SheSue Experience

I have done Christmas dinner for many years now and this year is no exception. I decided, with the help of my daughter, to do something different this year. Maybe start a new tradition. So I went surfing for some help. I came up with cornish game hens, goose, suckling pig, rack of lamb and pumpkin soup. But most sites offered turkey or ham.

I came across a site that listed Christmas dinner traditions in different countries. It made me glad to live in the U.S. In Norway, Purtugal, Finland and Sweden they eat codfish that has been soaked in lye. In Sicily they eat eel, In Russia sausage. In Poland it’s a vegetarian meal, in France it’s goose and in Ethiopia it’s chicken stew.

Here are some good resources for your Christmas Day menu planning:

• How to Choose Christmas Dinner Menus offers some fantastic advice in a step-by-step format that I will be following.
• All Recipes has a ton of traditional Christmas dinner recipes from cookies to prime rib.
• Epicurious offer recipes on the fancier side. Their tag line is “for people who love to eat”.
• The Veggie Table has recipes for a vegetarian feast.
• Fine Dinings has pictures with all their gourmet dishes.

We have no small children in our family just now, so at least I don’t have to worry about that. This could be fun. And, since my daughter thought it was such a great idea, guess who gets to help.

What’s on your Christmas dinner menu?

Back in the 1930′s, a radio program about the Cinnamon Bear was written and enjoyed by thousands during the holiday season each year.  For 26 days, a chapter of the story of the Barton twins and their search for the silver star was read over the radio.  It became so popular, that the Cinnamon Bear began making appearances at Lipman’s Department Store.

Today, you can visit the Cinnamon Bear on board the Portland Spirit in Portland, Oregon.  Be sure to bring your children for this 2-hour cruise where you will meet the Cinnamon bear and his friends.  My children are a little too old, but I still went for the experience.  Maybe I’m getting into practice for being a grandma some day.

When you board, you are assigned a color coded card.  Your color will be called soon to get your picture taken with the Cinnamon Bear.  In the meantime, you are given a map of the boat and told to explore.  On the lower deck is a fancy snack bar they call a light continental breakfast.  There is a huge display of fresh fruit, mini bagels with cream cheese, yogurt, a variety of pastries and milk, orange juice, coffee and hot chocolate.  Some tasty treats!

All around you are colorful characters like elves and fairies.   On the second deck is the Cinnamon Bear himself plus a gift shop with all sorts of Cinnamon Bear fare.  They have T-shirts, wands, lolly pops, silver stars, stuffed toys and a children’s picture book of the story of the Cinnamon Bear.  The book was created by an employee of the Portland Spirit company, large and colorful.

On the top deck is crazy quilt dragon who has a candy treat if he doesn’t drive you crazy!  Plus you can visit Captain Taffy on the bridge.  If you repeat his quote and drive the boat (a small ship’s wheel), you can loot his treasure chest for more candy treats.

Time for my picture with the Cinnamon Bear.  Since I was a reporter of sorts, I was allowed.  Normally pictures are for children only.  Every kid on board get their photo with the Cinnamon Bear included in the price.  There was a little craziness in this department.  From the kids, not the boat personnel.  Similar to what you would see with Santa Clause.  Some kids were afraid of the bear, some just wanted to run around and ignore their parents.  One little kids was scared, then when they got him settled in the Cinnamon Bear’s lap, he didn’t want to go.  He just clung onto the bear costume.

Then it was time for Queen Melissa to tell the story of the Cinnamon Bear on the lower deck.  She had quite a nice throne in the land of Maybeland.  This gal was great with the kids.  There was a delay waiting for all the kids to have their pictures taken.  Queen Melissa talked to the kids and led them in Christmas carols.  As you can see in the photo, one little girl invited herself up to see the book first hand.  Finally Queen Melissa told a very abbreviated version of the story, but I bet it will sell some books as the kids enjoyed it.

While Queen Melissa was telling the story, the Cinnamon Bear went into hibernation and Presto the magician took the stage for a magic show on the middle deck.  He was really pretty good.  Did some audience participation and did some way cool card tricks.  He was also great with the kids and I could tell he loved what he was doing.  His final act produced a real live bunny!  I wanted to take the bunny home.  This was one tame bunny as all the kids got to pet him.  My bunny would have been running for cover.

