Vegas Baby!

As best man in Travis and Jenn’s wedding, I decided to organize a bachelor party in Vegas.  The weekend for this party has finally come around and I’m totally stoked.  We fly out from Portland tomorrow (Friday) morning and get to spend the better part of the weekend just having fun.  Travis booked us tickets for Ka, Cirque du Soleil’s new show at the MGM grand.  Not only that, but he managed to get front-row center seats.  Yeah boyeee!  This is going to rock.  This will be my first ever visit to Vegas, so I’m a little green as to how things will work and what we’ll do.  Growing up in England where gambling is just legal everywhere, the novelty appeal of gambling in the casinos doesn’t draw me much.  I’d still love to see some of the casinos and hotels though as they sound fantastic, I’m just not as jazzed as most people seem to be about pumping nickels or gambling chips.  If we get to see the Star Trek experience, that would be cool, as would a trip to the Ferrari store I hear is down there.  I would love a Ferrari themed cap or t-shirt, especially something with either the new 599 GTB or linked to the Formula One team.  Jason and Adam (Jason hosts the Halloween party we’ve been to for the past few years, Adam provides entertainment) are joining us in Vegas for the celebration and it will be fun to hang out as a foursome to celebrate Trav’s last two weeks as a free man.  Above all, we’re going to relax and just have a really great time.  Watch for pictures on Monday.  Vegas Baby!  Yeah!

Great summer not so great for the waistline

I have had an outstanding summer.  Thanks to Travis and Jenn, Tawny, my parents, Ellie, Peter, and recently Davida, I’ve had a lot of fun and have certainly started an up-turn in the trend for the year.  While not always smooth, it has certainly remained exciting throughout.  However, all this fun has taken its toll on the waistline.  In total I have 16 pounds to lose to return to my ideal weight.  Yuck!  I can’t be bitter though because I haven’t been to my yoga class for the better part of 4 months, I’ve been slacking on exercising at home, and the diet has been nothing short of indulgence for quite some time.  While indulgence is good, and indeed solves certain other problems, I’m thinking that after the fabulous weekend in Vegas I have coming up, it might be time start getting serious about shedding a few and getting the problem under control before it gets out of hand.  With Trav and Jenn’s wedding on the horizon, Halloween, and then Thanksgiving approaching, I’ll still be able to have plenty of chance to have fun, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to have something other than Papa Johns be the top number on speed-dial.  For now, here’s to good intentions!

Jet Li – Fearless

I saw the movie Fearless with Jet Li last week.  It’s apparently his last epic feature, which I can only imagine means something similar to Cher’s first last tour.  The story is adapted from the life of Huo Yuan Jia, a famous fighter from Chinese history, and feels a lot like it was pulled from the Once upon a time in China series.  This is no bad thing as those were fantastic movies and something about that period of China’s history (late 1800’s, early 1900’s) is very compelling to learn about.  The action is easily on par with both Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero, never ceasing to top the last double-spinning ultimate death kick of the eagle with an even more awe-inspiring superior shadowless dragon punch of the much kicking your ass.  For those who dislike subtitled movies, you’re going to be disappointed because they did the right thing and kept the original Chinese soundtrack instead of dubbing.  I much prefer to read subtitles and hear the original cast deliver their dialog in their native tongue versus having a cartoon replacement voice comfortlessly destroy a scene.  If you enjoy action movies with much butt-kicking for goodness, plenty of kung-fu posturing, and a ton of style then I highly recommend shelling out the eight bucks for a pew and watching Jet Li in his first last epic.

More vacation pictures – Silver Falls

Here are some pictures from the vacation I had with my folks this summer during a visit to Silver Falls.

Solo Harmony

On the way back from Barnes and Noble this lunchtime, I noticed a bumper sticker on the back of the car in front of me that read “Doing my best to live in Harmony”.  It was accompanied by little musical note icons in an annoyingly avant-garde fashion.  That got my brain thinking “In harmony with what exactly?”  Harmony implies a congruous relationship between two or more themes or entities.  I considered the possibility that the driver’s statement suggested he was in harmony with everything but that would imply that no dischord existed between any two items at any point throughout the universe otherwise the very range of universal items with which he was in harmony would be out of harmony with each other.  It was right about then that I realized I had been contemplating the meaning of a 50 cent bumper sticker for almost ten minutes and that perhaps my brain needed a few more challenges and a little less World of Warcraft.

