Powell Books

On a trip to Oregon for work.  Not a fun one.  Think about what I do for a living and make your own guess.

I did manage, however, to spend some time on the first night I landed to walk around Portland.

Jen has told me about Portland's famous book store, Powell's Books.  I took a little visit and here is my review                           

Big warehouse of a building.  I didn't take a good picture of the front but the authors it brings in is interesting.  Augusten Burroughs. Isn't he the guy that lied about his autobiography?  Love Bill Walton.  Hippie basketball legend.  Thomas Frank is some political writer.  I checked the calendar of events and didn't see anyone really famous.  For author events I'm giving it a D.

The building is huge.  Many levels.  All decorated in a fun way.

Although a bit confusing on a first pass, it was fun to discover new, huge rooms.

Lots of recommendations.  From the employees, from award winning lists, etc.

The size of the shelves were intimidating.  But there were many book summaries to draw your attention.  Jen would need hours to look through the shelves.  I would be outside smoking my 11th cigar by the time she got through.

I bought one book.  Muralist, by Barbara Shapiro.  When I told Jen she said 'I exchange emails with Barabara'.  Jen is an author groupie.

Ate my dinner at a sketchy Chinese Food place, along the row of portable food trucks.  I like doing that when I'm here. Cheap, easy, seems like a locale thing to do.

Another day left in Portland before I return home.  Missed Jennie and my anniversary for this trip.

We don't do any big celebrations, but it doesn't feel right not to be home for it.

Girls Night Out

Bill is away this week so I celebrated our anniversary with Stacey and Di.  They were in Scotland with us so I feel like it's our anniversary too. We looked at yesterday's post and agreed that we don't look any different  - or if we do, we look better!  

(Please do not burst our bubble)  

16 Years

16 years ago Bill and I made our vows in front of this little Scottish man.

And in front of all these people.

I looked back over the past six years of writing this blog and while a couple of these pictures were posted before on our anniversary, many of them were not.  I thought for sure I was boring you all with yet another re-do of our glorious day. 

Here is my glamor shot.

Or wait - maybe this one is my glamor shot!

 

One thing is certain…this is NOT Bill's glamor shot.

I still don't know who's hand is on the family jewels...

We didn't have a traditional wedding but we did have a dance.

Our fabulous witnesses - Babe of Honor and Best Hombre.

This is the one where Whitney throws me some shade - she looks photo shopped in from some other fashion shoot in Paris where she's a little bored but willing to tolerate being photographed by for the little people. 

The dinner at The Witchery…the escalating noise level....the cherub's ass….We might have gotten a bit out of hand.

There are a lot of teeth in this picture!

And then there was Irene and her scotch and her accordion.  No breakfast is complete without all three.

Lisa blames my mother for the amount of alcohol she consumed the following night.  There is a photo of my mother actually pouring wine into Lisa's mouth but I don't have is scanned.  Instead I have this - Lisa thinking that her placemat is a field of daffodils to frolic in while Mom looks on with a mischievous look on her face.

Of course, the wedding week ended with Mom hitting her head on the train and slowing turning black and blue from the top down.  

Sometimes I have to admit that Bill got a raw deal….before the wedding I'm smoking his cigar (that is not a euphemism)...

The day after the wedding I made him check my teeth in public.

By the middle of the honeymoon he knew he was a slave to me and Petey.  This photo is indicative of the past 16 years.

The other day Bill said that I never actually agreed to marry him.  He should know by now that I never do anything I don't want to do.  I wanted to marry him then and I would do it all over again. I love you, Bill, like a whale loves its spout.

Happy Anniversary! xox

Wildlife Weekend

Our theme this weekend was animal visits.

Laura was away for a few days so we had Mickey staying with us.  He is so photogenic.  

He's gotten much better about letting us sleep through the night without a big fluffy tail in the face.  But he still likes to see Apple products fall on the floor. If you leave your iPhone on a table he will bat it off as soon as your back is turned.

These two animals came for a quick visit on Friday.  They were quite rowdy so I suggested they draw pictures of Mickey.  He was amazingly tolerant of their shenanigans.

Sunday I went to visit Jen which involved lunch and a long dog walk in the park.  Clearly Lucky knows how to do a selfie but Rudy (in the back) doesn't know how to pose yet.

Dinner at Bret and Zoe's

It's been a long time since we've seen the firstborn and his wife.  They offered us boiled dinner to celebrate St Patrick's Day a little late.

Bill gave Bret his wedding outfit from India (the one Bill was given for his friend Rakesh's wedding and then wound up not wearing it to the wedding and wore a suit and then changing into it for the reception when he was supposed to be dressed in his western clothes.)  It's got a long tunic top and the most enormous waisted draw strong pants  - - big enough to fit the whole family inside!  But the legs are skinny.  

