Weekend Update... belated

A couple of things happened this weekend that I wanted relay to you, Blog. Nothing outrageously interesting, just worthy of a short post.

Saturday and Sunday were Aurora Colony Days (as mentioned in a previous post). I didn't really partake in the festivites apart from seeing the parade go by the house. I videotaped most of it and had lots of candy thrown at me. Then I hopped in the car and drove to Portland to go to the Widmer Brewery tour. I was going to stop at the Oregon Zoo on the way to get tickets for this Friday's Neko Case concert, but the parking lot was full and I would have had to park and take a shuttle. No thanks, no time.

So, I went straight to the brewery. Though I'm not a HUGE fan of their beers, it is an extremely nice brewery. Not only have they been quite successful for a good portion of the 20 (?) years they've been in business, but they are also 25% owned by Annheuser-Busch. Hmmm, so this is a brewery with a big budget? Must be nice! According to the tour guide, A-B only takes care of distribution, they don't have any creative say-so. If Widmer decided to stop brewing their Hefeweizen which is 85% of their profit, A-B might have a thing or two to say about it! Anyway, after seeing the brewery which was very European in design (brick, spacious, spartan), we sampled some of their beers. Again, not something to rave about, but they're at least better than the beer A-B makes.

My next scheduled stop was to go to the Lloyd Center theater to see "28 Days Later" (not the Sandra Bullock movie!). It didn't get a really wide release, so it wasn't playing near Aurora. Since I hadn't had any lunch and I didn't have time to eat beforehand, I got some popcorn and a pepsi to tide me over til dinner. Wolfed it down during the previews, but started to feel "a little funny" within 20 minutes. Didn't really think about it much during the movie because it was transcendantly enthralling! I highly recommend it. It's a "horror film", but not like Friday the 13th. Just see it and stop making excuses!

When I get out of the theater and start driving home, I'm becoming more aware of how crappy I feel. Something is not right! And everytime I think about the popcorn, my stomach turns. So, I stop at Home Depot to take care of that day's chore (buying things needed for the house and yard) and hurry home. By the time I get there, my condition has worsened substantially. I clearly have food poisoning. After cringing away from the smell of the Campbell's soup Kristen was having for dinner, I end up staying near the bathroom and hoping that my body decides to reject my "lunch". Finally, after what seemed like two hours of anguish, I managed to exorcise the demon. Or at least most of it. Then Kristen and I faxed our signed lease-agreement to The Belgian Landlord (sounds like the title to a seedy paperback mystery). Felt a bit sluggish for the rest of the weekend and most of yesterday, though.

Sunday was spent staying away from popcorn and pretty much all other foods. I did manage to work in the yard with Jake for most of the day. We chopped up the limbs from the half of the apple tree that fell down and started putting down plastic and gravel around the pond. The only food I could stomach all day was beer (funnily enough!) and I managed to stir up a craving for mashed potatoes which is what I ended up making for dinner. Then, it was early to bed and early to rise for this Nike worker.

A side-note: On Saturday when Kristen and I went to the Aurora Colony Museum to help set up for the day, a police-officer came by to check on the building and file a report. Apparently, the alarm had gone off (we later found out that it went off at 1 AM the previous morning) and the officer needed to know the name of the manager, etc. He spoke to Joan and Kristen, so I wasn't really paying attention. Then he said, "Hey, don't you work at Nike?" Uh, yeah. "I'm so-and-so, I head the security there." Oh, yeah... I thought you looked familiar! Made me really feel like I was a factory worker in a small town where everyone knows each other because they all work for the same company. Wierd!