Category: life or something like it

Aug 12 2012

the weekend without a computer

So Friday morning my computer froze up and when I rebooted, it fell into a blue screen of death cycle. I tried the system repair tools, my recovery DVD, even an Ubuntu live DVD. Nothing would get all the way through the boot process. So I took it into a repair shop recommended by a friend to see if something was salvageable (since I’ve neglected updating my backup since the move). The repair guy ran a diagnostic on the hard drive and is pretty sure the data is ok, so that’s good news.  The bad news was that it didn’t appear to have a quick fix solution, so I would have to check it in for service which has 3 – 4 business day turnaround right now.

So with a weekend to kill and no computer I devoted my time to some projects in the kitchen.

After my normal Saturday morning trip to the Hollywood Farmers Market, I finally got around to making a batch of Kombucha with the kit I bought when I took a class on it a few months ago.

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I was inspired to make a lemon cake in honor of my sad computer (and the novel The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake) while grocery shopping. It had also been a friends birthday on Friday, so I was also making it for her birthday as well.

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The other main thing I did Saturday was get some photos taken of me by a friend (for better LinkedIn/FB profile pics).  Alicia and I both went and saw The Bourne Legacy at the same time (though her in LA and me in Portland).  It was enjoyable…a Bourne movie, nothing special, but a good time.

The weekend projects weren’t over though.  After getting home from church, I made a batch of salsa:

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Then it was the big project…canning the 5 lbs of green beans I had bought at the farmers market Saturday.  I made them into Pickled Dilled Beans:

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(the red thing in the jar is a slice of red bell pepper)

All in all, I feel like I had a pretty productive weekend.  🙂

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2012/08/the-weekend-without-a-computer/

Aug 06 2012

so this happened…

…I got engaged!

 

Last Wednesday, I flew down to LA to surprise Alicia with a visit.  I flew in during the day while she was at work and was at the apartment before she got home from work.  So when she came into the bedroom and I was there sitting on the bed…I got a nice scream out of her.  She was pretty excited though (once she started breathing again).

As for the engagement, I hadn’t really told anyone that I was thinking about doing it before the trip.  Partially because it was going to be a gut feeling kind of thing.  Do I do it now, do I wait until she’s moved up here to Portland or I have a job, those kind of thoughts.

Anyway, we had met up with one of my friends in downtown LA on Thursday and after we parted ways with my friend decided to take the new(ish) Expo Line to Culver City.  It was then when it popped into my head where/when to do it.  When we got to the USC stop, I said “Hey, lets get off here.” (at this point she is a little suspicious)  Then we walked towards where we had our first kiss (and she’s a lot more suspicious as we get closer).  When we got there, we kissed a couple times and I leaned in and whispered the question in her ear…and she said yes (phew!).

Afterwards, we walked back to the Expo Line and took it to Culver City as planned (going with the original idea to get some dessert).  In the end, we just walked around downtown Culver City and didn’t get dessert.

So yeah…that’s my big news of late.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2012/08/so-this-happened/

May 09 2012

Happy Seizureversary (and other news)

A year ago today I had a seizure while at work…by this time in the day, I was in the hospital (for what would be an overnight visit).  So how are things a year later?  Well I haven’t had any further events…so that’s a good thing.  I survived not being able to drive for five months living in LA.  Health wise…everything seems to be pretty stable.

Lately the biggest change has been my move back to Portland.  I’ve for the most part settled in to my new apartment.  I’m still looking for a job (I did have one temporary assignment stuffing envelopes for 2.5 days).  I’m starting to get a little bored without a job to go to.  But for the moment I’m still pretty confident that something will turn up soon.  All in all, its nice being back in the NW.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2012/05/happy-seizureversary-and-other-news/

Mar 19 2012

Heading back to Portlandia

Its official…I’m heading back to Portland at the end of the month.  I don’t have a permanent place to live yet and I don’t have a job yet (though I’m trying to continue on remotely at my current job…fingers crossed).  So this is another leap of faith.  Now to get everything done between now and the end of the month.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2012/03/heading-back-to-portlandia/

Jan 16 2012

Steinbeck on Falling in Love

Something for all of us to remember…whether we’ve already found love or are still waiting for it to find us.

Originally posted at Brain Pickings:

“If it is right, it happens — The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.”

