Yay! Friday

Today was busy (too busy for laundry, ha). I finally finished my invoice and will send it out on Monday. It feels good to not have to think about that anymore. After messing around with Quicken, I went out for a jog-walk-wheeze-fest. It's been a while. My poor little legs and lungs were not happy with all of the sudden activity. Luckily, I had the Ark and Mika to keep me motivated. I managed to stay out for about 70 minutes (before you applaud my efforts, I must admit only about 15 minutes was actually running). I did get my 10,000 aerobic steps, which was my goal for the day.

By the time I returned, it was nearing dinner time and I hadn't planned anything. So, we had leftovers from last night, which was pretty exciting -- the best mac & cheese ever with sauteed mushrooms and swiss chard. I made the mac & cheese yesterday at the suggestion of Mark Bittman's blog entry on Martha Stewart's "Perfect Macaroni and Cheese." Let me tell you, it really is perfect. I love macaroni and cheese (in all of its incarnations) and try it in different restaurants at every opportunity. I've also made multiple recipes that really haven't made the cut. This one, however, is the perfect combination of cheese, milk, and spices. It also has fresh bread chunks on top that form into a perfectly crunchy crust.

With that said, this mac & cheese is not for the faint of heart, with nearly 6 cups of cheese, it falls waaaay off the healthy chart (hence the need for my 70-minute outing today). Jesse and I were saying tonight that if we had a restaurant, this exact meal would definitely be a regular item -- maybe even a feature. We also discovered that we prefer dark, leafy greens over a salad as a side dish in the winter. So, I'll be stocking up on collards, mustard greens, and swiss chard instead of lettuce for the next few months. Jesse even said that he wished I had made two bunches of chard because he'd definitely would have had seconds. Since I'm planning on making more greens in the near future, I think I'll also have to make a pepper vinegar so we can chow down in the proper southern fashion.

Another wonderful discovery on this lovely Friday evening? We did a blind taste test of our favorite bourbon (Old Forrester) vs. Maker's Mark and found that Old Forrester is pretty damn good -- and also about $12 less a bottle. Score! I'm almost hesitant to post this discovery because it feels like a best-kept secret and we shouldn't let too many in on our party. It's no Basil Hayden's, but I'm positive that Graham would agree that Old Forrester is definitely a good value.

My Adventures with Seitan (or Devilish Turds)

After posting yesterday, I went straight to the kitchen and got to work on making seitan. I followed Mark Bittman's instructions to the letter and hoped for the best. He warned the reader not to be surprised at how quickly the "dough" comes together. It was shocking. Kind of like a science experiment. Not only did it come together quickly, it seized up into a globule that looked like something that might have been on the set of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Another head-scratcher was the fact that Bittman's recipe (as well as others found on the internet) says to knead it for 10 minutes. It's kind of a sick joke to ask the preparer to knead when the consistency of seitan resembles dried-out rubber cement that has formed itself into a monkey brain. Jesse put it a little more delicately by declaring that our soon-to-be dinner looked like "butt boogers" (great).

I tried to knead (unsuccessfully) and then finally put it aside to let it rest and relax for 20 minutes. While resting the rubber dough I made the cooking broth, which is pretty much water, some soy sauce, and a little spice. After the resting period, I was instructed to "stretch and roll the dough into logs." And I did. I put it down on the cutting board and started giggling. And then I started laughing so hard that I could barely catch my breath. Jesse couldn't understand what could be so funny about dinner and ran over to the kitchen. I was finally able to blurt out "oh god it looks like poo! YAY!" I rolled out the other lump and with tears running down my cheek from laughter, sliced the turds into medallions, and flattened them as much as I could.

After all of that work, I was determined to make something of the meal and went ahead and put the medallions to simmer in the broth. They bubbled and rolled and were generally weird looking. Luckily, after looking at the stuff floating in liquid for 30 minutes my expectations for the final product were pretty low. Thankfully, I hadn't hoped for a miracle to happen because they tasted like bland, rubbery, pieces of nothing.

We both kept tasting the slices of seitan and just shook our heads wondering how this could possibly be classified as food? I felt really let down, but Jesse had a brilliant idea. We threw the seitan into our little food chopper until it was the consistency of ground beef. Then, I sauteed it with black beans, onions, bell pepper, some leftover homemade enchilada sauce and spices as a filling for our tacos. Surprisingly, it was really tasty! It was a clean out the fridge night, so we also threw in a little leftover rice. I loved the tacos -- as did Jesse.

