Costa Rica - Things

1. Our new friend the gecko.

2. Alajuela Cathedral

3. Red bananas

4. Rain near El Castillo

5. Prickly tree

6. Toxic worms

7. Owl butterfly

8. Large beetle

9. Electroshock shower

10. Our mini-music player

11. Junta village store

12. Le Amistad bridge

13. Crabs

14. Game - Pachisi

15. Soccer

16. Flowers

17. Coffee and Banana plants

18. Coffee beans

19. Torrential downpour

20. Country motto: Pura Vida

21. Trash collection baskets

22. Above ground burials

23. Varmint

24. Big ass leaves

My Birthday is coming

I decided to celebrate my birthday a wee bit early this year. Instead of July 19th, I am going to celebrate on July 14th. Why you ask has sinisterhaley decided to make her birthday come a few days early? Well, I don't want any of you to miss the opportunity of wishing me well on my 41st birthday and the cow and I will be wallowing on a beach in Costa Rica on my big day and trust me I will have some type of rum drink in my hand celebrating the fact that I can still hold a drink in my hand.

So, anyone who would like to wish me well - can do so on or before the 14th because at midnight I turn into a pumpkin or at least a Tico.

Fun on the 4th

I hope all of you enjoyed your 4th of July as much as I did. The cow and I played all day long. We started our day with an urban hike. Started in Washington park and hiked to Council Crest (highest peak in Portland). The first picture you see a tower antanee, that is where we ended up and of course had to return. It was a beautiful day with a bit of haze in the air. Council Crest has spectacular views of the four mountains. I was actually surprised at how close all of them are; respectively Mt. Hood is about 50 miles, Mt. St. Helen's is 54 miles, Mt. Adams is 75 miles and Mt. Rainer is 104.
Once down from our urban hike and back home we hopped on our bikes and rode to the Hedge House for a beer and some nachos. We sat in the sunshine one beer too long and while riding home I was wishing for a swimming pool.
The cow then made us a lovely picnic and we through a bottle of wine and a big ass beer in the bike bags and rode to the park to eat and enjoy the fireworks.
On a side note - why the hell are so many people so stupid when it comes to fire?

Afternoon Delight

I have been trying to ride my bike more! I rode towards the city on Springwater trail and had a fabulous time. It is great to be able to ride whenever you want. I like going around 10:00 in the morning because all of the commuters are at work and many of the families are not out yet.
I have passed this massive birds nest many of times and finally I stopped and took a few pictures. I asked a few people who passed if they knew what kind of bird it was but really everyone was guessing just like I was. When I got home, I decided to google "oaks bottom reserve birds nests" and I found out that it is an osprey nest. There are many of these massive nests around portland and I hope survival rates are high.
I also have to tell you about this great bike clinic I attended. It was just down the street at the Sellwood Community Center sponsored by the Transportation department. It was called "Be your own Champion" and it was a 3-hour hands-on clinic covering basic bike maintenance, flat repair and cleaning techniques. The best part - it was all women. We listened first and started to understand the basics of taking the bike appart without worrying about putting it back together. I equate this to playing on the computer. I am very comfortable pushing keys and figuring out what they do but when it comes to my bike I was a bit nervous. The second part we took our bikes outside and did a bit of deconstruction. I deflated tires, pulled tubes out, put tubes back in, slowly put the tire back on the rim, cleaned and lubed my chain, and actually rode my bike back home again without anything falling off. The two young ladies that taught the class were bike mechanics with 16 years experience between the two. They were excellent. I had a really great learning experience and truly appreciate the environment of the class.

8 Years with my best friend!

July 1 was our eight year anniversary. WOW! Time flies when you are having fun. We spent the beautiful Sunday doing exactly what we love. We rode our bikes to the farmers market and picked up goodies for dinner. We walked to the store for beer and wine, we sat around and read books/paper and the cow made an absolutely amazing meal for the two of us.

We enjoyed a Spinach salad with fresh picked strawberries and blue cheese and the dressing was made from some of the same strawberries. If anyone wants the recipe I highly recommend the taste. We grilled Tuna and squash on our new gas grill with extreme skill.

The cow made fresh salsa as well as chipolte sour cream to dress our fish tacos. He devoured a Lagunitas Gnarly Wine and while drinking the big ass beer he kept saying, "this is delicious."

We dined alfresco and enjoyed our meal in each others company.

Cheers to a lifetime of fun.

Cats

Tamil has such a hard life.

And do not comment on how "fluffy" she appears, the camera adds fluffiness.

OC - RIDE

Saturday morning we got the road bikes out and headed towards the OC. No! Not Orange County the "other" O.C. = Oregon City.
The cow mapped out the route a week or so prior when I was in California. Much of the ride is surface streets but there were several spots that snaked along the rivers that were absolutely serene.
I must digress and tell you a bit about my riding personality. The road bikes require that I am clipped into the pedals which makes me a bit paranoid when I am on streets with cars. To make the day even more entertaining, the cow and I were riding along the river (no cars - bike path) near OC and we decided to take a little break. I started to slow down and popped my foot out of my right pedal but apparently felt the need to step down with my left foot (not unclipped from the pedal) and I landed on my left side VERY hard. The only saving grace, I was practically standing still. BOOM!
Let's add that part of the equation to the remainder of the ride. My pride was hurt as well as my ASS. We continued on and made it into Oregon City where we took the elevator to the top of the bluff. Rich guy took the land along the river from the native americans and built himself a big mansion at the top and felt the need for an elevator to get him up there. Suddenly, we are back on surface streets and the cow knows where we are going but I am a bit confused. I follow along to the best of my ability when we come upon Lake Oswego. We are riding in very close quarters to cars and there are those lovely drainage grates on the side of the road every 200 yards or so. I hate these damn things. I always think my tire is going to get caught, I am not going to get my foot out of my pedal in time, I am going to fall over, a car is going to run over me and the cow is going to have to hear me complain for a very long time.
I made it through the city to be told "the big hill is right around the corner." So I geared down for my climbing task and made it through the switchbacks and straightaways. I was happy when I saw the top of the hill but my injury to my ass was killing me. My street riding personality went straight to BITCH. I was done. I wanted to be home, have a shower and get a milkshake. The cow got me home safely but I will venture to say he was DONE with me too.

