jennandcarlos

Quick Update

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 14:45:23 GMT

Hi all, long time no see. We have been back from our trip to Germany for 2 weeks now and I finally got all our pics uploaded. We took about 500, i put just over 300 online. Im planning to blog about each day we were there, but for those who cant wait here is the album:

Holas! Regresamos de nuestro viaje a Alemania 2 semanas passadas. Finalmente nuestras fotos estan en el web. Tomimos 500 fotos, mas o menos, y yo puse 300 de las en el web. Voy a escribir en el blog acerca de cada dia en Alemiana, pero si no pueden esperear aqui es el album de fotos

http://picasaweb.google.com/jennandcarlos/GermanyAug08

handkerchiefs and food! / pannuelos y comida!

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 01:23:48 GMT

Hi!

We are enjoying a beautiful evening on our new patio. Its in the low 80s but our patio is mostly in the shade now and there is a nice breeze. We're listening to our local NPR jazz radio station and watching the birds and squirrels while sipping peach nectar (fancy peach juice) and having some locally made cheese and salsa. I could get used to this :)

Estamos disfrutando una tarde bonita en nuestro nuevo patio. La temperatura esta 28C pero el patio esta mayormente en la sombra y hay un poco de viento. Estamos escuchando al canal de jazz en la radio y mirando las aves y las ardillas mientras bebemos jugo de durazno y comemos queso y salsa de tomate hechas localmente. Me gusta mucho esta vida :)

This morning we went to the Beaverton Farmers Market. In addition to getting my usual delicious bagel from Serious Bread we got patty pan squash, honey crisp apples, corn, basil, and yellow wax beans from Sun Gold Farm just 30miles outside of Beaverton, and salsa, a sorbet swirl watermelon (orange and yellow inside!), butter lettuce, a red pepper, and carrots (orange this week not purple as in previous weeks) from Gathering Together Farm. We got some nice ground lamb and pork cutlets from Lonely Lane Farms where we get most of our meat during market season. We have a nice beef tritip from them thawing for dinner tomorrow and some babyback ribs frozen for another time. We also got fresh line caught salmon at the market for dinner tonite :)

Esta mannana fuimos al Beaverton Farmers Market. Conseguimos muchas comidas deliciosas. Un bagel de Serious Bread y calabaza, manzanas, choclo, albahaca, y frijoles amarillos de Sun Gold Farm solo 30 millas desde Beaverton, y salsa de tomate, melon amarillo y anaranjado, lechuga, pimiento rojo, y zanahorias (pero esta semana conseguimos anaranjadas, no moradas como las semanas pasadas de Gathering Together Farm. Conseguimos algo de carne de oveja molida y filetes de cerdo de Lonely Lane Farms donde conseguimos mayormente nuestras carnes durante la estacion del mercado. Tenemos algo de lomo para la cena mannana y costillas de cerdo para un otro tiempo. Tambien conseguimos salmon fresco para la cena anoche.

Annd.. for the first time we got EGGS!! An egg guy started coming a few weeks back, last week was the first time we noticed him and he was all out. We got half a dozen lovely brown eggs. I think i will make a market omlette tomorrow.. maybe with some fresh pesto I made with the basil after we got home.. mmm

Y , por primera vez, conseguimos HUEVOS! Un hombre con huevos empezo a venir al mercado unas semanas antes, la semana pasada fue la primera en que lo vimos y todos los huevos estaban vendidos. Hoy conseguimos 6 huevos marrones simpaticos. Creo que voy a cocinar un omelete mannana, posiblemente con pesto fresco que cocine hoy con la albahaca.. mmm..

And.. handkerchiefs. No I didnt find these at the market. In fact Ive had a terrible time finding them at all! After going through a box of kleenex in 1 day during a cold last year i decided it makes a lot more sense to use a hanky. I checked Nordstrom, Macys, and Target and found no ladies hankies. Finally I gave up and got some plain white mens hankies. I got some embroidery thread to make them "girly" (and distinguishable from Carlos'). What a pain!

Y, pannuelos. No, no encontre estos en el mercado. He estado buscando pannuelos por algun tiempo y no encontre. Despues de usar una caja de kleenex en un dia el anno pasado decidi que pannuelos son mejores. Los busque en Nordstrom, Macys, y Target pero no los encontre. Finalmente compre algos pannuelos blancos de hombre. Compre algo de hilo para feminizar mis pannuelos y para distinguirlos de los pannuelos de Carlos. Que pena!

Thats it for now, Adios!

New Deck! / Patio Nuevo!

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 16:48:00 GMT

Behold, our new deck! / Mira, nuestra patio nuevo!

View from the corner by our patio door / Vista desde la esquina al lado de la puerta

Other side. See how wide the rails are? Great for drinks :) / otro lado. Mira que anchos son los topes de las barandas, muy bueno para bebidas :)

View from the backyard. The space under the deck is where we want to put some rain barrels, we are also hoping to get a very small shed for our tools next to the house where the hot tub was. The builders cut out a little hole in the deck so we could hook up the hose. Also notice how the railings dont go all the way to the deck floor. This is going to make cleaning the deck off a ton easier since we can just sweep the leaves right of the deck.

Vista del jardin de atras. El espacio debajo del patio es donde queremos poner algunos recipientes de lluvia. Tambien queremos conseguir una cabanita para nuestras herramientas en donde estuvo la spa. Los constructores hicieron un agujero en el patio para la mangera. Tambien se ve que las barandas son un poco mas cortas que el piso del patio. Estara mas facil para limpiar el patio con las barandas asi, podimos barrer las hojas por todos lados.

Here are some views from our bedroom window on the second floor. Filling the bird feeder will be much easier now :) / Aqui estan algunas vistas desde la ventana de nuestro dormitorio en el segundo piso. Poniendo comida para las aves en la casita va a ser mas facil ahora :)

Next we need to put several coats of stain on the deck. Since the rainy season is fast approaching this is likely to consume a few evenings / weekends before we leave for Germany

Ahora necesitamos pintar el patio. La estacion de lluvia viene pronto, asi que creo que vamos a pintar durante unas noches y/o fin de semanas antes de salir a Alemania

Yesterday we went hiking at Saddle Mountain. This trail has been closed for most of the hiking season due to extensive storm damage from this past winter. There was a cloud hanging over the mountain all day, we only got up to the first peak in the saddle and turned back because the weather was crappy, and the last 1/2 mile is pretty sketchy even in good weather. We did see some beautiful wild flowers along the way though.. sorry, no pics

Ayer fuimos a hiking en Saddle Mountain. Este camino fue cerrado por lo mejor de la estacion de hiking porque una gran tormenta en el invierno derrumbo muchos arboles gigantes. Ayer hizo mal tiempo en la cima, asi que solo fuimos a la primera cima de las dos. Miramos algunas flores bonitas en el camino, pero no tomamos fotos.

Thats it for now! Esto es todo por ahora!

Long Weekend!

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:26:10 GMT

Hello all, its been a busy month! Besides being busy with work Ive also started to learn German since we are leaving in a month for our overdue honeymoon in Germany :-D

Hola chicos, este mes fue ocupado! He estado ocupada con trabajo y tambien empeze a aprender aleman porque salimos a alemania en un mes :-D

Mom treated Bethany and I to a girls weekend in Reno / Lake Tahoe. We had a great time, you can see the album here. The water was so blue, it was incredible. It was a really nice relaxing time to just be with family. Usually the only time we get together anymore is during holidays when things are kind of nuts, it was really nice to just chill out and catch up with eachother.

Mi madre nos tomo a Bethany y a mi a Reno Nevada y Lake Tahoe para una fin de semana solo para las chicas. Tuvimos un buen tiempo, el album de fotos esta aqui. El aqua en el lago Tahoe es tan azul - increible! Fue muy bueno pasar algun tiempo solo con mi familia, usualmente nos vemos solo en feriado cuando estamos ocupadisimas. Este tiempo podimos relajar y conversar acerca nuestras vidas. Muy simpatico tiempo :)

Otherwise in August we had our house painted and got a new deck!! Pics coming soon, hopefully this weekend. We have a ton of space under the new deck, Id like to get a rain cistern under there since we get so much rain in the winter but are so dry in the summer. It seems though that our deck isnt quite high enough for even the low profile rain barrels, and these "pillow" type rain barrels (basically giant bags) are really expensive. I might just get a few food grade barrels (~$30 a piece) and hook them together. We will see!

