Merry Christmas!

Hi there,

If I haven't already, I'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas! I hope you're enjoying a fabulous few days with your family and quiet time to yourself as well.

Wishing you a brand new year of opportunity and change.

too old to bike?

So, I just picked up a new bike so I could ride to and from work. These bikes are so easy to ride and I totally dig the flames on the white wall tires! I've always wanted a cruiser like this and my route is a mere 1.3 miles.

I decided to take it for a spin just after the sun set last night to time myself for the commute and to get used to the back-pedal braking. It should be easy enough.. all sidewalk.

Well.

They maintain the landscape meticulously and sure enough where the edge of the grass meets the sidewalk is a hidden six inch deep gap. I let the rear tire roll off the payment and got stuck, stopping instantly!

Down I went.

It was dark. I was alone. No car stopped to help. Did they even see me? Luckily I only have a few scrapes shown here the day after along with bruises on both hips.

not hearing what you're saying..

There is a story I want to share with you. Of course it would so much better to have been there in real time.. Name omitted to protect the unintended comic.

So, there we were walking out of one of those big box stores and my French friend was telling me a story. This was quite a long story and frankly one I forget because I can only remember the incident I'm about to share with you.

We always use the automatic open & close entrances for this kind of store. Perhaps because we don't want to touch anything here but also it is quite convenient for a door to be opened for you.

This was a new store for us even though a typical chain. There we were walking out and my friend telling me a story about how it is in France. We were walking quickly to the exit and reached the door yet it did not open for us. We paused, looked up, then looked right.

My friend still continued the story. "..oh, it's because French people are so lazy," he said.

At that very moment, instead to push what we both internally discerned to be a manual door, he started to head to our right to exit via the automatic opening door.

cool necklace idea

I found this website and very cool necklaces.. she custom makes them with your photos or a name you provide. Very clever..

wwjd

I always liked the question, "What Would Jesus Do?" because it really made me think. It really makes me step back and question my decisions in a good way.

Are you really being the best possible human right now?

Is what you're doing really producing a win-win situation?

Is anyone other than yourself benefiting from your actions right now?



So there I was rushing around and had to stop at a gas station to fill up when I spied this car.. What Would Scoobie Do?

he knows when you are sleeping

I discovered where Santa spends his off-season..

not always 70 and sunny..

Thanksgiving morning.. not 70 and sunny, but not that bad either!

cool bags

One of my favorite blogs did a story about some great bags! Check them out! I subscribe to Oh, Hello Friend because she always finds cute items to share in addition to creating some fabulous things herself.

beautiful jewelry

A friend of mine makes these gorgeous necklaces.. aren't they lovely?! You gotta love where they hang out too :)

praying places

I found myself repeating Psalm 23 out loud as I sat going the bathroom today. I had just finished doing my bills for the month, balancing my budget, understanding current bank balances, and frankly, stressing a bit.

He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside quiet waters

I shall not want

Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life

He prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemies

I knew my order wasn't quite right and in trying to get it right, I realized that I was praying while sitting on the toilet again. I always think this is so disrespectful, yet sometimes, this is one of the few moments I get to myself and it's quiet. God meets me there. Away from my computer. In a room all by myself.

Several years ago I was sitting in bible study and one of the girls started sharing that she prays when she goes to the bathroom. I'd never heard anyone say that before! My first thought was, "ewh". Then I realized that I do that all the time too, but I was too embarrassed to admit to the group. I've actually tried to stop since that over sharing moment in bible study but I consistently find myself praying every time I 'go'.

Perhaps, I need to find more quiet moments in my life.

I'll start planning this now. Excuse me a second, I have 'go'.

BBQ-ing on the boat

We invited a little family to join us on the boat for the evening and surpirsed them with a barbecue. We had hoped to fry up some bass, but they weren't biting and the bluegill were all too tiny to consider, the vegan catching the most fish that evening.

Our boat really only holds two people comfortably.. we had five this night.

thanks and flowers

Thank God that I have beautiful flowers blooming around my house.

Thank God that I am satisfied with my small garden and the wild flowers that grow.

Thank God that I have this house, this shelter, and the food on my table. Sometimes I feel stressed, but I've been eating well and healthy.

Thank God for the latte I'm sipping as I type this.

Thank God that I have love in my life.

smallest fish..

This little guy had to fend off much bigger bluegill to go for that worm.. Luckily, the hook was just a little on his lip, no damage, no foul and he swam away unharmed.

no pumpkins

So, it looks like I won't be harvesting pumpkins this fall. Those squirrels are so short sited..

dragon flies

So many dragon flies come to meet us when we're on the water. Here is one who let me photograph him.

fishing from a boat

We're really diggin' the row boat!

blue skies and telephone poles

more from the garden

These are more of the flowers I tend to everyday, some wild and some planted.

more garden flowers of mine..

weeds by the road

Weeds sometimes produce the prettiest flowers. I spied these while sitting at a light downtown.. the photo not doing justice to the sun bathed pink and blue blooms.

serenity along the coast

I love this place. I like visiting and allowing my mind to focus only on the beauty that fills my eyes. This is one of the few places I truly relax.

water in the woods

I love it when the woods are temporarily flooded.. something magical about how the floor of the forest reflects.

wash out

Some would argue that it was a 100 year storm verses a 30 year storm.. regardless, seven inches of rain fell within an hour and most of the people in my (and neighboring towns) had water in their basement. Some only 1", others 5'. A few of my friends lost engines as they drove down flooded streets only to discover the water was up to their windows! Luckily no one was hurt.

major thorough-fare through town!

Country road.. deep washout!

I drove across this section of road only 90 minutes to it collapsing. When I ventured out this night, I had no idea what was happening..

Water shown back to typical level!

to be continued

I'm taking a break for a few weeks. Looking forward to sharing what I'm up to when I return late summer.

16 hours

of planting and another 3 of running all over neighboring towns to seek out this much lavender has culminated in this.. more photos as it blooms.

a rose is only a rose

a

yes, this is the same rose. I couldn't help but take its picture so many times. I couldn't help but share all the photographs with you. It's so perfect and lovely and yellow. Yellow. This is from the other garden I've cultivated at the gallery.

worried about these pests

I'm sorry these are blurry.. I'll try for clearer images soon. I'm worried about these little red flying bugs. They have seemed to mature clinging to the stems of these wild flowers in my garden.

They are not eating the leaves.

They are not on all the stems.

Neighboring leaves of other plants appear to be normal & healthy.

The bugs do not appear to be either chiggers or beetles.

I've never seen these bugs before.. bright red.. and now most have wings.

my wild garden

I love this time of year.. shots taken as I rushed out the door.. gotta catch those peonies when they're blooming!

curious little flowers

Do you know what these are?

pretty little Inn

I love these quaint little bed and breakfasts.

personality

this made me laugh a little.. especially when I noticed the sticker. Woof.

bushwacking

We walked through super high grass to get to the edge of the lake where we're sure no one else fishes. Unfortunately, this meant that no one has fished out all the tall weeds either.

too sexy

"I'm too sexy for my boots..."

Surely we weren't doing all that bushwalking and stream crossing without proper foot ware! It certainly gives one confidence. Kinda fun to wear too. My boyfriend was a dear to get these for me. I warned him of the dangers of buying used footwear for himself and sharing my disdain for bowling only due to the fact that you have to rent shoes. Ewh. Sure enough, he surprised me with brand new hip boots. Stylish at that. Now I can truly follow him anywhere.

success!

We finally caught some big enough to take home!

I don't recommend these small bluegill and croppy though.. too many bones and not enough meat. They sure seem to love the whole catch and release process though.

morning steps

It's been a while since I've done these morning steps.. today was a great day for it!

evening fishing

We hopped in the car last night to try a little fishing before the sun set.. peaceful on the water, but no fish biting

midwest roadtrip

common signs

that's a lot of tires..

I got an opportunity to sit next to this for 40 minutes..

who wants popcorn?

yea, it is a little too early for sunflowers

I like these old signs, but I'm sure Stuckey's is closed?

love to see these large wind farms

scary storm

these fancy storm clouds produced a few tornadoes and moved our party to the basement for a few stressful minutes.

tulips

They're still blooming :)

it's been a year!

pillow cover

ok, so I'm not a quilter, nor even that great of sewer.. but here it is, my first hospice pillow cover. I'll keep you updated on my progress!

pretty pillow

just another morning

just another morning published on my blogs..

donuts

..brought these to my last training session.. wouldn't you want me to be your trainer?!

who brings in donuts anymore?

Actually was thinking about some homemade yogurt and fresh berries, but fat and sugar seem to win crowds over better.

last tulip

Tulip on it's last leg.. in front of my very limited edition Chuck Trunks!

festivals of spring!