Apizza Scholls pissed me off - again!

How does the saying go? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me?
That is how I felt on Saturday night when the cow and I tried a second time in recent months to eat at our favorite pizza place on Hawthorne in the SE of Portland.
Apizza Scholls has fabulous thin crust pies. We have eaten their several times but the last two we have failed to secure a spot at the coveted table. Last year the eatery was named the best pizza place of the year and was featured on Anthony Bourdain's - No reservations. Which leads me to my gripe: Apizza Scholls DOES NOT MAKE ENOUGH DOUGH TO STAY OPEN UNTIL THEIR POSTED 9:30 CLOSING HOUR. I was fooled once by the idea that a business can stay in business by not satisfying their client base but when we walked in at 8:45 on a Saturday night to be greeted by a handwritten sign that said, "we are not taking anymore names" AKA we did not make enough dough, my days being fooled were OVER.
Arrivederci, Apizza Scholls.

Spoiled?

OK - so you can say I am a bit spoiled. I flew to Sacramento last week to visit mia sorella and venture on to where my parents live in Woodlake, CA. My sister and I were planning the 3 1/2 hour drive from Sac to Woodlake when the Debonair gentleman from Woodlake (AKA my Dad) offered to fly up to Rancho Murieta and pick us up - which turns a 3 1/2 hour trek into a 1 hour fly by. I have named his air service "Go-Mo!"

I am not the most stable passenger when it comes to flying but I will say that I am much better than in the past. On many occasions, I had to sit with my head between my legs and talk myself out of vomiting. The flight from Rancho to Woodlake was going quite smoothly until the tower in Fresno came on and said "you have a plane coming straight at you 2 miles ahead, Turn Left NOW." Chris made a sharp bank left and I swear every part of my insides was in my mouth.

I had a great weekend. Both sisters have pools and there was not a cloud in the sky for the entire time I was in Cali. "Just the girls" went to a great Thai lunch and off to get our toes done. We sat outside every night while my sister and her husband qued up some great salmon tacos and grilled vegetables oh yeah there was endless pitchers of mojitos also.

I am now back in beautiful Portland ready from a great summer. Temperatures here are hitting the high 80's next week just in time for 4th of July!

Solstice in Sacramento

Hey all,
I am on a mini-vacation for a few days visiting family in hotter-than-hell Sacramento and Woodlake, California. Just wanted to let people know that I have spent my last two days drinking Mai Tai's by the pool, lounging in the sunshine (in the morning before it gets too hot) and drinking wine on the veranda with a bit of goat cheese brie, crackers and tampenade. Heading down to Visalia-Woodlake area today to enjoy the rest of the weekend. Pictures will follow when I get home on Monday and settled. Have a great Solstice weekend.

School's out for SUMMER!

As many of you know, I have not been fully satisfied with my current teaching position at Aloha High School. Right now, on this final day of the year I am very excited. Let me give you some background so you can feel my grief.

1. AHS was built in the late 60's. The architect believed it to be an energy saving mechanism to abstain from WINDOWS. That's right - 90% of the classrooms have absolutely NO window.

2. Fake walls- Said architect also believed it to be a good idea to have classrooms hold up to 90 students (have you every seen a pack of high school thugs walking down the street - do you want 90 kids in the same location? EVER?) The answer to making the classrooms smaller were fake walls. Yes sirree. Those accordion crap walls that allows you to push them back like in a bad dance hall. This makes instruction very interesting when you have teachers/students on opposite fake walls that can't control their volume.

3. The office in which I am to do the majority of my work is filled with 12 desks. Put 12 Social Studies teachers in a room and very little work is getting accomplished. Also, I should add that these people are quite messy. Stacks of books from the 1960's still line the walls.

I just want to say HAPPY SUMMER to all of you who have listened to my grief throughout the year. I will be a much happier person and a better blogger in the months to come.

Carmel by the Sea = Cold

Memorial day weekend the cow and I headed down to Carmel to meet our travel buddies from the OC. We converged from the North and South onto San Jose about an hour apart. We grabbed a rental car and headed off to the Carmel Valley for some wine tasting. The marine layer quickly burned off to expose a beautiful clear day albeit a bit chilly. We had a fabulous time at Bernardus - the wines are magnifique. We then strolled over to a place called Chateau Sinnet- this place was STRANGE. The winery had way too many varietals of wine but the most interesting aspect was the guys behind the counter. They were on DRUGS. They literally told me to "drink it like I was in college!" When one of us had not finished our tasting he just poured a different wine on top of the original and said, "drink up." We were amused and petrified at the same time. The cow and serrach had to step outside to laugh and when they did the two ladies got hit on- YUCK.
My favorite place was Georis winery. This place had a great garden setting. They serve a flight of wines for a fee and pair it with cheese, bread and crackers. We sat outside and lulled away the afternoon in the sunshine before heading off to the Cold Carmel by the Sea.
We ate and strolled the quaint beachside town and took a hike through Point Lobos where we saw Sea otter and seals having a great time along the bay.