Friends from Alaska

When friends that you haven't yet been able to host, call spontaneously and ask what you're doing in a weekend, the answer, for us anyway, is yes. While recovering from a nasty MLK-weekend bug Kerry and I got that phone call and decided that we needed to make a full recovery.

Though Kyle and Abbey live in Alaska, Kyle had a project in San Diego that he was managing. Since they had not yet visited us in Oregon, and since he would be flying through Portland, Kyle and Abbey decided that Abbey would fly down and Kyle would extend his stop in Portland from a few hours to a few days.

We had a great weekend of cards, wine tasting, watching football, eating amazing food, and just lounging about the house enjoying each others' company. We also had the good fortune of celebrating Kyle's birthday while they were here. Here are some photos from their visit:

The four of us post-dinner.

Joe and Kyle looking suave-like:

Kerry and Abbey looking beautiful at King Estate Winery, just south of Eugene.

Our little Town:

Sunday Short: Snow, Ice, and Relaxation

The big events are always fun to capture and seem like things that deserve some sort of record. This week I enjoyed a few small things so much that it occurred to me that a short entry here and there about the everyday things might be nice.

This week was a quiet one. We were both grateful for that because the two weeks before were anything but.

The weather in the valley was crazy though with snow and ice. On Wednesday morning we got up at 5:30 to run our 6x400 interval workout. The ground was wet and it was extremely cold when we left the house. We checked to make sure it was safe, and finding no ice, we went on our merry way. After our warm up and two of the 400s were done, we both felt a sharp drop in temperature which was dramatic enough that we could not attribute it to general chill. Extreme cold became bitter cold, but we kept running. During the next two 400s, the road got slicker and slicker until we could no longer run safely. We walked up to a new street that was much rougher and more runable with ice. On the way we could actually see the water freezing into ice. Small white bubbles would form underneath the surface and you could actually hear it crackling. We did get to the safe road and finished our work out before carefully scooting home. We both thought it was one of the more fabulous morning. We’d never had the opportunity to see the world freeze, and had never considered that the temperature might drop so severely so early in the morning. It was fun and made our warm showers even better.

On Thursday it snowed about 4 inches and OSU, in typical fashion was open. Our run that morning was great too. The snow was sticky and made crunching noises when we ran, but the world was quiet and the snow stuck in our eyelashes. There’s nothing like snow and ice to distract from physical exertion! Friday we were delayed 2 hours and had the lovely opportunity to sleep in. It was fabulous. We both vote that we always work from 10 to 5. The weekend was just as relaxing with pizza night on Friday (yum! Go Joe!), a day of catching up with small tasks and hobbies before going to my mom’s to eat a delicious dinner and play pinochle on Saturday, and a similar day on Sunday topped off with dinner with Kathryn and Ben. We finished the weekend feeling fabulous and I have almost 60 of my 9x9 quilt squares done!

Christmas

With yet another successful Thanksgiving under our belts Kerry and I marched boldly into the holiday season, venturing out the day after Thanksgiving to get our Christmas tree. While I don't think that either one of us would say that we've been displeased with our previous tree selections, until this year we had not sprung for the Noble. Quite frankly though, until this year we had not found the $25 Nobles.

While marriage is full of compromise, one of the things that Kerry and I are fairly agreed on is that a tree should at least go 3/4 of the way to the ceiling, should smell good, and while it should be well pruned, it should not look like it went through the yuletide pencil sharpener. In an effort to find this perfect tree we decided that we might need to leave the city limits (although there are plenty of places in town as the Willamette Valley provides most of the nation's Christmas trees). We turned to the paper and found an intriguing ad which read: Nobles, 12+ ft, $25. As it turns out it wasn't just the 12+ feet nobles that were $25, but rather those that fell within our desired size-range as well. Even with the plethora of trees virtually at our finger tips, it is difficult to find a Noble Fir for what we would consider to be a reasonable cost. This was a reasonable cost.

With that we hit the road ventured about 45 minutes south and met the nice elderly gentlemen who, presumably, is able to offer such affordable trees by up-selling unwitting tree-hunters with hand carved knickknacks. If either of our parents are reading this entry, you'll know that your children are rather particular when it comes to trees. We spent a good two hours wandering the property trying to find the perfect tree. We found it, cut it down, tied it to the top of the Subaru, and once again avoided being up-sold. There may have also been a few comments made by the proprietor about women and tying knots... We'll leave it at that. For those concerned, said purveyor of Christmas joy was still alive when we left the tree farm.

