Our beloved TGI Fridays restaurant that is near our house closed without notice yesterday.  We've been going there for 20 years and it was one of the few restaurants that our whole family enjoyed.  I'm so sad.  There aren't any other Fridays in the metro area either.  This was the only one around.   

It's weird to think about how many memories we've had there.  We've had many a birthday dinner there, that's where we went after my cousin's wedding dress rehearsal and lots of Saturday lunches.  In the '90's it was a popular place for a few of the Portland Trailblazers to eat and we'd spot them there every so often.  It was right near our local mall and that's where we'd eat after a day out Christmas shopping.  One of the hostesses had been working there for as long as we'd been going and she always recognized us and came over to say hi even if she hadn't been the one to seat us.  Now all of those people are out of work.  For us we've lost a favorite restaurant, but they've lost their jobs.  

We haven't even told our son that it's closed.  It's going to be like someone died for him.  I'm not looking forward to it.

We'd noticed lately that they were never as crowded as they used to be.  I guess it was worse than we thought.   

This is a public service announcement for those in the Portland area.  Here are the dates (according to Dante's website) for upcoming Kane concert dates:

July 26th (Sunday)
August 16th (Sunday)
September 5th (Saturday)

Do you know who this is???

D

I'm so excited!!

What have I been saying forever?  They should have a convention in Vancouver!!!  Creation just announced that they are going to have one in Vancouver, BC August 28-30.  No guests have been announced and tickets aren't even for sale yet.  But yippeee!!!  The boys will be filming by then (because we WILL have a S5), so it sure seems like they would be able to get both Jared and Jensen. 

growyourwings  just mailed in her paperwork to get her passport!  Perfect!

I'm so excited.  We can drive!!!

This also counts as the first of my eight days of what makes me happy!

*iz not thinking about the fact that I shouldn't spend money*

I saw a new show  "Leverage" advertised on TV this morning.  The main star is Timothy Hutton, but a couple of the the other stars are:

Chris Kane--real life pal of Jensen and Steve Carlson.  Btw, did anyone watch him when he was on Angel?  That was the first time I ever saw him.

Aldis Hodge a.k.a. Jake a.k.a. Sam Winchester killer.  I also saw him on a commercial the other day, but now I can't remember what the commercial was for.  I wonder if it would be hard to watch him in a show where we are supposed to like him? 

I think the show premieres on Sunday at 10pm on TNT if anyone is interested.  The description from imdb:     A crew of high-tech crooks attempt to steal from wealthy criminals and corrupt businessmen.

Go buy photo ops for LA!!  Just did mine!

Look at my new LJ layout!  Isn't it great?  A HUGE thank you to growyourwings .  She's awesome as usual!

We had such a good time yesterday.  The autograph line was so long, but Gabe and Richard were so friendly and so gracious.  A friend was even further back in line and she said they were still having a good time even after almost three hours of signing authographs. 

Then a bunch of us went down to the bar to eat and get read for Karaoke later.  (We didn't do Steve's concert.)  The karaoke wasa lot of fun.  Richard, Gabe, Chad, Steve and Jason also showed up and were mingling around.  It had looked like Steve had signed up to sing karaoke, but by 1:30 I was ready to call it a night.  Of course, once I got back to the room, growyourwings called and said Steve was singing.  So I scurried back down and caught a bit of his song--"Feel Like Makin' Love".  Needless to say, it was good.  Steve is so sexy.

Gotta go get some food!  We need to keep up our strength!

 

Just a quick update!  We are having a great time.  Our flight was a little late getting in yesterday, but not too bad.  We didn't miss a connecting flight and that's always good.  We watched the episode in the hotel restaurant last night with a bunch of other fans.  That was very fun, but a little noisy and a little hard to hear.  We're going to watch it again tonight. 

Today we saw Gabe (Andy) and Richard (The Trickster) and had our picture taken with Gabe.  I like how mine turned out.  Gabe and Richard were both so great.  They were both very likable and very personable.  Gabe was so funny and sweet.  Richard was also nice and funny, but not in the stand-up comedic way that Gabe was.   They both had some great stories.  I hope I can remember some for later.   

