B-b-b-beach, biotch! January 5, 2009

I’ve had that title in my head all day since leaving the beach.  The rhyming was quite catchy to me.

Chris and I just got back late this afternoon from our weekend on the northern Oregon coast, and it was nice to be in a beautiful place with no computer for a few days 🙂  Lily Bird had a great time, and I have TONS of pics of her, the beach, food, etc. 

Back to Friday then…Chris and I opted for a quick lunch, and you’ll never believe where we went:  McDonald’s!  I had a grilled chicken BLT, minus the tomato and bacon, with ketchup added.  In other words, bun, chicken, lettuce, tiny bit of ranch, and ketchup.

We headed on down to the coast, taking the longer, lower-elevation route on Hwy. 30 along the Columbia River.  It was pretty, and snowing for quite awhile, but not slippery thankfully.  Here’s Lily looking out the window as we drove over the Youngs Bay Bridge in Astoria. She walked into the picture but it was perfect!

 

I knew it would be really cold at the beach, but I didn’t expect to see sleet/snow on the sand and in some places around town! 

We had a little stop over at the McMenamin’s Sand Trap right across from the hotel before heading to dinner.  I had tea in order to save calories since I knew the eats would be good with Erin and her family.

The evening at Erin’s was so fun!!  We had dinner, played games, had yummy nibbles and wines, caught up on lots of things, sat by the fire…

Roasted chicken, edamame/white bean/ herb/celery salad, nummy bread with butter.  We had a Tyrus Evans Pinot Noir, and sparkling water, with this.

A plate of desserts: chocolate oatmeal cookies, cheesecake bites, shortbread cookies, meringues, peanut butter cookies…. I had at least 6 pcs.  And a few glasses of champagne.

From left:  Megan, me, Erin, and Jack.  Chris was taking the photo–thanks, honey!  I’m so glad we spent a long time over there and were able to relax, play, eat, and laugh a lot.  I love Erin and miss her a lot while she’s away.  I often suck as a friend b/c I don’t pick up the phone  much, so blogging has really been a fun way to stay connected more.  Thanks again for all the fun, sweetie!

Saturday morning Chris and I planned on going to breakfast “early,” but by 9 I was hungry and still waiting for the man to get ready, so I had half of a really ripe nana with some Barney Butter, warmed in the micro.  Not quite white I had hoped for (nana’s taste was too sweet for me), but still good.

The view I had while eating. Love it.

We went to McKeown’s in Seaside for a late breakfast, and it was quite tasty.  I was in the mood for a variety of things, so I had the Lite Breakfast (one egg, potatoes, fruit), one buttermilk pancake, and half of the scone/bread sampler they bring for starters.  And coffee with cream.  Mmmmmm.

[can’t access page 2 of my media library; check back for more pics]

Afterward we walked around Seaside with LB for awhile, strolling north and south on the boardwalk, and stopping to get some salt water taffy.  If I don’t get taffy while I’m there from Phillip’s on Broadway I just don’t feel like my trip is complete.  I got a mixed 1/2 lb. (didn’t sound like so much when ordering it…) of vanilla, peppermint, butter, and cinnamon.  So yummy!  Basically insert a few pcs. of taffy in between most meals for the rest of the weekend…it would have been hard to photograph each piece I ate 😉

When we got back we went for a long walk on the beach with Lily.  We let her off the leash and she was lovin’ it– tearing around, sniffing to her heart’s desire, and meeting a few other doggies.  She did splash in the waves a bit, and didn’t seem phased at all by the freezing water.  She ran and ran and ran and ran, and was quite tired when we got back to the room.  I had to bathe her tho, since she smelled like sea water and had sand all over.

Chris and I then had some French red wine while putting together this puzzle.  At first Chris wasn’t that interested in it, but then he got in on the puzzling action and helped me complete it.

We decided to eat at McMenamin’s for dinner, and I had the veggie pizza.  It wasn’t quite cooked enough (not scalding hot and crust not as crispy as it could have been) but it still tasted good at least.

We headed back to the room and played a game of chess, then opened the cava and I had a snack.  Fuji with a wedge of LCL. 

I was soooo tired from not sleeping very well Friday night, and I pooped out right after we started watching “When Harry Met Sally.”  I did sleep better last night, but still woke up a lot. 

This morning (Sunday) I knew we weren’t going out for breakfast, so I got up around 8:30, took the LB out, and had the oatmeal I’d prepped Friday night.  As I ate it I realized I forgot the raisins in it, but didn’t care enough to get up and add them in.

You’ll never guess what Chris and Lily did last night and this morning on the couch:  snuggle!!  Chris doesn’t let Lily up on the couch, but since we were on vacation he tried it out.  They were so cute together!

