today i worked downtown

and it happens to be the day of the "portland floral parade" or something like that. it snaked through downtown, causing traffic nightmares and thousands (like, TEN thousand) people to filter through the city blocks. my bus route was fortunately not affected much by the parade, but many were. border's was a madhouse of people wanting to use our restrooms. it was pretty fun, though. saturdays seem to be more laid back than the rest of the week. i also got to sleep in until SEVEN a.m.!!! you have no idea how much of a difference this makes.

yesterday after i got home from work a neighbor from down the hall knocked on the door and said that he was moving out and across country and if i wanted to take a look at his stuff if there was anything i wanted. i got us a great bookcase and a PERFECT table for plants. FREE. yes, certain things about this town rocks. it is a fluid town: a large chunk of the population is just "passing through". as many new people move IN to town, probably a similar amount are moving OUT. i like to call portland "one big garage sale". everywhere you look there are signs for yard sales, "for sale" signs on bikes propped up against stop signs, cars, furniture, cothing, plants on the curb with "FREE" written on them. a couple weeks ago, i saw a shoebox with ratty old converse shoes in them sitting on the curb. there was no sign, but if it's on the curb, it's free (no, i didn't take them).

i love this city. it's vibrant, colorful, and silly. there are bumper stickers, pins, t-shirts all over town that read "keep portland weird". and it really is. at border's we are selling the new ann coulter book and you wouldn't imagine the comments coming out of customers' mouths when they walk by the display. we've even had to repeatedly turn copies back over becauce it seems that our patrons were flipping the book so that her picture wasn't visible (she's featured prominantly on the front). this would not happen in nebraska. this is a liberal town, no doubt. the crazies tend to be those spouting about how good the government is! defenders of W tend to keep their opinions to themselves. i don't have to get fired-up about politics anymore because i'm just another liberal dipshit with an opinion. i'd just be preaching to the choir. it's refreshing, believe me.

so i'm off for the weekend now (sunday and monday). in other news, the crazy neighbors from #10 have been evicted and they are a thing of the past. it's finally quiet in the complex!

love, anne

woah loooong week

and it's not even over. well, i've switched to full time, as i mentioned earlier. good news is that our store is trying out a new system in which there is no longer an "inventory processing team", which is my department. this means possibly no more 6am shifts! POSSIBLY. let's all keep our fingers crossed, okay?

mike's interview with initial went well. he's just waiting to hear back on the final word. if he gets this job we'll both have a day off together!!!! then we can really go to the beach this summer!

alright, i'm off to prepare sushi for dinner.

does anyone even read this blog anymore? i'm just curious.

love, anne

Absolutely Gorgeous...

Annie and her beautiful smile. Man, she is dazzling! 

thomas

good news: mike's got another interview with initial on thursday for a technician position!

 

their famous meatballs. i don't know if they're the best, but they sure were tasty!

i had seared sea scallops on a bed of wild mushroom risotto. it was okay. the scallops had dill on them, which really overpowered the delicate scallop flavor. and i'm not a huge fan of risotto anyway, but it had a very mushroomy, earthy flavor which was good, but probably not the best pairing with scallops. it was good, but not great.
this brownie made the meal. it was obviously homemade and had totally unsweetened whipped cream on top. it worked really well to cut the sweetness of the brownie. on the side is a bailey's irish cream caramel sauce. oh. my. god. yes, it was fabulous. perfect dessert.

we got a little goofy walking home. i started snapping pictures everywhere. hahaha

this is belmont street. the nest pic is the peid cow. AGAIN. this time, it's all lit up! and finally, you can barely see downtown in this shot. for some reason, our camera won't really pick up things in the distance in the dark.
 

the blue monk

 

picture #1 was taken on front of zupan's, the overpriced market up the street. they have suprisingly good prices on fresh flowers, and an amazing selection. i just really like walking by it.
picture #2 is a little further up the street from zupan's by the blue monk. mike and i are going there tonight to investigate their claim of serving "portland's tastiest meatballs". you may recall this place as where we went for drinks a couple of weeks ago. they have top-notch martinis and an obscure beer selection that mike loves.

picture #3 is of yet another angle of the peid cow. this place is funky and quintessentially portland. it's just wacky.

and picture #4 is just looking down belmont street towards our apartment and downtown. i was about 3 blocks away from the apartment (the apt. is down the hill towards downtown) when i snapped this pic. you can see the buildings from downtown in the bacground. mostly i wanted to show you all how close we really are to downtown. last night they kicked off the rose city festival with a 20-minute fireworks show. i'm positive we could've seen it from the street, but i was already in bed. i certainly HEARD it.

well, things are pretty great here. i got "promoted" to full time at borders this week. this means i get guaranteed hours and pretty awesome benefits. also, borders full-time employees all get a $30 gift card each pay period. it's redeemable in the cafe, so all my coffee will be paid for! i'm doing really well there. the regional manager came in today and when introduced to her, she said "oh yes, i've heard great things about anne". so i guess they like my stuff.

i'm happy for the weekend, this will be my last 3-day weekend. from now on i work tuesday-saturday.

i've got some ideas for pictures to take this weekend, so i'll hook you guys up with them in a couple of days!

