Papas Don't Preach!

ALRIGHT! A chance to actually update this thing fo' real!!!
We came to the Starbucks just around the corner from our place to use their interweebz to finish filing our state income tax for Oregon...more on that later. First, the goodies!
Our visit to San Francisco was amazing! We must've both put on about 10 pounds from the amount of food we were eating. The weather was perfect for the entire week that we were there so we were able to walk around and see the city and we have a ton of pics that I guess we'll save for a later post. The few pics we will share though are the ones of the tattoos we got while we were visiting. This must've been the one time that our luck turned out to not be catastrophic. Amy's cousins happened to live right across the street from a tattoo shop so we figured what the hell...let's just see what they have to offer. The portfolios that we looked through were all amazing but only a few of the artists actually had some time to fit us in while we were in town. So we made appointments with a guy named Juan Puente. Amy, being the internet junkie that she is, googled the guys name after we left. Turns out he's the mother fucker! I mean this guy's in Juxtapoz, a well known photographer/film maker, has published a book on Horiyoshi, and much to Amy's enjoyment even tattooed Davey Havok!!!! Anyway...here are some pics...

Mine:


Amy's:


We had a chance to do quite a few more things but we're crunched for time so I'm gonna keep it short n sweet.

As far as state taxes go... THEY FUCKING SUCK! So here we are, we just paid the state of Oregon a total of $22 collectively (not including the $31 each that we had to pay to actually file it). Sure it doesn't sound like much but those motherfuckers taxed the wages we made from Texas and Oregon, instead of taxing Oregon only. You're right, we probably did something wrong?! I don't really know but we used Turbo Tax and apparently a lot of people are having the same issues as well. Anyways, it's a little frustrating considering we want to move back to Texas soon. Yes, that's right. We love Texas! Oregon is for suckas, fo' real! This state is so broke and the people here suck. The weather is beautiful though, but that can only take the state so far with us. I'm sure Oregon thanks us for allowing the junkies and homeless to suck all of the lifeblood out of the state and its taxpayers. Fuck this place. TEXAS IS FOR LOVERS!!!

Love always,
Amanda & Amy

Hmmm...

I wonder if I can convince Amy to have a cleaning party tomorrow with me...

It's our Friday night and I desperately want the next 48 hours or so to pass extra slow! Tomorrow morning...a nice pot of Stumptown coffee and maybe a great breakfast. OR...a few extra hours of sleeping in and a great lunch. I think I'll try to get Amy to eat Pepino's for lunch too. = yummy vegetarian "mexican" food at a really cheap price. Man...so much that I want to cram into so few hours.

Houston...I miss you. I never thought that I would miss the weather. But I do. Really! I miss the humidity, the heat, the rain, the wind, the thuuuunder. ALL OF IT! I'm so homesick I can hardly stand myself. I'm fighting every muscle in my body to not load up the car with the bare essentials and blow this popsicle stand. Even if I could take the weather with me, I don't think I would. It wouldn't be Houston without the moaning and bitching about the weather. What was that mix tape called with all the Houston bands? "I hate this place, I never wanna leave." My sentiments exactly!!!

Te amo,
Amanda

YARRRR!

So...sad to say, we are no longer internet pirates. We lost the unsecure signal that we used to get at the apartment. I'm updating from work because I got here super early. Good news though! I am in early discussions with the Team Leader at Kirby to come back onto the team some time in the near future. I'm really excited!!! Amy and I are going to San Francisco in a few days for a whole week and we've made an agreement that when we return to Portland we are going to focus all of our energy on getting back to Texas. We'll try to post more when we're in SF. We're staying with Amy's cousins so we'll have legit internet access! Hooray!!!

Much love,
Amanda

Inspiration!!!

So, if you are at all interested in interior design, we highly recommend that you go out and pick up the Domino Book of Interior Design. It has so many great ideas, much like the magazine of the same name (Domino) that I only recently discovered has now gone under. This past issue of Domino is, disappointingly, their last. One of the best tips that the book has to offer is the idea of gathering anything at all that might inspire you. Make a file and include anything in it that you find interesting, inspiring, or just flat out gorgeous. Then when you're ready to design a room, you can pull from all of your resources in the file and find any sort of theme or common factor that you admire about the pictures and design the room accordingly. As Amy and I are quite picky in our choice of decor, and both lacking in long term memory, we figured that this would do us a GREAT favor when we finally decide to plant our roots somewhere and buy a home (which at this point both in our lives and in the economy is seeming more and more like a joke!). Either way, my plan is to make a post as often as possible and include at least one picture that possesses some quality that I admire and would be willing to include when determining how to decorate our home in the future. Today the picture is one that I've found through a blog called Black*Eiffel:



Things I love about this pic:
The clawfoot tub as a planter!!! Absolutely gorgeous!
The light fixtures hanging from the ceiling
The blue tile used as flooring

Off to watch Nightline and help Amy finish a Times crossword puzzle. We bought a whole book of them today on a Powell's City of Books excursion. (An aptly named bookstore that we adore and is luckily only blocks away. Seriously...one could spend days in this shop and still not have seen every title they have to offer.)

