family soup

I love Ava and I love having a dog in general but when the weather doesn't get above 18 degrees, it's nice to not have to go outside to walk a dog. I went for a quick walk this morning and swore that I wasn't going outside again for the day.

The weather was great for hanging out inside with the family, playing more games, and making soup. My mom had me make my West African peanut soup yesterday and today, she relied on me to make my vegetable soup too. I love being able to cook for the whole family and it was extra special this time because my brother, my mom, and I all chopped veggies together for the soup (while my dad entertained the baby and my sister-in-law took toddler duty). I love cooking with family and they loved the soup so it was a win-win!

coming out of the dark

 

It's been a rough time for me these past couple of weeks which is why I haven't been posting (also, the holidays are crazy-busy). It's been rough due to a number of things, primarily the weather, the dark days, and my busted ribs. 

My bike accident three weeks ago ended up hurting longer and more than I had anticipated and caused me to work shorter work days. I'm very lucky to be in a workplace where that's possible. Mostly, I would have to bail after 6-7 hrs and go home and medicate with pot. What's also been hard for me is not going to the gym. I was on such a good streak before this but any lifting was discouraged by Dr Google plus it hurt when I did minor lifting at home so I skipped the gym for three weeks. But I returned today!

Over the weekend, I felt better and at the last minute today, I decided to go in and see what I could do. I didn't bench and I couldn't do my inclined sit-ups but I managed to do all of my free-weights, albeit at a lower weight. Still, I feel good for going in and this way I'll be able to get in almost two weeks before I go back to Nebraska! My new thing was bussing (and then walking) to the gym.

What else?

Most of the days, my new thing was a new work contact but I'll touch on the highlights:

On Tuesday, 12/15, my office mate brought in her baby who is about 6 months old so I couldn't help but pick him up a few times (and parade him down the hallway).

On Wednesday, 12/16, I finally finished "A Tale for the Time Being." I really need to read more books and less comic books this next year.

On Friday 12/18, I DJ'ed the work party for Ashes. This is the first year in seven years that I haven't DJ'ed the client party for GW so it felt good to have one gig. It was nice and chill and I got to get better acquainted with people that I had only met briefly before. Plus there was a pug.

On Saturday, 12/19, I went to Tim and Sophia's and we played a bunch of games. I tried Exploding Kittens and we also played 'werewolf' which I had played years ago as 'mafia.' I was originally only planning on being there for a few hours but I stayed all day because I liked the new people that I met.

On Sunday, 12/20, I spent most of the afternoon working on Hayleigh's x-mas present. I can't go into more detail because I haven't given it to her yet.

On Monday, 12/21, I tried two new-to-me dark beers at NWIPA's dark beer fest, one of which had coffee in it. I don't think I slept that night except for maybe two hours.

On Thursday, 12/24, I walked all of the way home from work which was only possible because A) we got out early for Xmas Eve, B) it wasn't raining, and C) Andrew worked from home that day so he was with Ava. It took me just over an hour which isn't too bad. Also, for dinner, we went out for Bejing Hot Pot. Neither of us had done Hot Pot before so it was quite an experience.

On Christmas Day, I got up early-ish and made coffee in the house! Since we've been living together, we have never had the capability to make coffee in the house but Andrew bought a French press the day before so I made coffee (and pot chocolate chip cookies) first thing. He got me a bathrobe, underwear, and a new vape pipe. I got him a shirt, a sweater, and rain pants. It was nice just to have an easy Christmas morning. Afterwards, when we were both high on cookie dough, we walked around Tabor with Ava. We took her into the dog park quick and she did not attack another dog! It's a Christmas Miracle!

On Saturday, 12/26, we tried to go to the new Tarantino film The Hateful Eight but it was sold out. I had to buy tickets on-line for almost a week later (New Years Eve) instead. However, we did go to the upper part of Sam's Billiards to have a drink.

On Sunday, 12/27, it snowed! Plus I went to Tim and Sophia's where we played Power Grid. It was fun but I don't have a strong inkling to play it again.

rendezvous

We left the beach today with Ava feeling much better. And I feel better too. I feel recharged and ready to face the world again.

