Halloween

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween-

Mine was good and busy with basically 3 parties and 2 costume changes...

How that happened I don't really know. 

At work we often come up with a group theme and this year someone, who neglected to actually dress up originally suggested Disney princesses... But we're and art school and all so it developed into "princesses gone bad/villians gone good" which was much more fun. We had a bad fairy with her 'arrested' placard from booking and over the hill cat woman. I was Nancy de Vil, you know her as Cruella, but this is before she went all bad. 

We also decorated the office- I am quite proud I put all my love of CSI and Dexter to good use and made this chalk outline of Bambi's mom. 

After work I went to the law firm where people went all out

And after that, a friends party where the theme was cults- that's a whole other post, but I went with friends in a group costume and we were a hit. Come on. You have to be a group when partaking in cult activities...but it looked something like this:

And this:

Ms. Lily Allen

Or Phase 2 of my musical mavens. 

Lily Allen hasn't toured in five years. I thought my chances to see her were long since passed- she had good reasons. Got married and popped out a few kids so I really thought that might be it. Let's just say it was one of the most pleasant surprizes this spring that she would be touring through Vancouver again. It felt like forever since I'd bought the tickets and the show happening. I wound up taking my brother as my date- he did not know her music, and had never been to the Commodore so I thought it would be a good introduction to both. 

The opener was Lolawolf who sounded and looked very familiar and then we realized after she was Zoe Kravitz (sounds like her dad, looks like her mom)

Ms. Allen came on and stole the show. She played everything I loved and she had the crowd digging it. She was cute and funny and totally charming. 

And yes those are baby bottles on the stage. Ode to her new life... Less about drugs and parties, more about babies...

Float on

This is about 2 things: one, I've been watching a lot of Fringe lately, and two, the temptation of a Social Shopper coupon for trying Float House was burning a hole in my pocket.

It was pretty cool I have to say. I scheduled it for the end of a week, among a few long weeks of the start of school. The floating was a bit surreal as it's hard to imagine that some salt can have that much of an impact on buoyancy. At times it felt like I was bumping up against the sides and at other times I was miles away from the edge. No sound, no light. Except the sound of me snaping my toes echoing
in the water. I was in there for nearly 90 minutes and I must admit that at what was probably the hour mark, I came back from somewhere. Somewhere. 

And if floating in a sensory deprivation tank will get me all that close to Peter Bishop, then sign me up. 

In the wild

What another glorious camping trip! Probably the last of this year. 

For something different we went en masse, 5 couples. Double campsite, tent village. Lots of meat, lots of bacon. Lots  of stories. Lots of wood to burn.  Characters, plus one beast of a dog. 

Sampson freezing his legs off

Gone coastal

Wrapping up my travels and birthday tour I enjoyed time and people on the coast...

Brightest seaweed

Peaceful

Bright

Ferry chickens (that's all the commotion at that truck)

Back seat driving and sleeping 

Lucky girl got another trip to a winery

Best beets ever

Thank you to my hosts and lovely treats. It was wonderful! See you again soon! X

my roses

I was lucky to get to spend another birthday in Portland. We tried to figure it out, maybe 4 or 5 birthdays in PDX over the last decade with my man CR and a few of the crew. 

I had the apartment in the city pretty much to myself and wandered, drank fancy coffees, bit of shopping, interesting drinks, fun people and had a really nice time. 

Besides the gun range we also checked out some new bars/restaurants, I had an amazing birthday dinner cooked for me, surprize rendezvous with some friends from home, and a sake brewery. 

Change room change up

Coopers Hall Winery, east side

Target practice

Hello, salmon birthday dinner

St. Cupcake cupcakes aftermath, Cards Against Humanity

Birthday hazelnut affogato in the Pearl

This is how you make sake in 18 simple steps 

My view of the soccer stadium

#pdxcarpet is actually a hashtag. Check it. 

Great week, great people. Thank you CR and Miss A for an awesome time. 

trigger happy

Sometimes the "only in America" rings so, so true. This week while in Portland I was going about a usual day, wandering through town, a bit of shopping when CR texts me and drops a casual "btw we are going to a gun range tonight".  It was actually a birthday plan for another friend who's day it was the week before and this was what he asked to do for a celebratory treat. 

Unbeknownst to CR this is something I have very much wanted to do for quite some time. As I rode the Max out to Beaverton to meet them I was so excited... but also preparing for disappointment that they wouldn't let a Canadian out there with a gun, or fear when I suddenly had no idea what kind of yahoos I was going to shoot guns with. In America. 

This was a private gun club that another friend of CR's belongs to. He is ex army and he owns the guns we shot with, brought all the ammo, and was an amazingly serious, informative and kind instructor. It was awesome. 

We started with the hand-gun pistols. I was up first and I hit the black target in my first shot. Not bad for first round. The guns are, surprisingly heavy. Plus trying to stay calm and focused, some nervous tension AND hit your target, lets just say my arms were sore the next day. 

We went on to a different range area to shoot rifles. Here you could lean the gun on the table, use a couple props to help you aim. I was most nervous about the kickback and that I was going to get hit in the face accidentally by the body of the gun- but if you pull it in close, and lean your cheek on the gun, your whole body moves with it. It was also a lot less startling when I was the one pulling the trigger. You know what's coming. Turns out I'm a pretty good shot. 

Reloading

Shrapnel

Yeah. I'm a ten. 

BTW if you're going to do it, I figured I gotta do it right. Yes I rocked the red lipstick at the gun range. I was the only lady there and I meant business.