Trip to San Francisco............

First........We signed Wills in case something went awry........





Morbid, Yes, but we left the kids behind........And had a great time!!!

We went to San Francisco for the graduation of our Nephew, Jay Kepoikai. Great time!

There was alot of food........(no kidding) We went to the Farmer's Market at the embarcadero center, and had......food! (Best Tamale I've ever had..)





And My Dad was there too! (He's Happy, I promise. We all had a great time at the market)



We then went to the LEGION OF HONOR



And toured the Rodin exhibits and a beautifully haunting photography exhibit of modern day photographs taken from the exact vantage points of photographs taken just after the San Francisco Earthquke.

We visited the De Jong, and the SF Moma. and were exhausted, so.........

We ate snacks. (Char Hung Sut!)Famous Dim Sum Place in Hawaii.......Thank you Maile! :)





And then................We Went to Dinner! :)

L & G Lounge

Wow. Nice Dinner. Probably one of the best Chinese Meals I've ever had.






Late Night.........The Redwood Room.......



And the Next Day- The Graduation!

Mother's Day!

We went to the Hood River Inn on Mother's day. Here's a couple of shots from the spread. It was pretty incredible. They Served over 1000 people! Yikes!

Lynn Penner-Ash Wine Dinner........

We had a singular event in Celilo a couple of weeks back. Lynn Penner-Ash hosted our wine dinner. Thats her sitting at the head table.........



She pulled out a couple of very nice wines, Including her blend, a very well made "Rubeo" as well as a 2001 Reserve, which was a classic.



The Kitchen Rocked! I think they served up in four or five flights.



Wide open, great night...........

Election Night............

Well, tonight was election night, and I lost rather handily. Not entirely unexpected, to be sure. I had agreed to stand still while my opponent (now chairman elect) ran to get on the ballot, and they had a shot to take the position. At the moment, I think they carried over a 60% margin, so it looks like he's in.
Not much more to say, really. I'm a bit bummed, but also a bit relieved. There's so much work to be done I'm glad this focus is now past.

My advice, don't ever let a friend talk you into "helping him out" with regards to politics in Hood River.................Odds are, it'll be a fucking mess.

To the Pig!

We had a company retreat for Celilo yesterday. It was a pretty long winter for us, and Jax and Ben wanted to do something nice. We are doing a pretty large function at this remote lodge and Ben, Jax and Mindy were so blown away by it they had us come back.........

So, you drive for a pretty long time out into the middle of nowhere. After following the directions as closely as possible, on a single lane back country road, we FINALLY see this



THe Place was Way, way, way over the top. Too crazy to describe. THey made a bonfire for us........



We cooked a pig. It was.......mmmmmmmmmm.........Well, you remember that comment about once a foodie? Well this was a whole house full of them.



That night we toasted each course. And the main course toast was simple.

"To the Pig!"

Lego from a kids view..........

Looks so much different........Like from Nathaniel's view. No wonder he likes to play with his little city..........








Celilo hosted Women of Wine (WOW) last night........couple of shots from the kitchen while we fine tuned......(where we taste the items against the products one last time and argue, to the last minute about what goes with what.........and jess just shakes his head.)





Once a foodie, Always a foodie.

Spring..........

Means Easter!
Lots of projects for Easter. Gingerbread house? Sure, why not.



The Gingergbread house came complete with one of those disasterous house collapse moments as well.............



We did Eggs..............


And visited a friends house for an amazing (now becomming) tradition of the family egg hunt.




Complete with a diveway session and daredevil bikeriding by their son........



And a Random Julia shot..........


"...Can't Bust em!...." :) M

March..............

What a Month!

We Started withe Clean Energy Harvest conference, and a few days after that I ended up filing for the chairmanship of the Hood River County Commission. That immediately touched off a firestorm of protest! It was a crazy couple of weeks. I've never been called so many names for wanting to spend more time away from my family.

The furor culminated in what was called by bunch of people "The Monday night Lynching" I was asked to resign, and the current Chair, Rodger Schock, in a very classy move, actually did resign.

Here's the room just before the fireworks began..............




And here's what I went and did afterward.........


The result of the protest was that I've agreed to "stand still" in my election while the protest candidate, a Mr. Ron Rivers attempts to get on the ballot for the Fall election. I'll reserve my personal comments on this public post, but suffice it to say, no good deed goes unpunished in Hood River County. Ron Rivers seems like a nice guy, and I'll look forward to working with him.

Lets see....

Had an AWESOME Wine Dinner with Charlie Hoppes as our guest. His wines are very, very nice, and the food was over the top. I cannot wait until the Penner-Ash Dinner in May.

Charlie Hoppes




And one of our guests, Craig McCurdy. Great night.




There are a bunch of Wind Turbines being delivered over the spring, a bunch a day. It appears there are about three sections per tower,



The Turbine and the blades. Makes for alot of wide loads...............

Did a little Rotary Bowling............



And took my Son to a castle....


Very cool family event of a friend. Really special time.

Talent Show at Down Manor


And I noticed that Tum-A-Lum is still selling FSC Lumber. Stoked.


March-A mixed bag, but I'm still here...........................