Eight More Days

Only eight more days until we close on the house! Yay! 

I couldn't be more ready. An encounter this weekend with the maintenance staff at our current building confirmed that I am no longer suited for apartment life. Well, more accurately, I am no longer suited for living in a building that is run by condescending lazy a-holes. I know I will curse home repairs later, but right now I can't think of anything more satisfying than to actually fix something that's broken on my own damn schedule and to my own level of satisfaction. I will get to be that condescending lazy jerk-wad with myself and that will be outstanding.

Anyway, the packing. It's coming along. We now have a nice large pile of boxes in the corner of our living room. It's hard to tell by just looking around the apartment, but we've actually made a good bit of progress. Our closet is cleaned out, the kitchen is about two-thirds packed away, and a good deal of our shoes and clothes are in boxes. Miles has not lost any of his toys yet, but I think they'll be next on the chopping block this coming weekend. That's when we go into pioneer mode, living with just the bare essentials and gearing up for April 14th's big move to the east side. Thursday and Friday after we close will be busy with packing and coordinating small moves with fragile stuff like our art, dishes, and refrigerator items. We are also lining up repair people to come in and do minor things that the sellers (another set of a-holes that I will be happy to rid from my day-to-day existence) declined to fix, like the leaky sink and garage roof.

Until then, I'm trying to concentrate on work, so I don't have any surprises and can fully devote the end of next week to settling in. I have a lecture coming up on April 18th and there is lots to do before then! Busy busy week ahead!

Packing Progress on Flanders Street

We spent last weekend packing our books and breaking down bookcases. By Sunday I was pretty tired and a little sore, but it was great to make such great progress. We have a few more book boxes to pack toward the end, but for the most part, they're ready to go.  As you can see, packing with a toddler makes for all kinds of spectacular chaos. All of those things that you normally keep out of reach on nice tall bookcases begin to spread around the house on any horizontal surface more than three feet high.

I also started packing up the kitchen, which is probably about half-way finished. We'll leave the necessities until the very last few days, but everything else will get wrapped, taped, and shoved in the corner of our living room where the Billy bookcases used to live. Little still has all of his toys at his disposal, but just give me a few days and some of those will start to get boxed up as well. He'll have to live like a pioneer baby with just a stick and a ball of string to occupy his time. Not that he really cares about his toys anyway, with screwdrivers, hammers, rolls of packing tape, and cardboard boxes at his disposal. 

He's taken to "decorating" our boxes as we pack. He calls it "art" and "painting". I call it graffiti. At least it keeps him from smashing all of the dishes on the floor. It gives him much pride to examine his masterpiece. He holds up his marker with a giant grin and says "did it! YAY!" I think the moving process is a little exciting for him, but also confusing. He walks around the apartment and says "house?" And I confirm that we are moving to that house we went to see several times and then he says "Matt?" (our real estate agent). I then explain that, yes, Matt will sometimes come to visit. And he nods and says "yep," as if he has it all figured out. It's amazing how much he understands at only 19-months (or at least he's really good at pretending). 


Only 21 more days until we close on the house. I can't wait.

Things I Will Not Miss (Portland Edition) #1: Blitz Bar

More specifically, Blitz Bar and their goddamn party bus that parks below our dining room window. I don't have anything against Blitz Bar, except for the fact that they opened a new location right next to our apartment -- only a few paces from our bedrooms. It changed the block, and not in a good way. We decided in December that we needed to get the heck out of here before its warm enough to open the windows (and before the drunken hoards take over the sidewalk for the summer season). God, I sound like a cranky old man (as I shake my fist out the window). 


The fact of the matter is that we've outgrown our space here on Flanders Street and we've also outgrown our neighborhood. So, we're trading in Blitz Bar and Pizza Schmitza's horrendous karaoke Thursdays for a Whole Foods and public library branch. And while we're definitely trading up, there are some things that we're going to lose. There are a lot of things about NW that I will miss a lot.

Organization at Last, But Will It?

J and I spent MLK Day getting our shit together. I was inspired by an article that my mom brought over during their visit earlier this month. The article asked "are you a filer or a piler?" I am definitely in the "piler" category, which means I should not be allowed to pile anything. Ever. It's a miracle that Miles hasn't been lost permanently under a pile of old bank statements. So, I walked myself over to the Paper Source to buy pretty file folders and give myself an organizational intervention. 

