The kids are out of school. The office is totally dead; I can work from home if I want to. So we’re all here at home – hibernating. No plans, no agendas, no real reason to interact with the outside world. So we’re not.

The attire? Pajamas and/or ratty t-shirts, slippers optional. The menu? Holiday leftovers – the appetizers our guests didn’t eat, the cookie bars and/or lasagna made by yours truly or the Christmas dinner leftovers from my gracious hosts.

After a December that included business travel and/or agita, interspersed with high family drama and Major Lifecycle Events (the hordes of out of town relatives who tried to fly into our fair city during 100 mph windstorms won’t forget PDX soon), well – it’s awfully nice to kick back and totally relax.

I’ll be poking my head out briefly to make an appearance at the big Kitchen Kaboodle sale this weekend (Santa brought me a very nice KK gift card, woo-hoo!) And I might try to find a quiet movie matinee viewing of Dreamgirls this weekend while the kids are with their dad for the last gasp holiday party. But other than that?

I’m housebound, baby – and totally looking forward to it But do wake me up if I miss anything really important and/or exciting, though, will you?

Originally uploaded by russ.

Yes, that’s my pix from the top of the Portland Aerial Tram at the upper stop adjacent to OHSU’s main campus..
I had originally hoped to churn out a YouTube post but due to my “duh”- battery in my camera did not have enough juice to shoot vids. Only stills.
But anyway, this is an exhilarating 3 min, 20 sec. ride.
Leaving the lower level, the first few seconds are more in elevator mode than in actual tram mode. We lift off to attain the height that will get us soaring over I-5 and Lair Hill.
The I-5 soar-over is at about 175 feet. We looked down at the cars and I am sure their drivers looked back up at us.
(more…)

A huge sink hole on SE 16th/Oak swallowed a fairly large city maintenance truck this afternoon. I understand they were on site working on a water main issue when the earth opened up and swallowed the truck whole. Two city workers were injured but were able to escape the situation on their own. The intersection is closed as they bring in a crane to get the rig out of the hole. Good luck guys.
More info

Even with the post-holiday returns and sales, it’s pretty quiet here downtown. I appear to be one of the few people that has to work today, judging by the lack of interwub goodness both at this site and around the net over the last eight hours or so.

I don’t know whose idea it was to make Christmas a Monday, but it was a bad one. Bad, bad, bad. Almost as bad as the fact that next year it’ll be a Tuesday. Stupid calendar. After a full weekend of christmasing, which hardly equals a holiday what with all the family and driving and whatnot, it was pretty dumb of me to not take today off. Be assured, this will not be repeated next year. nope, next year’s going to be a full-on holy week of vacationing between the xmas and the new years.

Hope you all had a good long weekend and that you’re not back at work already like some of us wankers.

Back window of Jeep Cherokee in the Zupan’s parking lot off Burnside earlier today (yes, they were open up until 4):

Right side of back window: Ducks Unlimited sticker, right next to peace sign sticker.

WTF? Not really.

Ducks Unlimited members do like to hunt (thought I saw a black lab inside the vehicle). But to their credit, they are environmentalists who want freshwater hunting grounds preserved. I mean, for strength in numbers, we need environmentalists of that stripe.

This may be cold, but what can I say. As a peace-loving non-hunter but a carnivore, I’d rather see a mallard be taken down from behind a duck blind than an American soldier meet his fate via a roadside bomb in a nation that didn’t attack us on 9/11.

I was flickin’ ’round the Comcast digital cable lineup today when I unintentionally landed on the tv simulcast of fright-wing conservative talker Lars Larson.

Carried on Channel 14, the transmission also shows the breaks that Larson’s radio broadcast does not carry.

During one break, one of Lars’ producers tells him of a guest he has booked for tomorrow’s show.

And then I heard an exclaimation that may force me to drop a word I use from time to time.
(more…)

Wishing all our readers and the wonderful city of Portland a Merry Christmas today from the writers of Portland Metblogs.

…..and to all a good night…..

