Just Watched: Into the Wild

I read the book years ago and liked it so when the movie came out, it was a must see for me. Its a great and sad and true story originally written by Jon Krakauer.

Without giving anything away, for those who don't know the story, its about a young man just out of college who disappears from his life. He basically walks out of his life leaving his family and friends and everything behind. He adopts the pseudonym Alexander Supertramp and wanders the U.S. ending in a Fairbanks City bus which has been abandoned in the Alaskan wilderness.

What I take from the story: Following your own heart, learning what you as an individual needs and wants from life instead of just following in the path that someone else has set before you as their idea of what is best. Its tragic and yet, how many of us get to see so much of the world and do the many seemingly 'out there' things we dream and influence positively the people we inevitably meet along the way?

Make an impact. Have it be a positive one. And try not to get stuck in the mire that every day life can sometimes coagulate into. Live a little is all I'm saying.

Ch ch ch changes

Leaf w/hail from one (1) of this afternoon's hail storms. Amazing weather we are experiencing, I wonder where it goes from here?

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes (Turn and face the strain) Ch-ch-Changes Don't want to be a richer man Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes (Turn and face the strain) Ch-ch-Changes Just gonna have to be a different man Time may change me But I can't trace time... ~ Davie Bowie

Well, you may remember THIS post from just about a year ago. Since then, my life has changed (in ways not even remotely related to the post), I got engaged, planned a wedding, got married, moved, went on a honeymoon and have generally been enjoying life. In and amongst all the goings' on, I finally!! finally finished my class, took my real estate test and will shortly have in hand said real estate broker license. **Whew!!*** The real estate thing got off to a fabulous start then my Mister decided to get all proposey and the school thing went by the way-side. In January after things had settled down, I picked it up again and for the last three months, that's pretty much what I've been doing in all my spare time. I took the test this weekend, passed and then gave myself the rest of the weekend off. Its the strangest thing to not have that huge monkey following me around wherever I go. I almost don't know what to do with myself. Almost...

Just today

No. 1 - It snowed here today. No, I don't have pictures. I have a movie, but, I can't ..... wait ...... I think I just figured it out.

I think I did! Hopefully this works. Video for ya'll (and especially Miss Colleen). Now remember, Spielberg I'm not, but, hey just figuring out that I could even upload this video was a feat.

No. 2 - Have a fantastic weekend

Sunrise, again, thankfully...

I do have the slightest obsession with the sunrise these days. I've always been a morning girl, but the sun rising has never just made me stop in my tracks like it has of late. The photos just don't do it justice, as I've opined in the past. Its just amazing and gorgeous and wow. I know I've said this before and I'm not trying to be obnoxious (it just comes naturally, I think), but click on these pics and they should pop up in your explorer (or whatever) and be huge and gorgeous. Well, that would be my opinion anway. Spent the weekend having a fabulous time. Friends over Friday evening for a fun, fun birthday party. Nothing too elaborate or hair raising, it was just my kind of thing. Then my b/f/f from Sonoma was here and we spent the weekend walking and walking and walking, which I adore, and eating and playing games and relaxing which I also adore.

Now, on to the rest of the week.

PS - Both photos are from this very morning.

Backwards, Rear View, Hindsight

I was walking down the street this day and I randomly thought (get ready) that it might be really fun to have one day a year when everyone had to drive the opposite way down the streets. Now, you have to get fully into this scenario and while we are imagining this, come to an understanding of some imaginary basics: 1. everyone would be doing it; 2. it would be an annual thing so the streets and traffic lights and road signs and all else involved in getting people where they are going is set up for this one day event; and 3. no one would get hurt because of driving, etc, ineptitude (at least on this backward day, that is). It would be like Halloween or St. Patty's day. A lot of people walk around in costume and dress in all green and no one really thinks badly of them or really even thinks twice. Its just what happens on that day.

So, you are thinking, why?? And, seriously Why?

My thought process was this (don't be scared) that, I bet we'd see things very differently.

