Spring blooms

Portland has been blessed with quite a few sunshiney days this year. This has been bad for the snow on the mountain, but great for the flowers around town. I have not been riding my bike near as much as I want to be lately, but as I was cruising up to a babysitting gig through the park, I remembered why I miss it so much. You see things when you are on your bike (or on foot). The world just moves slower and it is nice to have music in your ears and notice the small things.

My camera has also been in the shop (sadly) so I have felt out of touch with creativity. Thankfully, my girlfriend Robin tipped me off to this great new iPhone app that takes Polaroid pictures. Love.

The magnolias are in full bloom including this gorgeous JC Magnolia in Washington Park. The Rose Garden is far from the only point of interest up in those west hills!
And as I was leaving work last night, I noticed the street lights had a funny way of making the cherry blossoms glow. Breathtaking against the wet streets and crisp air.

You can see more of this teaser spring bloom here.

Get RAW

I can honestly say this week I did something I never thought I would do...and I liked it. *gasp!*

Dylan's brother Neebin asked us if we would like to go see a show last week. My brain started flipping through all the possible musical options and when we asked what show we got a surprising reply...WWE Wrestling.

I'm always open to new ideas and I love getting out of the house with my boys so off we went to witness Monday Night RAW. I was anticipating a spectacle of outrageous, over the top people and while it is true that the people watching distracted me from the actual show about 80% of the time, it was for a completely unexpected reason. There were so many families in the crowd with little kids and they were all having such a great time.

I came to realize that I might not have been into watching wrestling as a kid, but these little tykes LOVE it. This drama is REAL to them and their parents just made their year by bringing them to this show.

This kid in particular was a riot. He was jumping up and down screaming at the top of his lungs for his hero, John Cena, to get up and "jump off the ropes". His dad could barely stay awake during most of the show, but seeing his son watch his idol made him just beam with joy during that short (unbelievely unfair) match.

Even just watching Dylan and Neebin made me laugh. They grew up with this and I'm pretty sure there was some sort of time warp that happened as soon as we stepped through the doors. They were like little kids again. Gossiping back and forth, laughing that the Undertaker is still in business. Soon I realized I was beaming just as much as the dad a row down. I expected some aggressive, angry mob mentality and although Dylan swears the "testosterone was just palpable!" I felt nothing but good energy from the crowd.

All walks of life make it out to the WWE and I gotta say it was fantastastic. Shockingly fantastic.

Home improvement

It has been such a crazy year and I need some good distractions. Dylan needs some new paint and a few things done around the house.

We have both been so busy with a total home makeover and I don't have many pictures yet but just to give you an idea of what's to come, here's the first before and after...

Puppy love

Little Ezio continues to crack me up on a daily basis. He contorts himself into the strangest positions and falls asleep upside down more than right side up. Sometimes he will just be in the middle of playing with a toy and decide it's time for a nap instead. It's like a little kid falling asleep in the spaghetti bowl.

Overall he has been very good and we have had minimal casualties to puppyhood around the house. Although, one day last week, I did come home to find he had eaten his dad's leg off...