Bill’s Blog

A colleague of mine recommended MPIX Metallic prints. I gave them a try for a few pictures I hung on our wall.

They arrived today.

Boy was I impressed!  I selected a few photos that I liked and would have normally printed at Costco.  It’s unbelieveable how good they look.  The metallic paper creates a unique look for the prints.  They’re sort of shiny.

Will I still use Costco?  I really like the ability to upload prints and then pick them up in an hour at the local shop.  With Mpix I uploaded them online, then waited three days or so.  They cost more too.  My guess is that I’ll use both services and continue to experiment with larger prints from Mpix.

This weekend Forest Grove held it’s 44th annual Founder’s Day Corn Roast.  One of the great things about small towns like Forest Grove are these type of events.  It was a small street fair like event held at Pacific University.  There was food (of course), entertainment (my favorite was Forest Grove Dance Arts), and plenty of community spirit.  I’d also like to say thank you to 1360 Talk Radio (KUIK) for their SafeAssured ID booth.

We took a walk along the new walkingtrail near our house.  There’s a project to put a trail around the entire city.  That would be cool!

It seems that blackberries are the only thing in season right now.  Still, the trail is beautiful.

On the walk home from the trail, I spotted these flowers.

There’s nothing quite like seeing both cars in the garage.  It seems like it’s been forever.

And what enabled such a feat?  I’m glad you asked!  The concrete pad, and the shed that goes on top of it.  All of the necessary items cluttering up the garage and neatly tucked away in the shed.

In case you missed it, I took Friday off.  It threw all of us off.  Friday felt like Saturday and Saturday felt like Sunday.  When we got to Sunday, none of us knew what to do.

After fishing on Friday, we were trying to think of what to do for the rest of the weekend.  We finally settled on going to the beach.  It was late Friday night when we tried to book a hotel.  We found one, but weren’t sure how good it would be.  Boy were we in for a surprise.

This was the view from our balcony.  Not too shabby.  We could walk right out to the beach.  We played in the water, made sand castles, and generally had a great time at the beach.  It was one of the most enjoyable weekend’s I’ve had in a long time.

It’s been a while since I’ve been fishing.  It’s something I love to do.  Ever since my fishing buddy Len passed away, I’ve been stuck.  Ocean fishing (my favorite) isn’t something I like to do alone.  You need a buddy.  

I may have found a new fishing buddy.  Friday I took Emily fishing at a place called Horning’s Hideout.  It’s a wonderful little lake stocked with trout.  We had a blast.  Emily started out with one of those Barbie rods.  Right away the reel jammed, so I gave her my pole.  She fished and fished, touching the worm every time she pulled the line in (which was often).  She was determined to stay until she caught a fish.  We finally left after dinner time when we were both starving.  It was a good day.

The only question now is when we’re going again.

I read an article that grabbed my attention.  The author appealed to my sense of justice, morality, and patriotism.  I haven’t linked to it here because I’d like to avoid the political debate that would likely accompany the link.  If you want to have that debate, let’s do lunch.

There were several inflammatory quotes that I loved (but won’t share).  The ones that provoked me to write this post were

“true complexity arises when… we reach the place where we must be intolerant in order to defend tolerance, or unkind in order to defend kindness, or hateful in order to defend what we love.”

“That’s real moral complexity… sometimes men must kill in order to preserve life; that sometimes they must violate their values in order to maintain those values; and that… true heros often must slink in the shadows, slump-shouldered and despised…”

What prompted me to make the post was the intriguing picture this paints.  History has shown that we often do these things.  I just have a hard time accepting that we MUST become hateful to defend what we love, or unkind to defend kindness, or intolerant to defend tolerance.  If we don’t live what we value, then do we really value it?  Conversely, can we live with the consequences if we choose to live our values?

I heard about the book The Way to Tea from a podcast.  Jennifer Leigh Sauer is a photographer.  After hearing her talk about the book, I decided to read it.  It’s a guide to San Francisco tea culture.  There are reviews of tea houses, complete with locations, hours, and photos.  At the end of the book, Jennifer describes the various types of tea.  One interesting note was about a teapot made from special clay from the city of Yixing.  It is appropriately called Yixing Clay.  Teapots made from this clay absorb the flavor from the tea made in them.  Over time they taste better and better.  I set out to find one.

In my quest (i.e. google search), I found that Portland has a tea house called the Tao of Tea.  On their website it said that they sold Yixing Clay teapots.  We decided to pay them a visit.  We chose to visit the location inside Portland’s Chinese Garden.  This was a good choice.  The garden is amazing!  The tea experience was similar to the one I had in Hangzhou, China.  And we picked up a Yixing Clay teapot.

Photos are here for your viewing pleasure…