ArtFest lovely

I thought I better put in an appearance so the rumors don't get too out of hand about blogville these days. Actually, I've really enjoyed having Rob posting here. It's fun to read what he writes about our lives. We are both getting so jazzed about this trip to New Zealand (swine flu outbreaks excepted!). Take off is just over two weeks away! How did that happen? Time always flies when I'm busy.

Another example of flying time is how long it's been since ArtFest. I've been so busy planning for this trip and working extra hours so I have enough vacation time that I can hardly believe it's only been three weeks since I got home from that adventure.

I finally got a good picture of the present I bought myself at vendor night. Isn't it great? The swirlies at the top are what sold me though the bird drew me in to start.

I bought it from Melissa Manley who my group actually met the first year we went to ArtFest. She and her partner, Robert, stayed in the same house as us. I always make sure to check out her goodies at vendor night. (Last year I purchased some pretty earrings from her.) When I saw this birdy necklace, I knew I wanted it. The only issue I had was it seemed too long. Melissa graciously obliged my request to shorten it (and put on a slightly more hardy clasp since I am prone to break them). Unfortunately that meant I had to wait for her to make the changes and mail it to me afterwards. There was no instant gratification but it certainly brightened my day when the package arrived in the mail!

Ok, one more ArtFest photo because it brings back the memory of a lovely day spent with my art buddies, Joanne and Sue. Sue has also been my roomie the last two years and she took this "action" shot of me and Joanne.

what's cookin'?

Doesn't that look super delicious? Homemade chicken soup, yum yum yummy. Rob has been slaving away in the kitchen all day to make this happen. Ok, maybe not exactly "slaving" but puttering nonetheless. He has gotten quite good at this chicken soup recipe.

The brilliant green you see is a lovely kale that is far better than I ever imagined. Though we grew up eating a lot of vegetables at my house, greens never seemed to make it on the menu. I think we had cooked spinach once or twice (ew!) but other than that, I don't recall others. [Mom? Do you remember?] I was a little hesitant the first time Rob wanted to use them in a soup. Now I love 'em that way.

After we've enjoyed the soup this way for a night or two, including a lunch for me, we'll add coconut milk and curry paste from the asian food store for a twist (and to stretch it out to our greatest advantage). This pot of soup exemplifies what we've been doing all day. Putting things together for a good start to the week.

On the other hand, last night was a special treat. We got to see the New Shanghai Circus perform. Normally, we wouldn't be interested in anything calling themselves a circus due to the bad reputations they have for how they treat animals. This, however, was entirely different since it was all acrobatics performed by professional Chinese athletes. (Their muscles fairly bulged!)

The acts were all made up of the amazing things the human form can do. The poses they held were awe inspiring for their demonstration of pure strength and balance. They also had some drumming performances weaved in there. This was a surprise to us, it didn't seem to be listed on the program we were given. The drummers were all young women. I was impressed.

Overall, it was a nice way to spend the evening together. In two weeks, it will be the Ailley II dance troupe.

pleasant surprise

And then there are the pleasant little surprises from Rob. He sent me these flowers mid-week last week just because. Aren't they beautiful?

The added bonus was bringing them home and having them look lovely through most of Mom's visit. In fact, the greens continued to look so nice I was thinking I should get more flowers the next time I was at the grocery store. Rob beat me to it! I came home today to a bunch of daffodils with three small irises tucked amongst them. (Now that I think about it, they might not be irises but that's what they look like to me but in miniature.)

It was a nice weekend visit with my mom. It began with sweet potato fries and "Mike D" margaritas when she arrived on Friday. We had good talks over coffee each morning and went shopping for my birthday on Saturday. (More on that in another post!) We went to a low key Super Bowl party on Sunday - where someone became entranced with the iPod Touch - who might that be?? On Monday it was breakfast out, one last stop for Montana-themed items and then off into the wild blue yonder back to Portland.

Sunday, Sunday

Today is opening day for hunting so Rob is out in the woods, looking for an elk or deer to bring home. I've got hunting of other sorts to do today. Actually, I'm planning on tackling my long list of things that have been bugging me. One of which was checking to see if a generous gift was going to work.

