Tree Bike

Thursday May 8, 2008 - Tonight a guy rode down my street on some sort of bike that looked like a tree. It was obviously custom-built, and was gigantic. The guy was taking his dog, Merlin, for a walk. The dog had a mohawk from head to arse and had purple hair. Here are a couple pictures of the contraption and a couple videos of it as well. Uh.. hhhhhuhhuu....

Citizenry

Thursday, May 8 2008 - Bombshell is now both a little Brasilian Bombshell as well as American Bombshell.. On May 5, she officially became a US citizen. She's been waiting for years for this day, by which she no longer needs visas, permits, etc. I was honored to be able to be there for the official ceremony.

Arriving downtown

My contribution to the process

Ana taking her oath to not be a polygamist

Citizenry!

After the ceremony

Ana about to take her first step outside as an official American

Downtown Hike

Thursday May 8, 2008 -

Ana and I went on a hike suggested by my cuz Jeff, and it was beautiful. Literally within the edge of downtown Portland, we come to a bridge with a very small, very unnoticeable stairway on the edge of the bridge that we would have never noticed if it weren't for Jeff. We walked down this and enjoyed quite an incredible, secluded hike next to a river, waterfalls, lush greenery, and the remains of some old stone house - all right on the edge of downtown.

Yo

Thursday, May 8 2008 - Been a while since we posted, but we still live. Life has been good here, we've just been working on the house a little, seeing Portland, and seeing lots of concerts. Some of which included -

Jackstraw

SuperDiamond

Ceu

Bat Makumba

Lions of Batucada

Umphrey's McGee

Drive-by Truckers

Greyboy Allstars

Dark Star Orchestra

I had to go to Dallas for 3 weeks for work, but at least I got to stay with Greg and Mel and hang out with them. I went to my friend Steve Prichard's wedding in Houston the first weekend (pictures below). I think I had too much fun there, and part of it was reminiscent of my breakdancing days. Ana came down for one weekend; I think she prefers Portland, but I can't say I blame her.

At the end of the month we are going to Seattle with around 50 Brasilians to see Brasil play Canada in soccer. We're renting a bus and a bus driver - this should be interesting..

My comb-over

Mark's comb-over

Blue Steel

Whipper-snappers

B'gok

Breakdancing. Everyone should try doing the EggRoll at some point in their lives..

Disney

Sunday, April 6, 2008 - We had been trying to decide on a place to travel to for Ana's birthday and had come up with several ideas, until one day she heard me mention that my family (parents, sister, frank and the kids) were going to Disney. Once she heard, this is where she unequivocally wanted to go.

Ana had not met my sister, frank, or their kids, so she finally got to meet them there in all their splendor. We had a blast.

Memorable events included:
- Ana on "Everest" - the largest roller coaster at Animal Kingdom and the look of sheer terror on her face in the picture taken automatically by the roller coaster camera. I bought a copy.
- My mom on Thunder Mountain and her Arabic war chant in harmony with the roller coaster accelaration. I recorded the entire ride for your listening pleasure.
- Frank and I sampling different beers from each of the little "countries" at Epcot.
- Frank's condition the next morning.*


* Frank claims to have gotten food poisoning the night before. The matter is under review as nobody else received food poisoning.

Goofy	Animal Kingdom
Animal Kingdom - Everest in the background	Top of Everest
Everest	Ana's sheer look of terror
Leisure time	Frikkin rocking the disney parade
Littlesallyonefoot	Training Mason to hit on the girl in the last picture below
Vikings	Nostrils
Fullett

First night at the house

Monday, February 11, 2008 - Last night Ana and I finally stayed at the house. We had no furniture, dishes, or even really lights. We did however have an absurdly large TV, blow-up mattress, and salmon. Ana's father Jose (in Portuguese sounds like zsho-say) sent her back home with a large Bohemia beer for me; I vowed that would be the first beer I'd drink whenever I got a house. So last night I cracked open the beer and we dined, and slept at the house for the first time. Muito obrigado o Senhor Jose!

I had no idea you can haggle with people at Wal-Mart. Ana suggested I go there to buy a TV.. I went there to buy a particular one, but the sales guy of course sold me on one with better resolution for a tiny bit more. He went to the back but didn't have it in stock. He asked how much I wanted to spend there, I told him, and he suggested a different TV that was about $300 more than I wanted to spend. He offered to knock $150 off of it. I told him if he knocked $200 off then I wouldn't drive to the next closest Wal-Mart and buy the TV I originally wanted. He agreed. I ended up paying about the same price for a ridiculously large TV (50 inches!).

I think Ana worked even harder than I did on my house; she even helped me lug the beast of a TV into the house and hoist it up ontop of the mantle in the living room. She is strong.

Um.

This is what Ana and I have been doing for the past couple weeks. Nothing. We will begin our list soon though....