Inspiration

My dad's always been my hero. The reasons are many, uncountable even. Here he is in Okinawa.

He always loved to dive. He talked about it like it was one of the best experiences of his life, still does in fact. He had his tanks stored in our basement (probably still does) all my childhood. We'd go look at them, touch them, imagine where Dad had been when he used them last. When my parents got married, my Dad wanted to move to Florida or the Bahamas so he could dive at his leisure. My mother was having none of the hurricane threat, she wanted to live in California. Somehow, they compromised and ended up in a small coastal town in Oregon. I've always wondered what my life would have been had my father gotten his way. I pictured myself as a tanned, lanky beach comber with a carefree attitude that naturally must come with such an environment. I am thankful we didn't end up in gator / hurricane country though. I see the news of hurricanes every year and wonder why those people stay and rebuild just to be hurricaned down again the next year. Anyway...

I know, how does any of that add up? My Dad had heard the diving in Oregon, although cold water, was good diving. Turns out the few times he went, the diving wasn't so great, at least where we lived. That in addition to having three children, a wife and at least one full time job pushed diving to the back seat.

I always sort of revered my Dad as my own personal Jacques Cousteau. He'd been places and seen anomolous things like giant squid. Not many people can say that. Anyway, I finally talked my siblings into getting certified to dive with me and have understood, at least in part, what he felt as he slipped below the surface with air on his back. Floating through the sea, part of the food chain.

So, there you go. I'll be diving in the Caribbean next week at this time. Thanks to my adventurous father.

Giving Thanks

I spent this Thanksgiving being thankful and its running over into this week. I am so fortunate to have a family, to have always had a family. We don't always all get along. We don't always see eye to eye. We don't actually communicate in a real way very often. I think they think I'm the weird one. I prefer to think of myself as the black sheep. It's more mysterious and less hurtful that way. But, I know they'd be there if I was in trouble and I would do anything in my power to help any and all of them out if needed.

I am thankful for my mom.

I am thankful for my dad. I am thankful for my brother and sister.

Do you just love our hair-dos!!

I've got, got, got, got, got no time

Name that tune in 4 notes.

Anyway, work is crazy right now, simultaneously getting ready for Thanksgiving and then Belize are taking up all my minutes. A short hiatus may ensue whether I intend it or not.

Regressing back to my film camera has been a hindrance to the blogging. I like to post pictures and the film camera has its obvious disadvantages. You have to take an entire roll of film before you can develop it. You have to then have it developed and pay for it before the blogging can begin. I am whining, which bugs me. So, here is a pic from two summers ago. We hiked with some friends a trail that was supposed to be like 8 -10 miles. We were looking for this waterfall which was supposed to be a couple miles in. We know about what our average hiking time is and expected to be at this falls at a certain time. Well, we missed the not very clearly marked side trail and just kept on hiking looking for it. At the place we decided to turn around, we figured out we'd hiked about 8 miles already and had to hike back. Not really a big deal normally, except that we hadn't planned for that long of a hike. We all ran out of water on the way back and it was a hot, humid day. Never so glad to see the Jeep in the parking lot. Another wonderful adventure for us. Oh, and on the way back, we found the side trail to the falls (obviously) and marked it clearly with a cairn of rocks for the next hikers.

Petra on the path.

Me and Nick and the falls.

Me and Aaron in the ferns. It could only be us, the other two didn't find the humor in the super sized foliage.

On that note, have a wonderful Thanksgiving and I think I should have time to post at least something next week.

Never Ending Story

We were going camping last Fall. Mr. One would have to stay home for the weekend alone. Now don't worry, he had drop in cat-sitter, Fran, Nick's mom. She'd come over, she lives next door, and talk to him and pet him and feed him and hang out with him. She is allergic to cats.

Mr. One didn't like when the suitcases or the duffle bags came out. He knew it meant time alone, time without his doting mother to coddle and pet and chat at him. While we were out of the room, he settled himself in the dufflebag then began to chatter away, in his usual "Marco! Polo!-esque" way until we 'found' him. He was, first - so flippin' cute and second - surprised by the camera in his face when I returned to find him.

... Maaaaar

coooOOOOOOO ...

... Oh! Hi, there you are.

Yes, I'm very cute, in fact incredibly sweet and innocent.

Oh, yes, and take me with you please. I'm cute, remember!

