Cheers: to all of the Portland food carts downtown for providing me with ample lunchtime choices. My favorite by far is Rick’s Wild Seafood.

Cheers: to summer for finally showing up in Portland.

Cheers: to my friend Veanne who has kept her brilliant sense of humor throughout her battle with breast cancer.

Jeers: to the breast cancer and chemo that is making my friend Veanne feel like crap!

Cheers: to my friend Al in St. Petersburg, Florida for hosting me for a fun weekend in Florida. The Salvador Dali museum was the highlight of my trip.

Jeers: to the people two rows behind me on my red eye flight to Tampa who decided it was a good idea to watch a movie on their laptop without wearing headphones.

Jeers: to Hurricane Alex who made it rain the entire time I was in Florida!

Cheers: to Beth for taking me to see The Wailers at the KINK Live Performance Lounge on Tuesday.

Jeers: to BP for being so greedy.

Cheers: to Eleanor Reese Morse, who, together with her late husband A. Reynolds Morse, founded the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Mrs. Morse passed away the day before I toured the museum. Fantastic collection of Dali art. I took home a print of my favorite piece Nature Morte Vivanteb (Still Life–Fast Moving).

Cheers: to all of the people who will be walking the Survivor Lap at Relay for Life in Lake Oswego this weekend.

Cheers: to Nathalee for giving Mary and me a ride back to Mary’s car Friday night after I lost my car key at the Roseland. And Cheers to Mary for giving me a ride back to my house to get my spare key. And Cheers to the cab driver who gave me a ride back downtown at 3:30 am to get my car!

Cheers: to Mother Nature for providing perfect running weather for the 15k Shamrock Run last Sunday.

Jeers: to people who use Facebook as a passive aggressive tool. Grow up!

Cheers: to Gina, who took me to the Portland Rock Gym last week for my first rock climbing experience ever! Great workout and great eye candy.

Jeers: to “The Frog,” who insists on dragging me to court for this mythical money I don’t have.

Cheers: to Jeff J. for giving me a Family membership to the Lan Su Chinese Gardens in downtown Portland. That place will be my escape from work in the middle of the day on a regular basis.

Cheers: to my new agents Option Model and Media and OMM Talent. May we have a long and fruitful relationship.

Pictures from the Bollywood dance party at the Roseland…

DJ Prashant, Nathalea, Me, Juan Carlos, Yelizaveta

Prashant, Me, Juan Carlos

Over 800 people at the event.

The gang. Armaan, Scott, Prahsant, Natty, Me, Eric, Mary, JC, Yeli, Allen.

Mary, Me, Nathalee, Yeli

Jeers: to this stupid bug that wiped me out for two days. I’m
starting to feel better now.

Cheers: to Denver blog reader Lou who sent me a cookie
platter from Duvrai bakery here in Portland. So yummy!

Jeers: to my 3-day nanny Jordin who just decided it was okay
to not show up at my house for work, not give me any warning, not
return my phone calls, and leave me without childcare.

Cheers: to my new nanny Katelyn who actually shows up for
work, and loves watching my kids after school every day.

Cheers: to Joe who gave me three free tickets to The Killers
concert last week. I was able to treat my friend Kevin’s son Kaleb (age 10) to
his first concert ever. AND he’s a big Killers fan.

Cheers: to Andrew B. for being a fantastic editor, who
answers my emails at almost any time of day.

Cheers: to Andrew B. for creating my new self-hosted Wordpress
blog and hosting it for me.

Jeers: to the US Senate Panel for rejecting the public
healthcare plan option. We know all of you government workers have great
healthcare, but what about the millions who don’t?

on It’s been way too long since I wrote a Cheers and Jeers blog!

Cheers: to Kevin for setting up the amazing Jennifer Batten house party this Friday night. I can’t wait!

Bummer: to the poor guy who drove a brand new Saturn sports car off the end of a car carrier truck this afternoon, and forgot to extend the drive rails off the back! DOH! He realized what he had done when the car hit the ground nose first. This is the car:

Jeers: to the weather system over the Northeast United States that kept all Northbound air traffic grounded for hours on June 3.

Cheers: to SAS for handing out chocolate and free drinks while we were grounded on the tarmac for three hours.
Cheers: to my luggage for taking a detour to Barcelona (lucky luggage).

