A Crazy Busy Week and Bracket Madness!

After a weekend spent recovering from my 10k PR runner’s high, the work week threw me right back into being a busy bee, and I haven’t gotten ONE run in. My legs are craving some pavement pounding. This must be what it’s like to like running.

We spent a lot of this week reminiscing about our time in Ireland just about a year ago, especially since it was St. Patrick’s Day. We went to McMenamins, our old stomping grounds, to drink Irish Stout on nitro and Irish coffee and listen to bagpipers and try and decide what the best thing we ate in Ireland was (answer-fish and chips, but we couldn’t decide what ones, and seafood stew). Tuesday is normally my running group night but I had a late meeting and didn’t get home in time to meet everyone so we did this instead.  

 

March Madness started up this week, and I’ve never filled out a bracket before. But someone at work asked if I wanted in on the bracket challenge and all I want is to be office popular so I said yes, and now I’m hooked. We went to lunch yesterday at Life of Riley, the sports bar I love across the street, in order to watch a few key first games. I was excited to order a sald with grilled chicken, and by that I mean I ended up getting  this delicious Philly cheesesteak instead. With a salad.  

 

This afternoon I’m kicking off a long weekend by reliving my youth at the state dance team competition with my bestie and his mom and I’m so flipping excited! Here’s what I liked like back in the day.  

  Then hubby and I are going to the beach for a few days of much needed R&R. It’s supposed to rain off and on which is perfect Orefon beach weather in my opinion. You don’t go to an Oregon beach if you want to lay out and tan, unless it’s a freak 90 degree day in the summer. I’m excited to run along the beach with the dog and put together a tricky puzzle I got for my birthday. Because I’m 80.  

 

I’ve been wanting to make myself one of these for a while, so I finally buckled down and did it. And I love it! I have 6 medals on it total so far and can’t wait to add to my collection. My next race is a 15k in mid-April. 

Happy Spring Break to those of you who get one in the upcoming weeks! Does anyone else think that it’s really cruel that you grow up getting regular vacations every year and then all of a sudden you become an adult and they just rip them away from you? Because I do. We should all follow the school calendar. 

Your turn: Are you doing anything fun this weekend?

What were you involved with in high school? Sports? Drama? FFA?

What do you do with any awards or medals that you win?

Weekend Recap: A Run, Some Sun, and Some Fun

I’m getting really tense watching the Bachelor finale, so I figured I would blog a little bit to release some tension. If Chris doesn’t pick Whitney, I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’LL DO. That’s clearly not true, my life will go on, but for some reason I’m super into this season. It’s gotta be my Iowa pride. 

It continues to be gorgeous in Oregon, and now we are all on pins and needles waiting for the inevitable rain to start pouring down. Our Runner Chick training run this weekend was 5 miles, which my legs were just not feeling, but hopefully the next few days of workouts will get them loosened up because hubby and I are signed up for a St. Patty’s 10k on Saturday morning. 

After our group run, my running buddy and I hit up Tom’s Pancake House for some much needed refueling. I’ve never been a huge pancake fan, but these bad boys are da bomb. I can eat them on their own, no syrup, no butter, just pure delicious fluffy semi-sweet pancakes. And they are even better when you pair them with some country sausage and two eggs fried over medium. 





Saturday night we hit up our first Timbers game…THE first Timbers game of the season. Beforehand we stopped at Laughing Planet, a local chain that serves healthy bowls and wraps with local ingredients and lots of veggies, and split some jambalaya. 



Then a whole plate of Tillamook cheese foods at the stadium. 



The match ended in a tie (lame) but it was fun, as always!



There’s still an hour left before After the Final Rose and I’m already binge-eating Trader Joes Brown Sugar Frosted Shredded Wheat (no milk, just tossing them back plain). 

Your turn: Are you dealing with Snowmageddon, or are you living it up in the sun?

What cereal do you find yourself snacking on?

Pancakes or waffles? Normally I’m #teamwaffle but Tom’s pancakes make me question all my life choices. 

