Only a little big news: Numero deux

After weeks of looking and shopping and searching then designing and crafting and waiting and reviewing and more waiting... the results are in ... its amazing and its mostly amazing because its symbolic of our love and commitment to each other. Its also unique in its one of a kind nature because we designed it ourselves, together.

(Not actual size :-))

Oh, and P.S. its really difficult to photograph jewelry and do it any justice. Just sayin'.

How

How do ya'll do it? Seriously, how is it that it seems everyone has so much more time and accoplishes so much more than I possibly can in one day/week?

Maybe I should spend less time blogging?

How do you have time to hang out for a lazy afternoon with girlfriends and time to make truffles during the week and time to earn a degree and raise children and go to the gym and be a good girlfriend/fiancee/wife and still get enough sleep to fend off the age lines?

How?!

Do I sleep too much? I've nearly stopped cleaning the house, for the most part and I still don't have more time. Maybe I just need to get up earlier in the day. I could add some time then, maybe?

Signed,

Frustrated, tired and behind on my list of things to do in the City

Just Read: The Boleyn Inheritance

Author: Philippa Gregory

As you may have figured out, I like to read period fiction. I was never a history buff in school. I could really do without trying to remember dates and places and events and how they are important to me now. Sad, huh. Well, we all can't be interested in everything, this just isn't my area. But, in that light, I do like reading historical fiction. Its nice because the actual historic events are there, you know, battles, wars, dates, people, etc but its a story. Its told with conversations and emotions and thoughts. Those are the parts missing from history books. Those are the parts that make it interesting, to me.

This book was, ok. I liked her other work, The Other Boleyn Girl, better. This story continues the Henry the VIII saga of beheadings and wife swapping and friend ousting. This would probably make an interesting reality show if it still happened today. My guess, it would be on FOX. It really is amazing that one guy, one person called king, one ruler of a country could just decide on a whim he was 'done' with a person and have them framed for treason and hanged, or worse. It didn't matter who you were, you were never safe in the knowledge you would live another month or year. Treachery was a way of life. Scary, now that I write these things down on 'paper' times haven't changed that much. We've gotten rid of the gallows, but the treachery and backstabbing and lieing continue. Ok, enough of that.

Anyway, the saga continues again after this. I am now reading the next book in the non-series called, The Virgin's Lover. It is post Mr. VIII. More on that later.

Oregon: A whirlwind, albeit memorable, Tour

I kept a little diary of our trip in mid-May. I try to always keep a travel diary when I go places, because, well, I just don't remember things, details, like I'd like. I'll have traveled with my brother and years later he'll say "oh, do you remember Mt. blah-di-blah?" And I'll say, was that the one with the weird trees? Its like he remembers details and I am lucky to remember some vague outline. Well, in that light, I've misplaced, lost is more like it, my diary of our trip. So, the abridged, hopefully not too made up, version follows. We started out in Sunriver. Our friends were involved in the Bend Pole, Pedal, Paddle so we went to hang out with them. While they spent their day riding and skiing and the like, we went to Paulina Peak and hiked. Really beautiful. I realize at this moment that 99% of the photos are on Mister's camera which I don't have handy. Anyway, we hiked for a few hours and it was wonderful. We then went back to Bend and had a lovely dinner at the Pine Tavern for my birthday. Ok THE yummiest home made, hot from the oven scones with the perfect combination of honey/butter which melts almost before it even ends up on the scone. I can just eat a couple of those and be done. Food's good too though.

Our Paulina Peak hike. Its not so easy to see, but the upper left corner of the pic is the snow covered lava flow from however many, many years ago the eruption occurred.

We spent a couple days there then set off on Monday to Crater Lake. Its only a couple hour drive and its a drive with nice scenery. Its another gorgeous day with very little traffic. The trees were green and the deer were playing. Then, the good stuff...

We drive to the top of Crater Lake, pull out our snow shoes and backpacks and start off around the lake. Next thing I know, he's popping the question and we're engaged. What a sweetheart. He said he wanted it (the asking) to be extra memorable. He was right, the lake will always be special to me now.

Mister, pre-engaged. The scene of the crime. Us, engaged. Remember, we'd been hiking and it was cold and I'd been wearing a stocking cap up 'til the pic was taken....... can I think of any other disclaimers? Nope, that's it.

