– Sears Eye Appointments – Dinner at Szechuan Kitchen –
– Haircoloring – Taxes – Yardwork –
– Dinner at Hobo’s Restaurant – Tour of the Portland Shanghai Tunnels –
– Breakfast at Hale’s – Hemming & Sewing –

There you have it.  Our weekend happenings!

 

OK, here’s the full story:

Friday afternoon Jim and I both had eye appointments at Sears.  His was at 4:15, so he just headed there straight from work. Mine was at 5:15.  As soon as daycare ended the kids and I hopped in the car and headed for the mall.  We were a few minutes early, so I found the frames I had tried on earlier in the week and modeled them for the three kids.  The store employee was a different one from my last visit, and he concurred that my top two were good choices.  I couldn’t decide between the two so was hoping I could get both.

One pair was thick black frames with an ornate design on the side temple and the inside of the frame is white.  Quite flashy. 

(similar to these but not exactly the same)

The other pair is similar to the pair I have now, but not as wide.  Less noticeable, more mature.

(these are exactly the pair)
I tried showing them to Jim, but his eyes were dilated, so he couldn’t see them well enough to comment one way or the other.  Only commented that the one pair is very showy and bold, but that’s kind of what I was looking for!

Tummies grumbling through the appointment and it was after 6:00 when we left the mall. (I ordered BOTH pairs of glasses. They’ll be ready in 2 weeks.)  We drove to Szechuan Kitchen which is in the outskirts of Lake Oswego- on Boones Ferry Road just after turning from Kruse/Hwy 217. I’d put a link to their website here, but they don’t maintain one.  Some friends of ours introduced us to the Szechuan Kitchen over the summer and we just love the place.  We buy the $25.00 Gift Certificates from Restaurant.com for just $2.00!!  Yes, $2.00!  The only “catch” is that you have to spend $50 (including tip) which really isn’t hard to do when there’s 5 in our family!  If we order 5 plates….or 4 plates and 3 sodas, it comes out more than enough.  And we always have leftovers to give us at least two more meals so it really IS a good deal!

This time we ordered the Orange Chicken, Kung Pao Chicken, General Tso Chicken, House Special Lo Mein, and Spicy Ginger Chicken.  All very good, but don’t think we’ll order the Spicy Ginger Chicken next time…..4 plates was plenty enough anyway! 

A quick stop at the Tigard Costco to check on something, then we dropped Jim off at his truck (still parked outside Sears) and we headed home.

Saturday morning we slept in.  I had fully intended on getting up early and spending 40 minutes on the elliptical since we had dinner plans with friends for the evening and I wanted to eat my filet mignon guilt-free.  But we stayed in bed and watched the news and talked.  The kids were up before we were, and Trevor tried to surprise us by making blueberry pancakes for everyone for breakfast, but he had a few questions that gave away his ‘surprise’.  We told him it was still appreciated, just as much as if it were a surprise.  The only thing missing- no coffee ready when we got out of bed.  We’ll have to work on that one I guess….

After breakfast I colored both girls’ hair.  Pink.  Yes, PINK.  Not wanting to go too crazy or too outrageous I only colored a 3″ long section underneath their part line so that it would be covered but still visible.  I originally did this on Thursday night, but it came out too light.  I decided I’d apply another coat of the pink color (which is supposed to be temporary but if you heat set it, it is supposed to be more permanent).  I heat set it.  Both girls ran around with plastic wrap and stocking caps for a couple hours while it set.  The result- fantabulous!

Then I colored my hair dark again…dark chocolate brown.  I had let the temporary color fade and wash out (since before Christmas) but felt like my hair color was too boring.  I decided I like the richer darker color better, and so does Jim, so it was time to do it again.

After the in-home hair salon experience, I spent the rest of Saturday morning finishing up our taxes and getting them e-filed (Federal) and mailed (State) and then organizing all the paperwork that goes along with them and getting it all bundled together and filed.  Having the daycare business means we have to save everything.  I have envelopes full of bank statements, credit card statements, utility bills, etc. etc.  What used to be a 2 envelope tax package is now 6 or 7 envelopes all banded together.  Eek.

At 2:00 (we set a predetermined time earlier that morning) Jim and I went outside to finish some yard clean up.  It was still freezing outside, which I learned makes raking leaves even easier because the barkdust stays frozen to the ground!  I was all bundled up and cozy warm and as long as I kept moving it wasn’t too bad.  I raked the tough areas while Jim blew the leaves into the grass for mulching.  I probably only spent about a 1/2 hour out there.  Jim worked for about an hour out there.

When I came in, I was cold (obviously) and decided a workout would warm me up.  After all, I didn’t get up early like I’d originally planned.  I still had 2 hours before I needed to get ready for our evening plans so I ended up spending an hour on the elliptical and burned 550 calories in a single workout!  WHEW!

I entered it into Loseit.com and was pleased to see that even after entering a filet mignon and mashed potato for dinner, I’d still be under my calorie count for the day by almost 100 calories.  Success!  Yay!

At 5:15 we loaded up the kids and their overnight stuff and headed over to my parents’ house where the kids would spend the night.  Jim and I were having dinner with some of his coworkers visiting from Buffalo and they had arranged a tour of the Portland Shanghai Tunnels at 8:00.  Figuring we wouldn’t be home until late, and not wanting to rush the evening and depart before our friends, we decided it would be better to have the kids spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

We were informed that the restaurant we were going to (Hobo’s) is known locally as a gay bar.  Uhhhh…..

