End of two trees

This tree and another one like it live down the street from me. They are old and clearly planted in a time when people didn't plan for where the power lines would go. So today seems to be their last day. I stood outside the Indian grocery watched the man in the tree remove a few limbs. It was rather hypnotic.

I felt a little sad for the trees, but not knowing anything about the situation, I didn't get too worked up. It must have been an interesting task to cut them down without also taking down the power lines.

Laundry

A rare sight in my laundry journey. An empty laundry basket. I'm pretty good at doing laundry on a regular basis, so dirty laundry never really builds up. But clean laundry? Often times the laundry basket is holding the clean laundry waiting to be folded and put away as the dirty laundry is piling up in the closet in the space where the laundry basket goes. Interestingly, in the summer, when I can hang out the laundry to dry, I don't have any trouble putting away the clean laundry. I think it is because I can fold it as I am taking it off the line. The other problem I have is that in the winter time, I'm mostly headed for bed when the dryer buzzes. So I've moved past chore mode to rest mode.

Black pants.

Due to secret project that is upcoming, I've been videotaping and seeing myself live and on screen. What I've discovered? I really need new uniform pants. Like a lot. And quickly.

And here we go on the hunt for black pants that fit. I hate everything about this enterprise--the going to the store, the finding the black pants, which are always in six or seven different locations at the store, the dressing room mirrors which are always much too close to me, the having to bring two sizes of every brand because there is not standard sizing, the feelings of dissatisfaction with my body. Other things I hate about the process? Limits on the number of items you can bring in dressing rooms and store personnel who want to assist me. Thanks, I'd rather experience this disappointment and annoyance on my own. I avoid those last two by hitting Macy's first. They leave me alone and don't guard their dressing rooms.

At any rate, I managed to get myself to the store and through all those obstacles. I narrowed it down to two contenders. The Macy's brand which was okay and a pair of Calvin Klein pants that I loved how they felt but the larger size was just a bit too big and the smaller size was just a bit too small. Due to the not-quite right fit and the fact the Calvin Klein's were twice the price of the Macy's brand, I went with the cheaper option. The pants look great, but they are lacking in any pockets which would be a big problem at work if I didn't wear an apron to contain all the items needed for important Administrative Coordinator work.

One big check off for me today!

Some good cookin'

Due to my tardiness in posting, I can't really tell you why I have this picture of one of my meals. But I remember that squash was delicious and the cabbage is from my favorite way to cook salmon and the scrambled eggs are delightful any time, as is a crisp, fall apple.

Kid-made signs

A trend in education that has more fully developed since I was a kid myself, is to let the children make signs and posters explaining things. At school we have kid made posters to explain our recycling system and classrooms usually use kid generated posters to explain topics they are studying. So of course, when a class has a fundraiser the students make the signs. This makes for some fabulous signs including this one where the child was suddenly transported back, syntax-wise, to the early 20th century:

Donate money
to Allegra's Class
in need for hobo's
and
other
homeless people
and more.
Please!

The sign stayed up for about a month and I giggled every time I read it.

Three sentence movie reviews--Where the Wild Things Are.

I wanted to like this movie much more than I did. I think Spike Jones and Dave Eggers did a good job of making a perfect book into a movie, but I couldn't really get absorbed in the story. It was a very visually stunning movie, yet not engaging.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2009/where_the_wild_things_are.html

Director Park. Eh.

The beautiful Portland Park Blocks are split into two sections: the North Park Blocks and the South Park Blocks. The South Park Blocks start at PSU and run North past a number of churches, the PCPA, and the Schnitz where they run smack in to the Arlington Club. From there, there is a run of blocks of normal commercial development before the park picks up again just North of Burnside. Some people dream of demolishing all of those buildings and connecting the park blocks, which will most likely not happen in my lifetime. The park blocks don't really connect anyway, as the North Park Blocks are one block East of the South Park Blocks.

At any rate, awhile ago there was an open block that was being used as a parking lot and the powers that be got together and suddenly (actually it took a long time and was delayed for seemingly ever) there is a park where there once was a parking lot. So I bring you my review of Simon and Helen Director Park.

It looks better than a parking lot. But I think the scale is weird. The Southwest corner has a large awning type thing that is very very high and I think it makes the rest of the park look small. It looks like it is looming over the tiny people, ready to stomp on them. Interestingly, the picture of the artists rendering in the link above cuts off this structure almost entirely.

I do like the granite color they have chosen. However, I'm still distracted by the large sheet of glass, ready to cause mayhem above me. Aside from the height of the roof, the supporting beams seem too thin and thus out of scale.

Unlike Pioneer Courthouse Square, which really is Portland's Living Room, there also seem to be few places to sit. I think this makes the chances of the park becoming a cold, windswept plaza even more likely.

Here's the Teacher's Fountain in recognition of teachers "selfless and untiring efforts to inspire the hearts and minds of their students." Right now it looks like a granite ball. Yay. A ball. But perhaps that water in the artists rendering has something to do with it.

Here is a closer look at the out of proportion glass cover, with actual human people so you can get a sense of scale. The building on the left will be a restaurant of some sort.

In conclusion, I'm not immediately charmed by Director Park. We shall see if my view changes over time.