Pro-Soup Propaganda

#Slothing: It's the New #Vadering

2013-05-21T00:01:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you have heard of #hadokening and #vadering, but on Friday night Sofia and I made up #slothing! (Or THOUGHT we made it up but apparently we are not the only slothers out there!) The first two photos were taken on Friday night after our great realization of just how great #slothing could be and then the other photos were taken on Saturday. It was really slow at the market, so it gave me something to do.

Sofia!

Her husband James!

The lovely Little Things PDX even took part!

So, you know, if you feel like being silly, I'd love to see your #slothing photos!

Kruger's Kermesse

2013-05-20T10:54:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned yesterday, I had a surprise day off and Jonathan and I were able to make it to a bike race on Sauvie Island called Kruger's Kermesse. It was smaller race and it seemed like we were some of the only people watching everyone that didn’t come to support a friend or loved one. Too bad for everyone else because it was a great day outside and the races were fun to watch!

My favorite part was the relay race, where a cucumber was passed instead of a baton. One of the teams was just a father and a son, but the kid did a great job! Everyone was rooting for him and he did awesome!

I am working so many weekends this year that have races happening on them, so I wasn’t anticipating being able to make any of the races I wanted to see, so the surprise day off was appreciated. I can’t wait to make the next race!

Local framebuilder Ira Ryan on the left!

"You didn't pass the cucumber? Drop and give me ten!"

The Post In Which I Am Whiny - You Have Been Warned

2013-05-19T09:18:00.001-07:00

Life update time. So much going on lately.

No, really, I haven't had much free time lately and it kinda sucks. It's great, but then it's not.

Let me explain.

In good news, I started Spanish class! It's pretty awesome. I am one of two ladies in the class. (I am a LADY.) It's kind of like I get a private lesson. My teacher's name is Ceci and she is so cute and wonderful. She's probably mid-20s and Mexican. She has glorious hair. She is the toughest Spanish teacher I've had, but I need that at this point. I am in intensive Spanish, which means we meet twice a week for an hour and a half each class. It's been great, but I haven't had much time to really focus on the language aspect. I have been making dumb mistakes on really easy stuff. I am a champ at conjugating verbs. I can usually speak well enough to get my point across for a lot of things. But I haven't been having time to complete the homework. My life has been too full of....stuff? to focus and I am feeling overwhelmed. I know it's temporary but I am just really tired.

Like today I get a surprise day off. I was originally going to be working the Saturday market but there is a race downtown today and it just makes it super sucky to sell to people. This race in particular, apparently. Karina is up in Seattle and doing GREAT so she had her husband come pick up all of my items last night and bring them up to Seattle so she could sell them there. She sold almost all of an entire size of skirts! Yeah, Karina!!

I should be bummed that I'm not making money today. Which I am. But I'm also kind of relieved. I have SO MUCH money to make by the end of the year to pay for my trip to Antarctica and South America. Did I mention I'll be out of town from about January 8-February 18? More about that in a sec...

So today Jonathan and I are going to go to Kruger's farm on Sauvie Island for a farm crit. It's this one here. I was originally bummed that I wasn't going to be able to go to any bike races this year because I'm working so many weekends, so I'm glad Jonathan and I will be able to make this one!

Back to Antarctica. I am burnt out on saving money. I know:

1. I did this to myself

2. I really do want to make Antarctica happen

3. I am just whining on my personal blog, of which I am the queen and maker-of-happenings

I'm tired of working so hard for this. WHINE WHINE WHINE. Normally I'm not so busy every night so I go to work, come home and relax with Jonathan and Artoo, and then work weekends and it's not a big deal. But right now I am working the weekends (or at least doing something on the weekends) and then having plans pretty much every night after work. I have had no down time lately. Brittany is tired.

I want to be able to spend money on things and not have pangs of "but you need to save $15,000 more to get to Antarctica!!!!!! don't buy that!" I KNOW I have told myself that it's okay to use money in savings if I need to, but that I am working hard throughout the year so that I only need to take less money out. And I know this is only temporary! Next year I won't technically have to be saving for SUCH an expensive trip. Like I mentioned before, I will be out of town for a month and a half, spending part of my winter in the balmy summer of the Southern Hemisphere...in Antarctica and Patagonia. (That was a joke.)

I will be able to relax more next year. But will I relax? To some degree, my side-hustles are pretty easy. House-sitting is me loving your pets for money. Using your water and electricity. (Even though I don't use much at all.) Working for Karina on the weekends is me being outside and schmoozing with people and other vendors (and reading, depending on how slow it is). But my side-hustles do take me away from home. So we'll see what happens next year. I do have a trip to Germany in July planned to be a bridesmaid for my friends getting married in a castle. (BOOYEAH.)

And then there's visiting my mom I want to do...and going to Ketchikan once or twice...and going to Oahu with Amy...and I'd love to visit Kim...and Renai...and Stina...oh, crap, now that's the whole year...

I wish I were independently wealthy sometimes so I could make all the travel I want to do happen Right Now.

