Happenings....

Busy times in our small corner of paradise:

1. Moving companies, estimates, weight, furniture, bargaining, comparing. Expensive.

2. My mom is sick and in the hospital. This is her first visit to the hospital since I was born 32.5 years ago. I am sad. She and my dad had to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary in a hospital room.

3. Craigslist is helping us sell our furniture.

4. Our dehydrator is working to make our first batch of granola.

5. Every time I go grocery shopping at the Co-op I buy myself Kombucha as a treat.

6. B and I just celebrated 10 months married!

7. I haven't exercised in a long time.

8. I am reading Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides. It is the third book I've read, in a row, where sister and brother have a child together. Consensually.

9. Have I told you how excited I am to move to San Diego! I can't stop myself from looking at apartments that are way out of my price range, dreaming of neverending sunny days, picturing my perfect shopping day at IKEA, fantasizing about farmers markets, bicycle riding, productive jobs, and on and on.

Journal of [] only time enough for a list.

Weekend, con't

Saturday:

We bet the horses and won! The heat on Saturday was almost to the point of unbearable. Sticky, suffocating, inescapable - so we made the smart decision and decided to spend all day in it. Ouch! But, we had to. It was our friend's birthday and she was having festivities at the Saratoga Track. And she was providing drinks and snacks. The offering of drinks and snacks will get me to come to almost any event. So, we sweated for a few hours, made some dinky bets, cheered the horses on and then won! Then I drank more beer.

Sunday:

I surprised B with a trip to the local county fair. Once again, it was so hot we had to sit down every 10 minutes. It took us a LONG time to see the not so large fair. As soon as we got there I was ready to leave and come back again when the sun went down. But, since it was my surprise to her, I had to sweat it out. These are the things I remember: Heat, asphalt, fried foods, unsavory characters, unruly kids, untrustworthy rides, and stinky animals. The stinky animals were my favorite. I could hang out with sheep for longer than I care to admit. I really like them. And goats too.

The primary reason I surprised B with a trip to the fair was to see the main event: The Demolition Derby!



As you know, or can imagine, the object is to crash your car into the other cars and remain the last running car. It pretty much ROCKS! to watch. My only disappointment is that we didn't get slung with more mud.

To cleanse our systems from the bad food and general dirtyness of the fair I embarked on a journey to create Ani Phyo's Raw Sun Burger on Black Sesame Sunflower Bread. I also made the sun-dried tomato catsup and hot mustard to go on the burger. Delicious! We added sliced tomato and lettuce leaves.

Mine didn't look quite as good as this:


But not as bad as this!


Journal of (notwithstanding the above, the best part of the weekend was when B put the AC in the bedroom)

Weekend

Happy Birthday to my little sister who is now 30!!! AAAH!


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Sometimes I feel so out of touch with things. Things such as texting, twitter, Brangolina, Bennifer (are they still a thing?) Pepsi Zero, Twilight, anything on cable TV, iphones, music in general, and probably tons of other things that I just haven't even heard of. Well, to combat one little pop-culture mystery, B and I have been borrowing Harry Potter movies from the library. By Friday night we had watched them all in order and felt sufficiently prepared to see the latest one in the theater. So after receiving a (very) high moving truck quote from our friendly in-home estimate guy, we decided to believe that money grows on trees and treat ourselves to a movie date night. Many dollars later we were in the theater with our candy and water, and our Harry Potter anticipation. The movie was great and we loved it! For me the best part was sitting next to my wife with her hand in one hand and a box of Reese's Pieces in the other.

Rest of the weekend to come tomorrow...

Journal of a humid night.

The Latest

I have pictures to share! Hopefully that makes up for my absence.

Distractions of life that have kept me from blogging:

I've been day dreaming a lot of what I want my life to look like in the next couple of years. I've always done this, as I am sure many of you have, but lately I've been doing it with an excitement and a dread like I've never experienced before. I think this means that I am ready to settle down and that I want to make sure I get it right. I know that this is impossible, the getting it right thing, because life is about change and whatever getting it right means to me now, may not be the definition later on. As much as I know this, however, I can't stop imagining my future, how to create it and how to avoid things that could go dreadfully wrong.

Reading good books again! A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, The Other Boleyn Girl and Wideacre by Philippa Gregory.

Searching endlessly for a job on the left coast. Chances are California will be growing by 2 more unemployed girls come October. Yowza!

Lamenting the fact that I haven't crocheted a stitch on the baby blanket I am making for Tiny Sheff since I showed it to Ms. Amy.

Chippook 2009 family vacation! B and I spent a week with my folks, sister, brother-in-law and nephew in CA. It was hot, dry and so heavenly. We spent the week relaxing by the pool, boating around Bass Lake, riding an outdoor train, getting an art lesson, etc - see pics below!

B enjoying the warm pool

My sister and nephew chillin' by the pool

Outdoor train ride through an old logging town

I love this crew!

Gorgeous family!

Bass Lake

Boat captains!

Drawn in the Bass Lake sand

Watercolor lessons

Behold the talent! Yes, we all have the same shirt on - my mom designed a 2009 family vacation logo and had it embroidered on a shirt for each of us...oh, moms

Enjoying the view

Another view to enjoy - Grandpap and Silas

B and I went to the coast for Amy's baby shower and took a little tour through the sealions


Journal of a job seeker

Wordless Wednesday