We were off to the California Redwoods. We stopped along the way for an impromptu nature hike, oh and also to use the porta-potty. We walked through, on a surprisingly well kept path, a pitcher plant bog. More technically, they were Darlingtonia: Cobra Lily or California Pitcher Plants. They were very cool. Our photos didn't turn out so great, you'll have to take my word for it. Then there's the obligatory Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox redwoods tour. We needed to get out of the Jeep so it was a nice litttle walk. Then off to the Gold Beach area. We had intended to raft the Rogue River with my family, but it didn't work out for them to meet up with us, so, we just slept in instead. We got up late, had a horrible breakfast then north to the Bandon area and went on an amazing hike, Black Lock Point. We did the long route from Floras Lake. I think we maybe hiked 4.5 hours? I could be wrong on that. The last two pics are from the beach portion of that hike.

We spent the next day and a half telling my family we were engaged and hanging out.

We drove home Friday morning, uneventful, which is a good thing when talking about freeway travel.

That would be the whole story. I should get off my lazy duff, walk up stairs (my office is in the basement) find Mister's camera and download some photos, but, I don't see that happening. Then again, you may have read this with pictures because I just realized I have to go upstairs anyway for my books so I can take an online exam this evening.

I can really ramble with the best of them, wouldn't you agree.

A look back

I keep saying this, but its so strange to pack up and then decide what gets left in boxes in storage and what needs an actual new home of its own in our house. My photos and cook books and books and just weird miscellaneous stuff. It's also got to be weird for Mister to be inundated with my stuff. He's got to make room for me. Its all good, just can be a little overwhelming.

Me, my best friend and her new puppy Marty. Yes, it was the '80's, big hair ruled. It must have been Memorial Day or Fourth of July or some other holiday. We are at a park with her family. Tugman State Park?

Geometrics

This old train bridge / trestle was amazing. I'm only sorry I didn't have my 35MM and a tripod and a couple hours to adjust and ponder and photograph. Not that I'd have come up with any better shots, but it would have just been fun to do.

I should just take a photography class. I keep talking about it, but, I do have a few other things on my plate right now. Maybe that will be my goal for '08.

CSA: June 23

Here we go.

Saturday, a beautful day for a stroll through the Portland Saturday, South Park Blocks, farmer's market. (CA - do you miss it - or what ????!!)

The vegetables are so amazing and fresh. Have I said this before?

So, today we have red potatoes, beets, pearl and walla walla onions, kohrabi (I'll have to figure out exactly what to do with this little purple rooty thing), carrots, nappa cabbage, red leaf lettuce, cucumber, a nice bunch of dill, black kale, garlic and a sweet little jar of organic blueberry preserves. Did I get everything?

We again (we are anal albeit forgetful) figured out that our two bags of organic, locally grown fresh from the farm veggies cost us approximatley $15.22 for 22 weeks of fresh, diverse, local, yummy produce.

I don't know about where you live, but I couldn't go to the grocery and buy that many organic veggies for $16. Do you just wish you had a nice warm piece of fresh whole wheat toast skimmed with (insert your favorite brand here) margarine upon which to slather these blueberry preserves?

One more angle on it.

On Photography

So, I've never considered myself very good at photography even though for as long as I can remember, I've loved cameras and endeavoring to capture life a single moment at a time. I do, I think, come up with an amazing (well, that would be subjective, but, I think amazing anyway) shot every once in a while. After all, they say 1,000 monkey sitting at 1,000 type writers for 1,000 days could have written any or all of Shakespeare's plays. I could have those figures wrong, but you get my drift. I, on occasion, take a lot of photos. Eventually, something will turn out fun. I just made a conscious decision that on our honeymoon, I will be taking my relic 35mm film SLR. I've purchased my little Canon digital A710IS. Its rather wonderful but I haven't taken the time to learn how to use its many, many features. I have some kind of aversion to it. Its all menus and more menus just to get it to change how it functions. I like how my old SLR all you had to do was move your wrist this way while holding the ring on the lens then without even taking the camera from my eyes I could adjust the lens speed and the lighting (I'm at a loss for the real technical terms right now) and everything could be done rather quickly. With the digital, I just don't care. I put the setting on Auto and snap away.

