Ummm...You Know

The Incredible - Incredible and not.

2010-06-04T23:59:00.001-07:00

I have a Droid Incredible and have gotten a LOT of questions about it. Too many for a post on Facebook, so I have decided to do a blog post and then refer people to it.

I had the HTC Droid Incredible delivered to me on the day they were released. While we (I and Mr. Ummm…you know) get a lot of tech things fairly quickly, I am not what you would call an early adopter. I hear about things early on and am usually aware of what is the coolest and newest, but do not get any thrill or satisfaction from being first or getting something different. What works and what meets my needs best is way more important. I frequently avoid really new phones because 2 years is a long time to be committed to something that is bad.

Because of Mr. U's job, he gets to look at/play with/get a lot of things early. He does have a Moto Droid for a phone right now, but changes phones frequently and actually got to have some serious play time with a Moto Droid about a month before it was released.

In this case, I was desperately in need of a new phone, as my Blackberry seemed to be on its last legs for about a year and there were some things that were not working well on it any more. I had been shopping and shopping and really did not like any of my choices. Every option had at least one major deal killer. The iphone – AT&T (BIG DEAL KILLER), plus lots of little deal killers. The HTC Eris – no flash for the camera. The Moto Droid – too big (kind of ugly too). The Blackberry Storm – no real apps and no expectation of apps. While the lack of apps alone may not seem like a big deal, there is one I NEED and it quit working very well on my Blackberry. I will explain more later.

I was waiting for some HTC phones I knew would be released during the first half of this year (which sometimes means next year) and maybe also an iphone on Verizon, but only if it multitasked. While HTC has not been a well known brand for long, they have been making some of the best phones out there for a very long time. They have also been making the highest end phones, the kind you and I don't even typically hear about and the ones not available from a wireless carrier, but only the manufacturer, were made by HTC and branded HTC. Somehow, I went from months old vague rumors to the Droid Incredible being released in 3 days. So, I didn't have a lot of time to shop, but did some checking and while this appeared to be "THE" phone for me, with "THE" meaning as close to what I want as I can reasonably expect. I have had a cell phone since I think the late 80's and never once got my dream phone. And, it is not like my dream phone is just a dream, but they are always a mish-mash of existing common technology, just not a mish-mash anyone seems fit to produce. I have the same issue with cars. I decided to go ahead and order it sight unseen based on the rave reviews and that fact that I could return it within 30 days for a Storm. But, I had to do something.

Overall, I love the Incredible and would recommend one, but there are also a few things I hate about it and so I guess it all just depends on what is important to you. I will try to explain some of my loves and hates and in betweens in a way that you can relate to your wants and needs.

First off, the phone is screaming fast! I like fast. It also never bogs down no matter how many things I have going on at once on it. The whole closing one thing before you go on to another is beyond my comprehension and ability. I am the queen of multitasking (one time a boss tried to convince me that I could do 9 things at ones and that I loved it. I think really only 6 and prefer 4 or fewer). Yes, I do know they make medication for this. It has also been pointed out to me that OCD can be treated too, but who would want to do that? I would actually prefer everyone was a little more OCD. So, really, I am always trying to do many things at once and get very frustrated (that is the nice, not sounding too crazy way of explaining it, but really mean PISSED) if something or someone gets in my way. I am not kidding about this. Right now I have 92 tabs open in Firefox (I just checked), a bunch more (different ones) open in Firefox on another computer I have running right now, about 16 windows open (fewer than usual) and one of those is Chrome with probably another 10 to 20 tabs open. Honey, if you are reading this – Yeah, I know and you do not need to tell me again. I'm standing my ground that the world and technology just needs to catch up with me and keep up. My point in all this is that when I say fast and it multitasks well, I have tested it and know what I am talking about.

The screen is wonderful. Very good graphics. HTC's own special enhanced (called "Sense") multi-touch works wonderfully. The virtual key board is very useable. Many people I know who have the Moto Droid, find that the real keyboard is just wasted space as they never use it and that includes my previously hating virtual keyboards guy. The speaker is pretty good. The controls are pretty good. There could be a few more buttons on it, but then again, that would just be more for me to inadvertently push. I miss having a few programmable buttons and especially having one that instantly launches the camera. The phone is a perfect size. It still fits in your packet (it doesn't need a case), but is big enough to be very useable. I have not yet run into issues with the screen being too small – especially with the multi-touch capabilities. The phone has a nice heft in your hand, but is not heavy (the Moto Droid seems heavy to me) and it looks super cool.

The Incredible is really good at sharing. It is very well integrated with social media. When you are in the video/picture viewing/taking app/program (I know - confusing), and click on share, you get the following options; Bluetooth, Evernote, Facebook, Facebook for HTC Sense, Flickr, Gmail, Goggles, Mail, Messages, My Space, Peep, Picasa and Twidroid Pro.

Here is the bad – it doesn't sync with Outlook well. In fact, it doesn't sync at all, but Outlook syncs with Google (Gmail and Calendar) and Google syncs with HTC. The strange thing though, is that it also syncs with Facebook. I at first thought this might be good (I think I had an option not to allow it), because then I would assumedly get more up-to-date info. If someone changes their email address, they are not going to stop by my house to change it in my contacts (OK, it would actually be great if you would all do that, but you will still be my friend if you don't), but I figure they will update it in Facebook, which would then update it in my contacts. But, all of this is kind of a mess. First off, I need it to sync tasks and notes too. Also, I use the Franklin Covey PlanPlus add-in for Outlook, so I also have projects with hierarchal tasks. I LOVE PlanPlus and they told me they expect to issue an Android compatible version later this year, so I am hopeful, things will get much better. But, you know how Google is a little wacky with the contact management? Well the Google wackiness, combined with my carefully organized 1800+ contacts in Outlook is not good. And then throwing in Facebook contact info, YIKES!! Google is really bad at combining variations of one person, and so I have pages (Incredible screen sized pages) of contact entries for some people.

I am going to use a real person as an example, because it is way easier for me (poor imagination), and now that I have thought of it I am getting kind of a thrill thinking of the heart pounding fear he will experience when he first realizes I blogged about him. In fact, I am giddy over it, but will only say really nice things about him because he is a really nice person, but none of that means I will start being nice to him. Anyway, Brian had been one of my best friends since we were kids. We went to church and school together and our families are close. He is also my Dentist (I had no choice, but luckily he is excellent), so we have professional dealings. I have him listed by first name only, first and last name and first and last initial (how could you not go by BA if those were your initials?) I have his work and home addresses, work and home phones, work fax and mobile number. I also have him listed with his wife and an email address they share. His email address is his first initial, middle initial and last name followed by DDS. Of course Google thinks that is an entirely different person, but who shares Brain's email address. I ended up with about 10 entries for him under people. I combined them (the phone lets you). Then soon after I had 10 more. Then a few weeks ago I sent him a text, only it didn't go to him, nor anyone else I know as far as I can tell. I made a new friend though. Somehow his mobile number was replaced with some other random number. That is TERRBILE. As a result, I do not let anything replace info in Outlook (and my Outlook is backed up), but that is a huge pain, since any contacts entered into my phone, do not go to Outlook. It was not that long ago that I and Brian's wife were ridiculing him for apparently deleting me from his phone. I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but I just don't know if our relationship will ever be the same again or if it can recover from that kind of betrayal (here is where I fake cry). I fixed Brian's mobile number, checked all his other info and have combined him a few more times, but I just got a call from him and his own special ring tone has disappeared and the picture that popped up on my screen was his Facebook profile picture. The whole point of pictures and ringtones is for quick and easy recognition, but if the picture changes as much as profile pictures do, or are not even of the actual person, and ringtones do not work, then what is the point?

All this Outlook crap is driving me kind of nuts and might have sent me off the deep end if it wasn't for the phone being amazing in so many other ways. There is a product called Companion Link that is supposed to sync with the rest of Outlook, but it did NOT work for me. The biggest problem though, is that it did not sync all of my contacts. A lot of them were missing and it seemed very random. Far apart in the alphabet, people that have been in my Outlook for years and some that were newly added. Some I access often and some not so often. But, for example, both my boss and brother-in-law were missing. I also really did not like the looks of it. Luckily, I did the 14 day free trial, so I just uninstalled. For the record, I have never used an Exchange server for Outlook, which I know would make life easier, but I have always worked for small companies and that I a lot of money to drop for one.

The other trouble I have is battery Life. I can't even make it through a whole day on a charge. I have been nagged told that if I quit using it so intensively, the battery would last a lot longer, but hello, does less intensively sound like my kind of thing? If I didn't want to use GPS and all the other cool things (apps and programs), I could have kept my old phone. Needless to say, I have bought a lot of accessories. Luckily, they are all cheap and now I can charge my phone often. I will likely buy another battery before doing any travelling and a charger that will charge both the phone and a spare battery at the same time. I got 2 of these awesome and super cheap packages, so I have a charger for each car, a data cable for each desktop computer, a wall charger for both my kitchen and office and I have the data cable and AC adaptor (that the data cable can plug into) as a travel set and I normally (especially when I travelled every week), keep it packed. I also ordered a couple of igo tips because I have some igo stuff and will eventually shift a data cable to my laptop bag and a car charger to my travel bag. I know all that sounds like a lot, but I learned a long time ago that life is just easier when you already have a charger wherever you need one. If you searched my house, you would also find a good pair of scissors tucked away in every room of my house – plus in my storage shed outside. It cuts down on my running with scissors a LOT and think of all the times I can just get on with my life (trimming mats from my Golden's fur) without having to go get a pair of scissors first. I also got a 16 gb microSD (which I saw this weekend for <$20), to replace my 8 gb. I didn't want to fork out the $ for 32 gb, but with the 8 gb plus I think 640 mb already onboard, this should keep me satisfied for a while. When I get a 32 gb, I will have almost as much storage space as on my ipod and I have already enjoyed not always carrying my ipod with me. Of course, I have almost 90 gb of music in itunes and haven't even loaded up all my CD's yet, so once again, technology (SS Memory) really needs to catch up.

I also found that notifications were a little trickier and not quite as versatile as with Blackberries and I really do miss all the profiles for people and situations you can set up, I can work with it and survive it and probably even thrive with it. But being able to set my phone to meeting and have it mostly silent, but with a low volume custom ringtone if my husband calls or a custom ringtone set to a louder volume if my boss calls plus 100s of other customizations was really nice.

The screen is a little hard to see in bright sunlight, but not as bad as I was led to believe by some reviewers. The screen does smudge like crazy as everyone mentions. That makes me a little crazy, but I carry a small microfiber glass cloth with me and clean it OFTEN. OCD people have cleaner phones, and hands and ………………. I expect that this will improve once I put my screen protector on it.

The camera is excellent (3264x1952, 8 MP) as is the video camera (WVGA 800x480). One of the cool things is that with autofocus, it may not focus on the right part of the picture of pick out the faces. But, I can just touch the screen where I want it to focus and it does and if I touch the screen a little longer, it also snaps the picture. It just has some very cool features and is way more like a real digital camera than a camera phone.

There are lots of apps (over 30K I think), but still not nearly as many as the iphone. But, there are more all the time, and I do not expect that it will really be that long before the number far surpasses the iphone. First of all, there are already more Android phones being activated. Apple has very random approvals of apps, so developers may put a lot of time into an app, come up with a great app and then for some random somebody must have peed in Steve Job's cornflakes that morning reason, it doesn't get accepted. Android is open source, so anyone can write apps and sell them through the Android Markteplace. Also, the advanced capabilities of the Android operating system allows for better apps. So, if you are a developer, do you want to put all your time, money and effort into developing an app for the #3 OS and an app that may not even be accepted? Probably not. Other than the Outlook sync, I have been able to find all I need.

I like –

Bubble – a bubble level.
Camcard – It takes a picture of a business card, reads the info and adds the info to your contacts.
Dropbox – a box on your desktop and online you can drop files into for access from other computers or phones. Dropbox is great, but with Evernote (below), I don't use it that much. Think of it as a tiny thumb drive that you don't have to remember to take with you.
Expensify – Online expense report manager. You use the camera to *scan* receipts and Expensify extracts the data and puts is in usuable formats – like an excel spreadsheet.
FoxyRing or Sweet Dreams – Allows you to customize your notifications based on things like time and location. For example, I can set it so that between the hours of 11 PM and 6 AM WHEN my phone is at my house (GPS rocks!), my phone is silent except for with calls from my husband and mom.
Goggles – Using the camera as a viewfinder and/or barcode scanner and sometimes GPS, it identifies stuff – like books and DVDs, landmarks, logos, contact info, artwork, businesses, products and text. Mind boggling.
ICE – In Case of Emergency – this makes your ICE info accessible from your lock screen, without unlocking your phone.
Key Ring – stores all of your shopping reward/frequent shopper cards. You can hand enter them or scan them via the barcode and then the cashier can scan the barcode from the screen of your phone.
Layar – More augmented reality - a little like Goggles, but it is a platform with many apps inside it and when you open it and choose an app, it uses GPS to *know* what you are seeing through the viewfinder and labels it and those labels act as links to more info. Check out this funny video. The video is funny because while the scene shown is Vancouver, BC and while all the restaurants are Portland restaurants, none of them are near each other in reality (and of course, none of them are near BC). It has apps to find restaurants (including one just for In-N-Outs, which I did not even open), bars, entertainment (like movies and clicking on the link lets you buy tickets) and services.
Mileage – A handy little app to track gasoline purchases and consumption and service intervals (by Evan Charlton – evancharlton.com).
Pandora – Pandora on your phone. If you don't know Pandora, you should. It is an online customized *radio* station or group of stations. As songs play and you like or don't like them, it has an uncanny ability to pick music for you. If you tried it when it first came out and didn't love it, try it again. It is very possible that nobody has broader taste in music than I do (seriously) and it even works great for me.
PdaNet – app for tethering – i.e. it turns your phone into a wifi hub. This will be really cool for traveling, because now that most hotels have wifi instead of wired, there are a lot of things that I don't feel comfortable logging into (like email).
PDX Transit – all things transit. For example, if I am out and about and suddenly want to catch a bus or train (it does happen to me sometimes), my phone locates me, tells me where the nearest bus stops are and the next bus arrivals (they are tracked by GPS too). I can also tell it where I want to go and it will give me instructions and maps based on my location. Similar apps are available for other cities.
Shop Savvy – a bar code reader that you use when you see something you are interested in. You scan the barcode and it tells you where else you can get it and for how much. It includes online and brick & mortar options and the brick & mortar is based on your location. I was Fry's late yesterday, saw something I wanted, scanned it, found it for about ½ price on Amazon and because I have the Amazon app installed (which also will search by a barcode scan), in about 2 clicks, it was on its way to me and for free thanks to Amazon Prime. As an added bonus, it came from one of their closer distribution centers and so it arrived this AM.
ToDoQ – Locations based to do list. For example, I might enter a shopping list for a specific store and then when I am there is gives me a reminder beep that I have stuff on my list to buy there. I could also just skip the reminder or I could schedule the list and get reminder when it is the right time, as opposed to the right place.
Trip Master - It keeps track of mileage and includes the option to save trips and do a "live" trip where I just start a live trip and it tracks my mileage automatically by GPS.
Trip It – travel organizer. You can email all of your travel confirmations to it and it will build the itinerary for you and keep all your information, like confirmation numbers, handy.
Twidroid – the best Twitter app, but hopefully it will be replaced with a Tweetdeck app soon.

Check out Mashable's list of 60+ awesome Android apps (I love Mashable).

And…..last but not least…EVERNOTE!!! I have been talking about this to anyone who will listen for quite a while. I even wrote part of the review (at their request) for cool tools. I just can't say enough about how amazing this is and in fact, it is so amazing, it is impossible to explain it in a way that anyone can do anything more than just start to grasp what it can do. Evernote is THE reason I got a new phone. Blackberry made some changes at the beginning of the year in one of their upgrades, that made some of their older phones like mine have issues uploading photos and Evernote understandably did not make this a real high priority to fix. Even though there were work arounds and a pile of other ways to get info into Evernote, Evernote is so important to me, I was desperate for it to work perfect.

Evernote's motto is "Remember Everything" and they are not kidding when they say "everything." Unless you live in a cave with no technology more advanced then fire and know you will never have more than that, then YOU NEED to be using this. Seriously, it is life changing if you only use it for 5% of what it can do. I know that sounds like an exaggeration, but it is not. I know it also makes me sound crazy, but that is not relevant here J Evernote is free for the basic, but very comprehensive service. The paid service is $5 per month or $45 per year and allows more space (500 mb per month as opposed to 40 and a few other features like searchable PDF's). One thing interesting though, is that they are getting a lot of attention from the business world (articles in the WSJ and such) because while they offer a wonderful free service and people are signing up like crazy, they have a huge number of users migrating to the paid service. But once you try it, it will be obvious to you why. I guarantee I get way more than $5 worth of increased productivity, accuracy, efficiency and peace of mind from it every month. $5 is a bargain for life changing.

Evernote is on the web and on your computers. Everything syncs between the two (or ten) and is accessible from any computer (attached to the internet), the computers you have put it on – even if they are not connected to the internet and your mobile phone. If security is a concern, you do have the option of making chosen notebooks not sync.

Evernote allows you to capture, organize and retrieve EVERYTHING.

Let's start with capture. First off, everything you capture can be location based. If you are not seeing the usefulness of that, don't worry, I will explain.

You can capture anything on the web with a single click of a button on the tool bar for every popular browser.

You can email anything to Evernote.

Outlook also has a button that allows you to put anything there in Evernote.

Drag and drop files to Evernote.

Copy and paste anything to Evernote.

Compose a new note right in Evernote.

From your phone, open the app and you can access notes or choose to add a snapshot as a note (choosing that option opens your native camera), upload a file from you phone, write a text note, or record and upload an audio note. Also, without opening the app, you can add most things from other apps or programs to Evernote. For example, if you take a picture and decide you want to add it to Evernote, remember the Share button.

There are many scanners (Fujitu ScanSnap for example) that have an Evernote app installed and allow you to scan directly into Evernote.

You can also designate specific folders on your computers to automatically upload everything to Evernote.

You can tweet into Evernote, both your tweets and retweets and you can DM into Evernote. These notes created by tweets will also include any twitpics or audioboos.

UPDATE: see below!

Next comes the organize part, but there really isn't much for you to do, because Evernote does it for you or maybe it is better said that the retrieval part is so awesome, the organize part is pretty irrelevant. Think of it this way. You have a big room and you just throw everything in there you want to keep track of. Then when you want that recipe for those yummy Ground Turkey Bombay Sliders with Garlic Curry Sauce Recipe from Epicurious.com (look it up I you are interested or let me know and I will email it to you directly from Evernote) you threw in a year ago, just open the door and say "slider" and you might get a handful of things to look through, but maybe that is too many, so say "tukey+slider" and there you have it. I started out with lots of notebooks and lots of tags, but mostly just use a food notebook and 3 tags – "movies", "Books" and "Gifts". Everything I see about a movie or book that catches my interest goes into Evernote (Heck, EVERYTHING about ANYTHING that catches my interest goes into Evernote) and I have an ongoing list of movies to see and one of books to read that gets added too and has stuff crossed off regularly. I tend to forget good movies and books, so I really should start adding notes about them and when I watched or read them.

The retrieval part is the most fun and very simple. You can search by date or tags or within notebooks, but just enter a word or words from what you want and it will find it. EVERNOTE EVEN RECOGNIZES HANDWRITTEN WORDS OR THE WORDS IN PHOTOS!

Take a picture of your jotted note with George's phone number, then when you are at the beach and remember you need to call George, open the app on your phone and search for "George".

