I made it home to Oregon for Christmas and it's been a great visit!
I've been:
Snowed on
Hailed on (ouch)
Drooled on (thanks sis)
Rained on
Gifted on
Toasted on
and of course, overatesomuchIalmostburst-on.
Let's get to the pics!
The lake at wintertime - it's even prettier when it's snowing!
My parent's wolf dog Bast is adorable. She's so much fun to play with! She also kills cute lil furry creatures by snapping their necks, so we have lots in common.
Oh she walks on her hind legs for treats too.
I only do that when running from someone.
"More pictures of me, papa!"
OK, Bast... While taking her on a walk, it's kinda freaky at night cuz she hears/smells/sees all kinds of shizz you don't.
See the above photo. I'm bundled up like an eskimo (the latest in Oregon fashion) and I'm trying to get a nice photo with her. She keeps looking towards the woods.
Earlier that day Dad told me the neighbor's horse was attacked BY A FREAKING BEAR. It's alive but was 'tore up'. Uh huh.
Naturally, Bast's constant attention towards the woods freaked me out and I began to spazz.
She ran. I ran for it.
Damien (my sister) and I frequently get up to all sorts of mischievous pranks at Mom & Dad's expense. This year we decided to re-label everything in Mom and Dad's pantry. Click the photo for a closer look; but all their snacks got named with a poo theme.
Priceless.
Damien brought her 'kids' Guiness and Banelli, her boxers. Guiness here emits this monster Alien type drool that tends to go EVERYWHERE. It's like a foreign substance. Somehow he got it on his forehead.
We helped Mom with laundry, and I got into the stockings.... really, it was all downhill from there.
I don't think Mom wants any help with laundry again.
Here we see M&D in the kitchen, and Mom is trying to escape... I won't elaborate.
Look, the sun! I think this is one of two times I saw it. :)
Raindrops keep fallin' on my head....
"Stop blogging and come play with me!!"
Awwwwwwwwww X1,000!
On Xmas Eve we went out to the big mall in Eugene, Valley River Center. I was elated to find everyone in Oregon is still insanely friendly compared to So Cal.
Everywhere I went people said "Merry Christmas!". You see, this is taboo in any big city since you may be saying that to someone celebrating Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, Satanist's March Day, or any of the other major holidays.
But you see, the major malls in Oregon also have large "Christian Supply Stores", so really, I don't think many folks are worried about it there. :P
For Trent! :D
We saw Enchanted which was really great, better then I thought it'd be, very funny and well written. Amy Adams and James Marsden were great in it!
After we ventured out and I got hailed on.
Hail is the weirdest stuff!
I don't like it. Not one bit.
Damien got her Starbucks which she proceeded to do the ad campaign for....
She loves her Starbucks.
I was envious of my older sis and grabbed the nearest consumer product; unfortch a bottle of Lubriderm.
Yeah, uncool.
Damien then did her best impression of a sad cold old Russian lady:
You see, crazy does run in the family!
I managed to ditch the Lubriderm and found a more fitting A&F bad, which unfortch....
Made me look crazy scary Scientoligist-ish.
Bi-Mart - the ghetto Wal-Mart of the Northwest! No, really, the store is full of plaid, guns, and Blue Collar Comedy Tour DVD's.
We's a high class family, ya'llz.
Mom and I posed in front of the very pretty Xmas tree later on:
I'm a camera hog.
Awwww. :)
In between all the festivities Dad and I played through Halo 3 on his new Xbox 360, which was quite fun; Mom would yell when dinner was ready, to which I would respond "MOM! We have to kill more aliens, and they won't kill themselves!". Mom's never understand global wars.
Kirk, Damien's husband showed up on Xmas day and was surrounded by 500 gifts (sheesh, favorite child).
Random dog run photo!
Xmas dinner!
Pretty views abound! Look ma, no smog!
