Goodbye Portland!

Here is a whirlwind of our last few days:

Dan played his last futsal game with his team (he's the orange guy kicking in the upper left)









This is a demonstration of the double lives the Portland Center Stage box office staff lead:

Jonny, looking so innocent filing forms in alphabetical order:









But ask him about that time he climbed Mount Defiance, and you'll hear a whole different story (not to be published on THIS blog. This is a family-friendly blog.)

Kim, ostensibly a hardworking, friendly box office supervisor:









But take a gander at her behind the glass..you see her true nature..a viking pirate!












This is Zach's cool cartoon art. I hope he doesn't get mad at me for publishing his work. I'm trying to make him famous:


















After my last day at PCS we gathered at a tavern down the street.

Here's Kim and Lindsey:









Liz and Christine:









Angela and Dan:









And Zach introducing Claire and Monkey! Monkey flew all the way from North Carolina and as fate would have it, he and Claire could only spend a few short hours together before she takes a trip back east. needless to say, they got on very well.

Bridges of this Town and Eagle Creek (#2)

A week or 2 ago, we went on the Portland Bridges Walk. It was different than we had expected, but very fun and informative.

The first part of the event was an indoor celebration of bridges, including a poetry reading, dramatic performance, and musical demonstration. Here, you can see Dan showing off his bridge music talent to the memorable hit "Bridges of this Town." (we bought the CD if you want to hear it)









We walked under the steel bridge and got a pretty neat view of the Broadway bridge (right before a huge train passed right in front of our eyes! Very exciting)












The highlight of the experience was going into the "pit" of the Morrison bridge and watching it lift! This is a pic of the 30 foot gear that moved before our very eyes:












Our next adventure was a 13 mile hike up Eagle Creek trail. This is my favorite trail in the Portland area, and it did not fail to disappoint this time.

Tunnel Falls and me:












Dan relaxing at our awesome picnic spot just above Crisscross falls









Dan's excellent photo of a butterfly:









The butterfly exploring Dan's fingertip:









And a dragonfly landing on my shoulder!









This watersnake was creepy! But very beautiful.

Total Immersion Sign Language Program (take 2)

Well I'm back from my second year at WSD's Total Immersion Sign Language Program. This year was just as fun as last year, but things were definitely different.

Last year, I remember using pen and paper when I couldn't understand people or make myself clear. This year, I relied a lot more on my language skills and gestures to explain and understand things.

Also, the icebreakers and games were a lot less fun for me this year--after one or two of them, I was ready to move on to something a little more "adult." While it is challenging as a new student to keep up with everyone else, I found this year to be equally challenging in a different way--having the patience to fingerspell my name OVER and OVER and not get frustrated when people would just smile and nod even though I could tell they didn't understand what I was signing.

I enjoyed most of my classes this year. The teachers have different styles, and we learned a different subject every hour. I didn't necessarily come away with a whole lot of new information, but it was really helpful to practice my skills and just get used to processing information immediately in ASL.

The best part (as was the same last year) was meeting people. I enjoyed hanging out with Bob, Deb, and Jan from Arizona so much that I'm trying to devise a way to divert my summer trip to include a stop in Phoenix (tough, because it is a pretty short trip, but there's GOTTA be a way!) And every night I stayed up past 2 chatting with Lisa, Nina, Jeremy, Sarah, and Melony. We laughed so loud that this one woman made us be quiet. Not to mention the struggles Melony and I went through with our skit group...wow. That was tough. But we made it :) And it actually turned out pretty well.

At the end of July, along our trip, I will stop for another immersion program in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I am looking forward to seeing how the program differs from the one in Washington. And of course, every day I get more pumped up for my journey home and starting graduate school at Gallaudet!!

here's Bob during Deaf Deaf World













Jeremy and Sarah playing backgammon










And Lisa juggling a cell phone and sidekick

June, Glorious June!!

WOW!
this is post #50!!
And my blog is about to celebrate its first Birthday!!
June has been quite an eventful month! I'll try to re-cap and pick only the best pictures from each event.

