I suppose you wouldn’t know it from this blog, but I’m something of a hard-core foodie. Whether its knowing what new restaurant in Portland has all the other foodies buzzing, cooking a good meal, or (a few times in the past) doing the research and writing a good Wikipedia article on a food topic, I’m there.
So when I was free on a Meetin Portland karaoke night, and the theme was “food”, did I really have a choice? No sir I did not. I had to go. But first: curling.
That’s right, curling. You know, the Olympic shuffleboard-on-ice sport? The one with the brooms, and the big rocks-with-handles that look a lot like tea kettles? The local curling club (yes, Portland has a curling club) was having an open house on the Lloyd Center ice, and a Meetin group was going.
It was fun, but it would have been more fun if around 30 people had shown up, instead of 60. As it was, I didn’t get enough hands-on curling to satisfy my lifelong itch. (Yeah! OK! I always watch it when it comes on TV… what?) After all the lessons and practice shots, we each got only one actual try at a real shot, all the way down the ice. Mine wasn’t bad. It’s harder than the pros make it look, but I guess that’s no surprise. My shot, with the smallest of tiny little helper kicks by one of the club members, actually ended up in “the house”, the points-scoring region! It was the first of our group’s to do so too. Life was good. Until someone had an even better shot that both knocked mine away and ended up almost dead-center in the house. But that was just luck! Luck, I say!
After curling, it was time to tackle food karaoke. A Martini and a half let me belt out what to me sounded like a spirited rendition of Mr. Yankovich’s “Addicted to Spuds”.
I'd Rather be Running 