I think seitan will definitely be a refrigerator/freezer staple if we need a quick substitute for ground meat. However, I don't think we'll have seitan steaks anytime soon. I want to continute to play around with cooking methods to see if I can make it a little more palatable to have in stir-frys or maybe even on salads. I still have enough vital wheat gluten for 3 or 4 more batches.

Wheat Meat

Now that my report has been submitted and I'm basically just waiting around to see if there are any final edits, I have been thumbing through my How to Cook Everything Vegetarian cookbook to get in mood to cook again. With all of the research and writing going on last week, I didn't have a lot of time to make dinner every night -- although the eggplant parmesan with homemade sauce made for some tasty lunches (and even breakfast).

I decided to try out a recipe for seitan from Bittman's cookbook as an alternative to tofu from time to time. Seitan is high in protein, but has a firmer, almost chewier texture than tofu and can be added to stir frys, sauces, etc. So, I picked up a bag of vital wheat gluten when I went grocery shopping this afternoon. I'm going to try and make seitan tacos tonight to see if Jesse approves.

The cashier at Safeway was very chatty and as it turns out, quite the foodie. He was excited by the swiss chard I had picked out and told me about a delicious recipe for scallops. He also noticed my bag of Bob's Red Mill vital wheat gluten and his eyes lit up. He asked me if I had ever been to the Red Mill store and I said no. Then he proceeded to tell me how it's just down in Milwaukee, OR (just a 10-15 minute drive from here) and that they sell all of their products in bulk. He recommended their date sugar and dried tart cherries.Of course, one of the biggest tips that I've read over and over in my cookbooks, seen PBS cooking shows, and food blogs is that buying in bulk is much cheaper and you often find a variety of grains, and beans that wouldn't necessarily be available at the grocery store.

I just took a look at the website and am amazed at all of the awesome things to try!

It's Winter, You Know the Drill

I woke up to another wintry scene here in Portland. J ran into the bedroom and whisked up the shades so I could see the giant, puffy flakes that were falling. As usual, there were cars driving around and one guy almost fishtailed onto the sidewalk. I just missed getting a video. Damn.

It's been pretty cold lately (so cold that the other morning I woke up shivering even after putting on sweatpants and a sweatshirt). Since we're at the height of cold and flu season, I somehow convinced myself that I had a fever. I even took my temperature, but found I was perfectly normal at 96.8 (yes, I normally run that cold, must be the ice that courses through my veins). Baffled, I walked out into the living room and J was all bundled up too. Apparently, he left the living room window open, which turned our apartment into a meat locker in just a few hours.

It did warm up a little today and by noon the snow was gone. Now it's just slushy and dirty again. It was pretty while it lasted, but is still totally bizarre that we're getting more of this white stuff (in the city that "never" gets snow) than we ever did in D.C. Thankfully, this time I didn't have any site visits to travel to or research to conduct. Instead, I hunkered down at my desk to figure out my updated version of Quicken that is for home and business. After 5 hours, I still haven't really figured exactly how I'm going to do my invoice for this recent project, but I do know a lot more about keeping books. And we're definitely all set with our 2009 budget. So, I'll guess I'll just charge today to admin. Ha.

Snow Again

We woke up to snow again this morning. Thankfully, it's not sticking. I imagine it will be gone by the afternoon, but it certainly is pretty right now.

Videorama

So, after having a near-death experience over my sideways videos yesterday, I took a deep breath and walked slowly over to the mini Mac (the little box that I never touch). I have an irrational fear of Macs, they scare me with their "user friendly" logic. Also, even though I loathe Windows Vista and curse my laptop daily, I'm pretty sure if I ever saw Justin Long in person I'd deck him right on the spot. (Loved him in Ed, but can't stand him in my face smugly touting a product -- no lifestyle -- that I just can't seem to master.)

Anyway, I tend to shy away from Jesse's computer, even though technically it's our computer, just because it makes me feel stupid. However, my insane need to rotate these damn videos led me to the iMovie application. It seriously took me 15 minutes just to figure out where the computer applications were hiding (everything is neatly tucked away in places that I can't ever seem to find). But I found it and tinkered for a while. The results are very crude, but my precious videos have been rotated and edited down to the essential parts. The Dancing Gallagher video lighting has been adjusted so you totally can't see the lead singer anymore, but the Crazy Man's air drums ring in crystal clear. Check it out here.