The cousins all wanted some xmas dinner very badly. :)
Fortunately they missed Kirk putting butter on his face and trying to give the ma-in-law a big ol kiss:
Not the favorite anymore.
Hahahahaa :D
It was very pretty outside, even through the rain and snow.
The poor dogs didn't really like the snow tho.
"WTF is this?"
Snow! It's a White Day After Christmas!
I tried to get a nice photo with Damien but she refused:
And refused....
So there we go.
Went up to Eugene to see BFF's Vince and Julie, and to see Julie's mom Betty at El Torito:
It was so fun! Betty is a sweetheart and Vince and Julie have been amazing friends to get to know this past year. I have had so many fun times with them. It was really cool to hang with peeps back in Oregon. :)
We went up to Portland to see BFF's Angela and Shelby and meet some of their family.
Traffic sucked it! Not just in Cali apparently.
We met up with everyone at the very dee-lish Typhoon in Portland which had amazing Thai food - I must thank the beautiful Princess Shelbelina for organizing the whole night and bringing the fam out to hang!
I of course had to take the Extendo-Arm(TM) group shot. It's like a requirement.
The whole gang from afar! From left: Anita, Andrea, Dad, Shelby, Ang, Dork, Mom, Monty.
They were all SO nice and sweet! My folks and I had a blast with them and they are an amazing group of people I'm happy to call my friends.
Unfortunately my FORMER BFF Blaire was supposed to come out but couldn't make it... something about wishing I was dead. SNIFF. And that I'd die alone in a gutter, with only my empty bottle of JD to comfort me.
I'm sorry, it's hard to type through all these tears.
After I was able to collect myself over Blaire's rejection, we went to Voodoo Donuts for some dough-uns and Ang and I couldn't be bothered to wait or pay, so we went after the big crunchy one on the wall.
Oh US!
After we went to Keel's Irish pub which was quite fun...
There's money stuck to the ceiling... I'm guessing it is some kind of Irish Oregonian thing?
Awww X3!
The beautiful Princess Shelbelina! Thanks for setting up such a great evening!
Which leads me to the next photo:
HAWT! How on Earth are you single? ;) In case you think this was posed, she just does these crazy hair flips when talking. "Did you see the .... SNOW?" *POSE!*
"Darion how is your.... Phad Thai?" *POSE!*
"OMG is that Dame Judi Dench doing body shots?" *POSE!*
Ang and I decided to do our professional and classic TM - Stalker Eyes(TM)!
"Aaaah scary Irish (Italian) drunk chick! HALP!"
"GRRRR! A X stands for Angela Xchange! I'm trading you back in for a sweater!"
It's hard to look angry when she's wearing her shiny new Burberry(TM) coat. And I thought I was a label whore...
For the big Stalker Eyes(TM) Finale of the trip, I got THREE sisters (!!!), Shelbs, and Mom to join in for a big group stalk:
It was actually kinda scary.
My friends Cassidy and Rebecca joined us at the bar, and despite all the Stalker Eyes they still wanted to hang out! I love booze.
Next we did a nice group shot with my Extendo-Arm(TM) and even tho it took a few tries, everyone fit in!
Everyone else retired for the eve, but Rebecca and Cassidy and I felt like bar hopping so we hit up four or so places in downtown which was a blast...
And proceeded to bust a move on the dancefloor. It was Wednesday night, it wasn't crowded, so we made our own party!
Slightly attitude-ish Myspace Extendo-Arm(TM) shot. I should sell this shizz.
In between bars Cassidy decided to recreate his Homeless Sleepin(TM) shot, and joined a pal for a quick snooze... Awwww! It's like the picture of what Xmas is all about.
Minus the heroin needle in the background.
We decided to do Patron shots, and here we are BEFORE:
And the AFTER.
Yeah, pretty gnarly. Hahaha
In between some more bars (I really don't remember the names of any of them) we felt like seeing what Mr. Postman brung us:
Nada. He sucks.
"It's a sexy paaahtyy!"
