Where's My Stuff??

One of the best parts of internet shopping is being able to track the package as it makes its way to me.I can't explain why, but I really do get excited as it gets closer and closer, even when I'm not self-gifting. Equal to my excitement over getting a package is my disappointment when I learn it's being sent via the US Postal Service. Now, don't get me wrong - I like supporting the post office because somehow I think if they get enough business they'll stop raising stamp prices Every Single Year.But their tracking system is terrible. Amazon.com tells me my package shipped via USPS on Saturday of last week. But the last package sighting was in Lexington, Kentucky and when I track it on usps.com - using the tracking number provided to me - I'm told there is no record of that package in their system. I'm not worried, because that has happened before. It's quite annoying, though! UPS is my favorite for both sending and receiving because their tracking system is second-to-none.

Pickles and Pesto

Autumn is definitely in the air. My Betty Crocker bone is flaring up so I'm trying to bottle some of summertime and use up garden offerings before cold weather really sets in and there is no more harvest to be had. The tomatoes are being made into tomato jam, but I didn't take pictures. I found a new recipe this year and it is deee-licious. It makes a great pasta sauce or can be used on meats as a sort of relish. The cucumbers were pickled with onions and green bell peppers (yummy) and the basil was made into pesto (not so yummy - oh, well).
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Two Canoein' Fools - Part 1

Brett and I have long talked about going on some sort of canoeing trip. I've had more experience with it than he but even that experience consisted of minor, short-term ventures - nothing major. I put Brett on the assignment of figuring out where we were going and after some internet sleuthing he found a website for Strathcona Lodge on Vancouver Island, B.C. This place offered all sorts of outdoor, recreational activities such as mountaineering, high ropes, zipline, rockclimbing and most importantly - canoeing. We arrived on a Sunday and arranged to stay there that night, leave the next day with one of their canoes, canoe and camp the next three days and stay another night at Strathcona upon our return. The pros - high adventure, meeting new people, bear-sighting, beautiful scenery, great stories - far outweighed the cons - thinking I was going to die.

We put in at the Strathcona Dam and paddled up an arm and into Lake Campbell. The portage (where you exit the lake and hike to the next one) was kilometers away and required going the length of the lake. This particular lake was open to motorized boats so we had to contend with wakes and as it was large, there was a fair amount of breeze that didn't often agree with us in regards to which direction we needed to travel. We wouldn't have been so eager to cross if we'd known the task that lay ahead. We had NO idea how heavy the canoe was and the Australian employee at the lodge made shouldering it look so incredibly easy! So imagine, we've just paddled for 2+ hours and now have to transport the canoe and all our gear to the next body of water. There was a campsite at the portage and I was talking to a woman acquainted with this canoe trail to make sure we'd gotten out at the right spot on the lake (directional signs don't really work on water!). She was affirmative and went on to tell us how to get to the next lake - Gosling Lake. Did we think to check our map and make sure her verbal directions coincided? Um, no. And after a long, grumpy, mosquito-ridden detour to Boot Lake (NOT on our route) we finally got back on track. This time-waster was only slightly redeemed by the fact I had my first bear-sighting! It was a black bear and based on the way he tore through the forest away from us, he was in no way eager to have a human sighting.

We arrived at Gosling Lake and decided to make camp there for the night. Originally we'd intended to get much further but the detour ate up too much of our daylight and it made sense to stop and camp as we were both pretty exhausted. These lakes are part of a ring of lakes and the entire route takes you full-circle. If we'd had more time, we would have done the whole thing.

