Stuff

After seeing no cheap BBQs at yard sales, charity shops and Fred Meyer’s we went to Lowes for a new one, then spent the best part of 2 hours assembling it in the garden. Things went faster once I found a hidden bag of screws under the dog.

Leif and Sudarat came round later and we had a well pleasant evening of Sita’s cooking, local veg and tales of squirrel hunting up north.

We ended with an ’80s music trivia DVD game, which I got for $4.99 from Goodwill (seemed more fun than Bibleopoly)

Hope our neighbours were okay with screams of Kajagoogoo at around midnight…

We’ve been round various garden centres of late trying to find an agave plant. DrSita ruled the first place out as she asked if agaves would grow in this climate and they answered “Well, it’s a cactus, it should do okay”. One of the first things you learn about agaves is that they’re not cacti.

Several other garden centres haven’t had anything more adventurous that Aloe, but we’re not giving up because a few miles down the road there’s a place selling Pulque (only open on Saturdays and only in bulk).

Anyroad, yesterday at the aforementioned Fred Meyer (pronounced Maya) while BBQ shopping we found this…

Very much a last resort.

When you comment on this blog (any many others) it displays a little personal graphic (avatar if you will) next to your comment. If you’ve signed up for a Gravatar then the blog will recognise your email address and display the Gravatar you uploaded. If you haven’t signed up for one you just get the default picture, Atticus looking forlorn with the legend “I need a Gravatar”… Out of the dozens of commentators in this blog only César (AWOL) and I have signed up though…

1. Get yourself a gravatar at: http://en.gravatar.com/
2. Enter your email address, check your inbox, click on the confirm link
3. Choose a nickname, password etc, enter your details…
4. Click “Add an image by clicking here”
5. Choose where you want to add the pic from (My computer probably)
6. Upload and crop your gravatar
7. You’re done.

Ah go on, personalise yer comments

but it’s too bloody hot. I’ve been playing me guitar in the basement and had to stop.

Today’s new song to play, Art Brut, Emily Kane…

And I bet it’s the .4444444° that makes all the difference… Luckily there’s an air-conditioned cinema nearby so we’ve been watching all kinds of nonsense. Pineapple Express, has its moments but is still nowhere near as good as Knocked Up. Tropic Thunder last night cracked me up a fair few times. Mark Kermode says if a comedy makes you laugh five times or more, it’s a success and thus it definitely qualifies and is worth watching for the panda scene alone. Hellboy II is an option for this afternoon…

There are all kinds of small, independant cinemas dotted around Portland, our nearest however was showing Mamma Mia for 3 weeks and has now moved on to The Sisterhood of the Traveling (sic) Pants II, so we’ll have to go a little further afield.

We also found a Fred Meyer down the road, a huge, air-conditioned superstore stocking everything from cider to sweetcorn holders to trees. If they let you take your dog in it would be perfect. As it is ‘Cus and me just head down to the park at the bottom of the street, stick to the shade and paddle in the river. Even the basement’s starting to heat up. Righty, I’m off to shut the windows and blinds. We’re adopting Andalucian living habits. Siestas included. Hasta pronto…

Or somesuch, let’s see if a) this link works and b) you can read it…

Didn’t work, so… click here and shove this site’s address in the box:

This morning I got up, poured myself a cup of coffee from the machine, opened the kitchen windows and then entered a world of pain as I jammed my finger between the sliding window frames. Now I’ve got a bruise under the nail and our peas are no longer frozen. Then, cos it’s forecast to get HOT again today I went out with young ‘Cus for a walk but he kept stopping to lick his foot because he too has some kind of paw injury. So we made a detour so he could splash about in the stream and soften his little paddy paws up to get rid of the splinter or whatever. He, and I, seem much better now, though neither of us will be typing at full speed for a few days.