I'm pretty pleased with the results and barring some sort of natural disaster, I'm determined to keep it in order.

** Update** As of February 1st, my desk is still in fairly good working order. And the filing system has been amazing.  

Welcome to the 21st Century

When J and I moved to Portland in 2008, we sold (and gave away) a lot of our possessions** in order to cram all that we owned into a single 7'x7'x6' moving crate. Among the things we left behind was our medium-sized, but rather bulky television that we scored on Craigslist. When we got to Portland, our apartment was not much bigger than our studio in D.C., so we decided to go without TV for a while (that and we felt rather broke, since the economy tanked and I was without a steady job). 

Three years and three months later, we took the plunge and bought a TV -- a brand new, flat, and comparatively light TV. I can attest to it's relative lightness, because I carried it 4 blocks home from the car. We now stream our Netflix and Hulu onto 32 inches of beautiful screen. And M watched football in high definition for the first time on Thanksgiving day. He was enamored with the clarity (as was I) and even after the TV was switched off for the afternoon he would walk up to it and point while saying "boot ball." 


We had to do a bit of rearranging to accommodate the new technology. In terms of decor, it does nothing for the mid-century modern credenza that had to be placed awkwardly in the corner. However, it felt wonderful to kick up my feet and watch a little Masterpiece Theater after a long day with M, so I'll bend this time on appearances. 


**One possession that made the move and still remains is that damn drying rack from Amish country (seen to the right in the above photo). It's like the weirdo kid that shows up in all of your vacation photos, but I can't give it up, it's just so functional. I still maintain that if you come to visit, we'd be happy to air-dry your entire wardrobe on our 15-foot-tall rack in the living room. Some day we'll have a house with a basement where the drying rack can live out its retirement in peace and solitude after years of being shoved around, kicked, cursed, and crammed in closets.

Nesting Part II

J and I spent a large part of Saturday organizing. Again. From the amount of organizing that we've been doing lately, you probably think we live in a total disaster area. Recent guests will likely attest to the fact that we are not living in squalor (but they probably never peaked in our closets). I finally assembled the crib, washed, folded, and sorted the remaining baby clothes, and got down to making a checklist for our hospital bag. The only major outstanding issue is the car seat, which J and I will attempt to install this afternoon. I have to say, we are both pretty pleased with how the guest/baby room is shaping up. Of course we haven't hung any photos yet, so the walls are still bare, but all the essentials are in place -- the daybed for soon-to-be visiting grandparents, the crib for Baby G when he's finally ready to sleep in his own room, and a rocking chair for late night feedings and soothing. The day bed quilt, bed skirt, and roman shade were made by my Mom in her month-long sweatshop extravaganza.

While J was excited to see how the crib looked in the room, I think he was mostly stoked to hang the mobile that we purchased a few weeks ago from a local artist -- naturally, the mobile is "for the baby". J also adorned the crib with a few items to make it not look so lonely in the days leading up to Baby G's big debut -- a teddy bear from our close family friends, a Portland Timbers scarf from friends here in Portland, and of course, a mini soccer ball. We still have a few issues to work out in the room, but thanks to the magic of cropping and selective photography, you can't see the ugly Ikea shelf that I'd like to hide and the menagerie of cords from our internet router, wifi base station, and cordless telephone. Remedying those problems requires a bit more furniture shifting and some inventive maneuvering that we'll tackle this afternoon as well. 

Overall, the apartment is now as ready as we are for the baby to finally arrive!

Nesting Part I

Many of you who follow my blog and Facebook news feeds know that I've been hit hard by the nesting bug. It all started one night when I had a dream that the baby came early, was a girl, and could already talk (with a couple of choice phrases under her belt that would make a sailor blush). I was in a frenzy the next day picking up the apartment and was convinced that if J didn't get a new smaller desk in the next ten minutes that my head might explode. Luckily, J was willing to play along and really got into doing some serious apartment reorganization. It's so nice to finally feel settled. And now, I am at a point where I can share some of the work that we've accomplished. 