When I have the Minolta in my hand, I want to take pictures. It transforms me into a wildlife photographer on a Serengeti safari (yes, yes I know, but I do consider Harley a jungle cat) or a still life photographer in Versailles or just a silly tourist in my own back yard. Whatever it is, with camera in hand I am inspired. I miss being inspired.

That's it.

My thoughts this Friday.

Just Watched: Marie Antoinette

After watching Elizabeth, I was in the mood for more period piece type movies. This movie cured me of that. I'm sure it has its place, its place was not in my home.

Very little actual dialogue. Some interesting scenes. Set to modern music which isn't necessarily bad, but often a strange pairing. I watched quite bit in fast forward. I wasn't missing any dialogue and can only watch someone shoe shop and eat for so long. I like Kirsten Dunst, but could have done without this movie.

I'll try again with The Queen sometime soon.

You know, don't you?

That you'll be walking through this wedding planning with me, right?

So, we booked this place, The Overlook House, last night. We didn't get our date. When we walked into the place, a woman was standing at the event calendar, writing a check as a deposit for our date. I was horrified, but after a few minutes, Mister being calm and the woman who saw my disappointed face when I asked "Did she just say Oct 20?" and everyone in the room turned to look at me and answered "Yes", well this woman was the nicest lady and I gave her some light hearted grief we actually exchanged phone numbers and might meet up for coffee. I did my best to look on the bright side and realized we'd actually save a few dollars by having it on Sunday instead of Saturday. Blah, blah, blah. So, we wrote a check for a non-refundable deposit on Oct 21.

I slept last night for the first time in what seems forever.

Earth Day: Follow Up

On Earth Day 2007, I made a conscious decision to take note of the small things I do to take care of our planet. What I could / can to make my mark on this planet just a little smaller, a little less noticeable - in an environmental sense that is. Since then, well, I've not done much to improve upon what I had already put in place.

It came across my path the idea of reducing my junk mail. I jumped on it. Mister subscribes (at least I think he does) to Mother Earth News. That's from whence the idea sprang. The magazine is a wonderful resource with just tons of environmentally friendly living ideas. Reducing junk mail being just one easy, small thing that can, amazingly enough, actually change things. When you get right down to it, the small things really do add up. Someone has compiled a statistic that an average household receives 41 pounds per year of junk mail. That is completely crazy.

Anyway, I've done one more little thing and I'm pleased about it.

You too can reduce your junk mail.

CSA: June 16 - Cilantro Mashers

Earlier this year, Mister and I joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Locally grown produce brought to market in small shares promoting the circulation of wealth in a community instead of spreading it across the nation to some gigantic, faceless, nameless, corporation where the only thing that matters is the bottom line. Not the farmers, not the fossil fuels being ravaged from the planet to truck the produce thousands of miles from Central or even South America, not the pollution from said production which is causing (or at the VERY least adding to and/or hastening the natural phenomenon) we call global warming. But, soap box aside... Our experience has been just wonderful.

We scheduled our pick time and location for Saturdays at the Portland Farmer's Market in the south park blocks. Once each week, we walk through all the amazing stands of fresh produce and flowers and tasty food treats to pick up our box of produce. This is a photo of this weeks produce. We are vegetable eatin' at nearly every meal type of people. We have also been known to incorporate veggies into breakfast in omelettes.

We've now had three weeks of organic, locally grown produce. Its been amazing. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to eat FRESH, organic vegetables. Unless you have a farm or garden, which I know some of you do, you can't imagine the amazing experiences my taste buds have had. I grew up with parents who had a huge garden. I spent many a Saturday as a child on my hands and knees pulling weeds in that garden. I hated every moment of it. I had no concept. Wouldn't it just be easier to go to the grocery and buy all this stuff. I mean, they have it in nice rows there. There are no weeds to pull.

I was oblivious, as most teens are.

So, we've now had fresh strawberries, new potatoes, cilantro, beets, turnips, lettuce, swiss chard, cucumbers, pea-tops, some kind of garlic curl thingy that I have no idea what to do with, cabbage, onions (walla walla and green), fennel, carrots, basil and I'm probably forgetting something. Last week, I made the most amazing mashed potatoes. It was my usual recipe (pototoes boiled with bouillon, sliced garlic and turnips - about 1 turnip to every 3-4 potatoes cut about 1/2 the size of the potatoes before boiling because they take longer to cook - then mashed with Earthbalance margarine, parsley, salt and pepper. Oooh, I also added a large handful of fresh chopped (CSA) cilantro while I was mashing. Oh, my heavens, those were some amazing mashers.). I'll some times add just a smidge of soy milk if the mash is dry, but I like a stiff mashed potato. No gravy necessary, but, if you want to add gravy, I'm all for that too. But, as per usual, I digress.

