fried fish head

The other day, I went to visit a foster mom that I am working with from Nigeria. Being the open minded person I am, I generally think it is OK to have parents from other countries work as foster parents since it develops cultural sensitivity in the foster children they help care for. However, I was rather taken back when I found this foster mom frying fish heads. I asked her what she was intending to do with that fish head. She replied "to eat it of course". I asked if she was serious and she said she was. I told her that most people toss the head and eat other parts of the fish in this country. She said in her country, they eat the entire fish, including the head.

I immediately began to remember the old "fish heads" song. The one that goes:

Fish heads, fish heads

roly poly fish heads

fish heads, fish heads

eat them up...yum!

Sure enough, when my appointment was over, the foster mom was crunching on fried fish heads--eyes and everything. At this point, I wasn't feeling too good and quickly made another appointment for a time not so close to dinner time and told her to enjoy the rest of her fish head.

(By the way, you can find the "Fish head" song on U-Tube!)

Imago's web site

Tonight at home group, a friend pointed out that he saw this image on Imago Dei's web site. I heard the picture was on a recent bulletin, but apparently it made it's way to the web site. At first I thought that this was a warning picture for child care workers(since Nibbles has a reputation of being impossible to watch). I guess that wasn't the case. I must say I don't remember when this picture was even taken. Nibbles is usually this way around Wah-Wah. If daddy was holder her, it would be a different scene.

Pictures from KC

Here's some pictures of our KC trip.


The Z man sandwich at Oklahoma Joe's. Pure heart clogging heaven!













Here we are outside Oklahoma Joe's. Definitely the highlight of the trip.
























Here's Nibbles at Zonker's enjoying her birthday cake.










Woogy and his cousins on the Python at Zonkers.

Nibbles is on her first horse back ride with her cousin.

The old coffee group.

A Forrest and Goose at Zonker's.













Woogy and his favorite cousin.
Don't ask how, but I managed get in there. I needed the jaws of life to get out however.
Woogy blowing out the candles while Nibbles was getting upset at all the singing.

Woogy after eating his cake.

Bloc Party at the Uptown. My only KC concert this year.

Back from Kansas

Despite a rough start with our vacation to Kansas City, I'd say that I really enjoyed myself. It's funny how a place you used to live can become a vacation destination.
First, our flight to Kansas was rough. It started in Portland when our flight to Denver was delayed an hour due to technical problems. Apparently, the auto pilot was broken and I began to wonder "Why do we need an auto pilot? We have two pilots don't we? Can't we depend on them?" By the time we got in the air, the pilot announced that Denver was backed up and we would have to stay in the air an extra hour (missing our connecting flight). Apparently Denver had only one working runway and high winds of up to 80mph. That was certainly the case when we landed. It felt like we only had one wheel on the ground as we rolled down the runway.
By the time we got off the plane in Denver, our connecting flight into KC was long gone. The airline informed us that there would be no other flights out of Denver until the morning. To help make everyone feel a little better, we got 40% off hotel rooms in the area. Feeling pretty frustrated, I had the airline fly us out on the next flight to KC. This was a 6:50am flight. It was fast approaching midnight, so after talking with Wah-Wah, we decided it would be easiest if we just spent the night in the airport. The airline was gracious enough to give us pillows (no bigger than your hand) and some blankets. Thank the Lord that the kids fell asleep fast, however I had one of the worst sleep nights of my life.
By the time morning came, we made it on our plane and landed in KC around 9am. Of course as luck would have it, the airline lost our luggage after promising me it was going out on the same flight we were. They told me that it would be in on the 10am flight, then the 11:40am flight, finally the 12:50 flight was sure to have it. Luckily, Wah-Wah's sister took us out to "The Smoke House" for some BBQ while we awaited our luggage.
By Thursday night, I had showered and changed clothes and was putting my horrible trip behind me. We were staying with Wah-Wah's sister's house in Stanley. Thursday was highlighted by coffee night at Homer's with Dash, Shake Dust, and A Forrest. Even Taz showed up. It was bittersweet to have everyone back who I had had coffee with for the past 4 years (actually I can't remember when it started). Sadly, the group is sort of on hiatus since Dash and Taz moving soon and Shake Dust has had Thursday classes. I have to say that I've missed Thursday coffee the most since moving to Oregon.
On Friday, we rented a car and I drove my family out to Wah-Wah's older sister's farm house out in the country. Woogy loves it there with his cousins. There are horses, cows, chickens, rabbits, ducks, fish, and pigs out there. I left my family there on the farm and drove 3 hours up to Des Moines to meet with an old friend from college, DS. DS now lives in Cedar Falls, so Des Moines was a nice half way point. We stayed with another friend, Mr. H, who still lives in Des Moines. We ended up going for a night out on the town and meeting a couple of other old college friends. Every time I go to Des Moines, I can't believe how much the city has changed. It's actually a livable city (didn't used to be when I lived there).
On Saturday, after saying "good bye" to DS and Mr.H, I drove an hour west to visit my sister and her new son in Harlen, Iowa. My sister had a baby a few months ago and this would be my first encounter with my new nephew. He looks nothing like our side of the family, but still cute. I think my sister is realizing how much work it is having a baby. Since there isn't a lot to do in Harlen, we went for a nice walk in the local park. After a few hours, I headed back to KC.
On Sunday, we went to our old church for the first time since leaving for Oregon. Woogy was so excited to be back at his old church and immediately started playing with A Forest's son, Goose. I crashed A Forest's new Sunday school class-Workmanship. I really liked the idea of Workmanship, being an art group that meets weekly and draws inspiration from the Bible. I wished that it had been there when I was still in KC.
After church, we headed out to Zonker's for the kids birthday party. Shake Dust and Golden came and brought NJ (who unfortunately is too young to enjoy a place like Zonkers). A Forest brought his two boys-Goose and Duck and all of Woogy's and Nibble's cousins came. I hope everyone had a good time. After Dust and A Forest left, the cousins and Woogy played for another couple of hours. The cousins don't get off the farm that much, so this was a real treat for them.
On Monday, I wanted to take the family to Science City, but unfortunately it was closed so we hung out at Crown Center for the afternoon. Woogy had a good time playing in the fountains until another kid ran right into him. Monday evening, A Forest and I went to a Bloc Party concert at the Uptown. Neither of us was that familiar with Bloc Party's music but we enjoyed it anyway.
Our last day, on Tues, we went to Deanna Rose Petting Zoo. I love that place. It's a great place to kill some time with the kids and it is free. However, Nibbles was starting to get sick, so she wasn't enjoying it as much as before. For lunch, we went to my favorite restaurant on Earth- Oklahoma Joe's. I had my favorite sandwich, the Z-man, with fries. Yes, I know it is a real artery clogger, but it tests like heaven. I would fly back to Kansas just for that sandwich. After lunch we went back to Zonker's to use the free coupons for the kids, but Nibbles was still feeling bad. Wah-Wah's sister took us to the airport, only to find that flights were delayed again. I was really nervous that we would have to spend another night in the Denver airport, but everything was backed up, so we made our connecting flight back to Portland and landed about 1am. Over all I had a great time going back to KC and was glad I could meet up with everyone again.