At Gosling Lake we met the nicest, kindest, friendliest family from Switzerland. Tomas, Cristine and their two children gifted us bottles of water and, upon learning or our tired state, Christine ran to their campsite and returned with an Ovamaltine chocolate bar that she said she gave to her children when they had low energy. It was such a kind gesture. I told them about my great-grandparents being from Switzerland and they thought that was wonderful. We didn't eat the chocolate right then and there but if we'd known how delicious it was going to be we just may have. Our sites were adjacent to one another and after they Swiss retired to their RV we could hear the children (ages 7 (boy) and 9 (girl) maybe?) laughing and talking and they seemed like the happiest children I've ever met. Hearing how they interacted has really stuck with me. The next morning before shoving off, Brett searched our rations for something - anything - we could gift them in return. Of course we didn't pack in anticipation of international relations so had nothing grand so-to-speak from home to give them. (Well, unless you count Winco trail mix!! We had lots of that.) We also had packages of organic fruit-leather with little cartoon frogs on them that were obviously an American product. So Brett selected the ones with the cutest pictures and took them over the Swiss children. Not two minutes later, they appeared in front of us with fresh bottles of water to take with us! We asked their names, Niana and a very heavily accented Mikhail maybe? Brett responded with "Micky??" and the two kids giggled and fled back to the safety of their familiar parents. They must've found our whole expedition curious as the two of them sat on the dock waving as we paddled away.

Hot Child in the City

It has been so unbelievably hot here. Yesterday it was 110 degrees in my town and it's completely out of the ordinary. I haven't experienced heat this high since I lived in Arizona. Down there it's expected. Here? It's cause for leading storylines on the evening news. In fact, this morning I was watching Good Morning America while I got ready for work and they highlighted Portland and area suburbs at the top of the weather segment, saying they haven't seen highs like this in Portland in the 200-something years they've been keeping records. I may have gotten that wrong, as I was listening while at the same time lamenting that I 'd already broken a sweat. The high for today is supposed to be 107/108 degrees and tomorrow we're expecting a nice, balmy 100. First snowstorms that shut down the city in December and now record-breaking heat in July. What's happening to my temperate city? If you don't hear from me for awhile it's because I'm sweating so much my fingers are just slip-sliding across the keyboard and I'm unable to form complete sentences.

Fun at the Birdbath

I recently constructed a birdbath on my deck. I like to watch the birds at the feeder I have hung up and want to provide them water in addition to food. It has been so much fun to watch them in the bath. Some just perch and drink, others get full-on in the water and splash to their little bird-heart's content. The Stellar Jays are the most sprinkler-like, probably because they're such large birds that when they splash and play the water cascades everywhere. It's great! I've tried to take pictures but my camera isn't the best for nature shots and the birds tend to be skittish. So I can't take credit for any of the slideshow pictures, but wanted to show you my avian visitors!

According to the BBC, the average person will have only read 6 of the 100 books listed here. Which of course made me want to figure out how many I have read. I've entered those in purple- my total is 54. How many have YOU read?

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (really? all of them?!)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog inthe Night-time -Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Bank
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Garden Update

My garden is really taking off. We had a very warm, sunny weekend which seems to have caused a growth spurt. All in all, I'd say not bad for a container garden!

Dahlias


Mighty Lemon Cucumber


Two of my seven tomato plants (can't really tell, but they're nearly as tall as me, one Sweet 100, the other Sun Gold - both cherry and both sweetly, magically delicious)


Gerbera Daisies


Cowhorn Peppers (will change color as they ripen)


Tomato Close-Up (these are Bush Early Girl)

Things I've learned in the month of June:

• If you stop to get the mail and leave your car idling at the mailbox bank with the door open, a random two-year-old WILL climb into your car.
• If I'm buying book - whether a gift for me or someone else - and the only copy available is the movie tie-in cover, I'll go buy it somewhere else.
• Reading a cupcake cookbook right before going to bed does not ensure sweet dreams... Though it should.
• I'd rather read or garden than just about anything else.
• Mistaking a teaspoon for a tablespoon in a recipe can lead to terrible, terrible results.
• The only time I want to exercise is mid-morning when I'm at work. Strangely enough, when I get done with work and could actually do it, it's the last thing I want.
• I am addicted to the library.
• Waking up to my dog licking my armpit is by far the strangest way I have EVER started a weekend.
• When the screen on your phone says Private Caller you should answer once in awhile. You never know who will be on the other end.
• The sound of chirping birds makes me supremely happy.

