Sometimes I think my iPod is playing tricks on me

I'm not usually one to personify inanimate objects, but sometimes I think my iPod is just messing with me. Today, out of 250+ songs in my dynamic playlist, it opted to play these four songs back-to-back:

The Way - Fastball
The Other Way - Weezer
No Other Way - Jack Johnson
Nothing in my Way - Keane

Then, a few songs later, Always All Ways by Lostprophets.

Bizarro.

Ocean coasts: Why I love them

There's just something about the coast. It doesn't matter which coast as long as it's an ocean coast. Oregon, Florida, Hawaii, Bahamas, California, Puerto Rico, Washington, British Columbia, Massachusetts, Maine, South Carolina, New York, North Carolina. Been there; love them. I love the scent of ocean air. I love the sound of waves on the shore. I love the feel of sand between my toes. But most of all, I love the openness of the water and the possibilities that lie beyond. That open water and the realization that there's another completely different coast thousands of miles away puts me in my place. It makes me realize how small I am in a very large world.

That might seem kind of weird.

It's the same reason I like storms. It reminds me that I'm not in control of everything. There's something bigger out there that can have a huge affect on me regardless of how well I live or how well I prepare myself for any particular situation. Mother Nature is still there, and she's in charge. I like these realizations because it keeps me from getting too worked up about things I can't control. While I certainly have the ability to change the course of my life through my actions, things like the open expanse of oceans and thunderstorms remind me that there's always a risk that things won't go as planned; and for whatever reason, that soothes me.

Enough of that. Our weekend at the coast was mostly good. We started out in Astoria where we located the Goonies house. Unfortunately, it's up a private driveway that you have to walk up, and when we got up there, people were outside the house and on the deck. Being mindful of others' privacy, we didn't want to be the gawking tourists taking pictures of the house. Marc did snap a couple before we spotted the residents, though. After that, we headed down to Fort Stevens and walked around old batteries and viewing platforms.

Cool stuff. By then, we were starving. We headed down to Cannon Beach and checked into our room at the Hallmark early, then it was off to the Fireside for their wonderfully creamy clam chowder. Yummy! We went back to the room and then enjoyed lounging in the sand in front of the monolith--which our room also had an incredible view of.

We had seafood for dinner at Doogers. Then we sat on our balcony and watched the sun set. No computers, very little television. It was a good disconnecting break from our normal day-to-day activities.

Now let me talk a little more about watching the sunset from the balcony. About 20-30 minutes before the sunset, I noticed a newly married couple being posed for pictures and video on the stairs down to the beach from our hotel. Nothing weird there--it's a beautiful setting. After some still shots and video, they moved on down the stairs and out onto the beach. Then, the two bridesmaids--in hot pink, fuschia-colored dresses--appeared, followed by the groomsmen in black tuxes, with--you guessed it!--hot pink vests and bow ties. Are you kidding me? This girl really wanted her wedding pictures captured for eternity with dudes wearing hot pink? Wow.

The silliness doesn't end there. This couple went on to pose for some of the most ridiculous wedding pictures and videos I've ever witnessed. She sat on a log, and he laid on the log with his head in her lap. Okay, that's not so bad. But then they started running down the shore, at the videographer's request. After getting "running away" and "running toward" shots, they started at opposite ends and ran toward each other. As they met, he swooped her up and spun her around; a couple times (yes, they repeated this several times--have to get the perfect shot!) her dress's skirt just about flew over her head as it got picked up by the wind. Marc and I could only joke that they were going to appear completely winded and pink-faced in their pictures after all that running around. I'm sure the pictures will turn out great. Best of luck to that couple!

Foggy

It's foggy outside, which stinks because I'd like to get some sun today. Tomorrow we're headed to Cannon Beach for a night. We're also going to head up to Astoria and do the geeky Goonies siteseeing. I found a Web site that tells where the major scenes from the movie were shot, so hopefully we'll be able to recreate some of those shots in pictures. This is something I've wanted to do for as long as I've lived here, so I'm excited that we are finally getting around to it!

Street of Dreams... that's an understatement

Marc and I went with Aaron and Rhonda to the Street of Dreams industry night tonight. This is when all the builders and vendors for the six houses get together for dinner and to view all the houses. These homes are simply amazing. Though I've reinforced that my sense of style is completely different from what the rich prefer (I'm way too plain), it was still really interesting to see the architecture and design of these multi-million dollar homes. I couldn't help thinking and saying, "Can you imagine?" as we walked through. Aside from the requisite game rooms, lavish bedrooms, and fancy kitchens, these houses had built-in dog washing rooms, gift wrapping stations, and complete outdoor kitchens. Craziness. It's amazing that there are people who actually live in places like that.

