Realizations of a Southern Oregon House Hunter

Searching for rental houses in Southern Oregon has not been an easy feat. Down here I've found there are code names for rental house listings on Craigslist or property management company's sites that I thought I would share for entertainment and educational purposes:

• Cottage-  Tiny, shack that may or may not be attached to a home, but is for sure a dump
• Updated- The shag was replaced within the last five years with dark brown carpet, but there is still floor-to-ceiling wood panelling
• Quaint-  No style or architectural design what-so-ever and usual has been preserved in the 70s era
• Cute- All the glass is still intact in the windows, but we cannot promise there is paint on the exterior
• Inexpensive- Still shockingly spendier than Portland
• Duplex- Yes, the people next door are crazy, loud, and wave Confederate flags
• Freshly Painted- We had to in order to cover up the water spots on the ceiling
• Great Neighborhood- Anywhere that is not West Medford
• Quiet Neighborhood- Anywhere that is not West Medford
• Close to Shopping- Close to Wal-Mart or the Dollar Tree
• Country Living- There is no way you are getting internet out here, not even Hughes Net

As long as your listing does not contain one of more of these, you may be in luck and have found a suitable shelter. I think we might have :)

Rrrrrrrrip

There hasn't been much excitement at my house tonight. Just reading, writing, and cranking out school assignments. But, then as if the gods knew I needed a laughing break, my boyfriend crossed his legs and ripped his pants! Now I have been laughing for 5 minutes straight. Highlight of my day.

Hey "Phriend," Thanks for the Birthday Gift

My birthday gift from my boyfriend:

The love of learning about obscure things is a similarity my boyfriend and I share. A few months back Phrenology, the 1800s brain science study of the relationships between skull shape and a person's character, popped into the conversation. How coincidental that while he was gift hunting for me that he found this Phrenology model at Urban Outfitters!

Just Call Me Mr. T

Doesn't everyone love getting special deliveries in the mail? My boyfriend's grandpa sent me a gift of gold chains for my birthday! He is quite the character. When we visited him last summer he kept giving me gifts left and right. These nine gold chain necklesses and five gold chain bracelets are joining the collection of similar size he give me last summer. Isn't he adorable. Like I said, soon I will be Mr. T. :)

Here he is smoozing with the University of New Mexico cheerleading squad on his 80th birthday!

The Staple to my Holiday Diet

Peppermint Patties:

1 packet hot chocolate mix

1 shot peppermint schnapps (brand of choice, Rumplemintz)

Serve graciously.

Or forget the hot chocolate all together and gather the family for a holiday shot of schnapps!

Fashion Foul: Socks and Sandals

I may have to violate one of the greatest fashion rules of all times to show off my new socks to the world... socks with sandals! Gasp... never! Instead, I will show them to you all now.

My boyfriend's mom knitted me yellow socks for Christmas. My favorite things combined- the color yellow and comfy socks.

I am so unbelievably spoiled.

I am hand-washing these beauties to preserve them forever.

Triple Axels at the Ashland Ice Rink

Prior to this weekend I have never been ice skating. When I heard Ashland had an outdoor rink in Lithia Park my eyes lit up!

When I first got to the rink I was so excited to see the handicapped children enjoying ice skating. It was so heart-warming to see them skating around the ice with their walkers and huge smiles on their faces. I was so touched I even took pictures of them. Then Chris informed me that those walkers were ice skating training tools and they were not disabled children. My idealized dream died, especially when this kid started ramming his sister with his walker causing her to fall.

Here we are- Joe, Bonnie, Chris and I! No one fell, technically, although the wall did run into Bonnie. :)

The boys were getting pretty daring with their "jumps." If that is what you can call lifting your skate 3 inches off the ground. Not quite a triple salchow or lutz, but mighty close!

After hitting the ice for an hour we were ready to warm up at a local pub with peppermint patties (hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps=the staple of my holiday diet) .

The Ashland ice rink is open daily through the winter. They even have night skating on the weekends. I had a fantastic time and I want to make it a yearly tradition!

Snuggle Wuggle

I have proudly owned my snuggie for two weeks now. I saw this commercial tonight and the corniness of it was off-the-charts. I had to share! I know when I put on my snuggie I want to 'raise the roof' just like the family in the commercial!