May's music

May was a pretty good month for some fine quality music. I can't think of anything good coming up next month, but here is what I picked up for this month:

Rosie Thomas Only With Laughter Can You Win. With this great album, my Rosie Thomas collection is complete. Rosie continues to be one of my main interest in music. Her albums are simply beautiful. Here on Rosie's second album, she sings about love, family, and God. Rosie uses more piano than on some of her other albums producing supremely tasteful folk songs. Rosie is like an island of peace in a furious sea.

Bjork Volta It's been a couple of years since Bjork's last album. Her last album was Medulla which was a experiment in vocalization , but Volta is an experiment in beats and world music. Bjork is one of the most creative and innovative artist around (as you could tell by the cover). I really dig the first half of the album. The songs are classic Bjork with experiments in sound and rhythm. The best is the opening track, the eco friendly Earth Intruders. Unfortunately half way through the album, it all falls flat. The last four tracks start blending together so much were you just don't care anymore. Bjork tries taking a stand on Declare Your Independence but it doesn't suit her.

Travis The Boy With No Name Properly the best new album this year. After their last album 13 memories got a mixed response, Travis return to what they do best, making pop friendly guitar jangles. Travis returns to being that band you listen to and think "I bet they're pretty nice guys". Their songs are catchy and timeless. Battleships is my favorite on the album. Singer Fran Healy uses battleships as a metaphor to describe himself and his significant other in the drudge of daily life. It kind of makes you reflect how hard it is keeping in a relationship with all the damage we take through out any given day.









A-Ha Analogue You might remember these guys from the 80's as the "Take On Me" one hit wonders. Back in 2000, they released a comeback album Minor Earth, Major Sky and have been on a roll ever since. A-ha is popular all over Europe but will likely never see success again in the states. Bands like Coldplay, Keane, and even Joy Electric have cited A-ha as a major influence in piano and keyboard pop. A-ha has modernize their sound but keep their catchy sythn pop style. Check out the title track.

reading Don

Since moving to Portland, I have developed a new appreciation for Don Miller. This could be due to the fact that he's a icon at Imago Dei, but also because he mentions a lot about Portland and Oregon in general in his books. Ever so often, I'll be driving down Burnside and see the "Stump Town Coffee" and think, oh yeah, that was in his book.

In Through Painted Deserts (which I just got done reading), Don writes about his first trip into Oregon which he made via Volkswagen bus with a friend he had recently met.

Unlike Blue Like Jazz ,which was a collection of essays, Don writes this as cross country spiritual journey. The main characters are Don, his friend Paul, and God who makes periodic appearances in the book.

As I read, I kind of felt like Don was in the beginning, that God is out there somewhere. He didn't see God in the concrete metropolis of Houston. Don becomes so disillusioned that he takes up an offer to drive to the northwest with the intention of not coming back anytime soon. I kind of envied Don for taking off in a van one day and driving till you run out of money. Through I have had thoughts like that when I was younger, I never had the courage to act on it.

Don and his friend Paul drive to the Grand Canyon and hike down it. They find they are pretty unprepared for the hike, yet Don found God alive in the sunrise in the canyon. Having seen the canyon myself (a long time ago) you have to appreciate God's creation and how long he took to make it.

After the Grand Canyon, Don drives up to California (where misadventures ensue) and finally into Oregon. Eventually Don ends up working in a country club outside Sisters , Oregon (another place I have recently visited). Don ends up sleeping outside in a tent with his friends most of the summer. He writes about how that was one of the best times in his life. He wrote how God provided everything in the forest and remembered the starry skies being breath taking every night (I really envied this because I've got a thing for starry skies). He begins to see God as a artist with his work in the sky above him each night. I began to wonder isn't it funny how we spend all our energy getting possessions, only to have to leave them behind to find ourselves and appreciate all God has created? With that said, I can't live an hour without my ipod.

