Saturday, December 11, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
A Little Too Good
Matt dressed up as a redneck this year. He put his costume on while I was out, and when I walked in the house I didn't recognize him at first. Matt isn't particularly redneckish in real-life--actually not redneckish at all, but yeesh can he play the part when dressed for it. Matt's friend Scott was over tonight, and he said Matt in costume made him a little nervous. Costume well done! (And I'm kind of happy he's out of his costume now.)
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Happy Halloween From Pregnant Cat!
In the 10 years I've worked for the NCRAR I haven't ever been even remotely tempted to dressed up for our Halloween parties. Until this year. For some reason my pregnant belly inspired me. I went dressed up as a pregnant cat.
The costume itself was super simple. A co-worker made some ears out of paper and I taped them to a headband. Then I sewed baby bottle nipples to my shirt, and that was it. I did actually have make-up to draw whiskers and a cat nose on my face, but I came *really* close to chickening out on the entire costume, and somehow leaving my face untouched made me feel less ridiculous (silly, I know).
There really is nothing like sewing nipples to your shirt to bring on the inappropriate comments. The photo above is of the recently retired director of NCRAR getting his milking hands warmed up. Overall, I'm pleased I didn't chicken out. I had a lot of fun.
The costume itself was super simple. A co-worker made some ears out of paper and I taped them to a headband. Then I sewed baby bottle nipples to my shirt, and that was it. I did actually have make-up to draw whiskers and a cat nose on my face, but I came *really* close to chickening out on the entire costume, and somehow leaving my face untouched made me feel less ridiculous (silly, I know).
There really is nothing like sewing nipples to your shirt to bring on the inappropriate comments. The photo above is of the recently retired director of NCRAR getting his milking hands warmed up. Overall, I'm pleased I didn't chicken out. I had a lot of fun.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Good Luck Poo
Today is Matt's and my second wedding anniversary. For our first anniversary we went to Victoria BC for a long weekend. For our second anniversary, we had a romantic little picnic and watched some birds roost. The bird-roosting part was more fun than it sounds. :)
During most of the month of September thousands of Vaux's Swifts roost (sleep) in the chimney of a local elementary school. Every night around dusk the birds--thousands of them-- start gathering, flying in circles above the chimney, and then when they are finally ready, they all start pouring into the chimney until they are all in for the night. Sunday, the night we went, it took nearly half an hour for all of the birds to swoop into their night-time home.
Portlanders take the activities of these birds pretty seriously. I've been told that on some nights there can be as many as 2000 people gathered around the school to watch them. Often there are representatives from the Audubon Society there to answer questions.
Sunday night there were maybe a couple hundred people there. The mood was festive. There were two different birthday celebrations near us--complete with singing. There was a lot of wine and cheese, and many many blankets, dogs and toddlers.
Matt and I arrived early with a couple of chairs (mostly for pregnant me) a blanket, and makings for a super tasty picnic--all as part of our anniversary celebration. We set up our little spot, ate, chatted with our neighbors a bit, read, and relaxed. Eventually the birds started gathering above, and would occasionally go into a cone-like, swirling formation over the school--sort of tornado like, but in a totally non-life-threatening kind of way.
It took quite a while for the birds to all gather before the big event, and as the birds spent more and more time over our heads, Matt started worrying about being pooped upon. His solution--he put his book on his head so that he would at least not end up with poo in his hair. I thought we probably didn't have anything to worry about, but sure enough, about five minutes after the book took up residence on his head a bird pooped on his shoulder. When Matt expressed displeasure about the poo the woman next to us jumped in and very sincerely (with a tiny bit of scorn) said "you know that's good luck". She seemed quite disappointed that Matt had showed displeasure regarding the poo. I giggled and almost on cue a bird pooped on my hand.
Clearly Matt and I have *a lot* of good luck headed our way.
Good luck--what a lovely anniversary gift.
Eventually all the swirling birds-full-o-luck made their way to the chimney, and when the first bunch of birds headed down the chimney, people clapped and cheered. There's nothing I love more than soaking in Portland vibes with my sweet husband. Cheering on the birds with a bunch of kooky Portlanders was a lovely way to celebrate our anniversary.
Happy second anniversary Matt!
I love you even more than I love Portland!
During most of the month of September thousands of Vaux's Swifts roost (sleep) in the chimney of a local elementary school. Every night around dusk the birds--thousands of them-- start gathering, flying in circles above the chimney, and then when they are finally ready, they all start pouring into the chimney until they are all in for the night. Sunday, the night we went, it took nearly half an hour for all of the birds to swoop into their night-time home.
Portlanders take the activities of these birds pretty seriously. I've been told that on some nights there can be as many as 2000 people gathered around the school to watch them. Often there are representatives from the Audubon Society there to answer questions.
