In Case You Missed History...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ0gxF869NE

The Oregon Coast, Aug 11th

Sea Lion Cave, Aug 11th

Sunset at Bandon, Aug 9th

Summer lovin'...having a blast

My body hasn’t been this sore since two-a-day summer football practices 15 years ago!

Within the last 10 days, Leigh and I have traveled to Colorado (where much partying and hiking was involved for one of my best friend’s weddings), packed our apartment up in a bunch of cardboard boxes, rented a U-Haul, loaded it (with the help of some of the best friends/humans EVER!), unpacked the truck, unpacked the boxes, moved furniture and then weeded, tilled and planted a 20’x20’ garden in the backyard. I’ve got blisters on my blisters and you better believe my dogs are barking!

But I cannot tell you how freakin’ excited we are to FINALLY be living in our own house again. It’s like that feeling that comes over you after you’ve been sick for a few days and then you get better again. It’s like feeling better again and really loving feeling healthy and so glad you’re not sick anymore. So the apartment was sick. The house is now healthy.

Can you believe it’s been since 2005 since we’ve had our own space? In ’05 we lived with my mom (I’m not afraid to admit it…she’s a whole lot of fun!) to save money for our trip to Tibet. Then we moved to Tibet and lived in a hotel for a year and a half. Then we come back to America and move to Oregon and land in an apartment for the last year. That’s a long time to be away from this and we love it!

Our place is a cute 2/1 (with a large office space in the basement that is totally cool even in the hot sunny summer afternoons). It was built awhile ago and has lots of cool built in shelving, hideaway ironing boards, potato drawers, a canning storage closet, hardwood floors, a almost new washer and dryer, lots of big windows, on a quiet dead end street, an amazing garden space with herbs and roses and flowers already established, really cool landlords and it is less than a 10 minute walk from the University of Portland. (Yeah, I know).

Today we planted our garden and it felt so good to have dirt under the fingernails and sweat on the brow. The soil here is amazingly lush and dark and rich. I should know…I’ve taken a shower twice today to wash it off me! We planted spinach, lettuce, collards, kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts and next month we’ll be planting onions, garlic, carrot, snow peas and maybe some fava beans.

School starts in less than 3 weeks now. That’s crazy. I don’t feel eager to give up my very leisurely pace of life this summer. It has been so fantastic to not have a job, not have to go to school (I’m taking online classes) and just be able to wake up early, do yoga, work in the garden, play tennis or go hiking or camping or just chill with Leigh (or should I say distract her from her work). I would be jealous of me right now too and I am definitely grateful for this chance to catch my breath and relax before the gates of chaos are unleashed upon me. Not only school but…

Baby is growing fast! Leigh has expanded incredibly in the last month and it is true joy and magic to witness the transformation. She glows. She is happy and healthy and getting heavy. Just tonight she was complaining that she might be starting to waddle a little bit. But she is really carrying well and is in really good spirits and looks more amazing and beautiful every day. Funny moment, we had just stopped at a bakery for a middle of the afternoon snack during one of our many running-around-doing-errands-all-day days and she was munching on a raspberry hand pie when she said to me, “I love being pregnant. It is a trump card for anything – eating ice cream or pies, not lifting too much during a move, people treat you especially nice, taking naps…”

So, yeah, I think she’s enjoying it. Especially recently since the baby has started to really move around. The other night we were watching a movie (Everything is Illuminated – really good film made from the book, I recommended it), and I had my hand on her belly and I swear the baby was breakdancing! She told me today that she has a balloon from her butthole to her boobs and this baby can just bounce from rib to rib. Just watching the seismic activity of her uterus is amazing and kind of creepy. I can’t help picturing the scene from Alien when the thing bursts out of the guy’s stomach. Yikes, I really hope that doesn’t happen…

Leigh’s parents come into town tomorrow for a weeklong visit. We're excited. We love showing off our new home. Going to the farmer's market, see all the bridges and rivers, Mount Hood, etc. We’re going down to the southern Oregon coast to check out some wildlife refuges (mom) and visit a lot of train stuff (dad). We should get the chance to go out to eat a couple times, which is something two broke ass students can’t do very often (which is a real shame b/c Portland has some phenomenal restaurants). We’ll also go looking at baby stuff. You know, get the essentials - diapers, onesies, big screen tv (for dad of course).

Hope y'all are having a great summer!

Our first dinner in the new house! YAY!

Pics of the new house to come...

Hilarity from JibJab

http://www.jibjab.com/originals/time_for_some_campaignin#login_popup

WTF Monday

"Aggravating/Enjoyable Travel Note of the Week

Oregon. South Dakota. North Dakota. I realized the other day that I'm 51 and I'd never spent appreciable time in any of those states. So I was happy to be in Portland and its suburban neighbor to the north, Scappoose, the other day. Driving through Portland is what it's like to drive through a European city in some ways, because of all the bikes in such a green-conscious city. So imagine my surprise when I picked up The Oregonian Thursday to read this headline atop page one: "Bike-car clash morphs into melee.''

Seems a driver didn't like the way a bicyclist was running red lights and driving recklessly in downtown Portland, and he yelled at the guy to stop being so careless. The cyclist got off his bike and told the driver to get out of his car if he wanted to make such a fuss about how he was operating his bike. The driver of the car got out. And the bicyclist started -- according to police reports -- beating the driver of the car with the bike. Yes, beating the driver of the car with his bike, holding the bike over his head and assaulting the defenseless driver at least five times, leaving the mark of a bike chain on him.

Not sure what the moral of the story is, but it's not good." - Peter King, SI.com

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It gets worse. Apparently (because who believes the media anymore), the driver, who chided the biker for making other cyclist look bad, was a cyclist advocate! When the angry biker pulled up to the driver at the next light, he got off his bike and began using it to hit the driver’s car while cursing the driver and trying to pick a fight. Later it turns out the biker was drunk AND an employee of the city’s Department of Transportation! God the irony here is ridiculous. Passer-by’s, mostly other bikers, who came across the scene then ganged up on this driver when it was thought that this driver hit the cyclist. In fact, that’s how the 911 call went in. So, not only is this guy trying to do the right thing by calling out the biker for BREAKING THE RULES of the road, but then he gets abused by total strangers not even related to the incident from total hearsay and mob mentality. WTF???

I guess I haven't been reading the Oregonian lately and been too busy going camping and playing to realize this happened. Did any of y'all hear about this? What the fuck?! Wow. Sad. Seems that the biker was in the total wrong here. As a driver of cars and a rider of bikes try to follow the rule "Same road, same rights, SAME RULES". I can empathize where the driver is coming from having witness almost everyday a cyclist running stop signs, red lights or the like. It is very frustrating and quite dangerous. I wish that the bike cops (or any cops) would start cracking down on this. If you're riding a bike in town, follow the same rules as a car. Simple. Just because you have two wheels and foot power does not give you special privileges. And it does not necessarily make you 'holier than me' either. And if you do get called out on breaking road rules, by all means people, DO NOT abuse your accuser with your bike! Jesus. I mean, bikes are usually really expensive to repair, man. I also find it a real pity that someone that's never been here before, a nationally syndicated columnist (who by the way I emailed and offered to take around the city...but go no response), and his first nice impression (European city - nice!) is counter-acted with a bike rage episode of disgusting proportions. I guess that this will keep even more people from moving to our fair city though. Which is good news I think...

What is wrong with people? Why can't we all get along? Why can't we think before we act? Even here in peaceful, green-living, European style Portlandia?

Happy freaking Monday. Jeez.

Full story - http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/07/angry_bicyclists_gang_up_on_th.html