Baby showers and UFOs

It's not often these days that I'm brought close to tears, but such was my quite unexpected reaction to our recent baby shower, kindly organised by family friend and Lake Oswego resident, Sharon Loffelmacher. Not only were almost all of our new friends present to wish us well on our forthcoming metamorphosis into parents (a transition universally and euphemistically described as 'exciting'), but they also came laden with all manner of gifts, both practical and aesthetic, frequently of mysterious function and all utterly undeserved. I was at once moved and a embarrassed and overwhelmed. And tipsy, of course, that goes without saying. "Baby Fluffy" has yet to arrive and despite this is already in possession of a van load of accessories to furnish his tastefully decorated room (not to mention half the basement). He is certainly a fortunate soul, to be born into such a position, better off than many a Byzantine prince and at considerably lower risk of assassination.


Rachel admires a minute item of clothing, suitable for a goblin or perhaps some kind of pixie-child.

In motoring news, a guy was clocked on Interstate 84 last week doing 146mph (apparently he was running late for a meeting). Which is 81 miles an hour over the limit. The cost of this infringement? An $1100 fine and a ninety day ban. Is it just me, or was that rather lenient? Meanwhile there is an ever mounting brouhaha regarding the price of 'gas', which now tops $3 a gallon. Personally I can't help chortle with old fashioned schadenfreude at the voxpops bemoaning, for example, the cost of driving little Madison to her piano lessons - a hundred mile round trip - in her chevy suburban three times a week. O, the suffering. Note for UK residents: $3 gallon = 42p/litre.

In any event, we made our own small contribution to global warming last Saturday when we took a trip down to McMinnville for the annual UFO festival. Although it wasn't quite as "out there" as I'd hoped (just a handful of stands selling homemade DVDs and random texts on alien abductions), the parade was quite fun and the weather held. McMinnville (population 30 000) is a charming little town to the south-east of Portland, about half-way between here and the coast. Apart from extraterrestrial encounters, the town is also home to the Spruce Goose i.e. Howard Hughes' giant plane. We've seen it up close and can confirm it's an absolute behemoth. "No metal for my elephantine flying boat? No problem, sir, for I shall build it out of wood" - genius. Snaps follow...

Yes, they're aliens, but you have to respect their taste in motor vehicles.


Bizarre alien children emitting diaphonous bubbles, which, though delightful, no doubt exert a sinister form of mind control on the subjects of their enchantment.


Elvis and Marylin Monroe turned up, clearly having engaged in some kind of faustian-pact with the aliens in return for eternal youth. And a Chrysler Sebring.


It's the McMenamin's crew. The McMenamin brothers own a chain of outre pubs and hotels, all concievably fashioned after the Snowdrop in Lewes (see above), only less pikey.


An alien labrador, of course.