Bonny Portland

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 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!

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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

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.