I love a good festival, don't you?

ahhh spring..

when the rooster crows

this one followed us home

one scary dude

sunny days and balloons

this guy always floats over my house and now I know to listen for the breath of the blowers. Spied through the screen of my front door.

A friend just bought some of Mark Knott's ceramics.. aren't they great?

http://markknott.com/portfolio.html

on the coast

enjoying the nature all around

views enjoying the nature around the water on our fishing excursions

things I've caught

All were released except for this poor crawfish.. I was hoping we could fish with it living and then release if not successful. This was not to be so.

even ladybugs do it

photo - what is it?

Have you figured out what this is?

oh sure, they look like tomatoes..

fruit carving

We took on the carving of more fruit on Easter morning following a video on-line.







My parents were surely delighted.

(what we were going for)

(our final production)

I hope you had a fun Easter too!

Happy Easter!

thank you

How often do you thank God? You know.. as in:

T h a n k G O D !!!

I've been meaning to talk about this topic well, every time God obviously intervenes in my life. I'm talking about just now when I discovered a relatively large chip once belonging to the china coffee cup I drank out of this morning laying on the edge of the plate I am eating lunch on. You see I had just cleared our morning coffee cups and fixed a little lunch.

Thank God that chip didn't find it's way into my mouth and chipped a tooth or cut my tongue, cheek, esophagus.. Thank you.

I'm talking about every other time I'm in the shower and the squeegee falls to tub instead of landing on my foot.

Thank you God that it didn't land on my foot. That would've hurt!

I'm talking about the other night when fixing dinner that a butcher knife slipped out of my hands and fell to the floor.

Thank you God that it didn't land on my foot. Thank you that the point didn't stab my foot. Thank you for avoiding that inconvenience and serious pain.

I'm talking about how perhaps when I'm carrying too much stuff and some things drop but they don't blow away, and what drops isn't my cell phone or my fancy purse.

Thank you God for telling me to slow down. Thank you for telling me in a way that didn't hurt me professionally or greatly inconvenience me where I would be super stressed out.

Whether true or not -and does it matter if I ever know? I'm talking about the night we were going to go night skiing on the first day of a quick ski vacation and found the conditions to be super bad: icy, hard, cold, etc. In the first run my legs were already sore as if skiing three days and my knee was sure to follow. At the end of that first run we found the ski resort closed. "What's going on?!" we asked as did everyone else you can imagine. Turns out there was a freak power outage not too far away and the resort was asked to 'turn off' so that power could be diverted to people's homes high in the cold snowy mountains during the expected three hour outage while things were fixed. Turns out I had two glorious days of skiing with no knee problems in the days that followed - otherwise impossible had I tried to ski that first night on those horrible conditions.

Thank you.

Easter treats

ok, ok, so my cantaloupe didn't quite turn out like this, but it's not bad for the first go eh?

We watched a few videos on carving to get the process down. I think we'll be getting better carving tools for the next one!

..and maybe defining the pattern ahead of time

..and maybe trying a different kind of fruit.

best boyfriend

This was the nice little lunch my boyfriend made for me today :) Isn't he sweet surprising me with this as I was working feverishly?

river walk

Another rive walk where we came across many people fishing, a Def Leopard fan, and this fighting pike.

caving in

ok, ok, so it was those first few days in northern Alabama when I first discovered Krispy Kreme donuts that I knew it'd be hard going to refuse anyone a visit.

Did you know that they hand out free samples?!

Who keeps that a secret??

We visited this store today and I was really impressed with the equipment, how the donuts are baked on this vertical conveyor before being dropped into the vat of oil, how they are flipped over floating happily along this stream brought out of the oil with another metal conveyor that brings these simple glazed beauties under a waterfall of sugary goodness only to move slowly to the workers behind the counter impatiently waiting to grab each to put into a box for an endless line of customers ordering two dozen a pop.

The second dozen was only 99 cents!

Thank goodness I know donuts are bad for me and their calorie goodness slides directly to my hips.

Did I tell you they give free samples?

huh?

Am I reading this right? Granted it was late at night.

pineapple jerky

I had the huge fortune to get to try this product recently and absolutely L O V E it! I've always like dried pineapple but would sometimes get a headache from whatever it was most manufacturers preserve it with.. and it always seemed to be a little too surgery - especially when it got older..

That was then. This is now.

I highly recommend you click over to http://www.jerky.com/ and order a little bag of their pineapple jerky. It tastes like real fresh pineapple.. with a little twinge of sour but mostly super sweet freshness as if you just cut open a fresh fruit. They use only honey to preserve but I only taste the fruit. It has a great chewy texture that makes eating it more pleasurable than fresh frankly.. because it lasts longer in your mouth!

Let me know how this works for you :~)

fun climb

I visited the beach yesterday with its sand filled steps and walked up and down 3 times. I'm still suffering today.

cell phone ring tones

I dare say I might have in common with every friend here that I abhor hearing a cell phone ringing at an inappropriate time. Twice last week I was in a situation where the phones should have certainly been silenced, not necessarily off, but the volume silenced.

The first incidents involved a class I was teaching. I talk about cell phone etiquette when I review the course agenda typically. That day as I was working with an experienced group, I did a quick exercise before delving into the 'class work' and getting to the agenda. In those seven minutes, six cell phones went off. (a verbal warning to others to silence after the 3rd!) I don't doubt the reason for the calls, but wouldn't you think that after the first call, everyone (who hadn't already) would check their phone to ensure the silent mode?

Rudeness? Being selfishly unaware? Proud self important cell phone carriers?

The second day of incidents occurred at a funeral service. That's right, in a church and on a Saturday. One can almost forgive the first offender. We're all grieving, right? Perhaps this small detail was overlooked. Five cell phones went off in that hour long service, one ringing entirely until the phone went into voicemail as likely the owner was too afraid to 'out' herself by bending down and turning it off. Oh, we know who she is.

I get the one-sided conversations in public even though they play with the mind as it tries to piece together a conversation one would happily ignore if both sides were present and heard. I get that some connections are bad and require louder talking (while most don't!). While these are the typical irritants, I'm mostly just annoyed with the rudeness factor.

**update** I was listening to an interview on NPR yesterday with Sam Donaldson and his cell phone went off twice. That's right, twice. The first time, he cracked a good joke about it and apologized for not putting it on silent prior to the interview. Listening and recognizing his distraction one might have been under the impression that he was right then in the process of silencing it. Then it went off again.

In church? At a funeral? In a class? Wedding? Library? Radio Interview?? Turn your ringer to silent.

hummus

I made hummus today. I've always avoided it because I thought it'd be too compli- cated. It's pretty flexible actually. See similar recipe here to one I followed.

As you can see, we're also eating it with spicy Mexican chips and not the traditional pita bread... hmmm, tasty :)

another river walk

a little walk

last week's project

Can you guess?

coconut rum cake!

I follow a few foodie blogs daily and am often inspired to cook what they write about. I couldn't resist this little gem because it had two of my favorite ingredients in it; coconut and rum. So.. it didn't turn out like I was expecting. I actually have a rum cake recipe I've been making for years and I'm thinking to resort back to that but to add the coconut. It's still a fun cake and easy to make /assemble at a friends house as I did.

I made the mistake of dividing the batter into two rounds and got two very flat cakes. At least I was able to retry the glazing again today. See the original post and recipe here. Try these tips:

Rum glaze - substitute 2 tblsp butter for the water
Coconut milk glaze - use as written but sprinkle coconut immediately on top before all is dispensed. Wait a few minutes and drizzle more on top, topping that with more coconut. This might help less glaze from sliding completely off the cake.

OR, try this: whip up some fresh heavy whipping creme then fold in some coconut milk and sugar and spread on and around the cake sprinkling heavily with the coconut.

optimism

I found this great little note today. I think you'll like it too. Originally from Olly Moss on Flicker: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ollym/2870283726/in/set-72157607796576682/

Then posted on FFFFOUND! http://ffffound.com/image/248d0ef0d1cb4a3d3b02efb3f2047e3385284561

Noticed on my new favorite blog, http://forthevisionaries.tumblr.com/

Then posted on a great little blog I follow daily where I came across it this morning, http://ohhellofriend.blogspot.com/2009/03/apologies.html

:~)

summer cobbler in wintertime

I had two plums left and we had to flip a coin whether to make more jam or pie.
















I didn't have any shortening on hand and we had already decided on pie, so we made a cobbler!






This is my girlfriend's recipe though I added lime and tapioca to the fruit.

water or sky?

SW winds

I was flying directly east when I took this photo. Amazing how obvious the wind direction is, no? I've never seen this before.

old barns

I took a walk early morning before skiing. I love these old mountain town structures. Relics of their past with secrets more exciting than they expose.

Anthropolification Boyer Cream Cardi GIVEAWAY!!!! GIVEAWAY!!!!

