Po'Shines Cafe de la Soul

First let me say that our experience at this soul food restaurant was not entirely pleasant, but it had nothing to do with the food (which was excellent), the restaurant itself (we sat outside at a picnic table on a side street), the weather (it was beautiful), the price of the food (reasonable), etc., etc. No, we had kind of an unpleasant experience because Jay had the GALL to bring his friend Greg from work with him, and I was required by law and all that is good and decent to bring the kids along and not leave them hungry and home alone.

A certain girl who will remain nameless but who was wearing a pink princess dress decided that under no circumstance would she sit near, acknowledge or break bread with Greg. Because he is a monster. An ogre. A character from a horror movie. Well, no - Greg is a well-groomed, well-spoken, friendly father of two. Her refusal to eat with him - or even sit at the table while he was seated enabled Ellie to feel free to just cry - loudly - whenever she happened to turn her head so that Greg was located within the scope of her vision.

BUT, let me talk for a minute about Po'Shines.

Located near the giant statue of Paul Bunyan not far from the Interstate Max Line, Po'Shines is a soul food restaurant/non-profit organization connected to a church in North Portland. It's in an edgy neighborhood, and by "edgy", I mean one step up from sketchy and trying to keep improving. The area is shooting for a bit of gentrification, and there are a number of good places to eat lined up on the main street. Now, as far as "soul" goes, I don't know that either Jay or I have an unusually high amount of it, but we do love us our catfish. If we make it at home, I pan-fry it with a special spice rub that we make - our "Ring of Fire" rub. With the rub, it doesn't take too much skill to make a yummy catfish. But the catfish at Po'Shines is something altogether different and dare I say miraculous? It has a perfectly uniformly crispy cornmeal-type coating without having any grease. We can't figure out exactly how it's cooked... Baked? Maybe - but if so, you can't tell which side was touching the pan. I bet it's fried - but then, how do they avoid the grease? Maybe since it's connected to a church, God plays a hand in the cooking?

The sides are good - Hoppin' John, mac and cheese, red beans and rice... but really, I keep coming back to the catfish. They also have greens (we didn't try them) and hush puppies (one is good - more than one gets disgusting to me.) No corn bread, which I really missed.

But, the CATFISH. Did I mention the CATFISH? Because if I didn't, they have some GOOOOOD catfish.

So, yeah, we went to lunch and after trying to eat through one kid hiding under the table and the other crying whenever she was within 10 feet of Greg, eventually, Jay and Greg just left and went back to work. At this point, both children sit quietly at our picnic table and eat their lunch. (Of course.) Now, when I'm sitting outside eating with my two kids in any neighborhood, my mommy radar is on. "Keep away from the busy street!!" "Don't throw yourself on the sidewalk in front of the guy in the wheelchair!!" "Don't drop dishes on the sidewalk!!" "Don't touch the gum on the underside of the table!!" "Get your fingers away from the trashcan - Don't you see the bees?!?!" So, even if I look like I'm enjoying my food, one ear's to the ground, one eye is on any stranger who approaches, and one hand is tightly clasped to my purse lest any ne'er-do-well should look and see how high maintenance my kids can be and decide that it would be easy to make a quick swipe for the wallet. What would I do - run after him and leave my kids sitting there with half-eaten hush puppies? I think not. Moms with young kids are EASY targets, if you are someone who's willing to pay later by going straight to one of the lower circles of Hell.

Needless to say, when an old beater of a station wagon pulled up to the stop light on the side street from behind my left shoulder, I noticed that it was filled with 4 young men. Suddenly, one leaned out the window and started yelling - at me! It took probably a good two seconds to register that he was waving a book out the window - not just any book, no it was his Bible. And what was he yelling? "Did you like the food?? Great!! We're having a poetry reading here tonight at 8:00! You should come back!" Then, the light changed, they drove off and I was able to breathe again. A poetry reading. At the soul food restaurant next to the church.

Curiousity Makes the Cat Feel Stupid

I went out to dry some clothes in the sun and heard a really pissed off and frustrated sound coming from my left. I only took one picture before I helped him out. (If you can't tell, it's a little red metal watering can with a pesky handle that goes over the top.)

Her First Ralph Lauren Accessory

Okay, well, Ellie has had some trouble with her one eye drifting inward and crossing. We've been monitoring it, but it's not getting any better. In fact, it's gotten a bit worse, so her eye doctor decided it was time for eye glasses - make that bifocals. The lower part of the lens is blurry which is supposed to encourage her to keep looking in the top part, thereby preventing her from lowering either eye into the crossed position. This is apparently a very common problem and often can be corrected by glasses that eventually kids grow out of needing.