Miscellany

Ok, so I didn't last my 40 days of no sugar. I did make it past Halloween, but when the Thanksgiving prep baking set in, I lost my resolve. I really love gingerbread. Does that count as sugar? I'm thinking it might, so, even though I'm not big on New Year's resolutions, my 40 days may just start 1/1/07. Now that I make some simple calculations, that will be perfect timing for Nick's birthday and the ever present German Chocolate Cake (GCC). I have to confess, I make a mean GCC. It ends up weighing a ton by the time all the ooey, gooey coconut frosting is spread between three layers of moist, chocolately cakeyness. I'll probably have to make more gingerbread since the first batch made for Thanksgiving didn't last. I told you, I really love gingerbread. I have the BEST recipe. When I snap a pic, I'll share, if anyone is interested.

Oh, and did I say 16 days until I fly away to Belize for relaxation with my best friends. I can't wait to spend 2 weeks hanging with my brother in the sun. I wish we lived closer to each other, he's the most awesome. In fact, he's the bomb of brothers and of just guys in general. I've probably had this pic on here before, but, its just a really good pic.

Well, I guess that's it for today.

Ahhh, Tofutti

I've had vegetarianism on my brain again for about a year now. Its just easier to eat meat when everyone else in your life does. That said, I'm leaning toward my old meatless ways. Fortunately for me, Nick is amenable. And, I've recently been inspired to tackle tofu.

So, check out some new links in the sidebar. I'll be looking for new veg sites with interesting and tasty recipes. Anything I find looking moderately interesting will be noted there. If you know of any great (or even mediocre) sites, I'd appreciate the nudge. And if you have a veg recipe you love, let me know about that too.

Here's another site I found yesterday. Post Punk Kitchen. This is the recipe index. The home page just had too much info for me.

That's all folks, well, for today.

The One and only

Everyone has been amazingly supportive.

Thank you.

In loving memory

One

February 1989 - October 2006

Depth

I actually got out my camera equipment, if you can call it that, and commandeered my tripod from Nick. Now all the 'stuff' is laying in a pile in the hall between the spare bed and bathroom. Its a start. At least its there where I can see it and eventually it will bug me enough that I'll take care of it. After I take care of all the other things that require my attention. I've said it before and will say it again, I don't know how people with children get things done. No kids, still don't have everything done. So, these were taken with the dig out of convenience or laziness, you pick.

After watching Born into Brothels, I realized, or re-realized, that depth of field is so important and what makes many photographs so interesting. Hence, the importance of it, duh. Anyway, I took these pics working on depth. I'm looking foward to getting better with time and more pics.

I took these two focusing on the leaf imprints on Frans' Prelude. The car is this wonderful yellow and the leaves left very detailed images behind. After I started looking, there are some really great reflections of the fall trees and the house.

That's Monday.

Just Watched: Born into Brothels

I just watched an amazing documentary. Born into Brothels.

I'm a Netflix advocate, just ask anyone, I don't know what I did without it. Well, I know what I did, I wandered around the video store with the other wanderers looking for something interesting that was in stock, paid too much money for the videos on the occassions they had what I wanted and then either made late night runs to the video store returning movies just before the clock struck midnight and the late fees kicked in or just paid lots of late fees. See, I can go on and on, but I digress.

Once in awhile, I'll search through the Netflix archives (tons of movies, tons). Somehow, I came across this Oscar winning film Born into Brothels by Ross Kaufman and Zana Briski. I had it sitting around the house for a month (no late fees with Netflix) before I decided I should give it at least a chance. I really didn't think I'd care for it, but wanted to at least check out a few minutes so I'd know for sure. I couldn't stop watching this amazing film. A group of children in the red light district of Calcutta are given cameras and instruction. I was amazed at some of the photos these children took.

This is one of my favorites at the moment. Ok, so I had to put more than one here because, I think they are amazing.

Click for more amazing photographs in the children's gallery. Suchitra, 14 "Girl on a Roof"Gicleé print

Avijit, 11 "Bucket"Gicleé print

I am fascinated by photography so that may be why I liked it so much. There's also the story of this woman who is an outsider who is trying to make the smallest difference in the world by helping this group of children into schools so they have some kind of future outside of prostitutes and pimps. So, this is their story. A tiny glimpse into another world.

CA ~ I thought of you given your field of work. I think this is something you'd like.

Wow. I am a changed person.

The Digital Age

I was a staunch film camera gal for so very long. I have lenses and cleaners and carrying cases. No professional, but a healthy investment for a single gal on a budget. Wait for paycheck, pay bills, wait for next paycheck. It never stretches quite like I think it should. Digression happening...

