2013: Year of the Friendcation

 As the year winds to a close, the memories I cherish the most over the last 12 months are the incredible places we've been, and the people we've been there with. 2013 truly was the "Year of the Friendcation". Here are a few highlights, and CHEERS to many more crazy-fun adventures in 2014!

 

January: Weekend in PDX 

With Britta & Erin

 

Unfortunately I don't have many photos from this trip, since I managed to come down with the flu shortly after we arrived. 'Twas a slight damper on the trip, but it didn't stop us from squeezing in some shopping on Mississippi Ave, checking out the Tristan Prettyman show at the Doug Fir, and brunching like champs. 

March: Okinawa Adventure

With Sophia, Tyler, & Kazu

 

The Inmans invited us to visit them in Japan. We happily obliged. This was an AMAZING trip! We got to go paddle boarding for our very first time in a amazing island cove with the prettiest tropical aqua blue water, thanks to Tyler & his friend/business partner Kazu's experience as SUP guides. Lots of ramen & beer were consumed. This was our fourth time visiting Japan, although our first visit to Okinawa.

April: Astoria Birthday Pub Crawl Weekend

With Sophia, Tyler, Britta, Eric, Ivy, Nathan, Lisa, & Matt

 

Since Henry and I were actually home for our birthdays this year, we decided to do a pub crawl in one of our fave NW cities. Since Lisa's birthday was a day earlier, it ended up being a triple birthday bash! And the Inmans had just moved back to the States, so it was a "welcome home" shindig for them, too. We ate cupcakes, drank delicious beer, checked out a few dive bars, and rode bikes along the river. I'm pretty sure a couple people have scars from this trip, proving HOW EPIC IT WAS.

May: Bottlerock or Bust!

With Andrea, Britta, & Eric

 

Ah, it's like we're in college all over again.... 5 friends stuffed in a car (with a box of wine in the back), hauling ass down to Napa, CA for a music festival. We all crashed in the same room, arriving sweaty and dusty each night after the music ended. On Sunday, we had the crazy idea to go have brunch in San Francisco before heading home. And we couldn't leave without doing a little shopping, right?! This led to a mad dash drive home, stopping only for quadruple-shot lattes at Dutch Bros. We arrived home around 3:30 AM, and guess who happened to have 3 midterms that morning starting at 8 AM? THIS GIRL. Ugh. Totally worth, it though! 

August: Orcas Island Camping

With Lisa, Matt, Ngan, Josef, Nhah, & Hazel

 

Matt chose camping at Doe Bay for his birthday trip. This was an interesting place. Us girls braved the "clothing optional" spa for, like, 15 minutes.....and ate a delicious vegetarian-free range-organic-hand harvested-foraged breakfast in the cafe, while being relentlessly attacked by bees. More bees greeted us at the ferry terminal, as we portioned out the meager rations left in our cooler while forced to wait 5 hours to get back to the mainland. Note to self: don't EVER try to leave Orcas on a summer Sunday afternoon. 

September: Conquering the Bend Ale Trail

With Lisa & Matt

 

Spur-of-the-moment plans were made to visit Bend for Labor Day weekend, since I kept hearing over and over how it was paradise for beer drinkers and dog lovers. Check, and check. We stuffed the pups in the Subaru and hit the road. Matt, Lisa and their two dogs met up with us the next day. Our motley crew of four humans & five dogs were welcomed at most of the city's renowned craft breweries, and we ate & drank & DRANK SOME MORE on their sunny patios. We also attempted to do a hike at the aptly-named Badlands recreation area, and got about a half mile in the scorching desert heat before we gave up and turned around. You'd better believe we cooled off with a beer afterwards! 

November: I Left my Heart in San Francisco!

With Lisa & Matt

 

Another impromptu trip made possible by insanely-cheap airfare....$125 round-trip, and I had 2 free hotel nights to redeem through my Marriott account. What we saved in travel costs, we quickly made up for in $6 beers and $10 cocktails. Ouch. Anyways, cousin Danny was able to meet up with us while we were down there, and we all went on a pub crawl and played drunken frisbee in the park. We also rode, er....hung on to a cable car which was ridiculously fun and mildly dangerous! 

