Woot!

Three (3!) Things Thursday!

1. As I may have mentioned, I am currently working on my Capstone project for my Master’s degree. I am in the preparation phases currently, and am doing a lot of initial reference searches. Last night, I was searching for information GIS and food security. 99.9% of the results were either for food security, GIS, or, in rare but exciting occasions, both! However, the second search result in one of my searches was an abstract on Elizabethan attitudes towards menstruation and sexual fantasy. Not quite what I was expecting!

2. I went swimming again last night, after taking last week off. My swimming partner is fantastic. When I told her I was quitting, she convinced me to do 3 more laps, just to get close to my original goal. She was absolutely right – I was just nervous because we were circle swimming and the guy breast-stroking in the next lane over had some leg control issues and kicked me twice (NEXT LANE OVER!). I get all tense when I have to share a lane with that many people, especially since even before I got knocked up, I was usually one of the slower swimmers (unless I was there during senior citizen swim, and then I could count on being faster than 1 or 2 people). Today? My shoulders are SORE! Not sure how that happened! I swam fewer laps and for a little less time than 2 weeks ago, and I wasn’t sore then. Maybe it was the 500 yards of pulling? Anyways – LOVE IT!

3. Hasn’t it been beautiful these past few days? I love fall like this. Cool and crisp and gorgeous. I got to see the sunrise by Mt. Hood yesterday morning as I was getting to work, and right now the sun is shining through all the golden leaves outside. BEAUTIMOUS!

Gratitude Journal

November 10, 2011: I am grateful to live in Portland, Oregon. It is so beautiful here. I love that we have four seasons, and I especially love autumn. (Of course, if you ask me in a few months, I will definitely cite spring as my favorite season – the SADs haven’t gotten me yet!)

November 9, 2011: I am grateful for modern medical conveniences that help eliminate unnecessary surprises from my life. Yay for ultrasounds!

November 8, 2011: I am grateful for my brand-new employee who started today, who I am hoping will help take some of the financial reporting burden off my plate & allow me to do a better job on the more big-picture things.

November 7, 2011: I am grateful for weekends and the opportunity to relax and recharge.

November 6, 2011: I am grateful for running – and grateful that I am still able to run. I am also grateful for my proximity to the most awesome running park in the history of the world: Forest Park.

November 5, 2011: I am grateful that I was able to discover enough courage to join Toastmasters. I know this sounds super cheesy, but it’s really made a HUGE difference in my life.

November 4, 2011: I am grateful for the internet, which gives me the ability to work from home, in my pajamas, this morning.

November 3, 2011: I am grateful that I have a good job that is challenging & interesting, if not necessarily catering to my life interests.

November 2, 2011: I am grateful for the architect, who is simply wonderful. He picks up the household slack when I’m busy with schoolwork, brings me chicken fingers on his way home from work, and is simply the most wonderful husband I could ask for…

November 1, 2011: I am grateful for my (so far, knock on wood) easy and wonderful pregnancy

Photo Essay Monday

Oct 24th, 2011

by gazelle.

2 comments

Not too much of a photo essay for this last weekend. Nothing I did was particularly photo-worthy.

Friday, I ended up at work for waaaaaaaaay too long (especially since it was my day off). The rest of the day was spent finalizing my final paper for my very last regular course for graduate school. All done! (And, I got an A in that class! Go, me!)

Saturday was kind of a lazy day. The kind of day I thought I deserved after finishing 19 courses in just over 2 years and getting to within 17 weeks of qualifying for my Master’s Degree. I mean, I took a cat to the vet (at 8 AM!) and had a movement therapy appointment (my SI area is killing me), and then I lazed the rest of the day.

The architect, however, did not have a lazy day. Instead, he finished tiling the shower area & grouted 80% of the same area (the other 20% needs to wait for a week, since that was the part he’d finished tiling that same day):

This photo makes it look really orange, which is weird. BUT – it’s not. The tiles are white with black grout.

Sunday was a bit busier….eventually. I did some last minute Halloween shopping. Apparently the week before Halloween is not an ideal time to do that, as most of the stores had mostly switched over to Christmas decorations. I did get some good stuff, though. I am, however, still sans costume. The pregnancy costumes are all for people who are really pregnant. Painting my belly at this point would look stupid, and I’m not pregnant enough to pull of pregnant nun. I tried on some plus-sized stuff, but that was all too big, and the regular sized costumes don’t fit in the boobs and are super tight across the mid-section. I think I’m pretty much decided to go as this:

three gold stars if you get the reference

I am super excited to get all my decorations up and have an awesomely spooktacular party this weekend, though!