I want to be able to buy some of the stuff I want without going OH SHIT I BOUGHT THINGS.

I broke down and went to Sephora this week. I have been trying to be a good minimalist and tell myself that I don't need or want colorful eye makeup but I doooooo. And I try and tell myself that the chemicals in the makeup are bad for me and if I get eyelid cancer down the road that I did it to myself, but I totally did this:

That's three eye liner pencils, one eye shadow pencil, some matte eyelid primer, and some eyelash curlers. I spent over a hundred bucks. My love of Urban Decay makeup has come out in full force. I have been a fan of UD since junior year of high school, where I would stock up on the (now discontinued) Lip Gunk and eye shadows. I love having crazy colorful eye makeup. I haven't done it in a long time for many reasons, but I broke down.

Like I said before, I am burnt out on saving money. Not like I ever go hog-wild (lie) and spend a bunch of money on stuff (lie), but sometimes I just want to buy things, darn it. I want to buy a shirt or a necklace or eye make-up and not be all, "OH, BRITTANY. DO YOU REALLY NEED THAT? NO! IT'S A WANT NOT A NEED." My inner voice is an all-caps kind of judgey beeyotch sometimes. But, yes, I bought eye makeup and I now have teal, fluorescent green, and bright purple (with sparkles!) eye liners.

This all will pass. I'm only feeling extra judgy on myself now because I'm mentally drained and I still need to keep working. I know when I am on a boat for three weeks, looking at minke whales and Shackleton's grave and millions of penguins and then hiking in Patagonia and drinking Argentinian wine and eating Argentinian beef and being all, "Oh, THIS is what the pampas looks like!" I will look back on the last two years and be all, "Thank god I worked my ass off to achieve one of my life dreams!"

But until then I am still human and I have bouts of whininess.

Thanks for reading.

(I'll leave you with some super cute pictures of Julius to redeem myself of all this whining. He's been snuggling with me for the last hour. I love him!)

BRITTANY: LOVING YOUR PETS FOR MONEY SINCE 2006.

Team Brittanathan Does Newport and the Yaqina Head Lighthouse

2013-05-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday!

Wow, I'm finally able to put this post together. What a week! It's been a little crazy here, so it's nice to come back and look at these pictures and think about how relaxing it was to be at the beach for two days! The Sylvia Beach Hotel was just as wonderful as the last time we stayed!

I took all of these photos with our Canon S100 but I may do a post of the photos I took with my cell phone another time. Those are always the more candid shots. :o)

The hotel on my early Saturday morning walk...

The library

Dr. Seuss room

Lincoln Steffens room

Shelly the hotel cat (and her 'nip)! I LOVED HER.

Yaquina Head lighthouse

We went to the Newport Aquarium and saw our favorites!

It was International Migratory Bird Day and the Cascades Raptor Center from Eugene had brought this falcon and the osprey below to show people. Such cool birds!

This rockfish does not approve.

After the aquarium we walked around five miles and watched the sun set! We walked from the hotel up to the start of Agate Beach and then back again. This picture shows my explorer pose.

Watching the sun set was so colorful and amazing!

On Sunday we went to the Yaquina Head lighthouse. It was AWESOME.

I LOVE my windbreaker! It's Patagonia's Houdini jacket. I highly recommend it!

Mama and baby seal!

Frank was there, of course! (See the rest of her travels here!)

An Evening with Michael Pollan and “Cooked”

2013-05-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

I liked my adult sippy cup of G&T at the theater! ;o)

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Michael Pollan speak about his new book “Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation” here at the Newmark Theater. Everyone received a hardcover (signed!) copy of “Cooked,” which was pretty cool. It was a conversation between Michael and Dave Miller, a broadcaster on OPB. This was my second time seeing Michael speak and, if you haven’t had a chance to see him live, you must see him if you have the chance. He is so jovial and informative without being stuffy. He’s a great speaker and is really entertaining. Dave Miller was the perfect person to accompany Michael and the hour that they chatted went by quickly! After the hour was up, Michael took questions from the audience. I can’t wait to read the book! (However, as I buy eBooks, I bought “Cooked” for my Kobo and listed my new copy on both Amazon and Half.com. If anyone is interested in it, I will sell it for $15 plus a small amount to ship!)

Some of his quotes from last night:

“The microwave is like the Ayn Rand of appliances.”

“My [homebrewed] beer had a Band-Aid note in the aroma.” – On leaving beer-making to the professionals

“Children are not born liking kimchee.” – In a story about visiting a kimchee museum in Seoul, Korea, and seeing a group of schoolchildren, so he asked this of their teacher.

“People confess their foods to me. I’m a Jewish food priest.”

“Cooking is magic!”

“Very often the food movement is asked to solve a problem bigger than food.”

“Raw foodists wouldn’t be in that boat if it weren’t for the blender.”

“I want to write books for people who couldn’t care less about their food.”

Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post! I will get a very small commission for my Antarctica Fund if you click through the links and buy anything.

TGIF: Newport-Bound

2013-05-10T09:49:00.004-07:00

TGIF, my friends! I'm so glad that it's Friday and I'm super excited because we're going to the beach tonight! We're going to Newport to stay at the Sylvia Beach Hotel. We are going to stay in the same room as stayed last time - the Melville room! It's decorated with a nautical theme and looks out onto the beach. The four pictures above were taken from our window over the weekend we stayed there in April, 2011. There was a storm one of the nights, which was the middle picture. UGH, I'm just so excited!

My view of the room from my bed

Whaling?

Our room key

Breakfast is included with room stay!

Possibly the best part? Dickens, the hotel cat!

Jonathan took this video of Dickens drinking!

The last time we were in Newport was in October for our five year anniversary, so it's been awhile. Newport is one of "our" places, so we'll be going to our favorite spots. The plan is breakfast at the hotel, the aquarium, lunch at Cafe Stephanie, and dinner (and beers) at Rogue Brewery, with lots of walking on the beach. This post has quite a few film pictures from Newport that I've taken.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Film Photography for May

2013-05-07T00:02:00.000-07:00

As posted yesterday, I got some film developed last week. This roll was of Jonathan and I's trip to the Pittock Mansion here in Portland and a weekend trip to his parents' house, where we hiked along a logging road to the beaver pond.

Check out all the photos from this batch of film here!

Film Photos from Last Summer

2013-05-06T00:01:00.000-07:00

I recently got some film developed that I thought was from Easter Sunday, when Jonathan and I went to Cape Lookout to go check out whales. Imagine my surprise when the roll was of my dad and I's trip to the Cape Meares lighthouse and Mount Saint Helens last summer! (Which means I'm not sure where our Easter roll is... *sad face*)

Here's some of my favorites from that roll!

All photos were taken with my LCA+ on Fuji 400. Here's the rest of my photos taken from this trip!

The Official List of Books Read in April

2013-05-03T10:46:00.001-07:00

15. "The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?" by Jared Diamond
16. "An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases" by Moises Velasquez-Manoff
17. "Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)" by William Poundstone
18. "The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography" by Stephen Fry
19. "The Responsible Company" by Yvon Chouinard

I have to say, out of all of these books, "An Epidemic of Absence" was my favorite one. IT WAS SO INTERESTING!! I highly recommend you read it. Seriously. Go buy it right now!

What books have you been reading and enjoying lately?

Past months of books read: January, February, March.

MyChelle Sun Shield SPF is the Best Sunblock Ever!

2013-05-02T10:09:00.001-07:00

I haven't worn sunscreen on my face for the past couple of years. I would wear it if I was going to be outside for a while and definitely if it was super sunny out, but other than that, I like to get my vitamin D naturally. However, I started doing some more research and discovered that it is actually preferable to wear SPF on your face because your facial skin is thinner. I had used lotion in the past that had SPF in it, but they were always conventional products that had who-knows-what kind of nastiness in them, so I needed to find something good for my face that didn’t cause me to break out. I searched Skin Deep and found MyChelle Sunshield SPF 28. I found it at Fred Meyer’s so I decided to try it. I gotta say…

I LOVE IT!!

It’s not greasy in the least bit. It also isn’t really chalky like other SPF lotions can be. I use a squidge about the size of a chickpea and that seems to be enough for my whole face. Maybe a little bit more for my neck and ears. What I love most about it (besides the fact that my face doesn’t get grossly greasy) is that it hasn’t caused me to break out! Anyway, since it’s that time of year I wanted to share my new-found knowledge! I love sharing products I love! Also, this Daily Defense cream sounds amazing and I think I want to try that, too!

P.S. The Amazon links are referrals. While I don't expect to become rich off of referring Amazon products, if you click through and purchase anything on that visit I get a very small amount, which goes toward my Antarctica fund. Help me see the penguins!

I Love Our Danby Countertop Dishwasher!

2013-04-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

I love our new Danby Countertop Dishwasher so much I just had to blog about it. IT ROCKS!! It's the perfect size for Jonathan and I. I was really hesitant at first because I thought it would be loud or that it was just the two of us, so why did we need a dishwasher? Also, Jonathan is tall, so his back would start hurting when he would stoop over to scrub. He's starting to work OT a lot more and I am getting home later from taking transit, so there is less time either of us want to spend washing dishes. I didn't even know countertop dishwashers existed until I saw one at the house of one of my house-sitting clients. As soon as I left from meeting them I went straight home, looked up dishwashers until I found the one I wanted, and then surprised Jonathan with the idea. He was thrilled! I think he thought I would never go for a dishwasher. After I saw his reaction I secretly ordered it and brought it home. :oD

Meet Danby!

We've played with Danby a little bit and realized that we can wash our dishes on the fastest, most energy efficient setting with cold water and our dishes come out sparkling clean. I already bought this little dishwasher because it was one of the only energy efficient ones I could find, so to be able to make it even better is awesome. As you can see from the pictures above, it's on the larger side, but nothing too bad. At how good of a job it does at cleaning the dishes (and in only 45 minutes!), I only wish I had gotten a Danby sooner! We also tested the casserole setting the other night and I'm surprised it worked as well as it did. The dishes were gross. The plates had dried melted cheese stuck to them; however, it worked just fine!

