I didn’t take a ton of photos on this trip – but here’s a few snaps for posterity.

A quick meal at the airport Gordon Biersch before our flight to Portland – He was so cute and cozy in his jammies! We arrived in Portland around 11 after an annoying delay at SFO, and when we got to Christopher’s house it was after midnight. We headed to bed to get some rest. Marco never sleeps in our room; from our first day home at the hospital he’s been in his own crib. Anyway, we were all sharing a guest room. Marco was in a pack’n'play, but he would wake up and see us as soon as dawn broke (the blinds weren’t so good at blocking early morning light). Ugh!

The first morning was spent having a delicious breakfast at Original Hotcake’s, which had excellent pancakes and french toast. Christopher and I fed quarters into the jukebox and picked a good mix of our favorites to serenade all of us while we ate.

Next up, a musical journey to Music Millenium! It was a beautiful day – sunny and not too chilly.

…aka the best record store I’ve ever been to!

Such a ham, he kept saying “Cheese!” so we’d take his picture!

The cool ceiling inside the record store

I bought a bunch of vinyls here, and was so impressed by how friendly and knowledgeable the staff was. No snobbery, just…I guess I’d call ‘em ‘music appreciators’, or something. Anyway, it was awesome.

Our next stop was Powell’s, or, as I like to call it, Mecca.

I grabbed a delicious cappuccino from the coffee shop inside the book store (I needed a MAP to get around this store! It was so flipping cool!), then walked around with a shopping basket, skipping, bouncing, and otherwise enjoying myself.

Marco was so excited…we spent 45 minutes in the children’s section, reading books (and replacing Marco’s discards, ha ha). Oh, and yes, he did wear his Curious George ‘Book Worm’ tee shirt! Most appropriate.

I was even a super Portland tourist and bought Colin Meloy’s book!

To close out our Portland day, we headed to Voodoo Donuts to enjoy a sugar rush.

OMG soo good!

Back at Christopher’s house, we enjoyed delicious homemade pesto and watched some old Steve Martin movies.

The next day, we got up early (thanks to Marco), and watched episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine. After a quick breakfast, we drove up to Multnomah Falls (in typical Oregon fashion, the weather was cold and rainy). Marco was impressed by the water.

I was impressed by the ginormous cookie purchased at the snack bar…

Well, Marco was interested in that too, lol

We drove all around the falls, and listened to The Decemberists (Christopher became a fan! I did right by you, Portland).

A quick stop to see the view at Vista House

To finish our day, we stopped at Blockbuster and picked up ‘Young Adult’ and ’50/50′ (review of those to come later). Christopher and Debbie made a hodgepodge of snacks for dinner, including homemade hummus and homemade vegetarian refried beans.

Our final morning, we tried to sleep in, but failed. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, but it was also nice to come home – and get sleep!

Keep Portland weird, people!

At the end of December, I read The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

I didn’t love this story. The main character, Madeleine, was self-absorbed, over-privileged and uninspiring. Eugenides, usually so brilliant in exposing a character’s layers over time, failed to peel back enough to make me care about her.

I can’t remember all of the thoughts I had on this novel, so I may have to come back to this one later.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

I’ve read a great deal of Margaret Atwood, and those of you that have read The Robber Bride or Cats Eye can understand my devotion to her stories. The female characters are written with a hundred facets, never fully understood but complete in their humanity. You can recognize something in them; even the most vile of characters contain something you’ve seen in the mirror.

I would not go into this novel expecting a solution to the core mystery (it is based on true events; a wealthy man and his housekeeper were murdered, possibly by the maid and her supposed lover, the stable boy). I am sure that Atwood has her own opinion of what happened, but she takes care not to share that with the reader. The story is told in flashback partially by the maid, Grace Marks (convicted of the murder), whilst she is in a psychiatric prison; the second narrator is a psychiatrist, Simon Jordan, who has become interested in the case and conducts exploratory interviews with Grace.

I don’t want to spoil the ending for anyone that wishes to read this; but I felt it was a little too pat. I wanted a definitive explanation for the events, and instead you are left to determine for yourself – which can work for some stories;  I didn’t think it worked here. Viewed alone as Grace’s version of the story, supplied by her own truths and fictions, it is an interesting character study. Leave it at that and you can enjoy it.

