Days 18-20: Where Did The Time Go?

Wow, it has been a big three days.  I finished my novel, made and ate Thanksgiving dinner, took my first shallow water aqua aerobics class, and waited for my fingertips to heal enough so that I can practice the guitar again.  I'll start with that last one.

I made a rookie mistake.  I came home from water aerobics on Wednesday and practiced the guitar for about 20 minutes.  I didn't think about my fingers being water logged and extra soft.  All I thought about was wanting to be able to play guitar.  Yep, rookie mistake.  I couldn't touch the strings on Thursday or Friday with my left hand.  I'll practice tonight before I go to bed, but I think I need to push back my lessons for another week to give myself time to practice before going back to see the teacher.  I am nowhere near through the exercises he assigned, especially with two days without practice.

Moving backwards... Thanksgiving.  We had a really nice dinner this year.  It was just Brian, Marty and me, but we really enjoyed ourselves.  We had turkey, dressing (loaded with vegetables), sweet potatoes, green beans sauteed with garlic, cornbread, pumpkin pie and salted caramel chocolate pecan pie.  It was all quite delicious.  Just as dinner was finishing, my sister called from the assisted living place where my mom is staying and I got to talk to my mom for Thanksgiving.  That may have been the best part of the day.  Her Alzheimer's has been causing her to have awful delusions and we weren't able to talk to her for several weeks.  My sister and I hated it, but we didn't want to cause my mom even more distress.  I am NOT thankful for Alzheimer's.  It sucks. I am thankful to have an awesome sister who made sure to include me on Mom's good day.

Continuing backwards, I finished the first draft of my novel: Optimistic.  It is a slice of life story about a teen boy who gets a bag of poop from his parents for Christmas, and it turns out to be the start of a garden.  I think it is pretty readable. My next step is to read the whole thing and start editing.  I'm going to see how far I can take it.  Wish me luck.

Oh, I skipped the part about shallow water aerobics.  I did that on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  My pool was closed, so I went to the next pool over, where they had the shallow water workout.  It was really fun and a great aerobic workout.  The teacher was peppy and really helpful when folks weren't sure about the movements.  She also did the best stretching of any class I've attended, both before and after the class.  I gave her class two thumbs up and I worked extremely hard. 

Today's big events were getting Christmas cards out and watching college football.  I sent 80 cards (including a Christmas letter), each with a handwritten note.  I think about what I like to get in Christmas cards, then send that kind of thing out to others.  Also, we have moved so many times in the past few years, I just want folks to know where I am and what is going on.  Hopefully, I'll get similar information back from all of my friends.

So, that is what I've been up to for the last several days.  I hope your holiday was festive, happy and filling. 

Be happy and healthy!

Day 17: OW! My fingers hurt.

Today was a very full day.  I got up around 5 am and started writing.  I had skipped yesterday because I was so tired, so I had word counts to improve. I wrote about 2000 words before leaving for water aerobics at 7:30.  We are still loving water aerobics.  Brian makes the attempt to join me and he is successful about every other time. Every session works every muscle and I can both feel and see my body getting stronger and less jiggly. With the daily hikes/dog walks on top of the water aerobics, I'm feeling really good, if slightly tired from all of the activity.

I started to make a bowl of cereal when we got home, but unfortunately, the shelf the cereal was on fell down, scraping the top of my right foot, but causing very little hurt.  Marty was kind enough to grab an ice pack for me, which kept the swelling and bruising down, and Brian picked up the stuff that fell on the floor.  I kept my foot elevated for the next 20 minutes or so, just in case.  I was able to go for a hike several hours later, so no harm done.  Brian rehung the shelf and we went on with our day. 

Today was my first full guitar practice.  Without any whining in my voice, I can truly say that it is difficult for me to learn.  The strings are close together and difficult to discern without looking, my fingers aren't sure they want to stretch far enough to reach the frets for note changes, and even strumming is tricky for me.  This is why I'm taking lessons, so that I can learn how to do all of these things.  BUT, they take practice.  And this is where the whining starts. My fingers hurt!  I can only practice for about 15 minutes, then my finger tips are out of commission for the rest of the day.  Yikes!  Today, I played 3 notes OK and 3 notes poorly.  SIX notes of learning was all my sad fingers were up for.  Ah well, tomorrow is another day.  Whining is done for now. 

In preparation for Thanksgiving, we made pies this afternoon.  Brian was kind enough to make the crusts for me while I whipped up the pie innards. The two pies are: Salted Caramel Pecan Chocolate Pie and Pumpkin Pie.  The one with the long name is from the front cover of last month's Southern Living magazine and looks kind of like the cover. The pumpkin pie recipe is from McCormicks spices and was stupid easy to make. We'll see how they are tomorrow.  I made cranberry sauce last week, so now all the sweet stuff is done.  Everything else gets cooked tomorrow. 

Before the pie-a-thon, we took the dogs for a walk in Forest Park again.  I love that place.  We can walk there for years without getting bored with it, I believe.  It hasn't rained for awhile, which makes it much easier to walk and less muddy for the dogs.  I like it!  Of course, I like it when it rains, too, so make of that what you will.

I think I'll try to get in another hour or so of my book tonight.  I still haven't come up with a name for my hero, so my sister started calling him Little Opti. The name seems to have stuck.  Now Brian and Marty and I all refer to him that way.  Who knows, maybe he'll never have a name.  We'll see.

Be happy and healthy!

Day 16: Guitar Hero

I took my first guitar lesson today.  My sister gave me a guitar for my 40th birthday and now, six years later, I am finally taking lessons.  The lesson was 30 minutes long and chock fill of information. I played a few notes and a couple of chords, and now, the fingertips on my left hand hurt.  My right hand never really figured out what it needed to do, so it feels fine.  I figure it will be a bit touchy once I learn how to strum.

Essentially, the lesson was designed to give me an overview and some guidelines, then send me home to practice on my own.  Since my finger tips are so soft, I will probably only be able to practice 10-15 minutes in one sitting, and maybe as much as two sittings in a day.  We'll see how it goes.  I'm trying hard to learn by feel, rather than sight, since looking at the strings puts your guitar in a bad position relative to your fingers.  Or so said Danny, my instructor.  More details later. 

Now, more about my new laptop.  It is really small and light, yet just as powerful as our regular sized laptop.  It is Windows 8, which takes a bit of getting used to, but since I've used a tablet for a few years now, it is very similar to that.  I love the fact that there is a keyboard, a mouse pad and a touch screen, so you can go back and forth between them, depending on what you are doing.  Love it!  Also, when Buckley sits on me while I'm working on this, it is much less aggravating then when he sits on me with the larger laptop.  I guess because the smaller one is easier to balance.  Hooray for the new laptop!!!

My finger tips are a little sore, but I have a couple of thousand words to type in my story. Before I go, I have to share dinner.  Brian and I took the dogs to Forest Park for our walk tonight and I was daydreaming about food. Again. We just bought some orzo at Pike Place Market while in Seattle, so I thought that needed to be the base for our dinner. When we got home, Brian was sous chef for me.  As I cooked 3 pieces of bacon, he chopped 1/2 and onion, a bell pepper and some broccoli. I got rid of the bacon grease and switched to olive oil to saute the vegetables, adding just a bit of garlic to the mix. Once the veggies were sauteed, I added a can of rinsed great northern beans and a can of diced fire roasted tomatoes, along with a ton of oregano and some basil.  I added about 2 cups of water to that mix and about a cup of orzo.  The orzo sucked up all of the water, and cooked beautifully.  Finally, we added about 1/3 cup of grated extra sharp cheddar to the mix and served it with crusty bread.  YUM!!!!!

Be happy and healthy!

Days 13-15: A VERY Full Weekend

My goodness, it has been a full few days!  On Saturday, Brian and I loaded up early and drove up to Seattle to attend the 50th wedding anniversary of Bob and Virginia, our friend Kate's parents.  On our way up, we stopped to have lunch and several knock knock jokes with my cousins, and then bought a mini laptop for me (hooray!) so that Brian doesn't have to stop whatever he is doing anytime I want to write a blog, an email or a book.  On Sunday, after a delicious breakfast of pumpkin spice waffles with whipped cream (thanks Kate, it was wonderful!!!), off we went to Pike Place market for our weekly grocery shopping and our market fix. Then, a quick three hour drive back to Portland where we were just in time to watch the Trans Siberian Orchestra. By Monday, we were complete zombies and could barely function.  A great time was had by all!

The anniversary party was loads of fun.  Kate and her sister Gretchen spent months planning and getting ready for this party.  See, Bob and Virginia had a very small wedding and no reception 50 years ago.  Not this time around!  There were about 50 people there and everyone was celebrating the lovely couple.  Bob had a short film of their wedding and a dinner afterwards where they were eating cake.  Virginia had never seen it since they didn't have any way to view the super 8 film.  Gretchen took the film somewhere to have it transferred to DVD and voila!, they had it at the party.  They looked so young and in love. 

