fall has fallen

Time is flying by. I really need it to slow down!

The other day it was the start of Fall, pretty leaves everywhere and a little chill in the air, but this morning when I got out of bed to the sound of pouring rain and wind and saw that all of the leaves have already fallen I couldn't believe I missed it. Tomorrow it will be December... In fact, I would be lying if I said that my Halloween decorations were put away... How did this happen? I guess that is the natural progression of things when your schedule is jam packed with both work and play every minute of every day... but I do wish I could pause every once in a while. (I promise I was not trying to rhyme throughout that paragraph).

I sneak up to the top floor of our building every once in a while to get some shots of downtown (technically it is an event space, but I have the access codes). I figured these would relate nicely to my post since they show time passing. I took the picture on top back in October when the leaves were first starting to turn. The image on the bottom I took this morning right as the rain took a break and caught a rainbow as a happy accident. (in this older post you can see the spring version of this shot as well).

[[ view of downtown from my office building: october, top. november, bottom. ]]

weekend adventures 62 thanksgiving weekend II

Here are the rest of me and Pats Thanksgiving weekend adventures 

(continued from yesterday). 

saturday (civil war)

In Oregon, you are typically either a Duck fan or a Beaver fan. We, as Alumni of Oregon State, are die hard Beaver fans and so are Pats family members, so we were super excited for Civil War this year, which was at home. Unfortunately the game turned out pretty much the worst it could have gone for us, which I am sure I will hear about endlessly at Christmas time from my family. Once our game was over we watched Stanford win and then played games for the rest of the night. I have to say I was a little relieved to not be in Corvallis after a loss like that... 

[[ beaver pride for civil war. ]]

sunday

Me and Pat were feeling a little antsy after sitting around all weekend, so we decided to go in to Bend to wander around downtown a bit. After a while we decided to check out Boneyard Brewing Co. in their little tasting room space, which was amazing! We will definitely be back for more of their beer. They had one that was infused with ghost peppers which was super spicy (and gross in my opinion), but I really appreciate their interesting combinations. Every other beer was delicious, so we had to pick up a growler full. When we were done we headed to Bend Brewing Co. for another drink and snack, and then wandered around Mirror Pond before making our way over to Deschutes for dinner. I had a meeting in the morning, so after getting back to the house we watched a movie and then I got to bed. 

[[ beer tasting at boneyard brewing co. ]]

[[ walking around downtown. mirror pond. ]]

monday

We headed home around five after my meeting was over. There was an impass over the weekend, so the pass was completely clear of snow, which was a stark contrast to the way it looked when we were driving over. We made pretty good time and it felt great to finally be home, as nice as the house over there is, I always get a bit homesick for my own living room on long trips.

[[ the skyline on the drive home. ]]

weekend adventures 62 thanksgiving weekend I

Me and Pat had an especially long weekend with Thanksgiving giving us both Thursday and Friday off, and taking off Monday as well. We got home Monday night, but I decided to save posting about the weekend until today since I had a lot of catching up to do at work. So it will be a short week. Here goes...

wednesday night

After work on Wednesday we immediately loaded up the car and headed over the pass to Pats parents house at Brasada Ranch. There had been a decent snow storm over the pass the week before, so we had our studded tires put on before the drive, which turned out to be a good idea because it was definitely icy, and there were many stranded cars. We finally made it to the house around 9pm after a somewhat stressful drive, ate some dinner, and relaxed for the night since we were both exhausted. 

[[ driving over the snowy pass. ]]

thursday (thanksgiving)

Pats mom literally took care of everything food wise, so there was nothing to do but sit around and watch football... all we did all weekend was watch football... Ugh. We also played some games, like Rummikub which is a game with tiles similar to the card game rummy and playing dominos. I dominate this game for some reason, which was driving pats mom crazy. 

I have celebrated Thanksgiving with Pats family in the past, as he has with mine, but for some reason this year I was feeling really homesick... I think it must have to do with the fact that my baby sister is in college now, so she isn't around every time I am in Portland, which makes me miss her even more than I thought I would. Meagan was at my moms place with my grandparents, so I FaceTimed with her a few times to say hi to everyone and get to see her pretty face. I don't think my grandparents quite grasped the concept that they could see me as well as talk to me, which was pretty entertaining. I also FaceTimed with my dad since he was having Thanksgiving festivities with everyone else at his place, which made me feel a lot better as well. 

We ate dinner around 5:30, which was fine with me because I am not one for the afternoon "dinner". Everything was delicious. Pats mom did an amazing job. The turkey was seriously perfect, and there were a bunch of mashed potatoes just for me, which I ate two giant servings of, and regretted later. I was so full that I couldn't even eat any of the pumpkin pie, which is my second favorit thing!

After dinner we had some wine and then everyone wound down and went to sleep, except for me and Pats little brother Hayden who stayed up late talking and watching Thanksgiving episodes of How I Met Your Mother and Friends.

[[ beautiful morning view. watching a tiny bit of the thanksgiving day parade. ]]

[[ thanksgiving dinner. wine. me/pat being silly. rummikub. friends. ]]

[[ the beautiful thanksgiving sunset. ]]

friday

I am not usually one to participate in the Black Friday hell that people put themselves through, but since  me and Pat were in the market for a new washer and dryer and found a really good deal at a local appliance store, we went out in the morning to see if they had any left, and they did! So, without really even trying we ended up with some major savings. Note to future self... Black Friday is a great time to buy large home items at really good discounts. 

Since we were out we did a little more shopping around, and Pat ran in to one of his old friends who lives in Bend. We grabbed lunch at 10 Barrel Brewing Co., which looked like an awesome place to frequent in the summer because of their large outdoor seating area, and then headed back to the house for some more football and laziness. 

