weeeeeeeee!

We just flew into Portland from Burbank, and boy our arms are tired…ba da dum!

But seriously folks…
we got here safely and are enjoying rain, good friends Tim and Paul and chihuahua’s Ethan and Tyler. Did I mention it was raining? Oh dear lord does that feel good. It’s heaven I tell you! While L.A. swelters in the middle of an Indian summer, we here in Portland, were refreshed and rejuvinated by a hydrating rain. We strolled in it, without umbrellas, letting it soak into our skin, stopping at the Central Bakery, to eat soup and drink copious amounts of good strong Pacific Northwest coffee.

So now it’s time to turn in, but I have to first tell you about the Vietnamese dinner we had at Pho… something-or-other, around the corner from Tim and Paul’s house in Clackamas. Not only was the food delicious, but the owner, an adorable woman, not only told us what we would be eating, but how to prepare it and how to eat it. After bringing our food to us, she would then grab the food out of our hands, dress it up with hot chili then hand it back to us. It was hilarious and a tiny bit off putting, but in the end, actually quite wonderful. She did know her stuff, and steered us in the right direction impeccably.

The soup was extremely hot, but the four of us slurped it down like it was our last meal, taking time only to blow our runny noses and wipe our sweaty brows. For a short while, the conversation became stifled, due to the inability to speak from chili induced injury to our larnyxes.

A good time was had by all.

Really, drippy sinuses and injured throats aside, this soup was not only delicious, it just may be a cure for the common cold, maybe even arthritis or male pattern baldness! It’ll put hair on your chest, that’s for sure.

Well, it’s off to dreamland and then up and out to discover new lands. We’re going to investigate some of the surrounding towns and see if there are any open houses. We want to see how the natives live.

I hope this post made sense and there aren’t too many typos or grammatical errors. I am deliriously tired.

Good night!

pug shot

Keeping true to my nature, it’s 1:00 a.m. and I’ve just now finished doing laundry and packing for our trip to Portland, Oregon tomorrow morning. The delicate balance of nature would surely collapse if something as unexpected as my planning ahead would have occurred.

My suitcase is predictably packed beyond capacity with damp clothing and may blow it’s rivets at any moment. In contrast, Tom’s bag is reasonably and lightly packed, possibly with room for me to sneak in a shoe or two.

Yes, we are finally taking a wee vacation! Heading off to Portland for four days, to see if we can’t re-ignite our passion for moving there. As much as we still dream of our eventual move, we have become a little complacent of late, and now that the summer swelter is behind us, we’re feeling somewhat less desperate about getting out of California.

So we’re off to the airport early in the morning, so I best get my butt to sleep.

I might add first, that the above pug is a detail from one of my children’s book (in progress since forever) spreads. It’s one of my less than successful spreads. Although I like how little pug dude turned out, I am not in love with how rough and toothy the paper is and how it shows up so prominently in the the background. So I will be giving this one another go, trying something smoother perhaps. But for now, little pug guy gets to live on my blog.

Good night!