Anyway, I thought Bret wore it well.

This is their cat Decco.  He's on steroids for an allergy so he looks a bit sleepy.

These are their other pets…an ant farm!!! Remember when ant farms were filled with sand?  Now they use a green gel and the ant farm has an internal light so you can make it glow.  I wonder if that freaks them out?  As gross as it was….they were actually pretty fascinating to watch.  That's a big piece of banana at the top.

Speaking of glowing - here's the mother-to-be!!  I don't think we ever announced this on the blog but grandchild #3 arrives this summer!

This was the last blog post we'll do from this location since Bret and Zoe move to the Port on April 1 (not an April Fool's joke…they really are moving here).  Soon they will only be a few short blocks away!

Marathon men

The NCAA men's college basketball tournament started off this year in Providence, RI.

Me and a couple of work mates got tickets to the first days games.  Four of them.

First game started just after 12:00 noon.  The last game ended just after 12:00 midnight.

A marathon day, but we were up for it.

The weather was ominous.  The Dunkin Donuts Center was shrouded with Ghostbuster-like clouds.

But inside, the weather was fine.  The fans were excited.  The teams were aware that the US sports world was watching and that one loss sent them home for the season.

 Attending four games in one day was not unlike competing in the Iditarod.  (ok, it was nothing like competing in the Iditarod, but it was a long day none the less.)

 The boys and I spent an inordinate amount of time rating cheering squads and mascots.

 'Now that's a good mascot'

 And that's a quality cheering squad.

 Unfortunately, the first two games were the peak of the day.  A close battle with much hated Duke was first.  The second game was Yale's first venture into the tournament in their schools history.  One of our workmates was a Yale grad, so of course we adopted them as our team.

Check out the scoreboard.  Yale wins!  Yale wins!

Much high fiving.  Much childish glee.

 I like the old timey feel of this picture.

The third game was a dog.  Boring.  Low energy fans from Miami.  Poor showing Miami fans.

One of our work mates left.

But three of us hung in and ended the night with an exciting upset.

I was the only one who rented a room, not wanting to drive two hours home.  Brilliant move.

Check this one off the bucket list of sporting events.

Take Me to The Art. Last Stop - Seattle Museum

On our last Saturday in Seattle we had about 5 hours to kill before we had to head to the airport.  Jana had tickets to go to the Seattle Art Museum.

There was a class going on in the lobby.

And there was some excellent art.  I don't remember who painted this but I loved it.  

This is the porcelain room filled with different sets of china.  When I redo the kitchen I'll need something like this in our pantry.

Do you know what this is?  A coffin!!  I am rethinking my plans for cremation.

All good things must come to an end.  We have to leave Seattle!! Booooooo!

But we'll be back!!  Thank you Jana, Jim, Bob, Deanna, Priscilla, George, Marta, John and Jana's friends at the Jazz club!!  We had a super fun time!!!

One more Booktopia Meet Up in Seattle

One of our nights out was yet another Booktopia meet up with Marta and John!

Marta and John were two of the first people I ever met at Booktopia along with Chris and Earle.  The five of us had a very memorable dinner at The Perfect Wife and have been Booktopia Buddies ever since.

Marta, Jana and I quickly fell into conversation but I did worry a little about the boys - until they went off on their own to have a beer and came back talking about books.  In fact, I think they talked about books more than we did!  

Someone came up with an idea for a book recommendation business for Jana - John was her first client. and now I've forgotten what book she actually recommended for him but I need to check in to see if it was a success. Wouldn't this be a great world if you could be a professional book recommender?  

It was so great to see Marta and John - I'm sad to think that our old official Booktopias are over but maybe the new Booktopia will be the Newburyport Literary Festival?

I figured I might as well add on some random Seattle pics….I can't milk this trip forever, right? When Bill and I first came to Seattle to visit Bob and Deanna many years ago (pre-blog) we went to the Experience Music Project where they video tape you all "playing" in a band.  Bob and Deanna still had the video so we showed it to Joey and I snapped a pic.  We were The Smokin' Havanas. (It's hard to see that we all have cigars.)

Iconic Seattle (I mean the sign, not the grey skies…)

The flower market inside was bustling!

This is the inside of the Seattle Public Library.  There is a ramp around the perimeter so you can walk down all 9 (?) flights without taking the stairs.

On the third level there is this bizarre red corridor..the walls, floors, ceilings are all red.  It makes you feel like you are inside a giant's throat.  

Even more Seattle tomorrow!