Family Vacation – Seattle

In classic tradition, I was packing for my vacation to Seattle about ten minutes before actually getting in the car to leave.  But how much stuff do you really need for a three day vacation anyway?  I settled on just enough underwear, a t-shirt, a spare pair of shorts and my CamelBak.  Ready to go!  I’ve ridden on the Amtrak Cascades twice now, the last time being when we visited Seattle with Trav and Jenn, and both experiences have been extremely enjoyable.  The prospect of driving up to Seattle and then dealing with a car while up there is not appealing to me.  Riding the train means that there is no congestion, a predictable start and end time to the journey, and no need to find an expensive parking space in downtown Seattle once I arrive.  The journey provides some nice scenery to enjoy and there is just something cool about taking the train.

We arrived in Seattle at noon, took a taxi to the Best Western Loyal Inn to drop off our luggage, and then headed over to the Pike Place market.  Sunday at noon really is the best time to see the open market.  All of the vendors are out in full force, the streets are packed, and the atmosphere is tremendous.  We worked our way down the myriad floors of stalls and stores, ending on the Waterfront by Pier 69.  Taking our time, we then wandered along the waterfront, passing the Aquarium, stopping to look out over the water, touring the various stores.  After a quick stop at Ye Old Curiosity Shop and the pirate store, my Dad bought us tickets for a cruise tour on a ferry on the Puget Sound.  It was a good tour of the entire waterfront, the nearest islands, and the myriad docks and piers.  Best of all, it was a nice break from walking around.  Peter and I found the bar and stood chatting with my Dad while we looked out over the city.  It was a nice and relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

On Monday morning, my parents and I took the Monorail downtown for some tourist window shopping, while Ellie and Peter took sometime to do their own thing.  We wandered around the 5th and Pine area, looking in all of the fancy shop windows and then headed towards the pioneer square, ending up in the fantastic Magic Mouse Toys.  We tried to get tickets for the Undercity Tour but had just missed the 11:00am group and wouldn’t have time to meet with Ellie and Peter if we waited for the next one.  Instead we walked back along the waterfront towards the Pier 69 area, and eventually back up Pine street to the Monorail station once more.  We met up with Ellie and Peter at the Space Needle just after noon.  As an off-topic note, my Dad permanently plays a game of never giving a “normal” pose for a photograph.  This is evidenced below. :)

After the Space Needle, we continued our tour of the Emerald city by purchasing tickets for two of my favorite attractions; the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum.  Similar to OMSI, I find that there is so much to see and do in both EMP and SFM that there is simply not enough time in one visit to absorb it all.  After spending our time and more than getting our money’s worth from guitar sculptures, Jimi Hendrix outfits, Star Trek phasers, and Red Dwarf props, we returned to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  Whilst exploring the city that morning, Ellie and Peter happened upon a restaurant that they wished to try named the Ipanema Brazilian Grill.  Although other suggestions originally took precedence, they were quickly excluded from the list of choices when found to be closed.  Apparently, Monday night is some sort of fasting festival in Seattle as many of the restaurants had Tuesday-Sunday service.  Odd, and as yet unexplained!  However, this worked to our favor as the Brazilian Grill was superb.  For the night of our visit they offered only their Rodizio service, which was a fixed price and all you can eat.  What this amounted to was an all you can eat salad appetizer from a very plentiful and varied salad bar and then serving after serving of fantastic grilled meats and seafood sliced right at your table.  Our server issued us with a stop/go token (green on one side, red on the other) that should be turned green side up whenever the carnivores in your party are ready to go.  Several other servers patrol the floor wielding large limbs of very finely cooked meats from peppered steak to filet mignon to garlic pork, sausages, spicy chicken, … and a couple of fishy/seafood types of offerings for people who like that stuff.  I can’t remember the last time I pounded through sooooo much meat.  It was fantastic!  Washed down with an appropriate number of Black Butte Porters, this was shaping up to be a night!  The restaurant, for those of you who now cannot visit Seattle without having to try it, is located directly across from the Seattle Art Museum on 1st.  Just look for Hammering SAM, also pictured below, and you’ll see the sign for Ipanema right across the street.  Ellie and Peter – I salute you on a great find!

