More places to sit

Sandi and I took inventory of our places to sit and found it wanting.  It's fine for the two of us but if we want to entertain we need to spread out a little. 

We measured and debated and moved furniture around.  We decided against another full sized couch for two reasons: First we weren't thrilled with the 'we-have-a-place-to-live-but-no-furniture-so-let's-get-all-our-parent's-used-couches' look; and second, our family room isn't quiet as big as we thought.

A love seat seemed like a good idea.  So we went shopping and found this:

 

 

It's a little different than our brown couch and we like the contrast.  It goes with our walls.

 

It even goes with our Christmas tree

 

 

Next time you visit, you'll have a place to sit.



 

Oh! Christmast tree....

Sandi and I one light strand for our tree.  When I first plugged it in, it kind of didn't work.  I shook it and then it kind of worked. Good enough!  We'll put the light strand on and get more lights during the after Christmas sales. 

Within a few days the lights stopped worked.  I was more bummed than surprised.

 

I carefully removed the lights and then looked online for LED lights.  Fred Myer came through with 1/2 the regular price.  Within 24 hours I had the new LED lights on our tree.

 

 

Oh Christmas Tree!

It's that time of year again when people drive their cars with trees sticking out of their trunk.  Not wanting to be left out, Sandi and I cut down our tree on Saturday. 





We were over at Sandi' parent's house Friday night to celebrate my birthday.  We had BBQ out and dessert in that night - so fun.  Since the tree farm is way far away and her parents are half-way between us the tree far we decided to stay the night.  We left her parents after breakfast the next day and drove to the tree farm. 

Our criteria was a ceiling-height Nobile Fir with a fairly narrow girth.  We found our tree and I laid down on the ground and began sawing and sawing and sawing and sawing.  After a bit of a break (and time to marvel at how dull the blade was on the saw) I resumed sawing.  Finally the wood gave in and the tree toppled.  After shoving it into my trunk (with a Trader Joes bag tied to the end as a flag) we drove off with our trophy.

 

 Sandi is providing scale for our tree.

 

But... how do you really feel about our tree?

 

 

 

We hung our stockings on the mantle with care...

 

...in hopes that Santa soon would be here.

It is finished! 

We love it.

 

It's my birthday!

A few things came together nicely that made for a really fun birthday.  First, I donated blood a few weeks ago.  Normally, you just get water and snacks as a 'reward.'  This time, they handed out buy-1-get-1 coupons to the Sherlock Holmes exhibit at OMSI.  The second was a SQL database conference on Saturday a few weeks ago.  My boss agreed to give me a comp-day by attending this conference.  Put the two together and you get an interesting place to play hooky.

Now all we need is a good excuse to use it.  Enter my birthday (fortunately, Sandi had the day off too or this grand plan would have fallen apart).

We started out with a pre-breakfast snack

 

Followed by a coffee date at Starbucks (which we used a gift card I just got from work for my birthday).

 

We ran a few errands and then headed to lunch.  I was on a bike ride in downtown Portland on Memorial Day and came across Widmer Brothers Brewrey.  I knew that was where I wanted to go on my birthday.  We had a great lunch

on a beautiful but cold day in Portland.

 

We arrived at OMSI in the mid afternoon and dove into all things Sherlock Holmes.  It was a good exhibit with lots of hands-on things to do and learn.  We even got to help solve a crime.

 

We finished the exhibit with just enough time to explore the gift shop and the 'Industry' side of the museum (its old and tired and needs an overhaul badly).

 

After that we decided to take a walk to the Pioneer Square across the river.  By now, our beautiful and cold day turned into a very cold, yet still beautiful night.

 

We walked for about an hour and then headed home for dinner.

 

avocado chicken - mmmm

Last year, we got cheese cake from the Cheesecake Factory.  Since it wasn't broken, there was no reason to fix it.  This year I got Oreo Cookie and Sandi got Vanilla Bean.

 

Sandi and I had such a fun time - what a great birthday!

Greenways Bike ride

Ever since I moved to Beaverton, I've enjoyed riding the local greenways power line trail.  Unfortunately the trail was fragmented, especially closer to home.  All summer long, the parks department was working on the missing sections.  Finally, the trail opened this month.

 

Sunday afternoon was free so I geared up and jumped on the trail at the closest intersection.

