Sale!

Apparently ever year the University of Oregon's Athletic Department has a surplus sale of all of their sporting apparel.  Over the past few weeks advertisements have been popping up all over town.  Cliff and I went for a run today in Alton Baker Park and I decided that I wanted to check out the event.  Who wants to own official U of O athletic apparel?  I do!  I do!  It was held in the football practice facility which is right across the street from the park.  After I finished my three mile run I went shopping while Cliff ran for another five miles. Great plan.

The sale started at 8:00am so by the time I strolled in around 12:00pm they were pretty wiped out.  They were selling t-shirts, shoes, sweatshirts, and anything else with the O on it or that was printed after they won the Rose Bowl.  In addition to these types of items they were also clearing out all of their practice gear.  Think warm-up pants, jerseys, cleats, football pads, and a ton of other stuff.  I think it is so smart.  Nike apparel is such a huge part of the program.  Heck, Oregon Football players set the fashion standard (in my humble opinion).  If I were two feet taller and 100lbs. heavier I could have gotten some pretty sweet new clothes.  I honestly held some basketball practice jersey up to myself and it was longer than most dresses I wear.  The warm-up pants came up past my chest with the cuffs hitting the floor.  It gave me a whole new sense of appreciation for being athletic in a body that big.  I'm mean the players must be crazy big.

I really wanted to buy stuff.  I brought cash and I was ready.  Sadly, we were too late and almost anything that fit my frame walked out the door hours before.  No worries.  I got to geek out a bit and ooh and aah over all the cool stuff, the practice facility, and overhear football players chatting about how LaMichael has put on 15lbs of solid muscle over the last few months and hasn't slowed down a bit. (Which by the way I think we are going to have to watch a few 49ers games this season to see how it does.  He was/is a great Duck.)  I will admit, I would have totally bought a football practice jersey if there had been one that fit.  How cool would it be to wear something that a player wore during a winning season?  Yikes.  I think I officially just became one of those sports fans.  Oh well.  It was fun.  I'm totally going back next year. 

Yoga At Work

Today I went to my very first yoga class...and I was at work!  On Wednesday, a co-worker clued me in on the awesomeness that is lunchtime exercise.  A free hour-long yoga class takes place every week for district employees.  It was really nice.  It was dark and quite in the room.  We did a whole lot of poses that focused on releasing tension in the neck, shoulders, and back.  I felt fine before the class but since leaving the session I have felt great.  I need to buy a mat as lunchtime yoga is going to appear on my calendar from here on out.  Totally cool.


Employees can also sign up for Jazzercise two times a week.  I think once I'm settled in a bit more I might try that out too.  Holy cow.  I've always wanted to take fun exercise classes and now I might actually do it.

Really I have no excuse for not exercising three to five times a week.  Cliff and I can use the gym and pools for free, free yoga, and cheap lunchtime Jazzercise.  I can do this.

More Visitors!

Cliff and I felt super popular and loved this week as we got to see a few people that we hadn't seen in a long time.

Last Sunday we ate lunch with Katie Bradley.  Katie was a few years behind us at Calverton, but we did theater together.  She is currently going to grad school in southern Oregon and was passing through Eugene.  It was fun to see her and catch up.  It's scary to think that we have been out of high school for 10 years!  What?  How did that happen!?!?!

On Wednesday, my Aunt Dottie and Uncle John passed through Eugene on their west coast tour.  They are traveling from Seattle to San Fransisco and then back again.  Aunt Dottie and Uncle John were a major part of my life growing up (along with Aunt Peggy and Uncle David and Aunt Teresa and Uncle John).  Everyone pretty much moved away from LaPlata and Waldorf around the time that I graduated from high school so we haven't had an opportunity to see each other as much.  We took them on a tour of Eugene and Springfield.  They honestly saw every building that ever meant anything to Cliff or I (we even took them past out old apartment).  Uncle John video taped a lot of it so some of you might even get a chance to see it at some point when they are back on the east coast.