I just came across this giveaway this morning and wanted to share with you. What a cute idea? It made me think of Gabby and all the the cool sweater retrofits she creates. Check out the link for the sweater:

Anthropolification Boyer Cream Cardi GIVEAWAY!!!! GIVEAWAY!!!!

tourism Queensland

I applied yesterday for the best job in the world! You know the one, the one where people from all over the world have been flocking to be picked.. the one where you will be put on a tight schedule of gallivanting in the great barrier reef for 6 months, having to share your experiences with others, then being paid for this! Sounds amazing, no?

It made me think of my adventures near and far..

swimming in the Mediterranean Sea off the coasts of Italy and Greece

trudging through the jungles of Japanese Encephalitis infested northern Thailand

traveling to the center of BKK in China town to pick up a sari at night with a cab driver that didn't know where to drop me off then walking around with an Indian girl who swore she was the sister of the cousin to the wife of the man who owned the store..

volunteering with Cambodia children in the Takeo province

motoring on an overloaded flat skiff in the middle of Ha Long Bay somewhat lost with the sun setting

kayaking around Ha Long Bay and finding a small beach to search for sea shells

jumping in waves crashing on the Florida coast

finding small agates on the Oregon shore and avoiding the sneaker waves

building fairy houses out of drift wood, oyster shells, and various sea finds on the shore of an island in the Seattle sound

driving through the tall Redwood forest of northern California

bicycling through cactus fields in Tucson

wondering up an empty street in the art district of Santa Fe meeting art dealers trying to sell me their wares

being invited to a wedding by strangers and at the last minute in Bangkok!

riding a bike around the Angkor Wat complex with my new friend Vicki and talking about ghosts


hiking up a mountain in Austria in the pouring rain but loving every minute of it

walking in the empty bay around the La Mont Saint Michelle while the tide was out in northern France

heck, walking on the beaches of Normandy feeling the heavy air of lost souls

riding my bike up the coast of western Michigan along the beach with friends

working on Mackinac Island and enjoying the fudge the girls brought home (who worked at May's Fudge)

riding a motorcycle through the cool streets of Minneapolis running over man-hole covers with steam escaping through

snowmobiling through the Yellow Stone National Forest one foot away from huge bison

hiking as high as we dare for a day hike in Lake Louis, Banff

hiking up at fourteener in SW Colorado only to witness a small avalanche in front of me covering trail where had not I answered my cell phone would surely have been buried

snorkeling off the coast of Telum, Mexico exploring the small reef

lunching on that same beach after hiking over lava rock and to distance shore past hurricane ravaged beaches to a small lagoon

being stuck on a small road in northern England by cows with all the time in the world

being goofy with tourists making them think about mosquitos in rural Cambodia


going on a date with my waiter from a small cafe in Rome who kept repeating the only English word he knew well, "Jenny-fur"

running around the track of ancient Olympus in my tevas and a mini skirt

camping on a small island with friends where we rode our mountain bikes through big puddles and had to bath in the cold lake

climbing via ferrata on a negative cliff two hours north of Nice

taking care of my aunt's house only to be pestered by her little dogs until I won them over by wrapping them in dryer-warmed blankets after a bath

walking down a deserted street in Prague only to hear the soft sound of guitar playing and the singing of psalms in a small round chapel

kayaking on the open water when a storm coming in and wondering how I was to return


being lost in the deep woods 18 hours into an adventure race with no hope of location

hiking in the grand canyon and feeling so small

hmm.. so many memories flooding.. wouldn't it be fun to travel in Queensland too? Imagine all you could do and the stories you could tell. Did you apply?

I need another newspaper

Does anyone else notice the change in the last year since the Wall Street Journal sold it's soul to the Fox News Empire? In Friday's paper, first section, front page, was an article on... get this: Cilantro. I read it to see if it was going to mention the business of farming or relate it to other vegetable issues, foreign cultivation, or CO2 usage of resulting effects of flying veges across the continent. NO. The article was all about how there are some people who love and many vocal folks who hate cilantro so much they've created an on-line presence.

WTF?!

Not to be overlooked was the opinion article by Carl Rove last week on how he basically isn't to blame for an future problems with the economy. It reminded me a lot of Cheney's last interview - see John Stewart comments via this episode: (around minute 9:, you can also copy&paste: http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=217691 )

I was also a little confused by the article titled, "New Grid for Renewable Energy Could Be Costly" last week. It sure made a lot of pronouncements I would expect more from an 'opinion' article and showed very little research. It didn't even begin to explore the fact that renewable energy isn't necessarily 'extra' energy but perhaps 'instead of' energy currently generated by coal burning.

Did anyone notice last spring when the front page snipits talked about 'the chemical that contaminates milk'? Why couldn't that writer (or the editor?!) say: 'melamine'? At that writing, most readers of the WSJ and most people in the world were very informed about melamine and how it was being used all too often in China.

I understand that a new owner would want to make changes. I don't completely dislike all the color photos all over each section, but is it increasing readership? ..or simply justifying the extra pages I already feel guilty for loving reading a daily PAPER product, needed for all the extra advertising that didn't exist before? I could do with less advertising.


I'm dumbfounded and really disgraced by my WSJ. Who else reads the Journal? What other papers do you recommend that offer (relatively) unbiased news, less fluff, and good writing? What's my alternative? What papers do you read and why?

cookies

I decided to make cookies for myself and combined these wonderful ingredients to make quasi-macaroons. In hind sight I should have followed a recipe.

Because it would have been easier to eat them from the bowl.

pretty mornings

Inspiring views.

happy Valentine's day

Remember those little notes in highschool that were passed to you during class or on the sligh while you were standing at your locker? You know the ones with the boxes at the bottom you had to check?

This made me smile today.. especially because it's Valentine's.. and especially because of which box is checked.

Happy Valentine's Day.

frozen blueberries

I just learned how to make jam in my bread machine last summer. It's so easy. I've made lots of both blueberry and peach jam this year from all the fruit we picked around town. Jam is one of my favorite things to add to my yogurt and since spying the four quarts of blueberries lying dormant in my freezer, I decided to make some winter jam with my summer blueberries from the midwest and the summer plums from Chile* I picked up at Alde's last week which are just starting to ripen. *We'll talk about this excessive use of carbon at another time.

Am I the only one with blueberries left from last summer? Maybe I should have kept this to myself..

why does it look..

.. like there's a hurricane forming over the midwest?

Monday's weather map:

Tuesday's weather map:
map later Tuesday afternoon.. twin swirling weather masses:

Doesn't it seem odd to you too? Is it 80 degree balmy weather from the Gulf that we're experiencing now funneled in through the swirling cloud-weather-system mass?

Doesn't it seem odd that in early February it's 60 degrees here while it's snowing in Seattle?

ok, ok, how about 6 words?

So Powell's books beat me to this, only they one-up'd me by setting the limit to telling your life story in only 6 words. This is going to take more thought. Interesting how less words = more thought.. kind of in the same way listening > talking.

I'd love to hear your six word life story here and it can also be entered on Powell's website to enter their contest.

Try it..

in 10 more words..

describe your current life.. it doesn't have to rhyme nor create a sentence. The 'and-s' and 'to-s' just use up your words. Perhaps you will delurk for this one?

My first try:

optimistic insecure outreaching adventure creativity romance introspection generous with myself

in 10 words..

Describe your dysfunctional family in 10 words. Only ten.

First go:

Alone insecure anger frustration unwanted regretted pushed away not speaking

Second go:

Unwanted pregnancy forced marriage regret shame insecurity blame critical words

ok, now you try:

(sure, sure, we'll do an uplifting exercise next week.. try go with me on this one)

the edge of the world

I visited the edge of the world again yesterday.. many times in the last week actually as my boyfriend has decided it's pretty cool to go. I dig this, because it's one of my favorite things and I love to have him suggest it.

What you see is mostly snow over ice on the lake. We walked around on the bergs. Do we look warm enough? It was at least 18F with a colder windchill.

inauguration relived

In celebration of this momentous occasion, I've dug out of the closet the dress my mom wore to Reagan's 1985 inaugural parties! Thank God I can fit in it.

in honor of the new President!

:~)

my first dutch baby

So what the heck is a Dutch Baby? I had no idea until I saw a great looking piece of 'pie' and this recipe on a new website I came across. I added the apples but substituted soy milk. It looks ok, but not as grand as the recipe photo. Next time I'll use cow's milk, more apples - and will sugar/candy them prior to putting into the skillet.

I had a great afternoon with this baby though. I took it to a friend's house where we drank Lebanese coffee, ate fried egg with potato and zucchini with fresh avocado along with fun conversation.

a surprise sunny day

The great thing about where I live is that it's so fun because of all our choices of outdoor activities. Today was especially groovy because the sun has been shining all the day. Granted it's 15 degrees F outside and the windchill makes it feel like zero today but as long as you're moving, it's fine.

A friend enticed me to join her for a quick snow-shoe out at the lake.


These next four photos were taken in quick succession - mostly because this point is where the wind was at it's hardest, notice the sand swept snow. See how the shadow of the clouds changes in each photo.

view outside

I haven't left the house much in the last 60 hours.

scarf

I just got this scarf for Christmas - gorgeous isn't it?! I've left it draped over my sofa so I can look at it every day for when I'm not wearing it.

another day at the beach

I love how the beach looks a little different each day

then a few days later

that first day

the other day

swimsuit season

Sure, it's a dreaded word met with an inner montage of beautifully skinny girls in bikinis frolicking on the beach and your own self image or perhaps unwanted photos of your butt bulging out from the lycra you bought last season too big to be displayed from under a wrap.

Don't despair.

Gwyneth Paltrow sent me a video today from her personal trainer. That's right.. She teaches 8 basic leg moves that engage your core and really work your butt and quad muscles. At least that's what's burning on me right now. Watch the video for your visual memory and print these steps to use everyday (or just visit me here at A Day In The Life).

All using a chair that is padded and one you can lift you leg over the back of.. do all 8 motions for a predetermined rep set on one leg, then switch to the other. I'm starting at ten, the trainer-chick says we should be doing 50 each. I'm starting at ten.

1. Standing behind the chair, swing leg @ hip up to chair, then back straight behind you so that the foot is up to hip level in front, then behind you.

2. Straighten leg behind with foot level with hip, pulse up, pulse diagonally to side

3. Plié feet facing outward, then kick leg back behind you so the foot is raised to hip level

4. Kneel on top of chair sideways and bend down to touch your hands to the floor. Swing leg up to the ceiling and back to kneeling position

5. Keep kneeling on chair, but take that same leg and point touch the floor, then side leg lift to ceiling.

6. Stand behind chair to your side. Lift leg straight behind you and pull/swing forward at hip level then kick back. Use back of chair as a guide to keep the leg/knee high when you pull it forward.

7. Facing back of chair, lift leg up and over so that foot rests on seat. Lift to the side and kick to side.

8. Kneel again, but on floor in front of the chair, with the chair behind you. Rest your leg on the top of the back of the chair. Pulse up to the ceiling.

a walk in the dunes

more bags

More bags, more hours of sewing.

a quick peek inside the bags shows cute little pockets tied with ribbon.. of course this idea was dreamt up when I ran out of zippers but still wanted to provide a little coupon/goodie pouch.

Of course I'm saving these two for me :) Had this been an official stitch gift I would have felt morally obliged to give Sara to match her birthday bag.. sorry Sara, but I love the fabric too! :~j

I've got a little more fabric, so we'll see if I'm still inspired in 2009.

presents

Sometimes Christmas on a budget can be nice, for those on the receiving end especially. I enjoyed picking out these fabrics from my stash and creating the pattern using my Trader Joe's bags as a reference.

I used to be a part of a group of very creative women and we'd exchange presents each year along with a fabulous coordinated potluck dinner where the ground rules dictated that we spend only $6 or less on our gifts to each other; there once being 13 in our group! These were my favorite Christmases and gifts. I'd come home with 8 to 12 handmade gifts made especially for me. We'd each spend hours deciding what to make, often contemplating prototypes, then sometimes choosing colors specifically for each friend.

Alas, our group has fallen a part and though we all stay in touch, we don't celebrate like we used to. Note these photos were excitedly published prior to any ironing. These are round bags with 4 panel sides.

My cost?
Fabric: Free (paid long ago and hopefully on sale)
Zippers: $2.30 each
Handle cording: $0.80/yard I think.. each bag: $0.30

Bag costs:
$ 2.60 -my bank account cost this Christmas
$18.60 -had I purchased fabric & thread also
$ 1.99 -Trader Joe bag sale price
$ 1.49 -local grocery store reusable bag sale price

Fabricating tips:

• Create pattern with newspaper for size desired

• Use different color threads to match fabrics as desired. (note I didn't swap out my threads going for that rough hewn look.. but if your recipient wishes to use the bag for more than groceries, you might consider this.

• Use as many panels around the bag as desired.. the more the merrier. Note that my original Trader Joe's bag had two.

• Adjust circular bottom for final bag/tube shape when pinning

• Sew the handle cording right with the fabric handle tube to save time. Granted it won't look as pretty, but remember.. this is a grocery bag.

• Line the bag if you're so inclined, especially if recipient will use for alternative uses.

lake effect

Air temps 35 degrees less than the lake temperature = water vapor escaping into the air

Water vapor escaping in the air = lake effect snow

lake effect snow =

Merry Christmas!

or as they say in France, 'Mer-rie Krist-mous'!

almost a new house

You know how you know you should do the 'right thing' yet you are tempted to do exactly the 'wrong' thing? No, me neither. Yet as I talked with my insurance company, over and over again it became obvious that doing the 'wrong' thing would actually work in my benefit. Seriously, I need a new roof. I'd like a new kitchen, I could use a 2nd stall in my garage. and frankly I'd save a boatload in heating costs if my residence had to be temporarily moved to a hotel while my house was repaired. What the heck am I talking about? Let me recap with data:

$1,000.00 - my out of pocket cost to remove a split tree limb

$40,000.00 - minimum cost to rebuild shattered home structure, replace roof, kitchen, and other details destroyed from multiple heavy tree limbs falling on the house due to crack at base of branch. Cost may or may not include hotel stay due to not being able to inhabitant the house after incident and during the reconstruction.

$500.00 - my out of pocket cost for such a calamity as the above would be covered by my house insurance.

Of course being a good citizen, I removed the limb. Financially it would have been better for me to just let it fall. Why does it have to be this way?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

shoulda woulda coulda

I've been freezing ever since the sleet started on the weekend hardly leaving my house except when a meeting required it and trying to put off the meetings to boot. I think I'll run out of food in 5 days, but could probably stretch it to seven.

Things to do:

• Drop off snow-blower to get tuned for the winter (12 inches of snow has already fallen and I've already almost got stuck in the driveway)
  

Things I wish I had done while it was still summer:

• Replace my 1950 windows with double pane insulated newbies

• Insulate my basement perimeter

• Fix the loose tiles on my roof

• Fix the 4WD on my car

• Fix the fan (that blows the heat) on my car

• Plan a winter vacation away from here

• Dug my composting hole a little closer to the back door

second day of winter

then winter came

like a lion.

Views outside from inside my house.

This is where I spend most of my time:

it's a cake..

great, great car commercial!

purple food

Who knew that purple food could be so good. I just noticed this gem at the farmer's market Wednesday. It's a tad spicier than your typical cauliflower, but the purple is au natural.

Can we name all the purple food?

(this) cauliflower
Eggplant
Grapes
Potatoes
Cabbage


I also learned while looking up purple food that it can prevent breakdown of collagen and slow the wasting of muscles.. I think I'd like to eat more of it. Did you think of more?

Acai berry (maybe)
(Indian) Corn
Lavender (I eat it with goat cheese and honey on crackers..)


Excerpt from bee-young.com:

"Why are some fruits considered power fruits?

Power fruits are higher in antioxidants. Antioxidants protect plant tissue from damage from solar radiation and other environmental stressors. And when we consume that plant tissue, they protect our tissue from damage caused by free radicals. Free radicals are toxins produced by normal metabolism and present in other toxins such as tobacco smoke or car exhaust. So a diet higher in antioxidants protects us from these toxins and helps us stay healthier."

So, what other purple foods can we eat?

personal carbon footprint, part I

Check this out.. interesting presentation from recent Web summit in CA.

why Republicans have to go

This is only part of the story.

Peter Pumpkin Head

halloweening and the queening..

another night of debauchery..

"I don't think I look very pretty"
"Don't worry, wait 'till we get the boobs and hair on"
"I need the black mascara.. no, I need it"

ok.. so I went a little heavy on the white stuff..

why yes, that is a 'vote Barack Obama' pin on my sash.

two peas in a pod

How much do we like Marie anyway?

..and what will they win?

Let them eat cake and icecream!

will they ever learn?

Not to be overlooked in my annoyance with the writing of the WSJ article, isn't it curious that Chinese manufacturers are still using Melamine in food products after so many quick -and publicized- deaths?!

WSJ in a hen basket

I was worried when Rupert Murdoch bought the Wall Street Journal this summer (see related article here), a newspaper I covet for global news and who I've trusted for many years. This is a man who owns Fox News for pete's sake.. and we all know what fluff they spew. He actually owns many news sources around the world which could play like a bad movie should he wish to create and/or control such news.

Slowly my paper began to change. In addition to seeing some articles that looked too tabloidish for the 'old' WSJ, I started to see more ads and my paper started to get thicker. There were also more color photographs where none were needed before to draw attention to various articles.

