six cats in the yard

I know that when I started this blog, I promised to update people on what we’ve been doing over the last year since the wedding. Since my internship didn’t allow for any additional time off, we decided to take only a few days for a honeymoon right after the wedding. I hadn’t really spend any time on the California coast, so, after much agonizing over “the perfect place,” we found St. Orres in the teeny tiny town of Gualala. A few miles south of Mendocino, the town is apparently an artist’s community. And the cabins we stayed in were affiliated with the spectacular architectural oddity that was the main hotel. It was started by a chef and her partner from San Francisco, so you know the food had to be delicious. We didn’t actually eat at the restaurant, but every morning we had the most elegantly laid out picnic basket with quiche and homemade granola and fresh fruits. It was lovely and tasty and delivered to our doorstep every morning.

There weren’t any events in particular during the week we were there, so we mainly entertained ourselves, wandered around town, and hung out on the beach during the day and the hot tub at night. I taught Leigh how to play the name game, where you have to take the last letter of the last name (first name? first letter of one or the other?) and come up with a famous person. We played that game up in Alaska on the fishlines while we were trying to ignore the fact that our hands and our feet were freezing, that we were bored out of our minds, that we still had another 15 hours on shift and that we had volunteered to do it…

I spent time reading on the deck one day while Leigh was napping and looked up at one point to find a rather large turkey sitting on the railing across the deck from me, staring intently in my direction. By the time I found the camera, she was gone, as were all of her little turklets.

The last night before we left, we had dinner at one of the local restaurants, Pangaea Cafe. I was drawn in by the artwork on the roadside sign; it looked quirky. Situated directly on the main drag (Hwy 1), Pangaea was in a small house where they packed in tables and diners in a cozy setting. It turned out to be exactly what we’d hoped. It supports the local organic growers and tailors its menu to what can be had locally & in season. I wish I’d been taking more pictures, because now I can’t remember exactly what it was I ate. I just know that it was incredible. I highly recommend a stop if you’re coming up or down the North Coast of CA.

When I first graduated vet school and was unemployed while Leigh worked diligently and unhappily at his Seattle job, I played the housewife and cooked dinner most every night. I really enjoyed it, spending hours on the net or my cookbooks trying to come up with healthy meaty meals to replace Leigh’s frozen fare.

But once we swapped roles and I was the one working long hours while Leigh was taking a well-deserved sabbatical, Leigh hesitantly took over the cooking. Not that he’s a bad cook, in fact, just the opposite. But he wants it to be perfect the first time (and it usually is actually), but making a mistake or having it fall flat (which has happened, but very rarely) will hold him back.

We recently visited Curt & Jamie in Seattle and they re-energized my desire to buy organic & local and eat less meat. They also introduced us to a fabulous cookbook (Deborah Madison, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone) and we bought it. Leigh was the first to try something from it, a great pasta dish with capers. After we had a mild falling out about the fact that I don’t seem to get excited about the dinners he makes (really I’m just excited to not have to cook, in addition to being able to eat the great things he makes). I think he was mistaking my lack of enthusiasm for exhaustion. But since then he’s made the effort not to be so sensitive and I’ve made an effort to show him how excited I am to eat whatever he offers up.

This risotto was one of the first meals after our fight and it was really really good. He bought saffron special for this one.

One of the best things about eating one of Leigh’s meals is the presentation. Where I just throw things on the plate and then on the table, Leigh’s dishes look like they came out of a restaurant. (That little blob on the side of the plate was probably my fault).

Every now and then I will look at the Hood River News website or the paper to find out “what’s happening”. Being new to the town, we don’t know many people, especially outside of my work, and I’ve been so tired the last few months that it’s been easy to be lazy and just stay in. So when I start feeling like we need to get out and meet people or do more community things, I check out the paper. A few weeks ago I noticed there was a corn maze at Rasmussen Farms, a place where, Emily (who knows everyone in the greater Hood River/Dalles area) apparently used to work. When we were looking for u-pick flowers, Emily said to call Rasmussen’s and tell the owner that Emily says hi. The owner warmed up to me after that

I mentioned the corn maze to Leigh and then promptly forgot about it. Last night he surprised me by asking if I wanted to go to corn maze place today, so off we went. Nothing terribly exciting, but it was funny to see all of the work that went into putting together the displays of pumpkins/squash. It made me feel a little like a kid again; it also got me excited to carve our own pumpkins and welcome trick or treaters. Too bad I’ll have time to let the excitement wane before Halloween actually gets here. Maybe we can extend the pumpkin carving out by doing one or two a week until the big day…

I know I’ve been very lax in writing anything. First, last week, I didn’t feel like anything new or exciting had happened so I put off writing. Then I just got lazy. But now the main new thing that happened was that as I was going back upstairs at 2am Thurs. morning after answering an emergency phone call about a sick dog, I fell down the stairs and fractured my lateral metatarsal (my outside foot bone) and sprained my ankle.

As I was screaming in pain and writhing at the foot of the stairs, Leigh came down and tried to help but ended up having to go lie down for a minute or two because he started to feel faint. I don’t hold it against him; I actually think it’s kind of cute. Then I went into shock of sorts and got very cold, so he decided it was time to take me to the emergency room. I didn’t feel bad enough to stay home the next morning from work; in fact, I was in a great mood all day, mostly because I had 4 cat neuters in a row to do and they are my favorite things to do.

So now I have a rocker boot to wear for the next month. It’s better than trying to maneuver in my crutches which managed to leave bruises under my armpits. I don’t know how people spend months on those things. I’ll try to take a picture of the rocker boot, though really it’s not very exciting. It’s a good excuse to make Leigh drive me to and from work and bring me things….He’s being very good about it. I’m sure he’ll make me pay him back for it someday.

I’ll try, in the next few days, to post some pics from our honeymoon last year and some more random thoughts or pictures.