Retirement

So, the time has come where I need to retire from my full time job as a domestic goddess.  It's been a great three months but my only conversations between the hours of 8 and 5 are with the dog and despite all of her talents, she is not a conversationalist...excellent listener, though.  I start my part time job at the Boys and Girls Club in Corvallis on September 12th.  I'll be heading up after school program for the AM kindergarteners.  The hours are pretty much ideal (10am-2:30pm) and do not include any evenings or weekends (WAAAAAHOOOOOOOO!) so it's pretty much perfect.  It will still leave me time be a part time (domestic) diva.  And I'll get to talk to people during the day which will be nice...even if they are mostly 5 year olds.

Andy had to work late a few nights this week because of some problems that came up...and then his hard drive crashed.  If you've ever had that happen, you know it's the worst, and if your job is 100% computer based, it's even worse.  He was told that he will be working on the next generation of the printer so that's good, although he's not sure exactly what it will entail.

Since we don't have much to report, here are a few photos for the grandparents:

And in case you want to start shopping Christmas early, Rite Aid has some ideas for you...

Quick Update

On Saturday, we headed over to the coast for the day and visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium, complete with a sighting of one of my favorite animals, sea otters.

After the aquarium, we headed to Local Ocean Seafoods in Newport for a late lunch.  It's right across from the dock where they unload the fresh seafood.  Andy really liked the fish tacos and tuna kebobs.

 He also enjoyed his Blonde Bombshell beer.  I reminded him it would be the only kind of blonde bombshell he would ever have the chance to enjoy.  He responded with the obligatory "Yes, dear" and slight eye roll (I can't *really* blame him.)

 This sign caught us off guard.  I guess we're still not used to living on the coast.  

It's dry here and there are fire warnings throughout the state.  We're required to water the front lawn but neither one of us think it's a good use of clean water so we don't bother watering the back fenced in area.  The only down fall is that Shadow regularly comes in looking like this.

Dry grass anyone?  She proceeds to shake it all off ALL over the carpet 

(usually right after I've vacuumed).  It's a good thing she's so cute.

One last curiosity -- I was out exploring last week and came across this sign in front of an old diner. 

 

I wasn't sure I was reading it correctly when I drove by the first time but pulled off on the way back through and sure enough, Grandma's name was clear on the sign.  I imagined her giggling at the sight of it.  I love these little out of the blue reminders of loved ones.  

They remind you to stop and enjoy the day.  :)

Bonkers for Blueberries

Yesterday after Andy got off work, went went blueberry picking at this place.  They have 20 some varieties of blueberries.  We did some taste testing and then selected two varieties that we liked best and picked a few pounds.  Andy practically rubbed his belly the whole way home since he did a little binge eating while we were picking.  He pointed out to me that "they said it was ok to taste them."

The berries were gorgeous and plentiful and grow in bunches (like grapes) which I didn't learn until we moved here. 

 

Andy texted me from work today to tell me that while he was telling his co-workers about our berry picking, he realized that we are amateurs.  One of the guys mentioned he had also gone picking and came home with 27 pounds of blueberries.  We came home with 3 pounds.  Andy said we're going to have to go again so he gets some street cred back. 

Today, I went to pick up our free baking dish that we scored back in June when we bought our fancy new sauce pot.  I decided that it was the perfect blueberry cobbler pan.

 

 

 Big, beautiful blueberries.

 Right before going in the oven.

Not the prettiest finished product but DELICIOUS!

We are looking forward to the weekend!  We haven't had a free weekend together in over a month so we're ready! 

Crazy Done Right

The last few weeks have kept me crazy busy.  I headed out on a red eye to NYC on July 12th and just got back on Sunday.  It's good to be home.

I was running late on the night I flew out to New York so Andy went to pick up Chinese take out for us while I finished packing.  I opened my fortune cookie and found this:

Seemed fitting enough, given I was flying out in a few hours.

Andy opened his and found this:

Apparently, me leaving for 3 weeks was his refreshing change!?!  I wasn't sure if I should be upset with the fortune cookie gods or laugh so hard I could hardly breathe.  I went with the latter.



I arrived in NYC and had a few days to relax before Jenny's bachelorette party.  On Friday, we headed over to Fire Island for a great beach weekend!  Jen's pups went with us.

Roxie and Tony love the beach...almost as much as their Auntie A.

We had a great weekend on the island and enjoyed how different it is from the city...no cars, houses are left unlocked and almost everything closes at dark.  It was also really fun to meet Jen's friends and have a relaxing weekend.  I spent a few more days in NYC doing touristy things before heading to Iowa to visit my parents. I also got to see my dear friend Rio (Alana) twice!  During my time in Iowa, I went to Camp Tahigwa to help out for a few days.  I can't believe I used to do that all summer, every summer.  It was totally exhausting but so fun to see some of my camp friends.  They're the girls that you can be away from for months or years and pick up right where you left off. 

One of my camper's sidewalk chalk art

 After camp, it was back to NYC for the big wedding!  Jackie and I arrived late on Wednesday night.  My parents rented a gorgeous condo for the week and Andy and I were lucky enough to stay there with them.  On Thursday, went to the legendary Junior's with Mom and Dad for lunch.  We'd never been and it was so cute...and tasty!  Think diner with the most delicious cheesecake ever.

The raspberry swirl cheesecake was everything I hoped it would be

Mom tried the chocolate swirl cheesecake.

 On Friday, my mom, Jackie and I went to Kleinfeld's with Jenny to pick up her dress. 

