Whomp Power

We've Moved!

2007-02-20T19:56:00.000-08:00

We have created a new blog over at http://www.atlansky.com/blog. All of the posts from this blog have been moved there. The comments will soon be moved over as well. To continue basking in our mediocrity, head on over to http://www.atlansky.com/blog.

Ciao.

the world is love and life are deep

2007-02-10T17:57:00.000-08:00

So life, it seems has been relegated to funny television and cupcakes, while we wait for one of these yahoos that looks at our house to make an offer.

The Knights of Prosperity was a complete surprise to us, in that we assumed it would be as un-funny as the rest of the sitcoms on television. Not so, my friends. Pretty darn giggle worthy. Just little jabs of wit here and there, mixed in with some decidedly hilarious props to round it out. Plus the theme song they came up with for their little crime organization? Tom Sawyer. (OMG I found the actual clip from show!)

We've also been watching Black Books on BBC America, which I think originally aired a few years back and they are now re-running on BBCA. Anyway, it is so hard to describe why this show is funny, it just is, consistently.

Okay, so I made Chai Latte Cupcakes for the Superbowl. (C for Chicago, C for Colts, C for Chai. Get it?) They were...okay. I mean, they tasted good, but not mind-blowing. I expected more from them, I guess. Managed to choke down three all the same.

So yesterday I made Maple Cupcakes with Candied Walnuts, and Oh! Canada they are divine. My fingers still smell like maple.

Wii Got Hosed

2007-01-24T15:37:00.000-08:00

Finally scored a Wii bundle online, and what was on the shelf at Target today? Not just one Wii. Five of them.

#*@&!$+@$!!!#$!

We needed cheering. I made peanut butter cupcakes.

In a Lifeboat Designed For Ten...

2007-01-22T16:23:00.000-08:00

As if our weekend wasn't mostly shitty enough, what with the power going out for hours at a time for just our neighbors and ourself, a broken pipe spraying water into our bedroom, kids that continue to whine in the face of all logic, and network connections that make the idea of working on the weekend worse than it already is, we watched the first two video podcasts of Barenaked Ladies Ships and Dips tour. You know, the one where you could go on a cruise to the beautiful and warm Bahamas in the middle of winter and hang out with your favorite band, and Guster, and their friends. And hear music. And play Guitar Hero with Ed. And learn about wine from Steve. That one. So depressing. Why can't we do everything we want in life all the time everyday?

*stomp stomp whine pout*

(I learned that logic from the five year old, can you tell?)

I understand they are doing it again next year. We'll gladly take sponsors...

I Haven't Even Read Everything I've Bought

2007-01-21T07:57:00.000-08:00

I heard about this site called Whichbook, which is designed to help you find a book to read that will fit your mood. Want a book that is very happy, very disturbing, and filled with sex and lots of twists and turns? Use the sliders to your advantage and you may find yourself enjoying

To Say Nothing of the Dog
by Connie Willis

An enjoyable romp back and forth through a time continuum with the world threatened by incongruity and by the determination of the inimitable Lady Schrapnell to rebuild Coventry Cathedral in Oxford in 2057. Confused? You will be but lie back and enjoy every mad moment.

They have 150 or so people reading, rating and categorizing books published since 1995. Pretty cool idea. I left everything blank and just went and chose China as the setting, and got a ton of interesting sounding things to read.

The Ice is Covering the Trees...

2007-01-17T18:10:00.000-08:00

Stuck inside for two days thanks to the snow. Nothing to do but whine and take pictures. We are out of juice, nearly out of things for breakfast, and perilously close to being out of beer. Ay Carumba!

The kids spent 15 minutes bundling up outside, then cried to come back in after 2 minutes. Good times. :)

The cats don't seem to mind that the pool cover is an ice covered disaster waiting to happen.

I'm sure you will get sick of our cupcake photos, but its my birthday, so indulge me. We made the Mucho Margarita Cupcakes out of the same Vegan Cupcake cookbook. Ours aren't as pretty as hers, but they are so freakin' tasty I can't stand it. Lots of lime and a little tequila go a long way. Yum!

Five by Five

2007-01-13T14:20:00.000-08:00

So far, turning five years old seems to be the height of birthday anticipation and enjoyment. Owen got to spend the day with both sets of grandparents and his aunt and uncle. He got some great gifts that he is really enjoying. He wanted a bike, but we ended up getting him a Razor Scooter. He also received a small air hockey/pinball game, a remote control Herbie VW Bus, his own wallet, and a megazooka air cannon. He also wanted a specific cake: a volcano cake with NiNi, one of the Beijing Olympic Mascots.

After much deliberation, we decided to make NiNi out of cookie dough. Derek had purchased some pre-colored cookie dough from a co-worker, so I rolled out some green and cut it into the right shape, then frosted it. For the volcano, we followed a few ideas from Finkbuilt.com. We made a vanilla sheet cake, and two round chocolate cakes, stacking the chocolate cakes in the corner of the sheet and carving it into a volcano shape.

We frosted the "ground" with green frosting, and the volcano with chocolate frosting. I made some lava out of sugar, and decorated the scene with candy rocks.

Plant NiNi on the ground and a #5 candle, and we were good to go. In the over-the-top extravaganza that is the life of one that just turned five, Owen blew out his candle with the megazooka.

I ordered dry ice from the local grocery store, and we chipped of a bit and stuck it in the hole we had formed in the volcano top. After some trial and error Derek determined that we needed to not put in one big chunk of ice, but crush it into little pieces for maximum surface area and maximum smoke.

The volcano's destruction was absolute. And tasty.

Yesterday Owen was able to celebrate his birthday at preschool, so I made the cookies 'n cream cupcakes from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's new book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Three words: Best. Cupcakes. Ever. Oh my goodness, they were so tasty and so darn good looking. The rest of the recipes look so amazing I'm tempted to make a new kind every week, starting with the Mucho Margarita Cupcakes. Tequila! Further inspirado can be found at the cupcake blog.

Tom Dickson is My Homeboy

2007-01-09T16:03:00.000-08:00

Derek alluded to the Blendtec Blender site Will it Blend in the last post. If you didn't catch that, go there now. You can watch crazy things get blended in the Don't Try This At Home section. As they say, "Tasks that may be extreme for some machines are, quite frankly, simple tasks for Blendtec blenders." Cassette Tapes? No problem! Toy Cars? Pulverize them! Plus the host (Tom Dickson) is hilarious, and it is a total riff on Letterman's Will it Float segment. After you're done watching it, buy the shirt.

I've also commandeered my inner funk, and pulled out the bass D gave me for Christmas years ago. Once I got it mostly in tune (using the mostly in tune piano as my guide) I got to playing, using tab from BassMasta and playing along with songs on Rhapsody. Oh yeah.

Speaking of music, D got his Sansa mp3 player he won, transferring his iRiver on to me. Unfortunately my mp3 player curse followed me, so now songs that I made into a playlist appear anywhere from 1 - 30 times on the player.

::beats head on desk::

Speaking of more music, Jake Shimabukuro is playing here in February. He is an awesome uke player, check him out in action here. Of course, who is playing in town on the same night? Tenacious D. #!$@#!&$@!!

Best get back to the birthday planning...we are going to attempt the exploding volcano cake seen here. I've got a 10 lb. block of dry ice with my name on it!

Hockey on TV

2007-01-07T13:40:00.000-08:00

If you are a hockey fan but don't subscribe to NHL Center Ice or happen to live in a market where they play hockey on local TV, you are probably going through withdrawals about now.

NBC has the contract to show NHL games on television. The NHL season started on October 4 and on January 13, after more than 3 months of hockey, NBC is showing its first game. NBC gives you a total of 9 chances to watch a game of regular season hockey. Pitiful.

If you don't want to forget to watch one of these games and you use Google Calendar, I have created a public calendar with all of the NBC games. Just click on the following button to import it into your calendar:

Also, DirecTV is having a free preview of their NHL Center Ice package from 1/8 to 1/14.

If you don't have DirecTV and don't have a Google Calendar, you could just watch this.

and So This is Christmas...

2006-12-25T15:51:00.000-08:00

First of all, if toy makers are going to sell you something that comes with a million separate pieces, the least they could do is provide a container to hold them when not in use. I'm talking to you, Playdoh set with 50 individual cookie cutters.

I shouldn't complain...we got it free at the doctor's office. Note to self, schedule the children a doctor's appointment the last day possible before Christmas. We went in just for a TB test update for Xiao Miao, and they gave both her and Owen a present. Very nice, very unexpected. The office is in the new OHSU Center for Health and Healing, which is located on the waterfront where the tram lands. The waiting room is essentially the entire side of the building - not just a little room - so you feel like you are relaxing at home with the Stumptown Coffee you got at the Daily Cafe in the lobby, rather than sitting next to a million coughing kids in a cramped room waiting to get poked and prodded. The windows overlook the tram landing, and the exam rooms we have been in overlook the river. Pretty nice - makes up for the traffic nightmare getting to the building itself.

Snapped this picture in the bathroom at the doctor's office...

...which explains why the water is brown, but really now, reclaimed or not, do you need to tell people not to drink out of the toilet?

Christmas with two kids was less frenzied than I anticipated...though the house looks like an homage to Nick Jr. Xiao Miao doesn't say much (that we can understand), but she can now say "Go Diego Go!" She just tried to undo whatever Owen was doing with his Rescue Center, and he got mad and sat down in front of her to tell her off...but when he started in on her she leaned forward and hugged him, and they are now rolling around giggling together.

Dok got a Kill-a-Watt and is diligently testing how much electricity things use, making note of it in a spreadsheet.

A decision to try out some old fashioned cocktails led us to spend the kid's college fund at the liquor store. I highly recommend the French 75 (You can give me whaever just pass the Courvoisier). We also decided that Entenmann's donuts are the way to go Christmas morning, though this French Toast Christmas Tree is sure cute.

You Know You Live In Estacada When...

2006-12-23T17:01:00.000-08:00

...the most popular thing at the liquor store is the shot glass that looks like a shotgun casing. These two guys next to us were very excited about it, and the clerk said that it was the last one, and they'd sold about 100 of them.

We were there spending almost $200 for holiday cheer. New Years is almost here...Tony, where are you? :)

Dok 2, TAC 0

2006-12-15T13:01:00.000-08:00

When the "construction company" finished our addition, they put metal chimney caps up, which blew off into the front yard at the first sign of wind. Derek put them back up this Fall, and after a strong October storm and last nights 70 mph winds, they managed to hold. In your face, you cheatin' bastards!

In other news, Xiao Miao brought with her her own brand of Christmas present - Chickenpox. You know who has never had chickenpox? Me. or Derek. or Owen. Should be a fun time over the next few weeks.

We have found that she has a fondness for candy canes.

Scrobbled, Not Stirred

2006-12-10T10:57:00.000-08:00

Derek's a winner!!

The music service Rhapsody held a contest where people could submit programs they have written against the Rhapsody API (a programming interface). Derek had already written a program for himself (which he had released to the public, including source code (and has gotten rave reviews thus far)) involving Rhapsody and his Last.fm account, so he modified it a bit and entered it into the contest. Guess what? He got second prize overall!

I'll let the article explain more about it:

Second Prize goes to Derek Atlansky for Rhapsody Scrobbler. This application monitors Rhapsody usage (either directly from the Rhapsody jukebox or by tapping into the user’s listening history feed) and submits the results to AudioScrobbler. The monitored results are then directly published to the user’s Last FM profile. Our judges ranked Rhapsody Scrobbler as the top entry for a solution to an existing problem. Derek just won a Sansa Rhapsody e200R and a one-year subscription to Rhapsody To Go.

Derek Atlansky wrote Rhapsody Scrobbler to monitor Rhapsody for played tracks and submit them to AudioScrobbler. This allows Rhapsody tracks to be included in a user’s Last.fm profile. Rhapsody Scrobbler is configured to monitor the Rhapsody jukebox or the Rhapsody listening history feeds. Each track that is played is automatically submitted to Las.fm and those submissions then appear in the user’s Last.fm profile. Rhapsody Scrobbler can be configured on one machine (for example a Windows machine) and monitor web account usage from another machine (Windows, Mac or Linux). Derek included some fine controls to coordinate the use of AudioScrobbler with Rhapsody playback and usage. You can see Derek’s work at http://www.atlansky.com/dev/rhapsodyscrobbler.html

Hooray for Derek!! :D Now I get to inherit his IRiver and ditch my buggy little Rio Carbon.

We Are Home!

2006-12-01T20:49:00.000-08:00

Yay! Derek and I have been awake for about 32 hours now... we tried to nap some this afternoon, but it wasn't working too well. Owen managed to sleep almost all day, so we'll see if he will be up all night. Xiao Miao only slept a little today, and had a pretty average nap, so she actually went to bed about 8:30 pm. She alternated between having fits on the airplane (both while awake and asleep) and being a silly silly girl (kissing the little tv screens on the back of the seats). We had 3 seats in a row of 4 in the middle of the plane, and the flight was not full so we got to spread across the whole row, which was so great. When we arrived we had to go through immigration for her. When the officer said "Congratulations, and welcome to the United States!" another adopting family that was waiting clapped for her. It was pretty funny.

She adjusted okay to the house - the dogs are the major obstacle. Since it took her 3 trips to the play room at the White Swan to be able to touch the crawling Tigger doll, I'm not surprised. I mean, the dogs are taller than she is, that would be intimidating! But when the dogs weren't in her way she ran around the house, checking things out.

Here is where she fell asleep right after lunch - her first meal in the U.S.!

Hockey girl!

Thanks to everyone for reading along and commenting - we were only able to get onto Blogger (where you blog for blogspot) in China, but they blocked it so we couldn't see our actual blog, or read the comments. Couple that with the fact that 3/4 of the sites were in Chinese characters so you had to try to remember which button was to sign in, and which was to upload, etc, we are lucky we managed to get anything up! It has been so fun going back and reading all the comments. :)

It is good to be home!

Day 4 Million...

2006-11-29T18:50:00.000-08:00

Okay, not 4 million maybe, but it does seem like we've been here an awfully long time. This will be our last post - we leave tomorrow!

We are so ready to come home. We don't have anything to do today...our guide was less than helpful in finding us a way to explore the rest of Guangzhou that isn't on this island. Grrr. There is a German Beer Festival going on at a sports center, but it is far away. We'd love to see more of Guangzhou - we just have two kids that won't walk more than a block and no encouragement to leave the island. At least in Changsha on our day off our guide gave us a "Please take me to..." taxi card in English and Chinese so we could go explore. This city is a big tourist destination, so it isn't like it is unsafe to leave the area... Neither kid slept well last night, so today should be fun. These beds are very uncomfortable, like they've put in western beds instead of Chinese beds, including giant horrible hotel pillows. Sorry to be so whiny, we are just bored and tired and ready to come home. :)

It hasn't rained much and the humidity went down, so the weather has been lovely. We went to the playground and let them run around - though really there is only one thing for kids, and the rest are simple versions of gym machines out for free for anyone to use. Owen wants me to tell everyone that he hurt his ankle playing, but it doesn't hurt anymore.

