One down, one more to go

This was the first of the two Portland Open Studios weekend. I spent today recovering (read, sitting in front of the computer).

So, about Portland Open Studios...

It was much quieter than last year. Had about 150 people over the two days, compared with about 300 last year. And I didn't have a single person sign up for the only class I had scheduled. Last year, I couldn't beat people away with a stick and I didn't even have to mention classes, people just asked; and I filled up 3 classes during those 2 days. I did get 2 registrants today though, so that's a start.

Sales were down 70% compared to last year. People were really upfront—they didn't bring credit cards on purpose, they're not spending any money not already in their checking accounts, and they're trying to set good examples to their kids by showing restraint. All good reasons.

And all believable. But I'm obviously attracting the wrong demographics, because my neighbor 2 blocks down (a very fine artist) sold 9 paintings for a total of 4g! She said she got mostly young urban couples from LO who for the most part didn't come my way. But it is interesting, she herself just turned 30, so clearly her artwork is speaking to people of her generation. I'm definitely attracting mostly people of my own age as well. I do see some younger folks, but I'd say 75% of my visitors are my age or older.

On finding foreign substances in your food...

I find foreign substance in my food fairly frequently when we eat out, but the Good Prince never does. Why is that? I once found a piece of raw chicken in my hamburger at O'Connor's in Multnomah. Then encountered a long cucumber peel in my fettucini and then some strange orange lumps in a salad on two consecutive visits to the same restaurant. Needless to say, we've never returned.

Then there were the 2 earwigs in the quesadilla at a Mexican place that's no longer there.

Hair in my food, hah! Fugetaboutit!

And then there was the plastic bottle seal in my salad Sunday night (at a very favorite restaurant, so I shall not mention its name).

And then tonight...well, it was a slightly different problem.

On NOT finding the stuff in your food...

We tried a new restaurant tonight, Thong Thai (what a name!). We got the combination appetizer platter...but where's the satay? Then the salad came, without the ground peanuts! Heck, the ground peanuts was the whole reason why I chose that salad as opposed to the salad below. So I asked the waiter, who said, "oh some places put ground peanuts in that dish, but that's not always true."

Me, "your menu says ground peanuts."

"Really?!"

"Yes."

Then the curry came. When we were still perusing the menu, the Good Prince chose this, saying, "look, baby corn!" (One of my favorites.)

You guessed it. The dish arrived WITHOUT baby corn.

And there was a hair in the salad!