Crush

My old crush on Jason Bateman has come back around again.
I love watching him play Michael Bluth on the hilarious TV show "Arrested Development" and he has been in some more movies lately, too.
(And that's not "too" as in "Teen Wolf Too")

Knowing Durham vs. Knowing Durham

In German, there is a distinction between knowing something (like a fact) and knowing someone or a place (being familiar with it).
Ich weiss _______ .
I know that there are a zillion things to do for fun in Durham, and hundreds of great places to eat.

Ich kenne _______ nicht.
I am not personally familiar with a lot of the fun things there are to do in Durham, and I haven't eaten at very many local (non-chain) restaurants.

I love living in Durham.
Ten years ago I never would have guessed that I'd be living in North Carolina.
Fifteen years ago I never would have guessed I'd live on the East Coast (including going to college out here).

ORD vs. PDX: The Toilet Wars

On my last trip, the airports tried to do their best to impress me with the bells and whistles in their restrooms.

At Chicago's O'Hare airport they had automatic seat protectors.
There's a plastic covering - which reminded me of a shower cap - that covers the seat, and when you're done you push the button and it slides another length of the covering over the seat.
I was not impressed. Seems like a waste of plastic, especially if a user changes it when they're done and then the next person changes the unused one before they use it.
Plus, what our mothers told us for years about how you can catch diseases from toilet seats is just a myth.
The hover method works just as well as any seat cover or elaborate draping of a dozen strips of toilet paper. And it doesn't waste resources. AND it works your quads!

At the Portland (Oregon) airport each toilet had two options for flushing:
Flush up for #1 - uses less water
Flush down for #2 - uses more water than for #1
I especially love how they actually use the terms "#1" and "#2".
PDX wins!!!!!!!!!









(Update 11/17/07: They recently installed the dual flush system into the restrooms in my building at work! And here I thought it was all sci-fi, west coast technology.)

Raccoon Coat

One of the restaurants in Oregon where my family gathered one night had a
rack of raccoon pelt coats near the front door as part of their decor.
My uncle dared me to try it on.

Dang, those raccoons were heavy!

Google Guest

(While visiting old stopping grounds in CA...)

Anne's husband Heraldo works for Google, and she teaches Cardio Salsa and Hip-Hop classes there, so I got to enjoy a free lunch as their guest on the Google campus.
The place is unbelievable - and I just went to one of the dining halls and a courtyard. What did they have at the cafeteria? Well, try Italian, Indian, Japanese, American, and Mexican. Then have some german chocolate cake and a canoli for desert.

I love this:
One of the owners of Google rescued this cast of a T-Rex fossil from a museum that couldn't house it any longer and put it up in one of the courtyards. Some employees gave it a Google badge and planted a bunch of pink flamingos around it (including one in its mouth) to make it look like it was hunting them.

The Wonderful People in My Family

I just enjoyed the weekend with extended relatives in Pendleton and Portland, OR and spent time basking in the love and joy they bring to my life. No matter how much time passes, I feel completely at home when I'm around my aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, great aunts, and cousins of all levels of removedness.

Highlights:
- cousin Katie taking over as bartender when the hired one didn't show
- uncle Carlos and aunt Julie swing dancing at the reception
- "table for 14" at every restaurant we went to
- uncle Marc pointing out that us "kids" all turned out well and our grandpa must be very proud of his family legacy
- the lingering hugs from everyone

Conversation Quote of the Day

"Boys have cooties."
"And they come back when they get old."

Why I Love the Bull's Head Bookstore

From today's edition of their email newsletter:

Events coming this year:
- Banned Books Week
- Dorothy Parker Day (martinis, olives, quotations)
- Proust Day (madeleines, moustaches, quotations)
- Faculty, Staff and Grad Student Discount Days
- the return of the Bull’s Head Sidewalk Sale
- Zombie/Pirate Day
- Youth Angst Society
- And of course, the piece de resistance: The Bilingual Reading of the Grinch in Latin and English.

i WILL post again!

...and I mean to catch up and finish all those drafts I started months ago.
I meant to post about my last trip to CA, in June, and here I am having just returned from another trip to the West/Best Coast.
I promise... the posts will come!