Number 9

ok, before i force myself to go to sleep (lest i become completely unable to wake up extra extra early for work next week with my night owl vacation habit), i have another New Year's resolution to add to the list!

• I want to draw and paint more! now, i realize that's going to be a bit of a challenge since I'll be busy with school... but i doubt that it will be impossible... especially since I just signed myself up for an extra cool Cabaret Life Drawing session in Seattle, featuring burlesque models ~ including Kittie LaRue of the Burlesque Nutcracker! how cool!... i think i'll aim for at least one model session every 2 months. i think i can manage attending 6 of them in 2010. it can't possibly be completely unreasonable to expect that i can find one date that i can attend every 60 days. (right?)
  

i may just go to another one even earlier in the new year, on the 6th. we'll see. I don't want to over extend myself during my first week back at work... i'm already going to need extra coffee to drag myself out of bed so friggin early. have i mentioned that one of the fantastic benefits of moving onto a Project Management position will be getting to "sleep in" a couple of hours, since those jobs will likely allow me to begin my work day at a reasonable and normal hour? :)

big plans

i spent a good part of the day today filling in important dates and reminders in my new 2010 planner. i don't think i've ever bothered to put this much effort into planning out a new year... but i'm feeling very excited about this one. (probably in large part because a significant portion of this current year just pisses me off... so it's exciting to kick it goodbye and start fresh - finally!)

on one hand it's bizarre to think that a decade is going to be finished and over with on Thursday night - not just a year, but a whole decade - the first decade of the millennium in fact! it's even weirder to think about what was happening in my life a decade ago. On the verge of the end of 1999, i was working a low paying, substitute page job at the local library - which was nice and low key, and always interesting... but i recall thinking often that i did NOT want to be stuck doing that job for the rest of my life (like a lot of the older ladies i saw there, who had been there for AGES, and still had practically the same job I had, and i had only just recently turned 21... i was SUPPOSED to have a crappy job)... i finished my first post-high school degree in June of 2000, which was an associates degree in arts and sciences (mostly arts... and just the bare minimum of sciences because they required it)...

In the past decade, i've had 3 graduations! the associates degree, a double bachelors degree in fine art: painting, and another in art history from the UW... and finally a masters degree in teaching from UPS. it's funny to think that 10 years later, i'm still finding a way to become a student. it doesn't feel like 10 years of education... but i suppose mostly it was. nearly half of that time was spent at the UW (and i loved it. i loved devoting most of my waking time to painting and learning about historical artists... what a fantastic time in my life!)... just over a year of it was spent at UPS... and the past 3 i've spent teaching art. not too shabby for the professional portion of my last decade huh?

And what about travel? the Double 0's have really been a decade for travel for me! i took my first (and longest) international trip in 2003, when i spent a quarter studying art history abroad in Rome! Having learned my lesson about travel by this time, i didn't just go to Rome and come straight back home. I spent as much time as possible traveling all over the place, seeing the things that I MOST wanted to see while in Europe. I even spent a couple of years preparing for the language. I did 4 quarters of Italian before even bothering to apply (though it was not a requirement). During that trip, I went to 7 countries, including Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, German, and England. Having acquired a taste for travel, I spent the following spring break in Mexico enjoying the beaches of Cancun... and then that was it for a while. The next big international trip was to Jamaica for my honeymoon a couple of years ago. Then for spring break this past year Mike and I went to Korea and Japan to visit a couple of friends of mine. I've wanted to visit Japan for ages, and I have to say it was every bit as cool as I had hoped it would be. Counting several trips I've taken to Canada over the past decade, that makes 13 countries I've visited outside of the US in the last decade! I doubt I'll beat that in the 2010's, but it would sure be fun to try to come close! I would love to go to Egypt. Mike has promised me that when we get rid of our last bit of credit card debt, we can go to Egypt. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later - I'm dying to go see the pyramids!

