A Daring Adventure

Changes on the Homefront

2009-03-17T22:39:00.000-07:00

After much crying on the shoulder of my personal Technical Support Man and fighting the daily desire to poke my eyes out, I have decided to move my blog to a new hosting service. Wordpress trumps Blogger bigtime when it comes to ease of editing posts and inserting photos.

I am now blogging here: http://rachelprickett.wordpress.com/ and you can bet your bottom dollar that I'll be writing much more often now. So all three of you: update your favorites, RSS feeds, email notifications and come read all about my recent trip to Nashville/Memphis/Little Rock.

I feel so special

2009-02-22T13:42:00.001-08:00

Last night at Bomb's Away Cafe when we were out listening to a live band:

Keith: You look so beautiful...maybe it's the two beers I just drank.

He got slapped.

Note: In Keith's defense, he was just kidding! I love you babe!

Zumba!

2009-02-21T11:40:00.000-08:00

Remember being a little kid and dancing all crazy to upbeat music? I have decided that as adults, sometimes we forget how to have spontaneous, silly fun. Maybe I'm just too seriously 99% of the time, but it sure feels good to be crazy once in a while!

That is why I love Zumba. It is a new class at our gym (and I hear it's EVERYWHERE lately) set to latin music. The instructor is this nutty lady who is all about letting your "soul flow freely through your dance", but she is hysterical and she makes me smile throughout the whole workout.

This video is kind of funny -- no one at my gym shrieks like wild indians while they're dancing, but I bet our hippy instructor wishes we would! Anyway, how could you NOT smile, with that music?!

It's a pretty good workout...I'm sweating pretty good by the end of it. Now, it's no 5 mile run or anything, but it's a great stress-reliever! I have some smokin' merengue steps these days too, gracias a mis hermanos en la Republica Dominicana.

Drinking Coffee Gets Even More Awesome

2009-02-15T15:42:00.001-08:00

Keith and I get all our coffee at a local roaster called Oregon Legacy. It's the best coffee ever. After the inauguration, they came out with a new blend called the Obama Blend. It contains coffee beans from Kenya, Indonesia, and Hawaii....the label says, "honoring the origins of our president". Yet another reason to like Obama: he comes from the best coffee-producing places in the world!

Noah Wasn't PETA-friendly?

2009-02-11T22:38:00.000-08:00

Because I'm in the food processing business and because I'm in quality assurance, I get these really uplifting FDA alerts in my email inbox every day about the latest food recalls. The scenario goes like this: I arrive at work, cup of coffee in hand, get started on my breakfast and open Outlook. I proceed to mow on my Frosted Mini Wheats while catching up on the latest news about pathogens in the peanut butter, the cheez-whiz with listeria contamination, botulism-laced fish (turns out you should make sure you gut the fish before you package it up). And then this. What the heck??

Three things of note:

Don't eat those Elk tenderloins ya'll bought last week at the Save-Mart.
This facility processes exotic animals
This facility is called Noah's Ark Processors

Weird. That's about all I have to say about that.

Police Beat

2009-02-06T21:38:00.000-08:00

It's official. I am a menace to society. I accidentally went 37 in a 25 mph zone. I PROMISE you I thought it was 35 mph there....the limit is 35 everywhere on Walnut Blvd except those two blocks. I even saw the cop and thought, "la de dah, I'm not speeding!" Wrong. Kiss those $145 goodbye, baby.

I never got a ticket before in my life. I was so embarrassed sitting there in my car with the police car flashing it's lights behind me. I think that was quite enough punishment for me, don't you think? Seriously.

Penning like the Pros

2009-01-28T22:13:00.000-08:00

This Monday, Mariah, Savannah and I took the horses to the Albany Fair/Expo Center and tried our skills at team penning.

Since nobody has a clue what I'm talking about when I describe team penning, I'll try to explain: It's a cattle sorting competition. A team of three people on horseback ride into the herd of cattle in the arena. As they start, the announcer calls out a number from 1-6. The riders have to find the three cows with that number on their backs and sort them out from the rest of the herd. They have 90 seconds to do that and get them down to the other end of the arena and into a pen.

It's a lot of fun to watch people compete when they know what they're doing! There were some great riders and excellent horses there this week. The girls and I, however, were not so good at it. Granted our horses had never seen cows before...that is a little bit of a hurdle to overcome. We spent most of our 90 seconds trying to keep the horses from running away from the cattle! Next time we'll do better...and there will be a next time. These cowgirls don't quit!

Hungry Eyes

2009-01-27T21:25:00.000-08:00

Yes Danae, I google-imaged this photo. Don't be mad.

