Long winter holiday weekend

It has been such a relaxing weekend, despite social obligations. Friday night we went to Vault for a coworker-friend's birthday. We left after about two hours, using my recent stomach flu as an excuse. We walked to the video store and stopped on the way back for tea at Palio. Through miscommunication it was served in mugs, so we stayed and read the weekly papers while sipping tea. It was so relaxing and quite an enjoyable change of pace.

Saturday morning I went for breakfast with my brother, prepped the bathroom ceiling for painting, and tried to do all of the grocery shopping for xmas cooking. That night was a holiday party at a running buddy's house, at which we also stayed for two hours. We barely left the house on Sunday. Instead we stayed home, took care of chores, and ended up drinking tea and hanging out in the kitchen nook listening to jazz for a few hours. I read Veganomicon and Erik played WoW on the laptop, while Kenard lapped up affection. We dinner with Erik's parents at Lauro, now that they have a bit more time to themselves.

Monday I went out to buy sequins, and candy for gingerbread house-making. Fred Meyer was so parked up that I went all the way out to Target-- where no regular-sized candycanes were to be had. I also painted the bathroom ceiling (second coat) and made a pumpkin (not technically a pumpkin, but a winter squash, okay?) cheezcake with grahamcracker crust for xmas dessert. Erik and I went for a run, and I think we watched a movie or two. Maybe that was Sunday. It starts to blur together, doesn't it?

Tuesday we went over to Erik's brother's newly completed house for gift-opening at 9am. Our 4 year-old nephew had awoken at 4am to open all presents featuring his first initial on the gift tag, and when one of them had a note from Santa he woke up his visiting maternal grandmother to read it for him. Consequently, his mother had to wrap a number of gifts back up. Despite threats that he wouldn't have anything to open, however, there were tons of presents. I think everyone was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed seeing my one-year-old nephew hug the stuffed animal I bought for him at Crafty Wonderland.

Back home, of course, I finished making No Knead Bread (with oregano, lemon thyme and rosemary from the garden), roasted green beans with garlic and lemon zest, and a kindof sortof attempt at seitan wellington. Whatever it was, it turned out awesome. Onions, leeks, Italian tofurky, seitan, all sauteed in my biggest pot, with red wine to deglaze, soy sauce, parsley and herbs from the garden, and my spice trinity of coriander, cumin and powdered mustard, all wrapped up in puff pastry. Leave it to puff pastry to make everything _that_ much better.

Aspen came with us for dinner at Erik's brother's house, and then we went home to decide on gingerbread house plans, cut out and bake the pieces, and assemble the main frame. We got two sides candied up before tuckering out around 11pm, all bah-humbugged by thoughts of work the next day. I have to say, it was one of the most enjoyable winter holidays I've experienced, and I even have something to show for it.

Thankfully Thanksgiving

I thoroughly enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday. I haven't taken more than one day off since March, to go to Costa Rica, and I can't remember the last time I stayed home for more than a weekend.

Thursday, I spent most of the day cooking. I started around 10am, took a break around 2pm for a run with Erik, and finished right at 5pm, when we took everything over to Erik's parents' house for our holiday meal.

Friday was my day to relax. I stayed on the couch in pajamas for entire morning, watching "What Not to Wear" and "Man vs Wild" marathons. Erik raked the leaves, since our first leaf collection was the next day, and I worked on putting the garden to its winter bed.

Saturday was our shopping day. After checking out Bob's Red Mill for breakfast with Julie, we went to Lowes, Costco, back to Lowes to make returns, Home Depot, Fabric Depot, and Ikea. It was six hours of exhausting shopping, but we investigated and/or bought many things we'd meant to for quite some time.

Sunday I planted spring bulbs while on the phone with my mom, and we put strings of lights up on the house. Erik did more of the light-stringing, as he's better on the ladder and has much better reach. I climbed the apricot tree and lassoed lights around its branches, and worked more on the garden. I completely cleared and then winter-planted a small raised bed with Swiss chard and broccoli. I hope the latter fares better than my summer broccoli, which succumbed to the most incredible plague of aphids I've ever seen.