Nobel laureate John Steinbeck (1902-1968) might be best-known as the author of East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath, and Of Mice and Men, but he was also a prolific letter-writer. Steinbeck: A Life in Letters constructs an alternative biography of the iconic author through some 850 of his most thoughtful, witty, honest, opinionated, vulnerable, and revealing letters to family, friends, his editor, and a circle of equally well-known and influential public figures.

Among his correspondence is this beautiful response to his eldest son Thom’s 1958 letter, in which the teenage boy confesses to have fallen desperately in love with a girl named Susan while at boarding school. Steinbeck’s words of wisdom — tender, optimistic, timeless, infinitely sagacious — should be etched onto the heart and mind of every living, breathing human being.

New York
November 10, 1958

Dear Thom:

We had your letter this morning. I will answer it from my point of view and of course Elaine will from hers.

First — if you are in love — that’s a good thing — that’s about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don’t let anyone make it small or light to you.

Second — There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you — of kindness and consideration and respect — not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had.

You say this is not puppy love. If you feel so deeply — of course it isn’t puppy love.

But I don’t think you were asking me what you feel. You know better than anyone. What you wanted me to help you with is what to do about it — and that I can tell you.

Glory in it for one thing and be very glad and grateful for it.

The object of love is the best and most beautiful. Try to live up to it.

If you love someone — there is no possible harm in saying so — only you must remember that some people are very shy and sometimes the saying must take that shyness into consideration.

Girls have a way of knowing or feeling what you feel, but they usually like to hear it also.

It sometimes happens that what you feel is not returned for one reason or another — but that does not make your feeling less valuable and good.

Lastly, I know your feeling because I have it and I’m glad you have it.

We will be glad to meet Susan. She will be very welcome. But Elaine will make all such arrangements because that is her province and she will be very glad to. She knows about love too and maybe she can give you more help than I can.

And don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens — The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.

Love,

Fa

via Letters of Note

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2012/01/steinbeck-on-falling-in-love/

Jan 13 2012

twenty eleven

Its beginnings were still in a bit of emotional turmoil.  The middle was filled the fallout from a medical event.  As it came to an end, most things had settled down to a pretty stable routine.

I think the best way I can sum up 2011 is it was a year of either looking back at 2010 or looking forward towards 2012.

That said some highlights from 2011:
●  An externship at the Hollywood Farmer’s Kitchen doing food preservation.
●  Roasting my own coffee (and getting a mention in the LA Times because of it).
●  Traveling to Portland Timbers matches in Portland, San Jose, Vancouver & and going to both matches in LA.
●  Reading more books than 2010.
●  Beer Belly (a craft beer bar — not my actual beer belly) and the great folks I’ve met there.

I am definitely looking forward to this year…there are big changes in store and I’m excited for them to come to fruition.   But those are for a future post.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2012/01/twenty-eleven/

Oct 28 2011

Love

“If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there’s salvation in life.  Even if you can’t get together with that person.”

— from 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/10/love/

Oct 10 2011

NYC for Mike’s wedding

In early September, Alicia and I flew to NYC for my friend Mike’s wedding.  It was Alicia’s first trip to NYC (and my second).  We caught a red-eye flight from LAX to Newark (through Cincinnati), and arrived to NYC Friday morning.  Because we had flew into Newark, we had to take the train into the city from the Newark airport.  So our first experience with NYC was emerging from Penn Station.  We had to pick up the keys to the apt we were staying at in Brooklyn, which was a short walk to 5th Ave.  Along the way, we walked through Koreatown.  We had left one Koreatown for another (though NYC’s K-town is a much smaller deal than LA as its only one block).

Koreatown NYCAfter picking up the keys, we got some lunch and then headed to Brooklyn to drop off our stuff and get ready to head out for the wedding.  We were able to walk over to Mike’s apt from where we were staying and then go with the larger group heading over to the wedding site.  As for the wedding itself, it was probably one of the best weddings that I’ve attended.  It was low-key, but not overtly.  They had friends that had provided homebrewed beer as part of the beverages and it was catered by a pizza truck (I don’t remember if it was wood-fired…but it was definitely artisan pizza).  Mike and Jessica had written their own vows (Mike’s referencing his obsessive fandom of the Oregon Ducks and other sports).  A real good time.  We did end up bowing out around 11pm (ET)…since we had very little sleep since the day before (and what sleep we had was airplane sleep).