Here is my 92 year-old Grandpa modeling my snuggie on Thanksgiving. Hehehe. He is such a good sport.

Halloween Candy and Wine Pairing!

I hardly ever cross-pollinate between my personal and work blog, but I think the blog I posted on Halloween candy and wine pairing is worthy of a repost. It was such a fun project to think back on all the Halloween candy I loved getting as a trick-or-treater and match it up with all the yummy wine I enjoy now that I am too old to get free candy! It would be a fun Halloween party activity too!

Here is the link to my list of pairings:

http://willamettevalleyvineyards.blogspot.com/2009/10/halloween-candy-and-wine-pairing.html

On one of my searches for pictures of Halloween candy I came across this picture and it reminded me of my brother and I. My brother and I have always had entrepreneurship on our brains. We would go trick-or-treating for hours then race home to sort, count, and trade our candy amongst ourselves. We weren't worried about consuming it like other kids, we were more into the competition and economics around it. My mom would have to hide one our bags of candy from each other so the other one wouldn't raid the others resources. We would somehow make our stashes last until Easter where we would get showered in candy again- starting the cycle all over. We were aware of the laws of supply and demand at a very young age. Isn't it funny to think back and laugh about how powerful candy was as a kid?

Cha-Cha-Cha-Chia- Is this for real?

I just saw this commercial on TV for the CHIA Proud to Be an American (as in the same slogan from Drop Dead Gorgeous!!) edition. The commemorative four piece collection is perfect as a gift. Don't you think? haha.

Hoyt Dogs!

To all my Portlanders:

If you ever go out in Northwest Portland you have to try a Hoyt dog! Last Saturday we met up with our friend Cushman and did the bar circuit in Northwest. We got to listen to some great and some not-so-great karaoke at Gypsy, take shots of Rumplemintz (our personal favorite hehehe) at Marathon and Ringler's, wander around downtown Portland for hours (from our own bad judgement), meet up with some people who found a brand new (in the plastic still) game of Candy Land (lucky!), play some arcade basketball game (Cushman dominated), and finally, eat a Hoyt dog!

The Hoyt Hot Dog Stand started out by a girl bringing her grill to the street one night to cook hot dogs for her friends. Since, it has transitioned into a hangout between the hours of 1 and 3 am. The original girl recruited her friends and they now BBQ hot dogs and sell them for $4. It was by far the best hot dog I have ever had. They offer Brauts, Lousiana Red-Hots, and 8" Beef with all the fixins' (even cream cheese, who would have thought?).

I love the idea and wish I had thought of it myself! It was a cool way to meet all sorts of new people.

Brewfest!

My first Brewfest was Sunday. It topped 100 degrees, but that didn't stop us from drinking beer all day! We were also celebrating Chris' 25th birthday! Brewfest is held annually at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland, OR. There were 8 trailers with over 100 breweries represented. My favorite beer was definitely the Doghead Festina Peche- tasted like lemonade! Here are pictures from the event.

A new meaning to the term "double fisting."

I was summoned by Jimi Hendrix!

And we became friends!

To some, Brewfest is a religion.

Let the fun begin!

I am going to venture to say that most people's holiday weekend starts tomorrow. After my boyfriend and I get off work tomorrow we are headed down to Diamond Lake. My parents have a cabin down there and it has been tradition since I can remember to spend the 4th of July down there. For a few years now I have had to miss out on all the fun and work at golf tournaments, but this year I am being reunited! My aunts and uncles, grandma, parents, godfather, cousin, friend, and boyfriend will all be joining me. On the agenda is fishing, hiking, biking, sun bathing, swimming, BBQing, bonfiring, and rubbing on all the mosquito repellent that my skin can absorb. I can't wait!

I wish everyone a GREAT weekend!

We're Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo... actually we already went.

Last Sunday Chris and I plus our other friend named Chris (could it get easier to remember??) all went to the Oregon Zoo. It was a pretty warm day up in Portland, therefore we mainly saw sleepy, lounging animals. Or no animals... like the polar bears, I don't even believe there are polar bears at the Oregon Zoo, because I went and checked three times.

