29.6.06

1. the temperature is back to normal. it's lovely outside now. low 80-degrees and sunny. perfect!

2. i got named "employee of the month" at work today. apparently it's pretty unheard of to have someone who's only been there for just under 3 months win it. i get a $25 gift certificate and free lunch with the manager (poor guy. both of his parents were killed in a car accident over father's day weekend as they were in oregon to visit him. so he's been out for the past 2 weeks.)

3. i love portland. i'm making friends and settling in. mike and i are invited to a birthday party of one of my coworkers this weekend. i'm baking--guess--yep, a cheesecake.

we love you all!

--anne

25.6.06

101-degrees today. new record in portland for june. it's never, ever reached 101 before in the history of record keeping (in the month of june). so yeah, we got to be here for the momentous occasion. ugh right now i wish we had a/c! the only saving grace is that there is almost no humidity, so it doesn't actually feel like it's that hot.

heat index, we don't need no stinkin heat index!

tomorrow's forecast: 102

--anne

hot damn!

you guys, it is SO hot here. today's forecast is 99-degrees! anyways, here's the special dinner i made for mike last night. burgers with bleu cheese, caramelized onions and mushrooms. it was delightful. i mixed a little bit of mayo and sour cream with bleu cheese to make a sort of dressing. i cooked the onions for about 30 minutes and threw them in with the burgers at the end. the burgers were so juicy and tender, and i don't normaly even like hamburgers! so that's the big news here in portland i guess. work is good, the weather is WARM, the oregon state beavers are in the college world series so i get to see pictures of omaha on the news which is nice. go beavers! i'm just home today trying to stay cool. i have all the blinds closed and the ceiling fans going at full tilt. i think i might head to a coffee shop to do some GRE-studying.

--anne


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24.6.06

india grill

we decided to walk over to burnside street last night to have dinner at a place we'd noticed. it's the "india grill" on 30th and burnside. anyway, despite the fact that the setting sun was directly in my face for about 20 minutes, the meal was absolutely delicious. the first picture is of mike's meal. it was spice-rubbed beef and onions grilled and served with a spicy masala sauce. mine (second photo) was the chicken tikki masala. it was the best indian food i've ever eaten. think of it as the indian version of beef (or in this case, chicken) stroganoff. it's comfort food.
the final photo is of the naan bread. i think it was up there on my list of best naan. it was perfectly crispy and chewy at the same time. loved it.

all in all, a good experience. the service could've been a little better and as i mentioned our seating wasn't ideal (the sun being in my eyes). but they serve great food. so i'll be back. chris, we took home a menu for you. i'm mailing it out on monday.



--anne Posted by Picasa

23.6.06

kirsten's coming to visit! i've got to start making a list of all the things we can do in 4 days. she found tickets for $80/each way. that's the best i've seen so far. should be a fun time!

anne

21.6.06

Beautiful Girl, Wonderful Smile....

I love this smile!
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Sushi finally

This was some of the biggest and best sushi that most @ the table has had. The eel was by far the biggest piece of eel to ever grace unagi before. Happy summer to everyone


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Soltice and Sushi take two...

more feet getting closer to sushi nirvana...


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Summer Soltice, Soul and Sushi

These are the feet of future sushi eaters.


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19.6.06

huevos divorces...or somethin like that


i love this meal. it's vegetarian and rustic and delicious. mike roasts the tomatoes, garlic, tomatillos, jalepenos and onion to make the salsas (red and green). the dish itself is so simple: corn tortillas, fried egg, salsa and cheese (optional). serve with a side of rice and beans. YUM!

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18.6.06

peeek-tures

mostly these are of me having fun with the camera while mike is slaving away making dinner. the two with plants are our wandering jew plants that i repotted; the smaller is one i am growing from cuttings of the original. i'm a proud mama, indeed. mike took some shots of the dinner he is cooking, so i'm sure he'll indulge you all with a blog-entry!

love, anne


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14.6.06

rain rain rain...

...ah well, i'm getting used to it. i'm also getting pretty pumped about the idea of graduate school. if i do this MLS program offered through emporia state (via portland state), i'll begin next june. the program takes a minimum of 1 year, 4 months to complete. but then i'll be done! a couple of gals at work are also going to take the GRE, so we're having a study group.

other than that, things are fine. i haven't been getting as much exercize as i'd like, but hopefully the new schedule (potentially) will allow me to sleep in later and go to bed later, thus giving me more productive hours. the way things are now, i'm dead tired by 9pm--or earlier. and i need to be in order to wake up by 5am. eh, it'll all work out. sorry for bitching about it.

love, anne

12.6.06

two things:

1. mike didn't get the job at initial. i guess they went with another applicant.
2. i registered to take the GRE. i take it on sept. 2 (kirsten's birthday, i know). hopefully i'll be starting grad school (providing i score at least 1000 on the test) in the spring.

11.6.06

plane tickets

hey guys, just an FYI: i was checkin prices on southwest.com today and i found roundtrip tickets from kansas city to portland for $232. that's round trip. so yeah!
i think the stipualtion is that you fly on either a tuesday or a saturday. and you omaha people would have to drive down to KC, but it's cheap!
these are pics of our "new" furniture. ironically, we'd been to several places looking for a low table to put in front of these windows for our plants. little did we know, it was a few steps down the hallway! the bookcase is also great since we had nowhere to put, uh, books. the last pic is me suprising mikey as he walks in the door from work. imagine getting that happy smile every single day...yeah, it's pretty great. i've posted several other groups of pictures; mostly of my walk to the park today. i talked to several of you on the phone while i was there. it was quite relaxing. i've been informed that many of you follow the blog fairly religiously, so i want to assure you all that i am planning to keep up with it infinitely--until al gore decides to invent something better than the internet!

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an example of "keep portland weird"

WATCH FOR CHICKENS

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me messing with the camera



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the lushness of laurelhurst park




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