I think I'm in love...  with Groupon!  A few months ago they had a special for The East Burn which I purchased.  It was going to expire in about two weeks, so Eddie and I decided to get out and use it tonight. This place is cool.  Restaurant & patio upstairs, bar & pool tables downstairs.  The restaurant tables were taken when we arrived so we scoped out the bar downstairs.  Also packed thanks to a Blazers game so we went back upstairs to wait for a table.  Fortunately we were able to snag two stools at the bar.  This place has a fun food or drink special each day of the week.  Tuesday just happens to be $2 pint night - all night.  Not just during happy hour.  And we're talking good beers here - not $2 Bud / Miller / Coors.  I mean great microbrews.  We took advantage.

I wasn't super impressed with my burger though.  The bartender didn't ask how I would like it prepared.  I realize now that I should have made a point to ask for it medium or medium rare.  It came out super well done.  I mean really well done.  :-(  But the beef came from Carlton Farms, so props for using a local supplier.  The bun was also good.  I didn't care for the herb & spice mix that they blend in with the meat.  I'm a purist and believe the best burgers need only salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  If you want to add Italian seasonings, why not just order a meatball.  Burgers shouldn't taste like that.  But one thing this place does right is having the $10.50 price of the burger include cheese & bacon.  As I've said before, I hate having to pay extra to add those toppings.  Oh yeah.  The fries were really good.

I finally finished the book I started reading before Christmas.  I had to put it down while I was in San Jose because I desperately needed to finish the 600 page An Irish Country Christmas that I had to sell back to the Portland airport.  A few months ago, Shannon suggested I try reading some Lisa Scottoline.  So I looked her up and purchased the first book in her lawyer series, Everywhere That Mary Went.  And it turned out to be a great recommendation.  I will say though that I think I'm starting to read too many of these pro-feminine murder mysteries.  They're all kind of starting to sound the same - even though I'm reading from different authors.  But they're still enjoyable so I'm looking forward to reading the second book.

Post Christmas

Not much to report now that I'm back in Portland.  Things have been slow, but I'm fine with that since I am sick - yet again.  Eddie and I had a quiet little dinner at home last night.  I asked him to pick up some fresh bread so we could do an olive oil sampling.  We wound up only trying two different oils last night - my mom's home-infused oil and a local Willamette Valley oil.  The WV oil was kind of grassy and not my preferred oil for dipping.  But Mom's was great!  It has a big pepper kick and is great for dipping.

Eddie and I also took this time to catch up on Hell's Kitchen and watch the season 8 finale.  I was happy to see Nona make it through.  I was worried at the beginning that she would be kicked off in one of the early weeks, but she pressed through.  Plus Chef was always very impressed with her palate.   FYI...  I'll have one more Gordon Ramsay-related review coming in the next week or so.  Sorry about that...

Happy Christmas

Merry Christmas to all!  I guess I was a good girl this year because Santa was very good to me.  I got a Kindle with a really cute pink plaid skin to go with it.  I can't wait to finish the paperback I'm working on so I can start using the Kindle.  I played with it for a bit tonight and love it so far.  I do think it will be weird getting used to reading on it, but hopefully that won't take long.

The day was pretty quiet.  I woke up early and then went right back to bed for a nap.  Kiki came over a little early so we started watching Love Actually.  I hadn't seen that movie in years so it was fun to sit down and watch.  Very cute.  We kind of missed the end though because my mom arrived and we couldn't keep Joshie at bay so we had to open gifts.  Then we had a quick dinner before I had to leave for the airport.

My flight turned out to be great.  I was worried when we were told we'd take off thirty minutes late, but then the captain came on the PA system when we reached our cruising altitude and explained that all the turbulence we felt was due to a 100mph tail wind that was going to get us to Portland ten minutes earlier than our original scheduled arrival time.  That was pretty darn cool.  Fortunately I had enough time on the flight to finish reading An Irish Country Christmas.  I bought the book at PDX when I was heading to San Jose and was determined to finish it so I could sell it back to the store for 50% credit tonight.  I wound up purchasing a new mystery to check out so I'm looking forward to that.  I didn't care for the book all that much, but I did wind up liking the characters by the end.  I realized that it's the third in a series so I may give the first book a try and see if it's something I'd be interested in keeping up with.

