Whenever I come home, I try to make a point of going over to the Portland Saturday Market. It's a big market under the Burnside Bridge where local artist sell original creations. I always enjoy shopping in the artisan's market, but the main reason I go is to get an Elephant Ear. An elephant ear is a big ball of dough pounded into a flat piece, thrown in a fryer, and then dipped in cinnamon and sugar. You can pretty much only get them at markets or fairs. They are SO good. I highly recommend trying one if you're ever here. (Or apparently in Ottawa, where they're referred to as Beaver Tails). I went with my friend, Rob, along with my mom and my two sisters. We spent a few hours over there, then took the train back to our side of town.

Rob and I are hanging out now, so we went and got ourselves some Smokey's Pizza. We used to eat it all the time when we were kids, so it always sort of tastes like home. It's so very good, and yet so very bad for you. My stomach is turning over and over right now.

Let me tell you what happened when we pulled out of the parking lot after we picked up the pizza. And when I say "we" I mean Rob, because he's the one who was driving. I was just a reluctant passenger. We were turning out onto a 4 lane road that was split intermittantly in the middle by an island. So, right in front of the lot, you could actually only turn right, not left. We're sitting there, waiting for traffic to clear, and Rob's like, "I think I could go left." I chuckled and assumed he was kidding - the island was right in front of us. There were a bunch of cars coming, and he's like, "I think I can make it!" guns the engine, and heads straight toward the island, turning left at the last second into oncoming traffic! Luckily, the island split there and he could get through to the other side of the road, but not before two cars nearly hit us and had to swerve out of the way. I said, "I thought you were kidding when you said you were going to go left!" and he said, "I didn't know the island was right in front of us!" I almost had to go change my pants.

The song of the day is "I Will Buy You a New Life" by Everclear off their 1998 album So Much For the Afterglow. When I first started to hear this song on KROQ, it always reminded me of Portland. There's a line in the lyrics that goes, "I will buy you a new house, way up in the West Hills," and that's the area where all the nice houses are in Portland. I realized when I bought the CD that they're actually from here.