Timbers (2) vs West Brom (3)

Last Wednesday night I caught my first Timbers (as an MLS team) match. I met up with four of my good friends for a tasty pre-game sushi meal, followed by making a quick stop at SBUX, and then the five of us fellas made our way into the stadium rooting our home team from the Timbers Army section.

European teams were touring the States playing exhibition games against our MLS teams and on this Wednesday Portland played the Premiership's West Brom. It was an exciting game but we lost 3-2. I felt much better about our loss after hearing that Seattle had been schooled by Man. U. 7-0. Ouch.

And the Timbers Jeld Wen stadium; beautiful. Ah. Professional soccer in Portland. Love it.



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Lovejoy Bakers

I told Jeanne earlier in the day that it sure felt like an early fall day. Humid, dreary, downpours. Was Portland ever going to have it's summer? I believe the Lord heard my bitter rantings, not because He took pity on me, but to help relieve Jeanne of my pathetic whining about the rain. He broke the clouds and rays of hope appeared. At about 6:30 in the evening the three of us drove downtown. We weren't about to let the weekend end without enjoying this tiny bit of miracle sunshine.

We made our way to Lovejoy Bakers in the Pearl. Major, major points were given to this bakery simply because it was open till 8pm. On Sunday! An easy going atmosphere, a nice local crowd enjoying their sandwiches and salad in the splendid evening sun sipping on choice wine the bakery offers and friendly dogs calmly sitting by but also on the ready to give Daylon loves and kisses.

We ordered our turkey, mascarpone cheese, avocado, cranberry chutney sandwich, a cup of chicken and rice soup, an iced mocha, and for dessert a banana cream pie. All were yummy but the highlight was the sandwich. We would never have thought to pair cranberry with mascarpone. Quite tasty!

Daylon had a blast. As mentioned before he acquainted himself with the nearby dogs. He shared his puffs with the tame sparrows. And before packing up and heading home he ran himself tired along the boardwalk beside Jamison Park.

A perfect Sunday evening.



Daylon resting from running and walking the boardwalk.



A glimpse of the bakery's interior.



Lovejoy Bakers entrance.



One of Daylon's favorite things to do; hang.


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Grandpa and Daylon

From Father's Day. I love this picture! And what a wonderful Father's Day weekend it was! Parks, BBQ, coffee, baked yummies...

Playground Adventures, Part 2

And here are a few more videos.

Finally got him to hang!

Digging swinging!

Playground Adventures, Part 1

I've wanting to post this for a while now. Finally doing it. Lazy bum I am. The pic and videos are from a few weeks ago.

I love taking Daylon to the local park right down the drive from us. And I'm pretty sure he does as well. I'll come home from work and before finishing giving out hugs and kisses to the fam Daylon has grabbed my hand leading me to the door asking 'bop?'. Translation, park. I anticipate that someday soon he'll be asking for us to pitch a tent and camp there so we don't ever have to leave. He'll continue to bring his infectious giggles and I'll grab the chili dogs. Sounds perfect to me. Anybody else want to join in? Until then we'll just have our simple few hour outings.

Gettin' ready. Hoping Dad's shoes will fit.

Critter hunting. We found a beetle!

Weeee!

VooDoo Donuts

The westside location for VooDoo Donuts was under some renovation and expansive construction over the last few months. Much to my and countless other PDX'ers sweet tooth's delight it has reopened. The line hasn't improved but sipping on a Stumptown iced latte while waiting makes the time go by a bit quicker.

Mmm, Ol' Dirty Bastard here I come!

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2 Years Old

Daylon celebrated his second birthday this last long Memorial Day weekend! We eagerly welcomed friends and family to our home to help nerd out and party it up Star Wars style. Jeanne made fantastic treats; Rice Krispie treat Death Star balls that turned teeth and lips black (glorious!), Yoda Soda, cupcakes topped with character decals, Hot Dog TIE Fighter Ties, Hot Dog Lightsabers. We had the Episode V soundtrack playing the background, the house was decorated some, and we had gift goody bags for all the kiddos. It was a rad day of food and fellowship celebrating Daylon.

