Food Critics

Maile and I are spoiled. Portland has some really great restaurants and we have been to enough of them that now it is getting harder and harder to please us. I had a coupon last night for a buy one get one free dinner for any of the restaurants owned by the Restaurants Unlimited Incorporated. They own places like Newport Bay, Stanfords, Portland City Grill and others. We decided we would go to Manzana in the Pearl District. We couldn't find it though because it was no longer there. It had been replaced by Palomino which is owned by the same company so we decided to go ahead and try it.

Now Maile and I should really start our own food critic blog or at the very least start posting on city search or something because all we do when we go out is comment on everything about our experience. Palomino had a good ambiance. No complaints there. Our waiter was attentive and cute. **wink, wink Our first impressions of the menu was that it lacked a cohesive theme. Exactly what kind of food does this place specialize in again? Nothing stood out of note. We shared an order of portobello mushroom soup which they kindly split into two bowls for us. The soup was good but I was glad for the fresh cracked pepper because it really needed an extra dimension to it. Just a tad boring. They also served us sliced bread with some sort of salsa or marinara sauce with chunks of cheese (maybe feta) in it. I like the sauce but Maile thought it was a bit weird.

We decided to order two things and split them each in half. I ordered a chicken and Gorgonzola salad and Maile got the Marsala chicken with cappellini. The salad was actually quite delicious. It had pears and candied walnuts and coated lightly in a maple vinaigrette. The chicken was very tasty and the flavors of the salad blended quite nicely. I thought the $18 price tag on the salad was rather exorbitant but the salad itself was nice.

Maile's Marsala was nothing to write home about. HA, although I guess it was enough to blog everyone about. Nothing extraordinary about it. A little heavy on the garlic. The presentation wasn't very nice. It really needed some sort of vegetable with it to help liven up the plate. Brown sauce and sauteed mushrooms never look all that pretty when poured on a plate over a flattened breast of chicken. The chicken was $19.

Anyway, I think our final verdict would be that the price was way too high for the creativity of the food. You can find much better places in Portland that give you a much better meal for the price. I am just glad we got $18 knocked off our final bill.

Unusual Wedding Preparations

You know...when it is your brother getting married, the type of wedding preparations you do looks different than if it is a friends wedding. As family, you have all these other things to think about, like what to do with all the family coming in to town. For my parents, this has meant pushing the time line of their home remodel up to get the upstairs finished in time for guests to arrive. So my dad and I spent all day Saturday installing crown molding to the baseboards, doors and closets of the guest bedroom and hallway. I must say that we were impressed with ourselves. We did a pretty good job (this time) and accomplished much more in a shorter time period. I'd show you pictures, except that I didn't take any. I like working with my Dad on projects although when it comes to numbers and calculations, we don't process things the same at all. He would spout all these numbers into the air and my brain can't collect them into any coherent. Give me a piece of paper and a pencil and I'm a whiz at math. Make me do anything mentally without a visual image and I look like an absolute idiot. But we didn't cut off any fingers and didn't destroy too much wood because couldn't measure correctly.

We also reinstalled the closet system that they took out in order to pain the closet. My dad took before pictures of what it looked like assembled so we would know how to put it back together. Course the pictures didn't help me know which of three nearly identical shelves was supposed to fit at the top so I had to reinstall the shelf three different times. The pictures also didn't tell me that I was using the wrong screws. Who knew that all the hardware in the bag didn't just go to this closet. Oi!

However, the house is looking fantastic and if you haven't had a chance to see it since all the work started like a year and a half ago, you should check it out. The master bath/walk in closet is so cool and the kitchen isn't too shabby either. Great work Mom and Dad! Now on to the rest of the downstairs. :)

I also got my hair cut and highlighted this weekend in preparation for the wedding. My gal Chandra made me look fabulous again. I was getting a little scraggly there. Now I've got to work on the slideshow that I am putting together for the reception. I need to block out time in my life to do that because that is going to take a bit of work. Then next Sunday I'm starting to bake the 36 dozen cookies that will end up being party favors at the wedding. His and Hers favorite cookies. Cute huh? So 18 dozen oatmeal raisin cookies for my brother and 18 dozen white chocolate macadamia nut cookies for Pam. Thank you ahead of time, Mom, for helping me!

