What in the heck is a Döner Kebab you ask?  Read up on it at wikipedia, but our own experience was that in Germany last fall, these were damn good sandwiches.  When we came back to Portland, we couldn't find them.

Walking down the street in downtown Portland after work on Friday we came across a new restaurant called Döner Kebab that just opened this week.

So on Saturday we came back and had dinner.

It's a big sandwich.  Man is it good though.  Compare with the ones we had in Germany.

Of course, this is Portland, and the bread is baked daily here, the fries are fresh and homemade as well.  It looks like a family run place.  The guy at the register said his older brother worked for free in Germany for 6 months to learn how to make them.  They have to get the spices shipped over here from overseas.  The menu has alot more German items on it so we'll be back.

Plus we love the nice touches like his mom who was working the ovens came over and gave us a slice of apple-something-or-other straight from the oven.

Check it out if you can get one near you.

Later

Team Fortress 2 (TF2)

My gaming fix has been coming from TF2.  If you're wondering what that is, here's your chance.  Free weekend to try it out this weekend, June 20-22, 2008.

And the new pyro unlocks come on Thursday.  Be sure to check out the new sniper video.

Bicycling

Last week I went to a class with the wife and built bike buckets.  I've used em twice already to make trips to the grocery store.  They're cheap and work great.

I even have a nice set of instructions on how to build them, what parts you need to buy, etc.  If you're lazy you can buy em for $25 each here in Portland.

So I haven't driven in over a month.  I just checked and now my truck battery is dead.  Need to renew plates, get oil change, and get gas which is pushing $5 for diesel now.  26 gallon tank.  I'm really contemplating on selling it.

UPDATE - 2008.07.03

I scanned the handouts into PDFs if you want to try building your own.  Get them here.

Watching the Tour Divide

I've been watching(?) by the tour divide race (web|blog) by following along in Google maps.  It's a race down the continental divide.  Reading the race reports is partly cool.  The real cool is that they're using a GPS device called SPOT to track their progress.

So you can follow along as well from the leaderboard, or here's a link to a full blown Google map so you can pan, scan, view satellite, terrain, etc.

Fathers Day

Called my Dad.  Doin' alright.  But his heart is having problems again.  New meds.  I need to stay on the bike.

Heidi's Dad drove up.  We did the Gondola ride.

First we go up the hill.

Great view at the top - Heidi and her mom on the right.

Then we ride back down.

That was enough effort for the day.  We headed over to the new Deschutes Brewery in Portland.  Awesome woodwork inside.  New favorite fish and chips is here.  Beat out Henry's.  And the beer is damn good.

Here's a red that drinks like a Guinness and you can only get it at the pub.

I'm in heaven.

Later

Checked out DeVotchka (wikipedia|band) live last night at the Wonder Ballroom.  Good music.  Kind of a gypsy, Mexican, weird vibe.  Not your typical guitar/bass/drums/vocals.  The bass player, a woman, alternated between playing a standup bass and tuba.  A little accordion, violins (sometimes 3 playing at once), and a trumpet now and then.

The opener was Basia Bulat (wikipedia|band).  Kind of a Tracy Chapman voice.  Only the drummer was male which was a nice change-up.  I don't know if it was the beer or what but they sounded great at the show so we picked up their CD.  While listening to it today I really only liked 3-4 of the 13 songs.   The drums don't seem as kickin as they did live.

Also, good Thai food at Monsoon Thai (gmaps).  Unassuming.  Served up by Thai ladies that really don't know how good their food is.  Don't let the fact that it shares a building with the laundry.  It's good.

Later