bro's new company

HEY KIDS!!! CHECK OUT ATTENDIO!!!

intense movies.

i just finished watching a movie with j, the heart is deceitful above all things. i fear i may have twisted dreams tonight. it was a Really Good Movie, but very very disturbing. i was tired from taking my parents to the airport this morning at 5am, so i had no energy to go out. we went to burgerville for dinner (got take-out: pepper bacon tillamook cheeseburgers, sweet potato fries, and a chocolate hazelnut milkshake) and watched the movie. winona ryder played a very twisted minor role. the movie is about a poor boy who was raised first by foster parents, until his mother, a prostitute/drug addict, won custody. the movie begins with him being dropped off at his mother's tiny apartment, and follows his nomadic life on the road with her.
last weekend, we watched the salton sea, starring val kilmer and vincent d'onofrio. it was also twisted, but a little more positive than tonight's movie. it's actually one i wouldn't mind seeing again. i can't believe i had never heard of it. we got it through netflix. every few months, i look at the local newspaper online and make a list of all the movies i've never seen, whether i've heard of them or not, and then enter them into our queue at netflix. therefore, it's often a big surprise when we pop dvds into the player. we've seen many movies we wouldn't have seen otherwise (e.g.- chicken little, which really wasn't all that bad! in fact, i could use a little harmless children's story right about now, after that movie.). anyway, i highly recommend the salton sea. it's a satisfying tale of revenge; very edgy, witty, and not for those sensitive to violence.
tomorrow's going to be a day of relaxation & more taxes work. i feel a cold coming on, and i need to sleep it away. j's going climbing with canadian p tomorrow, as the weather is clear & sunny & there hasn't been any new snow lately. we may venture out to the coast on sunday...

new zealand

has anybody been there, who reads this blog??? if so, please let me know your favorite places. we're beginning to decide on an itinerary for the very near future.

tax world

this past weekend was a boring one, for the most part. i spent it preparing my taxes. they're not completely finished, as i haven't received all the officially required documents, but i've gotten most of the yucky stuff out of the way. the house is a mess, with piles of paper & folders all over the floor. what a ritual to go through every year! i prefer getting it done as early as possible, so i don't have to worry about it the rest of the year. i have a professional actually DO them for me, but i have to compile all the information myself, which is the "dirty," not-fun part.

birthday

happy birthday eyhkm!!! i hope you have fun things planned for your special day over there in germany. it's not every year that one gets a birthday that lands right on a saturday - party hardy!!!

new form of weight loss?

my friend D had an interesting post (well, actually all of his posts are pretty thought provoking) on his blog regarding a man who lost weight with the new nintendo wii setup. check it out here. the very first time i heard about the wii was on southpark. the day following the wii episode, i heard a discussion on npr about the wii vs the new playstation, and i found out it was actually a real thing. i thought the wii was something the southpark boys had made up. anyway, i think it's a fabulous move on the part of the video game creators. finally there's a way to play the games that forces one to move around instead of sitting on the couch. it's a great way to tackle the nation's obesity.

portland at its best

here's why they close down the schools when there's an inch of snow or more...
f%$%^&ing hilarious clip of portlanders' driving

ENJOY!!!
j found this on a climbers online forum.
if only people would know their limitations & not go out without chains or studded tires...
sigh.
school was cancelled again today, by the way.

tonight we had the pleasure of being invited to canadian p's house for a yummy dinner of ribs. we made it there safely despite the icy roads. luckily, most everyone was staying off the roads, so driving was easy. it's been such a long time since i've had ribs that great! we brought along "something green" and some freshly baked peanut butter cookies.

SNOW DAY!!!!!!

there's not that much snow here, but the schools are closed. i was supposed to volunteer this morning at the neighborhood elementary school, but my district's school system was the LAST to cancel school. unbelievable... kids were already en-route on buses, which is the whole reason to cancel in the first place. i bet beaverton will catch some flak for that! it's not really the snow, but the ice that makes travel treacherous here. there are lots of hills, and the cities aren't well equiped to handle the snow & ice because it happens so infrequently. the highways are an absolute mess right now with trucks & buses stuck. glad i'm home with the kids, and the hubby is on his way home. as you can see in the picture above, the kids aren't big fans of the snow!

