Jen's stream of consciousness

So Thankkful!

2009-11-26T23:05:00.000-08:00

Cakelet pan

2009-11-09T20:52:00.000-08:00

I'm such a nerd, I'm incredibly excited that my mom is getting me this as an early x-mas present. I saw it a few weeks ago and emailed her immediately putting it the top of an impromptu Christmas gift list.

Possessions

2009-11-08T18:02:00.000-08:00

We had a visit recently from a friend of Jamie's who literally for years has lived like a nomad. Tents in the woods, abandoned houses, beaches, his car, these have all been "home" to him. In some ways I admire the freedom he has not being chained by obligations or "things".

I spend a good amount of time thinking about possessions mostly as an irritant. It irritates me that we have so much stuff that we needed to build a shed this summer. It also irritates me that my closets and drawers are completely full. I wonder when we have children how the heck we will fit them and their stuff in the house. Don't get me wrong I'm so grateful that we are fortunate enough to own what we own. I'm just irritated that I can't keep the amount of things manageable and that I'm so practical that I can't get rid of sweaters that I've owned since High School simply because "they are still perfectly good"

Thinking about my things I wondered to myself if our house burned down and we lost everything what would I truly deeply miss. Clothes, furniture, those are replaceable and not to mention fun to shop for. Photos would be sad to loose but for the sake of argument lets say I have my computer and dogs with me when the house burns down. I have photos on my computer new and older scanned so I'd be fine there.

The more I thought about it only things that have important memories attached to them would really matter to me. One thing that I would really really miss is the teapot and cup set in the picture above. It reminds me of my Grandmother who died 5 years ago. Due to my Grandfathers financial discipline over the years his frugalness really paid off when my Grandmother was able to take our family to Europe in 2000. My Grandmother (God rest her soul) was not the most dignified person in the world which was kind of a running joke with her. She was loud, lively, warm, fun and generally amazing. This trip was her first one overseas and everything we saw on that trip she wanted to take with her as a souvenir. On one occasion in Paris we had tea at the Ritz I think she stole napkins, a glass tea stir stick and who knows what else. I remember being so embarrassed at the time and thought she was nuts but now it's just one of the many endearing memories I have of her and her excitement of being there and living in the moment. The teapot story is much the same, at one of our hotels on the trip different tea sets were in each of our rooms and she decided she would "take" them. I don't remember if it was me or my mother (we're slightly more tight laced than her :) who talked her in to asking for them at the front desk and she did which was how I got my tea set.
I love this thing. I rarely use it but it's out where I can see it all the time and It reminds me of someone who I love very much and of specific memories that I cherish.

What would you miss?

Best and worst...

2009-11-06T21:57:00.000-08:00

Best news: We rented out a super cute micro mini office space. We're using this for a client meeting space and showroom for our print samples as well as samples of style options. It's in a great space on MLK around some cool new buildings and restaurants.

Also in the "best" category my dear friend Amanda's new baby boy Nigel is beautiful and amazing and I got to cuddle with him today and soak in the baby essence.

Worst: I think I'm getting vertigo again and it's really upsetting since I was out a month and a half last year with it. I almost fell backwards down our stairs. I feel like puking but I'm not sure if it's the vertigo or me being so nervous about the thought of having it again. I wanna cry :(

I need these in my life

2009-11-01T23:42:00.000-08:00

I also need to be 20 lbs thinner and have legs up to my neck to pull these off gracefully but man they are great dresses! check them out at this gem of a shop

"He bite my vagina"

2009-10-31T22:08:00.000-07:00

The woman in this video is unintentionally hilarious. Seriously I've watched it at least 5 times today and have died laughing.

Pumpkin carving party

2009-10-24T12:31:00.000-07:00

Before...

After...

Ugh

2009-10-16T22:51:00.000-07:00

Being a vegetarian does not mean I automatically want a stupid whole wheat tortilla or other nasty health food options that taste like shit!

Stupid stupid stupid! I wasn't able to eat lunch at the seminar I was at today and I was so looking forward to dinner which ended up being half cooked carrots and broccoli in a stale whole wheat tortilla! I still have tastebuds WTF!

Garden 2009 part 1

2009-06-06T11:13:00.000-07:00

I'm a few weeks late on the garden pics so I'll try to remember to post the updated versions of these this week. I want to keep a photo journal of my yard over the year since it changes so much. I have a tendency in the middle of winter to not remember all of the amazing color that pops up in the spring. This should help remind me.

Raspberry

Not really veggie garden but lovely none the less :)

New raised bed I made with artichokes, brussel sprouts, broccoli, 2 kinds of lettuce and onions

Pumpkin on left and butternut squash on right

strawberries on left, 2 baby plants in center are zucchini and butternut squash, over to the left side are herbs and tomato plant

Yay! baby strawberries.

The perfect brunch combo...

2009-06-06T11:08:00.000-07:00

Tofu Florentine from Veganomicon, tea, reading blogs, looking out window. Saturday mornings don't get much better.

Summer treat

2009-05-31T17:49:00.000-07:00

I've been really loving this recipe for rhubarb sorbet. Since it's in season now I wanted to share this awesome recipe from Simply Recipes. I was going to tell you how wonderful my ice cream maker is but alas it looks like it's been discontinued which is a shame.

What happens in Vegas is coming home to Portland!

