Christmas Eve

Christmas eve is here! And it looks like Santa brought us lots of goodies!

 

Everyone is excited - some more so than others ;).

Posing before we could open the presents:

And miraculously, nobody took any photos while we unwrapped the presents!
But we did take some more right before dinner (fondue, as always).

Christmas tree and cookies!

Today we got our Christmas tree. And what a beauty it is this year (can't believe it was only $30!). We got it from "Todd's - you cut/we cut noble firs" on SW Bell Rd [hello future Michaela&Jan, here's your reminder :)]. It's still in the garage to fully dry (guess what, it was raining when we picked it up, what are the chances!), but I'll add pictures of the fully decorated beauty later of course.

In the afternoon we started our cookie production. We have all the dough, but have used only roughly have of it so far. After all, it's supposed to be fun (and it was!) and not work. The rest will be baked tomorrow or Tuesday evening. All are gluten and dairy free this year, so they taste a little different. Still very yummy :).

 

Home made (well, kinda) bread

After having tried pretty much every gluten- and dairy-free store bread that Fred Meyer offers (all rather yucky), I stumbled upon a mix from Bob's Red Mill that is easy to make (takes about 2 hours in total, with maybe 10 minutes of actual work) and tastes oh-so good. Mom, this is how the bread looks like:

 

Ikea

Two trips to Ikea and a good 5 hours of work later, and we have
1) two new lamps in the living room,

2) a new dining room (the old dining table has moved to the loft, turning it now into a cute little grading spot for me),

3) a new entrance.

So worth it! I love our downstairs now.


What else? Days have gotten chilly (and wet) again. Which means that the fireplace is now much appreciated, by everyone:

 

Done!

Alright, I think I have now posted everything that has happened these last two months. Yay me! I guess now I deserve some yummy coffee, right? Right.

Thanksgiving with Billie and Rod in Lincoln City

I think I've mentioned Billie a few times (she's the owner of Maggie, the little spaniel that Pepper adores). Billie used to live right across the street from us. Unfortunately (for us, not for them) Billie sold her house here and Rod sold his condo in Portland, to finally buy a new house for both of them. They found a great one not too far away (about 10 minutes driving) on 2 acres. Gorgeous! I'm happy for them, but I will miss them nevertheless.

Anyways, this year they invited us to join them on the coast where they had rented a house for Thanksgiving week. How could we say no!

After arrival, Billie, Rod, Jan, Mag, Pepper and I headed out to the beach for a nice long walk. The weather was actually kind of nice (and that after a lot of rain and high winds only a few days ago). Pepper and Maggie had a blast, of course.

 

Maggie then found this rock. Looks harmless, right? Just a tiny puddle around it, right? Well, she found out that that puddle is actually quite deep (she LOVES to swim, so she had a blast). Pepper, on the other hand, does not enjoy swimming that much. But he had to follow his girlfriend to sniff out that rock! So he walked casually up to it, and -plop- down he falls into the water. What a shock (for him!). We were laughing of course, and he was utterly confused. Poor bugger. He made it up on the rock eventually (again, following his girl who had discovered a somewhat dry path to it). 

Love the ears :).

After all this water, he had to RUN (in his goofy style with legs flying all over the place). And every time Maggie got close to the water and the puddles (and sometimes jumped into them) he hit the brakes. Not again! Haha.

 

When we got back to the house the turkey was almost done. Billie's sister, Terry, and a good friend of theirs, Maryann, had been watching it and preparing all those tasty dishes. So good! I especially loved the turkey and the sweet potatoes.

 

And after dinner we headed to the beach one more time. This time, Terry and her dog (forgot her name :( ), and Maryann and her two dogs Bianca and Sienna joined us as well. It was so cold, but the dogs had a blast. We even met yet another one (as if 5 dogs wasn't enough ;)!), an cute Italian Lagotto (they're bread to find truffles!).

After the walk we cuddle up in front of the fire place for a while before Jan and I drove back home. What a great day!

Rain and more rain!

The rainy season is (finally?!) here. After a glorious fall this year, I guess there is no denying it...
When I headed home from work on 11/19 I found the parking lot like this:

I'm glad I had parked my car sufficiently far away from this mess!

Another "awwww!!" post

Over the last few weeks we have developed an evening ritual. Jan and I make dinner, then take our plates upstairs and cuddle on the couch while watching "The Murdoch Mysteries". George usually cuddles up on my legs and Pepper on the couch between us. They usually keep some distance (and Pepper can be quite jealous, so I always make sure that he doesn't bother George). This time, however, they were really close and enjoying each other's company. Love this photo!

NW-AMO meeting

The NW-AMO group is a group of small colleges between Portland and Salem (and OSU). We started this group about a year ago with the idea to create a community of faculty and students who  are interested in atomic/molecular physics and optics. With two meetings every year (poster session in the fall, talks in the spring), we try to stay in contact as good as possible.
Here are a few photos from this year's meeting:

 
 And the posters from my students:

That's my Jan:)

Jan got the Doug Strain Award this year, the highest award that ESI has! So proud of you :)

New Webber group

And Pepper had a blast. (He doesn't always come to these meetings, but when he does, he sure does get a lot of attention :).)

Halloween

My colleagues are so creative!

 

Nathan, the living slinky, and David, the... yeah I don't know exactly what that was!

My contribution: Bow on Pepper. 

And one of our students got creative too! Meet: The physics pumpkin:

Ouch!

In mid November Pepper stepped into a wasp! I had no idea at that time, of course. All I saw (and heard!) was a very loud yelp and Pepper standing on three legs and refusing to put any weight on the right front paw. He was off leash on some grass when it happened (I was about to throw the ball and he was excited to chase it). So I didn't really see what happened. I checked the paw, didn't see anything. But he was clearly in pain (and this is a dog that can usually take quite a bit of pain). 

I tried to get him back to my office, but at some point he refused to walk and just lay down on the ground. His paw was swollen to about twice its normal size. Poor doggie! 

After about an hour or so he was walking pretty much normal again, and after a good 5-6 hours the swelling was also gone.

Let's start with - Yum!

Gosh, I love the farmer's market!

 

Time flies....

... when the semester starts up again! I promise to upload a few more photos over the next few days. Stay tuned!

Poor Abby!

Our poor little girl is sick (swollen tonsils):

She got some antibiotics yesterday; hopefully that'll help and she'll be better soon!

Spontaneous dog park fun

We've been very lucky these last few weeks. We've run into at least one of Pepper's friends during our evening walks. Which is always great fun for dogs and humans alike. 

Here are Pepper and Pearl playing tug-of-war (no clear winner, nobody wanted to let go!), with Sidney playing ref (and sometimes helping Pearl). They had a great time!

Mini vacation in Neskowin, OR

Billie took Maggie on a spontaneous vacation to Neskowin last week, and she sent us such great pictures and videos that we decided to book a studio for two nights as well. They allow pets, so Pepper could come with us - a bit plus! We decided to board the kitties for the two nights. Would have been too much stress for them I think (and for us too!).

So - off we went on Wednesday after a morning meeting in Salem (I can't believe the semester starts next week!). Here's a brief video taken right after we arrived. Checking out the beach right outside of our apartment (funny enough, we don't have a single photo of just the apartment!).

Jan and Pepper chilling after our Wednesday afternoon walk:

While Jan took a nap Wednesday afternoon, Pepper and I explored the area. Turns out Neskowin is a really, really, REALLY tiny town. Essentially just a few houses/apartments, a post office, a cafe (that had gone out of business in July), a tiny store and a bar that was closed when we were there. That's it. Luckily Billie had warned us and we had packed enough food to get us through the two days. Plus, we didn't come for the nightlife, we came for the beach. And beach we found. Lots of it :)

 

Thursday morning we went on a long 2-hour beach walk. It was a little cloudy and started getting quite misty on the way back, and we were pretty much soaked when we arrived back at the apartment. But it was FUN nevertheless! Love the beach. 

 

 

We also saw this little fellow on the beach. (S)He was still alive, poor thing. 

 

And after returning to the apartment, more nappies for Pepper. A tired dog is a good dog :)

This is also most of the studio. Kitchen in the background, living room in the front, bay window and small balcony where I was sitting. 

Pepper moved over to the bay window after a while and was watching the other dogs and their people outside.

In the afternoon we decided to hike up to Hart Cove. Rick had recommended that hike, and a total of 5.5 miles sounded just perfect. Most of the hike is in the woods, but then it opens up to this beautiful meadow with a breathtaking view of the ocean.

 

 
Zoom into this photo, you can see the sea lions lounging on the shore. We had heard them while hiking in the woods (they are LOUD!). They were too far away to see with the naked eye, but that's what a good camera objective is for, right?

And here's the view of the water fall. The water looks almost tropic, doesn't it?!

 

We ended the day watching the sun set on our balcony.

 

 

Friday was our last day. After packing the car, we went on one last walk along the beach. This time the weather was beautiful!

(I also have some videos that I'll post later, need to edit them first.)

As promised here they are: