A great day to eat outside

....or to type this outside on my laptop, as it were. I noticed that Thai Herbs (7779 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, 97219 - (503) 246-1382) has added several outside tables, complete with large umbrellas (for the SUN, non-Oregon people, take note). If you're going there tonight, better hurry since they are already starting to fill up. This is good, since the only real outdoor eating venue other than the small deck at O'Connors is the perpetually crowded picnic-table area at the Lucky Lab, which is a little high-traffic.

Oh wait! Sorry, I forgot the deck at the Bento Hut. Man, I gotta get up there and get something to eat - their fresh menu since they re-opened has been looking very tempting indeed. I only wish that I was in the Village at lunchtime, since Jr. V isn't really a Bento Hut kind of kid. Their deck looks very nice, although it seems like it might get kind of hot.. Hey, why don't I reserve judgement until I've gone there, eh?

This afternoon, however, I am not leaving my backyard. Even though I live right on 35th, it always amazes me how quiet it can be out here sometimes, at 6:45 PM not ten or fifteen minutes from downtown. One of the prime attractions of living in this area to be sure.

Nice way to start the day

So we walked up the hill Sunday morning to eat breakfast at O'Connor's for Mothers' Day. We ended up out on the deck, which at first seemed like it might be too cold but in the end was just right. Breakfast was good as usual, I had my regular 2x2x2 (french toast, bacon and eggs over well) and Mrs. V has some sort of scramble that provided an additional meal later on. We walked down the main drag, noticed the LeMeitour has freshened their exterior paint - it looks very nice - and wondered again why I have never gone in there. I've always been sort of intimidated by that place - for no rational reason - I mean, I'm from New York City. I know from snooty art galleries. It's not even that I think they're snooty - just for some reason I've never topped in. I'll have to remedy that on the next First Friday. Being a big fan of the "illuminists" and the Hudson River School of painting, the sort of works they have are likely to be right up my alley.

Random Notes

• There is a "For Sale" sign out in front of Village Yoga.


• Down the street a bit - we have a computer business. According to the small URL on the hours sign, this is Homebound Tech but it is unclear from their website if this is a new location, or a re-location. They specialize in custom PC builds, training, consulting, installation... that sort of thing. Looks like a decent place to support


• The Hill's Antiques location is under renovation, preparing to be the new home of Village Beads, which we've posted about a few times. This should be a colorful anchor to the corner. The large windows and easy to get to location should result in a big boost in business for Michelle, hopefully. I wonder what's going to go into their old location (the house to the left of Jacqueline's Found and Fabulous) when they move? Oh, June 2nd is the date. First Friday of course!


• Custer Park is repaired just in time for spring. Despite our fears when we discovered the renovation signs last winter, they replaced the swings with new ones and even (shock!) left the merry-go-round (replaced) with a padded "landing area" for the kids who inevitably at some point in their lives will get their legs stuck and get drug around in circles. This is an important rite of passage for a kid, so it's good they didn't replace it with something safer, and less fun.


• However, as of my last visit, the small slide at Gabriel Park still had not been repaired. Has this been fixed yet? We'll have to walk over tomorrow and find out


• Speaking of Gabriel Park - sure enough, the old wood-and-steel fitness area next to the volleyball courts is gone completely now. Perhaps they are going to expand the volleyball courts?


• There's talk of a possible outdoor film festical this summer, in the middle of the Village! This is an event that this blogger will support, if it continues to pan out.


• And lastly, and semi-related due to the projected (no pun intended) location for the aforementioned film festival - that long-talked-about "four story building" that caused all the controversy a couple years back? Rumour has it that construction is finally about to begin. I'll believe that when I see it.

Another Village webpage

So I've been alerted to the Multnomah Neighborhood page on a site called Portland Neighborhoods dot com which bills itself as being written by "a couple of local girls", but has the feeling of a real estate sponsored site to it. Even so, there's a good collection of links on there, and a few nice pictures.

Knight Court

So Jr. V and I were headed home last night when we spotted the SCA (or some such group, it might not have been the actual SCA) having combat practice on the basketball court beside the Multnomah Art Center. As you know, it's hard to keep a 5-1/2 year old away from a bunch of armored, battling knights (same goes for his nerdly Dad), so we walked over to hang out on the playground for a while and catch all the soft-sword action.

Ah, apparently this is the "real" SCA. This was the Three Mountains Armored Combat Practice. More information about the local "Barony" of the SCA is Here. General information about the Society For Creatve Anachronism can be found at SCA.org or in the Wikipedia entry for the SCA.

Jr. V was fascinated by the real armor, and the swords. And enjoyed clambering around on the play structure while these fellows (and they were ALL fellows - athough there were a couple of women on the sidelines) battle it out. We've seen these folks before - there seem to be two schools: one which uses padded swords and lots of armor and painted shields, and then a smaller group that uses metal fencing sabers and small metal shields.

This group is much more serious about "proper" combat than the larger, less authentically costumed gangs of sword fighters that pop up in Gabriel Park on a fairly regular basis during the non-rainy season. the Gabriel Park goup is more along the lines of the "bopper battles" that I may or may not have been involved in back in the 80's ... you know, if I had been in the Dungeons & Dragons club, which is certainly something I won't admit to on THIS 'blog.

All in all, the Village seems to be a locus of local swordfight simulation action!