2009-05-31T17:33:00.001-07:00

We are getting married in Vegas! October 10th! Here's where we'll be staying.

I've been to vegas a bunch of times but never to get married :) or see a wedding so I'm not exactly sure what to expect but I guess that's half the fun of Vegas

Wedding locations...

2009-03-31T20:28:00.000-07:00

So I think we're on the verge of actually starting to think about wedding plans. The current consensus it to find a park location and just show up and get married. I think that's ok, I mean I don't think the park would have a problem with it. I'm not sure if you have to reserve that kind of stuff. I figure if we find a super awesome spot we could try and get the park to reserve that area.
Truth be told though, the park doesn't really seem a fitting place for a person like Jamie to get married in. He doesn't even like the outdoors that much, that's more my thing. He'd be way more into it if rivers we're made of coca cola instead of water but so far that's not happening. I'm not sure at all what we'll end up doing just that we're about to start planning.

reading impaired

2009-03-23T23:02:00.000-07:00

Ugh, I'm in this funk where I'm too agitated all the time to sit down and read. I think it's been months since I've finished a book. This is pretty bad. Am I picking the wrong books?

Happy days

2009-03-15T12:38:00.000-07:00

I've made it through the dark days of winter and although it's nowhere near pretty and warm outside I hope and feel like the darkest, gloomiest, most depressing days are only a memory until next year. Why do I feel this way you might ask when it's still obviously miserable in the NW? I say this because there are flowers in my yard!!!! Flowers=spring=color=sun ok the last part of that equation is still in question but at least it's a start! So I've decided to get out of my winter blog hibernation/general funk long enough to say hello. I've sustained myself through the dark days by reading food, crafting & celebrity gossip blogs drinking tea and hanging with the pugs, thank God other bloggers don't take winter vacays. I'd take pictures of the above mentioned flowers but as I mentioned the sun is not yet upon us and it's too windy and gross to be out yet.

Also there seems to be a flurry on the social front, catching up with old friends and making plans for fun days ahead.

Also giving me an extra boost are these super yummy Peanut Butter Cookies from Simple Recipes. Even Jamie likes them!

Hope the sun finds you soon!

I'm so brave

2009-01-10T23:27:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to eat sugar for at least a week. Ok, ok, so actually I'm not that brave, if there is a bit if sugar in bread or peanut sauce or I don't know, random little things I wont worry about it. I'm talking about sweets, the really good yummy stuff you crave after dinner, you know... cupcakes, ice cream, cookies, chocolate etc. All the good stuff that makes life worth living (why am I stopping again?)

It will be a good challenge in self control and hopefully a small step on the larger path to living a healthier life.

Anyone else up to taking the challenge? I've already enlisted my mother who I will be very proud of if she makes it past day 3 :)

Wow 2009 already!

2009-01-02T15:58:00.000-08:00

Well we had a very very white Christmas which is extremely rare in Portland. Actually it was a white 2 weeks here which is even more unusual. We had to re-arange some holiday plans due to the weather but fun was had by all. I hope you had a great holiday season, and I wish you a very happy New Year!

Parent's house Christmas morning

Mom Making Christmas quiche - and that sweet apron she's wearing is my handy work!

All the excitement was too much for Jamie!

New Links

2008-11-25T18:07:00.000-08:00

I just added a bunch of my favorite links to my side bar. Check them out many are craft links and awesome for this time of year. Which the cold weather I know that I've been feeling especially crafty!

New-ish shirt designs!

2008-11-25T17:35:00.000-08:00

I finally put out a couple more shirt designs. I have two more I'm almost finished with and should be posting soon. Other than that I've been crafting a bit but mostly for Christmas so nothing I can post yet. The dogs are good, Jamie's good, the weather sucks. We've switched the name of our screen printing business to Ink Brigade. Check out our site at www.inkbrigade.com. All of our shirts are now bwing printed with waterbased ink or discharge. The water based ink is environmentally safer to work with and the prints come out extra soft.

Melissa Ethridge may not be paying her taxes...

2008-11-07T15:03:00.000-08:00

and I can't say I blame her. Here are some of her thoughts on the hate-filled proposition 8 that just passed in California. Honestly how can this kind of discrimination be legal?

"Okay. So Prop 8 passed. Alright, I get it. 51% of you think that I am a second class citizen. Alright then. So my wife, uh I mean, roommate? Girlfriend? Special lady friend? You are gonna have to help me here because I am not sure what to call her now. Anyways, she and I are not allowed the same right under the state constitution as any other citizen. Okay, so I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen. I mean that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books.

Okay, cool I don't mean to get too personal here but there is a lot I can do with the extra half a million dollars that I will be keeping instead of handing it over to the state of California. Oh, and I am sure Ellen will be a little excited to keep her bazillion bucks that she pays in taxes too. Wow, come to think of it, there are quite a few of us fortunate gay folks that will be having some extra cash this year. What recession? We're gay!

Oh and too bad California, I know you were looking forward to the revenue from all of those extra marriages. I guess you will have to find some other way to get out of the budget trouble you are in.

When did it become okay to legislate morality? I try to envision someone reading that legislation "eliminates the right" and then clicking yes. What goes through their mind? Was it the frightening commercial where the little girl comes home and says, "Hi mom, we learned about gays in class today" and then the mother gets that awful worried look and the scary music plays? Do they not know anyone who is gay? If they do, can they look them in the face and say "I believe you do not deserve the same rights as me"? Do they think that their children will never encounter a gay person? Do they think they will never have to explain the 20% of us who are gay and living and working side by side with all the citizens of California?

