we like snow.


Last day of work!
{ Friday, June 27, 2003 | Comment # }

When we first arrived in Portland we had some really cool neighbors living in a basement apartment right beside our house. They were identical twins, writers, runners... college dropouts. One had long hair and one had short hair, so we were able to tell them apart. They had a dog named Arthur who pooped on our lawn everyday. Anyway, they moved to another neighborhood and we never saw them again.

Now, we finally have friendly neighbors again just as we're getting ready to leave. Doug and Beth and their dog, Butter, moved in about three months ago and it has been so nice to have neighbors we can talk to. We can also use their talents.

Doug is a bike mechanic and he spent about an hour and a half fixing my bike last night. My bike's front fork was busted, so I bought a used fork for $15 and took my bike apart. I thought I knew how to put it back together, and I had started to do so when Doug came home and offered to help. I was wrong about knowing how to put it back together. There was filing and hammering and a special tool and grease. He even got rid of three little metal ring thingies that he said I didn't need. It scared me a little, but I trust him. I did do enough work to get grease under my fingernails, so now I look like a badass and not just some chump who sits at his desk all day.
{ Thursday, June 26, 2003 | Comment # }

"You can tell how long a couple has been married by whether they are on their first, second or third bottle of Tabasco." --Bruce R. Bye
{ Sunday, June 22, 2003 | Comment # }

For the daring music lover:
John Darnielle, the man behind The Mountain Goats, has a webpage devoted to music reviews. Some time ago (I'm not exactly sure when because he doesn't put dates stuff) he did an extensive, song by song review of Radiohead's Amnesiac and it's some of the finest music writing I've read. I had heard Amnesiac a few times, but it was during a period when I was listening to a lot of Radiohead for the first time and I didn't have the time to understand a "grower" album. I listened to OK Computer over and over and over, but I took Amnesiac back to the library. Anyway, after reading Darnielle's take on Amnesiac, I decided it was worth another listen, and I think it's about to enter heavy rotation mode on the old iMac. If you're daring and you like dark, melodic, layered, electronic music you should listen to it and see how it makes you feel. (Dan, you know Amnesiac as the Radiohead album that was playing in the beer bar in Boston. I think you made a comment about it sounding like one of Billy Martin's new drum albums.)

For the not so daring music lover:
What's your problem?
{ Friday, June 20, 2003 | Comment # }

Inspiring quote of the day:

"Back hair twinset."
-M.G.
{ Wednesday, June 18, 2003 | Comment # }

If the teaching thing doesn't work out, I think I'm going to give Buffo, The World's Strongest Clown, a run for his money. "Seeing IS believing."
{ Tuesday, June 17, 2003 | Comment # }

We still need to:

  • Hire a moving truck
  • Pack
  • Find homes for our plants
  • Make CDs for the trip
  • Figure out when we're leaving
  • Figure out what we're going to see between here and Cape Hatteras
  • Start growing a beard (stop laughing!)
  • Coat nose and left arm in SPF 300
  • Work on our answers to questions about Portland
  • Smell the roses
  • Get our fill of Greg and Erin, who refuse to follow us back to the east coast
  • Oh yeah, and find a job.
    { Tuesday, June 17, 2003 | Comment # }

    I bought the new Grandaddy album, Sumday, and it's very good. I especially love the song "The Group Who Couldn't Say." And it goes like this:

    The tale I'm gonna tell
    Is about the group who couldn't say
    Together they discovered with each other
    The perfection of an outdoor day.

    They had won some kind of prize
    For selling way more stuff than the other guys.
    They were the shrewdest unit-movers
    So their bosses got them tours
    Of the countryside.

    Holly saw a certain bird,
    But she couldn't work up any words.
    She kinda lost her shoes and lost her mind and smashed her phone
    Upon a fallen pine.

    And Daryl couldn't talk at all.
    He wondered how the trees had grown to be so tall.
    He calculated all the height and width and density
    For insurance purposes.

    And at the desktop
    This cryin' sound's
    For all the projects due
    And no one else is around
    And the sprinklers that come on at 3 a.m.
    Sound like crowds of people asking,
    "Are you happy what you're doing?"

    Becky wondered why
    She'd never noticed dragonflies.
    Her drag 'n' click had never yielded anything as perfect
    As a dragonfly.

    And then the supervisor stood
    Right in the creek and it felt really good.
    And that's about the time he finally had realized
    The importance of this day.
    That's about the time he realized he was with
    The group who couldn't say.
    It felt so good it hurt
    Forget the words, they were the group who couldn't say.
    { Thursday, June 12, 2003 | Comment # }

    Oh the weekend, she is almost over. We went South to Corvallis and Eugene to celebrate Greg's birthday and see Travis's cousin in a musical. I would rather have seen Greg in a musical. Not because Trav's cousin wasn't great, but because I love watching old people sing. The trip was a nice break from the usual:

    ||: wake.work.coffee.work.lunch.work.job applications.dinner.job applications.bed :||

    Here's a pretty good article about Katahdin for anyone who cares. The kid in the article plays a neat trick on his mom.
    { Monday, June 09, 2003 | Comment # }

    How was your day?
    { Thursday, June 05, 2003 | Comment # }

    From the NY Times:

    MURPHY, N.C., May 31 -- After leading investigators on one of the most exhaustive manhunts in history, Eric Robert Rudolph, the wily survivalist charged in the bombing at the 1996 Olympics and attacks on abortion clinics, was arrested this morning behind a supermarket, digging through a Dumpster.

    Mr. Rudolph, who had vanished into the thick forests of Appalachia, living off a mix of wild berries, tuna fish and help from sympathetic local residents, surfaced here in the very corner of rural North Carolina where the search began five years ago.

    I couldn't believe it when I heard this news on the radio this morning. His name was everywhere on the Appalachian Trail back in 2000. People wrote things like "Eric Rudolph Lives!" and "Eric Rudolph was here" all over the place. I also can't believe the town was protecting him. Harboring a terrorist, so to speak.
    { Sunday, June 01, 2003 | Comment # }

  • Linking

    Befriending

    Dan, Ann, & Sadie
    Erin, Greg, Dylan, & Avery
    Thee Chase Familee
    Kristin, Doug, & Riley
    Ann, Mark, & Ella
    Jamie, Matt, & Adam
    Krista, Taylor, & Virginia
    Melissa, John, & Molly
    Jason
    Maryanna & Cory
    Jennie

    Archiving

    2008: J F M A M J J A S O N D
    2007: J F M A M J J A S O N D
    2006: J F M A M J J A S O N D
    2005: J F M A M J J A S O N D
    2004: J F M A M J J A S O N D
    2003: J F M A M J J A S O N D
    2002: J F M A M J J A S O N D

    Hearing
    etc.

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