Blogger had problems on the 26th because apparently pamrentz.com was down but blogger saved mz post and I just clicked the button and published it. yay.

Now it's the thirtieth: I'm 40.

I don't have much time because we're about to go to dinner so here's the short version:

Bob and I did a day trip to Munich and a goofing around GAP day and a lazy day hanging around. Bob still hasn't shaken his cough and we decided to take it easy and see if we can get him back up to speed.

Today we had a fantastic brunch and cake with the kids (who especiallz liked the cake part) and then Lisa, Bob and I went to the Buchheim Museum (possibly incorrect and too lazy to run in house and find leaflet). The guy who wrote Das Boot did all kinds of things including collecting art and he's the mastermind of this museum. Then we went to Murnau for a quick walk around town and now back here to get readz for dinner (just the grown ups).

Tomorrow we will watch the ski jumping and then pack up all our sh*t (and there's a lot more than usual since we aren't doing the usual hauling our stuff around ourselves as we visit so manz differnt spots) and go to Munich and check into a hotel. We'll meet Lisa, Flori et al. for a New years eve party with their friends. New Years Day I imagine we'll say goodbye and then wander around and on Fridaz we are up earlz and to the airport for the return journez.

We went to the Pinotek Moderne in Munich while we were there and were hoping to go back -- tons of great stuff, great building and not enough time. But apparentlz the museum is closed on the 1st. Bummer.

Russell Banks: Cloudsplitter is verz good but about 400 pages too long. I'm plowing through the last 200 pages or so with a bad attitude. Odd coincidence: Lisa is also reading Cloudsplitter -- our own mini book group. I bought Harrz Potter (Erin alert!) for the plane home. I'm onlz on volume 4 which is still brick sized and should last me until I get home.

Won't check in again before home. See ya.

It's about 7 o'clock on the evening of the 26th. Flori, Bob and the kids spent the day skiing and Lisa and I went for a marathon walk through town. We all arrived home at the same time and just had a wonderful dinner of pasta with leftover mushroom sauce from last night.

I had done additional editing on yesterday's message and realize now that it was lost in the blogger-burp. What a drag.

Back to the Christmas celebration. On the 24th Flori and Bob took the kids sledding to get them out of the house. The Christkind (Christ Child) comes and decorates the tree and leaves the gifts for the kids. It makes the story about the fat guy in the red suit sliding down chimneys sound logical, eh? As soon as everyone was gone, Lisa and I hurried to decorate the tree and put out all the gifts and then got ready for church.

We crammed into the beautiful small community church for the children’s mass at 3:00pm. For the play, the shepards were dressed as Triolers which Bob and I found hilarious. The play was in German but the gist of it was something about no room at the Inn.

After church we headed across the street to a nice local drinking establishment where Flori and Hans and several of the kids were waiting. We sat at the Stammtisch after we were assured that no one would expect to sit there until later. Stammtisch is a German tradition – it's a table that's always reserved for locals to hang out and drink. About three minutes later a group of 4 men came in wearing traditional outfits: green felt hats with braiding and ornaments on the left side, green blazers with buttons that look like log slices and sometimes green leaves embroidered on the lapel and then a sort of embroidered looking bib over a white shirt and black ties with silver pins in them. I will point out that they wear this with zero irony or self-consciousness whatsoever. They’d just come from a funeral (and apparently some other bars in between) and they said it was fine for us to sit there. The oldest guy spoke a dialect that I could understand nothing of but it was fun to sit there with them in their traditional clothes and drink after church on Christmas Eve. Two of the guys ordered beers but they said they were cold and it was bad for their stomachs to drink cold beer so the waiter brought them little copper buckets with hot water to warm their beers.

Next we went to the cemetery where a ceremony takes place to honor the dead family members. We put a candle on the family plot and tried to stay warm as by now it was dark and quite chilly. Ugg boots and wool socks are the best – no more cold feet. In the cemetery a brass band plays melancholz xmas songs and people have candles or sometimes even small xmas trees on the graves of their loved ones.

Next we went to Flori's folks where the kids were climbing the walls in anticipation of the Christkind. We had a fantastic supper of assorted salads and Spanish wine and Parma ham and various other goodies. Then we sat in the family room and read the storz of Christmas and the kids sang songs for us until FINALLY we heard the bell ring annoucing the Christkind had come and left the gifts. You have never seen children move so quickly. The xmas tree was lovelz with real candles and the kids went nuts over their gifts.

And that was Xmas in Bavaria.

holy crap! I just typed a whole second half of my story and blogger ate it. No repeat at this point. Maybe I'll try again later. crap!!!!

Good gollz miss mollz -- what a funkz browser. It sazs Internet Explorer but it doesn't look like the Exploder I'm used to. El crapo. This is going to take forever because of the goofz German kezboard and the fact that I'm enjozing a refreshing adult beverage -- in the handz tankard size. For those of You new to the German kezboard -- thez swapped a bunch of kezs around -- most significantlz the z and the y -- please figure it out on your own as I am too lazy to fix them all.

Okay -- we are here in Garmisch Partenkirchen (all the symbol kezs are moved around -- that's the last URL I'm typing.) It is now Xmas Daz around 16 o'clock the computer says which is about 4pm. Bob, Flori and the kids left around noon for some skiing. Lisa and I went on a hike through the Partnachklamm Gorge and Luis hung out with his Grossmütter and watched a movie about Flipper. We've returned and Lisa is starting our xmas feast and I'm taking about 5 hours to type this message and the others are still skiing. Bob hasn't skied in about 12 years and I've cruelly rejected the idea as I said if I had to nurse him through a broken leg it would be the end of our marriage. But yesterdaz he went sledding and said he had to ski while he was here. I guess mentioning that it is a white xmas would be redundant at this point.

Let me back up -- we left Portland Mon afternoon around 5pm -- actuallz we were delazed because the flight crew was stuck in traffic. We flew direct Portland - Frankfurt which rocked 9 planets and a half. We arrived in Frankfurt to temperatures about 30 degrees below what we left. A light snow had fallen in Frankfurt and everzthing looked prettz. We had a 3 hour lazover in Frankfurt in what had to be the most boring terminal on the planet. Nothing. A guy on a flight from Detroit said that someone on his flight had been robbed of $5000 and he was suspected and arrested in Frankfurt and he missed his flight to Kiev. They found the real thief and let him go and then said hard cheese he missed his flight-- it wasn't their fault so he had to buy a new ticket to Munich and then on to Kiev. And he wasn't even burnt about the monez he was just so tired.

Frankfurt to Munich is like Portland to Seattle. We dozed and arrived in Munich at about 5pm. Lisa and Sophie met us at the airport and took us to the main train station to stow our bags and then we were off to Marienplatz and the Kristkindlmarkt. According to the travel book only the Christmas Market in Nürnberg is more famous. This is a big market place with tons of food and goodies like knitted sweaters and zillions of xmas ornaments and decorations. All I could think about was food as I had onlz eaten airport food for about 24 hours. Lisa had to be the buzzkiller and remind us about mad cow disease so we ordered some pork sausages which were fantabulous. When Lisa took Sophie to order some pomme frites -- we ordered another wurst and mad cow disease: here we come! I should mention that it was about zero degrees at this point and REI silk underwear which is perfect for Portland chilly 40 ° F days isn't crap for Munich 0°. Also I had non-wool socks on and my feet felt like ice bricks.

I've just gone in the house to refresh mz tankard and the skiers are home. Thez inform me that mz husband's legs remain intact and that he was a natural and that he's rented his skiis for 5 days. Hmmmm, sounds like the side trips are out.

okay -- this is the last blog before vacation. I'll blog from the road if it works out.

I've been trying to do about 10 things at once for the last few days. I still haven't packed but I've moved in the general direction of packing. I can throw it all together tomorrow in no time, I'm sure. It's all the last minute odds and ends like making sure the plants are watered and the coffee maker is unplugged that will drive us mad.

I bought a jug of cheap wine last week for making mulled wine. It sounded like a good idea and I didn't make a huge amount but it had a terrible effect on me. I woke up at midnight and couldn't get back to sleep, my stomach felt a teensy bit unhappy (I drank a half bottle of Reeds extra-ginger ale which worked wonders), I woke with a headache and it rotted my teeth somehow. For at least three days I felt like screaming when I brushed my teeth. I've been rinsing with the turbo-flouride stuff I bought from the dentist a couple of years ago when I was having sensitive teeth issues. Meanwhile, I lost my interest in mulled wine (at least my home made version) which is really quite a shame since I have this jug of wine sitting on the counter. Also the jug wine is screw cap and it took me about 15 minutes to get that f*#&ing thing off. I'm not sure the screw cap is the answer.

In other news we got our announcement from Comcast that our cable bill is going up -- like $100 a year. We're getting the everything package which was already expensive and now we're thinking of going back to a smaller package with HBO and then subscribing to netflix instead. I like the option of having everything but Bob is right, I hardly make use of it and the constant juggling of tapes is getting old. I suppose we're ready for TiVo, but I have other things I want to spend my money on first (new desk, new computer). I think cable is the biggest bunch of crooks -- next to the utilities and insurance companies. No shortage of crooks out there. Comcast has a feature where they send you messages and they used to hardly ever send messages. They must have send around a memo or have a new intern or something but we get a message at least once a day, sometimes more. And it's always for something extra to pay for as if $100 a month isn't enough.