Later, Gretchen showed a slide show of pictures of Bob and Virginia and their family over the years. It was such a nice present to their parents and oh so appreciated. Everyone had a great time.  Oh, and the couple never had a wedding cake.  So Kate and Gretchen ordered one from Boraccini's bakery in Seattle.  It was beautiful and delicious.  After the party, we stayed to help clean up so that they could get home a little sooner. Gretchen's husband Mike got the Iron Man award for cleaning all of the dishes and the kitchen while the rest of us took down the decorations and cleaned up the main room.  It was so much fun hanging out with Ben, Kate, Lauren, Gretchen, Mike and Jessica that we didn't care what we did with them, so cleanup was fun. Oh, we have missed them while we were off gallivanting around the rest of the country.

On Sunday, I slept in until 7, which is unheard of for me  When I got up, I hung out with Ben chatting about Lauren's college choices, dogs and other things.  Ben offered us some toys back that we had given them when Lauren was younger.  We happily took them to share with my birthday buddy, Finn Dewey, who is three.  After a wonderful breakfast, Brian and I spent time at the market... mostly eating and buying food. Oh, and Mike from Sossio's vegetable stand totally remembered us.  He was SHOCKED that we had been gone for almost 7 years.  He felt like he just saw us a couple of months ago. That was cool.  Being regulars somewhere for 15+ years certainly has its advantages, even 7 years later.

We stopped by my cousin Brent's house on the way home to give the toys to Finn.  The toys are Rochenboch remote controlled dump trucks with a cool 2 story working structure and lots of balls to scoop up and dump.  Finn currently wants to be a garbage man when he grows up, so these toys are perfect.  Also, Brent used to play with them with us (long story - just know that Brian and I had disposable income and no kids, so we could buy all of the coolest toys, back in the day). Anyway, Finn was super excited, but Brent had to figure out how to make everything work before he could give it to Finn.  The toys are probably more for 8 years and up, but with supervision, they'll be fine.

We got back on the road after a sadly short stop, and worked our way back down to Portland.  As we went, we played the alphabet picnic game.  You know the one... "I'm going on a picnic and I'm bringing an avocado. I'm going on a picnic and I'm taking an avocado and some bacon." etc.  We got down to the letter U, and I said I was bringing Underwear.   Brian had the letter V and he said that he was bringing Vitamins because underwear was not a vegetable.  That sounded very much like Finn Dewey's knock knock jokes (did I mention he is 3 and his jokes are surreal?) so Brian and I made it into a knock knock joke and cracked ourselves up. 

We got to Portland about an hour before the concert, so we stopped and grabbed a quick bite to eat, then went on to the Moda Center.  It is a big old place  Our seats were pretty high up but right next to the stage.  The lights were between us and the stage and we were very concerned about our view of the concert.  Luckily, with the first strum of guitar and toss of hair, up came the lights, revealing a perfect view of the stage.

It was a mixed concert.  TSO is a hair metal Jesus rock group.  I knew about the metal rock, but not about the hair and the Jesus parts.  They told a maudlin Christmas story that was used to loosely tie together a bunch of OK songs (a couple of the songs were spectacular, but they were few and far between).  All of the songs were accompanied by lots of swinging hair, along the lines of Poison and Night Ranger.  In one song, they did a chorus line with hair, one person at a time swinging their hair from left to right, then on the way back, from right to left. I was cracking up.  Brian punched me at one point because I was giggling so much.  Once the story part was over, it looked like they might be done, but then the started the concert that I was there to see.

If you haven't heard TSO, you are missing something fun.  They take classical music and turn it into head banging rock and roll. They did a mash up of Beethoven's 5th and Mozart's Requium.  They played Carmina Burana, and then they played Pachabel's Cannon.  It was so much fun.  There was a crazy light show and lasers, fog and projection work on the castle/sceen on the back of the stage.  It was awesome.  We really enjoyed ourselves in the second half and the arena was on their feet yelling.  Great fun!

So that was our weekend.  Monday was a zombie day; we were so tired from the weekend. I went to water aerobics and did some shopping, but until I took a nap and a walk, I was pretty much worthless.  I wrote about 3000 words for my book (we're in the last week) and watched Kiss of the Spider Woman, then went to bed. It was a long three days and I slept for 10 hours. Now on to today.

Be happy and healthy!

Day 12: Ham!

I'm not much of a bacon eater, and I'm generally not much of a meat eater, but I do love some ham. Ham is that perfect mixture of sweet and salty, pink and delicious.  There is nothing like sweet potatoes and ham, ham and cheese, ham and eggs, green eggs and ham, and ham with, well, just about anything.  I rarely eat it, and when I do eat it, I eat it sparingly, but I wanted to let everyone know just how great ham is.  Celebrate ham!

With that out of the way, I have some great news.  First, today was my 5th session of deep water aerobics.  I'm absolutely loving the class and I can currently feel almost every muscle in my body, especially the abs and arms.  While I'm not losing any more weight, I can see and feel my body getting more toned.  It is terrific!  This is something that I will absolutely continue.  I will try shallow water aerobics at some point, but for now, I'm loving deep water aerobics.

Second, I have my first guitar lesson next Tuesday at noon.  I am very excited about this.  My sister gave me the awesome present of an acoustic guitar for my 40th birthday.  That was six years ago and I still have no idea how to play it.  I tried to teach myself, but I was a poor teacher and a poor student.  So, now I'm excited to have a real teacher to help me learn this thing. I'll be going to 5 Star Guitars.  The fellow who helped me get set up was really helpful  I told him that I was a true novice, to the point of not even knowing how to hold the darned thing.  He said that was no problem, I just need to tell the teacher what I'm looking to get out of lessons.  I told him I hadn't thought much further than simply learning how to hold, tune and play the guitar.  He told me to think about what me playing the guitar successfully looked like.  What kind of music was I playing? Was I reading music or just using basic chords? Was I performing in a band or just with myself?  Things like that. Really helpful!

Third, I found something else new to try.  Next Thursday is a Turkey Trot over at Washington Park, near the zoo.  It is a 4-mile walk/run early on Thanksgiving morning.  I can park at a transit station and take Max over.  I've always wanted to do one, but never got around to it.  So, this year is the year.  I'm also thinking about doing the Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis on December 8th.  We used to do that one in Seattle.

That is it for the news.  Now for a movie review!  Catching Fire, the 2nd movie in the Hunger Games series, was fantastic!  They did a much better job with the second one than the first, especially outside of the arena. It rang much truer than the first movie, both to the spirit of the books and to the characters themselves.  I was tense for most of the film, concerned about the fate of each person in that world.  Peta didn't bother me nearly so much in this one, and Snow was pure evil.  Excellent!  The elder victors were VERY well cast and the whole thing was entrancing. Brian and I both gave this two enthusiastic thumbs up.

Dinner was sweet potatoes, a small slice of ham, green beans and some bread. YUM!

Be happy and healthy!

Days 10 & 11: A Miss and A Hit

Sorry for missing yesterday.  I just wasn't feeling the writing love.  In fact, I was feeling a tad under the weather so we ended up watching a couple of movies last night, rather than doing anything productive. The movies were: Jesus Henry Christ and Today's Special.  I liked both of them for different reasons.

• JHC was funny, touching and really about how dysfunctional families find a way to function in spite of everything.  That description does not do it justice, as it was funny, weird and very much an indie film.  It moves a little slowly, but is well worth the wait. All of the actors do quirky well and are still charming and kind.
• Today's Special was an uneven film about a talented but uninspired sous chef in NYC whose parents were from India and now ran a run down Indian restaurant. He gets skipped over for a job in his fancy restaurant, so he quits and decides to go to Paris, but fortune says otherwise... blah, blah, blah.  This movie was terribly predictable and somewhat uneven, but very charming and sweet.  You like the characters and want them to be successful, even if they don't always make sense or make the choices their characters should make, based on things they said and did earlier in the film.

Before the short movie-thon, we had a pretty good day.  I finally got Brian out of bed and into water aerobics with me, which was fun.  (He didn't quite make it today, because he had a hard time getting to sleep last night.) I did a little shopping (did I mention Macy's big cashmere sweater sale?) and then off we went to visit our new vet, Ron Erp, 5th cousin to Wyatt Erp. Seriously!

We loved out new vet, who was referred to us by my awesome sister-in-law, Sharon. He was super knowledgeable,chatty, and obviously loves his job.  All good by me! The dogs got a clean bill of health, as well as two thumbs up on their weight, shiny coats and excellent fitness level.  Hooray! Katy needs to have her teeth cleaned, but she eats rocks and other unsuitable objects, so that was totally expected.  Also, at 9 years old, she is still healthy enough to easily go under anesthesia, which might not be the case as she gets older.  Little Buckley (Sir Buckington) eats everything under the sun, but has great teeth, so no cleaning needed for him. 

We tried to go for a walk/hike at a new park yesterday, called Jenkins Estate, but when we got there, I wasn't feeling well and we were both really cold, so we bailed and went home. On the plus side, we found a cute coffee shop near the park which sells hot chocolate made with almond milk and is run by two super cute, friendly young women.  Score!

