Bonny Portland

Wood in the Fall

2010-10-15T18:01:00.000-07:00

A whole season has passed since the last update. I guess thats what being happily employed full time (+) with the US Census will do to free time.

Today we had a half cord of wood delivered to the house. Because of hanging power lines, the delivery guy had to drop it all at the end of the driveway. Luckily, I was able to persuade him that it couldnt block the sidewalk or easement.

You can see the distance that the wood needed to travel in the background.

Here is the empty space it was headed to.

I put in the first hour of work, using the Stallone technique, utilizing just a wood bag and some gloves. (made from recycled PET!!) Olivia got home for the last 30-40 minutes and decided she would work "smarter." She used our dolly and pushed the wood to the garage. Because of her help we got done before sundown.

Here's the final wood pyramid. Olivia's design. (I was going more for a straight box).

Spring in February

2010-02-21T16:54:00.001-08:00

Mother Nature must have mixed up the dates. Felt more like March 21st than February 21st today. Here in Portland, it was sunny, warm and just plain beautiful.

After I tended to my worm herd: added a tier, bedding and a little food. Olivia and I started the early afternoon with a bit of gardening. She unpacked and moved our weatherized hydrangea plants back to the front door and I planted some flowers that would make it in the early warm weather. I'm especially interested to see how the hollyhocks do. They were a favorite of my grandma Nellie and I could use something that will grow in some hard soil.

I was inspired so I demanded that we also take the grill out of the garage and get some steaks on. Haven't seen bone-in steaks at the regular store recently so we made a special trip to Laurelhurst market for their steak selection. A bit pricey but we ended up with 2 T-bones just under 2 pounds each. A great meal, check out the pics. I hear its snowing in some parts of the country....

Loving Rock Band 2

2010-01-31T14:20:00.000-08:00

We were at Best Buy picking up my anniversary present (a bit early, but stuff was on sale!). While we were waiting, Olivia became enthralled by a Rock Band 2 kiosk (with the Beatles) and started jamming out in the store.

She quickly started asking questions about how much it was, if it would work with our Xbox 360, etc. I've never seen her excited about a videogame like this. (Even when she managed to win one of the Wii Resort games against me over the summer at one of our lovely festivals.) Long story short, I got her the set (sans Beatles markup). A Saturday Night.... does she want to go out to eat? no. See a movie? no. Olivia wants to stay at home and play VIDEOGAMES!!! HA HA!!!

She's quite good at it and its been a lot of fun.

Happy 2010

2010-01-17T20:11:00.001-08:00

Happy 2010 everyone. Holidays were busy so the ole blog press got slowed down. We've been really enjoying the new year and hope everyone else has too.

We've been enjoying the Rose City Rollers. Portland's own flat track rollerderby league. Last weekend, we saw the premiere of "Brutal Beauty", a documentary on last season, at the Hollywood Theater.

Yesterday we hit the Season 5 opener with some new friends and watched 3 solid hours (4 bouts). Olivia supports the "High Rollers", complete with Elvis mascot and bright green uniforms, even as they started off the season 0-2. I enjoy all the teams, but I am partial to the underdogs. I found myself rooting against the Breakneck Betties last night, defending champions and undefeated team after the opening bouts.

We're in a Wedding Magazine

2009-11-02T13:19:00.000-08:00

Olivia and I were included in The Irish Wedding Journal's fall 09 magazine. Its the predominant wedding magazine in Ireland. Take a look!

I posted the pictures for facebook folks, but you couldn't really read the article. Going to try to post here so that everyone can see them.

Pumpkins and Apple Cider

2009-10-24T21:02:00.000-07:00

I love the fall. Its my favorite time of year. Looking forward to Halloween and my Birthday. All great events =)

We went to Lee Farms in Tualatin. Our first visit and a very fun one. Olivia had a great time eating the apple cider/pumpkin donuts and especially the caramel apple. I enjoyed the great natural apple cider. Unlike at the Farmer's Market, the cider was unpasteurized and never frozen. The way its meant to be.

I think Olivia's favorite was petting the baby chickens. She wanted to pet them again on the way out but she'd already sanitized her hands.

Bought 3 gallons of cider. 2 for drinking, one to make hard. We just had a bad experience making hard cider a few days ago. Had a one gallon glass jug explode like a bomb in the middle of the night. Would have killed/horribly injured anyone that was in the room.. we were very lucky. We wont make the same mistakes again.

Olivia picked up 4 pumpkins, a weird green gourd, a bale of hay and some corn stalks. She's ready to decorate the house for the first Halloween in this place.

Enjoy the season!

The Swell Choice

2009-09-14T15:05:00.001-07:00

Olivia has entered the Oregon's Bounty Cuisinternship contest. Here is her entry. Soon, there will be a people's choice award vote. Please keep your eyes open and help her WIN!

Dion earns his keep

2009-08-09T20:39:00.001-07:00

Dion caught his first mouse, EVER, today!!! Congratulations Dion!!

I knew that my years of preaching to him that it was his one job, one that if called upon he better do well, would lead to this day. I always thought it would be Beenie, but Dion proved himself!!

The Story:
We are outside eating dinner. I had just grilled an arm roast from our 1/8th of a cow. It turned out great. Olivia and I each hear a sound. I ask her if there is anything the cats could get into. She says she thought she heard something, I say you definitely heard something. She walks into the house. "Come here! Come here! Dion caught a mouse."

I come up the stairs to see Dion with the mouse in his mouth and Olivia very excitedly worried. Olivia does not like mice. She acts like those cartoons you've seen, short of standing on the chair. She is not happy with me when I run to get the camera to save the moment. Eventually we get the cats locked in a room with the mouse. Olivia is very upset I'm trying to get a picture and tells me not to use the flash because it'll spook Dion. Dion is protecting his catch from his sister, growling when she gets close.

Unfortunately for Olivia, Dion (and Beenie) really don't have the idea to kill the mouse, they want to play with it. I'm enjoying the whole scene, knowing that the mouse can't survive such play. Olivia is worried it will escape and get away. After letting the cats have some fun, I get the mostly dead mouse in a paper bag and take it out of the house.

All in all, a great evening!

Beenie and the Little People

2009-07-08T15:57:00.000-07:00

Darby O'Gill and the Little people is a cherished Disney picture about Ireland, its Leprechauns, stars Sean Connery and happens to be one of Olivia's favorite films. We watched it (again) on a train from Dublin -> Galway.

If you haven't seen the film, the important parts for this post is how afraid King Brian (King of the Leprechauns) is of cats.

Now, when we travel we like to bring back a Beenie baby sized souvenir for Athena (aka Beenie), one of Olivia's cats. (Don't worry Dion fans, he gets to play with it too and sometimes gets treats or something.)

The other item to note is that Beenie likes to carry them around, treat them like kittens, and generally allow them to live long fruitful toy lives. First trip to Ireland we brought her back Lambie. Her faithful lamb friend that still enjoys the house today. After the wedding, we brought her King Brian.

Unfortunately, we didn't take any pics of King Brian BEFORE.

Now look at the poor guy after 4 months.

Be afraid, indeed.

Happy Independence Day!

2009-07-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

Enjoy the 4th, we will be grilling on a brand new Weber Grill that Erica helped arrive in time for the holiday.

I'll try to post some pictures after its done.

Sox take on the Flubbies

2009-06-26T07:24:00.001-07:00

An annual tradition continues today. The perpetual losers come to Comiskey to see what a World Series Championship Trophy looks like.

I found this great commercial. Enjoy!

Olivia makes it into the Revels

2009-06-17T19:23:00.000-07:00

Remember that well known Christmas Program that is famous in Portland, The Portland Revels?

Olivia auditioned and won a spot on the cast. They're doing an Irish theme this year so it will be perfect for her.

Plenty of time to make reservations. (and send Congratulations!)

2009 Performance Schedule:

Friday, December 4th, 7:30pm
Saturday, December 5th, 1pm and 7:30pm
Sunday, December 6th, 1pm and 7 pm
Thursday, December 10th, 7:30pm
Friday, December 11th, 7:30pm
Saturday, December 12th, 1pm and 7:30pm
Sunday, December 13th, 1pm and 5pm

Or Rain! You never know.

2009-06-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

Its been absolutely beautiful here in Portland. Even a little HOT. We just moved, but thats another topic for another post. I had to share this little bit of Rain Phobia courtesy of Olivia. She overheard this in a meeting. (Portlanders live in fear of the ominous rain.)

"Did everyone enjoy the great weather this weekend?"

"Yea! It was great! And now it's going to rain this week, again!"

"It was so nice to have such a warm day so early in the spring."

"But that means we're going to bake in July!"

"Or rain! You never know."

Lilac Gardens

2009-04-27T16:26:00.000-07:00

On Sunday afternoon, Olivia and I went up to the Annual Lilac Festival at the Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens. Its located about 30 minutes north of Portland in Washington.

It was a beautiful day and it was nice to be out looking at nature. The lilacs are just now starting to bloom, next weekend will probably be amazing. The smell of lilacs reminds me of my Grandma Bernice. She had two huge lilac trees/bushes outside the front porch and every spring we'd have them outside and in the house. Also, very early in our dating, I gave Olivia a huge bouquet of lilacs and she loved them. Earned a lot of points that day.

My Favorite Color Seen:

Olivia's Favorite:

Enjoy the pictures!

Our first Portland Beavers game

2009-04-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

We went to see our first Portland Beavers game, (also our first time ever going to an AAA baseball game). We had a good time, but there were some BIG plusses and minuses. We even brought home a winner.

Great sightlines, its a small and newer park (PGE Park). We walked up and bought tickets at 1st base for $15.50

Cool new blanket giveaway item

Team has the Padres' 3rd best prospect, 1st baseman Kyle Blanks. (Not sure if he knows Tae Bo)

Really good Philly Cheesesteaks customized in the Widmer Beer garden.

Funny antics/games for the kids inbetween innings

Girls and kids love Lucky, the Beaver Mascot

SMALLEST SEATS EVER. My knees were up against the back of the chair in front of me the whole game. it was uncomfortable and hurt. I don't understand what people were doing. I was trying to straddle it.

Beer cost $8.25! That is more than at Comiskey Park!

The game seemed to move a bit slower. The energy was really low in the crowd.

The seats they sold were all in the same section, so most of the park was empty, except where we were, all in like sardines. Very close for comfort.

Overall, a great time. But we're going to prioritize trying to find some better locations to sit. The "club" level looked nice, but its season tickets only. I just need a place where sitting in the chair isn't limited to people 5'6" and less.

Happy 50th Birthday

2009-04-01T21:28:00.001-07:00

My dad would have been 50 today (April 1st.)

I still miss him terribly, every day.

Census 2010

2009-03-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

I started my new job with the Census Bureau yesterday. I've worked for the government before, but they are quite serious. I'm looking forward to a few months of trailblazing. We will be the first people to ever use handheld GPS computers in the Census.

I'll be address canvasing, the most important part of the Census. The rest of the phases are predicated on us getting accurate data. Everyone that works on this after us will be using our data. Its cool to be doing something important. The Census data is used not only for history and statistics, but for assigning congressional districts, electoral votes and appropriation money.

Yesterday I spent the day taking the oath of office, (Yep, I have to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic, too.) getting fingerprinted, and learning the basics of preserving confidential information. Its a big deal there, since the Census is so important and needs the trust of the American People to succeed.

PS. That pic is my new official Census 2010 messenger bag. Its VERY heavy. I should be getting back into better shape lugging that around the neighborhoods.

Next week, training...

St. Patrick's Day Recap

2009-03-18T22:53:00.000-07:00

Took a good couple hours (and several Guinnesses) to make the Corned Beef and Cabbage. It looked great, smelled good, was a beautiful piece of meat. Unfortunately, the butcher did not cure the brisket long enough. In the center, you could see a strip where the cure didn't even make it and it looked more like a regular brisket. REALLY disappointing. It was like eating a roast more than the traditional favorite. I was/am quite upset about it. I look forward to this meal every year. Thats what I get for trying to go natural. Next year, we either are back to a conventional brisket or we cure it ourselves at home.

St. Patrick's Day Prelude

2009-03-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

Just back from Ireland in time to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Every year, I make Corned Beef and Cabbage. Olivia is excited because its one of the few meals that I can cook and she still be able to smile while eating.

This year, I wanted to extend my preference for humanely treated, grass fed beef to my Irish celebration. There is no way your typical Corned Beef at the store has been treated well for .39 a pound. Anyway, last week I called up our butcher and put in an order. He asked me if I wanted the whole brisket, I asked how big that was. He says "I don't know exactly but around 4 pounds or so." I reply, "So no bigger than 5 pounds?" He affirms and I make the order. Fast forward to last night. Olivia picks up the meat on the way home. She asks me how much I think its going to cost, I give a reasonable price based on 4-5 pounds. Nope, its higher, because its 8 pounds of corned beef. Ha. Thats not what I was expecting. That might actually last a day or two, even with my ravenous appetite.

I included a picture of it pre-preparation. The Guinness is there for scale, and not because I've already started drinking today.