Yesterday, I was stopped by a coworker on my way to the kitchen to raid my Lunch Sack. My Lunch Sack is more like a Lunch Duffel Bag, but I'm getting ahead of myself. I must have had that crazy look in my eyes, because she cut our conversation short, and told everyone standing around, "Rachel is starving."

When I came out of the kitchen with my snack in hand (first lunch, if you will) she goes, "Hey, what is that animal that can eat twice its weight in food everyday? That's YOU."

I have a bad reputation at work for being hungry all the time. One time I was so hungry, I accidently ate my bosses lunch. I have yet to hear the last of that one.

So, Discovery Channel lesson for the day, kids: the hummingbird can eat twice its weight in food every day. Meet my mascot.

Shaka!

2009-01-18T13:19:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of saving $$ to buy a house or some other such long-term investment (read practical grown-upness verging on boring), I decided we should probably not spend The Big Bucks on another international vacation this year. I mean, we've already been to Paris for 10 days, so how much more could one couple want? Although, whether or not that was a vacation is highly debatable, since I only saw the inside of the Metro and spent the rest of the time putting frozen berries in people's grubby mitts at the tradeshow.

Enter Kayak.com, where my dreams have the potential (however slight) to become reality. I selected The United States and April and $300. And bada-boom-bada-bing: $299 tickets to Oahu.

Within 3.61 minutes I had it all plotted out and trail guidebooks checked out at the library. We could fly to Hawai'i, and backpack all over the island. Inexpensive? Check. Awesome? Check. Now we just need some hiker buddies. Anyone??

There is one hitch, and that is this: there aren't many backpacking-length trails on Oahu. We'd probably have to camp and dayhike, or puddle jump to Kauai or the Big Island. (Yeah, I know...break my heart--but that sort of defeats the cheapness purpose). We're still in the drawing board phase, but I really really really want to go!

I've just really been craving spam and eggs for breakfast...lol!

Danae - Please note that these excellent photos were taken by yours truly and in no way were googled and lifted from the web. Does that make you feel better?

Spicing Things Up

2009-01-15T22:26:00.000-08:00

Back when Keith and I were first dating, we came up with The Spice. The Spice is what you're doing when you randomly turn onto an unknown country back road when you're driving home...and take the scenic route instead of going the normal way. It's when you leave church on Sunday morning and say to each other, "Let's go to Portland and go shopping at REI!" The Spice is going stomping in puddles in the rain, and splashing down soaked kiddie slides at the playground. The Spice is spontaneity and variety....the wonderful, exciting Spice of Life.

Last night Keith and I were watching 24. Halfway through the episode, we both looked at each other and said, "We need chocolate chip cookies!!" We jumped off the couch and in about 5 minutes (I kid you not - this may be a record for cookie making) we had whipped up the most delicious batch of cookie dough and thrown it in the oven. Hot, melty, chewy chocolate chip cookies and a good dose of Jack Bauer. Life doesn't get much better than that. And that, my friends, is The Spice.

Puddle Stomping

2009-01-05T22:09:00.001-08:00

New Years Day was rainy and grey. Keith and I couldn't stand the idea of being stuck in the house all day, so we put on all our rain gear and went outside to stomp in puddles!

You can't really tell how hard it was raining in these pictures. Good thing we were totally waterproofed.

We went to the playground, too. Slippery plastic slides and rain pants make a great combination. You can really pick up some speed!

Going Gin

2009-01-02T10:44:00.000-08:00

There aren't many interesting card games that involve only two players. There's what? War, Speed, Go Fish? Fun for maybe ten minutes, but not something that you want to sit around playing night after night.

A couple of days ago, I discovered Gin Rummy. This was actually probably an unfortunate occurrence for me, because I have turned out to be rather poor at it. I won about three games, and then Keith got the hang of it and he's been Gin Rummy King (self-crowned) ever since. It's a pretty good game though. The rules are here if you want to play it for yourself. The best part is, you can keep a running tally and play for days until one of you reaches a previously decided-upon score. At which point I will, without a doubt, owe Keith ice-cream.

Keith and the Squeak

2008-12-15T20:18:00.000-08:00

Doesn't this just look so cozy?

Little House in the Big Woods

2008-12-14T14:35:00.000-08:00

We're at Grandma's house for the weekend. It's been a gastronomical delight - we've each gained 5 pounds from Grandma and Tom's terrific cooking! Now you know where Keith gets his genetic predisposition for spending all day in the kitchen.

Keith is working on crocheting a beanie. He has made it and promptly unraveled it about 6 different times. Perfectionist.

Ranae is digesting a book that is about 6 inches thick, and simultaneously crocheting a scarf.

Grandma is talking on the phone to all her kids and concocting goodies in the kitchen. Tom has been grilling up a storm all day (in the snow!), beer in hand. You can see the snowman behind him, also with a beer in hand.