My point is that even though it was my usual recipe, using the fresh potatoes, cilantro and turnip made them even more tantalizing than usual.

My goal is to post photos each week of the bounty. Unfortunately, I didn't think of it the first two weeks and Mister is actually the one who thought of it. So, kudos to him and photos for you.

Last night I made soup, Trader Joe's soy ginger soup broth, chopped green onion, swiss chard, fresh chopped ginger and garlic and carrots all over rice noodles. It was, ok. I'd give it a 5 on the 1-10 scale. It should have had some tomotoes and celery and hot chili paste, a smidge of soy sauce, maybe some cabbage and it would have been better. But, is was pretty. That counts sometimes too. And, not every meal can be award winning. I tried, good enough for this time.

Oh, and cucumber salad. That's always good.

Time Flies

This weekend was devoted to two things, finding a wedding venue and packing.

The wedding venue search was a roller coaster ride of emotions and a serious let down in the end.

Have you ever priced a site for an event of this size or type? Holy Radiated Something or other Batman!! We checked out this winery which had the most beautiful website. It's this amazing Italianate golden yellow colored home in the valley just west of Portland. The drive is beautiful. At one point the road dips beneath an old railroad trestle/bridge that must have been, well, I'm not that great at distance, but probably something like 80 - 100 feet high. (Who knows, it's probably even more than that.) Anyway, you get the point it was really tall and wooden and at some point I'll post a picture, 'cause I took a few, just don't have the camera with me. Everything about this place was amazing, including the price!! $5,500 just to walk in the door. That didn't include ANYTHING. The required drinks were $35/pp with a mandatory 18% gratuity and because their driveway/parking area was deficient they had a required $6/pp (not per automobile) valet charge. Oh, and that didn't include food, beer or other drinks, cake, photography etc, etc. Needless to say, we went to the next place and while the people were more friendly and the price was not quite as exhorbitant it was still outside our price range. I'd always heard the average wedding was to the tune of $30,000 but thought, well, that must be for rich people who drive away in stretch limos and give out gold bars as wedding favors, not so much the case. I now understand how you hear of those really wealthy families who throw weddings to the tune of $1M. I mean, that's really not much when you consider we only have a guest list of 65ish and our calculations have consistently been in the range of $13k - $15k (not including honeymoon) and those rich people have something like 500 guests. Oy!

Back to the starting gate.

The second thing my weekend focused on was climbing the ladder into the attic space above my garage and digging out all the boxes and junk to start my move to Mister's place. I figured I'd start there because its stuff I don't really need, and could trash. That meant I had to open all the boxes and go through everything. One pile for charity, one pile for garbage and one pile to move. I found an entire copy paper box of financials that I had to burn. Tax returns from 1990. Yes, I am a packrat.

I also came across the photo above. My best friend and me camping in the '80's. I had to post it. I found some other photos from that period of time which may or may not make it as published items. So strange to look back. Photos of stuff I remember - when I see the photos - but don't necessarily remember in general.

Its strange to go through all your personal belongings and decide what's trash and what stuff should be kept. I've lived in my home for something like 11 years and I love my little slice of paradise. It's not a castle its not a mansion, it's barely a ranch style home, but its been my home, my sanctuary, my private place, my anchor. I am so excited to live with Mister and all the wonderful things that will come from that. Its still difficult to just walk away from a home that is very much a piece of me.

Does that make sense? Am I just melodramatic? Don't answer that.

I love my nieces to pieces!

They are in that everything princess and pink and magical stage of girlhood.

I feel like I'm back there, just a little bit, in planning the wedding. Every once in a while, I'll get this little smile that I can't help and its the smile of a girl who knows she's going to get to be princess for a day.

And then queen for a life time.

Decisions, decisions

So, there are like one million decisions to be made regarding getting married. And if I didn't have a job, well, things would be easier to plan, you know, making phone calls, meeting with venues, caterers, photographer, musicians etc. But the fact is, we actually need me to have this job to pay for all this shtuff. It is a phenomenal conundrum.

