violetismycolor

visitors from abroad...

August is here and we have some terrible (cold and wet) weather and some lovely visitors.

Katharina, who was our German foreign exchange student seven years ago and who visits us for a month every year, is here for her month. She arrived last Sunday and we immediately whisked her off, jet-lag and all, to a birthday dinner for Zerek. 

Zerek turned 40 and he had all-day celebrations, starting with breakfast at Rosswood. We sat outside and the waitress took some really lovely photos. Breakfast was great and it was a lovely warm morning with the Willamette river rolling by. Lots of folks had their dogs with them. We talked about what was in store for Zerek for the rest of the day, which was meeting at various places with various friends to enjoy celebrating his big day.       

When Katharina showed up, we headed to the NW 21st and met up with Bonnie and Zerek again, this time at North 45 where we again sat outside. It was a bit hot by that time but we had a lovely dinner and then got Katharina home to (finally) go to bed. There's been a bit of jet-lag for her all week.

Today, we pick Lisa up from the airport. She is English and there's a long story about how she is connected to the family, but let's just say she's family. She was here in March and we told her to come back and visit again when the weather was better...but is it better? Not really. August has been either too hot or too cold and rainy. Weird, climate change-y weather. She is coming for 2 weeks and we have a lot planned for her.

This will be an interesting month with Bonnie's birthday and a visit to John's brother in the Okanagan. Can't wait!

gotta love her...

This is a friend of mine, Anna Campbell, and she is awesome. She did this piece as a self-promotion, and I think it is so funny.

happy birthday party...

We had a fun 50th for my friend, Heidi, on Sunday evening...girls only.  Heidi's the one on the right.  We told her she was joining the 50+ Club and we were welcoming her in.

That yummy cake you see:  from our local bakery/hangout Baker & Spice.  Chocolate cake with raspberry filling and raspberry buttercream icing...yum yum.

Veronica and Francia...

Veronica is leaving at the end of the week.  But she had her friend Francia here for the past 5 days.  Francia is also a Chilean teacher here on a Fullbright Scholarship, but she is teaching in Vista, California (near San Diego) and has been living in Oceanside.  She comes from Patagonia, the coldest, Southern part of Chile...so San Diego has been VERY different for her. 

They were in my favorite coffee shop, Baker and Spice, having coffee this morning before Francia had to get out to the airport.  Don't they look happy?

perfect party day...

Our good friends, Tige and Peggy, had a wonderful party today at their gorgeous farmhouse in Cornelius. 

First of all, we arrived and heard, "Diane and John, what are you doing here?"  It was my lovely niece, Maria, who was apparently working for the caterer.  Her sister, Eileen, was also working there.  That was so much fun, having them there.  I spent a fair amount of time just visiting with them.

The weather was absolutely perfect, around 75 degrees.  The party was set up outside, with tents, and seats, and a live band...great food and drink.  There were activities for kids:  face paints, cookies with icing available for decorating, bunnies...

Also, it was a great way to spend Father's Day...

wedding delight...

Our lovely friend, Anna Campbell, got married at Timberline Lodge over the weekend.  She had the most wonderful ceremony and reception, marred only by an overly-controlling photographer (who literally pushed the bride and groom back 5 feet when they were walking up the aisle after the ceremony...apparently, she didn't have time to 'make' her shot and she wanted them to start again.  Oh yeah, and when they were cutting the cake, she stopped them, saying, "You'll cut the cake when I say you cut the cake."  Imagine...).

She is an aspiring actress and her new husband is a film editor and they were so very cute together. It was truly a blending of their two families, too...Anna's, American and Jewish, and Christoph's, German and Catholic.  Despite the differences between them, they are more alike than different...both being very loving and accepting and generous.  What a blessing for all of them.

The setting on Mt Hood was incredible, too.  Am including pictures, here left... Remember to click on them to get a larger image.

tragedy rears its ugly head...

This weekend, there was a terrible tragedy for a couple in our neighborhood, in our circle of friends.  They lost their 11-year-old son in an accident while he was on a Boy Scout outing.  And his father was there at the time.  The boys were playing on some logs and this boy either fell off the log or the log turned and caused him to fall, not sure which...and got a fatal head injury.

How does one come to grips with this sort of tragedy?  There is no way to comfort these people, besides with a thoughtful note and with your presence but that is so little.  I look at my life and I am so thankful that now, in this moment, I have my kids and my husband and we are all safe and together. 

old friend, good friend...

I had lunch with an old friend today.  We met at our 'orientation' on our first day at our first-jobs-out-of-college at Intel.  We liked each other so much that we decided to become room-mates that day!  Talk about impulsive...

Anyway, she was (and is) fabulous, so it was not a huge mistake.  We actually got married exactly a week apart, too.  She was widowed about 6 years ago and had to struggle with that, and having 2 young kids, too.  She remarried last year.

Anyway, we talked about life and how it changes and how you have to figure it all out again, every time it does.  We talked about life philosophies and she didn't laugh at my New Age-y-ness, like my own parents and siblings do. She may have different ideas than mine but we love and respect each other and our differences and our same-nesses (is that even a word?). 

Later in the afternoon, I went to an Open House for AcryMed (where my husband works) and saw all sorts of wonderful people who gave me hugs and smiles and all that good stuff.  It was a day of affirmations of friendship. 

So, all in all, another wonderful day on Planet Earth.  Keep bringing 'em, I like it...

events...

Wednesday night I went with several members of my book group to hear Azar Nafisi speak.  She wrote Reading Lolita in Tehran. 

First off, I should say that I loved this book.  Her book group (who we follow in her book) read and discussed Lolita, The Great Gatsby, Daisy Miller, and Pride and Prejudice. I enjoyed her dissection of these novels, some of which I have read and some that I have not.  I wish that I could take an English Lit class from her, because she certainly brought out aspects of these books that I would never have seen. 

In her book, Dr. Nafisi also brought to vivid life the way things must have changed so dramatically for the people of Iran in 1979 with the fall of the Shah.  The way life disintegrated for women, who had the highest standard of education and freedom in any Muslim country, was so swift and so tragic.  She expounded on these themes in her lecture.  She spoke with passion about the dangers of totalitarian political regimes and fundamentalist religions. Her sentences tumbled out of her mouth in a fury, seemingly almost bounding over each other without much of a pause.  She was smart and emotional and illuminating.  Just wonderful.  I am so glad that I went.

On Thursday night, John and I went to the 11th Portland Roast Festival, which is a fundraiser for the Portland Public Schools Foundation.  They have 3 members of the media on one side and 3 politicians on the others (known as the Hacks versus the Flacks).  In the audience, every member of the City Council was there, probably every member of the Multnomah County Commission, candidates for governor, a real who's who.  It's a wonderful cause but also premium entertainment.  These folks have great writers and most of them are pretty decent at delivering a line (and they SHOULD be in their lines of work), some better than others.  Good event.

Also, our friend, Clyde Prestowitz, came into town last night.  He spoke today as a guest of the World Affairs Council at Portland State.  His latest book is Three Billion New Capitalists, about India, China, and the former Soviet Union entering the global economy and what that means for us.  Though this sounds like it could be boring, Clyde is a fabulous speaker.  He takes facts and statistics and incorporates them into his talk by using stories and anecdotes that we all can relate to...you don't even realize how much you're learning since you're so entertained. 

We are having my MIL and  John's boss and his wife here for dinner, so they can enjoy more time with Clyde.  I'm making salmon pasta and strawberries on angel food cake for dinner.  Well, there's salad and rolls, too, of course.  Not JUST pasta and dessert. It should be a very fun and interesting night.   

Stephanie...

Yesterday, I met up with Stephanie of CreatureBug.  We drove on down to one of my favorite parts of Portland, the Pearl District.  We wandered around a bit.  We lingered a long while in a French Interiors shop that had some of the most gorgeous fabrics.  We wanted to take home most of them, but settled for being totally inspired.

Then, we wandered over to Oblations Papers, which had so many fantastic and original cards and papers that we were again overwhelmed.  We both brought home some little treasures that were just not to be resisted.

We had lunch at Manzana...light lunches=salad + sharing a creme brulee.  Yum, yum.  We talked and talked, of course.  Steph and I always have plenty to say when we get together.  She is one of the very nicest people I have ever met...a very loving and devoted mother and teacher. 

And the weather even held up for us.  Weren't we lucky?

meeting friends...

The weekend was a wonderful one, made even better by the addition of good friends.  Today, I met Margaret for brunch.  She was in town for her daughter's gymnastics meet and we had so much fun talking, though we did not have nearly enough time together.  We talked about 'lite' subjects like politics, religion, and teenage daughters.  Good thing we are both reasonable people (meaning we share a lot of each other's views).  She was, as always, lovely to spend time with.

Yesterday, John and I attended a Democratic Party of Oregon brunch with special guest Al Franken.  We were strategically sitting at one of the tables closest to both the food and the microphone, so we were lucky enough to be be one of the first to speak with Al Franken, and to be directed to start loading our plates with all the wonderful food, provided by Mother's restaurant. 

John had invited our friend, Shahriar Ahmed, and his son, Shehab.  Shehab is a sophomore at UCLA and an aspiring comic, and he was given more than 10 minutes of great free advice from Al Franken, himself.  Of course, having a conversation with Shahriar and Shehab is always great fun and very interesting.  I asked his views on the whole Muslim/Danish cartoon thing, and he was as reasoned and reasonable as I would have expected.  Basically, freedom of expression and the press are our rights, but our rights come with the responsibility not to try to harm or insult others.  And the reaction on the other side was an over-reaction.  That is what I was thinking, too. 

John and Ross went skiing today, taking advantage of a gorgeous, sunny, warmer day.  After my brunch with Margaret, I went to visit my lovely MIL, who has been really ill for the last 2 weeks.  She has turned the corner on this problem, though, and is finally recovering her health.  I have been very worried about her and probably smothering her with too many visits and lots of fussing, but that's what mothering is all about.  Me mothering her, that is.

All in all, a wonderful, carefree weekend...just love those, don't you?

Marilyn...