I was shopping for Christmas lights last year and took some pictures for reference. Later in I Searched for "light" and of course the following picture popped up, but it not only read the "light" from the price tag, but also from the box on the shelf below.

I have about 2000 notes and rarely check, tag or sort any of them when I make them and have never had trouble finding any of them.

The best way to learn about Evernote is to read their blog thoroughly. Even though I have been using it for about 2 years now, I am always finding new things to do with it. Really, you need to trust me on this. You will love this, but you will love it a lot more if you put some effort into learning all of the things you can do with it. There are a lot of people who run their entire small business with it. It is wonderful for cataloging the contents of your house for insurance purposes. I use it to keep track of recipes. I also use it to keep track of gift ideas. I tag those gifts and add the recipient's name to the note. I use it to keep track of people.

Let me give you an example of a few hours from my morning yesterday and how I did and might have used Evernote. I had a doctor's appointment at OHSU. When I got the info they sent me, I put it in Evernote. In addition to the appointment time and date, I had the directions. For those of you that know OHSU, you know that just an address is useless. I needed to know that I should park in the Physician's Pavilion Garage, cross the skybridge to the Physician's Pavilion, then the Skybridge to the hospital. Then go to the 9^th floor, find the Marquam Café and then the "E" elevators nearby and take them to the 13^th floor of the Hatfield Research Building, which is way simpler then a lot of trips around and though OHSU. Of course, if I didn't know how to get to OHSU, the incredible has turn by turn spoken navigation – for free. If I was one of those people who can't remember where I parked my car, a quick photo of the elevator bank in the parking garage showing the words "OHSU", "elevator" and "P3" would be very handy. If you really have problems, a quick photo of your car and then GPS can lead you right back to it when you are done. While at the Doctor's office, I took a picture of his business card and of my next appointment info. I also snapped a picture of my prescription. On my way back, I needed to make a deposit and have all of the ATMs my credit union lets me use for free listed right in Evernote. While in the credit union, I saw an ad for a special offer on a type of checking account I do not have, so I snapped a picture. Then I saw a Thai restaurant in a place in an area I am frequently looking for food, but didn't know there was a Thai restaurant (hard to believe I thought there was a place in Portland without one within walking distance). I took a picture of the sign and now I can find it in Evernote by "Thai" "restaurant" or LOCATION. That was all just in one simple 1.5 hour trip to the Doctor's office.

Using the location based function is wonderful when you want to note where something is. Just take a picture and it is noted. Whether it is restaurants you want to try where that Tofu shop is on 82^nd you keep forgetting the location and name of (and you are whizzing by at 13 MPH).

Just to get you started, here are 100 Different Evernote Uses.

Many people have asked for my opinion of the Incredible compared to an iphone. I have played with iphones and read some about them, but have very little opinion of my own. But here goes. I HATE AT&T. Yes, I know "hate" is a strong word, but maybe not strong enough for me in this case. I was one of those GSM users royally screwed by AT&T and it went on for a long time. I can't even begin to explain how bad their customer service is compared to Verizon and how bad their wireless service is compared to Verizon, but it is a joke. I have to think that without the iphone, AT&T would be gone by now. I originally chose Verizon because my husband had Verizon and there were innumerable times when I could not make a call because I had no service and had to use his phone and I am talking about places like downtown Seattle and SE 28^th and Belmont here in Portland. He NEVER had to use my phone.

I know that it is expected that the new iphone will have multitasking, but that is not something I could live without. The lack of Flash would also be an issue. Yeah, I know Flash is evil in many ways and I know that HTML5 will take over soon, but right now Flash is a big part of the internet and I like using the WHOLE internet.

I have seen several comparisons of the iphone to the Incredible by people who have owned and used both, and hands down, every single one of them preferred the Incredible significantly over the iphone. I have heard said many times that the Incredible is the BEST smart phone on the market. Of course, that was before the HTC EVO came out today with its forward facing camera. I am sure there will be a video conferencing app soon. But, the EVO is not on Verizon.

So, yes, the Incredible is incredible, but there are reasons they did not name it the Droid Perfect.

UPDATE: My husband, AKA Mr. U, got a Moto Droid X a while back (whenever they came out) and it is a very nice phone, but huge. It is basically the Incredible, but with a HUGE screen (the screen is the same size as the whole Incredible), but no HTC programming - like Sense. This phone is even sleek and sexy like the incredible and does not have the usual Motorolla clunkiness or appearance of having been pieced together with mismatched parts. It may even be the first nice looking Moto phone ever. He is loving it and it is WAAAAYYYYY better than the Droid. I would say though that the difference in size between the Incredible and Droid X is so significant, that this would really be the only deciding factor between the two. I actually saw the X referred to as something like a practice tablet or a mini tablet.

Also, about Evernote, I forgot to mention that it is also super easy to add anything in Google Reader to Evernote. You can also set it so that when you "Print Screen", it brings up a cross hair selector that lets you choose the portion of the screen you want to print and once it is selected, it goes right into Evernote. You can right click on the graphic in Evernote, copy and then paste it anywhere else. Or course, all of this is then searchable by any word on the screen.

Tweetdeck is available now.

Tasker can solve most of your problems (on your phone that is).

For Eileen

2009-08-21T13:37:00.000-07:00

My friend Eileen posted her Facebook status this morning as "looking for a few good books to read....any suggestions?" Mainly I will be watching the comments to steal the suggestions for myself, but I have a few of my own.

As I am sure I previously mentioned, I am pretty lazy about some things and retyping things is one of them. In fact I am the queen of cutting (or copying) and pasting. I even, on my fancy wireless gazillion button mouse, have buttons programmed just for "copy" and "paste", however, sometimes I have a hard time remembering which button is which. Maybe I will draw a mouse map and attach it to my monitor.

Anyway, I previously sent a "good books to read" email to a friend and at first it seemed like a good idea to just forward it to Eileen, but I wasn't so lazy that I didn't want to personalize it and I needed to update some links. However, I certainly didn't want to edit it down to fit into a comment and I didn't want to use the messaging in Facebook and give up the hyperlinks. After giving this all a little thought, I figured the easiest way to do this was just to copy it all into a blog post, update it and then give her the link.

So what follows is a fairly random, and very incomplete, list of books and authors I have enjoyed. But, these are books I think Eileen will enjoy, as she does have excellent taste (i.e. taste similar to my own) but. I believe anyone would enjoy these books.

A friend recently had a novel published and while it is not the type of book I normally get into, I REALLY enjoyed it.

I love biographies and 2 of my favorites from recent years are –

Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole. It is about the woman who diagnosed herself with breast cancer while in Antarctica. I listened to the author read this on CD and was spellbound. It is not really about cancer (in fact cancer isn’t even mentioned till 2/3 of the way through), but it is about Antarctica and made me totally fall in love with that place.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place. By the young man who got his arm stuck between a rock and a canyon wall in UT and had to cut his arm off to free himself. It is written in an interesting way with the chapters alternating between his life before (CRAZY) and his current predicament (INTENSE).

I don’t normally lean towards *survival* biographies – these 2 were just particularly engaging.

Speaking (or writing) of intense, I highly recommend Intensity by Dean Koontz. It is...intense and I mean very intense. That might even be an understatement. Stealing a line from the Amazon review, it is "Unrelentingly terrifying", but almost impossible to put down.

One of my all time favorite books is Life and Death in Shanghai.

I also recommend -

I am a big fan of Carl Hiaasen and find his books to be bizarrely hilarious.

If you are into Chick-Lit (good vacation reads), I like Jane Green and Jennifer Weiner.

Of course I am currently reading a "vacation read", which is a business book (yes, I am a nerd and so you may want to ignore my suggestions entirely), Nuts! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success. I am loving it!

Consumer Reports vs Amazon and my guy loses.

2009-07-21T17:58:00.000-07:00

I have weed-eater issues and I guess I always have. Maybe my biggest issue is that I call them "weed-eaters" instead of "string trimmers", but maybe for this post I will try to refer to them as "trimmer(s)" or "it" or maybe as my husband Will (the guy mentioned in the title) now calls them - that "&%)@&%-@&$)+#* weed #@*$*&! eater" followed by some more intelligible sounds. and maybe howls of pain.

I won't go through all of my trimmer issues, but I will say that when my grandparents (the ultimate early adopters) bought the first string trimmer introduced (Weed-Eater brand of course), I used it at their house for an hour or so and my hands went numb, kept vibrating so I couldn't even hold my fork at dinner and then hurt really really bad for a couple of days. I should have stopped there, but how can you even survive without one? I have given that a lot of thought and have no good answer.

I have owned a lot of trimmers (I am hard on power tools, appliances, clothing, shoes and my body), but they have all been electric and many were made by Black & Decker. I have had experience with gas trimmers (my Dad usually owns a top of the line Stihl or Echo) and while I generally love them - especially those with blades, instead of string, I think they are way more than I need for my small yard. I mean way more money, trouble (especially the extra stash of mixed fuel), maintenance, fumes, noise, heat off-put (no fun on a hot day), etc.

My last trimmer was a highly recommended (probably by Consumer Reports) Black & Decker Grass Hog - similar to this one. It was OK and even had a few good things about it, but there are also a few bad things about it. I will start with the good. Fist off, it did a good job of trimming and was decently powerful. Black & Decker had redesigned the method for keeping the cord connected and it worked great. It still had the usual slot with a hook inside to hook the cord to, but it also had a 2-pronged lever that could be released with a button and then the 2 curved prongs hooked over the plug, closely on each side of the cord and held the plug firmly attached until you pushed the release button and moved the prongs. You would pull the cord out of the male plug end of the cord before you would pull that plug off the female plug on the trimmer. It was awesome, but long overdue and made me thin that finally someone who designed trimmers, actually used them. Because if someone had asked me, I would have had a better answer a long time ago.

Another good thing was that the string cartridges/spools were easy to replace, although, they were pretty expensive, but more affordable if you could get them at a Black & Decker Outlet Store. The trimmer also had a feature where you could rotate the head in relation to the handle for easier edging. This feature was also a little bad though, because in doing this, they also made the trimmer very awkward to use upside down, forcing you to use this feature. Stopping the trimmer, pressing the button to release the bottom half of the trimmer and then holding the button while counter rotating the 2 halves of the trimmer until it locks into place is not a bad thing for 5 minutes of edging. But, it is a pain for 6" of edging.

Now onto the bad. The baddest, and I don't mean baddest in a good way, was the fact that it only lasted a few years. It was the shortest lived trimmer I have had. And this one was probably used more by my non-tool-damaging husband, then by me. But, most importantly it died well before it should have. And, it wasn't just one thing that died, but 2. First the auto string feeder quit working and then the rotating head would not lock into place in the edging position.

I also really didn't like the auto-feed to begin with, because you never really know when it will feed. therefore you cannot trim as precisely for fear it will feed while you are too close to a fragile plant. At times during trimming, say just after a feed, you can be fairly sure it will not feed again immediately, but it is a pain and it is not like it was hard to bump feed.

When this trimmer suddenly became useless this Spring, it was during prime trimming time and we needed a new one fast. Of course, I wanted a good one, and assumed I would get a new and improved version of the trimmer that had just died and one that would last longer. Since I hadn't expected to be needing a new one anytime soon, I really had not paid attention to what was out there. However, since I subscribe to Consumer Reports (CR) online, I had quick and easy access to all the info I needed...or so I thought.

We first wasted some time trying to fix ours, so by the time I checked CR, we were desperate and in a BIG hurry. I saw that they had the Black & Decker GH1000 rated #1 under electric models and in fact they gave it full red circles in every category except "Tall Grass and Weeds", where it got a 1/2 of a red star, which is still pretty darn good. At that point we did have tall grass that needed trimming, but normally that is not an issue for us.

They do have user ratings on CR, but I was in a hurry and #1 by CR was good enough for me. Heck, they had thoroughly tested it and that IS what I pay them the big bucks for (subscription to magazine, online service and gift subscriptions). Also, I am a smart girl (really, I am, even if I don't seem so smart after you finish reading this post), so right away I checked Amazon to see what their price was, since they usually have the best prices. I also have Amazon Prime, which makes shopping there even better, plus Amazon has great service is is just an all around great place to shop - even CR says so too.

But, I am the consummate multi-tasker, so as I was opening an Amazon window, I also opened a Home Depot and a Lowe's window. While Amazon's normal prices were lower on this item than those of either Lowe's or Home Depot, Home Depot and Lowe's were having a sale (later Amazon was cheaper and now they are all the same). Even for a little extra money, it is normally worth it to have Amazon bring it to my door over making the trip to the store (Amazon Prime normally makes 2-day shipping free), but I really needed to trim weeds immediately.

Since I was in such a big hurry and because this trimmer was RATED #1, I also didn't investigate Amazon's ratings, but just hopped in the car and raced to Home Depot. After I put it together, Will started trimming. I did see a little blurb from someone who didn't like it (actually 2 someones), but the problem was with a defective cover (it kept flying off), but apparently Black & Decker knew of the problem, fixed it and if you have an orange cover (as opposed to black) you are OK. We have the orange cover, so we are OK. Theoretically.

Less than 5 minutes into trimming, the cover holding the string in, flew off. the string ended up horribly (and we were afraid permanently) tangled around the head, but we were able to get it undone and replace the string with a 2nd cartridge I had purchased. This has only happened maybe twice, which seems bad, but compared to everything else, it now seems minor.

Reloading the cartridges with string is awkward, but doable and as it turns out, a huge money saver. This trimmer is a dual-line trimmer and goes through string like you would not believe. I think that in our small yard, if we just replaced the cartridges, instead of refilling them, we could easily use $50 - $60 of string in a prime trimming month. The trimmer just spits out loads of string and after I am done trimming, I have to go through the yard and pick up all of the 6 to 12 inch chunks of string laying in the grass. It is also a pain to replace the cartridges...trying to keep the string in place and untangled while you get it loaded would be best with 4 hands. Except, there is really ony room for about 1.5 hands and I only have 2 attached to me anyway.

For some reason, Black & Decker forgot about their really cool redesign of the cord holder and went back to the old design, but it works even worse than it did before. It is impossible to keep it plugged in, without outside help. My outside help I enlisted is a very short bungee. It wraps around the extension cord and then I clip the ends to the loop on the extension cord that is inside the handle and this mostly keeps it plugged in. But, it is a pain to get it in position.

Here is the BIG THING though. All that string it spits out, has to go somewhere and if it hits your leg on the way, you get a pretty serious "needs stitches" kind of injury. I know this because I see this injury on Will's leg everyday and for about 2 weeks, I was treating this injury everyday.

Twenty-two days ago Will was using our trimmer at his Mom's 2nd home in Grand Ronde, Oregon. Grand Ronde is kind of in the middle of nowhere, on the way to the beach (the long way to the beach) and not very close to any medical facilities. Will is smart AND cautious (I like both of those things in a guy) and so he wore hi-top leather shoes and longish heavy socks, covering himself well on the level of the trimmer. He also wore safety glasses and gloves. This trimmer kicks out so much crap, that I am considering a full face shield because the crap goes everywhere and really hurts when it hits your face. However, once the string hits a rock and sends it on it way, it loses a lot of velocity and while it really stings, it does very little damage.

When the trimmer feeds 10" extra of .08" string and it slices off (while going 7400 RPM), nothing seems to be lost. Even when it then has to travel about 3' to hit your leg, the slash in your leg is long, deep and wide and left splayed open. The string may only be .08", but the slice in your leg it leaves is about .25" and about equal in length to the length of the string. Will has this wonderful injury on the outside of his right leg. Will chose not to head somewhere to get stitches and he believes that if you can make it stop bleeding on your own, you don't need stitches. That is not my exact theory, because I think almost anything can be fixed with steri-strips and bleeding is irrelevant. By "don't need stitches", I mean to save your life.

Will started with a bandage of paper towels and gaffer tape, with lots of pressure, but after about 9 hours, it was still bleeding. Sometime between then and 26 hours, it had stopped. At that point he got home and washed and bandaged it, but it started to get infected after a few days. So, I took over and made him scrub it out with hibiclens and I cleaned it with benzalkonium chloride. Then I put neo-sporin with some kind of numbing agent (probably lidocaine) in it on the wound and then covered it with non-stick pads and coban tape. We repeated starting at the benzalkonium step every day for about 2 weeks. We spent lots on first aid supplies.

It is still not completely healed, and on Saturday we saw some family who had not previously seen the injury. Even though it was 19 days after the injury, the 2 people who had not seen it, when seeing it independently of each other, each said "What the $%*# happened to your leg?" It still looks pretty bad and Will is definitely going to have a major scar there.

The part that is most annoying is that I feel totally ripped off by both Black & Decker and CR. There is no way either couldn't have known exactly how bad this trimmer is and Black & Decker also has to know how dangerous it is, yet they continue to sell it. In doing more research, I see we are not the only ones complaining of how much string this thing uses and the string has to go somewhere and I absolutely do not believe that Will is the only one that was hit by the string.

My addtional research shows that pretty much everyone hates this thing. Last I looked (last week when I started this post - I know I am slow), 122 people had reveiwed this trimmer on Amazon and it averaged 1.5 out of 5 stars. I am so kicking myself for not looking at that before, but I thought CR was trustworthy.

Even more annoying is that CR also allows user reviews and their 33 reviewers also gave it an average of 1.5 stars. In other words, they know it is bad, yet still list it as the best. I would think that if every trimmer out there is worse, this would be front page news, but they actually gave it a rating of 88 out of 100. They actually say it is "Excellent", when clearly it is not and everyone but they and Black & Decker admits it. Whatever their excuse it, this is a big FAIL and I will never trust them the same way again.

It would be one thing if they really did have a good experience with the trimmer (possible if Black & Decker knew this one was going to CR and modified it), but with all of the reviews, CR would have known something was amiss and done something about it. But instead, they are still saying "excellent", rating it as the best and is giving it 88 points out of 100, while everyone else is saying "piece of junk", rating it the worst and giving it 30 out of 100 points.

CR should be embarrassed and apologetic about their 58 point error and Black & Decker is probably going to need to shore up their stable of product liability attorneys, because Will's injury was probably about as minor as this kind of injury could be. Think about when the string flies off and hits some little old lady's much more fragile skin or slices someones tendon. That is going to be expensive for them.

I am going to file a complaint with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. I don't really expect anything from that, but I really feel that this trimmer could injure someone even much more seriously than it injured Will and feel like I need to do what I can to make sure that does not happen. I will also send a link to this post to both CR and B&D. Even though I fully believe they know exactly what this trimmer is like, I want it on record that it is dangerous.

Then, next spring, when we have more money, I am going to buy a new trimmer. It will NOT be made by B&D, no matter how wonderful anyone says it is and what CR says about any trimmers will also not factor into my decision, since they have lost all credibility with me on their trimmer opinions (and most of their credibility in general).

I am going to stick with Amazon and CR user reviews (assuming I still have a CR subscription at that point), since they are not full of crap.

Then Will and I are going to have a blast pulverizing the evil trimmer. The violence will be mentally satisfying, but we also want to make sure there is no way someone else could end up with our old trimmer and get hurt.

In the meantime I trim wearing my thickest sweat pants, heavy wool/cotton socks, long sleeves, gloves, safety glasses and probably soon some kind of face shield. This is a super awesome way to dress in hot weather. I will also do blog posts on my trip(s) to the ER with heat stroke - assuming I survive.

Pleasantly surprised

2009-07-05T21:51:00.000-07:00

I have not been following movies very closely for a while and feel like I am missing out. I guess that if I really felt bad, I would start paying attention, but I only feel a little bad, so movies slip by me.

As I have previously mentioned, a lot of main-stream WELL LIKED movies leave me cold and there are a lot of quirky off-the-wall not very well known movies that I love and they must be searched for.