Portland Farmer's Market

Brett and I went to the Portland farmer's market this morning and invited his mom, Toni, to come along with us. There were a lot of people there despite the very overcast skies. Today, I bought fresh, handmade cheeses, purple potatoes, locally-made pesto sauces (cilantro-pistachio and chipotle), and a bouquet of peonies. The strawberries all looked delicious but I already have a flat in the fridge. We had a great time!

Saved By The Bell

If you were ever a Saved By The Bell fan, then this clip is for you. I use the term "fan" loosely because, after all, we were much younger when we watched this. There's no judgement here.

How does your garden grow?

I'm really excited about this year's garden. It's nowhere near as prolific as others in my family, but for me - a limited, container-based setup - it's not too shabby. I'm growing lots of tomatoes, several varieties of peppers, lemon cucumbers, cantaloupe, and many many herbs. Someday, when I have more space, I would love to sustain my entire produce needs. I'm also growing various plants and flowers for beauty: dahlias, violas, balloon flowers, heron's bill, sedum, gerbera daisies, columbines, honeysuckle, English daisies, nemesia and others. It's so much fun to grow and nurture something and see it reach its plant potential. Is that how parenting is?

Honeysuckle

Mountain Magic Basil

English Daisies

Rhododendron Garden, Portland Oregon

New Hair!

Rainy Days and Mondays Always Get Me Down

Okay, rain doesn't really get me down but we have had a LOT of it lately. Bonus points if you know the song reference.

Rainy Day Video #1



Rainy Day Video #2

Tree at the library

Wrong Number

I got in to work this morning and went through my normal routine: turned on the computer, put my lunch in the fridge, checked my emails and then checked my phone messages. Today there was only one. Some poor woman left a completely distraught message saying
"Hello, this is -----. I have called you before and I have made arrangements and I have given you the information. Now I'm tired of this game that you're playing. Come pick up the car. I don't want it. I can't afford it. I'm not making any other payment arrangements. COME pick up the car. Goodbye."

Throughout the message she's upset and by the end of the message she's in tears and I feel terrible listening to it! Obviously it's a wrong number and she didn't leave a phone number or anything so I'm unable to let her know she called the wrong company. ALthough, if I did have a way to contact her, would I? Or would it only make her feel worse to know a perfect stranger is privy to her personal woes?

I know she's only one of legions of people who are having financial problems these days but this is the first example that has landed directly in my voicemail inbox. Poor woman.

Viva La Musica!!

Central Station in Antwerp, Belgium...If this doesn't put a smile on your face, musical fan or not, then we need to talk. Enjoy!

Drawing a Blank

I've been intending to update this for quite awhile now, but every time I sit down to do so, I am stumped as to what to say. The sun is shining today and it's actually supposed to be warm this weekend...can't wait for that! In hopeful, warm-weather anticipation I have plans to get pedicures with a girlfriend on Saturday. So girly!

Hopefully this bloggers block will pass soon and I'll get back in the habit of writing on a regular basis!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! I hope yours was fun.

No, I didn't get another dog

Yesterday I spent the bulk of my afternoon volunteering at the Oregon Humane Society. The first half hour was spent in orientation, learning how to interact with the animals and keep oneself from getting bit. I could see the eyes of others in the volunteer group widen, wondering what they'd gotten themselves into. As the owner of a large dog, though, I wasn't too concerned. In fact, later when playing with some of the dogs, the volunteer coordinator kept giving me the large ones as she knew I'd be comfortable with them. After orientation, we went outside to several enclosed dog play areas. Then, Sasha, the coordinator, brought a dog to each yard. First, I had a German Shepherd named Lucille who very much loved retrieving a squeaky toy I'd toss for her (She could teach Abby a thing or two!). After Lucille, I was visited by a setter named Tanner. He was pretty aloof and too old to really want to play. But in the interest of making him as adoptable as possible I just worked on getting him to acknowledge me and let me pet him. The more he's willing to interact with a human, the greater his chances of connecting with someone looking to adopt. My third, and last, dog was an adorable little guy named Cheerio (picture). He was new, so Sasha couldn't tell me what sort of play he was interest in. He was only eight months and I quickly found out he was most interested in crawling in my lap and letting me scratch him all over! Which was fine with me. I love dogs that like to snuggle. It really made me wonder why he was surrendered for adoption...it could've been anything. Perhaps his owners couldn't afford him any longer and knew it would only get harder the older he got.