We packed up and headed out around noon, again driving through Astoria.  We stopped for lunch at the Cannery Cafe.  I had clam chowder and panini with olives, tomato, and cheese.  Everything was pretty rich and tasty; this was my last meal in vacation mode, so I went out with a fatty bang.  :shocked:

The restaurant is on a pier with a lookout, so afterward we got LB out of the car and looked around for a few minutes.  It. was. so. cold.  After 5 minutes and a few pictures we got back in the car and drove on home.

It started snowing right after we arrived at the house!  Not a lot of accumulation, but pretty 🙂 Of course Chris was thinking of going to Fajitas for dinner, but I had visions of working out in my head so I vowed not to get stuffed, and not to drink alcohol.  I had a Diet Coke, and a soft chicken taco with pickled jalapenos.  Tasty and perfectly filling without being too full. 

Then I remembered about La Casa, and drank half of it. 

 

After this I went to 24 Hour Fitness and cranked out a nice leg workout, some abs, and some cardio.  After a chat with Erin and Andrea last week I took their advice and switched up the workout a bit.  I did Smith machine leg presses, and dead lifts, instead of just the usual machines.  Yay!  I forgot how great the dead lifts are, and I prefer the Smith machine over a stack machine any day.  (Why did I wait til now to integrate it?)  Cardio was 1/2 an hour of elliptical intervals, and then I was done.

I went to the grocery store, cleaned some house, and had a small snack of mostly ff cc.

Honestly, I was trying to deny myself a snack b/c of all the bad eats I had this weekend, but then I got real and realized I needed some food.  This was a perfect snacky-poo for yours truly.

Now I sit here, blogging away for what seems like hours on end, and I should totally head to bed.  I’ll try again to add in page 2 of my pics tomorrow. 

I hope you all had a great weekend!  Yay for weekends!!  Can’t wait til the next one is here 😉  How ’bout you?

“Merry New Year!” January 2, 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!  I’m excited to see my blog is getting a lot more traffic these days, mostly courtesy of the bitchin’ babes’ blog, Care To Eat.  Love you ladies!

If you know what movie I’m quoting, let me know!  Love the classic comedies.

Sorry I’ve been absent for a few days…New Year’s Eve I was downloading Spybot on the home computer, and then doing mega scans (which took a few hours to do everything) to make sure I don’t get any more malware.  Last night I was getting ready for the beach, and then the power went out when I was going to blog.

Now I’m at work and am not sure I can get all my pics off of my camera, but I’ll try!  I leave for the beach in a few hours and will again be absent until Sunday night or Monday.

So, back to Wednesday, the 31st:  Chris and I worked a full day, which started out with breakfast at work and plugging along for what felt like several hours too many before heading home.  The eats:
 The typical steel cut oats and coffee

 The typical wrap, pita chips, apples, cc

 Snack of what I didn’t finish for lunch

[Imagine Mexican food from Si Senor here]

At Si Senor I had the Pollo Azado Burrito (HUGE flour tortilla stuffed with grilled chicken, zucchini squash, carrots, onions, tomatoes, celery, bell pepper, and rice, and covered with tomatillo sauce) and an Original Margarita (fresh lime juice, lots of booze).  Mmmmmm…all of it was fresh and tasty.  So sad I forgot the camera since I had the burrito, a new dish. 

My mom didn’t want to be alone on New Year’s Eve, so Lily stayed at her house to keep her company and provide soudn effects for the New Year (Lily barks at fireworks sometimes).  🙂

Chris and I headed home and had a quiet evening of TV and organizing receipts (bleh).  Around 11:30 we cracked open this bottle of Cava:

 It was only $8.99 at Cost Plus!

Then Chris and I proceeded to ring in the New Year, and have a heated discussion/semi-fight for 2 hours.  Not fun, but I think we’re okay now.  We seem to fight, get it all out, and then are happy the next day even if things weren’t resolved.  Are we weird or what? 

New Year’s Day involved me eating my oatmeal in the car (!!!) on the way to my mom’s house to pick up Lily, but here’s a pic before I left the house:

I had hoped to get in a workout after picking LB up, but Chris was rarin’ to go to work.  We putzed around the house for awhile, ate lunch, and then headed out:

This lunch was a new take on the new salad I’ve had recently:  spinach, two egg whites, apples, broc slaw, Parmesan cheese, red wine vinegar, ground pepper.  I totally missed the turkey, but it was still good.  My lips were on fire afterward from the acidic vinegar and spicy pepper.  Whoo-ee!

Coming to work sucked, but was rather brief (a few hours).  We had my dad’s birthday dinner, and wanted to work out before that, so we left around 3:15.  My timing totally sucked, and I was only able to get in an intense 20 minutes of cardio 😦  I did intervals on the stairmill, starting at levels 6/9, moving to 9/11, and then coming down to 6/8 and hanging on for dear life at the end.  Wow, that was hard!