It may even seem like a new city we're driving through. It would definitely make us perk up and pay more attention. I live in a city with a downtown that, like a lot of downtowns, has a grid of one-way streets. I get into auto-pilot mode when I'm driving because I've driven my routes so often. I don't really SEE things any more, you know? This one day of driving backwards would give an entirely new perspective on where we've been for the past year. A new way to look at old things. All the same old things we take for granted. The old things that are there and from one perspective may seem worn or unattractive but from another could be a utopia. I mean who knows, there may be a flower garden or an ornamental statue or just about anything on the back side of some old run down and dirty gas station you drive by every day. You just can't see it because its not in our line of sight, a line of sight that we really don't pay much attention to, stuff is just there on the way to work or home or the grocery or the eye doctor.

Its like going on vacation or taking a road trip. Fields and trees and the horizon and the sea all look new and pretty and unlike the same fields and trees we see every day on our own streets. Its a perspective change.

What's hiding from us? What beauty is hidden from view? There's just no way to know until we take a new look, from a new angle, with new eyes.

You know that old saying "hindsight is 20/20." What if once each year, we purposefully turned and looked behind ourselves. Instead of the slap on the forehead of recognition we get when we realize something a bit too late, it could be a thought out process of checking. More than just glancing in the rearview mirror, but an all out, stop and reverse and see what's there.

Harley:

Day one - He and we had no idea what to expect. He was scared and completely unsure of where he was and why he was with us and how long would that last and would he be ok with these two new strangers in this new strange place.

Harley: Just a few months later - relaxed and calm and having the run of the house and yard and neighborhood. Mr. Happy Go Lucky himself.

Good Pics

Since my photography of late has stunk up the house. I've put up some photos from my favorite brother who happens to be "photographer extraordinaire". He has an eye and a sense of physical space that I dream of having.

These photos are from our recent trip to Hawaii.

Dipping pool

Tree in repose

Cloud

Reaching

Path

Yikes!

So, I just perused the ol' blog and realized (with the exception of the photo of Mt. Hood, which I dearly adore) the pics on this blog have been CRAP lately. Must apologize (sorry folks) and then do something about it. Oy!

Just Read: Call of the Wild

Author: Jack London

I never read this as a youngster. I sort of re-heard about it because I've been watching that '90's sitcom, Northern Exposure on Netflix lately and, if you know anything about the show, Chris, the DJ for KBHR reads a lot of books and comments on life lived daily through excerpts from just tons of literature. He recently made note of The Call of the Wild and my curiousity was piqued. Hence the reading of it. So anyway, great book. Easy to read, entertaining and thought provoking. Its a classic for a reason.

My Sweet Vegan

So, the story goes that Mister and I don't eat dairy. Its really difficult to find desserts that aren't dairy. You may have heard me complain about this before. In that light, I ordered a copy of My Sweet Vegan

by Hannah Kaminksy, author of Bittersweet, a veg blog that I read regularly for recipes. And I am so flippin' excited about it. I can't wait to start baking dairy free, gastronomical delights. So, the first recipe I tried was the fruit pinwheels. These cookies are a sort of pastry(ish) dough rolled out and spread with whatever dried fruit concoction your heart desires, then rolled up, sliced and baked.

I played around with the fillings and had amazing success.

1. This one was GREAT (but not shown). It may sound weird, but for the first filling (I did two flavors) I used raisins, prunes, orange juice, cinnamon, almond extract and walnuts. It looked a bit like mincemeat (which I don't eat even though I have to admit it smells good to me) but didn't taste anything like mincemeat actually it was similar to the taste of fig. I think the next time I make these, I'm going to actually do fig. Very yummy.

2. This was also very great, a bit easier to eat (if you will) if you have any picky eaters. Dried apricots, dried cherries and orange juice (shown). Mmm Mmm good.

These cookies were a bit time consuming for a weeknight, but I needed to bring them to work, so didn't have much choice.

Success! Although I'd change some stuff about the recipe like rolling out the dough a little thinner than I did, making another half recipe of the filling and making sure I had more time to be more precise so the end product looked like the picture in the cookbook. Mine were pretty, but not the perfect rolls that they could have been. All in all, they were great and I'd make them again. They are definetely an adult cookie, I think. I don't have kids, so, what do I know. I do know that Mister wasn't all that interested in them because they weren't dipped in chocolate. But I liked them more because they were chocolate-free, my dessert of choice.

