15 posts tagged “friends”
We had a great time hanging with cool friends from our church over the Memorial Day weekend. We spent two days in Central Oregon at Lake Billy at the Cove Palisades state park. While everyone else spent the nights in tents, we opted to stay at a bed & breakfast nearby. Yes, this was for Agi's big-belly benefit but I also enjoyed the showers. We went on a big hike up the nearby cliffs, went swimming, enjoyed Chip's home-made brew, enjoyed good conversations, played chess and watched as a young pilot from our church named Brandon took others up in his plane over the lake. Very cool.
Monday was the Memorial Day holiday and also Agi's 32nd birthday. I am convinced she is the hottest 32 year old on the planet. We drove over to visit our buddies Jeff & Anne S. in Eugene. Besides Kalen, Jeff is another good friend from Davis who recently moved to Oregon. We'd love to have them up in Portland but Jeff has already established himself as a hot-shot oncologist in Eugene and is regularly featured on the radio as "the Cancer Answer Man." Although I had written Agi a sonnet for her 30th birthday, this time I opted for no card and just got her some nice earrings.
For dinner, we went to a pub/burger place along the river. Amazingly, a bald eagle provided some spectacular and nerve-racking entertainment for all the customers out on the terrace. A little duckling was paddling quickly down the river while a big bald eagle would swoop in and try to nab him. The eagle missed three times in a row as the duckling dropped underwater just in time while two other birds flew interference trying to, apparently, fight off the eagle. Each time the eagle went down and missed the crowd gasped and cheered (and Jeff, very appropriately for the U. of Oregon, shouted "Go ducks" to the amusement of those around us...) The eagle's fourth attempt was successful however, and the crowd collectively grimaced and said "ooohh" as the little guy was plucked up in the eagle's talons. He probably had some eaglings to feed himself...
Here's some pictures of our very fine weekend.
We flew from Hungary to Portland about a week ago and we've settled back into the beautiful Pacific Northwest. When we're away coming back it's always striking seeing the massive amount of green trees. And it's nice that jetlag is never bad coming this direction.
Two weekends ago I visited a friend from UCLA named Roger and his wife Jennie in Tirana, Albania. They just got married this past summer and were excellent hosts! Roger and Jennie are helping grow a church and seminary in Tirana. Also, here's the link to a video that Roger narrated that details the horrible suffering Albanians experienced under their uniquely evil dictator Enver Hoxha entitled "Prison Nation" http://www.albanianhumanrights.org/albania-prison-nation.html
Albania has also provided some inspiration for an online language-learning and translation project. In a year or so I'm hoping to launch a website that provides language teaching online and translation services to customers around the world. In particular, the possibility of helping residents of poor countries improve their ability to compete in the global marketplace with better English is a very appealing endeavor. And I've already acquired a cool domain name: TurboLanguages.
It had been 14 years since I had first gone out to Albania with other good friends from UCLA. Tirana has developed dramatically and I was struck by all the big towers. Roger and I both enjoyed cappuccinos from the top of a cafe/restaurant that slowly spins around for a nice view of the city. Here's some pictures from this awesome trip!
Our good friends Kalen and Melissa F's 21-month old son Aiden fell and hurt his head very badly yesterday. The doctors in Portland have put him into a coma to reduce the brain swelling. It must be incredibly difficult to see your child suffer. They'd appreciate your prayers for his recovery. Prayers for Aidan blog.
We had a great time hosting my buddy Calvin L last week for four days. I showed him the coolest spots in Budapest and will get some pictures up soon. Calvin is a great travel companion and loves soaking up the culture and unique experiences. We both love cafes but he loves them on a whole different level and was generous to treat me to a wine-tasting session his last day.
This past weekend we spent lots of time with Agi's mom and went hiking on Saturday and went on a big walk around Margaret Island after church on Sunday. We drove up today to Aunt Eva's place for the annual blowout Easter celebration with Agi's relatives. More pictures to come there too. Happy Easter!
I've almost finished the novel "the Sparrow" and am making my way through Tim Keller's excellent and compelling "the Reason for God." We also saw the very funny "Meet the Parents" a few nights ago for the first time--Agi and I both loved it. One of our favorite comedies.
Agi and I fly back to Portland on April 26th. I'm looking forward to a quick 3-day side-trip to Albania this weekend to visit some friends and check out the ministry there I had participated in back in 1995.
Kalen and Melissa F took us out to a delightful dinner at Il Piatto Restaurant on the east side of Portland last Sunday. It's known as "the most romantic restaurant" in Portland and it delivered with a soothingly colorful interior and genuine Italiano cuisine. Excellent conversation roamed from raising kids with extreme structure (the "babywise" approach) to life on other planets, God, career goals and great books. A wonderful evening. http://www.ilpiattopdx.com/
Last weekend we had a great time visiting the Oregon wine country with Kalen and Melissa F. and their bambino Aiden. It was a gorgeous day and we got to visit Linfield college where Melissa teaches and then have an excellent dinner outside atop a McMinnamins restaurant. After church on Sunday we thoroughly enjoyed showing Jeff and Anne S. our condo. Kalen and Jeff are both buddies from UC Davis and Agi and I are thrilled that all four of these friends are now up in Oregon as well!
