is it really the end of September???

Hello everyone!

I'm having problems adjusting to the arrival of fall. I can't believe how quickly the month of September has slipped by. Today is the first day of the term here so the life at the college is nutty again. I did have a wonderful weekend though. Friday night Gina and I went to Tabla, a restaurant on 28th & Burnside. Our friend Paul is a cook there. We sat at the bar in the last available seats in the whole place. We shared the price fixed option of a salad, a small pasta dish and a small entree. The food was phenomenal! Have you ever had a giant ravioli with a poached egg in the middle of it topped with poppy seed butter? Our entree was duck with mashed potatoes and an orange slice that had been cooked in port. Heavenly! Paul came by to chat with us & see how our meal was. He then prepared our desserts for us: a fruit cobbler with vanilla gelato and the most heavenly mound of chocolate surrounded by incredible Oregon strawberry sauce. It was called a Chocolate Bombe and Gina & I both fell in love with it. We finished our drinks and left in a wonderful food high from our incredible meal!

We went to Gina's house & called our cab driver friend who picked us up and drove us to a friend's party. The party was a birthday celebration for Matt, who Gina has known for years & years since he went to high school with Elaine. There were white Christmas lights strung up and a fire going in the back of a converted garage where the DJ was set up. We had a great time at the party talking with friends and listening to music. The DJ did start to go a little nuts with the 80's music but we had a blast. Some fire dancers put on a show for the birthday boy. It was quite a spectacle. One of them even repeatedly ate the fire! How do they do that?? It was tons of fun and we stayed until after 2 AM when our cabbie friend arrived to take us home. We were relieved to be in a cab as a cop was parked out front due to a noise complaint and he was watching dumb people get into their cars and drive away...so he could promptly pull them over I'm sure!

Saturday morning I drove to Chris' house and we went out to breakfast together at Marco's in Multnomah Village. It was so beautiful out that we drove to nearby Gabriel Park where we walked around and clapped for little kids' soccer games. We then drove back to Chris' house where we hung out with his sister Kate and their two dogs. Chris recently adopted a second boxer from the Humane Society. The two dogs get along wonderfully and play until they're exhausted.

Later that evening I went over to Gina's where we ate ravioli for dinner (not nearly as good as the poached egg perfection ravioli at Tabla) and we watched The Ring 2. I had heard it was terrible but I wanted to see it just because it was filmed in Astoria. I feel asleep so I didn't even get to watch all of the bad movie.

The next morning Jess met me at my house and we drove up to Mt Hood for a hike. We navigated our way down a few forest service roads before finding our trailhead that would lead us to Burnt Lake. The lake was named after a 19th century forest fire that burned old growth cedars. Some of the burnt snags and stumps are still around and are HUGE! The hike was beautiful and the weather was perfect. We arrived at the lake with Mt Hood looming at the end and reflected in the water. We saw fish and the biggest crawfish I've ever seen and tons of dragonflies flitting about the surface of the water. We sat on some logs on the lakeshore and ate our lunch. We explored around the lakeshore and hiked the little loop trail that goes all around it. We hiked back down and marveled at how few people we saw and how perfect the weather was. It really was a beautiful hike. We were tired when we got back to the car...it was a total of 7.3 miles. Good stuff! Later that night I met up with Elaine, Gina & Dave at Thanh Thao for some dinner. We then went back to hang out at their house. I baked some cookies for Gina's birthday (this Wednesday!) and Gina & I watched a horrifying documentary about Katrina and the government response. Unbelievable stuff!

So that was my weekend! I could use another one already after the ugly incident I had this morning with an angry student who hadn't completed all his paperwork yet. Sigh....school's back in!

Please let me know how you are and what you've been up to!

xoxox,
carolyn