For dinner we went to Hop Valley, an area brewpub, as we thought it was a fun place that gave them a sense of the area.  The food was great and Uncle John and Cliff sampled beers.  Uncle John wasn't a big fan of the Northwest style IPA, but liked all the other beers he tried. He especially liked the strong ale aged in a bourbon barrel they had on special named "Ladder to Heaven." It was fun.  We had an awesome waitress with some awesome muscles.  Cliff and I have had her in the past as I always feel bad as I can't help by stare.  Her muscles are incredible.  I've never seen muscles like hers in real life.  Well it turns out she has the same last name as my Aunt Dottie and Uncle John which created a bond.  We took a group photo at the end.  I came home and googled our her and sure enough she is a legit figure competitor.  She won a title back in 2010.   Awesome.  That's all I can say. 

 

After dinner we got ice cream at Prince Puckler's and then went home.  Aunt Dottie and Uncle John are a lot of fun!  I was sad that it was such a short visit but hopefully we will get to see them again soon!

Jen's Visit

Last month Cliff's best friend from college, Jen, presented at a conference in Portland.  She is super smart and just graduated from medical school in Buffalo, NY.  When we found out she was coming to Portland we let her know that we wanted to come up and see her one night.  Well...she one-uped us and instead rented a car and came down to Eugene.  The last time as saw Jen was our wedding and we sadly didn't get to hang out long.  It was so nice to see her and she was totally game for jam-packing her 24 hours with all the Eugene-goodness we could fit.

Photo by Jen Cheung

Upon her arrival we went to Falling Sky Brewery.  They just opened up within the past few months and we were excited to try their beer.  Well let me say that their beer is good but their food is even better.  We got two samplers, a mushroom pate appetizer, and sandwiches.  Jen and I both got the field burger which is a garbanzo bean, barley and mushroom patty with pub sauce and field greens.  It comes with fries or a field green salad.  It is amazing.  Hands down the best thing I have eaten in Eugene so far.  Honestly, I sometimes day dream about eating this burger.  Cliff got a roast beef sandwich with cheddar, horseradish, and caramelized onions.  It was a wonderful night.   Good food and a great friend.  Jen (who is a pretty great photographer) took some photos at Falling Sky including this one.  I honestly think it is the best/worst photo of us ever.  Jen really captured us.  It makes me so happy.

The next morning we got up early and hiked Spencer Butte.  It was the foggiest that we have ever seen it.  Seriously, we have hiked it like ten times and have never had such poor visibility.  It was cool though as we realized that the brain does some pretty odd things when there is only white all around.  Cliff noticed it first but when you starred into the fog eventually you started to see sparkles.  Jen and I both tried and sure enough...there they were.  Oh science.   On the way down we saw a huge slug. 

After the hike we hit Laughing Planet for food as we were headed west to go wine tasting.  The best prep for this event is a hearty burrito filled with beans, rice, and other semi-local organic goodies.  We went to Sweet Cheeks and Silvan Ridge as they are literally right across the road from one another.  Silvan Ridge has the amazing peachie-o's wine and Jen was so much of a fan that she bought a bottle.  Cliff and Jen decided to look very somber for their wine tasting photo.  At Sweet Cheeks we had a long conversation with the lady behind the bar about one of their wines that has an evil looking koala on the label.  Seriously, it looks possessed.  It was so creepy that I needed to take a photo.

On the way back home we decided to end the whirl-wind visit with Red Wagon Creamery.  We had never tried it before and we knew Jen would be up to some non-traditional ice cream flavors.  We found the cart and sampled almost all of the flavors they had left.  I'm pretty sure we all got their smoked salt caramel #6 plus another flavor (I got chocolate and I think they both for the frozen goat coffee).  So fun.  I know we've chatted about them before but their flavors are really interesting.

It was so sad when Jen had to leave.  In a few weeks she will be moving from the east coast to Los Angeles where she is going to start her residency in family medicine.  We are set on finding a time to go down and visit.  Oh!  Also, Jen brought us a Buffalo treat called sponge candy.  Sponge candy is like crispy caramelized sugar dipped in chocolate.  Between Cliff and I the box of candy didn't last long. If you are ever in Buffalo...do yourself a favor and try some.

Our Epic Day

Today has been pretty fantastic.  Cliff and I got up early this morning to be at the farmer's market when they opened so that we could get cool pepper and tomato starters.  We went last week late in the afternoon and the place we liked was pretty cleared out.  Well today we had great success.  For peppers we got Bulgarian carrot, Hungarian hot wax, purple jalapenos, serrano del sol, and alma paprika.  For tomatoes we got a chocolate cherry and a sun sugar.  We also got one cucumber plant and it is a Mexican sour gherkin.  These sound awesome.  They look like little mini watermelons (1"- 2" fruits) that taste like they have already been pickled.  So excited.  We also bought red and white radish seeds as they are super gratifying to grow and pick. 