We bought a chess set (that should set us over the baggage weight limit). Owen really wanted one, and Derek has been trying to teach him how to play. You can imagine how that is going. :p

Yesterday we finished up shopping. Then we joined a bunch of other families on a bus and headed to the US Consulate. From the bus we got great views of Guangzhou. We stood in lines and went through security so we could get Xiao Miao's visa. Then we all had to take an oath, and received a sealed envelope that can only be opened by immigration in the states. It was the last step in the whole adoption process. And November is National Adoption Month!

Somehow today we'll have to smash all of our stuff in to our bags for a 5:30 am departure to the airport for our 830am flight. When we leave here it will be friday morning, and after a 5 hour flight to Tokyo and a 10+ hour flight home we'll arrive at 7am, friday morning. Ugh.

So, this winds up our blog, for now. We'll post again when we get home.

Hello from Tropical Guangzhou!

2006-11-27T04:39:00.000-08:00

Well, we barely made our flight from Changsha to Guangzhou! Our guide took us to the airport 2 hours early, then had tons of trouble getting the right number of tickets and boarding passes printed. It made no sense, and was completely stressful mayhem, and we boarded as they announced the final call for the flight. One bumpy hour later and we landed in the humid 70 degree and overcast city of Guangzhou. Xiao Miao slept the whole flight on Derek's lap, which was nice.

Our hotel is the White Swan, which is near the former site of the consulate. Unfortunately they moved and now we have to drive 40 minutes to get there. The hotel is really nice: huge atrium, shops, a big playroom, swimming pools, and the restaurant has huge windows overlooking the Pearl River. It is a really nice hotel, there is a huge waterfall and koi pond in the middle. There are a lot of adopting families here, and a lot of the stores outside cater to families. we are on a small peninsula, and all the streets are narrow and mostly pedestrian friendly.

We walked about ten minutes this morning for the medical exams for the babies. There was a nice breeze, and we saw a playground filled with adults! They were all exercising. It was pretty funny.

Everyone here speaks more English, the bell boy here speakes it better than the manager at the hotel in Changsha. The rooms are air conditioned and smell like tropical flowers. The whole hotel is decorated for Christmas, which feels rather odd.

Xiao Miao was laying in her crib awake last night, and she babbled herself to sleep. Derek and I were watching TV, and he was eating sunflower seeds, and she was imitating the noise he made as he spit out tehseeeds. She thinks she is quite funny.

The buffet here is very big, and while the food at the Changsha hotel's buffet never changed the whole time we were there, this one changes as you are eating. So if you go back to get more noodles, you might find something else in its place! Despite it being a bigger buffet, it has less for us to eat, and more they think that westerners want. Pretty disappointing. Lots of restaurants here cater to Americans, and all we want is some decent tofu and Chinese food.

We ate lunch at a place called Lucy's, which had a wide variety of food and stuff specifically for the babies. We got Xiao Miao mashed potatoes - which she gobbled up - and when Derek's pesto pasta came she leaned over and went "oooh!" She had a tantrum at dinner because we made her stop eating. She is a handful.

We filled out several pages of complex paperwork today, and our giude Lee will take it to the consulate for us tomorrow. The hotel gave Xiao Miao a going home Barbie, which is a Barbie with a Chinese baby (that looks Mexican, to us). You only get one if you are adopting and staying at the White Swan. Its a real Barbie from Mattel, they have a deal with the hotel, and even sponsor the playroom.

More later!

Last Day in Changsha

2006-11-25T01:56:00.000-08:00

Today is our last full day in Changsha. After an early breakfast, Derek decided to stay in the room with Xiao Miao while I went out with Owen. We thought Xiao Miao (or any of us, really) didn't need to be rushed in and out of taxis in the rain. Owen't been whinier lately and he seemed a little better going out. Our guide took Owen and I to Hunan University and visited the 1000 year old area. We saw the ancient temple, lecture hall, gardens and library. It was really pretty, but I think the temperature dropped 10 degrees -- it was cold!

We came back and ordered lunch up to the room (hot and sour noodles, egg and tomato, and tofu and leeks) and I went out with Susan to a book market. Oh, the goodies! I got two stuffed Totoro dolls for $2 - in the U.S. or online they would be so much more. I also got some flash cards with pictures and words in English and Chinese.

After lunch and naps, we all walked down to a department store to buy a piece of luggage; it was so crowded! Now we are packing. We have to be ready at 9am for our short flight to Guangzhou -- where it is warmer and we have heard that it is much easier to communicate with people.

Day 7

2006-11-24T16:30:00.000-08:00

Not much going on for a couple of days. We went to an embroidery museum and factory. The embroidery is very lifelike and intricate. We also saw the ladies doing embroidery; they work in a pretty dark room and some of the pieces are so big there is a group of 7 or so ladies working on a single one. Then we went to a sort of painters cooperative - nobody was painting at the time, but we got o look at the art and buy some stuff.

I think Xiao Miao is at the stage where Owen was when we stopped going out to eat for a while. Unfortunately we have little choice but to eat out most meals. She is quite a handful! We have to move everything out of her reach or it will all get thrown on the floor just for the fun of it. We will need to do some serious babyproofing when we get back.

I went looking for new shoes for Xiao Miao, which turned into quite an adventure. I found a tiny baby boutique with cute things. Unfortunately their shoes were too small and the lady working there indicated that I should go around the corner. I ended up walking down a long alleyway with people selling fruit, meat, and huge tubs of frogs, fish, and turtles. There was a school that had just gotten out and all the kids were staring and saying "hello." I finally found some shoes ($4) and came back. Today we need to find another piece of luggage -- we've got too much stuff now!

We got our paperwork back from Changsha Civil Affairs yesterday; we will need this in Guangzhou. We also got Xiao Miao's Chinese passport which sadly will be taken away once we reach the U.S. (where she is declared a U.S. citizen). Our guide Susan gave each kid a card wishing them a happy life and a cut-out paper of the double hapiness symbol. Very nice.

Today I'm going to try to convince Owen to go with me to Hunan University while Xiao Miao stays at the hotel with Derek. We need a break from being rushed in and out of taxis.

Tomorrow, it's back to the airport for our final airplane ride within China -- a 90 minute flight to Guangzhou.

Happy Thanksgiving

2006-11-23T04:54:00.000-08:00

Today we were on our own. We slept in a bit (wow! past 7am!) then dared to give Xiao Miao a bath. She really freaks out when we change her diaper and clothes, so, of course, anything that has to do with washing her. I got in the bath with her while Derek fed her Cheerios, resulting in a tolerable amount of screaming.

She does so much on her own -- eats well with a fork and spoon, cleans up her space with a napkin, tries to wipe her hands off, etc. Rather than trying to brush her teeth for her, we gave her a toothbrush to try herself. She watched Owen brush his, then I showed her the picture of Little Bear brushing on the toothpaste tube. She then proceeded to try to do it -- not bad for a first try!

I carried her in the sling today, which saved my arms.

We took a taxi to "Walking Street," which is an outdoor mall with a wide patch down the middle. Lots of stores, food stalls and bronze sculptures.

We wandered around and bought some popcorn, which was sweetened (everything here is either spicy or sweeet).

All was going fairly well until a woma decided to walk next to Derek and jabber in Chinese. She didn't care that we didn't understand her; she kept going on and on and constantly tapping him on the shoulder. He kept giving her the "I don't understand" shrug but she just kept going until we jumped into a taxi and headed to Walmart (I know I know. We just wanted some peanut butter and other grocery stores didn't have a clue as to what it was). Turns out, the Walmart was at the other end of "Walking Street" where we had already been. Fortunately, the taxi ride allowed us to find a Pizza Hut with menus in English and Chinese. It's not something we are going to make a habit of, but it was comforting to be able to order and know what would be coming. We ordered orange sodas and they came with ice; we've been avoiding ice because if it isn't made with bottled water you will suffer the consequences. We really wanted our drinks, though, so we reasoned that the ice hadn't had a chance to melt too much yet, so we scooped them out and put them on a spare plate...and hid the plate behind the table tents.

Things are so cheap here. Our pizza, garlic bread, and 3 large drinks were under $10. A 1 litre Coke at Walmart was about $0.25. We bought a loaf of bread at a local bakery near our hotel this evening, plus some cookies and two unidentifieable sweets for $2.

All the tired cryers (read: everyone but Derek) had a much needed nap, then we had our first Thanksgiving dinner as a foursome: PB&js and "cherry tomato" Lays potato chips (they taste like tomato soup!).

Xiao Miao came out of her shell even more today -- lots of smiles and giggles. The waitresses at breakfast waved at her when we left and said "zaijan" (goodbye) and "bye bye" and Xiao Miao said "bye bye!" Later we were looking at a picture book of fruit and she pointed at a picture of a banana and said "nana." So we don't know if they've been teaching her English or what. We've been trying to talk to her in Chinese! Today she said "Oh" for Owen.

We are glad we weren't here in August when it was 100+ degrees and 100% humidity. It is hot enough in our room as it is. We have the windows open and are still hot. They keep everything very warm.

This city is so lively at night. It's 8pm and there is a concert at the stadium across the street, people everywhere, lights are flashing...I think they do construction at night too; we hear what sounds like jackhammering until very late. Every once in a while we hear a crowd yell something in unison, but don't know where that is coming from. Of course, there is always the honking! We'll try to get a picture of the no honking sign...it looks like a marching french horn with and anti-sign around it.

Tomorrow we go to visit the Hunan embroidery (factory or museum) and a museum of local paintings. Should be fun!

Yiyang

2006-11-22T17:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, the day started off with a bang -- literally. We were awoken at about 4am with the sound of what sounded like thousands of firecrackers. Twice. We've never heard so many.

We went to Yiyang (pronounced ee-yong); the location of Xiao Miaos's orphanage. Yiyang is very big -- about 4 million people in the city and surrounding communities.

On the way there (it is about an hour's drive from Changsha), we took a detour through the countryside. Our guide (Susan) wanted us to be able to talk to a family near where Xiao Miao is from, so she looked for a family standing outside of their house. I can't imagine this happening in the U.S., but Susan got out the car to talk to a family and they were happy to talk with us. There were three women there -- a woman, her mother, and their neighbor. The first woman showed us through her house, told us about her life and her family. There were five people living in the house -- her, her husband, her mother, and their two children. She was very proud of her children -- they are going to the university. They made a living by growing and selling vegetables. The neighbor then showed us her home. The homes are, of course, very modest. They are really open to the elements; you often go through the outdoors to get from one room to another. The kitchen has a huge wok in it that is wood-fired. The first woman was excited about the new gas-powered burner (like a stove top) and demonstrated it. The buildings appear to be made with brick and plaster. Chickens wandered everywhere -- in and out of the house. The women were very friendly and asked us questions as well. As we were leaving, they gave us some oranges and sweet potatoes that they had grown. We gave them salt water taffy in return -- something they had never heard of. Lesley and I were a little nervous about talking to a family at first (being the shy people we are), but it turned out to be an amazing experience.

In Yiyang we went to the police station that Xiao Miao was taken to after she was found. We didn't go in, but just took some pictures from the outside. We then went to the orphanage and, once again, just took some pictures from the outside. Many adoptive paernts take some soil from the location where their children were found. We did the same and will put it in a beautiful cloisonne box that we bought at the cloisonne factory.

For lunch, we went to a local restaurant and had a feast. There was a big "lazy susan" in the middle of the table. We were given a bowl for rice, but no plates. All of the food is put on the "lazy susan" and everyone just eats directly from those dishes. Everything is pretty cheap here -- out large table FULL of food cost about $20 total.

Susan then took us to a park by a lake near the orphanage where we took a walk and took pictures.

After that, we drove to a Buddhist temple on a hill. It was up a steep, muddy, VERY SMALL one-lane road and had a huge dropoff right next to the road. It has been very foggy and rainy here, so the views from the temple were limited, but is was still very beautiful.

The day ended similarly to how it started. At about 8pm we heard what sound like fireworks. We looked outside and could see a large firework display right from our 26th floor window. It was amazing. All of the firework displays we have seen in the U.S. start off slowly with one or two at a time, then there is a grand finale for a minute or so. This one started out looking like a grand finale and continued that way, never ceasing, for over 10 minutes. Amazing.

Today we have a day off. We will probably just walk around Changsha and take everything in. We never had time to do this in Beijing, so we are looking forward to it.

Now It's Official

2006-11-21T03:46:00.000-08:00

Xiao Miao doesn't cry much -- only if we try to change her clothes, change her diaper, give her a bath, put her in her crib, or if she is especially fragile, any change of position. She went to sleep pretty easily on her first night with us. I had to walk her to sleep, but it didn't take long. She only woke up once (at about 3:30am) and went back to sleep retty easily.

She livened up a bit at breakfast and got watermelon all over her. She also ate congee and picked up my fork to try to steal my noodles. I gave her some and, despite that they were quite spicy, she loved them. She is a Hunan girl.

We went back to the Civil Affairs office to finalize the adoption, so it is now official. We were a little worried she would be upset to go back to the room we got her, but she miraculously came to life! Previously, any attempt to tickle, act silly, etc. was met with a disinterested look. At Civil Affairs, Derek threw her in the air and she was delighted. After that she was walking around, playing, and smiling. She'd edge toward the door, look at Derek, and he'd say "Xiao Miao, come here"; she would then do this funny shuffle back and smile like it was a game.

Unfortunately, it was also her biggest trauma yet with us. We had to take a picture for the adoption certificate. She was terrified of the tripod and we had to go in there twice to try and get a picture that suited their demands. It was horrible.

We got some food back in the room -- sauteed peppers, noodles, scrambled egg and tomato, and rice. The food here is greasier than in Beijing and there are less greens and veggies overall. We have yet to see tofu in Changsha as well. Xiao Miao was so hungry! She was sitting on the bed, so we slid the diaper changing pad under where she'd parked herself on the bed and she ate (by herself! with a fork!) 4 bowls of rice and the eggs. She digs Derek and she tried to play with Owen -- she is much happier right now and is a lot of fun...until I change her diaper. :)

Before coming down to the computer to type this, Owen just said to Xiao Miao "Say ge ge whenever you need me and when I need you I'll say mei mei or Xiao Miao." (ge ge = big brother; mei mei = little sister) He is so sweet to her.

In other news, Derek has a head cold. He is pretty stuffed up and uncomfortable.

Communication is very tiring. For example, there is a swimming pool here and we went over to it this afternoon. It is part of a spa and everyone tried to help. Not helpful enough, since apparently we need swim caps. That went over real well with Owen. We don't expect everyone to speak English, this IS China after all. However, they cater to adoptive families and have 2 floors dedicated to these families. Unfortunately, we have yet to find someone who works at the hotel who speaks the most basic of English. So, it is very difficult to borrow scissors, order anything from their numerous restaurants, etc.

