Taller than a sunbear

"I'm taller than a sunbear"

Humboldt Penguin bellies

Duck!

I call it drizzle, you call it mist, let's call the whole thing off

So, the fall/winter/spring rains have set in for good it seems. We are living in a cloud, and so to describe our scenery we need more words for this thing falling from the sky (or hovering in microscopic drizzlets) and NOT coming down in Andrea's favorite form, snow.

I found a great page with a spoof of the Beaufort scale, but done for rain in the Pacific Northwest: http://home.comcast.net/~pwmeek/boat/beaufort.html

Also, we thought we'd share a video: a day in the life...

Changing Seasons

As we move into serious, somber fall in Oregon there will be plenty of time to hone my baking skills. Today as the darkness (and Rain) descended, I decided it would be just the sort of day for baking Anadama Bread. This is a classic New England loaf with molasses and cornmeal, perfected in the Cook's Illustrated laboratory, and it did not disappoint!

Anadama Bread

Last week, the sun came out for a few days and we were very excited. I took Chili to the arboretum to document the fall colors and get a walk.

Hoyt Arboretum fall colors

"What is that giant orb of light in the sky?"

Concert at Old Church and Other Adventures

Since it is Wednesday again, I rode MAX into Portland for the weekly free concert at Old Church near the central library. It was a mixture of contemporary and classical piano and guitar pieces. Not bad for the price.

Oldest church in Portland

Church bathroom fixtures I liked.

Crazy people doing windows overhead caught my eye

After the concert I found my way to the local haberdashery shoppe and was milling around, feasting my eyes on all the nice things when lo and behold who should walk in but the lord of nerdy cooking and editor of Cook's Illustrated, Chris Kimball!!! The nice shop lady took our photo.

We both like hats, and cooking

While in town, I was able to meet up with my little brother and go on a longish hike around the posh, terraced neighborhoods above NW 23rd Street. It really is amazing how much UP you can do in the "west hills" (a.k.a. Tualatin Mountains). You don't notice until you walk it all.

Fancy pumpkin carving! (Micah, for scale, is 6'4")

Even the stairs are green in Portland

HOW many more steps?

Forest Park find en route to Pittock Mansion

Andrea's midterm election editorial

Lunchtime walk around Hillsboro

Andrea and I munched on deli sandwiches and then walked around neighborhoods near campus. We found this tree in a boulevard. It's so huge the sidewalk had to be scooted over several feet to accommodate it! I tried to look it up in my "Northwest Trees" book but couldn't find it. Lucky for me I can google: it is a giant sequoia! The cones have really interesting texture, so I grabbed one to draw later.

Andrea snapped this photo with her phone.

Fun with Cardiology

Friday was a day of fun at school thanks to Halloween! As we finished up our first week of Cardiology we had a costume contest and pot-luck lunch. Midway through the afternoon my friend Won decided to remove the monkey from her costume and place it in my hoodie. She was dressed as a disorder we learned about in Men's Health that is common amongst travellers overseas....and that's all I'm going to say about that! Really, you don't want more information. You might be tempted to do a google search and would end up seeing pictures that would be etched in your mind forever, and I just don't want to be responsible for that. Another classmate took this photo during class:

I am dressed as a PA student

Chili's heartbeat is very loud