The Otherside

Last month we had a date and I could have just kicked myself for not bringing the camera. If my photos were ever good I would go back and recreate the scenes. I found a sitter and Moose took me to The Otherside (of Portland but it might as well be the planet) to go mattress shopping, to lunch and Yarnia.

We went first to Cotton Cloud Futons to check out their natural Latex mattresses. Of course I liked the very soft one and Moose liked the firmer one. We flopped ourselves back and forth between the 2 beds for quite a while and then found an innerspring mattress with a memory foam topper that we could agree on.

As we were walking to the next destination we passed a wig store. A whole store with wigs. I could imagine the fun of Moose and I modeling wigs and taking pictures.

Then we arrived at Sleep Country USA (Why buy a mattress anywhere else?) As I walked in there was a life-sized-ish cut out of their new spokes lady and while I like her I really miss the old girl. Then Moose and I flopped about on 3 Temperpedic mattresses and 2 Nature's Rest Latex mattresses. We decided that while the Temperpedics were very interesting we liked the really expensive Nature's Rest best. Moose loves Temperpedic pillows.

Then we left and headed to Yarnia. Yarnia was fun but not all I expected it to be. In the end I realized I am a boring, solid color type of girl and twisting my own fiber was not as great as I thought it should be. Moose had a blast though, he kept bringing me fibers to test out, I wish I had my camera for that.
Ultimately I DECLINED to purchase ANY yarn at all. I guess I am just a boring old Cascade 220 gal.

Then we set out to find a "Portlandy" restaurant. We went to the most "Portlandy" street of all, Hawthorne. We selected a restaurant because the girl busing the table had dreads and a bandanna on her head and decided it was Portlandy enough then parked along one of the side streets of cute craftsman houses completely lined with parked cars. There was a front yard with a buddist shrine and sand garden as well a stone wall with door hardware embedded in it.

Our waiter was a young guy with enough tattoos for 50 sailors and multi-colored, multi-length hair. His finger tatts spelled "G-O-O-D" The patrons were of all sorts and I resisted the urge to maul the woman sitting next to us with her Obama Biden '08 shirt on.

We had fun examining the people on the street and wondering how one part of a city can be so different from the other.

There are a LOT of pet stores on the trendy streets of Portland, but very few children. Telling?

In Which We See That I Should Not Be a Dog Owner

It has been a while since I told you about my fantail goldfish named Sashimi. That night Moose came home and we decided that Sashimi looked lonely in the bowl so we loaded up into the car and went back to PetSmart and bought a plant and a friend. Boba Fett picked him out, his name is Little Fishy. He is even tinier than Sashimi and is very cute.

As you can see it is good that I don't have a dog. If I think my fish is cute what would I think about my DOG? What kind of horrible dog lady would I be?

But, I digress. Sashimi is on the left and Little Fishy is on the right.

The misfortune of the non-Irish

I am not Irish and I am not a fan of celebrating St. Patrick's day. I am not Catholic so the whole clover and the Holy Trinity thing doesn't inspire me and I don't drink so St. Patrick's Day doesn't really do anything for me. Really it is an excuse for bawdy behavior, pinching people, coloring a certain body of water and drinking.

But what I really dislike is the imposition it is on my wardrobe choices. I like green, it is currently my favorite color. I don't like wearing it on a certain day for a holiday I don't observe. So, there I am in my closet deciding whether or not to wear green.

I will be seeing many people today so if I wear a green sweater I am like a billboard saying "I celebrate cheesy holidays, come over to my house and see my stuffed animal collection dressed like leprechauns." If I don't wear green I risk being pinched all day long by my children and there is the possibility of annoying conversations with others.
"Where is your green?"
"I don't do St. Patrick's Day."
"Why?"
You see? Awkward.

But there I was in my closet and my green turtleneck looked so warm. Ultimately I chose to go with grey socks that have olive colored toes to foil the children if they start feeling pinchy. I feel like I spent way too much time thinking about green this morning.

Then when I dressed Nutmeg I made sure her tights had some green in them to protect her from pinching as well.

Thanks to the Irish for annoying me today. May they all have really bad hangovers tomorrow.

The Lovely Mrs Moss

This is The Lovely Mrs Moss. She is married to my brother Mr. Moss, and today is her birthday!
The Lovely Mrs Moss stayed married to my brother even though he forgot to bring his passport on their honeymoon and they missed their flight.
The lovely Mrs. Moss wasn't born into a family with any sisters but she sure married into one.
We love her just like a sister except we don't fight with her, she is too nice.
The Lovely Mrs Moss likes dogs.
The Lovely Mrs Moss like to go fishing and camping and such with Mr Moss and her Dad. The Lovely Mrs Moss is a true Montana girl.

The Lovely Mrs Moss is musical. She plays the violin and piano and composes music. For Christmas she composed a song for a string quartet as a gift to me.

The Lovely Mrs Moss has many friend but she and her mom are totally BFF.
The Lovely Mrs Moss is lovely as you can see. Look at that beautiful dark hair and pretty eyes.

The Lovely Mrs Moss says that she is not crafty, we don't believe it for a minute and we are teaching her how to be a crafter.
Mr Moss bought her a vintage sewing machine for Christmas and we are teaching her how to sew. It is a little difficult to arrange sewing lessons when she is in Arizona and the rest of us are not. If you are in the Mesa area and would like to help The Lovely Mrs Moss learn to sew please contact Samurai Mom.

