Monday, April 30, 2012

Maiden Voyage '12

So, if you know me, or have read the blog for any length of time you KNOW that we love boating. Love it. I can honestly say it is the one thing that Chris and I find supremely relaxing.

Chris is a go-go-go kind of guy. Hates to sit around. But when we are out on a lake in the boat he can just sit and relax all day. It's the best!


One of the great things about living in Southern Oregon is that when the sun does come out in the spring it brings with it some heat!

Saturday, after spending a couple months doing some fiberglass repair and a temporary new paint job, the boat was ready for maiden voyage 2012!


April 28th...that's a nice early day to start getting out on the water.

We went up to Lost Creek Reservoir (our favorite spot here in S. Ore) and launched her into the lake.

The weather was perfect. 70 something degrees, partly cloudy, but lots of sun. The lake was empty except for a handful of fisherman and a sailboat. The water was smooth as glass. It was a perfect day for a shakedown run.

We were both in just t-shirts and sandals. Chris had on shorts, but I was in jeans. I should have worn shorts. It was plenty hot out there in the middle of the lake with the sun beating down on us.

The water itself was still FREEZING cold, but that didn't matter. We weren't going in for a swim anyway.

Chris dropped me off on a floating dock so that I could get some action shots of the boat.





We had a super time. It was a pretty short trip, only a couple of hours, but we can say we officially kicked of boating season, our favorite season of the year, on April 28!






Sunday, April 29, 2012

Pow Pow Pow!

A couple of weekends ago Chris and I decided to head out to our local outdoor shooting range and put some rounds through his guns. Now, let me start by saying that I am not a huge fan of guns, and in fact it took Chris something close to 20 years to convince me that it was okay to have guns. I don't have anything specific against guns, other than they are so unforgiving. One little mistake and that can be the end. Anyway, part of why we decided to go out and shoot the guns is to that I could get a level of familiarity with them. I mean, they are in my house and I have access to them, so I should have at least a rudimentary knowledge on how they work, for my own safety.

I have gone out shooting only once or twice before in my life, but it turns out I am naturally a pretty good shot. :-)

Chris started off shooting his pistol. It is LOUD.


Then I shot the pistol. Uhm...or rather I *tried* to shoot the pistol. I literally could not fire it. Apparently the trigger is very heavy (<--gun lingo) which is a safety feature of sorts I guess. Anyway, after much effort I managed 3 shots. That was it. A little later that afternoon I managed 3 more shots, but I did not have enough strength in my finger to actually make it fire. CRAZY! Chris thought that it was malfunctioning! Nope...just weak baby fingers, I guess!


Then we went on to shooting the .22 rifle. This was much more my style. Easy to load, aim and fire. No difficulties and I was pretty darn accurate.


We each took a few turns with the .22. I shot it several times. I liked it.


The last one we shot was the 12 gauge shot gun. Yes, it is hella loud and yes it packs a helluva kick! My shoulder was pretty darn sore the next day.



We had a really good time. The place we went is very nice, well-kept and monitored by volunteers. Everyone was very respectful and careful. That alleviated a lot of my fears and I was able to relax and enjoy the afternoon. Of course it helped that the sun was shining and it was a lovely day.

One of my targets on the left, Chris' on the right.


I am actually looking forward to the next time we head out for some target shooting. I am getting more comfortable with the guns and that is a very good thing safety wise.

Friday, April 27, 2012

The Friday Five #9


WHERE does the time GO? I have lots of things to update you on but I'm just going to start with the Friday Five!

1. What I'm Reading:

I started reading this, the 6th book in the Outlander series (which if you haven't read I HIGHLY recommend) years ago. Several years ago. Somehow or way I got stuck in the middle and just put it aside. A month or so ago I decided that before I read any NEW books I need to finish all of the half or partially read books I have sitting around. I think I had six or seven total. Well, I have worked my way through most of them and this was the 3rd to last one. It is just shy of 1000 pages. I started reading right around in the middle. I realized that I had already read some of what I was reading, but it was a good refresher anyway. I spent most of last weekend outside in the sun finishing this bad boy up. I will say it was not as good as the prior books; it tends to get a bit repetitive, but finally at the end some of our lingering questions are answered! There are now several more books in the series, which I will read at some point, but for now I am moving on to finishing the last two partially read books on my list.


2. What I'm Listening To:

The sounds of silence...

I don't have anything new I'm digging at the moment. Still rocking to my GNR on my daily drive and I was thinking about warming up some of the other big hair bands of the 80's. Ha!

