On the Way

On the way through life we meet all kinds of people.  Most good, some bad, many interesting, and some whose stories touch our souls in a way that makes life worth living.  I had one of those encounters this morning at, coincidentally, the On the Way Cafe in little Lafayette, Oregon.  I've driven past this place several times during my wine country outings but have never had the time to pop in for breakfast before.  It's a quaint little space on the main drag running through town (seriously only about three or four blocks through the whole town).  Tiny town, like I said.

It's such a small town that I definitely felt like the outsider intruding on the locals' morning breakfast routine.  I quickly chose a small table in the rear corner of the restaurant with a view looking out at the dining room floor.  At the table closest to me in the center of the room sat an elderly couple with two friends.  The three men were talking about very random things - from big city life to trigonometry.  Go figure.  The woman was silent but kept looking at me and smiling.  I smiled back each time but quickly so that I could return to my book (and my great breakfast).

After about ten minutes of this, the woman stands up and walks to my table.  She doesn't say a word; just smiles at me.  I smile back and when she still says nothing, I realize her muteness earlier might be from some disease.  I introduce myself and she smiles, nods, and mumbles something incoherent.  At this point I am sure she suffers from dementia or Alzheimer's or some other ailment of the mind.  I invite her to sit down.  She smiles and grasps my hands as she takes the seat in the booth across from me.

In her first moment of lucidity she asks my name.  But my reply confuses her.  I repeat it twice but she looks upset so I tell her it's all right.  I ask her name, but she again seems confused.  Her husband takes a moment to ask me if she is bothering me and I assure him that she isn't.  She then asks where I'm from and I tell her about Portland.  She seems to comprehend for a moment but then goes back to her confused state.  She is looking out the window now and I comment on the warm sunshine.  She has difficulty removing her jacket so I help her out of the sleeves to make her more comfortable.

She asks again for my name and where I'm from during the next five minutes.  I repeat my same answers hoping she'll comprehend, but she continues to be confused.  I notice a little beaded bracelet on her left arm and ask to see it.  It's a medical bracelet that tells me her name is Carolee.  But when I smile and say "Hi Carolee," she shakes her head; not understanding.  A couple of times she has looked over at her husband and pointed at him and said, "That's my father."  I know this can't be true because they appear to be close to the same age and are both wearing silver wedding bands.  I simply smile and tell her that he seems like a nice man and she nods in agreement.

Her husband breaks from his group to sit with us.  He introduces himself as Raymond Norris; the way older generations make a point to say their full name when making an introduction.  He and Carolee will celebrate their 51st wedding anniversary May 7th.  I am quickly drawn in by his presence and his manner of storytelling.   I give him a short background of myself and he tells me he's familiar with Irvine because Carolee's sister lives in Rancho Cucamonga.  He tells me that Carolee and her sister both went to OSU and went off to marry their college sweethearts.  "And 51 years later, here we are...," I comment.  Raymond corrects me to explain that he is not Carolee's first husband.  She married her college sweetheart (and I can't remember his name - can't remember if Ray even told me the name).  But her first husband flew planes and one day just five years into their marriage he had some kind of engine or equipment failure.  He was flying low over a school and residential area and brought his plane down in a way to avoid extinguishing any other lives that day.

I glanced at Carolee and was sad to realize that she is not hearing any of this.  I wonder what she would be thinking or what she would add to the story of her first husband's tragic death.  Ray continues and explains that her first husband had the chance to eject himself from the plane - he was told to - but he could not bring himself to save himself and risk killing the children in the schoolyard.

Carolee became a widowed mother of two young children.  Ray holds his arm out at table height to describe how small one of the children was when he first met them.  He came into their lives and raised those two and then he and Carolee had a third child together.

Ray went on to talk about one vacation they took to Hawaii.  His sister passed away and her husband had told Ray and his other siblings to make the trip to Hawaii to use their timeshare.  I didn't say this to Ray, but I imagined they used that trip as a way to celebrate his sister's memory.  Again I look at Carolee who is not hearing us.  But what I find interesting is that even though she is not actually lucid, she knows to follow social cues.  When Ray or I laugh, she laughs with us.  If I smile, she smiles.  She just doesn't seem to hear the words.

