It's that time of year, again! Bowling time! I didn't bowl last year, but X-Factor reunited this winter and we're kicking some butt. We beat an undefeated team Monday night (I had a few strikes, and my teammate Stephanie was on fuego! We actually did better than the fellas!) and the week before I almost beat my brother! Almost...someday.

We finally got my birthday Herman Miller desk delivered, and it's glorious. I have a place to work and my papers and textbooks are finally off of the kitchen table. Trevor is very happy about that. He also hooked up my printer (another birthday gift, finally used 3 months later) and I can now wirelessly print students' late papers from bed; it's terrific. We also set up our new fabulous lamp (see picture below), which is excellent, and our next project is the kitchen. Though our timeline is fuzzy...

Oh, right, and we're also planning a wedding! HA! We've got a date, and as soon as we have a tete-a-tete with Mrs. S. Hunter, we'll be sending out some save-the-dates. It's all coming along. We're in discussions with a photographer and a d.j., and hopefully this weekend we'll get to talking to some caterers! All exciting stuff. We had a meet-the-parents dinner on Saturday night, and my parents, Trevor's pop and step-mom, his brother Sean and his fiance Angie, my brother and wife, and my grandma all got together to break some bread, eat some tapas, and chat. The evening was a suceess, and when Paula sends me the pictures, I'll post them up here!

Until later, stay warm, true believers. It's damn cold outside.

School started back up for me this week. I had my first class this morning; I've only got one this week at my downtown university, and my community colleges start up next week. It's a nice way to get back into gear. This morning's class was packed to the gills with 34 showing up out of the 38 enrolled. But they were bright and perky at 7:45 a.m., and I hope it lasts! I finally "filed" away the fall semester's final portfolios (photo above) just in case any of my students would like them back. I mailed back a few, and I've already earmarked some to use as examples this new semester if they're not picked up. At least this semester I'll have 30-ish less to grade, which is nice.

In other news, Henry met my friend Lisa's pooch, LuLu Belle, for the first time this past weekend at the dog park, and they seemed to hit it off nicely. Here's a picture of them playing:

There were a few really aggressive fellows there early on, but once their owners got wise to my low tolerance for shennanigans, they skeedaddled. And good riddance to them. We hadn't been to the dog park in quite some time, since Henry's been so fond of plain-old fetch-in-the-park as of late. But it was nice to see him frollicking with the other dogs.

Trevor and I also got an engagement ring this past weekend. We went to the jeweler that his brother Sean and fiancee Angie went to for their engagement ring, and the woman who helped us was terrific. She took my grandma's stone to set, and she's also fixing my gram's original engagement ring for free (the bottom was a bit bent up), which is really nice because it's a beautiful, delicate thing, and it's about 70 years old now, so it'll be fixed up and looking just as lovely as when my grandma wore it. Hopefully I'll be able to pick the ring up tomorrow or Wednesday. I can't wait to flash it around town!

IT'S OFFICIAL...
...We're engaged!

Trevor and I went to Door County for the New Year's weekend to visit his step-dad, Jim, and his grandparents, Mel and Margaret Madel. The five of us went to a lovely dinner at the Stone Harbor restaurant, where we all ate too much, then Trevor and I went back to Jim's house (where we were staying--Jim's dog, Vader, and Henry are best friends) to change out of our fancy duds before going to the Madel's to watch a movie. We got to the Madels, Trevor turned off the car and asked me to marry him! It was terribly romantic--just hours before the new year, the waves of Lake Michigan crashing yards away, our bellies full of food and both of us content and relaxed (Well, I was terribly relaxed. Trevor might not have been so at ease)--and of course I said yes. It was nice to share it first with the Madels, but now that we're back in town, we've got to spread the word! We drove back this afternoon (after stopping at the Sturgeon Bay Public Library, where Mr. Madel volunteers, to pick up a few books from the books-for-sale section; Trevor found two hard cover Vonneguts for his collection, and I found a first edition Chuck Palahniuk, a mass market paperback of The Pentagon Papers, and a brides and showers book from the 60s [I really couldn't resist, especially given its hot-pink themed cover, full with foxy gal in a pink mini-skirt and matching sweater...]) and went to the Bork's to have dinner with my folks and pick up my Grandma Bork's engagement ring and some other jewelry of hers (Trevor gave me a "place holder"--a sterling silver diamond solitaire silhouette ring we saw in Portland last July), and we're finally back home, unpacked, with an exhausted Henry, a hamper full of dirty clothes, and a great excuse to finally drink the champagne I got from the Nybergs for my birthday. Quite a weekend, and a lovely kick-off to the new year!

