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What is his name? Terry Lee Doherty
How long have you been married? 11 ½ years
How long did you date? We worked together for 5 years. We really didn’t date, just got married.
How old is he? 50
Who eats more? Terry on most food items, I definitely eat more dessert
Who said I love you first? Definitely Terry
Who is smarter? We’re both smart enough to love each other. That’s good enough.
Who does the dishes? I cook, he cleans.
Who does the laundry? We do our own.
Who pays the bills? He takes care of it.
Who cooks dinner? Me
Who drives when you are together? We take turns, but he mostly drives.
Who is more stubborn? Depends what the topic is but we both have our stubborn moments.
Who proposed? I guess you could say he did. We went to lunch and while waiting for a table I leaned up against him and felt what I figured was a ring box in his shirt pocket. When we were seated I told him to hand it over. It was then that he gave me the ring and asked for my hand.
Who has more friends? Me, totally!
Who has more siblings? Terry (3 older brothers & 1 half-sister) apposed to my one brother.
Who wears the pants in the family? We are equal partners.
I can't believe it's raining!
The yogurt totally worked!
I let it cook for 10 hours, then Jim put it in the fridge this morning. Then, the big taste test: It tastes... Exactly. Like. Yogurt. Woa, it's magic!
Beth asked if it's worth it. I don't know if it's exactly "worth it." It takes a long time, and it doesn't really seem to be any better or worse than the store-bought stuff. And I didn't exactly create it myself, because to get the yogurt bacteria to start reproducing, you have to start with yogurt bacteria... which you get by using yogurt. So you have to start off with (store-bought) yogurt to create more yogurt.
And cost-wise, yogurt isn't that expensive- i'm not saving a ton of money by making it myself. And to make yogurt, you have to make it from milk. So, if you want 2 cups of yogurt, you have to buy 2 cups of milk. So it's kind of a break even deal.
Though, I guess now the new bacteria are *my* bacteria. So if I found a local farm to buy my milk from, at least I would have local yogurt that wasn't trucked from God knows where (OK, God & I do know where- our yogurt comes from Eugene, which is, like, 45 minutes away. Heh).
But, it was kinda fun. :-)
Also fun? We went downtown tonight for Salem's First Wednesday event. We had a good time! Jim & I went once when it started a couple of years ago, and it was pretty lame. But tonight there were a ton of people, and most of the shops & restaurants were open, and it was, like, a lively downtown. Go figure. :-) I'm glad the good people of Salem are catching on, even if it's only for one night per month!
It's been a very busy summer! Today the sidewalk trees in front of the Statesman Journal building gave me the same bad news they do every year: Autumn is coming. Those trees (and I don't know what kind they are) are always the first to get just a tinge of red splashed in their leaves, far before I begin to think about fall Sigh. But there's still some summer to enjoy....
Last weekend we went to Waldport with Jim's family for Kim's birthday. The first day was rainy- which is OK; it's the beach! The next two days were lovely despite the wind. We all took a nice long bike ride on the beach, and it was so fun & kind of surreal! Especially the part where Jim flipped his bike, cracked his helmet and injured his shoulder. Oops. But he dusted himself off & we continued riding. :-P After a trip to the ER the next day, we found there was nothing broken in the shoulder, and now it's starting to feel better.
When Chester got home from Doggie Daycare, he rushed into the house & started squeaking his squeak toy. Hee. It amuses me to no end how much he loves that squeaky little thing.
I'm sitting here attempting to make my first batch of yogurt. First, I heat milk *almost but not quite* to boiling. That was tedious. Now I'm watching it cool to room temperature. La la la la. Then it has to cook in its yogurt incubator for 10 hours. La la la. Won't it be fun if it turns out well, though?
Picked 3 delicious cherry tomatoes from the garden, as well as a couple of giant cucumbers. Unfortunately, the cukes weren't quite ready- still kind of green & hard inside. So I'll let the others continue to hang out on the vine for awhile longer.
Going to Vegas this weekend for Joe's birthday. My siblings, Rachel & Chris, will be there, too. Fun!
OK, off to stare at milk now...
Last night, Jason and I went to dinner at Buca di Beppo with Uncle Lindy, Aunt Carolyn, Uncle Larry, Aunt Judy, Robyn, Kaitlyn and Wyatt. It was tons of fun! We walked down to Ghiradelli afterward and ate ice cream. Mmm... Then later that night I went to pick up Kristy and Kevin at the airport because their flight was delayed. Turns out their flight got delayed even more, so I spent some quality Palm Pilot solataire-playing time in the cell phone lot. :) I got them eventually, though, and got to show off the harbor on the short drive to the super-fancy hotel where the convention is being held. We're all going to get together on Sunday, too, I think. Good times!