Since the birthday party was Star Wars themed and having found inspiration by a fellow geeky dad I spent some time earlier last week making a Star Wars growth chart for Daylon. I used GIMP an open-source photo-editing tool. After creating character layers I exported the flattened image as a PDF file (via the print function) and from a downtown Kinko's printed the PDF onto some heavier duty paper. To the left of this post is an image (not in full scale) of the final result. If anyone wants it I can forward on the final full scale image and/or the .xcf GIMP file. Let me know.

Daylon loves the little park down the
drive from us. Ah, my boy!

Happy Birthday Daylon! We love you! You are precious to us!

Super 8

To help promote their upcoming film the makers of 'Super 8' created an iPhone app of the same name. As the name suggests it's a Super 8 camera emulator.

The camera has lots of features to play with. There are a fair amount of vintage effects, including live film scratches, light leaks, vignettes. It also supports hardware torch and front facing camera on equipped devices which make for a range of fun colored film options. It records sound and adds the ol' authentic camera noise to the film clips as well.

The app saves your clips to the app’s library and if desired adds an old Kodak white leader. Viewing your clips can be done so using a built-in “projector”. You can also export your developed film (clips) to your phone's main photo library.

This app is pretty wicked! At the time I downloaded it the app's description said it was free for a limited time.

The following are emulator clips I took of Daylon last weekend. The original is a single clip but I had to bust it out into two clips in order to export/email them to myself to post here. If you can't view the clips let me know. And you'll see that Daylon has a nice raspberry on his forehead. The poor little guy took a spill and hit his head minutes before I filmed these clips.

Super Jumper

Daylon has recently discovered hopping. It's impressive to see in addition to it being pretty dang cute. The little stinker though knows when I have the video camera all ready for some action shots and turns his attention to, well, not hopping =). We're pretty sure his discovery is attributed to his enjoyment of our friends' trampoline. 'Weeeeee!!'

Super Easter

Easter Weekend was fantastic! The Mardocks journeyed down here Saturday morning and we all found ourselves immediately discussing and adventuring to find a new local fun and yummy eatery. We found one indeed. Sunshine Tavern on SE division. Highly recommend. The food and drink were tasty, and the other draw to the restaurant was their heavy advertising of being kid friendly. The place was hopping with folks young and old. We had a fantastic time and were thoroughly pleased and stuffed (gravy fries, burgers, rigatoni, salads, all top drawer). Rachel and Jeanne ordered Citrus and Ginger sodas; unique but refreshing. And given the busyness of the place on a holiday eve Saturday the service was wonderful. Oh, and they house a shuffleboard right in the middle in the restaurant. Who doesn't like shuffleboard?

Easter Sunday. In the morning we made our way to Riverwest Church and heard Pastor Guy preach on Luke 24. A sobering, encouraging and sometimes humorous message about the reality of Christ, His resurrection, and His desire to have a relationship with each one of us. Give the above passage a read!

Gathering friends and family to our home after Church, the kids played well and hard while glorious amounts of wonderful foods were being prepared. There really isn't much more needed in life than celebrating Christ in fellowship with others you love gathered around eating a well prepared meal. Well, okay, there is one more thing I'm sure the kids would add; watching Cars. Check out these little dudes; wrecked, whooped and veggin'. How Cute! I love Daylon's arm resting on Jude.

Luke 24 : 13-18
"And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him. And He said to them, "What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?" And they stood still, looking sad. One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, "Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?"

Heh heh, oh Cleopas. His buddy, "Hey Cleo, remember when we were headed to the springs in Emmaus?..."

Palm Sunday, Good Friday

What a pleasant day we had last Sunday, Palm Sunday.

Our good friend and Pastor, Adam, preached a wonderful and challenging word at Riverwest Church. Referencing Mark 8 and focusing on Jesus' healing of a blind man in Bethsaida Adam challenged us to consider three prayers to humbly pray before the Lord.

1. 'I pray, Lord, that you reveal to me the problems with my spiritual vision.'