Hold on to your hats! Here's the promised Marble Run from Christmas in Santa Cruz, complete with Tai (the holiday party paparazzi) demanding a photo op:

Revisions

This week has been all about work, leaving very little time for blogging. Today is also all about work, but this time making revisions. I hate revisions, so the afternoon will most likely be very painful. Also, today is the last day of enjoying chicken purloo for breakfast. As of a few minutes ago, I lifted my last bite. (What? I'm sure lots of other people enjoy delicious chicken and rice for breakfast. I don't care what you think! It's good.)

In order to psych myself up for the grueling tasks ahead, I watched a video clip that I took last week at a concert. Several times. At this particular concert we stood next to a guy who looked a bit like Ghallager. I giggled to myself at the thought of him whipping out a watermelon from his coat and smashing it right in the audience. You only get a couple of peeks of him totally rocking out, but the song is good, so enjoy.

(For those who are impatient, I capture his enthusiastic air drums around 0:02, 1:01, and 1:40. There's sound, so you might want to mute your speakers if you're at work.) Yes, I realize that it is sideways. I finally figured out how to rotate the video and can now watch it normally on my computer. However, Blogger keeps loading it in the original format (and taking it's sweet old time about it too), causing smoke to come out of my ears.

YOU WIN AGAIN BLOGGER. Thank you for making my life suck this morning.

***UPDATE*** 3:15 PM

I figured it out, behold the edited video:

Inauguration Dinner

Today Jesse and I huddled in the bedroom next to our little flat screen tv (it's the only place in the apartment that gets digital reception) to watch the inauguration. Luckily, our local PBS station was broadcasting it live and we watched with jaws hanging over the crowd gathered on the Mall. It was spectacular -- and the first inauguration that I have actually watched in its entirety. All I have to say is that the Obamas must be exhausted. What a day!

Anyway, since we're all the way across the country and can't experience the inauguration fever, I decided to make a celebration dinner for this evening. I have been dying to try a recipe that I found shortly following our trip to Charleston this past Christmas. The Chicken Purloo that I made tonight is adapted from one of the delicious dishes at the Hominy Grill and turned out even better than I expected.

Despite its humble appearance, it certainly isn't the quickest dish to make. I started at 3:30 this afternoon and we ate around 7:15 -- that included the time it took for me to cut up a whole chicken and all of the ingredients involved. I multi-tasked and even made a chicken stock with the leftover bones. Purloo is essentially a rice dish with a bunch of ingredients thrown in and baked. We had so many different types -- a delicate shrimp purloo that blew my mind, a sausage and chicken purloo that was loaded with flavor, and a chicken, sausage, seafood mix. This one in particular has chicken baked on top with layers of bell pepper, onion, eggplant, okra, and tomatoes. YUM!

This purloo is a lot different than rice dishes that I'm used to making, like jambalaya. Instead of just stirring everything around and dumping it into a dish, you cook and season each individual group of ingredients and carefully layer them before baking. The bottom layer is a combination of onion, bell pepper, garlic, eggplant, and spices. The second layer is uncooked, toasted rice. And this layer was the best of all, diced ham, okra, and tomatoes that are placed on top of the rice. I love those little green pinwheels and was really excited to find a recipe that featured okra so prominently. On top of everything, you place browned chicken, pour chicken stock on top and cook it in the oven for an hour.

I was pretty nervous about the rice. It's not hard to totally ruin a dish by overcooking the rice, which turns into a disgusting mush. However, there was just the right amount of moisture and the rice grains are tender and very much separate! So exciting. So tasty! I had every intention of making a white cake recipe from Martha Washington's kitchen that was featured in the Washington Post last week. However, given that dinner took over 3 hours, I think I'll save the cake for another day.

Even though our dish was neither patriotic, nor presidential, it hit the spot and felt special enough for this incredible day.

Long Weekend Part 1: A Taste of Adventure

As I mentioned earlier, Eric and Lea visited for the long holiday weekend. I was so happy to have them here in our new town. We had a great time just hanging out, exploring Portland, going to a concert, making delicious food, and drinking delicious beer. One of the highlights? Taste testing four grades of maple syrup that Eric brought home from his visit to Vermont this winter. What better way to start a day than with eggs, Ken's Artisan Bakery's Oregon Croissants, and homemade french toast. MMM! That's happiness.

The weekend was packed with lots of adventures, but unfortunately I failed to take very many photos (other than this rad pic). More exciting posts are certain to follow as soon as the weekend photographers share their wonderful shots! Saturday, in particular, was quite a day. We experienced ice, wind of epic proportions, beautiful crisp weather, rainbows, noodle soup, and a concert.

