Comfort Food

Have you ever disliked a restaurant that serves comfort food? Yeah, neither have I. So when I saw info online about a restaurant not a mile from our house named "Comfort Food"--more properly "organic Comfort Food cafe"--I was all over it.

Comfort Food is in a little storefront next door to the Puyallup Public Library and is only open for lunch Monday through Saturday. The menu states the cafe's mission very plainly:

First to serve wholesome and flavorful food in a heartwarming atmosphere.
Second, to facilitate a shift of focus and heighten awareness of local and world needs.
And third to raise funds to help local foster youth and international orphans.

I've seen point #1 a million times. #2 is fairly unique and commendable. But #3 is totally unheard of. So we have a restaurant within walking distance of our house that is dedicated to helping orphans? We may never cook again.

So we took our time in the cafe and looked at all the info about orphans and foster care. But we also needed to eat while we were there at the cafe, so I ordered a grilled meatloaf sandwich. It was very tasty and I wasn't hungry for the rest of the day, which flies in the face of the assumption that organic can't also be hearty. Anne-Marie had a turkey sandwich and was equally satisfied. Served in a timely manner with chips and capped off with a dessert of the house-made no-bake cookies made for a very adequate meal.

Photo by Taste of Home

After a decade of taking trips to places around the Portland Metro area, it was hard to imagine that we would stumble on something so unique and exceptional in just a few months, but we did. I highly recommend making a trip to Comfort Food.

Anne-Marie and I decided to make the trip into a lunch date, so along with lunch, we strolled through antique shops downtown. There's a lot of neat stuff down there for a window shopping adventure on a rainy day. Maybe that deserves its own post.

And, yes. The no-bake cookies were the kind made with peanut butter.

77 for 2011

I'm feeling a little homesick as we come to the end of 2010.  With some help from Anne-Marie, here's a list of 77 things I'll miss about living in Oregon:


Places

1.  The St. John's Bridge

     I think there's 10 or 11 bridges in Portland, but this is the most beautiful.

Photo - H Dragon (thks!)

2.  Crown Point

I asked Anne-Marie to marry me here!

3.  The viewpoint in OC off Brighton

     Not as cool as Crown Point, but still a neat place for OC.

4.  Willamette Falls

     The most amazing natural wonder in the Portland Metro area, too bad it's surrounded by gigantic paper mills.

5.  The White Stag sign

     Why do they keep changing this thing? White Stag, Made In Oregon, now Portland Oregon

Photo by Steve Morgan

6.  Tom McCall Waterfront Park

     Also known as "Luis Palau Kills Our Grass Every Summer" Park

7.  Portland Children's Museum

     Went to the Seattle Children's Museum. Nah! Gimme back the PCM.

8.  Historic Highway

     If you haven't been on this to see the waterfalls, make plans NOW!

9.  Pioneer Courthouse Square

     It's Portland's living room and they have a lot of crazy friends.

10. Highway 43

      I always loved driving under the trees on this state highway through West Linn and Lake Oswego.

Eats
11. Nicholas's Restaurant (Eastside)
      Most affordable local restaurant and best Lebanese food in town (sorry Ya Hala)

12. Trufflehunter (Gresham)
      Hooj sanwhiches

13. Super Torta (OC)
      This place is a dive. And--as you would expect--it's very good

Thanks Tom A. at Yelp for the pic

14. Francis (Alberta) and Downtown Greek Cusina (uhhhh...Downtown?)
      A newcomer and a Portland landmark both disappeared off the scene before we could even move.

15. Amadeus (Milwaukie)
      This oooold house in Milwaukie is almost creepy, but the Austrian restaurant and atmosphere it creates is downright magical.

16. La Carreta (Ross Island Bridge)
      'Nother Mexican place. Get the fajitas for two.

17. His Bakery (OC)
      Ohhhh the scones!  And ham and cheese croissants!  I mean Puyallup's Pioneer Bakery is good, but...

