I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! I'm home putting the finishing touches on my dessert contribution to Christmas dinner. I hope you are all having a warm, safe, and memorable holiday. Can you believe it's snowing in Portland? Yep! It's been coming down steadily for the last three hours. As significant snowfall rarely happens in my fine city, it is quite the exciting event! It's perfect snowball snow, wet and extremely pack-able. I'm grateful I have nowhere to be tonight when the temperature drops further and all this wet, slushy snow freezes. Those of you in places that get considerable amounts of snow would laugh if you could see how Portlanders react to even the tiniest bit of snow. It's not unusual to see cars abandoned on hills and people "unable" to make it to work when there's just a light dusting. It's not the snow I'm cautious about, it's the other drivers on the road!

Enjoy the rest of your holiday!

Coming Soon!

Somewhere between Christmas cards and wrapping presents and last-minute shopping I promise to update my blog soon!

Watch this space for developments...

Holiday Rundown

Even though I'm not responsible for Thanksgiving dinner, preparing for the holiday takes time and energy a single day doesn't usually require. Here's the rundown on my Thanksgiving week:

11/19 – Put on my game face and strapped on the elbow pads before venturing out to the grocery store. I knew if I put it off another day, the lines would only get longer and the shoppers would only get crankier. I completed my ingredient list for the yummy Apple Cider Spice cake I was baking for my Thursday contribution.

11/20 – Began cleaning my apartment, knowing how nice it is to come home to a clean house after being away for a few days. I had barely begun before being distracted by a book I wanted to finish. Next thing I know it's 11:30 p.m. – way too late to use the vacuum, run the dishwasher, and start laundry. But I'd finished my book!! The evening wasn't a total waste.

11/21 – Tonight I bathed my dog, Abby, in anticipation for her visit to my parents house. A clean dog makes a much nicer house guest than a dirty one. She's a very tolerant bather, but even without her resistance, she's still 62 pounds of dog and is hard to strong-arm. Not to mention how hard it is to suppress her urge to shake! I accomplished a lot Wednesday night, bathing Abby, packing, cleaning, and baking my cake.

11/22 – Happy Thanksgiving! I drove the 110 miles south to my parents' home in Springfield, dog in tow. Our group was small this year, just my parents, my younger sister Jaylyn, and a friend from her church ward, Jenny. Oh, and two dogs. Abby and my sister's dog, Maggie, got along fine. Abby desperately wanted to engage and play with Maggie but Maggie didn't want much to do with Abby. I was worried that part of the visit wouldn't go well, but the dogs were completely fine with one another. Dinner was delicious! Thanksgiving was everything I wanted it to be. Lazy, relaxing, and low-key. No family gathering is complete (no matter how small the group) without playing games. We played Catch-Phrase after dinner and had fun teasing each other about our clue-giving skills!

11/23 – We observed Black Friday with some early-morning shopping. Jaylyn and Mom were out-of-control and out of the house by 5. I met them a little after 6 as I am utterly unable to rise any earlier. Though, my older sister gets the crazy award for leaving to shop with her sister-in-law before 4. Granted, when you have kids I imagine it's even greater incentive to take advantage of all the sales. But why even go to bed? After shopping for a few hours, I returned home to shower and recharge before picking Jaylyn up at work so we could catch an afternoon showing of Enchanted. She and I hit another couple of stores after the movie, got home in time for dinner and I was asleep on the couch by 9. Upstairs in bed by 10. Such excitement!

11/24 – Tried to sleep in, but when Abby heard the rest of the house waking up she became restless. Sometime during the night she jumped up on the bed with me where I found her curled up at my feet the next morning and I knew it was silly to think I could ignore her and continue sleeping. After breakfast, I watched a little football with my dad before the two of us began working on my car. Well, really he did the work and I held the screws and observed. I needed to replace some lights which ended up requiring the dismantling of a large portion of the dashboard. But thanks to my dad I can now see how fast I'm going when driving at night! Thanks, Dad. It was with great satisfaction we put it all back together without any leftover parts. After that we watched a very disappointing Oregon game and then I drove back home to Portland.

All-in-all it was a very enjoyable holiday! I hope yours was good as well.