Except for hanging artwork and photos, the back bedroom feels pretty great. Last week I finished making a roman shade for the window to block out some of the summer sun and add a nice touch of color to our desperately pale yellow walls. J did get a new desk that looks surprisingly similar to his old one, but has a slightly smaller footprint. We were able to tuck it in the corner, which afforded more room for our bed, chest of drawers, and a some room to breathe. He also got to hang another one of his mobiles, which takes the total apartment count up to three (I'm pretty sure he's going to convince me to hang at least one more). 

By chance, we also found the last piece of furniture to complete our living room. Recently, I'd been prowling Craigslist like mad looking for a matching end table to go on the other side of our couch, but was having little success. The nesting bug had really been buzzing, letting me know that I couldn't possibly give birth with only one end table in the living room (I know, I know). As we walked down Hawthorne Street on Monday with Naomi and Kyoko, I spotted a furniture shop with great mid-century pieces. There was a cute little end table in the storefront window that caught my eye, like a puppy dog begging to be taken home. I almost didn't look at the price tag, because I was certain that it was going to be way too pricey. However, curiosity won over and I looked. It was a little more expensive than I had hoped to pay for an end table, but it was so much more awesome than the ones I'd been finding on Craigslist. We perused the rest of the store as I pondered, and after about ten minutes of looking I was asking Jesse to guesstimate the dimensions of our trunk. He asked if I wanted to walk around a bit to think it over, but I was sold. And in about five minutes, so was that end table. 

The purchase wasn't nearly as impulsive as it may have appeared to our guests, but the outcome was pretty exciting. Baby G is officially allowed to arrive.


Stay tuned for Nesting Part II: Baby G (Finally) Gets a Nursery.

Spring/Summer Cleanup

This morning as Jesse and I slept in until 9am, which in our house is nothing short of miraculous. Neither of us were quite ready to face the day, so we pulled out our laptops to check out World Cup updates from the two games we missed this morning. As we were watching soccer highlights, Baby G woke up, rolled around, and Jesse got to play with his little feet that that poked and prodded around my ribs. It feels so great to have Jesse home again and share a perfectly relaxing Saturday morning.

While lounging, I decided to change up the blog a bit. Blogger just rolled out new design features that make it very easy to switch things up (and look really really talented in the process). I think it took about 20 minutes, most of which was spent agonizing over what color to make the borders around my photos. Details, people. It's all in the details.

Updating the website really put me into a spring/summer cleaning mood, so I think I'm going to tackle a few organization projects. We're going to get our living room back in order, hang a few photos, and maybe even tackle a closet. I'm ready to have my life back in order again!

New Addition

On Friday, we purchased a couch. At first, I was excited about the purchase. That was until I took my first nap on it this weekend and then I was ecstatic about the purchase. I forgot how awesome couches are and it is now my favorite place to beach myself after a long day of work or play. Why on earth did we wait this long?

Ta da! Our couch (sitting in the craptastic living room). I tried to crop out the boxes and other random stuff, but Photoshop can only do so much. Needless to say, our apartment in this state won't win any design (or tidiness) awards, but I'm making progress. Slowly.

I'd probably make a little more progress if my lounge breaks didn't get in the way.

But how can you judge my progress when it's the breaks that make me so darn happy?

Speaking of progress, I'm 31 weeks 2 days along and the belly continues to amaze me. Every day J and I marvel at the sheer size and wonder how the heck 4-5 more pounds of baby will manage to squeeze in there?! I'm convinced that my stomach is already stuck somewhere under my left shoulder blade, as evidenced my my inability to eat anything larger than my fist without feeling overly stuffed and short of breath. I have to say though, feeling (and seeing) Baby G's little feet poke and prod around is well worth the stomach drama. It makes me more and more excited for his arrival in August!

It's a (wiggly) Boy!

Most of you who read my blog already know that on Tuesday afternoon, J and I went in for my second trimester ultrasound. Just in case you missed the excitement, we're having a boy! I have to say the anticipation of the appointment nearly killed me, since watching our baby up on the screen at 12 weeks was like crack -- I couldn't wipe the silly smile off my face for days. I'm still getting used to the idea of inserting "he" in all of the places where I've been saying "it" for the past few months. This makes the baby seem so much more real now. Oh crap! We're going to be parents!

