Other than the house

I AM doing things that are not house-related. I'd like to see a handful of the Oscar movies, though I'm averaging less than one movie theater visit per week.

I've been on a couple of hikes in Forest Park with friends - only about 3 miles or so per loop, but we're bumping it to five miles this coming Saturday. We even went out two weeks ago when it was COLD here.

It was fun catching the trees in a shrouded-with-fog, sun-breaking-through moment.

I've also been on a few bike rides - 6 miles on New Year's Day and 10 miles each of the last two Sundays.

AND I've been eating out some. I should probably get a list going, or review the places as I go to them. The best one most recently was Oven and Shaker in the Pearl District, a few weeks ago with some friends. I felt SO out of it since I hadn't even heard of it, but my talented friend had done some work for them and so called in a favor to get us a seat on a Saturday night. There was a miscommunication that left us standing around a bit, but they made up for it by sending some nibbles to the table and covering our first (only) round of drinks. The appetizers we had were: fried mozzerella (yum), fried chickpeas, the salmon appetizer special (lox), and two of the fried rice balls - one with saffron, one with mushrooms. We also split two pizzas, one brussels sprouts and one with mushrooms. It was a lovely night out, though I might not seek it out again soon as it's a bit loud and it's normal to wait quite a while for a seat. Also, much of the seating is on stools which I don't really like. The food itself was delicious.