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 the beach

On Saturday, Billy had a rare day off from work and the forecast was for 90 degrees in Portland, so we thought it'd be the perfect day to steal away to the beach. We both love the beach, but between finishing college and getting married and moving and working, we haven't been to the Oregon coast at all in the past two years. Shame, right?!

So we were more than excited for this venture, especially since it'd be Bentley's first time to the sandy shores.

We started the day in the best way possible - breakfast at Gravy, a restaurant on Mississippi Ave in Portland. (Mom-Dad-Monika: we'll be visiting Gravy when you're here at Christmas because its THAT awesome.) Black coffee, of course:
And then Billy and I shared the corned beef hash, which comes with a side of french toast. Two thick slices of challah bread french toast. The. BEST. Ever. No joke.

And the hash was delish. Probably better than the Corned Beef Hash that we made back in March. But these people are professionals and I would expect nothing less. Then we slowly made our way to the beach. And by slow, I mean slow. Traffic was heavy just getting out of town, and then we still had an hour's drive to reach the cold blue waters of heavenly beachy-ness. But it was all worth it, 2 and a half hours later. Bentley LOVED the beach. And liked the sand. And really enjoyed eating whatever was in the sand. That includes glass, poop, cheetos, sticks, charcoal, and crab legs. Except we didn't let him eat the crab legs. In the picture above, however, he's eating a parent-sanctioned dog chew, which we gave him to keep him still and silent while we enjoyed some sunny beach lounging. We put him on his long (20') lead, which is why it looks like his leash is unconnected to anything. No, we would never let him run free. Unless we never wanted to see him again. I like the picture below because Bentley's back ear is going crazy. It usually doesn't fly forward like that. And wading into the ocean! Don't worry, Mom... I was wearing a skin-colored long-sleeve turtleneck under my shirt. That's not skin being exposed. Here I am pointing out a floating jellyfish in the water to Bentley. It looked like just the umbrella top part, which is why I wasn't afraid of being stung or pinched or whatever. Bentley then tried to eat it, but I stopped him. I can't imagine jelly fish being good for little dogs... Aww, ocean puppy. After a few treks through the water (which included some full-on swimming!), we retreated to the warm sand to dry off. Here's the beginning of a big dog shake: I love his little sandy paws. After our beach adventure, we walked along the shops for awhile and enjoyed the warm salty air before heading back to Portland. The dog was more than ready - he passed out in his crate within minutes! If only we lived closer to a beach - what good exercise. On our way home (which also took longer than it should have), we stopped for a much-needed lunch of frozen yogurt. These places are popping up all over Portland - self serve, including lots of toppings, priced by weight. And I'm pretty sure this was the most enjoyable serving I've had, since it just hit the spot. Chocolate and cheesecake froyo with mint chips, snickers, toffee, and oreos. I usually get a collection of toppings and eat them off before digging into the froyo. :) For dinner, we decided to use a Groupon deal about to expire for a restaurant called Dan and Louis. It's a seafood place (yeah, haha - we went to the coast but drove all the way back to Portland for seafood!) and one of the oldest restaurants in Portland. They had a really lovely outdoor patio thing set up, so we were still able to enjoy some nice warm evening air. I had a salad starter with baby shrimp on top, and then the cod with a side of mashed potatoes. Mmm. (Sorry about the poor lighting.) Billy had the Oysters Rockefeller, which he's been craving for awhile. They were delish. Overall, it was a really lovely day with my lovely boys. I wish every day would be more like this one!