The gift? A Brother laser printer!! When they were packing up after the conference earlier this month, it was decided they didn't want this baby. I happened to be the only one from my organization around at that time so the business manager asked if I wanted it.

"For me?!"

She said, "sure".

I was on it even though we weren't sure it was still in working order after being stored for the last year. It has been sitting on the porch ever since. I finally brought it in this morning, cleared a space for it and set 'er up. Woo hoo! It works. Now I just need to remember how to do laser printer transfers for my art projects...

Now, it's time to take Tiika out for a morning hike. She didn't get any exercise yesterday and is missing her Pop for the second day in a row. She's a bit on the antsy side so off we go.

Pop! goes my heart

I woke up with a song in my head. It is the lead-in song for the movie, Music & Lyrics, with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, "Pop! Goes my Heart". The movie is a very sweet (though quite predictable) romantic comedy. As a dancer, Hugh Grant has a way with his hips. If you've seen Love Actually you've gotten a preview of his swiveling hip action.

I watched M&L while waiting for Rob to come home on Monday night. It was just right for that kind of waiting. I am so glad to have him home. My heart is full. Full of love and gratitude and hope. I could go on but I just noticed the time. Yikes! I am soooo late.

Have a good one y'all.

weekend slipping away

I can't believe how this weekend is slipping right by me! I made some progress on an ArtFest project yesterday but it took a long time. I think everything is dry now so I can at least stack 'em up and move on to something else. I also finished a gift that now needs to be wrapped and packaged for shipping.

I still have a couple of gifts to make in preparation for next weekend's trip to Oregon. Neither of them are started except in my mind. However, I have cleared out some correspondence that has been bugging me so this is a good thing. Lots to do including laundry. Oh, joy!

I recently heard a couple of songs that I really like and wanted to share with you. I tried to buy the cd but found out it won't be available* in the US until mid-March. Dang! I'll have to make do with these two pieces for now. The artist is an Israeli woman named Yael Naim.

The first one you may have heard on a tv ad. Apple is using it for one of their new products. I like it anyway. It is called New Soul.




The lyrics of the second one really resonate with me. Especially these two:

"How can you stay outside?
There's a beautiful mess inside."

The song is called Far Far.




Listen to the clips and let me know what you think.

*It appears to be available now on iTunes but sometimes I just want the physical cd. I like iTunes more for when I just want one or two songs from a cd.

I'm off to tackle my list of "to do's". It will be good to keep myself busy, too. I am looking forward to hearing from Rob tonight. He's been away in Seattle for the follow up course to the one he took last month. I'm eager to hear how it's gone for him...

progressive bicycle dinner

The day after the James Taylor concert we had a date with the bicycle club. We have never done a ride with the club before but were invited to join them for their semi-annual progressive dinner.

The idea is this, you ride from house to house eating your way through the courses of the meal beginning with appetizers and ending with dessert. Everyone brings something to contribute so it's also a potluck. We got tagged for dessert, hence the pumpkin pie mentioned in an earlier post. (My red pouring bowl was perfect for the task of mixing the filling. Not a drop was spilled in the transfer! Thanks, Mom!)

We began with layered dip and chips as our appetizer at the first house, then we pedaled the long way to the next course: soup. One of the goals of this ride appears to be, never go the direct way if there's a more fun and invigorating option. Enroute to the soup course we had a pause so a member could announce that she had reached her 1000th mile for the year. Oh, by the way, this member is in her late 70's. She's pretty amazing in my book.

After soup, we headed to the University district for salad. There was a pile of luscious greens and a salad with chunks of chicken and pea pods. Both were delicious. The next course was the main dish. We were getting a bit nervous about arriving at this next stop. It was up the Rattlesnake which could mean a good bit of climbing. Luckily, they weren't located where it initially sounded like they were, though it was still a bit of a climb.

Main dishes included a quiche, two versions of a Mexican casserole and meatloaf. I'm not ordinarily a fan of meatloaf but decided to try this one. I'm glad I did, it was moist and delicious. We're supposed to be getting the recipe.

