Pressure from all sides

It's prime berry-picking season, the middle of a cool summer and Lent arrived about an hour ago.

But our grant is due July 1 and everyone here is in full edit mode since no money=no job.

Oh sweet berries, wait for me. I'll be there soon.

P.S. I canned my first few batches of chicken stock this past weekend! That pressure canner is awesome. 240 degrees of pure bliss. Now our freezer is empty of chicken stock and filled with sweet frozen berries. We've picked 40 lbs of berries in the past month (20 lbs of strawberries with T&P + 5 lbs of blueberries + 15 lbs of raspberries). I take a big tupperware filled for lunch everyday and Ken eats them on his cereal in the morning and ice cream at night. I love this town.

Also...

Happy anniversary to my folks. They're celebrating their 35th today.

I think Hallmark calls that "the new house" anniversary.

Congratulations!

Happy Birthday Taryn!!!!

Today is Taryn's birthday!!! Hope it's a great one.

Talk about in your face!!!!

I have to admit, the photo shocked me at first. I wasn't expecting this.

Nice article.

Birsday!

Ken made me coffee in bed for my birthday and I woke up to him sitting next to me with my dream present -- a beautiful shiny new pressure canner. I can't wait to can spaghetti sauce, chicken stock, salsa.... it will be awesome. I think it is definitely safe to say I will use it. As will Ken as he sterilizes his beer bottles for brewing. The gift that keeps on giving.

After work, I met ken downtown and we drove the 10 miles to Sauvie Island for a little blueberry and raspberry picking. The blueberries weren't quite ripe so it took us a lot longer to pick them. you had to find them and pick them off one by one rather than a whole bunch of ripe berries falling into your hand at a time. We'll have to go back for sure, maybe in another 2 weeks or so. Ken got a little disgruntled in it taking so long and was ready to leave but I convinced him to walk up the long hill to the raspberry patch. We passed the blackberries that weren't ripe at all yet and thought they were raspberries for a bit, then we realized they really were at the top of the small, but long hill.

And there they were, the biggest most beautiful raspberries I've ever seen. Bigger than my thumb. Virgin pure. All were sweet and ripe without a single person having gone through the fields yet. There was a couple in the next row, but that was it. Not a single berry was missing from the row we picked. it was heaven. We picked for 15 minutes and got as many berries as it took us in the 45 picking blueberries. It was now 7:15 and we had 8:00 dinner reservations and the farm was theoretically closed. We carried our 10 pounds of berries and rolled out, completely hurting from all the berries we ate.

So we cancelled our fancy dinner reservation and instead went to a little pizza place I love that makes fantastic pizza. Thin crust pizza lovers rejoice. They even have a great outdoor patio that we discovered half way through our meal. Instead, we sat next to a very very patient dad, his nine year old daughter and her friend as they were being nine-year-olds. Wow. I didn't realize girls at that age were so exhausting. Yep, that should serve as birth control for a while longer. I had a glass of wine, Ken had a Hair of the Dog's "Ruth" and then we were on our way with a foil doggy bag filled with yummy pizza for saturday morning.

And then there was Rogue. We're filled to the brim with berries and pizza, but the free t-shirt was beckoning me and I still have grad school mentality of "free ______ and I'm there" in my blood. Apparently on your birthday, you get a yard of beer (32 oz) and a free tshirt. What a sweet deal. I got a chipotle ale that I split with Ken. Then ken saw the cribbage board behind the bar and Krista brought it out for us to play... just the two of us sitting at the bar, drinking beer and playing cribbage. What a wonderful time! Then Ken felt a tap on his shoulder and there was a guy from his softball team. Wow. Our first run-in with someone we know. I left with a great t-shirt, great guy and great birthday.

And I woke up to 10 pounds of berries in the kitchen. It's going to be a good weekend.

HAPPY BIRSDAY LISA!!!!!

Lisa is celebrating her 28th birthday today!!!!

I believe after work we'll be heading out to pick raspberries and blueberries, then heading to Fife Restaurant for some dinner and finally Rogue for a beer or two.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART!!!!!!

