Still apart...

Cortney went to her family reunion today, Jon went to work.  Not really fair, is it?  In Portland the weather was warm and sunny while 50 or so Slaytons were reunited, or were meeting for the first time.  Cortney and her mom photographed each family and catalogued names of people they had just learned and didn't want to forget later.  There was a lot of good food, and there were lots of stories to share.  Family reunions, in general, are fantastic and intriguing.  It is difficult to wrap your mind around the idea that you are, if somewhat distantly, related to all of these people.  It's also neat to think about what actions your ancestors took that separated everyone - Cortney's great-grandmother moved her family from Wisconsin to Oregon when her grandmother was a teenager.  Lucky for us, her grandmother then moved back to Michigan to marry her grandfather, but much of the rest of the family remained on the west coast... and the rest is history.  If nothing else, our genealogy research has gotten a big kick this weekend!  And there's only two more days to go...

A country apart

Thank goodness for free cell-to-cell minutes from Sprint.  We have been in touch with each other every few hours today.  Yes, that means that we actually communicated more today than we do on any normal workday when we are both at home.  In our defense, there was more to talk about!  Jon had a long day at work, getting a number of things done.  Cortney toured the Columbia River Gorge along the Historic Columbia River Highway (HCRH) and hiked a mile up a cliff to the top of a 620 foot waterfall (if you look closely you will see Cortney, in green, and her dad, in yellow, posing right in the middle of the bridge before heading up the trail).  She also saw a 10 foot sturgeon (wow) at the fish hatchery, and a pair of osprey fishing in the spillway of the Bonneville Dam.  Jon and Curtis worked late into the night on music that they are composing and recording for a friend's film (almost forgetting to eat dinner).  Tomorrow (Saturday) will be just as busy.  Cortney has the reunion to attend and Jon will be working all day (and Sunday afternoon... that way he will be able to take time off next week so we can spend some time together), and collaborating again with Curtis to get the music done in time.  Only three more days to go!

Parting: not so sweet sorrow

We are 3 hours apart.  Actually, we are an entire country apart (Cortney is in Portland for a family reunion, Jon is at home working), but what makes the separation so striking is the three-hour time difference.  We have always gone to bed together; gotten up together in the morning; called each other during lunch breaks to check in; eaten together; gone to bed together again.  Of course, with cell phones it's not like we are out of contact (even though Jon has been too busy these recent weeks to bother with email), but it is difficult to coordinate our phone calls in a timely fashion.  Jon used the flight tracker widget on the laptop to make sure Cortney's flight landed safely, but by that time it was after midnight.   And Cortney called to "tuck Jon in," but that was at 1AM his time and 10PM her time, an hour and half late/early depending on who you talk to!  But while we miss each other, we both have busy weekends ahead and the time will fly.  And hopefully Cortney will be flying on Monday, but with the Northwest mechanics' strike.... well let's just say that we are keeping our fingers crossed.

"A lady on the left is no lady at all..."

...according to the etiquette advice provided by her majesty's ladies in waiting at Michigan's Renaissance Festival, which we attended with Jon's parents. Fortunately, Cortney was seated correctly on Jon's right for the Italian wine tasting, the special theme for the opening weekend of the festival. Certainly, the food was one of the highlights of the day, offering every authentic old world finger food from huge turkey drumsticks to soup in a bread bowl to pickles in a barrel. Care to sample the king's nuts? (Roasted almonds).
While most of the vendors maintained period costumes and accents, some of the guests took advantage of the occasion to dress more like Xena than Guinevere. This was not so good in the case of the obese women with cleavage that supported a tip jar tucked in between! The most amazing costume award goes to the walking tree man, straight out of the Ents in the Lord of the Rings. The jousting was also a good spectacle, once the long-winded introductions finished. The accompanying drummer helped to increase the importance of the event, much like the timpani player in the movie Spaceballs. We also enjoyed a romantic ride on the Flying Dragons, took in the Ded Bob Sho, bought Cortney a beautiful green ring, and got Jon a didgeridoo. We're not sure how much the didgeridoo has to do with the Renaissance, but Jon definitely enjoyed filling up the car with the sound all the way home.

Rock N Roar, Toledo Zoo

Who said the seventies were dead?  We went with Kristin and Matt to the Rock and Roar party at the Toledo Zoo tonight.  We're not sure why it was the Rock and Roar party as opposed to the Disco Mania Night, but we had fun just the same.  By the way, Elvis really isn't dead and neither are bell bottoms or platform boots.  We also met Austin Powers, or at least saw him try to dance with lots of girls.  Notably, we did some of our own boogying, but we learned upon arrival that the days of arriving too early at a party to be cool do not stop with middle school.  Thus when we arrived promptly at the beginning of the shindig, we spent most of our time entertaining the wildebeast and zebras, not to mention the various crane birds (hey, some of them have the afro built in).  Once people started arriving, however, our attention was drawn swiftly from the grazing ungulates to the oddities gracing the makeshift dance floor.  There are only so many gyrating afros one can stand, so we joined them.  Kristin and Cortney had the moves down.  Matt and Jon just bopped.  The souvenir martini glasses with seven different LED light settings in the stems were totally worth any amount of disco embarrassment, though, right?