July 4th Home and Away

The weekend leading up to July 4th was packed with activities. Friday night after a stroll in town, we stopped at REI and checked out the backpack style kid carriers. Along with another family (who had a toddler that was not very impressed by the backpacks) we peppered the sales associate with questions, had her help us get fitted and J walked around the store with Little harnessed in a backpack. We were a little worried about how he'd react, given that it was nearing bedtime and we were all a little tired, but felt a huge relief when J hoisted him up and he immediately called out "oooh oooh ooh!" For any of you who have spent even a small amount of time with Mr. M know very well that this was his seal of approval -- Little loved the backpack. After thinking about it for just a short while, we went back to REI and picked up the carrier as an early birthday present for J. Little cooed and shouted and smiled the whole way home. He loves sitting up high and having a great view of what's going on in the world. 

To really test out his tolerance for the new pack, we headed down to the waterfront for the Portland Blues Festival. It was a pretty warm afternoon, but Little bobbed along to some Zydeco music in the shade and really only fussed when we took him out of the backpack (notice how stoked he is while we pose for a family photo). Also, look at how long those legs are these days. Geez, he's starting to look more and more like a little boy.

As if one adventure wasn't enough for Saturday, we took Mr. M to his first Timbers game and sat right in the action with the Army. I was a little worried about the noise, but Little actually liked all of the waving flags, balloons, and chants (he even bobbed his head when he heard some familiar ones). Unfortunately, he only made it through the first 30 minutes of the game. However, if we didn't have general admission seats, we wouldn't have had to show up 107 minutes early and he might have lasted well into the second half. 

On Sunday, we packed our things and headed to Hood River for the night and spent the afternoon with friends and her family. Joanie's parents have two dogs, Sadie and Minnie, who were very sweet to Little. Sadie loved bringing him toys and Mr. M would grab on so they could play tug of war. Then, Sadie would give him a million kisses on his hands and face and in his ears. Little hated the ear licking and would run away, but then come right back and start the game again. It was pretty great. On Monday morning we claimed our spots in town and watched the Hood River July 4th parade and picnicked in the park afterward. Tired and full, we drove home Monday night and I crashed at 8:30pm. Little was pretty tuckered out too and slept nearly all night.

Sichuan Feast

Finally getting around to posting on my Sichuan feast from Mother's Day. After J and Little let me sleep in and presented me with flowers and breakfast treats, my only request was that we do a fun cooking project from a pretty cool cookbook that I checked out from the library (which is now almost overdue and I must renew, crap), Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking. Two things that I liked about this cookbook: it has a rather nice index in the front of cooking techniques, ingredients, and equipment to ensure success, and the recipes are all wonderfully simple (aside from the occasional hard to find ingredient).

One of our favorite Sichuan dishes is Dan Dan noodles (and the reason I checked out this book in the first place. We have a recipe from Cooks Illustrated that is good, but I always felt the recipe was pretty Americanized (like many of CI's Asian recipes). I read through Land of Plenty, educated myself on the staples of a Sichuan pantry, and made a rather detailed shopping list. We drove out to 82nd Avenue to Fubonn market to pick up the necessary ingredients. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, the "facing-heaven" dried chiles that are a staple in Sichuan dishes were nowhere to be found (a post-market internet search revealed that some import issues make them all but scarce in the US). We subbed dried chiles that we could find at the store and I think it turned out alright. Among the other staples that we purchased, rice vinegar, dark soy sauce, black vinegar, Shaohshing rice cooking wine, Sichuan peppercorns, preserved vegetables (mustard tubers), and sesame paste. Oh and I shouldn't forget the fresh noodles. Yum!

The first step was to make a chile oil with the crushed, dried chiles by getting the oil hot in a wok, letting it cool to a certain temperature, and pouring it over the dried chiles. It made a ton of oil, but apparently it keeps for a very long time in a cool dark place. The next step was to toast and grind the Sichuan peppercorns. The pepper has a wild smell and lends a distinct taste to the dish -- sort of citrus and spice. After the peppercorns started smoking, we put them in the coffee grinder and then sifted to weed out any large pieces of debris. Much of the flavor doesn't actually come from the peppercorn, but from the husk, so when you look at it closely there's a lot of little sticks and flakes that would make for an unappealing texture in the dish. 

