I've got a new job!

And I LOVE it! I started as Administrative Assistant at an environmental engineering consulting firm last Tuesday. It's a small office only 8 minutes from my house. There are only four engineers working there other than myself, so it's very personal and cozy. Not too many names to try to remember, which is good.

The last place I worked was a 35-minute commute (if traffic was GOOD) and after 3 years working there, I STILL didn't know everyone's names and faces. Not to mention the fact that I've been working in intellectual property for 9 years straight. YUCK!

It feels SO good to be doing something different. And the area of work is WAY more intersting to me. The engineering firm is based out of Davis, CA, and they have several offices around California, and a couple here in Oregon. They specialize in water management, wastewater treatment systems, etc. It's all very fascinating to me, so I think I'm going to love it here. And, who knows? I may decide to become an environmental engineer. Whichever specific field I decide on, I know that working here will satisfy my interests and give me access to future job connections. I feel like I'm finally doing something that actually makes sense.

I had a nightmare last night that I was working back at the law firm. I was SO angry and frustrated. Felt good to wake from that dream. I should mention, also, that the woman that they hired to replace me left after her first day alone on the job. Oh well... sucks for them. Not my problem anymore, though.

So, that's my big news for now. Lot's going on. It's been an incredible summer of a thousand-mile road trip through Death Valley, weekend in Capitol Reef, visiting friends and family in SLC, camping trips on Mt. Hood, kayaking our neighborhood river, art and antique festivals, Beer n' Board Game nights with our friends, farewell parties for Hawaii-bound buddies, a concert in someone's basement, seeing my neice after her first hour of her birth, and a spontaneous trip to Montana over a single weekend. I'm exhausted! And I KNOW I left many significant and special things out. I can't keep up with myself at this rate, so I apologize for the sparce postings on here.

I don't think anything will slow down for me. School starts in a couple weeks, but I cannot wait for fall! I've already got my Halloween decorations out. I keep the blinds closed so the neighbors don't start thinking we're wackos. Or rather, before they REALIZE we're wackos.

I have to get some work done around the house. Why did I buy a house this year? Was I thinking I didn't have enough to do already??? (See why I don't have kids yet?)

JUNE 29, 2006

Because Jimmy & Emily were so occupied with the new addition, we spent a lot of fun time with Aaron & Sandra.

My brother, Aaron. Yes. He is as weird as he looks.


Sandra. The Yin to Aaron's Yang. Or... something like that.


Aaron & Sandra. Lounging on the canoe, instead of rowing. Slackers!



Aaron n' Sandra! Why does Aaron look like such a party pooper?


Keith n' me!

JUNE 28, 2006

My niece Helene Hazel was born on June 28th, 2006. I was lucky to be there at the hospital to greet her just one hour after she was born.



Proud father: Jimmy


And of course, Emily looks absolutely stunning, even after delivery!


We loved seeing Severin. He's growing up so fast!


Severin peeks at his new little sister.


Keith & Helene Hazel

I went camping for my birthday last month.




We acted silly


We spied on Hummingbirds


We clambered down into a hidden spring


We played in the water


Keith fell in love with a red breasted sapsucker


and I was camp cook the whole time!

It was lots and lots of fun!

This is our Dining Area, Before and After. Notice the pretty new light fixture?

Concerning my earlier blog about Oregonian's reputation as having a propensity for weed in their brownies, I am here again on the subject, not to renege that comment, rather to provide a clip from an article in last week's Willamette Weekly, that pretty much proves my point. That's science!*

This bit comes from "Weed! Werewolves! Wicca! - Google Trends exposes Portland's brain" by Ben Waterhouse.


"When Earth's most stupendous Internet search engine unveiled Google Trends last month, amateur sociologists and time-wasting cubicle inmates everywhere found a new reason to live.
The highly addictive new feature ranks cities according to how often their citizens Google for any given search term. Thanks to G-Trends (www.google.com/trends), for example, we now know that the pervy people of Brentford, England, seek out "fetish" more than anyone. Rennes, France, is the Internet capital of "lingerie." And as WW reported two weeks ago, Portlanders search "impeach Bush" more than any Americans except those pinkos in Madison, Wisc.
That got us wondering: What else can Google Trends tell us about Portland's secret desires and strangest interests? After a few solid hours of "research," we made some illuminating discoveries.
DOPE
Judging by Google Trends, Portlanders love their controlled substances. We rank first in the world in searches for "marijuana." And "meth." And "liquer"—even though we don't crack the global Top 10 for the correctly spelled "liquor." It seems, however, that Portland's days as a smack capital are bygone—Melbourne, Perth, New York and Seattle all make the Top 10 for "heroin," but PDX is absent. When it comes to "microbrew," we're No. 1 by a landslide. Less gloriously, Portland ranks sixth for "cigs." "

