Tag: OrangeDoor

Our Pandemic Treat

When the pandemic started and no one was doing anything or going anywhere, Matt and I decided that on Saturday we would have our date night and our date night would involve buying a frozen pizza at Fred Meyer. This would better distinguish the date night from the other nights we also were at home.

In addition to a frozen pizza, we also picked up a pint of this delicious ice cream. This isn’t our preferred flavor (that one has Belgian chocolate in it) but it still has the Magnum magic: a hard shell around the outside of the ice cream and drizzles of chocolate throughout the pint.

The directions say to let it sit out for 10 minutes, then crack the sides with your hands (this breaks the shell) and then dig in. It’s incredibly delicious.

Sadly, it doesn’t seem to have taken the rest of the country (or our area of the country) by storm and it’s shelf space has been diminishing. I fear it might soon be gone forever.

But it was damn good while it lasted.

Pink Squirrel Nest

I’ve bene wondering where the bits of fiberglass insulation have been coming from. They’ve been appearing with regularity on our sidewalk.

On the way home from the library, I took a closer look at our flowering plum tree from across the street and suddenly got it.

Some intrepid squirrels were using the materials they had. I don’t think hanging out in the insulation was very good for their health, but it was probably warm.

I had a worry that it was coming from our house, but I think it came from the motel being open to the elements after the fire.

Trying out Induction Cooking

As I’ve finally realized that putting a gas stove in my house isn’t ideal, I have also discovered an inexpensive way to try my hand at an induction cooktop. It’s also a bonus because that burner doesn’t really work anyway.

So far, I’m impressed at how much faster it heats water, and am on a learning curve about scrambling eggs.

Birthday Celebration Part III

Yes, that’s right. For the third birthday celebration, we took the day off work and went to a corn maze! The one on Kruger’s Farm, to be precise. We arrived just as it was opening and were the first ones there. There was one other couple that came after us, but other than that, we had the place to ourselves. Here’s what we found:

Timer photo from atop a bridge with views.

The view:

There were many of these. We had fun solving them.

My previous visit to a corn maze in October taught me that footwear choice is key to comfort and enjoyability. I walked through while Matt walked around.

This was a big bonus to being the first ones in. There were many of these patterns on top of the mud made by some critter. We asked, but the person who worked there hadn’t ever seen them before.

Mushroom!

Some gross corn. The person working said it was a kind of fungus.

The inaccurate ruler puts Matt at over six feet.

And me at 5’4″

We traded off so we could get our faces in all the holes.

And used the timer to take this series:

After that we went on a different hike (really a walk, but less muddy than the corn maze) on Sauvie Island

And then, wandering around looking for someplace to eat, discovered that Broder is where Laughing Planet used to be on Mississippi. Big win, as I love Broder!

Here’s what my activity tracker looked like for the corn maze.

The Joining of the Fast & the Furious and the Orange Door. Plus Nidavellir.

Tonight was the night when the Orange Door broke out Fast & Furious Highway Heist.

As board games go, it was about medium easy to pick up. The important point is that both occupants of the Orange Door were positively interacting with the Fast & the Furious franchise.

We also played Nidavellir which was medium hard to explain and has entirely left my synapses.

Matt’s New Wedding Rings Have Arrived

Having not worn a ring before, Matt didn’t love wearing his metal wedding ring. It was also a little big. So he ordered three silicone rings from Enso and they arrived today. He was out of town, so I modeled them.

I’m going to get his metal ring sized down to my size (which is also his finger size, as it turns out) and retire my current ring. I like my ring, I just like his ring better.

The Fast and the Furious Finally Gets Matt on Board

(Hee. Pun.)

Matt is at GenCon, a board gaming convention.

Well, it took the manufacture of a board game and Matt’s trip to Gen Con and the board game company sending people to demo the game, but Matt finally loves the Fast and the Furious. Or at least one part of it.

The Big Party Aftermath

I entirely guessed wrong about how much ice would be needed. That was a month of preparation task I didn’t need to do. Also, too late I realized I could have emptied these outside and let the melting ice water the garden.

The Watergate Cake with Impeachment Frosting was the big winner of the three cakes. It also might have been cut and served when the most people were there.

The Pink Cake was also enjoyed. Once of the guests told me that it was literally the best cake he had ever eaten. I feel the same way about that cake.

The poor Goober Cake didn’t get much play. By the time we cut into it at 8 p.m. we were down to five party attendees.

I thought the 9/11 remembrances turned out well. I enjoyed reading where people were on that date.

We didn’t get a lot of traction on singing, unfortunately.

People were all into the both and plan for celebrating anniversaries. I voted for May.

It was fun to realize that some of us had known each other for a very long time.

The Big Party had the most number of signatures in the party retrospective lineup.

But we had good turnout for this one.

And this one. The 40th birthday party was the biggest party prior to the Big Party.

Happily, cleanup didn’t take very long. Sadly, Burt and Laurie, who were the witnesses for the wedding, couldn’t attend because Burt was ill.