Month: August 2016

Three sentence movie reviews: Return

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The always-good Linda Cardellini and the always interesting Michael Shannon team up as a couple trying to put their life back together after Cardellini returns from a deployment.  This movie continues the tradition of being a not-quite-there attempt to depict the drawbacks/realities of the endless Iraq/Afghanistan engagement.*  Solid performances, slow plot, overall kind of just there.

Cost:  free via work-sponsored Netflix.
Where watched: at home.

*I think there needs to be some distance from a war to really “get” it on film.  And since this one is still going on, it’s difficult to have any distance.

 

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2012/return.html

Spotted on an Oregon car

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I’m an Idaho girl by birth and coming of age.  But I think I’ve always been an Oregon girl at heart.

I’m also intrigued by this sticker thing.  Did she get it made?  It seems very specific.   Hmmm.  There seems to be a t-shirt.  And for those Oregon girls in Idaho there is this hoodie.  In fact there are a bevy of Idaho-themed choices.

Three sentence movie reviews: Swiss Army Man

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“I’m not sure what review I read, but that was NOT the movie I thought it was going to be,” said my movie-going companion.  I was well aware what I was getting into, having listened to/read several reviews and I was interested to see where I landed on the like/don’t like spectrum.  I found this to be the most unique movie I’ve seen in some amount of time, but this quality did not make for a pleasurable viewing experience.

Cost: $4.00
Where watched: Academy Theater with S. North.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2016/swiss_army_man_ver2.html

More hiking in the Gorge: Horsetail Falls

At the beginning.IMG_5827

The eponymous falls.IMG_5828

Thanks to this interpretative sign, I now know the different types of waterfalls.  From left to right:  Horsetail Waterfalls, Plunge Waterfalls, Segmented Waterfalls.IMG_5829

Would you like a photo of some lichen?IMG_5834

Matt stands under the 80 foot Ponytail Falls.  Of note, this picture took much waving of hands (I was quite far away) and several photos taken because the water kept blurring.IMG_5836

Like in this example.IMG_5842

Better.IMG_5843

Looking through the falls. IMG_5845

Pretty green hanging ferns.IMG_5846

Poor Glenn.  If he was still alive we would more-or-less be the same age.  The article from the Oregonian said he and his friend were hiking when this happened.IMG_5847

Downed tree or shaggy wizard?IMG_5849

More falls.IMG_5850

Tall bridge! With interesting anti-flag sticker I didn’t notice when I took the picture.IMG_5852

Blurry picture, but very cool tree growing out of a nurse log. I love how long the roots are.IMG_5853

Guess what this group of falls is called?  Just guess!IMG_5854

Did you guess Triple Falls? You are right!IMG_5856

Some cairns.IMG_5858

Timer photo shot.IMG_5859

This is the mouth of the Oneonta Gorge.  People were hiking back into it.  IMG_5860

Tunnel!  This was once part of the Columbia River Gorge Highway.  Imagine driving your Model T through this tunnel!  The interpretative sign told me that this was a difficult tunnel to make due to how the rock disintegrated easily.   If memory serves, they solved this problem by reinforcing everything with concrete and that made it all good.  Guess what explains this better than me?  The internet!  You can read about construction by going here.  Scroll down to Design and Desription to find a better explanation.IMG_5865

Lots of rock.  Which I now have been reminded is basalt rock.  Also known as “dice” rock.  Me and geology.  We don’t get along so well.IMG_5866

This was yet another good Gorge hike.

Saturday morning walk to MLK

We had Friday off from work because we had a work retreat on Saturday.  It was at the Allison Inn & Spa in Newberg and there was carpooling involved. I needed to get to a meeting spot on MLK and decided that this morning was a good time for a longer walk.  Here’s what I saw along the way.

Once upon a time, this lot had a blue house on it. I took a picture of that house (but didn’t tag it properly and now I can’t find it. I also have a view from the alley of the initial stages.  Now it has eight townhouses.  From an infill perspective, I very much like this development.  Why?  Each unit has a parking space.  Also I think they look like small places. Better to have one house torn down and replaced with eight small homes than one huge one. I haven’t been successful in finding a listing, possibly because these have already all sold, and attempts to spy through windows failed because people live there.  But I would like to see the inside of one of these units.IMG_5803 IMG_5804

I think the sudden designation of a street is a little bit of overkill, though.

