watch out betty crocker

we hope this finds everyone immersed in the true spirit of the season: faith, hope and love.

our major undertaking this holiday season was cookie baking, which was a holiday ritual for mn growing up, but i don't recall making and decorating sugar cookies as a child. (mom will correct me if i'm wrong.)

we mixed and we stirred and we rolled and we used star-shaped cookie cutters and we baked and we frosted and we sprinkled. it was so much fun! we decided it will be our new holiday tradition. here's how they looked:





and here's how we looked after making them:



even though we won't be spending time with family for the holidays, we're surrounded by lots of love. we also decorated our apartment by hanging ornaments in our windows and displaying other christmasy decor. since kandinsky likes to chew on the needles and play with the ornaments, we decided against getting a tree this year. here's the view:



we're excited to venture to seattle for a couple of days to see our friend vivi, who we haven't seen since january, and we're looking forward to laughing, talking, sipping wine and enjoying time spent with a wonderful friend. we'll also be partaking in one of our favorite seattle pastimes: eating. we'll visit a chinese restaurant we love called yea's wok (we always say "YEA!" when it's time for yea's), two (yes, two) donut places and an incredible chowdah place near pike place market. guess we'll be spending extra time at the gym next week, but it's totally worth it.

as always, we're both doing great and making sure we're as good to each other as we can possibly be. we hope you and yours are enjoying every single second of your lives and remembering to live by the golden rule.

we love and miss y'all very much!

giant walking cupcakes

hello everyone! we hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving day. ours was spectacular, and to prove it, we took pictures.

for those of you who were worried, we had plenty of food to eat. see?




then on the friday after thanksgiving, we attended the macy's parade with elizabeth. the food theme continued, as you'll notice.



cupcakes!


notice the dancing pie behind us


the mayor


and, of course, santa claus


as always, we love you, we miss you, and we're so grateful for you...the girlz

giving thanks

as we celebrate thanksgiving this week, we listed a few things for which we’re thankful:

we thank our parents for creating us and our moms for giving us birth.
we thank our parents for instilling in us a respect for others, a strong sense of self, an adventurous spirit, and kind, compassionate hearts.
we thank our grandparents for spoiling us and giving us wonderful childhood memories.
we thank our siblings for antagonizing AND loving us as only a sibling can do.
we thank our aunts and uncles for babysitting us, for spoiling us and for always seeing the goodness in our hearts.
we thank our niece and nephews for their laughter and their sense of wonder.
we thank our friends and family for their love and their support.
we’re thankful for our health, our home, our feisty kitty cat, and most of all, we’re thankful for each other.

happy thanksgiving everyone!

as always, we’re sending LOTS of love and hugs across the miles…the girlz

this road sure is curvy and bumpy

sometimes we wonder how many of you are hangin on the edge of your seats waiting to read our newest post, and then we realize how quickly time can get away from us. we figure y'all's lives are just as busy as ours so there are probably more pressing things than keeping track of us. but maybe our lil ole blog is a welcome respite from the big badness of the world we live in today.

this past weekend we took a much-needed road trip. as you've probably learned from reading our blog, we love love love to travel. aside from the day trips mn or both of us took when her parents visited, we've been anchored in pdx. we jumped on i-5 south and made our way to eugene - home of the university of oregon ducks. (we've made a tradition of touring different campuses and enjoy immersing ourselves in the energy of a college environment every now and then. it keeps us young.) we walked around campus, laughed at all the offerings in the bookstore, took some goofy photos, had yummy pizza and topped off our trip with a wine tasting at a local winery.

here are some photos from our journey...

spooooooky shadows (just kiddin - it's us)


fall colors


this place had photos of u of o track stars on the walls -
we didn't feel guilty for indulging in the pizza, tho.


sweet cheeks winery in crow, or


mn is attending a volunteer orientation for the multnomah county library in the next couple of weeks. she's also taken up bookmaking and created her first homemade book. kandinsky and i are very proud of her.

