The Bemilie Blog » Ben

Biggest Loser: Kahn Edition

Emilie — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:56:51 +0000

Some time in mid February Ben and I were gripeing to each other about our weight gain and Ben had a great idea. He propsed a friendly in- house biggest loser competition. And by friendly I mean utterly brutal because given the right circumstances both Ben and I can be very competitive. So with the initial and week one weigh-ins behind I say the competition is shaping up to be fierce.

Oh and the prize? The loser pays the winner $100.

List of things I want to do during my lifetime

Ben — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:07:16 +0000

This is a list I started while I was in college. I will add to it and cross items off as time goes on.

~~Own a house~~
Have children
~~Get married~~
~~Buy a brand new car~~
Travel to Tibet
Visit all 7 continents
Put my kids through college
Visit Mt. St. Helens
Visit Mt. Hood
Go Scuba-diving (preferably somewhere pretty)
Go on a “Best Roller-Coasters of the USA” trip

My Tuesday nights are busy!

Ben — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:42:45 +0000

For the past 4 months, I have been going to the Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club every Tuesday. I joined the club as an apprentice member which means I learn about and work on the huge HO scale train layout with the senior members. After the 9 month apprenticeship, the senior members will vote as to whether I get to become a senior member.

I have always enjoyed model trains. My mom got me started with model trains when I was a young boy. I still have all of the model trains and track that my mom purchased for me, including a fairly large layout. All that is missing is laying the track and scenery. Part of the reason I joined this club is to learn about model railroading so I can eventually setup my own layout. I have already learned very much about model railroading and look forward to learn much more.

Click the image below to see some pictures I took the other day. Be sure to read the picture descriptions as I try to explain what you are looking at.

Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful…

Emilie — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:43:54 +0000

What an adventure Ben and I have had these past few days. Portland is experiencing record levels of snow fall – and it just keeps coming, plugging up all major forms of transportation because no one is prepared for it. Typically, we get snow once a year. It’s usually fairly light and melts off in a few days. This series of storms, which started last Sunday 12/14 and the news channels have appropriately dubbed “Arctic Blast”, have dumped the most snow on the city that we’ve seen in 40 years, and to top it off temperatures are not going above freezing so it isn’t melting off. Consequently, buses aren’t going any where, the MAX is having trouble keeping at regular intervals, and 300 people are sleeping at the airport because flights aren’t leaving. For Ben and me, that means our flight on Saturday evening to Los Angeles was canceled and rebooked for Monday. The rebooked flight was canceled and we were scheduled on another flight to leave 12/24. Hopefully our flight on the 24^th will leave like it is supposed to. Honestly I’m too tired at this point to think of any alternatives.

In the mean time here are some lovely pictures of the snow.

Ben & Cleo in the snow 12/14

Our yard gnome in the snow 12/17

We didn’t find out that our original flight out was canceled until after we had trudged through the few inches of snow that had already accumulated taking the bus and the MAX to get to the air port hoping that they were equipped to deal with the snow. After we checked through security we went to find the gate we were supposed to fly out of and saw that all of Southwest‘s flights had been canceled for the day (and every day until today).

After rebooking our flight and finding out that they just didn’t have enough de-icing equipment to deal with the weather we sat down to have lunch in the airport before attempting to head back home. When we got down to the MAX line that runs from the airport we found that it wasn’t running because a switch was frozen at a transit center three stops up the line and they were attempting to remedy it with blow torches. After the MAX got up and running we got to the stop we need and waited in blowing snow neither of us dressed appropriately for the weather we were encountering.

Finally when we got on the bus trying to get closer to home we encountered several more problems including the bus we were on ending up in a snow drift and unable to get out forcing all of the passengers to sit and wait for another bus to come along and rescue us. Another bus came along shortly after and we all climbed on and silently prayed that it would get us that much closer to our destinations. Finally Ben and I got to the stop and began to trudge the half mile from the stop to our home in blowing snow, no where near appropriately dressed. After a three hour journey we finally arrive home, still intact, and luggage in tow. We’re thankful for being able to get home, but are sad that our trip to visit Los Angeles is so delayed.

Here are some more pictures we too on our trip to the grocery store yesterday during a lull in the storm.

Our home covered in snow 12/22

Emilie on the street in front of the house 12/22

My State of the Beard Address

Ben — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:58:28 +0000

At the beginning of November, I decided to shave my beard off completey. At that point, the hair on my chin was about two years old, with me trimming it every now and then.

I decided to shave it off and grow a full beard during the month of November because I have never had a full beard before.

Here I am after 25 days of hair growth with little trimming.

Having a full beard was a good experience. I liked how I looked and I liked how it felt with one exception. I did not like having a mustache. It always got in the away of my activities which include eating and kissing my lovely wife. I decided today that it had to go. I had some fun with different hair designs as I cut it off and I took pictures for some proof.

Stage 1: Shave off Mustache

Stage 2: Make myself kinda look like Wolverine

Stage 3: Mutten Chops with a Goatee

Stage 4: Arrow Sideburns

I still have the arrow side burns as I write this, but I think I will remove them before work tomorrow.

Update: I did shave them off soon after the picture was taken.