We did a pub quiz last night and fared miserably though I thoroughly enjoyed it. Nice atmosphere and good questions. Though three out of four of us had PhDs (and one of us had a 2:1 in Hispanic Studies from Swansea Uni…) we came last. I blame the Doctors.

Other news, still applying left right and centre for jobs. It’s slow going. The radishes I planted a few days ago have already got shoots. We’ve now got a(n) herb garden going. Going to a faculty barbecue tomorrow. Considering heading for the coast on Friday to escape the forecast 99 degree temperatures. Still haven’t worked out the new recycling rules and how to get our rubbish collected. Learnt a new song yesterday on the geetar… Modern Girl originally by Sheena Easton, revived by Camera Obscura.

Doubtless there are more elegant ways to present this info than copying and pasting graphs from wikipedia.

August has been pretty hot of late and I can’t work out how to use the sprinkler system in the garden but I’ve a feeling this won’t be an issue for long… Half our garden has weed cloth under the soil. I just made that name up, it’s an underground tarp to keep an area free of plants. So my plans for being self sufficient in spuds for the next year are somewhat hindered, however there’s an area between the trees on the right which I dug over and planted some veggie seeds which should thrive in these conditions even if I took a few liberties with the recommended spacing. I’m going to get a couple of tomato plants today and hope it’s not too late for ’em. Either way it’s all good ‘cos neither of us are big tomato eaters… Also, apparently you can grow spuds in a rubbish bin so there’s still hope for a vegetable I actually like to eat.

My underground corporate headquarters is coming together too. I finally got a scanner that works with Vista and Ubuntu so I don’t have to keep wandering off to fax things. I made a photo display wire and bulldog clip thing. Put my Guadalajara in 1943 street map poster up along with a few others. Made shelving from the splintered remains of Sita’s IKEA stuff. Without using any hexagonal screwdrivers.

And upstairs is looking good too. We cleaned last night before some friends came round but I didn’t do a video walk through, that’ll probably be the next thing I post. We had the Olympic Opening ceremony on in the background with occasional cheers for Mexico, Chile, Ireland, Thailand and Iceland (t’was a multicultural gathering). It was an impressive ceremony, and unless the UK can get together its own military dictatorship in the next four years I think London 2012 is going to be pretty anticlimactic after China’s effort. 2012 people eating chips in unison to the sound of Blur’s Parklife maybe?

Plans for today? Portland Saturday Market.

Greetings from our latest ZIP code!

Where to start? I neglected to take any photos over the last week so it’ll be a texty entry here. The moving van arrived on Monday, we packed it to the brim, 10′ x 18′ x 10′ in about 100 trips back and forth. Tuesday we cleaned the house and polyfilla’d all the holes ready for the inspection on Wednesday morning. We also fitted in a walk round lake Merritt with T and I got hands-free things for the mobiles so we could chat legally in the cars on the convoy ‘cos of the new California legislation. I also got a polarizing filter for me camera ready for the invariably overcast skies in Oregon. I’ve not tried it out yet.

[flickr]photo:2738547385(medium)[/flickr]

Wednesday’s inspection went great, we got our full deposit back and the LL was impressed with the level of cleanliness and the number of applications we’d got for our replacements. Then it was the I-5 all the way to Portland where I burned through a week’s worth of podcasts in 11 hours or so. A highlight amongst them was Mario’s Circulo Vicioso, Mario and his mates are going through their record collections once a month and releasing their favourite tracks with a bit of description. Bodes well for Spanish-speaking, retro music lovers of a certain age… We got into Portland by around 8pm and went straight to a friends house to collapse in a heap and have some wine…

Thursday was exploring our new ‘hood and buying provisions. There’s a wealth of little local owned shops, restaurants, galleries, pubs. We’ve not established a ‘local’ yet but it’s on the cards, found a brilliant breakfast place though about 5 blocks from the house, also found the local pricey organicky supermarket and, more importantly, Albertsons…

Friday… the moving van arrived at 10ish it took about 3 hours to empty it. There were a few casualties but most furniture survived. One IKEA shelf unit reverted to its flatpack form however, but I’ve repurposed it in me office and shall post a pic one of these days. The rest of Friday was unpacking the boxes and moving around furniture/ buying furniture, as was Saturday and a lot of Sunday.

