It's been a good couple days

Earlier this week I was considering taking the train up to Canada for a few days, since I was getting so bored sitting around in the basement, downloading music and generally being a lazy slob. And because my natural state is a lazy slob it's quite a feat that I reached a limit. But I stuck around here because it was the Timbers last home game on Thursday and I promised my indoor soccer team I'd actually show up this weekend (forgot last week. oooops.), making any trip to Vancouver rather short and expensive. As it turned out, I'm pleased I didn't run away to Canada.

The Timbers put us and themselves out of our collective misery on Thursday by eliminating any chance of making the playoffs, losing 2-1. It was both a heartbreaking game and typical of how this season has played out. We scored first and continued to dominate the game. Then one of our central defenders was given a red card in the first half. I've only seen players get red cards in the first half maybe a handful of times, ever, but it's happened to the Timbers four or five times this season. Though a man down, we continued to possess the ball and outplay Charleston, and yet Charleston got hold of the ball and scored two, the winner coming in the 89th minute. Despite the loss, it was a fun night. The team tried, there wasn't a lot of negativity in the stands and I was just happy to be surrounded by a group of people that love to yell and sing and support a team through thick and thin. There were a few smoke bombs, a lot of pogoing and of course gallons of cheap beer. And it's always nice to see 13,000+ people come out on a school night to cheer on their local club, even if a lot of them are only their for the $2 beers.

Friday, the hangover caused me to hangout in the cool, dark basement and read the news most of the day. The roommate came home and dragged me out to our mutual friend's band's show, and I left from there to head downtown and watch one of my all-time favorite bands, Bad Religion, for the first time. Well ok, I saw them at the Warp tour in Texas a few years ago, but that hardly counts, right? They put on a pretty decent show, and aside from the dumbass that dove off the fifteen-foot tall amplifier stack and crushed a bunch of oblivious people on the dance floor, the crowd was decent, too. There were a few kids there, which is always heartening in these days where it seems punkrock is only followed by a bunch of old-timers.

Today was one of those days that makes me glad to live in Portland. Warm and crisp, downtown shone in the backdrop of a clear blue sky, and my indoor soccer team drank beer in an open-walled bar after our game, soaking in both the sun and the breeze. I had a delicious beer and a cider I'd never tried before, and when I came home from that there was a stack of new CDs that mailman had delivered.

There's another show tonight with my roommates' band, but I was content to stay at home and write you this very boring blog. You're welcome. :D

a few pics

Click for a larger view.

Mt. Hood. Dunno how many times I've posted a pic of this thing, but it's so close to Portland that it's usually the first area I head to when I want to camp. At the time of this picture I was trying to find an alternate route to a remote campsite and wasn't quite sure where I was.

Now this is how logging should be done, leaving lots of big trees scattered about. Often logggers will leave the required number of trees only along the edges and clear out the middle Difficult to tell if it was just a fire, logged, or logged and burned. Fireweed (the purple flowers) makes it all the better.


Summit Lake, the campground I eventually ended up at. No one was there the entire three days I camped. Fish were jumping, ducks playing with each other woke me up at dawn, and the campsite was right up against the water.