Kayelyn

Friend and family-

My dear friend, Kayelyn Louder, has been missing since Saturday 9/27. All of her belongings including her phone, wallet and car were found at her house. Even her one true love, Phylis the pug, was accounted for.  Please help get her photo out in hopes of finding someone that has seen her. She lives in Murray, Utah.  The police can be contacted at 801-264-2673.

If you're on facebook, please help spread the information. You can repost anything from my own page here.

it's right about time

Autumn landed yesterday. It was 3 pm in September, a Thursday, and it was perfect.

It came in on the north wind, blowing right into my backyard, turning only a few leaves the slightest of orange hues, but rustling them all in one cacophony of a blustery fit. A grey cloud cover came along from not far behind, and despite a three month memorable love affair with my sunny patio, I welcomed the gloomy canopy. Before the pavement became puddled, I ran out into the first plump drops to take a quick twirl on wool-socked tips of toes. Spiced cookies were immediately baked, mulled cider filled a big pot, its warm scent of clove, cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger boldly wafted through the house to a soundtrack of Patrick Watson while my sweetheart taught me a new game, Othello (a minute to learn... a lifetime to master!). 

It was perfect.


Nearly a year has passed since I've put this little blog to any use, and although I've started out on various "catch-up" posts, no matter how I approach it, summing up a years worth of events seems slightly arbitrary. Which is not to say it hasn't been an exciting adventure-filled twelve months, as it most certainly has. It's been a year built of moments like that of the arrival of fall; quiet, easy, still, simple and lovely. All mortared together in a mess of strengths and weaknesses that made themselves known during the many moments that were complicated, chaotic, hard, tear-filled, and ugly.

It was perfect.

The mulled cider is gone for now, but is certain to make many more appearances in the months to come. In its place are vegetables, herbs picked from the garden, and chicken bones, simmering into a stock on the stove for the soup we'll eat later while Bauer snuggles up by my feet, still cloaked in wool (don't worry, clean pair). It's raining, and the sneaky hound has cleverly turned my toes that are tapping to Hall and Oates'  No-can-do's into an ear rub-- you've got to admire his ingenuity. Soon he'll grow restless and won't want to take a walk because it's raining. But once he remembers how much he loves the smell of wet leaves on the ground, he'll be glad it's fall, too.

Autumn is here. It's 3 pm in September, a Friday, and it's perfect.

 Living away from family can be hard, but it makes visits with them even more sweet. Ben spent the last month training for a new job in DC (he's back now, and adjusting to working from home very well), so I took the opportunity to go see him and to see Brady and Dani's cute family. Dani and Brady have done a phenomenal job raising their two endlessly entertaining and incredibly well behaved little ones. Liam is thoughtful and insightful and I could listen to Elsie's darling little voice for hours. I've plenty of photos I'll have to add later, but for now, here are some silly animated gifs, mostly of our fun time at the Maryland Renaissance Festival.

 Elsie the baby dragon shows off her fire breathing skills, and Liam his funny faces. 

 

a quest for a healthy summer in which I learn all yogurts, even of the same nationality, are not created equal

I've been a fan of greek yogurt for quite sometime, but lately I've become completely enamored with the creamy tangy treat, jumping into a full fledged gastronomic love affair. I've been eating it plain, with berries, in sauces, dressings, ice cream, and perhaps my favorite, overnight oatmeal, which is obscenely simple, and delicious on an almost stupid level. But I'll get to that in a minute. First, my sad sob story of how I made a terrible life decision involving my new love.

It's no secret that I'm in nothing near a fitness buff or health nut. I prefer lazing about in the shade with a book over an afternoon jog. I like gravy, and butter, and bacon, and cheese, and breads. A lot. With my pants fitting a little more snug lately than I'd like and feeling a bit low energy, I've jumped on a fitness plan which involved making an effort to work out more than the occasional yoga class, and eat breakfasts that don't involve gravy (as often). I'm not a calorie counter, but I've taken some nutrition classes and feel like I have a pretty good handle on how many calories should be coming in, and despite my love for junk, genuinely enjoy eating healthy. I hit a jackpot at the grocer when my favorite flavor of yogurt, honey, was on sale. I cleaned them out, grabbed some berries, and practically skipped home with my breakfasts for the next few weeks in tow.

