Westmoreland Asays

I have a confession to make: I have never seen the movie Toy Story (nor its sequel--I did see Toy Story 3 a few weeks ago, though). As weak as an excuse as it is, it came out during my two-year hiatus from most things pop-culture, and I've never made the effort to watch it, even while raising three young boys. I bring this up because it fit so well with my favorite movie critics' question of the week , about which movie I'm ashamed that I've never seen. Of all the times Eric and Jeff have discussed my submission, I think today was my favorite. Have a listen below to the excerpt.

Eddie has been showing signs that he is ready to ditch his training wheels, so Meg took them off yesterday and helped him a couple of times until he was comfortable riding on his own. And now he rides like a pro. His transformation was quite similar to Aaron's : he read a book at school that sparked his interest in riding on just two wheels. He's very confident and had no trouble with the 6.5 mile round trip ride to OMSI this morning. And Ian got a new bike the other day. You might notice that his bike has no pedals, no chain, no gears, and no brakes. It's a pretty simple, lightweight bike that allows the rider to focus on one thing: balance. A co-worker introduced me to the idea and it sounded like it was a great way to teach kids how to ride a bike. Ian has really enjoyed this new bike, and it will be interesting to see how he progresses as he grows up.

Meg left town (on Amtrak) Thursday afternoon to visit her friend Susan in Seattle for five fun-filled, fantastic days free from husband, children. and testosterone. But wait, you say, doesn't that mean she wasn't around for Mother's Day? Why, yes, that is exactly right. Not everyone likes hearing flowery stories about their perfect mother at church ; in fact, it makes many women feel terrible, because in reality none measures up, no matter how good she is. Sometimes, mom is the one who burns the bacon . Regardless, I fully supported her leaving and was looking forward to some time away from the office to focus on my children. I made a list of things I wanted to do, and asked the kids to do the same (which they didn't do), but even though I didn't accomplish everything on the list, it helped me avoid just playing Angry Birds all day (I still haven't achieved three stars on every level--blasted pigs!). These five days taught me the difference between stay-at-ho...

We walked to Oaks Bottom for a family activity tonight. It's a Portland treasure that's only a half-mile from our house. Several landslides had closed the park for several months , but it had just re-opened a couple days ago. We just hiked along some of the different trails, enjoying the fresh air and the warm sunshine.