After these, I zipped through three or four Agatha Christie Poirot novels (for the 100th time, LOL).  Then, I was ready for a new read, so I started The Fairy Tales of Herman Hesse edited by Jack Zipes

 I’ve read Siddartha about 20 times; it is one of my favorite novels. This collection features 22 of his most fantastical concoctions, all told with the same simple yet romantic prose.  The translation wasn’t perfect – I am willing to bet that some of the magic was lost (yet another reason to learn German!). But, the stories are interesting and some are thought-provoking; ‘If the War Continues’ and ‘Strange News from another Planet’ are especially relevant for today’s political and social climate.

From fairy tales to a novel about storytellers seemed a natural enough transistion, so now I’m reading The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine . So far…very good.

I have three random things to post. I hope it’s okay?

First is this song that I’ve been listening to quite often the past week:

Gotye feat Kimbra ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’

Agenda item #2

I feel pretty in these pictures, so I wanted to share them with you.

When you need a good photo of yourself for Christmas cards and it’s too windy for the tripod, the only thing to do is set your camera to the correct f-stop, figure out the spot your husband needs to stand in (and the amount of squat to get the right angle), and tell him exactly when to click the shutter and hope that he doesn’t screw up the focus.  It works pretty well, as long as your hubby takes direction and won’t mess with the white balance.

Thanks, darling!

And the third item…

I recently purchased this book for Marco:

It’s a counting board book with characters and themes from Romeo & Juliet! LOVE.

And there, folks, is a random post for Thursday.

Books I’ve read recently:

The Little Stranger by Sara Waters – I thought it was a good story, and DUDE it gets super creepy for a chapter or two…but not her best work in my opinion. I think Fingersmith is still one of the best books I’ve ever read (possibly top 10). Anyway, the basic plot is centered around a doctor in a small village in England, post-World War II. He becomes acquainted with an old-money family living on a large estate – a family that is slowly spiraling into debt and obscurity. Strange things begin to happen – fires set in the night, strange noises, accidents… the mystery comes in figuring out who (or what) is causing these irregularities.

I liked the build up, and found myself clutching a pillow nervously at one point. Waters has clearly taken notes from Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw (a fantastic piece); unfortunately the climax of the story fails to reach its full potential. I don’t want to give anything away, but what could have turned into a truly scary piece of work becomes a little boring and flat.

Elizabeth I by Margaret George – Blah. I read almost anything Elizabethan, and I can’t NOT check out a book that purports to tell her story, fiction or nonfiction…but this was not very good. The language was inappropriate for the time period depicted, and the famous people surrounding the Queen (Robert Dudley! Francis Walsingham! Francis Drake!) were turned into one-dimensional placeholders. I’m always happy for new information or ideas about Queen Elizabeth, but I don’t recommend this one.

Book I plan to read this week:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel – I received this book from the Gomers for my birthday, and am finally ready for it. Yes, it’s another piece of British history – this time focusing on Henry VIII (yes, THAT guy). Anyone out there have thoughts on it?

 

It’s my birthday week! Official birthday is the 14th – but my week of celebrations has begun!

To start it off, let’s get into the literary tomes I’ve devoured as of late.

I finished The American (die-hard Henry James fans will enjoy, but for the uninitiated, start with The Turn of the Screw or The Wings of the Dove). The story ended alright, but became muddled with melodrama in the middle.

Next, I read Swamplandia! by Karen Russell. This is a wonderful story! Description taken from the back: “Thirteen-year-old Ava Bigtree has lived her entire life at Swamplandia!, her family’s island home and gator-wrestling theme park in the Florida Everglades. But when illness fells Ava’s mother, the park’s indomitable headliner, the family is plunged into chaos; her father withdraws, her sister falls in love with a spooky character known as the Dredgeman, and her brilliant big brother, Kiwi, defects to a rival park called The World of Darkness. As Ava sets out on a mission through the magical swamps to save them all, we are drawn into a lush and bravely imagined debut that takes us to the shimmering edge of reality.”

I really liked Ava, and enjoyed the time spent with her. Russell switches from 3rd person to 1st person often in weaving together Ava’s and Kiwi’s adventures, and this does take some adjusting; it isn’t seamless. The descriptions are just lavish enough without falling into the oubliette that is J.R.R. Tolkein (OHH MY GAWWWWWDDD), and made the 1000 islands of southern Florida seem as magical and scary as Wonderland. I was a little disappointed in the conclusion, but only because I felt it ended too abruptly.

I had been recommended David Nicholl’s One Day by a bookseller in Copperfield’s, and after reading Radiator Tunes’ review of it HERE, I figured it was worth a shot – she’s one of the few people (i’ve never met her) whose book recommendations I’ll take. It was actually very engrossing. I worried it would be predictable, boring, and, worse, threaten my street cred; instead, it was witty and sweet, and I can still show my face in the indie bookstores LOL Dude, I swear, I read it IRONICALLY!