Dinner was a fantabulous evening of gluttony at The Heathman Restaurant & Bar in downtown Portland.  Executive Chef Phillipe Boulot creates a wonderful menu full of French Northwest fusion cuisine, borrowing from traditional French techniques while adding in Northwest ingredients.  Bottom line=yummy.  We started with Duval Leroy champagne and moved on to an Oregon Pinot Noir:

  SO good.

My first course was a pear and goat cheese salad.  Totally not what I expected, but incredibly delicious:  the pear was poached in red wine, I think, and pan seared; slivered almonds complemented the micro greens; and the pomegranate vinaigrette went fabulously with the creamy goat cheese.  I ate it all, but for a few bites given away.

 Heaven on a plate.

I also had 1/2 a small piece of bread with butter before this.  The butter was so tasty.

Dinner was hanger steak with bordelaise sauce, l’ami louis potatoes, sauteed spinach, and an onion preparation I can’t remember the name of (half an onion hollowed out, filled with greens, cream, herbs, and baked).  Wow, the amount of meat they gave me was insane.  I gave half of it away, and nearly finished the rest of what was on my plate.  Yikes!

 That’s the onion in the foreground.

Holy moley, that was a good dinner.   But wait, oh no, we were not done by any means!  The dessert & cheese menu was incredibly expansive on this eve…check it out:

 The left side was desserts, the right side cheese.

For some reason the profiteroles sounded good (pistachio ice cream, chocolate ganache sauce), so I ordered those and a decaf coffee with cream.  Ooh la la.

Here’s some of the other desserts my family ordered:

 

Tapioca and prunes brulee.  Light and flavorful.

 

Guittard chocolate decadence (3 frozen mousses: white chocolate, dark chocolate, and milk chocolate.) The dark chocolate one had salt sprinkled on top–this was a food orgasm for sure!!!

Traditional Tiramisu.  ‘Nuf said.

So, all in all I ate a lot, but it was all so good and I didn’t feel too full while we were there.  Alas, on the drive home I kept getting more full and eventually felt uncomfortable for awhile.  I was very glad I was able to get in my small workout at this point.

The evening was chaotic getting everything ready for the beach, and having the power go out 2 or 3 times.  I thought I may be screwed with getting the laundry done, but all was fine.  Chris and I played chess by candlelight 🙂 We also had some sparkling red wine my mom gave us:

I went to bed around midnight, and before I knew it 7 am rolled around and I had to get up.  Guess what was outside?!  Snow/sleet!!!!!!!!  Not much, but totally surprising.  Sorry that pic is so dark, but it was really dark outside I suppose. 

I had my usual oats this morning again:

I’m really liking the nut butter in my oats b/c of the rich flavor and chunks of almonds.  Have you tried nut butter in your oats?  Go for it!

I’m a little nervous about the drive to the beach, as a lot of rivers are at flood stage today, which means one of the highways at the beach may be closed.  I could go another route, but it takes and hour longer to drive.  And, there was a mudslide on Hwy 26 last night, but it seems to have been cleared now.  If you’re in Oregon, this website is really helpful for figuring out traffic and road conditions:  Trip Check

Well, I’m off to get a little more work done and hopefully leave before too long.  I didn’t have any lunch fixins at home, so Chris and I will probably eat at the cafe up the hall from our office.  I’m excited for the beach, as is the Lily Bird 🙂   I’ll take lots of pics and try to post Sunday night for you all to see!

I hope you all are having a good New Year so far, and that you have a great weekend.  Here’s to a year of happiness and health for you all!

Crazy Christmas December 25, 2008

A late Merry Christmas to everyone!  Another rather funky day that started off not so hot and ended up well. 

Woke up feeling like a zombie, got ready quickly, wrote out Christmas cards, and headed out.  The sideroads still sucked, but thankfully my dad’s car got thru it all no prob.  Chris and I picked up Liz, and my dad, and headed to my uncle Erik’s for brunch.  A family friend and his girlfriend were there, and their dog, and my uncle ended up ix-naying having the doggies in the house.  At least it was pretty and snowing 🙂

The usual breakfast prep chaos was underway when we got there, and we just kind of got out of the way.  I realized the table was only going to fit 7-8 people, and there were 10 of us, so somehow I knew Chris and I would be relegated to the breakfast bar.  No matter how old we get, we are still the kids of the bunch I guess.  Sad thing was no one really paid much attention to us or cared we were off to the side.  Oh well, we just killed the bottle of champagne on our own! 

Breakfast tasted good, but was quite sinful.  Thankfully I did not ever feel full! Coffee with 1/2 & 1/2 and a few glasses of champagne were my bevvies. 

 Love the bubbly!

My first plate, clockwise from the bacon on the left: 1/2 pc peppered bacon; bear claw pastry with almonds (SO yummy); bread pudding; baked spiced french toast; egg casserole with bacon, olives, potatoes, onions, cottage cheese.