On October 21st, a clueless writer was revealed.. In the 'What's News' section of the front page, a snippet read like this:

Some 1,500 dogs in China
bred for their fur died after eat-
ing feed tainted with the chemi-
cal that contaminated milk, A12

Now.. I'm familiar as likely all WSJ readers and at least 1/2 of the world's population are that the chemical recently identified for contaminating milk in China is Melamine. I'm also aware that there are a myriad of chemicals that could contaminate milk. I'm sure the writer was just trying to make the link, but failing to recognize that we as informed readers could make the same link quickly.. is annoying and poorly executed.

Shouldn't it have read like this?

1,500 dogs in China
bred for their fur died after eat-
ing feed tainted with the chemi-
cal Melamine, A12

birthday blog

Birthday cake

Birthday bag

Birthday girl (no not me :~)

Birthday wish

more on Palin

Granted, Mrs. Palin did a great job not embarrassing herself during the debates last week. In other venues where she was not rigorously coached and forced to memorize long streaming sentences, she fared much worse showing her true colors.

Here is an excerpt from Bob Herbert in his 26Sept2008 NY Times article (and other reasons we should be scared of the Republican party):

"The United States has been lucky in terms of the qualifications of the vice presidents who have had to step in over the last several decades for presidents who either died or, in Richard Nixon’s case, were forced to leave office. Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson became extraordinary presidents in their own right. Gerald Ford successfully guided the nation through the immediate aftermath of one of the most traumatic political crises in its history.

For those who think Sarah Palin is in that league, there is no problem. But her unscripted public appearances would lead most honest observers to think otherwise. When asked again this week about her puerile linkage of foreign policy proficiency and Alaska’s proximity to Russia, this time by Katie Couric of CBS News, here is what Ms. Palin said she meant:

“That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land — boundary that we have with — Canada.”

She went on, but lost her way mid-sentence: “It’s funny that a comment like that was kind of made to — cari — I don’t know, you know? Reporters ...”

Ms. Couric said, “Mocked?”

“Yeah, mocked,” said Ms. Palin. “I guess that’s the word. Yeah.”

It is not just painful, but frightening to watch someone who could become the vice president of the United States stumbling around like this in an interview.

Ms. Couric asked Ms. Palin to explain how Alaska’s proximity to Russia “enhances your foreign policy credentials.”

“Well, it certainly does,” Ms. Palin replied, “because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of. And there—”

Gently interrupting, Ms. Couric asked, “Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?”

“We have trade missions back and forth,” said Ms. Palin. “We do. It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to our state.”


Be very very afraid.

Actually, what I'm thinking.. is that the Republican party will have Sara step down on October 21st only to announce a new 'equally energizing' VP candidate that will be equally unqualified and where we'll have no time to discover anything about them (much like Dick Cheney).

Obama visits Yesterdog

ok, picture taken of picture already framed at Yesterdog..

yummmmmmm, ultradog

our first date to Yesterdog

plea to Palin

click to enlarge..

McCain reprint with video and links.. the real story

McCain’s Suspension Bridge to Nowhere

By FRANK RICH
Published NY Times, September 27, 2008

WHAT we learned last week is that the man who always puts his “country first” will take the country down with him if that’s what it takes to get to the White House.

For all the focus on Friday night’s deadlocked debate, it still can’t obscure what preceded it: When John McCain gratuitously parachuted into Washington on Thursday, he didn’t care if his grandstanding might precipitate an even deeper economic collapse. All he cared about was whether he might save his campaign. George Bush put more deliberation into invading Iraq than McCain did into his own reckless invasion of the delicate Congressional negotiations on the bailout plan.

By the time he arrived, there already was a bipartisan agreement in principle. It collapsed hours later at the meeting convened by the president in the Cabinet Room. Rather than help try to resuscitate Wall Street’s bloodied bulls, McCain was determined to be the bull in Washington’s legislative china shop, running around town and playing both sides of his divided party against Congress’s middle. Once others eventually forged a path out of the wreckage, he’d inflate, if not outright fictionalize, his own role in cleaning up the mess his mischief helped make. Or so he hoped, until his ignominious retreat.

The question is why would a man who forever advertises his own honor toy so selfishly with our national interest at a time of crisis. I’ll leave any physiological explanations to gerontologists — if they can get hold of his complete medical records — and any armchair psychoanalysis to the sundry McCain press acolytes who have sorrowfully tried to rationalize his erratic behavior this year. The other answers, all putting politics first, can be found by examining the 24 hours before he decided to “suspend” campaigning and swoop down on the Capitol to save America from the Sunnis or the Shia, or whoever perpetrated all those credit-default swaps.

To put these 24 hours in context, you must remember that McCain not only knows little about the economy but that he has not previously expressed any urgency about its meltdown. It was on Sept. 15 — the day after his former idol Alan Greenspan pronounced the current crisis a “once-in-a-century” catastrophe — that McCain reaffirmed for the umpteenth time that the “fundamentals of our economy are strong.” As recently as Tuesday he had not yet even read the two-and-a-half-page bailout proposal first circulated by Hank Paulson last weekend. “I have not had a chance to see it in writing,” he explained. (Maybe he was waiting for it to arrive by Western Union instead of PDF.)



Then came Black Wednesday — not for the stock market, which was holding steady in anticipation of Washington action, but for McCain. As the widely accepted narrative has it, his come-to-Jesus moment arrived that morning, when he awoke to discover that Barack Obama had surged ahead by nine percentage points in the Washington Post/ABC News poll. The McCain campaign hastily suited up its own pollster to belittle that finding — only to be drowned out by a fusillade of new polls from Fox News, Marist and CNN/Time, each with numbers closer to Post/ABC than not. Obama was rising most everywhere except the moose strongholds of Alaska and Montana.

That was not the only bad news raining down on McCain. His camp knew what Katie Couric had in the can from her interview with Sarah Palin. The first excerpt was to be broadcast by CBS that night, and it had to be upstaged fast.

But even that wasn’t the top political threat McCain faced last week. Bigger still was the mounting evidence of the seamless synergy between his campaign and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage monsters at the heart of the housing bust that set off our current calamity. Most of all, it was the fast-moving events on that front that precipitated his panic to roll out his diversionary, over-the-top theatrics on Wednesday.

What we were learning — through The New York Times, Newsweek and Roll Call — was ugly. Davis Manafort, the lobbying firm owned by McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, had received $15,000 a month from Freddie Mac from late 2005 until last month. This was in addition to the $30,000 a month that Davis was paid from 2000 to 2005 by the so-called Homeownership Alliance, an advocacy organization that he headed and that was financed by Freddie and Fannie to fight regulation.

The McCain campaign tried to pre-emptively deflect such revelations by reviving the old Rove trick of accusing your opponent of your own biggest failings. It ran attack ads about Obama’s own links to the mortgage giants. But neither of the former Freddie-Fannie executives vilified in those ads, Franklin Raines and James Johnson, had worked at those companies lately or are currently associated with the Obama campaign. (Raines never worked for the campaign at all.) By contrast, Davis is the tip of the Freddie-Fannie-McCain iceberg. McCain’s senior adviser, his campaign’s vice chairman, his Congressional liaison and the reported head of his White House transition team all either made fortunes from recent Freddie-Fannie lobbying or were players in firms that did.

By Wednesday, the McCain campaign’s latest tactic for countering this news — attacking the press, especially The Times — was paying diminishing returns. Davis abruptly canceled his scheduled appearance that day at a weekly reporters’ lunch sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor, escaping any further questions by pleading that he had to hit the campaign trail. (He turned up at the “21” Club in New York that night, wining and dining McCain fund-raisers.)

It’s then that Angry Old Ironsides McCain suddenly emerged to bark that our financial distress was “the greatest crisis we’ve faced, clearly, since World War II” — even greater than the Russia-Georgia conflict, which in August he had called the “first probably serious crisis internationally since the end of the cold war.” Campaigns, debates and no doubt Bristol Palin’s nuptials had to be suspended immediately so he could ride to the rescue, with Joe Lieberman as his Robin.

Yet even as he huffed and puffed about being a “leader,” McCain took no action and felt no urgency. As his Congressional colleagues worked tirelessly in Washington, he malingered in New York. He checked out the suffering on Main Street (or perhaps High Street) by conferring with Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, the Hillary-turned-McCain supporter best known for her fabulous London digs and her diatribes against Obama’s elitism. McCain also found time to have a well-publicized chat with one of those celebrities he so disdains, Bono, and to give a self-promoting public speech at the Clinton Global Initiative.

There was no suspension of his campaign. His surrogates and ads remained on television. Huffington Post bloggers, working the phones, couldn’t find a single McCain campaign office that had gone on hiatus. This “suspension” ruse was an exact replay of McCain’s self-righteous “suspension” of the G.O.P. convention as Hurricane Gustav arrived on Labor Day. “We will put aside our political hats and put on our American hats,” he declared then, solemnly pledging that conventioneers would help those in need. But as anyone in the Twin Cities could see, the assembled put on their party hats instead, piling into the lobbyists’ bacchanals earlier than scheduled, albeit on the down-low.