After playing with the dogs, we moved to the cattery where we each sat in one of the community cat rooms and interacted with them. I joined forces with a regular volunteer named Brenda. So she and I sat and visited for a half hour or so with purring cats in our laps. I talked to her a lot about volunteering as I really think it's something I'd enjoy doing on a regular basis. They have volunteers that exercise the dogs. That would be fun right up my alley!

The best part of the whole experience, though? Looking at the website just now and seeing that Cheerio and about four of the cats I played with were all adopted yesterday!

Book Talk

I used to buy all my books. But to save money and to avoid the frustration of investing money in a terrible book, I've become an avid library-user. In fact, I've been told I have an addiction. But there are much worse things to be addicted to, right? I realized last night that there is no way I can keep up with my current pace and it's unlikely I'll be able to conquer my pile before they're due back at the library. Policy is one can't renew a book if someone else has submitted a request for it. Which means that oftentimes I only have three weeks to finish a book. Three weeks you ask? Surely that is enough time to finish a book. And you're right...it is. Except when there are 10+ to be read. With great reluctance I got online this morning and rescheduled my request list so I won't be inundated with books as I am now.

Tonight, my friend, Kim, and I are going to a literary arts event at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Two authors we both enjoy - Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto - are speaking on how they became writers and the creative writing process in general. I'm hoping it will be interesting. If not the tickets were cheap! My handbag is full of books (theirs) in case they do a pre-lecture signing. Best to be prepared, I think. It's fun to have something to look forward to. I'll take pictures if I'm able.

Niece's Band Concert

I went to my niece, Jarae’s, sixth grade band concert last night. She plays the flute and seems to really enjoy being involved with band. I don’t expect anyone beyond my parents to really be interested in these clips but even those not interested in the music will find the last one entertaining!

And this was how Keaton was entertaining himself...

Yowza!

There's a fantastic weekly radio program on the local jazz station called Divaville. The program focuses on jazz vocalists from the 20s through the 60s - think Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker, Betty Hutton and the like. It is a wonderful program and it would be rare to be in my home on a Wednesday and not hear it on the hi-fi. Anyway, Tuesday night I went to a Divaville listener party at a throwback dinner-lounge called Tony Starlight's. It was a lot of fun! Tony did a sit-down interview of sorts with the host, Christa, and then the two of them played some songs and gave prizes for being able to identify the singers and songwriters. I am nothing but a novice so was no sort of contender but enjoyed hearing the music. Brett and I were among the younger attendees. It was fun getting dressed up and doing something completely out of the usual routine. The program is streamed live each week at divaville.org so if you have any interest, you should check it out. Music can be so wonderful and this is nothing like avant-garde jazz music you may be thinking of. To me, that's generally just noise. But hearing Bobby Darin sing about That Funny Feeling and listening to a Danny Kaye and Louis Armstrong duet is nothing short of fabulous.

Trouble Blogging?

Is anyone else having problems uploading pictures? I've been trying to post something for 24 hours now and the pictures just won't load. It's very frustrating. Know what else is frustrating? Trying to contact blogger support. It's impossible to locate a simple contact customer support feature. Argh!

Changing of the Guard

This is a very exciting day! I'm energized thinking of a new president in the White House. Our country has not been in a good place for quite some time. And I thought the weeks between election day and inauguration day would never pass. It is no secret that my political views are different than most of my family and I generally don't talk politics with my friends. Today, though, I can't not address the magnitude of this day. I have never been a person who cares about another's color, race, or religion and think it shows remarkable growth to have an African-American in the highest ranking office of the United States. I realize he has yet to prove himself, but for the first time in years, I feel hopeful and my approval rating is very high! Others have said it in a much more articulate manner, but simply stated, today I feel proud to be an American.

From The Wall Street Journal, I thought this was a fun, good-spirited letter from Jenna and Barbara Bush to Malia and Sasha Obama. Could you imagine being a child living in the White House?

Christmas Pics 2008