happy pumpkin day!

Isn't that the cutest pumpkin you've ever seen? And here I thought babies came from under a cabbage leaf. Who knew?

I have a lot I'd like to say about last weekend but just haven't had the time and energy to sit down and write it all out. The short version: it was jam-packed and a ton of fun.

Whatever you all are doing tonight, have fun and be safe. Love ya!

reply to comment

From the Crusto Heart comments:

Let me know when the Big Lug gets back and I'll come over and share it with you!! I'll bring the beer!

So...who would we have been greeting at the door? And what kind of beer did you bring?

crusto heart

I have a pumpkin pie in the oven baking. There was a little bit of crust left over so I shaped it into a sweet heart to share with Rob when he and Tiika get back from their romp about town.

All together now...Awww...

This plate was a gift from Rob. It's a favorite, made by a
local potter. The heart is hiding a swirl in the middle.

bright moon

Tonight's moon is a full one and is supposed to be the brightest one of the year. If this morning's glow is any indication, it ought to be awesome. When Tiika and I took our morning stroll I couldn't even see the beam of my headlamp it was so bright out. I say, if you have a chance to view the moon tonight, do it!

Here we even had a ring around the moon. It was a huge ring. Rob and I both remember that a ring is supposed to signify a change in the weather but we don't recall if it's an improvement or a deterioration. Anyone else know?

Have a great weekend all!

4 or 28?

Our girl Tiika had a birthday yesterday. She turned 4 or 28 depending on your perspective (human or dog).

When we first brought her home, after she got up to date on her shots, we took her everywhere with us to get her socialized. One of her favorite places (oh, ok and one of ours, too) was the Bayern Brewery tasting room. She tried her darndest to get served...








So we thought it only appropriate that for her birthday this year she ought to be able to pop one open and enjoy a little Bayern at home. A seasonal favorite around here, the Oktoberfest brew.


It might have been a bit much for her however...


She seemed to recover just fine when we brought out her birthday cookie, frosting and all.

Now you see it...

Now you don't!

Happy Birthday Tiika-girl!!! Love, Pop and Mama

new old music and movie

Over the weekend we went to our local music store/gift shop/cards and doo-dads place, Rockin' Rudy's because they were having their semi-annual sale. I didn't have anything in mind as we cruised through. We actually stopped to get new headphones for Rob (which they didn't have in the style he wanted, bummer). As I passed by the soundtracks I suddenly had a craving for the music of "Dirty Dancing". Lo and behold, they had a 20th (!) anniversary edition with 27 pieces from the movie.

I can't believe it has been 20 years since I sat in our living room in Forest Grove with Deana, Sally and my mom watching Patrick Swayze work his magic. Such a crush...and I can relive it anytime I want to either with the movie or now on my iPod with the soundtrack...ahhh...

"Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

Good memories of girlhood days and daydreams.

new 'do

Today was the day I meant to have about 8 weeks ago. That day I chickened out, today I went for it. Or rather, Mario went for it. I got my hair cut, really cut. Check it out:




Didn't he do a great job? I am so happy with it.














Of course, we'll see how it looks after I've washed it and applied my overpriced, luscious smelling product to it.













Oh, and Tiika likes it too:


(So does Rob, but he wanted to take the pictures. For some reason he doesn't trust Tiika with the camera...)

do you podcast?

Actually, what I mean is do you listen to podcasts? (Podcasts being news stories or "radio" shows of a sort.) One of the fabulous benefits I have through my iPod is listening to podcasts while at work. I am subscribed to a variety of them from NPR to Bill Maher, techy info and news to grammar tidbits. Some are short, averaging five minutes in length and others can come in at over an hour.

When I am working on a particularly rote task or something that simply doesn't require a lot of concentration, I flip into podcast mode. I love having most of my cd library at my fingertips but singing out loud as I work is kind of frowned upon so I try to limit exposing my co-workers to this treat too often. Since I don't read the newspaper much and never see the evening news, this is my way of keeping up on things that I find interesting.

One podcast in particular can be an eye-opening listen though I've always found them to be worthwhile, the This American Life podcast with Ira Glass. Sometimes they are things specifically produced for them and other times they are repeats of other people's reporting.

Today's podcast touched me. It was about prisoners in jail doing a scene from Hamlet. These prisoners were some pretty hard cases. All were men that society in general wants to write off. By the end, I was moved to tears. I want to have hope that every person in the prison population can be changed for the positive like these men seemed to be. It takes work and time for them and those that are willing to help them. The woman running the theater program for prisoners is a real hero to me.

To check out This American Life (and other numerous podcasts) you can go to iTunes here:





Or their website, This American Life.

one last bit on Blue Mountain Run

This will be the last time I mention the Blue Mountain Run, I promise!

On the Monday after the race I received the email below regarding my results from that day. Although I wasn't in it to win anything, it was interesting to see how I stacked up with the rest of the participants. (Can anyone explain percentiles to me? I know I probably learned something about them in math class oh-so-many years ago but can't recall any longer.)

