Good advice on the HP. I keep wondering if I should re-read before viewing, but in the end, I have so many other books going right now... I can't wait to see it, though. Well, I'll have to wait, but you know what I mean. The J-bird is sick, sick, sick today. Started complaining yesterday of sore throat, headache, stomach ache. We went for a bike ride into Ballard to run some errands and goof around and about 3 blocks into it, she asked if it was too late to bring her bike back home. Poor baby. She woke up... Continue reading

I'm so glad to hear I've inspired you back to your wiiiii! I love my muscles! I set my first weight loss goal since I feel like I've got the activity routine down and I'm ready to devote more effort to my "i can eat anything i want" eating philosophy. That's not such a good plan when weight loss is your goal...but I'm doing it up smart this time, focusing on gradual improvements and focusing on the things i like and am doing well to begin with. i just love the new and improved patient and wiser me...i am still... Continue reading

Well, you've done it. You've inspired me to get up and get moving. I busted out my Wii Fit the other day for the first time in 154 days, as it informed me. In the intervening 154 days I have apparently gained 8.4 lbs and a few BMI points. The good news is, however, that my balance and strength appear to be relatively unchanged. Sort of. I've certainly felt a few muscles over the last few days that I had forgotten existed. Those pesky ones that you don't use for just everyday activity. Feeling good, though, and I'm glad to... Continue reading

You had a religious experience! Except I do know the overwhelm of which you speak. And the emotion. Shoot, I get it sometimes just listening to music on my way home from work! You are going to be a drooling mess when you go to see Justin Townes Earl. In a good way. We deserve to be free and young and full of feeling and passion and live wildly in the moment. I'm glad you could do it! You deserve to do it lots more! BTW, if you have never listened to their Gleam albums, they are 2 short EPs... Continue reading

This is something special. Continue reading

So, first things first. The Avett Brothers. I can honestly say it's the first time I ever wept openly at a concert that wasn't in an elementary school cafeteria. As you know, those boys put on a good show. I was prepared for that. Right out of the gate I was a little bit worried that Seth wouldn't make it through the whole show with the jumping, dancing and singing at the top of his lungs. It certainly explains why he hasn't got a single ounce of body fat on him. What I wasn't prepared for was the walloping gut... Continue reading

I am very impressed with your feats of strength and womanliness. I have heard magnificent things about spinning, but am A.) terrified of "class" exercise and B.) terrified of a massive coronary right there in the middle of class. One of the moms in the J-bird's class is going through a particularly ridiculous and nasty divorce right now and has been dealing with the stress by spinning. She told me some days she goes to 2 or 3 classes a day. Seems like a pretty good way to deal with stress, but she's likely to disappear at the rate she's... Continue reading

The runup to vacay is expectedly filled with unplanned frustrations. Why is that? I plan....and then all these old dormant bits of work start to rise up out of the past and start throwing sh*t at me. I imagine little gooey demon/ghosts with half goofy toothy snarls hurling sheafs of paper and cackling. This happens so often I think it has to be a pattern I create and therefore can change. Those are my demons after all. I tell myself I'm not in control of it, but I secretly think I am. So today, tomorrow and Friday I am going... Continue reading

I am so very excited for your visit! So soon! The last few weeks of school for the J-bird were just hellacious for a number of different and boring reasons. So we have spent the last week just trying to catch up on some rest. Ugh. Anywho... this week is dedicated to entertaining stir crazy monkeys and catching up on a few items of domesticity that I've let slide. Company beans! I know that you have seen my house in its "natural state" many, many times over the years, but alas, the compulsion to frantically scrub up for company. I'm... Continue reading

Where am I and what am I doing here? Ha Ha! This place is nice. I can't believe that in less than one week I will be sipping Seattle lattes and sniffing the salty sea air. To address your birthday comment from 2 weeks ago: So much HAS moved in the universe this year. I feel like last year's burrito blankets and warrior nannies were foreshadowing in my little personal plotline. Foreshadowing comfort, peace and the warrior within. That reminds me, my next tattoo is symbol of my "warrior heart" my own Bodhisattva. However Dawn wants to do it. I'm... Continue reading

Have you seen this? It's so funny, but so not at the same time. Parking can be a very serious issue. Continue reading

Happiest of birthdays to you, my dear! I was just reading over the posts from this time last year and trying to put the last 12 months in perspective! I love you so much and I hope your day is wonderful. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on your birthday this year. If for no other reason, to see how much things have moved over the last year. Love, love, love, love you. Continue reading

So, I ripped off the "Happy Music Monday" thing off from Etsy's Facebook news feed, but it was completely necessary. Here's my happy music for today. The Hubs took off a few hours in the middle of the day and the Hooligan and I busted him out and went to a Seattle Sounders reserve match. There are far worse ways to spend a breezy, sunny Monday. This was my song of choice for the driving today and just perfect. You know how I love these local boys. Eddie could sing me the phone book and I would fall in love,... Continue reading

