I'm back!

Image from portlandground.com.

I survived the weeekend in Portland! We made it back last night, after enjoying an absolutely gorgeous weekend in a usually rainy city (at least during this time of the year!). We visited 3 churches, 3 ballrooms, 2 vineyards, and 2 hotels - and only crashed a couple of weddings in the process - to look at potential sites for the ceremony/reception. We don't have a decision yet, but we've definitely ruled out a few of our options. I'll post about the adventure for Wedding Wednesdays this week!

We also enjoyed a Mothers Day brunch prepared by my future mother-in-law - ever had amaretto french toast with peaches? TO. DIE. FOR. My parents and Matt's parents were both there, and my parents met one of Matt's sisters for the first time. Our families really are coming together, and best of all, they really like each other!

Now it's back to reality - work, a dreary Northwest day, and no delicious food in sight. Hope you all had fantastic weekends as well!

Wedding Wednesdays - Episode 4

This doesn't really count as an episode, I suppose, since I'm not really posting anything of value. I was going to write up the engagement story/proposal day, but since a substantial portion of my family and friends have yet to hear it, I don't think it'd be fair to fill in the blogosphere first!

Image from CakeMag.com, which has some great cake ideas!

The only progress that has been made on the wedding front since last week is on the venue front! We'll be visiting 6 potential venues this weekend - 2 wineries, 2 hotels, a ballroom, and a church - in Portland that could be where the big event happens. We're also doing a "drive-by" of another ballroom that responded to my phone calls but couldn't fit us in to show us around between weddings and brunches. It's going to be a jam-packed weekend between all of these appointments and Mothers Day, but hopefully I'll be back on Monday with a date and a place! This has seriously been the biggest stressor of everything so far - everyone wants to know when and where, and I haven't had any answers!

I'll fill you in on what we see and what we liked/didn't like next Wednesday, of course!

One of those mornings...

This morning started off perfectly. I had the right amount of energy to get myself out of bed at 6:15 for a run, and pounded out 5 miles pretty easily before 7am. I found exactly what I wanted at the grocery store on the way home (my office is having a bake sale today, and I wanted to contribute muffins and cookies). The muffins and the cookies came out fine, and were out of the oven by 7:40. I was showered, make-upped, and dressed shortly after 8, and all was going well to catch the 8:20 bus to work and make my 8:40 am meeting. No sweat!

And then...

• Matt and I are going on a "date" tonight, so I decided to wear my 4-inch heels to work.
• I couldn't find any paper plates to bring the baked goods to work on, so I had to rummage through the kitchen to find a few in the back of a cupboard, which took about 5 minutes longer than I thought it would.
• Saran wrap and I don't get along
• I get all the way down to the street the bus is on (4 blocks away), and it blows right past me because I'm at the wrong end of the block to catch it.
• I can't run to the bus stop because I'm wearing 4-inch heels.
• I speed-walk the 1.5 miles to work - in 4-inch heels.
• I get within sight of work, stop paying attention to where I'm going, step in a pot-hole, and fall down in front of a line of cars in the middle of the street
• The contents of my purse go everywhere (including about 15 tampons, lets be honest)
  
• The muffins and cookies are squished and, because they were still warm, get quite deformed. Seriously, they look like the rejects at the bake sale.
  
• I'm late for the meeting.
• I have skinned and bruised knee, which isn't going to go well with the dress I was planning to wear to visit wedding venues this weekend.
  

What started out so promising...

Book Review: House Thinking

House Thinking: A Room-By-Room Look at How We Live
Winifred Gallagher

I've been reading this book for the last week or so, after picking it up from the local library while looking for home decor books. I have three chapters left, but think I've made it through enough of the book to be able to write about it and tell you what I think about it.