"The Gift That Did Not Need Wrapping"

Yay!  Finally done with all the short stories.  I was starting to feel obligated to write everyday, and it wasn't much fun.  Happy Christmas Eve to all.  Went to the gym this morning followed by a trip to Pizza My Heart.  Yum.  The manager was really nice and gave me a free soda without marking it on my stamp card.  I made it back home in time for a quick shower and change of clothes then Darlene, Josh, and I headed to the cemetery.  We placed some yellow roses (of Texas) on Nanny & Granddad's grave.  Side note:  I just learned that the yellow-colored roses we placed are not actually the Harrison's yellow flower aka yellow roses of Texas.  Interesting.

Then the three of us rushed off to the movie theater and met Joe, Nicholas, and my mom.  Joe has the hookups so we got in for free and had free popcorn and drinks.  I didn't come in with super high expectations for Little Fockers because I was worried about the series kind of being dead.  But the Ben Stiller & Robert De Niro interactions are still hilarious.  I don't think I laughed as much during this one as I did for the first two, but this one had its moments.  Like the auto-tune clip at the end.  Awesome.

After the movie, Mom and I went back to her house to get ready for Kim & Dan's Christmas Eve party.  We made some bruschetta with my mom's homemade infused olive oil and headed over with a bottle of wine.  The party was great even though Kiki couldn't make it out.  It was fun catching up with the few cousins of ours who were there.

"Buy Humbug"

I think I'm finally ready to talk about this collection of short stories I've been reading.  I have one more to go, but I have something else to review tomorrow and I highly doubt that the last story in the book that I have yet to read is going to change my opinion.  I bought The Worst Nöel from Costco two years ago thinking it would be a funny holiday read.  Unfortunately, only one of the stories made me laugh and only two or three others had me smiling.  Most of them were rather dull reads.  I also felt that most of the authors had very similar upbringings so their stories seemed too similar.  I dunno.  I guess this book is not your typical Christmas read, so for that reason, it's good to have.  But it really wasn't that entertaining.

On to some fun!  Today was pretty lazy.  I met up with my cousin, Sarah, and her daughter, Emma, around lunchtime.  I got to play Santa's helper for Nonna and delivered some gifts for them.  Emma opened her cute pink travel suitcase / backpack while I was there.  Unfortunately I couldn't stay long though because I had to meet up with my friend, Jenn, and her son, Zaiden.  I also got to see Paul, Alex, and Jenn's parents so it was a really great visit for me.  Zaiden wanted to watch Finding Nemo so we had that playing in the background - and now I want to watch that movie since I haven't seen it in a few years.

I didn't do much today and yet it passed very quickly.  By the time I got home, the family was having dinner.  Then Darlene and I got to work baking cookies.  Okay...  Darlene did all the work while I just made the first half of a batch of German chocolate cake cookies.  I'm really hoping they turn out well.  I've never made them before, but Nonna found the recipe and really wanted to give them a try.

"Rum Balls"

We got a late start leaving the hotel today.  By the time we all got up and moving, breakfast was out of the question.  Kristen was on a mission to try a good deli, but the one she directed us to was not what she was expecting so we ditched those plans and made our way to the Ferry Building.  We checked out all of the shops and I bought some yummy olive oil from Stonehouse.  

We decided to have lunch at Gott's Roadside.  Mom and I ate here last year when it was called Taylor's Automatic Refresher.  I just found out that the name was changed because Taylor's was already taken so the Gott owners renamed the restaurant after themselves.  I think when I tried them last year I had the mini corn dogs.  Mom and I split a bacon cheeseburger and chicken strips so we got to sample more of the menu.  We also had regular and garlic fries which were both yummy.

We got back to San Jose in the early evening and I spent the rest of the night hanging out with family.  Josh read me one of his school books and then he and I watched Home Alone.  One of my favorite movies and definitely one of the best holiday movies out there.  I never got into the sequels though - as with most movie franchises the original is the best.  I don't have much planned for tomorrow so I'm looking forward to a relaxing day.

"The Jew Who Cooked a Ham for Christmas"

I finally got to meet Shannon's son, David, today.  I drove out to Hollister this morning to catch up with them.  We haven't hung out or really talked to each other much since high school, but it was so refreshing to discover that even though time has passed, we can still pick up and carry on a five-hour conversation just like we were back in high school.  We had lunch at Progresso Tamale Parlor which has excellent tortilla chips.  After lunch, we finished our chat at Shannon's house, but I had to cut the visit short to meet up with my mom and sister in San Jose.

