the place we live....

Five Great Things About Portland
1. The months of March-September. We get sun like we get rain -- in big doses for months at a time.
2. The Time Zone. Most sporting events (like the recent NCAA championship) start showing at 9 pm on the East coast. In Oregon we get to see everything 3 hours earlier! Since we are big wimps about sleep, we see sporting events we would never see if we lived elsewhere in the country.
3. The airport. Did you know PDX has free wireless? And a restaurant that serves ten types of sausages? And 3 alternatives to Starbucks? And plentiful rocking chairs?
4. Green, green, green. Biodiesel stations, restaurants that serve only food grown in a 50 miles radius, a five-cent “return fee” on anything that can be recycled, organic beer, community supported agriculture and 6 different farmers markets.
5. Location. Mount Hood, Columbia River Gorge, Deschutes River, Mt St Helens, Willamette Valley, Pacific Crest Trail, the Long House, Buffalo Exchange, the Hawthorne Neighborhood, brew pubs, Rose test garden, Washington Park, Mt Tabor, L’Arche Nehalem, Stumptown Coffee, Cannon Beach, Newport

Five Things About Portland We Could Do Without
1. The months of October-April
2. The Time Zone. President Bush loves to make press announcements between 9 – 10 am EST, exactly the time when I on the West Coast am getting ready for work. No matter where you stand on the political chasm, hearing W’s voice at 6:30 in the morning is brutal. Hence we have developed a “No Bush Before Noon” rule in our house.
3. Travel. Living a 6 hour plane ride from my family. Jacob’s Iowa hometown is less intense flying-wise but most flights go into Omaha which adds two hours on to the trip. No weekend visits to the fams for us...
4. Misuse of the word Spirituality. We think this is way lame. For some reason the word “religion” went out of use in Portland a while ago. And instead of having the east coast sense to call secular humanism secular humanism, everyone here is into the vogue loosey-goosey term “spiritual.”
5. Couldn’t come up with a number 5…..

And on an unrelated note I couldn't help but add this amazing Colbert clip. I think we've watched this fifty times...