One of the places where I continually forget about the dairy bit is when I order coffee. This morning when I went to get a much needed chai with a shot (memo to self – there’s a reason why I try to avoid doing shots of anything but espresso… ) I remembered to ask for my drink with soy.
Big mistake. Big. Huge!
It tasted okay, but towards the end the cup still felt weighty, but there wasn’t any liquid left. Pulled off the lid and found this funky blob of soy-like stuff at the bottom of the cup. Ick.
I just don’t think I’m cut out for this non-dairy bit.
Illusionaire
Crafty geek with a soft spot for technology experimenting with a lot of DIY projects
What’s that they say about the road to hell being paved with good intentions? I’ve been pretty bad lately. Not watching what I’m eating, sleeping in instead of going to the gym, not drinking enough water, and picking up the soda habit again. One thing I’ll say in my defense is that it is pretty hard to do your laundry next door to Pambiche and not be tempted to pick up torta le banana borracha and cafe con leche to enjoy while your clothes are in the dryer. Anyway…
Made a real grocery shopping trip tonight to make sure I had plenty of healthy, easy to prepare food around the house so I won’t be tempted to order out for dinner. Still not sure about the best way to schedule my gym visits, because I’m getting to work much earlier than I used to, which makes it tough to do morning workouts, and by the time I get home I’m either ready to curl up with my knitting and a movie or I’ve got other stuff to do.
I’ve been consulting with an acupuncturist, and one of her suggestions has been to cut spicy foods, dairy products, and beer out of my diet. Beer is not too difficult because I can drink wine or cocktails instead, but the spicy foods and dairy are pretty tough for me to do. I’m a sucker for Indian and Mexican food, and a salsa junkie to boot. Dairy-wise, I have no problem substituting soy milk for regular milk, but the other soy products start to get interesting.
I’ve developed a liking for Smart Ground, especially their taco/burrito mix, but anything I’ve tried from Quorn tastes really manufactured. Same thing with anything from Veggie. I have yet to find a soy substitute for cottage cheese, and I’m not sure if I’d like it if I did find it. Yogurt is tough, too. Silk cultured soy is an acquired taste, but it’s pretty good. I like it much better than the WholeSoy line. Then there’s the cheese… I picked up some of the Soy-Sation Mozzarella cheese alternative, and I think someone mislabeled something or hosed the recipe because it tastes a lot more like Swiss than Mozzarella.
At this point I’m weighing the potential health benefits of removing this usually healthy stuff from my diet vs. the stress of missing it, the stress of looking for alternatives, and my disinclination to ingest some of these protein alternatives. Stay tuned.
The rules:
1. Pack the car with snacks, bottled water, and tunes
2. Turn off the phones
3. Roll the dice to determine which direction to go
4. Get in the car and drive
5. Take whichever road or stop at whatever roadside attraction strikes our fancy
The dice said south, so Aaron and I headed out…
Portland >> Oregon City >> Wilsonville >> Woodburn >> Mt. Angel >> Silverton >> Silver Falls State Park >> Sublimity >> Stayton >> Scio >> Jefferson >> Albany >> Corvallis >> Philomath >> Waldport >> Newport >> Depoe Bay >> Lincoln City >> Tillamook >> Seaside >> Astoria >> Clatskanie >> Vernonia >> Scappoose >> Sauvie Island >> Portland
When we got home the odometer registered almost exactly 500 miles, and we had driven through nine different Oregon counties: Multnomah, Clackamas, Marion, Linn, Benton, Lincoln, Tillamook, Clatsop, and Columbia.
Silver Falls was a great place to have a picnic.
Attempted the covered bridge tour in the “Covered Bridge Capital of the West,” although we were only able to get to two out of the five. I took a wrong turn that landed us on a dirt road with a lot of No Trespassing signs that looked suspiciously like a scene from Wrong Turn. At this point Aaron mentions that a lot of horror stories he’s written start out like that, which freaks me out even more so we hightail it back towards civilization.
Took a nap on the grass in an Albany park. Got some great pictures of a pioneer cemetery with the film camera.
Stayed in an old-school touristy beach motel in Waldport. Sipped mariner cocktails and ate seafood at the Galley Ho! restaurant. This was definitely a weekend for double entendres and bad jokes… ate out at the Galley Ho and saw signs for free cats, chicks for sale (Why buy the chick when you can get the pussy for free?), a wood sale, Bob’s Small Engine Shop, and a few more that slip my mind. You could say it put a naughty spin on the usual road trip games, but they were the ones posting all the suggestive signs. 
Drank coffee at the Devil’s Punchbowl…
A lot of this trip really made me wish I had my own little place on the coast.
We stopped in Seaside to play a few rounds of Fascination, and we won three times between the two of us! Part of my quest was to find a walk-up stand for whole crab like I’ve seen on the bayfront in Newport, but there were none to be found! The closest was a sit-down restaurant that served crab legs, but it was Alaskan Crab (???on the Oregon Coast???), so we moved on.
We spent some time wandering one of my favorite out of the way spots. Very awesome place to explore.
Drove through Sauvie Island on the way home hoping to find an open fruit and vegetable stand, but no luck. The warm weather left us with a craving for BBQ, so we finished off the weekend with a hearty rib dinner at Clay’s Smokehouse and Grill. Dinner was amazing, but they ran out of key lime pie a half hour before we arrived. *sniff*
I really hope we’re able to keep up this tradition of disappearing for one weekend a month. We’ve got lots of places on our list — the challenge is finding the time!
