So Long, Farewell, Auf Weidersehen, Goodbye

Well I guess I should say goodbye after a very long hiatus.  You see, we no longer live in Maine.  Our stint in the Pine Tree State was cut about a year short when we were transferred back to California.  Spike and I are happy to get back to the Bay Area.  So I won't drag this out or make a big "to-do".  I'll just say it's been fun, cold, and we'll never forget the birth state of our first baby.  Maine, you'll always hold a special place in our hearts.

Picking Pizza in Portland

Pizza is one of those things that pretty much everyone loves.  I don't think I've ever come across someone who didn't like some type of version of pizza whether it's deep dish or thin crust, pepperoni or chicken, simple or fancy.  We have a lot of pizza restaurants around here that range from not-so-good to fabulous.  In the year and a half that we've lived i Maine, we've been to several of these places that claim to be the best in Portland.  Two of those really stand out to me as being superior and are on totally different levels.  I'd like to take you on a pizza journey of sorts starting from the worst and working our way to the best.

Pizza Joint: This is the worst pizza I've ever had in my life.  I ordered what would be considered a supreme and went by 20 minutes later to pick it up.  First of all it was HUMONGOUS.  And it cost $33.  I almost had a heart attack on the spot!  The crust was soggy and there were way too many of each topping.  Why so much then?  Each topping was like $3 each, which I didn't know when I ordered it.  And really, should onions cost as much as sausage?  The pizza was too large and we ended up throwing it away after we fought to eat the slices we could stomach.  Needless to say we won't be going back.

Stavros:  This place gets an okay in my book.  We've only been there once and ordered slices.  It's across the street from Pizza Joint and they have other things besides pizza like burgers and subs.  I think we just got basic pepperoni and cheese, but the crust was good and pretty standard.  I'd go again to try it out.

Portland Pie:  Spike and I just went here recently and got a supreme type pizza.  This place has more than your standard toppings.  They have seafood, barbecue chicken, and an Asian style pizza for those who don't want the same old same old.  This was a pizza that I've ordered for people at work before and gotten good reviews.  So we had to go try it for ourselves.  They even sell their dough in the grocery store so you can do your own thing at home, which is pretty cool I think.

Bonobo:  A newer place in town compared to the other pizza places, Bonobo is a place where you could get just a regular pepperoni, but why?  They have some of the most unique combination of ingredients that you can find on a pie.  We had to be adventurous when we went so we got a Morocco which had lamb sausage, feta and goat cheeses, roasted red bell peppers and scallions.  Delish.  Yum.  So good.  You should look at the link just to see what ingredients they put on these pizzas...mmmm.

Otto Pizza:  Now we're getting into my two top favorites.  Otto's is downtown in a TINY itsy bitsy store front.  You can go in and get slices for $3.50 (they're so big it's almost like 2 slices) and take it to go or have a seat next door in their sister restaurant Enzo's where they'll pass the pizza through a little hole in the wall after it comes out of the oven.  They always have a pepperoni and cheese slices for sale, but the other pies' availabilities change depending on whoever is running things back at the ovens.  I've seen chicken, margherita, mashed potato bacon and scallion, and my personal favorite - three cheese tortellini.  Otto's takes pizza and puts it on a higher level.  It's consistently rated the best pizza in Portland and for good reason.  The ingredients are of high quality, prices are reasonable (are you listening, Pizza Joint?!), and the combinations are inspired

Flatbread Company:  If you're looking for a pizza with local ingredients that also happen to be organic, Flatbread is the place for you.  They have a brick oven in the restaurant where you can see the employees stoking the fire and carefully tending to each pizza.  Flatbread's crust is really what sets them apart from the other pizza places in town.  It's incredibly thin but somehow still has a good crunch to it.  For me, the ingredients don't really have to be organic and the pepperoni isn't any more special because it's nitrate free, but everything works really well here.  I almost really don't have any words, but that this is the place we bring people when they come to visit us in Portland.  So...when are you coming??

Does this make up for a few months of no blog entries?  I hope you're inspired to go out and get a locally made pizza and support the small businesses in your community that work hard to keep up with the big chains.  You'd be happy to know that since we've lived here we haven't even thought once about calling Domino's or Pizza Hut.  Spread the word...most of the time, the food is better anyway!

Texafornian??

