My wife had an uber-cool idea for my birthday present this year. Knowing that I'm a big John Mayer fan and that ol' Johnny would be in Portland in March, we'd celebrate my birthday two months early and go see the show. I was exuberant, to say the least, and we started planning for it.
One problem though: the concert was on a Tuesday night. Kind of hard finding babysitters that will stay at your house until 1 am on a weeknight. Too bad spring break was the week before the concert. Johnny Boy, if only you'd come a week earlier I could have found a babysitter. Cyn even offered to let me go by myself...but I wasn't so keen on the idea of being a lone male in a sea of screaming girls, no matter how good the guitar playing is.
All those months of letting Cyn go to TLCB concerts and still nothin' worthwhile for old Pete. Dang it. I'll just have to settle for videos on Youtube.
Let's look back on some other concerts I've really wanted to go to but missed out on...
Another mid-week concert. I was a huge Aerosmith fan back in the day. What was I thinking?
I couldn't find a ride to SLC to see Billy Joel. The day of the concert I saw a few friends and asked them what they were doing that evening. Guess what they said? Yup. Memo to self: exhaust ALL options when trying to get to a concert.
How my sister, my own flesh and blood, ever went to a U2 concert without letting me know about it first is completely unknown. I may forgive you someday. Maybe.
Other less cool concerts I've missed out on for dumb reasons: Pat Metheny, Canadian Brass, Celine Dion, King's Singers...and probably more that escape me right now.
"Welcome to Idolholics Anonymous. Who wants to go first?"
"I will. My name is Peter..."
"Hi, Peter!"
"...and I'm an idolholic. With the exception of season 3, I've been watching consistently since season 2. But I've had a breakthrough recently. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we don't need this group anymore. I didn't watch American Idol last night and I didn't miss it because season 9 is THE MOST BORING SEASON EVER! Where did all the good singers and weird kids go? Not even Crystal and Sib..Siob...Shib...that one screaming girl...could convince me to watch it. Also, as Simon will be leaving after this season, I may never watch again...I guess that's all."
"...Oh my gosh, he's right!"
"Yeah, I didn't watch either!"
"Does everyone feel this way?" (all heads bob up and down) "Ok, meeting adjourned."
There are several posts that Cyn wants me to type up and many that I'd like to prepare. So I'm forgetting about all of those and posting what I want to instead.
I completed my board game collection (55 games total) this week. I finally got my Go set! A 1-inch bamboo goban with 19x19 and 13x13, real Chinese Yunzi stones, and two Jujube wood bowls, and a carrying case to boot. I think it's fitting that the best and oldest board game on the planet caps off my collection.
Now I just need to get good at it...I've been playing Go for two years, read several books about Go strategy, and I'm still barely better than a complete novice. Ahh, the life of a hobbyist.
By the way, I'm not naive enough to think I'm done purchasing games. I'm sure there will be others, but they will now be few and far between.
For what felt like the first time since we moved to Oregon, we got out of the house yesterday. Our destination was Multnomah Falls, the tallest waterfall in the state. At 620 feet, it pales in comparison to some other nearby waterfalls, but apparently it's the second tallest perennial waterfall in the US.
Besides being quite pretty, the cool thing about the falls is how accessible they are. The base is just off the interstate. You could pull of the road, snap a shot or two of it, and be back on the interstate in 5 minutes flat. However, if you hike a path of just 0.2 miles, you reach the footbridge over the first tier. That's where we snapped this family shot.
Even better, if you're willing to hike 1.25 miles at a 10% average grade, you can stand on a platform at the top of the whole 620 foot drop. If you look closely in the above pic, you can see the footbridge, base, and parking lot. I get vertigo just thinking about it. One guy dropped his camera into the river right before I took this shot. It stopped along the bank just shy of going off the waterfall (you can see it in the pic if you look hard enough) and he was debating whether to go down and get it out or not. I didn't get to see what his final decision was in the five minutes I was there.
It was the first time we've attempted a major hike with our boys and it went pretty well. I had to carry Carter on my shoulders for about a mile of the 2.5 mile trek and my muscles are screaming at me today for it. Jordan forgot his sweatshirt and had to carry a blanket. But they both said they had lots of fun (that didn't cost a dime), so it must have been worth it.
Instead of 8 micro-posts, I'm opting for one giant disconnected post.
1. Cynthia and I have callings in our new ward. Cynthia is the assistant-secretary in the Relief Society. I guess you need assistant secretaries in huge wards. Go figure. I'm now a scoutmaster for the blazer scouts. Those boys sure are rowdy at age 11. It's almost exactly like the boys at home, except a little more...vulgar.
2. I can't believe there are blossoms on the trees already! It's the dead of winter in Wisconsin right now. I almost feel like it's too good to last.The rain has also slowed down the past few weeks, though I know that IS too good to last.
This is a picture in the park outside my office. I work in that black box.
3. I informed my boss that I've decided to stop studying for the next actuarial exam in order to focus on my work. (sniff, sniff). This way I'll actually have time to see my family after a day's work and not stress out. Still, it was my goal for a few years to complete my FSA this summer, so this is a bit of a drag.
4. The four of us played Gulo Gulo tonight, an excellent kid's board game that I almost included in the "Better Board Games" post last year. The unusual thing about this is that it was the first time in 35 days that I've played a board game. Since we started getting into board games in Dec 2007, I haven't gone more than 10 days without playing a game. So far I've only paid 2 games in 2010. I think I'm going through withdrawal.
