February Through October 2011

Happy November Everyone. As the leaves are turning, football season is in full roar and the shopping malls are telling us that Christmas is right around the corner, I thought I better get caught up on some blogging.

Johnny and I brewed a pumpkin beer to honor the season.

But let's start from the beginning. In February my friend Bri and I took a quilting class.

In March I made the big move up to Seattle to start my new job. Same company but new customers. The work is new, challenging and fantastic. The commute is a bit tough.

In April Patty came to visit. We took a trip out to the coast on a very cold and wet day. In this pic of Patty, Sara sported some photo bombing. (I just learned that is the term for posing in somone else's photo.)

By May I had settled into a routine in Seattle. My friend Hal and I would go to the farmer's market then head back to the kitchen for a real life episode of chopped. Here is a macadamia nut encrusted halibut on a bed of forbidden rice and asparagus, accompanied by my home made hard cider.

On the home front this summer we planted eight fruit trees including apples, cherries, peaches and pears.

Saturday market in Eugene was just a weird as usual...

There are lots of things to do in Seattle....

One of my roommates is a race car driver. Here I am going for a spin in his Porsche GT3... 145mph!

Carol and I went to a Storm game, Women's professional basketball. AWESOME!

I learned how to road bike, trained for the MS150 and rode 3 different 50 mile plus days through out the summer. My last big ride was the Multiple Sclerosis ride. We completed 70 miles!

Here, Jude and I are lezzin' out at the Seattle Gay Pride Festival.

Back on the home front, in August I took advantage of the local orchards and made a monster batch of tart cherry jam, Sara's fav.

This was a monumental moment worth mentioning: Somehow, I got Sara to sit and watch the majority of the Women's World Cup with me.

Due to a poor choice in renters, in August we had our own impromptu expedited episode of Extreme Makeover and rennovated the boat house up in Portland.

Our good friend, Lesley is pursuing a new career and came to visit and shadow Sara at work. Bing Bong loves Lesely the luch lady.

We are finding that there will likely never be a shortage of wood supplied from the property as each year we've had to cut down a tree or two. Keeps us toasty all winter and filled up on S'mores by the 'camp fire'. Next on Sara's leisurely to do list is a proper fire pit.

Now back to Seattle for some fall festivities...

Lots of baseball. My company's tickets were directly behind home plate. The best part of the seat placement was the Gluten Free stand at the top of the stairs. I could have a GF hotdog and a beer! Not too many foul balls were hit in our direction but I did have one chance to scramble for one. I dove over three seats, knocked a couple people over and scrambled on the ground, only to have this ball roll right to Hal's feet. I am quite sure my diversion scored him the ball. Totally worth the effort!

Hal and I on the MSRide.

Now onto my new activities. This is a pic of a poster at my dance studio. That's right folks. Though I am not learning ballet I do spend a couple nights a week learning to dance. I have been enjoying Hip Hop Dance and Tap Dancing! I am terrible, but it is sooo fun!

In October dad turned 60! Sara and I flew to Cali to celebrate. We golfed on Saturday with dad's friend Paul. The marquis event was an outdoor Paul Simon concert at the Santa Barbara Bowl, and it was amazing. Mom and I decided to throw in a little extra Paul Simon for the weekend and make some "Mama Pajama" jam, (strawberry, rhubarb).

With that, I think we are up to date!

Cheers!

Good Times in Jan 2011

Early in January we took our annual squid fishing trip to Seattle with of course one touristy trip to Pike Place Market and a coffee at the original Starbucks. This year a friend of Sara's from high school met us there for the weekend.

Jude taught us how to make our own jigs this year. Though we didn't fare any better than we did with last years over sized Fred Meyer Jigs, it was a fun project. This year's Paella included squid from Pike Place flying fish market which was, to our surprise, considerably more affordable than the jigs themselves.

Super Bowl!
For this year's Super Bowl party I decided to mix it up a bit. Instead of nachos, hot dogs, chicken wings and other 'Merican fare, we tried our hand at learning how to cook Indian Cuisine. That's right, this year's menu included: Daal, Tikka Masala, Vindaloo, Sag Paneer (with home made cheese), Indian Curry and some fantastic deserts like Kheer, Kalva, and Burfi.

A triumph!

The Actual Super Bowl Party. With all that food we had to have a lot of Guinea pigs...I mean we needed to throw a big party. Though we didn't have a large crowd of Cheese Heads most of us were familiar with cheering for a football team in Green and Yellow so we were all thrilled with the out come. In the mean time we ate some great Indian, drank a bunch of delicious home made hard cider and played lots of ping pong.

Taking advantage of some sunny days on Mount Pisgah. We had a really dry and often sunny January. Here is a shot of Dawn, Gary and I at the Pisgah Summit and Gary and I along the trail.

Bottling a barrel of wine with my friends Sherry and Bri. Oh, and doing a little tasting too, of course!

Xmas 2010

Ahh, Christmas...seems like it was over a month ago...umm because it was. I am finally getting around to documenting it. This year we spent xmas vacation in Southern California with Sara's family on the front end and the Palkies on the back end. Deb and Mary Anne flew in from Canada and Warren from Iowa.

I have some words for whoever wrote the song about it never raining in California! What was intended to be a "golf" vacation ended up being a running vacation. Running from car to building and tattered dangling awning to the next store front to stay out of the rain that is. The first two days we were there they recorded over 10 inches of rain along with wind damaged buildings, flooding and land slides. When California does weather they go all out. We spent the rainy days visiting some of San Diego's indoor attractions, art museums, aquariums, etc. The clouds did clear for us and we were able to spend a couple nice days out and about. We visited the San Diego Zoo, took a whale-less, whale watching cruise (which is really the same as saying spending a day out on the ocean), we walked the beaches of Ventura and spent xmas with the Palkies.
A California Snow Man

A Three Hour Tour...A lovely day on the water.

The San Diego Zoo. My folks drove down from Ventura for the Zoo festivities and a night at the local PF Changs.

Christmas at the Ventura Beach.

The Girls showing off their new xmas rain coats and scarves from Santa.

Mom showing off her new cupcake apron and dad playing us some tunes.