March 2019
March was a bit of a rollercoaster, but full of lots of activity and experiences.
Exploring
In March, we started a new habit to take walks with no particular destination. We would get a carshare (as we didn't own a car at the time) and drive to a neighborhood that we wanted to explore, and just meander for a while.
One of the nice things about walking in residential neighborhoods is that you meet all kinds of friendly cats.
Ginger
Mid-month, Ginger suffered from a seizure, which had never happened before. We were terrified when it happened, but in true Ginger fashion, she bounced back and was back to her normal self within a few days. She has always been a tough cookie.
Cooking
I did a lot of cooking in March, but the only meal I documented with a photo is this half pan of Lasagna.
Dining out
Rose Latte at Bitter Rose 
Cauli-Town at Proud Mary
I co-worked at a couple of spots this month — I checked out the cafe attached to my local library, Bitter Rose Coffee Bar. I also spent a few hours working at Proud Mary later in the month.
Katsu Sando at Giraffe 
Khinkali at Kargi Gogo
I also tried a few spots solo, including Giraffe (a Japanese deli located inside of Cargo) and Kargi Gogo, a Georgian spot in the Alberta Arts district.
To celebrate Mardi Gras, we went to Tapalaya to enjoy some NOLA-inspired cuisine and live music.
The Florentine at Arleta Library Bakery Cafe 
Pierogi at Anchor End 
Banhattan at Wonderly
We also tried a few new (to us) spots: Arleta Library Bakery Cafe and Anchor End for brunch, and the cocktail spot Wonderly.
Entertainment
In March, I saw a couple of movies in the theater: Captain Marvel and Us (both which I enjoyed quite a bit).
I also went to a live theater performance for the first time in a while! I went to see LĒR, an adaptation of King Lear from local performance company The Reformers.
Miscellaneous
More photos from March without much context:
Colorful van outside of Crossroads 
Record shopping at Crossroads 
Small Press section at Books with Pictures 
Willow Rosenberg comic 
Shop kitty at Cargo 
Cute yard decor 
Random sticker
February 2019
This is the second post in my “2019 in Review” series! February brought snow, a trip to Thailand, and a live music show.
Snow!
Tiny raccoon prints in the light dusting of snow on our doorstep, February 4 
A light blanket of snow on our driveway, February 9 
Ginger enjoys the fireplace on a snowy day
We had a couple days of snow in early February — a good opportunity for us to stay cozy indoors with the fireplace.
Bangkok, Thailand
Mid-month, I went on a work trip to Bangkok, Thailand — and I made a seemingly foolish decision to only stay there 3 nights with a 24 hour travel time both ways. But it was a formative experience for me, as I traveled overseas alone and solely represented my team. There were a lot of wrenches thrown into my trip, but my survival mode kicked in and I'm proud of how I overcame my challenges.
I loved every breakfast I had in Bangkok — this is Kaphrao. 
Siam University, where the event was held. 
Enjoyed the renowned Tom Yum at P'Aor. 
Taken while waiting for the train at Phaya Thai station.
View the full album of photos of my journey.
Cooking
Split Pea Soup and Charcuterie 
7 Layer Dip
I only seem to have documented a couple of meals prepared in February: I made Split Pea Soup early in the month (alongside Gouda cheese that I bought in Amsterdam!), and a 7-layer dip for Super Bowl Sunday.
Dining Out
Breakfast at Heim 
“3 Little Pigs” at Jackrabbit:
Country ham, porcini-dusted “porkcorn” & “trottertots”
Drinks at Jackrabbit
We tried a couple of new spots in February: Heim Bakery & Cafe and Jackrabbit (a spot brought to us by San Francisco Chef, Chris Cosentino). Both were quite good, and the latter has great cocktails!
Entertainment
We saw Roma at the our favorite movie house, the Hollywood Theatre, where they were showing it in stunning 70mm. I really enjoyed the film's visuals and storytelling.
We rarely go to see live music these days, but we always enjoy it when we do! On the last day of February, we went to see one of our favorite bands, Beirut, perform at the Schnitz.
Miscelleanous
Every time I've gone to a record shop in the past couple of years, I've kept my eye out for a copy of Paul Simon's Graceland, and I finally found one in great condition at Little Axe Records!
