Exiting Times in Portland

Happy Spring!
Portland has been in full spring for the last month. Daffodils, Magnolias, Cherry trees, and many other beautiful plants are in full bloom. The sun has also been out and a nice 65 degrees. Brendan, Cricket and I are took advantage of the beautiful weather and had a picnic at Mt. Tabor, its an active volcano!



To avoid Bio-statistics homework I have been baking....alot. Recently I have been on a cupcake binge and made Mayan cupcakes with caramel frosting as well as spice cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting. I also made homemade brioche which I made into bread pudding with apples, golden raisins, and Kentucky whiskey sauce. All of this and Brendan still isn't gaining weight, lucky.

Other things I have been doing is teaching myself to play the mandolin. I have really enjoyed it, but Brendan doesn't always appreciate my new hobby. I also raced an OBRA (Oregon Bicycle Racing Association) race, I did well even though there were 5 crashes! I only went down in one and finished with the pack. Brendan and I also volunteered for a bike fundraiser called the Worst Day of the Year Ride, historically the worst weather in Portland falls during the second weekend in February. Ironically that day fell on Valentines day and it was sunny and warm out.

Before my OBRA race

Volunteering!

Playing the Mandolin

Brendan came down with the Shingles and we spent the evening in the ER, also happened to turn into the morning of my homework. The ER is full of really great people at 10pm on a Monday evening. One man was standing and yelling "take a number and wait to die". While waiting Brendan kindly helped me with my bio-statistics homework. I hate to admit that he was on Vicodin while helping me.

Hanging out in the ER

Finally, I had my first collegiate bike race. It wasn't my best weekend of racing but I finished all of my races. During the final lap of the crit I was in a crash because I got stuck between a curb and another racer who wouldn't move so I tried to slow down and hit her rear wheel. I was bummed that it happened during the last lap and I was in a really good position for the sprint finish. I insisted on finishing the race and the race marshals put my bike back in riding order and I finished. Here is a picture of my race wounds, I also have one on my knee that didn't make it into the picture. As you can see Cricket is sad that I am hurt.

Ouch.

Well that was an epic blog post, I hope everyone is doing well and we can't wait for everyone to visit us! And what would be a blog post without a picture of Cricket.....


Love to all!

Happy Birthday Brendan!

As most of you know Brendan's birthday was last Tuesday the 26th. Happy Birthday Brendan!!! We will be the same age for just over a month. I took Brendan out to a nice dinner at Toro Bravo, a spanish small plates restaurant. We had dish like braised lamb over squash dumpling, grilled dates wrapped in bacon with a warm honey sauce, and grilled flat bread with truffle cheese and arugula. Yum yum yum!

After dinner we came home for homemade carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and presents. We were too full from dinner so we split a piece. Ok, I shoved some down Brendan's throat because I slaved away making it and then ate most the piece myself.

Birthday Cake and Candle. And Brendan wearing his new shirt.

Other than Brendan's birthday I have been slaving away at school. Recently I turned in a paper on barriers associates with access to health care, hopefully I do well. I am also proud to say that I got a 100 on both of my Biostats homework!!! So yeah for me.
I have also started making Cricket's food. This weeks batch consisted of carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, ground turkey, whole wheat pasta, and oatmeal. Lucky dog.

Well, that is it for now. Think smart thoughts next week for my Biostats midterm. Yikes!

I Saw the Sun

I did, I really did. One whole day of glorious glorious sunshine. Brendan and I took full advantage of the beautiful day and went for a bike ride. Brendan went up to Multnomah Falls to do some climbing while I went for a ride with the PSU women's team.





Sunday was back the the drizzle so we went to our favorite breakfast spot, the Screen Door. I finally ordered chicken and waffles, three pieces of fried chicken stacked on a sweet potatoe waffle.

Huge!!!

Leftovers..... Don't worry I only could eat half of that for dinner.

Brendan had a modest breakfast of eggs scrambled with praline bacon, chives, cream cheese, and topped with fried oysters served with potatoes and toast.

Well, I hope you all had the wonderful and delicous weekend we had. Now off the write a paper on the barriers surrounding access to health care. Ugh, not my topic of choice.

It's been a while.....

It's been three months since my last post. I feel like I am in confession. But it is true, I am long overdue for an update on our infamous life in Portland, Oregon. Most of you know what Brendan and I have been up to: beach camping while dinning on crab and pbr, exploring Portland by bike, and soaking in the sun. Ok that last one was a lie. The rain and clouds have finally settled over us and after talking to some locals the weather is here to stay until May. Yes May, what kind of winter do they have here? Lasting till May!? We all know that winter lasts till February, anyways we are settling in for the long haul and run outside when we see the sun peaking out. Literally we run outside.

Oregon Fungi

I am in my third week of school, with only eight weeks left! Biostatistics has been hard but fun. It is always fun to apply math to the mortality, morbidity, and disease rates around the world, a real upper. My other class, Program Planning, has turned out to be a lot of work. I am working with two other students to create a plan for making convenience stores healthier. In other words, we are trying to have convenience stores carry fruits, vegetables, sandwiches, etc. instead of the standard soda, candy, and beer. Thus, I will save the world by making everyone eat healthier! My last class is not on my list of favorites: Health Systems Organization. This exciting three hour class is filled with fun facts about how the U.S. health care system is organized (actually how unorganized) and how health care is filled with money grubbing rich people who don't want to lessen the cost of health care. Do I sound a little cynical?
Anyways, besides my hours and hours of reading and math homework I have been training for the upcoming road season. Last weekend I went on a team ride, of course it was raining and I have begun developing the art of riding behind a bike for hours while getting sprayed in the face with grit, it truly is a skill. My first race will be March 20th in Corvallis, Oregon. I also get to travel to far away places such as Seattle, Salem, Montana, and Moscow (Idaho, silly). I am going to start in the Women's B category and will hopefully upgrade to the A's which means I have a chance of going to nationals in Madison, WI.
Brendan has been slaving away at work. On his spare time he has been playing with his new power tools and writing a new computer language ( I have no idea what that means). At night he has been giving me programming lessons using Java. It blows my mind. Cricket is still growing and growing and is almost 9 months old!