PS - For those out there, and you know who you are, just because it says 'vegan' doesn't mean it tastes horrible or like wet cardboard. It, most especially when it comes to baked goods, just means there isn't any dairy or eggs. I was excited to get my new cook book and made the mistake of showing it to a friend who considers himself a chef, of sorts. He immediately turned a nasty expression and said he didn't want to see that word 'vegan'. I instantly got defensive (nice huh) and called him a big horses rear end. And, when I brought the wonderful vegan cookies to the office for an event, he jokingly turned up his nose. I'm pretty sure he didn't even try them because they were vegan. His loss.

My Brother

An homage to my favorite brother.

A photo he took recently that I just flippin' LOVE.

He's the real photographer in the family.

Tamales

So the trick is, when you don't have good photos, overwhelm your reader with lots of them.

Anyway, I dug in and made tamales recently. They just happen to be my favorite mexican food and I've always wanted to make them, but, frankly, I've been scared. You know, its like you've always really liked croissants, but, have you ever looked at the recipe and time involved in making croissants and let's be serious, what do you think the chances are that they will turn out perfectly the first time. You'll learn some tricks and they will be 'ok', but you'll have to make them again to iron out the kinks. Ya know?

So, tamales. Long loved, much feared. I decided to jump in with both feet and I am so glad I did. It was time consuming and very messy but the reward of the soft, melt-in-your-mouth, corn batter was worth every dirty dish rag and spatula in the kitchen.

I don't adhere to recipes all that well. I usually read through them at about half way through the ingredient list I change something or half way through the cooking process, I'll improvise with an ingredient here, a topping there. Its just what I do. Mister gets quite irritated with me because I'll make something he really likes and I have no way of recreating it because I don't write this stuff down. Its more of a... hmmm, I think a squirt (or two maybe) of this condiment or that spice would spice this recipe up. And by the time I get to the end, I've squirted and pinched and dashed the recipe into oblivion.

I started out with this masa recipe. I didn't use lard though, I used Earth Balance margarine, but you could use good old vegetable shortening and that would be fine. I guess if you are into lard (no judgement here) who am I to suggest non-lard. Anway, I also didn't use the filling that they used, I just did my own thing. I stewed a couple on-bone chicken breasts with cumin, celery, onion and a dried Thai chili pepper, or two. When that had cooked for a couple hours, I de-boned and shredded it adding in a can of diced green chilis, more cumin and broth. I heated that up so the spice flavors would permeate. Then, I just followed the basic tamale making recipe. Softenened husks, smeared masa, dollop of filling (which can be exactly anything or nothing at all, fold up the husk, steam for about an hour, let rest for a few minutes and serve with your favorite Mexican side dishes or just on a plate with some Better than sour cream or avocado slices.

We had Mister's mom over and served, Spanish rice (from the Joy of cooking with some embellishments, of course) mixed beans with spiced, shredded lettuce, tortilla chips, this better than sour cream, black olives, tomatoes and a good glass of wine.

Way Yummy!!

I would do it again in a heart beat. We average 2 tamales per person per meal. That's about 1/2 a tamale more than I need, but usually can't help myself (they are my favorite). We had about 5 dinners and a lunch or two and some snacks from the batch and still filled a freezer bag with enough for a several more meals worth of tamales.

Ole'

For a friend

This is all I have for pseudo-Spring in the City. With joy, I offer up this window washer and yellow building.

Just Read: A Gesture Life

Author: Chang-rae Lee

Harry Potter was the first book I had read (i.e. didn't listen to on the MP3 player) in quite awhile. I joined an online audio book club because I was bored on my elliptical trainer. Time goes by much faster when you have a book you can plug in to and just cruise away. With the membership, they gave away a pretty low-end MP3 player, but it worked for me. But Mr. being who he is - an awesome guy - he bought me a much better MP3 player - so now I have two. Well, my radio in the Jeep over the last few years has decided that it doesn't want to play much of anything on the FM band. So, I only used to listen to CD's. But now I have two MP3 players and I keep one in the vehicle and listen to a book on my commute. So, I usually have two books going at once. My point being that I 'read' quite a bit, but I haven't physically, bound copy in hand, read a book in awhile. Anyway, I actually bought the hard cover Harry Potter book and per my old old habit, started reading in bed at night and remembered that I love doing that. So, when Harry Potter was finished I went to my book case and picked up one of the books that have lingered there for probably years. I don't even remember where or why I have A Gesture Life but, I am so glad I read it. Not because its a fantastic read, at least not in my opinion, but because it has reminded me that the printed word, as opposed to the heard word, is a very good thing. I like books, the feel of them, the smell of them, the type face and the sense of having accomplished something when you physically see that you are progressing through the pages. Books are just great. Now that I've said this, its not likely I'll stop listening to books too. Its just really quite difficult to read a physical book while either driving or treading away on the elliptical machine.

