Halloween Festivities

Check out the pics from my office Halloween par-tay! 

 She is a rad, colorful being

 So cute! These look like they should be on Pinterest

 This group of designers 'dressed' up like a software tool they all use. They were each one of the merge tools they use. Creative

 A homeless man

 So fitting for this one, she loves her diet coke!

 Katniss!

Did your office have a party? How did it go!? 

I ended up winning the costume contest! See better photos of my costume here.

Katniss Everdeen for Halloween

I dressed up as Katniss from The Hunger Games this year! 

This whole outfit cost $3.

Jacket: Borrowed from my friend Tiffany

Belt: Borrowed from my friend Lauren

Pants: From J. Crew, borrowed from Lauren

Sachel: From Williams Temple thrift store for $3

Braid: Fishtail braid done by Lauren.

Not pictured are my awesome combat boots from Tiffany!

What did you dress up as?

Rainy Day of Football

It was raining SO HARD as we left for Autzen Stadium on Saturday morning. The Ducks were set to play Colorado, and we knew they were going to kick their butt. It's always so fun to go down to Eugene and watch the Ducks. There is something about Autzen stadium and tailgating that is just so much fun. 

 college bff, sorority sister and roomate Rebecca

 college and post college bff and next door neighbor (on purpose) Lauren

 sorority sisters at the (wet) tailgate

 Scott and I trying to stay dry

 I don't know what this interaction was that his roommate caught but I think it's cute:)

 Those cute duck hats are adorable! Rebecca and her sister Kate

 Lauren and I with our shades---it stopped raining partway into the day!

outside the Mo center

OOOOOOOOOOO!

I really felt like I was in college again this weekend as I tailgated all day and went straight to a Halloween party after the game, stayed up until 3am, and then made breakfast and did laundry in the basement of my studio apartment with my best friend, who lives next door to me. We lazed around on her couch listening to Taylor Swift's new album and caught up on our nights, since we had gone to separate parties. The rest of the day was spent grocery shopping with my other best friend who lives nearby, blogging, cooking up some food for lunches this week, and napping with my boyfriend. I love weekends that are a combination of busy fun and relaxation. I won't have that for a while since this Friday I leave for L.A. to go down to the USC vs Ducks game! And then I fly directly to Dallas and then St. Louis for work, and won't be back til the end of the following weekend. Busy times ahead!

How was your weekend? I'll post Halloween photos soon! I can't wait to see yours!

Fall meal: Acorn Squash

Have you ever cooked with acorn squash?

They look like this:

If you've cooked with other types of squash, it's the same drill to cook it up. Cut in half, scoop out the seeds,   season and bake face down for about 45 minutes at 400 or so. There really isn't an exact science, you just want the squash to be soft to the fork puncture before you take it out of the oven. I like to spray lightly with my Misto (olive oil spritzer) and salt and pepper. It's super good just nice and simple like that!

I also like to get a little fancy and fill the center of my squash with something yummy, like quinoa, tomatoes, basil and seasoning. Cook the quinoa and fold in diced fresh tomatoes. Toss in basil and fill the center of your squash. This way you have a full meal in one little squash bowl. Delicious and easy.

Any good acorn squash recipes you've tried?

Urban Farmer

I was lucky enough to be invited to The Nines Hotel for dinner with a friend and we caught this amazing view while having a glass of champagne on the rooftop patio. 

Then we headed inside and downstairs to Urban Farmer for dinner, where we started with an heirloom tomato salad. That cheese ball looking thing is fried mozzarella. YUM.

And of course, two glasses of red.

This is the carrot ginger soup. It was delicious

And this is the Ahi entre, split into two. 

A side of green beans

And a side of greens

A perfect meal! Urban Farmer is a fancy pants place. You should probably dress up to eat there, as you'll be sitting among upscale company like out of town professionals and possibly celebrities/athletes in town. I love how the food was all locally sourced and oh-so-fresh. It's fitting that Portland would have so many restaurants with locally grown food, and I love that this place is in a popular hotel so we can share that with out-of-towners. 

Have you eaten at Urban Farmer? What other restaurants in the area should I try that involve locally grown food? I've tried Farm, Paley's Place, and Woodsman Tavern. 

