mine was good, how 'bout yours?

just back from cornland and had a terrific time. we weren't sure we were going to make it back there, due to "blizzard 2006" [insert dramatic newscaster voice here] in denver. fortunately we flew out two hours after DIA opened and had no problems catching our connecting flight to lincoln that evening. hurray!

upon arrival at my IL's house, i found in our bedroom a baby cradle with a clock inside. was this a subtle hint from my MIL that she wants grandbabies? she denied it. i still wonder... :)

we had five days in norfolk with mickey's fam, and all in all it was great. i got some knitting done, though i have to say i'm on very displeased with the end result. the cascade pima silk mentioned previously is still a dream, but my BO skills are poopy, and i think now the blanket looks more like a parachute. i'm crossing my fingers that blocking it will help. i also made progress on my eggplant scarf. i think i have about a foot completed, and so far, so good. i did not take my cabling needle with me, so instead i used a plastic coffee stir stick to hold my stitches.

on the way home, we encountered "blizzard 2006 take deux" at DIA. we ended up getting bumped off our first flight from DIA to PDX. in fairness, i should mention we volunteered, because if we didn't, UAL was going to boot off a grandmother traveling with grandbabies and a young woman who'd been bumped twice already, and who was sobbing in the aisles. heartbreaking. we were offered free tix on UAL, but they weren't sure when we'd get out of denver because the storm was causing cancellations of several flights. we fortunately got the next flight out on standby, and aside from sitting on the runway for nearly three hours (and going through de-icing three times after snow continued to collect on the wings), we arrived home.

i can't say my fam had the same travel karma this year. my sis's flight to arkansas was canceled because of blizzard '06, so she, my BIL and my favorite nephew were stuck by themselves in idaho. hearing from my sis that my li'l guy was crying in the airport after learning he wasn't going to see his gramma, i wanted to cancel my plans and drive to idaho to see them. they ended up having, what my li'l guy called, "the best christmas ever," so i guess all is good.

my ma also had bad karma, or should i say car-ma. on their way to colorado, they hit a deer, and more than likely totaled the subaru. bad news. fortunately they are in good health, and were close enough to the destination that my uncle could pick them up. i'm hoping santa will come late this year and bring her a new subaru.

today 2006 comes to an end, and we enter a new year. it's been a rough year, so i can't say i'm sad to leave 2006 behind. too much change, people moving away, bad habits resumed and not enough QT with friends and my husbot, especially the latter part of this year. i have high hopes that in 2007 i'll swear less, take more photos, eat more healthfully, lose 20 pounds, keep in touch with people, find balance in my life, and learn to better manage my stress. wish me luck.

wishing you and yours a safe and festive new year's, and a great year ahead!

guilty pleasure

i'm watching "love actually" for the second time in two days. pathetic, but i'll admit it's my favorite christmas-ish movie of all time. pathetic, probably. but i love every sappy, chick flickish moment of it.

we're headed to nebraska in four days for christmas, and i'm definitely looking forward to a break. i am hoping for some time with my knitting, as i have two projects i think i can finish while i'm there. i've just begun this dreamy eggplant colored scarf while on my trip to dc, and i've not decided whether i'll keep it for myself or give it to a girlfriend of mine. decisions, decisions....

hope you all are enjoying the holidays, and getting a bit of christmas cheer. go have some nog!

highlights from DC

so, sadly, i didn't find albert, but i did find the new ww2 memorial, which was terrific. btw, DC is going to run out of water with how much is running through fountains and lying in ponds and pools.

WW2 memorial

i think they will get coal in their stockings, how 'bout you?

i didn't do much sightseeing, because i was busy in a conference during the day. as you can see, i was very busy. yeah, that's right, yours truly is the WOMMA rock paper scissors champion. i'm considering a career as an officiant of future rock paper scissors competitions, now that i'm qualified. thanks to the world RPS society for the fun time!

the other washington

greetings from the east coast washington! i'm here on biz for the WOMMA conference, and am having a delightful time. my hotel is right downtown, about a stone's throw (but don't tell the secret service) from the white house, and in the thick of all that history that comes with DC. i haven't been here since i was a teenager, but it's everything as fantastic as i remember it: bustling people, so much to do, a grandiose marble building of size and scale unimaginable around every corner. this trip, i've been struck by the rare feeling that i'm more than glad -- i'm proud to be part of this country, because i am reminded of the great men who came before, who shaped this nation into all the things i love, yet forget as soon as news of iraq comes on the telly or GW opens his mouth.

i walked up to the capitol today at twilight and watched the lights slowly twinkle to life inside the huge building. putting all politics aside, it's such a magnificent building -- so clean-looking and stately and powerful. at dusk, the reflecting pool caught the glinting lights of the building, and in the dark blue/black sky, that white marble gave the capitol a larger-than-life presence.

