Wine dare

 

 

Robin brought his housemate Jen, who was an avid wine drinker and bicyclist. She decided to try to combine these disciplines in a dare to balance a wine glass on her iron quads for a straight minute (five dollars was at stake). Everything went really well the first three seconds. Robin helped clean up.

More pics from Tara's bday

 

 

 

Genevieve had made a really tasty birthday cake, and the other highlights of the potluck included Dawn's mini cinnamon buns. So good!

Tara has a birthday

 

 

 

 

Our longtime friend Tara had a really nice potluck last friday, celebrating her birthday. We had a really good time, and many of our old housemates from the Mississippi haus were there. The food was excellent, and a good time was had by all. We decided to ride the bus there so we would not have to worry about riding our bikes in the dark after drinking, and I had almost forgotten what it was like to be on a bus in Portland.

More tales from the OC

 

 

 

 

One interesting feature of Oregon City is that it is neatly divided by a cliff shelf separating the upper town from the lower town. To get from one to the other, you travel in an elevator operator by an honest to god old man. You are allowed to take your bicycle in the elevator if it fits.

What people do in the OC

 

 

 

 

The sunday pastime of choice for a lot of OC residents seem to be to fish from the steep overlook by the river. Whatever they are trying to catch must respond well to giant balls of worms wound together, because that is what all the beer drinking fishermen was using for bait.

Oregon City

 

 

 

From Milwaukie we journeyed on to Oregon City, scene of a famous knife fight in the classic Del Toro movie "The hunted". There we admired their paper mill, whose epicness was the reason the knife fight was set there. It is very magnificent.

Milwaukies best

 

 

 

Last weekend we took advantage of the weather, and the fact that we had no scheduled workouts and got the hell of out dodge. Our beloved subaru took us to Milwaukee, a small town close to Portland that is mostly famous for being cheap to live in, and the home of Dark Horse Comics (Hellboy, for example). Once there we found a really nice old train trellis that we hereby document some of the finer aspects of.

The garden

 

 

 

 

We have had a spell of good weather lately, which has been great for the garden. We still have tomatoes and some squash, and we grew an amazing sunflower (without planting one). As it is getting colder outside, we see more of the animals around as they eat more and get closer to the houses. The family of four baby raccoons from the beginning of summer have now grown into lanky adolescents.

Goodbye party

 

 

 

The night before we left Gothenburg, we had a goodbye party at an odd little restaurant by Avenyn. Robert and Anna was there, and Olle and Linn dropped in too, which was great as we had not had time to see much of them. The bookfair was in full swing so the restaurant itself was very full, but we managed to find a quiet nook upstairs.

After some beer drinking, we got a fantastic nighttime meal from a all-night fast food vendor with a big vegan menu. Who would have thought such a thing would exist in Gothenburg? I had sai with mashed potatoes, which was a delicious end to a fun night.

Cabin entertainments

 

 

When we returned to the cabin from Vadstena after visiting Johan's parents, Susann found the most curious thing: A live crayfish sitting on the lawn. It was a long walk from the water, and it had clearly escaped from someones holding tank. After some prods, he got a ride back down to the lake. His companions likely ended up in the belly of someone, as crayfish eating season was in full swing.

During the night, we had to walk to from the main cabin to a second house to use the fascinating composting toilet. Or if you were lazy, you could ride a bike, of course. Guess which one I chose.

Vadstena redux

 

 

The cooking of the dad

 

Here is one of the vegan meals prepared by the dad. Not too shabby!

Parents

 

 

While in Sweden, my mom got sick and ended up spending three weeks in the hospital. This was frustrating for her, as she wanted to be at home when we visited, but the upside was that we were able to go visit at the hospital. In her absence, the dad pulled together some excellent vegan cooking, and we even got vegan luffarkaka. Very tasty!

Birthday!

 

 

I had my birthday while we were in sweden, and I got three different parties. The first happened in the cabin in Vadstena. Amelia put together an amazing princess cake (the best yet, and the best Sus had ever had according to her), and there was also party hats and streamers, of course.

 

 

Later in the day, we had lunch at Johan's parents, and Amelia got introduced to Julmust---the only softdrink I can honestly say I really like. Johan's mom had cooked up a nice vegetable medley, and we finished off the amazing cake.

Later parties happened in Karlstad, and we had a little celebration at Robert and Anna's place too, so I have to say that my new year of living started well.