It's Saturday Night

and Josh just had me sign up and join his alliance in Cyber Nations. Not sure what I am doing, and I think my lack of Risk playing in my younger years will be a disadvantage. But hey, Meloland has furs and iron to trade, and we are a peaceful nation. Mostly.

The Vault

In a work-related outing on Saturday nite, I got to go the Vault, a trending cosmopolitan bar in the Pearl. Besides the rather cliche trance music, low lighting and loud volume, the martinis were awesome. The menu was neat - the various martinis were grouped by type, i.e. fruit-based, vegetable based, classic, chocolate, etc. My favs: pineapple drop and melon drop. The blackberry martini and mango mojito also looked promising. Post-Vault, it was to the new Portland Center Stage theatre - one of the 10 most environmentally friendly buildings in the US. Very neat - but the play sucked ("The Thugs) - at least it was free and only an hour. Those were the best two things about it. Even the guy who played Mr. Bingham in last year's Pride and Prejudice (great production) was lame, but I blame the playwright.

What a Wonderful Valentine's Day (a few days early)

Let's just say that Josh really set the bar VERY high. He and his partner-in-crime, Kevin, planned a fun-filled day of suprises for Chrissie and me. It started weeks ago, with the warning that I could not do any work on Sunday and was to clear my calendar for the entire day. He would not tell me what we were going to do (I suspected a drive to the coast, but boy was I wrong), only that I needed to wear comfortable shoes. I eventually got him to tell me (the day of) that I needed pedicure friendly footwear.

So, the day starts at Stumptown, where I was dropped off at 9:30 with 7 envelopes. The "0" starting envelope contained $10 and instructions to order a coffee, wait until 10:15 and open the next envelope. While waiting, Chrissie showed up and the following conversation ensued: "Are you in on it?" "In on what - are you in on it?" "No, but I have all these envelopes . . . " "Me too." And then we figured it out - the boys had planned our day. Much to our credit, we opened the envelopes as instructed (no early peeking) and it was a GREAT day. From Stumptown, then to Mother's (our fav breakfast spot), to Powell's (fav book spot), to a pedicure (Chrissie's color: Purple with a purpose, mine: I don't do dishes (red)), then to a tea house in the Pearl (The Tea Zone, best scones ever and such a cool place - people knitting, drinking, AWESOME), then to Bridgeport / Talbot's, and finally home for dinner and some play time with the girls. Each place we had gift cards or reservations - it must be like the stars live and Chrissie and I could definitely get used to it. Josh and Kevin got it exactly right - better than I could ever imagine (with some help from Liza, to whom Chrissie and I also owe a big thanks - she needs to come on our next adventure)

Yup, the boys have definitely set a new bar. Chrissie and I are already counting the days to our birthdays, anniversaries, memorial day. . . Thanks sweetie - I love you!