Mike & JessicaSaturday, one of Alicia’s college friends came up to the city from Rutgers.  We met up with her at Central Park and walked around there for a while and then I left to meet up with Mike at the NYC Duck’s bar to watch the football game (see the vows reference above).  One cool thing that happened on Saturday, is that while Alicia and her friend were checking out the Highline Park, they ran into a La Newyorkina cart.  We had just received her Paletas cookbook from the KCRW cookbook club a week or two before the trip.  (Alicia and I went back the next day, because I wanted to try one as well).  After the Duck game was over, I met back up with them and we ended up heading down to the tip of Manhattan.  We walked by Ground Zero, where they were going to have the big grand opening of the 9/11 Memorial the next day, and then walked down to see if we could catch the Staten Island Ferry.  When we got to the terminal, we had just missed a ferry and didn’t feel like waiting for the next one.  Because it was the 10th Anniversary of 9/11 the next day, they had set up white flags for the persons killed in the attacks in Battery Park.  Each flag had each persons name on it.  It was a pretty impressive display (it takes a lot of park space to put up that many flags).

9/11 FlagsIt was a quick trip (we had to head back Sunday), but we both had fun.  Alicia wants to move there (I think its a nice place to visit…but I wouldn’t want to live there).

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/10/nyc-mikeswedding/

Aug 16 2011

Berkeley, San Francisco, & Santa Clara (for the Timbers!)

I Spent a long weekend in the Bay Area to go see the Timbers play the San Jose Earthquakes last weekend.  Being that I’m still unable to drive, I took the train up (flights were more expensive than I wanted to pay).  I do love the train (and look forward to high speed options coming in the distant future).  I was able to do some reading and enjoyed a beer from home on the way up.

I stayed with my sister and her fiance (well he was only there the first night) in Berkeley.

One of the main reasons for the trip was to go to the Timbers game vs the San Jose Earthquakes.  So Saturday afternoon, I took the CalTrain down to Santa Clara for the match to meet up with the other members of the Timbers Army that had traveled to the match.  I have some pictures, but this video gives a little better idea of the match day experience:

The rest of my trip, I spent mainly hanging out in San Francisco walking around.  I tried to go to new areas this trip instead of the usual suspects of the Mission & Haight/Asbury.  (I wasn’t however able to escape going to the Ferry Building multiple times, they do a pretty good Farmer’s Market on Saturday’s, and the more permanent vendors inside are just too good.)  So Sunday, I struck out from the Ferry Building and decided to walk along Embarcadaro towards the Palace of Fine Arts (and possibly the Golden Gate beyond).  Along the way, I stopped at the TCHO Chocolate Factory (and tasting room) and the Boudin Bakery (and museum/factory tour).  I didn’t take any pictures of the chocolate factory (they weren’t producing on Sunday), but I did get a few on the bakery’s factory tour.

Boudin Bakery

After grabbing some lunch at Boudin, I continued on towards the Palace of Fine Arts.  It was a typical San Francisco Day, blanketed in a slight layer of fog that just didn’t want to burn off.

San Francisco Days

I finally made it over to the Palace of Fine Arts (a new place visited in San Francisco) and debated what to do next.  Would I continue on and walk over the Golden Gate Bridge, or would I head over to the Mission to get a loaf of Tartine Bread.  In the end, I decided on the bread, as the Golden Gate would be there the next day and Monday’s were no-bread days at Tartine.

Palace of Fine ArtsMonday, I headed back over to San Francisco for some more exploring.  This time I ended up at Sutro Heights Park, where the Cliff House Restaurant is, and the Seal Rocks are just offshore.Pacific from Sutro HeightsMonday evening, I met up with my friend Cristy Rose at a local pub in Berkeley (The Albatross) and spent the night at the house she was house sitting at.  We had a nice brunch in the morning (with fresh eggs from the backyard chickens), walked around Berkeley some, then it was off to the train station for my trip home.  All in all, a nice relaxing trip.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/08/berkeley-san-francisco-santa-clara-for-the-timbers/

Aug 09 2011

4 years

4 years ago today…I arrived in LA.

Purely coincidentally, I happen to be on a train returning to LA from a long weekend vacation in the Bay Area.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/08/4-years/