I got news for them, someday your child is going to come home and ask you what a gay person is. Gay people are born everyday. You will never legislate that away."
Read more

This Guy... sheez

2008-10-16T14:48:00.000-07:00

McCain Mockingly Suggests That Concerns For A Mother's Health Are Extreme

I'm sorry, but shouldn't it be up to the doctor and the woman in question to decide what is best for a woman's health not you Mr. McCain

Funny but true

2008-10-16T14:43:00.000-07:00

Vertigo

2008-10-07T08:40:00.000-07:00

I'm home...have been for a week now. I went to the doctor last thursday to see what the heck was going on with me since I still had vertigo or whatever it is. I was told to lay on my back for a week. A WHOLE WEEK! So, I can't say that I've been doing the best job at staying in bed, but I think I've been doing pretty darn good! I've decided I'll spend most of today and most of tomorrow in bed and I think that's about as much as I can stomach. I've been passing the time by watching Coupling on my Netflix Roku and reading cooking blogs mostly the Post Punk Kitchen which is doing nothing except making me angry that I can't be out of bed long enough to make cupcakes.

If my vertigo lasts much longer Jamie may need to learn how to bake... cupcakes to be exact.

Last Day

2008-09-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

Sunday

Our last day here and Carrie is super sick and I am just plan exhausted and still feel like I'm off balance all the time. it's mid afternoon here and we're back at Carrie's flat to rest. I think we're just plain done with the trip. It was fun but for me at least it's time to come home. Carrie leaves tomorrow too although I think she's like to stay here if she could but I know the craziness of my visit has made her tired too.

I miss my boys and can't wait to sleep in my own bed.

We had plans to go to Cambridge today but decided to stay in town. We got a bit of packing done and headed out to Spitalfields Market which was great. I found one last thing for myself and had lots of fun looking.

After a lovely lunch of Tapas we decided to get some rest and possibly stay in the rest of the day, but we'll see what happens.

Winding down

2008-09-28T08:18:00.001-07:00

Saturday

We hoped on the tube and headed back to Convent Gardens to pick up the last few gifts for people back home and a cup of coffee to get us going. We then Hoped back on the tube to go see Westminster Abbey....

Westminster was really cool and different then I remembered it being. This time it seemed larger and more impressive. Seeing the coronation chair was really cool along with the tombs of some of the most notorious royals.

We then decided to walk to St. Pauls Cathedral. This turned out to be a bit more of a walk than we anticipated, but a good way to see the city since we're leaving soon. The mosaics inside of this church are incredible! Carrie walked up to the top of the dome. I decided it wasn't a good idea since my equilibrium is still really off to the point that I constantly feel like I'm sitting in a row boat.

We then hoped on a double deck bus and tried our damnedest to find Abbey Rd so I could write Jamie's name on the wall, but alas no luck. We headed back to the house to get ready for our big night out that was ultimately never to be. Poor Carrie who started getting sick a few days ago (even though she wouldn't admit it) came to the realization that you may have the cutest dress in the world on, but when your nose looks like Rudolph's and leaks like a faucet it's just not that hot. So, after months of wanting to go out to one specific club here she gave up the dream and we headed to bed early.

I drank Bath water

2008-09-26T13:45:00.000-07:00

So, first off I must apologize... I had every intention of doing daily posts that were full of detail and description to convey the feeling of the city and the traveler in it (myself) but alas the city has taken it's toll on me and by the end of the day it's all I can do to get ready for bed, let alone try and remember all the things I did that day or God forbid the day before.

Anyway, that said, now I'm going to reach back three days into the past and bring you up to the present.

Wednesday:

We had big plans this day but unfortunately got a late start due to a couple errands. Anyway we made it to Tower of London and were given a great tour by one of the resident Beefeaters. We also got to check out the crown jewels twice in fact. That night we went to this awesome play in Covant Garden called "The Women in Black" it was a ghost story and was actually scarier than I thought it would be. We both had a lot of fun!

Thursday:
This was the day we leave for Bath, so got up, made it to the train on time, and low and behold someone else killed themselves again today (see Windsor post) on the tracks so again we were delayed. This is 2 times in a row that we were on the train and this happened. So far we've been pretty lucky with the tube not having this issue although I hear it's pretty common on there too. It's pretty sad and must happen pretty often or else Carrie and I just manage to hit two bad days I'm assuming it's the 1st reason since it doesn't even seem big enough of a deal for their media to report on.

Anyway a couple hours after expected we made it to Bath. This town is beautiful, super easy to walk and has a good amount of stuff to do. I also have to say it's a nice break from riding the tube 4 times a day in the city.

I should also mention 2 days before this I started noticing that my depth perception is totally off and that I started feeling like I was constantly on moving ground even when I was completely still. By this day it got really bad and hampered some plans, but we still made the most of it. We tool a city walking tour, checked out the Roman Baths, drank our complementary glass of the Bath spring water (10,000 year old rain water) tastes about as good as you would imagine anything 10,000 years old to taste. We also checked out the Abbey built in the 1700's (?). The night was capped off by having food and a couple pints of cider. I would like to say we slept peacefully that night but we stayed in what had to be the loudest hotel in the city. There was literally a crowd of drunk people outside our window yelling all night.