I had a very productive weekend, foodwise....
Friday night, Joe was here & we made homemade pizza dough. Of course it was delicious! We made a margherita pizza with cherry tomatoes & golden tomatoes from the CSA box, and tons of basil & oregano from the garden. Made a yummy Hawaiian with fresh pineapple, too. Later, Kristin came over & brought dark chocolate chocolate chip ganache cupcakes for my birthday! They were crazy good. J & K sang Happy Birthday to me. :-)
Sunday, Jim & Justin broke in the new smoker:
Men with meat.
While that was being marinated/smoked/mopped all day (and, ahem, into the wee hours), Justin helped me make rosemary hoagie rolls:
Homemade Rosemary Hoagie Rolls
They weren't much to look at, but were shockingly good. They had perfect crunchy crusts and super soft insides. Mmmm!
Next, Justin & I went out to inspect the garden & check on my first red tomato:
Omigod! It's an actual tomato!!!
Then, I picked up one of the dozens of apples that are all over the ground & dared Justin to take a bite. So, being a 12-year-old boy, of course he did. And it was good! And I took a bite, and, yes, it was very very good! So then we went about trying to get only good apples down from the very tall tree. Most of the apples are defective in some way. And the ones that are perfect aren't really within in reaching distance. But we got some, even though I got bonked on the forehead by a wayward falling apple:
Justin with our first apple harvest.
Today, I also noticed that our grape vines (which are not trained, and which we have torn out in previous years) are producing grapes! Jessi, prepare your hammock & buy a train ticket!
And here is the adorable, lone cherry tomato that I picked today:
It was yummy.
Jim caught this critter red-handed in my garden today:
A big 'ole nutria lounging beneath our grapes.
Here he is, glaring at Jim's camera.
Looks like, before Jim spotted him, this nutria made a nice meal of my cucumber plant. The plant is big & vibrant, so it should survive. But I definitely need to get a fence put in soon!
I didn't see the nutria, but Jim said it was huge: 25-30 pounds. Yikes!
Click here to see some photos of Jim racing in Boise's Twilight Criterium last weekend. He did great & finished really well! Our friend Ted took the fabulous photos. Enjoy!
Happy Pioneer Day, everybody!!!!
Yay, Jim found my camera! I knew I had left it in the back of his car. I'm just unsure as to how it got into the bottom of his smelly bike-clothes bag. Ewww.
Joe is coming to town on Thursday and staying through Sunday. And Justin is coming home with Jim on Saturday & staying with us for a week. Hooray for houseguests!
This was a very good, very long weekend. Some of the good things:
-When I got home, my zucchinni plant greeted me with an actual zucchinni! Go garden!
-When Jim crashed his bike in the last lap of today's Idaho State Championships race, he didn't break bones nor bikes (well, not his own anyway).
-Even though I have to be home alone all week while Jim stays in Idaho, at least I don't have to scrub his road rash everyday. I would, of course, but I'm happy his nurse sister will be taking care of him...
-A bunch of friends & family came out today & yesterday to watch Jim race both days. It was great to have them all see what we've been up to this year. :-)
-In yesterday's Twilight Criterium, Jim finished 12th out of a huge pack- he did so great!
-I finally got a camera case to protect my camera (and then prompty lost the camera...)
-I had a fun time at the Meridian High 10-year reunion. We got to hang out with friends Wyatt and Derek, who I've known since middle school, as well as some others.
-Had an even funner time at the Eagle High 10-year reunion, which I've spent the last 3 months frantically planning. It went off without a hitch, and turned out even better than I was expecting. My relief is immense.
-People were very grateful that Lindsay & I planned the reunion (since, 3 months ago, there wasn't going to be one at all). That made it all worthwhile.
-Had a wonderful time catching up with old friends! :-) (& seeing all their masses of children!)
-Spent a lovely evening with Gramma & Vern. They even pulled out the old ice-cream maker, and we cranked ourselves some incredibly delicious ice cream. Mmmmm.
-Chester is having a fun vacation at Doggie Daycare. The kitties are very cuddly now that I'm home (and since the big loud guy and the big loud dog aren't here!).
-OK, on to the next adventures: Joe's in town next weekend; Jim's family is in town & at the coast the following weekend; then to Vegas for Joe's Big Birthday (turning 28 on 8-8-08); camping at Crater Lake soon after.
Whew. I'm going to bed....
