For living just a few miles from the center of the city, we sure have a lot of animals around this place! In fact, tonight as I was putting together a video about our bunny, I realized I’ve made all sorts of short movies about the animals of Rosings Park. Let’s look at some of …
I had a surreal experience today. After my Spanish lesson, I stopped at Wallace Books in Sellwood. (Yes, yes — I know I’ve complained about them in the past, but the fact is they’re the only real used bookstore around, so I’ll take what I can get.) I wanted to pick up A Game of …
All day long, I think about Spanish. Sometimes, if I’m lucky, I think in Spanish (though this never lasts for long). When I’m not working on my Spanish, I wish I were. And sometimes, like last night, I’ll stay up long after Kris has gone to bed just so I can read more Spanish or …
It looks as if — for now, anyway — we’re not just a five cat family; we’re also a one rabbit family. On Tuesday, for no apparent reason whatsoever, a rabbit appeared in the yard. We were standing in the kitchen when Kris said, “Look. Meatball is chasing a rabbit.” Sure enough. The big dumb …
Alas, it is a sad, sad day in Rothland. But a joyous one as well. After forty years, the trailer house is no more. As you’ll recall, I grew up in this lovely mobile home: I wasn’t born here, but I have few memories of anywhere else. We moved here when I was two, so …
While editing a guest post for my personal finance blog, I found this seven-minute video from Niall Doherty. In this clip, Doherty, who has been learning Spanish for 3-1/2 months, carries on a casual conversation with two friends he’s made in Spain. I like this exchange for several reasons. First, it’s subtitled. Second, this shows …
One of my favorite parts about learning Spanish so far has been discovering a world of new music. Thanks to José (one of the employees at the box factory), I’ve been exploring the various Mexican music stations in Portland. (I say Mexican because that’s the audience the stations cater to and the source of most …
Though I put my dreams of traveling to England on hold this summer in order to help take care of Mom, I did find some time to sneak away for a long weekend in Indianapolis recently. Indianapolis isn’t quite the same as London, but I still had fun. I met up with my friends Adam …
Last night, I finished reading the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. In Spanish. What makes this remarkable is that eight weeks ago, I could barely read a word of Spanish. In the past two months, I’ve gone from only knowing how to swear in the language to being able to read …
It cracks me up that I haven’t haven’t written much lately. As usual, that means there’s actually too much going on in my life, not too little. For example: As many of you know, Mom is currently in the memory-care unit of an assisted living facility. I won’t go into details (yet), but she had …