Monkey Bangings

Rats!

2010-08-10T08:36:00.000-07:00

Travis' folks are here visiting from Texas. His graduation is on Saturday, so they decided to come to Oregon for a week, and stay to watch him walk. (His Masters). In preparation of them arriving, we did some cleaning about the house, and tried to straighten things up as best we could. We don't wallow in filth, but the house was starting to get a bit cluttered, and I probably should be vacuuming a bit more in the summer when Beau decides he's trying to shed an entire rug's worth of dog hair on a daily basis.

We've had a long history with trash removal around the house. Derek refuses to pay to have the refuse company pick up the can in front of the house. He figures that since he has a dumpster at work, he'd just take it to work to dump. No need to have them pick it up. (Except that he never takes it into work, it just sits in the garage until we nag him to take it.)

With the frenzy of house cleaning, we had too much trash to hide in the garage, so we decided to take it down to Derek's work and dump it ourselves. I put an old comforter into the back of the SUV, and Travis helped me to load it up carefully, double and triple bagging the already bagged garbage. Some of it was already leaking and decomposing and just full of gross trash juice. Ick! As I was wandering around the garage for a few minutes, we went back into the house and got a few more trash bags, and then returned to the garage.

Dead on the garage floor, where it had not been a little bit earlier, was a rat. Dead. Rat. Let those two words sink in a little bit. Yuk. Travis and I had a very brief conversation about the dead rat, and decided to leave it until we got back from the trash run to deal with it. I mean, maybe it was just really tired, and napping. It could happen. Right?

After unloading the trash at Derek's dumpster, and getting garbage juice on my leg (a triple bagged parcel leaked anyway....) we drove home only to find the dead rat in the same spot. He had flies buzzing around him. Guess this nap was permanent.

Me: We need to get rid of the rat
Travis: I'll get the shovel and we'll just fling it on the side of the house where Derek flings all the stuff he doesn't like.
Me: I think we...WHAT!? No. We need to dispose of it like responsible adults
Travis: What is the difference?
Me: It is a DEAD RAT.
Travis: You're being silly
Me: Don't care. I'm going to go Google how to get rid of the rat.
Travis: You know that you're crazy, right?

Yes. I am crazy. I'm crazy about lots of things. But most of them are related to germs and dead things, so I don't have a problem with it. After all, I just had garbage juice down my leg, and in the back of my vehicle. So, I was also inhaling garbage air. How's that for crazy? Eh?

I did not want to take a page out of the book of my father. He told and instructed us, as kids, to fling the dog crap over the fence with a shovel. Not realizing that years later, along with countless loads of lawn clippings, that someone would eventually build a house on the wooded area(s) where we loaded piles of doggy-doo and a multitude of other decomposable sins.

Google told us what to do.

Me: Google says we need to mix a bleach solution (3TBPS Bleach to a gallon of water) and spray the rat until it is soaked. Then we put it in a zip-top bag, and double bag it, then we put it in a large garbage bag, tie the bag closed, and put it in a trash can with a tight fitting lid. I'll go mix the bleach, and get gloves and baggies.
Travis: This has got to be one of the whitest things you've ever done.
Me: It's a dead rat. I don't care.
Travis: We don't have a garbage can that gets picked up, we just went to the 'dump'
Me: Don't care.

We gloved up, got the baggies and bleach and trash liner, Travis got the shovel, and I took the shovel and scooped up the rat. Travis re-positioned the shovel, and then I soaked it in the bleach.

Travis: So I'll hold the shovel and you'll hold the baggie.
Me: No, YOU are going to hold the baggie and I'll move the shovel.
Travis: Why me?
Me: Because I did the google work and mixed the bleach. And I have had enough going wrong it he last 24 hours. What with the spiders crawling out of my air conditioner in the house, trash in my SUV, a spider on the front seat, and the trash juice. (Another very long story)
Travis: *sighs*

Travis held the first zip top bag, as I lifted the shovel, then the bleach soaked rat moved on the shovel. I squealed like a little girl. We continued, the rat fell into the bag, I took it from Travis and zipped it up. Then I put it into a second zip top bag and zipped it up. Then I put it in a third one and zipped that up too. I'm nothing if not thorough.

So, picture the two of us, grown adults, in my driveway, gloved up, with baggies and a squirt bottle of bleach and a shovel, maneuvering around one another like ballerinas, carrying a dead rat on a shovel. If it had been video-taped, I'm sure it was the funniest thing anyone could ever see.

Not so much fun for me. But we did it.
Not sure this was the 'couple bonding' that I had in mind.

More about the spiders in my next post.

The Horrors of the IRS?

2010-07-20T13:31:00.000-07:00

My family has a less than stellar past with the IRS, owing to a bad tax shelter deal that occurred when I was but a wee child. So, in most instances, I err on the side of conservativism and caution in dealing with the IRS.

For the last few years, I have been using H&R Block's online tax service because they offered a computer style interview process, and allowed me to file electronically. The benefit was that all of my data was accessible to me at any time online should I want or need it.

I had a few complicated years of taxes, mostly surrounding the fact that I have a Health Savings Account, Student Loan Interest, and sold some stock, and had additionally some unemployment income. I wanted a place where I could get my taxes done that wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg, but that wasn't going to take a month to get done.

I had previously used Jackson Hewitt tax services for a few years, up until the agent LOST all of the paperwork I gave him.

I got a notice from the IRS a few weeks ago noting that my 2008 (really on the ball, that IRS auditing process) tax return was in error. And that I now owe them more money. And penalties. And interest.

Upon examining all of the paperwork that the IRS sent me, it turns out that one of the forms H&R Block processed omitted some information. This makes it look to the IRS that I underpaid. And they want their money.

For all of the horror talk that you hear about the IRS, the agents on the phone have all been very nice and helpful. They offered suggestions, and one today even offered to have a local agent help me with H&R Block if I was having problems. (Guess they screw up a lot of people's taxes...)

H&R Block was not so friendly. They told me to PAY what the IRS says that I owe, including penalties and interest. If there was an error on my return, they would then in turn, reimburse me the penalty and interest money paid. Notice, they would not pay the money that I owe. I guess it is my money that is owed, and I got the refund. It still pisses me off that they screwed up, and I am going to pay for it. Plus they want me to fax them all of the IRS paperwork, and they'll examine it. And then they'll get back to me. In 6 to 8 weeks.

The IRS only gave me 30 days. I requested another 30 day extension. So I should have enough time to come up with the money that they think I owe.

The good news is that I think I figured out how H&R Block screwed up, and I don't actually owe anything. The IRS says that if it was just a bad form, I just have to send it in, and it would then negate my penalty and interest, and wipe out what I owe.

For all the horror stories, the IRS was very nice and helpful. It was H&R Block that pissed me off. Shame on you. Shame on you very much. You took my money, screwed up my refund, and then wouldn't help me figure out what the problem was. I basically had to do my entire return over again, on paper, myself, with out help.

I take that back, the IRS helped me go through the papework.

Way to make yourself look good IRS.

H&R Block, you can bite me.

Stupid Cracker please meet EZ Cracker

2010-02-01T13:54:00.000-08:00

Ok... perhaps my brain is truly starting to turn into mush from watching too much television. Maybe having Conan leave me was devastating. Maybe I'm undernourished and my brain cells have started to cannibalize each other.

You have got to be the laziest damned stupid person to need a product that CRACKS EGGS for you. Then, to throw in a device that pre-scrambles the eggs for you in the shell too.

Seriously, I worry for the future of this country sometimes.

https://www.ezcracker.com/

Check it out.

Then weep.

Isn't this the most 'white' thing you've ever seen? Seriously, how stupid are we as a culture. How much of a dumb white housewife do you need to be that you can't open an egg?

Not to insult competent housewives everywhere, of course.

Egads.

I'm With CoCo

2010-01-21T00:33:00.000-08:00

I was a huge fan of Johnny Carson when he hosted the Tonight Show. I remember being 6 or 7 years old, having a small black and white television with the single telescopic antenna, with two knobs, one for VHF, and the other for UHF. Both knobs additionally had internal knobs so that they could be 'fine tuned' to really get that extra sharp and crisp analog 1978 signal.

(The Other Things In My Head picture is very nearly what I had for a while....take a look...)

In Alaska, the NBC affiliate put The Tonight Show on at 11 PM. Perhaps it was due to the tape delay system that was used before same day satellite technology was affordable. Or maybe it was just an act of remote disobedience to a far away master. (Alaska can have that affect).

At 10 PM there was the nightly news for 30 minutes. Then re-runs of 'Soap' at 10:30 PM. And then, every night, 11 PM, Johnny Carson.

I love Johnny Carson. I can't find one single reason why I have such an affection for him. I can say that I felt he was honest and loved his audience. I believe that he loved his job. He always seemed to be good at being the butt of a joke, so long as the audience got a laugh. He would ask people questions, but more than that, he got them to tell stories that they normally likely wouldn't tell otherwise. Perhaps that was the alcohol in the coffee mugs? Perhaps it was the back stage shenanigans? Who knows. I don't care how the magic was made, I was just happy and eager to watch. I would even watch the re-run shows when he went on vacation.

When he retired, I was sad. I remember watching the last Johnny Carson broadcast, and remember crying. How silly was that? Crying for a tv show? But he was more a bit of my family. He was there every night to make me laugh, and unless I was feeling really energetic, he was the last thing I saw before I drifted off to sleep.

I didn't like Jay Leno. I never did. I just don't find him funny. I'm sure he has talent, he got the show and ran it for 17 years. Someone obviously liked him. I just didn't. I didn't in the same way that David Letterman, although sometimes funny, just never did that much for me either.

I stopped watching The Tonight Show for many many years. I really never stayed up that late anymore, and certainly not late enough to see much Conan O'Brien.

Having found myself unemployed, and drowning my sorrows in self pity and frustration, I bought a new tv, and a digital cable box with a DVR.

How did I ever live without a DVR? Honestly. It changed me. Probably not for the better.

I can't stand commercials. I would rather record something while I'm sitting, and then play it back an hour later. Sometimes I'll deliberately pause it, and leave the room for 20 minutes, so that I can come back, and have a buffer so that I can forward through the commercials.

A funny thing happened, I started to record Conan. He was now new to The Tonight show. Because NBC doesn't cut the show off exactly, I started to record Jimmy Fallon too, so that I didn't miss the end of Conan. I found Conan funny. Funnier than I remember. I started watching/DVR'ing the show from Day 1. Although I now regret not doing it every single night. I thought he was a worthy replacement for Jay Leno. No one can ever replace Johnny, though. I will also admit that Jimmy Fallon is a lot funnier than I expected, although he seems to have good days and bad days much more to the extreme than Conan. Still, Conan seemed to keep in the spirit of Johnny Carson. I respect him for that. I also really respect him for not wanting to change the show to a later time just to save his own skin. The show must go on. It still sucks snot.

NBC, I'm mad at you.

Jay Leno, I'm disappointed in you. Isn't it time for you to retire? You screwed Davis Letterman, and now you're screwing Conan. C'mon, man. Don't you have a shred of decency? Sense of shame? Do you know how to bow out gracefully? Egads. I'll never ever ever ever follow anything you do.

Zucker, you're an ass-hat. I don't wish you harm, but I do wish that you end up unemployed too.

I'm not sure if I'm going to go with a scorched earth policy. I'm not entirely decided.

Though, I'm seriously contemplating ignoring NBC entirely.

Yes, that means I'd have to give up Heroes. (Although, not sure I'd miss it that much).

It means that I'd have to give up the LOCAL news team that I really like. (KGW).

But I can't think of a better, more satisfying way to punish them.

But then do I also give up MSNBC? No Keith Olberman? I think Travis would be most unhappy with me if I banned Keith from the TV.

If they get rid of Conan, which seems that they will, I can't find a good reason to give them my loyalty in return, though.

Conan, I'll follow you wherever you go, just so I can stick it to NBC. Please don't be gone too long.

Paying For It...

2010-01-18T23:04:00.000-08:00

Tonight we watched something that I had recorded on the DVR, the National Geographic Channel(HD) to be exact. Taboo - Prostitution. It discussed the topic of third world prostitution in Bangladesh, where you can be sold into the trade at age 18, and is legal, but abortion is not.

Then look to Australia where brothels and prostitution have been legalized. Strict rules, inspection, blood tests, and safe working environments are purported to reduce illegal activities against the women, some of whom make over $150k US per year.

Over and over they had a shrill woman with some college credentials shrieking that any act of women selling themselves for sex hurts *all* women in all forms of sexuality. That it is a violent act, even if no violence against the woman actually occurs. The damage is damage. Damage to one woman is damage to all women.

Thought #1. If it is a woman's body, and it is legal in the country, is it really harmful? The woman is making (hopefully) an educated position about herself and her body and her career path. She is making money for herself, legally, and she may in many cases make more money in a few short weeks of work than some of us might make in an entire year. I say that if she is not coerced into it, and she can quit at any time, and is making money for herself in a safe environment, isn't this a good thing?

Thought #2. If a woman tells a guy that she isn't going to be intimate with him until he takes her out to a movie, dinner, dancing, drinks, and then also shows off all night to her friends, how is that not a barter for services? Not that there is anything wrong with that. Is there? Why should that be ok then?

Thought #3. The program talked about a disabled man living in the UK. Poor guy. He has some form of muscular / skeletal disorder that rendered him unable to use his arms or legs, but miraculously (incredulously, or just plain meanly of his creator, deity, spaghetti monster etc) had the ability to be sexual aroused. He is wheel chair bound, and relies upon his dad as a care giver. He can not get women to have sex with him. He's in a wheel chair! Some women are off put by that, I'd suppose. He had his father accompany him / drive him to Holland, where sex is legal for pay, and he went to a brothel and paid for an hour with a woman. He left satisfied, though he'd wished he could find someone long term. The shrill shrieking woman was adamant (see above) that even though he was disabled, his act of paying for sex was deplorable. And wrong. So, I have a few words for her:

YOU SHOULD HAVE SEX WITH HIM.

You seem to think that he should be able to have sex 'in an egalitarian manner', so you should provide him the service. Prove that its possible for him. I suspect you won't. I suspect instead you'll just prattle on and on about how harmful his behaviour is to other women. The woman, I might add, that he paid, had health care, and made a better living than I do.

You need to read the big book of 'Shut the F*#K Up!'

2010-01-16T23:06:00.001-08:00

I like to read through other people's blog postings from time to time.

Admittedly, I avoid most of the 'twitter' stuff, and I don't always follow religiously, so sometimes things slip through my brain. I only got a facebook / myspace account so that I could cyber stalk Rick Emerson and his (hopefully) future pursuits. I'm geeky like that. I'm cool with myself.

Increasingly, though, it amazes me that people read things on the web and take them at face value, or worse, cite the web article as a statement of fact.

