new twist on an old favorite

i recently grew out a nasty mustache in honor of an ugly sweater party. due to it's unpopularity (primarily with my wife and myself) i promptly shaved it after the party. but i couldn't resist playing around with my mustache options before saying farewell completely to my furry upper lip companion.
so enjoy...
with mustache and dog. we were more like cousins than ever!
moments after arriving at home... the reverse hitler is created.
now for proper greetings. reverse hilter... everyone. everyone... reverse hitler.
that style of mustache looks even crazier and more of a sociopath than hitler. time to pull a valkyrie on this puppy.
ahhhhhh... relief. i do apologize if this slide show frightened any children or caused grown men to weep.

Christmas cheer

Christmas has come and gone for good old 2008 and i must say it was a great year. much like thanksgiving, this was an especially cool Christmas since this time last year i was dinking around in iraq wishing i was with my family and friends back in oregon.

andrea and i spent our our holiday time trying to blend family traditions while also looking for ways to create new ones for our family. it only seems right to start with the tree. some of my favorite memories of Christmas growing up involve driving out into the countryside, picking out a nice tree, cutting it down ourselves and hauling it home. none of that fake plastic tree stuff around here. however, i must say... i like the idea of a potted tree that you bring into the house in December to avoid cutting so many trees down and hearing them scream the whole way home. this year though, we went out toward stayton/sublimity and got our tree from a friend (ruthless) who works on a tree farm out that way. it was very fun, and stella even "helped" pick out the tree.

the whites threw an "ugly sweater" party, which was both fun and hilarious. photos of that are here.

then it was time to decorate and switch out our music. i made a deal with andrea that we couldn't play Christmas songs until december 1st. all those years of working in theaters or walmart has me still a bit burned out on holiday tunes. so we decorated the whole house with tidings of joy and to top it off... i was able to bring one of my traditions of putting kermit on the tree.

after everything was decorated it was time to get some presents under the tree. while andrea already had most of my presents done... i was on crunch time to find her gifts. i'm a procrastinator through and through.

to make even harder to get out and pick up those last minute gifts... our "arctic blast" (the storm over sensationalized by all the local media) hit and we had to become homebodies for a few days. it definitely was an inconvenience, but i still thought it was fun. i like "roughing" it every once in a while. i know some people hated it for various reasons (cabin fever being number 1) but it is what it is and Christmas isn't about getting out and doing things anyway so arctic blast be damned, Christmas will prevail. sometimes it seems like it should be called presentmas or complain-about-my-life-even-though-it's-better-than-most-other-people's-around-the-world-mas. just go to the cia world factbook site and look at countries like laos. it's hard to be troubled by power-outages when you see there are people living every day without electricity.

to top off the holidays, we took a trip to eugene to see andrea's family. we spent Christmas day and the following day hanging out with the comptons and glaziers down there. many a card game was played as well as a bit of wii. we followed it up with seeing my folks on saturday for another holiday bash. good times all around.

merry Christmas everyone.

Christmas stache

for a Christmas party i decided to grow out my nasty mustache. i started about a week and a half ago, quickly realized i could grow it in 3 days but have powered through and am still going strong. just 4 days left of this puppy!

in this experiment i've found that mustache people are a minority and are treated with inequality on a daily basis. here's what i've experienced so far

-going into tualatin high school with the prize winning molestache... do i get an award, no. i get a brief chase down by the security lady.

-those constant checkouts by women *and* men at my devilishly good looks are replaced with obnoxious staring, finger pointing and some screams (no longer of joy).

-children are ushered away and their parents take up defensive posturing.

-sweaters no longer look cool, they now look creepy.

