Archive for August, 2008
Martin Luther King…had a dream. My political 2 cents.
Thursday, August 28th, 2008 | Politics | 1 Comment
Forty-five years ago today, Martin Luther King delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech in Washington.
His passionate and eloquent call for equality and tolerance inspired millions around the world.
He spoke of the need “to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice”.
He promised that the struggle for equality would continue until “justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream”.
Rev King, who has worked tirelessly for an end to racial discrimination through non-violent means, spoke repeatedly of his dream for equality.
“I have a dream,” he said. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.
“I have a dream today.”
“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be engulfed, every hill shall be exalted and every mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”
Inspired by such profundity we must all remember that together we can echo MLK’s dream. We can end the injustice of racial prejudices and come together to recognize the full potential we have as human beings to help each other, love each other no matter what color, what religion, what lanquage we speak.
Today we can believe in the dream, the dream to change this country to realize beyond the superficial that together we can change to become more environmentally aware, fiscally responsible, healthcare centric, socially secure, and educationally directed … all the important pieces to living a wholesome quality of life where each individual plays a significant role to the human experience.
The vision is there, it’s within our grasp and I truly believe Barak Obama will help lead us to the change. There is so much cleaning up to do from the previous administration, he will face mountains and he will be scrutinized, rebuked and our nation will need an extra dose of patience, because the next 4 years are going to be spent fixing the problems while the issues continue to grow and unfold with each new day, there is hope to eventually bring this nation to a balance.
I believe in Barak’s vision and therefore he has my emphatic “yes”.
Didn’t someone say that we should never forget our past so as not to repeat it.
Here’s to hope, here’s to leaders of change and here’s to Obama.
More for the ZOO - Please vote!
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 | General | No Comments
Click here: OregonLive is taking a vote.
The Oregon Zoo is the oldest zoo west of the Mississippi; during its 50-year history at the current location, key parts of the zoo have become old, out-of-date and worn-out.
The Measure 26-96: The zoo bond measure will update and replace old exhibits and facilities, increase access to conservation education, and replace utility systems to reduce water and energy use and lower operating costs.
Please share with your friends, family and neighbors, help us restore a piece of what makes Portland a great place to live.
Help our Zoo, help our animals! 
Seize the weekend
Sunday, August 24th, 2008 | General | 2 Comments
Sunday morning and I’m enjoying my coffee. Weekend re-cap thus far….
Friday - Anniversary dinner. I was sooooo looking forward to that. We had a lovely walk to the restaurant, again one of the reasons why I LOVE where we live, and we arrived a tad early so we hopped over to the Mash Tun.
Enjoyed their delicious and creamy Cream Ale. Kim, the bartender, who is sweet as a Georgia peach pie even let me sample her specialty cocktails she created using her own infused vodka. One was a raspberry infused vodka and the other a lemon. Oh my those were heaven. Both of the girls behind the bar, we haven’t seen in ages. Since Ry’s got the Keg orator we don’t go out to the mash as much for beer, beer at home is much cheaper
Anyway, enjoyed re-connecting with them. Then we walked over to Ciao Vito. Ciao Vito was marvelous. It was really relaxing and surprisingly unpretentious.
I had fried risotto cakes stuffed with 3 different kinds of cheeses nestled in a bed of pesto, pine nuts and a delicious tomato sauce. It was heaven. Accompanied with a delicious caprese salad, all fresh ingredients, with a few slices of artisan bread dunked in the balsamic. YUM! Not too much and not too little. It was perfect.
Ry got nice and full from his delicious dish Sugo of Pork. We opted not for dessert as I had truffles still waiting at home and R. was full enough to not want any, so we hopped back over to Mash. Enjoyed seeing some doggies there, had a pint of the cream ale again and then walked home. It was a nice temperate evening and met more doggies on the way home.
