My Criminal Law Final Is Over

I got to school at 8:00 AM and I studied till 12:00 PM, then at 1:03 PM I checked out an exam that had to be back at the registrars office at 4:03 PM. The test was the only grade I would recieve in a class that lasted 17 weeks. Boo. I say Boo.

Abuse? Perhaps

This is what happens when your dog can't reach the peanut butter on the top of his nose. The sad part is he doesn't even really like peanut butter.

Baracky

So this is worth a look, though I'm sure Dawn will be torn.

Phallic Food = Family Friendly

Good morning. A quick Portland story to get you started today. Sergio and I finally went here on Sunday morning. It is a Portland landmark of sorts. A donut shop that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. My guess is that it once catered mostly to drunk people stumbling from club to club in Old Town. Why do I think this? The menu includes not only donuts with coco puffs and cap'n crunch on top, but also the Nyquil and Pepto Bismol glazed varieties. Mmmm! It has, however, become one of the top listed places in every travel book or magazine article written about Portland, guaranteeing that it will be swarmed by suburban family crowds on the weekends.
As Sergio and I made our way to the teeny shop situated next to an adult movie theater and up the road from many strip joints, we passed one such family. The young son (let's say ten yrs old) was struggling with an oddly shaped donut the size of his head. We were mildly curious about what he had found. And then we saw it. What we can't decide for sure is whether the parents realized what the kid ordered and didn't mind (very Portland attitude), or if they just didn't notice at all. Either way, I will never forget the image of a ten year old boy walking down the street eating a very large donut replica of the male anatomy.

Spring Break Part Three

You might have thought I got lazy and abandoned the Spring Break posts, but in fact I simply got lazy. I never abandon a post! Actually, nothing about that last sentence is true. I start posts and delete them all the time. You would thank me for that if you ever saw them. Anyhow, I was going to make this the final spring break post but then I saw the number of pictures there would be if I put California, Nevada, and Arizona all together. The page might never load. Instead, this is just Arizona. Everything but the Hoover Dam is from Petrified Forest National Park. That picture of the old dead log? It's a rock! It was a tree several million years ago, but now its a rock that people sometimes make jewelry out of. Also, old women jump out of their RV's to steal some. Not Allowed. The rocks on the ground in the square formations, along with the rock drawings are leftover from a settlement. All in all, a really cool national park. We had heard from multiple sources that we should take the Hoover Dam tour if we had time and I was really looking forward to going. Unfortunately, we got there pretty late and were way behind schedule already for that day. We jumped out to take a couple of pictures from the Arizona side, and then saw all we could see from the car while we waited over a half hour to get across the dam. Sometime soon...hopefully...Vegas and San Francisco...maybe.

Think About This Next Time You Get Into An Elevator

A lot of people have been linking this article and accompanying video so I'm not being original, but this is worth a look. Dawn and I talked about it and the video made us both very uncomfortable, very sad. Anyways, watch it, enjoy.

On the Way to Work or The Crazy Old Man Two Step

Guy 1 walks over to guy 2 on the train today. Guy 1 leans over guy 2 and coughs onto guy 2, then immediately turns and walks the length of the train. Very odd, gross. Guy 2, looking confused, continues reading and being a normal person on a train. Meanwhile, guy 1 has just turned back toward guy 2 and is walking with purpose. Guy 1 again gets to guy 2 and coughs, loudly, then walks off again. Still gross, now more odd. This time guy 2 looks mad but he sees that guy 1 has taken a seat at the other end of the train, so guy 2 shakes his head and continues to read. This lasts for maybe 10 seconds before guy 1 decides he has another cough in him. As he appoaches guy 2, guy 2 states, "if you cough on me again I'm going to punch you." Fair warning, well deserved. So guy 1, looking chastened, kicks guy 2 in the shin. Now comical. Guy 2 gets up and guy 1 starts making laps of the train until the next stop where he gets out. Ahh, public transportation.