New Theme

I logged on to Blogger today and my page formatting was all jacked up. All my colors were gone, the sidebar was missing, and the font was screwy. That's why I have a new theme now. I don't think I like it as much as my old one, so don't be surprised if it all changes again sometime soon.

I just got home from my de-skunking (a.k.a. hair coloring appointment), so my hair is looking fabulous just in time to go to bed. I do love getting my hair done--especially when they rub my head and neck. Niiiice...

I'm bored

This idea of taking Mondays and Fridays off to use up some of my vacation was not well-planned. We can't go anywhere because Marc's busy with work (this is a good thing). I'm not feeling as compelled to clean the house like I had anticipated. I have tons of stuff to put up on ebay, but I'm feeling too lazy to do it. I have been reading magazines and books though, and yesterday I watched 3 movies. Plus, I've actually done some work from home. Sad.

I think there's something weird about our local CBS news crew. Hopefully you saw the Monchhichi look-alike I posted a few days ago. That's also the station that employs Portland's friendly alien, Ken Boddie. I don't know what it is about him... something about the size of his face, the closeness of his eyes, and the lack of hair. Plus, if you could hear him speak, you might imagine a funny alien language.
While I'm here, I may as well tell you about the excitement that was delivered to our house this morning. I'm on a lifelong mission to try every hair and skin care product available. I don't even want to know how much money I've spent on this quest over the years. My latest purchases include a leave-in conditioner, a "smoothing balm," new face wash, and (drumroll please) one of those kits from Bare Minerals. If you know me or have seen pictures of me, you know I'm not huge on the makeup thing. It's not that I'm against wearing it--I'm just against wasting a bunch of time on something that looks like crap or completely underperforms. This stuff has one of those (supposedly) no-questions-asked money back guarantees that I fully intend to use if I'm not happy after my trial period. Based on everything I've read about it, it seemed like a good gamble. We'll see how that goes.

Finally, I was bored enough today to get back on the elliptical machine. It's been a few months, and I'll be sad at my own state of fitness when I'm sore tomorrow from the measly 20 minutes I spent this morning. I'm not ready to restart the iron-pumping yet, but I figure it's a good move to at least do some cardio consistently throughout the week.

Weekend Festivities

On Friday night we went to a fundraiser keg party. Kristin and Morgan are training for a marathon and raising money for leukemia research. They got Widmer to donate a keg, so a ton of us converged to partake. Since I'm not a beer drinker, I mixed up some vodka/cranberry/7-ups and drank the night away. We weren't expecting to know a ton of people, but a good number of people from work showed up. I had a great time! My liquid courage provided some entertainment as well, though it sadly wore off before I was able to call somebody out for relieving himself off the side of the deck. I don't know exactly when we left that party, but it was sometime after midnight.

This might sound lame, but that's a pretty big deal for me. I normally start getting ready for bed around 9 and am asleep by 10. Even on the weekends, I'm in bed and asleep long before midnight. It's good I didn't have to work that day, so I had slept in.

Anyway, things didn't end there. Rey, Marc, and I headed over to Dube and Lisa's new house that they just moved into. We hung out for an hour or so. It was past 2 a.m. by the time we left, and after getting thoroughly turned around in a part of town we *should* know, we made it home and I crashed.

Saturday was another fun night. We headed over to Aaron and Rhonda's house (not to be confused with Aaron and Robyn), then went to JoPa for dinner. Marc and I hadn't been there in years, and except for their inability to make a good Mojito, everything was great--including my martinis. Then we headed to the Edward 40 Hands party at Will's house (a guy Rhonda works with). The four of us did not have any drinks taped to our hands, but I was emptying cups of cherry vodka and 7-up into my belly most of the evening. Even though we didn't know anyone else there besides Aaron and Rhonda, we had a really good time.

And so ends my most drunken weekend in a really long time. Good times. Bonus: I don't go back to work until Tuesday, so today's really like my Saturday. What to do?!

Real-Life Monchhichi

One of our local news reporters, Joel Iwanaga, looks like a Monchhichi. That's all I have to say about that.

Now we're off to a kegger. It's been a long time since I've said that. Tomorrow night, there's an Edward 40 Hands party, where you bring two 40 ounce beverages with you and they get taped to your hands at the door. That should be interesting... I feel like I'm getting a taste of the craziness I never indulged in during college.

I never thought I'd like a Spice Girl

I remember when the Spice Girls hit the scene. I never liked 'em. They had a couple of those annoyingly chipper songs that always managed to get stuck in my brain at the most inopportune times. Bah.