Yes, I saw the Return of the King today. They had some major geek fans in the paper this morning (as opposed to me as a just short of major geek fan {I didn't wear a costume or line up at 5 am}) and they were saying after they've seen it -- then it's over. And I'm like: hell, then you can start seeing it again. I totally loved it. I have a few issues. (1) Legolas only had about 15 minutes of screentime in a 3 hr. plus movie -- what is wrong with that picture? and (2) I think it should have ended a few scenes earlier. Small beefs, I assure you. I will see it again and again.

Meanwhile, there is something at the office -- I hate to say I'm allergic, but that I react to. I'm not sure what it is, and it doesn't always set me off. I think it's something the cleaning people use and somehow I get it on my face and then for hours my nose runs and my eyes burn and water and it's pretty miserable. But I can't figure out the pattern. Today it's driving me nuts but the cleaning people haven't been in for almost 2 weeks. I've been home for several hours and still, my eyes are burning and I blow my nose about every 5 minutes.

Can I tell you how many times I've looked all around the house for my glasses and gone back to my desk and sat on them. How do they get on my chair in the first place?

String Cheese Incident
Last night Bob took me to see Cheese. He's been down with the killer flu since Thanksgiving and he's dealing with finals which aren't finished yet. Yesterday was one of the first decent days he's had and it was nice to hang out with my sweetheart and see him like a (relatively) normal person again.

I'd been sort-of dreading the show all day -- just because my sleeping has been hit or miss and I didn't feel up for the scene with all the marginally-bathed and comb-and-brush challenged people -- who I'm sure are very nice. I don't want to be prejudiced against people who are unkempt, I just need to psych up to hang out in a room filled with them. But hey, one refreshing adult beverage and by the time I hit the parking lot of the Convention Center I was prepared to groove with the hoopers.

We plowed through the crowd, busy walking their dogs in the underground parking garage before the show. One girl was walking around displaying some photos of the band at Red Rocks -- apparently for sale. All the people commented on how nice the pictures were. She had an earring in her cheek.

Inside, the party was on. Tons of people running around with bare feet -- saw some Hobbit feet -- only without the benefit of makeup. Bob said, "Look at all these baseball cap guys. I think I've traded with them." I noticed large groups of young girls in camisoles and batik skirts, all of them a half a head shorter than me. I'm not that tall. I pointed this out to Bob and he said, "Cheese is big with the gnome crowd."

We were in the beer garden when the band started so we chugged up and zoomed in, barely avoiding being brained by the rambunctious Cheese dancers who could actually be dangerous with their jumping and whirling arms. We passed the "I love forest fairies" booth (?) and stepped right up to the rail -- left side, just behind Kyle with a perfect view of Kang. If I sound like pro, it's only because of the company I keep. When it comes to Cheese, I'm basically just along for the ride. And if there was ever a guy in need of a Queer Eye makeover -- it's Kyle, geez, all the guys had that haircut when I was in the third grade.

I liked the first set a lot. It was more rockin' dance stuff. I can't remember any of their songs except "Little Hands" and "Rollover" and I don't think they played either of those. At one point I asked Bob: "Is this a Jethro Tull song?" and he didn't even get mad, he just said, "I don't think so." They'd start some noodling and then Bob would lean over and say "Brown Table" or "Beautiful Dirt" -- the songs all had names of things you would find camping. The second set went by a lot slower. They played lots of endless noodly farmer-in-the-dell crap. Bob was blissed out in the perfect hippie heaven and I leaned over and said, "These songs are boring." But it was late and I was tired and my buzz was long gone.

I sound like I'm whining but I truly had fun and am even entertaining the thought of taking another run at High Sierra. Really.

I have been sitting on a hardback of Donna Tartt's The Little Friend since last Christmas. There were so many books sitting on the pile before it and I wanted to wait until I had time to really get absorbed in it. I read the first half at Thanksgiving and finished it this weekend. How totally not worth the wait. It was fantastic writing -- I loved the characters and I was right there in Mississippi -- but I like a little more resolution with my 556 pages. Not sure what I'll read next.

I'm working on my holiday newsletter which means I go through my list of movies seen and books read and my books have plunged to an all time low. I was thinking of trying to read a bunch of books to bring up the numbers but I have less than a month, tons to do, and who's grading me anyway? Meanwhile, the NYT's special book section is sitting by my bed and I will no doubt add twice as many new books to the list.

Bob has the killer flu right now -- the one with the endless horking cough. He's in bad shape. He's been sleeping downstairs for almost a week. We're like roommates. I had something like this at the end of the summer and I'm desperate to avoid it.

When Bob and I go to Orleans we often leave at night and stay in Roseburg (roughly halfway). We recently tried a different place in Sutherlin that was a little bit cheaper. On the Thanksgiving trip we ran into the night clerk jerk -- apparently there was no mall with a security guard job so he had to make due tyrannizing the poor tired folks coming off the road at night. First he berated me for pushing on the inner door -- not realizing he had to buzz me in and was taking his sweet time. Then he scolded us for not filling in our phone number on the form where he highlighted the place for our name and signature but not the phone number. But he did it all good natured like he was kidding around instead of being an asshole. Then he gave us a room practically in the lobby and our next door neighbor had their TV on extra loud at midnight -- why stop at a motel if you aren't going to go to sleep? Not that the TV was the jerk's fault but also I left my bottled water on the counter -- how hard would it have been to (berate me) bring that to my attention or even bring it to our room, only about 20 feet from his desk. We'll rather pay $8 more and go back to Roseburg.

I spent this afternoon catching up on various reading piles and found an article in the NY Times about something that I've long suspected to be true. That big companies intentionally make small billing errors that people who have better things to do then navigate 10 layer phone trees and sit on hold for a half hour are willing to overlook or don't even notice. At the office we have a line of credit with our bank that has an annual fee. Every year they charge the fee to the line of credit the first day of the billing cycle and then bill us for the fee plus the interest. It's less than a dollar but I don't think the fee should be considered a credit advance. When I complained the bank reversed the interest and told me I could call every year and they'd take care of it. Why not just fix their computer system so it doesn't bill it that way?

David Pogue says, "Now, I'm not much on conspiracy theories. But in the weekly Circuits e-mail newsletter (nytimes.com/circuits) I floated a theory that [these billing errors] might be part of a pattern of passive-aggressive robbery perpetrated on the premise that a certain percentage of customers won't notice, or won't bother to protest." He said he got over 1,200 responses in 4 days.

Final topic, I was home all day today, avoiding the dismal weather and cranking away on my writing projects. We got 4 marketing calls and one kid at the door trying to sell the Columbian.

Yes, I'm still here. Happy Forking Thanksgiving. I ate tons of carbs and only about 3 bites of turkey. I'm leading the backlash. Our weekend was fantastic -- no drama (well, Grandma was a butt but we won't get into that) and lots of fun people and good food. I made gumbo and cornbread for Wednesday night dinner -- I think this was my best batch yet. Thursday I helped a little and for dinner we went to BG and Curt's new house. It's not done yet but it was done enough for a big group to enjoy dinner. There was way too much food, especially pies. Mom made a pumpkin cheesecake but had a water bath disaster so when word got out, everyone else baked back up stuff. Then Erin rescued the cheesecake by flipping it over, scraping off the crust and reapplying fresh crust in the form of a topping -- turned out excellent!

I'm suffering unreasonable panic about my holiday shopping. I'm already done with most of it since we brought the family gifts to Orleans this weekend. Bob and I aren't exchanging gifts since we're going on a trip and want to spend our money there. But I have a few odds and ends to pick up and I want to get it over with NOW. My aim is to not leave the house on the weekends in December -- or as much as realistic.

We went to Jax last night and for dessert tried the pomegranate mission fig gelato. Sounds crazy but it was delicious -- I'm still thinking about it.

Don't forget OPUS is back.

And if you're going to New York, plan your nightlife here.

Last night we went to probably the best party ever. It was Eva's 40th birthday and she and Rob threw a bash at this club in Gresham. Well, when I say a club, not like a night club more like a private club. And not like a country club -- it was this giant room like a log cabin with a huge dance floor and lots of tables and places to sit. They had awesome food and a great band -- they played stuff like "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Louie Louie" and EVERYBODY danced. It was wild. Dancing fools. We did the hokey-pokey. Crazy. Open bar -- I guess I should mention that. We had the best time. Rob and Eva have the best parties.

Meanwhile, tomorrow is my last writing class and although I had a very productive weekend, I'm not going to have my project ready to turn in tomorrow. I made a calendar with page goals to get me finished by next month before Xmas. Been working on xmas shopping and menu stuff. Tons of stuff going on.

This is a real story: US breadmakers hold crisis talks over impact of Atkins diet. I'm totally pro-carb if you're wondering.

Two things: one US v. Japan Taste Battle - hilarious. I think Bob brought home a bag of those guacamole chips -- there must be magic ingredients in those kinds of foods that make you want to eat them because no one would eat something like that naturally. When I worked at Jack-in-the-Box hundreds of years ago I swear there was a similar ingredient in the special sauce that went on the chicken sandwiches because one bite and I couldn't stop eating. Two Average Joe is the best thing on television right now.

I have to resist the urge to complain about how hard it is to get here and type a few things on a regular basis. It takes longer than you might think.

