Life at home with my parents is always so relaxing. There is never a lack of things going on, it seems like there is always about 4 or 5 people here at all times. Today was a very relaxing evening of home cooked chicken and baked potatoes, then it was out to the porch to just sit around and talk about nothing.

Turns out my parents have a dog pack at the house right now. My brother David brought his dogs over and my sister has her dogs over plus there are the two my parents have. Its like a freaking zoo here. I’ll get to the other animals another time.

Hope you all don’t mind but I’m probably going to be doing a lot of reminiscing about home and family over the next week. I just can’t pass up the opportunity to post about the things here and my family that I am going to miss so much when I leave.

This Ethan my nephew, Jonathan and Adrian’s little boy.

This is my parents front yard with their dog pack. (gosh I hate little dogs, you know the one that never stop yelping like someone is pulling the claws out)

I’m in Auburn Ca for the next week, the weather is amazingly cooler than I expected.

I’m here at the airport in Portland getting ready to go down to Sac then it’s east to Auburn. As it would turn out PDX Airport has free internet. How nice of them.

I thought I would leave Portland in style by giving you a little bit of random information. Hope you like it. I found the first one to be the most interesting.

1. Portland was almost “Boston, Oregon”!

   Portland was named by the flip of a coin by its two original settlers, Asa Lovejoy and Francis W. Pettygrove. Lovejoy wanted to name the new settlement after his hometown of Boston; Pettygrove wanted to name it after his hometown of Portland, Maine. Pettygrove won the coin toss, best two out of three.

2. Portland’s Two Rivers:

   The Willamette River (pronounced “will-AAAAAH-met”) divides Portland into its east and west sections; “Downtown” is technically only the part on the west side of the river. About seven miles north of downtown, the mighty Columbia River divides the state of Oregon and the state of Washington.

3. No Sales Tax

   Oregon is one of those rare states that has no sales tax (except on hotels and car rentals). We do make up for it by having a fairly high income tax (9%). However, when you weigh the overall tax burden of Oregon, we usually come out about average of all the 50 states.

4. Can’t pump your own gas.

   Oregon is one of only two states (New Jersey is the other) where ordinary people can’t pump their own gas - you must have an attendant do it. I’m not kidding!!! Native Oregonians seem to love this tradition and every attempt to get rid of this rule has been defeated. It is kind of nice in the winter time when it’s cold and you don’t want to stand in the rain and pump your gas or just don’t want to get your hands dirty.

5. White city:

   Portland is the whitest big city in the US, according to recent census data (over 70% white). Today Portland is considered liberal and tolerant - although it’s easier to be “tolerant” when most people are of the same race. But, Portland has a racist past that consigned blacks to a few neighborhoods in NE Portland. For better or worse, today those black neighborhoods are becoming more and more white (”gentrified”) as housing prices skyrocket in Portland’s urban neighborhoods, enticing poor and middle class homeowners in these neighborhoods to sell out.

more Random Facts

So this is it, Im taking my comcast back from here on I’m going to have to rely on finding my internet from some one else. Kinda makes me feel like I’m being left high and dry.

Here they are, these are the boxes I sent to Brody today.

I’ve never really thought of myself as a person who moved a lot. I guess that is until I moved to Portland. Since I’ve lived in the Portland area I have moved 4 times, and now here I am doing it again. I decided this time that I wasn’t going to fool around. I just tossed all the things that I haven’t touched in a long time and kept the things of value and personal interest.

I’ve also got two backpacks, but all in all I think I did a good job. Only thing is, now I’m wondering if I should have kept more, but I think it’s refreshing in a way to only have what I really want and need.

If who you are is reflective of what you’ve done and what you can do, than what you believe is probably being seen.

I always feel a little in the clouds when I say things like this, but I think in general as individuals we walk around thinking about life like this from time to time.

I think the difference between what is probably being seen and what is being seen, are those miniscule moments of time where you’re standing in line kicking that penny you’re looking at on the ground. Or, it’s that moment where you just can’t take it anymore and storm out of line with your arms flopping around in disgust because junior can’t get his order out. Maybe it’s just that stupid red light thats always red when there is NO ONE around. But don’t forget the time when you stopped, smelled the rose and thought, “I actually just stopped to smell the roses” and then you laughed at yourself for it.

I think if I took all those moments in life and put them in a bag, as if each one was a lego piece, I could pull them out one by one and build something that would resemble a good life that beard fruit.

How the hell do you get Bleach off of your hands???

Every time I move I get into this major cleaning mind set, and I go way over the top trying to clean everything to the point of being sold.

“Step right up, come look at the cleanest bathroom sink in Portland…’oh, shit there’s still tooth past in there‘…Better yet lets go look at how clean the windows are…“

I’m always so paranoid that the landlord is going to walk in with there nose up high like an English butler. But I dare say, I have cleaned it well. Still, I some how always get covered in a light haze of Bleach. This always gets me worried I’m going to get bleach in my mouth and then bleach in my stomach and then something bad will happen. Then I’ll have to tell the doctor, with mild shame, “I put my fingers in my mouth, yes, they were covered in bleach”.

So here it is in a nut shell, House is 75% clean, Boxes are Packed, Plain tickets are waiting and I smell like bleach.

I wrote this song about 6 or 7 yrs ago, there are no lyrics just me and two tracks. Every time I hear this song it takes me back. I really can’t begin to tell you all the memories and thoughts that come back into my head every time I hear this. Music is amazing.

Hope you like it.. maybe some day I’ll get my act together and learn how to read music.

In the Distance

(Flash player for all you rss)
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Here is a little application I think a few people will enjoy. This is MarsEdit, it’s an application for posting to your blog with out using your browser. I use this every day, and have found it to be an awesome way to post. There are a ton of features with Web2.0 in mind. There are also a lot of customization options for those who are willing to take the time.

I must say though, if you are not familiar with looking at html you probably wont like this. All links and images are in html, only line breaks are hidden. (they are converted on upload)

What makes this program worth it?

Writing off line… You may be one of those people that likes to write your posts in advance or perhaps you always have a couple of posts you’re constantly trying to rewrite. I like that I don’t have to log-in to review something I’m working on. Not only that but I like bypassing the editor and typing everything myself. (course I’ve set up a bunch of quick keys for most of my styling)

Write to Multiple Blogs… Maybe you’re a freak and you write to a couple of different blogs.

Control… I’m a control freak when it comes to my styles and fonts and everything like that. Most Blog platforms will give a good amount of options but they just don’t give you everything. Also, there is bound to be a screw up here and there that will strip out all your styles, and eventually something comes up missing on your post when you publish it. Then it turns into that vicious cycle of, “what the heck!!!???”

I never have to worry about that, everything I write goes to my blog and there isn’t any amount of code missing, because some filter doesn’t like what I wrote.

Conclusion… Basically if you’re hosting your blog, and your comfortable with looking at and typing HTML this program will interest you.

Automatic doors always make me feel like a Jedi, also sometimes while I’m driving I feel like a Jedi.

What makes you feel like a Jedi???