Saturday - I embraced the day not as early as I would have liked but got a few chores done around the house. Ran to the bank and then stopped by the Hollywood Farmers Market located at 45th and Hancock. It was marvelous, unfortunately I arrived with a mere 15 minutes left to wander and smell and buy anything. The veggies looked amazing and my jaw dropped at the gynormous peaches, fresh berries, cucumbers, baby carrots that were just pulled from the ground, fresh baked goods were in abundance and I couldn’t deny myself a treat so I got a marionberry scone for me and a snickerdoodle for R.
My goal was to get something to make something for dessert to bring to a friends house who was having us over for dinner. The peaches called my name and they were an absolute delight. So I decided I’d make a peach pie. Even with a home made crust which alwyas gets the best of me, because pie crusts are just a bitch.
So I simply used flour, cold butter and cold water, kneaded, prodded, rolled and rolled. Luckily no one sees the bottom of the pie so that was good I could meld it together in the pie plate, then what I could roll out I simply cut out shapes of leaves and layered that on top of the pie, it worked and to my delight and surprise the pie came out delicious! Cooking and the juicy spillage is another story, there was lots as the peaches were so incredibly juicy.
I then ran over to Healthy Pets to pick up treats for the kids. My friend has quite the zoo at her house, but I love it. There are two doggies - Lou and Wilson and 3 kitties a Hershey/ Tuna, Henry and “the kitty”. “the kitty” has had a little bit of an identity crisis since adopting our friends and no name has really stuck so I just call her “miss kitty”.
Had so much fun there, petting, cuddling, catching up with A and hearing about work at my old working place and enjoying the evening, seeing the stars and eating damn good food. They grilled up fajitas, damn those are tasty.
So it’s funny how baking a pie can be incredibly time consuming, but I love it, I love making something with my hands and it’s something that people will enjoy, it’s incredibly fulfilling. It was a great Sat.
Animals never cease to amaze me
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008 | ANIMALS | 4 Comments
Please don’t assume your species is superior.
(CNN) — A dog sheltered a newborn baby abandoned by its 14-year-old mother in a field in rural Argentina until the boy was rescued, a doctor said Friday.
The abandoned infant was found in a field with this dog and her newborn puppies.The abandoned infant was found in a field with this dog and her newborn puppies.
A resident of a rural area outside La Plata called police late Wednesday night to say that he had heard the baby crying in a field behind his house.
The man went outside and found the infant lying beside the dog and its six newborn puppies, Daniel Salcedo, chief of police of the Province of Buenos Aires, told CNN.
The temperature was a chilly 37 degrees, Salcedo said.
The dog had apparently carried the baby some 50 meters from where his mother had abandoned him to where the puppies were huddled, police said.
“She took it like a puppy and rescued it,” Salcedo said. “The doctors told us if she hadn’t done this, he would have died.”
“The dog is a hero to us.”
Dr. Egidio Melia, director of the Melchor Romero Hospital in La Plata, told CNN that police showed up at the hospital at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday with the baby who doctors say was only a few hours old.
Though the infant had superficial scratches and bruises and was bleeding from his mouth, he was in good shape, Melia said.
The next morning, the child’s mother was driven by a neighbor to the hospital and told authorities the 8 pound, 13 ounce infant is hers, Melia said.
The teenager was immediately given psychological treatment and was hospitalized, he said. She has said little about the incident.
The child has been transferred to a children’s hospital in La Plata, 37 miles from Buenos Aires.
You Can Help the Zoo this November
Friday, August 22nd, 2008 | General | No Comments
Vote Yes on Measure 26-29
THE OREGON ZOO NEEDS YOUR HELP.
The Need: The Oregon Zoo is the oldest zoo west of the Mississippi; during its 50-year history at the current location, key parts of the zoo have become old, out-of-date and worn-out.
The Measure: The zoo bond measure will update and replace old exhibits and facilities, increase access to conservation education, and replace utility systems to reduce water and energy use and lower operating costs.
Ballot Question:
Shall the zoo protect animal health and safety; conserve, recycle water; issue $125 million in general obligation bonds; require independent audits?
