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Maybe the art museum isn’t for 4 yr olds.

So on Saturday, we took Olivia to the Portland Art Museum. We use the cultural pass which gives you free access to many of the Portland and Salem area Museums and Institutes for free. It’s a little known gem.  The museum is located in the South Park Blocks, near Portland State University.  My personal opinion is that it was fantastic; however we walked away with one slightly unfortunate result. Olivia now has a fascination with drawing naked people!

Of course, many artists like to draw the human body without clothes on, sometimes to an uncomfortable level! But with a 4 year old who seems to have a mild appreciation for art, seeing naked people is like feeding her 3 straight cups of Starbucks fully loaded with sugar!  It’s ALL she can talk about on this particular evening, and she’s even trying to draw some of the pictures (from memory) herself.  Hmmmm, maybe that was a mistake taking her  there!

Obviously I don’t mean that because every thought that she has is innocent. But it does make us feel uncomfortable. Why is that?

Looks like I have to go now because Olivia’s drawings are getting a little too detailed for my tastes.  Back to the Children’s Museum from now on!

Someone told their MAMA to vote for OBAMA.

She did, and she told her friends and apparently they did too!  I found this photo on Flickr and thought it was pretty sweet.

Nov 4th, 2008 was truly an historic day, and would have been no matter how the election turned out.  It is special for any number of reasons, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t happy to see a “Black Man”, as he is referred to, elected into office. Not because of him being black, but because it’s symbolic of so many issues that I won’t get into.  But moreso, I think that maybe he can be a guy that can inspire people to do so many things. I personally don’t look at him as an “iconic” figure like some do; but I don’t do that for anyone, so maybe that’s my shortcoming!  I fully don’t expect him to “change the world”, because after all he’s just one man, a lawyer, a politician, and a seasoned speaker. I also think it’s funny when those on the other side think that the world is coming to an end. Seriously folks, he’s the President-elect, not the second coming of Christ!

I get more teary eyed watching E.R. than getting worked up about politicians, but I did get a little worked up over his speech on Election Night.  I hope that great things come from his administration, but for  myself, him getting elected was important in it’s own right. Time will tell if he’s worth the wait.

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I know that I havent. Maybe it’s because I only own a cell phone and don’t have a land line. Believe it or not, this is one of the few occasions where I almost wouldnt mind being called. Let my voice be heard! Instead, I see how everyone else’s opinions on Barack Obama, John McCain, Sarah Palin and others are swaying it seems with every new commercial or accusation. Do these people really become persuaded based on a few things they see on TV? Or read in the paper?  I don’t know anyone who has gotten polled.

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Let me preface my post with this. There isn’t an agenda I’m pushing here, just a blurb about what we did on Sunday. We went to see Barack Obama at Waterfront Park in Portland on Sunday and oh what a crowd it was. Estimates were around 72,000 people packed on the Waterfront, not including all the people on boats! The previous high was 35K in Philadelphia this year. It certainly helped that it was a crystal clear day in the mid 80’s without a cloud in the sky. With the music blasting Arrested Development’s “Everyday People”, followed by some Jazz and Bruce Springsteen, Obama came out to a crazy crowd, excited that their vote might make a difference come May 20th. Anyway, without getting into politics, here’s the pictures…

I’m still learning, although I think Ive gotten better at it. I was looking through my picture albums from a few years ago and my pictures absolutely stunk! Not to say they are leaps and bounds better today, but I think I have a better eye for content than before.

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Well, I thought they’d make it but not many others did. Memphis plays UCLA in the final four this weekend in San Antonio. The only bad news is that we’ll be minus one player. That aside, it’s been 22 years since their last FF appearance when they lost to eventual champion Villanova, and I think I cried. I was a kid, so it’s excusable, right?

Im very excited, as I have been all season, and Im sure that Brenda won’t mind that this neverending season will finally be coming to a close. But I’m enjoying the moment, as they don’t come along for true sports fans very often, who arent fans of the POWER teams; ie, Yankees, Lakers, Patriots, Cowboys, TarHeels. The mere fact that i can point to 1985 as the last truly great Memphis team and it’s burned in my memory makes this upcoming weekend all the more exciting.

I think they take UCLA, but after that, who knows. Who you got?

Go Tigers!

I haven’t really talked about it yet, but many who know me know that I’m a die hard Memphis basketball fan. This season, along with the last two have made that easy. As of this writing, the Tigers are 24-0, and ranked number 1 in every poll out there that one could find. They have broken so many school records at this point that it’s hard to keep count! Even Duke, in all it’s glory is off to their best season ever; and they’ve lost a game! I’m so exited that I just can’t keep it bottled up any more. Plus, Brenda will probably be counting the days until this is over, if she hasn’t already started.