Back to my plans so far for 2010, I've got all of the birthdays and anniversaries plugged in, upcoming show dates for Morpheus, my Film Noir & Pinot Noir nite on the 15th... and (my favorite of the moment), 6 weeks of yoga all planned out! That together with my regular weight watchers meetings on Tuesday nights, and I've just made real plans to make like 3 of my resolutions a big success right off the bat in 2010! I'm also dragging the new planner with me over to Hillary's house tomorrow night for wine & a movie night - but just as importantly, we're going to plan some art happenings for the new year... and i think right this second i'm going to log off and go check out that Drawing meetup, so i can plan a few dates in the new year to go draw w/ a live model. it'll be good to make regular dates to use my cool new sketchbook.

books and books and books!

this afternoon i ventured down to Tacoma for a bookstore shopping trip. i was hoping to find some of my textbooks locally (and hopefully used) to see if i could slash the price, compared to ordering them online through the school's bookstore. I know that the UW Tacoma campus does have a Project Management program, so I was hoping that some of the same books would be available in their bookstore. No such luck!

Then i went across the street to the Tacoma Art Museum, merrily hoping I would find a fabulous art-based new planner for 2010... and BIG DUH, they were closed. Art museums being closed on a Monday is not a new concept for me... but being on vacation and forgetting what day it is explains my problem! :) While I was waiting for the crosswalk signal to tell me it was safe to cross the street to get back to my car, i found myself thinking how WICKED cool it must be to be a UW-T student, with the art museum, and Tacoma's best art supply store literally right next door! (Hillary, i'm jealous!)

So then I drove up the hill to King's Books, wanting to find a decent bargain on a gently used copy of a classic novel for my 2010 resolution to read at least one. I have almost positively settled on The Scarlet Letter (but Ulysses keeps sneaking its way back into my mind)... I found a good copy of The Scarlet Letter, and also came out with a somewhat old looking copy of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - which i've learned depicts the early years of a character in Ulysses... so why not? No luck on finding a good copy of Ulysses though.

So then I went to Half Price Books, hoping to score Ulysses, and crossed my fingers that they would have cheap copies of my textbooks too.... no luck on either of them, but I did come out with discount copies of the Golden Compass trilogy!... Then Borders was practically next door, so I went in and found a National Gallery Planner (for 50% off), and bought a copy of Ulysses. I used my teacher discount too. (what are they going to do, track me down and find out that I don't actually teach literature?) hehehe

but it doesn't end there! I went online and found my textbooks AND Mike's textbooks for cheap and decent prices on half.com! Assuming that mine comes with the promised CD and Mike's comes with the promised DVD, I think we're in good shape! (we saved loads of $$ from the list price on the school's bookstore website, too ~ even after shipping!)

I think for a follow up book based day, tomorrow I should see what I can do about finishing the two books that I'm currently in the middle of, to make space on my "now reading" mental bookshelf... I think I'm right about in the middle of Friday Night Knitting Club, and am somewhere near the beginning of the 3rd Harry Potter book. Unless I go buy the 4th one, I'll have to stop there for a while (and I looked at King's and Half Price Books today too, and they didn't have what I wanted... they had them in hardcover, but I've always preferred paperbacks. that' weird isn't it?)

maybe i should have been an anthropologist

it has occurred to me recently that as i'm slowly returning to doing all of the things that make me most happy, what i'm really doing is attempting to steep myself in a nice rounded mix of culture... and not just my own. i'm hungry to dig right into the finer things in life. I'm wanting to do movie nights, sure, but not just any old movies... i want to watch great foreign movies, and legendary old movies... i want to read books - but again not just any books - i'm looking for the classics again. i've always sought out the classics. I've done it since I was in high school and first learned what the classics were! - and it was almost never for a class. People would ask me (even when I wasn't a student anymore) what class i was reading "that book" for... and I'd answer that I was reading it for pleasure. They're time tested, and proven to be great - otherwise they wouldn't still be well known - they would have faded into history by now... that's the heart of my reason for wanting to read them, but it's not the whole reason. I think I also want the cultural knowledge that goes along with reading those books, and watching those movies.