The three of us hit the road after 6 and headed up to San Francisco for our own Christmas celebration.  We decided not to exchange gifts this year and instead treat each other for a nice dinner.  Somehow that turned into an overnight excursion in San Francisco, but I'm not complaining.  We checked in to our room at the Parc 55 hotel in Union Square and then headed out to dinner.  We found ourselves at Little Joe's where we shared a bottle of their inexpensive house chardonnay and had a decent Italian meal.

After dinner we walked around Union Square and checked out the tree and decorations at Macy's.  We then found ourselves at one of the hotel's rooftop bars which had a beautiful view of the city.  Kristen ordered a spiked hot chocolate, Mom had some apple martini, and I had Nonna's sangria.  Kristen called it a night after this since she had worked all day so Mom and I found our way to Johnny Foley's because we heard live music.  Turns out we had stumbled on a dueling pianos bar.  Very cool.  These guys played some Christmas music and one of them even played Adam Sandler's "Hannukah Song" when the audience called for it.  Dueling pianos always makes for a fun night!

We tried going to Mel's Drive-In for a late night snack after we shut down the bar, but they were closed so we wound up at the Denny's across the street.  Definitely time to call it a night at this point, so we walked back to our hotel and went to sleep.

Today's media mention is one of my favorite Christmas songs - The Eagles' "Please Come Home for Christmas."  When I worked at Calico, anytime this song came on the radio, Robbie and Nancy would start singing this and I loved hearing it.  I love the mood of this song.

"A Foreign Country"

Another short story by a Jewish author who celebrated Christmas throughout his childhood.  This short story collection is getting redundant.  This story was at least interesting because the author grew up in England so he made some comparisons about his life across the pond versus life in the States in the 60s and 70s.

Since I didn't accomplish anything last night, I had to wake up early this morning to get my bag packed for my trip.  I decided to take the light rail to get to the airport so I got quite a bit of reading done on the way.  An interesting man struck up a conversation with me as we neared the airport.  Random, but fun.  The flight was great.  It was my first time on Horizon and I fell in love with the brightly painted orange plane.  The best part?  The complimentary selection of wine and beer.  I debated trying MacTarnahan's holiday porter, but I felt that was too heavy so I opted for the Apex red.  Not too shabby and the flight attendant gave a very heavy pour.

I didn't have plans set for tonight, so it was a pretty relaxing evening.  I had dinner with the family and then Darlene and I decided to brave a trip to the mall.  It wasn't as crazy as I thought it would be, though the shelves and displays in Target were empty!  Not a whole lot left to choose from for gifts.

I think now is the perfect time to mention my holiday music for the season.  I bought Now's Christmas mix several years ago and I love listening to it each year. It's a two-disc compilation with the first disc being classic old Christmas songs and the second disc is more modern.  It's just a really great mix of my favorite holiday songs.

"The Gift of the Magi Redux"

A painfully uneventful day at work.  I understand people are busy Christmas shopping, but does that mean they are automatically excluded from participating in a little weekend wine tasting?  What's wrong with people?  I think wine tasting would be a great break to take during the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping.  Besides, you can kill two birds with one stone and purchase some of the wine to give as gifts.  I'm just saying.

Eddie and I finished writing our Christmas cards tonight so we'll get those in the mail in the morning.  Hopefully some of them will arrive at their destination before Christmas.  Maybe.  Hopefully.  Even though Eddie and I agreed to not exchange gifts this year, he surprised me with a hastily-wrapped gift.  I was going to wait until the actual holiday to open it, but then Eddie enticed me to open it tonight by saying it was something I could start using immediately.  It was a tabletop deep fryer for the kitchen.  So really a gift for the both of us, for our home.  We used our new mandolin and sliced up a potato and made yummy garlic parmesan french fries.  Yeah, that was a good dinner.

I meant to be productive tonight and pick up around the house and start packing early.  I was even going to do laundry.  But no.  I passed out on the couch after dinner.  I woke up after Eddie had gone to bed and watched an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent before falling back asleep.  This was my least favorite of the Law & Order franchise - until L&O: Los Angeles started to air this season.  I'm going to keep up with LA and hope it gets better.  As of now, I'm nearly done with the 3rd season of CI.  Most people don't like the show because of Vincent D'Onofrio.  But I actually like his quirky character.  My issue is Kathryn Erbe.  Not her as an actress, but her character and how stupid she is made out to be - especially when solving crimes alongside her partner.  But I must add that I have started to enjoy the last few episodes in the third series - Stephen Colbert even appears in one.  Hopefully the later seasons continue to get better.