18. Five Guys Burgers & Fries (everywhere but here)
      OK. This is a national chain, but the closest one is 30 minutes away from Puyallup. No fair.

19. Camp 18 (Highway 26, near the coast)

     








20. Enjoni Cafe (NE)
      Best East African restaurant in Portland. Order anything.

Oregonizations, etc.

21. Clackamas Community College

      Got my degree here. (Associates of Science, Drafting Technology [Architectural Option], in case you were wondering.  Too bad the drafting program folded in 2009.)

22. Al's Garden Center

...has the greatest floral hanging baskets.

23. The Dig

      Most of my wardrobe is from here. It's kind of a re-sale shop, but everything's 5 bucks.

24. Clackamas Town Center

      We went on our first date here. I'll miss driving by all those places we went. 

25. Portland Community College

      A-M's AM.

26. Dove Adoptions

      After eliminating 99 other adoption agencies, we chose this one in Banks, Oregon and are glad we did.

27. Portland Trail Blazers

      Just thinking about the local team makes my knees hurt.

28. Cutsforth Thriftway

      I actually worked here for 6 months. Best grocery store in Canby and perhaps the world!

29. University of Oregon Ducks

       It took us moving out of state for them to get to the National Championship.

30. Oregon State University Beavers

      The Cougs crimson and gray will never compare to the orange and black of OSU.      

Cities/Districts/Neighborhoods

31. Aurora

       ...for the antique shops

32. Tualatin

       ...for the memories

OC!///Photo: MarkPritchard

33. McMinnville

      ...for my childhood

34. Oregon City

      ...for young life

35. Canby

      ...for the fields

36. Downtown Gresham

      ...for being one of a kind

37. Silverton

      ...for being from another era

38. NE Portland/NoPo

      ...for her people

39. The Pearl

      ...for the shops

40. Clackamas

      ...for a hundred romantic evenings

41. West Linn/Lake Oswego

      ...for never letting me live in your borders (else we'd have never left Oregon)

42. Montavilla

      ...for being funky

Ladd's Addition by Greg_E

43. Lloyd/Hollywood/Sullivan's Gulch District

44. Ladd's Addition and

45. Laurelhurst

      ...for the architecture

46. Downtown

      ...for being an urban area where I never thought I was going to get shot

47. 23rd

      ...for being there before The Pearl

48. Washington Park/West Hills

      ...for the trees

49. Bend/Sunriver

      ...for all the high desert vacations (we'll try to resist the call of Suncadia and come back to you)

50. Sellwood

      ...for being the smallest part of Portland

Local Yokels

51. 1190 KEX

52. KXL 750

      1190 and 750 are the standby news stations that everyone listens to on the way to work.

53. Bob Miller in the Morning

      He's been on the radio in Portland since I was an infant.

54. Now-defunct local celebrities that form something of a mini pop culture

      Scott Thomason, Tom Peterson and this guy:

55. The Portland Tribune
      "What about The Oregonian?" you ask.  Yeah, What about it?

56. John Canzano

      A local sports columnist that constantly makes news for his no-nonsense style.

57. Stumptown Coffee

      Don't really sell this just any place. And not here in WA.

58. Mr. Statue
      OK. So there's this guy that stands outside Pioneer Place and he's painted silver. It's cool. Really.

59. Bill Schonely

      The former Blazers play-by-play guy is still a big name in PDX, but not here (and I just missed the Dave Niehaus era in Seattle).

OregonLive file photo

60. OMSI

      Maybe this should have been put in the "Oregonizations" section. Of course, the Pacific Science Center is very cool, but no dome-screen IMAX. Bummer.


Random, etc.

61. Flying out of PDX

      SeaTac just won't be the same

62. Watching the Pioneer Courthouse Square Christmas Tree Lighting

      Without getting blown up.

63. Driving to Canby whenever we wanted to see Phil

      I guess this would have changed anyhow.

64. Going to the Clackamas County Fair and Rodeo with Ben and Jen

      And all those years we were too cheap to get reserved seating...

