Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving 2011 brought friends from Seattle and Los Angeles to Rockaway Beach along the coast of Oregon. We rented a house that had a breathtaking view of the town below and miles of ocean. This was by far one of the most relaxing vacations ever. We did absolutely nothing most of the time. And the times we were doing something included walks on the beach, walks through cheese plants, oysters for lunch, and just sitting around enjoying each others company while stuffing ourselves with food galore.

This was a great start to the 2011 holiday season. We are looking forward to seeing family over the Christmas holiday from both the Li and Barr side. We wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

More Wedding Photos

Photos are up! Kendal started posting photos late this past week and more are on their way. Take a look at her site and make sure you login using the password provided. Once you're logged in click the 'first look' link on the right side of the page to view photos.

The entire wedding party at Mount Sunapee - Labor Day Weekend 2011

Unseasonably warm temperatures and plenty of sunshine here in the Willamette Valley made for a stellar weekend of activities. We spent Saturday in downtown Portland with our friends Rose and Scott Horton. Our adventure started at Mother's Bistro & Bar, a local brunch hot spot in the heart of downtown that we've heard about for a number of people. After a leisurely meal we reemerged to find that the sun had burned off the morning clouds and the mercury had climbed into the 60's.

We crossed the river and parked by the Morrison Bridge where we unloaded our bicycles and prepared for an afternoon mystery ride around the east side. OK, so it wasn't a total mystery. The game plan we had put together over brunch was pretty straight forward: ride our bikes around the east side stopping at breweries along the way. Not unlike a pub crawl, Scott would later dub this a pub spin.

It's football season and I'm a loyal Patriots fan so every Sunday during the NFL season I'll don my Wes Welker jersey (yes, I appreciate the irony in it) and cheer on the Pats. As a proud Texan Nola seems to appreciate football being watched in the house - something that reminds her of home I suppose. I wasn't content to sit on the couch watching the game and instead decided to break out the brewing equipment and whip up a batch of imperial stout for the cold months ahead.

About halfway through the game - and brewing - we got hungry so I threw some brats on the grill and some kraut on the stove. Gotta love Boars Head for game day provisions. As we chowed down on stadium-style wursts on hoagie rolls with mustard and kraut we agreed that sitting on the couch and watching from home was far superior to paying $8 each for stadium food. Besides, the beer at home is better too ;)

Today's game was a sloppy mess but ultimately a victory for the Patriots. Not to be outdone, brewing also turned into a sloppy mess which reinforced that it's time for me to get a larger brew pot with an outdoor propane setup. This point was driven home as I scoured wort off the stove, burners, floor, cabinets, counters, dishwasher, and Nola. Yup, not even my lovely wife could escape the mad brewer and 4 gallons of hot sticky beer. Hopefully the beer will also prove victorious. With an OG of 1.094 I'm shooting for an ABV of 9.5% - stout enough to chase off the coldest, dampest winter days here in Oregon.

4.25 Gal of beer in a 4.5 Gal pot

Beer, beer everywhere and not a drop to drink

More on the pub spin later this week. I've got to pull some photos off Facebook and my phone to complete that post and it's already late. Love to everyone

-Nola & Gordon

October Already!

Goodness how did October sneak up on us like this? The past few weeks have flown by as we got back to our jobs and running through all of our post-wedding tasks. Thank You cards are still being written so if you haven't received one in the mail yet please don't worry; we're writing as fast as we can :)

The past weekend we attended Wordstock here in Portland. This was my first book convention - certainly not Nola's - and we both found a number of workshops and talks to attend. Talking with one of the regulars we once again heard about NaNoWriMo which once again got us thinking about writing a novel. For those not familiar NaNoWriMo is short for "National Novel Writing Month", a 30-day writing exercise (literally) with a single goal: churning out 50,000 words before December 1 thus creating your own novel. I first got interested in this after watching a TED Talk entitled Try Something New for 30 Days. I highly recommend watching that TED Talk, it's only about 3 minutes long. The jury is still out on whether or not one or both of us will participate in NaNoWriMo this year.

Brewing and cooking are two of our favorite indoor hobbies here in Oregon. I've got a new batch of beer currently underway - a spiced holiday ale - and thus far the results look a bit uncertain. This was my first attempt at an all-grain recipe which means that rather than using malt extract (liquid or dry) I had to steep about nine pounds of malted barley for 1.5 hours at a precise temperature range. In the past steeping grains has proved to be problematic due to having an electric range so it was no surprise to find that the original gravity of the beer was significantly lower than it was supposed to be. Also I'm pretty sure that I diluted my wort too much in an attempt to produce more beer (5.5 gal vs 4.5). None the less I'm optimistic that by Thanksgiving there will be something drinkable produced. Otherwise it'll be off to Whole Foods to buy some last-minute seasonal brews for the holiday festivities.

9 Pounds of Grain

Boiling the Wort

On the cooking side Nola has been no slouch either. This past weekend she whipped up one of her favorites: oven-baked macaroni and cheese. Last year I gave Nola a cookbook that was only recipes for mac and cheese. Ever since she has produced some gems that have been gluttonously delicious. However, leading up to the wedding we had a self-imposed hiatus on mac and cheese consumption so we were long overdue for a batch. Oh and how good it was! Four different cheeses - sharp cheddar, colby jack, parmesan, and blue crumbles - combined to form mac and cheese bliss. Of course the top was loaded with breadcrumbs for an irresistible golden brown crunchy finish.

Nola the Mac & Cheese Queen

OMG So Good!

As the leaves change and cooler weather comes with each passing day we wish everyone well and safe travels if you're venturing far from home. Love from Oregon

-Nola & Gordon

We're back!

First off we'd like to thank everyone who attended our wedding for making it such a memorable event. Celebrating with our friends and family was such a treat.  Nola and I both remarked that we wished it had lasted longer so that we could have spent more time with everyone.

We started looking through some of the wedding photos that y'all posted on Picasa and Facebook as well as the photo booth pictures. The night of the reception was such a blur for both of us so we love being able to revisit the event and see how much fun everyone was having. For those who missed it the photo booth pictures are available online:

NH Photo Fun Booth  -  Password is on your photo strips; email or FB us if you can't find it

We expect the official photos to be posted in a few weeks so please check back in October for a link to the official wedding album.  In the meanwhile our photographer, Kendal J Bush, posted a few previews:

Kendal J Bush Photography on Facebook  -  Just click on Nola & Gordon 9.4.11

This blog is our new home. We'll add links to honeymoon photos once we get them uploaded as well as a recap of our travels to Taiwan and Hawaii. The original wedding website will stay online for a little while if you're still looking for it.

Our Wedding Website  -  Our original wedding website still lives!

Thank you all again for making our wedding such a memorable occasion.  We love you all and look forward to seeing everyone again.

-Nola & Gordon