Portland

In the interest of fair play I must wipe my first Portland adventure from the slate. Portland just got it's first Ikea about a month ago. I needed to go there to price kitchen cabinets. FYI - Ikea cabinets are cheap to purchase but are very highly rated on quality by Consumer Reports. Now, as a reference point, we lived in San Diego when the first Ikea opened there and I don't remember any madness of the sort I encountered at the Portland Ikea. And as Los Angeles resident I used to enjoy a bit of minor complaining about what a pain in the ass it was to drive out to the Burbank Ikea and shop it's maze. Anyway, turns out I knew nothing of the true bottleneck potential of a visit to the Swedish Big Box.

First clue was the time it took to park. Second clue was the throngs of people heading in the door. Third clue - and I kid you not - was the man standing in the midst of his wife and kids who spread his arms wide and stated, "OK, now lets just ENJOY the EXPERIENCE". Dude, it's a STORE! This isn't Disneyland for cryin' out loud.

Trying to get to the kitchen department reminded me of trying to get to the front of the stage at a concert. Elbows were required.

Once I reached the cabinets I had the great fortune of stumbling upon an employee who was not with a customer!!! She took me to a computer and we began assembling my kitchen. She told me not to make eye contact with any of the number of people coming up trying to steal her from me. One lady even waved her estimate in front of us hollering that she was, "actually READY to PURCHASE her products, not just design". Sigh. I made it out fairly unscathed but I dread returning to make the final purchase.

I suspected that the Ikea errand would be bad, although I hadn't anticipated just how bad, and had planned a more enjoyable errand afterwards. Matt and I have, on occasion purchased goods from Food Fight Vegan Grocery. Not so much out of necessity because we had access to all sorts of stuff in Los Angeles, but more because we like what they do. Anyway, I Google mapped myself from Ikea to Food Fight for a bit of grocery shopping (because where we are living now is most certainly not as well stocked as LA) and a slice of coconut cake. After Food Fight I clumsily found my way to a Trader Joe's (Oh how I miss Trader Joe's!!!!) and then I headed home.

Portland part II

On Friday night Tom and I went to PDX to pick Matt up from his LA trip. Matt and I had planned to go out to eat after his arrival and we chose Pirate's Tavern as our destination. Then, on Thursday, Tom came by and asked if I wanted to go to Grandma & Grandpa's for the night, stay the day on Friday, and then pick Matt up. I said sure but we would need to take two cars unless he wanted to join us for dinner - and not just any dinner - a vegan dinner. (Tom's an elk hunter and this vegan business isn't really his thing). Anyway he said he would be happy to go to the Pirate's Tavern for some non meat deliciousness so that's what we did. The food was tasty and Walker, Tom's black lab, was able to join us at the table (on the patio) because the Pirate's Tavern is animal friendly.

So thumbs down to the Portland Ikea and thumbs up for the rest of my very limited Portland experience. I am looking forward to more exploration in the city.

Sorry for the bad pic. I didn't take the time to set it up. What's that in Matt's hand? It's a hammer from his co-worker, Tait. A very suitable gift. Also, Matt's annoyed with me for posting all sorts of dorky pictures of him. If he would ever grab the camera and take some pictures I would post those too but he doesn't so he is stuck w/ silly pictures of him on the web for all to see.