Vino!- Saturday

Dropped C. at the office on Saturday to get some work done while N. & I headed gaily off to Dundee to go hit some vineyards. Ended up at Erath, Duck hollow, and Ponzi for a few tastings. Stopped over at Ponzi's Bistro for a nice lunch of olives, and fresh Halibut fish & chips. It had been J's idea to go and eat at Ponzi so when we did find it, we thought it would be a nice place to scout for some single guys for N, and get some good grub on such a beautiful day. I'm looking forward to seeing N.'s pictures from the wine valley on her blog. C. missed out on a beautiful day. Picked up a decent bottle of Desert Wind Merlot from the Wahluke Slope from Columbia Valley Washington for C. I think N. picked up a bottle of pinot gris to kick back and enjoy with Raven. Thinking of spending Sunday with the hubby and do something outdoors, maybe a picnic as this will probably be one of the last sunny weekends in Portland for awhile. Looking forward to meeting up & seeing some old friends up in Seattle next weekend at their house for a nice brunch and champagne to celebrate good friendship!

Get Motivated!

Went to the Rose Arena to listen to a "Get Motivated" Speaking seminar today with N., S, St., & Jbo. Here are the list of speakers in no particular order:

Motivator Zig Ziglar teaching about how to lead a balanced life in business and in home.
Rudolph Giuliani will teach you how to lead in difficult times!
General Colin Powell, legendary soldier-statesman, will teach you the skills of "take-charge" leadership.
Dr. Robert Schuller, America's best inspirational speaker, will teach you how to achieve your personal and professional goals!
Steve Forbes, President and CEO of Forbes, Inc., will talk about America’s promise: Your keys in growth and opportunity!
Don Shula, Miami Dolphins legendary football coach, will teach you how to lead your team to victory.
Tom Hopkins, America's #1 authority on selling, will tell you how to strengthen your sales and negotiation skills!

I thought Guiliani, Powell, Zigler, & Don Shula were the best. The others were not really my cup of tea. I wanted to get away from selling for the day, instead we heard 2 speakers talk about Investment opportunities, and the other about real estate opportunities. It seemed very presumptious of the 2 speakers to tell everyone that they need to sign up for these investment courses and that it is possible to become a millionaire overnight! If that were the case....everyone would be millionaires! The crazy thing is that hundreds of people from the crowd started flocking to the tables with the cd.'s, books, and forms telling you that you need to hurry up and sign up for these clases, for $10,000 over a due course of time.. No problem! All you have to do is fill out the form and include.....your trusty credit card! I'm sure these courses are very legitimate, but it amazes me on just how trusting people are, that they are willing to do anything to strike it rich. Overall, this portion of the program was mildly amusing. However, I loved everyone' else's speech. Am I motivated? Absolutely! I am generally a motivated, take charge kind of person, but it's nice to hear and learn a thing or two from leading experts. We also learned a little about each other too. For instance, what is each of our personalities: The gang said that I am a Bold person, JBO and N are both Expressive individuals, while St. & S both have steady personalities. Whatever....I think each of us have a little of everything in us. All in all, I had a fun day, a little long, but a nice diversion from work and who better than to spend it with my dear friends of whom I have gotten to know better and cherish!

OMSI

Saw "Black Holes" at OMSI this afternoon. Took a stroll first through the esplanade and read interesting historical facts on the Floodings of Portland with the recent flooding of 1996. The pictures showed water levels reaching up to roofs of homes, kind of reminiscent of Katrina and New Orleans last year. Hope history doesn't repeat itself anytime soon. With this thought in mind, i finally headed inside to go to the Planetarium for a half hour of science where i got to see some incredible stars, super novas, black holes, singularities (an absolutely exception unlike another) and the event horizon....The point of no return. How eerie is that? The Black hole as explained today is a huge gravitational force that was created when a massive star collapses in itself from the excessive gravity, it's so powerful that even light cannot escape from it. (Lesson 101) The question is...where do things go when it gets vacuumed into a black hole?? Then there is the matter of worm holes....theoretically you can jump into a black hole and jump into the other side of the universe? Impossible...since the black hole is incredibly dense that anything going through it would shatter into a million pieces. But..there is a theory that a worm hole could be connected from a black hole thus leading a path to another partof the universe within space time. This my friends...is what Albert Einstein said...and proved.

Sauvie? or not Sauvie??

Today is a good day to just stay in and read a good book. I was thinking of going over to Sauvie Island either today or tomorrow as I often hear from N. just how great it is. Looked it up on line and saw that they have a haunted corn maize that will be open to the public throughout October. Not sure if this is of interest to me, but the idea of going through an un-haunted one sounds better. Oh! My dear friend from FLA is coming next weekend! I plan on taking her all over Porland. She is going to fall in love with the area. We're going to take a look at different neighborhoods and houses together. I also promised that I would treat her to a nice bowl of steaming pho before she heads back to Florida. The Saturday market is always a must for first time visitors, and of course the japanese gardens that she wants to go see. I haven't personally been there, not exactly my cup of tea but will go with her if she insists. I forgot to also mention that the reason why she is coming is for the big interview. I know m. & d. are interviewing other candidates, but it seems positive if they are willing to fly her here for a second one. I can only hope that everything goes well. N- if you are reading this, let's keep mum about this for now. It may or may not work out, however if it does, I'm confident then that you and the girls will all like her very much.

Essen Sie Getränk? Seien Sie Glücklich!

Essen Sie Getränk? Seien Sie Glücklich!
Jetzt mit der kühleren Wetterankunft ist es Zeit für gutes Bier, bratwurst, und kraut! Oktoberfest at Sherwood ist an diesem Wochenende. Wenn irgendjemand bessere Pläne hat, lassen Sie mich wissen....

A Book, A Play, & a Movie

Just finished a great book called the Wind up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. This author is extremely unconventional in his topics and his writings. Very surreal, dreamlike, and multi-dimentional. Not the typical type of books I generally like to read, but it was unbelievably good! Also recently saw an incredible low budget play called Betrayed. There were only 3 main characters and the director who is very famous in the world of theater-Harold Pinter does a great job of telling the story backwards from the first scene starting with the presenting and working his magic with the final act being the past. A few weeks before seeing this play, c & I also saw an independent british film called Confetti. I couldn't remember the name earlier today, but would love to have the girls at work see it. I'll see it again because it was so darn funny, and the Brits have a strange sense of humor. You will either love it or hate it, but I'm sure my friends would love it. N-google the movie and read about it, let me know if you want to go see it!