Karma...

I'm a big believer in karma. I also believe there are a couple of different kinds of karma. Some people experience big karma, where all their dirty deeds add together and karma repays in a huge way. Then there's the other kind, the kind I experience. Instant karma, cause and effect seen within a short time span, where all the little things you do are instantly awarded with karma.

For example, I once stole a pen from a restaurant. I have a thing for good pens. I must have stuck it in my pocket upon stealing it and promptly forgot about it. Fast forward to laundry day. Upon removing almost my entire professional wardrobe from the dryer, I found blue ink on almost every item of clothing. Nothing would get that ink out and I had to go spend several hundred dollars to replace that wardrobe. I've never stolen a pen since.

Certain events in my own life have made me wonder about karma. I see people who appear to be continuously rewarded for bad behavior. Is the big karma going to get them? Is little karma already effecting them? Will I ever know? Is it for me to know? These are the thoughts running through my brain.

Infusions....

I never though I would be one to have a bartender, but I do.  Rob of La Capitale has a way of making his customers feel like they are his only customer.  He knows their names, greets them by name each and every time, and knows their favorite drinks (mine is the Hot and Cold Margarita).

As my husband said, Rob is like a mad scientist, mixing and concocting into perfection.  His specialty is infusing different kinds of alcohol with things like fruits, veggies and herbs.  That margarita I love so much?  Made from Citrus and Serrano infused Tequila. 

So I sent Rob a tweet several months ago, asking if he had considered doing an infusions class, that his loyal devoted followers would surely want to learn from his wisdom.  And, in September, I had the honor of being one of the lucky 20 to attend @robdrinkenstein's infusion class at La Capitale.

After mixing us drinks (no pre-made mixers here, only fresh ingredients), class began.  And for two and a half hours, I learned how to infuse.  I also drank and ate.  All around great evening spent with friends.


My first infusion was inspired by Rob's chocolate martini, made with vanilla rum.  I hunted down the vanilla bean, I sliced it open and added it and the scraped out beans along with the rum to my new infuser, one of the gifts from the class.  After letting it sit for 8 hours (and tasting after 4 and 6 hours), I added the required amount of sugar and was ready to make my chocolate martini.  Which turned out pretty darn good.  But not quite as good as Rob's!

Rob's going to continue to offer classes.  He's talked of doing a Holiday Cocktail class, where he teaches you how to make Christmas cocktails.  I would highly recommend it.  Rob's a fantastic teacher and a great guy!  I just might see you there!

The Dining Scene...

I have recently been called a "foodie."  According to Wikipedia, a Foodie is an informal term for a particular class of aficionado of food and drink.  Wikipedia also claims it was coined in 1981.  I guess me hooting and hollering when we drove by Salem's new food pod (3905 Silverton Rd, 1/2 block west of Lancaster)  is proof enough that I am, indeed, a foodie.

A few years ago, I would have said it was very hard to be a foodie in Salem, home of the fast food joints and chain restaurants.  Recently, Salem has started to grow up and we've got a number of good and diverse local restaurants.  We've decided to not eat at non-local restaurants, that if we're going out to eat, we want our money to stay in our community (Confession: We make exceptions for our occasional fast food visit and I do frequent Starbucks on occasion).

As happy as all of the new development makes me, I wonder about something.  It seems like many of the new restaurants opening are more of the fine dining type, with dinners generally costing $15 and up.  Like most Americans today, we are saving more of our pennies, certainly being more careful with them. This limits the opportunity we have to visit these establishments.  For us, they become "special occasion" restaurants.  I do appreciate how a few of these restaurants like La Capitale, has a separate bar menu from their finer dining menu, offering a greater range in prices.

I wonder how many of these fine dining restaurants Salem can support.  I would love to see more local, modest priced restaurants that offer a variety of dining choices.  While Salem pretty much has the Mexican and Chinese restaurant scene covered, a good hometown deli that is open for dinner too or more bistro style restaurants, like Word of Mouth would be a great addition. And if they were opened in West Salem, I certainly would not complain.

So Salem, what kind of food do you want to see in Salem?

Salem Beer and Cider Festival...