3. What I'm Watching:

This documentary is a must watch. This is your government in action. It doesn't matter that in this particular action the people are Native American. What matters is that this could happen to you, or to me. This is a human issue, not a native issue.


4. What I'm Eating:

Take 1 cup frozen blueberries. Add to bowl. Place in microwave. Heat for about a minute. Eat. Savor. Enjoy.


5. What I'm Loving:


The SUN has made a reappearance lately...bringing with it heat! This past weekend was gorgeous and hot. Sun, shorts, sunglasses, sunscreen, tank top, bare feet and a book. What could be better than that?




Thursday, April 12, 2012

Back To It

Well, it seems as though I am slowly working my way back into getting some daily exercise. I found out that I can use the fitness center at the University for FREE! And I found out that I have access to the pool for $25 per term. This is pretty darn cool!

I have a three hour break between my morning and afternoon classes on Monday and Wednesday so I decided that I would use at least part of that time to take advantage of the facilities at my disposal. (I gave up my gym membership months ago.)

Yesterday a classmate of mine who has the same schedule as I do, and I, went on an adventure of finding the locker rooms, pool and fitness center. She had forgotten her gym clothes so we didn't work out inside, but rather hit the track at the stadium and did 2 miles of walking. No it isn't spectacular but it is better than sitting on my butt in the library doing nothing but letting time go by. The weather was actually quite nice, slightly cool, slightly cloudy, but the sun was there, too, shining and keeping us warm. The view of the hills around us was just a bonus.

Today I read an awesome post by Katie over at SweetTaterBlog that literally motivated me to get up off my butt, put my workout clothes on and hit my yoga mat. Now, it was only a short session on a dvd (Rod Stryker-who I really like) and it was interrupted by two phone calls, the UPS guy, and a crazy attack kitten who was very interested in attacking my feet, hands and ponytail every five seconds, but I DID IT anyway...despite the interruptions.

You know, just getting started is more than half the battle sometimes. So no, I wasn't out running marathon distances and no I didn't do a 90 minute hot yoga session, but I did *something* and that my friends is more important to me.

On the food front: still doing great with healthy eating, skipping sweets and booze and coffee.

*****************

I have a handful of books I need to re-home. If you are interested in any of these titles just let me know and I will ship it to you. You pay $3.99 for shipping only, no cost for the book.

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.
Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo.
The Wednesday Letters by Jason Wright.
Auschwitz: A New History by Laurence Rees.
The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory.
lit by Mary Karr.
Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead.
Portland/Vancouver Hikes by Douglas Lorain.
 

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Weekend Review

Happy Tuesday Friends!

I know that a weekend review should come on Monday, but my Monday's are just not suited for blogging much with my school schedule.

Saturday morning we headed out to Wal-Mart to buy a new lawn mower. Exciting! We disassembled our previous lawnmower last fall and junked it as it was old and not working all that well. Chris recycled the body with the metal recycler and as much other stuff as we could. The new mower is, uh, cheap. The bag is tiny. So dumb. Chris was super annoyed with manufacturers and how they purposely build cheap and poorly designed products. But, our lawn got mowed for the first time in months and looks much better. I don't have any pictures to share this time, so you'll just have to take my word for it. :-)

Chris also spent some time working on a dripping hose issue. I know, exciting stuff at Casa Beebe!

I puttered around, doing laundry and other typical household chores, chasing the kitty and just enjoying Saturday.

Saturday evening we were headed up to 7 Feathers Casino in Canyonville to see Rob Schneider perform. Unfortunately Chris' pager went off around 3 in the afternoon. FORTUNATELY it was for a troubled elevator AT 7 Feathers! Hey, that's convenient! We just ended up heading to the casino a bit earlier than we had planned, ate dinner after Chris was done with the elevator fixing, and then went to the show.
You Can Do It! ~ The Waterboy

Rob was pretty darn funny. The tickets were inexpensive and he performed for over 2 hours. He was friendly with the crowd and overall it was a good way to spend Saturday night. Plus, the people watching at the casino is EPIC! Wow. That is all I'm gonna say.

Remember a couple weeks ago when we tried to stay at 7 Feathers after Chris fixed an elevator, right at the beginning of spring break, and we ended up leaving due to the people in the room above us? Well, I think they had noted that on my reservation for this time because they put us in a "nicer, quieter" room on the top floor. Cool! The bed was very comfortable, the room was nice, and I slept pretty well.

Sunday we headed back home bright and early. It was a very lovely and warm day. I actually got a little bit of sun color on my skin! I sat outside for a good portion of the day enjoying the weather while I read chapters for school. Chris spent most of the day puttering in his shed, organizing, doing yard work, etc.

