Saturday, March 25, 2006

Some research.


(WARNING- the following blog entry is completely focused on weather. It may be extremely boring to portions of the population. If you find yourself distracted, yawning repeatedly, or slipping in and out of consciousness, while reading this post then close the webpage immediately. Visit it again later in the week only when a new, more stimulating, entry will likely have been posted.
You have been warned.)

Okay, so upon making the decision to move to Portland, Oregon, we suddenly found ourselves with a heightened awareness of climate. And the recievers of many, many, words of advice and warnings.

"You know it rains there, right?"

"Do you know how much rain they get up there?"

"Man, I don't think I could handle the rain in that place."

"I sure couldn't live without sun, dude."


As you all know , our heads swirling with visions of constant floods and neverending monotonous gray skies we still went ahead and relocated to the Northwest.

I'm happy to report that so far it really hasn't been that terrible. Oh sure it's rained a lot but honestly no more than the folks in the Bay Area have been receiving. And in fact the storms have been on a much milder scale than our Southern friends have been enduring.

It got me thinking. Maybe it's really been a big conspiracy up here, this whole "oh man it rains all the time" stuff. A clever ploy to keep the outsiders out. Scare off the Californians, Canadians, and other foreigners who might want to ravage and spoil this idyllic Pacific paradise.

So I did research (maybe about 10 minutes on the internet.) I fully expected to uncover a terrible misconception about the state of Oregon and put into swing a full scale migration of friends and family to the Pacific coast. People from all over moving to the new "sun state" of the West.

Well, what I discovered was that the misconception maybe isn't such a misconception after all. Looking at annual precipitation numbers there are some pretty glaring differences between Portland and the rest of North America for weather. Especially those regions known as "California."

Here's how the numbers stack up for annual precipitation in some familiar spots across the continent:

Portland- 36"
San Francisco- 22"
Los Angeles- 16"
Toronto- 32"
St. Paul/Minneapolis- 29"
Seattle- 37"
Vancouver- 43"

So, yeah, it does rain a lot here. Oregon isn't quite the undiscovered sun country I thought it might be. It is mostly grey and wet for a good chunk of the year.

But honestly it hasn't really bothered me. I admit I do think about weather more than I have in a decade, but it's not so bad.

I mean it doesn't really snow here or anything eh.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Introducing ... Miss Jazz!


Look out, Biscuit has competition!

Miss Jazz belongs to friends of ours and I was lucky enough to take care of her for a few days last week. She's really the best dog in the whole wide world!

Sunday, March 12, 2006

mmm... cioppino

Mmmmm.... No need to say more.

Hermit Weekend 2006!!!


The weekend Malena and I have been waiting for finally arrived! Hermit Weekend 2006 was a complete and utter success here in Portland, Oregon.
We managed to do little or nothing for all of Saturday, other than sit through nearly 10 straight hours of 24: Season 3. We're nearly caught up with the rest of the Western world as we close in on Season 4!

Isn't it odd that the most patriotic fictional American character of recent times is in reality a Canadian?

Whoa.

Ironic, eh?

Forgive me if this is pointing out an obvious issue that's been discussed on countless chat rooms for the last 5 years. I'm still slowly catching up with the present eh.

Hermit weekend 2006 gives a person a lot of opportunity to ponder.

Friday, March 10, 2006

The Hills have Snow


Downtown Portland was rainy and business as usual, but a quick glance at the surrounding terrain showed off snow covered hills all around. I rather liked it.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

best thing ever... so far today


As I passed the Metreon on the way to work this morning, I witnessed something awesome. There were a shit ton of school kids out for a field trip and they were walking along. In the middle of the sidewalk there was an open manhole cover and a construction dude standing over it. As the kids passed by, a construction dude from below starts climbing up and as his head breached street level, he let out a huge yell to scare the kids. They all screamed and laughed and continued on their way. It put a smile on my face.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

beaches, lovely beaches


I thought I'd take a second and post yet another picture of the Oregon coast. This one is minus the big Goonie rock (which I've now discovered there are several rocks that all look to be the Goonie rock dotting the Oregon coastline, so I can't be sure I captured the geniune article the other week.)

We spent the past Saturday night at a beach house rental and it was great! I had it in my head that all beaches in Oregon would be covered in rough, craggy rocks and pounded relentlessly by a cold stormy ocean. I've been pleasantly proven wrong. The beaches here, disregarding the temperature of course, remind me more of San Diego for how fine the sand is and how the waves come rolling in.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

Saturday, March 04, 2006

blogging under pressure

I've just been informed that I must put down my latest knitting project (a cozy for my DS) and tell the world about my latest adventures.

Behold my tale of the blimp!

In between periods at Winterhawks games (junior hockey) there is a small blimp that flies out from the rafters of the Rose Garden arena. The crowds go wild -- absolutely wild -- screaming and waving their arms in an effort to attract the blimp to fly over them. When the blimp finds a worthy group of fans, it lets loose its booty and pieces of paper rain down upon the crowd. And just what are these pieces of paper that cause the crowds to whip into such a frenzy? Coupons. Coupons, you ask? Uhh, okay... Coupons that are redeemable for an airline ticket or two? Mayhaps a gift certificate to an expensive restaurant or a spiffy new digital camera? No. Instead, these precious pieces of paper offer fans such lofty gifts as a free quart of milk from the local Fred Meyer. Milk. Yup.

The punchline to all this is the looks of disappointment on the faces of the children of Oregon who thought they were going home with something that would be the envy of their entire neighborhood.