Uptown Billiards

Cynthia and I have a new favorite haunt. A co-worker recommended a place called Uptown Billiards Club and...well, we haven't gone anywhere else for dinner since. I'm sure that's an unsustainable trend, but this place is more than just a great dinner - it's an experience.

Looks nice, no? Kinda feels like a millionaire's bachelor pad. But the real reason to dine here is because of the gimmick.

Ever seen Iron Chef? The whole secret ingredient in each course idea? That's what they use for the five course meal at Uptown Billiards. And the chef knows what he's doing!

Here's the menu for the first time we went. The ingredient was one of my favorites, figs. (sadly, these pictures straight from their website are nowhere near as good as the food looked when we dined there)

Fig and Arugula Salad

This was a pretty standard salad, done well but nothing to write home about. I was a bit worried about the whole fig theme because TLC is not a fan of figs. After she tried this first fig, I think she was receptive. But the next course sold her completely... 

Sweet Potato Creme Brulee

This is the dish I'll tell my grandkids about someday. The creme brulee was perfectly executed and the fig on top added the perfect note. The plate also included a seared foie gras on wilted spinach and caramelized figs in a sherry gastrique. There are no words to describe the party in your mouth this dish created.

Prosciutto Wrapped Scallop

with a fig balsamic reduction and risotto. Did I mention that TLC loves scallops? Even after the life-changing second course, I think we were wondering if we should have just ordered a huge plate of these scallops. 

Roasted Lamb Rib

In case you were wondering if chili and fig go together, this course answers affirmatively. Lamb also happens to be my favorite animal protein.

Fig Layer Cake and Fig Pistachio Ice Cream

This looked SO much better at the restaurant. Not only can their chef whip up an incredible meal, he can act as a great pastry chef too! Just an amazing meal from start to finish.

And when the meal is done, you get an hour of pool time. Such a great place! I'm sure we'll be here MANY more times.

Christmas Card 2012

We never truly sent out all of the Christmas cards and newsletters that we intended. By the time mid-January rolled around, I figured it just wasn't worth the effort anymore. So if you didn't receive something, I'm very sorry...we'll try to be more prepared next year. In any case, here's the newsletter we sent for 2012.
 

Best of Year Album - 2012

I've got to admit that Windows 8 really saved my bucket this year. I like to organize all of the year's pictures into one folder (2012) with a subfolder for each month. Each month contains all pics taken during that month with a standard naming convention: "Label YYYY-MM-DD ##". We have nine different cameras and only recently moved to one central storage location so getting everything in its place can prove quite challenging. But Win8 was incredible for moving all 6,132 files around. Hands down, the best organization OS yet. Anyway, enough gushing.

So, below is the hand-picked collection of our best photos of 2012. Normally these annual albums are about 75 pics long. But 2012 was HUGE so there are 158 pics this year. I could probably eliminate up to ten from that tally, but anymore would be difficult. There are just too many stories from the past year.

Our definition of 'best' is admittedly vague; the album contains our best shots, stories we want to tell, events to remember, pictures that strike an emotional chord, etc. You are left to guess for what reason the pic is included! As far as I can tell each image is chronological so the album is like watching our year in fast forward.

Mosaic Madness

You know all those end-of-year things you have to do before you feel ready to tackle a new year? I'm finally getting through that list. I still have about 15 "Christmas" cards left to send out (now in danger of not even being New Year's cards), I have to organize our photos for 2012, settle the budget, etc. As tedious as that list can be, I always enjoy this next item: the creation of our family photo mosaic.

I've done this for five or six years now and four of those images are on the blog. I take all of the pictures from our family's history (now up to 29,913 images since 2002) and use them as a tile library for a photomosaic of our family photo. This particular image has 10,296 images, 1200 dpi, 5000 x 4000 pixels, and a 20% recolor. The final file is 19.8 megs!

Call me a family photo junkie, but I could spend hours zooming in and out of the image to see what it's made of. A few fun facts:

1. The shape of TLC's nose is created by multiple images of rainbows. Her beauty is such that only rainbows and unicorns can compare. tee hee.
2. Davis' vest is mostly made of photos that we've taken since moving to Oregon. I guess Oregon is greener than WI and UT. 
3. We like knowing what our eyes are made of, so here's a list (one eye for each of us):

• Dad - ducks at the WWII memorial
• TLC - a car from a 1942 road trip
• Jordan - a newborn Davis
• Carter - Grand Canyon
• Davis - Bryce Canyon

Family Pics or Bust

Family pictures were an absolute bust this year. Note to self: if your photographer starts off the session by saying how badly she wants to go home...make a beeline for the door. Do not pass go, do not spend $200. alright...I didn't spend that much.

We usually get our annual pic taken at JCP or Sears because it's cheap, but I think next year I'll take out a second mortgage and go to a better photographer. Plus, the major reason we get a picture taken is to get Christmas cards which were about $2 per this year, so something's gotta change.

So! The shots of the boys didn't turn out too bad, but the family pictures did. In the end we had to agree on the lesser of two evils and voila...the annual family picture was done.

