Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Chilly June in the Pacific Northwest

I'm so sorry that most of the USA is frying, even as we still have the heat on in our home here in Oregon. I hate this cold weather in June - but I suspect we'd actually be even more miserable were we elsewhere, as neither of us do heat well.

Stefan has been frying, actually: he's been spending most of the last two months in Mexico - or going back and forth between such. He's got great photos of his visits to ancient sites and what not. Mexico City is just amazing - I can't wait to go back!

I just hope we don't freeze the entire time we head to Yellowstone and back over the next two weeks! Yes, I'll post short updates here. Be on the lookout!

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Pleased to discover that my grandmother's manual coffee grinder still works - I bought beans instead of grounds at the grocery store. And you can see what I was watching as I used it.

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Keeping my professional online persona out there through blogging, tweeting and what not, followed by the duties of my current part-time job, take up all of my mornings here at my home office. Afternoons are spent looking for jobs and working on some unpaid projects. But whenever Mavis Staples comes on the iPod, I have to stop and groove... she is just NOT conducive to work productivity. Thankfully, she did not interfere with my recording a podcast where I was the guest here in Oregon, the interviewer was in Boston and the audio tech guy was in Austin, Texas. I love the Interwebs!

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Simple Life Lessons Illustrated
Don't you love this illustration? Click on it to see a lot more wonderful illustrations of Stuff Nobody Tells Us About Life. They are all awesome.

I do know what I want to do with my life, for the most part, and plan for such. But I'm also always willing to consider alterations to my plans - and change them as needed.


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Recently, I received an email from a US Army historian researching the Aleutian Islands, who was interested in the transcript of my interview with my grandfather about his WWII experience. He found out about it on a search for WWII Aleutian Island photos on Flickr. The Department of Defense is in the process of releasing several Aleutian Islands to the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and he's a part of that project.

I get requests from family members of Aleutian veterans and students regularly, but this was my first request from the Department of Defense. And I'm not sure any of it will be used... but it's still cool to get the request.

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I have been accused by a few people of being a snob - my Dad called me that a time or two - and I guess I confirmed that with my recent Facebook status update asking which of two of my closest friends hated WalMart more. I was expecting just the two of them to try to outdo each other, but the posts from other friends have poured in, and they have been hilarious. An example:

I usually assess how my 'experience' is going to go by the first five people I see upon exiting my car, and it's generally spot on. For example, last night included a girl with two kids who she was gonna 'beat the daylights out of if you don't straight up!', a morbidly obese man with a mullet and a confederate flag leg cast, and an old man trying to discern how to load his new 55 inch big screen TV into his Toyota Camry. Nothing I acquired there was worth that.

I love my Facebook friends...

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All motorcycle travelers are fantastic people - but it's hard to top James and Emily! They are from London, England (as opposed to London, Kentucky) and have spent more than 400 days of their honeymoon traveling by motorcycle around the world! I hosted them here in our home for an evening on their way down the West Coast. Albi was very sad that they left.

One of the coolest things about the visit was that James is an international NGO worker, and has worked in Pakistan. Poor Emily had to listen to us going on and on about what it's like to work in that part of the world...

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My friend Cosgrove asked me if I would think less of him if he got a three-wheeled motorcycle. Not at all. I think whatever speaks to you and looks fun to do is the right bike to ride. I'm not a bike snob. If I got a three wheeler, I would get a HYmotion3 o
r a Piaggio MP3 500, because both lean. But for now, I'm sticking with two wheels.

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I'm sure you've seen the excellent Alamo Drafthouse YouTube video by now, as it's been all over the news. I miss Austin...

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"The reality is that you don't all agree with each other on your politics, you don't agree with each other on your religion, you don't agree with each other on a lot of things," he added. "But you still serve together. And you work together. And you look out for each other. And that's all that matters." Robert Gates, in response to a Marine who was angry over allowing gay people to serve openly in the military.

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Awesome people hanging out together. The best is Charlie Chaplin and Helen Keller. It brought a tear to my eye, in fact. I also liked
Colonel Sanders and Alice Cooper.

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I got all of them right, but two were just lucky guesses on my part.

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Hey, I've been in a firefight before. Well, I was in a fire. Actually, I was fired, from a fry cook opportunity.

Gawd I love Firefly! I rewatched the entire season for only the third time recently. And then was thrilled when a friend here in Canby suggested we get together and watch the pilot, which she had never seen. Not only is she now a convert and wants to watch the entire thing, she also adored Dr. Horrible.

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Learn French with just ONE word. This video was suggested by a Parisian friend of mine, who said, indeed, this is true.

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Ridiculous board games you totally want to play. And you do totally want to play them.

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