Spice Drawer.

Warning! This a post so trivial, only my mother could love it.

I buy bulk spices. I'm lucky enough to be able to do this at my normal grocery store, but I would probably make a special trip if I couldn't. I can't stand paying five to seven dollars for a glass jar of spices when I only need a teaspoon. Plus, that big jar of spices gets old and looses its freshness. So, aside from the aesthetic, jarred spices are a complete waste of money. The problem with bulk spices, however, is that you have no nice glass jar to store them in.
For awhile I just had tiny bits of various spices stored in the bags I bought them. Then there was the failed experiment of the filing system of spices. Put the spices in small zip lock bags, buy a storage bin sized to store photos, make divider cards and store them alphabetically. This didn't work for a variety of reasons: it took up too much space, the spices migrated to other parts of the box, it was a pain to try and see how much of each spice there was.

Right around the time we moved, I bit the bullet and bought a bunch of plastic spice jars from a supplier on the internet. I put the spices in the jars and wrote labels for the top. Then, hurrying to finish the job, I shoved them all in the drawer. For the last nine months, I've regretted that decision. There is a reason that spice sets always come alphabetically. Sometimes I could locate what I wanted quickly, but most of the time I would have to touch each spice to find the one I needed.
So, the other day I bit the bullet and alphabetized the damn things.
And now I can cook in peace.

I'm starting to think compact fluorescents are a big scam.

You see this? This is a burnt out light bulb. Our house was completed in March, 2007. It is full of these compact fluorescent (cf) bulbs. "Great." I remember thinking, "I won't have to buy light bulbs for years." Which is wonderful, because the damn things cost a lot of money. Supposedly, cf light bulbs not only use less energy, they also last, and I'm quoting from a package here, "13 times longer than standard bulb."

But you know what my experience with cf bulbs has been? They burn out just as fast as the normal bulbs. In the apartment, I blamed it on some freaky electrical current. We had to change light bulbs more there then the rest of my life put together. I started writing the date on them in sharpie when I installed them. But in the new place, after 10 months, two of our cf bulbs have burned out. Which means that if I had used regular bulbs, I would have changed them 13 times. Or that perhaps something isn't what it's cracked up to be.....

Birds

The other day I looked out the window and saw a bunch of starlings happily munching on something in my yard. I watched them for awhile, hoping they were eating slug larva, until something startled them and they flew away. I haven't seen them since.

Bonus dorky, but interesting, fact: The starling, considered a pest by most, was introduced to this country by a man who was trying to bring every bird mentioned in Shakespeare to the United States.

January Flashback--New Orleans Night

The Young Adults (age 18-35) at our church are going to New Orleans this spring break to do a service project. They had a New Orleans Night which included dinner, dancing, a drink ticket and the chance to bid on many items for the silent auction. It was incredibly fun, the food (made by the young adults) was fabulous and the silent auction was wonderful, because items didn't get bid up too quickly which meant I got to bid more.

Kelly, Heidi and Dan live it up.
I used the night as an excuse to dress up, which meant that Matt dressed up too. Despite his foot bugging him, we danced a bit. Matt's a trooper.
This is the UU Swing Band. They have a longer, more official name, but I forget what it is. I always enjoy hearing them play.
I bid on a variety of things and won two. For awhile there I was worried that I would win everything I bid on, but other people came through for me. I got a lovely painting which will hang over our fuse box. Amanda and I bid on cake decorating and we won. We are splitting four cakes. I'll use my two for Matt's combination graduation/30th birthday party in June.

January Flashback--It's like watching paint dry.

Oh wait, it's not like watching paint dry, it is watching paint dry.
My enthusiasm for painting, always slight to begin with, only extended to painting two sets of shelves. Thus, the shelves over the refrigerator will have to wait until that magical day when I feel like painting them. But the dining room shelves and the pantry shelves look nice.
I let everything dry for about a week. Past experience has taught me that paint that looks dry and feels dry isn't really dry. By waiting a week I avoided that "sticking" issue that I've had before.
Ideally, I would have taken a picture of the shelves with stuff on them, but I didn't and I'm behind anyway, so that post will have to wait until another day.

January Flashback--starting out the year with illness.

So we were absent all of January. So here's what we've been doing:


Matt came down with an awful flu that involved two trips to the doctor and more than one trip for medication. I was fine for about two days, when I came down with it too. I went to the doctor once, although by that time I was better. We used Flexcar a lot when we were sick. It came in handy to drive to urgent care and across town, as well as to the drugstore.



I haven't been that sick since high school. I lost my appetite for two days and that never happens. It wasn't very fun at all.

New Year's Walk.

In 2005, I was happy to get Portland Hill Walks for Christmas. The book has 20 walks of 3-5-ish miles all over Portland. My favorite part about it is that Laura O. Foster, the author, loves the hidden staircases that are all over the city and many, if not all, of the walks take you on these staircases. It feels so adventurous. Plus, she gives fun historical information about Portland. Matt and I take these walks every so often and we took one today.

Today we took walk #5, which is called "Portland Heights to Park Blocks and Goose Hollow Loop." Here are some highlights.

When I lived downtown, this restaurant was in the neighborhood over from me, but I never ate there. I love their folding outdoor tables.
I've always loved this house, picking it out as one to buy when I win the lottery. On the walk, I learned that this house was originally a three story house in a different location. It gained the bottom two stories when it moved to the present location, due to the slope of the site. Fascinating!
Here's the first set of stairs we climbed. I'm looking back out over Portland.
And Matt, still sick, is ready to climb the rest of the the 100-plus steps to the top.
It was a sunny day, which was a New Year's treat. The views were gorgeous.
Mount Adams is right below that yellow crane.
The homes in Portland Heights are very fancy. Many of them are also built into the hillside, so they either bump against the street, like this one, or are suspended on stilts.
Another great view, this time of Mount St. Helens.
Imagine if this was your view from your porch each morning.
Down, down, down the last staircase.
We walked back and, having just missed our Max train ate at Pastini Pastaria. The food was wonderful after our walk.