Happy Thanksgiving!

Lots to be thankful this year! Matt and I are both so happy to be back on the West coast. We feel extremely blessed to have great jobs that challenge and fulfill us, and give us the funds to live a very comfortable life. We are missing all our wonderful family and friends, especially since this is our first year to have Thanksgiving just the two of us. But there is also something very special about celebrating the holiday as a couple.

This morning we took part in the 17th Annual 5K Run to Feed the Hungry, along with about 30,000 other people. We had so much fun and hope to make it a tradition every year we are in Sacramento for Thanksgiving. So if you want to come visit us for Turkey day, bring your tennis shoes! The starting line was about eight blocks from our house so it really couldn't be more convenient for us. The course runs through the neighborhoods near our house and people hung out in their front yards to cheer people on. Some houses had bonfires, others had bands playing for the runners. Lots of people walked with their kids, pushed strollers, etc. so it was a very casual walk/run. We should have started with the timed 5K but started with the Fun Run group so we spent a lot of the time weaving in and out of walkers. I bet we ran an extra quarter mile from all the weaving we had to do! While we were grateful to burn a few extra calories before we consume a ton, the event was actually focused on raising money to help those less fortunate in our community. What's not to love about that!

Now, on to food! Fortunately making a big feast for two is really pretty easy. Last night I got the orange cranberry sauce, pumpkin ice cream pie and fruit salad out of the way. Now the turkey is in the oven, the green bean casserole is in crock pot and the sweet potato casserole is waiting to go in the oven. The table is set and we're sipping on cold beers, watching football.

And the dogs are keeping each other busy. Yes, you read that right, dogS. We are puppy sitting Cali, my coworker Jessica's dog. She and Bounce are about a month apart in age and very similar in size. They played together a few weekends ago and really couldn't get along any better. Don't be fooled by the picture, they are a lot of energy and can't figure out how to calm down while the other one is around. Hopefully they figure it out soon, as Cali is staying with us until Saturday afternoon!

So that's our Thanksgiving so far! Hopefully all the food turns out. (You never know with me, I have plenty of failed attempts at cooking...just last weekend I butchered pecan pie and had to throw the whole thing away. But I gave it a second try and got it right.)

We are thankful for all the loved ones in our life (That's you!).

Doing what I do best...

Lounging and watching for squirrels!

Life is good, if only I didn't have kennel cough and a parasite. Fortunately it isn't anything some good drugs (and extra snuggling) can't cure!

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Down and Dirty Mud Run

Some accused us of being crazy (cough, Dad, cough) for voluntarily running and crawling through mud pits. And yes, maybe it is a little crazy. But really, so much fun! It isn't very often in our adult lives that we just let loose and jump in mud puddles, go into lakes fully clothed, etc.

The 5K Mud Run was sponsored by Merrell and held at Folsom Lake, just outside of Sacramento. The location was perfect! It's gorgeous, especially early in the morning.

How early? We had to get up at 5:45 am and let's just say that was not the highlight of the day. We were TIRED! And thankfully they had heaters out because it was also cold (at least we were still clean).

We finally hit the trail after waiting what felt like forever. It was a much harder course than Matt and I anticipated. Perhaps if we trained it wouldn't have been as bad. But the hills were just killer. One in particular had just about everyone walking (except Matt!).

The obstacles were the big unknown factor and fortunately they weren't too hard. There were six in total. I had visions of a big wall to climb, that I just couldn't get over so Matt had to shove me over. That didn't happen, but there was one obstacle that I kind of wish he could have hoisted me up a little! There were three subsequent wooden bars you had to jump up to and pull yourself over. They were no big deal for Matt with his 6'1" stature but with my 5'3" stature, it was significantly more difficult.

So after running maybe 2 miles we had our first small mud pit to cross through. Then ran roughly 3/4 mile more and we came to the biggest surprise of an obstacle. Walking through the lake! We had to walk around the perimeter of the swimming area. It was slow moving for sure, with the water getting to about my chest at it's deepest point. Then we ran another 200 yards with our shoes slooshing to a soapy incline obstacle.

Then came the fun part! The big mud pit! We crawled and crawled and made it through to cross the finish line. No records were broke, with a slow time of 45 minutes. The fastest time was 26 minutes I think so even those speedy runners were slowed down with the obstacles and lake detour!

I am glad we did it. It's a fun thing to do at least once in your life.

Probably not something you want to do on a regular basis considering we both threw out our shoes and I had to wash our clothes 4 times before the mud came out and my white sports bra will forever be a shade of light brown.