While I am not a beer drinker, I do love cider and I love supporting local businesses.  This all lead to me attending the first ever Salem Beer and Cider Festival, which was created by Gilgamesh and Wandering Aengus Cider. The cherry cider from Wandering Aengus is delicious and I even found a beer that I didn't mind. 

Mission Mill is a fabulous location and it was nice to not worry about the weather, however it did get mighty warm on the 3rd floor on such an unseasonably warm day.

It wasn't too crowded, but I assumed this was due to it being the first ever Salem Beer and Cider Festival and maybe because both the Beavers and the Ducks playing.  And while I appreciated having live music, my suggestion would be to lower the sound.  When we arrive it was so unbearably loud, I couldn't hear the person who was yelling in my ear.  I enjoy background music at events like this, but it should be quiet enough that you can have a conversation with the person sitting next to you without yelling. 

It's great for Salem to have their own beer/cider festival and it would be great to see more wines included next year. I could definitely see this becoming one of our annual festivals.

Finding Inspiration...

Last night, I had the pleasure of finally meeting Mrs. Emily Grosvenor of Desperately Seeking Salem fame.  I'm not really sure when I started following Emily's blog, it was shortly after she started it, but have thoroughly enjoyed her take on Salem as a newbie.

While attending Emily's blogging class at Clockworks last night, one of the things that stood out to me was the need to have a blogging direction.  My current blog direction has been more of the personal nature and will continue to include some of that.  And of course there will be cats - if I can't get away from them neither can you.  But, I've also tried to keep it local, with photos of our city.  This is the area I want to expand, including thoughts, opinions and reviews of what is going on in my city.  I've lived in Salem since I was four.  I'm not going to do the math, but that's 30 years.  Wait, I said no math.  Grr. Anyway, I've got a lot of thoughts on where we've been and where we are going.  Stay tuned...

Kids...

It's interesting how much something can effect you when someone tells you you can't.  We always knew we wanted kids, we were just never sure when.  We wanted our financial situation just right or our house just right or have enough time off from work.  Mostly, we just wanted to have time to be married before the kids set in.  We were so excited by the first pregnancy and so very bitterly disappointed by the miscarriage.  The second pregnancy may have been worse, because we heard a heartbeat and miscarried 4 days later.  And 2 years later, we've got nothing.  After months of Clomid and taking my temperature every morning at 6:00 am, the doctor thinks it's not going to happen.  There's a small possibility of getting pregnant if we spend a lot of money we don't have on a fertility expert.  At this point, we've talked about adoption and need to get enrolled in the adoption classes with DHS, but we're both feeling pretty helpless.

The worse thing for us both is how very hard it is being surrounded by all of our friends, family and neighbors who have children.  We aren't resentful of them, just resentful of not being a part of it.  It is so hard for us to do something as simple as going to the park and seeing all of the families with their kids.  We both get so frustrated when we see someone with a herd of kids they don't even seem to like, never mind enjoy.  Even our closest friends and family have no idea the deep seated pain in causes for both of us.

Frankly, we don't talk about it except for an occasional private cry in bed late at night.  People don't know how to respond to it, don't know what to say.  That's okay, we don't know what to say either. Just do me a favor... remember that you never really know what is going on in someone's life, behind their closed door.  Just love them and support them and honor them the best you can.

Twitter...

I swore I would never do it.  I couldn't imagine that I would have anything interesting to say to post status updates.  For pete's sake, I rarely do the Facebook status updates.  But, when I started hanging out with a great group of ladies once a week for Happy Hour, I took the plunge.  They were all on Twitter and they are such a fun, hilarious group of ladies, I felt like I was missing out.  So, I jumped in.  I am not a hardcore Tweep, mostly I Tweet funny things that have happened throughout my day and respond to other Tweep's Tweets. I'm pretty selective with who I follow and who follows me: I mostly follow local Salem Tweeps and local Salem businesses.  It keeps me connected with my community.   We've had a few Tweet-ups, which has been great fun, meeting new Salemites and hanging out.  Twitter has offered a great opportunity to get to know local people who really just want to support our city and our local businesses.  Thinking about twitter and are a local person? Look me up!  Join the fun.

I have Smart Phone Envy...