Finally, we got down to cooking. We fried about 1tsp. of the Sichuan pepper in 1T of peanut oil until hot and added the 2T preserved veggies until fragrant. We then added about 1/4lb of beef, some soy sauce until the beef turned brown and crispy. Then stirred up a sauce of Sichuan pepper, sesame paste, soy, chili oil, vinegar and cooking wine. We put the fresh noodles and the sauce in the hot wok and tossed it around until warm. The finished noodle dish was pretty amazing, unlike anything I've ever tasted, and really quite easy. Garnished with some scallions, it was perfect. And my new camera captured the details perfectly -- I'm super excited about that too.

As a side dish, we stir fried veggies -- peas, bell pepper, carrots, tomato and cucumber. Next time we'll use significantly less oil than the recipe calls for on the veggies. They were swimming in it at the end. We added a little homemade chile oil on the noodles for some kick and washed it down with ice cold Sapporo. Couldn't have asked for better results with our first stab at authentic Sichuan cooking. I think next time, we'll tinker with the sauce just a bit, but otherwise, I wouldn't change a thing!

First Mother's Day

Little and J worked together to make my first Mother's Day a special one. J woke up early with the little guy so I could sleep in as late as I wanted. Getting up at 9:30am to the sounds of Little babbling in the kitchen was pretty amazing. When I finally decided to roll out of bed, I found the breakfast room tidy with flowers and sweet treats from Ken's. My guys made it very easy to be a mom this weekend.

After breakfast, we lounged around the apartment, marveling at how great it feels to be parents while Little entertained with giggles, feats of strength (trying to do pullups on the dining room table), and cheesing the camera with his two bottom teeth. He also reminded me of those teeth this morning when I wasn't paying him enough attention by gently nibbling on my big toe. Those things are sharp. He'll appreciate them in not too long when he can enjoy a greater variety of his parents' culinary adventures. We made a Sichuan meal last night that was pretty out of this world. More on that tomorrow.

As an extended Mother's Day gift, Little was a delightful baby this morning (allowing me to finish a long overdue blog post for work). While I was typing away, he did a few chores around the house.  I guess he was embarrassed that I never polish the brass knobs on his changing table, so he took on the task himself. Such a helpful lad. I'll have to talk to him though about being more gentle in the future, don't want teeth marks on the hardware.

Easter Tart

We went over to our friends' house on Saturday for an Easter party, which included a Peeps art contest and an egg hunt around the house for the kiddos. Little was a little to young to get the egg hunt part, but did a top-notch job of playing his part in our living art piece -- Peepzilla. He first picked off the Peeps lounging around on the landscape and moved on to banging on the buildings and swaying them around. It was a lot of fun. My contribution to the party (aside from the afternoon entertainment) was something that I've been aching to try -- a grapefruit tart. We have two bakeries in town that make their own versions of this seasonal treat, so after sampling both I decided to give it a try. 

I couldn't really find an exact recipe, so I decided to go to my favorite cookbook, The New Best Recipes by Cooks Illustrated, for inspiration. I settled on their recipe for pastry cream and sweet pastry dough for the shell and filling and surfed the internet a bit for instructions and photos on slicing and arranging grapefruit. The tart has several steps, but they were surprisingly easy and can be done ahead of time, so you don't have to spend all day in the kitchen. My food processor made the dough a breeze, and I found out (thanks to Cooks Illustrated) that the secret to a silky custard is straining it while hot through a fine-mesh sieve. Brilliant!

For this tart, I used four grapefruit: three ruby red and one pink for color variation. The pink grapefruit was definitely more tart, so it was a nice flavor contrast too. In order to get the fleshy slices, you have to peel and segment the fruit. Basically, you cut off either end down to the flesh and run a very sharp paring knife down the sides in curved slices to remove the skin and all of the pith (preserving as much flesh as possible). Once you remove all of the skin, you then segment the grapefruit according to the natural divisions. Run the knife along side one of the paper thin membranes to almost the core and then use the knife to sort of pop it out of the skin. Then, you move on to the next segment until the entire grapefruit is sliced. Oh, and don't forget to gently press the slices between two paper towels before placing on the tart -- you don't want vanilla custard soup from all of the extra juice. I practiced arranging the slices on a plate before actually topping the tart, which really helped the presentation. The only detail I left out was sprinkling coarsely chopped pistachios on top (a garnish used at St. Honore's bakery) because I ran out of time. I will opt for this next round though, because the bright green flesh of the pistachio nuts looks so pretty with the red grapefruit.