Oh yes...I also intend to post which books I'm reading. Today I picked up a book called The Urban Homestead. It's basically a starting point for living a more sustainable lifestyle even when you don't necessarily have the resources that you would were you living in the country as opposed to a big city. I'm really enjoying it so far and it's sparking lots of little ideas for projects that I would love to take on once we're back in good ol' Texas!

Nights,
Amanda

New Bike Day

A while back I decided to take Amanda's wheelset and use them for my own which left her bike sitting in a corner with no wheels. Since moving to Portland, Amanda also decided she no longer wanted to ride "Fixed" anymore but wanted to ride "Free" instead. I had a spare Velocity 36hole Aerohead wheelset laying around so I decided to use this wheelset on her bike. Her original ratio was 49/18 and was pushing about 73.5 gear inches. Since Portland is somewhat hilly I decided to lower her gear ratio to 49/19 which pushes about 69.6 gear inches. The only problem was I needed to get a 19tooth freewheel cog. Taking the advice from my friend Ben, I went down to 21st Avenue Bicycles. Man! That place rocks! Everyone there is really nice, especially Hugh. He helped me out this whole weekend with parts and explaining tricks of the trade to me. Anyways, luckily 21st Avenue had a 19tooth freewheel cog in stock, yay! While Hugh was taking off the previous cog and installing the new cog I decided to look at some tires for Amanda's new build. Her previous rims, the one's I stole, were bright blue. I wanted to stick with the blue theme and came across some blue tires which were perfect as well as some matching bar tape for the handlebars! Since the bike is now a freewheel bike I needed to get more housing and cable for the brakes. The bike already had a front brake but I wanted to put a rear brake on to ensure the safest ride for my one and only true love! The bicycle chain however needed 3 links added to it because of the bigger rear cog, Hugh was awesome and hooked me up by finding and old chain and adding the links for me! I really suck with the chain breaker tool so I'm glad he did that for me. Anyways, there are still a few things I need to work on such as the rear cable line which I have excess of and needs to be cut down (it's very apparent in the picture)and buying a new stem because the one I put on there I got from a dollar bin. Other than that, I think the bike looks good for a quick build up! Here is a before and after of the bike! Enjoi!
- AMY!

Before:



After:

Clean Day!!!

Much to my enjoyment, Amy and I spent the majority of yesterday planning, organizing, and executing our Spring Cleaning project. Amy isn't a big cleaning fan so this basically consisted of Amy organizing some drawers and stuff while I cleaned. I realized just how much alike my mother and I are in that we don't really like to have people around while we clean. I'm entirely too scatter brained and move from one project to the next without finishing it but with the intention on coming back to it in a minute. We have our ways! Don't even get me STARTED on how to correctly fold a towel. Regardless, I had a pretty large list and am surprised by how much we actually got accomplished. We eventually succumbed to "taking a break" which meant a lot of internet browsing and Tetris playing, and never returned to our cleaning list. So...I woke up early today, had a (veggie)sausage and biscuit, glass of oj, and pot of coffee and got back on track. There are quite a few things left to do (mainly sorting through piles of clothes!) but am pleased with the progress made today. I'm hoping that Amy will come home and be soooo excited that she will work her way through the rest of the list. (Hahaha...jk babe! I'm sure you have about 6 or 7 tabs already set up that are eagerly awaiting that left click button!)
Anyway...here are some pics that I decided to take since we have yet to post any of our home.


Traded in the bleach for my new fave cleaning products!


Our small but functional kitchen!(stove not pictured, but I guarantee you, like any good Mexicans we have the comal sitting on the burner. I never learned the english term for it so you'll have to "spanish to english translation" that one. Viva la raza!)


Our dining room used to have a dining table that we never in 6 months of living here have used. So we set up the desk yesterday. I love that it's facing the window.


The living room


I love the lockers that our '08 stimulus checks stand on!!!


Our very cluttered yet much loved books in all their glory. (Can you tell we love IKEA?)


We try to use our shopping bags as much as possible to reduce the amount of bags we waste/use. But we gotz ta look fly while we do it! Keep it Gangsta! HTX represent!!!

