Occupy Portland...with Bacon!

In an effort to highlight some of the things going on this week I have combined two things going on in Portland- The Occupy Movement and BACON. These are two quintessential Portland stars - both a little gritty, but beloved nonetheless. While nothing about these two things should be enjoyed together, they spiced up our week!

Tuesday's bacon inspiration: the bacon, cheddar, jalapeno muffin from Rocking Frog Cafe. For only $3 you can get a Costco-sized, home-made, heart attack muffin. I had already eaten lunch when I saw that giant piece of bacon staring at me from the top and bought it immediately. You can guess where I took that first bite...

The next bacon inspiration came when I was looking up interesting recipes I could cook with bacon at home and came across this SWEET, bacon dessert! Let me introduce the bacon, peanut-butter, chocolate chip cookie recipe I found on the Food Network site. And yes, those are little pieces of bacon and chocolate sprinkled on the top. They are as sweet and salty as you can imagine!

Every Wednesday night Todd has decided to take a nighttime ride around town. This week I joined him and we took the opportunity to check out Occupy Portland to see what the fuss was all about. There was no protesting going on when we arrived, but an unfortunate setback for the Occupy Portland movement came to light when we realized the camp looked all too similar to the homeless camp stationed right down the street. With the already large numbers of homeless living in Portland it seems the political outcry has become an all-expense paid vacation for the local homeless. Can you even tell the difference between camps?

The Right2Dream Too homeless camp .

The Occupy Portland camp

Which is which?

Todd was contemplating his own place in the movement as we walked through camp...we left him there for the night.

The Magic Kingdom: The Happiest Line on Earth

It was a magical occasion indeed when May and I got to head down south to the Golden state for a little sunshine, celebration, and Mickey Mouse. It was the most recent in a string of 60th birthday bashes for Jim Melehan, who invited the whole extended Melehan clan down to Disneyland to be kids for a weekend. It had been about 10 years since last I peed my pants at the Haunted Mansion and I was excited to relive those happy memories I had had with my grandma and grandpa who took me and my sister to Disneyland when we were kids. It was a blast hanging with the Melehans. They take their Disneyland pretty seriously. There are several rules I learned:


1. Fast Passes!!! The fast pass is your life, your love, and the only thing keeping you from going mad in a infinite line.
2. California Adventures serves beer. Enough said.
3. This isn't 'nam, if family members are lagging, it's acceptable to leave them behind. If you can't keep up, get the #$@! out of Disneyland grandma.

Splash mountain reveals things about people. Scary things. Zippity do da.

Laser Man. The coolest thing in all of Disneyland. And I missed him.

Say hello to my little friend. Look closer.

The other amazing thing we got to partake in ye old Medieval Times. If you have never been to this delightful palace of knights and mutton you need to go. It's awesome. Chivalrous (and not so chivalrous) knights battle it out for the crowds applause while you tear into meat with your hands and teeth. Wenches serve you frosty mead and you get to wear these adorable hats. We were cheering for the green knight who was the most bad ass knight in all of Anaheim. Unfortunately, he turned out to be an evil knight, intent on taking the thrown from the goodly king - spoiler alert. Clearly, evil cannot win within 50 miles of Disneyland and our tragic hero was slain before our eyes. Goodnight, sweet prince. Goodnight.

Green knight. What up?!

My, What A Busy Week(END)!

As the rain subsided we took it upon ourselves to live out the Portland Mercury's "My, What A Busy Week" schedule for all the events on Saturday! With a break from the rain, it was a gorgeous day out so we took full advantage!

First we attended the local Portland literary gathering Wordstock, where all things literary come together at the convention center for book talks, free book grab piles, publishing booths and general literature enthusiasm. I was excited to hear Jennifer Egan, who was awarded the 2010 Pulitzer in fiction, reading from her book A Visit From the Goon Squad.

After Wordstock we biked down along the Eastside Promenade to catch some views of the city and it's bridges.

After the ride we stopped over to the Portland Cheese Festival where we ate samples of local artisan cheese. I kept having to remind Todd not to cut the cheese...lines, which were too long so we only stayed for about five samples.

For dinner we met friends at a local Oktoberfest celebration/food cart where we ate brawtwurst and drank freshly brewed hop beer. There was traditional German dancing and even a sausage eating contest (not pictured)!

DJ Crawshaw

We spent our Friday night at the local bar called Hall of Records. Todd loves this spot because every Friday they allow for a half hour "open DJ" sign-up where new talent can come and practice their skills. And practice Todd did... Although I acted like I didn't know him when he played some of his less popular tracks, he did a great job!

They sell their own records and allow people to come and sample records on the turn tables.

Some of Todd's set included The O'Jays, Johnny Cash, Michael Jackson, Ike and Tina Turner, Mahalia Jackson, Dolly Parton, Elvis and Blackalicious

Doug Loves Portland!

Wednesday night Todd and I went to Helium Comedy Club to see one of our favorite comedians- Doug Benson. He is a semi-famous podcaster and more politically known as a "marijuana activist." Todd regularly enjoys his podcast Doug Loves Movies and was excited when they played a short round of "The Leonard Malton" game which has a regular segment on the podcast. Helium is a great venue, but unfortunately our good friend Doug may have over-prepared for his set as he had a tough time remembering some of his jokes and was a bit slow with some of his punchlines.

Even though we were thrilled to meet Doug Benson and get a photo taken, you can see that he wasn't on his best game that night...And in case you're wondering Doug is the guy in the middle, that dude to the left is actually Todd.