The Roots - Part 2, It Was Meatastic!

Over this past weekend, the monkey, The Architect, me-myself-and-I, reached the numerical equivalent of 35. A new check box on surveys, but other than that not a huge change.

There were a few surprises and the first one started at work with a morning cupcake surprise on Thursday. Why was I surprised? Well, for starters, I planned on this happening on Friday, but other people's schedules must have made two days before the actual day easier than one day prior. Since I didn't expect it to happen on Thursday, the staff gathered in the conference room. I got up, walked by and thought nothing of it, went to the restroom, came back and got coffee and went back to my desk. Finally, the boss came and got me.

Spread out on the conference room table were cupcakes from Ida's Cupcake Cafe and, oh my, these were the best cupcakes I had ever tasted.

No, I didn't shoot those shots in the conference room. But, I did take the leftovers home and shoot these on my dining table. The Teacher was also game for a creative maternity shot, so I had her pose with a cupcake.

Of course the birthday weekend extravaganza hadn't even started yet, so let's get to it.

Friday
After work and after dinner we decided to hit the First Friday art walk in downtown Bend. It was a bit chilly, but what do you expect in November? After finally finding a parking spot, we first visited Powell’s Sweet Shoppe, which is one of the coolest candy stores you'll find. The bulk candy isn't exactly a bargain, but it's hard to resist when you see so many items you can't find elsewhere.

With The Teacher carrying her bag, and mine in my pocket, we headed out to a few galleries and shops. There was a photo exhibit on abandoned dogs in Chili, which was somewhat interesting, but the rest of the art hadn't seemed to change much from past memories of doing the art walk. Boo hiss.

After working off the candy from our artistic walk, we decided to hit El Jimador for a nice plate of nachos. Yummy and it warmed our hands nicely.

Saturday
No breakfast in bed, but there were presents. No need to worry, good food was never very far away either. The Teacher had already agreed to letting me pick the activity for the day, and I had decided that a outdoor excursion within reasonable limitations would be fun. So, after a yummy breakfast of French toast, sausage and coffee we loaded up the car with goodies and headed North.

We did dilly dally a bit before actually hitting the road, so we did stop for a somewhat light late lunch at the A&W in Madras. I had a simple bacon cheeseburger and a root beer float, while The Teacher had a cheeseburger and Amy The Wonder Dog scored herself a few dry hamburgers. Lucky dog.

With burgers in our bellies, we got back on the road and headed for the lovely town of Shaniko, Oregon. Yes, The Teacher let me pick the location and with the snow level low in the passes, we had somewhat limited options. I figured that Shaniko would at least offer up some interesting photo opportunities.

Of course when we arrived it was dang windy and dang cold. In November? Go figure. At first I thought we would park and then walk around, but on second thought it made more sense to drive around and park, get out, shoot photos, and get back in the car. Yes, it was not a pleasant day out. At least the cloudy sky added to the ghost town ambience better than a sunny day would have.

When I did ask The Teacher to pose, I'd get all set up, then signal her in the car to run out, pose, and run back to the car.

Thankfully, when we stood next to the larger buildings, they shielded us from the wind, which made it so much more comfortable.

With Daylight Savings Time over, it grew dark quickly around 4:30pm. We had plans to hit Costco for some final shopping before cooking dinner at home, so we hit the road and made good time back to Bend. Of course I thought Costco closed at 6:00pm, so it was a frantic dash to the front of the store, where we were relieved to see they were open for an hour longer. With a nice big cheesecake and some salad (I mean, who doesn't like cheesecake with their salad?) we were ready to go home and have a home cooked feast.

The Teacher opted for grilled chicken, but I required some serious steak for this day. A nice big 16 oz rib eye did the trick. Of course by the time I started grilling it was almost 8:00pm. It was dark and raining, which is not the ideal grilling environment, but the end result was well worth it. It was a feast indeed. A meatastic feast.

Sunday
While this day was the day after, it did include a bonus birthday dinner at Baldy's BBQ. With a full rack+, so it was INDEED MEATASTIC as well.

So, in conclusion, it was a very good day to turn another year older, with my belly a little fuller, and my smile a lot wider.