Gobble, Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

Weekend Wedding

This past Saturday I attended my friend, Becky’s, wedding at Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, WA. I also dusted off my photography “skills” and acted as photographer for the event. It was fun having a task to keep myself engaged. The drive out to Stevenson was quite rainy, but I was still able to enjoy the scenic waterfalls and views of Columbia Gorge along the way. AND I was able to use my favorite bridge - The Bridge of the Gods - to cross over to Washington. How great is that name? It has a Native American connotation that evokes wistfulness and intrigue and heritage all rolled up into one. And I like the way the words sound rolling around in my mouth.
Jasmine, the flower girl, insisted on a photo with me!
Views from the lodge

Click here for more information on the Bridge of the Gods, both in modern terms and Native American legend. It’s interesting, especially if you’re familiar with Northwestern geography.

(I didn't take this picture.)

Things I Learned 11/11 - 11/17

Things I Learned This Week:

Florida does not have a state income tax

A flowerpot falling from a second-story apartment will not survive the impact.

Honesty has its rewards.

I can no longer get by on small amounts of sleep.

Timing is everything in my commute.

Some folks do not have a "best behavior".

I enjoy my own company.

What did YOU learn this week?

Sharpest Tool in the Shed

I generally get my news online rather than watching the programs on TV. Due to not having more than seven channels, I find I can access a much broader scope on the internet. I guess that goes without saying. Anyway, yesterday I read this headline "Georgia Farmers Fear Water Hogs." And you know what my first thoughts were? Yeah, that's right. I started wondering what water hogs look like. Are they like wart hogs? Are they mean? Why are they menacing the farmers? NOT my most intelligent moment. I was literally picturing a wild animal chasing the farmers around their fields - an editorial cartoon come to life.

So, if you find yourself on a farm, keep an eye and an ear out for the elusive water hogs. And next time you brush your teeth, wash the car, or do the dishes don't leave the tap running or you might turn into a water hog yourself!

Unexpected Gratitude

Sometimes the best thank yous are the ones we don't expect or feel entitled to receiving. Recently a woman I work with had to make an extremely unexpected trip to England to help her husband arrange funeral services for his mother. I assumed some of her responsibilities while she was away and, as a thank you, she brought me these. I didn't help her out expecting any grand gestures but it was nice being appreciated and having her acknowledge that my help made it easier for her to be away with family. Looking at the flowers on my desk makes me realize how often I let the opportunity to say thank you slip through my fingers because I'm just "too busy" to stop and make it happen. That's something I'm going to work on...remembering to say thank you for the small, human gestures I so often take for granted.

Halloween Pictures

My sister Debbi (aka Peace) and me (aka Quiet).
Jarae and her friend Cameron
Secret Service Agent Tanner Bean

Happy Halloween!

May the Great Pumpkin be with you.

Halloween is serious business

I was talking to my four-year-old nephew, Keaton, last night about Halloween. Having talked to my sister earlier, I knew she was trying to talk him into being something other than his first choice, Batman, because the costume doesn’t fit him and she’s not jazzed about buying another one. So we’re talking and I ask if he’s sure he wants to be Batman. I even start suggesting other things.

Keaton interrupts me. “Jen, Batman flies.” End of discussion. How do you argue with that?

Am I The Only One?

I feel conflicted when a book I love is adapted into a movie. As I’m reading, it’s relatively easy for me to imagine the characters in my mind and create my own visual rendering of what is happening on the pages. And if a book really moves me and stays with me, it’s as though I have a personal relationship with it - one that I wish to protect. I know it’s a natural consequence but I worry that in the translation from book to screen, the fabric of the story will be lost and Hollywood-ized and the story will be compromised and cheapened and hollow. This morning I discovered they’ve made an adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. I thought this was a beautiful book, one of the best I’ve read in the last few years. It’s entirely possible the movie will be true to the story and faithful to the plot, but how can they possibly fit it all into a two-hour movie? I could maybe support a mini-series, but a feature-length film…I don’t know. Of course I’m sure I’ll end up seeing it, but with some amount of trepidation. On a positive note, though, maybe the movie will spark interest in the book for that handful of people who haven’t yet read it. It’s been a best-seller for ages, quite popular with book clubs and the like. We shall see…

Banana Crumb Muffins

I had some ripe bananas to use and found a fantastic banana muffin recipe.