warning: this paragraph contains information some of you may find yucky. speaking of kandinsky, we've been battling a rather unpleasant situation with her. she's had the runs since july when she had surgery to remove her anal glands. we've tried several different foods, pills with probiotics and bentonite clay intended for dogs (we have to crush up and mix with tuna juice so she'll eat it), other probiotics we had to sprinkle on her food (which she didn't like), etc. we think starting her on a raw food diet is going to clear things up once and for all. please send lots of healing energy her way and keep your fingers crossed this will be the solution. the good news is she seems healthy and happy in spite of everything. here's our lil cutie relaxing after a hard day's work...



work at the art museum has picked up considerably, which is great for me. i do much better with too much work than not enough. we're working on the museum magazine which is our biggest project. we create it 3 times a year and it's everything design should be: frustrating, time-consuming and incredibly satisfying when it's over and done with.

my lil brother graduated from firefighter rookie school last friday and he won the award for being the most helpful rookie. here's a lil message for you, big dawg...



there you have it - that's what's going on with us here on the left coast. be sure to check back for more adventures and please let us know what's going on with y'all. we love and miss y'all very much!

we made pie!

as you may or may not know, lucky and i aren't exactly known for our culinary prowess. although we've become more adventurous chefs in the kitchen through the years, we hadn't ever baked a pie...until this past weekend! with the fall season upon us, it seemed fitting to make an apple pie. plus, it's one of lucky's favorites.

we gathered the ingredients, peeled and sliced some beautiful granny smith apples, and assembled the pie in a somewhat unconventional dish, because we're unconventional girls. who says pie needs to be round anyway??! surprisingly, the pie is quite yummy, so i'm sure we'll venture into pie-making again in the future. (using a pre-made crust was helpful too - thank you, pillsbury dough boy!)

although the pie looks rather colorless in the picture, it's not nearly as bland-looking in person.


even more colorful are the leaves here as the fall colors have begun to erupt all around us. it's a feast for the eyes!

we hope you are healthy and enjoying all life has to offer. as always, we're sending lots of love and hugs across the miles...the girlz

picking up trash, eating yummy crab and watching the tide

this past weekend, we headed to cannon beach for the twice annual beach clean up. the weather was a little chilly, but nothing three tough chicas (elizabeth accompanied us on our journey) couldn't handle. we walked for miles along the beach picking up cigarette butts, (penance for all the butts we absent-mindedly tossed years ago) small pieces of paper, a couple of aluminum lawn chairs and random pieces of refuse people rudely tossed on the sand. pass the message along - litterbugs are NOT cool. we also watched some surfers, scowled at hooligans hitting golf balls into the ocean (even un-cooler than litterbugs) and enjoyed the sound of the ocean's waves.

after putting in a few hours of hard labor, we celebrated with lunch at our favorite oregon coast restaurant, the wayfarer. we went halfsies on the hot crab sandwich (a hot sandwich of house-made garlic bread spread with Boursin-scented cream cheese, sweet Dungeness crab and Tillamook Cheddar cheese) and a caesar salad topped with shrimp and crab. YUM-MY!

here are some photos of our beach time...







upon our return to portland, we headed to the gym in our apartment building for a marathon workout while we watched the arkansas vs. alabama football game. after nearly four hours, the game still wasn't over, but we became frustrated when the tide blew a 21-point lead, so we finally threw in the towel after arkansas scored to take the lead late in the fourth quarter. we're certainly no fair-weather fans, but we'd had our fill of watching the stupid mistakes and missed opportunities. of course we were thrilled to see what unfolded after we left. in not so classic alabama style, alabama came back in the final minutes and won the game. i bet tuscaloosa was rockin' til the wee hours. nice job, boys. ROLL TIDE ROLL!

things with us have been going well. this weekend, we're going to a taiko performance with stan and alan. Taiko means simply "drum" in Japanese (etymologically "great" or "wide drum"). Outside Japan, the word is often used to refer to any of the various Japanese drums and to the relatively recent art-form of ensemble taiko drumming. we're also attending in a university of portland womens' soccer game on sunday with elizabeth.

