If you have not heard yet, I was let go from my job a little over a week ago. It was the last day before I was scheduled to go on vacation, and just a few days before my birthday. Not the best timing ever, but I suppose not the worse, either. Despite my not-so-great news, I have tried to enjoy this time (while making work contacts as well).
For my birthday, I went out and bought just a few new clothes. Not many, since I have no idea what I will be doing yet, but I miss having my style, which kind of disappeared while working at my last job. When you work with chemicals and contaminates, you tend not to want to wear nice things. Not at work, anyway. At least that's me.
I saw "The Lion King in 3D" (A longtime favorite Disney movie of mine). It kind of helped get my mind off things. For my birthday, that was something I just needed to do.
I made one of my favorite dinners, Fondue. I prepared a small steak, some red potatoes (good for not falling apart), mushrooms, and some Walla-Walla sweet onions (a nice choice for oil fondue, as I discovered!). Along with that, I made a red sauce (a sauce with ketchup and several other goodies), and a white sauce (with sour cream, dill and whatnot) for dipping the cooked items in. It turned out delicious!
For dessert, I made Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownies, topped with Ben & Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk Ice Cream, and some Hershey's Syrup. Exquisitely rich in taste! My dad would say, "Too much chocolate." I would say back, "Never."
I had originally planned for part of my vacation to go to Portland. It has been years since I have seen a certain family member, and even longer seeing the Portland Saturday Market, which is a nice place to see hand-made crafts, browse through artwork and taste great food.
We rode the train into the City Center. It was kind of difficult to figure out. Luckily, I was with someone who knew a little more about what she was doing. I would have gone the opposite direction.
The market was only about a couple of blocks away from where we boarded off. It used to be right under the bridge, but now it is right along the water, by a park. It seems much bigger than it used to be.
One of my favorite art pieces at this week's Market was Schroedinger's Cat, by Sienna Morris, which is done in a technique the artist describes as "Numberism," using only the numbers 1-12 to create her piece. From a distance, the numbers cannot be seen. Up close, it is pretty cool.
Photography by Jenni was another booth I was impressed with, had some very eye-catching architecture photo shots, mostly in black in white, and others, with just one more significant color added. Some of the smaller prints had a good "2 for" sale, but I decided to save my money. I really like the "Portland Sign 1" photo, "Pike Place Market-Horizontal" photo, the "Golden Gate Bridge," and "Girl with Red Umbrella."
Because of my love of cooking, an Olive Oil Cruet, by Peter Neff, stood out. He had many different designs, in beautiful, and vibrant colors; I believe a red one stood out for me. Go figure. He has many other pretty things as well - like hummingbird feeders, and hanging ornaments.
After browsing the whole market, we decided to eat lunch. There were so many good-smelling foods there, it was hard to decide, but we heard that the Kielbasa place (Taste of Poland) was good. The menu was pretty confusing, but eventually we ordered what we thought was a Kielbasa sandwich. It ended up not being a sandwich, but it was so delicious, we had no complaints! On our plate, we had Kielbasa, Pierogies, some potato dish, and tomato and cucumber salad. More than enough! Very tasty. I am kind of craving it now.
