Headed in the right direction

Things are finally starting to come together for the July arrival of Baby Brunhilda.* The biggest job so far was getting her room painted. Even though we're only renting, we couldn't bear the brick-red walls paired with brown carpet. Actually, we were willing to bear with it because we didn't want to make any improvements to our landlord's place, but Michael's mom kind of guilted us into it. A good thing, too, as it looks so much better already.

Michael's dad and stepmom, John and Janet, graciously did pretty much all the work. They own a numnber of properties and are old hat at kicking out jobs like this.

Next up is assembling the IKEA furniture, hanging stuff on the walls and hemming a pair of curtains left over from our Albuquerque place that will give the room a spot of color.

Oh, and speaking of headed in the right direction, I got the title of this post from my most recent doctor's visit, when we found out that Brunhilda is no longer breech, so she's in position and ready. That makes two of us! Only seven weeks (at the most) to go!

*Lest you think we're really giving our daughter a Viking name, Brunhilda is an homage to what my mom called me in utero. Except that I thought for 41 years (which means until recently) that she was seriously considering naming me that!

Time to say so long

Harvey Korman (above left, with Tim Conway) of the late, great "Carol Burnett Show" has died at 81. It was one of my favorite shows as a kid, and I've still been waiting for a proper DVD release of the show beyond "greatest hits" collections.

My crush was on mild-mannered straight man Lyle Waggoner, but of the guys, Korman and Conway got the laughs. I was reminded of them when we recently saw Kids in the Hall and Mark McKinney was cracking up Bruce McCulloch onstage.

Here's a classic bit. Funny skit, sure, but it's Korman's nearly uncontrollable laughter that makes it. What a great pair!

Happy birthday!

Today is niece Rebecca's first birthday! She was born last year on Mother's Day, so we celebrated her birthday Sunday. We foresee lots of combined celebrations through the years.

Happy birthday, Girly-Bug!

A way better than average weekend

The Kids in the Hall theme song is "Having an Average Weekend," by Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, but our Sunday was anything but. The day started off with Mother's Day brunch in Vancouver, paired with niece Rebecca's first birthday party (pics to come). I think this is the only year, however, that such festivities will be overshadowed on the blog by the Kids themselves. Their live performance was outstanding, and since it's me we're talking about, here are some scenes from the aftershow portion of the evening.

The top photo is of me with my favorite Kid (all 5-foot-6 of him), Bruce McCulloch. He's poking my belly with a wooden spoon in reference to the Kids' "Touch Paul Bellini contest." (Oh, and in case I haven't told you by now, I am about 30 weeks' pregnant! All signs point to a healthy girl due July 19.)

I said to Bruce, "Don't you have a birthday tomorrow?" "How did you know?" he asked. "I'm your stalker." Then the girl next to us said, "I'm your second stalker!" Bruce was very sweet and soft-spoken, asked when the baby was due and told me congrats.

Michael was a good sport, documenting my moments with all the Kids:

Here's me attempting to "crush" Mark McKinney's head and a less-candid moment. He was really funny and drew a mustache, soulpatch and ear hairs on his picture in my program.
Here's Scott Thompson, left, and Kevin McDonald, right. My moments with both of them were pretty much all business, as they both seemed in a bit of a hurry.

Turning the tables on Dave Foley. He said, "There sure are a lot of pregnant women around here"; I made an off-color joke, and as we walked away, I heard him say to the next person, "Are you pregnant?"

A fantastic night & beyond my wildest expectations! After the show, Michael and I met up at a bar with brother-in-law Kyle and his friend, both who'd gone to the show. About an hour after meeting the Kids, I saw all but Scott walk by, presumably on the way to their hotel. I waved like mad to Bruce & Mark, who obliged with a return wave. They probably figured I was some girl-drink drunk, when really I was just high on my great night!

Meet cute

During my recent trip home, I finally met two VIPs -- my cousin Sharon's son, Jack, and my friend Mal's daughter, Lucy. It was a loooooooooooooooooong time coming but definitely worth the wait.

They are both super-cute kids loaded with personality. Not that I was expecting anything else, of course, but it was great to finally see these pint-sized people in person!

Run for the Roses in the City of Roses

It's Derby Day, so I took the day off, though it's a low-key one this year. I always miss home this time of year; this year we also miss Denver, where our friends Tia & Justin a block away knew how to throw a Derby party -- and they are from Iowa!

Michael & I kicked around the idea of going to the Rialto, an off-track-betting pool hall, or Portland Meadows racetrack. Instead I made sausage gravy & biscuits for breakfast, and we've been watching the couple of hours of TV leading up to the race.

We didn't place any bets, but I would've gone with Cool Coal Man and/or Denis of Cork; Michael likes Colonel John and Adriano.

Happy Derby Day!

Cool new feature

Michael has started uploading my CD collection to MediaMaster, an online (and free, for now) music storage service accessible on any computer. So far, he's put on 276 of my CDs (3,750 songs); he has even more in his account.

Anyway, what this means is that while you read my blog, you can listen to my radio (to the right), which features a selection of my music. As far as I can tell, you can't skip ahead to a different song once you've selected a starting point, though you can choose which song you start with.

Enjoy!

Also, I am seriously behind on blogging. I have been a bit under the weather since getting back from my trip home, so blogging's been the last thing on my mind. I'll try to catch up soon!

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.

Devout Chihuahua

NAHA, Japan (AP) -- At a Zen Buddhist temple in southern Japan, even the dog prays.

Mimicking his master, priest Joei Yoshikuni, a Chihuahua named Conan joins in the daily prayers at Naha's Shuri Kannondo temple, sitting up on his hind legs and putting his front paws together before the altar.

