Michelle’s in Sister’s with her mom visiting a friend, and has left me with 2 dogs and 3 cats to watch over. Its something.
As you can imagine, my diet has taken a change for the cooler. Michelle was starting to get back into normalcy again, and she made some great meals last week. Kind of cruel to set me up then leave. At least I have enough leftover smart-ground burritos to last me through Tuesday. I wouldn’t recommend coming over.
Yesterday we hit the bus downtown to see the spectacle that drew an estimated 50,000 people to the Tom McCall Waterfront – Flügtag Portland. It was surprising how many people showed up, and how cool the event was despite the masses. Most of what we saw was via Jumbotron, but we could see the flight deck from our perch just south of the Hawthorne Bridge.
I was pleased to see that Hair Force One did get some recognition for their efforts. We were able to catch them during their interview from the pit.
We left a bit early due to the lack of shade and abundance of heat, but caught most of the action. The most amazing part I though was the crowd. How did the bridge stay up?
Michelle, Barley and I went to Manzanita yesterday to relax on the beach. The public beach is quite nice, and you don’t have to pay the day use permits like at State Parks. Plus, no one is checking to make sure dogface is on a leash.
The town seems to have changed quite a bit since last year. There are several new businesses, some missing, and it seems to have fallen to the Portland crowd. This is too bad, because previously we thought we could afford a place here. Shame.
Barley had a blast in the water. He always does. He was less enthusiastic about sitting in the sand while we read, but he’d had plenty of fun.
The water was cold – too cold to bother putting on a swimsuit. Michelle just avoided the water and I waded out to throw Roo’s ball for him. Its actually a tennis-ball like ring, but we call all his toys “ball” to avoid confusing him. He’s not dull or anything, we just keep some things simple.
Now that the Bar is over, we’re hoping to enjoy summer a bit more.
Michelle just left for her 2 day Bar exam extravaganza. She’ll be done on Wednesday night, at which point she’ll finally be done with all this law school stuff. Preperation for the bar was intense, and she’s been spending 10-15 hours a day studying for the last couple weeks.
Its hard to console a person when you’ve got little idea what they’re up against. So I’ve wished her luck and health, as have many of our friends and family. Including one who felt it was important to point out that her friend failed the Oregon Bar exam 3 times before finally passing. I told Michelle this tidbit, figuring it was kind of funny in the non-inspiring kind of way. She looked like she was trying to chuckle and not vomit at the same time.
A sizable entourage from up north (Matt, Sadie, Ben, Troy, Justin, and Goode) made their way down to Portland to see the Oregon Brewer’s Festival. There was plenty of time in the schedule this morning for another activity, and the general consensus was that it needed to include swimming. This is a tall order for Portland, with very few watering holes you’d want to immerse yourself in. Luckily, the internet is awesome, and we found a cliff-diving site that suggested a place outside Estacada.
We piled into the cars, brought the doggies, and drove for 45 minutes. We found the place quickly and easily, and tried out the water – it was perfect. Just cold enough to be refreshing, but not too cold to keep you out. We tried a few different spots, Barley played lifeguard, and generally enjoyed the small spot. Troy and I both braved the 40′ (according to the site), and we would have spent some time on the rope swing (they had everything!), but the larger group of high school kids weren’t worth dealing with. Now we’re refreshed, showered, fed, and ready for OBF.
Last night Jason, Michelle and I saw the Borne Supremacy. Despite arriving half an hour early, we could only find seats in the third row, off to the side. Had the movie not been shot by a drunk person on Parkinson’s meds with a handi-cam, it probably would have been fine. But since this was the case, it was one nauseating ride. Good, but nauseating.
I left my nalgene bottle with a little bit of crystal lite peach tea in it over the weekend. When I returned to work this morning, there were several floating colonies in it. How the heck does mold grow in a liquid with almost no calories? Is the artificial sweetener so good that the mold thinks that its real sugar? Should I wash my bottle more often? Maybe running the bottle under the Hot Tap doesn’t really qualify as cleaning.
Tonight I took part in a Beer Focus Group that Alan referred me to. I was somewhat surprised that I made it through the selection process to begin with, but soon after signing up I received a package in the mail with a disposable camera. My mission: Go out like you normally do and take pictures of the things you notice or that influence your choices.
Being poor, it was a bit of a challenge, but knowing $100 was available afterwards encouraged me to push myself. The group was surprisingly fun, and the consensus was that sport bars were the best. I differed in that realm, and didn’t have much to offer to that part of the discussion. Nor did I help much with the discussion on national chain restaurants and their beer selection.
From the direction of questioning, it seemed that the focus group was for one of the big three (AB, Coors, MillerSAB). I enjoyed that I could share my opinion despite it being completely opposite those just given. It was fun.
Yesterday we enjoyed a somewhat relaxed Fourth. We dropped my cousin off for OMSI Wilderness Survival camp in the morning, then took the dog to the park to play. Its been a while since Barley has been to Gabriel, and he did quite well. Most of his time was spent racing around until he found another dog to bat at and roll around with. His joints seemed to be holding up quite well, and it was good to see that there are lots of other dogs that have idiosyncrasies to their step.
Then for much of the early afternoon we hung out in the backyard and studied. I lounged in the hammock and worked on updating my site using vim, safari, and firefox. Too bad I have to wait until Tuesday to see how it looks on IE.
We ended up saving Martha’s Macaroni & Cheese until today, which we had with potato salad and tofurky brats. They really seem to suffer once you put them in a stadium bun – too much dryness. Michelle also made Chocolate Decadence, when we had while watching the Kaiju Big Battel DVD that Chris brought down. Here’s a taste:
Fireworks? We saw some on TV and just what was going on in the neighborhood. The view from the roof was quite disappointing. Too many trees. I didn’t set any off this year – and I’m not much for watching real shows. I mostly like the blowing stuff up part. Lars, who is in the UK now, lamented at missing the explosions too.
Michelle, Sarah and I took a break from the po’ life and had dinner at Veritable Quandary. We dined on the terrace and fully enjoyed ourselves. For starters, the cheese plate with mixed fruits & nuts was terrific (the oysters were not). And the entrées were also tremendous – wild mushroom ravioli and wild rice and prosciutto risotto.
Afterwards, we stopped at a couple places on Hawthorne before grabbing a second desert at Pix Patisserie. We had a “the Royal” and two other pastries that are missing from the menu. One was a chocolate tart with custard on top, and the other was a brilliant lemon tart. Michelle marveled at how much like her grandmother’s lemon pies it was – crisp crust with a lively lemon zest. Sarah marvelled at how odd it feels to be doing “trendy” things – i.e. things that other people are doing.
It was a fun break, but now back to real life. Well, after today’s serving of Martha’s Macaroni & Cheese.