Prom Prep and Pigs (Sunday Salon)

What I'm doing today:
Prom is next weekend, so I'll be taking Ben and his girlfriend to shop for his prom clothes. We have a pretty big prom (around 150 attendees) for high school-aged homeschoolers in the Portland area. Last year I was interview for an article our local newspaper published about the homeschool prom. My son is only in one of the photos--in the 8th photo he is third from the end of the long line of teens at the pre-prom party he attended, with his girlfriend next to him in a white skirt.

What's been happening on Worducopia:

• An interview with two Jane Austen experts
• A review of a book about dogs in weddings
• A post about urban farming, with photos of goats in my neighborhood. When I wrote the post, I wondered if I was making a big deal out of nothing--does everyone have goats and chickens in their urban neighborhoods these days? Judging from the responses I got, this is one of those Portlandia things that we do here. In fact, so many people told me that this was against their city codes, that I double checked to make sure I wasn't going to get my neighbors in trouble by posting photos of their goats online. I found the city's list of rules and regulations rather charming

(No pigs. Unless they are Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs, and they weigh less than 95 pounds.)
(Poor pigs! Forced to try all the latest fad diets to keep from being banished from the city).

What we're reading: 

I'm totally charmed by both the writing and the illustrations in Wildwood! I'm contemplating the idea of writing a photo essay showing the Portland sites that appear in the book, once we finish it. Evan has been asking to go see Pittock Mansion again, even before it appeared in Wildwood filled with foxes, bears, and birds. I don't think we'll walk there from St. Johns the way the main characters did (it's 7.3 miles...I wonder if author Colin Meloy hiked it when he was writing the story). Ooh, there are murals in St. Johns that I haven't seen, too! In fact, there's a new one going up in May.

Wait, wasn't I talking about reading? Chris is reading Argo, which sounds so interesting. We haven't seen the movie yet (still watching all those other Academy Award winners first). Evan is just about to start the second book of the Last Apprentice series, and Ben is now the third person in our family to read Every Day.

I hope you're having a fabulous Sunday!