It was a pretty well-attended ceremony, with I’d guess at least 50 people there. There were tents with kids activities, and information about the history of Oaks Bottom and the people who made the park and trails possible, by preventing it from being completely developed and instead preserving it as a marshland and bird preserve close to downtown Portland. (One local group, the Friends of Oaks Bottom, informally call themselves the “Bottom Watchers” :-).

The Audubon Society was there, with a Peregrine Falcon and a Great Horned Owl to visit up-close.

There also happened to be a Red-tailed Hawk up in a nearby tree. At one point, it actually swooped down and caught some little critter for lunch! Here’s Nancy watching it sun itself, maybe as a post-lunch nap.

Nancy and I headed up the newly-restored and improved trail. The ducks, songbirds, and Great Blue Herons were all enjoying the sunny day, and didn’t seem to mind us walking by.

Life in pictures

Look at us! So damn cute!

My coworker was having a masquerade 50th birthday party for her husband and we were invited. My anxiety gets the best of me sometimes and I almost bailed last minute but I’m glad we went because we had such a good time! Did I mention it was open bar all night?!

I’m always leery of the ‘coworker party’ because I have the tendency to act a fool. The last work party I attended haunted me for years.

FLASHBACK!
Joel and I had just started a new ridiculous diet. Read: I wasn’t eating. It was a Cinco de Mayo party so there was unlimited margaritas. Ugh, I seriously feel a lump in my throat as I write this.

Toasty.

A little too friendly with the coworkers.

Joel is feeling it too.

So a little over a year after this party, I get a Facebook message from a random friend. She asks me if I know H and I say yes and that I used to work with her. She then tells me all the dirty details of that Cinco de Mayo party. Great.

The margaritas and my empty stomach didn’t exactly agree. I ended up (against my better judgement) throwing up ON the side of my friends house. Not in the bushes. On the house. I also blacked out (didn’t believe in that until this day) and said a bunch of random inappropriate things.

Enough of that flashback.
Well I danced a little too much at the masquerade party and didn’t realize I was drunk until I got home. All bad. I was embarrassed to see everyone on Monday. I’m glad I decided to skip heading to the Castro with my boss. I can only imagine the trouble I would have got into.

After we nursed our hangovers at the boyfriends grandmas house on Saturday, we had a a funday Sunday planned. Wine & Canvas!

*What is Wine and Canvas? *You meet up at a restaurant, drink some wine and follow along with the instructor to paint a masterpiece! We skipped the wine and opted for lunch instead. It was so funny watching the boyfriend paint.

At one point I asked him, ‘are you even trying?’ I guess that wasn’t nice… but I just couldn’t stop laughing.

Guess which one is mine??

Well, the nicer one is downstairs so all can see and the.. umm.. challenged one is upstairs. You should try it sometime!

I wonder what we’ll get ourselves into next weekend! Either way I’m excited and can’t wait!

Submission to the A Word A Week Challenge.

Love my yellow Skull Candy headphones.

As of the time I am typing this, it has been 24 hours, 50 minutes, 12 seconds since I have had a Dr. Pepper…..I’m getting some encouragement from my bananas

Decided to take a photo on a slower speed to see the amount of movement she makes in about 1/2 second while getting her treat ball.

Then I turn on my camera and find these….

…Memories in all their glory.

…A whole conversation in a glance.

…Pure happiness embraced in a hug.

…Goofiness with high school friends.

…Playtime with mom.

…Just how strong the parents child bond really is.

…The soulful eyes of friends long gone.

This is me. This is what I can offer to the world. This is what I build my life around.
Right now, I may only have evening and weekend hours to dedicate, but that gives me a more diverse skill set. (Previous ‘Definition of a Professional Photographer’ blog post)

With an international MBA and intense music studies, I believe that puts me in the  well-educated professional photographer & artist category.    Many will argue, but that’s ok. I’m proud to be me.

Well, I’m lying, it’s really the Valentine’s when Joel and Matthew met three years ago. Matthews friend felt me up and I left my wallet at Lime, a crazy gay brunch spot.

*Anywayyyyyy*….

This is the first Valentine’s in a long time that I actually have a significant other… well, a significant other that I love.

I bought these little craft Valentine’s so that we could color each other. After he finishes, he walks by and says he really “captured the essence” of me.

Enjoy the pictures. Hope you had a great one!

Here they are in my beautiful bouquet.

My love at our fancy dinner.

My fancy dessert.

We used the aging app and I don’t mind growing old with him. <3

So I buy this book and I think we are set!

I got off of work, reviewed the cookbook, picked a few recipes and rushed to the store.

The main course was zucchini with ground beef.

It wasn’t too bad but there were minimal spices in it. Read: bland.

Next were chocolate chip cookies made with almond flour. I was supposed to scoop ONE tablespoon… I went overboard and ended up making one big ass cookie!

How cute are they? NOT.

Oh yeah… I failed to mention that in addition to scooping more than a tablespoon for the cookie I also confused a teaspoon for a tablespoon while making the damn things! And with the salt of course. Read: they were saltier than shit.

The boyfriend was very sweet about it. He doused the beef in ketchup and swallowed one cookie.

Oh faileo diet. I hope to get the hang of it soon.

Shoveling and raking wood chips gave Nancy a nice rosy glow :-) We finished a few minutes before the first raindrops!

Looking down (and downstream) over the Willamette

Hope you all had a splendid week!

I just have one photo today, and it’s of my new storage I put together in the kitchen! I saw this online somewhere and have been wanting to do it. I finally got around to getting the crates and here we are! I might stain them at some point, but I need to find some time first!

 I love the levels!

Have a great weekend!

painting……We are spending our weekends getting the baby’s room ready. We are not rushing to complete it, since we are planning to have a co-sleeper in our master bedroom after the baby is born but I would love to get most of it done. The hubby is currently painting the baby’s room. I chose the neutral colors below. Yellow and grey are colors I’m enjoying now and I love being around it, I even have outfits with this color combo.

eating…..plenty of soups lately. We had a rainy week last week and having soup for lunch and dinner just felt so good for the soul.  There’s a Boudin Restaurant nearby and I love that they offer different soup flavors daily.

drinking……fresh juice from blood oranges. I have been juicing and drinking blood oranges almost daily. They are just so refreshing and these are a good way for me to stay hydrated. I am drinking a lot of water (hopefully it will help with the swelling), but water can be boring some days so I mix fresh juice and water to add some flavor.

crafting…..with my friend Cher. We spent one night crafting and watching a movie. It was our first time making party pom poms and we are very proud of how they turned out.  We used these pom poms for my baby shower last week. They will get more use when I passed them along to another mommy-to-be friend who will use it for her baby shower next month.

celebrating…….Chinese New Year last weekend. The city we live in has a neighborhood parade during Chinese New Year but we always want to avoid the crazy crowds and traffic so we make sure to leave our area during this time. However, we still wanted to celebrate in our own way thru food so we ate Dim Sum on Sunday.  I usually stick to eating Chinese broccoli, steamed shrimp and tofu dishes. But I indulged and ordered their delicious egg tarts. I love that they were fresh, creamy and not too sweet.