Hi everyone. Here I am again. I have lots to tell you today.

First, I want to say that if you haven't heard, LeRoi Moore, the saxophone player for the Dave Matthews Band, died yesterday and I'm very sad about that. Before you go making fun of me, please recognize that I've been a fan of the band for 12 years, and their music has been an important part of my life. It makes me sad that the dynamic there that led to the making of the music that has made me so happy is now changed forever. I will miss that big saxophone very much. I'm thankful for the experience of all the concerts I was able to enjoy with the entire band. I have tickets to the concerts next weekend, and I hope that it will still be a fun time, though I can understand that it must be hard for them to perform. I respect that very much.

In happier news, I flew to Portland on Friday and surprised my mom for her birthday. She was very surprised and it was lots of fun. I had a snafu in getting there, though-- my plane from Seattle was running pretty late, but a nice lady (who ironically had been not nice to me and Spencer in the past) was able to get me on the next regularly scheduled flight. So I ended up only being 20 minutes late. Chris and Mary picked me up at the airport, and then I surprised mom when they showed up for dinner at the Columbia River Sternwheeler boat. The dinner and boatride was lots of fun. It was 105 that day, which was a change from Bamfield, obviously, but I enjoyed it anyways.

Over the weekend I hung out with my family. We had a bbq for mom's birthday again, and then on Sunday we went and saw Batman. I hadn't seen it yet. It was good, though pretty violent! I had to hide a bunch. I was tense because of that, so I think that I need to see it again so I can enjoy the story and characters a bit more. I felt like I was missing out a bit. But it had some pretty cool scenes, of course! I like when he busted the guy out of the corner of the building.

I also have done some shopping since I've been here. I got a new pair of pants and some new sandals the other day, which is cool. And then today I bought a whole bunch of yarn and a book called "Itty-bitty Hats" at the knitting store! It's the cutest book ever! I'm really excited to knit some little hats.

Yesterday I came to California. I've been hanging around with Megan, who picked me up and is letting me stay at her house, which is cool. The weather is lovely, and I'm enjoying being here. Last night we had pizza for dinner, and tonight I had Shangri-la, which was delicious as always. Tomorrow night I head to Santa Cruz to hang with Melinda, and I have a meeting with some people in Monterey on Friday.

So that's what's going on with me. I hope everything is well with all of you!