We spend our winnings.

As you may recall, we were big winners and received a free meal from Elmer's (including beverage!) as our prize.  First off, let me say that I LOVE that Elmer's lets everyone order off of the senior/children's menu.  That is awesome.
 

Matt went for the most expensive thing on the menu:  a dungeness crab and shrimp omelet with a side of pancakes and blueberries.
 

I got the ham and pear wrap with a side of cottage cheese.  I had been craving cottage cheese and here it was.

It was a good meal.  Thanks Portland Parks and Rec, for our prize.

NWCTC's Othello

We settled in for yet another excellent production by our favorite Shakespeare company.  This production was directed by Bill Alexander, who came to Portland just to work with NWCTC.  The cast was fabulous with WRICK Jones a dogged and growling Othello and Michael Mendelson a deliciously conniving Iago.  But the people who really "brought it" to the production were the women:  Susan Nelle was an excellent Doge of Venice, Clara-Liis Hillier was an electric Bianca (who was also wearing a fabulous dress thanks to costume designer McKenna Twedt.)  Dana Millican was mesmerizing as Emilia, melting under the sway of Iago, collapsing when she realized the extent of her betrayal.  Melissa Whitney was a radiant  Desdemona, full of love, full of confusion and fully betrayed.

The fight scenes were also enjoyable, they seemed just enough out of control that the actors would go tumbling into the audience.  And Matt was delighted to sit next to the seat Iago returned to again and again to recount with glee his devious plans.

We're looking forward to Pericles, which is right around the corner.

Eager bread.

I may have let this bread rise a bit too long.

Make your own hash browns.

Now that I've discovered how to make delicious hash browns in my own home, I never have to go out to breakfast again!  Would you like to make delicious hash browns too?  You are in luck as I have a pictorial for you.

Here's what you need:  a cast iron skillet (not non-stick, cast iron) a grater, a knife a spatula, a dish towel, potato (es) and some butter.
 

First put your skillet on medium heat and don't put anything in it yet.
 

Grate your potato.  If I'm the only one who is eating, I grab a potato the size I want to consume.  If you are making hash browns for more than one person, get a bigger potato. If you want, you can peel the potato, but I find that to be a pain and I like potato skin, so I just give it a good scrubbing.  Grate your potato onto the dish towel.  Work quickly because that grated potato will turn a weird color if you tarry.
 

Once the potato is grated, stick a tablespoon of butter in the pan and let it melt.  Use a bit less if there is a small amount of potato.
 

While the butter is melting, put the dish towel around the shredded potato.
 

Twist the shredded potato over the sink.  Depending on the type of potato and how much, you will get a few drips to a goodly amount of liquid.  Squeeze out as much as you can.
 

Still working very quickly, because that butter is sizzling by now, sprinkle salt and pepper on the potato. I stir things around with my spatula at this point, to distribute the salt and pepper evenly.
 

Using your hands, spread your potato around in the pan.  I like crispy hash browns so I don't pile too much on, another reason, in my world, for erring on the side of the smaller potato.   Make sure everything is even though.
 

Tamp everything down with your spatula.
 

Set the timer for seven minutes, which seems like an extraordinarily long amount of time, I know, but unless you have a minute amount of potatoes, you will most likely use that entire time.  If you don't believe me, poke the spatula under and peek at minute four, five, six and seven.  It takes a long time for that potato to brown up.
 

While you are waiting, rinse that starch out of your towel and rinse off your grater.  This might also be an ideal time to start some eggs, or empty the dishwasher.
 

Oh, yes, you also need a plate larger than your skillet.  Get that out right now too.
 

So eventually your potatoes will be golden brown on the bottom and pretty much cooked through, though the tops will still be a bit raw.  They should be sticking together in a nice big round of hash browns. Take a peek and see if they look good to you.
 

If they do, set the plate on top of the skillet, grab two hot pads, pick up the whole shebang and invert it.
 

Set the plate/skillet combo on the counter, lift off the skillet and you will find glorious hash browns, at least on one side.  But you are not done!
 

Melt another tablespoon of butter in the pan and when it has melted and spread around, take that plate and
 

Slide those hash browns back into the pan.
 

I usually set the timer for five minutes at this point, but it usually doesn't take that long.  Keep checking the underside to see if you've hit the magical shade of golden.
 

When you have, you can slide the hash browns onto a plate and cut them into wedges, or, if it is a single serving, you can fold it over twice and make a delicious crispy wedge.

Then you sit down and enjoy those hash browns.  You earned them.

Not so smart squirrel

I think this nut is not sufficiently buried.

Opossum in the back yard!

I'm sitting at my desk merrily working away at the blogs when what should wander by for a drink but an opossum!
 

I grabbed the camera while eagerly telling the cats to look out the window.  Antares caught on right away and he stayed right where he was with his pupils like tiny slits.  Sentinel jumped down from the bed and started batting the camera strap around, completely ignoring the animal right outside the window.

It was pretty exciting.  Last year the opossums would come out very early in the morning and tear down the cornstalks early in the morning, but I've not seen any since.

Winners!

At the beginning of summer Portland Parks and Rec buys space in the paper to advertise their free movies in the park.  They have an agreement with the movie distributors not to tell people the real names of the movies and instead publish a list of dates with movie names that are a play on the real titles.

Also every year, they have a contest offering the first people who decode all their movie names a prize.  This year, Matt and I entered the contest.  It took about an hour to un-puzzle them all, most of the time throwing names back and forth until one of us figured out what they were saying.  There were about three left when I finally broke down and we used Google. "We're looking for a movie with a mouse and a dog and a rake" and Matt typed in "mouse dog rake movie" and voila, the computer spit out the answer.

We sent off our list and after a week I figured we didn't win, but lo and behold, look what arrived in the mail today!  One free meal at Elmers (including drink.)  We won!

I would love to tell you the list of alternative movie titles, but I recycled the ad right after we finished the contest so I can't illustrate just how smart were were to decode them all (both with our brains and Google.)