We've been buying goodies at the nearest grocer (very small, maybe 20' x 20') Today I got pineapple beer (yum! like pineapple champagne), some other beer, dried fruit, crackers, and pumpkin seeds. Derek bought cheap sake. It is SO different here than any other place we've visited. There is a real community here; everywhere you look and at all hours of the day and night people are congregating. The stores are all tiny and are interspersed with housing. In addition, there are tons of people selling food and other goods on the street; just look down any alleyway and you will find multiple vendors just hanging out and chatting. We think that this is probably how the U.S. used to be before chains ruled the country.

It seems that every store has 4 employees per customer. This makes for a lot of being followed and a lot of unneeded help. In the baby clothes store, which was the size of your average Starbucks, had 6 people hovering around us.

Tomorrow we are going to visit Yiyang where Xiao Miao is from -- or at least the location of her orphanage.

Xiao Miao Zoe Atlansky

2006-11-20T02:57:00.000-08:00

Hunan = spicy food = interesting breakfast food.

We killed time walking around Changsha near the hotel. There is a stadium across the street with a large open area out front, under the shadow of the largest ferris wheel in China. We went to the open area to let Owen run off some energy.

We met Susan (our guide) and got in a taxi to drive 15 minutes to the civil affairs office. They took us up to this room with many benches and tables. I saw a woman with a child that looked like Xiao Miao; she was franitcally wiping her nose. Owen saw her and pointed and said "Xiao Miao!" The woman looked very pleased and repeated to the girl "Xiao Miao!" The woman then walked her over to us..and of course it was Xiao Miao! It happened so quickly it was amazing -- we didn't wait at all.

Xiao Miao cried and we tried to comfort her; she was so sad. :( Fortunately, she stopped crying pretty quickly. Owen was fabulous -- videotaping her, talking to her, kissing her, and taking pictures. He is so in love with her. It would be hard not to -- she is beautiful. Owen was also very understanding that she is so upset. We got her to eat a cheerio and shea watched the families and babies come and go.

I (Lesley) talked to a woman from the orphanage and she answered a few questions for us. We wanted to visit the orphanage but it is "being decorated" and they "can't host us," which is a bummer. We do get to tour Yiyang (the city near Changsha where her orphanage is). We will also go the the gates of the orphanage, where she was once left.

We drove back to the hotel and she clung to me in the car, but ate the Wheat Thin that Owen gave her. Then she spoke! "Ge Ge" -- which means big brother. Oh my goodness (so far, this was the only thing we have heard her say). We stuck to the room and she spent her time crying or eating or playing. Our room is a disaster, but in a good way. She is still fragile - always on the verge of tears.

While Derek and Owen stayed with her in the room, I filled out a bunch of paperwork, got her schedule (food, sleep) and found out about her (can speak short sentences, likes to climb, is strong-minded), and got the goldmine -- pages and photos from the orphanage documenting her time there. That is pretty rare; we are pretty fortunate. We were able to get this information thanks to the great work that Half the Sky is doing at her orphanage. Of course, they are in Chinese, so we will have to get them translated when we get back. I then left to go buy her clothes, socks, formula, diapers, and some more bottled water.

When I got back, we had to get her some food, so after talking to four people at one of the hotel restaurants, I got us some tofu and leeks and fried rice w/egg. She fell asleep in Derek's arms before the food came, but ate when she woke up. She cried for a while and we turned on "Ni Hao Little Friends" on t.v. -- it is a DVD of kids teaching you Chinese with songs and pictures. She is currently sitting next to me, watching Owen dance, and rocking slightly to the music.

She has really long eye lashes :)

Beijing to Changsha

2006-11-19T16:27:00.000-08:00

Owen woke up at 3am, and we gave up sleeping and joined him. It gave us time to charge up electronics, give him a bath, and pack. Another nummy breakfast and we were off to the Tempole of Heaven, near the center of Beijing.

This place was huge - an oasis in the center of the city. There are gates on four sides, huge paths, and various halls and temples along the way. Marsha explained that living quarters are so small in the city that people get out often to congregate. So everywhere people were talking, playing hackey sack, doing tai chi, dancing, singing, playing instruments or cards or dominoes...it was really really cool. We spent at least an hour there. I'll let the pics do the talking...

We did a drive by of Tianeman Square and the Forbidden City, which judging by the queue was a wise choice. WE ended up at this odd place, that ws sort of gated, and there were old small kiddie rides and an old stadium and a giant panda statue. WE went to a silk factory, which unfortunately was gross and smelly from the boiling alive of hundreds of wroms. :) There was a bar in the shopping area of the factory, so that was a plus.

Finally we got to go eat. Marsha ordered for us - and honestly, the food gets better with each meal. Dumplings with greens dipped in vinegar, garlic broccoli, fried egg and tomato, green onion pancakes, spicy tofu...it ws fabulous. Plus, man-Pepsi (the liter bottle had a picture of a shirtless man on it. It was weird.) We had time to kill before our flight, so we went for a nerve-wracking walk as we tried not to get run over.

We finally headed to the airport to catch or flight to Changsha. Slight panic when Marsha realiezed she had Owen's passport number wrong, so she was afraid we wouldnt' get past the gate. Fortunately he is a rock star, and everyone fawned over him and paind no attention to the numbers.

Its hard to tell if Owen is being a trooper or a brat. He has chosen the trip to be the beginning of his complete disgregard of any thing we ask of him. ON the other hand, his sleep is thrown off, so he nods off at odd times, then hs to wake up and run through the airport. Poor kid.

The people on teh flight were nuts, getting up to open the overhead bins five minutes before landing, and other nonesense. The flight attendants worked with synchronized movements, and were militant about the tray tables and seat backs.

We met or new guide, Susan, who seems very nice and very thorough. One harrowing near death experience later (the drive) and we arrived at the Golden Source hotel. Our room is on the 26th floor. Yikes! There is a crib in the room, and a stroller. At 9:45 am (in 1 hour), we get to go to get Xiao Miao!!!

Day One in Beijing

2006-11-18T15:16:00.000-08:00

We got into our hotel at about 10pm and had to wait in the hall because room service was setting up a roll away bed. I guess they didn't have time during the day to do this?? :p The roll away was rock hard, so we gave it to Owen. He got his revenge though, waking up at 3am, so we let him play videogames until he fell back asleep.

We hit the breakfast buffet in the morning, and it was awesome. They had some western food - bacon, french toast, doughnuts. We really loved all the non-western food - fried vegetables (looked like squash, sliced thin, kind of spicy), bok choy, steamed bun with bean paste, sesame bun with sweet paste, noodles, rice and eggs, congee, etc. so delicious. I tried to find out if there was meat in the noodles, which generated a lot of confusion. the waitresses got the desk clerk that spoke some english. She indicated we could eat the noodles and fried vegetables, and proceeded to make me a plate of food. We ate fast, because our guide Marsha was waiting.

It was sunny and very hazy outside. I expected the pollution to be bad, but I never got that tight chest/hard to breathe feeling I remember getting sometimes in L.A. We drove a ways out of Beijing. Everyone drives like a lunatic - cutting each other off, honking, driving in both lanes. People walk in front of cars as if they aren't even there, and teh cars just honk and don't slow down. Somehow it is controlled chaos - nobody seems to crash.

Marsha talked to us about China and Beijing - how the city is growing, about her daughter's schooling and college, etc. We saw a few cars on the freeway that had red and gold signs over the license plates, and red ribbons tied on the mirrors. Marsha said it was a wedding party, and there was a guy in a hatchback (hatch up) in front of the procession, filming it at 50 mph.

We drove around a big roundabout with a statue of a peasant uprising leader from the Ming Dynasty (700 yrs ago). Finally we stopped at a jade factory, where unfortunately we got the whirlwind tour of the museum. Our enthusiastic guide took us to a few of the displays, and we learned about some of the carvings and their meanings, and how to grade the jade, and tell real from fake. then they drug us into the showroom, where I ended up at a counter of jade bangles. They size your wrist and have to put your hand in a plastic bag to get the bracelet on. I think they hope you'll like the $1500 bracelet they just squeezed on your arm and will buy it. I declined. They did love Owen so much that they gave him a cool little bracelet.

Then we went to the Great Wall. Beijing and surrounding province is pretty dry, and the mountains reminded us of scrubby southern California. There are a few places you can visit the wall, and we went to a part that is a huge loop that Marsha said served as a gate in and out of Beijing. We also went to the only part you can visit where you can park right next to the wall.

If you have all day (and you are a mountain goat) you can walk the entire circle of teh gate. We just went to a small section, joining hundreds of others. It was really beautiful. The stairs are uneven - some are quite tall - and once you get high enough up the wall the stairs were dizzyingly steep.

At this point let me just say taht Owen is a total celebrity. Everyone wnts to touch him, pinch his cheeks, take pictures of him, etc. They marvel at how pale he is. It didn't take long for this to move from charming to annoying. A woman on the great wall was practically stalking him, and she finally asked us to take a picture of him with her. Owen never seems terribly pleased by the attention.

(Owen with his harem -- watching him play Mario)
We left the wall and had lunch at this huge restaurant that had hundreds of large tables. After walking a quarter of a mile through the building we were seated at the smallest table in the place, in the middle of the room. They brought us a plate of appetizers that had ham and beef on it. We told Marsha - again - that we don't eat meat. She said "is fish okay?" and we said no, again. Honestly, in a country of millions of Buddhists, you would think it wouldn't be such an oddity to be a vegetarian. We got lots of veggies, rice, and tofu. Once again, the food was so delicious. Owen had 3 helpings of tofu. WE brought his little kid chopsticks to use, which worked out well.

We were taken to another tourist place right next door, this time freshwater pearls. Unfortunately we got to witness an oyster being murdered. We didn't buy anything.

Finally, we went to the cloissone place, which was by far the best. It was an odd place, that looked like an abandoned set of buildings. Our guide Herbie ("like the volkswagen car!" he said) was awesome. We didn't realized how cloissone was made - let me explain: they make the vessel out of copper, then glue on wire bent into the pattern or design. Then they fill in the space in the wires with enamel using an eye dropper, and fire it each time, doing this about 6 times. Then they polish it. It is really cool. We got to see each step, and everyone was very friendly, and Owen got to run outside between the buildings.

We were warned about the clothing police - women who fuss over your baby if they don't think they are wearing enough clothes. They do it to Owen too. Yes, it is winter. But it is sunny and in the 50's, and he doesn't want a jacket. Leave us alone! :D

So we drove back to our hotel, only getting glimpses of Beijing. Derek got a really bad migraine and went to bed. Owen and I had dinner in the restaurant (another odd, slightly uncomfortable vegetarian experience, but the noodles rocked). Then while I was waiting for the check Owen crawled into my lap and went to sleep. I took him up to bed and we were all asleep by 7:30pm.

We are keeping a look out for funny English translations. There are many, but this one is great. We were worried that Quiet Riot would come out of the fridge, so we kept it closed...

Time for breakfast here again. More later!

Good Morning from Beijing!

2006-11-17T16:20:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here in the business center of the Debao Hotel in Beijing. I'll blog quickly, as we need to have breakfast and meet up with Marsha for a day of sightseeing in a half an hour.

The flight was looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong. The games and stuff were nice to have, and htere were a ton of (bad) movies on demand, and a large selection of kids movies. Owen developed ADD on the flight, and would watch 10 minutes of a movie at a time and then stop to play a game or do something else. Derek kicked ass playing bejeweled, and you could play reversi and a trivia game against anyone on the plane. That was pretty fun.

Our flight left at 12:00 noon, so we had lunch right before. About 40 minutes after take-off they served us dinner. Then we got ice cream. Then later in the flight, we got breakfast. It was crazy. We were so full.

At one point they called for a physician on board, and then they asked if anyone had any chewable tylenol. We bought some (which, by the way, is SO disgusting). We gave it to the flight attendant, and they gave us a voucher for miles in thanks. :)

We arrived in Tokyo at 3pm their time, though it was like 10pm to us. We arrived in Beijing at about 5am Portland time. Luckily Owen slept on the Tokyo-Beijing leg (and we got another dinner). Met up with Marsha, came back to our hotel (it was about 10:30pm here in Beijing). We slept pretty well, on mostly hard twin beds.

Thats about it, I guess. Just wanted to let you know we arrived.

Everything In Its Right Place

2006-11-14T15:24:00.000-08:00

All right! Our bags are packed, we're ready to go. I'm standing here outside your door...oh wait, that isn't right. Nevermind. John Denver anyone? Anyone? Okay then. ;)

We leave tomorrow (Thursday the 16th) for 17 days in China. We will attempt to provide updates and photos when we are there - we aren't going to bring a laptop, but have heard that internet cafes abound, so we will try to blog and post pictures as time allows. The Chinese government has a tendency to block access to certain websites, but we know someone that went earlier this summer and used blogger without any problems. If we can't post to this blog, we will attempt to post at Owen's, which can be found here. That is if we can actually remember how to post at Owen's. Obviously he lost interest in keeping it up.

The Itinerary!

November 17: Arrive in Beijing and meet up with our guide, Marsha. We are flying Northwest, and while our seats are practically within the splash zone of the bathroom at the rear of the plane, there are movies, music, and video games on demand. To go with the music player, movie player, Gameboy and Nintendo DS Lite we are bringing. We'll be staying at the Debao Hotel in Beijing. It has a bowling alley!

November 18: We nearly blow our sight seeing wad on Day two with a visit to the Great Wall. The day finishes with lunch out in Beijing (where we can practice saying wo chi su, or I am a vegetarian) and a visit to some factories (most likely cloisonne and/or jade). Guess what you all are getting for Christmas this year!

November 19: The day starts with a visit to the Temple of Heaven, followed by another lunch out in Beijing, and a visit to Tiananmen Square if we have time. Then we catch a flight to Changsha in Hunan Province, where we will meet our guide Susan and check into the Golden Resource Hotel. Rumor has it there is a Brazilian restaurant in the hotel. Go figure.

November 20: FINALLY get to meet Xiao Miao!!!! She is in the SWI in Yiyang, though we will get her at the Civil Affairs office. Hopefully she won't be too traumatized.

November 21-22: We get a couple of days to take care of some paperwork and spend time with the babe.

November 23: Yet more paperwork and a visit to Hunan University.

November 24: Today brings us a visit to the Xiang Embroidery Research Institute.

November 25: Our final day in Xiao Miao's province, we will be going to a park and book store and will do some shopping.

November 26: Today we fly from Changsha to Guangzhou and meet local guide Lee. We will check into the White Swan Hotel along with every other family that is adopting in China. The pool looks awesome.

November 27: Time for more paperwork. Today we'll take visa pictures of Xiao Miao and do medical tests.

November 28: Appointment at the Consulate.

November 29: Swearing in at the Consulate and pick up visa.

November 30: Sightseeing around Guangzhou, our last full day in China.

December 1: Fly home, sitting somewhere closer to the middle of the plane, and somehow magically arriving in PDX 2 hours before we left.

We were excited to escape the constant downpours we've had the past week and a half, but it looks like we can expect rain in China too. And 80 degree weather. And thunderstorms.

Anyway, I guess that is it. Hopefully we can sleep tonight.

I Stood at the Top of the Mountain...

2006-11-08T21:22:00.000-08:00

...and China sang to me.

