Poll!

In the last two years, my hubby's blog has suffered great neglect. At first, it was happy and thankful to deliver a post every week or so. Then, it started dwindling to once a month. Now, it's almost once a year. Now, I may be the only one who cares that he hasn't posted (he's claiming as such; he says I say everything for the both of us - but really, we ARE two different people, and I definitely don't speak for the "family"), but that's why I'm taking a poll.

Please take a moment to vote! It's just in the right-hand column.

So, we're pretty much all moved in to Newberg. We still have a few things to wrap up at our old place (since we had paid through the month, that allowed the luxury of taking things a little more slowly), but I'm feeling pretty much at home. My initial reaction to Newberg:

*Totally small town. I'm feeling a little isolated.
*I really like Oregon's wine country (Newberg is considered its "capital"). It's gorgeous. Gas prices have limited our adventuring, though. But I bet I'd like it more if I actually drank wine, not just looked at the vines.
*My commute has been shortened to 20 minutes, versus 50 a'la Tualatin. Woot!
*I miss my Old Navy, Target, Best Buy, Carl's Jr, and Claim Jumper. There aren't many food choices here, unless you're a big wine bar fan. This place is crawling with them.

Grr.

This week, I've been attending the Coalition for Essential Schools (CES) conference here in PDX. I'm lucky, because it IS in PDX, but it's the national conference so I'm able to "network" with some big whopadeedahs on the national scene. Also, I've been able to take two students along with me (and Caan, the counselor, who is also attending with us). The conference has more than lived up to my expectations (which were admittedly low to begin with), what with the high level of professional dialogue occurring and also the fantastic food (thank you, Sheraton!)
But even though I've had this really fantastic week to be one representative of MACA on a national level, at a relatively small workshop, and learn some really intense things (think discussions on race, equity, social justice; one of my workshops was entitled "The Unexamined Whiteness of Teaching"), I've been distracted. Poor Hubby, I've neglected him for days. All I've been doing is reading the blasted Twilight series. I started the first book on Sunday afternoon, and dangit if I haven't just finished the second. And I'm thoroughly into the third. Harry Potter didn't even keep me reading for so many hours on end. I blame my in-laws for encouraging this.
On one level I'm a little embarassed that a teen romance about vampires has hooked me so intently. So, I tell myself that I'm reading so I can connect with my students. And I tell myself that it's a New York Times best-seller so I'm not the only adult who has appreciated it. And I tell myself that it has more than 500 pages so that counts as real grown-up reading. But I can't lie to myself any longer; I've finally found a non-Austin romance that I can let myself get carried away by.
*sigh*
And now I have to wait until August 2nd for the fourth book to come out.

My friend Laura posted these videos, and I just had to pass them along. She's got really terrific things on her blog, btw, and I highly recommend a browse. I imagine her sitting on YouTube for hours, finding all the old randomness it has to offer, then sharing with us. Kind of like a filter with holes only big enough for these little gems of delight to fall through.

Anyway, the first is the original "Space Oddity" video. Notice how young Bowie looks, and how low-budget it is.



I think this second video used even less money. Most of it, I imagine, went toward David's hair dye. I can picture the director saying, "Well, our budget went toward sequins and hair dye... let's get some shots of the soundboard and pretend it's in space!"