I was unable to see the movie Dead Snow on its initial release because I'm pretty sure it didn't play in the Portland area, though its awesome trailer put it on my must-see list. Thankfully, Netflix delivers. The movie starts with your typical horror background: a bunch of Norwegian medical students leave cell phone range and hike/snowmobile into a remote cabin to play in the snow. While there, they hear a story from a slightly-crazy local about the Nazi atrocities that occurred at the end of World War II. Then then discover a trunk of stolen Nazi gold t in the cabin, and proceed to get slaughtered by Nazi zombies. While the film probably won't win many awards, it was a downright fun gore-fest with many important lessons in it, such as "don't sneak up behind your friend and grab them when they're in the middle of a nice zombie-killing streak." OF course, the most important lesson of all is, "don't steal stolen gold from dead Nazis". Do I recommend this movie? Oh heck yes. It has all the pieces of an awesome film and it pretty much delivers. If zombies are your thing, don't miss this film.

I'd like to welcome a particular woman to Portland.Now, I'm not sure what this particular woman's name is, and I'm not even sure that - at this point - I could even pick her up out of a lineup. But I do know that she happens to drive a dark maroon Toyota Prius with California plates. Speaking of cars, I'd like to talk to her (and to the world) in general about blinkers. You know, turn signals? The lever that we who drive on the right-hand side of the road have sticking out of the left side of our steering wheels? These are really useful for communicating intentions. For instance, and I'm speaking (typing?) of a complete hypothetical here, but let's imagine a scenario where you wanted to make a U-turn in the middle of a busy street in downtown Portland. What would happen if you decided to start this maneuver with a non-signalled right-hand turn? What if you then decided to complete the move with a non-signalled U-turn?I'd hit you. That's what, hypothetically, would happen. I'm not going to say I'd hit you hard - I'd leave quite a bit of my tires on the road in my attempt to stop and swerve. But in this hypothetical situation, there would be a (minor) collision.So the lesson here is that, when you come to Portland, you can expect people to be nice (like me), reasonably agreeable (like me), and, like me, not expecting strange driving behavior.

I'd like to welcome a particular woman to Portland.Now, I'm not sure what this particular woman's name is, and I'm not even sure that - at this point - I could even pick her up out of a lineup. But I do know that she happens to drive a dark maroon Toyota Prius with California plates. Speaking of cars, I'd like to talk to her (and to the world) in general about blinkers. You know, turn signals? The lever that we who drive on the right-hand side of the road have sticking out of the left side of our steering wheels? These are really useful for communicating intentions. For instance, and I'm speaking (typing?) of a complete hypothetical here, but let's imagine a scenario where you wanted to make a U-turn in the middle of a busy street in downtown Portland. What would happen if you decided to start this maneuver with a non-signalled right-hand turn? What if you then decided to complete the move with a non-signalled U-turn?I'd hit you. That's what, hypothetically, would happen. I'm not going to say I'd hit you hard - I'd leave quite a bit of my tires on the road in my attempt to stop and swerve. But in this hypothetical situation, there would be a (minor) collision.So the lesson here is that, when you come to Portland, you can expect people to be nice (like me), reasonably agreeable (like me), and, like me, not expecting strange driving behavior.

Restaurant: AprisaLocation: Corner of SE 8th & Division, Portland, OR 97214Date: February 24th, 2010Ordered: Taco SaladCost: $5.40Several of my coworkers and I decided to try Aprisa one day, as it's within walking distance of where I work. It's a surprising-looking place; it's entirely a drive-up restaurant that's roughly the size of a single-wide trailer. A cute-looking little place, but it doesn't scream "restaurant". I ordered my favorite, taco salad. It came in short time, as ordered. The water I asked for, while ordering, however, didn't come as ordered and I had to ask for it. Notably, my friend's burrito, ordered without cheese, was delivered (with verbal assurance) without cheese. Or so he was told; it actually came with cheese, as he later, unfortunately, found out. My taco salad, once I got a chance to eat it, wasn't all that great. It wasn't terrible, and was perhaps nicely authentic, but it wasn't all that great. The ingredients tasted fresh, but the proportions all seemed wrong. Still, if you're in the mood for authentic mexican food, it's a place to try.

burtonsimmons

burtonsimmons

And now for the first in what's sure to be a long series of new home ownership posts. This particular post is about a set of homemade washer and dryer stands. The problem started when I bought a new washer and dryer to go in my house. Being a home of modest size, the downstairs half-bathroom also doubles as the laundry room. Well, despite the measurements that I carefully took, I neglected, when purchasing the washer and dryer, to think about both the space the dryer door needed to open and the space behind the dryer for the ducting. Imagine, then, my dismay at the installation when I found that the dryer door opened about two inches before slamming into the side of the toilet. The solution had two parts: first, change from solid ducting to flexible ducting, which would allow the dryer to scoot back a couple inches. This allowed me to use the dryer temporarily, but there was the the issue of hitting the toilet and further clearance. Clearly the dryer need to be elevated... but at what cost? The associated pedestals for the washer and dryer were over $200 each. But a quick Google search yielded the result I needed. I found a site called Instructables.com which had an entry for exactly what I was looking for: a do-it-yourself washer and dryer stand. I set about building this set of stands (with my dad's help.) Along the way, we lightly customized the instructions, but the essence of what we built is featured there. For about $60 in wood and screws from Home Depot, we built a set of strong platforms featuring 1 1/8" plywood, a bunch of 2"x4" supports, and a couple coats of primer with a finish of high-gloss, shiny white paint. (I'd like to thank the Home Depot for cutting the plywood for me, too.)Getting the stands in place was no easy task, but upon completion, the finished product looks... finished. It looks good. The washing machine still shakes with the vibration of cleaning, but I monitored it and it didn't actually move at all. If I were building it again, I might add an extra half-inch to both the length and width, just to provide a little wiggle room. However, I'm satisfied at how they're working... for now.

burtonsimmons