twenty-six

Yesterday was my 26th birthday. I dressed very casually, wearing my new thongs, and felt good as I got to work. Work was lame, but afterwards Scott, Jason, Michelle and I tried the Rose and Thistle pub for dinner. It was about as Scottish as Woolite, with nary a Scottish ale on tap. The bangers, beans and mash were great, but we left pretty quickly to find some cask ale. Rose and Raindrop provided, and despite the smoke, it was a fun time. I even won a game of Hearts.

This year’s birthday cake was a special request. Rice Crispy treats. They were good. Not “like mom makes” good, but still good. I think I’ll go have some.

Dog Daze of Summer 2004

Because we’re absurd parents, we took Barley to Clackamas County’s Dog Daze of Summer. Its the last day of operation when the county lets dogs play in the pools before they get cleaned out for the winter.

Barley at Dog Daze 2004

There were several sessions, and we were able to get Roo over for the last session at 6pm. The parking lot was packed with large sporting dogs – more retrievers than anything, but lots of others who had no idea what was going on, and why there were so many dogs in one place.

Once they were let in (with a suggested last minute walk around the park), chaos met it’s match. Dogs were running everywhere, splashing jubilantly, barking happily, and getting really wet. Barley took a quick few laps into the wave pool then ran with a pack to the upper level, where he jumped up into an empty hot tub, falling 5 feet into the basin. Our hearts stopped until his dopey grin appeared over the edge again, just as freaking happy as ever. He continued playing in multiple pools, fetching other dogs’ toys, feeling important, and getting people wet.

Eventually we coaxed him off the ledge into the deep pool where he started chasing a spaniel rather aggressively for a ball he felt was his. He continued to harass the spaniel for a bit until we decided he’d had enough. Its better to leave while he still works. I’m not sure if he was just in a good mood, or was thankful, or what, but he was rather gracious about getting a bath afterwards.

Camping at Fort Stevens

Michelle, Barley and I went camping with my recently returned parents at Fort Stevens. Despite the fairly consistent rain, we had a great time, ate well, and lost two games of Trivial Pursuit.

I inadvertently left the rain fly open on the far side of the tent while it rained, so our first night was rather wet. Both our pillows were sitting in the puddle that formed in the tent, as well as my sleeping bag. Fortunately, it was warm enough that we didn’t go hypothermic. One advantage of modern materials.

Notes in the Chiminea

Chiminea fire full of bar exam notes

Thursday night after getting the Bar results, we hit up the Hillsdale Pub for one last law school celebration. We’d been there several times over the last 3 years for celebration and commiseration. It seemed a fitting place.

Afterwards we christened the new hand-me-down chiminea with a ritual note card and subject outline burning. The notecards when quickly, but the outlines fed the fire for nearly 20 minutes. A few times flames would just out the top of the chimney, signaling that we’d put a few too many secure transaction pages on. For fun and trivia, we’d try to decipher the meaning of the crypic bullet points on random pages, none of which made any sense to anyone but Michelle. We enjoyed burning them just as much though.

Nader restricted from Oregon Ballot

Ralph Nader, possibly the only person who has displayed a lifelong willingness to fight bad companies (see earlier post), has been shunted off the Oregon Presidential Ballot this fall. I really like Ralph Nader, and really doubt that he’s a threat to John Kerry. The fact that he was a detriment to Al Gore in the first place was a very bad sign for the candidate.

I really dislike how democrats are treating someone who has done more for the causes they supposedly support for so long. And I really dislike the signature trading, name on ballot blocking, and general scurviness of both parties lately. Seems they could both use the jackass for a logo. Oooh – or better – the parts left over from the push-me-pull-you.

Ass Party