People, I can type anything I want on here. I can claim it is true, and no one can debate me. I say it is true, I make the rules on this particular blog, I am infallible. I am the blog god. So to speak.

I have the bestest blog ever for 2009!*

*(According to my dog, Beauregard)

I have bleeding heart liberal hippie pals on the left, and I have some oddly right wing whacko pals. I welcome everyone into my tent of dysfunctionality. I don't exclude someone just because I don't happen to like the fact that they may chew on their own toenails. That is between them, and their own particular deity, goat, chicken, candle, or flying spaghetti monster.

What really grates on me, however, is that people (yes, some of my friends) will blindly follow online articles, work themselves up over same article, email a bunch of other people citing the article and expounding upon it as the new gospel.

Don't ever come to me with something on the web, and that as your only fact to support an argument. I'll shut you down. Or at least, shut you out. Read it. Reflect upon it. Research it.

The days of 'news' being reportage is long gone. News is now entertainment. I really can't find news on television anymore, with the exception of the BBC, and even that is suspect.

Go consult the true book of knowledge, the book that I think I should write someday.

It is the big book of Shut The F*#K Up.

Your ears are not able to adequately hear when your mouth is ejecting noise.

Listening and speaking are mutually exclusive. It is a very binary reality.

One can either be speaking, or be listening. You can not do both simultaneously.

Plates colliding.....

2010-01-15T00:56:00.000-08:00

Life just never seems to let up. I shouldn't complain though, considering I have a roof over my head, I have plenty of food and water, and I haven't lost anyone in a bad earthquake.

Growing up in earthquake territory, I do feel for the people of Haiti. No fun at all. The only good thing about earthquakes compared to a few other natural disasters is that they are without any panicked buildup or warning. Add to it that they are over rather quickly (relatively) and are done. Fires you see coming for quite some time and they destroy things pretty completely.

Floods slowly build, ruin, then slowly recede. Then you have worse things that linger like mud, mold, and mildew.

The worst part about earthquakes is rubble, and land shifts. If it rains in Haiti, flooding and muddy landslides could happen.

Having lived with a mother who survived the 1964 Alaska Good Friday earthquake, I suspect that I have a fair bit of latent phobia about being water / food-less. My pantry is huge. It has enough food for us to last probably a week or so from. More than I suspect many of my peers have. We don't have enough water on hand. That is always troubling. Where do you store it? How do you keep it? Do you rotate it out? Egads. Its maddening to think about.

All that being said, what about people that take daily medications? What if you were 3 days before you next 30 day refill? Bam. Now what? You have 3 days. Then you have to decide if you can make it beyond the 3 days. Will there even be a pharmacy open?

Water, food deliveries, basic necessities. Those will all be forthcoming. But who knows how long that might take too?

In the US, we have the luxury of a Walgreens or other retailer on nearly every block, in our big cities.

Not everyone is so lucky.

Think about that.

If you have $10 to give, give it. If you can't, thats ok too. At lest think good thoughts.

It could have been us.

2010

2010-01-04T23:16:00.000-08:00

Not what was promised in the movie. But not too bad so far.

Two or Travis' friends drove up to visit us twice before their departure back to college. That was fun. Good people, and adults. It is so nice to be around people who act as responsible adults. Although originally they were going to have lunch with us, the snow started falling last week in the middle of their visit. After our lunch of Gustav's, which was fantastic, we hung around the house chatting and socializing. We got 6 inches of snow in the greater Portland area, so they decided to hang out longer. The roads were all backed up for hours, and they were staying with family about 90 minutes away. So, we took them out to Hawthorne Fish house for dinner.

They left pretty late, probably around 10 PM or so. They didn't make it back until nearly 230 AM. I felt so bad for them. But we did offer to let them spend the night. Snow. It just disables this city. Amazing. Simply crazy.

They came back and visited us again yesterday, taking us to lunch this time. We went to Kennedy School McMennamins. Had decent food, but poor service. And I had a watered down drink. 2 outta 3 aint bad, I suppose.

They hung out most of the evening, and I served raspberry cheesecake.

It was good social interaction.

Need to find a job. Looking, but not finding. Seeking but not succeeding. Frustrating.

Couple more weeks, and I'm going to have to make some final decisions on the future. I'm still decently comfortable for now.

Trying to stay positive while existing in a vortex. I'm surprisingly not depressed, just stressed somewhat.

I'm lucky that Travis tolerates me and that Beau is completely oblivious. Life would be much harder, otherwise.

Waiting on OSU to review my transcript.

Waiting for the phone to ring.

Waiting, waiting, waiting. I'm just not good at being patient.

I know, it is on my list of things for 2010.

I'm working on it.

2009 - The Year of Partly Sucky

2010-01-01T00:52:00.000-08:00

I look back on you 2009, and you were partly sucky, with scattered periods of suck.

Laid off in March. Sucktastic.

Spent lots of family time in Alaska. Repeatedly. It was good, since we managed to surprise my Dad for his 60th birthday.

Still struggling to find a job. More sucktastic.

Had Christmas company. That was fun. But stressful. Stressfully fun?

Had new visitors post Christmas, was fun, but snowy. Non sucktastic. In fact, it was nice to be able to interact with other adult couples. Travis and I don't get too much of that.

Christmas was nice. I got a new toaster, so I can finally put that )*#)@#&@ Cuisinart piece of crap that I spent too much money on out of my own misery. Mad the best cheese sauce for my potatoes. Ever.

Spent the night just being low key for New Years. James Bond movie, Champagne, latkes, and watching Dick Clark lose his countdown. Poor guy.

Ended 2009 with all of the same family I had when 2009 started. +1.

Baby J is now with us. I'm now Big J. That is pretty cool, though I didn't have anything to do with it.

Thinks for 2010:

Finding a job or moving back to Alaska.

Getting back into school.

Keeping the dog healthy.

Keeping myself healthy.

Losing some weight.

Doing a better job at being in a relationship.

Keeping the house cleaner.

Swearing less.

Cooking slightly healthier. (I said SLIGHTLY)

Thinking about shaving my head and face and beard all off. (Thinking...thinking...thinking...)

Reading more.

Blogging more.

To all of you, may 2010 have all the blessings of 2009, plus a little more for good measure.

Peace.

Coming soon.............

2009-12-09T22:36:00.000-08:00

Please stand by for updates......

Unemployment, Day WFT?

2009-11-17T11:09:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've been absent. Sorry blogger.

Been lazy, depressed, angry, the whole gamut.

Still unemployed, looking for jobs, looking to further my education, looking to lessen the stress.

I'm now an uncle, so check out my brothers blog for pics!

I'll be posting more in the coming days as I get back into the habit.

Unemployment, Day 72

2009-06-16T16:41:00.000-07:00

Sitting in the Portland airport. The plane is here, so that is a good thing. It is going to be a full flight, so I am glad that I am going to be one of the first people to board the plane, I'm sitting in the back of the plane.... wheeeeeeee.

Next stop, Anchorage. My home away from home, sort of.

Lunch with Gramma Nori on Wednesday, and rafting later in the week, I'm told.

Unemployment, Day 71

2009-06-15T16:38:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to go to Alaska. Ran some errands, gave the dog a bath, etc etc etc.

Packing, a bit, and finishing up some cleaning that I've wanted to get done.

Travis and I went to see Storm Large's stage play 'Crazy Enough'. This was the second time for me, I liked it just as much the second time around. I think he enjoyed it as well.

Burgers on the bbq for dinner.

Rachael Ray of Sunshine

2009-06-13T00:05:00.000-07:00

Am I a bad person? I don't like Rachael Ray. I could (barely) tolerate her 30-minute meals show. I liked it better when her show showed her traveling around and surviving on 30 dollars a day. (Or whatever it was...)

Now she has a talk show, does commercials, and her 30-minute meals doesn't really appeal to me in any way. The recipes are full of things that don't even look edible, let alone appetizing.

For some reason, FoodNetwork has a fetish with her. I keep seeing shows of her going on vacation. Does she ever stay home and work?

It used to be that I could flip to the FN channel and find something that was entertaining, for some odd reason when I am bored, and flip to FN, she is on the screen. Ugh.

Am I the only one with disdain for her?

I don't wish that she fell down a flight of stairs onto one of her own personal lines of cutlery, but I wouldn't mind seeing less of her on TV.

Unemployment, Day 70

2009-06-12T23:55:00.000-07:00

Went down to an office 'event' today. The department was officially saying goodbye to all of the payroll processors. These had been all of the employees that I had been supporting when I was working there.

Cake, punch, a slide-show, and people talking and crying. Ugh. I'm glad, in a way, that they laid me off long before everyone was starting to get their notices. I didn't have to watch as each of them went away, and didn't have to witness the heartache and strife. Lucky me. I guess.

I left after about an hour, it was about all I could take.

Then Travis and I took Beau to the vet for a check up.

Nachos for dinner.

Another netflix movie.

My TSA approved laptop bag arrived, I'll be interested to see if the Portland Airport will allow me to use it as intended.

Unemployment, Day 69

2009-06-11T23:53:00.000-07:00

Not too much to report for today. Went to the post office, took the dog out in the yard. Quiet evening at home watching TV. I'm boring, I know. :)

Unemployment, Day 68

2009-06-10T23:07:00.000-07:00

Not much today. Ran some errands and hung around the house.

Travis and I watched a movie after dinner, and then flipped through some tv.

The weather was ok, a tad warm, but not intolerable.

Heading back to Alaska on Tuesday for a few weeks.

Unemployment, Day 67

2009-06-09T23:00:00.000-07:00

Got up and showered, and Travis and I headed down to the 'continental' breakfast that the casino lodge offered us. It was tolerable. We opted to not eat that much, and instead we planned to hit Mo's at lunch time.

We spent another hour gambling, and then cashed out all of our vouchers.

Headed to Depoe Bay to wander along the rock wall, and look at the spouting horns. The tide wasn't being very helpful, so Travis wasn't able to see the full effect. It was still nice though, very quite, not many people out, and the temperature was just right. No rain even!

We headed back up to Lincoln City and hit up the outlet malls. We wandered around, and I even bought something!

Mo's for lunch, where I ate too much. The view is always nice though at the Mo's in Lincoln City.

On the way home, we re-traced our route that brought us to the casino, and stopped at the Briggatine Monastery in Amity. They make fudge to fund their pursuits. Now I have fudge and truffles. Mmmmmmmmm.

Unemployment, Day 66

2009-06-08T22:54:00.000-07:00

I ran some errands today and got ready to leave town for a few days. I reserved a suite at Spirit Mountain Casino for Travis and I. He doesn't have any classes on Tuesdays, so I figured we should spend a day and have some fun, while I don't have the complication of having a job.

As soon as he got home from school, we hit the road.

We made it to the Casino around 2:45 PM on Monday afternoon. We checked in to the membership club, and then wandered over to the lodge and got all checked in.

Nice suite. Two televisions, and two bathrooms. I think the suite was larger than one of the houses I lived in when I first moved to Portland.

We spent some time gambling, only at the video slot machines though. Travis was interested in the roulette table, but we stuck with the video machines.

I have a specific system, since I only gamble for entertainment. I managed to play a decent video game, and when it was all said and done I wound up having $104 that I cashed out with. Not a bad haul for having spent 20 hours at the casino.

Mind you, we didn't spend all that time gambling. It was nice to have a room where we could wander off to and have some down / quiet time.

The buffet has been much changed and improved from last time. Travis and I ate too much, of course, and I went back for a second set of desserts.

Unemployment, Day 61 - 65

2009-06-05T22:23:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is a week re-cap. I was lazy this week. The damned heat didn't help!

Monday I made a different kind of soup in the crock pot. Not as good as my German lentil soup. I'm going back to my Gustav's recipe. It was much better.

Tuesday Travis and I went to Hopworks for lunch, and then ran around town some, went in to Everyday Music. I didn't spent all that much money. I'm getting better about shopping there, to be sure. I did get a new Billy Bragg two CD set.

Wednesday Beau got a bath. He's gone back to 'cutting' himself. He has again chewed open a sore on his leg. I caught it early this time. I'm hoping it'll be gone and healed up by the time I leave again for Alaska.

Thursday there was a huge thunderstorm. (Huge for Portland.) No major damage here, but the wind was nice, and the rain cooled off the hot week, until it spawned some humidity. Ick.

Friday I helped Travis gather a ton of supplies for an even his school was hosting. He and I had to run out to a church near his college's main campus to drop them off. We came home and had pizza for dinner. We watched another Netflix DVD.

We are also becoming quite decent fans of 30Rock.

Unemployment, Day 60

2009-05-29T23:05:00.000-07:00

Wow. I've not been working for 12 weeks.

Time really does fly. Even if it isn't all fun and games....

Unemployment, Day 59

2009-05-28T23:01:00.000-07:00

Had lunch with people from the office today, went down there and hung out on their lunch hour. It was good to see them, but damn if I haven't started to really hate that place. I don't miss the place at all. I miss a few of the people, and some other people I could have done without seeing.

They are having some final big 'goodbye' party for everyone in a few weeks, and I've been invited.

I said that I would go, but I am still debating as to whether or not I will show up.

It just irritates me to be around all the people crying and hugging and sniffling. C'mon, suck it up.

I did it. You can too.

Dunno. Might go. Still debating in my head.

Unemployment, Day 58

2009-05-27T21:50:00.000-07:00

I bought two tickets earlier in the month to go see Storm Large's one woman show performance, Crazy Enough. This is a performance based on her life, so it is a semi-auto-biography.

Laurie bought dinner since I had purchased the tickets. She took me to Jake's Grill. We shared a few drinks, and a cheese plate. Then I had some steak medallions and she had a prime rib plate. Full, we waddled over to the theater. There are no real assigned seats, so it is first come, first serve. Sort of. If you are a VIP = season ticketholder or Package ticketholder, you get let in first.

Good thing she and I were there early.

The performance was absolutely awesome.

I bought two more tickets, and I'm taking Travis in a few weeks. I want to see it again, and I convinced him to go with me.

Crazy Lawn-mower Man

2009-05-27T13:02:00.000-07:00

As most of the people in my family will readily confirm, I am very anti social. I don't really hang out with the neighbors, nor do I socialize with them. I tolerate them. I know that I am supposed to be all nicey nicey with them, but I don't like most of them, and I just detest being fake. I'd much rather that they think I was a hermit.

Travis and I were sitting on the couch, watching Milk on Saturday evening. Great movie. Kind of long, though. 2.5 hours is a long time to sit for a movie. About halfway through the movie, I got up to take Beau outside. While I was in the back yard with Beau, Travis walked up the driveway to look at the spot in the lawn that he mowed. He said that he had missed a patch and was looking at it.

