Let me preface this entry by saying that the author of this book, Glenn Rockowitz, is a co-worker of mine. Now let me also say that he works in our Seattle office, and we have never met, talked and I am pretty sure he doesn’t know I exist. But through some co-workers, I heard that Glenn wrote a book about his fight with cancer. And when it came out on the Kindle, it was a no brainer for me to buy the book, partially out of support and partially out of curiosity. Glenn seems like a very interesting guy. He is a stand-up comedian, used to write for Saturday Night Live, has directed the movie Hacks and now is a copywriter at WONGDOODY.  That, and oh, he fought cancer a few times. His book is called Rodeo in Joliet and it begins in his doctor’s office where Glenn gets diagnosed with cancer and is told that he has three months to live. From there on out, this book is a non-stop rollercoaster ride with the birth of his first son, his father’s mysterious illness, chemo, experiential treatment and some quality time in the midst of a London live sex show. This is the most direct, hard-hitting and emotional cancer story I have ever read, watched or even heard about. It made me laugh, cry, laugh, cry and most definitely appreciate mine, my family’s and friends’ health. And who cries reading a book anyways? This book kept me up until the wee hours of the morning, as I literally finished it in a day. I can honestly say that it’s the best book I have read since, ahem...Harry Potter. Right now you can only buy the Kindle version Amazon, as the print edition is all sold out. That doesn't surprise me. This book is a solid 10 out of 10.

Despite my Saturday night encounter with the local hip hop scene, I know little to nothing about hip hop or rap for that matter. Actually, I couldn't tell you the difference between the two? Is there a difference? But I just got done watching the Notorious B.I.G movie and it is darn good. I love stories and Chris Wallace was a man with an interesting story and a talent for telling stories through his music. Unfortunately I don't understand the lyrics of non-Germanic music, so it took me a while (or until I saw this movie) to figure out that Notorious B.I.G was an awesome story teller. You should watch this movie, if you haven't already. I also went and bought both of his albums and hope that at least a small part will go to his awesome mother and kids. Peace out. Or however Chris would say that.

These kind of "live without" posts are somewhat hypocritical coming from me, since I wasn't able to live without a cell phone, burritos or Jen. But this one is for real. I live without cable and I am loving it. Why? The Netflix Roku box. It plays over 12,000 different tv shows and movies straight out of my Netflix queue. I pay $15 a month for Netflix, get up to three DVDs at any time and can stream as many movies to my Roku box as I want. Many of those movies and shows are in HD, stream directly onto my flatscreen TV and begin playing almost instantly. It's totally genius and my second favorite gadget (#1 Kindle, #2 Roku, #3 iPhone) and there is no additional monthly fee. All you need is an Internet connection and a Netflix subscription. Rumor has it that Roku will start offering Amazon Digital content very soon.  Best of all, it costs only $100 to buy.  If you haven't already, you should definitely check out Roku.

I just got done watching, Body of Lies. Yes, I know, I meant to stop going to the movies but I am on the road. The story is about an undercover CIA agent who (along with his US-based CIA colleague - Russel Crowe) is struggling to effectively navigate the war on terror. Anyways, it's a good movie and once it comes out on DVD, you should watch it. After Titanic I promised myself to never praise Leonardo Di Caprio's acting skills, but I have to admit that he's a pretty brilliant actor and did well in this flick.

On Saturday, Jen and I went to an event called Plate & Pitchfork together with our friends Ben and Maria. What's Plate & Pitchfork? It's very much a Portland thing. A bunch of Portlanders (7,000 over the course of this summer) come together on one of our local farms (literally in the midst of berry fields in our case), where one gets served gourmet meals by the area's top chefs all made with local ingredients and accompanied by a number of different wines from one of our resident vineyards. In our case, the host was the Smith Berry Barn, our chefs were from Nick's Italian Cafe and the Dundee Bistro and the produce came from the Gaining Ground Farm. Wine was supplied by The Eyrie Vineyards. A few thoughts. 1. The Berries were excellent. The dessert dish was "Triple Crown Blackberries in Vincotto with Absinthe Zabaglione." I don't know what Zabaglione is but this dessert made me forget chocolate cake. 2. We got to meet some really interesting people. Interesting in a good way. 3. They didn't quite serve enough wine or food. I would have expected there to be plenty of both. 4. You can volunteer at these events, which seems like a fun way to spend, eat and drink on a Saturday evening. 5. At some point during the dinner, a cat jumped on the table next to ours. I probably still wouldn't bring Otto to one of these things. [gallery=5]