These are our shoes after washing off, I should have captured them beforehand!

Zags are Back!!

Zag basketball is back and I couldn't be more excited! The team is ranked #12 to start the season and the non-conference schedule delivers lots of tasty match-ups against the nation's best. I'm excited to see how the Zags stack up! If the 117-72 season opening victory is any indication, it could be a special year. Here are three thoughts stemming from the big opening win:

- It looks like the 2010-11 edition of the Zags will be able to score from the perimeter. The post scoring was never in doubt heading into the season, but the Zags drained 13 threes led by Gray and freshman, Monninghoff. If the Zags can keep teams honest on "d" with a decent perimeter game, the offense could be one of the nation's best...easily.

- To sandwich in a complaint amongst all the superlatives from tonight's blowout: the Zags played lousy perimeter defense, in my opinion. Too much collapsing into the paint and giving up open looks, and way, way too much fouls on three point attempts (I think we had four)! Against a stronger shooting opponent, that could be an achilles heel. I do have to point out: all our crashing the paint did was yield a 57-16 rebounding margin (in a word....domination).

- Dower is amazing. I can't believe he's a redshirt freshman. That he comes off the bench only serves to reinforce my excitement about our dominant frontcourt. Wow.

Portland VisionWalk 2010

My brother, mother and I have been diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), a genetic eye condition that causes limited peripheral and night vision (read more about my RP experience here and here). On October 23rd, Cara and I returned to Portland to participate in the 2010 Oregon VisionWalk, a fundraiser for the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Here are some of the highlights:

(1) The walk was held under typical Northwest grey skies, but the forecasted rain held off. In fact, we were even blessed with an occasional sun-break - perfect walking weather! Cara and I are claiming responsibility for bringing the sunny Sacramento weather with us to the Rose City.

(2) Our team, Believing is Seeing was 15 members strong and we were all looking quite fashionable in our bright yellow team t-shirts (which my dad and brother designed together).

(3) Thanks to all our friends and family for supporting us in this worthwhile cause. Our team raised $4,075 and as a whole, Oregon VisionWalk raised nearly $35,000!

Here are a few more photos to tell the story (in no particular order). Can't wait until next year!

Becca and Mark getting geared up for the walk


About one-third of our AWESOME team:


Cara and her sister, Megan, making sure we all walk our three miles


James and his wife, Ada, before the walk


The extended Hoag family before the walk


Poppy + Becca (and her balloon dog)


Trent was able to snag a lap-long piggy back ride!


Matt and his brother, James, hamming it up for the camera

Adventures in being domesticated

Today marks a milestone in the Hoag household. Our very first poached eggs! I may be late to the party, but I had no idea you can poach an egg using simply boiling water and vinegar in a saucepan, but sure enough, you can! Thanks to the internet, we have a new egg cooking technique! My guide? E-how.

Once I had a pot of boiling water I added some vinegar (didn't bother measuring) and then stirred until I had a little whirlpool going. Then simply poured the egg (already cracked and hanging out in a small bowl) into the eye of the whirlpool. While it was cooking Matt and I stared at it wondering if this method really worked. Hard to tell as you can see below.

But after 3-5 minutes I used a slotted spoon and found this:

Mmmm! Success! (This was Matt's second, as you can see the remnants of egg #1 on the plate.)

Okay, maybe I shouldn't feel so accomplished as it was really easy. But I just love learning new things. Matt got to listen to me sing "I poached an egg, I poached an egg, I poached an egg" on and off for about thirty minutes this morning. What a great Sunday morning!

So tell me, am I late to the party? Did you know you can poach eggs like this? Have you done it before?

Pumpkin this, pumpkin that

Fall is my favorite season. I just love so many things about it. Today we took Bounce on a walk through the neighborhood and I just couldn't get enough of the leaves on the ground. I love to drag my feet, seeing my shoes swim through the leaves. I love stepping and hearing the crunch below me. I love the smell of leaves on the ground

Oh, but this blog post isn't titled leaves this, leaves that, now is it? I also love all things pumpkin. In fact, I am sipping on one of these as I type:

Pumpkin recipes are definitely some of my favorites. I have my standby pumpkin muffins that I make every year. And this year I couldn't help but try out a few other recipes. So far I've made my muffins plus:

• pumpkin scones (cheated and used a boxed mix but they were good!)
• pumpkin crepes (seriously delicious, but aparently crepes are hard to make...my presentation was not pretty!)
• pumpkin butter (yum yum yum - and check out the many ways you can use pumpkin butter, including the pumpkin crepes above.)
• pumpkin granola (really enjoyed this, but found that I needed to bake for longer than the recipe called for.)
• pumpkin bars (this recipe was from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and umm, I messed them up by accidently omitting baking soda, but I bet they would have been good!)

