whale watching

In 2007 I traveled to Iceland. During my time in the land of ice I went whale watching. I may have seen a whale, I definitely saw birds and puffins, and thoroughly enjoyed wearing serious jumpsuits (really, I did. It was cold and very windy on the boat). Here's a picture of some of the other whale watchers in their outfits.



Iceland was a great place to visit. People were friendly, places were beautiful, and the atmosphere was very pleasant. And now that their economy has collapsed it's much more affordable for visiting. They have some tasty coffee, amazing geothermal pools, weird "forests," and stunning natural sights. Plus puffins!

chickpeas

Chickpeas!!! I love chickpeas. They are absolutely my favorite food. How delicious are they? Oh, very very delicious. Seriously, I love eating them in various forms: whole, in hummus, in salads, on pasta, stir-fried with other vegetables, etc. I think I'll eat some now (and then I'll be forced to take a short break from blogging...).

tom

I love blogging. I love Tom significantly more though.

cute cat overload

Matrim is just about the most adorable thing in the world. Just look at this photographic evidence:

what I meant

These are the flowers I previously blogged about. I think these pictures better capture the color I was speaking of.

saturday

Living with Tom means I will always been supplied with fresh homemade cheese. Tom really enjoys making cheese, which works out well because I really enjoy eating cheese. Today Tom made some delicious cheese and pita bread. The cheese is a yogurt cheese with garlic chives from our garden. The pita bread is, well, pita bread. All in all not a bad snack for a Saturday afternoon.

cats with ties

These are cats wearing ties. The cats are adorable and, for the most part, don't mind wearing ties. Pellinore and Matrim are the best cats in the world and I just wanted to share a photo of them wearing ties.

katie

These two pictures of Katie. She's wonderful and funny and always somewhere far away in the world. Right now she's in Indonesia having fun and teaching and adventuring. Soon she'll be back in the states and I can't wait. Katie is insightful and hilarious. She always has something to say that makes me smile, think, or some other reaction (ha).

Katie, I hope you are having adventures galore and I am really looking forward to seeing your face once again in only a few months.

maureen

Here's Maureen. She has been my friend for over a decade and she's wonderful. These pictures are from our first trip to a bar together (I think our last, too; we tend to drink more coffee than anything else when we're together), her wedding, and us last Christmas with our menfolk. Maureen is a very beautiful human being and I often wish we lived closer to one another so our frequency of face-to-face interaction would greatly increase. I imagine we could have stellar game nights, dinner parties, casual meetings over coffee (of course), etc. But, alas, we live hundreds of miles apart and our friendship consists more of letters and phone calls than games and dinner parties. I will gladly take as much Maureen as I can get, though, because she never fails to make me feel good about myself through kind words, a funny story, or just simply by being my bff.

travel

This photo is from Paris. I took it after a climb to the top of Basilique du Sacré Cœur on a trip in 2003. In the distance you can see the Tour Eiffel.

Paris is one of my favorite cities and I hope to live there someday. I'd like to get a flat with Tom where we can spend lazy days drinking coffee, eating bread and cheese, reading the paper on our balcony overlooking some cute street or square. Or we could spend busy days biking around town, shopping for wine, stopping for art museums, listening to little kids (and adults) speak French in lively conversations taking place in everyday places. This move wouldn't be permanent, perhaps half a year, but it would be significant. I'd make a serious effort to engage with the French language, something I feel I could only really accomplished if living in a world surrounded by it. I'd also utilize France's location in Europe to visit various destinations over long weekends.

Hopefully Tom and I will get there for a visit on our extended honeymoon in a few years. Until then, I will enjoy my memories and photographs of my visit to Paris.

what?

I can't really talk about what just happened (though I obviously want everyone to know that I can't talk about something...), but I can say I saw a movie and it was not so great. If I hadn't signed a confidentiality agreement I would say more but I don't want to get sued or anything like that. The good news was that it was free.


In other news, here's a picture of the cats on their 7th birthday, which was April 12.


Aren't they cute? Yes, they are. Even when Pellinore does a flying lunge attack from a chair onto Matrim's back. Adorable.

garden

A garden! Not just a garden, though, it's the garden belonging to me and Tom. This year we planned it out a bit more (well, significantly more) than last year. While it might not look like much now, it will soon be a fantastic space full of tasty vegetables, strawberries, and herbs. One of my favorite activities is to gaze longingly at the garden through a window, while sitting on a chair outside, or while passing by on my way out. I wish we had more space for a larger garden. I also wish more people had gardens. They are more beautiful than lawns and infinitely more productive.

