Tuesday

A quiet day here. Paul has one more exam to go and I'm trying to read my way through the huge pile of books I've acquired so I can jettison some before it is time to pack my suitcase.

In between study sessions we had lunch at Evergreen, an Indian restaurant downtown where we had our first Corvallis dinner. 

Graffiti spotting downtown

Home Sweet Home

Well, I'm back in Corvallis. Seasons are almost a little startling here - I was gone for seven days, and upon my return I found that the already decidedly green town is even more leafy than before. Go Spring! Or Summer, as I guess the case now is. The trees outside my window are almost unrecognisable, they became a completely different shade of green while I was away.

It is a bittersweet homecoming for me because we're actually leaving Corvallis for good on Friday. I'm not sure that it has entirely sunk in yet, but I am making sure to fit in some of my favourite Corvallis activities while I still can.

Some much needed greenery and tofu from Cafe Yumm

Dutch Bros and a good book

Yoghurt Extreme - this time I opted for the sugar free yoghurt with fresh fruit (if only because I expect this won't be the only Yoghurt Extreme visit this week).

Breakfast

St Lucia Lilac

If only manicures were so cheap and plentiful in every city!

New York, New York

The view from our hotel room, W 29th St

Dream House

My current favourite house in Corvallis, on the corner of NW 21st St and Jackson Ave.

Thursdays at the Brew Station

Isn't it great when your favourite coffee shop also happens to be a bar with an appreciation for great beer? We started out on Thursday afternoon at the Brew Station (my preferred latte, and possibly also preferred Americano, in Corvallis), with some study and coffee:

... and raccoon, of course. I finished Annie Proulx this morning, and now I'm reading this book for my bookclub, about a bookstore that stocks only good literary fiction chosen by secret committee, and the blackmail, bribery and assassination attempts that result. Ah, booksellers! Hopefully I'll finish it in time to make it to the monthly meeting.

 At 3pm on Thursday afternoons, the Brew Station hosts a brewery tour, where a brewery offers samples of their delicious wares and pints of said delicious wares (or what Americans call pints - in Australian parlance, we're talking about schooners plus a little bit) are $3. Once a suitable amount of reading had been done, we joined the queue for a taste of the Alaska Brewing Co.'s offering. I'm already a great fan of their amber ale, so was eager to try the porter, pale and summer ales on offer this afternoon.

This was actually full of summer ale, and it was quite tasteful

 While enjoying a drink, we spent some time planning our final road trip before we fly home to Sydney. I am epically bummed out that it is time to start thinking of such things, but I am pretty darn excited about this trip. I won't say too much now, but seven days, five states, a variety of different national parks and deserts, and presumably a bunch of weird roadside eateries? Count me in! I've never really been to "the interior" before, so I'm pretty excited to see what happens in the middle of this great and bizarre country.

As the trip planning moved along, so did the sampling

 The trouble with beer is that it often leads to tempeh enchiladas...

... followed by frozen yoghurt covered in chocolatey bits. And now I'm lying on the couch, watching Everybody Loves Raymond and nursing my belly. 

Regular Scheduled Programming

After our weekend of excitement, it was time for Georgia to make her way across the country to Boston (east coast, boo hiss!), and so we've reverted back to our antisocial routine of books and coffee. I'm spending some time on the prairies with Annie Proulx, and if you're interested in the Cliff's Notes version of these short stories, let me just say that it is very hot and sandy, the people are very poor, and everybody dies. The end! I love the mythical quality of the plains and the West in America, and almost no one does it better than Annie.

Garden Buddies

We've been busy busy busy here and I have many photos to go through and exciting blog posts to write. All I will say now is, 90's cult TV show fans, hold on to your hats, because you are going to LOVE this! Until I get that all together, enjoy some more Corvallis garden snaps.

Bunnies and squiggles

Oregonians

Dino!

Don't mind if I do

 A pleasing diversion on my downtown trip today was a visit to the two op shops in that part of the world. It's fortunate for my luggage allowance that I don't go down there too often, but since I was in the area I couldn't resist a bit of light rummaging. Blessedly, they're still priced like real op shops, not like Sydney "vintage" shops, so you can walk away with a couple of nice things and change from $10.

Meeting My Match in Eugene

Since we had the car on Saturday, we drove to Eugene (about an hour away) for dinner at Sushi Domo.

 They do a big selection of interesting and imaginatively named vegie rolls, as you can see below:

I think The Guido and Crop Burning were tied for the favourite of the evening.

There was a Wal Mart across the road that, of course, was still open when we finished dinner at 9pm. Having never been into a Wal Mart, and being curious about strange retail experiences in this country, I insisted we venture inside.

 

 Look, a wall of Jillian products! 

Unfortunately for my common sense (and my digestive system), the influence of Jillian wore off as the Desserting Hour approached. Loyal followers of the blog will recall that dessert in Eugene means... 

 

 

Here is a handsome man with a very sensibly proportioned doughnut.

 And here I am with a monster as big as my head.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Memphis Mafia - described on the Voodoo Doughnut website as:  

Fried dough with banana chunks and cinnamon sugar covered in a glaze with chocolate frosting, peanut butter, peanuts and chocolate chips on top!

 How could I resist?!

With a little help (and some cajoling) from Paul, I finished the whole thing, but this bad boy pretty quickly turned from incredibly delicious to completely nauseating, and I spent all day yesterday lying on the couch, watching back to back episodes of RuPaul's Drag Race and nursing my doughnut hangover. I am two days late to write this post because the thought of even looking at the photos turned my stomach, which, by the way, has still not quite forgiven me despite litres of digestive tea and a healthy dose of probiotic yoghurt this morning. Needless to say, I will be going easy on the eating for at least a few days so my poor internals can recover!

Lunch in Albany - The Instagram Edition

The aformentioned rental car came about so we could take a couple of short trips this weekend in service of, of course, FOOOOOD. After picking up the car and battling with Gwynneveve, our once-affectionately named but now universally loathed GPS (you know that person in your office who jams the photocopier and then walks off and leaves it for someone else to fix? If she were a person, that would be Gwynneveve), we drove 20 minutes down the road to Albany. Now, having not spent very much time there, I could be wrong about this. I could be wrong, but my impression is that Albany is just full of strip malls and rednecks. The bumper sticker we drove by this morning that said "Uncle Sam Wants You to Speak English!" didn't do much to dispell that impression. One thing Albany does have though, is the very excellent roadside diner, The Original Breakfast.

Forget ristretto lattes -  rich, strong drip coffee with a splash of cream is where it's at. The best thing about diner coffee? When you drink some, the lady in the apron comes and tops it up! Thank you apron lady (they don't actually wear aprons at The Original Breakfast, that I can recall, that's just for dramatic effect).

The main event - veggie omelette with fried potatoes.Paul enjoyed a veggie scramble, also with fried potatoes.

Saving the best til last, of course!

What else is there to do in this hillbilly town? Costco tourism, of course! We aren't members of Costco so we couldn't buy anything, but you don't have to be a member to enjoy the free samples.

Here I am, about to consume a wasabi cheese sample in front of wall of heavily discounted, euphemistically named "Bath Tissue". Who really believes Americans use tissues in the bath? Come on!

Three Course Gonzo Dinner

The weather was superb today, cool but sunny and dry, so we decided to go for our first outdoor run - we chose this 5k loop as it starts in our neighbourhood (we're on the corner of Tyler and 21st), but then heads out to parts of Corvallis (a cemetary! A horse paddock!) that we hadn't yet explored. Apart from an easy 20 minutes on the treadmill at the gym yesterday, I haven't been running since our last week in Sydney, so to say that I ran today might be a little strong - staggered, dragged, coughed and wheezed are probably more appropriate terms. Still, I was feeling suitably exercised at the end of it and ready for a nice, homestyle dinner from Nearly Normal's Gonzo Cuisine, a vegetarian restaurant that has been providing big, sloppy lentil bowls to Corvallis since 1979.

 An Oregon Trail Witbier for me and a Ginseng Stout for Paul - witbiers seem to come with orange slices in them in this country. Is that a thing now, or what?