Last week we went to see Elf at the 99th Street Cinema. This theater has a hideously designed traffic pattern - obviously created by a person who wants to punish people in cars. The road that feeds out to the highway is shared with a Walmart plus gas station -- just getting into the place was nuts and there was a gigantic line with a ratio of three children per adult (except us) so I was thinking it was going to be a nightmare. Luckily I was wrong -- other than the minor distraction of glowing, phallic lollipops that the two girls next to me were eating -- the kids around us were perfect angels and the show was super sweet and funny. My expectations were only medium so it was a nice surprise. Will Farrell is fantastic. I recommend it.

Stormy weekend. We have a tree out front which I have identified as an ornamental cherry and it went from 60 to zero in terms of its leaves over the course of the day. Actually, it seems like most of the neighborhood trees lost all their leaves during that period.

On Sunday we went to see Master & Commander: Far Side of the World. I haven't read even one of the Patrick O'Brian books and I'd like to someday, but the reading pile is out of control and I don't see it making in anytime soon. The movie is great -- I'm ambivalent on Russell Crowe -- don't love him or hate him -- and I loved him in this show and it's super detailed and I am happy I don't ever have to be a sailor in the early 1800's because it looks awful.

I went and saw Revolutions on Friday and I'm with the crowd who thought it was pretty lame. I'm not a tough customer for those kinds of movies. I like to be entertained for 2 hours and see some cool stuff. And true, the cool stuff was REALLY cool but the lame stuff was REALLY lame and interfered with the few cool parts and almost all the dialogue was horrible -- it sounded like everyone was reading it off cards. Complete the trilogy but then go home and get ready for Return of the King. AND there was a trailer for Troy with Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom in Greek warrior outfits. Ladies, the line forms behind me.

Trilogy Tuesday - Does this mean I'm too late? (Actually, I don't think I could sit down for that long -- but I would sure like to try.)

I'm going to see Donna Tartt next week with Ronnda. I still haven't read The Little Friend. It's sitting right here. I started it one night when I had terrible insomnia but I realized it's not a book I want to read half assed so I saved it for when I can be more fully present with it. I read something about House of Sand and Fog which is coming out as a movie and has been sitting on my shelf forever -- that might be my next read.

I spent most of the weekend hunched over the computer or my notebook working on my writing project. I decided to rethink it which means I am tossing most of the 45 or so pages I have -- which is fine but I had hoped to finished before Xmas vacation and that's going to be a stretch now. I'm probably over-thinking the whole idea but ultimately I want to please myself and I need to understand what all is going on between the characters.

Bob and I are both getting tomorrow off. We're going to do our Xmas shopping and possibly see Mystic River.

Yesterday I finished this book Hannah loaned me: This Little Ziggy by Martin Newell which is about this guy who was in a glam band, The Mighty Plod, in England in the 70's. This guy was a rolling circus -- drugs and getting beat up and cops and unwise ideas with the energy to carry them out but he's completely likeable and I was rooting for him the whole time. At one point he describes this hippy princess he's started dating as "a nice person in a bombed-out Annie Hall way." Also at the end when he's trying to get his band up to the next level he says: "Being brilliant is simply not enough" and I think this is a good lesson for all life.

In the latest Entertainment Weekly (Keanu on cover) the DVD section has a listing for the Anna Nicole Show and I swear for a split-second I looked at it to see if they were actually charging money for it.

We did our grocery shopping at Fred Meyer in Hazel Dell last night and I picked the wrong check-out line. You know when you have a hunch you're picking the wrong line but you do it anyway? ALWAYS trust your gut.

There were only 2 checkers and it was the shorter line and quickly got even shorter as people bailed. Whoever was up when I got in the line had some sort of price check issue that took forever to be resolved and then the people in front of us had a price check issue to be resolved. They had 3 Halloween costumes and only 1 kid who, of course, melted down during all of this and started screaming. We had a cart-load which we'd already unloaded. If I'd known how long it would take I would have put everything back in the cart but there was always this hope that we were moments away from getting taken care of.

After about 10 minutes some people got in line behind us and I told them: "This is the slowest line on the planet. We've been here for days." They quickly abandoned us for another line. Another couple approached and when they saw the problem they felt bad we'd already unloaded our cart.

The price check finally came through after our fearless checker stood there wondering aloud if anyone was actually checking the price, and then this family with the 3 Halloween costumes had to have some sort of committee meeting about whether they wanted the costumes -- one was $13 and was like a peapod or something.

By this time I was irritated enough to look for management -- it's rare for me to be aggressive about poor service. The office was empty so I went to the U-Check because I knew the guy who was working that station and I asked about anyone supervising the checkout because the very nice lady at our register was completely out to lunch and we'd been waiting forever.

He gives me this look of horror and said, "Did you get in _____'s check out line? Oh no no no no no." Then he laughed. Then he apologized for laughing and recommended that I avoid her line in the future. He said many customers avoided her line. I did find this funny but why do they keep her on the register? Way back when I had that job at Target for 3 months they put the fear of God in you with their computer system that timed everything you did and printed out reports. Isn't there some basic standard of efficiency?

I wandered back where it was finally our turn -- well, first the people with the 3 Halloween costumes with no prices who had the family meeting about the peapod costume -- their check didn't go through. Fortunately, a manager type person took them aside to deal with this problem. Bob and I laughed all the way home.

Torani Syrup has Almond Roca flavor. I suggested we try it last week and let me tell you, it's fantastic. And I try to avoid sweet syrupy things but it's a miracle in hot drinks.

I did not pick the pumpkins yet. I just tried to find a picture of a Cinderella pumpkin to link to with no luck. Lots of talking about them, no one can add a picture? And people: websites don't need musical accompaniment. Ever. Back to the pumpkin thing -- I'm not sure but I think they will get more red -- but I'm not sure at what point it's too late to bring them in. Freezing? I'm going to leave it another week and see what happens.

I read in the Oregonian that there is a 9 foot sturgeon in the Columbia that you can see at Bonneville Dam. That might be worth the drive.

It was my turn to go at class last night. I lost my way on this latest writing project and I've been struggling to get it together. Last Thu night I dreamed that I only had one page to bring to class. I ended up scrapping most of the 25 pages I brought the first time -- I only salvaged about 4 pages so I had a lot of work to do this weekend. My strategy was to start typing and stop trying to figure it all out. There were some parts that were seriously undeveloped -- but I got a good response and lots of great feedback and I've got an idea of how to make it better.

Meanwhile, I'm longing for a weekend where I'm not glued to the computer working on this stuff. I have all kinds of chores and projects that are half done or neglected. I have a pair of pants I bought months ago that need hemming. I have movies to see, books to read. I need to buy a wedding gift.

The warm weather is strange -- it feels wrong. I wore a skirt with open-toed shoes yesterday. It's probably the last time until May.

World Cup is over. I can get back to my normal routine again. I had terrible luck with taping over the weekend. My US / Canada game cable coughed during the US's second goal so I missed that and then my Germany / Sweden game cut off about 2 minutes before the game winning goal and it sounds like it was controversial so I'm especially sorry I missed it. I enjoyed all the games I saw and it was great to get to see the US Women play although it would have been nicer to see them win. I've never cried about sports before but I came awfully close when they lost to Germany.

Last weekend I saw Matchstick Men and the weekend before I saw Lost in Translation. Both movies feature a major moment with the song: More Than This. Go get your Roxy Music.

I had the busiest week on record last week and I'm still too tired to talk about it. I got a good nights sleep last night so I am feeling halfway human again but the other half still feels completely insane.

Here's some hints for faking indy rock cred and it's entertaining except for the stupid popup ads. How can the person who created those sleep at night?

Blogging always takes more time than it should but I want to get this stuff up here before I forget.

First is The Puffies, annual awards to overblown book blurbs. Entertaining and a little disturbing.

Then there's an article by Steve Almond on the Harold Bloom dumbing of American readers editorial in response to Stephen King winning a National Book award. The key point he (Almond) brings up which I like is:

"Indeed, Bloom's rage seems entirely misplaced to me. Rather than attacking writers, or those who bestow accolades onto them, he should be excoriating the true opponents of creative enlightenment. A short list would include: the deification of consumerism, the decline in funding for public education, the economic inequality that has become the hallmark of late–model capitalism. This culture discourages creativity, and deep thought, because such actions are not profitable. The horrible fact that people turn to Stephen King rather than Saul Bellow is, in other words, symptomalogy. "

While I was checking out the Mobylives website I found another good column on discount chains and bookselling. Key quote:

"What that means is the major discounting efforts of these non–bookstore chains are not stimulating and growing the [book buying] market but simply shifting consumer dollars away from bookstores and other potential book sales. Consumers buying a mega–seller at a Walmart will not be discovering a book of promise, as such chains do not invest in authors and non–bestselling books. Bookstores do, and we are losing an opportunity to handsell other good books to these consumers who do not regularly visit and browse in a bookstore."

Women's World Cup
I've been trying to ignore the World Cup and focus on my writing class but last night we had tickets to the games at PGE park and I am hooked for the rest of the tournament. The first game was Ghana and Australia and I don't know what was going on but the stretcher came out about 10 times. Ghana played a pretty loose game but fun to watch and they've been training in Portland so they had a sort-of home crowd love fest going on and it was fun to see them win. I would have liked to see Australia do a little better -- at one point I thought it was their strategy to pass the ball to the other team. There was a huge group of Ghana fans with drums and when the them scored they went nuts -- it was hard not to cheer for the team.