As for now, I need a nap. Big time. I had the misfortune of having some work to finish yesterday that took a lot longer than expected. Unfortunately, I didn't spend much time after lunch doing anything except for writing alone in the bedroom. My meeting this morning went really well, so I'm glad I stayed up late to finish, but now my body is crashing.

Hopefully while I'm napping, a certain stranger will make me very happy by posting her video taken this Saturday on YouTube. She was able to capture Jesse and Eric scaring the ever-loving-crap out of me with their antics on one of our outings. I barely survived the trauma and certainly didn't have the wherewithal to pull out my camera. In case the anticipation is too much to handle, here's a little taste of the conditions at Crown Point in the Columbia Gorge on Saturday:

(This is video footage was taken same day that we visited the gorge...Gusts up to 100 mph.)

Busy Lady

Yesterday I was insanely productive and wrote a good chunk of the report that I've been trying to finish up this week. Jesse also had lots to do, so we both operated pretty quietly from our respective offices (with the door closed). I would emerge from the bedroom occasionally to get food and water and then would scurry back to the old computer to type away. Luckily, I made a giant bowl of vegetable pasta the night before so we had delicious leftovers for lunch. By 5pm we were both pretty beat, so we took a break, walked out to get dinner, and then came back and worked again until about 11pm. I slept like a log last night and woke up totally refreshed this morning just before 8am.

Today is going to be pretty busy too. I still have lots of work to do on my report, but also a bit of cleaning in the apartment before Eric, Jesse's brother, and his girlfriend, Lea, arrive this evening. I'm glad we took time earlier this week to clean up, so all I really have to do is vacuum and wipe down the bathroom. However, I will be tempted to blow off all of my responsibilities in order to play with an awesome surprise birthday package from my mom -- a starter kit she put together for rug hooking.

It came in the mail yesterday and I was so shocked and excited! I have talked a lot about trying my hand at it, but never really got around to finding the time to do my homework and get the supplies. She found a book with some really cool rugs, purchased my first hoop and hook, and cut the wool strips from some of her own fabric stash. It was such a wonderful surprise. She even did a little research and found a wool store in the Portland area, should I want to indulge and spend some of my discretionary budget on a new project!

In order to prevent me from wasting away my Thursday morning and afternoon, I have put the kit away in the closet and will not allow myself to even thumb through the book a second time until this work project is finished. It will be hard, but I'm trying to start off the new year with a little discipline -- eating healthier, starting to exercise again, and getting myself on a work/life schedule that makes me happy. The kit will definitely test my willpower, but I'm determined to hold off until I can devote several hours to my first self-taught rug hooking lesson!

No Heat

We took our car in for its regularly-scheduled service last week and it is in tip top condition. That is, except for two things. For some reason, our cruise control stopped working sometime while we were driving down to California at Christmas. Also, on Sunday the little thermostat knob that controls the a/c and heat got stuck (of course it did this AFTER we had it serviced).

It's the little knob on the bottom left with the blue and red half-circles. Our knob turns freely from very cold to the middle point where the red meets the blue. Then it stops and will not budge anymore to the right. Since it never fully engages the heat, it shoots out a temperature very similar to outside (around 50 degrees), which is neither hot, nor cold, but somehow uncomfortable. On my way to Salem yesterday I put on my scarf, which helped. What cannot be easily managed is when Jesse gets into the car and fogs up the windows on his side. It's times like that when I feel as though our car is giving us the middle finger.

I tried Googling our problem, but most diagnostics only deal with the dial still moving freely, but not adjusting the temperature. I even downloaded a workshop manual for the car, but again, doesn't mention "stuck temperature dial" in the troubleshooting diagnostics. I have a feeling this is not a good thing -- or a really simple fix. However, I am too busy this week to even think about it.

Today is my last day researching in Salem and then I'll probably be able to finish up my first consulting job in Portland! Maybe I'll try and pull off the knob when I get home tonight and see what's going on in there.

A Feat of Engineering

Yesterday Jesse and I both decided to tackle one of our biggest new years resolutions. For months now, we've had an ugly brown box sitting in front of our big window in the living room, just taking up space. It has also served as a collection point for odds and ends that do not belong (like our holiday card stamp and a pair of my socks).

It felt good to kick that box to the curb. We unpacked and unwrapped our artwork and photos, set them out in the living room, and started to imagine them on the walls. It was a bit overwhelming at first, but we picked a place to start and got to work. This is the first place we've lived in that has a picture rail throughout most of the apartment. After spending hours patching nail holes from our old place in D.C., I decided to utilize the rail to it's fullest extent and put as few picture hangers directly into the wall as possible.

