Category: Life

I spent the last few days leisurely reading The Year 1000 by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger. It was a somewhat indulgent easy popular history about what it sounds like–a day in the life of someone in 1000 a.d. What it really served as was a good survey for me to make some notes about [...]

Beeman is a friend of Mr. Pencil’s and mine. He has a glut of concord grapes ripening stinkfully next to his house. By way of experimentation, we’re going to try to make some sort of wine out of it (the grapes, not the house). I’m a touch pessimistic as to the quality of the outcome, [...]

I’m deeply proud of my sweet Mr. Pencil, who yesterday walked 30.16 miles to complete what he has termed the “WEE” (Wildwood End-to-end). We are fortunate in Portland to have the largest urban park in the country–Forest Park–which makes such a hefty hike possible–all within city limits. As he mentions on his blog, I met [...]

I finished the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the themes are sticking with me. For being the oldest known piece of human literature, it sure still seems relevant. I think my favorite line comes from Gilgamesh’s lamentation and protracted grief over the death of his best friend, Enkidu: “I am afraid of Death, so I roam [...]

I finished Twelfth Night a few nights ago. While it doesn’t go so far as to supplant The Tempest as my favorite of the Bard’s plays, it definitely had some nice themes about identity and the nature of love. Then I blew through Albert Camus’ The Stranger in one rapt sitting (it’s only about 130 [...]

Yesterday we rented a canoe (Kevlar!) and went canoeing on Sauvie Island. It was fun, mostly: hot, smelled like blackberries and cow pies. Our map ended up being a little less than accurate and ultimately led us to a muddy dead end. Today, David is walking/running the entire length of the Wildwood Trail–at once. That’s [...]

Turns out Panorama, that nightclub of our youth, is going the way of a “living room theater” a la Cinetopia in Vancouver, Wash. Here’s an Oregonian A&E Blog Post About it

Simon Likes to Sleep on His Back Originally uploaded by lyzadanger. Just to prove it happens all the time, I snapped Simon laying on his back on the couch. Daily occurence. Quite peculiar.

Today I saw three quadruped mammals sleeping on their backs, which used to seem odd to me except that my cat, Simon, does it all the time. At the pet store, there was a ferret that really, truly appeared dead but was just peacefully sleeping. In another cage, a hamster was sleeping on its back, [...]

Ate lunch today with Mr. Pencil at Pho Jasmine on N. Killingsworth and noticed they had a, aherm, quaint menu item. Item #155 comes not only with a beef meatball, but also with “soft tendon” and “Bible tripe.” Not sure how to interpret this. I’m especially curious about “Bible tripe.” Anyone? Edited: If I’d bothered [...]