We graduated from marriage counseling today.

 We graduated from marriage counseling today. Ever since last June,  almost a year ago we started meeting with Geena. It's every other week and usually lasts an hour. Plenty of laffs, crys, thrills and spills. Today after a half hour Geena says. "so....is there anything else? "Us. "Well now that we agree what way the TP roll should sit, we are good." We let Genna go to help others and said goodbye. 

That was a fun ride. Counseling doesn't keep your relationship together it just makes staying together a choice. 

I'm romantic like that.

Just got up, having coffee at 10:pm. We did an early morning balloon delivery to an adorable 3 y.o. (Gift from his P's) He was blown away having O&D in his house. 
He usually sits silently at the shows and then talks about us all week. Then we did a show at a cake shop and went home.
 Jan. and Feb are the leanest months for us so we never have any scratch for valentines fun so we did the cheap route. All day snoozing and cuddle-puddle. 
Olive is frikkin beaming. It's all she wanted in the first place. She keeps thanking me but I'm the one who is grateful. 
She's cartoonishly fine and really good at making me offers I can't refuse.
 In the dark haze I kept seeing us as paintings. She looks like a Frank Frazetta character and I look like the Squidbillies. 
We could have had some cash this month. 
We got asked to do a gig 4 hours drive away. Some hundreds for a 45 min. show. We thought "Do we want money more than we don't want to pollute the air with car for 8 hr.s?" Nope. 
So we spent the day barely conscious rolling around in sensual town. We have always had a very tactile relationship but I'm a high functioning hyper active person who only ever sleeps about 5 hr.s a night. I get uncomfortable spending lots of time proned out. 
Olive is the cuddliest buggle ever so reclining is in her wheelhouse. I hear our houseguest today is a German engineer who is soaking up some Portland before heading out into the countryside to work on wind turbines. 
Maybe if we befriend him he will let us up in one of those things. That is if it's not too far to drive. I would find it romantic to go to the top of one of those things and make out while throwing full beers at the ground(with attached Gopro) and eating milkduds. 
I'm romantic like that.

Mt Tabor romance in the cold

Last night we packed a picnic and hiked up Mt. Tabor for some dinner and romance. Really chilly. Beautiful night to cuddlepuddle and look at the town.

Slappycakes!

Went to Slappycakes! The d.i.y. pancake spot with griddles on the tables is one of our favorite local places. I actually wasn't too hip to go this morning because we only had a few people at our gig. 
I don't like spending the trickle of flow we get in one setting. Olive lives for dates so it's worth it. 
She assured me we could cover it. 
Still I ordered the cheapest thing and swiped some batter from the next table. I got the cheapest thing by default...I just love biscuits and gravy. 

The batter special today was Chai. 
We like having a couple of color values at the table. The kinds of batter plus the time it cooks is where the art comes from. 

The toppings are just window dressing. 

It's a delightful surprise each time because you are pouring the batter to make a picture on the other side. 
You never know if it came out until the flip-a-roo. 

Olive got potatoes and a Bloody Mary. So good, i recommend Slappycakes to everyone. 
We ate, giggled, made out, did some food art and then took off to take pics of each other's butts...for science.

 f.y.i. Slappy gets crowded, if that happens there are food carts just across the street.

Good News! I don't have ringworm!

Today I was understandably freaked out looking at my chest in the mirror. Ringworm! Our friends had a bad ringworm incident recently so it's on my mind. I looked in the mirror and lost it when I saw those tell tale signs. 
It wasn't just one, it was dozens of ring shaped marks and a few contusions all over my arms, back, stomach.
 I ran to my partner
 "I'm infested with the ringworms Olive!" 
She took a look and then quickly began giggling. She followed the pleasure trail of clues. 
A couple hours ago she was having a kissing party, I was the furniture. 
The rings are from her facepaint. 
Her cheeks stamped circles backwards all over me. So there ya go. I cured ringworm.

Shopping.

I'm a wiz at executing a shopping mission.

Waiting in line can easily take longer than the actual shopping. I know what I'm going to get and where it is before I even get in the building.

My partner notsomuch.

I'm married to a hunter gatherer who has the focus of an astronaut. Every bin and shelf is scrutinized.
Looking at the basket I can't complain. She selects and curates that trolley like it's gonna be a magazine cover.
It's also about quality, she gets only good stuff for our bodies. She has to justify getting things for me by telling me how cheap it is.
"Don't worry I found this in the trash can next to the discount bin"
It's so hard for us to get more than a couple nickles together I feel bad buying myself anything.

