Sometimes you have an addiction...

...and in this case, it is bike riding. I like it. Maybe too much? Get this, I plan to get up extra early tomorrow so I can go for a bike before work. Will I go through with it? We shall see. Right now, I am confident I will.

Also, we finally bought some cumin(comino), so tomorrow hummus sandwiches for lunch!! w00t!

Canon 7D - 2 days away!!!

Random pics of the day:

This one is just awesome!! :D

In Bruges!!!!

Back in Sycorax days! hahaha

Sometimes you organize your library...

...of pictures that is. We have over 100GB of images apparently. And they were a mess. We finally came up with a date structure + special event/location format. No sub-folders, just the dates the images were taken, and any quick info on what it is, if special. Like this:

But we had attempted to organize by locations, and subfolders, and people, and dates, it was a mess!! Like we had a Sophie folder, but within it was sorted by folders in chronological order(1mo, 2mo, 6mo, 2yrs, etc), but then there was pics that went in the family folder, but they were also of sophie, but they were also in London, so yeah, that was not working out and it was chaos...needless to say, it took about 10 hrs of work. And that's not an exaggeration. But at last, all our pics are neatly organized. We also got rid of any doubles(with the previous chaos, there were tons of doubles), lost RAW files, and pics from other cams(Martha's, Lisa's, Mari's). So yeah, it is finally under control. We had been meaning to get that done for at least a year.

Another pressing issue was that we have a working drive(laptop), and 2 external drives, and there was no full backup of anything! We finally got a master copy, and mirrored it on all 3. But then cleared out all the old pics except for the last 3 months from the laptop to clear clutter and not fill up the drive. So yeah, that took up a large part of our weekend. All in preparation for the arrival of our new family member...The Canon 7D!

And just because we looked through tons of pics, here are a few random ones, since we can't take any yet:

Sergio's insatiable love for electronics...the technology changes, his unquenchable thirst does not.

Sophie was apparently this small at one point. And she was angry...

Sophie hugging a goat :D

Old school Mari and Geli! :D

Sometimes your bike fails, again...

Okay, something is up with my rear tire. We took it to get fixed on Saturday, and by today it was almost flat again. Not fully flat, but very deflated. And the valves on these tires are weird, supper skinny ones, not the ones I am used to(looked it up and they are called Presta Valves). And the pump we got looked like it was made for the other "normal" valves(called Schrader Valves). So we walked it to the shop on Saturday, and found a vacuum cleaner on the way, sitting outside a house with a sign that said "Free, it works!". So I sent Geli on with both the bikes, and ran back home to take the vacuum cleaner back, then ran back to Geli to the bike shop. They said it was the tube, and replaced it. They also said the pump we have works for those valves too, although I gotta tell you, it is kinda tricky to get it to work right :(

So it was odd that today, problems again. Since it was not completely flat, and the valves are weird, I thought maybe it was just loose and let the air out slowly(you have to loosen the valve to pump air in it, it is odd). I pumped it up and went on our epic ride....by the end of the ride on the way back, it was low, very low. I could feel the bumps hit the rim, so I got off the bike and walked it home. There was only about 5 blocks left anyway...so yeah. Today, I will take it to the shop again, and see what's up with that tube/valve.

Sometimes the bike fails you...

Today we were gonna go for an epic bike ride. We were all ready to go, helmets on, got the bikes out, already on our way, but.....something was off. The bike felt heavy, and it rattled. And sure enough...I had a flat tire.

We were gonna bike all the way to the esplanade, which is a bike path by the riverside, downtown. And we couldn't. This was around 7:15pm, so bike shops were closed. I had no parts and no tools to fix the flat myself, so we went back home, but away the bikes, and walked to a coffee shop instead. Tomorrow, I will pump up the bike, and see if it gets me to the shop, else we will just walk it there. I remember driving over some glass on thursday. By the time I saw it, I could not maneuver out of its way safely. I was hoping none of it had gotten in the tires, but obviously, it did. So yeah...

We still had an awesome night. We went to have some coffee, played conquian, had a vegan muffin, and played some weird tetris like game geli has on the tablet, co-op style. Also made grand plans for tomorrow and sunday to re-organize and properly back up all our photos...it better get done. Unacceptable to have a laptop and 2 external drives without properly backing up our files.

T minus 6 days till the arrival of our 7D! 

Sometimes you can see the light...

..at the end of the tunnel! I finally got the email that the order shipped!This camera ordeal has been quite torturous! From getting here and not knowing what was up with our old one, to waiting a week just to be told it is dead. Then a good week before we decided what to do about it(which one to get), then when we finally decide where to get it, it was taking forever!!!

We found it on a camera shop online for $1175, almost $400 less than on amazon and local camera shops. US model and everything. So we went for it, and even got the accident coverage for it with the money we saved(since sadly, I am accident prone). But um....they have taken ages to fullfill the order!! We ordered it June 28th...and it barely shipped today.

Sadly, it is still in Brooklyn, NY. All too far from my hands. But alas, it is on its way! In a week's torturous time, we will finally have a camera again and be able to show you the awesomeness that is Portland, OR!!

I was getting worried, I even thought it might have been a scam or something, due to the price that was so much lower than the others. I suppose a box with a bag of sand inside could still arrive in place of the camera, but what are the chances of that?

Sometimes the fourth of july is awesome...

I never really care for most holidays. I feel very little connection, if any, to the celebrations most of the time. And nationalistic holidays are not something I am fond of. But I had the day off, so even on that alone, it had to be better than most days.

We rented a truck with zipcar because we made an appointment at 10am with a lady on craigslist to go see a mattress and bed she had on sale that we were thinking of getting for Sophie. So we got up, ate breakfast, and drove there. It was far, by Portland standards, like 12 miles. We went out there, saw it, liked it, and bought it. Drove it back home, dropped it off, returned the truck. The street the truck was returned on was near our apt and also had many restaurants and shops nearby. So Geli thought we should walk around there and check it out, get to know our neighborhood. We did, we went into a couple thrift shops, bought some spoons to make tea(you'd have to see them, they are for loose leaf tea), a kitchen brush, and some clothes hangers. Then we checked out another grocery store that was supposed to be cool, and it was, but not as cool as the co-op. Then we walked a couple miles and got hungry, so we walked looking for a Mexican restaurant called "Los Gorditos" that has a vegan menu and is supposed to be awesome. We walked there, but it was closed :( So we had lunch at a place called D-Street Noshery, which is a collection of food carts, most of which are vegan friendly. So we had an indian bowl with a samosa at Roshambo, which was delicious!! We also got a vegan hot dog with garlic fries at Bailey's Hot Dogs which was also super good! Then we had some strawberry coconout with chocolate crumbs in it sorbet on a cone that was vegan for dessert! It was mega good too.

We then walked back  home, setup Sophie's bed, put her sheets on and took a nap. Then we got up, ordered a few things we needed off amazon(bike pump, water bottles, pearl jam cd, mars volta cd, so just bare necessities). And then we biked downtown(about 3 or 4 miles) to see the fireworks once the sun went down. Loved the bike ride there(even though google maps failed us and we got lost for a bit). It was beyond crowded, so we walked our biked looking for a spot to see them on. We had an awesome one on the bridge, but Geli was freaking out every time a car passed by, cuz you can feel it on the floor. So we walked to the river, and we had a partial view from there, but it was too crowded to go anywhere else. We watched the fireworks. Pretty cool, I had forgotten how loud they are. Then we had a very pleasant ride back.

All in all, I knew it would be cool to get the day off, but I had no idea it would be this awesome. I even had a hot dog, ice cream, and watched fireworks lol so I even "celebrated" it in a somewhat traditional way....

P.S. A lovely 74 degrees and sunny today...

Sometimes you return a router...

And then realize, there was probably nothing wrong with it. We had to get a wireless router for the apt. We initially got a Cisco Linksys E900, because I like Cisco. I work with them at work, and I figured it had to be "better" to work with than a consumer brand router, since Cisco is more geared at IT environments. I was disappointed from the start. To setup the router, you had to install software off a CD. WTF? What ever happened to just webbing to the default router address?!

After getting over that annoyance, the setup was kind of awkward, through some "wizard" instead of just giving you the settings options. Then, it worked flawlessly when wired in but was crawling when used via wireless. It was painfully slow. So something was up, but since it was a pain to mess with the settings, we didn't really mess with much, and decided to just return it.

After biking to Radioshack and reluctantly exchanging it for a Netgear N300, we went home. I was pleasantly surprised to find no CD, and that to setup the network, you just had to web to the default IP, and dial away at the settings....strange that Cisco got it so wrong, and Netgear is much more flexible for "advanced" users. But there you have it. I will not get Cisco consumer gear again. Their professional level routers are awesome, but they fail at consumer stuff, unless you like a wizard for network setup and want to install useless programs on your computer.

Oh, and what was probably slowing down the wireless on the cisco was that it was on the default wireless channel, and at an apartment complex with 20 other networks, that can't be good. But there was also no quick obvious way to change the channel. On the netgear, it was right next to the rest of the wireless settings....

So yeah, at last, fast wireless access!!!

Sometimes you make waffles and ride in the rain...

Weird combination, I know. But it happened today. We bought a used waffle iron at a thrift store last week, and made some waffles with it today. Very cool! They came out awesome(again, no pics yet)!! :( We ate them with some bananas, cherries, and maple syrup. Delicious!

Then we had tons of places to go to and see today, so we had to bike. It was raining out though, most of the day. Although you can barely call it that. It was more like misting most of the day. It isn't something that I had ever experienced in El Paso. It wasn't sprinkling(chispeando). It wasn't raining. It was like a mist falling from the sky. And contrary to what you might think, it was very pleasant to ride in it. It wasn't enough to soak you or get your drenched, just a cool mist as you ride. I really enjoyed it....

It is ridiculous how bike friendly it is here. There are streets, entire streets, that are pretty much designated for bikes. Almost like a bike highway. And there are many crisscrossing the city so it is very easy and fast to get around town!


Also, we got lights for the bikes. They are rechargeable by USB! haha

Sometimes you find a bike trailer...

Geli found one exactly like the one we had for Sophie in Milwaukee on Cragislist here. So I immediately emailed, and we got a quick reply. Luckily he was only about a mile from where we live, so we made arrangements to look at it after I got out of work. We really really liked that kind of trailer for several reasons:

1) For just 1 kid. Most trailers seat 2, which makes them wider. While that gives sophie a little extra room, it makes it way wider, and heavier. And when biking amongst city traffic, the smaller, the better.

2) Very well built. We had bought a 2-seater one from Wal-Mart(I know!) when we first got to Milwaukee. And it was pretty crappy, and huge. So with this Burley Solo trailer, we can feel the difference, bigtime.

3) Made in USA. Nothing patriotic about it, that is the last reason I would do that. But sadly, working conditions in the US are better than they would be in Asia...

It was posted for $250, and while that sounds like a lot, the cheap ones are well...cheap. And the Burley trailer actually sells for almost $500 new. And I offered the guy $200 and he accepted. I hooked it up to my bike, and off to radioshack we went(to return a router we bought that wasn't working properly, but I forgot the receipt, so it was useless lol). All in all, I thoroughly love getting around on bike. I feel free. I love the wind in my face. I love getting a workout in a functional way. I love getting around waaaay faster than walking or the bus, and yet not having to worry about all the expenses of a car. And last but not least, it is one less car on the road, less gasoline burned. Total win....

Again....pics pending. I promise when we get the camera, one post will be all the pictures that should have been included in all these posts!

Sometimes you find an amazing store!

Wow, so it's been a while. A lot has happened. And sadly, I have no pics to show you of this, so you will just have to take my word for it. For this story here I am about to unfold, I would not blame you for doubting....

So since we are crazy, we decided to just pack up and move to Portland, OR. For no other reason than it is where we want to be. We don't know anyone here, no job prospects, it just seems like the city we want to live in. So here we are. We got an apt, we're slowly exploring the place. And there is a Trader Joe's grocery store about half a mile from the house. I remembered it more fondly than it deserved I suppose, because I was rather disappointed. It is mostly food for lazy vegans. A lot of prepared food, frozen entrees, sauces, etc. The produce was lacking and overly packaged(who wraps whole ears of corn in plastic? Seriously...). So I was a little disappointed, I needed more....And I found it.

Geli found a co-op store not far from our apt(1.5 miles). So today, (after getting lost downtown for almost an hour in a zipcar on the way to pick up our dead camera) we biked to the store after returning the car. Awesome short bike ride(I love my new bike! More on that later, when I can take pictures again!) later, and we were there. As soon as we got there, I knew it would be awesome, but nothing could prepare me for the awesomeness that awaited inside!!!!

At first we saw the usual in a small co-op. Vegan goodies, baked goods, bread, sauces, mayos, etc. Then I started noticing this one was different. You can get bulk vegan "butter"?! Odd, but really cool. Bulk(a granel, in spanish I think) vegan "cream cheese"?! What is going on...and it went on. Almost anything could be bought bulk. I am not kidding! Braggs sauce, spices, vegan "jerky", tahini, all kinds of vinegars, molasses, sugars, and get this...shampoos, soaps, conditioners, laundry detergent, loose leaf teas! You could even cut your own bars of soap! Many varieties, bulk soap people!!! And Geli was rushing me the whole time cuz it was getting dark and our bikes don't have lights yet, but I could easily have spent three hours looking around and buying cool things, and that is not an exaggeration. And it is a small store, only a little larger than a convenience store. But it was soooo loaded with awesome groceries. like 99% organic, as local as possible, and mostly veg*n! The produce looked amazing, so many new things I hadn't seen. We bought red bananas, from Mexico, which look mega weird and so I had to try them.

Another really cool thing...no plastic bags. Paper bags(probably recycled) for most of the bulk things, they sell some reusable glass jars for cheap for things like the vinegars and stuff, and some different kinds for the spices, and they have some free reused ones too! Way cool....I never thought I could get so excited about a grocery store...but there you have it. I can't wait to go back! haha

P.S The weather was a perfect 70 degrees F today(21 C), partly cloudy. Just thought you would want to know :D