Today was a much better day. I got up for water aerobics and had a good workout, even though today's instructor was not as good as the gal from yesterday.  I found out that my new friend Lynne has a last name that is incredibly similar to mine, off by just a couple of letters.  When I was writing my name for her, she thought I was accidentally misspelling hers!  Love it!

Brian and I went back to Jenkins Estate with the dogs and had a great walk today.  We also went back to that cute coffee shop and had breakfast sandwiches.  This afternoon, I made some seriously good banana/butternut squash bread and some cranberry sauce. The sauce was made from Oregon cranberries, and I have to admit, while they are still incredibly tart, they are much sweeter than any I've had before.  For a pound of berries, I added about 1/2 of a cup of sugar, which is super low for cranberry sauce. For breakfast tomorrow, I think I'll have some of the cranberry sauce on the bread.  Yum!

Two other bits of news: I slacked off on my NaNoWriMo book for the last two days, so I wrote almost 3000 words today to get caught up.  And, I'm signing up for guitar lessons starting next week. So here we go!  Obviously, the water aerobics is going well.  Let's see how guitar lessons go.  After that is yoga class.  After that... who knows!

Be happy and healthy!

Day 9: Cholesterol Numbers Back to Normal!!!!

Guess who got her blood test results back today?  ME!  Guess who's cholesterol (both HDL and LDL are right where they are supposed to be?  ME again! Yep, that 8-week challenge sure helped.  Unfortunately, my triglycerides are still a bit high, so the doctor suggested to stay off the sugar (I think I figured that out two posts ago, thank you) and to start taking fish oil twice a day to help control it.  Who knew?  OK, probably anyone who has ever dealt with this before, but it was new to me. 

In other news, Macy's is in the middle of their crazy pre-Thanksgiving sale, in which their cashmere sweaters are the price they ought to be, instead of the price they usually are.  Crew and V-necked long sleeved cashmere sweaters are $59.99 (today and tomorrow only). I live in those sweaters in the winter, so they are well worth that price to me. Get on over to Macy's before 1 pm tomorrow to take advantage of the sale. (Today's blog is sponsored by the letter M.)

Finally, a quick movie review for those of you who care.  Thor 2 (I have no idea what the name of the movie is) was highly entertaining and well worth the $5.50 Tuesday special price I paid for it.  Even when you add the $3 for popcorn, it was still WELL worth it.  Loki (Tom Hiddleston) made the film, as always.  The effects were loads of fun and the music, very exciting.  The bad guy was boring, he had nothing to do, but he had some cool WMD's (weapons of mass destruction, for those of you sleeping during the Bush era) which he used well.  All in all, a good bit of Tuesday afternoon entertainment.  Stay ALL the way through as there are 2 little extra scenes.  Hopes of an awesome new villain in the 1st scene and a bit of silliness in the final one.  Oh - and I saw the preview for RoboCop.  Brilliant casting!  I can't wait.

Be happy and healthy!

Day 8: That Was Some Workout!

We had a new teacher today in water aerobics. She looked like a 15 year old gymnastics champion, but she is really in her late 40s. Wow! She was fit and cute as a button. When I say new, I meant new to me. Everyone else there was excited to see her again, and they kept saying how sad they were that she'd be leaving them this week to go back to her old pool. Well poop! This is the best exercise teacher I've ever had and now she is leaving? Something is wrong with that picture. Ah well. In the meanwhile, I got a kick-abs workout and a great cardio exercise as well.

After the workout, we went through the much more frustrating exercise of trying to get health insurance for the next month and 10 days, until the insurance from affordable care act is available! So far, I'm loosing this battle. I'll try again tomorrow.  When I got bored with getting no response, I decided to make lunch: butternut squash risotto with sage pork sausage, onion and pumpkin stout goat cheese. It took oven an hour to make, and it was fantastic!  I used a home made vegetable broth for the risotto base, and it was pink because of the beet juice in it. Even though there is some meat and cheese in this dish, they are a small percentage of the ingredients. Most of the dish was rice, onions and squash, not to mention 5 cups of broth. I got the idea from the goat cheese seller at the market last Saturday. All I can say is, Yum!

It was a rainy day today, and there was a slight break around 3:45, so we took the dogs for a couple of miles at that time. We stayed in the neighborhood today because they get filthy at Forest Park on rainy days. In the neighborhood, they just get wet.

For dinner, Marty and I had the rest of the broccoli cheese soup from yesterday. It was even better on day 2. Brian left at five to attend a backgammon tournament. Wish him well. I think there is a huge prize for the first place winner... Is it $5 or $6... I can't remember.

After dinner, Marty went to a meeting and I was left at home alone. I can't think of the last time I was alone in a house. It has been a very long time. Of course, I wasn't entirely alone, since Katy and Buckley were with me. Also, my nameless novel character was with me. I wrote about 1800 words tonight. My sister calls him Little Opti, since he is such an optimistic teen.  I have to come up with a name eventually, but for now, young Opti will have to do.

Now it is bed time and I am ready for sleep.

Be happy and healthy!

Day 7: Much Better

After a week of sugar indulgences, I knew something had to change. Namely, I had to take back my self control.  So I did today. Of course, it was made much easier by the farmers market shopping the day before and by staying home, rather than stopping by every bakery in town.

So most of day 7 was scheduled as a writing day.  I'm having such a good time with the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) challenge.  After last night, I'm now over 30,000 words.  Hooray!  But, man cannot live by words alone... at least this gal can't, so here goes on the food breakdown.

Breakfast:cinnamon toast and an apple.
Lunch: Broccoli Cheddar soup (lots of broccoli, carrots and potatoes, little cheddar and no cream) served with garlic Romano bread and a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie
Snacks: Peanut butter pretzels and a Lara Bar (dates, peanuts, chocolate chips and sea salt - seriously, that is the ingredient list)
Dinner: Sauteed spinach with garlic, nutmeg, bacon and goat cheese served with Garlic Romano bread.

See, much better.  Especially if you add to that a lovely 3 mile walk at Forest Park with the last mile going uphill for most of the way. Plus, writing over 3000 words yesterday.  Definitely, a better day.

Now it is time to grab a quick bowl of cereal and make my way to the pool fir another session of water aerobics.

Be happy and healthy!

Days 5 & 6: Falling Off and Getting Run Over By The Wagon

Yikes!  I've had a little sugar this week.  Um, by a little, I mean a lot.  By a lot, I mean a whole heaping lot.  Hello, my name is Linda and I have a sugar problem.

It all started with the end of the 8-week challenge.  I bought some ice cream.  Then I remembered that I hadn't made cookies in a while, so I made some.  Then I remembered the Little Debbie Starcrunch that I had left over from our trip across the country.  Then we were downtown near Cupcake Jones.  Then someone told me about the Pearl Bakery and their amazing almond croissants. Then I passed The Dessert Tray, who had a chocolate fudge cake with raspberry topping, which was too good to pass.  Then I went by the bakery at the farmers market that we saw with Sally and bought the chocolate croissant.  The girl remembered me from the time Sally went with us and asked me how the sugar challenge went.  I wasn't sure how to respond. Then, when we were at the grocery store looking from some Valrhona chocolate (unsweet), I saw a box of Ghirardelli brownie mix.  Yeah.  Did I mention that I have a problem?

On the plus side, I took the dogs out for a 5 mile walk in 1 hour and 15 minutes (I was pulling them for the last 15 minutes) and I've done water aerobics twice in the last three days.  We did some amazing shopping at the farmers market today so we have plenty to cook at home (without sugar) for the rest of the week.  So, I'm hopeful.  Wish me luck and keep your fingers crossed, etc.  I did really well on the challenge, moderating my sugar intake.  I can do it again.

In other news, I went to have bagels with a couple of the retirees after water aerobics yesterday.  It was fun, even if I had to leave earlier than planned because I had to take my car to the shop for a prescheduled oil change. While waiting to get the oil changed, a small poodle named Lucy kept me company by sitting in my lap and promptly falling asleep. Very cute. I ended up spending quite a bit of time with Lucy, and her pit bull friend, Bella, because the hose for my radiator was busted and they had a part delivered.  Still, I'm not complaining because my car is doing better.  It is 15 years old and I expect things to go wrong from time to time.

This was a two football game weekend for us. The UCLA vs. Washington game was OK, but obviously not memorable, since none of us can remember the score, and Brian had to tell me it was UW, not Arizona. On the other hand, the UGA vs. Auburn game today was highly memorable. Sadly, we lost, but it was an exciting 4th quarter.  If only the Dawgs had played even a third as well in the other 3 quarters.

Tonight we saw the traveling show of American Idiot, the rock opera, or musical, or whatever they called it.  Meh. I felt old because I didn't like it, as if it were some sort of judgement on me for being over 30.  Of course, that isn't really fair, since I greatly enjoy Green Day and we rocked out to the album on the way home after the show. On our way out of the theater, we heard others saying how blah it was, too.  Still... it seems like one of those things where if I were cooler, then I would have enjoyed it more.  Instead I walked out feeling over educated (Yes, I knew which shows every scene, bit of staging and plot point were stolen from.) and very unhip.  Perhaps it was just me.  On the plus side, I never was cool, so maybe it just doesn't matter.

