Of Tomatoes and Rain

It was a travel day for me. The "usual", meaning back over to Turkey. I realized before heading through security in Portland that I had forgotten to grab a book at home for the journey. I have been stockpiling books for awhile, so I have a decent assortment at home, but when you forget, they do little good. Luckily, one of my favorite pre-flight pastimes is to hit Powell's PDX store. While they are puny compared to the downtown store, they books are similarly tagged with employee recommendations and tips, and I don't think I have ever picked a dud by going with them. Today I scanned there "Jet Bets" section. I was in for pager turner. I am about three fourths of the way through Thomas L. Friedman's "The World Is Flat", and while extremely insightful about the world's current economy and being well written, it isn't a thriller. I looked up and down the books and came to Barry Eisler's "Rain Fall". The employee tag said it was a "cool-hit man story", so I snapped it up. They were right. The story was good, the characters deep and believable, and there was always something going on. Whenever the John Rain thought he solved a problem, he would learn more to the story and find he was back in the thick of things. I thought this 363 page book would last the round trip, but I finished it while on approach into Munich. And I also watched two movies. That now poses a bit of a problem. I had no book for the flight here, or now, back. I do know of a bookstore here that has some English titles, so I might hit that. However, Eisler's followup, "Hard Rain", is now on my Amazon Wish List.

Now that United is charging for beer and wine on the international flights (*cough* bastards), it really cut down on what I like to drink. Water, obviously is still my first choice. I try to stay away from soda and other sugar water as after 24 hours in a plane with no toothbrush, your teeth get 'sweaters' on them if you drink that. Apple juice and orange juice are nearly as bad. So, I was bold today and tried tomato juice. It wasn't V8. They didn't have that. It was just pure tomato juice. It has one third that calories as a can of Coke, so it must have a lot less sugar, and it doesn't taste that bad. Nice to know I found another liquid choice.

Seahawks

While I normally leave all "normal" sports reporting to Fleming, I thought I would jump in here. I am certainly not the worlds greatest NFL fan, but I have been a Seahawk fan pretty much all my life. And in this life of mine, they never have gotten to the Super Bowl. They got close a couple times in the 80's, but they finally did it. With this weekend's spanking of the Panthers, they get to go to the big show. I wish they were playing the Broncos, so I could have a nice rivalry with Jamey. I guess they weren't up to the task. Go 'Hawks!

Congrats, Cuz!

My crazy cousin (yes, the one that got
married on Mt. Hood) was selected by the US Deaf Ski and Snowboard Association to be an assistant coach for the US team going to the 2007 Winter Deaflympics in Salt Lake. Very cool cousin! Kick some butt!

True: 1994-2006

True - October 2004

First, thank everyone who left a comment or sent an e-mail about Madison. I really do appreciate it. Unfortunately, my sister's family lost their dog True on Saturday. I met True right after Jamey got him in Bozeman. He was great dog, friendly to the all the Johnson's , and I am sure would have protected them if needed.

According to my sister, he stayed sweet to the end, but had a hard fight with Addison's disease and may also have had cancer. I know True is in a better place now and my heart goes out to the Johnson's.

Madison: 1996-2006

The last picture taken of Madison. He's up in his tree, his favorite place in the world. (taken 12/5/05)

It was not a good morning for me. I woke up to find that Madison had died over the night. Madison was a true loving cat. Very standoffish and skittish, he was the opposite of his trouble-making brother Theodore (a.k.k Evil-dore) who passed away about a year and a half ago. After his brother was gone, he really became his own cat. He came out and saw people more, would watch TV in your lap, and was a joy to have around.

Madison, you will be missed. My life is less full today than it was yesterday. You and your brother will always be in my heart.

One Year...

Today marks the one year anniversary of Swiftcurrent Reflections. In my very first post, I said, "Well, this is my blog. I decided that it would be good to have a way to post to the world my ramblings and happenings while I travel." I think I have done an okay job to that goal. I hope the people reading it have found it interesting to some degree. Should I shut up, keep it up, or do something different? Leave a comment!

Winter Thing

Rich was cool enough to get a team together to make the trek down to Eugene for the Winter Thing tournament. The team was about half Bugs on Jugular and the rest stragglers like myself. For a team that just came together, we played quite strong, coming in 4th out of 12 teams.

I didn't go last year, but heard it was an ice bowl. This year wasn't too bad for weather. Some rain on Saturday, but dry Sunday with some good chunks of sun. A very good weekend.

Team photos are here.
Some 'action' images from our last game can be viewed here.

The Mother of all Updates

Kick off your shoes, because like John Candy in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, I am sure you can't get comfortable with them on. And comfortable, you'll want to be as there are some updates to go around today.


We start back in time a bit. November 19th, to be exact. My young friend Jess down in Eugene was kicking up her heals for her 30th birthday. I got to go down and take in the action. Jess had her female friends over for an in-house spa day which even included henna tattoos. The party then moved on to the Maude Kerns Art Center where all chromosome types were able to attend. Some nice hors d'oeuvre and beverages were served with music in the background while the group talked and looked at the art. A piñata came out, because we all know no party is complete without a piñata. Check out the pictures.


For the next event, we move up a week to the end of November. Another birthday. This time, it is Alicia hitting 26. As she was born on the 26th and this is her 26th birthday, it was her "champagne" birthday. I've never herd of this. Maybe it's a Central New York thing. All I know for sure is that people born on the 10th get screwed because I know for a fact my parents didn't pop a bottle of bubbly for me.

I got to attend two activities for Alicia. First, a nice dinner out with her mom and friends at Jake's in Portland. There are a few pictures from that night. Next, Cindy through together a Mafia-themed party at her place titled MAFIAMAGIC. The lights were red, Frank Sinatra played in the background, and gory Mafia movies were projected on the wall. Good times. Of course, the camera was there, and it captured these pictures.

Now we get to start moving much more near the present. I've posted a bit about going to Turkey, and preparing for Christmas. Also, I talked about the fun of the anual Christmas-eve football game.

Christmas was a great time seeing family and friends and getting to revisit Missoula. The only thing I missed was the Pickle Barrel, due to an odd eating schedule the entire time we were there. I can report my parents are doing very well and were full of the Christmas spirit the entire time.

The Thursday after Christmas, Cindy and I headed down to Boise. We were able to spend a day there in town in the company of Michael and Jennifer. Not only was it a first for Cindy to see Missoula, but Boise as well. So, we did some exploring around town. I can't believe how much it has changed in the last four years.

My friend Jim, who is currently living in Taiwan, was back in Boise for Christmas. Our old HP friend Amy set up a nice get-together where a bunch of the old HP crew got back together. A lot of changes at the old plant. Lot's of layoffs, but it sounded like everyone there was doing well. It was really great to see them all.


On the 31st, we had a nice sized group head up to the very cool mountain town of McCall. We had enough food and drink to feed a battalion and made a good dent in it all. We decided to skip the standard Yacht Club treatment and stayed in. Cheese and crackers to eat and beer, wine and champagne to drink as we toasted in the New Year. With a nice dump of snow coming down that night, we made plans to get to the mountain early the next day for some runs. It was hard rolling out of bed, but we did it. Some very nice snow up on Brundage. That night was much, much more low key. The next morning, we packed and headed out. We decided to take the scenic route through Hells Canyon. The overcast morning turned into an exceptionally beautiful and sunny day. Please feel free to look at the Idaho pictures.