Having been exiled to the suburbs for my job the last two years I haven’t been able to spend much time just meandering around downtown – usually when I head down it’s in the evening for a particular show, event, restaurant or bar. Well yesterday I jumped on MAX and headed downtown to meet a couple friends at the Saturday Market. We wandered for awhile admiring the coolest purses ever, contemplating why there were so many spinning things, and wondering which of the silly hats I should buy my husband to replace the All Blacks cap he thinks was stolen from the car along with his stereo.

We then wandered across through Pioneer Square to admire the tree without the haze of the beer tent in the way, did some serious people watching, then stepped into the Virginia Caf√© for a bite to eat and a cocktail. After a discussion about the new Living Room Theaters that we got our waiter involved in as well, we cruised past there peering in the windows at the folks having drinks in the lobby – and the friendly staff who waved at us as we did so. Crossing Burnside we ended up at the old Jimmy Mack’s location – Life of Riley – we really wanted to go downstairs, but t wasn’t open quite yet, so we had a drink up top before heading down. A group of former frat boys came in to watch the Ducks game – but luckily they weren’t too annoying since their team was losing right off the bat.

The next stop was The Tube – I’d never been there before – everything I had heard about it made me never want to step foot inside – basically that it was full of super pretentious “I’m prettier than you” and “You’re not nearly cool enough to come in here” types – but one friend convinced us that when he’d been there it was pretty laid back and that they played great music – so off we went. Tube being my favorite word in the English language – it did make me a bit happy that I could go there. And indeed it was chill. A couple more friends joined us there and we had a great night.

Eventually we needed food – so we abandoned our walking route and jumped in the nearby car of one of the newcomers and rounded back to the Marathon for the always cheap and good late night bar menu.

By 11pm or so we done and headed back home to rest our weary heads.

While I realize that a day of shopping and bar hopping isn’t an everyday occurrence – days like that remind me how much I really do love downtown Portland – and hope that after the first of the year I do end up back there on a daily basis!

So, BYU pastes the Ducks 38-8 in one of many meaningless bowl games coming up in the next few days.

Of course, it isn’t so meaningless if you’re a Duck fan.

Personally, I saw the loss coming, looming large on the horizon. Hoping beyond hope for the Ducks to show a glimmer of life, I was pretty sure that they’d come to the game unprepared and leave unrewarded.

I just didn’t think it would be this one-sided.

Questions now have to abound. What does this mean for Mike Bellotti, to me, is the biggest. Given the level of talent he’s drafted, he really isn’t doing too much to impress. Fans game him a much-deserved pass late last season when Kellen Clemens broke his leg, meaning that anything afterward that was good was seen as icing on the cake. But this year, there were no such excuses.

I personally think it’s time for Bellotti to hang up his whistle and recruit a replacement. Sure, he may need to coach next season since the coaching carousel seems, for the most part, to be done moving, but he needs to start putting some feelers out. Why does Bellotti need to do this? Because I think he’ll be the Ducks Interim Athletic Director within the next 3 weeks, and then its a question of replacing himself with a quality coach so that he can shed the “Interim” title.

So, who do you think will be the next Ducks coach? I’m hoping for Tedford. He’s got history here, he can win, and I think we’re a better school to recruit to than Cal. Your thoughts?

And, Ducks faithful, what do you think of this season? I’ve taken heat for feeling a tremendous letdown this year, but at the same time I argue that we were supposed to be vying or the Pac-10 title. What do you think?

DSCN3062

Originally uploaded by dieselboi.

This is 3500+ lights in about 4 hrs of work a few weeks ago. Yes, my PGE bill will probably be high in January. There’s a story here… About 10 years ago, my brother had his first house down in SE Portland. He proceeded to put up tons of lights and was featured on KGW one evening. A couple years later, when we got into our current home, I attempted to match him. Over the next couple of years, we scoured the after Christmas sales for .75c light strands and extension cords and such. One day after Thanksgiving sale netted us 40 100light strands for $38. That’s 4000 lights. That Christmas, I had 8900 lights up, yet got no action. I rested the lights for a year or two, but came out swinging this holiday seasons. It helps to sing Christmas carols in your head.
So, the QOD is – Did you get into the Holiday spirit this year and decorate your abode? Did you put up lights? Do you have a festooned tree? Do you have pine boughs wrapping your stair railing?