tarapants.com

This watch is amazing. Perfect design in my book. And to top it off totally unattainable…to the rookie on the web. Perfect!

WATCH

Yeah. This deserves the MEGA ramp title for sure. The Staples Center has stepped it up this year for the X-games. Crap. This thing looks insane! It even has its own blog about building it…

MEGA RAMP

This year the Tour de France was one of the best ever. Every single stage was exciting and every day brought some new controversy to a head. The outcome couldn’t be better in my book. A young 24 year old Alberto Contador won from Team Discovery and Levi took 3rd. Discovery Channel Team won the overall in their last year of sponsorship which was cool for them. I was hoping that they were actually going to race in the 20th stage today in Paris, but stupid tour tradition prevented that. I would never have been able to sit back and give it away if I was less then 1/2 a minute behind…such a good tour! It’s a little depressing for the next few weeks with nothing good on TV…

Got our beach on last weekend and hung with Denny and Kim.

Weather was amazing.

Went to Island Beach State park one evening and polished off a handle of Margaritas. Yum.

Had a nice visitor, which was really bizarre…

Allentown is bleak. Real sorry town in Pennsylvania. Ya actually feel kinda bad for the people that have to live there. The only redeeming thing is Crocodile Rock (such a cheesy name that is perfect for this town). It’s this cool bar/stage where Social Distortion has played a bunch. We went up to catch their show tonight. It poured rain. The place has this huge outdoor patio so everyone outside was getting soaked - including us when we had to wait like 20 minutes in line to get in. Show was great though. Mike Ness needs some new in between song chatter, but he is always entertaining!

Have been super busy this week. Long hours at the hospital and nightly activities to boot. Chuck and I are on his company softball team. We hadn’t gone to a game all year because really we just don’t like softball. It’s a pretty boring sport. We def make it a little more fun by bringing and consuming lots of beer. We finally had a free night and decided we should actually go to one of the games. We lost. No big surprise. I think the score was like 24-16 or something like that. Just can’t imagine doing that sport on a regular basis.

The next night we played a real sport. Much more up my alley. Got a good practice in with Ramon and Chuck and got myself lit up on the final game. I have a short temper and I always think people over shoot me on purpose. I know that they don’t, but I can’t help but be really pissed for the first 5 minutes after they do it. I got over it and overall it was an awesome practice.

First off…CONGRATULATIONS to my girlfriend Andrea and her hubby Keith..on their pregnancy! Well done. I need to see you guys and the boy soon!! Miss you!!

Second..I was looking for a shopping cart seat cover for my other girlfriend Kim and her baby, Brighton and came across this crazy website. They had such great stuff that I had to share for all those moms out there looking for something a little off the beaten path. The fabrics are amazing (I have felt them in person) and the quality is top notch! They are a little spendy, but not bad for what you get.

Check them out here: DIMPLES

Here are a few I loved:

These would be great for the ladies:

Oregon police officer on paid leave after drunk-dialing 911
PORTLAND,
07-18-2007
An Oregon police officer is in trouble after drunk-dialing 911.

Just before midnight on June 13 the non-emergency call came into dispatch.

It was a Hood River police officer, but he wasn’t in trouble, in fact, he was not even on duty.

Officer Erin Mason later admitted to the dispatcher, a friend, he’s drunk.

The officer railed on his work conditions, complained about co-workers, and even tried to get background information about a woman in Hood River.

For 25 minutes, the two continued to chat on the non-emergency line.

During the conversation the off-duty officer complained about his job, refers to gays in a hateful way and requests restricted information about a woman he wanted to contact.

Officer Mason is now on paid leave and isn’t talking to reporters.

The emergency dispatcher involved in the conversation is also being disciplined.

“I think when the phone call first came in and she learned that yes, he was intoxicated, that she should have put an end to the phone call, instead of waiting as long as she did,” 911 commander Marita Haddan said.

The conversation ended when a real emergency came in.

Some pictures form Oregon that I just found on my camera which didn’t see much light of day while we were there).

