Some words on my trip

I returned from Portland on Wednesday morning. Some brief snapshots of my trip...

- Number of Simpsons episodes watched (after not seeing an episode in so long): 5 1/2 (I fell asleep during one when I was still jetlagged).
- Number of visits to Powell's: 3 to the main downtown store, 1 to the Beaverton store (to see Daniel Handler and Colin Meloy) and 1 to the airport store while I was killing time til my flight.
- Number of books purchased at Powell's: 6, plus a map of Melbourne
- Number of (semi-) random people I went up and started talking to: 3
- Number of times I ate a burger on my own in my motel room: 3
- Number of times I ate dinner out in a restaurant on my own: 2
- Number of honest-to-goodness Dutch bakfietsen I saw in Portland: 1
- Number of hipsters I saw riding retro cruiser bikes: lost track of how many
- Amount of money charged to my credit card: yeah, let's not go there...

- Overheard at JC Penney's in Clackamas Town Center, a mom talking to her 5 or 6-year-old son who was messing about with the arm of a mannequin in the store: "If it falls off, they have to replace it with a human arm, you know. And whose arm do you think they're gonna use?"

- While doing some grocery shopping with my mom, she was complaining about my dad, whose memory is getting worse and worse. As we got to the end of an aisle, she was saying "I give up! Honestly and truly, I just give up!" And we turned the corner and there was a manager-looking woman from the grocery store. She looked a bit concerned and asked my mom "Is there anything I can help you find?" and my mom said no, but the woman was like "Are you sure? Is there something you're having trouble finding?" My mom answered "No, I'm just trying to lose a husband" which the woman didn't really know how to respond to, so she just said "Ok..." and walked on. My mom and I then had a bit of a giggle.

Photos from the trip to come soon (hopefully)...