Frist weekend of spring 2009

This weekend is the first weekend of spring. Some plum and cherry trees are already blossoming, they are beautiful. Some pictures from March.

One morning, we had a clear day and suddenly the fog started rolling in. It was pretty cool.


Hobi is determined to get some cracker.

Today we went to find some plum blossoms. The little park near our condo, next to American Plaza, has about 10 plum trees, but they just started flowering. This one is on 23rd, we went up there to try Laurelwood pub. This is a Toastmaster meeting spot so Michelle wants to check it out. That's Joe. The star of this show. 8)
I got a Workhorse IPA, 80 IBU. Wow, it was strong and really good.

March update

Hi Everyone,
I've been really busy at work the last few weeks. There is a critical issue that we need to solve, but I think it's done now. Wow, I worked 70 hours a week for 2 weeks, that's way too much work. I'm planning to take a couple of days off next week to recuperate.

That's me. We walked down to the river to see the Strand condo. They had two listings that looks like a nice deal. One is a townhouse right next to the river, 2 bedrooms, 1830 sq feet for $470,000. That sounds like a lot, but the original price was $650,000. I really love this area too, it's centrally located, street car, next to river and marina, very nice.

Michelle's nemesis - These Canadian geese walked all over the roads when Michelle used to work at TEK. She hated waiting for them to cross.

We went to see the Portland Trailblazers VS San Antonio Spurs. We won by 14 points, that was fun. We sat in the last row, but still had great view from mid court.

Our star player - Brandon Roy drove to the basket and scored. They got a new Ford sponsored blimp since we last went. I think it was probably 3 years ago.


Things are good in general, the weather is getting a bit warmer.
Oh yeah, we finally finished our refinance. We got 4.75%, that's awesome.
signing off,
-Joe

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

Our Chinese New Year celebration extravaganza is stretched over 2 weekends.

Michelle signed us up for a Chinatown & hidden Japantown walk. The Chinatown area had a lot of Japanese residents before WWII. Then the internment thing happened and all the Japanese people had to sell their property and processions at a deep discount and they never came back to this area in the same number. We went to the Nikkei Museum, then got a free tour to the Chinese Garden. Excellent!!!

The garden took up a whole city block and is very nice and peaceful. It is a Suzhou classic garden. You can read more here.
http://www.portlandchinesegarden.org/
I snuck in with mom when they first opened and it was nice, but now everything is settled and it's really great.

The plants are starting to bud already, it's still in the middle of winter.


The fortune buidling. Here is my Year of the OX fortune.
15. "You will experience something unpleasant and expensive that will bring benefits later. You will get your wish"
hmm.... wonder what I will get this year? 8)


The 2 story tea house, nice. I bet they would make more money if they let people in without having to pay for the entrance fee.
Another tree is budding.

The cloud gate, we always love these gates in Chinese culture.

It was cold, but Joe was happy.

The flower gate?

Next weekend, we went to IKEA to get free breakfast. It was ok, scramble eggs, sausage, potatoes, and coffee. It taste like dorm food, can't complain about the price though. Michelle got us a new luxurious shiny orange comforter cover on sale for $20. I went back the next day and got a computer work desk - bright fire engine lucky red. 8)
After IKEA, we went to Fubonn to get some rice and they are having a lion dance, fireworks, and dragon dance. Nice, another free show. These are some long string of Chinese firecrackers, it was awesome!!! Michelle thinks they snuck this through the Canada border because she can't believe they are legal.
little lion was cute

The usual get the cabbage show.


We went to McCormick & Schmick that night to use our $20 coupon. I got steak and lobster and Michelle got King salmon with crab stuffing. The lobster was good, but the steak was kind of tough. I ordered medium, should have asked for medium rare. I haven't order steak for probably 3-4 years. Then we went to Regal to use my free movie coupon, but Slumdog was sold out. So we headed home, it was so cold anyway.

Happy New Year!!!
OXOXOXOX