Friends Saturday, June 28, 2008

The last several weeks I have been spending an inordinate amount of time with con friends, etc. And it's only going to continue throughout the rest of July, and I'm sure the rest of the summer. I choose to illustrate this through photojournalism!

First of all, Laura graducated on June 13th - Yaaay Laura!

Saturday morning after Laura's graduation we drove up to Seattle to play in Dev's ballpit, picking up Steve and Zoe in Portland. Most people had been there Friday night, so by the time we got there Saturday afternoon, everyone had left to do their own thing. Things picked up pretty quickly, though.

Hee hee. Poopa.

Kate and Dev, proud ballbit owners.

Okay so maybe we sorted the balls.

Miriam and James

Nooooo!
Lazy Sunday.

The next weekend we drove up to Port Townsend to hang out at Rob's parents' house. Kate and Dev and PJ decided to join, just because Port Townsend is that special.

Family portrait?

Kate was seriously ready for breakfast.

Swinging!

Silly, sweet happy people rolling down the hill at the park

Kate found a friend on the beach.

Spider Monkey?

Rob and Kate at the Fort (we were there for a benefit for The Boiler Room, a volunteer led coffee shop in PT that does something amazing for the youth and young adult community - gives them a space to hang out, make art and get work experience. I wish Corvallis had something like that!)

On our way back to Vancouver we stopped on the reservation to pick up fireworks.

Eat your heart out, Oregon! These bitches aren't illegal in Washington!

On Wednesday night of this last week, Rob and I and Steve and Zoe went to McMennamin's for dinner, and then Oaks Park, a crappy amusement park in Portland with about 15 rides (but fairly cheap ride bracelets and no lines on a Wednesday night... so who's complaining?)

On the Scrambler

Suuuper creepy

The slide I refused to go down, because I didn't want to recreate the alpine slide incident... Notice Zoe's posture, and the name of the slide itself. "Big Pink - the ham flavored gum that pinkens your teeth while you chew!" - Futurama.

Zoe and Steve on the tiny train

And now it's the weekend and almost July! And Summer's finally starting! And I got my bike fixed up yesterday! I put road tires on my mountain bike, which was way less of a hassle than selling my mountain bike and buying a used road bike. For serious.

Bumbershoot Thursday, June 26, 2008

Holy crapola, Francesca Lia Block (favorite author in high school) AND Sherman Alexie (favorite author introduced to me in college) are speaking at Bumbershoot. Now I'm basically required to go.

Also summer classes are ending tomorrow and I dyed my hair normal-ish. Maybe now I'll start getting call-backs after interviews. Sigh.

Adventures of the Pedo-grill Friday, June 13, 2008

A few weeks ago our sketchy next door neighbors moved out in a big hurry. Two days later the sheriff's department came by in the morning and asked if we knew the whereabouts of the sketchy husband. Turns out he was wanted in the state of Oregon for his penchant for 12-14 year old girls. Gross. We'd all been friendly with them. The husband fixed Rob's speakers, and we gave him and his wife a table we didn't want. We always said hi when we ran into them. Now it turns out they're seriously sketchy.

In their haste to move out, they left a small shelf beside their door that they'd kept an ashtray on. On one of the lower shelves was a small (maybe 1.5' by 1.5') cheap propane grill. I decided that because of the emotional distress they'd placed on us, I was going to take the grill for myself. Whatever, they were long gone to Colorado by that point.

The grill was nasty. Like, used once a week for a couple years and never cleaned nasty. Used to cook lots of fatty meat nasty. I stuck it on our back porch and promised I'd clean it soon, and once I did we'd have grilled asparagus. But then it sat back there for a couple weeks. Last Sunday I decided it was finally time to clean it. It took me over 2 hours, 2 Scotchbrite pads, and about 8-10 paper towels. I had the sick feeling while I was cleaning it that maybe after all this disgusting travail, it wasn't even going to work.

We'd been planning on having salad and spaghetti for dinner, but after all that we were going to use the goddamn grill. After a quick trip to Freddie's for hot dogs, buns and propane, we were ready.

And oh happy day, the grill worked!

The fruits of my labor:




This weekend it's off to Seattle to play in Dev's ballpit and hang out with UUs... hooray! <3

Brought to you by Morning Edition Wednesday, June 4, 2008

I was truly inspired by the story of Amber Alibhai on Morning Edition today. Check her out, she's doing some pretty amazing things.

Life is good. We're going to the Rose Festival this weekend! And to Corvallis/Seattle the weekend after that! And Port Townsend the weekend after that! And it's worth mentioning that I only have 3 and a half weeks of class left. I'm a little sad, since I'm really loving my classes, but with a gallon of gas at $4.059 in the cheapest gas station in Hazel Dell (along with your standard environmentalist wish to drive less), I'm going to be really pleased to not be commuting a total of almost 38 miles daily.

Good News! (Election Coverage, etc) Tuesday, June 3, 2008

• Dick Cheney is really dumb
• Goats on a TriMet!
• McCain's speech in Kenner, Louisiana (currently being viewed) is a whole lot of negative, anti-Obama, 'vote for me, I'm not Bush' bs and it makes me sad.
• We're having potatoes, chicken and asparagus for dinner.
• Obama made the democratic nomination!

Life is pretty exciting, huh?