Saturday, February 25, 2006

The new fuck you


The new fuck you
Originally uploaded by dieselboi.
Gmc, ford and freightliner are vying for the biggest normal people truck. Here we have the F650 crew! Holy fuck! I bet it gets 5 gallons to the mile.



FUF650!



FU!



On a side note- downtown las vegas is so much cooler than the strip.



data through the air......like the days of our lives....

Vegas baby! Vegas!


Vegas baby! Vegas!
Originally uploaded by dieselboi.
Just some quick vegasblogging. The Gold Spike is a trip, but most of all- clean room! 5c slots rock! 1c slots rock even more! Food ok. Convention cool. Bevs and Mikey rad!

today we tackle Pai Gow poker and $2 craps!



oh, funny/scary thing- they played "i'm proud to be an americand" for the Bellagio water show and we actually sang along laughing...



data through the air......like the days of our lives....

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Jury duty post
doing my civic duty today for multnomah county. some early observations on fellow portlanders:

a. we're not confrontational enough. a woman in my row was talking and snort-laughing on her cell for about 15 minutes and instead of someone asking her to quiet down, they all just moved.

b. similar to above- there is a big tv up front. someone turned it on to the olympics which is cool and would appeal to most people. then some young guy went up and had the balls to change the channel to jerry falwell. he asked and no-one objected, but after the change, there were a ton of groans. I just laughed

(currently listening to "steve mcqueen" by the drive by truckers)

c. out of about 30 people, I count the following: 4 sleepers, 8 ipods, 7 trashy gossip magazines, 1 bible, 1 very loud shirt (i will try and capture it)

well, back to my book.

Monday, February 20, 2006

because god damnit - i'm vain!


before and after
Originally uploaded by dieselboi.
well, i had a busy day. not really, but i did get some walking in, had lunch with A. and got my hair cut. so, following LELO, here's the self portrait monday post.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

memed - the 4

got memed, so here we go:

4 jobs:
mcdonalds: as a teenager i worked at the rockwood mickey dees for over a year. good job, but boy was it nasty. i did get to play for the softball team.
mailroom coordinator: my first "corporate job." i thought it was a step toward bigger and better things- little did i know it would lead me to IT. hmmm.
library assistant in college: worked a summer re-cataloging books for the school library. boring boring boring boring boring, except for every evening partying with the other summer workers.
research assistant: worked for one of my professors cataloging and transcribing original civil war letters from an infantryman. they were later published in a book and i was highlighted in the preface. woo hoo.

4 movies:
fight club: "you are not your khakis"
die hard: "yippy kay ey mother fucker"
kelly's heros: "we have paint in the shells man, when you hit something you get great colors."
dirty dozen: i just love this movie

4 places i have lived
Portland: all my life
McMinnville: 4 years for college
Vienna: 6 months during college - i loved the beer
Armenia: during my time with the Peace Corp, I lived in Yerevan and Kirovakan(Vanadzor)

4 tv shows:
24: nuff said - jack bauer is a studd
oc: candy
deadwood: i love ian mcshane and i love how raw everything is.
the shield: michael chickless is amazing as the bad cop you have to love

4 vacation spots
montreal: i loved walking the city and the music on every corner. i loved how cosmopolitan it was.
kauai: where i knew i would marry my love. where i married my love.
monaco/monte carlo: both as a young teenager and then as a young adult - amazing how much money there is in one place. also, somehow i was able to convince a German couple i was Austrian.
jerome az: an old mining town north of Phoenix. it was just plain cool and fun

4 fav dishes
higgin's burger: the best in the city in my opinion.
anything from gino's - grandma jean's pasta dish is to die for and they make everything there as if you were at home.
mississippi pizza slice of pizza: nothing in town better
any sort of hotdog/sausage: good dog bad dog, amnesia brewing, newmans

4 sites daily
cnn: news- plain and simple
boingboing: fun and new. changes regularly
trainster: where we track our steps.
flickr: a wonderful resource to ogle photos

Sunday, February 12, 2006

A beautiful walk! OMG, what a beautiful day


madrona tree
Originally uploaded by dieselboi.
i didn't think we could top yesterday, but the weather today was perfect. almost 60 deg. it felt like a tropical heat wave. i was antsy this morning, so went out to do some pruning of the rose in the back and then proceeded to cut down a dying redwood. wow, that was a chore. i had to use a hodag to cut the roots and pull the stump out. this isn't a big tree, only a few years old, but it hasn't been doing well the past few years and we were concerned about it. i was sad as i had planted it when it was a seedling.
on to other items- we were thinking of food and walking when suddenly we had a great idea to take the doggies for a walk up to lelo and adri's place to play with Wink. they were up for it, so off we went on this gorgeous day, walking along the bluff where we got to eye this wonderful Madrona Tree. I seem to remember there was a concert venue (or abandoned warehouse) down by where widmer is now called - Madrona Hill Winery.
well, 4 and 1/2 miles later, we finally arrived to play with Wink and lelo and Adri. boy, Wink is cute. our frodo had some marking challenges and phoebe was a bit too possesive to play. in the end, i think everyone had fun. next time we'll host Wink.
so, sunday is here and i'm having that feeling - did i get my homework done? arg. i think this week will go well. i'm willing it too. good night.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

cards....beer....walking...cigars....walking.....dump....

