Sweet lovable cats

My cat makes me smile. Tamil likes to lick your finger and then rub her nose with it. She gets quiet demanding sometimes and if you do not stick out your finger she will go after your toe. She makes me smile.

Mean street of PDX

Get on that bad motor scooter and ride! Decked out in pink and black stripped socks and hauling a chica with a super mini-skirt you have to love the fashion in Portland.
The scooter smelled like an old lawnmower and it sounded like one too. It wove in and out of traffic on MLK blvd. I saw the girl on the back stand up and fix her underwear as they were waiting for a light change. That is when I decided it warranted a photo.

Inspired by GoS

As I was e-chatting with "the serrach" a couple of days ago, he explained that his lovely better half has been cooling off by drinking mint infused lemonade.

The next day, as I was watching the cow cook dinner, I told him I would like to have a cocktail. He combined limeade, vodka and mint. It is scrumptious and I want to believe that it was somehow inspired by the "girl."

Armless

Venus de Milo? Why do artists create sculptures of armless individuals. Even aphrodite (Venus) had arms. However when a sculpture has been around since 90BCE (wiki) it is understood that a few pieces can go missing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milo

Starbuck's or Starsuck's?

How many of you have purchased an item from Starbuck's in the last 7 days? Come on, place your tally on this blog. It will only take you a minute to create a log-on and let me know.
The cow owns stock in Starbuck's so keep consuming people.
By using the title Starbuck's or Starsuck's I am not trying to insinuate that the product is in anyway BAD. But I am amazed at the quantity of refuse the sidewalks and trash cans accumulate from the this company.
Walking along NW 23rd, I stepped on a small plastic lid to a coffee cup. Obviously, someone wanted to drink their beverage from the cup not that little hole they put in the lid to keep the coffee in the cup and not on you. A few more steps and I saw a ubiquitous green straw on the ground. About a block later I came across this trash can. As you can count, 6 of the 8 items discarded were from Starbuck's. I started to determine the size of the trash can. The garbage ratio concept intrigued me. If the garbage inside the can is equal to that of the ratio on the outside, this would mean that there is a TON of refuse from Starbuck's.
I then started tallying the dollar amount people spend. I will say that I like to drink coffee but very rarely do I head to a coffee house to enjoy a cup either in house or on the go. After doing a rough calculation based on the size of the cups sitting on the garbage can, I deduced that if one person bought all the discarded products atop the garbage can it would cost them approximately $12.90.
So, when I say Starsuck's what I really mean is that purchasing coffee at a coffee shop SUCKS money from your wallet. Try to keep an eye on the price as you pull out your wallet or ATM card to pay for your next fix. If you drink coffee out at least three times per week you are spending approximately 454.00 dollars per year.

Court Day

June 26, 2006
1:30 pm

THE COW and Officer Ismael!
I accompanied the cow to traffic court at the appointed time. Following is a brief synopsis of our encounter with the Oregon legal system.

I met the cow outside of his office at 12:10. I brought a picnic lunch on the hottest day Oregon has ever had (the last two days set records). We hopped on a bus and got off on 5th and something - one block from the Multnomah County Courthouse.
We sat in the park and dined on Pizza with arugula pesto, an apple and an orange. To wash it all down we enjoyed Stewart's Key lime soda.
After lunch we ventured into the Portland building, I like to call it Portlandia because the statue of the same name stands over the main entrance. The building was designed by Michael Graves (of Target fame).
Inside the building it was nice and cool. On the second floor there is a description and photos or replicas of various outside art installments around Portland. As we strolled, I realized I had seen most of the pieces but did not have the context to understand them as the artist had intended.
We queued up outside the Courthouse at 1:10 pm. As you know security is very tight and everyone must go through the metal detectors, blah blah blah!
We entered room 124 at 1:25 and watched as all the other law breakers entered. Some even had attorneys. We were hoping the police officer would not attend and the ticket would be dismissed by default, but that didn't happen because Officer Ismael walked in wearing all of his police garb.
The judge entered, everyone stood, the royal highness read the list of names that were suppose to be in court (the cow being one of them) and then said, "Before court gets started I am recommending that each of you discuss your case with your presiding officer." The cow and I looked at each other and thought, "what the hell!"
We sat in amazement as all the individuals in the room scrambled to get to their officer. Each cop pulled out the paperwork for each person and started making deals. It went something like this.....ok suzie, I will drop count two if you plead guilty to count one (reckless driving).
We sat on the bench for a good 10 or 15 minutes before we realized that we should try and do something. Officer Ismael was standing outside the door and we stood in line with the rest of the hoodlums to talk to him. Once it was our turn and the cow told him his name, officer Ismael responded with "oh, you're the honker." One could say that the cow thought. Before the cow said another word the officer said, "I will ask for a dismissal." Both of us shocked and standing with our mouths open we quickly said "thank you" and stepped back in the courtroom. Thirty minutes later the officer called the cow in front of the judge and said the state was requesting a dismissal of the ticket. The judge quickly replied, "ok, you are free to go."
DONE