It was a rare, relaxing holiday, and over far too soon, despite the feeling on Friday that we still have a full weekend ahead of us.

we'll dance off time to the songs we've never liked

Erik and I went to the coast this weekend as a late celebration of our wedding anniversary. It's also close enough to the rather unclear time that we started dating that it acts as a double anniversary.

We took his parents out for dinner on Friday night, to the fanciest Indian restaurant in town: Plainfield's Mayur. It was decent as far as food goes, but the service is old school, which makes for a pleasant experience.

Saturday morning I went for a ten mile run with Erica and Bob, around the waterfront loop. It was surprisingly warm and beautiful out, clearing up to be a golden fall day.

When I got home I cut Erik's hair, then packed up to leave for the coast. We stopped at Pratt & Larson before heading out of town to look at tile for our kitchen backsplash. We actually found something we both liked, but at $64 per square foot, it's not likely what we'll end up with.

I think we got to Lincoln City around 3:30pm. Our motel, the Ester Lee, had the most magnificent view of waves crashing on rocky outcroppings on the wide, sandy beach. After walking along the beach til dark, taking photos, we went back to our room to enjoy the fireplace. For dinner we went to Aunt Mary's, a vegetarian restaurant in the Central Coast Vibrator Museum/ adult store. You had to be 18 to even eat there, and a group of kids got kicked out while we were hanging out waiting for the cook/owner to return. After chatting while the owner cooked our food, petting her dog, and poking around the shop, we ate what would be our best meal on the coast.

Our next stop was the Chinook Winds Casino, which Erik wanted to see. We thought we'd have a drink, play a few slots, and have a look around, but it turned out to be so smoky and bright and crowded and intense that we zipped through and left right away, giving us time to go see a movie. Dan in Real Life was the only thing of any interest playing, and it was okay. Back in our room, I turned up the fire and read for quite some time while keeping half-tabs on a wild, windy storm that battered the window in shifts.

Sunday morning we read the paper for a while in bed, then tried to find a place to eat. Sadly, the doughnut shop was closed, and we ended up snagging odd bits of food before heading to the Drift Creek Falls trailhead. South of Lincoln City, we wound up ten miles of single-lane logging road, dodging large salamanders (for which, sadly, we never got to stop to get a closer look). The hike was amazing, ending at a suspension bridge and surprising, sudden waterfall.

We had to rush back from the hike and hightail it down to Yachats for the spa appointments I made. I hadn't realized that the place I booked was 45 miles south of Lincoln City, so the extra trek really put a strain on our time. Facials have been our anniversary tradition, though, and the Overleaf Lodge was perched on a lovely rocky beach for wandering while we took turns with our treatments.

As dusk settled, we drove through Newport to finally have a meal-- and the word only applies loosely-- at Taco Bell, before the three hour drive home.

the empire is melting like ice cream

This weekend was cut from a new pad of construction paper. The colors were fresh from the light of the low-slung sun, perhaps working harder than usual to cut through the atmosphere at such an angle.

Erik and I hiked to Latourell Falls, the Columbia River Gorge waterfall closest in to Portland. It was a beautiful little hike, full of Bigleaf Maple leaves littering the path, exposed Devil's Club branches, rickety bridges bridges over tiny streams, and enough glowing moss to satisfy even my moss-hungry heart.

Erik and I discussed the idea of "creating" every day, so I'm back to writing and kicking it out the door, as short and as cryptic as it may be.

a previous weekend

I'll spare you the laments over how long it's been since I've written.

The previous weekend was wall-to-wall. Saturday morning, Erik & I went to a traditional Indian wedding ceremony, performed in Sanskrit and held on the enclosed glass skybridge of the World Trade Center, downtown. The priest was just over an hour late, so a few of the bride's female relatives stalled by singing for the crowd.

We had to leave early so that keep to my prior plan to help Ted load a fifteen-foot moving van with trash and yard debris. The van was full to the roof, but then we drove to my house for a few additional items. Notable among them was a round glass tabletop that Ted had to carry alone and which I held in place as Erik and Ted shoved a few more things in.

All three of us went out to the dump, where unloading went at least five times faster than the stuffing of the van had. We rushed to return the van, then Erik & I were only about half an hour late to the wedding reception-- well within Indian timing. The setting and dinner buffet were both gorgeous, but we left after the first dance to get home early.