For tomorrow, we're hoping to see the RoseBuds, Rose City Roller Girls' younger sisters in Roller Derby.  Maybe I'll dye my hair and get a tattoo while I'm there.  I can tell you that I will resist whatever form of sugar they are selling.  (Blogger's note: I just found out that the roller girls were tonight.  Bummer.  Now that means that tomorrow will be a writing day to get ahead in the NaNoWriMo word count, since next weekend will be busy.)

Be happy and healthy!

Day 4: From Deep Water Aerobics to Deep Tissue Massage

Finally!!!!  I was able to find a class and attend it.  This morning, at 8:05, I took a 55 minute deep water aerobics class at the Sunset pool.  That is the pool I thought was closed due to seismic maintenance updates. I chose that over the shallow water aerobic class because it was different from any I had done before. Hooray! It was great fun and I'm about 100% sure that I will hurt tomorrow.

There was only one man in attendance, with perhaps a total of 30 or so ladies. The instructor was about 20 years younger than me, which was OK because I was at least 20-35 years younger than every other person in the class. But those seniors were kicking my butt at balance and ab workouts.  I cracked myself up trying to keep up with them.  A couple of well meaning older ladies reminded me to take it easy on my first time out.  Hee hee!  It was pretty darned funny.

I think I worried some of them when we brought the swim noodles into the pool.  We were already wearing aqua belts, then we had to put the noodle into the water and stand on it.  Did you know that it is entirely possible to fall when you are hanging out in the middle of the deep end of the pool? Trust me! I did several times.  Again, I think I really worried a couple of the nice older ladies.  A couple of them kept trying to give me helpful tips such as, "perhaps you should hold on to the wall this first time," or "try sitting on the noodle first, then standing on it... like you are climbing a wall," and other such handy suggestions. Those of you who know me well are well aware that I've been known to fall into a wall that was just standing there, doing no one any harm.  Yep, they are not aware of Lack-Of-Balance-Girl!

Anyway, I had a great time.  I made it through the whole class without having a heart attack or overheating or even having a cramp.  All good! A couple of the ladies invited me to go out for bagels with them tomorrow.  I have a car appointment at 11, but I can probably fit it in before I go. 

I came home and took a shower and suddenly felt all of the muscles that I haven't used for years, until this morning, come to life.  It is a good thing that I'm married to a massage therapist. While my muscles were still warm, he gave me an excellent massage and helped everything chill out a bit.  Hopefully it will make a difference tomorrow in greatly reduced day after exercise pain.

This afternoon, we went downtown to Bridgeport Brewery for lunch in the Pearl District.  It used to be this funky cool brewery/pizzeria with the best pizza I've ever eaten. Now, it is a hipster-dufus (my brother's term) place that is really expensive and soulless. We had an excellent bowl of chicken-corn chowder, but the rest of the meal didn't quite live up to the $34 price tag for lunch.  The pizza crust was still excellent, but the toppings were uninspired.  Still, that soup was amazing!

After lunch, we went shopping for some more winter weight pants for me.  I'm freezing most of the time here in Portland (at 50 degrees) and need some pants that might keep the damp out: corduroys. I bought two more in size 12 (!!!!) and one in size 14 (different brand, different fit). So now I should be warm for the season. While in the Pearl District, we popped over to CUPCAKE JONES... the world's BEST cupcake joint.  We had three full sized cupcakes between the two of us (sort of... I only ate half of each of my halves, meaning that I actually ate 3/4 of a cupcake). The cupcakes were: chocolate, peanut butter cup and gingerbread.  MMMMMMM. They were (Laura) MIGHTY FINE!!!!!  Sorry for all of the caps. I think I had more sugar today than in the last 9 weeks put together, so I'm a little excited. We sat right there in the store and ate them, although I had to ask for a box for the other half of mine.  The folks next to us did essentially the same thing we did and then were on their way next door for some Ben and Jerry's.  They looked at bit sheepish, which made me laugh. More power to them, I say.

To complete out shopping trip in the Pearl, we went to Penzy's Spice for clove and cinnamon, Sur La Table for a knife and some cocoa powder (we didn't buy the knife and they didn't have the chocolate), to the Pearl Bakery for a load of bread, then finally to Smith's Tea for some tea. 

Steve Smith is the guy who started Tazo Tea and Stash Tea.  He has since sold both of them and is focusing his amazing tea talents on this brand which bears his name.  In other words, he has left those two in the dust and is now making some even more amazing blends. Take a look at their website if you are interested. We had a blend today that was herbal with peppermint, cinnamon, anise and stevia.  I was not a fan.  Too much licorice and too much stevia.  I hate to say anything bad about their tea because every other blend I've tried is stellar.  I'm currently drinking Red Dawn, a blend of roiboos and honeybush, which is rich and delicious.  This morning I had a cup of Fez tea, which is green tea with spearmint and lemon grass. It is amazing.  Today we bought the holiday blend, which is a black tea with pine needles and cinnamon. I've had it before and it is really lovely. I like tea.

Now, I'm totally stalling and I need to stop.  I have not written a bit of my NaNoWriMo book today and if I don't start now, I'll be up until midnight.  That would be bad, since I was up until 11 last night and out of bed at 4:43 this morning.  I need a good 9-10 hours per night.  This six hours of sleep garbage is not for me. 

Be happy and healthy!

Day 3: Closed for Maintenance

As Liz Lemon from 30 Rock would say, "What the what?!!"  I got up early so that I could get to the aquatic center in time for the 8 am water aerobics class and what did I find but an empty parking lot and signs in front of the building: CLOSED for maintenance.  The other parks and rec pool near us is closed for the whole season for seismic maintenance. The try-new-struff gods seem to be against me for this blog.  BUT... ha ha!  I thwarted them.  Read on for more.

I called my brother today to see if he wanted to go hang out with us at Forest Park.  (I had given him warning earlier in the week, so he knew the invite was coming.) Shockingly, he was able to meet us at 10:30 for our damp hike in the fog, ferns and muck of the trail.  We did a very quick 4-5 mile jaunt around on the Wildwood trail, with a splendid finish straight up the Trillium trail for the next to last 1/4 mile.  We invited him for a hike and lunch, but he thought I said a hike and lecture, so he regaled us with interesting information about the steamy underbelly of Hollywood, the amazing pirate stories of Talbot Mundy, and a documentary he saw about this 19 year old Filipino kid who because the lead singer of Journey. My brother is seriously fun to talk to and seriously able to talk.  I come out seemingly quiet and shy compared to him.  Believe it! Sadly, he was not able to stay for lunch, so no more stories for today.  There is always next time. 

After the hike, I went home to work on my NaNoWriMo book.  I'm almost up to 25,000 words.  That is pretty awesome since the goal is 50K+ by November 30th.  I'm totally going to make it. I'm having such a fun time.  I even inspired my writing buddy, Cousin Brent, to write a few more words today.  Turn about is fair play, since he gave me some incredibly useful tips for coming up with an idea.

The big new thing for today was getting together with my new friend Vanessa at Rock Bottom Brewery tonight to discuss setting up a UGA Alumni chapter here in Portland.  It was great meeting her, and I think we may have a plan for moving forward.  It has been a bit tricky trying to put this thing together, so having a tiny plan in place is a very good thing... better than no plan at all.  The idea is to find a local pub (like Brooklyn Park Pub) that plays SEC games and then invite all of the alums on the Portland UGA Alum Facebook page to come there and watch the game together.  Then, during commercial segments, find out if anyone is interested in having an Alumni Association.  I'm willing to be a part of the leadership team, but only if folks want an association to be a part of.  I'll let you know how it goes.

On the way home on Max (Portland's rapid transit train) a couple of cool hipster Portland chicks sang The Hearse Song. You know the one, "The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play pinochle on your snout..." It was brilliant. I laughed heartily.

Also, I had gyoza at lunch and mac and cheese at dinner.  YUM!!!!  These are things that I never once ate during my 8-week food challenge.  Ahhh, it was nice to have them today. 

Be happy and healthy!

Day 2: All Set Up

I wasn't able to get access to the aquatic center yesterday because it was closed for Veterans day, but today, I went in and got all signed up.  I didn't have time to attend a class because I had a fun afternoon planned with the lovely Margaret, her wonderful husband Glen and their very redheaded grandson, Silas. So, FINALLY, tomorrow will be the start of my new water aerobics class.  I bought 20 classes worth, so I'm feeling good about it.  I also bought a 1 month pass for lap swim and other pool use, in case I miss a class, or want to swim at some other time of day.  I found my swim suit and I'm ready to go.

We had a fun time with our awesome friends today.  We had planned to go to the Japanese gardens, but young Silas was a bit on the touchy side, so we took the Robeys over to Mt. Tabor, instead.  It was only a few miles from Silas' house, and a much easier and less expensive trip for our outing.  We played on the playground, walked to the top of the mountain, and basically had a really fun and relaxing afternoon with good friends. 

