Attacked!

It turned out to be a nice day here!  It was supposed to rain all morning, but the sunshine was pretty motivating to get some cleaning done!  I did get a lot done, one room at a time...

We went to some estate sales yesterday, they did not prove too fruitful.  I did get a fondue pot!  That is about the excitement.  We watched the Ducks game last night, and the ducks won!  and when the ducks win, A is happy, which makes me happy :)  We went to grab a beer after the game at the new hipster bar near our house.

A and I went for a nice hike this afternoon in Forest Park and as some lady went running by with her dog off a leash this little bugger attacked Penney!  He kept biting her in the butt and since I had her on the leash, she kept getting jostled around and she actually ended up biting me.  Luckily, the owner was able to pull off the little dog and we continued with our walk.  I'm going to have a big bruise on my arm from Penney.  I suppose this is why people need to have their dogs on leashes!  I am glad that it was a little dog and not a larger one.  That would have been much scarier!

On that note, its time to relax before another busy week.

-KT
 

Lazy Saturday

After a great breakfast of WW apple pancakes, bacon and eggs its time to relax!  Just kidding.  Even though I do feel like I could take a nap right about now.

I made the pancakes using a recipe from the Joy of Cooking.  I find that for pretty standard recipes, you really can't get any better.  I also added one grated apple to the mix.  Then, my favorite, I put sour cream and sugar on top.  Apparently this is quite strange, but is normal in my family!

Its a gray day out there so it will be tough to get motivated to go out there and do something.  Hopefully we'll get motivated enough to go for a run or hike up in Forest Park.  Its less busy on rainy days.

Last night we had an epic Netflix fail!  It started with the movie about the guy who invented intermittent windshield wipers, I just couldn't watch it!  Not sure why, something about watching a train wreck in progress was just not going to happen.  Then, we watched two sad episodes of House.  Once all this was over, A found his new favorite show on Discovery Channel...."Snowmen."  Once they mentioned a traffic jam as a "red snake" I had to leave.  I then watched Anthony Bourdain and all was well.

Since I seem to be writing in reverse order...the cauliflower cake was delicious!  Strange, and delicious.  It was like a quiche, but without a crust.

Time to clean!

-KT

Running Musings

After a busy couple of days, I wanted to write a bit about running.

I think I'm in a funk.  A two year long running funk.  Lets start at beginning, shall we?

I ran XC and track in high school and through college I was fairly diligent about running 5-6 days a week or doing some alternate workout.  During the winters, I did a fair amount of downhill skiing.  SO, these are good habits.

After I graduated, I also kept up the running to 5-6 days a week.  I was more focused and ran a few races.  Including a half marathon, and a full marathon.  Clearly that took some dedication and focus.......also, I had much more time on my hands!  I lived 1 mile from my work so there was literally no commute, and I lived by myself.

Since moving to Portland and dealing with many changes including moving in with A, grad school, commuting and probably a seemingly endless amount of excuses, OH, the biggest of which is the puppy.....she couldn't go running with me until she was 6-8months old.  I have found it difficult maintaining a schedule of working out.  I've done quite a few races, including Bloomsday in Spokane, WA.  I also did a triathlon in August, which was pretty sweet.  But, all in all I have been on slight downward slide.  All in all I have gained 15-20lbs since moving here.  I lost a bunch of weight in the spring before moving to Portland, and I was at a pretty ideal weight.

THAT being said, the wedding has definitely put a different perspective on things.  I probably weighed as much as I ever want too at the beginning of the month.  I have been getting better about maintaining a consistent running schedule, and consequently I feel much better!  I am also running faster and loosing weight. I am also watching what I am eating and being more aware of my portion size.  I had a great run yesterday and an even better bike ride home today, hence my thoughts on this topic.  I only hope that my enthusiasm continues.......I"m pretty sure that the thought of photos that will last a lifetime is a good motivating factor :)
A trip to Belize this December and the thought of being in a bathing suit around lots of people is pretty terrifying.

Anywho, I know that I am digressing and writing more "stream-of-consciousness" right now.  Its been prevalent my thoughts right now.  I bought the Wii Fit board and its been good to have something track my progress!