En agosto el casa fue pintada y conseguimos un nuestro patio de atras! Fotos van a venir pronto, espero que este fin de semana. Tenemos mucho espacio debajo del patio, quiero conseguir algunos recipientes para recoger lluvia porque hay mucha lluvia aqui en el invierno pero no hay lluvia aqui en el verano. El patio no tiene sufficiente altura para los recipientes pequennos. Hay bolsos especialmente para recoger lluvia pero son carisimos. Creo que vamos a conseguir algunos recipientes baratos y podimos conectarlos para hacer un recipiente mas grande.

Thats it for now, have a great weekend! / Esto es todo por ahora, Que tengan un buena fin de semana!

Lost Lake / El Lago Perdido

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:51:06 GMT

We had a lovely weekend at Lost Lake on Mt Hood. There was a lot of wildlife, including this chipmunk!

Tuvimos una bonita fin de semana en el Lago Perdido en Monte Hood. Fue muchos animales incluido esta ardillita

We arrived around 11:30 and the campground was packed!!! We got literally the last camping spot and there were several other cars trolling for sites. We were extremely lucky.

Llegamos a las 11:30 y el campamiento fue muy lleno!! Conseguimos el ultimo espacio y fue muchos otros carros que estaban buscando para espacios. Tuvimos mucha suerte

Here are some pics of our camp site / Aqui estan algunas fotos del nuestro espacio

Carlos in the picnic area. There is a place for a tent just beyond the picnic table / Carlos en el area de picnic. Hay un lugara para la carpa detras de la mesa.

The fire pit / El area de fuego :)

The other tent area. This was a really nice secluded area to pitch our tent. We also brought the canoe up here behind us when we went to bed, but many people left their canoes & kayaks minimially locked up on their cars.

La otra area de carpa. Fue un buen lugar muy escondido para poner la carpa. Tambien pusimos la canoa detras de la carpa en la noche, pero muchas personas dejaron sus canoas y kayaks con minima seguridad sobre sus carros.

We had a nice lunch, with Inca Corn! This is a snack from Peru, recently we started getting it at a local grocery store. In Peru they have enormous corn, this is basically a fried corn snack.

Tuvimos un buen almuerzo con Inca Corn! Podimos conseguirlo en una tienda local.

On to the lake! / Hasta el lago!

Here I am getting ready to launch the boat. / Aqui estoy lista para lanzar la canoa

What a picture, hot guy with Mt Hood behind! / Que foto, un chico simpatico con Monte Hood atras!

We are very sure this was a bald eagle. There were actually a few of them overhead. White head, white tail. This was the closest picture we could take, we will have to add binoculars to our canoeing gear!

Estamos seguros que esta fue un aguila. Algunas volaron arriba sobre nosotros. Cabeza blanca, cola blanca. Esta foto es lo mas cerca que pudimos tomar, necesitamos anadir binoculares a nuestras cosas de canotaje.

Everyone was out at the lake having fun / Todos estuvieron en el lago.

There were lots of nice wild flowers around our campsite. Here is some bunchberry / Fue muchas flores bonitas cerca nuestro espacio. Aqui estan algos se llama bunchberry

Carlos relaxing / Carlos relajando

Here I am with dinner cooking.. mmm / Aqui estoy con la cena cocinando

Around the campfire / cerca del fuego

A kind bear wandered into our campsite and took this pic for us / Un oso encontro nuestro espacio y tomio esta foto

Since there wasnt any rain in the forecast we didnt put up the rainfly. We didnt count on morning mist being that we were higher up on the mountain. This is a pic of the INSIDE of the tent

Como no hubo pronostico de lluvia no pusimos la cobertura para lluva sobre la carpa. En la manana hizo un poco de lluvia porque estuvimos arriba en la montana. Esta foto es DENTRO de la carpa

Carlos went for a walk early in the morning. There was still some snow on the lake trail

Carlos camino al lado del lago temprano en la manana. Todavia hubo un poco de nieve en el camino.

Even though it had rained I managed to start a fire with one match :) / Anque hizo lluvia empezi el fuego con un fosforo!

Here is some inside-out flower / Aqui estan algunas flores que se llaman "inside-out flower"

I think this is false solomon's seal / Creo que esta flor se llama "false solomon's seal"

We had lunch on the way back home in the gorge at Wahkeena Falls.

Almorzamos en el regreso a Portland en el Gorge at Wahkeena Falls.

Carlos thinking / Carlos pensando

The falls / La cascada

That was our weekend. We got home this afternoon and did some chores. Time for bed!

The Gorge Games

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:43:09 GMT

Hi All!

Last weekend we went to the Gorge Games; extreme sports competitions in Hood River (the wind/kite surfing capital of the world! yeah!). We are planning to go camping & canoeing at Lost Lake this weekend, and our deck is about to be demolished!!

La fin de semana pasada fuimos a los Gorge Games, deportes de viento en Hood River (el capital de windsurfing en todo el mundo!) Esta fin de semana vamos a camping & canotaje en Lost Lake, un lago en Mt Hood, y nuestro patio va a ser demolido!

So last weekend we went to the Games. We mostly watched "windy" events - sailing, windsurfing, and kiteboarding. We also saw some of the skateboarding while we were eating lunch in town.

Fuimos a los Gorge Games el fin de semana pasada. Mejormente miramos los deportes de viento - windsurfing, kiteboarding, y velerismo. Tambien vimos algo skateboarding

Here is Carlos at the sailing regatta / Aqui esta Carlos en la regatta de velerismo

The regatta was at Cascade Locks. These were the locks for the Columbia River before it was dammed up at Bonneville. They have an olde tyme river boat cruise

La regatta fue en Cascade Locks. Tienen un bote antiguo del rio

There was a guy racing around on this little boat with aerofoils. He was literally flying overtop of the water

Un hombre con botecito con aerofoils. El estaba volando sobre del agua

The first boats around the bouy! / Los primeros botes en la carrera

Pretty spinnakers opening for the return trip / Spinnakers bonitos

These were the starting ramps for the skateboarding tight slalom. The guys were so fast it was impossible to get a pic, in some 12 seconds they cleared a good 150ft of these tightly spaced cones, it was pretty amazing. This competition was the North American Championships

Estas son los partidas para el skateboading. Los jugadores eran tan rapido que no podimos tomar fotos.

We walked out to The Spit - the kiteboard launch pad. It was really cool, so many kites and people doing awesome tricks

Andamos al Spit - el lugar desde donde las surfistas entran al agua

Some windsurfers

If you hadnt guessed from all the kites it was a bit windy / Hizo un poco de viento

Since the deck is old, and we didnt use the hot tub or outdoor shower anyway, we are having the whole thing ripped out and redone.

Por que el patio es viejo y no usamos el spa o ducha afuera queremos reemplazarlo

Anubis surveying the deck destruction / Anubis mirando el demolido

Carlos got a head start on the demolition to remove as much of the shower as possible. We are having a plumber come to finish it off. The new deck is going to end at the corner of the house where the shower is, and we are going to ask the plumber to put a spigot there

Carlos empezo a demolio el patio para remover la ducha.

So exciting times :) I started learning German last week in preparation for our honeymoon. Carlos is fluent, he keeps telling me not to worry about it but id rather at least be able to make an attempt than be the typical ignorant american tourist :-P

Empeze a aprender aleman la semana pasada para nuestro viaje. Carlos conoce aleman y me dijo que no preocupo en la lengua pero quiero tratar y no quiero estar una turistica americana tipica que no puede hablar mas que ingles

Time for bed! Gute Nacht!

Of Weddings and Biking / De Bodas y Bicicletas

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:06:20 GMT

Hello world!

This past weekend we traveled to PA for my cousin Chris's wedding. It was a really brief visit (in at 10am saturday, back on the plane at 4 on Sunday) but we had a really good time. Chris and I spent a lot of time playing together when we were kids since he and his brother Clint lived across the street from us. I sometimes think about how my kids wont get to be that close with their cousins, but thats another story.