For example, i was researching Film Noir earlier for my first movie nite of the new year... and i came upon Strangers on a Train, which happens to have been filmed before either of my parents were born. Even so, I have heard that particular movie referenced so many times in contemporary pop culture that i feel like i already know the movie. it would undoubtedly have even deeper significance for me every time it's referenced, though, if i had the background of actually having watched the movie.

it's the same with food - i love trying new foods, and foods from different regions of the world. i'm probably the most adventurous person in my family when it comes to food... not to mention actual travel. i've been to at least 13 countries, and can't wait to go see more! i just can't help it... i want to expand my cultural horizons, and the more i get, the more i seem to want.

it's not even New Year's yet!

i am so excited about this New Year's! 2009 was a real let down for me... at least the first half of it, anyway. the second half was pretty awesome. during the first half i was stuck working at a school with a person i couldn't stand... an abusive person who took advantage of me. it did a real number on me, too - i was functioning over my stress limit for months, i didn't have the mental energy to do much of anything after work - for months... even a good way into the summer. the de-stress and recovery took a lot longer than i really ever imagined it would... a good 6 months to be exact.

i finally FINALLY feel like ME again. I'm painting and doing my own artwork again - not nearly as much as i was able to while I was a full time art student, of course, but enough to keep me feeling like a happy and active artist. i'm cooking and baking again! i've got the energy now to enjoy my new home (and finally feel like decorating the place!)... i guess i never quit drinking wine, but i feel like i'm more actively enjoying it, since i'm planning a wine party tonight, and a wine tour early this year, and hopefully more wine events w/ my friends and family throughout the year...

which brings me to my New Year's resolutions... I know it's not even New Year's yet, but i just can't wait to kick this stupid year out of my life... so i'm ready to set some resolutions NOW!

• here's the obvious one - i want to lose weight. i've already lost 15 lbs, and i'm set and ready to lose more! (i gained weight while working with that abusive witch early this year... i want to kick the memory of her out for good too, and that means losing the rest of the weight she caused me to gain... and hopefully more on top of that too. i DID gain weight during grad school, and on my honeymoon too... i'd love to just get rid of all of it!... and if i can lose weight between Thanksgiving and Christmas, i can probably do anything!

• I want to spend more time with my favorite people - which means Champagne Thursdays with Hillary, and monthly dinners (or whatever) with my UW artist friends. I want to get my mom out of the house and doing fun social things too!

• I want to do monthly movie nights. Only one person showed up for my foreign movie nite - but i didn't even care... the point was, i was making time to do something i love... who cares if i'm doing it all by myself? it's probably more fun that way anyway, than trying to get people to do it with me who will end up hating it and having a terrible time.... if people want to join me, the more the merrier - but this one is about the ritual and enjoyment of making time to do the stuff i love... anything more than that is just going to be icing on the cake (and everybody knows my favorite part of the cake is the icing) ;)

• I want to host more game nites too! We had a fun game nite with Mike's sister's family, I think we had my parents over for one, and we had one or two at friends' houses too... they're just fun, and i suppose it probably fits under the spending more time with my favorite people section... but these are my resolutions, so i'm going to organize them how i want!

• I want to pay attention and spend more time at SAM. I always love going there, and I just don't feel like I go enough... and since I did ONE art walk in 2009, i'm going to set the goal of doing at least 2 art walks in 2010. it's realistic... and hopefully i'll do more than that too. we'll see.

• I go to my weight watchers meetings on Tuesdays, and they started giving out this little weekly Zine thingy that features a recipe in it each week - and so far (with the exception of this week's, since this week's was a cocktail!!) i've made each one on the Tuesday i got it... so i want to do recipe surprise on Tuesdays. I love being adventurous with food, and so far that has been a great way to keep mixing it up and trying new things!

• I also plan to return to doing Yoga this year! I'm already signed up to do Doga (Yoga for dogs and people!!) for 4 weeks starting toward the end of January. I found a neat looking studio sorta nearby for regular yoga too, that I would really like to start going to. I have always loved yoga, and I think it will feel like one more step toward being my normal, balanced, and happy self again!

• I also love reading the classics (among other things), and i haven't read one in ages... so i want to choose one and read it this year too. I'll read other stuff too, of course (among the other stuff i'm working on the Harry Potter series, and got as far as buying Twilight, and i'm halfway through the Friday Night Knitting Club for Alyssa's Book Club Lite)... but i'm going to do at least one classic novel this year too.
  

