Friday, February 27, 2009

Jimmy Mak's and Cafe Nell

Saturday, February 21st was my mom's birthday. We went to Cafe Nell for breakfast. I believe it's on 10th and Kearney in NW Portland. It's a little pricey, but cozy. Especially when they have the fire place going. The servers were all very helpful, and even the bathrooms were cozy. They had a nice candle burning in each of the bathrooms with a fresh flower, and very nice throw away paper towel to wipe off your hands. You know those really thick, good quality ones?

Later that night we went to Jimmy Mak's. Linda Hornbuckle was playing and she rocked the house. She's the woman singing in the two video clips. I would have showed her singing for longer, but I have had trouble in the past with longer videos. We had a lot of fun. Danny and I got the 100% lamb burgers, and they definitely cook it more 'well' than what you ask for, but it was still good. I would highly recommend going to Jimmy Mak's for some feel good music. There's a cover charge. I know it varies, we paid a $10 cover to see her. The shows start at 8pm. They have Lebanese food, Cajun, hmmm...I can't remember the other two. There were 4 different types. Bottom line: good, fun jazz club.

Danny and I have been realizing how much we like jazz since we went. We didn't even know how much we liked it until now. It's nice because Danny and I don't typically have the same taste in music. Now we can both agree on jazz.

Oh, speaking of Lebanese food...Danny and I went to Nicholas' Restaurant and man, it is good. I am even going to post the address, in case you want to go. 318 SE Grand Ave
Portland, OR 97214. It has very good ratings, and very affordable prices. This is the second time I have been there, and I am going to continue going back for more.

I should go. I have to do some grocery shopping. I am going to make a chicken pot pie tonight. Danny had a craving for it, so I thought that would be a nice thing to make. Wish me luck, I have never made chicken pot pie before.

Blazer game


I don't know if I ever told you this, but the Blazer's won their game. I wanted to post a pic I took of the Rose Garden with my cellphone.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Mannequin show and tell


Hey guys. This is a picture of the mannequin I got for my art project. I am so happy about it. I am working on a collaboration installation project with two other students in my class and I am pretty pumped for the final result. It's fun to look at peoples faces when I load this mannequin in and out of my car. I wish I could take pictures of peoples reactions.

Guess what Danny gave me for a Valentine's gift. He made my blog into a book, and added in pictures from our trip to Argentina, so we would always remember it. I thought it was such a great idea.

I never told you, the Blazers won when they played Oklahoma. I love going to sporting events. Even if it's not a sport I am particularly interested in. I love the energy. Oh, and I found my Blazer finger at my parents house a couple days ago, so that's pretty cool. You know, those foam fingers?

I am sort of looking for jobs. I have to focus on school, so the search isn't too intense, but I will rev up the intensity this weekend. It's a scary process. For me at least. I am not really a fan of rejection, in fact I really really don't like it. It's good for me to put myself in a place where I am going to get rejected from time to time, because often times it's not as bad as I thought it would be.

This is sort of a weird phase of life where I need to figure out what career path I want to pursue. I am not expecting to figure that out in the next month or so, I will be happy to just have a job right now. Danny is really good for me with the whole job search thing. He encourages me to look for jobs that I think I am not qualified for. He is really good at not worrying about the rejection part. He sees a job he wants and he sort of just goes for it.

Danny and I went skiing on Monday. He had the day off for President's Day. I love skiing!!! I used to play volleyball competitively for like 8 years, and I miss belonging to a team or being involved in some sort of competitive sport. I miss the positive self-talk involved. Where you have to continue to push yourself further and further, and continue to improve. I also miss the accountability of having a team. You can't just flake out of practice if you're too tired, you go anyway. I can find all sorts off excuses to not work out.

Speaking of working out, I am going to go right now- while I am motivated!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Garlic is Amazing!

I have been reading for hours about the beneficial properties of garlic. It is amazing! I love garlic and knew of some of the beneficial properties, but it has got me to the point of wanting to eat raw garlic on a daily basis. Danny probably won't like the smell, but maybe I can convince him to take it too :) Probably not, he's hard to sell on those sorts of things.

My friend mentioned that she has not been sick ever since she has been eating raw garlic toast at her work. This has been for a few seasons now, and she usually gets sick at least once a season.

Garlic can be used as a cure for everything from treating the common cold to fighting skin fungus. It's better to eat it raw rather than cooked, but both will work.

Dr. Tariq Abdullah, a prominent garlic researcher stated in the August 1987 issue of Prevention: “Garlic has the broadest spectrum of any antimicrobial substance that we know of — it is antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, antiprotozoan and antiviral.”