we're taking care of each other and getting ready for the fall season. it's hard to believe it's almost time to break out the rain gear.

be sure to check back for updates on all of our adventures. we love and miss y'all very much!

sum-sum-summertime

we're enjoying the last few nuggets of sunshine-y goodness, so this past weekend we spent time at the farmer's market and the eastbank esplanade along the willamette river in downtown portland.

in walking to the esplanade, we stumbled upon the portland dragon boat races.


oddly enough, about fifteen people were paddling on their surfboards in the river. go figure.




hope you're enjoying summer too! as always, we're sending lots of love and hugs across the miles.

new beginnings

when my parents announced earlier this year their intent to visit portland, i was absolutely thrilled. i was so excited to show them the beautiful pacific northwest. i was even more excited for lucky to be able to get to know my parents better and for them to get to know her -- this amazing woman with whom i fell in love.

but i was also nervous. you see, my parents and i have had somewhat of a strained relationship the past few years due to their lack of understanding of my "lifestyle" (as they've called it). their position on my being gay is that it's wrong, i'm wrong, and i need to change (as is the position of many christian fundamentalists). i've done my best to be compassionate, understanding and respectful, but also have made it known i cannot choose who i love or change who i am.

and so my relationship and contact with them these past few years has been limited, even as i long for their acceptance and unconditional love.

they say time heals all wounds, which i tend to believe. but i also believe love and understanding are attainable in almost every relationship if people would just open themselves to get to know one another. people are so much more than a label ("jew," "african american," "hispanic," "gay") placed upon them by society. if individuals in the world took the time to step outside their comfort zones to understand someone who's different than themselves, hatred would diminish and love would prevail.

i'm not sure whether it was time or some other force healing my parents' wounds, but regardless of the reason, my mom and dad chose to open their minds to a different kind of relationship. a relationship that looks different from theirs on the outside, yet is very similar on the inside. just as my parents love each other, so too do lucky and i love each other.

because of their willingness to reach out, lucky and i felt more comfortable in their presence. and their visit last week turned out to be a visit we'll always treasure. not only did we get the chance to learn more about my parents, but they too learned more about me and lucky. plus, they got to see the pacific northwest with two of the best tour guides ever -- us! we saw the giant redwood trees in northern california, beautiful haystack rock in the pacific ocean by cannon beach, the gigantic "spruce goose" wooden airplane at the evergreen aviation museum, flying fish at pike place market in seattle, the boeing airplane factory, the seattle skyline while on a harbor cruise, and gorgeous multnomah falls in the columbia river gorge.

here's a picture of me with mom and dad at pike place market in seattle:


thank you, mom and dad, for being willing to look beyond a label in order to see your daughter. thanks also for a wonderful trip, thanks for the laughs, thanks for the love, and thanks for giving me life. i love you so much.

and so i leave you all with this thought: you never know what might happen if you get to know someone who's different than you. in learning more about them, you might learn more about yourself.

as always, we're sending LOTS of love and hugs across the miles.

asking questions we think we know the answers to

do you ever wonder if your best friend likes mangoes? or if your mom/dad/grandparents eat pizza? questions we're certain we've asked – but can't seem to recall the answers to – are quite an interesting phenomenon. at times, we overlook the obvious – asking good questions is something in need of more attention.

one thing i love so much about mn is her inquisitiveness. she's always asking questions i don't think of or figure i've asked at some point in time, only to let the answer slip away from the depths of my mind. she asks why someone enjoys a certain activity or why they moved to such a remote location. she may inquire how long they've been participating in a hobby or what their aspirations are. it's an endearing quality and one that is, sadly, increasingly rare now-a-days.

so let's start a question-asking revolution. get to know your friends and family even better by asking things you've always wanted to know - please use discretion, however. ask those silly survey questions you get via email. ask someone what s/he was thinking when s/he decided farming/firefighting/engineering/baking sounded like good career paths. ask the questions that pop into your mind during conversation. ask how. ask why. just ask.