And now for a couple of random snaps from the month that don't fit anywhere else...
A very Portland vending machine 
A very good floof
January 2019
Here's the first of my Year in Review posts for 2019! Movies, food, and a trip to Amsterdam defined my month of January.
New Year's
Toasting 2019 with Rosé Cava 
Spice-Rubbed Picnic Chicken and Hoppin' John
For many years now, we've spent the New Year's holiday partaking in a movie marathon. The theme for this year was Ron Howard, so we watched Cocoon and Willow on New Year's Eve. We toasted the stroke of midnight with glasses of Rosé Cava.
On New Year's Day, we completed the marathon with Parenthood, Backdraft, and Apollo 13. I also cooked some Spice-Rubbed Picnic Chicken and Hoppin' John.
Kitty Friends
My caretaker 
Trixie
I came down with a really nasty cold during the second week of January, but Ginger took good care of me while I watched soothing nature shows on Netflix.
After I got better, I hung out with a new co-worker (my teammate Andrea's kitten, Trixie).
Magna Kusina
We went to the Magna Kusina preview (they were to open a brick and mortar location later in the year). Chef Carlo Lamagna provided his takes on Filipino food. We're always happy to see more Filipino food in Portland!
Amsterdam
In late January, I traveled to meet my team in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. We are a global team spread across 4 countries, so we meet once a year to work synchronously.
For most of the week, we worked on a few projects at a co-working space. On our last full day, we went on a fantastic food tour all over Amsterdam, learning about the history of local cuisine, and tasting all sorts of specialties.
There are lots more photos of our Amsterdam trip to be seen in our team album.
Miscellaneous
Before my trip to Amsterdam, I got a neat set of monochrome + negative space nails from ChiChi of Best Nails Club!
2019 in Review
Wow, this year really flew by! As I didn't really post on this site in 2019 (although there are lots of unpublished drafts), I've decided that my end-of-year project is to publish recap posts of each month. I'll be updating this post with links to each month as I go along.
Moments of Calm
Remember the 100 Day Project that I participated in last year? There were a few circumstances that drove me to pause my participation (including Ginger falling ill), and I never started it back up.
I salvaged what videos I saved locally and added them to a “Moments of Calm” YouTube playlist:
It’s kinda nice to revisit these and have them stored in a focused place. I hope to add more to this playlist in the future, in the 100 Day Project and beyond.
Five Ten Fiftyfold
The 100 Day Project Day 2: “Five Ten Fiftyfold”. I’ve often found moments of calm when I listen to Cocteau Twins. Their music saw me through some challenging times in the mid to late 90’s.
The 100 Day Project
As I’ve been struggling a bit lately with a few things: Figuring out what to blog about, finding time for myself to think, finding time for myself to not think (e.g., meditate), and having a consistent creative outlet.
This prompted an idea to participate in The 100 Day Project, which is described as “A free, global art project that anyone can participate in”. Participants are encouraged to post daily within a theme of their choosing.
I’ve chosen #100daysofcalm as my project, in which I will post short videos of a calm moment in my day. I really like the idea of taking a moment every day to focus and contemplate, and I hope this project helps this to become new habit.
I’ve kicked off the project today with my evening moment of calm.
What's Your Name, Man?
A dramatization of recent events:
Dad, paying for lunch with cash: “Quick, tell me, who’s on the 10 dollar bill?”
Me: “You mean the ten dollar founding father without a father Got a lot farther by working a lot harder By being a lot smarter, by being a self starter…”
Dad: ”Okay, Okay”
New home
After lots of back and forth, I’ve finally finished migrating web hosts, setting up my new domain name, and transferred all my content. Please roll out the welcome mat for my blog’s new home at courtney.blog!
Also of note: I’ve migrated my food blog to courtney.food.blog, take a look if you’re interested in seeing all the food I cook and consume.
A blogger’s work is never done, though. I’m still continuing to edit tags, categories, fixing broken images, etc. But now that the most challenging part of the migration is behind me, I’m hoping to be posting here more often now.
As a long-time blogger, one of the ongoing issues for me is being self-conscious about my past content, and dare I say, about the person I used to be. I look back at some of the old entries I wrote, and sometimes I don’t even recognize the person who wrote them.
