First Day of Winter

   Today is the shortest day of the year.  Yippee.  Now they can start getting longer.  I am more than ready.  At least the sun was out for part of the day and the temp was above 50.   It was a great day to work on getting the trailer loaded for our trip.  We leave Thursday morning, the day after Christmas so there isn't much time, two holiday days and two non ones.  I
   Where the trailer is parked I can put out two of the three slides and so I did today.  With the bedroom slide out we can get access the area under the bed and the dresser drawers, so I have most of my clothes packed.  I rearranged the lower storage area that is sometimes called the basement  and loaded it with items that we will need for our 6 months away.  The basement contains an olio of items (a crossword frequent flyer) including swimming gear, satellite dishes ( yes, I have two), many tools  and equipment used by us RV types.  When I am loading, I always play the game "Should I take it or leave it at home?"   "Am I going to need this item this year?"  So I take some items and leave others.

The Press Club

The Press Club (2621 SE Clinton St.) is a small restaurant/wine bar/club in the eclectic, hipster(ish) area of south east Portland.  We went there last Saturday night to listen to music by the fun band, Green Tamborine, which covers 60's songs that everyone can sing along with.  The music was great, especially if you enjoy a fabulous mandolin.  The idea of a mandolin ( and sometimes a violin) in a 60's rock band may sound odd, but once you have heard it, you will be won over.
  The food was as good as the music.  R and I split a mushroom turkey bagguette and crepe that were very good.  If you want a fun place to spent some time, eat a little food, drink a beer or glass of wine and listen to a varying line-up of music, I recommend this place.  Look of Green Tamborine at your local pub as well.  We had so much fun taht we didn't get back to Canby until December.