Now, time for dinner.

-KT

Thesis Tuesday

Nothing much to report today!  Lots of thesis work getting done today.....except for when ArcMap crashes!  Such is life.

A and I met with with another wedding caterer today and got to taste some food!  We are slowly getting that part of the wedding sorted out.  It will be such a relief to get this one big part sorted out!  Oh, and the dress.  Veteran's Day weekend I will *hopefully* be able to find something.

Onwards to a work at home Wednesday!  But first, an Anthony Bourdain marathon on Netflix.

-KT

A slight delay in biking home...

Considering I am heading up to that small cross, looks like impending doom!!!  I think I'll stay in my warm, dry office until its safe to venture out.

Someone has a case of the Mondays.....

Ah, yes.  It is a Monday around here.....

It all started with terrible wedding dreams last night.  It started with me forgetting to make a hair appointment.  Then, it rained and we had to move chairs around, and also A was taking a nap and I had to wake him up to go get married.  This was all quite stressful!!!  Not a good way to wake up!!!

Then, I get into the office and I notice that a few things are out of place.....then I realized that my bike and my co-worker's computer was gone!  We recovered my bike and discovered that they stole a pair of headphones, my mittens and a tin of mints.

We have had an extremely unproductive day in the office!
Ah well.  Tomorrow will be better.

It is fortunate that we got the bike, because that is how I am getting home today!  However, my hands will be cold :(

In other much better news, there is snow in the mountains!!!  This means we could be skiing in a few weekends.  This is excellent!

Time to finish out the day and then its time for a chilly bike ride home, followed by indian food!

-KT

Weekly Mealplan

Firstly, Mumford & Sons put on a great concert last night!  We had a great time.  They played a few new songs also, and they were equally great.

After A and I slept in this morning, I really wanted to try and be organized with our food stuffs this month.  Especially since we are at the last week of our monthly food budget!!!  So, between today and next Friday I have six meals planned....Curry Squash Soup, Cauliflower Cake, Gnocchi + Cheese, Thai green curry with shrimp, curried ground turkey and potatoes and black bean and chorizo tacos.  I have made some of these before and plan on making the gnocchi and tortillas tomorrow to be ready for the week.
I wish that I could be this organized every week!  sadly it doesn't always happen.  I think that my crazy spreadsheet helped me pick a few recipes out.  I was pleased about that.

That's about the excitement around here!  Penney and I went for a nice run this afternoon before the storm came through!  I made the squash soup and some naan bread.  We headed out to see the new TGR ski movie called "Light the Wick!"  Ski movies are a nice once a year tradition.  I'm pretty psyched for the ski season this year, especially since they are calling for a rough winter here.

Time for bed and onwards to another productive day!

-KT

Mumford Friday!!!

Tonight we are going to see Mumford & Sons!!!  I am super excited, it should be a good show!

Yesterday was a busy day at work followed by watching the Ducks game.  Luckily the ducks won!  This always means that A is happy, which makes me happy.  We a fun night out and discovered a new hipster hang-out near our house, which is pretty sweet.  Unfortunately, its been a sluggish morning following the fun last night :(

Yesterday was an eventful day for another reason...cockroaches!!!  There were two outside our office in the hallway!  Yuck.  Luckily they did not come inside the office, and now they are gone.

I spoke with another wedding caterer today....fun times.  I need to calm down and not get super exasperated when talking to people!!!  It seems like people ask a lot of questions and I'm just not sure of the answers, and why do they expect that I would know that in the first place?  Jeepers.

*sigh*  I just need to breathe and not worry about stuff.

I have a lot of work to do this afternoon and it seems like lots of things to do this weekend!  Concert tonight....ski movie tomorrow night.....and lots of cleaning in between :)

Time for pizza!

-KT

Sunny Wednesday!!!

Penney is jealous of my oatmeal :)  

My day is starting out right, with a delicious Pumpkin Spice Latte....yum!  Soon to be followed by PB+Banana oatmeal.

