Geez, how did that happen? Last time I checked we were just settling in Portland and now it's nearly Thanksgiving. I have failed to do several things so far in November, like submit my resume to that temp agency and get the car inspected for emissions. However, I am in the process of being hired as a part-timer at an environmental firm to do some research/writing. Their goal is to have me working by November, so any day now things should be starting up. Seriously, I'm not a total slacker. 
This weekend was pretty mellow. The weather has been cold lately and neither Jesse or I have had much motivation to leave the house for long periods of time. We did go out to the grocery store to stock up on veggies for the week and experimented with tofu on Friday night to make some kick-ass fajitas. Oh, and we picked up Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates at the library, which I have been dying to sink my teeth into. I'm having a bit of trouble deciding whether to savor each chapter over the course of a week or two, or just go wild and finish it in a day. 
Also on the agenda this weekend was a new sewing project (as if I needed another distraction). Like the holiday cards, it will have to remain a secret project (I'm not sure if the recipient checks in on my blog from time to time). One thing I can say is that it involves curved piecing, which was tedious and difficult to conquer at first. As you can see, my first session necessitated a wee glass of bourbon. However, I sailed through several more this weekend and am quite happy with my progress. Curved piecing is still not my favorite thing to do, but I feel good that I managed to overcome a long-time fear. I think it will make for quite a few more interesting quilts. 
Today, I'm off to the fabric store to find some sort of patch to try and mend Jesse's jacket. I mentioned Wednesday that in his excitement to get home from the bar following the elections, Jesse managed to rip a hole in his new (but not terribly expensive) coat with his thumb. He didn't rip a seam, which would have been easy to remedy, but a nice 4-inch tear in the fabric. You'd think he was skipping around with a box cutter from the size and location of the tear. I was prepared to give up on the darn thing, but he insists he still wants to wear it. Hopefully I'll find something that isn't too noticeable -- like a puppy dog patch with rainbows and hearts.
Jesse had a job interview in Seattle, WA on Wednesday, so we decided to drive up together since neither of us had ever been. The interview was weird (and rescheduled to meet almost 2 hours early), which left us both sort of scratching our heads when it was all over. Anyway, since we weren't supposed to have very much time in the city after the interview, I didn't bother researching cool things to see -- my mistake.Jesse finished up around 1:30pm and we didn't really have any plans until dinner time when we were meeting up with his good friend, Allicia. We decided to drive around a bit to see if we would stumble on anything fun. We found Pike Place Market and walked listlessly around ogling the giant fish and great-smelling food. We also drove by the space needle, but decided not to get out and walk around. That morning I dressed for Portland weather (rainy and chilly), but Seattle was at least 10 degrees colder and I was freezing. After stopping for coffee and a snack, we regrouped and decided to drive down closer to Allicia's house, which is near Tacoma, WA. 
Then, as we were driving out of the city we saw the new Seattle Public Library. Jesse parked the car on a crazy hill and we took a quick walk-through (or rather a jaw-dropping roam). The library was designed by Rem Koolhaas and opened in 2004. It is probably one of the more stunning public spaces that I have seen in a while. Even on the rather grey day, people were bustling around and lounging in the many areas for reading, surfing the internet, and just relaxing. 
Every level is a new experience -- varied flooring, colors and textures -- that is punctuated by the steel and glass skin. Each corner provided a new vista of the city. The vast interior space was definitely designed to feel comfortable on the human scale with nooks and reading areas tucked away in the stacks and along corridors invisible from the ground floor, but it was also meant to be appreciated from multiple viewpoints and levels. 
I'm not sure if the neon yellow escalators with the weirdo eyeball art installation will withstand the test of time, but travelling from one horizontal space to another was quite exciting. I somehow managed to not take a photograph, but the freestanding escalators took on a sculptural form that was quite nice. The glowing yellow encasement also provided a view of the inner workings, which was kind of cool too. 
Even though I tired easily of the yellow transportation tubes, I have to say that the use of color and supergraphics (both inside and outside) provided a certain softness in what could have been a very mechanical and cold structure. In sum, awesome building. After touring the museum for almost an hour we decided to leave Seattle (for real) and head down to Tacoma. We arrived in Tacoma around 4pm, took a scenic drive to Point Defiance Park, and wished that we had come straight to Tacoma after the interview. I was sad that we didn't have time to take in the Museum of Glass, or the Washington State History Museum, or the Tacoma Art Museum. Dinner with Allicia was great and I'm so glad we stayed around so I could finally meet her. Needless to say, we'll be back to Washington, probably sooner than later, because there's so much to see and do!
I'm pretty beat, but decided to share a few photos from our evening at the Bridgeport Brewing Company. We went there to participate in the election fever, consume tasty beverages, and have some delicious food. Also, we don't have a TV, so we needed a big screen. And they had a GIANT screen blasting CNN starting at 4pm.
Shortly before leaving for the bar, I had a moral dilemma; my favorite track jacket is red, but I was definitely going for the blue last night. The closest thing I could find to "democrat" blue was my favorite scarf. So I sported it with a neutral white shirt. J donned his red, white, and blue snap shirt that he purchased in the "true America" (Houma, Lousiana). Quite fetching don't you think?
I brought my camera to the bar with the hope of capturing key moments in the race. I got this idea from our good friend, Larson, who loves to take photos of the television screen. We spent most of the night at the bar texting friends and family while cheering on the CNN correspondents as they ushered in the great news. It was difficult to capture the full screen in such dim lighting, but the excitement was there. Trust me. We also relished the moment when the Tuesday night trivia guy packed up his bags and left after the entire bar decided not to play his game. Seriously, I love trivia, but not on such an important night!
