A good dinner.

Not a good picture of a good dinner, but a good dinner, nevertheless. That's store bought tortellini and store bought Parmesan, but everything else I either made (the cream cheese, the pesto--with basil from the garden) or grew (the zucchini and the beet greens which went with the tortellini.) De-lish!

Roman Shades, choosing the material

I'm gearing up for my August vacation. That means: PROJECTS! I am planning on making Roman shades for the bedroom. I checked out some fabric samples from The Whole 9 Yards and Sentinel is helping me narrow my choices.

One of these two samples is my favorite. Can you guess which one?

Stay tuned, as the Roman shades are assembled!

Picnic Project: Columbia Park

The Picnic Project.
Established 2006.

Each year, Patricia chooses five parks in Portland—one from each section of Portland: N, NE, NW, SE & SW. She plans food and invites people for a picnic, then records the festivities. By 2027 she will have picnicked in every park in Portland.

2009 Addendum: um, like pretty much all of my projects I am not carrying this project out in quite the way it was begun. Last year, I took a break (I know! After only two years!) because I had the Hungary & Romania trip and thought I would plan the picnics when I got back, but I didn’t.This year, I’m guessing all of the parks will be in North Portland. Back when this project began Matt had a car, but now that we are a car-free household, it is easier to plan excursions to parks near us. So things have changed a little, but the spirit lives on.

Date: 26 July, 2009

Park: Columbia Park

Present: Patricia, Matt, Joe, Mary, Pat, Carol, Atlas

Food: Cold Zucchini & Basil Soup, Chorizo and Lime Salad, Asian Rice Noodle Salad

Activities: Chatting with Matt’s father Joe, walking Atlas, chatting in general.

Comments: Matt’s dad Joe was visiting so we had a picnic in the park. It was very hot, but Columbia Park was amazingly cool. It was a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Joe had to leave a bit early for another commitment, so Matt walked him to his bus stop.

One of the features of Columbia Park, which also includes a water feature, playground, soccer field and Columbia Cottage.

I call this park the "Hansel and Gretel" park because of the many tall pine trees. When I spent more time on my bike doing long rides, I often would come across this park. From the street looking into the "woods" it looks very much like a fairy tale. Their could easily be a troll living somewhere in this park. The Portland Park's website mentions that this park was inspired by a famous park in Berlin (though it doesn't say which one.) They have trolls in Berlin, right?

Matt takes the dog for a walk

The Asian Rice Noodle Salad.

Kimchee!

This melon and chorizo salad was very, very good. So many interesting flavors!

The zucchini & basil soup. Yet another way to dispatch some of your zucchini.

Harvest

Okay, I've not had happy feelings about the garden this year, but it is time to harvest and I'm in love again. Look at all that produce. Which were all tiny seeds a few months ago! Isn't it a wonder?

Beets!

These beets are from my garden and from our produce box. I'm steaming them to enjoy this week. I love beets!

What will I do with the juice from steaming? Stay tuned.

On the way to Hannah K-O's Bat Mitzvah

This post is titled "On the way to" because I wasn't familiar with Jewish customs and wasn't sure if photography was okay. It turned out I could have taken pictures of the beautiful synagogue, but I didn't so you will have to take my word that it was lovely, place, though the service was very foreign to me. Yes, it's a bat mitzvah post with no actual pictures of anything bat mitzvah related.

Here's the program.

Here we are waiting for the bus to take us to the service. It was bright, so Matt is squinty.

And the second photo after the first one.

After the ceremony and reception (the cheesecake was delicious, if I do say so myself) we came home for a bit and then headed out for the Sternwheeler cruise.

Due to a horrible miscalculation on my part, we did not actually get to go on the Sternwheeler. We got all the way down to the place you get on the boat and couldn't find it. I realized that, when entering the information into TriMet's trip planner, I forgot to change "departing after" to "arriving by." The result was that we were departing our house when we were supposed to be arriving at the boat and said boat was long gone by the time we arrived. So, dejected and feeling dumb (me) and helpfully understanding (Matt) we got back on the #6 and went out for dinner.

Zebra Cheesecake

I get to go to my first Bat Mitzvah today. For the reception after, I have made a plate of brownies and my delicious Zebra Cheesecake. I'm pretty excited, both for the Bat Mitzvah and for people to try the cheesecake.

Sadly, elves have not cleaned my kitchen for me overnight.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Sing Along Party.

Matt was pretty excited to write the blog post for his party, it was going to be titled "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Sing Along Party Blog Post." But, alas, he now has a Facebook account and has posted the picture there. So here I am writing the post for all the non-Facebook users and non-Friends of Matt.

Matt had firm ideas about the food at the party. It all had to relate to the movie. He put helpful signs out showing the quote from the movie. Deborah's parents came and her mother laughed with delight when she caught a food related line.

We had soup. It was to go with the homeless shelter scene where they are eating soup. I tried to make soups you would probably get at a homeless shelter, perhaps made out of random or slightly odd ingredients, so I made Hamburger Soup and Succotash soup. They were both very, very good. Much better than they sound. I also made garlic bread to go with the soup.

I spent about 30 minutes making these commemorative songbooks. They turned out quite well, I thought. Then we used my job perk of free photo copying to copy and staple them.

Matt liked the picture I found on the Internet of the groupies.

Our viewing screen, though note the furniture has not yet been set up for viewing pleasure.

Matt was adamant we had to have pie. (Again, the quote thing) He even helpfully etched "Layer #1 in the top crust.

Michael came in character, as Moist. (Dr. Horrible's friend, who has the underwhelming ability to dampen things--from wikipedia.) Michael is pretty funny with his costume ideas. This extreme close-up is to show you he is moist.
Shadow Puppets. Don't they always come out in situations like this?
Inara has been usurped as our youngest attendee, as Oscar was born this May.
Deborah played Captain Hammer and came in costume.
Post-viewing discussion.
If you haven't seen Dr. Horrible, take the 45 minutes to enjoy it using the above link. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll be done in 45 minutes. If you buy the DVD, you can also listen to Commentary: The Musical.

So it begins

I picked the first zucchini today. I've got two plants this year, instead of one. Do you think I can keep up?