Now, Kerry and I own two sets of Christmas lights for the tree--a white set, and a colored set. Unless one waives his right of selection, we typically alternate between colored lights and white lights. This year we used the colored lights which meant that the white lights were used on the tree out front. We also decided that it was high time we got some other nicely-scented Christmas decorations--a wreath for the front door, clove pine-cones for the table, and one of those tastefully-smelly candles.

This was also the first year that we decided that we would try a new approach to Christmas: going back to our own house each night. We love our family dearly and found that we were exhausted at each stop because we hadn't had enough rest the night before. Generally we'll head to Eugene for Christmas Eve with the McLaughlins, spend the night, and leave between 5:00 and 6:00 in the morning to make the 4.5 hour drive to the Evans Christmas in Puyallup. We'll then do Christmas late into the evening, sleep for four hours and make the drive back to the valley for the Will Christmas on the 26th. To make sure the Wills, Evans, and McLaughlins all got the best of us we decided that each night we would sleep in our own bed. I think that our families got the best of us under this approach. We had a fantastic Christmas and felt lucky that we were able to have seen everyone.

Yes, but can we use the table for Thanksgiving?

In one of our previous installments we mentioned what a great find our table was: so beautiful, so functional, so expandable, and so affordable. All we needed to do was refinish it. And while our initial assessment of the table’s beauty, functionality, and expandability remains true, for those of you considering such a project I feel a certain responsibility to share our experience restoring this fine piece of furniture, and that process’s effect on the last point: affordability.

Several weeks before Thanksgiving, which was to be the grand unveiling of the table, we took it apart, hauled it into the garage and started the refinishing process. If you’ve never started a refinishing project it can actually be quite satisfying to pull off the layers of stain and finish and start to see the actual wood. After several rounds of stripper and many sheets of sandpaper, we were able to marvel at the beauty of our table. It’s important to note that we were originally told that this table was made of solid walnut and as such we followed Minwax’s directions for finishing this table with that assumption.

With the table down to the bare wood we began the staining process, all too trusting of the Minwax directions. We applied a thin coat of custom stain mix (per Minwax's directions), let it sit, and wiped it off. What Minwax doesn't tell you is that a thin coat of stain really means no stain at all.

Unfortunately we didn’t discover this until we put the first coat of urethane on over the stain. Within a few hours pin-sized puddles of stain started creeping up through the not-yet-dry urethane. Crap. Confident that our good friends at Minwax knew what they were talking about we followed their sage advice: “Re-strip and sand the table, apply four coats of mineral spirits to the table, and then re-stain and finish.” Once again, those of you who’ve worked with wood have already discovered our grave error—mineral spirits should be used sparingly, especially when the wood with which you’re working is mahogany, not walnut. The wood would not stop bleeding stain!

I’d like to pause for a moment and also share that Kerry and I had been working on a lovely set of chairs while finishing the table. The chairs presented their own challenges to the refinishing process and finally resulted in a trip to the furniture restoration place to be stripped. Did I mention that we were four days away from Thanksgiving? While delivering the chairs (and therefore delivering ourselves from our own personal Hell) to be stripped we picked the owner’s brain about the table. He reassured us that we were close, mineral spirits never should have entered the picture and that we just needed to keep heat and air moving on the table. The table finally dried, we applied two coats of stain, five coats of urethane and it was nearly cured in time for Thanksgiving dinner—dry enough anyway.

The chairs on the other hand were nearly dry the morning of, but since we needed to sit people at our table we opted to put pillow cases over the chairs to ensure nobody’s sweater stayed with the chair as they got up for more pie. But the table, chairs, and our zest for refinishing projects are done.

The table before:

The chairs before:

The naked table:

Kerry putting the recovered seats on the chairs:

The finished chair:
The finished table:

With the table and chairs mostly dry we had a great Thanksgiving and successfully sat ten people around our new table and had a wonderful meal.

Columbia Gorge Half Marathon

The problem with running races is that between the time you register for the race, pay your fee, and complete 90% of your training you’re never guaranteed that you won’t get sick for the three weeks leading up to it. This is exactly what happened.

If you’ve been following our recent posts you know that Kerry got sick while we were in Alaska, I got sick shortly thereafter and up until a few days before the race we were both hitting the Sudafed pretty hard. It wasn’t so much the getting sick that caused the problems it was the lack of training before a very hilly race. Hip problems, knee problems, atrophied muscles, and no sleep made the course all the more challenging. But it wasn’t all dismal.

Kerry’s mom came along for the overnight trip to Hood River, Oregon. She is a great support person to have along on a race. We were able to throw our thoroughly sopping sweatshirts at her at the turnaround point, she cheered, took pictures and even sprang for a room at the old Hood River Hotel. Thanks Kris!

