Rest of February

I think I'm glad that February is a short month.  I've never cared either way about it being the shortest month of the year, but since I'm so low on funds, it was nice to have the rest of this month pass quickly and get me closer to finding a job.  Hopefully.  Eddie and I haven't been up to much the past two weeks.  Just taking it easy.  We decided not to do anything for Valentine's Day due to our financial situation so I was completely surprised when Eddie came home with a little bouquet of daisies.  That was sweet.

Bear with me because I have several media mentions coming up.  I am still totally loving my library!  Without their recommendation, I never would have tried Three Seconds - a Swedish crime thriller.  I had a more difficult time getting into this than Stieg Larsson's series, but I still enjoyed this book.  Because it was hard for me to get into, I wasn't expecting a lot of the outcomes and plot twists they threw out.  I don't know if all libraries do this, but mine will feature brand new titles for a few weeks on a special bookcase on the main floor.  These books are marked with a bright orange sticker that lets you know it's brand new.  You're only allowed to check out two of them at any time and only for three weeks; you cannot renew these titles.  I've been so lucky to find great reads on this bookshelf so far.  Can't wait to see what will be on it when I go back.

As I said before, Eddie and I haven't been going out much, but we did get out and meet up with Lauren & Erica at Cascade Brewing Barrel House one night.  They feature a large selection of sour beers.  Definitely not my thing, but with Eddie's guidance and Lauren's first-hand knowledge of the place, I was able to find a couple of beers I could stomach.  Still, I don't think I'll be going out of my way for a glass of sour anytime soon.

I do have a pathetic story to share.  I had to pick up and deliver 20 cases of wine to my winery a week ago.  It had been raining and when I unloaded the first case from my car, I slipped on the slick surface of our storage room and fell flat on my butt.  Fortunately none of the wine broke, but it really hurt my bum.  I didn't make a big deal of it at work because I figured it would go away.  But the pain is still persistent so I'm finally making an appointment to see a chiropractor.  Hope it helps.  

Anyhoo...  Because of this, I've been cooped up at home even more than normal so I've been watching a lot of movies:  The Freebie, The Kite Runner, Alice In Wonderland, This Is It, and Elvira.  The Kite Runner is definitely my favorite of the bunch.  I read and reviewed the book a few months ago.  It was a book I enjoyed, so I looked forward to finally seeing the movie.  Movie was fantastic.  I think they found great actors to play the parts - especially for the children.  I do think the movie isn't as captivating for someone who has not read the book because it is so important to hear the thoughts running through the narrator's head.  You don't get so much of that from the movie.  Watching the movie has made me motivated to give A Thousand Splendid Suns a try now.

I know my update isn't in chronological order, but at some point during these past few weeks, I finally went to Little Big Burger.  This is a newer burger joint in the Pearl District.  These are gourmet little burgers featuring all fresh and local ingredients.  And housemade ketchup - not that I tried any of that.  I saw this restaurant start up a few months ago and immediately checked the Yelp reviews to see if it would be worth it.  After reading several reviews comparing them to In-N-Out, I was determined to try it.  The menu is similar to In-N-Out (burger, cheeseburger, fries, milkshakes) but LBB adds a veggie burger, fancy cheeses, and canned beer to their board.  Everything is super fresh like In-N-Out (hand cut fries, freshly baked bun), but they are completely different burgers.  Mine was slightly under-seasoned, but certainly one of the better restaurant burgers I've had.

Another book I found randomly at the library is Paul Christopher's The Sword of the Templars.  Another book by another author I had never heard of and I am so excited I decided to pick this one up.  It's a pretty similar story to The da Vinci Code - about a West Point professor and his niece following clues from their deceased uncle / grandfather that leads them through a series of centuries-old mysteries regarding the Templar treasures.  My favorite part about this book?  Turns out it's the first in a series by Christopher.  I'm already partway through the second book and I can't wait to see where this series goes.

One fun thing Eddie and I did the other night was try Salty's on the Columbia River.  Salty's had a booth set up at the Yelp event we went to for Eddie's birthday.  They were serving up piping hot clam chowder that Eddie really enjoyed.  But they were also giving away free gift certificates.  Ours was worth $25 so we got to have a nice, little dinner there.  We arrived at the right time and were seated at one of the window tables with a great view of the river.  It was gray and hailing so we didn't have the clearest view, but it was a neat experience.