The second game was Russia v. China came out with completely opposite warm up styles. China had synchronized warm up while Russia was all over the place. The game was a completely different level of playing compared to the first game. Great game. And a huge group of Chinese there cheering their team on. We had a group behind us going nuts, singing and waving flags. They also had some kids with screechy whistles and if it didn't have the potential for starting an international incident I would have ripped those things out of those cute little kids' hands.

Last comment -- is there some cosmic rule that Bob and I at these big crowd events must always be seated adjacent to the ADD people? Why would you buy tickets for a pair of soccer games if you weren't going to sit in your seat and enjoy the game? This guy had his feet ON MY CHAIR when we went in to sit down -- thanks buddy, I have to put my ass there now.

Very insanely busy week. I have class tonight, Arts & Lectures tomorrow night, U.S. Women play on Weds, PGE park games (Germany, Canada, Russia and China) on Thurs, trying to catch up for writing class Fri and Sat and then PGE park semi-final games on Sunday. Plus Alias started last night and Angel starts on Weds. night.

I've been doing tons of online research lately related to my new writing project and in addition to finding a lot of great information I'm also finding a lot to be annoyed about. What is this thing where the search engine links you to another search engine which is just a big fat commercial -- sussing out what you want to *buy* based on your query? Does everything have to be about buying something? And I end up deleting about 50 cookies after each session -- and popup ads are stupid and about.com is generally good information but gets skipped due to egregious popup ads.

Big Brother finally finished. It ended up with the two loathsome people in the finals but I had to see how it ended. Glad it's over. Alias starts Sunday and I watched the first Brotherhood of Poland N.H. -- not sure if I'll stick with it. Too many things to remember to tape.

Some random URLs:

Hilarious Manly Tips for Bachelor Living

Scary Bad plastic surgery pictures.

Pandacam -- live video of the giant pandas.

And here's Chuck Palahniuk because he's local and he's been everywhere lately.

Life isn't THAT hectic but I'm feeling unorganized (or would that be disorganized?) and spun out. I'm tired too and I got a good night's sleep. I don't know what the story is but I ate a lot of sugar and fatty crap yesterday so perhaps that's a contributing factor.

Over the weekend I ordered this book I was looking for that I couldn't get at the library and I found it super cheap - only $5. I didn't want to do a whole book order for just $5 so I browsed their other books to see if there was anything remotely interesting and decided to buy a collection of Ring Lardner stories and a collection of Jack London stories. I remember being totally into Jack London as a kid and I haven't read him since so I'm curious to revisit his writings. But back to the book order, this brought it up to a whopping $10. I put the order in and got a confirmation that the book I actually wanted was already sold but they were sending the $5 of books I tacked on just trying to make the order worthwhile. They did not respond to my request to cancel.

I saw the calendar yesterday and discovered it was the equinox. I knew summer was over but I didn't realize it was official. Looks like the rest of the week will be great weather so I have high hopes for my tomato patch. I might get enough for a pasta sauce after all.

Another thing -- my three month vacation from doing laundry is over. Bob is back in school. I did four loads this weekend and I'd like to know how ALL of his clothes manages to come out inside out.

I have a zillion scrawled notes here for blogging. I spent the entire weekend working on writing. I'm starting Cynthia's class again tomorrow and I volunteered to go at the first class. I still hadn't finished my last project -- I just put it in the mail last week. I knew I could do it and I've been working on notes and mini-outlines for a couple of weeks. I finalized my outline yesterday morning and today I fixed up the first 13 pages I wrote last weekend and added another 12. A productive day. It seems 100x easier this time and I'm not sure if it's an easier idea or I have more practice. Probably a combination of both. My first act is a little thin but I like having room to add more later.

I am a week behind on my New York Times magazine. I just read last week's and there's a recipe for grilled chocolate sandwiches. It sounded so unnecessary -- I saved it. We'll be trying that this winter.

Bob got Krakatoa: The Day the Earth Exploded. by Simon Winchester unabridged on tape from the library and I kind of groaned because I didn't know how we'd get through it. I read the review of the book in the NYT and the review scared the crap out of me -- I wanted to read the book. We listened to half of the tapes on the way home from Orleans. Over Labor Day we unexpectedly went to the coast for a wedding so we listened to most of the rest and I finished the last couple of tapes last week. It's an amazing, terrifying story and well written. Winchester is coming to Portland this Fall and I don't want to miss him.

My last topic is on clothing. I think I say this about every 6 months but I hate everything in my closet. I also hate buying clothes. I'd rather do other things with my money. If I have 4 outfits I have enough for each day of my work week and I can wear any junky outfit at home on the weekends and I do. And of the few clothes I buy, there are a few things that I never wear. Does everyone do this? Buy things they never wear? It's so embarassing.

You can't reheat refried beans in the microwave. It doesn't work. I try all kinds of tricks like spreading them really thin on the tortilla -- but by the time you get them hot enough through and through (you know, not cold in the middle) the tortilla is tough and chewy in the parts where it's not hard and crispy. I've also tried heating them in the plastic container I've stored them in (since they are leftovers) and by the time you get them hot enough the plastic container become scarily soft and bendy and is no doubt leaching carcinogenic plastic into your food. Also the beans pop and spray making crusty bits all over the inside that smell like the food center at a mini-mart and are really gross. Generally, I will just go ahead and use a pan on the stovetop but it's so tempting to keep it easy -- I think maybe this time the microwave won't be so bad.

On Wednesday night Bob went to a club to see some funkateer music guy, Bernie. He got home after 2am so he went and slept downstairs. (It's also about 10 degrees cooler down there so it's a much better choice.) Yesterday morning I went down to say "bye" before I left for work and he's on the bed in this crossways, crunched up position because the bed is covered with cds. I started laughing and said, "sleeping with your cds?" and he was still mostly asleep and said, "yah." I think we're both going to sleep down there tonight since it's going to be yet another hot one and Bob said he would clear the cds off the bed.

While I was sick I watched Searching for Debra Winger a documentary by Rosanna Arquette. We just watched our tape of Ebert & Roeper from the weekend and Roeper was reminding viewers that the documentary was going to be shown one more time.

The reason I bring this up is because Roeper's take on the film was that it was about how Hollywood treats actresses over 40. And sure that was part of it. But what I thought it was about was how difficult it is for women to balance their creative and/or professional life with their domestic life. Interesting because this is not generally an issue for men. And no one had a solution -- the answer was: it's hard. Sure, women can have it all but at the sacrifice of something. A lot of the women with kids said they did only one film a year. Some of the older women said they felt guilty about not doing more for their kids because they were working. I suppose a third option would be to never sleep and spread yourself too thin and drag ass through your life.

I don't have to worry about the mother piece -- but I struggle with the balancing act myself. I constantly feel like I have to negotiate for extended time to focus on my writing projects. Like I'm fighting to assert that I need this time to get focused and concentrate on my work and I want to skip doing things I'd normally do. And I feel like often, when it comes time for someone to put down what he or she is doing and take care of shopping, or meals or some other chore, that that person is me.

It's not like Bob is blind to all this or doesn't care. He's supportive. But I just wish it didn't feel like a struggle sometimes.

When we were in Orleans, I finished Life of Pi which is a fantastic book by Yann Martel. I liked it so much while I was reading it I said, "You can't even believe this is a book." There is a lot of heavy stuff going on that I didn't get and I'm going to have to read it again. I looked online to see if there was anything like this extensive analysis of Mulholland Drive (movie) but no luck.

The bummer about this bug I have is its endless lingering. I'm coughing and blowing my nose and not feeling all that much better than when I got home on Tuesday afternoon. I'm not hungry -- all I've eaten is fruit and chicken broth with vegetables. And I'm having a terrible time sleeping. I'm tired but I don't fall asleep. Fistfuls of homeopathic sleep-aids don't help. Last night I kept getting up to read but as soon as I read a page or two my eyes would begin to slide shut so I'd put the light out and then lay there. Same thing happens when I try to nap. I'm feeling pretty run down. So much for a weekend of yardwork and errands.

Tonight we're going to see Nickelcreek. I'm going to guzzle a power drink and hope for the best. I figure since it's them -- at least it won't go on until some unspeakable hour.

I was going to try to do a "detailed" blog entry with links but right now my connection is unbearably glacial and the first couple of sites I tried had endless popup ads so forget it.

We got back from Orleans, CA on Tuesday and I returned with a lovely flu type thing. I heard it's going around the whole crew down there. At least I got to suffer at home with my own TV and great big bed.

Actually, we went to Eureka on Monday and visted Grandma which ended up being totally depressing. She was just lucid enough to be stuck in the loop about how she wanted to go home, she wanted to go home, she wanted to go home. When we got ready to leave I leaned down to give her a hug and she totally stiffened up and gave me the most heart-breaking look and told me she was coming home with me. (a) we weren't taking her but also (b) we weren't going to Orleans, we were going to Gold Beach. And when I told her that she slumped back into her wheelchair and mumbled good-bye. I cried in the parking lot.

Bob and I had planned to take Grandma to lunch but we got there late and she'd already had lunch so instead of taking her anyways so we could eat which would have been the smart thing to do, we visited with her for a couple of hours and thought we'd eat after. But then we didn't want to eat too much because we were going out to a nice dinner for our anniversary (7 years) so we ate granola bars and peanuts in the car. The drive from Eureka to Gold Beach was beautiful but took a bit longer than I expected. We checked into our hotel and dashed to the restaurant we'd picked: The Nor'Wester and there was a wait. Then our appetizer fell through the cracks so by the time we got something to eat we were not the friendliest of people.

