Catching Up in Portland

We're in Portland, the second day of a holiday visit.

We left Vancouver early yesterday morning, waking up at 3 am to avoid a long wait at the border crossing. As a result, we had no slowdowns anywhere, breezing over the border, through Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia without any traffic congestion. We arrived at our friends' house mid-morning. Naps were had.

Today we took the girls ice skating at the Lloyd Center mall.





Then I took the MAX to downtown and caught up.

After being away, I mostly notice what's changed when I visit. I've noticed a lot of houses repainted in earth colours - greens and browns and oranges and some purples. I miss seeing so many character homes.

Walking around downtown, I reacquainted myself with things that make Portland Portland - like the bubblers (still running in the December chill) and the so-walkable small blocks - and lots of new things. Like how many of the rubbish bins have been replaced by solar-powered rubbish compactors. Two MAX lines running along the bus mall.

Two more surface parking lots have been repurposed. This former lot is now a new apartment tower with four highly-visible windmills at the top.



And with this former lot, the parking has moved underground, with a new park/square at surface level.



I visited my usual haunts, but splurged a little. The prices are considerably lower than what we pay in BC, and there's no sales tax also. I got a few software books at Powell's Technical bookstore, then a CD at Everyday Music, and the latest Word magazine at Rich's Cigars, a month before I'll see it in Chapters.

I'll probably have another chance to walk through downtown as we're here a few more days. I've also made plans with other mates for some brewpub dinners, and am looking forward to catching up with this year's holiday ales.

Our Christmas Morning

Here are a few photos of our morning ...

Sarah Wears A DRESS

The music school Sarah and Margo attend had a recital this afternoon. Weeks ago Sarah decided she wanted to be in it. (Margo didn't.) So she's been practising Jingle Bells.

And, most interestingly, she decided she wanted to wear a dress to the recital. I helped her find one last weekend, along with white tights and black shoes.

Here are the girls dressed up for a choral concert last night:



At the recital today, Sarah said she was nervous before her turn (which was fortunately quite early in the program) but it didn't seem like it: she strode to the front and played her piece solidly.

Nanaimo, and Vancouver Christmas Lights

We've had a nice break from the rain this week. I took advantage of the sun yesterday to take a day off work and take a day trip to Nanaimo.

I left the house about the same time, taking a bus downtown and then another to West Vancouver and Horseshoe Bay. This is my ferry approaching.



After arriving about two hours later, I had a few hours to wander around, shop, and dine. Here are some of the pictures I took.









I got a midafternoon return ferry, and by the time I arrived back in Vancouver it was dark. I lingered in downtown to get some pictures of the Christmas lights, which I've been meaning to do for a while.

Carols

The girls have been practising Christmas carols on the piano. Not hearing the words lets the mind wander. I'm impressed that so many carols have first lines with the same meter as the phrase "Sarah is a spanking head."

Sarah does not seem to appreciate this correlation.

I am not learning any Christmas songs, though I might be persuaded to lay a wicked guitar solo on top of one. I may spend time re-learning Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, which I learned about fifteen years ago as a Christmastime gift for mates, driving from house to house with my portable keyboard. It was one octave too small so I had to transpose a few notes near the end.

I will definitely continue my tradition of spiking the punch, sonically. At this time of year, I am forced to hear the same old Christmas songs (although we do have some cool versions) randomly cycling from the iPod. So if I have to listen to such sludge, I might as well make it tough on the others as well. Last year I tortured a carol and tagged the MP4 as "Bleu Christmas" by Jacque Froste. This year's will be even worse.

My New Daily Grind

I've been grinding my own coffee beans for my morning cuppa this week. I'd been meaning to try it since I read an article on coffee freshness a while back.

The fresher the coffee, the more flavour it has. Coffee loses freshness in an increasingly steep slope. Apparently it goes like this. Unroasted coffee beans can be kept for a year or two and stay fresh. Once roasted, beans lose most freshness in about two weeks. Once ground, most of the freshness is lost within a few hours. If you can smell the coffee flavour, then it's no longer in the bean.

So I did some online research into coffee grinders. Blade grinders, while less expensive, can have enough friction to give beans a burnt taste. Conical burr grinders grind coffee between two gearlike plates with less friction. By adjusting the spacing between the plates, you can also control the fineness of the grind; with a blade grinder, to get a finer grind, you just grind longer.

I was intruiged by the idea of a hand-powered grinder: it would be quieter and of course eco-friendly. I found that a coffee shop called The Elysian Room appears to the the only Vancouver supplier of Zassenhaus hand grinders. So last week I got one, and it looks like this:



It's a nice piece of kit. It's hand-made in Germany. The conical burr mechanism of hardened steel is warranted for 25 years. It won't need sharpening or servicing until long after I'm dead. There's only one adjustment, for grind coarseness, and it's integrated into the axle instead of sticking out somewhere else. It's a nicely engineered tool, very good at what it does, with no extra bits. Something that's a pleasure to use, like our Dyson vacuum cleaner or Apple iMac and iPod. I could pass it on to Sarah, and she could pass it on.

So how much better is my morning cup? Not a night-and-day difference, but much tastier. I did take a few days to make adjustments: at first I was grinding too finely, which means the grounds are not trapped by the plunger's screen of our French press. I'm also learning not to let it steep too long to avoid bitterness.

I'm also ashamed to realise that I've spent most of my adult life in the Pacific Northwest, where coffee is worshipped, and have only just now begun handling beans. To see how beans shatter, see what they look like inside, and to chew one.

I'm looking forward to trying coffees I'm familiar with, like the local Caffè Artigiano, and Portland's Stumptown, and tasting them all over again.

And I could of course spend tons more money further improving the taste: an espresso maker, a reverse osmosis water filter. But I won't be. I figure I'm at the 80/20 point, that the biggest possible difference has been made. I'm sure I've got further tuning to do, and lots of coffee to enjoy.

Here are a few photos from the Halloween party:

Haunted House Cake: Chocolate ginger cake topped with a gingerbread haunted house.



Ghost Stories



Sarah in her mummy costume