Sunday morning I awoke extra early to meet Leslie and Bhavna downtown for the "Run Like Hell" half marathon. We had a nice, relaxed race, along with some decent race photos, as far as those go.

After the run, Julie and I went for breakfast at Juniors, and then dashed to Fred Meyer for a few things. When we got back to my house, Julie raked leaves onto the front garden beds while Erik & I made plans and readied for afternoon of shopping with Aspen & Mae. We picked them up and went over to Nob Hill, walking around a little before losing steam, stopping for bubble tea, and returning to the east side to check out Macy's.

Yes, I went to Macy's in the mall. It wasn't that bad, just looking for suits for Erik. We didn't find anything, but hanging out with Mae & Aspen is always a plus. Soon enough it was time to drive everyone home and go to Donna's house to play with the cats. She took me for dinner to Be Won, after which we went back to her place to converse more. It is truly impossible to not be sucked into the Donna time warp. I think I got home near midnight, ready to go to bed and read the final Harry Potter late into the night.

homesteading the hermitage

Friday night Mae, Aspen, Erik and I went to Thatch, the newish tiki bar in town. Erik and I stayed up late watching episodes from the first season of Arrested Development, loaned to us by Jocelyn.

Saturday morning Ted and I went for breakfast at Equinox, and on the way back we stopped at a running store so that he could get new shoes in time to break them in for the big Hood to Coast relay race this Friday. Erik and I went to the downtown farmers market and then to REI for an early birthday gift of fancy running socks for Ted. I must have puttered around the house and garden for a couple of hours, mostly prepping veggies in the kitchen. I forced myself to leave the house around 3pm to do shopping I've meant to and explore an area I've meant to for ages. It went fairly well, as I enjoyed the walking around bit. The main destination was fruitless, however, and despite trying on a couple of things at a slew of vintage stores, I was mostly left with the sad feeling of having moved on from the realm of such stores, when once they provided such delight. Luckily I stumbled into a tiny but exquisite jewelry store, where I purchased scissors and skull charms, and a laser-cut plexiglas octopus necklace. I also stopped by Biwa for an umeboshi onigiri on the way home. Erik and I met his parents for a beer at the Lucky Lab, and then I met a coworker and her husband and a friend for beer at a couple more places to guide them on Hawthorne, since they live in Hillsboro. I met up with them where they had dinner at the Hawthorne Fish House, and we went from there to Pix. They went on without me, despite protests, to the pub at the Baghdad.

Ted came over Sunday morning so that we could run down to the start of our long run. He's incredibly fast and the fancy socks only fueled his speed, so we did the entire seventeen miles averaging a nine-minute-mile pace. That's about a minute per mile faster than my usual. By the time we got home Erik had left to help a friend build a fence in his backyard, so I spent most of the day in the back garden weeding, trimming, finally getting the copper rain chain up, putting in bamboo edging, and generally puttering around the house. I put up a magnet strip in my sewing room for displaying bits of inspiration; it was meant for knives in the kitchen but was too long for the space I had wanted it to go. I also made hummus and babaganoush from scratch, and cleaned up my personal spaces around the house in preparation for my dad's visit and Hood to Coast-- my house will be the base for the team quite a few times over. When Erik got home we decided to try the much-touted new vegan restaurant, Nutshell. It was rather disastrous, but I got a book out of it. They had a book exchange area, and I took "Spook," Mary Roach's follow-up to "Stiff."

Overall I was mostly at home, mostly alone, and mostly getting things done, which is just about perfect.

weekend log

Friday after work I went for a run, and then we had Aspen & Mae over for pizzas on the grill. Yes, on the grill. We sat outside as dusk fell down around us, drinking wine & beer and laughing at the antics of the cats-- safely in the house and away from Mae's allergies.

Saturday morning we went to the farmers market, I worked in the garden, and then Erik and I worked together to make riblet panini on the grill. I was so excited to use Alton Brown's foil-covered-brick trick to compact the sandwich. Next time I'll preheat the bricks and it will be even better.