The measure will:
- Provide more humane care for elephants, primates, polar bears and hippos by updating four outdated and undersized enclosures with larger, more natural and safer spaces
- Protect animal health and safety by modernizing the zoo’s substandard 45-year-old veterinary clinic
- Increase access to conservation education by providing more space for summer camps, classes and hands-on learning
- Improve water quality by replacing the 1950s-era sewer system, while reducing pollution by separating sewage from storm water and harvesting rain runoff for reuse
- Conserve and reuse water by installing recycling-filtration systems, while replacing leaky, worn-out plumbing and irrigation systems. These changes will save 11 million gallons of water annually.
A citizens’ oversight committee will monitor spending. The projects will be subject to internal audits as well as an annual independent financial audit, which will be published in the local newspaper.
Cost to Homeowners
About $1.40 a month, or $16.80 a year, for the average homeowner in the region. The cost estimate is less than 9 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value per year for the $125 million general obligation bond. Bonds mature in 21 years or less.
Pandora, Control, Anniversary, Girl in a Cafe
Thursday, August 21st, 2008 | Entertainment | 2 Comments
I have fallen in love, I am still in love with R of course, but this is a new kind of love. It’s different.
This is a love with no strings attached, I can dance, drink wine, reminisce, imagine, explore and dream with….Pandora. With Pandora… there is no guilt.
It fits my mood at each second of a song change. It is beautiful, inspiring, creative, wondrous, non-judgemental, moody and feeds me the chocolate cake I so desire when the urge arises, it fits me even on my skinny days where a 5 mile jaunt came with zero sweat just as easily as it met my needs on my fat days when only a mu mu could bring me to a sense of contentment with myself… even if I felt the impetus to have a cigarrette and pabst at my side. I love it and I am in love…
Pandora. You take me to new heights….allowing me to express that being within and emphasize my mood at a moments notice, being a woman that’s your ticket to the promise land and I am in heaven with your embrace.
I truly hope you never go away. All I need to do is type at my fingertips whim what tune, melody, song, charisma I so seek and you bring it alive. Thank you. Which leads me to to the story of another love constricted by the demands of two different lives that evolved from the passon and fame experienced by the one and only Ian Curtis.
So really my love succumbed again to the beauty that was so apparent in the movie Control. Based on Deborah Curtis’s collection of events around her love, Ian Curtis- Lead singer Joy Division. This movie brought me to tears. Ian… he was so young in falling in deep, passionate love with Deborah, even at the time when her immediate intimate interest sprung from Ian’s friend, seeing each other enough there was discovery. They fell for each other. They fell in love. Ian is a compelling character, with such passion, creativity and wanton need to please, to meet the external requirements around him.
Taking his life at 23 with accomplishments equivalent to a 40 year old. There were two parts to Ian, actually two lives. He sought to please those in his lives, but couldn’t meet the demand. There was his commitment to the life he chose at 18 and the life that sprung up around him at 20. The rock star status, the attention the wanton desire he conjured in his audience. I was somewhat seduced by his deep intensity, who couldn’t be it was intoxicating. Here is a very moving article about Ian and Deborah.. it is a must read.
One Ian who was creative and kind and passionate, committed to the one he loved so compellingly, but taken away by the awestruck world in which he was the star. It was so demanding to the point where he had lost “control”. Each piece of a Joy Division song they played throughout was equivalent to the mood and feeling that Ian was feeling, I was simply awestruck.
So, today- Today was a great day. Work is, what it is, I might long for different but overall it’s been great getting close to colleagues and meeting with people and simply doing whatever I can to feel connected and challenged and involved.
2008, it’s anniversary time.
Today, August 21st, marks R’s and I’s 4th year “being married” anniversary. It’s so interesting because time now seems so irrelevent. It’s just time and time will continue and we’ll continue to make our memories and live day to day. It’s significant and wonderful and even just all of the journies we had been through over the year from now. I wouldn’t change anything. I love R, I love our house, our friends…. I love working downtown and really I am blessed.
In Fact:
I met a very cool person today. She’s celebrating her 4th anniversary in Sept. She was married before, which brings me to appreciate how simple my life is. Luckily she said they never had kids in her first marriage and she knew she couldn’t with her previous husband, she knew it wouldn’t work and now, she feels ever so confident with the person she is with now. She’s talking about having kids and I supported her all the way.