I got to meet Marilyn of California Fever yesterday.  She was in town with Jeffrey; he was doing an MLK event here.  She called me about mid-day and I immediately dropped my office-organizing project to run down to the Pearl District to have coffee with her. 

We had a lovely time, sitting in the Little Wing Cafe (an old hangout of mine...my yarn store, Spindleshanks, used to be right next door) and chatting like old friends. 

As you can imagine if you read her blog, Marilyn is incredibly open and honest, gentle and compassionate, funny and smart...  What a pleasure to get to spend face-to-face time with her. 

Marilyn took this photo and we like it's wonky weirdness of angle.  I, of course, took my trusty Photoshop to it.  Marilyn looked perfectly cute, sure. But since I ran out of the house without so much as taking a comb to my hair, I decided to hide my defects behind a layer of perfect pixels.  It is what I DO, after all...

the good, the bad, and the ugly...

Wow.

This weekend was a high-to-low rollercoaster.  Dotted with meals involving turkey:  turkey sandwiches, turkey pot pie, turkey and mashed potatoes.

On Saturday morning, John and I went to a memorial service/brunch for our across-the-street neighbor of about 18 years.  He had been suffering from Alzheimer's for the past couple of years, living in an Alzheimer's Care Community.  It was truly a celebration of his life, and so was an uplifting experience for the most part. 

His daughter, Kitty, had recently recovered from a fight with Pancreatic Cancer (probably the deadliest cancer out there).  She was celebrating the fact that she had gone from a 5% chance of surviving for 5 years to an 85% chance of surviving 5 years.  She's a miracle!   We were happy to see all of the family, who live out of state.

NEXT...reading the newspaper, we read about a one-year-old boy who had drowned on Wednesday.  We immediately realized that it was the grandson of friends of ours.  How horrible!  Next Sunday is their annual Christmas Carol Party and we were planning on going.  Now, we're not sure that they will even have one.  The baby's funeral is on Saturday. 

Saturday night, we went out for Indian food (delicious!) and to see the movie, RENT.  Okay, so why was this movie a hit on Broadway for years and years?  It is about a bunch of friends that either:  have AIDS, are heroin addicts, refuse to get real jobs, totally diss anyone who actually is responsible and has a job, hate their parents (for no apparent reason) and on and on.  How do I identify with any of them? 

Sunday was somewhat better.  The kids were doing well when we made our Sunday morning phone calls.  My Mother-in-Law was in good spirits and was able to have good movement of her knee, when we went to visit her.   I finished reading Memoirs of a Geisha and restarted reading the newest Harry Potter.  John and Ross got the Christmas lights up and the house looks cheery and nice.

And now, I am headed into the kitchen to finish up the turkey soup...

blogger buddy...

I had such a great time yesterday with Stephanie from Creaturebug.  We met for coffee first, then headed over to my house.  She brought along her beautiful daughter, Sydney.  We spent so much time just talking.  Steph is the sweetest, nicest person you could hope to meet. I felt like I had known her for years.   Sydney was absolutely perfectly well-behaved, amusing herself and not fussing at all.  And she has the most gorgeous blue eyes.  My online friends are very dear to me.  Maybe I'll meet more of you, someday...

Steph also tagged me with this prompt:

"Name five foods, dishes or otherwise, that were a part of your childhood, and that you sometimes miss when nostalgia gets to you..."

Mmmmm...I'll try....

1. boterkoek:  Dutch buttercookie.  My parents are Dutch and my mom cooked all sorts of yummy Dutch goodies.  Boterkoek is simply a mixture of almost equal parts butter, flour, and sugar, with a pinch of salt.  Simple, delicious, fattening. 
2. mocha cake:  We had a Dutch bakery truck that came to our house from the Artesia Bakery.  The driver would open up the back doors and the scents of fabulous Dutch treats poured out.  One of the things they would deliver were cakes that my mom would order for our 'Sunday treat'.  After church every Sunday morning, my mom would serve tea and cake.  All the Artesia Bakery's cakes were delicious but my favorite was the Mocha Cake.  I guess that's where I get my addiction to coffee with sugar and cream.
3. brussels sprouts:  Weird as this sounds, my mom made all sorts of vegetables including cabbage, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts.  The Dutch love to put nutmeg on vegetables and that's how my mom would serve them, with butter and nutmeg.  I just loved them.  My husband hates them and so do both of my boys.  At least Bonnie will eat them with me.  But I almost never make them because of all the crabby comments that come from John.  I do miss them, though.
4. meatball soup:  My mom made delicious soup with noodles, vegetables, and little meatballs (with nutmeg seasoning, of course).  We would season it with Maggi (which you can still buy in local grocery stores).  I make this, myself, and it always reminds me of home.
5. gravy:  We had meat and potatoes almost every night.  Not surprising, given we lived on a dairy farm and we had lockers full of meat from our cows.  My mom always made fabulous gravy that I slathered all over my potatoes.  I almost never make gravy.  We don't have beef often and I try to stay away from potatoes (too fattening).  But it was sure good!

Done.  Not too exciting but true.  I wonder what my kids would say, if asked the same thing.  Maybe I'll ask...