Halloween Roundup

I just found this post as a draft. A bit late to be sharing Halloween pics, but I've never been very punctual about these sorts of things, have I?

Jordan and Carter were Lego Knights, and li'l Davis was Wicket the Ewok. Given that Davis was Yoda last year, I think this makes me an official geek. Our friends round out the group as Superman, a princess, and Princess Leia. The boys gathered a combined 11 lbs 12 oz of loot, woot!

No costumes for Cyn and I...hopefully next year.

I love autumn! This is the view on our driveway every time we open the car door.

Jordan decided to make his own template this year and this is the result. He calls it a Zombie Pumpkin.

I convinced Carter and Cynthia to carve themed pumpkins with me and here are the results. Count Chocula was hands-down the most difficult pumpkin I've ever carved, but it also came out as the best result ever. Had to order a special carving knife set to make it work...I guess that's further evidence that I'm a geek.

This was our first Halloween in a house! We had 29 trick-or-treaters, a paltry sum, but that is more than  we've had visit our apartments in the last 6 years combined.

The New Rules

Three full months without a post. Three whole months.

My old mantra was to post every other week at a minimum, but times have changed...

• Readership has drastically decreased on this blog. Facebook has completely taken over. I never expected many views so I thank you for reading in the first place. But it does decrease my motivation to come up with great posts if nobody's here to notice.
• My career has taken off in 2012 decreasing my free time and possibly the therapeutic effect of blogging.
• Q4 is my busiest time of the year at work and December is definitely the busiest month at home (and I know I'm not alone in that one).

Still, I have no desire to kill off my major form of journaling. I'm here on this blog to stay, or at least until Google destroys Blogspot. I made it past the Mayan apocalypse, I might as well continue forever now!

So, my new rules...blog when you can...but only after you: Experience life, enjoy being with your boys and wife, make up for the eight years of studying by doing what I truly want to do, eat hearty servings of toast and marmalade, and live after the manner of happiness.

Better Board Games III: BSW

Alright, once again it's time to talk about board games (this is the final entry in the Better Board Games series...promise).

Now, I know many of you are out there thinking 'gee, I wish I lived closer to those hipsters in Oregon...they are always playing such awe-mazing games'. Yes, you're absolutely correct...we are totally hipsters. But I digress. Now YOU TOO can play board games with us through something called...THE INTERNET!

As I've stated before in the first Better Board Games post (which is practically required reading around here), we have a large collection of designer board games not found in the average American household. To reiterate, a better board game has the following characteristics:

1. Most important, it has to be FUN.
2. It should be EYE-CATCHING. Just like with great cuisine, the gaming experience is enhanced if it's pleasing to look at.
3. It should require players to make CHOICES. This is what draws people into games. No roll-and-move games accepted here.
4. It should be EASY TO TEACH in less than 5 minutes. Any longer, and most people will shut off their ears. True story.
5. It must be SOCIAL. In board games, you're meant to have fun with other people. The best games promote conversation among those playing.

I listed five examples of such games in the first post and then five more in the follow-up post. Here are five more examples of great games that can be played online through a website called BrettSpielWelt (German for BoardGameWorld), or BSW for short. We play on BSW with many friends & family members already, but we're always looking to recruit new players!!! Email or Skype us for details if you want to give any of these games a shot.

This time around, I'll be using screenshots straight off of BSW instead of actual pics of the board games...

Bohnanza

Truth be told, the online interface for this great game is a bit garish. However, the actual gameplay is wonderful. In Bohnanza, you're a bean farmer planting and harvesting beans you want and trading away beans you don't want. The really fun part about this game is that you are forced to trade away beans for your benefit so there's a lot of interaction that goes on. I've taught this game to dozens of peeps since 2007 - not a single person has expressed disappointment in it.

Power Grid

Power Grid is probably the best designed game I own. Everything just fits together so perfectly. The theme isn't terribly exciting (build power plants across the nation - woo hoo), but no one seems to mind once they start playing. The game revolves around auctions so this is another game where there's lots of interaction around the table. Power Grid has paper money and power plant 'properties' so I've long said that this is a game for people that like Monopoly but want a shorter game with better gameplay.

Stone Age

Uga Uga! Me Tarzan, you play Stone Age! Cavemen work together to build up their tribe. Stone Age is a 'worker placement' game, a type of game where you have a group of workers (the number of which can be increased) that are placed in various work groups each turn. For those of you that like dice, this is your game. It's not my favorite worker placement game (that would be Agricola), but it's definitely the most accessible to new players.

Pandemic

This is a cooperative game. All players work together as a crack team from the CDC to rid the world of four deadly viruses. Should they fail, the world will be overcome by disease and humanity will cease to exist...gulp. I have a buddy that hates cooperative games. I taught him Pandemic despite his objections. He now owns Pandemic. Need I say more?