The Upside of Berries

Oh my goodness, we're actually referenced by one of my favorite blogs and regular reads! I'm all aflutter.

We're described in his links, too.

Berry Dream Land

Just got this update from the farm on Sauvie Island where Taryn, Paul, Ken & I went to pick berries a few weeks ago.

Weekly Farm Report
June 20, 2005

We're still picking strawberries, which should be around for another week or two. Our u-pick raspberries are also ready and blueberries should be reading in another week or two. See you soon...

Farmer Don Kruger

Happy Birthday Ann!

Ken's mom is celebrating her birthday today. Here's to a great one!

New Pictures

Taryn has posted pictures of her and Paul's trip to Oregon and Montana when they were here last weekend. Includes pictures of our house (and back garden, mom, since you've been asking) as well as surrounding areas, parks, hikes, etc.

We've put a link to them on the sidebar to the right. Or just click here to see them. You don't have to login to view them, although you can if you'd like to save them to your account.

Weekend with Sara & Drew

Went with Sara Burke and Drew to her extended family's beach house on the Oregon coast this weekend. The house was in Yachats, pronounced YAW-hots, which is about 3 hours southwest. Went down for the day and ran around the beach with her folks' yellow labrador, drank lots of rogue beer that we picked up on the way down at the brewery in Newport, ate oysters and dungeness crab we got from the local seafood outfit and played Killer Bunnies (the game that inspired Karl to show up at our wedding reception dressed as a giant bunny. Apparently Drew's heard about it and wanted to play.... now he's addicted, go figure). Had a blast. The weather was great as was the company.

On the way down and back, you can see all the berry bushes on the side of the road are flowering -- some are just starting to have teeny green berries, the beginnings of giant lucious blackberries, raspberries, & marionberries (this one, not this one). I heard the berries will ripen in anywhere from two weeks to a month. I'm excited.

It feels like summer today and yesterday. My dream weather... flip flops, short sleeve tshirts and khakis. Warm breeze yet still cool in the evening. we had a
thunderstorm last night with some pretty cool lighting and a giant sweeping rainbow. The sky looked like Tucson. Some viewers of Fox 12 news posted their pictures... two of my favorites are below:

Another "Way of Life"?

For years, I've seen Kyle's old business card from high school that read:

Kyle W. Hampton
"A Man, A Legend, A Way of Life"

Always made me chuckle a bit due its original yet ballsy nature. Then walking through the parking lot of work this morning, I passed a green convertable sportscar with the same slogan on the vanity plate surrounding the rear license plate. I did a double take and looked inside to see if Kyle was sitting there.

Nope.

I have been curious ever since to know if this guy shares any other characteristics as Kyle. Can it be possible?

Marsha's Canadian Vacation

Is this what happens when Marsha meets Arizona?

(via toothpaste for dinner)

Sunshine and the Rain Queen

I wrote a post yesterday about how sunny it was... how I kept going outside in full lizard-basking mode. Of course it was sunny -- Paul and Taryn "the rain queen" Jackson left yesterday. Apparently it rained their entire vacation through multiple states, getting beautiful the day they would leave a town (happened in Portland, Missoula, Portland again).

Then blogger crashed and my post was gone. Curses.

Now I'm back and I will copy the text before I press the ominous "post" button. bastards can't keep me down. This post will go up.

Also seems Taryn & Paul missed all the births... since they were travelling on both days when Jackson Church and Jaden Avenenti were born.

I wrote this to Kristen this morning, then realized it pretty much summarized our weekend.

Had a great weekend though. Friday I drank at work and then and Ken went out for wine flights at the bar down the street -- I had the pinot noir flight, he had the chilean flight. Then we walked down the street to Bonfire and played some pool, which was also pretty fun. Love being able to walk... the farthest we walked was still shorter than the distance between the bellevue house and the garter. I love that. Saturday we biked down to the burnside bridge to watch the grand floral parade of the rose festival and then up to the farmers market. Picked up a bag of baby artichokes and got the best blackberry muffin I've ever had in my life. Biking wasn't nearly as scary as I thought -- was kind of fun and made me feel I was at the beach. When we got home we had lunch and then dug up part of the backyard and made a new garden bed with a truckload of fresh compost. Sunday we transplanted Ken's corn to the new bed as well as some other flowers and veggies. Then we weatherproofed the back deck for the party we're having on Thursday (goodbye party for a girl at work). Has to cure for 24 hours. Lo and behold, on the last step it started to drizzle. Go figure. Didn't seem to matter when we looked at it this morning before work. So overall, fun weekend but tiring.

