Author: Andy

Grandparents Duck visit

My mother and Grandparents stopped in to visit yesterday and my grandmother was relieved to see that her dining set actually did fit and was in good shape (excepting for one chair that was somewhat loose). I showed my grandfather the gluten-free section at New Seasons, and I’m not sure if he was impressed or not – but I think i get my suppression of being impressed from him, so maybe they were. Either way, my mom was, and picked up some rice/tapioca flour hamburger buns and pizza crusts. It’ll make life easier for her when she’s cooking dinner.

Speaking of dinner, we tried out Halo Thai down on 16th and Alberta. The day we’d placed a bid on the house, we came back that evening and walked the street to get a feel for it – you know – reality check for whether or not we’d made a huge mistake. We spoke with two women and their kids about the neighborhood and they suggested that Halo was better than the place down our alley. I’m not sure it was better or worse because the two were quite different. The owner of Halo is Laotian, and I tried the fried catfish with red chili sauce on his recommendation, and it was excellent. The pad thai – the american litmus test for thai food – was quite different from most places I’ve had. Good in it’s own right, but different.

Now my mom is headed back to Yakima (which will be the same temperature today at 98F – why am I riding my bike?) to get my grandparents back for some appointments. It was a nice quick visit – and excellent to have them see the place (and approve of it, I think).

Dumpster Juice

At the end of our walk this morning, Barley made a quick lick at a stain of dumpster juice that was dribbling from the eroded corner of the bin outside a restaurant down the street. I yanked him away quickly because last week there had been maggots in the juice, and after a week of 80F plus weather, god knows what else might be in it. Gross.

Intelligent Design?

Bush thinks intelligent design should be taught along side evolution in the classroom? That’s as preposterous as the article calling intelligent design a “theory.” Maybe he just want’s to see his name in headlines next to the word “Intelligent.” I suppose that would require that he actually read the paper.

Really though, what kind of introduction does intelligent design require? You spend 100% of the time teaching the chemistry, physics, and biology that have been involved in the rigorous pursuit and development of the theory of evolution for over a century, and at the end you mention that some people are afraid of some of the contradictions that the theory means to their belief system. Sure – Intelligent Design is a lovely idea and many great minds like Einstein and Hawking feel that the beauty of the universe is evidence for a god, but they don’t dilute their work with personal feelings. And Bush should quit diluting – well – everything. Especially science.

The fullness of the weekend

We just completed a massive weekend, and though I’m quite exhausted, we had a blast. For me, the weekend started with dinner at Lagniappe’s (awesome) at their new location on 19th and Alberta and a walk up and down the street for Last Thursday. Although hotter than usual, it was still a hoot excepting for the challenge of parking. I took Friday off to clean and complete errands before the weekend. Friday Michelle and I attended a wedding for one of her co-workers at the Adrianna Hill Grand Ballroom on the second floor of a building on the corner of Yamhill and THE SUN. It was kind of hot, and while wool does have excellent wicking properties, the phrase “cool wool” is still a misnomer. Afterwards we headed over to Scott & Stephanie’s immensely transformed back yard and caught up with friend from Bellingham.

Saturday we started with breakfast at the Vita Cafe then headed out towards Estacada for some refreshing cliff jumping and swimming in the Clackamas River. I love the small section of river and Barley couldn’t get enough swimming. I have a wolverine-like scratch on my chest to prove it. Sadly, it’s hard to get pictures while you’re swimming so hopefully Justin and Matt got some good shots. Then it was back to Portland for some food and then down to OBF for an evening of beer and reverie.

Sunday was a little slower – for me anyway, and most everyone got a surprisingly early start. Michelle and I met Hilary and Fletcher at Aja for some breakfast and then picked up a Holboellia (or china blue) vine for one side of the arbor. Tommy stopped by again before heading home because traffic sucked and who really wants to sit on an idling engine in all black clothing at the hottest part of the day? So we checked the video store for Faster and ended up instead getting some ice cream. It’s been ages since we’ve done that.

Naturally, this is the short summary.

Refridgerator water

While I’m thinking about it, I love refrigerator water. So cool and clean and readily available. I’ve not had access to it since a wee child in Cody, but I remembered it fondly. Now that we have it again, I’m also reminded of another refrigerator issue from childhood – cubed vs. crushed ice. My parents always scolded us for using crushed ice, which we never really understood. Now that Michelle wants crushed ice and i want cubed ice, I finally get it. Crushed ice makes it so you have to fill your glass twice with crappy fractured chunks. Chunks that melt too quickly and create a slurry rather than a sustainable cooling agent. Preliminary arguments suggest we’re not going to resolve this any time soon.

Too hot to sleep

I have trouble sleeping when it’s this hot. So tonight I stayed up so we could force more cool air in to the house, and I knocked off a few items from my massive to-do list. (i.e. – IBU/ABV calculators fixed on rooftopbrew…)

Because we’re trying to get outside air, we’re also bringing along with it some foul smell that seems to have come out of nowhere. It’s like a blend of backed up sewer, vinegar, and gun powder. It’s rather wretched, and I’d like it to go away. I want my thai food smell back.

Drip

I hooked up a drip system in the front yard this weekend to reduce the amount of interaction (and wasted water) with the flower bed. We’re still learning the names of some of the flowers that the previous owner planted. Luckily, they’re fairly exotic, and we can find the names in the floral section of our grocer. Some are so outlandish that I’d never have planted them, but according to the oregonian, they’re hot shit right now.

We also got the equipment to install the arbor my dad made for our wedding. This is the first time we’ve had a place for it, and I think it’ll make a nice entryway to our yard.