Category: All (-ish)

Random Song: “The Last Worthless Evening” Don Henley

Don Henley’s album The End of the Innocence is one that takes me right back to high school, which is interesting, since it was released on June 27, 1989 and I was more than a year away from being in high school. I think it’s because when I was in high school I heard a cover of “The End of the Innocence” (the song) at the Western Idaho State Fair and it struck a chord.

Regardless, this was a successful enough album that at least three songs, “Innocence,” “The Heart of the Matter” and “The Last Worthless Evening” were in fairly heavy rotation for years. They seem to have fallen out of rotation in the last decade or so, at least where I access songs.

So it was nice to hear this on KINK Sunday Brunch.

YouTube isn’t coughing up an official video, so here’s this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn9eNkl1nWo

Kiriki Press Sampler: Valentine

This was a fun one. My satin stitch continues to improve. And it was the easiest thing in the lineup, so I think that’s a win.

Here’s a closeup of my work

And one from the other side. As per usual with Kirkiki Press, I did some ripping out. The middle heart is single strand, but that wasn’t the way I stitched it the first time.

You can also see that I didn’t quite have the spacing correct for the Herringbone Ladder on this side and things got crowded.

Herringbone Ladder was the most challenging thing. I found it hard to wrap my mind around where the loops should start. I eventually got it, though.

The bonus pattern was this cute anatomical heart. It was very quick to stitch up and I didn’t have much trouble with it.

Here’s the full layout, including the coupon code. I greatly admire this company’s business acumen, as well as the artistic merit.

Gilmore Girls: Actors in Bit Parts Before They Were Famous in Other Roles

My feelings about Gilmore Girls are complex and ever evolving, but it’s very fun when I get to say, “Hey! Look at that!” In the case of season four, episode 4, it’s (depending on your reference point) Sherriff Leo from Veronica Mars, or Schmidt from New Girl.

Here he plays a guy named Luke who is at Dean’s bachelor party. The guy in the sailor suit standing next to him is Chauncey Leopardi, who played Alan White on Freaks and Geeks (among other things). He has a couple of very funny scenes in Gilmore Girls.

I also saw Rami Malek in an episode of Season 3.

First In-Office Day. Cheesy Bread Was Necessary

Reinforcing how much I like working from home, my first day back in the office wasn’t great. It rained on me both ways, so I was soaking wet. My coworker gave me an earful about how people ask too many questions when I was looking for conformation that I had the right desk, the mouse I brought didn’t work, my computer randomly shutdown midday and took about 15 minutes of work with it, and plus the general awkwardness of a first day, compounded by the fact that I have been working for the company for more than a year.

I stopped by Little Caesar’s on the way home.

A nice thing about my company is that they don’t require me to work in the office. I will try out a once weekly visit for six months and reevaluate.

Freestyle Love Supreme at the Armory

Matt and I both enjoyed the documentary Freestyle Love Supreme, both for seeing people in the Hamilton world before Hamilton (baby Lin-Manuel!) and for the marvel that is hip hop improv.

So imagine my surprise when I discovered that we could see the show in Portland!

This was a double win as I discovered that Portland Center Stage offers a smattering of seats for every show at $25 each. A very big discount. (They are on the sides, but it’s a worthy tradeoff, as far as I’m concerned.)

The above two pictures were taken before the show and these two were taken during the part of the show where we were allowed to take pictures.

The stage set was amazing. All those speakers lit up and changed colors. And the hip hop improv was also amazing and very funny.

This is well worth your time! Check out the documentary or see Freestyle Love Supreme live, if you can.

Not Going into Work Tomorrow

There are some parts of the country where snow on April 11 isn’t weird. But Portland is not one of those places!

And unlike every other Portland snowstorm where forecasted snow is the talk of the town for a week straight, I had no idea this was coming. The morning of, I somehow missed noticing the snow when I opened my bedroom shade, and even as the radio announcer was saying “Snow in Portland right now,” I though he just meant the West Hills.

So you can imagine my surprise when I opened the curtains and, Wow! Snow! In April!

That bush in the picture leaned right over. I think it was the weight of the snow on the leafed-out limbs plus the fact that the ground wasn’t frozen. Once the snow melted, we hammered in a post and pulled it right back into place, so no harm done there.

Needless to say, I put off my plan to go back to the office until the next Tuesday.