My 5-Day Weekend, Part II

The hit counter at the bottom of my blog is over 700. Who are all you people reading about my life?

Part I is here.

Part II starts with Saturday, when we packed up the Wubsters and headed to the Lloyd Center Ice Rink to celebrate Chyanne's 9th birthday. Thankfully we didn't actually have to skate, just watch. I did have my first Jamba Juice experience, which was pleasant if a little pricey. Something pomegranate, strawberry, yadda yadda. Yum, but nothing special that I couldn't do at home with a high-powered blender. After skating, Jen and Annie and the girls went to Red Robin for lunch, while my dad and I went back to The Perfect Condo.

Dad's $0.02 was that if I bought a studio, it might be harder to sell when I was ready to move on, but if I bought a 1 bedroom it would be easier to get rid of. Plus, the 1 bedrooms were on the first floor - no stairs. It sounded good at the time, so I broke down and agreed to the bigger space. It would end up being a bit more than what I'm paying now (and barely making it from one payday to the next), but in all the chaos I didn't really think about that. I did take some pictures though. That night, post-chaos, I realized that it would be better to for sure be able to afford the place now, and maybe have a little trouble selling in the future, so I'm sticking with the studio.

(View from the front door)

(View from the "living room")

(View from the "bedroom")

(View of the kitchen/bath from the front door)

That night was part II of Chyanne's birthday - pizza and a giant chocolate chip cookie-cake. It was loud, fussy, and chaotic, but Jen bought beer so it was ok. I gave Chyanne the hat that I made and meant to give her for Christmas, and she seemed pleased. Plus it's way big enough for her to wear it for several years.

Sunday my dad and his wife took our friend George and me on a road trip up to Astoria, the long way. We drove up Highway 30 through St. Helens (where my mom grew up and some of my family still lives) past Columbia Meadows (where hundreds [thousands?] of rock/chaos lovers converge every summer for RockFest), and up to the Wahkiakum County Ferry. I would have enjoyed the ride more had I not been desperate for a bathroom. Once we got to the Washington side of the river, we drove through Cathlamet, Skamokawa, Rosburg, and Naselle, and then crossed the Astoria-Megler Bridge back into Oregon. We stopped for lunch, appropriately, at the Fort George Brewery and Public House. The food was good, but not great. The beer, on the other hand, was delicious. Cranberry Peppermint Wheat is not nearly as scary-tasting as it sounds. Next door was a bakery where we each stopped and picked a sweet - mine was a Pear Tart with some sort of white cheese baked on top. It was good except rather than tart dough it was made on something akin to pizza dough. Then it was all over but the drive home. The day was perfect though. High temp that day was 60 degrees (F) and the sun shined (shone?) all day. I'm ready for spring to come back for an extended stay.

Weekend Re-Cap: A ~*Hoodlum*~ Adventure

Friday night ended with the threat of snow on what was supposed to be our day trip to Eugene. Why Eugene? Well because that's where you get Chocolate Milk From Chocolate Cows.

Saturday morning Annie - who had spent most of the past 48 hours in bed with a respiratory something-or-other - had to go out to Beaverton for a dentist appointment. Since she was feeling so crummy, I went with her. No snow on the ground, but while I sat in the waiting room reading Reader's Digest the flakes started falling. They built up a little, but not enough to get in a fuss over. Not even enough for the news stations to break into their regularly scheduled infomercials to report on "Storm 2007." By the time we got done at the dentist, Annie was feeling well enough to give the go-ahead for our Eugene trip, so we packed up ourselves, Shylent, and Rufus the ferret and headed out.

Oh, and did I mention that the Civil War was this weekend? Thousands of football-crazed maniacs were due to flood Eugene to watch OSU and UO battle it out in the mud.

Before we could head south we had to drop off some equipment with one of Annie's classmates, who lives in Gresham. Innocently (or maybe not) I suggested that we meet half-way on 122nd & Stark. Well that also happens to be where Fabric Depot is. Like I said, maybe not so innocent. So while Annie and Shylent - and Rufus of course - waited in the car, I ran into FD to scope out some yarn. Ended up getting some LB Microspun to work on a project for Annie (she wants crochet sushi), some TLC Amore just to play with (it's turning into a scarf for myself) and some Christmas-sy yarn for one of my Christmas projects.

Thankfully by the time we got on the road, most of the crazed fans were well into their tailgate parties and traffic was light. It was even mostly dry until we hit Junction City (right about the time I texted Mom to tell her it was dry... sure, make a liar out of me).

