Portland Retro Game Expo

This weekend the hubby and I traveled up to Portland, OR for the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. As an avid collector and recognized Instagram personality, PRGE was a bucket list item.

We flew to Portland on Friday night, after work. Our Airbnb was located in a really nice area, near city center, but had a rural feel. The guest house we were staying had a chicken coop on the property! 

We spent Saturday at the expo. Brandon was so excited, and he picked up some great stuff. He saw a lot of his retro friends, met some IG friends in person who he’s only talked to online, and made some new friends too!

Playing some pinball at the free play arcade

Brandon's retro friends, from Panama and Washington state

We wrapped up Saturday with dinner with friends at a completely gluten-free restaurant, Ground Breakers Brewing. The food was delicious! 

Sunday was our adventure/exploring day. We started out with breakfast at Batter. Amazing, gluten-free pancakes! We then headed out to Multnomah Falls. Oregon is beautiful in the fall. 

Multnomah Falls at the bottom

Multnomah Falls from the bridge

We then made our way back into town to the convention so Brandon could pick up a few more video game things. 

Then we headed to Pittock Mansion to get a view of the city. 

View from Pittock Mansion

Now, it’s Monday and we’re heading back from our mini vacation. Our flight has been delayed several hours, so we are very patiently waiting to go home. We want to see our kitties!

Revised Cat Shelf

Our cat shelf is a hot hangout since Brandon installed it a couple of weeks ago. The kitties love their new high spot and view of the bird feeder.

The only issue we were having with our initial installation was the ramp was too steep for the kitties to go down. They were jumping down onto the couch, which was a bit alarming when you weren’t expecting it. 

Brandon, being the very intelligent man he is, came up with a new design that would make the ramp less steep and make it look more store bought. 

The first thing he did was put ladder steps on the ramp, for better footing. 

We found that the opposite side of the shelf has more real estate, so we switched sides, which helped with the ramp's steepness, but not a lot. We really want to encourage the kitties to use the ramp, so getting it just right was important to us.

Brandon’s last change, and this one was a bit tricky, was making a post (with an angled edge) to brace under the ramp. This made the ramp at the correct angle for the cats to comfortably go down it.  He then screwed the ramp into the post, giving it more support.




We had to coax the cats into using the ramp the first few times down, but now they run up and down it like it's no big deal!

Kitty Window Shelf - Damage Free

Brandon and I both like working on projects and keeping busy. This weekend was filled with projects and luckily they have all turned out well. One in particular is super exciting and I wanted to share it with you!

We have two cats who are delightful, sweet and super curious. Brandon made them a shelf a few months ago in one of our small windows so they can watch the birds outside our condo, and they love it. 

This weekend he decided to take on an even bigger project, making a shelf for our long and narrow windows over our couch. The cats love to get up there and critter watch. 

The best part about this shelf is that there is no damage to the window area. Brandon is very clever and made the shelf so it would stay put with some vertical pieces of wood to brace against the window frame.  So if you are renting your home and want to make something cool for your cat(s), you have an option!

Our window is 5’10” wide and the base of the window sits at about 6 ft high. We needed an easy way for the cats to get on the shelf without taking death defying leaps. My smart hubby decided to make a ramp on a hinge to give them an easy way up. (The hinge was for the easy connection in buidling)

Brandon cut the wood for the window, cut the bracing pieces, and the ramp. We wanted some shag carpet, similar to their cat condo, to cover the wood and found a fairly inexpensive rug at Walmart. 

Once all the pieces were cut and covered, Brandon attached the hinge. Then we adhered some foam double-sided tape to the window sill and slide the shelf into place. Then we put the bracing pieces in each corner, also with some double sided tape, and tapped them into place with a mallet. They should be very snug. Then you’re all finished!

Window Before

Window After

Kitties enjoying the shelf

Let me know if you have any questions!