The working out part was going great, but after a few weeks I didn't feel any different, in fact I'm pretty sure I'd been gaining weight. I couldn't figure it out! Until, I made a startling discovery. After removing one of the sale stickers, which was strategically placed over the nutrition label, I was shocked to realize the greek yogurt I'd been eating for breakfast EVERY MORNING, for almost four weeks, was not in fact like it's cousin chobani, with zero grams of fat, or even 2, or 3, or 4 grams. Instead this carried a whopping 19 grams of fat. No wonder these little cups of dairy brought me so much happiness. It was made of nothing but cream. I have never felt so silly for not paying attention to the label. It turns out, eating a cup of cream every morning does not help with a lady's fitness plan. At all. I've learned a valuable lesson, and can't help but laugh at myself. This is what I get for trying to be healthy.   



Overnight Oats

I've been seeing recipes for this make-ahead breakfast for ages now and only recently gave it a go. I can't believe I waited so long. It takes two minutes to throw together, and makes for a filling, cheap, healthy (especially when not using cream yogurt), and delightfully tasty breakfast. Possibly the best part is how much room you have to experiment. I've altered the recipes I've found online slightly, but used this recipe as a reference (whose photo I also stole for below). You can leave out the chai seed, but I suggest keeping it in, as it really fluffs up the oatmeal and adds some protein. 

Try it and let me know what you think!

catching up

It's been another ancient stretch of time since my last efforts of maintaining this here blog. I admit, I have no legitimate reason for this. Great things have been happening, despite my inability to tell the blogger world all about them.The greatest probably being that my handsome gentleman friend reached the wise and dapper age of 30...



....almost three months ago.

Despite my belated blogging, we had great fun celebrating with friends and going out for what may have been our best meal in Portland yet, at a restaurant called June. Although I offered to bake him anything his heart so desired, he requested to bring his thirties in with a triple layer rice krispy treat. This, he explained, would feature the white rice cereal's sugary cousins,  fruity and cocoa pebbles, who together would meet in a trifecta of crunchy, marshmallowy goodness.  Even without having a baked treat for his birthday, he regrets nothing.

Now, if you'll indulge me, I have a small bit of a sentimental gush of adoration I need to take care of:

Ben is my charismatic warrior, and my partner in crime. He has all the qualities a person ought to have to be loved and adored. Between the intelligence of an encyclopedia, a knack for explaining just about anything with a contagious passion, and his wonderful sense of humor, he is endlessly entertaining and informative. With a simple, kind, smile he can melt away the residue of any terrible day. There are not many people I can spend hours upon hours with, doing nothing in particular, and never get bored. He inspires and encourages me to do and be better. I could brag and boast about him for ages, suffice it to say, there's really not much more a girl could ask for in a beau.

I'm incredibly proud of all the hard work he's put into his education, being a full time student while working a full time job, he's managed to maintain a 4.0 and win the appreciation and respect of all of his professors. He's having a lot of opportunities open up to him with his education, and I look forward to seeing where it takes him.


 Happy 30th year, Mr B Alexander. 

-*-

This marked my ninth (!!) winter in Portland, and although by the time March rolls around, I'm glad to see the sun more, the grey rainy days generally don't get to me. It might be conditioning from my time spent in Alaska, or maybe just fondness of the sound of rain and an excuse to wear hoodys and scarves,  but I find a sort of comfort in dreary weather. This year has been completely different, and it seems as if I'm not alone. Many in the NW seem to relate, even most Oregon natives I know have commented on how ready they are to have this winter behind us so it can quickly be forgotten as we're brainwashed by the perfection that is Oregon Summertime.

