The Portland BAM's: Days 1-2

Although I've heard how happy and settled BAM (Bran, Audrey & Mike) are in Portland, it was nice to see for myself. Their adorable house is hyggeligt and just perfect for their family, the neighborhood quaint and charming with almost everything one needs within walking distance, and they are well on their way to making good friends and creating a life. Driving from the airport to BAM's left me a little sad that Portland had not been an option for me to move to (at least not at this time). So I contented myself to enjoy the 2 1/2 days I had with them. And enjoy we did.

My arrival late Thursday night was met with a tasty late dinner, tour of the house and a chat before bedtime. Friday morning I awoke in the basement guest room to the sounds of Audrey's pitter-patter above me. As she had been asleep when I arrived the night before, I was so excited to see my girl. (Lest you feared, allow me to reassure you she is just as sweet and adorable as she was when they moved in April, if not more so. Oh, how I adore that girl!)

After a little reading and playing, we walked to Bertie Lou's, a favorite local breakfast place, where Miss A colored and entertained me with her Blue Steel impression. (It melts my heart!)

After breakfast we meandered home, stopping along the way to talk with the neighbor who had dinasaurs in her front yard (and a real life one that she showed us),

And played on a swing a kindly neighbor had hung from their tree close to the sidewalk so other children could play.

Following an afternoon nap, my long-time friend Phoebe (who now lives in Lake Oswego) & her 3 kiddos came over to play on the slip-n-slide. Seven year old Henry took a few minutes working up the courage to fling himself onto the yellow plastic, but once he did, there was no stopping him.

Calvin & Audrey just loved playing in the water and walking on the slide.

Baby Agnes was cute as always.

It was great seeing Phoebe!

After Phoebs and the kiddos left, we grilled for dinner, visited with next-door neighbors who'd stopped by, relaxed and just enjoyed one another's company. My time in Oregon was off to a good start.

Yes, that is BACON.

I've heard it said that bacon makes anything taste great. And while I do love bacon, I wouldn't have thought everything. On a recent season of Top Chef, one person made bacon ice cream and I can't say my taste buds were humming at the thought. But this delicious creature below, ABSOLUTELY tastes great with bacon.

With Audrey down for a nap and B getting dressed for a BBQ, Mike & I headed downtown with plans for a stop at the famous Voodoo Donuts. Not being very hungry I was willing to take a risk on something new and unusual, and so my curiosity at the bacon topped maple bar (typically my favorite donut, without the bacon) won out.

People. People! PEOPLE!!

It was TO. DIE. FOR. If you like bacon and you like maple bars, then give this one a try next time you're in Portland, OR. First off, the maple bar itself was probably the best I've ever had. And then add thick slab cut maple cured crispy bacon on top? UH-MAZE-ING. The texture and saltiness of the bacon only enhanced the sweet maple-y doughyness of the bar.

I could go on and on and on about this, but instead, I'll leave you with the photo. Again. Only bigger.

It was a big day back at work.

KCAL9 News paid us a visit to discuss the economic crisis and rising fuel costs' effects on small businesses. Kevin is famous.

I'm back! (Again.)

Back from Oregon and gearing up for my last 2 weeks in Cali. It was so great seeing Bran, Mike & Audrey (whom I adore more than ever), Phoebe & her kiddos (always great to see my long-time friend), and the Osborns (love me some Osborns). My time was so filled I didn't have much leftover to get to editing of all the photos I took there (here's just one for your summer viewing pleasure), so I'll chip away at them over the next few days and post when I can.

Until then...15 days and counting down, people!

(PS. If anyone local has extra boxes they want to get rid of, let me know and I'll come fetch them. I need to get started packing the last of the last.)

The Adventurous Life of Me

Comments to recent posts have noted that I live the life of a rock star, full of adventure and jetsetting. Really, my life is not typically all that exciting. This last month before I move has been unusually busy, filled with visitors from afar and mini trips here and there. And the fact that I'm headed out again today--this time to Oregon to visit family & friends, while escorting the adorable daughters of a long-time-friend's-sister (confused yet?)--is really an anomoly; I don't do this sort of thing often.

Oh, who am I kidding?

I am a rock star. No pictures, please.

Back next Tuesday, posting may be limited until then.

The Birthday Continues: Family Dinner

Thanks to Kir for the tasty carne asada feast & to mom for the delicious birthday cake! And to Jeff, Dad, Bailey, Samuel & Lance for the many laughs. Love you all!
BAM were sorely missed at the family festivities, but I look forward to seeing them soon!. (As in tomorrow soon!!)

The Underwater Cam Confession

The "confession" part being: I do NOT look attractive underwater.

But for you, my faithful readers, I'll share the hilarity and keep it real. I suppose it's a good thing one can laugh at one's unattractiveness. These photos sure made Ging & I laugh for several minutes after we picked them up from the 1-hour photo place.

A select few from our snorkeling for your viewing pleasure (or view all the underwater camera photos HERE).

And my personal favorite: a self-portrait, trying to smile underwater

Good times, good times!

Boys on Bikes

While the girls (Kir, Bailey & I) got together last night to watch the finale of The Bachelorette, the boys (Samuel & Lance) showed off their rad biking skillz.

Samuel was especially proud to demonstrate the skid-marks he could make.

In exactly...

• 21 days, my moving truck arrives, ready to be filled with my belongings.
• 22 days the truck will leave Mountain Ave and head east to Chicago
• 23 days I, along with Molls & Lauren, will head north for "Road Trip Part A" (includes exploration of the Yellowstone/Montana/Wyoming/Tetons area)
• 26 days, M & L leave me and my Aunt Laurie flys (flies?) in for "Road Trip Part B" (includes Mt. Rushmore, Black Hills and through to Chicago)
• 30 days I take possession of the keys to my new apartment and fill it to the brim with all my stuff

This is crazy. But SO exciting!