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I’ve admired this house for some years now.  Full basement, okay sized yard, nice mid-century design.  IMG_5806

Once upon a time North Portland had a convent.  (Maybe more than one, what do I know?)  And then the convent closed and eventually the land surrounding it was plotted into owner-occupied and rental housing.  But you can still see the original building.  And people still live in it.IMG_5807

What do you suppose happened to the statuary that was in this alcove?IMG_5808

Brand new alleyway!  New to me, at least.IMG_5809

Interesting design here.IMG_5810 IMG_5811

This elm tree is not long for this world.IMG_5812 IMG_5813

Another alleyway, this one with contrails. And power lines.IMG_5816

Good bones on this house.  It needs some love, though.IMG_5819

Dead car wash.IMG_5820

Dead building.  But such excellent mid-century design.  I think it could still come back.IMG_5823

When I moved to Boston, one of the markers that I lived in a big city was the presence of the Boys & Girls clubs everywhere.  I knew about them from commercials featuring famous people who once hung out at them.  Like this one.  Which is from 2011, and thus not very old.  But watch it and see if you don’t get all teary.  Also I feel like Denzel Washington has done voicework for Boys & Girls clubs for many many years.  Ha!  The internet confirms my belief.  You can even watch his first ad from 1993.  Prepare to get all teary.  Or, as we called it back then (due to Saturday Night Live): verkelmpt.

And Portland has it’s own Boys and Girls club. But just one location. We’re not that big of a city.

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Work being done to spiff up the Orange Door

Some of the wood between the siding pieces has rotted with the extreme sun exposure on the south side.  So we’re getting new wood pieces and a paint job!

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For unknown reasons Upstairs Kitty’s owner decided to shave her for the summer.  Her fur is slowly growing back.  Upstairs Kitty declined to pose for the picture.  She’s contrarian like that.  Which I would be too, if someone shaved off all my fur, leaving a stupid tuft at the end of my tail.

Postcards from Minneapolis

From Sara, in honor of our one-year anniversary of visiting this store together.  I’m pretty sure she chose this one because while we were in the store I stated, “Surely they don’t still make candy cigarettes!”  Sara thought they did.  And boy, was she right.

She also bought this postcard as an example of how horrible Jim’s Apple Farm’s postcards are.  Time for an upgrade!  Although they don’t have a website either.  So maybe that should be first.  Clearly they don’t need either one.  That place was packed.IMG_5796

This card Sara purchased while in Oregon, to send to me while we were both in Oregon.  However, it traveled back to with her, which meant more mail for me!IMG_5797

Learning to machine monogram for baby blankets-to-be

I made a baby blanket last summer and I hand-monogrammed it using satin stitch and guess what?  I’m not doing that again.  It takes too long, plus I’m guessing most of the monogram has frayed away by this point. But I love a good monogram.  So it’s time to learn to machine monogram.  Because I’ve got two baby blankets to make.

I decided to practice on a sheet.  I found the style of letter I wanted, printed it very big, cut it out and then used tracing paper to transfer the outline to the sheet.  You can also see in this picture I was listening to a podcast via my Bluetooth speaker, I was planning a hike (blue book) and there was something going on with those light bulbs.IMG_5798

I bought some backing, which is sitting on the table in the above picture, right next to the phone, and it worked like a charm.  I also googled to find the proper kind of thread to use for machine monogramming.  It’s a different kind than for all-purpose sewing.  As you can see, there are some shaky places, but overall it turned out okay.  You can also see the short line of stitches I made along the edge when I wasn’t quite sure what stitch width and length I should use.IMG_5799

Confident (enough) in my skills, I monogrammed the two pieces of material. Again, not the best job, but livable.

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“But wait!” I hear you wondering.  “What if the people you are making the blankets for see this post?  Won’t the surprise be ruined?”  This is the plus of having a blog with very few readers. Neither recipient of a blanket reads this blog, thus the secret is safe with us.

Buoyed by that success I continued on with sewing the blanket for baby J and made it through all the steps but the tacking of the binding, which will be done while watching movies.  IMG_5801

I’m pretty excited about how good this project looks.  (And thanks to friend Julie who wandered the fabric store for a very long time until we found exactly the right front/back combo.)