Last media mention for the night.  I promise.  Another random book selection from the library.  This one I almost passed over because of the tile and cover, but it was displayed proudly in the mystery section.  I picked it up and read the inside panel and decided I might enjoy A Quiet Belief In Angels.  This is a great story about a young boy growing up in WWII era Georgia who is appalled by the recent slayings of young girls in his town.  He makes a vow with his friends to protect the young girls from this serial killer.  The book follows this boy as he grows up and continues to suffer losses.  The ending was a bit predictable but that's mostly because the book opens with the end with flash-forwards sprinkled throughout the story.  I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes mysteries / crime fiction and period pieces. 

I mentioned the hail earlier...  We actually got a fair amount of snow one day.  Eddie and I chose to stay in and play cards all day because we didn't want to drive or try to walk anywhere.  The snow melted by noon but then we got dumped on again in the afternoon.  Our little courtyard area had a very nice covering of snow - even if it only lasted about an hour or so.

And that was how the rest of February went for me.  I promise I'll try harder to write more frequently next month so you don't have to sift through my mundane stories just to see the fun pictures...

Week Two of Eddie's Birthday Celebrations

Oh man, Eddie's birthday was awesome!  Yelp invited me to their second annual Bossanova Ballroom Bash which fell on Eddie's birthday this year.  I RSVP'd right away and was excited to learn that being a Yelp elite member got us into the event an hour before it opened up to everyone else.  One of the benefits to arriving early was access to their freebies (see my awesome new sunglasses).  But there were also hardly any lines for food and drinks at this early time.  We walked around the floor and picked up a few snacks and drinks - all free - and then found out we were being treated to a very special surprise.  All of the Yelp elite members who came for the early opening got to see a live cabaret / burlesque show.  Eddie was standing front and center for the three performances.  I had no idea that was going to happen but I was stoked because it turned out to be an awesome birthday gift for him.

After the show when the doors opened for everyone, the hall got very crowded and it was hard to stand in the long lines for food and drinks.  We were lucky to have gotten everything we wanted early on.  Eddie and I went upstairs to get some free beer and slices of Sizzle Pie pizza.  We probably would have left at this point, but we knew there was going to be a raffle, so we wanted to stick around for that.  We filled our time with taking fun mustache pictures.

The raffle was great because I won!  I got a copy of the PDX Happy Hour Guidebook which was great since I've wanted it but couldn't justify spending the money to get it.  Yelp really knows how to treat its members well.  I can't imagine how much a shindig like this costs, but they rented a two-story ballroom, invited 400 guests, and had free Ninkasi beer, free Makers Mark cocktails, and food from Salty's, The Heathman, Pine State Biscuits, and more.  All for free!  I don't know how they do it, but I love it.  I am so glad my mom bugged me to get on Yelp.  I had no idea I would enjoy it so much.  And the timing couldn't have been more perfect because I wouldn't have been able to take Eddie out and treat him to this good of a time on my limited budget.

The rest of the week has been mild.  Eddie and I spent time walking around SE Portland on his day off because we realized we never walk over there.  Eddie treated me to lunch at Bunk Sandwiches which makes a darn fine grilled cheese.  :-)  Then he took me to The Green Dragon where we enjoyed a couple of beers.  I had a lot of fun hanging out here because they have board games available to take to your table.  I picked up the Jenga set and was totally shocked to learn Eddie had never played it.  The set was missing a few bricks, but we still had fun.  Eddie is a natural.

We left the bar and walked about a half block towards our house when we saw a sign advertising free tastings at Integrity Spirits.  No way were we going to turn that down.  We got to sample two of their vodkas, gin, and absinthe that already has sugar so you just need to add water.  I don't have much experience with absinthe, but this was definitely the best I've ever had.  It was a slow day for them so the owner came out to chat with us for a bit.  He even poured us samples of two of his flavored spirits - I can't remember if they are vodka or rum based.  But one of them was flavored with saffron and I actually kind of liked it.

Days like that remind me how awesome Portland is and how much I still have to explore.  I know it's not realistic to try everything this town has to offer, but man am I going to try hard because this town is great!

I really haven't done much else this week.  Not even read.  I did watch more Grey's Anatomy though and am almost caught up to the current season.  The only book I tackled is Thomas Perry's Strip.  This was another hard one for me to get into.  At least I liked the characters in Hostage Zero even if the plot wasn't interesting for me.  Strip was just kind of blah for me.  Nothing memorable about the characters or plot.  But Perry is an LA noir writer so I'll probably give him another try down the road.  It's (normally) fun to read crime books set in Los Angeles because it's an exciting city.  And because I'm familiar with most of the places they mention in those books.