El fin de semana pasada fuimos al Pennsylvania para el matrimonio de me primo Chris. El viaje fue muy corto (llegamos a las 10 de la manana el sabado, salimos a las 4 de la tarde el domingo). Cuando eramos jovenes, Chris y yo jugamos juntos mucho porque Chris vivio al lado de yo. A veces pienso en que mis hijos no va a conocer sus primos tan bueno que yo, per esto es una otra cuenta

It was especially cool since Chris and I have a lot of the same high school friends, so I got to spend some time with friends I havent seen in quite a while, as well as get to introduce my husband :-D

El dia fue especialmente bueno por que Chris y y tenemos muchos amigos mismos del colegio, entonces pude pasar un poco tiempo con mis amigos, y pude introducirlos a mi esposo :-D

Heres the sign outside the hotel where the reception was / Aqui esta el cartel del hotel del recepcion

Here we are at the house - Mom, Bethany, her friend Jamie, Carlos and I

Aqui estuvimos en la casa - Madre, Bethany y su amiga Jamie, Carlos y yo

Now some pics from the reception / Ahora algunas fotos del recepcion

The Clints! Clint III and Clint Jr, brother and father of the groom / Mi primo Clint III y mi tio Clint Jr, hermano del novio y padre del novio

The stylish Bethany / Mi hermana Bethany

The happy couple / Los novios

Bethany and Carlos dancing! / Bethany y Carlos bailando!

Miss Xena sleeping / El gato de mi Madre, Xena, dormiendo

And of course, Anubis! / y por supuesto Anubis!

One more pic from PA. The blue spruce tree in this photo is Tree Margret. My girl scout troop planted this tree when I was maybe 14

Una foto mas de Pennsylvania. El arbol azul en esta foto se llama "tree margret" Mi tropa de girl scouts plantamos este arbol cuando tuve 14 anos mas or menos

Now for some pics from Portland / Algunas fotos de Portland

Our cherry tree had 3 cherries. We think the neighborhood kids ate 2 of them. Here is the remaining one

Nuestro arbol de cerezas tuvo 3 cerezas. Creemos que algunos jovenes se las comieran. Aqui esta la ultima

Our red columbine / una flor se llama "columbine"

Our gardenias, thanks to Ceci (Carlos' aunt) for giving them to use :) / Nuestras gardenias, gracias a Ceci para regalar nos las

Thats all the photos I have, now to the bikes / Esto es todo de las fotos, ahora las bicicletas

Lately there have been a lot of bike related incidents here in Portland. It started out with this crazy guy smashing the car of a bike advocate with his bicycle in a drunken rage, followed by this crazy guy driving drunk and ending up with a cyclist on his windshield, followed by a cyclist that ran a red light and t-boned a truck now in serious condition in a hospital

And while looking up the links for the above incidents I found another from today - cyclist smashes bus window.

All of this activity happened downtown. I dont really see any behavior like this at all where I bike but all of these stories have everyone talking. As a person who spents more time in a car than on a bike (but lately a lot of time on a bike) I can say that at least in my experiences, both cyclists and motorists disobey the laws pretty equally. Yet as I read these stories day after day I cant help but think what the heck is wrong with these bikers? I passed a woman biking with a kiddie trailer on my way home. At first I was excited, but then as I got closer i noticed that she wasnt wearing a helmet, and when rang my bell to signal that i was about to pass she didnt respond.. because she was wearing headphones.. wearing headphones is illegal for drivers and bikers in Oregon for obvious reasons.

I think one reason we hear about all of this in Portland is because of the high percentage of cyclists - on average 6% of people in downtown ride bikes for transportation, and i think it can be as high as 15% in some neighborhoods. Statistically speaking more incidents are bound to happen there.

One thing that is unique about this situation is that cars and bikes can interact. To use the bike-clubbing incident as an example, lets assume you were in a car and the car in front of you ran a light. You might think 'what a jerk!' Now what would you do about it? Probably nothing. At the next light you would just be positioned behind the car, its highly unlikely that you would get out of your car and confront the other driver.

Now consider what happens with a bike and a car. Since a bike travels next to a car there is plenty of opportunity for interaction. When I drive and get frustrated at another driver I might say some nasty things, but usually my opinions are contained within my car. On a bike you are subject to (and subject others to) these opinions and feelings; there is no longer a cabin of metal to shield yourself and others from such comments, so people start communicating with eachother and can get into heated arguments

I have a hard time with this. Im trying to be more concientous of the comments I make while Im biking, but I have to admit im definitely a hot head when it comes to such things, ESPECIALLY if someone has knowingly tried to harm or scare me. I instantly want to take revenge and employ all methods of vocal and body language to convey that desire. And in the rare instance that I get to read someone the riot act for wronging me I always feel worse afterwards. Always. Im pretty sure I feel bad because I too am acting like a jerk.

It is frustrating when people dont follow the rules and put others at risk. Unfortunately no one (myself included) wants to hear that we are wrong, so confronting others about breaking rules almost always seems to end with vulgarities. I am personally trying to accept that I can be wrong, and trying to focus more on being at peace with others instead of having to be right all the time. I think if we all try to do this then these types of incidents will abate.

I still dont know what to do about confronting law breakers. When someone is doing something dangerous (like riding the wrong way in the bike lane) that could harm others I think its important to point it out, but what if the person flips out and tries to harm me for bringing it up? Its too bad that our society is in such a state. I dont know what to do really.

Fotos!

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 04:44:38 GMT

Today is show and tell from the last few weeks. Hope everyone had a nice 4th!

Hoy voy a poner nuestras fotos aqui

San Francisco

We visited our friend Laura in San Francisco. Weather was quite nice there, not so nice in Portland :-D

Visitamos nuestra amiga Laura en san Francisco. Hizo buen tiempo alla per no hizo buen tiempo en Portland

Even the cats were relaxing / Un gato relajando

We took a walk through Crissy Field / Andamos en Crissy field

Saw some wildlife / Mirando aves

And made silly faces while waiting to go to jail.. to tour Alcatraz. We were there the day of the escape from Alcatraz triathalon but passed by as things were wrapping up

Estuvimos esperando el bote a Alcatraz, una prision famosa. Estuvimos alla en el mismo dia de una triatlon pero no la vimos

The boat trip to Alcatraz was quite windy / Hizo viento en el camino a Alcatraz

Some photos from Alcatraz. They have a really good audio tour narrated by former wardens and prisoners

Algunas fotos de Alcatraz. Tienen un audiotour muy bueno narrado por los antiguos carceleros y prisoneros.

View of the City from The Rock / La vista de San Francisco desde Alcatraz

Fortunately there is good public transit to alleviate our tired feet
Afortunadamente hay buena transportacion publica para descansar nuestros pies

Carlos looking cool

We took a nice walk through Presidio Park / Andamos en Presidio Park

View from Inspiration point / la vista del punto de inspiracion

We found a really nice place for dinner in Sausalito at The Spinnaker restaurant. It was out on the water, here is a view of the city

Encontramos un resturante muy bueno en Sausalito que se llama The Spinnaker. Esta en la bahia. Aqui esta la vista de la ciudad

We got a great table at the back corner / Conseguimos una mesa buena

We stayed at the Adante Hotel which has a cool nautical theme. Here are some pics from our room

Nos hospedamos en el hotel Adante que tiene un tema nautico. Aqui estan algunas fotos de nuestro dormitorio

The hotel had an adjoining cafe, Adante's inferno. I had a nice morning there reading and having coffee. They had some really cool art. The face of the octopus in this one is a circuit board

El hotel tiene un cafe al lado que se llama Andante's Inferno. Pase una buena mannana alla leendo y tomando cafe. El cafe tiene arte interesante. La cara del pulpo es un circuito electronico

Good times!

Berrying with Bethany

The following weekend my sister Bethany came out for a visit. We picked strawberries and took out our new canoe for the first time.

La fin de semana despues mi hermana Bethany nos visito. Recolectamos fresas y usamos nuestra nueva canoa por primera vez

We went strawberry picking at Bagginstos Farms/ Recolectamos fresas en la granja Bagginstos

We ended up picking 20 lbs of berries!! / Recolectamos 9 kilos de fresas!!

A closer look at the berries / Las fresas

Bethany baked 2 awesome strawberry pies for us / Bethany nos hizo 2 pies de fresas

We went out to Hagg lake for a picnic and canoeing / Fuimos al lago Hagg para un picnic y para canotaje

mmmm foood

Our canoe! / Nuestra canoa

Carlos looking very canoish / Carlos esta listo para canotaje

The maiden voyage! / La inauguracion!

