Happy Turkey Day!

For those of you who are not "in the know"... I have been volunteered to cook the Thanksgiving day Turkey for my family. My mom, dad, aunt, uncle and I will be sharing this holiday at my house in Portland.

I decided to try something new and soak my tukey in brine prior to cooking. Wish me luck lol!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my beloved viewers :)

Birthday Weekend

So there was a great deal that happened over the past weekend, but I will do my best to summarize the haps...

Thursday night, I ended up going out and meeting up with about 10 of my friends for some drinks at Dixie. Needless to say, I got pretty toasted and ended up making a fool out of myself. Live and learn right? (Sorry Kiddo).

Friday was good times! I woke up at about 6am to head up to the mountain for another day of skiing. Again, the snow wasn't GREAT, but the skies were blue and the sun was warm. No complaints! However, as soon as I got home from the mountain it was time to head back to Newport. LONG day of driving.

Friday night, I hit the town (of Newport... lol) and hung out with some new and old faces. It was nice to get out, but Apollo's was a bit too Newport for my tastes... From Hot Tubs, to dive bars... at least Newport is relaxing :)

The rest of the weekend I did NOTHING! It was great! Mom and I went shopping for Thanksgiving (I am cooking and hosting this year), and then headed to Wal-Mart to plan this year's xmas tree! It should be a fun one :) Please note our newly purchased goods to the right!Watched the OSU vs. UO game on Saturday as well... Depressing.... Then watched a couple movies in the evening.

Sunday morning, mom and I went out for breakfast at a new place on the bay front. I think it's called Localocean or Local Ocean... something similar. It was pretty good! We were surprised at the fact that it was about 60 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. This is a view from our table... please ignore the fact that I am drinking a beer at 11am :)

It's time for a short work week and a long Thanksgiving weekend! I wonder how many days I can hit the slopes.....

Season Opener!

Yesterday officially kicked off the 2005/2006 Ski season at Mt. Hood Meadows (for me at least). We went on the PERFECT day... Friday showed little snow and a lot of ice. When we arrived to the mountain around 8:30, we were highly disappointed to see that the upper parking lot was ALREADY full. I pulled the Jeep around to the HRM lot and we were forced to take the shuttle bus to the lodge. Overall, this wasn't really a bad deal... we walked about 100 yards to the bus, and were dropped off about 10 feet from the front door...

All heads were down in silence, in awe of the white goodness we all know as FRESH POWDER! There was about 5" of new snow overnight, and I was ready to hit the slopes! After the short bus ride up to the lodge, we waited in a short line to pick up the other's season passes and hit the lift line. The lines were pretty packed at the main lift, but as we branched out to the sides, the lines cleared out.

I had a pretty rough first half of the day, spending most the time cleaning the snow off my sunglasses. 2 runs in, I said screw it and bought a new pair of goggles in the ski shop... A wise choice, as conditions continued to worsen at the top of the mountain until after lunch. At about noon, the four of us (Turner, Michael, Josh and I) headed down to the car for some lunch and a "pick me up". Peanut Butter & Mom's homemade jelly hit the spot! Not to mention a couple pulls of a bottle of Seagram's 7! Before we headed back up, I put a couple beers buried in the snow near the car, since I had neglected to bring Ice for the Ice Chest. (Thanks Dad!).

So we headed to the bus and as we boarded, we heard the bus driver radioing for security. Apparently a couple punk kids stole the bus driver's jacket as they left the bus. Turner and I offered out services, along with a couple other guys from the bus... and we marched right up to the kids that made off with the jacket... Turner did the talking and made it QUITE clear that it was either the Jacket...or one of their heads on a stick. Needless to say, we got the jacket back and headed back up to ski!

The afternoon was fun and all of us seemed to be getting better. Josh and Michael headed to the car early, while Turner and I hit one more run! Once we were all back in the car (seat heaters cranked), we headed back to P-town. Here is a picture of us before we took off... No mom... I didn't drink before I drove home!

At 9, a few friends and I headed to the comedy club for some free laughs. 11:30 rolled around and I was OUT! A long day of NFL tomorrow :)

Happiest Place on Earth!

Yeah so I know it has been a long while since I have updated this thing... but I have been extremely busy with work and life!

So this weekend was one of the best family vacations that I can remember. I left on Friday afternoon to fly to Orange County to spend the weekend at Disneyland! After a somewhat long flight, and a very long shuttle to the airport, we headed to the park! Since it was a Friday afternoon, there were very few people standing in line for the big rides. We (Mom, Dad and I) hit up the Materhorn, Big Thundermountain Railroad and a few others. Once the night winded down, we moved to the castle to watch the 50th anniversary fireworks. A splendid display of lights and sounds! At about 10pm, we headed back to the hotel... it was going to be a LONG Saturday!

Mom and I hit the park at 7am, busting down the doors with anticipation! A mad dash to Space Mountain where we practically WALKED on to the ride with no wait. After our heads stopped spinning, we headed for Star Tours... we were 2 of 4 people on the ride!

Right next to Star Tours is the new ride based on Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story. We had NO idea what to expect, but with no lines... may as well check it out! We boarded a small white and green space pod with 2 laser guns attached. It turns out the ride was a series of shooting galleries with a laser guided light gun. The ride kept your score and it was displayed on the readied board outside of the ride. It was worth a hoot, but not my favorite.

Around 9am, Mom and I met up with Dad and Jenni. We took a couple rides in Disneyland, got a quick order of McDonalds French fries (only in America.....) and headed over to the new park (California Adventure).

There we were met with the "grown up" rides. Hollywood Towers and Scream were my favorite, but there are too many details about the trip to write them all in the blog! Saturday night we traveled north to Sherman Oaks to have dinner with Seth's parents. We ate at a quaint Italian Food joint and enjoyed some of the best Pizza I have ever had.

Sunday was spent at ESPNzone watching my beloved NFL games. We enjoyed a couple beers, some good lunch and some good football. Then it was off to the airport :(

Once at the airport, I was so enthralled in the NFL game that I almost missed my flight. Its a good thing I overhead someone trying to pronounce my last name over the intercom :) I returned back to Portland around 7pm and struggled with the MAX to get home. An hour later (after a shuttle bus had to take me across the Steel bridge because of a "crack"), I arrived home and went straight to sleep. This is going to be a long week.....