Firefly Butt-Numb-a-thon

What if we watched all of the Firefly episodes plus Serenity in one day?  As the person posing the question was the person who put together watching all three extended versions of Lord of the Rings in one day, this marathon came to pass.

And since the other half of this plan was one of the people who planned Laurie’s 40th birthday party in Italy, this was an event.

I did not start at the beginning of the party, due to volunteer commitments.  Instead, I arrived at 12:15 during the half-hour lunch break to this amazing spread.IMG_5205

Notice the level of detail!IMG_5203 IMG_5204

The Hot Cheese was good, especially paired with Frito’s
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Fancy sandwiches, labeled in both English and Chinese.  And this lunch spread was just the beginning.  There was a food prop/bonus to go with each episode. For example, “Jaynestown” came with Mudder’s Milk which was an amazing bourbon and milk concoction whipped up by Darla.IMG_5207

Can you name this Firefly episode?IMG_5208

I had planned on only staying for a few episodes, not wanting to sit for so long.  But I started with Episode 6, “Our Mrs. Reynolds” which was followed by “Jaynestown” and then “Out of Gas” and after that trifecta, who could leave?  I ended up staying until the end, clocking in 11 hours of a magical show that never should have been cancelled.

Thanks to Laurie and Darla for such a fun time.

When you’re a former Beatle…

Apparently all your tour trucks match.IMG_5196

Paul McCartney is in town for a show tonight.IMG_5197

I loved also discovering this mini-bike attached to the back of the truck below.   Plus, it reminded me of the time in high school that a bunch of us loaded into Cindy’s family Jeep Wagoneer (aka the Jalapeno Wagon) and drove up and down the Interstate talking to truckers on the CB radio.  Lori was really good at it, taking the handle Cotton Candy.  We convinced a trucker to stop for a late dinner at the Flying J truck stop with six lovely ladies who all wanted to meet him.  He laughed so hard when he saw a table full of giggling under-aged girls waiting for him.  Then he sat down and we had a very nice chat about his truck driving life.  He liked driving trucks better than the desk job he had before.

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Postcard from Minnesota.

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It’s New Year’s/Easter greetings from regular commentor Sara and occasional commentor Shawn.  And I make an appearance on this year’s card!  Can you find me?  It seems I’m actually on the card twice, but was smeared out by the mailing process. Aside from playing the guitar with Sara, I’m also to the left of Archie the cat on the bottom-middle of the card.

And now we can officially put 2015 to a close!

Say goodbye to two houses and easy street parking.

My neighbor who knows what’s going on in the neighborhood told me the sad news.  There’s going to be a development of mixed-use apartments like we saw with the site of the former City of Roses Motel.  I don’t have specifications yet, but I’m guessing there won’t be parking, or much parking included.  Given that this is one block north of our house, Matt and I can probably say goodbye to easy street parking.

And we shall soon say goodbye to three structures including this beautiful duplex, which is still in great shape.  No word on if the tree will survive.IMG_5187

Here’s the duplex from the other side.  One of the tenants, now long gone, was the first person to welcome me to the neighborhood, back in 2007.IMG_5188

The commercial building will also go.  I had some plans to tear it down and make a big garden. 🙂  But that won’t be happening.IMG_5189

And this pretty little house, which my neighbor says is also really nice inside.IMG_5190

Which means we will also lose this lilac tree.IMG_5192

Again, I must be careful in my lamenting as my current duplex residence also replaced a single family house.  And it didn’t include parking either.  I’ve been thinking more about this issue lately because the City Club just did a study about affordable housing and the membership voted to amend the report to re-zone single family neighborhoods to increase density.  And there was this very intriguing interview with Sonja Trauss of SF BARF saying yes, big projects should be built.  I found myself agreeing with her logic, but also resisting because I hate to see houses that are well cared for destroyed for something big and ugly and usually hugely over-priced.

Requiem: microplane grater

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I can no longer remember who bought me this grater.  My best guess is that it was my Aunt Carol as she enjoys going to the kitchen stores.  But I’ve had it for probably 10 years or more and it’s been a good grater.  So good that I went out and bought a new one the next day.  Thanks microplane grater. You did a lot of work in your time.

Three sentence movie reviews: The Nativity Story

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I was hopeful that Catherine Hardwicke’s direction would make this a better movie than it seemed like it would be.  And then I was hopeful that Oscar Issac would do his usual thing and be amazing.  Both hopes were crushed and I spent the movie contemplating if it was so boring because I’m so familiar with the story.

Cost: free due to give subscription
Where watched: at home, while removing the unlikable yellow and putting on the very likable spring green.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2006/nativity_story.html

McMenamins Edgefield

And so our McMenamins Passport quest continues, today at Edgefield.

Our first stop:  Power Station. I’m noticing how amazingly I backlit Matt in this photo.  That was totally planned. 🙂IMG_5160

Next we walked up to the Distillery, where we found out the Distillery tour was beginning momentarily.  Score!  That means another experience stamp, which got Matt a $20.00 gift card.

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Our tour guide (who gave me a hard time for taking his picture when he had his mouth open) told us all sorts of interesting facts about the distillery process.  I learned that whisky in the US is aged in oak barrels and most of those oak barrels are then sold to Ireland or Scotland because they reuse the barrels, because the US doesn’t.  At McMenamins, they do reuse the barrels, but not for whisky.  The law requires whisky to be aged in fresh barrels.  Instead they use them to age rum and then on down the list until eventually they become planters.

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I also learned that McMenamins whisky demand is high enough that it’s one brewer’s job to make enough beer wash to make McMenamins whisky.  Below is a picture of the second still.  It can make a lot more whisky than the first one, which was in the photo above.

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Look!  Whisky barrels reused!

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We forgot to take some pictures outside of a few locations, so here we pick up at Jerry’s Ice House, which had some great tucked-away tables hidden inside.

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My favorite sign of spring was coming into bloom.

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The winery tasting room.

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And then we had to find the artwork in the hotel that matched this description.

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Check!

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Current prizes:

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I went for the opener.  Matt went for the chocolate drops in the decorative tin.

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The view from the front porch.  I still have the plan to vacation here, hike in the Columbia River Gorge during the morning, soak in the soaking pools every day, hang out on the porch all afternoon and eat a good dinner every night.IMG_5181

Front porch self-portrait.IMG_5183

A failed attempt to look stern and grumpy.IMG_5184

Guess which house is on the cover of the Spring Proud Ground Newsletter!

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Did you guess that the Orange Door was on the front cover?  Yes?  You are right!  And guess who took the picture?  Did you guess me?  Right again!

Ah, Proud Ground.  Thanks to you, I can say I have photo credits. My photos show up regularly in your publications.