Random Rainy 5k

Sometimes your friends invite you to a random, free, early morning 5k fun run and you whine about it for hours and stay up late the night before and then just HAPPEN to wake up on time to go. So you go, hang out with some great people, and get a good run in that makes you feel great about your running goals for the year, because your mile splits were decent considering this was your second run since September.

This morning was one of those times.

The Roadrunner in NW Portland was celebrating their one year store-iversary this morning, and held a free 5k group run with goodies and giveaways and all that jazz. When I wrenched myself out of bed and out the door in time to pick up my friend Angie, there was a nice, cold, steady drizzle happening. I was wearing fleece, because I’m a total n00b when it comes to cold/wet weather running. But I sucked it up and used the thought of a scalding hot shower to motivate me. Running through NW when it was early and quiet was delightful even with the rain; this is one of my favorite neighborhoods and we ran some back streets so I found some new bars and coffee shops.

We got back to Roadrunner, drenched but feeling good. Some friendly chaps saw us taking selfies and offered to take a picture for us “because we HAD to get one under the Roadrunner sign.” Then we went inside for free mimosas and beer and bagels and fruit and infused water and waffles shaped like Nikes with the signature swoosh, because Oregon = Nike. We refrained from the waffles because we had run past Stepping Stone Cafe earlier and decided we earned us a REAL breakfast.

This is said real breakfast. And DAMN it was good. Angie had huevos rancheros, I had a veggie scramble, and we split a “mancake,” which was probably the best pancake I ever had. I had never been to Stepping Stone but I will for sure be returning soon because I wanted to devour their entire breakfast menu. Plus their motto was “You eat here because we let you,” and I like my breakfast to come with a little side of attitude. The cafe itself was tiny and cozy and I LOVED it because it wasn’t pretentious, like some breakfast places can be around here. It was just delicious food and good coffee on a rainy little corner of NW Portland. I’m excited to eat my leftovers tomorrow morning.

My scalding hot shower was worth the wait, by the way. Plus Husband had already showered so I got to hoard the hot water. Now I’m lounging in my bathrobe, cheering on my Seahawks (it’s a big week for northwest sports, with the college national championship game) and waiting impatiently for the beef curry I made to finish cooking low and slow in the oven. Perfect Saturday? Pretty close anyways. I’m still riding high on endorphins.

Serial and The Urban Commute

I still don’t feel ready for Christmas, but I DO have most of my presents purchased, I’ve got one batch of cookies baked and frozen, and our tree still looks gorgeous.

I also officially started my new job on Monday, so I’ve been a little distracted. I went from working at a manufacturing company that deals in renewable energy to a retail company known for their high quality children’s clothing. I underestimated the learning curve that comes with entering a completely different industry, but I’m LOVING my new situation (FYI, I fully intend on blogging some job interview tips…one of the few skills I am really confident in). My second day of work, I was challenged to a Nerf shoutout by the CEO, and I already feel like I’m doing some REAL work.

Along with this new job comes a new commute. To downtown Portland. On public transportation. Everyone talked a big game like this was going to be horrible, but I’m choosing to view it as extra free time every day to read or dink around on my iPad. Or listen to Serial.

I’ve been reading about the Serial podcast for a while, since I’m an avid NPR fan. Serial is a 12-episode true crime story, basically. And considering I plan my Friday nights around episodes of Dateline (#Iheartkeithmorrison), it is right up my alley. I’ve binge-listened to 6 episodes since Monday, with 6 more to go, and I’m totally hooked. It is 100% living up to the hype for me. Have you listened? What do you think so far?

I need to take pictures of my walk from the train station to my office. To me, there’s nothing better than a city in the early morning before it has really woken up that’s just magical. There are a few food carts serving breakfast. The sun is rising over the bridges and Mt. Hood. I might get tired of the commute eventually, but for now, I’m loving it. Plus we are moving offices to a place with free parking next year so it’s temporary.