Late in the day I made my famous Brown Sugar Glazed Easter ham (I don't know if it's really famous, but it IS delicious!) with some asparagus and strawberries for our Easter dinner. I kept it pretty low-key and easy this year. I didn't even make deviled eggs!! Who am I??

Last years Easter dinner. I didn't take pictures this year, but the ham is the same recipe and we had asparagus, too.
Funny, as I was just looking for a picture of my ham I was looking at last years Easter pictures. Last year I made ham, asparagus, a sweet potato gratin and chocolate covered strawberries. This year I made ham, asparagus, a sweet potato for Chris and regular strawberries. I am sensing a theme!

The secret to my famous Brown Sugar Glazed Ham, which is literally the best ham I have ever eaten, is a "paste" of brown sugar, yellow mustard and apple cider vinegar that you brush on the ham several times in the last half hour or so of cooking. I know it sounds weird, but trust me it is delicious. I always ask Chris if he would like me to make something different for Easter, like a leg of lamb or something, but he always wants the ham. Plus it is one of the FEW things he will eat as leftovers for more than one day. He had ham for dinner Sunday, ham in his lunch yesterday, ham and scrambled eggs for dinner last night and he is having ham for dinner tonight. That, my friends, is unheard of! Chris is just not a leftovers kind of guy. I, on the other hand, LOVE leftovers.

That was about it for our weekend. Lots of time in the sun and outdoors, yummy food, laughs and kitty play time. What more could we ask for?

How was your Easter? Do you eat the same thing every year or do you mix it up?

Monday, April 9, 2012

Celery - Grow Your Own

Okay, I was perusing around the interwebs the other day and came across an article (which I did not link or remember to save) that basically said you can grow your own celery from celery you buy at the store.

Huh?

I admit, I was skeptical. But check this out:

I bought this bunch of celery at my local grocery store. It isn't organic or anything fancy. Just plain Jane celery.

Then I hacked the bottom few inches off with knife. 


I took the bottom part I hacked off and took it out to the garden. I pushed it down into the dirt and then covered the top. 


Within about a week and a half or so I now have NEW celery growing!! Look at this!!


This is so cool! Between the celery and the green onions I am wondering what other things can be regenerated like that.

Would you try to regrow your celery? Let me know how it goes if you do!! You may cut down the number of celery and green onions you buy by more than half!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Time to Grow


Happy Easter Sunday! I hope everyone has had a lovely and egg filled day!

I have to confess,  I have been trying to post this since yesterday. I was at a hotel (7 Feathers Casino & Resort) and their WiFi was ridiculously slow and my Verizon mobile 3G Hotspot wasn't much better. I finally gave up. Then today I messed with some HTML coding thing and then it was all messed up and AGGH!! But it really wasn't, I am just a dope.

Anyway, we have had lovely warmish and sunnyish weather the last couple days and so I am seriously jonesing to get out into the garden. I thought I would give an update of how the spring planting is going. Check it out!

First up we have tomato starts, growing inside. They will be ready to go out in the middle of May. We have frost danger until at least then.


Next, were you aware that if buy green onions and leave the root end intact and stick it in a jar of water that the green end will continue to grow?? Look at this:


This is a shot of a variety of pepper starts. Some are doing better than others, but again, we have until mid or late May before they go outside, so we still have time.


This is one of our three blueberry plants starting to bud out.

Here we have a slightly fuzzy picture of a pea shoot coming up that we planted a couple of weeks ago.

And this is our spinach bed. I planted this spinach last fall. It just kinda hung out over the winter, but now it has gone berserk and is lush and green.


These are my chives. They have been in the ground for two years or more now. They are super healthy and happy. They successfully weather the winter without any trouble.


These are some radish shoots popping up. Usually the very first and fastest of the spring plantings to pop up and be ready to eat.


We also have the lemon tree still doing excellent and currently perfuming the entire house with sweet lemon blossom smell.

The garlic we planted last fall is also looking hearty and growing well. It is usually ready come June.

The rosemary overwintered well and is getting ready to take off for spring, too.

We are anxiously waiting consistently warmer weather so we can start to put some other things in the ground, like the mid-season harvest potatoes, more lettuces and other cooler weather crops.

Before long, it will be time for carrots, peppers, tomatoes, a variety of squash, cucumbers, corn and more! We have added several new boxes to the garden this year and are excited to get even more wonderful harvest to help feed us over the summer, fall and into winter.