A friend of the neighbor, probably in his early 20s, chatted Travis up. He was talking to Travis, asking him if he could borrow the lawn mower. Travis explained to him that it wasn't his lawn mower and that he couldn't allow him to use it. He then, apparently, asked if Travis wanted to come over to the house and hang out and drink with him, since he had 'a bottle of vodka and a bottle of 'sec' '. Travis declined, and the guy kept talking to him for several more minutes. Travis eventually snaked his way back up the driveway, entering in the back door, where I had let Beau in just a few minutes before.

We went back in to the living room, to continue the movie, and Travis was telling me about his conversation with the 'obviously drunk' neighbor. Mind you, this was at 9PM. The sun had set, and it was slowly getting dark outside.

Then we hear a knock on the front door. Here is drunk neighbor boy. He wants to know if he can borrow the lawn mower. He really needs to mow his lawn. I tell him 'absolutely not'. He prattles on for a few minutes about how badly he needs it, and I said again, firmly, no. I then bid him good night and close the door. Incredulous, I looked at Travis.

Again, a knock on the door.

Drunk boy again. He wanted to know if I wanted to come over and drink with him, since it was the 'neighborly' thing to do. You know, hang out and drink with your neighbor. I politely declined. He then starts in again, and wants to know why he can't borrow the lawn mower. I said 'You're drunk, its dark outside, and you want to mow the lawn. Thats a liability. No.'

He shuffles off back next door. Travis and I continue watching our movie.

The rest of the evening was pretty quiet, except for an issue across the street, our other neighbors. Something happened, and there were 4 or 5 cop cars and a bunch of people out on the sidewalk. It was like a Cops episode. (Not unlike an earlier time when we had house guests.)

Fast forward to last night. Derek comes back after chatting with the next door neighbors. Apparently they had left town for the weekend, and left their 'friend', the law mower dude, in the house. After we turned him down to use the lawn mower, he wandered across the street to talk to those neighbors. When they asked him to leave, probably because they realized he was drunk, he got a little uppity. They asked him to leave again, to which he apparently claimed that it was a public sidewalk. Then he suggested that they fight. So they called the cops.

It wasn't until the cops were going to taze him that he submitted to behaving. The cops took him to the drunk tank to sleep out the night. I guess that he had no idea where he was 'staying' so he had a hard time getting back home. Travis and I did notice him weed-eating the yard Sunday morning.

The lawn still hasn't been mowed.

Unemployment, Day 56-58

2009-05-26T12:55:00.000-07:00

It was a nice long lazy holiday weekend, which continued up through, well...... now. Not having a job is really just one long vacation. Kind of.

The weather has been nice, and mostly sunny, and pretty warm.

We had a good weekend hanging out, Travis and I watched Milk on Saturday.

Sunday we just hung out some, I tried to cook some sirloin filets on the bbq, but I'm not very good at the bbq. It was edible, but not as good as I had hoped.

Monday was home made pizza (kind of).

Tuesday Travis and I ran around, ran some errands, went to the mall, JCPenneys, and CostPlus. He goes back to school on Wednesday.

We're catching up on NCIS on the DVR. Last night's episode was a buzzkill..... with a character death. Oh well.

Unemployment, Day 55

2009-05-22T23:49:00.000-07:00

I was going to put hot dogs in the crock pot for dinner, but after I ran out to get some nice big onions to season them with, I returned home to find that my dirty crock pot was still sitting around in the dishwasher. Forgot to run it. DOH! Decided that after the soup, I would like to have the dishwasher indeed clean and disinfect the pot. Travis agreed that we could have hot dogs tomorrow, so instead we went out for Chinese food. It was decent enough.

We then watched NCIS on the DVR, which I've become addicted to. (Both the show AND the DVR.) I had a glass of Baileys. Mmmm. Looking forward to the nice weather this weekend. Travis will have to mow the lawn, its gone crazy!

Unemployment, Day 54

2009-05-21T23:47:00.000-07:00

My friend Tom needed a ride up to Seattle since he's leaving the country for work. Since I don't have a job, and I wanted to test out the new transmission on a road trip, I decided that I would help him out. I loaded up the iPod, and my lunch box, and took soda and munchies.

We had a nice drive up, aside from traffic. Coming home was hell. I sat in Sea-Tac traffic, and Tacoma traffic, and Bellevue traffic for more than an hour. I ended up getting home around 8PM.

Travis was nice enough to have picked up some take-out pizza for dinner so that I could cook when I got him, he had already eaten. (I told him not to wait for me.)

Unemployment, Day 53

2009-05-20T23:45:00.000-07:00

Lazy day. I did some laundry, because I'm such a party animal, and then I decided to fill the crock pot up with ingredients, and complete the process for making German Lentil soup.

It took me a while to cook, and I realize now why I used a stock pot last time, because the recipe makes a huge pot of soup. It came out really excellent though. That made me happy. I figure one or two more batches and I'll have the seasoning and the taste just perfect.

Unemployment, Day 52

2009-05-19T23:43:00.000-07:00

Anniversary Day. I took Travis to his favorite drive-in, Sonic. We had lunch, and then we headed for Oak Knoll Winery, out in Hillsboro. After a very nice wine tasting, as well as buying plenty of wine, we headed off for another wine shop, and then did some shopping. Travis had been wanting to get some new cologne so we stopped at Macy's in Tanasborne. Wow, the whitest place ever.

Chicken and my baked rice pilaf for dinner.

Unemployment, Day 51

2009-05-18T20:09:00.000-07:00

Saturday night Travis and my friend Laurie and I went to see Stephen Lynch live at the Aladdin Theater in Portland. Great show. It was his '3 Balloons' tour, and a great deal of the material that he performed was new to me, and probably a lot of people. I didn't by the CD yet, though I will, but I wanted it to be a surprise instead of knowing a lot of the material already. It makes it funnier, in my opinion. He actually ejected a heckler, after warning him 2 times. That was impressive on its own accord.

Sunday was just grocery shopping and hanging out. I made burgers on the BBQ for an early dinner, since Travis had a school event to go to in the evening.

Today was lazy. I did take Travis out to Catedral Tapetia for dinner, since tomorrow is our anniversary. Events are also planned for tomorrow (which is the actual date), but I'll report on those later.

It was very warm today, but tonight is cooling off very quickly, it will likely rain on us tomorrow. Life goes on. It is Oregon after all.

Unemployment, Day 50

2009-05-15T23:01:00.000-07:00

A fairly low key morning.

Travis got home from class early, after being able to take an earlier time slot. We ran to Zupan's to get some things to cook dinner with. When we got home, Derek was packing up to head out of town. Instead of cooking, we decided to head to Mickey Finn's for dinner. It is a local brew pub type establishment. They have a bit of a 'fish' theme to the place. The food is usually decent, and the onion rings are the best by far of anywhere I have ever been. Their service is usually lacking, and this evening was certainly no exception. I thought I would order something different for dinner, only to be disappointed when my halibut sandwich arrived over sauced on soggy break.

C'mon people. If you are going to go to the trouble to toast some bread, why wouldn't you toast it adequately. And why would you put a gallon of tartar sauce on a sandwich that you know is going to sit on the line for a few minutes before serving? Travis and I had a small debate about where to eat before we left the house, neither of us being able to be decisive. We flipped a coin. I didn't realize that yesterday was opposite day. We should have stuck with option B.

After dinner we walked from the pub to the liquor store. Travis bought some very tasty Southern Comfort Liqueur and I got a replacement Baileys, size large. The girl at the liquor store counter didn't look old enough to drive, let alone sell booze. Damn I'm getting old.

Once home we watched 'Being John Malkovich'. Travis had never seen it, and I got it on Netflix. It is a fairly odd and bizarre, twisted, and yet funny movie. I think he liked it. I always thought it was funny.

Unemployment, Day 49 - I drink your milkshake!

2009-05-14T23:47:00.000-07:00

Did a lot of running around today. Beau and I ran down to the post office. I needed to mail off a package from Amazon that needed returned. Couldn't use the product.

Then we ran over to Best Buy where I bought an ethernet switch so that I can have both my Xbox360 and my BluRay-Live connections active at the same time, without having to swap cables back and forth. (Especially since I'd have to unhook the cables from the back of the tv cabinet as well as where the wall jack is.

Then we ran over to Freds where I took back the coffee carafe that didn't fit the coffee maker. I found a better universal style one that does fit. This all happens after I broke the original pot and Krups doesn't have an easy way to get a replacement. Damned thing. I don't even drink coffee. I still managed to break the pot by dropping it against the porcelain kitchen sink. I hate that sink. It destroys too many items to make me happy.

Travis and I watched 'There Will Be Blood' after dinner. The movie was visually stunning. There seemed to be an odd over emphasis on the score / music. It didn't seem to fit at times, and seemed unnecessary and overkill at other times. The story was good. I'm not entirely sure I understand 100% of the moral of the story. I'm still thinking about it.

Unemployment, Day 48

2009-05-13T23:01:00.000-07:00

Low key day. Watched a movie on the Streaming Netflix. I could see this becoming a problem, so today I am making myself leave the house. I also found this morning that Netflix will stream the first 3 seasons of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Oh boy.

I made a coconut cream pie as well. That was pretty satisfying. I used a cooked pudding as the base, and added some coconut. I think it came out pretty awesome. It'll be good for breakfast as well!

Derek and his friend were going to another friends house for dinner, so I opted to eat some applesauce for a dinner snack, and I waited to make a real dinner for Travis. He gets home late on Wednesdays due to his class schedule. Luckily he got out early, so he was home around 945 PM.

I made a ranch baked chicken, and a oven baked rice pilaf. The rice was pretty damned good. I was a little disappointed that the chicken didn't really have all that much 'ranch' flavor. I don't think I could screw up this rice dish though. Damn it was good. We watched two episodes of Law and Order : SVU - Season 1 on the streaming Netflix.

I'm the only guy in the future who can't be cured of balding?

2009-05-13T20:17:00.001-07:00

Your results:
You are Jean-Luc Picard

Jean-Luc Picard		85%
Spock		65%
Beverly Crusher		55%
Geordi LaForge		55%
Deanna Troi		50%
Leonard McCoy (Bones)		45%
Will Riker		45%
Worf		45%
Data		40%
An Expendable Character (Redshirt)		40%
James T. Kirk (Captain)		35%
Mr. Scott		25%
Chekov		15%
Uhura		15%
Mr. Sulu		15%

A lover of Shakespeare and other
fine literature. You have a decisive mind
and a firm hand in dealing with others.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Test

Unemployment, Day 47

2009-05-12T23:18:00.000-07:00

Did some shopping today. Went to Pastaworks and got some fresh pasta. Wandered around the Hawthorne Freds. Still being remodeled. I bought some nice bagels for Travis (topped with cheddar cheese and jalapeno slices), and got a few bottles of wine for me.

Ran a few other errands and then came home and vegetated for a bit.

Hooked my bluray player up to the 'internet'. I'm not officially a member of Netflix. I can stream items, tv shows as well as movies, directly to my player. Lots of items have to still be 'ordered' in the mail, but a few I can have instantly on the tv. That is pretty cool. I am looking forward to catching up on a few TV episodes.

Any movie suggestions that anyone may have would prove helpful. I only have 10 movies on my list right now. I need to build that up somewhat. (But not too much.)

Unemployment, Day 46

2009-05-11T23:59:00.000-07:00

Derek's friend is visiting for the week, so i did some housecleaning this morning just to make sure that everything was in good shape to have a visitor.

I made tacos for dinner, nothing special, but actually quite tasty. (And I hate that ()#*#)* word.

Travis and I then went to see the new Star Trek movie. Don't worry, I won't give away any spoilers, but I was not as happy with the movie as Travis was.

Travis said that he really got into the movie and that he really liked it.

I was a bit more critical of the movie. I am displeased with one of the major plot devices that they used. I understand why the writers did it, but it just seemed like a lazy way to write a plot and assure the future of the 'rebooted' franchise.

I guess that I should be happy that there will be more movies. It is obvious that there will be at least another one.

Got home late, after midnight. Haven't done that in quite a while either.

Frost / Nixon

2009-05-09T23:01:00.000-07:00

Today Travis and I ran around a bit, and then had an early dinner at Red Robin. We were seated in the bar area, which I intensely dislike. Oh well, what can you do?

They have these new garlic parmesan fries. Travis thought they were greasy, but I thought that they were pretty good.

Afterwards, we hung around the house for a bit until we had to run downtown for our play.

Frost / Nixon was playing at Portland Center Stage.

I'm glad that we went to see the play, we had really good seats, and it was fun to watch. Being a big fan of that area of history, especially Watergate, it was fun to get some of the funny inside jokes and humor that was interjected. Travis felt a bit self conscious that he was the youngest person there, but I think it was still a good time by all.

Unemployment, Day 45

2009-05-08T21:12:00.000-07:00

Terminator 3 was pretty good. I say good, but what I mean to say is that it wasn't anywhere near as good as T2.

If you look at T3 purely as a standalone movie, it was great, if you look at it in context of the series, not so good.

Otherwise, a pretty lazy day. I'm so boring. :)

Unemployment, Day 44

2009-05-07T22:21:00.000-07:00

Watched Terminator and Terminator 2 on the Blu Ray.

Pretty boring day otherwise.

Terminator was pretty dated, but not horrible. I'm trying to get Travis up to speed for Terminator Salvation. (Which I don't hold much hope for, it will probably be horrible too...)

Terminator 2 was pretty good on blu ray.

We finished up West Wing, so now we'll have a few series to choose from. :) Now we just have to pick which too.
So far, unless we can find a firmware update for the blu ray player, Season 2 of Dexter might have to wait.

Unemployment, Day 43

2009-05-06T20:37:00.000-07:00

Slept in today, which is good considering I didn't get any sleep the night before.
Beau wanted out at 7 AM, so that is where I got up, and slowly woke up. Felt groggy most of the morning.

Worked on cleaning up a few boxes around the house, what with the new blu ray and surround sound. Still trying to work out the bugs on the surround sound system, and it is definitely going to prove to be a bit of a learning curve. I think I'll get it eventually. I was hoping to only need one remote for all. And while I can use one remote for *most* of the items, since the cable box has no reality to the rest of the equipment, I may have to just guy a good universal one.

Dinner was a disappointment. I made chicken cordon bleu (from the freezer, not from scratch). The chicken was gristly.... ick. Then the mashed potato dish I made was off. Maybe I got out of the habit of cooking? I just feel really uninspired too. Ick.

The light bulb in the dryer burned out, so I will need to replace that. You don't realize what a big difference a damned light makes in such a thing. Wow. It is freakish to look into that giant stainless steel drum when its pitch black in the depths.

I'm digging the HDTV. I'm watching all of the 'free' complimentary HD On Demand items.
I'm watching Matchbox20, and one of them is using an AutoHarp. I love that. I can play an AutoHarp. That is too cool for school.