I don’t know that I’l see the movie – mainly, because the radio ads for the movie quoted Anne Hathaway as saying that the story was ‘soulful’, which is one of those words that is so cheesy, it grates on my nerves (I re-read that last sentence, and realized that I AM SO PUN-NY!).

Now, I am reading The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. I knew the basic story of the book before reading it, as I’d seen the movie version starring Gillian Anderson (Scully!) with my mom years ago. Knowing the ending is giving the characters a sinister and/or tragic edge to their introductions, but Lily Bart is already ranking high on my list of favorite female protaganists. She’s beautiful and intelligent, but prone to bouts of rebelliousness that threaten to veer her off-course. Lily wants so desperately to be a part of the upper-class New York world, but recognizes it’s faults and hypocrisies to an extent that she sabotages her own attempts to climb the social ladder.

Not sure what I will be in the mood for next….

Finished The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt. It was good, but the last 50 pages were kind of superfluous. I like details, and I enjoy knowing what happens to characters I’ve come to like (or even hate); but even I can say that I don’t need to know what a character was eating for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I think I would recommend Possession first, if you’re interested in reading Byatt’s work.

After that, I read Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosay. I wanted to see the movie, but I figured I’d read the book first. Unfortunately, it was not as intriguing as I’d hoped. The story fell flat after only 100 pages, and the main character, Julia, failed to interest; she came off as petty and spineless. The author has no gift for story arcing. I think I still want to see the movie, because I like Kristen Scott Thomas (ever since “The English Patient”) and I love Aidan Quinn (pretty much since forever). So…we’ll see.

Right now, I’m reading The American by Henry James, and while I love the writing style, and bow down to James’ amazing grasp of character development, I don’t think this is his best work. It centers around Christopher Newman, a middle-aged American man with a lot of money and the arrogance to match. He has good intentions, but clearly feels himself to be deserving of the best and brightest the world has to offer. Whilst relaxing in Paris, he decides to look for a wife, and finds a ‘suitable’ match in Claire, a widowed 25 year old and a member of the French aristocracy. That’s as far as I’ve gotten, so I can’t explain much more than that. I’ll let you know what happens

Next up on my list is Swamplandia! by Karen Russell! I’ve been dying to read this!

Speaking of reading…I’m FINALLY ordering my new glasses. These beauties from Warby Parker:

Awesome, right?! I am very excited. This company seems pretty cool;  for every pair of glasses sold, they give one pair of glasses to a person in need (yep, like Toms). The glasses (including the prescription anti-glare lenses) are $95 each, and are designed in vintage styles. I was wary of buying glasses online, because you couldn’t see how they look on you- but, lo and behold, they have a solution to this problem! You can either upload a photo and do a virtual try-on OR you can have them send you up to 5 pairs to test out for free! They even pay for the return shipping!  It was so nice to actually see how they look and feel, before making my choice.  If you’re wondering, Warby Parker has not asked me to write a review, and I have received no compensation for such. I just like the glasses.

 I have a new prescription, so hopefully the headaches will cease, and I can read in full enjoyment.

After finishing Angels & Insects by A.S. Byatt, I read Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford (chilling), and re-read a few Agatha Christie novels.

Then I started a book that has been on many ‘best’ lists.

I’ve disliked certain novels. I’ve read novels that angered me, depressed me…but I’m pretty sure this is one experience that I had yet to encounter.

I made it 28 pages before I decided that Naked Lunch by William S Burroughs was awful enough to throw away… I don’t mean give back, pass along, I mean add it to the pile of banana peels and used tissues. It wasn’t the writing itself that was terrible – it was the content. It is meant to be a series of vignettes; the bits are tied together quite loosely by the character Lee, a drug addict – much of the novel itself was drug-induced, accounting for it’s lack of actual plot. I can’t explain myself very well without getting into details; suffice it to say that there were certain passages that made me feel so awful that I couldn’t continue.

I knew going into the book that it had been at one point on a list of obscene literature; I guess I kind of assumed it would be like a lot of other books on the lists (Ulysses??)

Anyway. It was enough that, though I am against censorship, I didn’t want to own it, or finish reading it myself.

So…I gave up and started reading The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt.

I enjoy her writing style; her words conjure up lovely, dark images of Victorian and Romantic era life. The tales are full of rich details, but the language is surprisingly much simpler than expected.