There, I said it.  I am envious of all my friends who have smart phones.  I personally have an "average intelligence" phone.  Yup, if my phone took an IQ test, it would score 100.  If not for the touchscreen, it would have scored around 85.  We're due for new phones in August and I had been counting down, licking my lips and drooling over the Droids.  I polled my Tweeps (Twitter People), who told me which one to go for.  I was set, counting down the days.

But, then something changed.  First, I started researching costs.  Do I really want to pay an extra $30 per month to have internet access on my phone?  If both hubby and I got smart phones, we would pay more for internet on our phones than we do for the high speed internet at our house.  Second, one of my Tweeps recently took a hiatus from Twitter, citing it was too much of a distraction, always staring at his phone.  I realized that maybe having an average intelligence phone IS a good thing.  I can't spend my day playing on my phone, distracted from real life.  I can only tweet by sending "blind tweets," text messages from my cell phone, without seeing a response immediately.  I can only check my email, my facebook, my twitter, and all my other internet obsessions (I'm talking to you Cute Overload, I Can Has Cheezburger, and Itty Bitty Kitty Committee - can you see a pattern?) while on the computer.  And I really don't like to sit in front of the lap top for long periods of time - it's hot and not that comfortable.  In fact, now that I am out of grad school, I rarely turn the computer on over the weekend.  It's a great break and it keeps me from getting to obsessed.

In this age, I think we have lost some of our civility.  A friend showed me a book she's been reading last night called "Choosing Civility: the 25 Rules for Considerate Conduct" by P.M. Forni and it got me to thinking.  It use to be (back in my days, kids...) we didn't answer the phones or the door during dinner.  If you were out with friends, there wasn't the distraction of a cell phone ringing.  We weren't instantly available for anyone and everyone to reach us.  That has been totally lost with all of this new technology and I miss it.  For me, I try to make it a general rule of thumb: if I am with another human being, I don't answer my phone unless it's an emergency or information I've been waiting on.  Everything else can wait.  I don't expect this from anyone else, just something I do for myself, because I don't want to get lost in a world of technology.  I want to balance it with real life experiences. 

Kung Pao Chicken...

I love Kung Pao Chicken.  It's my favorite Chinese dish.  I have never cooked Chinese food before, it's always intimidated me.  But, for some reason, this week I decided I was going to try to make Kung Pao Chicken.  After considerable internet research for a good Kung Pao recipe, I decided to go with a bottled Kung Pao sauce.  The homemade sauce recipes I found required Chinese wine and I didn't want to send the time or money searching for it.  I got a bottle of Panda Express Kung Pao sauce at Safeway and I stopped at Freshmart, the new fruit and veggie store in Salem to pick up the veggies.  It turned out to be a delicious and healthy dinner.  I served this with a quick "fried" rice recipe I threw together.

Kung Pao Chicken

• 1 pound chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
• Panda Express Kung Pao Sauce
• 1-2 tablespoons Vegetable oil
• 8-12 dried Chinese peppers
• 1 Zucchini, diced
• 1/2 Green bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 Red bell pepper, diced
• 3 green onions, diced
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 4 stalks celery, diced
• 2 tablespoons minced ginger
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 can sliced water chestnuts
• 1/2 cup Peanuts

1. Marinate chicken in Kung Pao sauce, enough to coat, for 2 hours.
2. Heat large, deep skillet on high with vegetable oil.  Add dried Chinese peppers when oil is hot.  Cook peppers until they turn dark in color.  Remove peppers from the oil.
3. Add chicken in marinade to oil and let cook through, approximately 4 minutes.
4. Add all vegetables and cook 2-3 minutes.
5. Add 1/4 - 1/3 cup Kung Pao sauce and stir to combine, cooking until sauce thickens slightly.
6. Add peanuts.
7. Serve and enjoy.

A Vacation, Day 2...

Day 2 of our vacation was really still just me.  For my own graduation gift, I decided I wanted to go to a spa.  I had exhaustively researched spas in the Bend area and finally landed on Shibui Spa.  They told me I could come early and soak in their soaking tub and I took full advantage of this.  Then I had the Three Sisters Fix Facial and a pedicure.  It was amazing.  What a relaxing place.  One more reason I wished I lived in Central Oregon.  I then wondered a very empty Sisters (no one's around on Mondays) and had lunch at my favorite deli, Depot Deli.  I headed back to Eagle Crest and Cesar arrived around 5pm.  We ordered pizza in and spent the evening relaxing and watching movies. 

