noticed a cool pic on the wall while performing at Cafe AuPlay.

all the art is really cool this month.

Rawr!

Ape caves with the whole fam damily!

How do O&D relax on a day off? We went to the Ape Caves with the whole fam damily.

Sister Hannah took Olive, and our boy Bruce in her vehicle and several other vehicles had assorted other family and friends. It was a long trip to Mt. St. Helens, especially for us Portlanders who don't ever spend much time in a car. The hour drive had us spent before we even got there. Lots of dizzying, winding roads. Hannah was an expert pilot.

Thank you for bringing us out here Hannah Banana!

My boy informed us he was an expert caver, i took it with a grain of salt since he often claims to be an expert at stuff he has no idea about. Boy was I wrong. He was the first in, fastest through and first out. I can't tell if he had been in a cave before of if that terrain was just made for him to romp in. I was impressed.

Lovely Olive

It starts easy enough with steps, light, rails and lots of people walking around. Soon it was pitch black with irregular ground and lots of obstacles. At the end there were hardly anyone around. The family has strong, sane, passionate people. I'm so glad our boy gets to soak it up. We all had to dress warm too because it was 42 degrees and constantly dripping water (not much different than the surface but notably more frigid).

He made me have to go fast. We would charge ahead and wait in the darkess for our party to catch up.

Brotha Liam (O's youngest sib) he rocked out in the rocks. He and his Dad are natural NW sons. They have no problem bounding off into the woods or a cave and I'm even surprised they didn't hunt dinner while down there.

Rockin with Olive's Papa.

The whole family is pretty spectacularly hearty. I love the spirit of the C family. As we went in I saw an injured kid, part way in a very injured lady was getting carried out, we ran into another fellow who asked urgently but politly to be let through due to claustrophobia and then two ladies turned back saying "This cave beat us, we can't continue". Olive's Mom bumped her ankle and I hurt my knee but we both walked out and hiked back overland on our own steam.

I hear there were two routes, the easy stroll and what I can only call Stalingrad.

Felt a strong breeze, thought it was the end but no, it was a hole in the roof!

WE MADE IT!!!

Riding with Karl!

Ever wonder what a couple of bottles of Bubbles look like shot from our cannon?

I wonder if there is a way to pop it off and get way bigger bubbles. This is under 40 p.s.i. and it atomized them. The long thing is a noise maker, it didn't deploy any sound this round.

Wal-marketing.

Our town has divested in Walmart. I'm so happy to see this. My eyes are always trained on watching leaders make crap moves I almost missed seeing them act very insightful and beneficially to our lil corner of the world. 
Walmart is like a giant, mega trawler lumbering along gobbling up everything in it's path.
I can't think of anything less American than a car manufactured in Mexico, idling in a Walmart parking lot, filled with Saudi gas and sporting an American flag made in Taiwan. W.T.F?
I don't personally trust any organisation that is bigger than the local school house.

Lets follow a plastic chair. From it's start being brutally manufactured (in a puff of smog) in China by a "next to slave" laborer, then it gets shipped in lots of puffs of smog to our country, then an underpaid worker stocks it at Walmart and sells it for way less than any local small biz can sell wooden chairs. The consumer takes the plastic chair home. It lives as a chair for under 10 years or so. As it breaks down in the weather, grit fills the tiny holes making the chair always appear dirty. Eventually it gets thrown out to be burned (in a puff of smog) or thrown in a landfill to slowly leach chemicals into the soil. Who wins? Rich guy in Arkansas and some Chinese business men, who loses? every one else. I see any item made of plastic like a drop of ink in a bathtub, at first it's just a perfect round orb in clear water. After a long time though...it's mostly gone and all the water is irreversibly tinted with poison blue. If you don't fight for your world then you don't deserve a world. Just say'in

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made my gal cry at work...she said yes.

Started out like a normal day.

But the last page of the book we were reading had a surprise.

we are getting hitched 12-13-2014!

the moment the family found out.

wanna pitch in?
http://oliveanddingo.blogspot.com/

We were in a Lyle Kopkicky documentary shown at the lovely Mission Theater.

Springtime in Portland is so wonderful. Lots of rain and sunshine.

 I wasn't planning on dressing particularly formal thinking is would be a small affair but Olive suggested I do spritz it up a bit. I'm glad she did. We took a few buses to SW P-town, over at the Mission Theater. When we got there, we found the place packed with sharp looking folks.
Lots of smiling faces. The evening is a showing of 13 short documentaries and there were representatives from many of the outlying parts of the Pacific Northwest. It was a fine night at the opera for O&D.

 When it was time for the movies to start we couldn't find a seat!The only open seats were the far right balcony. Luckily we found some folks who made room and we packed in like a crowded bus. Olive drank a hard lemonade and got Waaay tipsy, tipsy enough to spill drinks all over the table. HAHAHA! light-weight. The film followed our life It had some big laughs and some tender moments.The biggest laugh was a still of Lisa Loving's facebook post decrying the guy who stole Olive's bike. We were very nervous because during the filming we would forget he was rolling. Sometimes (when hustling)I get really mad when things don't go our way. Sometimes conditions are very unfavorable for us. His lense did catch us ranting and raving a bit but he brought it back around. The other movies were great too.They were about school gardens, preserving ancient Portland buildings and one was about the college school loan racket. Good stuff.

Artists statements. It was interesting that so many folks had the same thing to say to us. "You don't know me but I know you" lots of folks watched the film coming together and know our story well. The idea was the funny imbalance that a documentarian has with the subject. They spend hours and hours reviewing miles of tape. As they edit our faces and words we are busy living life and not thinking about it at all. So when we meet to see the final product, the artist knows the subject way better than the other way around. Lyle spent a year making this so we got to know him pretty good too. Great Job Lyle!

Wanna find Lyle? Click here

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took my gal out on a date

Only the best shacks for you baby...just kidding, she don't eat any of that stuff.

 I ate a super hot chicken sandwich. It burned my mouth and was instantly regretful. Olive held out for some beans and rice, cilantro and hot sauce. She runs on a far healthier diet than I do.

found on net