This is the single best Mexican restaurant where my mother could be the chef. Note to readers, my mother is German and can't cook. Jen and I went to Acapulco's Gold on Friday night due to the good reviews on Yelp.com - all of which must have been written by people under the influence of their margaritas. So let's start with the positives. ... Moving on to what made it bearable. Strong margaritas, fresh salsa and the beans didn't make me sick. Onto the bad stuff. We should have walked out when they presented us with Friday's special. A hamburger. Oh, I almost forgot. I thought of another positive. If you love Costco, then you're going to love their chicken burrito. Everything is made fresh straight out of Costco's freezers. If you can't finish your chicken burrito, just save the bird and re-use it in a Chicken Caesar's salad the next day. That is what it was originally made for. I am sure some guests love the bowls of chips placed all over the restaurant. Just not if you don't enjoy stale chips. Anyhow, their staff was very friendly and I am glad we went. Otherwise, I'd be blogging about Sunday's trip to Nordstrom Rack and Otto's dandruff.

Jen, her parents and I went and saw the play Sometimes a Great Notion at the Gerding Theatre tonight. Opening day isn't until Friday, so we got to pay little man's prices. Lesson #1. It's never a bad idea to go (and invite others) to the theatre when you can choose the best seats at highly reduced prices. Lesson #2. When inviting your lady's parents, you might want to double-check if there's going to be any full-fledged nudity or extended periods of cussing in the play. Otherwise, the play was great. And if you live in Portland, then you need to go and see it. It plays in Oregon sometime after World War II and before Germany won the 1974 World Cup, and tells the story of two very unalike brothers and their struggles to keep their lumber business afloat with a flurry of upset union lumberjacks weighing in every step along the way. I give it 4 out 5.

Jen and I spent the weekend in Seattle with Jerry and Gail. Yeah I know...couples weekend, no big deal. This will be followed by a two days of holiday time with Jen's family. That is a big deal. Anyways, last night we watched a pretty amazing movie called Strike. Well, I watched it. Everybody else slept.

The movie is about the story of a female shipyard worker and her impact on Polish labor reform over the past half century. While this might seem like a fairly niche plot, it's a beautiful story which left me with two important thoughts.

1. There are heroic stories in every part and corner of this world. While the Polish solidarity movement hasn't been high up on my list of groundbreaking events of the 20th century, it probably is no less important than the fall of the Berlin Wall or the American civil rights movement.

2. Sometimes the true impact of our actions doesn't become apparent until many days, weeks and years later. And most importantly, anybody can make a big difference. You don't need to be a politician, famous actor or money-laden business leader to change the world.

You really should watch the movie Strike.

On Friday night, Jen and I had the fortune of dining at one of downtown Portland's soon to be finest restaurants. It's called RPalate, and was founded by a veteran chef, a recent culinary school graduate and a waiter unlike no other I've ever met in my life. The restaurant was recommended to me by my friend Jay, who called its happy hour simply amazing. And since the happy hour lasted from 4-7pm, it made for a perfect dinner date. Jen is cheap that way. We arrived at 6:30. Our friendly waiter brought out the dinner menu. When I asked him whether he could also bring us the happy hour menu, he informed us that sadly happy hour ended at 7pm. But he'd go check in the kitchen. Our friendly waiter came back to our table just a couple of minutes later and said: Yeah, I am very sorry...we ended the happy hour at 7pm. According to Jen my facial expressions turned rather uneasy when I informed our friendly waiter that it was 6:30pm.  I am fairly certain that my facial expressions were rather dull compared to our waiter's facial expressions when he looked at my watch. His words were as follows: "F..k. Seriously??? Only 6:30. It feels like nine. We've been here all day long, three of us, the other front guy got fired and I had a full lunchroom today. " He then started to apologize profusely before completely cracking up. Our dinner ended up being fantastic, I made a new friend and found my new favorite restaurant. The evening ended with our waiter putting two glasses of Whiskey onto the table and the words "That's for 6:30." Go to RPalate. The food is great and very reasonably priced and you won't find a funnier waiter anywhere. Sometimes inexperience is beautiful.

Jen and I tried a new place for dinner last night. Actually, we probably try a new place for dinner at least once a week, but Justa Pasta stood out. It's a little Italian restaurant in industrial NW Portland. We placed our order at the counter, at which point we also picked up a bottle of wine, and then sat down on their outdoor patio. The food was served in just a few minutes, by a friendly waiter who I enlightened with my you can't spill the wine by swirling if the bottom of the glass never leaves the table theory.

Anyways, my chicken parmesan and Jen's veggie lasagna turned out to be spectacular and the portion sizes were healthy as well. We'll definitely go back to Justa Pasta at some point, and you should try it as well. Overall, Justa Pasta might just be my favorite Italian restaurant for now.  Btw, they update their specials on their website on a daily basis which is really cool for a guy who's brain activity is almost evenly split between thinking about the Internet and thinking about food.