65. Driving over Santiam Pass to get to Central Oregon

Pic by J. Stephen Conn

66. Having someone else pump my gas!

67. Getting pumpkins and apple cider donuts each fall at Fir Point Farms in Canby

68. Living four blocks away from Mike and Kara

69. Scoping out the craziness that is Sleighbells of Sherwood

70. Our annual tradition of going to the Oregon Symphony's Gospel Christmas

Near & Dear

71. Oregon District Senior Bible Quizzing

      Bible Quizzing is a program that encourages teams of young people from different cities to memorize a specific book of the Bible. The teams face each other one weekend a month in a tournament. With Anne-Marie assisting, I was the head of the 15-18 year old division for five years and I miss all those guys a lot.

72. Apostolic Worship Center

      I never attended this church (down the road from us in Gresham), but I made so many friends in their congregation.  It's obvious that kindness and character run rampant at Ted Graves church.

73. Ross Hoevet Family Dentistry

      Anne-Marie worked 10 years here.  The Dr. and staff became like friends and neighbors that you wouldn't mind hanging out with just because.

74. Western Wood Structures, Inc.

      I worked here for almost 10 years.  Paul, Jim, Steve and co. nearly made work like a vacation. Nearly.  It's amazing how many times in a day I mention Western Wood.

75. The house on Boynton

      I lived here for 15 years.  I brought my new wife home to this house.  My kids, too.  Never really cared for the floor plan, but sentiment overrides all that.

Driving away for the last time

  

76. All the folks

      You know who you are.  Friends and family were by far the hardest thing to leave.

77. Oregon City United Pentecostal Church

      Pastor Gary Gleason and too many folks to name impacted our lives forever.  Thank you so much for your investment in our family.

I guess that about does it.  There are probably a bunch of things we forgot.  Oregon will always be in our heart.  Here's to 2011 and an amazing year in Washington!

Switching from telephoto

When I was a kid, my mom had one of those Eastman Kodak 110 cameras with the telephoto lens. You guys remember the telephoto lens.  It was the little switch you flipped on top that manually moved a different lens in front of the shutter.  The telephoto lens made stuff in the distance look like it filled the viewfinder.  I have no idea how that all worked, but I guess it was a primitive version of zoom.

I think my life has been stuck on telephoto for the past few weeks. The fact of the matter is, I can't get a job.  I really want to get a job, but--no matter how hard I try--I can't.  I've applied and been turned down at Macy*s (gotta love the *), Starbucks, Wal*Mart (there it is again), Target, Domino's and about 40 design firms. Really.

There's nothing like sitting in an interview for a job that pays $8.35 an hour and thinking, "I could DESIGN the building we're sitting in and you're saying I'm not qualified to stock the shelves inside of it?"  That's a new level of frustration.  It puts you on the dividing line of being humbled and being humiliated.  Every day I get to decide which side of the line to jump off on.  Some days it's one side; some days the other.

I can't say that I'm above any of the jobs I've applied for.  Far better men than I have happily worked a lifetime doing more menial tasks.  I guess maybe I've been a little (more than a little) spoiled.

That's where telephoto comes in.  Telephoto cuts the big picture out so all you see is one area.  If I switch out of that mode and look at real life, everything seems so much better.  My wife and kids are healthy and here with me.  We have a house to live in.  The bills are still being paid on time.  We've been blessed by God to be starting a new life and ministry here in Puyallup.  We have all kinds of old friends back home and all kinds of new friends here.  Food is still being put on the table at our house. Even cookies sometimes.

It's been said that whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger.  I hope this is another one of those things. Even if it's not, God is still good to ask me to live a little weaker.

The House on 5th

Here's some pictures of the main floor of the house, along with a few of the exterior. (Yes, Western Washington is in the middle of a series of snow storms.)



Here's a few more of Anne-Marie's decor:

Life in a motel: breaking free

We busted out. Yep, that's right! Last week we left the Motel Puyallup and got into our not-so-nice-and-shiny house.

