« Thanksgiving | Main | Everybody reunites without me »
November 25, 2006
weekend update
This is my first four-day Thanksgiving weekend during my career as a newspaper professional. I'm glad I was able to take Friday off.
Our four-person Thanksgiving dinner included squash soup with green onion, a leafy green salad with pomegranite and pear, stuffing, roasted red potatoes in herbs, asparagus, home-made bread, creamy corn and pea risotto, whipped cream with sugary cranberries, chanterelles in butter, and pumpkin pie. There was also turkey for the meat eaters.
It was a bit more food than we needed. I've already set aside leftover sack lunches to get me and Ben through Wednesday, and that's leaving enough other leftovers to get us through the rest of the weekend.
On Friday, we indulged with Sue and John again -- this time, in wine. Oregon's Willamette Valley vinyards have a tradition of welcoming tourists at for a region-wide weekend of dionysian excess every year after Thanksgiving. I lost track of how many tasty wines we tried. There were incredible pinot noirs, which is to be expected. But I was surprised to find good temperanillos and malbecs, too. Sadly, most cost about three or four times more per bottle than we typically pay.
Investing in large stocks of wine is not the wisest thing for a couple trying to save up for a home downpayment to do. We left empty handed and groggy headed. I fell asleep on the way back to town.
Today and tomorrow, we'll be heading to a few open houses. We've got about eight months to go before we're financially and emotionally ready to get serious about home buying -- maybe longer. Until then, we're trying to get a feel for the Portland real estate market, for affordable neighborhoods, for the home-buying process.
Other than that, we'll be watching Blazers games on TV and laying low, yo.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at November 25, 2006 04:12 PM