Tomorrow we drive down to the Bay Area where Agi will visit her office for a few days and I'll check out the cafe scene with my laptop and get myself a tasty Asian boba drink. First, though, we're visiting the always-generous Stahley-Ikeda family in SF for two nights along with their preternaturally (like that one Stahleys?) handsome kid Ellis. We'll follow that up with a stay with the remarkably cool and kind Alex and Kristin V household and their stunningly handsome--and rambunctious--son Luke. (This paragraph reads like some good website copy I hope.. ;) Finally, we're going to crash at the home of the most beautiful (and eligible) girl in Santa Cruz: Lovely Laurel, before heading up to see my parents and hopefully visit Nate and Patty L! It's great to have some friends in Northern California.
Agi just finished a remarkable book that already having a big impact on us: "Real Food" by Nina Planck. The author gives compelling reasons why eating processed, industrial food is literally killing modern people. I just started reading it too and her thesis is simple: nearly all manufactured, processed food is created in a way that is bad for us and we should simply avoid it (e.g., cereal in colorful boxes and many other foods we've come to view as normal). Instead, we can and should eat simple, natural, unprocessed food (without lots of the extra unnecessary ingredients) and eat essentially whatever we want of this "real food." Thus, avoid "nonfat" yogurt and eat regular, "fatty" yogurt, chicken and its skin, bacon or any "non-processed" foods and lots of fruits and vegetables. I'll write about this again when I learn more.
On Saturday Agi made up a huge batch of waffles, I made espresso with our stovetop maker and we served up a brunch to friends Brook and Kim who visited us this weekend along with my lovely sister Laurel, our friends Kalen and Melissa and my sister Melissa and her husband Mark and their kids. It was lots of fun packing our condo out with visitors. I like our fake gas fireplace and I fired that up for an extra-cozy feel as it rained outside.
My good buddy Calvin came up to visit for three days. We took him all over the city and he and I indulged in lots of good conversation as we stopped by various cool pubs and coffee houses. Portland doesn't disappoint--it's a fabulous city. Not too big, very walkable, clean, friendly, sophisticated and beautiful. Agi and I have only really lived here about four months total so we're still exploring a lot.
Some highlights with Calvin (and he needs to send over some pictures he took with his phone): Pittock Mansion, Voodoo donuts (and the amazingly tasty bacon maple donut). Showing him our new church on Sunday, getting a parking ticket (the only low moment), walking around the Japanese Garden, hitting Hawthorne street (but missing out on visiting the intriguing "Rimsky Korsacoffee" cafe).
Two weekends ago, my parents and younger brother came up to visit for a long weekend. We played some tennis and my Dad helped me seriously improve my handyman skills as we got some Ikea curtains up and some car maintenance taken care of. My sister Melissa and brother in law Mark threw a great bbq party in their huge backyard (briefly threatened by rain of course) and we got to meet a lot of their friends from church and elsewhere. There's a good chance my parents will move up to Portland as well in a couple years.
This past weekend was filled with very fun and memorable times with good friends. I lived with Paul and Kalen in Davis for a couple years and their extremely hospitable parents hosted us at their lovely house in Weed, California, right next to Mount Shasta. Their house has direct access to the gorgeous Lake Shastina and we had a fabulous time wakeboarding in their sweet speedboat on Sunday. Ivy, by the way, impressed everyone by getting up on her very first try! Her snowboarding skills paid off big time. On Saturday we went on a very enjoyable 4-5 hour hike in the mountains and these hikes always combine great views with great conversation.
Kalen and Melissa had visited us in Budapest last year and now we're thrilled that they're probably going to move to Portland soon themselves (with their son Aiden). Somehow, Crazy Paul was able to become a successful surgeon and he is finishing his residency up currently in Ohio. He and his wife Renay (and new baby Madelin) will probably head out to somewhere in the Pacific NW in the next several years. We are lobbying hard for Portland!
This past weekend was an awesome combination on many levels: it felt a cross between a college reunion, outdoor Christian retreat with lots of singing and trip to Vegas (I learned how to make mojitos). Our batteries died on the hike on Saturday but other people brought their cameras so I'll add those in later.
Ivy's company flew her down to San Diego for a couple days of training last week. She was lucky to be able to stay with our good friends Nate and Patricia for two nights and see their kids and some lovely San Diego sights. We're hoping to make an appearance there again--both of us!--in the not so distant future.