Coming Home

After six months in this delightful green state (with beautiful weather), we are coming back to the mid west in June to enjoy the good old Kansas City summer (at least a week of it anyway). Wah-Wah has been wanting to get back to see her sisters again and decided it would be a good time to fly while Nibbles was still underage. Airline prices appear to be going up now to over $300 a ticket. They might go back down, but they might not, so I decided why not?
Our plans for what we are doing over June 6th through June 12th aren't set in stone yet. A good friend in Cedar Falls wants to meet up in Des Moines, so that might be a possibility. Wah-Wah is wanting to have a birthday party for Woogy and Nibbles with all the cousins from Randoul at Chuck E Cheese or Power Play. I know I wouldn't mind stopping by Homer's for Thursday night coffee (if that is still going on).
Lately I've also been missing KC food. The other day I went out to lunch at "Burgerville"(it's a local burger chain that serves only Oregon organic hamburgers). It's good but it is no "Backyard Burger." In fact, the six months I've been here I can't say I've found anything that match's "Oklahoma Joe's" or even "Planet Sub". BBQ isn't very big out here. Most people will tell you it isn't healthy and to have some humus instead. We do have our share of all the regular restaurants like McD's, Wendy's, etc., but they are outnumbered by organic healthy restaurants. I haven't found any dives in a gas station that will serve you a "Z-man" with more fries than you can eat. I haven't even found a pizza that could match "Papa Keno's" Sicilian pizza.
Most of the restaurants around here are ethnic. I do like the variety and trying new things, but I have only found one good restaurant that I would go back to. Yesterday, we took Wah-Wah out to a Cuban restaurant which I loved. I got some sort of turkey and strawberry sandwich with fried bananas. It was delicious but it was no "Dagwood's Dream" (at Planet Sub).
As much as I find myself settling in, I miss the KC food. Hopefully I can pick up a taste in a few weeks.

April's music

April wasn't a great month for new music. My hopes now are for May with new releases from Bjork and Travis. Worked picked up pace a lot, so I didn't have a lot of music shopping time, but I did find a couple of goodies.

Rosie Thomas These Friends Of Mine--I fell in love with Rosie's music this month and it started with this album. Rosie is a singer/songwriter from Seattle who's music really hits the heart. She explores such themes as love, friendship, God and family. Listen to any of her tunes and you cannot deny that she can sing. Her earlier work is a pretty easy listen despite that she is on a indie label. That's why I really dig this album, it's less accessible and a little more daring. This album has a pretty relaxed feel with less production. It was recorded in various living rooms, but that doesn't demise the quality. Rosie is joined by Dension Witmer, Dave Bazan (Pedro the Lion) and Sufjan Stevens so the their is plenty of talent to draw from. Listen to "Kite Song" and you'll find that it is hard to keep your eyes dry.


Mew Frengers--I wrote about this group last month when I saw them live. This is Mew's first album and I'd have to say that it is just as good as their latest And the Glass Handed Kites. The lead singer's voice reminds me of the guy from Sigur Ros only it's in English. "Snow Brigade" remains my favorite Mew song. It's catchy anthem that sadly never got any air play.

Weekend in the high desert

This weekend I decided we needed a little get away before I become "on call" at work for the upcoming week. The weather was suppose to be awesome so we decided to head out to the "high desert" east of the cascades. I didn't know Oregon had deserts, but apparently it does. It's not a desert with cactuses and sand, but it was drier than Portland. We ended up driving out to Bend Oregon. This was our first stop at White River Falls. I really love waterfalls and insisted on seeing this. It was pretty far out into the middle of nowhere.

This was about as close as you could get to the falls without swimming. I ran into these guys that said they had hiked a couple miles into the canyon and camped. I thought that was pretty "Wild at Heart."

Here is Nibbles at the bottom of White River falls. Monty has turned into a nice travel campion ever since I drove with him out to Oregon. He likes the hikes, and I know if a savage grizzly bear ever attacks Monty will be right there defending me while I flee in terror.

This is Cove Palisades State Park were we stopped for a picnic. Lots of people swimming, fishing, and boating. Unfortuately we didn't want to take the time for a dip believing that the hotel pool was going to be awesome. We were sorely mistaken.

This is the Peter Skene Ogden Bridge. At the view point, you get a little veritgo looking down into the canyon. There is a big sign posted that dogs are not allowed at the view point. Apparently a lot of dogs have been lost to the canyon. Monty wouldn't even look into the canyon.

This is Detroit Lake up in the Cascades. I thought it was beautiful. Someone at work told me that I would love the drive from Bend to Portland, and they were right.

Here's the fam on a dock on Detroit Lake. Wish we had a boat.

After driving through the Cascades, Wah-Wah really wanted to stop at Silver Falls (which was out of the way). We had seen the southern falls but not the northern ones. Since I really dig waterfalls, I thought it was worth the extra miles.

This is the northern most falls of Silver Falls. It was a pretty easy hike back to it. Monty actually ventured into the water a little.

Broom Ball

This weekend I got to have my first experience playing Broom Ball with my Imago Dei home community. Ironically, I'm told that Broom Ball is a game that came from the Midwest but I never heard of it in the 15 years that I lived in the there. Broom Ball is played on ice, but you don't wear ice skates. This is a pretty good thing since I can't skate worth beans. Everything else is sort of like hockey accept you use a ball instead of a puck and broom sticks instead of hockey sticks. As the game went on, more balls were added which keep everyone pretty busy.

We played at the Lloyd Center which is a mall with an indoor ice rink. Our opponents were the Mt.Tabor home group (which used to be part of the group but split off). All together I'd say there were over 30 people out on the ice. I didn't find the ice too difficult to walk on and I only took a few spills. With that many people and 5 balls rolling over the place, I don't think anyone kept score. I made at least one shot, but no one noticed.

