I am an Oregonian

I would like to officially apologize for leaving my blog as a picture of my big fat mug for so long. When I wrote that "How do we look?" blog, my intention was to get a couple of responses and them write a new blog a few days later. Um, oops. It has now been there for MORE THAN A MONTH! It started to feel a little desperate and if you were thinking we were a bit desperate, I am sorry. Please let it be noted that posting that picture was my idea and not at all my wife's. She's too classy for that. And now, on to tonight's featured blog.
NOTE: Why are my blogs always lists? Does that mean I am a bad writer? Eric?

I love this state. I think this blog has made that obvious enough. But I don't quite feel like I belong yet. I heard once that you have to live in New York City for 10 years before you can be "A New Yorker." I don't know what our waiting period is here. I think if you own a bike, a Columbia Jacket and shoes purchased at REI (check, check and check, BTW) you're pretty much there. But I still feel a little silly referring to myself as an Oregonian after only living here for 6 months. I do think I have hit some major milestones on the road to stateizenship (so I make up words. Jealous?) and I wanted to share.


1) I let my lawn die. Not on purpose. We went to Utah in June and we don't have an automatic sprinkler system. So it died. In Utah, that would be justification enough for your neighborhood to draw and quarter you and bathe in your blood. Not here! Here, a lot of people let their lawns die. We love the environment in Oregon more than the rest of you. We love it so much that we think it is wasteful to use water to keeps lawns alive. That's so 1988. We just let them die and then they naturally come back to life when the autumnal showers come. Or we just accidentally let them die and then pretend it is because of our love for Mother Nature. Seriously, how white trash do my kids look in this picture?

2) We broke down and bought reusable grocery bags. Those nice people at Trader Joe's were starting to look angry when we asked for regular bags. Here is my environmental question of the day: Isn't the amount of energy and carbon being used to manufacture all of the reusable bags that are so trendy right now sort of off setting their green-ness? I don't know. I am not a scientist. I am just another Oregonian with reusable bags.

3) We own bikes. We bought them in the spring when we first got them. In the beginning, we used them quite a bit. Then the heat of summer came (85 degrees. Sweltering) and we stopped for a bit. We pulled them out again for a Labor Day ride and either I am even more out of shape than I used to be (probably true) or my kids have tripled in size since the beginning of the spring. It nearly killed me to go up a hill.

4) I have an Oregon drivers license. It is apparently the law here that you get one when you move into the state, which I think is actually the law in most states. When I went to the DMV there was a little notice on the door that said that by entering the premises, you were consenting to have your image used on TV. Huh? That seemed odd, until I walked in and saw him:
Matt Roloff! Star of Little People, Big World, which if you are just tuning in, is filmed a few miles from our house! He was getting a driver's licence, which seems like a good thing to be at the DMV for. I am a student of reality TV, so I didn't do anything stupid, or look at the cameras or whatever. I accepted my role as "background" and went in and sat down with a real bored look on my face so they could cut to establishing shots of me as "bored looking guy at the DMV." Then Matt sat RIGHT NEXT TO ME!! Then his number got called (which seems to happen REAL fast if you are at the DMV and also on a reality TV show) and he got up and left. I realized I had forgotten something in my car so I ran out to get it and when I was walking back in, he was walking out. I held the door for him, which he didn't use, because he is NOT disabled. He can get the door for himself, thank you very much. I hope I don't cause too much trouble in the editing room, because first I was sitting next to him, and then I was opening the door for him as he left which may throw off the continuity of the episode. Also, I was wearing a bright orange polo, so even if you don't see my face, you can see the polo and know it is me.

So hooray for being an Oregonian. I am going to try not to make my next entry be a list. I think it is getting a little old. I have some lovely pictures of a recent trip to Bear Lake to post, so stay tuned. I will leave you with this awesome sneak peak:
Stay tuned!!