On our way back, we stopped at Rendezvous in Tillamook for brunch. It was good and I'd go back. One of the many reasons I like going to the beach with Andrew because he's motivated to leave early so we get back to the house with some daytime remaining. I used this time to eat a pot cookie, put up the Christmas lights, do laundry, and make our Thanksgiving dinner. It didn't turn out that great since the tofurkey was thawed and refrozen and then somewhere in between when I cooked it. Also the gravy was a bit thin but for the first time, I roasted garlic and then made Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes which turned out to be heavenly. 

random wednesday holiday

 

I'm never one to complain about taking a day off work but this holiday caught me by surprise. I had forgotten that we get Veteran's Day off before this month approached. I was pleasantly surprised but that also meant I had to work on Sunday to ensure everything could get done and I also didn't make plans for the day. At the last minute, I switched Ava's blood donation appointment to today so I wouldn't have to take time off work to get her there. She's been kind of a pill lately. She's been growling at Andrew randomly and on Monday she ran out of the ballpark to attack a dog who was running alongside a cyclist on Center Ave. So I was really really pleased with her today. She did a great job giving blood and ended up getting a sock monkey who I've named Lana. When I headed to the gym, I told her it was time for the kennel so she went to grab her monkey to put into her kennel with her. It was adorable.

What else?

On Monday, aside from being pissed at Ava for attacking a dog (which unfortunately isn't a new thing), I also took half the day off work to wait for the new internet provider to install our new service. Comcast jacked up the rates and CenturyLink had a good sales pitch so I went with them. I am susceptible to salesmen and shouldn't be allowed to answer the door.

On Tuesday, I met a lady through work that works at a crisis line. The day before, I had a crisis meeting with a customer and can't imagine that being my entire job. I'm glad there are people out there who can handle it.

Today, I also made new pot cookies. The dosage was a lot lower this time and I plan on giving most of them away to people. I had one this morning and it lightened my spirits a bit but I was completely functional.

the cookie experiment

Years ago, when I still lived at Long House, a guest from a party brought over pot cookies. Ashes put them in the freezer and later told me that I could have them. There were three of them and, on two separate occasions, I ate the first two. They were nice and mellow so I didn't think a thing about eating the third on another night. It turns out that the third was so much stronger. I came out of my bedroom and informed everyone that I was going to need comfort. Ashes told me it would be okay, assured me that I couldn't die from a THC overdose, and told me to sit on the couch while we watched TV. Every time I tried to get up from the couch, Dean would stand up from the floor in front of the couch and push me back down. He was such a good stoner helper.

Yesterday, my new thing was making totally legal, home grown pot cookies. Today, after work, my new thing was eating one. I knew I should have started with 1/2 but I wanted to honestly say what a full cookie would do. To make the THC oil, I took 10 grams of pot and cooked it and then cooked it in oil, and then cooked it again, froze it, thawed it out, strained it through a cheese cloth, and it was ready. I only used 8 teaspoons of oil as the recipe recommended using 1/2 teaspoon for every serving. I still have at least half of the oil left. However, one cookie was enough to fuck me up proper.

I use pot frequently but I'm a very low user. I like to ride a long but shallow high during the weekend or a quick puff after work so riding an intense cookie train was a bit too much but I survived. I tried watching the Walking Dead but it was too intense so I cooked. I managed to make some really good enchiladas and do some laundry but I couldn't leave the house. After a bit, I couldn't do anything but lay on the bed and wait for it to pass. I did look up how much pot you'd have to take to OD. A 175 lb adult would have to ingest 33 grams of pure THC. I definitely didn't have pure THC, and I only used 10 grams of pot for the oil, only used 1/2 of that for the cookies, and only ate 1/25th of that in the one cookie I had so I knew I'd be fine. I had bought the ticket so I was going to ride the ride.

Fortunately, Andrew came home and we watched Party Girl which is the perfect movie for my situation. Next time I try baking, I will eat 1/4 or 1/8 of a cookie first and work my way up. But, it does mean that I have way more pot and edibles that I'm going to be able to use.

make it a good day

Yesterday, my new thing was going to be Mediterranean Stew. To make the stew, I went and bought a slicer like my mom had in Nebraska. It's a little inclined plastic shelf with a blade in the middle for slicing veggies. However, I got a little careless with it so my new thing was going to the ER at Portland Adventist.

Since I've been in Portland, I've only had Kaiser Insurance until I started this job. Since I've been at this job, I've just been to the doctor once when I had an ear-ache and they did nothing about it. At Kaiser, ER visits were only a $20 copay so I thought that it would be worth it since I couldn't get my thumb to stop bleeding. I didn't cut too much off of it; it was only about 1/8 inch round circle. I bandaged it up 3x and put some blood clotting powder (which stung like holy hell) and it persisted on bleeding through. I got worried enough to go in and they cleaned it up a bit and put a little band-aid on it and billed with 10x what my copay would have been at Kaiser. So I was extremely pissed off at myself. I was upset that I did something as stupid as slice my thumb when the slicer even gives you a tool to hold the veggies (but in my defense, it doesn't work so well for eggplant. I was upset that I went to the ER in the first place and then that I didn't just walk out when they said it would be a $200 copay. So, I was determined to have a better day today.

