I found the Porthole House

 273rd day sober. I practiced last night just to see if my headache would get worse, but it stayed the same. Practice actually went pretty well. I'm working in the 3rd etude in the Getchell book now.

I woke up at a bit after 1, and left at around 2. I took 10th all the way down to Story/Keyes and on the way, as it goes right behind the university, I found the Porthole House. 

When I was pretty new to this area and riding around, I saw this house that had a round window like a porthole, and then an oval one too. I mean, one porthole, OK. Two portholes, that's fine, but a porthole and an oval? In my memory I had it pegged as one of those crazy-looking Victorians but it wasn't, actually, it just had Victorians next to it. It looked more like it dates to when this area switched over from cattle and logging to agriculture, particularly fruit. Those houses are a lot plainer.

So now I know where to find the silly thing again. I believe there are artists who make their whole living from drawing or painting interesting houses and buildings, and there are times I wonder if I should explore doing that. I should figure out how to use my phone's camera to take pictures of some of the funny little buildings around here. 

I went on down 10th to Story/Keyes then turned left, and went to the Century Something-Or-Other Mall where the Vietnamese folks were celebrating Chinese New Year. It was pretty cool, with corny music and firecrackers, and the kids all had those little popping things you throw on the ground, and I got a little piroshki sort of thing for $1 at a little stand, and walked around in the mall a bit. 

I went to a Vietnamese market on the way back and got a few things like some German Maggi seasoning I'd been wanting to try for years but the stuff made in Europe is a lot more expensive and comes in larger bottles. This was a small bottle for $4 or $5 which was just right. 

I rode back downtown through a sort of twisty route and ended up on some weird little streets I'd never been on before, and this was just south of downtown. I passed by the Poor House Bistro or ... what's left of it. The actual house has been moved to Little Italy which should actually be called nano-Italy. The part that had been built onto the side was still standing and there was a band playing and tons of people which looked strange but they seemed to be having a good time. 

I went to Whole Foods and used the loo and got a can of coffee because I had a headache and thought it might be because I only had green tea when I got up. Then I got some chicken wings and went upstairs and got a near-beer and had wings and beer and watched some of a football game. 

When I was done eating I did some shopping. When I'd come in, there was a bum with a sign sitting by the bike racks and his sign wasn't too bad as bum signs go. So I gave him a dollar and complimented him on it. I then said he ought to make some extra ones because people will buy signs with clever sayings on them and with cardboard he only needs a black pen and something light and he can get some pretty neat effects. When I was getting my near-beer upstairs the bartender asked about my playing and I told him about my taking the winter off and about the bum with the sign whom I'd given a dollar to, and he said that was really nice. I then said I might as well be, because if I were down there with my trumpet, he'd not have a chance! 

When I went back out with my groceries, the bum had moved away from the bike racks (dunno why, it made him harder to see) and he had some kind of doo-wop music playing and was singing along, quietly. At least he was trying to be musical. 

By this time, about 6, it did not look good for busking although it might have been, earlier. I'd almost taken the trumpet with me and done some busking, because Ken was going to move things around and I wanted to dodge most of that work if I could and if I went busking I'd have a credible excuse. But then I'd decided hang it, I'll just go out and do stuff and save the busking for when it's warm again. 

I stopped at Nijiya for some tea, and then got back here. Sure enough, Ken was here. He'd moved a bunch of things not-to-be-sold off of the shelves and put some things that were sold, onto the shelves. He didn't even seem disappointed that I hadn't been around. We work together so well, anyway. We sat and talked a bit and he had tea, and then he had to go get more stuff so he did and while he was gone I put things away and then he came back with more stuff so I have things to organize and list.