Ever since Spike and I found out that we are going to have a baby, we have made some minor adjustments in our life here in Maine.  We've been figuring out the things that we'll do with our son when he's old enough.  We can't wait to take him to the park, zoo, museums, etc. and expose him to all good things Maine.  One thing I'm not too keen on doing just yet is giving him Whoopie Pies.  It's just sugar piled on top of sugar with more sugar.  A blueberry pie I can get with.  Apple picking I can get with.  Whoopie Pies I cannot.

Something else I can get with?  Traveling and taking him to new and exciting places that we've never been to or love visiting.  Take for instance California...San Francisco and San Diego in particular.  Those are two of our favorite cities.  Spike and I had the privilege of honeymooning in San Diego and living in San Francisco for a year before we moved to Maine.  Last week we went back to San Francisco to vacation in the city that has a stronghold on our hearts.  We did everything that we didn't get a chance to do while we lived there, and a few other things that we had to do again.

We visited the Museum of Modern Art and the Asian Art Museum, got a killer burrito in Mission district, got to have amazing German food with my cousin, see and stay with some of our best friends, take a hike in the Berkeley Hills overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge and bay, and finally, have dinner at our favorite restaurant of all time.  This trip was about doing what we wanted to do and really enjoying the city in a different way.  I was sad to leave the bay area and come back to Maine where it was much cooler and a bit rainy, but it was great to get back into my own bed.

Hands down the best burrito I've ever had.  El Farolito at 24th and Mission.

Vases at the Asian Art Museum.

Inspriation Point looks out onto the bay and Golden Gate Bridge.

E Tutto Qua at Broadway and Columbus...the best Italian food ever.

Spike in a graffiti covered alley.

Drumroll, Please!!

Monday, Spike and I went get an ultrasound of the baby.  After going into the wrong building and getting a long explanation of how to cross the street by a security guard, we made it to the right office.  We walked back into the room where the tech had me sit down in a chair that I would compare to a dentist's chair, but more comfortable.  She proceeded to recline the chair, but with sterile paper and my body on top of faux leather it was making A LOT of noise.  And the recline wasn't really very fast either.  It just sounded like one big...well you know.  Not that we were nervous about anything, but it seemed to lighten the mood when I wondered aloud if the chair could make a little more noise.

And then it all started.  It was the most surreal thing I think I've ever experienced.  I say that because this pregnancy has been so normal (no sickness, no crazy hormonal stuff) that it's almost like I can't believe I'm growing a human being inside me.  But I am!  As soon as she found the baby, the spine was as clear as day.  A bright white spotted line along the back.  A beautiful sight!  And the head. And the little legs.  And the tiny arms.  There's no way for me to describe it except as awe inspiring.  The tech began taking measurements of the head, heart, and kidneys.  However, the baby was in the position that it made it hard to get the last shot of the heart she needed.  She tried jiggling the device on my stomach, having me turn on my left side and then my right.  This baby was being so stubborn...ornery as we described it.

After walking up and down the hall a few times, rubbing my stomach, hopping little hops, and giving this baby a "heart to heart," the picture the tech needed was finally achieved.  By this time the big question had been answered.  Was this baby a boy or girl?  As soon as the legs came into view, the truth was told...it wass a boy!  I had a feeling beginning about a month or two ago that this was going to be a boy.  I don't know why, but nearly everyone on my side of the family (or at least the women anyway) predicted this little one was a boy as well.  We are completely overjoyed and excited.  Now for the next step, a name...we have nothing yet.

I'll be posting a few of the pictures of the ultrasound as soon as I can get them scanned.  Of the black and white (not 3D) ultrasound pictures I've seen in the past, these are actually recognizable.  You can make out his nose and lips on one and an arm near his face in another.  So there it is...Spike has a drummer for his next band!

It's Been Too Long

I know it's been too long since I've written anything.  I've had a lot on my plate the last few months.  First of all, I should say that Spike and I are expecting our first baby in late August.  That's enough for a "get out of jail free card" on the blog, right?  Second, winter here has lasted MUCH longer than any of us expected and we haven't done that much.  I guess last year when we arrived in March it was chilly, but I don't remember it being this chilly!  We had so much snow this winter that there's still some in the backyard just waiting to melt.  That's insane.  And we had a day when the high was 68 and it's still not all gone!  That's when you know it's been cold.

