Horsin’ Around

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I spent the day playing with horses at my bosses house. Do I even need to say that it was awesome?

—Danielle

To the Grandparents house they go…

Yesterday we brought Kashiko and Cho to McMinnville to spend the next week and a half with Ellen and Ron while we’re in Houston. The pets seem to think of it as vacation on the farm, and they’ve settled right into the flow of things there, or so we’ve heard.

—Danielle

Life in The Dalles: A visit from Lorien

Lorien's Fruit Tart, YUM!

Sunday Matt and I were delighted to spend the day with our dear friend Lorien, who, despite our having lived in The Dalles over a year, had never visited us here before! Not that we can blame her—besides our charming company, there isn’t much to attract in this weather. However, we’re looking forward to hiking together in the Spring, and goodness knows, the Gorge has ample opportunity for outdoor adventure when the weather is fine!

We went out for pastry and coffee, tried to go antique shopping (everything was closed!), and gave Lorien a tour of the college campus where I work. It was a nice, sunny day, with weather in the 50′s. It was nice to catch up, and spend some quality time with my best friend

—Danielle

My 10,000 calorie delight, which I ate with relish before finishing Lorien's pastry for her!

Charburger: Food by people who don’t give a damn.

Today Matt and I ventured to Troutdale, OR, to visit the outlet mall. We both needed new running shoes, and yours truly needed some new pants. A visit to the Addidas store took care of our footwear needs, and a the Levi’s store (and 40 pairs of pants later) had two perfect pairs of pants for me!

SInce we’ve lived here in the Gorge, we’ve passed the Charburger billboard on the highway innumerable times, and always said that someday we’d stop there for a burger. We both like burgers, and an independent burger house is something Matt and I have a lot of love for.

Enter disappointment.

Obviously the people running the place don’t give a damn about food, because it was total crap. Our money would have been better spent at Burger King (yeah, that bad), and we would have spent much less of it. Cafeteria style ordering was our first clue that all was not well, but we’re hopeful people, and instead of leaving immediately, we ordered burgers and sat down. About five minutes later, our food was delivered. I took pictures of both our meals, but my plate was so repulsive that I can’t in good conscious post it here. Here’s Matt’s burger, which looks better than it tasted.

Cheese that came wrapped in plastic, hamburgers that were obviously frozen, and EVERY implement (the ketchup, salt shaker, lettuce tongs at the “condiment” bar) were sticky and had to be handled with napkins. If you refuse to spend money on quality food, you could at least be clean Charbuger. Thumbs down. Way down.

Walking The Dalles

“There’s something fat, slow, and dumb in the air today.”

—Matt