Over all, I had a good time but came to realize how out of shape I am. About an hour into it, I was pretty tired and sore. I thought all those weekends of working out at the gym and bike riding would help, but apparently I'm still pretty out of shape (or I'm just getting too old).

Mew in Portland

Surreal, avandte garde, art rock, prog rock, psychedelic, space rock, and dream pop where names I thought of to describe the sound of Mew who played Portland last Weds night. Mew is the most unique sounding band I heard since Sigur Ros. Their live show was what I expected--dream like images (such as cats playing fiddles, foxes on guitars, and flicking angels). Weird things. Lead singer Jonas Bjerres (from Denmark) says that his music and imagines comes from his frequent nightmares. Listen to the "Zookeeper's boy" on the band's myspace page and you'll wonder how he comes up with such a bizarre yet poppy songs. Also check out "Snow Brigade" and you'll be hooked on the catchy and haunting beautiful chorus.

Most of the concert leaned heavy on the band's debut album "Frengers" but they did play some on their gems from their newest album "And the glass kites." I've been wanting to post that album on my blog, but I find the album cover rather disturbing (it has the band member's heads cracking open with another head inside it). Frankly, the album cover kept me away from discovering this band a while ago, but it just goes to show you, you can't judge an album by it's cover.

Anyway, Portland continues to amaze me with all the shows that come to town. Already I've seen Keane, Violet Burning, Joy Electric, Snow Patrol, and Mew in the 5 months I've been here. We've got Laura Veirs and Placebo coming soon and David Bazon (Pedro the Lion) in May.

March music

March was sort of a slow month for music. Not a lot of new discoveries that I'm really excited about. Here's some stuff that I picked up however

The Church el momento siguiente The Church continue to amaze me with their vast collection of albums. El momento siguiente is their second "unplugged album". One of the things I love about The Church is that their music is amazing electric or acoustic. Electric they create a beautiful ethereal sound that transcends into haunting beautiful soundscapes, but acoustically they create a very intimate feel that is best listened with candlelight. This was actually a rare find. Previously the only way to get this album was through the band's website for $30. This was one those brilliant discoveries I made while looking through a local record store. I saved about $10.


Joy Electric The Otherly Opus I had heard Ronnie Martin stumble through some of these songs a few month's ago in Portland. I'd say they sound much better on the album, but that's because Ronnie wasn't familiar with them live. This is a vast improvement over his last album Ministry of Archers which I never cared for that much. It is along the same lines, but this time it just works better.

Peter Murphy aLive for Love The former led singer of Bauhaus brings a middle eastern feel to his solo catalog. Some of his more recent work has leaned heavy towards lots of middle eastern sound, but in this concert he changes the arrangements of such alternative gems "Indigo Eyes" and "Cuts You Up" to fit his current style. The album comes off as intimate candle light music.

U2 The Rare Collection Even the rabid U2 fan that I am, some tracks eluded me. No more. I have to admit, I didn't not obtain this album through conventional means. To due so, I would have had to spend $140 through itunes to get the 10 new songs I don't already have. Stand out tracks include "I Love You Like Mad" which could have been a decent B-side, "Leviatate" and "Flower Child" both outtakes from "All You Can't Leave Behind". "Beautiful Ghost" apparently didn't fit on the "The Joshua Tree". It's a beautiful opening song that could have taken the place of "Where the Streets Have No Name". It's a organ song with that builds with Bono speaking poetry. The high light for me is their cover of Cole Porter's "Night and Day". Previously this song was impossible to find except on the charity album "Red Hot and Blue". Bono puts so much passion into this song that comes across as pure bittersweet desperation. This song is really special to me since it marked a turn in musical direction for u2 while rumors of their break up floated around.

Innocence Mission Befriended Instead of buying their new album "We Walk in Song", I decided to take a chance on some older stuff. The opening song "Tomorrow On the Runway" is one of those songs that I can't get past. It's such a beautiful song about being left behind while someone else moves on to better things. The album got a lot of subtle keyboards which gives the album more of a organic feel than previous albums.

video games

I don't usually discuss video games that much and I don't believe I have ever blogged on them before, however "Lego Star Wars I & II" are worth a comment or two. I have always had video games in my house but seldom owned more than about 3 or 4 at a time. I have never wanted to be a video game junky who spends hours playing and ignoring his kids. Sometimes I would sneak in a game or two if Woogy was preoccupied with something. About six months ago, he decided he wanted to play with me. I thought it would be cool if we could have a activity we could do together besides play Thomas the Train, and it isn't like I was going to introduce him to "Grand Theft Auto" (which I don't own or will ever own).

