Portland… I think I could call you home.

I spent the weekend in Portland, Oregon.  Oh, to live in a place where it can be 85 degrees with no humidity!?!  Why didn’t I know this place existed before I settled down in Summer Swelterland, USA?

Highlights from the trip included:

a maple – bacon delight at VooDoo Doughnut

seeing the Indigo Girls at the Oregon Zoo.

Visiting Crafty Wonderland, and finding the MOST PERFECT present idea for Kole EVER!  Then finding out it wasn’t for sale, tracking down the owner of the store at an event a few blocks away, finding out where she bought it and getting to that store to purchase said item in haste before jetting to the airport for my flight home!

Powell’s.  Where I made new friends due to the fact that I was wearing my recycled t-shirt skirt from Confectionique, and so was the check-out girl!  Which reminds me, I’m supposed to get the info on who makes those and email her.

Great food at Mother’s Bistro and Cha!Cha!Cha! Mexican Restaurant.

Views of Mt. Rainier,  Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Hood from Council Crest Park.

This:

A double-decker bus turned vintage clothing store.  Damn you maternity body!

And some quality time & conversations with a dear friend.

More Tom Pease, please.

We’ve been sampling some music this summer.  Recently introduced into the rotation is Tom Pease.  As a kid I used to jam to Boogie, Boogie, Boogie with my jaw harp, and sharing that music with Maggie has been a real treat!  We’ve had the luck to catch Tom in concert twice this summer.  The first time, Maggie wasn’t too sure about things, but the concert this week was a big hit.

Even though Maggie spent half the concert running between friends & sharing Goldfish crackers, I think she really enjoyed it.  The best part, though, was after the show.  Maggie decided she needed to say “Thank you, Tom Pease”, which then prompted her to share her favorite songs with him: Many, Many Cows and Banana Slug.  And he sang them…just to her.  She was SO EXCITED!

She has been talking about it ever since. *sigh* It’s memories like these that just make me smile.

Gotta get me an Otter Pop!

It’s hot here.  If you’re reading this, well, you probably know us and live relatively close and so you’re probably going through the same heat wave we are.  We’ve found relief in Otter Pops.

 

100% fruit juice.  No high fructose corn syrup, but best of all… they’re super duper yummy!  The flavor stays even as they melt.  You know how the other freezee pops and flavor-ice get kinda watery because all the “juice” melts off and leaves you with basically an ice cube to chomp?  Not otter pops.  Maggie is a big fan – heck we all are!

Oh, and that haze in the photo isn’t a PhotoShop add on or a fancy lens or filter.  It’s the lens of the camera fogging up with the humidity… seriously it’s hot here.

Where o where have my blog entries gone?

Yea. So. It’s been awhile.  You understand, right?  It’s kinda like exercise - you promise yourself a week off as a little break, and then you’ll be back at it.  Before you know it that week manages to become another… and then before you know it you’re pregnant, state politics have you worked into a frenzy, you’re completely overwhelmed in all facets of life, and… oh… maybe that was just me. 

I thought about this place.  Really, I did! It just wasn’t the time to be doing this.  But, now that this growing little baby thing is 6 months along and we’re home for the summer, it seems like a good time. 

So today. Hot. Humid. We found this little guy eating our carrot tops in the garden.  Maggie was enamored.  You may recall her previous love affair with a caterpillar.  Dad relocated him to a spot far from the carrots & parsley.