The course follows the Old Columbia Gorge Highway and for the most part is closed to traffic. The first half is entirely uphill and since it is an out-and-back-course the second half is entirely downhill. After the initial hail storm that saw us out of the starting gate we were actually feeling pretty good. Once we hit about mile 7 though, mile 7 hit us. My knee and Kerry’s hip having essentially not exercised for the three weeks leading up to the race decided (without our consent) that they had had enough. In the end we ran the second half (downhill) slower than the first and our total time was about 15 minutes behind our first half-marathon in June. We’re still recovering… What couldn't be beat at this race was 1) the view and 2) the food at the finish. The view of the gorge as we were running was absolutely stunning and not something that you can see by car. The food at the end was also impeccable: Taco Del Mar, locally made soup, hot chocolate, gobs of bagels, and the ever sinful yet salvation laden Pop Tart!

I would argue that had this been our first race, we might be looking at taking up competitive croquet and leaving our exercise for leisurely runs. One of the things that I think we’ve both learned is that running has become a part of who we are—and who we are together. This, combined with a good first race experience means that we’re going to keep racing. While we were recuperating we found ourselves going stir-crazy, not fitting into our bodies just right, and coming home with dining sets (though definitely a good find). We’re already considering potential candidates for the next race.

We’ll definitely have some of the photos up soon, so check back!

Sick-tober

The days following our trip to Alaska were not really all that delightful and in fact, Eleanor was the only one who made it out of October unscathed. She did sneeze once which had my nerves on edge for quite awhile because I wasn't sure we could handle one more thing. First I got the mighty cold and spent three days home from work more or less. On the first day I only went downstairs once and I only did that to say I did. I came right back to bed after about 15 minutes downstairs and I was exhausted from the climb. Joe caught it at the exact moment when I could survive without his help, which was an odd little blessing. It hit him hard, but luckily not as hard as it hit me. For some reason colds always hit me harder than anyone else and like to make the trip south into my lungs all too easily.

On one Saturday while we were sick, we decided that we had to get out of the house. Cabin fever was setting in and we had the itch to get out. We knew we wouldn't last long, so we just picked a few places we wanted to go downtown and decided to meander until we didn't have the energy to continue. We also thought it best not to go somewhere with friends and expose the whole world to our plague. For the most part, we kept our hands to ourselves. On our way downtown we drove past an old antique/crap store that we've driven by many times and I've always wanted to go in. Joe was interested too so we parked and went in. We cruised around and at one point both saw a table we admired. I said, "That's a nice table." Joe said, "Yeah." We kept walking but I found 3 leaves packaged together that said table leaves 5 $165 (There were two other leaves that were loose). I mentioned that it seemed to inexpensive for a table and leaves and wondered if they were selling the leaves separately, but that made no sense. We both thought it would be an amazing price for a table. We kept walking and looking and then left. We have a table; we didn't need a table.

On our way to our next stop I called my mom because I had a quick question to ask her that was not related to the table and yet I found myself talking about the table. After we had left Joe and I had both said again that the table had been very nice. I told my mom that I didn't know why I was talking about the table and in her infinite wisdom she pointed out that 1. our table only seats four, 2. we won't live in our house forever, 3. that is an excellent price for the table, 4. we will need a bigger table someday, 5. that I was probably talking about the table because um...I wanted it, and 6. that she would help us store a table if necessary.

It turned out Joe really wanted to the table too and we could see it as a member of the rest of our lives. I called my antiquing grandma for advice. She gave good advice and my favorite piece was "give it a good shake." So with that settled we turned around to see if that table price was too good to be true. Now, I should say that the table needs to be refinished and that it had no chairs, but $165 seemed like a steal. I asked the woman who owned the shop if the table and 5 leaves were indeed $165. I pointed to the price tag fully expecting her to say that I was missing a digit or misreading the number and she did. She said, "oh no, that's $145." Ok. We'll take it. So soon, two sickies were removing the legs from a table and loading it into their Subaru. It wasn't exactly the calm day we were looking for, but we felt like we struck gold. Here is the table in it's before pictures. It's currently in the garage in the midst of being refinished.



So, once you have a table, you need chairs. After we looked at every antique store in the area, (still sick, we don't know when to quit) we hadn't found the perfect chairs but did find a set of 6 with another table for only $200, which is amazing for chairs. Again they need work, but working on something just makes it more your own. We decided they would be fine for the moment because the table seats 12 when it's expanded and they could be our backup-scatter-around-the-house set for the future and they were still pretty good. Plus if we decide that we don't want them later, we can sell them, probably for a bit more because we will have spiffed them up. The extra table is going that route anyway. We're pretty excited about the chairs because they have cloth covered seats, which initially sounds like a bad idea, but when you consider that you can change them out whenever you want, they are fabulous! We can choose wild and ridiculous fabrics, or cover them with themes for parties! Once we're done with this whole refinishing project, we'll post before and after photos.