What are you reading?

Highlight of my Saturday: a book purchase!

Specifically, a full set of 1966 encyclopedias for $5 at an estate sale. I love them. Check out these beauties (iPhone pics, taken using the Hipstamatic app):

The ‘Library’ article. I love it! Notice my lovely silhouette bookends?? I love them.

Insects

Their new home

Sorry for the late recap, readers!  Here’s my weekend update.

Read on for deets on the debauchery that took place in my household…

SATURDAY

I was awoken by my adorable girl Roux massaging my neck (seriously, I have pictures):

Then, I was surprised by Marco and Tim, who brought me a Skinny Caramel Machiatto (only 140 calories, which makes me feel less piggy) in bed.

After a leisurely morning, the three of us headed out for a few errands. We stopped at World Market and ended up purchasing two awesome leather chairs for our living room…and a HAMMOCK. YES. You will probably never seem or hear from me again, because I shall be reading and sleeping in MY HAMMOCK. Pictures to come once it is set up.

I then hit up the matinee of “Midnight in Paris” at the Cameo.

I really liked this film. I like a good portion of Woody Allen’s work (“Match Point”, “Hannah and Her Sisters”, “Annie Hall”), but I was not sure if I’d enjoy this particular piece, seeing as how Owen Wilson was the star; I don’t really like the actor. My advice: don’t avoid this movie for that reason. It’s adorable and fun; given to flights of fancy, and requiring a suspension of reality – but lovely!

Did I mention the walk with Tim and Marco to pick up frozen yogurt?! Will my devilish behavior ever cease?

Thanks, Yo Belle, for the delicious Plain and Blueberry Tart flavors

Although I didn’t get as much of it as I expected… SOMEONE basely stole my spoon.

At home, I cuddled, tickled, chased, and kissed Marco until his bedtime. Tim and I finished the evening trying to stay awake through “The Runaways”. Don’t really recommend. It doesn’t tell you anything you didn’t already know about the band, and in my opinion, gives you no reason to even care. I love Joan Jett, but I didn’t see much spark in the way she was portrayed, and Kristen Stewart will never have the amount of cool.

SUNDAY

We watched Sesame Street with Marco, and cleaned up the house a bit. After a trip to the gardening section of Home Depot (my new favorite place), we stopped off for a tasty lunch at Gott’s with my two men.

Marco DEVOURED his grilled cheese on wheat (happy camper!)

Tim ordered up the Wisconsin Sourdough

I had a green salad with sliced avocado and artichoke vinaigrette.

Before you think I was eating super-healthy, feast your eyes on the mounds of sweet potato fries and garlic fries present. Yummy in my tummy.

Some gardening, pedicuring, and a nasty bump on the coffee table (poor Marco!) later, it was the end of our weekend. SAD FACE.

I told you it was crazy around here.

What did you do last weekend? Spill the beans!

Here's my June media post!
Books: I finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman, and read Bossypants by Tina Fey. I like Tina; I think she’s intelligent, witty, and adorable. But, I didn’t think her book was as hilarious as I was expecting. It was good, but some of the stories she shares were just plain boring.
Yesterday, Copperfield’s Books had a 30th birthday party, and everything in the store was 30% off! I purchased a present for my godfather, and a new book for Marco. For myself, I snagged the last copy of P.G. Wodehouse’s Just Enough Jeeves, which is a collection of two novels and several short stories all about Bertie Wooster and his wonderful gentleman’s gentleman, Jeeves! I love the BBC series ‘Jeeves & Wooster’ (Hugh Laurie & Stephen Fry, together again!), and am excited to finally read this!

Movies: I haven’t attended a movie since “Hanna”. Next weekend I’m going to see “Midnight in Paris” at the Cameo. Today, Tim is going to see “X-Men: First Class”. Marco and I will probably chill with some puzzles and crayons

Music: Same stuff I always listen to! I haven’t heard the new Death Cab for Cutie in its entirety yet, but I like the song “You are a Tourist”.

Television: ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ and ‘The Colbert Report’. Summer is *kind of* here, which means that besides fake-news shows, there’s precious little else on. ‘Castle’,'Psych’, and ‘House’ are off until fall. No word on ‘Burn Notice’, ‘Mad Men’ won’t return until next year (!), and Showtime has not announced an official date for ‘Dexter’ (though the list of guest appearances grows strong…)

If you’ve got a recommendation, do share!! Hope your Sunday is relaxing. Go forth, and eat some gummy bears.