Bummed that I missed Church of Craft this weekend because I was stuck at work, but I was able to make it to Craft Night at Touchstone tonight. I’ve been working on the Cleo halter top for weeks now, and it’s definitely the most challenging thing I’ve ever attempted to knit. The first triangle I had to unravel a couple of times because I wasn’t getting the seed stitch correct. Lesson learned: Start the seed stitch with the same stitch on both sides – don’t alternate! The second triangle came together without a hitch. Kim taught me how to make the i-cords, which was great because that goes a whole lot faster than flat knitting.
The last two weeks I’ve been trying to get the main part knitted, but I kept stumbling over the chevron eyelet pattern. Tried it three times with varying unsuccessful results until I was shown the correct way to do a skp stitch tonight. And it worked!!! Only took four tries, but now I’m finally into the seven inches of flat knitting which will give me plenty of busy work until I’m ready to tackle the eyelet pattern.
If I can make it through this project, I might consider knitting a sweater next, although these socks from the new Spring issue of Knitty look awfully tempting.
A post like this on Craigslist just can’t be ignored.
OMSI is cleaning house! Many years of exhibits, equipment, historical items, etc. are for sale CHEAP! Example of items to be sold include: Giant clear eyeball, teeth exhibits, many many kiosks, indoor playground type equipment, steel erector set looking dinosaur frame, antique systolic pump, huge fan with 3 phase motor and controller, plenty of motors, stuffed torsos, fake bees nest, display cases, scientific equipment, exhibits, furniture, pallets of older computer and electronic equipment, antique electrical generator gauges, commercial video production equipment, etc. Many items are large, and most are in shipping crates. All priced by mkepp, and PRICED TO SELL! 8:30 am – 2:00 pm this Saturday, April 17th. Examples: Phone booth with pay phone $150, large pallet full of stage lighting fixtures $200, big screen TV $100, giant plastic eyeball $40, etc. Most items free to $40. Located in the large cement warehouse at SE Water Ave and Clay Street; 49 SE Clay. Entrance on the south (OMSI) side. EVERYTHING goes half price at noon. Many free items. Loading dock available. Bring a large truck and rope. Cash and check. All items must be removed by the end of the sale.… also …
If you ever wanted to own an old museum exhibit, here is your chance. A giant plexiglass eyeball. Pallets of antique electrical meters. Educational kiosks. Mountains that move. Mole holes. Flying “U.S.S. Enterprise” display from old Star Trek exhibit. LOTS of display cases. Nothing over $100. Everything priced by mkepp and PRICED TO SELL. Everything left will be half price at noon and FREE at 2:00 pm. Bring your truck and rope. Located two buildings north of the main OMSI building in the large cement warehouse located oon the NW corner of SE Clay Street and Water Ave. Do NOT park under the bridge; you will be towed! Park either in the main OMSI parking lot or next to the building.
Aaron and I headed out this morning to check it out, but stupidly forgot to print out the posting to bring it with us. We showed up at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) at 8:15am, but the people at the museum had no idea what we were talking about, and suggested we come back when the museum was open.
Next stop: The Red and Black Cafe for coffee and a hop on their computers to figure out *exactly* where the sale was. After a collective “D’oh! The warehouse!!!” we were cruising back to the already picked over sale.
Most of the stuff was really fun and really inexpensive, but too impractical to transport and/or store and/or use. After the first few minutes I didn’t expect to find anything to bring home with me, but I had a field day taking photos of the warehouse and the old exhibits.
 Exhibit A |
 Exhibit B |
 Star Trek crate |
 Swag |
 Touch test |
 Recyclatron |
 Zilla fabric |
 Display cases |
 Workbench |
 Play table |
 Body parts |
 Experimental |
 Workbench |
 Phone booth |
 Soil test |
In one of the crates there was a collection of framed photos from an exhibit they did on the miracle of life a few years ago. No real interest in the photos themselves, but I can always use frames. These ones have the pieces that are easy to dis- and re-assemble, and even if I needed to replace glass because of scratches, the frames would still be worth acquiring. They were not marked, but after inquiring with a staff member made the awesome discovery that they were free. Score!!! I took the batch. Note to friends considering pregnancy: Don’t be surprised if you get one of these photos in the mail as a “congrats on your upcoming bundle of joy” card.
I think the only thing I was really bummed about not getting was the play table. One of the things that made attending this sale worthwhile is that I saw a lot of these exhibits when they were part of the museum. Very much a trip down memory lane.
The trick with Harvey’s is that if you actually pay for tickets, you’re doing something wrong. They have all these little cards on the tables. If you fill them out, the Harvey’s phone bank will continually call to offer free tickets for you and 15 of your closest friends. Nick and Crystal got the call and invited us to join them for the show last night, and we decided it would be fun, especially since I hadn’t been there in years! Aaron even promised me that he would not bum rush the stage and take the mic like last time… (Ask him if you want the full story.)
While the tickets are free, food and beverage are decidedly not. Hey, they have to make it up someplace, right? They used to serve punchbowl drinks for two, but noticed that they were missing from the menu this time. Another word of advice: The comedy is worth it, the menu is not, and the service could use some help.
The comics, especially Michael Mancini, were pretty funny. Excellent to have bits of Portland and Oregon humor sprinkled into their routines. I was at an open mic about a year ago where a comic from California was trying to work the crowd, but he kept telling all these jokes about Los Angeles that the people in the audience couldn’t relate to. Wanted to shake him and say, “Dude, do you realize you’re giving your stand-up routine in OREGON, not CALIFORNIA?” Finally he gave up on us and left the stage. I’m pretty sure that his applause was primarily generated by audience relief.