We now have the answer to the question asked in September: What will the tree/tree well restoration project look like when finished?
Apparently, the tree wells are going with some asphalt-like material with drains.
And the trees are little and new.
It’s not the prettiest solution. I believe before there were metal grates around the trees, but I guess it gets the job done.
There is nothing to protect the trees from being carved up, but I guess you can’t do anything about that.
This one is postmarked 11/25, so it took 10 long days to make its way across the country.
Sara had a great time at NCTE in Boston and the author of this book (HaiCuba/HaiKuba) wrote the dedication in haiku!
More Rixty practice with some stripes. I try to repeat the new tangles that I learn several times until they are solid in my head.
Here I am practicing Rixty, that triangle branch shape tangle.
Sara sent this fun postcard (sure to be a Postcrossing favorite) from Newport. She correctly predicts that I will love the postcard.
She reports that Newport is sunny on 11/30, which is a big win after the atmospheric rivers and bomb cyclones of recent weeks.
More meetings…
Our friend, Brooke Hogan is pursuing an acting career and was cast in the movie Breakup Season. It didn’t get a wide theatrical release, but it has been making the rounds. Today it came to the Hollywood Theatre.
Fun fact: the person sitting in that seat you see the back of was one of the cast members, Carly Stewart.
This was a great screening. Aside from Brooke and Carly Stewart (the daughter Liz) being local actors, the movie was filmed in La Grande, Oregon, and a lot of the crew was from Portland. The theater was full of friends and family and we had a great time watching.
Afterward, there was a Q&A with the two actors, the director, and the DP, one more person, and the interviewer. We learned fun facts, like the story of how the puzzle really got finished in time for its final shot.
Breakup Season is now available to rent, and is currently on Hoopla. I recommend it. It’s quite the funny movie.
When I finished painting the front door, I wasn’t really finished with the job, because I needed to put up the new address numbers. And, more than two months later, here I am finding the time to do it (thank you 9/80 day, and Matt out of town)
When I bought the numbers from Modern House Numbers, I paid an extra $6.00 to get both a vertical and horizontal layout, as I wasn’t sure which way the numbers would fit best. They are much bigger than the numbers that came with the house. Good call, because vertical won out.
Here, I tape the template.
And here, the numbers are installed. Not pictured: a trip to the hardware store to buy epoxy and a specific size drill bit; me slicing open my finger trying to open the epoxy; and me making the holes a bit bigger because the specific drill bit size I was instructed to by was slightly too small.
Aren’t they pretty?
And here you can see the old numbers and new ones together.
Three days later, someone was dropping a package on the back porch as we ask, and said, “Is this 8004?” and I wondered how he had possibly missed both address numbers.
I also put up the new circular mirror, which is not actually new, but new to the Orange Door. I still think those mirrors are too high overall, but the circular mirror nicely covers the hole where the guitar hanger was.
Someday we will repaint this room and I will lower those mirrors.
* book group selection | bolded means favorite
*Noodles on a Bicycle by Kyo Maclear and Gracey Zhang
*We Who Produce Pearls: An Anthem for Asian America by Joanna Ho and Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya
*Built to Last by Minh Lê and Dan Santat
*Mama in the Moon by Doreen Cronin and Brian Cronin
*My Daddy Is a Cowboy: A Picture Book by Stephanie Seales and C. G. Esperanza
*The First Week of School by Drew Beckmeyer
To me, this felt like a subpar self-published Kindle book. But the rest of book group really enjoyed it.
*How It All Ends by Emma Hunsinger
*Island of Whispers by Frances Hardinge and Emily Gravett
*Quagmire Tiarello Couldn’t Be Better by Mylisa Larsen
*Tree. Table. Book. by Lois Lowry
*Puzzled: A Memoir about Growing Up with OCD by Pan Cooke
*The Secret Library by Kekla Magoon
This was great escapist reading after November 5. It’s also a sneaky historical fiction.
*Pearl by Sherri L. Smith and Christine Norrie
*Libertad by Bessie Flores Zaldivar
*The Forbidden Book by Sacha Lamb
*When the World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson
Alas, slog city. And I was looking forward to it.
*Thomas Jefferson’s Battle for Science: Bias, Truth, and a Mighty Moose! by Beth Anderson and Jeremy Holmes
*Side Quest: A Visual History of Roleplaying Games by Samuel Sattin and Steenz
*Narwhal: Unicorn of the Arctic by Candace Fleming and Deena So’Oteh
The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
The Girl On Legare Street by Karen White
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
The thing I want to gush about is a spoiler, so I won’t. But know that I am gushing!
Hiroshima in the Morning by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto
I found this through Pearl, by Sherri L. Smith and Christine Norrie. It’s an engrossing memoir of time spent in a foreign environment, strain on a marriage, and choices the USA made in the early 2000s.
Skin & Bones by Renée Watson
Watson crams so much into this novel. And yet it never feels crammed.
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling
One Week in January: New Paintings for an Old Diary by Carson Ellis
This is a very niche book, but I’m the niche, so I loved it. Like Ellis, I also moved to Portland in the early 2000s. Like Ellis, I made friends, ate bagels, and did things. It was fun to notice the subtle nuances that her eight days of journal entries caught, like checking your email and being disappointed when there wasn’t any.
This is a great time capsule view of being mostly unencumbered, creative, and looking for a place in the world.
Raygun cracked me up with this inventive way to decorate a pumpkin pie.
Here’s a view of the tree in Pioneer Square from the train.