We're Married

2009-03-14T08:59:00.001-07:00

It finally happened. Olivia and I got married in Clifden, Ireland on February 28. It truly was a wonderful day and everything that people say/write/make movies about came true. We had a great time with our family and friends that made the long trip. I'm happy to report that quite a few of those people have told us how much fun the wedding/trip was and some even said it was the best wedding EVER! =)

We don't have any official photographs yet, but that's the Church we got married in. It would be too much to write of every cool/funny thing that happened in our 2 weeks in Ireland, but I think I'll try to shoot for 4 anecdotes a week for a while. There's a lot to be shared.

I feel very lucky and Olivia is excited because we might end up in an Irish Wedding Magazine.

On a Portland front, I've accepted a temporary position with the Census 2010. I start in a few weeks, so thats something.

Standing up for yourself

2009-02-15T10:08:00.001-08:00

Last Tuesday, Olivia and I flew back down to Los Angeles for a small claims court date. It was our second trip, the first one in December was pretty much a waste of time. Olivia doesn't have much vacation time with our Irish Wedding coming up, so we have to fly down just for the day. The short long story of it goes like this. We left the place in immaculate condition, bending over backwards for every crazy request by our living in London slumlord, and she still didn't give us our rather large security deposit back. She acts like she doesn't have to follow California Law or Human codes of moral behavior.

Result? She didn't show up, AGAIN. This time the judge gave us the maximum amount for small claims court and advised us that she'll probably appeal. Thats fine. She'll have to show up or hire someone to show up. Then it will be over.

It sucks, its time consuming, but you have to stand up for yourself.

Holidays in Portland

2009-01-16T16:04:00.001-08:00

Here are some pictures from the Holidays/Snow Storm!
Enjoy!

Happy 2009!

2009-01-06T20:42:00.000-08:00

So its been a long time since I updated. One of my NY resolutions was to get back on the ball with this.

All started getting behind because of my Awesome Bachelor Party that was thrown by Best Man Weston and Groomsman Mike D. It stalled because its pretty hard to write an interesting a fun tale without including the details that each of us will swear never happened. However, the biggest amount of time was spent trying to come up with words that would accurately describe some of the smells that none of us (including one unfortunate cab driver) will ever forget from that weekend.

The next weekend, Cousin Erica and J came out to celebrate Thanksgiving and my 30th Birthday weekend. That was a great surprise and it was great having them out here for the weekend. I wish they had stayed longer/forever.

Following that was the great Portland Snow Storm of '08. Worst snow in 40 years. I took some pictures and I'll post a seperate "remembering the snow storm" entry in a bit.

Well, that gets it started again.

The Beer Store

2008-11-12T12:43:00.001-08:00

On Monday I made it my mission to find out where Apizza Scholls got their Old Style tall-boys from. There is a Bears-Packers game this weekend and I'm optimistic it'll be on TV at home. It took 1 sec of a google search to find my first option, they had an online beer search and I was off.

Looks like a convienence store, no parking, but 1000 beers. Picked up:

a six pack of Old Style - for the game

a four pack of Scottish Heather Ale - not what I remembered from Scotland, but ok.

the first beers I've ever had from my paternal homeland, Lithuania - Porter AWESOME, Lagers also VERY GOOD

Kelpie - A Scottish Beer made with Seaweed water, haven't tried it yet

a pair of Czech Republic beers - for my buddy who will be visiting. We've been to Prague together 2x.

A beer store. Beer we can believe in.

Friday Night

2008-11-10T16:30:00.000-08:00

So, we went to the Hollywood Theater on Friday Night for the Superman Symphony. Olivia knows how much I think Superman is cool, so we went to see a melding between an old Superman radio broadcast, vintage Superman Cartoons and a classical music presentation. They also threw in some vintage commercials. All in all, an interesting show. Worth it, but short for the $14 price tag. At least you know you are supporting the local arts and an interesting venue.

The worst part was the Trimet bus #77. All the other buses I've taken have been on time. This bus was late coming and going. Olivia and I walked over a mile on the way home before catching the bus partially back.

We had dinner that night at Colloso. VERY good cocktails. Interesting, Unique, and made well. The mantra of the restaurant, however, is "BE PATIENT". We waited forever for everything. I think we were there 25 mins before ordering a drink, 50 before ordering dinner. PS the place wasn't packed. The food was good, the cocktails tasty. I'd just go a few hours before you think you will be hungry. The surprising news was that they serve food all night, till 130am or so.

The Next President of the United States is...... A WHITE SOX FAN!

2008-11-04T22:13:00.000-08:00

Chicagoan and White Sox Fan Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States.

The other big race I'm watching is in the Oregon Senate, where Incumbent Gordon Smith is trying to keep his seat against Jeff Merkley. Smith is a moderate who works across the aisles. I hope he keeps his seat as I prefer people who work together with all parties and peoples and don't fall to political idealogy.

Election Day

2008-11-04T13:37:00.000-08:00

Here in Oregon we have a vote by mail system. Everyone has either already mailed their ballot back in or are dropping off at designated boxes in their area. Really takes some of the excitement out of Election Day. No stickers, No crazy registration problems. I'm curious if the state has already started counting the early ballots, they have a table of how many ballots from each county they have received each day. Not sure if at 8pm we'll have a quick "with 66% of the precincts reporting..."

No politics here, but I'm amused with the "Go Vote" campaign. I'd prefer only the interested, well informed voters to vote... but perhaps that is not a popular opinion anymore.

I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated.

2008-11-02T19:35:00.000-08:00

So in Wales, they have to have official signs in both English and in Welsh. When they needed this residential site only sign translated, they only got back "I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated." I can only assume that NO ONE in the chain of command speaks ANY Welsh.

Its very similar in Ireland, where all the information is also in Irish (Gaeilge). Hopefully they avoid these similar problems.

Source: BBC News

Saturday You-Tube

2008-11-01T17:32:00.001-07:00

I don't care for Bud Light, but this commercial made me laugh

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T10:43:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite (if not favorite) holiday's is upon us. I love going out on Halloween and seeing all the cool costumes. Especially love you ladies out there going all out to look a special kind of sexy (Olivia is Queen of Halloween Hotness).

We carved our pumpkins last night, Its really hard to take a picture in darkness with our SLR. You basically need a tripod, that we don't have, because the aperature stays open until it acquires enough light. The result is usually blurry at best, freakishly streaky at worse.

We also finally found GOOD SUSHI in Portland!!! Its a place currently called Masu East, but soon to be Bamboo Sushi. In fact, we had a hard time finding it because they changed the signage yesterday. Not only was the sushi awesome, but they are going to be the FIRST certified sustainable sushi restaurant in the USA (possibly the world) when the official re-opening happens in a few weeks.

All the fish was extremely fresh. We sat at the sushi bar and even saw the chef clean and prepare our horse mackeral (similar to spanish mackeral). After we had two orders, one filet made two pieces/one order os sushi, the chef asked if we wanted the bones? Bones? Yep. They deep fry them and turn into the craziest potato chip you may have ever had. DEFINITELY something to try.

