The Jack Noodle Journal

Happy Easter everybody! Do you all have your Easter dresses on? We are going out on an Easter egg hunt a little bit later today I think. Hopefully there’s an Easter brunch in our future also. I’m hungry.

Well the rock garden is almost complete. We got more rocks yesterday and did some serious construction on that puppy. One more load of medium sized rocks and I think we will be set on the rocks. We’ve got to add some dirt and the actual plants next. Without the plants and flowers it’s just a rock pile and not a garden. Boy we were tired and sore after yesterday’s hard work.

We fell right to sleep last night. K and I have been doing this weird talking in our sleep thing lately. Last night I think she was saying that I scared her with my snoring, and she thought a car was driving over her face. Crazy. I asked her about it this morning and she says that I was snoring everywhere last night. In front of the television, in the bathroom, and when I went to sleep in bed. I kind of think she is making the whole thing up, because I didn’t hear anything. I sure was tired though, so I guess snoring isn’t that unreasonable. I totally fell right to sleep.

You know, I hope there is a new episode of the Simpsons on tonight. It seems like forever since I have seen a new one.

Wow March is almost over! I feel rather indifferent about this last month. It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad. I’m telling you though, April is going to be SWEET.

We went on an evening bike ride last night. It was pretty cool. K and I rode our bikes to La Cruda and had some tasty Mexican food. Hey once again, are any of you missing a bicycle? The bike I’m riding isn’t mine, it was just left on our lawn. If you see me riding your bike just let me know and I’ll give it back.

After our dinner we rode the bicycles up Hawthorne to see our friend Joel. We watched Joel as he trained for another notch on his black belt. Is that right, notch? Maybe it’s degree. Boy that sure was interesting. They were practicing the martial art Pukulan. Joel’s test he is doing this weekend is 52 hours long, straight without sleep. It involves lots of physical and mental endurance. Ha! I thought our 15 minute jogging was tough. When we were there viewing and gawking Joel was fighting with other students who weren’t part of the 52 hour test. Man, awesome moves. With the punches and kicks it looked like there was a bit of wrestling thrown in for good measure. Some of it looked pretty painful. I don’t think getting punched and kicked is my kind of thing.
Joel GREAT job! You looked great. You’re still at it now as I type this. Boy are you tired?

I think we are heading out today to get some more rocks for our rock garden. Then I think we may do some jogging and then we will pick Mr. Baptist and Ms. Bee up at the airport.

Yesterday was an awesome day. I was pretty happy with how yesterday went. I got some self promo stuff done in the morning. Then I got interviewed by Good Morning America.

Later I went to Milwaukie and had lunch with a couple of old chums from the Pony. It sure was nice to see those kids! They gave me a tour of the place again. Some things are different around there, while some things seemed to have stayed the same. It looked like they had a lot more artwork up on the walls this time. Yes it was good to wander through the old haunts. Hey, who knows? We’ll have to wait and see?

Have I mentioned yet in this post that I am digging this Spring time weather and sunlight? Well I am.

K and I went jogging last night. Ha Ha! Yes you read that right. She and some of her friends are planning on running in a marathon. I don’t think I’ll be running in the marathon, but I am planning on training with my buddy. I’ll be her coach. I feel pretty good this morning after last night’s jog. I’ve been trying exercise and get healthy this last month. I don’t know why I haven’t tried that earlier. I think maybe with the jogging I should start lifting weights. Yeah I’m going to get totally buff so you guys won’t be able to recognize me.

When we got home from jogging I talked to my friend Simon on the phone. He’s currently living in Chicago. Simon and I went to grade school on up together. It was good to hear that he is doing good. I kind of miss that guy. Last time I saw him was at the wedding.

Well today is going to be a smashing day also! I’ve got some good things already lined up for this morning. I hope my cheeriness isn’t making you sick, it just feels good to feel good.

Oh, I was just joking about that Good Morning America thing. That would have been funny though, right?