So there you have it...2013's Friendcations in a nutshell. Now it's time to start planning some more....got a couple hundred thousand airline miles stashed away and a Subaru that can't wait to hit the road...where should we go???

The Laundry Room Remodel Begins! (Some "Before" Shots)

When our 8-year-old front loading washer broke down earlier this week, I was beyond pissed. With a slew of expenses this month - property taxes, repairs on the truck, and finally biting the bullet and getting my Subaru repainted- I really didn't need to spend another $600+ on a stupid appliance.

But when I begrudgingly dragged myself into Home Depot to pick out a replacement, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did they have a nice LG front-loading washing machine at a great price (it was on clearance because it was a floor model) but it looked a heckuva lot better than the aging Kenmore that it was replacing. Plus, it would play a cute little jingle to let me know when the cycle was completed! SOLD.

Even though our dryer at home still worked, we decided to bite the bullet and buy the matching dryer, which was also on clearance. While obviously this doubled my original budget, our dryer wasn't working quite as well as it did when new, and I worried that its days may be numbered. And, let's face it....I'm a girl and I like things to match. Sue me.

To sweeten the deal, our local PUD offers a $75 rebate on new energy-efficient washers. And we figure we might be able to get $100 or so for our old dryer on Craigslist. Since HD took an extra 20% off the clearance price of the washer and dryer, along with the rebate and CL dryer sale, we will hopefully end up paying right around $1000 for the set including tax. Score!

Anyways, now that the shiny new washer and dryer are in place, Henry and I have decided to finally tackle a complete remodel of the laundry room. Actually, the laundry room/mudroom/pantry/pet-feeding/storage room. We haven't really done anything with this room since buying the house, beside painting the walls (Hawthorne Yellow by Benjamin Moore) and the floors & stairs, which are original fir but had previously been painted a gross flesh tone. (Pretty much the whole house, including the exterior, was clad in various fleshy tones when we bought it. Gross.)

Here are some "before" shots that I took today.

(The new LG washer & dryer. IKEA expedit shelf haphazardly serving as shoe & recycling storage. Plus....my pathetic attempt at wall art!)

(Across from the W&D is this space, which holds our chest freezer, my awesome vintage Coleman cooler that I inherited from my Grandma, and storage for the vacuum and shopping bags, along with some items that don't fit in my kitchen, like an ice cream maker and juicer.)

(Next to the freezer is the water-heater closet. I can't decide if I love it or hate it...I mean, it's nice that it hides the water heater, but it's kind of awkward. Perched on top is my canning jar storage area, and the cat's feeding platform, which needs to be up high away from the dogs.)

(Next to the closet are the ugliest stairs ever built. Sooo many unanswered questions here...why is that platform there? What's up with the pole? Also located here is our unsightly dog food storage receptacle.)

(Here are the stairs themselves. I've already got plans for these...my Dash & Albert Tattersall runners just came in the mail and will be installed soon. The paint didn't hold up well on the treads, not to mention they are way too slippery for the dogs.)

(And the final shot: our "'landing strip", AKA: where we stash our stuff once we come in the back door. A place to hang keys & coats, a boot tray for wet shoes, and umbrella storage is a must! I'm looking forward to expanding this area to make it a bit more useful.)

So there you have it...our laundry room in its current state. I'm busy wrangling up ideas and inspiration for the remodel, and will post an update with some of my ideas soon. I'm really looking forward to designing this room from scratch and making it into a fun, functional space!

Cropping Out the Sadness

Portlandia's "Third Date To Italy" skit that aired last season totally slayed me. Here's the gist of it: Fred and his new girlfriend take a spur-of-the-moment "weekend" trip to Italy. The awkwardness of a bland third date was only worsened by their extreme jet lag, meaning the couple spent the entire trip sleeping it off in their hotel room. Fred returns from the disappointing trip and, regarding the online photos of him and his date looking happy, he observes, "Everyone on the internet, they're not having as great a time as you think they are".

