Westmoreland Asays

Buttload of Gangs Napolean was obviously lying about all the gang activity going down at Preston High. What he didn't realize--or maybe he did--was that the gang activity was centralized a few miles down the road in Logan. This documentary captures it all (you gotta watch all 12 parts). A friend of mine co-starred in this (and I hung out with the creators on occasion), and I saw it on the big screen in Logan, so maybe that's why I find it so funny. But you decide for yourself . . . WWDD? What Would Don Do (of course--duh!). You can own your very own if you take this quiz (for the record, I got all answers correct on my first turn--he's very much a guy after my own heart). Don has a retail store in Logan , which we plan on visiting on our road trip next month.

Meg came back from her walk this morning and reported that there was a road bike available at a garage sale one block away. She insisted that I come look at it, so I did with hesitation (why did I want another bike?). Even though the bike is probably a little on the small side for me , it was in pretty good shape--and made in Japan . So I gave the man five bucks and rode home happy. I cleaned it up during lunch and can't wait to take it for a spin one of these days. I don't think it is anything vintage or special, but it's pretty cool (read: retro). The guy was also selling a 16" bike for five bucks , which we bought for Aaron. His goal is to learn to ride without training wheels by summer's end, and I was helping him the other night when I tried riding it for him (to show him that it was possible to ride his bike--we were both getting pretty frustrated) and blew out the back tire--whoops. I just need to get a new tube, but it was just as cheap to buy this...

During the three years I played baseball at McNary, I had at most two extra base hits (although one was the best hit ever--it would have gone over the fence if there was one); I was an offensive liability (albeit on a championship team). So I loved getting hit by the pitch because that was the best, high-percentage way I could help out the team on offense, besides pinch-running for the slow guys on the team. So it's great to see Aunt Megan following suit. She called the other night to report that she and Alice had been in an accident (not her fault). Although most people wouldn't even have noticed the slight damage to the front-end, the cost to complete the body work was about as much I could sell the car (pre-accident) on craigslist. So we're taking the guilty party's insurance money and running for the hills of Tigard, where currently resides a well-maintained 1993.5 Infiniti G20 (I forgot to take a picture, but it looks something like this ). My Megan, I guess,...

Aaron and I went to a Volcanoes baseball game tonight. We had decent seats a few rows behind the first base dugout, so we had good views of the Volcanoes easily besting the lowly Canadiens of Vancouver. Aaron paid attention to some of the game, but he was really more focussed on eating candy and playing with the 6-year old girl that sat next to him. They shared popcorn; greetings and meetings with Crater, the Volcanoes' mascot; friendly non-stop banter; and our blanket after the sun disappeared from the horizon. The cutest part was during the post-game fireworks show, when the little girl rested her arm on Aaron's shoulder.

On my run through Portland Heights yesterday, I experienced something like a brownout , where my vision would flash on and off at times and I felt like I was losing my balance. I'm not sure why this happened, or what i means, but I think it was just a fluke associated with the very hot weather that has invaded Western Oregon. Or was it . . . Well today I was running through the Park Blocks when I spotted Kevin " The Assassin " Durant--well, an athletic black man standing about 6'9" wearing a Sonics shirt and consulting a map for directions. With both Nike and Adidas (who are headquartered in Portland) still courting Durant for a shoe endoresment, there was legitimate reason for him being in Portland (forget for a moment that he is in Vegas playing summer ball). But as I got closer, it clearly wasn't him--nuts.

Let's start out by saying we set a record high temperature today (102, and it is still 90 degrees out there at 9:40 p.m.) in Western Oregon--YUCK. Apparently, the heat has warped the minds of at least one of the Asay animals. After coming home from work, I picked some peas from the garden, walked over to a shady spot on the grass, and began to supp on the richness of the earth. Edward came over shortly and begged for some peas--he's a lover of all foods fresh from the ground. So I opened a pea pod, placed the peas in my cupped hand, and offered them to him. Instead of using his tiny hand to grab them and run away, he stuck his whole face into my palm and made animal-like sounds while he quickly gorged the tiny green treasures. He did this until I ran out of peas, or until he figured out he was being filmed--I can't remember which.

I was riding home in the van when I heard that the Blazers selected Greg Oden instead of my favorite, Kevin Durant. Despite what most of the analysts and beat writers said, I still had hopes that Pritchard would select Durant. I was disappointed for about five minutes, until I remembered that the Blazers still got a heck of a player in Oden, who will immediately help the Blazers back to the playoffs (I'm predicting a #6 seed, but more so because of my favorite players, Brandon Roy and Lamarcus Aldridge ). I watched his first summer league game from my computer, and boy did he look clueless (he didn't improve much with the second game, either, although I was at church and couldn't watch it). Almost every time he tried to defend someone, he fouled him; he badly missed all three of his free-throw attempts; and he racked up 10 fouls in only 20 minutes of play. I'm not passing judgment or anything, but this kid has a long way to come. I think a lot of fans will be disa...