Relax

Hangin' out in Garibaldi, OR this weekend and soaking up some relaxation. Sunshine, blue skies, acres of evergreens and, of course, the ocean. Hunting vintage for the shop. Hooked up with our friends that we haven't seen for months--mere coincidence that they are just 8 miles up the road this same weekend? I think not. Fish-and-chips are always best at the beach, aren't they?

Hope your Sunday is terrific, too!

The Happiness Exhibit

Rachel and Chris - our friend and my hubby

I'm one of those people who actually clicks on Facebook ads. Not all of them, of course, but sometimes one will peak my curiosity. The Happiness Exhibit is project sponsored by Lay's, and while I'm no big advocate of potato chips, I do like photographs of happy people.


Tim and Bree - our cousins


Jennifer and Jane - friends that are like family

The project is a collection of photos uploaded by everyday folk to their Flickr group--and they'll be using some at random in future promotions. Promoting HAPPINESS...now, that's an idea I like.


Aimee - our niece


Sarah and Brandon - friends that are like family


Chris and Tinkerbell - Disneyland '09


Naomi and Joshua - also friends, Nay = BFF

The images featured in this post are a small sprinkling of people that make me feel happy. Some were taken by me, some by them, and all make me smile.

Try posting your own Happiness Exhibit and be sure to share it!

Merry Christmas

Happy Birthday, Jesus, my Lord and Savior, thank you for the miracle of your birth so I can have the gift of life. Merry Christmas to all my blog friends far and wide--hope yours is peaceful and happy with your family and friends!!

Recipe: Roasted Pork Loin with Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette

One of our BFF's, Miss Naomi Sohm, is coming to visit this evening. Due to our small space (and lack of dining chairs) we don't often entertain our friends so I decided to make it special. Dinner will be something I know how to cook but this is a new recipe to try. Roasted Garlic...need I say more?

Roasted Garlic:

2 heads garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt

Pork Loin:

1 (3 1/2 to 4 1/2-pound) boneless pork loin
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Vinaigrette:
Roasted garlic, recipe follows
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons water

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.

For the Roasted Garlic:

Cut the bulbs of garlic in half crosswise into a top and bottom. Place the garlic halves on a sheet of foil, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Fold the foil up and around the garlic halves, making sure they stay flat. Seal the foil into an airtight package. Roast until golden and soft, about 60 minutes. Keep the garlic in the foil and let cool slightly.

For the Pork:
Place the pork loin in a medium, heavy roasting pan. Season all sides with salt and pepper. Place the pork in the oven 30 minutes after the garlic has started roasting. Roast until an instant-read thermometer registers 140 to 145 degrees F, about 30 to 40 minutes. Remove the roasting pan from the oven, tent the pork loin with foil, and let rest for 15 minutes.

For the Vinaigrette:

Remove the garlic from the foil. Remove the cloves by squeezing the base of the garlic. Place the garlic, parsley, and balsamic vinegar in a blender. Pulse the machine until blended. Drizzle the oil into the blender while the machine is running. Add the sugar, salt, pepper, and water and blend until incorporated.

To serve:

Slice the pork into 3/4-inch thick slices and transfer to a serving platter. Drizzle some of the vinaigrette over the pork and pass the remaining vinaigrette alongside the pork in a small dish.

FOUND HERE.

Happy New Year 2009!

It's here, friends! A new year...sparkling and fresh with possibilities...some yet unknown. Ah, yes...[rubbing hands together]...where to begin?



Boardwalk at Wildwood

Resolutions? Well, I prefer to call them goals.

For the first time ever I am putting "lose weight" on my list of things to do. Twelve pounds would make me feel better both physically and mentally. Regular exercise, no excuses, is also up near the top. These are, of course, in no particular order or the exercise would have been mentioned before the weight loss goal, ha! Improving not only my health but assisting in the same for my hubby. More effort to balance the meals, make more at home and spend far less eating out--truly our weakness, folks. Push my grade point average up to 4.0 overall. (That's off to a good start by-the-way with a 4.0 after completing fall term!) Being a better friend to those that are mine.* Regular prayer time and Bible study...not just at church (ouch). More travel. More culture. More, please! And a real, true, live website for Pfeiffer Photos is a goal Chris and I share for this year--yup, that's a biggie!


Forest Park Trail

I thank all of you for reading, for following, for commenting, for returning time and again, and for being my online friends--it means more to me than you know.

*As my first random act of kindness for '09, I encourage you to visit the blog of Leah aka Moxie Photo & Design. She's hosting a GIVEAWAY to start the new year off right. With multiple ways to enter it's just a no brainer that you would head on over and try your luck. I don't know why more folks aren't already following her blog [yes, you can sign up while you're there!] but trust me, you'll love the goodies she's planning and plotting to send your way if you win!

Here's wishing everyone a very healthy and oh, so Happy New Year 2009!