I might add to this list between now and New Year's... but that's a good working list of the things I want to do in 2010!

the mike stories pt. 8

i think mike has a subconscious wish to have our house robbed... quite possibly also burned down, but at least robbed. either that or he's working on a malicious underground plot to get my cats to run away. he's actually been successful with both cats if that's his goal...

i'll explain: Mike has issues with the doors. he won't lock them. half the time he won't even close them. About a month ago Akira snuck out the back door after Mike went out and forgot to shut the screen door all of the way (as far as we can tell anyway). He was missing for a couple of days. Masaaki was actually the first one to notice Akira's absence. Masaaki started behaving strangely - he was wandering the house restless and howling... then we discovered the source of Masaaki's anxiety - his feline buddy was nowhere to be found... on one hand it's totally adorable that they've bonded so well... on the other hand it just makes the whole situation that much more heartbreaking when one of them has gone missing.

Akira eventually showed up. it appears that he snuck out, ran into something scary, hid under the deck, and waited until after dark to bravely approach the door to try to get back in. we had the window open so he could hear Masaaki crying for him... when i was about to close the window for the night, there he was, right outside the window staring right back at me. he was a little scardey cat once we did finally entice him back in. poor guy. it only detered him for a couple of days from trying to rush the front door every time we open it, though. he's a stinker.

Where Mike was successful at losing Masaaki is a much more disturbing story. Masaaki is the worlds biggest weenie cat. i've never worried about him trying to get outside, because frankly the outside world scares the crap out of him. he sees an open door and he runs the other way and hides. he's certain that everything out there is one gigantic plot to kill him, and i'm just fine with him thinking so.

well... during the past week I've had some sort of death cold, and have been doing nothing but sleeping and occasionally eating. On Saturday night Mike went up and drew a bath for me... after asking if he had locked the doors, i went up to relax for the night. the next morning i got up a bit early hoping i'd have the energy to go to a dog show (that was Sunday - i made it, and it rocked!)... when i made it downstairs i immediately saw that the door was hanging open. not just unlocked (as Mike is so fond of doing) but actually hanging open. it was open about a foot. I poked my head out and there was Akira sitting on the front step. I ordered him back in, and in he came.... i closed the door and went looking for Masaaki...

Masaaki wasn't in the house. we checked everywhere! the most likely scenario is this: the door was open ALL night... when Masaaki discovered this around bed time, he most likely hid from it... then perhaps watched as Akira wandered out... even realized that Akira didn't get jumped and murdered the second he went out... and (heaven forbid) Akira seemed to even be enjoying his little outdoor adventure... perhaps sometime around 3 or 4am Masaaki worked up the courage to venture out too... then ran into something that scared the crap out of him... like... oh... say.... a slug... then he probably bolted and hid somewhere until nightfall the next evening.

when we checked outside in the morning, he was nowhere to be found. To his credit, Masaaki is the most excellent hider i have ever seen in my entire life. that evening we tried shutting Akira in the cat room (yes we have a cat room. disgusting isn't it?)... so we could open all of the doors and hope that Masaaki would wander in on his own. knowing what a big weenie he is, i just wasn't sure what to expect. it was totally anticlimactic. nothing happened. we had to shut the doors and go to bed. i left the window open upstairs, though, so i could hear him if he started howling (howling is Masaaki's other special talent).

...and howling he did! an hour or two after we went to bed he started in. he was right outside the front door howling to get in, and came right in when i opened the door. it was probably the only act of bravery i should ever expect out of the cat, as i'm sure it took every ounce of courage the poor guy had, and then some! he remained skittish and nervous all night, and even through to this morning. about an hour after i got home, though, he was back to his old self, jumping up next to me on the couch and demanding attention.

guess what else i found when i got home today? Mike forgot to lock the front door when he left for work this morning. i've already explained to him numerous times that he is not invincible, his house is not invincible, and that people really do get their houses robbed... and that the first line of defense against that sort of thing is to lock the friggin doors like everybody else with any sort of common sense does. but does he listen?...

i'm not dead!

