Half a Year

On Friday Michael and I celebrated our 6 month anniversary! It’s hard to believe we’ve been married for HALF A YEAR already. Crazy. Sometimes it feels like we just got married. Sometimes it feels like we’ve been married forever. 😉 We’re actually celebrating 7 years together this June, so I guess we have been together forever!

The anniversary kind of snuck up on us and we didn’t do gifts or cards or anything, but we did go out to dinner to celebrate. Michael had been wanting to try a new BBQ restaurant nearby, Smokehouse Tavern, on SE Morrison.

It was a super cute place, totally Portland Hipster. It wasn’t crowded because it was a Thursday, March Madness (apparently) and a sunny day…and we were kind of there early. But once we were leaving people were starting to fill the place.

We decided to start with an appetizer, the Deviled Eggs. That’s the new thing in Portland. Every restaurant is trying to be unique with their Deviled Eggs. This one was really good but difficult to eat because the sausage link was so much heavier than the egg. I ended up eating them separately, so it kind of defeated the purpose. Despite that, it was good. The sausage link was outstanding! Next time I’m going to have to order the sausage entree.

Mmmm good. Michael ordered an Old Fashioned and I got a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. The beer menu was pretty good–it was limited but they had some new local beers available! I was happy to see Crux on the menu after trying it in Bend a few months ago. Great beer.

And of course, Shiner. What BBQ place wouldn’t have that?! Okay, now the food. We both got brisket. I got the regular brisket and Michael got the brisket ends– the “black and fatty” part. The part that melts in your mouth like cubes of butter.  It was amazing. 🙂

My brisket was pretty good but nothing compared to Michael’s. The brisket end cuts are the way to go. Michael got the collard greens and french fries as his sides. I got the coleslaw and the pickled veggies. 😀

Loved my sides. They were really tasty! Everything was delicious. I wouldn’t say it was the best BBQ in Portland. That’s Podnah’s for sure. I’d put this place in the running though for top 5. I’d have to go back and try some more of the other options to really make a conclusion. 😉

I ate all of my coleslaw and half of my brisket and saved the rest of it for leftovers to have for lunch at work the next day.  Overall the restaurant was great, the service was good, the food was good. Can’t really compare it to Franklin’s BBQ (nothing compares) or Podnah’s but it was decent and a whole lot closer to our place than Podnah’s!

We went home and settled in to watch The Jinx (the documentary about Robert Durst). Romantic, eh? But the show is really, really good and once you start watching you can’t stop. It’s a crazy story! And I’m surprised that I’d never heard of this story before now. I’m into true crime stories, yet this never made it on my radar until recently.

It was a nice anniversary dinner and evening. 6 months down. 6 more to go to the first anniversary! I have no idea yet what we are going to do for it. We’ve talked about New Orleans. Neither of us have been and we’d like to go. I want to try the food (HELL YA!), go on a swamp boat tour and hear the amazing music. We’re still in the planning stages, but if you have recommendations for New Orleans, let me know!

It’s really nice to feel content. For a long time it felt like our lives were in limbo and chaos for a lot of reasons and then after getting married a lot of that went away. We’re scheduling the kitchen counter installation so that’s one more thing that will soon be done. Slowly we are taking care of all the “pending” things that have plagued us for years! I’m happy and content with Michael and our little life–and all our little critters in the house.

Bella is doing SO GOOD out of her crate! We’re doing half days now and hopefully soon we’ll be able to leave her out full time. She’s doing so good. She’s not getting bored or anxious and destroying things. She’s getting along with the kitties. Whenever we get home now all the animals greet us at the door! I seriously think that Bella and Fat Kitty are cuddling when we aren’t home! This is Fat Kitty resting his head on Bella’s paws:

They are ALMOST FRIENDS! I knew it!! 😀 It makes me happy!