So, Nick got a digital camera and I was won over to the dark side of snapping away with reckless abandon without worry of running out of film. No need to remember to take the film to the developer person who charges an arm and a leg for the processing. No need to remember to pick them up. No need to save up the small fortune it will take to pick them up. Just plug in the camera to the cord that connects to the computer and digitization commences. Amazing really if you think about where we were a mere 10 years ago.

That said, I'm leaning back toward my old standby camera. I don't have the patience to learn how to use the fancy digital and all its fabulous functions (maybe I should just do that in my spare time -- seriously, I should since I just wrote the above, I'm realizing its probably way less expensive to just do some learnin' rather than reverting back to archaic habits). Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'm going to pull out my now dusty SLR camera and see if I can't make it do what I want once again. I miss the macro ability and the ability to focus on what I want to focus on rather than what the camera thinks I'm focusing on (very frustrating). Its a function I have actually tried to master on the digital and, like home made bread dough, have had much difficulty with. So, there you go. My thoughts on that. I hope to have more exciting and beautiful, even if only to me, photos for this here blog o' mine.

We'll see, digital is just so convenient.

See what I mean... I can just snap away and the next thing I have exciting pictures of my office 'junk' drawer for this blog. Lucky you!

A huge box of building keys lovely, salt shaker, pepper grinder because freshly ground pepper can't be imitated, drugs for those days when only drugs will do, lint roller for all my sheddings, uncrystallized ginger for snacking but not this month, instant oatmeal in case I am starving, car keys for the end of the day get away, sunglasses ~ I am an optimist, scrap of pink wrapping paper from the last nieces birthday gift I wrapped at work, USB camera cord and misc papers and other junk.

the long haul ~ edition IX

last year at about this time, i went something like 50 days without sugar. that included halloween, thanksgiving and Christmas. for some people this may not seem like much of an accomplishment, but for me, it was pretty hard. at least the first couple weeks were difficult. after that, i had a base to work from and it became easier every day.

i've been thinking i need to do this lately, but haven't been all that motivated. slight depression will rob the best of my motivation. the big bowl of left over halloween candy brought in to the office this morning was the catalyst i needed for my no sugar month.

i decided, november 1 was a perfect starting point. to me this means no cake, candy, pie or icecream. it also means no flavored syrup in my coffee, unless its sugar free and since i don't do sugar substitutes (they can and will kill you) . (an aside/digression, whatever you wish to call it. i started researching sugar substitutes when i found out my dad has parkinson's disease. he also has diabetes which means he drinks diet soda when he drinks soda and my parents use sugar substitutes a lot. parkinson's isn't completely understood, but i decided that if that if it was, in fact, hereditary, i didn't want it. hence no sugar substitutes. there's tons of info on this topic on-line and in magazines and i am sure tongs of other places too. without trying to ride this high-horse too far, parkingon's isnt' the only reason to stay away from sugar substituted products. do a little looking around and you'll be frightened, well, i was. adn yea, i know i've heard this in the internet myth too. who knows, who really knows. i believe neither the fda nor the government at large would give us a straight answer if that's the only answer they had to give us. i'm not a conspiracy theorist, but i also don't believe we are ever given the whole truth. in part because they don't know it themselves.)

anyway, this means no flavored coffee. that's ok. i drink soy when I do latte's and it has a slight nutty flavor to me which is appealing all on its own. ok, so my first slip up, which really wasn't a slip up since i decided to do this no sugar thing after i drank my coffee people latte this morning, was the vanilla flavored syrup in said latte. i'll not beat myself up over this due to timing. i'll need to figure out exactly what no sugar means to me. does this inlcude things such as jam, syrup or the zone bars i eat at 3:00 to get me through to dinner. i also just bought some trader joes "uncrystallized" ginger which i'll keep air tight or just give away. life goes on.

wish me luck. i may/will need it.

Don't get scared or turned off just because it says vegan

Fat Free Vegan Kitchen

*******

A new site I came across because I was looking for a dairy free pumpin pie recipe, what with the holidays coming up and all. I haven't had a piece of pumpkin pie for so very long. The dairy kills. Anyway, I came across, was recommended to, this site and WOW! So many recipes that look amazing, whether you are vegan or not, so worth checking out. I plan to try many of the recipes, again, in my spare time and will report of the outcome. The photography is great too. This woman has a kitchen that must be amazing and stocked with so many wonderful ingredients and gadgets. She has way too much time on her hands if you ask me. I only say that because I would love to have that kind of time and money and creativity.

So, check it out, even if you are carnivorous. I'm sure a lot of the recipes are side dishes or desserts that could be paired with a nice steak, or whatever. It's worth a look see.