Tuesday's ultrasound was even more amazing, because we could see the baby's bones and organs and it looked less like a blob and more like a human being. We also found that his activity level hasn't changed much since that first ultrasound. He rolled and kicked for nearly 45 minutes straight, to the point that the technician was thinking of scheduling another appointment so they could find a few more measurements on a (hopefully) less active day. The doctor came in and was able to coax the little guy to roll his head around (by gently jabbing and poking at my belly) for just enough time to find the elusive right hand, which was busy going in and out of his mouth. His left foot was found way over his head wiggling around. It's pretty cool that I can now picture what's going on in there when I get thumps and pokes in the afternoon. A good friend of mine suggested that we invest in a baby hamster wheel when he arrives. I'm starting to think that's not a bad idea.

The only disappointment from the day would be the set of photos that we got to bring home. The technician only loaded nine on the CD, four which were images of his lips and nose. Aww, his lips and nose, sounds really cute right? Except the rest of his face isn't in the picture. The screen capture resembles the print you would make if you mushed your face against the bathroom mirror after a shower. At the very last second, we were able to get a good profile shot though, and naturally, I think he's the cutest baby in the world.

The guest bed finally arrived on Monday, just in time for one of our first house guests in the apartment. Our friend, Ed, is in town this week from Los Angeles to do a couple of comedy shows, so I was relieved that he didn't have to sleep on a mattress on the floor. However, I was not able to assemble the guest bed without an extra set of hands, so Ed generously pitched in when he got in from the airport. As a note to any potential visitors, I will not make you build things upon your arrival (unless you really want to). It feels good to be one step closer to having that back bedroom in order! Now it's time for the fun part of figuring out colors and bedding!

Organization: Making Progress

This morning I was up before the sun at 5am. I'm not sure if it was because I'm still recovering from east coast time, or my hormones are so out of wack that it will be physically impossible for me to sleep in ever again. In my head I started going over all of the things that I need to do: write two papers, finally work on our taxes, and of course finish organizing the apartment. Since organizing the apartment is much more fun, I started making a list of the things I need to tackle next. If I continue to wake up in the wee hours of the morning, I should at least have some things to do before Jesse (and the sun) gets up out of bed.

Before leaving for Florida, we had a great weekend of organizing that left me feeling pretty good about the state of our living space. We shifted around the back bedroom to make space for the guest bed mattresses and ordered perfectly sized boxes to hide away his hundreds of cds (ahem a thousand and some change). I also worked on that shelf in our bedroom that was causing me so much stress. It's still not perfect, but if you shield your eyes from the very top that is still pure chaos, I am pretty pleased with the progress.

I lined all of the shelves with dotted shelf paper and have implemented a strict towel and sheet folding policy so that everything stays compact and tidy. Jesse has embraced the towel folding, since he is also very particular about the way his t-shirts are folded and stored. However, I think I'll have sheet duty for the rest of my days, since his method of folding fitted corners is rolling them in a ball and shoving them out of sight. The middle shelf is half empty (except for the gender neutral baby items), but I plan on using that for clothing items that don't quite fit in our drawers. Maybe that would be a good way of showcasing Jesse's t-shirt folding talent.

However, if my mom keeps up at her current pace (full speed ahead), we may have that middle shelf filled in no time. Can you tell that she's just a little excited about being a grandmother? A couple of weeks ago, I got a package in the mail addressed to the baby and inside was this amazing quilt. Apparently, she started on it just days after she found out that I was expecting. Recognize the pattern? My mom knows me too well! When we arrived in Florida for our recent visit, another set of baby items were waiting for us in our room -- a giant pile of receiving blankets, burp pads, and a couple of bibs. All were made by mom and much better looking than anything that I could find in the store. She even hand-stitched the back side of the blanket and burp cloth binding! We are going to have one spoiled little dude or dudette in just a few more months. Hopefully s/he will have a somewhat organized apartment to come home to!

Guest Room Inspirado

As I've mentioned previously, for the past couple of months our back bedroom has been the dumping ground for all things ugly and unwanted -- piles of unopened boxes, random bags of cords and electronics, and stacks of artwork and photo frames that still need a home. It is also J's home office, so add a bunch of work stuff on top of the heap and we had quite a mess. Actually, it is still a huge mess, but we've made great strides to improve conditions this week. One giant motivating factor was that we went out on Tuesday evening and purchased a set of mattresses at a super discount from a local sleep shop. To my surprise, they were insanely speedy with the delivery, promising and arriving at 10am sharp yesterday morning. So what's the catch? Well, we haven't actually purchased a bed frame.