Jay and I had just gotten to the point where we wanted to know we could look our kid in the eyes - both eyes - at the same time. I figure with as fastidious as Ellie can be she might actually be a two-year old who WEARS her glasses, and so far, so good. And we think she looks freakin' adorable. We went with the kind of thick framed hipster kind of look instead of the wire-framed Barbie glasses. Jay thinks she's looking like Sarah Palin. I think that is completely ridiculous because I'd prefer her to look like Sally Jessie Raphael or even Harry Potter over Sarah Palin, but we try not to talk about politics much at our house. Just look at her - can't you just see her studying for finals at Harvard?

While we waited for her glasses to be made, we went to the Build-A-Bear store, and I let Ellie pick a critter out. My Mommy Idea was to have her create a critter and get said critter a pair of glasses that would somehow let Ellie know that glasses are cool - even stuffed animals wear them. It was Ellie's first trip into the world of Build-A-Bear, which is a scary world indeed - Just ask her sister who has been in the store twice and suffered emotional breakdowns both times the big fluff pipe has been stuck into her shell of an animal and cranked up loudly to bulk it up. Happily, it was a pleasant experience for El, and she came away with a be-spectacled girl monkey. She even kissed the little red heart before we stuck it in and had it sewed up.

So, like I said, so far, so good...

No, seriously - This is for real :)

So, Jay calls me on his way home last night and says that something happened at work that he needs to tell me about in person.

"Who got fired?"
"Nobody."
"Well, who was involved in the incident?"
"I was."
"Do you have any physical marks as a result of what happened?"
"No."
"But we're not going to have to sell the house and live out of the pick-up truck?"
"No."
"So, tell me!"
"You'll have to wait until I get home."

...time passes...

"Okay, you're home now. Spill it."
I'll paraphrase here: "I had a contract that had wallowed around on my desk because I didn't think it was a priority, and yesterday the CFO (- or CIO - or some important chief officer of some sort) finally sent out a message asking what the hell was going on and saying how the lack of response reflected poorly on the organization, yada, yada. So, I put everything else aside and worked on it for hours. Then, I went for a run at lunch and came back and there was an email from Cam (the bossman) asking to see me. So, I went to his office and he was busy, but he asked me to come back in half an hour."

...So, Jay steels himself for a beatin' for half an hour and goes back...

"When I got there, all of the senior executives were in Cam's office, and I'm freaking out a bit, but they tell me that I've been selected as the system office Employee of the Month."
"Are you serious?"
"Yep." (a silly little grin - with not even a hint of cynicism - splashes across my husband's face).
"No, really... because it's not like you're all that nice or anything."
"Well, apparently, some of the feedback on the nominations included something to the effect of 'he's pretty nice... for an attorney.'"

Here's a bit of the actual text that went out in a system-wide email today:

Congratulations to Jay O... our October 2008 System Office NOVA Award Winner! Here are what WINNER'S customers had to say:

"In our fast paced world of health care supply chain dynamics, Jay, the juggler (smile) takes the "extra" lead when things become critical. We've worked together on many strategic agreements saving the health system significant money, protecting the organization's interest/policy, and ensuring patient safety & physician satisfaction. Jay has the big picture of our behind the scenes initiatives. I like how he answers his own calls most of the time. As intimidating the title of "legal counsel" can be; Jay is approachable and willing to teach. "


"Not only protecting our organization's interest, Jay is professional in his workmanship and responses. He has complete trust of my department in what he does & provides. His expertise and viewpoint is valued as I discuss negotiation points with vendors with Jay as a key part of the team. "


In addition to the warm congratulations from the Legal Department and the NOVA Award certificate, Jay will be able to park in the Employee of the Month Spot in the 1919 lot for the month of October. He will also receive a jacket with the Legacy Logo and System Office Employee of the Month.

Did you read that? I thought maybe he'd score a measley extra week of vacation time or something... but a jacket? Wow. Jackets are for keeps.

Roughing It

Last Friday night, we tucked Ellie into her bed and the three of us trekked out into the yard to go "camping" and christen our big Family Tent. It's nothing too special - a Coleman that I got on sale at Freddy's (although Jay had researched far finer gear...) From the moment she saw it, Mags wanted in. Knowing her many layers as we do, we wondered if the excitement would trump the fact that she is so uncomfortable with the "noises of the wild" that sometimes ring through the night out here that she must under any and all circumstances sleep with her bedroom windows closed and the blinds shut tightly. I am proud and relieved to announce that she ROCKED out there. We set up a bunch of blankets and comforters and pillows and let her sleep in the middle - so basically, it was like a free pass to spend the night in our bed, except we were not actually in our bed, but rather in the yard. She went to sleep almost instantly and slept like a cuddly little rock all night long. We've left the tent up since then, and every day she asks, "Can we sleep in the tent again TONIGHT???" We keep telling her "Friday", but we'll have to see... I'm just glad that she doesn't yet have a firm grasp on the intricacies of the calendar - because I don't think I slept for more than 20 minutes all together and I have no immediate desire to lose another 8 hours of quality time with the sandman. But, then again, it wasn't about ME, was it?