I'm not sure about a new thing today, other than joining the parks and rec center, but I do have a new recipe from yesterday to share with you. Marty found this on the internet somewhere.  It is a recipe for fried rice that is made with cauliflower instead of rice.  Brian made it and his comment was that it was easy, except that shredding cauliflower was ridiculously messy.  He was glad he used the purple cauliflower since Marty's counter tops are white and it would have been hard to see all of the white on white when it came time to clean up.  So... for Kristen S., here is a recipe.

Cauliflower Fried "Rice"
3 cups of grated raw cauliflower
1/2 cup each of peas, sliced carrots, and diced onion
3-4 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tbls olive oil
2 eggs
1-2 tbls soy sauce (the recipe calls for 3, but it was super salty - yuck)

Saute garlic and onions in olive oil for 2-3 minutes.
Add peas and carrots and cook another 4 minutes.
Stir in cauliflower, then scramble eggs and soy together then add to mix.
Cook stirring frequently for 5-7 minutes.

Feel free to add other fried rice touches such as tofu, baby bok choy, chicken, etc.  Brian and I both felt some minced fresh ginger would be a nice touch.

Tren - Dayla can use silken tofu in place of the eggs to make this completely vegan. 

That is it for today.  Be happy and healthy.

Day 1: I'm not ready to stop blogging yet

Who's up for another 8-week challenge?  Ooh ooh, pick me!!!!!

OK, this time, I'm up for 8-weeks of trying new things.  Most of these include exercising, but a few include stimulating my brain, too. 

Week one: Water aerobics and swimming.  OK, so it isn't really new, but I haven't done it since 2002 or so, right about the time that I got auto-immune hepatitis and was so very sick for such a long time.  In fact, it was during a water aerobics class that I first knew there was something wrong.  After about 15 minutes, I was badly out of breath, my face was bright red, and I could barely stand.  I was given help getting up the stairs and getting dressed and I saw the doctor the very next day.  Ugh.  That was not the most fun time of my life. 

So, getting back to now... I can't start today because I have to get an ID card from the local Parks and Rec district and show proof of residency.  I'll do that tomorrow.  In the meanwhile, I already downloaded the form and have everything I need for proof ready to go.  So look for that starting tomorrow. 

For today, I tried a new walk with the dogs this morning.  It turned out to be a little over 4 miles, and we all had a good time.  (All including me and the dogs.  Brian was still fast asleep when we were out today.)  The day is SO gorgeous, I think we'll go try another trail in Forest Park today, too.  No need to limit the new things.

Also, Marty found a recipe for a rice-less fried rice, which uses cauliflower instead of rice.  Strange, but we found a beautiful purple cauliflower at the market on Saturday, so we'll probably have that for dinner.  It will be a break from the squash lasagne, of which we still have at least 2 more meals sitting in the fridge. 

So, that is it for today.  Welcome to my new challenge.  If you have some suggestions of new things I might light to try... send them my way.

Be happy and healthy!

Day 57:Meat and Ice Cream

Yes, I did have both meat and ice cream today.  It was the first day off the challenge and I had them. 

For breakfast, I had a PB&J English muffin with a banana, then several hours later, I had a chocolate Cliff bar during our hike a Forest Park today (so that I didn't get crazy low blood sugar). So, the morning wasn't that different.

Lunch was a whole other beast.  Literally.  I had some peanut chicken soup (way too much chicken) that had a spicy peanut butter base, with a whole bunch of chicken in it.  It ate the soup, but skipped most of the chicken.  Brian ate the extra chicken. I also had  a half turkey sandwich.  Once again, way too much turkey.  It was nice having the flavors of the meat, but I found there was just too much of it on everything.

For dinner, we had more of the squash lasagne.  This time, Brian made a sauce with tomatoes, garlic, onion, red peppers and 1/4 pound of mild Italian sausage. Oh man!  That really made the lasagne work. It was no longer dry and it had a better flavor than it did without the sauce.  I'd strongly recommend it. 

Dessert was a single scoop of Bordeaux Cherry ice cream with some mini chocolate chips. Wow, it was spectacular.  I know I shouldn't get so excited about it, but it has been 7 1/2 weeks since I had any ice cream, and I LOVE ice cream.  I promise to go easy on it going forward.  Cross my heart.

Speaking of, I walked a little over 4 miles today and got all caught up on my word count for my NaNoWriMo novel in a month.  It is super fun and I'm really enjoying it. 

So that is about it.  Thanks for following this blog.  I had fun writing it and I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Be happy and healthy!

Day 56: Dinner With Satan

Of course, it is only pronounced satan, it is really spelled seitan and it is a popular meat substitute. Still, it makes an eye catching title for the last day of the challenge.

So this is it... The last day of the 8-week challenge. To celebrate this momentous occasion, I made a meatless and low cheese lasagne. It all started at the farmers market this morning when we found a baby Hubbard squash. It weighed just 4 or 5 pounds, as opposed to a full size Hubbard which can weigh upwards of 20 pounds. It is similar in flesh color and texture to butternut squash, but the hull is a light blue/turquoise color. I thought it would make a good filling for the lasagne.

I didn't have the right kind of noodles at home, so we stopped by the grocery store to grab some lasagne noodles. Just across the aisle were the meat substitutes. I have tried several versions (tempeh and tofu to name just two) but have not tried seitan yet. They had an Italian flavor, which seemed like a sign of some sort. Not really, I just want to find a way to refer to the Saturday Night Live sketch..."Could it be, hmmm, Satan?"  You know the one.

The lasagna was tasty but a bit dry. I started with the squash and added a couple of eggs and a small container of ricotta cheese (about 1 1\2 cups for a 15 serving meal), then added about 1/2 cup of almond milk to give it some moisture, but it didn't make much difference. That squash soaked up every bit of moisture and cried out for more. Sadly, I didn't hear its cries. Anyway, I layered tomato sauce and squash on the bottom layer, seitan in the middle layer, sauce and squash in the third layer, and sauce and 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese on the top. Going forward, we will serve it with spaghetti sauce to give it some moisture. It will be fine, because like I said, it tasted great. For dessert, wew had baked Mutzu apples with cinnamon and a tiny bit of Beecher's Flagship cheddar.

Other than that,  my food day was pretty great. I started off at 6 am with PB&J English muffin with a banana. At 10:30, I had a veggie crepe at the market made with spinach, creamy mushroom sauce, greens and an egg. Yum! We also had a pecan sweet potato tart from Grand Central Baking Co. that was pretty good. Finally, at 12:30, we had a Sin Dawg loaf by Dave's Killer Bread. It was this whole grain cinnamon twist thing and was really good. We split it three ways because the lasagna wouldn't be ready until after 3:00.

So, it was a pretty good end to the 8-week challenge. I'll write a day after post for tomorrow, then I think that is it for the blog.

Be happy and healthy!

Day 55: Food Cart Fun

Sorry for the delay in yesterday's post.  I had a searing headache last night, a mix between sinus issues and stress, so I went to bed without posting. 

We had the coolest experience yesterday.  While waiting for some haddock and chips at the Frying Scotsman food cart, we were approached by a fellow who asked us if the cart was any good.  We said we didn't know, but had already ordered, so we'd know soon enough.  He had a paper plate in his hand with a couple of stuffed bread looking things on it, so I asked him what he was eating.  He said it was from a Georgian (the country, not the state) food cart and offered us as much as we wanted.  I made a deal with him... we'd try his, if he'd try ours. He said that would be perfect because he was trying as much food as he could, but he felt bad about wasting it.

So we got to talking with him for awhile. It turns out that he was on a mini-vacation in Portland and was eating his way through interesting food carts, as well as Le Pigeon restaurant, which is supposed to be one of the best in Portland. He was sort of doing the Dim Sum for one plan, at multiple places.  He runs a video game studio in LA. Sadly, that is all I know about him.  I'm not great at asking others about their lives when there is food to be discussed.

The fish and chips came and we all got down to eating.  It was good.  I don't know if I'd had haddock before, but it was kind of sweet.  The coating was innocuous, but nice and crunchy.  The chips were a beautiful golden brown wedges with that crunchy on the outside, creamy on the inside texture. They also sold mushy peas, which Brian got.  We love those.  It is really a very thick pea soup, hearty, simple and delicious.

Once we were done with our shared treat, our new friend took our photo and walked off to find the next interesting cart.  We walked off to catch the Max back to the burbs.  Oh!  I forgot to tell you what we were doing downtown in the first place.  We saw The Dallas Buyers Club movie. It was excellent.  Considering it was about AIDS in the late 80's, it was surprisingly positive and, dare I say it, up lifting. It was about a straight guy who got AIDS through unprotected sex with an IV drug user, and how his friends all turned against him because he had "gay blood".  He was given 30 days to live, but he started researching drugs and finding out more about them and finally decided to import and distribute some of the drugs around the Dallas area.  Well, you can read the synopsis. Bottom line, it was well acted and well scripted.  Brian and I both enjoyed it quite a bit.  If it sounds interesting to you, go see it.  If the plot sounds awful, don't go.