O knows it's worth it for us to have good fuel.
She does what she has to do and keeps me on my game.
I got the job (Olive comfort object) by being patient and thoughtful, still I have to work on it.
I can't just hand her her teacup.
I show her the tea, let her grab the handle, let her hold it to her cheek feeling the warmth.
Next, she mouths the words "I love you" then I can slowly distend my arm and smile while she takes a sip without ever breaking eye contact.
Anything less is a joke.
You don't toss Olive her tea like it's a plastic bag at a garage sale. lol.

While we were shopping yesterday we met a codger who claimed to be a fan.
He said he hasn't seen us in a long time.
Tom and his wife enjoyed watching us roll by all the time but our migrations changed.
They were worried we may have been hurt or gentrified. When we mentioned that we have been together 10 years and he thought that was real cute. He has been with his spousceepoo for 56 years.
I bet he takes his time handing over tea cups too.

My Darling wife woke me up with a deep massage. That

 isn't uncommon. Over the last decade, we worked out that I put her to sleep and she wakes me every day. It can be pretty spectacular all around. Anyhoo. 
What was special this time was that she was doing it for her not me. It was about maintenance of her band equipment. 
She depends on me to play guitar as we sing for our supper every day. 
No matter what guitar i use (this anything but ergonomic beast is called The Stump) I end up over and under working several muscle groups. Back of fret hand gets one workout, strum bicep gets another. That isn't good to be all wonky.
She found all the guitar related stress parts (and had me hollering) and then prescribed exercises to even out the tone.
I never knew that was a thing. I didn't realize I was even hurting in those spots until it suddenly stopped.
Now I recommend it to ax grinders who sling those things around all the time. My first guitar was an SG copy.
That thing was heavy as a manhole cover. Rock on Donkey Kongs.

My wife likes to give me little quizzes as I pass by.

My wife likes to give me little quizzes as I pass by.

 "Hey do you know what a walking foot is? 

I say "Yeah I had a bit of the old walking foot back in 90, thank goddess I got picked up by a country doc while hitch hiking or I never would have got it looked at boy howdy."

        "So you don't know..."
me: "No."

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Olive Rootbeer took me on a date to an Ice Cream place.

She wanted to cheer me up. 
I was very upset to lose our camera. I suction cupped it to our car bumper, went a few blocks, learned it had fallen off and when we went back, it was gone. I was crestfallen. 
She needed me to feel better (and she had a coupon)so ice cream it is.
 The gopro only cost us a hundie. No biggie. 
It's the 3 hours work of music video material that I was really mourning. 
The only thing I'm materialistic about is our own personal entertainment material. lol 
We did find a lovely donation of art materials on our doorstep, that was uplifting. lol Mystery goodies!

So she bought me a rocky road cone as big as my head. 
I do feel a lot better...mostly from the date part. 
Olive is kind and hot as a firecracker. I'm glad she didn't melt my cone. 
As we left everyone cheered loudly for us. Odd timing since they saw us arrive, stood in a long line with us and we all ate together. Nobody said a word to us. Not complaining just observing some delicious human nature. We could still get the gopro or SD card back.

 I'm eager to see how that experiment works out.

This just in.....

Good afternoon,

Are you by any chance missing a gopro? I found one one my walk home. I though...oh gee my lucky day. Got home and found you both on its sd card. If it is yours I would love very much to return it to you.

Psst, hey, yeah you. Wanna help prop up our little Popsicle stand? Are you in a place to be hookin clowns up with some moneys for guitar strings and other things?

We appreciate cha Tiger, thanks a lot. We promise to give this thing everything we got. :)

  visit us at

 oliveanddingo.com/donation

We got home today soaked and face melted after rocking a party appearance.

We got home today soaked and face melted after rocking a party appearance. 
We could have worn raincoats but we purposely don't. When folks in traffic see us drenched in bad weather they lose their minds. 
People honk, yell and encourage us the entire commute. Normally they only do that for most of our commute. 
It's a profound delight to make those folks so happy. 
We do pick our moments and do this sparingly. 
The gear and threads can only take so many torrents. 
Also this is how George Washington died. 
He got sick after a long horse ride in the rain. We ain't going down like that. 
All warm and dry now. 
Hope you are too.

romantic walks in the cold

oliveanddingo.com

Happy Valentine's day!

For a long time everyday has been Valentine's day in our camp. 
Still, I'm very glad that our country still takes a day to remember it's cherished, late 1920's Chicago gangland massacre.Aw shux

oliveanddingo.com

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?
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