-year two of marriage falls drastically behind in meeting the kiss quota.

the only pluses... when it snows, my upper lip is just a fraction of a degree warmer than it would normally be. and i can brush my bottom teeth whenever i feel like it.

dave, am i a pirate?

darran:

Priacy is not theft!
via Damien

This is missing the whole point. Piracy is not a theft of the item, but of the money that the pirate would have otherwise had to spend to aquire the item. If you can legitimately say that you would not have bought the item otherwise, then technically the artist looses nothing, but how can you legislate that? An On-Your-Honor system of allowing piracy?

cool guys

we've all met them... we've probably all been one in some capacity at some point in our lives... and i think we can all agree we don't like them or ourselves when thinking back to our "cool guy" times. they're the people who smoke to look "cool" or only listen to "cool" music or they use fancy words to show off their intelligence - basically they're people who aren't themselves because they're too focused on being "cool."
in high school, erick's brother dave referred to these people as "cool guys" (sarcastically of course). and that term has stuck with me ever since.
i was reminded of this last night at the festival of lights parade in downtown salem. i'm not usually a parade kind of guy... mostly because i had to march so many of them... but i thought it might be fun to watch the bands (especially south salem), visit with my dad (who was judging the bands) and it's always fun to hang out in butt frozen weather with andrea. anyway, at one point we were in the mall and i saw this guy with his son... and he was trying way too hard to be a "cool" dad. picking his kid up with one hand and swinging him around all the while looking around to see if he's being noticed for his "cool" talents. he'd kick his son in a playful manner that wouldn't necessarily hurt the boy but did knock him to the ground and then pull him up and yank down on his son's hood. he was acting more like an older brother than a dad.
i've noticed a lot of this with parents of my generation. they seem more concerned with being "cool" and being their kid's friend than being a parent. kids want and need parents and sometimes this means not being mister popular or looking "cool" but instead doing what's right.
being a dad has nothing to do with being "cool" by societal views. it has everything to do with selflessly putting your family first no matter what. in doing this you will undoubtedly find yourself doing some very humbling and dare i say un"cool" things. but in the end, if you've done your job right you will be an actual cool dad with non-troubled kids and one day productive citizens and good parents themselves.

finding my stride

i've been trying to get back on the horse... or in this case, the treadmill. this time last year i was running about 5 miles every other day and 2-3 miles on the other days. not a lot but probably much more than your average person. at one point i'd gotten to what i called the 5 in 35. i was running 5 miles in less than 35 minutes (that's sub 7 minute miles for the non-math folks such as myself). this had me pumped because while a 7 minute mile isn't incredible by any means... it still felt great to be able to hold that pace for 5 miles and know that when i had to run just 2 miles i'd hopefully be able to do so with ease.

at some point after Christmas is stopped. this was probably due to an increase in "out of the wire" missions and it was more difficult to keep a routine. i'm very routine based so chaos destroys most hopes i have for working out.

so here i am, almost a year later working on week two of running but i'm discovering several hurdles (not real ones, think figurative) that consistently get in the way of meeting my running goals.

1-pride. this is number one because it's my biggest flaw with running. knowing that i once could run like a gazelle makes me want to push my now out-of-running-shape body to a pace that is unrealistic for my current running ability. this causes me to burn out too quick and therefore not meet my mileage goal for the day.
2-time. no further details are needed here. i'm sure everyone has this issue.
3-location. i hate running on treadmills. i did it in iraq because it was either 130 degrees outside or when it wasn't there was still sand storms and God only knows what fumes from generators and tank/humvee exhaust waiting to be inhaled. but now that i'm home, i want to run outside. but i live in the worst part of town for just heading out for a run. this last summer i'd go to bush park but then i'm cutting into that whole time thing again. i basically miss eugene's spoon-fed running trails.
4- fear of disappearing. what i mean is that i've already lost 15 pounds since i've been home from iraq. something i attribute to my weight lifting routine no longer being a routine at all.
5-forrest gump envy. okay maybe not but what kind of list only has 4 points on it?



ultimately running serves several purposes for me... i'm able to stay in shape, pass my physical training for the army, and it relieves any stress i have in my day. that last piece is vital for my sanity.

any tips on motivation are much appreciated.

the best thing ever!

there are many reasons that i love this time of year. from the gambit of holidays to the great hang time with family and friends. but one of the biggest reasons is the great food that unfortunately only seems to be sold during those precious weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. my favorite... the delicious little cuties.

