Category Archives: Random stuff

Not adventures :)

Mar8

A snowy day in Wilsonville

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Thursday, 23-Feb-2023



Wilsonville doesn’t get much snow.

I mean, we get at least a dusting every year. But that doesn’t count, you know? It’s not SNOW, it doesn’t blockade the roads and keep you warm and cozy inside by the fire, with a mug of cocoa on the end table as you stretch out and read a book in your warm slippers.


We got that this week, though.


I don’t really watch the weather very often, except to check for details on a hike or trip I’m going on. And I don’t partake in as much chatting around the office as I could… so when I woke up on Thursday and saw snow outside, I was psyched!

Surprise snow! Yay!

Of course, I was also greeted by a text message, and phone call, clamoring for my attention, “The office is open today! Come in if you feel safe!”. Darn. No snow day, huh?



I survived, though. Cleared off the car and drove in, power-sliding through every turn I could and enjoying every second of the snowy drive of course. We even got catered lunch at the office, since only a handful of folks made it in, and none of those folks worked in the lunch room, hah!

I loved it. A nice walk around the park after work, stopping on the side of the road to take pictures… Yeah. This New Englander loves his snow.

Mar5

A Valentine’s Day dinner on the town

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Tuesday, 14-Feb-2023


I’m in a bit of a non-standard relationship situation right now.


Yeah, yeah, shut up I know that’s normal for me. Okay, I get it.

I’m trying, and this is actually working fairly well for both myself, and my partners. That’s right – partners. I don’t often talk about my detailed personal life here, as strange as that is to say about a blog, but… it can’t be avoided when I’m posting two different Valentine’s Day events with two different people.


I’m dating two people non-exclusively – we’ve discussed it in-depth, and this is where everyone’s comfort level is right now. Their lives are a bit crazy and chaotic, and mine isn’t any more normal. You’ll see in mid-March, dear reader, when I post about my upcoming trip to Dublin and the reasoning behind it.


I love holidays, and Valentine’s day is no exception. How to juggle this with two partners, you may ask? Well… it’s easy, when the Universe helps you out. See, my partner Jessie works at a school, and gets out quite a bit earlier than I do. It can be challenging sometimes, since it means she has to go to bed much earlier than I do, but in this case it meant we could do dinner quite a bit earlier on Valentine’s Day itself than I normally would.

I like celebrating, and I love getting to dress up for a fancy event on the town. I don’t do this too often, though, since I don’t have a real occasion to get nice reservations to a fancy uptown dive. Well… if Valentine’s Day doesn’t count, I don’t know what does.



Jessie and I met up early, for a planned reservation at 4:45. Early, like I mentioned, but that meant we had a much broader choice on where to go!

We’d decided on Italian – pasta, specifically. A small restaurant called Allora had caught my eye a week or so ahead of time, and they worked perfectly with the table-times that they had. We met up, posed for a few quick photos, and hopped in the lyft to make our way downtown.



Dinner was, unsurprisingly, absolutely amazing.

Small Italian meatballs as a starter

Nice glasses of a glorious house red wine

Rotini as a main – I got mine with Dungeness crab, and Jessie got hers with seared chicken in a white cheese sauce. We shared quite a bit, as you might expect.



It was glorious, and I absolutely adored having the chance to dress up outside the office, and swirl around on the town for an evening.

Mar4

A Valentine’s Day dinner at home

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Saturday, 11-Feb-2023



I’m in a bit of a non-standard relationship situation right now.


Yeah, yeah, shut up I know that’s normal for me. Okay, I get it.

I’m trying, and this is actually working fairly well for both myself, and my partners. That’s right – partners. I don’t often talk about my detailed personal life here, as strange as that is to say about a blog, but… it can’t be avoided when I’m posting two different Valentine’s Day events with two different people.


I’m dating two people non-exclusively – we’ve discussed it in-depth, and this is where everyone’s comfort level is right now. Their lives are a bit crazy and chaotic, and mine isn’t any more normal. You’ll see in mid-March, dear reader, when I post about my upcoming trip to Dublin and the reasoning behind it.



I love holidays, and Valentine’s day is no exception. How to juggle this with two partners, you may ask? Well… it’s easy, when the Universe helps you out. See, my partner Jess got hit with a last-minute work trip for Valentine’s day about two weeks beforehand – she’d need to be in The Bay for the 14th, so we needed to do something ahead of time.

I love cooking. I adore cooking for someone. And I very much enjoy fancy holiday meals.



If those pictures don’t tell the story for you, let me paint the picture a bit more clearly – I cooked up some AMAZING roasted Cornish Game Hens. For sides, Gnocchi and broccoli.

Recipe is at the end, but my special twist was the brine – I actually used a variant of my Thanksgiving turkey brine for this, and damn did it come out well. The sides were lovely, and Jess brought amazing wine and homemade ice cream cake.


It was a very nice evening.



Recipes:

– Brine = cold water, salt, and oranges. Simple and easy.
– Hens = https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/8938/cornish-game-hens-with-garlic-and-rosemary/
– Broccoli = steamed, with a bit of salt and butter and let to sear for 10s after the water boiled off
– Gnocchi = boiled, then seared in a pan with butter and truffle oil