Now we are headed out to get autographs and I gotta run. 

ETA:  Also found mrsr58 and jensenite!  So good to see them!

Both of my S1 DVDs are out on loan!

Hubby is carving my Sam & Dean pumpkin as I type!  Sam is done and he looks good.  (Doesn't he always?)  Now he's moving on to Dean.  I'll post pictures when he's done!  I love my husband.  He enables my addiction!

I.  can't.  stop.  watching.

I went to call growyourwings  today and started scrolling through my cell phone list looking for 'g' (for growyourwings) instead of her 'real' name.   Such a dork!

 

( I was told this might be spoilery for tonight's episode. I haven't seen it yet, so I don't know... )
Edit:  Okay, maybe they don't say "All right Jenny" at the end.  Maybe it's "All right, cutting."  But I like the Jenny part better. 

Edit2:  Story of how Eye of the Tiger came to be:  http://huntersaddict.wordpress.com/2008/10/23/on-set-joke-jensen-ackles/

Snagged from daisychain  who snagged it from somebody else, but that's how these things go.  I'm more than happy to be Bobby!

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So I guess I need to jump on the bandwagon.  I'll see if I can come up with 10 interesting things about me. 

Each person starts with ten random facts/habits about themselves.
Those who are tagged need to write on their own LJ about their ten things and post these rules.
At the end of your entry, you need to choose ten people to get tagged and list their names. "

1)  I really love genealogy.  I haven't done any research in about five years, but I'll get back into it again eventually.  I'm mostly Scottish, English and German with a smidgen of Irish and a smidgen of Native American.  The most interesting thing I think I ever found was an editorial my great-great grandfather (Alonzo R.) wrote to the local newspaper.  Reading his opinions made him seem like a real person. 

2)  I hate shopping.  Blech! 

3)  I almost always wear jeans!  I sense a theme here!  Jean wearing women unite!  Too many years of dressing up for work. 

4)  To show what a nerd I am one time my sister and I had a layover at LAX and we scoped out everyone who passed us determined to see a 'movie star'.   We didn't see a big 'movie star', but we saw someone we recognized.  We saw Henry Gibson.  (He used to be on Laugh-In and is currently a recurring character on Boston Legal.)

 

5)  Hubby and I attend 1-2 Science Fiction conventions a year.  I started attending Orycon (held here in Portland) in 1989 and haven't missed one yet.  I met one of my best friends at Orycon 1990 and we've been friend ever since.  They hold panels on topics ranging from how to get your novel published to science panels featuring pictures taken by the Mars Rover to Buffy sing-a-longs (there was that one musical episode) to (one of my favorites) how injured can your fictional character get and still keep on fighting.   An ER nurse had slides of various real life injuries (mostly impalements) and how all of the patients had survived.  (I know.  I'm a sick individual.  But my friend really wanted to go to the panel and I just tagged along.  Really!)

6)  I don't drink coffee, but I love Diet Coke.  Back before we had kids, when hubby and I used to go out dancing a lot, my drink of choice was a Long Island Iced Tea.  (Or being the non-drinking partner of a body slam.)

7)   I suffer from Restless Leg Syndrome which is aggravated by caffeine and alcohol, so I'm curtailing my Diet Coke and alcohol.  Bummer!!  I'm considering acupuncture.  Maybe when I have more time and things quiet down around here. 

8)  All of my immediate family lives within 2 hours of me and that makes me very happy.  

9)  I live within 50 miles of where I was born.  That also makes me happy.  I love where I live.  But I also love to travel and see new things.  I just want to come back here when I'm done.  

10)  I love the show Supernatural.  It airs on Thursday nights at 9:00 on the CW network.  But I guess a couple of you may already know this.   

Whew!  Made it!     

Amid the various other "Back to the Future" references in this episode, did anyone else notice that the name of the doctor making the house call (as the YED) was Doc(tor) Brown?