Of these, Jaws feels like it’s out of reach, but China Beach and Livin’ Astro really motivate me. As a parent I haven’t had a lot of time to get outside and I’ve had to be efficient with my training. I’ve been trying to play the long game and build base fitness that is slow in coming. As part of this I opted to redo the Lattice Assessment last month to assess where I am and where I need to go.

Apparently my profile is in good shape for a 13a climber, and the Lattice folks think that 5+ years would be a realistic timeline to get to 14c. Neither this nor the summary of results was surprising. I was happy to see that my endurance numbers (while still in rough shape) had improved markedly since my last assessment a few years ago despite reduce training volume.

Some other fitness considerations include:

• Mobility
• Finger health
• Shoulder health
• Skin health

More observations to come!

My first experience shopping was exactly what a good friend had warned me.  “You may find that every dress you try on looks good on you because you are tall and thin, so be prepared that you might NOT have that moment”.  I love this friend dearly and do not fault her for this comment, but what it did do was allow me to be more practical, and rational in my process.

The second experience was better.  My mom and sister were there with me.  I pulled out a ton of dresses then pulled out one showed it to my sister and said “I know it’s a little out there but this is what I always had in my head- so I’m just going to try it on.”  She responded that she had already seen that dress and loved it as well but thought I would poo-poo it, so she put it back.

I stepped in the dressing room tried on about 8 dresses with the same feeling as my first excursion.  I put on the “out there” dress and without even seeing myself in the mirror knew this dress was different from the others.  I walked out.  Immediately my mom’s face was happier than any I had seen on her during the entire process.  I would soon find out I was having my “moment”.  Knowing I only pulled dresses in my budget I quickly proclaimed “this is it- absolutely- THIS IS IT”  Did I mention the dress fit my 5′-11″ frame perfectly?!

So with all that being said….. I’m selling the dress.  WHAT?! you say?  Yes.  The dress is for sale.  While it is the dress of my dreams I have to be a little practical here- I’m never going to wear it again.  As styles change, I also cannot expect that my daughter (if I have any girls) would want to wear this dress.  So I am selling the dress.  I am hoping to find someone who will love this dress as much as I did.  I am not alone in this trend and have already posted the dress on two websites whose existence is solely based on selling pre owned wedding dresses.

http://www.preownedweddingdresses.com/

http://www.oncewed.com/used-wedding-dresses/

So if anyone knows someone in the market for a dress let them know about these sights- but of course if anyone has a friend who wants my dress I’ll cut them a deal!  http://www.preownedweddingdresses.com/dresses/50852/Liv-Harris-Size-6.html

And if you are wondering what happened to the adventures of Kate and Daryl, they will hopefully be back soon.  We leave for Alaska a week from today!

So I think we’re married.  Thanks to all our lovely friends and family we have probably thousands of pictures to show of the beautiful day, and when we get the professional pictures they will be passed along as well!

Highlights from the day:

Daryl forgetting the rings at the hotel

Kate forgetting the marriage license at the hotel

Technical difficulties for our first dance prompting an a capella sing-a-long

Fabulous weather, good friends and family and lots of LOVE for TEAM AWESOME!!!!!

Many Thanks to our Vendors:

The Harrington Farm

Seed To Stem

Nancy Gould Photography

Mark Bloomstein of Boston Party Makers

-Kate

We checked into our room and I proceeded to fall asleep.  Around 6:30pm I reluctantly woke up.  While the Inn had a very nice looking restaurant I was in the mood to explore and since I had never been to Portland, ME and I thought- why not?  A short hour later we arrived in Portland.  I had started to scramble looking up reviews on yelp and managed to find a street which appeared to have some good restaurants on it.  We found parking on Exchange Street in the Old Port neighborhood and walked up and down looking at our options.

We picked The Grill Room for dinner that night, and lucky us, it was Portland’s Restaurant Week.  Daryl had the three course menu including salmon over a beet risotto.  I had scallops grilled on a rosemary sprig (I have to use this idea!) and a side of bacon-y brussel sprouts.  As dinner was winding down I asked the waiter if he had any suggestions for where to go for some live music and a drink.  I was sensing there was too much going on around me to just go back to the Hotel.

Local 188

He directed us to Local 188.  This place reminded me of Minneapolis 100%.  High tin ceilings, hipsters sitting around on couches- yes, the waiter had read my mind.  Daryl and I split a lovely porter and a cheese plate- their food looked amazing and I would highly recommend checking it out sometime.  I might use it as good excuse to go back!

The next day I slowly dragged myself out of bed…. IT WAS SO WARM… and by 11am we were on our way back up to Portland to see what it had to offer during the day. We arrived just in time to get some lunch and then started to explore.  Almost immediately we happened upon a gem.  Well maybe other people know it, but for us it was an unassuming storefront with just a chalkboard out front.  We walked into Vervacious and were in love.  There was a table for tasting their different balsamic vinegars and drizzling sauces.

Stacking Spice Jars

Now I like cooking, but I also LOVE a well designed product.  These spice jars lock into place so you can stack them and they form an M.C. Escher tessellation.  AH-HA!  A spice “rack” which is also a nerdy design element!  We got talking to the owner about food and cooking so I just threw out the question of whether he had any suggestions for dinner that night.  He recommended Boda and Miyake but described Boda as Thai street food styled tapas -we were sold.

We still had a lot of time left before dinner and walked all around.  Up and down Commercial Street, through Old Port again, up to Congress.  Being Sunday not a lot was open but the few places that were were absolutely great.  Lots of vintage clothing, and housewares stores.  One of our favorites was Pinecone + Chickadee.  I liked it for the organic cotton screen printed tees, Daryl liked it because they had a Texas Instrument TI-99/4A computer and old programming manuals that he remembers using in his childhood.  (And yes- I had to ask him to remind me what the make and model was for this post)

5pm came and we headed over to Boda and ordered two tapas, a salad and one entree.  Thank god for those people who take pictures of their food and post to facebook because I was able to steal their pictures to post them.

Ma Hor appetizer

Ma-Hor: bite sized fresh pineapple topped with ground pork, shrimp, onion and peanut

Pork belly skewers: marinated with salt, sprinkled with chopped scallion

Apple salad: local apples, shrimp, roasted coconut and peanuts in a sweet sour dressing

Beef Panaeng: Braised organic beef in a flavorful panaeng curry with coconut cream, served with jasmine rice
Sitting in the window I looked outside and realized the other restaurant that we had been recommended was across the street.  Pai Mei Miyakehad been recommended for their ramen- but my ears had perked up when I also heard they had sushi.  So Daryl and I opened up our reserve stomach space for some sushi.  We sat at the bar and ordered two of their sushi rolls, a tuna roll and a ceviche roll.  The ceviche roll blew me out of the water!  It was such a great combination of flavors, light and refreshing.  I would go back there anytime for that alone!  Being the designer I am I also loved the decor- especially the ceiling and lighting!

Miyake Interior

So that’s it folks! Hopefully that spoke to your taste buds enough to make the trip!  Oh and when you go, let me know so I can tag along!

I apologize the images are a little blurry, Daryl took the camera for Ice Weekend with the boys- so my old point and shoot will have to do the trick.  So with my Sunday wide open I took it upon myself to fully inspect my loot and make a fabulous dinner for myself.  I had a recipe stashed away for just the opportunity.  Paleo Pad Thai.  I added double the amount of almond butter, chili sauce and fish sauce which I now had courtesy of Nan!  I took a picture of my own but it wasn’t nearly as good as the original post so I will let you click through.

First of many recipe to come.  As you can see, we have all had tiring weekend