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Well… after 5+ months of procrastinating, I finally got all of the July & August photos I took edited and posted on my website. This includes photos of our trip to Nevada in July and the Red Rock Canyon, Zion National Park and The Valley of Fire State park. I also posted some up from the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge and the Seaside Rod Run.

The new photo’s are not posted in our Schricker album here tho, because I have someone who wants to purchase the right to use several images for a Screensaver CD they are putting together and I wanted to keep the images protected. I’ll be posting the more candid ones on the site here in the very near future

If you’d like to check them out…. you can visit them at

http://cjsimages.photoreflect.com

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Last night Steve and I used UrbanSpoon on his IPhone and “Spun” to get an idea of where we were going to go eat.  Well after a few spins it suggested this Greek place in downtown Vancouver called “Touch of Athens Greek Cuisina at the Hidden House”.  This restaurant is within a old house, it’s a historic landmark as well, which gives it a Victorian aire.  Once inside we were greeted by a kindly looking old fella named “Sakis” who had a thick greek accent (Yea, imagine a thick greek accent in a greek food restaurant).  We were seated in what appeared to once be the den where they had a small gas fireplace going in the wall and about 3 tables within.

We initially ordered an appetizer of Hummus and warm pita bread which was good and you can definitely tell it was home made.  Shortly after the hummus was delivered, the kindly old gentleman lead the small group of customers in singing “Happy Birthday” to what I believe was his granddaughter, he then started playing an accordion  while walking around the restaurant like a violin player would see in an Italian restaurant.

For our main course, we ordered the “Zeus” platter which is a taster plate of 3 of their main dishes off the menu.  We originally were going to order lamb, but they were sold out.  The Zeus platter consists of Moussaka, Pastitsio and Spanakopita.  For those out there who don’t know what these three dishes are:  Moussaka is layers of meat, baked Eggplant, Zucchini, potatoes, topped with a Besamela sauce.  Pastitsio is similar to Lasagna, its a casserole covered with a light Besamela sauce.  Spanakopita is a Spinach dish wrapped in a filo pastry.  The entre also included soup or salad and warm pita bread.  Steve went safe and had the salad, but I decided to have their Lentle soup.  While the soup by some would be considered very good, it didn’t suit my taste.  I was able to change the soup to their Lemon soup which was very tasty and I enjoyed it.  All of the different dishes that came with the Zeus platter was good and you can tell that it was all homemade, undoubted by a little greek guy named “George” in the back kitchen.  It just so happens that the chef’s name is George, so it wasn’t just a pun.

To summarize, the food was authentic and pretty decent, but for any shortcomings the service from our waitress Alicin (Or maybe Alison) made up for them.  Her service was prompt and courteous, our coffee cups never were empty and the coffee was VERY good.  Price for appetizer, main course and coffee:  $21 each.  On a rating of 5 stars, I give it 3 1/2.

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Cyndi and I went out last night to Amalfi’s on Fremont and were nicely surprised.  Here in the middle of a not so nice looking neighborhood is this nice little gem of an Italian restaurant.  Food was VERY good and the service was excellent.  We never had to wait for service as a server came by our table very often asking if there was anything else they could do for us.  While their scotch was a bit over priced (I had a shot of Oban) they didn’t “skimp” on the quantity of the liquor as it was definitely more than a shot.  Cyndi had two martini’s, I had a shot of scotch, appetizer and two main courses only came to $57 not including the tip.

The atmosphere was friendly and warm, they had a nice gas fire pit in the middle of the lounge which created a warm glow and nice ambiance.  We arrived at about 8:45pm to find the lounge nearly empty, but within 30-45 minutes all the locals came out and filled the bar up where all the tables were full.  Everyone was friendly, I even ran in to someone that I used to work with from New Edge.  This place is going to be a place we’ll go to again.  I give it a rating of 5 stars.

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So Fall term 2008 @ Western Oregon University is over. Monday and Tuesday were my finals for my Math class and the database class. I pretty sure I did well in my database class, I don’t have the happy fuzzy feeling about the final in my Math class. While I went in to the final with a B+, I calculated out that even if I totally blew the math final, I’ll still come out with at least a ‘C’ in the class.  Of course I would prefer a higher letter grade.

Time to start looking for work and file for unemployment. Oregon unemployment office took my claim, but said that because I quit my job back in May, they had to send it to their “review” department. I’m not sure what the issue is since I have been paying my own way for 6 months, but I’ll likely have to wait for 3-4 weeks while it runs through their system until it gets approved.

Upward and onward.

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Hello everyone, well we start another jolly holiday season to which I wish everyone out there a very merry season.  May this year’s festivities warm the cackles of your hearts with the holiday spirit.  We had a very busy Thanksgiving with a house full of family and friends where Cyndi cooked a wonderful 21 lb turkey on the grill that was incredibly delicious.  Needless to say, there wasn’t much left after the dinner.

Now we’re getting ready for the Christmas season by putting up all the Christmas decorations, well Cyndi is mainly while I’m trying to keep my head down in the books for finals next week.  I am looking forward to the end of this term, driving to Monmouth has really sucked.  The next hurdle is to find some type of regular employment, so keep us in your prayers as I venture in to these troubled economic times.