(although i did have a crazy experience on the freeway recently... and i suppose i'm lucky i'm not dead)...

anyway, i realize it must seem like i've abandoned my blog... but here's the deal - it's been nice and sunny outside, and i have a brand new house with all of this amazing yard space just waiting for me to dig up the grass, pick out the rocks, and plant something cool... so that's what i've been up to.

...well, that... and a whole lot more! here's what i've done since my last blog post!:

i've done spring break in Korea & Japan! I stayed with my friend Hee Sun in Seoul, S. Korea. We were there for several days (all of which I was recovering from the stupid cold Mike shared with me. I lost my voice the last 2 of those days... which SUCKED!)... but we saw a bunch of cool old fashioned Korean village areas, we went by the blue house (which is like their version of the white house - yes, their president lives there, and yes, it's blue). we saw temples, we had TONS of kimchi!

In Japan, we stayed with my friend Yuka. I learned enough Japanese to say hello, yes, thank you, and i almost mastered "good night" (which i've now forgotten)... pathetic, i know... but i'll get there. i fell in LOVE with Japan! We only spent 2 nights in Japan, but we made the most of it! We flew into Osaka, and then Yuka lives a bit outside of Kyoto (which is a short train ride away from Kyoto, in southern Japan). We spent a whole day exploring the Gion section of Kyoto - which is a very well preserved older area of Japan. You can see all sorts of coolness in that area. THE place for viewing the cherry blossoms is there, in an enormous & beautiful park, there are temples, a pagoda (which you can actually go inside and climb up 2 stories!), there's a really cool WW2 memorial (which is like a zillion times cooler than our stupid wall) - complete with a GINORMOUS budha statue, and a miniature monk statue for each Japanese soldier who passed away in the war. it's also the area where Maiko hang out - Maiko are Geisha in training, and they're a Kyoto-only thing. We were very lucky to get to see 3 of them! we had our picture taken with a very young one - she was SO tiny and cute! we took a photo of the other two, as well. All of them had photographers following them around, taking their picture around the Gion area.... and don't even get me started about Japanese food - it's all SO good!!! I didn't want to leave Japan... I kept wishing we had more time there. Of all of the countries I've ever been (and i've been to a decent number of countries), Japan was by far my favorite. i made Mike promise that we could go back again! (if you go, though - heads up - we had a lot of trouble getting our ATM cards to work there. I've NEVER had that problem anywhere else... and it was totally unexpected! It may just be Kyoto, but it was not very common for places to take a credit card, either. i would expect that shouldn't be a problem in Tokyo, but ya never know).

THEN i spent an all-expense paid weekend retreat at Ocean Shores through my union. it was a blast! it was a seminar trip for relatively new teachers, and we learned all sorts of cool stuff. i was already in love with my union before that - this just rejuvinated my love affair with my union. they're awesome! i told my rep to feel free to drag me down to Olympia or whatever else she would like for me to do, i'm happy to help. i owe them big time for everything they've done for me this year... plus i'm huge on advocating for myeslf (and teaching my students to do so).

Speaking of which, i had to hold an intervention in my first period class. i've had to deal with all sorts of things in there that i shouldn't HAVE to deal with.. but alas, drama aside, i took matters into my own hands, and made the students lay down the law for me. i made them come up with a list of rights and responsibilities, which i'm going to print out and make all of them sign... then when they violate them, i'm taking one of the millions of photocopies i'll have on hand and highlighting the thing they violated - and stapling it to the discipline form. i think they've realized i'm done putting up with any crap in there... because it's been a LOT calmer since i held the intervention.... which is NICE. i have 5 weeks left, and i just want to ride them out in peace without drama and nonsense.

then, lets see... my puppy was born 3 days ago, and i'm all excited about that! i'm anxiously waiting until it's ok to go up for a visit, and waiting anxiously to hear which i'm allowed to pick from. i'm on the waiting list (and have paid my deposit), but i don't yet know where on the waiting list my name is. (cross your fingers that one of the 2 fawn boys can come home with me).