We'll be back with more picture from this weekend, and maybe some more wedding updates, so stay tuned!

Bork-Power

HOLIDAY RECOVERY AND PREVIEW OF NEW YEAR'S EVE...

Well, this week we've done our best to finish unpacking all of the loot we got over Christmas, although I've still got two bags in the closet that I'll tackle tomorrow. We're going to spend the New Year's Eve weekend with Trevor's step-dad, Jim, and Trevor's grandparents up in Door County. We're leaving tomorrow (he's got the afternoon off and I'll pick him up--right after I stop at Loopy Yarns for their 70% off sale!--and we'll be off!).

I spent the afternoon today with my friend Kate and her new baby, Ella. Ella was a little boogery, but she was still a giggly little bundle and it was really fun to meet her. I made her a hat that was too big for her little baby head, and Kate will send me pictures of her wearing it as soon as their computer is fixed!

(quick digression: "Snakes on a Plane" is coming to DVD soon. I'll be renting that.)

Speaking of renting movies, Trevor and I watched a waste-of-time movie starring our favorite t.v. sitcom actor, Zach Braff, called "The Last Kiss." It was a total dud, but it took place in Madison, so they had a scene on the Terrace, which was exciting. Before that, though, I watched "The Descent" which is a fabulous horror movie. I think even Trevor would like it. He came home in time to watch the "making of" portion of the DVD (called, appropriately, "Beneath the Scenes" [it's a movie about caving in the Appalachian Mountains]) and found it interesting. I might rent it again so he can watch it as well.

Well, I'm off to finish a scarf for our friend Simona. See you all in the new year!

Bork-Power

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Here's some of the gang sitting down after Christmas Eve at the Bosco's. It was the first Christmas Eve celebration for the newly married Borks (Greg and Paula), and mom and I spent a bit of time teaching Erica to knit. We're passing the torch on to the next generation; it's all very exciting. We'll work with some fun yarn and bigger needles today at Christmas dinner. And speaking of knitting, I'm also including a photo of the first really successful hat I've made! More to come, and happy happy holidays!

Bork-Power

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

It's a pre-Christmas post! Trevor and I will be doing a lot of traveling during the holiday season, but luckily it's all in Illinois and Wisconsin, which isn't too bad. We're spending the eve before Christmas Eve with the Power clan out in Yorkville, where we will be exchanging gifts and hopefully playing some games. Then Christmas Eve to the Bosco's for some Secret Santa action, and to the Bork's for Christmas Day, and then to the Madel's for some dessert! A few days later, we're going up to Door County to visit Jim, see the Madels again, and do some holiday decompressing. I'm currently filling my days this week Christmas shopping, visiting friends for lunch and dinner (I was back to Navy Pier this afternoon for the first time in nearly six months--the theater's changed a little, but my feelings about making the career change were sure solidified...) and I'm also doing a bushel full of knitting. I took a photo of my first really successful hat (which I turned into a Christmas present for my friend Roxanna) and I'll post it soon.

The picture above is the finished wardrobe in our bedroom. Although it's containing most of our stuff, Henry has miraculously managed to eat--in the past five days--one remote control, one throw pillow, and one regular pillow. Needless to say, he no longer has free reign of the bedroom, and until he learns to curb his appetite of non-tasty items (reading glasses, yarn, plastic...) he'll be crated while we're out of the house. Trevor seems to think Martin instigates the incidents. I, however, believe he's just a ruiner like his meowing brother.