hope everyone is well. we're thinking of you all.

love, anne

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MIKE!!

you're the sweetest, most loving guy on the planet.

all my love (blog-style),

anne 

the sun came out!!!

man, i don't think i've been more happy to see blue sky.

today i cleaned house, went on a mini-shopping trip (tomorrow's mike's birthday, everyone!!), and wandered around the neighborhood. i haven't been able to really get outside all weekend because of the rainy weather. so this was very nice.

tonight i am making pizza for dinner. i ran over to pastaworks (a really cool italian market) and bought fresh mozarella, basil, and roasted peppers. i already made the dough for the crust, so that's rising. this pizza is going to be tasty! one thing that portland is defnitely missing is good pizza. i have yet to have anything that's better than what either: 1) i can make myself, or 2) la casa. no offense everyone, but i don't miss anyone or anything more from omaha than la casa pizza. luckily they can mail frozen pizzas, but i'm assuming it's quite expensive.

tomorrow mike and i are going to splurge and have steak for dinner for his b-day. red meat, YUM!

--anne

happy birthday, kitty!

wish we could be there to celebrate the birthdays! hope you have a fabulous day. i just want to say that i'm really happy to be in touch with you again. i missed you so freakin much. you're an awesome person, and i'm lucky to call you my friend.

love, annie


 

another (rainy) saturday

it's been raining pretty much all week. and while i don't mind it so much, it really does put a damper on my mood. i didn't think the rainy weather would affect me that much, but it really kind of does. i guess it's better than the heat and humidity of the midwest! and there's sunshine in the forecast, as well. once again, i am home alone for the weekend. mike's working, so i'm left to my own devices. i'm experimenting with pictures. anyway, i've been invited to a barbeque with some coworkers today. i said i'd go if it was at andrew's house, which is like 4 blocks from me. otherwise, i don't know. haha. i keep trying to think of things to make that'll really "wow" them. i seem to remember being somewhat of a cook in the not-so-distant past, but it's all a blank. my life in omaha keeps getting further and further away from me.

oh yes, and a girl put in her notice at work, so it looks like i may be transitioning to full time. thank goodness!

i am also entertaining the thought of going back to school. portland state university had a distance program for library science. it's through--get this--emporia state in overland park, KANSAS. yeah, so i need to take the GRE, which costs like $150 to take. that's about half my paycheck right now. i really want to go to library school. but it's expensive. on the plus side, i would be able to defer my student loans for awhile. admission deadline for next spring is october 1, so i have a little bit of time to prepare and take the GRE.

okay, i'm off to watch a movie (memoirs of a geisha).

--anne
 

new (old) pictures on the walls sure helps this place seem more like home. bob and mary were so kind to bring them out. we certainly couldn't have fit them in or on the car when we drove out here. anyway, it's really nice to have that extra touch. pictures can sometimes be like family members--they have a place in my memories.  

we had a wonderful time at the peid cow. mike and bob both had the HUGE bottles of deleruim tremens. mary had a piece of gingerbread, and i had a glass of wine. it was a really super time. great conversation, good music, and family. it was just great.

mary and bob: you guys look so healthy and happy. it was really just such a treat to hang out with you guys, and i hope you enjoyed your short time here. we love you both very much.

--anne


 

bob and mary's visit!

soon after they got to our apartment. we chatted and got ready to got eat dinner. it was so nice to see them. it was really hard seeing them drive off last night. it made me more homesick than i've been so far. i think they had a great time, though. while i was at work yesterday, mike and the folks went to breakfast, forest park, and drove around several neighborhoods--just to get a feel for the city. unfortunately, they got a real dose of portland weather, and it rained almost the entire time they were here. so they came by border's to pick me up from work yesterday and we drove over to northwest 23rd street to do some window shopping. we got some gelato at a place called "alloto gelato". yum!

after we had some delicious mexican food over near sellwood, we came home and unpacked the pictures mary and bob had delivered for us! then it was off to the peid cow.

 

rainy days and mondays....

today is my day off, and it's raining cats and dogs out there. i thought i'd share a little bit of the lush, green view i have from my bedroom/office window. there's a big leafy maple tree outside the window, so i can hear raindrops hhitting the leaves. it's really peaceful. last night we had our very first thunderstorm! people were out in the streets dancing and yelling. i remember as a kid, the way i dealt with scary thunder was to yell and scream at the sky. it was like having a screaming match with god. no wonder i love to argue so much now!


this is the "waterfall". i know it's a horrible picture, but this is the best i could do without seeming like the creepy neighbor girl snpping pictures of peoples' house. anyway, everytime it rains, water pours down this roof joint. there's moss growing all over it. it's like my own private water feature! 

mike and i went up the street to "the blue monk" after he got home from work. the "blue monk" is a jazz club/restaraunt that we'd been meaning to try since we moved here. we were definitely not disappointed. the atmosphere is laid back, not smoky, and the beer selection is vast. i had a couple martinis and was very satisfied. we will go back, for sure.


we came home to homemade sushi. the total cost for making all this sushi was about $6. the wild sockeye salmon was on sale; and the cucumber and avacado were also incredibly cheap. all in all, a very fun and satisfying evening.

--anne