This is a poem about migrating birds, but also about how it feels to witness the passing of another year.

The Birds

are heading south, pulled
by a compass in the genes.
They are not fooled
by this odd November summer,
though we stand in our doorways
wearing cotton dresses.
We are watching them

as they swoop and gather—
the shadow of wings
falls over the heart.
When they rustle among
the empty branches, the trees
must think their lost leaves
have come back.

The birds are heading south,
instinct is the oldest story.
They fly over their doubles,
the mute weathervanes,
teaching all of us
with their tailfeathers
the true north.


Copyright © 1988 by Linda Pastan.

This is a portrait of my friend Sika. It was her birthday on Saturday (she turned 25) and I didn't know what to get her. So I sketched this photograph of her a few hours before her party. And Wah-lah! A present! I matted and framed it, and unfortunately, I couldn't find a copy center to make a copy of the sketch for myself before I framed it (What is Kinko's doing closing at 6:00 on a Saturday?). So I took a photo of it, but had to take the shot at an angle so as not to capture the glare of the frame. Anyway, here is the finished product!

I drew this silly photo of my friend Mandy on Friday night. Send me photos! I want to draw some more portraits! This was fun!

Have you ever had someone tell you that you look like someone famous?

I'm sure it's nice to have someone tell you that you resemble a beautiful movie starlet. Well... I don't ever get that.

I think the reason that I never get that comment is because it wouldn't come out as a compliment. I've discovered that I *do* in fact resemble a couple famous people. And to be honest? If someone told me that I resemble Woody Allen... I don't think I'd be flattered. But the truth is the truth nonetheless, whether it hurts or not.



And from the Archives...

My Judd Nelson face:

Art Class

I drew some good stuff. Mom says she'll put these on her fridge. *big grin*

This is Keith. The best way to get him to sit still long enough for me to draw him was when he was playing video games. These took about 30 minutes each.



His right arm looks a little funky in the top drawing. That bugs me.



These sort of remind me of those 1970's cartoons. Like Super Friends, or something.


I did this one last Wednesday. We flaked charcoal all over a peice of paper and smudged it in with a cloth, and then we drew the model with an eraser. Cool technique, I thought. We were only given 25 minutes, and I spent most of the time on her hand and legs, so had to I rush through her neck and face. Her neck didn't have *that* much light on it, so that bugs me. But I was pleased with how the hand turned out.

Dead Man's Party
At the Old Holland Place


It seems like there are NEVER enough parties during the Halloween season (if any at all!), so we took it upon ourselves to throw a bash at our house. We invited all of our neighbors and friends. Tip for house-party-throwers: It's ALWAYS a good idea to invite the neighborhood to your parties, so that they know to expect the noise and loud music, and don't complain about it.
We had about 15 of our friends show up, and the couple across the street showed up with their kid. The poor kid was the only little person at the party! That could've been a sad situation for the kid, but I planned ahead. We hid mini pumpkins all around the yard and gave a prize for finding the most. So he spent the whole night wandering through the yard with his flashlight, searching for pumpkins. It was pretty cute until he threw a tantrum because he couldn't find all of them. Oh well, the pumpkin hunt was a success, where otherwise I probably would've subjected the poor kid to serious psychological trauma by placing him in front of the TV with a scary movie to watch. I can just imagine it: "Alright! Which movie do you want to watch? The Shining or Nightmare on Elm Street?"

Almost everyone had a costume and we all looked great! I stood on a hay bale to make the announcement of the costume contest winners, just as a couple appeared from around the side of the house to check out the party. They didn't have costumes on, and I had no idea who they were. They were probably planning on just crashing the party, but they took one look around at all of us in our costumes (and it just happened to be a silent moment because I was about to make the announcement), and they turned on their heals and left. It was funny. I guess it's not easy to crash a costume party without a costume.

I was dressed as a gypsy for the party, so I entertained people with divination games. I bought an old deck of tarot cards from an antique store and tried to give a readings with them, but it was silly because I didn't know how to do it without reading the manual that came with the cards and it took too long, so I only did a couple tarot readings.
I also hosted a divination game called Puicini. It sounds Italian to me, but Wikipedia says it's a traditional Irish game so, whatever. Puicini is a game played at Halloween where there are four saucers (we used cups) filled with items that each symbolize something different. A person is blindfolded and they chose one of the saucers by placing their hand in it and whatever they chose determines what is in store for them in the coming year. One saucer contains water, which means they will travel. One saucer contains beans, which mean they will have money troubles (poverty). One saucers contains coins, which means they will come into new money (cha-ching!). And the final saucer contains earth, which means that someone close to them will die (oh no!). Most of us chose the beans (boooo!) or the water (myself included), one lucky person chose the coins, and two people chose the earth. I felt bad when they picked the earth, but we all took it with a grain of salt, and they didn't let it put a damper on their party spirits. :o)

Here are some photos from our party. There are three slideshows and hopefully they load:

Long time no blog!

This school term has been suspiciously easy. I have an art class which is really relaxing and I'm taking an online trigonometry course, which I *thought* was going well, until I just found out that the last Assignment that I tried to submit didn't go through (technical difficulties, apparently). I worked HARD on that assignment and wondered why I hadn't received my grade for it. I was curious how I did, so I sent my instructor an email and he said I never submitted it. I was afraid he would say that. It just makes me sick to my stomach, because last week's material was REALLY difficult and I got a D - that's right, a *D* - on my last quiz. Ouch. Then I find out that my assignment was never turned in, so I don't know if he'll let me submit it late, or if I just have to take an F on it. I'm still waiting for his reply, but it's hard to communicate my frustration to my instructor when I'm limited to email correspondence. For all he knows, I could be working with another person in the class to copy the assignment after it's been graded. (sigh) That D-Quiz I got last week was certainly my fault, because I know I didn't understand the material, but I hate taking a bad grade because of a computer glitch. That's just not fair. Now I see the downside and risk of taking an online course.

Anyway, I'm trying my best, but I have a feeling this will be the first class that I don't get an A in. Hey, I had a good winning streak going there. Two years with a 4.0. It's got to end *sometime*. This trigonometry course is my Achilles heal.

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.