HARVEY MAKES AN APPEARANCE:
Finally, here's a picture of our car, Harvey! He's pretty cute and he rides like a dream, and because of my commuting, he's already up for a tune-up at a couple of months old. Next semester, I'll hopefully be able to take the Metra, so Harv can have some more quality time with Trevor on the streets of Chicago!

Last weekend we had breakfast with our friend, Dan, and he and his lovely wife, Simona, met us at IKEA, where we bought an eight by eight wardrobe, which we brought home, and have finally erected! It's beautiful and I'm posting a picture of before completion, and I'll do my best to get a picture of it all finished sometime this week. And this weekend we celebrated our friend Jessica's birthday at the Gold Star, I went to DEPART-ment (a crafty fair) and got some early Christmas shopping done, and Trevor didn't go with me, so I was able to get some stuff for him, too! And we watched old movies, and Die Hard III, and Die Hard II (well, the second one was Trevor, I was in the shower...but I certainly did enjoy number 3!).

It's also my last week of full classes--next week I've got to sit out in Crystal Lake for two evenings to collect portfolios, but then I'm done for four weeks! FOUR WEEKS! I'm going to work on lesson plans, take naps, drink tea, knit, go grocery shopping, take naps, read some books, do Christmas shopping, nap, crochet, write, nap, drink tea, have lunch with Trevor, take Henry to the park, drink tea, have lunch with Grandma, go up to Door County with Trevor over New Year's Eve to visit Jim and the Madels, drink tea, have lunch with mom and look at Greg and Paula's wedding pictures....and on and on...

So, I might jump on during the next week to vent about the piles and piles of student final portfolios I have to wade through for their final grades, but until then...stay out of the cold!

BORK-POWER

Laura forgot to mention my new bike that we picked up in Madison, WI this summer. I spent a month or so taking the 3rensho (pronounced "san rensho") apart and putting new parts on her...now she's my main form of transportation. You can read more about her here: http://velospace.org/node/1258

GET READY!

All right, I'm going to try to recount all that we've done so far this fall, since I think July was the last time we updated in full. These will be in no particular order...

1. THE WEDDING: My brother, Greg, got married! This is the wedding we've been celebrating in one form or another since May, so we were terribly excited to have it come and be a huge success, which it was! I started early that morning, getting my hair done with the other 8 bridesmaids, harassing Trevor because I forgot part of my dress at home (it was a sash, and the bride was totally prepared with a spare), then doing some fancy make-up, and finally, taking a limousine 2 blocks (literally) from the bride's parents' condo to the church. And it was on time! It was a Greek Orthodox church and ceremony, and I walked down the aisle while three hundred guests whispered, "That's his sister!" which was totally bizarre, and then I got to giggle while I watched my brother dance around the altar with a wreath on his head while my mother and aunt, and the mother of the bride and the bride's god-mother, hurled rose petals at them. If it hadn't been his own wedding, I think he would have had to leave the church to laugh out loud on the street. But, the ceremony was really lovely, and the bride was beautiful, my brother looked very handsome in his tuxedo, and I held back some tears.
The reception was so much fun. If nothing else, Greg's friends know how to have a party, and they led everyone else in dancing, drinking, and all around merriment. The father-of-the-bride had the country club set off fireworks after dinner; and no ordinary fireworks. Not only did we get to see a top notch fifteen minute show that my Southern cousins said rivaled any town fireworks they'd seen, the finale consisted of a giant sign on the lawn exploding into Greg and Paula's names, all in little sparklers. Seriously.
When Trevor and I had danced our last dance (I coerced him to dance three slow ones with me, which I thought was a success), we took a taxi back to the hotel where we were staying, the Burnham. And it's just about the neatest place I've ever been. It's an old office building that was rebuilt after the Chicago Fire, so it's mainly marble and iron and all Art Deco. They left the office doors on the rooms, which was very neat, and we got to wake up in the morning to a sunny view up State Street to the north, and millennium Park and the theater to the east (we had a corner room.). We really didn't want to leave.
All in all, the weekend was a success: Trevor looked dapper in his new jacket and tie, I was kind of gold, and the happy couple was, well, happy!