my reasons are as follows:
1-they taste freak'n awesome. mostly sweet with the touch of sour.
2-they're actually healthier than larger oranges.
3-they're seedless!
4-since their peels practically fall off... i'm fairly certain God designed them to be eaten by the laziest of of the lazy.
5-they're perfectly sized for juggling and won't cut you if you drop one.

the 3 f-words

i hope everyone had a great thanksgiving and had as much delicious food as i did. thanksgiving is probably one of my favorite holidays. besides the fact that it's usually not over commercialized (except for black friday) i just love the whole weekend. my favorite parts are what i call the 3 f-words.

family-is at the top of my list. it's also what i love about Christmas... having everyone get together and spend quality time playing games and just enjoying each others company. it has definitely gotten interesting now that i am married since i have two families to visit. while at a glance the planning can be a bit stressful at first... it ultimately has made thanksgiving even better. i've always had my parents, my brother and my grandparents as well as my uncle from colorado as of the last few years to look forward to seeing, but by marrying andrea, i've more than quadrupled my family to visit. andrea comes from a larger family, something that at first intimidated me, but after meeting them i've grown to love seeing each and every one of them. it's great that she has cousins in our age group who are married and have so much in common with us. i have to say though... the highlight was watching donna and cathy (andrea's mom and aunt) rock out on guitar hero.


food-is next and actually has gotten better due to the larger family group. i've always loved turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and everything else that comes with thanksgiving. any meal that you can swirl together and have it still taste awesome is my kind of meal. and now i get to have two of those wonderful meals not to mention the plethora of pumpkin pie and other deserts we get to liberally consume without feeling guilty. this year it was good old turkey and the works at donna and ken's (andrea's parents) and cornish game hens off the traeger at my folks' house. yum followed by more yum.

football/film-both are staples of the thanksgiving weekend and this year didn't disappoint. my family has the tradition of seeing a movie thanksgiving weekend (usually on that thursday after we've eaten) which tends to be either a star trek film or a bond movie - as they tend to be released around that time of year... sometimes it's lord of the rings but there were only 3 of those. this year it was the latest bond film quantum of solace. i give it 3.5 bond girls out of 5. as for football... thanks to the ducks that was a great experience as well. i think the beavs were hoping to have some duck to follow up on their turkey, but then again i guess this makes up for last year's civil war game right?

i think though this thanksgiving was especially great since i was actually home for it and got to celebrate my first married thanksgiving *with* andrea. we all have so much to be thankful for and it's nice to reflect on that... and why not have a holiday filled with family and food to help remind us of it?

thanks for reading... and i hope your holiday was a good one.

now off to the treadmills!

one home down... one to go

for those who don't know (which shouldn't be too many as i'm sure i have about two readers besides the wife) andrea and i have been looking for a couple of homes in salem. the first being a house to live in and stop torching our money on rent... the second being a new church. we're still looking for that "right" home but we believe we've found our church home. more on that in a bit.

i don't know if anyone else has ever had to leave their hometown church and go through the process of finding something to feel at home at... but it is very difficult. i especially had a hard time because i only recently became a Christian and calvary fellowship in eugene was my first true church as a believer. because of this i will always have a special biased leaning toward that church and since danny o'neil, the pastor there, did our marriage counseling and the actually marrying of us, i will always remember calvary in a very happy and awesome way.

so getting past all of this religious baggage (for lack of a better term) we have had the daunting task of church shopping. as there are hundreds of churches in the salem area... we went off recommendations from family, friends and coworkers. but having never had to look for the right church, as calvary just fit right off the bat, how do you narrow down your options and finally settle down at the right church. it's surprisingly a lot like looking for the right home. you have a list of things you want in a church - good worship, great message through sermon, ways to plug in and feel like a part of the fellowship and most importantly the Godly values you believe in.

the trick is realizing you need to find the best church for you... not the perfect church since that probably doesn't exist.

we tried a few out but one would be terrible worship but a good message and a huge congregation... while another would have good worship but the church is going through finding a new pastor and seems only focused on that task. so it was hard weighing those differences and much like finding a house, deciding which things were deal breakers and which ones we could let go in order to settle in.