Chuck has the whole picture business on lock down in our family which is amazing.

I don’t know how he does it…

This little tricycle was parked outside a breakfast joint in PDX. A good way to commute to work in the morning…HA

I love that it is locked up.

A nice way to start off the week. Some great shots form the rose garden in Portland.

My tooth is killing me and I’m off to the dentist for the 100th time in like 3 months. Fuck.

Going to Atlantic City with my sister-in-law today. Taking her to a cirque show and out to lunch at Buddakan for her 40th b-day. Should be a blast. Weather is perfect. No surf, but that’s coming in September, so I’m fine with that. Just in time for the beach house!

Last night at work had something funny happen to me. PCP is a big drug of choice for young kids in and around Philadelphia lately. They have no idea what they are actually smoking. It’s crazy. They come in in almost a catatonic state and can sometimes barely speak or compile sentences. Sad. It has embalming fluid in it and they wonder why they are losing brain cells. Rocket fuel - another winning ingredient. UGH. This kid came in yesterday and after a few painful hours of trying to get some information out of him we got him shipped off to a detox facility. On his way out he said (in a broken slow drawn out story) he was coming into millions of dollars in the next month from some lawsuit settlement. He said he was going to donate money to the hospital and to me. Ha - imagine that. I guess I was looking kind of tired and worn out and maybe he thought I needed some money..or I was just the nicest person he had ever met and he was overcome by me…HA HA either way it was just a funny thing to have happen. A first for me. It would be even more hilarious if what he was saying was actually true and he came through with his little donation. We shall see. Stranger things have happened for sure! I’ve always wanted some big building named after me..yeah right…

Thanks to this guy we had another amazing vacation in Oregon.

Now it’s your turn to come East already!!

Beach house in NJ in September…It’s on!

…and anyone else who wants to come there is plenty of room so get here already!

Vin and Meghan threw us a nice little send off BBQ which was awesome. Vin is the grill master! They have an insane house with a total party backyard. We will be back out there for sure!! I have a new liking for malt beverages thanks to Meghan! Can’t beat ‘em. DK was there which was nice. He was elusive on the east coast for the first half of our trip, so I’m glad that we at least got to say hi…

After we got back form the beach we headed over to Pharmacy for an art opening (which we missed) and a bachelor party.

There were like 50 guys there skating and drinking and the plan was to skateboard around PDX from bar to bar to strip club etc. It got ugly pretty quick and before we even left the parking lot we had a man down. Faz tried to open a twist of with a skate tool and took the whole top off the bottle. He put a rather large gash in his hand and we headed for the ER. I was psyched to see how a small ER ran.

We were waiting in the waiting area and chuck and I decided to run up Williams to this great dessert spot and grab some stuff for us to eat while we were waiting. Faz waited in style with gourmet dessert from PIX.

Once we got in the back it went pretty quick. turned out that Dr. Scott was from Vermont/Albany originally and once worked at Fletcher Allen. Nice. Small World. he put 8 stitches in Faz’s hand and we were out of there.

We met back up with the bachelor party just in time to head to the strip clubs. Great. Now in Oregon the do things a little different at the strip clubs. Full Nude. Full Bar. Full Chaos.

They made everyone check their boards at the door.

I can’t believe they even let us in, but Ehren knows the owner so he pulled some strings.

We got home at like 3:30am after dropping Faz and Ehren off at another club. he rolled in about 6:30am. Nice work buddy. Fun night for sure!

Chuck always takes lots of pictures of me when we are on vacation. I never really get to get him back. This is a rare opportunity…

Here are my shots…

Here are his shots…

His great portraits. They always come out perfectly framed..

Really good misty place in the far SE part of PDX. Incredible rolls. Fancy stuff like this one. Faz def. lost the bet he made to one bite this sucker. Maybe next year.

