Portland or bust

So I'm back from Portland and I'm going to officially announce that I could live there. I'm not overly fond of big cities, but this is one where I could be happy. It was freakin' adorable. Plus it was just a beautiful weekend, and the trees were all changing color, and I got to see the fun parts of town, and I loved it. I could live right in those apartments pictured here and be happy. I wonder if Portland would mind my fat little dog. If it does, well, that's just a small price to pay.

I'm just kidding.

But the weekend was a rousing success. My presentation went well, I bought good books, and I found two (yes TWO) Elvis albums. I also ate good food and was witness to perhaps the funniest thing of the weekend. Ask Laura why she's afraid of metallic lunch boxes now. And why we aren't welcome at the collectible toys store.

Other highlights of the weekend:

1. A hilarious misunderstanding of "ties" versus "Thais" (as in people who are from Thailand) that also involved someone's (not mine) view that neckties are essentially just arrows pointing to a man's . . .uh . . . area.

2. Laura's opinion that gum is stupid because "Why would you chew something if you're not going to swallow?" A quote I can't wait to take out of context.

3. A sign at a rest stop simply labeled "Leaking Loads" with an arrow.

4. The failure of two relatively intelligient grad students to be able to pronounce regular words.

5. See the next post with two pictures of normal things taken out of context.