The food was fantastic -- I can't more strongly recommend the Dungeness and Brie appetizer. The next day was Tuesday, going back home day, and I woke up with a sore throat and by the time we hit Eugene my head hurt and my eyes hurt and I ached and moaned and groaned all the way home. And I have been feeling poorly since then. I stayed home from work Weds and today -- and I'm feeling a little better except I cough a lot and I have little appetite and I can't sleep so I'm very tired.

Is there an easy way to remove ivy? We have ivy on one half of the yard and every summer at some point I decide to tear it out and I do about an hour of work and choke on dirt and scratch my arms up and then poop out. There is still one patch that I cleared out last year (and never planted anything there) and now there's another patch I worked on yesterday. But it was totally exhausting. I want to get all the ivy out and bring in some better dirt and bark dust and put some pretty but easy to deal with plants in there. At this point the ivy has no trouble growing faster than I can clear.

Yesterday a couple of big orange trucks came and hacked at the trees on the street behind us. They did a crappy job. When we look out the kitchen window we can see this row of beautiful trees except the one on the end has been brutally hacked so that it looks like a mistake. Poor tree. At first I thought they were doing it because of the power lines. But there are no power lines. It looks like they were doing it to be mean.

I'm still addicted to Big Brother. I keep saying I'm not going to watch again but then I can't wait for it to air again. There are still at least 4 more weeks.

We have new neighbors and other than one of the cars out front occaisionally moving, I have seen zero sign of them. They keep the windows closed and the shades drawn and I've seen the woman out watering once but otherwise they are like the mystery people. The only reason I know there are two people is because there are two cars and once before they got the shades, I saw them take turns working on the computer in what used to be Trevor's room. They took down the sun/moon curtains, too.

Some dog has been using our front lawn as a regular turd drop. What are people thinking? Bob says sometimes dogs are just running around and it's not the owner's fault where it turds. Yeah right.

Where are the grammar police when you need them? I'm talking about the endless incorrect use of the reflexive. I don't want to be one of those people with bizarre grammar fetishes but now it's too late and this one is bugging me. For example: memos from clients that say: Bob and myself attended a meeting last week. Or on Big Brother where every week in the diary room every houseguest says something like: Robert, Justin and myself did blah blah blah. Here is a very nice grammar guide to help you out. It says, "whenever there is a reflexive pronoun in a sentence there must be a person to whom that pronoun can 'reflect.'" So you could say "Robert, Justin and I won the HOH." Or you could say, "The POV was given to Robert, Justin and me." Or you could say "I hurt myself during the competition." The houseguests have nothing else to do in there -- a grammar lesson could be quite informative.

Insomnia again. Three nights in a row but it's been coming and going for several weeks now. On Saturday I could not sleep to save my life. I did a lot of reading -- there are few unread periodicals in this house. Time for the books now.

I saw today I finally have a dahlia from the new batch I bought. It's a generic pink but a nice treat from the zillions of red and yellow ones.

Here's an article about trolling on the web. I'm the only person I know of who is a regular usenet reader although I never post. The 2 or 3 times I've posted on a public bulletin board I've gotten bales of weird email so I don't think it's worth it. But back to the trolls I can't understand why people continue to argue with them. It's so stupid. Is it that important to be right? Is it that important to defend your opinion? It's just an opinion. Think about it -- it doesn't really mean anything?

I'm completely in love with Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Here's a good, um, guide to the Fab 5.

So this morning on the way to work, when I was stopped at the light at Fourth Plain, I noticed the car in front of me making a hand signal (?) out the window and then again at the rear view mirror. I had no idea what he was up to (broken down white acura something, disheveled, unshaven 40-ish guy) and figured it had nothing to do with me. When the light changed he crossed the intersection and then pulled into the 5th rate tire store so I assumed he was gesturing to someone there. Moments later I was stopped at a light on Mill Plain and a car pulls up next to me and honks and I look over and there is acura guy and he says something that I can't hear and sort of shakes his head and then drives on. What was that all about?

The BustBlog
For the last several months I've been thinking about dropping my Bust subscription but I find a lot of cool stuff there that I don't see anywhere else so I guess I'm hanging on for another year. This month I learned about Hairpolice Salon for fabulous rock star hair. Another stylist at Hairpisalon gave advice on bangs. I'm sure mine are all wrong and very seventh grade. PanhandleGirl has soaps and body scrubs. This must be a super easy do-it-at-home start up meaning making soaps and stuff because every farmers market has at least 4 stalls with handmade soaps and Bust seems to tout one in every issue. I'm all for smelling good but how much soap does a girl need?

Then there's Kiki's Kitsch Corner -- in case you're looking for a styling toilet seat. Guava is a fun travel magazine for women. And now that I'm probably too old to ever get to go to another bachelorette party, here is the perfect source of fun party favors. There also is a hilarious review (scroll down to Glow Job) of this glow in the dark massage lotion that looks like a great gift idea.

Now I'm running late.

I feel like I'm always rushing around. I know some things could be cut out but I'm not cutting them out.

We went to Seattle last Tues to see the Man U v. Celtic soccer game with Kenman, Hannah and Andy. Super fun time. We took the train and I got a clue what we were getting into when they announced at 9:05a that the lounge car was open and a herd of jock-types in shorts and soccer themed t-shirts headed in that direction. We saw soccer people all over downtown Seattle. I think the game would have gotten a lot nuttier if Celtic had managed to get on the board. We had a whole section next to us in green and white striped t-shirts and drums and large quantities of high priced beer. We had a great time.

I used my time on the train to make progress on Empire Falls which I finally finished -- fantastic book. I immediately jumped into Ian McEwan Atonement which was also fantastic. I had trouble transitioning into McEwan though. Both writers have such strong distinct voices that I guess I needed some sort of palate cleanser before diving into the second book. Finished it this morning. Next is a book Sinead let me borrow and I still have Life of Pi to look forward to.

I am SO OVER Seabiscuit already. Enough Seabiscuit. Please, I'm begging you.

Another thing I've noticed a lot lately is the word: peripatetic. It seems like it should be about ulcers or digestive problems but Webster says: pedestrian, itinerant. It sounds wrong.

I haven't mentioned how fabulous The Whale Rider is -- or if I have, I forgot. But please go see it. And bring at least 3 boxes of tissues. I also saw Pirates of the Caribbean which for a movie based on a theme park ride -- is pretty damn good. But then you've got Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and pirates. It would be a crime if it was messed up. One story problem though: a lot of energy spent fighting the undead. Why would you fight to kill pirates who can't die?

Last night during the movie I had an idea. You know those airports where they have TVs everywhere? You can't escape the drone of the TV and it plays this CNN Airport news recycled endlessly -- I think it was in MINN where I had a 4 1/2 hour layover after an international flight -- we finally found a cluster of chairs in a corner to get away from the noise. Anyway, I think airport TVs should show Winged Migration on an endless loop. It would take years to get sick of it and it would add peace and beauty to an otherwise chaotic place. We could get TVs at the DMV and bank, too. It would be great.

We went to see Winged Migration tonight. Amazing. I can't begin to describe how amazing it is. Even if you think you could never sit and watch birds for 90 minutes, go anyway. You can.

On the way home Bob told me he cut an article out about an 8 1/2 hour movie called La Commune (Paris 1871) about this historical event (I don't know enough about it to explain properly). I said I didn't want to see anything for 8 1/2 hours unless it had Jedi or elves in it. (The article actually says it's 5 1/2 hours.)

Bob came back from High Sierra and got sick. On Friday we took him to the doctor and he had a 103.5 fever -- not a happy person. The doctor who saw him was a complete Doogie Howser -- he stuck his head in the door and then had to go back out to answer a question and I looked at Bob and went "Doogie" and we totally laughed. He was very through and competent, but I continue to wonder what happened to all the old doctors? When we were kids all the doctors were old and grey. Where are these doctors now? Yeah, I realize those actual doctors are long retired but in the meantime, shouldn't there be new old doctors to fill their places? But back to Bob's illness: he had to get a shot and he's not at 100% yet but he's feeling a lot better.

And my face rash update is that it is looking a ton better.

Last Friday I left for the spa at 2:30pm -- so the hottest part of the day and I passed one of my neighbors, looking mighty unhealthy I might add, standing outside watering his completely brown lawn. What was he thinking?

Cinderella pumpkin update -- last year I saved the seeds from my cinderella pumpkin and it ended up that most of them got moldy and I had to toss them but I managed to save a few and a week ago I took 5 out for planting. I think I should have started this project a couple of months ago but oh well, we'll see how I do. Meanwhile, I soaked the 5 seeds in a wet papertowel for a couple of days and then put them into a small container on the window sill thinking out of 5 I might get 1 to sprout. Well, all 5 sprouted and it happened fast -- one morning I looking in the container and saw the edge of 5 green stems and that evening I could see leaves in the dirt and one day I could practically watch the leaves emerge from the dirt. Erin said to replant them outside right away and she was right. I planted them yesterday and they already had a lot of roots all tangled together.

I went and saw The Whale Rider yesterday and I'd advise you to run, not walk to the nearest theater. Get in the car and drive a ways if you have to -- it's a fantastic movie.