Everyone, Enjoy Halloween and if you're in Portland, give sustainable sushi a try.

Cheap Haircut

2008-10-28T15:37:00.001-07:00

Its been a good 7 weeks since we moved and I was getting a bit shaggy up top. My two basic choices were an Aveda Salon, about 2 blocks away, starting at $40 OR Phagan's School of Hair Design in my complex for $6. Figuring I could explain away a horrible haircut by a poor Halloween choice, I chose to go cheap.

The haircut took a while, about an hour. The nice thing is that a teacher comes and checks out the work before they send you on your way. Overall, I'd give positive marks to the new haircut, especially if we consider "value". The taper on the back of my head's a bit off... but thats my only real complaint. Now to see what Olivia thinks.

I'd tell the guys to go ahead and try the cheap cut. Ladies, Do you feel lucky?

UPDATE: Olivia thought I looked British when she saw the haircut. She spent the rest the evening calling me variations of British sounding names and speaking in a lower-class English accent.

Pumpkin Picking

2008-10-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

We went to grab some pumpkins for Halloween on sunday afternoon. What a beautiful 30 minute drive. We took the old Columbia River historic highway, we were surrounded by trees at their autumn peak. Beautiful array of colors, glimpses of the winding river, and great weather. If you are in Portland, take a quick drive SOON. I wish I had my camera.

PS. We went to a REAL pumpkin patch where we had to pick them off the vine. Not some hay covered parking lot. 2 pumpkins for $6 from a family farm, no pesticides. Halloween we can believe in.

First Day of Pre-Marriage class

2008-10-24T23:38:00.000-07:00

So Olivia and I had our first day of Catholic Pre-Marriage class. (few hours today, whole day on saturday). It was pretty unremarkable except for a big faux pas when I shouted out what I thought was a funny comment without thinking....

The teacher says something to the effect of "I write notes to my husband telling him I love him, for instance, I always put one in his tackle box when he goes on his yearly fishing trip."

I blurt out, "Does he read them?" Now, I know in retrospect I look like kind of an ass. But I am now stuck trying to figure out if it was better if she had or had NOT seen Brokeback Mountain. (which I havent). Because the whole ruse (SPOILER ALERT) is up when Heath Ledger's wife leaves him a note in his tackle box that he never reads so she KNOWS he's not actually doing any fishing on these fishing trips with Jake.

So.. better the teacher thinks I'm insensitive or that I think her husband might be gay??

Swan Lake

2008-10-21T10:50:00.000-07:00

Hectic weekend. I've been putting off blogging because so much happened, but now I realized I am just procrastinating. Therefore, I'm going to break it up into smaller posts... lets see how it works.

I surprised Olivia with tickets to the Oregon Ballet's presentation of Swan Lake on Friday Night. She was a ballet dancer for her entire young life, so I could see her eyes pop out when we saw the ad on TV thursday night.

The next morning I checked TicketBastard and there were affordable seats made available in the 2nd balcony (after they sold out the rest). But TB wanted $16 for the convienence of telling the box office to hold my tickets. (20% of the total cost of the tickets). Instead, I took the bus down for $2 and scored some great aisle seats.

Olivia was late coming home on friday and was shocked when she learned she had to get ready to go in 20 minutes. She did a great job, she looked amazing (note to self: obviously going slow 90% of the other times we need to be somewhere!!!) and we took the bus down to the performance as well.

Olivia loved it. I managed to stay awake by getting up every intermission and walking around. I was excited to be able to use public transportation to go to an event so easily.

Finally.. a Steak

2008-10-15T15:44:00.001-07:00

Finger is feeling better. Been without the splint for a day or so. It was a big hassle. Hopefully the finger is now healed. I don't know how much time will have to pass before I'm not worried anymore. It wasn't acting up 100% of the time BEFORE the doctor.

Started the late afternoon by going to an informational session about a city job I'm going to apply for. I'm a great candidate, but we'll see if I even get an interview... keep you posted.

Was pretty excited about how well the information session went so I scooped up Olivia and we went down to Ringside (Downtown location) for Steaks. It's an old fashioned steakhouse with leather handles on the door, lots of wood, a fireplace.. classic. Lots of nationwide "Top 10" steak awards. They're known for their onion rings so we got the "half" order that was enough for 2 people.. or 5.

Olivia got a Porterhouse, I went with the Bone-In Ribeye. When given a choice, always get the bone. It helps make a tastier steak. I ordered rare with no butter and it came out great. Olivia got the normal style in a medium rare.. and was suprised when she didn't like it. (She eats rare meat). They quickly prepared another, in rare, and now she doesn't have steak doneness ordering priveledges.

We also got a great bottle of Oregon's own Pinot Noir off the orphaned list. (clearance). VERY nice bottle of wine. it was an older 2004, so I didnt really want to memorize it since it could be expensive to find more.

Shameless Shoe Plug

2008-10-12T02:21:00.000-07:00

So Simple Shoes is running a contest for free shoes if you post their youtube link. So here it is. I actually have a pair of their shoes. I loved them until I wore them down. I wear down the tips of my shoes much faster than most. I certainly love their commitment to sustainability!

Here it is:

Out for the Playoffs

2008-10-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

I had to go to the Doctor for a finger injury sustained in the move. Has been a few weeks and it wasn't healing.. guess I have tendonitis in my middle finger, although some may think I injured that finger another way. In any case, it takes alot longer to type using my left hand and index finger, so might be slow for the 4-7 days I have to wear this splint. I did learn that anti-inflammatories make me sleepy. The one piece of good news is that I wont have to talk about the White Sox loss. Still proud they won the AL Central and won more playoff games than the ScRubs.

Blackout!

2008-10-06T00:28:00.000-07:00

The Blackout could refer to several different things in the past few days.

We woke up on Saturday morning to find out that we had no power. The fire alarm system kept chirping letting us know (if we couldnt notice the fact that we had no electricity for ANYTHING) that we didn't have power. I took a shower in the darkness before the hot water from our electric hot water heater ran out. We went for breakfast, a good section around us was also without power. By the time we got back, all was well.

The Blackout could also refer to last Tuesday when US Cellular field was Blacked out by all the fans wearing black (over 40,000)! Sox beat the Twins to send them to the ALDS against Tampa.

OR, the Rolling Blackout could also refer to Sunday, where the White Sox came home down 0-2 and continued the Blackout to the tune of their first win of the series!

We had a good weekend. Went to the Greek Festival on Saturday night. Lots of tasty Greek food. We arrived too late to get tickets for Lamb #8, the last lamb of the night. I guess there was some culture somewhere, but they did a good job hiding it. The rest of the food was great and we loved these honey donut holes..

