Bonny Portland

The Blackout could refer to several different things in the past few days.

We woke up on Saturday morning to find out that we had no power. The fire alarm system kept chirping letting us know (if we couldnt notice the fact that we had no electricity for ANYTHING) that we didn't have power. I took a shower in the darkness before the hot water from our electric hot water heater ran out. We went for breakfast, a good section around us was also without power. By the time we got back, all was well.

The Blackout could also refer to last Tuesday when US Cellular field was Blacked out by all the fans wearing black (over 40,000)! Sox beat the Twins to send them to the ALDS against Tampa.

OR, the Rolling Blackout could also refer to Sunday, where the White Sox came home down 0-2 and continued the Blackout to the tune of their first win of the series!

We had a good weekend. Went to the Greek Festival on Saturday night. Lots of tasty Greek food. We arrived too late to get tickets for Lamb #8, the last lamb of the night. I guess there was some culture somewhere, but they did a good job hiding it. The rest of the food was great and we loved these honey donut holes..


Sunday was AWESOME. First, the Bears destroyed the Lions. Second, the White Sox beat the Rays. Third, Olivia and I went to see Rachael Yamagata in concert! She has the flu but still put together an awesome show. The opening act was horrid, but I pounded through a few Pabst Blue Ribbons and soon Rachael herself was on stage. She played both old and new stuff, her new album drops on Tuesday, the 7th. I hadn't seen her perform for years and I was extremely excited to see her play again!

Come on White Sox, Lets win one more time at home and take the series back to Tampa!!

Exciting weekend! We had a visit from the local fire department on Saturday! We had the entire apartment complex evacuated!

Saturday Night, Olivia is making us a nice steak dinner. It gets real smoky and eventually sets off our fire alarm. We can't get it shut off. We have all of our windows open and nothing works, so we open up the door to our hallway too. Soon, the entire building's fire alarm goes off and everyone evacuates. Building manager comes over to the apartment and we try to explain, can't do anything till the fire department arrives. I go outside to explain to people what happened, that everything is ok, and that I'm sorry. Everyone understands but they can't go back in because the entire building is in lockdown. One young lady asks me "Do you need some help cooking?" She's lucky I didn't rat her out to Olivia. Fire department comes running in with axes and equipment. I try to stop them, tell them there is no need to run but they go pounding on Olivia's door and turn everything off. Nice first impression with the neighbors, I think =)

Earlier on Saturday my desk was delivered from EcoPDX. Its really sweet. It looks awesome and I'm happy to have a desk again.

On Sunday, we went back to Apizza Scholls for Sicilian Sunday. Definitely prefer the regular selection over this pan style. But it was worth noting because they sell OLDSTYLE in tallboy cans! We went right before the Bears game so I was excited. Old Style and a Bears win.. woo!

Bears: They are tied for 1st place in the NFC North with a Sunday Night WIN over the Eagles!!!
White Sox: They have driven me to the brink this week. A 2.5 game lead with one week to go has become being behind 0.5 games. They have to win on Monday for the right to play a game on Tuesday against Minnesota to get into the playoffs. They've been a real disappointment. This was the first game they won IN A WEEK. The team has NO heart. I don't know why I keep watching...

The Chicago Bears had a game stolen from them today. The defense didn't hold a 10 point lead with less than 7 minutes left and a 7 point lead with 2 minutes left. Then, Peanut Tillman got called for an unnecessary roughness penalty for jumping to protect another Bears player getting his head slammed to the ground. That turned Tampa's 4th down punting situation deep in their own territory in OT to an automatic first down that eventually lead to a Bears loss. I really thought we had won the game. We caught it at the Broadway Grille and Brewery again. We're becoming regulars, even catch our waitress at the grocery store.

The rest of the weekend was pretty nice, though its hard to recount it well with the sting of 1-2 still burned into my soul.

On Friday night we headed into Old Town Portland and ate at Dan and Louis' Oyster Bar. As you might expect, the oysters were super fresh. Overall, the atmosphere inside was very cool. Lots of nautical themes, pictures of older Portland, and an extensive collection of coat hangers. The meal was rather depressing for me because, without notice, they put Indian spice on my Razor Clams. #1, that tasted horrible, #2 thats a pretty strong flavor to not give a heads up about. I'd go back for the Oysters, but certainly not the Razor Clams, which have started to be a favorite of mine out here. Olivia was going to finish them at home, but the bar is in a less economically successful part of town and she gave the leftovers to a man who had asked for them.

Saturday morning was back to the Portland Farmer's Market! Olivia has got the house pretty much together so I had a green light to stock up the freezer with some sustainably produced meat! The market did not disappoint, we were able to get bacon, ribeyes, and t-bones all from family farms, all completely grass fed. I'm looking forward to trying them and I'm just a little sad I don't have a BBQ grill anymore.

After the market, we headed over to EcoPDX to try and find a desk. My old desk had been with me in LA for 8 years. It was just a simple but heavy particle board/Ikea special that got a little less useful everytime I had to break it down and then put it back together. At EcoPDX they didnt have a desk but they worked with me for a custom plan to turn two nightstands into a walnut topped desk. Why would I choose this method? The work is done in Portland, by local owners. The wood they use is all salvaged or reclaimed wood that would otherwise be wasted. How can you beat the chance for a custom, but still sustainable, piece of furniture that should last me indefinitely. If not as a desk, but as two nightstands!

Saturday night we had our Olivia cooked natural Duck. It tasted as good as it looked! Olivia did an awesome job. It was nice to have a home cooked meal and now that all the pots and pans are unpacked I look forward to all the nice meals Olivia will prepare for us at the homestead.

We covered the horror of Sunday morning already. The weekend winded down when we were graciously invited by a boss at Olivia's job to the Ronald McDonald House charity fundraiser. It was a silent and live auction with a little casino action thrown in at the end. We bid on a few things but just ended up with a evening at some sort of Christmas show that is a local tradition. It came with a bottle of nice Pinot Noir and a gift certificate for dinner. We easily are getting more than what we paid for the package. Charity is awesome! We wound down the night playing craps for pretend chips (and raffle entries.) Olivia was a decent roller (I really sucked... my max rolls was "3"). We lucked into a one-time roller who rolled for almost 30 mins. She made us so much fake money we wished we were playing in Vegas.

A good weekend, if we don't mention those darned Bears!!