after months of searching... we tried out salem alliance. while it is much larger than we thought we'd be comfortable with... there are enough services and programs get into we feel confident we'll be able to plug into to the program. we love the uplifting worship that mixes old hymns of tradition with newer songs by artists like chris tomlin and the message has been great too. the church is also very active in community outreach. not to convert people... but to simply support folks in need and offer to pray for them. being someone who has never really been into the idea of Bible thumping or good deeds for the purpose of conversion rather than simply to do good deeds... this really appeals to me. the only downside so far is we've yet to have the same pastor in 3 weeks of attendance... but this could be due to the main pastor being sick.

on a more personal note: i'm not one to usually admit to feeling God or being open about the emotional side to my beliefs... but i will admit that our first visit to salem alliance had me on the verge of tears. i believe this is due to two reasons... one; it was beginning to feel like we weren't going to find a church we liked and would just have to settle for one that only kind of felt right... and two; during the worship i felt like i was where God wanted me. i can't explain it in words but i'm sure fellow believers know what i'm talking about.

so hopefully this is it.

better?

after that last one... here's something that will hopefully make up for it.


-chuck norris puts the laughter in manslaughter.










p.s. tee hee hee

walla walla rocknrolla

the title pretty much sums up my week.

monday i headed to the far east... of oregon... where i was set to do a little video work for a documentary the national guard is putting together. my boss and i drove out to milton freewater on monday.
while she stayed with her grandma there, i took our sweet soccer mom van of a ride to walla walla, wa to stay the night in the holiday inn express there. by the way, if you're ever heading out there either change your mind because there's nothing to really do or still go but stay at the walla walla holiday inn express... best one i've ever been in. this was found after taking the wrong turn into a part of rural oregon that looked a lot more like where jeepers creepers hangs out than where cows and potatoes live in harmony.

after a restless night in the fabulous hi-ex (my new term for holiday inn express, patented) i picked up my boss and headed to lovely la grande for our interview. did i mention winter has officially hit out there? we had snow and we're still driving this crappy van that i don't feel comfortable driving through a wal-mart parking lot (although that may be for other reasons). on our way to la grande we saw this kia sorento on the side of the road facing the wrong way with tire tracks up the snowy embankment and sharply curved back around... basically a bad day for this person. there was also a u-haul stopped 50 meters past with it's hazards on. i decided to stop and see if i could help. the driver was from florida and wearing a t-shirt and shorts with flip flops in the snow. i tried to help him out but instead watched him spin farther into the embankment. i was pretty close to just asking him to let me drive but he was kind of a cocky prick, so i wished him luck and bounced. unfortunately my good samaritan powers only work with nice people.

as for the interview... we had a great time and it was awesome hearing all kinds of interesting stories from an 88 year old vet who was a recon photographer during world war 2. he's written a book that seems pretty interesting. check it out if you feel inclined. banana splits followed and an unfortunately long drive home.




as for the rest of the title of this poorly constructed and boring blog... andrea and i watched the latest guy ritchie flick 'rocknrolla' last night. it was really good actually... especially if you really like his other films like lock stock and snatch (not swept away). the downside was realizing what movies cost these days ($19!!!!). i always forget and then feel old when i want to say "back in my day these moving picture things were only about $5." basically i'm just old and too poor to go to movies at the regular theater. insert shameless plug for northern lights here.

hopefully my next blog will be less mind-numbing and with even more links that take you to random sites or images.

divided we vote

has anyone else noticed how divisive this latest election is? it isn't new but i've definitely noticed a large polarization in our nation in the last 2 elections and this one is taking the cake.

whether it's calling obama a socialist or mccain a war monger... the election process is getting very personal not just for the candidates but for the voters as well. i've heard comments and seen looks of pity or anger between friends and family that make me sick. at what point is it okay to insult someone simply based on their political views?


from bush's statement that you're either with us or against us to the comments that a vote against universal healthcare is an uncaring selfish vote there is a lot of divisive language and tactics being used by both parties.

this is not to say there are not important issues at stake or that i'm sad to see so many people so passionate about politics and their country. but let's stop making it personal and passively aggressively tearing each other down.