adventures in hood river

we had a great time during our weekend excursion in hood river, oregon. highlights included: exploring a few of the many local fruit orchards and fruit stands (a.k.a. the "fruit loop"), a drive through the cascades, tasting yummy ice cream, toy store adventures, watching hundreds of windsurfers and a few kiteboarders glide effortlessly across the water (hood river is the windsurfing capitol of the world), visits to wineries and enjoying southern food at dixie's southern grub. below are some pictures.




spending time on the swing at draper girl's farm with mount hood in the background




my girl with her favorite beverage, sweet tea, on the porch at dixie's



as always, we're sending lots of love and hugs across the miles...the girlz

birthday reflections

monday was my birthday. as always, lucky did a wonderful job of making me feel special and loved. this coming weekend, we plan to spend a couple of days in hood river, oregon, which is located in the beautiful columbia river gorge. we'll be doing some hiking and exploring as well as visiting orchards ripe with numerous different fruits. we'll share pictures after our return.

birthdays tend to be a time of reflection, and mine was no exception.... i now have 34 years of life experience, knowledge, and wisdom, and i'm so grateful for those years. i look forward to the next 34 years to experience all life has to offer. thank you, lucky, for being my soul mate and my partner in this journey called life. i love you more than ever. thank you, family and friends, for believing in me and for your love, support and guidance. i love you very much.

as always, we're sending lots of love and hugs across the miles to each and every one of you.

a long lost friend

last night, we experienced something we haven't experienced in more than a year. off in the distance, we could see the familiar big puffy white clouds; the ones that look like piles of ice cream dancing on the wind. soon the sky began to darken and we could vaguely make out short glimpses of heat lightning. as it moved closer and closer, the lightning got more defined and the glorious rumble of thunder clamored in our ears. it was a real live thunderstorm, right here in Portland.

it may seem ludicrous for us to get so excited about a thunderstorm, but they're a rarity here and we miss them a great deal. we sat by our living room windows and basked in the glory of exploding thunder and flashy lightning. it was a truly magical experience and definitely made it feel like summer had truly arrived.

going through life, it's so easy to overlook the simple things that make life worth living. the thunderstorm last night was symbolic for us: pay more attention to the open shot, the easy points. reeling in happiness from a thunderstorm is much more plausible than trying to change the fact that you have a completely incompetent boss who makes your life more difficult than necessary.

which leads me to what's been going on with us.

the biggest excitement of the week came on tuesday when our little baby kitty had surgery to remove her anal glands (sorry if you're reading this during dinner). the surgery went well and she seems to be healing quickly. she does, however, have to wear the e-collar/lampshade for a week and she is not very happy about that. poor thing runs into walls and has trouble situating her head to eat from her dish, but she's a trooper so we know she's going to be fine. here's a photo of her.



mn had a phone interview this morning with an organizing company and expects to hear back within a week or so to see if they want her to come in for an interview. it's so difficult to tell how things went because there was no personal interaction to gauge. we're knowing what's supposed to happen is exactly what will happen.

work at the museum is ok, but i'm still searching for what makes me tick and what makes my heart soar (aside from mn, of course). on a walk to work this week, i was thinking about things i enjoy doing so much i don't notice the passing of time as i'm doing them and that thought process led me to writing and painting (paint by number, specifically). now i'm working on a solution to how i can incorporate those things into a career opportunity.

we're also excited for a week long visit from mn's parents in august. tentative plans include a day trip to seattle, an overnight in crescent city, ca, to see the redwood trees, and touring as much of portland as possible.

we're sending kudos to my mom and li'l bro for their recent new employment ventures. congratulations!

we love and miss y'all very much...the girlz

more travel adventures

life is good, and we're so thankful!

this past weekend, accompanied by elizabeth, we drove to the beautiful city of san francisco, california.

along the way, we stopped by the olive pit in corning, ca, for olive tasting


and the squeeze inn burger joint in sacramento for greasy goodness.


