Where's Abby (+ Dylan and dogs)

Summer 2026: Part 1 (Mostly June)     My first summer month off kicked off exactly how it should: floating with Maureen and Katie off Maureen's houseboat. We tied ourselves to the boat, cracked open the rosé, and watched our tan lines activate. A pretty strong start.     The day before, I had started getting in full summer mode with a key lime pie, fresh squeeze lemonade, fish tacos, cold brew… I ordered an inflatable pool even to prep for the hot days to come (sad spoiler alert, I wound up returning it for annoyingly practical reasons. Stay tuned/hopeful for better options to come?) My first Monday off was spent with another coworker, Cathy, grabbing lunch at Island Cafe before hanging by the pool and taking a dip in the river. Next time we'll make it to the pool early enough to claim the coveted in-the-water lounge chairs. Dylan and I rode down to Sellwood for a swim on one of the first days too. Seems to be a new tradition Bike Rides Some lovely and fun and silly ...

We have done a lot of bike rides since moving to Portland, but this one 100% deserves its own write up. It started out with such vigor and excitement. I got home from work and we made our plan for our night ride with our fancy new bike lights. Around 4:30, we saddle up and head north to the St. Johns neighborhood, blasting some Leon Redbone Christmas music, admiring the lights along the ride. Legs feeling great like we could ride all night. A pit stop to pee in Mcmenamins in St. Johns turned into a perfect treat of some tots and a beer.  Then it was time. Time to go the reverse way on the Leif Erickson trail in the dark! Ready to fly down the mostly downhill trail for like 7 miles, then exit the trail into downtown in search of our tasty Indian dinner that would be so perfect and warm and well deserved.  The initial hill to get onto the trail from this direction was a bear. We shamefully dismounted and walked our bikes most of the way up until finally getting to the entrance. ...

Carla came to visit! I learned that it just takes a Carla and a few randomized cocktails to get me dancing at a dragshow. We did a daytrip to the coast,  Not as many pedalpaloozas happened this year, but we did make it to the kick off ride and the goth ride. One highlight of the goth ride was having a friend from Florida actually get to join. We never made it to hang out with him and his family while in Florida, but on his quick trip to Portland for an event, he couldn't say no to the idea of this ride.  The Krupkas came to visit! This was their 3rd visit out to see us (including 2 visits when we were on the coast), so they are currently in the lead of visitors, so catch up friends and family! As usual, it was jam packed with their family, even with the addition of their fireball 2year old, they had more stamina than we did! Togther, we did 2 hikes in the city (Forest Park and Council Crest), had two spaghetti dinners in our backyard! (Extra thanks to the Mom and Pops for our ...

May 24th, 2025 marked a whole year since booking it from San Francisco all the way to our new Portland apartment! We have been so happy with this move to Portland. We were really quickly reassured that it was the right choice and found our spot to settle down for a bit. These tired tumbleweeds are setting down some roots. We found a great friend group right away, some through mutual collie love, some through my gym, some through pedalpalooza rides... i In this year, we saw at least 11 concerts, which was honestly way more than I expected we'd seen. I'd kind of imagined we wouldn't actually wind up going to too many. I was super surprised with just how much there is too. I think that was part of the overwhelm when we first got here, trying to figure out who to see because there were constant options.  We saw more movies in the theater (and ate the most popcorn) than maybe ever. The Hollywood Theater is a really cozy one that shows a lot of old films and often has little even...

We survived the winter! It was not nearly as bad as I expected this year. Apparently this is not the norm though, so we'll see what we get in future winters. We did our best to prepare ourselves, mostly by convincing ourselves that just because the sun set early didn’t mean the day was over. The biggest game-changer- Not immediately swapping into cozy clothes after work so we'd be ready to head back out with ease..  We kept biking, even when rain seemed inevitable. Some of our usual long cross-town grocery hauls turned into quicker trips to closer stores, but we still got out there. One particularly memorable ride was up to Council Crest, Portland’s highest spot. The trek up? Warm, sunny and lovely. The way down? A full-on downpour. We made it to get my tire fixed, though, and rewarded ourselves with some delicious  No Name Pho —a perfectly warm treat after an unexpected soaking. Dylan reports No Name Pho is closest authenticity to Vietnam and I'll attest that it was delici...