Whoa. Wha? October?!

Crud - I did it again. Old habits die hard, and new ones are, uh, hard to grow. (?) Sorry all that I've been a little irregular lately. You know what I mean!

It's been busy between work, taking classes, and dealing with the mundane. There were some cool things mixed in there, but hadn't had time to get them put on here. I'll try and go back and put them in...

Today was one of those days that took a step or two away from the typical day:

I wake up with that feeling like something's wrong. You know, when the adrenaline hits and you don't even know why yet. It seemed too bright outside for the time I was supposed to be up. Ugh. My cell phone aka my alarm clock. Is dead. Apparently the connection where the charger plugs in has finally worn out. Heck, I've only had the phone for 4 years. I run into the hall to see what time it is: 7:58am. Sweet. Two minutes to get to work on time. Oh yeah, that's right. The car had started freaking out last night and needs to be towed to a repair shop now that places are open. (Possibly transmission-related) Awesome.

I was going to wait until I was at work to take care of the car business, but with my only phone being out, I had to do something about it all now. Carefully plugging in the charger at just the right angle, putting the cell on speakerphone, and placing on a book, I managed to get a call in to someone at work letting them know my car's dead and my phone's dead, but I will try and make it in when I can. (I felt like Jim Carey trying to talk on his busted cell phone in Liar Liar)

So I walked a few blocks down the street, picked out my new phone/calendar/only alarm clock, plugged it into the wall and started calling around for auto shops and tow trucks. By the time all was said and done, the day was pretty much over. Guess this week will be 4-10's, eh?

John's Bday Trip to Portland

For his birthday, my brother John opted to head up to Portland to go to the zoo, bowl, and hang out with his other brother Mike who lives up there. They later went on to see the Blazers scrimmage for free (I knew I came home too soon!), but here's an account of when I was involved. I stole some of the pics from Dad due to camera battery issues, well, okay most of the pics but they were awesome. For his birthday, we finally told John where he actually came from:

Came out a little blurry, but I still like this pic:

My sister's worst nightmare. (The birds, that is)

A highlight of the zoo trip: the cooler weather leaves the predators a little more energetic. One of the lionesses came right up the the glass wall. If that wall wasn't there, I could have reached out and touched her!

Minimal zoom, baby!

I like this one:

No pictures of the bowling or eating, but we all know what that looks like anyway.