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.