Pose for the cameras!
Goddamn Papparazzi! No more pictures!!!
We had a blast and all had a nice hangover the next day. Great hanging with new friends! Also Cassidy is 6'4" so it's cool hanging out with other "Freaky Man Giants". We stomped on some hobbits in between bars and also pillaged a village, so really it all worked out great.
The next day the weather sucked arse so we did some shopping around Portland on 23rd ave and Nordstroms (Yay), and saw some weird local 'art':
... yeah. We then met Ang & Shelb & Anita & Anita's very smart and well mannered sons Zack and Zane for pizza at Escape From NY Pizza:
It was fun! Zack and Zane are major gamers so we could all talk the talk. Shelby promises me she will soon be the regional champion on Guitar Hero so I'm waiting for the phone call.
M&D capped our Portland trip by hitting the Pittock mansion, which was built by an uber wealthy family around 1910. It's gorgeous!
Hmm, this looks just like my library at home:
This stairway was begging for a Governor's Ball climactic end scene straight out of a period piece.
"Why I've always relied on the kindness of strangers."
Unfortch the mans was covered in ugly Disney themed crap, and looks like it was decorated by Grandma's Dollar Store. Don't believe me? Here's the Aladdin room:
Yeah, it was hideously fugly.
I also found a cold dead girl in the bed, I named her Ann Coulter (hey, a boy can dream, right?).
Then there was this hella creepy Santa. I swear if it moved I would have jumped out the window and looked for a wooden stake to shove through it's heart. YEESH!
Random cats photo:
Mom made a bunch of French bread for me to take home... yay! She makes it from scratch with milling the flour and everything... who does that anymore?
And here is the finished product - YUM!
It was a really fun trip, I was able to eat a ton of home cooked food, be lazy, play with the dogs, open lots of great gifts, see many great friends and make some fun new ones, and just have a really relaxing nice vacation.
Now it's back to the grind (and the party circuit!)!
Happy Holidays everyone - or as they say in Oregon, Merry Christmas! ;)
D
I've been:
Snowed on
Hailed on (ouch)
Drooled on (thanks sis)
Rained on
Gifted on
Toasted on
and of course, overatesomuchIalmostburst-on.
Let's get to the pics!
The lake at wintertime - it's even prettier when it's snowing!
My parent's wolf dog Bast is adorable. She's so much fun to play with! She also kills cute lil furry creatures by snapping their necks, so we have lots in common.
Oh she walks on her hind legs for treats too.I only do that when running from someone.
"More pictures of me, papa!"OK, Bast... While taking her on a walk, it's kinda freaky at night cuz she hears/smells/sees all kinds of shizz you don't.
See the above photo. I'm bundled up like an eskimo (the latest in Oregon fashion) and I'm trying to get a nice photo with her. She keeps looking towards the woods.Earlier that day Dad told me the neighbor's horse was attacked BY A FREAKING BEAR. It's alive but was 'tore up'. Uh huh.
Naturally, Bast's constant attention towards the woods freaked me out and I began to spazz.
She ran. I ran for it.
Damien (my sister) and I frequently get up to all sorts of mischievous pranks at Mom & Dad's expense. This year we decided to re-label everything in Mom and Dad's pantry. Click the photo for a closer look; but all their snacks got named with a poo theme.Priceless.
Damien brought her 'kids' Guiness and Banelli, her boxers. Guiness here emits this monster Alien type drool that tends to go EVERYWHERE. It's like a foreign substance. Somehow he got it on his forehead.
We helped Mom with laundry, and I got into the stockings.... really, it was all downhill from there.
I don't think Mom wants any help with laundry again.
Here we see M&D in the kitchen, and Mom is trying to escape... I won't elaborate.
Look, the sun! I think this is one of two times I saw it. :)
Raindrops keep fallin' on my head....
"Stop blogging and come play with me!!"
