the goose loves tuesday's ten (times 2.5!) (#16)

Welcome to the biggest Tuesday post yet, folks. Ten times two-point-five (25 for you math-challenged readers) - the same number I turned last Wednesday. That's a whole lot of photos.

 

1. It's fun to see your birthday on everything - receipts, calendars, emails, etc...

2. The best way to start your birthday is with pancakes and good friends. Here's the good friends part.

3. Oh and having your husband there is fun too.

4. Go to Slappy Cakes, where you make your own pancakes, including batter and toppings of your choice. Choose the buttermilk batter, chocolate chips, and bacon bits, for the most delicious combination.

5. The pancakes go on the griddle in the middle of the table!

6. Make an L for Lucia (even though it doesn't come out the right direction when you flip it) and a birthday balloon.

7. Ready, flip!

8. After breakfast, some shopping downtown, and a post office trip to mail some father's day packages, it's time for lunch. A po' boy for me and jambalaya for Billy.

9. After you spent all morning eating, you should spend the afternoon exercising. Driving over the St. John's bridge for a hike is a good idea.

10. Bringing the dog is more fun.

Especially when he's cute and finds a stick to carry all the way back to the car.

11. Now that you've burned off all those breakfast and lunch calories, it's time to fill up again. It's fun to try the local brewery tasting room under the St. John's bridge. The best way to figure out which beer you like is to get one of each. These, Mom, are actually 4 oz each!

12. It's even more fun when the curls your hairdresser made the night before are still kinda there, even after you hiked!

13. I don't advise your husband to try to drink all the tasters at once, though.

14. Then you go home and shower so that you can make your dinner reservation on time. Once you get there, try the Manhattan.

15. If only your curls stayed in after the shower. At least there's a great view of downtown Portland behind you!

16. Bonus points if the color scheme of your restaurant is your favorite color.

17. Order the economically gastronomic entrees on the prie fixe menu - crusted halibut (I think) and seared beef tenderloin (I think).

Trade halfway through with your husband so you each can taste some.

18. Do the same for dessert, and try to get decent pictures, even though it's gotten very dark.

19. To continue the birthday celebration, have a bunch of people over for a Friday night BBQ! Make purple velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for extra special deliciousness.

20. Pull all your chairs outside so the guests can enjoy the warm (for once!) evening.

Then set off the party poppers that Carolyn brings over!

21. Continue the party the next night with a little bar-hopping on Saturday night. Bonus points for cool bars with awesome outside patios that have swings at tables.

And extra bonus points for bars with skee ball in the basement and funky lighting that messes with your photos.

22. Then walk down to Fire on the Mountain for delicious wings and other assorted fried foods.

23. Order boneless "wings" (chicken tenders), because they're way better than the ones with bones.

And also enjoy a mountain of tater tots.

24. Laugh at the boys for getting messy and barely making it through their super-spicy bone-ful wings.

25. Finish off the night at a local brewery/tap spot, with outdoor tables and a great view of Portland's Naked Bike Ride.

You get a picture of the beer, but I'll save your eyes from a picture of the naked bums. Nobody wants to see that much skin and fat propped up on bikes.

26. Job well done on birthday festivities, until next year! Thank you, dear friends and family, for celebrating with me! Here's to another three sets of 25 years, at least!

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.