being here makes me remember my teenage trip to DC, with my fam. my dad was a history buff, and liked coming to DC. i remember the tired feet and the hot sticky feeling that july, but also remember feeling so happy being here, watching him wander around the museums and along the national mall with a look of both contentment and excitement. i have a photo of him and me trying unsuccessfully to hug a huge column at some building here. as i walked down the mall today and looked at the various buildings lining the promenade, that memory made me smile.

i have two more days here, and i'm hoping to walk to the reflecting pool between the washington and lincoln memorials, and also i hope to find the einstein statue where, as a kid, dad and my family posed for more silly photos. maybe i'll ask somone to take my photo sitting in albert's lap, just for dad.

quarterly issue of crack lovin'

knitty's here, knitty's here! as if i don't have enough fiber crack (went to the crack store tonight in fact...), seeing spanish dancer makes me fiber drool. and, how will i fit argosy into my already long list of projects in progress?

haka-rific, but what do i know?

as many of you may know, i've got a significant love affair with new zealand, and specifically with the all blacks, the country's mighty fine and also the world's top rugby team.

and of all the things i love about the all blacks, perhaps my favorite (next to first five-eighths heartthrob daniel carter) is the haka. it's the traditional maori chant and dance that the team shares at the beginning of every match. the haka, as i understand it, is an homage to the legends of the country's maori people, and is an honor within maori tribes to perform it. on the rugby pitch, before the team begins the game, it's a way for them to unify and to build up energy in preparation for the match. aside from being entertaining, it's inspiring, riveting and chilling to watch.

mickey called attention to a recent article in the times, in which the haka is under fire from an american journalist who sees it as racist and inappropriate, relating it to a football player's celebratory dance in the end zone, or a death taunt at a sporting match. has this guy really watched the haka, and does he really understand how intertwined the haka is with the all blacks' history?

unlike those gestures identified in the article, which i see as egotistical, showgrabbing antics, the haka builds team and calls upon history to give them strength to succeed. and, i'm certainly no expert, but how is it tribally insensitive for the ruggers to recount classical tales to prepare them to perform at their best? with the passion and pride they demonstrate on the field during the haka, i see it as exactly the opposite -- as an honor, not only to the country and its people, but to people like me who now appreciate maori culture more than before, in large part because of the haka.

i say, let the all blacks continue to pay tribute to their culture and their traditions. let the opposing teams choose to invoke similar gestures to respectfully accept the challenge put forth through the haka. the lions honorably did so during their '05 tour, using a blade of grass laid at the feet of the all blacks.

don't take the haka off the field and out of the eyes of people who could stand to know more about other countries' cultures and traditions.

PS: interested in seeing these guys in action? check out the thirsty lion on second ave downtown, where they show international rugby most days of the week. yeah!

tan me

happy turkey day to all! we just spent a delightful weekend with willy, toots and their li'l chipmunk in mesa, arizona, where the weather was in the upper 70s, the sky was pure blue, and the view from our house looked like this:

yes, we were enjoying cocktails at this moment...what better way to enjoy the view?

one night we decided we wanted to check out this pizza joint in phoenix that gayle (of oprah fame) had visited on her trip 'round the US to find the best 'za. pizzaria bianco is located in downtown phoenix near the ASU campus, and supposedly is the the absolute best wood-fired pie. willy suggested we get there early to get a table. when we arrived at 5:20, we thought we'd be in for a 1, maybe 1.5 hour wait, which we could easily kill at the wine bar next door. sadly when we put our names in, we learned it was a four hour wait. wha? four hours?

we didn't get pizzaria bianco za, needless to say. but, nello's in scottsdale was a delighful substitute, AND we didn't wait in line. huzzah!

it was sad to get on the plane to head home, especially after sitting by the pool for three days, but imagine the system shock we received when we arrived back in portland and had snow on monday. bah.

thanks so much to the gebys for the best, most needed weekend and the fantastic hospitality. i can't think of a better way to spend thanksgiving with our two best friends. we miss you two (and a half) and treasure the time we get to spend together, short as it was!

in other news, happy birthday to my ma today! cheers to you on your year ahead!

gettin' all cultured n stuff

quick thanks to my buddy tcb for inviting us to his delightfully non-stuffy, totally fun art salon last evening. aside from the fact that his house is a work of art on its own, mickey and i were also envious of and hugely impressed by all the art he and his fabulous wife have collected and created themselves. while talking with some of the artists featured at the salon (friends of t's), one asked me, "so do you make any art?" i tried to talk about my amateur painting attempts, and settled on knitting as my artistic outlet. i guess it's something.

check out some of t&j's photos. can't find his flickr, but maybe he'll send it to me.

thanks t!

awol

been working hard this week, late nights, whatnot. nothing too horrible, many things have slacked in the past week. blog posting, obviously. cooking another. sleeping, optional. knitting, fuggedabahdit. seeing the husbot, only in the car when he's picking me up from work.

needless to say, i'm thrilled to be home before 7 and done working by 7:15 tonight. in fact, so excited to be home at a decent hour, because i just had a chance to see TV, and noticed a commercial for the movie "the holiday" with cameron diaz and kate winslet. you better believe i'm going to see that. looks a little like "love actually" and melikes that movie, and not in a guilty pleasure kinda way.

here's looking forward to a little R&R this weekend, and to a short week next week. it's finally the holiday season, my favorite time of the year!

small victories for women and america today

observations today on election day:

• puzzling news: how did the CNN folks all end up with the same skin tone? cakey tan looks miserable on all except james carville, who looks only slightly less like an alien than normal without the pallid skin tone.
  
• funny news: love the wonkette drinking game for tonight's festivities. wish i could have participated.
  
• good news for america: santorum. gone.
  
• sad news for america: katherine/katie "bodysuit" harris lost. what, oh what will we make fun of now?
  
• wack-job news: a dude on cnn just now said his conservative listeners are concerned about a "wild eyed, flaming liberal" political scene in this country, lead by pelosi. huh?
  
• good news for women: speaking of that wild eyed, flaming liberal, how 'bout the first woman speaker of the house. and might i say, she's triple the hot that dennis 'puffy' hastert was.
  
• fabulous news for women (hoping i don't eat my words as i upload this post): in oregon we are defeating the parental notification bill for abortion, and it's looking good that the good folks of south dakota will defeat the abortion ban.
  
• iffy news for wyoming: babs is winning by 400ish votes. so close, yet so far from defeat.
• best news for me: protest vote against bush? -- pshaw, not us oregonians. while the rest of the nation is still swingin' red (despite results tonight), i'm living in a state that is so solidly blue, solidly, beautifully blue.
  

all in all, small victories, nothing that surprising, no major changes will occur. but, tonight, i'll turn my lappy off and dream happy dreams that, for today, we're a nation that has risen her head above the fog of conservativism and realized we've headed in the wrong direction.

winter has come early

the fact that it has rained around 3 inches in 24 hours (not counting the other rain we got the rest of the weekend) means only one thing: the *@!%# basement is leaking again. at least misery loves company -- a&k's basement next door is facing similar issues. the only good thing about their house is they don't have carpet and paneling on the walls.

i guess instead of going to new zealand in february i should have poured a new driveway and sealed the basement walls. what do they say about hindsight....

on the brighter side, because it's so horrid outside, i have been getting a ton of knitting done! can't post here what it is, as it's a gift for a reader, so i don't want to spoil the surprise. without giving anything away, let me just say i love cascade pima silk yarn. so soft and gorgeous, and despite being mostly cotton, it doesn't split and has great stretchiness. i'm a convert!

stay dry and warm my friends! i'm headed to SF tomorrow where it's supposed to be dry and partly cloudy.

alert: kickass happy hour joint

portlanders, i'm sure you already know this, but i've just tonight discovered a super duper happy hour deal downtown. barcode on 2nd and pine, next door to e-san, shares the thai restaurant's kitchen, and thus has great happy hour food. try pad kee mao for $3.95 and get a really solid size portion. spring rolls for $2. beers (not PBR, we're talking micros) are $2, and wells are $2-3. the service is super and the food is delicious. not being at all hip or cool, i learned that they do great business late in the evenings with the party crowd, but they're trying to get people in the door earlier. as such, their happy hour is offered from 4Pm to 10Pm. say what?! 10Pm?! you heard me right, sister.

go. eat. drink.

niner, part deux

earlier this year i dubbed this year the niner. i guess the folks at multnomah county found out, because today i was chosen as juror number niner. and i get to be juror niner for 6 whole days. yes, my friends, 6 days away from my job, which couldn't be busier. and i get to sit in a pathetically padded swivel chair listening to 42 hours of lawyer blah blah. awesome.

but it's baseball season, so i can't be too sad. go detroit!

color me cabled!

this weekend i finally figured out (with the help of the lovely folks at the naked sheep) what i've been doing wrong with my cabled christmas stocking. turns out when you knit in the round, you don't have a right or a wrong side, and thus, i was following the pattern incorrectly.

behold, my first cabling project!