if i had a nickel for every time i've had a friend or family member refer to my voting choice as a stupid uninformed vote or give me "pity" for feeling the way i do... i'd be a rich man.

somewhere we've forgotten that we're all americans using our equal right to vote freely and express our political views. but in expressing our views... let's stop short of taking cheap shots and offending each other.

need for speed

i love the latest followup to the coffee craze of energy drinks. it's not really new in the immediate sense... but it has been a growing trend since i first remember seeing red bull cans popping up in college. now, there are vending machines for these drinks, mixed drinks at the bar and too many people who "can't make it through the day and will die without at least one tall boy of amp." we also have more colors than you can shake a stick at and flavors that sound more like tropical or arctic environments than actual tastes.

they all boast brain boosting, muscle enhancing, night-time performance (as shown to the right) and a-d-d counteracting effects but really just taste like cough syrup and do more damage to our teeth and insides than help us jump over tall buildings in a single bound. we're more likely to shake out of our clothes than anything... which may help your sex life or perhaps not.

the other funny part for me to watch is that these power boosting drinks pick up the junkies left in the dust of the mocha madness. anymore, coffee drinkers are more like wine fanatics than caffeine addicts. they pick out their beans or roasts looking for that perfect flavour (yes the spelling is perposeful to show the snootyness of the whole thing)... while the latest group of energy drinking maniacs put aside being picky about the taste and are instead constantly looking for the next biggest fix in a can that will take them to the moon but just shy of cardiac arrest.

what will be interesting is what our next "big" thing will be. oxygen bars are still trying to keep a grip on their small market. but what kind of experience would that be outside of the bar? a can that hisses at you after you open it and you have to inhale as fast as possible as the air escapes into thin air (groan here).

but perhaps with our earth's dwindling potable water resources... the ultimate energy drink will one day again return to good old h2o.

hollandaise

so from the title you probably can tell that we've arrived to our initial destination of our eurotrek... and take some time checking out holland. 

the plane ride was long while the leg room was short.  at 6 foot 3 inches... i almost think it's worth blowing the extra dough on first class just for the extra space to plant my size 12s.  our first flight from pdx to washington d.c. had me behind a guy who pushed the limits on how far back he could get his seat to recline, while behind me there sat a baby seat that restricted my seat back from being anything but in the upright position.  basically, i spent my first leg of the trip spread eagle with my right knee sticking out into the aisle allowing the food cart to smack it every time it coasted from one end of the plane to the next. speaking of baby seats... the owner of said seat was "awesome." i can't remember the last time i've heard a tantrum like we heard from that 3 year old... and i definitely can't remember the last time i was trapped on a plane with one. while i really look forward to being a dad... thoughts of smothering a screaming child have me rethinking my suitability as a father. any parents with advice on how to deal with a situation like that... please inform. 

going from dulles to amsterdam was uneventful for the most part. andrea and i had stayed up the night before so we could sleep on the plane and get on the time zone here.  especially since we landed at 07:00 and didn't want to waste our first day in europe.

we're staying with andrea's aunt and uncle who work for the united nations and have lived over here for about six years. so in addition to having awesome hosts... we also have some great tour guides.  so that's our journey thus far... as we just got in and haven't hit the local town of den haag yet.

more to follow depending on our access and time spent on the internet.

something new something blu

if there's one thing that bugs me... it's lame or untimely marketing pushes. the latest couple i'm not a fan of are the hi-def and blu-ray tag team attack. this is more of a warning to people shopping around than anything else.

many people... including myself... have been jumping onto the h-d band wagon, especially in regards to televisions. in fact you'd be hard pressed to find a non-h-d television at most stores anymore. the problem of course with newer technology is making your whole media system compatible. this is a piece often left untouched when marketing h-d. if you buy an h-d tv you need to pay extra on your cable to get all your channels in hi-def and to view movies properly you have to have h-d dvds as well as a player that reads h-d dvds. so much like every other shift in technology... it doesn't just effect one aspect.