arriving in the bay area on friday afternoon, we headed to muir woods for a hike through the giant redwoods

and to the charming city of sausalito before crossing the golden gate bridge.


the following day, we took in the sights of ghiradelli square,

fisherman's wharf, pier 39, the ferry market and chinatown,

and we rode on a cable car.


sunday brought the annual gay pride parade, where an estimated 750,000 people were in attendance.

at the parade, we met up with friends, alan and stan.

that evening, we watched the sunset behind the golden gate bridge.


sadly, monday was our day to depart, but not before we drove on the world's most crookedest street, lombard street.


we also stopped in fairfield, ca, to take the factory tour at jelly belly jelly beans, which was very cool, by the way.



thinking our adventures were over, we never expected to get stuck in traffic in the mountains of northern califiornia due to an accident. two hours. stopped traffic. not fun. but we made the best of the situation.


needless to say, we were exhausted when we arrived home at midnight, but thankful for such a wonderful trip to such a gorgeous city!

as always, we're sending lots of love and hugs across the miles...the girlz

proud to be...

following our incredible trip to paradise, we participated in a portland tradition – the rose festival – by volunteering to help decorate one of the grand floral parade floats. in fact, this was a special year for the rose festival as it was their 100th year celebration. as such, the theme of the parade dealt with a century of generations, and the float we helped to decorate, the yellow submarine (named for the beatles' song), was part of the “groovy generation.”

here’s a picture of lucky applying dyed, dried green coconut to “seaweed” with glue.



the experience was interesting, unusual, time-intensive and most likely, once-in-a-lifetime for us. however, many individuals volunteer to decorate year after year after year. but i think we’ll pass next year. glad we did it, but not too excited about doing it again.

this past weekend, we attended the annual gay pride parade in downtown portland with elizabeth. what a wonderful celebration of diversity and acceptance!



we’re also excited about our upcoming trip to san francisco to attend their annual gay pride parade this weekend. it’s sure to be an incredible experience too!

we’re so proud to celebrate our love for each other!

we’re also sending lots of love and hugs across the miles to our family and friends. we love you!

we'll be back, hawaii

do you remember the feeling that swept over you the first time you set foot somewhere and instantly knew you absolutely loved it? a place so overwhelmingly beautiful and majestic you wondered how you’d lived your life without visiting sooner? hawaii is definitely one of those places. seeing the striking blue/green/emerald/cyan waters rolling both gently and forcefully into the soft white/brown sugar/teeny shell particle sand surrounding oahu was absolutely spectacular.

after arriving wednesday, we checked into our hotel and hit the streets of honolulu/waikiki to explore the sights. we saw the pink palace of the pacific (a swanky hotel opened in 1927), the duke kahanamoku (the father of surfing) statue and the food pantry (our grocery store of choice for the trip). it was a relaxing first night filled with laughter and love as we were surrounded with the gentle tradewinds of paradise.

the next day brought lounging by the pool followed by sailing and snorkeling off the beach of waikiki. after donning our snorkel gear, we both experienced the unnatural “how am i breathing underwater” fear which causes rapid, almost panicked breathing patterns. after gaining control, we swam around looking for tropical fish. we were both a little disappointed not to see a large variety of fish, but we did see one sea turtle and lots of black fish. definite thumbs up.

friday was our day to explore the island via automobile so headed to the dole pineapple plantation, located near the north shore. what a cool experience. we boarded the “pineapple express” train and took a twenty minute ride through the fields listening to narration recorded by a local singing group who intermixed descriptions of the pineapple growing process with interludes of song. both of us laughed quite a bit, actually. we also toured the gardens which were filled with amazing plants and flowers and even a gecko. raymundo, our 80 year old tour guide, captured mn’s heart and, for a minute there, lucky was a little worried we’d be taking raymundo home. he picked red hibiscus for the ladies and told us where we should wear the flowers in order to send the right message regarding our “availability” for love. an unexpected shower cut our tour short so we made our way to the cafe and enjoyed a dole whip -- think a pineapple slushy.