Finally out came the Cinnamon Bear photos, then it was time to go.  This is definitely a children’s cruise, but a lot of people remembered the Cinnamon Bear from when they were kids.  Lots of grandmas taking grandchildren as well as parents.  A lot of people over all, but it was well organized.   Captain Taffy challenged the kids to get as many signatures as they could and some took this very seriously chasing down every elf and fairy.  Kept them busy.  It is a little spendy, but you do get a cruise, the photo and the snack bar all included.  They cruise through December 27th.  Check out the schedule at the Portland Spirit.

When I moved from being a homeschool mom to ‘What am I going to do with the rest of my life?’ I struggled to find work that I felt I wanted to do as a career.  I decided to try out temping.  I had heard that it can fun because you get to try out different sorts of jobs.  You also aren’t committed to the point of working for a pension.  Instead you are working for the temp agency.  After enough hours, typically around three months of continuous work, you qualify for health insurance and paid vacations.  I love variety, so I decided to give it a try.

To apply, you fill out a job application just like for any job.  You are then interviewed to find out what your skills are, what type of jobs you are looking for, what type of jobs you won’t do, where geographically you want to work, etc.  Next is a battery of tests.  The kind of tests depends on the type of work you are applying for.  I had to take typing, computer skills and basic clerical skills like alphabetizing and grammar.  And then you wait.  You are called when jobs that fit your skills match an opening. You are encouraged to sign up for several temp agencies as job openings do not come along every day.

There are two types of jobs to apply for: temporary – those that last a day up to a few weeks; or temp to hire – when the employer is checking you out to see if they want to hire you full time. If the job is a temporary job, you just show up, do the required work and go home.  The temp agency gives you the work address and who to contact when you arrive.  The contact person will fill you in on what is expected of you and you are put to work.  If the job is a temp to hire, you are interviewed once again by your prospective boss.

I signed up to do clerical work as that was where my skill strength lies and it paid better than production work.  The first job I got was as receptionist at the temp agency.  I answered phones, signed people up as being available to work and passed out work applications.  It was okay, but definitely not brain surgery.  The next job I got was once again a receptionist.  This was for a boss who didn’t want to give me anything harder to do than put labels on file folders.  I spent a great deal of time reading my book as there are only so many folders to label.  Then she decided I wasn’t necessary.  A little training would have been nice.

I soon found that each time you begin a new job, you are the unknown.  Nobody knows if you can even put things in alphabetical order, so you get assigned menial tasks. You are also not considered an employee, so you are left out of all employee functions.  I worked for a company where all the clerks partied every Friday afternoon in the break room.  At tax time I worked for a company mailing out thousands of tax returns.  I worked for a local grocery store as they were getting ready to go on-line.  I had to weigh and measure hundreds of products in the store.  After about 6 months, I finally got tired of waiting for the next job to come.  And with each new job, I got tired of being the nobody.

It was interesting, I did get to learn about a lot of industries.  To keep me working, I was signed up with four different temp agencies.  The pay scale varied widely for each job, all much better than minimum wage.  All in all it wasn’t a bad gig.  If I wasn’t as desperate for a steady paycheck, I might have stuck it out longer.  Once you build up a good reputation, the jobs come more frequently I was told. But I needed money coming in every week, so I perused Craigslist and found the job I am currently at.

What’s your job?

We’ve all heard the folk saying, ‘Red sky at night, sailor’s delight; Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning’. With some of the weather predictions, I wonder if the old saying is more accurate. In general it is. There is scientific basis behind the saying. Let’s begin with the fact that weather usually moves from west to east, blown by the westerly trade winds. So a storm system will normally move in from the west.

The colors we see in the sky are due to the rays of sunlight being split into colors of the spectrum as they pass through the atmosphere and bounce off the water vapor and particles in the atmosphere. The amounts of water vapor and dust particles in the atmosphere can be a good indicator of weather conditions. They also determine which colors we will see in the sky.

It is during sunrise and sunset when the sun is low in the sky when light passes through the thickest part of the atmosphere. A red sky is telling us that the atmosphere is loaded with dust and moisture. Red wavelengths are the longest in the color spectrum, so it is the red that break through the atmosphere. Shorter wavelengths such as blue, scatter about.

When we see a red sky a night, this means that the setting sun is sending its light through a high concentration of dust particles. What this means is that high pressure and stable air are coming in from the west. Good weather should follow thus red sky at night, sailors delight.

A red sky in the morning means the light is reflecting off dust particles of a system that has just passed from the west. It means that a storm system may be moving to the east. A deep red indicates that there is a lot of water in the atmosphere. Look out, rain is on the way. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.