2. THE CAR: Just over a month ago, Trevor and I went to the Volkswagen dealership in town to check out the new Rabbit. We'd been talking about getting a new car for a while, so we went to browse. And we ended up driving the car out of the showroom. Yep, we bought a new car! It's a silver two-door 2007 Rabbit, and it's just a button of a car. But it's fast. They gave us some loose change for my one-eyed purple people eater as a trade-in, so I had to say goodbye to her. She's been a good car to me, for nearly eleven years I've been driving her, and not once has she broken down, or ever gotten me in an accident. Trevor took my picture with her before I said goodbye. But on to bigger (not really, smaller, actually) and better! The new car is solid and speedy, has two (count 'em, TWO!) working headlights and two (yep, TWO again!) side mirrors, power windows and power locks, a CD player, and a jack to plug the I-Pod into the glove box! It's pretty high-tech. I've just finally gotten used to fact that after Trevor gets in, he doesn't have to lean over to unlock my door. And because it's a hatch-back, Henry can hitch a ride without having to be in the back seat. Although he's only ridden in it twice. I'm not too keen about his muddy paws pawing up Harvey's nice carpet and sticking his wet snout all over the inside of the windows. Oh, yes, we decided to name the new car Harvey. So, I've got something reliable and nice to drive me to school during the week, and Trevor has something he doesn't have to be embarrassed driving!

3. WORK: Trevor's time at Pettersen has greatly improved since they promoted another assistant to an account representative; the new girl (our friend, Jessica) will be the primary contact for Home Depot, which means that Trevor will no longer be working with them and dealing with their insane antics. A big, fat, WHEW! His job has become so much more pleasant, and he's started learning the ropes about Swiss Colony, one of the studio's oldest clients, from the rep. who's going to retire in May. When this fellow retires, Trevor will take over Swiss, and he's already found them quite pleasant and sane to deal with. It's sort of a relief. Not sort of, definitely. Although we do feel bad for poor Jessica; she's a very nice girl and we'd rather she not have to deal with Home Depot...but as long as it's not Trevor...

4. SCHOOL: Well, I'm around the mid-term point with all of my classes. About five weeks ago, I added two more classes at East-West University to my load. I started later with them because they're on quarters. It's a hugely different experience from the two community colleges; about 90% of the EWU students are black, and a small percent are Hispanic or Eastern European (odd...) and, of course, the fact that they're all city kids instead of suburban kids makes them much more diverse in experience as well as ethnicity. My morning class (7:45 a.m.) is full of terrific kids, ready to learn and pay attention (you can only imagine the dedication these students must have to sign up for a 7:45 a.m., Monday/Wed./Friday class for their very first quarter in college). Now, the noon class is a whole different ball of wax. There are a lot of good kids in there as well, but there are a couple that are used to being the center of attention, and they're young, I don't even think they're nineteen. Also, because it's in the afternoon, they've have a good three or four hours to wake up and eat some sugar or drink something caffeinated, so they're bouncing off the walls by the time they get to me. They're a bit more challenging. But I like them a lot. I've already got one class at McHenry lined up for next semester, and CLC is holding off on the schedule because of contract negotiations with the Union, so I should know about those in another week or two, and before I started classes at EWU, the department chair offered me a third class (which I couldn't take because of scheduling conflicts with McHenry's Monday night class), but she mentioned that if I couldn't take three this quarter, hopefully I could next quarter. Damn straight! Also, there's a full time position opening up at McHenry, so I'm going to throw my hat into the ring. Although it's the furthest away of all 3 schools, if I were full time, I'd be a 9-ish to 5-ish worker, so I'd most definitely be able to take the train to Crystal Lake and the rush hour bus from the station to campus (which I couldn't do this semester because of the odd time of my classes). Meaning no more driving commutes, solid benefits, and a four-course class load instead of 5! Now, of course this is wishful thinking, but you never know!

