Oncologist and the surgeon who will remove the port so we're looking forward to Roger regaining his energy and stamina.  It was a tough six months.

Today was another Photoshop lesson so below is one of Roger's photographs.  He told me about a Persian poem that he loves but he had a hard time translating it.  After he told me the meaning of the poem I found words in English to express the feeling and today I learned how to add text to a photograph..

Another Photoshop Lesson...............

I am having a lot of fun learning this complicated program.  However, since I am mostly interested in just working with photographs, I only have to learn about 1/4 of the program capabilities.  Today's lesson was how to add text to a photo, but before that, I learned how to remove the bird droppings from the wood, lighten the white of the seagull and tweak a few other things in the photo.  I'm learning that most changes are subtle but every little change enhances the image.

Today Roger is attending his last photography class for summer term so now he can get back to painting and I'm going to start practicing with my SLR film camera.

A Visit From A Lifelong Friend................

Friday afternoon, Roger's childhood friend, Parvis, arrived in Portland on Amtrak.  It was my first time going to Union Station where I discovered Portland's huge and charming brick train and bus station right next to the MAX line.

Parvis lives in Ontario Canada but he attended a science convention in Olympia so he's enjoying a trip through Oregon and California to visit friends.  We were his first stop and it was an opportunity to hear about some of their experiences during their teen years in the 1950s.  The 110 students were chosen from a candidate pool of about 5,000 to attend a boarding school where they spent four years learning agricultural methods that were new to Iran.  After graduation, they went into small villages where they taught people how to farm and grow crops.

Yesterday afternoon we returned to Union Station to bid him farewell as he continues his trip to San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.

The Week At A Glance

It has been an eventful week.  First we want to extend birthday greetings to a very special friend who celebrated an important "zero" birthday on August 3rd.  Below is his photo and I doubt that you'll be able to guess his age.  Happy Birthday, Ed. 















Saturday and Sunday we enjoyed an overnight visit with our lovely granddaughter, Rachael, and a short visit from her mom, Carolyn.  We all went to the Iranian Festival down at the Park Blocks, next to the Farmer's Market and the weather was perfect for an outdoor event.

Sunday afternoon, we headed to the waterfall area to give Roger a chance to take some photos for a class assignment.  We have probably visited them at least two dozen times but we never tire of seeing their beauty.  The water flow changes with the seasons so now they are smaller than in the winter.  We've never checked out the restaurant at the Multnomah Falls but we were both hungry and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise.  The weather was warm so we had a patio table where we enjoyed an early dinner.  This trip we went up a little further toward Hood River where there is a bridge that crosses over to Washington State.  It was a beautiful drive and Roger got more great photos.

Two of Roger's classes end this week so he has been busy taking photos and doing a charcoal drawing for his art class final project.

The oncologist rescheduled Roger's last Chemo treatment to next week so that really helped.   Roger will have a CT scan tomorrow and then we'll see how the recovery phase is progressing.

This afternoon I took MAX down to the Union Station where I picked up an old school chum of Roger's from their teen years in Tehran.  Parvis is a famous Research Scientist who lives in Canada and he attended a conference in Olympia WA so we're pleased that he could spend some time with us after the conference ended.  Dinner has finished and the "boys" are busy catching up on the past few years.  I finally have email service again so now I can reconnect.

Weather continues to be "perfect" (at least for me) in the 70s and low 80s.  Next Thursday the heat/air in the living room will be upgraded to a ductless system so I'm hoping to have lower energy bills this winter.

Today's Photoshop Lesson

Do You Subscribe To Comcast?

Did you know that if something goes wrong with your email account and Comcast has to reset your user name and password, you need a four digit number code that is issued by the government?  It apparently was given to subscribers when they initially signed up for Comcast service.

We suspect that someone has been trying to get into my email account and they managed to somehow reset my password.  I've been unable to send or receive email for about four days.  When I spoke to the technician yesterday, he asked for the number.  As you can guess, my response was something like "huh???".  Can they give me the number by telephone or look at my account and use it for the reset?  Well, no.......................................

Comcast has to snail mail the code to me.  Then I have to call them back and give them the code.  Does this sound slightly crazy to any of you, or is it just me.....................................

Anyway, I'm "email free" for at least the next week until I can resolve this issue.  My advice is that if you don't know your code, you probably should call Comcast and ask them to mail it to you.  Then all you have to do is remember where you put it when you eventually need it.