Seattle

A few pics from our trip to Seattle. We went to see a symphony concert and also visited the Tacoma glass museum

Algunas fotos de nuestro viaje a Seatle. Fuimos alla para un concierto simfonico y visitamos el museo de vidrio en Tacoma

Mt Rainier close up / Monte Rainier

Carlos outside of the Tacoma glass museum / Carlos afuera del museo de vidrio

We couldnt take any pics inside the museum :( It was really neat, very nice galleries and a Hot Shop where a visiting glass artist was making glass art live!! We enjoyed watching a piece being created out of molten glass in front of us

No pudimos tomar fotos en el museo :( Las galerias fue bueno y hay un estudio de creacion de arte de vidrio. Vimos el creacion de un arte de vidrio fundido!

Dale Chihuly is from Tacoma, many of the permanent installations for the gallery were by him and his team including these:

Dale Chihuly es de Tacoma, muchas de las instalaciones permanentes en la galeria fueron hechas por el

The Fourth

We have had a pretty low key weekend, mostly just hanging around the house. We made some good barbeque yesterday and went to see the fireworks on the waterfront. Today we took our boat out to Sauvie Island. We are really lucky to have so many places to take our canoe out close by - it takes us about 20min to drive to Sauvie Island and we stopped at one of the Farm Markets there on the way back to get our produce for the week

Para la feriada no hicimos mucho. Cocine barbeque ayer y fuimos a mirar los fuegos artificales en el malecon. Hoy traimos nuestra canoa a Sauvie Island. Tenemos mucha suerte que hay muchas lugares en que podemos usar nuestra canoa. Suavie Island es 20 minutos desda la casa y fuimos a un mercado en la isla cuando regresamos

Jenn with the H.M.S Gato (our new canoe) / Jenn con el H.M.S Gato

We were wondering about the history of Sauvie Island. There are a lot of old dock foundations along the channel, and an interesting old barge

Pensamos en la histora de Sauvie Island. Hay muchas cosas antiguas en el canel

We were nearly overtaken by pirates!! / Piratas!

There were also planes / Aviones

And water skiiers / esquiadores de agua

Back at the dock with the boat / Carlos con la canoa

Wow, thats a lot of typing. And now back to the Harry Potter marathon on ABC!

Mucho escribiendo. Voy a volver a la maraton de Harry Potter en ABC

Awesomeness

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:14:07 GMT

As Ive mentioned before biking is awesome. Ive been biking to work 3 days a week now for the last few weeks, i think this week i may actually get 4 days in. I got a rack and some panniers and im enjoying them a lot more than my backpack

Bicicletear es increible. Bicicleteo a trabajo 3 dias cada semana, esta semana quiero bicicletear 4 dias. Consegui nuevas bolsas para mi bicicleta se llama panniers. Me gustan mas que mi mochila

Ive started counting how many other cyclists I see during my 7.5 mile trip. I typically get somewhere between 15-18 other cyclists, which is 2-3X the number of other cyclists Ive seen in years past. Here are some reasons why biking is awesome

1. Fresh air and sunshine
2. You get to say "hi!" to your fellow commuters
3. Wildlife - I regularly see birds, squirrels, dogs, and cats, today I saw 2 raccoons!!
4. Health and fitness

Empeze a contar cuantas ciclistas veo cuando ir a trabajo. Usualmente cuento 15-18 otras ciclistas. Aqui estan algunas razones que bicicletear es increible

1. Aire fresco y sol
2. Pueden saludar otros ciclistas
3. Animales - usualmente veo aves, ardillas, gatos, y perros. Hoy veo 2 mapaches!!
4. Salud

I started my 3rd spanish class tonite, but there are only 2 of us so its likely to get cancelled. Fortunately there is a spanish 4 class meeting in the same room later in the evening that has more people, so I think i will transfer into that one.

Empezo el tercer clase de espanol anoche pero solo hay dos estudiantes entonces la clase va a estar cancelado. Afortunadamente el cuarto clase de espanol esta en el mismo lugar despues el tercer clase. Voy a mover al cuarto clase.

Also, i have lots of pics from our awesome weekend in San Francisco with Laura and our awesome weekend here in Portland with my sister Bethany. We picked 20lbs of strawberrries and took our new canoe on its maiden voyage!! This weekend we are going to Seattle to see the Symphony (my gift to Carlos for his birthday) and the Chihuly museum in Tacoma, so we will have even more pics. I just need to find time to upload them....

Tengo muchas fotos de nuestros fin de semanas en San Francisco con Laura y aqui en Portland con mi hermana Bethany. Conseguimos 8 kilos de fresas y sacamos nuestra canoa a un lago para la primera vez! Esta fin de semana vamos a ir a Seattle para un concierto simfonico (me regalo a Carlitos para su cumpleannos) y queremos ir al museo Chihuly en Tacoma en el regreso, entonces voy a tener mas fotos. Necesito encontrar tiempo para ponerlas aqui

Nite!! Buenas noches!!

Up! / Arriba!

Sun, 25 May 2008 23:14:03 GMT

Woohoo, long weekend!

Yesterday we went hiking on Dog Mountain, supposedly one of the prettiest (and most painful) hikes around. We have proof of the pretty (pics) and proof of the pain (standing up hurts). Turns out that we went on the best day of the weekend, it was sunny and in the 70s -80s yesterday but today it is rainy and humid.

Ayer fuimos a Dog Mountain (Monte de perros). Este camino es uno de los mas bonitos aqui, pero tambien es uno de los mas dificules. Tenemos fotos (para bonito) y dolor en las piernas (para dificil). Ayer hizo buen tiempo con mucho sol y no lluvia. Hoy es lloviendo y humido

First - to impress upon you just how hard this hike is check out the trail marker "most difficult" / Miran la sinnal del camino - se dice "mas dificil":

The theme of the day was "up". Fortunately there were many beautiful flowers and views to keep us motivated on the calf burning climb

El tema del dia fue "arriba" Afortunadamente fue muchas flores y vistas bonitas para motivar nos :)

Carlos coming up the trail / Carlos caminando arriba

View of the gorge on the way / Vista del gorge

The strawberries were in bloom / las fresas floreciendo

Another gorge view / otra vista del gorge

Mission bells / flores se llama "mission bells"

The aptly named "inside out flower" / unas flores se llama "fores al reves"

Star flower

Going up!

The trail divides about 0.7 miles from the trail head. We took the "less difficult" (more scenic) route from there which passes by this awesome open meadow about half way up. It was covered with these beautiful yellow flowers called "arrowleaf balsamroot"

El camino se divide casi 0.7 millas del empieza. Tomimos el camino "menos dificil" (pero mas bonito) y pasamos en este lugar muy bonito. Cubre con muchos flores amarillas bonitas se llama "arrowleaf balsamroot"

Arrowleaf balsamroot and red paintbrush:

There were these cool white bell-shaped flowers with blue stripes called "douglas triteleia" This isnt a very good shot but trust me, they were cool

Una foto de las flores blancas con rayas azules. Esta foto no es muy buena pero las flores son muy bonitos

This one looks like bear grass but I dont know for sure, i think its too small.

Carlos in the meadow / Carlos en el meadow

View from the meadow / vista de meadow

Jenn with some more arrowleaf basamroot

Some pretty lavender flowers / algunas flores moradas bonitas

A squirrel in a tree enjoying some lunch / Una ardilla en el arbol disfrutando almuerzo

Carlos coming up the trail in the last mile / Carlos caminando arriba en la ultima milla

But still more up! / Pero todavia mas arriba!

Jenn has had just about enough going up / Jenn no quiere ir mas arriba

A cool looking spiny pink flower with some little maiden blue-eyed mary in the background

I think these are phlox of some kind / Creo que estas flores se llama "phlox"

Only 0.4 mile from the top! Here we are in front of Wind Mountain, the only granite formation in the gorge apparently (the rest is basalt) / Solo 0.4 millas de la cima. Estamos aqui defrente de Monte Viento.

The last big push up / la ultima vez arriba

Enjoying a hard earned lunch at the top! Disfrutando un almuerzo bueno en la cima

The view from the top. You can see why they call it "dog" mountain / La vista de la cima. Pueden ver porque este monte se llama monte de perros

Time for a nap after that long climb / Tiempo para siesta despues de andando duro

Jenn not quite ready to go back down / Jenn no esta lista para mas andando

Some meadow chickweed

vanilla leaf

Not sure what this is, possibly narrow leaved desert parsley

Thats it for dog mountain. Now back to relaxing and resting my legs :)

Esto es todo por monte perro. Ahora voy a relajar y descansar para mis piernas :)

Fotos!