One for the Fridge

On occasion, I remember to look through Maggie's "art file" at KinderCare and pluck out the winners. Yesterday, among the scribbles and paint blobs, I uncovered this (dare I say) masterpiece. Maggie brought it home and touched it up, "This is a picture of my family. Oops, I forgot to give Ellie a face!" (I was wondering why Ellie had been drawn as an alien jellyfish, but I had not offered up any criticism.) Then she gave us all waists - thank goodness. The big purple areas are the floor (duh). But, it doesn't take much 'splainin' to see what we've got here... Our first family portrait. I've already enrolled her in art classes... (kidding).

It Could Be Worse...

A few weeks ago my dear friend Molly sent me a paper placemat that she had doodled on one night while eating pizza and sipping beer at her local watering hole all by herself. She's had a rough few years, and she's in a spot now where at least she can see that things could be worse. She had made some lists about things she should be thankful for and ways that her life could be worse (and there were some funny drawings...) I decided I'd be a pal and come up with even more ways that things could be worse for her. Then, I figured I'd turn it into something for her. I was working on a project for work that frequently left me sitting at my computer waiting for it to save my work, so while I waited I started thinking... Then, a little construction paper and some glue stick and here you have it - "a mixed media collage." (I've been spending alot of time looking at stuff on Etsy lately...)

Samudra

On Monday, the girls and I went to the Oregon Zoo to see the new baby elephant. "Elephant" is one of Ellie's favorite words lately, and babies of all kinds are a big draw for both kids. When we got there, we saw the remains of the line barricades that had been used for the crowds waiting to see the petite pachyderm over the weekend, and I felt not so badly about corralling my kids into line for only about 20 minutes. I actually have never seen a line with such universally well-behaved kids. It was kind of strange. Luckily, the two female elephants who are not the mom were out front in the outdoor area so we could watch them while we patiently and quietly waited to see... a small gray lump sleeping like a log in a pile of sawdust.

At one point, his little elephant ear did swipe reflexively at a bothersome fly, so I'm confident that he was awake. Then, we voted for our favorite elephant name. Maggie chose Duc, I chose Bao, but the majority of Portland elephant fans went with Samudra. So, he is Sam. Sam he is.

Here's a video from someone who was luckier than we were:



Here's another - the Zoo put this one out. It shows the baby and his mom with one of the other female elephants:

Lunch!!

It's not very often that I enjoy my lunch so much I run and grab the camera (unlike my dear friend Erica). But today, it was really good and I want to remember it for all eternity and share it with the world.

I have recently started allowing myself a little indulgence at Costco: Foster Farms pre-grilled chicken strips. Yes, we could cook our own supply of chicken for quick use, but we would never do such a thing regularly. And, having the chicken on hand actually encourages me to eat more veggies and to eat at home rather than run out and get something. And another Costco find - the large resealable container of feta cheese. Today, I grabbed both of them and some organic spinach and some pre-cut mushrooms (again, lazy but effective). I ran to the garden and picked some teeny tiny cherry tomatoes and some lemon basil. I sauteed a clove of garlic in olive oil (then removed it), added a small amount of finely chopped onion and let it sautee for a minute before adding the mushrooms, the chicken and some chopped red bell pepper. Then, I tossed in the tomatoes (whole), the basil, the spinach... Covered it all, let it cook on medium for a few minutes, turned off the heat, sprinkled on the feta and let it sit for a bit, spooned it onto my plate and ate it with a few mini pitas...

Lots of good stuff, low carb, relatively low fat - and so yummy I had to post.

Wine and Crap in the Tub

Here's the part of the post that makes it look like we actually get to savor our wine: We've decided to expand our horizons into Riesling, which we formerly assumed was just a sicky sweet wine for losers. When we went wine tasting way back when, we found a dry riesling at Erath (one of our favorite spots) and brought it home. A few weeks ago, Katherine Cole (a wine writer for the Oregonian) who seems pretty cool and unassuming wrote this article about "Why Riesling Rocks," and we decided to leave all the kids' toys scattered on the floor and spend some quality time by uncorking the bottle we had. We loved it, and of course since we decided right away to buy more, it's sold out wherever we look. BUT, having opened our door to riesling, we decided to sample a few others. I found this dry riesling from Chateau Ste Michelle (which actually owns Erath these days, I believe), and we liked that one, too.

