Slow month! It’s partially because as the end of the year approaches, I tend to not finish books. I think I was reading five on 12/31? Then I finished four of them on 1/1. Logging things on Goodreads caused this situation. I like to have credit for reading the books in the same year I read the books.
Young Adult
*The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman
Grownup Fiction
Shadow Child by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto North Woods by Daniel Mason
Young Nonfiction
*Homebody by Theo Parish
Grownup Nonfiction
Green Money: How to Reduce Waste, Build Wealth, and Create a Better Future for Allby Kara Perez 488 Rules for Life by Kitty Flanagan
My Year in Books
Goodreads reports that I read 224 books in 2024. They also reported that my top-read categories were picture and middle grade books. This is directly due to the focus of librarian book group this past year as one of our members was on notables. I’m hoping to read more grownup fiction in 2025.
I read the movie schedule incorrectly and the first movie of my planned double feature was not playing for another week. I had already bought a ticket for the second movie in the double feature at a different theater, so I had time to kill.
I needed a place to hang out where it was warm and there was access to a bathroom. Where could I go for 2+ hours? After mulling it over, I remembered the Lloyd Center, the first shopping mall built in Oregon.
(But actually I only remembered the Lloyd Center because I checked the movie theater outside of the mall to see if I could catch an early movie at that theater. The answer: not any movie I hadn’t already seen or was interested in seeing.)
The Lloyd Center is in a state of change. All of its anchor stores have closed, and the only chain stores left are Forever 21 (it spans two floors!) and Barnes and Noble.
(Correction: The website says there is both a Hot Topic and a Claire’s; I remember seeing the Claire’s, but don’t remember the Hot Topic. The main point is that only a smattering of the retail spaces are filled with national chain stores.)
Let’s see what else there is to see.
I drove past hundreds of empty parking spaces in the street-level covered parking. When I finally found the place people were parking, it was blocked off by a chain, and I couldn’t figure out the alternate entrance. So I ended driving up a ramp (on the wrong side, as it turned out) and finding parking on the upper deck near where the Sears used to be. As I walked in, I heard much more ambient chatter than I thought I would hear.
Turns out, there was a card trading convention on the first floor! Many people were buying, selling, and chatting about cards.
Of course, to take over all this space, all the stores behind them need to be closed. And they are. One of them is the old Victoria’s Secret where I have attended a few NWCTCplays.
The medical directory lists two providers and the mall’s offices. In the early aughts, there were many professionals occupying the third story of the mall.
As the chains have fled, The Lloyd Center has offered attractive leases to small businesses. Floating World Comics is here, as is a place to buy lego.
There’s also a skate school. A school, not a rink!
Speaking of rinks, the ice rink is still going strong. It even snows intermittently. Speaking of, OPB had a fun story about one of the Zamboni drivers in December. It’s worth a listen. Or read. They have a transcript.
One thing that is an intermittent bummer about life in this particular big city is that I have no easy access to a department store. This used to be a Macy’s at the Lloyd Center, and there was another Macy’s downtown. Sometimes I just want to go to a place where I can buy a sweater and kitchen shears. And such a place is nowhere near me.
The third floor had a variety of interesting things. Beau Monde, the haircutting school I went to for many years is at the Lloyd Center now. They used to be down on SW 12th. If you want to play bridge, you can learn at the Portland Bridge Club.
Across from the Bridge Club is another club: the Chess Club. When I walked by there was a tournament, so there were many families hanging about.
The food court still has a few eating options. It also hosted some overflow chess action.
After walking the whole building, I hung out for the rest of the time at Barnes and Noble, where they had only the old edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. The new edition came out in the summer, and I hope no one buys that previous edition because it’s expensive.
I also learned that Barnes and Noble is part toy store, which makes sense because the Lloyd Center’s KB Toys closed years ago.
Overall, it was a very interesting and pleasant visit.
This has been bugging me for several years, but it took a Miss Manners column to make a post about it.
I sometimes find Miss Manners’s answers to be crotchety and a bit mean, but this was right on.
Why add the preposition? The word is already complete. Merriam-Webster says that in this context welcome is an interjection that is “used to express a greeting to a guest or newcomer upon arrival.”
See? One word. Done!