Since Woogy likes "Star Wars" as much as I do, I introduced him to "Lego Star Wars". I have to admit that I have played a lot of Star Wars video games, but "Lego Star Wars" is the best of them all. In short, you play though the movies as Lego Star Wars figures. As far as difficulty goes, it's pretty easy and Woogy hasn't had a lot of problems completing the levels. These games however actually have a educational value to them such as problem solving, sequencing, and cooperation. Every level has several puzzles the player has to complete first and figure out what order some things need to be arranged in for the player to move on to the next level. The player must switch characters often since each character has different abilities in helping to complete the puzzle.
The creators also added some humor that any Star Wars fan will appreciate. You've got Storm Troopers relaxing drinking coffee while the Death Star goes unfinished, Darth Vader showing Luke a picture of him and Padme before he was born. There is even Darth Vader spinning out of control in his Tie Fighter not wearing a seat belt.
I think most importantly how ever it has given Woogy and I something to do together when it is rainy outside (like it is nearly everyday). I've had to put limits on it, because Woogy would spend hours playing it if he could. I've also use it as a reward he can earn by doing things for himself like getting dressed and brushing his teeth. It seems to be working too well. Nibbles is wanting to join in now.

eating problems

My wife has had eating problems her whole life. She grew up with eating disorders (balimia and anorexia). Now she believes she has IBS (irritable Bowel Syndrome). For the past few years she has had problems digesting foods causing her stomach to swell up. Her only relief has been when she was pregnant with Nibbles. Last December, she really started having problems.
She insists that there is really nothing the doctors can do. She has tried a few prescriptions, but none of them seem to work for too long. Now, on the advice of her boss, she is trying to cut out milk and wheat out of her diet. The bad news is that it seems to be working, meaning she can't eat those products. I couldn't imagine cutting out all wheat and milk products. No pastas, no cakes, no ice cream, etc.
Wah-Wah is understandably cranky with her new diet. She will make a pizza for the family and then have to eat a salad. That's got to suck! She has resorted to shopping at "Trader Joe's" (Oregon's all organic grocery store) but is struggling to find enough foods that will last the week. She's going to try goat's milk, but is afraid that it will be disgusting. We also have to eat at a lot of Chinese restaurants since they don't use hardly any wheat or dairy products. Luckily, Portland is full of Chinese restaurants , but I miss going to pizza parlors.
I wonder how much of this was brought on by years of having a eating disorder. I've heard they can do real damage to your system. Interesting enough, no one else in her family has this problem.

Public speaking 101

I read somewhere that public speaking is one of the most common fears. This is certainly the case for me. My stuttering has made public speaking a phobia of mine. So it is ironic that I now have to give a three day presentation every couple of months as part of my job.
A few weeks ago my boss said he would like me to be a "Boy's Town Trainer" for Trillium. Brief History : "Boy's Town" is a behavior model based on the program in Omaha that started in the early 1900's by Father Flanagan. He was one of the first people to recognize wayward youth as a societal problem. He believed strongly in that providing guidance, youth could turn their lives around.
Anyway, Boy's Town is a pretty big deal in my field and I thought I would be going into our foster family homes and educating them on the literature of Boy's Town. Turns out, I'm going to be presenting a three day work shop for the entire agency along with various therapists and psychologist every so often.
I spend all of last week in training learning the material. I hate sitting all week listening to a lecture. Last Thursday and Friday I got a crash course in public speaking and using Power Point presentations. It should be noted that I weaseled my way out of public speaking in college by taking a short little "interpersonal communications" class at the community college, so I have no experience. I also used to fake being ill in high school to get out of giving speeches. Now suddenly I'm giving Power Point presentation to people with much more education than me. Anyway, I got some tips such as "reading less from my notes" "answer questions more clearly" "stop looking at the ceiling", etc. Kind of wished I hadn't weaseled out of "public speaking 101".

Worst movies ever

I don't like to gripe much (every one knows that), but sometimes I feel robbed when I sit down and watch a movie that is so awful, I feel like I've lost two hours of my life that I will never get back. These are three of the worst movies I can think of. I'm sure there is more, but these are the ones that I can think of that have no artistic value, horrible acting, a stupid story line, and just plain pointless. These are the ones that I remember being more grumpy at the end of the movie than when it started.

The first one is Van Helsing. Looks like it could be a winner, I mean it's got Hugh Jackman and it's action movie about killing vampires. When you watch the special effects, it's hard to believe that it wasn't made in the 70's. The special effects are that bad. The comic relief wasn't much accept a priest who wasn't funny.



The "Wicker Man" inspired me to write this list last night as I was watching it. What's the point of the opening scene, other than it keeps playing over as a nightmare in the lead characters head? If you haven't seen this movie, it's about a cop who gets a letter from his ex girlfriend asking for help finding her missing child (which is of course his). Anyway, he goes to a island that is a pagan female worshipping society where he ultimately meets his doom as a sacrifice to mother earth. It's bad enough we are watching this poor guy look in vain for his daughter only to be betrayed by everyone and burned alive (after getting a basket of bees on put on his face, followed by a both his legs being broken by a club). I'm sorry if I spoiled it for anyone, but this movie really sucks.


This was the last movie that I actually walked out of the theater because it was so bad. I later tried to watch it on video (I was hoping I might have missed something the first time)when I was working a overnight shift at work and I still couldn't finish it. This came out right around the time of "Batman and Robin" so I decided to boycott Uma Thruman movies for a while. It was pretty disturbing to watch Sean Connery in a kelt, but then to watch him go off on his diabolical plan to destroy the weather (why would he want to do that anyway?) just made me want to hurl. It's too bad because I really liked Sean Connery at one time, but to watch this and "The League of extraordinary Gentlemen" I really have to cast doubt. Anyway, the hero's in this awful movie are based on an old TV show, but these ones tend to be far more annoying the way they drive 100 mph while being chased by bad guys and sipping their hot tea.

blah

Maybe it is the weather, but I've been feeling rather "blah" lately. When I say "blah", I mean that I don't seem to be very excited about anything. I guess I'm not happy with my job. The truth is I'm not feeling very challenged at my job. I really like the people I work with, they seem to be some of the most open minded people I've met. Turn over is very low and the overall moral is very good. Still, I'm not happy.
The opposite was true back with my job in Independence. Moral was low. Even my boss openly bad mouthed her supervisor. Yet I felt challenged and like I was actually doing something. My role as a Foster Care Consultant is pretty minimum and I don't have a lot of say (if any) on how the child's case is going. I see maybe a kid a day and the rest of the time I'm blogging. With one kid, I've been told just take him out for fun and work on "social skills". I'm not even suppose to talk that much to the foster parent. I'm thinking "why did I even need to go to college to do this?" Actually the money is really good when you consider how much I do. My boss says that it will get busier, but he's been saying that for 3 months.
I've called the state and ask that they reactivate my application. Everyone says that the state social workers are over worked, but that sounds like I would at least keep busy. The pay is better too. Maybe I should be careful what I wish for.