Click on the beach house picture for a link to my Flickr photo stream and vacay pics. I couldn't figure out how to reverse the order of the photos, so they're chronologically backward but I think you can figure it out. :)
I'm suddenly a baking fool....
Friday I made pizza dough (and put homegrown basil & oregano on the pizzas)
Saturday I made 2 loaves of wheat bread. Yum!
Sunday I made blueberry muffins (with handpicked blueberries, my favorite!)
Apparently all I needed to learn to cook was the right equipment. :-)
Last week, we got struck by a vicious crime:
Somebody kidnapped Jane!
Jane is (was?) our British friend whose disembodied voice lived in our car. She would give us helpful tips such as “Take a left on the motorway” or “Go straight on.” She was kind of annoying, though, always telling Jim to go a certain direction, when, as Passenger Extordinaire/Super Navigator, I was trying to tell him to go a different way. We duked it out on occassion, but came to a gradual, friendly understanding. We were happy to have her.
But Tuesday morning, some jerk broke the window on our Audi and stole our GPS Navigation unit. They also stole our (new) stereo and Jim's (old, expensive) sunglasses.
And not only that? They kidnapped David Sedaris, too!! For an early birthday gift, Rachel had just given me his new book on CD. And we had listened to the first CD on the way home from the beach house last weekend. So, Disc #1 was still sitting in the CD player when it was stolen. ... But the good news?
They didn't actually steal the box set of CD's. And in order to play David Sedaris, we had to take out another CD: “Adam's Soundtrack: Excess Ain't Rebellion.” This is an extremely limited-edition disc, sure to be worth a killing on the black market. And, by some strange luck, it's still in my posession. So now I'll always be able to listen to my friend Adam's favorite tunes from 2007. Yay! :-)
After spending some time Googling various types of poop the other day, I was able to figure out what the critter is that's been eating my garden (today's victim: The Eggplant).
The little guys who are munching (and pooping in) my garden are Nutria. They're beaver-like creatures that are fairly prevalent in Salem (though not native). And the site I found about them said that they will pull up entire plants. Bingo.
I've been terribly agitated about my plants getting eaten, but my heart softened some when I found this photo:
Awwwww! CUTE!
I mean, I guess it's awfully nice of me to be growing veggies to feed an adorable little family of nutria. It's not like they get a CSA box delivered every Tuesday, right? Jim & I don't need the veggies. Nutria need food, too!
Nonetheless, I think I'll put up some sort of fence & see if they can find their way to somebody else's garden....
The strawberry shortcake was super.duper.awesome. Yum! Who knew I could actually make stuff? Interesting! I made the cake, the whipping cream & the strawberry moosh (from berries I picked).
Jim made tiny baked-then-fried new potatoes. This time he added another step- stuffing the top with gorgonzola cheese and then baking once more just to melt the cheese. So yummy!
We spent the evening at Sarah & Stuart's house, with their friend Shannon, and Adam-Melissa-Oscar. It was a great time, filled with additional delicious food. Plus sparklers!
Spending the day cooking is fun, on these random days when we don't have other things taking us away....
Like tomorrow, when we're going to a bike race in Eugene in the morning. Then tomorrow night, we're going to a Volcanoes baseball game. Sunday will be all about the weeds.
Oh, and the best part about 4th of July? Chester is mostly ambivalent about the fireworks. It's a nice change from the days when Brody would eat the doors. Or Sandy would jump in the dryer. :)
It's already Independence Day!
Don't have to work today. I've got big plans for weeding, cleaning, running, biking, dog walking, reading, baking ... and somehow stretching the physics of time to cram it all in. :-)
Tonight we're going over to Sarah & Stuart & Pippen's house for a little bbq. My big plan is to bust out the KitchenAid mixer and attempt o make cake & whipped cream for strawberry shortcake. I've got a bunch of fresh strawberries that Stefanie & I picked yesterday on my lunch hour. Yum!
Have a great day!
Looks like the show will go on!
Planning my 10-year high school reunion has been a little stressful, and a lot time consuming. And the worst part of all? I was worried we might not have enough people attend to be able to pay for the food & venues.
But we hit the magic number today, the final day before deadline, that allows us to at least break even. So we don't have to pay for it ourselves, or even worse, cancel it.
We still don't have a ton of people- only about 10% of the graduating class has, so far, purchased tickets. And that's only half of the people who RSVP'd “Yes.” So a lot of people said they were coming, but have flaked out when it came time to actually buy their admission. Hmmm.
Tomorrow's our deadline, but we have an extra, secret, final deadline one week from tomorrow (known only to readers of this blog....). Hopefully we'll pick up a lot of the stragglers in the next week.
