Tag: OrangeDoor

Our New Year’s Eve Celebration

I went to Fred Meyer and grabbed ingredients for beer cheese fondue, fondue dipping things, and our favorite kind of ice cream. As a bonus, I stopped by a Redbox kiosk to see if the movie we were planning on watching, Tenet, was available. It was! This means we paid $1.80 for it, rather than the $19.99 we were planning on paying.

The result: beer cheese fondue was delicious and simple to make, Tenet was entertaining, and the ice cream was, as always a cornucopia of chocolate flavors and textures.

Christmas Present: A Movie!

In the normal world, I don’t go to the movies on Christmas, because I wouldn’t want to go to work in Christmas Day and I don’t think my actions should support other people having to go to work on that day. But this is a pandemic, all the theaters are closed, and Wonder Woman 1984 is opening on HBO Max on Christmas Day!

So we bought our selves a one-month subscription to the channel, and prepped for a Christmas Day treat.

I made a cheesy pizza roll appetizer I’d had my eye on for years, Matt broke out the cheese from the gift basket his uncle sent, I mixed up a colorful cocktail, and we settled in for the next Wonder Woman installment! Here’s my review.

Christmas Morning

This year, due to quarantine, the fam met briefly in my Aunt Pat’s garage so we could do stockings. This year, that meant putting things in a “stocking” that was really a bag with a name written on it. Then we brought our stockings home to unpack.

There were a lot of goodies in the stocking!

Plus, I had a fun present to open, so here’s another view of the spoils.

The stationary says, “Nobody writes letters anymore.” I love it!

These were my winners!

And check out this situation:

Though brief, it was nice to see everyone for a stocking exchange.

Christmas Dinner

Since all the Christmas traditions were up in the air, I decided that 2020 was the year to try a Tofuky. Even in my vegetarian years, I never shelled out the money. Back in those days, it came with a tempeh drumstick, so I guess I should have sampled the product then.

Here’s the Tofurky, ready to go into the pot. I followed the instructions on the label and made a soy sauce/olive oil concoction for the broccoli and tofurky to roast in.

And here’s our final product, dusted with sage. I also made mashed potatoes, because I don’t like to pass up a chance to eat mashed potatoes.

The verdict? Very salty. The broccoli tasted amazing, through, having roasted in that soy sauce/olive oil concoction. I skipped the gravy (because I almost always skip the gravy) and the potatoes were delicious!

While I wouldn’t turn down a slice of tofuky, if one is offered to me, this was probably a one-and-done experience.

Walk to Mocks Crest Park

In perusing dates-that-are-free choices, I discovered there is a park in North Portland I’d never heard of, much less visited. Matt and I set out to discover it. On the way we found this mystery.

With some treasure. Inside, there were painted rocks with googly eyes.

Though it was a long-ish walk to get there and we got there in time for the last gasps of the sunset, the view did not disappoint.

The combo of Forest Park (the reason the hills on the other side of the river haven’t all been developed with their own twinkling lights) and a working river limits our options for dramatic sunset pictures.

But Mocks Crest Park paid off. I can see why more than one website grumbles about the number of spoony couples during the summer months.

Hike at Tryon Creek

We haven’t been to Tryon Creek in years. I think the last time we were there we got lost, and it was a slog through the rain. But today’s hike was fun, and short. You can see Matt holding his mask. We would put them on when we encountered other hikers.

I loved this nurse log.

And! When we were leaving, we ran into a parent from my days at the Emerson School; it was great to catch up.

Zidell Yards Drive-in

My friend bought tickets to see The Birds at the Zidell Yards Drive-in, but the show was rescheduled because of the smoke we had in September. She’s not a fan of going out on Sundays, so she gave me the tickets. Huzzah!

I do love a good drive-in theater. And I also find myself wishing that the pop-up drive-in theaters could rustle up a drive-in-sized screen. This is the same size screen that is used for movies-in-the-park-type events, where families sit no more than fifty to 100 feet away. The ratio with this screen from the car feels like when I had a 13-inch TV/VCR combo.

The view, though? Great!

Small-screen gripes aside, it was nice to see a movie sitting on a seat that was not my couch.

Nope. Didn’t Fit.

One day sitting in the new chair told me that despite all my careful measuring, it did not fit in the space the folding chair occupied. This meant reorienting my bed.

I don’t like beds jammed against a wall because that position makes it difficult to change the sheets. But I happened on a good solution by moving the cat tree over against the wall. When it comes time to change the sheets, I can push the cat tree out of the way.

Sentinel approves of this new setup.

New Desk Chair

Since being laid off in March, I have spent 30-40 hours per week at my desk. For that entire time, I’ve been sitting on an Ikea folding chair. This week my body said, “No more!”

The problem with finding a replacement is that the space between the bed and the desk is very small and the Ikea chair works because the back legs can partially sit under the bed. I took measurements and headed out.

(The red sheet that I usually have over my comforter is in the wash.)

At the used office furniture store I looked around and found this cube to help the cats get onto the bed. Sentinel has been using the folding chair to jump onto the bed for months now. I think he can still jump from the floor to the bed if he tries, but I don’t really want him to try. He took to the fabric cube right away.

I also found this little blue chair that does fit in the small space between the desk and the bed. I think? Stay tuned.