Unemployment, Day 42

2009-05-05T21:04:00.000-07:00

The flight went smoothly, I'd say that the plane was barely over half full. My row happened to have 3 people of course. Luckily the guy on the aisle seat moved up a row to have a row entirely to himself. That meant that we had 3 seats between the two of us, so that was kind of nice. Didn't get any sleep on the flight. Just don't sleep well in motion. I'm very happy that my next flights up to Alaska will be during waking hours so that I won't miss sleep. I have plenty to keep me entertained in flight. By then maybe even WiFi on board! (Not likely though....)

Travis picked me up at the airport and we headed to breakfast at Shari's. (It is a fair bit like Denny's, but a bit nicer in my opinion.)

Beau was thrilled to see me, making squeals and yips and barks. Luckily he didn't pee on the floor.

Travis and I spent a great deal of the day catching up, setting up the surround sound and blu-ray system in the living room. That was a fair bit of frustration. We had to get more HDMI cables, which seem to be outrageously expensive. I'm still not entirely sure how to set up the damned system. Pretty frustrating.

Travis and I ended up going to Hawthorne Fish House for dinner. He had an excellent fish sandwich, and we shared some fish tacos with some pretty excellent chipotle may. I ordered fish and chips, however my fish was undercooked, and not crispy at all. Not as good as usual. I guess maybe next time will be better.

Going to bed early. Very tired, up way too long.

Air Puerto

2009-05-04T23:35:00.000-07:00

Sitting in the airport is certainly one of life's little annoyances, especially when you are all by yourself. At least I have my spiffy laptop. The laptop itself seems to think that it could stay happy here for well over five hours without a charge. I would challenge that assertion. I know that I don't have to sit in the airport for five hours. It is 11:36 PM, and the plane should board in about 50 minutes.

I'm sitting in about the middle of the plane, so I'll have to wait a bit before I even get on at all.

Life goes on.

I feel a large volume of bacardi will be needed to survive the plane ride. Hopefully at least I will sleep.

It has been a fun few weeks in Anchorage. It was pretty awesome to connect and hang out with relatives.
I felt like I ate my way across the state. What can you do?

I'll be coming back to Anchorage in June for 3 weeks. I'll be helping to plan things for my Dads birthday and other fun events.

Now, I think I'll pull up the Sudoku on the free wi-fi provided form the Ted Stevens International Airport.

Unemployment, Day 41 (Media Headlines Edition)

2009-05-04T16:48:00.000-07:00

Eat it bitches! Eat a big bag!

I will now quote CNN.Com:

Swine flu no worse than regular flu, Napolitano says

I'll repeat it again :

Swine flu no worse than regular flu, Napolitano says

I hate the over reactionary news-media. Gone is journalism and reporting, now it is sensationalizing and ratings garnering.
The Swine Flu might kill, but only in as much as the REGULAR flu might kill.

Now, it might turn out that we do have some pandemic at some point, maybe even next week from H1N1, in the mean time I am happy to see that the world panicked and over reacted. Ever hear about the story of the boy who cried 'Wolf!'?

I hope that in the future a new strain of extra-terrestrial death flu falls to Earth and has a penchant for only those in the major news media who would rather hype and sell advertising rather than investigate and report responsibly.

In other news (HAH!), Mom and I met Eric and Gramma Nori for lunch. Had an 8 oz burger (Watch Out! MAD COW!!!) on ciabatta bread, tater tots on the side (Wacth Out! STARCH KILLS!). Very filling. I'd give it 7.5 out of 10. It was above average, but not the best I've had. The rest of the early afternoon was spent talking with Gramma and hanging out. Then Mom and I headed to visit Aunt Reva one final time before I leave town. I cut her a piece of the Lemon Meringue pie that I made yesterday. (Watch Out! SALMONELLA!) Hopefully she enjoys it.

Only thing left for today, really, is to finish up folding my laundry and pack up my suitcase. Heading to the airport around 11 PM. (Watch Out! CRASHING INTO THE GROUND FROM 35,000 FEET IS FATAL!) I should be back in Portland around 5:30 AM tomorrow morning. The flight leaves Anchorage at 1:00 AM. I probably won't get any sleep in the plane, so I'll be a zombie tomorrow. (Watch Out! ZOMBIES EAT BRAINS AND PAL AROUND WITH THE UNDEAD!)

PS. WTF? My mother applied duct tape to her hands in order to go rake leaves out in the back yard as an attempt to avoid blisters. (Watch Out! BLISTERS CAN FILL WITH PUS AND GANGRENE AND SORROW AND MAKE YOU CRY!)

Week Ending

2009-05-03T23:21:00.000-07:00

Saturday and Sunday were incredibly nice weather. Nearly 70 both days.

Saturday Mom and I finished up running around doing our shopping for Sunday Family Dinner after Mom and Dad and I all went to Costco. Dad bought a new paint sprayer. Came back home, unloaded all the goodies, then ran off to Home Depot to buy paving stones for the cabin, and get some lime and fertilizer for the home lawn.

Dinner Saturday at Simon and Seafort's. So gooooood. I ate way too much food. It was sooooooo good. :)
I had a good Caesar Salad and some Peppercorn Steak Medallions. Burnt Cream for dessert. I'm going to have to use a shoe-horn to fit into my airplane seat.

Sunday Family dinner was good, I cooked way too much food however. Lasagna, home made Caesar salad, and home made lemon mergingue pie. I've been doing a lot of cooking.

I'm sorry that Jennifer couldn't be with us for family dinner, I hope that she is having fun in Japan! I was able to look at her online photo album. Looks like she's getting to do some sight-seeing while she is away working.

Unemployment, Day 40

2009-05-01T22:32:00.000-07:00

Has it really been 8 weeks now that I've not been working? Damn.

Mom and I picked up Gramma Nori and then Aunt Reva, and headed over to the eye doctor. Aunt Reva's eye has been bothering her, apparently she has an infection. They gave her a new prescription for eye drops, and wrote orders to stop the once she was currently using. Hopefully they will be better by next week. If not it'll require some tougher options.

We all then went to lunch. I had possible the best roast beef sandwich in my entire life. I will describe it, and it sounds odd, and like it wouldn't be any good. It was fantastic though.

Thick sliced wheat bread spread with stone ground mustard and mayo, slice of tomato, slice of cheddar cheese, roast beef, sliced dill pickles.

WFT? Sliced dill pickles on a roast beef sandwich. Are you insane?

Maybe. Was it the most best thing I've put in my mouth recently. (At least sandwich wise?) Yeah. :)

Dill and beef go together very well. I put dill in my stroganoff meatballs.

The sliced dill pickles gave the sandwich a nice crisp crunch, and a nice dill flavor. Plus the salty garlic brine in the pickle really goes with the beef.

Dropped everyone off, headed out to run a few more errands with Mom, picked up pizza, came home and chowed down.

Back to Portland in a few more days.

Unemployment, Day 39

2009-04-30T23:52:00.000-07:00

Took Mom to work again today. It has been unusually sunny and blue skied. Don't get me wrong, it is indeed nice. The house gets pretty stuffy though, unless I open all the windows and the patio door. I hope that their summer is this nice. It would make up for last year, which most everyone agrees was just rotten.

I made a huge batch of my famous chocolate chip cookies today. (9 dozen of them). After cleaning all that up I decided to do some reading for a bit before heading back to pick Mom up.

We took some cookies to Aunt Reva, and informed her that we will be taking her to the eye doctor tomorrow morning.
Hopefully she likes the cookies. I told her she should have the cookies instead of dinner, it'll keep her young.

Pizza for dinner, while we watched baskteball on tv. (Chicago vs Boston has now gone to game 7, which means we'll be watching the game Saturday..... )

Dad and I shot some pool after dinner. I'm trying to shake off the cobwebs, as my younger brother Drew is coming by after work Friday to play pool with Dad and I. We'll see how I do.

So weird that I head back to Portland in a few days. Where did all the time go?

Unemployment, Day 38

2009-04-29T22:34:00.001-07:00

Took Mom to work today so that I could have a vehicle and do some running around.

Came home, roasted a pound of garlic cloves, made two 13 x 9 inch pans of lasagna, home made meat sauce, after grating a block of romano, and a double block of parmesan. Lasagna is now in the freezer for Sunday dinner.

It was 67 degrees today. That is crazy!

Anchorage is having a nicer spring this year than their entire summer was last year.

Played a few games of 8 ball with dad after dinner.

Ice cream.

Ice cream.

Me want ice cream now.

Unemployment, Day 37

2009-04-28T23:52:00.000-07:00

Lazy day in the morning. Got up, played my game for a while, caught up on some podcasts.

Travis and I (and Derek too) talked over skype.

Went shopping with Mom after work, bought supplies and groceries to make Sunday family dinner.
(My lasagna, caesar salads, garlic bread)

Watching tv with Mom for the rest of the evening.
I'm not keen on the overly dramatized 'reality' shows.

Read through the documents provided from Gramma Nori's condo association. Nothing new there, but it is now written down. It will be interesting to see the resolution. I feel bad for the poor people in the North building that haven't had homes in 2 years.

Found German Chocolate Cake ice cream. Wow. That was the last thing I needed to discover.

Unemployment, Day 36

2009-04-27T23:44:00.000-07:00

Lunch with Grandma Nori and Eric and Mom today. Went to mexican. Food was ok.
It didn't agree with me, and I felt pretty green an hour after lunch.

Did some shopping, nothing important really, then went back to Grandma's condo to hang out.

Then we had another visit with Aunt Reva, and then grocery shopping.
Back home for a quiet afternoon unwinding.

Watched some tv with mom, didn't really feel like dinner since lunch didn't seem to like me.

One week left until I head back to Portland.

Turnagain, again, again, again.

2009-04-26T22:04:00.000-07:00

Made the trip back home from the cabin. The cabin driveway is getting more treacherous as the snow melts down. Mud under snow, which has ice between it, and in some cases running water. You can't always tell when your foot lands it if will be slick or not. I managed to make it up and down all weekend long and not fall once! I feel pretty good about that.

Driving back through the Turnagain Pass, it makes me remember being out there and snowmachining, and worrying about the idiots that like to 'high-mark'. Great way to start and avalanche, and kill themselves. (Or more likely they'll kill someone else.)

I have cell service almost all the way around the arm, so that is somewhat reassuring.

Home again. At least my home away from home, when my home isn't the cabin in the woods.

Laundry and Midori.

I'm unwinding.

Looking forward to my final week in Anchorage before I return to Portland.
Job hunting in Anchorage hasn't really been any easier than in Portland, which was somewhat surprising.

It is still 50 degrees outside, and while the sun is slowly going down, it is still light outdoors.

Food Coma...

2009-04-25T19:42:00.000-07:00

Slept in, kind of, until 8 AM. Sunlight was pouring in the window this morning.

Mom decided to make blueberry pancakes and sausage for breakfast. After breakfast I helped Dad finish assembling the new cabinets for the cabin, and then we hung them. The problem with hanging new cabinets is that the logs (and therefore the 'wall') that comprise the cabin are not flat. So, trying to true up and square the cabinets against the logs, and then get them to be level on multiple axis was fairly challenging. Once that was trued up, then came the task of getting the cabinet doors to adjust so they open and close without banging in to one another. That took up almost all of the afternoon.

Went into Hope for dinner. Had a pasta caprese salad. Tons of roasted garlic cloves. So good. I'm still tasting garlic.
Dessert was walnut pie. Like pecan pie, but 1000 times better, at least in my opinion. Mom bought the whole pie, and we took it home with us. I don't hold much hope for the survival of the pie. It will be gone soon, this is my solemn pledge!

Walking up the cabin driveway after eating a bunch of food..... that is an entirely different feeling. I'm glad that I didn't hurl. I am getting better at coming up the driveway though. Just about the time I'll be okay with dragging my fat ass up the grade, the snow and ice and mud will be gone, and we'll be able to drive up it.

Coming up, watching Cops, and tequilla shots.

Tomorrow we head back to the big bad city.

Unemployment, Day 35

2009-04-24T22:37:00.000-07:00

Woke up at about 8 this morning. It is odd to sleep in a place as bereft of sound as the cabin. I'm so used to sleeping with the dog, and the A/C unit running, and Travis breathing. The extreme quiet is sometimes distracting. I'll probably adjust just in time to return home. And then not be able to sleep. Oh well.

We hiked back down the driveway this morning around 11 and went for a drive. We went into Cooper Landing and had lunch at the Sunrise Inn and Cafe. It has been a place we have stopped a few times on our way back or forth from Homer. Before the Sunrise Cafe, we would often stop in at Summit Lake Lodge. Summit Lake Lodge is only usually open part of the year so we can't always stop in there when we wish to.

It was a pretty drive, we even saw a few bald eagles. It was a pretty warm day, sunny and 45 degrees.

Dave came up for dinner tonight. I made enchiladas on Thursday morning that we brought up here, Mom made some cheesy biscuits, and we sat around eating and drinking margaritas. We watched a movie and then Dave decided to head back home.

Dad is pulling down two of the kitchen cabinets, they were not quite up to holding all of the stuff so he bought new ones. The new ones look really nice. Plus I suspect they'll be more stable, and a lot more level.

Its 10 PM and still light outside. :)

Unemployment, Day 34

2009-04-23T23:55:00.000-07:00

Packed everything up and headed to the cabin. Sunrise , Alaska. Population.... 10?

Well, 3 more people now.

Mom and Dad and I had dinner here with Dave, my folks friend. He helps out with the cabin, especially when they are back in the city. Driveway is still snowed in, so we had to hike from the road up. UP! U P ! Damn, hiking that huge driveway..... sloped, with snow, what a workout. Especially since we had 3 days of food and clothes and stuff.

Pizza and tequilla. Tequilla and pizza.

Ate too much.

It might snow tonight, 34 degrees, very very cloudy.
Not sure what we'll do tomorrow if we get snowed in.

It is nice to be out of the city.

I miss being 'home' though. It is awesome to be around family, but I also with my 'family' was here with me.

Unemployment, Day 33

2009-04-22T21:10:00.000-07:00

Busy Day!

Got up, did a bunch of grocery shopping for Mom since we need the groceries to head up to the cabin.
Ran across town to get my hair cut. It has been years since I've had someone else cut my hair. She suggested that I just shave my head. She says I'd look sexy. Dunno about that. I worry about the dents in my head.

Then I decided to pop in and visit Aunt Reva, Aunt Lee was there as well so I got to hang out and visit with them for a while. It was good to see Aunt Lee. She and I have a definite bond.

Then I raced back home to change, and then headed downtown to pick my Mom and Grandma Nori up. We all then headed across town to Glacier Brewhouse. Mom reserved a big banquet room, and we all were together for Eric's 40th birthday dinner.

Food was pretty good, creme brulee for dessert! Awesome!

(Their bar was a bit lame, although I didn't get beer.)