As far as food, I had a bowl of cereal with sunflowers, dried strawberries, and bananas for breakfast.  Lunch was a veggie burrito.  Movie snack was a small bag of popcorn (shared with Brian - meaning I gave him a small handful - he had 2 burritos for lunch). And of course you've already heard about the fish and chips.

That is it for yesterday.  Now we're off to the farmers market.

Be happy and healthy!

Day 54: Mmmmm... Pancakes

I am hungry all the time.  This has nothing to do with the 8-week challenge, it just happens from time to time.  I have no idea what causes it, but every now and then I am constantly looking for food.  It stays for a few days or a few weeks, then everything goes back to normal.  It has been coming up for the last few days and today... bam! Total starvation.

I started the day at 6 am with a peanut butter and banana sandwich on spelt bread with pear sweetened strawberry jam.  By 10:30, my stomach was howling! Actually, it was quieter than Brian's, but he hadn't had breakfast yet, and I had. Anyway, we decided to go up to Biscuits Cafe and grab a bite to eat.  By the time we got there it was after 11, so Brian had lunch.  Not me.  I was humming my order to myself on the way up there: two eggs, two pancakes and an order of home fried red potatoes, with a glass of iced tea.  It was a rather tuneless melody, but the words were right. I know it was super high in carbohydrates, but it hit the spot perfectly.

I have to tell you about the waiter's tattoo.  He had a full sleeve on his left arm of... wait for it... dogs playing poker! It was brilliant. Not only were the dogs all there on his forearm, but the room they were playing in had two pictures on the wall.  One, of a hot French poodle stretched out seductively (or so I assume, I'm not really that into seductive French poodles).  The other picture was The Last Supper! I laughed and laughed.  I asked the waiter if his artist had giggled the entire time he was drawing it, and he said that the artist had to stop from time to time because he was laughing so much.  The artist did The Last Supper free hand! It was only 2-3 inches wide, but still, that takes some serious artistry. 

The rest of the day was less exciting than the tattoo, but not to bad.  I wrote for awhile on my NaNoWriMo project (write a novel in 30 days), then Brian and I went to a couple of local parks that we hadn't visited yet.  One of them has an aquatic center.  I'm thinking about joining it and taking some classes.  More on that later.  The other park was a small lake with a path around it. We had the dogs with us and they tried to chase the ducks that hung out on one end of it.  It was pretty funny, but we held on tight so no ducks for dinner for our canine buddies tonight.

As we left the lake, around 3:45, I was starving again.  I asked Brian what we were planning on having for dinner and he said he wasn't hungry.  Then he looked incredulously at me and asked, "Are you?" Like it was impossible for me to be hungry again almost 5 hours after we last ate.  Really??!!

When we got home, Marty was leaving to go watch the opera, Salome. It is an excellent opera.  We saw it a few years ago in Seattle.  We wished Marty a good time, telling her to enjoy the naked dancing and the head on a platter. She promised that she would.  It was a marvelous exit line.

For dinner, we had Trader Joe's veggie burritos.  They are one of my favorite frozen foods from TJ's; nicely spiced and surprisingly filling for such a small item.  Of course, my crazy hunger continued to rear its ugly head, so I made the rest of the Cougar Mountain chocolate chunk peanut butter cookies and had another scoop of chocolate sorbet. All told, between pancakes and cookies, this was not the best food day ever.

While eating dessert, we watched a British romantic comedy from a couple of years ago called Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. It is a smart and funny film that we saw when it first came out in the theaters.  The cast is excellent with an especially brilliant role by Kristin Scott Thomas.  If you get a chance, you should watch it. I give it two enthusiastic thumbs up.

Earlier I promised to talk a little more about the idea of joining the aquatic center.  Well, with this challenge winding down, I'm feeling like I'll want something else to challenge me for awhile.  Part of it is to keep the energy and focus going from this challenge, and part of it is to get myself to try new things.  I'm really enjoying having a blog.  As my sister said, it forces you to have a bit of accountability.  She is mighty insightful. (Yeah, she also gently teased me about my use (overuse) of the word "mighty".) So, my goal over the next 8 weeks is to try something new each week.  Some things I have in mind so far are: water aerobics, yoga, and guitar lessons.  I'm not sure what the other 5 weeks will be.  Hopefully, employment might be one of them.

That is all for today.  Be happy and healthy!

Day 53: A Couple of Really Dirty Dogs

Today was a dull food day.  I'll rush through that and get to the more interesting part of the day. Breakfast: A slice of banana chocolate chip bread and a slice of chocolate/chocolate chip banana bread.  Both loaves were short, as I made gift loaves from the batch, so the slices were small. Lunch: A bean burrito and some home fried potatoes at Taco Bell.  Snack: Hummus and chips and some sesame sticks. Dinner: Romanesco, sweet potato, a slice of Italian bread and a peanut butter, chocolate chunk cookie.  Now to the good part.

The day started with the writing of a very long blog that should have been written yesterday.  Sorry it was so long, but it was loads of fun to write.  I hope you enjoyed reading it.  If you haven't, take a minute to read Day 52 because it was pretty entertaining, if I do say so myself. The pictures below go with yesterday's blog. After the blog update, I read for awhile in the new Percy Jackson book. I'm sure I'm late in saying this, but the books are getting to be really formulaic, so not as exciting as they first were.  Still, every now and then Rock Riorden tosses something fun in, so it is worth it to me to keep reading the series. We did laundry while we read.

Around 11:00, I realized that I needed some big exercise.  It had been several days since I felt like I had worked my lungs and muscles, so it was time to get out and do something about it.  Brian and I went to the same place we walked yesterday, but this time we went twice as far in a little less time.  So we kicked it pretty good and still enjoyed the scenery.  I've attached some photos this time to show what I tried to describe in words yesterday.

Shelf mushroom around a dead log.

Mushroom families seemingly waiting around for a parade to start.

Fern and moss growing on a live tree.

Moss covered branches.  You can see how thin the branch is compared to the moss covering.

The colors of the Northwest. So beautiful. So rainy. So foggy.

This place is really beautiful.  If you look closely, you can see how very wet and muddy the trail is.  It rained the entire time we were out walking today, and the dogs were filthy!  We decided to take them to a do-it-yourself-dog-wash to clean them up a bit before taking them home. All I have to say is that I got my full body workout trying to get Katy clean.

That dog did NOT want to have a bath.  She usually gets a bath no more than 1-2 times per year because her skin just gushes oil if you wash her more often, but this was a necessity. Her feet, legs and belly were caked with black mud and dirt.  Buckley was even wetter and dirtier than Katy, if that is possible, but he is only 30 pounds, so we can push him around if need be.  But Katy is passive aggressive and will sit down or lean hard against the side of the tub rather than get washed. Headstrong, obstinate girl!

That is about it for our day.  I now have to get started on my word count for the novel today.  Wish me luck!

Be happy and healthy!

Day 52: Chilly Rainforest and Hot Noodles

Sorry I'm a day late with this post.  I simply forgot about writing my blog.  How is that possible?  Well, sit back and listen (or at least read) and you'll learn why.

It was the perfect Northwest day.  The clouds were hanging heavy in the sky and light rain broke through from time to time.  I had about 60 pages left in the book I was reading (for those who are interested, it was The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, I thought it was OK, not as great as the acclaim it received) and I wanted to get through it and on to other things. So I fed the dogs, made myself a cup of tea and a slice of banana bread, turned on the gas fireplace and sat down to finish the book. Which I did. 

Sixty pages usually doesn't take me very long to zip through, but this book has a plodding sort of pace so it took me a couple of hours to work my way through it.  It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't really go out of my way to recommend it to anyone.  If you like books about Nazi Germany told from the point of view of Death, about a little girl, her foster family and what happens to them, you'll love this book.  My friend Lauren told me that she gave up on it after 10 pages because it never captured her interest.  I had the same struggle but worked my way on through.  They are making a movie out of it and I have hopes for the film.  It is a good story, but the telling was a bit annoying, in my opinion. Obviously, others love this book, because I've found it on several "must read before you die" lists.  Hopefully, the fact that I've now read it doesn't mean I have to die now... I'm not ready and there are still loads of books on those lists that I haven't read yet.

After finishing the book, I needed to get outside and move around.  We all decided to pop over to Forest Park to wander on the Leif Erikson trail.  I told you about this trail before.  It was built as a road back in 1902 or so, for home development through the hills of Portland.  When the hills kept having landslides, the road was given up and eventually the area became a park.  It was beyond lovely in all the rain. 