The premise of this book is really interesting - Gallagher delves into a variety of fields to discuss how and why America's homes are they way they are. While the most emphasis is given to environmental psychology, bits of history, home economics, engineering, other psychology fields, and even Eastern religions and traditions (like feng shui) are thrown in. The book is arranged room-by-room (just as the title suggests), beginning with the entry way of the house and working all the way down to the basement. It was interesting to read about how each of these fields has contributed to the shape, size, and uses of each room - how home economics changed the look and feel of the modern kitchen, and how engineering has changed the look and feel of the modern bathroom.

My only have a couple of complaints about this book. The first is the organizational structure of the chapters - they aren't very conducive to the sometimes completely-unrelated facts that the author discusses. For example, you might get a tidbit about behavioral psychology and the conditioned responses to a dining room that we all grow up with, and then have it followed by a completely unrelated tidbit about how home economics made women more responsible for the prevention of germs. Both pieces are interesting, but I don't know why they were put in next to each other! I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why the author connected certain points with each other.

My second complaint is that the author provided a ton of great descriptions about historical homes of prominent people - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Edith Wharton, Louisa May Alcott - BUT there are no pictures! After a beautiful description of Edith Wharton's bedroom, I wanted nothing more than to actually see it and understand visually why it worked so well! But alas, there is not a picture in the book. I'm usually not one to demand pictures, but when you're discussing colors, furniture, and specific visual elements of a room, a picture really helps.

Despite the short-comings, I highly recommend House Thinking. It's different than your usual how-to home decor book, and it gives you some additional things to think about when you're redo-ing a room or two.

Bloomsday Race Report

It's no secret that Bloomsday was yesterday, especially if you tried to get anywhere in the downtown Spokane area. Basically, this entire city shuts down while 50,000 or so runners lope down the street in hopes of completing the 7.46 mile (12k) race in a better time than last year. For the second official (and fourth unofficial) time, I was among those 50,000.

And not to toot my own horn or anything, but I rocked it.

Shamelessly stolen from the Bloomsday website.

Oh yes. I finished in under an hour and made the top 25 of 24-year-old women. Those were my two goals going into the race, and that's what I did! Hooray!

Rachel also ran it for the first time this year, and wrote up here experience here. Go give her a pat on the back for her hard work!

Menu Plan Monday

This week is going to be another "using everything in the kitchen" week because we're going to be gone again this weekend - we'll be in Portland seeing both of our families and, most importantly, potential wedding venues! It's exciting to finally get the planning underway, and makes it really feel like this is happening!

Monday: Super delicious alphabet soup purchased on this shopping trip

Tuesday (Class Night): Baked tofu (marinated in bbq sauce), steamed veggies, and a box of Parmesan risotto

Wednesday: Curried Cauliflower and Black Beans served over some brown rice, with some additional steamed veggies on the side

Thursday: A stir-fry of whatever is still left in the fridge!

Friday-Sunday: Off to Portland!

For now, I'm going to kick up my feet and revel in my Bloomsday success today! Hope you all had fantastic weekends, and have fantastic weeks ahead!

Saturday Morning Brunch

I'm a huge fan of the late-Saturday morning brunch. It's taken many forms - hangover eggs and hash-browns at a diner, a egg and cheese bagel sandwich from Ultimate Bagel with a mocha on the side, or cold pizza from the night before. Occasionally I do put it together myself though, and today was one of those days.

2 eggs over-easy, a Wasa cracker with cream cheese, a fresh Cameo apple, and a fresh kiwi. YUM!

I love those Saturdays that I have the time to sit down and enjoy a breakfast like this. It gives me so much energy for the day, and is honestly pretty relaxing. And of course, you can't forget a nice, steaming cup of tea!

Jasmine Pearl Green Tea, to be exact!

Now it's time to watch some DVR-ed Iron Chef America while doing some chores (the secret ingredient is butter, geez!) before heading downtown for sidewalk sales and Bloomsday festivities! It's a beautiful day in Spokane and I plan to enjoy in accordingly. Hope all of your weekends have started fantastically!