Unemployment, Day 32

2009-04-21T23:01:00.000-07:00

Eric picked me up today and I took him to the movies. We went to see 'Observe and Report' for his 40th Birthday.
That was a fantastic movie, with an ending that I didn't expect or see coming. It wasn't really a comedy as such, although it was a dark comedy to an extent. Don't go see it if you expect something hilarious and uplifting. But, I do strongly suggest seeing it, it is indeed excellent.

I made meat-loaf for dinner, Dad actually ate with us. Victory!

Unemployment, Day 31

2009-04-20T14:45:00.000-07:00

Mom and I had lunch with Eric and Gramma Nori again. We bumped into Eric's father in law. Lunch was ok, I think they were all much more impressed with the food than I was.

The rest of the day was spent looking for fun things to put together in a basket for Eric's birthday. (Tomorrow)

Kinda boring I know, but it was good to have a low key day.

Food, frivolity, fun

2009-04-19T23:17:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning, slow moving, didn't sleep all that well. House was empty, but I think I was a little keyed up after being up all night. I have thrown my rhythm off a bit.

Took my Dad's gihugic Expedition and put fuel in it, and then went through the car wash. I forget how much of a behemoth that vehicle is, as I'm trying to turn tight corners in order to get the thing aligned so that it falls into the car wash track. Lots of people were at the car wash. I gave myself an hour worth of time to get fuel, get the car washed, and meet up with Gramma Nori at 11 AM.

I made it with zero time to spare. I guess all the road grime and ash and gravel and dirt make everyone in this city want to wash their vehicle too. Can't say as I blame any of them.

Gramma Nori and I walked to the Pioneer Home to have lunch with my Great Aunt Reva. Sunday apparently was visiting day for a great many families. It is good to see that other residents get visitors. Not thrilled by the food, personally, but both Aunt Reva and Gramma Nori said it was good. (Citrus Glazed Pork Loin, Cranberry stuffing, and some odd greenish diced vegetable that I couldn't identify.) It was perhaps me more than anything that didn't get along with the food. I wasn't there for the food though, so that was good.

So, this is a semi-retirement home. People who have lived in Alaska for a long time, contributed, and meet certain other residency requirements can get a unit in the Pioneer Home. Most of the residents are older, 70+ in years. Many of them may not have family or other options of living. It is a care facility that has different levels of care based upon need.

I make these points because one of the 'resident's' kids (35 to 40 years old) decided to perform his 'band' in the dining hall. During dining hours. With us captive audience.

So, did he roll out Perry Como, or Frank Sinatra, or even some Michael Buble? Noooooo.
In a room full of older people who can't hear well, they played :

Kenny Wayne Shepherd- Blue On Black

Seether featuring Amy Lee (From Evanescence) - Broken

Sting's cover of Jimi Hendrix's Little Wing

This was probably not the audience he wanted to roll out for.
He also wasn't particularly good. I realize he's a band trying to make his way. But seriously, have some pride man.

I guess I would have chosen different songs, to be sure.

My cousin Joseph, Reva's Grandson, arrived after lunch as we were visiting with Reva, so we left them to catch up.
Reva has quite the social calendar, and is likely the envy of other residents who don't get visitors that often. (If at all).

Mom and Dad made it home from the cabin, and it was a quiet and lazy Sunday evening.
(We had Carl's Jr for dinner, and I ate way too much. Plus, they were out of diet coke, but luckily they had Diet Dr. Pepper.)

Spamalot!

2009-04-19T00:07:00.000-07:00

Spamalot was pretty good.

Drew picked me up and we tried to go out to dinner to a nice fancy pants place for dinner. We were much surprised and disappointed to find out that it is apparently prom weekend here in Anchorage. That means that lots of parties are out and celebrating and taking up space. We wound up going to an adjacent restaurant to find something to eat.

It is nice to catch up with Drew. We did have good food and plenty to talk about.
We tried to grab a drink when we made it downtown, near the performing arts center, but just about every bar within walking distance was already packed. It was a nice walk about town though.

The show started on time, and had a 20 minute intermission. It was a good show, and the audience was able to get involved, as well as the cast throwing in some local jabs to make the show have a more Alaskan feel. (Including a jab at the current governor, although my brother said it was an 'homage'.)

Back home, quiet house, tired.
Tomorrow is lunch with Gramma Nori and Aunt Reva at the pioneer home.

Unemployment, Days 26-30

2009-04-17T21:17:00.000-07:00

Monday, Mom and I had lunch with Gramma Nori and Eric. Eric and Gramma have lunch every Monday as a kind of staying in touch goal. It is nice to to see the family. Food seems to be a central theme. :)

Tuesday Mom went to work, so I was left home alone for the day. It was nice to just be lazy, read a book, play on my computer, and have the cats harass me. Cat hair everywhere. My clothes, my suitcase, my eyes. Its everywhere! I'm doing ok enough, but my allergies are not happy with the cats. C'est la vie.

Wednesday I helped Mom and Dad take the Expedition into the shop. It makes a hissing boiling noise in the HVAC system of the car, it is very loud, definitely noticeable. They still hadn't figured out what was wrong with it, so they kept it overnight.

Thursday the shop determined there was a leak in the rear A/C unit. About $600 to fix / replace. Don't know if they'll bother, A/C isn't really all that necessary in Alaska. It is a 'nice to have' thing. Unless it inhibits the rest of the heating system, not sure if it makes any sense to have it replaced. Dad will figure out what he wants done.

Also spent most of the day with Gramma Nori. She and I went to lunch at a local cafe she really likes. I had soup and half a sandwich. Good soup, great sandwich. (Hard to go wrong with bacon.) Afterwards went to a doctor appointment with her, and then hung out and talked and watched the news before accompanying her to her Condo Associate Meeting.

If you own are a member of a condo association, make sure that you have 'special assessment' insurance.
My grandmother's condo building consists of two towers, one North, and one South. The North tower had a fire 2 years ago, and all the units were lost. The Condo Association was woefully underinsured for the value of the North tower. EACH member of the association, both towers, will have to pay their share of a special assessment to help rebuild the condos that were lost in the fire.

My 80+ year old grandmother has to cough up $70,000 to a condo building, and she already owns her own unit by the way, so that others can have their homes re-built. I understand that is what happens, but wow. She should be thinking about grandchildren and great-grandchildren and fun and leisure. Now she's having to look for a mortgage loan to pay for something she already owns. Yes, the building should have been insured for more, but it wasn't. The meeting went well enough. I feel bad for the people who lost their homes. At least Gramma still has all her possessions and her condo and has had a place to live for the last two years. People in the North tower were not so lucky.

Friday did some running around with Mom and helped her get ready for her and Dad's weekend trip to the cabin.
I'm staying in town so that I can go to Spamalot with Drew on Saturday. I'm all alone in the house. Only the cats and the fish to keep me company.

Looking forward to the weekend. :) I'll have more later, after the show!

Easter Weekend

2009-04-12T20:07:00.000-07:00

Saturday Mom and I did some last minute running around, and then set the table for Sunday brunch. Dad made pico de gallo, along with some pretty fantastic cinnamon rolls. Mom made a pineapple salsa. Dinner and drinks at Chili's. Not really dinner, as much as a bunch of appetizers that we all shared. I think I like that more. Everyone gets to sample a little bit of everything.

Sunday Easter brunch was great. Aunt Reva didn't feel up to coming. Gramma Nori, Eric and Kelli, Drew and Jennifer, myself, and Mom and Dad all sat around the dining room table and ate up a nice feast. We had mimosa and ham and eggs and food galore. (And those killer cinnamon rolls). Pretty awesome to have the family together. My Dad took plenty of pictures, although one of his camera flash settings makes me feel like I'm having a strobe light retinal scan.

Once everyone left, it was a pretty low key evening. Nice to decompress.

Unemployment, Days 24 - 25

2009-04-10T18:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday Mom and I went and had lunch with Gramma Nori. We went to Pizza Plaza, which I've not been to in many many years. Good food, not much has changed. Then Mom and I went to the Pioneer Home to visit Aunt Reva. We chatted with her while she had a cup of tea, and then we took her down to have her hair done so that she'd be ready for family brunch on Easter Sunday.

Friday Mom and I spent the day shopping around town for Easter supplies and stuff.
Kind of felt under the weather, which wasn't helped by the fact that i took a zyrtec. Boy that stuff makes me feel like crap.

We had dinner at my younger brother's house. (He and his wife Jennifer invited us over). Jennifer cooked a very nice meal of braised spare ribs in her crock pot. It was a nice evening of drinking and conversation. They seem to be settling in nicely to their 'new' house. Jennifer will be leaving for Japan for 5 weeks on Monday so it was nice to see her before she left.

Drew invited me to go with him to see Spamalot, since Jennifer will not be able to go with him, since she'll be out of town. It will be fun to see. I'm looking forward to it.

Landings...

2009-04-09T01:43:00.000-07:00

Made it to Anchorage with out any issues. Flight left early. Arrived 5 minutes early. It was one of the smoothest and quietest flights I've ever had.

(Maybe the 3 Bacardi and Cokes helped?)

Tomorrow (Later today really) Lunch with Grandma and Aunt Reva.

Its weird being in a bed without Travis and Beau.

I feel oddly homesick. Already? Sheesh.

G'nite!

Unemployment, Days 21 - 23

2009-04-08T20:06:00.000-07:00

Monday I spent most of the day trying to do some things around the house, while getting ready to leave for my Alaska trip. Failed.

I just don't feel motivated. But then, I always have been kind of slacking when I am left to myself. It would be different if I was traveling with someone else, I'd feel the need to be more responsible. Not the case though.

Tuesday I hung around the house waiting for the cable guy to show up so that he could bring me my new HD cable box with HD DVR. I decided that I was going to make stew in the crock pot for dinner. I had prepped the vegetables the night before, along with the meat, so it makes it pretty quick to assemble once everything is all said and done.

I ended up making a big batch of chocolate chip cookies for the boys. I figured it would be something to leave them for when I was gone. (Even though they likely won't last more than a few days...)

The cable guy was late, he was also fairly new. Good guy. Beau scared him. He spent an enormous amount of time trying to get everything to work. Took him nearly two hours to get a new box up and running, and at no point did he need to run new line either from the pole, or inside the house. I have no idea why it took two hours to get a cable box working. Isn't it all electronic? Aren't these things pre programmed?

I had to also go to a 'Re-Employment Orientation Seminar' for the state. This is to keep my unemployment payments. The class was pretty much a waste of time. There are so many people out of work right now. It amazed me the sheer volume of people. It also didn't help that it was nearly 80 degrees yesterday, in this tiny cramped classroom, with a ton of people and no air conditioning. The UI folks want to make sure that I am doing everything i can to replace my job.

Stew was fabulous. Tate came over for dinner, as he had been helping Derek fix his truck.
We fed him, and gave him cookies too. This is bribery to help him help Derek put my new transmission and transfer case in while I am gone. It will be nice not to be 'popping the clutch' on my automatic transmission! :)

Wednesday (today) was sheer craziness. I just didn't seem to have enough time to get things done. I ran out to do some last minute errands. Everyone seemed nuts. Travis tells me that I always say that, and perhaps the problem is me. Indeed, it probably is me.

I managed to drop a glass mixing bowl while I was fixing dinner. Full of panko and butter, the glass bowl shattered as it hit the side of the stove, then it bounce against the floor, sending shrapnel everywhere, and panko crumbs in my hair, all over the oven, and even on the ceiling. I think I managed to keep the glass out of the macaroni and cheese. We'll find out tomorrow.

Right now, I'm sitting at the airport at my gate. Waiting to board the plane.

Going to Alaska to visit the family for a month.

I miss Travis and Beau already.

Part of me wants the month to go fast. And part of me doesn't.

Lisa!

2009-04-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday Travis and I went to see Lisa Lampanelli in concert. Hilariously funny, even at parts where most people probably wouldn't laugh out loud. It was a good show, made better by the fact that there was a deaf interpreter that was signing the show for a hearing impaired person who was attending the show. Watching her try to translate and spell out things, while trying to inflect Lisa's humor, etc. was too funny. I had to stop watching after a while though, it got to be far too distracting.

If you get a chance, go see her. If you can't go see her, watch her on HBO or Comedy Central. Well worth the offensive nature.
(I was not offended at all.)

Unemployment, Day 20

2009-04-04T07:42:00.001-07:00

My new, self assembled TV Stand

After further debate, I decided that I wanted the cabinet that we saw at Freds. We went back Thursday night to buy it, and then I took to the task of assembling it and putting it together. Travis played XBox while I had parts spread out all over the kitchen and living room. It was a ton of parts, screws, fasteners, nails, cams, and hidden cam locks. I had boards and pieces all over the living room.

I managed to get the base cabinet all assembled Thursday, but it was past midnight when I decided to call it a day.

Friday morning I finished assembling the drawers. What a pain. I know those things are pretty sturdy though. I did wait until 9 AM to start banging around. You can see the final results in the picture above.

Travis had to help me move the old cabinet and tv out of the way.
The house is still a bit of a cluttered mess, but I hope to get that all cleaned up before we head out Saturday for Lisa Lampanelli.

Unemployment, Day 18 & 19

2009-04-02T16:10:00.000-07:00

Lazy Wednesday, didn't do much, although I cleaned up some piles of papers. I love the paper shredder. It gives me a sense of accomplishment to fill up the bin with discarded minutia. Tacos for dinner, I managed to get them extra spicy. Derek and Travis really seemed to like them, they repeated on me for the remainder of the evening.

Thursday morning started with a crashing of the glass recycling. Those dudes sure know how to raise a racket. I don't think they could have made a louder clanking glass noise if there were standing over my head with a bunch of marbles in a punch bowl.

Travis and I got up and headed for Ikea, as well as some errands. I'm looking for a stand for the TV that doesn't look stupid, but also is a tad higher than the dining room table. I would like to have something to set the tv on that doesn't get obscured. On the other hand, it needs to look nice, and be functional. Found what I wanted online, however it is a tad out of my price range, not to mention being more expensive than the tv itself.

Had lunch at the local Chinese place we normally go to. Food wasn't good. Travis really liked his. Derek needed us to get his tool box and bring it down to his shop, since his vehicle is apparently dying. Seems to be an epidemic.

After lunch, we went to the mall, Sears to exchange a broken socket for Derek, Macy's to pick up a new saute pan, then down to the Island to rescue Derek.

Stopped at Hollywood Freds to look at furniture. They have something that I like that will probably work for the tv. I need to think about it though. Trying not to spend money just for the sake of spending money.

Unemployment, Day 17

2009-04-01T22:33:00.001-07:00

Tuesday was pretty low key. Spent most of the day half heartedly looking for jobs. Did make a few contacts, and managed to get my resume out to an agency who specializes in the software I am trained in. I doubt they want me though. I have lots of specialized experience and not a lot of project management with newer software. We'll see.

