I don't have much to blog about today. I had planned to go to the Portland Japanese Garden and Pittock Mansion, but the weather did not co-operate. So I went shopping instead. I don't have much room in my luggage for new stuff, so I have to limit my purchases to stuff I really love. I found a couple of things, but I've been disappointed in the shoe department. I hate shoe shopping, so I guess it's not too surprising that I didn't find anything. I did find a couple of shirts.
I want to try not to eat at places I could find in Calgary, so I tried Chipotle Mexican Grill for lunch. It's a little like Calgary's Costa Vida, but what I had wasn't quite as yummy. Still a good lunch, though. We decided to eat in for supper so that we could watch the Canucks game. We walked down the street from our hotel and picked up burgers, fries and shakes from Burgerville. The burger was good, but the rosemary fries and fresh strawberry shake were amazing! I may have to have them for lunch again tomorrow.
The forecast is more rain for tomorrow, so I will likely stay in and work for most of the morning.
Friday, April 24, 2015
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Portland Conference Trip - day 1
Hi, all! Yes, all 3 of you who read this blog! I'm in Portland, OR. Arvid is here for an engineering conference, and I am here to sleep. And shop. And perhaps get a manicure. Reading about this trip may be very boring to some of you, so I will not be offended if you stop right now. Otherwise, read on, my crazy friends.
We left the kids with family this morning, and hopped a flight to Seattle. Let me just add this about international flights: unless it's going to be a busy day at the airport, you really don't need to be there 3 hours early! We had checked in online last night, so we had almost nothing to do before customs. And you're not allowed to go through customs more than 2 hours before your flight. So we sat in a tiny hallway waiting for about 45 minutes. After customs (which had no lineup) we sat by the gate for another hour and half before boarding. 3 hours not required today.
Our flight to Seattle went smoothly, but our connecting flight to Portland was delayed on the tarmac for an hour or so for a mechanical issue.
I love flying, though the older I get, the more uncomfortable the seats get. The pictures below were some of the highlights of the flying part of the day. We saw Mount Rainier, and Mount Saint Helens from above. It's crazy to think that Mount Saint Helens is a volcano that has erupted in my lifetime!
The other highlight of the day was the restaurant we found for dinner. The place was called 'Prime Rib + Chocolate Cake'. We walked by it trying to find a particular seafood place (that seems to have disappeared), and were instantly drawn in by the title. The food was good, and amazingly quick (*5 minutes after ordering it was on our table* quick). Arvid had good Ginger Ale. My plan is for this to be the only 'Look at my food! ' picture, but I make no promises.
That's it for today. I haven't decided what I'll do tomorrow. I'm enjoying the unplannedness of this trip.
We left the kids with family this morning, and hopped a flight to Seattle. Let me just add this about international flights: unless it's going to be a busy day at the airport, you really don't need to be there 3 hours early! We had checked in online last night, so we had almost nothing to do before customs. And you're not allowed to go through customs more than 2 hours before your flight. So we sat in a tiny hallway waiting for about 45 minutes. After customs (which had no lineup) we sat by the gate for another hour and half before boarding. 3 hours not required today.
Our flight to Seattle went smoothly, but our connecting flight to Portland was delayed on the tarmac for an hour or so for a mechanical issue.
I love flying, though the older I get, the more uncomfortable the seats get. The pictures below were some of the highlights of the flying part of the day. We saw Mount Rainier, and Mount Saint Helens from above. It's crazy to think that Mount Saint Helens is a volcano that has erupted in my lifetime!
The other highlight of the day was the restaurant we found for dinner. The place was called 'Prime Rib + Chocolate Cake'. We walked by it trying to find a particular seafood place (that seems to have disappeared), and were instantly drawn in by the title. The food was good, and amazingly quick (*5 minutes after ordering it was on our table* quick). Arvid had good Ginger Ale. My plan is for this to be the only 'Look at my food! ' picture, but I make no promises.That's it for today. I haven't decided what I'll do tomorrow. I'm enjoying the unplannedness of this trip.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Happy girl and noisy boy
Around Christmas I splurged and bought myself some Silhouette materials - vinyl, cutting blade, mat, etc. I don't own a Silhouette, and I seriously considered getting one - the deals were that good. But my sister has one and doesn't mind sharing. So I just got the 'stuff'.
I've been doing little projects with it to get myself used to how it works. I've used these papers dolls to print and cut on magnet paper, both for Bryn and for my niece Rhi, and I've made a cute little box to put Rhi's dolls in.
Then a couple of weeks ago, I decided to do something bigger. I'd seen on Pinterest an idea for cutting your own handwriting with the Silhouette. Now, my handwriting is nothing to celebrate, but Bryn's 4-and-a-half-year-old letters are precious. So I had her write her own name and we cut it out with the machine. It's adorable, no?
She insisted that she wanted it on her door. I love the backwards N.
We did one for Henrik, too. I helped him write his name - he is only 2.8 years old.
I've been doing little projects with it to get myself used to how it works. I've used these papers dolls to print and cut on magnet paper, both for Bryn and for my niece Rhi, and I've made a cute little box to put Rhi's dolls in.
Then a couple of weeks ago, I decided to do something bigger. I'd seen on Pinterest an idea for cutting your own handwriting with the Silhouette. Now, my handwriting is nothing to celebrate, but Bryn's 4-and-a-half-year-old letters are precious. So I had her write her own name and we cut it out with the machine. It's adorable, no?
We did one for Henrik, too. I helped him write his name - he is only 2.8 years old.
I obviously don't know how to use my camera very well. These two pictures were taken on the same day in very similar light. Oh, well. I'm learning.
These two names were a practice run for the project I really wanted to do. I've seen a couple of cute (albeit totally ubiquitous) 'quotes' flying around pinterest and I wanted to use them for my little ones rooms.
Since we're moving I didn't want to just put them up on the walls - I want to be able to take them with us. So I found some paper faced foam board at Michaels and made them my 'posters'. They turned out pretty cute, if I say so myself! The kids love them and have sworn never to play with them.
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