A Vacation, Day 1...

On our 5th anniversary, we went to Seattle for a long weekend and stayed downtown.  It continues to be one of our most treasured memories.  At that time, we swore we would do something big for our 10th.  Well, the 10th anniversary was in February, when I was in the middle of student teaching (read: no paychecks!).  So, we compromised our plan trip to Hawaii in June and settled for something more reasonable (and appealed to my fear of flying - near plane crash - that's a story for another post).  We booked 5 days at Eagle Crest outside of Redmond, OR.  Its always been one of our favorite spots and it seemed like a nice, relaxing place to celebrate both our 10th anniversary and the completion of my master's program.

Since Cesar had to work both Sunday and Monday, I drove over Sunday by myself.  This drive proved to me how much I really am my father's daughter.  Growing up, we took lots of road trips.  Mom always wanted to stop at every little place along the way.  Dad, who always drove wanted to just get there.  It was about making it to our destination.  And I found myself fighting this very urge all the way to Sisters.  It was a gorgeous day and drive and I had to fight that DNA every time I pulled over to take a picture.

Detroit Lake from Mongold Day Use Park

The road to Detroit is full of very fond memories for me.  My dad painstakingly restored a jet boat when I was a kid and our family time was spent driving to Detroit either for the day or to camp many times throughout the summer.  The drive reminded me of some wonderful times with my family and had me smiling with memories of my dad.

A not quite full Detroit Lake with Mt. Jefferson in the background.

The boat dock, in Detroit.  Docked at many times in my youth:

Countdown is on...

After 2 years, I have one week left of graduate school.  One week.  5 days at the elementary school and a 4 hour class on Saturday.  And then I am free.  It is truly unreal.  I have only really understood the last couple of weeks how much work I have down the last couple of years. I look forward to having my brain back, because even when I wasn't doing homework (which wasn't often), I was thinking about doing homework and feeling guilty for not doing homework.  I see lots of novels and crafts in my very near future. 

Favorite flower...

Spring Break...

Well, this is my first spring break in 12 years.  And boy, do I have a list of things to get done.  And, no it's not that interesting to blog about (or read about), I realize.  But, I am hoping it will keep me accountable!

• Complete at least 1/2 of work sample More like 75% of it, thankyouverymuch!
• Clean and organize the office all except my craft desk
• Paint master bedroom (or watch mom paint)  Just need to paint where we had to mud
• Redecorate master bedroom (or watch mom redecorate) Just need to rehang wall decor
• Spring Clean entire house - This is probably not going to happen. Cleaning can wait, right?
• Get hair done Love it!
• Girl Getaway

Okay, that's a lot.  Especially if you have seen the state of my office, the "Oh crap, people are coming over, shove everything in the office" office.

Not bad, not bad at all.  Got a lot of fun stuff done too!  I love spring break!

Impressive...

Hubby and I stopped by the grocery store this afternoon and as we were leaving, I noticed a man pushing a cart, towards his bicycle.  This same gentleman had briefly chatted to me while we looked at the Easter display, commenting that if a holiday was invented, stores would come up with merchandise to sell us.  What was curious about his approach to the bicycle was that he had a 20 pound bag of dog or cat food on the bottom of the cart along with several grocery bags.  I said to Hubby, "How the hell will he manage that?!  Let's wait and watch."  So voyeurs we became.  I watched as he loaded not one, not two, but THREE 2-liters of soda into his backpack.  I watched as he moved all of his other purchased, including a family pack of some sort of meat - I am guessing a BBQ was about to happen, into two plastic grocery bags and then double bagged them.  I predicted and then watched with satisfaction as he hung a bag off of each of the handlebars.  I watched as he put his helmet on (safety first, as my mom would say) and load that very heavy backpack onto his back.  Then I wondered, as it appeared his bike was without a kickstand, how in the world he would load the dog food on to his bike, while balancing the bike at the same time.  But he did.  He had one of those metal rear bike racks that he set the dog/cat food on, standing on end.  While, balancing the bike and the food, he gently pushed the cart, so it was against the building - I certainly didn't blame him for not returning the cart this time! - and walked his bike across the parking lot.  At this point, Hubby, who had wrongly predicted all of the impressive biker's moves, again, wrongly predicted the man would walk his bike home.  I said with certainty, "No, he's going to ride."  And sure enough, he carefully balanced himself on that seat and rode off, adjusting the bag of dog/cat food with his left hand.  I felt so satisfied, watching this story unfold.  We probably sat in that parking lot for an extra 7 or 8 minutes watching a very impressive feat.  Bike on, bicycle dude.  You impressed me, today.  I am just disappointed I didn't even have my cell phone on me to take your picture!

