Right place, right time

Look at that! Just for living with somebody having a birthday, I get a present! From Simon, who wants me to get in the spirit of his wedding by sending me one of its feature performers.

Priorities

"Ah, I know," I thought, "I'll put the phone across the gap in the table. That way if it spills, the phone won't be damaged!" Then, three days later, I realized my mistake.

YEEEEEEHEEEEEE!

I knew it! As soon as I saw the UPS coming down from the house, I knew there would be a new cheap-ass purple guitar up there waiting for me. A cheap-ass purple guitar with a WHAMMY BAR!!!1!!1!@331!@#1@#!@#123

GAY GAY GAY

Hmmm.... clearly the table formatting didn't work the way I expected, but at least now I have a table that says "GAY GAY GAY".

PROTIP

If you're going to borrow someone else's bike to ride up Portland's hills, make sure you adjust the seat to the right height.

Meanders

With Dad out of town, I had a little extra time to explore his neighbourhood. So of course I got lost. Until I found Martha street. Martha street is the way home.

Staples

Went to Voodoo doughnuts. In particular, went to see the permanent line up around the block at Voodoo doughnuts:

Then went to Powell's, obviously. The lineups there were much shorter.

That didn't take long

 Saw my first non-bridge shot from the Portlandia credits the first time I went into town. Lisa Lampanelli was playing there that night. I decided to pass. But my god, I had sure better get to see this:

Change of scenery

I'm leaving Edmonton for 6 weeks, to see if I can work better somewhere else. I think I probably can, since the somewhere else looks like this:

Presented Without Comment

A creation of Andrew's.

Leaving and Working

Mom went home this morning, and Simon went home this afternoon, but not before Dad took us to show us his work and Simon got the chance to expertly bomb a few photos:

the sights

I headed in to downtown Portland twice today, once to visit Powell's City of Wonder (pdf):

Then we went home so Cousin Claire could tell me how badly I needed to watch Black Swan, and dad could show his sister his new presents:

Then it was back to East Portland with Andrew to try to find PDX's live music scene at the Doug Fir:

The headliners, Guantanamo Baywatch, played a single, shockingly unpolished set of a kind of crazed surf music so fun that I danced the whole time I was in line for drinks.

Overwhelmed

Sometimes downtown PDX is so exciting that you want to run around waving your arms going "weeeeeeoooeeeeeeooeeeeee!!!", and sometimes downtown PDX is so exciting that you want to curdle up in the end of one of Powell's Books' book alleys and rock back and forth and cry.

Winning at Christmas

Christmas may be about family, but Christmas day is about presents. That box has a hand-made robo-patterned snuggie in it, and hell yes.

It's also possible to win at Christmas. For instance, Joanna won at Christmas by making me the perfect snuggie. Baby Interrobang won by getting this home-made quilt from Lisa:

Auntie D won 'most clever' for her gift of a subtle hint for Dad:

Matthew and his family won for coming from the future:

Dad won by asking for memories for Christmas, we all won for giving them, and Toshia won for putting them together for us.

And we all won for food.

Christmas feels like a whirlwind this year. We didn't even get the tree trimmed until Christmas Eve.

Team Mommy

Portland is also home to some once-removed and second cousins, which means Christmas parties with people I haven't seen since they were 6, but who will still hug you when you see them. Which is, frankly, outstanding.

Here's Mom, showing her cousin-in-law (or, cousin-out-law?) how we had lots of hair or no hair or something as babies, and Dad grinning with his sister, putting the lie to the whole sibling rivalry we hear so much about. Below, my second cousin and her Dad listen to Joanna explain something about babies. It's a baby-themed holiday, which is also outstanding.

... because we're getting a new one. Here's Toshia helping Interrobang model her first ever Christmas gift, a "team mommy" onesie.

Christmas Shopping!

Christmas is at Dad's place this year, because it can hold all of us:

Also, because it's in Portland, which is full of outstanding:

And they have beer in the grocery store. A beer aisler. With a Micro Brew section.

Back to Canada

The trip was brief, but good. On the way back, I took pictures of a silly thing about America:
And some beautiful things about Canada:

The 'burbs

We were in Portland to visit my dad, who gave me some much-needed moral support. It turns out my parents will be my parents even if I don't get a PhD, and that Dad was told more than once that he didn't have what it takes.

Anyway, Dad seems to have what it takes after all. He doesn't live in downtown Portland. He lives here:
This is the view from his basement balcony to his main-floor balcony:
Here's his local bar:
and here's everything Jewish:

How dare you, Portland

Andrew, Erin, Brendan and I went down to Portland, where he showed us the bridges:
...and several of the audacious things that Portland has to offer. Here's the Philip K Dick SECTION of the local book store:
Here's the theatre where we saw Dan Savage's very special film festival
Here's the warehouse district where the giant brew-pub beerhall was:
Here are their beers. Their strong, hoppy, brewed-in-house beers.