We'd been going back and forth about whether to go with a queen-size guest bed (with the comfort of our parents in mind) or something smaller. The thing is, we actually want our families to come and stay and feel comfortable, so a full size bed was out of the question. The only problem is that 75% of the year, the bed would remain empty and take up a lot of floor space for such a small amount of use. When searching for alternatives, I remembered that my sister had a daybed as a kid and my parents frequently used it for out of town guests. After consulting with my Mom, she assured me that it was a pretty comfortable sleep. So, I started the search and finally found a daybed with a pop-up trundle in our price range that wasn't insanely hideous -- I was surprised to find that daybed designs have changed very little over the course of my life, most of which really didn't fit the look of our other furniture. So, for most of the year, the bed will serve as a couch/lounge space and when guests come to visit, we'll have a king-size bed for their use.

Naturally, my mind has jumped about 15 steps ahead of the game. I'm already envisioning color schemes and coverlets for the new daybed (that hasn't been ordered and probably won't arrive for another 6 weeks). To add fuel to the fire, one of my favorite blogs, Apartment Therapy, just announced that DwellStudio has teamed up with Target again for a new line of bedding. Unfortunately, their coverlets only come in queen and king size (I'd most likely want two twins), but I'm kind of loving the gold and pewter combination. I'm also partial to the blue green combination (found on the link above) that might contrast well with the sort of lemony walls in our apartment. Perhaps I'm due for another trip out to Fabric Depot in the near future to see if I can't make those coverlets myself!

(Image of DwellStudio Line borrowed from Apartment Therapy)

Organizing My Life: An Update

I've heard people say that sometimes things have to get worse before they get better. I think that's pretty true with illness, certainly this economy, and of course, my organizing projects. Sometimes you have to just explode a few boxes before you can pack their contents neatly away in their proper place. See? Even though the bedroom looks even worse than when we started, progress has been made. There are blank spots everywhere on the bookshelf. I'm hoping by the end of the weekend that at least half will be completely empty. I'd like to put down some shelf paper and maybe have a place to temporarily stash our clothes and sheets.

I also made floor plans of our two bedrooms last week and little scale paper pieces of our furniture. We've been trying to figure out a configuration for the the yet-to-be-purchased-but-much-anticipated-guest-bed in the back room. Until a few days ago, we'd been calling the back room the larger bedroom because, well, it looked a lot bigger. As it turns out, they're almost exactly the same size, but due to doors and built-in shelves the second (front) room it just has a lot less wall space. I think we've gotten a good arrangement figured out that will accommodate a daybed, Jesse's office desk, and a baby crib. Don't worry, we plan on making the crib a somewhat movable fixture, so please still come and visit us. You won't have to tend to our spawn as part of your room and board -- that is unless you're really dying to jump right in on night feedings.

Last weekend, Jesse and I also put together our Expedit shelf from Ikea. Once we get all of the crap cleared out of the hallway (like Jesse's muddy running shoes and miscellaneous items that have piled up in a matter of days) I think it's going to look pretty snazzy. Adult-like even. Gasp! The bottom boxes currently hold nearly all of my fabric stash, sorted by color. Since the top cubby holes look pretty lonely and are just begging for us to fill with more random items, I made another trip out to Ikea yesterday afternoon and picked up four more. I haven't decided exactly what will go in them, but I'm thinking art supplies and other crafty things that we don't use on a regular basis.

As for the rest of the weekend, Jesse and I plan on trying to set up our small TV with the digital antenna to see if we can catch the Superbowl on Sunday evening. I am planning out a delicious menu that will include braised pork (either made into a carnitas pie or tacos), fresh guacamole, chips and dip (of course), and a King Cake. I feel that it's only proper to celebrate the Saints making it to the Superbowl during Mardi Gras season (in addition to this being my official birthday weekend) with a King Cake. My mom passed along a recipe that I think I'm going to try this year that has a cream cheese filling. How could you go wrong? MMM. I can't wait for Superbowl Sunday!

We Have Arrived

I have lived for this day for quite a while. It did not come easily. Every muscle in my body aches, I have bruises in the oddest places, and my fingers feel like they may fall off. However, it is worth every ache and pain.

