the goose loves thursday's twenty (#13)

Welcome back old friends. Remember me? I used to blog here. Then work took over my life. But now I'm back, and to make up for my two weeks of missed Tuesday posts, I'm bringing out the big guns - Thursday's Twenty.  Wondering about the next episode of The Garden Thymes? Keep wondering. It'll be here eventually. But for now, buckle up and hang on tight for twenty awesome photos from the past two weeks.

1. The heart walk was AWESOME! Sunny, decently warm, and full of lots of people. And the dog loved it. I just checked the team page today, and we totalled over $1500 all together! Special thanks to all you family and friends that donated

2. And onto non-heart-healthy things. A fabulous meal at Salvador Molly's, a multi-cultural restaurant in Portland. I enjoyed the tiki mac and Billy had the chile rellenos.

3. Sleepy boys. Billy wasn't feeling very good, and Bentley was just feeling sleepy, so they enjoyed some cozy morning naptime.

5. Game time with the girls! We went over to Allison's house and enjoyed some delicious dinner and game fun - including the ridiculously crazy game Quelf.

6. And chocolate chip cookies (they're vegan!) make every game night better.

7. To balance out the fatties, we've been cooking up some tofu - this is the Teriyaki Tofu from Peas and Thank You, the best $10 I ever spent on a cookbook. We've probably made over 10 recipes from there, and have our eye on 10 more... the above PB/chocolate chip cookies also from there...

8. Speaking of the heart walk, Brennan's heart surgery went really well. Carolyn and I visited him after the walk (hence the nice PGE volunteer t-shirts!), and we got to hold him for a little while! He was sleepy, and his vocal chords are a little sore, but otherwise is recovering very well. And cute as ever.

9. Speaking of PGE, today marks my 5-year anniversary! On this day in 2007, I was 20 years old and started my first day in a real corporate job. Let me tell you - a little different than babysitting. And five years later, I'm in my fourth department, my fourth different floor, my fourth job title, my fifth boss, and my sixth cube! Now I'm working 10+ hour days (8am to 8pm yesterday!), meeting regularly with the CFO and CEO, talking and meeting with investors, and learning more than ever. Next up? An office on the 17th floor with the other executives...

10. I'm a changed woman. After years of classic black flats, plain white chuck taylors, and conservative flip flops, I've entered the wonderful world of wedges. YES. And not just one pair, but two. 

These shoes make me feel good! Welcome, summer!

And they're so comfortable. Now I just have to get Billy to get used to them....

11. Speaking of Billy, here's my little fisher boy! Well actually clammer-boy. We escaped on Sunday to the Oregon coast to celebrate Memorial Day, and went clam-fishing! But that's a story for another post.

12. We also spent a day of our extra-long weekend doing some shopping. Along with the necessities (undies for us both, socks for Billy, and wedges for me... yeah, wedges=necessities), Billy got a sweet plaid tie and some puppy-dog cufflinks. Yes, cufflinks with beagles.

13. Speaking of beagles, here's Bentley looking tough. You go dog, you show that wood who's boss.

14. What's great about a night on the town with the hubby? A cozy restaurant, terrific live music, tables covered with brown paper, hangman with crayons, mac n cheese with lobster, and tasty microbrews. Oh yeah, and wearing your new wedges.

15. Further evidence that our dog sits weird. Or just is weird. What is going on with his hands and feet here? Or are they all feet? Or hands? Or paws? Handpaws? Feetpaws? Weird.

16. We basically can't keep ourselves out of the Peas and Thank You book. Here's the Mama Thai stir fry, with pineapple, tofu, and cashews. We've made it twice so far.

17. Memorial day=grill time. Even though it was thunder-storming. After a good bout of dark clouds, heavy rain, thunderclaps, lighting flashes, and dog howls, we pulled out the BBQ and whipped up some glazed salmon, grilled foccacia (sp?), and cajun macaroni salad. Mmmmm I'd eat that again. Just ignore the lack of greens, mom...

18. Even more proof that Bentley=weird. Who sleeps like this? (That's his cozy crate, btw - not some psycho torture jail device we have for him).

19. I escaped from work early on Friday to begin the memorial day celebrations. Good thing too, because this is the only sun we saw all weekend. Billy whisked me off to the Oregon Hotel, a McMenamin's property in Forest Grove, Oregon (about 40 min from downtown). We played a little frisbee golf (as shown below), drank a few beers, and ate a few cajun tots. Naturally.

P.S. I'm terrible at frisbee golf, but super awesome at frisbee-tree-tag. i.e. hitting trees with frisbees.

20. Cinnamon Chex=best new work snack. I can seriously eat three cups of this stuff at a time. That may or may not have been breakfast this morning. It's basically cinnamon toast crunch + chex. And the chex makes it healthy, for sure. Not a fan of cinnamon? Try the honey nut chex. Just as addictingly tasty healthy.

Well there you go. Twenty sweet photos to catch you up on life. I'll be back in a few days. Or weeks, maybe. But hopefully not that long.

the goose loves tuesday's ten (#12) - on friday

Just ignore that Tuesday's post is three days late and that Friday's Garden post is nowhere to be found. Yet. Just enjoy what you're getting when you get it.

1. SUNSHINE. Yes, for a whole freaking-ly awesome week. YES.

Sunshine = painted toes and cute sandals. Painted those babies myself, mind you - still saving the big bucks for loans. Pretty sure that when we're done paying loans, I'm getting monthy pedicures and manicures. Take that, budget.

2. Sunshine = dogpark. Let's play where's Waldo Bentley again.

Found him!