1-Month REMAINING

As I sat down to check my e-mail this morning, I realized there is only ONE month remaining before my 4oth birthday. I started thinking about how I celebrated my birthday every year for the last 40 years. I am going to need some help remembering....I can remember the last few but man the 20's are a blurr and even the memory of the early 30's have escaped me.
So, if you were with me on any of my birthdays please let me know how old I was (or the year) and where and what I was doing. Hey mom- you are going to really need to dig into your memory banks because I don't remember any of those early, early years- except I do recall a picture of me holding money with my eyes closed in front of a big sheet cake (if I can get that picture scanned in somehow I promise I will post it on this site).

Saturday!

This weekend was action packed. Friends from Sacramento, Jenn & Derk (JD), came to explore Portland for a few days and we showed them the city. On their last day we strolled the farmers market at PSU. The Portland Art Show was going on in the South Park blocks also and it was busy with people, music, food and goodies. The roses around the city are in full bloom which allows for interesting pictures (see above). We headed out to Sauvie Island after a lunch of burgers, grilled cheese, french fries, onion rings and MILKSHAKES! The cow had read there was a Strawberry festival on the island, but we quickly found out that the festival was a roadside fruit and vegetable stand, a taco truck and acres of "you pick" strawberries.
After the excitement of the festival we chilled under the sunshine and had a beer at a pub in St. Johns!

I love a parade!

Park and Stark is where the action was for the Starlight Parade on Saturday night. This was our first experience with the evening event. We took the bus downtown so we wouldn't have to worry about parking - this turned out to be a VERY good idea.
People were ready for the parade by 6:30 pm but it didn't kick off until 8:30pm. We had a couple of drinks and some appetizers as we waited for the sun to set.
Once the sun was gone the festivities began (along with the rain). All I wanted was to see a band and a brightly lit float, boy oh boy, I got so much more. The Portland Fire Department carried in a ladder that about 12 guys held straight in the air. One guy climbed up and dove off into the waiting rescue thingy being held by about 12 other firefighters. This looked like great fun, unless you missed the target of course.
There were colorful floats with loud music, and sexy dancers that moved so fast the cow was having a hard time keeping up with them. The best part of the parade was when the Largest marching band in the world past in front of us. They took up 2 city blocks and have over 500 members ranging in age from 18 to 85. Some of the members wore little lights on their glasses so they could see their sheet music. The BAND had probably their biggest fan sitting right next to us. As the band came around the corner this guy stood up with his sign that read "World's Best Band" and his T-shirt which read, "I love a parade!"

Culinary Artistry

Last night, the cow and I joined 14 other diners at Culinary Artistry for a benefit dinner where all of the proceeds went to the Garden of Wonders at Abernathy School. I ran across the dinner as I was reading the Portland Food Dudes blog. I have been wanting to try one of these specialty dinners since the cow and I have moved but I have found it very difficult to land a reservation. When I saw that all of the dishes would be paired with Medoyeff Vodka or Aviation Gin from House Spirits Distillery, I jumped on the chance for a couple of seats.

There aren’t any pictures because the space was very intimate. I did not want to interrupt or disturb any of the other diners so I tried to put as much to memory as possible. Wish me luck on my descriptions….
We arrived at 6:00pm and the tables were starting to fill with guests. The walls were a lovely honeydew melon color with dark wood and stark white accents which made the space very cozy. There were large windows with the sunlight streaming in and a great old screen door. The table was dressed with white linen and enough silverware for an army. The centerpiece was edible and looked beautiful - an almond pistachio crunchy creation and breadsticks laid directly on the table for atmosphere.