So, while there are movies that I am aware of that I am impatiently awaiting, there are also some movies that popped up, that are just my kind of movie and I didn't even know about them till I saw them listed in the paper.

On Wednesday I saw Sunshine Cleaning.

I thought this was a very good film and it was just my type of film. I thought the acting was very good and the directing was great and it was funny and quirky and to me, happy (to my husband it was depressing, but he has an odd view of depressing).

Yesterday, I saw a really excellent film - Whatever Works.

I loved this movie (my husband thought it was pretty great too) and think YOU should see it NOW (or soon). This was written and directed by Woody Allen and stars Larry David and I LOVE both of those guys. As is most (maybe really all) of either of their work - this is a very smart film.

It is one of Woody Allen's better romantic comedies. I hate even using "romantic comedy" to describe a Woody Allen movie, because his take on romantic comedy is so unlike what you find in most other movies. They have that acerbically earnest view, tinged with naivete . This film is very funny, sharp and witty, with great dialogue. Typical Woody Allen.

One interesting technique used in this film, was an awareness of the audience by Larry David's character, Boris, which allowed for some interesting narrative. The other characters can't see the audience, and therefore thought Boris was crazy when he spoke directly to us (the audience), through the camera.

But, I have always (well at least for about 30 years) been a huge fan of Woody Allen and think he is always extremely funny. I even really enjoyed Wild Man Blues, which was a documentary of a Canadian tour of the jazz band Woody Allen plays in. He is just an extraordinarily funny man. He is also very smart and I have a thing for smart.

Waiting - not so patiently

2009-06-28T21:06:00.000-07:00

Not that I have ever waited patiently in my life - not even once. Not even when waiting for something I didn't want to happen.

But I want these to happen, so I am even less patient.

Movies! I don't understand why it takes so long for movies to come out. I was just reading something the other day where they talked about how long it now takes for movies to come out. I guess about the fastest they can get a movie out, is 2 years from when they start it. This article discussed how by the time they come out, they frequently are not that relevant. They used an example of a George Bush era movie being released in Obama times. I really don't think that matters as much as they seemed to think it does, although maybe the change in this country's economic situation might have some impact on relevancy. But, I think it is mostly being used as justification for movies that don't do well, when the real problem is that they are just bad movies - regardless of relevancy.

I think a bigger problem is over exposure. When I start seeing trailers months and even a year before the movie is released - they get old. They get less and less charming and interesting with each viewing and you can think of more and more ways they might misrepresent the movie in the trailer. By the time the actual movie comes out, I feel as if I already saw it.

It seems strange to me that they can come up with a trailer, but it takes another full year to come up with the rest of the movie. I am aware that some movie releases are delayed for other reasons than incomplete production and that they can cobble together a trailer from very little footage. I have also seen trailers that included footage that didn't make the final cut of the movie - like Real Genius - one of my favorites. But once I have seen a trailer 15 or so times, I kind of lose whatever desire or excitement I had for the movie.

I am waiting (remember - not patiently) for a few movies to come out. Obviously, I am anxious because I believe these movies will be good, but I KNOW one of them will be good because I already saw a rough cut.

I am waiting for "Summer Hours", which looks very good and is supposed to play at Cinema 21 later this summer. Plus, most movies that play at Cinema 21 are great movies.

I am very excited about Zombieland - it looks awesome, but it doesn't come out till October!

Zombieland makes me think of 2 other movies.

One is a movie called The Revenant that I saw a rough cut of at the local Zompire Festival and loved. In fact, it has pretty much universally loved by everyone who has seen it. I predict it will be a huge hit and become a cult classic. It is "Brilliant! Wickedly funny, brilliantly written, delightfully gruesome, extraordinarily clever and the action was freakin' sweet." (**LANGUAGE**). I don't think this movie has a release date yet.

I am also reminded of Adventureland, a wonderful movie I saw a while back, which stars Jesse Eisenberg. I really liked him in this movie and he is also in Zombieland. Adventureland is one of the best movies I have seen this year.

Clearly my husband has had an influence on my taste in movies. I still can't quite believe I just raved about a Vampire movie and a Zombie movie in the same blog post.

Bonneville Power Administration

2009-06-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

I don't want the Bonneville Power Administration in my water bottles. Or maybe that BPA stands for something else like Bisphenol-A. Either way, I do not want them in my water bottle.

Just before we all knew about BPA (the Bisphenol-A BPA at least), I bought a very nice water bottle at New Seasons (one of the greatest grocery stores ever). Well very nice, except for the BPA (once again, the Bisphenol-A kind).

I have mostly avoided drinking out of it (I am trying to cut back on BPA - both kinds), but haven't replaced it yet. I have seen these cool BPA-free stainless steel bottles on Amazon and have been tempted, but just can't decide which one I want and since they are expensive, I need to decide well.

The other night I was at Winco and saw metallic looking bottles and they were cheap (like $3.99), so I went to check them out. Of course, the weren't as nice as the more expensive ones and they are made from aluminum, which I am kind of leery about, but to save $21, I was willing to risk a little Alzheimer's.

I started to examine them and they had a great purple one, but I have heard that the plastic lining in aluminum soda cans contains BPA, so I need to find out about that. But then I read the label on the bottom that said "may contain lead." WHAT?????!!!!! I was very tired and at first though I must be hallucinating, so I read it again - over and over and it kept saying "may contain lead."

When I go back I will take a picture and post it. In the meantime, I am choosing BPA over lead, Alzheimer's and possible BPA.

Out of sync - with myself

2009-06-22T16:10:00.001-07:00

I have had many things come up within the last few days that I have wanted to post about, but have been busy and tired and had a nasty headache. Basically I have been out of sync with myself. I don't know if there is such a thing, but I feel that now that I have said it - there is.

I had a busy week last week, only slept from 1:30 AM till 4:30 AM Thursday night/Friday morning and then had a good friend visit on Friday night. He got here after work at about 11:30 PM and then I took him to the airport at about 4:30. While he was here we just goofed off and I didn't sleep. It was very fun (at least for me) and planned, but I when I finally went to sleep sometime after 5:30, it was only a few short hours before Comcast was supposed to show up (they didn't and I kind of hate them now). I had lots to do on Saturday, but the 6 hours of sleep I did get Saturday night was not enough and it all caught up with me yesterday.

So, about my headache. My neck is out and that can help cause migraines. There is more to it than that, because I don't necessarily get a migraine every time my neck is out, but I never get them unless my neck is out. I need to go to the chiropractor and probably will try to tomorrow. I think my hubby is also going to try to go tomorrow for his back.

During the last 25 years I have been seeing chiropractors, I have really been helped by them and it has been nice to know that many times when things hurt, I can get them fixed right away. And I don't mean just the symptoms, but the actual problem. I do not have a real dramatic chiropractic experience of my own to tell, so I will share the story (a very abbreviated version) of a friend.

My friend (younger than me) had a hip replacement when she was really young. Keep in mind, that once you have had a joint replacement, MRIs of that area are out of the question and about the best non-invasive diagnostic tool they have is a bone scan. Anyway, my friend started experiencing severe pain from her lower back, down the back of her leg to behind her knee.

She suffered for a couple of months. Missed lots of work, was on crutches or not walking at all. Was on a lot of drugs. Saw a lot of doctors, had a lot of tests and paid a lot of co-pays. (She also works for the hospital where all this was taking place) . The doctors kind of thought her hip was failing, but were not sure and the neurosurgeon and orthopedic surgeon could not decide between themselves whose problem it was. At one point, they scheduled her for surgery on Tuesday of the following week, with both of them, to find the problem and fix it.

On I think the Friday before surgery, they decided she needed one more (painful) test and scheduled that for Tuesday, with the surgery postponed till Thursday. I saw her over the weekend and of course she was frustrated, but was especially bothered that she didn't even know which doctor to turn the screws on and say "give me an answer!" to.

I recommended that she see my chiropractor. I wasn't thinking that he could help her problem himself, because after all of those tests and all of those experts, it had to be something BIG and I did expect it was her hip replacement too. But, chiropractors (good ones at least, and there are plenty of bad ones) are really good at identifying where pain is coming from. My theory was that my chiropractor would pinpoint her pain and so she would at least know which doctor to hound.

I called her on Monday evening to see if she had gotten in or at least talked to him and to see what she learned. The conversation went something like -

Me: Did you see him?

Friend: Yes.

M: What happened?

F: Oh, I'm fine now.

M: Huh?

F: I'm fine now. My lower back was out and he fixed it.

M: What?

F: My lower back was out and he fixed it.

M: You're fine now?

F: Yes, the pain is gone.

My disbelief continued - not my disbelief that the chiropractor fixed it, but that it was such a relatively minor problem. Her tone clearly indicated her annoyance that it was such a relatively minor problem that should have been fixed months prior.

When you think about the whole concept of chiropractic medicine, it all makes sense. You don't have pain and then next thing you know, after doing something very minor or nothing at all, you have pain. What happened? Your bones are in specific places in relation to each other and are very close to one another and nerves run through those bones. Just picture one bone moving slightly out of place and how that nerve going between the bones would be impacted. It would no longer be in a straight line and a bone would be pressing against it. Ouch. Move the bone back into place = no ouch. It is all pretty obvious when you think about it.

My chiropractor (my friend's chiropractor too) is Brian Nelson. He is on the NW corner of SE 67th and Woodstock. His number is (503) 775-5850. He is great, but he might be busy tomorrow.

Glass of Purple

2009-06-19T04:45:00.000-07:00

I love smoothies. Well, actually, I love the smoothies I make. A lot of other smoothies are too sweet, too rich and just not refreshing at all. They probably aren't very good for you either.

Here is my secret........FROZEN berries, which seems so obvious that it can't really be a secret - except that not many people know of this or think of it.

In a blender -
I add frozen berries - usually a mix of blackberries (Marionberries), raspberries and blueberries. If you want to use fresh picked berries (who wouldn't), you need to pop them in the freezer first. I decide which marking on the blender I am aiming for and I dump the frozen berries in to 3/4 of that.

Then I add a glob or 2 of yogurt. I usually use plain Nancy's Organic Non-Fat Yogurt, but sometimes I just dump in a container of Yoplait Light in a berry flavor.

I add some honey to taste and then add Kikkoman Pearl Unsweetened Organic Soymilk (around $1 at Winco) to reach the volume I am aiming for.

Sometimes - especially if I am on the way to the gym - I add a scoop or two of EAS (Energy Athletics Strength) Stage 3 Blend Premium Protein (under $30 at Costco for 78 2-scoop servings). Also, Will occasionally (always) wants an Orange Julius style drink and so I will add a little powdered non-fat dairy creamer.

If I remember, I will dump in some flax seeds too and since the berries already have lots of seeds to get stuck in your teeth - what are a few more?

Next, I BLEND, taste, adjust, repeat till yummy and then pour and drink.

This makes a thick creamy delicious refreshing drink - without the strange ice pieces you get from adding ice cubes (just a weird idea). It really is very purple, but the picture from my Blackberry (the smart cell phone version - not the yummy purple kind) came out kind of red and the counter is supposed to be white too.

Enjoy and don't forget the dental floss (but you only need to floss the teeth you want to keep).

Fun I Missed

2009-06-17T10:22:00.000-07:00

What could be more fun (or more *Portland*) than a bike ride through town, with portable music, to visit fountains and dance and play in them? Not much. But I missed it anyway. I will definitely watch for it next year. Or, maybe I will just do my own bike/music/fountain/dance/play tour. It is not like I would be the only one doing that here.

Don't worry, Portland chlorinates their fountains (except for one that is meant for horses to drink from) and they are treated (both by the City and the residents) like public pools. Apparently, back when hippies were invented and not everyone was part hippie (and, in fact, there were some people who didn't even like hippies), there was some concern, because the hippies were "bathing" (really, just hanging out) in fountains. There was talk of banning people from getting in the fountains, but in good old Portland fashion, getting in fountains was embraced. I am sure grateful, because there is nothing like a quick dip in a fountain in the middle of a hot and hectic day.

Not that a silly thing like rules would keep me out of a fountain in less people friendly places, but security guards have made me get out of fountains in those places.

It didn't go well.

2009-06-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

I donated blood today. I think that if you can donate blood, it is really important to do it.

Normally it is a pretty simple process. Only one arm (my left) really works and that vein is very deep. People trying to get blood out of me have always had a really hard time hitting that vein. I am really not squeamish and always tell them that I am totally OK with them digging around for it, although sometimes they are not OK with it. Sometimes they are not even brave enough to try and just use a butterfly needle in the back of my hand which has wonderful excellent protruding veins.

But the Red Cross people are brave. I showed them where they needed to poke and they marked the spot. Then they spent a fare amount of time doing all those weird things they do to make the vein easier to feel and then once they felt it (exactly where the mark was), they iodined it and poked it. At first she didn't go in deep enough and no blood came out. I told her she needed to go deeper and she said she was already in pretty deep and after a little consultation with someone else, she went in deeper and blood gushed into the bag. Maybe gushed is too strong of a term, but it was definitely coming out.

Once the blood starts flowing, I am pretty fast. They mentioned that people who bike there (I didn't) are the fastest. I am usually done in less then 5 minutes. Today shortly after the flow started, it stopped. They twisted the needle and it started again, for a few seconds. The blood kept stopping and they kept doing things to get it going again. They rotated and twisted the needle, pulled it out a little ways and pushed it in a little ways. They moved my arm around and had me do lots of things with my hand. They called over experts. They kept the blood pressure cuff pumped up and with also squeezing the ball, my arm started turning purple. that bothered them a little, but since my arm wasn't numb - we were still good.

Finally, with one of the Red Cross people sitting next to me on the lounge and pinching my skin (either keeping tension on it or off it - can't remember), after 25 minutes (from when the blood first started flowing) they got their 600 grams.

My arm hurts and has a small bruise. But I bet it will be a big bruise tomorrow.

They always ask all those questions, including about using IV drugs and I just want to ask them if they really think that would even be feasible for me. For the record, my blood is perfect. However, apparently my Husband's isn't. For a while he was ineligible to donate because he had his ACL replaced using donor tissue (yep - he is part zombie), and that excluded him till a year after the surgery. But all along he hasn't been eligible because spent too much time in both Germany and Turkey during key years, and in a nut shell, the Red Cross thinks he may have Mad Cow. When I mention that to him, he seems pretty unconcerend. But maybe the Mad Cow is already impacting his judgement.

I bet donating blood will go better next time and I will video it with my Blackberry. Then I will keep that on my phone as reference for anyone who has questions about how to get blood out of me in the future. I'll make a little tutorial.

Superduper

2009-06-05T23:10:00.000-07:00

I like super foods - well, most of them, but I love the idea of super foods.

I have pretty much always been into nutrition and feel so much better when I eat healthy. Sadly, for a lot of people, eating healthy is simply just not eating things that are bad for you. But that is not really eating healthy - it is just not eating unhealthy. To me that is like saying you are going to compete in a race, but the only thing you do is not go backward.

I don't just want to slow down the results of eating an unhealthy diet, but I actually want to eat food that does something good for me. About 20 years ago I decided that the 2 foods that would probably do the most for me were sweet potatoes and beans - preferably kidney or black beans. I think that if I was stuck on a deserted island, those are the 2 foods I would want with me. Power bars would also be really good on a deserted island too. And some sunscreen.

I love both sweet potatoes and beans, but not enough to not get extremely sick of them if that was all I had to eat. Fortunately, a few other people were thinking along these lines, but they came up with much more extensive lists. Many of those lists include sweet potatoes and almost all of them included beans of some type.

My current main list is taken from SuperFoodsRX and is as follows -

Apples
Avocado
Beans
Blueberries
Broccoli
Cinnamon
Dark Chocolate
Dried SuperFruits
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Garlic
Honey
Kiwi
Low Fat Yogurt
Oats
Onions
Oranges
Pomegranates
Pumpkin
Soy
Spinach
Tea
Tomatoes
Turkey
Walnuts
Wild Salmon

There are a few alternates to each food listed (for example, Walnuts make my tongue hurt, so I eat a lot of almonds and pistachios) and a few other foods, found on many other lists, that I also try to focus on like sweet potatoes, curry and fresh herbs.

I have this list on the side of my fridge and in my Blackberry (you'd think I would have it memorized by now) and refer to it often. Luckily, most of these are foods I love and normally eat a lot of anyway, so it is not hard to eat a few more and eat them all more often.

Everyone has those standard "I got home late, am tired and don't know what to make for dinner" meals - you know desperation meals?

One of our main desperation meals is Pacific Naturals Organic Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup popped in the microwave for a few minutes and the served with a couple of slabs of goat cheese and some garlic croutons. I buy the soup by the case at Costco, but might start doing an Amazon subscription for it. Now this meal really only contains 2 super foods (garlic and tomato) and that really is pretty lame as far as super foods go and especially lame to be mentioned in this blog post on super foods, but we really eat this meal a lot and I would be remiss to talk about desperation meals without mentioning it.

But probably our #2 desperation meal is spinach salad and salmon. I always have salmon in the freezer and spinach in the fridge. I also buy huge Costco packages of spinach and put it in just about everything but cereal. Pasta? I toss some in right before the sauce. Sandwiches? Pile it on. Scrambled eggs? Yep, toss it in.

Sometimes the salmon goes in the spinach salad, but the salad typically has oranges and onions in it and I make a dressing in the blender with Dijon mustard (a glob??), a couple of glugs of olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic, honey, good salt and a big glob of plain yogurt (Nancy's Organic non-fat). I usually add some nuts to the salad and try to add pomegranate. So, there you have it - a salad that takes just a couple of minutes to make (as does the salmon) and it contains maybe 10 super foods and adding the salmon to the meal makes an even 11.

I also love the SuperFoodsRX multi-vitamins. They are great vitamins in so many ways and definitely had a positive effect on me. But, for me the really great thing about them is that they contain just 2 mg of Vitamin B6, while that is the USRDA, many multis contain far more and because I am sensitive to B6 anymore than 2 mg makes me have muscle twitches.

One thing I do not love is chocolate. I don' t hate it, but I don't like it all that much. I know that is un-American and I may as well get it out there now, but I don' t really like apple pie, or pie in general - except for my Mom's Apple Chiffon Pie (see below) and I hate hot dogs and can't stand baseball. I am also not real fond of ice cream, but love Mom (who I inherited my disinterest in ice cream from).

Chocolate was the one super food I didn't eat much of, but have this very dark chocolate in my cupboard that I use in a Chocolate Truffle Tart I make occasionally. The chocolate is from Trader Joe's and is quite tasty as far as chocolate goes. I decided that I needed to start eating it and the idea was to eat 1.5 squares a day. I ended up eating probably one square on the days I remembered to eat it, but I ate it fairly often though.

At about the same time I started eating chocolate I also began drinking Diet Dr. Pepper occasionally. I am normally a Diet Coke drinker and nothing else tastes like Diet Coke and almost all other sodas are too sweet for me. But I remembered liking Dr. Pepper in the past and was reminded of it by both a friend and my cousin. I decided to get a bottle of that and one day opened that instead of Diet Coke. It was great. I liked it. Then I started to crave it and bought more. Pretty soon I was drinking almost as much Diet Dr. Pepper as Diet Coke and if I didn't drink it for a while I started to crave it again.

Then my stomach started hurting. Bad. Then I remembered why I quit drinking Diet Dr. Pepper before and it was because it made my stomach hurt. So I quit drinking it (but didn't quit craving it). My stomach started feeling a little better, but I had also kind of fell off the chocolate eating wagon and was not hardly eating at all. Anyway, a few weeks later, with no Dr. Pepper and hardly any chocolate and a normal feeling stomach, I realized I needed to recommit myself to eating chocolate.