Sadly Ray tells me that they spent fifty years living in Dayton, Oregon but last year this month he sold everything and purchased a small mobile home in McMinnville.  He said he couldn't stand the thought of moving Carolee into a home and he wants to spend the rest of their time together in their new home.

Ray said goodbye and Carolee said goodbye in her own way.  I was left with an empty table, a head full of thoughts, and a heart full of emotion.  Oh this story made me so sad.  But it also made me feel so many other emotions.  I was happy hearing about their great years together.  Then it became depressing to think about Carolee's state of mind.  I left the cafe and drove to Sokol Blosser because I felt like I needed to see Eddie.  I explained to him that I had a hard time understanding my feelings because I look at Carolee and wonder if she's happy inside.  I hope she is because she seemed to smile constantly and had some sparkle in her eyes.  But I wonder if deep down she knows that she is missing something; that when smiles she is only doing it because she is mimicking the people around her.

And then I think of Ray.  How does he feel that in his wife's most lucid moments, she looks at him and thinks he's her father?  I just can't comprehend how that must feel for him.  And I wonder what would be harder for Ray; that Carolee never have lucid moments at all or that she has lucid moments and is either stuck in the past or not entirely aware.

Ray's calmness about the whole situation also got to me.  It made me feel very young.  Clearly he has accepted this in his own way.  He never explained what Carolee suffers with, but I know Ray suffers too.  Clearly he has accepted this as they way his married life will end.  I cannot fathom having to watch a loved one spend each day the way Carolee does.  I do know Carolee is lucky to have Ray; even if sometimes she thinks he is her father and not her husband.  I was moved by Ray's patience with her and the way he helped her into her coat and guided her out of the cafe when they left.

I feel very sad about my interactions with Carolee and the way a long life can rob the body of a clear state of mind.  But I was also filled with joy to hear about Ray & Carolee's love over the years and know they shared a good life together.  Conflicting emotions.  There is no real point to this story, but it made me so emotional (both good and bad) that I wanted to share this.  If there is any real point to this story, take a moment to say hi to a stranger (even though as kids we are taught to avoid strangers at all costs).  Your quick "hello" might turn into a great story to remember for years to come.

I was planning to skip the media mention, but I actually have one that is kind of appropriate.  A friend recommended David Nicolls' One Day.  I placed a hold on it at the library and got to read it last week.  It's a fun story about a man and woman who meet in college.  The story follows them through their lives just one day each year (St. Swithin's Day - a nod to Billy Bragg).  The flow is very natural as you see the ups and downs in their relationship as each succeeds and fails along the way.

Fun Night Out

Lauren & Erica convinced me to join them for a night out this week.  We started out at Departure, a rooftop bar downtown.  We had a round of cocktails and enjoyed catching up while looking down on the city.  I met their friend, Dana, who was in town for a convention.  It was fun catching up, but it was even more fun people watching.  There were a lot of interesting characters out here...

We picked up another friend and headed to Barrel Room, a dueling piano bar / outdoor dance club.  We started out in the dueling piano bar where we enjoyed a great show.  I've seen better dueling piano performances, but even if the entertainers aren't that great, it's still fun to sing along with some great hits.  And a round of kamikazes always makes the night great!

To change things up, we ducked out of the piano bar lounge and headed to the tented area on the side of the building.  There was a DJ mixing some fun hits for this outdoor dance club.  It was really cool.  We danced off all the drinks and had a great night partying into the wee hours.  Too bad it was Daylight Savings and time to turn the clocks forward an hour.  I will definitely be going back to this place...  I just wish they had dueling pianos every night of the week - not just Sat & Sun.