That's right. After a year and a half of paperwork, paperwork, more paperwork, and a whole lotta waiting (followed by a quick flurry of last minute paperwork), we are finally going to China to get our daughter.

We will most likely be leaving next Thursday, with Friday as a back up if the Thursday flight is full. We'll do a couple days of sight seeing in Beijing, then fly to Changsha in Hunan Province, where the orphanage is located. We'll get our daughter, have a week or so to get to know each other and complete some - wait for it - paperwork, then on to Guangzhou, where we finalize with even more paperwork, before we fly home on 11/30 or 12/1.

We honestly can't believe that this is finally happening. We are in a flurry of packing and shopping. But the coolest thing is that we were able to get fairly current photos of Xiao Miao!! We only had the 6 month old pictures to go by, so it is nice to see that she is indeed standing and playing and stuff. We were amused that her current weight at 23 months is what Owen weighed at 11 months.

I'm Derek Atlansky and I approve this message. :)

Mac Attack

2006-11-05T07:52:00.000-08:00

Check out this hilarious cartoon poking fun at the Mac vs. PC ads that Apple puts out. Totally spot on!

Also, a Pac-man chart. Heh.

I Just Gotta Get Off My Chest, That I Think You're Divine...

2006-10-26T08:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, first off I want to thank my friend Jami for scoring me tickets to the Placebo show last night. Without her I'd have been crying at home in my beer while they played. Secondly let me thank Derek for putting up with music he doesn't like (some comments from Derek about Placebo: "Whiny. Boring. Pretentious. Stefan is a dead ringer for the guy in the band No Vacancy in the movie School of Rock... you know, the guy that thinks he is a rock god and wears the silly shirt," and perhaps the most heinous comment ever - "the short guy [Brian Molko] is just like the guy that won Rockstar Supernova." Oh man. That is so not on.)

So I managed to score tickets two days ago from KNRK to a private in-studio session with Placebo in the afternoon before the concert. Yes, I am that lucky. We were early, so we went and had a quick (and delicious) beer at Amnesia Brewing. The show was at Mississippi Studios, which is a tiny intimate little venue.There were basically 4 long church pews right in front of the low stage, and a sort of balcony behind that with a couple rows of stools. When you walked in through the back door, you went by a bar, where they were offering free beer. Never one to say no to that, we dutifully stood in the free beer line, until the stupid Miller High Life girl said "oops, I'm out of beer!" I think they brought one case of beer for 40+ people. Whatever. Miller High Life sucks anyway.

We went down the little stairs and sat in the last pew, right against the wall, so I could sort of half stand to see better (not that it was hard to see, they were like 15 feet in front of me). No photos allowed. Poo heads. So Placebo came out, and I think they had just rolled out of bed. They weren't very interactive, which was kind of lame, as there were fans sitting 2 feet away from them. It was an acoustic set - Brian and Stefan on guitars, Steve on snare or tambourine, and um, other guy on like a glockenspeil - and they played a slowed down version of Because I Want You (which, if I can go all fangirl on you guys, was so like OMG! Guh! Squee!), Song to Say Goodbye, Jackie (a Sinead O'Connor cover, which was just Brian singing and a little guitar from Stef and was wonderful), and then Meds. Brian sang with his eyes closed through every song, for whatever reason, which bugged Derek, but which I chose to interpret as Brian being way into the songs he was singing. :) Either way, I was way into the songs he was singing. Bloody brilliant. And what would I do without Youtube???

So they had a meet and greet afterwards, which basically consisted of the band sitting up behind the tiny bar by the back door and us being shuffled along. For some reason Brian was expecting a glaring field of snow, as he was bundled in a jacket and a toque and a scarf, with giant Willy Wonka sunglasses. Rock star diva, that one. So they signed my Meds Ltd. Edition, and Derek had them sign the poster they were giving out. I said to Brian "that was beautiful" and he said "thank you very much". Stefan and Steve were quite friendly, all smiles, but they were elevated behind the bar and it made them appear to be 15 feet tall. So I mumbled a "thanks, that was great" to them both and they said "thanks" and then we were outside. Hmm. I think I should have thought of something witty to say to them before I was standing in front of them.

So why do I love this band so much? (My God, but this is going to be a long blog post). I don't know why. A friend told me to listen to them (hi Amy!) because she thought I'd like it, so I listened to a couple songs, and it was good. Then one day I listened to Once More With Feelings, and I liked it, and it was on repeat on the computer so I listened to it like 3 times in a row without realizing. Then I fell in love with one song, then another, until I couldn't get enough.

Now, I've been in love with an album before and listened to it ad naseum (ie: Fully Completely by The Tragically Hip, or Lost and Gone Forever by Guster). But this is the first time in forever that I've wanted to listen to everything a band has put out. I adore Brian's voice. I love the inflection and emotion. I love listening to it on older songs like 36 Degrees (love the way he sings "burning just for you") and Nancy Boy, where it is a little more high pitched. I love how its gotten a little bit deeper over time, like on Drag. I think that the band is a combo of all that I loved in the 80's (Depeche Mode, The Cure) with the more rockin' stuff I like now a days. I can listen to songs that make me bounce in my seat (like the 3 mentioned above, or I Do, or The Bitter End), and there are such great melancholy, angsty songs that can put you in that other head space (like Without You I'm Nothing, or My Sweet Prince -- I mean, its not a stretch. I was always made fun of for liking "Depressed Mode".). So, I don't know. I just love it. It makes me very happy. It is very very odd to have a band that I love so much that Derek doesn't. I mean, it shouldn't be - when we got together I was listening to Depeche Mode and he was listening to Rush. As time went by we found music we both liked (of course I ended up liking Rush too), but it stands to reason we might like some things that are different.

So after the set we had a beer at Lucky Lab, and went shopping at the Herbivore Vegan Clothing Store, where we got belts, and two issues of Herbivore magazine, and this shirt (scroll down, on the left) that says "Praise Seitan". Then we had dinner at the Mash Tun Brewpub, which was yummy.

So we went into the Roseland, and suffered through the bad DJ, then the set up and tuning and check check check of the mics (Yes, at 8:30pm. Because they didn't have all damn day to do it?) and then really suffered through She Wants Revenge (Ugh. Why couldn't we have gotten a show where Placebo went on first? This band sucks rocks). One funny thing was Derek and I sat there and watched the people come in and get searched, and this guy had a HUGE fro, and they actually patted down his hair. Anyway, Placebo went on at 10:30pm. That is past my bedtime.

The setlist:

Yes, I wrote it on my hand. Let me try to decipher it, in no particular order:

Taste in Men
IR = Infra-Red
Meds
Because I Want You
Drag
Soulmates = Sleeping with Ghosts
A Song to Say Goodbye
EYEM - Every You Every Me
One of a Kind
The Bitter End
Special K
RUTH = Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush cover)
Twenty Years

So wow. That was so fun. They were so animated, like the complete opposite of the private session. For some reason they felt the need to throw a guitar on reverb for 5 minutes at the end of each song, which was kind of annoying. But they got the crowd to help out with Special K, and One of a Kind was great, and Taste in Men I just love, even though Stefan was giving the crowd silly deep meaningful looks, and The Bitter End rocked, and Twenty Years is one of my favorite songs so just... yay. Some guy held up a sign that said "Chante en Francais SVP" (sing in French, please), and Brian saw it and smiled, but didn't comply. Wanker. And I danced so much and shook my hips and now my lower back is very very sore. I should probably exercise more. Hopefully they will tour again and play a longer set (they only played an hour) like a normal band. Owen asked me how it was this morning, and asked if they played Twenty Years. I love that kid. :)

[Derek:] I was going to leave a comment, but it got too long. I decided to just append it to Lesley's post. Here it is:

And now...the rest of the story....I think we must have been at different shows last night. It had to be one of the worst (if not worst) concerts I have been to. It was painful. It is just inconceivable to me what people liked about it.

You know how you wonder how people with functioning brains support right-wing a**holes?

Kind of like that.

First of all, the music...when the first band played (appropriately called She Wants Revenge -- I wanted revenge after having to listen to that drivel), Les & I were making fun of how the guitarist just strummed the same chord continually. For some reason, though, when Placebo does the exact same thing, it is heaven to her. I don't think a saw a single string plucked all night; just the same chord strummed incessantly. At the end of almost every song , the Placebo hack would play one note for like 30 seconds after all of the other guys stopped playing...yeah, that didn't get old. Les & I were also making fun of the keyboard playing in the first band -- it honestly sounded like something Owen plays (no offense to Owen -- he's only 4 and has never had a lesson -- as i'm guessing the keyboardist hadn't). I noticed the keyboard played once by Placebo -- it was horid. There were only a few notes, but were so off. Sure, people cheered wildly for Placebo, but they also did for the first band who we both hated.

OK...their personalities. I can't judge the drummer (although I thought it was odd that he clapped for their own songs at Mississippi Studios), but the two other guys need to get over themselves. The guitarist/bassisst thought he was a frickin' god. He spent most of the night posturing like a rooster wanting to get it on with a hen. He wore what looked like a mechanics jumpsuit zipped down to his waistline.

Yes...he did.

Sometimes he would put his guitar down, go to the front of the stage, and just stand there with his arms raised. Puke. The little fellow (the singer) wasn't as bad at the Roseland show. As Lesley said, though, he closed his eyes for every song played at Mississippi Studios. I don't agree with Lesley's assessment that he was "way into the songs he was singing." I think he was just too cool to care about the audience. He said nothing at the beginning of the set, between songs, or at the end of the set. I don't think I saw him glance up at the audience once...great way to show appreciation to his fans. "I am too cool for you. I will not acknowledge your presence because I am singing this for myself, not you." During the Roseland show, he seemed rather unanimated. He stood at the microphone barely moving all night. I do remember that he once crouched next the keyboard that was towards the back of the stage. Very exciting. Perhaps snorting some "Special K" that he likes to sing about?

Yes, I will admit that I am a music snob. However, I like a very large variety of musical genres. I have a problem with bands whose image overshadows the music. I'm not the only one who has a problem with this. From Wikipedia: "Since 'Without You I'm Nothing' [1998] the band have fallen out with the British music press, who regularly mock the personality and pretentiousness of its lead member, Brian Molko."

Before I went to the shows yesterday, I thought there music was "OK" -- not too exciting, but not too offensive. Now that I have seen them, I can't even tolerate the music. I am now unable to separate their recorded music with their live persona.

A November to Remember

2006-10-23T12:12:00.000-07:00

With all this cool stuff coming out, who has time to write 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo?

November 7 - Guitar Hero 2 Release Date. We've already pre-ordered it, and, as you can see, got the t-shirt.

November 14 - Tenacious D Pick of Destiny Soundtrack released

November 17 - Tenacious D Pick of Destiny the Movie released

November 19 - Nintendo Wii Release Date

Random Observation

2006-10-21T10:57:00.000-07:00

The Emperor's laugh on Lego Star Wars 2 sounds an awful lot like Jon Stewart's imitation of George Bush's snicker on The Daily Show.

Bonk

2006-10-20T17:13:00.000-07:00

We heard a rather loud crash at our back window, followed by a loud round of chicken chatter. Then we saw this guy, laying on the ground. I think it is a Merlin. It ran in to the window, and I placed it on a chair up off the deck. Its neck was bent weird and its eyes were tracking strangely, so we weren't sure if it would make it. After about 10 minutes, it stood up, and once it got itself all put back together, and let us take pictures, it swooped gracefully up into the sky.

Eragon the Movie

2006-10-11T07:25:00.000-07:00

My friend let me know that you can now see the trailer for Eragon on the film's website. The movie comes out in December.

For those of you that don't read books destined to sit next to Harry Potter on the shelves, Eragon is the first book in a fantasy trilogy. The kicker is that Christopher Paolini started writing it when he was 16. The second book, Eldest, came out about a year ago.

So I'm excited, but really, put a fantasy book with a dragon on the cover in my hand and I'll be a happy camper. The trailer looks really great, and the cast looks amazing. Hopefully it doesn't suck.

If It Wasn't So Serious It Would Be Funny

2006-10-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

Why is this world so fucked up?

Wait, don't answer that.

Iraqi Shiite residents of Baghdad's Sadr City expressed anger yesterday over a picture of a grinning Jesus they mistook for a Shiite holy figure that appeared in the area after a joint US-Iraqi operation. Residents found a picture of "Buddy Jesus" from the 1999 film "Dogma" posted in the streets, accompanied by a badly photocopied pamphlet bearing a crude approximation of a US military crest and outlining a US "plan" to subjugate the neighbourhood.

Here is a candle lit in peace, with the blessing of B.C.

Fight Over All My Tender Parts

2006-10-07T12:22:00.000-07:00

Andy Rooney recently had some interesting things to say about vegetarianism that was actually fairly positive and not rude.

I'll give you a minute to digest that.

In a piece titled Food For Thought: Andy Ponders Eating Spinach, Horsemeat And Vegetarianism, he says:

I don't know why anyone who eats beef finds the idea of eating a horse so repulsive but I'm one of them. Horses seem so friendly and I don't like to be reminded of the animal I'm eating. I often pass a farm with cows grazing in the field and I think to myself how terrible it is that human beings grow other animals just to kill them and eat them.

Most of us think of vegetarians as nuts and I'm not a vegetarian but I wouldn't be surprised if we came to a time in 50 or 100 years when civilized people everywhere refused to eat animals. I could be one of them.

This Better Not Mean More Malty Beers

2006-10-05T16:59:00.000-07:00

Tragedy has hit the Pacific Northwest. Yes, I'm talking about the hops.

About 4 percent of all hops in the USA went up in flames yesterday. Most of the country's crop is grown in Washington's Yakima Valley, where a 40,000-foot warehouse fire consumed rather a lot of the essential beer-brewing ingredient on Monday.

Thank Gord the beer for the Hood River Hops Fest this weekend has already been made.

On a completely different note, this explains everything. *smirk*

Got Everything That I Desire

2006-10-02T12:27:00.000-07:00

So this 7-Eleven down on the west side near the Ross Island Bridge seems to be the place to go for new and exciting candy choices. We got something there before that was new, and every time we go it seems they have all the special, new, and or limited edition candy available. It rocks.

Yesterday we got the 1 & Only - Has It All, which, I know, Nestle, but we'd just come from a meeting and well, we needed chocolate.

So my anonymous taste tester is showing the chocolate sandwich cookie peanut butter cup with crunch candy piece on the left, and the chocolate chip cookie peanut butter cup with butterfinger candy piece on the right. I gave the tester one half of my oreo cookie to make up the size difference.

Conclusion? Meh. As ATT put it - "Lame. I couldn't tell what was in it."

On a completely different note, the child is so obsessed with Lego Star Wars 2. Goodness. He can't sleep, which makes us all very grumpy. Today at school he made a Book of Feelings. They are as follows:

I am happy when I play Lego Star Wars 2.
I am sad when I got to bed sometimes.
I am surprised when I'm turning 14.
I am mad when I stop playing my Lego Star Wars 2.