At the market we split a Red Wagon ice cream for our second breakfast.  Cliff sampled their batch of chevre, mead, pine nuts, and rosemary ice cream.  I sampled their vanilla malted strawberry-rhubarb pie ice cream.  We decided on their mix of vanilla malted, brown ale, and chocolate ice cream.  It was really tasty.

We came home, let the dog out, and planted our new starters along with more basil, fennel, and cilantro seeds.  We are really excited as this will be our first garden where we actually plant things in the ground.  In the past we have only done container gardens.  This year our garden will have parsley, sage, rosemary, oregano (sing it a little in your head,) dill, fennel, garlic chives, cilantro, chervil, basil, arugla, oak leaf lettuce, tom thumb lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, and radishes.  We have also planted sunflower seeds and birdhouse gourd seeds in the yard but we think the birds might have gotten to most of the seeds and shoots.  That stinks but we are hopeful.  Rudy really loves hanging out with us outside and he is starting to understand that he can sit near the garden...just not in it.



After our gardening session we played frisbee with Rudy.  He gets it now!  In the past we would throw things outside for him to catch and return.  He would run to them, sniff, and then run back to us without ever touching the frisbee or ball.  Over the winter we played alot of inside frisbee fetch.  Good thing too as it is finally translated outside and Rudy loves it!  We knew he was going to be a frisbee dog when we rescued him.  He loves running fast and jumping.  How couldn't he be good at it?  Now it's his favorite thing ever.  Look at that happy dog's face!

We got dressed and went to Sonic as it was on the way to our afternoon activity.  Grandma gave me a coupon for buy one get one free for the Sonic Brown Bag Meals.  Cliff and I each had a cheeseburger, tater tots, and drink (I got an ocean water).  The ocean water stained by teeth blue for a little while.  Note to self: never get that drink if I have someplace important to be within the next few hours.  Today I didn't much care and in fact I thought it was pretty funny.

Ok, I guess I should mention that in the craziness of the last two weeks I also applied for, interviewed for, and was offered a job.  That's right.  I'm employed!  It's like my dream job; one that I was going to pine for over the next few years.  I'm going to be the Volunteer and Special Events Coordinator for a local park and recreation district.  I start on Monday.  The summer schedule looks like a lot of fun.  Outdoor movies, plays, concerts, festivals, camping events, and lots more.  Check out the events schedule to see more info on the awesomeness.

So today my new employers were offering a free indoor rock climbing and bouldering event.  Cliff found it in the program and was excited for us to try it.  It was sooo good!  We won two raffle prizes!  I got this fancy sports top from prAna.  I love their catalog and really enjoying looking through it whenever we house sit (p.s. all of the folks that we have ever house sat for get this catalog...odd).  We climbed.  Cliff was a natural.  He strapped in and climbed up that wall like Spiderman.  I was very impressed.  He got to the top with no problem at all.  I on the other hand was a different story.  I was gun-hoe until I actually got on the wall and then I froze.  I couldn't move.  My little hands were so sweaty that I didn't really make it that far off the ground before I asked to be lowered.  The photo below shows me be lowered from the overwhelming height of 10 feet. Embarrassing? Oh dear Lord yes.  Small children all around me where whizzing by as I clung terrified to the wall.  I didn't want to be a total failure so I tried the second easiest course.  My second belayer (the guy on the ground that controlled my line) gave me chalk to help easy my sweaty palm issue.  It helped as I proudly got probably 20 feet off the ground before I asked to propel down.  Oh well.  I really wasn't a climber as a kid so I don't think the natural ability is in my genes.  I will totally go back though and try again.  Best part?  That won't be a problem as it's included in my benefits!

         

At the end of the event they gave out ice cream.  Cliff and I got in line and realized that it was Red Wagon...again!  Score.  Cliff got coffee and I got vanilla.  Seriously, they gave out local, handmade ice cream over bars from the grocery store.  I haven't even started work there but I am totally impressed.

Best.  Day.  Ever.

Nanny

The world lost a very cool lady yesterday.  My Nanny passed away at the age of 92 years old.  She was a woman with tremendous spirit, a wicked sense of humor, a big heart, and a desire to live life to the fullest each and every day.  She has been a major force in my life since day one.  It is hard to believe that she isn't here anymore but I know that I will carry her spirit with me always.

Nanny wasn't your conventional grandmother.  When I was growing up I heard stories of Nanny putting my cousins, Kyle and Lori, in trashcans filled with water so that they could bob up and down on hot summer days.  Come to find out this was also her method of getting them to stop fighting with one another.  While I never got the trashcan treatment, I did get her unique brand of grandmothering.  She let me draw faces and make little grass skirts for her dancing thumb.  In reality, she was double jointed in her hands and was able to make her thumb pop in and out of place.  She said it was dancing.  I believed her.  On days when she would babysit me we would play beauty parlor.  She would let me do her hair, paint her nails, and put on make-up.  Looking back I made her look like a drag queen but she never complained.  In fact, she would pose proudly for photos.   Those photos are sadly back in Maryland so I can't share my brilliant work with you all. 

We made bunny cakes for Easter.  We ate McDonald's
 hamburgers and hot fudge sundaes (with no nuts) on trips.  We told one-word-at-a-time stories (once upon a time the goose drank wine) and played tickle arm at sleepovers.  She taught me silly songs that she made up when she was a kid.  These songs are ingrained in my head and will forever be a reminder of her sense of humor.  She loved to dance, make silly faces, and make people smile.  Nanny was fun.

Looking back so many of my "good" stories involve Nanny in some way or another.  I know this is true for anyone who has ever came in contact with her.  Minnie and the teeth, me and the pig,  Nanny and the McDonald's horse are some that quickly come to mind and make me smile.   I can remember her voice, gestures, and colorful language.  If you have heard these stories then you know what the Nanny impression looks/sounds like.

Over the past decade a lot about Nanny changed but the one thing that remained the same was her desire to get out and live life.  She was strong-willed.  She was a fighter.  She was trying to overcome all of the challenges that life gave her.  I wish that I could put into words how much Nanny means to me and how much I am going to miss her.  Sadly, there aren't words.  The world was a little more exciting because of Nanny.  I'm lucky to have been her granddaughter.

Nanny's viewings will be on Wednesday from 2:00pm - 4:00pm and from 6:00pm- 8:00pm at Huntt Funeral Home in Waldorf.  Please visit their website if you would like to leave condolences.

Day 5: Window Box

Last week Cliff and I worked on the plants in our window box.  We split large sedums and spread them throughout the whole box.  None of the sedums seemed to experience any shock and they all look super happy with their new space.  Cliff and I have been decorating the window box with cool looking rocks, broken Fiesta ware (darn our tile floor!), and garden gnomes.  Hans and Lars are pretty happy and we are pretty excited with how it all looks.

Day 4: Flowers

The flowers that we planted in the fall are coming up.  They are really beautiful.  We're super excited.  Cliff goes out every day to count the new ones.  More are coming up every week so hopefully we will have flowers on the hill outside of our window for many more days to come.

 

Out of all the different bulbs we planted these white ones have done the best by far.  Most of the bulbs we planted successfully came up despite the fact that Rudy races across this part of the yard at full speed with very little regard for our gardening efforts.  They have been in full bloom for almost two weeks and they are still looking really white and fresh.  I'm impressed.

 

While we didn't plant it, the rhododendron on the path to our cottage is in full bloom.  There are so many blooms on it that Cliff and I have to duck to walk past it.  It smells really nice too.  I think I might like rhododendrons which is good as they are everywhere around here.  

Flowers make me happy.

Day 3: Sonic

I really enjoy Sonic.  When moving from the east coast to the west coast I knew I was going to miss three food places: Wawa, Cracker Barrel, and Sonic.  Well, I lucked out as Sonic has arrived in Oregon and there is one about 15 minutes away from our house.  Our Sonic is right by Walmart so I use it as a motivational treat to get me through our large shopping trips. 

I liked our Southern Oregon Sonic on Facebook so that I could get information on daily deals as sometimes they do shake specials for $.99.  When I did that I entered a sweepstakes.  First place won free Sonic for a year, second place won a $100 gift card, and third place winner got a t-shirt.  Well...I was a winner!  My t-shirt arrived in the mail last week and I was super excited to sport it at Sonic today.  I cashed in a coupon that Grandma gave me for a buy one get one free shake.  They were tasty. 

I like Sonic.