Friday:

We had a full day to spend in Bath and not a ton of stuff left to do so we got started around 11 and headed to the fashion museum housing clothes from as far back as the 1600's. After we spent the rest of the day shopping wandering through their amazing parks and neighborhoods, and what good trip would be complete without eating... a lot. So now I'm back in London getting ready for our last couple days of which we will try and pack another weeks worth of plans into. Wish us luck!

The White Tower (Tower of London)

Houses built in the 1500's where the Beefeaters live (Tower of London) Lady Jane Gray was kept in one of these before her execution.

The Roman Baths in Bath

The Abbey at Bath

View of Bath from one of the parks.

"This is a Piccadilly line to Cockfosters"...

2008-09-24T09:59:00.000-07:00

... That's the main subway line that we use and I hear that phrase at every stop when we're on the Piccadilly line out to Carrie's flat. I'm pretty sure this will be stuck in my head by the time I leave here.

I've been having a great time, so great in fact that I haven't been posting and now will try and play catch-up. Sunday we started out our week of ultra tourism by walking, and walking and walking. That's not totally true, we had to hop the tube first to get to our walking place. We walked all along the south bank, over Westminster Bridge up to Covington Gardens, then to Piccadilly. On our way back we stopped for tea and dessert. All and all a great day and a ton of exercise. I'm getting used to riding the tube even though this day was incredibly busy.

The view from The South bank of the Parliament building and Big Ben

Monday
We decided to get a ton of stuff done today, it may not sound like a lot, but keep in mind we're not staying in close-in London and none of the places we go are in walking distance of each other. Although we do walk a lot anyway:

First stop, Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guards. Next we went to the British Museum, which I would highly recommend. I personally loved the Egyptian section.

Then High Tea at the Orangery at Kensington Palace. We got the full 9 yards, champagne and everything!

Here is the "sunken garden" at Kensington
Monday night we went to this great bar so Carrie could get some mead. There we met up with another American Intern Rachel and had a lot of fun and made some weekend plans to drive to Cambridge on Sunday. Should be fun, but I'm a bit nervous about the car ride.

Tuesday
We took the tube to Waterloo station and got train tickets for Windsor. Long story short some guy killed himself by jumping in front of a train and killing himself so, getting to Windsor (or anywhere for that matter) was a fiasco. After we made it we barely had enough time to do the tour but still enjoyed it.

It's been fun here so far, but hard to cram everything in. I think we're going to end up having to make a few hard decisions and prioritize things we want to see.

London stuff

2008-09-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

I made it to London safe and sound and am staying with my friend Carrie in her flat. We're in an area of London called Wood Green. From what some of her local friends told me it's not very nice, but I haven't seen anything scary yet and I think the houses are super cute. Last night we went out to a bar/club called Digress for Carrie's going away party that her co-workers arranged for her. It was fun, although the cocktails here are WEAK. We didn't stay out too late as I was exhausted from my journey and we still had a good tube ride home for the night. We also found out that we aren't going to be able to make it to Paris due to a fire in the channel tunnel. This is a huge BUMMER! We're trying to figure out other travel plans.
Today we took a boat to Greenwich which was really cool. The captain narrated the tour for us telling us about different buildings and making stupid jokes. The weather was beautiful and a good time was had.

Me and my tourist photo in front of tower bridge.

Once in Greenwich I stood on the Prime Meridian up at the top of this hill where the Royal Observatory is. This park was the backyard of a home of one of the previous queens. We also checked out the local markets and ate at a pub that's been around since the 1830s where Dickens used to hang out.

This one is self explanatory.

We're engaged!

2008-09-05T17:25:00.000-07:00

Yep, we did it. Jamie asked me to marry him on 8-8-08 which was not part of the plan but an added bonus since I'm horrible with dates and this ones hard to forget. We're thinking about getting married in a hot air balloon next spring. Should be fun!

I found the perfect engagement ring and wedding band at an antique jeweler here in Portland. I think it's neat that my rings have history, one is almost 100 years old. I'd like to think there is some desperately romantic story behind them, but alas, I'll never know. Guess it's up to me to create my own romance.

I am just full of updates today!

2008-07-29T20:23:00.000-07:00

In more trip related news Jamie and I are headed to Minneapolis next week to visit his family. This is my second time going and I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone again. We get to stay with his sister, brother-in-law and their 2.5 boys (she has one on the way). Her kids are so cute and we had lots of fun with them at the water park last year. So now I need to use my deal finding abilities (check last post) to find us a rental car so we can make sure we get to see everyone.

I think we're going to spend a little of our time seeing if some of the shops in the city are interested in carrying my shirts. I haven't put any time into pounding the pavement here in Portland since I need to sit down and come up with some more shirts or even have tome to turn my ideas into fruition so this will be a good test run.

Need to beat the heat?

2008-07-29T19:51:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across this list of frozen summer drink recipes and thought I'd share it. There are a ton of smoothies on here which are my favorite when it's too hot out to cook and I want a snack. Also drinks with Alcohol for your summer get-togethers. Enjoy!

House update

2008-07-22T18:43:00.000-07:00

The house is almost done being painted so I thought I'd post a new pic. The windows are going to be replaced in a couple weeks, so the red of the windows will be gone. Also the shutters will be back up and probably a red color, or the lighter trim color.

It's been a ton of work, but I'm very happy with the results so far.