Seriously, if you are on the fence about getting one, get over that and get one now! I love that my kitchen pretty much always looks clean now. We run a load in Danby and hand wash any bigger items that don't fit. My sink is pretty much always clean, which makes me feel happy and like an accomplished adult.

So there you go! I can't even think of anything I DISLIKE about Danby, I love it that much. :o)

Note: There are affiliate links in this post. *gasp!*

Dana and I's Downtown Portland Segway Adventure

2013-04-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got to mark something off my bucket list. I got to ride on a Segway!

I've been wanting to ride one of these since I first heard of them. I remember reading about "Ginger" and was so curious about it. I always thought it would be cool to ride one, but, living in Ketchikan, didn't know how I could ever make that happen. It seemed like something weirdly fanciful so I put it in the back of my mind. Last year when I was working at the Saturday Market I noticed a pod of grinning people riding Segways through the crowds and they looked like they were having So Much Fun. I looked it up, but it was around $75 for a two hour tour. Since I was trying to save so much money for my trips I just kept it in the back of my mind as something I could some day do, but now I at least knew I *could* do it in Portland.

Enter Jonathan emailing me that there was a Groupon for it! My friend Dana had been nice enough to house my kayak for a few days. (I had decided to sell it, as I've owned it for two years and haven't ever used it. Some of you may recall summer of 2011 where there was a lot of kayaking planned and none of it ever happened. Well, it worked out that my friend Bekka in Ketchikan needed a kayak, so she bought it from me and some friends of hers picked it up. So, in thanks, I bought Dana a Groupon to go with me on this tour! Jonathan thinks it's too dorky and wouldn't do it, so I'm so happy that she said yes. :o) She was a little hesitant at first but then ended up having a great time! The weather was perfect and our tour guide, Jered, was SO nice! I highly recommend Portland by Segway and would love to do this again!

The lesson was quick and easy!

And then we were off on our tour!

Keller Fountain Park

Portland City Hall

Possibly a new federal building? We aren't sure...

The Portlandia statue

HUZZAH!

The Schnitz

They see us rolling, they hatin'...

(Most people we saw had big smiles on their faces. We had a lot of questions asked about the Segways!)

Mini Big Pink?

Mill Ends Park (smallest park in the world!)

(And this happened last month at the park, as well.)

Rockin' the Esplanade!

We were moving fast so I was just pointing and shooting!

Wheeeeeeee!

KING LOBSTER MAN

Heading toward the Steel Bridge

A gorgeous day in Portland!!

The Broadway Bridge over across the way...

Here are my Instagram photos from the day...

We headed to Deschutes afterward and they had Cinder Cone Red on tap!!!!!

It was one of my favorite beers but they discontinued it a few years ago!

The Honda finally broke 150,000 miles today! Whooooo!

Non-Segway news, but it still happened today and was significant!

A short little movie I took at the Esplanade

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Artoo!

2013-04-28T07:29:00.002-07:00

I didn't have a chance to write this yesterday, but Saturday was Artoo's EIGHTH Big Dog Birthday! It's hard to believe that I have had him since he was three months old. It seems like only yesterday my friend Liam was asking me if I wanted to go look at pug puppies with him and when I saw Artoo, I just knew he had to be mine. He's a pain in the butt sometimes (aren't we all?) but overall he has been a GREAT dog and companion. We've gone on lots of adventures! (I can't find the pictures of him hiking up Deer Mountain and Dude Mountain with me, but we've done some pug death marches.) He is one of my best friends and I am so thankful for him! Here's a few pictures of him from the way back machine...

Liam with Lupita and Artoo (I miss you SO MUCH, LeeLee!!!!!)

I took this one yesterday on his actual birthday. We had just gotten home from being over at the park and he'd been eating some grass and clover over there. I didn't realize that he had some stuck in his teeth until we got back to the outer door of our apartment. He's such a goofball!

Random Bits and Bobbles

2013-04-23T11:24:00.004-07:00

There has been both nothing going on and everything going on lately. It's been a weird past couple of weeks still. I think things are normalling out, though. As of last night, I'm back at home with not much house-sitting before I leave for South America, although I have a few prospects, so hopefully that gets scheduled soon! I have already realized that I'm going to need to take money from my savings to pay for the trip, but I'm still hopeful I start getting more side hustle happening so I don't have to take out much.

Here's some photos I've taken recently:

I got in a bunch of film that I won on eBay to take to South America with me.

After three months of grow-out I got a haircut! I love it!

As of last night we have a dishwasher!! This is our third white droid in the house now. Meet Danby!

Rereading a favorite!

Amy and I had a meeting of Adventurers Who Love Cats & Cocktails.

Jonathan and I took a trip to Hood River. Yummy!

The sky on the way back was gorgeous!

We made me a fabulous bow at work!