So, the review of the book. Eh, it was ok. There are several threads going in the book at the same time and there really was only one of those that really caught my attention and propelled me through the other stuff. I'm sure there's great stuff in there, but, quite honestly, its not that hefty a book and it took me since October when I finished Harry Potter to read it. There's your review in an nut shell.

Risk

I know I've said this before, but man, I really am enthralled with the Shutter Sisters website. I just can't put it into words. Well, this is a blog, so I'll do my best I guess. Today's photo questions or assignment or whatever you like to think of it as was "Risk". What's difficult for you to do, not necessarily in relation to photography, but in life. I could go on, but, check out the site if for no other reason, the beautiful photo on today's post.

So, my comment on the Shutter Sisters site was:

I really dislike photos of myself. I actually asked our wedding photographer to pick out the ones she liked because I just could not choose which ones were worthy of print. Sad, but true. My risk, self-portrait. I see that just about all photographers do this. I'm sure there's some benefit to it. Here's my risk, may not be much to others, but to me, HUGE

That's me reflected in the photograph that I, nearly daily at the office, make sure my hair or whatever is presentable.

Pink is the new blurry

And the edited version.... Happy Friday to all!

Ode to a dormant volcano

there

gentle giant

sleeping, waiting

cooing absentminded complacency

sisters warn

we tary

fate

Ok, so a poet I am not. My verse is off, my... well... my everything sucks when it comes to poetry. At best, its a really bad Haiku. Nonetheless, its my personal ode to the beautiful mountain we call Mt. Hood. A place to play outdoors year round. A monolith on the horizon that I see often from my Portland vantage point. Its just a lovely mountain. One day, lets hope not in my lifetime, it will erupt and cause serious damage. It will be a sad and glorious day to behold.

This picture, while one of my favorite shots at this time, does not really do the morning justice. I think, if you click on the picture, making it larger on your screen, it will have more impact.

So, what I like about this picture is the color palette. They grey-blues and the orange-creams. Its soothes me like sipping a hot cup of cocoa with mini-marshmallows while sitting around a camp fire, smelling the wood burn, hearing the coals crackle, seeing the entire Milky Way stream out above your head.

What's beautiful on your horizon? Just outside your window? Waiting? Soothing you?

Just Watched: Blood Diamond

Do you own a conflict diamond? How would you ever really know? Is anyone at your local diamond retailer ever going to (1) know; (2) admit to knowing? The answer is, of course they aren't.

Fortunately for me, Mister and I aren't, as a general rule, in the market for diamonds. Now, that's a positive spin if I've ever heard one.

Watch the movie, even though its difficult subject matter and a bit violent, it does have Jennifer Connelly, and she was great in Labyrinth. My little trivial pursuit.

Just Read: 1776

Author: David McCullough

It started out very dry (hello! history) and I didn’t know if I could get through even the first quarter of this book. But, when I let myself relax into it, it started getting more interesting.

Even if you don't like history as a subject, this is a rather good book. Yes, it is a little dry in places, but I learned stuff about our country and the struggle for independence that either I was never taught, or I just don't remember. I always thought George Washington, the father of our country, was some great general because he won the war for us. We've all seen the recreated pictures of Washington crossing the Delaware. What I don't remember being told was that this 'crossing' only came after several major defeats and that Washington was not a great strategist, what he was, was a leader. A man with an incredible skill for motivating people, a man with vision and gumption and the inability to back down in the face of all horrible and oppressive obstacles. Thank goodness for that or we'd probably (actually more than likely) still be paying jolly old England our deepest respects and eating bangers and mash or fish 'n chips more regularly. I never realized just exactly how close we came to not becoming an independent nation.

I would recommend this book.

Morning - Third of March

Its so light out early these days. Daylight savings in one week, back to the dark morning commute, which I've discovered, I don't mind.