The colors were a lush and verdant green (ferns, cedars and moss), a pale yellow (maple leaves still hanging on the trees), a gun metal grey (the sky), a greyish white (fog hanging up in the branches at the top of the ravine), and deep blacks and browns (dead leaves, rocks, tree trunks, mushrooms, stumps).  Everything was wet and drippy and so beautiful.  There were whole trees enrobed in a thick bright green moss.  Branches that were an inch or two in diameter became 6-8" around with moss.  Dead trees on the ground were decorated by whole families of mushrooms, sitting merrily on the logs like spectators at a parade. We passed one stump that had huge shelf mushrooms poking out on either side, like it was trying to make a seat for three, instead of just one.  The shelf mushroom was towards the end of its life and instead of being soft, white and fleshy, it was hard and brown with just the edges showing signs of their previous color.

We all wore our best Gortex rain armor to stay warm and dry despite the soggy, 50 degree weather. It was an easy three miles out and back, although small Buckley made it somewhat more difficult, since he wanted to pull, pull, pull all over the trail to pick up whatever scents he could find.  He also did what every little boy in the world does and stomped through every mud puddle he could find.  He was soaked and muddy when we returned to the car, and oh so proud of himself! Katy was a princess and kept her paws as clean as possible, which is still mighty dirty, but she has a whole lot of fur, so it wasn't her fault.

Since we were taking it nice and easy, I never really warmed up and by the time we got back to the car, I was a bit chilled.  That got me to thinking about udon.  Mmmmm, udon. Soup delivered to your table so hot you can't possibly eat it.  Soup filled with thick noodles, vegetables and seaweed.  Soup a little on the salty side and oh so flavorful.  Soup of the evening, beautiful soup! (Of course that last line is from the Mock Turtle song from Alice in Wonderland, or Through the Looking Glass, I can't remember which.)

Guess what we had for lunch?  We went home to drop off the dogs and the rain gear, then quickly went to lunch.  I warmed my still chilly hands around a mug of green tea while waiting for the California Roll and the vegetable udon. Finally they came and were every bit as good as my fantasy had made them on the walk. Marty had tempura udon and Brian had Nabeyaki udon, so we were all happy. By the time lunch was over (Thanks for buying lunch, Marty!  It was wonderful.) I was so sleepy I could barely hold my eyes open. 

When we got home, I made a valiant effort to keep my eyes open, but to no avail.  I slept soundly, despite the hammering and construction sounds from the neighborhood being built right outside my window.  When I woke up, it was 90 minutes later and I had missed seeing the movie I had planned to see that afternoon.  No big.

I came downstairs and called my mom, then realized that I hadn't written a single word in my National Novel Writing Month novel, and that I had to write at least 2000 words before going to bed.  I was still behind from not writing at all on Saturday, and couldn't afford to get behind again.  Three hours later, I looked up and realized that I was hungry. Good news, though, I wrote 3000 words, so I'm almost back in track.

We were out of bread, so Brian and I went to the grocery store.  Here is where the not so good news comes in.  Not only did we get bread, I also got some chocolate sorbet and some Cougar Mountain cookie dough (chocolate chunk/peanut butter).  I think that my body tells me that I need to balance salt with sugar.  I've noticed that over the years, but never really put it together until right now.  Every time I eat a really salty meal, I crave sugar for the rest of the day.  I wonder if that is just a Linda (me) thing, or if there is some body chemistry that makes that craving happen.  All I know is that it happens to me. 

I gave into the craving, but exercised a modicum of self control by having a single scoop of sorbet and two cookies.  I had those after my peanut butter and muscadine jam sandwich (I know, I know... more sugar... at least the peanut butter is made with only peanuts and salt, and we made the muscadine jam ourselves). While we ate that stuff, we watched the second half of the movie we started the night before (Can Can with Shirley McLaine, Frank Sinatra and Maurice Chevalier).  It was OK, but the girl got the bad guy in the end, rather than getting the good guy. That part was annoying, but it was made in 1960, so I suppose it was of its time. Still, it was fun to watch and the dancing (by Hermes Pan) was pretty inventive. Turns out that Hermes (born Panagiotopoulos) was a life long collaborator with Fred Astaire. Interesting facts from the internet.  Anyway, that movie was over around 9:00 pm, so I went upstairs to brush, floss and go to bed. 

It was a full day by all accounts. It wasn't until I got into bed that I remembered that I hadn't written my blog for the day.  Perhaps you can forgive me for not getting up and writing it right then.

Be happy and healthy!

Day 51: A Very Busy Day

I've been going non-stop all day.  Of course, much of that time was spent on my butt while working on the computer, but it is still work, nonetheless.

I started the day when the dull grey light came in my window at 6:15 this morning.  That is the one benefit of Daylight Savings Time: early light. I got up, fed the dogs, fed myself (cereal) and started the dreaded Monday morning job hunt.  Two hours later, I was a bit discouraged as there was not much out there that I was interested in.  Tomorrow is another day.

We had a bunch of bananas that were perfect for banana bread, so I made some chocolate/chocolate chip banana bread.  I threw out the gross pumpkin bread from last week.  It needed something in it that wasn't there.  Perhaps some clove or something else with a bit of kick to it. Who knows.  It is gone now.

While the bread was cooking, I washed and trimmed some kale.  Once the bread was done, I made kale chips. While the kale chips were cooking, I made salad with roasted vegetables for lunch.  After lunch, I cleaned up the whole kitchen which was a bit of a mess from all of the cooking and food prep. Then, a quick trip to Trader Joe's for more cereal, more bananas, some hummus and a couple of other things. By the time we got home, the dogs were climbing the walls because they hadn't had a walk yet, so we took them for a 3+ mile walk around the neighborhood. After drying the rather damp dogs, I popped into the kitchen to make a pizza for dinner, then called my mom while that was cooking.  I fed the dogs, fed us, then collapsed on the couch to continue working on my novel for National Novel Writing Month (by the way, I had worked on it for an hour and a half earlier in the day - I forgot to mention it).  Now, I've done all I want to do on that for the day and I'm updating the blog, then watching a movie. BUSY!!!

The pizza deserves some mention.  It was half pesto and half marinara.  The pesto half had cherry tomatoes, corn, onions, sweet peppers and kale.  The marinara half had everything but the tomatoes.  I put about 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese on top of everything and tossed it in the oven for 15 minutes at 450 degrees.  It was delicious and nutritious.  Since we each had a slice of each flavor, I kept going back and forth because I couldn't decide which one I liked most.  It was all good.  

Ooh, I forgot to mention the dessert I made for dinner tonight.  I melted down some extra dark chocolate chips and put a spoonful in the bottom of a small cupcake paper cup.  I then put about 1/4 teaspoon of pecan butter on top of that, then covered the pecan butter with another spoonful of chocolate, then popped them into the fridge to set.  The result: amazingly delicious pecan butter cups.  I'd recommend these to anyone.  We got the pecan butter at the farmers market a couple of weeks ago. Sally, you were with us that day and you may recognize the recipe.

So that is about it for today.   Oh, we had hummus and chips before taking the dogs for a walk.  Wow, I'm badly out of order tonight.  Oh well. 

Be happy and healthy!

Day 50: The Beginning of the End

Today is the first day of the last week of the 8-week challenge.  It is a strange feeling to realize that by this time next Sunday, I'll be done with the challenge.  What does that mean to me?  Well, I won't simply revert back to my poor food choices of the prior year.  I've really enjoyed the vegetarian (mostly vegan) foods I've made over the past two months.  It has been fun balancing the colors and properties of vegetables so that I'm getting all of the nutrients I need while eating a whole foods, plant based diet: beans and rice make a complete protein, there is a ton of calcium in dark green leafy vegetables, and all of the minerals and antioxidants in colorful foods, just to name a few. 

Over these 8-weeks, I've worked to eliminate all meat, dairy and processed sugar from my diet.  I was very successful with meat: other than a corn dog and some chicken at the fair in the 1st week, and a tiny bit of chicken at the Indian restaurant the other day when I was trying to get a taste of the sauce - I have had no meat at all for 7 weeks.  I was completely successful with removing milk (usually whole milk) in the form of cereal, drinking, and hot chocolate. I was very successful at reducing sugar from my day to day consumption, although I did have a couple of cookies and some chocolate, and one amazing piece of birthday cake.  Cheese was the hardest hurdle to overcome, and I finally decided that I wasn't willing to get rid of it entirely for 8-weeks, and certainly not for the rest of my life.  However, I've greatly reduced the volume of cheese to less than 3 ounces in a week.  Since I could easily eat 3+ ounces with crackers and an apple as a midday snack, not to mention what I could have at every other meal that day, I'll count that as pretty successful as well. 

So, as I move into week 8, I'm starting to really think about the future. How do I want to eat after the challenge is over?  As a rule, I plan on eating much as I do now.  I'll add back some limited amounts of cheese and dairy for cooking (cornbread without milk and butter is a terrible waste of cornmeal), and carefully add a couple of sweets back in.  Portion size is a key learning where sweets are concerned - the smallest size works just as well as the largest size when it comes to cake, cookies and ice-cream.  Often a taste is plenty.  But I do want the taste - and I don't want to completely skip dessert when having dessert is more appropriate (birthday celebration, for example). So that is my thinking today.  Be aware, I have the prerogative to change my mind, if I so desire.  