5. MISCELLANEOUS: Trevor is just now getting over a pretty bad cold (which, by the way, I was not responsible for giving him), so we had to forego a trip to Madison to celebrate our friend Kate's 30th birthday. Instead, we've been camped out, watching movies (scary and otherwise...), doing laundry, and not much else. I bought some candy for my students to bring this week in honor of Halloween, which is exciting. And there was a Halloween Dog Parade in the neighborhood yesterday that Trevor didn't let Henry participate in. Next year I'm making him. And, this weekend is the one year anniversary of us moving into our own place! We're still very happy homeowners, though we haven't done much more home improvement after we fixed the bathroom tiles. The kitchen counter is getting pretty bad (it's made of tiles...awful idea for a counter), so that might be the next to go. Although Trevor matted a bunch of photo prints and hung one of the three up, and he traded one of his prints for a painting our friend Dan did, which is hanging up in the bedroom. It's so nice to have art on the walls; it feels more homey!

Well, I think that's about it! This may have been the longest blog we've posted so far. Next time I promise not to pack it all into one!
Happy Halloweeeeeeeeeeen! Until next time,
Bork Power

Holy Cheese and Crusts!

It's been much, much too long since we've updated this, and I apologize to everyone! I'll write more later on this evening, but here's a picture to give you an idea of what had been occupying a lot of our time up until a few weeks ago...

WE'VE DONE IT AGAIN!

With Henry's admirable assistance, Trevor and I have again found ourselves in a Chicago magazine! It's really extended our 15-minutes of fame to a couple of months, and it's so much fun! This time we're in The Real Chicago, which featured my friend Kelli in their last issue--she owns a painting company and they were doing a feature on small business owners--so we're in good company! Apparently you can find the magazine all over the north side, in coffee shops, 7-11s, local bars, etc (that's what the publisher told me, anyway), so pick up a copy!

Other news is that Trevor decided to stay at Pettersen instead of accepting a Studio Manager position at another photo studio. Pettersen was so reluctant to let him go, they countered their own offer 24 hours after they put it on the table! He was the most popular boy at the dance, and it was terribly exciting! So now, we just have to get those Home Depot folks to calm down and be normal and everything will be okay!

We had Trevor's college friend Adam Schizzle-Ottavi visit us for a bit from New York City! It was a lot of fun; we got to all have dinner with the famous Jen Davis before she leaves for YALE and graduate school (yes, I said YALE. She's so Ivy League), which was a hoot and a half, and Adam and I got to eat breakfast at the Flying Saucer while Trevor drank a martini and waited for his flight to leave for Atlanta. Fun was had all around! Also, Adam seemed impressed with the scarf I'm knitting for him, which is good. Now I just have to finish it before the weather turns!

I started classes this week, and it's going well so far! I've had one class each of my 3-hour class, and I'm still worried that I'll never really have enough to fill up an entire class--both times I've been 10-15 minutes shy, and I even did more stuff the second section! I may have been talking faster that day...but the 2x a week class is just perfect, so I'll just have to jam more stuff into the other 2! I'm still getting used to this schedule; it's so strange for me to be home during the day and leave to go to work in the middle of the afternoon. It just feels strange. But it's been great hanging around with Henry in the mornings--we discovered that Eckhart Park up the street has an informal meeting of pooches every morning! It's been great because the park is huge and Henry can run around the entire square block of field like the horse he is, chasing other dogs, being chased by other dogs, or chasing the tennis ball I try to throw very far for him. It's great--20 minutes and he's so pooped he can barely walk home (then he lets me get work done at home because all he cares to do is sleep. Ah, a dogs life!) Also, I've discovered (though I really can't take any sort of credit for it) the Swim Cafe, across the street from the Ida Crown Natatorium at Eckhart Park. I've gotten coffee there the past couple of mornings after our park time, and it's terrific! Great coffee, delicious pastries (I couldn't resist), and a serenely decorated shop that made me feel like I was wading around in a fish bowl. Really, it was pleasant.