My poor house

2008-07-13T18:40:00.000-07:00

So we've been working on the house getting ready to paint the exterior for about a week and a half. We finally started with paint yesterday. I wish I had some I'll have to look around in my photo albums to see if I have some good before pics but here's what's going on now. So, we had to strip the paint off on one of the sides of the house. If that doesn't sound like a big job to you, well, your wrong! :) We started with a paint scrapper and got nowhere. Then went to a heat gun and got nowhere. Then bought paint stripper and were in crazy respirators and chemical resistant gloves in 90 degree weather. Oh and be "we" I mean me and my poor mother. Then we realized that the paint wasn't coming off enough so Jamie rented a pressure washer and got more off. Then we sanded everything. Then I had to fill in gouges in the wood with wood filler and re-caulk everything. Next came priming and finally we started to paint yesterday. To top it off it's been HOT here so ice-cream breaks to Baskin-Robins have been a blessing. It's so nice to see the color going on though, I love it!

The right side of the pic is what it looks like once it's stripped and sanded. The black spots are a spray paint I used to cover rusty nails so the rust wont come through.

We started putting on primer

This is the front after we took of the shutters and sanded a few spots.

Grandma Ghost Ridin' the whip

2008-07-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

This is really funny if you've ever watched any of those stupid videos of kids "ghost riding." The best part for me is the lady has a similar accent to my Grandmother.

So impressive!

2008-06-10T15:09:00.000-07:00

So we just got one of these handy dandy little devices and it's awesome!!! Any movie that Netflix has available to view instantly you can use this to download the movie onto (takes less than a minute) and watch it on your TV. The interface for this is really similar to TIVO which makes it super easy to use. You set up your "watch instantly" Netflix queue and all of the movies in your queue show up on your tv, allowing you to scroll through and watch when you want. It's like having a huge movie collection without taking up the space or costing you the money. All you need is a netflix membership valued at $8.99 or more a month, and the Roku box for $99.

LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT, don't buy if you are addicted to TV though, this will make it worse

BAD STUFF

2008-06-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

hey ya'll (ya'll being the 2 or 3 of you who read my blog) it's been awhile. I thought I'd post this list of things not to buy since they're bad for you or then environment. Stay tuned for something very cool to buy...

How to turn an $1800 stimulus check into $1980

2008-04-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

Click here to find out some ways to make the most of your stimulus check

We're back!

2008-04-30T13:21:00.000-07:00

We made it back home last night from our trip to California. We had ton's of fun! Jamie who is deathly afraid of rides rode every ride at Disneyland and turned in to a five year old in front of my eyes, full of excitement and wonder. It's hilarious to see how awesome Disneyland can be even to a group of adults.

Now that I'm back it's time for me to buckle down and get back to work. I'm going to try and add a few different types of items to add to my Etsy site like aprons and baby blankets, so those should be up soon. On the Real Estate front I don't have much going on at the moment. A few things on the horizon but nothing immediate. I guess that's good as it gives us more time to work on getting our custom order screen printing shop up and running. It's called Blood and Ink Printing. We have a few clients we are working with and have already done some work for. So if you know of anyone needing shirts printed we have all of our price lists ready to go.

San Francisco

2008-04-24T23:49:00.000-07:00

Jamie and I are in San Francisco for a couple days on the way down to visit my sister in Azusa,CA. Last time I was here it totally sucked, the people were rude, the weather terrible and all sorts of things that go wrong on a trip, did... This time it's been great so far! Weather is great, people friendly and we've met up with one of Jamie's old friends and his girlfriend which was loads of fun. We wandered through China town, a nice mix of touristy and gritty. Poor Jamie wasn't pleased with the smells coming out of some of the shops not catering towards tourists, but oh well. We've both found a lot to appreciate in this city, from the Black Flag loving Tranny at the lunch cafe we went ate at to the awesome Royal Tennenbaums style hotel we are staying at called the Pickwick.

Bottom line San Francisco is a great place for a quick stop through if you are a city lover. Great architecture, diverse dinning experiences, upscale and seedy, liberal yet corporate, fun walks, good mass transit, bike culture, you name it.

If you're a Portlander on your way to LA or So CAL don't miss the bigger version of your town!

Really disturbing- boycott the olympics

2008-03-09T18:36:00.000-07:00

I'm not a cat lover by any stretch of the imagination. I am now and have always been a dog person through and through. However I think all creatures should be treated with kindness and respect which is why when I read about the Chinese rounding up cats and sending them to death camps so the streets will appear cleaner for the upcoming Olympics I found it very disturbing.

I don't like reading about this stuff or seeing it, but I think it's important to know what's going on.

Check out the article here

cool composter

2008-03-09T17:14:00.000-07:00

So, I've been checking out compost bins for awhile and all of the ones that I like seem like too much money. So I looked into making one and then realized that I wasn't fooling anyone including myself in thinking that I would ever get around to it.

After scouring craigslist and everywhere else trying to find something nice yet affordable I came across something great. Metro (the lovely people that handle our recycling and dumps) will provide you with a Earth Machine composter at half the retail price.

Yay, compost for everyone!!!

Check out a link with more info here

Interesting video about US/ Iran relations

2008-02-11T20:05:00.000-08:00

I love me some Jon Stewart

2008-02-08T20:15:00.001-08:00

Redbird clothing

2008-02-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

Our shirts are now available for sale on Etsy.com
Click here to link to our online etsy shop!
Or, there is a link and some or our shirts posted on the side of this blog.