after dinner, we settled back & watched legend, the 1985 movie starring tom cruise. we watched the director's cut version, which we got from netflix. i didn't remember the score sounding so beautiful. probably because (which i just learned) the version played in america had a completely different soundtrack; not the amazing one by the late jerry goldsmith. i read the american one was really choppy & had a different ending. i couldn't remember the ending from when i saw it years ago. i just realized that mia sara, who plays princess lily, also played sloane peterson in ferris bueller's day off. in this picture, j is all settled in, wearing my scarf & staying warm with persia. this was a fun weekend, but very busy. i think i'll sleep well tonight!

since we had our x-country skis until monday, we went out to teacup lake today up on mt hood for some more skiing. i fell down many times, because i just couldn't figure out how to stop in the stupid x-c skis without edges. it hurt. :( we tried a couple blue trails until i got sick of falling & went back to the main green run. it was pretty out there, but for some reason i woke up on the wrong side of the bed and got crabbier as the day went on. ah well. on our drive back, we saw a puppy run across a 4 lane road which caused an accident. we hung around as witnesses, but the parties involved declined to take our names & phone numbers. a big mistake on the side of the party that got hit, but all you can do is try to help. the stupid puppy emerged unscathed, of course. luckily nobody else was hurt, either.
we went grocery shopping when we got back and returned with some kick-ass beef teriyaki stir-fry. we drank some of our walla walla wine & listened to the splendid table as we cooked. if i ever got an ipod, downloading podcasts of that show is something i'd actually use it for.

k made b birthday cupcakes. they were really great. the borcht b made was also great. i'm not normally a big fan of beets, but they were good in the soup. his cabin is beautiful! we were honored to be invited. we had a great time playing cranium. we were on the couch team, but unfortunately the cushion team won... in case you wondered, pharaoh is spelled p h a r a o h, not pharoah. damn it!

b was showing off by traversing all the streams & gullies without removing his skis, so we finally had to push him over to put the birthday boy in his place!

saturday, we rented cross country skis and headed out to our friend b's property up on mt. hood. he invited a bunch of friends over in honor of his 30th birthday (which is on tues) for a celebration including playing in the snow, borcht, & wholesome fun. the weather was perfect. i can't say the x-c skiing was exactly successful, as there were streams & gullies every 100 yards. we weren't traversing on an official trail, but an old road that the government didn't want people driving on anymore, so they put in all the gullies.

this is a picture of my food. it doesn't look nearly as pretty as the scallops, but it tastes much much better. "so yummy" says j. it's cinghiale, also known as wild boar. i got addicted to it in spoleto italy, at osteria dell'enoteca. the tagliatele is so thick but tender. i get this dish every time i go to serratto. for all those portlanders reading this, serratto also makes an amazing bread pudding. i'm not normally a fan, but we tried it on friday, and it was really velvety & custardy.

it was my mom's birthday on friday, so we took her out for dinner to serratto to celebrate. it's a great italian restaurant. she had the scallops, pictured here. it looked kinda pretty...

my dear friend j has a very cool website - i suggest all of you visit it if you haven't yet already. she recently posted this utube clip, which was f&#*ing hilarious. YOU MUST CHECK IT OUT if you want a good laugh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGwBqqeJKMI&eurl

i hope y'all are having a good week. i just returned from volunteering for SMART (Start Making A Reader Today). i don't know how much i'm helping. my first reading partner is responsive, but the second one doesn't pay much attention to me, as she speaks mainly spanish and little english. i don't think she likes me. :( ah well. i'll keep trying. both today are just in kindergarten. i'm starting doing tuesdays as well next week, and those will be 2nd & 3rd graders, so perhaps i'll be more helpful for them.

uh-oh...

so i have a close friend, a, who loves to knit, and she has a blog where she posts almost every day about things she's knitting. her huge stash of yarn rivals my husband's "stash" of rock climbing equipment. a, this post is for you!!! :) i purchased these needles and yarn from knit purl, a knitting store in downtown portland. i have no idea who made the yarn or what it's called; i just asked for something with orange in it which would be good for making a scarf, which i assume is what one should start with as a beginning "first" project. they sold me the needles, saying if i started with circular needles (whatever that is) i wouldn't be afraid of them. i guess circular needles are scary, but they don't look that scary to me. whatever. i suppose i'll find out. for now, i need to rope someone into teaching me some knitting secrets...