First stop in Eugene was our favorite burrito joint on 5th & Blair. It's such a hole-in-the-wall that it's not listed in the YP. Ginormous burritos though, smothered in sauce and cheese and totally to die for. Annie even told the guy that we drove all the way from Portland just for the burritos. Not quite true, but true enough!

Our next goal was to find Shylent's friend FerretMike. We took Rufus down there so that he could bunk with Mike's ferret, Bug, for a while. Only problem though, we didn't have a phone number or address for Mike, so it was going to be a hit-and-miss adventure trying to find him. Our first attempt was at the Eugene Holiday Market, which is just like Saturday Market but goes indoors when the weather chills. We wandered around for a little while, saw some neat things but nothing we couldn't live without. No sign of Mike though, and no luck asking around. We headed down to the neighborhood that Shylent and I used to live, drove around a little hoping to spot Mike's van or motorcyle and actually did! The whole small world thing really comes in handy sometimes. While Shylent went inside with Mike to get Rufus settled, Annie and I sat out in the car - me crocheting and Annie surfing on some found wifi - and it dawned on me... Eugene is full of hippies! I bet they have some neato yarn shops!!

So we left Shylent and made our way (thank goodness for some of the net service I get on my cell phone) to a place called Soft Horizons Fibre, located in a cute little house and packed to the rafters with yarn of all sorts. After talking to a sales person (who was a knitter, but God love her anyway) I picked up a couple of hanks of some 100% Merino Wool in what I'm pretty sure is fingering weight (it's not so well labeled, so it might be sport weight, but I don't think so). The goal was to pick something up to make a pair of socks with, and according to the pattern I was looking at (found in a book at the shop... a book I didn't end up buying) 300 yards would be enough. So I got a total of 350. It's beautiful, all purple-ish colors. Pictures later. When I got home I discovered that all of the sock patterns I see online call for more than what I bought. So I've started inquiring about the availability of the same brand here in town. I don't even care if it's the same color scheme or not.

Anyways, back to pick up Shylent and then we had dinner with FerretMike and our friend Jamie, who I hadn't seen for years. Neat little cafe that had a little bit of everything and served whatever you wanted - breakfast lunch or dinner - regardless of what time it was. The food was just so-so and the coffee wasn't that great, but we had a good time catching up with old friends. By the time we left it was pouring down rain and we still had one more stop to make before heading home! Dari-Mart! We had to get our Chocolate Milk from Chocolate Cows!

If you've never had the chocolate milk from Dari Mart, you're missing out. It doesn't separate, doesn't require shaking, and doesn't get that yucky chocolate buildup on the bottom of the container. Dari Mart also carries the best egg nog you'll get without making it yourself. When people know we're going, they send us with their orders! We ended up leaving with a dozen half-gallon containers. Got lots of funny looks from the cashier and the other customers. But it was fun anyway, and well worth it!

The drive home was rainy, dark, and did I mention rainy? But we made it home in one piece and only 3 hours later than we expected to!

Living Like Rockstars (but without the drugs)

This past weekend, Annie and I decided to go live like rockstars for the weekend. Friday night we left right after I got off work (and after we stopped to gas up and replace her dead headlight) and headed for Lincoln City. After checking in at our hotel, we went up to the lounge and had Key Lime Martinis and appetizers for dinner. I forgot how much I love Key Lime Martinis. and actually I had a Chocolate Martini too that was pretty good, especially considering I am not typically a fan of chocolate.



Saturday morning we ordered room service for breakfast and sat in the room, enjoying our beautiful view of the ocean and the amazing food we ordered. Annie had Creme Brulee Stuffed French Toast, and I had Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict. After breakfast we lounged around for a while. I read most of a really bitchin' book, Skinny Bitch, and Annie read Nikki Sixx's book, The Heroin Diaries. The morning passed nice and slow, just like beach time is supposed to do :) We finally got moving and went to our favorite Lincoln City Rock/Gem/Crystal shop, Crystal Wizard. Picked out a few cute things and a couple gifts for others, and headed down to the outlet mall. I was on the hunt for Crocs, but soon discovered that thanks to my square feet, I'd have to get a pair three or four sizes too long in order to get the width to fit. On the bright side, we also got to stop at Bath & Body Works and I got some more Mandarin Lime wash. MMMmmmmmm. We also stopped at a kite shop and bought a pretty rainbow-striped kite, but by the time we got back to the hotel it was time for dinner so we skipped kite flying for the day. We went up to Fathoms, the restaurant at the top floor of the hotel, and watched a beautiful sunset while we had dinner. Mussles Dijon for appetizer, more Key Lime Martinis of course, Sesame Crusted Ahi Tuna for Annie and Seafood Lasagne for me, and for dessert Bananas Foster for Annie (which she said wasn't that good - well how could it be good with bananas in it? ugh), and Pumpkin Creme Brulee for me. Drooooooool. SO good.