What are my 'blind spots'? This prayer begins with truly being humble before the Lord, a longing for the Holy Spirit to reveal what it is in our hearts that obstructs our vision of Christ and how we love and serve Him and those around us. Only with humility can we have a clear vision of His Love and Will and in this surrendering relationship can Christ show us his identity through Grace. And with what the Lord does reveal pray that He heals.

2. 'I pray, Lord, that you would help me understand how my blind spots are creating problems in my life.'

Surely Jesus was intentional taking a few steps to heal the man of his blindness. Why? Jesus asked about the state of the man's vision to challenge that man and us on precisely that; the state of our vision. Jesus asks us 'What do you see? Is something improved? Does some impairment still exist?'. And we ask 'What do I want to see? Do I have a 'correct' vision/view of Christ?' Being our Lord and Savior Jesus can heal us without all the inquiry. But He wants an active relationship with each one of us. And He desires us to want an active relationship with Him as well. We need to look for patterns that provide a 'Gospel Gap' that impede a clear vision of the true Gospel. Jesus wants to dig deep and help us create a clear understanding of who He is, but again, we must want it and seek it.

3. 'I pray, Lord, that you would give me a clear vision and a deeper understanding of my blind spots with the Gospel at the heart.'
Today marks Good Friday. Christ's love for us was on full brutal display this day many years ago. His sacrificial love for us gives us every hope that we no longer are subject to our sin but are heirs saved by Christ's blood that we would glorify and praise Him forever. We ought not to want something, anything that would impede our relationship with Christ. His vision was clear for us.

A few side notes Adam made. In v8:14 Christ basically asks 'Why are you concerned about bread? I am the Bread of Life, do you not see!?' Some worldly 'breads' look pretty good and tasty, but beware. Don't miss the true Bread of Life.


After Church I took Daylon down to the park. We saw lots of airplanes and we both were super intrigued with sticks, wood chips and rocks. We were being boys getting our hands dirty. It was glorious and so much fun.

After wards Jeanne prepared a fantastic meal that included me enthusiastically firing up the BBQ! Uncle Josh came over, we all gorged, Daylon soon passed out for the night after his fun filled and exhausting day. But Jeanne, Josh and I continued our day playing a game of Ticket to Ride and a game of Acquire all the while filling our hollow legs with apple pie. I can easily say that this last Sunday was perfect.

Today, Good Friday, Christ's crucifixion day, a super dark and sobering day to say the very least. But Sunday, His resurrection day, an exuberant day to say the very least. We are looking forward to the party! Happy Easter everyone!

A Few Photos

A couple of weeks ago Jeanne, Daylon and I headed up to the Seattle area for the weekend. We celebrated Joandy's Carter turning one with a mega party! And we spent some fantastic quality time with my parents. There lives a cool little park just a few minutes away from where my folks live. My mom, Daylon and I ventured over there for a some playtime and pictures. Daylon digs swings (hinted at that in my previous post)! If left on a swing for just the right amount of time he gets pretty relaxed and sleepy. And Daylon rocked one of his wicked fun hats as well!

The next two photos are of Daylon from last week. The first is our little man throwing out a 'peaceful' gang sign from his happenin' car seat. The second photo is of him at one of his favorite spots at home; at the love seat playing with his cars. Notice in the second picture Daylon sporting new soccer gear!

A couple more of me and Daylon from last week playing around making faces. I really don't know where Daylon gets his goofiness. And he's wearing his Big Ed's Flap Jack Shack t-shirt. Yeah, splatter dabs! I love that shirt!

The Month of March

The last month has been busy.

Rob, Rachel and their boys came down the weekend of the 11th and what a weekend it was. Rob and I shared our birthday celebrations over some rad food adventures. Rob had a strong list of foods he wanted to try while he was here and I loved every one of his ideas. So we went with and off his list. And the girls were relieved not to worry about cooking =). A sampling of our conquests (Rob, chime in if I've missed something) :

- Pok Pok. Um, yes. If you haven't tried this place (related to the restaurant Ping), go. Go as soon as possible. Asian cuisine. And they have fantastic drinking vinegars. Sounds odd but they are goo-oood.
- Cheesecake Factory. For dessert. 'nough said.
- Sterling Coffee. Local roaster. Their cafe is next to Trader Joes up on 21st and Glisan.
- A birthday weekend wouldn't be complete without donuts from VooDoo. We had some buttermilk bars, Ol' Dirty Bastards (simple glazed donut with crumpled oreos on top drizzled with peanut butter) and a Memphis Mafia fritter (think the Dirty Bastard but with an apple fritter). Yes.
- Barista. They are a touch more expensive than Stumptown cafes but oh so worth it. Mochas with dark chocolate.
- PB&Js Grilled. Rob and Rachel's first experience with one of Jeanne's and my favorite food carts. A previous post of mine on the cart.