Derek found a barely used transfer case. The bonus is that it comes with a barely used transmission. So while I am gone, he'll be installing that on my Explorer. Two birds with one stone. Thats pretty cool. He had to drive out of town to get the parts, but I'll make sure it is worth his while. It will be nice to feel more confident about driving around. :)

I don't feel very motivated right now.

Maybe I'll get more done tomorrow.....

Unemployment, Day 16

2009-03-31T11:55:00.000-07:00

Got up with Travis this morning, he needs a new alarm clock I think. His acts weird, doesn't go off, or it is too easy for him to snooze so he's sleeping through the alarm to begin with.

I put the oven through a self cleaning cycle since I had plenty of time today, I always worry that the oven will need major cleaning after that incineration. It immediately filled the house up with smoke. I opened up all the doors and brought the tornado fan up from the basement. It got pretty chilly in the house, except for the kitchen, where the oven had this nice bright red glow. 3 hours later, it was done. The oven still needed to cool down some, but after another hour, the door unlocked itself. I wiped down the ashes and cleaned the door up. Wow. Damned thing looks nearly brand new. And we can now see in the window.

Made stew in the crock pot today. Travis thinks I put in too many potatoes, but that means I have breakfast! Fried stewed potato! Mmmm. I think the boys liked the stew a lot, since there was almost none left.

I spent the rest of the day cleaning up little things, I have a few big things to straighten up before I leave next week. I will be flying out on Wednesday night, provided Mt. Redoubt doesn't erupt and disrupt my plans.

Next step, packing!

Unemployment, Day 15

2009-03-28T08:03:00.000-07:00

Lazy day. I slept in some, although Beau needed out so I couldn't lounge around forever.

I mostly just played XBox games and flipped through tv. Travis had to go to a school appointment.

We went to dinner at El Tapetio, which is very close to the house, a local Mexican chain. They apparently charge for refills on their bowls of chips, as well as now charging for refills on glasses of soda. Now, I realize that the economy is shaky, and that some eateries are probably struggling to survive. But, really? Charging me $1.95 for a glass of soda is already very heavily marked up. I just spent 26 bucks on dinner for the two of us. It would have bankrupted you to give me a refill on that soda?
It wouldn't bother me had it been their policy, but they had given refills free before. Same with the chips. So it apparently is an arbitrary policy. Was this a small way to attempt raising the rest of their prices? Come on. I'd rather you raised your prices a little bit rather than lamely apply a policy. Also, I'm pretty sure if I went to another outlet of the chain that I wouldn't pay for the refills. Time to fall back to other places to eat.

Back at home we watched some tv, and played some more XBox.

I guess I am in recovery mode from vacation. :)

Unemployment, Day 13 & 14

2009-03-26T17:25:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was a low key day. It was off an on nice and rainy, sunny, windy, nice, and rainy. Repeat.
Travis and I spent a lazy morning in the hotel, even though I still have to take Beau out to pee constantly.
(He seems to think he needs out all the time....)

We had brunch at Pig'N'Pancake, which is kind of a tradition for us when we are on vacation.
They were playing this odd assortment of homogenized music, muzak version of Abba, odd Miller Sisters style covers of The Mamas and the Papas. Surreal to say the least. The food was decent.

Since we were trying to save wear and tear on the vehicle, we kept our touristing down to a low key level today. We made it to the Yaquina Bay light house, which wasn't far at all from our hotel. The light house was only in use for 3 years, and was replaced with the Yaquina Head light house, which we saw on Tuesday. The lens housing and light apparatus were built into the top of what looked to be a normal house. It is the oldest building in Newport. It wasn't very practical to the ships in the water because the light couldn't be easily seen around the coastline. Pretty cool though, still.

We skipped lunch, Travis ate some cheese and meat we brought with us, while I did crossword puzzles out of the paper and the Wonderword, and Jumble. We headed out for dinner. Originally we hoped to go to the original Mo's, however they were packed, not very big, and we didn't feel like waiting. We walked over to the Rogue Public House, home of Rogue Brewery. Travis got a beer, but it was a tad too bitter for him. Dinner was good, although not as good as our other experiences out in Newport. The service wasn't that great, but passable.

We finished off the evening by filling the spa tub in our hotel living room and lunging about in the scalding water for an hour or so.

This morning, we finished packing everything up, and hit the road. We were on our way by 7 AM. I managed to figure out how to trick the transfer case to staying locked in. (Without too many incriminating details, I'll probably need new brakes too...). We only had one single incident of the horrible grinding. It was actually a beautiful drive, crisp, cold, foggy in spots, the sun shone across the valley. We made good time, and stopped in Salem at Shari's (like Denny's but better food).

We finally made it home, and unpacked the truck. I'll probably take a few days to finish all the unpacking, but it feels good to be home again. Been sitting around vegetating the rest of the morning and afternoon. Lazy evening planned.

Unemployment, Day 12

2009-03-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

It started out as a very beautiful morning in Newport. I got up and walked the dog a bit down the beach some. I have to admit that having the beach nearly right out your patio door is pretty cool. The bad part is being around all the other dog owners that don't seem to feel that they should clean up after their own dogs. Worse yet, why is it always the hippie mid-life crisis pot smoking guys who feel their dog is an angelic example of divinity and refuse to use a leash.

We drove up to the Yaquina Head lighthouse. It was pretty windy up there, but we walked around the National Park area, and then went inside to see if we could walk up to the top of the light house. There was a caretaker on duty, and quite a line of people waiting. We did decide to get in queue, and wait to go up top. Travis was right in front of two women who seemed to yammer on and on and on. I luckily was out of earshot. It was quite a trek up to the top of the tower. The light house is still used and is still in working order. They have long since converted the lard / kerosene wick burning flame with 1000 watt light bulb. 1000 watts. Two bulbs. Only one is used, the second is a backup. Should one burn out, they both get replaced. It was pretty cool to see it up close. Amazing.

Lunch was at a quite unremarkable 'Diner', greasy spoon. Wow. Food was ok, service was lousy, and the place was..... not up to the usual par of my dining tastes. I spotted it at the last minute, and picked it because it was along our route back to the hotel. Probably the only reason the place stays in business is because it is along highway 101. If someone had to drive any distance to go there, I'm not sure that they would. So unremarkable, I can't remember the name.

Took the truck in to AAMCO. The good news is that my transmission is fine. The bad news is that my transfer case is bad. Cheaper fix, but just as devastating if we have a failure. No transfer case = no go nowhere. Travis keeps reminding me that we can get towed once we get into the magic 100 mile zone of his AAA coverage. I don't relish having to have a tow though. Something stubborn in me wants to make it. The guys as AAMCO did say that they didn't think I was going to do any real damage that wasn't already done by driving it back to Portland. The malady is common enough that parts are common, and he is actually out of stock. Everyone in the near vicinity is out of stock as well. He could get the parts, but it would take him a few days to a few weeks. I can't afford to stick around in Newport for 2 more weeks, as attractive an option as that might be. :)

Dinner was at Georgie's, which is attached to our hotel. At the Hallmark Inn - Canon Beach, the affiliated eater was Dooger's, and I wasn't all that impressed by them. Georgie's was pretty impressive. Great view, good service, and excellent food. The food was lacking a bit of spice, they seemed to miss that garlic should be used in many applications. I'd give it an 8 out of 10.

Travis drank wine and I drank some sparkling wine while we watched Pulp Fiction on his laptop, which he'd never seen.

Hope that it isn't raining all Wednesday!

Unemployment, Day 11

2009-03-24T08:23:00.000-07:00

Spring break! Travis and I drove down to Newport, and are staying until Thursday. We have packed up the car with lots of crackers, cheeses, wines, candy, cookies, junk, and the dog. The truck was PACKED full. The weather on the drive down has been windy, and wet, and at times downpouring. The hotel we are staying at isn't as nice as the one in Canon Beach, but this time we are traveling with the dog, so that may be part of the difference. We have a ground floor unit which the patio door opens directly on the the bluffs of the beach. The bad news is that the little brat children upstairs are practicing their dance routines constantly.

The transmission started acting up a big on one of the big hills, so I guess that is karma for me buying a big expensive TV set. I'll take it in to a local AAMCO transmission service to see if they can at least patch it enough for the trip back to Portland. I don't relish a tow back.

It is nice to be on vacation though. Out of the house, out of the city, and completely unknown in a little town.

I do have to take the dog out on a leash constantly. At least I have nice baby powder scented dog crap baggies. Woohoo!

Unemployment, Day 10

2009-03-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

Went down to the office to retrieve my bonus check for 2008. It was odd having to be signed in at the office as a 'guest'.
Everyone was really excited to see me, and I spent over an hour being bandied about while people hugged me and took pictures with me, and some people decided that touching my beard was ok, since it just looked too irresistible. My former boss tried to hold my check hostage in lieu of a question about my job. Hah. I don't work for you anymore! Nice try!

Went to WaMu to deposit my check, which of course got scrutinized because of the amount. Had to have a supervisor approve the check, even though the only thing I was doing was having it deposited into my account, I wasn't taking any cash proceeds from it, nor was I cashing out anything else. Go figure.

I was able to pay off two of my three student loans with the net portion of my bonus, and I even had a little bit left over. Which was good. Because I planned on making a purchase with it, which I did.

I applied for a few jobs online at Regence / Blue Cross / Blue Shield, and then applied for my weeks worth of Unemployment.

Travis and I met Mom and Dad at PDX (Airport) for their 5 hour layover, they are returning to Alaska after a few weeks vacation in Palm Springs. I had offered to meet them at Stanford's in the airport, but they wanted to get out of the airport, and kill some time. We ended up going to Gustav's for dinner, since it wasn't that far away from the airport, and I know they have good food.
(And it has a full bar, which my mother demanded) Dinner was sooooooo good. Couple of Midori Sours, cheese and sausage fondue, nice chicken schnitzel. This makes for a happy bear. Travis ordered corned beef and cabbage, since I won't really make it at home since he's the only one who would eat it. My mother got a nice turkey dinner, and dad got a pot pie, topped with mashed potato. (Really more like shepherds pie, and it looks puny in comparison to our meals although I don't think it was since Dad couldn't finish all of it.)

Took them back to the airport so that they could catch their flight, and then Travis and I met Derek and his friend at Freds, where I bought myself a 46 inch LCD HDTV. (Samsung for those at home following along). Derek was nice enough to take the TV home for me.

I had been debating a new TV purchase for some time after the last TV decided it was going to fritz out and explode. I need a new DVD player with upconverter and I'll invest in a combo DVD and surround sound system. That will wait a week or so, I think. Right now the TV, which is actually compact compared to a tube tv, is sitting on our dining table. The only thing hooked up to it is the XBox360. The picture is just amazing. I'm sure I'll be wasting even more time on it now!

Unemployment, Day 9

2009-03-19T22:09:00.000-07:00

Travis had the day off of school, so we decided to run around town and amass a few bits of cheese and a bottle (or 3) of wine to take with us on our Newport adventure. Before that I needed to get the oil changed, and opted to have the qwik-e-lube place flush and fill the radiator. Travis convinced me to go into the CrapDonalds with him, where he bought me a CrapGriddle sandwich for breakfast. Not horrible, but not something I think I'd eat ever again.

Then we made our way to lovely NW Portland to a wine shop that features cheeses. (Steve's Cheese Shop). Got some awesome cheese. Then we made our way to Zupan's and did some more cheese and wine shopping. All in all a pretty good haul.

Derek is having company for the next few days, so Travis and I opted to go out on our own for supper. We agreed on Olive Garden. Don't go there a lot, but they have decent food, and its affordable for an out of work guy like me. Plus, they have unlimited soup and salad. Wow you can fill up on that. As usual, we had a mishap that caused us to repeatedly get skipped over for a table. I tried my best to let the seething hatred and anger that was searing through my soul remain below the surface so as to not cause a huge scene. The wait staff did apologize for the hostess forgetting about it. The service was actually quite fantastic once we got a seat at the table. Food was good too. At the conclusion of the meal, the house manager came to the table to talk to us. The interact was remarkable in the fact that she apologized profusely to us, and said that the staff had just made her aware of the problem. When I suggested that sometimes technology (those stupid pager devices) fails, she said quite plainly that this wasn't technology, and that it was her people who had failed. We told her that we had had exceptional service and that they had done a good job at making us feel better. She told us that she had a gift for us and that we should meet her at the door on our way out. Then another of the waitstaff offered us some wine (after we'd finished our meals). After I had commented that I don't drink reds, he served Travis and I a nice glass of Riesling, one that I actually drink, and cook with. Since we were lollygagging around now, and finishing up our glasses of wine, Lisa (the manager) came back to our table and presented us with a $40 gift certificate. So, for all the aggravation, we have a free meal for us next time we want to go. I don't know if a lot of managers would have gone that far, but she did make us feel a lot better about our experience. Bribes work, we'll go back again.

Unemployment, Day 8

2009-03-19T06:58:00.001-07:00

More laundry today, just call me Mr. Excitement. Decided that the bed linens needed changing, and that mattress needed rotating.

Did some more house cleaning up, and it was very sunny and nice outside, it was nearly 60. Spent 2 hours detailing the inside of my SUV. I will eventually take it to the car wash. Windex, upholstery cleaner, lemon verbena Mrs. Meyer cleaning agent, and febreeze. It smells like a schizophrenic orchard of some form.

Beau's doggie ramp showed up today as well, so we were making him walk up and down in a few times. He's not very sure of the ramp yet, but it beats me trying to have to pick him up to put him in the back. That was going to hurt one or both of us in the long run, I'm just not meant to sling 90 lbs of dog around.

We leave for Newport on Monday morning.

Woohoo!

Unemployment, Day 7

2009-03-17T21:49:00.000-07:00

Slept in a tad today, did some laundry, and had lunch with Jon. Met at a Chinese buffet place. The food was decent, I'm not big on buffet food, but it wasn't too bad. Then we wandered over to OfficeDepot to look for some office supplies. Jon went back home after that, and I then ran some errands.

Dinner and tv, and a quiet night. I feel oddly fatigued today, it may be that I'm just catching up with things.

I have a list of things to get done tomorrow, so I'll likely hit the ground running.

Unemployment, Day 6

2009-03-16T22:54:00.000-07:00

Travis and Derek and I stayed up way too late last night. We were watching this show, Inside Americas Jails, or some such show. One of the jails is the Multnomah County Jail, in Downtown Portland. That was hilariously entertaining. (Probably not what the show was intending.)

Then, flipping channels, we landed on the Comedy Central Roast of Larry the Cable Guy. That was pretty damned funny. Hosted by Lisa Lampanelli, who Travis and I have tickets to see next month, it was pretty gut busting.

So, this morning came far too early. I actually slept in until about 10 AM. I think that is some kind of record for me.

Puttered around the house some, did some cleaning, organized a few things. Called the office payroll to tell them that they paid me wrong, and they said they will fix it by the next time I get paid. I get to pick up my bonus check on Friday.

I'm a little nervous about that, going back to the scene of the crime, as it were. I miss some of the people, I don't miss others. I'm still kind of angry at the whole lay-off business. It will be good to see the people though.

Friday evening is also dinner with the folks. I'm very much looking forward to that.

I have plans every day this week, really. Most of it revolves around getting ready for Travis and my trip to Newport for next week.
Beau gets to go with us. :)

Unemployment, Day 5

2009-03-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

Friday already. I'm still in vacation mode, me thinks.

DIdn't do much of anything today, slept in, a bit, watched the dog be crazy in the yard, etc.
It was kind of sunny, but also a tad windy, which makes it feel nearly cold.

Ken came over today for a brief visit, he brought his newest dog with him. Cute dog, mutant though. Willy. (Or Willie?)
Last time the dog was in the house, he peed on the couch. He's not really allowed inside anymore.

I met up with some of my former colleagues at a bar at the end of my street. They got off work, and hung out for a few drinks. I had probably more than I needed, so I was definitely feeling little pain. I love happy hour. Plus they have pretty good onion rings.

Everyone else seems to be waiting anxiously and nervously for the ax to fall again. Appears to be much sooner for the rest of them than previously thought. It is too bad, I feel sorry for them.

In a way I feel lucky and liberated to be able to be free of that place.

Travis picked me up from the bar, and we went home. He and Derek then went and got Carls Jr for dinner. I love / hate that place. I know it is bad for me, health wise, but damn it is good food.

The remainder of the night I spent playing on the Xbox.

Now the weekend begins.

Next week will be getting ready for a trip to Newport over spring break.

I smell a rat!

2009-03-12T21:06:00.000-07:00

Derek and I have had this long running issue with rats in the garage.
Growing up in Alaska, I've never ever in my whole life seen rats.
When I finally saw one, I nearly crapped my pants. Jeez! They are HUGE. As big as cats.
And mean looking, with the long tails and the red eyes. Creepeh!

A few years ago one of them ran in to me as I was opening the garage door. It actually ran away from me as I opened the garage door, it was avoiding my siren wail of my girlie man screaming. I am pretty sure everyone on the block heard me.

Derek said he'd put some poison down to kill it. I chided him. Poison is a bad idea for a few reasons:

A> If the rat eats it and dies, but crawls somewhere the dog can get at, my dog is indeed dumb enough to eat a dead rat. Then I'd have a sick dog, and a nasty dead rat, or remnants thereof.

B> If the rat avoids the poison, the dog might get into it. Then I'd still have a rat, and a sick dog.

C> If the rat eats the poison, but then pulls an Agatha Christie novel plot, it'll crawl just far enough to fall into something of value, and rot, and stink. And then we'll have a dead rat, and a nasty smell, and probably maggots. That is, provided that we could find where it crawled to.

I went and bough those 'glue traps'. We put them down in the garage.
A few days later, that damned thing had drug the trap from one end of the garage to another, after having been stuck to it, and then smeared sawdust all over it, and eventually extricated himself. Derek declared that we had in our garage a 'bionic' rat.

I then re-iterated my disapproval of the poison and opted for traps.
He told me that *I* would have to throw the traps away, rat and all.

*sigh*

Ok, poison it is.

That was 2 years ago, and Derek said the rat was gone for good, he moved on.

Fast forward to a month ago. Another rat moved into the neighborhood! The damned stray and feral cats are not doing a very good job. They are slacking. Derek puts some poison down.

Today, Derek was out in the garage smoking, and cleaning up his things. The garage is pretty much his domain. Travis and I keep clear of it for the most part. Something rotten was in the garage.

It was a rat. The rat. Big ugly nasty rat. Decomposing rat. Poisoned former rat. It had crawled up on the car seat he'd pulled out of his truck. (He put in a racing seat). He had planned to keep the seat to swap it back should he ever sell the car.

I tried not to be overly smug. But it does seem that the rat taught him a lesson. Oozy nasty dead rat guts all over his car seat.

I guess I'll pick up some snap traps tomorrow.

Unemployment, Day 4

2009-03-12T20:55:00.001-07:00

Up at 4:45 AM. Listening to the FM version of the Rick Emerson show, I probably won't continue to do this every day, but I did want to have some kind of routine. I've listened to Rick for over a decade of radio, I believe. It'll be a hard habit to break.

Travis slept in today. I finally roused him from his slumber by whining. I'm good at whining.

We went to grab lunch at Chevy's. They seated us in 'the bar' area. I must remind myself next time, NO SITTING IN THE BAR. Even though Oregon now has no smoking, we had lousy service. This was made worse by the fact that a bunch of big tittied dumb harpy shrill women sat at a table right next to ours, and the bartender made a bee-line for them. Boy did he end up being sorry. 'I want that entree, but we want to split it, but I don't want the lettuce served with it. I know it is what you serve them in, but I just don't want the lettuce'. Jeezus, lady, ignore the lettuce. No one is going to make you eat it. And you are not going to get a discount from having the kitchen leave behind a few pieces of rabbit food. The food didn't seem to agree with me. Oh well, it was edible. I think we'll stick with El Tapatio.

Then we headed to Best Buy. I'm pretty proud of myself, I didn't buy anything from them. Not from my lack of trying, but I just can't decide about my tv. The stock price is creeping up, so I'm hoping it'll reach my sell order. Then, I'm good to go! Travis bought some odd in the ear style headphones. He was very disappointed in them. They were cheap, and apparently for a reason. I can't handle things in my ears like that. (Odd, because I can wear ear plugs without being freaked out... go figure.)

Next was WaMu, which is soon to be Chase. After that, Travis went to get his oil changed, and I played XBox for a while.
Bastards at RockStar games delayed the expansion pack for MidnightClub LA, so I have to wait another week. I played Fable II until Trav got back.

Dinner was steak (out of the freezer), salad (from a bag), and baked potato. I got the skins extra crispy on the taters, but the insides were nice and tender. I didn't even ruin the steak on the BBQ! I'm not very good at grilling, it is just one of the genes I seem to be lacking.

Now I am in food coma, and with a belly ache. It was sooooo good though.

Unemployment, Day 3

2009-03-11T20:49:00.000-07:00

Got my eyes checked today. I've been pretty happy with my contact lenses over the past year. The soft lenses I got were so much more comfortable than the rigid gas perms I wore for years. The only downside I find with them is that they have a tendency to roll up since they are so flexible, and they seem to not come as clean. In talking with the eye doctor, he said that some of us just have excess lipid production in our eye systems and that I needed to switch to this new (and of course more expensive) cleanser. It is now sitting on my counter foaming its little heart out. I hope that they will be ok to put into my eyeballs tomorrow morning.

The bastard had to dilate my eyes. Egads I had that. So I tried to go shopping after that, but all I did was freak people into thinking that I was some stoned hippy pot dude who had the munchies. I came home and sat in the dark and listened to the radio for the afternoon until my eyesight was less sensitive to the light.

Dinner was cardboard pizza, and after dinner Travis and I ran down to Freds. I wanted ice cream and to check to see if they had one of the XBox games I'm looking for. All to no avail.

I'm eating the ice cream still.

Probably be an early night, I want to get up early and listen to the new FM version of the Rick Emerson show, one of my long time faves.

Unemployment, Day 2

2009-03-11T07:46:00.000-07:00

Got up, cleaned up the house a little (kitchen, bathroom, living room). Still more to clean, but I'm pacing myself!

Jon came over for lunch today, it was nice to have some social contact outside the house. I need to stay social, I think, for fear I might end up being a hermit. Lunch was good, made club sandwiches. Boars Head makes some of the best lunch meat... Salsa Turkey. After lunch we hung out, talked about music, avoided talking about my job, or lack thereof. He eventually needed to go home and take care of his dog.

Made some soup in the crock pot for dinner, used some meatballs in the freezer as the 'meat' for them. Kind of an ad-hoc meatball soup. I think it came out pretty good.

Played some XBox games. Going to suffer withdrawal once I am in Alaska, methinks.

Bought my plane ticket for Alaska.

Next big event, spring break in Newport with Travis. I'm looking forward to that.

Unemployment, Day 1

2009-03-09T22:49:00.000-07:00

Had lunch with Laurie today. Went to Hawthorne Fish House. Good food. It was good to see her, and good to get out of the house. It has been snowing and hailing most of the day. Took her to the Hawthorne Fred Meyer remodel. One pretty sweet looking store, and it isn't even done yet. In store made potato chips are the best thing ever.

Bought new computer speakers today, my old Harmon Kardon sound sticks stopped working in the right channel. I thought I was going deaf, turns out something is wrong with the speakers. Phew! The new Logitech THX speakers are pretty sweet. I'm going to have to hide the power cord when I leave though, or else I think Derek will attempt to annoy the neighbors with it.

Had to clean out under my desk to move the wires and cables for the new speakers. I apparently disturbed a nest of spiders, little tiny baby ones. I had a mini panic attack over it, and luckily Derek was nice enough to nuke them with some spider kill spray.

Driving back tonight, though, I thought that I needed to get home and get my stuff ready for work tomorrow.

HAH!

Wow, what a habit. I'm programmed.

Watched Heroes on the couch with Travis, who was mostly fretting over his computer.

Not sure I like the new direction of the show, time will tell.

More tomorrow, if anything becomes of note.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

2009-03-08T09:05:00.000-07:00

I am now officially a statistic.

(At least I didn't say 'literally'.)

Friday March 6 was my last day of work, the company has decided to 'eliminate my position'.
While I would never say anything bad (since that would jeopardize my severance package), I find it amusing to say the least that the company felt 'I didn't have enough work to keep me busy'.

No one ever came to find out what I was working on, nor what I was doing, so it does make me wonder how they arrived at this logic.

I am a wash of emotions.

I was actually pretty good with things, even through Friday afternoon when I got hauled into a conference room and everyone was saying how good a job I had done, and how much they respected me, and so on. I guess I need to remind myself that they were doing that more for them, than for me. It was like attending my own funeral, in a way. It is a way for the remaining people to grieve and to heal.

I'm pretty angry though. I do plan to make my anger productive.

I'm not bitter, and I'm not wallowing, but I confess to feeling a depression. Or maybe I'm suffering withdrawal. I had the habit of going into the office each day. Maybe I need a patch, or some gum.

I know that I have a very marketable skill, having been certified and licensed in Oregon as a Pharm Tech, it will be a pay cut, to be sure, but that doesn't really worry me. I worked for much less when I moved from Alaska.

It is hard to think that I don't have to get up for work tomorrow.

I have managed to create things to do all week, so I'll have to leave the house pretty much every day.

Longer term, Travis and I are still going to go on our spring break vacation. I should probably be a little more responsible, but this may be the last vacation he and I get to go on together for some time.

I have to sell all of my stock in the near future, or I lose the options, no longer being an employee. I'll probably use that money to buy a new tv, just because I want a tangible physical reminder of positivity. (And because my old tv is..... not so good.)

I'm going to go to Alaska for most of April, coming back in early May. That will give me family time. I wish Travis could come with me, but school comes first. I'll leave Beau with Travis and Derek, since I think he's probably better off without having to worry about being kenneled, or eaten by bears. It will be weird to be alone for that month. But in a way, it might be a good thing. It will hopefully make me appreciate better those that I have left behind.

Since I will likely have wealth of free time on my hands, I will try to be more pro active in creating posts. It is a habit I got out of.

More later..... :)

Home again...

2008-08-18T18:54:00.001-07:00

Good to be home again, safe and sound.

Very tired.

Will try to re-cap and post something entertaining in the next few days.

I need to recover from my vacation!

Go, Spit!

2008-08-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

Trav and I made it to Homer yesterday. We had lunch at the Sunrise Cafe, not far from Summit Lake, but before Soldotna. It hasn't been raining all that much, and there also hasn't been a huge amount of traffic, so it was a pretty nice drive.

It wasn't raining by the time we got into Homer, so we drove all the way down to the spit so that Travis could take some pictures without getting wet. It sprinkled and rained most of the rest of last night, and well into this morning. It is supposed to keep raining until after we leave. Oh well.

We had dinner at Captain Pattie's last night.
www.homernews.com/dining/captainPatties/

This is right on the spit. The windows overlooked the inlet, and you could smell the sea air coming up. We didn't have reservations, although they weren't absolutely needed, we did end up at a smaller table off on the side of the room. The place was full of plenty of fisherpeople and tourists. Food was awesome. Their service was good, but I think they were having problems in the kitchen. Our food took a long time, but the waitress gave us some free smoked salmon dip to soothe us. We weren't in any hurry anyway, so I don't think either of us would have complained anyway. It was a nice gesture, and she got a nice tip out of the deal.
Excellent food. I had fresh Alaskan prawns, and Travis had a seafood alfredo medley with salmon, scallops and halibut. We both left the restaurant very very stuffed!

After that we just hung around the cabin and watched some old movies on tv, had a few drinks (really bad bad bad alcohol out of a can, and some beer).

Today we have a few more adventures in Homer before we depart tomorrow.

Civilization

2008-08-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

We made it back to Anchorage yesterday afternoon.

It was a fun couple of days at the cabin with the folks.

It was rainy for the most part, but the sun would shine through the mountains every now and then. The mosquitoes weren't too bad, and I don't think I got bit, for a change.

We were going to drive up to Palmer creek, but it was so rainy that there is no way we'd be able to see anything, as we'd be in the middle of the clouds. And since it is a one lane dirt road ( the word road is kind of an exaggeration ), if anyone were to come down, we'd have to pull off the road, and in the mud and snow, yes there is still snow up there, we might end up stuck.

We headed into Hope and wandered around the Hope museum. As we were wandering around past the museum, there were several old structure that have been moved / salvaged by the parks service.

A nice older woman came at us, she has lived in and out of Hope since 1969, and is a member of the Hope Historical Society. We were guessing that she likely doesn't get to talk much about her knowledge since there probably aren't a lot of interested people who go looking through the buildings. She talked to us for a pretty long time. She was very pleasant, and had lots to say about the buildings, the salvage going on, and what they were doing to restore things. We'll have to look her up next time we are there.

People were on the waterline fishing for 'pinks'. Mom and Dad were having a good chuckle. If you don't know, in Alaska, Pink Salmon is what you feed to your dog. Its not good fish. Ick. Glad the tourists love it. They can have it. (They can have all my salmon too, I never was a fan....)

Had dinner Saturday night at Bear Creek Lodge....
http://www.bowmansbearcreeklodge.com/

I had some of the best halibut I've ever had in my lifetime. I think everyone really enjoyed the food. It was awesome. They always have good food. It is pretty high cuisine, so don't go expecting burgers, its fancy food. Excellent though. Not what you might expect in Hope, Alaska. We were so stuffed though, we couldn't have dessert.