The Pumpkin Patch

My sister and I managed to dodge the rain on Friday afternoon and make it to the pumpkin patch in dry weather. We literally got there for the 2 hour span of no rain that day! It poured all evening, that heavy, loud, torrential downpour rain so infamous to Portland, Oregon. I'm so thankful we had dry weather with my 15 month old niece out there in the patch!

 Sisters and the 2nd generation

 She loved the pumpkins. She kept saying pumpkins! And backpack, since she is obsessed with her Dora the Explorer Backback

So adorbs.

We got some little pumpkins....a little one for Natalie and then one for me since I like to bake with pumpkins. I don't use canned pumpkin...check out my post on my Fall Baking Secret I did last year. I'm excited to bake with pumpkin again this year!

Did you go to a pumpkin patch or are you planning on it? I hope you don't get rained on!!

A Suite View

 

As you might have noticed....I am a huge Duck fan.

Tons of my college friends met up for a reunion of sorts at CenturyLink in Seattle, where the Ducks played at the end of September. One of my awesome friends works for the Seahawks so she was able to score us an awesome suite for the game! It was super fun to all be together, have our own personal bathroom, tons of food and beer, and an awesome view.

Scott and I. Don't ask what we were doing/saying. Things got cray.

Of course we stopped at Pike's Place Market in Seattle at some point......it's hard to go to Seattle and not go there.

I can't believe there are only a couple of home games left this season! I love college football and I love my Ducks!! They play tonight against Arizona State! I'll be watching with friends but my lucky boyfriend is down at the game with his friends. I just couldn't make this trip work, with being in San Francisco last weekend and knowing that I'll be going down to the Duck/USC game in a couple weeks. But I will love my ducks from afar! 

2012 Nike Women's Half Marathon in San Francisco

This weekend I traveled to San Francisco to run in the Nike Women's Half-Marathon with 3 of my sorority sisters.

I love the NMW because it is all about women! The most exciting part is that all finishers receive a Tiffany's Necklace at the finish line from a handsome man in a tux. I think they are actually all firefighter's but I could be wrong. The necklace is a huge motivator and probably what makes this race so popular. I've run the full marathon at this event before--back in 2009. You can read about it here . I'm glad I've now done both the half and full, and it was a blessing I signed up for the half this year due to my injury. Thankfully my ankle felt fine during and after the race---all thanks to the fact that my sisters and I walked about half of it. My friend Britta is 18 weeks pregnant and running is not so amazing feeling at that point! With her situation and my injury, we took it super easy. It was a great experience to be in a race "with the masses". I've only ever competed for a time before so I didn't really know what it was like to walk part of a race. I've actually never even walked in a race, period. It made it quite a bit easier! Although I am still sore in my hip flexors---probably from the walking and running slower than my actual pace.

 The start line---25,000 women!!

 The finish line---The hot men giving us our Tiffany's necklaces in little blue boxes!

 At the finish line!

 I love that we wore our Oregon gear to run the race. We got so many Duck spectators saying "Go Oregon!" or "Go Ducks!" and it gave us a lot of encouragement! We love our Ducks!

We loved our awesome sweatshirts so much that we had to take pic showing the cute Golden Gate Bridge and 13.1 on the back.

Here is a pic of the actual necklace!

So cute. I love the girl and the bridge.

Something cool I found out when I got to SF---one of my favorite running bloggers was going to be running the half as well! I love Janae from The Hungry Runner Girl. I somehow missed she was going to be there (she posts alllll the time!) But my friend Britta (Brittany) who I went down with had been commenting back and forth with her. We just missed the meet-up she had scheduled because we found out to late! BUMMER! I would love to go to a blogger meet-up before a race next time! Anyway, Janae is awesome and got a 1:42 I think. AND she just had a baby! Go check out her blog if you don't follow her---I love her running and tangents. 

One more shot Megan took of us on her phone during the race. We had so much fun!

I just got back from my post-race acupuncture and massage and I am feeling pretty good. My ankle feels fine (thankfully, although I know the tendon is still hurt) and my hip flexors are the only thing that still feel it. I love this race, I love San Francisco and I can't wait to do this one again one day! 

Look, she's a real person now

What happened to my baby niece? She grew up in the blink of an eye. She is now a walking, talking, person that wears shoes and has play dates.

Here she is below with her Mama. Doesn't she look just like Dora the Explorer? Seriously. 

She is now 15 months and I can't believe it. Time flies.