But then I think, that’s all a part of who I was, and those experiences led me to who I am today. So the content stays… for now. And the beauty of this being my blog is that I can always change my mind about that later. ;)
Remembering XOXO
Since XOXO has affected me so profoundly, I wanted to share the recent release of this video that is the most perfect recap:
I’m inspired and humbled all over again. I’m hoping to get back into creating things again in the near future. Remembering XOXO is great motivation for me.
Do you Remember...?
…the 21st night of September?
I’m trying to recollect this past month. Where did September go? It went by so quickly because I had so much going on: XOXO Festival, the Automattic Grand Meetup, a vacation to Hawaii for my 40th birthday.
Suitably, the above photo is a snap that I took on the evening of September 21st, on our way home from the airport. The sunset was gone as quickly as the past month. But what a great month it was!
XOXO Festival Thoughts
This weekend marks my third XOXO Festival. I’m honored and humbled to be a part of a wonderful event such as this.
So what is it, exactly? Contrary to what a current straight-to-streaming movie leads you to believe, XOXO is not an EDM festival. It’s so much more than an “arts and technology festival”, which is the short description that I hear the most. It’s even a whole lot more than what the official website describes, “an experimental festival celebrating independent artists who work on the internet”.
To me, XOXO Festival has been an inspiration, the catalyst for my creativity, and most importantly, the source of a lot of great new friends and a community that I have severely lacked in my life for a long, long time.
Ever since last year’s festival, I’ve been wanting to write something about my experiences there, since it has affected me so profoundly. But here we are a year later, well into the festival’s current iteration, and I’m only starting to write my thoughts out. Better late than never, right?
Part of my inaction has a lot to do with the strong presence of imposter syndrome amongst the attendees, as evidenced by this tweet by a fellow attendee:
Every single person I’ve chatted with during every XOXO fest I’ve ever been to says they feel like the most boring/uncool/socially awkward person there. Everyone wonders if they deserve to be at XOXO. I am definitely no exception, and I’m glad that I’m not alone.
I’ve written nary a word about my experiences because I thought that no one wanted to hear what I had to say. There are plenty of folks that have written about the festival, why would I want to add to the noise? Oh gosh, aren’t the folks who haven’t gone to XOXO so tired of hearing about it from their friends that have gone? I don’t have a cool creative project in the works right now. I don’t feel like a particularly interesting person. I don’t have a lot of faith in my writing skills. Add that all up and that equals complete blogging paralysis for me.
This community has taught me that my experiences are unique. That my friends do care about what I have to say and want to hear my perspective.
But for some reason, I still have trouble convincing myself of that. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I’m hoping to share more over the course of this year’s festival and well past the closing party. More soon.
File-o-phile
Tonight, I randomly decided to re-categorize and tag every single entry in my blog. It started with what I initially told myself would be a “simple” conversion of categories to tags, but of course, it ends up not being all that simple. I’ve found myself also paring down and eliminating rarely-used categories/tags, and merging similar ones.
I told Robert that I was doing this and that staying up way too late on a Wednesday night working on blog taxonomy seems a bit obsessive. His response was that it’s just as obsessive as his fantasy football hobby.
I suppose he’s right. :)
May 2016 in Photos
[Author note: photo gallery was deleted during site migration]
I didn’t do so well at blogging in May, but I was taking snapshots constantly. Here’s my May in photos:
- Cocktails at Bit House Saloon, which is probably my current favorite spot for happy hour. They have great drinks, mellow atmosphere, and a tasty fried bologna sandwich (don't knock it till you've tried it!).
- Spent Mother's Day with my Mom-in-law and Mom, who came to visit for a long weekend. This specific shot was taken at the Oregon Garden, that we set up to jokingly caption it “Happy Mother's Day, Birches!”
- Enjoyed a beer at Bailey's while the Moms shopped downtown.
- Collaborated yet again with Halsted on a delicious dinner. She made a Chicken Tagine, and I made a Mediterranean-inspired salad. Cooking with a friend is one of my favorite things to do!
- Went to see Tycho at the Wonder Ballroom. It was a great show and experience. The sound was really good, even from the mezzanine!