But the new Victoria Beckham Comes to America (or whatever it's called) show is pretty funny. Amazingly, she's got a good sense of humor and manages to be rather amusing without coming off like a spoiled bitch. Now, I'm not saying that I'm going to make a point to watch the show whenever it's on, but I won't change the channel when we come across it.

Things seem to have taken a big turn for the better with Marc's biometric lock business in just the last week. Through his new "faceman" and probable future business partner, he scored the placement of one of his locks on a Street of Dreams home. We went out to dinner to celebrate the recent developments. Eating out = me not cooking = good, so I was happy about that. And of course I'm excited about the advancement of Marc's business opportunity. I kept telling him that all his work would pay off. I'm always right about things like this! :)

All-American meal

Norbit is a stupid movie. It was dumb enough that Marc got up in the middle and started doing other stuff. As soon as it was over, we headed over to Steve and Andrea's new house to check things out. I'm totally jealous of all the room they have, but they need it with 4 kids. Since somehow Steve had never been to Skyline Diner, we went there for dinner with them and two of the kids. Bacon cheeseburgers, potato salad, fries, onion rings, milkshakes, and Cokes... talk about an all-American feast. I promptly came home and changed pants. Hehe!

Yesterday when I cleaned out our big kitchen cupboard, I came across the ice cream maker I've had for seven years but have never used. I popped the base in the freezer to prepare for later. Today I cooked up the base for some peanut butter ice cream. We also got some Nutter Butters to chop up and mix in. As soon as we have some room in our stomachs, I'm gonna try that machine out. I can see this being a very bad thing for our weight...

Typical Marc

We decided to hang out alone tonight. This is kind of odd. Not that we're against spending time alone together, but on the weekends, 95% of the time, we hang out with friends. If we end up hanging out alone, it's because everything else falls through. We decided to get some Hawaiian takeout, and we picked up five free rentals at Blockbuster--we had three mailed movies to exchange for in-store rentals and two free rental coupons. Since Marc usually balks at the movies I try to pick out, I told him to pick three and I'd pick two.

This is where it gets typical.

I chose Catch and Release (okay, it's a bit of a "chick flick") and Freedom Writers (no, I'm not obsessed with Patrick Dempsey, but I do love his blue eyes...). Marc chose Reno 911!: Miami, Norbit, and Epic Movie. I laughed out loud in the store when he showed me what he'd picked. Yes, I think I'm married to a man who's actually half his age--a 17-year-old stuck in a 34-year-old's body. Not that I won't watch these movies and laugh at them, too--I'd just be hard-pressed to pick them out myself.

Freaky birds

So I'm sitting in my office at work today, and I notice a few birds over a span of 5 minutes (or maybe it was the same bird) swooping at and almost hitting my window. WTH? Closer inspection revealed that there are bugs on the outside of my window, and apparently the birds were risking death or at least a concussion to eat the suckers.

Later in the morning, a blue heron gracefully flies past my window. Weird. At least he wasn't doing nosedives into it. Until I thought about it today, I hadn't seen our community geese around work. But as my recent coincidences continue to pile up, I saw a big flock of them just minutes after I thought about them. Maybe some Powerball numbers will come to me in the next couple days...

Crapplebees

It's another one of those rare double-posts from me. Though I'm kind of feeling cruddy, I don't want to go to bed this early, and I just saw a commercial that gave me an idea to write about.

If you know me, you know I'm not a cook. A couple weekends ago we were up at a friend's place near Seattle and the Food Network was dialed in. I watched and drooled as some dude named Tyler made macaroni and cheese... with bacon on top. I vowed to try to make this mac'n'cheese at home, and I actually followed through with spectacular results. Try to contain your amazement--seriously!

Tonight, we saw a commercial where that same Tyler is acting as chef and talking about all the food at Applebees (aka Crapplebees). Boo on you, Tyler. Everyone knows that if you want to eat good in the neighborhood, you sure as hell don't go to Applebees. I'll still make his mac'n'cheese though.

And just in case you didn't know, everything's better with bacon.

Sometimes I feel a little psychic

This morning as I was walking in to work, I thought about a guy I used to work with who took another job in the company and moved to a different floor several months--maybe close to a year?--ago. Even though we only have 3 floors and 350 or so people in the building, I haven't run into him in months. Literally. Anyway, not thinking much else about it, I got to my office and chucked my purse down. I picked up my water bottle, bowl, and a packet of oatmeal, and headed downstairs to the big kitchen for ice and hot water. And who do I run into? That guy I was just thinking about. Bizarro. Now if only Miss Cleo would call me, I could see if she has any advice for honing my psychic skills...

