pears and pies

Oh joy to have a Saturday where the alarm goes off at 8am. But I had some quality time planned with the new housemates, so that is swell. So I arrived at the new house at 9:20ish ready to pick pears from the backyard pear tree. Hurray! Chris is still in the house, but is moving soon. He is a pretty cool dude, I hope he enjoys Portland. So it was Jeff, Justen, Tara, Chris, Jan (Jeff's friend), and I! Whooo! And we came up with an order for operations. Justen, Tara, and I went about picking pears. We went up on this orchard ladder with a long picker. It took a lot of careful maneuvering, but we got so many pears! Some were really high up. Using a picker is hard work. It's a lot of weight to navigate. It was a brilliant sunny day, but not a scorcher.

Once the pears were picked, they were washed. Justen had an engagement so he left, but not before cooking us eggs and bacon! What a guy!

Then we started cutting and cutting and cutting. So much filling to be made. Chris and Jan worked on the crust. Tara also cut up some strawberries. The table was set up outside, so that it was a conveyor belt of pie making. Five pies were filled! Of various sizes. A couple had lattice crusts, because we are fancy. Conversation was good, everyone was polite and on the same level. It was a good group and I feel good about it.

Then pies went into the oven and we started cleaning and tidying and relaxing and chatting. I sketched a bit. Then a pie was out of the oven and we consumed a good portion of it. Mmm. Pear and strawberry. Very good.

After helping with the dishes I bid adieu and went to Atilla's Antiques because I am on a quest to find a badass seal/signet type ring. The big kind that you can use to punch an emblem into wax. So far I'm not coming up with anything badass enough that is also reasonably priced. I should also find out my ring finger sizes.

But I did get a few neat can labels featuring squid, a framed print of some sea shells that I really liked and wasn't badly priced, and some old drawing guide books that I liked the images in. Hurray!

And all that before 4pm! What a Saturday.

I hung out at home for a bit. I walked to Betty's Noodles for some noodles for dinner because my laziness to cook was more than my laziness to walk to a place to make me food. I ended up getting a beef rice bowl thing. It was all right. The rice was a bit dry in a few parts. Like it came from the side of the cooker. It's fun to read Mary Roach's Gulp while eating dinner. Hhehe.

Anyoo. Night came. I packed my books into boxes. I think I'll make a Target run and get some tubs, though I think a lot of my things can be moved without actually unpacking. Just put the shelving thingies in my car and tape the drawers shut. The plan will be to make a trip every night from the 15th to the 22nd, and then on that weekend, move my bed and desk and actual thing things. But get everything but clothes out. It may not take THAT many trips, considering what I have on hand.

Not fun to think about, but some things are inevitable I suppose.