LIW

Ken got back last night. It was a fun week but I'm happy he's home. LIW started off pretty dull. We had a cold & rainy week these past five days -- not exactly 'get out and garden' weather. So I picked other projects:

Wednesday: Met Ken after work to take him to the airport. Got home all excited for what I could do that night, but our house was sixty degrees and I went into slumber mode for the night. No projects. No martinis. It was 9:30.

Thursday: Sara Burke came into town and she was picking me up after work for martinis at Brazen Bean. It was great to see her; seems like forever since we caught up. Got to see pictures of her place that she and Drew have been re-doing. It looks beautiful. I asked the waitress to pick among three martinis that sounded good -- she came back with a citrus martini that tasted way too much like 'camptinis', aka grapefruit martinis (leftover from a party) that were frozen and taken camping one weekend. (Note: drinking martinis and not water in the desert is a bad idea.) My stomach turned just smelling it. My other martini was a vanilla one with a twist of lemon. However, the lemon was overpowering in it and I left a bit disappointed in their drinks. Sara's choices were a little better: the first was a sake-based martini, the second was a lychee one that she described tasting like "suntan lotion". She was right. I think I prefer Vault's martinis to those of Brazen Bean's. I feel blasphemous even saying that since B.B. is revered in this town. But mediocre martinis combined with a place that doesn't open until 5 makes me a little sad. I will go back to retry when the weather warms up, but that was my first impression. After martinis, we went to Saburo's for sushi. This place doesn't disappoint and hasn't in the 10 times or so I've been there. Pieces as big as your finger that are so sweet and fresh tasting, it's unbelievable. You wouldn't expect it from this little hole-in-the-wall. Anyone who likes sushi and comes to Portland should go here. Happily, Sara and I like the same things: got two orders of salmon, an order of river eel (if you aren't familiar with the difference between river and sea eel, definitely do a taste test here -- both are excellent but you can taste the difference). We also got a couple rolls: the Saburo 'house' roll, an eel & avocado roll and her favorite tempura-covered roll that I can't remember the name of). We also got an order of scallops, which I had never had before as sushi. I was terrified, especially after the sea urchin debacle a year ago, but the scallops were absolutely wonderful. So fresh and sweet. I was impressed and will definitely order them next time I go. Yum. We ended up chatting the whole night. We went back to the house and drank a little decaf to end the night. I went to sleep with a warm sushi/wasabi buzz. sigh.

Friday: How can a person work knowing the weekend is but a few hours away? Alas, I ditched out at 2:30 and began my weekend project: painting the basement stairwell. As a bit of background, our house has come along pretty well. The painting upstairs is pretty much finished, we've installed undercabinet lights in the kitchen, unpacked the boxes, and even planted a garden in the backyard. However, our basement has been left mostly untouched. A dark dusty little place. When we moved in, there was only one lightbulb installed out of the 10 or so sockets. Now we have light to illuminate the plain floor and the dirty white walls. Looking down the stairs from our red kitchen, dingy was what came to mind. There was a lot of yellow paint left from the previous owner, some white paint, some primer, even some floor enamel. Hmmm. Give me some time and paint; I can do anything. Here's what the recap: I painted the ceiling white to brighten things up, the walls have a top & bottom part, naturally divided by drywall vs concrete. The top-drywall part was painted a light buttery yellow. The bottom concrete part was painted taupe, as was the handrail. I painted the nasty stairs a bright red enamel, making the stairwell pop. I turn on the fan and go to bed; it's 1:30 am.

Saturday: I make my coffee and check out the stairwell. Looks pretty good except the midget-door that's at the first basement stair-landing. It's a pretty door that at some point in the house's history was painted white, which is now chipping. So after I painted the stairwell, I spent Saturday stripping the paint off the door. I then restained it the dark walnut color that the wood is naturally. The whole thing looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. I allow everything to dry until Sunday, so Ken can decide if he likes the red or not -- rather than spend the time putting on another coat. The rest of the day is spent drinking mimosas and watching two movies: Bridget Jones 2 (horrible) and Banger Sisters (better than BJ2, but hardly worth renting. I'm glad it was on TV).

Sunday: Ken gets home around 3. Plenty of hours to kill before then. Make my coffee and drink a mimosa while I read the paper. Then, I deboned some chickens that were on sale last week, which I've been putting off. Saved the chicken wings for, um, wings that night. Bagged and froze the breasts and then cooked off the drumsticks and thighs for enchiladas (made for Monday's dinner). Used the bones for chicken stock (I now officially have more stock than I know what to do with) and used the giblets to make gravy for the roasting chicken and mashed potatoes I made for dinner -- the leftover gravy gets used for chicken pot pie, which I'll probably make Tuesday (oh Rachel, those pot pies turned out really well; I liked them with fennel). Talk to my folks for a while, who are very excited to have sold their house. Ken's flight gets delayed. He ends up getting in at 6. I've finished all my chores and have been alone all week; I'm antsy to chat. He's been away in Vegas all week with people; he's antsy for alone time. Nuts. It works itself out and I drink a glass of wine and play in the garden while he checks email and decompresses upstairs. Then he joins me outside and we check out all the flowers that are coming up, reseed the backyard and weed a little bit. It's supposed to be sunny all week and around 65 -- should be awesome for the flowers, who've gotten drenched with the week of rain. I read in the paper this morning that Portland has 243% of normal rain this month... so the drying out is definitely welcome and should put everything into full bloom. It's started already -- our roses are just about to bloom as are the hydrangeas. The purple irises in our front yard are blooming now and the freesia is just about to. The sugar snap peas and snow peas are flowering as are the tomatoes and strawberries. The grape vine had it's first tendril grab hold of the trellis. It should be a pretty summer.