now for blu-ray... the pitch that can't and won't go away from commercials or cardboard stands at the local movie rental stores. do we really need to experience our movies that much more and are they really worth it? in addition to all that... just like with h-d... you need a blu-ray player to play the movies.

this is nothing new and ultimately it just boils down to how much you're willing to spend to re-outfit your whole system. i'm just annoyed when the tech world flips everything with the promise of a better picture and better experience... but i just don't see the bang for the buck.

man time

what is it about hanging out with the guys that helps reset life? what i mean is... every once in a while i need some "man time." whether it be poker, camping or disc golf... it's necessary. i've talked it over with andrea several times, and it's interesting to see the differences between hanging out with the girls and what guys do when they get together. while man time usually involves some form of ruggedness and or competitiveness... girl time often means going to a spa or going shopping or just going out to eat. there's nothing wrong with either of these... but the differences show me why time with the guys or girls is so important.

recently i went camping with dmitry. i hadn't realized how long it had been since i'd gone camping. have you ever done that thing where you list all your favorite activities and then you write the last time you did it? it usually ends up kind of a downer. well it had been way too long since i'd gone camping. and while our wives weren't pumped about us being gone for a whole weekend... they understood and we had a blast. there's just something about chopping wood, jumping in a cold-ass mountain lake and making fire (what i believe to be about as close to creating a life as a man can get... which interestingly still involves destruction) that makes me feel like a man. i think too many of us work in cubicle offices doing work that doesn't stimulate our brains like it should and we just need to get out and rough it every once in awhile and get back to our raw self.

i thought about this recently because i'd heard some guy on t-v saying men were becoming more feminine due to the hormones being injected into livestock. i don't know enough to weigh in on that... but i do see more and more guys in our society becoming too passive and sensitive. i noticed a huge difference when i was 16 in boy scouts. we had a shift in leadership with our scout masters being 10 years younger than the previous ones. they were so worried about their young boys that we stopped camping or doing anything resembling the scouts i loved.

there are just some weird movements in our culture that began with a good intention but have gone too far now. i could probably write a whole blog about how society has been destroying and belittling the career of stay-at-home-moms... the most noble career in my eyes... but i'll leave that for another day.

planned spontaneity

last night... randomly... i decided to take andrea out to dinner since we hadn't been out for awhile. my dad was nice enough on one hour's notice to watch stella, which i said was good practice for a future granddad (this is not a hint, i mean future).

for dinner i chose salem's greek restaurant the macedonia. i'd eaten there before but it had been some time. it's located in the reed opera house, which is one of my favorite downtown salem buildings.

not only was the food great and in my opinion fairly priced... but our waitress/hostess kept bringing us stuff "on the house." we wanted to try some greek wine but weren't sure about committing to a full bottle when we'd never had it before... so she brought out a sample. this may seem like a normal thing to do... but i've noticed not very many restaurants offer this up front... usually you have to ask. she also brought out some pita bread and tiziki sauce while we waited for our meals. and after we ate, andrea asked to sample the desert wine and the lady brought us each a glass for free (normally $6.50 a glass). in addition to the great service... the food was awesome and anyone who's been out to eat with me knows... if there's lamb on the menu, kevin's getting lamb.

one of the highlights was also the dolmas. what i like to call mediterranean spring rolls. very good even if they kind of look like a green poo.

i also love hummus. but we didn't have any at the restaurant... but i plan on making some tomorrow for the debate. if you like hummus and want to try making some... here's a quick and easy recipe. my advice though is make sure you have a food processor or that your blender can really destroy the garbanzo beans unless you like your hummus chunky.

all in all a great experience and i highly recommend it to anyone in the salem area.

when we moved to salem i was convinced there was nothing to do here... but with a little searching, andrea and i are discovering some cool attractions (i.e. the northern lights). the thing with salem is you have to do some research and testing to find the hole in the wall cool places unlike eugene and portland where every corner has something to offer. it makes going out almost more fun because of the unknown adventure that may unfold.

bringing sexy back

last night i was de-virginized of the sex and the city phenom.

here's how it happened...