(Found at: http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3231/7638)

This information is nothing to be proud of - but it's interesting nonetheless. I am curious what other cities' Google Trends are. I've not had time to play around with the Google Trends feature, but I intend to take the time to expose the private internet-searching topics of Chicago, IL, Chesapeake, VA, and many other home-towns of the people I know. Mwah-hah-hah-hah-haaaah!

*The information in this article is not scientific.

7 Things

7 Things I Want to Do Before I Die:
1. Visit the Galapagos Islands
2. Hang-glide in a Hawaiian volcano
3. Write a book
4. Earn a Ph.D.
5. Explore every continent
6. Sky dive
7. I'll try surfing with you, Nat!

7 Things I Cannot Do:
1. Throw away a plastic item without feeling guilty
2. Scold my kitties even when they scratch the new couch
3. justify mowing a lawn (really, what is the point?)
4. get to work on time (I've been consistently 30-45 mins late the past 5 weeks)
5. imagine a life without Keith
6. stop challenging myself with new goals (always, always aiming for something)
7. watch local news

7 Things that Attracted Me to Keith:
1. fate
2. He makes me laugh every day
3. Always good conversation
4. He's always respected me
5. He's interesting, different, and totally nuts
6. He's thoughtful and caring
7. He's just silly and fun all the time

7 Things I Say Often:
1. I'm such a geek
2. I'm such a dork
3. Duh!
4. Lame.
5. Okay, now what…?
6. I need to get out of the city.
7. There is never enough time in the day!

7 Reasons I love being an Aunt: ()
1. Imagining myself as the future "Aunt Ellie"
2. When I want kids, I can borrow them from my sisters and then return them when I'm exhausted
3. Watching my sisters evolve into mommies
4. Having a valid reason (excuse) to visit the toy section at Fred Meyer
5. Getting a million photos via email
6. Bragging about how cute my sisters' kids are
7. Fulfilling that baby-craving without all the weight-gain, nausea and 18-year parental obligation/contract

7 things I love to do:
1. Bird-watching
2. Hiking
3. Camping
4. Reading
5. Road trips
6. Stare at the sky
7. Be with Keith

7 things I love about Life:
1. The future
2. The beauty of nature
3. Exploring potential
4. Learning
5. Loved ones
6. Freedom
7. Everything

House Warming Party!!!

Last Sunday we finally threw a House Warming Party! Keith and I kicked ourselves into full gear to get the house put together for suitable presentation for guests. We finally have decorations hung and I'll get some photos of the inside of our house soon enough.
Our party went really well. We invited about 30 people and 25 showed up, so it was a very good turn out. Yes, 25 people is a lot in a 675 square foot home, but our backyard turned out to be the best outdoor party space and everyone was comfortable. We decorated the covered backyard area with a huge tatami rug, placed many chairs around in an open circle, hung bright, colorful sheets of fabric to spice up the place with color, and strung huge paper lanterns to light everything. Party started at 3:00 in the afternoon, and the last guest left at 10:00. Two families from neighboring houses showed up, so it was great to be able to hang out with the neighbors.
I made a TON of pesto farfalle salad and also a ton of that good ol' Mormon picnic staple: frog-eye salad (which most people were a little freaked out by and seemed to avoid). Keith made a bunch of chocolate-chip cookies and I made the always popular poppy seed rum cake (It was a hit!).
I wanted to make brownies, because most people know those are my favorite desert, but then I thought against it. Because there is something I've learned about the brownies in Oregon: if someone brings brownies to a party, there is a 99.9% chance that those brownies have marijuana in them. Okay, lets not all act shocked here. We all know the reputation with Oregonians. The people here are either a) lesbians, b) drag queens, c) lumberjacks, or d) Birkenstock-wearing, pot-smoking hippies. Or any combination of the above stereotypes. This realization, however obvious it would seem to some people, did not come to me because of an unfortunate accident of eating a pot-brownie. No. That has not happened to me yet. And as long as I keep in mind this assumption about Oregon brownies, I should be readily equipped to avoid such an uncomfortable situation.
No, I came to this assumption back when I brought some peppermint brownies to a party we went to this last New Years. My brownies sat on a table, for the most part, un-eaten. But those random strangers at the party who *did* have some of my brownies complimented them repeatedly throughout the night. I was a bit surprised! So why weren't they flying into happy mouths at the rate they should've been? I left the party with more than half a plate leftover. I wonder if those who really enjoyed my brownies were just psyching themselves out about them as though the "special ingredient" was more than just peppermint extract. I can't really say for sure.
But I do know that whenever I mention that brownies are my favorite desert, I get mischievous looks, for which I always have to respond, "Not *those* kind of brownies…"

This is Keith's painting. He'll be adding an owl to it, as I mentioned before. Doesn't it look so cool? I'm so impressed. This is his first painting.

Paintings

Keith and I needed new art for our home, and we searched around, but couldn't find anything that really grabbed us (nothing at a decent price, anyway). So we did something a little different and bought three HUGE canvases and have decided to make paintings ourselves! We have two big canvases (36"x24") and one huge canvas (48"x36") that we have to paint on.

Keith took one of the big canvases and I took the other and we spent a good portion of our Sunday painting. I finished mine yesterday:



These are violet-green swallows. We have seen a ton of them recently and they are so cool.

Keith's painting is ALMOST done. It looks SO cool. I'm excited to see it when it is finished. I should post a photo of his current progress, but I don't have the photo with me right now. He's going to add an owl to the painting. He's deciding whether to do a Barn Owl or a Great Horned Owl.

We have one more HUGE canvas to paint on, but we've not yet decided what we'll do with it. It's going to be a shared project, so that should be lots of fun to do together.

It felt good to do something artistic. I haven't done a painting or even a simple drawing since 2002. Four years! How sad is that?

The Ants Go Marching 1-by-1, Hoorah! Hoorah!

I started noticing the beginnings of a sugar ant invasion about one month ago. Tiny ants were wandering around the baseboards of our kitchen, scouting around for some kind of fallen morsel to haul down to their subterranean, glossy black colony of wriggling, multi-legged, mini-monsters. I vacuumed them up with everything else, as I saw them. There were not very many, so I didn't concern myself with it.

The Ants Go Marching 2-by-2, Hoorah! Hoorah!

One week had passed, when I noticed that the determined little scouts had discovered a glorious offering, placed ever so conveniently for them on our kitchen floor. They assumed that surely it was an offering especially for them.
But, alas, that food was not meant for the ants at all. It was the cat food for our darling felines. So I carried on with my attempts at keeping their numbers down by vacuuming even more frequently.

The Ants Go Marching 3-by-3, Hoorah! Hoorah!

On a warm, quiet night, I returned home from school. I unlocked the side door and entered the kitchen. I figured I should check on the ant population near the cat food and *EGADS!* they had stormed the castle! Squiggly rows of ants lead from the baseboards to the cat food! And, impressively, they had managed to hoist 6 morsels of Iam's Hairball Control Cat Food from the hand-painted ceramic bowls all the way to the corner of the baseboard. I had to laugh. How were they going to get the cat food under the baseboard? They had not figured it out yet, either, but they were sure giving it the old college try.

The Ants Go Marching 4-by-4, Hoorah! Hoorah!

Then Keith gasped at the opposite end of the kitchen, and I turned to see what he had discovered. A second swarm of ants had crowded around and into our garbage can, where, apparently, an empty can of wet cat food had been carelessly thrown earlier that day. It was clear now that the ants were being just plain greedy. Out came the vacuum, and up and away went the intruders!

Then silence. What were we to do about the ants? Clearly, something had to be done. Keith and I discussed the options. Why wouldn't they leave us alone? What did they... want... THAT'S IT! Why didn't we think of it before? WE GAVE THEM WHAT THEY WANTED!

I grabbed a scoop of cat food, carry it out of the house and into the front yard, and I sprinkled it out by the ant hills.
There.
I dusted off my hands and went to bed.

It has been one week since we took to feeding these ravenous little sugar ants. And it has seemed to solve the problem! We only get a few wandering in and out, but most stay outside where the cat food is.