We have yet again, changed our thoughts on the process. The destination thing is out. It is really what I wanted, but had to compromise if some of the other things I really wanted (like all my family being there for the ceremony) were to happen. So, in that light, all has changed.

Oh, and also, we are planning for October of this year instead of next Spring / Summer. So, four months left for planning. Might not seem like much of a task, but I am daunted by it.

#1 Lucy = Not a party planner. Never have been.

#2 Normally a girl would have carte blanche when it comes to planning this type of event. What guy wants to be all that involved? Well, it turns out Mister has more time than I do to take care of a lot of this stuff. Making phone calls, asking questions, setting up appointments. So, he's more in charge and in contact with all the vendors. If I could, I'd change places with him, he could go to work every morning at the crack of dawn and I could stay home to plan this event. Take the time.

A little overwhelmed at the moment. Some things in life have been put on hold or at the very least have taken a back seat in the priority sequence. I've got the real estate books to study and an exam to take, I have to start going through my entire house and make stacks of stuff ... these go to Goodwill... these go to storage.... these go to Nick's. I've lived in my sweet cute little lovely home for 11 years. That's a lot of things to go through and I'm not even a pack rat. Then there's planning the wedding and the honeymoon. Just making a list here.

If in the next few weeks months you notice a decline in the mental sharpness as so often is portrayed here on this blog, these will be the root cause of that.....well, let's hope it is and that it's temporary.

Just Watched: Love Affair

It was ok. When I rented this movie, What I didn't realize was that there were several versions. So, I ended up with the one filmed in 1994 with Annette Benning and Warren Beatty. The dinner dishes got done and when that didn't get me through all the long slow parts, I just hit the fast forward button and watched it that way. I can tell you for certain, nothing was missed.

Mister's comment, "This movie is taking forever to get nowhere."

I had to agree.

The story is wonderful and romantic. I've heard about it and seen other shows take on the main plot (i.e. Will and Grace heehee) so I thought It was a no brainer, a classic like Gone with the Wind that can be watched over and over and still be worth watching. I think if I'd gotten the original version with Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer and I'd have been more taken with it. There's something about black and white that draws me in. I like to imagine what colors things, clothing, cars would have been. Actually, now that I've checked out IMDB and seen the pictures etc. I think I've seen that version and did like it.

Moral: Watch the original.

Ahh, the life

Sometimes beauty is right where you expect to find it

I had a Dream

Before Mister and I got engaged, I had all these wonderful, fun, easy thoughts for how we'd get hitched. It was beautiful and didn't cost that much and easy and did I say easy? Well, now that we are actually planning our betrothel, reality isn't what my fantasy was, at all.

We are planning what "they" call a destination wedding. We go away to a Caribbean or South Pacific island, say our I Do's on the beach, barefoot in the sand as the sun sets over the ocean, the warm tropical breeze cooling us. Only our family there, quiet, intimate, personal.

Well that is the idea. The problem is planning all this going away, airplane rides, accomodations, activities intertwined with nuptial obligations. May not seem like much, trust me I didn't think it would be all that difficult either but you add in the waiting period, the documentation and verification and observation that we are who we are and we're not secretly already married to other people in other countries and we aren't trying to circumvent any immigration laws and on and on and on. Oh, and the stress of wanting everyone to enjoy the vacation and finding accomodations for 15 people in the best possible location, all near each other and as inexpensive as possible because, well, they've been just wonderful with saying they'd travel half way round the world just to watch us get hitched.

There's also the coming back and having a reception. That's a whole other thing to think about.

I'll try not to complain too much, I mean, poor me, a wedding and a tropical one at that. How horrible for me. Its just a little overwhelming right now. I won't even get into the details, things like how will I wear my hair?

I know all soon-to-be brides have gone through this. I'll settle into it soon enough. Everyone keeps telling me to enjoy it, not stress, our special day, blah blah blah.

I'm working on it.

Relaxing that is.

Just Read: A Dirty Job

Author: Christopher Moore

Mister and I listened to this book on our Tour d'Oregon. Have you read any Christopher Moore? I've read a few over the years, Practical Demon Keeping, Island of the Sequined Love Nun, Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove and now A Dirty Job.