A lovely morning, featuring a sharrow.

The trees in Portland have been snowing lately!

I dog-sat for one of my favorites, Mo! Such a cutie!

And that, my friends, sums up some of my life the past couple weeks. This weekend is going to be awesome, though. I will be working for Karina on Saturday and then on Sunday I am going to a Friends of Trees volunteer potluck and going on a Segway tour of downtown with Dana!! I will finally be able to mark "Ride on a Segway" off my bucket list!! I was able to get us Groupons. I'm pretty psyched. We can pretend to be Gob from "Arrested Development." ;o)

What's going on with you?

There Is No Post Title

2013-04-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

This is a random post. It's not really about anything. You can disregard it if you want.

Artoo and I just took a really great walk tonight with Andi and her dog Chief. We walked over to Rose City Park and then went partway around the golf course with the dogs off-leash and then turned around and followed our tracks back so the dogs could get some extra crazy dog time. The weather has been so beautiful lately that it's been nice to get outside! FitBit says I'm getting more exercise, as well, which is great!

Last week was really kind of stressful overall. Some weird stuff happened. In fact, three weird things happened, so I am happy to put last week behind me. This week is way, way better.

I AM GOING TO KETCHIKAN IN SEPTEMBER!!!!!! I am leaving the Friday before Labor Day and heading there for nine days. I won't have vacation time at work until I've been there a year, so since we get Labor Day paid I will only have four days without pay. Since I had the miles to pay for my ticket, the fees were only $10. I'll be staying with my friend Katie, who lives right downtown, so I will be able to walk everywhere! Yeah!!

I have come to the realization that I will not be able to put as much money into savings this year for my Antarctica trip as I had hoped and that I will be taking some money out of savings to help pay for it when the time comes. I am 100% okay with this, as I have been working my butt off for almost two years now to pay for both this trip and my Peru/Easter Island trip and so that is just fine. Had I been dinking around I would be upset to take money out of my "big" savings, but I will keep hustling as much as I can this year and things will work out. I am proud of myself that I am going to so many new countries in the next year! It feels good!

I have been hanging out with my friend Dana from work more, which has been awesome. I love her. She is so great. She is ALSO from Alaska, because I seem to find other Alaskans in Portland and collect them. We compliment each other perfectly and have developed our own Twin Speak. She teaches me about consumerism (in the most loving of ways) and what it's like to be the younger sibling and I teach her about the magicness of natural products and just how nerdy the internet can be.

I bought sparkly shoes and a few bras from Nordstrom's last week. It felt really nice to have some ridiculously girly shoes again and since I have been searching for bras for TWO YEARS that felt great, as well.

Tonight I made some yummy vegan "cheesy" salad dressing for our taco chickpea salads, thanks to Ravyn's dressing posting. I altered my version a little bit, but I am totally thankful to her for the idea because it was so crazy yummy! I can't wait to eat it again tomorrow!

Not making soap anymore makes me feel "retired." I don't have to spend extra mental energy trying to hawk soap! It's awesome! A very small part of me misses making soap and the rest of me is happy to be moving forward toward something else.

Tomorrow night I shall be repotting my coffee plant because I bought new soil tonight. HOLLA.

I went to Target three times today. That's normally about how many times I go in a year. I bought towels, a pouf for Jonathan's feet (I OWN A POUF NOW), a curtain for Dana because she only bought one curtain this afternoon so I had to get her another one, a woven reed something laundry basket, and a few other things (Twizzlers Nibs...I KNOW).

It is 9:12pm and I am so tired I am falling asleep whilst posting, which makes me feel like a big baby. But when you sleep for a few hours and then wake up READY FOR SOME MOTHER-EFFIN' ACTION because you are a little, excited person, well, you get tired early.

How come people my age buy houses they can't afford without someone else living with them or without their parents helping? Is renting so bad? I'm not trying to poo-poo any of my friend's purchases or whatever, because quite a few of them are now home-owners, but they are reliant on other people living with them or their parents to help out. Jonathan and I plan on renting indefinitely. Who knows what is in the future? $200,000 can buy a LOT of world-wide adventures. Our credit is good and we are DINKs. No hating on our loved ones who buy houses with help! It is just not for me. It just seems like I have noticed it more and more lately and since this blog is my journal of sorts I have to talk about it.

I made some hard decisions last week, but I feel good about them. Brittany ain't a doormat.

It's now 9:18pm and I need to sleep. Three trips to Target wears down one's constitution when you're not used to shopping that much. I bid you all adieu.

The Official List of Books Read in March

2013-04-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

Man, I thought February was bad for my book reading? Oh, March was even WORSE! I only read two books! I do now have a bunch of new books on my Kobo to read when I get a chance. What was I doing in March to make me so busy? Looking at my calendar tells me I had eight houses that I was house-sitting/checking on pets, I started working at the Saturday Market again, AND I was busy all day on the weekends that I wasn't working for Karina. Good lord. I'm still house-sitting every weekend in April, but maybe I'll end up magically reading more somehow? We'll see.