100 percent pure cable lovin'

only four tear-outs required -- who said i'm not patient?

next up: learning how to knit the sock part. i'm scared.

sex and baseball

yesterday i spent 13 hours in front of the TV watching a combination of 'sex and the city' season one (and part of season 2), and the MLB division championships.

some call it lazy. i call it THE BEST DAY EVER.

gotham tavern part deux

attention portlanders: the gotham tavern on interstate ave. and albina is back open, and let me be the first to tell you it's terrific. same hip space, but new management, new menu and a new attitude makes it about a thousand times better than its original incantation. that first time around, mickey and i visited the restaurant not long after it opened. we like NW cuisine, but this was a bit too much: every dish had 20 adjectives to describe it, the experience was pretentious, and when we left that evening, we were wholly unimpressed, so much so that i vowed never to go back, even after semaphoria worked hard to convince me that their breakfast donuts were delish.

fast forward to now. mickey remembered seeing lights on in the joint earlier this week, so we decided to give it a whirl last night. when walked in, the bartender waved and said, "anywhere you'd like to sit is fine!" what? no more $50 down payment to sit in the beehive booth? we chose a seat and were greeted by the very nice waitress. i asked for a wine list. they had three options, all very good. the waitress apologized that they were still finishing their selection, would i be OK with a glass of the kason vineyard willamette valley pinot noir ($24/bottle)? funny lady. when am i not ok with a pinot?

the menus was one page, featuring simple yet delicious pub fare options. few adjectives. mickey ordered the prime rib sandwich and a salad, and i ordered the pasta special of the day (fettuccini with sausage, roasted red peppers and zucchini). we settled in with our wine, and when the food came, we were very impressed. the plating of mickey's sandwich was beautiful, and it was a huge portion, too, all for $7.50. my pasta ($10) was really tasty.

jordan, the manager/owner, wandered over, sat down and chatted for a few. he and his partner have worked at other neighborhood bars in portland. when the opportunity came to pick up the lease at gotham, they jumped on it. jordan said he's trying to make the restaurant fit better with the neighborhood than it was before. in other words, he wants people to stop in for a beer, have happy hour, and have good tasting, inexpensive food. he mentioned considering doing a discount for people who take alternative transportation, since they're on the max and bus line. they are also going to change the name (we got the preview, but i won't mention it here because it's still a secret), to get away from the brand image that gotham had before. good move, sayeth me. we finished our meal, paid our bill ($34 with tip), waved goodbye to fawn, our waitress, and to jordan and his crowd at the bar, and headed home with our to-go boxes full with a second portion for lunch.

all in all, it was a great experience, and i'm so glad we tried it again. i want to encourage all portlanders to check the place out. the food is super and at really reasonable prices, and the staff is fantastic. the grand opening will be later this month, but even now during their soft opening, it's well worth the visit. go say hello to jordan, have a beer and grab a bite!

watch your back, ena

oh, puddy, you better watch your back. a new breed is in town. best be on good behavior (no late night meyhem, scratching, or claw attacks), or else you're outta here.

tough rhetoric

i heard the most classic thing on the bus tonight from a five year old. he was arguing back and forth with a little girl he just met on the bus. over and over, they argued, "no sir!" "yes sir!" every topic resulted in the same -- "i live on the stairs." "nuh uh!" "uh huh!" "nuh uh!" "uh huh!"

just about the time when i'm laughing out loud at the two kids, the five year old says, "this is my stop. i just have one more question for you: yes."

and then he got off the bus.

i love it: i have one more question for you. yes.

classic.

chili lovin

23 chilis. a new record. props to my peeps for the best turnout yet!!!

view the chili carnage here.

favorite time of year

this is my favorite time of year, when the leaves start to fall, the weather starts to feel crisp. i've switched to the down comforter. last weekend i made beef stew in the dutch oven and a lovely apple coffee cake. i started planning my standby battery of fall recipes -- spicy butternut squash and sweet potato soup, pumpkin bread, polentas with sauteed mushrooms and roasted red peppers, mugs of hot apple cider. the staple sauvignon blancs from the summer are getting moved to the bottom shelf of the wine rack to make way for bottles of thick, hearty red wines we need to pick up this coming weekend. this is the season for knitting, reading, savoring foods and drinks and unwinding.

i just finished re-reading one of the most brilliant, delicious books of all time on the plane yesterday. it's all about enjoying a simple life in france. i read it for the first time back when i was a freshman in college for an english class on writing memoirs, and gauging from the notes i made in the margins, i clearly wasn't in a stage in my life to appreciate it. it was such a crack-up to read how naive and unaware i was. "what's foie gras?" i wrote on one page. "all they do is eat!" i wrote on another. reading the notes, it was the first time i felt glad i've grown up. i'm not wise or cultured or worldly, but hallelujia that i now appreciate the finer points in life, like stinky cheese.

cheers to you, especially all my friends who i hear are working hard, and soul searching about their futures and their life choices. may we all slow down long enough to enjoy the moments of fall.