The first room we tackled was the kitchen. It had a nice big wall that was begging for some color. It also gets quite a bit of sunlight (when it's out), so we needed to put things there that wouldn't be harmed. Hanging things by the picture rail was a lot easier than I thought it would be. However, I did need a long set of arms to reach up there and measure the fishing line. Jesse was the brute strength and I used my precision eyeball level. Throughout this process, we had to stop for numerous snack breaks -- realizing every once in a while that we were getting way too into the placement of a photo here and there.

Next stop, the living room. This wall took the most time (and patience). We had to take a break mid-way through due to creative differences. Apparently, we both have different ideas about the principles of balance and lines. I was ready to whip out my Architecture 101 books and read definitions word for word, but luckily the "discussion" never got to that point. We both conceded and put up an arrangement that was pleasing to us both -- I got balance, Jesse got lines. I'm not sure this configuration is in its final state, but it'll do for now!

After dinner, there was a lot of cleaning up to do. We hung a few more pictures here and there, but decided to focus our efforts on making the apartment more tidy. At that point, I was ready for bed, but given that it was only 7:30pm I got to work. Jesse folded and put away clothes, we took out the pile of paper and boxes that resulted from our art-hanging project, and I sorted through papers on my desk in an attempt to create a work-worthy space for the coming week. In a stroke of brilliance, Jesse put my birthday flowers on the radiator next to a housewarming gift that we received this fall. This is the first time that I've ever had a place for flowers (maybe that's why I never get them very often). This spot is what you first see when you walk into the apartment and I couldn't be happier.

It felt so good to wake up to a clean space, but also one that feels a little more like home. I can't wait to come home from work, eat dinner, and then retire to the living room to read a book and admire our new apartment!

Beans Beans the Magical Fruit

On Wednesday, I was inspired by a blog post by Mark Bittman on how to rid your pantry of some "staples" (like bottled salad dressing and canned beans) and instead stock basics that produce much tastier -- and sometimes more economical -- results. Some things I already do (like make my own salad dressing and stock anchovies/paste that I sneak in vegetables and sauces), but there were other great ideas that I plan on trying.

One suggestion is to cook a pound of beans a week and use them for a variety of dishes. It's such a simple concept and really is a lot tastier (and cheaper) than using canned beans for soup, or chili, or to throw in salads. So, yesterday I decided to give it a try. I picked up dried lima beans in the grocery store on our last shopping trip, which is an unusual find. I was excited to try my hand at cooking them.

Usually, I just follow the basic directions on the back of the bag and add my own spices etc. However, limas are pretty different from other beans, with a very distinctive smell, taste, and texture. I went directly to a source that I knew would have great suggestions. The Picayune, a newspaper in New Orleans, first published this cookbook in 1901. The recipes were collected directly from households that were the original practitioners of Crole cuisine -- a French-based cooking style with Spanish, African, and native Indian influences. Not only does it pave the way for a perfect Jambalaya and Gumbo, but it also gives the Creole "rules" for rice, beans, grits, and meats. Also, it has a recipe for King Cake (Gateau de Roi), which was traditionally made on Twelfth Night (my birthday) to celebrate the start of carnival season that lasts until Lent. I think I will try that recipe next.

Anyway, back to the basics. Cooking the lima beans was very simple; gently boiling the beans in lightly salted water for an hour or two and then draining. A slurry of milk, a pat of butter, some flour, and fresh ground pepper was then added and simmered for another 10-15 minutes. The beans are creamy, delicious, and just perfect! I think I'm going to have to consult the Picayune's Creole Cookbook more often as I strive to continue to cook nutritious and simple dishes in the new year.

Rain Rain Go Away

...or at least slow down a little.

I thought the snow two weeks ago was bad. However, the rain seems to be just as damaging, maybe even more so. Coupled with the melting snow, the insane amount of rain we're getting has caused a ton of flooding, which has become the new **Severe Weather Warning** message that flashes across our weather.com screen. This is a photo of Interstate 5 about an hour-and-a-half north of Portland. In case you can't tell, it's completely under water. As of right now, it's still closed in both directions. Given that I-5 is pretty much the main road from Seattle all the way down to California, I'm imagining its closure is a little like I-95 suddenly stopping in Delaware -- there would be a lot of mighty pissed Giants, Jets, Eagles, and Redskins fans.