Spaghetti with red fennel sauce and tofu meatballs. I even ate the weird sweet American bread on the side.

Something strange happened here - at our table, we discussed dessert options (Yoghurt Extreme, Ben & Jerry's, take away brownie from the restaurant) and resolved not have anything, since dinner had been quite big. We walked downstairs, saw that they had homemade peanut butter pie on tonight's menu, and suddenly had the container in hand. Where does my mind GO at times like that? After momentarily becoming a pie-crazed pod person (and I wasn't alone there, I maintain that someone else may have helped to incite me to pie!), I couldn't not try it/eat all of it. And it was delicious.

Sunday Dinner

Giant salad requires an appropriately scaled pizza slice

Neighbours

Today, some dreams came true. I patted these two cats, and finally, FINALLY, a squirrel deigned to spend his afternoon in the tree outside our lounge room window. His tail was impressively bushy.

Inclement Weather

The weather is still not conducive to outdoor wanderings, so we've retreated with our books and laptops to the Memorial Union Commons on campus (which, henceforth, shall be referred to as the Gryffindor Common Room). Paul is writing a paper on Descartes and The Matrix, and I am "helping" by spouting crap about philosophers I've never read.

Rainy Thursday

Spring seems to be coming in fits and starts - the past couple of days have been cold and rainy. Perfect weather for lingering in a coffee shop over a book (perfect for me, anyway. Paul was lingering in a not-so-leisurely fashion over a philosophy paper after 6 hours of class). And yes, my coffee was served in a World's Best Granddad mug today.

I woke up this morning intending to get started on some pre-dissertation reading, but like all good procrastinators I went to the shelf and instead of picking up the mid-20th Century American novelist I was supposed to be reading, I chose to land myself in 19th Century Europe with Muriel Spark's excellent bio of Mary Shelley. I am a big fan of Mary Shelley but have to confess to being vague on her biographical details (apart from, of course, that career-making soiree at Chateau Byron), so I've no idea where this biography stands in the wider world of Shelley scholarship, but I'm enjoying it nonethless. It's even working to dispel my notion of Percy Shelley as a bit of a cad. Their romance, and the tragedy of their lives together, what with all the children they lost and drama of their family life, is compelling and sad.

Of the completion of Percy's relentless work on the poem, The Revolt of Islam, Spark writes:

Other poets have told of the anguish of returning from the visionary world to the visible. But it was to Mary that Shelley returned, with a kind of exhausted relief; and he dedicated his poem to her:

So now my summer task is ended, Mary,
And I return to thee, mine own heart's home;
As to his Queen some victor Knight of Faery,
Earning bright spoils for her enchanted dome;
Nor thou disdain, that ere my fame become
A star among the stars of mortal night,
If it indeed may cleave its natal gloom,
Its doubtful promise thus I would unite
With thy beloved name, thou Child of love and light.

Not exactly what I'm supposed to be doing, but I can't help it, I love the Romantics.

Getting Our Bearings - The Instagram Edition

Paul had uni orientation today, so I went for a walk and looked for squirrels to make friends with. It has been the source of some distress that so far, Corvallis appears to be squirrel-less. There are tons of parks, trees, and front porch bird feeders, and yet, no squirrels. What is this, the twilight zone? I thought we were in America! Imagine my relief, then, when we finally spotted a big fat grey one on a walk this afternoon. He didn't want to stick around for a photo, but I know what I saw. PHEW, is all I can say. All is right with the world!

 

Tea break. Paul had an Annihilator, which is some sort of multi-shot coffee/white chocolate/macadamia beverage. Unsurprisingly, it made him crazy for a while afterwards. I stuck with the tea - at least it was less aggressively named.

Afternoon walk

Footpath lichen

After dinner, we went to see a film called Tiny Furniture at Darkside, a little cinema near our hotel.

 Darkside Cinema Foyer

 After today, I am banning myself from using Instagram - who needs to make an effort to take good photos when you can just snap some blurry crap on your iphone and turn it into a vintage-looking masterpiece? I vow to be less lazy from now on!

First Afternoon in Corvallis

 A post house-hunting beverage

Cherry blossoms on NW 3rd St

405, Outside of LA