I've tried to stay busy to make the transition to spring go by a bit quicker, and luckily I have some friends looking for the exact same thing. A Ladies Night has been created, whether it's hot-tubbing at a friend's place, an event like Ignite Portland, or a yoga class, it's been a welcomed way to spend the last few months. Most recently, and what has possibly been my favorite, is a dance class. It's my first dance class in years and really has me outside my comfort zone learning the moves of  Bollywood. The class has been a riot, as you can only take yourself so seriously with all the skip-hoppin', shoulder-shakin', and hip-shimmys going on. Oh, and of course, the head wobble. The best part is hearing the instructor say in his thick Indian accent, "Yes, Okay! ...and do not forget the unnecessarily large smile! Very important! And head wobble! Are you saying yes? Are you saying no? We do not know! Good! Good!"

If you've never experienced a Bollywood movie, you probably should. Even if it's just the once. They have a sweet, lovable innocence and naivety about them, and then of course, there's the cheese. They're dripping with cheese; Overly dramatic everything. Especially the facial expressions. The dances are very literal translations of the songs, which makes it feel like dancing in full body pretend sign language (which, as you may know, pretend sign language and I go way back).  A friend and coworker is a huge fan and has been doing a terrific job of introducing me to the genre, (having only seen a handful I'm fairly unfamiliar with Bollywood film) and they're quickly winning me over.

-*-

There was a recent sad time for Mr Ziggy Stardust, who found a mystery rubber object that he must have mistaken, as he does most things, for a delicious treat. This treat, turned poor life decision, landed Zig in the vet's office when his would be snack was lodged in his intestines acting as a cork and caused him to balloon into a comically round shape of a dog. 

 

The poor little guy couldn't hold his head up, and spent most of his time propped up in a laundry basket, the only place he could seem to get comfortable that wasn't a lap. His buddy, Bauer, took good care of him as he recovered. He has a killer scar, but is now back to his crazy self.

 

 -*-

My sister Camber came up for to stay with us for her spring break trip. We laughed until we cried and ate good food until we almost burst; it's never enough time, but I'm so glad she came. She is such an intelligent and beautiful lady. I'm proud to be her sister.

Recently I was also able to have lunch with my darling grandparents, who were in town on their way to the Oregon Coast. It was fun to catch up with them over a delicious spread at Kenny & Zuke's, one of my favorite delis. Grandpa had found an article about a mother who years ago had attached some stamps to her daughter and used the mail service to ship her; I still think of this a giggle to myself. What fun people I come from.

-*-

 Last month I took a quick weekend visit to Logan to see my wonderful family. The long drive by myself had a therapeutic affect on me. The weather was beautiful and reminded me just how much I miss the dessert skies.

 I was able to meet the handsome Owen, Lindsey and Jake's newest adorable ball of cute, and see Emily for the first time since her return as a Brazilian woman. It was fun to strum the uke with Em, play with cute kids, and visit with everybody.

  (stolen from my mother's blog)

I feel incredibly fortunate to come from such a loving and supportive family. I'm so proud of all of my siblings; no matter how different we are, or how far a part we may be, life has yet to hand anything out which we have not been able to rally as a family and get through together. I know we have our parents to thank for that, and I hope they know how lucky we all feel to come from such amazing people.

Oh, vacations. I love you so good.

Our Mexican getaway was marvelous, long road trip and all. It really couldn't have been any better. The weather was a wonderful mid-high 70's with the exception of our last day at sea which has a few drizzles (which, to be honest, was quite welcomed by me. I really started to miss the grey cloud cover I've become so accustomed too). We were constantly snacking on delicious treats over card games and conversations, we read by the pool, people watched, took naps on a whim, and laughed until our cheeks hurt. It was fun to have an excuse to dress sharp and we spoke with some really interesting people. My favorite being the Ukrainian linguist who spoke with Ben while I was able to listen in transfixed by such a beautiful language.