Our cats get to eat from their bowls in peace.
We are pleased, because the ants stay, for the most part, outdoors.
And the ants are acting friskier and are no longer gacking up hairballs.
And everyone is happy.

What are you Reading?

I am currently reading Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. I haven't read too far into it (school has been a bit of a distraction for me). This book has been on my must-read list for a while. And what finally inspired me to buckle down and read this book was due to the fact that it was in the running to make a list of the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries (2005) according to a "panel of 15 conservative scholars and public policy leaders." So, I admit it, I felt an extra bit encouragement to read it just knowing that there are some staunch conservatives out there who deem the book "harmful". It's the inner rebellious teenage U.S. citizen that made me do it (I can blame a lot of my actions on her, actually). As I understand, this book was quite controversial for its time (1962), as it opened up ideas that DDT and other synthetic pesticides might actually be harmful to our ecology and threatening to human life itself. Now days, I don't know anyone that would disagree with the points made in this book. One confirming situation involving the effects of DDT was with the diminishing population of predatory birds, and most famously, the California Condor. So I found it ironic to see it was a potential runner-up for the "harmful" books list. Clearly, Carson wrote this book with the intention of alerting society to deadly agricultural practices that were wide-spread and highly damaging to our ecosystem. So how could the information within this book have been considered harmful? Harmful, maybe, to the multi-million dollar industrial chemical industry. That's the only answer I could find to justify its candidacy. Rachel Carson was fighting a very personal battle with breast cancer while she wrote Silent Spring. She died in 1964, two years after the book was published. And so I read this book not only for mild rebellious satisfaction, but also for the simple fact that I can admire a woman like Rachel Carson for her love of nature and for the active and inspirational role she played in the environmental movement. And, as I am pursuing a career in environmental science, it would be erroneous for me to not read it.

"It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility." -Rachel Carson (1907-1964)

Spring Term

It's been a while since I gave a detailed update of the going-ons in my life, so I'm going to buckle down here and journal a few things.

We are three weeks into the spring term (already)! Wow! Time really flies when you're having fun. And this term really has been lots of fun. Keith decided to take the same classes that I am taking this term. It was sort of a last-minute decision for him. Since he started college, he's been thinking a lot about his goals after he gets a degree. Initially, he was going for a degree in theatre, just because that's always been his thing. But his passion for theatre really seems to have fizzled since we moved here. To avoid turning this paragraph into an analysis into the wild mind of Keith, I will just say that he's recently had more of an interest in pursuing a career that would get him outdoors. So he decided to take the Environmental Studies classes with me because it allows him to get a taste of what he might be getting himself into if he does decide to change his major.

Classes are during the day on Monday and Wednesday, so I've had to shift my work schedule around to accommodate my new school schedule. It was like pulling teeth to get management here to agree to my new schedule, but luckily it all worked out. I'm working 11 ½ hour days to make up for lost time, but it's been worth it. In fact, I much prefer this schedule over taking night classes.

Homework for our birding class consists of... well, to go birding. That's all. How simple and fun is that? For our first lab, we met out at the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge and spent half the day there. It was incredible! And last week, instead of meeting in the classroom for a lecture, we all met out at Oaks Bottom Reserve and observed all the birds out there. I was surprised to see a bald eagle. Oaks Bottom is located adjacent to one of Portland's hippest downtown neighborhoods. We watched a pair of Osprey mating in their nest and I saw my first Screech Owl. That was pretty amazing.

Our Environmental Class has been equally exciting. We all went out last Wednesday (the warmest day of the year) and mapped a stream. We were in mud up to our knees.

More blog to come… I am having a hard time sitting still long enough to fully update. But I owe Kristin a current book-list and, as always, have more to yammer about.

No time now, though! It's sunny outside! It's Friday night! MUST GET OUTDOORS!
Have a great weekend everyone! Keith and I will be out at Tillamook Bay tomorrow… birding, birding, birding…

Tata for now!

I’ve just shaved Lily.
At first, I considered purchasing a pair of hawk-handlers gloves. Instead, I downed a generous glass of wine, and with my liquid confidence, I went at her with the clippers.

BEFORE:


FIVE MINUTES AFTER:



Doesn't she look mortified? Haha!
She's actually in a very good mood right now, all snuggled up in my lap, so I know she appreciates it. But I do have some more work to do. She's only partially shaved. It was the best I could do given her limited tolerance. She made it quite clear that she wouldn't be having an extended stay locked in the bathroom with me and my clippers.