I took this picture one morning from my back porch. The day turned into a beautiful day. I guess pink is different than red. Let’s see, Pink sky at sunrise, brings a nice surprise?

I have decided to get out and do some Christmas stuff this year. I always say I’m going to, but never get around to it. I did go see the Nutcracker ballet last year with my daughter. That was fun. My first trip out this year was to see the Pittock Mansion. Their theme this year is ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. They decorated each room to match a verse of the famous story.

I hadn’t been to the mansion in about 20 years. It’s one of those touristy things that locals don’t seem to do. The mansion was started in 1909 and completed in 1914. Edward Foulkes was the architect commissioned

to build the home by Henry Pittock, a pioneer and newspaper publisher. The home occupies 16,000 square feet with 30 room; a three car garage; greenhouse and a servants’ residence all on 46 acres of land. At one time, there was a tennis court where the parking lot is now.

The furnishings and art work are period as well as porcelain, silver and glassware. In the rooms you’ll find authentic portraits of Henry and Georgiana, family photographs, their 1887 Steinway grand piano and

Henry’s ceremonial sword. For the time period, the mansion had many modern conveniences. Also like the time period, there were many small rooms with a larger room downstairs for entertaining.

The mansion is built 1,000 feet above the city of Portland. On a clear day you can see Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood. Unfortunately it was foggy when I was there as you can see in the pictures of the mansion. There are miles of hidden hiking trails to explore when the weather is nice.

Henry Pittock arrived in Oregon in 1853 “barefoot and penniless”. But he was a determined young man. He began working for the Oregonian newspaper as a typesetter and by 1860 took ownership. He went on to build an empire including real estate, banking, railroads, steamboats, sheep ranching, silver mining and the pulp and paper industry. Also in 1860, he married Georgiana Burton. Together they remained married for 58 years. They had 6 children and 18 grandchildren. The Pittock Mansion was their home from 1914 to 1919.

Each year the mansion develops a new theme at Christmas time. Each room was beautifully decorated with a placard announcing a verse of the story. There were mice and poinsettias all about the mansion. For children, they offered a game to locate the mice and poinsettias. The volunteers were knowledgeable and friendly offering to take photos. For more information, check out the Pittock Mansion

I’ve heard the horror stories about having a mammogram. With no one in my family history showing any signs of breast cancer, I wasn’t really worried, but I had put it off for a long time and I finally got health insurance, so I signed up for my first mammogram.   I couldn’t help putting up this video of Ellen going to her first mammogram.

Let me start off with a recommendation of where to have a mammogram done. I guess that says a lot right up front. From the moment I walked in, I felt welcomed and comforted. Bodyview is the place, in Clackamas, Oregon. When I arrived, the receptionist was very sweet. After filling out the normal ream of paperwork, I was led to a back room where they do the screening. This lady explained exactly how the procedure worked. They would take 4 different views, up and down and side to side.

I was given this short gown that went just to my waist. It was flannel and cozy. I had to strip from the neck down to the waist, including washing off my deodorant. Something about the deodorant showing up on the film. Back to the room with the machine. It was tall and had two plates that were about 8 or 9 inches apart and parallel to each other. This is where you put your breast.

The lady told me that she was now going to get “up close and personal”. She was very gentle as she laid one breast in between the plates. Then she explained that she was going to bring the other plate down and to let her know if it was terribly uncomfortable. Okay, I don’t have a lot up front and I had been told that it was worse when you didn’t. But it wasn’t that bad. I was definitely squished, but no worse than when my son gives me bear hugs.

I repeated with the other breast. Then she turned the machine at an angle and I do the same thing over again. And that was it. After I got dressed, the lady showed my the films. She said that she saw some tiny specks of white, but she said she wasn’t concerned. She said I may be called back because of it, but it would be because they were more cautious than other places. She also told me I had young breasts. Boy was that a boost! They may not be perky, but I had young breasts! I got to go home and wait for the results which were to be in a few days.

Unfortunately I flunked. I was asked to come back. Naturally panic sets in. This time around I got to have an ultra sound. This is just like when you’re pregnant. They put the jelly on your breasts and run that wand all around. This time the technician was a guy, so it was a little more intimidating. Under law, a nurse had to be in the room. That was nice because she was real friendly and chatted on. The ultra sound guy let me watch the screen as he worked and he explained what he was seeing. Really not much to look at, all grainy. He checked out the 2 spots that were in question. He said he didn’t see anything, but he wasn’t the expert. More waiting. 2 days later, I was given the clean bill of health. Whew!