As most of you know, I am frequently startled attacked by the killer squirrels that live in the trees around my office building. But, I have never been as startled as I was the other day when I met Carlene.
This is Carlene:
She is a baby possum that may in fact be a boy. I'm still going to call her Carlene because if I were a possum, Carlene would be the name I would choose for myself.
This was my face when I realized Carlene was in the tree behind me:
As you can see, I tried to smile through the fear, but I was terrified that Carlene would decide I was a tree and try to climb me.
She didn't, which is why I'm here to tell the story, but it was touch and go for a bit. Okay, not really. I think Carlene actually just fell asleep in the tree. It was odd that she was awake mid-day so I'm not surprised she was more interested in sleeping than in whatever I was doing.
It recently snowed a LOT here in Oregon. As I've mentioned before, we don't get much snow, so it's kind of a big deal. And this time was an even bigger deal as we got up to a foot of snow in some places! In fact, we got so much snow that they not only closed the schools, they closed the state offices.
I, myself, left work early on Thursday, didn't bother even trying to make it in on Friday and Saturday I woke up to this:
I don't know why, but Saturday morning our trees were filled with birds. With robins. Fat, delightful, very cold robins:
Aren't they just too cute for words?!!
I felt horrible for them though; it was so cold. I didn't know how to warm them up so I settled for clearing a space on the patio and putting down some raw pumpkin seeds and some millet. They ate a bit and then a few hours later, they were all gone.
It was very strange having 60+ robins in our trees, but I am hopeful they made it someplace warm.
I know I usually save my random things for my Saturday Stuff and Things posts, but I forgot to do it Saturday and didn't have anything for today, so this is what you get.
First, some pictures. A couple of weeks ago, my friends and I went to McMenamin's Edgefield for the Plucky Maidens Junk Fest. As I've said before, Edgefield is my favorite McMenamin's and on a summer day, it's practically heaven. Here are some reasons why I love it so...
Hidden courtyards:
I think it's the courtyard to the Black Rabbit Restaurant at Edgefield, but as many times as I'd been there I hadn't ever seen it so it gave me a sort of "Secret Garden" thrill. And Secret Garden Thrills are the best.
Hydrangeas:
I love hydrangeas. And that's all I have to say about that.
And here are some photos from the Junk Fest itself:
It was so much fun. Even in 100 degree weather, we had a great time browsing the different booths and staying hydrated with McMenamin's beers. What? Beer isn't good for hydration? Hmph. Says you.
In addition to drinking, I also Tweet. That's right, I has the Twitter. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I have it and occasionally Tweet about football and other stuff. If you're interested, I'm @GraceytheGiant; you can even use the follow me link on the right.
Finally, I've started taking pole dancing class again, so expect to see some bruised shins in my photos. Oh, and prepare yourself for complaints about how sore I am and how terrible I am at pole dancing. Trust me, I'm terrible. But, it's fun and I'm glad to be back in the class!
And with that, I wish you all a Happy Tuesday and I'll be back with an outfit post tomorrow. Probably.
It's time for another round of Saturday Stuff and Things.
Thing 1
I am OBSESSED with the Louis Vuitton Fall 2012 ads:
Image via styleite.com
I'm (probably) not going to go out and get a giant hat and goggles for this fall, but I love the colors. I mean, what's not to love, it contains my beloved mustard, animal print and a delightful dusty rose.
Thing Two:
Don't forget, you can get 10% off an eShakti purchase through the end of August using code FA26KEY at checkout. And you can get 20% of a Marika Tek workout tee through the end of September at Marika by entering the code TEK20 at checkout.
Sorry about the lack of a post yesterday. I didn't work and while I intended to still post, I didn't even log in. Instead I got some sun, ran some errands, broke the washing machine and pinned a bunch of crap to Pinterest. You can follow me on there, if you're interested, by using the button on the right.
And now on to the Saturday Stuff and Things.
Last Saturday I went to a Jazz Concert at Cathedral Park in North Portland. I had never been to Cathedral Park but I wanted to go after seeing the lovely pictures Stacey at Gray Skies takes there. And it was as cool as I'd hoped. The St. John Bridge has lovely Gothic, cathedral-like construction:
The park is right under the bridge and it was the perfect setting to listen to jazz on a hot summer's day.
On Sunday, I went to see Florence + the Machine at Edgefield and it was the best concert I have ever been to. Her voice is even more magical in person and she is a great performer too. One thing that surprised me was how personable she was. Funny even. For example, she told us all about her Portland adventures saying she got the "whole Portland experience" because she went to Powell's Bookstore (where she bought a 90s copy of Virgin Suicides), went to Voodoo Donuts and in a coffee shop heard two men with full sleeve tattoos discuss where to get the best line tattoos. And when her hair fell from dancing, she borrowed bobby pins from the crowd to pin it back up.
Anyway, this is Florence:
Sorry it's not a great photo; I was mesmerized by her voice.
And here are some pictures of The Machine:
Seriously, best concert ever.
Although, I anticipate the concert I'm going to today will be pretty fun too. We're going to a music festival of 80s cover bands. Yes, it's pretty much my dream music festival. We're going to see Journey cover band Stone in Love, Bon Jovi cover band Steel Horse, and, for the first time, Guns and Roses cover band Appetite for Deception. So excited!!
Finally, I am obsessed with the new song by The Killers, called Runaways. Please to enjoy:
So, I have no pictures of today's outfit. I did wear clothes and they were good, serviceable clothes, but the photos were an epic fail. Basically, it's sunny here today and that threw a bit of a monkey wrench in our picture-taking endeavors. (We don't know what we're doing).
Therefore, for today, we just have words, not pictures.
Speaking of summery weather, this past weekend was
gorgeous. We actually made it to the
80s. In April! In Oregon!
And it was glorious. As
predicted, I did some reading in the sun but I also was actually surprisingly busy given my natural inclination towards laziness.
Let's see. On Friday night I went out with my friend, Alex to a local bar to listen to a local band. The band is called Rock n' Roll Cowboys and they are country rock? I don't know, but I believe this is a thing. We mostly just went for the rock portion, but the band is a lot of fun and we danced most of the night and even ended up singing along to "God Bless Texas" because the chorus is extremely easy to learn. Really, in spite of our lack of familiarity with the country portion of their performance, we ended up having a great time. We're actually planning on seeing them play this coming weekend too.
On Saturday, Alex and I went thrifting where I got a silk tee that I am actually wearing today (don't worry, it'll surface again), a vintage top, a skirt that I've already hemmed and a prom dress for 80s prom for my little sister. It's awesome. Which reminds me, I found my prom dress a couple of weeks ago and it's gorgeous and hideous at the same time. It's less prom than last year's but very, very 80s. I'll try to remember to give you guys a sneak peek soon.
On Sunday, I read in the sun and then went for a long (hour-and-a-half) walk around one of our local parks with a friend. The park was unsurprisingly packed but it was still fun. Sunday evening I went to the "Club Dance" workout and it basically kicked my heinie. Seriously, I haven't popped my booty that much since my college days. Between the booty-popping, arm-waving and hip-thrusting, I am sore as heck today. But, I will
definitely go back; it was hard, but it was so much fun!
Oh, and I almost forgot one of my favorite things I did over the weekend was to watch that new HBO series, Girls. Natasha Fatah talks about it a bit on her post, here, but basically, I thought it was pretty great. I didn't love it unreservedly, as it's not always easy to watch, but I'll definitely watch it again. Have any of you seen it?
Happy Monday, All! I'll figure out how to take pictures in the sun tomorrow (or you'll just get really, really bad pictures).