Back Blogging

So we had this little snow storm...otherwise known as "Snowpocaplyse 2008" and I got off work for nearly two weeks. It was a little nuts. And you would think, that with all that extra time on my hands that I would blog. However, my time off turned into a big fun relaxing adventure!

First of all, Maile's 13-year-old sister, Caroline, was in town. I was already planning on taking a day off to spend with her and Maile but as it would happen, we got to spend an entire week all together. I cooked big hearty breakfasts for everyone everyday. Well...maybe we'll call them brunches since the girls never got up before noon. =) I made a big german apple pancake, nun's puffs and strawberry stuffed crossaint french toast. YUMM!!

Since the raods were atrocious and I have a weenie snow car, we walked or bussed everywhere. We Christmas shopped along Hawthorne. (Somehow everyone there made it to work.) We got treated to a fantastic dinner at Saucebox by Maile's boyfriend, Kyle, who bartends there. We stuffed ourselves and Caroline enjoyed all the virgin libations that Kyle concocted for her from the bar. We went to see Australia. The big epic that maybe needed to be not quite so epic. We played arcade games at the Avalon. We won Caroline a million tickets that she used to by all these crazy toys. I went to dinner at Bethany and Paul's beautiful condo on Belmont. It was a wonderful dinner of Pastaworks pasta. I got the skinny on Skinny, their humungous and adorable cat, who I cat sat for for the rest of the week.

We went to the bowling alley and played a few games which I bowled atrociously on. I blame the temperature of the room. Their heat, evidently was broken. I think it must have been 50 degrees in there. We also got treated a bit at Paddy's, which is the restaurant and bar that Maile works at. I think we ate more than our fill of happy hour food there. Was there something on that menu that we didn't order?

Kyle also scored us really, really, really great seats for the Blazers game. Two of us sat in the 100 level and two of us watched from a private booth complete with a free wet bar and catered food. We were living the high life and it was a fantastic game. Blazers won against Shaq and the Heat. Caroline got a Brandon Roy jersey and a foam finger that she made us all wear while cheering loudly. It was a great night.

I'm sure there were other adventures that week but because I am blogging about them so late, I have forgotten them. I must admit, I really needed the vacation. I thank God for that. He knew I needed a break. Thanks!!

My Parents

I have great parents. No. I have awesome parents. They are wonderful. I love them so much. And when I talk to other people who know them, they gush about them too so I feel even more justified to brag about them. My dad is an amazing servant. He will lay his life down for just about anyone and in any way he can. He helps cook every Sunday night with a team preparing food for 75 people attending Alpha. I always hear how he volunteers for all the worst jobs like dishwasher duty. He also is always the last to leave so he can make sure any lone women gets walked to their car safely. That is just who he is. He has always put his family first, sacrificing his own wants for the benefit of the rest of us. He models Jesus' sacrificial and practical love to us.

My dad is also one of the most loyal people I know. He will stick with people through a lot. He always roots for the underdog which came in handy when the Beavers sucked for so many decades. And this may be a weird thing to love about your dad but he is absolutely NOT a handy man. However, he will almost always give a go at a project no matter what it is. Now it might take five times as long to complete the project and four more trips to Home Depot than it needs but he still tackles it. He has taught me everything I know about home improvement. :) I have to thank him for that because even though I may not have had the most knowledgeable of teacher, he taught me to try. I feel incredibly more self sufficient because he instilled that courage in me when it comes to maintenance stuff. And I love getting the giggles with him when working on a project with him that is going awry.

