Antares was sunning himself on the back porch, and I was typing away at my computer when I heard a growl.
Who should be in the back yard but yet another black cat.
While Antares isn’t into making cat friends, I’ve been trying to befriend this cat for some time. He doesn’t often come through the back yard during my work hours, but when he does, he shows no interest in befriending me. He usually looks annoyed when he sees me and then he speeds up his trotting. So I was surprised to see him so close to the house.
After the initial growl, there was a long period of staring, then the visitor noticed me and excited the yard quickly.
This picture also features Antares’s lump on his tail. His heart isn’t strong enough to have surgery to remove it, and it continues to grow. I’ve found that cutting the hair around it makes it less irritating to him as the fur doesn’t get stuck in the scabby lump. Though it also makes it more prominent.
The house is creeping closer to being ready to sell, and I took some pictures of some small details I love.
The fact that there is a utility room. Everyone has always called this the utility room, something that I didn’t realize was nomenclature of the period until I was reading a small booklet about Richland Washington’s Alphabet Houses, and noticed that all the plans had utility rooms. It would be called a laundry room now.
But also I love that cake cover style light cover, which is probably original to the house.
Here’s a closer look.
In the grandpa bathroom, a tiny room off the utility room, no one ever cleaned out the grandpa medicine cabinet, so here it is, last used in September 1990.
It includes a handy list of first-aid hints held up originally by cellophane tape. The other taped up item says, “Yet, it’s a pretty good and very simple remedy. It is not infallible, but very frequently will settle a queasy stomach. Use a two per cent salt solution (one-half teaspoonful of salt in three ounces of water). Then take a tablespoonfull of this solution.”
At some point in possibly the Oregonian, the was an article about someone in real estate (agent? photographer?) who kept a collection of cool light switch plates. I understood the appeal.
Here are two very cool light switch covers. I didn’t notice until I was taking the picture that they have mirrored backgrounds.
And here’s one of the two probably original bathroom switch plates. (From the other bathroom, not from the grandpa bathroom.) This one is cracked, and the other is not, but the picture of the non-cracked one came out blurry, so you will have to make do with the cracked one.
I also like the grooves on this switch plate.
Grandpa also had grandpa items in the big bathroom. Here they are, patiently sitting there since the George H.W. Bush administration.
I took the medicine cabinet contents home and put most of them out on the street for people to take as needed. They were all gone within hours, even that empty English Leather bottle.
I’m a Portland Monthly subscriber (support local media!) and received two different offers in short succession. One promised me the lowest rate you will receive, the other was alerting me to the fact I could save 67% off the newsstand price.
I don’t think I’ve ever paid the newsstand price (I went online to subscribe), so that was a moot point. But comparing the two offers, I did catch Portland Monthly in an untruth. While the three-year renewal rate was $42.00, thus $6.00 less than the $48.00 off-the-newsstand rate, and the two-year renewal rate of $32.00 was $4.00 less, the one-year subscription renewal was $20.00—$4.00 less than the lowest rate I will receive.
Which letter did I respond to? After checking my records and discovering I’ve been a one-year-at-a-time subscriber, I went online and renewed there. Where the rate was $20.00. The same rate I’ve been paying annually since the genesis of my subscription.
I do not recall where I bought this BCBGMaxAzria shirt, but it was either at a consignment store or thrift shop. I really liked its color palette and its Mandarin collar and its swingy A-line shape.
As alluded to in the title, it’s also a shirt I wore to three interviews, and for all three interviews I got the job (X-Ray, MFA, and my current job at the library).
However, it’s been many years, and it’s time for this very fun shirt to move on. Thanks for being a great shirt.
*A Little Like Magicby Sarah Kurpiel *Abuelo, the Sea, and Me by Ismée Amiel Williams and Tatiana Gardel *Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer by Quartez Harris and Gordon C James *Joyful Song: A Naming Story by Lesléa Newman and Susan Gal *Monster Hands by Karen Kane, Dion MBD, and Jonaz McMillan *Marley’s Pride by Joëlle Retener and Deann Wiley *Okchundang Candy by Jung-soon Go and Aerin Park *And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Daniel Minter
Middle Grade
*Mabuhay! by Zachary Sterling *Clairboyance by Kristiana Kahakauwila *Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All by Chanel Miller *Mountain Upside Down by Sara Ryan *One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome *Chickenpox by Remy Lai *The Girl Who Sang: A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival by Estelle Nadel, Bethany Strout, and Sammy Savos
Young Adult
*Brownstone by Samuel Teer and Mar Julia *On the Bright Side by Anna Sortino *Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier *Chronically Dolores by Maya Van Wagenen
Young Nonfiction
*My Presentation Today is about the Anaconda by Bibi Dumon Tak and Annemarie van Haeringen *What I Must Tell the World: How Lorraine Hansberry Found Her Voice by Jay Leslie and Loveis Wise
Grownup Nonfiction
The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman Black Widow: A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books with Words Like “Journey” in the Title by Leslie Gray Streeter
Grownup Fiction
The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler The Paris Orphan by Natasha Lester
It was just Matt and myself at the Movie Quiz, but we experienced what the host promises: if you only answer one question right, you have a chance to win.
Tonight, we answered questions correctly about women actors playing parts that are men, and we were the team picked randomly to win Scene It? Squabble.
Aside from the fun of winning, I’m excited to play Scene It? (I’ve not done so) and see how terribly sexist their Chick Flicks vs. Guy Picks are.
Sara sent this postcard after her return from her North Carolina visit. The barcode sticker is blocking the crucial information that this is a postcard about the UNC Libraries, always a fun thing to visit. She was correct that the postcard would make a fun send.
Sara really liked the campus (she called it stunning) and the flora (the cherries and tulip magnolias were in bloom) and the food (biscuits at three different meals and okra at two). Overall, a great trip for her.
I returned from my vacation to find that Sara had sent me a postcard from her sister trip to North Carolina. Jessie and Sara were visiting their cousin.
I quite like this colored pencil drawing by Egon Schiele, which the internet tells me was done the same year as his death at 28: 1918. Also nice, the washi tape Sara got at the museum store and included on the other side of the postcard.
Our room at the Linq was on the same floor as the spa and gym, which was near the elevators. That meant that every time we took the elevator we looked at this Windows start screen and marveled at how wrong the time was.
My timestamp on this picture is 8:25.
We went to wait for the shuttle bus to the airport, and eventually it found us. Turns out the signage at the hotel directed us to the wrong location. I’ve learned that when I’m getting off a shuttle bus, I should ask where that shuttle bus will be picking me up for the return trip.
One of our shuttle bus companions spied my CPAP carry case and excitedly held his up. “It changed my life!” he said. I smiled and said, “Medical devices don’t count as carry-ons!” I’ve not found the CPAP to be life changing, but I’m glad he did.
I really liked the signage at the Las Vegas airport, though apparently not enough to take a picture. Each gate is clearly marked with the departing flight destination and pictures of landmarks from that town. Ours had the Portland sign, among other things.
We did a ton of things in Las Vegas, though didn’t gamble at all, and learned a lot about that weird down in the desert. Matt even came home with money; someone left a voucher with five cents on it, and he cashed it in before we left.