today started pretty early. we were at a great show at the doug fir seeing Dead Meadow, a true rock band that just ripped it up. i love the doug fir, especially with east side relief and $1 high life. we then came home, a little drunk from the beer and awake from the coffee earlier in the evening and watched some tv. eddie izzard was on craig kilborn.
this morning, i awoke for the doggies and had some breakfast. a stunning morning with an amazing sunrise and wow, it was actually kinda warm. i was restless, so decided to fill up the truck one last time with the scrap wood i had on the side of the house. yes, i'm a packrat and was "saving" some of this rotton wood for "future" projects. oh well. i proceeded to do some serious purging, filling up the truck with all the junk. and off to the dump i went.
afternoon brought lunch and what better for us all than a great walk. we were going to head to our old favorite - laughing planet, but decided to try something new - lompoc over on williams. at the lompoc we picked up a deck of cards and well, that was it. after some excellent food and a few beers and a few hours, we decided to wander back home. we both one a hand of WAR too. it was so nice outside, we couldn't stop walking, so after we got home, we decided to head to the store. i was in the mood for a cigar, so i grabbed one of my best, aquired from a charity a few months back. it was a Maximus- i believe from Arturo Fuentes. trust me, a nice cigar. and let me tell you this - it rocked my world.
so, picture this - me an my love walking up interstate, both with headphones on listening to the same ipod and same music (all on shuffle.) we had a blast.
on the way back, i even dropped the bread and we had to backtrack to find it. oh well, it was worth it.
i'm chillin now, awaiting the crab we're going to have for dinner. i'm sooooo excited.

soooooo excited...................

tomorrow brings hopefully some more walking and some great weather. nighty night!

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

187 stairs......my feetsies hurt


downtown
Originally uploaded by dieselboi.
today, i was trying to fill in the gaps in my downtown walking excursion, so headed up towards PSU again. while up there, i eyed 12th avenue past I405 and saw something i wanted it investigate. it was a huge public staircase leading up into the hills. seriously, the road dead-ended into some staircases. well, actually, it became cardinell st which is where the landslide occured just before christmas that crushed those two cars. i saw that and it was crazy.
well, i knew it would kill me, but i had to count those steps.

stairs
these steps!


on the way up, to the left was a house about 5 stories tall, but most of that was an elevator, but probably an old one. to the right was a lot of empty space- what i mean is - some developable land. yes, it was available and there were plenty of signs selling it. i wouldn't be surprised if it is condos very soon.
once i got to the top of the stairs, i was on cardinell again. i guess that street wraps around. actually, i know this from google maps. yet at the time, i was stumped. i had only 1/2 hr left for lunch and was now on top of the world with regards to the city. do i go down? do i go up? i decided to say "fuck it" and go up, hoping it would eventually lead me back "down" and into the city. i had 30 minutes.
cardinell led up the hill further, past some amazing houses and views. i was stumped at how beautiful it was up there. i eventually hooked up with 16th ave and began the stroll down. 16th turned into hall and led me back down to 14th and PSU. pretty steep decent. i did cruise by an amazing house that i wanted to call a mansion, but it was just too new and mansion smacks of old. wow, the views were amazing.
in the end, i didn't get the steps i thought i would get, but i did get some amazing pictures.

downtown and nw

i was looking for this house:

trying too find this house

just think, tomorrow (or if you are reading this today - today)................its thursday and you can eat cheeze....

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

i wonder if anyone was taking my picture


fed bldg
Originally uploaded by dieselboii.
i walked a ton today. such a beautiful day, you couldn't just stay inside. take advantage while the rain is away in mexico drinking margeritas. i ventured up by PSU and stumbled upon a movie shoot for a movie named "The Music Within." not sure about who's really in it, but we had seen them shooting up off 23rd over the weekend. i think it's set in the 70's as all the actors were all decked out in 70's college student clothing.
i then ventured west of PSU, came upon a big RAT in front of the Old Church and then ventured toward burnside. yes, i was all over downtown. as i passed by the federal reserve in the picture, i thought about all these people who take pictures of certain buildings and are then asked to leave because local security guards think they are terrorists or something. well, i was thinking - walk by this building and take photos and see what happens. if i don't post in more than 3 days, call my parents- i may be in cuba "on vacation."

i'm surprised vic didn't kill anyone today and jack only killed 2 yesterday.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Steelers win!

well, i was amongst 6 Seahawks fans and yet the Steelers still pulled it off. Well done Iron City Boys!



me doin' the worm!