My blog updates are becoming infrequent and I expect that trend to continue until I get a job and have money to do things.  I have no fun plans on my horizon so I might just be doing media updates for the rest of the month.  If that turns out to be true, I apologize in advance.

Week One of Eddie's Birthday Celebrations

So January turned out to be a slow month.  Guess that's what happens when the sun is no longer shining and I'm too low on funds to do any indoor activities outside of my apartment.  But I've continued my love affair with the library and have read a bunch of books.  So I'll get all of those reviews out of the way - quickly.

One of the first books I really remember reading as a kid was The Tower Treasure - the first installment of the Hardy Boys series.  If I hadn't been introduced to that when I was, I probably wouldn't be the avid reader I am today.  That series hooked me in and showed me what fun reading could truly be.  Unfortunately the main library in town doesn't have too many of the books in the series so I picked one at random to read.  I settled with What Happened at Midnight because the title didn't sound familiar to me.  And this copy was not in the standard blue hardcover format I was used to reading.  I did some research and found that the version I selected is a reproduction of the original manuscript from the 1930s.  Apparently my beloved blue hardcover versions were edited around 1959 to remove racial stereotypes.  The stories were also shortened to keep up with kids' diminishing attention spans.  But my copy of What Happened at Midnight was printed just as it first was in 1931; stereotypes and all.  I knew this addition was different from the modified blue version I must have read as a kid, but I was still surprised to not have a single portion of this story ring a bell in my memory.  After a little more Wikipedia research, it turns out I'm not crazy.  The book was rewritten in 1967 and given a completely different plot for the blue hardcover edition.  That's the story I remember.  But it was kind of fun reading the full-length original.

Oh.  I guess I lied earlier about the sun not coming out to play because we have had a few nice days lately.  I snapped this photo right by my apartment when I was heading out for a free wine tasting at Thirst Wine Bar & Bistro.  They do complimentary wine tastings every Thursday with a different theme each week.  I will definitely be going back to this place since it's only a two-minute walk from my front door.





While relaxing at Thirst with some vino, I started reading Jeffery Deaver's The Bodies Left Behind.  I chose this from the library because Deaver was the main contributor to a duo of crime novellas with a collaboration of some of the best authors in the field.  I enjoyed that book so I wanted to check out one of his solo works.  This was a surprisingly suspenseful read about a small-town sheriff's deputy saving the day.  There were a few plot twists that I found to be unnecessary causing the story to drag out a bit longer than it should have.  That being said, I hardly put this book down and finished it in record time.  I certainly wouldn't mind checking out some of his other books.

The other day, Eddie and I had a nice lunch date with my cousin, Chris.  He invited us to Tábor, one of the local food carts.  This one specializes in Czech food.  They are most famous for their schniztelwich (a sandwich made with either pork or chicken schniztel).  But I knew I wouldn't be having that and instead opted for their muenster cheese sandwich.  I was really nervous to try it since I had never eaten muenster cheese, but after reading online that it's a mild American cheese and not the stinky French munster I was worried it would be, I knew it would be good.  They take a huge, thick slab of this cheese then season, bread it, and deep-fry it.  And then they serve this giant fried cheese slab in a ciabatta roll.  I knew it was going to be too much food for me so I just munched on the fried cheese and picked at the ciabatta roll on the side.  I'm pretty sure this is one food cart Eddie and I will be visiting again.

My last review for the evening is for John Gilstrap's Hostage Zero.  The only reason I picked this one up from the library is because it was in paperback format.  I love the library, but I really hate reading hardcover editions of books.  There is no comfortable way to lie down and read with them.  I wasn't overly thrilled with this one.  I had a hard time getting into it in the beginning because the story bounced around between several sets of main characters and I had a hard time keeping track of who was doing what and where it would go.  It's not a classic whodunnit kind of mystery so in that respect it was fun to read, but I really never found myself wowed by it.

And now to wrap up.  Tonight we celebrated Eddie's birthday (which is tomorrow).  I kept asking Eddie to invite his co-workers over for a little get-together and he kept putting it off so I finally took matters into my own hands and reached out to them directly.  I asked them to keep it a secret so we got to have a little surprise party tonight.  Nothing fancy.  Just a few friends, charcuterie, homemade lasagna, and of course lots of wine.  Eddie seemed genuinely surprised.  Fred Meyer had cheap party supplies so I got to decorate the house with some crepe paper which will probably stay up for a few months.  Ooh.  I even made my first cherry pie.  I don't think it was the best recipe, but Eddie enjoyed it and that's all that matters.

I can't wait for tomorrow because I have another fun evening planned for his actual birthday...