The Lovely Mrs Moss loves Audrey Hepburn and nobody can fault her for that, it also proves that she has good taste.
The Lovely Mrs Moss took a trip to Italy with the Honors Society in High School. She got to go because she was so smart. The Lovely Mrs Moss is a patriot just like me.

The Lovely Mrs. Moss works very hard on Mr Moss' business endeavors.
Nutmeg loves The Lovely Mrs Moss. This picture is before she was her favorite.

I have been informed that The Lovely Mrs Moss wants to have SIX BOYS. I find this very ill advised and I hope that she has not cursed herself. I am telling her now, five boys and a girl is acceptable, but you need to have the girl first because I need nieces and I need them soon!
We Love You. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Puppy Fever

I think that the puppy fever has passed. I don't know what it was but for about 5 days I had a serious case of puppy fever.
I know what brought it on. When my dad walked in the door last week he said something about a dog and breeds that don't shed and how it is so good for the kids and before I knew it my firmly held position of no furry pets in the house had gone right out the window in an obsession to find the perfect puppy. For the kids yes, but since I am a clever mom I KNOW that any and all pet duties would fall to me so I had better love that puppy. So I decided I would get a puppy that I liked for me and claim naming rights and take it on solitary walks in the green space.
On the second night of the puppy fever I couldn't sleep and got up and read about dogs on the Internet until my computer turned itself off (at 2 am it goes to bed.) I very quickly settled on a Scottish Terrier because they are so very me don't you think? They like to be the boss and the center of attention, they are friendly and loyal but suspicious of strangers. And they are so very stylish, classic but unusual only a Scottie would go with my fabulous 50's skirts. I also liked that they are small enough not to be in the way but big enough that they aren't ridiculous.

Then I found THIS ad
Irresistible, non? And then I was hooked I was going to get a Scottie under the Christmas Tree on Christmas day and name him Banquo or MacDuff or some other fabulous name from the Scottish play and we would be pals.

After a few days I started realizing that dogs are expensive. Especially Scotties. Apparently Scottish Terrier Puppies are $500 to $700 and even "adopting" a grown Scottie will set you back $450. (Remember the good old days when you could get a dog for free?) Then add all the shots, and vet bills, and doggie beds, and leashes,and toys, and food, and dog dishes. And Scotties are seriously high maintenance what with the haircuts every 7 weeks. Apparently there is A way to groom Scotties and if you deviate you will be arrested by the doggie police and I KNOW there is a large unit here in Portland. So that is I don't even know how much money - every 7 weeks. Or you could learn to do it your self and buy all this dog grooming gear and have one more person in the house to complain when it is hair cut night. Plus a stylish Scottie would certainly need a tartan coat.

And did you know that there are Scottie play dates and Halloween parties!?!?! Apparently doggie playdates are fairly common, I don't get it, setting up playdate for kids is weird enough for me.

So nearly $1000 in the first year and high maintenance of the dog's coat and the picking up of... well you know what combined with the ultimate realization of the mere possibility of fleas. And that's it, I was done, no puppy.

Now, in hindsight, I am glad. I think it was a big step for me, I am not a dog person. When I come to your house and your dog sniffs me, or licks me or jumps on me, I am not even mildly amused. I am trying not to let you see the repulsion. So just the 5 day puppy obsession must mean...something. Right? I am progressing.

But Scottie fever has yielded positive things.
I now know that Scotties are the most stylish dog, period.
Trader Joe's has Scottie shaped licorice candy in the stores right now.
The picture at the top of my post is SO cool.
And last night surrounded by yards of soft black terry cloth I made this
Everyone LOVES him. Moose said the words cute and adorable of his own volition.

Tomorrow I will make more and have them for sale in my Etsy shop.

I Can't Take the Pressure!

I love that I have blog fans. But I can't handle the pressure. I have been very busy the last few days cleaning for Thanksgiving festivities and entertaining my folks, I haven't had time to blog, but my fans are so disappointed that I am not blogging, I have been ordered to sit and blog but I can't do it on demand people. See Samurai Mom stressing about blogging on demand.

I think my family makes me a little silly I am actually contemplating getting a dog, a cut little Scottie I think. My dad informs me that they don't shed. I have always said "No animals in the house." I am not an animal person but the boys deserve a dog.
Comments?

With a Rebel Yell

With a rebel yell...we ditched work and 102 degree temperatures and went to the beach. We tried Indian Beach at Ecola state park on the recommendation of a friend. We also figured because of the fact that you had to pay to get to the beach that it might not be as crowded as other beaches.
We saw more surfers today that Moose and I did on our trip to Hawaii. There were an abundance of dogs at the beach many of whom had poor beach manners and negligent people. If you are going to have dogs instead of children please teach them to behave as well as children.There were amazing rocks on the beach and I spent a lot of time practicing my rock stacking/balancing skills.
Boba Fett and I took a walk to the rocks at the south end of the beach, were you could see the size of the waves which were impressive.

Moose buried the children. Commander C made a castle

And Nutmeg posed for the camera for precisely zero seconds but she did throw rocks, sand and sass everywhere.
We certainly beat the heat, while the weather at the beach was fine, by the time we left Dooger's for our customary post beach meal it was 60 degrees and we needed our sweatshirts.