 

What better use for a power line swath than a meandering trail.  As you can see, this trail has plenty of topography to work around.

This is one of the new bridges

Cresting the hill

Where I've come from

 

and where I am going

 

Below is one of the best sections.  I tend to ride from south to north and I've always had to leave the trail and get back on the rode because the trail ended.  Now I just keep on going! 

 

What a great day for a ride - can you believe it's mid-November?

 

The trail doesn't actually end here.  It continues south for another mile and then heads west to parallel a rode.  When the trail finally ended, I jumped on the rode briefly to make a loop and connect with the trail for the return trip. 

 

Cooked: a book review

Once in awhile, you come across a book that sticks with you and even causes you to reevaluate paradigms long held.  Michael Pollan's "Cooked" is one such book. 

http://michaelpollan.com/books/cooked/

I heard an interview on OPB's Think Out Loud that talked with the author, Michael Pollan about his new book "Cooked."  His stories drew me into the conversation because it wasn't so much about food as it is about his family's (and society's) interaction with food.  The interview intrigued me enough to go to the library and look for a copy.  I wasn't the only one who heard the interview because there were 80+ people in front of my reservation.

When I finally got the book, I had just enough time to read it before our trip to Kansas.  What started out as curiosity turned into fascination.  The book is divided into 4 chapters, each named after one of the four ancient elements: fire, water, air, and earth.  Fire explores old-style pork BBQ, water is the slow cook stew, air is bread and earth is vegetable, dairy and grain fermentation.  In each chapter he wove the cultural and global history of his subject into the perspective of contemporary experts.  Like any good journalist, he left his ivory tower and actually got his hands dirty under the tutelage of these experts.  His trials and successes with baking the perfect loaf of bread or ideal Sunday dinner is entertaining enough but not worth a blog post.

What was really interesting for me was his challenge to the capitalistic ideals that create and undergird our modern food industry.  One of the foundations of capitalism is the division of labor.  I am too busy building databases to make dinner.  Instead, I will take the money I earned from my labor and pay someone else to make my food for me.  But am I too busy?  Is the food made by the food industry worth buying?  Does it really cost that much more or take that much time to make a meal myself?  What are the hidden costs (both personal and societal) of buying cheap processed food?  He even picked on Trader Joes for all the processed food they sell.

His challenge to the reader is slow down, shop local, and make meal times a focal point for your family.  As he endeavored in these four food elements he saw his family engage with him at a new level.  Both Sandi and I were fortunate to grow up in families that valued dinner time.  Both of us have a good nutritional history.  Both of us want to carry this legacy on to our own family.  The pace of our contemporary culture is only going to speed up.  But, as Michal Pollan suggested, (my paraphrase) when you are in the kitchen chopping onions, slow down and focus on chopping the onions. 

Hiking with Mom and Dad

Mom and Dad came down to visit this last weekend and we planned on a hike.  The warm weather and beautiful fall colors called for an excellent hike.  Enter Triple Falls.  Triple Falls is one of my favorite hikes in the Columbia River Gorge.  It is 2.5 miles on the Oneonta Creek Trail which begins at the iconic Horsetail Falls on the eastern-end of the scenic falls area.

 

We got a later start than planned but getting on the trail around noon was a benefit as it allowed the fog to burn off.  Even from the start of our hike, the views were incredible. 

 

Within the first mile, we encountered Horsetail's little sister, Ponytail Falls.

Ponytail Falls
(Though you can't see them, Mom and Sandi are
behind the falls, off to the left of the photo)





The cool thing about this fall is that the trail
takes you behind the water

As mentioned before, the fall colors were amazing.

Geared up for a hike!

 

 

Triple Falls!  The four of us stopped for lunch from this vantage point. 

 

I've hiked this trail at least 4 times but I always turn around at this point.  The trail actually extends for another 12+ miles to make a loop back to the highway.  To satisfy (my) curiosity, we crossed the bridge (just beyond the photo) to see what was on the other side.

 

 

Stunning beauty

 

And also fairly wet

 

We turned around after about a 1/2 mile across the bridge.  This made for a ~6-mile hike.

 

Mom, Dad, Sandi, and I celebrating a great autumn hike.

 Final note: to celebrate the hike, Dad made a Primitivo wine called 'Triple Falls Hike' with this photo as the label.  Thanks, Dad!