Well I got that lawn mowed. Yep pretty exciting eh? It looks good now. I think I may go out and roll around in it later this afternoon. Thanks again to Matt for the use of the lawn mower. K is giving me grief because I’m not using the push mower I bought last year. I don’t know about that push mower. Besides the obvious annoyance of the pushing thing, I believe that the push mowers cause more weeds to pop up than their power mower brothers. Do you think there is anything to that theory? I’ll show you all and go out and get a riding lawn mower.

Looks like it is that time of week again. Time for the Freedom Walk! The weather for these journeys is only going to continue to get better. I love it. I’m like a new man with a little bit of sunshine. I think I may head over to the comic shop today. It’s been about a month since I bought those last issues hasn’t it? I don’t think I’ll go to Excalibur today though, I may try a different comic shop over on Burnside called Future Dreams or something like that. Their old location stunk but I haven’t seen the new spot yet.

I am still trying to get going on working on my projects. Some other lame things have been getting in the way of the experiments lately. Don’t you worry I’m still on task. I’ve got some other ideas now that are also fighting for elbow room with the projects.

Hey today is my Dad’s birthday. Happy Birthday Dad.

It sure was nice out yesterday. I met Martin over at Stumptown Coffee Roasters to give him his keys back. On the way over I was attacked by G who also joined me for a cup of coffee. Those kids are alright. Man there was a huge crowd of unemployed sunbathing coffee drinkers sitting outside of Stumptown. It was a good scene.

After hanging out there I went and helped Eugene and friends move the printshop. The presses and the big stuff had already been moved by professionals. I helped out with the smaller things and the various odds and ends. The shop is looking pretty cool. Almost done kids!

K and I went downtown and looked at some books at Powell’s. We looked at the gardening books for ideas and I rummaged through some art books. I bought a book on silk screening. I have been studying it a bit over this last weekend and I think I am going to set up a little silk screen printing operation here one of these days. I think that would be pretty cool. I did a bit of silk screening in high school and really enjoyed it.

After Powell’s we went and looked at the new “Whole Foods” grocery store. Yep It’s a grocery store. It’s part of the buildings that are going into that Weinhard’s brewery district. I think that is going to be a pretty interesting part of town when it is all finished. Boy what a giant building project. I’m glad they are keeping little bits and pieces of the old brewery building intact.

ARGH! Monday again! There is no coffee in the house this morning! I don’t know if I’ll make it. I don’t think I can type another word.
The weekend sure was short wasn’t it?
Uh hmm… Man! I may have to buy some coffee and get some brewing before I can continue with this. I’m falling asleep.

We didn’t watch the Academy Awards last night. Looks like it went on fine without us. I don’t think we missed much anyway. I was a little upset that the Simpsons weren’t on. We watched a couple of videos instead. We saw “Ghost World” and a movie called “The Thin Blue Line”. Both were pretty good flicks.

“Ghost World” was better than I thought it would be. There were some interesting characters in it. The two main girls weren’t as snotty as I was thinking they would be. Steve Buscemi was great once again. The movie did get kind of long in the middle. The movie made me want to start getting into Daniel Clowes comic series “Eightball”. I’ve always thought I would like it but just haven’t read it yet.

“The Thin Blue Line” was pretty good. It was a documentary about a man that was wrongly accused of shooting a police man and getting life in prison. We really like some of the director’s other works. His name is Errol Morris. He did the movies “Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control” and “Mr. Death”. All of his work is in the documentary style. They are really interesting. The way he films them is pretty cool also.

It looks like I missed my lawn mowing window of opportunity. We’ve got rain again. Oh well maybe it will clear up tomorrow.
K and I did have some good fun driving around in the Miata yesterday. The sun was shining, the top was down, the birds were singing.

What to do today? I’m not sure. I think K is heading off with friends this afternoon. Maybe I’ll go to the bookstore and look at some art and graphic design books. I looked at some design magazines yesterday and was quite stimulated. Getting some inspiration for the projects.

Hey the Academy Awards are tonight huh? Are you going to watch? I don’t have too much of an interest in watching. I haven’t seen that many of the nominated movies. I’ve seen Moulin Rouge, Beautiful Mind, Lord of the Rings, hmm what else? Is Mulholland Drive, and Black Hawk Down up for anything? Well I guess I’ve seen a few of the nominees. I don’t really care who wins this year.