Banana Crumb Muffins

1 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 bananas, mashed

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 c. butter, melted

1/3 c. packed brown sugar

2 T flour

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

1 T butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease 10-12 muffin cups or line with paper liners

In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 c. flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture until just moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 T. flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 T butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.

Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

The only variations I made were to substitute oil for the 1/3 c. melted butter and to add some chopped nuts and a splash of vanilla to the batter. Bon apetit!

If it's not one thing...

Last night I realized - again - that my couch really isn't that conducive to providing a good night's sleep. Why, you ask, was I sleeping on my couch when I have a perfectly comfortable bed? Well, the water heater in the apartment above me sprung a leak over the weekend and I now have a dehumidifier sitting in my bedroom, sucking all of the moisture out of the room. Reasons it does not make a good roommate:

1) It is really quite noisy.

2) I'm asthmatic and with no moisture in the air, I'm unable to breathe. Not ideal.

3) It puts off a surprising amount of heat. The room is like a car that's been sitting in the sun on a hot day with all the windows tightly shut.

4) Window! I'm unable to have the window open, making the air stale stale stale. And did I mention dry?

5) The bedroom door has to be shut and I'm too accustomed to sleeping with it open.

I really think management should have to pay my electricity bill this month or at least make a contribution. I had an industrial fan running for two days and now this dehumidifier. What's next?

This reminds me of the time on my mission when, as a joke, my companion and I brought home a discarded water heater and put it in our roommates bedroom as a practical joke. Ahh, the memories!

Success!!

Forgive me for being excited about this, but I don't have kids so when my dog makes me happy, it's a big deal. I met a couple friends for dinner tonight and decided to leave Abby out of her kennel, free to roam the apartment. I've been slowly experimenting with this, with the end goal of being able to leave her out whenever I have to leave her home instead of crating her for long periods of time. I feel like a terrible owner everytime I put her in. But such is city, apartment life. Anyway, this is the first time I've left her at night by herself and she didn't cause any damage! That I can see at least. When she first came home from the humane society there were some disastrous trials in which it was quickly determined she couldn't be trusted to be out. Now that she's older and 100% adapted to me and our home she seems better suited to staying home alone! As long as she doesn't start inviting her canine pals to come over and play when I'm at work we should be fine...

More Oregon Scenery....

Oregon Coast

How lucky am I that such natural beauty is just 90 minutes away??

Isn't the internet grand?

This is why I love the internet and email. I read an interesting article about the writer and poet Dorothy Parker the other day and decided I want to read a biography. I looked at the usual bookseller sites but was unable to determine which bio would be most true to its subject. And I hate wasting time on an unsatisfying book. So, I did the tiniest bit of sleuthing and now just two hours later I have an author, a title, and a strong recommendation. Thank you Mr. Kevin Fitzpatrick, boardmember of the Dorothy Parker Society located in New York for your helpful email!

Bit of trivia, Dorothy gave us the line "Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses."

Now I have one more book - What Fresh Hell is This? by Marion Meade - to add to my neverending list. I'm going to have to live to 150 to read them all. And that's only if they stop publishing books today. Otherwise, there will be another few thousand to add to the list over the next 120 years!

Roadkill

My dog and I almost got in an car accident last night. We were out running errands and a car coming towards us in the other lane made an abrupt lefthand turn, forcing me to slam on my brakes. Abby was standing in the back seat looking over my right shoulder so when I instinctively threw out my right arm it was met by 62 pounds of dog flying forward. Judging by the cuts and bruising on my arm, I think she won the collision. If I hadn't put my arm out, though, I honestly think she would've ended up close and personal with the dashboard. I guess it's a good thing she wasn't in her normal position with head out the window, tongue flapping because hitting her neck against the window frame wouldn't have felt too great either. And if she'd bitten her tongue and there'd been blood...well, we all know I would've been useless. Some stranger would've come upon us with me passed out in the front seat and a bloody-tongued dog licking my face in concern. Here's a picture of Abby in happier times for all of you who haven't met her.

Employee of the Month

Ugh. Is there anything worse than having to come in and work on a Saturday? At least I don't have to deal with phone calls or other employees coming to me with questions. As much I dislike coming in on my day off I certainly get a lot accomplished!