I joked with a friend a while ago that one day we wouldn't have to lug our laundry to the basement or laundromat. This we decided, would truly be a sign that we made it. Of course, I had imagined that the washer and dryer would be in a home that I owned, but really, I couldn't be happier. We're in a great neighborhood and I have everything that I wanted plus a couple extra bonuses. Behold, the first wash cycle. It contained our sheets that we promptly placed on our bed, which is still just a mattress on the floor. I'm not sure if we'll get the bed frame put together before we drive down to Santa Cruz for Thanksgiving, but that seems minor when comparing it to the long weekend of moving our stuff just around the corner. We also have a few more decisions to make, like whether we'll sleep in the small or larger bedroom. This decision will largely depend on where we find space for Jesse's desk.

So, what are those other bonuses you ask? Well, I now have ample counter top space in the kitchen in addition to a dishwasher. My Kitchenaid mixer can now take its rightful prominent spot in the room, instead of on a bottom shelf. Also, under cabinet lighting rocks! Who knew I could be so excited about fluorescent bulbs? I'm also pretty excited that we are directly across the street from one of our favorite bakeries -- although I'm not sure my hips (or wallet) will agree that this is a bonus feature of our new home.

Here's a sneak peek at our living room that is still insanely cluttered with things that will eventually move to other rooms. Rooms. Plural! It still doesn't seem real. The living room doesn't look all that different from the old place, but we have quite a bit more space. Jesse might even get an ottoman to go with his chair. His excitement over this is akin to my love for the front loading washer. I also have a sweet view from my chair (the orange one on the right) onto 21st Avenue. I think I will spend a lot more time gazing out the window with my morning coffee.

A Pretty Good Week

Wow, it's been a whole week since I posted last. Despite my days of leisure (still not gainfully employed), I can still manage to not write a darn thing for seven whole days. Way to go Brasilliant! In the past seven days, very exciting things have taken place. First, someone put carved pumpkins outside of our apartment building and they haven't been smashed to pieces. I love our neighborhood and can't wait for Halloween.

Second, Jesse brought the car in to have the oil changed and asked the mechanics to look at our stuck temperature knob. I was terrified when we got a phone call about 2 hours later and Jesse started laughing on the phone. I thought maybe the repair was so insanely expensive that he was going into hysterics to deal with the pain. In reality, he was laughing because the problem was so ridiculous. Remember that digital conversion box that I installed way back in 2008? Well, somehow from moving the cord around to plug in our iPods, it had wrapped itself around the internal gears, causing the knob to get stuck. It cost $80 in labor to have them pull out our stereo unit and unwrap the cord, but it was worth every dime for the relief I felt knowing that we wouldn't have to sell all of our possessions to pay for the fix.

Third, I tagged along with Jesse for a business trip in Seattle on Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately, it poured for 48 solid hours and I didn't feel like taking any photos. I did get to hang out with Jesse's cousin and his wife in their new neighborhood -- I'd totally live in the Fremont area if we moved to Seattle -- and Jeremiah made a tasty tortilla soup that he shared with me for lunch. On the Seattle trip, I also found out that our cruise control was actually not broken. The secret-hidden-bonus cruise control button had just been turned off for 10 months. I think this confirms that I am not worthy of owning a car. (Neither is Jesse, since his knee turned the dimmer knob for the interior lights all the way down and we both thought the electrical system in the car had failed for a couple of hours while driving around town.)

Fourth, I went to look at a 2-bedroom apartment yesterday and submitted a rental application. I didn't mention it to anyone (except my Mom) until after I put in the application, for fear that I would jinx the whole thing. The apartment building is only about 4 blocks from where we live, which is perfect because, again, I love our neighborhood. We contemplated renting a house on the east side, but after looking at several places, nothing seemed quite right. It's one thing to buy a fixer-upper, it's another thing entirely to rent one. Also, I would truly miss having our grocery store, PGE Park, and favorite bars all within a 10 minute walk. Exciting things about this apartment? It's twice as big as the one we have now. It has a hallway (yes this may seem minor, but it makes me want to jump for joy). And it has a washer/dryer AND a dishwasher. We might actually get to live like real live grownups. You know, with a living room that doesn't also double as an office and guest bedroom. Perhaps this is fate's way of lessening my disappointment over the fact that we truly won't be able to afford to buy a house for another year or two.