There are more but we'll forgo the bathroom, closet, and bed areas for now. I suppose I should try to finish things up a bit. Maybe walk down to Zupan's to pick a nice bouquet of flowers up for my lovely lady.

Skibs not ribs!
Amanda B.

Early Birthday Present!

Let's see. Amy's birthday is at the end of this month so I've been trying to think of great gifts that I can get for her. The one obvious gift is something bicycle related as that is easily her second love. (Only behind ME of course! Hehehe!) As everyone knows, Portland is a pretty bicycle friendly city and the people here always have the neatest bike accessories for Amy to drool over. Oddly enough, at work the other day this guy had the COOLEST messenger backpack and I was able to ask him a few questions and forced him to let me look in the bag. Amy's rrrrreally picky about her packs so I figured this would be a good way to get some input from another cyclist. We went to River City Bikes today so that Amy could check it out and get a chance to try it on. Turns out she loooooves the bag and I ended up buying it for her for an early b-day present...along with a helmet so that she can be safe when she commutes now. We also picked up an awesome organizer that fits right in to allow for easy organization for locks, keys, brass knucks, etc. Enjoy the pics!!!

First up, Amy's bikes:


Amy with new pack:


Inside the pack:


Inside the pack with handy organizer:


Amy not being too happy about looking like a dork with the helmet:


Love, Amanda!

Jello Biafra blows minds for a living....

Amy Chow just eats them!


YEAH KID! I'ma eat her brains!


Dang! These gonna be so tasty!!!

***images edited for extreme gore coupled with over-cutieness***


Where my brains is???


Um...yeah...I think I ate them all.
Ohhhhhhhh!

Life with Amy is peachy.

Hugs not drugs!
Amanda B.

Wii Mii's

Amanda and I bought a Nintendo Wii a while back and really the most fun I have is making Mii's! So here is a few that I have made, I think they are pretty close to the people they are intended to be with the limited features that the Wii offers.

Mii's:

Me:

Amanda:

Tina Fey:

Amy Poehler:

Jesus:

Dwight from The Office:

Barack Obama:

Michelle Obama:

Davey Havok from AFI:

Julian Casablancas from The Strokes:

M.I.A.

Amanda's Brother:

Amanda's Mother:

Day Off

Today Amanda and I woke up quasi-early and decided against our usual ritual of having downtown food carts for lunch. Instead, we ended up going to Vita Cafe, a quaint restaurant boasting only the finest vegan/vegetarian fare as well as fair trade, organic, local, and environmentally conscious products. This place kicks so much ass! I had the Seitan Philly Cheesesteak with a side of fries, and Amanda had her all-time fave Tempeh Fried Steak with a side of potatoes. I had a Wyder's Dry Pear Cider and Amanda had a cup (a few to be exact!) of Stumptown Coffee...also a really awesome local vendor. They roast some of the best coffee around fo' realzies! We followed lunch up with some quick grocery shopping at
WFM, then figured we would visit the New Seasons that isn't too far. New Seasons is pretty much Central Market on crack. They carry everything Whole Foods would and top it all off by adding all that high fructose corn syrup shit that everyone tries to deny they buy after they're done shopping with us. Sad to say, we gave in too and bought some snacks that we could've picked up at Whole Foods but failed to do so. We also got a really cute coaster with a bike on it. =]

For some reason, Amanda was dying to go to the park up the hill from us so I agreed to go after some convincing. (We're also still a bit sick and trying to get over it.) We walked a quick trail, something I'm really not all that in to but whatev, visited the Oregon Holocaust Memorial, and then took a quick ride on the see-saw cuz we're just that ghetto. Much fun was had and the weather was amazing so we decided to take advantage of that while we could. Overall, a great day off with my boo. Can't wait for tomorrow!





XO AMY!

PS. I grew up listening to country music here and there, so here is a small play list I made that is worthy of taking a listen to.