Awwwwwwwwww X1,000!On Xmas Eve we went out to the big mall in Eugene, Valley River Center. I was elated to find everyone in Oregon is still insanely friendly compared to So Cal.
Everywhere I went people said "Merry Christmas!". You see, this is taboo in any big city since you may be saying that to someone celebrating Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, Satanist's March Day, or any of the other major holidays.
But you see, the major malls in Oregon also have large "Christian Supply Stores", so really, I don't think many folks are worried about it there. :P
For Trent! :DWe saw Enchanted which was really great, better then I thought it'd be, very funny and well written. Amy Adams and James Marsden were great in it!
After we ventured out and I got hailed on.
Hail is the weirdest stuff!
I don't like it. Not one bit.
Damien got her Starbucks which she proceeded to do the ad campaign for....
She loves her Starbucks.I was envious of my older sis and grabbed the nearest consumer product; unfortch a bottle of Lubriderm.
Yeah, uncool.Damien then did her best impression of a sad cold old Russian lady:
You see, crazy does run in the family!I managed to ditch the Lubriderm and found a more fitting A&F bad, which unfortch....
Made me look crazy scary Scientoligist-ish.
Bi-Mart - the ghetto Wal-Mart of the Northwest! No, really, the store is full of plaid, guns, and Blue Collar Comedy Tour DVD's.
We's a high class family, ya'llz.Mom and I posed in front of the very pretty Xmas tree later on:
I'm a camera hog.
Awwww. :)In between all the festivities Dad and I played through Halo 3 on his new Xbox 360, which was quite fun; Mom would yell when dinner was ready, to which I would respond "MOM! We have to kill more aliens, and they won't kill themselves!". Mom's never understand global wars.
Kirk, Damien's husband showed up on Xmas day and was surrounded by 500 gifts (sheesh, favorite child).
Random dog run photo!
Xmas dinner!
Pretty views abound! Look ma, no smog!
The cousins all wanted some xmas dinner very badly. :)Fortunately they missed Kirk putting butter on his face and trying to give the ma-in-law a big ol kiss:
Not the favorite anymore.
Hahahahaa :DIt was very pretty outside, even through the rain and snow.
The poor dogs didn't really like the snow tho.
"WTF is this?"
Snow! It's a White Day After Christmas!I tried to get a nice photo with Damien but she refused:
And refused....
So there we go.Went up to Eugene to see BFF's Vince and Julie, and to see Julie's mom Betty at El Torito:
It was so fun! Betty is a sweetheart and Vince and Julie have been amazing friends to get to know this past year. I have had so many fun times with them. It was really cool to hang with peeps back in Oregon. :)We went up to Portland to see BFF's Angela and Shelby and meet some of their family.
Traffic sucked it! Not just in Cali apparently.We met up with everyone at the very dee-lish Typhoon in Portland which had amazing Thai food - I must thank the beautiful Princess Shelbelina for organizing the whole night and bringing the fam out to hang!
I of course had to take the Extendo-Arm(TM) group shot. It's like a requirement.
The whole gang from afar! From left: Anita, Andrea, Dad, Shelby, Ang, Dork, Mom, Monty.
They were all SO nice and sweet! My folks and I had a blast with them and they are an amazing group of people I'm happy to call my friends.
Unfortunately my FORMER BFF Blaire was supposed to come out but couldn't make it... something about wishing I was dead. SNIFF. And that I'd die alone in a gutter, with only my empty bottle of JD to comfort me.
I'm sorry, it's hard to type through all these tears.
After I was able to collect myself over Blaire's rejection, we went to Voodoo Donuts for some dough-uns and Ang and I couldn't be bothered to wait or pay, so we went after the big crunchy one on the wall.
Oh US!After we went to Keel's Irish pub which was quite fun...
There's money stuck to the ceiling... I'm guessing it is some kind of Irish Oregonian thing?
Awww X3!
The beautiful Princess Shelbelina! Thanks for setting up such a great evening!Which leads me to the next photo:
HAWT! How on Earth are you single? ;) In case you think this was posed, she just does these crazy hair flips when talking. "Did you see the .... SNOW?" *POSE!*"Darion how is your.... Phad Thai?" *POSE!*
"OMG is that Dame Judi Dench doing body shots?" *POSE!*
Ang and I decided to do our professional and classic TM - Stalker Eyes(TM)!
"Aaaah scary Irish (Italian) drunk chick! HALP!"
"GRRRR! A X stands for Angela Xchange! I'm trading you back in for a sweater!"It's hard to look angry when she's wearing her shiny new Burberry(TM) coat. And I thought I was a label whore...
For the big Stalker Eyes(TM) Finale of the trip, I got THREE sisters (!!!), Shelbs, and Mom to join in for a big group stalk:
It was actually kinda scary.My friends Cassidy and Rebecca joined us at the bar, and despite all the Stalker Eyes they still wanted to hang out! I love booze.
Next we did a nice group shot with my Extendo-Arm(TM) and even tho it took a few tries, everyone fit in!
Everyone else retired for the eve, but Rebecca and Cassidy and I felt like bar hopping so we hit up four or so places in downtown which was a blast...
And proceeded to bust a move on the dancefloor. It was Wednesday night, it wasn't crowded, so we made our own party!
Slightly attitude-ish Myspace Extendo-Arm(TM) shot. I should sell this shizz.
In between bars Cassidy decided to recreate his Homeless Sleepin(TM) shot, and joined a pal for a quick snooze... Awwww! It's like the picture of what Xmas is all about.Minus the heroin needle in the background.
We decided to do Patron shots, and here we are BEFORE:
And the AFTER.
Yeah, pretty gnarly. HahahaIn between some more bars (I really don't remember the names of any of them) we felt like seeing what Mr. Postman brung us:
Nada. He sucks.
"It's a sexy paaahtyy!"
Pose for the cameras!
Goddamn Papparazzi! No more pictures!!!
We had a blast and all had a nice hangover the next day. Great hanging with new friends! Also Cassidy is 6'4" so it's cool hanging out with other "Freaky Man Giants". We stomped on some hobbits in between bars and also pillaged a village, so really it all worked out great.The next day the weather sucked arse so we did some shopping around Portland on 23rd ave and Nordstroms (Yay), and saw some weird local 'art':
... yeah. We then met Ang & Shelb & Anita & Anita's very smart and well mannered sons Zack and Zane for pizza at Escape From NY Pizza:
It was fun! Zack and Zane are major gamers so we could all talk the talk. Shelby promises me she will soon be the regional champion on Guitar Hero so I'm waiting for the phone call. M&D capped our Portland trip by hitting the Pittock mansion, which was built by an uber wealthy family around 1910. It's gorgeous!
Hmm, this looks just like my library at home:
This stairway was begging for a Governor's Ball climactic end scene straight out of a period piece.
"Why I've always relied on the kindness of strangers."
Unfortch the mans was covered in ugly Disney themed crap, and looks like it was decorated by Grandma's Dollar Store. Don't believe me? Here's the Aladdin room:
Yeah, it was hideously fugly.
I also found a cold dead girl in the bed, I named her Ann Coulter (hey, a boy can dream, right?).
Then there was this hella creepy Santa. I swear if it moved I would have jumped out the window and looked for a wooden stake to shove through it's heart. YEESH!
Random cats photo:
Mom made a bunch of French bread for me to take home... yay! She makes it from scratch with milling the flour and everything... who does that anymore?
And here is the finished product - YUM!
It was a really fun trip, I was able to eat a ton of home cooked food, be lazy, play with the dogs, open lots of great gifts, see many great friends and make some fun new ones, and just have a really relaxing nice vacation.Now it's back to the grind (and the party circuit!)!
Happy Holidays everyone - or as they say in Oregon, Merry Christmas! ;)
D