After getting through all that stuff (and picking up another pair of sweet maternity jeans), I decided I needed some healthy snacks. I have been loving bran muffins lately, and spending $2/muffin (they are humungous) from the hospital coffee shops at least once/week. I thought I could probably make my own for much less than that. And so I did. And, because the architect hates bran muffins, I made him some blueberry muffins.

(There were a dozen of each – this photo was after I put most in the freezer for safe keeping.)

And now – back at work. I was looking forward to a week off school, but our syllabus for the Capstone project was released today, and I think that although school doesn’t technically start until next Monday, it would be in my best interest to only be on half-vacation this week. In addition, Thursday I start my weekly Leadership Foundation course (it runs through 12/15) that I was nominated to attend through work, so I’ll be in the office one less day, which means more work on the days that I am in……oh well – the price of success or something, right?

Happy week!

Three (3!) Things Thursday!

Oct 6th, 2011

by gazelle.

8 comments

1. Have I told you how much I love fall? Because I do. I love the cool overnights, and the changing leaves, and the peeks of sunlight, and the fog. I need to get a picture of the view I have every morning on my drive to work, but unfortunately, it’s hard to take good photos while I’m driving. However, I stole this photo from the internet, and it’s pretty damn close (except that I am typically driving OVER the bridge and not floating around underneath it).

2. I also love soup. All soups. And this time of year, when it’s time to curl up under blankets and sip cocoa and cider, I want to have soup every day. However, I hate soup from a can, and am too lazy to make soup from scratch every day. I need to find some excellent recipes that can be canned so that I can make pints and pints of soup. Doesn’t this look amazing?

3. Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my Damian-ectomy. To celebrate, I wore a pair of high heeled boots for the first time in way over a year. For an entire day. And there was walking! And I didn’t want to amputate at the end of the day.

October 2011 Goals (PLUS! Exciting dinner party pictures!)

Oct 3rd, 2011

by gazelle.

8 comments

Um, holy crap you guys! I totally forgot to post my goals on 10/1/11! In my defense, 9/30/11 was a really long day, and I spent most of Saturday recovering. With baklava. As you do.

ANYWAYS – let’s talk about the plan for October! And look back on September!

September Goals

Can tomatoes…salsa, marinara, ketchup, whatever – just can it! – half SUCCESS! I canned lots of marinara and salsa, but there are still so many tomatoes left. There is work to be done this weekend, people.
PICKLES! My cucumbers, once again, sucked, so I will be hitting up a farmer’s market and buying as many cukes as I can carry for dill pickles and bread & butter pickles. I’ve already done beet pickles & pickled asparagus this year. – FAIL! I actually completely forgot about this. I should probably make some pickles, but only if I have time. I’ve been busy.
Finish the bathroom before my in-laws arrive! It would be awesome to have a second usable bathroom as well as a usable guest room by the time they get here. – 3/4 SUCCESS! The toilet & the sink were all hooked up. The floors were done! It is good. We still have to finish tiling the tub/shower area, add in the built-in shelves, and paint, but it’s getting there! And, the important bits are usable. Oooh – and! the bathroom is now street legal! The inspector came Friday morning & passed us! YAY!
Fancy dinner party. It is on my life list, and I am excited to host a few friends for my first fancy dinner party. I have invitations to go out this weekend. I am finalizing the menu. I wish I could invite everyone I know, but unfortunately, I don’t have enough room for that many people! – SUCCESS! My fancy dinner party was Friday night, and it was so much fun. We did a Greek menu, and most of my plates even matched. The food was good, and I think a good time was had by all.
Mother-effing pirate festival. Every year, I say I’m going to go, and every year, I don’t. I can walk there! The only year I actually did go was 2007 – and it was the day after the architect had surgery. He insisted he wanted to go, so we drove. And parked about 1/2 mile away (and 1/2 mile away from our house). We got there, walked around a bit, and then he felt crappy, so I went and fetched the car & picked him up at the gate. Not the best time, really. The next year it rained. I don’t remember my excuse for 2009, but last year, I just flat out forgot. Not this time, bitches! I am going to the pirate festival, and you can’t stop me! YARGHHHHHHHHHHH! (Ummm, I just went to the site to get the link, and it’s MOVED! I can no longer walk there! WTF, Pirate Festival?! Is this because I never attend? WHYYYYY??????) (AND, it’s Labor Day weekend! When I will be laboring! I do not want to drive to St. Helens for my piratey goodness!) (Also, I really wish the interrobang was a symbol on my keyboard.) – I hate you stupid Pirate Festival that isn’t down the street from my house anymore. BOOO!
Since I just maybe deleted my goal #5, I decided I should probably add a real goal #5. Okay, then….this is harder than I thought. I was so set on the pirate festival. Oooh – I know! I will fall-clean and organize my kitchen! I was thinking I was going to anyways, due to the how-to guide posted by Cat, but now I have to! (And I really, really need to…the house cleaner is good at making my house look clean, but she hasn’t looked in the fridge or taken the initiative to organize my pantry & cupboards…I have a LOT of kitchen gadgets, and should probably determine which are necessary and which can go.) – ha ha ha ha ha ha! FAIL! ha ha ha.
Oh, wait! I just thought of another! I need to plan the next 12 months of the gardening enterprise and get some fall crops in the ground! – half SUCCESS! I have a lot of the initial plans done, and if there’s a break in the weather this weekend, I will pull out the remainder of the summer crops, get the garlic & onions in the ground, and plant some fall/winter greens.