Here's the part of the post that reveals what life is really like at our house: Last night, we tried a bottle from the same winery that I'd found on the cheap at Costco. It wasn't labeled "dry" but when I got home from Jazzercise, Jay needed a drink and I was happy to oblige and this bottle was cold. We also enjoyed it - it was the perfect wine to sip while recovering from a good workout and listening to Jay's horror story about bathing the girls while I was gone. Jay never enjoys bathing both girls, but he had volunteered to go for it while I was at class. Apparently, he had left the two girls alone in the tub for a bit when a dripping wet Maggie came to get him to tell him that Ellie had "pooped in the tub." Indeed, she had, and according to Jay, it was an admirable effort. Disgusted, he removed the girls from the tub and marched their little naked dripping bodies into our shower. While they were in there, he went back into Ellie's bathroom to fish turds out of the water and somehow sanitize the tub. While he was doing that, he heard Maggie yell, "NO, ELLIE!! DON'T PICK THAT UP!!" He figured that exclamation did not bode well for what he was about to encounter in our bathroom, and he was right. It seems he got in there in time to find Ellie running from the room with two fistsful of crap. Needless to say, when I got home from class, he looked a bit spent and shell-shocked and needed a glass of wine (or a whole bottle).

I hope that someday he will be able to look back and laugh because it was pretty hysterical listening to him tell the story and using the word "shit" literally: "...so I'm thinking to myself, 'How the hell am I going to clean all this shit up?'"

Yeeeeeeeeahhhhhhhh, Buddy!

Sunday afternoon, Jay came around the corner of the house and said, "Hey, Babe. Do you wanna have some fun?"

"...but, Jay, the girls are here..."

"No, I mean do you wanna dig a really big hole? I'll watch the girls."

And, there you have an offer that no sensible girl in her right mind could EVER refuse. Seriously. I don't know how I got through so many years of living without operating some relatively heavy machinery because I'm tellin' you - It's (insert expletive for emphasis here)-in' awesome.

Now, you may wonder why we wanted to dig a really big hole. The short answer (and really the only one that's necessary) is because we had the chance to. Oscar from next door finally came through on the excavator to dig out the trenches for the water/sewer lines for the outbuilding. He did that part of the work because it actually required the fine motor skills of a brain surgeon. Then, he agreed to leave the machine here for a few hours so we could have some fun. We dug a hole just so we could shove some brush in and fill it up. Jay tore out a few tree stumps like the Incredible Hulk and Yeti combined. I only wish we had an old rusty beater car that we could have interred. If you can zoom in, look at my face in this picture. That is the goofy look that was plastered on there even as rivulets of sweat dripped down my torso and my ass went numb. There's just something I can't explain about it... If my husband could offer up an excavator as foreplay every day, we'd be the copulation champions of Clark County.

Monkey Slippers

Here's hoping that the junk (and that is really a rather tame euphemism) that we've been dealing with as far as my work, my Jazzercise music and my dear computer are concerned has met its demise and that I will now feel released to conquer such pleasureable and self-indulgent things as this blog again. It's been a long coupla days, and I've been alternately treading lightly and laying down the law in this room. Knock on wood, I sent off some documents today to the client (as long as they're able to access the gargantuan files by a FileMail link that I sent them). So, hopefully, they'll be happy, I can get a certain application out of my life for a bit, and I'll be able to reestablish a sense of normalcy. That said, here's a little something fun that's been snuggling up to the feet of two little girls at our house: monkey slippers from The Children's Place.

I took Mags to the mall last week to look for shoes. Although she would be happy wearing heavy tights and white sandals all through the winter, I feel a certain sense of responsibility to save her from the junior fashion police that I'm sure infiltrate even the youngest of KinderCare classes. We scored some cute Nine West (really) ballet flats that you can see in the princess picture from the last post at Nordstrom. They even came with their own little black carrying case/purse thing. We also got a sensible albeit sequin encrusted pair of pink light up Mary Janes. But, I was looking for something a little more, well, brown and everyday. So, we went to The Children's Place. We got some more tights for Mags since I'm pretty sure she's given up wearing pants maybe for good. Then, she said something that made me very happy and surprised...

"What are we going to get for my sister?"
"I'm not sure. We came out together because we needed to make a special trip to get you some things."
"But we need to get Ellie SOMETHING."
"Well, what are you thinking of?"
"I like these. Do they have her size?"
"Yes, they do."
"And do they have MY size?"
"Yep."