A few days before we were supposed to move in, the landlord talked to me and let me know that the recently-departed former tenants had left the place in a sorry state. He had been to the house a few hours after they left and found the crayon and pen marks all over the walls, a broken door and a lot of just plain ol' nasty dirtiness.

Here's a walkthrough of the house when it was still dirty:



So we made a deal. Since we needed out of the motel very badly--and we need to pay less money, not more--we agreed to the first month's rent half off in exchange for us doing all the needed cleaning work. It was quite the undertaking for the first two days, but we got it all done.

We moved out of the hotel and into the house for good last Thursday. The kids are thrilled. They have so much more room to jump, play and scream. As an added bonus (not for us), the house is about half a block from the train tracks. Yes, it wakes us up at least twice a night, but when the train crossing bells go off at the end of the road the kids run to the front door and watch the train fly by. We've been saved many times from fit-throwing, shrieking, flailing kids by the sound of a train whistle.

Hope to post pictures of the finished product in the near future. Anne-Marie has worked her decorating magic splendidly, so once it's finished it will be broadcast to the masses.

Life in a motel, Part III: Cabin fever

So, the kids are sick of this now. At the beginning of the week, their moods turned ugly and they don't seem to be getting any better.  They both throw fits over the slightest annoyance and will not do anything we ask them to do.

Elisha's "bedroom" is in the corner behind that blanket.

We were counting on the "On-Site Laundry Facilities" here to get us through these three weeks, but after putting the first load of laundry in the dryer for three hours (and $3), we found out that it would take us way too long to finish our laundry, so we brought it to the laundromat.  As soon as people at the church here found out about that they insisted that we used their washer and dryer.  So we've been involved in laundry visitation ministry ever since.  I kinda liked the laundromat, though.  It has those BIG dryers in rows that are so very fast.  Plus, laundromats have wi-fi and usually a very cool vending machine.

I could come here just because.

 My mom came and visited us last weekend.  She came Friday and stayed through Sunday.  Friday was the church's Western Roundup, so we all dressed like cowboys and watched the kids play games.  Elisha and Mariah thought the swimming pool they were using for the rubber duck pond was..well... a swimming pool, so they were completely soaked by night's end. 

Yeeehaw! Sorry for the blurry photo.

We took advantage of my mom being in town and for the first time in several weeks, Anne-Marie went on a date!  We visited SouthCenter Mall and ate dessert at The Cheesecake Factory.  Funny how all the shopping we did was for kid's clothes. Life does change.

H&M is Ikea, except with clothes.

Aside from the job hunt and meeting a lot of new people, we have been preparing for the move into the house!  This next Wednesday is supposed to be the day.  We are still working out the details, but this week for sure.  I can hardly wait.

Life in a motel, Part II: Growing

It's an amazing thing, the human ability to adapt to any given circumstance. We've lived in the motel for a week and a half and have developed somewhat of a system. Anne-Marie cooks dinner, I look for jobs on the internet and the kids go berserk. It's all very systematic.

In the morning, I try to narrow down the best job prospects that have been newly posted on the web. By the time I finish that, everyone else is up. So the kids have to be changed, fed and dressed. They usually last an hour or two in the room before we need to take a drive. Wal*Mart, Target, Best Buy. Goodwill, Jack In the Box, Pioneer Park. Wherever. We just need to get them out. And we need to get out ourselves.

We've spent the last two weeks teaching in home groups here in the Puyallup area, along with going to ministerial training and getting to know more people. Teaching in a home group (here they call them Life Groups) is completely different than sermonizing on Sunday. Usually if you preach at a church you are on a platform and people look straight ahead to about the level of your knees. Teaching at someone's dining room table puts you face to face with people. It demands things of you that are very easily held captive in the traditional space between podium and pew.