Today is my designated 'work at home and write my thesis' day!  It is going to be interrupted by two caterer phone calls, I hope they go well.  We have lots of decisions to make with the catering, and considering it is the most expensive part of this wedding shin-dig, its pretty important.  I think one thing that is making it easier is that we have a list of 'preferred' caterers from our venue, so that is helping narrow down the probably endless amount of caters in Portland.

That's enough wedding stuff for one day :)  OH, I lied.  I created two "Pinterest" boards with some of the wedding inspiration stuff I have been collecting.  I created one called Wedding and the other one is Wedding Dresses.  My friend Lori shared this with me, and I think that its better to have a bunch of images instead of endless bookmarks or Google Reader stars.

Paco is not impressed.

One other thing, since I originally wanted this to be a food blog and failed at that, I started a Google Docs spreadsheet with recipes I have tried (they usually have a comment) and then other ones that I have collected.  The link is on the right hand side of the page, and while the spreadsheet isn't the prettiest thing in the world, I hope it'll work for me!!!

Lots to do today.  Time to listen to the latest Planet Money podcast (which, btw, if you have never listened to it, I would highly recommend it!)










-KT

Just another manic Monday!

Good Morning!  I am settling into work today after a chilly bike ride downtown.

I had a fairly productive day yesterday, I tried a new paint stripper which seemed to do the job. Overall, I am mostly there, I just have a lot of sanding left to do.  *sigh*

It was nice to do some manual labor over the weekend and not work on my thesis or wedding stuff, that'll be this weekend.

I am really looking forward to this upcoming weekend!  We are going to see Mumford and Sons on Friday night and on Saturday night the newest TGR ski movie will be in Portland!  woot woot!  Skiing is on my mind since the weather has gotten cooler!!!

Well, I just finished breakfast and have my coffee, so its time to start the day!

-KT

"%Weekend%"

It is finally the weekend!  Even after a short work week, Friday was quite welcome.  We had a fun night out including several of my favorite things...freshly hopped beer, boddingtons, fish and chips, and a nice glass of red wine.  All in all a fun night out!  We did have a quite chilly bike ride home as I think it got into the low 40s last night and I did not have any mittens!  ugh.

This weekend my goal is to work on some house projects before the rain comes.  I am refinishing a new front door for our house.  Right now I am waiting for the stuff to work its magic!  We also had some rocket fuel breakfast from the waffle cart near our house...amazing stuff!!!  I also found ten dollars at Lowes this morning!  Score!

Hopefully I will be able to get a run in this afternoon, if all goes well with the door.  I am not holding my breath though!  At the very least I should be able to get in a quick yoga workout.  I am also planning on making stuffed peppers for dinner tonight!

Time to get back to work!

-KT

Thursday and nothing seems to be working...

Isn't that the truth.  My model is not working, which is upsetting and frustrating because what I am trying to do is very simple.  But, alas. Such is life in an ArcGIS world :)

In other good news, I forced myself out of bed this morning to go running!  The darkness in the morning is getting more and more noticeable.  It felt good to run, even though the puppy was chasing every singe cat she smelled.

I bought the WiiFit board over the weekend as an attempt to do more yoga without tying myself to a class or a gym.  So far I've been doing pretty good!  I saved a routine with poses that I like, and that seems to be working well.  Its also nice that it keeps track of weight and all that good stuff, even though I have terrible hand/eye coordination and the 'skills' always make me much older than I should be!!!

The picture on the right has nothing to do with anything, but it makes me laugh.  That toy was $15 well spent :)

Onwards to finishing out the work day and a tasty stir-fry for dinner tonight!

-KT

A new blogg-ing!

Yes, indeed it is a new beginning.  As I stated above, my attempt at a food blog was unsuccessful!  While I think that it might be an important part of whatever this is, I will not focus on it.  In short, I feel like there are a lot of changes going on in my life right now and a blog seemed like the perfect outlet.

What are these changes?  In short, finishing my MS thesis, finding a post-grad school job, planning a wedding, and getting married (June 2011!).  I think those wrap up the big things that are going on...I am attempting to balance this with doing regular normal stuff, like playing with dogs, running, losing weight and cooking healthy food!  

Lets give this a go!

-KT