Than my stomach started hurting again. Not that the Dr. Pepper was not making my stomach hurt, but it turns out it was only a little. It was the chocolate that was making me miserable. I had no idea chocolate could make your stomach hurt. Has that happened to anyone else? I know now that it is not so much that I am really good about eating super foods, it is just that those are foods I eat anyway.

I have made up with Dr. Pepper and am drinking it again and gratefully quit the chocolate (I really was getting pretty sick of it) and feel bad that I blamed Dr. Pepper for all of my problems.

Apple Chiffon Pie does not hurt my stomach and apples are a super food and Apple Chiffon Pie is a super pie.

Fresh Apple Chiffon Pie
6 servings

1 baked or crumb crust (9")
1 T unflavored gelatin
1 cup apple juice or cider
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cups sugar
3/4 cups whipping cream - whipped
1 1/2 cups shredded apples
Optional - cinnamon or nutmeg

Soak the gelatin in apple juice or cider. Heat over low heat until gelatin has dissolved. Add lemon juice, salt and sugar. Chill until mixture is syrupy. Whip mixture until light. Fold in whipped cream and apples. Pile into crust. Sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg is desired. Chill until firm.

Salt and Strawberries - but not together - yet

2009-06-03T20:50:00.000-07:00

I have been on a smoked salt kick lately. I had been wanting some forever (actually less then a year, which is still forever when it comes to a food craving). I finally bought some a while back at New Seasons and have used it occasionally since ($17 for a small jar = use sparingly for me), but used it TWICE! today. Yes, it was a big day for me.

Smoked salt is really good with radishes and avocado. Think of it as like a traditional radish sandwich, which I love, but with the avocado in place of the butter and the smoked salt in place of the regular salt. It takes it to a whole new level.

Today I made a salad for lunch that was mostly avocado and shrimp with a touch mayo with a little smoked salt on top. It was a little rich - go figure, but just a perfect combo.

Tonight I grilled some fish and made a salsa inspired salad to go with it. The fish was cooked very simply with a little fresh shopped parsley, lemon juice, salt (regular old salt...well actually pretty good freshly ground sea salt, which serves as regular old salt at my house) and pepper. The salad contained - drum roll please (because I am going to sort of include quantities, which is better than my usual list of ingredients or even worse, only a description of taste) -

2 smallish tomatoes chopped
1 tomatillo - chopped
1 medium avocado - chopped
2 green onions - chopped - including white and green parts
2 large radishes - sliced in half lengthwise and then each half cut into 4 strips lengthwise and then sliced in about 1/8" slices.
A big handful of cilantro leaves - chopped
Lime juice - to taste
"regular old salt" - not quite to taste
Let this sit for about an hour at room temp and then serve with a pinch of smoked salt on each of about 4 servings.

This salad was excellent and the only "spice" to it was from the radishes. And I hope everyone is growing radishes, since they only take about 3 days (really just over 3 weeks) from seed to harvest.

I am also going to start binging on tomatillos. I prefer my fruit a little tart (although I love local strawberries and they will be ready in no time) and I think tomatillos are going to be my new favorite fruit for a while. And yes, like tomatoes, tomatillos are a fruit and citrus and cucumbers are berries. But, while tomatoes are botanically a fruit, they are legally a vegetable. At some point (I think around 1932, which is almost totally a guess) the government declared tomatoes a vegetable so they could collect more tariffs.

So, for all of you poor non-Oregonians who otherwise may never have the opportunity to taste an Oregon strawberry (which actually are berries - at least currently) - now is a good time to head here. Not only do these beyond amazing berries not really ever make it past the greedy hands and mouths of the locals to cross state lines, but because of the incredibly high sugar content they have a shelf life of about 6 hours. OK, it really is about a day, but they just do not keep at all. Really, it isn't that we are greedy at all, it is just that they would never make it to you and we just do not like to see food wasted.

They like us, they really like us (at least some of them)

2009-06-03T00:38:00.000-07:00

I am back from a little blogging hiatus. It is not that I really intended to take a break, but I had a lot of other stuff going on (including my husband getting really sick and ending up in the hospital) and not all that much to say. At least I didn't have much that was interesting to say, and I still don't, but that never stopped me before. So really, I guess I was just too busy.

It wasn't all work and no play and I did do some fun things. I have been able to hear some great live music (and some not so great music), see some good movies (and one or two or two *LANGUAGE* excellent movies), spend some time with some good friends and get some bicycling in.

It turns out George F. Will really does not like Portland. Now it looks like Earl Blumenauer doesn't like George F. Will and responded with this and this. George F. Will just seems really really confused about this. But at least StreetFilms and Fort Worth like us and get us.

But, probably nobody likes us more than the New York Times - although Matt Gross seems unaware that the Portland area is the athletic wear capitol of the US and that while Nike is headquartered in Beaverton, Adidas USA is headquartered in Portland. The New York Times has on ongoing obsession with all things Portland. It is true that Portland is a very popular spot for New Yorkers to move to, but they keep publishing article after article after slide show after slide show after article about us. You get the drift, but if you need more (there are LOTS more), go to NYTimes.com and do a search for "Portland" and you will get over 10,000 results. I am sure most of them are not articles about Portland (at least pretty sure), but I have linked only a small sampling.

Just don't believe everything you read.

Overrun

2009-04-22T23:08:00.000-07:00

I have been overrun with Dandelions. I can't figure out what the heck happened, but I have never had so many before.

I really really don't like to use poison and they are impossible to pull by hand. Luckily, I discovered a new too l that has made life much easier. I have been using the Weed Hound for about 4 years and still am surprised at how well it works. It is really as easy as the video shows and is well worth the $18-$26 (or so) that it costs.

It takes no real effort to use this and the only body part that got tired was my foot and that was because my really cool purple gardening clogs are very flexible (normally a good thing) and my foot started to hurt. I solved that problem by putting on my bike shoes (without the cleats installed) and the steel shank solved all of my problems.

My Shimano bike shoes are pretty low end as far as bike shoes go, and while still expensive enough that I try to take care of them, they suffered no harm and still cost less then the coveted Lawn Grips Mowing Shoes and far less than the bike shoes I really want or would be super happy with.

I got my Dad some Lawn Grips 2 years ago for Father's Day and he still raves about them. I have also heard from others that they are great. Of course, when I got these for my Dad he had over 1/2 acre and it was pretty much all lawn. Now he has a few small patches of lawn, which probably take about 5 minutes to mow. But, these shoes are also his rototilling shoes and he loves rototilling.

I hope to have my own Lawn Grips someday, but honestly I have LOTS of gardening shoes and really prefer to do everything I can barefoot. Nothing feels better on bare feet than freshly tilled dirt.

I still don't want to stop

2009-04-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

But many bicyclists are doing their best to make sure I will have to.

I wrote about this before and referred to people "that just plain old hate bicyclists." This video is embarrassing and clearly gives the haters a reason. Wait - there is no video because the videographer got so many vicious "emails and comments" he had to take it down. I found the link for this video on Bike Portland as part of an article about where police watched an are of SE Clinton for 1 hour and wrote 22 tickets for running stop signs and most of those were to bicyclists.

The video was also of an intersection on SE Clinton where the videographer tried to get all of the vehicles running the stop signs (4-way stop). He says he filmed for something like 20 minutes and I think he saw about 30 bikes run the stop signs, no bikes come to a complete stop (several slowed way down) and no cars run the stop signs. It was shocking and embarrassing and then when I found out about the viciousness he was on the receiving end of, and saw the nasty comments at Bike Portland, I was horrified and extraordinarily disappointed.

I just don't get it - if people are ashamed of what they did, then they need to apologize and stop doing it. If they are not ashamed of what they did (in public), they shouldn't care that the public sees it. Either way, I don't think anyone has a right to complain about the existence of the video or the reporter, but only the actions displayed in the video.

Here is the answer to our problems -

Bicycles, Rolling Stops, and the Idaho Stop from Spencer Boomhower on Vimeo.

Please support HB2690 and let your government leaders know that you support it.

Jellyfish

2009-04-14T09:14:00.001-07:00

Jellyfish, originally uploaded by wiliam.

I am totally fascinated by Jellyfish. I have never been into fish tanks - even though I love fish, but would love to have a Jellyfish tank.

There is a hotel on the Oregon Coast (I think the Adobe Resort in Yachats) that has this really cool tank. It is a glass cylinder standing on end that is about 5 feet in diameter and maybe 8 feet tall. the Jellyfish look very much like the one in this photo and with a black light seems to glow in the dark this wonderful purplish, pinkish blue color.

I would love to have one of these. I think I feel bad for fish in tanks because I don't think they like living in tanks, but I have heard that Jellyfish are not intelligent enough to know or care. I don't believe that 100%, but I believe it enough to have some.

Not that I even remotely have a place to put something like this and it really would need to be in a certain kind of house. Maybe like this really cool one, which does not belong to Tiger Woods (a common urban legend).

I like safe

2009-04-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

I drive a VW Passat and while there are a lot of things I like about my car, there are other things that I do not like. Really, though, I don't think there is a car out there that sells for under about $100K that I could imagine liking all around. You see, it turns out that I want things to be how I want them and nobody has seen fit to make the car I want.

My Dad, a retired Firefighter, told me stories when I was a kid that I will not share because they would traumatize most adults. But, he got his desired result - I am very safety conscious. So, safety in a vehicle is probably #1 with me, but performance is a close 2nd and pretty closely tied with, and important for safety. I also really like cars that are reliable.

I didn't do so well with the latter. While my car has never left me stranded, I have poured an absolute fortune into it in repairs. Even little things are $600 to $1000 and unfortunately, I have had some big things too, but not really big like a new transmission or new engine.

Do I like my car? I'm not sure yet. It is almost 10 years old and I never know what to tell people when they ask. I bought it under kind of odd circumstances and that has negatively impacted my opinion of it (unfairly) and whenever I drive another car - especially a nasty rental, I am ALWAYS reminded about how great my car really is.

Consumer Reports gives all cars a number rating based on everything but reliability and shows the reliability separately and then gives recommendations based on all of it. The Passat had the highest number rating for about 9 years straight in its category, but hasn't been even recommended in ages because of the reliability issues. Those honors have gone mostly to Toyota Camrys and Honda Accords and more recently Nissan Altimas.

Consumer Reports also has this nice little graph showing reliability versus performance. The further you are to the right indicates better reliability and further up indicates better performance. Obviously a car in the top right hand corner would be ideal. There are not actually any cars up there, but VW is right up at the top (along with Mercedes), except way over on the left (Mercedes is pretty far to the left too - but inching right).

As far as safety goes, I've got that nailed. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety or IIHS (much more stringent than the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NHTSA) fatality rate (per million registered years) was 19, which was the 3rd lowest and far lower than any other similar car. I think the worst were over 300 and average was 80. These fatality rates are a better picture of the true safety of a car, because they look at what really happens, including the accident avoidance ability of a vehicle and not just how it does in an accident.

The main drawback of these rates though are that it is impossible to factor in the differences in drivers and the fact is that specific cars attract specific types of drivers. This is very apparent where "twin" models, which attract different types of drivers, will have significantly different fatality rates. An example of "twin" models are the Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon, although I suspect that these 2 models attract very similar drivers.

Not only does the Passat do well in crash tests, but the IIHS is starting to roof crush tests and when many many years ago someone figured out that stronger roofs saved lives, European manufacturers started making stronger roofs. Other manufacturers argued that it was too expensive and didn't have to make stronger roofs. Now people are paying attention and standards are being increased.

This is one (of many) of the resaons of I have always been partial to German cars and I have owned lots. Mostly VWs, but one BMW and lots of Porsche experience and some Mercedes experience. I owned on Honda (unbelievably horrible) and one Nissan, which wasn't good either - not as bad as the Honda, but it was about dead at around 85,000 miles. After those 2, I swithced back to VW and my next car, a 1987 Cabriolet is STILL going and in around 2003 when I passed it on, it had around 300,000 on the original engine with only a clutch and 5th gear replacement at about 200,000 miles, plus an alternator at some point.

The IIHS has roof crush tested 12 vehicles (all small SUVs) and the only European model tested (VW Tiguan) got a 33% higher score than the next highest scorer (Suburu Forrester) and 4 times what the current federal standards are. Regardless of the federal standards, the IIHS standards would only give the VW and Suburu its top safety pick status starting next year.

I like to watch crash tests and you can get a lot more informtion about a particular car then just the ratings give you. One of my favorites is the 2006-2008 Passat (newer than mine) crash test because the engine just seems to disappear. The engine compartment is completely demolished with the passenger compartment almost completely uncompromised. But, after the crash there are not a bunch of engine parts scattered around - it just appears to be gone. It is strange and amazing.

A scary test, which illustrates my point about the other stuff you can learn, is the test on the Smart ForTwo car. That alone is enough to make me not want to buy that car. Just look at the test and imagine what it would be like to be hit in that car and be thrown into the path of other vehicles. But, there are about 100 other reasons I would not buy one of those cars, so the crash test is irrelevant to me.

You frequently hear that 2 out of 3 isn't bad, but I really do want all 3 - plus a few other extras., like good MPG (turbo diesel preferred) and all wheel drive. This is my dream car and if it is safe (probably a good chance) it would be my ideal car......if only it was about $90K less and for sale in this country. So far, there doesn't seem to be any all wheel drive turbo diesel car sold in this country and trying for safety, performance and reliability in the same car seems about impossible and there is no way it will all be affordable (to me).

Hopefully my car holds out until someone makes the perfect car for me.

Grafting Plants for Laughs

2009-04-10T23:05:00.001-07:00

This is kind of disheartening and I am trying to remember why I chose to work in such a cyclical industry. I guess maybe I will not be in the future. We'll see.

I was supposed to go see, and wanted to see, two friend's bands tonight. One was playing in Portland and one in Eugene, but it has been a long week and I didn't make it to either. I also have another friend who's band is playing tomorrow - maybe I will make that one. I have a lot of friends who are in bands, but I think I remember that one of those "You know you are from Portland" things listed something like all of your friends are in bands, are artists or chefs or all three, so I guess it is normal.

I am also trying to decide if I should go play fugitive in NoPo tomorrow morning. I would like to, but am not sure I can fit it in. It would be really fun though and I know they need drivers (it is mostly teenagers playing, so there aren't many drivers). But if I go, I will have to either stay up really late or get up really early to get a few things done that I would need to accomplish before I left. I should have planned better.

One of the things I did this week was spend some time down at my Parents doing some planting. I kind of fit it in and didn't get as much done as I would've liked, but I did get to visit my apple tree. It is not really my tree, because I gave it to my parents, but I made it.

I didn't make it like God makes apple trees, but I grafted it. I was a Master Gardener for both WSU and then OSU and was either at a Master Gardening event of maybe it was a Western Cascade Fruit Society meeting (I know, it is amazing what an exciting and vibrant life I've led) and grafted a Freyberg (or Freyburg) scion (small stick with a just a few buds) to M-26 rootstock. I did a whip graft and it was perfect. It was the first time I had grafted anything and this method is a little trickier and it turned out great.

I was so excited and so proud. I decided that it needed to live at my parents because I not only didn't have a very good place to plant it, but I knew my parents would stay in their house longer than I would. I couldn't wait for my parents to see it. My (first) husband, Alan was going to Portland the next week and it was decided that he would meet up with my sister-in-law Elise and give her my tree and she would pass it on to my parents.

Alan was not that impressed, but as he was not at all into gardening, that was not surprise. But Elise is into gardening, and she wasn't impressed. She called my parents to tell them that she was supposed to have gotten the tree, but only got a stick, but that Alan had told her to give it to them. Then my parents, who are also great gardeners, wondered why I had sent them a stick. I had to beg and plead to get my Dad to plant it.

Now the tree is a pretty big tree and the apples are amazing. They have a really unique and complex taste and are delicious. You'd think that my family would now be impressed with the tree and would have at least stopped laughing at the "stick" I sent down, but no, they still think the the stick was hilarious.

I dug it up last year when they moved to Mt. Angel and made them take it with them. Actually, I really didn't make them do anything. I dug it up. I put it in their trailer. I took it out of the trailer and heeled it in. Then I dug it out again and replanted it. My Dad did help, but mostly because I was doing it anyway. I kind of did their landscape plan, which was serious fun on Turbo CAD (I love that program) and put the tree smack dab in the middle of the back yard and that is where it is now making apples.

I did have plans to graft for laughs. Roses and Apples are quite closely related and you can graft a rose to an apple tree and it will usually survive a couple of years before the graft aborts. I thought I would sneak down and graft a few roses to one of my Dad's apple trees (not "my" special tree though) in an inconspicuous place and then wait for him to be really surprised when roses bloomed on his apple tree.

I never did do that (maybe the "stick" laughs were enough laughs) and I finally told my Dad about it, so there is no way I could surprise him now. But, this would be a really great trick to play on someone.

Anyway, there are many delicious varieties of fruits and vegetables, that for many reasons are not commercially viable and I don't mean just not available at Safeway, but also not typically available in nurseries. However, it is worth the effort to hunt them down. A good place to get unique varieties of apples and lots of other yummy things is Bauman Farms in Gervais, Oregon. Towards the end of summer, the PSU Portland Farmers Market has a tomato tasting Saturday with hundreds of varieties to taste. Several years ago I went through and tasted only a small percentage, but I carefully noted the good ones in my Palm Pilot.

They are as follows -
Sun G old
Red Grape
Viva Italia
Lillian's Yellow
Mountain Fresh

Enjoy!

Public Declaration of Love

2009-04-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

I love Tim Dehning of Sherwood. I don't personally know Tim Dehning, but he heard a dog who had been hit, found the dog and when the dog stopped breathing he gave him mouth to mouth, then his wife (a nurse) stepped in to do chest compressions and they revived the dog. Tim Dehning you rock!

I love my dogs as if they were my kids. I have many friends who feel the same way about their dogs (and many of them have human kids too). But one friend, who at the time had a 3 year old daughter, said that when his wife was pregnant his mother told him "you really will not understand love until your child is born." I said "so, that was true wasn't it?" and after giving it some serious thought he said "Well, I love them about the same, but I've known the dog longer."

Our Golden, Starbuck (named after the first [male] fighter pilot on Battlestar - but who is not even remotely brave) tore a ligament in his hip when he was 8 months old. He had to have therapy to keep him going till he was old enough at 10 months to have surgery. In 2005 from February 12th (the day we brought the dogs home) through December 31st we spent over $14,000 on pets.

It sounds like a huge amount (it was a huge amount to us), but I absolutely would not do it any other way. I have no problem sacrificing for my dogs. In this case I sacrificed a new furnace (the old one still works GREAT) and many vacations. We also lived very frugally. I couldn't have been like "yeah, we had a great vacation but had to put our dog to sleep."

Starbuck will probably need another hip replacement one day, but it probably will not be as expensive (not considering inflation) because he will not have to have all of the therapy before hand. When it is time to do it, hopefully we can just do it then.

The thing is, I know of so many people who have spent lots more and really really struggled to do so. I just read about a vet who did lots of free surgeries. I am not sure how he could afford to, but one woman he donated a bunch of work to had already cleaned out her 401K and got a 2nd mortgage on her house to come up with the $24,000 she had already spent. I've met lots of people in vet's office who have done the same thing.

Anyway, if you love your dog and your dog needs an Orthopedic Surgeon, the best guy is Dr.Timothy Munjar, DVM. He is truly amazing and after a lot of research, I discovered that he was the best in this area and one of the best in the country. I have many friends who also did the same research and they all came to the same conclusion. Additionally, many of them also discovered that he charged less then other surgeons. I wasn't shopping price, so I don't know the details of that. However, I do know that when I asked him to do another surgery, that he had a slot available for, but he told me that my regular vet would do a great job and cost lots less because he had much lower overhead. He certainly didn't have to do that.

An equally important part of Starbuck's success was Dr. Bianca Shaw, DVM, who is a Veterinary Physical Therapist who did his therapy and rehab. She is absolutely amazing and literally every person I talked to (including Dr. Munjar) told me I HAD to take Starbuck to see her. I swear she has magical powers and I truly am in awe of her. I don't care what is wrong with your dog, if it could be even remotely muscular or skeletal, you also HAVE to see her. I believe that the initial consultation fee more than pays for itself with information gained. The only reason I say "muscular or skeletal" is because that is all she technically does, but her overall veterinary skill is incredible and while Starbuck was in rehab, she did treat several other unrelated things and I would love it if she could do everything for my animals (magic is hard to beat).

That all said though, we have a really wonderful vet who I, my Husband and animals just love and he is also extraordinarily skilled. His name is Dr. Brian Behrends, DVM and he is in Montavilla. We also did a lot of up front research before we found him. The kicker in that research was our friend Jenna's experience. She has a Golden that was one of the dogs poisoned at Laurelhurst Park and Dr. Behrends saved her. He visited the dog at home everyday and did IV therapy there and she pulled through. Most dogs who were poisoned did not survive.

A good animal Chiropractor here in Portland is Dr. Mary Mandeville, DC.

Of course, in case of an emergency, Dove Lewis is the place to go. We are so lucky to have such a great emergency veterinary hospital here.

I could still really use a nice vacation.

Daisy (Chocolate Lab) and Starbuck chillin' with my husband.

If you haven't learned this by now - here is your chance.

2009-04-07T22:38:00.000-07:00

This is from an email my Mom forwarded to me from a cousin. I think many people have seen this, but it bears repeating -

I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.
I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.
I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life.
I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as making a 'life.'
I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.
I've learned that you shouldn't go through life just being a doormat. You need to be able to throw something back.
I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.
I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.
I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.
I've learned that I still have a lot to learn.
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Number 2 especially struck me today, but I think each one makes it own good point. Life is way too short to let things fall out of perspective.

Important

2009-04-03T22:56:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up, you couldn't begin donating blood until your turned 17. In my family, as soon as you turned 17 you got taken by my Dad down to donate. I have always thought that was important and have always tried to donate whenever I can.

Then in 1999 when my first husband had cancer, he had to have a few blood transfusions. This is a common need for people who are undergoing chemotherapy, but my husband was able to go much longer before he needed a transfusion than most people in his situation. I was really glad I had donated more blood than he needed.

After being a regular blood donor, I realized I needed to sign up to be a bone marrow donor. It took a little time to get it figured out (it just wasn't as common then) and so about 15 years ago I found out where and how to get my tissue typed and did so. I paid for the testing and my husband thought it was a little strange that I was paying for the chance to possibly donate marrow to someone.

Sometimes the testing is sponsored and sometimes they will ask for money to cover the testing (about $50), but I figured that if there was a way I could pay, then that would mean one more person could be tested. It tuned out later that my husband was all set to have a bone marrow transplant. It didn't end up happening and it would have been autologous anyway, but it sure reinforced the importance of signing up.

I just couldn't handle the idea that someone might need my bone marrow and it wasn't available because I just didn't get around to signing up. So, I am all set up and make sure I keep my contact info up-to-date with the National Marrow Donor Program.

I got my annual "checking in with me" mailing from them and was not only reminded how important this is, but also that there are other things they need besides bone marrow, like money and cord blood. Please take a look and see if there is any way you can help.

So, who wants to go with me Monday or Tuesday to donate some blood? It's fun, painless and you get cookies and OJ.

Noooooo!

2009-03-31T22:39:00.000-07:00

I got a Juror Qualification Questionnaire for US District Court today. I really really really do not like jury duty. I do it when called (or when it is convenient) because I do believe it is my civic duty and believe in the judicial system and the importance of juries in that system. But, I really really really do not like jury duty. I end up on jury duty almost exactly every 2 years.

My previous experience has all been with Multnomah County Circuit Court and that is only for one day, unless you end up on a trial that lasts longer than a day (I got held over for 1 extra day 1 time) and I still panic at the thought of jury duty.

I guess the worst part of jury duty is that they make you stay in that one room all day and I am terrified of running out of things to do. I am always afraid of that, but usually have more freedom to remedy the situation.

But, ending up on a jury is nerve racking too. I really want to do a perfect job and trials are so boring. It is a real struggle to pay attention to and absorb every single piece of information or testimony presented, but isn't that the only way you can make the most accurate decision?

There are only a few ways out of jury duty and if I wanted to get out, probably the only reasonable way would be to commit a crime that is punishable by at least a year in prison. I have to send this back in 10 days and probably can't turn 70 or get a job as a police officer by then.

There is at least one, and possibly 2 women in this area, with my same name (except they are Kimberly and I am Kimberli) and basically my same age who have committed armed robberies within the last 6 months or so. Maybe if I just borrow one of their IDs (assuming they haven't already stolen mine), I can get out of jury duty.

Anyway, I will fill out the form and return is and probably won't commit a crime and will do my duty. I just hope it doesn't cost me a lot of money and I hope it doesn't come at a bad time.

One good thing about Multnomah County, is that they really want to make it easy to serve so they can get a true cross section of society - or at least a true cross section of those registered to vote or liscensed to drive. Their theory is that anyone can serve for a day and as such, while it is hard to get off the hook, it is really easy to change your day.

Twice, I have had other things going on when I was assigned to go to jury duty (my dog had a hip replacement and my husband had an ACL replacement) and both times I just told them I couln't make it and gave them the dates I would be available and they rescheduled my service dates to the exact days I said I would be available.

I don't expect that the US Court will be that user friendly.

Oh, and for the record, if I end up on a long trial where you get sequestered? I'm jumping out the window. It will probably hurt, but they will probably let me off.

I hated it - but ignore that

2009-03-30T20:43:00.000-07:00

We saw Watchmen on Saturday and I hated it. It was long and boring. Visually, it was very good, but not worth 3 hours of my life and otherwise it was very lame. It was one of those movies where you are not totally sure what the point (plot) is, and at some point, start to not care what it is.

I'd forgotten that this movie was so long, which is not something I usually forget, as it takes a lot to keep me happily sitting down that long. Several times through the last hour and a half I found myself checking my watch and thinking "well this is probably the end (of the movie)", but it wasn't. I kept asking myself if there were any loose ends that really needed to be tied up? No! Any questions that needed to be answered? No! Any reason not to leave? No! (except Will seemed inclined to stay).

But, even Will didn't particularly like the movie and he typically gives this type of movie a lot of slack. I believe the nice visuals came closer to balancing out the lack of story/plot for him, but not completely.

I saw a synopsis that said something like "it begins to appear that the unthinkable is happening", except I had "thunk" it in about the first 20 minutes and it wasn't shocking, surprising (obviously) nor even very interesting. I just didn't really care what was going to happen, because none of it seemed to matter.

But, if I was you I would not take my advice on movies because I hated Lord of the Rings. I found it mind numbingly boring and it just sucked the life out of me. My take on LOTR is a bunch of guys head out and it gets very dark and the music is very ominous and they run into some very bad people dressed in black and they have a big fight and barely escape with their lives. Then, the scene becomes softened, the music gets peaceful, it gets very bright and they come upon very happy and good people dressed in white and get nursed back to health. This all repeats over and over and over again. But, apparently, the movie was just not long enough, because they felt the need to throw in many random VERY LONG closeups of the ring in Frodo's hand.

Black = evil? White = good? Made by a 5th grader? (No offense intended to 5th graders who have some movie making ability). Talk about juvenile, derivative and just plain lame. I have met one or two other people who feel the same way and a few million (including my husband) who totally disagree.

I also have issues with Steven Spielberg, but I won't even get into that here, but suffice it to say, I think he is very arrogant and makes way too many awful films because he can and we should just all be glad that he decided to make us the movie - because, he is, after all, Steven Speilberg.

I know I have odd taste in movies and have been told by many friends when they are giving me a movie report "It was weird and I didn't like it but you should go see it because you will love it."

Here are some of the movies I have loved. Just to set some parameters and keep the list shorter, I will only list movies I saw in the theater and even then, just a sampling.

Kitchen Stories - A very charming, funny and touching movie.

Mysterious Skin(WARNING - Language in the trailer many will find offensive) - A truly wrenching, emotionally draining, painful, heartbreaking, brutally honest movie that will make you squirm in your seat and change you forever. It is a movie that many can't watch, but everyone should see.

You, Me and Everyone We Know - This is a charming, off beat, funny movie.

La vita e bella (Life is Beautiful) - Heartbreaking, uplifting and an amazing example of love.

Ma Vie En Rose (My Life in Pink) - Very sweet and charming.

Jeux d'enfants (Love Me If You Dare) - Funny, charming and twisted.

Oldboy - One of my favorite movies. It is a Korean revenge film and is mesmerizing, mind blowing and is one of those movies that leaves you in a bit of a daze where you can't decide if it was the coolest movie you have ever seen or the most bizarre movie you have ever seen - but it is probably both. I own this DVD and I only own a few.

Good Bye, Lenin! - Funny and wonderful!

Metropolitan - one of my all time favorites and very funny. I actually saw this in the theater TWICE and I never do that. The trailer is pretty misleading, but this "I don't read novels - I prefer good literary criticism" scene is my favorite scene and this UHB scene is a much more accurate portrayal of the film. Both of these scenes play quietly, so turn up the volume (but don't forget to turn it back down).

Enjoy!!

Fire

2009-03-27T21:31:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to a fire. It was either a house or close to house size structure behind a house that was burning.

I ran out to get a few things and once I started driving figured I may just as well go to Winco and take care of my list of things I needed from there. Now, I don't really like the 2 Wincos nearest my house.

The closest Winco is way overcrowded, which is almost unbearable to a shopping hating person like me and I have been unable to figure out a time where shopping there is not CRAZY. I've tried several days at many different times over the last few years and the only time the store is not packed with people is early (before 6) Saturday morning. However, at that time, the aisles are filled with pallets of stuff and totally impassible with a shopping cart and sometimes impassible by humans. Any other time usually has at least a 20 minute wait to check out.

The next closest Winco is better and worth the drive, but there is a really great Winco just a little further beyond that one. I can drive there, shop and get home in less time than it would take me that closest Winco, plus I get to shop at a much nicer store and the customers seem much less scary at this one. In fact, I have met some really nice people there.

I have noticed one problem though, is that people don't seem to get how the whole bagging it yourself thing is supposed to work. For those of you who shop there, but are confused on how it all works or lack the logic to figure it all out - here is how it goes. Once the checker starts ringing up your stuff, clear the aisle, get your cart down to the end and nose it up to the end with the edges of the cart lining up with the centerline of the conveyors. Then bag your stuff and get it out of the way. Pay attention to the checker, bag as much as possible, but be there ready to pay when it is time so you don't hold up the system. It is a simple and efficient system, as long as everyone does it. Not unlike a time management game.

For the record - I always prefer to bag my own groceries for 2 reasons. First off, I think I do a better job than some checkers and am always better are packing my groceries to better match my needs. Secondly, I would really prefer to be doing something to kill the time while I am waiting there. I am sure I have mentioned before about how bad I am at waiting and I am much happier making the world an ever so slightly more efficient place than just staring at the little credit card machine screen waiting for it to ask me if the total is OK.

Anyway, when I was leaving Winco, pulling out onto NE San Rafael to turn left at the light on to 122nd, I heard sirens. They were faint at first and I could see a police car's lights way up ahead of me on San Rafael. But then as they got louder I could tell that there was a fire engine involved and started to perk up and pay attention. The fire engine came up 122nd from my right and turned westbound on San Rafael - heading towards the police car.

Then came a fire truck and I got excited. Fire engines carry hoses and are a lot more plentiful. Fire trucks have ladders and usually mean something is actually happening. Then came a Chief's car or command car and I knew there was probably an actual fire. So I went and sure enough there was smoke and flame.

I love fire. I do feel very bad for anyone who loses something to fire and have personally been very close to that situation, but the reality is that sometimes buildings burn up and if that is going to happen, I want to be there to see it.

My Dad was a Firefighter and probably would have been a pyro if he hadn't been a firefighter. He did some really cool things with fire when I was growing up and we do not have that problem in our family where our parents gave away our old classic toys that are now worth a fortune, because we blew everything up. No toys survived in our family.

My Dad is pretty calm, cool, collected and nothing much fazes him. But one time I left his mouth hanging open with shock. I was a teenager and was out one Thursday evening doing something. I do not remember what, but I shouldn't have been gone long. On my way home I decided to stop in and see my Grandparents, since they always stayed up late. It turned out they were having a little party, so I slayed for a while, had some Hors d'œuvres and caught up with old friends. At some point I let my Mom know what was going on so she wouldn't wonder why my 45 minute trip stretched into hours and I told her I would be home by midnight.

I left my grandparents after 11:30 and as I headed down (eastbound) Bybee from Milwaukie Avenue, the engine from the fire station just before the McLoughlin viaduct headed out with lights and sirens. Since, this was long before cell phones and I knew my Mom was expecting me, I decided I wasn't really going to follow it, but since it was heading my way, I decided to take a slightly different route home and just see where it was going. I figured that if it was a house fire, in Eastmorland, it could be a big one.

This fire engine just kept driving. I should have headed up Woodstock, but realized a couple of things. This engine was headed out of his area, which typically means a 2nd alarm. To most people that just means an extra fire crew has been dispatched, but to me it means much more , and meant even more on that night.

One big thing it usually means is that a fire crew has already arrived and determined that something is going on. It could be a working fire, and actual car accident, but it is something. The special thing that night was that my Dad was working and he was working at the training station and for training purposes, they went to all 2nd alarms. Plus, by that point we had headed into his area anyway.

I had been to fires he was fighting before, but generally that was when we went to visit him at the station and found him gone. If someone was still there, they told us where he was and we went to to watch.

This night I followed this engine all the way to Gladstone Street - somewhere between 21st and 26th. A small storefront pizza place had had an explosion well after they were closed and unoccupied and caught on fire. I saw my Dad's fire truck (Truck 4) already there and so I quickly parked and walked over tho the fire. I figured I would be there a while and wanted to let my Mom know (sometimes, I was such a good daughter). Handily there was a phone booth on the sidewalk directly in front of the burning building. There was some fire in that part of the building (towards the east end of the building), but the worst of it was towards the west and back of the building. Anyway, I could see the building wasn't going to collapse anytime soon and the windows had already blown out, so I wasn't worried about that. So, called her from the phone booth.

I wasn't sure where my Dad was at, but I think he did search and rescue then and once that was done, they ventilated the building, which usually meant cutting holes in the roof. I figured he was on the roof, so I wouldn't see him for a while, but there were other people there I knew.

So, I am chatting on the phone with my Mom and look to my left and there is my Dad about 10 feet away, doing some firefighting thing (I think spraying water on the fire, which was not his normal thing) and looking back. I am sure he originally thought what is a nutty person doing in that phone booth. But when he saw it was his daughter standing in the phone booth, in the middle of the night, about 5 feet in front of a burning building, chatting on the phone, he was pretty shocked. I could mostly just see his helmet, with his mouth hanging open below the visor.

I said goodbye to my Mom and came out of the booth, walked over to him and said "Hi." He still stared at me for a moment and then said "What are you doing here?" I said "I was in the neighborhood (nowhere near our house) and thought I would stop by. Oh, and Mom says "Hi." He was still pretty speechless and seemed to think this might just be a weird dream. We talked for a bit and then I went back out in the street and watched the building burn - I mean be saved by the Portland Fire Bureau, which at that time was officially called something bizarre like the "Portland Bureau of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services."

My Dad still talks about that night and I think it was the time I surprised him most.

Too Tired

2009-03-25T22:14:00.001-07:00

For the 2nd night in a row I am just too tired to write much but it is a Woot! Off!!! and it figures I'm too tired to stay up and enjoy it (not like I could stay up till Friday evening anyway).

So whole chickens are on sale this week at Fred Meyer for $.79 a pound and I believe that is a really good deal. I don't love chicken (there are just too many weird parts in it), but Will loves roasted Chicken and if I don't make it he buys one of those grocery store roasted chickens and they are really bad compared to what I can make.

Sometimes I go all out and do the Zuni Cafe Roast Chicken with Bread Salad, but normally I do a much easier and quicker version that I like almost as much.

I preheat the oven to 450 degrees with my 3.5 quart-ish cast iron chicken fryer inside. Then I make a rub by combining about 1/3 Penzey's Spice Northwoods Seasoning with 2/3 sea salt. I am a really poor judge of quantity, but I'm guessing 1/8 cup to be about right for a 5# chicken.

I rinse the chicken and dry it, which almost torture for a raw meat hater like me and rub about 3/4 of the rub all over the outside of the chicken and dump the remaining 1/4 in the body cavity.

Once the pot is completely heated, I drop in the chicken breast side up. I cook it with no cover until the center of the thickest part of the thigh reaches about 165 degrees and then I remove the chicken from the oven. The chicken will continue to sizzle for quite a while and I let it rest as the temperature of the breast passes 160 Degrees. It generally stays in the oven I think about 1/2 hour, but that is just a guess time wise and for me since it is all about temperature and the timing varies depending on the size of the chicken, I don't really pay attention to the timing.

The chicken will be perfectly browned, with a crispy akin and moist interior. the pan drippings are pretty awesome too and if you have used a well seasoned cast iron pan, nothing will be stuck hard to the bottom.

Chicken is just so much better cooked fast.

Split Pea Soup

2009-03-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

I love split pea soup, but have always wished it was healthier. I do eat a lot of those instant split pea soup cups, and while healthy and pretty yummy, they just aren't like real split pea soup.

Something about the idea of ham hocks is just a little overwhelming. They make the soup taste great, but they kind of gross me out because I am sure they are really unhealthy. I'm a little squeamish about meat anyway. My cholesterol is low (around 137) and I want to keep it that way. I am pretty sure that eating ham hocks is not the way to do that.

A little over 3 years ago, The Oregonian published a healthy version of split pea soup and there were a couple of things about it that caught my attention and so I decided to give it a try.

The two main things that stood out about this recipe were the use of a ham soup base from Penzey's Spices (one of my favorite stores) and the caramelizing of the vegies to give the soup an added richness.

The soup was amazing and incredibly rich and meaty. In fact, it was almost too rich. The recipe, as written is very healthy, but if you left out the sausage, it would be extraordinarily healthy and still wonderful. As I said, it is a very rich soup.

I used that chicken apple sausage from Trader Joe's (one of my other favorite stores and where I do most of my grocery shopping). I found that it is a little more labor intensive than a normal split pea soup recipe, as for the first 45 minutes while the peas are cooking, you are either chopping or sauteing vegies. You won't be working continuously, but hanging out close to the kitchen keeping an eye on the vegies. I have found these short little down times while cooking, are the perfect time to get up to date on Facebook.

Here is the recipe - enjoy!

Healthy - LouAnn's Split Pea Soup
Sunday, January 01, 2006 - The Oregonian
Makes 8 to 10 first-course servings

1 pound split peas
3 quarts ham stock or low-sodium chicken broth (12 cups; see note)
4 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 pound bulk chicken sausage, any flavor, well browned and drained
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 large carrots, peeled and chunked as large as you like
2 large onions, chunked as large as you like
4 stalks celery, chunked as large as you like
Pinch of granulated sugar
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup chunked red or yellow waxy potatoes
Salt to taste
• In a soup pot, bring the split peas, stock, bay leaves and thyme to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, add the cooked sausage and simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in a large frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat and saute the carrots, onions and celery until lightly browned. Lower the heat to medium, sprinkle the vegetables with sugar and add the butter. Continue to saute until the vegetables are caramelized, about 30 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar to the pan, stirring to loosen browned bits of food on the bottom.
• Add all of the skillet ingredients to the soup pot along with the potatoes. Continue to simmer until the potatoes are cooked. Remove the bay leaves and season to taste with salt.
• Note: LouAnn Frisch uses Penzeys Ham Soup Base and Seasoning to create her ham "stock." ("It is fat-free, easy and fabulous," she says.) Find it at Penzeys' store (11322 S.E. 82nd Ave.; 503-653-7779) or www.penzeys.com.