So, back to sick-tober. The whole time we were sick, we were pretty trepidatious. We had a half marathon coming up on the 24th. We weren't running and we weren't really able to taper because of that. We had fit in a short long run at Kyle and Abbey's 8-miles, but there really wasn't anything after that. Luckily we'd done 12 miles the week before. But I won't spoil the half marathon story. Joe get's to tell that one.

Wisely or not we did run, and unfortunately we didn't sleep as well as we could the two nights before. That wasn't such a bad thing for the half, but it did catch up with us afterward. We picked up our second table on our way home from the half marathon, exhausted of course, unloaded the car and had a wonderful pizza dinner...oh so good. American Dream Pizza with more sauce, less cheese, artichoke hearts, bacon, and basil. Yum Yum. We even ate it in bed and watched a movie. We had just turned out the lights to sleep sleep sleep when Luke climbed into the cat box, spent 5 minutes, and produced nothing. Ah yes, bladder issue number 3 for the last two years and issue number 2 for the last two months. Awesome. So we hauled our sorry selves out of bed, loaded the new sicky into the cat carrier and swung by our emergency vet's to see Dr. V, who we've seen so frequently now that he may as well be our regular vet. Dr. V is an amazing Dr. who is totally up on the research and likes to explain things. However, at 1 in the morning after a half marathon, I was so ready for the cliffs notes. Which were, not blocked yet, give drugs, watch closely. At 2:00am we were back in bed. Two days later, we came home after work and after having checked on Luke at lunch and Luke welcomed us with excellent energy. We thought all was going fine until (warning this may be more information that all of you want so feel free to skip ahead) there were little pink clumps in the box and he was looking glassy eyed, leaning back and dribbling bloody pee. So just like that we had him back in the carrier and were on our way to the emergency vet where he spent 2 nights and lots of money. He's home now, but we're going back to the vet today to make sure there's no linger infection. Oh, and he's started to sneeze in the last few days. Again, awesome.

Our wonderful cat on his first day home. He was so happy to be back that he hardly stopped purring.

All of that was pretty rough on us. We were both stressed and worried. We were behind on almost all tasks, and as we were trying to catch up we weren't getting much sleep or exercise. We still had lingering cold symptoms and our bodies and minds were threatening breakdown again. But I think we made it through. Truthfully, I'm just beginning to think that today. Let's hope we continue on the up and up.

But as you can see, Sick-tober had its silver lining. We got a table, ran a half marathon, I had an awesome birthday, and we finished off the month getting pumpkins with Virginia and carving them with Ben and Gail.


Here's to Wellvember!

Kerry's Birthday: The Super Husband Strikes again

Joe was very quiet about my birthday this year. I knew he had plans, but he wasn't letting anything slip. As I was getting ready for the day on the morning of the sixth, familiar birthday smells (unfamiliar the rest of the weekdays of the year) began wafting upstairs. I do love the smell of bacon! For breakfast Joe served me bacon and Noah's bagels with my choice of a variety of toppings. I think there may have been a fruit as well, but I hate to admit that that wasn't as memorable.

I went to work, which was kind of amazing. I only recently started working for housing and for the most part people don't know me well. Before I knew it though, one of my new coworkers was standing in the door with a cake! After that the birthday wishes just kept coming. The same coworker had used her cri-cut to make me a fabulous card and had passed it around to most of the office. My supervisor brought me a soy chai, which he had asked me about every so stealthily before. Pretty much everyone who walked by my door that day wished me happy birthday.

At lunch Joe stole me away to a thai fusion restaurant where we had a delicious lunch of a variety of small things. A bit of pad thai here, some pork rolls there...delicious.

I met my dad for coffee in the afternoon and we had a nice chat and he delivered my birthday present. A kindle! Yea!

After work we had dinner at the local Hungarian restaurant with my Mom and Grandma. My mom and I have the same birthday, so we try to celebrate together. The dinner was fabulous, as usual. All day I'd been trying to decide which option to choose. I was relieved to find they had a buffet featuring all the favorites, so I just ate everything!