Macaroni, shrimp and big ole' slices of hard boiled egg. How can that not just be a texture sensation?! I'm firmly convinced that 90% of the American population is completely devoid of tastebuds. Salad... heh heh. Continue reading

So, all creative endeavors are put on hold today because I have to fix my couch. The chaise part of our couch has sprung 4 springs now. I called Ikea the other day to see if they had a replacement part for holding the springs on (they're just a little plastic thing) and found out that if I'd kept my original receipt, they would repair it for free because it's still under warranty. Who keeps receipts that long?! I'm so annoyed by the whole thing. The little plastic clips are just stapled on and hard to get to because of... Continue reading

Fallow little blog. How is it that we've sat here idling for the last several months? The brilliant, hot summer days of the last post are long gone - given way to my favorite blustery, fire-kissed trees time of year. Can it be that we ran out of words? Doubtful. Too many words to fit in this small space, perhaps. Demons, issues, ideas too looming to break into the smaller parts of language and cram here on the screen. But it's harvest time, I say. The percolations of the last months are starting to reduce and gel. I've missed you... Continue reading

We just got back from camping. I see this as a sign that we are assimilating nicely to our Pacific Northwest culture. Summer comes and we start airing out the tent, obsessively cataloging our supplies and when the weather gets warm, load up our affordably priced station wagon and head for the mountains, or the coast, or the anywhere with green growing things and a nice, clean campsite. We camped at Lake Easton in the foothills of the Cascades. Our campsite backed right up to the Yakima River near where it meets the lake. We had our own secret pathway... Continue reading

I got the new Owl City CD at the library yesterday (holding strong with an entertainment budget of $0!) and put it on after dinner while the monkeys were getting ready for their baths. The house broke out into a mad, spontaneous, bacchanal of naked dancing. The J-bird can't keep her feet still if there's a steady beat. "Dance with me, Mama!" So I did. We ended up dancing through the whole CD. As the last song ended, sweaty and out of breath, she said "Wow, Mama! You're fantastic! You must've done some wild dancing in your day!" If she... Continue reading

So, in keeping with our tardiness for no real good reason with the birthday wishes... I wrote this whole nostalgic piece about birthdays and it was just too dreadful and maudlin, so I didn't get it out on time for your actual day of turning thirty-f***. Suffice it to say that I love you dearly. I was mulling over all the birthdays we've spent together and apart over the years. All of the "perfect" gifts exchanged, all of the grousing about aging or celebrating our youth, depending on how it happened to strike us. And I came up with a... Continue reading

I have a little pitcher of yellow roses on my desk this morning as I type. The roses were the generous payment for the raspberry cheesecake cupcake I gave the florist at the wedding last night. A little trading and bartering among the help I suppose. A week's worth of planning & prepping 2 days worth of baking and making and all is well. I am neither exhausted (well, maybe just a touch of sore legs not used to standing all day and hauling things all over creation, but no biggy) nor euphoric which I am taking to be a... Continue reading

All that he had now was an idea - and it was like a belief in magic - that one day something would happen, an illumination would come to him, and he would be taken by a set of events to the place he should go. What he had to do was to hold himself in readiness, to recognize the moment. - from Half a Life by V.S. Naipaul I waited, more than anything else, waited for something momentous to happen. Keeping a firm grip on reality was of immense importance. My vision had to be clear so that when... Continue reading

I spent the better part of yesterday morning reading an in-depth interview with Paris Hilton in Esquire. There was very little quotation. It was mostly a glowing catalog of her possessions, pets, and product lines. We went to the zoo with some friends. Moments after I photographed this depressed donkey, he screamed at me. Have you ever heard a donkey scream from less than two feet away? He was a miniature donkey, though, so if it came to fisticuffs, I could probably take him. We finished up the second season of Breaking Bad the other night. One of the sub-plots... Continue reading

Where to begin on the meaning of perfection... To alleviate any concern you may be having about my mad visions of a perfect idyll, what I mean when I say "perfect" is probably more along the lines of "right" or as you say "complete" in the sense that it I am not left wanting something other than what I've created. I say "perfect" not to imply a squeaky shiny flawless symmetry allowing for no mistakes, no dust, no blood sweat or tears. I think you knew that but just had to say it. And you are right to, I need... Continue reading

A friend of mine shared this video of a Viktor Frankl lecture yesterday and I find in the grand synchronicity of things it's an appropriate response, in part, to your concrete socks. Your openness to possibility, and not just average possibility, is one of the things I adore about you. It's a burden at times, I know. That cognitive dissonance between things as they are and things as they could be can be a gap that seems unbridgeable at times. But you've been strolling along this precipice since I met you, and probably long before that. Look back, though. Behind... Continue reading