Congratulations on finishing the Blue Mountain All Women's Run on October 06, 2007. For your records, the weather that day was overcast and cool.

There were 37 finishers in the Women 30 to 39 age group and 186 finishers in your distance. A total of 505 particpants signed up.

Your overall finish place was 87 and your age group finish place was 19. Your overall finish percentile was 47 while your age group percentile was 51. Your time of 34:27.7 gave you a 11:07 pace per mile.

And the Sunday following the race I created this journal page:


I like the picture in the upper right hand corner but I'm going to have to reprint it. I was fighting with the printer to even get that much to successfully output. I may have to mess with it in Photoshop a bit though because I really like the effect of the screwy printer.

Rob thinks I should do this event next. We'll see...

a poem I like

This poem from a book I am currently reading. I'm not much into poetry so was surprised when this one struck a chord with me. What do you think?

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
Some momentary awareness
comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all! ...

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
-Rumi

9_29_07 journal page

This is the first page in a new art journal I started. Last year at work, one of the printers we do business with sent us a bunch of calendars. After everyone had what they wanted or could use, there were still some monthly ones laying around. I grabbed one with the thought that maybe I could use it in my art.

It had been sitting in a stack with other possible materials until I got the bug to start an altered book-art journal while Rob was out of town. The idea of taking a whole book (novel-size) was a bit overwhelming. When I saw this in my pile I was struck with how perfect it was for my mood. It measures approximately 8" x 9.5" and has probably less than 20 pages. I haven't actually counted them but there is a spread for each month and some extra information pages so it's in that ballpark. A nice number to complete over a reasonable amount of time. The spiral binding ought to allow me to add things to my pages without worrying about whether it will still close or not.

I spent an afternoon putting gesso on each of the pages, letting them dry and then putting down some color in the form of acrylic paint. It really helps the process of creating a page if I have some color to get me started. As the afternoon wore on, I got a little bit impatient waiting for the pages to dry so put waxed paper between damp pages. I ended up getting some cool effects that way.

I really like how this turned out as a booklet. The different colored tabs are fun and draw me in. I can imagine doing a little doodle or number or something on them. I will certainly be watching for extra calendars like this as the new year approaches. You can see them on the right-hand edge of the scan.

For this first page, I was pretty excited about my findings of the day and was drawn to a red page. The style of the page is similar to lots of pages I have seen. I began by gluing down some scraps of my good news and a little tree I had drawn. From there, I had the phrase "crazy good" in my mind so I lettered it on boldly. After that, I knew I wanted to write some narrative about the day so put in lines for writing on. I wrote my piece using a couple of different colored pens. The last step was embellishing the gaps. I'm really into swirls and have started adding length to them, connecting them in various ways, just playing with them. I also used my little bee stamp and some other doodles to fill the space as well as further emphasizing the bold letters. I really like how the white dots turned out on CRAZY.

There you have it!

blue mountain run

This year was the last year the Blue Mountain Clinic will be running their all women only run. Next year, men will be invited to participate.

Since I started running, I have wanted to participate in this event. Two years ago would have been the best year for me as far as being physically fit. I think I could have even trained for the 10K. It didn't work out that way. Oh well. Happily, I was able to get myself in shape enough over the last month or so that I could do the 5K today without dying.



Below is a Google map of the course. Most of it was in the equestrian park so was quite nice (no cars and soft but firm ground). If you click on the "Hyb" tab in the upper right corner you can actually see the ground we ran.


View Larger Map

Rob and Tiika came with me and lent their full-on support.

Tiika was very helpful and gave me her tips for running the distance: "Like this Mama!"













Here I'm anxiously listening to the directions, waiting for the signal to start.















Can you find me in the crowd? "Where's Jenn?"
Whew! The finish line. I made it in 34:38. Not bad. It's actually a little bit better than my time earlier this week so I'm ok with it.
And radiating joy from completion!! Woohoo!!


Thank you Rob for the support to train for this and for being the photographer recording the images of the morning.

not much new

There's not much new here right now. Just a lot of unpacking and picking up it seems. Oh, and some laundry and grocery shopping thrown in for good measure. Ordinary life stuff.

On the running front, I've run the 5K distance twice this week. This is good news. The first time I had to walk a piece but yesterday I pushed through and ran the whole distance. Felt pretty good, too. I've started compiling a playlist to use on my Shuffle for Saturday's event. According to my co-worker, Tom, tomorrow I should go short but intense in preparation. Now that I know I can do the distance, I am looking forward to participating. It will be on a course I've never run before and rarely drive to, either. If I get a chance, I'll make a map and post it.

My heathen husband has returned...

a heathen. There will be no buddhists in this family. =)

Rob surprised me and arrived home early. He rolled in last night about 6PM. It was great to see him. Of course, I thought I had more time to finish cleaning up and putting things away so he walked into a bit of a mess. Surprise! Ah well.

Not much to write this morning, too tired. We were up late catching up. More in a few days or maybe not for another week. It sounds like there is a lot of ground to cover.