I'm trying not to get too excited about things looking up, but I have to admit. It was a pretty good week.

Sandwich Night

Last night's dinner turned out to be a lot more fun than I had imagined. I picked up a loaf of cibatta from Ken's, dusted off my mandolin to slice thin veggies, and paired it all with a little ham and some goat cheese. The Ken's bread loaf turned out to be a little much for a traditional sandwich, so we used the slices as the mode of delivery for lots and lots of crispy greens.

Jesse really got into building his dinner creations and made pile after pile of stylized open-faced sandwiches. By the end, they no longer resembled sandwiches, but rather gobs of arugula, sprouts and cucumbers shoved into a tiny piece of crust and held together by a strip of ham -- kind of like a cibatta taco. I wonder if Mark Bittman has our tiny apartment tapped for blog ideas: Sandwich Anyone? Now that I look through the photo entries, I'm sad I didn't take more pictures of Jesse's creations. They were quite lovely and didn't raise the temperature of the kitchen one bit.

Speaking of temperature, the twin fan worked brilliantly (and Portland weather flipped me the bird). Not two hours after we installed the window fan, a giant weather system came through and cooled things down to a brisk 50 degrees. After the sun went down a little, the bedroom was 60 degrees in no time. In fact, it was a little too cold by the time we woke up this morning that turned it off completely. Of course, it won't work as well when the outside temperature is hovering at 90, but for now, it's perfect. As long as the evenings cool down, I think I can survive.

Wilting

It's gotten pretty warm for the past few days, up to 80 degrees over the weekend. Today wasn't bad, only around 75 degrees, but our apartment still felt like a layer of hell. Ok, I exaggerate a little, but according to the instant read kitchen thermometer, the apartment was about 82 degrees around 2pm. The problem with the apartment is that we have zero shade from the trees outside and the sun roasts our 600 square feet like an Easy Bake Oven. Given that our windows are all on one wall, there is very little air circulation -- especially when we have to keep the shades drawn for a better part of the afternoon.

Today I finally got tired of standing right in front of our oscillating fan to cool off, so I went out and picked up a window fan to try and draw some of the cool outdoor air into the bedroom. It's on a trial run this afternoon to see if I will make the cut. I have to admit that it is cooler in the bedroom (78 degrees instead of 82) and the extra breeze is a nice touch. However, it would be awesome if it had a 4th fan setting for turbo jet to create a tornado effect. We'll run it tonight to see if it really makes a difference. I'm hoping that it does. Otherwise, I'll just hang out in the basement all summer where it's nice and cool.

Another side effect of the warmer temperatures is that I haven't really wanted to turn on the stove at all in the evenings. This means that Jesse has run out of granola and our dinners have been simple and at room temperature. Last night we had pasta with bell pepper, onion, tomatoes, olives and feta. Today, I picked up a loaf of bread from Ken's and we're going to make sandwiches.

I think I'll probably break my non-cooking streak tonight and do a little baking once the sun gets lower. Last week I baked peanut butter banana oatmeal cookies and would like to try them again. They were delicious. I think both Jesse and I loved them so much because they were pretty hearty and relatively healthy -- I have deemed them "magic cookies" for their restorative powers. We've had them around for snacks and both found out that a "magic cookie" and a glass of water make the perfect fuel before runs. I'm going to reduce the sugar this time by 1/4 cup and continue to use regular oats (I don't have the quick cook kind in the pantry). I think they will be a staple in the kitchen, sort of like a homemade power bar.

On a Mission

This week Jesse noticed that one of the drawer pulls on our credenza was cracked. In truth, it wasn't just cracked, the handle was about to fall off. This made me very sad, because I actually really love the pulls. I'm not sure how it happened -- whether it was already cracked when we bought the piece, or if we damaged it somehow when moving it to the apartment. Both Jesse and I have a knack for breaking things, so maybe somehow one of us did it by accident.I can't really point fingers here, because it is a total mystery.

Anyway, I have been on a mission to find something to replace my cute little drawer pulls, but to date I have hit a wall. Not only are they a unique shape, but they are also a weird size. Very few pieces of furniture hardware come with the screws spaced at 4.25" on center. Even the internet has turned up very limited options. At this point, I'm not even worried about style as long as I find something to make the drawer functional again! I have yet to troll the vintage furniture and hardware replacement stores here in Portland. That in itself is a daunting task. There has to be a shop that specializes in old hardware, especially with the mid-century modern craze that has hit lately. I just have to find the right store!