A Sad State of Affairs

2008-01-24T20:23:00.000-08:00

It appears Dennis Kucinich is dropping out of the bid for President after being left out of yet another key debate. What is wrong with this country, don't they tell us when we're growing up that anyone can be president. I realize that dream is one that can easily be hampered by lack of funds or lack of supporters, but lack of media coverage in this day and age makes it impossible. I'm completely disheartened that the media has taken it upon themselves to elect our next president instead of doing their job to inform the people and let us make our own informed choice.

Here is the video with him stating his intention to drop out of the race

For more coverage of Dennis Kucinich, go to the Openers blog.

If you would like to see a list of his battle with the media check here
http://www.dennis4president.com/go/newsroom/

Man, am I sick of the sad state of affairs in this place.

great root veggie dish

2008-01-22T22:37:00.000-08:00

I saw someone make this on the show Victory Garden and tried it last night and was very pleased with the results. You can really use any variety of root veggies for this and it would taste awesome. The name of it "Root Vegetable Casserole" is a little deceiving as it comes out more like a soup. Also as you will see the recipe calls for kale. I used collard greens instead and it was great.

Click here for the recipe

Exciting News!

2008-01-22T22:29:00.000-08:00

Jamie and I are starting a small t-shirt company called Redbird. It's all DIY (in our basement) and we're having a lot of fun getting all of the groundwork set to start up printing. Right now we are working on some designs, and we just bought our domain name Redbirdclothing.com which means I will also be working on a website. I think we're going to start out selling them on Etsy.com

More info to come soon...

Man this blog keeps getting more random by the day

2008-01-11T10:57:00.000-08:00

It seems like in the last year or so I haven't been acquainting myself with new music. I have my old favorites that I love so much I don't feel the need to add more...but, I stumbled across Coconut Records the music of Jason Schwartzman and loved it. Here is the video to one of the songs called "West Coast." I guess the footage wasn't intended for the video but it fits pretty well besides the fact it's just awesome footage anyway.

New study says 151,000 Iraqi dead

2008-01-09T17:23:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest surveys so far of Iraqis who have died violently since the US-led invasion of 2003 has put the figure at about 151,000.

This is about a quarter of the figure given in a disputed Lancet article, but nearly three times higher than that of the Iraq Body Count campaigning group.

The result is based on interviews with over 9,000 families across Iraq carried out by the health ministry for the WHO.

The survey says more than half of all violent deaths were in Baghdad.

The World Health Organization study looks only at the period from March 2003 until June 2006.

Researchers interviewed households right across Iraq, in towns and the countryside, and asked the head of each one for details of all deaths in the group.

They say violence became a leading cause of death of Iraqi adults; among men between 15 and 59 it was the main cause of death.

Click here to read more...

I'm insured!!!

2008-01-08T18:07:00.000-08:00

Yea! This is a very exciting day for me after about 6 years of living without it I finally have health insurance! This has been a huge weight on my shoulders for years. Every time I'd ride a bike or go in the ocean or have a car pull out in front of me I'd think about what would happen if I got hurt and how would I pay for it.

Like most uninsured people I was just never able to afford it before. I've worked the whole time I've been uninsured and I wouldn't call myself poor, but I'm nowhere close to being well-off either. I'm just an average person to whom insurance was a luxury I couldn't afford. Honestly I'm still not really able to afford it as I am self employed. Luckily my lovely boyfriend had a great plan through his union that covers me.

While I am very happy today knowing that I am covered by a good plan I'm also really mad that I like so many millions of others was put in such a bad spot for so long. When is our government going to catch up with the other industrialized countries and realize how valuable it's citizens are?

YUM!

2008-01-03T21:45:00.000-08:00

I made Quinoa Vegetable Paella tonight off of the "Fat Free Vegan Kitchen" website and I'm very impressed! It's super hearty and just what I needed to warm me up (I think I'm coming down with a cold)

Anyway if you want some yummy healthy food give it a shot!

How Caucuses work

2008-01-02T22:09:00.000-08:00

Ever wondered how caucuses work? Since the Iowa caucus is upon us I did a little research on how they work. Since we have a primary here in Oregon I never really bothered to learn about it. If you're interested you can check out the info here.

Crazy

2008-01-02T15:28:00.001-08:00

... but I didn't even fulfill last years resolutions

2008-01-01T22:04:00.000-08:00

Another year officially down the drain, and time to screw another one up! We started it off with a bang at Carrie's house. This year the party got a bit too crazy for us old folks and we headed home pretty early. As you can see it was standing room only. Kudos to Carrie for throwing a great party.

P.S. Carrie, fix your dang mask.

Happy New Year!!!

2007-12-31T18:53:00.000-08:00

Have a great night everyone and be safe! 2007 has been a really good year for me and I hope it has for you too!

See all you fools at the gym next week trying hard to meet your resolutions.

I'll try and remember to take pictures of tonights festivities (one of my resolutions is to take more photos)

The pic above is from last year at Carrie's house. I think there is still some confetti floating around that place.

Gelbie

2007-12-29T23:25:00.000-08:00

Today has been a really hard day. We had to put my parents dog Gelbie to sleep after a rough bout with pancreatitis. She was such a sweetheart and we'll miss her terribly. It's a relief to everyone that she's no longer suffering. Rest in Peace sweet girl.

A Must See!

2007-12-29T23:22:00.000-08:00

I got this set of DVDs for Christmas and it's sooo impressive. If you haven't seen them yet rent or buy soon! You wont be sorry.

P.S. Make sure you get the BBC version

Who is your candidate?

2007-12-27T06:33:00.000-08:00

This is pretty neat, it asks you a bunch of questions on the current hot-button issues and then matches you up with 3 presidential candidates that fit you the best. Wait for the page to load then click the button to start it. I wasn't to psyched on some of the choices for the answers but oh well...

My top three matches in case you are wondering are

1. Kucinich (I don't know why but I can't seem to bring myself to totally like him yet)

2. Gravel (people think he's crazy, and I know he wont win)

3. Biden (I don't even know a thing about him)

HAHA it's going to be an interesting year!!!

WTF?

2007-12-27T06:25:00.000-08:00

Is this for real? I don't want to be paranoid but...

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2007-12-26T20:03:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas! I will be using my IKEA G.C.s to start by bathroom remodel project. Don't worry I'll be posting some pics of me trying to figure out the instructions, IKEA may be cheap but they sure make you work!

For my cookie platters this year (I give these out to family) I made some old favorites of mine and added a new one this year

I also was in charge of making a cocktail for our family get together and it was a hit! Here is an awesome recipe for pomegranate cosmos

Lastly, I made some awesome mac and cheese that I was very happy with!

Me and the pups are spending the day after xmas recovering from all of the excitement by laying on the couch doing nothing.

Republican YouTube debates

2007-12-01T17:04:00.000-08:00

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I'm a Democrat. Even so, I think it's very important to know what both parties have to say and who the candidates are. I watched the Republican YouTube debates last night. They were given some hard questions from people all over the country who posted their questions on YouTube. Well, I can safely say that I wont be switching parties anytime soon! It's funny how much both sides pander to their audiences. Giuliani seems like a car salesman to me. Ron Paul has some interesting things to say and doesn't seem like he's sold out and telling everyone what he thinks they want to hear, however none of them are anywhere close to who I would want leading the country I live in.

Anyway, if you haven't checked it out yet click HERE to check out the debate

neat products

2007-12-01T16:34:00.000-08:00

I found these aprons online and thought they were so cute

Actually If you need Christmas ideas for anyone who is a cook or just a food geek in general I found a list of great ideas here

UPDATE: Kudos to the boyfriend for paying attention to my blog and buying me a cute apron for xmas! I will be sure to drop more hints on here from now on :)

What are the consequences of your lifestyle?

2007-11-10T11:38:00.000-08:00

This is a pretty cool site to check out. It asks different questions about your lifestyle and figures out if everyone in the world lived like you do how many earths it would take to support that lifestyle. I'll tell you that I live pretty modestly, the only meat I eat is seafood which is pretty rare for me. I recycle everything I can and I was still pretty sadened by my score. But, it's important to know these things in order to do a better job at protecting the place we call home.

What really bums me out is knowing that the only reason we haven't totally trashed this planet yet is because there are so many poor people who can't afford to do the damage that the people with the capability to read this blog do.

Congrats Mr. Gore!!!!!!!

2007-10-12T10:53:00.001-07:00

On winning the Nobel Peace Prize

Proof that Ann Coulter is not only a moron but possibly a man

2007-10-04T16:12:00.000-07:00

Let's let Ann dig herself a hole here (and hope she falls into it soon)

“If we took away women’s right to vote, we’d never have to worry about another Democrat president. It’s kind of a pipe dream, it’s a personal fantasy of mine, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women. It also makes the point, it is kind of embarrassing, the Democratic Party ought to be hanging its head in shame, that it has so much difficulty getting men to vote for it. I mean, you do see it’s the party of women and ‘We’ll pay for health care and tuition and day care — and here, what else can we give you, soccer moms?’”

Seriously what is wrong with her? Do the republicans even want her anymore?

Yummy cookbook

2007-09-30T08:55:00.000-07:00

No, the actual cookbook itself isn't yummy just the recipes inside. I wanted to try my hand at vegan baking and found this book. It has a lot of good explanations about ingredients and the baking process itself. And Jamie even liked the muffins I made even though he thought they looked too healthy.

one more for good measure

2007-09-30T08:52:00.001-07:00

Feist - My Moon My Man. I love her videos

How cute is feist?!

2007-09-30T08:49:00.001-07:00

haha!

2007-09-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

Jamie just had a full conversation with me while he was asleep about some food tasting bad and how I should put my fork down and stop eating ( I wasn't eating, I was trying to sleep) I don't understand sleep talking at all, but it's pretty funny sometimes.

saving the planet one sandwich at a time

2007-09-22T05:17:00.000-07:00

I thought this was a good example of how our everyday actions that we think are unimportant can have huge impacts.

Another reason to be vegetarian...

2007-09-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

This is disturbing! the meat industry is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gases and posses a larger problem than driving.

Something to think about while eating your next hamburger...

Finally!

2007-09-06T18:13:00.001-07:00

I have been a bad blog owner and have not posted anything in a long time, I will be updating more though now that I am finally GRADUATED! Yes that's right, I finally did it and am currently enjoying having a normal life complete with days off. My plans for now are to get my office organized (long overdue) and to put more energy into real estate, which I'm happy to say is going pretty well at the moment. I'm also going to make an attempt at getting involved in some volunteer work.

