Cheers to the (freakin) weekend

Before these activities are too far in the past that it isn't worth talking about them anymore, I thought I'd blog them. We had a packed weekend, which is a welcome change after weeks of house stuff consuming every weekend.

Friday night we planned Cartapalooza with our realtor/friend and her boyfriend. Portland has tons of cart pods, so we decided to hit as many as we could. We ended up being horrible at pacing ourselves, so we didn't eat at many, but we have agreed to do it again soon.

First up was Cartopia. There we went to this cart first:

And had these:

A trio of sliders. It was so funny because I walked up to order them, and the guy seemed really hesitant. I finally asked if he didn't want me to order them. It turned out that he gets to make any 3 burgers he wants, and he was disappointed that it was late and he was out of a lot of his ingredients. I asked if I should go to a different cart, and he told me that "even just my burger, plain, on a bun is better than any of the other carts here." Well then! They didn't disappoint. One had swiss cheese, mushrooms, and mustard, one had poblano peppers and jack cheese, and the third was his veggie burger with avocado. All were delicious!

Next up in the same cart pod was the taco guy. For $1 we had to try some! I stuck with chicken (B ordered for me while I was dealing with the burger guy) and he had tongue and stomach. Yep, he always picks the weirdest thing on the menu. The tacos were also really good.


From there we went to a pod on Foster Rd. We chose those because they had a cart with FRIED GREEN TOMATOES. But wait!! Not just FGT - a FGT BLT!! I was so excited, and we made sure to get there before they closed at 9pm. However, at 8:30 they were closing up. We were so sad, but they said it had been really busy so they were out of food. They promised a free cookie if we came back later, so I think we'll go back next weekend.

Next up was Ala Cart (points for being punny!). Although we went there with a plan to get more "real" food and not dessert (that would be the next pod group), we quickly changed our minds when we saw this:

Fondue?? Yes please! (Again, bonus points for being punny) We played beanbag toss while we waited, and I laughed so hard at our friend that couldn't even hit the target that I could barely breathe. Then came the food. Behold....

They had the cheese fondue, we had the chocolate/berry compote fondue. Ours came with freshly made donuts, apples, fortune cookies, and strawberries. It was heavenly. In fact, if I could go get it again right now I would!

After fondue we were off to the Hawthorne pod, which I was most excited about. Whiffies Pies is well-known around here, as is the fry cart. Yet another cart in that pod has a wood-fired pizza oven in their cart! Alas, we walked around, looked at each other, and realized we were way too full to eat any more. We decided to reserve those carts for another day.

Saturday we were lazy during the day, but at night we had two social events planned. First we went to Grain and Gristle, a new local restaurant, with my friend/co-worker (and fellow Warrior Dash-er) Jen and her partner. We had a lovely time with them and ate some fantastic food.

From there we went to a Yelp party at Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). The best part - it was FREE! If you scored an invite, it didn't cost anything, PLUS there was free booze, free food, and live music. We had a really great time.

B, cheezin' with his free beer and showing off our lego tower that "survived" the earthquake (go us).

Me, trying to balance. I won with a pathetic 3.4 seconds. Maybe that beer didn't help!

B kicking butt at the sit and reach. There were a lot more exhibits and activities, but many of the best ones didn't allow photos.

After all of that fun on Fri and Sat, today was filled with grocery shopping, yardwork, laundry, and football. While I was meal planning B asked if I could make a Shrimp Boil. Um, I'm from Portland, so I don't even know what that is! A few seconds later, All Recipes told me it was easy, so I thought I'd grab the ingredients and give it a try.

The verdict? Easy to make, and pretty darn good! We agreed we'd tweak it a little if we made it again (upping the spice level), but overall it was quite tasty, and it was fun to try something new.

Overall it was a packed and fun weekend. Back to the grind tomorrow. Two weeks until "vacation" (3 days of work conference, then 4 days of vacation tacked on). It can't come soon enough.

Run, jump, and be muddy!

Since we started running, it has been the topic of conversation often at work. We run fairly regularly with two of my co-workers on the weekend. After doing our first 5k, one of my coworkers (Jen) mentioned the Warrior Dash. Having never heard of it, I googled it (warriordash.com).

5k PLUS obstacles, PLUS water, PLUS mud? No thanks! However, Jen got our other running buddy Michelle to agree to it, and together they harassed me until I signed up. Bryan refused, so it became a girls-only event.