Sunday was AWESOME. First, the Bears destroyed the Lions. Second, the White Sox beat the Rays. Third, Olivia and I went to see Rachael Yamagata in concert! She has the flu but still put together an awesome show. The opening act was horrid, but I pounded through a few Pabst Blue Ribbons and soon Rachael herself was on stage. She played both old and new stuff, her new album drops on Tuesday, the 7th. I hadn't seen her perform for years and I was extremely excited to see her play again!

Come on White Sox, Lets win one more time at home and take the series back to Tampa!!

BRING ON THE RAYS!!!

2008-10-01T00:20:00.000-07:00

The Blackout WORKS! The Chicago White Sox are your 2008 AL Central Division CHAMPS!

Enjoy that LOOONG ride home Twinkies. Perhaps you shouldn't have celebrated like you won something LAST week. Beating you on our field was worth it.

Bring on the Twins!!!

2008-09-29T18:55:00.001-07:00

Portland just got a taste of Chicago White Sox baseball. I'm sure everyone in my apartment complex heard me! Next up, time to bring the pain to the Minnesota Twins!!!!

Fire Drill

2008-09-28T22:42:00.000-07:00

Exciting weekend! We had a visit from the local fire department on Saturday! We had the entire apartment complex evacuated!

Saturday Night, Olivia is making us a nice steak dinner. It gets real smoky and eventually sets off our fire alarm. We can't get it shut off. We have all of our windows open and nothing works, so we open up the door to our hallway too. Soon, the entire building's fire alarm goes off and everyone evacuates. Building manager comes over to the apartment and we try to explain, can't do anything till the fire department arrives. I go outside to explain to people what happened, that everything is ok, and that I'm sorry. Everyone understands but they can't go back in because the entire building is in lockdown. One young lady asks me "Do you need some help cooking?" She's lucky I didn't rat her out to Olivia. Fire department comes running in with axes and equipment. I try to stop them, tell them there is no need to run but they go pounding on Olivia's door and turn everything off. Nice first impression with the neighbors, I think =)

Earlier on Saturday my desk was delivered from EcoPDX. Its really sweet. It looks awesome and I'm happy to have a desk again.

On Sunday, we went back to Apizza Scholls for Sicilian Sunday. Definitely prefer the regular selection over this pan style. But it was worth noting because they sell OLDSTYLE in tallboy cans! We went right before the Bears game so I was excited. Old Style and a Bears win.. woo!

Bears: They are tied for 1st place in the NFC North with a Sunday Night WIN over the Eagles!!!
White Sox: They have driven me to the brink this week. A 2.5 game lead with one week to go has become being behind 0.5 games. They have to win on Monday for the right to play a game on Tuesday against Minnesota to get into the playoffs. They've been a real disappointment. This was the first game they won IN A WEEK. The team has NO heart. I don't know why I keep watching...

Short day at the DMV

2008-09-25T00:45:00.001-07:00

Here in Portland, the DMV is fun. I had to get my car registered here in Oregon (my California plates expired in August) and get a brand new Driver's License. First step was to get the car checked for Smog. You can actually watch a webcam through the state's website to see how bad the line is and plan your trip accordingly! Second step, go to the DMV. Nice big parking lot, 7-8 windows of workers. About 5 people needing help. They have a "pick a number" system. More of a formality. Got my plates and a sticker good for 2 years. The nice DMV girl asked me if I had studied for the written knowledge test for my license, of course not. Took the vision test, I swear those things aren't calibrated right. the lines are easy enough to read where the light is shining correctly or the lens isn't bent. I dont get it. center of line: clear as day.. left of line unreadable except if you look at some crazy angle.. right of line almost gibberish until you again press your head _just_ right into the machine and suddenly its clear as day again. give me a poster and a taped line on the ground. this is just stupid. the written knowledge test is actually a computer touch screen test. kinda like a videogame! it tells you if you selected right or wrong. Passed no problem and now I got my temporary Driver's License. The DMV girl did admonish me for not shaving for the picture though....

Olivia wanted to celebrate me being alot more of an Oregonian than her. (I have a DL and a registered car. She's still California Dreamin'...) We picked a Southern style place near by called the Screen Door. Not bad. The appetizers were awesome. The portions were HUGE. I had some fried Okra, Olivia had heirloom tomatoes. Dinner was more pedestrian. Fried Chicken.. but no drumsticks.. that really kills my chicken buzz. Sweet tea, not very sweet. Quickly ordered a beer. Collard greens, spicy. Sweet potato fries, pretty good. Olivia had some banana pie desert. It must have been pretty good, it was huge and it was all gone by the time we left.

I feel like a snake shedding off my Hell-A skin

UnBEARable

2008-09-22T00:30:00.000-07:00

The Chicago Bears had a game stolen from them today. The defense didn't hold a 10 point lead with less than 7 minutes left and a 7 point lead with 2 minutes left. Then, Peanut Tillman got called for an unnecessary roughness penalty for jumping to protect another Bears player getting his head slammed to the ground. That turned Tampa's 4th down punting situation deep in their own territory in OT to an automatic first down that eventually lead to a Bears loss. I really thought we had won the game. We caught it at the Broadway Grille and Brewery again. We're becoming regulars, even catch our waitress at the grocery store.

The rest of the weekend was pretty nice, though its hard to recount it well with the sting of 1-2 still burned into my soul.

On Friday night we headed into Old Town Portland and ate at Dan and Louis' Oyster Bar. As you might expect, the oysters were super fresh. Overall, the atmosphere inside was very cool. Lots of nautical themes, pictures of older Portland, and an extensive collection of coat hangers. The meal was rather depressing for me because, without notice, they put Indian spice on my Razor Clams. #1, that tasted horrible, #2 thats a pretty strong flavor to not give a heads up about. I'd go back for the Oysters, but certainly not the Razor Clams, which have started to be a favorite of mine out here. Olivia was going to finish them at home, but the bar is in a less economically successful part of town and she gave the leftovers to a man who had asked for them.

Saturday morning was back to the Portland Farmer's Market! Olivia has got the house pretty much together so I had a green light to stock up the freezer with some sustainably produced meat! The market did not disappoint, we were able to get bacon, ribeyes, and t-bones all from family farms, all completely grass fed. I'm looking forward to trying them and I'm just a little sad I don't have a BBQ grill anymore.

After the market, we headed over to EcoPDX to try and find a desk. My old desk had been with me in LA for 8 years. It was just a simple but heavy particle board/Ikea special that got a little less useful everytime I had to break it down and then put it back together. At EcoPDX they didnt have a desk but they worked with me for a custom plan to turn two nightstands into a walnut topped desk. Why would I choose this method? The work is done in Portland, by local owners. The wood they use is all salvaged or reclaimed wood that would otherwise be wasted. How can you beat the chance for a custom, but still sustainable, piece of furniture that should last me indefinitely. If not as a desk, but as two nightstands!