Trevor and I are also talking about getting a new car--a Rabbit (newly re-released from Volkswagen)! It's pretty exciting. We're probably going to wait a couple more months to get a 2006 for a bit less $$, but soon enough we'll be zipping around in a little silver Rabbit instead of a one-eyed purple people eater! Although it's going to be really, really, really hard to say goodbye to my purple people eater. I will miss her. A lot. Ugh.

Well, that's about all we've got right now! We'll post more soon!

I'M A STAY-AT-HOME DOG MOM!

At least for the time being, and it actually won't be too long. As you know (I think you know!) I quit my job last month and said goodbye to Chicago Shakespeare Theater. I closed the door on my 3.5 years there last Friday (photo above; my friend Andrea made a cake and a lot of folks showed up to bid me farewell.) and for the next two weeks I'm working at home, on my 3 syllabi, preparing for classes to start August 21st. I start teaching at McHenry County College and College of Lake County (fastest commuter in three counties. Literally.) on the 21st, and classes start at East-West University on September 25th. I picked up my textbook for EWU on Monday and it's going to be a very interesting, very civic and globally minded course. I'm really excited about it. Also, I've recently learned of a certain yarn shop that goes by the name of Loopy Yarns, and it happens to be located 1 block directly west of EWU. Interesting. Very, very interesting.

And speaking of yarns, I'm currently working on a lovely grey wool scarf for Trevor's friend Adam, who's coming to visit us from NYC on August 19th. Although it will be too warm for him to wear, hopefully he'll get a lot of warmth from it over the winter.

I'm walking my TWENTY MILE WALK on Saturday for the AFSP. Yesterday, Henry and I did a long walk to prepare (6 miles) and he's too pooped to do much of anything this morning. It felt pretty good to me, though, and I think I'll be okay for the big one this weekend. And if not, my teammate, Audra, told me that there are vans that can "assist" the walkers if they're having troubles. Hopefully it won't come to that, but it's always nice to have a safety net.

And enough about me, on to the Power portion of the Bork Power. Trevor traveled to the ATL this week (we still haven't rented that movie) for work, and did a terrific job of avoiding the shrewish new woman at Home Depot while he was there, so he made it back home unscathed by her wicked sharp tongue.

He's investigating bikes online, and has a bike expert in NYC hot on the trail of a 3Rensho (I think?) that Trevor can get to ride around the town! He really liked a good looking red and yellow model someone was selling on Ebay, but a sniper snuck in and outbid everyone during the last 30 seconds of the auction. Although, this NYC expert (I have just learned that his name is Sasha...) told Trevor that the Ebay bike wasn't a good purchase, anyway, so Trevor lucked out and will get a sweet bike for a good price, with this fellow's assistance. And hopefully soon, so that I don't have to worry about him riding his current bike to work with its terribly suspicious brakes. Even worse brakes than the purple people eater (a.k.a. my car), by the way.

We're still obsessed with Miami Ink on TLC, and are thinking about taking a road trip (in the winter, perhaps) to visit the shop for some new work. Trevor contacted Jay Ryan months ago about designing a new tattoo, but if he's not up to the challenge, I'm sure that one of our favorite television artists can help Trevor out. And it will be beautiful. We have an ulterior motive, though, because Miami is much, much closer to one Miss Rachel Power and we were thinking of jaunting over to Palm Bay to visit Rachel and Letty. Although, if we don't get to see them then, word on the street is that they're organizing a trip to VEGAS next year, and we are SO in! I've never been to Las Vegas and I cannot wait to see it and all of its bizarrity.

