Blooms Around Town - Beauty Unfolding

Our front yard



Next 5 images: Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival




Gravitropism, of course!





The next three images were snapped on the way to April Fool's Day festivities ~30th & Division.





Japanese American Historical Plaza - Waterfront




Where it's at.



PSU, taken looking groundward from one of the many fabulous skybridges



Elementary school near Joe's house

Because being anything else is just no fun

Musikalische Existenz - Portland via video & song

Lamb Roast & Vigil - Easter 2011

[4/24/2011 10:31:38 PM] ac: Happy Easter!

[4/24/2011 10:32:11 PM] Aro: Happy Easter!

[12:43:18 AM] ac: still keepin' it real, Australia?

[12:45:07 AM] Aro: impossible to do anything but!

[12:45:41 AM] Aro: what is goin' on this Oregon Easter?

[12:46:10 AM] ac: lots man, it was probably the most eventful Easter of my life!

[12:46:22 AM] ac: And seeing as how i'm still up i suppose it's still goin'

[12:46:35 AM] Aro: wow! what was so eventful?

[12:49:53 AM] ac: a guy we know from church purchased an entire lamb and we seasoned, prepared, tied, & roasted it in his backyard on a spit beginning at 2am. Complete with scripture readings & other selections through dawn and alternating lamb watching/rotating shifts. Then church, errands, phone calls etc. etc. etc. then delicious Easter feast at their house etc. etc. etc.

[12:51:05 AM] Aro: wow! a whole lamb!
[12:51:15 AM] Aro: you've been up since 2 am???
...
[12:59:30 AM] Aro: p.s. why are you still up/awake?
...
[1:03:11 AM] Aro: I still can't believe you were roasting a lamb since 2 am this morning! That is hardcore manlyness


2am-ish. It starts:



First reading:


Empty cavity




Stuffed cavity


"Hey doc, could you give me a hand with this here?"



"Snipe-nose, stat!"


"Suture!"


John


Dorris


Choate


Galic clove-stuffed shoulder



Massage oils


Heintzman. "You guide me."



Yep.


Another reading:


"Our souls wait for the Lord more than sentries for the dawn. Indeed, more than watchmen yearn for the morning.
-Psalm 130



Our canvas was organic - delivered by Bald Hill Farm, Corvallis. 80 lbs hanging weight.


Dawn




Hendrix. An artist's work is never done:



Some curious on-lookers:



Post-fest fun:

Write around town - ¿por qué no?

a short freewrite i did on a family date

Evergreen

This is from a while back at the Japanese Gardens. Enjoy the zen of tall trees and wind chimes.

A bike part that found me

This is the foil backing to a bike tire patch i had to use recently. A small, sharp stone punctured & embedded itself into my front tire and caused a very tiny hole in the tube. So instead of buying a tube i just put a patch on the existing tube. I'm a member of the PSU Bike Hub co-op now, which i'm excited about 'cause i can fix the bike at school if i need to, & it was certainly a Godsend that day!



Note country of origin. I have tire patches at home, but needed one there, so i ended up with the German-made glue patch. For the record, much more complicated than the patches i have at home, but probably more sturdy & will hold longer as well. The whole repair cost me a grand total of $0.40 as i was able to execute the repair myself!

I have also topped off my tires a few times at the Bike Hub, lubed the chain & gears (with soy-based lube they provide), and today attempted to fix my rear brake which came loose on the way to school. Unfortunately i will have to get a new brake cable & housing, and i didn't have time to execute much more than a few basic adjustments today, so i got it back into a semi-working state & will have to fix it for real perhaps Wednesday or so.

I also created some bike art which i am quite happy with! I submitted it to a contest today to win *hundreds of fabulous prizes*, so cross your fingers for me (bzw druck mir die Daumen). Hopefully it will win & get displayed, though either way i plan to post it here soon.

Eco Fashion, Eco Sports, Eco Film, Eco EXCELLENT

Here is a photograph of me and a giant Salmon at this past weekend's (including Friday, when I went) Better Living Show. I had thought I'd also snapped a beautiful portrait with Woodsy Owl, icon of the US Forest Service, though i guess i just imagined how awesome it would have been and then made that imagination a reality in my mind. Looking at the actual photographs i have saved on the camera, there is no owl-mascot-with-Yours-Truly specimen to be found, sadly. I did get a Woodsy button though, which i plan to sport proudly in the near future as apt occasions arise.



Shockingly, i could not convince Kirsten at any point to join me for one of several Eco-fashion shows they held at the event, though i offered multiple times. (Ladies, when was the last time YOUR man asked you on a date to a fashion show?!?)

Also, though i wanted to badly, i was unable to meet the 2nd most green athlete in the US (?) who also happens to be the #1 most eco-friendly athlete in the NFL, at least according to some(one). Travis? Dad? Others? You heard of him before? That's your team, right?!

The films Deep Green & Bag It were also shown, which i caught good portions of. I got to meet the director/producer of the former (he added the title "janitor" in referencing himself :o) and i was impressed by both productions, though the latter is rather irreverent. Hopefully i'll get a copy of the former soon, though.

Lots of exciting stuff coming up in the coming weeks/months, so hopefully i'll have more good content to report!

eMG (not a Sprite?)

This one's for you, Gregg. Had lots of fun helping restore the ol' Sprite w/you, man. Brought back lots of great memories of *negotiating* (with a hammer). It's even the right color!

eBugs

These are for you, Ed. Saw them in the wild this afternoon (aka the Better Living Show). More reports to follow I hope.

El arte fino del apodo

...and a few words to steel the wool.

Urban (Mega)fauna

I found out where at least some of them are hiding out. Sasquatch is of course still as blurry as ever.

ME GUSTA BROOKLYN STREET

It's been raining a lot lately

but it hasn't stopped this guy* from enjoying his shower:



He's part of a cool rain catchment/bioswale system* at the Seven Corners New Seasons on SE Division. I actually went to the store at that particular location with a certain A. Humphrey on one of my earlier trips to Portland just before we moved here. In fact, we ate there right after he took me to an interview I had which eventually landed me my first job in Oregon (not counting tour guide/roadie extraordinaire during the Winter of 2004) Here is a potentially more zazzling shot of our showering friend:





(*As of publication time: unknown artist(s), bioswale designer(s), title)

"What more can you ask for in the Rose City?"

Thus spake the Green Line MAX operator this morning on my one stop stretch between City Hall and the University up the little hill to campus. The question was preceded by the observations: ~ "It's sunny out [which it actually wasn't at the time he said this, though it had been sunny earlier in the morning] and the high today is 47 degrees."

Anyway, his mirthage/jollity was one blessing among many on the way to school this morning.

It also got me thinking: What more CAN we ask for in the Rose City? What more can we find? What more can we hope for? (Oh yeah, and note to self: be thankful for what you got!)