This particular recipe for the tart shell and cream called for a 9 1/2" tart pan with removable bottom. While the sweet pastry dough was sufficient for for the tart size, there was a lot more cream than I needed. I think next time, if I'm bringing this to a party, I'll make 1 1/2 times the amount of tart dough and use an 11" pan. The tart is ideally eaten within a few hours of preparation, so don't fill the shell until you're ready to serve (or leave the house). Due to time constraints, I filled the tart and topped with the grapefruit about an hour before we ended up leaving and stuck it in the refrigerator. It held up well, but started to get a little loose after sitting at room temperature for a few hours. Although Little was a little skeptical, the tart was delicious. I think I'll have to make another while the grapefruit are still juicy and sweet.


Tart Recap:
9 1/2" tart pan with removable bottom
1 recipe of Cooks Illustrated Sweet Pastry Dough
1 recipe of Cooks Illustrated Pastry Cream
4 grapefruit, peeled, segmented, and blotted dry
coarsely chopped pistachios for garnish (optional)

Christmas Take Two

Little met his Aunt Kay Kay for the first time last week and they instantly hit it off. She was definitely his favorite person (other than me of course) out of our group of visitors.

Staying cozy on a chilly afternoon in his new blanket from Kay Kay.

Little spent some time hanging out with his Papa, but probably wished at this moment that Aunt Kay Kay would come to the rescue -- she has way cooler jewelry and hair. Shortly after this photo, he got a little fussy so we took off his pants and let him kick around on the floor. He quickly turned himself over to his belly and put on quite a show by hoisting his legs under his hips and sitting in the crawling position long enough for us to gawk and pull out our cameras. I think he was pretty surprised about his new tricks, but it's only a matter of time until the crawling position is no longer an accident and we will have a mobile child on our hands!

We all opened gifts from each other one evening while Little slept. Fortunately he didn't really care that he missed out on the present opening, because he woke up to a bunch of new playthings. The shades are my favorite. He pulls off the naked cool guy look pretty well.

Little finally had to say goodbye to his favorite Christmas present this year -- the Christmas tree. He sat with his Grandmom for a few minutes and stroked the branches and then tried to eat a few needles. We also said goodbye to the last year that we'll probably be able to have ornaments hanging on the bottom half of our tree. Next year he'll be toddling around and wreaking havoc on all of our decorations.

New Year, New Leaps

December was a blur! Between preparing food and drink for our holiday party, setting up the decorations, and hosting Christmas at our place this year, I hardly had time to think about Miles' upcoming developmental leaps. I wrote earlier about this book that I found, The Wonder Weeks, and how it took a really positive spin on Miles' fussy behavior by explaining the changes going on in his brain. While our family was in town, Miles was the center of attention and demanded constant interaction. I thought that the hustle and bustle around the house was causing his discontent, but then I looked at the calendar and realized that the weeks surrounding Christmas were leading into Wonder Week 19: The World of Events. 

Miles' understanding of the world around him got much more complex, and as a result, the little guy probably was feeling pretty overwhelmed. Thankfully, there were many loving arms to hold him when he fussed, because I'm not sure how I would have made it on my own. One night after feeling completely exhausted and exasperated at his insanely short naps, lack of sleep at night, and constant uneasiness I picked up The Wonder Weeks read it aloud to Jesse's mom. We both chuckled because it was like someone had been spying on our family and reporting on the action -- mood swings, sleeping poorly, wants more physical contact, bad temper, wants to put EVERYTHING in his mouth. Some days, the fussiness far outweighed the cool new things he was able to do like rolling over, sitting up with just a little support, exploring everything with his hands and mouth, and general fascination with the world around him. However, it was a relief to know that what seemed like the perpetual wonder week would come to an end and we'd have back our charming son again. 

I have already started reading about the upcoming Wonder Week 26 so that I will be more understanding and prepared to challenge him through the next developmental leap. I recently upgraded to the newest extended edition of The Wonder Weeks, released in November, which goes all the way through week 75 (or 20 months). As we all know, this is the period when our babies experience their first adolescence -- the dreaded "Terrible Twos." According to Dr. Plooj, transitioning into toddlerhood is a cause for celebration and those months don't have to be terrible if I am prepared and know what's going on in his head. I plan to read and re-read these chapters so that Jesse and I can make the most of a very challenging time ahead.

Even in just the first few months of reading about Miles' developmental leaps, I've found that planning ahead and preparing myself for those upcoming stormy periods has helped me to be more accepting of those cranktastic days, knowing that something awesome is just around the corner.

Christmas Eve

Little supervising sugar cookie decorating.

Sugar cookies ready for hungry bellies.

 Delicious crab cakes made by E & L.

The frantic search for the pickle ornaments.

Opening the medium pickle prize.