7 Wonders

This is the newest game on this list. For those of you that have heard of Dominion, this game is similar. The concept is simple: you get a hand of seven cards. Take one card and play it, then pass the remaining six cards to the player at your left. Now choose another card from the deck being pass to you, and pass the deck again...repeat, repeat, repeat. The whole game is only 18 played cards and 15 minutes long, yet you go through the history of an entire civilization, build wonders of the world, go to war, discover sciences, trade with other city-states, etc. There's a surprising amount of depth here and very little effort needed.


So there you go. I've now detailed 15 great games for you to try and there are many, many more. Call us anytime you want to try a game in person OR online. We're totally open most nights and very anxious to share a hobby that has allowed us to gain many new friends and create lots of great memories. Just don't plan on beating TLC...she bites back.

Lego Land!

On to the main event! Here's our trip to Lego Land in a nutshell...

 So, like I said, I had some camera troubles this trip. Great timing, I know. My main camera was out of juice most of the time (and had a dirty lens) and I couldn't find my waterproof camcorder until after the trip. Oops. 

We did take some pics on our phones, but now that we've upgraded to better phones, I can't find the old ones! Someday soon I'm sure they'll turn up along with the rest of our Lego Land pics.

Anyway, I don't have a whole lot of great pics as a result. The picture above is the only pic we got of all five of us at Lego Land.

 One thing you've got understand about Lego Land is that EVERYTHING is made of Legos. I think they said there are 6.4 million bricks in the park. This statue is about 12 feet tall...I can't even fathom how much time it took to make some of these things. Even the mirrors in the restrooms had intricate Lego frames.

The park was absolutely perfect for Jordan and Carter, but there weren't a lot of rides for Davis. This plane ride was one of them though; we made sure that he got to ride many, many times.

Just like Disneyland, Lego Land is divided into multiple 'lands'. This is Adventure Land, an Egyptian themed area. One of our favorite rides was near this spot. It was an interactive ride where each passenger had a laser gun to shoot targets that altered the ride. The guns also kept track of how many targets you hit so it became a competition (Cynthia won).

There is a Lego TECHNIC area, designed for older kids, with more mature rides. We made the mistake of going there first and trying out the roller coaster...it was...a tad bit too scary for us.

Our favorite ride, The Dragon, was located in the medieval-themed Castle Hill. The Dragon is the biggest roller coaster in the park and was so much fun for all four of us that we rode it all three days of the trip.

Right outside The Dragon, the boys found these cool knight outfits. Carter couldn't stop talking about them, so eventually we caved. We got a full outfit (shield, sword, sheath, and cape) for both of them for Halloween. 'Cause we're awesome parents. 

The heart of Lego Land is Miniland USA which has tons of real-world locations and a few Star Wars locations built out of Legos. There was a life-size Darth Vader, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and Darth Maul but everyone was excited to see the enlarged minifig of Yoda.

My favorite Star Wars location was Endor...

 ...though Naboo was probably the most impressive.

This HUGE model of US Capitol had a sign saying that if each Lego used in the Capitol was stacked on top of each other, it would extend 7 miles. Dang.

 They also had the full Las Vegas strip, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. It was all really cool.

This 'Hydronauts' ride doesn't look impressive, but it was a lot more fun than it looks. The best part was underwater air cannons that would spray the riders whenever bystanders pushed a certain button. Hee hee.

This is a great shot from a fairy tale boat adventure that Davis was able to ride on. Definitely the cutest ride in the park, but I won't bore you with MORE pics of Lego people.

Then Davis started making out with Mommy while Jordan and Carter were driving go carts. That kid has the moves!

 It all came to a close too soon. We all had a wonderful time!

Travelin'

We finally decided to take a big family vacation this year. After 10 years of marriage, we figured we were due. The boys had been bugging us to take them to Lego Land for months and we finally caved. Traveling all the way down to San Diego gave us plenty of opportunities to see friends, family, and a few sites, so here are a few pics from the car trip.

In Gilroy we stopped to visit TLC's Aunt Elaine...

who took us to see redwoods on Mount Madonna...

where there's a whole flock of white fallow deer...

and big show-offs...

not to mention some beautiful and historical ruins...

and more show-offs...

and flying children.

What is it about boys and tree stumps?

On our trip back to Oregon, we visited TLC's Aunt Sharon in Ukiah. Uncle Carl took us for a scenic ride around town, taught us some new songs, and made us promise to come back. :)

Ukiah is WAY off the beaten path, but it was worth it to spend some time with family. This also allowed us to travel HWY 101 instead of I-5 so we got to see San Fran and drive the Golden Gate.

Oh...and Sharon? You were right...The giant talking Paul Bunyan IS in Northern Cal, not in Montana.

Hwy 101 is a wonderful drive...even in Oregon.

We also visited my grandpa in Garden Grove and saw the Bradshaws in San Diego but don't have a single picture of those visits (I had camera troubles this trip). Even with a solid week of free time we didn't get a chance to see other friends and family in Cali. I'm sorry we didn't get a chance - hopefully we'll make it down there again soon. But for those that we did get to visit with, thank you for taking time out of your schedules for us. We loved every minute.