On the road again: Portland, day 4

I'll spare you the work portions of the day, which admittedly dominated it, and mention the high points.

Lunch was at the Heathman Restaurant & Bar in the Heathman Hotel, and the meal was, as always there, quite good. High points included a soup of local mushrooms and a made-on-the-spot bleu cheese dressing on my Cobb salad. I had ordered a side of the dressing and they did not carry it, so they grabbed some bleu cheese and made me a small batch. That's service!

In addition to work, we invested a little over an hour roaming part of the Pearl district of Portland. Though I wasn't as taken by the area as some folks have been, I enjoyed the wandering. Besides, you have to love a place with a Ben & Jerry's and a cupcake shop side by side.

I opted for room-service dinner and work so that I could cram in Margaret Cho's Beautiful show at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Simply being in the hall was a treat; what a magnificent place! If you're in Portland and can find an excuse to attend a show there, do it. Cho's show was what one expects from her: funny, dirty, political, funny, sexy, funny, and occasionally preachy--but always funny. I laughed and enjoyed myself, and I was reminded again how hard it can be for those who are different from the mainstream in a way that society decides to stigmatize. I've never understood why another person's sexual orientation was my business, and I still don't think it is. I'm happy to support her preaching of tolerance.

Enough of my day. On to the book!