Today was my birthday! :)

Played tennis today. Did pretty well, getting out of a recent slump.

Tonight we had my family birthday party. I got an orange Mike Hass jersey, some golf balls, some tennis balls, a tennis racket!, uhhhh that's about it. Some other random stuff, but overall it was fun.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article_rss/were_not_in_lake_wobegon_anymore/

On Wednesday we packed up the family car (Outback) and headed off on a mini-road trip. Yay!

First we drove to Hood River to see some Ford car convention, every car there was from 1932-1953 because they all had the same flathead motor or something (like I was paying attention to that part). Anywho, that was fun, but after about a hundred old cars you get sick of it. A highlight was that someone forget to move their 1994 Mazda Protegé from the parkling lot so the convention just kind of built around it. I turned the corner and saw my beauty in the middle of the rest, it was kind of funny. First off you don't see them very often, but then seeing it in the middle of all these old cars was weird. It was actually a lot smaller than the old sedans.

Next we quickly crossed the Washington border and went to the Maryhill Muesem. It had stuff that you would find in meusems and was mildly interesting.We then drove back across the border (mind you the bridge across the Columbia River was about 15 miles out of the way) and all the way to The Dalles, where we spent the night in the Comfort Inn. Twas comfortable.

We then woke up and headed towards Bend (why, I do not know), and I led us on a weird route using my dad's handy atlas. We wanted to visit some old Ghost Town called Shaniko so we took a few weird highways. We got there and it was pretty cool, not really a ghost town much anymore. We ate in the little café there and headed back on the road.

We stopped along the way at this waterfall (forget the name). It was really cool and the water was curned up so it looked like chocolate milk was streaming down. You could go along a little path and down to this old power plant, sitting next to the chocolate milk river. The power plant was built in 1912 and abandoned pretty quickly. The whole scene kind of looked like something out of Myst, wish I would have brought my camera.

We continued to Bend, arriving at three o'clock or so. I stayed in the room while my parents went on a hike and watched the gold medal soccer game. Our women didn't choke (like the men) and won the gold. It was fun. I read my book. I ate M&M's. My parents came back and we went out to dinner. I had a Caesar salad that was really good, and the restaurant had TVs so I didn't have to miss the Olympics (muahhaha). We came back and went to bed.

The next morning we woke up, watched a movie on HBO (Dances With Wolves), then headed back towards Portland. Along the way we stopped and checked out a campground, but it wasn't anything special. Four hours later in crap traffic we arrived back home. I was SO sick of the car. Bleh.

So, half hour later we have to go to the Nike Employee Store (my dad's friend can let us in once a year). I bought:
- Beaver long sleeve tee shirt
- Beaver short sleeve tee shirt
- PSU Vikings long sleeve tee shirt
- Black basketball shorts
- New basketball shoes
- New normal tennis shoes
- Socks

Thennnnnnnnnn we had to truck ass to some fricking chainsaw dealer in Tigard so my dad could pick up a chain for my grandma's lawnmower. The traffic was still bad and it took forever (Highway 217 and 99W, whatcha expect). We finally got home about an hour after leaving the store. Meh. No driving for me until Monday.

Good news! College football officially starts today! It's just one game, but hell, it kicks off three months of pure fun and good times! USC is gonna kick the shit out of Va Tech at 4:45 PST. Only seven more days until the Beavers kick it off against the defending National Champs. Then, twelve Saturdays later, I'm going to the Civil War.

Had registration today. Was good to see all of the people I haven't over the summer, but being in the high school was very depressing. Especially since it was pouring rain and cold outside like it is for 95% of the school year. Sigh.

Played baseball today at the high school and hit my first ever home run. It was a line drive shot that cleared the fence in dead center field. And that was the highlight of my day so far... sad.

Agreeing with Defenders and other plaintiffs, a federal court struck down the Bush administration's attempt to weaken the "dolphin-safe" label on tuna. The administration had issued a rule change on New Years Eve in 2002 that would have allowed tuna caught by chasing, encircling and netting on top of dolphins to be labeled "dolphin-safe." The judge in the case, commenting on how the White House ignored science, said that he had never, in the court's 24 years, "reviewed a record of agency action that contained such a compelling portrait of political meddling."

In the first-ever nationwide study by the Environmental Protection Agency, data shows that more than half of all freshwater fish in the U.S. may be unsafe for women of childbearing age to eat twice a week because of high levels of mercury. In addition, more than 75 percent of fish may be unhealthy for children less than 3 years of age. Mercury originates from a number of sources, but the largest source in the U.S. is from coal-fired power plants. The Bush administration has proposed regulations that will release five times as much mercury as would be allowed under existing environmental laws.

Hopefully this administration that has little regard for our environment will be out of office soon.

Got back from Roseburg on Sunday. I've been busy lately and am getting REALLY sick of work. Every freaking day for five hours. It's not that bad, it just isn't very engaging. I look forward to going back to just two hours a day or so during the school year.

Nothing much else is going on really. I'm kinda getting burnt out with summer... it's been really hot lately so it's not that much fun to do stuff outside. Meh, football starts soon, and I have Civil War tickets.

Leaving for Roseburg in the morning. Max bailed, but it will still be fun. Nothing beats Roseburg in August. Be back Sunday night at around 8:00 or so.

Beaver football practice has started as well, and the wide receivers are looking good. The new offensive linemen look decent as well, so hopefully they can pick up where they left off last year.

6-4, 6-3

Nothing new, just working. Oh yeah, I got a sexy 13" color TV from the early 80's with huge dials to change the channels. It's so cute... awwww...

Yesterday my family went to Hood River, Oregon for the afternoon. They have a really nice beach there on the Columbia river where you can lounge and swim. It seemed the whole rest of the state had the same idea, because it was PACKED. It was really fun though, the river was a perfect temperatue and it was just hot enough to swim. I swam a ways to an island in the middle of the river and back for fun... took about an hour. Anywho, that was fun.

This Friday I'm leaving again for Roseburg, but this will only be a short trip. We shall return late Sunday night. Max is coming along, so it should be fun. We camp on the river and take hikes up the river and stuff. Might bring my camera if I remember... get some pictures of our sexy campsite.

Played tennis yesterday for two hours in the hot afternoon sun. Then came home and ate dinner and promptly went to Juergen's park and played football for three hours (7:30-10:30). At about 9:30 we switched to a nearby neighborhood street so we could see. At the beginning I played wide receiver and caught about three long TD passes (Mike Hass style). Pretty soon though they caught on and double covered me so I switched to QB. That job is nice because you don't have to run so much. Went to work today then came home and went comatose on the couch. Still trying to wake up.. it's been a tiring week and it's my fault. Ah well, it was fun.

Well, it's been a tiring two days. Yesterday I went to work then came home. Two friends came over and we did our annual traditions "The Olympics". Basically we compete in a number of events and films them. Anyways by the time the competitions were over (4+ hours) I was pooped. So I sat my ass down and edited the thing down to a quick 12 minutes with fancy graphics and everything. Anywho I got to bed kinda late last night so I was really wasted at work today. I come home and promptly play baseball in the 85 degree heat for three hours. Normally baseball isn't that bad, but I was my team's pinch runner and was running all around the outfield fetching balls since our pitching sucks. Anywho, so I came home and was really tired. I think I ate too much at dinner cause now my stomach hurts... sigh. Ah well... I HAVE CIVIL WAR TICKETS!

Climbed to the top of Mt. Tabor today and saw my grandma. Also played tennis... 6-1,6-3.