Much of the press paid lip service to McCain’s new “suspension” as it had to its prototype. In truth, the only campaign activity McCain did drop was a Wednesday evening taping with David Letterman. Don’t mess with Dave. Picking up where the “The View” left off in speaking truth to power, the uncharacteristically furious host hammered the absent McCain on and off for 40 minutes, repeatedly observing that the cancellation “didn’t smell right.”
In a journalistic coup de grâce worthy of “60 Minutes,” Letterman went on to unmask his no-show guest as a liar. McCain had phoned himself that afternoon to say he was “getting on a plane immediately” to deal with the grave situation in Washington, Letterman told the audience. Then he showed video of McCain being touched up by a makeup artist while awaiting an interview by Couric that same evening at another CBS studio in New York.
It’s not hard to guess why McCain had blown off Letterman for Couric at the last minute. The McCain campaign’s high anxiety about the disastrous Couric-Palin sit-down was skyrocketing as advance excerpts flooded the Internet. By offering his own interview to Couric for the same night, McCain hoped (in vain) to dilute Palin’s primacy on the “CBS Evening News.”

Letterman’s most mordant laughs on Wednesday came when he riffed about McCain’s campaign “suspension”: “Do you suspend your campaign? No, because that makes me think maybe there will be other things down the road, like if he’s in the White House, he might just suspend being president. I mean, we’ve got a guy like that now!”

That’s no joke. Bush has so little credibility he can govern only through surrogates (Paulson is the new Petraeus). When he spoke about the economic crisis in prime time earlier that same night, he registered as no more than an irritating speed bump en route to “David Blaine: Dive of Death.”
It’s that utter power vacuum that gave McCain the opening to pull his potentially catastrophic display of economic “leadership” last week. He may be the first presidential candidate in our history to risk wrecking the country even before being voted into the Oval Office.

Reader Comments
"Senator McCain, where have you gone? It's sad to see a man I admire - still - brought so low by whatever forces have driven him so madly, so destructively, these past weeks.... Whatever he has become, it certainly is not the stuff of which Presidents are made." Pennsylvania

what a week..

My boyfriend's friend from Versailles came to visit on Saturday. Coming from such a big city and well, coming from FRANCE, one might worry he got a little bored in our sleepy little town albeit one of the best kept secrets of the midwest. We kept him pretty busy.. even created a page for him on a single's website to see if he could get a date. Here's how his week played out:

DAY ONE: Arrive

DAY TWO:
Lounged on beautiful wild beach all day.
Swam for 1/2 mile along shore line.
Witnessed horses being ridden in the lake.
Ate BBQ ribs.
Bar hopping on a holiday Sunday night.
Danced with stray women.

DAY THREE:
Lounged on another beautiful beach all day.
Dinner party on the beach.
Set up on a blind date.
Watched sunset.
Experienced Meijer.

DAY FOUR:
Went canoing for the first time ever.
Camped in a US national forest.
Saw a naked man walking down the river.

DAY FIVE:
Paddled for 7 hours.
Went back to Meijer.
Ate corn on the cob for the first time.

DAY SIX:
Experienced typical summer rainy day.
Went shopping at Dunham's and tried on flannel.
Bought a 'butt-chicken' cooking apparatus.
Went to a micro-brew.
Tried seven beers; Ichabod was favorite (of course).

DAY SEVEN:
Biked 50 miles in mist and sunshine.
Cycled by 5 different lakes.
Happy hour at local bar.
Boys night out 'till 4am.

DAY EIGHT:
Slept all the day.
Drove scooter 12 miles in 55 deg F temps.
Invited to local family's house for dinner.

DAY NINE:
Toured a few mansion subdivisions.
Drove through a trailer park.
Dined at a 'Road House' chain restaurant.
Threw peanut shells on the floor for first time.
Ate a hamburger.
Was given a restaurant-wide 'yahoo' to celebrate his 'birthday'.

DAY TEN:
Watched short film: Peep Show.
Flew to Las Vegas.
(where they'll gamble, pine for show girls, fly over the Grand Canyon, and.. be good boys)

camping paddle adventure

ahh.. the benefits of living so close to remote places.. quite rivers, long paddles, and secluded places for camping.

..but not really all that secluded as this strolling couple discovered.

We paddled 9 hours in total covering 37 bending miles of river, though I suspect my canoe companions paddled a bit more as our guest had never paddled and while taking turns at steering attempted to cross the river many times.. picture this:

Poor guys.. we did have a great time, the only frowns coming in comedy as we considered our second day of paddling as it rained on us.

Our camp was well organized and we ate like.. well, as if we were at home.. marinated herbed NY Strips, baked potatoes with all the fixin's, heirloom tomatoes, bananas foster, oatmeal, coffee and various snacks.

We found our camping spot when the boys spied a rope hanging over the river from a tree. This of course provided our first hours of entertainment. No, I didn't' try it. Call it what you will!

remember this

Darn it all if I didn't miss the top asteroid shower of the summer! For me and you, I've copied here a schedule of showers over the year so you can prepare in advance.

perplexity and choices

Yesterday was John McCain's 72nd birthday. If elected, he'd be the oldest president ever inaugurated. And after months of slamming Barack Obama for "inexperience," here's who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.

Huh?

Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:

• She was elected Alaska 's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.¹
  
• Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.²
  
• She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. ³
  
• Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.⁴
  
• She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.⁵
  
• She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.⁶
• How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.⁷

This is information the American people need to see. Please take a moment to forward this email to your friends and family.

We also asked Alaska MoveOn members what the rest of us should know about their governor. The response was striking. Here's a sample:

She is really just a mayor from a small town outside Anchorage who has been a governor for only 1.5 years, and has ZERO national and international experience. I shudder to think that she could be the person taking that 3AM call on the White House hotline, and the one who could potentially be charged with leading the US in the volatile international scene that exists today. —Rose M., Fairbanks, AK

She is VERY, VERY conservative, and far from perfect. She's a hunter and fisherwoman, but votes against the environment again and again. She ran on ethics reform, but is currently under investigation for several charges involving hiring and firing of state officials. She has NO experience beyond Alaska. —Christine B., Denali Park, AK

As an Alaskan and a feminist, I am beyond words at this announcement. Palin is not a feminist, and she is not the reformer she claims to be. —Karen L., Anchorage, AK

Alaskans, collectively, are just as stunned as the rest of the nation. She is doing well running our State, but is totally inexperienced on the national level, and very much unequipped to run the nation, if it came to that. She is as far right as one can get, which has already been communicated on the news. In our office of thirty employees (dems, republicans, and nonpartisans), not one person feels she is ready for the V.P. position.—Sherry C., Anchorage, AK

She's vehemently anti-choice and doesn't care about protecting our natural resources, even though she has worked as a fisherman. McCain chose her to pick up the Hillary voters, but Palin is no Hillary. —Marina L., Juneau, AK

I think she's far too inexperienced to be in this position. I'm all for a woman in the White House, but not one who hasn't done anything to deserve it. There are far many other women who have worked their way up and have much more experience that would have been better choices. This is a patronizing decision on John McCain's part- and insulting to females everywhere that he would assume he'll get our vote by putting "A Woman" in that position.—Jennifer M., Anchorage, AK

So Governor Palin is a staunch anti-choice religious conservative. She's a global warming denier who shares John McCain's commitment to Big Oil. And she's dramatically inexperienced.

In picking Sarah Palin, John McCain has made the religious right very happy. And he's made a very dangerous decision for our country.

In the next few days, many Americans will be wondering what McCain's vice-presidential choice means. Please pass this information along to your friends and family.

1. "Sarah Palin," Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

2. "McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate," NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-9731126-QmSf5sx&t=1

3. "Sarah Palin, Buchananite," The Nation, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17736&id=13661-9731126-QmSf5sx&t=2

4. "'Creation science' enters the race," Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-9731126-QmSf5sx&t=3

5. "Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science," Huffington Post, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-9731126-QmSf5sx&t=4

6. "McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy," Sierra Club, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17518&id=13661-9731126-QmSf5sx&t=5

"Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past," League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17519&id=13661-9731126-QmSf5sx&t=6

"Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor," The Times of London, May 23, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-9731126-QmSf5sx&t=7

7 "McCain met Palin once before yesterday," MSNBC, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=21119&id=13661-9731126-QmSf5sx&t=8

Shared by Moveon.org

beach at sunset

Tonight was amazing on the beach. It was very still and there were only a few others when I arrived having the whole beach to myself after the sun set. Many clouds in the sky obscured the sun most of its setting but made for an incredibly warm sun and brilliant afterglow. I crave days like this and stayed a long time there.

dinner on the beach

I love the juxtaposition of a formal dinner on the beach. We grilled marinated lamb chops, sweet Italian sausage and wild gulf shrimp. Our friends brought ba-ba-ga-noush and taboulleh and we shared a few good bottles of French wine. Our intent was to sit on the beach close to the water's edge, but the premature autumn wind started to cover the place settings with sand before we were unpacked. Luckily we found a small protected clearing at the end of the forest overlooking the water and enjoyed a great dinner followed by fresh apple pie warmed on the grill as the sunset dazzled us more.

more beach visits

This visit was purely for the work out of climbing over the dune but oh, what views!

