July 2018 – Mom's Guide to the Galaxy

My next great adventure

My next great adventure starts today. (Well, last week by the time you read this.) Two days after my official termination date at my previous job, I accepted a job offer. For my first week of work, I’m flying to San Diego to meet my co-workers at the main office. This is my first visit to California as an adult; I don’t count the couple times I’ve stopped in the San Francisco airport.

One of the important items on my prep list was finding the nearest WTSDA dojang. As it happens, the instructor there was the guest master when I pre-tested for my black belt in February. My karate uniform was actually the first thing I packed. I’m also staying about 10 minutes from a beach, so I packed my bathing suit – and sunscreen! – as well. Other than that, it’s work clothes, pajamas, and toiletries. Oh, and two books – of for each flight. I plan to re-read Anno Dracula on the way out and The Lightning Thief on the return trip.

The work week went well, the extra stuff went almost as planned. I attended a great karate class, and tried an assortment of interesting restaurants while I was in California. I didn’t go swimming, but I did dip my feet in the ocean at sunset my last night there. I resisted going to Legoland after work – theme park prices make more sense as an all day outing. And, except for the transit to and from the airport, I wasn’t near downtown San Diego, so I didn’t get to see any of the excitement surrounding the San Diego Comic-Con.

What did thrill me was the gardenias near the dojang; the nearby shopping center had them planted all around the edges of the parking lot, so getting out of the car, I could smell them immediately. Oh, and I found a game store. (Of course I did.)

Exploring Portland

Powell’s City of Books, Science Fiction & Fantasy section. I looked in other rooms; I shopped in this one.

I moved from Portland when I was five, so I only have vague memories of when I lived there. I have visited enough over the years to have some favorites; when I go back to visit friends and family, I try to do a mix of exploring new places and visiting old, familiar ones. An absolute must is Powell’s City of Books, which is their main location. You can pick between whatever’s available according to your taste, be it paperback, hard cover, new or used, because Powell’s shelves then all together. When I was there in 2015, I had a shopping list of classic science fiction books; I was able to find all of them.

We met friends for dinner a couple blocks away from Powell’s, at McMenamin’s Ringlers Pub. We were so busy having fun, I forgot to take any food photos while we were there. Suffice to say I’d be happy to eat there again.

Not actually in Portland… lava tubes at Ape Caves, Mt. St. Helens, Washington state

The exploration part of this trip was a trip into Washington state to the Mt. St. Helens Lava Tube. I was discussing my upcoming trip to Portland with a (now former) co-worker, who told me about the lava tubes. It was an amazingly scenic drive – as much of the area around Portland is – and we opted for the short, easy walk down the tubes, rather than the extreme

Bridge of the Gods, north of Portland, Oregon

one going up. Our initial plan was to follow this with a trip to Multnomah Falls, but everybody else was already there – the parking was full, and the freeway exit closed. We were quite hungry, so revamped our plan to eat at a restaurant underlooking (it’s like overlooking, but we could see the underside of it) the Bridge of the Gods.

The main purpose of this visit was my grandmother’s birthday party, which was a fabulous reunion of family members and friends. After the party, with only an hour or so before it closed, I went to the Portland Saturday Market and then to the Lan Su Chinese Garden. Sadly, I was still quite full from the amazing food at the party and couldn’t try anymore food at either location.

I did stop at the teahouse in the Chinese Garden, operated by The Tao of Tea, to pick up some Rose Petal Black tea, which is an all-time favorite of mine. I also watched a drawbridge go up, which is one of those fun things to do if you’re not one of the cars stuck waiting on the bridge.

But all good things must come to an end, especially with a houseful of cats waiting at home and a week of organizing before starting my new job. We did find a delightful farm-to-table restaurant at the airport called The Country Cat where we bought a filling lunch. This turned out to be fairly important… we were getting ready for bed after arriving home and realized that because of the time difference and flight time, we never ate dinner. Oops.

Self-rescuing Princess

It has recently come to my attention that some of my friends, whom I’ve known for years, haven’t heard me sing. This is a far cry from when I was younger, when all of my friends heard me sing, whether they wanted to or not. (It helps that I was in chorus and choir, some of that singing was with other people.)

I started working on this song a few years ago, well before I knew a target date for my black belt test. At the moment, I have somehow misplaced the lyrics for the second verse (and the beginnings of the third), and haven’t written the harmony. But I have my black belt now (though I couldn’t find my bow before the recording; it has since been located), so I wanted to go ahead and share this.

This song is dedicated to all the self-rescuing princesses in my life, and the people who helped us get to that point.

How does my garden grow?

As a project manager, gardening is my second best reminder that I can’t control all of the variables in a project. (Parenting is the first.) I can do all the planning and prep that I want, but I have no control over the weather, and realize that the germination rate for seeds varies. So while I’m sad that the okra didn’t germinate – it did so well the first summer in this garden – the next step is to fill that space. I love being able to say that I picked my salad the morning I’m eating it, so I went ahead and planted some salad greens there.

It’s not like the rest of the garden is struggling. Starting in the top left, there’s my star garden out front, my low beds in the far back, my keyhole bed out back, and the garden tower by the driveway.

Starting in the top level, there's my star garden out front, my low beds in the far back, my keyhole bed out back, and the garden tower by the driveway. — Herbs and sunflowers; tomatoes and flowers; carrots, pumpkins, and peas; tomatoes, marigolds, and salad greens.

The star is mainly an herb bed, with an overwhelming amount of mint and cilantro (they’re both spreading), chives, and some basil, along with a huge number of sunflowers. At this point, the low beds will be all tomatoes and salad greens this year, along with flowers in some corners. The keyhole bed is being overwhelmed by pumpkins – I had to search for the Brussels sprouts this morning – and a couple of the flowers are already forming pie pumpkins. There are also carrots and peas in there, though the pea harvest will be done well before the pumpkins are ready. The garden tower has bite-sized tomatoes at the top, salad greens in the bottom rows, and marigolds filling in the rest.