4.12.99

    ~ Sunday morning. ~

    On the stereo: Nine Inch Nails: Pretty Hate Machine. It's amazing what you find when you move... and what you lose. We can't seem to find the peanut butter or the coffee filters. I've been using circular filters in my cone-filter coffee pot. I finally got a replacement pot from Braun. It took six weeks. By now, I'm weened off coffee but I'll be damned if I don't have a good and hard addiction in three weeks time. Just you watch.

    Last night, I met up with some friends at the Silver Dollar Pizza Parlor on NW 21st and Everett. I've been there before and it's a pretty good pizza joint/sports bar. We had pitchers of good beer and pizza heaped with toppings. One of the things I couldn't get over was the lack of good pizza joints in L.A. It seemed that all the places we went to had limp crust and tons of grease. Yicky.

    Afterwards, we went to a McMenamin's pub (they're everywhere) which is actually a large bar underneath the Crystal Ballroom. It's called Ringler's and there's two of then. Down the street about half a block away is Ringler's Annex, a little cigar-bar in one of the "flatiron" buildings of Portland. Flatiron referring to their shape as they are the very narrowest of multi-story triangles. These are buildings built on the merging of two streets. I don't know how many there are in Portland but on this street, Burnside which dissects North and South Portland, there are several.

    The bar was okay but I didn't much care for the crowd. I asked why we were going to this specific bar out of all the bars in Portland and I was told that it's sort of a hang-out for the University of Oregon/Oregon State crowd. Blech. I don't much care for that crowd one bit. When I was in college I avoided the bars where that crowd went because I found them obnoxious. I just don't find it interesting or fun to run into the bitchy Chi Omega who was rush queen of Panhellenic. That's the thing, too, when you talk about the University crowds what you're really talking about is Greeks. Granted, I was Greek for three of my four years at college but I got really bored with that group in general. I love the friends that I made there but the rest of them I have a really hard time getting interested in knowing. Does that make me a bad person? Does that make me as bad as the people I'm avoiding?

    T. has a lacrosse game today. He used to do lacrosse in high school and then a little bit in college. I've just been really inwardly enjoying how giddy he is at the prospect of playing again. We just bought him a really expensive lacrosse helmut and elbow pads. I couldn't give him crap about the expense because I think as long as he doesn't get injured he'll keep up with this for awhile. I hope the rest of the team are cool people. That'll go a long way to making this move a lot of fun. He needs to develop his own group of people separate from my friends.

    ~ Monday morning. ~

    Yesterday was beautiful. Bright blue sky with nary a cloud in sight. Driving into Portland with Byrne we were able to clearly see Mount St. Helens and the magnificent Mount Hood looming in the near distance. A constant cool breeze kept the heat of the day down and we couldn't have done a better thing than sit in the grass and watch a lacross game. We brought a picnic lunch and a big blanket and just kicked back. We both got slight sunburns.

    T. played very well although he seemed surprised at how much energy it took him to get up and down the field. He's been concentrating on weight training more these days. Perhaps it's time to get those running shoes out again. In his first time on the field he scored a goal. It was a really nice shot, too. That's my boy! He went out on the field a couple more times but I somehow managed to miss his big slam. He's hurting a lot today because of this hit he took. It's probably a good thing that I missed it.

    Afterwards, he went out drinking with his new teammates and Byrne and I went to meet the girls for a late lunch and bachelorette planning session. Yet another in our group is getting married. Thankfully, her wedding is actually going to be in L.A. so we're hoping to go back early and visit with our friends. We're also wanting to get a dog.

    One of the places where I walked dogs was the Beverly Hills Small Animal Hospital. We had two or three rescued dogs that were boarded there by a woman who finds these dogs and if she doesn't have room to board them at her house will pay to board them there. I walked Kira, a German Shepard/Husky mix, George, a very skittish German Shepard, and Roxy, an American Staffordshire Bull Terrier. I am in love with Roxy. I want her to be my dog. I want to go down to L.A. and pick her up and bring her home. She is tan and white and has the look of a pit bull. I'm pretty sure that some would call her a pit bull but the lady who is boarding her has her listed as a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. That dog is actually smaller than what I would call a pit bull. There a fairly good picture of what Roxy looks like on the AKC site, the only difference is the coat coloring and her ears are a little bigger.

    The biggest obstacle in adopting her is her caregiver's somewhat rigid set of rules for who can and cannot adopt her rescue dogs. Apparently, she won't adopt to people with children or people in apartments. It's a bit ridiculous because Roxy and Kira had been at the BHSAH for over a year. She finally adopted Kira out to a family and it seems the kids love her. She's a high-energy dog and needs a high-energy playmate who can throw a ball again and again and again. Anyway, I'm going to call and let her know I'm interested. If Roxy still hasn't been adopted by June, when we'll be in town, perhaps she'll let us take her away. She's just got the waggingest tail I've ever seen.

    In the evening, we went to the Rose Garden for a basketball game. Portland Trailblazers vs. the Los Angeles Clippers. The Trailblazers lost by something like eight points. It was a pretty pathetic loss as the Clippers are notoriously bad. Some of our fellow fans in the rows around us were incredibly obnoxious. That's the one thing I dislike about sports -- why must everyone yell so much? I don't mind the "Go team!" and the "Defense!" and the "C'mon, Ref, a blind person could've seen that!" but I really dislike the ones who scream out epithets and curse and grab at their crotches while flipping the bird at an opposing-team fan three sections away. Is that necessary?

    And, why is beer five dollars?!