Holiday Party

The Mad Men style holiday party was a success. Fun was had by all as you can see from the array of bottles, dishes, and glassware in the background. I realized last night after everyone went home that we didn't take one single photo together. So, I set up the Gorillapod and we posed for the camera before collapsing on the couch. Jesse had already removed his tie, but you get the idea. I'm pretty sure I also forgot to take photos of the food and drink, but maybe there's a stray shot of the nibbles in the background here and there. 

With J at the makeshift bar whipping up champagne cocktails, martinis, gimlets and sidecars, it was practically a crime to walk around with an empty glass. One of our friends had the brilliant idea of bringing a case of candy cigarettes, which were quite a hit. I initially thought they'd be great Bah Humbug props (for those who chose not to dress up), but everyone came dressed to the nines. It was awesome. I'm pretty sure we'll be scrubbing simple syrup, Creme de Casis, and those little white sticks of sugar off our floor for months. However, as a good friend of mine recently said, "The floor is disgusting. That's the sign of a good party." 

As for Mr. M, he slept like a charm through the party, hence the lack of photos. After such a good night's sleep, he was happy and alive at six o'clock sharp. I brought him into bed with us and he thrashed around until I relented 45 minutes later and decided to let J sleep in. I popped two Advil and a Lindt truffle, chugged a glass of water, and waded through the kitchen to find the french press and coffee beans. As I waited for the kettle to boil, I dreamed of bagels and leftover smoked salmon that we talked about before bed. For a split second, I thought I'd head out to the bagel shop with M and surprise J. Then, I saw that it was 35º and decided that another truffle and some stale popcorn sounded like a perfectly reasonable breakfast. I think I will definitely need two cups of coffee to make it through the day, but it was totally worth kicking off the holiday season with a splash.

Oh (Giant) Christmas Tree!

J, Little and I went out to Costco in Vancouver, WA to pick up supplies for our party. We decided to venture up to Washington because we didn't think it possible that they would have state controlled liquor stores like Oregon. I'm not sure why we didn't bother to look up this "fact" on the internet. As it turns out, Washington too only has state run stores for booze. Boo. Also, as it turns out, the Vancouver Costco has a pretty crummy cheese selection. Total bust (except for the flat of pomegranates that we used to make grenadine). 

On our way home we picked up our Christmas tree. Like last year, it's a cute Noble Fir, but quite a bit taller at 5'6". We cleared out a spot in the corner of our living room and I was really excited to put it into place. Now, our stand is supposed to be good for a tree up to 6' tall, but clearly ours has a very large trunk. I guess that's what you get for buying a $12 Christmas tree stand. I rushed out to the hardware store with the mission of either buying a new stand or a hacksaw to get rid of some of the nubs at the bottom. I decided to upgrade to the $17 -- good for trees up to 7' -- since we were pushing the height limit of our miniature one at home.  

Now that I'm a pro at putting together these crappy tree stands, I was eager to get home and impress J with my Christmas ninja skills. And....Christmas tree fail. With our bigger stand the stumpy little Noble Fir trunk did not reach the bottom spike. In retrospect, I should have bought the stand AND a hacksaw. We both had a good chuckle, but neither of us wanted to go out in the rain to the hardware store again. So, we improvised.

J dug deep into our toolbox and pulled out a knock-off Swiss Army Knife branded with "Motorola" on the side. It was likely some giveaway that my Dad picked up at the office. I'm not sure if we had ever used it before. J pulled out all of the tool attachments and found one that looked like a saw. Rather, I should say "saw", because we might have been better off using a nail file. I got to work on one of the larger branches and quickly realized that it might take a while. Thankfully, Little was taking a nap and we were able to take turns hacking away with our mini Motorola pocket knife. 

J developed a good technique of leveraging the tree branch with his foot and in no time we had cleared an entire row of branches. I held my breath as he lifted the tree off the floor and made our third attempt at getting this darn tree standing. It was a Christmas miracle. The tree plunked down into the stand with a crack. And Little promptly woke up screaming. Since J was holding the tree upright, I had to go tend to our little cherub with sap coated hands and forearms. He didn't seem to mind and giggled when we walked into the living room and saw the tree. 

After dinner and a few cooking projects, I started to put on the lights. Since we have at least another foot or two of tree than last year, we're going to need one more strand to make it around the bottom. Given that this is only the second year that J and I have purchased trees for ourselves, I'm guessing our experiences could have been much worse. I'm very happy with how it looks so far and am pretty excited to finally bust out the Christmas music and get to decorating. I think it's going to make a great gathering spot for all of the friends and family that are going to share the holidays with us this year. I'm really looking forward to having a full house for the rest of December!

