Leland's Graduation

First, I have to tell you that I really, really, really goofed up with the picture-taking. I completely forgot to take any group photos of Leland and Lamont and Grandma! I did get some of Leland and Kailey--hooray! I mean, it was such a busy time, filled with distractions like meeting new people, watching people, wondering how in the world my wonderful, Type A younger son was able to graciously cope with the amount of time it all took. My allergies came into play, not as bad as they could have been--thank goodness. It sprinkled rain on us a few times. Mama had to walk a good bit, with her walker--she could rest when necessary thanks to the seat on the walker. We got to the campus out east in Troutdale, Oregon, at about 4:40 p.m. and thoroughly enjoyed meeting some of Leland's professors and fellow students at a party with pizza and cake. At 7 p.m., "Pomp and Circumstance" signaled the arrival of 478 Mt. Hood Community College graduates and 70 plus graduates of the Gresham, Oregon, campus of Eastern Oregon University. It was 10 p.m. before everyone's name had been called, much to the joy of their loved ones in the crowd.

Turned out Leland was the 476th Mt. Hood graduate to walk across the stage and get his diploma in Civil Engineering Technology. Here he is, shaking hands with Mt. Hood's President John J. “Ski” Sygielski.


Back at the beginning of our super evening, here's Leland in front of his term project, the plans for his Throwing Stones Bowling Alley.


The cake, just before being cut up into huge pieces--the biggest I can ever remember getting at a function like this--it was quite tasty, too.


The lively graduate.


The calm graduate.


Leland and Kailey


Dr. Ski instructed the students to stand up, turn around and applaud their families in thanks for their support. Leland had no idea where we were seated. At this point we were hidden by the crowd at the top of the bleachers, about 25-30 rows, I'm guessing. Left to right, Brett, Leland, Isaac, all in the engineering technology department.


Now a few candid shots that I managed to get after Kailey and I got to move down to the front row of the bleachers! I like these photos, having them sort of makes up for my forgetting to take the group shots, especially since I figured I wouldn't get any like them because of our original seats.










Back row, Michael, Valerie, Kate. Front row, Leland, Isaac--all buds in the engineering technology department.

In honor of education and the hard work that it takes to get a degree.

What could I put on June 12, 2009, I wondered, that would honor my younger son Leland who graduates this evening from Mt. Hood Community College? I decided upon one of my favorite Portland buildings, the Central Library. It's so handsome and so substantial, two attributes evident in Leland. He's got a two-year civil engineering technology and kept his grades up so that he's a Phi Theta Kappa graduate. His Grandma, his brother Lamont, his girlfriend Kailey and I will be at graduation, popping our buttons with pride!

Here are two views that I took on May 9, well before 8:30 a.m. and getting to my final destination, the Portland Farmers Market. I took this one along SW 11th, the street behind the library. I think I had the camera on manual and forgot to finish the focus, but I like the photos anyway.

This one shows the south side of the library, along SW Taylor.

Two roses on NW Everett, in a front yard

Our Sunday supper on June 7, 2009

OK, we've got pre-browned ground beef mixed with sauteed Vidalia sweet onion, a spaghetti spice packet from Fred Meyer and two cans of petite diced no-salt S&W tomatoes, plus angel hair pasta--Barilla. Just what is pre-browned ground beef? A couple of weeks ago I bought two packages of ground beef, about a pound and a quarter each. I decided to brown one and make burritos which we thoroughly enjoyed. I also decided to brown the other one, drain it well, and freeze it. Sunday I thawed it to mix with those other ingredients, smart gal that I am!

On top of the spaghetti I have a vegetable combination, all cooked in my usual rough-cut, sauteed in olive/canola oil method. The combination is Vidalia sweet onion, orange bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, baby bok choy, rainbow chard, Italian kale and curly kale.

Mama and I ate it, happily impressed with the tastes and textures. Thank goodness--we've got left-overs!

What's your opinion of these tulips from the Portland Farmers Market?

I got these tulips on May 9 and couldn't resist taking several photos of them. When I looked at the photos, seeing how perfectly the vendor's newspaper wrap had been folded around them to reveal the Opinion section heading, I felt, "Ah, serendipity!"

I took the first photo after setting my rolling black bag up onto a table.


I took this photo in the parking garage elevator.


I took this photo in the conference room at the PCPA--I went to an usher meeting after leaving the farmers' market--Sarah gave me a ride, that's why I was in an elevator in a parking garage.


I took this photo looking down at the tulips, on the MAX on my way home after the meeting, .

Memorial Day at the Guys'

Ribs--brownies are in the green tin in the background. I made them from a Duncan Hines box.


Brisket and smoker




Brisket from smoker to pan, with Lamont








Corn, ready for the Weber, and on then grilling on the Weber




My first plate of Memorial Day yummy food (rib, potato salad, slaw, Leland's fresh salsa with bought chips, and a deviled egg, made by me), enjoyed while the brisket rested and the corn grilled--I forgot to take a photo of that plate!


Our friend Leslie holds Kailey's Ginger (Kailey had eaten earlier and left for work) while Leslie and Chris' Brixx checks out tiny Ginger. Leland's got a tight hold on Brixx' leash--she's a strong gal!


Before everything got started, eating-wise, I got Leland to snap this photo of me, Duncan and Mama--I am beyond needing a perm, but I'm waiting because I want to get it done later on so that I can get another one right before heading to Mississippi and the NASCAR race at Talladega in late October, early November.

My Sunday, May 31, 2009, breakfast

Already in the skillet, rough-chopped sweet Vidalia onion and thin-sliced potato in an olive oil, canola oil mixture. I forgot to take a photo of them, but I remembered with this colorful chiffonade of rainbow chard beside the bowl with two eggs. At first it occurred to me to scramble the two eggs into the vegetable mix, but I changed my mind as things progressed.

Here you see the onions and potatoes with the chard.

I let it all cook for a short while underneath this lid ...

...then I added a tomato and replaced the lid.

Once the vegetables felt done when I pushed at them with the spatula, I put them into a bowl and set it at the back of the stove top which the oven had nice and warm. Then I scrambled the two eggs in the skillet and placed them on top of the mixture in the bowl.

I got my Smart Balance, sweet tea and pepper jellies ready.

The timer went off, so I got the biscuits out of the oven, canned Grands Homestyle Originals.

Here's the finished meal, waiting on me to dig in.

Mama still slept as I cooked and ate. She's not an early riser. Sometimes I fix food like this for brunch, and she enjoys it just as much as I do--some days I'm way hungry when I get up so I go to these somewhat experimental lengths. Most of the time, though, Mama likes her raisin toast about an hour after first drinking her Shaklee protein drink, made with milk and chocolate syrup in the blender, just as soon as she's dressed and made her way to the kitchen.

Quirky Cigarette Butt Can

OK, I first have to say that I do not like cigarettes at all. But I couldn't pass up this photo. I took it on May 5 waiting for the 17 bus at the corner of NW Glisan and NW 21st. I'm trying to walk a bit in the mornings, so I walk to different bus stops and catch the same bus I usually get, just earlier and farther from home.

Firefox couldn't find the Web site. I Googled Force Fed Led and got hits that make me think it must be the name of a Portland band.

Seen from the Buick on May 9, 2009 ... click!

I'm driving the Buick--I think I was on East Burnside near SE 22nd. Out of the corner of my eye as I slow down for a traffic signal, I notice something. Is that a stuffed giraffe riding in the passenger seat, I wonder. I grab the camera, point it over my shoulder, and click. The lady still grinned as I took the camera down and gave her the thumbs up.

Do you see another critter in the car?

A mid-afternoon line at Voodoo Doughnuts

Voodoo Doughnuts is on SW 3rd. It's in the middle of the block where I managed to correctly complete the back-in-angled parking with the Buick. The dark arched doorway on the left of the photo is the entrance. I doubt that the waiting/ordering area is any larger in square footage than two side-by-side Buicks, thus the line from the doorway to the corner. If you look at the link about the parking, you'll see the Buick. Then if you look closely to the right of the white container being carried by the woman wearing the brown top, you'll see a small portion of an automobile just past the white car, not the Buick but it's parked exactly where I had parked the Buick previously.


From the Voodoo Doughnuts Web site: Famous for their girth, our doughnuts are made fresh with love and care. You can pay us more for our product which is locally made, locally owned, and an honest dream come true, or you can buy cheaper, megalacorp, machine cut, rebaked, defrozen, warehouse doughnuts and pastries.

What would you decide? I myself have eaten very few doughnuts lately--I'm trying to kick the habit.

Before I forget, see the sign at the right of the photo, Berbati's Pan? That's where Lamont first worked when he moved to Portland in 2000. He was a one-man grill person, the line cook, prep cook, waiter, cashier, bus boy and dishwasher. Whew.

By the way, Mama made it fine Tuesday. She says that is because she didn't do anything much at all. Tomorrow she's going to try dust mopping but promises to be careful. I got about 80% caught up at work which is good.

For supper Tuesday night I chopped up some Vidalia onion, sauteed it a little while on high heat, then added some rough chopped cabbage, orange bell pepper and yellow bell pepper, stirred it all up pretty good, making sure that all of it had some oil on it, let it cook for a minute, then I poured a little bit of water in the skillet, turned down the heat, and put the other big skillet on top as a lid, turned upside down and balanced just right--hey, it works. They cooked for a little while, then I placed six frozen, skinless chicken tenders on top of the pile of vegetables. I sprinkled some salt and pepper onto the chicken and put the lid/skillet back on. A few minutes later, I checked the jumble (Mama's name for it), turned the chicken, and turned up the heat, leaving it uncovered. Soon, I looked at it again and called Mama in to take a look. I asked her if she'd like the chicken cut up into bite-sized pieces. Her answer, yes, so I did that. In our hammered aluminum Dutch oven, I had steamed asparagus and broccoli. Mama likes broccoli but refuses to eat asparagus, so I put broccoli and the jumble on her plate, asparagus and the jumble on mine. I warned her that I had no idea what the jumble would taste like, so when she heartily approved after one bit, I breathed a sigh of relief. I like it, too, and best of all, we've got left-overs!

Seen from the TriMet bus on May 23 ... click, click, click

A classy-looking lady walks south on SW 3rd in downtown Portland--I was on my way to work and saw her as I sat on on the opposite side of the bus.

Which of these three photos do you like the best? Do you like the frame that the bus window trim created? The way her umbrella contrasts with the shadow? The way her black bag fits perfectly in that dip on the window trim in the second photo? How strong she looks?






It was a busy weekend, and I missed getting to blog and look at everyone's blogs! Here's the rundown. Early Saturday morning, I went to the Farmers' Market and came home with the rolling black bag stuffed with veggies (three kinds of lettuce, small, thin-skinned potatoes, rainbow chard, Italian kale, curly kale, asparagus, baby bok choy, fennel,and tomatoes),fruit (Fuji apples, Bosc pear),and mushrooms (morels), plus another smaller bag with a Pine State biscuit for Mama, some out-of-sight-delicious pork rillette, and a quart of strawberries. It took quite a while to get all of it prepped and into the frig.

Mama fell in the bathroom right after I got back from the market, but thank goodness, she didn't break anything! She's been a bit confused and is quite sore, but by Monday evening she began to feel more normal, not so "shaken up" as she put it. I stayed home from work to keep an eye on her on Monday, especially since she felt much worse on Sunday than she had on Saturday.)

Later on Saturday I went on an errand and ended up with a flat front passenger tire on the Buick and had to sit while an angel-of-a-stranger put on the spare--I was able to pull off the road in a shady, safe spot in front of a convenience store--I made him take some money for all of his work, let me tell you, I couldn't have done it myself--Lamont was at work, and Leland couldn't get to where I was because there wasn't another car available. Then I had to sit in Les Schwab to get two new ones put on the front of the car--it was a rotten valve stem that caused the flat, or at least the area around the valve stem was rotten, I don't know for sure. Anyway, the other front tire was OK, but I decided I'd rather have two new ones on the front, so that what the young man did. And I had him check the valve stem and its area on the passenger rear tire because just last Saturday, Leland had to have that valve stem replaced. So, maybe it was the valve stem that had gone bad on that front passenger tire, right? To tell you the truth, what went right so outweighed what went wrong about the whole flat tire thing, that I am definitely not complaining. I could have been going faster on the highway instead of in stop-and-go traffic. There could have been no where safe and shady to pull off the road. There could have been no angel-of-a-stranger or nearby Les Schwab. It turned out the spare needed air, and I had even managed to pull off right around the corner from a gas station with an air machine!

On Sunday I made myself a new breakfast dish, I mean I made it up and cooked it, then I ate it--Mama was still asleep and doesn't like . Took pictures which I will post soon, with appropriate details. Then Leland came to get me so that we could go to Fred Meyer to get the rest of our groceries. By the time we got it home and upstairs, I was beat, bushed, and just wanted to sit once it was all put away. Sit I did, until time for supper when I warmed up left-over roast, potatoes, and a dish I made up of leek, onion, turnip and arugula I had sauteed together in my olive/canola oil mixture.

On Monday, I dust-mopped, changed out our Dri-Z-Air containers by pouring out the water drawn from the air and filling the basket atop the catch basin with the little white balls that do the drawing. We keep one container in each closet to protect from moisture build-up. I also continued to rub Mama's sore spots with Shaklee's Joint and Muscle Pain Cream, natural plant extracts with pain-relieving cooling menthol. "It sure does help in a minute, too," Mama just said, adding "at least it does to me." She's right!

Anyway, I'm back.

Seen on the streets of Portland, No. 11

Waiting for the bus in the sunshine, near SW 2nd and SW Taylor. I took this photo last Friday as I walked just past where she's standing to wait for the 18 and the ride home.