Chocolate

I just want to state for the record that Vosges Haut Chocolat Barcelona Bar may be the best chocolate bar I have ever had. I first had one last summer when my friend Terry got me some ridiculously good treats. They're kind of spendy, so I've only had a few since, but they really are damn good.

That's all I needed to share today.

RIP Utah Phillips

Folk hero U. Utah Phillips has died of heart failure. My post(s) about it are located on my music blog, so please go there to read.

Horses in Portland

Since my cousin Katie is blogging all the time now, maybe I'll see how long I can keep up with the frequent posts.

So tonight I am excited about the Portland Horse Project. Portland is full of old metal rings embedded in the sidewalks of older neighborhoods. These rings were used to tie horses to back in the day. Three years ago, a guy named Scott decided they should go to some use. I didn't know any of this until just now. I just saw horses tethered to rings around town and it always made me happy. When I realized that the house I bought this winter had a horse ring right in front of it, I was thrilled. I knew then that I could live here. But I also knew I needed to get a horse, and I didn't know where to find the right one or how to tether it. Now I have complete instructions.

Plastic horses as public art. This is why I love Portland.

If you don't live in Portland or are not familiar with all this, you have to read up on this and/or check out more of the pictures. And look out for my horse, coming soon. I have just the person in mind to help me...


*Pictures taken by/borrowed from Scott Wayne Indiana. Thank you.

New blog report

Just a short post to let you know that there are two great new blogs you should check out. Totally unrelated, but both written by very cool people who are doing great work in the world.

Four Little Feet is the blog of my friend Jennie and her boyfriend Ethan, who are about to embark on a summer internship with Save the Children in Guatamala. There are sure to be fun and interesting adventures in store there.

Wonkasaurus is the blog of my cousin Katie (not sure if I can ever call her Katherine, but you should), who is in DC working on food/nutrition issues for the Migrant Legal Action Program. I am going to leave it to you to find out the rest of the details, but there's some thought-provoking stuff there and she's a great writer. If you want to see Katie, go here.

PS One more new (to me) blog to check out is Octopus Jenny, the cool mama of a new charge of mine, who I look forward to getting to know more next month. They went to Obama, too...

Support their blogs and visit often!

Obama in Portland

This afternoon, Happie (my grandmother) and I went to see Obama speak at the waterfront. She's been a fan of Obama for longer than I have, and was very excited to see him in person. At first we weren't sure we'd get in because the lines was blocks and blocks long, but we did. People were very gracious and helpful to Happie, helping her up and down from the grass, bringing her cold water. Not so bad to be 88, maybe. :)

They say there were 75,000 people there, a record for any rally in any city during this campaign (more than twice his next largest crowd). It was pretty awesome. Makes me damn proud to be a Portlander. See below for some video clips, one of a political nature, one not so much (posted with permission though).








PS And then there's a much clearer better video of Obama speaking, no shaking like mine. I like having my own though. But I just watched this one and it almost made me cry. I can't say why, but he just feels a lot less like a politician than everyone else. Maybe it's naive to be smitten by it, but I'll take it. Bless the Clintons for trying for so long, but they're done. Gotta love the ending music on this video, signed, sealed, delivered...

My new fence!

So my new fence is almost done and it's so beautiful. Shoshana did some cool things with bamboo in the front part and in the gate. If you ever need a fence (or a shed or anything else) built, let me know and I'll put you in touch with her.

Here's Sailor and Josie checking out a piece of cedar.

Fun with my new MacBook...

So I got a new MacBook and I'm pretty psyched. I tried to delay it, but my keyboard died and I was tired of throwing money at the old one. So far my favorite things about the new one are video Skyping (I get to talk to Makaylah in Cairo) and Photo Booth. And I like the working keyboard.

Here's what Photo Booth does, some of my favorite examples.





Sailor and Shoshana came over to start building me a fence this morning, but the lumber didn't arrive so we had to take silly pictures with Emma Lou instead.