Mon, 19 May 2008 01:55:22 GMT

OK. I have finally uploaded pics from our recent goingson here in Portland

Papis

Consuelo & Jorge came to visit us in April for about 10 days. We took a drive down highway 101 to see how far we could go & get back in a day. Here are some photos from along the way

Consuelo y Jorge nos visitaron en Abril por casi 10 dias. Manejamos por las playas en la autopista 101 durante medio dia y regresamos en el mismo dia. Aqui estan alguas fotos del viaje

Consuelo enjoying the cold Oregon water / Consuelo disfrutando el agua fria de Oregon

Jorge, Carlos, and Jenn at the same beach / Jorge, Carlos, y Jenn en la misma playa

In front of one of the many lighthouses along the Oregon coast / Al frente de uno de los muchos faros en la costa de Oregon

On the return trip from the beach we stopped in Mt Angel for some German food at The Glockenspiel / Cuando regresamos de la playa cenamos en el pueblo Mt Angel en el restaurante aleman "The Glockenspiel"

The weather was nice (not snowing) but there was a ton of snow on the mountain so we visited Timberline Lodge for lunch the next day. Here we are in front of the snow pack!

Hizo buen tiempo (no estuvo nevando) pero habia mucha nieve en Mt Hood, asi que fuimos a Timberline Lodge para almuerzo la proxima dia. Aqui estamos con la nieve atras!

We got a table by the window, as you can see the view was rather snowy :-D / Conseguimos una mesa al lado de la ventana, pueden ver que la vista esta nevada :-D

The lodge entrance / la entrada

The Castro - Leonard duo serenading Jorge for his birthday / El duo Castro-Leonard toco una serenata para Jorge por su cumpleannos

On Jorge's birthday we went on a ride on the Portland tram. The views were spectacular.

Por el cumpleannos de Jorge tomamos el funicular. Las vistas fueron espectaculares

Passing the other tram / Pasamos el otro fundicular

Views of Portland / Vistas de Portland

Hiking at the Coast: Neahkahnie Mt & Cape Falcon

A few weeks back we went hiking with some of Carlos' coworkers. The original plan was to go to Saddle Mt but the road was closed. Instead we drove ~20miles more and went to Neahkahnie Mt followed by the Cape Falcon trail

Algunas semanas pasada fuimos a hiking con los companneros de trabajo de Carlos. Queriamos ir a Monte Saddle pero el camino estuvo cerrado. Continuamos 20 millas mas al Monte Neahkahnie y despues al sendero Cape Falcon

Neahkahnie is one of my favorite hikes. Its pretty short from the trail head we start from (1.5 miles to the top) but the views are great and we get to see a lot of nice flowers. When we went last summer with the hiking club we saw tiger lillies, the album is here.

Monte Neahkahnie es uno de mis caminos favoritos. Es un camino corto pero en la cima hay una vista muy bonita y en el camino hay muchas flores hermosas. Vimos tiger lillies el anno pasado en este camino, las fotos estan aqui

I think this is some kind of lilly / Creo que esta es un tipo de lilly

These three petaled flowers are trilliums, the are very common in the woods in the spring time
Estas flores con tres petalos se llama trilliums y son muy comunes en los bosques en la primavera

Everybody at the top! / Todos en la cima

Even some flowers and a lady bug / Y algunas flores y una mariquita

The view from the top - Nehalem bay. If you look really close you can see the 4 cores (nerd joke)

La vista en la cima - la bahia de Nehalem.

The House / La Casa

Due to a minor math mistake I ordered waay too much compost for mulch last fall. It seems to have done our yard wonders though - we have plants flowering that never flowered before. Here are some pics from our yard this spring

Cometi un error pequenno de matematicas y ordene demasiado compost el otonno pasado, pero nuestras plantas estan muy felizes! Tenemos flores en plantas que nunca tuvieron flores en los annos pasados. Aqui estan algunas fotos de nuestra jardin

A lilac bush!! We didnt even know what this was previously, this is the first year it flowered, we thought it may have ben a weed!!

Un arbusto de lilac. No sabimos que es esto, pensamos que es una maleza!! Este anno es el primero en que este arbusto tiene flores

Our new cherry tree. We planted this in the fall and it seems to be doing well so far / Nuestro nuevo cerezo. Plantamos este arbol en el otonno pasado

The rhodedendron in front of our house - this one never had flowers before but Ive heard rhodys sometimes only bloom every other year or so

El rhodedendron de frente de la casa - este arbusto nunca tuvo flores pero es posible tiene flores solo cada dos annos

Azaleas

Another azalea net to the house / Otra azalea al lado de la casa

More rhodys that never bloomed before! / Mas rhodys que nunca tuvieron flores

Last but not least a flower on our new apple tree /Finalmente una flor en nuestro arbol nuevo de manzanas

Phew, thats it for now, and Im spent!

of biking

Sat, 17 May 2008 04:15:14 GMT

Hello

We have tons of pics to post, unfortunately they arent on this machine so you will just have to wait

The last few weeks we have been commuting on bike. Usually we start biking to work during this time of year and continue until it gets dark and wet (sept - octish) Id like to start doing more by bike - we live ~2 miles from most of the services we need (grocery ,bakery, several restaurants). This is not so much inspired by gas prices as fitness. Getting in enough workout time with a desk job is really difficult, commuting by bike is a perfect solution from us since we get in at least 10miles/day.

Of course biking is great for exercise and saving on gas, but its just a generally happier experience. Instead of lamenting being inside all day I can look forward to a nice bike ride home. I get to watch the sun rise and set, and hear the birds and smell fresh cut grass. I miss these things in my car.

It also doesnt take much longer for me to bike than to drive, maybe 10min. We are really lucky to have a good network of bike lanes on our way to work. Everytime I think about complaining about the bike lanes (like in the spring time when they havent swept up the cinders from the winter de-icing) I try to remind myself that a lot of places dont even have bike lanes. And for the few bad / uneducated drivers that cut me off I know it would be a lot worse elsewhere.

Ive also been inspired by several people who do a lot of bike commuting. Here is an article from BikePortland on Mark Allyn who commutes 40miles round trip, 2xs a week solely by bike, the rest of the week by biking part of the way and taking the MAX (light rail) the rest. Also our friends the Potoczny-Jones who use their bikes to get everywhere from work to restaurants from their home in SE Portland. Isaac recently blogged about his bike commute. We were just riding in their 'hood a few weekends ago and there really are more cyclists than cars on the road.

Im also inspired by my coworkers that have started biking. One of my coworkers just went out and bought a bike to commute the 2 miles from his home. He goes home to be with his family for lunch, today he told me he took home subs for his family in the pannier he got (for taking home beer and/or milk :-D).

I have 3 coworkers that ive talked to that have either recently started to do more by bicycle or are planning to start. The thing that is really awesome is they all say the same thing - "i feel really good about riding my bike." Its true, though at the end of my ~7.5mile commute home in the 97degree weather today i was feeling a bit differently, I feel much better now.

I feel really relaxed when I commute by bike. As the week goes on this relaxation is more physical exhaustion, but I dont think this is a bad thing. I sleep much better when im exhausted from exercise and fresh air. I get tired earlier which helps me get to sleep on time. When Im relaxed from biking I find that I dont get preoccupied about dumb problems, and that I dont get as upset about things (likely due to the aforementioned exhaustion). I think I need to be too tired to worry to truly be able to relax

The best part about biking? Eating! Filling my "tank" is tasty and a lot cheaper than filling my car.

So, if you can, ride your bike!

Well, that is all for now. Hopefully I will get those pics posted Real Soon Now...

Silver Falls State Park

Sun, 11 May 2008 04:25:26 GMT

First, sorry for not posting. We have been super crazy busy lately. We have a lot of blog updating to do, hopefully i can update some more tomorrow.

Primero, disculpenme porque no escribi en el blog el mes pasado. Estuvimos muy ocupados. Necesito escribir mucho, espero que pueda escribir mas mannana

Today we went to Silver Falls State Park and hiked the trail of 10 falls. We wanted to do this hike almost a year ago - we planned to go the day after our wedding (our 1st anniversary is next monday!!! Has it really been a year already?) but due to weather and general exhaustion we decided to go another time. We went with 8 other people from work and had a great time. All together we saw about 14 waterfalls, I guess now is really the best time to go as later in the spring/summer the water dries up.