Thanksgiving Travel

We set out on our first road trip with Miles yesterday morning. Miles isn't terribly fond of his car seat, so we were a little worried that he'd have a hard time with the 12+ hour trip. Overall the first leg was pretty great. We stopped about every two hours to feed and change him and let him stretch his legs.  Miles had a small meltdown around Grants Pass, but after he settled down and went to sleep it was smooth sailing. After looking at the weather forecast, we opted to take the coast instead of the Siskiyou pass. It ultimately will add a couple of hours on to our trip, but saves me from experiencing flashbacks from two Christmases ago. We stopped in Klamath, CA for a nice long rest before heading to Eureka for dinner and a hotel for the night. 

Miles was happy to be out of the car. So were Jesse and I. It felt nice to uncurl for the night and recharge. Miles took his uncurling very seriously and arched his back for several minutes to stretch. I don't blame him. That car seat can't be very comfortable! Today we set out on our second leg and will end up in Berkeley before dinner and our Thanksgiving week will officially start.

Holiday Party

Jesse and I decided that we are going to host a holiday party at our place this year. We've yet to have many people over to our new apartment, which is a shame since we've been living here for exactly a year now. Morning sickness and a crippling lack of energy during the early months of pregnancy throws a damper on holiday celebrations. However, I've used my get out of jail free card now, it's time to party Mad Men style. This year's party has a dress code -- 50s or 60s chic. I'm talking skinny ties, smoking jackets, button down sweaters and fab cocktail dresses. Of course we'll let in modern day fashion with the caveat that there will be Bah Humbug accessories handed out at the door.

We're actually pretty excited about it and will likely go overboard on planning and execution. This weekend, our friends Ben & Daphne were in town and we used them as guinea pigs for a few potential retro cocktails on our drink menu. We've narrowed down the selection and will continue to tweak a couple more recipes. After dropping off Ben & Daphne at the airport on Sunday, we went shopping for a few holiday decorations and started brainstorming our food menu. Last night we took a walk to the library to check out a few books on cocktails and finger foods. Then we mulled over our book selections at Deschutes Brewery while sipping their winter seasonal beers. They were delicious! 

I can't wait for Christmas!

Week in Review

Holiday weekends are the best. They give you an excuse to get together with friends, eat lots of delicious food, and lounge around without guilt (recovering from all of the friends, food, and activities). On Sunday, we went to a July 4th BBQ at Joanie &  Dan's house in Sellwood and walked over to watch the fireworks after the sun set. I got to test out my new camera in the dark, and I have to say it's not bad for a point and shoot. I realized while taking the photos that I really need to play around with it a lot more so I'm comfortable taking pictures on the fly when Baby G arrives. 

On Monday, J and I were generally lazy and watched movies in bed and didn't get out of our pj's until almost dinner time. At that point, some of my crazy pregnant lady hormones kicked in and I freaked out because we hadn't done a thing all weekend to get the baby's room more prepared. J looked at me like I had three heads, nodded, and got right to organizing. He's such a good sport. In the end it paid off, because good friends of Larson & Serena stopped in for a couple of nights on their month-long trip across the country and back. It was great having them around. I'm so excited that our guest bed is getting lots of use! 

The rest of the week is mostly a blur, with frantic spurts of work in between some pretty hot and uncomfortable days. Portland's weather went from a lovely 65º to nearly 100º in a matter of minutes. I would have liked a little more time to ease into summer, but I think it's just a short hot spell and we'll be back to the normal high of 80º by next week. The heat has been a test of the new apartment and I have to say that it's passing with flying colors. While uncomfortable in the afternoon, it doesn't feel like I'm roasting in hell like our old place on 19th Avenue. 

Luckily, we're escaping the heat by going to the coast with a few friends for a weekend camping trip. It feels like we get a July 4th weekend repeat and I couldn't be happier! J's parents think that I'm nuts to sleep on the ground in my very pregnant state (they may very well be right), but I see this as maybe a final hurrah before Baby G arrives. It's only for two nights, we have pretty decent camping mats, and I fully plan on relaxing on the beach and at the campground. If only I didn't have to go in to work this morning. I'm pretty excited to get this show on the road!

