Is the Doctor In?

Ach! I am a bundle of nerves today. Brett is in Boston where he had an admissions interview with Tufts University School of Medicine today. We didn't have much heads up or I would have gone along with him. The day was completely scheduled so he'll be one tired guy when he gets done today. I hate waiting for the phone to ring!!

Typical Interview Itinerary:
9:45 AM - 10:00 AM Arrival and Registration of Applicants
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM Presentations about Tufts University School of Medicine: Curriculum, Student Life, and Financial Aid
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Lunch with current TUSM students
1:00 PM - 4:15 PM Interviews, Tour and Q&A: During this time all applicants will have two interviews, a Campus Tour and the opportunity to ask questions of current students and faculty.You will be given the names of your two (2) interviewers and your interview times at Registration. This itinerary is subject to change. You will be notified of your final schedule the morning you arrive for your Interview Day.

And so this year's garden begins!

Really????

This is coming back in style? Don't give me the bit about how everything comes around again...this should never come back. Some things aren't meant to have a second life.

I Think You're Wonderful

Last night my six-year-old nephew, Keaton, had his first-grade school program – Hearts and Hands. These school programs are entertaining in a way entirely unique to themselves. In fact, at one point, Brett – who is diabetic - leaned over to me and said he was going to have to take more insulin as there was so much sweetness going on. Where else does one hear songs with titles such as “Making Valentines”, “Love is the Magic Word” and “I Think You’re Wonderful”? The best song, though, was one called “A Different Beat” that basically taught there are many people on the street and each moves to a different beat and really that’s okay. While most of the songs had hand motions, this particular one had such gems as disco moves, hip rolls, shoulder shimmies and fist-pumping. The little girl on the riser behind Keaton left me with tears of laughter rolling down my cheeks. She was so exuberant and so very into her dance moves and was obviously having SUCH a great time that I wish I had video of it to play when I could use a laugh.

So if you ever need to be reminded of how simple and fun life can be, find a grade-school program to attend. But preferably one in which you actually know one of the participants. Otherwise it might be a bit creepy.

Urban Farmers

I read the most interesting book this weekend. It is titled Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter. I am a total back-to-the-earth hippie at heart (though I shower regularly and shun patchouli) and daydream about the day I can have a gigantic garden and honey bees and farm birds and would love to be completely self-sufficient. I know the complete self-sufficiency is a long-shot, though, because I draw the line at raising and butchering my own meat and I will never be anything other than an omnivore. The author of this book, however, draws no such line. She lives in urban Oakland and turns the abandoned lot next to her apartment into a big garden and raises everything from chickens and geese to pigs, rabbits and goats in her backyard with the intent of eating the meat birds and animals. I totally geeked out reading this book - imagine how excited I was when i found her blog online! (novellacarpenter.com) I love the idea of growing all my own produce. Right now my garlic crop is coming in and I check it every day as though I expect it to grow inches overnight. I am planning this year's garden already, deciding what food I want to grow and what the ratio of ornamentals to edibles should be. I will grow flowers to attract the hummingbirds and bees so am researching which varieties will draw the biggest crowds. I am totally itching to get my fingers dirty and it's still January!

Happy New Year

Yes, six days late, but Happy New Year nonetheless. I haven't set any official NY resolutions. There are definite things I wish to do/accomplish this year, but generally I'm just planning on making it the best year possible. I would like to blog more. But if I make it an actual resolution it won't happen. Other goals I won't make official are to exercise regularly (such a cliche), increase my creative projects, see things with a glass-half-full mentality, and spend more time fortifying my personal relationships with family and friends. Easy peasy, right?

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.