An evening with friends

Tonight I attended a very pleasant post-holiday gathering. It took place at friends of my sister's, just down the street near NE 40th and Skidmore. The theme was, specifically, "Port, wine, chocolate and cheese."

The hosts supplied a hefty amount of all promised menu items. The favorites were these homemade dipped caramel-filled peppermint chocolates, with crushed candy cane garnish. We also sampled a tempting white port (more light brown than anything) directly from Portugal that our hosts, Brett and Jessica, picked up in Lisbon this past fall.

There were only four other guests at the party apart from the two hosts, my sister and myself. Two couples, both residents of the same neighborhood, provided intersting stories and commentary.

The first couple operate a high end office and accessories store on NE Alberta.....they were responsive when I asked them if they were planning to carry any of the Freitag line. They responded that this Spring was the launch date, given some delays to shipping and product line agreements....I am not particularly fond of the Freitag line, but I do recognize its current market potential. To set the record straight, I am not a fan of the line because I find it panders to a crowd of snobby status-seeking design types who pay too much for a semi-decent product line. In any case, the brand promises a lot of profits to upscale retailers and apparently it was of current interest to these guys. Perhaps it was the port?.....

The next couple was a nationally known band member and his girlfriend, who also works in the music production biz. Chris W. of Death Cab is an easygoing and relaxed dude and his girlfriend is equally or more as engaging and interested in all things ranging from academic to domestic. It was fun to hear about their on the road stories. I really like the fact that Portland breeds of an atmosphere where rock star profiles find time in their (post-holiday) schedules to fraternize with locals in their neighborhood, talk about things outside their sphere of knowledge (or interest), and do it with amazing success and clarity. I could hang out in Portland on a permanent basis with great happiness with friends of a similar caliber....

Aside from the great party, I leave for Berkeley tomorrow night. For the next several hours I am supposed to figure out how to feed 16-18 people over three days....