Back in 2011

Any free time for the remainder of the year will be spent watching Martin reruns.

I have little patience with scientists

who take a board of wood,

look for its thinnest part,

and drill a great number of holes

where drilling is easy.

Albert Einstein

It's on the strength of observation and reflection

that one finds a way.

So we must dig and delve unceasingly.

-- Claude Monet

More arbitrary thoughts.

I recently read these two books, one right after the other: Women, Food and God and Eat Pray Love. Although they may sound the same, they were completely different - the first a psychologic take on why women overeat or are addicted to food, the second a memoir of a woman searching for.....something.

I don't know if it's the funk I'm in right now or just me in general (likely a little of both) but both books were so good to me. I keep thinking about them on a daily basis - trying to apply some of the strategies I learned in the first...thinking about my own life experiences that resonated all too well with the 'searching' soul of the second. Anyway, I love good reads like that. I appreciate that people take the time to write and share their life experiences. I learn a lot from them.

My friend, Mansi, is a great writer and is one that shares her experiences regularly through her blog. She has a unique perspective (as we all do) that she isn't afraid to contribute to the world. Sometimes I completely disagree with her - other times I feel like she's writing my thoughts. Either way, I am so glad she's willing to share. And I'm so glad that there's people out there that write about their life and that aren't afraid to just be who they are, 100%.

BTW, the movie is good but the read is far better (as is usually the case). I highly recommend picking up the book in addition to the film. My only problem now is that the wanderlust is pervading my brain! It's times like this that I'm ready to pack up and go on an adventure! And if you know me, you know it's highly possible. Luckily (or not), we just bought this house so we probably should stay put for a while. And I do love the new pad. So I guess that's the adventure for now and I can't complain one bit.

A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest (a random and dramatic thought post)

I think life is really really hard. Anyone who thinks it isn't is diving into a shallow pool. It's true, sometimes it doesn't seem so hard. Like when you're in a big innertube catching a fast flowing stream of water into a large yellow funnel that sends you vertical before spitting you out into a heated pool. Or when you're watching Wipeout. Or when you're welcoming a new baby in the world (unless you're the mother of course).

(Welcome Ezra! We love you already!)

Yes, there are many great things about life. And it's a good thing - or we'd be in serious trouble! Sometimes though, life is not always a fun waterslide. It gets complicated. And heavy. It makes a person wonder....and ponder....life in all its visceral glory.

In case it isn't apparent, I'm a huge fan of Emily Dickinson poetry. Many of my blog titles are lines from her poems, as is the 'name' of the blog. Yes, she was a very depressed soul. Yes, she was a recluse and an old maid. But what a mind. Maybe life was a little too hard for her...maybe not, who knows. When life gets real hard for me, I tend to go to 3 sources: God (prayer), scriptures, and Emily. The great thing about all 3 is that I come out the other end not so hopeless. None of them take the hardness away but at least they do some cloudbusting (or commiserating). And I'm glad for that.

Seattle Round-Up #1

See the following few posts.

Round 2 on it's way.

Pike's Place - YAYAYAYAYA

July 2, 2010

Best clam chowder in seattle, copper pig, fresh doughnuts, funny yellow men and salmon =

Pikes' Place/Downtown Seattle

Have a Coke and A Smile

July 6, 2010

Here we are hiking to a falls somewhere in the Olympic Mtns. It was supposed to be a big spectacular falls but it was just a little one. Oh well. The company/walk was fun.

More photo theft a la MelanSco - good thing someone's camera was working... :) Click for larger viewing...

All over the map....

My posting process is reflective of my thought process, so the dates are somewhat sporadic. Sorry.

Back to July 5: The Northwestern-most Point of the US!

We had a mission, and the mission was to get to this point. It took a few hours and lots of twisty roads but we finally made it - and as you can see, it was well worth it:

Happy Birthday! Happy Anniversary!

June 28, 2010: I already posted about the Leavenworth trip - it was Tosh's birthday that day and Troy and Melanie's anniversary as well. What I neglected to mention was the breakfast joint we stopped at on the way up (think pancakes the size of your head), the fun picnic at the par, and the after-party where Tosh received his long-awaited spice cake and iphone.

Backflips across America

July 5, 2010: Tosh doing a backflip on some beach near the northwestern-most point of the contiguous United States (more to follow about this). I think that land in the distance is Vancouver. We stopped here to frolic a little and found this uprooted tree. Uprooted from what? Couldn't tell ya. It made for great pics though (collage credit to Melanie again - thanks sister!):

Catching up is hard to do.....

Well, our vacation came and went -- just like that. It seems like years ago but it was only a month. So lest I forget two of the best weeks of the year, I will take this one post at a time and relive the memories...

