Portland Trip

Portland, Oregon - Columbia River Gorge

I took another break from blogging because we were up in Portland, Oregon… visiting a good friend of mine. We had a lot of fun. We went to the Bridgeport Brewery, Blue Moon, The Zen Garden, The Columbia Gorge, Powell Bookstore, and saw Garden State again. It was a really great trip, I wish we would have had more time.

[ Photos ]

Tragedy in our building

I’ve just learned that we’ve had a very unfortunate tragedy here at my building. Not us personally, but one of our new neighbors. Her dog fell to his death from her ninth floor balcony. I feel so bad for this woman. I’ve only met her and her dog once, but they both seemed really nice. She was talking about her dog and my dog being new friends. They only moved in about a week ago, and now her excitement about moving into the building will be forever replaced with the memory of her dogs death.

The woman was out, and she apparently left her patio door open. The dog must have gotten scared by a loud car horn… or something, and decided to go over the railing. I totally feel for this woman. I’m relatively new to our building too. My dog , Emmitt, has never been in an environment like this, he’s always had a yard and a doggy-door, so I’ve actually left our patio door open for him when I knew we were going to be out for a while… just incase he had to go the bathroom, I would have rather him go on the patio than in the house. We live on the seventh floor, so what happened to our neighbor could have happened to us. I had never thought Emmitt would go over the railing, it’s quite tall, but I’m sure this woman had thought the same thing. We won’t be leaving our door open anymore.

Our hearts go out to our neighbor…

Friends in Town

Todd, Steph, Paul, Anne Marie, Delia, Neil at LuLu's

So I took a few days off from blogging because we had some good friends in town from Phoenix. Luckily we were also able to get together with some other old friends that we haven’t seen in several years, from Berkeley. Our Phoenix friends were just here for the weekend, they’re now exploring the coast a bit down south of San Francisco.

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Is anyone out there?

So when I look at the stats for my site, it appears as though I am getting a fair amount of traffic. But, since people rarely leave a comment on any of my posts, I’m not sure how accurate my stats are. Is anyone really visiting my site? Are you real or just phantoms generated by the server?

If you visit my site, please leave a comment… even if it’s just to say “Cool!”, or “you suck!”… that way I know people are really coming here. I am actually really curious on what people think about the topics I choose to post, and how they found my site.

The comment form does ask for your email address, but that is just an attempt to prevent spammers from using my comment system for their own gains (I hate spammers!). The system does NOT store your email address (it’s just emailed to me along with a copy of your comment)… your address will NOT be visable on your comment posted here, and I would NEVER give anyone any information about you. The worst thing that could happen is I may send you an email thanking you for your comment. Also, if you put your URL (URI) in the comment form, it will turn your name into a hot-link back to your site generating traffic for you.

So please, click that little “Speak Your Mind” link (at the bottom of each post), and leave me a comment. ~ Thanks! :)

California Echo

So my little Toyota echo is finally an official California car. I registered it yesterday, and got my plates. I had to put holes in the front of my car though. Arizona didn’t require front plates. That’s a bummer, I didn’t want holes in my car. The good thing is if I honk my horn continuously, and I drive like a jerk… I’ll just be a typical San Francisco driver, and not a dum-ass out-of towner. ;)

Parking Bliss

My New San Francisco Parking Space

A new era in San Francisco parking began yesterday. I now have a parking space in my own building. It’s awesome! I used to park over at the Japan Center. It was relatively inexpensive ($135/mo.), but very inconvenient. It took me about half an hour to go get the car when I wanted to use it, if I was lucky and hit the bus schedule just right. Now, I just pull into our garage and park with ease. It’s well worth the extra money.

Go Team!

San Francisco Giants Tickets

Last night anne marie and I went to a San Francisco Giants game. It was a work outing through her firm. It was my very first baseball game. I tried to maximize my baseball experience… I had three $8 beers, two $5 hotdogs, and a $3 (small) bag of peanuts. It was fun, I actually had a really good time.

There were a few things I was expecting to see, and didn’t. They don’t have guys walking the isles selling beer. I didn’t see any vendors hucking peanuts into the croud, and there was virtually no organ playing. That was a big dissapointment.

Ironically we (SF) were playing Arizona (my recently former home). We killed ’em!

July 4th in Kirkwood

anne marie in kirkwood

We had the opportunity to spend the 4th of July weekend in Kirkwood. A friend has a condo there. Kirkwood is a resort town about 3.5 hours north-east of San Francisco, in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

It is really beautiful up there. Emmitt (our dog) had one of the best times of his life exploring a giant meadow. He was a happy dog. We rode the chair-lift to the top of the mountain, it was a spectacular view.

[ www.kirkwood.com ]

Matt Bauer Music

Last night anne marie and I went to ‘Brainwash’, a local cafe / laundromat… yes, laundromat. It’s kind of cool little place just down the street. We went to see our friend Matt (no pun intended) play. He does an acoustic (guitar / bango) show. He’s really good, we like going to see him play. His debut CD should be coming out this month. Visit his web site for more info, and free songs to download.

[ www.mattbauermusic.com ]