I had coffee with Andrew, walked Ava to Tabor, took a THC lozenge, deep-cleaned the house, trimmed the bedroom curtains (my new thing), started watching the last season of Continuum, got a bubble tea, read comics in the hammock, met Andrew at Dove Vivi where he bought me dinner, and then met up with friends to watch the new Black Panthers documentary. Mission accomplished.

What else?
Earlier this week, I finally finished the complete Civil War in the Marvel series. I remember a friend telling me about it years ago as it was coming out. Since I've been getting comics on my Kindle, I've been interested a lot more in DC than I have in Marvel but I did enjoy this, mostly because it introduced me to a batch of new characters with whom I was previously unfamiliar. My favorite of these was Jessica Jones (pictured above) so I also got the Jessica Jones:Alias and Pulse series which I finished tonight. I'd highly recommend the series, even to someone who is less than familiar with comics and Marvel in particular. She stands alone enough to make it understandable and it's just fun.

born under a super harvest moon eclipse

Despite having dropped my camera in the water two months ago and not having it work, I brought it to Nebraska with the hopes of reviving it. Thankfully, the old rice trick worked again and cleared the water out of the lens so I was able to take pics of the lunar eclipse. I sat outside on my parents' back porch and watched it happen, photographing it every now and then just to see how much progression had actually taken place (and to get a good photograph).

It was the harvest moon, a super moon, and a lunar eclipse. It's pretty cool that all of that came together, especially because I became an uncle again today. My brother and sister-in-law welcomed little Caleb James into the world today. I'm glad I'll be able to see him so soon after arriving into the world!

What else?
Two new things today: walking over the viaduct in Gibbon today to go to their big park which Ava loved and cooking sweet potato chips with my mom and sister. I loved it all.

from garden to grillin

 

When we bought our house last year, we were happy to find that there were large tomatoes already growing in the garden boxes. The house has a watering system on a timer so they were cared for and ready for us when we were ready to move in. Andrew's been working hard to cultivate a garden that produces food and is also functional this year too. For the last several meals that we've made at home, tomatoes have been a prominent ingredient. I daresay that we have too many tomatoes but it's just made me expand my culinary resume to include more tomato-laden recipes.

Today, I made tomato, veggie sausage, and pecorino pasta which also included fresh basil which Andrew got from the garden. Next year, I am going to insist on potatoes and possibly onions because I love pulling food out of the yard. It tastes so much better!

What else?

We went on the people's preview of the Tilikum Crossing. It was cool to be able to cross it but there were WAY too many people. It will be a blast when the hype dies down. Also, today was the BridgePedal so there was an excessive amount of garage cyclists (people that pull their bikes out of their garage a few times a year for big events like this). It was annoying and as goddess as my witness, I will never ever participate in a BridgePedal.

dog miles

Weeks ago, I scheduled today as my floating birthday vacation day. I had my family holiday in January, President's Day in February, and my Mexican vacation is coming up in April so I knew I was going to need a day in March. I just happened to luck out and pick a day with beautiful weather so Ava and I hit the Gorge.

After I found the hike by a net search, I thought it sounded ideal for us. It was about 50 minutes away from our house, right off I-84, starting at Wyeth Campground. When we got there, Ava was on leash for maybe 10 feet until we got behind the road barrier and I knew it would be car free. After that, she was free and ran like mad. She's really good about checking in with me though. We walked up the path along Gorton Creek to see the falls before heading to Trail #400.

We saw one group of hikers (two guys, three children, and one German Shepherd) right away but the didn't see another person for four miles until the end where we turned around and ran into two girls and a guy. After that, we just saw one mountain biker heading up the trail. It was so peaceful and so great for Ava to be able to run so much. Eight human miles is probably equivalent to 20 off-leash dog miles. She would run back and forth and into the brush and down the wrong path. She was really in her element. And so was I. I want to do this a lot more often.

What else?

Yesterday I played Civilization with Tim and Sophia. I almost won but it's okay. It was a bad weather day that took out the power right after we started playing so it was ideal conditions for a board game. My new thing yesterday was making a cucumber/avocado dish that was simple and delicious.

that other reality

Last week, while we were enjoying the beginning of Country Fair, one of our friends passed away. Since I've been in Portland, I've only had to attend two funerals. One was for my co-worker's child and the other was for my grandma. I consider Portland to be a wonderland of sorts and death doesn't belong here. Today, I had to face that, even here, death is a reality that will still find us eventually.

