Blog

  • Well, that’s a sucky way to start the day…

    So on my way to work this morning, I got into a car accident. One of three cars involved! Westbound on Franklin, just past the light on Third, and the first car stopped for the construction they’ve got going on, and the car in front of me rear-ended the first car, stopping up short, and I had to hit my brakes—but still rear-ended the second car. A three car pile-up. Sort of.

    Anyway, I’m fine, no injuries, just smashed up the front of our Honda Odyssey real good (but the engine seems to be fine, so that’s good). The other two drivers are fine, too, so everybody came out of it shaken but unscathed.

    Yep, it all sucks. The car is at the shop now, waiting for a damage estimate, and I’m dealing with insurance and paperwork and all that fun stuff.

    What I find amusing, is everyone’s reaction: first is the natural, “Are you okay?” question; that’s been followed up with, “It wasn’t the new car, was it?”

    (No, it was the older car.)

  • Life is what happens when you’re making other plans

    Yeah, that headline there? Totally saccharine and goofy and pointless. Yes, I know it’s cribbed from John Lennon, so what?

    Anyway.

    The “life that happened” was a sudden and unexpected gall bladder removal for my wife last week. Yeah, I know—Wha?!? She went to the doctor on Wednesday, confirmed that she had gallstones, and they wanted to take the gall bladder out either that night or Thursday. We opted for Thursday, so I spent most of that day at the hospital and the rest of the weekend taking care of, er, everything. So I’ve been busy.

    You know what’s crazy? They treat gall bladder surgery (formally known as cholecystectomy, in this case laparoscopic) as basically outpatient; my wife was able to come home Thursday night.

    Okay, this is even crazier, and creepy (from that Wikipedia article):

    Gallstones are, oddly, a valuable by-product of meat processing, fetching up to $900 US an ounce in their use as a purported aphrodisiac in the herbal medicine of some cultures. The finest gallstones tend to be sourced from old dairy cows. Much as in the manner of diamond mines, slaughterhouses carefully scrutinise offal department workers for gallstone theft.

    Wow. And “ew.”

    On the other hand… no, I won’t even go there.

  • Now this is how you do viral…

    This is absolutely great: Send a free personalized message from Samuel L. Jackson for “Snakes on a Plane.” I swear, the thing is brilliant… the audio editing is really good… and it makes phone calls anywhere for free. Even better? You put in the phone number you want it to appear from… and it uses that number for caller ID.

    As my brother said, you think you’re getting a call from a friend, and Samuel Jackson is commanding you!

    Oh, uh, the movie itself? Well, if it’s successful, it’s because they’ve been taking the viral approach all along…

  • It’s been awhile for Scooby…

    I figured it’s been just long enough for everyone to forget…

    Scooby's at the front door! ticket

  • Post eye surgery

    The eye surgery went very well, our daughter has been recuperating marvelously all weekend (it wasn’t a very eventful weekend because of this), and things are more-or-less back on track.

    Saturday morning we did make a Costco run, largely because I had an eye exam of my own at the optometrist there. It’s been probably 15 years since I last had my eyes checked, and the kids having the surgery—not to mention having had eye floaters for years—put me in mind to getting it done. As it happens, I have nearly perfect vision; I see 20/20 in each eye, and have a very mild astigmatism that may necessitate getting glasses in a few years. The floaters are normal.

    And yeah, go ahead and get the “floater” jokes out of your system; I can hear a bunch of you snickering in the back.

  • In Lake Oswego, eye surgery tomorrow

    Like the trip we had almost two years ago, tonight we’re in the Phoenix Inn hotel in Lake Oswego in preparation for our daughter’s corrective eye surgery tomorrow. Pretty much anything I would say is covered in that previous post; the only details being different really are that my daughter is six and it’s her third (and hopefully last) such surgery. And I’ve taken today, Wednesday and Thursday off from work for it (back on Friday).

    On the positive side, we had a really excellent dinner at Piazza Italia in Portland’s Pearl District; we got to try some cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory at Washington Square; and we’ll be doing a Trader Joe’s run sometime before coming back on Thursday. Anyone need anything from TJs?

  • Oregon Brewers Festival and Portand Friday

    I’m taking the day off from work this Friday and going to Portland for the Oregon Brewers Festival! Woo hoo! My original plan was to stay in Portland the entire weekend, but as it turns out I’d already obligated myself to a friend’s wedding Saturday evening, so I’ll be spending Friday night with my friend Justin (who’s also going with me to the Brewfest) and leaving Saturday late morning sometime.

    It’s going to be an eventful day. Aside from the Brewfest, there’s a beer blogger meetup that evening (starting at five) over at the Rogue Ales Public House, so I’ll get to meet yet more bloggers from Portland and other far-flung places (Arizona, for one, I think).

    Are any other bloggers in the area going to the Brewfest? Let me know.

    At any rate, I’ll have the camera and notebook and plan on writing a bunch about it. And, Friday right now is looking at an 80-degree forecast for Portland, so that’s just about perfect. Three days and counting!

  • the show

    Okay, I’ve pretty much become addicted to the show with zefrank. I can’t help it. It’s compelling. And funny. And smart. And for embedded online video, it just works. Go watch. And then go watch a bunch of the archives.

  • Cowboy Dinner Tree review

    The Cowboy Dinner Tree was fabulous. A real experience, one I would absolutely do again! So this review will mostly consist of gushing over the meal (I can’t think of anything bad to say), followed by a few pictures. Read on… (more…)

  • Cowboy Dinner Tree

    Tonight my wife and I are driving down to Silver Lake to eat at the Cowboy Dinner Tree. This is actually something we’ve wanted to try out for years, but it was this article in the Bend Bulletin which finally prompted us to make reservations.

    Probably the best description I could give is one I’ll lift from the Bulletin article:

    The Cowboy Dinner Tree, about 85 miles from Bend, is about as rustic as a restaurant can get. Made of rough poles and barn planks, the building itself has the look of a hermit’s cabin. A sign on the wall proclaims “No electricity – No credit cards – No kidding,” and it’s not. A 12-volt solar-powered battery provides the juice for a couple of bare light bulbs in the dining room, but when the sun sets, the lights dim. All the food is cooked from scratch with propane.

    When you make your reservations, you get the choice of either the steak or the chicken for dinner. And their serious about they’re food; when they say chicken, they mean a whole chicken. And the steaks are 26 to 30 ounces. That’s almost two pounds of steak!

    Should be an experience, one I’ll write about sometime in the near future, if I’m not comatose from that much red meat.