How about you? Ready to get into the garden and get planting?? Share in the comments what you are most looking forward to planting and eating! 

Friday, April 6, 2012

Happy Friday Evening

We made it through another week! My first week of Spring Term is complete, only ten more to go!

Today was a homework, errands, nap kind of day. The sun was shining (finally!) but it was still chilly out. I did sit out in the sun a couple different times and it felt wonderful.

I had another great food day: apple, orange, veggies, fish, and turkey breast with a couple pieces of melba toast (which I like anyway), lots of water and tea. No booze or coffee. Go me!

Rockfish and asparagus on the grill.

We had an interesting visitor tonight. Roxie had a new "friend" come over to play.


I'm pretty sure this is my next-door neighbors cat. I don't think it is normally outside. They have another cat that is always outside, but I have never seen this one out. S/he was very friendly and s/he and Roxie had lots of fun playing games like follow the leader and tag all over the back yard, with no kitty fights or animosity. 



Then this happened:



Poor kitty.




I do NOT know why kitties are so attracted to this tree! Remember back in February when we first let Roxie out and on day two or three she made a beeline and climbed WAY up the tree?? No? Here's a reminder:

Roxie is waaaay up on the right...you can just make out her little black and white self.

Neighbor kitty got scared and tried to find a way down. S/he eventually made a rather unglorious descent when Chris brought out (at my insistence) a ladder. S/he was more afraid of the ladder so s/he figured it out. Poor baby.

In other news I picked the first bounty of my garden today! I planted this spinach last fall. It didn't look like it was going to do anything, but then this spring it has gone bonkers! Yay for B12!



Is anyone else completely and 100% ready for some dang sunshine and warm? I am. I am desperate!

That's all from Casa Beebe for tonight! Happy Friday Night!








The Friday Five #8



1. What I'm Reading:


I finished 3 books last weekend. Note I did not say I read three books last weekend, but rather finished 3 books I had previously started. I finished Auschwitz: A New History and wrote a review of it on my goodreads account. Do you have goodreads? It is a cool website that allows you to track the books you have read, are reading and would like to read. It also gives you reviews from other readers and you can have friend lists, etc. My goodreads account is just my name. You can link up with me there if you like.



I also finished Carson McCullers The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I know this is a literary classic, but I'm not so sure I understand why. It was slow to get started, the characters motivations remain hidden throughout the story, and it ends in a fairly depressing way. Maybe it is just supposed to be about life, but honestly, it didn't resonate with me that much.




The third book I finished was The Secret. A really great book about manifesting what you want in life using positive thoughts and energy. I really like the premise that the universe is all energy and that everything in the universe is energy. It is when we are on the right energy frequency that we can manifest our true desires. I also like the idea that because we are energy we always were, are and will be. If nothing else, The Secret reminds us that we have control over our thoughts and can choose to focus on the positive rather than the negative. A premise I really like.



I haven't started any new readings yet, unless you count textbooks about Organizational Behavior and Persuasion.

2. What I'm Listening To:

Ha! An old classic, from 1987 (!!).


I happened to hear Sweet Child O Mine on the radio the other morning while I was getting ready for school. It brought back some great memories so I downloaded the album and replaced my (been playing on repeat for months!) Adele cd in the car with GNR Appetite for Destruction. It's been great! Rockin' out to Mr. Brownstone and Paradise City. Woohoo!! I would just like to note here that I like all different kinds of music, including old 80's big hair rock 'n roll. Welcome to the Jungle.

3. What I'm Watching:

Mostly films for my two film related classes. I just finished watching All About Eve. I recommend it! It stars Bette Davis, and has a small bit by a young Marilyn Monroe. It is the story of a veteran theater actress (Bette Davis) who is swindled by the young up and coming nobody, and the interactions of the group of friends. Really engaging and even though it is in black and white and old, it has a real story line, acting and plot. An enjoyable film.





4. What I'm Eating:

Well I have done a superb job cleaning up my diet this week. YAY me! I have been eating lots of fruits and veggies, lean proteins and a little bit of carbs. I have avoided alcohol and coffee all week! Woohoo! This Sunday is Easter and I will be making my traditional ham, but will probably skip many of the other side dishes. We'll have asparagus and maybe a fruit salad and I'll make a baked potato for Chris.

5. What I'm Looking Forward To:

Chris and I are headed to the casino tomorrow night to see comedian Rob Schneider perform. We have always thought he was funny in the various films he has been in, like Deuce Bigelow, so we are looking forward to seeing him perform live. A fun outing for us.


What's your five?? Share in the comments!