It's hard to imagine the tranquility of this place but consider a sun soaked beach with the sand and wooden planks warmed from the day, the sounds of the waves pushing to shore and meeting the beach, the wind fingering your hair and gently brushing your face as your clothes hemlines dance around your legs and body, the feel of sand on the bottoms of your feet and the lifting of the weight of the world off your shoulders as your eyes try to understand the beauty of what lies before you.

On the 10th of June, 2002, I came here to watch a sunset and wrote the following:

"Clouds hang on words unspoken, by lips parted but unmoving. They drift as my thoughts and change to be unrecognizable as thoughts forgotten, dreams pushed under realistic minds. They meld together and create an endless color, pulling my seeking mind in, but offering no resolution. My eyes grow tired as I peer into this emptiness, mind clearing as lashes blur my vision."

Climbing up.. the sounds you hear are only the waves rushing to shore, the flip of my flops, and the wind whistling around the microphone of my camera and blowing up my skirt.

going down..

views from the top

bicycle errands

I road my bicycle to the farmer's market today.. decided I needed the ride and it was close enough anyway. It's pleasant enough riding through downtown streets my old race box (the bento box) normally stashed with peanut butter spread bagels and Gu packs now acting as my purse. I found out that a bag full of produce close to 3lbs becomes like 20 the further you carry it! I learned also that turning wheels become like a shredder when the wind blows just right; my front wheel biting through the plastic bag and spitting bits of red leaf lettuce at my shins as a strong western gust pushed the bag into my front wheel. More humorous than alarming really. I was mostly thankful it didn't get stuck and perhaps stopping the wheel suddenly.

Overall it was a great workout, I wasn't tempted to buy more as I had to carry it, and the trip to the farmer's market and healthfood store not only provided a good hour of exercise, but it gave me a great procrastination excuse not to continue cleaning my house.

Well.. back at it.

destination weddings part II

Here comes the bride.. photos from the last wedding I attended, held on the point of Torch Lake where she had spent many months each year of her life, her husband's family vacationing the same year after year in their cottage only seven miles away! It took an on-line dating service and they both living in another city other than they grew up for them to meet. Sweet really.

favorite cycling destination

I cycled to my favorite cycling destination Saturday.. it was warm and sunny with just a little bit of a breeze to make you work hard. Photo and videos from my turn around point, the view is my reward for the 36 mile round trip jaunt. For two miles you get to ride on a bluff overlooking the water. The road fell in 15 years ago when the water was higher so unfortunately one either has to turnaround and bike seven miles just to get to the other side of the 20 foot chasm or you could also trespass on some steep stairs down to the beach and back up carrying your bike as well.

this is Ohio

I drove to Ohio on Thursday and taught a class all day Friday. Its beautiful typical mid west. I'm always surprised to be surprised at how much land is farmed here. I love the huge irrigation systems sprawling over the fields. I like to see them dormant in the winter time and spraying in the summer. Lots of this as I drove in the early evening hours when spraying is typical. One unit had it's end so close to the highway that it was spraying the road. Dangerous to be sure as my car was pummeled with water in the fast lane my wipers having a hard time keeping up with the deluge.

On the 80/90 toll way they've im- plemented new safety technology where they sense the movement of an animal on the highway. They have sensors mounted two feet off the ground that work like your garage door such that if a large animal crosses between the two sensors pointed at each other, the signal is broken triggering a light to flash warning motorists there is an animal on the road. Niether the video nor photo can capture the text unfortunately. These sensors can be placed a half mile apart. I caught a flashing warning sign though saw no animal on the road; perhaps it was just exiting or something else triggered this 'false negative' warning.

"Animal present when flashing"

More information on these new road sensors installed in the early part of our century in many places around the globe; Indiana mentioned on page 10.

In my five hours of traveling I thought of another theory about Ohio drivers and why they love driving in the passing lane so much. On a cross Ohio state trip last summer, I had originally concluded that the bad driving habits of Ohioans was attributable to poor driving instruction in that state which must teach that the following is acceptable if not expected: All lanes can be driven on at any time for as long as you want at any speed. This of course leads to:

• Tailgating

• Driving along side a car in the far left lanes at the same speed for several miles

• Driving in the passing lane all the time

• Slowing speed to match a car to your left when you are about to pass a third slower car

• Not checking your rear view mirror to see if anyone is behind you (when driving super slow in the fast/passing lane)

• Do not let anyone pass you if you're not ready (this might also be attributable to the high number of Nascar fans in the state).

One 'habit' that I noticed more on this road trip however, was that when a car would eventually yield to my passing and merge into the right lane to allow my passage, they would swing almost violently back into the passing lane (at their slower speed) even though no more cars existed in the right lane; ie: there is no one for them to pass, the road empty in front of them apart from my quickly disappearing car.

Now I am prone to think that Ohioans are simply control freaks. If they drive in the passing lane they choose when they are passed. They choose who can pass. They control the frustration level of the car(s) behind them.

Bad driving habits, need of control, or just a sick sense of humor?

driving footage looking at typical fields

destination weddings part I

The thing I like about destination weddings is that I get to tour or play in *usually* a very pretty part of the world. For our family friend's wedding August 8th, 2008, I did just that bicycling around this gorgeous lake pictured to the right. It was 50 beautiful difficult lonely miles where I enjoyed hardly any vehicle traffic, tough hills to climb, and amazing vistas. Many wild flowers grow here like Queen Anne's Lace, those purple sickle like things, and various pink and white soft petaled weeds. The water is an iridescent color of blue rivaled only by a black opal I once owned (and lost on a bike trail only to have s'one find it but refuse to return it; color similar to this though my stone was unrivaled). This lake is 315 feet deep and super cold, though that didn't keep me from snorkeling back when I was twelve years old.

I started the day with only a handful of freshly picked black cherries and two oranges. Six miles into the ride I found myself on a short stretch of highway linking the local roads and a great small market known for it's smoked fish. I grabbed a yogurt and owner-made turkey jerky along with some other snacks. I pretty much ate nonstop on the road trip snacking perhaps every thirty minutes. I highly recommend FruitFast dried fruit bars with chocolate.. this is like heaven in your mouth; order here.

Having been told 'no' two weeks earlier when I offered to help with last minute details the day of the wedding I still felt a little guilty that I didn't offer myself up to my friend to decorate for the wedding when arriving the reception site saw that it was a little 'light'. It was still beautiful of course and I'm sure no one noticed. As soon as the tent flaps were raised, the lake surrounded our bluff and no one looked 'inside' anymore.

when procrastinating is good..

The most impressive people I know are all terrible procrastinators. So could it be that procrastination isn't always bad?

Most people who write about procrastination write about how to cure it. But this is, strictly speaking, impossible. There are an infinite number of things you could be doing. No matter what you work on, you're not working on everything else. So the question is not how to avoid procrastination, but how to procrastinate well.

There are three variants of procrastination, depending on what you do instead of working on something: you could work on (a) nothing, (b) something less important, or (c) something more important. That last type, I'd argue, is good procrastination.

That's the "absent-minded professor," who forgets to shave, or eat, or even perhaps look where he's going while he's thinking about some interesting question. His mind is absent from the everyday world because it's hard at work in another.

That's the sense in which the most impressive people I know are all procrastinators. They're type-C procrastinators: they put off working on small stuff to work on big stuff.

What's "small stuff?" Roughly, work that has zero chance of being mentioned in your obituary. It's hard to say at the time what will turn out to be your best work (will it be your magnum opus on Sumerian temple architecture, or the detective thriller you wrote under a pseudonym?), but there's a whole class of tasks you can safely rule out: shaving, doing your laundry, cleaning the house, writing thank-you notes—anything that might be called an errand.

Good procrastination is avoiding errands to do real work.

Good in a sense, at least. The people who want you to do the errands won't think it's good. But you probably have to annoy them if you want to get anything done. The mildest seeming people, if they want to do real work, all have a certain degree of ruthlessness when it comes to avoiding errands.

Some errands, like replying to letters, go away if you ignore them (perhaps taking friends with them). Others, like mowing the lawn, or filing tax returns, only get worse if you put them off. In principle it shouldn't work to put off the second kind of errand. You're going to have to do whatever it is eventually. Why not (as past-due notices are always saying) do it now?