Got an email from taryn; they're staying with us on Tuesday night rather than camping, so that should be fun. It was fun having them here. Then Sara Burke and Drew come in on Thrusday night; going camping with them this weekend, location TBD.

The weather is still chilly. around 65 most days. I'm still wearing jeans and sweaters, which seems ridiculous for mid june. I'm excited for sun and short sleeves, but the weather is perfect for sleeping at night and it's totally reasonable to walk around during the day without being hot or cold. In all, it feels like perma-spring. The last frost date is April 15th and apparently it feels like summer here July 4. So it really is like a long spring. The flowers are going
crazy as are our veggies. Guess there are always tradeoffs. The natives are startiing to get restless too though; it helps me to hear them bitch about the unseasonable rainy may and june we've had. Glad it's not normal.

My abusive boyfriend

I've been calling science 'my abusive boyfriend' for some time now. It sucks you in, beats you up, spits you out... and just when you're ready to leave it, it gives you just enough back to make you stay a while longer. Cycle repeat. Cycle repeat.

Today's little reward is two-fold: preliminary data and beer

So as my samples are running to see if my preliminary data holds up, there is a party out in the courtyard at 4pm. Yeah, yeah... science party... boring. But may I point out that they just rolled out four, count them FOUR, full kegs of Pyramid beer. I've never seen so many red solo cups ready to go before. I can also see the peavey speakers being set up for music and the giant charcoal grill being brought in. Free food, wine, beer & music.

Abusive boyfriend, I will stay for just a little bit longer.

New Beginnings

...today for both Church and Marriott families.

My folks moved into their new house in Pennsylvania today... now fully retired and surrounded by friends. They're so excited. The moving van is unloading their 21,000 pounds of 'stuff' as I write this. That's 600 lbs per year of marriage. Does anyone else feel like having a yard sale right about now?

And the Church's also had a new addition today. Sweet Lady J gave birth to a healthy baby boy today after 21 hours (gulp) of labor. Jackson Powell Church arrived two weeks early -- coming in around 7 lbs 6 oz and 20 inches (can't recall the exact measurements), but both Jana and baby are doing fine. Good thing Rob made it to Alaska last week; seems like a close call in retrospect. But everything seems to have worked out great... for those not familiar, Rob graduated medical school, sent his wife on to Alaska by plane while he finished up packing up the house and then driving the dogs and Uhaul (with help of his folks) up to Alaska to start his residency. Oh yeah, and they had a baby... in the span of three weeks. Slackers.

Happy Thursday and congratulations to all.

It's beautiful here today... blue skies, sunny & 73ish. Taryn & Paul missed all the nice weather and got rain and cold. Now they're in Montana and it's gorgeous. Too funny. Hilarious also that it's supposed to rain the day they come back through.

Weekend with Taryn & Paul

Taryn & Paul are off to Montana today. It was so fun to see them. They got in on Thursday and we went to Rogue for some beers. I worked in the morning on Friday (Ken took off) and then we played frisbee golf in the afternoon. After that, we went to Sauvie Island (a little farming island about 15 minutes away from portland) and did pick your own strawberries at Kruger Farm. Together we picked about 20+ lbs. Insane. $1/lb. They have blueberry & other berry season starting in the next few weeks. I can't wait to go back. You can check out what's in season and when, here.

