Twinkle or Constant

My dad sat me down while I was in Medford for Thanksgiving to explain the ways of Christmas lights. Okay, so maybe I was already sitting on the floor. Maybe I was also testing every single light bulb in three strands to find the culprit of our lighting woes and spurred conversation.

My parents had successfully unpacked boxes and boxes of our Alaskan household and set-up their home to be functional before we arrived. I decided it was my responsibility to help their home have the Christmas spirit; because, let's be honest, after you've finished unpacking several boxes, cleaned the space, and organized all your belongings, you may be referring to your belongings as "stuff" or "junk" and really have no desire to set up a Christmas tree. And yet, it's really a necessary step in post-Thanksgiving digestion.

After debating multi-colored or white lights and twinkle or constant, my dad and I finally decided to use the classic constant white Christmas lights, with a note that optimal lighting consists of constant white with a twinkle overlay.

My parents house is now mostly Christmasified! Glad Scott and I could help, especially since it got Scott in the mood to Christmasify our home without any prodding on my part!

Discovering Memories

Uncle Tom, Grandpa Cavanaugh, Grammy, and Great-Grandpa Cavanaugh

Thanksgiving, family photo circa 1954

Scott and I arrived Wednesday evening in Medford. My parents new home is SO nice! They are unpacking boxes and trying to get comfortable in their new homestead.

One of the boxes my mom unpacked contained family photos sent from Boston after my grandmother passed away. I'm in LOVE with this box! I looked through it all Thursday morning and am taking home more pictures to scan and love on. The box contains mostly pictures of my dad's family, but since my mom and dad met in high school there are a few pictures of young Nancy.

I hope you're having a wonderful holiday!

Giving Thanks

This week I am grateful for all of our many, many, many blessings, including, but not limited to:

- The person inspired to implement paid time off
- Google's turkey doodler during the slow moments of my half work day
- Cool rain instead of freezing hail or frost
- Adorable rain boots at Target
- Parents who live closer than an airplane ride
- The 90% score Scott got on his most recent med school test
- The fact that I haven't hit a biker with my car yet in Corvallis
- The turkey dinner church gave us because they equate our student status with poor
- A cooperative liver
- 30 Rock is coming back in January
- Turkey bowl football games that suddenly organize whereever my husband visits
- Wonderful friends and family who have sent us their love, support, and cotton candy

We're off to help my parents move into their new home in Medford - setting up the Christmas tree and finding a fun restaurant for our Thanksgiving feast. Maybe we'll throw in a little Black Friday shopping as well. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Beaver Basketball

We had a chance the other weekend to go to an OSU basketball game. The foundation had a few extra donor tickets available and no one claimed them by closing time on Friday. Yay for donors and my great job!

I was surprised to see that the arena wasn't packed (on homecoming weekend no less)! In fact, if you ignored the student section on the floor, there really weren't many fans there at all. Granted, we did arrive around half time.

But we arrived just in time to see OSU squash their opponent, 64-33. Fun times!

Laughing Planet - Corvallis

It's hard to believe that I have a new favorite restaurant (especially when you consider the predecessor), but Laughing Planet is worth the change! The flavors are amazing and the company uses all natural and many local (to Oregon) ingredients. On their website About Us page, they declare, "We are dedicated to making wholesome food accessible to regular folks with time constraints, keeping it affordable, fun, and socially responsible." I love stumbling upon socially responsible and tasty places!

Laughing Planet is very "Corvallis"... if that was an adjective. There are dinosaurs on every table, though the collection may be all on one table if there happens to be a five year old boy in the restaurant. Artsy pictures adorn the walls, and the place is packed with your typical vest wearing, peace sign sporting, organic farmer-types.

Why? Laughing Planet is a mostly vegetarian restaurant. Hear me out! My previous favorite restaurant was Burgerville, so it can't be too drastic of a change. For those of you who wont read on without some meaty incentive, LP's menu does give you the option to add free range, organic chicken to your dish (though, we joked that it must be a rare occurrence, because it took our servers an extra long time to bring out our meal).

I really enjoy meat, which is why when a vegetarian coworker recommended Laughing Planet to me I avoided it. Does anyone else get a really bland image/taste in their mind/mouth when you think of vegetarian food? My brain seems to ignore Indian food and skip right to raw vegetables and tofu. Anyway, after hearing so many comments about this restaurant and suffering a gigantic craving for a rice bowl, I convinced Morgan to go with me on a lunch break.