My mom is such an amazing and talented lady. Every time she sits down at the piano she astounds me. She recently prepared a bunch of old jazz standards for our Alpha celebration dinner. I got to sit in the sound booth and simply listen to her play for about 45 minutes. It was great. I took me back to when I was a kid and she would practice in her studio. Now, anytime anyone plays the piano, it comforts me. It is kind of like how we all have a comfort food that we eat when we are sick or feeling blue. For me it is someone playing the piano. We recently got a piano in our apartment and occasionally Maile practices when I am home and I love it.

Everything my mom does is done with excellence. Truly, if you want something done well, ask my mom to do it. She is reliable and follows through on her commitments to people. She is currently looking for a new job and I think anybody would be absolutely crazy not to hire her. They really couldn't go wrong. My mom is a lifelong learner. She went back to school when I was in high school and got her Masters in music education. I think with straight A's too. She is so smart and such a hard worker. Then, even though music had been her life since she was a child, she went back to school again when I was in college and this time she got her associates degree in computer technology and started a completely new career path. She will forever be a cheerleader for people wanting to know themselves better and who want to do something new with their lives. I know she will always be there beside me when I need a push and she will walk alongside me as I figure it out.

I could go on and on but I just wanted to say all that. Mom and Dad, I love you. Thanks for everything.

Adam and Eve

Two Fridays ago I went over to ACMA, which is a fine arts high school in Beaverton for their production of "The Apple Tree." My mom was hired to play the piano for the musical and she was doing it with her friend Jody who was on the synth. You never know what to expect from high school productions. I have been to my share of shows that make you want to sneak out the back before intermission. But occasionally I see something that really impresses me.

This was a very unique production. It was basically three short, seemingly unrelated, stories. The first was called Passionella and was set in like the 1940s. It was about a chimney sweep who wishes to be a movie star and gets her wish only during certain hours of the day. She falls in love with another movie star who doesn't want to give her the time of day because she is so "fake." Little does he know. Passionella is played by my friend Kyley who is a fabulous dancer and adds quite a bit of humor and glamour to this role. (She is giving the thumbs up with me to the left) Anyway, the two movie stars do end up getting married and they both discover in the end that they have both had some fairy godmother help to be "famous" and they both turn into their regular everyday average self as the curtain closes. Hmmmm...interesting.

Next short is set in like the fifth century or something like that. It felt very Romanesque in costume and feel. It is about a princess who is in love with a soldier. When their love is discovered he is sent to be judged. Now in this land the queen has set up a very odd system of justice. The accused is given the choice of two doors. At one door is a lion. If he chooses that door then he is obviously guilty and obviously immediately punished. If he chooses the other door, he is innocent and there awaits a woman that he then marries. So this soldier is given a choice and the princess finds out from the lion keepers which door the lion is behind. But she is also a jealous person and can't stand the thought of him marrying the person behind the other door. So in the end of this short act, we see her point him in the direction of a door and we never get to know if she chose death for him or not. Doubly, interesting. What does that have to do with the first short? These are written to go together. Hmmmm....?

The final half of the show follows Adam and Eve as they are first created and getting to know each other and their environment. I was supremely impressed by the two actors who staged this entire act. Their acting was compelling and the story made you think about something that gets entirely glossed over in Sunday school with the flannelgraph. They explored things like how did Adam and Eve know how or what to name the animals. In what ways were men and women different from each other before socialization ever had a chance to direct otherwise. Did Adam and Eve ever fall in love. What did that process look like? When you have no past to learn from and no teacher, how do you learn about the world? It was a very thoughtful, humorous and, in the end, touching show.

Now I am still trying to figure out how the three parts flowed together. They did mention the color brown during each show but I have no clue why. I also found out later that it was written by Mark Twain and was intended to be show in the opposite order of acts. Adam and Eve were supposed to start it all and Passionella was supposed to conclude it all. That piece of knowledge didn't really solidify anything for me. Oh well. It was a fun night. Since you couldn't take pictures during the show I don't have any to show you except these. Many of the actors and their parents showed up at Red Robin later where my parents and I were grabbing grub. The guy in the middle played Adam.