I think you all know that I run. Over the last year or so I've become pretty serious about it, enough to be consistently running 5 miles 4 to 5 times a week. Ironically running isn't something I find completely enjoyable by itself. Being in shape and healthy has always been important to me so stepping up the running regime was something I anticipated to be an eventuality for myself as I get older. But there are two things I have found that I do enjoy about running. First is the time it gives me one on one with the Lord in conversation and prayer. And second it gives me the ability to run in events such as the Hood to Coast last summer and most recently the Shamrock Run. How and why do I enjoy running races if I don't like running itself? Hmm, I don't know. I just do. I get cool shirts. Maybe that's why. I'm hopeful that I can participate in Hood to Coast again this summer and in the PDX marathon later this Fall. I guess there is a third thing I enjoy as a result of running. Jeanne digs the leg muscles.

The 25th marked Jeanne's and my 11th wedding anniversary. 11 years gone by way too fast. We left Daylon with Grandma for a night as Jeanne and I took off for the Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, Washington. The lodge is settled on a ridge above the Columbia River. The photo to the left doesn't do justice to the wonderful view the lodge provides. We really didn't do much except relax. We relaxed, ate some food, played some board games, relaxed some more, watched Cake Boss and slept. Grandma, thanks for watching our little man. And Jeanne. I love you. You are more beautiful to me every day. How could you possibly be with me? The Lord. All the Lord.

And finally, Daylon. He's getting so big. Coming up on 2 years old already!? Him and I go on walks often and if the weather permits we'll head down to the playground area by our home for some swinging and climbing on the Jungle Jim. We did so a few days ago, and as you can see from the video Daylon is swinging on his own (with super parental oversight of course). He was a little anxious but had fun!

Cousins, Trains and Transformers

Two weeks ago marked the first time I've been to the Portland Children's Museum. Jeanne and Daylon, at least once before. What a fun place! Each little venue was uniquely entertaining, the featured set being of Curious George. We didn't quite make it to the Curious George area but it goes on until June I believe. I don't think Daylon would mind it one bit if we went back a few more times. Especially if at the same time while taking in all the sights and sounds of the museum he can do so enjoying the time with his cousin Kaia. We had set up a play date for the cousins. It was such a treat to see the two of them have so much fun together. Pictures!

    

 

  

Daylon has recently starting building 'trains' using his toy cars and trucks. If that wasn't cute enough anytime we would ask Daylon about his trains or show him pictures of trains he would answer 'choo choo'. When we show him rabbits, 'bop bop bop'. How. Fun! Here is a picture of one of his trains.

A few of Daylon's train creations have included using GoBots I had brought out for him from storage. I grew up playing with GoBots, G.I. Joe, Star Wars of course, Transformers. It's been a blast digging through boxes finding and busting out 25+ year old hearty metal vintage toys I had as a young lad and handing them down for my son to play with. This photo link I posted a few days ago via Twitter shows the latest Transformer I handed to Daylon to enjoy playing with. A small coffee treat for whoever guesses correctly the name and year of the Transformer. I'm still figuring out the timing for when I want to bring out the ultimate Transformers keepsakes; original Megatron and JetFire. I still have all the accessories to go with them as well. Yeah, nerd. But Daylon will have jealous friends. And that's pretty important =).

