Spring is here!

Today was so wonderfully sunny and perfect, it was almost possible to forget that i scraped frost off my windshield last night. Oh, spring, you are so fickle! The adventures have been endless, seemingly, and i have the hardest quarter so far ahead of me. I somehow seem to find time for it all....

And I had visitors, three to be exact. A whirlwind of a few days with Shannon and Kim, we ate well, shopped a lot, and watched 2 movies. One was boring but thought provoking and the other was annoying but kind of funny. I wouldn't recommend either. Got to eat at pambiche with shannon and ben on monday, always a pleasure. Mmm, plantains! Shannon allowed me a few pictures of her and the new one, i hope she will approve of the ones i'm sharing...

photo by kimberlee mcwilliams

It was quite a baby shopping trip we had, lots of looking and comparing. Biggest lesson learned- the choices are pretty much all the same except for the fabric and color. Makes it both easier and harder. Shannon picked out the crib, though, and kim brought it on home, first major baby purchase- check! I bought myself a new pair of shoes and a new belt, the two things i had hoped to buy. So good, oh man, not having a good belt is torture! The morning after, or rather the morning after the morning after, ben cooked us breakfast at my house. It was pretty awesome.

Photo by kimberlee mcwilliams

Photo by kimberlee mcwilliams

Photo by kimberlee mcwilliams

This last shot is great! I didn't realize, until one of my facebook friends helped me out, but this is totally a picture that two pregnant ladies would take. I am not pregnant. I repeat, I am not pregnant. Good picture, nonetheless.

Photo by kimberlee mcwilliams

Photo by kimberlee mcwilliams

Other than that, my weeks are filled with work and work, of the school and real kinds, respectively. Real work has been a giant upheaval of change- the sous chef is "leaving" on sunday and whitney, of the a team line cooks is moving up. It could not be a better situation, in the whitney sense, but it involves hiring and training a new person and that sucks. Sucks so bad! Insane, banging my head against the wall suckiness. It's smoothing out now, but last week and the week before? Suck. Ok, no more work.

Took a short vacation, not last week but the week before. I think, could have been the week before that, i can't keep track of these things. Overnight at edgefield, a big, strangely awesome resort property in troutdale, the third town east on the 84. We had a great room, they had an amazing outdoor salt water soaking pool, as well as pool and restaurants and darts. The food was forgettable ( i actually have no idea what we ate) but the place itself is pure magic. It's like a whole other world, i swear. I would live there if I could. Our room had antique furniture and several great mirrors, one on the dresser and one on the wardrobe, as well as one on the door. Made for some interesting angles.... I had a good time taking pictures while ben read a magazine.

 Which he did, apparently in red shorts, skin colored pants and a skin colored shirt. This is kind of the fashion here in troutdale. It's such a great picture, i had to put in on here.

Ok, more work- we got a halibut today, a whole one. I think it was 23 pounds, cost a fortune, caught off the coast of canada. I love halibut season, i love halibut, today was a good day.

There was a big night out with tonia in there somewhere, also, we went to see galactic (!!!) and ate at a restaurant called three doors down cafe. Fabulous meal, a place i may actually consider going to again, which is saying a lot- there are a lot of restaurants here in ptown, long, long list of places to go to. We had gnocci as an appetizer, it came with a butter sauce- it was green, but you could totally tell it was made of butter. The bread was served with a white bean puree instead of butter. Really good, but i have to say it made the bread more of a course in itself rather than an accompaniment for the meal. I probably wouldn't have eaten half of a plate of bread and butter but this bread came with a fancy spread so i wanted to eat the spread, and therefore ate the bread. And later on- butter sauce- i wished that the bread was still there. Mmm, ok, shared a salad, which they split- nice touch, thank you. And then two entrées- the pasta special and the pork tenderloin. The pork had a coffee rub, it was interesting and good. The portion we got was huge, i almost think that because the server was one of tonia's friends from school we got an extra bit. There was a nice piece of pork for each of us, two, where it seems to make more sense that they would be serving only one. Great, though, we loved it. Mashed potatoes on that, too, and some green. The pasta special was alright. For sure. House made sausage, prawns, i can't remember the sauce- not a good sign- and other things... pasta, i'm seriously drawing a blank here. Anyways, it was good. Sure would have liked the bread, though.
And then there was the show. Galactic, the most amazing live band, and my favorite dance partner, tonia. What more could you ask for? ( Just between me and you, crystal ballroom, you know what more i could ask for, but i won't go there). Things that great just don't happen often enough.

Thank you,,,,,,, and goodnight.

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