Second plate:  apple crisp with whipped cream.  Apples were good, crumb topping tasted a little funky, yet for some reason I ate it all anyway.

Then my mom was telling me “eat this, try this, eat this…” so I had one of her chocolate chip cookies.  Mmm. 

After breakfast the family friends left, and I thought we were going to open gifts but my grandma suddenly had ants in her pants and couldn’t stand hanging out there any longer since we “weren’t doing anything”.  So for whatever reason we all went to her house to open the gifts, and prep the meat for dinner tonight.

No food there, thankfully!  I did get a few really great gifts, tho:  a grill pan and a kitchen scale.  Yay!  OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOh, and 2 jars of Barney Butter Crunchy!  My dad went ape shit on the gifts…if I knew he was getting 2 jars of the BB I’d have had him get the smooth, too.  But whatever, I excited I get to try BB now, and will soon be reviewing it to get my free T-Shirt from Jennifer 🙂

Chris and I ended up going to my mom’s for the day since we didn’t have a car and live a long distance from where the action was (read–my dad didn’t want to drive us home/couldn’t give us the car/we had no chance in hell of getting home at this point).  Lily was so funny in the car on the way over first half standing/half laying on the floor and seat, and then she laid down and put her head on the box in my mom’s lap.  So cute!

My mom’s backyard. It was snowing while we were there!

I had some coffee in this cute penguin mug.

My mom and Lily checking out the presents and the tree:

Chris wasn’t happy at all about not being able to go home and relax between family events, but it all turned out just fine.  He was able to read and then watch the Lakers/Celtics game.  I helped clean up my mom’s kitchen, and in the process ate a few things: a spoon of pumpkin pie mix; a few little slices of parmesan (gift from the uncle–the real stuff); and a bite of a chocolate chip cookie (“taste this one”). 

Chris put a red ribbon around Lily’s neck…I got a pic as she laid on me while I sat on the couch (not something she gets to do here at our house since she’s not allowed on the furniture [mostly]).  LOVE the LB.

Around 5 Erik picked us up and back to Grandma’s we went.  Non-meat eaters beware…plentiful meat pictures below.

Erik set off some fireworks when we got there.  Fun!

Beef tenderloin searing in the skillet before going into the oven:

My cousin Nick in his dress uniform (Marines).  He looked really nice…still can’t believe he’s in the military!

We watched the beef like hawks, meaning it took forever to get done.  My dad kept opening the oven to take the temp, readjusting the oven temp, etc., and like an hour later we sat down for dinner and it.was.so.good.  Clockwise from the potato:  twice baked potato; french green bean/onion/red pepper veggie medley (baked?); beef tenderloin seasoned with garlic, salt, and pepper, and cooked with a few slices of bacon on top for additional moisture.  Wow!  I also ate one 1/2 piece of the bacon.

This is my mom’s “chappin'” fruit salad: apples, banana, orange, maraschino cherries, walnuts, and whipped cream mixed in.  Yowza. I should have stopped eating before I had this.

I also had a few glasses of yummy champagne (three types of champagne in all!), and an incredible Domaine Serene Evenstad Reserve Pinor Noir (2004?).  After dinner my family cleaned up the dishes, and threw away far too many recyclable items.  So, I did some sly garbage diving involving removing aluminum cans, foil, paper, and plastic from the trash.  Yay for recycling!

Soon thereafter we had dessert:  homemade pumpkin pie (my mom made it this afternoon) with too much freshly whipped cream.  Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

Okay, NOW I was way overly full and the discomfort lasted until a few hours later.  Not like gut-busting full, but sorta painful tummy from too much food.  It was worth it, tho, to have all that yummy food I suppose. 

My dad gave Chris and I his car again (he can walk to work), and that means I can get to the gym no matter what tomorrow!!!!!  Awesome… AND there’s a yoga class at 10:30.  All the classes have been cancelled this week so far, but it seems like the roads are improving enough that it will be on tomorrow.  We’ll see.  Either way I plan on spending at least 2 hours at the gym to rev myself up and burn off some of today’s indulgences.  Yee-haw.  Seriously.

Shit, looking at www.tripcheck.org the road to the coast is mostly clear even at the summit now, so maybe Chris and I could make it down there tomorrow after all.  We’ll see what happens.

I think I’m going to add another page to my blog–“The Three R’s”–to throw in add’l recycling links, suggestions, Master Recylcer stuff, etc.  Hope it helps inspire you to be green, reduce, reuse, recycle, and think more about reducing your impact on the environment.  Hope you’ll visit that page, too!

Aw, the LB is curled into such a tiny ball right now.  She contorts herself into some of the most uncomfortable looking positions sometimes…I don’t know how she sleeps in them.

Nighty night!