we held our open house yesterday, and we had a great turn out! people just leisurely stopped by all afternoon/evening, which was perfect! A couple of our neighbors even stopped by! i saw my friend & Seattle-mom, Marj (we painted together at the UW) - i haven't seen her in ages, and we talked about how we need to get the UW painting gang together for another lunch... and my friend Heather from work stopped by! It was good for Mike to finally meet her. I talk about our two language teachers all of the time, and Mike gets them mixed up. He can't remember which one teaches what, and always thinks i'm talking about the other one. it's kind of funny. (i'm also hoping Heather's husband (a firefighter) will give Mike a lesson in fire safety).

we borrowed my sister's truck for a while, to help drive all of our TONS (literally) of yard waste to the dump. we took 2 truck loads today, and i got a bunch of stuff planted in my butterfly garden!... which, of course, is one of my favorite things to do these days. i love playing in the dirt... digging weeds out... putting pretty stuff in the ground... watching the miracle that happens every time a seed comes up. every time i bury one i'm SURE it'll never come up. how can that speck of dust turn into a robust, beautiful plant? then like magic, they all do! i get giddy every time a seedling pops up or a plant blooms. i realize it's all just a normal part of spring, but believing i'm doing something to actually help it along and shape it into a beautiful front yard just seems unreal! i love it!

...and now... i'm sharing popcorn with my oldest cat, who turned 5 on the 1st. that's right - my 5 year old weenie cat who won't eat anything but dry cat food LOVES popcorn. he begs for it, even! he'll come over, paw at me, and cock his head to the side, and give me this low meow until i give him a piece. then he plays with it for a few seconds before devouring it. fascinating, isn't it?

mail order butterfly magnet

i came home late this afternoon to find a small package waiting for me at my doorstep. i knew immediately that it was one of the plants i had ordered. this butterfly garden has been kind of an exotic journey (or at least it feels that way sometimes).... some plants have been difficult to find - but then maybe that's because i started looking in the middle of winter, right? who knows?... but in all of my infinite impatience, i decided to order some seeds online... and when i couldn't find seeds, i ordered living plants. one of the living plants was in the box i found this evening at my doorstep... and it's the first one i've received. it was fascinating in a rather ordinary sort of way. i had no idea how they would go about shipping a live plant to my house from Pennsylvania.... all of that wonder and amazement... and guessing... ended in a pretty mundane way. i opened the box, and found a little, ordinary plant container with a little, ordinary looking plant growing in it... all tipped on its side, with some crumpled packing paper wrapped around the plant part to protect it during the shipping process... that's it. nothing terribly different or unusual about it. there was a paper folded in half with instructions for what to do when i received the plant.... basically it told me to water the thing. (duh, right?)

nonetheless, i'm still totally stoked about it. i'm trying to figure out if it's ok to hike right on out this weekend and start acclimating it, or if the plant would prefer to coast along indoors with the rest of my seedlings until after the frost quits hitting us. it's a perennial, so it just might be ok.

i also got 3 new packets of seeds in the mail today (mail order is totally fun... because then i get something cool in the mail - and even though i know it's coming, it's still a fun surprise... especially compared to all of the bills that keep arriving in the mailbox. i way prefer it when the mailbox is a fun place to visit).

here's a little info about what i got in the mail today... the live plant i got is a red fortune hyssop... which i hadn't even heard of before i started planning my butterfly garden... i have a blue one on order too, from another nursery (couldn't find a single place that had BOTH in stock. go figure). the seeds i got are for Queen Anne's Lace, Butterfly Weed, and Pentas... none of which i've grown before, but all of which attract butterflies like magnets.

i'm waiting for 6 more plants to arrive in the mail... one of which is called 'orange butterfly plant' ...i currently have butterfly weed & butterfly flower... and all of them are orange. i'm not exactly clear about the differences between them. i ordered 2 online and found seeds for one in the store... there wasn't enough info available when i did the ordering to tell if they're all the same things, and are being called something different by different seed vendors... or if they're actually different from one another. i suppose i'll find out sometime this summer when they really get growing, right?

