Westmoreland Asays

During winter break I learned from The Twitter that  +Ken Jennings had spoken at Google. I watched his talk in the living room while the older boys were playing games or something, and Aaron watched bits and pieces with me. Ken's one of my favorite mormon celebrities, someone I would invite to my birthday party, and the smartest guy I pretend to know, so my family knows of the bromance I have with him. When I saw that Ken was coming to Portland, I marked it on my calendar and asked Aaron if he'd like to go. He jumped at the opportunity (Aaron and I also had gift cards to spend at Powell's, and Aaron has been begging to visit the legendary store ever since we moved back to the area). We rode the bus into downtown and enjoyed a leisurely walk to Burnside. The store might not seem that impressive from the street, but once we were inside, Aaron slowed down and was overwhelmed trying to take it all in. We spent a little bit walking around the first floor in the children...

A few weeks ago  +Meg  passed a Christmas card in front of my eyes. It was postcard-sized and had a high-quality photograph of a nice-looking family on the back. I didn't recognize the adults, but the kids--a boy and a girl of similar age--looked vaguely familiar. Upon further review, I understood the girl to be one of Edward's peers from school, but I couldn't quite identify the boy. Meg was laughing in the background at my confusion when I realized the boy was Edward. Huh? The couple lived around the corner from us at our previous house in Sellwood, and apparently they like to send out zany Christmas cards. So while they were all attending a holiday craft fair at the school, they grabbed two kids who weren't theirs, took a photo together, and passed it off as their own family. I don't think Meg would go for something fun like this, but I thought it was the best Christmas card we had ever received. I just don't know how they convinced Edward to go along for t...

A friend ( +Andy Schmidt) invited me on a "20-mile" ride on New Year's. I failed to take into account the getting to and from parts, so it ended up being around a 36 mile ride--a new record for me. I find it difficult to get away from my duties as salary-man, husband, and father for more than a few hours at a time, so I was grateful to +Megan Asay for understanding and filling in for my void. After making sure my mountain bike was sound for a long ride, I left around 10:30 to meet Andy and his friends in NW Portland. Within about 15 minutes of arriving, our group of 13 set out for a ride of varying degrees of difficulty and terrain. Riding on a holiday proved to be quite excellent, as the previous night's drunks were all in jail or passed out at home and thus not clogging and endangering the world with their cars. Our first destination was Pittock Mansion, and to get there we had to ride up some very steep hills and portage our bikes up at least three differe...