Realized yesterday: There *really* isn’t any decent reasonably priced place to get food around my office, especially at lunchtime on a government holiday. As much as I love the Captain Neon burger, my budget can’t afford McMenamins on a daily basis.
Realized at 8:30 a.m. today while traveling southbound past the J. Creek Exit on 205: Forgot the really fabulous sack lunch at home. Damn.
Heard on my radio at 8:31 a.m.: Traffic still backed up northbound due to an accident at J. Creek. Transit crews expected soon but have not arrived yet.
At this point I am ten minutes away from my house if there is no traffic, and probably at least half an hour away with the accident. Once I get to work, I am pretty much there for the day. My lunch options are limited within walking distance, and hiking to get my car *then* driving 10 – 15 minutes away to get a decent lunch is super unfeasible.
What to do? My mind spun, doing an on-the-fly compare and contrast of time, money, and edible food.
Ended up driving out of my way to Zupan’s and picking up enough salad and snack fixings for the week. More time expended this morning, but was much less than leaving midday for lunch and would save me from having to think about what to do for lunch for a few days. Groceries are more expensive there, but much cheaper and healthier than eating out. Quality of food? No contest. I was even able to get some of the little peppadew peppers I’ve developed an addiction to.
My mind is so ridiculously logical sometimes it scares me, but in this case it’s probably a good thing.
Epilogue: This is probably one of the best salads I’ve ever made. Romaine, carrots, zucchini, peppadew peppers, pears, bleu cheese, toasted almonds, orange segments, and shitake sesame vinaigrette. Definitely made the right choice this morning. Yum.
Illusionaire
Crafty geek with a soft spot for technology experimenting with a lot of DIY projects
I really wanted to cook for him last night, and I think I went a bit crazy with it. (Turned out really well, though!) In college my idea of making stir-fry was chicken pieces with one of those frozen bags of vegetables, and I’m happy to say I’ve moved past that.
Last night’s menu included lettuce wraps, chicken skewers in citrus marinade, peanut sauce, and cucumber salad. Dessert was red bean mochi ice cream bon bons.
Is your mouth watering? Good.
I saw Evil Dead II for the first time last night at the Clinton Street Theater. Horror movies aren’t usually my thing, but this was incredibly cool. I appreciated that it made me jump in a few places but I also laughed my ass off. It helped that he made sure I was fully prepped with production details, inside jokes, and general background beforehand. Absolutely amazing what they did with camera shots. I want to see it again, but next time with the director’s commentary.
Experiment: Take a geeky urban girl to a cabin on a ranch miles from the nearest town where her mobile phone barely gets a signal (much less web access!) and see what happens.
This is almost on the scale of when the gals I used to go dancing with decided it would be a great idea for us to shoot paintball in a remote patch of the Santa Cruz mountains one weekend. Lemme tell you, girlyish girls against commando twelve-year olds who play every weekend is no contest, especially when the kids disregard the rules and shoot you at close range. I had several bruises six inches in diameter over the next week that REALLY HURT!
Anyway, I don’t own hiking boots or a Nalgene bottle. (I used to think these were standard issue for residents of Portland.)
I haven’t skiied in years.
The gloves I own are more dress than sport.
If it involves wearing something warmer than my cardigan sweater, you may have difficulty convincing me to go outside.
I have trouble sleeping when it is too quiet outside.
My most recent forays into nature have involved watching documentaries.
All things considered, I did pretty well. I bundled up with about fifty layers (Think StayPuft Marshmellows) and we rented gear so they could introduce me to Xcountry skiing. This ain’t no Nordic Track machine — this was a real trek through the woods! The longer we skiied the more layers came off because that is a hell of a workout. And yes, I laughed my ass off the first few times I fell. At one point we were hiking up hills so we could “faux downhill.” I used to ski downhill every weekend as a kid, so my legs did not understand the concept that my heels were not attached to the bindings and that led to balance issues. My instinct is to traverse and dig your edges in to slow down. Can’t do that with Xcountry and we weren’t telemarking! 
I was able to keep up pretty well, and fortunately I wasn’t the only newbie in our group. As we were wrapping up the trek I had to focus intensely in order to keep my balance and my skis going in a straight line. The last time I fell it was one of those “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” moments because the deep powder made it difficult to get traction. My body was staging an outright revolt because it was quite comfortable being seated in the powder, thank you very much. With a helping hand I made it up and back to the jeep without much more trouble. The lattes we picked up on the way back to the cabin were well deserved!
The cabin where we were staying was gorgeous. It’s the kind of place I would have designed as a child between the loft, plants, indoor jacuzzi, and huge fireplace — sort of like a huge playhouse! Comforting to wake up bathed in sunlight and the first thing you see are snow flocked trees out the huge picture windows. The open spiral staircase made me nervous after a few glasses of wine, though. Good food, great wine, excellent company, and stimulating conversation made my weekend complete. I learned some new recipes, too!
Maybe you *can* take the geek girl out of the city from time to time…