First thing in June: Dave came to visit! We had an awesome and jam-packed weekend while he was here, including a whirlwind tour of the city and a trip to the gorge/mt. hood. The first pic is me enjoying the water falling on my super short hair on a short hike in the gorge.

And here is what fun we had near Timberline lodge--Dan and Dave rolling down the snow-covered hill in tee-shirts and shorts:

Although out of chronological order (this was Saturday night), Dave took these next pictures of Dan and I "running" our 5k. Dan is a very athletic guy, and he barely broke a sweat/breathed heavily the whole run. I could barely keep up a trot by the end, was super sweaty, and could barely breathe. BUT I did finish! With no stopping. (and with lots of encouragement from Dan).

I don't know if you can tell from my expression, but running is just not my thing.

So the next great adventure was Dan's first triathlon. He has been doing a little bit of training (although not much) and I think it surprised him how well he did! I was amazed just watching these people (dan included) running from sport to sport with such apparant ease. The race was a 1/2 mile swim, a 12 mile bike ride, and a 5k run. Dan did the whole thing in an hour and 1/2. Pretty impressive!! Here, he is sharing his victory "completion" medal with Claire:

Which brings us to this weekend..Dan's dad is here for a second visit! He is our only 2-time visitor, and we have tried to make his second visit as exciting as the first. At the very least, the weather is better, because his first visit was during the daily rain and mudslides of November.

Saturday we went to the gorge and checked out the Vista House:

And took a short hike to Bridal Veil Falls:

Then we went to the Fish Hatchery and learned all about how they breed fish. Even the gritty details about how they harvest the sperm and eggs from the fish. That's one video I don't need to see again.

Here are the very very cute and beautiful Rainbow trout that we fed with little pellets from a machine. I mean they were CUTE!! They jumped around and swam QuiCKly to any pellets we threw in.

And the handy fish directional signs we followed throughout the hatchery.

I don't have a picture, but tonight we went to see STOMP! It was very very fun and there were a lot of things I didn't remember from the first time I saw it with my family about 10 years ago in Las Vegas.

So that is the wrap-up for June..if you want to contact me next week, you'll have to text me because....................no voice! It's time for ASL Immersion week #2!!! This is the first of two immersion installments for me this summer. I will be at WSD in Vancouver next week, then I'll do another one at the New Mexico School for the Deaf this July along our road trip back East.

Hope all is well! Happy early 4th!

Bottled Water Article

This is an excerpt from a pretty interesting article I found online after Dan and I heard on the news that San Francisco is banning city departments from purchasing bottled water. I cut some out towards the end.

The Real Cost of Bottled Water
By Jared Blumenfeld and Susan Leal
Courtesy of The San Francisco Chronicle,
2/18/2007

San Franciscans and other Bay Area residents enjoy some of the nation's highest quality drinking water, with pristine Sierra snowmelt from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir as our primary source. Every year, our water is tested more than 100,000 times to ensure that it meets or exceeds every standard for safe drinking water. And yet we still buy bottled water. Why?
Maybe it's because we think bottled water is cleaner and somehow better, but that's not true. The federal standards for tap water are higher than those for bottled water.

The Environmental Law Foundation has sued eight bottlers for using words such as "pure" to market water that contains bacteria, arsenic and chlorine. Bottled water is no bargain either: It costs 240 to 10,000 times more than tap water. For the price of one bottle of Evian, a San Franciscan can receive 1,000 gallons of tap water. Forty percent of bottled water should be labeled bottled tap water because that is exactly what it is. But even that doesn't dampen the demand.

Clearly, the popularity of bottled water is the result of huge marketing efforts. The global consumption of bottled water reached 41 billion gallons in 2004, up 57 percent in just five years. Even in areas where tap water is clean and safe to drink, such as in San Francisco, demand for bottled water is increasing -- producing unnecessary garbage and consuming vast quantities of energy. So what is the real cost of bottled water?