Some Good music for Feb

In a effort to keep up with A Forrest, I present my list of some recent purchases this past month. I should note there haven't been a lot of good new releases this year, so I've gone back and picked up some oldies from some great bands.
The Brothers Martin The Brothers Martin
So far this has been my favorite new album this year. It sounds like what you would expect when Joy Electric and Starflyer 59 come together- a great electronic rock album. Not a bad song on the album. The Martins never disappoint.






Teenage Fanclub Howdy!
Back in 1991, these guys beat out Nirvana's Nevermind for Spin's album of the year. Sadly, America never picked up on them. These guys write perfect jangle guitar pop songs. All three sing beautiful harmonies and you can hear the Beach Boys Pet Sounds influence in all their material. Can't say enough good things about this band. Howdy! was not much of a commercial success but songs like "Near You","I Need Direction", and "Cul De Sac" are so catchy that you will sing them all day in your head all day.






The Church Sometime Anywhere
The Church's sound have been described as beautiful, dreamy, mystic, ethereal , and elegant. All of which are apparent on this album. I have nearly all 19 of their albums and I can't understand why they remain a relatively unknown band. Most people would recognize their hit in the 80's "Under the Milky Way", but that was just a taste of what this band is capable of. Steve Kilby's voice is light and airy but very grounded. Marty Wilson Piper is a phenomial guitarist and has perfected the jangle guitar sound. On this album, the duo open with the mystical "Day of the Dead" and then dive into a Middle Eastern sound. "Authority" has a beautiful guitar riff.


Catherine Wheel Ferment
("Catherine Wheel" is the name of a torture device in the middle ages, not a person.)
Another band that never caught on here in the states. This band has been described as "shoegazers" which they rejected. There guitars are out front with Rob Dickenson's vocals just a tempo behind them. Rob's vocals are breathless and they are surrounded by lush and swirling guitars. This is Catherine Wheel's debut and their second album Chrome is equally good. Unfortunately, they would then shift to more of a standard hard rock sound.

Another weekend, another camera

This weekend was an extended weekend for me (since I didn't work on Friday and I have Monday off) so I really wanted to do something different besides stay around the house. So Wah-Wah and I decided to go on a little weekend trip to Seaside Oregon.
Seaside is about an hour and half west of Portland. It's a cozy little tourist town that is suppose to be kid friendly. Unfortunately both kids were getting over colds, so they were pretty fussy.
Seaside has a nice promenade right by the ocean with lots of little cafes, art galleries, and stores. After we walked around a bit, we walked out on the beach were Monty knocked my new camera out of my hand and on to the beach. As luck would have it, sand got on camera and now it is not working. Brand new camera too. I'll try to take it in to the shop, but who knows? (By the way, the pictures are from the internet, not from my camera.) Anyway, that put me in a rotten mood that afternoon and the weather wasn't great either.
Saturday evening, we drove on Sunset beach. This was a pretty cool beach because you could actually drive your car on the beach for miles. The sand was packed enough that, our Impala could drive across it. It was pretty cool watching the sun set on the ocean while your driving across the sand.
Sunday we got up and hit Fort Stevens State Park which was beautiful. The picture above of the ship wreak is from there. After that we went to the Seaside aquarium which wasn't much more than an exotic fish store. They did have an area where you could feed a bunch of seal lions. Woogy really got a kick out of dropping the fish in the seal lions mouth. Unfortunately he smelled like fish for the rest of the day.
On the way back, we stopped at Haystack Beach (several scenes from the "Goonies" was filmed there). Wah-Wah and the kids were tired so Monty and I took a walk on the beach were I briefly thought of throwing the dog in the ocean for breaking my camera. But I guess he didn't mean to do it.

Starting school

Lately I've been struggling with the idea of signing Woogy up for kindergarten this fall. I recently enrolled him in a Preschool and I had to decide if I wanted him in the 4-5 yr class or the 3-4 class. It was a tough decision because Wah-Wah and I have spent a lot of time thinking about what would be best for Woogy. I decided to put him in the 3-4 class. Deep down I just don't feel that Woogy is ready for kindergarten. So far his teachers disagree and say that he is doing fine, but I don't want what happened to me to happen to Woogy.
I had a pretty rough start in school. When I went to preschool, my mom told me I came home crying once because I didn't want to be nailed to a cross like Jesus was. According to my mom, my preschool teachers gave a rather graphic account of Jesus's death. I don't remember a whole lot more. Then there was my kindergarten teacher who use to slap my left hand for writing with it and have me sit in the corner if I still did it. I also remember being locked in the bathroom when I was misbehaved. A few years later, I witnessed this really heavy kid push her down in the hall and break her arm. I was so happy. A few years later, my kindergarten teacher was fired on child abuse charges. Too late for me.
I remember my first grade teacher was a witch too. She used to tear up my pictures when I was trying to draw in class. I hated her for that. By the time I hit second grade, my teacher referred me to therapy. I struggled in school for a while and began to hate it. It wasn't until we moved to California where I was held back in the 6th grade that I began to make passing grades. My experiences make me pretty uneasy about starting Woogy in school. He has made a lot of progress since moving to Portland, but I feel I want him to have every edge possible. In my experience working with kids, it's the older ones in the class which do the best. I guess I feel that I don't want to hold him back later.

