I'm still here!

I really am. I've been looking at all of your blogs, but haven't had enough time to do that *and* post, in my one hour of computer time daily at the library. :-( But! Paul just called me to tell me that he found a great little recycled Mac at the Free Geek thrift store. And since he and the kids have been volunteering there? They get a half-off discount. That's a cool $175 bucks for a (hopefully) great little machine.

I wanted to post a picture but I can't upload it at the library...I cut my very long hair! I had been kicking around the idea of donating to Locks of Love but it took a long time to give up my beloved hair. When I can get a picture up I'll have a funny one to share. :-)

Zac is at camp in California. We haven't heard from him, but I hope he's having a great time! It's a rock-climbing, ropes course, hiking, canoeing, camping kind of adventure camp! I think he's probably loving it. I'll leave tomorrow to go back to California to first see my family in the Fresno area, then head over to pick up Zac on Sunday.

Our anniversary was the day after Paul's birthday, but we didn't really do anything for it then because it was Father's Day. So, last night we went out to celebrated belatedly. We went to Nuestra Cocina for a scrumptious Mexican dinner. We had the pumpkin soup, the gorditas rellenos, and the pumpkin enchiladas. Paul had a chile margarita! I'm glad he got it, as I was thinking about it, but tasting his I think it would have been too spicy for me. He enjoyed it, though! My margarita had pomegranate in it. It was good but I think next time I'll stick with the great mojito that I had while waiting for a take-out order there last week.

Next we went to Mississippi Studios to hear Boulder Acoustic Society. They were a lot of fun, though we got there late and missed a lot of it. The band sounded like their next gig will be on Prairie Home Companion.

Then, since it was only 10:30 when that was done (the night was yet young!) we headed over to Pix Patisserie for a little dessert wine. I would have enjoyed my wine without reservation, the Vin Santo, but Paul ordered the Don PX, a 1971 port. It was so yummy that I couldn't take another sip without ruining my own, until after I was finished with mine. He very kindly saved me a bit. He's a sweetie that way.

Paul and I have been married for 18 years. I am so blessed to have found such a wonderful companion, on the first try! We married young and have always had the hope of growing old together, hopefully making it to 50 years or more. We're well on our way! I love you, Paul!

Paul's Birthday, Computer Woes, and Rock Concert

First and foremost: Happy 39th birthday to my beloved husband Paul! I was in New Seasons this morning and the cashier asked how my weekend was going. I said great! It's my husband's birthday! She asked how old he is, and I said 39. She said she celebrates her 39th every year, which prompted me to tell her that this is his *first* 39th. :-)

So, computer woes: we've had the proverbial computer crash. It was turning itself off for about a year, unexpectedly, but usually a good vacuuming out did the trick. This time nothing worked, and then it refused to boot up. We all were thinking that our poor computer had passed from our midst. But the nice guys at the computer repair shop are pretty sure it can be fixed. Hurray for computer repair guys! Right now we're all at the library, checking our email.

Tonight the Indigo Girls are playing in Portland! And if you don't know already, Indigo Girls is our very favorite band in the whole wide world. So we were very unhappy when we found out the tickets were sold out! Fortunately, a friend from church is the general manager at KINK, the alternative rock station in town, and it was, in his words, "No problem!" We even get to meet them before the show. Can't wait!

I'll leave it at that--I've only got 12 minutes of my hour of computer time left. It's gonna be a long two weeks...

me

No one ever takes pictures of me, since I'm always the one behind the camera. Whenever I'm looking for a good one to post, I can't find one. So, I just took that camera and held it away and said cheese! I took a bunch but this one is the one I like the best.

What a difference a couple of weeks makes!

The first two blossoms on the zucchini plant! The one on the right opened yesterday and the other opened today. Exciting!I really didn't expect little tomatoes on my tomato plants so early, but three of them do have fruit on them already! Here's the Stupice:and the Gold Nugget! I guess I didn't get a pic of the Oregon Spring plant that's got quite a large tomato. Next time!After the basil first came up, it just sat there for the longest time. But it's finally springing up, and I think if we ever get any warm weather again, it'll be ready for pesto in a couple of weeks. Look at all that kale! If anyone wants some, let me know--I can't eat all that by myself!
Didn't it turn out beautifully? And it'll still grow into more than this!
It's been interesting watching the different rates of growth of different plants. I planted beans right next to those peas, but the peas are going crazy and the beans are just getting started. And I planted lots of radishes, all at basically the same time, and I've been getting radishes for ages. They just keep coming! I planted them where I wanted to plant tomatoes, thinking the radishes would be gone by the time I needed to plant the radishes there. Well, I'm needing them out of there because the tomatoes need that room! I did go through and mercilessly pull the ones that were choking the tomatoes the worst yesterday. I'll probably need to be even more merciless.

And the carrot tops are huge....but the carrots themselves are tiny! I suppose I could pull them and call them "baby carrots." :-)

I continue to be amazed at the rates of growth in Oregon in the springtime! Everything just explodes with new life. Amazing.

We have kids to keep us humble

Some of you know that Paul has been translating some of St. Basil's homilies into English, and has a book deal. His work is all done, and we're just waiting for Greg Yova of Project Mexico to finish up a preface to the book before Paul sends it to the publisher. We were chatting about this and that this morning at breakfast, and we were talking about Paul's birthday, which is coming up next week. I said something about him turning 40 next year, and he was asking out loud what he has to show for being 40. I said, he's got a book that will be out by then! That's a pretty cool thing. Then he turned to talking about what he's thinking about the book: does he want to do some kind of a "meet the author" kind of release party?