Then, 8pm (PST) rolled around and we had enough beer for the night, so we settled our tab and headed back to the apartment to catch the concession/acceptance speeches -- which both turned out to be quite gracious. Jesse decided that we weren't walking fast enough and made me run half way home from the bar. Somehow he also managed to rip a giant hole in his jacket with his thumb. I guess that's a small price to pay for hope...even if the jacket was barely a month old.
In terms of weather, today isn't bad at all. It's beautiful and sunny with a cool breeze. But it's not the weather that has feeling fragile today (even though it poured rain yesterday for no less than 8 hours), it's the election. 
Yesterday, I tried to keep my mind busy with projects around the house. I played around with some fabric and rearranged the bathroom medicine cabinet. I also cut my hair. As you can see it's pretty darn short. Unfortunately, I'm sporting a terrific case of pillow hair -- I forgot to photograph it yesterday while it still looked combed. Also, I haven't seen that part of my neck in a while. Hello neck, welcome to winter. The highlight of my day, however, was dinner with our only friends in Portland, Brian and Anna. We went to this Thai restaurant not far from their house and had a pumpkin curry dish that was out of this world. Then, we went back to their place and sat by the fire with hot cups of tea and watched SNL's Presidential Bash. Which brings me back to the election. I voted last week, but since last Wednesday I have been on the edge of my seat waiting and waiting for today. And now it's here. This is my first time voting in Oregon (and on the West Coast for that matter), so I get to experience the first polls closing over happy hour. Brilliant! Jesse and I are going to head to a local brewery and hang out for a few hours as the East Coast scrambles to count their votes. We'll probably hang out until about 7pm and then head home and stream the election results on our computer. 
We printed out a map of the United States and plan on devising a point system so we can hedge bets on which states will turn blue or red. I'm not sure what the prize will be, but it will make things a little more exciting this evening at the bar. I pulled out the crayons and will color code our decisions this afternoon. Since we both read the same literature, our guesses will probably be pretty similar. To offset this fact, I think we'll have a coin toss and alternate picks. I don't really care who wins our betting game, it's merely another distraction from the bigger voting "game" this evening. ** UPDATE** 3PM PST
We compiled our predictions and have agreed on the rules. Our bets will revolve around three categories: Toss-up States, "Leaning" McCain, and "Leaning" Obama. Any of the "safe" states will not be considered, except for the Wild Card Bonus State (see photo for the detailed rules). For us, the "leaning Obama" category is effectively a wash because we predicted the same outcome across the board. However, the toss-up states could be interesting (and are clear indicators of Jesse's optimism vs. my skeptical nature). The status of the states' standings were based on a CNN Electoral Map Calculator.
This weekend was rather uneventful. We didn't make it out for Halloween this year, something that has not occurred since we both moved to D.C. It was a little sad not dressing up and going out with all of our friends, but we don't really have many friends in Portland yet. It was pretty cold and a little rainy, so I was very happy hanging out in our warm, dry apartment watching an old movie. 
We did start thinking about our holiday cards on Friday night and by Saturday afternoon we had finalized a design and started production. I'm not going to give away much, but these are some of the tools that we used. I convinced Jesse to come with me to the Paper Source to pick out colors and supplies. We did a test run yesterday and I am pretty excited about the results. Since we moved this year and never managed to send out new address cards, our holiday cards will have to suffice. For this reason, our list of people is surprisingly large. Starting to make holiday cards on November 3rd probably sounds a little crazy, but I think we might actually need the entire month to complete them all! I woke up this morning and was all set to get our car inspected for emissions again (Oregon will not accept our 2-month-old inspection from California). We need the inspection in order to register our car and get Oregon license plates. Oh and also, our car needs a "VIN Inspection" were we get to pay someone $21 to look at the VIN number on our car and write it down on a piece of paper. Anyway, I went online to find the nearest inspection station only to find that they aren't open on Mondays. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to work on other fun projects today.
This weekend was pretty mellow. The weather has been cold lately and neither Jesse or I have had much motivation to leave the house for long periods of time. We did go out to the grocery store to stock up on veggies for the week and experimented with tofu on Friday night to make some kick-ass fajitas. Oh, and we picked up Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates at the library, which I have been dying to sink my teeth into. I'm having a bit of trouble deciding whether to savor each chapter over the course of a week or two, or just go wild and finish it in a day. 
Also on the agenda this weekend was a new sewing project (as if I needed another distraction). Like the holiday cards, it will have to remain a secret project (I'm not sure if the recipient checks in on my blog from time to time). One thing I can say is that it involves curved piecing, which was tedious and difficult to conquer at first. As you can see, my first session necessitated a wee glass of bourbon. However, I sailed through several more this weekend and am quite happy with my progress. Curved piecing is still not my favorite thing to do, but I feel good that I managed to overcome a long-time fear. I think it will make for quite a few more interesting quilts. 
Today, I'm off to the fabric store to find some sort of patch to try and mend Jesse's jacket. I mentioned Wednesday that in his excitement to get home from the bar following the elections, Jesse managed to rip a hole in his new (but not terribly expensive) coat with his thumb. He didn't rip a seam, which would have been easy to remedy, but a nice 4-inch tear in the fabric. You'd think he was skipping around with a box cutter from the size and location of the tear. I was prepared to give up on the darn thing, but he insists he still wants to wear it. Hopefully I'll find something that isn't too noticeable -- like a puppy dog patch with rainbows and hearts.
