Angie Windheim

I have resisted the temptation of American Idol for seven seasons.  Much to Brian’s dismay, I finally broke and am so hooked this season it’s silly! And, the best part is I dragged my boys along with me. Brian routinely comments that I’m ruining my kids…he’s half joking 🙂  Oh well. When I was a kid, I dreamed of being a singer.  I sang all of the time and would fantasize that maybe someday someone would hear me and whisk me off to stardom 🙂  So, now I’ve got three boys who are hooked on music, taking drum lessons, taking guitar lessons, etc.  It only made sense to fuel the fire with American Idol.  I didn’t have them watch the early rounds where people are awful and embarrass themselves and are ripped apart by the judges. That part is scary! We started with the 36 that became the Top 13.  Very fun.  The boys are 100% behind Adam.  They’ve even bought his iTunes songs from the show.  I’m definitely a fan, but I do like Kris, Danny and Allison, too.  And Matt’s not far behind.

Despite the endless rain and the cold chill this Spring Break, we still managed to have some fun playing tourists in Portland.  One day, the whole family, along with the McBride clan, headed to Oaks Park for the afternoon.  I hadn’t been there for probably 8 years. My expectations were low.  But with Safeway’s 2-for-1 discount we were only out $7 per person and the risk was minimal 🙂  

We had a great time. The place is kind of a dump, but there are a few really fun rides and the people watching was most excellent.  Ben loved the Screaming Eagle, Sam and I loved the Eruption (Brian got woozy on that one) and Joe loved the Disco ride.  The roller coasters are fun, but really hard on the body. Not a lot of padding and very jerky.

The best part of the adventure though was going out to dinner afterward. We decided to try Jimmy’s Smokehouse and Pizzaria at 7025 SW Macadam Ave.  It had rave reviews online and they were so right. We knew we’d done good as soon as we walked in and smelled the food.  We tried the Caesar salad, the riblets, the Macadam Avenue pizza, the pepperoni pizza for the kids,  and, my personal favorite, the End Cut pizza with thinly sliced Cascade Natural Prime Rib, carmelized sweet red onions, Gorgonzola cheese, Parmesan, Mozzarella and Provolone. Oooh yeah, baby. Add a good pitcher of beer and this place is a winner. We have just got to come up with a reason to get over there again 🙂

Man, I love concerts!  Last night Brian and I caught Spoon’s fantastic show at the Crystal Ballroom. They really rocked the house. Spoon’s music just has the best rhythms and the whole sound is very fun. And, the lead singer, Britt Daniel, lives in Portland which raises the overall coolness factor by at least 10. You could tell the band was happy to be back on stage after a 4 month break from performing. The energy was contagious.

Brian and I have been Spoon fans for awhile. We own their last two CDs and the band played a lot of our favorites. After the show, we both looked at each other and said, “we need more. We need the ‘Fitted Shirt’ song,” from an earlier CD.  We’re just going to buy the whole CD 🙂  Spoon also tested out some great new songs on the crowd, so we’ll have to buy that as well when it come out.  I think we’ll also purchase some tunes from the opening band, Everest. They were goooood.

The Crystal Ballroom is a venue that buzzes your whole body. Serious. You can literally “feel” the music jolt through you from your toes to your tip of your nose. Of course, I always have a little panic that the bouncy floor is indeed going to give way and we’ll all be on the morning news as the “McMennamin’s Mishap.”  But that place has been standing for a long, long time and will continue to house some spectacular shows. If you haven’t been there, what’s wrong with you???  Go! And, grab dinner at Henry’s Tavern before hand. Heavenly gorgonzola fries, fantasy worthy pot stickers, over 100 beers on tap, etc.  I also tried the Black Butte Porter BBQ beef, caramelized onion and blue cheese pizza. Wow!  I think it would be fun to go with friends and just order a bunch of stuff so you could sample as much as possible without exploding.

So a friend of mine invites my husband and I to go “Monte Carlo” bowling on a Saturday night at Sunset Lanes in Beaverton. We’re like, “Sure. But what’s that?” All I knew was that somehow you can win money, but no one really understood how. But, hey, I like bowling.

Well, we had a blast. Sunset Lanes rocks as far as bowling alleys go. It’s loud and busy with big screens mounted up high showing the “game”, a jazzed up arcade, a decent bar with quality beer on tap, good pub grub (mozzarella sticks, cajun fries, towers of onion rings, etc), and actual tables at your lane so you can sit/eat/drink/socialize while you wait for your turn. Sunset even had waiters whipping by to clean up and get you more.  Just a very nice set up.  

The Monte Carlo aspect adds to the loudness and the fun. The lanes are black-lighted with random neon pins that show up. You can win money for certain combinations. Big money is for splits that you actually spare. They had a guy calling things like, “Angie on lane 30 gets $2 if she get all the pins or just the one on the right.”  I don’t know anyone in our group of 30 or so that won any big money.  I got $2 for the “you suck, you get a buck” prize for bowling 2 games under 100 🙂  And, I got another $2 and a couple of 50 cent game coupons just ’cause I was obnoxiously bad and I think the caller felt sorry for me! It costs $17 per person plus $3.25 shoe rental. You can reserve lanes a week ahead of time. Alli reserved 6 lanes and mixed us all up. I was with 3 people I’d never met and we had a great time. I’d probably have even more fun though with good buddies and my hubby. You’d want at least 2 lanes worth of friends because you share the two lanes…I’d bowl on 30 and 29 depending on where my name showed up. That was confusing at first, but I got the hang of it. I’d definitely do it again…a fun and different, grown-up night out.

www.sunsetlanes.com/bowling/monte-carlo