What can you do in 24 hours?

Happy Sunday to all,

Well I thought I was not going to get a chance to see Janet in Portland but amazingly I go to her place yesterday, here is a sequence of events and if you see an asterisk it means scroll to bottom for more details:

10:10am arrived at her place dropped my stuff and we chatted a bit

10:45am departed her place for lunch and movie matinee

10:59am found AMAZING parking spot in northwest Portland

11:05am sitting at Blue Moon Tavern enjoying lunch*

12:25pm Cinema 21 for Sing-A-Long "Mary Poppin's"*

4:05pm at her place relaxing for a bit and laughing a lot

5:07pm arrived Tad's Chicken 'N Dumplings for dinner*

7:30pm watch two episodes of Project Runway

10:15pm fell asleep watching TV

7:00am watch CBS Sunday Morning w/ Charles Osgood

9:20am Janet took me to breakfast at Black Bear Diner*

10:30am on the road home

So let's begin with Blue Moon Tavern in that I had the best chowder there all day. Now you might go "What is Chris saying? All day?" Well, I had chowder twice and this was the best. Went in thinking I am going to have either the Captain Neon Burger (blue cheese dressing & bacon) or the Beer Battered Fish & Chips (Alaskan Cod with fries and claw) and well, in the end neither. I opted for something I had never seen before. I took on Maria's Masterpiece which is a hot turkey sandwich with Swiss cheese, bacon, grilled onions and their secret sauce. Me thinks that is a peppercorn ranch dressing, but could be wrong. I decided to make it mine by requesting a side of cranberry sauce and adding that. The fries were a tad overdone and well, a couple of glasses of ice tea completed the meal. Janet enjoyed a BBQ Chicken Sandwich but at her request I am not going into all the details on her side.

After making our way to the theater we got in line for Sing-A-Long Mary Poppin's and it was a very festive feeling to be sure. Like Janet said "you are coming to see a happy movie and you know it" which is a quite true review. Once inside we were greeted by Mary Poppin's herself and handed a lovely little blue bag containing things to make the movie more fun as you can see.

Mary came down to the front of the movie house spit-spot and showed us a bit about the songs and then went over the items:

*The Fan - is to be used to blow away all the applicants for the nanny position so that it opens the way for Mary Poppin's to arrive.

*The Umbrella - is to be used when Mary Poppin's arrives and leaves. I also used it in the chalk drawing.

*The Champagne Popper - had multiple options. Any time Admiral Boom set off an explosion (3 times) to announce the time or when he set of the fireworks during the Chim, Chim, Cher-rey sequence.

*The Coin - represents Tuppence (equal two pennies) and was what Michal was to use to buy crumbs for the birds, but his father wanted him to open an account. Quite significant item to the movie overall.

*Kazoo - used when the penguins enter the chalk drawing scene with Mary and Burt.

*Pink Piece of Paper has on one side Supercalifragilistic (another group of bags had the rest of the word) and on the reverse side had Um Diddle Lee Um Diddle Ay so you could be more participatory through the movie!

There was then a costume contest and it dragged on way too long, especially when Mother's began to see that if kids went up to be "Jane and Michael" from the movie they got a candy bar. So at first there were 4...then 8...then 15. It got to be very sad and Mary put a stop to it Spit-Spot! And the movie began. It was a delight to see again and while I am a pretty bad singer, oh well, it was a lot of fun. Heck, where else can you lean forward and ask the lady in the next row if she would trade her purple fan for your blue one since well, I love purple. Long movie at over two hours and a lot of the little kids began to get tired and a few cries began, but overall, not bad. But whoever thought to do Kazoo's at a matinee with kids...I want to meet that person!

We decided to make our way out towards Troutdale in eastern Portland on the early side and went to Tad's Chicken 'N Dumplings Restaurant which is right on the Sandy River and a delight. They have three seating areas and once you are seated they bring water and a vegetable tray to start. I decided to enjoy a Thomas Kemper Cream Soda with dinner and then had the chowder. It was a bit runny for my taste and salty, but you knew it was home-made. I decided to splurge and have an appetizer of sauteed chicken livers and they were a delight. So moist and tender. Our dinners arrived and if paired up it would have been a classic of Surf 'N Turf, but instead we each too a half as Janet went with a lovely steak and I opted for Batter Dipped and Fried Prawns. While I had initially asked for a potato I decided to change it to coleslaw and in the end got the potato, it was the only mistake of the evening and not one to complain about at all. We both opted not to have dessert there as Janet had a treat waiting back at the apt. for us.

As we enjoyed the two episodes of Project Runway and some British Comedies Janet sliced up strawberries and served them with some lemon yogurt. Just delicious. It was the perfect night cap to a lovely day. And oh what a good sleep it was. Janet was up and out the door for church early and I had a chance to read the paper. Upon her return we decided to head to the Black Bear Diner in Beaverton. Mom and Janet found the Black Bear Diner a few years back on their way to Eagle Crest. Known for their cobblers, they have grown now into a chain of 42 diners and boy do they serve a great meal. We have gone for all three meals and rarely is there a bad time and I have never seen a glass go empty. Today I decided to go a little different and tried their Tri-Tip Scramble w/ hash browns and a biscuit. Coffee of course and well, I am not going to order again. Not bad, not my thinking for breakfast, but it was good and the biscuit was moist and with jam on it, well, I was in heaven. Janet shared some of her pancake so I could taste the hint of vanilla in them which really added flavor. After a quick gas up in Oregon (where you do not pump your own gas, only one of two states left that do not allow you to pump your own) I dropped Janet off and headed back to Seattle. Some traffic glitches here and there, but nothing that could not be worked around and a quick nap and well, here you are. Hope the week ahead is a good one and if you have not filed your taxes yet, get to it, they are due Thursday!