Dear Boston,

Thank you for the day of warmth and sunshine yesterday.
it was nice and made me feel like it's summertime, rather than one long, eternal, dark and bitter winter.
let's do it again sometime.
love, erin

All Grown Up

yeah, I live with this bad boy. don't be jealous.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY LESSIZLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

giveaway update--tye

has anyone ever needed you

and you flubbed up. bad.


:(

giveaway update--ju

last sunday

leslie's blog with the full story and links to media

SPRING !!!!

Last week was Lilac Sunday in the Arnold Arboretum-the only day of the year they allow (and welcome) picnickers. I always have time for a picnic, so leslie&I packed up some ranger cookies and cold hotdogs and followed the ebb of bostonians to the park. much to my delight, not only was lilac sunday on a sunny day, but it included lilacs. gazillions of them! down a lovely walk (in the giant, green and winding arboretum) we found lilac tree after lilac tree, each with a different smell, color and petal design, and each with a handy metal tag on the trunk to tell us the name. A few winners included: "Bella de Nancy", "President Poincare", and "Bridal Memories". what would you name a lilac breed?...makes you wonder.


The Arboretum also had lots of beautiful other things, like this bell chime flowering tree and awesome tree caves, like this one where we settled down to picnic until the day cooled down enough to chase us back home.


Boston has broken into blossom. Leslie and I couldn't resist a princess photo shoot during lunch in the Harvard medical quad.


These blossoms popped out down the street from my house. I can't help sticking my nose in everything. I love love love blossom smell. it makes me as happy as riding a bike or petting a ragamuffin dog. if you close up on the last picture you can see the pollen on my face...

Happy spring time!! we finally made it through the winter.

my new rockstar name

Honda Iceman

giveaway update--Wardies

Dream Song 14

Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.
After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns,
we ourselves flash and yearn,
and moreover my mother told me as a boy
(repeatingly) "Ever to confess you're bored
means you have no

Inner Resources." I conclude now I have no
inner resources, because I am heavy bored.
Peoples bore me,
literature bores me, especially great literature,
Henry bores me, with his plights & gripes
as bad as Achilles,

who loves people and valiant art, which bores me.
And the tranquil hills, & gin, look like a drag
and somehow a dog
has taken itself & its tail considerably away
into the mountains or sea or sky, leaving
behind: me, wag.

-John Berryman

stay

we baked your hunger in a pie
I ate it forkless
licking my fingers
the tart taint of unity
the crumbling crust

giveaway update--Deb

Earth Hour

This Saturday the world is celebrating Earth Hour by turning off the lights and unplugging every unnecessary thing for one hour. Consider it your way to give the earth a little hug AND an excuse to play in the dark. What's better than that?
Here are some ideas I came up with for enjoying the hour
(alone, with a sweetie-pie, with your family, what have you):

play night games
(of the mafia, murder in the dark, escape to alcatraz variety)
eat dinner by candle light
roast things in a fire
(reducing carbon emissions...?)
star gaze
bathe by candle light
tell secrets
call to night owls
make homemade music
and dance
(take advantage of the fact that no one can really see you)
draw things and laugh about them when you turn the lights back on
pretty much anything by candle light
bite into wintergreen life savers and try to see sparks
practice warbling
throw bananas
pray
snuggle
sleep

8:30PM local time, wherever you live on planet earth. Saturday 28 March 2009
http://www.earthhour.org/

enjoy :)

My Dictionary Word of the Day

spoonerism \SPOO-nuh-riz-uhm\, noun:
The transposition of usually initial sounds in a pair of words.

Some examples:

We all know what it is to have a half-warmed fish ["half-formed wish"] inside us.

A well-boiled icicle ["well-oiled bicycle"].

It is kisstomary to cuss ["customary to kiss"] the bride.

Is the bean dizzy ["dean busy"]?

Let me sew you to your sheet ["show you to your seat"].

(Dictionary.com)

happy patty's from Boston

we know how to celebrate

GIVEAWAY (2.0)

Respond to this post and you will get something handmade by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done in the near future.
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. But I promise that I will take time to think of something that seems right for me to send you! :)
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
6- Available only until some crazy unknown cut-off date (to be decided by me)--so ACT NOW!!


The catch? There is no catch!! So leave a comment and you will win a RAD-I-CAL homemade gift by me!

Personal Notes:
Feel free to repost this or your own version of it on your blog. It's ok if you don't want to do it, but it could be fun. :)
Please don't be shy, I'm excited to make you something!!!!!
Really, I mean it.

bring it on

For a while lately I have been feeling hurt and picked upon as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I am a mormon and my faith is precious to me--without price. It is the reason I am every good thing I am, and the reason I am always trying to be better. It is my connection to God, to the divine, and to Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. Nothing is more sacred and dear to my heart. To have others mock or viciously criticize my religion hurts my heart, the way it would hurt my heart to see this done to a close family member or friend.

Even so, I am grateful for persecution. I am grateful for it, because it has made it impossible for me to remain neutral. It has forced me to firmly decide where I stand. It has refined me as dross in a refiner's fire. It is turning my testimony and my heart into gold.

In response to this persecution, a friend recently posted the Standard of Truth. My first companion (trainer) on my mission had me memorize this--along with D&C 4 and two other quotations. Every morning at 6:00 a.m. we would sit on our beds and sleepily recite these words. They became dear to me during my initial struggles with the language, the new culture, the heat and the homesickness. Now when I am far from my heavenly home, in the midst of mobs, persecutions and calumnies, these words again have brought me profound peace.

“The Standard of Truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame. But the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, until the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah shall say, ‘The work is done.'”

I know that God lives. I know His hands guide the destiny of this world. I know that His humble servants have nothing to fear.
It is our choice if we will be on the side of truth speaking, charity, and compassion. If we will seek after praise worthy things, or if we will wallow in the mires. But regardless of our individual choices, there is no earthly thing that can be said or done, that will sway the work of God.

hypocritichondria

well I'm some kind of hypocrite. I crouch in wait for blog entries from everyone else--everyday I hover around my google reader so I can be the first to pounce! But when it comes to actually sitting down and writing for myself I'm just plain fat and lazy.
What's that? Not cool. that's what that is.

besides repenting, I am:

doing good.
working
taking one class in the masters program that will never end
making my own bread and yogurt and sometimes granola and icecream
re-teaching myself how to knit and how to play the guitar
dreaming about spring
wondering how old I'll be when I can finally have another dog in my life
wondering if it's too late to join Tye's blog give-away (okay, I just did--so we'll say no)
reluctant to do dishes when it's cold
excited about my upcoming trip to Te-Xas!
finished with "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night" (thought it was all right)
looking for a new reading book
open to suggestions
getting better at cooking
getting better at flossing
getting worse at actually doing my hair (vs just showering and letting it air dry/freeze on my way to work)
thinking about starting a health blog
keeping this one too (don't you worry)
wearing paint-by-number vans leslie gave me
falling in love with printing service providers who I only communicate with through little emails
certain they are falling for me too when they say things like "thanks for the go ahead" and "we'll get that shipped out asap"
misspelling icecream

trying to keep it real.

<3

sniff

Spring is coming I know it. I can feel it-the wind smells different.

Hallelujah Spring. welcome welcome.

resolutions

I am keeping:
hanging up my clothes/putting them in the hamper as soon as I take them off (it's amazing how well that works)
sometimes I floss
I am not keeping:
sometimes I don't floss
I hope to start keeping:
studying even a little Spanish DAILY
increasing my peesh lips, I mean, pushups
being so honest it hurts