Broccoli!

We just harvested the first broccoli head from the garden tonight, and Sean is whipping up something Asian-inspired that smells incredible. We weren't really sure if it could grow more than this, but I thought we should just pick it before it was too late. We'll see how the second head goes, and all the little side-shoots.

I should go, since Sean just announced that our shredded dried squid snacks and papaya salad are ready for me. Mmmmmm....!

Seedlings

Once Sean got our slug problem escar-gone our garden had been plodding along nicely. We harvested broccoli rabe, spinach and lettuce for tossing with chicken, taco toppings and salad. It was in the 80's every day we were out of town for Maker Faire, and everything tripled in size by the time we returned!

Sean's been trying to grow basil and carrots without much luck, so he bought a little seedling tray to start the seeds in. We keep it on the walkway in front of our door most of the time, and everything has finally sprouted! The carrots are still having a lot of trouble, but everything else looks good. There's basil, lettuce, cucumber, onions and carrots.

In case you missed it from my other blog, I had a great birthday last Sunday. I celebrated by relaxing at home, reading, playing video games, and making jam from the local strawberries I bought at the Farmer's Market. It was great!

Mt. Hood

Mt. Hood
Originally uploaded by BreadnBadger

Sean's parents visited us for a week recently, and we did lots of sight-seeing! We made our first visit out to Mt. Hood, which had quite a bit of snow on it.

Of course, we drove out to the coast the next day and saw beaches and ate seafood. Oh, how I love Oregon!

Check out the photos I took of the trip on my Flickr site (links above).

We hope Pat and Linda will come back to visit again sometime, even though it was drier and colder than they're used to. We'll have to find some new restaurants and sights to see!

Cat Fight, Observed

First thing this morning, we heard some cat grumbling coming from outside, and Rupert was on the scene in a heartbeat! Two cats were on the fence behind our apartment, neither one wanting to back down. Rupert watched on with great interest.

I think the cat on the left was one of the kittens that had been living in our yard last summer. She has a collar now, and she looks really healthy, so that's great news! The cat on the right is Topaz, who's the unofficial ruler of our property.

I had to go out back to get my bike shortly after this photo was taken (we were out of coffee!), and the younger cat hopped right down from the fence to rub on my legs. She ran off after I'd pet her for a few moments, but it made my day.

In completely unrelated news, we had a barbeque in the yard a few nights ago with all our apartment neighbors. It was completely spur-of-the-moment, but I just really wanted to meet some of them, and the weather was so nice. A few of us went down to New Seasons (like Whole Foods, only locally run) and picked up some fancy meat skewers, which we cooked on our little grill. They were fantastic! It was so nice to get to know all these folks a little better, and now we're all looking forward to the next barbeque!

Springtime!

I just had someone ask me what I had planned for this weekend (Easter weekend), and I realized that we don't have anything at all planned. Maybe we'll wait until Monday for our grocery shopping, so we can get a good deal on a ham or some Cadbury cream eggs.

But just because we don't have anything planned, doesn't mean we won't be having fun! Spring has sprung here, and we've been soaking up the sunlight and warm breezes. Rupert is extra talkative, since he chatters at all the birds outside at the birdbaths, and howls at any bugs found indoors (or any speck of dust that might resemble a bug). We had the windows and doors open for a few days last week, and the freshly-aired-out apartment is energizing. I even found time to powerwalk around the track today. When the back door is open, Rupert just parks himself there for the entire day. Sometimes neighborhood cats walk past the door, and he gets the full sun.

Sean's been checking on our garden every morning, and we have some little sprouts! He bought a young pea plant, and we've been watching it explore its new home with its little vines. The tiny sproutlets in the photo below are going to be broccoli.

We finally had new neighbors move into Caitlin and Joe's apartment (diagonal from ours). It's a young couple, who appear to be expecting a baby in a few months. They've been really friendly so far, and planted some little flowers of their own, next to some tulips that just exploded red a few days ago. Of course, I went out and took these photos as the sun was setting, so the colors and lighting are pretty weird, but I think you'll get the point.

Business has been sort of busier than I expected, which is great! I've had a lot of custom requests recently, so I've been doing a lot of drawing (both digitally and with pens). We had to pay about $700 for worker's comp insurance for Sean, which was unexpected. It's a real bummer to find out that we have huge bills like that very suddenly, and it's keeping us from saving any money. But we're still making money, so I'm sure it will work itself out soon.

I had a really successful craft fair last weekend, which was a bit of a relief (since I've done that event a few times last year and barely made a few dollars). I got to meet some crafty celebrities, and a few of them have set me up with projects, like Garth Johnson who is going to publish some of my photos in a craft book this November ("1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse"), and Jennifer Worick who'd like me to do some illustration for t-shirts and her blog, http://thingsiwanttopunchintheface.blogspot.com.

Despite all this excitement, I feel like I'm finally able to take some time to relax, which hasn't happened much recently. I've started knitting again, and I have a stack of books that I'm working on, instead of just listening to audio books while I work some more. I still listen to the audio books, but I'm able to take a break too. I think this is going to be a really great weekend!

Gardening Day 1

Sean's been reading up on the gardening, and decided we should have a little 4x4 raised bed in our yard for veggies. He put this together on the one non-rainy day this week! I helped a tiny bit with the frame construction, but he did all the shoveling and laying the dirt and mulch. Plus, he's doing all the research, so this is really his big project.

We also dug up the plot that I'd been using for basil last year, to get it ready for another season. It's not a very big spot, but it's the only area behind our apartment (it's really behind our neighbors apartment) that gets any sun.

We'll try to keep you up to date on the garden's progress, since there's sure to be some excitement. I'll let Sean talk more about the details, since I'm just the helper.

Oh--I found a big stand of blooming daffodils behind the hedges in the backyard! Since no one can see them, I picked a bunch that I could reach and brought them inside. They've made our kitchen very sunny!

I miss you...

...I really do! Sean and I have been really busy, especially with this Etsy feature and the resulting orders, plus tax stuff. I've been meaning to write a post over here for a while, but haven't had the time. I've been updating Badger Sandwich pretty regularly, so don't forget to check over there if you want to stay up to date.

Actually, are there still friends/family that read this blog here? It's nice to keep a more private place to talk about personal life stuff, but I don't know if anyone checks here for news. Just curious! I'm still planning on posting something when there's a little more time.

Special Day

Not only was yesterday Valentine's Day, but it was also the one-year anniversary of our arrival in Portland! We left Massachusetts on Feb. 5th of last year, and it took us 9 days to drive across the country in our Uhaul.

We decided to celebrate by cooking a big, impromptu meal, since we're not really the restaurant reservation types. I made spinach and sausage calzones, which turned out great, thanks to our pizza stone! Sean put together a key lime pie (with regular limes, not key limes), which was also fantastic. He should make those more often! We also watched Sweeney Todd, which was really fun.

I think our first few weeks in Portland were a total blur, since I can't remember anything specific about this time last year. I remember going to by first Tea Time, and being thrilled that I could bike there (even though I was unexpectedly sweaty when I got to Lea's house). I remember being prepared for spring snow which never came. I remember flowers blooming almost immediately, and not knowing quite what to make of it.

There are already flowers poking through the ground in our garden. They look like tulips, but it seems really early for them, right? Maybe not. I thought I'd see crocuses, but I haven't seen any yet. I'm getting ready though.

It's strange to look back on the past year. So much has happened! Sean and I are in a different place than I expected, but we're also sort of in exactly the place I'd hoped for. It's a little hard to reflect on the past when you're looking ahead so brightly, but I can tell that we've had a good year here, and we made a good decision to come.

Sleep is for pussies

I don't ever make new year's resolutions. Sure, I should eat healthier and exercise more. But "resolving" to do those things never changes the fact that I like fried foods and sitting down. I like healthy food and exercise too (luckily), and I go through periods where I'm completely on top of things.

This year, however, I'd like to try to sleep in less. As a chronic insomniac, I can't say that without some qualifiers. Since I sometimes go for days or weeks without sleeping more than an hour a night, I clearly need to allow for some catch-up time.

This January, I seem to be catching up in advance, for nights that I won't sleep in the future. I decided to start setting an alarm for the morning (set to one of the many obnoxious PDX radio stations with morning DJ's that I want to stab in the eyes with a fork--these guys have a "party bus" that is perpetually taking "winners" to a casino or similarly depressing locale, and the one guy calls all the lady-callers "beautiful" even though he can't see them). This morning was the first day of waking up within 8 hours of going to bed. Rupert couldn't quite handle the early wake-up, so after his (first) breakfast, he went straight back to bed--lion pillow and all. But I'm planning on going out for some exercise!