vedera, i like you. by orange

Last night the husband took me to see Mat Kearney at the Moore Theater.  I died and went to heaven, it was s-o good.  I'll post more on my love for Mat later.  For now I'd like to focus in on the opening band: Vedera. 

Usually when at concerts, I'm so excited about the headliner that I loose focus during the opening band and am thinking "get on with it."  Well, this time was a bit different.  The lead singer of Vedera has a beautiful voice and is so freaking cute.  With her striped tee, vintage looking boots, short pixie hair and cute giggle I practically had a girl crush.  She was rocking away on the guitar, then pounding on the piano - mixing some soulful slower songs with the classic girl pop.

I'm excited to purchase her CD "Stages."

kim can cook #2 - YUMM. by orange

I'm proud of myself for a few reasons:

1) prepared a meal without calling any of my friends for "how to" questions
2) first time cutting an avocado went very well!
3) remembered the recipe without haveing to look anything up online (ok it's pretty simple, but still!)
4) made a fantastic meal in about 15 min!

Welcome to Yumm Sauce:

The "Yumm bowl" consists of the following:
- rice
- avocado
- beans
- tomatos
- cheese
- sour cream
- cilantro (oops! forgot this in mine tonight!)
- olives
- and of course, Yumm Sauce

Granted you can really add what you want.  The husband and I opted in some corn instead of olives. 

Recipe:
- make rice
- while rice is cooking cut up the avocado & tomato
- heat up beans and corn
- grate cheese
- once rice is cooked, add Yumm Sauce
- then layer away!

Very Simple and Yummy!!

To find locations of where you can purchase the Yumm Sauce, see here

Election Day. by violet

Here in Seattle there’s a mayoral race and couple of initiatives and the ballot. Voting can sometimes seem like a pain. And I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve missed a few elections. But the state of Washington has made things a little bit easier by moving to all vote by mail. That doesn’t seem stop me from puting it off for the last minute, however. I have some reading on ballot measures and candidates to do before I check the boxes today. But this is a chance to watch democracy in action.

Go vote!

More coming soon and Halloween weekend, I promise.

a few tricks. by orange

This past weekend a few friends and the husband and I packed up our car and headed down to our good friends' house in Eugene, OR, aka home of The Oregon Ducks. 

Going to Stacy and Ray's house is like a trip back home, visiting mom and dad.  They are around our same age, just have always had that "big brother/big sister", more "mature" persona to them.  Going to their house is the perfect escape from the day to day blur of work, stress, etc.  There were 3 main reasons for our trip to The Eug:

1. Halloween Party

2. University of Oregon vs. University of Southern California football game

3. Haunted Corn Maze

As violet's J. photo-documented the weekend festivities I'll leave #1 and #3 to future violet posts.  I'm digging into #2 reason.

Now I've never been really into football.  Of course I made all the normal football appearances during college however, by half-time I was the one ready to head home for a post-pre-funking game nap.  With marrying the husband, who Loves football, and all the college football Saturday/Sunday get togethers it was time I figured out what was going on during the game.

Here are the few things I've picked up over the past few seasons to help me through the game:

1. The computer imposed First Down line is Extremely helpful when watching a game on TV.  Basically, the offensive football team has 4 tries to make a First Down.  Once they make a First Down, they get to start the four tries over.  If they don't make the First Down within four tries then the other team gets the football.

2. In order for the football team to get the First Down, they have to move the football 10 yards down the field towards their end zone.

3. Main Penalities: False Start, Holding, Pass Interference and Face Mask (see below for the referee signals and a few more)

4. Main Scoring Opportunities:

Touchdown = 6 points
Field Goal = 3 points
P.A.T. (Point After Touchdown) = 1 point
Going for Two (where the offensive team runs it in after a touchdown) = 2 points

Any other tips you know of in order to get into the game?

And, by the way, this game (UO vs. USC) was EPIC. Pete Carroll (USC head coach) has never been beat by an opposing team by more than 11 points before this game.  We just happen to beat them by 27 points - it was amazing.  And I was really glad I could keep up with all the scoring during the game :).

Stress Case. by violet

Work has been super busy. Like look at the clock at 4:00 p.m. and still have the “I just got work” feeling. Like my to-do list is longer at the end of the day than at the beginning. Like dreaming about work. Like waking up in the middle of the night to chicken scratching notes to myself so I don’t forget what woke me up. That kind of busy.

So after work the other night J. and I went for a long walk. Then, I came home and had a glass of wine while I checked off a few items on my list with Dancing with the Stars in the background. The next morning I got up early, bought myself a nonfat, no whip, pumpkin spice latte as a reward for getting into work at 7:30 a.m.

I seem to reward myself with exercise followed by food and booze. What do you do when work stress starts getting to you? Bubble baths with scented candles? Long runs with rocking tunes? Perhaps a session with a heavy bag? Love to hear from you.

Special shout out to Orange for doing some blog double duty.

Pumpkin Carving. by violet

Last weekend J. and I hosted our second annual BYOP (bring you own pumpkin) bash. The idea is to get our friends together chow down on some yummy fall goodness and carve some pumpkins.
We learned a few lessons last year, the first of which is that newspaper is a sufficient floor covering when it’s just you on the kitchen tile but not when it’s 10 of your closest friends gutting pumpkins. So we purchased some plastic drop cloths from Home Depot and a festive plastic table cloth from Target to protect our garage floor and picnic table.
The second was that people appreciate stencils. Not that we aren’t a creative bunch but pumpkin carving seems to have moved out of the territory of free hand drawing and into a stenciled affair.

We had a great turn out – friends from Portland and Eugene were visiting for the Oregon v UW game the next day so the whole thing had the air of a reunion.
There were plenty of delicious treats, I made cheddar jalapeno scones which turned out well but had me wishing for more heat. Our friend Nick brought steak skewers that were excellent. There was pumpkin bread from Melissa, queso (of course) from Cathy and homemade cookies from Michelle. And plenty of the little pumpkin candy corns. Some lessons learned this year – pumpkins are very easy to both throw and catch but don’t push your luck. Carving the Oregon O is nearly impossible. We had a failed attempt last year and another one this year.
A $5 T-shirt from Target is just a good a place to get pumpkin design inspiration as any.

sick. ick. by orange

you know when sometimes you long for a sick day? i don't know if you have done this, but when things are crazy at work, a day in bed with a minor sickness sounds great. you think, i can just watch movies all day, get rested, maybe watch a "Hills" episode or two...you almost forget that being really sick does in fact suck.

well my thoughts of a"nice stay in bed" day have made the carma gods decide to really stick it to me. i'm sick with what feels like cold, possibly flu symptoms. and, in all reality i'd rather be at work being productive.

here are my life savers (in order of importance):


oh and i shouldn't forget the husband, as he is the one to get me the goods. i learned yesterday, when i'm sick and try to get the meds, i end up buying nyquil instead of dayquil in the morning and almost end up falling asleep at my desk (before i went home sick). yikes.