Our garden will consist of three types of tomatoes, strawberries, beets, four colors of beans, two types of peppers, sage (my favorite herb), basil, cilantro, lettuce, onions, and garlic. Our strawberry plants are almost producing berries (hooray!). Last year we didn't have to many strawberries but I think this year will be more abundant since they have an earlier start and are well established.

Also, we planted a few flower pots on the stairs. Aren't they pretty?

just put it on the floor?

Here's one of my favorite people: Natalie. Her family is responsible for the title of this blog, though they might not know it (the joke involved a dinner and where to put some food that wasn't wanted). I've known Natalie for a while (8.5 years) and we've had some hilarious times together. This picture is evidence of one fun time we shared. Our dear friend Maureen was married to Chris last July. During the reception we (me and Natalie; Maureen and Chris were busy being fabulous hosts) discovered that a very tall man was working with the caterers. While we called him monster for his height, he was actually a pretty nice man and we decided to take a photo with him. Tomorrow Natalie is coming to town and I am looking forward to feeding her burritos (she doesn't know this is happening yet). Hooray for Natalie!

summer

I took this photograph on one of my first dates with Tom. He drove us up to somewhere on Mt. Hood and we made the short hike from the parking lot to this lovely waterfall. It was summer and the weather up there was a welcome escape from the summer heat, the way it can be when you are in the forest on a day that is hot in the city.

Today I was a substitute for some sassy middle schoolers. They, much like myself, are excited for sunny, warm, and carefree summer days. Ones where you can drive up to somewhere on Mt. Hood and make a short hike to someplace beautiful. Or spend hours at a park with a book, a picnic, and quality company. Or sit and stare at the garden being slowly watered in the evening. I am a fan of all the seasons but summer always feels like something tangible to look forward to. Perhaps if I wasn't a teacher I wouldn't feel this way; perhaps I would feel less excited about the hot days if I had to spend many hours working in an office. Hard to say, but it's not hard to say that there's only 33 school days left for the year...

waiting & trees

I'm waiting for Tom to return from helping his friend build a chicken coop and eat BBQ food. How domestic.

Here's a picture:
I took that picture earlier this evening. It was a nice sunset, but I was more interested in the color of the flowering tree on the upper left side of the shot. This picture doesn't capture the color very well at all but the other colors and such are nice. Plus, who doesn't love a telephone wires? Seriously, I do. Anyway, I tried to find a picture that better expressed the color of the flowering tree but I can't. Perhaps I'll take some more tomorrow when the lighting is better.

Here's one more just for fun. It shows the pink a bit more.

cat fight

Matrim and Pellinore are adorable and quite loving (usually). Then there are times when they fight each other for reasons not apparent to humans. It starts like this:



As the fight progresses, here's what happens:



Fights either end when one of the cats tires of the activity, or if I throw a pillow at them because fighting hurts my soul (and it can be distracting if they are running up and down the stairs, all over the apartment, etc). While I try to let them "work out" their catty problems (ha), sometimes I'm a sucker and can't bear to see them fight.

On an unrelated note, M & P love shows about nature. Especially if the show involves birds. Right now I'm watching Blue Planet and both cats are loving this bird episode. Adorable.

bike

I didn't know where to start so I'm starting here. My bike! It's fun, yes? My future brother-in-law, Phil, fixed up an old bike and now it's mine. I added some festive bar tape and a new seat cover/cushion and now it's golden. So far I've had only two run-ins. One was with a telephone pole and the other was a near miss by an SUV. The first incident was my fault; it was my first time riding my new road bike and I was a little unbalanced. The latter incident was the fault of a driver who failed to see me in the bike lane. Luckily we both had quick reaction times and no one was hurt (although I was the only one at risk of injury). This bike of mine will be my buddy this spring, summer, and (mild weather) fall times.

[an aside: it's fun to say future brother-in-law; in not too much longer I'll have 5 brothers-in-law. I hope to refer to all of them only as "brother-in-law," rather than by name, as to leave people confused]

welcome

Here's a blog I'm making for you all. Unlike most people who blog primarily for their own enjoyment, I've decided to do this for everyone else. As you will notice, if you haven't already, I am a selfless person who only thinks of others. And while no one has yet to tell me they secretly wished I'd start a blog, I'm pretty good at reading people and I know you've been trying to guard this secret well. Fear not, I won't name names but this blog is for you.

I read a few blogs written by my friends. I love reading them because these friends are far away and I miss them greatly. Reading about random activities in their daily lives has allowed me to not feel like I am not completely disconnected from their lives. I haven't quite decided what direction to take with this blog; right now I feel compelled to post pictures I have taken or that I find interesting.

Enough of that. Let's have some posting!