Group photo on the cow couch

Warning: Food porn ahead

grilled summer squach panini, feta, pickled peppers, basil

charcuterie board, house made and artisanal daily selection

house made and artisanal daily selection cheese plate, daily selection of three cheeses, marcona almonds, fig jam

barbeque wagyu brisket, cornbread, caraway onion ring, apple slaw

razaor clam poboy, stewed pepper jam, remoulade, red leaf

local summer cherry salad, goat cream cheese, arugula

fish and chips, pacific halibut, farm fries, remoulade

The Urban Farmer menu can be found here.

Tasty Margarita

Kerry had to touch some Nip/Tuck-esque booty on her way out.

Photos taken during lunch.

It was a great lunch with delicious food and wonderful company.  Thanks Ellen!

Above: Panorama of Cannon Beach

My brother and I.  I lurve him!  [In one of the Facebook photos of us, he captions: "At least I'm the second best looking person in my family."  Awww...]

$1 = 1 token = 1 taste = 1/3 of a plastic mug.  $20 package = 1 mug and 14 tokens.

We tried to follow Gandalf through the crowd, hoping he’d lead us to the good beers.  Unfortunately, we easily lost him.  He is a wizard, afterall.

Cheers!

And God said, “Let there be beer.”

We ran into Asians… Johnny is surprised.

Some of those Asians were weird.  We tried not to hold it against her because she’s also Lao and a family friend.

Wait!  Is that a token?  No… it’s just a dirty bottle cap.  No more tokens.  See you next year.

(I figure that if you can read Korean, you can know my real name.)

Speaking of the lovely Kristy, I got a care package from her today.  She knows me well because it was stuffed with lots of yummy stationary.  I do miss all that cute stuff in Asia.  And I miss her.

1) Twitter: I’m twittering a lot instead of blogging because it’s so much easier to send out a quick thought than to write a complete blog post.  For anyone who has a blog, you’ll know that the intention to write a quick post will eventually turn into a couple hours of work.

2)  School life: I’ve started my classes for grad school and its been a complete whirlwind of work.  For the last month, I’ve been getting up at 5am, driving 40 minutes each way to school, in class from 8:00-4:30pm, and then studying/doing homework from 7:00pm-midnight.  I was surprised at how successful I was at operating on five hours of sleep every night.  Then when the weekend came, the last thing I wanted to do was be inside on a computer.

3)  Quality vs Quantity: I feel like I should be writing something of significance.  Recently, I’ve been putting photos on Posterous, with small captions and no story behind the pictures, then tweeting it out.  Somehow I felt that I couldn’t do the same thing on this blog.  I thought that everything I wrote here needed an explanation because that’s how all my previous posts were like.  So instead of putting something small out there, I chose not to put anything at all and realized what a shame that was.

So, I’m back on track, evolving and changing but returning to what I’ve known and done for the last six years – blog.  Yes, its been six years!

Tulip fields

[In the background in the Oregon Convention Center, where the Portland Yard, Garden & Patio Show was held.]

Tomorrow’s supposed to be another beautiful and clear day, with a high of 77 Fahrenheit (25 Celsius).  I’ll probably head back tomorrow and expore some more before the rain returns on Thursday.

I’ve got a little gardening project going on.  A couple weeks ago, I started seeds in a cell tray, and like a proud mom, have been watching them grow a little every day.  I think it’s facinating to see them leaning towards the window (i.e. light) every day.  The ones in this picture are Zinnias and you can see what they’ll look like here.

As I’ve stated before, I left Korea after 6 years to return to Oregon and get my teaching certification.  What’s the benefit of a teaching certification?  You need it to teach at any public or private school in the U.S.  Many international schools also require this license.  Most schools nowadays require you to also have a master’s degree in addition to this license.  So, many universities have combined the two and offer a program that gives students a Masters of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree and a state teaching license upon completion.  If attending part-time, this program can be done in two years.  Or you can opt for the full-time, one year program, which I want to do.  Full-time means you’re committed from Monday-Friday, 8-5pm for a solid year, with 1-2 week breaks in-between terms.

All these programs start in June, so that students can learn and prepare before being placed in a public school in September, when the American school year starts.  To start studying in June, most applications for programs are due by January or February of the year you want to start.  So, when I arrived back in Oregon on February, 5th, the deadlines for most schools had already passed.  In addition, before an application can even be considered by a school, applicants must have taken and passed the CBEST or Praxis exam (basically, a teacher’s GRE test).  So, I had resigned myself to the fact that I’d be starting a program next summer.

In the beginning of March, I went to two different MAT information sessions.  And you know what they told me?  There weren’t enough applicants when their initial deadlines arrived.  Therefore, both schools were extending their deadlines to April 1st!  So, this gave me about one month to hustle in applications and get the following done:

1. Study for the computerized Praxis exam.  I chose this specific test because I could make an appointment for the computerized version, where the paper CBEST and Praxis test were only available every two months.  I bought this book from Amazon, and started cramming two days later.  I had scheduled my test for 10 days after that.  The test would cover reading, writing, and math.  Math is my worst subject, the the one I was most concerned about.
2. Take the Praxis.  Even though this was a computerized test, I was proctored at a testing center in Portland.  This means I couldn’t have taken this test online from Korea.
3. Pass the Praxis.  The study guide helped a LOT.  I was immediately given my reading and math scores (I passed!).  The writing section had an essay I needed to compose in 30 minutes, and then it was sent somewhere else to be graded.  I would get my results 2 weeks later (I passed!).
4. Contact people for recommendations.
5. Request transcripts – from two universities and a community college.
6. Write two essays – 1) What’s your philosophy on life and its ramifications on education? and 2) Why do you want to go to ___ University?, Why do you want to be a teacher?, and Where do you see yourself in five years (professionally and personally)?

I turned in my applications a few days ago, and I found out today that I passed the writing section of the Praxis.  So, it’s just a waiting game.  In all honesty, I won’t be too surprised if I don’t get in.   The schools probably picked all the best applicants during their first deadline, and now they’re just trying to fill up the last few spots.  I’m positive I’ll get accepted for something in 2010, but if I’m lucky, I’ll be able to squeeze in with the 2009 bunch.  So, cross your fingers for me and I’ll receive an answer in 2-3 weeks.

Since all the craziness is done, I can once again be a lady of leisure.

As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been interested in gardens and plants.  In a science class in elementary school, my classmates and I were given lima beans, a wet paper towel, and a ziplock bag.  The seeds were placed inside and for the next couple of days, we were taught about the different parts of a plant.  I can remember thinking, “Holy cow, this is amazing!  All you have to do is add water to this seed and eventually you’ll get a full sized plant?”  Even when we had to grow grass in dixie cups for Easter baskets, I couldn’t believe the other third graders weren’t as amazed by “life” as I was.  By no means am I a horticulturist or an avid gardener, but even now, I love plants.

I guess some people are rich enough to have hot tubs in their yards.  I’ll just look.

[Above left]  One of the good purchases of the day was a Circlehoe, which has received lots of good press nationaly.  [Above right]  Then there were the Thai straw mats being sold for $70-$80.  My mom nearly had a heart attack when she saw the price.  We have some at the house now, and they were bought for $20-$30 in L.A.

My mom bought bulbs, seeds, a fig tree, a blueberry bush, pruning shears, and the Circlehoe.  She would have bought more, but we came on public transportation – Portland’s light rail system, MAX.

On the ride home, I noticed this poem above us.