i'm also waiting for the blue hyssop, a blazing star liatris, swamp milkweed, joe pye weed, and a new variety of bee balm. again, none of which i've ever grown before. i'm so hoping that i can keep them all alive. i worry about things like killing seedlings. they just seem so fragile in the few weeks after they first come up. i'm sure it's rediculous, but i always worry that i'm going to do something wrong and kill them all. i've already managed to kill all of my sunflower seedlings. i think i kept them too moist, but who knows for sure? i have no idea! and then if i don't do something to kill them, mike probably will. he's notorious about leaving the door open to the room they're in - and when that happens, Akira sneaks in and eats them like he's a starving kitty at a seafood all you can eat bar. he killed all of my corn... which i KNOW i can grow, because i've done it before. i grew corn on my balcony last year! :) i've since replanted it, and i've got 6 new corn seedlings going strong.

playing in the dirt

it has been snowing now on and off for 2 and a half days or so. it's just enough to be annoying, but not enough to get me out of going to work. it's prevented me from going outside and getting much done in my beloved butterfly garden... which has made me restless.

the good news is that i have had some time indoors to sit around and plant zillions of seeds (and by zillions i mean more like 160 or so). of the seeds that i currently have in my possession for the butterfly garden, i have planted enough to fulfill my butterfly garden plan. the rest are currently in the process of being shipped to me via various online vendors. they were difficult to find locally for whatever reasons... so i ordered them. i got bronze fennel this afternoon, only to discover after inspecting it that i most likely already had some in my spice rack. i don't know if it's a little known fact, or if i'm just a naive and inexperienced gardener so far... but bronze fennel appears to grow from anise seeds. whatever. at least i've got nice fresh seeds speficially chosen to grow nice, healthy plants. who knows what i'd get if i just started planting my spices... though in college i did try just that, and i think some of it did come up - but i don't think that experiment got too far. i moved out and trekked to Europe not too long afterward. but i digress...

i've also had time indoors to play with my dirt. i've been performing highly scientific experiments on it. i've discovered that it has a pH of 6.0 (or perhaps slightly higher, but not high enough to be 7.0)... it has Low to Very Low levels of the 3 big nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorous, & potash. i'm currently conducting an experiment that will tell me the approximate levels of sand, clay & silt. that one's not quite as exciting to watch - it will take several days to settle, and will settle into levels... the other experiments turned fun colors when i added the necessary chemicals. fireworks or not, it'll give me some useful information.

in attempting to dig out a big fat rhododendron on Saturday, i also discovered that i have hardpan soil - which is easy to dig through until you get several inches down - then it's hard as a rock. the recommendation for it was that i take a pick ax to it, and chop the crap out of it... the good news is that even with a little hand shovel, i was able to chip away at it with just a little effort. a pick ax should make quick work of it (or so i hope, right?)... i've also discovered that i have a really healthy earth worm civilization moving around out there. that can't possibly be a bad thing. i just hope i don't kill 'em while i'm chopping away at the hardpan problem.

as far as i can tell, the number one best thing i can do to to my crappy soil after whacking at it with my brand new pick ax (that i just bought this afternoon, and i'm super stoked about), is workin a bunch of compost... which i also bought this afternoon. i'm not quite as excited about the compost as about the pick ax... mostly because it's not MY compost. not to worry, though, i am working on building my own compost bin, and should have an abundance of my own compost next year. even so - it's annoying to go out and buy something i could have for free if i had thought ahead and tossed my vegetable waste and dead leaves into a bucket, right?

so between all of this math to figure out just what will fit in my butterfly garden without crowding stuff out... and all of the science to figure out what kind of soil i've got - so i can start improving it... i'm finally finding (after 30 years of life) actual uses for all of that math and science they pushed on me in school. i'm finding that it's far more exciting and fun when it's done in direct correlation to a real life problem. so naturally, i'm plotting ways to bring all of this math and science into my art classroom in an interactive and fun way. why not? i find that the kids get excited about the things i show excitement about. it's contagious. i'm planning lessons at both of my middle schools that will include some of the stuff i've been playing with.