The reason it pays to put off even those errands is that real work needs two things errands don't: big chunks of time, and the right mood. If you get inspired by some project, it can be a net win to blow off everything you were supposed to do for the next few days to work on it. Yes, those errands may cost you more time when you finally get around to them. But if you get a lot done during those few days, you will be net more productive.

In fact, it may not be a difference in degree, but a difference in kind. There may be types of work that can only be done in long, uninterrupted stretches, when inspiration hits, rather than dutifully in scheduled little slices. Empirically it seems to be so. When I think of the people I know who've done great things, I don't imagine them dutifully crossing items off to-do lists. I imagine them sneaking off to work on some new idea.

Conversely, forcing someone to perform errands synchronously is bound to limit their productivity. The cost of an interruption is not just the time it takes, but that it breaks the time on either side in half. You probably only have to interrupt someone a couple times a day before they're unable to work on hard problems at all.

I've wondered a lot about why startups are most productive at the very beginning, when they're just a couple guys in an apartment. The main reason may be that there's no one to interrupt them yet. In theory it's good when the founders finally get enough money to hire people to do some of the work for them. But it may be better to be overworked than interrupted. Once you dilute a startup with ordinary office workers—with type-B procrastinators—the whole company starts to resonate at their frequency. They're interrupt-driven, and soon you are too.

Errands are so effective at killing great projects that a lot of people use them for that purpose. Someone who has decided to write a novel, for example, will suddenly find that the house needs cleaning. People who fail to write novels don't do it by sitting in front of a blank page for days without writing anything. They do it by feeding the cat, going out to buy something they need for their apartment, meeting a friend for coffee, checking email. "I don't have time to work," they say. And they don't; they've made sure of that.

(There's also a variant where one has no place to work. The cure is to visit the places where famous people worked, and see how unsuitable they were.)

I've used both these excuses at one time or another. I've learned a lot of tricks for making myself work over the last 20 years, but even now I don't win consistently. Some days I get real work done. Other days are eaten up by errands. And I know it's usually my fault: I let errands eat up the day, to avoid facing some hard problem.

The most dangerous form of procrastination is unacknowledged type-B procrastination, because it doesn't feel like procrastination. You're "getting things done." Just the wrong things.

Any advice about procrastination that concentrates on crossing things off your to-do list is not only incomplete, but positively misleading, if it doesn't consider the possibility that the to-do list is itself a form of type-B procrastination. In fact, possibility is too weak a word. Nearly everyone's is. Unless you're working on the biggest things you could be working on, you're type-B procrastinating, no matter how much you're getting done.

In his famous essay You and Your Research (which I recommend to anyone ambitious, no matter what they're working on), Richard Hamming suggests that you ask yourself three questions:

1. What are the most important problems in your field?
   
   
2. Are you working on one of them?
   
   
3. Why not?

Hamming was at Bell Labs when he started asking such questions. In principle anyone there ought to have been able to work on the most important problems in their field. Perhaps not everyone can make an equally dramatic mark on the world; I don't know; but whatever your capacities, there are projects that stretch them. So Hamming's exercise can be generalized to:

What's the best thing you could be working on, and why aren't you?

Most people will shy away from this question. I shy away from it myself; I see it there on the page and quickly move on to the next sentence. Hamming used to go around actually asking people this, and it didn't make him popular. But it's a question anyone ambitious should face.

The trouble is, you may end up hooking a very big fish with this bait. To do good work, you need to do more than find good projects. Once you've found them, you have to get yourself to work on them, and that can be hard. The bigger the problem, the harder it is to get yourself to work on it.

Of course, the main reason people find it difficult to work on a particular problem is that they don't enjoy it. When you're young, especially, you often find yourself working on stuff you don't really like-- because it seems impressive, for example, or because you've been assigned to work on it. Most grad students are stuck working on big problems they don't really like, and grad school is thus synonymous with procrastination.

But even when you like what you're working on, it's easier to get yourself to work on small problems than big ones. Why? Why is it so hard to work on big problems? One reason is that you may not get any reward in the forseeable future. If you work on something you can finish in a day or two, you can expect to have a nice feeling of accomplishment fairly soon. If the reward is indefinitely far in the future, it seems less real.

Another reason people don't work on big projects is, ironically, fear of wasting time. What if they fail? Then all the time they spent on it will be wasted. (In fact it probably won't be, because work on hard projects almost always leads somewhere.)

But the trouble with big problems can't be just that they promise no immediate reward and might cause you to waste a lot of time. If that were all, they'd be no worse than going to visit your in-laws. There's more to it than that. Big problems are terrifying. There's an almost physical pain in facing them. It's like having a vacuum cleaner hooked up to your imagination. All your initial ideas get sucked out immediately, and you don't have any more, and yet the vacuum cleaner is still sucking.

You can't look a big problem too directly in the eye. You have to approach it somewhat obliquely. But you have to adjust the angle just right: you have to be facing the big problem directly enough that you catch some of the excitement radiating from it, but not so much that it paralyzes you. You can tighten the angle once you get going, just as a sailboat can sail closer to the wind once it gets underway.

If you want to work on big things, you seem to have to trick yourself into doing it. You have to work on small things that could grow into big things, or work on successively larger things, or split the moral load with collaborators. It's not a sign of weakness to depend on such tricks. The very best work has been done this way.

When I talk to people who've managed to make themselves work on big things, I find that all blow off errands, and all feel guilty about it. I don't think they should feel guilty. There's more to do than anyone could. So someone doing the best work they can is inevitably going to leave a lot of errands undone. It seems a mistake to feel bad about that.

I think the way to "solve" the problem of procrastination is to let delight pull you instead of making a to-do list push you. Work on an ambitious project you really enjoy, and sail as close to the wind as you can, and you'll leave the right things undone.

Best said by Paul Graham himself..

backyard voyerism

squirrel love.. sweet.. like apes.. should I be watching this?

seeing hearts few and far betweetn

pie

A somewhat blurry image of the last piece of blueberry pie I made yesterday! We're picking again tomorrow likely.. and I'll make one with a top on it!

17 pounds

This is fun as always.. finding even bigger berries and snacking along the way, great conversation better than a road trip.. next the next best thing, or maybe the third best thing? ..making the blueberry pie!

You dig the accent don't you?!

just end it with yoga

Today was super cool because it was the first time I would perform all three disciplines of triathlon since my accident. It was meant to be noncompetitive, the transitions all done together and waiting for everyone at each turn.

We started biking at 8:13am on the rural roads where I typically train. The pace was fast as there was a girl trying to prove herself bragging later that she normally trains with the local bike shop rides where 'we sprint between stop signs'. Personally I wanted to save something for the run and swim. This girl of course neither swam nor ran - only walked.

The transition to run was relatively quick we mostly all being seasoned triathletes or simply low maintenance. We ran in the wooded dunes along the big lake and finished with a good mile on the beach itself until we arrive at the predetermined swim spot.

The waves were big rolling in at 2 to 2.5 feet and the water chilly taking a good ten minutes to feel not so cold. Five of us swam for a half hour following the coast avoiding the breaking waves. It was fun. I would never swim in conditions like this along, so it was a treat.

Three and a half hours had passed since we started and a few were getting hungry. My dreamy beach yoga disappearing fast. How one thinks they won't be hungry after this time and self supporting themselves is beyond me, the Gu I ate pre run holding me over. Alas, we rolled up our towels and walked the short trail - 1/2 mile back to the cars.

After snacking, we laid the towels out on a grassy meadow and relaxed with thirty minutes of yoga as 80's music drifted over head from the speakers of an event center close by preparing for an evening wedding reception.

I think everything should end with yoga.

I feel great.

Apart from scarfing down these tortilla chips and mango salsa, I don't feel any effects of the morning.

dinner on the beach

unplanned

BBQ

friends

grocery shopping

smiles

scavenging for pine cones

sandy beach

actual stemware

sunset

jealous couples

great wine

formal dinner

perfect barbecue

kisses

chilly night

beautiful sky

alone at last

tasty

sweet

about Boston

So.. I went to Boston last week for 30 minutes. Seriously, this potential client or potential employer, they want to consider me full time also, they fly me in for a 30 minute meeting. I arrive late evening just in time to catch the kitchen open at a great seafood restaurant near my hotel in Needham, Massachusets. Great, great seafood.

After the interview where we talked mostly about triathlon and marathon training as my interviewer was big into this, I had an hour to explore. I left the city to go find out what the pilgrims thought was so special -apart from dry land. The picture at the top is from Plymouth where I quickly drove then around the coastal neighborhoods making my way back into Boston. The traffic? Yeah, apparently that starts around 2:30pm. I almost missed my flight! It was really hot that day too - check out the air coming out of the vents as we boarded the plane.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to spend more quality time in this city and around.