Wahkeena Falls Trail



All photos displayed in this post are by Tina and copyright pfeiffer photos 2008.

Introducing...Cookie and Parmesan

Okay, I admit it...I've been holding out on you.

If you've been reading the blog since July, you might remember that I posted about the loss of our friend, our cat Pepper. Shortly thereafter we made the decision to rescue another cat from the Oregon Humane Society, and adopted a beautiful tortoiseshell, Cookie Crisp. We call her, among her other nicknames, Cookie Monster, due to her insatiable love of kitty treats!



Cookie is as different from Pepper as a cat could be. This cat does NOT like open spaces, feet or sudden movements. Her first three weeks with us were spent hiding. Between the kitchen sink and the wall. Under my desk. Behind the sofa. Lots of patience, love and crunchy treats later, she's developed her own little ways of interacting and showing us some love. Most days we can easily locate her by checking her cozy bed tucked a few inches under our bed.



In October, we paid a visit to OHS and adopted yet another friend, Parmesan. In all ways that Cookie is shy, Parms is not. Lap cat? Check. Heat butts? Check. Kitty kisses? Check. Sleep on the bed, watch TV, run around the house like a wild thing? Check, check, check.




The best part is that within three days of her arrival, Parmesan and Cookie became friends and are now almost inseparable. Parmesan has brought Cookie out of her shell and they play, chase, tag-team the laser toy, share their food, groom one another, lounge in their kitty condo and at times I've even caught them sleeping in the same bed.

It's good to have the pitter-patter of little paws in our home again.

Inspiration Sunday

Beginning this week my mission is to find at least one person, place, thing or moment in my week that inspires me and pay my respects each Sunday in the blog. This being the first week of inspiration, I have chosen my husband's grandmother, Eline Goss...we call her "Grammy". Yesterday Grammy celebrated her 90th birthday, and that is an inspiration in and of itself!

Mrs. Eline Goss aka "Grammy", Christmas 2006

A more gracious woman I have yet to meet than Mrs. Eline Goss. A true southern belle, born in 1918 and raised on a dairy farm in South Carolina, she met and married her true love, John, in 1940. They lived and loved for over 50 years, raised their family and made many, many friends. John and Eline were world travelers and visited too many countries to count via plane, train and steam freighter over the years. Every time we visit with her we ask her to tell us the stories of all these places and she just laughs and gives us her best recollections.

John and Eline at the dedication of Goss Stadium, Oregon State University, 1998

Eline is a woman with wisdom and a generosity of spirit. When she asks me how I've been and what I've been doing, I know she really does want to hear my answers. She takes time, she listens, we don't feel rushed through our visits. We eat dessert. We have that second cup of coffee. Nobody checks their watch, we just enjoy each other's company. I can't say how truly refreshing this is in our day and age of this "everyone for him/herself", multitasking, double-booking, high octane, espresso coffee, drive-thru eating, one-stop shopping, ultra-fast data transmitting, Internet, TiVo, "Chatting", Instant Messages, Email, Blogging, MySpace, and Text Messaging world we all know.

Eline has two children, five grandchildren and 3.5 great-grandchildren as of this writing. She introduces me to her friends as her fourth granddaughter. Having only one set of grandparents (of which one has passed, the other is estranged), makes this adopted Grammy all the more dear to my heart.

Tina, Chris & Grammy at our wedding reception, December 2006

Ninety years is an inspiration more than worthy of any blog post, and I am honored to be able to make it the subject of mine.

(Grammy and great-grand kids, Aimee and Haley, 2008)

Happy Birthday, Grammy, we love you lots!

Photos displayed in this post are by Chris and Tina Pfeiffer, The Oregonian, and our wedding photos are by Nicole Wickens Photography, 2006.

Weekend at the beach

We've hit a spell of misty rain in Portland going into the weekend and our outdoor plants are loving it. As a native Oregonian, I honestly like the rain. Yes, I grow weary of it when it comes for weeks on end in the winter but I always remind myself that the rain is what makes our state so green and livable.

(Arcadia Beach by Tina, Pfeiffer Photos 2008)

This weekend we are headed for the Oregon Coast to help celebrate our good friends 25Th wedding anniversary. They've rented two condos facing the bay in Garibaldi and have family flying in from Illinois, San Diego and parts unknown. Chris and I are staying in the lovely little beach town of Manzanita just a few minutes up the highway. Sun, sand, surf, friends, family, food, music and fun are all on the menu...good times!

(Tide pools by Chris, Pfeiffer Photos 2008)

In thinking of just the right gift for this special milestone, we decided that we would give our time and talent and document the weekend with our cameras in hand. Our goal is to find the candid moments and create a photo journalistic style memory. Post-festivities the photos, with the aid of my trusty Macbook, will become a custom photo book and DVD. I've been toying with the idea of offering custom photo book and DVD creation services through our Etsy shop and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this idea so your comments are very welcome!