recently andrea and i visited the local theater/pub and watched the movie "wanted." the experience was pretty good because the northern lights theater is cool and the whole beer or wine with a movie that's only $3 is awesome. the only downside was our (or rather my) choice of movie. wanted is awful and i really mean worse than cabin fever awful. in exchange i promised andrea that i'd make it up by watching sex and the city the movie with her.

we also watched no country for old men and fargo... two films that are definitely more guyish than chick-flick... so i owed her.

well, now i've seen it and having never seen more than 10 minutes of an episode i will put myself out there and admit that the movie was alright. i appreciated that the film didn't bash men as i'd thought it might, and it dealt with relationships more realistically than most entertainment media usually does. i still find sarah jessica parker kind of weird but the movie was better than i'd expected and much better (as any former roommate or andrea will tell you) than many of the random movies i bring home out of boredom.

i do not however feel the need to catchup on the show and watch all 6 seasons. i wouldn't say i'm a huge fan and have been won over (like andrea and my mom won me over on gilmore girls, a story for another blog) but it was fun to watch it with my wife... which hopefully helps me maintain a few man-points.

next film on the list is 30 days of night... sure to be a "winner" as it's my boredom choice off blockbuster.com.

radiohead still rules

has anyone seen the new marketing/creative push by radiohead? i'm probably behind the curve on this but i thought it was pretty cool and worth mentioning. they have the individual layers/tracks to the song reckoner available for download so people can mix their own version of the song and upload it for popular vote. it's not completely original by any means... but i still think it's cool. especially with a band like radiohead that does so much mixing of it's own.


if you're interesting in atleast checking out some people's mixes... head here.


also... a local portland band that has a radiohead sound but is still original and i atleast dig them is climber. check them out and support a local band.

puppy fun

for those who don't know... andrea and i have a puppy named stella. we got her in june after our 6 year old cat max died. she's a yorkie and a lot of fun for a little dog. there are some interesting stories but it's a new blog so new stories are in order.

(for the cat adventure at dan and paul's, refer to paul's blog for the story)

this blog is instead about our recent adventure to the portland animal hospital.

andrea and i went to see jeremy and kristy for dinner last friday. since stella was spayed just last tuesday we thought it would be best to bring her along so we could keep an eye on her instead of leaving her at home. we took her in her little carrier and the vet gave us an elizabethan collar so she wouldn't be able to get at her stitches as spaying is very invasive (removal of both ovaries and the uterus). while we were eating we kept her in her carrier. she started to wimper more and more and just as andrea was getting ready to open her carrier stella started yelping bloody murder. next thing i know, andrea is handing me our puppy with her insides on the outside. luckily kristy knew where the local animal hospital was and rushed us into her car to get there. i sat in the front still holding stella while kristy drove and andrea sat in the back praying. at first i was okay. she wasn't bleeding and she calmed down... or went into shock... so she wasn't kicking too much. but after staring at the mess in my hands for who knows how long (probably 10 minutes but it felt longer) i started to not feel so good. i started seeing stars and my hearing got muffled. by the time we reached the hospital i knew if i tried standing up i'd just fall over... so once we were there i handed off the pup to andrea to rush in. after a second i thought i was good but i only made it in one set of doors before i had to take a knee and kristy had to help me in the rest of the way. by the time i got to a chair my vision was black and i could barely hear. i don't know how long this went on but it didn't seem long... and then it all just cleared up and i was fine. i found andrea and we sat and waited to hear from the doctor.

stella's okay now... the doctor said one of the sutures failed and that's why she popped open. they figured it was a failure on the equipment and didn't charge us what most likely would have been $2,000.

God blessed us in so many ways that night and since. kristy and jeremy were awesome and i can't imagine what it would have been like to try and figure out where to take stella if they hadn't already known.


now stella just has a longer scar and an even longer story to go along with it.

new site... same banter

so i decided to create a new blog site to talk stuff up post-deployment. while this one will most likely still deal with military topics, since i work full time for the army... i will also go into more personal stuff like what color socks i'm wearing (none today) to fully round out the reading experience and make my life seem more interesting than it probably is.

enjoy...