Christmas 2009

Christmas this year, just the two of us, was a lot quieter than usual. I was thrilled at the prospect of not having to travel this year and eager to try and establish a few traditions of our own. We decorated the tree, played holiday music, and pulled out our warm socks to fight off the cold temperatures here in Portland. When we moved into our new place in November, I had grand plans of making a huge holiday meal, eating lots of Christmas sweets, and drinking spiced cider next to the tree. However, as the big day crept closer, my grand plans got derailed a bit. I was finishing up my class earlier this month, Jesse and I took a quick trip to D.C. shortly thereafter, and somehow in that time, the apartment never quite got fully unpacked. It was a bit overwhelming trying to think about decorating for the holidays when my towels, toiletries, and clothing were still floating around in mystery boxes scattered throughout the rooms. Jesse has been a huge help in getting things going and I'm happy to say that our living room and bedroom are finally starting to feel like home.

As for the huge holiday meal and lots of Christmas cookie eating, I have been feeling a under the weather and scrapped cooking almost entirely. We did manage to have a great Christmas morning, opening gifts and talking with lots of friends and family. Even as an adult, I can't help but open my presents and leave a giant pile of wrapping and boxes in my wake. After a nice leisurely morning, we got dressed and headed over to Anna & Brian's for an afternoon of games and Christmas dinner. Anna made a delicious ham and lots of yummy sides.

With Jesse's help, we were able to contribute to the Christmas party spread. He and I whipped up a dessert that we invented back in the summer time for a friend who couldn't have dairy (except for goat cheese). The crusts are made of pecans and dates and the goat cheese is sweetened with a little honey. We altered the original tarts, which had peaches on top, to include seasonal kiwis and pomegranate seeds that were juicy and delicious. The end product is not too sweet and actually quite healthy. The tarts also happened to be just the right colors for the season! I was glad that we had several kiwis and a whole pomegranate left over from the project, so I plan on having special toppings on my yogurt and granola at breakfast time.

The Tree Stand that Hates Christmas

Last night Jesse and I went out and purchased our very first Christmas tree. I picked him up at his office and we stopped by our favorite Thai restaurant for fuel before the big search. As it turns out, we found the tree after about 3 minutes of looking. I decided quickly that I wasn't interested in the Douglas Fir trees (they have more puffy needles that go all the way around the branch). They are fine looking trees, but I was drawn to the Noble Firs that have thicker needles and more defined layers of branches. We took a pretty big risk buying the tree before the stand, given that earlier in the week I went to 5 different stores with no luck.

I read an interesting observation this week from a blogger who had a similar experience finding a tree stand this year too. He blamed it on the "Christmas Creep" that started long before Thanksgiving, so that by the time Christmas rolls around, the shelves are bare. I too was annoyed that stores had been sold out of Christmas tree stands two or three weeks before the actual event. It's not like I was running around on Christmas eve looking for something to hold my tree! I did find one store that carried $90 tree stands, which was just annoying given that our tree only cost $35.

Anyway, I popped into our local Ace Hardware (that I love more and more) this morning and luckily, they had just gotten a fresh shipment of perfectly reasonable $14 tree stands. Reasonable may be a stretch in this case, given that it took me 45 minutes to get the damn thing together. I read the very simple instructions: "Insert legs into indented slots and fit center ring. DO NOT insert legs on non-indented slots or your tree will fall over." I tried and tried, but the ring simply would not fit properly. After struggling for way too long, I inserted legs on the non-indented slots and voila! The ring slid right on. So if you are every in the market for the Ideal Brand^TM tree stand, do the exact opposite of the given instructions and save yourself a lot of cursing and fist waving.

I think our little tree looks pretty swell, but it certainly feels a bit naked in the corner -- even after stringing the lights. I wonder if a tree skirt would help? I'll just pile that on my to-do list for the rest of the week. (After a 30-minute diversion on the internet, I found that there is an abundance of really hideous Christmas tree skirts). Anyone have any ideas for something a little more mod? I'll have to put my thinking cap on for this one!

I'm hoping we'll have some time later this evening to start putting up the decorations. Jesse will have to bust out the Christmas tunes and I'll try to throw together some hot cider to make it feel more like the holidays. I also need to think about what we're going to do for Christmas dinner. It's just around the corner!

Back to Normal

It feels good to sleep in my own bed. It also feels good to wake up, walk to the living room, sit in my chair, and check my email and various blogs over a glass of iced coffee. Jesse and I treated yesterday as a holiday, foregoing all of those new years resolutions that we spelled out for each other over the past week: eat healthier, exercise more (or in my case at all), hang pictures and artwork in the apartment, and establish a budget! He went for a run with Brian in the afternoon and then we picked up burritos for dinner. Afterward, we played Trivial Pursuit with Anna and Brian and a bunch of their friends for hours. I found out that Anna loves trivia games just as much as I do, so it was a treat playing on her team (even though we totally sucked for the first half of the game). It was awesome! Oh and we woke up to what looked like a blizzard last night around 1am. I thought it was a dream, but this morning the ground and roads were covered with white -- probably around 2 inches. Luckily, the sun is out and should melt it all away.

