We all know how important it is for players to have a proper pre-game meal, right? I knew If I were to have any fun at the Blazers' Player Palooza that I had to have a proper pre-event meal myownself.

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I knew before I set foot in the Rose Garden Arena on Tuesday, February 20, that I would be on my feet, walking on concrete all over the arena which, I just read online, encloses over 785,000 square feet on eight levels, five of which are open to the public. I knew that I didn't want to be rushed. Ha, to tell you the truth, I knew that I couldn't rush myself. So, I planned ahead and took two hours of vacation, left work at 3 p.m., caught the Portland Streetcar north on SE Grand Avenue from my building, at East Burnside caught the 12 bus east to home, walked into the apartment and put only what I wanted to have with me in my backpack, changed one of my layers from a light sweater to a warm sweatshirt to wear beneath my raincoat, put on my never-been-worn-before-checkered-flag-design visor (A present to my little Mama from our friends Milton and Kay--they picked up two of them for her one year at NASCAR's Talladega Superspeedway--I wear the other one all the time to keep rain off my glasses and my hood outta my face, which has made it worn and stained, couldn't have that in case I got a picture taken of myself, now could I?), pulled up my raincoat hood against the sprinkling rain, locked the door, and walked back outside and headed for the bus stop.

I got off the bus at NE 47th and Sandy Blvd., walked into the Killer Burger and felt at peace with my plan for a proper pre-event meal. Greeting me at the counter, a nice young woman who's helped me plenty of times before, smiling and saying, "I haven't seen you in a hot minute!" She remembered by last name, too, for my order! Which tickled me, just as the nice young man making burgers and who's helped me plenty of times before saw me, grinned and said, "Hi!" Before I knew it, I had the burger and fries you see in the photo sitting on the table in front of me, along with a small cup of Barq's Root Beer. I knew that I had time to eat but not to dilly-dally, so I got going. I didn't eat every single bit of the burger and fries, but I ate enough to hold me for hours--more than three since Player Palooza was scheduled from 5-8 p.m. and I'd also spend some time getting back home afterwards.

Outside, I sat at the bus stop, waiting 10 minutes for the 12 bus. Downtown at SW 5th and Pine, I got off the bus and walked a block west to catch the 4 bus north to the Rose Garden. Then I walked from the south end of the building to the north end which is where we season ticket holders who had RSVPed were instructed to enter. Fun ensued. My energy held out. Happy Trail Blazer season ticket holder here.

Eye-catching kick at the intersection.

Naturally I noticed this inflatable martial arts character, but not in time to get a photo as the bus buzzed by going east to Killer Burger on Saturday a week ago. So, on the way back towards home, I remembered to swivel around and make the effort to get a few photos as we slowed down for the bus stop diagonally across the street. That's why this photo is at a slant--I decided to share it with you SOOC, straight out of camera, no alteration at all, not even any cropping.

The intersection--the blue car is turning northeast from NE 42nd onto NE Sandy Blvd.--is five blocks west of Killer Burger , a block wset of Whole Foods , and two blocks east of the Hollywood Theatre , and one block east of Paulsen’s Pharmacy .

Vintage vehicle at Voodoo Doughnut & some colorful serendipity, downtown Portland

Today on the 12 bus, on the way to Killer Burger from downtown, I noticed a crowd outside the original location of Voodoo Doughnut. The reason that I got the chance to notice the crowd and the gorgeous vintage vehicle parked at the sidewalk was that the Burnside Bridge was near the end of a bridge lift, stopping traffic in both directions.

Actually, the crowd is a double line which snakes from out of sight on the right to just left of the original Voodoo sign on the brick wall at which point it snakes back towards the corner and the red-framed door. After I saw the crowd, I saw the wine-colored vintage vehicle. The way the sun hit the back chrome bumper and the back window made me stand up and walk to the front of the bus so that I could take this photo through the windshield, looking at an angle towards SW 3rd from the intersection where the bus waited for traffic to clear once the bridge lift completely ended.

Once I had downloaded the photo, I quickly noticed the girl in the pink sundress, playing the guitar on the sidewalk directly beneath the Voodoo Doughnut sign. Ah, serendipity--all of that wine and pink color right there, together.



One more photo, taken straight on through the bus windshield. Wish I could've taken one a little bit before this one because the bridge lift would've shown up much better.

As it is, if you look there at the top edge of those two box trucks, you should notice a line continuing from beneath the traffic signal on the left all the way across to the right where it runs out of sight in the leaves. That line is the edge of the western section of the Burnside Bridge which is on its way down so that it will once again meet the edge of the eastern section of the bridge and form a complete, solid surface for the bridge. I know bridge lifts interrupt traffic and therefore people's lives and work, but I continue to be fascinated by them and how these gigantic structures operate.

Info from the Voodoo Doughnut Web site, about this location:
1. Voodoo Doughnut 22 SW 3rd Avenue Portland Oregon, U.S.A.
phone 503.241.4704
OPEN 24 hours 7days a week, Cash only, ATMs available
Voodoo Doughnut is located just south of the Burnside bridge on SW 3rd Ave. On the corner at SW 3rd Ave. and SW Ankeny

Rose Festival Fred Meyer Junior Parade on June 6, 2012

Nicknamed by some "the children's parade," last week's event drew a crowd of 40,000-50,000 along its route in the Hollywood District, Northeast Portland. The Rock 'n' Roses refers to the theme for this year's Portland Rose Festival. I took a day of vacation so that I could go for the first time. After lunch at Killer Burger at the corner of NE Sandy Blvd. and NE 47th, I took my lawn chair outside, found a space on the sidewalk at the curb, and settled down to enjoy myself.

I expected to see lots of bands and scout groups, but I didn't expect to see maybe 40 children of all ages being pushed along in their wheel chairs by people who might be parents or who work or volunteer at the Providence Child Center.

Here are two photos of just a handful of the children and those who care enough to provide them with a chance to be in a parade. How neat!
 

I found this online about Providence Child Center which is Part of Providence Health and Services:

Providence Child Center (PCC) has been caring for Oregon’s most vulnerable children for over 60 years. Today it continues to fill an important gap in the community not provided by any other organization regionally. We are rooted in the commitment to promote the inherent dignity of all children by providing each child in our care the opportunity to achieve his or her potential and the highest quality of life in an atmosphere of acceptance and love.

And this explains all about a concept new to me, but when you think about it, it makes perfect sense.
Pediatric recreational therapy

Also known as: Recreational therapy, pediatric; Therapeutic recreation, pediatric

Recreational therapists provide recreational activities and treatment for patients with disabilities or illnesses. Therapeutic activities can include arts and crafts, animals, sports, games, dance and movement, drama, music or community outings. Recreational therapists improve and maintain the physical, mental and emotional well-being of their clients.

The therapeutic recreation team at Providence Child Center provides recreational opportunities for our kids that enhance their health, functional abilities, independence and quality of life. Our therapy staff is supported by hundreds of volunteers who make it possible to provide unique and exciting recreational activities.

The following are highlights of a few of these programs:

• Crafts, music and sports groups are continuously provided by our creative staff, volunteers, and community partners. 
• Community integration field trips to Portland Trail Blazer Games, OMSI, the Saturday Market, the movies and more. 
• The Friend to Friend program partners local students with our kids for a year’s worth of friendship and life-long memories. 
• Holiday parties, like the annual Christmas Present Celebration, a Valentine’s Day Dance, the New Year’s Eve party, and the Chinese New Year’s parade. “Foster” Grandparents who help with everything from getting our kids on the Portland Public School buses every morning to tucking them into bed at night. 
• Special events and typical child-hood traditions including the Jr. Rose Parade, a traditional Prom, birthday parties and summer camp. 
• Alternative therapy services like music therapy and pet therapy– we’ve hosted everything from harps to lamas! 

