a day in the pearl

had to take my car in to get the brake fluid / system checked today. after dropping off the car i had a bit of free time on my hands (and no car). since i was in portland and a stones throw away from the pearl district, i decided to walk around and do some exploring.

it was a cold, cold day. i had a thermal shirt, sweater, fleece jacket, and down vest on, along with flannel lined pants, wool hat and socks, and walking around i was pleasantly comfortable. each time i went into a store, i had to remove the hat and unzip the vest and sometimes the fleece, but for the most part i was cozy all day long.

i stopped for a cupcake (ok, 2 mini cupcakes) at cup cake jones. admittedly a little more expensive than necessary, the cakes were DELICIOUS and really hit the mid-morning snack spot. they were moist enough that i didn't even crave milk after i ate them.

for lunch i went to a taco shop that specializes in local ingredients. i had the chicken tacos, which were simply marinated grilled chicken chunks with fresh pico de gallo, but man-oh-man were they good. i usually don't care for tacos, because they usually give them to you on corn tortillas that immediately disintegrate upon anything moist touching them, and therefore tacos can become a very messy meal that would have been easier to eat with a fork. however, these were on small flour tortillas, and didn't fall apart or disintegrate upon eating.

i did a lot of window shopping, and actually went into several stores. places i remember going into include rei, powell's books, patagonia, hunt and gather, the north face, cargo, eddie bauer, a sheepskin footwear/bedding store, and a few small furniture shops that i can't remember the names of.

i noticed, while walking, that each street sort of has a personality of it's own. by street, i mean avenue, as i walked the numbered streets north and south and north again. anyway, one thing that stuck out immediately to me, is that 13th ave is not a very pedestrian friendly street. there are no continuous sidewalks, and each of the buildings has stairs to get up to the level of the front door, and most of the road is either road or parking. another thing i realized, is that things get marginally less ritzy the closer you get to 405. so these were good things to know, for whatever they're worth.

in the end, i wound up at the urban grind, a coffee shop near where my car was being worked on. they had dragonfly chai which was delicious, but the music in there was weird, bordering on manic. it made me feel crazy and like a headache was coming on just being in there. and i don't think it was the tea. thankfully, the car place called after about 1/2 hour of being there, and i walked briskly back under the freeway to pay up for my vehicular repairs.

what a great day, though! the weather was fantastic. i even got to wear my sunglasses. while walking about, i got to thinking how it would be neat to live in a little apartment down there. lots of activity, bustling around...ahh. sometimes i miss being near the center of action in a town, but then i remember how it can be noisy.

another great thing about the day was the growing level of holiday spirit in the air. i actually like walking around, during december, and hearing christmas music, seeing christmas lights decorating buildings and trees, and the general feeling of how wonderful it is to be alive during this chilly time of year. if only i'd been able to find a candy shop...

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gym report:

went with jon to his gym today!

2 minutes stairs / 18 minutes treadmill
3x10 @ 45lb bench press
3x10 @ 50lb lat pull down
3x10 @ 25lb bicep curl
3x10 @ 8lb flys
3x10 @ 90lb leg extention
3x10 @ 70lb leg curl (prone)
3x10 @ upright abs
3x10 @ 30lb overhead press
3x10 @ 50lb overhead pullover

weight: 162.8 (different scale, so who knows)

stomper: in fact, *i* was the stomper today!

notes: i was actually surprised at how easy it was to run on the treadmill. i set the speed for about a 10 minute mile, and had the incline up to "1.0" whatever that means. it was a very comfortable pace and i probably could have run like that for an hour, at which point the machine informs me i would have burned 814 calories. then i could have the extra donut!