Karaoke means "empty orchestra" in Japanese

YAY!!! I wasn't sure what to call today's random musings and memories but when I saw the above I KNEW it to be the best description of what you'll read below...

On Friday after a week of hectic and frenetic busy-ness, dealing with mundane AND lurdane (ahahahaha that was FUN) we loaded up the van with a few things and headed off to Portland for what? We'd been invited to a fundraiser gala...

The trip was full of rain washed wonders such as the tree you see above, wonders just waiting to be pictures!

Here's my brother being the stoic Indian looking to the future...or is he just trying to see the coffee stand at the roadside rest area?

Arriving in Portland we checked into our hotel room and took in the view...

...before we knew it we were at the gala - for the first part there was some time for people watching and I have to tell you that was a really fun adventure because this gala was $10,000 per table so the hoity toity of all hoity toities were there...mayors and governors and individuals of that ilk (yay I love that I used the word "ilk").

Although the dinner was quite costly we found humor in the graceful historic architecture...for instance what is actually a gracefully arched entryway artistically edged with fruit and a crysal chandelier looks (to your right) looks much like a grumpy old codger who's saying "don't come in"

Pictured to the left is the hallway going into the banquet hall, a richly decorated and elegant room but what WE saw was a scary movie in the making...you can just imagine the ghostly beings wandering around in the next room and the elevator bells ringing as "no one" takes them up and down the floors...

Our dinner was interesting and we chatted with a random guest who stopped by...she was charming and witty and immediately introduced herself as a "real Indian" which we all chuckled about (east Indian).

Once the dinner was over we were very happy and headed off to our hotel room where we were met with my daughter, granddaughter and their friend. We played around with them for a bit and then off to the rest of our night:-) a night of jollifications and refreshments...

Saturday we visited with Puppy Lee (third son), a visit thoroughly enjoyed and frought with all sorts of hilarity not the least of which was offered by his daughter Kyla who as it turns out is a very intelligent little one year old...Kyla amused us greatly but we also had other stories to catch up on with Puppy Lee, Kyla and Nellie...

Please note the kid pictures aren't very clear because they insisted on wanting to GRAB  the camera as well as be IN the camera::-)

Before we knew it, it was time to head home and the best part of visiting the kids is that when it's time to go home we're exhausted and can't wait to get there!

This tree was just BEGGING to have it's picture taken on the way home so I obliged...

Our last stop before heading home was at the grocery outlet in the Dalles...whilst shopping there we overheard the loudspeaker...you know the funny thing is, I think that cashiers take a special training to use the loudspeaker, they are instructed to speak in the least understandable intonation possible...very often what you hear over the loudspeaker sounds like "Blug Bluggo Bluggy...Blug PHHHHHHEET Mthofuggy!!!!" which is probably blogworthy in itself but no, at the store we heard blasted about in the most unfortunate of nasal tones "Jesus (pronouned as in Spanish and other such languages HAY SUESS) please come to the front for courtesy pick up, Jesus, courtesy pick up..." and for some reason this caused me to break into peals of laughter - guffaws if you will - I turned to my brother and said "get it...it's SUNDAY and they're calling for JESUS????"

He elbowed me and told me "you're crazy"

and THEN we went home!