matts sillybees

I went fishing yesterday and it was radical. I caught some Deshutes Redsides. Keeley went to the Portland Street Festival whilst I was away in the eastlands of the countryside. For all of you who don't know I've started my own dojo in downtown portland. We are called the portland devils. Here is our credo. Confidence is in a candy bar. Snickers will be disqualified. We live to fight. Like what? Devils! Like what? Devils!!! I can't hear you!!!! Fight like devils!!!!! Ok class fall in. To my students this week please practice karate chickenkickers on Monday/Wed and sidewinder sweepers on Tues/Friday, on Saturday please study Matts Sillybees.

Happy 7-11 Free Slurpee Day!!

Different people have different ideas, thoughts and memories about 7-11s, but I have always felt pretty connected to my local 7-11 stores. Since 2001, Matt and I have made it our priority to properly celebrate July 11th. This year was no exception. The big difference this year, was our location, which ended up working out to our advantage, since for some unknown reason, Oregon has a 7-11 about every 6 blocks. We made the game plan the day before, and coincidently, I discovered a new 7-11 just in time. Then it was off to the races! Our first stop let us use these cups to fill up our oh-so-much-better-when-its-free slurpee flavors, which is also a change to the regular mini sacrement sized cups that we've had in Utah. After I told everyone in the parking lot to come in and enjoy their free slurpees, we headed to our next stop and filled up again. One of our favorite things about this beloved holiday is the look of anger/disgust on the cashiers' faces as we start to ask about the free slurpees, in contrast to the happy looks of strangers after we tell them about the free slurpees available at EVERY 7-11.

This was after eating the Hulk flavor. Who knows what is in it, but who really cares, its free! After 4 slurpees, and two cashiers telling us they can't give out any more free slurpees, we decided to call it quits for the night. Matt would have kept going. His favorite thing to say to the cashiers on this day is '7-11 is all day, that means midnight!' It got us nowhere, but was funny every time.

These slurpee cups fulfilled their mission tenfold. We actually talked one of the cashiers into letting us fill them up with more slurpee after he gave us the excuse they were out of cups. So until next year, thank you 7-11, thanks for everything...

The great outdoors...

So we can't get enough of this beautiful earth. At the end of June, we went to Matt's family reunion at Brianhead Resort in southern Utah, one of my favorite places to be! We did this little hike by Navajo Lake with Jeff, Sue, Sheryl, Sam, Ainsley, Elliot and baby Matthew. I think there was a reason for the 'Trail Closed' sign that we ignored, but we all made it back alive.

Scenes like this make me miss Utah! Family and the outdoors, sigh, what more could anyone want? We enjoyed it while we could. The sun was amazing, I didn't realise how much I missed it. How do I keep ending up in cities that are gray and rainy? Anyway, the sun was our lovely companion and I don't mind at all that my mexican genes kicked in and left me with a pretty nice tan. All the northwesterners can't believe its natural.

Matt was showing baby Matthew how to fish. Such a cute picture! I don't like to brag, but our neices and nephews are pretty much the cutest kids ever. I wish I had a good picture of them all! Big Matt didn't have any luck fishing, but he's trying to pass it on to the next generation.

Being around family made me really miss it! I wish we were closer, that's all. And this is my blog so I'll complain if I want to. Ciao.