To Market, To Market

This morning, I got up nice and early (for me) and went with a friend to the Beaverton Farmer's Market. It had been months and months since I'd been. I'd forgotten just how much I enjoy wandering up and down the aisles admiring the produce and marvelling at the beauties found in the flower stalls. Need berries? We've got 'em. Lettuce? Comin' right up. And let's not overlook the peaches and plums and hazelnuts and beets and beans and onions and squash and corn and all the other things I can't call to
mind. There were even stalls selling halibut and salmon that had been caught just hours before.


And the flowers! I saw the most beautiful dahlias I think I've ever seen today. They were simply amazing in their perfection. I'm a very tactile browser - honestly incapable of looking at plants without reaching out and feeling the leaves and the flowers. Fortunately, the stall keepers don't seem to mind!

Detroit Lake

Yesterday I had to drive to Bend, OR - about three hours from Portland in the central part of the state - and must say it's such a pretty drive it's well worth the hours in the car. For today's installment of "Look how beautiful Oregon is!" I present to you Detroit Lake, one of many scenic highlights on the drive.

Jarae's Birthday

Happy 10th Birthday, Jarae!! To celebrate, she had a bowling party with friends....followed by pizza, cake and ice cream back home.

Keaton celebrated by asking me to make my feather boa into a hat.

I shake my fist at you!!

Are noisy, inconsiderate neighbors reason enough to give up an otherwise good apartment? I'm beginning to think so.....

Here I Am

I kind of feel like I need to do a quick “this is where I am and this is what I do” post. Just to cover the basic small-talk topics.

I’ve been living in Portland, OR for the past 6 or 7 years. I have spent most of that time working for a small-ish software company located in one of the suburbs, with the current job title of data support specialist. The majority of the work we do deals with chemical management software that enables companies to maintain compliance with environmental and safety laws through the use of our programs. Basically we take their material safety data sheets and integrate them to a searchable online database. That way, instead of having binders and binders of hardcopy safety information, they can simply use a computer to search for the info they need. (Which is handy if you’re exposed to something toxic at work and need to know asap if you should flush your eyes out for 15 minutes or if a mere 10 will do! J) I am the person who looks over the data one last time, uploads it to the customer’s database and then communicates with the customer that their data has been processed. This also means if they have questions or concerns, I’m the one they call. It’s admittedly not the most exciting place to work, but I’ve been able to do a fair share of advancing over the years, moving up through the ranks. www.dolphinmsds.com is our company website. This is not a covert ploy to bring in business!!

Obviously, as an adult, work takes up most of my time. But when I’m not at work I like to fill my time with the activities that make me happy. I have been blessed with a good, solid group of friends. I can be myself around them because there is no fear of judgment! And what a luxury that is. Some family you’re born into and other you create yourself. This has been a particularly trying year in my life and I wouldn’t have survived the bad days without them!

I really enjoy living in Portland. (To the dismay of one of my brothers who is always trying to lure me to Boise!) But Portland is lovely. Not too big, not too small. There’s a fantastic cultural scene. Plenty of recreational activities for the adventurous. Head east and you’re in the mountains, head west and you’re at the coast. It’s green and beautiful!! Yes, it rains, but this particular woman wouldn’t have it any other way. In fact, after weeks of hot, humid sunshine I was so happy to wake up on Tuesday to rain!

I hope you are all doing well.

Book Recommendations

Have any of you read anything of note lately? I'm always on the lookout for good books to read.

Thoughts on happiness

"I keep remembering one of my Guru's teachings about happiness. She says that people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you're fortunate enough. But that's not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a might effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don't you will leak away your innate contentment. It's easy enough to pray when you're in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments."

-excerpt from Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert, page 260, paragraph 1

Can I make this work?

It seems many of my friends are trying out this here blog-thing and after months of thinking about it, I decided to start my own. Months, you wonder? Yes, like anything I take on I have to spend time getting used to the idea that it's impossible to do it "wrong" and while every post might not be witty and engaging and terribly interesting to you, the reader, it doesn't mean I shouldn't write!

Plus, it's a way of journaling my life and when we see where we've been, we can truly appreciate where we are.