3. Easy = ideal. Curried goose goose cous cous. The longest part of this dinner prep was finding the craisins in the back of the pantry and toasting the pitas. Yes it was that easy. (Looking to make some of your own? Boil your water, then add to cous cous in a bowl, let steam for 5 minutes covered. Mix curry (or other spices) in a cup of plain yogurt, mix into fluffed/cooked cous cous. Add toppings. Eat.)

4. Warm nights = party on the town. I ignored my 74-year-old ways and stayed up past 10pm, and it was so worth it. Hung out with Carolyn, Caryn, and Caryn's cousin Jenny from Michigan.

That was a delicious pitcher of McMenamin's Ruby Ale we shared.

5. Dog + dock = summer. We went with Billy to his drum lessons at Willamette Park, and enjoyed ourselves on the dock at the boat launch. Bentley almost got the geese.

He also almost jumped into the water.

I stopped him, before he grew an extra tail from all the contaminants and diseases in the Willamette River. Even though two tails could be useful, I guess.

Go grab your sunglasses before my pale skin blinds you.

6. Quinoa=TASTY. Want to put in slightly more effort for dinner than the curried cous cous above? Make quinoa (20 min) and then add salsa (0 min), feta (0 min), pumpkin seeds (0 min), and sliced avocado (1 min). The taste to effort ratio on this one is perfect.

7. Sunshine = BBQ. After having a fabulous craft day with the girls (Allison - send photos!), we let them stay for some BBQ action. Billy mastered ribs, and we also had chicken, corn, bread, pasta salad, and a little lot of alcohol. Here's Monika and her bf Josh. At least one of them is happy in that relationship...

And the gang. Allison loves the food, Carolyn is wondering where the dessert is.

The ribs were devoured pretty quickly.

8. Bentley = weird. Who sleeps like this? I do love that his relationship with Moose has left the agression stage and is entering the cuddle-buddy stage.

9. Bentley = psycho. Look at those crazy eyes!

A. We finally bought more dog food.

B. No, we don't usually let him eat dinner like this, even though he loves it.

10. Heart Walk = Success!

Thanks to many generous donations from you all, we've surpassed our goal! Big shoutout of gratitude for a generous $500 from Dad & Mom, and to Carolyn and Allison for raising $$ and walking! And to family members Peggy & George, Monika, and Grandma & Grandpa, for your generous dollars too!!!



Also a big thank you to my coworkers for helping me raise $300!

I spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night making 75 chocolate chip cookies and 50 red-velvet-cheesecake-brownies, and sold them at work on Wednesday and Thursday. I roped in $250 in cookie sales and another $50 from generous coworkers.

Here are the brownies:

 And the packaged baggies:

It was lots of fun, and I probably only spent an hour (between the two days) peddling my goods. Cookies may not be entirely heart healthy, but they sell FAST!

We're gearing up for the walk first thing tomorrow (Saturday) morning, so think of us and walk in your own neighborhoods in support! Photos will follow...

the goose loves tuesday's ten - #10!

Full Disclosure: I'm writing this on  Thursday, May 3. Two days late. Life is busy.

Welcome to The Official Tenth Week Anniversary of Tuesday's Ten. Ten glorious lists of ten, which means I've posted about 100 different things in the past 10 weeks. The only shame is that I've only posted about 100 things, with very little besides the Tuesday posts. But we're working on that.

1. This weekend we made Breakfast Quinoa, a recipe from one of my fave food bloggers How Sweet Eats. We used half coconut milk and half regular milk, since that's what we had. I added cinnamon-sugar toasted almonds that were delish, even if slightly over-toasted. We made a half cup of dry quinoa, for a total of 1 cup cooked quinoa, which is only half a cup of cooked quinoa per person. This amount makes it look like a fancy restaurant entree (sparse), but it's actually super filling. And tasty.

2. Our dog sits weird. Super weird. I mean what are all the legs and arms (or just legs?) doing at this point?

3. Sunday included a $130 trip to Home Depot. But, I must say, we got some good deals. That's a 6-foot fiberglass ladder for $40. Score. And we bought our first family rake and shovel. Yay for growing up.

4. Other spending included $10 on 16 wooden garden signs from The Plaid Barn (another one of those Groupon-for-crafters sites). I just need to slap some paint and words on these bad boys, and stick em in the planter box! Oh and plant some plants, too. Probably should plant things first.

5. On Sunday, after I spent 3 hours in the office and before we spent 6 hours on the garden, Billy and I fortified ourselves at Bunk Sandwiches. They're fairly famous, I think, and they've been on various TV shows like Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.

We tested them out for ourselves, and the result is good. Extremely tasty sandwiches, but technically a little pricey. Definitely worth trying.

I got the tuna melt (above) and Billy got the roast beef (below).

6. We found a new dogpark! And this one superly rocks. It's a 5-7 minute walk from our house, across the street from a delicious coffee shop, fully-fenced, covered in nice green grass, and usually very empty. In the past week, we've probably been about three times. I think I'm ready to admit that we're in love. Did I mention we can walk there? Now we just have to get Bentley to bring the ball back once we throw it.

7. Speaking of Bentley, he's still looking for people to join his Heart Walk team. So far, he's just got one lame team member (me). Even his dad hasn't signed up! But we did pass out 30+ of these invitations (below is one sheet that we cut into four invites) to my coworkers, so hopefully we'll get some participation soon! Join Bentley's Team and Donate!

8. Here's a sneak peak of what kept us busy on Sunday...

9. And here's a sneak peak of what will keep me busy this weekend! I swear I need a vacation just to get caught up on my sewing.

10. And finally, speaking of vacays, Billy and I are dreaming of a wild getaway over Memorial Day weekend. Currently topping our list is camping or cabins in Sun River, Oregon. Hmmm!

Happy Tuesday (Thursday) to you all!