I love the mandolin

Hello everyone!

I had a very nice weekend though I wish I had today off as it looks as if we'll have a sunny day. We're going on a freakish number of days of rain and I'm feeling starved for the sun. STARVED!

Friday night I read my book for a long time. It's written by Gretel Ehrlich and is called "This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland". I recently read another of her books after Betsy had recommended her to me years ago. I'm a sucker for a good book recommendation (hint...). I watched Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which is a hilarious movie. Later I met up with Dave & Wampler at Thatcher's just a few blocks from my house. Wampler had come down from Trout Lake to play some shows with Dave. We talked and laughed and drank some beers. Elaine showed up a bit later after finally getting done with her work for the night. Her job is kicking her ass as of late so it was great to see her out. Later that night I went to Mulligan's on Hawthorne to meet up with Mark and some of his friends. I met his friend Jen who was in town from New York for her first visit ever to Portland. We stayed until they turned on the lights and kicked us out. I had a great time hanging out with Mark and his friends were quite amusing. It was very nice to meet them. My friends are harassing me pretty seriously about meeting him so I'll introduce him to them in the very near future.

Saturday I went to the coffee shop near my house and finished my book. Ohhh Greenland! For me it's no longer some indescript slab of stone and ice on the top of the world. I really enjoyed that book. I stopped by Elaine's house afterwards. She had 4 computers running in her office, three of them with work processes running on them including a linux box. huh? She's part robot. I waded around on Flickr for awhile and baked some banana muffins. My oven is terrible and is more like a crematorium than a place to cook food...way too hot. I stopped at the grocery store and I bought a small pot of tiny daffodils. They smell like spring and sunshine and make me immensely happy. I then went home to nap as I was way short on sleep from the night before. I drove to Elaine's house and we drove over to E-San, a Thai restaurant in NW Portland. It was Dave, Wampler, Elaine, Camille and me so we ordered family style and got to try lots of different dishes. The food was delicious and we savored it with much pleasure. I love spicy Thai food!

After dinner we drove to the Dublin Pub which has a Portland address but give me a break it was way the hell out in Beaverton. With the exception of downtown and the area around Lewis & Clark College most of SW Portland is a total mystery to me. The fabulous grid pattern that orders the streets on the eastside is not the westside standard. It's a twisty road to being lost. I followed Elaine and she took the scenic route. If I didn't trust her implicitly I would have sworn she was taking me to the middle of nowhere to kill me or was playing some sort of ridiculous trick on me. After 30 spirals up and down hills and curves to oblivion and back we arrived at the Dublin Pub. They have an insane number of beers on tap and a fireplace. Dave was playing with Wampler on accordion, Erik on banjo and Steve on mandolin. They played for a few hours and it was really fun. A whole bunch of friends were there and we shouted requests and sang along and had a great time. The next band that played was not our scene (summer breeze...makes me feel fine! *stifles laughter*). The whole mob decided to go to another bar in Multnomah Village but I took leave and went to meet Mark and Jen at his house in NW. It was very nice to just lay on the sofa and watch a movie.

Sunday I woke up and had coffee with Mark and Jen. I showered and then went to the museum to volunteer. It was crazy busy. I worked for a while handing out the audio guides to the big exhibit they currently have up. I then took in the audio guides at the end of the exhibit then back up to handing them out. On my break I walked through an exhibit of mezzotint prints which was really interesting. I got tired of giving my little spiel about the audio guides: how to use them, where the exhibit begins...repeat ad naseum. My shift flew by and I was happy to leave as I was tired and hungry.

I went home for just a few minutes before meeting up with Elaine, Dave and Wampler. We had tickets to a 'house concert', my first ever. I've been to a zillion house shows where a loud band plays in someone's musty basement or garage but this was quite different. You bring your own wine and for $20 we got an hour and a half of music and dinner. Our friend Lincoln played mandolin and guitar and another musician, Juliet, played guitar. They traded off playing and singing songs. It was a lovely, intimate concert. We sat in the front row so I could take pictures but I was trying to be as least obnoxious as possible with my camera: no flash, taking shots at louder moments. The music was beautiful. The last song was a spiritual and everyone stood and sang along. I got goose bumps and grinned. Dinner was sublime and led to that wonderful "food high" feeling of a truly excellent meal. The salad had the best dressing of rose petal, sherry, honey vinaigrette and the black bean soup was to die for. I had a small coconut cream tart for dessert. We went home feeling nourished and satisfied in so many ways. I got my pictures off of my camera and then went home to read and call it a night.

So that was my weekend. I'm going to be very late with next week's posting because I leave Sunday morning for a financial aid conference on the coast and won't be back until Tuesday afternoon. Please let me know how you are and what you're up to!

xoxo,
carolyn