Seasons

The illustrator of this cute chart was obviously referring to Toronto's seasons, but it seems so accurate for Portland, too! I'm thinking (and hoping) we're in that little sliver of Spring. Supposedly Portland's summers last from mid-June to October (or so they say!). We've had a wonderful summer-like weekend-- hopefully the warm weather is here to stay.

The Week That Wasn’t by Sarah Lazarovic

Happy Spring

It's getting here... slowly but surely. The weather has been pretty mild and quite enjoyable compared to the 20 degree weather we faced in January.

Yesterday for the first time I ran a couple errands and didn't bring a coat! I did grab a jacket for the dog park though, because the chill came back as it got later in the day. Toby and I have so much fun at the park. Yesterday our neighbor and her dog Katie were there again, so Toby had a playmate and I had someone to talk to. Did I mention that the park is huge?!

See the little black dot in the middle of the picture? That's Toby :)

I'm guessing it's at least 3 acres, probably more. And it's only a five minute drive away! Next time I'm bringing some gloves. And a hat.
In other news, my window garden finally has some green! I am starting with parsley, basil, rosemary and chives.

I'm trying to sprout some more rosemary using an 18-ct egg carton--hopefully they'll be popping up soon. My goal is to use the rosemary to line our fence in the backyard. I'd love to have some handy 24/7 to spruce up our cooking. The other herbs will come in handy too-- especially when the basil grows enough for Nick to make his famous pesto. :)

Cold and Rainy

Days like these make me:

 a. glad that I can stay inside all day

 b. appreciate our cozy, heated home

c. miss California weather, if only just a little (okay, sometimes a lot)

d. dread bundling up and taking Toby outside to do his business

e. heavily distracted from my thesis (not hard to do, see above picture for example of convenient distraction)

f. crave a doughnut

Snow!

I don't have a lot of time to write tonight because I have lots of homework, but I wanted to share a couple pictures from our first real snow day.
This past Thursday we got 4 inches of snow! It was very exciting for us, especially being CA natives who don't get much exposure to that white stuff. We woke up to a white-blanketed wonderland and felt like little kids all over again. Nick was hoping that he didn't have to go into work-- because the city all but shuts down when it snows, due to the fact that Portland does not have the appropriate equipment to deal with it.

Unfortunately for Nick, the snow melted off the streets pretty quickly and he was able to get to work without a problem. Toby and I took a walk around the block around 8 that morning and it was so beautiful and serene. No one was in sight--barely a car on the street. And it was just white all over.
Toby was thrilled about the snow. He tried digging in in and ate plenty of it, too.

More to come soon! My dad was here helping us move into the condo this past week, and we covered a lot of Portland ground (and drank lots of good Portland beer [: ). We're almost finished unpacking, too-- woohoo!

P.S. It's such a luxury to have our furniture back... I have (at last!) upgraded from a beach chair to a big cozy couch. Never again will we take our furniture for granted!