Cheating while cooking - again

2009-03-22T20:04:00.000-07:00

I am a pretty good cook. I not only have pretty good instincts, but also a fair amount of knowledge. I can also cook fast, so am undaunted by even the most difficult dish. UNLESS it involves kneading

I just don't knead. I don't like it, I think it is mind numbingly boring and it makes my hands and wrists hurt. Every once in a while I will make something that requires a little kneading, but have my bread machine or food processor do all of the work.

Obviously, I seem like a prime candidate for a KitchenAid mixer, but do not have one. I guess I really could never justify spending the money on one and since when it comes to cooking stuff, I always want the best, it is a fair amount of money. In fact, I believe the best KitchenAid, isn't a KitcheAid at all, but a mixer made by Cuisinart. It is 1000 watts, where the most powerful KitchenAid is only 575 watts.

My desire for power is not at all unreasonable, because when it comes to power appliances and tools, I can burn them out faster that most people can get them turned on (My Dad's $300 string trimmer that happened to burn up while I was using it was NOT my fault). I just overuse everything.

I am also extremely hard on clothes, jewelry and watches. I even buy multiples of watches because I end up smashing them in as little as a couple of days. I am also hard on tires. "Experts" are always telling me my tires are out of alignment because they wear on the outside, but it is really just because I corner hard.

Anyway, since I live in a city with a lot of wonderful bakeries, it just always seemed easier to buy bread there. I used to make Will hop off the #14 (TriMet Bus) and run into the Grand Central Bakery on Hawthorne for bread, and since the next bus came along in about 7 minutes, it was really convenient - especially for me. I don't think their bread is the best, but it is darn good and they have a Como Sandwich Loaf that is great for, you guessed it - sandwiches. Convenience also counts for a lot. Grand Central also makes sandwiches and has a really good, non-gooey, chicken salad sandwich and the summer version is loaded with asparagus and tarragon and is excellent.

I love the bread from the Pearl Bakery and handily it was on my way home from my last job. All of their bread is pretty much perfect. I am also fond of the bread from The Little T American Bakery (not so fond of the name) and it is also pretty convenient. This bakery is run by a former Pearl Bakery baker and so it is not surprising that it is so good. Try their Sally Lunn bread.

I do make bread in my bread machine and even though it is not like good bakery bread, I think bread machine are one of the best kitchen inventions ever. I discovered a wonderful book for making bakery style bread in a bread machine, and while it teaches you a LOT about making bread and has some wonderful recipes, it is still a fair amount of work

With all of the bread lust in this country and with everyone striving to make a better loaf, it came as quite a shock to the food world when Jim Lahey discovered that you could make great bread without kneading and he just discovered this about 3 years ago. I wanted to write about this because even though this made big news in the food world, I have found that most people have never heard of this - even though I am sure all of my friends eat food on a regular basis.

The recipe is incredibly simple and makes a wonderful loaf with crispy exterior and a soft and squishy interior. And yes, I do write notes to myself (and Will) on my kitchen counter because....well, why not? It is convenient and never gets lost.

Then, just last fall, Mark Bitten with the New York Times came up with an even easier version, where if it gets any easier again, the bread will just magically appear on your kitchen counter.

I use a plain cast iron chicken fryer and it is perfect. I love cast iron and think just about everything cooks better in cast iron - corn bread, grilled cheese sandwiches, steak, dutch babies - they're all better in cast iron.

Now everyone can make bread. Have fun!

I love potlucks!

2009-03-21T22:16:00.000-07:00

There is no better meal than one shared with friends and loved ones. When it includes everybody's favorite recipes, like tonight's meal did - it is pure joy.

Tonight it was soup and bread and I tasted several wonderful examples of each. Soup is one of my favorite foods and I love trying new soups and really enjoy new takes on old favorites. I love hot soups, cold soups, vegetable soups, cream soups, meat soups, fruit soups, bean soups and even strange ones like Ajo blanco, which is a long time favorite.

I made bread, which was very loved. But, it was so easy, I almost feel guilty that it tastes so good and it didn't involve my bread machine. I've got some more rising right now and will bake it tomorrow. I will take a picture and post it with the recipe.

For now, here is a Janet Mendel recipe for Ajo Blanco, via Mario Batali and the food network-

Ajo Blanco: White Garlic Soup with Grapes

Recipe courtesy Janet Mendel, taken from her newest book about Spanish culture to be published in 2002 by HarperCollins

Prep Time: 20 min

Serves: 4 servings

Ingredients:

6 ounces day old bread (a 3-inch cube), crusts discarded
1 cup blanched almonds
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
5 tablespoons wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 cup water
12 muscatel grapes, halved and seeded

Directions

Put the bread in a bowl and add water to cover. Let soak for 5 minutes until softened.

Meanwhile, place the almonds and garlic in a blender container (or, if using a hand-held blender, into a mixing bowl) and pulse until almonds are finely ground.

Squeeze out the water from the bread. Add to the food processor. Blend to a smooth paste.

With the motor running, add the olive oil in a slow stream, then the vinegar and salt.

Thin the ingredients with 1/2 cup of water to the desired consistency.

Place the blended contents in a tureen, wooden bowl or pitcher and add about 2 cups of water. Taste for seasoning, add more salt and/or vinegar if necessary. The soup should be fairly tangy.

Chill until serving time. Stir before serving into bowls. Garnish with grapes.

I don't want to stop!

2009-03-20T21:23:00.000-07:00

There is a bill (HB 2690) currently in the Oregon House, which would allow bicyclists to not come to a full stop at stop signs and flashing red lights. Bicyclists would still be required to obey all other laws would be required to "slow(s) to safe speed and yield(s) right of way to traffic or pedestrians."

This law is commonly referred to as an "Idaho Stop Law" and seems like a real no-brainer to me. However, it appears that not all oregonians feel the same way. I attribute at least some of these negative feelings to inaccurate information given out by the local media. The media has been trying (but not very hard) to correct this, but as you know, first impressions matter a lot, and in this case they may be the final nail in the coffin.

My real problem here (besides the fact that I really want this bill to become law and it may not), are the disturbing opinions expressed by many people commenting on OregonLive.com. Now, looking at the comments about any article on OregonLive, will show that there are an amazing amount of flat out crazy people who spend a lot of time posting comments.

It always strikes me as funny at how many people are posting about how bad The Oregonian is, yet at the same time it is clear they still are choosing to read it. Then, there is always a group who complain about a particular story not being "news" and how annoyed they are that the article was written. Yet, it is also clear there that these people have read the article. I mean, if the headline is something like "Big Change to Britney Spears' Custody Agreement", just what kind of "news" should you be expecting?

The people with negative opinions seem to primarily fall into 3 categories.

The first and most disturbing group are those that just plain old hate bicyclists. Either they saw a bicyclist do something they didn't like (frequently the underlying attitude it "it wasn't fair") and so they don't think bicyclists deserve any "special treatment." Or, they just overall hate the idea of bicyclists even existing and want them all to get killed. Rarely are these posters even remotely logical, nor are they very coherent in their writing, but you would be shocked at how many times you see words like killed, dead, death, die, etc. as a hoped for outcome for bicyclists.

There are also those who don't understand the law, no thanks to the media, but frequently also no thanks to their complete lack of ability to think critically. There are honestly a lot of people who think it has been proposed that bicyclists no longer have to stop for anything and will blast through all stops with an utter lack of regard to all other vehicles and pedestrians in the vicinity. OK, I know some bicyclists already do that, but that is irrelevant to this proposed law and an awful lot of people don't seem to get that.

The 3rd group just doesn't understand bicycling and can't help but compare it to driving a car, when in this instance, it is much more like walking. Think about when as a pedestrian you come to a street or are walking through a parking lot. You don't have to come to a complete stop to ascertain whether or not it is safe to proceed.

I can ride as slow as your 2 year-old walks and have done exactly that, while following a toddler. Don't get me wrong. I do NOT have amazing balance (or any magical powers) and cannot do a track stand. But I can ride very slowly. As an example, earlier this week I left my house on my bike and headed down a local street where I went through 2 intersection, with stop signs, where the cross traffic does not have a stop. When I came to one of those streets, I arrived at the intersection first, but could see a car coming from my left. I slowed down, while the car got to the intersection and then crossed it and then I continued to pedal through the stop sign all WITHOUT COMING TO A STOP and without riding in circles or some other method of keeping going other than riding slow.

Yes - I just admitted to breaking the law. And, for the record, I didn't stop at a single stop sign that day, yet always yielded the right of way. While it was the logical thing to do from a riding standpoint, I was risking a $360 ticket.

I know to a lot of people, they are just the kind of people who don't want anyone to have something they don't. I won't even get into the really scary psychology I think is behind that attitude, but I believe this is a benefit to all users of the road, not just cyclists. It is simply a much more efficient way to ride and therefore makes traffic in general more efficient.

As an example, think of a four-way stop, where the bicyclist arrives just before you. They have the right of way, but once they have come to a full stop, you have to wait for them to get going again and that takes a while from a feet on the ground stop - especially if there are clipless pedals involved, where they have to unclip and clip back in. I know it is only a few extra seconds, but those seconds add up and I would really rather get going instead of waiting.

I also believe that the Idaho Stop law is much safer for bicyclists because a lot of accidents happen on starting up or stopping - even without considering unclipping glitches. But, I would love to know if there are any riders who use clipless pedals, that haven't at least once failed to unclip fast enough and ended up on the ground.

If you want to show your support (or otherwise) for this bill, it should be by Monday and can be done by emailing your representative. If you want to turn me in for running stop signs, call 911 (cause I am sure they are going to care).

Plagiarizing from myself

2009-03-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking all day that this blog post would be a rant about comments made on Oregonlive.com regarding the Idaho Stop legislation for Oregon pending in Salem. After all, what is the point of having a blog if not to rant - plus there is just major stupidity happening there.

But, I'm just too tired and still need to wash the dogs tonight, so I am going to copy a post from my old blog that was originally posted in July of 2006. As I mentioned before, I started a blog before, but then stopped because the system I was using was too archaic.

I had posted about 2 businesses I loved the night before, but won't copy that one because one doesn't exist anymore and the other is running with a completely different business model now. Sad.

This post talked about a couple of businesses I really didn't like, still don't like and still avoid. Then I ended with a comparison of good and bad, for a total of 3 "bad" businesses and all 3 of them are still going strong. Sad.

Entry for July 21, 2006: So I mentioned 2 places I loved last time so now I will even it out by talking about 2 places that annoy me.

First off, over the last 5 years (well, up until about a year ago when I just gave up), I have made several trips to Subway all excited about the healthy sandwiches they advertise. Now the Subway's I visited were in 4 different western states and probably involved visits to 8 different locations.

Each time I tried to order a healthy sandwich, I was asked for my input as to the ingredients to include. Now I understand that that is part of the charm of the place, and in fact Burger King got a lot of mileage out of the "Have it your way" ad campaigns. However, when I said I wanted the healthy version that was advertised and to just include whatever that included, not one single sandwich maker had any idea what that was. At one location a manger was able to clarify that the healthy version of one sandwich I ordered did not include mayo, but was not sure on cheese or any other ingredients.

Now they were advertising the heck out of these sandwiches and even had that spokes guy who lost all that weight eating at Subway. You'd think that if they put that much effort into selling a product that they would at least have it available, what is the point otherwise? Now while they had sandwiches available and even had the "flavors" they advertised as being healthy, what they advertise as healthy sandwiches are not available unless someone knows what they are and can actually make one to sell you.

Anyway this really bugged me and made me lose respect for Subway (not that I necessarily had loads to begin with). But when a company puts that much effort and money into selling something they cannot provide, I'm thinking that is a company on a downhill slide and with some not too bright people running it. Now, of course, the other possibility is that they think their customers are all so stupid that they will blindly assume that if the sandwich maker asks if you want it, that it all fits into the healthy version of the sandwich and therefore figured it was just a waste of money to spend time on training. Regardless, either way, I am clearly not their kind of customer, so I go elsewhere for healthy (I do though kind of have a thing for regular old McDonald's hamburgers with extra pickles and extra ketchup - not as healthy, but way easier to get. The Asian Chicken Salad is pretty great too).

I did send an email to Subway about this, but did not get a response. I am guessing that no response = the stupid customer model, since how are they going to respond with "We were hoping you were dumber than that". I sent the email probably a year ago, but since I did get no response, I figure they did not care and I have not bothered to go back to Subway to see if I was wrong.

Now, the other place that ticked me off recently was and AMPM here in Portland (SE 92nd and Holgate to be exact). A month or two a go I was on my way out of town and after making several stops, developed a headache and decided and needed some Ibuprofen and some Diet Coke. I also decided I needed a little snack so as to not be taking drugs on an empty stomach. I had a AMPM 44oz refillable cup with me. Now I have this cup, not because I have any loyalty to AMPM or even drink 44oz of anything at one time, but it fits in my cup holder really nicely. However, since it is an AMPM cup, I try to be nice and usually refill it at AMPM (plus they are the about the only place with straws that are long enough for the cup).

I really couldn't think of what I might want to eat at AMPM and since I developed an allergy to corn, I didn't want to go with my old standby of Chex Mix. I figured a trip was not the place to start with crazy itching in my hands with the only cure being more allergy pills. Anyway, as I pulled into my parking spot, I saw that if you bought some kind of chicken nugget thing for something like $1.29, you got a 44oz drink for something like $.69. Now, I am not sure if I am remembering the prices exactly, but you will still understand my irritation. It seems that some AMPMs do not have a set price for refills and they do not all price them the same. However, this location normally charges $1, which is the most I pay at any AMPM.

When the clerk rang up my stuff, she told me it was something like $2.29. I said, "I thought that if I got these two together, it would be $1.98". She said, "well you got a refill". Our back and forth conversation went something like -

"OK, how does that make a difference?"

"Refills are $1."

"That makes no sense."

"Well see, if you didn't get a refill it would be $.69."

"So, you mean to say that it would be better if I used one of your cups, which costs you money and I would be charged less?"

"Well, refills are $1."

"How about you just pretend I used a cup and you charge me $.69?"

"That would mess up our inventory." (Now this was one of the few times she actually answered the question I asked and sounded like she actually had some idea of what she was talking about).

"How if I just go throw away a cup and you charge me $.69?"

"Well, that is what is in the computer."

"OK, so I'll pay you $2.29 and remember how illogical this is and take that into consideration when I decide where to shop and it will not be here."

And I have not been back to that AMPM and probably won't go back. While they probably won't miss me alone, they might be hurt by the decrease in respect they get from others who witnessed this (and I can assure that based on their comments to me and the clerk, they thought she was as nutty as I did) and those I tell about it.

Now mind you, this was so not even worth $.39, however, I guess it harks back to another AMPM experience I had years ago, where I also felt I needed to make a stand on principle, as others may not be able to. I feel that even though these are small amounts, they add up and I hate to see people taken advantage of. Since I have the guts/wherewithal/smarts/whatever to do it, I feel it is my responsibility.

This previous experience took place at a AMPM in Sumner, WA at least 10 years ago. I was in line between 2 young boys (maybe 10 and 8) who were buying 3 donuts. I wasn't paying attention to the transaction at first, but after I realized there was some delay, I started to pay attention. In a nutshell the donuts were marked (right there by the counter) at $.50 each. The clerk agreed that that was the correct price but was insisting that the total was something like $3.79, when it should have been $1.62 with tax. I could see that the boys were giving into the clerk, but luckily they didn't have $3.79 so in that delay I figured out what was going on and stepped in. In the end (after I really stood my ground), the clerk eventually sold the donuts to the boys for the correct price, but we totally got the attitude that "I only gave you that discount because you are a total bitch and don't ever think you can get away with ripping me off like that again". I hope the boys learned to stand up for what they think is right and I really hope the clerk was so pissed that he went over and over the event in his head and finally realized what an idiot he was (or at least math impaired).

Let me say though, that the AMPM in Renton, WA on Rainier Ave S at around Renton Ave is AWESOME and the people are AWESOME.

So, I guess the big difference between companies I like and I companies I hate is whether the employees are empowered to think. Now the places that don't give that empowerment can probably pay less, because they don't need to hire anyone with a brain, but the stupidity just compounds my annoyance.

I can compare trips to Target and Walmart about a week apart. I usually try to avoid Walmart, but when it is about 9:30 PM the night before my husband's birthday and I suddenly decide I need to do a sewing project for his birthday, where else do you go?

I spent 24 minutes in the express lane (I won't bother explaining why a lane change was not a good idea) while the cashier tried to find out the price on a notepad, (that couldn't have been more than $3) that was not in the system. There were many people involved in this, including a supervisor (I'm thinking there was some kind of black hole the people going to check the price kept falling into). At some point the irate customers (I was one of many), came up with the idea that maybe the cashier should void the sale and ring the rest of us up while waiting for the price. She also thought that was a great idea, except by that time the manager that needed to stick her key in the register to authorize this had also disappeared into the black hole. Anyway, even at Walmart wages, a pile of money was wasted trying to track down the price and I can't even gauge the cost of having all of those customer so livid.

About a week later, I was behind a women buying a door mat at Target. It wasn't in the system! I felt the panic rising, I had flashbacks, I looked for another line. But, by the time I could act, the cashier had asked "do you know how much this was"? The customer said "About $8". The cashier rang up $7.99 and said "is that OK?". The customer nodded yes and within about 24 SECONDS of my arrival at the check stand, my stuff was being rung up! What a difference!!

I'm not going to give the details on what Walmart it was or when this occurred...well...because they are all sorta that way. And I'm not going to give the details on what Target it was (I don't think I remember, although I might be able to sort it out with Quicken) or when this occurred...well...because they are all sorta that way.

Stay cool!

Friday July 21, 2006 - 06:37pm (PDT)

OK - since I only made a few blog posts on my old blog, this stealing from there will only work once. But, I am sure I can find other stuff to steal in the future, so I don't actaully have to write all this myself :)

Feeling Pale

2009-03-17T22:40:00.000-07:00

I've noticed that working out makes me really pale and I don't think that always was the case. I haven't paid real close attention, but I think my color comes back about 15 minutes after I stop. Has all the blood rushed to my muscles and left my head? I don't think I feel particularly light-headed so maybe it just leaves my face for my muscles.

My muscles are able to lift the weights, so they must be getting blood, but there is no way my face could be this white with any significant blood in it. I usually stop in the locker room before I leave and wash my hands and then do the same when I get home (OCD and I am OK with it). Frequently I will catch sight of myself in the mirror and think "Wow - she looks BAD" and then realize it is me and I do look really bad - sort of like I am dead. I mean, I normally look pretty awful when I am working out anyway, but this paleness takes it to a whole new level of bad.

I am not concerned about looking bad, but is it something bad that is causing me to look pale? I can't imagine why this is happening.

When I went to the YMCA I usually got up at 5:15 AM, pulled on some gym clothes, put my hair in a very messy ponytail, brushed my teeth, grabbed a protein drink to guzzle in the car and was at the gym before they opened at 5:30. Sometimes I went late on a week night, but I never looked good when I was there.

