A few of the many things I've been up to
January 24: The day before my birthday I went to two parties. The first was a white elephant party attended by sisyrinchium, altaego, William, and me. Everyone went home with something he or she liked. I scored a cool watch (that apparently looks like one of the new city garbage cans, but hey, it's Portland, even the trash cans are cool). The second was a housewarming, or maybe not, chez obliterati, cohosted (?) by altaego. We played a fun game that involved inability to draw, everyone sang the song to me at midnight, and there was flying cake.
January 25: Actual birthday. Lunch at Rose's was delayed by an hour due to their kitchen screwups. They compensated us with free soup and dessert. (Yes, I did eat that cake, sorry, altaego, but I made it last two days, and it was carrot cake, which made it a vegetable.) Later William and I watched Frost/Nixon. Fascinating and highly recommended.
The following week: Deadlines and headaches.
January 31: Watched The Wrestler. Mickey Rourke convincingly portrayed a washed-up entertainer. Imagine that.I have now seen all 5 of the performances nominator for Best Actor, and I'd put Rourke's fourth. Full disclosure: I am apparently allergic to entertainment wrestling and 80s heavy metal music. Especially if they're loud.
February 1: William has a friend who throws a Super Bowl party every year to make full use of the wall-sized TV in his basement. I was mainly interested in the halftime show, and we got there while it was in progress. I was impressed. Bruce has good knees for a 59-year-old. He put on a good show and the crowd loved him, as did the screaming young women in the basement who might have not been born when Bruce was first on the cover of Time. After that, somehow I actually got interested in the game, and watched more football than I ever have in my life. Hey, men in tights! (Which could be said of The Wrestler as well, except that these were young men in tights, and some were quite attractive, and none were slicing their own foreheads with hidden razors or staple-gunning each others' backs.)
February 3: Watched Frozen River. Excellent acting, real-looking characters, and an interesting story.
February 6: Snowboarding for the first time this year. The snow was a bit crunchy in places and a bit hard in others, but overall not bad. The weather was great: around freezing, very light snow and almost no wind. I had a bit of difficulty finding my way around, and at one point I accidentally ended up in a terrain park, alongside a series of small jumps that I was tempted to try (the folks there included an 8-year-old); I decided I'd wait until I could get some instruction in landing, however. The longest green trail, and the only one I could actually find, is virtually flat and at one point is characterized as a "Nordic trail," so I ended up on some of the blue runs, which worked out OK and would have been even better if I'd done it sooner.
Oh, and . . . Timberline Lodge is apparently completely lacking in espresso!! I thought Timberline Lodge was supposed to be the essence of Oregon!! William had the idea that I could start up an espresso stand there, and live up there seasonally with my little kitty in a little cabin that had high-speed Internet so that he could work from it two days a week, but I think for now I am just going to bring some generic No-Doz with me rather than drinking the shiteous coffee that's available in the day lodge.
Espresso or no espresso, I'm hoping to go back Thursday or Friday. I'll take a lesson this time, but I don't know if I'll be ready for the jumps yet.
January 25: Actual birthday. Lunch at Rose's was delayed by an hour due to their kitchen screwups. They compensated us with free soup and dessert. (Yes, I did eat that cake, sorry, altaego, but I made it last two days, and it was carrot cake, which made it a vegetable.) Later William and I watched Frost/Nixon. Fascinating and highly recommended.
The following week: Deadlines and headaches.
January 31: Watched The Wrestler. Mickey Rourke convincingly portrayed a washed-up entertainer. Imagine that.I have now seen all 5 of the performances nominator for Best Actor, and I'd put Rourke's fourth. Full disclosure: I am apparently allergic to entertainment wrestling and 80s heavy metal music. Especially if they're loud.
February 1: William has a friend who throws a Super Bowl party every year to make full use of the wall-sized TV in his basement. I was mainly interested in the halftime show, and we got there while it was in progress. I was impressed. Bruce has good knees for a 59-year-old. He put on a good show and the crowd loved him, as did the screaming young women in the basement who might have not been born when Bruce was first on the cover of Time. After that, somehow I actually got interested in the game, and watched more football than I ever have in my life. Hey, men in tights! (Which could be said of The Wrestler as well, except that these were young men in tights, and some were quite attractive, and none were slicing their own foreheads with hidden razors or staple-gunning each others' backs.)
February 3: Watched Frozen River. Excellent acting, real-looking characters, and an interesting story.
February 6: Snowboarding for the first time this year. The snow was a bit crunchy in places and a bit hard in others, but overall not bad. The weather was great: around freezing, very light snow and almost no wind. I had a bit of difficulty finding my way around, and at one point I accidentally ended up in a terrain park, alongside a series of small jumps that I was tempted to try (the folks there included an 8-year-old); I decided I'd wait until I could get some instruction in landing, however. The longest green trail, and the only one I could actually find, is virtually flat and at one point is characterized as a "Nordic trail," so I ended up on some of the blue runs, which worked out OK and would have been even better if I'd done it sooner.
Oh, and . . . Timberline Lodge is apparently completely lacking in espresso!! I thought Timberline Lodge was supposed to be the essence of Oregon!! William had the idea that I could start up an espresso stand there, and live up there seasonally with my little kitty in a little cabin that had high-speed Internet so that he could work from it two days a week, but I think for now I am just going to bring some generic No-Doz with me rather than drinking the shiteous coffee that's available in the day lodge.
Espresso or no espresso, I'm hoping to go back Thursday or Friday. I'll take a lesson this time, but I don't know if I'll be ready for the jumps yet.