Help OSPIRG Out

2006-09-28T17:58:00.000-07:00

Got this email from OSPIRG, thought I'd post it here. :)

During this late-summer weather, I'm reminded more and more about the natural beauty within our state. Mt. Hood and the Columbia River Gorge are truly two of the most breathtaking sites in Oregon. And right now, Congress has a historic chance to protect these great places, but I need your help to convince them to take action now.

Unfortunately, many once-pristine areas of Mt. Hood are now criss-crossed by roads and checkered with clearcuts. So, OSPIRG is working to protect Mt. Hood by designating new wilderness areas this year. Wilderness protection is the best way to preserve our most beloved special places.

As you've probably seen in the paper, Oregon's Congressional delegation has come together to support bipartisan protections. Sen. Gordon Smith has proposed a compromise between a House bill sponsored by Reps. Blumenauer and Walden and a Senate bill sponsored by Sen. Wyden.

We're calling on Congress to create 125,000 acres of new Wilderness for Mount Hood, including areas along the Columbia Gorge, the Roaring River, Hunchback Mountain, and Larch Mountain, and create 80 new miles of protected Wild and Scenic Rivers, including the East and Middle Forks of the Hood River and Fifteen Mile Creek.

Please take a moment to sign onto a petition to urge Congress to protect these amazing areas by the end of the year.

Go here to sign the petition.

Fruit Flies Like Bananas

2006-09-28T10:58:00.002-07:00

We've been watching some of the new fall shows, and so far have really been enjoying Studio 60 from the Sunset Strip. We never watched The West Wing, so this type of witty and smart adult one hour drama is new to us. We hardly ever watch drama shows - no CSI or Law and Order or West Wing or any of the ensembles new this year. In fact, we realized that when we do watch a one hour drama, it is usually teen related. Like Buffy, and Everwood, and Veronica Mars (which, btw, I implore all of you to watch so it doesn't get canceled.) I guess we did watch Ed, and do watch Desperate Housewives (which I enjoy, mostly, but I'm not like "yeah! New Desperate Housewives! Must watch it now!").

Anyway, I think Matthew Perry is funny, and I like just about everyone on the show, and it certainly explains why Nate Corddry isn't on The Daily Show anymore.

Speaking of The Daily Show, the interview with the President of Pakistan was so great. I can't believe he was even on the show.

And if you haven't been watching 30 Days on FX, you (speaking to the world in general) should at least rent/buy the first season on DVD and watch it. Amazing and maddening and potentially emotional, all in one smart package.

D & I were thinking we could make millions if we could just come up with some sort of silent packaging for chips and crackers. I mean, you settle in to watch tv, and you've got your little bag of Spicy Thai Kettle Chips, and as you struggle to open them, the bag is so dang loud. Those lucky enough to have Tivo can just pause their show while they open the bag and pull some chips out. The rest of you just have to turn up the telly, or wait for a commercial. There has got to be a better way. I'm just saying.

Master of Farfalle

2006-09-26T09:32:00.000-07:00

We love Mario Batali. His shows are always entertaining, especially Mario Eats Italy (we miss Rooney!). We recently created a Batali wishlist on Tivo so we wouldn't miss him on things. This has been a good thing, as we saw him as a co-chef on an episode of Emeril Live a couple times. We also watched a really interesting show called Iconoclasts - this episode was titled Mario Batali on Michael Stipe. Turns out the two are friends. It was interesting to hear them talk about fame, food, and each other.

So then comes the reason I decided to blog. Mario was interviewed on Charlie Rose. I've never seen the show before, I just knew it was a talk/interview type show on PBS. What I didn't know is how boring it is. Now maybe I shouldn't be making rash judgements after watching just one show, but I don't think I can bring myself to watch it again, so here goes. How did this man get a talk show? How did he make an interview with Mario Batali - a gregarious and witty person that could entertain you simply by reading one of his cookbooks - seem so utterly tedious?

He didn't even do any research! He actually asked Mario if he had a television show. Mario was like, "um, yeah, I'm actually one of the Iron Chefs..." and then told the stupid idiot about all his other shows. At one point Charlie asked Mario a (long winded) question, and then as Mario got about 4 seconds into his answer Charlie cut him off and prattled on with his own related anecdote. The hell? Anyway, not at all inspired by Charlie Rose.

He Does it the Canadian Way

2006-09-19T17:35:00.000-07:00

It's an end of an era in Toronto - Tie Domi is retiring. I don't keep up on goings on with the teams and players and whatnot, but I do know that I love Domi, and I'm not sure what it will be like to watch a Leafs game without him. Looks like the Leafs cut him, and he chose not to go elsewhere.

"I love hockey, I love the Toronto Maple Leafs, this is my home," said Domi, who was cut loose by the Leafs during the offseason. "There were other interests, but I couldn't see myself wearing another jersey other than the blue and white."

So thanks, Tie, for some great hockey.

Fortunes! Forecasts! Lucky Charms!

2006-09-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

So last Friday Owen wanted Chinese food for dinner (more specifically, wanted "Chinese noodles, those long things, what are they called again? Oh yeah, egg rolls, and that yummy tofu.") So we got a bunch of fortune cookies, and these were opened in the following order.

The first one was Owen's, and after we read it to him he said "I know! Like when we get to go get my Chinese sister!" The rest of the fortunes kind of fell into place after that. Big things better come this week. Big things.

Hate is Bad for the Heart

2006-09-17T07:33:00.001-07:00

So there is this godawful site called God Hates Fags, which, you know, is run by uber-religious whack jobs ("If this Gospel truth offends you, then please hit the "Back" button on your browser." -- trust me, its not all I want to hit at this point.)

So some kind hearted soul created God Hates Homophobes, whose duty is to "warn homophobes worldwide that if they don't change their evil ways they will go to hell and roast on an eternal flame." The sites been up six years, and its really sad they have to be up at all. Anyway, funny and informative stuff here, check it out.

Tough on crime?!

2006-09-15T20:31:00.000-07:00

Lawmakers in California must be hoping that their constituents don't read past headlines.

Take this article for example: "Schwarzenegger signs ban on mobile phone use while driving"

Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill into law yesterday that makes "driving while operating a mobile phone illegal on California roadways"? Well....not quite...

First of all, the law only applies to handheld phones. So, despite evidence otherwise, the lawmakers decided that using a hands-free phone is safe.

Second, the law doesn't take effect until January 1, 2008. Why?! Does it take people that long to invest in a hands-free phone? People who can afford expensive cell phone contracts should be able to save up for an earpiece in less than 1.25 years.

Third...the fine? 20 bucks. Yep, risking the lives of every car you mindlessly speed by yields a fee of about half of what a street sweeping ticket costs. In addition, it's not technically a moving violation! It has NO bearing on your insurance like a speeding ticket would even though some studies show that it is as dangerous as driving drunk! Heck, why not just put a $20 tax on everybody's cell phone bill then the driving cell phone zombies wouldn't have to be inconvenienced with a chat with CHP?!

It must be a very proud moment for California Senator Joe Simitian. He's spent the last four years of his life leading the charge to get this monumental bill passed. The satisfaction of knowing that in just over a year Californians are going to be no safer than they are today must be immense.

Chew with Your Mouth Closed

2006-08-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

The blog Dwindling in Unbelief recently wondered who has killed more, Satan or God? He (or she, don't know, didn't check) went through the bible and found the stats to be:

God: 2,128,335
Satan: 10

Heh.

I saw this fella, Ben Wilson, in the latest Utne; he paints tiny pictures on dried bubblegum on the street using acrylic paint. How cool to walk around and see cheery bits of art everywhere you look. Here is a flickr page where you can see them up close.

Finally, a picture shot this weekend at Molalla Bowl. Must be due to all that fried food and white bread they serve at the snack bar:

Love Burns Brighter than Sunshine

2006-08-23T07:50:00.000-07:00

We went and saw Little Miss Sunshine this week. Everyone should see this movie. I feel like lately I see trailers or clips of quirky indie flicks that seem funny and genuine, and then when you go to watch them the only funny bits were in the trailer, and the rest of the movie is dark and weird and trying too hard. Not so with this one. Perfectly cast, funny but understated, and sad without being squicky. Derek wanted me to mention how great the bus porn was. It's true. And if our bus had been running, we would have driven it there! Anyway, go see it.

We've been watching Rock Star: Supernova, and I was always sort of pulling for Storm Large, but after the big Oregonian article last Sunday I really hope she wins it.

In beer news, North Coast is brewing a belgian style called Brother Thelonious. The brewery will make a contribution to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz for every case sold to support jazz education. Pretty cool. Maybe we'll get a bottle and save it for O's 21st birthday.

Finally, we went to a wedding a week ago in Los Angeles for some really good friends, and had loads of fun. Got some interesting pics out of it too:

The wedding was mostly outside, so they had these sweet hats for everyone. As the bridal party walked back down the aisle, a bridesmaid lost her shoe.

The wedding was catered by In 'N Out. How cool is that? Not as cool as the band, which was a (almost all Asian) Beatles Cover band called The Mockers.

Here is a shot of the courtyard of the Hacienda Hotel. This is a hotel that has been there for as long as I can remember, and was often the location of our high school formal dances. They have spiced the place up a bit and it is really beautiful, though some of the rooms are still fairly small compared to today's standard sized hotel rooms. The staff was super nice, and the coffee shop was almost as D and his family remembered it, including the toast-go-round machine you can watch from the lunch counter. And I had to throw in the shot of O doing his best Dizzle impression.

Shit Happens

2006-08-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

It is 1:45 pm, and I'm having a beer. I usually don't drink in the middle of the day, stay at home mom and all, but today has been a bit drastic. Ok, a little drastic. The child went to bed 3 hours late last night but got up at the same time as usual, and is now tired and on edge. The plumbers we hired came 2 hours late, and never detected a mystery leak (our well pump never stops running), so $200 later I get to call a different guy to come out and try and fix this. The adoption agency sent us an email that says "oops! things aren't as far along in your adoption as we thought. sorry!".

So, here are a couple interesting things, almost on the spiritual side, really, to keep you going when you have a crap day.

Got this book from the library called The Mindful Traveler by Jim Currie, and it is really good not just for travel writing, but for good traveling in general, and good living, really.

Derek found a link to these shirts and things, which on the surface are whimsical and beautiful and funny and Monty Python-esque, but with a deeper look have some pretty nice sayings on them, like "Live Lyrics from the bank of imaginary". I like this and Derek likes this. Check them out.

We Drank a Lot of Stout and Ale ...

2006-07-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

... And ate a lot of cake. All right, well we didn't have any stout, and I'm not sure if an elephant ear is considered cake, but yes ladies and germs, it is Oregon Brewers Fest time again!

We took O and met up with Bro and Sister-in-law at noon on Saturday. We like to get there early ... less crowded and less chance of a beer running out. This year we forked over some dough for the commemerative booklet. The chart in the back was worth the cost; it rated the organized the beers in a chart by style and, most importantly, IBUs.

O was excited to go, and although we bought him food, brought him food, brought him games and toys, and he got all the free root beer he wanted, he managed to ~~bitch and moan~~ be troubled by nearly everything. We also got to wear fun orange stickers to remind ourselves to leave with our child before 7pm.

The first beer we hit was 21st Amendment's Watermelon Wheat. We usually pass on the fruity wheat beers, but an article in the Oregonian said it sells out fast, so we thought maybe we were missing something great. It was good, light and refreshing. If it was super hot out, which thankfully it was not this year, it would have really hit the spot. We quickly moved on to bigger, badder beers.

So, in no particular order:
Collaborator Hopnosis: We done been hopnotized! Really good, with a floral nose and bitter aftertaste. Yum.
Butte Creek Organic Revolution X: I was really excited to have this, but one sip by everyone deemed it a "token waster". Just my preference, I found it too malty & sweet.
Full Sail Vesuvius: D lost his head and decided to try this, even though he doesn't like Belgians. His first words were "uh oh, smells like bananas". Of course, that was the one bonus pour of the day he got. It was considered light, not horrible, and finally, we thought it tasted like banana liqueur.
Hazel Dell IPA: R got this one, and gave this review: "a tame IPA, like if a mega brewer did an IPA. Not a lot of body". D thought it tasted bready, in a good way, which was interesting, because I felt the same about the Lucky Lab beer he had that he didn't like.
Jack Russel Farmhouse Ale: Another taste review from R - "Tastes like a banana popsicle, and not in a good way." He then proceeded to chug it.
Lagunitas Sirius: Couldn't pass up this one. An Imperial Cream ale that was refreshing and smooth, with no banana. Huzzah!
Laurelwood Organic Green Mammoth: Ok, I think I had this a few months ago at the pub and it was so delicious. However, I'm not certain is was this exact beer... at any rate, it wasn't as hoppy as I remember. Still complex and good. It was like my 3rd to last beer, so I think my tastebuds were a little shot.

Lucky Lab Anchors Away Steam Lager: D's description: "if you put an anchor in mud, and then drink the water that has the mud in it, that is what this would be". I thought it was a bit watery but had an ok flavor, kind of like bread. D still says "yuck!" This is in no way a reflection on Lucky Lab, we generally love their beers! Just not our thing, I guess.
Magnolia Proving Ground IPA: My notes say "last beer, refreshing but hoppy, my tongue is numb."
New Belgium 1554 Enlightened Black Ale: A favorite! Chocolatey and rich.
Rogue Brewer Strong Ale: I thought this was fabulous. 106 IBUs! I wrote "finally, perfection!" D, on the other hand, felt it had a "porta potty after nose". Hm.
Silver City Whoop Pass Double IPA: Good bitterness, with a balance of sweet. Not bad!
Skagit River Scullers: Boasts 110 IBUs. Our notes say "IPA trying to be Belgian, and they don't go together. Bad Combo. Bananas!!"
Water Street Big Phatty Imperial Red: Yum! Strong & full bodied. R says "not what I expect from a big fatty".

We did wish that there was a wider variety of beer... not much in the brown ale, porter or stout category. Maybe that isn't what people are looking for at an outdoors summertime brew fest, but by the end of the day all the lighter ales start to blend together. We were bummed that after 3 hours the McMenamins White Lightening Whisky Stout was already out. WTF?

We also enjoyed our favorite pasttime - shirt reading. We recently got a new digital camera that is bigger than our old one, so it wasn't easy to sneak shots of shirts like it was last year. Our camera does do some cool tricks, like switching colors. This is our only t-shirt shot.

Other shirts of note include "Meet the Fuckers" with a picture of Bush/Cheney on it, "Guinness: Gaelic for Genius", "Fuck You You Fucking Fuck", "I Got Hard Pulled", and one with an arrow pointing at your neighbor, but instead of saying "I'm With Stupid", it said "He Likes the Cock". We also noticed a lot more 'gangs' of shirts, as well as 'gangs' of hats. Shirts included Corona (ew.), and "If You're Not Wasted, the Day Is". These final pictures are of the various hat gangs. Beware!

Take Me to the River

2006-07-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

So we went up river for a bit. I don't know why we don't do it more often. This is 10 minutes from my house. Seems like a no brainer. We did have to navigate a trecherous bit of rock to get down to it. Then the camera ran out of batteries. And Owen then reminded me we didn't bring water. Maybe that is why we don't go often.