Sunday was our 6 year wedding anniversary. Drsita pulled out our Big Book of Fun Things to do in Portland that T gave us and found a couple of places that were reasonably priced and delicious.

Yesterday it felt like we were moved in. We moved the futon into the basement and replaced it with a second hand sofa, shoved the curtains up around the place, cooked prawn curry, bought a spade to start the gardening and generally chilled. We’ve a heatwave on this week so we’re well glad of the ceiling fans in the various rooms. Today the forecast is the mid 90s. Drsita carried through with her threat to cut my hair too. Maybe in a week or two I’ll be able to tie it back again…

This avo I noticed that some peeps from the Portland Flickr group are having a meet up in a nearby park so that’ll be a chance to unpack me camera and meet some new folks. On Thursday we might well be helping some friends of friends move in too. So it’s all onwards and upwards on the social front. Now I just have to find a job…

In summary, all is very well.

For home improvement and very imminent baby news, Monica’s blogging again.

Sally just rang to say they’re fine though it sounded like an explosion. Things shook but nothing’s broken. More news as and when, our internet’ll probably be out sometime today.

The moving van comes tomorrow, everything’s pretty much packed. As long as it doesn’t rain I reckon it’ll be fairly straightforward. Took a break from the boxing to see what the annual Berkeley Marina Kitefest is all about. Kites mainly. Took a few pix, but it wasn’t the best weather for pix. Good weather for kites in fact.

Everyone else is doing it, so I thought I’d join in, here’s wordle.net’s word cloud of the last 10 posts or so… Atticus figures largely…

In other news, Somerset police have started sharing their best 999 calls with youtube. I’m torn for favourites, but it’s either “I’m not bein’ funny but… There’s a squirrel with no hazelnut trees” or “My wife’s left me two salmon sandwiches”. If this kind of minor internet celebrity doesn’t get them more prank calls I don’t know what will.

Gives the Welsh bloke inquiring about the bright white thing in the sky a run for his money mind.

is both a blessing and a monumental waste of time.

On the plus side I now know what a bunch of people are up to who I thought I’d never see again and I can stay more or less au courant on which of my mates are where, and every now and again another blast from the past issues from my inbox. All that and the internet opium that is Scrabulous (Challenge me. Please.)

On the other hand I can’t keep up with the requests for any number of fun looking applications. Some are dismissable out of hand, 3x Bumper Sticker requests but I’m sorely tempted to let applications like “Narco gifts” access my info if only because instead of “Accept” is says “Orale, compa” on the button. Anyroad, before I clear through the pile, here’s a look into my facebook world…

Sold the sofa this morning 😀

Leather sofa and dining room table anyone?

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/fur/763943226.html

25% discount if you arrive with a print-out of this post…

The telly’s up for grabs too, what’s a fair price for a 32 inch GE CRT?

Saw Batman last night with Drsita, Liz and Josh and it did not disappoint on any level at all. I didn’t know what the running time was going to be so I kept expecting it to end, but instead it just kept getting better and better. Thoroughly recommended. Best superhero film since Batman Begins.

(image from Alberto Mont, found via Othaner’s blog)

On Saturday we tried to go to SF on the Alameda ferry, but it was running late and the ferry terminal is just next to Rosenblum’s free wine-tasting warehouse, so that proved a more enticing option. I blame drsita saying she didn’t reckon the ferry was coming. And when you say you don’t believe in ferries… Yesterday though I queued up in the morning and spent a couple of hours wandering round the north end of frisco (which nobody calls it) and though it looks like I’ve got dust on the camera’s sensor again there’s a few passable pix.

Full set here.

Today, webbery, & packing. A bientot.