My horrible face rash has not improved so I called Georgia and gratefully she recommended some products which I was HAPPY to buy and for the first time in days I feel actual relief. My face still looks like hell but at least it feels better. I'm going in for a regular appointment on Friday so hopefully she can do something with this.

So this guy just woke up after 19 years in a coma. He's the same age as me. I can't imagine missing all the years since I graduated from H.S. What a trauma. I mean, great, he woke up, but culture shock-o-rama.

Here, waste some time at work.

Oh -- and guilty pleasure: Big Brother 4. I'm generally a sporadic reality TV viewer -- but when I heard the twist -- introducing "ex's" into the house, I at least had to watch the first episode and I'm hooked for now ...

I have no idea why it's so hard to get here on a daily basis. I think about it.

I don't know what it is -- my current theory is that it's a violent reaction between some of my products but yet again I have a giant rash/pizza face all over my face. This time it seemed to be triggered by a sunscreen and some suntime -- but I used this sunscreen before without incident. My face looks really hideous -- we're talking nose, cheeks, chin and forehead (so the whole thing). It was just clearing up from the last time. Last time I thought it was from drinking herbal tea and thinking bad thoughts (seriously.) I don't know but it's kind of depressing feeling so supremely hag-like.

Fantastic relaxing weekend. I cleaned the shop, top to bottom, bought some shelving, defrosted the freezer, swept, organized, tossed. It's a whole new world out there. Bob claims the large stack of dead electronics is going away which will help even more. I also made major headway cleaning up the yard and planted a bunch of new stuff. The tomatoes, esp. the Roma are looking good.

I'm reading Empire Falls by Richard Russo and loving it. Plus I'm mostly caught up on the magazines and newspapers - oh, except that new Entertainment Weekly that came on Saturday -- I actually don't even know where it is right now.

Bob will be back tomorrow. I baked cookies and stocked the fridge with some of his favorite stuff and bought some flowers. Looking forward to having him hanging around here fulltime again. Rock on High Sierra!

Tonight Margaret taught our yoga class and again she enviously admired my Fred Flintstone feet. Lucky me.

How's your google paranoia lately? The backlash has begun.

So, you know what ads AdSense thinks would be good for my website? : John Naber: Olympian, Available for your meetings!; Quiet Gypsum Wallboard; Cats in Your Yard/Garden; Sound Blocking Materials; Truth About Your Neighbor Find out with [name omitted] software.

pamrentz.com apparently has issues with sound/quiet. I remember writing about cats in the garden at some point. But Jim Naber?

June theme was courtesy. I don't think I ever posted that and now school is out. I tried to think of something zippy to say but I'm drawing a big fat blank. I'm going to be offline for awhile so here are some other URLs to keep you busy:
Blog of Psychology
Remaindered Links
Black Table.

Enjoy!

Happy Summer Solstice. We did more today than we normally do in a month. This morning we met Kelly, Dan, Maggie and Quinn for breakfast at Old Wives Tales -- I had almond crepes with marionberry compote -- excellent but filling. We tried to organize a get together with the other XO people in town but didn't work out so it was just the 6 of us and worked out perfect. From there we went to Hawthorn Powell's and looked at books and I didn't find anything I couldn't live without -- unbelievable. Then we went and checked out Matt's new place off of 39th. He bought this giant funky house and he only moved in a couple weeks ago and he's already looking pretty settled. He and Bob are getting their plan ready for their festival run. Then we went to the Delta Park Pow Wow which was fantastic except rainy and chill. We watched the dancers for a couple hours and I won $26 in 50-50. Bob bought an Indian taco and a buffalo burger and I spent my winnings at the vendors and got a really cool pair of beaded earrings. Great day. Now we're curling up on the couch with a fire in the fireplace and some stuff to read.

Yesterday I did my summer clothes shopping in about 15 minutes at The Rack. I found 2 pairs of generic shorts and one pair that's a sort of peach color that normally I would never wear. I also got a shirt with a fairy tale theme and all kinds of sequins on it. I got 6 things for $75 so I thought I did pretty good.

This morning I got up early and did a 3 hr. yoga workshop with Bob Smith and Ki McGraw which was excellent and just what I needed. There was an accident on the freeway this morning and it took me about 25 minutes to just get on the freeway -- during that time I almost changed my mind and went home so I'm glad I stuck it out.

We just got back from seeing The Hulk. Boy, I don't know what to tell you. This is an odd one. The film-making is great and I liked the special effects -- esp. that stuff in San Francisco. But, I don't know. It's worth checking out just keep an open mind.

Here, learn about Cross Border Fraud. You know telemarketing scams and stuff like that. Some lady called the office and told me about all these outrageous fees I'm paying on my phone bill and I said, "How do you know?" and she said it was her job to know and did I want to hear about it or was she wasting her time. Can you guess what I told her?

I forgot to mention earlier that we finally saw The Man Who Wasn't There which is strange even by Coen brothers standards. It's -- well -- I'm trying to figure out how to sum it up in a few words and can't quite come up with it. It's filmed in black and white and looks amazing and the performances are excellent but the story is a big downer with this guy making one mistake that takes down everybody and along with that a UFO micro-subplot. I asked Bob "what are they trying to say?" and he said we'd probably never know.

A lot of activity around here lately. Bob's last day of school was on Friday and he had graduation so it was an 8am to 10pm day. I ran errands and did some yardwork. I got a couple more plants for the yard. I'd like to buy more but I need to figure out what I need first. I hate to just buy a bunch of stuff and have it sitting here wilting on the porch. Also I went to David's last yoga class. I took two months off from class in the Spring and when I came back there were new teachers and other teachers gone and a new system with class cards and news that David was leaving. I didn't go to his class very often and I should have because I need that kick in the butt to push myself to do the harder stuff. My home practice is regular but lazy. So I had a good practice on Friday which I can still feel and I did a good practice myself the past two days plus several long walks. I will fit into my summer clothes before August if I can keep this up.

On Saturday our next door neighbors moved and about 15 minutes later a FOR RENT sign went up. This doesn't have to mean the clanging chimes of doom but we talked to the next door neighbor on the other side and she wasn't pleased. Also on Saturday I had the writers group over and baked scones.

My email went crap! yesterday -- sorry to everyone who got rejected as spam -- as near as I can tell, my ISP thinks that my domain host is a spammer. The way I'm set up is you send me email at my domain and my domain forwards the mail to my ISP address and I get all my mail in one place. So when my ISP thinks my domain is spam -- it rejects all the mail. Large pain in the butt, eh? So for now I have the forwarding disabled -- so you should be able to use the pamrentz.com address. And I've disabled spamcop so I can get all the viagra and super low mortgage rate ads and hopefully I can get this thing cleared up.

We went to see Sherman Alexie last night, reading from his new book: Ten Little Indians. He read for almost an hour. The story was called something like "Looking for a Witness" and the highpoints were fantastic, some parts hilarious, some challenging -- fiction about 9/11. But it dragged in some parts and lost me. He did a long Q&A too. I've seen him read at least 5 times and judging by last night he's softened around the edges -- and I mean that in the best possible way.

It's supposed to be a scorcher today so I've got to dig the hoses out. I have been meaning to take care of that for days.

Here are some fun Matrix Essays for you. This is geek stuff. People who dissect every arcane detail for multiple meanings. I think the alleged intelligence of this movie has been wildly inflated but hey, great car chase.

Check out these excellent cat outfits -- seriously. The gentleman's package was not what I expected. ahem.

The traffic going home tonight was hideous. What was going on? It was all bungled up getting from Riverplace out to Front Ave. So I went to take the back way which for me means I use Moody to go back to Macadam and get on I-5 only I guess there is some "big pipe" project (sounds like a porno movie) going on to diminish the raw sewage that goes into the river when it rains a lot so Moody is all torn up and there's a detour and it took me forever to figure that out and then the freeway was about 10 miles an hour the whole way home. I got home at 7:15 PM and blew off doing the grocery shopping. I can't wait to see how long it takes me when the new outdoor concert stadium in Clark County gets going -- stay tuned here for endless griping.

I haven't had the energy to keep up with this lately. I went to Ocean Shores on Monday for some training for work. I go to this training almost every year and I always complain about it but I had a fantastic time this year. I rolled by the Resort about 7pm on Monday and I was starved so I decided to go into town and see if I could find something to eat. Not much there. McDonalds. I couldn't do it and I don't like to go to sit down restaurants by myself. On my way out I noticed the movie theater and XMen was starting at 7:05 pm. Perfect. I saw the movie instead and was completely entertained. How can Hugh Jackman be such a hunk in the XMen movies and then in Kate & Leopold he was such a girly man? It's like two different people.

Check out these pictures of Earth from Mars

There was a high speed chase on our street Wednesday night. It was about 10:30 and we were both a little more than half asleep. I heard the sirens getting closer and closer and next thing you know we hear "crash, crash, boom" and the police car stopped on our street with the lights flashing and left the siren screaming for at least 10 minutes which added a David Lynch quality to the whole event. We looked out the window but couldn't see anything so we went outside and stood around with our neighbors not really sure what we were looking at. Someone said the guy was running red lights and the cops were chasing him. A few more patrol cars showed up -- we had state patrol, police and sheriff. The next morning we could see where he made a right onto our street, went wide and smashed a Hyundai so that the wheel was bent in and then he lost control, swerved all the way to the other side of the street and took the bumper off a heavy duty commercial truck and then back across the street again, took out a huge shrub and portion of white picket fence before stopping on the lawn of the house three down from us. Very exciting evening.