We didn't see any camera crews but the place was hopping and a well oiled machine.

Getting the dress home was one hot adventure but luckily, we had a guy from Kleinfeld help us hail a cab.

The dress laid across our laps in the back and Jen sat in the front. 

The great dress.

Sadly, this is one of the only wedding day photos I took.  I was way too busy having fun, I guess!  The ceremony was beautiful and perfect.  The reception was also gorgeous, perfect and a hell of a lot of fun.  I'm not sure I've ever had so much fun at a wedding.  The reception was complete with a photo booth and while I didn't get any copies of my mom wearing the pirate props (Jenny, I need copies!), here are some of me and Andy.  

 Don't be shocked if you see these on our Christmas card.  :)  

Camping and the Coast

We closed on the house in Minnesota last week!  All went smoothly and we are now proud non-homeowners! 

We headed about two hours southwest to Loon Lake for the weekend.  We stayed in this yurt and really enjoyed it.  It has almost all of the comforts of home and we decided we wouldn't mind having one in our backyard.  Andy suggested we live in one but I'm not *that* in love with them.

Inside of the yurt

We arrived at our yurt around 7:30 on Friday night and after getting settled, started a campfire.  Shadow soon learned that she likes marshmallows and graham crackers.  She looked at the smores fixings intently just in case something dropped.  There was a family in the neighboring yurt with a little boy about 2 or 3 years old and he called smores "schmoos" -- so cute.   

Shadow, Smore Hunter

On Saturday, we slept in and then went to the Oregon Dunes.  Cool, huh?

 

 We walked down the dunes and went to the ocean.  Shadow got her feet wet!

 She was really interested in the washed up crab shells like these. 

After our hike, Andy asked if we could stop by Leona's Sugar Shack Bakery.  Cute little local joint with delicious peanut butter m&m cookies. 

Shadow was an excellent cook out assistant, as you can see here.  Isn't she cute?

Despite how helpful she tried to be, no pancakes for Shadow.  She did find some food on the ground after we made our pie irons on Saturday night.  We figured she'd had enough human food when she found a half bag of Andy's beloved Twizzlers on the table on Friday and helped herself.  Andy = not happy.

Notice how very empty it is.

Possum Sighting

We headed over to Corvallis today and did a little 1.5 mile hike.  The hilltop offers a great view of Corvallis.   After our hike, we found a u-pick strawberry place and helped ourselves to a couple of pounds.  I tried making some jam tonight so we'll try that tomorrow and see how it turned out!  The house smelled amazing!

Our neighbors appear to be big 4th of July fans...or at least pyrotechnics enthusiasts.  We've been hearing fireworks every night around 10 for almost a week.  It sends Shadow into a panic and scares the bejeezus out of me and Andy every time it happens even though we know it's coming.  Hopefully tomorrow will be the grand finale and we'll be done with them.  A guy that works with Andy and happens to be from India told Andy if he wanted really good fireworks, he should go to the Native American reservation nearby and made sure he said several times, "but you didn't hear it from me."  Apparently, it's top secret information.  Andy said that the fact that his Indian co-worker recommended the Indian reservation made it even funnier.  

 Before I sign off, a few Albany highlights.  

You're reading the sign correctly.  It's the HASTY (NOT Tasty) FREEZ.  We chuckle every time we drive by. 

And the second highlight:  Possum Auto Body.  Any time I drive Andy to the bus stop, I see this place on my way home.  It makes getting up early just a little bit better.

 Notice the spray can in the big possum's hand (paw?) and the little possum hanging 

upside down from the tree.

Here's a shot of the front with a few more possums hanging from the tree.

To make things better, they take the possum statues in each night.  I can only imagine them driving up one morning to see the original possums had been kidnapped and having a staff meeting to decide that they'd order one more set but someone would have to volunteer to put the little fellas away every night before locking up.  If they ever turn up missing again, I *promise* they won't be in our living room.

Hiking and House Hunting

We started the weekend off heading up to the Woodburn Company Stores for some shopping.  We've been wanting to get more Le Creuset cookware since my older sister gave us a piece for our wedding and when I came across the outlet store, I knew we had to go.  We found this nice little saucepan which will really be handy and are also on their mailing list so they'll alert us to future sales.  Woohoo!

Earlier in the week I'd found a coupon for a free entree at Panda Express after 9pm on Friday.  Andy enjoyed a late night snack and Shadow and I went along for the ride.  :)


On Saturday, Andy and I headed out to Mary's Peak and expected to drive most of the way up and then do a little 1.5 mile hike to the top.  When we got to the park, we found out that the road was closed and the only option was a 5 mile hike to the top.  I was not thrilled about a 5 mile hike ( I was sore from exercising earlier in the week) but we decided if we'd come all this way, we should at least walk for a while.  After an hour and a half and 2 miles up hill, I called it quits.  My legs were killing me before we started and I had a mini meltdown on the mountain and told Andy I was heading back down to the car.  We were really close to the summit so Andy hiked to the top and took these photos. 

After the hike, we stopped in Corvallis on the way home for dinner  at Block 15.  Andy has been hearing about their beer since we got here so he was anxious to try their brews.

Today we went to two open houses to get an idea of the housing market here and to see what we can expect to get for the price.  Corvallis (where Andy works) is more expensive and Albany (where we're currently living) has pricing a little higher than Rochester.  We're hoping to start seriously looking in August and ideally we'd be in a house by December 1!  We will see!