Fresh Fruit and Guitars for Gamers

For some, Labor Day is a weekend getaway trip or vacation. For others, it's the big weekend of sales and preparations for school. As for us: no plans at all. I think we tried at first, but it was last minute enough we gave up. At first we felt bad, but later decided we were probably closest to the original spirit of the holiday: not-labor. So I stayed the night up at the homestead. The next morning, I wandered out into the yard and grabbed some breakfast.

Well, the walnuts weren't ready yet. And sadly there's no garden this year.

We did decide that we would at least go out to eat, so the four of us went to a place I forgot the name of. Some Italian place by the mall. It was good. No leftovers. No way. We then sauntered over to the mall to pick up the latest mario party game that would be fun for all ages, but realized it was fairly expensive, and the price tag grew when we realized we'd still need to get a couple more controllers. So what did we do instead?

GUITAR HERO!!! At first I thought I'd play a little just to humor them, how much fun could it be? But oh man, it's addicting. And disturbing to some of the other residents:

Mom was a good sport and joined in, playing bass for a few songs. She played bass guitar in high school. Apparently these guitars aren't quite the same as the real thing? I chose to ignore her observations, preferring to pretend I was learning the real thing this quickly.

All in all, it was a nice relaxing weekend of doing nothing, yet life will never be the same. Listening to the radio will never be the same, either.

Whoa. Wha? September?!

Perplexed that summer has flown by so quickly, I paused to reflect on what happened. Upon said reflection, I came to the realization that I had allowed cobwebs to not only settle around the apartment, but also upon the blog booth. Blowing off the proverbial dust along with the literal, I opened the apartment windows and windows vista (I think?), let the 70 degree breeze blow through, and decided to kick it with the laptop and a sponge.

Don't be fooled - if my experiment works, it will look as if I've been posting all along the last month or so, but I haven't! I may or may not have succesfully made it look like I did, but I didn't, really. Got that?

American Wedding with Chinese Tendencies

Two folks got married this weekend that I knew from Fox. Both had spent a fair amount of time in China, and had incorporated some of the dress, decorations, and food into the ceremony and reception. Being a bit of a China fan myself, I wanted to add something Chinese to my gift. Unfortunately my decision to do so came on an evening in which I had slept 4 hours the night before and had only eaten a couple of granola bars that day. Rather than the usual "The Happy Couple" or "The Newlyweds" or whatever the heck people put on their cards, I wanted something unique, dangit! In a state of mild delirium (or extreme, perhaps?), I decided I would use Mandarin characters to sound out "For the Happy Couple", aka Fo De Ha Pi Kou Po [foe duh hah pee kow poe]. Lame? Perhaps. Offensive? I sure hope not! As I placed the gift on the table, I hoped that they would find a fraction of the amusement I felt on that odd evening. At the very least, it made the coffee grinder a little more memorable.

Family Reunion

It's that time of year: bees in your soda, grass getting drier, long cool summer evenings, camping trips and family reunions: where good food, drink, and relatives come from afar to get together, catch up, and argue good naturedly over who's in which pictures or what a death certificate says about an ancient relative's cause of death. A group of twenty or so of us got together for a few hours that Saturday afternoon, and then about a dozen or so of us continued back at the homestead for the rest of the weekend.

Even though I'd spent quite a bit of time with some of the fam, it never gets old! Not only were the regulars there, but my cousin brought her new baby and a couple of their dogs. Story swapping, game playing, and dog wrassling ensued well into the evening. Sorry, no pics!

P.S. The flip flops are getting easier to manage. I've been using them for short jaunts such as getting the mail and taking out the garbage, although at first I was putting off taking out the garbage until it was out of hand due to me avoiding putting them on, but I hardly hesitate now. YES!

The Sounds of Summer: Movement 4: Prelude to Gritting Teeth

My laziness may finally be beating out my need for comfort. I have grown weary of sandals that have so many staps on them that you'd might as well be wearing shoes. There are times that I would prefer not to wear shoes or strap-riddled sandals, but have hesitated in getting flip flops due to my severe dislike of having something between my toes. In the past I have almost wrecked my car frantically trying to take my shoe off when a misguided sock worked its way between two toes.