Sicko!

2007-07-13T00:50:00.001-07:00

Wow, Jamie and I just got home from watching Michael Moore's new movie "Sicko" we were a bit blown away. It's really upsetting to see how people here are treated laid out so plainly in black and white. It forces you to contemplate our systems and how our "democracy" works (or not) and who it is working for.
If we aren't home some day look for us in France where we will be getting free health care, living in a beautiful condo in the city for less than I pay for my mortgage, and getting our required minimum 5 weeks paid vacation, having free nannies do our laundry and living longer then the rest of you suckers here. Oh yeah, and dressing the pups in cute berets!

late night shopping at Winco

2007-07-13T00:38:00.000-07:00

Jamie and I eat very differently. For example I go to a farm every monday to pick up the share of produce that is grown for me there. I also don't eat meat other than fish, and generally try to keep my sugar intake somewhat maintained. However I've never really considered myself to be and extremely healthy eater. That is until the other night... Jamie and I went shopping, guess which groceries are mine and which ones belong to Jamie.

I couldn't believe it so we had to take a picture since it was so ridiculous! Plus I had just filled up my fridge earlier in the day with fresh produce.

New 7 Wonders of the World

2007-07-07T19:45:00.000-07:00

This is pretty cool, I voted on my fav. of the nominees for the new 7 world wonders and most of the ones I picked got voted in.

Check out the list here

4th pics

2007-07-06T19:27:00.001-07:00

Hope everyone had a great 4th! Here are my boys relaxing in the shade after a big dinner. We also had my yummy cake!

Happy 4th

2007-07-04T23:58:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th to everyone. I've been thinking about what today means the last couple days. I'd say in general I'm not big on nationalism as I feel sometimes we use it as an excuse to treat others poorly or care less about those who aren't Americans. Plus with all of the crap going on in our government at the moment it makes me feel a little less then patriotic.
Then the more I thought about it I realized maybe some pride (and I'm not talking about acting superior) is what we need. Maybe if we took a bit more pride in our country and the ideals that we are supposedly founded on we would stop feeling so disillusioned and helpless and get motivated to make a change.

Just a thought. Hope you all had a fun and safe holiday!

Sleep weirdness!

2007-06-30T16:07:00.000-07:00

So my boyfriend (Jamie) has always done kind of strange things while he's sleeping like talk out loud or even have entire conversations with you where he will answer questions and everything but lately things have gotten very strange...

Weird:
A couple months ago I wake up in the middle of the night to him jumping out of bed and yelling "Don't move, stay where you are" and then he switches on the light and says "oh, thank God!"
So I'm a bit freaked out at this point and ask him what's going on and he starts jabbering about leaking oil on the floor and then starts snoring with his eyes open! CREEPY! The next day I ask him about it and he remembers having a dream that the headboard was leaking oil and he was afraid I was going to get my shoes dirty if I got off the bed and stepped in the oil (I guess in his dreams I wear shoes in bed?).

Weirder:
So in the mornings I have to wake up first for work so I cover up Jamie's head with a blanket so the light doesn't get in his eyes ( I know I'm the sweetest) anyway one day I guess I wasn't smiling when I did it and he opened his eyes and started freaking out because it looked like I was going to smother him. So the next night while I'm sleeping all of a sudden Jamie puts a pillow over my head! In reality he just set it on my head I was sleeping on my side so it didn't go directly over my face. I started freaking out and he was totally asleep and had no idea he even did it.

SCARY!
Last night I wake up to Jamie head-butting me in my mouth! It hurt really bad, I guess he was trying to reposition himself in his sleep but we aren't really sure how his head got over my face. My lip got cut and my teeth hurt really bad today! That's not all though about a half hour later he elbows me in the side on my head and then another half hour goes by and he half-ass backhands me on my check. This was either a really strange set of coincidences or he's got it in for me! haha. Jamie, watch your back!!!

Great recipe sites

2007-06-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago I stopped eating all meat except fish & seafood. So in my search to find some new recipes I have stumbled across a few good sites, not all vegetarian but all seem to have really good ideas for dinner or baked goods which I love!

This is my fav! It focuses on planing your weekly dinners in advance and even gives you a grocery list of what you would need to make all of the meals which takes away all of the guess work and stress of trying to plan your meals last minute. It also uses a lot of really cool grains and beans I wouldn't normally use.
http://www.veggiemealplans.com/

This is a great site for yummy baked goods and has great step by step pictures and commentary, check out the cinnamon rolls! I think I'm making them for x-mas presents next year
http://www.thepioneerwomancooks.com/

This is a neat idea, you check the boxes for the items you have in your house and it will give you recipes for the ingredients you have on hand.
http://www.cookingbynumbers.com/frames.html

This is a great site for vegan kids lunches. The site author also sells some food plan books and such but other than that the site is lots of fun and has great ideas if you want to give your kids something other than the sugar filled crap the schools try and pass over as food.
http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/

my personal blog

2007-06-24T22:16:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! So I'm thinking this blog probably isn't going to have any sort of theme or real cohesion other than the fact than I'm the person writing it. It'll probably mostly contain interesting information I come across from various sources, helpful tips, cool websites, recipes and whatever ends up on my mind at the end of the day. So stay tuned... and if you are a dog lover at all check out my other blog
http://otisallie.blogspot.com/