- Enjoyed Matt's BBQ with some XOXO friends. Coincidentally, this was on WordPress' 13th birthday (WP's founder is named Matt).
- Planted our garden seedlings in the ground. This year, I have two types of tomatoes, Japanese eggplant, fennel, leeks, English thyme, French tarragon, basil, and nasturtiums. Hopefully they survive the excessive heat that we're supposed to have this weekend.
- Made a Strawberry Basil Pink Peppercorn Shrub with Hood strawberries, by Andrea's recommendation. It's a tasty way to welcome summer!
Falling for Oregon
This past weekend, we took Halsted and Darren on one of our favorite hikes, to Wahclella Falls. They’re newly minted Oregon residents, and we’ve been enjoying sharing our favorite local spots with them. I love this photo that I took of them while we all enjoyed the reward at the end of the hike.
It was also really nice to be active outdoors. I feel like I’ve been a bit of a lump lately, and the lovely spring weather has made me more motivated to be outside.
There are so many more hikes to be had, so many more waterfalls to discover, and I’m thankful that I’m able to share it with good people.
Revival
Hello again.
I’ve sat here with my WordPress dashboard open for weeks, thinking of what to write. I was thinking I needed to make some sort of grand announcement, write a massive catch-up post, or write something extremely witty and insightful.
Then I realized that this was holding me back. What I love about personal blogging is having a chronicle of where I was at, physically, mentally, and emotionally, at any given time.
Time to get over any anxieties that my writing isn’t good enough, that my creative projects aren’t polished enough, and if my daily life is interesting enough. Time to just write!
Vitamin D
I had my Vitamin D Levels tested the other day, which my Doctor originally told me that I wouldn’t need to worry about till I was older. But she ordered the test anyway. The results were surprising – I have a fairly serious deficiency.
Vitamin D deficiency is common to some extent, but serious deficiencies are hard to diagnose aside from a blood test, as symptoms can include fatigue, muscle/joint pain, and weakening of the immune system.
Vitamin D levels — what’s really optimal? >100 ng/mL - Excessive vitamin D (see note on toxicity) 50–70 ng/mL - Proposed optimal range 30–50 ng/mL - Suboptimal <30 ng/mL - Deficient <20 ng/mL - Overt vitamin D deficiency <10 ng/mL - Seriously deficient (Source)
I’m at 11 ng/mL, which hovers right over seriously deficient. Luckily, it is easily remedied… I am starting off with 8 weeks of a prescription strength dose of Vitamin D (50,000 IU/week), and I should regulate my Vitamin D intake (both supplements and sunlight) thereafter in order to stay at an optimal level.
Why am I telling you this? Because even though a a slight deficiency is normal, an overt or serious deficiency can lead to more problems if it is not addressed early enough. Have your doctor request this test next time you have a routine blood test to be sure.
Also, I just wanted to set it straight after my Twitter post set off a whole chain of replies commenting on my situation.
Take Away Shows
I’ve recently become enamored with the music vlog Concerts à Emporter ("Take Away Shows") from the French music blog La Blogotheque. And I feel compelled to share it with you.
The concept behind the show is simple: catch up with musicians passing through Paris (for the most part, amongst other major cities) and have them perform live… impromptu, on the streets, wherever they may be. There is something quite zen and calming about many of these performances. Take, for instance, the latest video, featuring Andrew Bird strolling leisurely along the stone streets of Paris with his guitar, attracting the attention of nary a traveler:
This performance from The Shins on a bright sunny day makes me feel warm and ready for spring. I love how they break out with Alone Again Or as they stroll to find a place on the Paris streets to perform.
These are just a couple of the wonderful performances to be found within, including Grizzly Bear performing while crammed into a tiny hotel bathroom, and a performance by Arcade Fire from inside a freight elevator. I could go on and on, but you could probably just find out for yourself. :)
I find myself inspired and feeling a bit more at peace with every performance.
Way to Lose Weight!
Best spam from my work inbox today:
Why wait to lose those unnecessary pounds. amputate
Why not? It’s an easy way to lose weight! You don’t need that leg anyway, it adds an extra couple of pounds.
The Night was Broughten
Last night was 7x7 Magazine’s Bring on the Night silent auction benefit for SF Camerawork, where they auctioned off the top 25 photographs in their recent contest.
