Oregon, Day 2
This morning, Dave and I drove about 30 minutes out-of-town and hiked up to Multnomah Falls. I had thought that because I’d been doing all that walking and jogging over the past couple of months, the hike would be no problem. I was wrong. It was difficult at times but I pushed through to make it to the top of the falls. I can only imagine how much harder it would have been if I hadn’t been exercising! I took several photos, but I have to wait until I get home before I can upload them. Stay tuned.
Afterwards, we drove to Vancouver, WA for lunch and to look around. We had lunch at Blind Onion Pizza. Pretty tasty. I made a point of driving around the city a good bit to try to get a feel for the place. I think I’m definitely more excited about living in the suburbs than in the city proper.
Back to the hotel for a couple of hours before going out to see a movie at the Living Room Theater. We saw Gods and Men. The theater only seats 40 people and it’s set up so that you can eat real food (and concession stuff) while watching the movie. So I had a pork and provolone Panini sandwich with a salad and a diet soda. The movie was good but very slow-paced.
Big, full day tomorrow. I’ll tell you about it in about 20 hours.
Oregon, Day 1
Notable events of the past day or so.
Took a photo of Mt. Shasta from the car. 
Had a good 5K training this morning. Two 8-minute periods of jogging interrupted by a 5 minute walk. Sunday will be 20 minutes of non-stop jogging. w00t!
Arrived in Portland, picked up David from the airport. So far, Portland is not as great as I expected. But I’ll give it more time to really form an impression. I expect that I’ll like the suburbs better.
Tonight, Dave and I went to Christopher’s Gourmet Grill for dinner. I had the Louisiana Burger 
and he had the Chicken Burger. 
It was good food and the experience was very entertaining. Game 3 of the NBA Western Division Finals was on and employees and patrons of the place were quite free with their support and encouragement for Dallas. Dallas ended up winning.
Got to see Kate Jackson on an episode of Criminal Minds.
Getting strong now
Karen treated us all to lunch today in the office because it was Administrative Professionals Day. She brought in pizza, salad, chicken, and fries from BJ’s Brewhouse. It was pretty tasty. Thanks Karen!
At lunch, Sandy and I walked 3 miles, and Vee and I did another 2 during the afternoon wellness break. After work , I did my 5K training (Week 4, Day 1). It went like this: 5 minutes of warm up, 3 minutes of jogging, 90 seconds of walking, 5 minutes of jogging, 3 minutes of walking, 3 minutes of jogging, 90 seconds of walking, 5 minutes of jogging, and a 5 minute cool down. I also did a couple of extra laps before and after. So all told, I did 8.5 miles today. Yee haw! The best part is that even though I’d had a difficult time with my jogging on Sunday, today was a breeze! Nice! It was really very encouraging!
Another incidental item about today, I sported my bowler hat all day. Quite dashing if I do say so!
I love it when a plan comes together
I had intended to get up in time for the 8:00 Mass, but when my alarm went off at 7, I was not at all ready to get up. I ended up sleeping for an additional 90 minutes and decided to go to noon. This gave me time to make breakfast before heading out. Mass was barely tolerable. The music was really bad. They even managed to take a beautiful song that I love (You Are Mine) and make me wish it would stop! The piano was fine of course, and Danny on viola sounded good as usual. I’ll even grant that John sounded good singing. But everything was mic’d such that all the bad parts got equal volume. There was at least one if not more than one string instrument that was way off and the singing was so atonal. Even the guitar was doing some really funky stuff that just didn’t go. I should just look on this as part of my Lenten sacrifice. It was painful.
Afterwards, I went to get some fro-yo. I selected Alpine Vanilla and I added mango, strawberry, blackberry, pineapple, and granola. Twas yum!
I snuck in a nap. Not because I was especially tired, but because I was procrastinating going for my run/jog/walk. Ultimately, I did go out and do 3 miles alternating walking and jogging according to my 5K training plan. Toward the end of the jogging, I was getting pooped. It eased up just in time.
And good news! I found online that there is going to be a Modesto 5K run on May 28th. This is actually 9 days before the end of my training period, but close enough. So I’ll be signing up to run. w00t!
Dinner was a steak with rice and green beans. And I finished up the evening with a few hours of LOTRO (some festival stuff and book work with Aluatis, my captain), and some television (Survivor and Merlin).
Now to bed.
A day of rest
I spent today doing mostly nothing. It was great! I went to Mass last night so I didn’t even need to leave home to go to church. Speaking of Mass, this is the second week in a row that I didn’t think the music sucked. Yeah, I’m as surprised as you! Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t great. Not even close. But it wasn’t terrible. Oh, and I’ve watched a few televised Masses over the past few weeks. The music is consistently dreadful with those.
Anyway, I spent part of today awash in nostalgia for the 70s. I watched a Time-Life infomercial for Singers & Songwriters and also several episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I miss some of the fashion of the 60s and 70s. And of course, the 80s. I watched The Lost Boys again yesterday. Geez I really miss the 80s.
Other activities today: I cooked up 6 cups of rice along with a package of Freedom French cut green beans and 4 chicken breasts. Not only was it tonight’s dinner, but tomorrow’s and Tuesday’s too. I got the week’s laundry done. I did more festival stuff with Aluatis including getting the second Spring Steed. And I watched some other stuff on the TiVo; The Event, Walking Dead, No Ordinary Family, Modern Family.