Our last morning rolled around and it was time for us to try the “Ride the Ducks” tour of Seattle.  We had seen these amphibious creations driving around the city during our stay, piquing our interest sufficiently for us to purchase tickets and find out first-hand what it was all about.  Essentially, our tour guide took us on an all-points tour of the city on land, followed by a tour on the water to see additional landmarks.  Throughout the tour he shared a variety of interesting, and not so interesting, information all while donning a variety of themed hats and interspersing with bits of tour guide humor.  His voice quickly became forgettable, but the tour was great and included a number of locations we hadn’t been able to reach on our vist.  It was a little cold though.  For anyone considering taking the “Ride the Ducks” tour, I would certainly advise a nice thick jacket and some form of headgear.  Something like this should probably suffice.  We spent the remainder of the afternoon wandering around downtown Seattle.  I bought a copy of Bel Canto from Borders for the return journey on the train, but ended up sleeping most of the way home.  However, the book I can highly recommend to anyone looking for a two-day to read.  So ended our brief stay in Seattle.  We sure packed a lot in, and had a heck of a lot of fun.

NOTE: One thing I noticed when looking through my photos from this trip was that Peter is incredibly good at avoiding appearing in any of them.  I’ll have to see if anyone else managed to catch him off guard.

Family Vacation – First Weekend

After a much needed night’s sleep following the excitement of Thursday’s airport fun, we were all ready to start a vacation.  There were a couple of little things we needed to take care of and decided to get those out of the way first so that we could spend the rest of our time just having fun. We needed to get my Dad listed as a driver on the rental car, pick up our actual train tickets for our visit to Seattle, and visit a mall to purchase “we’ve been to the U.S.” gifts for people back in England.  We parked by the Union Station, fortunately located only a few blocks from the downtown branch of Dollar Rent A Car, got my Dad’s name added to the minivan, picked up our tickets from the station, and then headed off to Lloyd’s Center.  Shopping and mall trauling ensued, resulting in gift purchases, lunch at the food court, and speculation once more that electronics are far cheaper in the U.S. than in England.

That evening I had planned to take everyone out to the Farm Cafe for dinner.  If you haven’t been to the Farm then I can highly recommend it for an affordably exquisite place to eat.  Unfortunately, we arrived just before eight o’clock and it’s affordability and quality played against us as the estimated wait time was a little over an hour and the patio and bar were already full.  I quickly made reservations at Le Bouchon for nine, which was still an hour away but meant that we weren’t just standing around outside on the street.  Instead we visited the Rogue Ale’s Brewery on 13th and Glisan for a couple of drinks, which is right across the street from the restaurant.  The authentic French atmosphere and delicious cuisine were a big hit with everyone.  We were finally able to raise our glasses in “cheers” and enjoy being together as a family without any other distractions or commitments for the first time in six years.  So ended a great Friday and the start of what promised to be a wonderful vacation.

Ellie & Peter

On Saturday we went to OMSI.  Peter had never been, but had heard many stories and was very keen to visit.  I have seen OMSI three times now and still always find plenty of new stuff to see.  There is such a density of information and exhibits on display that it is difficult to take it all in, even with a full day available.  In addition to the floor exhibits, we saw “Greece” at the OmniMax, got tickets for the U.S.S. Blueback, and also for the Planetarium show.  As Ellie put it “If we’re here, let’s do it all!” The “Greece” movie wasn’t the best of the iMax-style movies I’ve seen but still presented stunning visuals and contained many “cool factor” shots of Athens.  I never get tired of seeing the submarine and had a much better tour guide than last time, which makes such an incredible difference.  At the Planetarium we saw their “Journey into the Universe” show, which was the best of the three Plantetarium shows I’ve seen by far.  We interspersed the shows with tours of the various room exhibits and actually managed to pack an incredible amount into one day.  By late afternoon the temperature was really rising though and, having been there for over six hours by then, we decided to call it a day.  To cool off, we headed back to the hotel for a swim.  Later that evening, I introduced everyone to Apples to Apples, ordered in a couple of pizzas from Papa Johns and we spent the night laughing, joking, and catching up with each other.  There are times I miss my family and then there are times that I think the distance is what helps to keep our relationship so strong…this was certainly one of those nights where I wish they lived closer so that we could hang out together and play games more often.

