Monday Download

It's been a while since I had time to do a Monday Download, but here you go!  Doesn't this look like a beautiful Portland day?  Yeah...see that person with an umbrella?  I'll bet they're from out of town.  No one in Portland carries an umbrella.

I had some spare time the other day while I was in Portland and I decided to stop at my favorite bookstore in the world: Powell's Books.  I remember going there once when I was about Jr. High age.  We were with my parents and I'm not sure why we went.  Maybe just to check it out.

When I worked in Portland I stopped there quite often to sell my old books and buy new ones.  What I really love about Powells is the selection of used books they have.  You can find one book in any condition from new, to used a little to used a lot and they are priced accordingly.

I bought The Collected Poems of Robert Service.  I had a copy for years, but I once loaned it to The Boy for a class project and I've never seen it since.  Last year, Maya Angelou was in Salem and I took  my Mom and The Girl to go see her.  One of the things that stuck with me was when she said that we should all memorize a poem.  She knew dozens (she probably knows hundreds).  I immediately thought of The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service.  I want to be at a party and be able to whip that one out.  The problem is that it's three pages long.  I barely have the first paragraph down right now and who, at a party, is going to be sober enough to listen to me tell that long story?  Maybe I'll try haiku.

For our trip to L.A. and the reason we were there, I bought The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lesson's From the World's Most Elegant Woman.  She loves that type of book and I think she read the whole thing in 2 days.

I also got Wingshooters.  I had planned to read it on the plane, but I still needed to finish another book so I haven't cracked it yet.

While in California, The Girl and I went to see the usual Hollywood sites and we stopped at  a place called Blu Jam for brunch.  It was delicious!  What was really nice was being able to sit outside and have the sun warm our bare skin.  When we got home to Oregon that night it was 30 degrees colder than it had been in L.A.

The Girl forgot her sunglasses so we bought this cheapy pair at a Hollywood souvenir shop.  I wanted her to get the pair with boobs on them but she wouldn't.

I have a couple of cat/dog videos (doesn't that sound exciting?!) to share too but I'm having trouble downloading them.  You may or may not get to see them by the end of the day.

j