When All Else Fails . . .

... rely on someone else for ideas on how to keep this blog going.

I follow She Just Walks Around With It, who, I am happy to report (if only for my own consolation), has also been a little slow on the updating of the posts (granted, she has two kids, one of whom is a newborn). Anyway, this month, she was inspired by Fat Mum Slim to do a photo-of-the-day post on her blog. I too have decided to join in on this idea, albeit a few days late (surprise, surprise).*

[*Ed Note: I started this post on March 3 and tried to continue it on March 4. But I realized that a post all about photos would be a bit of a chore, since it just so happens that I accidentally deleted all my photos last month. So before I can finish the post, I have to scrounge up photos by stealing them off Mr. J's computer, Picasa, my phone, Snapfish, Facebook, and anywhere else I can get them. Then, on March 5, I came downstairs to start work, and EEK, my Mac wouldn't start. No fan. No Mac bingbong noise. No nothing. So off to MacLife I went. Now, more than a week later, I have my Mac back, better, stronger, faster ... but still no pictures. Time to scrounge together those photos so I can finally finish this post before the photo-a-day month ends. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.]

So without anymore further ado, my photos of the day(s):

March 1 -- Up, which happens to be one of Mr. J's favorite movies, so I chose his niece flying through the air during the Kite Festival at Bondi Beach (at least I think that's when this was taken).

March 2 -- Fruit: OK so there isn't any fruit right now. But these vineyards at Bittner Winery produced some mighty tasty wines, which we enjoyed during our 2nd Annual Post-Thanksgiving Snake River Winery tour ... which you would already know something about if I were ever to update this blog with our daily events.


March 3 -- Neighborhood: Mr. J, cruising the 'hood. Nuff said.


March 4 -- Bedside: This one was a stretch. If I actually took the time to charge the camera battery to go upstairs and take a shot of my bedside table, this post would never be done. So instead, it's me inside bed, taken after a flight from the US to Australia (that is my excuse for the ridiculously red eyes, and I am sticking to it).


March 5 -- A Smile: This photo will make my laugh until the day I die. My two darling nieces were both smiling and posing nicely for this photo, but as luck would have it, as I "clicked" the shutter on my phone, Miss Ella swung the umbrella bit, smacking Megan in the back of the head. Purely by accident. Of course. Can't you just tell by her innocent expression?


Since I am so far behind, I am going to do five photos a day until I catch up. If my math is right, which it probably isn't, I may be able to get these all in before March 31.

Fall and Friends

What a weekend! The rain started to roll in on Saturday. The first rain we have seen since June (well, not counting the rain I saw in the North Carolina or the fantastic torrential downpours we witnessed in the mountains of Costa Rica). There are still roses on our rose bushes, but most everything else is hunkering down for the fall. One maple has already turned a medley of oranges, reds, and yellows ... all on one leaf; while the other maple is starting to show hints of the brilliant red we were promised. The ash is almost bare, but the sweet gum is stubbornly holding onto its leaves, as it will do all winter.


In other words, fall is here! And I just found out that I have an autumn twin south of us in Colorado. I too am bundled up in sweater and furry shoes, sipping tea as I pay bills and file away paperwork. Nice to know I'm not alone in the joys of everyday life!

Our weekend was fabulous and a huge reminder of why we love where we live. Friday night was roasted chicken night with pals Ryan and Sid. They patiently waited as that stubborn bird took forever to cook. And they raved about it, even though I knew it was a little overcooked. My plot of starving them for an hour or more before eating worked!! :-) Saturday we cooked up a huge pot of stock and then transformed it into a Thai chicken soup and a cream of cauliflower soup, which we then shared with gal pals Judi and Sharki, with some leftovers going to poor, ailing Miss Z. And then yesterday was an Italian cooking frenzy as I whipped up two lasagnas for dinner party #3 ... the first lasagna was the traditional meat and sausage, while the other was a turkey mushroom lasagna that may be my new favorite (don't tell my mom, as the traditional one is her recipe, which I have loved and adored since I was able to enjoy lasagna). And each meal was supplemented with delicious homemade treats, including a pumpkin-chocolate-chip bread from Judi and divine homemade prosciutto and sausage from the Kramersteins.


Wonderful friends, good food, cool autumn weather, a muted rainbow of colors everywhere you look. Just what I want from our autumn in Boise.

And the Phlegm Goes On . . .

I have been in absentia . . . again. I have a whole photo montage detailing why I've been out of touch, but right now, just typing this post is taking all my energy.

My blog friend over at The Creamery is doing a thing this week and next (?) and maybe for even longer in which she is posting about finding joy every day. As always, I am loving her posts. And right now, it is definitely a good challenge for me.

Here's my little bit of joy for the week:

For a year, we lived in Flower Mound, Texas, north of Dallas, not too far from DFW, smack dab in between two huge reservoir-y type lakes. To say that we hated it there would be a huge understatement. Mr. J and I were both miserable. The Dog, on the other hand, loved it. Never had he experienced the joys of lukewarm lakes and creeks and bugs, bugs, bugs galore to hunt all night in the backyard. But as much as we love The Dog, we were not willing to sacrifice our souls to stay in that town. (No disrespect to any Texans out there. It just was not our scene.)