Food Cart : PB&Js Grilled

As I mentioned in my previous post Portland is food cart crazy! We've tried a handful with oh so many more on our list to try. Last year Jeanne and Daylon found a gem of a cart up on 23rd, PB&Js Grilled. They were brand new. Jeanne immediately was interested and the three of us went back soon after and have been loyal regular customers ever since. Shane and Keena are the owners; super busy, super motivated, masters of their craft and creations and most of all super friendly, ready to have a good chat without ever losing their inviting smiles. We've enjoyed getting to know them and have admired their passion to provide such a tasty, unique yet original product (using fresh and organic ingredients made locally or made themselves).

Our first grilled sandwich was The Joy; smooth dark chocolate spread, sweet coconut filling and almond butter sandwiched between think pieces of challah bread lightly basted in butter then grilled to perfection. We've tried just about all their sandwiches (Spicy Thai! Betty!) and although all their treats are superb Jeanne finds herself enjoying their Pumpkin Pie creation (the perfect blend of their yummy pumpkin butter, Two Tarts caramel sauce, scrumptious pie crust and peanut butter again between butter basted challah bread all grilled together just right) most of the time where I always find myself craving that Joy. Daylon has nibbled on every one we've ordered and seems to be very indiscriminate. He loves them all. We know he would love having a whole sandwich to himself. One of these days when Jeanne and I aren't looking Shane and Keena just might hand him one. I don't think we'd mind. As long as Daylon shared.

This last weekend we met up with our good friends the Phipps' and they finally were able to experience PB&Js Grilled. We ordered our treats, enjoyed some hot beverages from Two Tarts (a local bakery/cookie/coffee cafe), shopped the toy store around the corner and enjoyed fellowship and pleasant conversation. Here is a photo of Shane and Keena working their magic :

Here be their menu and they are active on twitter @pbjsgrilledcom. I'm looking forward to when their newest idea/creation finally makes the menu : a Pecan Pie Sandwich!

2.0

I've neglected blogging. I blame Facebook. But I've said goodbye to that addictive networking horse and have been sober now for almost of month. Breathing the social site free air has been fresh and sweet.

So now what? Are there folks our there that still read my blog? Do I have an audience? Let me know. I thank those few that are indeed still here and dedicated. It is because of you that I feel reinvigorated and willing to pen my ramblings once again and share stories, pictures, thoughts, prayers.

There really is so much to tell since I last wrote. Too much really. Thinking it all over I can easily say that our Lord is Good, Gracious, Forgiving, and at work in our lives. We are healthy, we are joyful, we are active, and boy are we tired. Jeanne is more beautiful everyday and Daylon is growing up way too fast for our liking. Jeanne, I don't deserve, and Daylon, what a character. He runs and doesn't walk. He loves it when I toss him in the air and when I chase him. 'up', 'dada', 'ball' (which is Mom to him, heh heh), 'plea (se)'. And he sure does suck down his smoothies! Can it really be February 2011? Daylon coming up on 2 years old? Wow.

How about a few pictures to go along with my 'restarting' to blog?

Uncle Josh took this wonderful photo of me and Daylon playing on the
beach. It was over New Years where Jeanne and her siblings planned a
few days for us all to get away and spend time in wonderful fellowship,
eat glorious amounts of food and play plenty of board games.
Pacific City, Oregon, 2011.

The next photo is of Jeanne and Daylon reading at
Costco. He points to all the letters and numbers
he can and is doing super well recognizing them.
'O?' 'I?'. Cuuuute! Tigard, January 2011.

Portland is quickly becoming known for its food
cart craze. So many varieties, so many treats, so
many yummies. A few weeks ago the three of us
went to one called the Potato Champion. We
devoured our chili fries. And froze our rear-ends
off. PDX, January 2011.

I've abandoned Facebook, but I'm still somewhat active on Twitter. And you'll notice my tweets, twerps, twits, whatever, show up on the side of my blog over there. I make use of a photo tool called Instagram that I sometimes use to edit and post pictures that I then share via Twitter. Keep an eye out for those posts.

A few other things; Jeanne and I are hooked on Cake Boss and Fringe, I'm addicted to running, Daylon still loves wheels, trucks and cars, Jeanne grows more and more stunning every day (yeah, I mentioned it above but I'm trying to score some points here =) ), and Daylon loves the soft serve ice cream from Costco. He helps us out eating most of it.

Question: is BlogPress really a good tool to use for mobile?