If not? Well, it will be, um, small & intimate. Much unlike high school.
Ah, ridiculous high school ... (Apparently, it's necessary for me to point out that the flower-print polyester dress I wore to that dance was a JOKE, as were the feather boas accessorizing all our friends, and not a sign of my fashion prowess.)
Hey, what are you doing Sunday morning? How about taking in a bike race? I bet you've never done that before!
The Capitol Velo racing club is hosting its annual Fairview Circuit Race in Salem. It's the only race that Jim's team puts on, and it's the only one held in Salem. It'll be a good time. You should be there! I'll be there! My mom will be there! Even my sister from California will be there! Beth & Michael & Eli are probably coming to cheer on their friend from out of state!
And there will be a lot of men (and women). In spandex. Sporting very smooth legs. Hee hee. Come, join the merriment!
Oh, and Jim will be there too, of course. He'll look much like this:
He'd love to have you there, cheering him on!
The races are very fun & exciting & I always have a good time. The event begins at 9 a.m., and Jim's race starts at 9:30 a.m. It lasts 35 minutes. Afterward, he'll be driving his motorcycle as a pace vehicle for some of the other races.
The race is out on Fairview Industrial Drive SE, very near the Pringle Creek Community. We'll be there by 8:30 or so, camped out by the car while Jim warms up on his trainer. If you show up, give me a call to find us.
We're hoping to visit the World Beat Festival afterwards. And, should our spirits withstand the action & the heat, we'll be heading to Corvallis for the Denison Farms open house. Any other CSA subscribers going to that?
Who can say no to that face?
What a great weekend. Cannot ask for a better anniversary trip, lots of good food, friends and bike riding!
Wow, 5 years already…I guess she does like me. I thought for sure she would figure out that she is way too good for me by now. I love you Stephanie.
Thanks again Jerry and Shib for riding with me. It’s nice to have friends that will jump at the chance to do crazy things like ride our bikes up a mountain.
Stats from the ride (Including the extra 20 miles to and from camp.):
Distance: 112 Miles
Avg Heart rate: 130 bpm
Vertical Feet climbed: ~9000 ft
Speed: 16.2 mph
HAPPY FIFTH ANNIVERSARY,
STEFF & JIM! :)
Jason and I checked out the “Star Trek” exhibit at the Air & Space Museum. We had way too much fun...
You know whats funny about this photo? The kid is already too fat for cycling ;) He probably still climbs better than I do also...
On a better note:
My self-imposed year of sobriety is almost over. Saturday after I ride up Mt. St.Helens, I will enjoy my first beer in over a year (Not counting my birthday...I had whiskey then). I am leaning toward Rogue's Chipotle Ale. Any suggestions?
So, I raced. I lost. Raced better then my last crit. Still working on my cornering. I think it took me longer to write this blog then it did to race ;)
We didn't have much planned this weekend, but we did a lot. Those are my favorites, I think.
On Friday night, Jim and I rode our bikes. I hadn't been riding for awhile. We went out to a parking lot and did some drills to help with bike handling and cornering. It involved putting a water bottle on the ground, and then trying to pick it up while riding by on your bike. I was not so good at it. Jim did great, though. We rode around the course where he'll be racing in a few weeks. And we did some “racing” on the empty roads of Pringle Creek Community. I got lapped at least twice. Whatever.
Then we came home and made cookies! Broke out the Kitchen-Aid mixer again. Whee, I love that thing! We decided to make late-night chocolate-chip zucchini cookies, from a recipe in the fabulous book “Animal Vegetable Miracle.” We made a huge batch, which meant spending a lot of time actually baking them. Putting a tray in the oven, letting it cook, putting in another tray. La la la. After the first batch or two, we decided to add walnuts, and that made all the difference. They were super duper yummy. I say were because, even tho it's only Sunday, all four dozen Chocolate Chip Zucchini Nut cookies are history. Sigh.
Saturday we went to the Saturday Market, and we brought Chester along again. He did great. We brought my friend Kristin, too, and she also did great. She didn't jump or growl or anything! I saw some some friends, just missed some others. Bought strawberries and ate a good lunch. Bought more plants to plant. Tried to buy asparagus, but just missed that too.
Saturday evening we went up to Portland to Cirque du Cycling - a neighborhood bicycle festival. It was fun! It was packed with people, including many very odd portland-types. :) Kristin and I tried on some dresses at cute little shops (hmm, what to wear to my h.s. reunion?). Visited fun little booths. Ate monster burritos (spinach & black bean). Shared CCZN cookies. Listened to live music. Watched Jim & his friends race. Vroom! It was fun to watch a bike race with hundreds of spectators. Much different than the other ones I've attended.