After marveling at the white roads and rooftops this morning, I sat in my chair and checked the news, blogs, etc. to the warm glow of my Christmas present from Jesse. When I came up short on ideas for things that I wanted/needed this year, he suggested that we splurge a little on a nice lamp for the living room instead of scouring Craigslist for the next two months. I thought that was an awesome idea and we set out on one of our snow days two weeks ago to browse in some of the really neat shops in the Pearl District. We found the perfect lamp in a furniture store about 8 blocks from our apartment. As an even sweeter deal, the store was having a 50% off sale, so I am now the happy owner of a pair of awesome lamps. The other is on my "desk" in the bedroom.

About halfway through my coffee, I decided to buckle down and start tackling one of the major resolutions -- starting a Portland budget. Fortunately, we planned on having our budget blown to smithereens during the move and saved accordingly. We both have done a pretty good job of being frugal with only a fraction of the monthly income that we had in D.C. However, it's a new year with new rules and if I'm ever going to get that house, yard, and dog, we're going to need to start building our savings again (rather than raiding it slowly each month to meet expenses).

Luckily, I did a lot of the legwork last January when Jesse and I decided to start budgeting for the first time to save for our move. I'm already very familiar with Quicken and I still have all of my budgeting spreadsheet templates with formulas and categories ready to go. Still, we're working with a vastly different income and like a lot of people this year, we are having to trim down a bit to stay within our means. I'm happy to find that based on my calculations for the next three or four months (that's really all I can plan for with my future employment situation still up in the air) we'll be able to meet a reasonable budget with a little left over for savings. However, our dining and discretionary budgets have taken quite the hit, so some days sticking to our limits will not be easy.

With the budget vetted by Jesse and our first cash purchases of the year recorded on our 2009 budget spreadsheet, I feel relieved to know that we are getting back on track after nearly five months of wandering. It took a lot longer than we planned, but that's okay. We're not just settling anymore. Portland really feels like home.

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve was pretty low-key for us this year. With all of the holiday celebrating we were ready for a quiet night alone and a nice simple meal. Jesse took Bob to the airport yesterday morning for his early flight home, so we all were jolted awake by the 4:30am alarm. I had another site visit, so I left around 8am for Salem. The site visit went fine, in fact the hospital campus was pretty quiet and I didn't have to worry about taking my time and getting things done. It was also nice that there were relatively few people around to see me dashing to the administrative offices to use any vacant bathroom available. (Note to self, don't eat spicy Indian food the night before you plan on hanging out in an open field for several hours). Anyway, I got home around 2pm and was exhausted and took a two hour nap.

Needless to say, dinner got started a little later than planned, but it made for a fun evening. We walked to the grocery store and picked up some food and wine for dinner. The meal was served in four courses (out of necessity rather than by design-- we were both starving). The first course was cheese and wine. We picked up two varieties of Oregon Pinot Gris to do a mini taste test along with goat cheese and brie. To accompany the cheese we had a homemade concoction of dates, pecans, and a little butter. I'm not sure exactly what to call the mixture, but it was damn tasty, especially with the goat cheese.

The second course was salad. It wasn't a very interesting salad, just lettuce, arugula, almonds, and some cranberries. However, it was a necessary part of our dinner to start the holiday detox with healthier food choices -- even if it only involved throwing a giant bowl of boring greens on the table. While we chowed down on our salad, we started the water for our third course, pasta. By this time it was nearly 9pm and we both gave a silent cheer, because there was a very good chance that we (or more accurately, I) might make it up until midnight to ring in the new year.

The shrimp, arugula, and tomato pasta was finished right around 10pm and we enjoyed it while thinking about how simple and relatively quick it was to put together each of our three courses. Since we nibbled throughout the night, we had relatively small servings of the pasta and there's plenty leftover for at least another large dinner. The fourth course was a plate of delicious cookies that Jesse's mom made for the holidays. As we ate our cookies, we also dreamed about all of the things we could do with the leftover brie and date pecan butter. I think we are going to make brie and apple paninis this afternoon for lunch. MMM. I can't wait!

We retired to bed around 11:30 to start watching Iron Man. I think I managed to stay awake for about 15 minutes before passing out. Damn. So close. I did wake up to the sounds of our neighborhood celebrating midnight with fireworks, cheering, and a lot of people banging pots and pans with spoons. Jesse and I both smiled and I went back to sleep.

Happy New Year!

Christmas in Santa Cruz

I seriously need to get my butt in gear to bring our icy Christmas story to a close. Luckily, it all ended well. Since we were all up way past midnight on Christmas Eve, we all slept in a bit on Christmas morning. I think things got going around 11am as we all slowly migrated towards the living room around the Christmas tree. We spent a couple of hours opening presents and watching Jesse and his two brothers fall right back into their regular routines of horsing around and creating general chaos with their playful teasing.

After presents we had a delicious apple pancake breakfast (as warranted by tradition) and lounged around in our slippers into the afternoon. J pitched in and set the table for the Christmas dinner, coming up with this utensil teepee for our enjoyment.

Friday and Saturday were spent here and there at home and downtown. It was so nice to relax and enjoy spending time with J's brothers and parents. Saturday night we had family friends over for dinner and drinks and were able to catch up on all the days that have flown by in 2008.

Following dinner (and a few drinks) J and Larson started reminiscing about one of their favorite childhood games, Marble Run. They set up the game in the living room and we (nine grown adults) were screaming and jumping as our marbles raced down the track. Luckily, J's brother E knew how to set up sports brackets and we played for at least an hour or two.

I have a couple of videos of the action that I took with my camera, but I can't figure out how to rotate them. I thought about posting the video sideways, but it's kind of annoying. Maybe someday I'll figure it out!

Christmas Eve

About 20 minutes after this post, I crawled in bed and passed out. I think it was a combination of the beer, stress, and constant squeezing of my butt cheeks for nearly eight hours on the drive down to Grants Pass. Even after we had cleared the snow and ice, I was still on the edge of my seat. I didn't have the strength to think about what we were going to do next. I just wanted sleep.

Then, at 3am I woke up and my brain started spinning. I thought about our ride the previous day and what we might have to go through again to get over the Siskiyou Pass. The thought of driving for another 4 hours in ice and snow terrified me. I woke up J (after rolling around) and told him that I didn't think I could do it. We agreed then and there that we wouldn't go through the pass unless it was relatively clear and realized that we might not make it to California after all. Then, I realized that I was starving (probably why I woke up in the first place), so we had snacks in bed and went back to sleep around 5am.

J woke up around 8am and went to get a new tires and to call his parents to tell them the bad news. The worst part of all was that we couldn't make it to California, but we also couldn't go back home to Portland because of another front that was dumping snow on the city again. The thought of spending Christmas in Grants Pass, Oregon made me cry, but the alternative (driving over the pass) made me cry even harder.

We had to check out at 11am, so we nibbled at breakfast, did a lot of sighing, and decided to drive around town a bit before making our final decision. While I was checking out, the lady at the front desk asked where we were headed and tears welled up in my eyes. (I'm sure I looked like death since I had only slept about 4 hours the night before and spent most of my morning in tears.) I told her our situation and she immediately started searching on the internet for alternate routes and weather conditions. She found that U.S. Route 199 was pretty clear and a little warmer and travels through the valley so was relatively flat. I thanked her profusely and ran out to the parking lot to tell J that we might have a chance.

He was on the phone with his mom and told her he had to go because we were going to try once again. We hopped in the car and were on the road again, this time heading west towards the coast. US 199 didn't feel unsafe at all and was quite a beautiful drive. The area had gotten snow overnight, but the temperatures were high enough to prevent it from sticking on the road.

Once we reached California, the snow vanished and we were feeling pretty good. I had never really seen giant Redwood trees before, so when we entered into the Redwood State Park I made J pull over. They probably come close to some of the most glorious things I have ever seen (or ever will see). Given our day with the snow, it was also amazing to finally see grass, and dirt, and pools of water! We took a brief moment to walk around and have a mini celebration for making it out of Grants Pass. At that point, I knew we would make it to Santa Cruz in time for Christmas, and even if we didn't, I was so glad that we wouldn't spend another night in the snow.

The rest of the drive was long and tedious. The sky dumped rain all the way from Eureka to Ukiah, which consisted of nearly all two-lane winding roads. Past Ukiah, the rain didn't really let up, but at least we hit the freeway and had a buffer from the oncoming traffic's lights. At least we didn't have to think once about having to use our "ice scraper" or the rest of the kitty litter in our back seat at any point on the second half of our journey. We arrived in Santa Cruz around 11:30pm on Christmas Eve, bringing our total driving time to around 17 hours over the course of two harrowing days. However, we were greeted by the whole family with smiles and a warm fire and delicious crab cakes made fresh for our hungry bellies.