Keane in Portland

Last night I attended my first major Portland concert. Keane played last night to a packed small theater in downtown Portland. I went with this guy "AB" and his wife and had a great time. AB and I have similar taste in music with the exception he likes some "old school" rock. I've never got into "Zepplin" or anything like that.
The opening act was pretty bad. I can't even remember the name, but they were pretty blusy with extended guitar solos that I didn't care for. A lot of other people in the audience liked them however.
Keane took the stage shortly after opening with "Put it Behind You". Tom Chaplin, the lead singer, was his usual gracious self and worked the excitement of the crowd well. Tom talked about how he enjoyed traveling up the gorge in Portland on the bands day off. He even broke out a guitar and played an acoustic version of "Open your eyes". The band played a rather long set playing nearly every song off both their albums. They ended their set with "Bedshaped" and thanked the crowd a thousand times.
Afterwards, I bought a reasonably priced T-shirt (only $30). Unfortunately I had to pay another $10 for parking, but after getting such a deal on the T-shirt, what was another $10? Anyway, AB and I will be seeing Snow Patrol later in Feb, so I better start saving for another shirt.

Art weekend at Imago

This weekend was art weekend at Imago. Our church put on a art show at the Urban Grind coffee house. On Friday, Michael Pritzel and Michael Roe did a acoustic show calling it "Roe vs. Pritzel." I almost missed this awesome performance but "A Forest " alerted me that it was in the area. Thank goodness he keeps up on Michael Pritzel better than I do.
I've seen Michael Pritzel perform many times (as the Violet Burning), but never acoustically, so this show was a real treat. This had to be the best performance I've seen. Michael Roe and Pritzel swapped songs off each other and it was great. I was impressed with Michael Roe even though I've never heard of him before. He was in a Christian rock band called the "77's". Both guys were hysterical and took jabs at each other all night. Michael did a great version of "Oceania" using a drum machine with hip-hop beats (I've never heard the song like that before). It was one of those shows that makes you fall in love with music again.
The next evening Imago Dei artist put on a show at the coffee house. I can't believe all the raw talent that Imago has. On the stage, there were musical acts , short films, and poetry readings. The walls were covered with paintings by local artist. They even had a kids play area so the kids didn't get bored. The evening was capped off by a brilliant dance performance of U2's "All I Want is You".
I would show pictures but I haven't figured out how to post pictures with my new camera yet.

Blue Like Jazz in Portland

When I first started going to Imago Dei, I told people I heard of the church through reading "Blue Like Jazz" by Don Miller. A lot of people rolled their eyes. A friend of mine said that "we had a nice little church until that book came out". Now the church is over a thousand people with more people coming every Sunday. All the new people I've talked to say they read the "Blue Like Jazz" and they wanted to see what Imago is all about.
Don't get me wrong, Imago welcomes the new people and is trying to raise money to build a bigger church, but no one is sure how big Imago will get. I'm just amazed how influential a book can get. Don Miller has led so many to Imago Dei.
I have since started rereading "Blue Like Jazz" again and notice that a lot of the locations that Don talks about are in my neighborhood. I first noticed "Stumptown coffee" which Don mentions he frequents often. I then recognized Lauralhurst Park from the book which is right down the street from where I work. It really is a nice big park in the middle of the city. Also I'm right down the street from Reed College where Don writes about being a radical but brilliant college full of liberal ideas. I'll have to check out their naked parade.
I want to drive up Mt.Tabor sometime in the evening to view the city which Don mentions as being beautiful. Mt. Tabor is only a few blocks from my house. Lastly, I briefly met Pastor Rick who Don writes a lot about in the book. He's a big guy. I wanted to tell him how impressed I was that he started Imago is his own living room, but I was too shy. It's pretty cool to read a book and see it all in front of you .

Joy Electric weekend

My year of concerts has officially started. Ronnie Martin (the Joy Electric guy) was in town for a couple of concerts this weekend. Since I don't know anyone else that likes Joy Electric around here, I went to these shows by myself (which I really didn't mind that much). On Friday, Joy Electric was playing in Vancouver (which is right across the bridge) at a small little church coffee house called "the Portal". It was actually pretty crowded and there was no one there to take my money, so I got a free show.
Ronnie opened up with "Sheffield Youth" from his new EP. He joked around about how he still uses these 20 year old tapes for playing his samples when he plays live, when his brother uses his ipod. He was accompanied by a drummer and played a lot of his standard material. Good show.
The next day I took the kids to my gym to go swimming. I swear I have never been in a more chlorinated pool in my life. My swim suit actually changed color after I washed it out. My eyes stung so bad that I washed them out for two hours and they still hurt. I'm not exaggerating either, but I think the water was mostly bleach.
On Sunday, I went to a small church here in Portland to see Joy Electric do an afternoon acoustic show. Despite a low turn out, I really enjoyed that show. Ronnie opened up with "the North Sea" and played a few from his first album "Melody" all on an acoustic guitar. He also played a new one from his forth coming project "the Brothers Martin" and three songs from his next album due out.
After the show, I went up to see him and he said that I looked familiar. I told him that I was at his Vancouver show and that I seen him a dozens of times in KC. He said "welcome to the Pacific Northwest."
A couple more shows are on the horizon that I'll be going with this one guy from my home group. Keane at the end of the month and Snow Patrol next month.