5. True to our word, we made an Alpha Pig cake for Carter's birthday. Actually, Cynthia did it all. I wanted to postpone his birthday party with the move and everything else that was going on, but Cyn pushed through. We used the FBCT method again. Not as good as the Super Why cake, but incredible considering the time/equipment we had.
Thanks for being such a good sport for your birthday, Carter. Hopefully it will be a little less chaotic next year.
6. Poor Lofty was towed away by Habitat for Humanity on Friday. It was actually still in semi-operable condition when we bought the new car, but we couldn't even start Lofty when it was time for the towing. I guess it's a good thing we bought something else! Cynthia described it as a sad event as we had so many memories in that car.
7. I've decided to finally get serious about dropping the 50 pounds of excess I've been carrying around since 2004. I've never been much of a runner so treadmills just ain't my thing, but I've always loved biking. Unfortunately though, I haven't had a bike since 2002. With a portion of the tax refund we got, I'm buying a new bike. It was far more difficult settling on a bike than a new car with the vast selection available in Portland. However, I test rode this one on Saturday and I fell in love. It's a 2009 Scott Sportster P55 hybrid bike, and I can't wait to get my road legs back on it.
8. Jordan drew another book for us. I think this is the first one he's done for us in color. And I mean COLOR! Wow! My eyes are still healing.
An old friend of mine wanted to open an upscale sandwich shop with me called "Coffee Sucks" as an alternative to coffee shops.
The concept might work in Utah, but no where else, regrettably.
A funny thing about living in the Northwest is the shear number of Starbucks to be found. Within one mile of our apartment there are four Starbucks. Within two miles of our pad, there are two different neighborhoods where each has two Starbucks within 500 feet of each other.
My previous employer tried to get me addicted to caffeine by giving me gift cards to Starbucks every time I took an actuarial exam. I amassed $50 in cards and (as I'm not a coffee or tea drinker) I had no idea what to do with them. Until...
I discovered Caramel Apple Spice. The perfect combination of apple, cinnamon, caramel, and cream. Moreover, the drink was murky, which made me think it was real apple cider. I think I now have about $12 left on the gift card. Tee hee.
Amazingly though, I haven't used any of that $12 since November. The last time I got one, I made the mistake of going through the drive-thru (which has a terrific view of the bar) and I got to see how the ciders are made. The barista pulls out a plastic bottle of Tree Top apple juice (just like the one at Wal-Mart!), adds a few drops of cinnamon syrup (right off the shelf at Starbucks), heats it up, adds whipped topping, and sprinkles caramel sauce (again, straight off the shelf) on top to finish it off.
I can make that at home for under a buck. Why am I paying $5.95? You've cheated me, Starbucks.
*sigh*
If you'd like to make it at home, for 1/6 the cost of Starbucks, the recipe is in the next post.
1. Add 2 tsp of cinnamon syrup to 8 oz apple juice. Stir, heat in microwave.
2. Squirt a healthy portion of whipped cream on top
3. Drizzle caramel sauce all over whipped cream.
4. Sell at a markup of at least 600%. Retire rich.
Cinnamon Syrup
Boil 1/2 cup sugar in 1/2 cup water over med-high heat until dissolved. Add 1 Tbsp cinnamon (Saigon or Vietnamese cinnamon works best for the cider).
Caramel Sauce
Caramel sauce is incredibly easy for how delicious and versatile it is. Any amount of sugar, a touch of corn syrup, and enough water to make it wet. Heat on high just until you see a wisp of smoke and then add some cream. However, this process scares a lot of people and is rarely cooked properly by neophytes. So instead of posting a recipe, I must refer you to Alton Brown's excellent video tutorial on caramel sauce. However, you don't need a candy thermometer. Just look for the first wisp of smoke and then add the cream.
Though unsure of what kind of car we wanted, we were perfectly sure what kinds of cars we didn't want:
Sedans - too small for two screaming boys.
Wagons - still not enough space for Craigslist acquisitions.
SUVs - too expensive and trendy.
Minivans - all the maneuverability of a broken tank.
That kind of limited our choices. Long story short, we researched a ton, test drove a few, and decided to get a Mini-minivan, which is kind of cross of a wagon, SUV, and minivan. There are only two on the market, and we chose the 2009 Kia Rondo. Yeah, a Kia...I can already hear your taunts. But it can hold up to 7 people, has tons of room, and handles like a car, and was within our budget. It fit our family best.
I hated my last car purchase experience, so I decided to play by my rules this time. I got the internet sales managers at all six Kia dealers within 50 miles of Portland to bid against each other via email. Then I called them and gave them a chance to beat the lowest bids - great fun listening to them squirm. I figured a dealership would take a loss around $800 below invoice, I dreamed of getting $1100 below invoice, and the best bid was $1410 below. Cha-ching.
I was unsure if we'd name the car because it's so much fun to yell "RRRRRRRONDOOOOOO!", but Jordan had a flash of genius hit him. He thought that if the name Lofty came from Bob the Builder, the next car should be named from the same show. He decided on the name of the steamroller, Rollie. I like it, but dislike the spelling. So please let me introduce, Roll-e. 'Cause that's how we roll.