Most of the price of a bottle of water goes for its bottling, packaging, shipping, marketing, retailing and profit. Transporting bottled water by boat, truck and train involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels. More than 5 trillion gallons of bottled water is shipped internationally each year. Here in San Francisco, we can buy water from Fiji (5,455 miles away) or Norway (5,194 miles away) and many other faraway places to satisfy our demand for the chic and exotic. These are truly the Hummers of our bottled-water generation. As further proof that the bottle is worth more than the water in it, starting in 2007, the state of California will give 5 cents for recycling a small water bottle and 10 cents for a large one.

So it is clear that bottled water directly adds to environmental degradation, global warming and a large amount of unnecessary waste and litter. All this for a product that is often inferior to San Francisco's tap water. Luckily, there are better, less expensive alternatives:

In the office, use a water dispenser that taps into tap water. The only difference your company will notice is that you're saving a lot of money.

At home and in your car, switch to a stainless steel water bottle and use it for the rest of your life knowing that you are drinking some of the nation's best water and making the planet a better place.

If you want to read more, check this article out at:
http://www.slowfoodusa.org/change/02-29-07_take_action.html

Dog Mountain

Our trip to Dog Mountain!
May 27, 2007

Today we hiked up Dog Mountain, which is a hike about 50 miles from Portland on the Washington side of the Columbia river. It is one of those hikes they say that everyone in Portland has done at some point...and now we can join the ranks. The route we took is about a 7 mile loop, and it is very steep!













Get to know these flowers (yellow balsamroot)...you'll be seeing a lot more of them down below...









May and June are the peak months for wildflowers on Dog Mountain.










trailmarker..almost there










a view looking West










Flowers and the Columbia Gorge










Julia in the flowers.












Dan in the flowers.

My head is cold when the wind blows!

Well..I've finally done it..buzzed my head for locks of love!

Now I know what you're thinking...you don't have to buzz it all off to donate. But I wanted to! I've been thinking about it for almost three years! Always telling myself I would do it later..and that I was scared about what it would be like growing out, [insert lame excuse here], (etc. etc.)

So here is the story in pictures...before, during, and after!

SNIP

shorn

a few strands left..she tried to convince me to go with the "Ashley"

But I would not be deterred...

We tried 1/2 inch at first, but I wanted shorter.

From 11 inches to 1/4 inch :)

When I ventured outside, it was blustery--a chilly wind--and it ruffled my little hairs and tickled!! And it was chilly on my head! It has been fun learning what things are different with no hair to speak of--pulling on my sweatshirt is pretty simple, washing my hair was a cinch!! (Really more like washing my scalp than washing hair)

My mom says I look like my brother (I do) and my hair feels exactly the same way Luke's does when he buzzes it. Very cool!!!

India.Arie

I am not my hair

I am not this skin

I am not your expectations

no

I am not my hair

I am not this skin

I am the soul that lives within...

Yay for May!

Well May has already proven to be one of the most fun months since we moved to Portland. I think the weather has a lot to do with it...

Portland, OR on Weather.com: Mostly Sunny, 70°

So my friend Christine thought of a great idea. We went to Mt. Tabor park this past Wednesday morning. It was a beautiful day and we had a lovely walk. One of the highlights we sought was the elusive "volcano." (pictured below)









As you can see, the volcano was not quite as exciting as we had hoped. You can tell Christine wasn't overly enthused:









Thursday I spent the day with Jonny and Kim kayaking and canoeing! Well, not quite the whole day, it took some effort and turning around to actually find ourselves on the water, but you can see Kim and Jonny putting in good prep time before we launched (Jonny's pulling Kim's skirt over the kayak.)









And here you can see me being really helpful:









We reached our destination of Vancouver Lake (after the aforementioned turnarounds) and it was well worth the effort. Here's Jonny getting the shiny red canoe ready for take-off:









And Kim intensely ready for her first kayaking adventure:












Look at her go! Success!









We returned to Portland Center Stage the next day only to find that Kim and Katie had inadvertantly dressed as twins. Oh horror!~












And here is the lovely Zach. He's hard at work calculating lots of complicated subscription calculations. Yep, he's smart like that.

And this is a miniature plastic horse tethered to a historic ring on 11th Avenue. They are chained up all over the city. See the following link if you're interested in the artistic inspiration behind these beauties: http://www.horseproject.net/