[[ participating in black friday. lunch & tasting at 10 barrel brewing co. ]]

((( I will post the rest of the weekend tomorrow. )))

happy thanksgiving

I am headed to Bend to celebrate Thanksgiving with Pat's family, and will be gone until next Tuesday! As usual, I am most excited for mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. I am also excited for the Civil War this weekend!
(and nervous).


Here are some of the things I am most thankful for in my life right now:

- long weekends
- my amazing and gigantic family
- my loverly fiance and bff who I love very very much
- my bestest friends
- the big changes that are coming up next month... (more on that later) :)

[[ my turkey sketch... i guess this is what they look like... ]]

Happy Turkey Day everyone!

brad & alia's wedding june 30th, 2012

Our friends Brad and Alia FINALLY received pictures from their June 30th wedding at Rock Springs Ranch in Bend, so I can now finish up the last big event post from last summer. 

My fiance was the best man and he looks quite dashing in a suit and tie (if I do say so myself), so I had to post a few of the wedding party pictures taken before the vows. I excluded any pictures of the ceremony itself, as well as the couples personal photos since they wanted to keep most of these somewhat private. Most pictures are from the reception, and of us, so hopefully they won't mind me sharing. (The image in the title was the preview from their photographer).

[[ the wedding party. ]]

[[ the first toast after signing their papers: nate (officiant), pat (best man), the bride & groom, maid of honor. ]]

[[ pat giving his best man speech. ]]

[[ after the ceremony. impromptu photo booth. ]]

[[ dancing at the reception. patty pirate. best man & groom keeping it classy. ]]

The pictures were all taken by Portland photographer Michelle Pearl Gee, and they turned out really nice. (However, I would certainly not recommend a wedding photographer who delivers pictures from your June wedding in November... but thats just me...)

Congratulations again you two!

wet streets & oil spotssss

Sooo... I sort of slacked on posts last week as you may have noticed. I got a little too busy and those last few California Adventures took a really long time to get together, so I figured I would give myself a little break. Obviously with Thanksgiving on Thursday, this is a short week, so I will only have a few things for you, but I thought I would start with this pretty little thing...

Back in April I came across a glorious rainbow display left by someones leaky car... and a few days ago when I was returning to work after lunch, I found another beautiful oil spot pattern in the parking lot! Check it out. Why are wet streets and oil spots so mesmerizing?

[[ oil spots & black boots on a rainy day. ]]

california adventure 3 :: day 3 part II the standard hotel, downtown los angeles

monday (10/22) :: day 3 
(continued...)

I was trying to get all of day three in to one post, but there was just no way to do it with the plethora of pictures I took while we were at The Standard, so, I decided this awesome hotel warranted its very own post. 

Me and Leah found ourselves in downtown Los Angeles with a little time to kill and ended up at The Standard Hotel basking in the sun on their rooftop. This was my favorite part of the trip! The Standard is such a weird hotel, but I loved it! The design is such a mix of business man with a lot of '60s kitch and contemporary media. I am not really sure how else to describe it...

We went through the lobby first, which had all kinds of crazy cushions to longue on and flashing purple lights (pretty standard?), later as we left there was even a DJ spinning down there. They also had an in house "barber shop", a sunglass kiosk (with all the good stuff), a "magazine stand" with a ton of indie covers, red phones hanging all over the walls, as well as old school phone booths, and an old electric keyboard that I tried to play. The bathroom also warrants a mention... In the ladies room there were little vanity mirrors with purple stools set up over adorable '60s inspired floral wallpaper, I now reget not peaking in to the mens room to see what they had going on in there. The sinks were in a common wash area outside of each bathroom, and there was a giant (and ridiculous) photo on the wall that was highly entertaining, as well as a photobooth tucked away in the corner (which was unfortunately broken while we were there).

[[ floral bathroom wallpaper. panty dropping mural. golden/yellow restaurant. ]]

[[ the standard hotel: sweet keyboard in the lobby. chandelier. the bathroom area. directions. elevator. velvet & gold. ]]

After checking out the lobby, we made our way through the labyrinth of hallways and stairwells to find ourselves outside in the sunshine on the huge rooftop bar. A little extra surprise was a bar within a bar since their rooftop not only boasts amazing views of the city, a pool, a ton of cozy outdoor seating, fireplaces, a full bar, and waterbeds (yes, waterbeds), but there is also a German themed beer garden area complete with its own menu, beer selection, and ping pong table. If I was local to Los Angeles I am pretty sure I would live up there. 

Me and Leah lounged around at the pool for a bit while we were waiting for Catherine to get off work (and the weather I might add, was perfect). Eventually we made our way over to what we thought were little cabana cushions, so imagine my surprise when I jumped on to one to discover that it was not solid at all, but actually an outdoor waterbed! That is where Catherine eventually found us, and we jumped around for a while before heading to the bar for a drink and a snack. We also sort of took over the bar area and turned it in to our phone charging stations, luckily we had a very nice bartender who did not mind us at all. Here are the bulk of the rooftop pictures I took. 

[[ the standard rooftop bar area. city views. us. an overview of the bar & pool longue area. blue skies. pool chairs. aqua water. cabana waterbeds. me & leah being silly and photoboothing. ]]

While we were exploring the German beer garden area, adorned with signage in German, Leah and Catherine got in to a serious game of ping pong... and I have to say, Leah is not too bad. I was terrible, but I tried. I feel like Pat would have really liked this place...

[[ backwarden. willkommen. trinken. pinkpong time. ]]

Before we left the rooftop I made sure to take a bunch of panoramic pictures of the various areas. Check them out. 

[[ iphone panoramics of the rooftop. CLICK TO SEE LARGER. ]]