So a funny thing happened on my way home.  Lauren dropped me off at the stairs leading up to my complex.  I was fumbling for the keys as I walked up to the front door and was so excited to see the lights on because I thought Eddie actually waited up for me.  But when I put my key in the lock, it didn't turn.  I started to think that I was an idiot for trying to use my new work key to open the house (my work key looks exactly like the house key).  But I didn't panic.  I just rang the doorbell.  It was then that I looked up and saw the address on the door and realized that I was at our neighbor's.  Ringing the bell at 3am!  Yikes.  I quickly ran next door and unlocked my door and slipped inside before my neighbor could come out and see who was ringing their bell at that hour.  Oops.

And a quick media mention for The Templar Cross, the second book in Paul Christopher templar conspiracy novels that I'm reading.  I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first book, but it wasn't bad.  I just think I had a hard time getting into the setting and it was sad having Peggy take more of a backseat in this novel.  But that's because she was kidnapped and the novel is about finding her.  I already have the third book checked out from the library and I'm looking forward to starting it.

Last Day of Freedom

I got a job!  Yay.  Woohoo.  Let's celebrate.

But...

I still have my weekend gig at the winery and the new job wants me to work a 45-hour week - not a simple 40-hour week.  So now I'll be working 55 hours / week and 7 days / week.  I'll be crazy busy.  I started my new job on Monday and I also worked yesterday, but I took today off to go to a chiropractor appointment.  The appointment was early in the morning and today is Eddie's Saturday, so we decided to take a little day trip and really enjoy my last day of freedom for a long time.

We stopped for gas on the eastern edge of Portland.  No particular reason for stopping there other than the fact that I needed gas, but it turned out to be a great stop because it put us right next to the Candy Basket chocolate & taffy factory.  They have this tall chocolate fountain to greet you when you enter and the experience gets better from there.  They had some chocolate mint truffles out to sample, but I was drawn to the different caramels on display.  We wound up getting plain caramels, milk chocolate covered caramels, and fluer de sel caramels.  And all of them were delicious.  Eddie picked out some taffy, but the flavors we got weren't the freshest.  I bet it's better in the summer when they probably make their batches more frequently.

Our next stop was also unplanned and surprisingly also involved a waterfall.  Our actual destination was Hood River, but we decided to follow the exit for Multnomah Falls.  Eddie and I went hiking very close to the falls last year - only we didn't realize we were so close to the falls so we never got to check it out.  It was nice to be there this time of year when there's plenty of water rushing down.

Back in the car and time for Hood River.  I did a little research and found two wineries that would be open on the weekday.  Our first stop was Cathedral Ridge Winery - the better of the two for the day.  It was nice to do some tasting outside of the Willamette Valley and try wines with some body.  The wines were also fairly reasonably priced so we picked up a few bottles to take home and enjoy later.

The next stop was the one I was really looking forward to.  I heard about Double Mountain Brewery on Yelp a few months ago and filed away their name knowing I'd have to go in to check out their beers and coal fired pizza.  I went in with high expectations since the reviews were so great and was pleasantly surprised when the brewery met and exceeded those expectations.  I've been in Portland for a year now and this is definitely my favorite brewery of all the ones I have tried up here.  The sampler set was crazy good - eleven 4-ounce pours of an amazing beer line up.  They even have some great Belgian brews in their lineup.  In fact they were so good that Eddie and I dished out the dough to purchase a growler to take some beer back with us.  Fortunately they only charge $5 for the growlers here - but the beer we filled it with was $18.  Still incredibly reasonable.  And yes, the pizza was awesome.  Some nice char on the crust and they use large, spicy pepperoni slices.  Eddie also loved his "Truffle Shuffle" pizza.

Since I didn't want to drive back home the same way we drove out to Hood River, I thought it would be fun to drive back home around Mt. Hood - even though it would add a good 30-60 minutes of driving time.  I don't think Eddie minded much though because I found another winery for us to try (Mt. Hood Winery).  Not the best wine I've ever had, but we found a few things we liked to take home.  There was a lot of snow piled up on the side of the road so Eddie and I stopped at one of the snow play areas and had a great snowball fight.  When I first met Eddie five years ago, he had never once seen snow.  This was the third time he's been to the snow.  It's so fun for me to watch him because he's like a little kid since snow is still novel to him.  And even though he's just a novice and I have more snow experience, he managed to kick my butt in our snowball fight.