We did some investigating on line last night (well, Trevor did, I peeked over his shoulder) into purchasing some lights for the house from Design Within Reach. They sent Trevor a coupon for 15% off a purchase, and there are some lovely pendant lamps we've had our eyes on, so we might get them! And we're still itching to run to Ikea for the new bathroom sink and cabinet so we can finally finish off the bathroom (after we paint and get a new door, that is...), and I'm hoping that we can go the weekend after Adam visits. Fingers crossed!

That's about all of the news that's fit to print for now. I've got to get myself another cup of Joe and buckle down to do some work on my syllabi! It's really exciting. Seriously, I love that I'm going to be in the classroom!

Catch you all on the flip side...

Here are some pictures of Henry beating the heat at the dog park. He's not much of a water dog, but he'll go in after a ball. Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, they were taken on my camera phone.

I went on my second Critical Mass bike ride this friday. Critical Mass is a huge organized bike ride that happens on the last friday of every month in major cities all around the world. You can learn more about it here:

http://www.chicagocriticalmass.org/

But more importantly, I got to see Henry's sister Ida there. Her owner rides around with her often on a sort of homemade rickshaw. She was a bit bigger than Henry and calmer, but I still think Henry is a better looking dog ;-)

More, more, more photos!

These are the pictures of the rainforest leg of our Pacific Northwest sojourn!

Portland Pictures!





Here are some of the Polaroids from the Portland leg of our journey: the coffee and food, the Rose Garden, the plastic horses tied up in the street...that's right. Plastic horses tied up in the street.

Photos of our trip!






All right, so these are the photos from our voyage to the Seattle Public Library, an absolutely fabulous, state-of-the-art facility. They start the Dewey decimal system at the top of their 10-floor building and spiral it town for 5 floors. It's amazing. I could move in there. But I won't.

Henry working at the studio.

WE'RE HOME!
After a week of city-hopping, Trevor and I are back home to Chicago, and happy to be off the road. We had a fabulous time and got to see a lot of the Pacific Northwest. We started in Portland, OR, to visit our friends Brenda and Derek (who are actually going to be moving back to the Midwest [Fargo, ND] sometime during the next year, which means more visits!). They took us around to see a lot of Portland's great sites, including:
1. VOODOO DONUT! That's right, the best damn donut shop I've ever been to! They had a donut covered in Coco Puffs, which was delicious. Derek reported that they do occasionally stock a maple bar w/ a piece of bacon on it (not good for Trevor, and actually, not sure if it's good for me...).
2. The Rose Garden in Washington Park which was the best smelling park I've ever visited! They also took us for a drive through the hills in/throughout the park where little bungalows were nestled among the trees. It was amazing, if not a bit steep for my taste (thank god I wasn't driving).
3. Shopping! We went to a bunch of neighborhoods and got some terrific shopping--both window shopping and actual shopping--done. It was great. Each jag was followed by a stop of some sort to get a bite to eat and rest our tired shopping feet. Which brings me to the greatest attraction...
4. The COFFEE (and food, and beer...but, mostly the coffee.). There was an amazing coffee shop on nearly every corner, and each one we visited had amazing pastries and just delicious coffee. B. and D. introduced us to the Americano, which I'd never thought much about before, since Chicago's such a drip coffee-town, but that's more normal out West, and since espresso is their specialty, we tried some and fell in love. Just great. It was most definitely the best tasting vacation I've ever had.
5. POWELL'S CITY OF BOOKS! I saved the best for last. It was the best book store I've ever been to, and I barely got off of the first floor! I got books, books, and more books, and had to jam them all into my suitcase (because of course I overpacked for the trip) and my purse to get them all home. But it was worth it. Trevor only got two, so I really needed to get as many as I did to make up for him! Unfortunately we were interrupted in the rare books section by the idiot doggie day care man, so we didn't get to buy anything old and cool, but Trevor found the first edition of a book we've got at home (one that his grandpa gave him a couple of months ago)--Trevor's is a first edition, fourth printing, and it was so neat to see an edition there in the special room!