Anyway, while living in Dallas, I had one and a half gals and one and a half guys that I would consider friends. For an entire year. I can survive on my own just fine and am able to keep myself entertained for weeks on end without seeing a soul (see: learning how to knit), but a girl needs more than a total of three friends to keep her sane. Sad, sad times. But there was a silver lining: With all that alone time, I don't think I got sick even once that entire year. No sore throats, no horrid stomach bugs, no weeklong flu that saps the very life out of you. Other than my weird, annoying skin rashes, I was the picture of health.

Here in Boise, on the other hand, we have more friends than we know what to do with. It's already gotten to the point that when we invite people over, we have to wheedle down the guest list. Otherwise we'd end up with close to 50 people for a small barbecue. And we only just moved here in August. It's actually incredible. And it is all very joyful. But that is not the joy I am finding today.

Today I can barely see through my two eyes, thanks to a raging case of conjunctivitis, which I haven't had since I was, oh, I don't know, 8? On top of that, it hurts to swallow and cough, and my ear is aching like nobody's business, all thanks to an upper respiratory infection. Joyous. So for the third time this year, I am going on antibiotics again! (Me, the woman who HATES drugs, especially antibiotics). Yes, it is all very sucky and lousy and so very annoying. And yet, it is all because we have friends. Friends who say, "Here, try this piece of brisket," as they feed it to Mr. J with their bare hands (which led to the horrid stomach plague of early spring). Or who offer a sip of their drink to see if I would like to order the same thing, which, I believe, has led to this wondrous trip down phlegm alley. So that is where I am finding the joy. I may be sick, but I am in a place I love with people I look forward to getting to know better and better. I can see myself living in this city for many, many years (like more than 10). And that is something this Air Force Brat had never even considered in any of my past homes. I am home and I belong here and that is so very joyful.

Now pass the antibiotics, please!!

Out in the world

I didn't quite make it to the Y last night. I was getting my stuff together and realized that my iPod wasn't charged, and I just don't work out well without my music (weak excuse, yes, but true). Then I rationalized that it was 4:30, which is the start of Crazy O'clock at the Y, and I just hate crowded gyms. So I did some measly leg lifts at home and then proceeded to knit while catching up on episodes of Chuck.

But today I ventured out into the great wide open ... twice, even! And here's what I learned.

1. I love a greasy spoon diner breakfast. I could eat bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, an English muffin, and never-ending cups of diner coffee every single morning, if my arteries would let me. Yes, this meal is so easy to make at home, but it's just so much more satisfying when bantering with a sassy waitress while sitting on red vinyl seats at a chipped Formica-topped table. Happiness is. (Plus, I don't have to do the cleaning up.)
2. When you leave your car windows open over night to air out the stench of strawberries that you accidentally left in the trunk the previous night and it then proceeds to rain, your seats will get wet. And even if you leave your car with the windows slightly cracked for the rest of the day (sans rain), the seats will stay wet, but you will forget. And then, when you drive to the Y, you may not feel the dampness at first. But when you get out of the car and feel that breeze on your tushie, you will know, for a fact, that the seats of your pants are soaked through. Nothing like working out on the elliptical with a soggy ass. Happiness is not.
3. I love my workout playlist on my iPod. It makes me so happy. It actually makes me enjoy standing still (well, not really still, but not really getting anywhere either) on the elliptical and even makes me push myself to workout harder. No small feat for this lazybutt. And today, you would think I had programmed it exactly to my workout, as the first song was the perfect kickoff (Us3's "Tukka Yoot's Riddim"--best rhythm ever for an elliptical) and the last song ("Sunday, Bloody Sunday") stopped exactly as my 30 minutes were up. Cool. [p.s. I ended up going to the Y at the height of Crazy O'clock today, so yesterday's excuse really wasn't valid, was it?]
4. All in all I have found the people of Boise to be exceedingly nice. Even the kids at Starbucks are devoid of the usual sneer. But today I ran into all of Boise's most inconsiderate men. At the Y, I held the door open for a family. The kid, who I presumed (assumed?) to be the son of the man behind him, smiled and said thanks. The sour-puss man, on the other hand, just breezed right by me; not even a smile. Then, after we both checked in, he literally pushed past me to get through the door and didn't even hold it open. Grrrr. I mean, I went to a liberal all girls (ahem, I mean all women's) college, and I'm all for women's rights and all that. But when I hold a door open for you, whether you are a man or a woman, I would at least like a "Thanks" and maybe a little eye contact and a smile. Major pet peeve; always has been and always will be. Then, at the grocery store, more men: one was a slight grocery cart bump as I came out of an aisle into the main aisle. I said, "oops, sorry," even though it was 50% his fault. And all I got was a sneer as he pushed past me. Then, on the way home, this car just sat in my blind spot all the way down 8th Street. Didn't he know I needed to move over? And even if he didn't (which he couldn't have, because I didn't turn on my blinker, because he was in the way and I knew I couldn't move over anyway, so why bother), doesn't he know it's just not safe to drive right alongside a person's rear bumper? I technically didn't know until he passed me whether he was male or female. But I knew. And I was right. Grrr.
5. I cannot wait for veggie-growing season so I can cut my grocery bill in half, as just about everything I bought today from the produce aisle will (hopefully) be growing this summer in our garden.

