Westmoreland Asays

Not that I've ever tried to hide my liking of the Trailblazers, I've decided that it is time to announce officially that I am a fan and have been ever since I was young, so people don't confuse my apparent sudden liking with the blazer's latest round of good fortune. I've never camped out in the rain for tickets (pre-Rose Garden and jail-blazers), have only been to about five games total, and haven't followed them that closely, I've always been a fan and wished them well. I watched them on TV a lot this year, whenever I wasn't in school. Even though they lost a lot of games, it was exciting to see them play hard and and compete as a team. I've read and listened to the Blazer's GM (Kevin Pritchard) a lot, and I have a feeling--and I totally agree with him--that he will pick Durant over Oden. Or, possibly, the Blazers draft will Oden and trade him to Seattle for Durant and a future draft pick. I have watched both players (although only a cou...

UPDATE: No visit to the Santiam Canyon would be complete without recalling the countless trips here as a youth with Bart Stam. Here's a recent video of him working (Beware: 5 MB file). Aaron, Edward, Megan (the younger) and myself headed east for a hike in the Santiam Canyon, specifically along the little North Fork. I last ventured here in the summer of 1999, interestingly, with Megan-the-younger and Maren. I don't remember why I took them--M and D were probably vacationing somewhere nice and I kindly volunteered to watch the younglings. I also remember coming here with most of the family in 1994, probably around the 4th of July, and once with Doug Henshaw and some of the Kimball brothers--and I remember hiking up the river in my bare feet. Megan-the-older left us Friday after work to spend time in Beaverton with her sisters. Regardless, Aaron was our scout and led the entire hike at the point position. I was in the middle, carrying Edward-the-Monkey on my back. We wer...

I tire of Yahoo these days, so I've transitioned our photo site to Picasa (Google) . I can upload videos here, too; I've included a great one that Meg captured of Aaron's finish in the Awesome 3000 .

I haven't shaved in a while, and apparently not since I last saw my nephew Ethan (Booren, age 6.9). He asked why I was wearing a fake mustache. When I told him that it was real, he promply reached up and tried to rip it off my face--thankfully, he didn't pull very hard.

Aaron ran in the Awesome 3000 this morning. While the defending champion didn't repeat his stellar placing of last year , he had fun and ran hard through the finish line. Last year they had at least three different heats; this year they made everyone run in one huge heat, which caused a pile-up that never really dissipated . So the kids who were at the front of the line basically finished first. The race ended comically (at least for me), when Aaron plowed over a kid who was unwisely loitering right on top of the finish line. The best part was that Aaron didn't have an asthma attack like the last time he raced. Edward is gearing up for his debut next year. Last Wednesday night I needed to do some work in the clerk's office at church, so Edward I decided to go together (he woke up at about 6:00 p.m. from a nap, so he wasn't quite ready for bed). I had pulled out the jogger and was about to put him in it when he blasted out of the garage in direction of the chu...

I lament that we weren't able to hold onto our vacation home for long, but alas, the time has come to sell it . So many memories, so many stories, so many tears of joy . . .