At that, Zachary piped up: Dad, St. Basil is dead! You're not the author, just the translator.

I laughed until I had to wipe tears from my eyes.

Once

Yesterday I went to see the movie, Once. Our local newspaper movie guy, Shawn Levy, was just crazy for it, and it sounded like the kind of movie I'd like. Well, my intuition was right. It was simple and sweet. The director says it's a movie about two musicians falling in love, so I'll go along with that, but really, I think it's more of two people becoming fast friends, really caring for each other. Which is to say, falling in love, I suppose, but in a different way than we usually think of. I just didn't think they ever seemed to have the chemistry that goes along with romantic love.

Both boy and girl are haunted by their last relationships. They're both lonely, and I think looking for meaning in a poverty-stricken world. They both love music and begin making beautiful music together. I think that's what really makes this movie--the music. It wouldn't be the same if you didn't hear them singing together, and learning music together.

Favorite Posts

I'm going through my blog posts from the last two years, almost (my blogiversary is June 22!) and pulling out some of my favorite posts. Poignant, serious, funny, hilarious, favorite recipes (from before I had a cooking blog) are all on there. I probably should sort them into categories too, but I'm not for now. Anyway, find them in the sidebar. I'm not done yet, it only goes through March for right this second--Zachary is crying "unfair" that I'm still on the computer after we installed a program that only allows as much time on the computer as the administrator allows for each person. Unless, oops, you know the administrator password. Hmm.

Why yes, she is blogging a lot today

That's because it's about all I'm good for today. I am unfathomably sore from doing a Women Build project yesterday. I've done hard work before, and haven't come away this sore. It must have been all that up and down the ladder and trapeze-artisting through the trusses. We put the second half of a roof on a house that's slated for a single mom and her 17 year old son. In the very hot sun. Yeah, weather.com and the newspaper agree that it was only 84 yesterday, but when I was done for the day and driving from the project over to pick up my kids, I passed by one of those electric temperature signs and it said 91. Yow!

Anyway, I enjoyed the day, even if it did make me sore. I love the concept of having just women on the project, because as the organization points out, yes, women are welcome to build alongside men on the regular projects. But the way this world is set up encourages men to take the upper hand at these types of projects. It's all too easy for women to stand aside and let the men do the "real work". I saw this at Project Mexico...we were there with a group of high schoolers. There were a lot fewer girls than boys in the first place, and then when it came time to do the difficult things, like mixing concrete, you saw the macho studs come out. Oh, let us handle this, while you stand back and admire our macho studliness. Yeah, I don't think so.

So here I sit, with a very sore left leg which makes the stairs in my house a dreaded task. Paul took the kids to Free Geek to volunteer, to work toward a free computer. (Cool!) So I'll just sit here, in my windowless basement computer room, and blog, because I don't want to climb those stairs again.

New colors for new blog

In response to "it's hard on the eyes", I decided to change the colors of my new blog because I hate trying to read a blog that's hard on the eyes. So I went in to change it and was thinking about what colors I'd like....and was inspired by my first real post on this blog. So, here's to you, Thelma, you beautiful chicken! These are colors from Thelma's beautiful feathers.

RIP Thelma

Last Friday night, we were at the OPF conference, and we didn't get home until about 10:15. It hasn't been getting really dark until 9:30 here lately, and the chickens go into their house at about 9. Well, I knew something was up when I got home---three of the hens were out. They just don't go outside when it's that late unless there's something wrong. They're quite the creatures of habit, one being that when the sun is gone, they are in bed. No exceptions.

So, I called Paul out, because last time a hen was out there was a possum hanging out in their coop. Not doing any damage, really, a possum would have to be really hungry to try to eat a hen (though they love to destroy a nest full of eggs) but enough to freak out Louise, who often sleeps on the floor. (The rest always perch higher up.) So, Paul came out and opened up the coop door (because I *hate* seeing that possum!) and called back that no possum was in there....only a bunch of feathers and one chicken. So the one chicken plus the three that were out is only 4...then one more came out of the dark and joined us, and then there were five. When I'd left that evening there were six. We searched all over, but saw a trail of feathers that lead out of the coop a little way. We definitely feared the worst, but hoped that Thelma had found a safe place to roost and she'd come back in the morning.

Next morning still no Thelma, and we saw that the trail of feathers led to the back corner of the yard, where there's a little gap in the fence and behind that blackberry bushes gone wild. So now we pretty much knew that Thelma was a goner. I'm pretty sure it was a raccoon that took her.

Fast forward to this morning. We'd hoped that Thelma would come back, but not like this....A neighbor, one who knows everything that happens in this neighborhood, rang the doorbell and knocked on the door. A dead chicken in your backyard! Oh, no, not another one.....so we went and looked and there was Thelma, or what was left of Thelma. Poor Thelma. All her mourning chicken friends were communing with her, or on her....well, that's just what chickens do. Paul has a theory that if we died in the backyard they'd come eat us.

I am guessing that the raccoon came again (or whatever it was) and dragged her body out to get the last bits off of her.

Paul very kindly again took care of the dead chicken and put the carcass in a bag. We are hoping to get an ugly, spikey tree pulled up this afternoon and plant instead a cherry tree, and Paul had the idea of burying Thelma in the hole before we plant.

I am sad about Thelma but I do have to acknowledge that this is just the circle of life. Life cannot exist without other life dying. Even though I'm a vegetarian, I acknowledge that other life is taken in order for me to live. And raccoons need to eat too. (Or whatever it was.)