I can't say that I knew Syd very well. We had only met a handful of times but I was more acquainted with his partner, Cat. Syd has faced a long and grueling battle with cancer, only to pass away due to the doctors' denials that it had returned. Cat's been with him for over 20 years. I can't imagine what she's going through.

Yesterday was Syd's funeral which was referred to as a celebration of life. It was hard for me to view it that way when I didn't know him very well and I could see that my friend was so clearly suffering. Despite the imposing religiousness of the ceremony and sermon (Syd wasn't a church-goer) and the meat at the reception (Syd was an animal rights activist), it was nice to have such a large gathering of people there to honor Syd's memory. It was also a lovely setting, on the marina on Hayden Island.

Afterwards, Cat wanted to go to the beach so we made that happen. Ashes, Victory, Josie, Jesse, Lori, Cat and I all headed to Manzanita at sunset. We didn't really have a plan other than to get to the beach. Normally, I would have had to bow out of the trip due to Dean but Sophia was able to care for him. Cat also had her little dog Buddha so I bought some treats for her.

 

It was a long drive but it was also nice to be with friends. We got to the beach after dark. None of us were really prepared for a beach trip so we didn't even have jackets, except for Cat fortunately. Initially, Lori was going to rent us a hotel room and told us to buy some food. When we found out all of the hotels were booked, we just sat on the beach by a campfire. The beach was calm and beautiful and not too cold or windy. Sometime after midnight, we decided to head back to Portland. I drove Ashes' car and he drove Lori's since hers was a stick shift and she was too tired to drive. We didn't get back until this morning at 3am.

I love my friends. I love that they would be up for going to the beach at the last minute at the wishes of a friend in need without any attempt to dissuade her or push their own agendas. We're a special bunch and I don't want to lose any more of us.

What else?
In witnessing Syd's ceremony, I would like to get out of making a will right now and instead opt to do the cheap version by posting my wishes on my blog. I don't want a priest there, especially one who doesn't know me. I haven't gone to church in a long time and that's been a conscious decision. To have my funeral be overtly religious would be to dishonor my memory. If I change my mind one day down the road, I will update this. I would have the people from the Spirit Booth at Community Village do their thing but that's not a requirement. Also, I don't want meat served but dairy is fine. I want whatever animal I may own to be there and I want to be cremated. There's a cliff outside Manzanita where my ashes could be dumped but don't pull a Lebowski and let them fly back in your face.

I haven't been taking a lot of pictures lately so I haven't been updating my blog this week but here's what's happened:

On Monday, July 16th, I woke early in the morning at camp and registered for classes on my I-Phone. I got into the class with my instructor that I had for my generalist class which went along with my internship two years ago. I'm thrilled about that. Also, on the ride home, Tomas taught me how to play Backgammon. I was exhausted and not in the right state of mind to learn the game but I think I got the concept down.

On Tuesday, July 17th, I was hit by a car on my bike. I was and still am 100% fine. I was biking in a crosswalk that pedestrians were in as well on Powell and 28th by the McDonalds. The eastbound traffic stopped and a car was slowing in the westbound traffic but she didn't hit her brake all of the way. I was in front of her when I noticed she wasn't actually going to stop but I couldn't speed past her because I didn't know if the cars in the right lane were going to stop or slow down at all. She tapped by back tire and my bike stopped so I jumped off. I cussed at her and then saw she was maybe in her mid-80s. She pulled over and gave me her info. I released the quick release on my tire and it fell back into place. She told me to get it looked at and I had to spend a good amount of time consoling her. Maybe I should have called the cops because I don't think she should be driving still but I'm hoping she'll realize that on her own.

On Wednesday, July 18th, I got my bike checked out. Corey at Seven Corners had to true the tire but it was fine other than that and he didn't charge me anything because he's super-awesome. I bussed out to Clackamas for a store visit for the first time.

On Thursday, July 19th, I went to Veggie Grill for the first time. I also picked up a book on defending animals called the Bond. I like it so far but it makes me want to quit my job and devote my life to animal activism. Later on, Ashes and I picked up the door for Sophia's room from the store and I bought a spring which I used to fix the front screen door. I also went to the Hunger Games with Jesse. It was okay but a bit long. I'm impressed that I managed to stay awake through it all since it's almost a three hour movie and it didn't start until 9:15pm.

On Friday, July 20th, I made chocolate walnut cookies for Syd's service. I was also thinking that I would bring them to a BBQ that Andrew and I were going to at his friends Mark and Emily's house but they weren't cooled in time.

aye phone

It's here...

I feel like I just joined some cult that I've been evading for years.  I'm an IPhone person.  It's new and it's not exactly comfortable but but it is impressing me.

What else?
Today I baked chocolate chip peanut butter cookies for my internship for the first time.  It's been a good day.