On friday night we grilled out in the backyard for dinner and then went out with paul's friends and drank too much tuaca. Saturday we nursed our hangovers in the morning, made strawberry jam and then drove an hour and a half to Cannon Beach and then to Oswald West State Park, where we camped that night (actually, for free since it was Oregon State Park Day!). It was the most beautiful site I've ever camped. Actually gives the Mogollon Rim, which I love, a run for it's money. Different type of beauty; just insane. They supply wheelbarrows to haul your stuff down to secluded spots right next to the beach in this private cove. Our site was totally private and surrounded by blueberry bushes and salmon berries. Surfers surfing. Fires on the beach with people grilling out, throwing the frisbee, and drinking beer. Everyone was our age too -- not the 20 year olds looking to party nor many families with young screaming children. Not even the RV folk with their generators and loud quads. Made a campfire and had reubens for dinner. Rained while we were sleeping and then the sun broke when we woke up. Perfect.

The next morning we got breakfast at a little cafe and drove back to Portland. Relaxed and made more jam (this time strawberry rhubarb) as well as some strawberry fruit leathers with the dehydrator. Took showers to rid the campfire smoke smell and then went for sushi, came home & went to sleep.

Ken and I worked Monday while T&P drove an hour down to Salem to visit one of paul's relatives. They got back around nine... just in time to see the new patio furniture we bought on craigslist -- 4 chairs and a table along with 2 rocking chairs and two side tables. Too bad it was a high of 62 yesterday -- not quite patio lounging weather, to say the least.





So now it's Tuesday and they're leaving for montana this morning after breakfast with some more of Paul's friends. They'll be heading out to the Columbia River Gorge for a little hiking and camping before continuing on to Missoula, which is somewhere between 8-12 hours from Portland (I'm not sure the distance). Then it's up to Glacier National park before they'll be back through sometime Tuesday-ish. Sounds like a fun trip. We're jealous.

It was so great to see them.

Moving Day

The movers are in Virginia as we speak packing up 20+ years of my parents stuff. They move into their new place on the 8th with their stuff being delivered on Thursday. They're so excited.

Taryn & Paul got in last night. I'm antsy here at work while Ken, Taryn & Paul are sleeping and/or drinking coffee on the porch without me. Not for long though; I'm out of here, hopefully in the next two hours.

Oh, Ken's softball game was cancelled last night due to wet fields. Went to Rogue anyway; tried their recommendation of mixing chocolate stout with chipotle ale = mole (prounouced mole-ay; as in the sweetish-savory dish from oaxacan mexican cooking, a fruit and nut based sauce that is the mexican version of an indian curry. tastes awesome over chicken, rice, etc.) Anyway, the beer was awesome. And the waitress actually remembered us and asked how the softball game was. Scary. Are we the Rogue Norms?

The gods are smiling on me

The OHSU cafeteria has bagels. Cinnamon raisin, plain, onion. Big whoop. But wait! What is that spotted one in the back?

Oh it's only a parmesan herb bagel... the hole stuffed with crunchy BACON!

I am impressed. I have never seen that flavor before. It is now sliced and toasted and happily going into my belly.

Wow. Why haven't I thought of this flavor before?

Taryn & Paul

Arrive tonight for the weekend. Don't know if Ken will have his softball game or not since it's been cloudy/rainy for the past two days and the fields are likely to be muddy (i.e. not playable according to the field gurus). Anyway, don't think it will hinder our Rogue trip tonight. Good for Taryn, since that was on the list of things she's requested:

Other things I would like to do are have some seafood, possibily oysters if they are good, and see the Goonies house, or at least some part of Oregon coast. And of course sit on your front porch and drink martinis. And go to the brewery.

Too funny, just wait until she hears that the Goonies 20th Anniversary Celebration is actually being held this weekend in Astoria. Chunk's coming too. Don't think the 3 hour bus tour of Goonie sites is quite worth $25 a person... think they'll mind if we just follow the bus instead?

June Birthdays

June Birthdays - Dana Leventhal (6/4), Jackson Powell Church (6/9/05), Jaden Ann Avenenti (6/13/05), Ken's Mom (6/20), Lisa (6/23), Taryn Jackson (6/27), Lisa's Mom (6/29)

June Anniversaries - Lisa's parents (6/27/70)