Thankfully, Portland hasn't been hit nearly as hard as the people to the north and along the coast. It's nice to see the sun out for a change! However, I think this is just a momentary break before we're pounded again later this afternoon. Since I have spent a better part of last week and this week in the car driving to various libraries and site visits, I can honestly say that the weather has been pretty miserable. Unmanageable? No. I'm not ready to move yet, but it provides a new challenge to getting around town in the winter. Cold and wet is not a great combination.

Today our car is in the shop for a tune-up, so I'm sticking close to home to do a bit of writing and also pulling my weight with the household chores. Dun dun dun. Lots of laundry is on the horizon!

Better Day

I have to admit that last night I had one too many Belgian beers, ate one more slice of meaty pizza than I needed, and played Risk with Jesse until my eyes nearly gave out. It was an awesome end to a somewhat mediocre birthday morning. We didn't get to bed until after midnight and I couldn't seem to find a comfortable position after waking up with a sore neck and shoulder.

This morning the 7am alarm was the sound of death. I must have been in the middle of my sleep cycle because I literally could not pry open my eyelids because they felt so heavy. I also had a screaming headache, courtesy of Sint Bernardus Peter 6, Trippel, and Abt 12. (Don't worry, they were only 12 ounce bottles and we shared.) This morning I felt like I had been rolled over by a dump truck. However, the shoulder oddly felt much better. I initially intended on leaving the house to drive to Eugene to do research at the University of Oregon at 8am. In reality, I made out closer to 9:30. Even after a giant iced coffee I wanted to roll back in bed and try life again around noon.

By the time I reached Eugene all was well and it felt invigorated by the act of researching again. It was weird, however, to be on a college campus full of people who are more or less a decade younger than me. I sat out on a bench in the open park in front of the library to get some fresh air before I hopped back in the car. I paused for a few minutes to take in all of the activity. It was the top of the hour, so the students all poured out of buildings like ants in their green and yellow gear. It was fun to watch, but after a few minutes I breathed a sigh of relief to go home. As much as 29 years bummed me out yesterday, I don't think I ever want to be 18 again!

For dinner tonight we made black bean veggie burgers from my How to Cook Everything Vegetarian cookbook that I got for Christmas. I seriously read it every night before bed to figure out what I'm going to make next. I LOVE this book. So far I have only made two recipes (the first was a soup that had a base of veggie broth and a ton of fresh herbs). The veggie burgers were definitely tasty and I made enough for leftovers tomorrow -- a nice counter to the meaty, delicious pizza that I plan on having for breakfast. Yum!

Birthday Wishes

Today I woke up a total grumpster on my birthday. For some reason, I opened my eyes, discovered that I was hungry, slept funny and my neck hurt, and realized oh shit, yeah, I'm 29 today -- as in the last year of my twenties. The end of my life as we know it. Somehow I managed to throw all that we've accomplished in the past six months out the window and focused on my dreary mood. It was a bad birthday choice.

Yes, the drama was high before 11am when Jesse finally came in the bedroom/office to figure out just why I had been behaving like a troll all morning. I then burst into tears, gushing why my life was ending because I'm unemployed, I have more visible white hair up front (thus making me into a troll), and that I might as well make a living under a bridge and collect tolls like in the Billy Goats Gruff. Everything about our move has been slower than expected -- settling in took a while, finding a steady job has been really trying, and all of the things that I thought would happen by now just haven't. (In reality, we're doing just fine. I just need a new game plan that involves more consulting work and less stress over not having a full-time job.)

Thankfully, I had to go and do some research this afternoon at the Oregon Historical Society and distracted my thoughts of gloom for several hours. I sifted through microfilm for ages (which makes me feel car sick) and was done around 4pm when I decided to pack up and take the streetcar home. Nauseous, I called Jesse on my way back to let him know I'd be home for dinner and zoned out for a bit in the rain.

When I came back, I found the apartment totally tidy and snacks, beer, flowers, and a present waiting for me. It was such a nice birthday surprise and totally turned the day around.

For the past week, we have been trying to detox from the holidays with a strict ban on alcohol and I have been making a few recipes from my new vegetarian cookbook by Mark Bittman. Tonight, we threw detox to the wind and ordered a giant, meaty pizza that was delicious. We sampled a couple of new Belgian beers and now we're off to spend the rest of the night playing games and trying to distract me from my troll-like existence.

Thanks to all of my friends and family for the warm birthday wishes. It turned out to be a great one after all!

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!