A Day for Celebration

Today, I became an aunt! Leslie had her baby boy, and I know nothing other than that his name is Kieran Timothy. I was not home when Gramma Jerri called with the news, and well, Jay's not one for details. But yay, City Relatives - Cousin Junior has joined the family!

What else? The sun is shining. The temperature is perfect and I have both cold beer and cold wine waiting for me. And a bounty of tomatoes from the garden. And my little garden out front is doing surprisingly well for me.



What else? We went to IKEA for lunch with the girls and they had Face Painting there, and look who let a complete stranger decorate her skin. And the same kid actually told the woman what she wanted to be painted upon her face. I think we are growing out of the painfully, frightfully shy in the presence of her parents stage. And as one of those parents, I say that is cause for celebration. So Ellie got her face done, too - just like her sister's. And Jay, who was really wanting to get home to paint the kitchen, recognized the significance of the event and went along with it, even though it took a bit of time. Of course, my children plan to never sleep or bathe again in order to keep their faces in their present states. Actually, Mags does plan on sleeping, but only on her back with her face pointing straight up at the ceiling.



What else? Could I be out of good news? NO! I have saved a doozie! I am finished with a year of college chemistry - and my 20-year old self is right now standing in her bedroom down at JMU, looking into the future and wondering who the hell is 40-year old Colleen and why isn't she off using that history degree? Yes, I have more classes that start on Monday, but for 36 hours, I'm going to try to party like it's 1991.

I Was Really Trying to Get a Photo of Her Smiling...

Erica and I went to see Heather B. Armstrong (aka Dooce) at Powell's last night. It was a mob scene. Tried to get a picture of Heather smiling, but... well, I like when people use their faces to help tell stories.

I'm thinking this was during a pregnancy boob story...

And here, probably instructing the partners of pregnant women in preparation for the sexual dry spell that will potentially follow the impending birth of their bundles of joy. Good stuff.

Grainy photos - Didn't want to use the flash...

Top Ten List #6 and #7: Parental Outings

Jay and I are pretty committed to giving experiential gifts to grown-ups these days, since, as previously mentioned, we don't really NEED anything and it's always good to reduce the amount of unneeded, although well-intentioned STUFF that piles up around the house. Plus, who really remembers where that third green sweater came from? But, you're always going to remember the fun day when you went to _______ (fill in the blank) with ________ (fill in the other blank). So, Jay and I went snowshoeing, and I took day trips with Mom and Pops, too.

Mom and I went to Bonneville Hot Springs for a spa day. They were selling $100 gift cards at Costco for $80 a pop, so I stocked up on a few and studied the spa menu. After Christmas, the weather was better than it had been before, but Bonneville is out in the gorge and getting there is a hilly, twisty ride where, on occasion, it's possible to envision your car sliding on black ice and plunging a few hundred feet down the gorge and into the Columbia River. For some reason, I booked us for appointments at something like 9 in the morning on a Sunday, so it was a somewhat rushed trip to get out there, but once we were there, it was really pleasant. The building itself looks a little dated from the outside, but the spa was okay, and the people were super-nice. I have had my share of facials and massages, but never before have I had a private soak in the magical mineral waters of a hot spring. A quick facial plus a luxurious pedicure, and I was feeling pretty good. Mom had a massage and pedicure. We ate a relaxing lunch overlooking the garden and outdoor soaking pool and then headed home. The most stressful part of the visit was choosing the color of polish for our toenails.

Pops and I had a Carleton Watkins day - Portland Art Museum had what proved to be a hugely popular exhibit called Wild Beauty, featuring the history of photography in the Columbia River Gorge. There were alot of photos by Watkins and his contemporaries, but the exhibit went up through more current times including the harnessing of the river's power when the dam was built at The Dalles (and the Native American fishing grounds and many petroglyphs were sunk under the river). We also went to the Oregon Historical Society (quickly), had a great lunch across the park at South Park and watched as a downed tree was removed from a third story window of a nearby building.

And I didn't have to buy a single thing this year from L.L. Bean.

A Night of Gershwin

Jay and I got out Saturday night to go to the symphony, and really enjoyed a light meal and the first half of the performance. See this link for a review. Looks like we were right when we decided the second half would probably be a let-down after the highlight of the night (no dis to Rachmaninoff). Guess we made the right choice to go home, return our babysitter to her house and get to bed. Because we are old and must be to bed before 10:30. But wow, Thomas Lauderdale was fantastic.

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.

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:

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.

Dejeuner sur L'Herbe

Nothing beats a picnic lunch in Washington Park on a sunny day, although Erica sent me a lovely picture of a pastrami sandwich worthy of high praise today. This was from last week, and really kind of shows why Portland is one of the best places in the universe.

Hitting the Summer Stride

Yesterday was a really great Sunday - I was actually struck mid-day with the realization that we were heading toward a near-perfect day according to my personal perfect day criteria. I didn't say anything to keep from jinxing it midway through...