Saturday night we had our Olivia cooked natural Duck. It tasted as good as it looked! Olivia did an awesome job. It was nice to have a home cooked meal and now that all the pots and pans are unpacked I look forward to all the nice meals Olivia will prepare for us at the homestead.

We covered the horror of Sunday morning already. The weekend winded down when we were graciously invited by a boss at Olivia's job to the Ronald McDonald House charity fundraiser. It was a silent and live auction with a little casino action thrown in at the end. We bid on a few things but just ended up with a evening at some sort of Christmas show that is a local tradition. It came with a bottle of nice Pinot Noir and a gift certificate for dinner. We easily are getting more than what we paid for the package. Charity is awesome! We wound down the night playing craps for pretend chips (and raffle entries.) Olivia was a decent roller (I really sucked... my max rolls was "3"). We lucked into a one-time roller who rolled for almost 30 mins. She made us so much fake money we wished we were playing in Vegas.

A good weekend, if we don't mention those darned Bears!!

Couch Day!

2008-09-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

So yesterday harkened the arrival of our long awaited couch. I had agreed before we left LA that I would be willing to leave the Ikea couch that had served me valiantly for 8 years. I did insist that we find an affordable couch made of solid construction in the United States. Our couch is 100% All-Oregon. People who claim they can't find stuff made in the United States are just lazy.

We also went to a Thursday location of the Portland Farmer's Market. We didn't buy that much, but we did buy a duck for our first fancy home cooked meal. I've never had an animal this fresh, It was slaughtered Thursday morning and the farmer told us NOT to cook it for a few days so it can "relax". Crazy. I thought it would be best to eat it right away, but I assume he knows what he's talkin' about.

Since we couldn't cook up Donald, we hit The Italian Joint on the way home. It was nice and quaint, but nothing special. Olivia's Crab and Artichoke Ravioli with Alfredo and Cheese looked alot better than my Chicken Marsala. I made the mistake of telling them I was lactose intolerant so my Caesar salad (which I can eat) was deconstructed. Blah.

Halfway to St. Patrick's Day

2008-09-18T11:33:00.001-07:00

We were super excited to go to the Kennedy School, a property of McMenamins, for the first time last night. As mentioned before, its a former public school that was bought and turned into a bar. Its been on Dave Atell's Comedy Central show and is pretty well known. We chose Sept 17th for our trip because it is also known as"Halfway to St. Patrick's Day," the worlds favorite holiday (tm). Several of the McMenamins historic properties were having Irish themed singing and dancing so we were "all-in". Unfortunately, upon further review, all this was happening at 5 or 530pm. How the heck are people who work supposed to go?? They did have some non-Irish events going on later in the evening, but, whaaa? Kennedy School must wait for another day.

Disappointed about not being able to have some Irish fun, we decided to take our first trip/meal in the Pearl District. Knowing it was a bit more pricey than the area we live in, we decided to try a sushi place as the places around us have been waaaaayyy disappointing. (Are we finally going to have something to miss from LA???)

We decided on Hiroshi. Widely touted on review sites as one of the best in Portland. Everything was fresh and decidedly presented well. However, it was more like going to a fine dining restaurant where a good deal of effort was placed on ambiance. They also did not have sushi accompaniment staples : Unfiltered Sake and Plum wine. It quickly became clear that if we were going to get full, it was going to cost more than its value. As we were walking around Olivia saw an ice cream shop she wanted to try. Off to desert!!

Maybe its the fact that I haven't had _real_ ice_cream in years, but the Cool Moon Ice Cream shop was amazing. Everyone there was A+ nice and let Olivia sample as many flavors as she wanted. All local, all natural, and all made right there in the shop. Great flavors. I broke down and dared my lactose intolerant self to have a cone with Black Cherry and a flavor that tasted like Nutella. Well worth it!!! Olivia had some sort of Coffee and Summerberry. Great way to end the night, and I didn't even get sick!

A wee bit of Fish and Chips

2008-09-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

It was beautiful yesterday. A little warm during the day but absolutely perfect in the evening. We decided to walk a little farther for dinner and noticed we each had some plaid on, off to the local scottish restaurant/pub Rose and Thistle!

I'm really digging how fish and chips is a mainstay of Portland's food choices. Of course, each restaurant claims the best in town. Here, they were pretty good. I made my own sampler and got a piece of the cod, the halibut and some shrimp thrown in for good measure. Every thing was fried really nicely and it had a good batter. No complaints, solid meal. The fries weren't my style, but they weren't bad either.

I had coached Olivia up for trying some haggis, I had it while in Scotland a few years back, but they were out. She got the spinach and artichoke dip (fresh from the microwave. I gave it a "not worth getting sick over." Olivia said it wasn't bad). She also had a large apple salad that looked good and must have been good because she finished it all.

The server was nice, as most of these Portlanders are. I think I might have to start only mentioning service if its an A+ or anything below a B-. Its all pretty solid out here.

The biggest downer was this was a small little place and it was smoker friendly. Translation: Smoke Den. Its hard to eat when you're bathing in smoke, especially after two terms in a place where thats just not allowed, at all. It got us thinking about the apparently dichotemy between the uber-healthy portland lifestyle and the prevalence of smoking up here. I can't really answer the riddle except to speculate it probably has to do with the common theory that you have to have one vice in life. I think we will probably have to stick with more family friendly establishments (code word: no smoking), or at least places that are big enough to have more air circulation.

At least the Scottish Ale was good.... =)

PS: GM unveiled the Chevy Volt today. Looks like they're aiming for LATE 2010 with a price tag of 30-40k. They are also whining about Government loans, I guess profit isn't a big enough incentive for them. We are watching the death spiral of GM here, folks. I was enamored of the Volt when it was first announced, but I have no confidence that GM will be able to produce this car a) on time b) successfully c) affordably or d) much before a car company that knows what they are doing produces a similar concept. Get the guys from "Who killed the Electric Car?" on the phone, they're writing a sequel over in Detroit.

Saturday Morning at the Portland Farmer's Market

2008-09-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

Wow! We were regulars at the Santa Monica farmer's markets in California. We either went on saturday or sunday and were hoping we'd find similar goods at the Portland version. We headed down to the Saturday morning Portland Farmer's Market at PSU.

#1, its HUGE. There are so many vendors and options. Olivia told me about a million times that the kitchen wasn't unpacked and we shouldn't buy too much. I still bought a ton of stuff.

#2, I got that flat of blueberries for ONLY $20. I'll be looking like a smurf by the end of the week.

#3, a good deal of the vendors take credit cards, which is helpful because while the prices are good, there is that many items to buy.