I always kind of figured that we would have a baby while we were living in Maine.  The joke was that the first words out of the baby's mouth would be something like, "Waa, ma.  Waa."  No exclamation point, no real feeling to the cry...just "Waa."  The pregnancy has been going well.  I never had morning sickness, I've been gaining weight steadily, exercising, and eating voraciously.  Just don't tell me that I'm eating for two...if I had another person growing inside me with the appetite that I've had, I'd be scared.  I just eat about the same amount at meals and have sensible snacks throughout the day to supplement the hunger that comes around every few hours.

The next big step is finding out if the baby is a girl or boy.  I have a hunch about what it will be, but I'd like to take a poll.  What do you think?  Take the survey at the top right of this page.  I don't get feedback on who specifically votes which way, but I think it would be a fun way to see if you're right in the end.  And I promise I'll have some more things to talk about Maine once it starts to warm up a little more!

It's Wintah...in Maine!

As a Native Texan, winters were something I always dreaded.  I wasn't used to the 40-50 degree weather, and I prayed for a snow day at least every time the meteorologist said it was going to drop below 32.  Alas, that didn't happen very often.  Try about once every four years in Houston.  Dallas provided us with more snow/ice days - about once a year right around Valentine's Day.  Texas isn't capable of handling the snow or ice so they just ended up canceling school, and most people got the day off from work.  It's too dangerous to get out there...almost like Californians driving in the rain.

All that seems to be a distant memory these days.  The average temps around here the last few weeks have barely even pushed above freezing.  Getting out there isn't as easy as one might think.  Sure, they plow the roads and salt and sand them, but they can't keep up with a heavy snow storm.  So what is a heavy snow storm then?  Before we left for Christmas there was 4 inches of snow on the ground and that was a "dusting."  To be honest, they all seem like heavy snow storms to me, and we should all stay home from work instead of going out on the roads.  The snow looks so much prettier when you're at home and not at work.

To be fair, this season has been much worse than winters Maine has experienced in the past few years.  I'm not sure of the total inches we've had so far, but I think it's already surpassed the average for the whole season.  Everyone keeps saying, "Just wait til February" meaning that it will only get worse.  Well I'll tell you what.  You can take your February and keep it because I want no part of it!  I'm sick of snow.  I'm sick of having to bundle up when I go outside.  I'm sick of having to struggle to get up our hill of a driveway just to get in the garage.  I'm sick of having sand and snow stuck to shoes, and consequently, in the house.

BUT!!!  It sure does beat the heat.

The path from the back porch to the driveway...see the angle of the car?  I wasn't lying about the hill!

Our street

The neighborhood

The park that had tulips last spring (Blog: April Showers Have Brought May Flowers)

Check out how tall that snow bank is...and how buried the Stop sign is

The Whole Enchilarda

I've already discussed in a blog from last year how Maine isn't going to be garnering any spots on the "spiciest places to eat tour" anytime soon.  And one of the reasons is because the Mexican food up here is virtually non-existant.  Oh sure, Thai and Indian food have the corner on spice market, but there's something to be said about a really good salsa that kind of sets your mouth on fire and dares you to come back for more.

I think Spike and I have tried about three "Mexican" (and I use the term very loosely) restaurants around town, and only one of them deserves going back again and again - El Rayo.  It's in an old gas station with more outdoor seating than is available than inside.  So you can understand why this place would be packed in the summer.  We've been quite a bit since we've moved to Portland, and it hits that spot even if it's not always super spicy.  Trying something new is always in order when we go and we're not usually disappointed.  I've tried the chilequilles, the Mexico City corn on the cob (exceptionally good), tacos, quesadillas, rice and bean bowls...the list goes on.  EXCEPT!!! they have no enchiladas on the menu, which is disappointing, but I guess it's not that kind of restaurant.   

But the whole reason I'm here pouring out my thoughts is because today at work they were serving "Enchilardas" for lunch.  That's right, enchiladas with an R.  Of course, it's just the woman behind the sneeze glass who writes the day's offerings on the chalk board and doesn't know how to spell the word.  I feel that's what we're working with here in New England: Restaurants that don't serve enchiladas and people that can't spell it.


That's why I just have to accept that the best Mexican food is in El Paso and I can only have it about once a year when we see Spike's family.