Jeers: to SAS for not knowing where the heck my luggage was when it didn’t show up in Turku, Finland with me.

Jeers: to SAS for telling me I had to be at the Turku airport an hour and a half before my flight time, when the ticket counter didn’t even open until an hour before the flight.

Cheers: to my friend Nina in Finland who owns a bakery/cafe called Bakels, and
let me bake cakes, decorate cakes and cookies, and taste everything
when I was there.
Cheers: to my son Ashton for graduating from high school this week. Off to college in September.

Jeers: to this Portland “summer.” Gray skies and drizzle. Good times.

Jeers: to Pine Street Mexican Restaurant for the bait and switch. They do
indeed have $1 tacos as the sign in the window says, however, they are
on tortillas half the size of a yamika. And if you want rice and beans
it will cost you an extra $8. The tacos were tiny but good.

Cheers: to my employer that provides me with a cool career and a
paycheck. I love my job, and I’m grateful to have a job right now.

Jeers: to Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen for having no real food in the
international terminal I was stuck in on my layover. Their idea of a
restaurant was a 7 Eleven food mart.

Cheers: to Chicago O’Hare, which has every kind of food imaginable.

Jeers: to this jet lag!

Stories and photos coming…

This blog will start out small, because I have to get ready for work, but will grow throughout the day when I have more time.

Cheers: tp Kaili at Arthouse for signing me yesterday. Athouse is the premiere talent agency for commercials and film in Portland! I’m so excited.

Cheers: to Option Model Management (OMM) for signing me to their modeiling agency yesterday. I am also very excited to work with them. They have requested my hair be darker, so those of you who liked my hair darker are getting your wish!

Cheers: to the judges at the Oregonian who have chosen one of my captions for he finals in the latest Jack Ohman cartoon caption contest. I was tied with the front runner when I went to sleep and woke up 17 votes behind! Final tally was 99 to 139 I think. My competition posted 40 votes in the last few minutes. Hmmm. I’m thinking some software was involved.

Jeers: to the person who won the caption contest, only because he spelled amendment wrong! And, check out the note from the editors of the Oregonian (below). I guess they noticed the fact the guy posted 40 votes in the last 30 minutes. So, nobody won the cartoon.

“The voting for Contest 34 was unusually heavy and had some spikes in
the tally that had us wondering if there may have been some
Chicago-style shenanigans going on ( vote early and vote often), the”
vote often” part in particular. This contest should be fun so let’s
keep it light, entertaining and fair. Thanks.”

So busted!

Jeers: to my ex husband who called and berated me for 20 minutes this morning and accused me of being an absent parent. As my friends know this is complete and utter BS.

Cheers: to my friend Jack Ohman who just got back from Washington, D.C., where he was hanging out with Ethel Kennedy and accepting the RFK Journalism Award for cartooning.

Cheers: to my kids and their friends who made roller skating at Oaks Park so much fun yesterday!

Cheers: to Jeff M. of CitySpeek.com for giving me the VIP pass to the Widmer Brothers 25th Anniversary party.

Cheers: to Jeff E. for being my date to the Widmer party, and being a
good sport when it turned out to be like a giant frat party.

Cheers: to Jeff E. for taking me to a Blazers game!

Cheers: to Chris “Birdman” Anderson of the Denver Nuggets, who stopped to talk to me in downtown Portland.

Cheers: to Anne J. for helping me set up for the Wine and Chocolate party on Saturday.

Cheers: to Karen M. for staying late and helping me clean up after the Wine and Chocolate party.

Jeers: to the people who said they were coming to the Wine and Chocolate party but then didn’t show up.

Cheers: to Andrew B. for taking me to Coffee Time for hot chocolate
before the Comedy Sportz workshop last week. I will forever refer to that place
as Crazy Time, because of the strange people hanging out there.

Jeers: to the Swine Flu. Please don’t come to Oregon!

Jeers: to the cancer that recently took the life of KINK’s Les Sarnoff.

Cheers: to Michael for taking me to the KINK benefit concert at the
Aladdin last week. Paulo Nutini, Serena Ryder, and one other band.
Great evening of music.

Jeers: to the guy two rows in front of me at the Paulo Nutini concert
who was holding up his BlackBerry and checking email at eye level.
Might as well have had a flashlight shining in my eyes. The guy in
front of me finally said something.

