what would you do?

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A Portland couple recently received national – even international – attention over a landmark court case involving their young daughter. The 4-year-old girl, their third child, has Down syndrome, which was unknown to them during the pregnancy. After their daughter was born, they sued their health providers for allegedly assuring them that they would have a normal, healthy child following genetic test results (a CVS), despite the fact that two later ultrasounds apparently raised red flags for Down syndrome. Apparently they were also told that there was no need for them to get an amniocentesis for further testing.

A week and a half ago, a jury unanimously awarded the parents $2.9 million against the local health system to pay for the extra lifetime costs of caring for their daughter, admitting that had they known they would have a child with Down syndrome, they would have aborted the pregnancy.

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let’s talk about the weather

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It happened tonight while I was on my way to pick up Elena after work. My first hint of frustration that over the next few months will more than likely turn into all-out anger and bitterness.

It’s actually been silently building all week. I was trying to suppress it, much like when I’m dying to make a little after-dinner trip to the yogurt shop across the street. It was Facebook’s fault, I think. All these so-called “friends” posting from DC about how warm it’s been. “Grilling season has officially begun!” posted one with a picture of her boys before dinner outside on their deck. “I should have never gone outside for lunch because now I just don’t want to go back!” posted another. Then a comment from my mother-in-law in Texas, “It’s been 80 here.” Followed by a picture of my nephew on the playground from my sister-in-law there…I couldn’t help but notice the bright sunshine and clear skies in the background. Of course, it’s central Texas. I mean, isn’t 80 like the annual low temp there? Still, it sounded nice.

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a burpo original

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About the time I first noticed increasing talk of terrariums, they started showing up in my world at work. First a cute little one on a coworker’s desk. Then, another at another desk. “Where’d you get that little thing?” I asked. “I made it!” “What? How’d you do that?” “Oh, there’s this little shop by my house called Artemisia. They specialize in terrariums.” Of course they do…we’re in Portland so why wouldn’t there already be a boutique in existence that specializes in terrariums? And yes, it’s on the east side. Along with all the best restaurants. I digress.

The next week my friend who sits next to me brought one for her desk. Again, me: “Where’d you get that?” (Apparently I’m very nosy.) “A girlfriend made it for me!” “Oh, it’s super cute.” A couple of weeks later a woman who had been temping as our receptionist/assistant was leaving and one of my other east-side coworkers hands her a little gift. It’s – yep, you guessed it – the goodies to make her own terrarium. Sheesh. These things are all over the place! The other day, I walked into my boss’ office and suddenly she had one on the corner of her desk. Well, that does it! No cute trends is allowed to exist in this world without me being a part of it.

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silhouette

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Benjamin Moore’s Silhouette went up on the curved wall in our family room today. Jeff sent me this first picture at work. We love it!

What you can’t see is that the color we did around the dining area and kitchen (BM’s Weimeraner) appears to be having a bad reaction with our floor and the “red” in the room because it took on a very mauve/pink tone that we are just not digging. Luckily, Karl the Painter rocks and has offered to repaint it for us, so we spent part of yesterday trying out some new samples and have narrowed it down to one or two we think will work really well. For the time being, tomorrow he’s on to the garage entry/mudroom area and bathroom just off this room, which will both be painted the same two colors you see here (Cotswald in the mudroom; Silhouette on walls and ceiling of the bathroom).

Benjamin Moore’s Silhouette (main wall) and Cotswald (upper wall)

BM's Silhouette at night (with Spurs game on, of course)

nightmare on 96th avenue

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They’re baaaaack! Yep, we thought we had heard the last of our home buyer friend, Doug Kienzle, when I had asked him for written proof of his right to take $310 out of our security deposit to help pay the cost of his mortgage above and beyond our agreed-upon rent payment during the 60 days we were there (not to mention the rest of it for random cleaning costs) and heard nothing back from him. Of course, this is pretty much par for the course of how he handles matters, so we let it be and assumed we had heard the last of him. And we might have. Until, in late January, he contacted the title company to request the payout of the $500 deposit that had been sitting in escrow and undoubtedly, much to his disappointment, they contacted us to double-check that we were in agreement with dispersing the funds to the Kienzles. As a matter of fact, no we’re not in agreement. Not at all.

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