The kids are still growing. This is the smallest place they've ever lived, but they still find time to learn new tricks (like Elisha somersaulting) and new words (like Mariah trying to form full sentences..."I didn't quite catch that."). The kids are also starting to become self-aware. Every now and then, they ask for something for themselves. For "Shi-shah" or "Rye-uhh".

Today, we have our first visitor from home. My mom is coming up to see her grandkids for the first time in the new place. (And we're under no illusions: she's coming to see them.) The church is having a family night at a local elementary school and we're gonna try to find some cowboy clothes at a thrift store so we can fit the theme. Should be quite the night.

Only 12 more days until we move into the house!

Jumping on the bed with shoes on. Major no-no.

Are you serious? Life in a motel, Part I

Welcome to a motel in Puyallup. Such a lovely place, such a lovely face.

(OK. That was horrible, but the lyrics are probably only as senseless as the original.)

Yes, we live in a Motel! We were trying to find a place to live somewhere in Pierce County by the end of September, but that didn't happen.  Around the beginning of the month, we found a place, but it isn't available until November.  Since we were eager to get moved into the area, we decided to move here immediately and stay somewhere temporarily until the house is ready.  Thus the motel.

Originally, we intended to move into Crossland Economy Studios, but when I went down to look at one of their rooms, I found out the largest room they have to offer is only 280 square feet.  I knew we had to fit ourselves, a kid, another kid, cribs, toys, all of our clothes, a box of books, food and my guitar in the room, so I started scrambling for other solutions.  After a bunch of stuff didn't work out, we decided to drive to Puyallup with all our stuff and just look at available rooms in person, that way there were no surprises. 

Desperation makes the decision process easier, so we decided to stay the first place we looked, one of the suites at a place in the center of town.

The place is at a former Nendels Inn (remember those?) gone independent, that took the Conference Room and--since the business crowd isn't coming 'round much anymore--converted it into a suite.  Does that mean it's large?  Yes, it does.  Probably about 700 square feet large. 

It's one huge studio that sleeps six, so we hang up blankets to wall off the kids cribs at naptime.  (I'm not kidding.)  It has a kitchenette and a dining room behind the little half wall that also serves as Mariah's bedroom.  It's almost like living in an apartment, except you get maid service and free croissants.  But would you expect any less from a 1-and-a-half star establishment?

This saga is to be continued.  Time to get on the job hunt.

On the move

Today we wake up as Oregonians; tomorrow Washingtonians. We still have 3 weeks until we officially move into our rental, but until then we will be staying somewhere temporarily.  Where exactly?  I don't know, but we'll find out in the next couple of hours.  Wow, this is pretty crazy!

Seeking and finding

The last two weeks we've spent most of our time searching for a place to live in Pierce County, Washington. We thought we found a place in the Lakewood area, but we were too late for that. Then we thought for sure we had a lock on a house in the Spanaway area, but we were just barely too late for the house there (one guy who must have been very fast with his application and deposits beat us to it).

On Thursday, we came to an agreement on a rental on a house Downtown Puyallup. It's a bit of a unique situation, especially for the Seattle market. The standard deal up in Greater Seattle is to have a potential renter agree to a 12-month lease, that way they don't have to re-paint the place and do all the other turnover maintenance for a new tenant. After you've been there a year, they allow you to do a month-to-month rental until you choose to move out.

This house is only available for month-to-month rental because it's currently on the market. A local military family has been renting it, but--since he is just about to be honorably discharged--they are moving out in November to move back to their home state. The owner wants to keep the house occupied until he's sure it's sold, so he made an agreement with us to rent the place for a decent price and take care of it while it's on the market. Great deal, unless it sells quickly. Then we have 30 days to get out. It's been on the market for two years, so we might have a shot at being there for at least a little bit while we get the other details of our new life in WA worked out.

What will we do until November? We're putting together some "stopgap measures" to get in town sooner. What happens if the house sells? For our landlord's sake, we hope it does. For our sake, we really wish it wouldn't. But either way, we'll get it figured out. God knows where we're at.

Here's a picture of the house:

Neat, huh? So glad our lives are never boring.