Also on Weds I saw Bend it Like Beckham which is fantastic: run, don't walk. I'm going to buy it the moment it's available on DVD. It's hilarious and sweet and pays off huge. It made me think I could play soccer - you know, if I could just get into shape which is hilarious since I was *never* good at sports especially team sports. I'm not competitive that way.

Friday I saw Matrix Reloaded and was completely entertained. I didn't read any reviews beforehand and now I'm seeing a lot of lukewarm responses. Someone said it was a brilliant mediocre movie. I guess I can see that. The talky parts did seem to serve mainly as a rest between cool action sequences and the love story is the weakest part of the whole thing and the flimsy thread holding the thing together. But who cares? I loved it.

Also Friday we saw Bill Bryson at Powell's. He drew a GIGANTIC crowd. We were about 45 minutes early and the room was already 3/4's full. He was hilarious and sounded exactly like his books (and books on tape). If you've never heard of him he writes travel stories and he's both interesting and funny.

Last night we went to see Freeman Dyson lecture on technology and social justice. He talked about how we can use technology to narrow the gap between rich and poor and illustrated his point by telling various stories. The best story was about Sabriye Tenberken, a German woman who is blind. Using a computer, she "translated" Tibeten texts into braille to use for her studies and ended up founding a series of schools for blind children in Tibet. I enjoyed the lecture more than I thought I would although the question and answer portion of the program was excruciating. It was like people asked questions that showed off how smart they were. There were also a number of people that wanted to debate (Dr. Dyson is more open minded about genetically altered foods than your average Oregonian) and Dr. Dyson didn't come prepared to argue as much as just talk about his ideas.

When I was going through airport security on the way out, I didn't take my shoes off. I didn't think they would set off the beep. So of course I beeped. I had to go to the special area where they take your shoes and then you sit down and they wand your legs and then you have to stand on a thing and put a foot on each "peanut" and hold your arms out while they wand you. I had zero metal on me except my zipper and my earrings. The lady was wanding me and asking me if I had anything in my pockets. "I don't have any pockets," I told her. On the way home I did not want to go through that again so I took my shoes off and sweater and again, I beeped. Same routine with the wand and the peanuts. The wand only beeped around my bra -- I think the wonderbra sets off security. Whatever "the wonder" is must have metal in it.

Tonight Woodward dropped off Tyler. Bob and I are dogsitting this weekend. Tyler is a very old, grey golden retriever. He has a lot of personality. Right now he's trying to find a comfortable place to sleep. He keeps moving between me in here and Bob in the other room, checking on us.

I finally read Boonville by Robert Mailer Anderson this weekend. I didn't love it but I liked it a lot. It's very much what I like to call "a boy book" -- and that refers to the writing style not the actual story. The story is funny with lots of nutty, hilarious characters but sometimes I found myself drifting and by the end I was glad it was over.

I've figured out why the bed looks funny. Bob told me he spilled something on the comforter cover and had to wash it -- then he put the comforter back in sideways. He thinks I'm too picky about how we do things around here and while that may be true, I don't think putting the comforter in the cover the right way qualifies as "picky."

The snack on the way home was pita chips and hummus -- Alaska Airlines got huge snaps from me for that one. The flight was practically empty -- maybe 25 people. I had my entire row to myself. On Saturday I was so tired I didn't feel like doing anything. I didn't want to take a nap but ended up falling asleep at 5:00pm and sleeping hard so when I woke up I was all confused about what was going on.

May Theme: Courage

Buffy Bites
What is going on with this show? I almost gave up on it until I heard it was ending so thought I'd better tune to see how it all goes. I don't understand what she did to turn virtually every ally she has against her -- I don't buy it. Doesn't make sense unless Jasmine from Angel is exerting her influence.

Beck has an online journal.

I still don't have a car stereo and have come to the conclusion that Vancouver Toyota is lame and that I need to find a new dealer to take care of my car's service-ing. Bob picked up the car last week and didn't find out until then that they didn't have the right part. Then I've never heard another word. Also, a part from the seatbelts -- a plastic cover thing was missing and they were going to order that. I left a message yesterday and never heard back. Not too impressive in the communication department. I hate this stuff where you have to get mad and throw a fit in order to get customer service. It's like the lesson is if you are patient and polite you're screwed.

This morning I was unhappy to find out that both of our suitcases are broken. That would have been nice to know earlier. I have to re-think all my packing now.

Today around lunch time there was a teeny, tiny earthquake -- just a quick jolt. Long enough for the brain to process "hey, this is an earthquake" and create a pounding heartbeat -- and my well-trained instincts had my shoes on, purse in hand and braced in the doorway just in time for it all to be over. Except I thought it might be just a pre-quake and I was ready just in case ...

I have my car back and boy have I missed it. It has seatbelts but still no stereo. They didn't get the right part and I've never heard back so I suppose I'd better get on the horn tomorrow and find out what's going on.

I'm drinking some of the Jack that we bought for the no-show Joey -- it smells like nail polish remover. Is it supposed to? Raise of hands? I suppose I'd better get used it if I'm going to Vegas next week.

Lots to do this weekend. Call it the weekend of loose ends.

The question everyone wants answered: where does SPAM come from?

My words today: inspiration, love and humor.

Yesterday I started checking my bookmarks because there are some dusty ones in there that I haven't checked forever -- but for some reason I resisted deleting them. I notice that a lot of times I save something for later -- to do later or to read later -- and it ends up in the later pile forever until eventually I get rid of it. I'm trying to get rid of things the first time.

300 Hundred Reasons why we love the Simpsons.

Here's #1 - The Schadenfreude felt on recalling George Bush Sr's quote from 1992 - 'We're going to keep trying to strengthen the American family; to make them more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons.' Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie are now the most popular American family of all time, especially in America.

Today is a day of cooking. I've been looking foward to this all weekend. I'm making gumbo -- the same recipe I made at Christmas that everybody loved. And I'm making cornbread and I'm going to try baking it in a different sized pan to see if that helps since the last time I made this recipe it didn't want to get baked in the middle. I'm making two salads - an Asian style noodle thing and the sun-dried tomatoes, lentils and feta salad that Lisa likes so much. The salads are mostly for tomorrow night for the potluck at my last writing class. I'm also hoping to bake bread and I'm making Bob brownies. Plus I'm cleaning out the fridge and doing my usual routine with the raw vegetables. For background I'm going to watch Episodes IV to VI. Big day.

Wow, hard to accomplish anything in goofing off time. I thought I'd spend the weekend leisurely laying around and taking my time doing projects I've been ignoring. HA HA. I can't even tell you what I've done except watch some super lame movies and went through some folders. I watched Vertical Limit on a screener video -- this is one of those movies with zero character development but one nail-biter scene after the other -- and often variations of the same nail-biter scene. Surprisingly, I didn't hate it and I'm not a big Chris O'Donnell fan but I liked him in this movie. Tonight I watched a straight-to-video movie with Julie Stiles called Wicked which was only 84 minutes long and otherwise super creepy in a "this movie never should have been made" way.

Went to Toyota today -- 90 minutes I had to wait. I read everything in my bag. I usually bring overkill on reading material -- this time I ran out. This is stupid. Insurance wants to put in a used stereo, Toyota thinks I'm nuts and should get a news one -- the price difference is over $1,000. I just want a car with seatbelts to drive. Being able to listen to the radio and music would be a nice plus. Insurance tells me they warranty the used part. Part of me doesn't care as long as I have a stereo that works another part of me is annoyed that I pay this insurance every year and now I have to dick around with the hand-me-down parts.

This car thing is such a pain in the ass. I called Toyota today, naively thinking that I would make an appointment and my car would be returned to me as I last drove it. HA HA HA. I forgot about the part where the insurance dickers with the fixers. So I have to take it into Toyota tomorrow for an estimate after the insurance adjuster already did an estimate. This doesn't sound good. I would really like to get the thing fixed because our current car distribution is not making either one of us happy.

I "finished" my writing project for my class. I use quotes because it's never really finished. I'm going to do more work after I get feedback. But my class ends on Monday and at least this weekend, for the first time since February I'm going to have a weekend with no writing. I have neglected virtually every non-essential errand and project and recreational activity and I am planning to see movies and read and organize my sock drawer and put some time in the yard for a change. I'll be back at it soon. Other than the additional work on the current project I have a whole new thing that I want to get cracking on.

In other news, my car got broken into on Saturday night. At first we thought it was just the car stereo and one window broken but when Bob when to get the window replaced, we clued in that the seat belts were stolen. What a world. We're still wrangling getting that stuff replaced. Bob is using my car since his commute is short and all on surface seats and I'm driving the boy car which is not as clean and fresh smelling as I might prefer. It's hard to believe that in 30 years we're so accustomed to seat belts that we wouldn't consider driving on the freeway without seatbelt.

From a recent issue of my favorite local paper, the Kourier based in Willow Creek California:

"The other day a message comes over the scanner. It's the police dispatcher in Eureka. "Patrol units. Be on the lookout for an old grey Ford van. Van driver has been camping in local market parking lot. No license number available but has a bumper sticker, 'Too many cats, too few recipes.'"