It was pretty nice though, the breeze was lovely after all our hot weather. We heard some birds, and O said "I hear eagles!!" I turned to see several large birds of prey flying over the cliffs. I'm pretty sure a couple were osprey, but I couldn't see them well.

We saw several tiny fish by the riverbank, and then found a slightly larger (if at 2 inches anything could be considered "slightly large") fry in a little pool among the rocks. Pretty sure it was a steelhead. O kept trying to catch it, to no avail. He called it his Fellow Fish.

Then we found three dead crayfish (Are they crayfish? Crawfish? Crawdads?), one of which we pulled out onto a rock and examined. O proceeded to name them - First One, Different One, and Dead One.

I'm hoping we can venture further and further up river in the next few weeks and see what we have been missing, sitting around being lazy, going to movies.

Movie Madness

2006-07-26T15:51:00.000-07:00

O and I have been taking advantage of the Regal Free Family Movies they have at 10am on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings (at participating theaters!). We saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last week (which he has seen 14 million times already, and will apparently be one of those people that quote along with a movie while you watch it). Today we saw Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, which we hadn't seen and was quite funny. And if you can convince your kid they don't need popcorn and candy at 10am, it is really and truly completely free.

We finally watched Howl's Moving Castle, as Owen is a big fan of Miyazaki films. I found it to be quite good, and rather an emotional love story. I know that someone is making movies out of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (and they better not fuck. them. up.) - but I think that they should be made by Miyazaki. Strong female character, fantastical creatures, and I imagine he (probably) wouldn't be willing to change the story to be more p.c.

We saw Clerks 2 last weekend, and it is high-larious. D was pleased to find a kinship between himself and Randall and their views on Lord of the Rings (walking, walking, walking). "TThere's only one return. Okay? And it ain't of the King, it's of the Jedi." The kid who plays Elias I think makes the movie. So great.

There is a what appears to be a good movie coming out, called Little Miss Sunshine. It features a VW Bus, at any rate. Plus Greg Kinnear and Steve Carell. How can that not be good?

I'm wondering how typical a 4 year old O is. I told him I used to study volcanoes, adn he said "what is study?". I was about to explain, when he said "oh I know", and the busted into The Raconteurs song "Steady as She Goes", replacing Steady with Study. Cracks me up.

The Symphony is Coming to Town

2006-07-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

I know a lot of people that worked very hard to make this happen, and I'm so proud that Estacada won out over other small towns to receive the Oregon Symphony's two-year Community Music Partnership grant. This is a two year program, and the goals are:

1. Enhance the capacity of a community to identify and address arts development needs and aspirations in their schools and community
2. Provide high quality, frequent, ongoing staff development focused on implementing and meeting local/state arts standards
3. Through a partnership of community members, school staff and symphony musicians, develop, teach and assess experiences (K-12) that promote equal access to high quality music education as part of the overall (core) curriculum
4. Document and disseminate examples of best practices learned through our partnerships

Should be really great for Estacada. Here is an article in the Oregonian.

The Dragon is Done

2006-07-21T13:04:00.000-07:00

Completed the tattoo yesterday. Still have to say that Matt, and really everyone, at Tigerlily Tattoo is really great. Nice people. I am really pleased with it. Here is a before and after picture. The full story on the tattoo can be found here.

Where Have You Gone?

2006-07-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

Life has been crazy, and can't seem to find inspiration to post.

O and I have been playing house in a cardboard box, and we decorated inside with crayons. Here is how his ear feels today, which has escalated to whiny-painful in the last hour. Poor guy. Next is a picture I drew of myself burping.

So, yeah. Should post again soon, as I get the second half of my tattoo on thursday. This weekend is the Estacada Summer Celebration, you should come check it out.

D went to Vegas and got O a miner's helmet with a lamp on the front. He wandered into our room in the middle of the night with the lamp on his head, and crawled into bed. Quite bright, that lamp.

Is Mercury still in retrograde? Because I really need it to shift if it is. Hmmm, it appears it is until the 28th. Brilliant.

"Mercury rules communication, but more informal communications, like writing, speaking, short shopping sprees and other erranding endeavors. So, while Mercury is Retrograde, don't give that party, be extra aware of what you say and what you interpret when chatting with or writing to friends, cut back on errands, expect that the check will be in the mail longer than usual. Since the car is usually used for shopping and errands, don't be surprised if the battery wire loosens or the fan belt snaps just when you have rush out for that one ingredient you forgot to buy.
The good things to do when Mercury is Retrograde: meditate, contemplate, edit the book/poem/song/essay you've been writing, clean house, talk to your pet, listen to music, paint, catch up on sleep!"

Now Fortified with Irony!

2006-07-02T07:46:00.000-07:00

Victoria's Secret ad.
Mom breastfeeding.

There was a nationwide Nurse-In at Victoria's Secret yesterday. In the past nursing mom's have been asked to go into the restroom to breastfeed, despite company policy stating mother's may breastfeed inside the store. A dozen or so mom's converged on the Clackamas Town Center V.S. store, and I believe there were more at other area stores. Sounds like V.S. has made their policy clear to all employees. Nurse away, ladies!

What's in a Name?

2006-06-24T20:33:00.000-07:00

Egads, it has been hard keeping up with this lately. Here is an interesting couple of posts on names on the blog Harlow's Monkey, written by an adult adoptee from Korea.
First she talks about the wonderful movie Spirited Away, and compares Sen's journey to her own.

"Of course, this makes me think of the practice we have in adoption of re-naming children. Just like Chihiro, I had a name that I forgot and for thirty years I lived as an outsider. Only when I remembered and reclaimed my name was I able to stand proudly and through my name, reconcile my place in the world."

She has a follow up post to try and answer this question: "“We would like to keep our child’s Korean name . . . but if it happens to be a name that really makes them stand out and makes them more of a target for teasing/harassment - is it worth it? Is it better to have it as their middle name and let me choose when they are old enough? Also if the Korean name is given by someone other than the birthfamily (e.g. agency, foster parents) does it have as much resonance?"
Her post is really enlightening, and follows much of what I have read already regarding name and identity and adoption.

"The name issue is essentially a microcosm of the entire act of adopting a child from another culture and ethnicity. As an adoptive parent, if you are adopting a child from Korea (or any other country) you are already committed to bringing a child of color into your home and community. Keeping the name is admitting (as in, not trying to cover up) the fact that your child is, yes folks (drumroll please), an Asian child."

Draco Veritas

2006-06-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

About 10 years ago Derek's cousin was studying to be a tattoo artist. Never one to pass up on a freebie, I had him do a dragon tattoo on my lower back. Lately we've been watching Miami Ink, and I never gave a thought to the notion that there are tattoo artists that can simply draw on you and tattoo something beautiful because they are in fact artists. I've been itching for a new tattoo, and Derek thought I should get the dragon upgraded first. I took a pic of the tat and printed it next to the picture I got the idea from. It had none of the depth and character. Now to be fair, I brought this huge complex tattoo idea to D's cousin, and then only visited him for like a day. He did what he could while I was there.

Back in 2000 or so, thanks to my mad phone dialing skillz and stalker-like knowledge of the Barenaked Ladies, I won us tix to see BNL at the KINK radio studios for an intimate in-studio session. Afterwards we got to talk to the band, and I saw Ed's tattoos peeking out from his shirt sleeves. "Nice tattoos", I said. He proceeded to tell me that he gets them whenever he is in Portland from Matt Reed at Tigerlily tattoo. (searched for a pic of his tats, but only found a couple faraway photos.)

A couple months ago I took my printout to Matt, and he said he could "sass it up" for me. I went today for my first sitting. He spent about a half an hour drawing on my back with a pen - adding a second wing, a second arm, and extending the nose and tail. He outlined it, then started in on the black and dark green shading. After about an hour and a half we were almost out of time so we called it quits. I go back in a month to get more shading filled in, and for him to work on the ball, which was an earth in the original picture. I think I will ask him about wrapping the body around the earth as well (it was in the original), so it appears the dragon is wrapped around it, not sprouting out of it.

Anyway, it looks amazing. Really vivid and beautiful. On the super plus side, Matt is like the nicest guy in the world. Friendly, patient, talkative but not obnoxiously so. Even talked a bit about BNL, which was pretty great. Matt designed some of BNL's shirts, like this one. He really seemed to care about the work he put into it. It felt great to be sitting there and having his co-workers come and and positively comment on the transformation. Check back in a month for the final product. It was hard to get a decent picture, I had to put some antibiotic ointment on it so it was kinda shiny. The original is on the left, the new one on the right. Below is a close up of the new detail, and a pic of the shop. I got to sit up in that big bay window and watch the world go by. He played jazz on the radio. It was almost relaxing, other than the searing pain.

Screech

2006-06-15T03:34:00.000-07:00

Weird. First Jack Black mentions Screech on Jay Leno, and then I see this. Apparently his house is in foreclosure and he is trying to save some cash. Won' t he just be saved by the bell?

Snost and Lost

2006-06-09T09:28:00.000-07:00

We have both been so busy that blogging has been put on the backburner... although I see and hear things and think about blogging them! Oh when will there be the technology to blog our thoughts...

So, in no particular order, things I have been thinking about.

Dog Bites Man. We just watched this show on Comedy Central, and it is so funny. From the CC website: "Dog Bites Man is an outrageous, part improvisational, single-camera show featuring a group of dysfunctional fake newscasters interacting with real people in a documentary-style format. The Spokane-based KHBX News Team is comprised of Kevin Beekin (Matt Walsh), Tilly Sullivan (Andrea Savage), Alan Finger (Zach Galifianakis) and Marty Shonson (A.D. Miles). Together, they tackle hard-hitting stories that other newsmen shy away from, like "What's in Your Muffin?" and "Do Sneeze Guards Really Work?""

Former host of Attack of the Show on Tech TV Sarah Lane got married to Brendan Moran (also from AOTS) and they are traveling the world for their honeymoon. For a year. Wow. We watched the first couple of their video podcasts, and they are pretty darn funny. They each have a blog (hers and his). Follow them. Be envious.

A thank you to the Senate, for keeping gay marriage issues out of the constitution. I mean really. *bangs head against wall*

So, the Oilers. I had such high hopes. Finally, a team I really like in the Stanley Cup finals! Then a teammate helps knock out the glue holding everything together, and I fear the worst for my beloved team. Hopefully saturday's game won't be too awful, and that NBC will actually play it in HD, as opposed to saying they will and then not doing it. Rat bastards.

Hmm, what else. Oh, while watching an episode of Veronica Mars, we found some new music we like. While Veronica was at the anti-prom and Logan was drunkenly confessing his heart to her, there was this cool song in the background. Thankfully there are sites like this, and we discovered it was "Hear the Bells" by Mike Doughty - formerly of Soul Coughing. Excellent song, excellent album.

Took a picture of the kittens.

The Best Kind of Prize is a Surprise!

2006-05-30T11:43:00.000-07:00

We got a real prize on Freecycle this weekend - a play structure! In my day we called them swing sets, so that is what I'm calling this one. We had to disassemble it, which wasn't terribly hard, just took a while. The thing was freakin' heavy though! We got it home in our truck and trailer, and assembled it the next day. With the addition of some cedar deck slats to keep the kid from falling to his death from the upper deck, it was good to go. Big win all around.

We got a surprise while building it... MIL was poking around our ~~dilapidated~~ charming shed for an errant tool, when she came out and proclaimed "there are kittens in the shed!!" My thoughts always lead to the dark side, so my first question was "are they dead or alive?" Fortunately the answer was "alive", and their eyes are already open. The mama is a cute little feral black kitty that has been hanging around. Many of the neighborhood cats have a hiding place in our yard, so it isn't unusual to see a strange cat romping around. This little cat seems friendly and is quite talkative, but has always been too shy to let us approach her. She does appear to be a proud mama, and purrs and lets us pet her when she is with her kittens. There are two tiny black ones, and a giant gray and white one. We are currently in the "letting them adjust to us" stage, so sorry, no pictures. It is dark in the shed and they are hard to see, but they look kind of like this and this.

Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble

2006-05-27T15:49:00.000-07:00

We went to Bob's Red Mill yesterday, and on a whim bought some small tapioca pearls. We've had some Bubble Tea cafe's pop up in the area, and D thought he could try to make some at home. For those of you that don't know, Bubble Tea originated in Taiwan, and is a milky sweet tea that has pearls of tapioca in the bottom. They usually make it with really big black tapioca pearls, and you drink it with wide straws that can suck up the pearls while you drink. They usually come in a variety flavors and styles: fruity, yogurt, etc. The tapioca pearls start out kind of small, and when you cook them they puff up and become kind of like a gummy treat.

After looking online, Derek adapted some recipes to make some for us. Unfortunately, it takes an hour to make the tapioca pearls, and they don't last so you need to use them right away. It appears that many places use specific flavor powders and such, so Derek had to do some adjusting to use what we had. When he was cooking the first batch of tapioca, the bottom of our pan broke off and stuck to the burner - a bummer as it was the pan we use the most in cooking. The next pan worked just fine, and while the tapioca was cooking he made a simple syrup with both white and brown sugar, and brewed some green tea. To assemble, he put ice, tea, soymilk and the syrup in a cocktail shaker and shook it up. Then he scooped some tapioca pearls in to a glass, and poured the tea mix on top. It was delicious, and tasted like the real thing. We actually like the small tapioca balls better than the big ones you get at a cafe, seemed like less to have to chew on while you are trying to drink... Derek said they are "less intrusive".

I had to throw in a pic of what I made yesterday: vegan brownies!! From the Vive le Vegan cookbook, and man, they were delicious.

Puh Nah Nuh Nuh Nuh Nah Daily Show

2006-05-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

We could have made this post months ago, had I given in to D's desire to own Guitar Hero after it came out. Fortunately for him, I went with him to Best Buy last weekend, and O and I played the demo. After that it was pretty easy to get me to give in to buying it.

D and I play after O goes to bed, and are working our way through the medium levels of play. O and I play head to head (otherwise he'd never get through a song), and he is getting better and better. He looks like a natural playing that guitar, it is hilarious. He also loves the first two songs on the game, I Love Rock and Roll and I Wanna Be Sedated. It took him a while to get the lyrics right to I Love Rock and Roll - it started out as "I Love Rock and Roll, Puh Nah Nuh Nuh Nuh Nah Daily Show". Now he proclaims that I Wanna Be Sedated is his favorite song, and it is pretty hilarious to here him around the house singing "can't control my fingers, can't control my toes, oh no oh oh oh oooooooooooh!"

Vancouver BC Getting Cooler All the Time

2006-05-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

Vancouver's City Council voted in May "to prohibit a number of inhumane rodeo activities, which, in effect, will prevent rodeos from ever taking place in Vancouver."

~sniff~

A glimmer of humanity in an inhumane world.

For Mythbusters Fans

2006-05-20T08:52:00.000-07:00

Or for Mythbuster fans with kids... I found (and bought) a pint size "I do all my own stunts" shirt like the one Adam Savage wears on the show. Fitting for O, as he has taken great interest in trying to break his neck lately. Shirts found at Target. Happy shopping!

