Thursday, June 28, 2012

Pike Place, Paintball, and Picnicking


Porter is happily curled up on his bed and feeling much better now that he has all of that nasty bone out of his system. Lesson learned!
Mr. Fox is sleeping under Porter's back legs. It's rare for Porter to nap without his beloved stuffed animal.
This past Saturday the weather was quite miserable. Cold and rainy. But after being stuck inside cleaning up after Porter the day before I just wanted to get out, regardless of the weather. We took the bus into Seattle and enjoyed some hot, fresh mini doughnuts at Pike Place and then wandered around a bit.

Before we got to the window, Andy told me he'd only eat one or two doughnuts so I should go with the half dozen instead of the dozen. I reasoned that since we came all the way into the city for doughnuts we should go for the dozen and take the leftovers home with us. We ended up getting a dozen of the cinnamon sugar doughnuts, but there were no leftovers! (I had a sneaking suspicion that Andy would end up eating more than one or two!)

Daily Dozen Doughnuts
I didn't bring my camera with me and my phone's camera didn't do it justice so I grabbed this photo from  Wesleyrosenblum's flickr photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/wesbran/4972218189/
On Sunday Andy and I went paintballing with a group of his friends from work. I didn't last long. Between the gun being surprisingly heavy and being hot but not wanting to take my jacket off because getting hit hurts, I only played 3 rounds. Well, actually I walked off before the 3rd round ended because I was feeling a bit faint. The sad part is that my legs are still sore from all the crouching and squatting I did in those 3 2.5 games. In my defense, Andy and I played a little tennis Sunday night so that probably didn't help. 

Going back to the topic of food...I've been getting a bit tired of our limited dinner menu here at home so Tuesday I decided to try a new recipe that caught my eye on Pinterest. The recipe was for slow cooker pulled pork and was extremely easy with only 4 ingredients total (my kind of cooking!). The only difficult part was removing all the fat from the pork after it was done cooking. I was pretty meticulous about it because there's nothing more disgusting than biting down on a chunk of fat except maybe spitting it out at the dinner table. Anyway, Andy came home and took one bite and was in love with this new recipe... and maybe even a bit more in love with me too - you know what they say about the way to a man's heart.
Do you like our fancy door desk/dining table? I'd like to blame our lack of real furniture on the move, but we didn't have a dining table before the move either. I snapped this photo before Andy wolfed down the last of the pulled pork. It tastes better than it looks here (I really need to stop being so lazy and take some real photos)! 
I used a bit over 2 lbs of pork shoulder and Jack Daniel's Original No. 7 Recipe BBQ sauce, which comes in a 28 oz. bottle. I used enough BBQ sauce to lightly coat all of the pork, which was maybe about 2/3 of the bottle, and let Andy add more sauce directly to his sandwich since he prefers more sauce than I do. I figured this would last us a few days, but it ended up only lasting us dinner and lunch the next day. Andy is already asking me to make it again next week so I guess I'd call it a success.

Last night Andy and I enjoyed a picnic at a park on Mercer Island which overlooks Lake Washington and downtown Seattle. I couldn't have asked for better weather, scenery, or company! After we finished eating we played a little frisbee with Porter and then drove by a house I had found for sale. At only 930 sq ft, this 2 bed, 1 bath house is a bit small, but has lots of potential and is only 1 block from the water. The downside? It's $450,000 asking price is a bit much for us, especially considering all of the work it needs. After sadly saying goodbye, we drove around and enjoyed looking at all the other homes on Mercer Island. It's difficult to find a house you wouldn't want to live in there, which isn't all that surprising considering the average house value was over $900,000 and median household income was around $120,000 in 2009.
I love the location and character of this 1918 house! Maybe someday we will call Mercer Island home.
Enough of my dreaming! I need to get ready. This afternoon I will be meeting the other two incoming residents and having a picnic with the outgoing residents as well as the staff and doctors at the VA.

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Friday, June 22, 2012

6am surprise

Bought Porter a new bone yesterday. Bone led to diarrhea and vomiting. What a great way to start the day!
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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Doggie Disneyland

Last Sunday we embraced the perfect weather by taking Porter to Marymoor's off leash dog park. Except this wasn't any dog park, it was "Doggie Disneyland". The 40 acre off leash dog park has a river for water dogs, a modern looking garage with glass doors that houses a dog wash area which is probably nicer than any other park dog wash you've seen, and plenty of room to run around and socialize. The dog park is just part of a larger 640 acre park with tennis courts, playgrounds, free bicycle rentals, a R/C airplane field, a community run garden, and much more. 

Porter couldn't wait to take off exploring
Porter chased the frisbee, but was too distracted by all the scents to pick it up and bring it back
The high speed butt sniff!
This guy had some funny facial expressions
Porter can't wait to return!

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Friday, June 15, 2012

Getting Settled in Seattle

I figured that since I moved over 3,000 miles from home I should get back into blogging as a way of staying in touch with family and friends. I can't believe how long it has been since I last updated, so much has changed! To hit the highlights:
  • I finished up both of my externships (one of which I LOVED, the other...well, not so much). 
  • I took and passed parts II and III of my national boards (one of which required a flight to North Carolina).
  • In early February, Andy flew to Ft. Lauderdale to help me pack and we shipped all of our things to Washington in a 6'x7'x8' shipping container. 
  • I flew out to Washington in mid-February for residency interviews and submitted my rankings. I matched with the VA hospital and will start my residency in July.
  • In May we celebrated our 3 year anniversary, my birthday, and my graduation from optometry school!
  • The day after graduation we flew out to Washington with Porter sleeping at our feet in the cabin.
Between being without my computer for over a week, getting settled, and working on what seems to be a never ending to do list I'm a bit behind on my photo editing. I'll be back posting photos as I get to them. Stay tuned!

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Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Andy's visit

Wow, I can't believe it's been two and a half months since my last update! Things have been busy as usual around here - actually busier than usual. I finished up my contact lens rotation and am currently working 5-6 days a week in the primary care clinic where I see a wide variety of patients. It's not uncommon to see patients with HIV, drug addictions, or personality disorders such as schizophrenia. One of my patients went off and was yelling at me because she thought I was killing her family and was afraid I would eat her eyes. Another patient had a seizure and had to be admitted to the hospital. There's never a dull moment!

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In case you had be planning on bringing a grenade into the exam room...

Andy's been working at his new job in Washington for 2 months now and really enjoys it. He flew in this weekend to visit and while we had a wonderful time together, it wasn't long enough! While he was here we saw a movie, went out to dinner, made a trip to Miami, did some shopping, took Porter to the dog park, and relaxed at home. I had to drop him off at the airport this afternoon and I thought it'd be a little easier to say goodbye this time, knowing that we're nearly a quarter of the way through our time apart, but it was just as difficult as the first goodbye! Between now and his next visit I will be taking parts II and III of my national boards examinations so I have plenty of studying to keep me busy.

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Family portrait: a day at the dog park! 
236 days until graduation!
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