Health benefits of raw garlic:

(1) is a powerful immune system enhancer. Eat two to three cloves of raw garlic the first sign of a cold.

(2) helps lower blood pressure.

(3) helps reduce high cholesterol.

(4) helps reduce plaque within the arterial system.

(5) helps to regulate blood sugar.

(6) helps to prevent blood clots from forming, thus reducing the possibility of strokes. reduce platelet clumping and clotting (thus reducing strokes)

(7) dramatically reduces bacterial infections.

(8) expels intestinal parasites & worms.

(9) is a potent natural antibiotic and, while far less strong than modern antibiotics, can still kill some strains of bacteria that have become immune or resistant to modern antibiotics.

(10) has anti-fungal and anti-viral properties.

(11) helps to prevent cancer, especially of the digestive system, including the esophagus, stomach, and colon.

(12) has anti-oxidant properties and is a source of selenium.

(13) cures athletes foot. Rub crushed raw garlic on the affected area. Then cover or wrap the area leaving the pieces of raw garlic and oil enacted. Leave on overnight if possible. Repeat process until fungus is gone.

(14) helps to remove heavy metals, such as lead and mercury from the body.

(15) improves cardiovascular health.

(16) removes warts. Crush a clove of garlic, apply to wart, tape in place for 24 hours. The wart may blister and fall off in a week.

(17) heals boils & infected sores including cold sores.

I got this information from:
http://www.greenze.com/2007/08/17-benefits-of-organic-raw-garlic-how-it-can-improve-your-health/

I know this was a nerdy entry, but I like sharing this sort of stuff.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Argentina Night!

We had Argentina night on Sunday, and it was a lot of fun. Danny's family and my family came over for dinner. We played traditional Argentine music and ate beef and chicken empanandas. Our families tried morcilla (blood sausage), which most everyone was skeptical about. My brother was unable to come because it was his girlfriend's birthday, but I sent some food home for him and he loved the blood sausage. It was actually the best morcilla I've had. I don't know what was different about it, but it was very good.

Danny was our asador. We had chicken, steak, and grilled red pepper with egg in it. For an appetizer we had bread, cheese, and salami. Everyone got a chance to try Fernet, that was a mixed bag as to whether people liked it or not. We had already introduced everyone to mate, so their familiar with that. It was really fun to get everyone together and share a bit of what we learned in Argentina. I am so thankful for the experience.

When we finally cleaned up, I realized I never took any pictures. That was a little sad. I wanted a picture to capture our time together :(
I have to go finish my project for class. I get to go to a Blazer game tomorrow. I am pretty excited about that. I should bring my camera with me. I need to get some pictures up.

PS- The other project I procrastinated on turned out pretty well. I finished it. I am going to make some alterations, but overall it turned out nicely. Maybe I'll put a picture of that on here. Hmmm...

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Totally procrastinating





I am just finding excuses not to do my homework, so I thought I would take a couple shots of our apartment. I also wanted to take another shot of Mt. Hood because the other one was pretty dark. I am sure I will end up taking a million shots of Mt. Hood from our deck. I didn't clean up the apartment so excuse the messes. It's a fun layout, I really love living here. Everyone around is nice, and there are great shops and restIt's a beautiful sunny day today. I love it restaurants within walking distance.

Missing Argentina

I am really missing Argentina today. There have been several things that have reminded me of it lately, and I can really feel the pangs of sadness today. I looked at a picture of the place I used to sit at school, Facultad de Lenguas. I miss Laura, Fanny, Flor, Pablo, and just the random people I would see and talk with there. I liked it there. I am missing speaking Spanish, but I need to focus on school too. I need the discipline to practice on my own. I have been listening to the Spanish station in my car on the way to school. I can understand some of it. I plan to take classes somewhere after I graduate.

I keep thinking that me graduating is some really far off thing, but I graduate in 5 weeks, that's not that long. WOW!!!! I haven't even thought of what I am going to do to celebrate. I am getting kind of excited for it.

Danny and I are going to have both our families over for Argentina Night this weekend! We will have Fernet, asado, salami, cheese, mate, medialunas...So delicious! I am really looking forward to it. I was going to attempt to make empanadas, but I might wait for a different time to try it.

I have midterms this week, and I am supposed to be working on my project that I have to have finished for tomorrow. Instead I want to curl up with a soft blanket and sleep for a while. Ahhh!!! Procrastination, an unending battle.