World Fair Trade Day - May 13th

2006-05-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

Make the most of it, even if it is just with renewed awareness. Make Trade Fair!

The Police remind you:
"Lines are drawn upon the world, Before we get our flags unfurled,
Whichever one we pick, It's just a self deluding trick,

One world is enough for all of us

I don't want to bring a sour note, Remember this before you vote,
We can all sink or we all float, 'Cos we're all in the same big boat,

One world is enough for all of us"

Etsy

2006-05-05T07:57:00.000-07:00

Salvia pointed me to this truly excellent site. Etsy.com sells arts and crafts of all types. That isn't the truly inspired part though... these guys have created a variety of ways to search through the art. Try it by color, time, geographic location, random samplings... One could ~~waste~~ spend a lot of time looking around. Artisans can even tag their product in a variety of ways for searching... one piece of art I was looking at was tagged as such: "secret, yellow, colorful, bold, outsider, modern, wings, black, green, blue, red, orange, abstract". Don't forget to check out the blog and forums.

Monday Musings

2006-05-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

Are you always wondering if the upcoming episode of Lost is a rerun? Fret no more!

Stephen Colbert rocks my socks off. Read or watch his speech at the White House Correspondent's dinner. Oh Snap.

Like that new correspondent on The Daily Show? Yes, it was the ever hilarious Dave Gorman (not to be confused with Dave Gorman). We love him!

Thought we had rats, but it looks like we have Pacific Jumping Mice. Did you know the y can jump 3-5 feet?

Audio Goodness

2006-04-28T21:25:00.000-07:00

Song about Bush sung to the tune of the Beatles "I Am The Walrus": http://decider.cf.huffingtonpost.com (just wait, it will start playing automagically -- or go directly to http://decider.cf.huffingtonpost.com/decider.mp3)

Next, a news story in song, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday! Many different styles of music, such as "Tom Cruise Says He Won't Eat the Placenta of His Child" in old-time style or "Scott McClellan Stepping Down" that sounds like a song you would hear at an Irish bar. http://auraltimes.com/

Enjoy!

Beep Beep Beep Beep

2006-04-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

Just a PSA to say our awesome alarm clock is on sale this week at Target. We had been using the same alarm clock that for probably 10 years, before it started randomly deciding not to actually wake us up. I think we bought and returned two alarm clocks before settling on a mediocre one that crapped out after a year. A few months ago Derek came home with this beauty. It has a battery back up, and color changing LCD that will swirl through reds, greens, blues and purples. OR, you can set it to a certain color, and you can press a button to have it dim, medium, or bright. No more annoying bright clock numbers in the middle of the night!!! Derek jokingly said we should go buy two more of these and store them in case ours breaks...

Resurrection

2006-04-22T18:05:00.000-07:00

In an amazing stroke of luck, The Tiger started. Derek drove her into the barn, and has been tinkering ever since. He is currently taking it out for a test drive, so I have the phone next to me so I can rescue him if he breaks down. O loves the bus, so he spent some time climbing in and around it, driving us to school, the store, and the park. Derek christened the barn with a Padron 5000 cigar and a bottle of Deschutes Cinder Cone Red (oh bottles of Inversion IPA, where art thou?). I fiddled with the right image in Photoshop...

Barn: Loose Ends

2006-04-19T15:34:00.000-07:00

We've been doing our part to complete the barn. We moved the fence so the animals can get into their stall. We put a boatload of straw down on the floor for maximum comfort, and installed two hay feeders. Finally, we moved their water container next to the barn, and closed the gate to the old barn. No more chance of being crushed by a deteriorating building! The goat (Chase) was veeeeeery helpful while we worked. He even tried to grab the drill and take it outside. With hay as bait, we lured Hector into the barn, but Noel was having none of it. She has always been very wary. We laid down some road fabric to extend the driveway by the barn, and had 12 tons of rock delivered. Now the joyous task of spreading it around. If anyone feels like a strenuous upper body and stomach workout, please stop by. Bring a shovel.

On left: Hector & Chase pigging out. On right: Noel staying just out of reach.

On left: Hector enjoying his hay. On right: King of the Hill

On left: "I can go in, and out, and in, and out..." On right: rocks, rocks, rocks

Now You Do Just What You Choose to Do

2006-04-18T16:58:00.000-07:00

I was perusing this week's new music releases, and saw there is an album of covers by Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs (who I share a birthday with, btw). I saw that they covered one of my favorite songs, Alone Again Or. I first heard The Damned sing it ages ago on KROQ. I never knew it was a cover until I heard Calexico do it too. Apparently UFO covered it too, although I like that version less than the others. I finally figured out that it is a cover of a tune by '60's rockers Love.

Check out this cool site - if you are ever in a "who sang this song?" bind, you can check out who wrote it and who covered it. It isn't perfect - I looked up I've Gotta Get a Message to You by the Bee Gees, and it didn't show that it was covered by Moxy Fruvous on their album Live Noise. They do have a forum for corrections, suggestions, and the like.

Anyway, the Hoffs/Sweet cover is ok (listen to it here), the guitar work is much better than the vocals. I wonder if I would get sick of the song if I made a cd of all the versions of it... and now I can segue into another hair comment... yesterday I was pleased to look like this man. Everybody now... "you can dance if you want to, you can leave your friends behind..."

Spring Beer Fest '06

2006-04-16T07:22:00.000-07:00

This is our favorite (local) beer festival. We first started attending 10 years ago, and have only missed it a couple times (mostly due to their adults only policy). Derek thought maybe we didn't go when I had cancer, but we have proof I was there:

We got there at 12:30 (doors opened at noon), but there was already a line. I guess people wanted to take advantage of the free admission from noon to 2:00 pm! I mean geez, that is like getting 5 free tastes! We got ourselves a set of glasses and 10 tokens apiece and got to work. Like good beer nerds, we had made a list of beers we had to try. We started with Deschutes Brewery Inversion IPA - a most delicious start to our day. According to a recent review of this beer, the brewer added hops in increments, not wanting to overdo it. It was never hoppy enough for the hopheads tasting it, so he decided to go over the top on the hops, and back down until it was drinkable. When the hopheads tasted this uber-hopped version they loved it, so it stayed. Praise Fuggles!

We moved on from there, and with our homework done there was really only one bad one in the bunch (see if you can guess which one it was):

Walking Man Big Phat Homo (twice!)
Widmer Broken Halo IPA - (tasted like ass!)
Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA - yum!
Alesmith Brewing Grand Cru - (a perfect Belgian style, why do we always try a Belgian when we know we don't like them?)
Avery Brewing IPA - suprisingly good
Jack Russell Brewery London Porter & Blueberry Ale - fantastic porter, not bad fruit beer
Karlsson Brewing Rye - good, and they are only 20 minutes away!
Laurelwood Bunny Hop - Laurelwood never goes wrong

We sat outside and smoked a cigar with a full glass of the Inversion IPA. Then we stuck around to hear a set by Sneakin' Out. Where else can you hear an instrumental cover of Another Brick in the Wall and Walk Like an Egyptian played on mandolin, acoustic bass and a mass of percussion instruments?

All in all, 4.5 hours of good fun!

Send Me to Kashyyyk

2006-04-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

I know most of you (ok, all of you) don't really care about my hair. But stick with me here. I know in the past I mentioned it looked like Leif Garrett. Thankfully my hair has grown longer, but it is still an unruly mess. If I am lucky, it curls just right, lays down nicely, and doesn't look like a mullet when I tuck it behind my ear. Usually I look like Randy from That 70's Show, or if my hair is feeling really retro, Farrah, and not in a good way.

The coup de grace happened two days ago, when I was pulling my hair back with a headband. Owen asked "are you doing that so your hair doesn't look like a wookie?"

Cool Things from Cool Friends

2006-04-10T11:43:00.000-07:00

Here is a cool program to help kids get healthy lunches in school from the San Luis Coastal USD in California. Some of their goals include using local produce, offering salad bars, eliminating candy and unhealthy junk as rewards... you know, basic no-brainer ideas! I really like this goal: "Serve meals after recess, in a pleasant environment with sufficient time, nurturing good manners and respect for fellow students." Wow, how excellent is that? Plus they hope to add gardens to the schools, and curriculum on nutritious food and sustainablility to every area of teaching, as well as every grade. I think it is great - I'm guessing as a vegetarian Owen will be taking his lunch 99% of the time. Thank gods for vegan lunchbox!

Then there are those creating Breastfeeding Cafe's in communities... basically pinpointing and supporting businesses that welcome breastfeeders, and don't ask them to leave, cover up, or "do that in the bathroom". Click around for lots of really great info. Boobs. They're whats for dinner.

Tools

2006-04-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

I never used to mind using voice activated menus when I call someplace. But now that I have a kid, I find them nearly impossible to use. He wants to know why I am saying strange, random things on the phone, and I don't want to answer him for fear of selecting the wrong thing. Then he gets agitated, and it just escalates into chaos. The Virgin Mobile phone voice mail is the worse, it's like "yo yo! This is Teresa! Where do you wanna jam to the X-factor shizzle phone da bomb wack yo!" Sometimes the words are just hard to say. I called Sears today, and they want you to say the department name you want. I said "tools". Try saying that, all by itself. Tools. It's kinda hard, isn't it? The system didn't understand me, so I had to repeat it. Then it said "did you mean hand tools?". I had to try not to giggle.

Chickaree

2006-04-03T12:26:00.000-07:00

We have a resident Chickaree (aka Douglas Squirrel) that is just hilarious. He (or she? I suppose there could even be more than one, although I only see one at a time) is all over the place, climbing up the deck, hoarding seeds next to the bigger squirrels, or scolding us from his tree. It is the noisiest thing! Anyway, today it was raining, and I saw it scramble down its tree and then dash across a patch of grass to the swimming pool. It proceeded to crawl under the pool cover (which extends about 2 feet around the edge of the pool) and walk under the cover to the other side of the pool. I guess it didn't want to get wet!

Pole Barn Wrapping Up

2006-03-30T09:26:00.000-08:00

Hopefully I didn't jinx it with that title. :) They came and put the gutters on today, which took all of 10 minutes. Saturday the plumber comes, then tuesday the electricians return to fix their problems and fill in the ditch. Keeping our fingers crossed...

One Big Post

2006-03-29T08:33:00.000-08:00

I almost wish I didn't know about this. Can't go. Can't afford to go. Really really really really really want to go. Wish I didn't know about it. It is over my birthday, so if anyone feels so generous they want to pay to send me, another adult, and two kids, by all means be my guest!

We've been listening to the BNL Podcast, and it is so great. Ed does it, but oftentimes one of the other guys sits in. They talk about their upcoming album, tell funny stories and talk about what songs are about. Sometimes they even play acoustic versions of them... Ed sat there and played guitar and sang When I Fall and it was so wonderful.

I remembered recently that we had a cd in our collection called Disney Music From the Park. We bought it because BNL was on it. They sing an awesome version of Grim Grinning Ghosts, the song that the busts (as in statues) sing to you as you are finishing the Haunted Mansion. I thought maybe there would be stuff on there that Owen would like, so I put it on my Rio. Oh. My. God. I couldn't decide who to throw out of the car: me, or the player. It was the most vile music I'd every heard (except for BNL of course!).

I heard about this somewhere, maybe on NPR - Cities of Asylum. It is a network to give persecuted writers a haven outside of their home country. According to the site: "A City of Asylum is a free space, unfettered by censorship or political repression in which writers who have undergone such hardship may safely practice their craft. Writers are hosted by a city or region for a period of one to two years."

This site was mentioned in a recent article in Mothering magazine. You can check to see how toxic your skin care products are - interesting to do when you think you are already buying something that is better for you than the average product.
Why should you care? "Less that one percent of all the products in Skin Deep are made from ingredients that have all been screened for safety by the industry's safety panel. That leaves more than 99 percent of all products with one or more ingredients that have never been publicly assesssed for safety, raising questions and concerns for consumers who need to know their products are safe."
And! "Industrial chemicals are basic ingredients in personal care products. The 10,500 unique chemical ingredients in these products equate to about one of every seven of the 75,000 chemicals registered for use in the U.S. Personal care products contain carcinogens, pesticides, reproductive toxins, endocrine disruptors, plasticizers, degreasers, and surfactants." Yuck.

To end on a more uplifting note, these are pretty damn funny: pre-pixilated clothes for reality tv.

Pole Barn - Phase 3 Complete

2006-03-24T17:13:00.000-08:00

The workers worked hard 3 days this week (monday and tuesday they were "sick" and then their "van broke"). They finished cladding the building, put up the big door, and finished the stall fronts. This is the last we will see of Ted and his crew. We love the red color, and the stall fronts are really beautiful.

The electricians came and dug a big ass ditch all around our yard, which is still there because the plumbers need to use the same trench and it needs to be inspected (I presume). We have no idea when the plumbers are coming, so knowing construction workers in general (and plumbers specifically), we could have the ditch for a while. Maybe we could enlarge it and make a moat.

The electricians appear to be from another planet. They hooked up the lights we specified: 3 indoor lights and two outdoor lights. They put up two light switches inside the building. They were supposed to put up 3 switches. Both switches turn on the inside lights. No switches turn on the outside lights. Still awaiting their excuse on that debacle.

Pole Barn - Phase 3 and 3/4

2006-03-15T17:05:00.000-08:00

Today was a big day, they poured the pad in the shop area, and under the lean-to. There are windows in, and while the concrete guys worked the crew put up the siding around the stall area. I love the red color! We (O and I) watched them pour concrete for a while, and he got to sit in the cab of the cement truck, and honk the very loud horn. They were really nice.

Pole Barn - Phase 3, Continued

2006-03-13T16:23:00.000-08:00

The fellas spent the day putting up vapor barrier, insulation, and metal roof. Enid would not stop barking and growling at them, so I took her out on a leash to show her they aren't up to anything malicious. She seems to have gotten over it.

Who Changed?

2006-03-10T19:40:00.000-08:00

D is out with a friend tonight, so I picked up a 22 oz bottle of Newcastle to enjoy after O goes to bed. I remember highly enjoying these in the past. I cradled the bottle fondly in my arms on the way to the checkout counter at Thriftway. I don't remember it smelling like Coors Light. I don't remember it tasting ~~gagalicious~~ less than drinkable. Shoulda bought the Guinness. Only 21 ounces to go...

OK, this is the most important new blog...

2006-03-09T19:45:00.000-08:00

Owen's got a website. Yes, we've turned into those kinds of parents. Go to it here. Set your bookmarks to stun.

Pole Barn - Phase 3

2006-03-09T10:04:00.000-08:00

I didn't even know it was Phase 3 (frankly, I don't know what the phases even are), but here we are. The framing is done, and they are ready to move onto the roofing and metal. We were sledding and throwing snowballs when they pulled in to work... there is about 4 inches of snow here and it keeps coming down. Needless to say, we were surprised that they even showed! They ended up only working for about 2 hours. Kind of hard to see in the picture, but there is a man high on a ladder working on the barn.