Well that is it for now, we miss all of you,
Emily and Brendan

Some of you may be thinking what have Emily and Brendan been doing up there in the NW? Well luckily for you a whole lot! A few weeks ago we went to the beach! We visited Canon Beach which is home to the rock in Goonies and the kindergarten from Kindergarten Cop. As if that isn't exciting enough it was Cricket's first time seeing the ocean and tasting salt water. Yum! The beach is located only 1.5 hours away from the house and to get there you drive through Tillamook National Forest (yes like Tillamook cheese). After arriving at the beach and frolicking with Cricket for a bit we had a lovely picnic on the beach and some cold white wine. Delicious! After that we soaked in some rays and walked in the surf (the ocean is way to cold to swim in). Then we went Downtown and had some fresh saltwater taffy and a milkshake. After we got our sugar high we left to go back home and I promptly fell asleep in the car.

Goonies Rock

Drive to the beach from Portland





Video of Cricket at the Beach




The rest of the week composed of regular daily activities such as Brendan working and I did school work and continued my job hunt! We also had dinner with our new friends Daniel and Lindsay at a delicious Thai resturant (Mom you will love it). It was our first time eating like city folk. We got there at 8pm and waited for and hour and a half to be seated! We ended up eating around my bed time, thank goodness it was a Friday night.

Last weekend we went to the Saturday Market which takes place every weekend. There are hundreds of booths with artisan crafts for sale. There are also food and beer booths and live music. We were able to see the local crew teams practicing on the river which looked cold and wet because it was raining.











Gyros from Saturday Market





Freshly made Corn Dog








Live Music







While Brendan was off getting his assortment of fair food I got hit on thanks to my trusty bike helmet. I believe the line was "I think it is so adorable that you wear a bike helmet". Thank goodness Brendan returned in the nick of time so I didn't have to break another man's heart.

Since I have some spare time on my hands and love an opportunity to avoid homework I have been doing a lot of baking. I started making all of our breads and cookies from scratch. Just to give you a taste of what I have been doing I have made this week I made wheat sandwich bread snickerdoodles, corn bread, and artisan bread (picture below). It has been very satisfying baking and I have really enjoyed it!











So far being together all the time hasn't bothered us. Brendan still enjoys working from him and I enjoy bugging him while he is here. As if we don't spend enough time together we had date night and went to one of Portland's best resturants Bar Avingion. I had the amazing pork chops and Brendan had seafood stew. I was tempted to try Brendan's dish until I dipped my sppon in and a baby octopus floated to the top. Ewwww.

(My Pork Chops, mmmmm)









Well, that's about all of our happenings as of now. Tomorrow we are going to the Blazers vs. Nuggets basketball game. It should be interesting and fun, hopefully we don't get beat up for being Nuggets fans. Of course we miss you all and will be home in seven short weeks for Christmas!
Love Emily and Brendan

Spider eating a bee in our backyard:

First Week of School

One week down, only ten to go! The quarter system makes school go by so much faster. I guess it also helps that my classes meet only once a week (which means I only have each class 11 times per quarter). Classes are 2.5 hours each, which is kind of hard to sit through. Brendan took some pictures of my on the first day of school.












My first solo voyage to Downtown Portland! I can make it to class in about 25 minutes but usually arrive sweaty (which is probably really helping me make friends). My first class was a nightmare, Management and Organization of Health Care. A class all about managing a health care company. When our first assignment was to write a paper about the organizational structure of a health care company we have worked with I knew I was in trouble. I have never worked for a health care organization and never planned on working for one. After talking with my advisor I figured out that I was in the wrong concentration. So, after this school year I will be in the School of Community Health receiving a Master's in Public Health: Health Promotion. It shouldn't be too hard to transfer but I do need to reapply to school. I am glad I got that figured out before it was too late.
So far I really love my classes. I am taking Environmental Health (learning about all the harmful things we do to the planet and how it affects the population), Principles of Health Behavior (learning the psyche behind changing behaviors), and Foundations of Public Health.

Other than school I have been taking Cricket to the dog park every morning. I took some pictures of the park that we go to. It's a beautiful park unlike anything we have in Colorado.





This weekend we went to a Portland Timber soccer game with our friend Chris and his Cousin's. It was an experience! The Timber's were playing in the playoffs and the fans were crazy! The mascot is a big guy who wears overalls and everytime the Timber's score he takes a chain saw and cuts off a piece of wood from a huge log and runs around with it. He also runs around with the chain saw running (without the chain on it)

Having drinks before the game

Start of the Game!

It was intense

Unfortunately the Timber's lost, but that didn't damper our fun. It was nice to get out and meet people and I think we made some friends! Woo-hoo.

Did you know that Matt Groening was born and raised in Portland?

Proof!

Well, that's it so far! We have taken it upon ourselves to try all the bars and restaurants in the area so when you come visit we can take you to the best of Portland!