#4, when you are completely out of cash, you can purchase these tokens with your credit card for a fee of $2. They never expire and all of the vendors take them as cash. I love using cash equivalents!

I can't wait till next week when Olivia won't be able to say we can't use something!!!

Dinner at the cheese den

2008-09-11T23:04:00.000-07:00

A little slower today. Maintenance got all the work done in the apartment and now all the faucets work without spraying us with water! Its peculiar. I've had to change every lightbulb in the apartment because they're the incandescent energy sappers, but all the water flow has been set up for ULTRA low flow. I couldn't even rinse the sink out this morning after shaving. I'd say I'm pretty green, but I don't quite buy the water famine talk, yet, outside of the the desert regions like Hell-A and Arizona/New Mexico. Desalination becomes an energy game. It is very energy intensive, but if you have clean energy, whats the problem? I'm more worried about water quality than water scarcity. All the runoff and overuse of pesticides and fertilizers have made our water supplies tainted. Similarly, why do i need drinking water to flush the toilet or water the plants?

I ate lunch alone at a McMenamins brewpub. They are a local chain of brewpubs known for taking interesting spaces and making cool pubs. They have two I'm really excited to go to, the Kennedy School, where they took an old school and converted it and the Baghdad, a movietheater you can drink at. Unfortunately, the one near my house is rather plain and sedate. The beer was good and the fish and chips tasty.

Dinner was at the cheese den, but they call it Pastini. Its near the house and we had a coupon from the Chinook Book to try. I assume one of the chefs is from wisconsin because everything had 2 scoops of cheese on it. The Caesar salad? 2 (ice cream) scoops of cheese. The chicken marsala that didnt taste or look anything like chicken marsala? 1.5 scoops of cheese. The food was NOT good here. I don't have anything positive to say about the place other than the servers were nice.

Encouraging news on the job front. I made it to the "equally ranked eligible list" for one of the city jobs i submitted for before our move. Here's to hoping an interview is close behind

Things are finally starting to settle

2008-09-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

In days 2 and 3. The original estimate from the truck driver was that he would arrive on tuesday to deliver the rest of our furniture and belongings. It got pushed back till wednesday, so Olivia and I used the day to get some errands done, but also relax a little bit.

We went to breakfast at Francis Restaurant. Again, Olivia enjoyed it much more than I. She had an omelette that looked pretty good, I had the special: cornmeal pancakes with lemon. I also ordered an italian ice that came in the hugest mason jar I've ever seen. 32 ounces, at least. Big props to the restaurant for doing their part to be sustainable. Plenty of vegan and vegetarian options, take home boxes made for composting, responsible sourcing of their ingredients. Overall, willing to give this place another go.

After breakfast was a trip to get groceries at New Seasons. We had to go because when we were looking for places to live, almost EVERY listing included the distance to New Seasons. I guess I would describe it as if Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and a Co-Op decided to mate and produce offspring. It has a great selection of every item. Has your more hard to find foods but also has a good deal of the national brands too. They make their own sausages and breads and everyone was super friendly. I can't imagine this not becoming our normal grocery store, especially since the prices seemed normal for everything (if not cheaper than what we are used to in Hell-A).

A little later we made a practice trip for Olivia's new job at Comcast. Turns out its a pretty easy commute, around 15-20 mins. I'm glad she won't have to travel too far.

For Dinner, we went to the best pizza place (if you exclude my childhood favorite) I've ever been to. Apizza Scholls. We tried this on one of our visits to Portland, it had been featured on Anthony Bourdains travel channel show "No Reservations". It is better than can be accurately described. They are open Tues-Sat, 5-9pm or until the dough runs out. They make all the dough themselves, and it takes 24 hours for it to set. Therefore, on busy nights, which seems like 100% of the time, its more likely they run out of dough than make it to the end of the night. Its a really unique place. They all take the same vacations, everyone works every day. They can be "Pizza Nazis", only 3 toppings per pizza and some other rules, but it all makes sense in the end. Even being lactose intolerant, I can eat as much of this pizza as I want. (Quality hard cheese = no problems.)

While there we learned that they are having a special Sunday meal for one of their servers that has been ill. They are not usually open on Sundays but they are having special pizza's and all the proceeds go to medical bills and expenses. If you are in PDX, I'd make a trip.

On wednesday Olivia had to go to go to work. I had to manage the movers. Immediately, I get a phone call telling me they can't get the truck to my street and they'll have to use a shuttle. You know, the shuttle the moving company told me about 4 business days before the move and had me sign a form for extra charges, if needed, but they were 99% certain wouldn't be needed. I don't know if all moving companies are like this, but to recap, every day that they did something they attempted to extort more money from me. I fought this one too and gave the driver plenty of options for getting to my street or an adjacent street. After a while, *magically* he was able to park on the street. All I can say is that you have to stand up for yourself in these situations. They're looking for the pushovers that will just pay whatever to get their stuff. Remember: you have legal options if they try to "hold you up". The movers themselves were actually friendly and did a good job. City of Portland gave them a ticket for double parking because I was unable to secure a permit from the city. How does the city expect you to have multiple days notice when the moving companies themselves don't know when they're going to drop off your stuff? And then, to give tickets for this is crazy. My first WTF portland experience.

The rest of my day was spent getting the bed put together, getting the maintenance crew to finish some unfinished problems with the new apartment, getting the cable installed and ready to watch and generally moving boxes from place to place.

We went to dinner really close by at Koji Osakaya Japanese Restaurant for some sushi. I really hope this wasn't indicative of the sushi I can expect in Portland or that I've been spoiled by easy to come by good sushi in LA. The sushi here is really underwhelming and nothing of note.

Now its late morning on the 4th day. I spent time getting the Tivo converted for the new cable set-up and the never ending task of updating all my accounts and shipments to the new place.

Environment link of the day: Saw this article about the new Chevy Volt. I was real excited about it when it was first announced but now I'm of the opinion that GM/Chevy will find new ways to fuck it up. Here is to hoping I'm wrong and an American car company can do something useful again.

Home Sweet Home

2008-09-08T23:41:00.000-07:00

Finally! In Portland! The DSL kicked in about 5pm today. No desk or chairs yet, so I'm stretched out on the floor trying to post this without getting rug burn. Lots of stuff has happened the last 2 days. Lets see how much I can remember.

I forgot to point out how country Redding, CA was. It was like being in the south, without the accent or the sweet tea. Lots of trucks, Carrie Underwood blasting from their speakers and blonde girls with their bouffant style bangs. Least I managed to get out of town without hearing any karaoke....

But not without watching Beenie take a poop on a pillow. We were getting ready to leave the hotel room and Olivia was cleaning up their litter box. Sensing we were about to go on another drive and wanting to show her anger, she plopped a poop on a pillow and then proceeded to wipe her butt on the way for good measure... least it wasn't my pillow..