“pineapple express” train




raymundo

continuing our tour of the island, we drove the north shore being sure to make plenty of stops along the way, such as: waimea bay beach where we saw people jumping from the rocks into the ocean (not the cliff divers we’ve all heard about, but similar) and huge crashing waves that carved out portions of the beach; banzai beach where we enjoyed our picnic lunch and watched surfers; giovanni’s white shrimp truck. who would’ve thought yummy shrimp could come from a big white truck? it was fantastic!

we saw so many spectacular sites and were continually dumbfounded by the beauty of the island.



back in honolulu, we made the rounds of places further from the hotel while we still had the rental car. this included having our first shave ice. it wasn’t as snow cone-y as we’d hoped, but we enjoyed it nonetheless, even though we got ice cream headaches (which, by the way, are caused when the roof of your mouth gets too cold).





the next morning we were up with the sun to take on diamond head crater. we hoped to avoid the huge crowds and heat of the day. the climb starts out easy on a paved path but quickly turns to uneven rocky paths often too narrow for people to walk side-by-side. there are a few sections of stairs, a long, dark tunnel and finally a 100 stair climb to what you think is the pinnacle. it’s followed by a spiral staircase, a winding path with more stairs and finally a glorious view of waikiki. completely worth the workout and again, beautiful.



we finished out the day lounging on the beach: mn under the umbrella and lucky catching as many rays as possible. the night found us sipping fruity tropical drinks as we watched the gorgeous sunset.

our biggest adventure of the trip came on sunday when we took a helicopter tour. talk about a breathtaking experience! all we could say was “WOW!” over and over again. seeing the radiance of the island from the air gave us an entirely different perspective. we saw dolphins swimming with a sailboat, miles of reef, mansions of the rich and famous (including bill gates’ and the house where magnum p.i. was filmed), sacred falls - an 80-foot waterfall, pineapple fields, military areas, suburban subdivisions, pearl harbour and the uss arizona (we could see the oil leaking into the water - so crazy to see oil leaking from a ship that sunk almost 66 years ago), and the u.s. naval base and shipyard. here are a few of the 200+ photos we took during our tour...








pineapple fields


uss arizona memorial

memorial day brought the adventure lucky had been waiting for - surfing lessons. it was exciting and terrifying and exhilarating and frustrating and invigorating and addictive and an incredible rush and she’ll definitely be doing more of it. it’s an activity that takes lots and lots of practice, but she did very well for her first attempt and stood up on her very first try.



monday night we went to a stunning event on ala moana beach. it’s called the lantern floating and it’s described on the website (www.lanternfloatinghawaii.com) as such: “Every year on Memorial Day, thousands of people gather together at Magic Island to honor ancestors and loved ones who have passed away. They watch with warm remembrance, hope for peace, and wish for a better future for the next generation as more than 1,100 candle-lit lanterns float away from shore.” even though this blog entry has overused this word, it was absolutely beautiful.



sadly, the last day of our magnificent, thrilling, spine-tingling, astonishing, moving, awe-inspiring trip arrived, so we spent time on the beach. lucky rented a surfboard and tried to get the hang of surfing without an instructor pushing her into the wave. although she wasn’t very sucessful, she still loves the sport and has vowed to be a surfer one day. oh, and she thinks she may want to learn to fly helicopters, too. we had lunch at another, and even tastier, shrimp truck (bluewater seafood on kuhio avenue) before ending our vacation by the hotel pool.





our flight back to pdx was a red-eye and one of the worst we’ve ever experienced. we took it as a sign we shouldn’t have left paradise. such is life, we suppose.

we’ve settled back into our daily routine after being dealt a major disappointment. mn’s parents were scheduled to visit us this week and had to cancel because her father is having health problems. please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

thanks for reading this marathon blog entry - we hope y’all were able to feel like you visited the island with us.

we love and miss y’all very much!