No haiku tonight

I have no inspiration

My brain is empty

Hmm...  I was really going to skip the haiku tonight since I was feeling uninspired.  And then I wrote a haiku about not being able to write a haiku.  Reminds me of The Treachery of Images - only mine really is a haiku - at least in the way they are taught in American schools.

"We Really Must Get Together this Year"

Funny thing about today's short story is how relevant it is to me.  Eddie and I were just sure we could design and send out the cutest holiday cards this year.  We placed our order with Kodak Gallery and received half of our order in just a few days.  The other half of the order - the important half containing our holiday cards - never came.  Turns out they shipped to my old address in Irvine.  I tried to get in touch with the current renters down there, but had no luck so I finally broke down and re-ordered a set of the cards.  If we can get them sent out tomorrow, there's a chance some people may receive them before Christmas Eve. Maybe.

On to today's festivities.  Work passed by without incident.  Chris came down to sample our wines and pick up a few bottles for the holidays so that was nice.  After work, Eddie and I drove down to the Old Spaghetti Factory to meet up with the Maciejewski family for dinner.  Unfortunately I didn't get the memo about the venue change so we drove around town for 30 minutes looking for an address that I assumed led to the Old Spaghetti Factory when it was something else entirely.  The family was all done with dinner by the time we realized our mistake and arrived at the Chinese restaurant.  But at least we had five minutes with them to say hi.

After dinner, Chris, Eddie, and I headed back to our apartment to meet up with my cousin Baron and his wife, Heidi (and their newest baby boy).  The six of us headed to Deschutes for some drinks and conversation.  I had never met Baron & Heidi, but he is a cousin from the Texan side of my family.  He and Chris had some fun old stories to share about the family in Leakey, Texas and I had a blast getting to know Baron & Heidi.

I stayed out far later than I should have considering my long day at work and the fact that I have another early start tomorrow.  But it was definitely worth it.  So very quickly, I'll wrap up with my media mention.  I finished reading Gordon Ramsay's Playing with Fire.  I mistakenly assumed this was his autobiography.  And it is - of sorts.  But it's mostly focused very strictly on his culinary career.  Of course any biography with him as the subject would have to center on his career, but this was almost in a way, a how-to book for wannabe restauranteurs.  The last page in the book talks about his true autobiography which is Humble Pie so I'll have to add that to my reading list.  I still enjoyed reading PwF, but it was a bit hard to follow since it was only loosely in chronological order.  I'm not familiar with all of his restaurants so it was hard for me to keep up with the timeline of restaurant openings since he bounced around quite a bit.  It was still a fun read though.  Each word I read I pictured in his voice.

Meeting new cousins

Sharing stories over beers

Wish night didn't end

"Christmas in Paris"

Hmm...  Tonight's short story was interesting.  Not as heavily-focused on Christmas as the other stories have been.  This was about a gay man's emotional suffering during what should have been a fun holiday in Paris.

I really don't have anything to report today.  Went to work early and stayed late to help wrap our company's holiday gifts.  I did a terrible job wrapping the slightly irregular boxes, but it was fun since I haven't had to wrap anything this year.  Someone changed the CDs at work which was fine by me because I got to listen to Smokey Robinson all day.  I haven't listened to him in years and I was reminded of how much I love his music.  Makes me feel so good.

Gift wrapping today

Can't make the paper look nice

Hope they don't notice

"I'll Have Christmas with the Works on Rye, Hold the Ham and Jesus"

Today's short story was finally decent.  Still not as funny as the first, but at least I enjoyed turning the pages tonight.  Eddie and I had a fantastic Sunday and took full advantage of the clear weather.  We walked to our bagel shop downtown and shared a bagel for breakfast.  I had some books to sell to Powell's so we went there next and they bought all but five of my books.  I used the credit to get a mystery novel and Paula Deen's biography so I'll have some fun stuff to read.  After a quick shopping trip at Whole Foods, Eddie treated us to a lightish lunch at Deschutes.  Eddie had the half sandwich / half soup combo and I had a housemade pretzel with fries.  Tasty stuff.

Nothing exciting happened during the walk home, but we did see a street musician doing a Stomp / Blue Man Group thing where he was playing drums on the trash can.  When Eddie pointed that out, I couldn't help but think of the "Banging on a Trash Can" song from Doug.  I always thought this was a Beets song, but my research shows that this was sung by Doug, Bebe, and Skeeter.  I forgot to mention that during our walk to the bagel shop, we passed a man playing trumpet on the sidewalk.  I think he's the same guy I heard playing a few weeks ago.  He was decked out in a Santa hat so I thought he was cool.  A few blocks north of him, there was another guy playing guitar on the sidewalk and he was rocking out with Greg Kihn's "The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)."  I guess you could say it was a fun, musical adventure.