June 26, 2010: Tosh and his brother Troy ran the half marathon in Seattle. They've both been training for months and although Tosh wasn't completely happy with his time, I was so proud of both of them because they KILLED it. They were way ahead of the pack. Seriously, we were walking back to our cars when the majority of the 20,000 runners were only making it to the halfway point. It was awesome and inspiring. Well, inspiring enough to get me to order a new pair of runners (which have yet to make use of themselves).

My camera is crap so I stole this photo montage from Melanie (thanks, Mel!)

A Something in a Summer's Day...

I guess I never officially finished the 30 days....maybe 27 or so. But, those last few were a little too deep for my brainball the last few weeks. It's been a little on the chaotic side with buying the house, moving, and trying to stay on top of work and prepare for a TWO-WEEK vacation (which I am now on...hallelujah). Regardless, I'm really proud of myself for doing so many blogs in one month. It was a record and 2010 will be my record year thanks to this great activity. It was a good challenge and I enjoyed forcing myself to write almost everyday.

Anyway, today was Tosh's birthday and we are celebrating it here in Seattle - staying at his brother's house. Today we got up and headed out for a day trip to a place called Leavenworth, a little Bavarian town up in the Washington Alps....

There are real pictures too but I'm too lazy to do that right now. Later will do. When we got home we made dinner, had cake and presents and now Tosh and Troy are planning their Rainier overnighter tomorrow night.

How I love vacation. It's only day 3 and I never want it to end. If only life was a vacation, huh? I really wouldn't mind one single bit.

Day 26 & 27: A Week and a Month

I'm just going to put them both together and say this: This week, today actually, we signed on our first home! That said, we have been packing in our spare time, will continue packing for the next couple of days, move on Saturday..or Monday...or Tuesday...sometime within the next few days...

Here's the best I can do on the new digs - it's somewhere by Tawny Park!

View Larger Map

WE ARE SUPER EXCITED!!!

NOW TO THE REST OF THE MONTH: Next weekend Tosh and I have Saturday tickets to the US Open (Tiger and all), which is taking place at Pebble Beach. Tosh and his brother, Talmage, have final round tickets for Sunday (Happy Father's Day!!).

Then we go back to work for a few days, continue unpacking and organizing in our NEW HOUSE, then pack our suitcases for our TWO-WEEK VACATION, that's right, to the breathtaking Seattle, WA. Tosh and his other brother, Troy, will run the Seattle half on the 26th.

We will celebrate Tosh's b-day on the 28th and then he and his dad and Troy will backpack to Mt Rainier for a few days while the girls and Ronan kick back and play. We'll also visit special lady-A (aka Andrea), who is actually moving to the area this weekend. Then, my mom flies up and we'll spend a week at Discovery Bay doing nothing but fun fun fun. I'm counting down the days and hours.

June is always a fun month - we have 8 family birthdays to celebrate (HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO NOAH TODAY!!!!) - oh and I forgot to mention the last day of school is THIS Friday!! We've got the kindergarten carnival in the morning and the 4th grade BBQ and field day in the afternoon tomorrow - can't forget that.

I'm exhausted.

Day 22-25: Details Schmeetails

DAY 25 in detail: Entire family woke up late (7:45 ish) but still made it to school on time (8:15). Drove to work around 9:45 (it took me longer to get ready...you just can't rush this kind of beauty). Worked (which involved writing, writing and more writing today..and a phone call here and there). Drove home from work and nearly crashed about 3 times. Traffic bites. My brakes hate me. Home, dinner, discussed paint colors, baths, read the Diggingest Dog (i always feel so bad for that poor pup) - FHE on hold until tomorrow because by that time it was already 9:00pm. Bedtime for girls. Went on a walk from 9 -10. Blogging. Bed. Rinse and repeat.

DAY 24 Fancy talk: It was 19 years ago this week that I moved to California for the first time. I was 18 and needed a new place to be. It's hard for me not to shed a little tear when I think about that LIFE-ALTERING moment in my life.

DAY 23 YOU TUBE: In honor of Day 24, I thought I'd post something that reminded me of that time. I was obsessed with Van Morrison around then and I guess you could say this was sort of my "theme song," if there ever was such a thing. Not one day passed that I didn't listen to it at least once. Unfortunately, the Van version isn't on You Tube - or at least I couldn't find it - so Glen Hansard will have to do and will do just fine.

DAY 22 WEBSITE: How do you pick a website? There's, like, a bazillion of good ones out there. And bad ones. So many that I don't really have any favorites except the blog list over there on the right. But, if you're an Arcade Fire fan, you can pop over HERE and listen to a couple of the new songs from the new CD coming out soon (can't come soon enough). I do love this website particularly for these kinds of little treasures. You could spend many hours herein.

