Henny Penny, and her compadre

Two important things you needed to see:





Hens




& How we do bathtubs in Colorado

my pigeon, my little lamb

Cora, with her painting that was chosen for an art show, May 2009.






Conner turns four, May 2009.

ok, I owe you a few details

So, Death Cab was great, and the Hard Rock is like the State Theater vectorized to twice the size. Sound was good, the light show was beautiful, etc.

The opening act, Matt Costa was great, too.

I got right up front. Which is good because with only my cell phone camera, the pics would have been a total disaster from any farther away. I was all smiles, relieved to not run into the most recent ex, thrilled with their set list, although it included the overly-obvious encore piece, I Will Follow You Into The Dark (which I love, but I don't want to know it's coming, I want to be surprised...), and although there wasn't much comedic banter between the band and the audience.

Hopefully the Decemberists show will be more banterful.

experimental cookie update

Little pats of butter, and Conner peeking over the edge of the table...



Food processor, which just blended chickpeas and a few tablespoons of cream.



Oatmeal cookies!



So, Harry arrived just as these were coming out of the oven. He likes healthy food, and even bakes birthday cakes for the kids with low amounts of sugar. We figured he was a good candidate to taste test these.

We asked him to identify the "secret ingredient" and he identified the oatmeal and bananas right away, guessed coconut next!

Thanks for the tip, Amy!!

adventure day

baby, why'd you have to give up on us?

we had a good thing going on...

went shopping for new glasses!

Whew. It's actually exhausting trying on pair after pair and having to remember which ones were duds and which ones were hot. The kiddos and I went to two different optic-locations today, both bursting at the seams with nerdy goodness. And, considering my sudden (yes, childish) interest in bespectacled men (like Mr. Robin Van Loon, over there in my side-bar; I'd totally be lying if I said I don't intend to trek into the sacred jungles of "darkest Peru" to ask him out), it's something I might start doing more frequently.

I actually couldn't make a final decision, therefore we are hitting the trail again tomorrow, back to the same stores we went to today. Out of the 100+ that I tried on, I have about 5 favorites.

I'm taking Helen with me tomorrow, if I can, because I'm nervous about making the wrong choice. The last time I bought glasses, a year and a half ago, I was under pressure to get in and out in a timely manner and I sort of freaked out. I ended up buying a (cute) pair of trendy little glasses with a rectangular sort of look to them, in dark pink/light green.















Don't get me wrong, I love them, but they just don't fit my face :-(

















It doesn't help that I DON'T KNOW WHAT SHAPE MY FACE IS (other than "weird" lol). I've ruled out circular and square, so that leaves triangular, oval, and heart-shaped.

Yeah, ok.

the fed ex guy is my new boyfriend

This is my (most recent) magnum opus, the fruit of my womb...





...and this is the truck it drove away in, on a rainy February Monday, in ClearDun.

NM, and my roommate sunbathing

The least nice stairwell in the new building. Seriously.




My new office. Notice all the junk I still have to unpack, lol.

Anyways, the new building is named NM. Um, New Mexico? Natural Math? Huh??


And, here's the pic I took of Helen, making a sand angel, at the beach on Christmas Day.

in my little forest

I <3 this thing

It was brought to my attention that I hadn't yet posted pics of the new bike...







NOT my hand in the picture; I snagged these from my friend. I realize my laziness comes across very well in moments like these.

ouch, in so many ways

Forgive the wierd angles. Us single girls gotta take these pictures over our shoulders and all. I'll invest in a mirror when I recoil from the ungodly expense of this session. No, I cannot afford to live like this. I do it because I hate all traces of sanity.



ok, recruited Bender to take that one...

reality that you can feel... in your quadriceps

So, a couple of weeks ago, Brian suggested that I ride with him and the rest of the Bicycle Outfitters crew, from the shop to the Bike Bash event at Vinoy Park, in downtown St. Pete. I was sorta on the fence about riding there; not because I didn't want to try a longer ride than I'm used to (in fact, that's exactly what I was ready for), but because I was worried about being the slowest/least skilled person going.

Not to mention it would require getting up at 5 am on a Sunday.

But don't worry- I decided to go anyways, and I am SO glad that I did. Getting up while it was still dark was actually fun, it made the day feel more exciting than a normal day (or was that my nervousness, maybe?). The stars and the moon were just gorgeous Sunday morning, and the weather was brisk enough that I got to don a cozy hooded sweater as we headed out for a quick cup of coffee and over to the bike shop.

Some parts of the ride were really intense for me. There are several overpasses with pretty steep climbs which required some concentration on my part. I love pushing myself past my boundaries, though. It's exhilarating, and the adrenaline-high is impeccable once your end point is visible.

Seriously, there was a moment on the way there (somewhere in the municipality of Gulfport) that I started to doubt my ability to make it all the way there. And then, like magic, a few minutes later the pain went away, and a few minutes after that, we could suddenly see the Trop' and, to me, that means downtown. Riding past it, and down towards the water, my utter joy and satisfaction probably made me look like a fool, but I didn't care.

The bay, so blue and choppy. The wind, so crisp. Palm trees. Puppies. Perfection.

Then, to my surprise, Brian whipped up a hot and nutritious campstove breakfast, to top off the killer moment.

And, can you believe this: Not only were we the first to arrive, Bicycle Outfitters was the only bike shop that set up for this event without the aid of motorized vehicles- total bike power. The caravan of riders not only got there, but got there with bike trailers and panniers loaded with tents, merchandise, tools, and gear!



Here's the Bicycle Outfitters set up, early in the day



A mellow cyclist enjoying the weather, complete with a beer and flip flops, though they didn't make it into the picture


The Skirts, a cool bicycling group for girls!


A little boy on his dad's Xtracycle... I'm so ready to ditch the car circle for good. All I need is an Xtracycle!


Brian, showing off his Surly Longhaul Trucker, while someone from the co op explains bike touring



And here's a video of the event, courtesy of Jack, from bikecommuters.com

a work in progress

Look at my new back-rack! I have not only mobility, but carrying-power!!!





Brian was so very sweet to not only deliver the part, but to install it, too. And, the install ended up requiring modifications (bending/drilling various spots) since my bike is such an old cheapie. After we got drunkish, and before he got really serious at making it work, he suggested something about maybe not needing to modify, but just getting a new bike for the new rack! Haha, very funny (rolling eyes).

In it's defense, the bike is functional, and was practically free.

One last thing: would it be wrong to mention that hot guys are hotter than normal when they are fixing something for you?

since you guys have been asking for more pictures...

The most bare-bones night of camping ever.



Cora, feeling victorious, after her first week of first grade.

more pics...

We are going out to some farm today, where we have cousins, and to go swimming etc.

Here's some pictures before I run out the door...

Sunday photos

The entrance area...

The kids in the living room...



The balcony view from the third floor, where our room is...