13. "Shanghai Girls: A Novel" by Lisa See
14. "French Kids Eat Everything: How Our Family Moved to France, Cured Picky Eating, Banned Snacking, and Discovered 10 Simple Rules for Raising Happy, Healthy Eaters" by Karen Le Billon

I really enjoyed both of these books! I read "Shanghai Girls: A Novel" in one sitting when Jonathan and I went to visit his family. It was an awesome Sunday of reading and drinking wine!

"French Kids Eat Everything" was inspiring in that it made me rethink how I've been eating. I've been better about not snacking in between meals and trying to choose foods that are better for me and don't leave me SO HUNGRY between meals so that I feel like I must snack.

I would highly recommend both books!

The books that I've bought recently are:

*"Closer to the Ground" by Dylan Tomine
*"The Responsible Company" by Vincent Stanley
*"180 South: Conquerors of the Useless" by Yvon Chouinard, Jeff Johnson, and Chris Malloy
*"The Shining" by Steven King
*"The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?" by Jared Diamond

What books have you been reading and enjoying lately?

Past months of books read: January, February.

Cape Lookout Whale Watching Adventure!

2013-04-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned before, Jonathan and I had a pret-ty great weekend. Saturday we explored the Pittock Mansion here in Portland and then Sunday we decided to hit the road for Easter! We went to Cape Lookout to see if we could see any whales and, boy howdy, we sure did! Tons of whales!

Neither of us had been to Cape Lookout before, so it was a special trip for both of us. The hike in was 2.4 miles and was pretty easy. There were a few ups, downs, and overs, but it was mostly really MUDDY in some spots. Luckily, we had our trusty Columbia hiking shoes on and we were fine. The people we passed who were wearing flip flops......probably not so lucky!

It was a perfect temperature at the lookout. It was a wee bit windy, but it was warm, so neither of us were shivery. We stayed there looking for whales for a little over an hour and then decided to head back. There had been talk of fish tacos at Ecola Seafoods and with it being an hour back to the car and then over another hour drive to Cannon Beach, we needed to hit the road!

We got to Cannon Beach and there were tourists EVERYWHERE. For it being Easter, I was surprised at how many people were there. However, we found parking and upon opening our car doors, all we could smell was fresh waffle cone! Ohhhh, it smelled so good and toasty! We had talked about getting ice cream at Tillamook Cheese Factory when we passed through and then decided to go straight for the fish tacos instead, so to smell this magical smell... oh, man.

We made our way to Ecola Seafoods and when we got there I was pooped. I inhaled my fish taco, though! It was SO GOOD. (They are always fabulous and I highly recommend them!) We had wanted to do more exploring in the afternoon, going to Ecola Park and then having dinner at Fort George, but I was so tired and it was so late and such a successful day that we decided to turn around and head home.

Good thing we did because I fell asleep in the car! I slept almost the whole ride back to Portland. I felt like a little kid who has a full day of adventure and then eats and is *out*. That was me.

It was a super fun weekend and I had such a great time with Jonathan! I can't wait until our next adventure!

P.S. Holy crap, I just found a great article about the plane crash on Cape Lookout. Sad!

P.P.S. If you are me, it is a good day if you get to pee in the woods not just once, but twice!

This is a shell midden that I TOTALLY nerded out on!!

Sea lion buddy, not a whale

These were the pictures from my phone that day...

SUCCESS!!

Team Brittanathan Pittock Mansion Adventure

2013-04-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

Hello, friends! How was your weekend? I basically had the Best Weekend Ever. On Saturday Jonathan and I went to the Pittock Mansion, a historical residence from one of "the" families in olde-time Oregon. Jonathan had gotten us a Google Deals offer, so this was the kick in the pants we needed to finally visit! Luckily for us, it was mid-70s that day and clear blue sky. Mount Hood looked AMAZING, as you can see.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures and our day!

The Best of Texts Between the Adventurers Who Love Cats & Cocktails

2013-04-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

I love this girl. Amy and I are 30 going onto 10. (Her birthday is later this week, though...)

Random Bits of Britt Thought

2013-03-27T12:19:00.000-07:00

I don't really have a whole lot going on right now of enough to write full blog posts about, so I thought I'd do mini recaps of what is going on.

**I realized earlier this week that I am living on only half of my monthly income. What I mean is that I'm earning almost as much in side hustle income as I am at my regular job. However, all of that side hustle stuff is going to my trip fund. I think I'm going to keep side hustling after my big trips happen and put that money into my stock funds. I didn't start saving soon enough and so now I'm behind in how much I should have saved by age 30. (See this page, this page, and this one, too, for some good info!) I signed up for the Vanguard 500 fund last month, thanks to Mr. Money Mustache. I've been putting 10% of my side hustles plus $225 into my long-term savings for awhile now and it just keeps adding up. I love saving money!!

**I think I have reached the peak of my minimalist "getting rid of things" project. There are just a few more things I've got on Craigslist and plan to list, but overall I'm done. It feels really refreshing to finally be at the point in my life where I think twice about spending money on more stuff. Our apartment is super cute. I stocked up on a few things for my trips, including a couple of these shirts, this windbreaker, and this dress.