It took him only a few days to learn the motions, and now he is the talk of the town. "Word has spread, and we are getting a lot more tourists," Yoshikuni said.

Yoshikuni said Conan generally goes through his prayer routine at the temple in the capital of Japan's southern Okinawa prefecture (state) without prompting before his morning and evening meals.

"I think he saw me doing it all the time and got the idea to do it too," Yoshikuni said.

The priest is now trying to teach him how to meditate.

Well, sort of.

"Basically, I am just trying to get him to sit still while I meditate," he explained. "It's not like we can make him cross his legs."

Oregon ducks

This pair of ducks likely waddled over from the park and duck pond a couple of blocks away. One found a puddle for splashing in the grass strip right in front of our house. They just hung out for a while, Michael gave them some bread, then they were on their merry way.

New toy #2

Now that we have a yard to mow (our landlord sits back and rakes in our dough while we do all the work), we decided to get a mower of our own. The landlord does provide a gas one that's stored in the garage, but with small yards in the back and the front, we thought an old-fashioned human-powered mower would be the responsible way to go.

Michael did a little research and decided the Scotts Classic was best for us. We mow the grass about once a week, leaving the short trimmings on the grass. No muss, no fuss. All in all, about a 10-minute job or less per yard.

Oh, and I tried out the mower myself. That may not sound like such a big deal, but I had never mowed grass in my life before. My grandpa always hired my male cousins to mow our lawn, and every place I've lived since, it was handled by someone else. I have to say, even with the push mower, it's a little unwieldy and will take some practice to get turning the corners right.

QT with a cutie

Now that we live in Oregon, we get fairly regular face time with our niece, Rebecca. Here she shows off her huge dimples, personality and "wrarms" (the upper version of "cankles").

'Shrooms

Growing in our front yard. Yep, we're in Oregon!

(Taken with the new camera. Woo-hoo!)

New toy #1

Finally got the digital SLR I've been wanting. Now I won't have to mess with the crappy Canon point & shoot anymore. Nothing but problems with that camera, which went back to the shop for repairs four times in about as many years.

Got a great deal on the Nikon and a bunch of related extras here in the land of no sales tax. Now I need to get shooting!

Song stuck in my head

We all get songs stuck in our head, and it happens to me on a regular basis. But normally it's there for a reason. All day today, and I don't know what put it there, I've been singing "Big Bottom" by Spinal Tap.

The part that's been running through my head:
Big bottom / big bottom
Talk about bum cakes / My girl's got 'em

Good things ...

come in pink boxes and on Frontier jets.

Our friend Monica, a master ceramicist and all-around creative type (not to mention one of Angus' favorite people in the world), flew in from Denver last weekend to check out the Oregon College of Art and Craft. The bonus was that we got lots of QT with her.

The weekend was mostly about eating and driving around checking out neighborhoods and cute shops. We also caught the Blazers-Celtics game, with a surprise appearance by Maceo Parker, who was in town for a concert. He played the Black National Anthem before the game (as part of Black History Month) and performed during halftime. A good time, but despite a strong start, the Blazers lost. Aside from "real" food, we had lots of sweets, chief among them a selection from the ever-enticing Voodoo Doughnut, famous for Nyquil and Pepto-Bismol doughnuts, though those flavors are currently on hold (I can't imagine someone could eat many of those without getting kind of sick, despite both substances' curative properties).

Among our choices were Froot Loops, Cocoa Puffs and Butterfinger doughnuts. Voodoo is also cool in that you can get married in the shop, complete with a doughnut reception.

Before taking Monica to the airport, we stopped by the Stash Tea Store, where it's easy to drop a load of cash. Yes, Stash Tea is available everywhere, but this is the only place I know of where you can find all their flavors, and then some, in one place.

Shaker box

Got an unexpected box of Shaker goodies from Mom the other day. She went down to visit Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Harrodsburg, Ky., recently with a couple of friends. Included in the package were handmade soap and soap dish, peppermint foot powder, moth repellant, pot scrubber, whisk broom, bookmark and jar scrapers.

The best part was a counted cross stitch needlepoint kit of the Mary Payne sampler. The original sampler, which hung in our house while I was growing up, was donated to Shakertown by my grandmother and her two surviving brothers in the 1970s. They were the grandchildren of Mary Payne, who was born in 1860 and lived with the Shakers into her teen years before settling in Washington County, Ind.

Had Mary Payne stayed with the Shakers, there would be no Grandma, Mom, me or a slew of other relatives since the Shakers believed in celibacy (the men and women, even married couples, lived and worked in separate quarters) and eventually died off.

The kit has been around for years; I've just never made it a priority to get one. And in case you're wondering, I am not learning yet another craft. I'll leave the counted cross stitch to the pros; just have to find someone who can stitch it for me.

Seems like spring

We've had our fair share of pleasant weather lately, with temps in the 50s and sunshine. The dogs have enjoyed getting out frolicking in the sun, which there hadn't been a lot of since we got to town.

The forecast calls for more sun and highs well into the 50s for my weekend (Sunday & Monday). Woo-hoo!



Welcome wagon

Our 5-year-old neighbor Ryleigh came over with her mom last night to bring us a homemade Valentine. Unfortunately, I was at work and missed all the cuteness. We had met our neighbors a few days ago, and we suspect her ulterior motive in bringing the Valentine was to get some more QT with the Chihuahuas.

Template

Depending on which browswer you use, my blog may look better or worse. That's always been the case, but with the new template, I notice there is more funky spacing when I view the blog on Internet Explorer. Our home browser is Mozilla Firefox, which gives the view as I see it.