Chickens, Tents, and Opossums, OH MY!

Last Saturday on the 13th our small groups got together to have a BBQ instead of meeting that week. So I decided to try the beer can chicken recipe that I saw in the Red guard the other week. What they didn't tell me is that if your grill isn't the perfect temp you will either have bloody raw chicken or charred remains that are reminiscent of a nuclear holocaust. Luckily I had some back up chicken and Anne, as usual, made some amazing mixtures of food items of pleasure unknown to us mere humans. I think of Anne as the Enterprise of cooking to go boldly where no man, or woman in this case, has gone before. The turnout was great and included my neighbors, Ron and Sally Hunt, My parents Boarder Micheal, and the two small groups. Jeremy kicked all our butts with his mad poker skills late into the evening right outside Bryce's door where he most likely dreamed of lollipops and pink kittens jumping over blue clouds.

The cooking area and fire barrel


The Bar


The Chickens!


This last week on Thursday I decided to head out to the coast to try to clear my head and have some special Ian time. So I swaggered into the Drift Inn to catch a meal and a pitcher of Guinness. The waitress must have been a few sandwiches short of a picnic because she got reamed for serving me a pitcher. Which apparently is too much for one person. The ratatouille I think came from a Chef Boyardee can marked "Nasty Meat". And the chowder tasted like someone used the salmon as toilet paper before cooking it. I rolled out of the place and got back into my BMW to drive to my campsite. Arriving there I set up camp. What better way to have some special Ian time than to pack light so there will be no distractions. So all I had brought was a couple of books my sleeping bag and my bivy sack (waterproof sleeping bag). I settled down for the night into my bag like a baby kangaroo snuggling into his mommies silky soft pouch. After a half hour or so of being engrossed in a book I heard some rustling in the bushes behind me. So being aware of the Warning Bears!!! signs all over the place and the imminent danger of having my entrails strewn all over the other happy campers of the Cape Perpetua camp ground I shined my light over the the bushes and leveled the lawbringer ,my glock 19, just in time to see an opossum flying out of the underbrush at my face with deadly claws outstretched pointing at my eyeballs. Not having time to aim properly I pistol whipped the beast so hard that it changed course mid air and landed somewhere on the other side of me. At that point I decided that if even the small beasts of the forest were plotting to use my eye balls as appetizers that I should sleep in the car, and let them dine on other unsuspecting campers. Unfortunately the Germans didn't design the BMW to be a sleeper car so I spent most of the night attempting to create new contortionist positions in the back seat. After prying my kidney from under the passenger seat in the morning I went to a tall cliff over hanging the sea and spent a few hours thinking there. I decided that one night in the 5th ring of hell was enough so I headed home.

Arriving home midday Friday I decided to head out to central Oregon with my dad to go camping with the scout troop he works with. This seemed to be a much more relaxing choice than being accosted by small forest animals. We headed out to Fort Rock campground and had a great time running around with the scouts, and no one lost any vital body parts due to fire accidents. My dad had also just purchased a tent that rivaled the Taj Mahal. It had an interesting set of poles that made a rigid door that you could open and close easily and locked with velcro. This tent is most assuredly the Cadillac of tents with all the bells and whistle. Having survived the onslaught of pointless discussion about how the end times are upon us with the rents of these kids I am now back at home about to nestle into my pillow top bed to finish The Dresden Flies season1 and start Burn Notice season2.

GOODNIGHT!

Wine Country

Brielle and I went to a couple of the wineries around mcCrappville last Thursday. I enjoyed going into the tasting rooms the first one was nice considering the woman there didn't slap us and yell REDNECKS OUTA HERE! while sicking viscous wine attack cats on us. But we Jackie did have our back. Although we did lock her in the truck.

The most exciting thing of the day though was the tornado warnings, 60 mph winds, and rain the size of goat droppings. The rain promptly washed all the grass seed in a mile radius to my eye lids pushed it inside and then it flipped me the bird while riding off on a Harley with my ex-girlfriend. So we ran to a pharmacy were i begged the sweet lord for forgiveness for all my horrible, horrible sins. Luckily the Pharmacists had seen this before and knew that begging for the forgiveness meant, eyes drops and in a hurry.

The exciting weather also closed down Hwy 99 and canceling the festivities planned at Dobbs winery for the locals, which the Deppes had been invited to. Oh well I ended up back in Eugene to be greeted by all the projects that I am supposed to get done this week. Maybe those bastards that owe me money will pony up this week!

What more could you ask for?

Kids rockin out to Scottish Rock!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBcbDS5AGnk

Birthday hike

Umm yea I'm going on a hike for jessica bandstra's birthday. I better start early or get left in the dust!

MMMMMM food

We had a lovley thanksgiving here at the Houston homestead. Tom and Dinah came along with Lane and Bryce. It was a great night full of good food and good company. Plus we sat and listened to my parents tell stories. I am looking forward to spending Christmas in San Diego.