And now it was time to head back down the hill, returning to almost the starting point, for the dessert course. Besides our pumpkin pie there was chocolate cake and cheesecake served with a yummy punch. There was a small fire out in the front yard in one of those pit things and lots of lounging around as folks relaxed. We had ridden about 33 miles and taken six hours to cover it. Eating every 8-10 miles really slows things down!

As this was my first ride of the year, my butt was very sore for the next few days. I think Rob's was a bit sore, too. He hadn't ridden since the fires crept in this summer. We were pooped and satisfied when we got home.

about that concert

Last Saturday we went to the event I have been waiting a long time for: the James Taylor concert. First, a little backstory. The last time I had a chance to go, I was getting MARRIED! When I found out about this concert, I was very excited until I realized it was going to happen while Rob was out of town. I was initially stymied about what to do. He suggested asking our friends Tim and Sue if they wanted to go. I did and they did so I bought three tickets and the wait began.

In the meantime, Rob's plans changed and he was now going to be in town for the concert and really wanted to go. Unfortunately, the concert was sold out by then and the only tickets I came across were on sale by people looking to make some money. I told Tim and Sue about the situation. Since they move in much larger circles than us, we figured they'd come across a fourth ticket before the concert. They never did and neither did we. Tim said he would give up his seat for Rob. (What a great friend!)

It was decided that all four of us would go out before the concert for beers and wings and Tim would be our chauffeur. The restaurant we went to was within walking distance, so about an hour before the concert was to begin, he went over to see if there were any affordable options on a ticket for him. He was gone about 15 minutes. When he returned, he sadly said, "They are all sold out at the ticket office." Then the grin appeared. He had approached a couple of people on the sidewalk selling their tickets. They wanted too much, so he wandered inside to see what the situation might be. He ran into a woman who had a friend who was sick and wouldn't be attending with her. She gave him the friend's ticket. For FREE! Yes, you read that right, Tim got a free ticket to the concert.

We were all thrilled. Though we wouldn't be sitting together, at least he'd be able to go. His seat was way up in the "nose bleed" section. He sat there for about 5 minutes before he went to go get a beer. He ended up not sitting for the entire concert but enjoyed it immensely anyway. He even got to wander the main floor where we were because as soon as we got seated, Sue gave him her ticket in case anyone asked what he was doing.

Rob, Sue and I had the primo seats. We were near the center in Row 6. I could see everything about James Taylor I wanted to. He's a great performer. He seems so humble and yet connected to the crowd. He really seemed to be looking at the crowd, making eye contact. Most of the playlist was made up of his enormous run of hits: Sweet Baby James, Fire and Rain, Steamroller, Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight. He also did some of his 80's & 90's hits: Copperline, Line 'Em Up. Honestly, I was so focused on being present and just enjoying I don't remember the exact playlist. It was simply great and fun and romantic with Rob by my side.

In spite of having had such a nice time, I'm not sure I will do it again. Rob and I were talking over the next couple of days and while we thoroughly enjoyed the experience, it is just crazy what it costs to get there. For what we paid in tickets, we could have had every single one of his cds to enjoy anytime we wanted AND have some beers to go with them. It is simply an extravagance for us that we don't intend to repeat. I love live music but in this case, the equation just doesn't add up. I'm glad we went because this particular experience has been on my list for a long time. Now I can cross it off and be satisfied.

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.

how did he do it?

Oh dear husband of mine.

On Thursday, I received a sweet card in the mail from Rob. While I didn't expect it, it fit in the timeline of events. It was mailed from Wenatchee, WA on Tuesday, the day before he crossed the border. It reminded me, in the very best way, of when we were long distance dating and I found a card in my mailbox nearly every day.

Imagine my surprise when I got the mail yesterday and found another card! This one also postmarked Wenatchee, WA but the date was Thursday, a full day after he started his class. How the heck did he make that happen? Who does he know in Wenatchee?

Well, however he made this happen, I'm delighted. It was a lovely find in the mailbox. Totally unexpected and put a smile on my face for the rest of the day. I hope he is getting everything he desired from his retreat. I am missing him and yet, he is right beside me every day. Maybe that's why Tiika is still looking for him now and again.

one concert or two?

I've had a minor dilemma to mull over this weekend. I am currently holding a ticket to two major concerts coming here: Elton John and James Taylor. When it was just Elton John, I could sort of justify the cost. It was just one ticket (it happens this Friday while Rob is still in Canada). It would be a lot of fun, great social event, yada yada. And it's only once in a while these opportunities work out.

And then I discovered James Taylor was also coming to town. I have been wanting to see him in concert for over 10 years. It just hasn't ever worked out for one reason or another. This time isn't quite perfect either. As luck would have it, Rob is out of town again* when JT is here. And yet, I still really wanted to go so I made arrangements to go with some friends of ours and picked up tickets last week.

Now my dilemma. It simply seems too extravagant to go to both concerts. Especially since I just got signed up for ArtFest. I could probably buy most, if not all, of my ArtFest supplies for the cost of the EJ ticket.

I bought an EJ cd on Saturday that came with a dvd of some concert footage to help me decide if it was worth it. I found that while the concert looked good, I wasn't all that drawn in. On the other hand, when I put in my JT concert dvd, I am moved as much as the first time I watched it five years ago.

I'm bummed at the idea of missing a great friend event on Friday night but I think my decision has been made.

*Yes, unbelievable as it sounds, Rob will be out of town that weekend, too. He *never* goes on solo trips and leaves me at home. Amazing coincidence these two events should occur while he's gone. I did get to talk to him about the JT concert. He was disappointed he would miss it but encouraged me to go anyway.

Where's my Pop?

Rob left yesterday morning for his 10-day meditation retreat. He's been looking forward to it for months. I'm really glad he's doing it for himself.

Prior to his leaving, I mused about how Miss Tiika would take his absence. Last night as I watched a movie (Thelma & Louise) she lay curled at my feet on the couch. Every time she heard a car door slam outside she raised her head, perked her ears and listened for his steps on the porch. Alas, the pup was disappointed every time. She went to bed as normal.

When she got up this morning she dashed to our bedroom to give her good morning wishes to Pop as is her habit. She quickly returned. Then it was potty time followed by another check in the bedroom. After we came in from our jaunt down the street, she cruised down the hall once again.

This evening she doesn't seem to be listening as intently and is more focused on what I'm having for dinner. A very good sign that she's not concerned. I'm sure she'll be delighted when he returns (as will I) but seems to have quickly adjusted to it being all Mama, all the time.

six years ago

Aww, aren't they cute?? Six years ago on Saturday (9.15), Rob and I were married in a ceremony of our creation. A friend of mom's captured this image while we were sitting at the head table. It remains one of my favorites. It was a beautiful day (who knew after the less-than-pleasant rehearsal the day before?). We still have conversations that begin, "Remember at the wedding when..."

This is us in a self portrait taken on Monday night at our new favorite pizza joint in town, Biga Pizza. (We had the Sicilian with the salad special in case you're wondering...with beer we brought in since they don't currently have a liquor license.)

I think we had the camera with us on our "day about town" for our anniversary but never remembered to take a picture. This year's celebration was pretty low key. We mostly focused on having the day together, doing what we wanted in the moment. No splashy gifts (except one sweet token from Rob to me) just heartfelt letters and cards exchanged. Quite nice, actually.

a couple of images to whet your appetite

Yo, anyone want to party?
Both of those images were taken at Brad and Mandy's rehearsal dinner last Friday. Can you tell which one of us is sober? My oh my, did I have a good time. McMenamin's (sp?) makes an excellent porter. Thankfully I didn't pay too heavily the next day and I remembered MOST of what I did and said. It was a good party. =) [It's a lizard behind Rob's ear and a sea anemone on my head, both table decorations gone awry.]

I've got more pictures from that night and the wedding the next day but they will have to wait a bit. Firstly, I'm at home and it takes too dang long to upload a bunch of pictures and secondly, I accidentally brought home Mom's camera instead of ours. [We have the same model and same camera bag. Somehow the camera's got switched.] I want to put together a complete album before posting a link. (Also, the pictures from the pre-Oregon visit hike are on my camera and also deserve to be posted.)

Ok, I can't resist, I'll post one wedding picture. Not of the bride or groom but of my sweet, sleeping nephew, Will. In that moment, I was one contented auntie.