Eddie had to work a short two-hour shift this evening so I used the free time to finish reading A Wrinkle In Time.  Brooke used to tell me how much she loved this book and couldn't believe I'd never read it.  Now I can cross it off my list.  Ehh...  I think I actually might have appreciated it more if I had read it as a child / young adult.  Funny when you consider that I love modern young adult series like Harry Potter & Twilight.  I just couldn't get myself involved in this story.  Nor do I have any desire to read the rest of the series.  Oh well.  I guess it's just one of those things.

ready for Christmas

traveling to San Jose

going to be fun

"Survivor"

Man.  These short stories in the book I'm reading are not getting any better.  The very first story was laugh-out-loud funny and none of the others have come close to that.  But I keep pressing on.

Eddie and I had a fun play day.  :-)  We took advantage of the break in the rain to walk downtown.  I had a Groupon for Nordstrom Rack so we started there and I got two new tops while Eddie found a new pair of dress shoes.  Then we went to the movie theater to (finally) watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1. I think this might be my favorite movie in the series so far.  I think it was just really well done.  I'm also really excited that after four years, Eddie has finally gotten into this series.  I don't think he'll be reading the books, but at least I have him to be my movie partner for the last film.

Eddie surprised me on the way home with a trip to Carafe for happy hour.  We went here for dinner about two months ago, and I thought the food was fine, but slightly overpriced.  After today's experience, I believe all future visits must be during happy hour.  They have great food and drink specials - $5 cocktails and several food items ranging from $1.95 - $5.95.

Downtown living fun

walk to shops, movies, and bars

Portland is awesome

"The Bite Before Christmas"

Not much happening today.  I normally don't work on Tuesdays, but Lisa asked me to help out today.  We had a big group tasting in the afternoon, but otherwise slow.  I ran some errands after work and then sat down to watch The Biggest Loser (season 10) finale.  I usually don't participate in the voting portions of reality shows, but I did for this episode.  America had to decide whether Ada or Elizabeth should be the third and final competitor for the big $250k prize.  I have felt so much compassion for Ada this whole season and never felt anything for Elizabeth who consistently put up the lowest numbers each week.  I was thrilled (and not surprised) that Ada made it to the final 3.  Unfortunately she was not the "biggest loser," but no surprise there.

Frado played the game

Ada's an inspiration

Patrick won the show

"Christmas 2001"

Swedish movie fun

Lisbeth Salander kicks butt!

Wish Stieg Larsson lived

I made it out to Salem to watch the final installment of the Millennium trilogy.  The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest was not my favorite film in the series, but I think it did an excellent job showing how the trial progressed throughout the novel.  I'm excited for the first of the Hollywood films to come out next December.  It seems so far away, but I know it will pass quickly.

I made a pit stop at the Woodburn Outlet mall on my way home and bought a few things from Gap so I have nice clothes for interviews.  After three years of loyal service, my trusty khakis gave out on me.  Way too many holes in them to be able to wear them for an interview.  But Gap didn't have any khakis today so I settled on some black slacks, a gray sweater, and a cute little black dress.  Outlet shopping is fun!

"The Accidental Santa"

I'm not inspired

My day was blah and lazy

Hope tomorrow's swell

I was scheduled for work today, but Lisa let me know this morning that I was not needed.  I was excited to have a free day, but I didn't make good use of my time at all.  On a positive note, I think I'm finally seeing the end of my cold.  Other than that bit of good news, today was a grossly lazy day.  I watched the first two movies in the Millennium trilogy because I think I'll make it out to watch the third movie tomorrow.  I should probably re-read the books too.  My original plan for today was to finish reading my book, but I just wasn't in the mood for it, so I checked out Twitter.  I have been following "kvmemoir" for a few months now - it's Go-Go's bassist Kathy Valentine's memoir.  I hadn't read it in a few weeks so it was fun to make the time to catch up with it today.  As always, there were fun stories about the band's first touch with fame, but also some darkly personal things for Kathy to say.  I hope she tweets more soon!

"Birthdays"

I'm watching Top Chef

Eighth season full of all-stars

Sad to see Jen go

Ginger burns the eye

grating it for Eddie's jerk

recipe.  Oh ouch.