Anniversary Weekend

I can’t believe it’s already been three years since this day! This week, husband and I celebrated our anniversary with food/drinks/laughs. My life is truly so blessed, and things just keep getting better and better. I’ve never met someone who can make me laugh as much as this guy, nor someone who is so thoughtful. I could gush forever, but instead I’ll just talk about our great anniversary celebrations this year.

Our anniversary was on Thursday this year, so I took Thursday and Friday off from work. Thursday was also husband’s last day teaching summer school, so it was time for a double celebration. We headed to the east side of Portland to eat at Bamboo Sushi, a local place that bills itself as “the first certified, sustainable sushi restaurant in the world.” I’d been before, but Shayne hadn’t, and despite the fact that the restaurant is like an episode of Portlandia (you should see the sushi eating instructions in the menu, which is the size of a small novella) it totally lives up to the hype.

We barely used soy because the flavors were so good!

It was busy on Thursday night, but we were fortunate enough to snag a seat at the sushi bar, where we got to watch our sushi chef hard at work. Also, I learned that my knife skills are pitiful. We went wild and ordered “chef’s choice,” hoping that our bill wouldn’t be $300 by the end of the night. We sipped our cocktails (something with shiso and cucumber for me, something with Makers for Shayne) and waited to see what appeared in front of us.

We were NOT disappointed. I usually play it pretty safe at sushi, so it was nice to not know what was coming, plus the chef paced it really well so we could truly enjoy each plate. Here’s what we had:

-albacore carpaccio, with pickled shitakes and Japanese sea salt.

-a salmon nigiri flight, with two Northwest salmons, a trout in the middle, and ending with two New Zealand/Australian salmon. We ate this from highest to lowest fat content, so it started with a really melt in the mouth cut of fish, and finished with something that had a little more chew. All of them were incredible.

-poke press box, which had a great Asian barbecue taste.

-the Green Machine. This was our finale, and it was truly a work of delicious art. Albacore, wrapped with tempura asparagus and sliced avocado, topped with a cilantro sweet chili aioli. Oh. My. Word. I could eat this forever.

The Green Machine

We also had a steam bun with pork belly, which was good, but far overshadowed by the delicious sushi. After we paid the tab (which I’m happy to report was NOT $300), we rolled down the street to Rum Club for delicious rum-based drinks.

The next day, we got up and drove to the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge for a beautiful hike to Blue Lake, where we hiked 6 miles instead of 3 (I’m counting it as the 6-mile training run/walk I was supposed to do this weekend) and got eaten alive by mosquitoes. Not even kidding. We are working on our zen mindset and trying not to scratch ourselves raw right now.

We stopped for a few minutes to actually admire the lake before the skeeters found us.

We celebrated with beer and pizza on a dog friendly patio in Stevenson after our hike.

A delightful anniversary indeed. Love spending time celebrating love with my man.

Around Here – Spring Edition

Around here:
-we’ve been going to farmer’s market, every week, for strawberries and organic veggie starts for the garden (and I got the market basket of my dreams) and fresh made Popsicles and to stare at peonies
-I spent almost a week working from home with the pets while recovering from a cold that made me sound like I smoked a pack a day
-Ramsay has been ordered to lose six pounds, so we’ve been going on lengthy (aka three miles…he has short legs) walks on sunny evenings and discovering new paths and delightful neighborhoods
-we’ve been gardening up a storm (pics to come). My husband has a lovely farmer’s ran happening and my shoulders are already freckled. We’ve got lots in the works for backyard projects
-the Rose Festival Medallion Hunt was brought back this year, so we’ve taken up family treasure hunting in the last week. No success yet but I’ve found lots of parks in Portland that I want to explore

Spring makes me (and most other native Oregonians) feel alive in a way that doesn’t even seem possible in the winter. I love the sun. I love cotton jersey dresses from the clearance racks at Target and Old Navy. I love sandals. I love the smell of Home Depot, where we go weekly (seriously, if they could bottle it, I would either huff it or wear it as perfume). I love the petunia planter I put together for the front yard in an old fireplace ash bucket. I love the dog’s happy face after a long walk.

I am happy and I am healthy and there’s so much summer ahead!