Today for me?
As my anniversary gift, Ry surprised the heck outta me with flowers, dark chocolate truffles, garbage already out on the curb and a clean, sparkling kitchen. This is why expectations in marriage should be dumped at the front door. I was floored, cried and surprised, R can simply surprise me with the smallest gesture and I am in heaven. I Got home from walking from the bus stop. Petted Guinness, looked around in awe and thought about how lucky I am.
I opened my bottle of wine, whipped up pasta with mushrooms, garlic, tomatoes and cheese and enjoyed an evening for me on the couch. Eventually I cracked open a delicious dark chocolate truffle… okay maybe it was two of those, planted my big ass on the couch and just relaxed. It was marvelous and R. had this all planned for me even without me knowing it. I am a lucky girl.
So I decided to venture and have a movie adventure.
Tears emerged as I watched “The Girl in the Cafe”
It was….. beautiful and profound.
I LOVE Bill Nighy and Kelly Macdonald. I loved and appreciated the nuances and wierd ticks of Bill’s character and the simplicity yet extreme complexity between him and Kelly’s charachter (Gina) as they learned about each other. So, yes, it is a bit weird to see him and her in a love scene considering he could be her like father, but fundamentally what was beautiful was the simple need for human interest, compassion, love and just plain company between each other.
Eventually the complexities unfold… you journey with the G8 summit to Reykjavick and there are some serious reflections you encounter in this political world where all human interests of a country are at stake. I balled at the thought, there is so much wrong going on and we don’t hear, don’t know, don’t understand… we lose perspective. What we have…. luxurious from those living in corrupt 3rd world countries with governments clearly more concerned for their wealth versus the people’s livability. It’s incredibly moving in its profundity. I am spoiled and I am lucky.
What I could relate to:
The best association Kelly’s character has to Iceland is Bjork, something I completely relate to. I know that Reykjavik is on my list of places to see in my lifetime, for sure. The only thing is that almost everything has to bet shipped in, because, fundamentally not a lot can grow there. It looks beautiful, full of culture, art, music… I mean one part of this movie was the soundtrack and in fact I typed in “Sugir Ros” in Pandora, because they were in the end of the movie and it has been playing some amazing stuff on my Pandora.
Oh , Pandora, how do I love thee. But Ry, you made my real anniversary compelling, moving and surprising. Thank you.
Dinner at Ciao Vito sounds lovely.
Monday’s Musings
Monday, August 18th, 2008 | General | No Comments
I stole these from another blog I came across and felt the impetus to share….
I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
Bill Cosby.
There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way.
Christopher Morley.
You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.
Michael Jordan.
To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.
Marilyn vos Savant.
An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.
Friedrich Engels.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
Albert Einstein.
Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.
Henry Ford.
Our attitude toward life determines life’s attitude towards us.
Earl Nightingale.
To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
Elbert Hubbard.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain.
You’re the only one who can make the difference. Whatever your dream is, go for it.
Earvin Magic Johnson.
Love Living in Oregon -
Saturday, August 16th, 2008 | General | No Comments
Oregon Launching First Solar Highway in the US
Oregon is once again taking the lead with renewable energy by installing the country’s first highway solar energy project. The project will consist of a 104 kW solar photovoltaic system that covers 8,000 square feet and produces 112,000 kWh each year. That’s 28% of the energy needed to power the project’s location, the Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 interchange in Tualatin.
Electricity for the interchange will be provided by PGE. The solar panels will come into play by producing electricity during the day, giving the power to the PGE grid, and getting the equivalent amount of power back at night from PGE to power lighting on the highway.
The whole project will literally be Oregon-powered, as companies based in-state will provide materials, design, and installation.
Next year, the Oregon Department of Transportation plans to look at more highway project proposals. Eventually, the department would like to generate 2 million kWh every year with the new projects. They also are looking for proposals that showcase new ways to utilize solar energy, such as solar panels that double as sound walls near highways.