Cupcakes make the world go round

Ok I know that this is a day late and a dollar short but I have to tell you how Maile and I actually got through the voting process this November. First of all, it took three and a half hours for us to work through all the people and measures on the stinking ballot. Since we had anticipated such a long voting journey we decided we needed provisions and rewards. So we first pre-treated ourselves to dinner at the Montage so that all those carbs would give us the energy we needed to push through. (If you have not had the privilege of eating one of their famous mac and cheeses then stop by sometime and check them out. YUM!!) Then we stopped by Freddy's and bought our favorite beer. Because beer was going to help take the edge off when Sizemore's poorly written measures were making us frustrated and angry. Lastly, we needed a reward system to keep us going. We bought and baked our favorite funfetti cupcakes with funfetti frosting and sprinkles. Just the sight of them will cheer you up. We buckled down and filled in our little round circles and every once in a while, when we felt the momentum and resolve faltering, we ate a cupcake. So I just want to thank cupcakes for the important role they played in this year's election.

Halloween was so much fun. For five years now my church throws this huge party for the neighborhood. We buy 26ft high inflatable slides and bounce houses, fill the kids up with sugar for two hours and let them back loose on their parents. It's marvelous. We have tons of carnival games and cotton candy, popcorn and pronto pups (corn dogs). I had one person tell me that she was trying to find something else just as fun or more fun than the Halloween Extravaganza to take her grandkids to this year and couldn't find anything. Our party was the best thing happening for kids. YEA!! I love this event because it gives us a tangible way to meet our neighbors and serve them in a really practical and fun way. I hope we never stop doing this. The picture to the left is of my friend Elinna and I at the Extravaganza. Obviously I was a cowgirl (Yea creativity!) and I think Elinna was going as one hot mama.


Dad and I headed down to Corvallis again for another Beaver game. This time we got to sit a little higher. While the excitement of being practically on the field was awesome, we ended up watching most of the USC game on the jumbotron. This time, we had a big light pole right smack dab in the middle of our jumbotron sightline. Good thing we didn't really need to see it from where we were sitting. The Beavs are still on a very tentative path to the Rose Bowl because of our win over USC. But we have four huge games to hurdle over first. On Saturday we barely won over ASU. It was one of those really stressful games that wasn't played particularly superbly by either team. But we scratched out a win and Dad and I got to try out our new rain gear. We were hot but we were dry. Not we've got UCLA, CAL, Arizona and Oregon left on the schedule. Yikes. Should be interesting.

My good friend Karen Snyder was in town this Wednesday and she and Maile and I went out to Huber's for drinks and desserts. Hubers is known for their Spanish coffees which they make flaming tableside. I was very impressed by how this server could do a three foot pour in an arc over his head. Crazy! It was good to see Karen, who is leaving to serve for the next two years with Wycliffe at their national offices in Orlando, FL. I'll miss not being able to see her more often. And I know she'll miss the NW. Just maybe not in January when it is 70 degrees and sunny there.

Ok, that's the update. I've actually got the night off so I am looking forward to some down time. Catch you all later!

The Mile High (DRYYYYYYYYY) City

So this weekend I took the opportunity to visit my brother Travis and his fiance Pam in Denver. They generously bought me a ticket to come out and see them and help them out with their new house that they bought. Before I say anything though I just want to comment on how stinkin' dry that place is. Not only is the air thin but it has no moisture whatsoever. Well...I shouldn't exaggerate. I heard that there was 1% humidity when I left on Sunday. I got a nosebleed the first morning I was there. And this coming from the girl who always has "moisture" in her nose because of her allergies. Ok, well enough with that rant. I'm just so glad to be back in Portland where my skin doesn't feel like it is turning into a desert.

