The Leighwood House Highlights

Does your house have a stumpary? The Leighwood House does.

I love this open plan with the exposed beams and built-ins that help to define where the kitchen is. When it rains, you can hear the rain on the roof.

An old-fashioned plug

The never-remodeled kitchen. (Sara and Shawn are only the second owners.) It’s a good kitchen layout. Not too big, not too small.

A built-in spot for a clock, or maybe originally for a phone?

And the two friends that hang out there, Callie and Leo.

Wine Tasting at Fieldbrook Winery

Sara, Shawn and I drove through the snow (yes snow, you can see it on the roof of the winery) for a tasting and a nosh.

We had a red wine flight and a delicious meat and cheese platter.

Then Sara and I did some senior photo posing. We used this photo to lure friend Cindy to our upcoming 30-year high school reunion.

Arcata, California, Where it’s Just as Cold and Rainy as in Portland, Oregon

I escaped to “sunny” California (to be fair, I don’t think the sunny moniker applies to Northern California) to see Sara and Shawn and shake off some of the endless Portland rain. Or at least experience some warmer temperatures. Unfortunately, I found the same weather I left behind. And my first morning it snowed!

Sara and Shawn Swing By

Sara and Shawn arrived in Portland last night, and we had a good dinner at Swift and Union. (We were perhaps going to have a fancy dinner elsewhere, but the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is a bad time for fancy restaurants. A lot of them were closed for the week.)

The next day Shawn dropped Sara off at our place and drove home. We both worked until lunch, and then had a good lunch at Broder and I drove her to the airport.

It was a fun quick trip!

Apparently, I Haven’t Missed the Deadline

I hurried over to the post office thinking I had missed the deadline for delivery by Christmas and there wouldn’t be much of a line.

However, the line was out the door. Apparently I missed the first-class deadline, but not the priority mail one. I decided to wait, since I was already there, and the line moved quickly. My presents are on their way to their recipients! Nearly all Christmas prep is done!

Hocus Pocus at Grand Lodge

Thanks to Laurie driving, Kelly and I journeyed out to Grand Lodge to see Hocus Pocus. You can see how very warm it was for early October.

For all of us, it was the first time we had seen this classic Halloween film. We concluded that we were just the wrong age when it was released (out of college, finishing college, starting college) and because we did not have small children in the 90s and early 2000s, we missed it being played ad nauseum when they were growing up.

While I thought the continued humor about the status of the main male lead’s virginity was odd, it was an amusing movie, made more so by a few children who were very excited to be frightened by the film, dramatically shrieking at the somewhat scary parts. Also, the moon was very pretty, though as usual looks nothing like it did in real life.

Afterward we wandered the halls of Grand Lodge while Kelly looked for the secret room and secret passage.

Hello to New Couch!

The new couch has arrived! It’s a bit more burgundy than I remembered, but it’s also super comfortable and was better than free.

How was it better than free? My friend Julie had us out to her beach house in Pacific City. Her and her husband Graham gave us a tour of the gorgeous beach house they have been building for the past eight years, they fed us lunch, and we had a walk on the beach. We hauled the couch up the stairs (which was fun for me) and we put it on top of their car. Then Graham strapped the couch to their car’s roof and they drove it to our house where we carried it inside.

We got a great day at the beach and a new couch. Better than free!

I need to do some shuffling of things. That blue chair isn’t going to stay there permanently. But it works okay for now.

Arbor Lodge Jazz Concert

Matt, Laurie, and I headed over to Arbor Lodge Park for a neighborhood jazz concert featuring The Lorna Baxter Quintet.

The concert had been moved from a date earlier in the season due to excessive heat, and this was a perfect day.

The quintet kept us in good tunes.

The neighborhood association had streamers they handed out to the children atttending. It was very fun to watch them dance around.

Roger McLain’s Memorial Service

Roger McLain, father to friend Laurie, died in July and today we attended his memorial service. I loved this picture on the front of the program.

The service began with family members bringing in items and setting up an altar of things Roger loved. I liked that detail.

Along with the full mass came singing along with “Shiver Me Timbers” by Tom Waits. After the service, we went to the parish hall to tell stories and eat Roger’s favorite foods: pizza and strawberry shortcake.

I also loved this sculpture at the church.

Farewell to Roger, who lived a good life and left many people who will miss him.