I'm in Portland this weekend to celebrate Travis's 3rd birthday with the families (ours and Trav's dad's). Tomorrow (14th) is the day, and we're taking a trip to the zoo to see the new baby elephant, Sam, and following that with a party/bbq in the afternoon. It's going to be good fun! With the help of one of my guy friends, I picked out an awesome remote control dump truck for the Zozo. I so don't know how to choose boy gifts, especially as they get older, so it's incredibly helpful to have the male perspective on cool toys. Otherwise, I end up wandering the aisles of a toy superstore, totally overwhelmed, and staring in indecision for an hour and a half. Then, I narrow it down to a couple of choices and spend a good chunk of time thinking, "This or that? This or that?" Sigh. It's exhausting. Instead, this excursion took about only 20 minutes, and I'm super excited to give him this present!

After a four hour drive in traffic yesterday, it was fantastic to roll into Beaverton and receive an enthusiastic greeting from Trav. "It's so great to see you!" he said with a hug and a kiss. Too cute for words. The other day he left me a voice mail. Molly prompted him to tell me he's sorry I'm sad (over the death of my Israel friend), so he dutifully said, "I'm sorry you're sad." His voice trailed off for a moment, but then he went on to give further explanation. "I'm sorry you're sad, but sometimes I have to weave (leave). I'll come back soon." I see. Naturally, he assumes I'm still sad he had to go home after his visit a couple of weeks ago. Such a man already. Yes, I'm still carrying that pain, Trav! On the phone, Molly asked him if he'd come to visit me soon to cheer me up, and he was quiet for a second before he said, "Yeah...and I'll bring my instruments!" Trav is going to use the power of music to cheer me up. I wonder if there's a way to permanently record that message somewhere. I'd like to listen to it over and over again.

The time with the fam has been really great, but busy, so far. We've done a lot of shopping and went to the Beaverton farmers market. My parents, who have been petless for about a month now, adopted an adorable brown cocker spaniel mix named Charlie today! He's very cute and about nine months old. I think he's going to fit in well with us, although we didn't get to hang out with him much, since Mom and Rex are going to pick him up at his foster home on Monday. The whole decision-making process was very cute. I think they miss the Chloe a lot and can provide a pet a nice home, even if they weren't planning to get another dog so soon. You could tell they were simultaneously reluctant but thrilled, and also immediately attached. I'm glad they decided to get him, and I'm looking forward to getting to know him. I'm just not looking forward to telling Monice about the dog, since her adorable little boy's name is Charlie, too, and it's kind of awkward to bring up a pet that shares a name with your good friend's kid. But, maybe she'll read it here first so I don't have to! :)

Molly went to a bachelorette party tonight, and Joe and Trav spent time with is family, so I got in some quality time with Bryn and the parents. While toodling around town running errands and getting dinner this afternoon/evening, me, Bryn, Mom and Rex all car danced and sang along to Sweet Caroline on the radio. I loved it! Rex also kindly turned up the radio when Tell Me Something Good (Chaka Khan, peeps!) came on, because I love that song and hadn't heard it in forever. My mom keeps referencing and quoting this book she's reading called Who Put a Lizard in My Lasagna?, which leads to a lot of teasing from the rest of us. I mean, Really??? Tonight, we saw Burn After Reading (since we couldn't go bowling due to Bryn's injury from a car accident - hmph!), which I liked a lot. It's funny in its dark way, and the acting was great. I pretty much heart the Coen brothers.

Happy Birthday to the vibrant Stephanie! Celebrate away, my friend!

My stupid laptop crashed again the other night. Argh!!! This led to a Megan meltdown. I'd had enough! Rather than spend two hours on the phone with Dell, I put the computer away, and this time I decided to bring it in to the experts at work. I have to say our support guys are very cool, as they are fixing it all up so this should not happen again. Whew. I'm lucky to have this help.

And now, I must get to bed so I'm well rested for Party Central tomorrow.