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My sister's visit in March, a write-up...
Work is still rather crazy (in a good way, because it means I have lots!), and between that and my sister's visit, I haven't posted much lately! But here I am to give a quick review of her visit.
tl;dr version: Pi Party with book club friends, Shanghai tunnel tour where I smelled a ghost scent, watched the movie Lincoln, Saturday Market, Mission Theater and Pub to watch movie Zero Dark Thirty, hike at the Hoyt Arboretum, OMSI where our bags were stolen out of my car's trunk, shopping to replace lost items, new office chair for me as an early bday present, and to the airport for my sister to fly home.
Like in 2010, she came up to Portland for work reasons. This trip she visited me almost every evening, and stayed an extra day on her own ticket purely for visiting reasons.
Thursday, March 14th: she arrived late morning, and did some work (my sister is a very hard worker), then I drove to her riverfront hotel to pick her up so we could go to the Pi Party held by two of my favorite book club friends. My sister was able to visit book club back on her first visit, so she wasn't completely among strangers. ^^ She was still on central time, and lots of people had work the next day, and we left around 9. I dropped her off at the hotel, and made my way home.
Friday the 15th: after we both did some work, she drove her rental to my place and we rode the train into Portland to do something I've heard about but never done on my own: the Shanghai tunnel tour. We ate dinner in the nice pub were we were to meet the rest of our group (our waiter was as adorable as he was gay), then went on the tour. It was FASCINATING. Our guide told us some people smell a ghost scent of perfume in the tunnels, but he wouldn't reveal the scent in case one of us smelled it. I...smelled roses twice, once at the beginning, and once near the end. I surrepitously sniffed my fellow tourists and didn't catch a whiff of roses. And that scent was STRONG. At the end, I asked the guide if the scent was roses, and the biggest smile bloomed on his face. He asked when, where, and how long it lasted. My sister, who was beside me pretty much the entire tour, didn't smell a thing. Go figure. *Twilight Zone theme*
Saturday the 16th: Again, we both worked, then Nee-chan came out again to my apartment and we went to the Japanese hole in the wall restaurant I love, Toshi's. :9 I had a rice bowl, which I haven't ordered before. YUM. Nee-chan liked the joint, too! We also had a discussion about tipping. She does 15%, I do 20%. Higher cost of living and all. I think she won, since she was paying. ^^; After food, we went to see Lincoln at my usual theater. IMO, Daniel Day-Lewis deserves his Oscar. I'd like to watch it again, I'm pretty sure I missed some stuff, due to audience distraction. :P
Sunday the 17th: I rode the train in to Portland, met my sister at a stop in the city (she rode the streetcar up from her hotel) and we hit the Saturday Market. I bought a pretty glass bead bracelet! My sister gifted my kitty boys a large catnip toy they have thoroughly loved and used to become quite high. *laughs* We rode the train back to the Pearl District and wandered around. Had chocolate at the great choco place, and killed time until we caught the movie Zero Dark Thirty at the Mission Theater and pub, another thing I've never done before. I liked it, though the sound was rather echoy. I wish the movie had subtitles, like you can turn on when you watch a DVD. I was still able to enjoy the film, though. ^^ Rode the train back, an
Monday the 18th: Work time again! She got off early, she checked out of her hotel, we returned her rental car to the airport, and went to the Hoyt Arboretum at Forest Park, which I've never done before. We walked a 3 mile track. I think the giant redwoods were my favorite part. Pizza for dinner at Old Chicago! but we watched Wreck-It Ralph on my new tv. (A Christmas gift from my parents, JIC I haven't mentioned it before. It's tiny, only 17 inches! But certainly better than what I had before: nothing. ^^) I didn't know about the whole removing batteries thing and had left them in my old DVD player's remote, but my sister was able to fix it for me. In the end, she had to take it apart, clean out the dried acid, and use a nail file to strip the tip of the battery spring down past the corrosion to normal wire again. Oops. Speaking of which, I should remove the remote control's batteries again.
Tuesday the 19th: We ate breakfast at my fave local breakfast joint, then hopped into my car to head to OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science Institute. It was really fun! Until we closed the place and came back to my car, to discover our bags had been taken out of the trunk. What followed were four hours of phone calls, police reports, and feeling violated. Ugh. The scary part?? The thieves had watched us park and put our bags in trunk. How do we know? Because the first charge on one of my sister's cards was only 15 minutes after we went inside, at a gas station a good mile away from the parking lot. The museum has a security guard drive around the parking lot on a set schedule, which the thieves also knew and thus easily avoided. I lucked out on the theft. All I lost was some cash, my little green notebook of drawings and scribbles, my beloved knife #2 (*sob*), my purple umbrella, my spare car key (they totally could have stolen my car! O.o) and about 30 pages of various BL fics I was working on. My sister had some expensive electronics in her bag, her car keys (for her car waiting for her in the airport back in TX) and three credit/debit cards. Ugh. It was not fun at all. Portland doesn't seem to like my sister much. T.T
Wednesday the 20th: I cooked an omlette for breakfast while my sister dealt with more stolen card stuff on the phone. We did some shopping to replace lost items, and as planned before the theft, we hit Office Max and I received an early bday present from my family of a lovely new office chair. :3 Then I took my sister to airport, and homeward she flew.
It was some trip! IDK why it took me so long to write it up, I'm just glad I could remember the final 2/3rds over a month later. Maybe I just didn't want to deal with writing about the theft. *sigh*
PSA #1: Do not leave batteries inside electronic devices if you aren't going to use them for a length of time!!!