And though I haven't made one myself, I've been enjoying plenty of Soy Starbucks Pumpkin Lattes. Mmmm. Since there is pumpkin season is still upon us, I'll be baking up a few more pumpkin recipes, like pumpkin oatmeal and pumpkin ice cream pie. Plus at least one more batch of the muffins! Here's the recipe for the muffins. I got it from a fellow WSU grad student back in 2005.

1 3/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon dry ginger

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1/3 cup water

1 cup canned pumpkin (I actually used the whole 15 oz can)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

  

In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl, stir together wet ingredients, then add to the dry, stirring until batter is just combined.  Pour batter in a greased, floured loaf pan. Put approx. 2 tablespoons in cupcake liners and bake for 18-20 minutes. Frost with cream cheese frosting (optional).

I definitely recommend the muffins. And pumpkin spice lattes. And the pumpkin crepes. And the pumpkin butter. Okay, so I recommend them all, all but the pumpkin bars without baking soda!

MLS Playoff Predictions, Part II

The MLS Playoffs continue tomorrow night at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ with the 2nd leg of New York Red Bulls vs. San Jose Earthquakes. Here are my predictions for the second leg of these home-and-home ties (home teams are listed first). I also recap how I did in my previous predictions.

New York Red Bulls 2 v 1 San Jose Earthquakes:
I predicted an entertaining 2-2 tie in the first leg and missed the boat. New York (NYRB) scored through Joel Lindpere and pulled out the 1-0 away win to take a slim advantage back home to Red Bull Arena. I should've known better, Joel Lindpere has done nothing but score big goals for New York this season. In leg two, NYRB scores early riding the energy of their first playoff game at the new arena and the return of star DP, Thierry Henry. They ride this early boost to a 2-1 victory and advance 3-1 on the aggregate. (Goals: NY-Henry, Angel | SJ - Wondolowski)

Columbus Crew 1 v 1 Colorado Rapids:
Columbus looked vulnerable in a 1-0 loss in the leg one loss at Colorado and the Rapids should've put at least one more score on the board. Although Mastroeni scored as I predicted, Casey (and others) couldn't put a 2nd ball in the net and now, the series heads to Columbus with the Crew looking to bounce back at home against the hot Rapids. I think the Crew will find the net in this one, but are unable to keep the Rapids forward duo of Casey and Cummings held in check the full 90 minutes. Colorado advances 2-1 on aggregate. (Goals: COLO - Cummings | COLU - Lenhart)

Real Salt Lake 1 v FC Dallas 1:
I got the winner and margin of victory right, but the scoreline wrong. Real Salt Lake (RSL) drew blood first against Dallas, but the Hoops fired back with two straight goals to claim an important 2-1 advantage with a trip to RSL's Rio Tinto Stadium looming. The game was filled with drama as RSL saw their midfield catalyst Javier Morales sent off with a red card. Although, the Hoops also saw a player sent off who will miss the second leg (Atiba Harris), RSL will miss Morales much more. Further, there's word out of Salt Lake that RSL's top offensive threat, Alvaro Saborio may be limited or scratched altogether with a knee injury. Although, RSL has an incredibly deep team AND has been tough to tackle at RSL, I don't think they can muster enough to keep the dangerous Hoops off the scoreboard. Dallas advances 3-2 on aggregate (Goals: FCD - Ferreira | RSL - Johnson).

L.A. Galaxy 1 v 3 Seattle Sounders FC:
Okay, so I'm officially a Seattle "homer" and I was a wreck on this prediction. L.A. Galaxy scored on a wonder goal from Buddle and their defense stymied and stifled the Sounders all night. Although Seattle controlled the ball well in the first half, they began to get frustrated and inpatient in the second half and couldn't muster any sustained possession to crack the tough L.A. defense. Now, the tie heads to the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA, with the Sounders needing to score to stay alive. Seattle's lethal wings, Zakuani and Nyassi, were held mostly in check and they need to show up Sunday or the Sounders will find their sophomore MLS season come to a disappointing end in SoCal. I'm gonna continue to be a "homer" and predict that Zakuani and the Sounders offense wakes up just in time to advance to the Western conference finals. Seattle wins 3-1 and advances 3-2 on aggregate (Goals: SEA - Zakuani, Nyassi, Nkufo | LA - Buddle)

Note: Although I was WAY off target with my 3-1 prediction in leg one for Seattle, I've got confidence my Sounders will deliver in leg two. And if not, I can take solace in the fact that my Spurs dominated the reigning European Champions, Inter Milan, 3-1 on an incredible night at White Hart Lane. Gareth Bale (my favorite Spurs player) is a beast. An absolute beast. I can't say it enough. Beast, Beast, Beast. Seriously, click on each of the previous "BEAST" links to read all about how he dominated Inter and their right back, Maicon, whom many deem to be the world's greatest right back. I'm gonna say it once more: BEAST.