Family Vacation – Arrivals and Delays

Our adventure began on Thursday August 10th.  The airlines were making the headlines that day because police in England had just arrested 21 people in connection with a terrorist plot to detonate explosives on board several aircraft bound for the United States.  The plot apparently involved mixing otherwise innocuous liquids and gels to form an explosive compound that could then be detonated with a small electronic device such as a cell phone, iPod, or keyless entry key fob.  The U.S. authorities responded by banning all liquids and gels from being carried on-board.  However, passengers departing the United Kingdom were required to check all of their hand luggage and take only a small Ziploc bag of valuables with them on-board.  This also happened to be the same day my family were departing England for their vacation to Oregon.  In fact, I got a phone call from my sister at about 1:15am on Thursday saying that they had seen the news just as they were leaving their house, and that although they were currently on the way to the airport they didn’t know if they would be delayed or even if they would be able to fly.  Ugh!

My parents flight was scheduled to arrive at 7:15pm while my sister and brother in law were expected to touch down at 8:05pm.  We rented a minivan for the duration of their stay to make travelling as a group more comfortable.  I wanted to take care of the paperwork and park it in the short-term lot before they arrived, so I planned on being at the airport by 6:30pm.  Fortunately, Tiffany was kind enough to give me a ride, which saved me the cost of a taxi.  However, the first complication of the night arose shortly after arriving when I tried to collect said rental car.  ”Stuart Thompson” were the only words I’d issued to the grunting clerk before receiving the eloquently crafted “deposit’s $1,100, you got your credit card?” (unnecessary apostrophe added to reflect unparsable grammar).  Apparently it is now “standard” to charge a deposit of 120% of the rental cost on all rentals over 5 days, thus explaining the rather large “deposit” being requested.  After swallowing hard, I presented my US Bank VISA card to the Enterprise representative only to have it thrust right back at me.  ”Won’t work.”, the representative grunted, apparently annoyed at himself for once again failing to create an actual sentence.  Predicting my reaction based upon the puzzled look on my face, he added “see we don’t take credit cards that are linked to a checking account.”  ”Errr, well that’s all I have with me.” I replied, my mind now racing with the realization that I was stuck at the airport without a car.  It turns out that if I was paying over the phone then the card would be accepted without a problem.  The same would be true if I was paying via their web site or if I was simply reading the number to the representative while standing on a cell phone just out of view of the counter.  However, if they actually see the card and determine that it’s linked to a checking account, then they won’t even run it.  Can you spell D..U..M..B?  The extremely helpful representative certainly could after I’d provided my “customer feedback” a couple of times using appropriately agitated gesticulations.  They wouldn’t even let me pay for the rental up front.  Thoroughly pissed off I walked over to the next company in the line of rental booths, which turned out to be Dollar Rent A Car.  Lo and behold, they take my debit card without issue and hand me the keys.

Note to self: NEVER, EVER, EVER use Enterprise Rental Cars again.  Make your time more productive and enjoyable by filing off your eyebrows with venom-coated sandpaper.
(Friends don’t let friends use stupid, uncooperative companies.)

Having now parked the Ford Freestar rented from the much more helpful Dollar Rent A Car in short-term parking, I made it into the terminal at 7:00pm, just in time to see that the 7:15pm flight had been delayed by two hours.  Sigh.  I hadn’t heard from my parents all day, so I didn’t know if they had managed to make their flight with all of the disruptions from the heightened security.  I did the only thing that I could.  I found a nice looking restaurant, ordered a basket of Buffalo Wings, a pint of Hefeweizen, and turned on the SlingBox player on my phone to watch some MTV.  Fortunately I heard from my sister that while they had missed their original flight, they were about to board a flight arriving at 11:37pm.  At least I knew one set of relatives was arriving that night.  A few hours later, I was standing at the arrival gate hoping that my parents had managed to make their original flight.  A few minutes later I spotted them looking bedraggled and a little worn at the edges, but at least they were here.  Check – one set here, one more confirmed on the way.  We headed down to baggage claim to find out that while they had made the flight, there luggage had not.  Sigh.  Well, we had reason to be in the airport for a while yet anyway, so I took my folks to my little restaurant.  I introduced them to the wait staff there who had come to know me pretty well and ordered another bucket o’ chicken.  After one more delay to 12:15am, Ellie and Peter finally walked through the same arrival gate my folks had trodden only a few hours earlier.  Finally we were all together.  By the time we loaded their luggage into the minivan, I’d been in the airport for seven hours.  Don’t get me wrong, PDX is a really great airport, but I wasn’t sorry to finally get out of there and drop my parents off at their hotel.