Very Fun WeekEnd. part 2.

sunday morning, j & i woke up late and made french toast. so decadent! i had a teaching workshop in the afternoon, and upon returning at 6pm, i found out we were having this goofball over for dinner. just kidding, p! :) j picked up a stirfry (after i told him that beef stew takes an HOUR to cook AFTER all the chopping), and surprised us all with the makings for banana splits for dessert. in the pictures is j's banana split handiwork. i can't remember the last time i had one. his are marvelous!
to top it all off, i spent the last hour of the evening baking some pain au chocolats. my brother gave me a cookbook for x-mas from tartine, a bakery near his house in san francisco, and it had a recipe for croissants. i've never made them, and felt up to the challenge. the dough took a few DAYS to make, and had been sitting in the freezer. they didn't come out so well. i stupidly put them on un-rimmed baking sheets, so butter leaked everywhere, and i was unfortunately using the lower oven, which is NOT self cleaning (i'm lucky to have two, and the upper one is self cleaning). so now i have a big mess to clean up. the croissants came out pretty greasy & buttery. i had one this morning, but i think i'll freeze the rest. if i ate one every morning (there are 18) i think i'd gain about 10 lbs. i'm off to go running now!

Very Fun WeekEnd.

saturday morning, j & i woke up at 5:45 to go skiing & catch our ride with a friend at 6:30. storms had dumped a foot of fresh snow overnight, so we trekked up to skibowl up on mt. hood. it was the best day of skiing i've had in a long time. my legs are STILL sore from it. i'm a very cautious, slow skier, and i do lots of turns, so it's always quite a workout on my legs. anyway, our friend p's girlfriend n was in town for the weekend, and she went skiing for the very FIRST time. she did fabulously, never falling down, and always making it off the chairlift. p & n invited us over for a martini party later that evening, along with half the Rock Squad. in the first photo, p & i are having a photo-off; n"i'm a skiing rockstar" & j are also in the picture.

ARGH!!! but yay!!!!

ahh- a nice new sink and new silestone countertop in my old house. a word of advice to remodelers - DO NOT USE HOME DEPOT!!! you end up having to do SO many things yourself, which if you're not already a construction savvy person, you have to end up playing one and hiring lots of extra people. finally everything was taken care of by saturday. however, i was so exhausted by the past three weeks that i slept in unti 9:30 this morning. shameful, but i needed it! j & i have decided to just embrace the 50's/60's decor of our house rather than mess with remodeling. so much easier (not to mention cheaper)! thanks to all of our friends who helped us out!

cuties!

here are our kids, enjoying the new couch and a new vest j gave me for x-mas. persia has the "scary" eyes!

new year, new possibilities

well, it's now 2007. hard to believe another year has gone by. 2006 brought many great things, and i'm excited for things to come. i'm going to try to live this year to the fullest, making the most of my free time. i live in one of the most beautiful parts of the world, and i hope to enjoy it more. 2006 brought trips to ireland, italy, & switzerland, among others. 2007 will bring trips to florida, new mexico, perhaps british columbia & more. woo-hoo!

my cousins from washington were able to make it to the party, on their way back from san jose. what a cutie little h is!

we were all ready at 10 min to midnight to pour toasting champagne. j & i had several bottles of champagne left over from the wedding, so we put them to good use. we also used our toasting glasses from the wedding, which never got to be used on july 8. they still had bows on them & everything.

innocent decapitation

m is having fun with the gingerbread boys made by my mother. poor boy lost his head!

happy new year everyone!

here's the crew from our new year's eve party last night. we spent most of the night watching stupid climbing movies - the eiger sanction and vertical limit. everytime something inaccurate would happen climbing wise, everyone would drink. we had pbr at hand so intoxication was slight. nobody got sick- the only puking happening was by persia, my little kitty, who coughed up a hairball this morning after she got canned tuna, a special treat for her.

don't drop the wookie!!!

the day after christmas, i went with my cousins s & d & my mother to omsi to check out the star wars exhibit. the line to get in was really long, and when we got our tickets, it was for 2 hours later, so we had fun looking at & playing with the other exhibits.

R.I.P., Rose and Raindrop!

one of our favorite old hangouts, the rose & raindrop, is now no more as of today. it was a bar in southeast portland, which used to be a funeral parlor, and supposedly was haunted. here we are, toasting it one last time the weekend before x-mas. it's closing because rent is increasing too much for the business to continue. we'll miss you!!!

a few weekends ago, we were in the rental house, finishing up the ceiling on a friday. after finishing up the paint on the ceiling & cleaning up the floor, we were tired & hungry, so we headed over to our old hangout, the st. johns pub & had a brew & some west african chicken peanut soup (it's amazing!). we were looking through some of the books on the shelf near our couch, and found this drawing inside a cover. portland is weird. luckily, i like it that way.