Baby Quilt Marathon

I am, as I've mentioned before, a procrastinator. Therefore it should be no surprise that I am behind in my quest to make baby quilts for my friends. Now, I could blame this on the fact that my friends decided to have their babies almost all at once, but, considering that Lewis is now almost 2, if not already 2, and I've still not finished I think the blame really resides with me.

Anyway, I've placed myself on a quest. It is a quest to complete projects and fulfill promises, no matter how old the baby is now.

I made some progress on Lewis' quilt in the past two weeks and I'm hoping to craft hard this weekend and see what more I can get done, but I thought I'd share a photo of the progress to date.

Glorious

My sister once said something that seems to sum up the way I feel about cheese very succinctly. She said, "If I could have any dream job, the one I want is the one where I get to go around the world tasting cheese."

I love cheese (obviously a family trait). I love it enough that I've started trying to make it. Should that sort of thing intrique you, you can check out the cheese site I've got going with a couple of friends.

Memorial

Eight years. That is how long my umbrella and I had been together. It saw me through many a commute to downtown Chicago, and I knew after the first winter that this was an extraordinary umbrella. It never flipped inside out, when it started breaking it was always in a way that was easy to fix, and it felt solid and stable in my hand.

Last night, in a moment of carelessness, I left my umbrella, despite all its years of commitment and service, in the park. It sat there all alone, abandoned. I hope that someone who needed an umbrella picked it up and will use it despite its akward bent spoke that has to fixed each time it is opened, but I fear that this isn't what happened. I fear that it has been thrown away without regard, stuffed into a trash bin, abused and neglected.

Voting

You should do it if you haven’t. It’s been a rough eight years and we still have a few more months to suffer through but today when I walked down the damp, leaf strewn streets on my way to the ballot drop off box I couldn’t keep the bounce out of my step. We’re still hours (god I hope not days) from finding out the end result but the bounce is more about the fact that I am playing a role, that I’m happy with my choice and that I’m thankful I get to voice my opinion.

On a side note, the whole Oregon mail in ballot thing -in most respects I have to say I love it. I think you get better informed voters because you have access to literature and the Internet, plus the time to contemplate your decision. However, when you mail it in, a certain little piece of the voting day excitement is missing. The confusion, the hassle, the annoying people are avoided, but you are still going to find me walking down to the ballot drop box on election day to drop my ballot off, because there is just something more exciting about everyone voting together on the same day.

Eating: Best Baguette

Starting what will apparently be a running theme – cheap things to do in Portland when you are broke – my roommates and I made our first foray into uber cheap dining in Portland last night.
We’ve long had roommate dinners. We all love to eat so it just made sense. We all also love to eat out, but my budget has often kept us at home eating delicious food prepared in our own kitchen. But I miss going out to eat, and I miss going out to eat with people I like. So with a little research initiative on my part and some suggestion help from The Williamette Week’s Dining Guide I came up with a list of places where I should be able to eat for under $5. (I think this list will pretty quickly have to expand to eating for under $10, but for now I’m sticking with the $5 limit.)

Last night was the first stop on our cheap dining voyage with a trip to Best Baguette on SE Powell. Despite their ‘beautifully’ done sign … seriously you must go look this was not what I was expecting. It definitely has the fast food feel to it, I think it might have been an old Denny’s or something, but it is surprisingly nice inside. Kind of like a cross between a fast food restaurant and a mom and pop bakery. They have both Asian and French Sandwiches, so even picky eaters can eat here, but my question to anyone bothering to go, is why bother with the boring old sandwich options you can get anywhere – live a little.

Grand total for my meal … $4.45. An Asian grilled pork sandwich for $2.85 and a diet coke for $1.50. Verdict … Really freakin’ good for $4.45. I would have liked more sandwich stuffing personally, but the meat was well prepared, the pickled veggies delicious and the sauce exactly what I expected and just as good as I imagined. The bread was a little old tasting but not enough to detract from the sandwich. I think the roommates summed it up best, “If I had paid $6 or $10 for the sandwich I’d be really disappointed, but for $3 this is amazing”.

I have to agree with them. I would certainly go back and I’d definitely pick one up if I was passing by there on my way. I would recommend going early if you can as they were disappointingly out of some of the appetizers the roommates were looking for. And if I might offer a suggestion for those of you rolling in cash, for a truly great meal, buy two sandwiches, toss the bread on one and pack all the yummy innards onto one baguette. If you’re feeling adventurous you could even get two different sandwiches and mix and match. The options become limitless.

Book: The Monsters of Templeton

by Lauren Groff

I don’t think I can really describe this book and do it justice. The story is engaging, but the town and the history are enthralling. Groff’s voice is unlike anything I’ve read recently and I found it refreshing and energetic. On the surface this book sounds like the standard girl finding herself story line that has been recycled over and over, but this book is anything but recycled content.

Freebies

If you are going to find yourself broke there is really no better place to do it then Portland. Despite some of the recent financial traumas getting out and having fun this summer has, with a little research, been remarkably easy. Primarily because Portland is overflowing with free activities.

This week I spent Tuesday at Pecha Kucha. This is one of those grey areas of freebies as donations are encouraged, but until I can afford to pay all my bills and they don’t block the door, this event is free. Pecha Kucha is always interesting and a fun way to learn more about what is happening in your community and inside people’s heads. The basic premise is that creative types submit an idea of something they’d like to present and if chosen they present 20 slides with 20 seconds to speak per slide, giving them a grand totally of 6 minutes and 40 seconds to get their idea out there.

Then on Saturday I went and sat in the sun and enjoyed the annual Mt. Tabor Soap Box Derby. It was just one of those great days of lounging and enjoying being in Portland. Next year I strongly recommend you find some friends and a cooler and spend the day watching the crazy constructions come down the hill.