We all woke up early and decided to head out for breakfast, but being weary of the Kountry Cafe, we set out for a slightly more cultured (table cloths) yet laid-back (Hawthorne) breakfast at Bread and Ink Cafe in Portland. We got there minutes after they opened, so we had most of the restaurant to ourselves. The high potential for the day became obvious when the next table to sit down was a couple with FOUR kids, thus reducing any noise or commotion that my two little angels might produce to a mere buzz in the ear of other patrons. Maggie had perhaps the best Belgian waffles that I have ever tasted, and I got to eat a good amount of them because they were served with a heaping portion of whipped cream, and since said whipped cream was on her plate, I had a hard time convincing her that the waffles were the main point of the meal...

After breakfast, we parked at the corner of 37th and SE Stark in the shade of a tree next to my old apartment and crossed the street to Laurelhurst Park to play for a bit. The girls liked the playground, and especially enjoyed communing with the ducks and dogs. Ellie "entertained" countless passers-by by talking with the ducks. It went like this: She'd get a little too close to a duck. The duck would quack, "Get away from me, you little cretin!" Ellie would think he was saying, "Hi, my name is Mac. What's yours?" To which Ellie would shout, "WACK! WACK! WACK!" until the duck hopped in the pond and swam away.

After the park, Jay suggested that we go to Portland Nursery to look for bean plants. The Meager Garden has three bean plants that are all doing fabulously well, but once it became clear that they were thriving, I remembered that the joy of having bean plants in the first place is getting to pick and eat lots of beans. Three plants, no matter how fabulous, aren't going to cut it. So, Saturday, I drove around Clark County looking for bean starts to no avail. But, Portland Nursery is a place like none other, and I was able to successfully score 5 new 4" pots, each with 3 starts, thereby boosting our potential bean production exponentially - right when I was about to give up on finding any.

All that activity, and it was still only 10 in the morning. When we got home, the weather was sunny and hot, and Jay was able to spend some time with Ric's tractor mowing the "front 40" in preparation for a year-round path he wants to create out to the tall trees (and future camping spot) in the front of the yard. The girls were fascinated by the activity - Girls love guys on tractors, after all.

We had decided that we wanted the girls to take early naps, so I gave them popsicles because popsicles drip on small children which easily leads to a quick shower to clean off, and showers easily segue into naptime. (And I thought my implication analysis skills had disappeared during my first pregnancy...) Early naptime accomplished, we were able to get the girls up and out in time to go to the English Estate Winery next to the giant gravel pit right in Vancouver. They were having an "Art and Wine" weekend, and we've always been a little curious about what they're doing out there. We got a couple of bottles of wine and headed out just as Ellie completely lost it because she had to leave the horsie swing that had become her new favorite thing in the universe. (Picture Jay carrying her off as she screamed, "NOOOO, HOOORRRRRRRRRRRRSIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEE!!!!!!!! HORRRRSSIIIIEEEEEEEE!!!)

Yummy dinner together. Hot day turned into a cool evening. Jay put the kids to bed while I planted the new bean plants. Then, a few last words in the Sunday crossword before bed, and voila: great day.

What if they just promised they didn't pee...

I remember when they were talking about putting tops on these reservoirs to prevent potential terrorists from poisoning the water. Then I remember the controversy when they opened walkways around them and let people get close. I don't remember anyone mentioning "What if frisky locals jump in for a swim." Really, it's been very hot this week.

New Favorite Pizza in Portland

The girls and I met Jay for lunch at Mississippi Pizza in North Portland today, and it is now my official favorite Portland pizza - thin crispy crust and yummy toppings in a pleasant and roomy space...

I've got some pictures - I'll post them later. More details, too. Right now I am typing with a kid who needs a new diaper sitting on my lap, and it's kind of killing the blog vibe... but I am very excited!

Edited: Here are the pictures: A demure Mags out front, and that girl's alter-ego in the next picture. Ellie, very serious about her pizza. And, finally, the view of downtown Portland near the pizza place. It's not far from the bar where I went drinking with Linda last month.

Thanh Thao Delight

Yesterday I had lunch in Portland with my two old friends - Erica and Thanh Thao. We were joined by Jay and the girls and Erica's husband Tim. Back in the good old Laurelhurst/Hawthorne days, Erica lived across the hall from me and Thanh Thao was an easy walk. You know how sometimes when you go out to eat, you want to try something new? Kind of take your tastebuds on a little adventure? I'm all for that, but not at Thanh Thao. Thanh Thao ain't fancy - it's like a favorite sweater - all about familiarity and comfort. So it's always as follows: for me, harkening back to my vegetarian days, Thanh Thao Delight - a scrumptious creation of veggies and tofu and sauce... Jay gets the beef Pad Thai, extra spicy. Erica and Tim get an appetizer and split the Sizzling Rice Soup. Period. And amen to that.

Watch Out, Portland

Mama Col is going out drinking tonight. Well, not "drinking" as much as "meeting Linda for drinks," - if there can be a distinction made there. While there will not be "carousing," there will be the opportunity to have a cocktail, and for me that is a wild night of partying, Baby.

Here's where we're going - I have been to another bar in the neighborhood once before, back when my friend Erica's dad told us to be careful in such a "rough and tumble" part of town. I believe in the last 5 years or so that some degree of gentrification has set in. Actually, even then, it was not so bad. But back in the day it felt kind of brazen of us - two girls going out for beers in the bad part of town...

Details tomorrow!