Back in 2010, we went to Colorado for Matt’s brother’s Thad’s wedding. With that trip came a visit to the beautiful (and wonderfully organized) Rocky Mountain National Park and a day of hiking that included Bear Lake. I bought this magnet to commemorate it. (There’s a picture of me from that trip being the bear at bear lake that I’ve always enjoyed.)
But the Bear Lake magnet does not want to stick to its front. I’ve tried the glue gun approach, and that worked for a time, but even the glue gun glue has given up its grip.
I did a big clean of the outside of the stove, and the cleaning itself went well, but the stove gave off ominous smoke when I turned on the oven light, and then the oven light wouldn’t turn off. Slightly worried, I pulled out the stove and unplugged it. When I plugged it back in, there was another, more ominous, pop and more smoke. I unplugged it and called it a day.
We could have called for a repair, but it’s already been repaired once and we seem to be in the phase of the repair people coming out and telling us we’re better off buying a new unit. I’d rather skip the $150 charge to learn that.
We went to purchase a new oven and were greeted with the question, “Is this an oven you need now, or one that can arrive in two-to-four months?” With our pretty-much-now timeline, we had two choices. After picking one, we also bought a microwave/hood combo to go in the space where it always has seemed like there should be one, and we also bought a new dishwasher.
The new stove is coming in a few days, the new microwave/hood is coming in 1-2 months, and the new dishwasher is coming in four months.
I think it’s pretty great that I made it to my mid-40s without ever experiencing supply chain issues (other than Cabbage Patch Kids).
We only have the picture of dessert, but we had a delicious dinner at Urdaneta!
This isn’t our first time eating this delicious food. We also ordered from this restaurant to celebrate my new job. It was during the quarantine part of the pandemic and so this is the first time we’ve sat down in the restaurant.
Matt and I tried out the mini golf at Portland’s only amusement park.
I like that all the holes had these flags. They made it easier to get the ball in.
In fact, I was on fire during this golf game. “On fire,” in this case, is defined as mostly only being one over par and sometimes making par but still losing. Usually it takes me six or seven tries, hand-eye coordination not being a thing with me. But for whatever reason today, I could really get that golf ball where I needed it to be.
The course itself was very basic. But it was also deserted, which was nice. I hate to feel hurried during mini golf.
Unfortunately we had to cancel In-Portland Vacation Restaurant Experience No. 2. I was very ill for about three hours on Sunday afternoon, and so we were not able to attend our tasting meal. I think the illness was probably food poisoning, but from food I made, not food the Firehouse Restaurant made. Matt ate the exact same thing as me at the Firehouse Restaurant and he was fine.
We also missed out on the Everett House, so no soaking for us during this vacation. But now we are back on track.
Matt wanted to introduce me to Carioca Bowls and so we got some before our movie. It was my first açaí bowl. My experience wasn’t great as I requested no bananas on the Ultra bowl I ordered. The clerk confirmed no bananas, then went in the back and made my bowl with bananas. When I reminded her no banana, she offered to remake the bowl. I suggested she just take off the bananas and she did, but there was also banana in the Ipa blend that was part of that bowl. She told me about it, and offered to remake the bowl, but we were headed off to pick up shave ice and I felt we didn’t have time. Also that maybe she should have thought of that and mentioned it when I ordered. I ate around the glop with the banana in it and Matt finished off my bowl.
His order was a very big bowl and he quite enjoyed it.
Having experienced shave ice in Hawaii, we opted to make Waihua Shave Ice part of our day. We ordered online ahead of time and stopped by to pick up our shave ice.
While waiting, we discovered that I’m just the right height to wait in this particular spot.
I got the Almond Joy and it was delicious! Matt got Da Mango One and liked it. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to each much due to eating 1.5 açaí bowls.
From there we headed to the Laurelhurst to see Vengance, which was the kind of film that we had things to discuss on the way home and the next day.
Because we had a big and very fancy vacation in March, we opted to stay in Portland for our August vacation and go out to eat at the restaurants we’ve been wanting to try. First up: The Firehouse Restaurant.
I’d heard good things, but even with that background info, the quality of the vegetable sides blew me away. We ordered roasted carrots, fried cauliflower, and a beet salad and all were some of the best sides I’d eaten in a very long time. We ate them right up, as you can see by the empty dishes. The mushroom pizza was also delicious.
It was also a very hot day, but sitting on the patio, we had a very nice breeze.
Thanks, Fireside, for getting our vacation off to a great start.
More than any other summer, Antares seems at home and happy in the heat. Once the daytime temperatures popped over 80 degrees, he started spending more and more of his day outside on the catio.
He even goes outside and hangs out on the front porch catio during the day, which he’s never really done.
After several years of thinking I would attend Portland Center Stage’s JAW New Play Festival, I finally went! Matt came too. It was a date. And a very cheap one as all the plays are free. We did buy cookies. I like PCS’s cookies. So that was $2.00. And we paid for parking. But a date for less than $5.00 is a win!
Also a win? The performance we picked to attend. It was very fun to see Larry Owens’s three different untitled things. One of them was the start of a play about a Black royal family that I would love to see a full production of.
By the time we signed up for our free tickets, they only had seating in the upstairs simulcast space. But I asked and the box office lady said to ask the house manager after all the ticket holders were seated. We didn’t have to even ask. We just hovered along with several other people. When the house manager said, Are you all standby? we said yes and we all got seats. That’s the win about free tickets. A lot of people don’t show up.
We also inadvertently sat next to the artistic director. That was handy because artistic directors tend to know when to clap.
Back when we were a single-cat household, Sentinel gave me all the signs that we should be a two-cat household. He cried to go out every time he saw a cat outside—and it was, I want to be friends! not, I want to kill that cat. When my aunt’s cat came to stay while she was on vacation, they got along well.
And so a year later we brought Antares home and ever sense I have wondered off and on what kind of mixed signals Sentinel was giving me. Because Sentinel, now that we are a two-cat household, doesn’t really seem to be into sharing space with Antares. You can see here his foot placement. It’s more Go away! than Hooray!
He puts up with it, because he’s that kind of go-with-the-flow cat. But it’s usually Antares who wants to do social grooming and Antares who wants to sleep curled up together.
Maybe Sentinel just wanted to be the kind of cat who made the rounds and stared at all the other neighborhood cats until it was time to come home to his own place? Regardless, they’ve been living together for 13 years now, and I’m guessing it will be Antares who next experiences the single cat life. I wonder how that will be for him?