Sunday morning we just had cereal for breakfast, and then took off down to Newport. We stopped at a turnout just north of Depoe Bay and got an amazing view of the ocean and some great pictures.




I know Seagulls aren't much more than overgrown water pigeons, but they're so pretty sometimes :) In Newport we went down to the docks and Annie took some more pictures, then we stopped to see the NOISIEST Sea Lions you could ever imagine.

They were soo cute though!! They just laid around in big puppy piles, and it would be quiet for a minute and then one would start barking and they'd all get in on it. It was so fun. When we got back to the hotel, it wasn't quite time for dinner yet, so we went out onto the beach and flew our kite :)

We were pretty much the only ones on the beach, but we did get a bit of an audience of people in the hotel coming out on the balconies to watch us. Dinner that night was at Fathoms again, this time Annie had a Kona Coffee and Peppercorn Encrusted Filet Mingon (SOO good!) and I had the Cioppino that Annie had the very first time we went there, and it was delicious. Everything was great.

Monday morning Annie just HAD to have the Creme Brulee French Toast again so it was another dose of room service. I had an omelette with chorizo sausage and red bell peppers. It was only so-so. But the Bloody Mary was good :D

As we were leaving town, I said to Annie (like I do every time we go to the coast), "Let's go up to Seaside and get tattoos!" Well this time, instead of just laughing it off and thinking longingly of doing it, we actually DID IT! Well, sort of.

We got up to Seaside around 2 and stopped at the tattoo shop, a place called Lucky Dog Tattoo. The door was locked but the guy had just gone across the street for lunch and was just coming back as we turned to leave. We told him what we wanted, and he said he had someone coming in at 2:30 but to come back at 5 and he could take care of us. I wasn't sure about waiting around that long, but Annie talked me into it. We went to Taco Time for lunch (boy has THAT chain gone downhill) and mooched someone's Wi-Fi so Annie could blog about the upcoming tattoos. We went to another Crocs shop and Annie got a new pair of shoes, and then we went and blew $20 at the arcade playing SkeeBall.

We headed back to the tattoo shop early, about 4pm, only to find the sign turned off and the door locked.

WTF???!!!

So we called the number in the directory, and low and behold the guy answers. Conversation went something like this:

Me: "Um, yeah, hi. We came in earlier and you told us to come back at 5, and it's 4, and you're not here."

Asshole: "Yeah well I'm done for the day so you're going to have to find someone else or come back another day."

Me: "Well, it would have been nice to know that two hours ago, since we told you we were from out of town and were leaving today."

Asshole: "Well I've got carpal tunnel and when I'm done, I'm done, so you're just out of luck."

That was it. No apology, no nothing. ARG!! What about our fucking tattoos??!!

So as we got back on the freeway Annie says, in her infinite wisdom, "Call Sea Tramp." Bingo!! We told Billy (who happens to be the guy who did my Celtic Knot) what happened and he said to stop by the shop when we got into town and we could see how much longer he'd need us to wait. We did, and he said to come back around 7:30, so we went home and unpacked and went back to the shop, and about 2 hours later Annie and I were the proud new owners of MATCHING TATTOOS!!!

Yeah ok, so it hurt a little.

Alright, it hurt A LOT! But beauty is pain, right? And they are BEAUTIFUL!!

So that was it, our weekend of living like rockstars. It was SO nice to get away and relax for three whole days. And now, back to my regularly scheduled life....

Wubster Wednesday: The Halloween Edition

Three little witches flying on their brooms. The first one said, "Gimme candy!" The second one said, "Where's my hair?" The third one said, "Auntie Zarah, do you know what the most poisonous spider in the whole world is?" Man, those kids are the best.

On the menu was (among other things): Pimples, Bellybuttons with Blood Sauce (cheese tortellini with marinara), Werewolf Fingers with booger sauce (chicken strips with honey mustard), and Snake Bites . Next time, more planning ahead. I'm not so good at that. Spent half the night in the kitchen wearing myself out instead of with the family enjoying the party.

On the craft front, I'm putting my shrug on hold for the moment. I'll just wear a jacket. I need to find a pattern and a yarn that I like, instead of making it up as I go along and using whatever I have on-hand. Instead I'm teaching myself to make Granny Squares because they're so versatile and are a good travel project, and a good way to use up yarn.

Tomorrow after work, Annie and I are headed to the beach to stay at our favorite hotel for three nights. Key Lime Martinis, here we come!! We'll be sure to take pictures. And I'll start posting some. I promise!