Jim and I walked in and I immediately noticed the 100% male clientele and staff, but nothing looked odd to me.  We were directed to our table and set down our coats and I asked the waiter where the restroom was and he told me, then stopped me before I turned around and suggested I order my drink so it would be ready when I came back.  I himmed and hawed and started to say,

“I’ll take an Amaretto Sour” when he said, “We have a fabulous new vodka, it’s a raspberry chocolate vodka.  How does that sound?” 

I’m thinking…. “uhhhhh”. 

He notices my pause and says, “We can make it a martini, or serve it straight on the rocks if you like”

I’m still…. “uhhhhh”. 

He says, “how about we add a little cream to it?  Serve it martini style?” 

I lighten up….”Sure!  That sounds good!” 

SO there was my drink order.  A Raspberry Chocolate Cream Martini. 

I ended up drinking three of those over the next hour and a half.  Totally blew my calorie count for the day.  I knew these would be bad, but didn’t know how bad until the next morning.  Turns out each drink has 270 calories.  Oopsie!

I really enjoyed our dinner at Hobo’s.  I can see why it’s reviewed as a gay bar, and maybe it is, but I felt it was more a fine dining restaurant….with gay waitstaff.   Which I totally enjoyed – our waiter was probably one of the best waiters we’ve had in a looooong time.  If you go there for dinner or drinks, ask to be seated at one of Dave’s tables.  You will not be disappointed.

Our tour of the underground was to start at 8pm, at the restaurant we were at.  We moved to the back of the building where the tour begins and heard a little speech about how this guy had been told the stories of the underground by his uncle back in the 1970’s and he became intrigued by the tunnels and started exploring them and researching them and he’s presenting to us the history of the tunnels, used as drug dens and human trafficking.  It was a decent tour- interesting stories, things to see, he talked about paranormal activity seen and felt by tourists and “ghost hunters”, etc.  But towards the end I realized that we were really only seeing the basement of a single downtown building.  Not a connected underground that spans blocks and blocks.  Hmmm…  I became a skeptic of what I was seeing.  The next morning I googled Portland Shanghai Tunnels and found this interesting KATU news story from 2007.  Here’s another story.

While we were on the tour, we were beneath a bar, which was very loud and sounded like a lot of fun.  The Boiler Room.  When the tour ended we made our way up to ground level and found the bar.  A $3.00 cover charge and it looked crowded and “young”.  We decided to pass.  The Buffalo gruop had read about a dueling piano bar across the street and wanted to check it out so we walked over.  A $5.00 cover charge this time.  Outside tent.  Very crowded.  WTH?  We passed.

Voodoo Donuts is just 2 blocks away, so we walked over there, passing lots of homeless people bundled up in sleeping bags on the sidewalks, crowds of party goers, it was a little scary actually!  We really felt like we were feeling Portland tonight!!

We get close to Voodoo and see there’s a looooooooooooooong line.  One of the New Yorkers says he tried going to Voodoo over the weekend, waited an hour in line before giving up.

SO, we turn around and walk back towards Hobos.  We toy with the idea of going into Darcelle’s, but figure it probably has the highest cover charge of all, and I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect once we went inside, other than a room full of drag queens and transvestites.  We decided we probably really shouldn’t go in there.

We ended up walking back into Hobo’s and sitting at the bar.  I had coffee this time.  And then Darcelle walked in!  O M G.  I didn’t know it was Darcelle at the time, I just thought it was some glamoured up drag queen visiting friends on a break from Darcelle’s….but on Monday when I pulled up Darcelle’s website- well there she he she is!  Wow, I knew I should have asked to get my picture taken with her.

I really do like Hobo’s and highly recommend it, even though their food is a bit on the spendy side.  Especially those darn Raspberry Chocolate Cream Martinis!  And full of calories. 

We were home around 11:45 that night.

Sunday morning we woke up around 7:00am, even though we were kid-free.  Jim looks over and says, “Let’s go out to breakfast”!  OK, three for three on eating meals out eh?

We called my parents to find out what time the kids would be dropped back off (9:15) so a quick brushing of teeth and hair and clothes on and we headed out the door to Hale’s in Hillsboro.  I ordered the strawberry blintz.  Ate 2 of the 3.  Had coffee.  Came back home and put my sweats on and resumed our normal Sunday routine of coffee and the newspaper.  Kids were dropped off at 9:15 as expected, but Riley decided she wanted to go to church with my parents, so she did.  She says she enjoyed it.  Maybe they’ll take her every Sunday??

I decided to do some hemming and mending of various items, so got the sewing machine out and proceeded to hem my newest pair of jeans (I need a 31″ inseam).  I also repaired three decorative pillows that were coming unstitched.

Next I went through the various piles of castaway items and clothing and itemized everything for a Goodwill donation.  Took it all out to my truck to drop off later in the week.

In the meantime I received two phone calls for daycare.  One wanted to set up an appointment to come over Monday morning for a possible start date of Tuesday.  Full-time preschooler.  The other call wanted to come over that day for a possible day of care on Monday (the following day) as back-up care because their nanny was sick.  I set up her appointment but told her that Sunday is our pajama day and since I clean house 5 days a week I take my weekends off, so excuse the mess.  I didn’t even change out of my sweats. 

After they left, and a few more hours of doing basically nothing productive, we started our Sunday Chores and cleaned house to get it ready for daycare the next day.  Bedtime: 7:30pm.  I kid you not.  By 6:30 Jim and I were absolutely dragging and wanted to go to bed so badly.  I think I was out before 8pm!!