Moore has a unique style, he's brash and contemporary and just on the edge of offending everyone. I find him quite sophomorish, but sometimes that's just what I'm in the mood for. So, A Dirty Job lived up to his usual standards. His use of short handed wit and sarcasm were light enough that Mister and I could both listen to it and both laughed out loud on occassion.

The story has an interesting twist on the concept of Death, with a capital D. You know, the guy we know of as wearing a long, black, hooded cape and carrying a sickle. That would be old school thinking. Moore has outsourced the job and brought the man in black up to date in the form of your regular everyday man(s) on the street in the form of one Charlie Asher (amongst others). A regular 'joe' until one day he see's a tall dark man (later to be known as Minty Fresh - that cracks me up) in his wife's hospital room just after the birth of their daughter. Minty is surprised Charlie can see him and we soon are told the reason is that Charlie will become one of the self titled Death Merchants. Their job is to collect the souls of the recently departed. This is just the beginning, because as we all know there are consequences for not doing your job right. Soon all the underworld is rising and well, I don't want to ruin any more for you.

Did I like it? Eh, it was ok. It filled some drive time and once I got into it, I wanted to know how it ended. But, that's my modus operandi anyway. The end was what I thought it would be in part but that said, it didn't end like I thought it would, which may be a good thing. I liked most of the characters and Charlie Asher grew on me.

I would recommend this book, but I might recommend reading some of his earlier stuff first just to get you in the groove of his thought process.

Just Watched: Elizabeth

Mister didn't think I'd stay awake for the entire thing, its two discs long and I am famous for falling asleep during movies. I was awake for the entire thing. Riveting. I am fascinated by history when its told in an exciting venue, not in history class, hated that, a lot. I am sure there was some creative license taken and there's just no way everything could be exactly historically correct, but the basics were there and that's just fine with me. It also flows with some books I am reading making it even more interesting, more to come on that front.

Helen Mirren, simply amazing. The story of Elizabeth is an amazing story in and of itself, but Helen Mirren brought it to the screen and made it her own. What a different way of living. Just being in that time and place as a regular human would have been so difficult but add the responsibility of Queen.

I also am a huge fan of Jeremy Irons (Scar being my most favorite.). Something about his voice. He played the Duke of Essex and, as always, did a great job.

I think it was actually a mini-series (HBO, Showtime?? don't remember). Very much worth the time.

Just Read: Black House

Author: Stephen King and Peter Straub

What can I say about this book. As you know by now, I'm a King fan from way back in the day. The day when King was a master horror writer and his ideas were new and frightening. Today, in my opinion, not so much the truth of it. His writing has become stale - to me - with the exception of the Gunslinger series, which I will proclaim as the best series I've ever come across. Did you get through Gerald's Game? I quit reading King right about that time, in fact probably about 3/4 through that book.

Back in the day, King / Straub wrote a book called The Talisman. It was interesting and presented an interesting concept of other worlds coexisting with the one we think of as reality. The story just grabbed me and held on. I also had begun to read the Gunslinger series (GS) which was also about the other worlds theory.

I recently finished reading King's long awaited GS finale, The Dark Tower. You have to know that his GS has characters which appear in many of King's other books. The inside cover of most of his books actually have notations as to which books are related to the GS. I was checking out that list and saw that The Talisman had GS connections. I remembered really liking The Talisman so thought I'd reread it to figure out the connection then got caught up in this book Black House as the non-sequel to it.

Black House is a little slow in the beginning. I'd most likely attribute this to catching readers up on the first book which was written many years before. Once the catch up and all the reminders are done, well, its still pretty slow. There is a point at which I got interested again and thought the ending would actually be pretty great. Well, it got slow again. The ending was anti-climactic.

My opinion, pretty obvious. Then again, not sad I read it either.

Everybody's doing it

I've come across just tons of food photography blogs lately. So, had to get in on the fun. Lunch today. At my desk, of course.

Gazpacho - it looks a little green this time. I think I skimped on the tomatoes, so have added some cherry toms on top, sliced w/s&p. Some chunked up avocados on top, also fabulous. Boca burgers (2) and more halved cherry toms. Not too exciting, but, lunch nonetheless. Also, you hopefully, can't tell, but I murdered the burgers. We only have microwave at the office and I never can quite get the timing down.