Not much exciting to report.  Work was pretty quiet today, but I had fun mixing up the CDs in our stereo.  Today I swapped out James Blunt for Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto."  I got to listen to it three times today and I just really enjoyed it.  I can't believe it's 300 years old.  That's crazy!

I went home for a nice dinner after work.  Eddie picked up some ground beef for me so I made an excellent hamburger with a side of fries.  So delicious.  We were just chilling on the couch after dinner when Lauren invited us out to meet up at Bluehour.  Eddie and I each ordered a cocktail.  We didn't stay long though because Eddie had to get to Whole Foods to buy some groceries because he was elected to make lunch at work tomorrow.  I helped him prep for tomorrow's meal which is how I got ginger in my eye which inspired one of today's haikus.

That is all.

"That's Just About Enough Figgy Pudding, Actually"

Thought I'd get this one

after four good interviews

Their answer was no

Heather dropped the bag
Milk's fav'rite cookie on floor
O-R-E-uh-oh

Eddie helped me write that second haiku after I dropped an open package of OREOs.  What fun!  Oh, on the way into work this morning, I drove past a crazy scene.  A car drove through a stone wall at one of the motels in Newberg.  The car crashed through what seemed to be the front office.  Eddie checked the news and we don't think there were any fatalities, but it was kind of creepy to see.  When I passed, there were two ambulances, a fire truck, and four cop cars on scene.  I know this isn't uncommon because I handled 1-2 of these calls each year with my last job.  It's just crazy to think that a car could come barreling through the storefront where you're shopping.

Work passed by rather uneventfully after that.  I don't normally work on Fridays so I didn't know how bad traffic would be close to Portland so I thought it would be fun to hang out in wine country before heading home.  I pass by this one pub on my way to work and thought it would be fun to check out.  As it turns out, Lil' Cooperstown has a great happy hour menu from 3-6 P.M. daily.  I ordered a big margarita (pint glass sized) that was made with freshly squeezed lime & orange juice and had a fat hot dog with fries for $3.95 each.  Excellent happy hour deals.

My intention was to finish my book at the bar before journeying home.  I loved the ending of Message in a Bottle because it was very appropriate for the characters.  And I'm not sure how or why, but I think this was my second time reading this book.  Too many of the scenes seemed oddly familiar and I'm 99% certain I have not seen the movie.  But my memory is faulty, so who really knows?  I enjoyed this book.  I was in the mood for a love story and this fit the bill.

"Eight"

iTunes library

Jay-Z, Snoop and Ludacris

Peace yo.  Act a fool.

Not much to say today.  Eddie and I took care of things around the house and such.  The holiday short story was my least favorite so far.  I have nothing against Jewish people (the focus of the story), but it was a very pointless read.  I think it was only three pages long - 8 tiny paragraphs about a kid growing up in a Jewish home.  So for my media mention, I looked for a movie on my Netflix queue and settled on The Love Guru.  Absolutely terrible.  I certainly didn't go in with high expectations, but between the cast and fun cameos, I expected more.  I wasn't expecting to laugh like I would for Austin Powers, but I only had one laugh-out-loud moment for this.  And that was during the credits with Vern Troyer.

"Blue Christmas: The Tour"

Exploring Mac-Town

Airplanes, spaceships, wine, and beer

Day of adventure!

I'm going to apologize upfront because I fear today's entry will be long.  Eddie and I did a lot today and it was fantastic.  We started out at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville - home of Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose (the largest floating airplane).  This plane is HUGE!  I really can't say anything else about it because nothing I can say will do it justice.  Eddie was fascinated with the artifacts & models in the museum's aviation building - especially with the WWII displays.  After I saw a model of one of da Vinci's flying machines and the Spruce Goose, I had seen all I wanted in there so I sat down and read for a bit while Eddie continued to explore.  They did have some fun interactive stations that we checked out.  One of the coolest things was before leaving this building, we stopped at the Evergreen Vineyards tasting shop.  They have a Spruce Goose wine label and a Rosie the Riveter rosé.  Eddie and I were both surprised to learn that Laurent Montalieu, winemaker for and part-owner of my Soléna, makes their wines.  Small world.  These were very enjoyable and very affordable Willamette Valley wines.  Eddie and I stocked up on a few for Christmas gifts.