I've been even less industrious than the snowman. But in a few minutes I'll be putting my skills to good use, eating the dinner that's going on the table as we speak!

Timber!

2008-12-08T23:02:00.000-08:00

We got our tree on Sunday! I think it's the cutest tree we've ever had...but I say that every year. This year, I think it's true though.

We went to a tree farm with a wagon ride and free hot chocolate and wassail for the kids. By kids, I mean Keith. It rained, but it wouldn't be Oregon if it didn't rain while you were chopping down your Christmas tree.

Now the tree is just sitting in it's stand, waiting for someone to have time to decorate it. I guess I could be decorating it instead of blogging about it right now. Hmmm.

Food for Thought

2008-12-01T21:35:00.000-08:00

The best part about winter is curling up on the couch in cozy pajamas (Old Navy pink pajama pants, yeah, yeah!) and being all warm when it's chilly outside. Especially when you've preceded that moment with a chaotically-busy day at work, a hard 45 minute workout at the gym, a walk in the rain, and an evening spent playing (and winning!) games with a bunch of friends. Often, I feel like my life is meaningless because it's not full of adventure every waking second. I'm thankful when I get a moment of perspective. Because today was pretty darn good now that it's all said and done.

I did spend a few fascinating minutes today daydreaming about what adventures might be ours for the taking if the economy tanked and we were laid off work. I know, I know...who in the world enjoys thinking about that?! I had visions of joining the Peace Corps and moving to Africa, or of taking out our savings and backpacking through Europe for a year or two. It was fun. Probably not very realistic, but I live off daydreams.

This blog wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention the splendid Thanksgiving we hosted at our house last week. Tiny kitchen notwithstanding, we (and by "we", I mean Keith) managed to cook an excellent meal that my whole family enjoyed. That amount of cooking is a lot of work...I couldn't believe how it took all day. And it sure generated a lot of dishes for us to wash (and by "we", I mean me). But it was totally worth it and I'm still stuffing my face with turkey today! I have to say, I think my chef is pretty hot!

Don't Squelch Your Inner Child

2008-11-09T12:12:00.000-08:00

We have a family pass to OMSI but seriously, how can you enjoy OMSI without kids? Don't get me wrong, I could spend hours building paper airplanes and launching 2-liter pop bottle rockets. But you get more than a few dirty looks when, as a 24 year old, you are elbowing 2nd graders out of the way to get your hands on the controls of the little robots in the technology room. We needed a kid, and now!

Enter Ino. 8 years old, and more than willing to spend all day building paper cup flyers, and making goo out of gelatin with us. He is Keith's little brother so there were no worried parents wondering where we were going and why we're spoiling their kid rotten. And he needed us to race rockets with him, make sailboats to compete against his, and create colorful chemistry chaos with him. A fulfilling day at the museum, indeed.

We fed him all kinds of junk, bought him toys he didn't need (well, he said he did, so ya know...), and introduced him to Portland street musicians, Finnegans Toy Store and the Omnimax movie dome. I think he liked it.

Anybody else want to loan us their kid for a day? We only saw half of OMSI because we got so carried away in one room...which necessitates a trip back to Portland asap. We promise that ~~they~~ we will have a pretty sweet time.

I wanna do it all...visit Paris in the fall

2008-11-05T19:12:00.000-08:00

Paris photos are in surprisingly high demand. For those who have asked, here you go! You'll have to ask Keith what you're looking at, because I basically only saw the inside of the Metro station and the Exhibition Center where SIAL (second-largest food products tradeshow in the world) was held. No, really. But it was a lot of fun to be there. I will definitely be going back!

Whatever Floats Your Vote

2008-11-04T13:43:00.000-08:00

It's election day and most of the world is sitting on the edge of their seats to see if we'll have this (thanks Carly!) or this in the White House. I, however, am lying smack in the middle of my couch with a cold, dutifully at home to answer the doorbell to all the Obama canvassers who want to make sure I voted.

For once and for all, folks....yes I voted. Yes, for Obama. And yes, I actually was clever enough to take that ballot down to the courthouse and stick it in the slot! Please stop ringing my doorbell because I'm not a particularly pleasant sight in sweats, hair all a mess, and other signs of having done absolutely nothing productive with my day.

In better news, I have finally acquiesced to all of you who got down on your knees and begged me start a blog. I felt that I could no longer, in clear conscience, deny the world the pleasure of my witty and intelligent way with words, or the fascinating details of my fast-paced life, or the clever photography documenting my almost daily adventures. So, here it is, folks. I do not promise to wow you. I hope not to bore you. But I hope you will say hi if you find my blog and enjoy it.

And in parting, I give you a butternut: