Week by week is different here. On the road last year travel from place to place, it made sense that our environment and our schedule was always in flux. After nearly four months here in Portland sticking to one spot, you’d think we would have developed a routine, yet we haven’t. I thrive on change, I can adapt to just about anything, but there is an underlying current of the unknown that is different in our current situation.
I feel stupid writing about the weather each week, but it is so odd how it can affect you in the littlest ways. At the moment its power over our schedule is undeniable. We went from rain, rain, rain with temperatures in the 60’s to clear skies, but 85-90 degrees. RVs are like little ovens (think about your car in the heat) so when the temperatures soar, it is unpleasant. Of course, we have air conditioning, we have three actually, front, middle and rear, but unfortunately, even with full 50-amp power coming in, we can’t run all three at once and we can’t run them on high.
To avoid exercising in the heat we have been going for our walks as soon as we wake up, even before breakfast, (I always get indigestion if I try to exercise after eating). When we return we have breakfast and then get on with our day. The hotter days we have been going to one Starbucks in the morning, returning home for lunch, and then going to a second Starbucks in the afternoon. Not just for the wifi, the wifi at our RV park sucks and by the middle of the month I’ve used all the data on my phone, but now also because it’s air-conditioned!
Strangely, right smack in the middle of the week, we had 2 overcast days with temps in the 60’s, I tell you, the weather is just plain weird!
On Monday when it was set to hit 90 in Portland we decided to escape to Mount Rainier National Park. It had been close to 10 years since we last went, a day trip we took with my Mom in the summer. During that trip, we had walked around the green meadow around Paradise and picnic-lunched. We had hoped to repeat the same, but I guess given the crazy winter we’ve had, we were way too early because the green flower-filled fields around Paradise looked like this:
Oh well, it was just nice to get out for a bit!
Mr. Misadventures and I are big movie fans, so now that we are stationary, we’ve been going to the movies on an almost weekly basis. I’m thrilled there is a theater in the area that has a big screen and Dolby Atmos sound, always a Dolby fan girl. But I’m really bummed about the movies for Memorial Day weekend which is typically a big one, kicking off all the summer hits. This year its Pirates of the Caribbean which I stopped going to after the third one and Baywatch. Now I Love The Rock, but I have no interest in seeing Baywatch on the big screen!
Yesterday we had lunch with Esther and Jacob of Local Adventurer. It had been a little more than a year since we last saw them in Colorado and despite living in the same city now, it was the first time we connected. It’s always good to chat with them because they have such a pragmatic and professional approach to their work and it’s an opportunity to vent a bit, which is always cathartic. We hope to head out on a hike with them next week.
We met up at Luc Lac a Vietnamese spot we really like. It was our cheat day so we were happy to get out and eat some different food. We hadn’t really cheated for about a month, so we were like kids in a candy store trying to decide what to eat. In the end, we were reasonable and shared an order of spring rolls (as opposed to the fried ones we usually get) and an order of the house special, the restaurant’s namesake, Luc Lac, which is sauteed cubes of beef served with tomato rice. It was delicious and we felt good about sharing.
I lost another 2 pounds this week bringing my total to 16.5 pounds lost…so now I can move on to Phase 2 of the Atkins diet! Instead of 22 carbs per day, I can have between 25-50. That’s a big range so I’ve set myself up for 35 at the moment. I’m 13.5 pounds from my goal and 18.5 pounds from my stretch goal. Previously, I always turned to Weight Watchers when I needed to lose weight which has worked fairly well, but was always a struggle. On Atkins, the weight has come off more consistently and without any strife.
We have been trying to mix it up so we don’t get bored and with the nice weather, we barbecue a lot. This week we had salmon steaks, lamb burgers, tandoori chicken and sausages along with a variety of vegetables. We bought two large salmon steaks but ended up just splitting one so today I am trying a low carb Salmon Chowder recipe I found that uses Neufchatel cheese (like cream cheese) and cauliflower to thicken the soup rather than cream. I don’t think it will turn out as beautiful as Isabelle’s shot below but I’ll let you know how that goes!
Salmon Chowder by Isabelle Boucher.
I’ve been drinking a ton of sparkling water. That’s not new, but where in the past I drank a lot of San Pellegrino, I’m now drinking La Croix like crazy. The flavors are so tasty! I’m in love with the coconut one, it’s practically like drinking a pina colada. I’ve been reading more health and wellness sites (I like Positive Health Wellness and Well & Good) so I really got nervous when I saw this headline on Well & Good, but it turns out La Croix water is perfectly fine!
On the blog front, I took my eye off the Pinterest ball and traffic dropped so I created a whole bunch of new pins for old posts. Along with Tailwind which I absolutely love, I’ve added BoardBooster just for the looping pin capabilities. It costs $5 a month which I think is worth it to be able to set-it-and-forget-it on looping pins. I’ve been joining group boards which quite frankly is a pain unless they are a Tailwind Tribe. I’m going to check out PinGroupie to see if I can find more travel tribes that are set up in Tailwind. It’s free (for now) so it could be a good source.
As far as the job hunt goes, we’ve expanded our search to multiple states in the US. In order to not go crazy, we’ve dedicated Tuesday and Thursday as “job search” days. Looking for a job is a job itself. It takes a lot of time to find and apply for jobs. The application process can drive me batty. Then there are the personality and math tests that a lot of companies want you to complete before they will speak with you. But we have momentum with both Mr. Misadventures and I set up with phone interviews for new possibilities next week.
It is important to stay positive. Sometimes you need encouragement from others. I really love this post from Yes & Yes which details how to make any unpleasant situation suck less.
That’s been my week, what have you been up to?
Project Discover is my weekly series inspired by my 2017 word of the year, discover. Besides looking for a job I am focused on three things:
- Discover(ing) Portland
- Discover(ing) Exercise
- (re)Discover My Blogging Mojo
You can follow along every week in my Project Discover Weekly Updates.
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