-- reported by Frank Woodman

My web browser is totally possessed -- now I'm paranoid what my computer's been up to this evening while I was eating dinner. Our big Pyrex exploded in the dishwasher -- how does that happen? I thought Pyrex was indestructible. Didn't the astronauts use it for something? It made a big mess but we got most of it out of there. Daylight savings is always nice but today it feels like I lost way more than one hour. The whole day is like, yikes, it's already Noon? It's already 6pm? And right now: it's already after 9pm? I need to try to wind down and get to bed. I have still been spending about 99% of my free time writing and neglecting everything else. I stopped early today so I could do our taxes. I normally have them done by the end of January but we owe this year because I converted a traditional IRA to a Roth. It had lost about 40% of it's value -- seemed like a good time.

We saw David Mamet on Weds at Arts & Lectures. He was fantastic -- very intelligent and lots to say but more restrained than I expected. He had opinions to share but I'd envisioned someone with more of a wild look and waving fist.

I finished watching Children of Dune this week. I found the Dune geeks online and I'm now fully aware of how little I know about the Duniverse. I put the books on the shelf next to the Lord of the Rings books I'm anxious to re-read but don't have enough time. Also speaking of books I read my first Neil Gaiman novel after looking forward to it for a long time. (American Gods) and I was disappointed and didn't enjoy it much. I thought the protagonist was passive and not terribly interesting and I found the story a little too hallucinogenic -- half the time I wasn’t sure where I was and where I was going. I guess it just wasn’t for me. Gaiman has a manic fans, I really wanted to like it.

APRIL THEME: perseverance

I'm weary of all these user names and passwords. Every other website wants you to log in and wants to give you a 12 digit ID number or account number or something and there's the bank and the credit union and the library. And there's always some strange parameters that prevents you from keeping it consistent with previous password/user names.

We closed one of our bank accounts this week and opened a new one for reasons which aren't important to this discussion. But today I cleaned out bank refuse from the cupboards and drawers -- something I haven't done in a long time. I had canceled checks dating back almost 10 years. And I found a stash of about 11 spankin' new plastic checkbook covers and 4 transaction registers -- I'm sure I'll use all that up in this life time. I'm not a major pack rat but I have kept every single check register I've ever had. They are interesting historical artifacts and just as fascinating and less cringe-inducing than journals. Years ago I destroyed journals I had dating before college. I wish I didn't but I understand why I did. The college ones are pretty hideous to have around.

For about the 4th consecutive weekend I spent almost all my spare time writing. My class goes on for another month. Sometimes I love it and can't wait to do it. Other times I wonder if I'm just wasting my time and/or I feel stupid and/or I feel like bashing my head against the bricks. Also lately I've felt a little over-extended, as if I'd taken on another job. I did celebrate the fabulous weather by getting outside and breaking up my garden plot. This made the squirrels crazy. There were about six of them spinning around in the fresh dirt -- I suppose I upset their peanut stash. But what is squirrel logic anyway? I see them bury something, then dig something else up and eat it. And one digs up what the other just buried. Our neighbor puts out bushels of nuts--they're never going to starve.

It's not that I don't have things I want to put up here but at the moment writing is the number one big rock and generally when I'm done with that that last thing I want to do is sit around on the computer. I still have Mom's birthday present sitting here (her bday was Mar 11) and I told her that right now when writing comes first, I've turned into one of those people who can't get birthday gifts mailed on time not to mention numerous other tasks that are ignored or done half assed. Not sure how I'm going to handle the yard work situation.

Am I the only person that loathes classmates.com? (won't even give them the smug satisfaction of a link) It's all about pop unders and clicking. There is no real information unless you sign up for $30 a year or whatever the price is now. I would possibly pay $10-$12. But the servers are slow and the pages are set up for maximum clickage -- life isn't *that* long. Actually I wouldn't pay at any price. I don't pay for web content. I generally won't registier for web content. And I for sure won't pay for pop unders.

I went and saw The Hours today. It was between that and About Schmidt. It was a great movie -- the acting was incredible but it was heavy. I told Bob I left there and I just wanted to come home and see him and tell him how much I appreciate him. I think I'm having the anti-7 year itch. Instead of looking around I'm grateful to be settled down with him. I don't think I could live with anyone else.

My favorite part of the Oregonian is Food Day (Tuesday). Now that we're getting the New York Times delivered at home I have another food section "Dining Out" to enjoy on Wednesday and after only a few weeks I am a huge fan of William Grimes the Restaurants columnist. This week he reviews Agave. He finds the menu "a dizzy document" but "[t]he basket of blue corn tortilla chips that arrives as soon as you sit down provides badly needed reassurance. They are warm, feather-light, superlatively crunchy and sweet with blue-corn flavor. They come with a pleasant, mildly spiced bean dip and an unconvincing salsa ... ." He admires the pork in a spicy sauce. "[The chef] Mr. Pang understands spices. He doesn?t use them to traumatize the tonsils or boost the beer sales. He treats them as valued supporting players ... ." He appreciates the pile on. "[Mr. Pang] knows how to deploy gobs of molten cheese." In the end, he found the wait for his check long but noted, "[p]erhaps it seems longer because the restaurant's Mission chairs, although beautiful to look at, are cruel, although not as diabolical as the backless banquettes, which will either straighten your spine or kill you in the course of an evening." Isn't this great stuff? I love this guy.

Haven't been very inspired lately. If you need to inject some fear into your cyberlife -- try Google Watch. And if you have any kind of phone paranoia here's some info on phone fraud. Several weeks ago Bob and I were eating with Doni and LeRoy and we talked about some sort of fraud scheme where you get a phone message and return a call and it ends up being at some insane rate like $5 a minute and you get screwed. Shortly thereafter my sister was locked out of her house and placed an collect call to see if we could tape ALIAS for her. When the call came through Bob couldn't hear who it was from so he hung up and we were all creeped out about someone trying to defraud us. Later we found out it was Erin and we felt bad.

I did some research for work and was scanning some bulletin boards on the topic and I ran across some guy who said something to the effect that he'd heard people in Oregon use the word "pop" to refer to soft drinks and he was always sure to correct them to use "soda" -- like he's been appointed the vocabulary police. Anyway, turns out there is a whole controversey about this. Can this be true that people have nothing better to worry about than whether sugar water is referred to as "pop" or "soda?" Check the map for yourself.

I used to get Premiere Magazine at the office but then the subscription rate got high so I decided to wait until they sent me those begging cards, "we want you back!" and would let me subscribe for some cheapo rate again only the begging card never came. They sent me two subscription renewals and then gave up. I guess they showed me. Last Fall I decided to give Movieline a try. I sent my check in November, it cleared in December and I got my first issue (February) during the third week of February. Isn't this kind of lame? And I decided after reading one issue that I don't like it At least it's very thin and I can zip through it quick.

I stayed up late last night finishing the world's dumbest book. I don't know where I got it -- Mom or Priscilla. It's a Patricia Cornwell who I haven't read in a very long time -- I think the last one I read was The Body Farm. The book I read last night was Black Notice. Sometimes I'll read a scene in a book and say, "only a man would write this" because it's some sort of fantasy scenario where the woman is beautiful and great in bed can meet all the man's needs, whatever the situation but at the same time, doesn't want anything from him. I'm not explaining this very well but I'm in a hurry so oh, well. This PC book was like a woman's fantasy because the protagonist is this cold, humorless woman who is a brilliant medical examiner and in the middle of the book at this completely random moment she initiates sex with this gorgeous successful and younger man who immediately rips at her clothes and tells her how hot he is for her and after sex he is apparently in love with her and wants to hold her hand and take her out to dinner. I swear I re-read these pages a couple of times, thinking I had missed something. Like this would ever happen. The whole book was doo-doo -- I don't know why I had to finish it except there was this werewolf thing going on and I wanted to know what it was all about. Also, this brilliant doctor's name is Kay Scarpetta and as I said earlier, I've read a couple other books with her and in virtually every one, the bad guy showed up at the end, in her house and attacked her but she was saved at the last minute by convenient appearances by other characters. So last night, I'm reading the last few pages and here comes the bad guy knocking on the door and here is the world's most brilliant medical examiner answering the door. I'm going, "Kay, what are you thinking? Even *I* know it's the bad guy." I don't recommend it unless you are on a beach with an umbrella drink in your hands and nothing else to read.

I always think of lots of things to blog when I'm trying to fall asleep and I often draw a big blank when I'm sitting here.

My sister sent me this URL: Be Kind to Introverts. "Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate? Who growls or scowls or grunts or winces when accosted with pleasantries by people who are just trying to be nice? ... It has been learned, by means of brain scans, that introverts process information differently from other people ... ." Now, in writing, something I've known about myself for a long time.

I also found a good URL with earth satellite pictures from NASA where I managed to waste a lot of time downloading images.

I finally saw Rabbit Proof Fence this weekend. An amazing film, really well done -- I'm trying to write a quick review and keep erasing my words so I'll just say this: it's a very sad story about assimilating aborigines into white society -- it happened in the US and Canada too -- but the filmmakers managed to keep it from being all tragedy. It's worth seeing -- just trust me.

And last item, I was doing some research online related to this writing project I'm working on and I found one of my favorite Hollywood days guitarists Paul Gilbert online. I gotta go back and look at all the stuff. It looks like Racer X is still around too. I still have Second Heat on vinyl -- although I couldn't tell you the last time I listened to it.

If you haven't already you can put in a claim for the overpriced music settlement. It's a somewhat pointless exercise since only the lawyers got anything out of it and cds are still overpriced most of the time.