Chris your facial expression makes me laugh!

I thought this was a cute picture of the piggies spooning.

I now fully believe I come from a monkey, more specifically chimpanzees, because I watched the chimps groom each other for about ten minutes. They were so adorable scratching each others backs, picking bugs of each other, and brushing the hair out of each other's faces. They acted liked a cute lil couple- just like my boyfriend and I- minus the bugs!

Another fun things about the Oregon Zoo is they sell ICEEs! It totally brought me back to elementary school on the last day of the year when we went to Skate Palace. I loved getting a Blue Raspberry ICEE, which made my teeth, tongue, and face all blue, while in-line skating to Ace-a-Base.

Summer Kick-Off

My summer vacation started last Thursday night after I finished my BA352 final!  The boyfriend and I jetted off to Grants Pass, Oregon where he grew up for the weekend.  Chris was the ultimate tour guide.  He suggested we start the trip off with celebratory margaritas!  I didn't have any resistance to the idea... MMmmm.
After gobbling up my margarita (and some of his) plus eating my weight in yummy Mexican food we went to visit his Mom and Don.  Then the next morning we all got up and hiked Rainy Falls.  Rainy Falls is a Class 5 rapid and it was stunning.  

Our shorts match- how cute! haha.
Here is Chris and his mama Christine (funny we have the same name).  She is the sweetest person ever... I'll credit her for his gentle soul.

One of the highlights of the weekend was our trip to the local farmer's market.  Chris had to start it off with a spicy BBQ pork sandwich.  Nothing like that at 9 in the morning :)
We came across this awesome vendor called Elemental who has a shop online too.  I bought this yellow owl shirt and Chris bought the pomegranate tree shirt.  All his designs were so good.  At $12 a pop I plan on buying a few more this summer.  They are sustainable cotton American Apparel shirts.  The guy who makes the shirts gave us a free CD of his band Itchy Itchy Ichibod.   Anytime I am given free CDs I am a little skeptical, but since this guy was so cool we put it on the moment we got back to the car.  I fell in love with his indie folk music.  It is a the perfect laid back summer soundtrack.  Is it possible to want to capture this guy's soul, because I really want a piece of it.

The finds did not stop there!  This delightful painting (in all my favorite colors) also found me.  I think I made the artist's day with my excitement and giddiness.  The frame is another thing that put me over the edge.  I made her take our picture with it.  Oh, and I shouldn't forget that bread.  Garlic cheese sourdough... heaven!
After the farmer's market we drove out to our next hiking destination.  But, along the road we saw this winery and being us we couldn't refuse.  To our luck they were doing barrel tastings too.  It was fun to try wine from a different AVA in Oregon.  The Viognier was great and I also liked the Malbec.  
Okay, so after shopping and wine tasting we finally made it to Table Rock!  We couldn't have asked for better weather.  We could have asked to not see a huge snake, but I need to get over my complaining.  


The hike didn't take near as long as we expected, which was great because that saved our energy for some fiercely competitive beer pong that night!  Here is Chris and his buddy Brian trying to intimidate the competition.  I wasn't scared.  I did win ONE game!  After the tournament we hijacked the neighbors pool for some night swimming and golf practice.  Then we got kicked out...
Sunday was a more chill day with a BBQ.  Brian and his wife just had a son named Dawson.  He is about the most calm baby ever.  Such a cutie!  I love how I caught the spit up in this picture!

Chris' friends.
Chris' dad and little brother, Mike.  Mike dyed his hair blue hours before this was taken!
I hate when trips come to an end! But, I was serenaded with Kanye West 808s and Heartbreaks all the way home.  
And we got to stop and eat amazing pizza at American Dream.

I can't wait to go back and visit GP. We are planning another trip later in the summer, so we can play at the river and go rafting. Summer time is here!

OH I almost forgot!  Grants Pass is home to the best sushi ever!  I can't even put into words how amazing it was...  Shiki Sushi inside of G Street Bar and Grill.  We recommend the Melinda Roll (Tempura shrimp, smoked salmon, jalapeno, cream cheese, topped with ahi)- everything yummy and nothing good for you!