Today's Forecast

2006-03-09T07:01:00.000-08:00

In Like a Lion

2006-03-08T15:03:00.000-08:00

Wow, I have never seen this weather warning here before:
A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 AM PST THURSDAY.

A VERY STRONG STORM OVER THE CASCADES WILL CONTINUE TO BRING HEAVY SNOW...STRONG WINDS AND POOR VISIBILITY TO THE AREA. HEAVY SNOWFALL WILL CONTINUE TONIGHT. ADDITIONALLY...WINDS WILL INCREASE LATE THIS AFTERNOON AS THE COLD FRONT APPROACHES. WIND SPEEDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH AT THE PASSES WITH GUSTS NEAR 70 MPH ON THE RIDGES ARE LIKELY FROM AROUND 400 PM THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH MIDNIGHT. THESE STRONG WINDS WILL CREATE BLIZZARD CONDITIONS WITH VISIBILITY FALLING BELOW ONE- QUARTER MILE IN BLOWING SNOW... CREATING WHITE-OUT CONDITIONS AT TIMES.

!!!

Pole Barn - Phase 2, Ho!

2006-03-08T10:13:00.000-08:00

Today is wednesday, and the crew has been here every day, working hard. The next two days should be exceptionally fun for them, since the weather is going to be - as one weather guy states - "the most exciting storm to approach the Northwest in several weeks...". Anyhoo, they have the walls framed up, and the trusses up and the roof framed. You can really get a good sense of how the building is going to look when it is done.

Republicans Shouldn't Adopt Children

2006-03-06T20:43:00.000-08:00

This is great -- Ohio State Senator Robert Hagan is proposing legislation that would prevent Republicans from adopting.

"Hagan's proposal is modelled after a bill introduced into the Ohio state legislature by Republican State Representative Ron Hood and nine other Republicans to prevent homosexuals, bisexuals or transgender persons from adopting children..."

"Hagan cites 'credible research' that 'strongly suggests that adopted children raised in Republican households, though significantly wealthier than their Democrat-raised counterparts, are more at risk for developing emotional problems, social stigmas, inflated egos, an alarming lack of tolerance for others they deem different than themselves, and an air of overconfidence to mask their insecurities.'"

Read the article here.

I don't know about you, but I would MUCH rather have my kid raised by a homosexual.

Pole Barn - Stuck in Phase 2

2006-03-03T09:40:00.000-08:00

At the end of the last post, I wrote "Next week starts the walls and roof!" I meant the next week, not this week. This week saw the concrete come in a big spinning cement truck, only to leave just shy of having actually filled all the holes. The foreman had to borrow our wheelbarrow because he forgot his. Then he broke our tire on it. This, I believe, happened on monday. With promises of a return tuesday ("maybe"), wednesday ("for sure"), with another 2 sacks of concrete and a new wheel for the wheelbarrow, he left.

I'm sure you can guess what happened tuesday. Wednesday showed neither hide nor hair of the foreman, but I did get a call from the project manager, who wanted to come out and firm up the electrical and plumbing. He said that his guys were finishing up another job first, but would be out hopefully thursday, if not then definately friday to start working on the barn. We squared away the electrical and plumbing. We talked about the missing rock issue once again... turns out that they left the turn about part of the driveway 3 feet short of what they were supposed to. What a pain in the ass.

Today is friday. I got a call at 7:45 from the project manager telling us that he had taken two days off, and his guys had apparently done nothing at any job, so are today completing the job they were supposed to be wrapping up on wednesday. He said "they'll be out monday to get started on your barn!". I'll wrap up this post by saying "Next week starts the walls and roof!". Hopefully I didn't jinx it.

I Saw You With A Ticket Stub in Your Hand

2006-03-02T08:32:00.000-08:00

Someday, we will go to the High Sierra Music Festival. Hell, I might go to the Republican Convention if it was in the high sierra.

This is also cool. I mean, saturday's line up? Hello! The Flaming Lips, The Shins, The Tragically Hip, and Sufjan Stevens... wow. and Beck, Death Cab for Cutie and The Decemberists on Sunday? Wow.

On a non-music related note, I found this blog via WWDN in Exile, who found it via Boing Boing. Is the correct term here gakked? I gakked it from WWDN? Anyway, it is called Re-Imagineering, and is, as it says, "A forum for Pixar and Disney professionals passionate about the Disney Theme Parks to catalog past Imagineering missteps and offer up tenable practical solutions in hopes that a new wave of creative management at Imagineering can once again bring back the wonder and magic that's been missing from the parks for decades."

I grew up going to Disneyland at least once a year, if not more, and I never really got tired of it. I read this blog and I would think "so? who cares if they changed the bandstand pavilion hub where you can pick which land you want to go to?". But I read the passion that these people have for keeping Disneyland a place of wonder, and many of the new changes are cheesy, too commercial (and I know you are thinking hello?! This is Disneyland! Of course it is commercial! but I think that Walt's original idea was to go beyond the limits of imagination to create fantastical worlds, not just movie tie ins) or jolt you back to reality. Anyway, I think it is really interesting to read.

Important New Blog

2006-02-24T16:12:00.000-08:00

Laurelwood. It's whats on tap.

Pole Barn - Phase 2

2006-02-24T08:51:00.000-08:00

Now that the pad has been set, it is time for the barn raising. Watching them work always reminds me that I'd never be able to buy a pole barn kit and do it myself. Anyway, first we got loads of material... metal, wood, etc. It was fun to watch them dump the wood unceremoniously on the ground. Of course the chickens then had to investigate.

After some mishaps with a missing piece of equipment, they were finally able to dig the holes (4 feet deep!) for the posts. They need to be anchored and inspected before they can fill in the holes with concrete. They used a Bobcat to push around the dirt and dig the holes with the auger attachment. Derek is dying to have one now. They are pretty cool, they practically spin around on their center axis. And so many fun attachments!

One can also apparently use the Bobcat to lift co-workers in the air to reach high places.

I suppose after they finish placing the posts today and they (fingers crossed) pass inspection, they'll set them in concrete and go home. Next week starts the walls and roof!

I Like Big Boats and I Cannot Lie...

2006-02-22T15:39:00.000-08:00

OK, I can lie, I don't care all that much about big boats. But I thought this was interesting, not just because it is happening, but because there is a website for it too. The Queen Mary 2 is doing a float-by of the Queen Mary. I visited the Queen Mary a few times while growing up... often as a combo tour of the Queen Mary and the Spruce Goose (which has since followed me to Oregon). The Queen Mary is docked in Long Beach, and there were some shops along the wharf that you could buy all manor of shell sculpture in. I recall buying a giant jawbreaker... which my mom remembers I like because I get them in my Christmas stocking. I don't ever remember finding the ship all that interesting. I did find the room where you can stare down past the propeller into the ocean depths to be quite unnerving. Anyhoo, here is a side by side comparison of the two ships.

Dignity and Dining

2006-02-22T12:51:00.000-08:00

I'm sure all our astute readers will notice the new link on our page to Dignity and Dining. Read this article to find out why it is there. Pass it on.

Pole Barn - Phase 1 Complete

2006-02-20T09:59:00.000-08:00

They finished excavating around 2:30 friday, so the rock is laid for the driveway and the pad. We don't feel that they curved the drive around into the building far enough, right now it would be a very tight left turn. Will have to discuss that with project manager on monday. Three of us spent 15 minutes trying to coerce the llamas back in to their pasture, and got to enjoy that feeling of having your body be sweaty from exertion while your extremities are frozen solid by 10 degree wind chill.

Pole Barn - Phase 1 Continued

2006-02-17T12:19:00.000-08:00

It is noon. All the animals escaped, so now the llamas are munching on the lawn right outside the backdoor. Hopefully they will go back in on their own, they do like to poop in one spot. The goat went back in easily.

This is all going rather quickly, here are a couple shots of the pad.

Owen wanted to see what was going on in the comfort of his jammies, so I bundled him up and carried him out there.

Pole Barn - Phase 1

2006-02-17T08:14:00.000-08:00

When we first decided to get farm animals, we converted an existing building on our property to a chicken coop and "open air" barn. It wasn't perfect, but certainly seemed sturdy. That certainty came to an end over the summer, as we noticed the beams sagging more and more.

It appeared to be under imminent collapse.

Keeping our fingers crossed for no heavy snow, we set out to find someone that could build us a pole barn.
It took us nearly a month to get bids. It was like pulling teeth with these people! I called one company for a quote, and 3.5 weeks later I got a bid in the mail. By that time we had already hired someone. He called me a week later, and was all snippy that I had already hired someone else. Loser.
We hired PCR Contracting, because they seem very ~~anal~~ thorough. Most pole barn contractors just put up the building. You have to hire seperate contractors for excavating, electricity, plumbing, etc. If it took a month just to get enough bids to make a decent decision on a barn, it would be 2112 before we got the subcontractors straightened out. No thank you. Plus, being burned by our house contractor that did our second story, we liked the fact that these people were organized, spelled everything out, listened to our concerns, and took care of every part of the job.
They came out today to start excavation. They have to build a road to the barn, then level and put a rock base down on the pad. I ran outside to take these pictures at about 7:30 and they showed up. Yikes! Here is a photo of the site, I enhanced it for easier viewing (the arrows point out the 4 corners, and the line is where the big door will be).

So basically it is a 24x39 building. Here is a view of it.

I didn't get a picture of where the road will go before they drove up.
Two things I forgot to do before they came: there was a fence in their way, and we said "no problem, we'll pull it out!". We didn't. They pulled it out with their tractor. Then I remembered that we needed to lock up the animals, because they are going to put the excess dirt in the pasture. Hector was being highly uncooperative, so he didn't make it into lockdown. I think he will be ok though... I doubt he will run out the open gate while there are giant tractors and people hanging about. Besides, he needs to stick by his friends, he gets very concerned when he is seperated from Noel.
Did I mention that we are experiencing an arctic cold front, and with the wind chill the temp is about 10 degrees? Holy buckets it is COLD.

Can You Sleep on the Toilet?

2006-02-16T13:15:00.000-08:00

I made Derek and I some Traditional Medicinal Nighty Night tea last night. I don't know about you, but for some reason tea makes me have to pee more often than other beverages. This little bit of TMI made me laugh when I read the brewing instructions: "To encourage nighttime relaxation, drink 2-3 cups late in the day and 1/2 hour before bedtime." If I drank 2-3 cups of tea late in the day and right before bed, I would get up at least 6 times to pee. Not very relaxing at all.

Valentine Surprise

2006-02-14T08:33:00.000-08:00

Woke up this morning to some snow we weren't expecting! Not the greatest picture, but I had to work fast with a kid without a jacket. Yes, he is eating a giant chocolate valentine before breakfast.

Book Review - Consider the Lobster

2006-02-11T15:28:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I read books and think I should blog about them, a little review, if you will, but I usually decide against it. Is that sentence even made up of proper grammar? Seems like too many commas. I've always been a bit comma happy, as Derek, my proofreader since 11th grade, could tell you. :)

But I digress. Book Review. I remember hearing a while ago about an uproar over a story in Gourmet Magazine, where the author was to cover the Maine Lobster Festival, and ended up digressing into the moral dilemma of boiling your food alive. I distinctly remember flipping through Gourmet in the plastic surgeon's office trying to find the article. Anyway, recently I heard about a book called Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace, who it turns out is the author of the aforementioned article. The book is a series of essays and articles he has written for various publications, including one on John McCain's campaign (written for Rolling Stone), and the coverage of the Adult Video Awards. I just got it from the library, and I'm having a tough time with many of the essays. In short, they make me feel stupid.

He has an odd writing style, in that a sentence will have a footnote ranging in size from one line to a page and a half worth of text. The footnote either gives a further explanation of the point he was making, or veers wildly off topic. It makes for very disjointed reading. At first I was reminded of Dave Eggers' novel A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, but I don't remember being so annoyed or unable to keep up with the flow of the text in Eggers' case. Anyway, I made it through "Big Red Son", the Adult Video article, which was interesting, to say the least. This led to an essay about author John Updike, whose work I've never read. I found myself moderately bored and skimming the article, then decided to skip it altogether. Next came a short ditty about the comedy of Kafka, which I didn't get. Next, came what seemed to be a book review of A Dictionary of Modern American Usage. After the first page, I didn't have a clue as to what the fuck he was talking about. I was in way over my head. In 67 pages we've gone from "she looks like a slightly debauched Cindy Crawford" to "but the really salient and ingenious features of A Dictionary of Modern American Usage involve issues of rhetoric and ideology and style, and it is impossible to describe why these isues are important and why Garner's management of them borders on genius without talking about the historical context in which ADMAU appears..."

Cue eyes glazing over...... now.

(Funnily enough, I was trying to see if he had a website and ran across this - www.davidfosterwallace.com. The home page looks inviting, like the book does. Then you hit "enter" to go into the site, and all you get is this. You can kind of read what is there, if you look hard enough. Kind of like the book.)

I feel like I used to be smart. Book smart, even. In a later essay, Wallace discusses Dostoevsky, and I think, should I be reading Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov before I die? Should I work harder at reading and understanding shit I just don't get? I remember thinking that the vocabulary words we studied in high school were simply things to memorize to later pass tests, not words used in the "real world". I remember being surprised when my brother used the word gamut in a sentence, thinking to myself "hey, that is a vocabulary word!".

Anyway, I'm further made to feel mentally inadequate by a Willamette Week article that speaks of Wallace thusly:
David Foster Wallace: Churns out $20 words like "luxate," "paroxysmically," "chitinous" and "promulgating." His use of these words, however, is redeemed by the fact that it's done sparingly. These are, in fact, the exact words needed in each case, and they are often mixed with colloquialisms like "or some shit" to offer the reader breathing room.

and
DFW: Wordiness is DFW's well-known Achilles' heel—but it's not the result of repetition, it's just that the man has so much to say.

and
DFW: "Authority and American Usage," originally printed in the April 2001 Harper's, examines the politics and policies behind dictionaries and their effect on our usage. Nothing but context, it's one of the best essays he's ever written. (emphasis mine)

and finally
Stick it out—he's hilarious and ingenious. Difficult and dense as sections of Lobster may be, if it weren't for barrier-breakers like Wallace, willing to redefine usage in a way that makes other writing seem flat and severely lacking in content, we'd all sound like Beowulf. Or worse—cavemen. And methinks that would totally suck.

~sigh~ Now I feel really stupid.

Should I just stick to what interests me? Who cares if I never read Crime and Punishment, or War and Peace, or whatever else might fall on some 100 Most Important Books of All Time list. When I'm not reading books that allow me to pretend that I live in a fantasy world (read: Harry Potter, Inheritance trilogy, His Dark Materials Trilogy, or the ever popular LOTR) I like to read nerdy factual quasi-sciency stuff, like John McPhee, or Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. Some grammar-fanatical lit nerd might drop those books after three pages, musing over words like syncline or glacial erratic. I don't know what my point is. I guess I feel I need to be giving my brain a workout. Then I get mad when I feel stupid, and the book gives me a headache. The lobster story was good though.