Oregon- Part 1

So last week Gentleman Friend took me on the most wonderful, happy, amazing trip just about ever! I have to tell you, a trip is a MILLION times better with the right traveling partner. And GF is great for traveling. He's calm, does a little research to find cool things, but will happily change plans of something better comes up, carries on great conversations and BTW will make you laugh when your ready to cry.... (only 2x's! Yes Im a girl...)

Saturday- We left San Francisco around 6 am and headed to my place to get the cold goods, and feed the cats one more time. We made AMAZING time, and missed much of the smoke, as there were hge fires in the eastern part of the state. We pulled into a cute little hotel in the suburbs of Portland around 6 pm. After a meal at Applebee's  (surprizingly good meal! and also found out that they serve Malibu Rum in a bucket). We were pretty beat and so fell asleep to a marathon of Naked and Afraid.

Sunday- We got up early and headed into Portland. We went to The Portland Zoo, which I had been to as a child, but remembered almost nothing, except loving the shit out of it and seeing a Polarbear for the first time. Its a beautiful zoo, laid out really friendly, very natural and just lovely. GF helped me collect my smashed pennies, and freak out about goats.

After the zoo we headed into downtown. Rouge Brews was having their annual Bone Blues and Brews Festival. That ment BBQ, delightful, music and samples of brews! We tried so much goodness!!

Cesar and Heather met up with us and we headed to the infamous Voo Doo Donut! After standing inline on the surface of the sun for about an hour, and Cesar getting us a pitcher of water, We finally recieved out trophies! A Dirty old man, Tripple chocolate penatration, and much much more! Well worth the standing in line. 

Cesar took us to Rocky Butte, a beautiful view and quiet retreat from the city, just minutes from down town. 

Then our delightful driver took us to the Falls.... So romantic and beautiful and.. well.. look!

To end our tour of Portland we ended up at Henry's Tavern. Home of over 40 brews on tap, wonderful servers and really good food!! GF got a sampler of local brews all of which were DELIGHTFUL and I got a blueberry Hefenweizen. It was REALLY good! 

Buffalo blue cheese fries, hot wings, and cheddar beer soup

Heather and Cesar being amazing

Minion representing Hunter Tyler

40 beers on tap and a naughty store across the street!! 

More updates soon!! Laptops running dry! 

Utah, Garlic and New Hard Drive

So Im going to do this out of order, deal with it.

Hello all!!! :D long time no see!! lol, anyways, so the new laptop is back up and running!! The company ASUS, (thank you guys) decided to take pity on me and put a new hard drive into it for me!! Lets see if this one will last more then 4 months. Im hoping!!

So the wonderful Gentleman Friend and I headed out to his homeland of Utah!! It was hot a beautiful, as the desert should be. We mostly hung out at his parents respective homes, and meet up with his co-workers one night for a little get together. Jerry from work sent me with a Minion from McDonalds, and took pictures of him around. it was just an in and out visit, though the out was 9 hours delayed, but it allowed us to cruz around Provo.. which is Mormanville USA. Im not going to lie, I like the Mormans, they take care of their families, are nice and dont spit in front of you.. my current pet peeve...

I've never gotten out of the back of a plane before!

GF and his niece and nephew wrestling

Im on a goat...

Mmmmm.... A&W

 It was a great trip, and GF's Cousin Alicia came back with us to spend a week in SF for her 17th Bday. She's so nice and mild, plus i got to do a little tour guide! We had a chance to go down to Fort Point and see the Golden Gate. I always tell people to go down to the Presidio and Chrissy Field when their in town, its the best.

 Eventually Alicia had to head home and life got back it abnormal. This last weekend GF and I decided on a whim to head down to the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Yes, its a festival of GARLIC. The greatest. It was 10,000 degreees... not really but way to hot and traffic in the little cow town was a DISASTER. But we ate crawdads and I got a bracelet with a fish in it.. a REAL bloodfin Tetra.. Its gross and so cool, im so weird... I know animal cruelty.... oh well

 We also picked up some bacon soda which was... odd.... but that last picture is a shot of Beard Papa's cream puff. Boom. Amazing!!!

On a side note, a few weekends ago we got to do some free Tye Dye with Jo-Annes...apparently this is the Tye Dye Your Summer Campaign! Im down. :3 

Angry Hate Filled Rant of DOOM

Izzy's mad again, watch out. So Im posting tonight from my good old reliable beast Ralph. So if Im missing any T's I appologize now.... What happened to the new laptop? Well, its been acting a little wonky then the other night it full out died. The hard drive failed and its toast. No worries, I backed up everything a few days before and ill take it to Best Buy and have them fix it, they did sell it to me only 4 months ago.So I take it over, apparently they only guarentee the hard drive for 90 days on that model, its been 120. Yep, one month after the warrenty expired. I called numbers, hollered, cried and everything for 2 hours.. they offered to mail me a $100 vouvher towards repairs in 7-10 buisiness days.... but I have to buy the supplies from them. Fuck you Best Buy.

So I went home and called ASUS who built the stupid thing, and a very nice lady helped me with some info, and i spoke to many people of varrying accents. BTW they tranfered me more times wih less holds the Best Buy, or should I say RAPE BUY. Asus agreed that they cant do anything over 90 days, so I told them I will be happy to spread the word that their computers only last 3 months, and they offered to look at it for free, hey cover the shipping and if I want them to fix it they will gaurantee it for another 90 days.... I asked what happens when in 120 days it fails again like it did this time and they dont have an answer. but ill take them up on their free inspection. since I don get my RAPE vouncher from Best Buy for 10 days anyways.

I also offered to speak to them in person, but they dont wan me to do that... Anyway the email me the info, and i tell them, I DON HAVE A COMPUTER... so she tells me all the codes and what not. I head to FedEx and... they cant search the codes on their system.. I have to use their computer- for $5 - and give it to them. So Im here at starbucks with Ralph retrieving codes and Blogging angrily.

On my hate list-
Best Buy- Geeksquad Certified means it WILL die in 4 months, we gaurentee that!
GeekSquad- We do whatever Best Buy tells us, right master?
FedEx- To retarded to pull heir own delivery codes. REALLY???
Asus- has the ability to work themselves off if we can work this out, aka you fix what you made.

I really did have a good week and weekend before all this... :( I'll post when Im in a better mood...

Dinosaurs, Meat and Strike

Sorry for yet another delay. Last week the regular schedule was on hold because the train that takes 400,000 people to and from San Francisco decided to strike. Apparently making 70k-100k a year isn't enough, and paying for 16 percent of their benefits is just to much for the employees to stand. So the whole city was on hold. As for me, I decided if half my building wasn't going to show up I would reap the rewards and accepted 45 hours, one of which was holiday pay and 5 hours of over time! I crashed at handsome Gentleman Friends as getting across the bay was almost impossible. As for the strike after 4 days the unions lost all public support and decided to take a month to renegotiate. 

But this last weekend after working my feet sore my sweet man took me to Discover the Dinosaurs!!! Over 60 life sized animatronic dinosaurs, inflatable slides for kids, and so much fun!

Ill post more photos from not my phone. Did I mention this is a mobile update? :3 anywho, the MEAT OF THE WEEK! Was created and consumed. I was able to purchase some little chuck steaks, which are a thin but tough little steak for about $4 a lbs. I marinated them in some soy sauce, olive oil and a dash of Montreal steak seasoning and seared them hot and fast. Then served them sliced thin in strips. Yum!!