Bonny Portland

One of my favorite (if not favorite) holiday's is upon us. I love going out on Halloween and seeing all the cool costumes. Especially love you ladies out there going all out to look a special kind of sexy (Olivia is Queen of Halloween Hotness).

We carved our pumpkins last night, Its really hard to take a picture in darkness with our SLR. You basically need a tripod, that we don't have, because the aperature stays open until it acquires enough light. The result is usually blurry at best, freakishly streaky at worse.

We also finally found GOOD SUSHI in Portland!!! Its a place currently called Masu East, but soon to be Bamboo Sushi. In fact, we had a hard time finding it because they changed the signage yesterday. Not only was the sushi awesome, but they are going to be the FIRST certified sustainable sushi restaurant in the USA (possibly the world) when the official re-opening happens in a few weeks.

All the fish was extremely fresh. We sat at the sushi bar and even saw the chef clean and prepare our horse mackeral (similar to spanish mackeral). After we had two orders, one filet made two pieces/one order os sushi, the chef asked if we wanted the bones? Bones? Yep. They deep fry them and turn into the craziest potato chip you may have ever had. DEFINITELY something to try.

Everyone, Enjoy Halloween and if you're in Portland, give sustainable sushi a try.

Its been a good 7 weeks since we moved and I was getting a bit shaggy up top. My two basic choices were an Aveda Salon, about 2 blocks away, starting at $40 OR Phagan's School of Hair Design in my complex for $6. Figuring I could explain away a horrible haircut by a poor Halloween choice, I chose to go cheap.

We went to grab some pumpkins for Halloween on sunday afternoon. What a beautiful 30 minute drive. We took the old Columbia River historic highway, we were surrounded by trees at their autumn peak. Beautiful array of colors, glimpses of the winding river, and great weather. If you are in Portland, take a quick drive SOON. I wish I had my camera.

PS. We went to a REAL pumpkin patch where we had to pick them off the vine. Not some hay covered parking lot. 2 pumpkins for $6 from a family farm, no pesticides. Halloween we can believe in.

So Olivia and I had our first day of Catholic Pre-Marriage class. (few hours today, whole day on saturday). It was pretty unremarkable except for a big faux pas when I shouted out what I thought was a funny comment without thinking....

I blurt out, "Does he read them?" Now, I know in retrospect I look like kind of an ass. But I am now stuck trying to figure out if it was better if she had or had NOT seen Brokeback Mountain. (which I havent). Because the whole ruse (SPOILER ALERT) is up when Heath Ledger's wife leaves him a note in his tackle box that he never reads so she KNOWS he's not actually doing any fishing on these fishing trips with Jake.

So.. better the teacher thinks I'm insensitive or that I think her husband might be gay??

Hectic weekend. I've been putting off blogging because so much happened, but now I realized I am just procrastinating. Therefore, I'm going to break it up into smaller posts... lets see how it works.

Finger is feeling better. Been without the splint for a day or so. It was a big hassle. Hopefully the finger is now healed. I don't know how much time will have to pass before I'm not worried anymore. It wasn't acting up 100% of the time BEFORE the doctor.

Was pretty excited about how well the information session went so I scooped up Olivia and we went down to Ringside (Downtown location) for Steaks. It's an old fashioned steakhouse with leather handles on the door, lots of wood, a fireplace.. classic. Lots of nationwide "Top 10" steak awards. They're known for their onion rings so we got the "half" order that was enough for 2 people.. or 5.

Olivia got a Porterhouse, I went with the Bone-In Ribeye. When given a choice, always get the bone. It helps make a tastier steak. I ordered rare with no butter and it came out great. Olivia got the normal style in a medium rare.. and was suprised when she didn't like it. (She eats rare meat). They quickly prepared another, in rare, and now she doesn't have steak doneness ordering priveledges.

So Simple Shoes is running a contest for free shoes if you post their youtube link. So here it is. I actually have a pair of their shoes. I loved them until I wore them down. I wear down the tips of my shoes much faster than most. I certainly love their commitment to sustainability!

Here it is: