Snow in Portland!
Morrison Street December 14th
Well, this is exciting.
I'm from snow country. I've lived in 11 different states and nearly always in places where the winters are brutal (except Eureka, CA, which was usually quite mild)... but still, this is exciting to see snow in Portland. It's not the 4 inches predicted last night, and my girlie won't be able to sled on this grainy thin stuff, but it's very Christmassy and we are all a bit giddy this morning nonetheless.
Grandpa scraping the windshield
Mom and her husband decided to leave today instead of Monday. They're from Moyie Springs, Idaho. Their forecast high at home today is zero, -11 tonight, high -1 Monday, and -17 Monday night. There is no excuse for cold like that. It's completely unreasonable. Anyway, they've got animals outside and they're worried about keeping them alive, as well as worried about traffic tomorrow which should be heavier tomorrow. It's probably a good idea that they've gone now, but that certainly made their visit brief.
Mom and I had a splendid time at Jimmy Mak's on Friday night. I had to go to see one of my favourite artists: Marcus Eaton. Eaton was opening for Intervision, which I had not heard of. Intervision turned out to be a fabulous band that sounds like they could easily have been visiting from a major music city like Athens or Nashville or LA, but instead they pumped out this awesome jazzy funk brewed right here in the City of Roses. My mom has fallen in love with Paul, the lead singer, and all his quirky fun energy. Jimmy Mak's has an excellent menu - even the hamburgers looked amazing. I had spanakopita and my mother had salmon. We split a bottle of MacMurray Ranch Pinot Noir, which was splendid.
They brought a load of firewood from their property up north, as well as a lovely Christmas tree they cut right before they left. We have been snuggling up beside the fireplace every moment since then - when we're home at least.
Saturday we spent hours in town. Portland is so lovely. We went through lots of shops, and even found the skywalk from Saks 5th Ave. across the street to the mall. We looked like a ragamuffin bunch in our country folk garb walking through those places, but the skywalk was bright and fun. We ate lunch at the Macaroni Grill which was a perfect stop the last time we went there as a family, but this time was rather awful. They crammed way way too many tables together, so we were all squashed and the waitresses had to continually ask diners to please move so they could get through. Maybe the restaurant makes more money that way, but I won't be in a hurry to go back now, even though the food is good.
Furthermore, a couple of tables away was a little boy about 3 years old who was banging his fork and knife together for a full 10 minutes. When he finally got bored, and I was sighing with relief, his horrible mother who hadn't prevented it in the first place, encouraged him to do it again! She apparently thought it was adorable, and every time the kid would stop and give other diners some peace, his horrible mother would get him to start it up again. SOME people's parents, I swear.
We then walked to Pioneer Courthouse Square to catch Tuba Christmas with 200 tubas in concert! Our favourite tuba was one in the very back row, which had dragon spikes down the length of it, and it was all black and green and scaly. Very awesome, and actually looked dangerous. We met up with a co-worker of mine, and got to visit with her little twin girls.
Grandpa bought my little girlie a bike! It's blue and beautiful and fits her growing body. Now let's hope she remembers to use her lock this time, and doesn't get it stolen like the last one.
Can't think of any kind of weather which seems more Christmassy! Beautiful beautiful beautiful. Let it snow, and blow, and rage out there. I'll be sitting by the fire.