Arlo is twelve weeks old! The most exciting news this week is that we weighed him on Monday, and he's gained 13 ounces in the past week! It looks like our lots-of-milk plan is working. I'm so...

Arlo is ten weeks old! We celebrated with a picnic in Piccolo Park and waffles with Andrew, who was in town for the weekend (yay!). Arlo is doing well. Of course, after finding out that h...

We've got baby smiles! So great :) Arlo has become alert for longer stretches of time in the last few weeks, which is so fun! There's still plenty of crying, but at least it's balanced out by l...

Arlo is four weeks old! We celebrated with a cinnamon roll at Grand Central Bakery and a trip to Mink for a new summer dress for mama. Hey, he can choose the birthday destinations when he can talk :) ...

Arlo has gone on some fun neighborhood adventures this week. He went to his first farmers' market on Wednesday (the People's Co-op summer street party, no less!). The same night, he went out to dinner...

Thirty-eight (and a half) weeks! Sorry to keep you in suspense by being quiet for so long. The baby is still in the belly, though he did drop last night when I was getting ready for bed. I felt some b...

Thirty-six weeks! I'm in my ninth month of pregnancy now, and strangers are not shy about commenting on how pregnant I am (which I have no problem with--I think it's kind of cool!). Surprisingly, I ha...

We had a great weekend! Tree came up for a visit, and we lucked out and had really beautiful weather. On Saturday, we walked up to Jam for breakfast, then walked down Hawthorne, stopping at Cool Cotto...

Wow, 30 weeks! Three-quarters of the way there. I'm definitely starting to feel a little unwieldy, but it's not too bad. I've been feeling fewer sharp kicks recently, which is consistent wi...

Twenty-eight weeks! We've made it to the third trimester. Good job, baby! Here's a bonus family portrait to celebrate (we tried to get Patches in there too, but she wasn't interested). We had...

Twenty-five weeks! Okay, twenty-five and a half--we've been having so much fun this weekend enjoying the beautiful early spring weather in Portland that this post got a little delayed. I'd forgotten h...

Twenty-four weeks! Can there really be only a few more weeks left in the second trimester? I'll be sad to see it go--it has been so fun! Increased energy and appetite, and tangible proof that there's ...

So, like I said, I was in California for work last week, so I had to find a substitute mirror for my weekly photo. Luckily, there's one in the womens locker room at work that did the job just fine. ...

Today marks the start of week 19! Highlights for the coming week include the baby reaching 6 inches in length and the start of vernix production. Oh, and we find out if it's a boy or a girl on Wednesd...

So, Ladies Rock Camp! This was a fundraiser for Portland's Rock and Roll Camp for Girls. It's a 2.5-day-long camp, where women who have little to no experience with an instrument learn to play that in...

Hoo boy, I've been quiet for too long! Here are a bunch of things I meant to mention at the time but never got around to writing about. Still to come: Ladies Rock Camp and our recent trip to Canada! ...

I still exist! Work has been kind of all-consuming for the past month, and it will continue to be for a little bit longer. That doesn't leave much time for baking and knitting and enjoying Portland, w...

I feel like it has been forever since I've updated, but I guess it hasn't been that long. I just haven't done much of note in the past few weeks. The weather turned cold suddenly last week, and I just...

So, MusicFest NW went well. I didn't even get sick this year! I think the secret was only staying up past midnight on one night instead of four nights in a row (I don't know how I did that last year!)...

Some recent tidbits: Shangri-La, the new Indian place at SE 26th and Clinton appears to have closed (already!). Bummer--we never got to try their full menu! They've scraped the paint off the wind...

Phew! August was a frenzy of preserving and trying to keep up with our garden and CSA. Things seem to be slowing down now, which is kind of a relief. We were lucky enough to be overrun with tom...

Baking We went to a fun barbecue at Susan's on Friday, in honor of Linda and Paul, who were in town for Linda's book signing. It was great meeting them! My contribution to the barbecue was a shiro ...

Today is our one-year Portlandiversary (and house-iversary)! It has been such a great year--I'm so glad we decided to actually move here instead of just talking about it forever. Yay, Portland! In ...

Man, I meant to write about last weekend sooner, but it got so hot this past week, and I couldn't bear to have my laptop on my lap. But now, with the sun down and the fan aimed at me, I think I can ma...

Last weekend, Star and I participated in the Stumptown Challenge, a Portland-centric scavenger hunt run. We were hoping to win the second-place prize: a year's worth of Dave's Killer Bread (which is t...

Note to self: Bread and Ink has totally awesome ketchup! We went there for pre-trivia dinner about a month ago, and I was totally impressed by their ketchup (I think I said, "Is this what ketchup u...

We made a quick trip to Seattle the weekend before last so that Patrick could do the Seattle to Portland bike ride for the third time, along with Andrew and Jon. I came along to help get the car back ...

Yesterday afternoon, Patrick, Star, and I did the First Thursday Run despite the 90-degree weather. This is a monthly event, where they unveil a map of participating local businesses 5 minutes before ...