Our museum journey continued at the Space building.  We were distracted for a few minutes by the planet display on the walkway between the two buildings.  It's a neat display along the path showing the relative size of each planet and distances from the sun so that was cool to see.  We learned some of the planets have dozens of moons.  Crazy!  Inside we found an awesome display from NASA's Mercury Program that included a spacesuit (surprisingly tiny) and a shuttle cap that was never launched.  One of the more fascinating displays for us was an interactive exhibit to watch magnetic fields in action.  This cylindrical contraption had a few ounces of oil mixed with iron particles to make it magnetic sitting in a clear bowl in the middle.  Then at the top and bottom of this bowl were two magnets that you could control.  You could move them closer and away from the bowl to see how the magnets affected the iron in the oil.  We played around with it for a few minutes because it was fascinating to watch the oil form into funny spike shapes (like Bart Simpson's hair) and then to keep pushing the magnets to make the oil form into a different shape.  I'm really sorry for describing that in detail because I'm sure that was way too nerdy for most people.  Just know that Eddie and I thought it was really cool.

We were both pretty hungry after spending these few hours at the museum so we decided to check out Golden Valley Brewery.  But when Eddie saw a sign for The Eyrie Vineyards, we made a quick detour.  This winery has so much history for the Willamette Valley because it was founded by wine pioneer, David Lett.  We both really enjoyed their selections of wine and Eddie bought a few really nice bottles of pinot for us to enjoy in about a decade or so.  But I digress.  Lunch / dinner at the brewery was great!  I was delighted to learn that my hamburger was made with beef from their very own Angus Springs Ranch.  Their menu claims that as few as twelve restaurants in our country source their beef from their own ranches.  And oh was it a tasty burger and cooked perfectly medium rare though slightly under-seasoned for my tastes.  Unfortunately the fries weren't so great.  But the beer was fine and the deals were fantastic - just $4.50 for the burger and $3 pints at the bar Sunday - Thursday.  You can't beat that - especially when those prices are for premium items.

We made two stops on the way home to buy ornaments and a stand to set up our first Christmas / Solstice / Festivus tree.  Eddie managed to score a free tree for us from his work.  Both of us agree that California gets stuck with Oregon's unwanted trees.  This tree is one of the fullest I have ever seen and has no major flaws in it.  Even though this one was free, the trees up here are super cheap - just $25 for a regular 6' Douglas Fir.  We managed to cram 300 lights, a bunch of silver ornaments, and a pretty star topper on our humble 5' tree.  Maybe we should name it.  This this is just cool!  I was really happy to be able to do this with Eddie because even though Eddie and I have lived together for several years, this is our first Christmas without roommates so it kind of feels like our first Christmas together.

Now it is finally time for me to wind down.  Let me start by saying that I did not really enjoy today's holiday short story about a man meeting his girlfriend's family for the first time.  Do people really have traumatic experiences from meeting their potential future in-laws?  Maybe Eddie and I are just lucky to have good families so this was never an issue for us.  But I guess it's a common theme in holiday movies for a reason, no?  So on to my media mention.  Eddie and I listened to "Imagine" on our way home but it wasn't until I checked Facebook and saw two friends post about John Lennon that I realized today marks the 30th anniversary of his murder.  Obviously I was not alive when it happened, but I still think it's a terrible tragedy to have lost such a talented songwriter.  Who knows how many more people he might have inspired if he had been allowed to live?  So in the spirit of the holiday season, my mention has to be a shout out to John (and Yoko) for "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)."

"Donner Is Dead"

Jamie requested

And I hope to deliver

One haiku a day

But seriously...  I'm only going to try to do this through December.  And that's going to be tough because I have decided to write an entry each day leading up to Christmas.  My inspiration?  The new book I'm reading.  But I'm not ready to tell you about it just yet.  It's a collection of darkly funny holiday-themed short stories.  18 of them.  So I took it as a sign that there are 18 days left of Christmas festivities so I will read just one of these stories a day.  Today's story is "Donner Is Dead."  A funny read about deer and Darwinism.

Pretty quiet day so I don't have much to say.  I watched the Walking Dead finale today and I'm not too sure how I feel.  My mom suggested I watch this show because she loves it.  I didn't care for it at all after the first episode, but decided to persist.  By episode three I was ready to give up but that's when I learned there were only six episodes for this first season.  So I decided to tough it out and see if the next three hours of programming would get better.  After episode five, I was getting curious about what would happen now that they've reached the CDC.  I won't say the finale has hooked me because this is one of those shows I will more or less just forget come fall 2011 when new episodes would air.  But the ending did leave enough unanswered questions to pique my interest.

