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December Viewing: Baby Don’t Hurt Me
Way back in 1993 Haddaway asked us “What Is Love” and every December Michelle and I sit through a bunch of films trying to see if his answer, “baby don’t hurt me” is correct. Technically this month is my romantic comedy counter to Michelle’s fear filled October, but every year a few other genres sneak…
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Perudo: Cups Full Of Fun
Back in the late 90’s I used to have house parties that involved lots of party games. My friendship with Michelle solidified during these nights in spite of the fact that they were chaos filled drunken nights that got progressively zanier as my move away from Minnesota approached. We lived in a college community and…
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Cooking Up A Storm And Hanging With ACNH Homies
Attending 2 months of physical therapy was a blessing in disguise. It allowed us to plan ahead for when Andrew would have to manage caretaking for me, wrangling all 4 pets, and household management during February when I would be hobbling around on crutches. The first thing we did was stock our freezer to the…
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Torn ACL! Now What?
I had struggled with left knee instability for about 2 years. I was unable to run, jump or twist and dancing was right out. Lateral movements were limited and getting in and out of cars was challenging. If I stepped wrong or slipped on leaves or a slick spot on the ground, I would almost…
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Holiday Celebrations
Andrew kicked off our preparations by lugging all of our holiday bins in from our still quite full garage. We planned to pull out all the stops and REALLY decorate this year. When seasonally bedazzling our home in Oregon, everything had its place, but we had to start from scratch here in Urgezes, having only…
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Urgezes House Tour
We had the very best of intentions. The plan was to film a post remodel house tour before the never-ending unpacking began. Andrew, myself, and the pets arrived after 9:00 pm on Wednesday August 28th and by 8:00 am Thursday August 29th our property started arriving. I am not a morning person on the best…
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Put On Your Hard Hat: Spelunking In Loulé
Michelle: One of the adventures we planned with cousin Elsa was a salt mine tour in Loulé. Andrew visited the mine back in 2023 and found it so intriguing that he recommended another trip. Jorge and his friend visiting from Lithuania had both wanted to see the mine for years, so we made reservations for…
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Festival Med 2024
We LOVED our time at Festival Med in 2023. This year our full time guest was my cousin Elsa, but we also enjoyed a day with Jorge and his friend from Lithuania, and a day with Karen. The festival itself, for the first time, had a featured country – Morocco – and every aspect of…
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Tourists For A Day In Tavira
During cousin Elsa’s visit we tried to balance relaxation and beach days with travel, attractions, and tourism. One of the best day trips from Olhão is a quick 30 minute drive to Tavira. There are a ton of great restaurants, scads of picture opportunities along the Gilão River, cultural events, plenty of shopping, and even…
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A House In The North
Our house hunt kept circling back to a terraced house In Urgezes, a small community very close to Guimarães, just south of Braga, and about an hour train ride away from Porto. We were curious about the layout since the pictures seemed to show four bedrooms but the listing was for two. We researched Guimarães…