Caribbean-Style Chicken Salad

I had this for lunch and it was delicious! 

Ingredients:

1/4 cup lime juice 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar 1 clove garlic, minced 2 tablespoons honey 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1/4 cup olive oil 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1 ripe mango, peeled, pitted and diced 1 (15.5 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed 1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips 1/2 jicama, sliced into matchsticks 1/2 head green leaf lettuce, rinsed and torn

 Directions:

1.	Whisk together lime juice, red wine vinegar, garlic, honey, salt, and pepper until blended. Slowly whisk in olive oil until incorporated. Mix half of this dressing with the chicken breasts, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour. Refrigerate the remaining dressing for later use.
2.	Heat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat.
3.	Grill chicken breasts until no longer pink, about 6 minutes per side. Set aside and allow to cool while proceeding with recipe. Toss together mango, black beans, bell pepper, and jicama in a large bowl with reserved dressing. Slice chicken into bite-sized pieces and toss with salad.
4.	To serve, line a serving bowl with the green leaf lettuce and mound the chicken salad into the middle OR on a tortilla, as a wrap.

 

This mighty huntress, Lexi,  just brought me her prey.  A stuffed chick that was supposed to be an Easter gift to my nephew, but the cats stole.  What a good girl she is to bring me such a fine gift.  And I am sure it was VERY hard to catch.

UPDATE 2/16/10:  So, I tossed the "gift" off the bed.  About 20 minutes later, she brought it back, dropping it next to me, with a look of "You don't like my gift?!" on her face.  I left it there and woke up to find myself sleeping with it under my back.  Sigh...

Valentine's Advisor...

If you need help shopping for your Valentine, check out Walgreen's.  They have a Personal Gift Advisor at each store!

Ahi Tuna Wasabi Salad...

I had my most favorite meal in the world for dinner tonight: Ahi Tuna Wasabi Salad and a Cherry 7-Up.  No pictures, I ate it too fast.

Wasabi Dressing

• 2 teaspoon Soy Sauce
• 1-1/2 teaspoon Wasabi Paste
• 6 tablespoons Rice Wine Vinegar
• 2 tablespoon Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Olive Oil

1. Mix soy sauce, vinegar and sugar in bowl until sugar is disolved.
2. Add oil and wasabi paste. Whisk well.
3. Chill before using.
   

Salad

• Mixed Greens
• 1 can Mandarin Oranges
• Slivered Almonds
• Sesame Seeds
  
• 1 package uncooked Wonton Wrappers (usually found near bagged salads), cut into strips
• Canola oil

1. Fry wonton strips in canola oil until they are golden. Drain on paper towels.
2. Assemble salad with oranges, almonds, fried wonton strips, and sesame seeds.

Ahi

• 2 Ahi Tuna Steaks, about 1/2 lb each.
• Old Bay Seasoning or Montreal Steak Seasoning

1. Coat all sides of the steaks in the seasoning.
2. Heat dry fry pan to medium-high heat.
3. Cook Ahi (no oil!!) in pan, 3 minutes per side for rare (Ahi should be eaten rare - otherwise you might as well save your money and buy canned tuna!)
4. Slice and serve on top of the salad.
   

Greatest Freebie EVER...

So, there are a couple of websites I visit to get freebies.  Sometimes the free samples arrive, sometimes they do not.  Most of the time, I don't even remember what I have signed up for.  I use a Yahoo address set up just for this reason and I never, ever list my real phone number.

