Dear Portland,

I don't come visit you to experience weather in the 90s. Please stop it now!

Just cause...

This is a terribly blurry picture but they are both so adorably goofy I just couldn't resist.

And the cow jumped over the moon...

Right now we're in Seattle visiting family and friends. Alanna is a friend of mine from our PDX year. Alanna is superloveable for many reasons, not the least of which are her foodie passions. She is very serious about food, but not snobby. The first day I met her she took me out to an all you can eat sushi bar. As we sat down she told me the following.

I want you to know that I am going to eat a lot. I am going to MAXIMIZE my food capacity so I don't want you to feel like you can't eat in front of me. I am probably

going to have to undo the top button on my pants after this meal.

Obviously, I have friend-loved Alanna ever since that first day. This week she's been taking us on a whirlwind culinary tour of Seattle. We have eaten pastries by someone who one the world baking contest in France, cuban sandwiches, gay cupcakes and the official white house candy. But if I have a clear food memory from this trip it will be Molly Moon ice cream. I know, I overuse this phrase, but truly it changed my gastronomic life.

I love this...

All over Seattle's Capitol Hills District they have the basic step to numerous dances printed on to the sidewalk. This is the Rumba!

Butterfly, oh, oh that's old. Let me see you tootsie roll!

Okay, this song has little to do with the post but everytime I think Butterfly I hear it. Anyways, some of you might remember that during our last swim class experience I learned how to Butterfly... sort of. I mean, I can get myself across the pool (with great effort) but I'm not really sure if I'm doing it correctly. I fear that I look like one of those crazy people who do the crawl without putting their face in the water i.e. totally wrong. However, I'm getting really bored of doing freestyle laps in swim class so I decided to suck up my pride and try to do a lap of butterfly. And it went...

Well I got across the pool. Thanks to my newfound cardiovascular strength(thanks 1/2 marathon training!) I made it, but the whole time I was kind of tortured by the possibility that all the good swimmers were sniggering at my floppy butterfly. It's not really a subtle stroke. I was displacing A LOT of water. At the end of 25 looooooong meters I steadied myself for possible humiliation as I leaned up against the wall to re-catch my breath.

Then something wonderful happened.

The guy in the lane next to me opened his eyes wide and said "Ohmygosh. I was watching you under the water. That was hella cool." Charmed by his enthusiasm, flattery and impossibly adorable chicano accent I immediately went into girly 7th grader mode. "Ohmygosh, thank you so much, I'm not sure if I was doing it right." I think I might've even bit my thumb while I did gushed. I mean what else could I do? I'm a Bay Area girl and he said "Hella!"

Renewed by a strangers compliment I took a deep breath and butterflopped my way back to the other side.

Wes called me today and said "Can you believe Michael Jackson died?"

And of course, no I can't. It's just too strange.

I went to SoCal today and saw that he died on the news in the Sacramento airport. Walking through the airport it seemed like everyone had stopped what they were doing to stare at the screens. I of course did what any sensible person would do... I called my co-workers. Shauntay picked up the phone and said "I know we can't believe it either. We're totally on it right now." It's hard to get your head around the idea that someone so influential has died.

Thriller was one of the first music videos I remember seeing as a child. His influence on music and dance was just off the charts. Who in the world doesn't know a Michael Jackson song? Who hasn't tried to moonwalk? It seemed like he lived a crazy and tragic life. Hopefully he can find some peace and rest now.

Baby Boom

I kid you not, my aunt just sent me the following e-mail about my cousins.

Subject line: BABIESS!

Rommel & Mareavel due in Sept

Robert & Marissa due in Oct

RonRon & Jasmine due in Dec

Roderick & Veronica due in Jan

Whoa, that is 4 babies in 4 months. BABIESS! Indeed.