It is our goal and privilege to provide therapeutic recreational activities that celebrate ability while ensuring every child in our care has access to typical childhood experiences. 

B after B after B, Saturday a week ago. Killer Burger on NE Sandy Boulevard at NE 47th

Barq's Root Beer, one fine fountain drink.


Basketball, NCAA basketball, on the TV at the back of the room, sound turned off. Blues blaring, down home blues blaring from the restaurant's speakers. As I ordered at the counter, I mentioned to the young woman taking my order, "Blues, basketball, and burgers. It doesn't get any better." She chuckled and agreed.


Bun, burger, bacon. I forgot to ask that there be no cheese on my Classic Burger, so I ate it--I'm OK if I only eat cheese once in a blue moon. I have two B words for the fries--bountiful and best.


Bites. Burger on bun with bacon going bye-bye, along with cheese, lettuce, tomato and grilled onions. I did remember to ask that there be no Smokey House Sauce and pickle on my Classic Burger.


Busy, busy at the building which houses Killer Burger on the southwest corner of the intersection.


Bus home, the 12 Barbur/Sandy. I left with a bellyful of Bs.

Milton and Kay arrived on Thursday afternoon at Union Station, downtown Portland!

Let the visit begin! Milton and Kay had been on the train since Monday evening, beginning in Jackson, Mississippi, and ending right here. They were ready to walk for a while, so each one of us pulled a rolling black bag and wore a backpack. We caught the bus at SW 2nd and West Burnside, went to the apartment to leave their bags, and then walked to NE 28th between Glisan and Burnside to find somewhere to sit down and have a beverage. Oh, I should mention that I took my camera off and put it down on my desk and didn't notice until we were blocks away that I did not have it with me! So, a photo moratorium was declared for several hours. No big deal.

We enjoyed those beverages at Beulahland on NE 28th, then walked up to the corner of it and NE Sandy to catch a 12 bus to Killer Burger where we ate great burgers and fries and enjoyed ourselves immensely, talking, laughing, so happy to be together. We caught the 12 back home and ended up with the same driver that we had on the way to Killer Burger. That happens every once in a while.

Lamont came over a little while later after he'd been bouldering outside at Carver--he stayed and visited for quite a while before heading home.

No. 4, May 16, 2011

Plenty of rain led to an open umbrella. It brought back memories of the 1970s for me, in that it reminded me of one that I had, though it did have white band around the border and a white plastic handle that curled upward at its end. I also had white, lace-up go-go boots and several outfits which incorporated hot pants. I was something else!

Some who have left comments have praised my photo manipulation skills. While I would love to take all the credit for making the changes I've been making in these photos, I'm here to tell you that anyone who subscribes to Picnik Premium will be able to do the same things, and way, way more, with their very own photos. It is a whole lotta fun!

Flickr, Picnik, Create, Effects, Gritty with the Darkness increased.

By the way, Tuesday night I was too give out, as we say back home in Jackson, Mississippi, to blog. I'd been on a date with Lamont and Leland--burgers and fries and Barq's Root Beer at Killer Burger, followed by the Shaw Brothers Studio 1982 Kung Fu film "Buddha's Palm" at the Hollywood Theatre, the first of their Kung Fu Theater offerings. You see, the three of us have a history with an earlier Kung Fu Theater, back when those two sons of mine were little boys. Saturdays back in Jackson some network or other broadcast a different movie each week, filled with whirling, swirling folks bent on mayhem and destruction. When I found out about the movie, I immediately e-mailed the guys right away. We just might make it to the next offering on June 28, "Shaolin vs Wu-Tang" because we had a fun night.

Two Hansons, Lamont and I, took a trip to Ikea on Presidents' Day in his big ol' Volvo wagon, but we didn't eat Swedish meatballs for lunch.

Daunting task. Those two words fit shopping at Ikea. Not that I wasn't prepared. On Sunday I photographed the spaces where I felt I needed additional storage in my kitchen. I measured those spaces, then printed the photos and wrote the measurements on each one. Then I went to Ikea online to check out what was available. Having done so allowed me to relax a little bit about looking throughout the gargantuan 280,000 square foot building. I took this photo right after Lamont pulled into one of the 1,200 parking spaces! Thanks to getting almost all of mine and Mama's deposit back from our previous apartment (due to the great cleaning help of our friend Sarah and the length of occupancy--over four years), I had a decent budget for this shopping trip.


I figured shelves could go on the wall over the sink. Please note where the dish drainer is sitting. That is the only counter-top-like surface that came with the apartment, and it's so low that if it were really a counter top that I had to use, my back would soon be bothering me on a regular basis. In fact, that's why you see the pink dish pan sitting on top of a plastic covered wire shelf--I can wash dishes without bending over thanks to my creative problem solving skills! By the way, the two blue squares stuck on the back wall of the sink are some sort of plastic pieces that one of Mama's physical therapists gave her to use when opening jars and/or bottles. They stick to the porcelain sink very well and work like a charm.


Lamont is closely observing a Grundtal Wall Shelf and several attachments.

We got two of the shelves, which are stainless steel and measure 47 1/4" wide by 10 5/8" deep by 7 7/8" high.

We also got the Grundtal Dish Drainer, 16 1/8" wide by 10 1/4" deep by 13 3/8' high. You can see it on the right side of the photo with a couple of plates and a bowl in it. There is plenty of room to hang it so that it will drip into the sink or onto the drainboard.

Lamont's looking at the Grundtal Wall Rack/Dish Drainer. It doesn't slant like the larger dish drainer, but I know that I can find several ways to use it to my advantage. I got two of them.

I got two packages of S hooks to use on these shelves, plus two Grundtal Cutlery Caddies which are a flower pot sort of shape made of polypropylene which hangs in a stainless steel frame and hook. I got two of them.

This is a stainless steel Cutlery Caddy. It will either hang from a Grundtal or sit somewhere.


This is a stainless steel Kitchen Utensil Rack. I got one of these for taller utensils. I figure that I will wish I had a couple of them before I'm done.


Here's the white wooden cabinet with the enameled metal top. Today when we got home from Ikea, I cleaned it out and cleaned off the top except for the microwave and the toaster oven as you can see. I knew that I needed to get it ready for whenever they show up to take it out of here.


This is a photo I took at the store of the splendid free-standing cabinet that I got to take the place of the white wooden cabinet. It's called Varde Drawer Unit and measures 41 3/4" wide by 25 5/8" deep by 35 3/8" high. I can't wait for the maintenance man or men to move their piece out of here so that Lamont can put this one together and set it up in the kitchen. I will have a countertop at the correct height! The wood is birch, the drawer fronts are covered in stainless steel.

Above the Varde Drawer Unit, Lamont will hang two of these Broder stainless and galvanized metal shelves and the suspension rail, wall uprights and brackets necessary to attach the shelves to the wall. The shelves are 31' wide by 14 1/4" deep. We got the wall uprights that will hold two shelves spaced just right for whatever use. This photo is one that I cropped from a four-shelf set-up. Lamont will not arrange my shelves exactly like this, but it gives you the idea.


At first I thought I wanted a shelf over the stove, one to which we could attach an under-the-cabinet fluorescent light that I already have. But as we walked along I thought better of it, realizing how disgusting a wooden shelf would soon be over the top of a stove. And since I moved in, that light fixture has been sitting on top of the frig with its light shining up into the ceiling, providing a great amount of overall light. I decided to leave it there.