Erik went off to Dan's bachelor party, and I went to my favorite garden store, Garden Fever, to buy groundcover plants for various bald spots in the yard. I also bought hazelnut shells to spread in the tiny, difficult garden bed between the back door and garage; I discovered that it is the neighborhood cats' litterbox.

After spreading the mulch I rushed over for Abby's bachelorette party, which was billed as featuring a "striptease class." No details of that to follow, except that I did have fun, I discovered that some things still do embarrass me, and I still got up at 7am the next morning to go for a 13 mile run.

It was an icky, cold, rainy, painful run. I felt completely wrecked afterwards, and spent the afternoon working on my thrift store glass garden sculpture while watching "Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny" with Erik.

I made a big fancy Indian dinner, Ted came over, and we ate in the backyard.

weekend log

Friday I gave Cory a ride home and went for a run. Erik & I picked up Josh & Tiffany, and we ate dinner at Por Que No on N Mississippi before going to the Architecture in Helsinki show at the Wonder Ballroom. I ran into the superheroishly named A. Storm, my replacement at my previous job. He was light and humorous, everything one could hope for in running into someone from previous employment that didn't end well. The show was great, and with Tiffany's enthusiastic encouragement, we danced the whole time. The opener was even enjoyable-- an 80s throwback trio of two interpretive dancers and a singer who are probably way too young to remember much of that decade.

Saturday we rose from the bed like zombies to the klaxon alarm at 4:45am. We left the house just barely before 5:30am, at which time Julie had convinced us to be in Tigard for the Festival of Balloons for the first launch. The balloons didn't go up as scheduled due to weather (even the slightest breeze can push them off course) but they were all set up and inflated in order to dry out from the previous day. It was like a visceral dream from childhood to wander among them, watching the bright colors unfold and grow, shapes the wrong size in the early morning.

As we stood around between the floating behemoths an announcement was made that one of the balloons would be giving tethered rides. We happened to be standing next to it, and so we signed up-- the first ones in line.

My next morning task was to replace my lost drivers license at the DMV express in Lloyd Center. It went pretty well, although my photo reflects my comatose state unlike my previous photo, which showed my joy at moving to Oregon.

I gardened for a while, and then met up with John for two short waterfall hikes in the Columbia Gorge. The first one, Wahclella, I had done before and the second, Elowah, got too rainy, windy and muddy so we didn't get too close to the falls.

Julie came over and we went for a pedicure business meeting. Yes, that was my idea. Afterwards we walked around Hawthorne a bit and got tea & books at Powells. Later, we got takeout from Saigon Kitchen and I sure as hell can't remember where the rest of the evening went.

Sunday morning my usual running crew met earlier than usual due to special request by the two sadist earlybirds among us. We ran 14 miles-- my first long run in a month since I'd been gone the past three weekends in a row. I met Ted and two of his coworker friends for "breakfast" at Paradox; they had gone out on the BarFly bus the night before and were fun of good stories from it. Julie came over and we worked in the garden and went to the thriftstore, where I picked up more glass for my vertical garden sculpture. Erik and I went over to his parents' house for dinner, and then I went out with Shetha to take photos of public fountains downtown. The Salmon Street Springs was top on her list, and we were excited to see that it was on as we drove up. After parking and walking over, it had turned off, but we still managed to see a few interesting things.

Just writing this has exhausted me all over again. Yesterday was the first "brick" of the season with the Luna Chix-- a bike and immediate run workout. I got home late and spent some time watering garden beds and picking raspberries. Hoping to find peace.

empty boxes

Empty can mean two things: fear or opportunity.

The first box is always the hardest to fill, when you're moving. Take a deep breath, pour a glass of wine, brace yourself to sit down cross-legged on the floor in front of the first, yawning, empty cardboard box. What stays with you? What is thrown away? What is kept but packed away carefully, knowing that it will not see the light of day for some time to come? Where do you begin?

My mother moved to Port Angeles, WA, this weekend. She has lived in England for the past eleven years, and this was the first time she had been to the Olympic Peninsula, the second time to the Pacific Northwest, and the fifth time to the west coast. She recounted these statistics aloud during the long drive that my brother, Erik and I took to help her move.

The drive up was beautiful. I-5 follows the Columbia River for a while, giving peekaboo glimpses of imposing Mt Hood and Mt St Helens' snowball dome, and the deja vu views recalled last weekend, when Erik, Aspen and I drove up to Vancouver, BC. Soon after the turn onto 101, in Olympia, the terrain grows more dense as civilization drops away, and everyone in the car got more restless.

The snow-studded Olympic Mountains appeared, impossibly steep. My mom got so excited, almost bouncing in her seat, keeping up continuous chatter. We turned off the main road, wound in on roads skirting semi-rural parcels of lived-on land. Abruptly up an overgrown gravel track, steep and hung over with tree branches, brambles, tall grass. It's dark with all of the green, Ted forcing the car along, until we emerge in the clearing of the house. We're not sure it's the right one-- there are abandoned cars around, which my mother didn't know about-- trying different doors before one finally opens with the key and this Thing, her move, is made concrete.

The house inside is a monument to consumerist pack rats with far-flung interests. Empty brown beer bottles from what must be a lifetime of drinking, books, a plate of buttered rye bread, a small bowl with gelled scrapes of mayonnaise, clothing, boxes, bags, hats, pillows, glass display cabinets of tiny figurines, stuff, stuff, stuff. I have not seen its like since high school, a friend who grew up in a home like this. All four of us wander around. Ted tries to open things, fix them. Erik tries to get a computer up and running. Mom follows Ted. I flit like a butterfly, looking at books, alighting on some from my childhood love of scifi. I keep thinking that I will see something in the massive piles of stuff that will call to me.

Finally, after an hour of this, Mom asking Erik which bed we want to spend the night in as if that's possible through the years of dust and piles of possessions, I realize: we cannot leave here unless she has somewhere to sleep.

Ted, Erik and I set to clearing the room she finally chooses. We clean out fur from a long-haired white cat, urine stains, abandoned spider webs, mouse turds. Ted takes apart the bed, dusts and vacuums. Erik moves piles and boxes and shelves into other rooms. I go through drawers and throw things away into black trash bags, which just get stacked with everything else. Mom coughs, gasps for air, disappears for hours.

We clear and clean her entire room, and most of her bathroom. It's an island of calm in a hurricane house flooded with junk. At 8pm we finally go into Port Angeles for dinner, and to Walmart for supplies. And then we leave her. Ten at night, we say goodbye and quickly put up the tinted windows of the rented SUV. It's not completely dark out yet. I see her face, red even in the low light. We're gone before her expression can change.

It's impossible to think. Ted drives the whole way home. Even though it's 2am, we've been in the car for nine hours that day, spent six hours cleaning, none of us sleep.

It is done, but it's just the beginning.

dirt & drink

After getting all worked up on Friday, I spent most of the weekend in a blissful state of working in the garden, in a tank top, with dirty feet and music playing.

I went for a ten mile run Saturday morning to get my long run out of the way. Of course, the moment I hopped in the shower afterwards, my delivery of five cubic yards of well composted manure arrived. Erik and I worked together for most of the day, with me cleaning up sections of the front yard and him loading and dumping wheelbarrows full of compost. His dad also helped us for most part of it, and we got the entire front yard tidied up and evenly covered.

My brother, his coworker friend Joe, and I went on the St Patrick's Day BarFly bus. Highlights include a woman wearing a hijacked marching band uniform, complete with tall white faux-fur hat; drunk girls stealing vintage purses from the wall of a bar called Grandma's; someone asking me if I was the Irish Princess Leia; running into my freshman dorm roommate; leaving behind my passed-out pool opponent in Thatcher's; discovering that a girl my brother was hitting on was flirting with me; having Erik pick us up at the final bar and take us for donuts.

The next morning Ted, Joe, and I went for breakfast at Junior's, and then I worked in the backyard for the rest of the day tidying garden beds, trying to salvage those destroyed by having a couple of trees removed, and laying more manure. Erik and his dad went for a bike ride and then split most of the wood left behind (in the middle of a garden bed) from the felled trees. Now we have a wood stack, and although it will be a long time before the wood is seasoned enough for use, we'll soon have a working fireplace too!