And “in” to what? If one is trying to say “Welcome to my store,” or “Welcome to the store,” the word “in” is not used. Do they mean “inside” like “inside the building,” or “inside the door”?
I’m certainly not engaging with people who say this and badgering them as to if they are even thinking what they are saying. It is one of those things I could let go of, but so far, it continues to rankle.
I’m hoping it goes the way the overuse of air quotes did in the 90s.
Come to think of it, air quotes would be perfect for this: “Welcome [air quotes] in [close air quotes]”.
This postcard was posted in Boise, where Sara reports that they visited the Boise Botanical Garden’s Winter Garden aGlow (an aside: why is it styled that way??? “Aglow” is already a word that implies things with glow. No need to cap the G.)
I’ve missed the last few movie quizzes, but was back again for December. Greg and Renee joined the fun, and we held up the bottom third of the bracket like we usually do. We’re Battleship Cinematic Universe .
While many of the teams are regulars, some of the regulars tweaked their names to include a holiday theme. We didn’t think of that, but we’re ready for next year.
Cinema Toast Crunch was sitting in front of us. It was amazing to see how few questions they missed.
I wonder if team Very Good knew ahead of time how bad they would be?
The last round was anagrams, and that was Not Good. Hopefully they won’t be back for a while.
Not only was 2024 the year I finally made it to the tree lighting, it was also the year I finally made it to Tuba Christmas!
What happens when more than 400 tubas converge on Pioneer Square to play a concert? They need a place to put their cases. The cases served as a nice buffer between the tubas and the audience.
I used to be good at going to public events and arriving early enough to get a good seat, but clearly I have to build those particular muscles back up. I ended up standing on the side near the back, so I couldn’t see what was going on near the front. But it was fun to have an up-close view of all the tubas.
Many Tuba Christmas caps were around in both red and green. The ones that they were selling this year were blue. But it looks like each tuba player gets a button for every tuba Christmas concert they participate in. This musician is a long-time participant.
There was an official tuba Christmas photographer, and I admired his folding stepstool. I would find it handy when I took pictures.
In late November, the TriMet Riders Club email advertised TriMet’s Ugly Christmas Sweater.
“That’s not ugly,” I thought to myself, “That’s a thing of beauty.” Soon after, I ordered.
Then, time passed. I wondered if I actually had ordered the sweater because I received no email. But then! A delivery notification saying the sweater had been shipped from Portland and would be delivered on Saturday, December 9, by 9 p.m. Wonderful! Deliveries are usually earlier than that, so it might be here in time for Heidi and Kevin’s Christmas Party.
But no. The time came to depart for the party, and no sweater was to be seen. It also hadn’t been delivered by the time we got home.
The tracking went dead for a few days, until one morning when I was told it was out for delivery! In Indianapolis, Indiana. A city that is not Portland.
Over the next week and change it would also travel to Detroit, Seattle, and then back to Portland. It arrived on Friday, December 20. I didn’t get to wear it to square dancing, work (when people were there) or out and about, but I did get to wear it to the Snow Ball Chorale and Christmas.
I posted this photo on Instagram, and someone commented, “Is that the TriMet Christmas sweater???” So clearly it was worth the wait.
The Snow Ball Chorale was also not a smooth landing. I invited people, most couldn’t go, but friend Kelly said she could go and bought a ticket. Then I let a few days go by, and when I went to get my ticket, it was sold out! I volunteered to buy Kelly’s ticket off her, because I didn’t mind going alone. Instead, she gave it to me.
Terrible organizer fail. I had a good time, though. And I liked wearing my sweater.
This one also came from NCTE, but from the previous year.
She asks if I find the stickers she pasted on the back to be affirming. They are: OK! (3) and Good Try! (3).
I vote those stickers are not affirming. There were a few Great, Wow, which I thought were affirming, and there was one very odd Mon Cheri one that just seems like a no.
This is postmarked 12/10, so it only took 3 days for it to arrive. A rarity.
Sara wrote this one while waiting for jury duty. She made it to voir dire, but wasn’t selected. She’s one, like me, who wants to serve on a jury, so that was bad news to her.
That tangle in the lower right-hand corner is called ‘Nzpple, and when learning it, I was told it would really pop when done. I very much doubted that would be the case as I worked through it, but when I was finished, pop it did!
