vacation bender, day 1

my mom (martha) came into town last wednesday night to hang out with lee and i.  i do not think we stopped moving or eating the entire time.

thursday morning we headed to milwaukie (oregon) to pick up my prize gift basket from the dave's killer bread store.

between the 3 of us, we sampled everything they make.

we went across the street to check out the bob's red mill whole grain store.

it's a retail store, restaurant and mill.  

we then went to crush it at pine state biscuits.  not as good as the first time lee and i went but still good.

lee then had to head to work, miserably full.  heh.

martha and i head to the omsi museum (oregon museum of science and industry).

i've wanted to go since i moved here but haven't gotten around to it.

we wandered around the new "identity" exhibit.  i took 2 photos before i was told they weren't allowed.

they also have a lot of kids stuff and space stuff.

and an earthquake simulator.  a little too real for me.  i lived in california after all.

we then went to see the hubble imax movie.  one word:  stunning.

prior to dindin, we went to the chart house restaurant for cocktails.  it's known for amazing views of portland.  we partook in happy hour with one of lee's classmates, aubrey.  love her.

since it was lee's birthday, we went to her favorite restaurant for dinner, andina.  a delicious peruvian restaurant in the pearl.

it is now my favorite restaurant.  damn that food was good.  

so were the drinks.

here's lee on the long drunk walk back to the car.

happy birthday sissy.

dogtoberfest

last weekend lee and i took the pups to dogtoberfest.

it's an event held every year to raise money for an emergency vet here in portland.

it's held at the lucky lab brew pub in the SE.

they were doing a big dog wash and had food (hot dogs), beer and music.

and a million wet dogs.

both dogs got washed by volunteers.

they were wet and tired afterwards.  but clean.

chow

recently lee dusted off her japanese cooking skills and made one of our faves.

okonomiyaki.

it's like a japanese pancake of deliciousness.

it consists of cabbage, noodles, ginger, green onions and some batter-y stuff and topped with japanese style bacon and egg.

sounds weird and it is.

but oh so good.

especially when it's cooked right.

maybe next time, lee. 

not bad for your first try in a while.

here it is cooking.

winner winner!

first let me say that i've been a blog neglector.  where does the time go?

i'll try to catch up...

i won 2 contests this week.

and the prizes are all dave's killer bread swag.

not bad.

i won one contest by answering a bread question correctly.

i was one of the first 15.

i won a dave's killer bread sin dawg t-shirt.

got it in the mail yesterday.

love it.

next, i won a photo contest from the portland food exchange.

they wanted photos of gardens so i submitted a few.

and won.

sweet.

i won 2 loaves of dave's killer bread, a sin dawg loaf, a t-shirt and a $20 gift card to their store.

i think my sister is more excited than me.

let's hope this winning streak continues...

the pups

on sunday, lee and i decided to take the pups to the dog park.

you know, the place where dogs go run around like crazy and sniff each other.

just getting there is an ordeal.  the pups aren't spring chickens anymore so lee has a ramp to get them in the car.

it would be great if they started the ramp at the bottom.  

but they don't.

finally made it to the park.  

the pups mostly stuck by our side at first.  then finally went to explore and roll around.

sophie had a visitor and she wasn't happy.

so she ran him off.  she is such a bitch.

orzo just drooled the whole time.

meanwhile, lee hula hooped.

in front of people.  

i did not.

the pups were hot and tired and ready to leave.

they slept the rest of the day.

SE pdx continued

the whole point of our SE pdx adventure was because lee wanted to go to the japanese crepe place called mojo crepes.

the place was in an asian area of town.  it's a japanese crepe place but no one was japanese in there.  the dude working was chinese.

should have been our first hint.

there were a lot of people in there playing games and not eating.

should have been our second hint.

the dude was sitting behind the cash register doing nothing while lee decided on what she wanted.  it took a while.

he then proceeded to take another order while sitting.

should have been our third hint.

he finally gets up and starts making crepes.

it took him forever to cut all the fruit and toppings up.  we decided to go sit down.  he finally served those crepes to 2 people that had been sitting there the entire time we were there.

he then sits down and takes more orders.

you get the drift.

i decided to watch him make crepes.  unfortunately i watched him drop one of the tools on the floor and pick it right back up and use it on my sister's crepe.

i went to sit down.

about 35 minutes later, my sister gets her crepe filled with lemon custard, strawberries, whip cream and banana nut ice cream.

interesting experience...if you're not in a hurry.

and to top it all off, she didn't think it tasted that great.

oh well...we did pass this place as we left.

i love portland.

september 11th...

today is september 11th.

9 years later.

sometimes it seems like yesterday.

still, it's hard to believe.

ventured out to the SE section of portland today with lee.  she arrived back in town on friday, much to our delight.

i dropped lee off at one place and i went to find parking.  i ended up at the historic belmont firehouse.

they were open for a "day of reflection" with it being 9/11 and all.

lee joined me.

and we looked around.