But I finally broke down and got a pair, telling myself that if I just can't stand it I'm only out $4. Resolute, I headed for Alton Baker Park. Being in a masochistic mood, I chose a sawdust path that would take me on a 2 mile loop. Gritting my teeth, I walked/limped my way around, to discover that half a mile of it was also gravel. Trying to keep my mind off the current situation, I tried to focus on anything else. Wow, that tree is very, uh, leafy. That duck's really floating well. The sun's sure yellow today. I figured that if I can make it around this loop, I can do just about anything in these abominable devices. I made it around the loop, took them off, and threw them in the car none too gently. Sorry, Car!

A warm visit and a moving experience

It just so happened that on the same day a Portland friend was moving, a friend from Spokane (Kelsey) was visiting the Portland area.

Flexing my quazi-spontaneous muscle, Kelsey and I were going to choose where to go for the morning visit once we got up there. Having a couple of hours before the moving began, we chose to grab breakfast at a place that was recommended after a virtual visit online, called the Paradise Cafe in Bridgeport Plaza. The food was good, the fresh squeezed oj was great, and catching up and encouraging one another under some trees on a warm summer morning helped the cafe live up to its name a little more.

Then it was off to flex the quazi-moving muscles. Albeit an all-too-brief visit with the folks I used to spend more time around, it was well worth it. Since the move to and move from locations were there in the same city, we helped on both ends for about 5 hours or so. What could have been drudgery for a person on one's own turned into an industrious afternoon filled with laughter, food, sweat, and lots of water. And laughter.

Once all was said and done, I headed over to Laurelhurst Park to cool off and catch up with a

couple other local folks.

After a good full day, I headed back home to gear up for another week.

Beaches, Birthdays and Big Bangs

Yesterday was a great day! I got up at 6am, got everything ready and packed up for any sort of possibility for I had no idea of what was in store for us, and departed around 8am for Newberg. At about 8:30 I realized I left a number of things behind, waiting in the living room to be taken. After a brief moment of concern, I decided none of that was needed too badly. The only thing we really had planned was which beach we were going to, and left everything else open on each end of the day. Once we got together, we decided we weren't even going to go to that beach, leaving the only plan left being that we were going to beat a pinata somewhere at some point.

Oh, the possibilities!

First thing's first - where are we going to eat? We decided to stop by Martha's Tacos in Lafayette, a restaurant that is owned by our good friend Carlos' family. Unfortunately he was unable to join us for the beach portion, but caught up with us once we were back in the area.

Upon the realization that I had never been to the Tillamook Cheese Factory - all hands insisted that I share in what they had all been privelaged to experience. The process was quite interesting, and there's a picture floating around somewhere with me as a farmer and Jules as a cow...

The squeaky cheese, although odd, was delicious as had been rumoured, and I highly recommend the Marionberry Pie Ice Cream. Not too sweet, not too healthy: that perfect balance. We decided which beach we were going to over our ice cream, and the two carloads were promptly separated and ended up in two different locations. After about a half an hour of partial conversations and messages in an area of poor reception, we were reunited at last on a beautiful beach just south of Tillamook:

After a few hours of soaking it all in (sun, wind, water, sand), and a close call of Basil jumping over a cliff for his ball, we tackled the next order of business of beating something senseless. This year: a paper mache chicken. And, as usual, the carcass being worn by Amy and me. (Can't find Amy's pic!) Despite the expression on my face (?!?) it was way more comfortable than the last one.

After that, we decide we'll figure out where we want to eat once we're back in the valley and, doing my duty in helping with the decision making process, I promptly fell asleep. Which is unusual in a car, for me. It was nice. I woke up in a Chinese restaurant's parking lot just in time for dinner, and found out Carlos was able to catch up with us there. We had a great time of eating, laughing, and making fun of each other's fortune cookies. I can't remember the exact wording of mine, but it went something like "you will take advantage of a new four-wheeled device in the near future ... __ ___". Yikes.

After that, the remainder of the group that could stick around headed for the Old Fashioned Festival in Newberg, for they have a pretty cool Fireworks show at the end. And they did! It was definitely one of the better ones I had seen. Instead of having a fourth of july fireworks show, the city saves it up for this night, instead.

Thanks, all, for another great partay!