I got a Grundtal Rail which is 31 1/2" wide. Lamont will hang it over the stove and then hang one of the Grundtal Wall Rack/Dish Drainers on it and/or some S hooks to support some of my smaller sauce pans. We'll see.

Naturally today Ikea was packed with entire families, walking from one display to another taking in--and I quote their Web site --the 9,500 unique Ikea products set up in the 48 inspirational room settings and three complete model homes. While those homes ranged from not much over 700 square feet to not much over 200 square feet, I have to admit what can be done with all of this stuff amazed me.

We'd been there about an hour and a half, looking at my photos and at things I had found online and things I hadn't found online which might work here or there, when all of sudden I told Lamont I really needed to eat something. We made our way through the rest of the maze in another 30 minutes and came to the Ikea Restaurant which seats 250! The line snaked and snaked, populated with entire families and an amazing amount of noise. I looked up at Lamont and declared that I would happily soldier on.

We found somewhere to sit down in an inspirational room--a dining and kitchen combo--and looked through our notes, then he went back downstairs to the entrance to get a shopping cart so that we could pick up all of the pieces and boxes that we figured would work in the apartment. The Varde had to be picked up at the nearby Ikea Furniture buildong which we had passed on our way there. By the time we got to Killer Burger so that we could eat an exceptional American hamburger and French fries, we had been gone for four hours! We needed nourishment in the worst way, and Killer Burger supplied it successfully.


And once we got everything inside the apartment except for the Varde because right now there is no where to put it until the other cabinet is removed, Lamont put together a nightstand on casters which I had found online; it's perfect for my printer because it fits just right beneath my computer table and can be rolled out for scanning and or copying. Oh, the name of the series for the nightstand is Odda. Fits me to a T with that name, doesn't it?

Lamont also put together the Grundtal stainless steel shelves and held them to the walls, eyeballing where to put them so that I can reach things; he did the same with the Broders, too. Tomorrow he plans a trip to a hardware store to search out the proper hanging-the-shelves-on-the-wall items.

Before you know it, I'll have a kitchen fit for a queen, all organized.

My brother flew into Portland to help with my move. His plane landed at Portland International Airport.

Here's the next plane he saw--the U DSP atop the HMS Uranus--a fine example of a quirky art car parked a block east of Killer Burger, just off NE Sandy Blvd., where Lamont and I took him for a hearty burger and fries lunch. All three of us got the Classic. Take a look at yesterday's post for a photo.



Another shot of the picture perfect intro for Howard's four days in Portland!

Lunch on cleaning-the-old-apartment day. Killer Burger, about 25 blocks from my new place.

My friend Sarah's burger, as described at Killer Burger's Facebook page: Jose Mendoza - Hand roasted chilis imported from Pueblo, Colorado, Jack cheese. The heat will make your mouth water. So hot and good; it needed a first and a last name.


My lunch, description from the same source: Classic-bacon cheese burger with lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion. The first time I ordered one, I didn't pay much attention to detail, so I ended up swabbing off the house sauce (see below) which is not something I like on my burgers. I did, however, remember to ban the dill pickle. Those fries are, as Mama would have said, "might near perfect." Plus they have fountain Barq's Root Beer!

The rest of the burger basket story as explained at their Facebook page: "All menu burgers come with BACON, Smokey house sauce, grilled onion, and dill pickle.
All our sauces and cheese blends are "home made" and wonderful.
1/3 pound burgers.
BURGER BASKETS come with fries for $7.95"

If you're in Portland and you want to taste the meat in your burger, get yourself right on over to Killer Burger because I know for a fact that you will not be disappointed, period.

Location:
4644 NE Sandy Blvd
Portland, OR, 97213
Mon - Thurs:11:00 am - 9:00 pmFri - Sat:11:00 am - 10:00 pm
Price Range:$ (0-10)

Culinary Team:Mark McCrary, TJ Southard

Parking: Street
Services: Walk-Ins Welcome
Good For Groups
Take Out

Phone:971-544-7521