...and as much as I have often tried to get them things that are similar but not exactly the same, I'm thinking sometimes it makes good sense to get them things that actually are exactly the same because I have not heard a single peep of ownership disagreement out of either one of them about these slippers. And that's saying something.

Papa, do I look pretty?

Last year we got Mags a pink sparkly dress for her birthday/Halloween. She became so obsessed with it and started acting like such an evil princess in it that we took it and hid it in the garage. But, she found it there. So, we hid it in the trunk of Jay's car. It stayed there, quietly strengthening its vortex of power so that when Jay cleaned out his car and put it in a box in the garage again, it took mere days for Maggie to be sucked into the garage, forced to pry open a random box and compelled to pull the gauzy sheath from its confines.

"Mamaaaaaaa, what's THIS?????"
"I don't know, Mags. Have you seen your father?"
"Mamaaaaaaaaa, it's BEAUTIFUL! How did it get in this box????"
"I have no idea. Are you hungry?"
"Can I put it on?"
(crap) "Yes, darling, I suppose so."

And once again, the dress has begun to work its magic on my daughter. This time, it hasn't been all that bad - yet. We have an arrangement where she cannot wear the dress to KinderCare or sleep in it. She can come home and put it on for the afternoon, but she cannot ride any type of wheeled toy in it. (She learned this yesterday when it got a bit tangled up in the wheels of the tricycle.)

When she puts it on, she is transformed into a princess. We drew a picture of a crown on the driveway with chalk, and she will stoop down, pretend to pick it up and place it ever-so-regally on her blonde head. She walks with a certain grace - straight shoulders, controlled pace - but also with a bounce in her step that I interpret as her outward expression of pure joy... She even dares to dance and hold out her pretty skirts when in the driveway of our good neighbor whose presence usually causes her to hide behind a tree. So, maybe when you're almost 4 it's not so bad to pretend you're a princess.



















The first day she put the dress on, I stayed in the garage. She went into the house where Jay was. He said that as soon as she put it on, she went up to him and cautiously (but hopefully) asked, "Papa, do I look pretty?" He, being the good Papa that he is, told her she looked beautiful - and that she always looked beautiful. Over a glass of wine the next day, Jay and I were talking about the conversation. His mind went instantly to an article about a documentary about the objectification of women and kids' poor self-esteem he had just read in the Columbian. (The documentary features kids at a local school.) Yeah, that's some heavy stuff, but do you want to know where my mind went when he told me about his little exchange with Princess Mags? (Sappiness Alert. Turn away if you can't handle it...) I thought of her wedding day, and how beautiful she'll look and how at some point she'll look at Jay and ask, "Papa, do I look pretty?" Then, he'll get a tear in his eye - and there you have it. A country song just waiting to happen.

Cava

Last Saturday Grandma Jerri came up to give us a night out on the town. We chose to try a place in one of the most interesting locations I've been to in Portland. Cava is on Foster just south of Powell. The restaurant sits just a stone's throw from Devil's Point Tavern (strippers) and across the street from Pussycat's (24-hour adult video and lingerie shows). If you Google "Portland Oregon gastropub," this is the place that pops up at the top of the list. It is cozy and grown-up inside (although there is a kid's menu). Basically, you're choosing between a few sandwiches, a special entree or two, and a couple of choices involving pate. The wine choices are NOT local - most are European and have names that make choosing one more of a guessing game. Their website says that they only take reservations for 6 or more, and yet when the two of us showed up, they asked us if we had called ahead. When we said that we hadn't, they sat us at the "island" which is an elevated counter in the middle of the dining area. Sitting at it (alone with Jay) made me feel like we were the one couple who had failed to make a reservation. That all said, this place rocked.

When Jay mentioned that I was having a hard time choosing a wine, our server asked what kinds of wine I liked, made a recommendation and offered to get me a taste to make sure I liked what she had suggested.

When another server came to take our order, I mentioned that we had looked at their website and than hadn't called due to what we'd read there, she offered (happily and apologetically) to get us seated at the next available booth (which was good because I was not enjoying having my legs dangling off the kind of narrow barstool).

Jay ordered a burger with blue cheese and sauteed onions and a butter lettuce (with avocado) salad with green goddess dressing. I went with a special and got the pan-seared halibut with a corn and tomato salsa which seemed to have just a little mint in it. I also had their fresh green bean salad, which had fennel (I think) and bacon and a peppery vinaigrette. So yummy and creative and beautiful..... We split a piece of warm peach pie with ice cream and called it a night.

Best dinner out we've had in my recent memory. So glad Jerri's willing to come up once a month and give us a chance to head toward civilization for an hour or two of grown-up conversation.