Working with damaged kids

I don't mean to sound like a bleeding heart, but life just isn't fair for a lot of people. I have finally started to get into my job at Trillium more and actually have a larger case load. I've worked with troubled kids for a while and seen a lot of tough cases, but the kids that I work with here are the most difficult I've seen.
I work as a foster care consultant with Trillium. Basically Trillium is a agency that sets up therapeutic foster homes and places kids in them that are in DHS custody. My job is to go out to the foster home and work with the kids. These kids are from all ages and nearly everyone has Reactive Attachment Disorder ( RAD). On the list of mental health disorders, RAD is one of the worst.
A child develops RAD when they are unable to emotionally attach themselves to a parent. The child's basic biological need to be loved and have their basic needs met never happens. Which makes RAD such a tough disorder to treat is that no one really except the biological parent can fill this need. The bond between parent and child needs to be established early in life or it almost never happens and there is no way therapeutically to go back and form that bond.
The kids that I am working with are very damaged kids. All of them have been torn from their parents at some point, often because their parents are unfit. It's interesting that everyone of them wants to return to their parents despite the fact that in most cases, the parents have abandoned them. As their counselor, I have to find ways to explain to them that they are never going home again. These kids are mad, and for good reason.
The other day, I was talking to a girl who was out of control. She said that she didn't care anymore. She didn't care if she ever had friends because she has to move around so much. I could really understand and told her she was right.
I've got another child that is only 4 years old that has been shipped around a lot due to her behavior. My son is 4 and I couldn't image him being shipped around to foster homes.
I've got another girl who yelled at a mother and baby in the mall claiming "it isn't fair!" We of course had to hospitalize her. This afternoon I have to go tell a pair of twins that they have to move again because their current foster mom's health is failing.
I've worked with some tough kids in the past, but they at least had some sort of connection with their parents (even though it wasn't very healthy). I don't have the answers to make some of these issues other than to tell people "stop having kids if you don't want them"

my weekend

This weekend we took the kids to the Portland Children's Home. I would show pictures, but I apparently left my camera there. First off, the kids really enjoyed the museum. They had lots of stuff for the kids to play with (but nothing I haven't seen before). Unfortunately, I got really bored, so bored that I felt like I was walking around in a daze, and apparently that's when I left my camera behind.
I don't know why I was so bored, but I've been really tired lately. I feel like I could sleep all day. I've drank so much coffee, that caffeine has sort of lost it's effect. My brother says that it is probably the weather. It has been raining pretty much nonstop for a week now. It has been a while since we've seen the sun here in Portland.
The Children's museum wasn't a complete bust for me though. When I was walking by the theater, I heard some really good music. It was a local band called "Rye Hollow" was playing before an audience of kids and their parents. The music reminded me of "Over the Rhine", sort of an Americana sound. Most of the kids weren't interested, but some of the parents were. I certainly didn't expect to hear a pretty good concert in the Children's museum.
I did search the museum for my camera, but never found it. It was a older digital camera, but I really liked it because it was easy to use. I guess I'll have to get another one.
After the Children's museum, we went out with my brother to a rather unique restaurant called "PB and Ellie's". Wow, it was like someone made a cafe with my family in mind. First they had big train table in the middle of the restaurant that the kids could play with. The kids could also draw in chalk on the walls. This place had lots of board games you could play while you waited for your food. A large part of the menu was geared towards kids and they even had a baby menu. All the food was organic, nothing fried. I got a hamburger (which was organic) and it was served with Baked Sweet Potato Fries which were really pretty tasty. Even the drinks were made all of natural flavors. I might add that it was the best burger I've had since coming to Portland.

Our first Holidays in Oregon

Our first holiday season in Oregon is over. I'd say that I enjoyed seeing the lights at the Grotto was the most memorable event but the season was enjoyable considering the circumstances of being so far away from family and friends.
As usual, I got sick right before X-mas but was over it soon. Unfortunately everyone else got sick too. We drove to Newport the weekend of Xmas to be with my folks. My uncle from Albany stopped by and we spent the day walking on the beach.
The ocean is much different in the winter than in the summer. It's much rougher and more windy, but awesome to watch.
On Sunday, Wah-Wah and I went to a restaurant on the beach and went for a walk on the harbor 15 mins before a storm came. We had just enough time to see the sea lions that live there eating hand outs from the restaurants. Unfortunately, Wah-Wah was getting sick at this time so we had to head back.
X-mas is always overwhelming on the kids. This year we let them open one gift every hour so they could at least play with their gift before they moved on to their next gift. We bought Woogy a Leapster game system this year. Out of the three games I bought him, he only likes one. Nibbles is into hand bags so we got her a couple of purses that she liked.
Since Wah-Wah and I have no time off yet, we had to head back to be at work on Tuesday. Over the weekend I taught Woogy of to bowl which he seemed to really enjoy. On New Year's Eve, we went to hear Don Miller speak at Imago Dei. Don is sort of a celebrity at Imago. Most of the people that attend are there because they read "Blue Like Jazz". Don hadn't spoken in a while, so he had a full house. He's a great speaker. Very entertaining and humble. Don spoke about playing the script that God has for you in your life. He insists that his life is very dull. Afterwards, we attended one of our home groups party. I had a good time and was introduced to a German card game about bean trading. It's hard to explain, but it was fun.
unfortunately, the kids couldn't last until midnight, so we had to leave a little early under the usual fussing and crying when the kids get tired.