Except, when I stopped by there to get my membership card, I was not working out, so the picture is normal. The people at the membership desk got to know me pretty well. They knew I didn't want a locker, when I was going to be out of town and they just in general knew me. But, every once in a while there would be somebody new there and they would look at my card, look at me, look at my card, look at me and then usually one of the regulars wold step in and say "It's her, she doesn't need a locker so just put her card on top."

But, one time after I had been working out there for years I had to stop in when membership was open to get a new parking permit. You don't have to go past the front desk to get to membership (kind of like Costco), but they want to make sure you aren't sneaking in the back way. Anyway, I came in, said "Hi - I just need to go to membership" and started to walk on by and they freaked out. Then I realized they didn't recognize me looking normal and had no clue who I was.

The thing I find the strangest though, is that I get hit on at the gym a lot. I have no idea why. I mean, I try to be nice to everyone everywhere, so it's not just because I dazzled them with my smile - not that I necessarily have a dazzling smile, but that I appear friendly.

Now keep in mind, I have on mismatched and not very cute gym clothes, my hair at best is in a messy ponytail, but more likely in multiple random ponytails, I'm drenched (really drenched) in sweat and I'm PALE. You know the saying about not wanting to join any club that would have you as a member? Well, that applies here. I'm pretty sure that anyone who would hit on me at the gym is missing something upstairs (or blind). You might think I am exaggerating, but if I remember, I will take a picture of myself when I get home from the gym someday and prove it to you. Plus, I have found an easy way to brush off almost all of these guys that shows they all share at least one issue. I just lift more weight then they do and they magically disappear.

When Will and I first started dating, his gym was closed for maintenance and so he came to my gym and did my workout. He hated it and has never done that again - he is just a class guy. He fits in a some weight lifting after class, but really only likes classes. Me? I hate classes. As is typical with me, I want to do what I want to do, when I want to do it and listening to the music I want to listen to.

Anyway, it turned out that I could shoulder press more weight then he could. That may very well have changed, as he does lift weights more often (then never) and there is no question that overall he is much stronger than me (it turns out boys and girls are different), but I could definitely lift quite a bit more weight over my head than he could, and he absolutely did not give a crap. That made me love him even more.

It is not like I am that strong or in that great of shape and can only dream of ever being able to do a muscle up (not at all likely), but I am pretty strong for a girl.

You Tube makes me happy – or at least entertains me late on Saturday nights.

2009-03-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

I believe these are all pretty popular and I know everyone has seen most of them, but they are always fun to watch again.

Probably the video that makes me happiest is the Numa Numa Guy. This video features Gary Brolsma lip syncing/dancing/being weird to a Romanian disco song called Dragostea din tei, which is performed by the Moldovan group O-Zone. I’m not sure how the name Numa Numa stuck – other than that is what I think Gary Brolsma called his video, but I call it “The Numa Numa Song”, as do most people I know.

This video got really popular about 4 years ago and a lot of parodies, remakes and mixes have been made since, and many of them are mixes with other viral videos, like the (Warning - some profanity) Angry German Kid. At least one version has includes the angry German Kid and the Star Wars Boy. There is also an updated version by Gary Brolsma.

A couple of years ago our friend Nancy came to visit for a few days and like always, we had a blast with her. For some reason when she first got here we watched the Numa Numa video and it really stuck in our heads (as that song easily does). It actually got stuck in Will’s and Nancy’s heads the worst and they sang it the entire weekend and frequently did the dance that goes along with it. I was a little more tired of it after a couple of days, although, it is now on my “Current” play list in my iPod, which is the playlist with about 100 songs that gets the most play.

That weekend we went to a place on MLK near the Burnside Bridge that is a Middle Eastern bakery by day and a Russian/Eastern European disco at night popular with the Russian mafia. Of course, they played the Numa Numa Song and we were the only people in the place who reacted with hysterical laughing.

I like Eastern European music and would love to go to Romania, but I guess until I get to Romania, I'll just enjoy the Numa Numa Song.

The Laughing Baby video always makes me very happy (how could it not) and the Front Fell Off video always make me laugh really hard. I just saw this short video from FailBlog today and watched it over and over again laughing all the way. Last night my Niece, Emily, showed me Kittens Inspired by Kittens and I loved it. It seems like a video she might have made herself.

Will first showed me the Spinning Leek Girl video and I found it oddly mesmerizing. A lot of other people did too because Will got a lot of people hooked on it including a co-worker who started using it in his radio show. The song is Ievan Polkka as performed by Loituma. There are many mixes of this song out there, including some pretty good techno mixes, but the video of the performance by Loituma is pretty amazing and shows their incredible talent. This song is also in my “Current” playlist.

I’ll finish with the Titanic Pimp video, which is the saddest, funniest, most disturbing video of them all and the saddest, funniest, most disturbing part makes me cringe and the hair on the back of my neck stands up and usually elicits screams from visitors who watch it with us. I can’t imagine you not being able to recognize that part, but in case you get it confused with other sad/funny/disturbing parts, I will post the timing in the comments. I wonder if You Tube has more of an impact on me than I realized, because this song is also in the same playlist.

Because I have such broad tastes in music, there is nothing typical about what's in my "Current" playlist - except for the lack of country songs (OK - there is one pretty un-countryish sounding country song and it is one of 16 out of about 10,000 in my iTunes and most of those are one KD Lang album). But, these 3 songs are about as un-typical as you get in this playlist which is almost half alternative with a lot of rock and dance in there too (and most other genres in existence).

I have said many times that there is something in my music collection to offend everyone's musical tastes. When I said that to my sister Julie her response was "You have Micheal Bolton?" I don't think I have any Michael Bolton, so I guess I have something to offend everyone but Julie. Although, she was a little disturbed when she saw "polka" on my Blackberry (I've got lots of music on there too), but when I played her Ievan Polkka, she liked it. However it gives me a direction to head in if I want to offend her too.

Stupidity in advertising

2009-03-15T21:27:00.000-07:00

I wonder why in food ads, raw meat is displayed as if it really cooked. Who do they think they are kidding and who do they think finds the idea of eating raw chicken appetizing? There you have a serving platter, with a whole chicken in the middle with the parsley and the serving utensils - just like it is already to eat – except they forgot that one key food poisoning avoidance step – COOKING! ICK!!! OK, I now I know I have issues with raw meat, but I am sure nobody wants to eat raw chicken.

I also want to know why so many ads seem to have lazy people behind then who are not able to come up with something that actually illustrates their point, so they end up using something that illustrates the opposite point. As a general example, how many times do you see ads for cars which feature skidding in a turn? While that is much more exciting to watch, a tendency toward oversteering or understeering is not something I am looking for in a car.

I have seen many ads over the years that do illustrate my point, but as I hardly ever watch TV, no good examples are imprinted on my brain. The car insurance commercials with the perky checkout girl are kind of a mediocre example, but I remember the gist of them. When someone buys something and saves money, the checker is overjoyed, while the customer is very ho-hum. The customer should be overjoyed because it is such an amazing amount of money he is saving and the insurance company employee should be ho-hum because she works at there and as EVERYBODY save loads of money there, she sees this everyday and it is nothing special.

Think about these ads – first somebody (probably as team of sombodies) had to come up with them. Then they were presented to the client, who said “OK – Great idea – let’s do it!” (probably another group decision) and then another group of people had to produce these ads. Didn’t at least one person along the way say “Hey – this doesn’t makes sense” or at least question the intent? Am I the only one who thinks this is bizarre? Have I really been switched to some weird parallel universe? Or am I just losing my sanity or intelligence?

The gym I went to up until 5 years ago had TVs. There were several sets of 4 around the gym and you could see them from almost anywhere and during parts of my workout, there were right in front of my face. I think they were normally tuned to the OPB and the 3 network stations and had closed captioning turned on (which was amazingly bad and frequently incomprehensible during live broadcasts). The sound was off, but each TV had a little transmitter where you could tune to an FM station and hear the sound. I never tuned in.

I would go for months with this as the only TV I saw. During that time I would see many ads over and over and had them memorized in my head - or at least I had my version memorized. Then at some point I would invariably see the ad with the sound and find out I had been WAY off. But, my version usually made way more sense. Of course everything in my head makes excellent sense to me.

There was one show that came on at 6 AM (about 1/2 hour into my workout) that was called Sit and be Fit. It is an exercise show for the elderly and physically limited individuals and honestly had exercises like tapping your fingers. Don't get me wrong, if that is all you can do, I totally understand and am very sympathetic. Heck, at one point, when after at least 4 weeks of physical therapy, my first husband was able to wiggle the toes on his left foot, it was a GIGANTIC accomplishment.

But, it was just strange to watch this while working out. That point in my workout - then and now - is about when I start lifting weights and I lift pretty heavy weights (at least for a girl). So, there I'd be, seriously pumping iron and mesmerized by this incredibly perky woman, wearing full-on 80's aerobics gear, doing the most minuscule of exercises. Surreal!

Am I crazy?

2009-03-14T21:37:00.000-07:00

OK – I know I am a little crazy, so I guess I am checking to see if I am getting crazier.

Last Saturday I went to my favorite pizza place. I waited 95 minutes for a table. They do not take reservations (OK they do take them, but only for one group of over 6 per night). Everyone who knows me knows that I do not like to wait for food (or in line at the PO or just any kind of waiting in general) and this 95 minute wait alone might lead some to believe I have gone off the deep end. But, those would be people who have not eaten at Apizza Scholls. Their pizza is incredible. This place is very popular and considered to be one of the best pizza places on this side of the country (although, the newer Ken's Artisan Pizza is giving them a run for their money).

Theoretically, this was a nice night out on my Birthday and a time for Will and I to spend quality time together, to bond and just be with each other. In reality, we both furiously surfed the web on our respective electronic devices. I read all of the news I could find, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN, Google News and some local news and it turns out I ran out of news after 80 minutes.

The pizza (Bacon Bianca) was amazing as always, and we also ordered a Caesar Salad, which I'd heard was great and it was truly amazing - just perfect.

Here is the famous "up-skirt shot" showing the beautiful char. This is not burnt and adds a wonderful smokey flavor. This is just one of the many things that makes this pizza special. Big chunks of raw garlic helps too.

Overall, I am really glad we went, but probably won't go on a weekend again, or at least without a book to read on my Blackberry.

Last night I went to see a friend's band, The Subterranean Howl play and had a great time. They are just really really good and I have been listening to their latest CD all day. No matter where I am in my house, I've either got a place to plug in my iPod (in 3 rooms it is a home theater sound system) or I can run my iTunes computer through the system (thank you honey!). I can also run it through my car stereo, so it was a lot of listening and I enjoyed every minute.

Tonight I went to Kent Randles' Annual Pisces Dinner and had a blast. There were 12 of us - mostly people related to Will's work (he couldn't go), but a few of them are people I really like and see only once a year if I am lucky. The rest of the group was really cool too. I pretty much figure everyone I meet is a friend and I am usually right. I had met a few others before, but just barely and it was great to get to know everyone, or to know them better over loads of really excellent Thai food at Thanh Thao (Hawthorne). We were able to have all of this fun and avoid St. Patty's Day pre-revelers.

It has been a good week for me and I've got more good things planned. I just hope my dear friend Toni is having a great Birthday today and another great fiend,Veronica, has a good run in the Shamrock Run tomorrow.

Do I need contact lenses or not ?

2009-03-13T07:36:00.000-07:00

I wear contact lenses and love them. But, sometimes I get them turned inside out and then they get a little uncomfortable, but the discomfort is not immediate. However, they get more annoying as the day wears on and need to be flipped. The way to tell if they are reversed is to read the brand name on them and see if it is backwards. And, yes, I was surprised to find out there was writing on contact lenses.

In my case, I am looking for a little B&L, and as you can imagine it is really little - as in microscopic. In fact, I think it is more of an engraving, so it is not even a contrasting color. I am not sure why contact lens manufactures think anyone could read that, but especially a contact lens wearer without their contact lenses in. If I could see stuff like that, I certainly wouldn’t need contacts. This picture (not taken by me) shows a contact lens that is inside out. It is also a lightly different shape - flatter with a little lip, but the difference is just as hard for me to see as the B&L. See the tiny B&L on here? Now hold your finger up to the screen to see what the actual size of the B&L is in real life.

Yesterday I went to Costco, an event that I always dread and fear more than warranted. But then again, I hate shopping and sometimes Costco is really awful. Yesterday was not that bad. In fact, there was one really great aspect of yesterday’s visit and that was my discovery of sweet potato fries in the freezer section. They are YUMMY!!

Plus – it was a nice day and running errands didn’t seem so tedious with the sunroof open (I actually pretty much open it regardless of the weather – including snow and rain) and Bolero blasting form the stereo.

Last night we had sweet potato fries and I made a garlic/lemon/basil aioli, with fresh grated garlic, to dip them in and a traditional spinach salad with a typical olive oil/balsamic/Dijon/honey/sea salt dressing. Those are some yummy fries and they bake up nice and crisp, so who needs Burgerville – except that I think they have pumpkin shakes at the same time as the sweet potato fries, so I’d have to go then anyway, and except when it is Walla Walla Sweet Onion ring time or blackberry shake time. I guess I do need Burgerville.

Be there or be square for The Thrill Spectacle of the Year!

2009-03-11T22:15:00.000-07:00

I am very lucky and have lots of very artistically talented friends. I even have several very talented relatives on both sides of my family - but NONE of that talent fell my way (one more thing I can blame on my parents). But, I think this lack of talent has made me appreciate the talent in my friends and family all the more.

Some of my friends have a wonderful band - The Subterranean Howl and they will be playing this Friday night at 8 PM at the Mt Tabor Legacy, which is the old Mt. Tabor Theater. Not only is this a great chance to support a local band, but they are REALLY GOOD! I am really excited about this and hope to see you there.

Shannon, who is the wife of the lead singer, is incredibly talented in her own right, a very cool friend and an all around amazing person. Did I leave anything out? Oh yeah - she is a pretty inspiring mother too. She was recently in this video and is in it a lot. Because of the nature of the video, it is fun to try and find her. She is the only one with long sleeves and has straight shoulder length hair with bangs.

See - I am pretty lucky in the talented friend department.

LOVE XOXOXO

2009-03-10T14:53:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of the websites I love –

I am going to start with shopping websites because those are what I get asked most about. I get asked often enough, that last October when I bought 4gb Micro SD cards for $5.99, I just started forwarding the same email to everybody. Now I will just send a link to this blog post.

Since I pretty much hate shopping, but sometimes need stuff and want good stuff and don’t want to pay a lot for stuff, these website make my life way easier.

Woot – also Sellout Woot! (found at the bottom of the Yahoo shopping page under "Deal of the Day" - just click on the product name to get there) and Shirt Woot! – One deal per day (except when there is a Woot! Off) and loads of fun. This is where I usually am at 10 PM, and have been since 2004. Just read the FAQs AKA What is Woot? They pretend to not have very good customer service (you will see what I mean when you read the FAQs), but in the 50+ orders I have placed with them, I have only had 2 problems and they actually provided excellent customer service based only my forum posts and more than made up for it. I have never heard about anything except excellent customer service from other wooters. The product descriptions are usually hilarious. The best Woot thing ever though is the guy that got a 52” TV in his $1 Bag of Crap AKA Random Crap. I’m serious – he got a new 52” In Focus DLP TV for $1 + $5 shipping from Woot.
Passwird – Aggregator of great deals
Deal Detectives – Just a few items listed per day, but they are good and this is a good place to find out about real limited time offers - like those incredible Dell coupons that only allow a limited number of uses and get used up in just a few hours.
Buy.com – go to the “Deals” tab and select “Today’s Deals” for some very good deals
Deal Catcher – Several good deals listed everyday
Amazon Friday Sale – or go to Amazon and click on the “Today’s Deals” drop down menu and select “Friday Sale” – but only on Fridays. This sometimes has some really good deals.
1 Sale a Day – pretty self explanatory. Also see the watch and wireless versions which they have links to on their website.
Meritline – Some really good deals on random things, but mostly electronics, and shipping is usually free. They have great deals on LED flashlights, memory cards and thumb drives. I also used to get the large black Kongs for my dogs there for about $5, which was about 1/3 of what I could get them anywhere else for – I think they are $17 at my pet store. But they don’t have them anymore. I have purchased several things from these guys and have always gotten great service.

There are also lots of website that have coupon codes for online retailers, but it is easier now to just google the name of the retailer along with “coupon code” and see what kind of discounts or free shipping you can get – before you check out.

Favorite non-shopping websites.

Cool Tools – just like it says - Cool, only the "Tools" is as in stuff, not hammers. Some of the neatest things I have found (including websites) have been from here. I have an RSS feed that shows me what new cool things they post and it is now typically 1 cool thing per day, but I really recommend working your way through their archives. There are cool things in literally every category you can think of - books, tools, electronics, clothing, art, cars, food – you name it, if it is cool, it can probably be found here.
Study Stack – online flashcards. Add your own data and not only will Study Stack generate flashcards, but crossword puzzles, word searches and loads of other study tools, but you can also find lots of shared stacks, which could save you having to enter the info. Although entering the info is a good study exercise itself. You can also down load these to you Cell, PDA or iPod and study on the go.
Instructables – learn to do or make just about anything. It is amazing what you can find here.
StumbleUpon – A really fun way to waste time and a place I have found lots of neat websites, stuff and information. I believe you can go to their website and “stumble” around, but download the StumbleUpon tool bar and then once you have set up an account, you can let them know what some of your interests are. Then you click on the stumble button and you are taken to a random website they think you will find interesting. You can also give each site it takes you to a thumbs up or down and that refines the websites it chooses for you. Will and I have stayed up late too many nights stumbling.
How Stuff Works – Just what it says – how stuff works, but also random trivia.
Google Maps Pedometer – find out how far it is. Either with a straight line, or automatically using a route for runners or cyclists.
Fluther – Ask any question and you will get an answer and probably good one. Answer questions too.

And, last but not least - something to do -

Electric Sheep – I learned about this site and its screen saver on cool tools and the Electric Sheep may have taken over my mind, but I love them. The only thing though, is if you download the screensaver (which I highly recommend), it takes several days to get your flock well populated. The screensaver is mesmerizing & beautiful. It is an evolving kaleidoscope-ish, smoky, sprirographish, bubbles, oil mixing with water, colors you see when you close your eyes, everchanging screensaver, but unlike anything I have ever seen. It is complicated to explain how it works, but these sheep evolve collaboratively using all of the computers running electric sheep. Cool Tools has a better explanation. These sheep (I think there are millions) are constantly flowing/morphing from one to another.

Here are a few of the millions of sheep -

Enjoy!

Mindfulness or Mindlessness

2009-03-08T21:02:00.000-07:00

This last week I read a really interesting New York Times blog post by Judith Warner. It focused on some random ideas and thoughts that had been fluttering around the edges of my mind, but had never really settling into any concrete conclusions.

First off, from what I have read, practicing mindfulness is not necessarily a bad thing if it is practiced correctly, but that is rarely done in this country. It is also likely I have never seen it practiced correctly, although it is entirely possible that when practiced correctly, it is not particularly noticeable.

Since I have not seen the correct version of mindfulness practiced, I can only write about the mindless version, and since that is the one that bothers me, it is just as well.

Of course, for this to make real sense, you will have to read the blog post that inspired it and I also recommend reading the comments to that post.

I believe that most of the people practicing mindfulness (remember, this blog is about the incorrect version) are intrinsically unhappy people, and this is just one more thing they grasp onto, hoping to find happiness. I also believe that the standards some of these people have set for what qualifies as happiness are not attainable and therefore, they are on a never ending quest.

I personally, like Ms. Warner, am someone who experiences emotions always in capital letters and exclamation points. I also cherish the raggedness that makes us human. I don’t mean raggedness like stealing government benefits or beating your wife, but the things that make us unique individuals. I want to see and feel others exuberance and passion for life. I don’t believe that many good things would get done if nobody lived life with passion.

When in the moment, you are so focused on yourself it is very easy to miss life going on around you. All of the focus and energy you direct at yourself is taken from somewhere, or someone else. I have other things I would prefer to do with my brain. Lots of other things.

This is all not to say that self awareness is not a good thing, because it is a really good thing, but once you become aware, move on – don’t daudle.

Soup!

2009-03-06T22:35:00.000-08:00

There is a soup I am addicted to. I’ve always called it Hon’s Soup, but Hon’s is actually the name of the restaurant that serves this soup and they call it Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Hot Soup. I know that most of you who know me, know about this soup and in fact many of you are also addicted to it.

Hon’s restaurant is probably my all time favorite restaurant. It is in Seattle and I first went there 25 years ago this coming Thursday and have literally been hundreds of times since. It was about 45 minutes from my house and there were many weeks I went multiple times and when I was spending the day in Seattle it wasn’t unheard of to have both lunch and dinner there. There were even times I went twice in the same day where I went home in between visits. Of course, I got many other people hooked on it and we almost always had good company going with us to dine there.

I really have gotten probably over 100 people hooked on that soup. I even had a friend from the east coast with a short layover at SeaTac ask me to bring her the soup. I have also had people try to bribe me to fly it to them. I am like a crack dealer – except without the cool cars or wads of cash (or illegal drugs).

They are located at 416 Fifth Ave. South, Seattle, WA, 98104. The phone is 206 382-8521. It is right across the street from the International District Station for the Bus Tunnel. If you want directions, I can give you detailed directions on how to get there from any location and I could do it in my sleep. Now, before you go rushing off to eat there, I must warn you that I have not been there in 2 years and about a year before that the owners sold to some longtime family friends and lovers of the restaurant. They were careful to make sure the food stayed the same, but eventually they did a little remodel and planned to revamp their menu, deleting several key items, as the chef was going to go back to school and nobody else knew how to cook these items. Then the chef didn't go back to school, but may have since.

In addition to the soup, they had the best spring rolls (really, they are the best) and a wonderful dish called Hon’s Fried Egg Noodles that was served on crispy fried noodles. One of the other great dishes was Braised Tofu. I love Tofu and would be happy living off of their Braised Tofu, but I know many Tofu haters who also loved this dish. It might have been the ground meat that was in the sauce on the Braised Tofu and the fact that the Tofu was fried.

Canh Chua or “Sour Soup” as it is commonly called, is nothing like Hot & Sour Soup. The sour comes from Tamarind (the same source of tartness in Phad Thai) and it is a light tangy fresh soup with tomato, bean sprouts, shrimp (or fish), garlic, crisp fired onions, basil and Bac Ha. It can be spicy, but that is technically Canh Chua Tien and either way, I always order mild.

Canh Chua is not traditionally found in many Vietnamese restaurants, but is commonly eaten in Vietnam. I eat at a LOT of Vietnamese restaurants, but hardly ever find the soup on the menu. You can frequently find the bulk of the ingredients all together on a Styrofoam tray wrapped in plastic, at an Asian market. Also, many times when I have purchased Bac Ha, the checker has asked in her best English “You make sour soup?” as if that is the only thing you do with Bac Ha (it may be). I get a strong impression that not many “white” people make or eat sour soup.

I won’t go into the details about Bac Ha, but it is a strange and wonderful vegetable. Check out the links and read about it yourself. Please note though that I have NEVER had any issue with the toxin, nor have I known anyone else to. If someone was going to have a reaction, it would be me. Heck, I am allergic to corn (huge hassle, even though by taking Allegra, I can eat some corn), Tylenol knocks me out, normal doses of Vitamin B6 make me have muscle twitches like crazy and a HALF does of Excedrin makes me forget my name and walk into walls.

Needless to say, whenever I do find the soup on a menu, and I am finding it more often, I always try it and am frequently disappointed. I am sure that if I had never had Hon’s version, I would love these bowls of soup, but they pale in comparison to Hon’s version. Almost 14 years ago I had a very close version in San Francisco, but San Francisco is even less convenient than Seattle.

Tonight, I FOUND AN EVEN CLOSER VERSION JUST 5 MINUTES FROM MY HOUSE! I had read a “Cheap Eats” review in The Oregonian a several weeks ago and they raved about the Sour Soup. But, I figured it was unlikely the writer would even know what good sour soup was, so while I did try to go there shortly after I read this (they were closed that day for repairs), I haven’t rushed back (of course not having a job as really put a dent in the frequency of my eating out).

Tonight was heaven. The minute I saw it headed my way I could tell it was going to be a good version and as soon as I smelled it I knew…Hon’s Soup! Those of you who have had it, know exactly what I am talking about.

I found it at Pho Vietnam at 5440 SE 82nd Ave, Portland - (503) 772-2148. I don’t know how their pho is, but then again there are already about 5 great pho places within 5 minutes of my house (I am also lucky to live near several great Banh Mi places too). Will had the Pepper Salted Squid which was quite tasty, but maybe not quite as good as Jin Wah or Thien Hong. The Salad Rolls were also good. This place is just behind (to the east) the Wells Fargo on the NE corner of 82nd and Foster.

Another thing great about Hon’s is that everything there was delicious. I can't understand why, but no Vietnamese restaurant in Portland seems to be able to do everything well. Although, Pho Vietnam may come close. I’ll have to try the Pepper Salted Squid again and few other dishes before I know.

If you want great Pepper Salted Squid, you go to Thien Hong. They are the experts, in fact I asked one time and they said that some days they sell over 300 orders of it. When you go in there, watch, because EVERY table gets some. Although, admittedly the rest of their food isn’t all that wonderful. But their Pepper Salted Shrimp is really strange and nothing like the Squid. If you want good Pepper Salted Shrimp you cross the street and head a few blocks west to Zien Hong. Zien Hong has excellent Pepper Salted Shrimp. But the squid there? Not so good.

I will end with a happy Zien Hong story. Several years ago I went there for pepper salted shrimp. You can order it with the shell on or without. Most of the shrimp flavor is in the shell. When shrimp Bisque is made, it is made with the shells and then they are strained out. If the shells are fried, they are crisp. They are very good and nice and crunchy and very palatable. In most, if not all Asian countries, not only is the shell eaten, but the whole shrimp – including the head. I love the whole shrimp. Now most shrimp without the shell seems bland to me.

The first time I had it there I had gotten it without the shells, as Will was with me and is not real fond of the shells. When I went back by myself, I ordered it again and of course ordered it with the shells. Frequently when I do this I am questioned by the waiter and when I confirm that is how I want them, I get a look that says “You have no idea what you are getting yourself into.”

This waiter didn’t seem too fazed by my order, but it is probably because they show it both ways on the menu. Anyway, I got my shrimp and was happily crunching away when the chef came out of the kitchen, looked around, spotted me and came and sat down at my table. He looked at me for a few seconds in utter surprise. Then he said, almost in awe “You the only white person ever ordered with shells.” I said “They are missing out because the shells are where all the flavor is. This is very good. Thank you.” He gave me kind of a proud father look and headed back to the kitchen.

I was very glad I made him happy, because he made me very happy. But, not as happy as the chef at Pho Vietnam made me tonight.

In Case I am Abducted

2009-03-05T20:57:00.000-08:00

I downloaded Google Latitude and installed it on my Blackberry. I set it to allow Will to see where I am at, or at least see where my phone is at.

Google Maps already triangulates my location using cell towers and Google Latitude now shows my location on a map.

Of course there is the big outcry over “Big Brother”, but many of those outcryers are really not paying attention. I saw several comments about people not wanting Google to know where they were at, but as they already have Google Maps on their phones, Google already knows, as does their cell provider.

Google Latitude is so that everyone else can know where you are at, but you not only decide who you want to see it, but you can override the triangulation and enter whatever location you want as your current location. But, chances are, if you see someone in person in the morning and then that afternoon they pop up in Bali and do not budge for a week (and you are not in Bali), then they probably entered their location.

I personally like the idea of someone knowing where I am at – maybe because my Mom drilled that into my head for years. I have though noticed in recent years that when I call her and say something like “I am going to Trader Joe’s, New Seasons and the Post Office” she doesn’t seem to give a crap anymore.

I want Will to be able to find me if I am missing - like if I pass out from low blood sugar or get abducted (maybe by aliens). I don’t really expect to get abducted, but you never know. I did tell him that he couldn’t track me when it is birthday or Christmas shopping time.

Google Maps has always been pretty good at locating me and in fact is frequently dead on – except at my house. A month or 2 ago I was in Salem, which may as well be Iowa to me, and wanted to buy gas. I had Google Maps locate me and then for a location to find I typed in “Chevron Salem OR” and it found the nearest Chevron and guided me there. I know that doesn’t seem very special at all – except that the GPS on my blackberry is NOT enabled. Google did it all.

But, when I am at my house it frequently shows me about a mile north of my real location and even more disturbing, is that the other place it frequently thinks I am is Walmart, and I pretty much hate Walmart. I drove right past Walmart on my way to the PO yesterday and should have looked to see where Google thought I was then.

Of course, this all kind of depends on Will checking Google Latitude for my location or even noticing I am missing in some reasonable amount of time.

If you need me, I will be suffering from low blood sugar at Walmart with my alien abductors.

All Better Now :)

2009-03-04T22:30:00.001-08:00

As you can see, the chain is now on the large chainring. I still need to make some adjustments, but at least I can go fast now. I'm happy and life is good! Now, I just need an actual bike ride. Somewhere along water.

I just finished a wonderful salad for dinner. Where there are options given I used both lemon and orange juice, Balsamic, mustard (Dijon), Tofu, sesame seeds and also cilantro for the fresh herb mentioned in the narrative, but not in the actual recipe. Yuummm!!!

I am thinking about changing gyms. My gym is small, crowded, lacking equipment I want to use and doesn’t open till 5:30 AM (weekdays) and closes at 9:30 PM (weekdays). It is about 5 blocks from my house though.

I realized a long time ago that the most important thing in a gym (assuming it has the stuff required to work out) is convenience. When I lived in the Brooklyn Neighborhood (about 7 blocks south of Powell and I block west of Milwaukie Ave.) I went to the Metro Family YMCA just across the river and it was a 5 minute drive. When I moved to the Mt. Scott Neighborhood I realized very quickly that a 15 minute drive each way would not work.

Will goes to 24 Hour Fitness (a block from his work) and likes it. He workouts completely different from me, but I have visited his gym when mine has its annual maintenance closure and overall I liked it. Costco currently has a deal on a 2 year membership for $299, which equals $12.50 per month. I currently pay almost $30. The deal is available through a certain date, but that dates keeps moving further out. Once you buy the membership there is no limit to when you activate it and the 2 years does not start until you activate it.

A new 24 Hour Fitness is being built on McLoughlin Blvd at Holgate. That is 10 minutes or less away from home, but my expectation is that since no matter what direction I head from my house, there is a 24 hour fitness within 15 minutes, there will be one convenient to my commute from wherever I end up working. Even if I still hit my old gym on Saturdays, and pay per visit, my overall cost will still be less than what I pay now.

Changing gyms is a pretty big deal for me because I really like knowing where everything is at, how it works and not having think about it or take the time to figure it out. But, I have worked out in so many different gyms around the country (Seattle, California, Arizona, Minnesota and Vegas) and was somehow able to make them all work for me (but the Minnesota gym was best because it was most like my home gym) that it will not be the end of the world.

There are a couple of weight machines that my gym does not have and that I really miss. One is a Multi-Hip Machine, which allows you to do lots of hip work really quickly. To get the same workout without this machine takes way more time. I also love Torso Rotation Machines. Not only is it a nice way to work your obliques, but it feels really good. It really stretches your back, which to me is just about heaven.

One of my earliest memories (and I have very early memories) is becoming aware that before I was even totally awake (and I wake up pretty fast) I would stretch. I didn’t know that it was called stretching and couldn’t talk yet , so I couldn’t ask. But, I just knew it felt really good and I still think so. It is not so much about stretching muscles - not that I don’t love that too, but more about traction or stretching out joints.

Anyway, the new gym isn’t done yet and my current year at my gym is not up until June, so hopefully I have some time to decide.

I have been betrayed!

2009-03-03T22:26:00.000-08:00

By my bike. I love my bike. A lot. I have been very devoted to it. Cherished it. Lovingly cared for it. And now it has betrayed me. The chain will not move to the biggest chainring. It moves between the other two without any problem, but nothing happens when I try to go to the big chainring (the big one is my favorite, because I use it to go fast). The derailleur doesn’t seem to move and the shift lever seems dead.

I think the derailleur just needs to be adjusted, but don’t have a repair stand to properly work on it. I realized though that I can put it on my car bike rack and do it there. You are probably wondering why I am so distraught (yes, I am distraught) over a bike and I am kind of wondering too. But, I LOVE MY BIKE and it is a Klein Attitude Comp, which isn’t made anymore. So, I think of my bike as irreplaceable.

My bike is a 2000 and I bought it shortly after Klein was purchased by Trek, but when Gary Klein was still making them. My bike was rated as the best mountain bike that year by Mountain Bike Magazine and every review I could find just raved about it. Not only did everyone love the bike, but many reviews mentioned what a great deal it was ($1,200.00 – which is a lot in my world) and that the frame alone should sell for more.

Later, once Trek took over the making of Klein Bikes and ruined them, the brand disappeared.

Klein was renowned for making great bikes, but also for their perfect welds and phenomenal paint jobs. Each model was made in one color each year. Unfortunately, mine happened to come in about my least favorite Klein paint job ever. I believe the year prior they came in a nice blue and then the year after in an awesome iridescent purple. All of the cables are internally routed so nothing is hiding the beautiful paint jobs. Until you put crap on them (water bottle cage, pump, lock, light batteries, etc.) and cover up the paint. In my case, covering some of the paint is a good idea.

I was looking at several different bikes, all of which were less money. But a trusted friend recommended a Klein and so I went to test ride one. Once I got on that bike, I knew it had to be mine. And, I was riding it with clipless pedals in street shoes. All of the other bikes felt like bikes, but the Klein felt like it was part of me.

So, the idea that I could possibly lose a part of me is upsetting. But, if anyone needs a kidney, I have a spare.

Well, that was exciting.

2009-03-02T20:17:00.000-08:00

Today I went to the gym AND cleaned up recycling from the street. That wasn’t all I did, but definitely the most exciting things…so far. I may return some books to the Library later.

Every Monday, which is garbage day, my garbage hauler (AKA City Sanitary) comes by and dumps a bunch of recycling in the street. They dump some in their truck and that which gets left behind gets to try again next week and I get to see what kind of cereal my neighbors eat. I am happy to report (because I like my neighbors) that they eat pretty healthy cereal – lots of Kashi. Someone else even eats my favorite cereal.

I somehow thought our new blue roll carts would help, but they haven’t. My garbage hauler (AKA Heiberg) at my old house didn’t have this problem. I’m not sure if this is a company wide problem or if I just have “born in a barn” types visiting my house every Monday. I suppose that it could also be that this isn’t as nice of a neighborhood and they just think we won’t notice garbage on the streets. Maybe I should just thank my lucky stars we have running water here in the slums.

Bugs in Plastic and Lots of Food.

2009-03-01T18:01:00.000-08:00

So, I've decided to start a blog again. I have always liked the idea of writing about things I find interesting and started a blog to do just that a couple of years ago. However, the blogging system/program/website really sucked and made blogging very tedious and awkward. As tedious and I don't mix well, I gave up after just 2 posts. Now I have discovered Blogger, which is now part of Google and I am confident things will be easier this time.

This first post is sort of random and really more of a test.

On Friday I went to the Yard Garden and Patio show with my Parents. I go to a lot of these home/garden shows and always look for the one really cool thing that made the trip something I would have been sad to have missed. There were 2 special things at this show and neither were typical yard/garden/patio items.

There were some really cool bugs in plastic. I'm guessing Lucite, but am not really well read in plastics. Some appeared to be just in block form for display and some were made into keyrings and I guess a few were meant to be paperweights. There was a very large variety of bugs available, although, not very many spiders.

I really love bugs and would love to have a bunch of these, except I think I would also want them to be useful. I am not a keyring sort of person and really not in the market for a paperweight, but I guess a couple of blocks just for display would be nice to have. When they start putting bugs in things like flatware handles, I will be all over them (assuming they are dishwasher safe). These were sold by Yao & Feng Company at 206-832-6082.

There was also a woman there selling vinegar and oil. I didn't examine the oil closely, nor taste any, but I did see some truffle oil. The vinegar however, was amazing! It was aged (20+ years) Balsamic from Modena Italy. There were several flavors like vanilla and raspberry and it was thicker than maple syrup. It was so sweet and complex and would probably be good on just about everything - especially fruit, ice cream, egg dishes and meat, in addition to the obvious salad. I think it was about $30 per 12 oz (approximately) bottle, which while only about a fourth of what you might pay in Italy, it was still out of my price range right now and I probably would have ended up drinking it all straight out of the bottle on my way home anyway. I seem to have lost her card, but will try to get her info and post it later. Or, I am sure you can find something as good in Modena.

In a quest for continued gastronomic happiness (my Mom and I had sampled LOT of vinegar), we decided to hit Bunk Sandwiches on the way home. I believe they have the best sandwiches in Portland and apparently many others have come to agree, because the place was packed and it was almost 2 PM. All of the tables were full and the line was out the door and to the street, even though they are pretty fast at making those sandwiches.

I hadn't been in a while and they have gotten a lot of good press - including an Oregonian A&E cover. However, I thought that with the economic situation (the food is a great deal for the level of quality, but they are on the spendy side) and time of day, they wouldn't be so crowded. I am very happy for them, but sad that I will not be able to eat there as easily. I don't suppose that after only being open a few of months they are thinking of expanding yet.

Since my Mom had already done a lot of tromping around and running for Max on her newish knee, we decided that the wait and then prospect of eating while standing was too much. We ended up at Riyadh's on about 13th and Hawthorne for some delicious Lebanese food.

On a good note though, I hear that sometimes you can get into the best pizza place in the western US without waiting a super long time. There are even a few urban legends floating around of people going in late on a weeknight and finding that they were not out of dough AND then were seated with NO wait. These probably just legends, but something I can fantasize about anyway.

These are pictures (not mine) of the Clams Casino pizza, which is no longer on the menu. However, the Bacon Bianca pizza is similar - I think just missing the clams, but unbelievably delicious.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon and evening with Veronica and had a wonderful time. We spent about the first 3 hours together hanging out in my living room with both of my doggies draped over her. Then after de-furring, we headed to Fujin. I have eaten there many times over the years, and always enjoyed my meal, but last night Veronica introduced me to their Crispy Eggplant and it was wonderful. It is sliced very thinly, then quickly fried and is tossed with a tangy rich sauce. Yuummm!!

After eggplant nirvana, we caught Slumdog Millionaire at The Cinemagic and while I really liked it - maybe even loved it, it wasn't as good as I expected. But, I do recommend it. I had been wanting to see it since before even the limited release (that didn't happen in Portland) and maybe had built it up too much in my mind, but the pile of Oscars didn't help. One odd thing though, is that in the last 24 hours, 2 different people told me they thought it was a musical. I think I did see a picture in an ad that might lead you to believe that, but it is definitely NOT a musical. It does though have the big dance scene with the whole cast during the credits that is common in Indian films. It all made me want to see Bend it Like Beckham again.

I'll leave you with a link to one of my favorite videos. It makes me cry a lot and is pretty much guaranteed to make you cry, so if you are not in the mood for that, don't watch. If you don't already know the story about Christian the Lion, watch the longer video or read about him.