We instantly found a place to sit and started to introduce ourselves to the other guests. Once all the guests had arrived Jenn Louis, the owner and chef of Culinary Artistry introduced herself, the two distillers from House Spirits, Lee Medoff and Christian Krogstad, and the pastry chef Anja Spence. Jenn was an eloquent speaker and a gracious host she made us feel welcome from the very beginning. The cocktails paired with each entrée were actually created and being prepared by the distillers themselves.

The menu was on elegant silver paper and read as follows:
Culinary Artistry Spring Dinner with House Spirits and Miss Zumstein’s delicious desserts
June 4th, 2006

Oysters on the half shell with grapefruit mignionette
Grapefruit tinged Medoyeff Martini (no description necessary)

Butter lettuce salad with radish, pine nuts and orange & tarragon vinaigrette
Southside royal (Medoyeff vodka, champagne and mint)

Porcini and chili marinated pork tenderloin, roasted onions
(Substitute: Scallops)
Negroni (Aviation gin, sweet vermouth, campari)

Crispy duck with sage polenta and asparagus
(Substitute: Halibut)
Oregon sage sour (Aviation gin, fresh lemon juice, sage, egg white, shaken)

Aviation sorbet

Buttery Pound Cake with housemade Seville orange marmalade with vanilla bean chantilly cream
Chelsea side car (Aviation gin, cointreau, fresh lemon & orange juice, bitters)

Light delights served with Stumptown coffee
Rosemary infused bittersweet truffles
Almond tuile
Butter shortbread
White chocolate fresh mint cookies

As the evening ended I felt like I had been at a close friends dinner party. I had chatted the night away with a suburbanite mom, watched a gentlemen eat the duck with his hands, listened to conversations about dream jobs and experienced a wonderful dinner, with lavish cocktails and inspiring desserts. On the way home the sun was finally setting over the west hills creating a sunlit dance on the few remaining clouds overhead. A wonderful visual end to an exciting gastronomic evening.

Mustard- Yummmm

This was so good. Close your eyes (not right now dummy, you are trying to read!) and I will give you a great description of what you see before you. Shrimp grilled to perfection sitting atop a bed of carmelized onion and mustard seed mashed potatoes with cilantro garnish. If that was not enough we also had goat cheese and cilantro empanadas. These were grilled once to hold the masa together and then a second time right before eating. Lastly, Lemon polenta cake with fresh whipped cream. Crumbly yummy goodness. I LOVE TO EAT!

Sellwood Walk

The sun was peaking through the window this morning and I was ready to go. The time was only 7:05am. The cow does not like it on Saturday mornings when I am wide awake and ready to go as I open my eyes. I have learned to be more patient, I now allow him to finish his coffee before I put my tennis shoes on and ask him to join me on a walk.
He was ready for me today. In a book that he gave me when we moved last year (this weekend marks the cow's one year anniversary in PDX) he found a nice walk around Sellwood that took us to destinations we had not passed before.
We started out heading down a trail next to the river traveling north to Oaks Park. The park is one of the ten oldest amusement parks in the US and it opened in 1905, two days before the Lewis and Clark exposition. We learned the flood waters inundate the area quite often.
The large reddish tree is a Copper Beech tree and it was planted in 1892. This thing is huge. It covers a four story house directly behind it. Notice how much taller it is versus the wires and poles. Pretty impressive piece of wood.
We ended up at Johnson Creek park. It is a small park but it is beautiful. It is the confluence of Johnson Creek and Crystal Springs Creek. There were tons of ducks and even more baby ducks. I tried to get a picture of the tiny little cuties but they were too small and too fast (they are sooooo CUTE).
We walked (according to the book) about 3.75 miles and I have to say I enjoyed myself very much!

BBQ Delight

This meal has been on my camera for a couple of weeks. It was so fun and good that I have to tell you all about it. I purchased this tiny bbq at cost plus. It really does the job, plus the cow bought industrial strength - lite on their own brickettes (sp?). On this particular evening he was recreating a meal he had at Aqui: Grilled vege tacos. I beleive once it was all said and done I had eaten three or four of these tasty morsels, splashing it all down with a nice Rose. It was a hot sunny day and the cow did some spicy sultry cookin. Thanks cow!