I Want To Believe - July 25, 2008

Horton Heard A What???

Spontaneous Friday Fun Took Place
When Ben and Me Came Face-To-Face
With Sydney, Ethan, and Trey (plus Two)
At the Mission Theatre to See Horton Hears a Who

Food and drink, elephant and kangaroo
We all had fun watching the animated zoo
Cheering on critters as they stole the scenes
Then philosophizing on what it all means.

It made me smile to hang with friends,
To laugh out loud, to wonder how it all ends
And watch the delight of kids, young and old
Appreciate a simple story magically told.

Memorial Day & The Montage

All that anticipation for a three day weekend - how quickly it went by. Memorial Day itself ended up being a casual work day for me. Caught up on some miscellaneous to-dos for clients and around the house, hit the gym then decided to go out for dinner.

We ended up at the Montage - a great restaurant I hadn't been to in a while and where my hubby had never been. I love when we go somewhere new for at least one of us.

I had jambalaya, Ben had chicken fried steak and it was 1/2 price bottles of wine night (woo hoo) so we shared a bottle of 2004 Italian Flaio Primitivo Salento. Yum yum. We ate so well, we didn't have anything left over to take home in a well-crafted giraffe or whale. Oh well, the atmosphere was just what we needed and our server (Megan) was great. The place always reminds me how much I appreciate Portland.

Oregon Winery Raptor Ridge Shines

I was excited to see as I read through the Oregonian's Spring Guide to Oregon Wineries yesterday that Raptor Ridge was highlighted as producing one of the paper's top 20 picks for summer wines. I had the priviledge of meeting and working with Raptor Ridge winemaker and Intel business planner, Scott Shull, when I worked at VTM and enjoyed picking his brain about some of Oregon's wine-growing nuances.

Raptor Ridge Winery is located on the northeast side of the Chehalem Mountains about 10 miles north of Newberg, Oregon (Go Bruins!). They grow much of their own grapes on the 27-acre property but also utilize grapes grown by other vineyards in the northern Willamette Valley.

The wine the Oregonian highlighted was their 2007 Pinot Gris, describing it as a "crisp, bracing, elegant wine that will refresh on the most torrid and torpid summer day." The winery develops its pinot gris in the Alsacian style. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to taste this wine yet but, obviously, plan to do so in the coming weeks.

Favorite News of The Day

What Cookie Monster Dreams About

"Police say a trailer loaded with 14 tons of double-stuffed Oreos has overturned, spilling the cookies still in their plastic sleeves into the median and roadway."

Full AP Story

"Mahoney says no charges have been filed but both lanes of traffic remain closed while authorities remove the cookies."

What I Heard at 24Hour Fitness Today

I forgot my iPod today in my mad-dash to get to the gym before the day got crazy. This afforded me the opportunity to listen to the tunes being streamed over the 24Hour Fitness airwaves.

When I used to go workout late at night - anywhere from 10pm and 1am - the 24hour fitnesser running the show at that time would treat us to whatever the top 40 club mixes were at that moment. I caught a lot of Fergie, Usher, Maroon5, Gwen, that sort of thing. The 9am crowd must be a very different demographic cuz here's a sample of what I caught this morning.

Queen of Hearts (Juice Newton) followed by...
Karmachameleon (Culture Club) then...
She's A Beauty (Tubes) directly into...
Money for Nothing (Dire Straits)

Strangely, none of these really got me more amped to work out. Of course, I suppose Fergie didn't either.

Did I Know I Had This Blog?

Stumbled across this blog site oblivious to any memory that I ever once set it up. The creation date says May 2007. Well, that's exactly 1 year ago which is exactly around the time that I quit my corporate gig to freelance as a writer and set a new direction for my working life. So, I'm thinking I created this page in hopes of having a venue to write. But why did I create it, abandon it without a single post, and then delete it from my mind?

I haven't the faintest idea.

So, until the memory of setting this up comes back to me, let me just say:

Ta Daaaaaa!!!

Welcome to my blog. I hope you find it amusing. I will probably write mostly about my life in Portland, OR, life with my husband and now business partner, Ben, and my obsession with food.