Here's Jim racing in the Cirque du Cycling Crit. Go Jim Go! I'm usually too busy cheering & screaming to remember to take photos, but I concentrated & got this one, just for you!
On our way out of town, we made an impulsive stop at the always awesome & very odd Voodoo Doughnuts. Our haul included gigantic banana fritters, an orange Tang doughnut, blueberry doughnuts, Fruit Loops doughnuts, and the day's special- the Gay Bar. We took a dozen back to Salem, where we went to Deka's birthday party. It was very late- waaaay past my bedtime- but it was great to see all the copy editors, most of whom I haven't seen in an embarassingly long time. We ate lots of good food, including more CCZN cookies, and chatted for a long time. Then we got down to the heart of any great late-night party: Cribbage.
Eck & I have been playing Cribbage pretty much since we met. I mean, you don't find many friends to play cribbage with (as evidenced by the vast amount of taunts, insults and confused jeers we received from our ignorant “friends). Eck is, um, pretty good. I've won a total of ONE game against him in the 3+ years that I've lived in Salem. One. And he was really drunk that time. Sigh. But that dismal record doesn't dampen my enthusiasm, and so we keep playing. Can you see where I'm going with this? I won last night. Twice! 2 games, shattering my old record :-)
Oh, and Kristin suffered a catastrophic ping-pong injury. It was a wild night/early morning.
Woke up early this morning (well, it *felt* early), because Joe & Rickey were stopping by for breakfast. They had spent the weekend with friends in Eugene, so came over on their way home. We walked over to eat at Sybil's, being totally oblivious to the fact that EVERYONE IN SALEM WAS TAKING THEIR DAD TO BREAKFAST. So we waited & waited & finally ate really good food (spinach, zucchini, cheese & sprouts omelette, with strawberries on the side). The long wait meant we got to hang out with J&R much longer than planned, so that was perfect.
We came home & Jim took a nap, but I once again busted out the Kitchen Aid and went to town: this time on a recipe that Jenny sent me for French Bread. It took me forever to make- knead, wait; knead, wait; repeat all afternoon. But once those golden loaves came out of the oven, coated in butter? Oh my. It was awesome. Jim mashed up some cherry tomatoes & made spaghetti sauce with zucchini, garlic whips (from our CSA box) and basil (from my garden! My first harvest!).
Yum, bread!
It was a very good weekend. :-)
PS
Here's a picture of incredibly pretty flowers growing in the jungle that is my garden area:
PPS
Happy Father's Day to Dad, who is celebrating his 27th Father's Day! Wow! And also happy Father's Day to my friends Brian, Aaron, Michael & Adam, who are all celebrating their very first Father's Day.
Bad bad news from the garden:
Something ate my strawberries. No, no, not the berries- the actual plants. Both of them. Ripped the poor babies from the ground & carried them away.
I went out to the garden and saw plant, plant, plant, patch of ground. “Wait, didn't something used to be there?” The strawberries are gone, and I don't know what took them. Very sad.
OK, but I'm rebounding: At the Saturday Market today I bought an eggplant & a melon, and I'm going to go plant them right now in the former strawberry patch. Wish them luck!!
PS-
The zuchinni bread was fabulous the next day. Go, KitchenAid Mixer, go!
Oooh, my grumpy, whiny “I'm tired of dumb rain” blog post the other day worked!
This morning, it is blue, sunny & warm! (OK, 54 degrees, but it's early yet.)
I'm heading over to my friend Virginia's house to put together our third edition of the “Neighborhood Heritage” newsletter. Have I linked to that here? I don't think so. Here- you can see the last two editions, plus her website that she kindly lets me help with: www.SalemQuarterly.com. (Scroll down on the homepage to see links to the newsletters about halfway down.)
This afternoon Jim & I are going to a barbecue with his racing teammates. And if the weather holds out, it'll be awesome. We made zuchinni bread last night, and it turned out OK. Not fabulous. Oh, but I forgot to taste it this morning to see if somehow it got better as it cooled.
Last night, in a baking frenzy, we bought a Kitchen Aid mixer. It's so cool! And we got it super cheap thanks to the error-prone Fred Meyer employees and Jim's insistence that they honor their errors. Yay! And we got a cool attachment that makes it act like a food processor, too.
I read a story at an open mic night for the first time in a long time. It was a lot of fun! You can see and hear me here!
Update: You can also find my story (and hear all the other ones from that night) on the