Hoy fuimos a Silver Falls State Park para hiking en el camino de lad 10 cascadas. Queriamos hacer esto casi un anno pasado, el dia despues nuestro matrimonio, pero hizo mal tiempo y estabamos exaustos. Fuimos con 8 amigos de trabajo y estuvo divertido. Vimos 14 cascadas porque hay mas agua en la primavera.

Here is the album on Picasa, Ill post some highlights here

Aqui esta el album de fotos

Here we are in front of South Falls (Falls #1) / Aqui estamos de frente de South Falls (Cascada #1)

Some nice white wild flowers / Algunas flores blancas

Jenn behind Lower South Falls (Falls #2) / Jenn esta detras de Lower South Falls (Cascada #2)

Carlos under some thimbleberry bushes / Carlos debajo de arbustos de berries

Some pretty blue flowers / Algunas flores azules bonitas

Double falls (Falls #4) / Doble Falls (Cascada #4)

Ferns growing horizontally out of the moss covering some trees!

Some succulents growing out of moss

View from behind North Falls (Falls #9) - you can walk behind 3 of the falls on the trail / Vista de detras de North Falls (Cascada #9) puede caminar detras de 3 cascadas en el camino

North Falls

North Falls from the rim trail / North falls de un otro camino

The very rare fairy slipper orchid. We were fortunate to come upon some of these on the rim trail on our return to the parking lot at South Falls. Apparently these are nearly endangered

Una flor muy rara se llama 'fairy slipper orchid.' Tuvimos mucha suerte de ver esta en el camino en que regresamos. Estas flores estan en peligro de extincion

Every Mothers Day there is a wildflower event at the park. They had 4 long tables of wildflowers with identification inside the South Falls lodge. It was really cool, I wish they would generate a publication with all this info, I would gladly pay for it as many of the species they identify are hard to come by in the available literature

Cada dia de la madre hay un evento de flores silvestres en el parque. Tuvieron 4 mesas largas con flores silvestres y su identificacion en South Falls lodge. Espero que puedan hacer un librito con esta informacion, es muy dificil encontrarla en la literatura.

Thats it for now, i am tired from a long day of hiking :)

Esto es todo por ahora, estoy cansada de un dia largo de hiking :)

China hutch

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 01:14:11 GMT

Hello

The weather warmed up for us last week so Carlos & I biked to work last Thursday. I really enjoy biking to work, while im thankful to live in a place where this is possible i feel frustrated that i cant do it more. I should say that I cant do it more without risk to my well being - even though we have bike lanes here in Beaverton that doesnt mean suburban drivers pay much attention to them. My ride last week was lovely and uneventful. It was nice to hear the birds and watch the sun come up while getting some great exercise

La semana pasada hizo buen tiempo y manejamos las bicycletas a trabajo. Me gusta bicycletar a trabajo pero a veces es un poco peligroso porque los carros corre rapido en la calle, pero esta vez fui muy agradable

Also last week we got our long awaited china hutch! We now have some more space in our kitchen cupboards :)

La semana pasada recibimos nuestro armario del platos. Ahora hay mas espacio en la cocina :)

Of course Anubis had to check it out. I shooed him off quickly after taking this pic

Some standard shots

oooo pretty lights

We got our hutch from The Joinery. They are a local custom furniture company - local, sustainably harvested wood, local craftsmen, even a local company takes care of the delivery. Our china hutch was completed on my birthday, how cool!

Comprimos el armario en una tienda local de meubles se llama The Joinery

Jorge and Consuelo arrive Friday night for a visit so stay tuned for lots of pics :)

Jorge y Consuelo van a llegar en viernes para vacaciones en Portland. Voy a poner muchas fotos aqui :)

Weekend!

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 02:56:07 GMT

Hello

Sorry, no pics today. This weekend we volunteered for beach cleanup at Cannon Beach. The weather was insane! There was SNOW on the way over to the beach. The weather cleared up nicely when we got to the beach but about an hour into the cleanup it started hailing. Very odd. We had a really nice lunch at the Gower St. Bistro. I had a pulled pork sandwich & Carlos had the croque monsieur. We shared an order of the pomme frittes (awesome!!) and finished with pie and brownie.

No hay fotos hoy. Este fin de semana fuimos a la playa para un evento de limpiar la playa. Hizo un tiempo loco!! Hizo nieve en el camino a la playa. Cuando empezamos a limpiar la playa hizo buen tiempo e hizo sol, pero una hora despues granizo!! Muy extranno. Comimos un almuerzo rico en el Gower St. Bistro. Comi un sandwich de cerdo y Carlos comio croque monsieur. Compartimos los pomme frittes tambien (riquisimas!) y para postre comimos pie de cereza y brownie.

Thats pretty much the only interesting thing we did this weekend :-D Just relaxing and catching up on house work and yardwork. The weather is warming up again, we may even start biking to work this week

Esto es todo lo interesante que hicimos este fin de semana. Nos estubimos relajando y trabajamos en la casa y afuera. Esta semana va a hacer buen tiempo, es posible que podamos empezar a bicicletear al trabajo

The porcupine fruit

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:29:32 GMT

Giant artichokes! / Alcachofas immensas!

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:47:15 GMT

Tonite we ate giant artichokes for dinner. They were larger than softballs! Everytime I eat a whole artichoke i wonder how the heck someone figured out that you could eat artichokes. First of all, when they are ripe they have spiny things on the leaves so they definitely arent easy to pick. Then you have all the outer leaves to go through, which have very little edible content... After you finally get through all the leaves and get to the heart you have to scoop out all the spiny stuff. What the heck?

Eating artichokes is so ridiculous I should start doing it as performance art. Im already feeling insprired to write a bill the amoeba comic. Ill upload it tomorrow. That is all!

Esta noche comimos alcachofas para la cena. Fueron mas grande que toronjas! Cada vez que como una alcachofa pienso en como algien pudo discubrir que se pueden comer. Primero, cuando las alcachofas estan listas tienen espinas. Segundo, necesitan remover las hojas y no tienen mucha comida. Tercero, despues de remover toda las hojas necesitan remover mas espinas. Que trabajo!!

Comer alcachofas es tan loco que deberia ser una funcion. Ahora me siento inspirada a hacer un chiste de esto con bill the amoeba. Voy a poner lo aqui mannana. Esto es todo!

La semana de cumpleannos

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 04:12:51 GMT

Tuvimos una semana muy divertida. Empezamos a celebrar el domingo con Isaac y Anna para la cena y despues fuimos a ver la pelicula Persepolis

El lunes fuimos al Jimmy Mak's para el concierto de una de mis musicas favoritas - Ingrid Jensen. El concierto fue buenasso y consegui el nuevo CD de Ingrid con autografo!

El martes quedamos en casa y empacamos para el viaje a Florida. El miercoles fuimos al Gustav's para el dia de cumpleannos de un amigo.

El jueves tuve 28 annos! Fuimos a Paley's Place en el noreste. Paley's Place es un resturante muy famoso en la ciudad. Esta en una casa y es muy simpatico. Nos gustan mucho la comida. Yo comi bistec kobe y papas en tocino. Carlos comio el gnocchi con salsa de cordero. Para el postre Carlos comio el souffle de chocolate y yo comi una torta de nueces y berries. Despues de una cena fantastica Carlos me dio un CD de jazz de Cannonball Adderley se llama "Somethin' Else"

El viernes fuimos al aeropuerto para el vuelo a Florida. Esta vez llegamos en Florida (la vez pasada llegamos a Las Vegas..). El sabado hico lluvia pero comimos bueno en el Marriott en el aeropuerto para desayuno y en el Lucky Dill para almuerzo. Fuimos al centro cultural de Tarpon Springs para mirar pinturas japoneses. Despues conseguimos unas peliculas porque hico mucho lluvia. Yo escoje una pelicula muy mala :( pero Carlos escojio una buena pelicula se llama "catch me if you can" Despues miramos el conjeo de pasqua!! Esta en la izquierda de esta foto

Comimos el pie de limon especial de Sue y fresas para la cena :)

El domingo fuimos a la iglesia y despues fuimos al almuerzo en el Belleair Country Club con mi tia abuela Blanche y mis primas Jo Ellen y Mary. El almuerzo fue muy delicioso, miran los postres bonitos!

Jo y Mary viven en Sand Key, una comunidad circa de la playa Clearwater. Hay algunas tiendas bonitas se llama los Shoppes que estan en problemas. El duenno quiere convertir los Shoppes a hoteles. Esto es muy malo porque Sand Key no es una playa o un lugar turistica - es una comunidad de personas que viven y trabajan en Sand Key. Jo es una abogada y esta ayudando la comunidad en esta situacion. La comunidad la ha llamado una juana de arco moderno! Pueden leer mas aqui

Despues de almuerzo fuimos al navigando con Mary en el Intercoastal Waterway. Fue muy divertido! Hico mucho sol y un poco de viento.

Carlos esta disfrutando el agua salada

Ten cuidado - Carlos esta manejando el bote! Mary esta aqui para supervisar :)

Mary, Carlos, y yo

una isla se llama "uno arbol isla"

Sue esta disfrutando la vista del frente del bote

Una catamaran con muchos colores

algunos aves en un muelle

huvo piratas! Afortunadamente el bote de Mary esta mas rapido del bote de las piratas

Esto es todo, buenas noches!

Birthday Week!

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:13:00 GMT

Hello world

Lo siento - esta noche tengo mucho suenno, entonces voy a escribir esto en el espanol mannana

We had a really crazy fun week last week. The birthday celebrating started Sunday nite. We went to dinner with Isaac and Anna and then went to see Persepolis.

Monday night one of my favorite musicians, Ingrid Jensen, came to play at Jimmy Maks. It was an awesome show, I got an autographed copy of her latest CD "Flurry" As expected it is totally sweet

Tuesday nite was our only night at home so we spent most of it preparing for our weekend trip to Florida. On Wednesday we went out to Gustav's for dinner to celebrate a friends birthday

Thursday nite was my big day.. The big 2-8. Still younger than Carlos ;) He took me out to Paley's Place in the NW. Its one of the most well regarded restaurants in the city and for good reason. Its in an old house and has a really homey but elegant atmosphere. The food was excellent. Carlos had gnocchi with lamb ragu and I had the kobe beef top sirloin w/ beef cheeks and awesome potatoes wrapped in bacon :-P For dessert Carlos had chocolate souffle and I had a berry financier - which is a small cake made from nut flower with berries in it. Yummmy! To top it off Carlos gave me a Cannonball CD for my birthday present - Somethin' Else. I heard this song on our local jazz station a few months ago and I kept going on about how i didnt have that album.. guess he picked up on it :-D

Friday nite we went to the airport for our flight to Florida. Unlike last time this time we actually did make it to Florida. Saturday was rainy but we had some delicious meals at the Marriot in the airport for breakfast and at the Lucky Dill for lunch. We also saw some nice Japanese paintings at the Tarpon Springs cultural center. Since it was so rainy we stayed in and watched some movies. I picked out Time Bandits which turned out to completely suck. I thought it sounded good and had some good actors - Sean Connery, John Cleese, and Shelley Duvall, but man it was horrible. It could have been really good but it was truely mediocre. The best thing about this movie was the sleep I got while it was playing :-D

When we called it quits on Time Bandits Mom looked up and saw the Easter bunny!! He is in the lower left corner of this pic, really fuzzy but its him for sure!

Carlos picked out Catch me if you can which was much better :) After the movie we enjoyed Mom's key lime pie and some delicious Florida strawberries.

Sunday we went to church and then joined Aunt Blanche, JoEllen, and Mary for brunch at the Belleair Country Club They had a really nice buffet and tons of dessert, check out this creme puff shaped like a swan!! (and the chocolate mouse, and the cupcake... ;) )

Recently Jo Ellen has been able to use her talents as a lawyer to help the Sand Key community preserve their local stores from an attempt to re-zone the area to put up more hotels. You can read more about it at Save our Shoppes. Unlike nearby Clearwater beach, Sand Key is not a tourist area - it is a residential area and the community is doing what they can to preserve it. The residents are very appreciative of Jo's efforts, even naming her a "modern day Joan of Arc" for her efforts in a local magazine article!

After lunch we went out boating with Mary on the intercoastal waterway. Totally awesome! The weather was great and the sun was shining. As you can see it was a bit windy:

Carlos enjoying splashes of tasty salt water!

Look out world, Carlos is at the wheel! Mary is standing by to make sure things dont get out of hand ;)

Mary, Carlos, and I sporting our napolean "blown apart" hairdo's

The aptly named one-tree island

Heres Mom enjoying the view from the front of the boat

A brightly colored catamaran

Some pelicans and seagulls hanging out on the dock

We were almost overtaken by pirates, luckily Mary's boat was much faster

After an awesome time boating we headed to the airport to return home. We got home at 3am so I am crazy tired and will bid you good night!

Amoeba + Fruit

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:19:38 GMT

Media: Crayon on Paper

Return of the Amoebi

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 01:32:31 GMT

The first Bill the Amoeba comic in several years.. "Everythings comin up amoeba or Mac is back"

Sorry for the pic quality... its a screen shot of a scanned image converted to jpeg in powerpoint :-P Perhaps we need to get a scanner

I also made the first ever BTA still life. Carlos is going to scan this one in color tomorrow..

Its alive!!! / Esta vivo!!!

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 04:20:46 GMT

Behold my first attempt at my bath tub cleaning robot.

Mira, la primera version del robot lavador de ducha

Im trying to break it down into simple steps so I dont get frustrated or bored. Step 1 was to make something capable of scrubbing. It currently uses a touch sensor but im going to modify it to use the ultrasonic sensor instead. The touch sensor kind of gets stuck if it doesnt hit the tub side just right.

Quiero hacerlo en etapas pequennas porque voy a estar aburrida si trato de hacerlo todo en un solo paso. El primer paso fue hacer algo que pueda lavar. Ahora el robot use un sensor de contacto pero voy a hacerlo a usar un sensor ultrasonico.

Step 2 is to make something capable of scaling the bathtub wall. Step 2 is a lot harder than step 1. What makes it more difficult is the NXT motors are way too heavy to try and scale the wall with, so Im going to have to buy some really small servos and a microcontroller. Using the NXT kit is nice because I can build working prototypes really fast. Anyway, stay tuned!

El segundo paso va a hacer algo que puede subir la pared de la ducha. El segundo paso esta mas dificl que el primer paso. Los motores de los LEGOs esta pesado y entonces nesecito comprar los motores ligeros para este paso. Los LEGOs son faciles y puedo consegir prototipos rapidamente. Vamos a ver!

In other news this weekend we had an awesome brunch with the Potoczny-Joneses on the east side. Carlos got the most enormous chicken and waffles ever!! It was crazy delicious, as were all of the dishes we had (mmmm biscuits) at Screen Door at east 24th and east burnside

Este fin de semana almorzamos con los Potoczny-Joneses en el este de Portland. Carlos comio un plato gigante de pollo y waffle !! Fue muy delicioso, y los pancitos fueron deliciosos tambien!! Fuimos al Screen Door

I got a bento box this weekend and made some nigiri (rice balls), miso soup, and carrot & daikon salad for lunch. I tried umeboshi (pickled plums) but it was not tasty. One of my rice balls had cilantro and the other had umeboshi. Needless to say I only ate one of them :) My bento box says "more pleasantly and more gently, we wish happy living for everybody" A pleasantly engrish way to enjoy my lunch. Bento and robots, am I turning Japanese? I really think so.

Consegui una caja bento esta fin de semana y cocine nigiri (balas de arroz), sopa de miso, y una ensalada de zanahoria y rabano para el almuerzo de esta semana.

Everything's coming up crocuses!!

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 02:54:07 GMT

Woohoo, spring has arrived in Portland!

Our crocuses have started to bloom:

And heres a forgotten dinner from last week - creamed chicken with waffles and broccoli

Just in case you forgot how cute our cat Anubis is

Not much is going on. Carlos is away at a conference for a few days so Im eating all the junk food he doesnt like ;) Other than that Im just playing with my LEGO mindstorms robot kit. Stay tuned to see my creations!

Snowshoeing and PJF

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:26:35 GMT

No pics this weekend, the camera battery is dead and I havent had time to recharge it

No hay fotos este fin de semana - la bateria de la camera esta muerta.

