Wonderful People

It is so lovely to have Antonia and Quena here with me in my little apartment in Portland. We have been having a wonderfully girly time, with lots and lots of cooking and baking, which my other friends are very happy about as well. :) We made Paul a birthday dinner on Monday, and tricked him quite well with the vegan cream cheese. Last night we made a delicious picnic and took the streetcar up to NW Portland to watch the Vaux Swifts fly into the chimney at Chapman school to roost for the night. It's a wonderful neighborhood event where people bring out their blankets and picnics and sit on the hill to watch the thousands of birds funneling into the chimney. John came along with us, and we met my friends Cate and Victor there, and also ran into a couple of other people we knew, so it was a jovial gathering. After the picnic we all (minus the couple of other people) came back to my apartment for dessert, which was also delicious. I had a very happy-making thought while we were all sitting there enjoying dessert and talking and laughing -- I was having my first party in my own space! It made me feel very good to be surrounded by good friends, wonderful people all, making my home a joyful place.

Today Antonia made us whole-meal smoothies for breakfast, which were yummy and nutritious. Then Quena and I went to Powells to copy the recipe for Mabon Bread from a book, then went shopping for the ingredients, while Antonia went camera and bike shoe shopping. Quena and I also biked up to NW to the running store, where we tried on lots of running shoes and ran around the block numerous times, confusing the people who were sitting outside the coffee shop on the corner. I ended up buying a pair of Brooks shoes. They (the shoes) convinced me they were worth it because they worked magic on my shins. The pair I tried on before the Brooks gave me shin pain, but when I put on the Brooks it went away. Just to test it out, I tried one shoe of each pair on each foot and ran around, then switched them and tried again. Both times, the shin with the non-Brooks shoe hurt, and the one with the Brooks shoe didn't. So maybe there's hope for my shins after all! We're hoping to all go out for a run with John this evening, but we'll see if that actually happens. The days are going by so quickly! Antonia has to leave early tomorrow morning, and it seems like she's only been here for a day. :( I'm copying down many of her recipes so I can try more vegan cooking experiments after she leaves. It has been so fun cooking with her! After this week is over, I'll post a list of all the wonderful things we cooked and baked (if I can remember them all!).

Time to make Mabon Bread now. Happy Equinox, everybody!