On Saturday, the Griers (Aaron, Kathy, and John) and I started out with a late breakfast at Paradox where we were joined by Kim. Mmmm... fruit smoothies and Stumptown coffee. Afterwards, we dropped our leftover at home, put on some sensible shoes, and drove across Ross Island Bridge to find the Marquam Trailhead that we used to hike the rest of the ( Read more... )

Friday started out with cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Swept the upstairs guestroom, upstairs hallway. the stairs, the living room, the bathroom, and the kitchen. Vacuumed the downstairs guest room. Then I scrubbed the kitchen and bathroom floor and went over the living room hardwoods with the cleaning machine. Washed the shower curtains. Got the ( Read more... )

In some ways, the last couple of weeks have sucked eggs. My cat, the best cat in the whole freaking world, is dying (although not immediately), and I got in a huge fight with my mom in which I confirmed, yet again, that I really need to be working elsewhere, and I got that awful exhausted depressed feeling that consumed me for much of the winter. ( Read more... )

We spent four sunny days in San Diego and visited three different brewpub/breweries: Coronado Brewing Company, Pizza Port Brewing Company, and Stone Brewing Company. Both the food and the beer got better with each one we visited. Portland may be Beervana, but Stone pretty much blows anything we have away with its amazing beer selection (including ( Read more... )