Today was a pretty good food day.  I had a slice of the pumpkin bread (it really isn't very good - the more I have, the worse it gets) and a bowl of cereal for breakfast.  After a short, post-breakfast nap, we took the dogs for a slippery and muddy walk in Forest Park.  We tried to make the walk easy by staying on the main trails.  The thing is, the biggest trail runs mostly along the bottom of the ravine.  Our trail head was at the very tip top of the mountain.  Our trip down was steep and slick.  Our trip up was pulse raising, sweat inducing, heat making, and crazy steep and slick. For a lazy day, it may not have been the best choice of hike. Oops.

We were starving after our hike, so we got burritos from Taco Del Mar.  Mine was vegan with pinto beans, rice, lettuce and guacamole. Brian had a fish burrito. We took those home and watched yesterday's UGA/FSU game, which I think is the oldest rivalry in football, which we had missed while hanging out in Seattle.  It was a good, yet frustrating game.  Happily, my alma mater won the day (yesterday), which means they are still in the running for the SEC championships.  We thought for sure they'd be out after their last game, but it was one of those times when everybody lost a game, so lots of folks still have a shot. We celebrated with 4 chocolate covered almonds.

Dinner was the left over roasted veggies cooked in broth to make a savory, delicious soup.  Prep time was about 10 minutes.  In other words, just long enough for the broth to melt (it was in the freezer) and the veggies to warm up.  Easy peasy!

That is about it for food.  I had about four 24 ounce glasses of tea (roiboos, green and peppermint - at different times) and a bunch of water on the trail.  All in all, it was a good day.

Be happy and healthy!

Day 49: Happy Birthday, Kate!!!!

We had such a fun day today. Our wonderful friend Kate, had her 45th birthday today (now Brian is the only one left under 45 - a quick side note, Ben and Brian were college roommates and Ben and Kate have been together since college, so we've known them forever and love them ever so much!) and we went up to Issaquah, WA to help her celebrate with lunch at the Issaquah Brew Pub.  We left our house at 8:00 this morning and arrived at their house at 11:15.  All of us were starving, so we left immediately for Rogue and lunch.  Rogue breweries are great at birthday celebrations.  They give birthday folks (who are part of their RogueNation.com program) a free double tankard of beer and a free piece of swag (t-shirt or cap).  On top of that, the food is really tasty, so it is a great place to celebrate a birthday with friends.

We started with some tater tots and Irish nachos.  The nachos were fried spiced potato slices, topped with chopped corned beef, cheese and a horseradish sour cream.  As you can imagine, I stuck with the tots and skipped the nachos, although I did have a couple of the potato slices without any of the topping.  I had halibut and onion rings as my main dish. The halibut was dipped in a dill-beer batter and had a terrific flavor.  The onion rings were crisp and completely not greasy. And, of course, we had to have some beer-cheese soup. Brian and I split a cup, so there was some cheese consumed (very little), but man, it was delicious!

After lunch, we popped across the street to the library where a huge book sale was in progress. We browsed through the books for awhile and each of us bought a few.  At a dollar or less per book, it was a great deal. We even bought a bag to carry everything in.  All proceeds went to the Issaquah library, which is an excellent cause.

We went back up to Ben, Kate and Lauren's house after the book sale to hang out for a little longer before letting them get on with their day.  We got to see their 14 year old German Short-haired Pointer, Scooby, who we've known since the day they got him.  He is so old and frail now, it was hard to see, but he seemed to remember us and we were so happy to see him again.  We played with their two other dogs as well: Walker, a Treeing Walker Coon Hound, and Viktor, a little hound of a type unknown to me, other than being some kind of a dachshund mix.  Walker had been abused before our friends adopted him, and it was wonderful to see how comfortable he is around people now.  I think we left the area about a year after Ben, Kate and Lauren adopted him.  Viktor was even newer.  I had only met him a couple of times before we moved to Columbus.  After so many years away, it is so nice to be able to share celebrations again, even if we have to drive 3+ hours each way to do so.  Happy Birthday, Kate!

When we left their house, we went over to the other side of Issaquah for a lovely visit with Lovely Margaret and her family.  We finally got a chance to see her husband, the Wonderful Glen and their daughter, the Lovely Shannis (along with her two adorable kids), as well as Glen's sister and Margaret's mom.  Their family is so loving and warm, it is great to be a part of it once again!  Their new place is spectacular and fits them to a T.  We only stayed for about an hour or so, but since we thought they were going to be in Portland while we were in Issaquah, it was a very pleasant surprise.

Finally, we spent the rest of the afternoon with my wireless buddy, Toby.  She and I both worked for Verizon Wireless for many years together and we've been Facebook buddies since then.  Toby, aside from being quite lovely, has a great sense of humor and is extraordinarily kind.  I haven't seen her since 2006. We used to cross each others' path at Robinswood park, not far from my house and work in Bellevue.  Since I met Toby, I always thought that she lived between my house and work (only 1 and 1/2 miles from each other) because we saw her at that park so frequently.  It turns out that she lives, and has lived for lots of years, about 10 miles from there in the next town over.  Who knew?? Well, Toby and her husband of 55 years, Ron, did.

Toby greeted us at the door and ushered us in for some much needed tea, coffee and pastries.  I had peppermint tea (mmmm) and Brian had coffee.  The pastries were from Whole Foods and were kind of like English muffins, only shaped more like pancakes.  They were made with wheat flour and had either orange cranberry or cinnamon raison flavors.  Toby labored over the ingredient lists in the grocery store until she found something that fit within my challenge requirements.  What a sweetheart! All I can say is that 5:30 came much too early and we needed to leave. 

We were so rich in friends today.  One of the great benefits of getting older is having long term friendships with great memories and great futures.  Today was filled with both.  Oh, how lucky we are!

Our drive home was pretty easy, with a quick pit stop at Panera Bread for dinner.  I had tomato soup and a baguette, while Brian had a bagel.  We shared a chocolate chip cookie.  The gal who took our order made an error and had to start over, but it caused us no inconvenience.  It didn't matter to her - she still gave us our drinks for free.  It was completely unnecessary and oh so nice.  That kind of service (and the tomato soup) is why I keep going back.  That, and because it is fast food that is much healthier than most of the other fast food choices on the road out there.

We got home about 9:30 (past my bedtime, especially since I woke up at 3 am today) and now it is 10:30.  I've got to get some sleep. 

Be happy and healthy!

Day 48: Another Lovely Day

Today was a good day, in part because I had two breakfasts. How very hobbit-like of me. When I got up at 6:30, I had the last slice of the chocolate/chocolate chip banana bread. As we got ready to go for a hike at 10:30, I realized I was hungry again and I had a bowl of cereal. Second breakfasts are fabulous! In this case, first breakfast was pretty darned tasty as well.

Our hike was back out at Forest Park. When we left, it was 53 degrees and overcast... perfect hiking weather, if you ask me. We did a little over three miles of beautiful woodland trails. The terrain is pretty steep, but the Wildwood trail cuts across the sides of very steep ravines, so the scenery is always spectacular while the trail stays pretty easy. We ended today's hike with 1/4 mile straight uphill on the Trillium trail. I was sweating up a storm once we reached the top, but otherwise, all was fine. The sun came up as we were hiking the steepest part, and the day went from beautiful to spectacular. Have I mentioned lately how much I love living in Portland? It is kind of like paradise to me.

For our post-hike lunch, we decided to go to Swagath Indian Restaurant for a feast. Yum! The pakora was on the cold side, but everything else was terrific. I had some saag (spinach), some beautifully spiced Aloo Gobi (cauliflower and potato), daal (lentils), and a couple of curry dishes. I think my favorite was diced carrots with yellow lentils and cardamom. It was a touch sweet from the carrots, and very nicely spiced. I had a little dessert: a combination of mango and rice puddings. The mango was delicious. I know I had a little dairy and a little meat in today's lunch, but I worked hard to keep those at a minimum. The goat curry, for example, was amazing but I tried to eat just the curry and skip the goat. Of course, that really isn't much of a hardship on my part. I tend to find goat to be tough and stringy, even when cooked well.

I'm not sure we'll be eating dinner tonight. Lunch was late and I'm not hungry now. If I do eat, it may be an apple with peanut butter. I've been thinking about that for awhile.

It is already dark and the time change hasn't even happened yet. Ugh, I can only imagine how dark it will be Sunday afternoon at 5. At least we'll have a little earlier light in the morning, but that will go fast until the solstice. We're entering into the dark months. Prepare! Prepare! Oh... Sorry! I got a little melodramatic there. Please forgive me.

I think that is it for today. We're about to pop Bernie (the excellent and funny movie with Jack Black and Shirley McClaine, not some poor fellow named Bernie) into the DVD player and laugh a whole bunch. Tomorrow, we're off to Seattle to celebrate our fabulous friend Kate's birthday.  With luck, we'll see the gorgeous Toby while we're there. Hooray!

Be happy and healthy!