Travis and I drove alone back to the city, my folks drove my dads truck back in to Anchorage with the trailer. Along the way, Travis managed to see / get pictures of some moose on the side of the road.

We also decided to stop at Portage Glacier since it was actually sunny yesterday. Also, it was on the way back to the city, so it worked out. Got some good pictures along the walkway, but it was pretty windy and cold, as usual.

Had dinner last night with my younger brother, he came over to the folks house. He brought a bottle of bourbon. Yum. We all shot some pool for a while, and then wound down for the evening.

Have plenty of things planned for today / tonight, and then tomorrow we head to Homer for a few days. I'll try for another update then!

Over the hill...

2008-08-09T00:48:00.000-07:00

... and through the woods, to the folks' cabin we go.

Long day, but fun.

Lunch with Gramma Nori, Great Aunt Reva, mom, me, Travis.

The Alaskan's Pioneer home was much nicer than I had expected. I'm glad that Aunt Reva is in a good place, certain good for her.

Went out to The Pepper Mill for lunch. 1/2 lb burger with Jo-Jo potatoes. Wow.... was I stuffed.

No dinner, we spend the rest of the afternoon running errands, and packing to come to the cabin.

Got to the cabin by about 10 pm tonight, then had cheese, crackers, margaritas and salmon and beef stick as a snack-like dinner.

(Found Susans too, small round short bread cookies with a huge glob of chocolate frosting covering them. I could eat a ton of them all by myself.... soooo goooooood...)

Moved a recliner, my old recliner that I gave to my folks when I moved to Oregon, up the cabin property with dad, and it is now sitting nicely in the cabin living room. Mom is very happy.

Tomorrow will be dragging the new utility run / pole / grounding rod so that dad can get the new electrical run for the cabin.

The folks did get the new well drilled, 130 feet. A bit more than they wanted, depthwise, but still short of the neighbors 288 feet. That would have left them with zero extra money for the year.

Cabin is great.
Travis is great.
Looking forward to being alone though.... :)

More tomorrow.

(DSL at the cabin kicks ass, and I even have 1 bar of cell phone signal....)

Made It!

2008-08-08T01:00:00.000-07:00

Flight went really well. Travis was a trooper. We only had a slight bit of turbulence, and even though the flight was full, it seems that mostly everything went off without a hitch.

Can't confess that I'm overly fond of the Alaska Airlines 'credit card' only money payment scheme for inflight services (food, drinks, etc.) Seems grossly inefficient and slow. I realize making change and such is not fun either, but what can you do?

Mom picked us up at the airport. New truck looks nice. I like the grey color. Works.

Went to Gold Rush liquors and stocked up on all of our beverage needs for the coming days.

Dinner was salad and pizza from Pizza Pete's.

Tomorrow, lunch with Great Aunt Reva and Gramma Nori. Don't know where yet, but we'll figure that out as the time comes.

Mom and Dad got me a pretty seriously awesome serigraph from my cousin Dick Clifton, long since passed away. It is a nice piece of art over Multnomah Falls. Dad is going to frame it, and that'll be my birthday present, most excellent gift. I'm stoked about it! (Even though now it means I have to put a hole in the wall...... taboo.....)

Off to the cabin in Sunrise tomorrow evening for a few days.

More later.

Cell Post: PDX Airport. Breakfast

2008-08-07T08:35:00.001-07:00

Cell Post: PDX Airport. Breakfast with Travis at Gustav's. Kicks Ass. Servers name: Fabio. Wow! Mmmmm Schnitzel!

Auf Wiedersehen!

2008-08-06T23:25:00.000-07:00

Bon Voyage!

Tomorrow is the big day. Taking Travis to Alaska as my graduation present to him.

He's nervous about meeting the family, and he's not too keen on flying, so tomorrow will be a full day for him.

I've been trying to keep from getting overly excited, myself. So much to get done, not sure how everything was going to work out, fitting everything into one smaller suitcase to avoid the temptation of bringing 100 pounds worth of crap.

Tomorrow, excited about tomorrow.

I have a few new stories to post, but I will need to write them out first, they are fairly in depth and not something I can monkey-bang out in just a few quick sentences. I need to give full attention to detail, or my saucy and snide wit is lost in translation.

(Yeah, I'm modest too!)

Looking very much forward to showing Travis where I grew up, and all the fun places I remember from my youth, adolescence, and delinquent days.

This first weekend will probably be playing tourist, shopping for trinkets, and maybe hit the Alaska Zoo.
Tuesday we leave for Homer to spend two nights at my Aunt and Uncle's cabins (which they rent out for tourists... www.glacierviewcabins.com ) , and then we are driving back, with my 10 year old cousin and her best friend.

Hoping also to spend a few days at the folks' cabin in Sunrise.

Should be a full trip!

More from the road later...... stay tuned for more updates....

You never call, you never write....

2008-07-28T06:54:00.000-07:00

Wow time flies! I've been lazy, but also busy. Have you missed me?

Travis seems to be feeling more comfortable with life in and around the house. I know it is pretty daunting to have moved across the country to start over again, especially without friends or much of a support network. I am looking forward to him starting school so that he can have a peer group that will give him a view of the area that doesn't share my own biases. It would be good for him to hear other people's take on Portland and the surrounding areas. I have my life experiences here, but I am not an expert, and sometimes I can be a bit of a shut-in homebody.

He and I rode the 'Max' light-rail line right to his college campus. It was a trial run for the real thing, after we return from our August Alaskan adventures he starts classes at Pacific University.

Last weekend we had a small get-together with a few of my friends. Derek was also entertaining and out-of-town visitor. Pizza, chips, home-made punch, and my famous chili dip. To round out the evening, I served my gourmet blackberry swirl cheesecake. Good stuff! The evening climaxed with the 8 of us sitting around the living room table playing the 'pop culture' edition of Trivial pursuit. Not entirely sure how much I like the set. I missed a good deal of pop culture in the late 80s through the early 90s since I was working so much. The game seemed to take hours upon hours. We even were playing the abbreviated method, the one where you get a pie piece for any correctly answered question. All in all, however, it was a good party.

To all of my friends, thank you for welcoming Travis into the circle of friends. He is going to be around for a good long time, so it makes me feel good knowing that you like him as much as I do.

I think the next big party will likely be Thanksgiving. Travis asked me to cook this year so that he could experience my traditions and cuisine. I know he'd also really like to help out on some of the cooking. It will be fun! Stay tuned for deep fried turkey, and probably booze-cake.

Alaska! We are slowly gearing up for the Alaska trip. It will be good to be back 'home'. I miss my family, and all the insanity that ensues when we are all sharing the same airspace. I am really looking forward to showing Travis around all the places I got into trouble when I was younger. Travis isn't too keen on flying, but the drive up would have been a tad expensive these days considering that gas is hovering around the price of platinum. We'll drive that road someday, though. I really want to be able to drive it at a normal pace.

Should have much more to write once we get back from Alaska, should have some good pictures too. Stay tuned!

Settling...

2008-06-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

Travis is settling into the house and routine, I am still adjusting to having to share my space, but it is a good thing.
He has been organizing his 'study', we put up a book case, and set up his computer desk, so he has a quiet place to study and read when his classes start in August.

Sharing a bathroom is new, it has been a while since I've had to do that. He hasn't yet spit toothpaste on the back of my head yet, so I think we're doing pretty good.

Last weekend we went to the Japanese Gardens, in the same area as the Portland Zoo. Beautiful place, very authentic according to all the literature. I would never have found it on my own, but I'm glad I went. It would make a supremely lovely place to host a wedding / reception. (Although I am sure it would cost you tons of money).

Travis is getting me to watch 'Queer as Folk', and I'm getting him to watch 'Dexter', so we are rubbing off on one another. We will eventually run out of episodes of Dexter, so now it will be a debate as to whether I torture him with 7 seasons of The West Wing, or if I slowly maneuver him into watching the 35 or so episodes of Twin Peaks. (He will watch TWW sooner or later, as its one of my faves, I tend to watch it in my regular rotation, although I don't 'power load' the episodes.)

Beau seems to be doing ok, I had to double his medication levels to keep him stable. The good news is that it seems to be working and he is clearing back up from his latest outbreaks. The bad news is that now the medication lasts only half as long, so it costs me twice as much. It really is a punch in the gut to shell out $320 per month on my dog for pills. (And that doesn't include the other pills he's on, plus his Rx food.) It is a good thing he's so cute. (He's been super stinky lately, his belches have cleared the living room twice now.... egads. How can something so cute create something so foul?)

Today is the weekly grocery shopping trek.

60 days until I take Travis to Alaska.

I can't wait!

Cheez and Whine

2008-06-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

My company is hosting these huge series of events to celebrate 125 years of operation. As one of the events, they solicited all of the employees (myself included) to submit their favorite personal recipes. They were going to compile them, review them, and eventually put them together into a cookbook that will be for sale later this year, with the proceeds going to the company charitable foundation. (We give water, food, supplies, grants and donations to communities, projects, and disaster aid areas).

Out of 3,800 recipes, they picked 300 to go into the book.

The recipe I submitted was selected to go into the book.

Pretty cool, huh?

Except that now I have to have my picture taken to go with my recipe. Yuck.

My mother and I perfected a white wine cheese fondue recipe years ago, and that is what I submitted.
The secret ingredient?

That will cost you the purchase price of the cook book.

I'll let you all know when they are available. =)

Home, Sweet Home

2008-05-25T07:59:00.000-07:00

We made it!

Boise was nice, but it sure feels good to be home. Plus, I really missed my dog.

Friday was very low key, just unpacking the truck, and trying to de-compress after racing across the country.
I am so glad that we were driving opposite the flow of traffic on the holiday weekend.

Derek decided to go out to Hermiston to go 'mushrooming' with a bunch of his pals.
Travis and I stuck to the house most of yesterday, going out to get his Post Office box set up, along with opening him a local bank account so that he can access monies and pay bills easier.

Watched a few episodes of 'The Office', amusing, not sure if I like it yet, it made me laugh in a few spots, but also reminds me in a tiny way of life in my office.

Watched Kingpin and ate Round Table pizza last night. All in all, a nice quiet evening.

Today will be grocery shopping, and probably some house re-arranging. Need to set up Travis' study so that he can unpack boxes of books.

Going to have to work on the jealousy issues with Beau, he's cautiously happy, but obviously in transition.

Today is bath day for Beau, methinks. Will play it by ear.

No work tomorrow due to the holiday.
I'm so glad that I picked a holiday weekend for us to return on.

Home Stretch

2008-05-23T07:32:00.000-07:00

We made it to Boise.

Yesterday was a big storm in Cheyenne, and the greater 'metro' Wyoming area. Guess there was even a tornado. Had to drive through some of the worst fog I have ever experienced in my lifetime, then followed by a ton of rain. By the time we hit the upper plains of Wyoming, we even saw snow still on the ground.

All in all, not too bad. Most of the Utah highway system that we drove on was under construction. That really puts a kink into the ability to keep at highway speed and on schedule.

We made it into Boise, at a nice hotel, and had dinner at a nice place.

Sooooo ready to be home though. Just a few more hours until we leave Boise, about 6 hours of driving to Portland.

More later...

Wendy & Shy Anne

2008-05-22T04:08:00.001-07:00

Good grief.

I had, until yesterday, never ever seen a tumbleweed. Wow. They really are everywhere along the rural plains.

Today was Mount Rushmore. Pretty spectacular set up, nicely laid out, neat monument exhibition, fun flag displays, and a decent gift shop. It is too bad that we couldn't witness the lighting ceremony at night, but we had to get on the road and get to our destination.

Very very very windy all day. Along one of the rural state routes there was dust and debris flying everywhere. Nasty stuff. 65 and 75 mph speed limits though. Still, it was a good feeling to be back on 4 lane inter-states again.

The hotel room in Cheyenne is impressively nice, new, clean. It puts every other place I have stayed to shame. I think it was too much of a build up, because the rest of this town....... eh.

Major winds kicked up last night 40 mph sustained winds with 60 mph gusts. Aweful stuff. Then came the rains. Ick.

This morning we are off to Boise, hoping to be in at a decent hour tonight. Friday is Portland. We are nearing the finishing line.

More tonight or tomorrow morning.

Welcome to Wherever You Are....

2008-05-21T04:15:00.000-07:00

Made it to South Dakota.

The thriving metropolis of Sioux Falls..... quite a city.

Yesterday we drove a good ways, driving through Missouri, Kansas, part of Iowa, and finally South Dakota. I have to admit that we had a bit of a rough start due to a most unruly tarp, and lack of sufficient bungee cords. We have hopefully remedied that by a trip to the local Target.

I think we were almost willing to like South Dakota, after all, the speed limit here is 75. 75! WOW. Me likey!

However, the town is a tad on the hickey side. There are odd frontage roads on either side of most of the main drags where we are at. There seems to be a wealth of hotels and lodging, but not much housing. Weird. Is this whole town built on conventions?

Went to dinner, where we were able to overhear, in the adjacent booth, that the guy was really not as much of a beer drinker anymore since he just got a DUI and beer makes him do bad things. Sounded like a first date.

Way to go!

Today is Mount Rushmore, and then Cheyenne for the evening.

So far so good!

Balmy St. Louis

2008-05-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

I made it to St. Louis without too many problems.
I had opted to ship all of my belongings to my friends well in advance of my trip, since United Airlines had decided to change my flights, and left me with a layover of less than 30 minutes at the Denver Airport.

I wish to go on record as saying that I really dislike the layout of the Denver airport. It isn't very helpful when you have to go, say, 60 gates in less than 30 minuts. It is a real pain in the ass to have to run all the way when you are toting your laptop bag and your backpack at the same time. Yeah, I know, I shouldn't whine about having to travel, what with people that can't even afford to do that.

Flight from Portland to Denver..... what exactly is your definition of hell?

How about loathing children, and having a window seat, and then being seated next to a 5 and 7 year old. Whee. Luckily I was moved to an exit row so that I didn't have to deal with them, otherwise they might have needed an air marshall.... (just kidding....)

Went out to dinner with Travis and his parents last night. That seemed to go pretty well. It is obvious that they are decent, good, and kind people. We talked plenty about lots of things, nothing specifically odd, just normal interaction.

Tonight was group dinner / goodbye night. I cooked, and we had people over. All in all, a pretty low key night.

Tomorrow will be spent packing up the truck, shipping anything else out.

Hitting the road early (5 am) for South Dakota.

More later.

J

Cell Musing: Hard to discern

2008-05-09T11:32:00.001-07:00

Cell Musing: Hard to discern between crazy muttering homeless people & blue-tooth using cell phone addicts who walk alone.