Life with an omnivore

So Amy had this idea that I should post what it's like living (and loving!) with an omnivore. I guess I got really lucky in the fact that she happens to eat a lot of vegetables. More so than I was actually eating, and I am the vegetarian. I was a really bad veggie though and mainly ate potatoes and fake meats. Now we eat much healthier and I think I've probably lost about 20 lbs? That's our guesstimation anyway. (Amy on the other hand has managed to gain a few pounds. I happen to think that she looks gorgeous but she's ready to get back to her old weight.) Anyway...I never really imagined myself dating a meat eater. Hahaha...I suppose I never really imagined myself "settling down" with a girl either but hey, that's the way life works out! I always tell her that she's everything I ever wanted in a partner, she just happens to come in different packaging. Back to the point (wow, this post has absolutely nothing to do with living with an omnivore so far...what a miserable attempt!) I'm just glad that she doesn't like bacon. Seriously, the smell of bacon makes me want to gag. The only meat she's ever cooked while I've been at home is scallops, calamari, and her White Castle burgers that she's obsessed with. She cooked the calamari tonight which really wasn't all that bothersome. I imagine she'll be eating a lot more of it now that she knows that I don't have a problem with it. Going out to eat is another story altogether. She looooves seafood. And she has a tendency to wanna eat fast food pretty often. (this will only increase when we move back home to Texas. One word...WHATABUUUURGER!) I dunno...for some reason the fact that she eats meat in no way affects how I feel about living with her. OH! It does piss me off whenever she eats meat and then tries to kiss me with little chunks of meat in her mouth. That's disgusting. Oh...or when she waves meat in my face. That's not very considerate either. Pretty much it's like living with a baby T-Rex.
RAWRRRRRR!



Love, Peace, and Tofu Grease!
Amanda!

sick

We don't really have anything to post about. We're both sick now and trying to make it to our "weekend" on Wednesday and Thursday. Those are pretty much the only days that we actually get to see each other instead of passing each other. Really I only wanted to post this pic of a rainbow that hung out over downtown for a bit. Someone at work said that it ended in the Willamette River. I highly doubt that. Anyway...here's the pic. You can vaguely see the second rainbow that showed up almost immediately after I took the picture. Go figure.



Too bad we won't be living here much longer. I really like the weather.

XO
Amanda

oh snap!

You got Joaquin Phoenix fuuuucked up!
Man...what a psycho. I'm hoping this is just some sort of strange preparation for a Jeffrey Dahmer role. Yikes.



OH...and this:



We love you!
XO
Team Boo

Never Once Settle Down!!!

So I called out sick today because I'm coming down with "the junk" that everyone's getting at work. Really it was Amy who got me sick, but she somehow managed to fight it off and I'm stuck here at home popping pills and drinking nasty tea. She will be here to care for me in a matter of 3 hours! and we will have a yummy dinner consisting of: green beans & crimini mushrooms sauteed in garlic (one of our faaaavorite dishes), one whole potato (split between the two of us), and steamed carrots and broccoli. I love the way we eat now. I would've never eaten this way had I not started dating Amy.

A few days ago we started talking about trying to wait it out a little longer in Portland. I'm really on the fence about this one. There will be a number of things that I will miss if we move back to Houston. I mean real, legitimate things that we would look for in a city that we were planning to live in for the rest of our lives. Things like: Amazing weather, bicycle & pedestrian friendliness, public transportation (which, by the way, I don't think many major cities can even hold a match to), and of course...food carts. On the other hand, this city lacks a lot of things that we would be able to have back home! Which consist of, but are not limited to: family, friends, no state tax, familiarity, security, job opportunity, stability, and of course...mexican food. The majority of the things on that list are things that I think we could find here, given an ample amount of time and an overall improvement in the economy but I don't know that I want to live here for much longer. Oh yeah...and there's no thunder here!!! What is that about???

I guess the important thing is that I've found the person that I want to settle down with and now it's just a matter of finding the place to settle. Which brings me to my next point...where did this term "settle down" come from? I in NO way consider myself to be settling. We have a great life, we enjoy each others company, we laugh, we argue but know that in the end things will work themselves out, and we have goals we've set for ourselves, both as a couple and individually. If anything I think I traded up, son!

So, I will leave you with this as I take my tea and watch a movie until my love arrives to entertain me. Mates of State are amaaaaazing live and I only posted this video because I think it's pretty and I like the song. Also, I think Kori looks really pretty but where did her eyebrows go? Really happy that they incorporated the horns in the end. Typically this is a husband and wife act, but they added Lewis and
Anton Patzner (from Judgement Day) specifically for instrumentals. I would've posted "Hoarding It for Home" (the inspiration for this posts title) but there were only live versions of it and those are kinda weird. So here we go...

Mates of State - My Only Offer



ok...here's a live version of Hoarding It for Home. Just in case you feel like seeing them in action. Really folks, few bands are as amazing as they are live.

Mates of State - Hoarding it for Home


Besos,
Amanda

What's A Girl To Do

Bat For Lashes - What's A Girl To Do



XO Amy

Reform School Girls

Reform Schools Girls was a movie released in 1986, low budget and indie. I strongly suggest you watch it! It is fantastic for what it is, a movie revolving around a bunch of misfit girls, nudity, nonsense, and bad but great acting. It also stars Wendy O. Williams, who was the lead singer of the band The Plasmatics.