berries & butterflies

today i planted 2 blueberry bushes, and a cherry tree that Mike's parents got for us as a Christmas gift. (don't worry, the tree hasn't been sitting around un-planted since December. it was just delivered to us on Thursday). we're also planning to plant raspberries and blackberries in large containers (to prevent spreading & taking over the yard)... and probably some strawberries. i'm totally excited about all of the berries. our blueberry bushes don't look anything like this one yet, but give it a couple of years, and it'll get there. i've been reading up on it - and it turns out it needs acidic soil (which i doubt we have, so we'll be looking for the right fertilizer), and you're supposed to pick off flowers the first year to prevent berries from forming - it encourages the bush to fill out better, and in the long run will allow it to produce more berries. so no blueberries this year, but hopefully enough to share next year! the cherry tree is a semi-dwarf rainier cherry tree. it only gets to be about 10 feet tall, so we'll be able to pick them pretty easily. sounds like a happy situation to me. i love rainier cherries, and they're always SO expensive - it'll be nice to get some for free! :)

we also have a neat herb container garden planned for the back deck, and a butterfly garden planned for the front yard - where all of the ugly rhododendrons are currently blocking the only front window we have on the ground floor. i'm so anxious to get those out of there, and transform that area into a major butterfly magnet! we even have a butterfly bush in the back yard that i want to hack back to a reasonable size and move to the front yard. i've read that they're actually classified as a noxious weed in WA state, so i'm lead to believe that it'll take a good hacking and survive any transplant trauma that might occur.

TGIF!!!!!!

after a long and annoying week, it was NICE to go share a drink with Mike! i wish every night was friday night.

Best Picture

i love that Sean Penn won Best Actor for his role in Milk. i think the movie should have gotten Best Picture, too. I didn't even see the other movies that were nominated for that award, but i can tell you that Milk was one of the best movies i've seen in ages. i suspect i would still think so, even if i had seen the other nominees. very few movies make me cry, but the end of this one did. it was moving. if you haven't seen it yet, go find a place still showing it or get it on dvd the second it comes out... it's worth it.

in the mean time - here's a trailer to tide you over:
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3658547225/

Masaaki

want a theme for the photos i've posted this weekend so far? they all contain elusive, rarely seen individuals. this one is my oldest cat, Masaaki. he's known mainly for his timid nature (that's the nice way of saying he's a total weenie, and scared of everything)... he also howls really REALLY loud every morning at about 4am. those things aside, Masaaki is a total sweetie, and has loads of cute personality quirks that make him incredibly loveable.... if you can find and befriend him. he turns 5 later this year.

My sis-in-law April

THIS, folks, is my sister-in-law, April. She is Mike's brother's wife. Let me explain to you why this photo is special (and therefore plastered all over the web as of now): April has been very warm and welcoming since we announced our engagement (she sent a "welcome to the family" card, even!)... but she's never offered up a photo of herself. Not once. When I've brought it up, or Mike's brought it up... we're met with dead silence on the topic. Weird, right? considering the fact that I'll undoubtedly eventually meet this woman... what's she got to hide? it's not like you can hide when i finally track ya down in person... so what's up in the photo department?... SO... when Mike left for Georgia (April lives in Georgia), I told him that I expected him to take a photo with his camera phone the SECOND he saw her, and to send it to my phone.... and swore to god (and anybody who would listen) that it would be plastered all over the inter-web by morning. so here we all have it --> the elusive sister-in-law!

mobile valentine

how fun... i can send mobile photos to this blog! :)

these are flowers Mike gave me for Valentine's Day!

mirror maybe?

are you ready? this is one of those moments i'm going to admit to something that will probably turn out funny. sometimes i'm a total follower. my friends are all doing it, so i've got to try it. probably not so funny in practice, but funny when somebody admits to it right? :)

what i'm talking about is this blog. my first blog was on Yahoo 360... which migrated over to Myspace when i discovered half of my friends were living over there... and now i'm finding more and more people sneaking over to Blog Spot. (plus i'm at home sick and delirious with nothing better to do).... so here i am.

i'll mirror the MySpace blog for a while and see how that goes. we'll see where i wind up next.