TGIF

For some reason this week, I'm more than a little ready for Friday. Guess I just need a break, and now's a good a time as any. It's a district in-service kinda day, so that excludes me from working.

I spent the morning going over some LA curriculum with Margo, and since the whole thing with Parkrose didn't work out, we went out and ate lunch at a Thai restaurant.

Then I cruised on over to the North Portland library and Title Wave. I picked up some Shostakovich and some latin jazz to listen to on my endless commutes at the library, and bought several books on tape/cd to listen to in the car at Title Wave (some of them I can use with students--I figure a little read-aloud won't hurt anybody, and if we have some downtime, it's a more restful way of spending it than my usual wild and rambunctious games).

Then it was time to head for the barn and tackle my huge pile of aftermath at home. I tend to ignore anything chore-related until the weekend, but it's nice to try to do some chores and cleaning without having boys and dogs underfoot the entire time. This is one of those rare days when I can do that.

After picking up my husband, we went on over to Mezza which is a new Meditteranean (Lebanese?) restaurant that opened up just down the street from us about a month ago. We tried it once and liked it, so it was time for a return visit. I really like this place--they have different offerings than all the other places in town (even the standards that you get everywhere taste totally different here), so it's not the same ol' same ol'. Everything tastes really fresh, and the pita bread is homemade and to die for...not that dried out stuff you usually get in restaurants. It arrives straight out of the oven puffed up to the roof, and has the most delightful yeasty smell. The inside is downright velvety, and it's the most wonderful sensory experience to sit there and eat it. I've never known anyone who had time to make pita bread from scratch, so this is what I've been missing all these years... Aside from the amazing pita bread, they also have some cool drinks and deserts, so in the summer time I think I'm going to haunt them... I just hope the crappy economy and our less than optimal demographics (this is more of an Asian/Latino/Russian sort of neighborhood) don't get them down. Who knows, maybe we're due for a demographic shift, which I could really go for...it would be nice not to have to go all the way to Beaverton to get Meditteranean foods! If someone wants to open a Med-Mart down the street, I'd be all for it...