Day 21: Yesterday's Recipe

One of my most favorite things in the world is the avocado. I eat them in some form or fashion almost everyday. And of course, who doesn't love a good guacamole, right? I'm an avocado purist, so generally I like to keep my guac fairly simple - lime/lemon juice and salt are just fine. But this recipe adds a very special something without compromising the simple avocado/salt goodness and is hands down my favorite recipe for guacamole. I'm craving it at this very moment, which is why I have chosen it for yesterday's blog entry.

Bless you Bobby Flay, bless you.

Bobby's Guacamole (mixed MY Way)

4 avocados (more or less)

1/2 red onion (more or less)

1 jalapeno (more or less)

2 limes, juiced (more or less)

A tad of cilantro

salt to taste

Take the red onion, jalapeno, lime juice, cilantro and salt and throw into a food processor. Chop to fine - almost a paste. Mix in with smashed avocados and add salt if needed. Bobby Flay leaves the onion/pepper mixture chunky - but I'm not a fan of raw onion/jalapeno chunks in guac. I do, however, love the flavor so I rid it of the chunky nastiness. Plus, when it's mixed fine like this, it melds so good with the avocados and creates a better overall taste (at least in my opinion).

Now if you'll excuse me.....I have an avocado to smash.

Day 20: Holly Hobby

Well, really my number one hobby of my life is food. I love it. I read about it, i eat it, i make it, i experiment with it, i am always trying to learn more about it, i find it very entertaining and worthy of my time, i wish famous chefs were my friends so i could go to their bbqs and dinner parties....you get the idea. Unfortunately, I don't necessarily have the 'talent' to do anything significant with my food obsession, so it just remains my #1 hobby.

Food hobbies of late include: asian market shopping and cooking (not fun at all - i think i'll stick with restaurant experimentation rather than home-cooking on this one...that sushi took WAY TOO long); the creative incorporation of strawberries in every meal; variations of the enchilada; getting kids to expand their vegetable horizons beyond broccoli; and my most current obsession is figuring out how i can possibly brown-bag my lunch everyday without being completely unsatisfied and bored (any suggestions would be greatly appreciated here).

Day 19: I have no talent

I've always felt a little sad about it but I don't worry too much anymore. The problem is I'm just interested in too many things to really focus on one for long enough to develop a talent in it. Plus, I have a real problem with repetition and routine. I loathe both. This does not lend itself well to "practice practice practice!"

Or in other words, I guess I've done a lot of things a little bit.

Talents I've tried to develop and would still like to pursue if I ever had an available moment include: playing and instrument (i can play piano a little but would love to play better and add violin and banjo someday); painting (oil/watercolor/pastels); making things (sewing, curtains, halloween costumes); and any other creative pursuit like writing poetry and stories. I've actually started writing a book but I secretly laugh at myself when I think of the possibility of following it through to completion.

Day 18: VOTE FOR PEDRO!! I mean... VALLEY VIEW!

First, watch THIS:

Second, VOTE!!

We actually got Kennedy's & Izzy's school (Valley View Elementary) in the running for a $50k grant from the Pepsi Refresh project. Now all we need to do is get enough votes. Will you help us? Voting takes place June 1 - 30 and you can vote everyday. Here’s what to do:

1. Register at www.refresheverything.com If you have more than one email, you can register all of them so that you can vote with each.

2. VOTE as many days in June as you're willing to do! (I'll send out reminders as well as the official 'title' of our project as it will appear - but you should be able to find it using "Valley View"

3. Spread the word. Forward this email, post it to your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, or any other social networking site you like to use.

If you want help writing your own Pepsi grant (individuals can submit their ideas too, you don’t have to be a non-profit organization), I’d be glad to help. They are easy to write, just hard to get accepted through the busy server.

THANKS AND GOOD LUCK VALLEY VIEW!

Day 17: Art

Angel Unobserved

by James Christensen

I'm not going to say much about this, except that I love it and it has great meaning to me.

Day 16: A song that makes me cry...like that's a hard one.

I mean I cry at commercial songs. So, besides getting all mushy with my real sad songs (who wants to go there, right?), I thought of a song earlier today that always makes me cry. Only it's a little silly...but it is what it is and I'm not ashamed.



Oh yes. Band Aid. This song makes me cry every year. You have to understand that when this song came out in 1984, I was 12. And I was Jonas Brothers crazy for Duran Duran - mostly the lead singer, Simon LeBon. I really thought I was going to marry him. And if it didn't work out, Bono was easily my back up plan. I'll never forget that moment in time when I first saw this video. I really bawled as i watched them pan from Simon "It's haard, but when you're having fu-uh-uh-un...there's a world outside your window..."