(Beach at Devil's Churn by Chris, Pfeiffer Photos 2008)

All photos displayed in this post are available as prints and handmade note cards. Please visit our Etsy shop or contact us HERE for more info or to purchase...thanks!

copyright pfeiffer photos 2008 - all rights reserved.

In Memory of Pepper - 1992-2008

After going back and forth on this in my heart I have decided to submit a post in memory of Pepper, our cat, who we lost to feline lymphosarcoma and related complications last Saturday, 7.26.08. She was so much more than just a pet...she was our friend and we miss her more than words can say.

We adopted Pepper, a domestic short hair Burmese, from the Oregon Humane Society in the autumn of 2003, shortly after moving into our apartment. Her previous family had raised her for 11 years then had to give her up due to moving to a place that would not allow pets. Chris remembers bringing her home and that she hid in the tiny space between our kitchen sink and the wall for at least three days. After her initial acclamation, she first explored our home and then quickly became the "queen of her domain"...and our hearts.


Unlike many cats, Pepper was not aloof or independent. She was a people's kitty, and insisted on either being on or near one of her humans at all times. She was always a dainty girl, a max of 7.25 pounds when adopted dropping to only 4 pounds by the time she passed. She was a fussy eater and many times preferred our choices of cuisine versus the cat foods we provided for her. Pepper was a social cat, alert and talkative, she communicated with us by meowing and grunting and she followed me like a shadow.

Chris nicknamed her The Panther ('Small Black' was her gangster name) and he invented a story about her previous life in the jungles of Burma and how she migrated to America as a stowaway on a freighter! She slept by my side (and sometimes under the covers!) for almost the entire time she was with us except for the last two months when her illness made her retreat to a quiet space in our bathroom.

Pepper was a kitty that loved people and she always welcomed our friends when they visited our home. She played a mean game of soccer (batting a ball back-and-forth with us), "The Chase Game" ("run when we chase you!"), the "Where's Pepper?" Game (hide and seek).

We have many, many memories of all the sweet and funny things she did and of all the times we enjoyed with her. Life is simply not the same without Our Girl.

Chris found this story online and it has given us some comfort in our time of loss.

The Rainbow Bridge

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable. All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing: they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind. They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. Her bright eyes are intent; her eager body quivers. Suddenly she begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, her legs carrying her faster and faster. You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart. Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together.

~Author Unknown

Our sincere thanks to all who have expressed their condolences, kind thoughts and prayers--we appreciate it very much.

Camp Namanu...sure to shine, all of the time

In elementary school, I was a Blue Bird and then a Camp Fire Girl. I memorized the Camp Fire Law, did service work, sold Camp Fire candy, earned colorful beads and patches to decorate my blue felt vest and for eight summers I enjoyed a week at Camp Namanu (pronounced: nah-mah-new) in Sandy, Oregon. My first job after graduating from high school was working with youth as a counselor at Camp Namanu. In the summer of 2004, unemployment and some stresses in life found me out in the woods, working, once again, at Namanu--this time as an Office Manager.

Camp Namanu, founded in 1924, is a magical place for many generations of campers, staff and alumni. In the forest, near a river, rustic, full of traditions and rituals and ever so lovely. This is a place to make some new friends, visit my old friends, sing camp songs around the dinner table or around a campfire, live in and learn about nature, sleep under the stars, laugh until my sides ache, work hard alongside others, hike up a creek, swim in the river, create things with my hands and to feel, if only for a week (or a summer), that I am accepted, just as I am, by all those around me. It is a place that I miss when I leave, long for when I've spent too much time in a city, and can go back and visit again and again through the years and it welcomes me, it always feels the same.

Last weekend launched the 86th year for Namanu with the annual Open House, and I visited again. Hubby Chris has come to enjoy it (although in a different way than me) as well. Each summer, when I visit, I invite a child (or two) that haven't experienced camping at Namanu. This time I invited our best friend's youngest, Rachel, we took a picnic and made a day of it. As hoped, she enjoyed exploring Namanu as much as I did sharing it with her. We enjoyed the fresh air, sunshine, birds, trees, old friends and, as always, hugs and laughter.

We all have a place that is special to our heart. For some, it's only in our memories but for me it's six miles east of Sandy, a mile up a gravel road, overlooking a river and part of who I am.

For view a video clip about Camp Namanu click HERE.

(Camp Namanu photos by Chris, Pfeiffer Photos 2008)

Flicker of a campfire, wind in the pine,

Stars in the heavens, a moon that shines,

A place where people gather meeting friends of all kind,

A place where old man trouble is always left behind,

So give me the light of a campfire warm and bright,

And give me some friends to sing with, I'll be here all night,

For love is for those who find it, I've found mine right here,

Just you and I and the campfire and the songs we love to hear.

What is the tie that binds us

Friends of the long, long trail.

Just this--we have shared the weather

We have slumbered side by side

And friends who have camped together

Shall never again divide.

photos copyright pfeiffer photos 2008 - all rights reserved.