Sunday night there were maybe a couple hundred people there. The mood was festive. There were two different birthday celebrations near us--complete with singing. There was a lot of wine and cheese, and many many blankets, dogs and toddlers.
Matt and I arrived early with a couple of chairs (mostly for pregnant me) a blanket, and makings for a super tasty picnic--all as part of our anniversary celebration. We set up our little spot, ate, chatted with our neighbors a bit, read, and relaxed. Eventually the birds started gathering above, and would occasionally go into a cone-like, swirling formation over the school--sort of tornado like, but in a totally non-life-threatening kind of way.
It took quite a while for the birds to all gather before the big event, and as the birds spent more and more time over our heads, Matt started worrying about being pooped upon. His solution--he put his book on his head so that he would at least not end up with poo in his hair. I thought we probably didn't have anything to worry about, but sure enough, about five minutes after the book took up residence on his head a bird pooped on his shoulder. When Matt expressed displeasure about the poo the woman next to us jumped in and very sincerely (with a tiny bit of scorn) said "you know that's good luck". She seemed quite disappointed that Matt had showed displeasure regarding the poo. I giggled and almost on cue a bird pooped on my hand.
Clearly Matt and I have *a lot* of good luck headed our way.
Good luck--what a lovely anniversary gift.
Eventually all the swirling birds-full-o-luck made their way to the chimney, and when the first bunch of birds headed down the chimney, people clapped and cheered. There's nothing I love more than soaking in Portland vibes with my sweet husband. Cheering on the birds with a bunch of kooky Portlanders was a lovely way to celebrate our anniversary.
Happy second anniversary Matt!
I love you even more than I love Portland!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Click
I read an article recently about happiness, and the author recommended taking mental snapshots of happy moments to flip through mentally at a later date. I kind of rolled my eyes a little when I read it, but I sure did take a mental snapshot of a moment recently that I'm certain I'll look back on for years to come.
Recently Matt and I went to Vancouver BC and spent some time with Matt's parents. Matt's parents both grew up in/near Vancouver and met at University of British Columbia. Vancouver obviously is very familiar territory for them and so they showed us around. Our tour included gems like picnic spots Matt's parents frequented as children, the college campus where they met, and the hospital where Matt's dad was born. I love cheesy family trivia and so could not imagine a better tour of Vancouver than the one they provided.
On our last night in Vancouver Matt's parents had left and so Matt and I were on our own. A couple of days before arriving in Vancouver I had sprained my ankle and I was pretty sore from all of the walking we had done so I asked Matt if he would go out to find us some food while I lounged around in our room with my feet up. He happily obliged. He came back with some *excellent* Indian food--a favorite for both of us. We had a cozy little table and chair setup in our room right next to gigantic windows that offered an amazing view of Vancouver with the bay in the background. Our room was on the 32nd floor, so we actually had birds soaring below us as we looked out over the city. Directly across the street from us was the hospital where Matt's dad was born. As we ate the sun set and the city lights came on. Throughout dinner our teeny tiny baby girl was kicking me in the gut from the inside with all her teeny tiny fetal might. I felt connected to, and love for Matt, his family and our baby girl. It was kind of a perfect moment and I thought "Oh oh, I should take a snapshot of this without my camera". And so I did.
Recently Matt and I went to Vancouver BC and spent some time with Matt's parents. Matt's parents both grew up in/near Vancouver and met at University of British Columbia. Vancouver obviously is very familiar territory for them and so they showed us around. Our tour included gems like picnic spots Matt's parents frequented as children, the college campus where they met, and the hospital where Matt's dad was born. I love cheesy family trivia and so could not imagine a better tour of Vancouver than the one they provided.
On our last night in Vancouver Matt's parents had left and so Matt and I were on our own. A couple of days before arriving in Vancouver I had sprained my ankle and I was pretty sore from all of the walking we had done so I asked Matt if he would go out to find us some food while I lounged around in our room with my feet up. He happily obliged. He came back with some *excellent* Indian food--a favorite for both of us. We had a cozy little table and chair setup in our room right next to gigantic windows that offered an amazing view of Vancouver with the bay in the background. Our room was on the 32nd floor, so we actually had birds soaring below us as we looked out over the city. Directly across the street from us was the hospital where Matt's dad was born. As we ate the sun set and the city lights came on. Throughout dinner our teeny tiny baby girl was kicking me in the gut from the inside with all her teeny tiny fetal might. I felt connected to, and love for Matt, his family and our baby girl. It was kind of a perfect moment and I thought "Oh oh, I should take a snapshot of this without my camera". And so I did.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Very Small Snowpeople with a Very Nice View
Matt, Laura and I climbed Dog Mountain this weekend. Somebody made tiny snowpeople at the top. (I wish I could take credit for them, but they were there when we arrived.)
Here are a few other shots from the day.
Here are a few other shots from the day.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
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