So, yeah, I may have a bit of a man crush on this Welsh phenom.

Happy Footballing!

Bounce with me, Bounce with me...

Woofers!

(That's dog for 'what's happenin?')

This is Bounce. I see my parents do this blogging thing all the time and thought I better give it a try. Plus, they're working so I'm kinda bored. I'm gonna keep this first blog pretty short because I still haven't mastered this typing thing with paws.

Anywho, I'm pretty excited about this new blog too. When Matt and Cara told me about it, I BOUNCED around with excitement. Here's some photo evidence:


See what I mean? And that was just my warm up. The more I thought about it, the more excited I got. The excitement built, and built, and built and when I just couldn't stand it anymore, I LEAPED with joy and set a new doggy high jumping record! I almost cleared the grill!!

So, to recap. I'm excited about the new blog. Super excited. Jumping with joy, excited! And because of all that jumping, I'm pooped. Bed time for this bouncy pup!

Grrruff! (That's dog for 'later skaters!')


(Bounce)

It's Matt-man!!

Hey y'all! It's Matt-man checking in with my first post on the new blog: THE HOAG LIFE! Ya dig?

I know Cara and I are going to enjoy sharing a blog and this should be more fun for our readers too. Why you ask? Well, our combined blogging powers should ensure more CONSISTENT posting about (1) the random adventures we encounter during our lives, (2) the interesting thoughts and ponderings we stumble across, (3) our opinions and editorials on the interests and current events that strike our fancy, and (4) anything else that crosses our mind that we deem to be blog-worthy. Now, doesn't that sound like fun?

Bear in mind, anything that shows up on The Hoag Life must pass a rigorous blog-worthiness litmus test by our scrutinizing editor-in-chief, Bounce. What does that mean? Our blog is guaranteed good, clean fun. So, find that button to make our blog a favorite, add it to your Google reader feed, and enjoy the ride.

With that said, I'm making it a November resolution to post a handful of times each week, so I have fresh, interesting content coming for all of our loyal readers out there. If the blog is void of my musings, I'm blaming Bounce for rejecting all of my content! But, that wouldn't happen. I'm an accountant, so exciting, blog-worthy adventures, experiences, thoughts, musings, editorials, etc. are my middle name. And here you thought my middle name started with an "L".

Cheers,

Matt

Two Hoags, One Blog

Welcome to The Hoag Life! Get it? It kind of sounds like The Good Life, which according to our good friend Wikipedia, is a philosophical term for the life that one would like to live, originally associated with Aristotle. Spin that to be about me and Matt and you get our new blog, The Hoag Life! Hopefully we can use this “space” to capture what makes our life the life we would like to live—sharing life stories, pictures, anecdotes, recipes, advice, etc.

The Good Life is also a Weezer song, and who doesn’t like Weezer? Go ahead, press play. Enjoy a little background music as you read along.

Perhaps you’re familiar with Shenooligans and Creating Musing Gabble. Matt and I had our own respective blogs that we struggled to keep active. So that brings us here with a joint blog in hopes that with two authors we can post more frequently and quit being such blog slackers. Plus, we’re married now and merged all those other things like finances and chores, so why not blogs too?

Okay, okay, I know. A blog post without pictures is boring. So why don't we further introduce ourselves via some summer pictures:

We try not to take ourselves to seriously—we hope to convey that in our blog. But just in case you want proof, here we are with our delicious Coco Loco drinks in the Dominican Republic.

This is the last picture in our Knoxville home, do we look tired? We were. All the little crap left after the mover’s left took us forever to take care of. And yes, we used the self timer on the camera, I think this is probably take 15.

Here we are being schmoopy at my good friend Kristen’s rehearsal dinner. Love was clearly in the air as we celebrated such a fabulous couple getting married!

All done up at Kristen’s wedding. The setting was absolutely gorgeous and it was the perfect summer day in Seattle.

Hopefully you’ll follow along with us! Look over there, up on the right, there’s a place to become our fan! And while you’re here, hit that “Comment” button and say hi, tell us what you think of the new blog name and concept!