We have been fairly busy lately and have fallen way behind in our family blog. So this is our official catch up blog.
In April we had Anthony’s Nephew come up for a one night visit. We did taco night and then went out and watched a movie. One night was just too short and we are all looking forward to his next visit.
His visit would have been longer but we had a preplanned long weekend trip planned. We drove down to Lincoln city for the weekend. We stayed at the Coho lodge. Which was a nice hotel we had a great ocean front room, but we hated the bed. We have become so spoiled on our latex mattress that sleeping on a traditional wire spring bed feels like sleeping on concrete.
Saturday morning after a horrible breakfast at Lil Sambo’s, We normally eat at Pig & Pancake, but we saw this place, it looked family friendly, so we took a risk. We walked in and were quickly promptly ignored by the staff member standing at the podium. Several minutes later anthoer hostess showed up and took us to our table. The restaurant was very very empty (our first warning), the staff out numbered the diners. Turned out the person with their back to us, ignoring us was a new in training waiter, so we let it go.
The hostess asked us if we would like drinks. Anthony ordered a Earl Grey tea, that this dumbfounded look washed over her face, then without asking us, walked away from the table, across the room and started yelling at the head waiter asking what Orange Oregon tea was. He shouted back that he had no idea but would ask us. He the walked over and softly asked us. Then took 3 steps away from the table and yelled back to hostess that it was Earl Grey. The only thing we could think was they were use to louder restaurant, that our they though we were deaf.
Our food came out and was promptly delivered to the wrong table (being one of only 3 tables with customers we stood amazed, in fact we should have stood up and walked out). The waiter realized he screwed up after he the other table complained. He took our food and scampered back in to the kitchen (more yelling took place) then 5 mins later the same plates came to our table.
Our food was stone cold. And the waiter quickly departed and did no follow up checks with our table. Perhaps he was worried about what we would say…. and he would have been right. Anthony’s cold hash browns were burnt, not a speck of white in them. Joshua’s biscuits and gravy was cold kindergarten paste congealed over two flour hockey pucks. We were starving so we forced back what we could off our plates Even if the food would have been hot, it would have been dull cafeteria food at best.
The worst was the name association of the of the place. We were drawn to the restaurant because it looked like a fun family place. Again doing a little pre-check for our future kido. We found out that it used to be called Lil “Black” Sambo’s, they had a little mini newsletter explaining the history of the restaurant. We didn’t take the newletter but here is what Wikipedia says about the book the restaurant was named after: “The book has a controversial history. The original illustrations by Bannerman showed a caricatured Southern Indian or Tamil child. The story may have contributed to the use of the word “sambo” as a racial slur. The book’s success led to many pirated, inexpensive, widely available versions that incorporated popular stereotypes of “black” people. In 1932 Langston Hughes criticized Little Black Sambo as a typical “pickaninny” storybook which was hurtful to black children, and gradually the book disappeared from lists of recommended stories for children.
Shortly after breakfast Anthony started to feel sick. Which was not surprising. So for most of Saturday afternoon, Anthony tried to sleep while Joshua did a little shopping.
Later that night we drove up to the Spirit Mt. Casino and got to see Cyndi Lauper live concert. Our seats were way in the back of the room, but for $15.00 each for a 2 hour concert, it was a great deal.
The show was really loud and focused more on her rock side then her softer catalogue which we both love. We saw at least 10 other people we knew from the Rose Court and Portland GLBT Community, some who we had not seen in years, it was a nice surprise treat.
The end of the month saw Anthony finally getting his iPad. We waited in line for Joshua’s wi-fi version, and hated it. So we preordered Anthony’s 3G version. We both still love them and they are in our hands most of the time.
On the adoption front, since our last post we have sent in about 4 home studies. There really seems to be no kidos out there that fit our target range. Which is a real bittersweet thing. Sad for us, happy that less kids are displacing from their homes.