We packed up after this and headed home.  Both of us were pretty wiped out from the day's adventures between the wine, beer, and snow.  I spent the rest of the night finishing my library book - The Battle for the Castle.  Does anyone remember reading The Castle in the Attic as a kid?  It was one of my favorite books in school so I checked it out from the library a few weeks ago for a very light read.  It was a lot of fun reading that so I picked up the sequel.  I don't think The Battle for the Castle has quite the same charm as the first book, but it is such a neat story.  Every kid should read these books.

Oh.  If you're wondering...  My new job is handling inventory and shipping orders for a local book publisher.  Kinda cool considering how much I like to read.  I'm just not really looking forward to working so hard and having no days off during the week.  We'll see how it goes...

Mardi Gras

It's not Fat Tuesday yet, but it was a beautiful Saturday evening in wine country and Eddie and I were invited to a really cool Mardi Gras party, so we went out and celebrated tonight.  A little background information regarding the person who invited us:  Eddie's company Christmas party a few months ago was at a little event space near his winery.  They hired Chef Paul Bachand to create all of the food for the evening.  I had met him a few months prior to that when he handled the food at a Soléna event.  Anyhoo... During the dinner, Eddie and I noticed Paul was drinking some Blind Pig IPA from Russian River, one of our favorite Californian breweries out of Santa Rosa.  After the party when most of the guests had left, Eddie and I hung around to talk to Paul.  We got to chatting about good beers and we were psyched when Paul brought up El Toro's IPA since they're a small brewery in Morgan Hill, CA.

Fast forward a few months, Eddie and I are friends with Paul on Facebook, and then we're invited to this awesome Mardi Gras shindig.  Obviously there was going to be great food, we figured there'd be good wine since that's what guests were asked to bring, and since we had no other plans, it was decided we should attend.  I arrived a little after Eddie since I had to work later.  But I wasn't surprised to find Eddie attached to the oyster bar.  I don't like oysters, but how many people can say they went to a party with a full oyster bar complete with a shucker standing by?  I thought that was pretty cool.  Eddie already had some beer going (they had a keg of Deschutes) but I started with some wine because I had to drop my wine contribution off at the wine table anyway.

So the party was at The Kelty Estate B&B in Lafayette.  They had a huge tent set up with a dozen tables and party favors in the side yard.  And it was a perfect evening to have an outdoor event like this.  It was a little cool, but the air was dry so no complaints from me.  There was a huge barbecue pit (or smoker) in the yard with a big hunk of meat cooking.  And there were hand-stuffed andouille sausages hanging out to dry above the tent.  Pretty darn cool.  There wasn't much food for me to eat, but I didn't mind because Eddie and I were having a great time mingling.  I did get to eat some awesome cornbread though.  :-)  After dinner, they strung up a piñata to the tent ceiling.  This was for adults only - you had to take a shot of either tequila or gin to earn your swings.  Eddie and I did not participate.  It worked out fine for us because the piñata was busted open by the third person and candy, mini liquor bottles, lotto tickets, and some adult items spattered around the floor.  Eddie ran out and grabbed some candy and a lotto ticket.  I thought that was a great idea to vamp up what would normally be a children's party game.

Eddie and I had to leave early since it takes about an hour to drive home from there.  I was really bummed to miss out on Paul's king cake because it looked great.  But we made it home safely and had a really great Saturday night.  I even finished reading my current library book, Janet Evanovich's Sizzling Sixteen.  This series is just fun and light and that's why I keep reading them.  I also keep hoping something more definite will happen between Stephanie and either Ranger or Morelli.  We shall see...  I also enjoyed this book because Uncle Vinnie plays such a minor role in the other books and it was fun to see more of his personality quirks this time around.  Though I'm not excited about the actors chosen to play these characters, I am looking forward to the first movie coming out later this year (One for the Money).

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...