not that…..

my betrothen is going to a fun event tonight with some of her lady friends. a friend is hosting a Naked Lady Party at her house. men, this isn’t for you. all the women bring clothes they no longer use or need and everyone throws them in a pile and people begin to pick out what they like. the hope is that someone has that skirt you’ve always wanted or sweater you just couldn’t afford and you get it by exchanging your stuff with others. a very community affair. they are also bringing accessories and jewelry to swap too. and i think some wine and cocktails. and in the end, anything left over will be donated to charity.

have fun, i’m gonna be making christmas presents.

The Blazer’s head coach Nate McMillan has been chosen by the USA Basketball Committee to serve as the team’s assistant coach. He will assist Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, leading the team, which will be selected later, to compete in the FIBA World Championships from Aug. 19-Sept. 3 in Saitama, Japan, where it can qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing.

Nate’s been making some good press lately, not necessarily for winning, but for having a good group of players and holding them accountable for their actions.

Congrats Sir.

awhile ago, the Story Corp were in town recording people’s stories. i was unable to tell a story as I was recovering from surgery at the time.

well, we have another chance to tell a Portland Story. The Portland Story Project is just that, a project to collect our city’s stories.

We’re collecting random & strange stories, photos, drawings and poems about what makes Portland so unique and wonderful.

sounds good huh? maybe they can take that sewer cover off my hands…..

well, check them out if you have a good story to add.

need some cool stuff? need a little something for a friend? just got that urge to spend more money you may or may not have?

well, head on over to the Jupiter Hotel on E. Burnside for the Crave Party. What’s a Crave Party you ask? well, according to the flyer, its shopping entertainment experience. you will have your shot at 50 boutiques, nibbles and drinks, and a goodie bag. i guess they’ll have entertainment too. this does cost $15, but you would spend that on cocktails over at the doug fir anyway.

some featured boutiques: France Lux; knit/pul; dig Garden Shop; sofada; LFI; SaySay Boutique; Olive; and the list goes on:

Crave Party at the Jupiter
Nov. 30 from 5-9pm – $15.00

In “The Light Side” humor column that runs every Tuesday in the Oregonian’s sports section, the O’s Bob Lochner quoted Fort Wayne (Inc.) News-Sentinel columnist Reggie Hayes saying something that really burned me up. And I am not even a member of the group that was besmirched.

What Hayes said, and what the “O” reprinted played off on the fact that Mormon-run Brigham Young University will play in this year’s Las Vegas Bowl.

“To make BYU’s fans feel at home, several Vegas chapels plan to offer a ‘marry one, get one free’ special.”

People, that is a play to the stereotype that Mormons are polygamists with multiple wives. Although the practice subsists among some minor Mormon sects, the main branch of Mormonism banned polygamy in 1904- more than 100 years ago.

I have to ask if the Oregonian- which won’t even print offensive sports team nicknames such as the Atlanta Braves, Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians- would reprint a joke written about “squaws.”

Trash

Originally uploaded by dieselboi.

i read an article in the O yesterday and have been thinking about it a bit. the article asked the question – why is there so much trash around? well, at first, i thought, there’s not any more than usual and it’s usually only in certain areas – i.e. under overpasses, but offramps, in my neighborhood, etc. i couldn’t get my mind around the fact the the whole city felt a bit trashy (and i’m not talking about strip clubs.)
well, just this morning, on the way to coffee i eyed the following. i gues they are unpacking something down by the budget truck and just letting all the styrofoam peanuts fly away. the peanuts were strewn all the way up to Macy’s (i mean M&F)
then, along the next few blocks, i too saw what the O pointed out – there was garbage 3 feet away from empty garbage cans. i even saw someone throw a burger wrapper on the ground instead of in the garbage can.
is this isolated? i do think it is because you won’t find flotsam and jetsam among the mcmansions in the westhills. is it a class or socio-economic issue? i don’t know. in my neighborhood, NoPo, i would see all classes and ages of people just throw garbage on the street or out the window. kids; parents; grandparent – i didn’t understand why, but sometimes, i’m not going to challenge.
what to do…. is it that we have lost interest in our surrounding? do we just not care? i care. i’m gonna start doing what was suggested – be civic about it. if i see garbage that is not unsafe or unwieldy, i’m gonna pick it up and put it in the garbage. maybe, just maybe, someone else will see that and think its a good idea too.

Sayler’s Old Country Kitchen has an amazing happy hour bar menu. After 9pm on the weekends, you can get a hamburger and fries for $3.50. Three fifty! And, I have the inside info on this, the hamburgers are ground Sayler’s steaks, so you know that you are in for a treat. Saturday night, we enjoyed a wonder cheap meal in the bar. An order of pepper steak bites costs $2.50, as do the jalepeno poppers, onion rings, garlic toast and assorted other treats. My husband and I ate and drank heartily, and had a whopping $25.00 tab. I love that.
(They have a happy hour during the week, too, but I don’t know the hours.)

After dropping off Christmas presents in NE Portland, my husband and I decided to grab a bite to eat. My favorite food is the hamburger sandwich. (I worked at a Dairy Queen when I was in high school, the one on 136th and Division. An elderly man would come in one night a week and order a “hambuger sandwich.” I’ve liked that phrase ever since.) Anyway, there is certainly no shortage of hamburgers in Portland. Widmer’s was my first choice, since we were in the neighborhood and their burgers are so good. But, I decided to take my husband to a well-known Portland resturant. We went to Stanich’s on NE Fremont. Stanich’s has been around for the last 50 years. If you haven’t been, go just for the amazing number of pennants hanging on the walls. The menu consists entirely of hamburgers and a couple grilled sandwiches. The hamburgers at Stanich’s are practically a Portland institution, and for good reason. If you like the onions grilled and the burger juicy, Stanich’s is your place.

My husband, sister and a couple friends went to Tom’s on 39th & Division late Wednesday night. (After Lost of course.) Tom’s is a restaurant/sports bar, a very down-to-earth, old-Portland sort of place, an inexpensive place to get a hamburger or gyros. I believe it’s owned by a Greek family; I think the same family owns the Overlook on Interstate. We enjoyed cheap drinks and free pool until 1am or so. Then, the bartender, who literally runs to serve her customers, brings out skewers of souvlaki for every person in the bar. It was a happy Thanksgiving after all.

the trib this morning has an article on the latest in changes in health care. large pharmacies like Walgreens and Rite Aid are opening up care centers that are staffed by Nurse Practioners. anyone can go visit for what are considered minor ailments and get diagnosed. this is meant to be an alternative for people who don’t have health insurance. there is a lot of buzz in newsland, including some big stories in the national news. i was surprised to learn we have one here.

when i was a wee lad, with my first job with benefits, i remember signing up for the “PPO” plan. this required me to pay for healthcare through my paycheck and then pay something like a $1000 deductable before anything kicked in. i was a healthy kid, but the couple of times i got really sick and had to go to a doctor, i wasn’t only hit by the cost of the visit, i was also charged a new paitent fee. how many 22yr olds have $300 sitting around to pay a bill for a sore throat. this happened two years in a row due to the fact that my healthcare provider changed and i wasn’t able to go back to my original dr. if i had had the opportunity to go see a Nurse Practitioner in the first place for like $45, i would have probably not been as sick those years as I was.

further, how many of us do go to the “doctor” only to be helped by a nurse practitioner at the same cost.

my two cents: i like the idea if it is executed well. granted, the naysayers will point out that there may be misdiagnosis of disease and ailments, yet every day i hear from family and freinds where real doctors have misdiagnosed stuff, so where is the loss?