Enter Sting: "and it's a world of dread and fear..."

Transition to Sting with the guy from Human League (I think): "where the only water flowing is, the bitter 'STING' of tears.." how appropriate...

and then, the triumvirate appear together and I'm verklempt: "And the Christmas bells that ring there, are the clanging chimes of doom"

and Bono to wrap it all up: "Well tonight thank god it's them, inst-eeeaaaaddd of youuuu."

Seriously? Does it really get any better than that? Although it always bothered me how many verses and camera time Paul Young got. I mean he was good but he wasn't Simon. And thank heaven for Friday Night Videos back then...I would wait up to the wee hours of night hoping and praying this would come on and cry every time. You may think I jest, but believe me, it was a major thing. Just ask Laura if you don't believe me. Anyway, to this day, I still love it and it still makes me cry. Mostly the simon/bono/sting section because of my adoration of these 3 lovely men, all of whom nearly had to marry me.

Day 14: Non-Fiction..aka Real Life

I find that I'm actually more drawn to non-fiction than fiction. In fact, I rarely read fiction at all. I don't know, maybe I just find real lives more interesting than made up ones? Who knows...anyway, on to the non-fiction. I mostly enjoy biographies - as well as histories, particularly if told from the point of view of the person who actually lived it.

I loved Aron Ralston's "Between a Rock and Hard Place" - he's the guy who had to cut off his own arm with a small pocket knife in order to dislodge it from the boulder that fell on it. Then he had to climb out of the crevice he had fallen into and go find himself some help. The whole ordeal lasted several days and then he wrote a book about it. Such an inspirational story.

As much as I hate to admit it, I also tend to read a lot of health books. I recently read this beauty, which motivated me to eat better, which resulted in about 25 pounds of weight loss. Seriously. Except, I think I need to read it again because my healthy habits have been wavering. It's just that Raley's has this amazing chocolate bundt cake that's only $4.99 and it tastes really good with strawberries and powdered sugar. Curse that cake!!

Day 13: More books

Not an avid reader, I'm not the best person to turn to for book suggestions. I have read a few over the years though, at least enough to form an opinion or two.

One of my favorite fiction authors is Kurt Vonnegut. I have adored almost every Vonnegut book I've read but my most favorite is called The Sirens of Titan.

I'm not even going to attempt to offer a plot here but there are few keywords that should peak some interest. If they don't, then don't bother with the book. But if they do and you haven't read it yet, you're definitely in for a treat.

"Titan" as in Saturn's moon

"UWTB," which stands for the 'Universal Will to Become'

Malachi Constant and Winston Niles Rumfoord

Salo the Tralfamadorian robot

Infundibulum

Martian Imperial Commandos

Any other Vonnegut fans out there? One weird dude but so creatively unique.

Day 10, 11 and 12: It's so unlike me to be a day early

DAY 12: Whatever tickles my fancy

Recently while attending the Fresno Vintage Days, I stumbled upon a man under a tent making sushi with the MAKI SUSHI KI sushi press. I was smitten...

And sold, so I purchased said MAKI SUSHI KI and yesterday I had a kindred sushi spirit and BFF (see Day 11 below) visiting for 24 hours. It was her birthday a few days ago so it seemed a good occasion to MAKI SUSHI.....And voila! Sushi a la lisa....

I was so excited that I forgot to tell the tooth fairy about this little girl who

now has no upper grill to speak of...

..Luckily, the tooth was buried underneath a book so it was easy to say that the fairy obviously couldn't find it. You have to have a clean room anyway for her to show up, right? Score.

Day 11: A recent picture

Here's me and Trina a few weeks ago. We've been friends for almost 20 years - which means that we've eaten 20 years of sushi together. That's somethin.

Day 10: A picture taken more than 10 years ago

Now would be a fun time to post a baby picture or some hellacious 80s gig but thankfully all those fotos are tucked away somewhere safe. So here's a pic I found in an album on a shelf. I chose it because it was taken about 13 years ago when I was dating Tosh. We went on a hike up in Albion Basin, one of the most beautiful locales in Utah. We carved our initials in an aspen tree - yes, we really did that - and it was one of our most memorable 'dates.' We got married about a year later. Our 12-year anniversary is in 2 days, so I thought it seemed appropriate. Plus I think it's hilarious that my hair looks exactly the same, even though its seen a million different styles since then...weird. I'm so jealous of my wrinkle-free forehead in this picture.