It's an early Christmas

This weekend we celebrated Christmas as a family because we will all be going our own seperate ways for actual Christmas. It was really fun sharing lazy days stuffing our faces with fresh organic lamb and rice last night and other great foods and desserts. I got a sweet new radio for my car. It's actually Matt's old radio but its pretty nice. I gave steve a gift card to applebees, but I had him go on a quest to find some nunchucks and then smash an evil robot (Zultan) to get to it. Everyone loved it. We also went out to a tree farm for a tree. There we got to pet goats and feed pigs pumpkins. I am also happy to report I haven't played even one minute of video games since i quit wow as well. Ill talk more again soon.

The end of an era

Today I gave my World of Warcraft account away to one of my good friends online. It was a tough choice, but being with Alicia this past month made me realize what I have been missing out on. I am excited to get back into the dating world. I do miss Alicia we are meeting on saturday to talk about whatever it is that happened. Oh well I guess I will learn as much as I can and move on. I'm done being angry and sad.

This Christmas when I go down to San Diego I will try to hook up with one of my WoW buddies and get a drink. It's always cool to finally meet people in real life. It's time also to use complete words in my typing.

I'm looking forward to the festivities tonight oh crap i gotta e-mail people directions... cya

The bigger they are the harder they fall.

Last night I may have had one too many pitchers of gin and tonic. Why, you may ask yourself, did i have one too many or even why was I drinking gin and tonics from a pitcher? It was my whirlwind romance, a hot item one minute and nothing the next, my all consuming desire, to being kicked to the curb.

I am really mad at myself as well. Looking back the choices I made could have been better, but my lack of experience didn't really help me avoid some pitfalls. Honestly I am not even sure what the reasons were we did break up. I can only guess it was the things that we had previously disagreed on. I just really wish we could have worked together to solve our problems rather than run from them. I am mad at her too though.Breaking up with someone over text messages is not only cowardly, but also just plain disrespectful. At least have the pelotas to say it to my face. I will freely admit things I fuck up and then move on the least I could get is at least one last face to face.

I'm not really done expressing myself or editing this but i thought i'd throw this up there as a notice at least.

The Lord's day

Another nice day. We got to talk today about religion and what are beliefs are, and how we will deal with that kind of stuff. I am really glad we hashed out some serious stuff today and still like each other a lot. Also Simon came to church today so that was awesome. I'm looking forward to coming up for your party as well B face, but I think we will come up friday night and leave saturday.

You get to see my ugly mug this time!

A day on the town.

So today we went out to breakfast at the ye olde pancake house. After that we headed down to the sat market. We went and saw Ashley and Lane at their different booths and walked around downtown a bit. Then we went back to my house and watched a movie and discovered each others favorite youtube videos. Gotta get up early to make sunday school in the morning.

Holy crap don't get her mad!

The truly righteous man attains life, but he who pursues evil goes to his death.

Pursuing righteous ways is difficult. I had a great talk with Parker and K2 today. We talked about what a man's job is in a relationship and other things of that nature. I feel really good about everything that is happening right now. It's like new life has sprung up inside me. I hope that we make the right choices over the next few weeks as we have been talking a lot about what we wanna accomplish in our relationship and where we wanna go with it. I have also found a re-invigorated relationship with God as well.
Tonight we went to skinner butte park and walked around the top looking at the city. Then we went to Steelheads and had a few drinks.

Oh How Magnificent the Lord's plan is

So we hit it off pretty well. It feels good to be wanted, finally. How does one express a feeling that one has never had before. I thought I had it all figured out. That my life would be a simple one left to my own devices I would still be sitting at home alone five years from now. I thought God had forgotten me, but this gift just goes to show how feeble and weak I am in my faith. Now comes the task of trying to wade through a different temptation. The desire to speed things up. The desire to FUBAR our chances with the trivial. I think now more than ever I see what we really should desire. To have real human connection that mirrors God's connection to us. He prepares us for perfection just like he prepared her and I over the course of our lives to now be here where we are.
I am just glad she is so forward with her thoughts on things and our desire to remain honorable in our relationship. She is really cool. I'm sorry Brielle but your coolness is starting to be eclipsed. It's hard to explain how she is but I think I will still be discovering her for many more months.

More to come after tomorrow.

On a cloud

I may be posting too soon, but i met someone amazing and we have really hit it off. We are meeting tomorrow for a group/double type date and then going out on thursday alone. I will post updates as we go. Shit now i think i have to let her read this too. Actually I'm glad she will.

I stole this pic off her myspace.

The Exodus

So it's been a while since I posted, I know, shut up. The Deppes moved to McMinville, too bad that town is far away :( Steve and Holli moved to Portland to live in an apartment high in the sky. I am moving again, to where, I don't know. Temporarily I will be residing in the Deppe's silver villa.

I went on my first date yesterday morning in 3 or 4 years. I kinda lost count. Oddly enough She was someone locally famous. A new reporter from Kval 13 Molly Blancett. She seems pretty awesome so far I hope I don't fuck it up.

I am working nights right now for a plumbing company doing a safeway remodel right now. I am praying I find something new.

Highway to Hell (or in this case, from)

So after another few days in Sadras I don't have a whole lot to report. But I can tell you that Buck (a guy who works for us) has earned the name Drama for obvious reasons. Drama also Couldn't catch a slug in a salt pit if he had rockets on his shoes. I swear he is the slowest driver I have ever seen. Sadras to Sisters is 45.5 miles and it took us 1 hour to get there. Needless to say I was just about to pull my hair out. Especially since I had finals later that day. After Sisters I took over driving to Springfield, 103 miles, and it took us 1 hour 30 mins to get there. That's an average of 68.6 mph for me and 45.5 mph for Drama. So our trip would have taken 3 hours 26 mins if Drama drove the whole way. And 2 hours 16 mins if I drove the whole way. Of course I could have shaved off about 15 mins if not for the traffic. I'm sorry for all the math but I am a huge supporter of raising the speed limit on the Oregon highways. So hah read it!

Because last summer was maybe the best summer of my life I am seriously looking forward to this summer. Although Stephen, Holli, B, and the Mattfrodisiac will be gone I think we can still have a good time.

More to come

I am waiting for the ccompletion of the job in Sadras to finish my "Dante's" post, but in the mean time I have been super sicck this weekend. Just think of the worst cold you have ever had and then combine that with the worst cough you have ever had and thats what I had. Besides that not alot has been going on. Although I did miss out on what is usually the highlight of my year, Whicch is the Mexicco trip due to scchool scheduals. Anway more to cocme soon as the Sadras job will draw to a close in the next two weeks or so.

Dante's Seventh ring of hell revisited.

I roll out of bed, still hazy with exhaustion, I open the door and step out into the Mountain View Trailer Park. My clothes are in different stages of cleanliness, and I think I forgot to shower last night. No matter these laid back country folk wouldn't notice anyway. I spew gravel out behind my tuck as I pull onto a redneck backwoods highway. Only a few miles to work stuck behind some knob job going ten miles an hour under under the speed limit. I arrive at the slaughterhouse of a grocery store to find that their "low price gasoline" is going to push back that root canal I need for another few months. The electricians are reminicant of rats, not only in their looks, which were like tiny hideous rodents trying to squeeze out a pellet, but their demenor as well, huddling in corners giggling with each other. The refrigeration guy , who looks like he might be a retired clown, starts out all his complaints with "Hey I'm not trying to bitch here, but...". The Superintendant Couldn't fight his way out of a burning paper bag with an ocean of water. He is rolled over by the other tradesmen there like a high school floozy by the football team. Then decides that to make himself look like he might have some small amount of control over the myriad of failure that is this job he takes outhis frusterations on me. Thats ok though I'm only sitting on the edge of a pit, which the edge's are ringed with cold partially dried grease from the "gourmet wok" which also is ringed with an inch of grease, digging through sandstone until my hands bleed.

To be continued.....

Sadras, Netflix, Deppe's, and Flippen cars

So we have been traveling from eugene to madras to work the graveyard at a safeway, remodiling it. The job kinda sucks but we are getting close to done. The electricians on the jobs are assholes, the superintendant is an idiot, and everyone else is somewhere in between. Except for the temp workers there working for the general contractor which is kinda wierd. So Frankie has dubbed Madras now as Sadras becuase it makes us :(

I have been a member of netflix for a while now and i am loving it. I am watching a series right now called the up series. It follows some children from England at the age 0f 7 and then again at 14,21,28 etc... I'm on 35 right now i'll watch it tonight.

The deppes are moving to portland= bad for us, good for them. I am gonna miss them. I'm glad its not too far though.

I also joined the club of idiots who have rolled their cars. Although in my case I rolled Stephen's toyota truck up on the Santiam pass. It was pretty amazing I have never been in a really bad accident before so I was pretty shaken up for most of the day. The funny thing is i remember thinking shit steve is gonna be pissed as i was hanging upside down. Then i called him like 30 seconds after the accident and was like yea i'm fine but i totalled your truck. I also thought about trying to flip it over, as it was on its side, and try to continue driving. Anyway my life has been interesting lately.

Poker nights

Our memorable moments of the summer was the multiple river trips we took in small inflatable boats and matresses. All the while downing large amounts of beer and riding the rapids. But so far our memorable moments of winter is the poker nights over at Luke's place. I once again took money from everyone at the table.

We are gearing up for our first Mexico trip on our own. As it nears I am getting more and more excited. I hope that this year we can accomplish the things that we felt were lacking from previous trips. BTW send money!

Unemployed

So being unemployed really frees up a lot of time. We all got laid off for a month so I am trying to figure out how to fill up my time. Mostly with an online risk like game called conquer club. My user name is Ho_Chi_Min so i like to talk a lot about how "we" are the only ones who have beaten the Americans in war. It really ticks people off. On the other hand my parents offered to make my truck payment if i would work the amount of hours that it would take to make that much at my job at their house. So that was quite genereous.
Yesterday i cooked a whole pack of bacon and proceeded to eat it over the course of the day. It makes me feel dirty inside. :( I also have been staying up till 3 in the morning and not getting up till noon. This has been rally messing with my internal clock so i gotta stop it. You tube has become a good friend of mine. I also caught myself in tears watching romantic comedies from netflix. I am not sure what i'm morphing into but i doubt it will be a butterfly on the other side of this cocoon.