PSA #2: If you must leave items in the trunk of your car, place them there BEFORE you get where you're going to park!!!!
tl;dr version: Pi Party with book club friends, Shanghai tunnel tour where I smelled a ghost scent, watched the movie Lincoln, Saturday Market, Mission Theater and Pub to watch movie Zero Dark Thirty, hike at the Hoyt Arboretum, OMSI where our bags were stolen out of my car's trunk, shopping to replace lost items, new office chair for me as an early bday present, and to the airport for my sister to fly home.
Like in 2010, she came up to Portland for work reasons. This trip she visited me almost every evening, and stayed an extra day on her own ticket purely for visiting reasons.
Thursday, March 14th: she arrived late morning, and did some work (my sister is a very hard worker), then I drove to her riverfront hotel to pick her up so we could go to the Pi Party held by two of my favorite book club friends. My sister was able to visit book club back on her first visit, so she wasn't completely among strangers. ^^ She was still on central time, and lots of people had work the next day, and we left around 9. I dropped her off at the hotel, and made my way home.
Friday the 15th: after we both did some work, she drove her rental to my place and we rode the train into Portland to do something I've heard about but never done on my own: the Shanghai tunnel tour. We ate dinner in the nice pub were we were to meet the rest of our group (our waiter was as adorable as he was gay), then went on the tour. It was FASCINATING. Our guide told us some people smell a ghost scent of perfume in the tunnels, but he wouldn't reveal the scent in case one of us smelled it. I...smelled roses twice, once at the beginning, and once near the end. I surrepitously sniffed my fellow tourists and didn't catch a whiff of roses. And that scent was STRONG. At the end, I asked the guide if the scent was roses, and the biggest smile bloomed on his face. He asked when, where, and how long it lasted. My sister, who was beside me pretty much the entire tour, didn't smell a thing. Go figure. *Twilight Zone theme*
Saturday the 16th: Again, we both worked, then Nee-chan came out again to my apartment and we went to the Japanese hole in the wall restaurant I love, Toshi's. :9 I had a rice bowl, which I haven't ordered before. YUM. Nee-chan liked the joint, too! We also had a discussion about tipping. She does 15%, I do 20%. Higher cost of living and all. I think she won, since she was paying. ^^; After food, we went to see Lincoln at my usual theater. IMO, Daniel Day-Lewis deserves his Oscar. I'd like to watch it again, I'm pretty sure I missed some stuff, due to audience distraction. :P
Sunday the 17th: I rode the train in to Portland, met my sister at a stop in the city (she rode the streetcar up from her hotel) and we hit the Saturday Market. I bought a pretty glass bead bracelet! My sister gifted my kitty boys a large catnip toy they have thoroughly loved and used to become quite high. *laughs* We rode the train back to the Pearl District and wandered around. Had chocolate at the great choco place, and killed time until we caught the movie Zero Dark Thirty at the Mission Theater and pub, another thing I've never done before. I liked it, though the sound was rather echoy. I wish the movie had subtitles, like you can turn on when you watch a DVD. I was still able to enjoy the film, though. ^^ Rode the train back, an
Monday the 18th: Work time again! She got off early, she checked out of her hotel, we returned her rental car to the airport, and went to the Hoyt Arboretum at Forest Park, which I've never done before. We walked a 3 mile track. I think the giant redwoods were my favorite part. Pizza for dinner at Old Chicago! but we watched Wreck-It Ralph on my new tv. (A Christmas gift from my parents, JIC I haven't mentioned it before. It's tiny, only 17 inches! But certainly better than what I had before: nothing. ^^) I didn't know about the whole removing batteries thing and had left them in my old DVD player's remote, but my sister was able to fix it for me. In the end, she had to take it apart, clean out the dried acid, and use a nail file to strip the tip of the battery spring down past the corrosion to normal wire again. Oops. Speaking of which, I should remove the remote control's batteries again.
Tuesday the 19th: We ate breakfast at my fave local breakfast joint, then hopped into my car to head to OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science Institute. It was really fun! Until we closed the place and came back to my car, to discover our bags had been taken out of the trunk. What followed were four hours of phone calls, police reports, and feeling violated. Ugh. The scary part?? The thieves had watched us park and put our bags in trunk. How do we know? Because the first charge on one of my sister's cards was only 15 minutes after we went inside, at a gas station a good mile away from the parking lot. The museum has a security guard drive around the parking lot on a set schedule, which the thieves also knew and thus easily avoided. I lucked out on the theft. All I lost was some cash, my little green notebook of drawings and scribbles, my beloved knife #2 (*sob*), my purple umbrella, my spare car key (they totally could have stolen my car! O.o) and about 30 pages of various BL fics I was working on. My sister had some expensive electronics in her bag, her car keys (for her car waiting for her in the airport back in TX) and three credit/debit cards. Ugh. It was not fun at all. Portland doesn't seem to like my sister much. T.T
Wednesday the 20th: I cooked an omlette for breakfast while my sister dealt with more stolen card stuff on the phone. We did some shopping to replace lost items, and as planned before the theft, we hit Office Max and I received an early bday present from my family of a lovely new office chair. :3 Then I took my sister to airport, and homeward she flew.
It was some trip! IDK why it took me so long to write it up, I'm just glad I could remember the final 2/3rds over a month later. Maybe I just didn't want to deal with writing about the theft. *sigh*
PSA #1: Do not leave batteries inside electronic devices if you aren't going to use them for a length of time!!!
PSA #2: If you must leave items in the trunk of your car, place them there BEFORE you get where you're going to park!!!!