the portland trip, continued

Stevie & T's Place:

After spending much of Friday day lazing about and then doing research for my paper on China's foreign exchange reserves and trade surplus (the one I had to give a presentation about), I hopped on the streetcar and went to Stevie and T's apartment in lovely NW Portland (sorry A and IB--Milwaukie, or "unincorporated Clackamas county", if you prefer, is not lovely). Stevie made us yummy gin and diet tonics while I blabbed about DWE and then got to hear about Stevie's new job (he's a total superstar, by the way). Then we went out to dinner with T's BFF (she's my friend too, and I was totally stoked to see her, but I'm running out of initials and code names here), her boyfriend, and another friend of theirs. Highlights of the night include some kick-ass garlic cheese fries at Laurelwood pub, this really good drink that was hot cider, bourbon, and whipped cream, way over-tipping the waitress because of how obnoxious we were, playing 14 songs on the digital jukebox and 21st St Bar & Grill, and making DWE talk to T on the phone. The next morning, we had a yummy late breakfast (and I discovered that Newcastle beer goes great with pancakes).

Casa de Rebuelita:

Next it was off to Rebel's place on the hill, where I was reunited with my former apartment-mate Sally, the Fattest Cat in the World (just kidding, but dude, she's pretty chunky). Rebel, ever the accomodating hostess, met my demands for Hornsby's and baby-themed wrapping paper (the latter of which she claimed was something that I had actually purchased while we lived together, and then bequeathed to her when I moved). Then we were off to the first birthday party of K & D's adorable twin boys. Dude, that party was baby/small child central. Some of the kids were older ones that belonged to relatives, but we also seem to be getting older and reproducing at an increasing rate. The party was lots of fun, and I got to see several people that I hadn't seen in ages, which was wonderful. I also got to hold both m and Mr. and Mrs. N's 2-month old "little Japanese baby" for extended periods of time, which was delightful. After the party (and the rockin' cake--Costco makes the best store-bought cakes, hands down), Rebel, my wife, and I went downtown for a few drinks and some girl talk, which was quite nice save a touch of drama at the end. Rebel cracked me up by reviving our old joke about poking each other when it was time to pull the "stop requested" thing on the bus (especially since this was one of those jokes that I think I found funny far longer than she did, as in, "okay, please stop poking me now Jenn"). And then Sally sat on my hair for a while after we got in bed (but she eventually remember who her owner was, and promptly started annoying her instead).

Okay, time to get back to grading quizzes. Stayed tuned for the next and final installment in the "portland trip" series.

Oh, and a mildly entertaining anecdote dedicated to N: a couple of evenings ago, Dr. Wonderfulpants, Esq picked up my dictionary (the same old crappy abridged American Heritage that I've had since I was seventeen--if it weren't for the internet, I'd really need a better dictionary) and looked up the word "dictionary". It was in there, of course. "How would you know where to look it up?" he asked me. It's kind of a silly, pointless observation on some level, but it also sort of reminded me of a metaphor from a Lorrie Moore story about how you eventually have to throw the empty box that held the trash bags into the last of these trash bags (unless you recycle it, of course). It was a very sad and moving metaphor in the context of the story, which was about a woman and her dying mother. I'm not sure why it reminds me of the dictionary thing.