I'm so glad I did it! We ran it together the whole was, and it was awesome! It was exhausting because a large portion of the course was uphill, but we made it. We were wet, muddy, and exhausted, but we had a blast and will definitely do it again next year. Enjoy the photo evidence of our craziness.

Bathroom update

We're slowly making the house "ours" and putting our own mark on it. The first room we have mostly done is the main bathroom. Before it was generic builders beige, beige tile, and brown mirrors. I knew I wanted to paint it gray to pull out the gray in the granite counters, and we had decided on a gray/yellow theme. However, when we went on a shower curtain hunt we found a gray/black/red one that we liked a lot, so we changed up our plan. First, some before shots.

Sink before:


Tub before:


Curtain before (with a little of the new paint):


First I spray painted the mirrors. Before they were brown, but they were peeling and weren't in the best shape:
.

Two thin coats later, they looked like this while they were drying outside:


In addition to the mirrors and shower curtain, we bought a rack for over the toilet (we have very little counter space), a red bathmat, and a couple of black towels. We spent Friday night painting, and Saturday morning I tried to tackle painting the ceiling white. I quickly learned that doing ceiling cut in work on a highly textured ceiling/wall combo is torture, so I abandoned that and painted the ceiling gray too. The gray reads a little blue in these photos, but it is a true gray in person. We're pretty happy with the sort-of finished product.

Full shot after:


Sink area after:


Curtain after:


For not a lot of money or work, I think it is a pretty big change. In the future we plan to rip out the beige tile and put in something gray or white, maybe paint the cabinets white, install cabinet hardware, and put in a new toilet. I'm keeping my eye out for some artwork and red bathroom accessories as well. As things change I'll share new photos.

Running

A number of Portland bloggers have found me lately (hi!), and I realized it really is time to update a few things and blog again! A few years ago I had another blog. My MIL was a loyal reader, and although it was pretty benign, she would take it upon herself to email my husband and complain about something I had written every.single.time I posted.

I have referred back to that old blog a few time for recipes I like or to share some photos with others, and I decided to link it back up with this blog. There are a TON of older posts now if you're bored :) Thanks to Kellie for the motivation to link them up. My MIL is no longer in my life, and the drama is long since passed, so it's nice to have all of my blogging history in one place. I started off blogging when I moved 3,000 miles from my family and friends, and it is fun to look back and see how much life has changed!

Since I last posted eons ago we have been busy! Not only is it summer (the sweet, sweet time for BBQs with friends, ice cream runs after work, and happy hours on patios), but we've been very busy getting settled in our new place. It wasn't without a few bumps in the road (FOUR attempts for the hardwood guys to get the flooring installed corectly), but overall things are going well. Boxes are unpacked, some painting has happened, and we have plans to tackle the yards (where the weeds grow knee high in less than 2 weeks - HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN??).

We also ran our first 5k. We've be training using Couch to 5k. I have never been a distance runner, even in my track days, so a 5k is really far for me. The program is 9 weeks, but at week 6 (last Friday) we did our first 5k. We had a "goal" of finishing in less than 40 minutes. Yes, I know that is very slow. It was a really hot day, which made it hard, but I finished in 39 minutes and B left me in the dust with an impressive 32 minutes. I've now been out for a week with a hurt back, and I've finally given in and I'm going to a chiropractor for the first time today. I have a Warrior Dash scheduled for Sept 11 with a few coworkers, so I really hope I can start running again this weekend. I still don't like running, but the minor weight loss has been nice, and it does feel good to be in better shape. Pre back issues I was also bike riding to work 3-4 times a week, which was nice too.

A day in the life....

Our day yesterday:
Start out with a hot cup of coffee (heavy on the cream) and homemade blueberry muffins (which we eat before I got a chance to take a picture of them)

After a weak attempt on my part to do Week 5, Day 3 (the first long run) of Couch to 5k, we headed off to a very Portland event - Tour de Coops. Local homes open up their chicken coops so people can come look at them.
Our favorite was this one:

This lady had a beautiful yard, although waaay too many chickens (23):

We're considering getting chickens for the new house next year, and we learned a lot. I'm not worried about the chicken part, but building a coop feels overwhelming! The idea of our own fresh, cage-free, organic eggs is very appealing though.
After a quick trip to the grocery store, we headed home to get ready for the annual costume/birthday party of a friend of B's. This year's theme was Gods and Monsters. B went as Jesus (a huge hit) and I went as a goddess.
Two of my favorites were the woman just weeks away from her due date that was Buddha and the woman that was Vishnu...or was it Shiva? Either way, her costume was awesome and she made it!