**I found out last week that two girls that used to be some of my best friends de-friended me on Facebook. I know, I know, wah wah, it's Facebook. But it bums me out that I don't see these friends anymore. I know I have the memories forever and friends in life come and go, but it still just kinda stung/stings, you know?

**I officially am no longer making soap. A friend of mine completely bought me out. It feels so good to finally be done with it! One less thing to worry about!

**My job is still going awesome and I love it! We've been super busy lately. It makes the days fly by! I can't believe it's almost April!

**I have been super slacking on my 2013 resolutions. I will do a recap post in a few days to see where I'm at.

**I made Frank her own Flickr with her own map of where we've been together. Now her map won't be tainted by my photos taken with the new camera that have GPS built in. It's the little things, people.

That's kinda what's going on with me! I'm sure there's more, but this is some of the main stuff. What's on your mind lately?

Team Brittanathan is Heading to South America

2013-03-20T00:01:00.000-07:00

It's finally officially official! That picture right there is from me on a phone call that lasted over two hours to book flights for Jonathan and I to go to Peru, Chile, and Easter Island in June!

I've mentioned it before, but now things are a little more solidified, so this is the updated post. I am going to Peru to do volunteer archaeology and trail maintenance at Machu Picchu with REI Adventures. That trip lasts 10 days. After that I'll be returning to Lima for a few days to sight-see, including a tour to see the Ballestas Islands and the Nazca Lines! This is the flat I'll be staying in, one block from the beach!

After I leave Peru I'll meet up with Jonathan at the airport in Santiago and we'll hop on the plane to go spend five days on Easter Island! (I just found a page with cameras at the airport!) We'll be staying at one of these bungalows, which is RIGHT ON THE BEACH. I about passed out when I saw that! I'm hoping to have a few guided tours of nifty sites and then we'll have time to adventure on our own.

On our way back we have a 24 hour layover in Santiago, which wasn't planned originally, but I'm pretty excited about it. I found us another cute flat to stay in and we'll be able to keep our bags there while we go do some sightseeing. Jonathan wasn't originally going to be traveling with me but since he mentioned he'd love to go to Easter Island, we're making it happen!

Now to just keep on hustling and saving money for my End of the Earth trip next year! (Which I realized I need to blog about since it's pretty solid as well!)

New Art in the Living Room

2013-03-19T00:01:00.000-07:00

What our north wall now looks like!

As I mentioned before, a few days ago Jonathan and I hung up the art that I have been meaning to hang in the living room for a LONG time. I had a specific idea in my mind of what I wanted things to look like, but didn't have the funds for almost a year. I wanted a piece from Ray Troll, but couldn't decide for years which piece I wanted as a large version. I had been wanting since summer, 2011, to have the map that Mary gave me framed and hung, but I was averaging 15 hours a week, not including side hustles to pay for my trips, and couldn't spare the extra money to get the piece really nicely framed like I wanted it. I then wanted something to balance the two pieces I had, so I needed to find something.

That time has come and gone and we finally hung up all the new art in our living room last week and I am THRILLED. It is finally feeling closer to "home." I just need to get some fish in our aquarium and bring our new record player home from work, where I had it delivered!

As soon as I saw this print from Ray, I knew that it was exactly the one I wanted to hang in our space where I would see it all the time. I love that it is salmon (I almost went with this print, which I have been wanting for a very, very long time) and I love that they are swimming through an old growth forest, much like is all over southeast Alaska, but also like you can find in Oregon. The fact that it is a little bit of both states really drew me in. It's also salmon...swimming through a forest. I had this dream a long time ago when I owned five aquariums full of catfish, where I was walking along and going throughout my daily business and there were these tiny cory catfish (this kind, specifically) swimming along through the air behind me while I walked and when I stopped they perched on my shoulder.

Anyway, hands down, I love Ray's print!

I went to my friend Mary Henrikson's house in 2011 when I was in KTN for the summer. I saw her stacks of vintage Alaska Sportsman magazine around and mentioned that Emery Tobin was my great-great-uncle (he started the magazine), and she got this look on her face and said, "I have something for you." As I followed her, she told me that he used to print maps for the USGS on his printer for the newspaper and that she was given the plates with the maps engraved on them.

She started printing the maps and I'm positive I have seen them in the homes of friends and have been admiring them for years!! But she gave me this one and I am so, so, so happy with it. It's like my own piece of Ketchikan history that I am tied to and I love that I can see it every day now.

I figured another map might make a good other side of the salmon print. I found this 1945 map of Portland on eBay. It's from a vintage atlas. It's pretty cool! I wish it was a little bit bigger so I could see our neighbourhood, but it's still pretty neat.

These four Old School Stationers pieces were originally on the north wall in our living room. I bought them at Crafty Wonderland back in the day. I totally love them! Since they are smaller they make more sense in our bedroom on the empty wall in there. It's nice to wake up and see them!