Oh my deliciousness! The flavors really are unexpectedly vibrant and the whole meal feels light, healthy even. You leave feeling full and completely satisfied. The prices are great too! My lunch was $7.

Don't worry, Dad! I'm taking you there the next time you come to visit.

Decorating a Cubicle

When I moved cubicles this last summer, I was so excited! I hadn't decorated my old cubicle up until the move, because I knew I would only be working in that space for a couple of weeks before moving. My new cubicle is in an excellent location at the front of the building, below all the big windows. There is so much natural light and heat! It's lovely!

My cubicle is also directly across from some of the OSU archive photos hanging in the Foundation. It made my space feel a little more cozy, knowing that Scott's cousin, Josh, is nearby.

I'm positive the young scholar in the middle is a Chandler ancestor, because I can just imagine Josh standing there laughing at Benny the Beaver try to breakdance.

Also nearby, is Matt Damon from Goodwill Hunting.

How 'bout them apples? No... not really. It's a photo of an OSU student learning Russian. But I'm thinking that student would have had a great career in film back in the 1950's.

Decorating a large grey box can be so challenging! I wanted it to be personal, but I'd also walked around the office enough to know what I liked and what I didn't like. I wanted more color and I wanted consistency. Granted, I'm not finished. There are still so many missing pieces and more grey that I'd like visable. I'm getting closer, though.

I'm trying to become enthused about all things Beaver, so I used oranges, yellows, and whites. A true Beaver would tell you I shouldn't be involving any yellow, since that's a duck color. I had this fabulous mustard yellow vase, though, that worked better in my cube than it did at home. I'm also a fan of the recent grey/yellow combo.

To help my Beaver fever, I made this collage from extra Oregon Stater magazine photos hanging around the office.

I've had many comments on my excellent collage-skills, but I think it has more to do with how much they like orange and black.

I also made a few of these paper stars that I saw on a party blog.


You can't really tell from the picture below, but I made the stars using small white and medium orange paper bags. I may need to add more as well.

This picture gives a good demonstration of my attempt to decorate and still lack of substance. The stars take up the whole left wall. My desk wall has hanging clipboards and important information. I'm missing some critical elements, though - #1 a plant! SO necessary for any office space. Also, you see that big blank, grey space above the extra chair. I'm needing something there (a cuter chair would be a start). I was thinking an empty painted window or picture frame. Any ideas? I'm also missing personal photos. I have one picture (not visable in the picture above) of the future Dr. Chandler above my computer. More needed!

Honestly, I'm the last person you would want to ask about design ideas, but I'm pretty proud of how I was able to see what worked in a cubicle and implement elements that work.

Collaborative Healthcare with Western University

The other day our friend Chase was featured in the OSU student newspaper, The Barometer, for participating in a collabroative health group with Western University DO students and a variety of OSU majors. In the picture above, Chase is the student with the faux hawk, or "fake mohawk" as our older coworkers like to call it.

Each group was given a problem and discussed how appropriate actions can be taken in the healthcare community to find a solution. For example, Scott's group was challenged with this situation (not verbatim):

A little girl comes to her dentist for a cleaning. The dentist notices that the girl is pretty frail and shows signs of cystic fibrosis, but her chart shows no record of the diagnosis. Should the dentist refer the patient to a specialist? What is the best way for healthcare professionals to work together in this situation?

I think there was even a vet med student from OSU in each group, and each probelm involved them. I'm not sure what cystic fibrosis has to do with animals, but there was some connection I suppose.

Scott and I went with Chase and his wife Morgan to an OSU basketball game this last weekend. It happened to be the weekend before a major microbiology exam. Scott likes to say that this first exam in "MCBM" (don't know what that stands for) is like combining five high level undergraduate courses into four DAYS of review and then having a cumulative final. Needless to say, Scott and Chase were studying every moment of the drive and game.

This is what Morgan and I had to listen to:

Scott: Okay, tell me everything you know about Novobiocin.
Chase: Novobiocin is a natural product that stops transcription of DNA. Fluoroquinolones inhibit bacterial replication by binding to topoisomerase II subunits, and topotecan, a eucaryotic topoisomerase I inhibitor, is used for cancer chemotherapy.

Let's just say that in order to ignore my inability to absorb any of that information, I spent a lot of time talking with Morgan about sitcoms, work, or contemplating other non-medical deep thoughts.

