Michelle is gushing about getting to see Franco Sarto at Nordstrom’s today when she was returning a suit. He designs all her favorite shoes and boots.
Well, she’s not really that excited, just kind of surprised.
Month: January 2005
Oregon Zoo
Wonderful weather and a trip to the Oregon Zoo with Hilary and Michelle. Highlights include seeing the wolves playing and getting some quiet time with the orangutans.
Cream Revival
This past weekend my dad mentioned that he’d heard that Cream was going to do a reunion set on the condition that they included some new material. Although I hold out little hope for the results, there’s a small part of me that hopes it rocks like Cream Live II or the Bruce/Baker/Moore tracks on Cities of the Heart.
It appears that Clapton has been talking up the reunion, but there still aren’t any dates at the Royal Albert Hall. My feeling is that the show will be all glossy and polished like the stuff from their induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Sure they were good, but it was too mature and there was way too much reservation so it just kind sucked.
If it does happen, I’ll certainly give it a listen. If it sucks, I’ve still got the Ginger Baker Trio.
Roads End
My parents, sister, Barley, Michelle and I spent the weekend in Roads End on the coast. The weather was surprisingly warm, and the view of the ocean was great. Plus we got to see some very pregnant sea lions trying to give birth. At first we thought maybe they were just injured, and maybe they were, but we’re going to content ourselves with the Oregon Fish & Wildlife explanation.
It was also Hilary’s birthday (happy birthday), so we celebrated that as well. We also stopped by the Chinook Winds casino briefly and took them for like $30. I’m sure none of you are surprised though after seeing ‘ol dead eye in action in Vegas.
Anyway – it was a blast and I’ve put some pictures up. I may repost them because several of them are choppy from a setting I changed in iphoto.
Like old photos
Michelle and I stopped in Banana Republic, J. Crew and other clothiers looking for gifts for my sister. I was surprised at the general ugliness of most of the clothing. The patterns, fabrics, and textures were right out of my parents and grandparents christmas pictures. The pictures where you try to not laugh at how bad their taste was. Some of the clothes look like they were cut right from the upholstery of abandoned furniture.
Michelle informed me that most of the thick bizarre value village style clothing was fall’s fashion and it’s probably on the out. Good.
New Rushdie Fatwa
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei renewed the fatwa against author Salman Rushdie last night. Though his blood may be spilled with impunity, I doubt Salman could wish for better publicity. Not that it has made his life easy.
This is one of those long standing quasi-religious, quasi-political things that I fail to see any logical reason for and merely chalk up to ideological idiocy. Like the Cuban Embargo, denouncing birth control, the royal family, etc…
Its somewhat unfortunate that the limited exposure I’ve had with Iranians has been those in academia because they aren’t able to paint a picture of Iran that differs much from the one I already have. I’m quite curious how normal citizens feel about this fatwa.
Yoda struts its stuff
Why, when I have new struts, suspension, linkages and a rebuilt power steering cylinder and I’m driving over a windy hilly road, do I have to get behind a Volkswagen beetle with Jesus fish?
Anyway – the Yoda now has it together again and drives like the ELUV (egg-like utility vehicle) that it is. Typical though – We get a little money and the first thing we do is blow it on much needed car repairs.
Its kind of weird though – there has been play in the steering for nearly 5 years. Now it does what its supposed to. I’ll have to get used to not having an inch or two of float on each side. Oh, and the shocks react differently.
One Frozen Night
Last night I borrowed Hilly’s camera to shoot some night pictures of all the ice. With her tripod in hand, I wandered the streets looking for things that would look cool with the aid of an open shutter. I took a number of crappy shots, but managed to take some that I like as well.
Finally, cold and tired, I started walking home. Just shy I slipped and fell. I’d been holding the tripod away from me so if I did slip, it would remain upright. Sadly, we were on a hill, and shortly after I hit the ground, the tripod tipped and the camera came crashing down as well. A quick inspection made it look as if only the lens cover had been chipped. The camera worked, so I was able to sleep some. When I looked at it again in the morning I noticed a rather nasty crack in the body with the plastic bent into the camera. Damn. With any luck she can get just the plastic body piece replaced. Otherwise I’ll be camera shopping soon.
The Ice Storm
We’ve had a work-closing ice storm in Portland. Well, freezing rain anyway. We’ve developed nearly half an inch of solid ice on top of the streets and cars. Its been excellent as many businesses have closed so there is little going on.
Normally this would be fine, but we had errands to run, and Hilary was kind enough to brave the roads and come pick me up so we could do some shopping. The big score of the day was a vacuum sealer, but details on that are on rooftop brew.
The real joy of the day was driving in winter conditions. I love snow and ice, and Hilly’s Toyota all-wheel-drive wagon (with studded tires) performs admirably on ice. She let me drive and I had a blast. I even did an almost perfectly executed fishtail into a 180 to park the car.
One of my favorite things is to humble SUV drivers. Especially when we’re in a small wagon. Slowpokes. We did help a young fellow from Ethiopia or Eritrea who slid off the road into a mechanic lot full of cars.. He was probably new to ice, but seemed rather happy to be back on the road and on his way home. We also tried to help someone in an IROC Z-28 who was flooring it trying to get up a hill. By the time we finally got to the car, which sounded like an alien being dissected, got some traction and started moving forward. I love winter. And I love these inept drivers.
First Post – circa 1901
I got an e-mail from Friendster begging me to see what’s changed and generate advertising revenue for them and they used a rather brilliant hook by using examples of updates by friends in my network to lure me in.
I logged in and found very little different other than more surface area dedicated to ads. But I did notice that on my testimony to another friend, the date on which I posted the comment was way back in December of 1901. First Post!
Looks like there might be some Y2K issues? Or maybe they’re using old clamshell ibooks to host the site? My sister’s first generation iBook had logicboard problems and the clock was always resetting to Jan 01 of 1901. Bizarre.
Still, I’m going to keep the image and use it for nerd-clout. “Why I was using the internet back before it existed.”