update

So, Fife is ok for now, we have appointments soon, and hopefully all will be well.

I went to a play called "Celebrity Row" last night. Which was good, I would recommend it.

Here's what it is about:
"Four of America's most violent criminals are on death row. For one hour each day they have access to each other. Imagine what they might say. It's funnier than you think.

Fact: The most secure prison in America is ADX-Florence, a.k.a. Colorado Supermax, a.k.a. the Alcatraz of the Rockies. It once held The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, Latin Kings gang leader Luis Felipe and World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yusef, all on the same floor, at the same time.

Fiction: In this brilliant, hilarious and free ranging epic, Itamar Moses {Outrage} imagines what might have transpired in the one hour a day that these prisoners were allowed access to each other. As seen through the eyes of the prison educator, Maze Carroll, these conversations morph into a humorous and excoriating examination of the freedoms we trade away for "security."

Thanks to PCPA

It was often a bit tiresome, but overall some interesting insights and provocative messages.

More interestingly, we stopped at Dixie, a pub downtown for a drink on our way home. As we were leaving, some jock/cap/tweaker decided he wanted a fight and pushed Steve into a wall. He had two other athletic friends with him. We talked our way out of being killed there, then walked to an area that was more populated. They followed us. So, we stopped at a club where there were some gigantic bouncers. At this point only the one, very aggressive fellow was following us and when we stopped, he walked past us. He didn't walk very far, and in an effort to make him go away, I threatened to call the cops, then called him some names and he went to get his friends. They all came back and followed us back and forth across the street as we tried to get into a bar that felt safe. Sadly, our options were McFaddens and whatever bar is across the street from there. Not such a good location. Finally we lost them, and were able to hop on the MAX before they knew where we had got off to.

Lesson: need to get me some pepper spray, and stay in my own neighborhood where it looks scary, but the people have the sense not to beat up people for no reason. Seems the real scary people are drugged-out frat boys.

bedridden

Fife's knees

You may recall that Fife had surgery at the end of 2004 for his right medial patellar luxation. His kneecap kept moving out of place. Ended up that his femur was crooked. So we had a guy saw it purt'near in half, straighten it and put a metal plate and screws on it.

Well, after a trip to the vet today, we've discovered that he now has a left medial patellar luxation. His in great amounts of pain. So, no visits from any dogs please. And any contributions to the "Keep Fife from getting shot" fund would be most welcome (the right leg cost over $4,000). I guess this is a good reason to sell my car.

Additionally, I was supposed to start painting V's house today, but I'm watching Fife to see how he takes to his anti-inflammatories and doggie pain meds.

Further making this suck is that we are supposed to go to Mexico and NYC in May, one week in each place and my first visit to either location. That will likely be during the six weeks that Fife is not allowed to move. Hopefully we can find a sitter that is qualified (I've called Nikki). Stephen was to watch the house, but he won't be able to have Abba live here at the same time. Otherwise, say goodbye to the tickets we purchased just this past weekend.

Otherwise, things are pretty good. Cable has been cancelled entirely (except for the internet). That hopefully means more outings and more book reading. Though with Fife being bedridden, likely more of the latter will occur.

Boffins breed omega-3-packed porkers | The Register

Boffins breed omega-3-packed porkers | The Register

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103_0544
Originally uploaded by jkf.

Interestingly, this is how a movie shows up when uploaded to Flickr. I like it.

Why?

I have pretty fast computers. They can run just about any sort of program without a glitch. My internet is hella fast and efficient (with the new router, that is). I run WindowsXP home.

Then why, whenever I attempt to adjust the properties of the desktop (screensaver, background, etc.) does it take forever, and do things that I do not tell it to do?

Evidently there has been a great deal of neglect in developing this aspect of the computer platform. Someone tell me how to fix this glich, or better: if this doesn't happen with Linux get me a copy.

Steve's birthday photos

Mind you, most of them were not taken by me. I was barely even able to take the pictures I did take. I have a Sony. Erin Brokovich has a Kodak. You'll see what I mean.

Did I mention...

that I am extremely sore from skiing? I am, and bruised too.

I'm planting more trees today and finishing (varnishing) the porch swing.

I'm on an uploading frenzy

A couple of my fav's:

1. Studying for the bar


2. We had just bought a shredder and were shredding months of bills, when the shredder got stuck. Ended up being the manual.

My birthday photos - click on the photo for more

Mt Hood

I went downhill skiing! And it was definitely an adventure. No practice. Up the chair lift immediately. Cat run first, thank goodness, though it started with a mighty steep hill. I had no fear, though I was cautious and safe. I ran that with only a couple of falls. Then we hit the green diamond portion. I know, easy peasy, right? No. It got ugly here. But I did it.

Back to the top. And an additional section. That was what killed me. I almost missed a big turn and got scared. I was not really ever able to regain my initial (likely foolhardy) confidence. At one point, I took off and threw my skis and vowed to stay on the hill, never to return to civilization. Steve, ever patient, took my verbal abuse and coaxed me down, mostly by taunting me by skiing backwards in front of me. So, I was doing better and then we went down it again. This time it took me a fraction of the time.

Then the good stuff. I was taken to a blue diamond. Just to say that I did it. Once I realized how steep it really was, it was too late. I did manage to learn how to slide down sideways, which helped me learn balance and how to dig in and slide on my edges. I did cry at one point out of extreme frustration at the difficulty of the run. Again, Mr. Patience helped me down, and almost lost his grits in the effort. I skiied the bottom, but the initial say 50 yards of extreme slope was horrible.

Found out later that it was a black diamond run. So, I've done about the worst skiing I'll ever do.

Did I mention that Steve is the most amazing skiier that I've ever seen. Like jumps and stuff and fast and backwards and amazing. I'm impressed to no end. Granted, he's been skiing for 30 years, and I for only 5 hours. But he's really good.

I did the cat trail again, without falling and without making Stephen have to stop for me, not even once. SWEET!

And then the lovely warming hut, a couple of beers and I skipped a few runs, mostly because I felt bad for the boys having to babysit me.

Then they were cold, came back to get me, and then I had to ski one more green hill down. This one was the first thing I saw when I got to the park. I thought it was a triple black diamond or something, it looked impossible and at the beginning I would never have dreamed that I was going to end my day going down it. I fell a couple of times, but once I was kindly reminded to make big turns, I did just fine. I still think there was something wrong with my right ski, but I'll figure it out next time.

Which, will hopefully be next weekend.

More photos here.

Rileys learn how to celebrate St. Patrick's day early.

Three fingers of your best Irish for me...

What I've been up to

Making sure the fucking neighbors stop looking at my man's purple tat. Yeah, I built that. More to come in the following days. I just stopped for now, cuz those mofos are HEAVY. And it rained while I was moving them around, so I'm wet through and through.

I would like to note

that I am posting from my psp. And I'm playing Quake on it too.

Stasis

Unfortunately, this cold will not go away. I'm finally taking meds, which will hopefully allow me to enjoy my birthday this weekend. We're going to the coast with some friends, to celebrate, though I'm not re-turning 30 until Sunday. I'm very excited to get away from this house and Portland. I need to see something other than these four walls.

Otherwise, I'm just peachy. I sleep most of the day, and hack and snot my way through the remainder. I've read a bit, which is nice, and played a little Xbox, but not much else to report.

Soon as I'm in the mood I'll update with a bunch of pictures from Mexico and from Steve's birthday celebrations.

Bis dann

There is an indigo girls song that has a line "on a ferryboat bound for victoria" which brings back memories of a failed attempt of mine to take a trip to Vancouver Island about 8 years ago (my fault, as always, because of a lack of funds). This is the first time I've heard it since I actually made it to the island. Now fortunately the song is more sweet than bitter.