Boy I had a stinker of a dream last night. It was horrible. The basic idea of it was that I was held down by a bunch of church thugs while a muscle bound, nutty guy with a chip on his shoulder, punched me as hard as he could in the nose. I’m sure he broke it. I’ve been having strange dreams again. Maybe I should stop my stressing and worrying two hours before going to sleep so it can all digest properly.

Boy! This is the leanest week here in the journals so far this year. Not too much entered in by yours truly. Never fear though, you shan’t get rid of me that easily. Soon I’ll be back in the saddle with a vengeance and you’ll be begging me to shut up.

I’ve been laying low this week. Not much going on around here. I’ve been chilling. Hold on… I must of course, go start a pot of coffee.
Yeah so I think I’m at the tail end of a revaluation period. I’m clearing out the stock room, and taking inventory. I feel pretty good. Beginning preparations for a good old fashioned Spring cleaning.

Yeah speaking of, today might be a pretty good day to get some yard work going. The sun is nice, bright and tempting, but it tricks you into going outside where it is still cold and windy. I don’t care though, I’m just happy to see the sun again.
I’m going to try and have a lawn that is the envy of the neighborhood this season. I should get out there and cut it for starters. I need to get over and take Matt up on his lawn mower offer. We also need to get some more rocks for our wonderful rock garden.

K’s lovely father Mr. Baptist and his lovely girlfriend Bee left for Las Vegas the other day. K is very stoked because Bee left her Mazda Miata. I think we will be racing around with the top down, for part of the day today. K really digs that little car, maybe one day we’ll have to get her one. I just keep picturing those damn SUVs driving over the top of us.

We had a nice visit with my mother yesterday. Very good to see her. Hopefully she got to see the baby this morning. I’m going to take her back to the airport later today.

I forgot to mention it yesterday, but hey it’s Spring now! Yeah! No more winter! It looks like it may just take today, sunshine and no rain yet. Hey maybe that calls for a bike ride today.

Man I did not sleep well at all last night. I kept tossing and turning all night long. Sucked. Second night in a row. Maybe it’s something I’m eating or too much coffee huh? Yesterday on my freedom walk I investigated a CD by the band N.E.R.D. Later that night I was surprised to see that they were the musical guests on the Letterman show. I got tired of waiting through the other guests to see them so I turned it off and went to bed. During the tossing and turning faze of my attempts at sleep, I discovered that my brain was stuck on a loop thinking about N.E.R.D. That’s all I could think about for some reason. Does that ever happen to you guys? In your half awake state something has an unreasonable amount of urgency. I guess my brain could have been stuck on anything. The N.E.R.D. CD was pretty good but not worth losing sleep over. Gosh and here I am now still stuck in my N.E.R.D. loop, writing about it.

My mother flew in from Idaho last night and we picked her up at the airport. Her and Greg are all moved in and she starts a new job next week. She’s here for the weekend to see the new baby finally. It was very nice to see her. We dropped her off at my grandparent’s house in Vancouver. I may tag along with them to go see the baby and visit today.

Hey! Hey! YO! What up?
Hey folks I’m back. I had a few days there of monotony. A vacation of melancholy if you will. I feel a bit better this morning.
What’s been going on with you cats huh?

So are any of you missing a bicycle? K and I woke up the day after St. Patrick’s day and found that a bike had been parked in our front yard next to the fence. Who knows how it got there. It could have been a drunk St. Patrick’s day celebrator that left it there because they were too drunk to drive. Maybe it was stolen and left there by the drunk thief? We left it there for about a day to see if the person would come back, but they didn’t. I rode it down to Eugene’s shop yesterday and It rides pretty well. It did even better when I filled the back tire up with air.

The projects? Oh gosh the projects. Yes I know. I’ve got to get to work on them. I’m still going through emails looking for a proper patron to support me. Some of you make a good argument for sponsorship. I still haven’t ruled the adoption thing out either so be patient.

I DID work on the transmission the other day. Beefed it up a bit. I think It sounds better now. You can still fit quite a few songs into a 56K broadcast. Maybe I’ll just have to rotate the playlist a bit more now for variety.