Exploring Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada was great fun, especially the tiny hole in the wall recommended by a local who had ceviche that dreams are made of.  We decided 8 days on a cruise ship wasn't enough fun, so we prolonged our vacation a couple days and let our inner children run wild at Disneyland. We had entirely too much fun and definitely burned off most of our  gluttonous cruise calories hitting as many rides as possible.

I've been playing a lot with animated gifs from sequence shots, and ended up with almost 12 gigs of photos. Needless to say I have quite a few files to sift through. More will most likely be on their way, but until then, here are a few to help me be less of a procrastinator.

Turkeyween

I have so many things to say about this exciting thing called life. Being on a computer for a living has definitely changed my willingness to spend time at a keyboard during my personal time.

Lately work has been crazy bananas, as all of my clients for the last six weeks have been the most irrational and rude group of people I may have ever encountered (as it turns out, most people in the motorcycle world in Wisconsin are not very kind). My fellow project managers and I hit record numbers for the month of November, (which as a business lady I now know is a term that can be thrown around as a generalization to mean "great success") and for the first time in a couple months I feel caught up. I've had almost an entire week completely void of waking up in the middle of the night in a panic trying to remember if I'd requested a domain, or submitted this or that form.

But you have to work hard to play hard, and I feel like I've put in my time to almost be deserving of my lavish birthday gift from my wonderful, handsome, gentleman friend. Ben and I have a joint google calendar to keep track of our busy schedules. On my birthday I discovered an event Ben and entered spanning ten days within December reading Happy Birthday! Depart LA, Port in Cabo. The sneaky son of a gun had spoiled me big time with a cruise! It was quite the surprise, and to say I feel lucky would be a huge understatement. We've been counting down the days and with less than a week remaining until we leave, we're both getting antsy. I can't wait to have my best friend all to myself as we lounge about as a gent and lady of leisure. 

In preparation of our adventure I've put myself on the strict budget and my very first weight loss fitness plan. I have never attempted any sort of diet, or even tried to lose weight, only to actively try to be healthier. To be completely honest, I'm concerned very little with how I look in a swimsuit; I work hard for my tummy! Consuming lavish pastries and delicious biscuits and gravy takes work, my friends. My intent to get in better shape is only to allow myself the ability to be completely gluttonous and avoid the guilt of the many pounds I have every intention of putting on. I am the first to admit self-control is not one of my stronger points (which is precisely why I'm taking preventative measures prior to the trip), but I must admit the sense of accomplishment that comes with reaching a weight loss goal is a great feeling.  Plus, I had to have a reason to rationalize splurging on this adorable swimsuit:

 We've been looking high and low for a suit similar to this for Ben but alas, we've had no luck. (One day... one day....)

 Holidays!

Halloween was great fun, and Thanksgiving was spent with good food and even better friends.

Halloween is always a riot, because my hoodlum pals are serious about their costuming. Everyone always looks amazing, but the best Halloween costume of the year has to go to my friend Kurtis, who was (perfectly) dressed as the berries and cream boy from this starburst commercial:

Ben and Ryan as Arrested Development's  Teamocil and Post-Hair Graft, Tobias Funke.

Ryan had even diligently searched and eventully tracked down a wheelchair for full authenticity.

 

And I went as (a slightly schizophrenic looking) Bob Ross.

 This year for Thanksgiving we joined forces with our friends Eli and Jen who hosted the great event. Eli is a graduate of culinary school and a sous pastry chef at Le Pigeon, a prestigious French restaurant in town. Needless to say, his skills resulted in phenomenal turkey day spread. Nothing beats Mom's Thanksgiving, but this definitely made it to a very close second.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the holiday season, but am eagerly anticipating the chance to welcome a new baby nephew into the world. Lindsey and Jake's second is shortly on his way, and I'm so excited for them both. (Love you guys!)