Freakin' Hot

Summer has hit Portland in full force. Yesterday and today the temperature hovered at or above the 100 degree mark. Thank goodness for air conditioning. Today was muggier and cloudier, but still really hot. I can't help but think about how this temporary weather is so much like what I (happily) left behind in Kentucky. Now the weather goons are tempting us with chances of thunderstorms, which would totally make my day. I LOVE thunder and lightning.

I like turtles, too... I guess...

It's not often I post twice in one day, but this was so absurdly, randomly funny that I had to share. Plus, it happened right here in my adopted hometown, which makes it that much better.

I "Heart" The Gap

We stopped in Troutdale on our way back home today. They have a small outlet mall, but my most important store is there. The Gap. I really love The Gap lately because I'm pretty convinced that they've changed their sizing. Except for a couple fat months before I moved to Oregon, I've worn about the same size clothing since about 7th grade. I lost some pounds last fall, but not so many that I should be wearing 2 sizes smaller than usual. But hey, if my labels want to say I'm that skinny, I'm not going to complain.

Our Barlow trip went pretty well after we maneuvered ourselves around a Wagon Train group (covered wagons, people walking, and people on horseback). The trail was still blocked in several places by trees (thanks, Forest Service lady, for the updated info... or not), so we backtracked a couple of times to go further down the paved road and then cut back onto the trail. The trail was easy with only one tight squeeze for the Gen II Xs. We all got some of nature's pinstriping though. Camp was pretty mellow. One of the guys brought his telescope, so everyone checked out some planets, galaxies, and globular clusters. We built up a big campfire. We ate, drank, and were merry. Good times.

Full-bellied excitement

I love BBQ. We got out Russell Street fix tonight with Mike and Diane, Slimey and Chris, and Pete and Courtney. We had intentions of getting a Meatapalooza to go as our dinner for tomorrow night, but after we ate one tonight, we found we were satiated for now. Maybe the most exciting part of the night was drinking 3 huge glasses of Dr. Pepper. Considering how little caffeine I normally drink, this gave me quite a buzz. Yeeeeee-haw!!!!

I'm excited about our trip tomorrow. I'm not sure why. We've got a good mix of club old-timers and newcomers, so it should be fun getting to know some people better and hanging out with old friends.

Okay, back to Team America. Diane hasn't seen it before, so we're all enjoying some laughs at the stupidness.

Our house is clean

Yeah, we're slobs. We usually live in a very messy house. Marc and I spent several hours yesterday cleaning the house in celebration of our independence... from the mess. We're compelled to go on cleaning sprees like this only when people are coming to visit--Mike and Diane are trekking down from Seattle tomorrow afternoon. After dinner tomorrow night at Russell Street BBQ, we'll all head up to Mt. Hood on Saturday with a bunch of other trucks from the club for a Barlow trip. It's supposed to be nice and warm, so it ought to be a good time.

On another note, I was sadly denied my weekly dose of "Death by Muzak" today. I think I've crossed the line from hating it to loving to make fun of it.

Celestial viewings

We bought a telescope for Christmas a couple years back, but we're generally not too good about using it. The past few nights, we've noticed what appears to be a really bright star in the west sky after sunset. It's actually Venus. And just to the right of Venus is Saturn. We pulled the scope out to get a closer look. It's cool to see Saturn's rings. Then, if you turn left from those beauties, you can see Jupiter. With our scope, we can see the moons and the Red Spot. There's another "something" a little right and down from Jupiter that flickers red and blue. We thought it might be Mars, but the little machine that hooks up to the telescope informed us that Mars is below the horizon. I did a quick Google search and found a cool site which informs me that the Mars-like object is actually Antares.

While I'm on the subject of astronomy, I thought I'd share this, just in case you haven't seen it 42 times already in e-mail forwards. Somehow, Marc hadn't seen it, so I guess it's possible that there are others on this planet who haven't either.

*We didn't take that picture. Heh!

Everyone have a laugh on me

I know this is one of those things that's funnier if you were there, but I still have to share. Last night I took my contacts out, so I was wearing my glasses this morning. After my morning dose of e-mail and message boards, I headed back upstairs to take a shower. For whatever reason, Marc decided to chase me up the stairs and down the hall. I got to our closed bedroom door (since Manga's still quarantined there), turned the handle, and proceeded to ram the side of my face right into the door. My glasses made it hurt, but not too badly. I erupted in laughter and Marc followed suit. It was awesome.