I grow ever more eager for my Portland trip. Still a month to go. David is flying on Southwest from Texas. I hope his plane is crack free.
Thursday activities
I stayed home from work today. Despite having the whole day, I feel like I didn’t get much done. I did a bunch of festival stuff with Aluatis. I guess that’s something. I got a little caught up with Survivor. Mary should be happy. I refilled my prescriptions. That’s definitely a good thing. I went grocery shopping and bought food for the month.
Grocery list
Bag of frozen chicken breasts
pack of fresh chicken breasts
6 bags of frozen vegetables
4 packs of pasta
2 jars of pasta sauce
2 loaves of bread
18 eggs
6 packs of steak
4 boxes of cereal
8 boxes of oatmeal
2 packs of bacon
gallon of milk
ketchup
olive oil
bunch of bananas
bag of frozen fish filets
peanut butter
low sugar jam/preserves/jelly/whatever
The oatmeal is for work. I get three meals per box, so 24 breakfasts over the next month (3 more than I should need)
The cereal, eggs, and bacon is for breakfasts at home of which there will be 9.
I have 6 steaks and 9 chicken breasts. Add to that the 10 fish filets and that should get me 18-19 dinners. There will be three times this month that I’ll be at a church event or meeting where I’ll get dinner. So my total becomes 21-22. The pasta will get me 12 or so meals. So I should be covered for dinners. I’ll just have to figure out lunches and I’m set for the month.
I might need to buy more vegetables mid-month.
(Sorry to Suzanne that you had to read this twice!)
Tonight I had my ARISE group. It went well. We talked about doing a bible study after this season ends. I’m looking forward to that.
Friday, fish, & fotos
I got pretty much nothing done at work today. I did help one faculty member with a course he wants to revise, but that’s about it. Pretty sad really.
After I got off work at 12:30, I went to Tasty Kitchen, a Chinese place on Burney, to meet Tonja for lunch. We had a nice meal and talked about life and Disneyland. I had the salt and pepper fish. It was pretty good. I was impressed at how clean the restaurant was!
After that, I met with Vangie and Hallie to work on goals for the strategic plan. This was a very productive meeting! I think we are all energized by how well on track we seem to be at the parish these days. For those of us that stuck through the hard times, the reward is sweet!
This evening, I had a decision to make. Should I go to a belly dancing party and take photos of the lovely ladies dancing, or do I stay in to play on the computer and watch TV?
I went out and took photos.
One wild and crazy night
Saw Rango tonight.
Movie was… ok. Some amusing moments, nothing laugh out loud. The dialogue was definately for adults. The animation was amazing! Especially the textures. I won’t be long before I won’t be able to tell if it’s animated or live. Johnny Depp seems so much more believable as a human being when he’s animated.
Before the movie, I went to Hero’s for a Happy Hour Pizza. That and two green beers cost me $9.42. I gave the waitress a twenty and planned to leave a 2 dollar tip. Well, she brought back my change and it was only $10. Where the hell was my $.58? How annoying. So I left her $1.42. Next time I go in, I will complain.
Fruitcakes
This is a pretty bleak time at MJC. Lots of layoffs are expected. Departments are likely to be cut. There’s quite an uproar under weigh. I plan to post about it some, but I’d like to wait until things are a little more definite.
I decided to experiment with food tonight. I’ve made banana pancakes several times and I wanted to try making strawberry-banana pancakes. But I also had some blueberries. So I tried mixing them all together.
I now realize that the blueberries were a bit of a mistake. I cooked them up and they were ok, but I should have blended the blueberries as well. Next time.
Salsa Fest, Week 2 roundup
Salsa fest has come to an end; but it shall not soon be forgotten!
Here are my observations about week 2.
Again, I will use the following scale to rate the overall awesomeness of each salsa: 7 will be the lowest score. It represents a dismal state of suckitude analogous to how uplifted one is likely to feel after seeing Biutiful. 42 will be the top score. It is also the number on the football jersey that my friend Tim sent me for my birthday. A score of 42 is a theoretical score, unlikely to be found in nature. This grader tends not to give perfect scores as I feel it leaves no room for something better. So an average score would fall in the 23 – 28 range, while a score upwards of 33 indicates great approval.
Tuesday – Vicki’s Cowboy Caviar. This was a big hit in the office and the only reason that the bowl wasn’t emptied by 1:00, is that Community Ed had counter-scheduled a mexican food themed lunch for this day. Nevertheless, rave reviews. 37.
Wednesday – Dorinda’s Salsa con Queso. Definately one of my favorite things into which to dip a chip. Dorinda even spiced it up with some extra seasonings. This is a way that I would eat my chips at home so this offering benefits from comfort and familiarity. 35.
Thursday – Angie brought in a Watermelon Salsa that impressed everyone. And there was a food pairing! She also brought in lime flavored chips for the dipping. Now I’m not a fan of the lime chips, but the combination of flavors really worked! Angie had everyone asking for the recipe. 36.
Friday – Sadly, I was not present on Friday to sample Vicki V’s salsa & cream cheese combo. It must therefore remain unscored.
So there you have it. A successful salsa run. I’m not sure what we might attempt next along similar lines, but I do believe there is interest in doing something.
