04-28-15

Yesterday was sunrise, today is sunset.  With no sun, because today was kind of drippy.  But still lovely.

04-27-15

I knew it was going to be a beautiful day from the moment I started my jog.  The air was warm, the colors were saturated, and the sun was already tossing light all around the lake.  Love running outside rather than on the treadmill.

04-26-15

"Same, same, but different." - Cooking instructor, talking about Thai cooking

Bruce and I took a cooking class today.  It was called Thai Two On.

We personally de-stemmed herbs, toasted spices, browned meatballs, cooked pork tenderloins, and used a mortar and pestle to crush the toasted spices.

As a class we made:
2 cocktails, Tamarind Whiskey Sour & "Thai me up!" 
Two soups, Tom Yum and Tom Kha Gai
A spicy glass noodle salad
Massaman curry and ChiangMai meatballs
Thai sweet rice with mango

A lot of the same ingredients, but used different ways to make different flavors.

Fun day, fun food.  Thanks Mom!

04-25-15

Today was more debate, more alley clean-up, and prom!

Fun to see the kids dressed to the nines, having some fun with the photo shoot, and going to dinner and prom as a bigger group.

04-24-15

This weekend Lower Columbia College is hosting a debate tournament.  Which means we can pop in to watch Anastasia's debates.  Some were one-on-one (her more comfortable style) and some were two-on-two (the style UW uses).  All of the topics were drudging - should fracking be banned, should armor piercing bullets be banned, should OPEC be disbanned, whether infrastructure is harming national security,  should the US back out of nuclear discussions with Iran.  But, fun to see the process and fun to see our little spitfire in action.

04-23-15

Back to Commerce, a place we can walk in the rain.  We ran into fellow player Sparky.  This is how we look, crawling up and down Commerce.  Xander is now a level 8 agent, hit the big time!

04-22-15

My case for my new phone finally arrived today!  I didn't realize I was ordering it from overseas, so longer shipping time.  I can quit worrying about it being unprotected now.  And I can be amused by the whimsical design!

04-21-15

This evening was a Xander kind of day.  BOTH kids were actually around for dinner, and Xander was with us at the Comedy Sportz fundraiser at RA Long.  Playing with the selfie mode.

04-20-15

Walking Commerce in the dark again?  Yep, that seems to be what we do.  The weather is turning cooler again, brisk walk.  The marijuana store was all decorated with sidewalk chalk in honor of 420.

04-19-15

Spent some time out in the sunshine, but today was about getting caught up on life.  One of those chores that pops up a lot so washing my hair.  I don't wash it in the morning because I don't want to blow dry permed hair, so int he evening I wash it in the kitchen sink.  The sink looks dirty, but it';s the silica from the new water source.

Checking off my to do list...

04-18-15

"Are you guys doing a scavenger hunt?  There are too many people walking around looking at their phones to not be something going on!" - Passerby

We ended our trip at a park in Portland for Ingress training for our upcoming June event.  Then we split into two groups and walked up and down Alberta street playing and farming gear.

We were there long enough for coffee, a snack, and dinner!  This photo looks way to empty and normal to be Alberta street, but it is!  Fun way to replenish all the items we used on the trip.

04-17-15

Day 2 of our Salem mini vacation, all day in Salem.

We walked almost 14 miles, seeing where Ingress took us.  The capital, Willamette University, downtown, the riverside park, back downtown.

A highlight of the day was a fresh restaurant we found to sit on the sidewalk tables and battle the local toads at dinnertime.  I had an Asian flavored veggie stir fry with polenta and golden beets with pistachios and mint.  Bruce's burger (with pickled beets) was tasty too.

04-16-15

Day 1 of our mini vacation to the Salem area.  Our route took us to Portland, Woodburn, Mt Angel, Silverton, Salem, Kaizer, and back to Portland (Alberta Street).

One of the things I love about Ingress is that it takes us to many many local churches, and we saw some beautiful ones on this trip.

This happens to be at Mt Angel, where we completed several missions and walked up and down the German themed streets.

04-15-15

This is the only photo I took on Mom's birthday!  I seem to be in a photo taking slump.  Yet life goes on, and we had a nice day hanging out and resting up.  Happy tax day!

04-14-14

Xander is 17 today!

He has always wanted one of those huge sandwiches from Subway.  Not the party platter, but the wide 3 foot long one.  Uncut.

Evidently with no veggies.

He tried to eat it all himself, but finally shared.

04-13-15

The eagles have landed!  After several days up north with Grama & Grampa, Mom & Jerry are with us for a few days.  Just a few days, but two important days - Xander's birthday and Mom's birthday!

04-12-15

Went for a walk this evening.  Didn't need my heavy coat.  Should've gone paddleboarding instead.  What a difference a day makes!  Didn't want to come inside.

Experimenting with my new phone camera.

04-11-15

Ironic that the wettest and coldest day of my long weekend is the only day we have plans.

Family outing to Ridgefield to participate in a nighttime blacklight color run.  With thousands of our closest friends; it was hard to run, too many people.  Not a fan of all the color powder, needing to jog to stay warm, and having to take a shower before falling into bed, but it was fun to do together.

04-10-15

While I've been on vacation, my game plan has been to spend half the day at home "getting stuff done" and half the day out exploring and Ingressing.  No surprise that the time at home is shrinking and the time Ingressing is expanding.  Today we left the house at 10:30am and got home at 6:30pm. 

Our first stop was here, at a park with a statue garden.  Found some new gems, Portland has so much to see!

04-09-15

Spring has sprung.  I was surprised on Easter when I went in the alley and our tulips were in bloom.  Lovin the sunshine today, went out and about with no coat!

04-09-15

When Anastasia was last at UW the cherry trees were in full bloom.  She got me a crystal cherry tree kit at the UW bookstore for my birthday.  On Easter we watched the crystals form.  It was fun to watch, and the tree in full bloom is striking.

04-07-15

The bridge crew are busy, busy, busy.  Loud too.

04-06-15

Spring Break!  

Well, for high school, not college.  So between classes, scatter- to friends, to Seaside, to Seattle, to... anywhere but home, and no car left for Dad...

04-05-15

Happy Easter!  We had a quiet day close to home, watched a crystal tree grow.  He is risen!

04-04-15

Today we headed to Pacific University in Forest Grove for First Saturday.  Xander and his girlfriend, Jesse, joined in the fun.

We introduced Jesse to Ingress and to bubble tea.

I hacked 83 new portals, deployed 523 resonators, and finally got a badge for glyph hacking.

04-03-15

Happy Good Friday!  I decided not to take off work at lunch to attend the community Good Friday service.  I also decided not to go to the cantata that Xander and Jesse went to.  But I did rope Bruce into coming with me to help pack Easter food baskets in the Highlands.

I put myself into rolls.  The packer would tell me how many people were int he family, I would multiply it by 4, then work on getting a package of rolls packed.  At Thanksgiving we were really low on rolls, tonight we had plenty for the 40+ boxes we packed.

04-02-15

I don't need Easter decorations in my life.  But this one is so darn cute, not sure if I can chuck it in the garage sale pile or not after Easter.

There's a lot of things I don't like about my new phone, but the camera quality is something I really do like.

04-01-15

Sometimes we have cookies at Bible Study.  Sometimes we have leftover cookies.  Often they come home from us, because our group knows we have a cookie monster at home.  I feel like I have several copies of this same photo, just insert different cookie varieties.