We are having a crazy busy and crazy fun weekend! This is the last weekend of the Portland Jazz Festival. Friday night we saw Joshua Redman at the Crystal Ballroom. This was our first concert at the Crystal ballroom, it was a pretty interesting venue. They have a bouncy dance floor :) Ive been a fan of Joshua Redman for a while but never got to see him live. It was an awesome concert, he was playing with Brian Blade and Rubin Rogers. We even got to hear the premier performance of one of Redman's latest songs - "RR" short for "Rubin's rounds" penned for the bassist. Very cool. Before the concert we had a really nice dinner at Elenis Philoxenia in the pearl. Really excellent greek food

Estamos haciendos muchas cosas divertidas esta fin de semana! Este fin de semana es la ultima del Portland Jazz Festival. El viernes vimos Joshua Redman en el Crystal Ballroom. Fue nuestra primera vez en este local. Me gusta mucho Joshua Redman. El concierto fue muy bonito, y antes del concierto comimos en un restaurante griego Elenis Philoxenia

On Saturday we got up early and drove out to Mt Hood for the Tubbs romp to stomp out breast cancer snowshoe race & walk. Carlos did the 3K race and gained an "appreciation" shall we say of snowshoe racing. The even was at the White River West snowpark. Those of you that have seen the pics from our wedding reception albums have seen this area on the cover of one of our mini albums (sorry everyone else, ill try to get these posted Real Soon Now). This area was devastated last year by a huge slide / avalanche. This was the first time we had been back since then. It looks really different, notably the canyon is wider. You can see where the slide came through as the walls are nearly vertical now, you can see the tree roots from where the earth was ripped away. We will try to go again this winter to get some pics.

El sabado fuimos a Mt Hood muy temprano para la carrera de 3K y la caminata de 3K/5K para cancer de seno. Este evento fue en un parque de nieve que fue destruido por una gran avalancha el anno pasado. Ahora esta mejor pero diferente. Hay muchas colinas buenas para hacer trineo. Queremos regresar alla para camping y para hacer trineo :) Vamos a tratar de visitar alla otra vez este invierno para tomar fotos.

The avalanche made for some primo sledding hills, we'd like to go back and camp & do some tubing. There were some people sledding there on Saturday and it looked like tons of fun.

Saturday evening we had another jazz concert. This one was a band out of Zurich making their first US appearance called Ronin. They describe their music as Zen-funk. Check out their site & myspace page for some sound bytes. Both Carlos and I really liked this band, and they put on a very good stage show too with a lot of attention to lighting.

El sabado fuimos a otro concierto de jazz. Este banda se llama Ronin y ellos son de Zurich. Fue su primer concierto en los EE UU. Carlos y yo disfrutamos de esta banda. Ellos describen su musica como "Zen funk" Muy interesante

So here we are on Sunday, 2 concerts today!! First we are going to see Bela Fleck and the Flecktones this afternoon followed by funk sax man Maceo Parker. We are definitely looking forward to both shows :)

Hoy es domingo y tenemos 2 conciertos! Primero vamos a ver Bela Fleck and the Flecktones en la tarde y luego vamos a ver Maceo Parker.

Long weekend!!

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 02:14:34 GMT

Well our long weekend is drawing to a close, so heres what happened!

Aqui estan las actividades de nuestro fin de semana

Here is Thursday's dinner - pork chops with broccoli and orecchiette pasta. I think ill start calling orecchiette Mr Hat pasta since it looks like a hat

La cena del jueves fue chancho y brocoli con pasta

Friday we went out for our Valentine's date at Meriwether's in the northwest. Meriwether's has their own farm in Portland. They spent most of the last year building it up, and they also smoke their meats at the farm as well. Check out the website, very cool!

Salimos por el dia de San Valentin el viernes a Meriwether's en el noroeste. Meriwether's tiene una granja en Portland donde ahuman carnes y crecen verduras.

We went to this restaurant with Carlos' family around Christmas for brunch. We liked it so much we wanted to give it a shot for dinner. We were definitely impressed. We started with a gnocchi with sausage ragu for an appetizer which was supremely yummy. For our entrees Carlos had the hanger steak and I had grilled quail. Both were very good, and we finished off our dinner with a flourless chocolate cake.. mmmm..

Fuimos alla con la familia de Carlos en Navidad. Nos gusta y queriamos ir alla para la cena. Disfrutamos el restaurante mucho. Empezamos con gnocci con salsa roja con salchicha. Para los platos segundos Carlos tuvo un bistec y yo tuve un ave se llama 'quail' en ingles. Para el postre tuvimos una torta de chocolate sin harina.. hmmm...

Speaking of chocolate... Carlos got me a whole bouquet of chocolate covered strawberries!!! My belt is feeling a bit tighter today than it did last week.... but strawberries are healthy so its all good, right?

Hablando de chocolate.. Carlos me dio un arreglo de fresas bannadas en chocolate!!!! Mi cinturon esta mas ajustado que la semana pasada.. pero las fresas son sanas, asi que esta bien, no?

Saturday we ran some errands, did our grocery shopping, and did some relaxing before we headed out to see the opera Rodelinda. We went to Red Star Tavern for dinner before the show. I had their signature cocktail which is a raspberry flavored vodka based drink. Very nice :) They have an interesting menu that has several interesting side dishes - the steak comes with the expected whipped potatoes but a lot of the dishes have beans, sweet potato, or lentils as the side.

El sabado fuimos de compras y descansamos antes de salir a ver la opera Rodelinda. Fuimos a Red Star Tavern antes de la opera. Tome la bebida de la casa con frambuesas y vodka.

Sunday afternoon we headed out to Mt Hood for some afternoon snowshoeing. The weather here this weekend was totally amazing, we had clear views all the way out to hood. Here are some views out of the car as we were driving over the Marquam bridge

El domingo fuimos a snowshoeing! El clima estuvo muy bonito y tuvimos muchas vistas de la montannas. Aqui estan algunas fotos.

Mt Hood

And out the other side, Mt St Helens / y en el otro lado, Mt St Helens

As we continued on toward Mt Hood it got bigger / Conforme nos acercamos al Mt Hood la montanna se veia mas grande

And bigger.. / Y mas grande

The Trillium Lake parking lot was totally packed! We saw several snowshoers and x-country skiers. Some giant with and elongated torso took this pic of me adjusting my shoes

En Trillium Lake el estacionamiento estuve lleno. Vimos mucha gente haciendo snowshoeing y esquiando. Alguien gigante con un torso largo tomo esta foto de mi.

We saw several of these birds once the crowds thinned out a bit. I dont know what kind they are but last time we were at trillium lake they ate out of Carlos' hand. They are a very tame variety of bird and when we stopped to take this pic several came over to us (expecting food i assume)

Vimos muchos pajaros. No se como se llaman pero la ultima vez que vinimos aqui los pajaros comian de la mano de Carlos!

Another couple hiking along kindly offered to take our pic in front of Mt Hood.

Otra pareja tomo esta foto de nosotros en frente de Mt Hood

There were some vacation cabins for rent along the trail. The entrances were around the back :) Several families seemed to be renting the cabins for the long weekend

Hay unas casitas de vacaciones en el camino. Las entradas son detras de la casita. Muchas familias estuvan alquilando las casitas para el fin de semana

Finally we got to the lake. Heres a pic of me in front of Trillium Lake & Mt Hood

Finalmente llegamos al lago. Aqui esta una foto de me frente al lago Trillium y Mt Hood

If you look close at the treeline in this pic you can see Timberline lodge

Si ven a la linea de arboles pueden ver Timberline Lodge

On our way around the loop we came upon this cute snowman family

En el camino encontramos esta familia de nieve

We got back to the car around 5pm, right as everyone was leaving the ski areas. While we were killing time sitting in traffic I took several shots of the awesome sunset

Regresamos al carro a las 5pm, cuando toda la gente estaba saliendo de las areas de esquiar. Cuando estuvimos esperando en trafico tome muchas fotos de la puesta del sol

Check out this cool pic of Mt Hood with the pink "alpine-glow" from the setting sun

Vean esta foto de Mt Hood en la puesta del sol

On our way back to portland we stopped at Calamity Jane's Hamburger Parlour to replace all those calories we burned. We got burgers and shakes.. mmm..

Cenamos en el restaurante Calamity Jane's hamburgesas y shakes.. hmmmm..

And finally today we mostly just stayed around the house. We took advantage of the beautiful weather to do some yardwork, check out this action shot of Carlos!

Finalmente hoy nos quedamos en casa. Trabajamos un poquito afuera, aqui esta una foto de Carlos

Thats it for our long weekend.

Esto es todo por nuestro fin de semana largo.