New binoculars!
I went out to the Audubon Society after work yesterday and tried out several binoculars. The most beautiful pair cost about $1200! No, that's not a typo. That's twelve HUNDRED dollars. Yowza! I opted for the "less expensive" pair, but they actually are very nice and I think they will work well for me. I can also give myself props for buying the binoculars made by a local company, called Leupold. They are quite reputable and are stationed out in Beaverton.
Right after buying the binocs, I just had to go out and try them, so Keith and I wandered out into the trails at the Audubon Society and searched for birds. First, we spotted the American Robin, and then wandered down to the pond and watched a pair of Mallards for a while. Sure, both are easy birds to spot, and common everywhere, but I need practice so I'll stare at anything with feathers right now. And they really are all so beautiful to see up close.
We then ventured down to the creek and spotted some Northern Waterthrushes. We watched them for quite some time and then spotted some Brown Creepers, creeping up the trees. We started losing light and the park closes at dusk, so we had to leave.
I'm so excited about my new binoculars, though. I've brought them with me to work today. I think on my break I'll wander out to the Willamette to see what I can spot. If only the river were not so horribly polluted these days. What a wonder it would be if the Bald Eagle returned to this region. There must've been a time when they were abundant; before we turned the river edges into industrial waste sites. We trade the wildlife for green ($). Such is the price for profit.

"Maybe Sparrow"

This is just a beautiful video and anything with birds makes me happy right now.

The singer is Neko Case:

Neko Case

Happy Spring Equinox!



It's finally here! My Statistics final is tonight and then I'm hitting the trails at Forest Park as fast as I can! I need to get back into shape in time for our trip to wander around the Utah desert this summer. I have to mold my backend into something more than just a hunk of unsculpted clay. I do believe I have actually developed the dreaded "secretary's butt". That will not do.

Happy spring everyone!

Spanish Final Today.

I was unsure how I really was doing in my Spanish class, so I sent an email to my instructor last Thursday to see what my grade was thus far. I'm glad I asked, because my instructor has told me that I'm doing well in the class, but that she plans to give me a B because I (according to her records) have three absences! She says I can get an A if I make up my absences. Hello?! What is she talking about? I only ever missed ONE class and I had called her prior to missing that class to let her know I wouldn't be there. The instructor never officially took role until about the middle of the term, anyway, so I can only assume she had mixed me up with another student, but marked it on my attendence record. It makes me mad that my grade should be affected by attendance when I always have to go to such trouble to get to and from class every night.
Anyway, I sent my instructor an email objecting to her claim and told her I've only ever missed one class and that I can probably get my classmates to vouch for me on that, but she hasn't bothered to respond yet. I'm slightly worried because another classmate of mine was complaining that the instructor told her she was missing a ton of homework, when this girl knew she had turned it all in, but the instructor got very angry assuming the girl was lying and demanded proof that she really had done her homework. So the girl had to dig around to find her all of her old homework.
So how do *I* prove that I was in class? That won't be easy.
My Spanish final is this evening, so hopefully my instructor is fair and I can talk to her about it. It's just a B, sure, but since I know I've earned an A and that the only thing from keeping from that grade is her poor organizational skills, well, that's just not right.
Last week, I found out that I don't have to take anymore Spanish to complete the degree requirments and I am SO relieved about that. I prefer sciences and math over foreign languages. Yuck.

Just counting down the days until spring break.

Just one more week of classes and then finals are next week. I cannot wait for this term to be over.
I've registered for spring term and I've signed up for the funnest classes! I just can't wait! First, I'll be taking Environmental Studies. It is a day class, so I have to figure out how to work around my school schedule. We'll see how that goes.
I also will be taking Birds and Taxonomy. That is the class that I am particularly stoked about. I was planning on taking a writing course, but the one I wanted to take was all filled up, so I ended up browsing around for a class that would interest me and I discovered the Birds class. Keith is also signed up for it, so we will be taking this class together.
I'm so excited for the Birds class because I've been trying to study birds on my free time, reading books and observing calls, etc., but homework has had to take priority in my life, so I've not reallybeen able to dedicate as much time to birding as I have wanted. This will satisfy my hobby AND earn me credits in college. Can't beat that!