Brenda and Derek were so hospitable and we had so much fun with them, so it was hard to leave on Wednesday morning. But Trevor and I gave them some hugs and got into our rental car to head for the Quinault Rain Forest. It was a lovely, if not a bit rainy, drive up. The lodge where we stayed was great: right on the lake, far from everything, surrounded by trees, across the street from some great hiking trails, and it didn't have any televisions or phones in the room. It was really quite nice. After Trevor and I snagged some ponchos from the gift shop, we headed out into the forest to do some hiking. Because of the drizzly weather, we were pretty alone on the trails, which was nice. The scenery was like nothing I've ever seen: lush beyond green, moss growing on everything, waterfalls and small rapids in all of the streams...it was heavenly. After a great dinner at the lodge, a game of Scrabble and some rest, Trevor and I took another hike before we left for Seattle in the morning. The second one was great, too, because we got to see a Banana Slug (they're quite friendly, and photogenic!) and the world's biggest Spruce tree, which was fun! It was very large, indeed. But we left the forest and took off for Seattle, still unable to put down the top on the rental car because of the spotty weather.

We arrived in Seattle in the late afternoon on Thursday to check in at the Moore Hotel in Belltown. The two of us were exhausted, but were made more so because our room wasn't quite ready for check-in. So we waited a while, got irritated, but finally got into the room and out into the city, which is what we were most anxious about. We hit the Pike Place Market for some wandering, grabbed a beer, and headed up to the Fremont neighborhood for dinner. The dinner (Thai food) was great, and the neighborhood was perfect for wandering around, so we hit a couple of record stores (scored some really good stuff...) and then headed back to Belltown to catch a drink at Rendezvous, a bar we'd heard of through a friend of ours (Jeremy Evans, who just got married to my old roommate, Jenn this weekend, which was the perfect start to our vacation!). And it turned out the guy we'd met at the wedding, Keith, was actually working when we arrived, so we chatted with him and, later, his girlfriend Rachel (who turned out to be a book nerd like me, so she was a blast!), and we had a wonderful time. We got free drinks, fabulous conversation, and Portland's smoke-free so we were able to come back to the hotel and not smell like a giant ashtray! It was great. Friday morning we grabbed coffee at Monorail Espresso (per Rachel's recommendation, and she was sooo on the money!), Trevor passed out one of his new buttons to a Seattle biker, who seemed very impressed, and headed up to the new Seattle Public Library. It was GORgeous. Steel and glass everywhere, a Dewey Decimal System Sprial that we walked (haven't we seen this corner before?) and a great gift shop where I went a little kookoo for book paraphanalia. Trevor had to drag me out of there to see some more sights. We headed up to the Ballard neighborhood to see a book store that turned out to be closed due to renovations, which kind of stunk, but the area was a lot of fun for more wandering, so we hung around for a while. I tried a Seattle style hot-dog at a gourmet frank stand (they had veggie dogs for Trevor!) which included onions, mustard, and cheese. Quite tasty. We had a great dinner later that night at a fancy but comfortable restaurant where we had a great meal made with all organic ingredients. My friend Brian (an old Chicago Shakespeare buddy who's moved out to Seattle to tour w/ his singer/songwriter sister Rosie, but who's going to move back to the Midwest in the fall.) met us out for a few drinks, and it was great to see him. By the end of the night we were pooped, but not too pooped to wake up and grab some breakfast from the Crumpet Shop at the Market! They were delicious, as was the tea, then we took off back to Portland. And the weather was finally nice enough to put the top down on our convertible!

So we cruised back down to Oregon, finally found their inconspicuous airport, and made a quite spacious flight back to Chicago.

Whew! It was such a fun trip, and Trevor's got some great pictures. I hopefully got some good shots, too, so as soon as I develop we'll post some up here!

Well, it's off to bed before work in the morning! Until next time, True Believers!

BORK-POWER!