September Training Goals

So – keep up with the exercise & training, and also CORE! – SUCCESS! All things considered, anyways.

October 2011 Goals

Finish the bathroom by 10/29/11. We can do it! All supplies are purchased! I can paint like a mad woman! And make sandwiches for the architect while he tiles. (I am not allowed to tile due to my propensity to say, “eh, fuck it! That’s good enough!”) I am excellent construction support staff.
Get the rain garden outlined, dug, and partially planted.
Finish summer garden/start fall garden.
Remove all extraneous computer crap from the house. Like the printer that doesn’t work. And the CRT monitor that weighs 375 lbs. And the 50 (approximate count) PCs (both laptop & desktop) that are just sitting around doing nothing. NOTHING! Except gathering dust.
Finish my very last class of my Master’s program with an “A” before starting the final project phase.
Throw the ass-kicking-est 2nd Annual Halloween bash ever! YAY for Halloween! We will have a howling good time!

October Training Goals

I have them! My gym membership expires this month, and I will not be renewing it. So, I want to spend more time outdoors. Running, jumping, biking, hiking, etc. I have been slacking on yoga lately, too, and need to make that a regular practice again.

And, because I had such a great time at the fancy dinner party, here are some photos! Although, not of the food, really. Which makes me sad. I should’ve at least taken a picture of the baklava!

My place settings don’t all match, but there is, at least, a theme.

One place setting; you can’t see the black salad plate underneath, but it’s there! Also, check out my fancy silver (plated) flatware! Ooooh!

The hors d’oeuvres table: falafel, various hummuses, a bunch of goat and sheep cheeses, some awesome olives, and a quince spread (so good on cheese); with pita, of course!

The architect in his finery

The architect in all his finery – isn’t he handsome? (That suit was last year’s xmas present from yours truly…)

Zach & Jen – we have such good looking friends!

Sarah & Michael – enjoying a pre-dinner lemon drop.

The Ambitious One & Mr. Pi (apparently they don’t get real names); with Lola in the background!

Dinner – salad course at this point! Pre-salad was the avgolemono soup (so good), and post Greek salad, was the main course(s): moussaka, spanakopita, and dolmas with an avgolemono sauce.

Post dinner wine and dessert: baklava (that 9×13 pan of baklava apparently has a street value of about $60) and more cheese! Please note our exciting ceiling art installation! It’s a commentary on the modern conveniences of life that are often ignored in polite society. Or possibly, it’s where we had to cut into the ceiling to move the plumbing for the upstairs bathroom.

ANYWAYS! Dinner party done! And another item checked off my life list! YAY!

Houston, we have flushing!

Sep 23rd, 2011

by gazelle.

6 comments

This morning, like a kid on Christmas who believes in Santa, I waited for the plumber. He arrived 10 minutes late. (I later heard him call in to his plumbing company to confirm arrival and he said that although he forgot to call in right away, he was on time.)

I worked away in my home office, just a few feet away from the bathroom. Periodically, I would go downstairs to turn on the water for him & listen for yelling that would indicate something wasn’t hooked up right.

Three hours later, I heard the toilet flush.

A couple minutes after that, the plumber said, “I’m just going to go ahead & use the bathroom. I notice there’s no door, so don’t peek, okay?”

Confused and a bit aghast, I said, “Okay?”

And then, he inaugurated the toilet. Just feet away from me. With no door.

Is that weird? It seemed weird to me.

ANYWAYS – the bathroom is far from done – we still need to put in the shelves, finish painting, and tile the shower/tub region, but now we have a working toilet & sink. YAY!