We went back to my mom's to open presents and have dessert and let me tell you, I struck gold in both areas. My heart's two greatest desires were fulfilled. My mom got me a cowboy hat and it is absolutely beautiful. I was a bit puzzled at how light Joe's package was, but when I opened it I realized that while it was light, it packed a punch. It was a Moose's Tooth pizza box, with a Moose's Tooth menu inside along with pictures of our amazing friend Kyle and Abbey. We were leaving for Alaska in 8 hours! Joe had already packed my bags, arranged for time off work for me, and had a cat sitter all lined up. Oh and the cake was dark chocolate with coconut ganache and ginger coconut milk ice cream (all made by Joe). Yum!

So all we had to do when we got home was go to sleep, or, in typical crazy-we fashion, put all the furniture in the garage so the cats didn't have to stay in our room while we were gone. At 11pm we trying to figure out how to get the couch into the garage and ended up going out the front door in our socks and pjs to get to the garage.

The travel part is never exciting, so let's skip that. Kyle and Abbey had to work Thursday, which worked out fine. We hadn't slept much so we just took a cab to their house, said hello to Kenzie, their dog who remembered us and was bursting with excitement, did some yoga, and went to bed. When they got home, we went to my friend birthday dinner at the Moose's Tooth! So, the Moose's Tooth is pretty much my favorite restaurant ever and has the best pizza I've ever had and possibly the best pizza ever. I think about how much I want their pizza pretty much once a week, so this was a most excellent choice on Joe's part. We went home to a delicious cake that Abbey had selected, raspberry glaze with chocolate and a butter cream frosting. Mmmm...



The rest of the weekend we just hung out. Alaska is a draw, but since we lived there, it's not so much a destination place for us. It's a place where our dear friends live. Joe and I ran, all of us played cards, cooked, got pedicures, shoe shopped, watched Kyle play hockey, played fetch, watched football, and ate and ate and ate. We ate halibut and salmon. We went to Snow city Cafe for salmon cakes and the BOB (best of the benedicts). We had appetizers at Simon and Seafort's happy hour. It was delicious.

This series is taken from an area downtown after breakfast at Snow City.

The Sleeping Lady

Appetizers at a very small table

Two things happened on Saturday. First I got a scratchy and slightly sore throat (foreshadowing great suffering to come) and we decided that we needed to get out. We decided to float the upper Kenai in Kyle and Abbey's raft.

The next day I was notably sick, but who would choose bed over floating the Kenai? So we got up bright and early, packed many many layers, and grabbed bagels, and decongestant at Fred Meyer on our way out of town.

Rafting was fabulous. Kyle was a trooper and shuttled the truck by himself with his bike. When he returned to the launch, we suited up (9 layers for me on top--couldn't move) and headed out for the most beautiful rafting trip ever. Now, it's important to note that Alaska is not always beautiful. The pictures are, but the truth is not. It rains, it's grey, it's dark, it's dirty when the snow melts, and sometimes it's just plain no fun. We were fortunate to have an almost cloudless day (clouds only added for beautifying effect), gorgeous fall colors, and bountiful sun. I couldn't stop taking pictures. Kyle, Joe, and Abbey stopped to fish a few times and I sat like Cleopatra on her thrown. They didn't catch anything, but I think they enjoyed it. Abbey made warm drinks in the jet boil and snacks halfway through the trip. Joe and Kyle got to take a surprise mini hike through the brush to go back and get Kyle's fishing bag that he left on the bank. We didn't see any bears, which was surprising, but fortunate given the mini hike. Don't worry, they had bear spray and left Abbey and me with the gun. Not that I could do anything with a gun; that's Abbey's department.

Joe and Kyle fly fishing

Abbey celebrating being taller than Joe for the moment

We got off the river, grabbed some tea, and headed home. I was exhausted, but thrilled. When we got home I showered to try to get a grip on myself again, but only managed to inflate marginally. While I showered Abbey heated up the bear chili I'd made on Saturday for dinner after rafting. I had planned to make dinner that night, but was in no shape to do it. She generously went the extra mile and made the cornbread I had planned to make because my heart was still set on it. Before dinner I had wilted to the point that I had to actively avoid work not to cry (for no reason other than exhaustion), but dinner helped a whole lot.

The sunset on our way home

The next morning, Monday, we got up to send Kyle and Abbey off to work and say goodbye. Later we packed up and I played the saddest game of fetch with Kenzie ever. She knows when people are packing and is always quite discouraged by the process. We got in our cab and headed to the airport. The trip home was grueling for this sicky, and at Salem I finally lost it and only managed to pull it together again at Jefferson. You'll hear more about the sick stuff in my next post, but the main message here is that I would be that sick any day to get to go to Alaska and have a husband as amazing and attentive as Joe. I just wish I hadn't made all my friends sick too. It was a fabulous birthday and I felt absolutely spoiled and loved.