This led to me reminiscing about some of my own travel moments that I've chosen to "crop out":

-Noticing that I was getting a bad bladder infection as soon as I stepped onto a flight heading to Seattle from Tokyo (~9 hours long). I squirmed in pain the entire time, and had to use the bathroom roughly every 15 minutes. (Fun calculation: that equals 36 pees!) Thank goodness I had an aisle seat.

-Choosing to add extra jalapeños to an order of nachos while eating dinner in Edinburgh, and then chasing it with a few extra beers = horrible stomach cramps during the next morning's train ride to York. I missed out on a few hours of sightseeing due to being curled up in a ball on a train station bench.

-Breaking down in tears in a Kyoto train station because I couldn't find the correct exit for the "bamboo forest".

-While in Tijuana with Henry and Danny, being tricked by a sketchy bar's "3-for-1 beer special" advertisement....which did NOT mean we all got to enjoy one beer for cheap....rather, we were each presented with 3 beers. Yep, 9 for the price for 3. And then they stole our change when we tried to pay. Oh well...at least we got drunk. Which you NEED to be in order to enjoy Tijuana.

-Having a snotty French hotel manager put us in the smelliest smoking room EVER at a London Hilton. And the windows wouldn't even open, so we couldn't air it out. Henry threw a fit in the lobby to no avail, and we were forced to sleep in the stank.

-Seafood-phobic Henry being forced to eat raw ocean creatures galore at a super-fancy, private sushi dinner in Fukuoka. Not wanting to offend the chef, he downed the urchin while visibly shaking. Lesson learned: Henry does NOT dream of sushi.

-Trying to pay for food at Whistler, and they refused to take our US dollars. BURN.

-Watching my extremely-drunk-on-sake brother almost smash into some shoji screens while stumbling around at a Japanese friend's family member's home. Although, there is video of this, and it is hilarious.

-Coming down with the flu while in Pennsylvania visiting my Grandma for what I knew would be the very last time. Spent 3/4s of the trip bed-ridden. On a positive note, she didn't catch it. On a not-so-positive note, that was indeed my final visit with her. Cue sad violin....

-Various camping mishaps. So much can go wrong whilst "enjoying" the great outdoors...campfire burns, mosquito swarms, burnt veggie dogs, air mattress leaks, sketchy midnight trips to the shitter...WHY do I continue to subject myself to this?!

Anyways, while quizzing Henry about our not-so-great travel moments, we were both surprised that it was pretty hard to come up with more. (Oddly, they always seem to involve me getting sick...or nachos). I guess we've been pretty lucky on our adventures. However, since we don't plan on staying put anytime soon, you can guarantee that there will be more cringe-worthy moments for me to "crop out" in the future.

A Daily Dose of Gratitude

Today is just an ordinary day. Had a grueling Finance exam this afternoon, which frazzled me enough to add a shot of Bailey's to my afternoon coffee when I returned home. But the sun was shining, so the dogs and I decided to head outside on our sorta-daily walk up to Circle Drive. Handling three crazy dogs on leashes is no small feat, but it was all worth it when I was rewarded with a killer sunset once I crested the hill. I never get tired of them, and I am thankful to live in such a beautiful place where the sun dipping into the harbor sets off an amazing kaleidoscope of colors.

Heading back down the hill, enjoying the painted clouds overhead, I round the corner of my block and see my little bungalow, aglow with light and warmth, welcoming me home. My neighborhood is humble and working-class, and although my house is small, its beautiful craftsman architecture and details turn it into a work of art. Someone built this home, nearly a century ago, to be more than just a roof over their head. The attention to detail is incredible. And now it's MY little house. Which swells my heart with pride every time I turn that corner. Today, I am grateful for this home; my health, which allows me to walk up that hill; my dogs, who nudge me outside to enjoy the fresh air; and countless other things. Gratitude...it's my attitude.