Bangs head

I just can't keep up with everything. I guess vacation threw a wrench into everything along with a hectic work week and a cold that has me down.

I need to keep my anti-Gwyneth campaign going with this news

I saw a picture of someone wheeling Michael Jackson around in a wheelchair. It seems like a thousand years since I thought Michael was a normal superstar.

I still regret not seeing the Wimbledon men's final.

Bell's Brewery is returning to the Chicago market. Who wants to mail me beer and be my best friend for life?

I've started keeping track of my mileage. I've never done this before. Somehow I attribute tracking my mileage to my age. I'm getting older.

Post-vacation blues

I find it funny that while I was in the Midwest, I looked forward to returning to Portland. Now that I am back in PDX, I just want to leave. I know part of my problem is that I am dreading work tomorrow. Really dreading. The next two weeks look really hellish.

I posted vacation pics on my picasa site. How was the trip?

- I drank a lot of Bell's beer. Actually, everyone drank a lot of Bell's beer.

- Saugatuck and Douglas are cute towns. We didn't run out of things to do but they were smaller than I thought.

- I really hate mosquitoes. All of us complained the first couple of days but we still did outside activities around the house. By the end of the week, we really didn't do as much outdoors.

- A* is a ruthless croquet player. I could hear the monopoly game and uno games going on and was relieved I didn't participate. I am far too competitive when it comes to uno.

- Everyone made great meals.

- It was great having Mary join us for part of the week.

- I read two books and almost caught up on three months of Entertainment Weekly

Things I did: walked on a beach, nice birthday dinner for my sister, slept a lot, boat tour of Kalamazoo lake, river and Lake Michigan, played miniature golf, rode a go-kart, played arcade games, nice belated birthday lunch in Holland (Michigan), shopped, played croquet, basketball, and ping-pong.

I didn't do as much as my sisters and their families but I really wanted the time to read and sleep. Now I am back home and in a major funk.trave

Vacation and perfect picture

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/07/17/funny-pictures-spider-wuz-huge/

I love goats and you know how I feel about spiders.

Heading out later today for vacation. I am counting the minutes. I really need to get away before I lose my mind.

More on the media

Here is more information on the decline in coverage of the Iraq war.

It brought back memories of my flight to Birmingham and the mini-ceremony when a casket was removed from the plane.

Some links

I am using part of the long weekend to catch up on my blog reading. I also spent a lot of time in the print world by finishing a book and catching up on a weeks worth of the NY Times.

- Reading some library blogs reminded me why I wasn't sad about missing ALA. Annoyed Librarian described it better than any other blogs. Most of the people that I wanted to see were not at the conference. The other group of people were either people I just saw in the last few months or we've been emailing back and forth. There was one dinner that I regret missing but not much else.

- I love the idea of this airline.

- This just cracks me up. Unfortunately the headlines in today's sports section were about his injury and loss in the 200 meters.

And, this just makes me sad and angry.

Overheard on train

Yesterday on my light rail train - a guy gets on the train selling candy.

Guy: Would you like to buy some candy to help me out?

Woman: Do you have anything vegan?

Guy: Uh, I don't know. The mints?

Woman:You should really make sure to sell more vegan things. It will only become more popular. I'll go ahead and give you some money but you should really get more vegan things.

Guy: Uh, okay. Thank you. Bless you.

Woman: Really, vegan things are very important.