I arrived late Sunday night and Pam was sweet enough to come along to pick me up even though it meant a short night of sleep for her. And of course they brought Kaiser. Kaiser is their two year old Weimeraner that they just adopted three weeks ago. He is a sweet boy. Here is a picture of him getting his cuddle on with Pam on the couch on Friday night. Pam was a little tired for some reason.
On Friday Travis and Pam had to work so I slept in and then got to work painting their master bathroom. Trav came home after lunch which was good because Kaiser had already destroyed a pair of his shoes while under my watch. Trav and I spent the rest of the afternoon fencing in this dog run that he is building. Their backyard is fenced but it is a three foot tall fence. Easily jumped over by the Weimer. I wish I had a picture of the run he built. Very cool. Good job Trav.

Pam came home before we were finished and we all piled into their Nissan Titan for a much needed trip to the dog park. After that we picked up some movies, more paint and some dinner groceries and went home. They cooked this fabulous tri tip steak, green beans, salad, bread dinner complete with wine. I discovered that my brother hates red wine but we oddly enough have the same exact favorite beer, Blue Moon Belgian White. Pam and the dog slept through War Inc., a very interesting tongue-in-cheek movie about what the world might look like if corporations ruled the world rather than governments.

Pam made a great breakfast on Saturday morning before we all piled into the truck again to go back to the dog park for a Weimeraner Shelter Meet and Greet. Basically I got slobbered on a lot by 10-15 beautiful Weimers and other such dogs saying hello to everyone. I also realized what a great job Travis has been doing training Kaiser. In only two weeks Kaiser knows how to sit, lie down, stay, heel and leave food alone that is sitting right in front of him. And most of those commands he knows by hand signals only. Amazing. Trav is a really patient and firm teacher.

After the park, we painted the hallway and the guest bedroom and finished painting the master bathroom. We also finished putting up all the rest of the fencing for the dog run and raked all the backyard leaves. At that point my right arm was about to fall off from exhaustion so we decided to get pizza and go bowling. Yea, that's right. Bowling with the exhausted right arm. Needless to say I sucked it up. But I have so many excuses to use this time. I mean...besides the tired arm, I didn't have my own ball with me. That just totally throws you for a loop. Then they turned off all the lights for "cosmic bowling" and I couldn't see the arrows on the lane anymore. Then there was all the flashy, strobey lights swirling around me....And it is as this point that I felt old. What is wrong with me? At what point did cosmic bowling turn from fun and awesome to bothersome and obnoxious. So I sighed to myself and we went home and watched Leatherheads.

On Sunday Travis and Pam took me to this awesome breakfast joint called Toast. Ironically enough, one of Maile and I's favorite breakfast spots here in Portland is also called Toast. The Littleton, CO Toast kind of specializes in pancakes. Since none of us could decide what kind of pancakes we wanted, we ordered a "flight" for the table. Kind of a sampler of four short stacks of four different kinds. So cool! We had lemon blueberry, oreo cookie, bananas foster and blueberry granola. I loved it. Yay cool breakfast joints!
After our hearty breakfast Pam and I headed out to do some more hard work at the mall. We were on the prowl for the perfect bridesmaid's dress for me. Pam had this great and generous idea of letting each bridesmaid pick out a cute black cocktail dress for the wedding. That means we all get to wear something that is flattering on us and that we will most certainly wear again. Gold star for Pam!! We headed to the White House, Black Market store which, as the name suggests, kind of specializes in all things black and white. Gloriously, we bought the first and only dress that I tried on. I nearly kissed the service clerk I was so happy that this wasn't going to be a long ordeal. And I love the dress. It is super cute and looks great on me. Thanks Pam!! (Sorry, I don't have a picture of it!)

Ok well this is getting long and I am sure most of you don't care that much about all the little details of my trip. But let me just finish by thanking my brother and Pam for hosting me. It meant a lot to me to spend time with you both. I love you and wish you lived closer. Good luck with the new house and the new dog! And if anyone is in Denver, look them up. They have a fabulous chocolate brown guest bedroom now to host you in. :)