I spent the past week in California for work and took a few days to visit my mom, grandma, and aunts while I was in the area (it's always so much fun when they all get together!). Now I'm back home in...

Due to our lack of menu planning, we had some nice meals around SE Portland this weekend. We ate lunch at Broder on Saturday. Man, I love that place! We're so lucky to live nearby. This time I had the...

You know what I love? Biking home from trivia on a warm summer night, catching whiffs of honeysuckle and roses as we zoom down Clinton Street. Summer in Portland is a wonderful thing!...

I just finished my first 5k run! I had intended to run the whole thing (since I was able to run 30 minutes straight during training this past week), but there were a lot of hills in the last mile, so ...

On Wednesday, Patrick and I hosted trivia at Zach's Shack for the first time. It went well! The basic format is four categories, each with ten questions. Each round, the team with the highest score wi...

I think I'm more aware of plants now that we live in Portland, both because we have a garden and because we walk and bike a lot, so we notice our surroundings more often. Right now, lilacs are in bloo...

I'm loving the spring produce lately! I bought two big armfuls of rhubarb at the farmers' market on Wednesday (first of the season!), and after much consideration, I made Nigella Lawson's Irish tarte ...

Hey, Portland folks! Egg Press is having a sample sale at their SE Portland warehouse through Saturday. We stopped by this afternoon, and I had a great time pawing through boxes and boxes of loose car...

Wonderfulness abounds lately! This past week we have done all sorts of great stuff (and are kind of exhausted, but in a good way): On Thursday we went to Laura Gibson's record release/potluck with ...

I had a nice week in California and got to enjoy some beautiful sunny weather. Spring is a little farther along in the Bay Area, and the petals were falling from the trees. It was nice sitting on the ...

Spring is here! Spring is here! (That last one is from a house up the street from us. It makes me want to plant a star magnolia in our parking strip so we can enjoy it next spring!) I'm ...

It's exciting to see signs of spring here in Portland! Daffodils and a lone crocus have popped up around our yard, and we have other mystery bulbs poking up that have yet to bloom (maybe tulips?). A f...

Today is Patrick's birthday--yay!! We had lunch at Little T, and we're going to have dinner at Clyde Common. I also made mini birthday cupcakes to take to trivia at Zach's Shack yesterday. I ma...

We've been having a good time in Portland, as usual! Let's see... We went on a moss and lichen nature walk at Tryon Creek State Park a week or so ago. I learned so much about moss and lichen (not a...

I had a nicely spontaneous day today. For lunch, I decided at the last minute to meet up with Susan, Pearl, Sarah, and Josh for waffles at the Little Blue Waffle Wagon. I was so glad to get to catch u...

What an exciting group of birthdays we have this week--Lee's yesterday, Lincoln's today, and the entire state of Oregon's on Saturday! (I love that the Oregon 150th birthday mascot is a Sasquatch, tho...

It has been a very nice weekend so far. Yesterday, Patrick and I walked down to Genie's Cafe for lunch. I had a yummy vegetarian eggs benedict, and he had biscuits and gravy. The walk there was a litt...

I'm not feeling too wordy tonight, so I'll do this in bullet form: A couple weekends ago, Patrick planted trees in the Woodstock neighborhood (did I tell you he's a Friends of Trees assistant cre...

I went to Nicola at 220 Salon for a much-needed haircut last week (at Susan's recommendation), and I was really happy with the results. I asked her to cut it like Miranda July's hair, and she did! For...

We were running errands on Hawthorne this morning, so we stopped for brunch at Belly Timber. It's located in a nice old Victorian house, and I liked the way they combined embossed wallpaper with paint...

Hmm, it appears that I haven't written in a while, based on my backlog of food photos. Let's see... We had a nice, low-key New Year's Eve. We went to Bar Avignon (a cozy bistro/wine bar) for dinner...

I haven't written in a while! When I last wrote, Tree and Andrew had just arrived in Portland for a visit. Soon after, the snow started. It kind of put a damper on our fun Portland activities, but it ...

Since Portland is moving into winter, Patrick and I decided it was time to invest in a good comforter. We chose a Wul comforter, which I had read about in Sunset a few years ago. We also got a nice du...

Patches is officially our kitty as of Saturday! Her owner brought over her vet records while we were planting our trees (and I didn't recognize him, which made me feel totally dumb after I realize...

We woke up early on Saturday morning to the first frost of the season. We layered up with lots of Smartwool and headed over to a church in the Richmond neighborhood for our Friends of Trees planting d...

Guess what! I'm writing this post on my new laptop. Her name is meringue, and she's a refurbished MacBook. My old laptop stopped working about a month ago, and we waited until the post-Thanksgiving sa...

What a good 4-day weekend! We managed to get a few things done around the house. We had been wanting to frost the lower panes of our downstairs bathroom window for a while, and I finally did it using ...