Appletree - Lebanon

While my parents were visiting, we decided it would be a good idea to eat out for breakfast. The only problem was that Scott had a school service project on Saturday and I needed to leave mid-morning for an MBA group meeting. We decided to pick some place local to save on time, and I suggested we try the Appletree restaurant located in Lebanon across from Safeway.

I only knew a few facts about Appletree before walking inside. I had seen the weather-worn exterior and large parking lot when we first moved to town in May. Since it was Strawberry Festival season, Appletree’s outdoor advertising touted their strawberry shortcake special. I just realized, you really don’t have to say much for strawberry shortcake to sound delicious. I’m drooling and there wasn’t even a special description! Anyway, the only other thing I knew about Appletree was that they also have the Oregon State lottery available to play. Not much to go off!

So when my parents and I walked inside on Saturday morning, I really had no idea what to expect… and with no expectations I was pleasantly surprised. The inside has a homey, country diner feel. There’s a pie display case at the front and besides table seating, you could also eat your meal at the counter. The restaurant is decorated with country wallpaper and antique cooking utensils on display. You could tell the “usual” crowd was already there enjoying their meal by the time we walked in. The waitress could tell from memory, as she seated her guests, whether or not they would need a menu.

The back of the menu had all of their breakfast options. I didn’t peruse the menu much. I’m surprised I can’t even remember when Appletree stops serving breakfast. That’s an important thing to know! I must have been pretty hungry. In fact, we all were. The Cavanaugh’s don’t normally order a meal without needing an extra plate for sharing. We all chose our own meals at Appletree from a variety of classic breakfast options.

And they were delicious! My dad commented at how fast our food came too! He said it was as fast as McDonald’s but so much better. We also kept comparing our experience to The Original Breakfast in Albany, Oregon (since that was the last place we had all eaten breakfast together). Appletree’s menu was just as good and the location is much better for us! If you’re looking for a breakfast spot in Lebanon, Appletree is your best option! And if you go there often enough, I’ll wager they remember your name and order… maybe even have it ready before you come in.

Limeberry - Lebanon

Picture by me taken of Albany's Limeberry

My parents new favorite thing is frozen yogurt shops. Maybe it's not their NEW favorite thing. My dad has always loved the soft serve ice cream machines, especially if you could build your own sundae. Well, since they have moved to the "Lower 48," my mom has developed a sixth sense for yogurt shops. She can smell them out from a distance. The first time she ever came to Lebanon, she made sure to tell me she saw that a Limeberry frozen yogurt shop was opening up this summer.

The Limeberry in Lebanon, Oregon opened up sometime before the school year started, I think. It wasn't until my parents visited again that we tried it out. It was SO tasty! They provide you with LARGE cups, which you may or may not want to fill all the way with your choice of frozen yogurts and toppings. My dad chooses to fill his cup up. Waste not, want not. I actually don't know what that means, but it sounds right.

Limeberry posts their frozen yogurt flavors on their Facebook page, as the flavors change often. We found that out the hard way when we visited TWICE in two days. Scott had a really scrumptious Wild Berry yogurt that we were both dying to have again the next day... only to find out it had been replaced by Island Banana. We will definitely be watching for more Wild Berry. Topping choices were vast, from berries, granola, and sprinkles, to candy, cookies, and even juice pellets.

Limeberry frequently has coupons to clip in the local Coupon Connections that comes in the mail (or can be found at Safeway). If you're in town, I would definitely recommend finding a coupon and a friend and heading over to the Limeberry!

Parents Visit from Medford

I love having my parents so close! Scott especially loves it too. There have been a couple times already when he's asked if I thought it would be a good idea to invite my parents up for the weekend. Scott's motives are usually medically related, as I consider both of my parents to be well-qualified resources in all things healthy. This last weekend my parents came to visit and help Scott with a physical test he had this week.

It was a quick trip, but my parents were so helpful! Scott was able to get his physical down from 20 minutes to 11. We were also able to visit some restraunts in town that I've been meaning to see and blog.

Thanks for being our guinea pigs, Mom and Dad!

Chance to Photobooth

I forgot to post this when we visited Sacramento for Trevor's wedding. I stole Scott from the head table and made use of the rented photobooth at the reception. We were warned in advance by Michellie and Erik that we had about three seconds between pictures to pose. We decided the poses before hand... and then later I saw everyone break out the props! Oh well, still a very fun momento to take away.

I was definitely wearing Scott's tux jacket as I was FREEZING! I know... it was California. I'm weird. Also, I didn't realize my tongue was so long!