Little earthquake

I woke up about 5:30 this morning to noise and shaking and figured it was an earthquake. I live in Oregon, you're thinking, so big fat deal. The funny thing is I was asleep at my mom's house in South Boston, Ind., when this happened.

When I got up this morning, I asked Mom, "Was there an earthquake last night?" and she thought I was crazy. Turns out it was a 5.2-magnitude centered in Illinois and felt in this area. There seemed to be little effect in this area other than people feeling it; one building in Louisville lost some bricks.

Apparently this quake was in the Wabash fault, which I've heard may or may not be part of the New Madrid fault. We found out about the New Madrid (pronounced MADrid, like the town in New Mexico) some years ago, when Mom and I were still living together and felt a tiny quake then. Supposedly the New Madrid has the potential to be a pretty serious fault line, and one year they predicted "the big one," on my birthday, but it never happened.

So I guess whatever excuses Mom may use for not moving West, fear of earthquakes can't be one of them.

Update: Mom, John and I just felt an aftershock. TV confirmed it was 4.5. Crazy!

Carb overload

I tried posting this entry soon after it happened a couple of weeks ago but was having some Blogger photo issues (excuses, excuses!) and just now got back around to it.

With Stacy & family in Seattle, we now get the chance for jaunts back and forth, so Stacy, Andy, Ada & Harriet popped down for a visit during spring break.

We grabbed dinner at Montage, always a favorite but one we hadn't visited since moving back. The macs (pesto mac, spicy mac, "old" mac, to name a few) never disappoint. Plus, when it comes to leftovers, your food leaves with you in a cleverly wrapped tin foil creation (a duck, a rose, a spaceship, a hammer -- really whatever the server's heart desires and hands can fashion). Unfortunately, once you get it home and open it for reheating, you find that inside the foil, your food has been molded into a congealed blob inside plastic wrap and you wish maybe you'd skipped the leftovers.

For dessert, and a major sugar rush, we stopped at Voodoo Doughnut, where Harriet, left in the photo at right, had an M&M and Ada had a Neapolitan. I had a Crunch Berry, and Michael tried the Portland maple cream, which was considerably smaller than the giant doughnut over his head.

By the way, these photos are from Stacy's iPhone. Pretty good quality, huh? Our camera phone takes pretty crappy pix, but we rarely ever use it for that purpose anyway.

The Kids are alright

Canadian comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall are coming to town, and we are so there! I have been waiting YEARS to see them in person.

Mom got to see them in Louisville a few years back and got photos with them and autographs for me (yes, the celeb thing runs in our genes). I hope to be as lucky.

Michael knows the drill: Show's over, we head to the alley. Unfortunately, the Schnitz, where they are playing, is a bit uncharted territory. I had a helluva time tracking down Lyle Lovett there afterward, and he's usually really easy to meet. And, no, I'm not a stalker, just a fan.