Update from Portlandia

For the millions of you out there wondering-- did she keep the bike, the answer is YES! I love it. It loves me, I am pretty sure. We can do anything together. And, happily, I will rarely have to drive in Portland again.... I am pretty much open for business now that I have the lay of the land and a way to traverse it. To mark my unofficial resident status, I had my first visitor this weekend! Making her official debut in the Schaackmobile Hall of Fame is none other than Penny Schaack!!! And like other skeptics before her (Betsy), she went quickly graduated from fear to love with regards to sleeping in the T@b and now can barely imagine trying to return to her former life of sleeping in real beds in real houses. Too bourgeois. Anyway, Penny's visit also included some poking around the Saturday market, some delicious Portland cuisine, and a trip to Lewis and Clark (here she is paying homage to Sacagawea). I promise all this and more to any others who make the long trek! I am enjoying this city immensely so far, but I am a bit lonesome-- so come if you can! Speaking of this great city, Carrie Brownstein (the famous music critic that Chris Moore is in love with) and another guy are making a tv show called Portlandia (like the sculpture of the same name, shown here) that may prove to be very funny about life in this town. The first 6 episodes are supposed to air sometime in early 2011. I find it funny, but the newspapers are full of nervous chatter about how Portlanders will be portrayed (too earth conscious? too non-judgmental?) If it is funny, I will point you towards it in the spring. I'd love to be an extra! I can picture it now-- naive midwesterner trying to come to terms with the social, political, and climatological aesthetic of the northwest while clinging to her love of sunshine and blissful ignorance about genetically modified crops-- she traipses around the city in search of a tasty vegan alternative to the Voodoo Donuts maple bacon bar she has come to know and love so dearly.