Here is a screen shot from the film:



And here is a video of The Plasmatics:



XO AMY

Jolene

What happened Dolly?
Jolene is one of my favorite songs by Dolly Parton. She looks beautiful in this live performance as well.



But here is Dolly now...



Also, if you want to watch a Dolly documentary here is a trailer to "For the Love of Dolly."

For the Love of Dolly | Movie Trailers

riiiiip!

So tonight I was practicing Pogos and Keo Spins by myself in a parking lot and RIIIIIIP went my jeans. =[ I have lost so many jeans from being on my bike.



This is a Pogo...
I can get up and balance, but I can't really hop.



And this is what a Keo Spin is...
Pretty much I can do a backwards circle and flail my arm around, haha!



XO Amy

Secretly Canadian

I really like Antony & the Johnsons.
They just released a new record, The Crying Light.
These two songs are from their previous record, I Am a Bird Now.





... and Secretly Canadian is their record label.

XO Amy

St. Valentine's Day

Let's see, Happy Valentine's Day. So earlier Amanda mentioned that this town is "pretty boring." Well not really, but kinda. There is a lot of stuff to do such as cycling, going to cutie shops all around town, and going to shows. Here are a few shows coming up:

Murder City Devils - tonight, sold out =[
Appleseed Cast - 2/16
Andrew Bird - 2/21
Son of Sam - 2/21
Dr. Dooom & Dr. Octagon - 2/21
Blondie - 2/22
Broken Spindles - 2/22
Ra Ra Riot - 2/24
Murder By Death - 2/25
Portland Cello Project 3/6
Port O'Brien - 3/7
Portland Cello Project 3/8
Saul Williams - 3/10
Asobi Seksu - 3/11
No Kids - 3/13
Portugal The Man - 3/14
Lady Ga Ga - 3/17
Bonnie Prince Billy - 3/27
Portland Cello Project - 3/29
Ratatat - 3/30
New Found Glory - 3/31
Mirah - 4/4
Fleet Foxes - 4/12
The Ting Tings - 4/13
Junior Boys - 4/14
Sebastien Tellier & Chairlift - 4/15
Squirrel Nut Zippers - 4/17
Black Kids & Mates of State - 4/19
Bloc Party - 4/22
Dan Deacon - 4/24
Ladytron & The Faint - 5/1
Flight of the Conchords - 5/14
Animal Collective - 5/25
Her Space Holiday - 5/31

That'll make you broke.

Here's a pic of me and my bicycle:


Cheers!
XO Amy

Happy Valentines Day!!!

So...my first post on our new blog.

Not really much to write about today. It's Valentines Day but Amy has to work until 4 pm. =( I think I'm about to head to the grocery store to buy some ingredients for a cake!!! (strawberry with buttercream icing!) This town is pretty boring so we spend a large majority of our time planning what's for lunch, dinner, dessert, late night snack, etc. Entirely too much of our time and effort is devoted to food...which makes us sound like fatties only not really. It's just our attempt at becoming "foodies". Once we get back home we plan on sharing the knowledge we've gained by throwing extravagant dinner parties for small groups of people. I like the idea of entertaining...all of your close friends sitting around a table sharing a meal that you took hours to prepare just for them in hopes that they will enjoy it for the few moments you have together...I can see why Ron likes to entertain so much. Only he needs to throw some wine or liquor or something in there to keep the conversation unpredictable. Bahaha!

Anyway...sorry for the boring post. Wish I had time to be clever but I've wasted more time than I expected on the internet posting love letters to the city of Houston. I'm off to the grocery store. Until later...here is one of my fave pics of me and my one true love!



XO Amanda

Public Reminder

Amanda and I recently (4 months ago) moved to Portland, OR from Houston, TX. This is a public reminder to myself to post some pics of the trip up here which, sad to say, was not exciting at all. We took the most boring route possible but it was the fastest and that is what mattered the most. I should also post pics of our tiny studio apartment. It is about 1/3 of the size of our old apartment in Houston and we pay twice as much rent. Lame. Maybe I'll post some pics of the snow that fell for 3 weeks straight which apparently is unusual for Portland. Also, I should post some pics of my bicycles because I love them. Maybe I'll post a picture of Amanda since I love her too! hah!

XO
Amy

Hello?

Does this thing work?

Edit: Okay, it works. Now what?

A picture... sure.



Obviously I am really good at MS Paint! FTW!

Video? ok.



Old video, but hilarious. Makes me laugh every time.

XO
Amy