Westmoreland Asays

Our neighbor, Jimmy A few weeks ago our neighbor approached us with a petition to shut down our little street so he could sponsor a block party. We had a similar event back in August, but he said something about wanting to have a Civil War get-together or something. Okay, no problem; we're all about having fun. Turns out he just wanted to celebrate his birthday with the whole neighborhood. His date also coincided with a get-together that Meg had set up for Aaron and some of his friends to come over, hang out, eat lots of junk food, and celebrate his birthday. Having the two parties overlap worked out better than expected--they ebbed and flowed with each other, and the mild, rain-free weather made it all the better. Meg had invited about eight boys to the gathering, but we ended up with about twice that because of all the attendance at our block party--which was also helped by the special guest appearance of the sun. The fire burned all day and well into the night I think

Crazy stat: 14 kids, 12 boys Now that both Meg's and my parents have ripped their roots forever from Oregon, we had to find a different way to celebrate Thanksgiving. Meg's sister in Dallas (Oregon) decided to host Thanksgiving, while Meg offered our place for Christmas. I'm the last of the Asays in Oregon, but Meg has two brothers and one sister still around, and her younger brother Paul and his wife drove from Utah to visit, including a couple of days spent with us in Portland. The drive to Dallas took about 90 minutes, and took us through parts of Keizer and Salem, but fortunately no one uttered a desire to return to our former home. Aaron and I wanted to play in the annual soccer game, so we suited up and drove over to a nearby park to join the in-progress game. In the past, when we played in Sherwood, the weather never mattered much because of the all-season turf field at the park across from their homestead; but it had been raining all day, every day for a week-

Meg declared this week her birth-week of celebration and, with tonight being the pinnacle event, we rode the bus into the central city, got off a few stops too early, and walked about 20 blocks through the rain to the Oregon Culinary Institute, a place Meg says she has longed to visit for many years. Upon arrival, an older woman opened the locked door for us, even though we were 30 minutes early. She was with a group of 20 other older women, reminding me of the I Love Lucy bus scene from the movie Rat Race. Meg and I mingled with them for a few brief moments, eliciting much laughter from our sharp sense of humor and ability to play off the audience surrounding us. Meg had forwarded me the menu a few days prior and, even though I didn't understand what the fancy dishes were, I set my expectations pretty low because I have been known to be picky. But I think we both enjoyed our four-course meal, although I donated my appetizer to Meg, but I made up for it by devouring the ext