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Aaron is away on a business trip for a couple of days, so we plan to have dinner with Morgan and Benjamin to keep us, I mean them, from getting lonely.

 

It has become really very fallish here; there are so many varieties of deciduous trees that the change of colors and loss of leaves is a fairly protracted thing.  In Colorado, if you don't get up into the mountains to see the aspen turn within a span of maybe two weeks, you're out of luck.  Here, the various trees have been changing colors for over a month, and are still at it full force.  Also, the weather has turned more like what we have experienced before when we have visited here for Thanksgiving ... wet and cool, verging on cold.

 

This coming weekend, daylight savings time disappears on Saturday night / Sunday morning.  By a weird coincidence, we are also leaving for Colorado about then, so, if I understand this whole thing correctly, when we go back onto Mountain Standard Time from Pacific Daylight Time, we come out even.  I may need to consult Marty McFly on this.

 

Today, Karen and I went to Cloth World in Gresham (Gresham is a sub-division of Portland on the east side.)  For those of you who aren't familiar with Cloth World, imagine Fry's without the electronics or Babies'R'Us without the pink and blue stuff, but with thousands of vbolts of cloth instead, and you've pretty much got it. 

 

There are some interesting correlations to investigate between Fry's and Cloth World (attention Sociology Master's degree candidates ... prime research paper material here!)  There is a similar grouping of merchandise in the two franchises ... software, hardware, notions, patterns, computer discs, etc.  Both stores feature displays of snacks near the cash registers:  Fry's tends to favor salty things flavored with cheese and jalapenos, whereas Cloth World seems to favor sweet things featuring berries and chocolate.  Both stores are staffed by helpful clerks: Fry's clerks are late-teen / early twenties young men who know where everything is, but think you probably don't want that one, whereas Cloth World's clerks tend to be older women who know where everything is and actually used some of that themselves to make a terrific Christmas gift last year.  Both stores apparently slip a vacuum hose into one's wallet as you enter the store.

 

I think women like to go to Cloth World and shop partly because it is pretty much a man-free zone; I'm afraid I disturbed the warp and woof of the place a little.  I like to make stuff with Sculpey clay, and they had a section for crafts materials where I found cool materials for projects of that kind.  I noticed women were kind of startled to see me actually shopping there, instead of standing leaning on the shopping cart with a bored-looking expression like the few other men in the store. 

 

Finally, do you think it's too kinky to go down the aisles in the fabric store feeling all the bolts of fabric?  (With my hands, okay?)

 

We're packing up to go, and eating up our miscellaneous food stock prior to returning to Colorado Springs (last night I had a large can of spinach for a snack ... mmm!)  Some pictures attached by separate e-mail.

 

More later.

 

Love you guys -

 

Mike and Karen