I continue to be impressed by how awesome Portland is. I don't know--it just feels like you can do anything here, if you put your mind to it. Open a bakery, write a book, start a band, whatever! It's ...

I posted some pictures of my new clothes on Flickr (click the pictures for more). It's also a mini-tour of our house, as I went from room to room, trying to find good light and a ledge to put the came...

I bought some nice fall/winter clothes yesterday! My original plan was to stop by Pin Me to buy some Orla Kiely rain boots at 25% off (there seemed to be lots of big sales this weekend), but the boots...

Patrick has been working from home this week because he had a cold, but since he was feeling better today, we went out for lunch, to the Little Blue Waffle Wagon at SE 33rd and Division. We had passed...

We spent a couple hours at the Cross Crusade cyclocross race up in North Portland today. Patrick has recently gotten interested in it (and would be interested in participating instead of spectating ne...

Yay, Obama! I'm so glad the election turned out the way it did (though CA passing Prop 8 sucks--I guess not all of California is like the Bay Area; it's just so disappointing). Our plans to watch e...

What an exciting day this is! We voted by mail a couple weeks ago, so we don't get any "I Voted" stickers, but we're wearing our one-of-a-kind Obama shirts for good luck. I had originally planned to s...

We had a good time in California last week. The main reason for the visit was my monthly work trip, but Patrick came along too (so much nicer than being alone for a week!), and we visited my mom, step...

We just went to little t american baker for lunch, and it was great! You know how back in grad school, I was disillusioned with science and looking for an awesome bakery to work at in the Bay Area? We...

Another good (and busy!) weekend in Portland. On Saturday, we went to the Screenprinting for Change party that I mentioned earlier, and we had a great time! I need to get more involved in the Portland...

After buying Lena Corwin's Printing By Hand, I've been wanting to give screenprinting a try. The Obama screenprinting event this weekend seems like a perfect opportunity to learn more about screenprin...

Man, Portland is great! I'm glad it has lived up to my expectations so far. First of all, check out the beautiful produce I bought at our farmers' market! That's not even all of it! I also bought a vi...

We still haven't gotten to any big home improvement projects, but we're making headway on the little things. Earlier this week, we replaced our original (cracked, painted) Old Portland house numbers w...

We went to Rock Band night at Ground Kontrol last night. I ended up just dressing normally because I didn't have any good shirts to wear with my jean skirt. Lame, I know. But, as it turned out, there ...

Last Sunday, we stopped in at the Polish Festival and waited in long lines for pierogies and potato pancakes. And then I made Patrick go furniture shopping on Mississippi Ave., even though he probably...

Last Friday night, we went back to Doug Fir to take in a show (that's what people our age are supposed to do, right?). We were there to see the second band of the night, A Weather, but we were very pu...

Patches came back on Saturday! We bought her some kitty treats to celebrate. I'm glad she turned up. Here are a few pictures from this evening. The sunset was really pretty, and weather was balmy. I s...

We just found out that you can buy pudding at the farmers' market! Jacob's Creamery sells containers of homemade vanilla and chocolate pudding, alongside a nice assortment of cheeses. Totally awesome!...

Out of the goodness of his heart, Patrick has been watching Portland Craigslist for mixte bikes for me. My blue bike, though very cute, can be a little unwieldy and hard to lock up, so it seemed good ...

Some things I've been meaning to tell you about: I couldn't resist the okra at our farmers' market, but I wasn't sure what to make with it. I tried Madhur Jaffrey's recipe for okra with tomatoe...

I was still sick this morning (in addition to the sniffles, a fever crept in overnight, accompanied by much tossing and turning), so I decided to take a sick day. Patrick, wonderful as always, went to...

We spent the last four nights at live music performances as part of Music Fest Northwest, and I am exhausted! It was great though. We did it in order to familiarize ourselves with the Portland music s...

Some of my coworkers wanted to know what my home office looks like, so I put a few pictures on Flickr (click the picture below for a couple more). It's pretty basic, but it works. I am especially exci...

It has been raining off and on today, but the weather was nice yesterday, and we spent most of it riding around Portland on our bikes. In the morning, we rode across the bridge to PSU campus, to check...

Yesterday night we started vermicomposting! We had gotten a Reln Wriggly Wranch when we lived in Menlo Park, subsidized by San Mateo County, but we had never gotten around to filling it with worms and...

And so ends our first week working from Portland. I can't decide if working from home is good or bad. I'm finding it more relaxing than going to work, and I like that I can take a few minutes to put s...

We made it to Portland! We are excited about our house, even though our to do list is steadily growing. Let me recap... On Saturday morning, I got up early and made a batch of blondies and some lem...

Patrick flew out to Portland for a few hours today to attend the home inspection. The inspector was awesome and really thorough (we definitely recommend Owens Inspection Services if you need a house i...

I have majorly fallen off of the interesting cooking wagon since our trip to Portland and Bend. We've been eating a lot of salads (nothing wrong with that!). I think this is partially because it is su...