So different from the East coast in every way. Water is freezing. We wore our thick winter wetsuits with booties and gloves. If I had a hood I would have worn it! Big unpredictable surf always rolls in at some point during your surf session. Normally you find yourself on the inside of the clean up set as Jenna and I did at one point. Not fun. Makes for a good swimming workout but that’s about it. Thanks for the adrenalin Pacific ocean.

Jenna scored us her neighbors place in Bay City. It’s for sale so we lucked out and it was pretty much empty. Made some killer frozen pizza that is only killer on nights like that. Stayed up late and got up early. Headed to short sands to surf since Pacific City was super blown out and cold. Short Sands always comes through. Weather was perfect. Lots of sun. Santa Cruz had demo boards that we scored 2 from. Overall it was a great day. Fried my lips and am still paying for it now. I think they might just peel off my face at some point soon. Yuck!

Jenna’s dog is great. He loved Chuck. and Chuck def loved him! Sometimes I wish we could get a dog, but when I leave at 5am and come home at 9pm I realize why we don’t. Here are some great shots of Tepu the bilingual dog (he speaks finish and English since Jenna’s boyfriend is from Finland)

A great shot of chuck and I on Short Sands..

Jenna and I toasted after surfing…

Jenna, E and his mom (who was visiting from Germany) being touristy on the bluff…Ha.

Straight out of a movie - is all I can say about this place.

Amazing. Nostalgic and super cool.

Guy let us in for free. Skated for 30 minutes until they closed.

There was an organ player and a huge old school organ over the rink.

It was like it’s own little world.

There was even a roller derby team practicing next door. We took in a little bit of the practice session. Hard core for sure. Ha!

Alta was amazing and got style points for the knee high socks and the most perfectly coordinated outfit!

It’s a big fancy place with sick design elements and cool art work. Meghan picture was by far the best one up there. they send all the employees to get their pictures taken when they get hired and the boss man picks the best one. Here is hers. amazing!

Insane deck with great views. A nest that is so unique and incredibly stylish.

Had a drinkin’ lunch with a little bit of food on the side. LG and Ara were in town for an event at hood and we got to catch up. Good to see them.

A good end to a perfect day. Much more mellow then last year. Ehren didn’t make it and Coulter was MIA. Chuck held his own and Brandon was a great sidekick…no accidents and only 1 close call that made the crowd scatter…

Went over to Oliver and Sarah’s place in the SW. up on top of the hill. Super nice place. They have done an amazing job with it!

We all went to UVM together. There were a bunch of UVMers in attendance which was fun. They went to the farmer’s market and got this great dixie band who were awesome.

We hung there for awhile before heading over to faz’s for fireworks. Lots of X-Burlington crew in the crowd.

Hit some BBQ’s today.

First up was at Luis Carlton and Molly’s house.

Turns out Molly and I used to work at Adidas together back in the day and actually went snowboarding together. She is opening a super high end plant/home store in PDX soon. Right off Burnside. Luis works at Adidas and is Global somethin’ or other. They have a sick ramp in their backyard. She is an insane skater and he is too.

It was a bast. good way to start off the festivities.

Eric Railton and Liz showed up which was great. hopefully they will be making a Philly run this fall to enjoy their first introduction to the Jersey shore. Should be rad. That’s Eric Skating at the BBQ.

Went to a wedding in the Rose Garden. 2 people we have never met before. Great couple. Pretty Place. Perfect weather. Some old friends we did know. A short ceremony. Dinner at Toro Bravo. Amzaing Spanish tapas and sangria that knocks you over. Big raspberries and Blueberries. Yum. Drunk before the food came thanks to my buddy Meghan!! Fun reception at a cool house with awesome cupcakes and some more old friends. Chuck passed out on the chair by the front door. He woke up to a knock and instead of getting up he reached over his head and just pulled the door open. Never even noticed that it was a cop trying to get us to turn the music down. Awesome. Fun night. Late night. Super sleepy.

Can’t say enough about this wonderful gem in NE PDX.

Extracto.

Love it.

Great company on our first day there. Thanks Kara, Rebecca and Bruce for meeting us there and hangin’ with us. It was a blast.