Cheers: to the food carts downtown that make my lunch affordable and delicious.

Cheers: to my friend Jean who comes over and drinks my wine
in exchange for letting me vent.

Cheers: to Sam, who owns Olive and Twist in The Pearl. Great
host and great martinis!

Cheers: to Kevin Rankin and Kleveland for a fantastic
evening at Dante’s Saturday night. And punking Jon Olsen from PDX Exposed was priceless.

Jeers: to the cranky lady in the VIP balcony at Dante’s who
thought Jen was being rude. Sheesh!

Cheers: to the Portland Art Museum Rental Gallery for making
great art affordable for the masses. I took a friend there over the weekend and
helped him pick out some art for his new place. You can rent beautiful
paintings and sculptures for three months at a time, and then decide if you
want to buy them or trade them in for something different.

Jeers: to Lancôme for charging $75 for an ounce of moisturizer. No, I did not buy it.

Cheers: to my physical therapist Erik who got me 15 degrees more range of motion in my shoulder today.

Jeers: to my physical therapist who killed me today while he was helping me get 15 degrees more range of motion. Ouch!

More later…

Cheers and Jeers for 2008

Cheers: to America for NOT falling for under the Palin spell, and seeing right through the fancy clothes and folksy drivel. I’m more qualified for Vice President than she is.

Jeers: to Senator John McCain for actually proposing a $5000 tax credit to help us all pay our insurance. I’m sorry, sphincter says what? How will a tax credit help me pay my monthly premium and my $1500 deductible? And, you are assuming we can all get insurance. I have a whole blog coming on this subject. Grrrr.

Jeers: to Rod Blagojevitch for trying to sell Barack’s senate seat, and denying it. Never mind the 45 days of tapes from the wiretapping. Is that hair for real?

Cheers: to my lawyer in L.A. who successfully won my unlawful detainer case, and kicked out my renter who hadn’t paid a dime for almost a year. Carolyn, you rock!

Cheers: to my real estate agent Sharon who has worked tirelessly since last March trying to negotiate a short sale with Countrywide.

Jeers: to Countrywide for making it so painful for me to try to sell my house in L.A. I have brought you guys 10 short-sale offers since March and you have rejected all of them. Do you really think you’ll get more money elsewhere? Have you not noticed the housing market is in the toilet? Let’s hope the 11^th offer (on the table now) is the charm.

Cheers: to my friend Janet for mapping out all of the training runs for the Carlsbad Marathon, and motivating me to get my butt out of bed at 6am every Saturday to do the long runs. The marathon is January 25^th, and we are ready to kick ass!

Cheers: to all of the companies who hired me last year to write for them. You guys kept my heat and my lights on. Thank you.

Cheers: to the Best Buy people for hiring me to be Mrs. Miller last year. Best print job I’ve ever had.

Cheers: to all of my blog readers (especially those of you who have been subscribers since the beginning). I love the banter in the comments. You make my day.

Cheers: to figuring out what “differentiation” means and actually living it!

Jeers: to K103 in Portland for playing nothing but Christmas music 24/7 from October until December 26^th. WTF?

Cheers: to KINK 101.9 for turning 40 and playing music from all of those years to celebrate.

Cheers: to the meter person who didn’t get to my car on Saturday when I was 90 minutes past my meter. DOH!

Cheers: to the company who hired me to write technical datasheets for them. I never knew commercial lighting could be so interesting.

Cheers: to the gas stations near my house that are charging $1.95 a gallon for gas.

Jeers: to the Oregon Medical Insurance Pool (OMIP) who just raised my insurance rate AGAIN. I now pay $344 a month and have a $1500 deductible. No Vision coverage. No dental. WTF?

Jeers: to the economy.

Cheers: to Mike for giving me the tickets to see The Decemberists this Saturday. Sorry you can’t make it honey, but Ashton will enjoy celebrating his 18^th birthday with me at the Crystal Ballroom. Muah!

Cheers: to my main running partner Janet who is making sure we are both trained up for the Carlsbad Marathon in January. Those 20-mile runs would be totally boring without her.

Cheers: to Obama for being President Elect and picking what looks to be a very strong administration to help us get this country back where it should be.

Jeers: to the people who think Proposition 8 in California was a good idea. Mind your own business people!