Redesign

Sergio has been playing with HTML for the past few days, and figured out how to do a bunch of stuff that makes the blog more ours and less blogger. He was also the one to post the last three items, totally taking up my slack with the blog lately. Very nice. The picture at the top is Portland. We will continue to play for awhile, so bear with us while we learn. Also, you might let us know if anything we are doing is causing the page to load slowly for you. Otherwise, what do you think?

And The Poor Rich Get Richer While the Real Poor Get Dumber

Click here

My problem with this practice is not necessarily that private schools are getting title 1 funds but that the distribution model is different for private and public schools.

In the Mood for a Sad Our Government Doesn't Work Story?

Click Here.

Absolutly Hillarious

Some of you may have seen this on the news, but for those of you who haven't this is an advertisement Absolut Vodka ran in Mexico. It has apparently caused quite an uproar in the US but I think it's great, and in any case very good advertising.

Movie Reviews

Facing the Giants ♣♣
This is a simple little football movie that (I think) was made entirely by a church and its congregation. Writers, actors, caterers, etc. It is heavy on the religion, and not necessarily something we would have watched on our own. We both agreed, though, that the production value was incredible for a small independent film, and we applauded the project on the whole. Once in a while I broke out in a mild blush at a poor acting moment, or overly earnest dialogue, but not a bad way to spend an hour and half.

Enchanted ♣♣♣
Okay, I'll admit when I saw these previews I could not figure out who would want to see this movie. I don't know exactly what I thought it would be, but I was not interested. Neither was Sergio. But then something strange happened. It got great ratings and wonderful reviews, and of course, I had to know what the big deal was. One word: charming. No, wait...two words: charming and funny.

Michael Clayton ♣♣♣½
Good story, good acting. The only problem was Sergio telling me that this could really be what it's like for some lawyers. Scary thought.

The Darjeeling Limited ♣♣♣½
Totally Wes Anderson, but a little less goofy than his latest movies, like Zissou. Made me think more of The Royal Tenenbaums, which is my favorite...yippy!

Waitress ♣♣♣
I watched this awhile ago, so my rating might be a bit skewed. Sergio didn't pay attention, so this is all me. I wanted to see this movie because I wondered if the ratings had been skewed by the untimely and tragic death of the writer/director/actress. Verdict: I don't know. I liked it a lot, but I can see that some people might not. If you miss seeing Andy Griffith on television then check this out. He is pretty funny.

Spring Break Part Two

Before we get to the spring break trip, I think I would like to rant a bit. Since we moved to Oregon we have seen a series of commercials for a certain brand of chicken that comes from either California or Oregon. It features two goofy, redneck chickens trying to convince Oregonians that they aren't "from Arkansas." Of course, this is in reference to Tyson...but how many regular people know that Tyson is headquartered in Arkansas? The latest commercial, the one that finally set me off asks, "What's the opposite of Oregon? Arkansas."
Um...what? It basically just comes across as a smear campaign against Arkansas and all of our sneaky, dirty, backwoods ways. Also, I can't tell you how many times Sergio and I have compared the two states. You step outside Portland city limits and it's just not that different.

Anyway, back to spring break. After Oklahoma there was Texas and New Mexico. We stopped outside of Albuquerque for a night. Somewhere in Texas (I think) we saw an advertisement for the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere. We didn't bother to exit and see this cross because, HEY, it's BIG. We could see it from the road. Though it certainly was large, I felt like I had seen bigger crosses before at some of the mega-churches. I would be interested to know exactly how they are measuring. Perhaps the girth of the cross is what earned it the honored title of Largest Cross in the Western Hemisphere. You have to love America and its dedication to completely obscure objects. Stay tuned for our brief encounter with the World's Largest Thermometer!




I don't know why we can't get some of our pictures to flip, but you get the idea. Also, I can't remember what state that Navajo store was in, and I missed the New in the New Mexico sign. The speed limit in both NM and Arizona was 75 mph, so you can see how I might not have had time to frame the shot.