It hasn’t really sunk in how great they’ve been this season, and it probably wont until a few years down the road when it’s likely that mediocrity will return. Nobody stays on top forever, and as Memphis fans, we’ve been at the bottom quite often. I was a little kid when they went to the Final Four in the early 80’s and lost to Villanova, and this is shaping up to be another magical season.

Memphis fans, all I can say is remember everything thats going on around you; the presidential race, your favorite TV show, song, or book; what your child is into right now; all these things, because I have a feeling that a long time down the road, when we’re old tired crusty Memphis fans talking about the good ole days of UM basketball, that will be NOW!

Add to the mix that Tennessee comes to town to play Memphis next week in what could be the top College game of the season, and it just makes it that much sweeter. Tennessee is NEVER good in basketball, and this season, they are 22-2! Craziness!

Here’s to enjoying it while it lasts, even if it hasn’t really sunk in yet! Go Tigers!

It was a fun, but busy week. We went to a wedding in Coloma, CA for some friends of ours here in Portland. We drove from Portland to Sacramento, then onto Coloma, where it’s home to the Gold Rush. It was a cool little town. We then headed on to San Francisco, but not before we stopped at the Jelly Belly Candy factory in Fairfield, CA.

Then we camped in Mt Tam State Park across from San Francisco that night, although there were mountain lion warning signs everywhere! What a gorgeous place that was! The next day, we drove into San Francisco, not knowing that there was a 5 dollar toll on the Golden Gate Bridge until we got there; with no cash of course! They had mercy on us , being from out of state, so we passed on through! Im sure we’ll get a bill in the mail!

Anyway, we walked and hiked through San Francisco all day; rode the trolleys, walked on the crookedest street; we did it all. At the end of a very long day, we drove to San Jose, booked a room, and flew out to Tennessee the next day. When we connected in LA, WE GOT HELD ON THE RUNWAY FOR 4 HOURS! UNBELIEVEABLE! Anyway, we made it, and got to Nashville without incident.

It was great to see family again, and to stay with my sister in her new house! We also were there to celebrate my parents 34th wedding anniversary, where they had a party at the church.

Olivia and I flew back to Portland, and Brenda flew back to San Jose to get the car.

Here are some of the California pictures.
There are family pictures from our time in Tennessee here. (Near the bottom of page)
More pictures from the trip are here.

Enjoy!

So, Mt Hood is in our backyard, but we really didn’t go there much our first 3 years here. I think we’ve made up for that this summer. We went up there this weekend and camped, then visited the Historic Timberline lodge which is impressive.

It’s a little odd to see people skiing in August, but whatever! It was a really nice day, and I’ve got some nice pictures to show for it.

You can leave comments, and/ or click here to see more Mt Hood Photos….

Well so much for the preventative vaccine! We think Olivia has chicken pox (and so does her cousin that she’s been around for a few weeks). She’s acting perfectly normal , just looks a little spotty!

I went to pick meet Brenda and Olivia in Yakima, Washington, after they had been visiting Brenda’s dad for a few weeks, and arrived to find that Olivia had several spots on her forehead. We were headed to Seattle to watch a friend compete in a Triathlon, so we checked her out and she seemed okay, and kept on with our plans. Unfortunately, she started getting more bumps all over, and we kept changing our opinions of what we thought it was. It’s a good thing that we don’t work in the medical field by the way!
Anyway, she didn’t have any fevers or anything, she just wanted a band-aid for one of her bumps that she scratched (and bled). After that, she was fine! I’ll keep you posted if anything else develops…….

Yup. We headed up to Mt Hood on Saturday to see what it was all about. Snow in the winter, but the lifts still run all year long. We had a nice time riding the lifts, taking the alpine slide down and participating in lots of activities. Of course it helped that we got in free because one of our friends is a volunteer there.

Otherwise the $60 price tag (per person) may have applied and we would have stayed in Portland. I mountain biked down the mountain and much to my dismay enjoyed the day but broke my rear derailleur at the end of the day. Time to go shopping I guess.

So now Olivia’s 3 yrs old. It’s really flown by. She had a nice birthday party (her biggest yet) which was done in a luau theme. But the topper was the awesome cake, made by our neighbor Amy.

She is a pro (even though she’s not currently practicing it) and she definitely surprised us with this cool cake. Whaddya think?  Read More to see….

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