A Catalina Birthday Weekend

I am lucky in that I never have to work on my birthday, it being on a national holiday. But this year was extra cool when my birthday fell on a Friday, making for a long weekend perfect for a little getaway. Having spent only one day on Catalina a few years back, I was excited to have an entire weekend on the little island off the coast of Southern California to play in the water, take in the sites and relax.

Thursday evening Ginger & I headed out on the last boat from Long Beach Landing. Packed with groups headed over to celebrate the holiday, there was a festive mood on board with lots of laughter and toasting.

After unpacking at our hotel, we enjoyed a dinner of Mexican food and a shared mango-rita for our first night, before heading back to watch the results show of SYTYCD. (Hey! It's my birthday weekend and I can spend my first night on a charming little island inside my hotel room watching TV if I want to.)

It's inevitable that when you are allowed to sleep in, you can't. So despite my plan to sleep late on my birthday morning, I was up by 6:30am. Fun for Ginger! After a leisurely couple of hours of lounging and reading we met up with a friend Marva and some of her friends who came to the island for the day.

After breakfast we rented a golf cart for an hour to drive the scenic route around Avalon, which included beautiful views of the harbor.

After the drive, Ging & I did a snorkeling tour of the kelp forest near the old Casino building. Ginger's under-water camera yielded some, er, interesting photos from our adventure. As they are film and not digital, you'll have to wait to see those some other time. A late lunch, shower and relaxing time followed before we met back up with Marva & Co. for dinner & fireworks.

Our last day & a half on the island included more relaxing, walking around, shopping, kayaking and more relaxing.

Thanks again, Ging, for a lovely birthday weekend! (See all the photos HERE.)

Thank You & Thank You!

Before a blog wrap-up of the weekend occurs, I must first take a moment to thank Ginger, my dear friend who did so much to make my birthday day, and the entire weekend in Catalina, a fun & relaxing time. From a silly hat and Happy Birthday sign to snorkeling in a kelp forest and ice cream topped with marshmallow sauce, I felt loved and celebrated for my 31st birthday. Thank you, Ging, for all you did this weekend, and for all you are as my friend!

And a thank you to all of you who texted, called and commented (on my blog and Facebook wall) with your sweet wishes for my birthday and the coming year. I felt absolutely loved and celebrated, even though we weren't together.

Today is a good day: A list

1. I woke up rested and ready for the day
2. I showered and dressed without sweating to death
3. I'm wearing a perfect summer outfit with my turquoise top and dangly silver earrings
4. When I got to work, there was a present waiting for me on my desk.
   
5. I just had a breakfast of crisp red grapes and delicious coffee cake.
6. I'm only working a half a day so I can go home and pack because,
   
7. I'm sailing over to Catalina with Ginger this evening, where we'll snorkel, kayak, read & relax, maybe seem some buffalo, and take pictures till my heart's content through Sunday evening.
8. Oh yeah, and it's my birthday tomorrow.
   

Going to my happy place

The sight
and thought
of these
makes me happy.


Little Lemon Souffles
by Martha Stewart

And all this time I just thought it was my fault.

A visit to Samy's Camera last night may have changed my life as a photo-taker. Who knew the mildly-annoyed-with-my questions salesman would make a single statement that filled me with frustration, but also hope? That single statement was, "I think it's the camera body."

One of the primary reasons to splurge on a DSLR camera is to have the ability to take TACK SHARP photos. All the photography websites, blogs and books I read show smiling (or not smiling) faces that are crystal clear and sharp (unless of course, the photographer deliberately chose to make things blurry for artistic purposes). "That!" I said to myself, "That is what I want."

But I have to admit, while Hugo & I have captured several images over the past few months that I like quite a bit, 97.9% of the time they are never as sharp as I'd like them to be, and definitely not like the thousands of other photos I've seen. Being new to this whole SLR thing, I assumed it was me, operator error. After all, there are so many things that contribute to a sharp photograph: lighting, exposure, aperture, shutter speed, the lens, the camera body, the photographer's ability to hold the camera still, ISO, and likely others I still don't know about. So I blamed myself and figured there was a learning curve (which there undoubtedly is) and assumed that if I just continued to play with the settings and learn more, I'd eventually get tack sharp photos.

But back to how the mildly-annoyed-with-my questions salesman at Samy's changed my life. In the course of demonstrating how to properly compensate for exposure differences, he discovered that my camera was not responding like the store's floor model. He first assumed it was my lens, a non-Nikon brand (Sigma). The lens would hunt and eventually focus, but never focus sharply. Eventually, after much switching of lenses and camera bodies he made his proclamation, "I think it's the camera body. Not the lens, not you."

{Insert Hallelujah chorus!}

What followed is a frustrating tale of a tech support call to Nikon where I was told they'd never heard of this problem, but as it's under warranty, they'd be happy to service the camera, run tests and make sure that everything was working properly. This would take 7-10 (business) days to conduct, plus shipping time on either end.

People! How in the world can I be without my camera for 2-3 weeks?! I almost howled in frustration as the tears built in my eyes. That only continued when he reiterated that they'd run tests but that if the camera was working "to factory specifications," even if it is on the slow, soft-focus side of factory specs, then there would be nothing they could do, and I'd live forever knowing I can almost never achieve a tack sharp photo. More howls of frustration!

There is no good time to be without Hugo over the next several weeks, so his visit to Nikon will have to wait until after I move. I'm not happy about that, but I've accepted it. I just had to 'howl in frustration' one more time for all the interweb to read.

Thanks for listening. And feeling sorry for me, which I'm sure you are.

Sometimes it sure does feel like this

(As seen on 3daintyDELIGHTS)