A Quiet Week

It has been a joy communicating with Lori and Pam, while they were visiting Paris.  They truly had the perfect vacation.  They're back home in Sacramento with many happy memories.  If you're on Instagram, you can see her pictures but, be forewarned, they are mostly pictures of food.............

We had some sad news - Roger's brother, Fred, who lived in Iran, passed away last week.  Death in a family is always a difficult experience, but in this case, it had more impact because once Roger left Iran, he knew he could never return to see any of his family or friends.

We remain hopeful that spring weather will finally come our way but......... today it snowed 12 inches on Mt. Hood and it's raining here (no surprise) so we'll have to be patient a while longer.

We're continuing with our photoshop lessons and it's exciting to see how much we've learned.

Easter was quiet without family to join us but the weather was lovely so we enjoyed a picnic and planted flowers and herbs on the balcony.

This week is "beauty" week for Bella and me so tomorrow she gets her bath and haircut and Friday it's my turn.  (No, we go to two separate places............ she goes to a chic place downtown and I go to a cart in a food cart complex).  More later..............

Face of Love.... and other stuff

Movie theaters have certainly changed!  I just saw "Face of Love" (Highly Recommended) at the Living Room Theater, downtown, and my seat was an overstuffed lounge chair with an ottoman for my feet.  I ordered a non-fat latte that was served to me during the film.  The theater also provides a food menu and cocktails so some people were enjoying lunch.  There are six theaters and most are very small with a capacity of about 40 or 50 seats.  This theater mostly features foreign prize winning films so there's always an interesting variety of choices.

After the movie I walked over to the Imperial Hotel to try a new restaurant owned by the Chef/Owner of Paley's Place (one of Portland's finest restaurants) and, regretfully, I left "underwhelmed" - but - that's the fun of trying new places.

The weather is flirting with us - one or two days of sunshine in the low 70s (perfect) and then several days of cold and wet weather so now the closet is half winter and half summer.  Little Bella is happy when she wakes up to sunshine because that means she and "mom" will be going somewhere.

Lori and Pam are in Paris until next week Monday and it has been great staying in touch with her and getting pictures on Instagram.  I think that she has photographed every cheese shop in the city (her favorite food) and I'll admit that cheese in France is exceptional.  They don't have as many laws in regard to the use of raw milk so some of their best are made with that ingredient.

Roger and I have rehired our tutor who is teaching us to use the Photoshop program so on rainy days, I'm spending most of the time working on my lessons.  The tutor's last name is "Miracle" and I suspect that is what it will take for us to sufficiently learn how to use this program.

I've just learned about the Multnomah Arts Center where classes are available for theater, music, dance, photography, drawing, painting, etc. so my first class will be a two day photography session in May, followed with a series of ten weeks of instruction through the summer. 

Time to plant..................

The Farmer's Market is filled with tiny vegetable and herb plants, along with wonderful produce and food.

Yesterday was sunny and warm so the market was filled with people and some new vendors.

I was excited to find a Portuguese Sweet Bread baked with dried cranberries, cherries and apricots and sliced almonds.  The center has almond paste - unbelievable !  It's going to be this morning's French Toast.  Another bakery specializes in German style bread so I also bought a half loaf of dense bread baked with flax and pumpkin seeds.  I'm going to save that for toast with some peanut butter and fresh preserves.   Fortunately, my favorite egg farmer still had some quail eggs left so our breakfasts this week will be really special.............

 

PARIS - First time for Lori and Pam.............

We are very excited for Lori and Pam, who are on their way to Paris.  They left from San Francisco this afternoon at 5 p.m. so this will be their view tomorrow when they arrive.


They have rented an apartment in the Marais District so they will be close to some of the most popular destinations.

Another Fabulous Week..................

Annette, from Laguna Hills, just sent some photos from our visit so it brought back memories of a wonderful visit with Annette, Rooben, Alex, Tara, Garik and Lulu. 

 

Shown here are Roger and me with Rooben, Garik and Lulu.  Annette was the photographer, so below is one with her.

Monday was the first day of Spring term at PSU so Roger and I walked to class together Monday morning.  So far I've taken eight college courses and I'm amazed at how much I've learned.  My only regret is that I didn't have an opportunity to start sooner.

We're experiencing "on and off" spring weather but now we're looking forward to temps in the 70s starting Monday.  That means Bella and I will have time to get out-and-about to enjoy the sunshine.

Thursday, Allison and I spent the morning shopping for Duffy, her nine week old Doberman puppy, so the van was filled with huge sacks of food and other necessities.  Duffy still has his ears in splints so as soon as they are removed I'll start sending Duffy portraits.  He now weighs about 15 pounds but each day he gets bigger.  His paws are huge.

This morning we enjoyed breakfast at "Gravy", our latest favorite breakfast restaurant and now we have the weekend to look forward to.