Now wasn't that exciting, and aren't you so glad I went out into the world so I could share all this with you?

I Hate It When He's Right

So this week my funk is being brought to me by the letters PMS. If it's not one thing, it's another, and yes I do blame my funks on hormones, even though Mr. J never totally believes me.

Anyway, as I was falling asleep in my grumpy mood, Mr. J was trying to convince me that I would feel a thousand times better if I made myself get out the next day and get the blood flowing. (Yes, he was also trying to convince me of other things that would make me feel better, but I am keeping this mostly G rated.) I grumbled and growled and essentially gave him the oh-so-grown-up reply of, "Why don't you go out and move around?" Sometimes it's a wonder he still loves me.

So today, after a rather productive day (in addition to plowing through a bunch of work, I also organized my closet and shelves and got through almost all the laundry), I could feel the wonders of hormones working their magic. The funk was returning. So I asked Mr. J if he wanted to go for a sunset walk with me and The Dog. But Mr. J is in the throes of rebooting his entire computer and cannot be torn away from it for a second. I almost bailed and said, in another very grown-up voice, "Well, fine, if you can't take the time, even though you are always telling me I should, then I'll just stay here and play computer games." So. There.

But I bit my tongue and took The Dog for a much-needed walk. It was just going to be up the hill and back. But then The Dog and I decided to continue the loop, even though I ran the risk of The Dog getting on the scent of some deer. (Thank goodness he didn't.) Then he and I decided to add onto the walk by doing the big slog up the steep hill to really get the cardio going. And we made it all the way to the top, even though I was mentally grumbling about my sore ankle, my drippy nose, my this, my that, wah wah wah, all the way to the top. Good thing I was on my own.

I stopped to huff and puff at the top of the hill just in time to catch the height of the sunset. The sunlight was glittering through between the distant Owyhee Mountains and the gray-black clouds of the inversion layer, casting all of downtown Boise in a peachy-orange, sparkly glow. Gorgeous. Almost gorgeous enough to put a smile on this cranky old face of mine.

Then, on the way back down the steep, steep hill, I heard some owls hooting. I stopped to look up, not really thinking I'd be lucky enough to spot them. But at the top of a big ol' pine tree right in front of me were two massive owls. (I say they were Great Horned Owls, and since no one was else was there, except for The Dog, who is in complete agreement with my assessment, then Great Horned Owls is what they were. So. There.) They were huge. And they had big-ish pointy ear things. And they were courting (or at least that is my scientific assessment of seeing one really big owl trying to land on another really big owl who has her tail feathers all up in the air). And it was so very cool. Then a dog barked, and what I'm guessing was the male owl (since he was the one trying to land on top of the other owl) flew away, right across the path in front of me. Did I mention they were HUGE owls? (In fact, at one point I was convinced they weren't owls, because I thought what I was seeing was this really long neck with a sort of flat head. But then I realized that was the girl owls' tail feathers, declaring, "Hey, dude, I'm ready!")

So, that actually put a smile on this old face of mine. Within sight of downtown Boise and less than a mile from my home, I got to witness a little bit of nature. And that's pretty dang cool. I just hope that boy owl knows not to get upset when the girl owl gets cranky and tries to push him away. Honey, it's just the hormones talking. Really.

Life Is Grand

The project from hell is over. Hooray! (Now that I have calmed down about it all, with the help of dinner with friends enjoying homemade pizza and copious amounts of wine and laughter, I can say it wasn't the authors who bugged me. It's not their fault English is not their native tongue. But it is the fault of the publisher to send it to me as a "normal" edit and to pay "normal" edit prices for something that really should have been translated by someone who understands the science of artificial intelligence before being copyedited. But nuff said. It's done.) Anyway, that project is over. I have a simple quilting project to finish by end-of-day Monday. And then life is back to normal.

And to prove it, this morning I slept in (well, until 8:00, but for me these days, that's a luxury). I tidied up a bit, played around on the computer, then hopped on my loaner cruiser bike (big blue bike with a wire basket and everything) and cruised around the North End on this blue-sky-with-white-puffy-clouds (I call them The Simpsons clouds) perfect autumn day. Crisp, cool air. People out raking and getting ready for winter. The smell of fireplace smoke in the air. Leaves falling from the trees and crunching under my tires as I cruised my way to the Y, where I actually worked out (what a concept). Then on the way out, I ran into a woman from down the street who I've been meaning to get in touch with for ages (OK, weeks). We've only lived here three months and already I'm meeting people I know on the street. I love this town!!

And on Thursday my bestest bud/former mentor is coming into town for a fabulous weekend of reminiscing, laughter, window shopping, drink tasting, and good food. Can't wait!