This guy was funny and was all over reenacting how the Romans hate Jesus. He had a bow and arrow and randomly shot at B all night.

The entire gang:


This was our first year we went to the party, and we had a blast. It went into the wee hours of the night, and I'm tired today. But packing beckons, so I should get moving.

A new decade

Last Saturday (June 25), I turned 30. As the date approached, I felt neutral about it. I wasn't dreading being 30, but I wasn't excited about it either. However, tons of fantastic people in my life changed that! Not many people are in my office on Fridays, so Thursday morning I walked into work to see this:

and this:

That is FOUR dozen donuts from three different local bakeries, plus 30 donut holes. Another coworker added a dozen bagels to the stack shortly after this picture was taken. Then I got an email of this:

from my coworker that works in the building down the street.

It turns out that this was a huge group effort that involved almost a dozen of my coworkers. I felt so loved! Several people said it was the biggest birthday celebration they had seen at the center....all for me! It definitely cheered me up on the way to 30! I should also add that B sent me the succulent garden you can see in the black planter on the top shelf. I was so surprised to get the delivery on Tuesday, since he is NOT a flower guy. He said it reminded him of our recent trip to Arizona (still need to blog about that) and included a very sweet note.

My actual birthday included the adventure of a lifetime, which was my gift from B. We went skydiving!

It was a beautifully sunny day. From the top of the plane ride (13,000 feet) we could see all the way to Mt. Shasta in Northern California. Although I was prepared to be really scared, it wasn't actually very scary at all. Everything happened so quickly. The "training" was about a minute, and before we knew it we were packed tightly into the plane, strapped to our instructor.

The instructor did all of the work. Once the plane door opened, everyone was out in about 30 seconds. There was no "jumping" involved. He threw us out of the plane before I even had a change to think about it. The first second was disorienting as we tumbled, but I was quickly distracted by how cold it was. My hands were freezing! We were in free fall for about a minute (although it felt like 20 seconds!) and then he pulled the chute. That was a peaceful and quiet float back down.
Part of our group:

B is the green chute, I'm the pink one:


Everyone asks us about the landing. It was very smooth for both of us. You keep your legs up until the instructor says to stand up. It was really easy and not jarring or rough in any way. All in all, I'm really glad I did it. I don't think I'll do it again, but I would recommend that people try it at least once. It was quite an adventure, and a great way to kick off 30!

"I'm ready to settle down"

B is a wanderer. Many times I've heard him referred to as a tumbleweed. Committing to anything is a challenge for him, and I've joked that I'm surprised that he decided to commit to me. To his credit, he says that's the one smart decision he made. :)

I was surprised when he broached the idea of house hunting. We sold our house about a year ago and were pretty sure we wouldn't be buying again any time soon or at all. We've lived in 2 places since then, and both have been plagued by noisy neighbors and shoddy construction. On the bright side, we love our current area. We gradually started looking at open houses in our neighborhood, and B was leading the charge. I questioned him about his motivation, and he said "I'm finally ready to settle down." Needless to say, my jaw nearly hit the floor. The world wanderer had decided he was willing to plant. In "my" town. Where I want to be. Where he doesn't necessarily want to be, but where he knows I'm happy and fulfilled. The compromise if we stay in Portland is that he can spend a few weeks in someplace sunny every winter, and I'm okay with that.

We made an offer on a cute house. It was a decent offer, but the sellers countered at full price, no concessions, since it had been on the market only 2 days. Sweet revenge that it's a month later and they still have no other offer!

We put in another offer on a really nice, fully remodeled house that's 2.5 miles from both of our works. They countered, we wavered, and they immediately came back agreeing with our original offer. We're currently in the inspection negotiation period. Most things were fine, but the radon came back slightly high. Now we're trying to decide what to do about it, but I'm 99% sure everything will turn out just fine because the seller is willing to negotiate. So behold our new house:


We're set to close in mid-July. In the meantime, we're headed on vacation next week and couldn't be more excited! Sedona/Grand Canyon/Vegas here we come!