Author Archives: Pamela

Application Unexpectedly Quit
Yesterday was going to be a computer day where I practiced with my new software but my “application unexpectedly quit” problem escalated as problems of that sort always do. I tried some online forums to see if others had this problem and found that yes, others have. But no one seemed to have a solution. One person talked about memory being unseated which didn’t sound promising.

I won’t go through the whole bloody story but, among other things, I tried to use the repair disk that comes with Applecare then spent the next 2 hours desperately force-restarting my machine: just to get the stupid disk back out.

By the time I got my desktop back and could actually use my computer again, unexpected quits and all, I was short-fused and a danger to myself and others.

Meanwhile, I had a kitchen with rapidly ripening produce and other cooking things that could not be ignored. I put the last two squishy peaches in the blender with yogurt and made a smoothie for work. I had bought a bucket of plums to make a fresh fruit galette and when I re-read the recipe I thought: I am in no condition to mess with the food processor or pastry dough right now. But then I had all these ripe plums and I had to do something so I pitted and quartered them and sprinkled a bit of lemon juice and sugar on and put them in the fridge. Ignored the pears. Put away the potatoes. Roasted the beets for a quick salad.

The fresh stuff is fun. I know I’m going to be crying about missing it in a few weeks here. But it is a lot of work. I’m kinda over it by now.

On Saturday afternoon Bob and I went downtown to the Salmon Nation Block Party. It was a semi-spontaneous outing that we almost blew off and we were so glad we went. I have some photos but they are trapped in unexpectedly quit land. Perhaps I can add them in later.

The Block Party is an eclectic street fair/farmer's market extravaganza presented by, and in honor of, Salmon Nation citizens. It brings us together to inspire and educate, bridge urban-rural divides, and celebrate the people, lands and waters of the Northwest temperate rainforest.

Meaning, typical Portland event. Lots of people with kids and/or dogs. Lots of hippie types. Costumes. Excellent food. Tasty beer. Live music. At the end they had the Everyone Orchestra or something like that which means a bunch of musicians that Bob knew about. When they announced who they were Bob started doing back-flips. We went to the front and did a few rounds of the hippie jig. I told Bob I came perilously close to an entire summer without dancing with hippies.

Another thing I did this weekend was watch most of About Last Night a 1986 movie with Rob Lowe and Demi Moore that I’m sure I loved in 1986. I don’t think I’ve seen it again since. David Mamet wrote the play that the movie was based on and he must have slunk into a dark corner with the check in his hand when he saw the finished product. Some of the cheesiest montages ever with awful, awful music. I’m about 75 minutes into the movie and there have been three montages already. A fair amount of nudity. Excellent opportunity to see Demi’s real boobs.

The story holds up. Young people hooking up and everything happening so fast and the friends on the sidelines with their mild sabatoge.

One of the best things about the movie is the sweaters. Remember huge bulky sweaters that hung down to mid-thigh? This style was a boon for me at the height of my “full figured” epoch. I can see my sweaters right now. I got them at Xpress. One was bright blue and one was bright pink.

Another treat is Elizabeth Perkins who we now know and love as Celia on Weeds, playing frumpy best friend Joan. I love the women character names: Debbie and Joan. Nowadays the girls would have to be named Stevie and Tommy because in movies the girl always has to have a boy’s name. (Start paying attention to girl names: Alex, Joey or Jo, Sam, Freddie, Mel, Max, Jo, Dani etc.) Can’t wait to see how it ends.

Pirates!
I finished my project.


I think I like sewing. I made mistakes but found the problem solving fun. I’m going to try an apron next.

For the third time in 2 days I’ve had an application randomly quit while I’m in the middle of doing something. I don’t like the sound of that.

I’m not going to recreate my post since it wasn’t too exciting to begin with. Lots of stuff going on.

Be More Funny
Bob told me he had a new entry on his blog he wanted me to check out. I dutifully clicked on it and saw the title.

“I don’t want to read about Lee Morgan and Woody Shaw,” I said. “Why don’t you write about something funny. Like when you spill something.”

I don’t even know who Lee Morgan and Woody Shaw are. I suppose I could read the entry or even ask, but you have to be careful about showing too much interest in my house. Next thing you know you’re sitting down to dinner and there’s some epic musicography queued up on the tube and stack of cds on the counter and maybe even some vinyl propped up on the stereo and giant book with a few pages marked sitting on the nightstand.

In other news, from checking my logs I can see that people searching for wampa (see also: wampa: ice creature) are ending up here. My dream come true.

Today’s Lunch of Too Much
Today I brought a thermos with freshly made tomato soup, a peanut butter and nutella sandwich, a little container with sliced cucumbers and a dollop of roasted onion and gruyere dip, a little container with leftover green bean salad with toasted walnuts and feta, a little container with a diced fresh pear, a baggie with celery, carrot, turnip and red pepper sticks and a half box of animal crackers that I never ate last week.

Also in my office I have a stash of pita chips, wheat thins (big) and two breakfast cookies. Also a bottle of wine.

Beaten By Shelves
I don’t want to talk about installing the shelves.

Let’s just say if I ever meet the person who invented HangTrak ™ shelving I will skin him alive, draw and quarter him, light him on fire, pee on his ashes and then rinse them down the garbage disposal with sour milk and slimy greens.

On the con side I hated everything about installing them.

On the pro side I have tons of experience with the drill and have completely gotten over my fear of putting multiple holes in anything including my beautiful smooth and painted wall that I busted ass on in May.

At least they haven’t fallen down yet.

I had to take a break in the middle of the fiasco to make tomato soup so I could at least feel competent at something.

I didn’t even have time for the pirate pillowcase.

Something New Every Day
I’m still getting new dahlias. Might even be one or two new varieties before summer is over.

I can’t wait to update you on all my projects this weekend. If doing projects means learning from your mistakes: I’ll be a gold medal winner soon.

The pirate pillowcase is a winner. The first instruction is: “remove selvage from each fabric.” WTF is selvage? Right there I had a 20 minute research project. Then I folded my insert strip and layered it with the right side of the pirates and wrong side of the cuff and carefully sewed my first seam with my the sewing machine. Success!

Except I had the folded insert seam upside down. Bob came in from downstairs and I announced, “Honey, I’m ripping out my first seam.” I very carefully pressed everything out and repinned. And did the exact same thing again! A natural.

Bob came in from an errand and I said, “Honey, I’m ripping out my second seam.”

We went to see Little Miss Sunshine (fantastic! hilarious!) that afternoon so I had to put my pillowcase aside. Who would have thought a pillowcase is a several day project?

This morning I picked up the stuff for my closet shelves. I bought a stud finder. And all kinds of brackets and anchors and supports.

Pirates and shelves. We’ll see how I do.

Pirates!
Yesterday I went to Craft Warehouse to get some stuff for these little items I’m making (more information depending on how it goes) and I ended up finding all kinds of crap to buy. I got a little dizzy when she announced my total.

I’ve been wanting to learn to sew and have been dicking around trying to figure out how best to go about it. I wanted to take a class but that hasn’t panned out so far. At the craft store they had a kit for making a pillowcase.

(I know some of you are laughing right now. How hard can it be to make a pillowcase? I have to start somewhere.)

It’s going to have pirates on it.