I got home yesterday and saw the sunlight streaming through the windows and lighting up my vintage Ball jar. So pretty! I found those eagle feathers while beachcombing in Ketchikan. The one in the middle is over a foot long! It's huge!

This is what our Expedit shelf ended up looking like, as per this post here. I am still waiting on the doodad I ordered to hold my laptop and iPad while they charge, but this still looks great. I can't wait to bring the record player home tomorrow night and set it up!

Not shown on the wall, I have seen this Portland bridges poster at many houses around town and have always loved it. I'm glad we went with the more expensive frame for it because it looks AWESOME. It has little circular divots around the outside that you can kind of see on the left. It just gives it some great texture. I'm really happy with it!

Not art, but this is the coffee table we ended up getting. I like how organic and modern it is. The pine is a bit more orangey than I anticipated, but it's still really pretty!

Anyway, that's what I've got set up in our living room now. It's nice to be working on house-projecty stuff now! Tonight I'm going to re-pot my coffee plant. I need to drill holes in the pot it'll go in, sterilize my soil, and then re-pot it. I've had issues with fungus gnats, which is incredibly annoying. It's been looking pretty sad lately, so I'm sure that will help!

Is It Just Me?

2013-03-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

Some of the many cupcakes I had specially made for the party by my friend Dana.

White cake with homemade lemon curd filling, topped with blueberry cream cheese. OMG.

Know what's frustrating?

Having people tell you they'll show up to something and then never hearing from them. Sometimes it happening multiple times. Is that what we've come to between friends?

I had a Naked Lady Party yesterday and out of the 40-something girls I invited I heard from about ten of them. I think six or seven of them said they'd for sure be there. I had three attendees and never heard from the other girls that had said they'd show up. (I'm not counting the ones who said they'd maybe be there.)

Does that bug anyone else? Does that happen to anyone else? I feel like this happens all the time in Portland and people just are okay with it or expect it. In Ketchikan, people don't do that. I admit that I do it, too, but only to people who have done it to me. That doesn't make me any better in those situations and it makes me feel crappy.

To me, it's a matter of respecting one's time and friendship. I feel like I'm 80 and wondering what's wrong with kids these days.

Yes, I realize it was St. Patrick's Day. I know some of the girls that attended were doing other things later. I didn't expect a huge turnout. It just bugs me when people say they'll do something and then don't. I feel like this happens SO often here and I guess I'm just not used to it.

Gripe gripe gripe. Grumpy Brittany is grumpy.

Awesome Stuff I Pinned This Week

2013-03-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

Guys, GUYS!

I am writing this Thursday night and I really want to tell you all about the awesome evening I had. I just got some art hung that is over a year and a half in the making. I feel like crying happy tears and I'm just overjoyed. But tomorrow is Friday and that is the day that I post all of the awesome stuff I pinned this last week. Heck, I haven't even looked at what I pinned. I'm just excited about tonight. I will definitely blog about it next week. Life is good and things are coming together. Did I mention today that I got our AirBnB places booked that we/I are going to stay in Peru, Chile, and Easter Island in a mere three months? HOLY CRAP, I'm going to South America in three months for three weeks! I'm really frikken excited. I have so much to tell y'all about.

Life is good, guys.

I guess I should settle down and post stuff.

(That top photo was taken on Tuesday night at Hopworks at their five year anniversary party that I went to with Nicolle. I love her. It was awesome. There was a photobooth.)

Okay, you know what? I just looked and I didn't really pin all that much stuff aside from repinning random stuff from other people. I think the most interesting thing is this link and it's pretty awesome. You can see all the things here, though.

Sorry. My mind isn't much into blogging this stuff right now and I have so much exciting other stuff to talk about but I need to do this so I can just do it.

We'll just see you next week. It'll be awesome, I swear.

The Official List of Books Read In February

2013-03-13T00:01:00.000-07:00

This post is about me tackling one of my 2013 resolutions. Won't you follow along?

Well, February was not a great month for trying to read. I was driving to work quite a bit and things were happening in the evening and it just didn't happen. Hopefully this month is a little better in that regard. That picture up top was taken at Book & Pie Club last week. Pretty fun and nice to see some lady friends!

9. "Skinny Bitch" by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin

10. "Cloud Atlas: A Novel" by David Mitchell

11. "Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash" by Susan Strasser

12. "Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things" by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie

I did not like "Skinny Bitch" really at all. The way it was written annoyed me and I could see this book as only being good for people who had zero clue at how the choices they make on a daily basis in life affect their bodies. I guess if you really needed to start somewhere and could get past the naggy way it was written it would be a great book.

I stopped reading "Cloud Atlas" in the second section. I don't usually just stop reading books, but I couldn't pay attention at all to it. Many of my girlfriends loved it, though!

I really, really liked "Waste and Want." It was SO interesting!! I would definitely recommend it! I got three books at Book & Pie Club so I'll start reading those soon.

Past months of books read: January.

Note: There are affiliate links in this post. *gasp!*