King for a Day

Unintentionally I managed to dedicate today's entry to Stephen King.  A few days ago I decided to clear off some of the older unread books on my bookshelves and came across a hardcover copy of Bag of Bones that my mom gave me over ten years ago.  Never read it.  Does that make me a bad daughter?  Oops.  Well I read it this week.  And I have to say that it's not my favorite book of his.  I prefer the olderish stuff like Misery, The Shining, and Thinner.  Was this book entertaining?  Mildly.  But what put me off was the weird interactions with the town's ghosts.  Guess this one just isn't for me.  Maybe King should follow Family Guy's example and write his next book about the "lamp monster."

I was nearly done reading the book this morning when I decided to take a break and watch a movie.  I scrolled through my Netflix queue and realized Dolores Claiborne was available for streaming.  I assure you this was not planned - it just happened.  Honest.  I actually have not read this book but figured I would enjoy the movie since I love Kathy Bates in Misery.  The hobbling scene is a classic.  Poor Paul.  This storyline was much better than Bag of Bones.

I was planning to spend the whole day & night in and help my body get past this cold, but Eddie texted me on his way home and invited me out for pizza with his co-workers.  We met at Apizza Scholls and had a great meal.  Apparently one of their employees visited Sokol Blosser yesterday and invited Eddie's group to the restaurant and offered to not charge us corking fees for wine.  Eddie picked out two bottles of wine to bring and we ordered two very large (and delicious) pizzas to eat.  Since we were on the east side, I suggested going to Vintage Cocktail Lounge so I could spend my Groupon.  We enjoyed a nice round of classic cocktails and great conversation.  Another fabulous night.

Stephen King's novels

are versions of each other

But I still read them

Sokol Blosser Holiday Party

Tonight was fabulous!  Eddie and I began our evening with a picture-taking spree on the waterfront by our apartment.  We decided to send out Christmas cards this year - first time ever - so we wanted to take some fun pictures.  We donned our Santa hats and snapped a few nice pictures along the river.  After all this it was time for us to get in the car and head out to wine country for Sokol Blosser's holiday party.  We were sidetracked in Tigard where we saw this fun Blues Brothers & Santa display in a shopping center parking lot.  I had to beg Eddie to let us stop and take pictures and he finally relented.  I'm happy because this turned out to be one of my favorites, but it did not make the cut for our cards.  :-(  Oh well.  It's still a fun picture.

Lauren did an excellent job planning the party at Red Ridge Farms in Dayton.  Chef Paul had a beautiful assortment of food treats for us to snack on (I had bread & toast) and of course we had excellent wines on hand.  After dinner we had a fun white elephant gift exchange.  Even though I do not work for the winery, Eddie said I could participate so I wrapped up a $10 one-month Netflix subscription certificate.  I thought that was a decent gift, but Eddie's was cooler.  He found this awesome set of Nerf dart guns which were highly coveted during the night.  My original gift of "How to be a Ninja" cards was stolen from me, so I chose the gift that I assumed had to have been wrapped by Jenny - it was wrapped in plain brown paper but had a lovely bow hand drawn on the front.  Inside were two bowls that she handcrafted from records at home.  I thought they were very cool and already Eddie and I have plans to use them for an Earth Day / recycling party.  I haven't participated in many white elephant gift exchanges over the years, but I must say this was definitely the best one.  There were just enough gag gifts to keep things funny and a lot of randomly good gifts.

What's the best way to keep the party going after that kind of gift exchange?  You bust out the karaoke machine.  Eddie and Brooke kicked it off with their rendition of "Bohemian Rhapsody."  I'm still speechless from his performance.  Luckily I have his awesome air guitar solo on video...

People started clearing out pretty early - it was a weeknight after all.  But Eddie and I weren't done having fun so we decided to hang out with Lauren and Scott for a bit.  We met for a round of drinks at Voodoo Martini in Newberg.  Eddie put some good songs on the juke box and we had a fun time hanging out and winding down.

And that concludes my fun-filled day.  Speaking of conclusions...  Today's media mention comes from the season finale of the last bad summer TV series I have been saving to review.  I finally got around to watching the Royal Pains finale - only to discover that season 3 will begin sometime in January.  Guess I don't have that long to wait for it.  Though I don't know that I'll really be interested in continuing with the story since it has gotten really hokey.  I'm used to Hank having to MacGyver his way through medical emergencies, but usually viewers only need to endure one of these scenes per episode.  This finale had two of those scenes in the first fifteen minutes.  A little overboard if you ask me.  Hopefully they can tone some of that down for season three.  I am curious to find out what's going to happen with Henry Winkler's character.