So, hubby told me a FedEx box arrived today.  I hadn't bought anything, so I had no clue what it was.  I looked at the return address and it was from PopChips.  I vaguely remember signing up for a free sample, but this box was huge.  So, here's what I got: 6 bags of chips, a chip clip and a huge coupon book with 2 coupons for 1 free bag of chips and several buy 1 get 1 free!

Plus a hand penned note! Yowsers!  What a sample! We had a taste of one of these chips at Jamba Juice several weeks ago and it was delicious and crunchy!  But, their handwritten note may be the thing that makes me buy their chips.  I love a company that is thoughtful and remembers good customer service!  I am impressed.

Brudders...

These two spend most of the day ignoring each other.  But, I caught them in a rare moment, ca-noodling atop the bookcase.  That's Ripley on the left and Sampson on the right.

Overwhelming...

Even though I have been in the classroom for 3 weeks, I just had my student teaching seminar yesterday, which outlined what our work sample is to look like.  I was prepared for a lot of work, but oh boy, it's going to be a rough couple of months.  In a way, my nerdy side is excited to get into the work sample.  It includes a lot of analyzing of data and pie charts and what not and I enjoy doing that kind of stuff.  But, this is the time of year where I have a ton of family commitments (8 birthdays, our 10th anniversary and the upcoming birth of our niece all between Jan 13 and March 20!! Aye ye ye!).  Anywhoseys, there is a lot going on this time of year and now   I am going to have to be very good at my time management so I don't miss out on anything.  So, on this wet and gray Sunday seems like a good time to start, to get ahead of the game.  And, if anyone has any ideas on teaching the American Revolution (which is what my work sample is on), I am taking suggestions!

My favorite little boy...

My nephew, Dylan, running and hiding around the fountain at Willamette University.

Enjoying it...

Student teaching has been wonderful. Which, I'll be honest, is a HUGE relief. I had some panic attacks, usually late at night when I was trying to sleep, wondering if this huge commitment was what I actually wanted to do. I mean, what if I spent 18 months paying for grad school and then I hated teaching? Well, thank god, I don't. So far, I love it. Hubby says I am happy, I feel better and more positive. Now I keep waking up at night wondering how long it will take to get a teaching job. I can't wait to not have a foot in each career and just be in my new profession.

Five Years...

My darling, wonderful, amazing, handsome, perfect little nephew, Dylan, turns five tomorrow. It honestly feels like yesterday that we heard "Twinkle, Twinkle" playing over the loudspeaker at the Salem Hospital, announcing he had finally been born, after a lot of help via an emergency c-section. My poor sis. And now, here he is, turning five with his little sister scheduled to arrive just 2 short weeks from now. I know I am completely biased, but he is such an amazing little person and I am so excited to see what this life holds for him. Happy Birthday, Dylan. Auntie loves you to Pluto!!

My first week...

Well, I survived my first week student teaching in the fifth grade. It was a good week overall. I think student teaching after being a professional is much different the student teaching when you are 22 and working on your bachelor's. I am thankful that I have so much experience under my belt in a variety of areas. It has certainly made transitioning into student teaching easier. Not easy, mind you, just easier. I finish my last curriculum class tomorrow, thank goodness. Now I will start my student teaching seminar and start putting into practice everything I have learned over the last 18 months. Yay! I am so close!

Cat Lap Dance...

Yes, it is safe for work. One of the funniest cartoons I have seen. And if you have a cat, you know about what we call kitty paralysis, that is the inability to get up because of a furball laying on you. Check out Cat Lap Dance.

By the way, as I type this, my chair is being shaken by a furball, on the back, digging to China as we say. I would probably be much more productive without cats, but not as entertained.

Listening to: Failure by Operation Aloha

A productive New Year's...

Today we:

• Took down the outside Christmas lights
• Took down and packed away all of the Christmas decorations
• Cleaned the garage
• Cleaned the kitchen
• Re-routed the speakers
• Put the living room back in order
• Went grocery shopping at Roth's
  
• Went to Pier One
• Went to Best Buy
• Had lunch at Chang's Mongolian Grill
• Hung out with our neighbors and friends, Max and Stacey
• Cleaned the cat boxes
• Moved the BBQ back out to the deck (was in the garage from when we stained the deck)
• Did Laundry
• Watched Limey

Whew... I am tired.