The first thing I noticed after driving into Oregon, other than a nanny-state like insistence on driving slow, was the constant road construction: all financed by some Oregon Transportation Act that they must have had a vote for. I know its an exaggeration, but I don't remember too many 5 mile stretches where I didn't have to slow down because of road work.

We got to the new apartment around 5:30. The management people at the Lloyd Place Apartments couldn't have been nicer. She waited after hours for us and then did a real inspection of our unit, finding several problems that were mostly fixed this afternoon by a cool maintenance guy.

After getting Beenie and Dion situated with some food and a pooper, I insisted we run to the nearest bar, the Broadway Grill and Pub, showing the Sunday Night Football Bears game. Everyone had been telling me we didn't have a chance in that game. I arrived at halftime to see the Bears with a bit of a lead. I ordered the 9 beer sampler and started rooting on the Rex-less Bears. The 2nd half didn't disappoint as the good guys piled it on and posted a convincing road victory against the hardest opponent on their schedule. Superbowl, here we come!!

This morning we woke up and headed for breakfast at the Cadillac Cafe. The food was alright, Olivia liked it more than I. They did have a real Cadillac in the place, though. They also had a Coconut dessert that I'll come back to try.

Somewhere during the day, Olivia and I marvelled at the kismet that had us have our first full day in Portland on the one year anniversary of our engagement. Weird how the world works sometimes. I booked us a table at the best seafood restaurant in town, Jake's Famous Crawfish.

Next stop was Pacific Lifestyle Furniture. Olivia has been jonesing for a liveable couch for years now and after hearing that these couches were 100% made in Oregon with no foreign materials or parts, I was sold. It also helped that the overall price was less than half of similar things she had shown me in Pottery Barn catalogs. It's being made to order and should arrive on the 18th.

We headed home and I decided to find out just how far Jamba Juice was from my door. Good news, not that far. Its in a rather non-descript mall (Lloyd Center), but they don't use styrofoam cups!! Yes! Like Santa Monica, I figure Portland must not be a fan, I'll have to research this. It sucked in LA to have to remember where the city lines were in order to find a styrofoamless beverage container.

I also bought $100 worth of CFL lightbulbs today. This was after I had already replaced 4 light fixtures in the house with CFLs I brought with me. We have 2 bathrooms with 6 vanity lights each. We also have an overhead light in the living room that was stocked with 4 ornamental/candelabra lights. I'll be taking all these lights with me when I move, but until then, Yeah Earth! and Yeah saving money on the electric bill. Efficiency = easiest way to save energy/money. Have I mentioned the power company out here let me purchase 100% wind generated power? this blog brought to you by NATURE!!

Dinner at Jake's was awesome. We had this when we came out for my birthday last year. The Dungeness crab, still good, but not as awesome as last year. The Razor clams, still REALLY good. Both of us were happy with our dessert selections as well. 2 out of 7 Oysters were milky. The rule of thumb is only eat them in month's that have a 'R' in them, but its probably still a little too close to summer for comfort. I look forward to the colder months to eat them up.

Good first day overall. Sun was shining all day. Where's all the rain????

PS: Oregon Girls don't pump gas........

and apparently the guys don't either. Regular folks aren't allowed to pump their own gas. I don't know what kind of training the attendants must take, but I'm sure its extensive...

Halfway Home

2008-09-06T22:47:00.000-07:00

Whew! Finally got out of Hell-A this morning. Basically, we got on the 5 North and stayed there. We were able to easily average 75 mph through some desolate countryside. My thermometer said it was 108 degrees outside and it felt like it. Since my Blazer was packed full, I really had to watch my engine temperature. Several times I had to turn the A/C off and bake for a while to drop the temperature... not fun. Sacramento seems to be the dividing line between desolate wasteland and livable conditions. We remember it was the same on our trip to Lake Tahoe, too.

Beenie and Dion were my travelling companions. Overall, they took the ride pretty well, but they were antsy by the end of the day.

We're spending the night in Redding, CA. Had dinner at Cattlemens. Huge servings of food, Olivia actually got half a Cow worth of ribs. We have 90% of them left for tomorrow. I dunno, I'll have to wait to be witty and amusing as after this long day of driving, you're stuck with mindless drivel, mostly.

Tomorrow, to Portland!

The Last Night in Los Angeles

2008-09-05T23:20:00.000-07:00

So, our last night in Los Angeles. Here was the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:

The Good: Several of our good friends came to Vito Restaurant to see us off. While we are excited to take off from the current routine, we will miss our good friends. Good wine, Good food and a great atmosphere tonight. Being able to socialize with these solid people will be one of our only regrets about leaving Hell-A.

The Bad: the move has had every horrible mishap possible. Our landlord has been completely evil. She doesn't deserve for me to even mention her. Just a few things that happened today. As the movers were loading up our stuff, we get a call from the office saying they had underestimated our load and they needed to bump it up. Mind you, we had a representative come out and estimate himself and give us a binding estimate. Then, he wants to make us pay more or we can't move our stuff??? That didn't fly with me, I know what a contract is. I gave it to him over the phone, they did take all of our stuff, we'll see how much I'll have to fight. The next horror was when the Green cleaning company (Green Clean) that we had made an appointment with WEEKS ago called us at 4pm today to tell us they were cancelling our 830am appointment. WHAT? No matter that our landlord has it written into the lease that the apartment has to be cleaned before we can turn it over. Oh, did i mention she lives in london so we can't even get ahold of her?? Her proxy, who doesnt even have keys, was also less than helpful. We've set up a replacement cleaner, but they can't get here till 130pm, the earliest. We wont be here, we have to get on the road.

The Ugly: That landlord who's name will no longer be spoken.

So we still have a ton of stuff we have to cram into our cars in the morning before we can take off. Long story short, you can make all the plans and appointments you want, weeks before, get estimates and moving will still try to screw you. You have to just forget about it and keep going, getting to the destination will have to be worth it.

Oh yeah, and then I hear that TCQ, otherwise known as Carlos Quentin, MVP candidate for the Chicago White Sox broke his wrist punching his bat after a foul ball. AWESOME.

2008-09-01T04:21:00.001-07:00

So the purpose of this blog is to document my acclimation to my new environment, the City of Portland, Oregon.

At first, I doubt many people will be overly interested in my activities. But as my explorations grow, I hope it can start to be a guide for different groups of people: who are contemplating an across country move to a totally new and foreign place, looking for outsider's perspective on their city, or perhaps contemplating a trip out to Stumptown.

We'll see how it goes and cross our fingers that it doesn't end in complete ridiculable failure. I am planning on really starting the blog on September 6, when i get in my Blazer and start the trek from Los Angeles to my new home, my Bonny Portland.