My roommate from college is taking an intensive course this summer in the hills of North Carolina on metalworking and forging. Maybe I can be her first customer and commission her to craft a new set for me.

Mental Health Day

Today started off on a bad note around 5:30am when I woke up to sirens and whir of speeding police cars. I'm not sure where they were going, but they were getting there at lightning speed. I then woke up to Jesse's clock alarm at 6:00am. Usually, this is something that I recover from relatively quickly. Rolling over and zonking out is not usually a problem for me. However, the garbage/recycling truck came by to empty the dumpster promptly at 6:30am and then the street cleaning crew showed up around 45 minutes after that.

I was happy to get up and get my morning coffee (that Jesse thoughtfully prepared and placed in the refrigerator for me) and just chill for a few minutes before facing the world. Then, around 9am, my neighbor (that I have grown to hate more and more lately) started playing his 1990s punk music at full volume and continued to do so until just a few minutes ago. I have talked to him twice about it (after 11pm) when we were either trying to sleep or watching a movie and could hear our walls pounding over a full-volume action flick. He always says he's sorry -- and I do think that he is -- but then I think he forgets and starts up again a couple of weeks after each encounter. I'd give him a pass, chalking it up to him being a stupid, oafish guy, but he's a doctor for god's sake. It's not rocket science (or brain surgery in this case). Turn the volume knob to the left butthead!

I've made the executive decision that I should probably just get out of the house for the afternoon, so I'm off to the library to pick up a couple of books on hold. I will then take myself to a cafe for a second cup of coffee and have an early lunch to try and recover from this morning's activities. I think I will also stop by the hardware store to pick up a couple of rolls of duct tape. No, not to use on my neighbor (although the thought did cross my mind this morning). My Mom alerted me to an awesome project that I want to try this weekend. With a little coaxing, Jesse agreed to be my assistant. I'll have an awesome spring/summer wardrobe in no time!

Dude! You Got a Piece of Junk!

I keep seeing that Dell guy's vacant stare and hearing him yell at teenagers on the television screen, "Dude! You Got a Dell!" As I was de-fragmenting my hard drive yesterday and hating life because my laptop sucks, I wondered whatever happened to the Dell dude? I have to admit I felt a bit of satisfaction when I found that he got arrested for buying pot and Dell dropped him from the campaign. (As as side note, what was Dell thinking? Buying pot only gave him street cred. I mean, they did hire a total stoner to sell laptops to prospective college students). Anyway, he's now a bartender/waiter somewhere in NY.

To get to the point, my 2-year-old Dell is a total piece of crap. The only reason that it hasn't flown out the window this week is that I'd much rather pay rent than buy a new laptop in April. So, we're stuck with each other for a little while longer. As of April 1st, it's missing three keys and the left click button is worn and not very clickable anymore. Also, it crashes whenever I try to use the control panel. I've learned to deal with Vista's setup (I can finally find things once they are buried in the "user friendly" configurations). However, I can't get over the fact that my 4 year old laptop actually performed better -- even when it was dying.

I had a good chuckle yesterday when Jesse read me an article about how the Texas State government just made a provision in one of it's laws that bans any state agency from buying Vista. It's nice that they can choose -- I was strong-armed into having it loaded with my new computer. "Vista or nothing," said the Dell customer service guy when I called to ask for XP instead. I wonder how much kickback they got from Microsoft for pushing the shitty product? Maybe I'll ask that when I write a letter this week to Steve Ballmer. I'm going to request a complimentary copy of the new operating system when it's released. Fat chance, I know, but I feel that I should ask anyway. Call it a "retention bonus," because they're about to lose a lifelong PC user. (Yes, I said it, my next laptop will likely be a Mac.) I just can't take it anymore.

To end on a more positive note, I did disable a lot of features that make the Vista system unique and the Dell and I are getting along much better today. Also, I got a our first house plant! I think this is the longest I've gone without having any flowers or foliage around. I guess I still don't feel like this is our permanent place and haven't made a huge effort to make it feel like more of a home. However, it was so gloomy the other day that I felt we needed a little sunshine. I'm thinking of planting a few herbs next -- Jesse does love a nice summer pesto.