My Happy Halloween!!

Oh what a glorious Halloween was had.
The festivities began the weekend prior to Halloween with Leslie, Mandy (out from Orem) and me getting gussied up for the YSA dance in Hartford, Connecticut. The theme was Hollywood and in honor of fake blood, we chose JAWS. Although we were too late to be included in the costume judging portion of the evening, it must be said we were the best.
Halloween morning, after a delightful sleep-in!! (oh I love sleep), Leslie and I donned our festive head costumes and went to the annual dog costume contest/parade at Faneuil Hall.

3rd place: Chicken Poodle Soup
(~chicken poodle soup! chicken poodle soup! chicken poodle soup with a carrot on the side!!~)

2nd place: The USS Minitz
(this one was my favorite, so creative and the poodle was very classic)

1st place: Shark attack!!
(way to represent!)

After the parade we headed back to our neck of the woods for the Vegetarian festival, taking place just a block from our house. All the free meat substitute tofu product samples a girl could want! Nobody seemed to mind that I was dressed as a notorious meat eater and we went home with two giant tubs of hummus a vendor was trying to get rid of. Success!!

When Leslie and I got home and got our year supply of hummus safely put away in the fridge, we decided to bike some vegan cookies we had just bought over to our good friend James' house to wish him a Happy Halloween. The weather had decided to pretend it was summer and our bike ride was lovely. A few blocks from our house I noticed I was feeling especially free and untethered on my bike, at which point Leslie suddenly asked me "where's your helmet?" Oops. For the sake of beating the dark I threw caution to the wind and we continued to James'. Going to turn down his street, Leslie again broke the silence with a "there he goes!" James was just turning down the street in his car. I've never thought of James as a wild driver, in fact, I often liken his driving to my grandmother's, however we chased him unsuccessfully a number of long blocks until he finally pulled over to let a cop pass by. Ahh, the exhilaration of chasing cars wildly through Dorchester without a helmet! Quite a thrill. When we finally met up with him, we found, to our delight, that James was looking for some Halloween cheer. So of course we invited him over to carve squashes, play Rumis, and eat hummus.


After James left we finished off the evening with the classic "Sixth Sense" (oh M Night Shyamalan. You silly thing.) and then this pooped little shark went to sleep.

Happy Halloween!! Hope yours was lovely too and if you live in the vicinity please stop by sometime for some hummus. muah!

NEW LEAF

=throw away deodorant when it's so low it starts to hurt to put it on.



(old leaf)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, kiddo!

Mama
Endearing laugher
Loyal
Athlete
Nice to nerds
Industrious homemaker
Ease (as in, puts you at it)

Wacky&wondrous

High school hippie
A+ baker
Runner
Reader
Interested in many things
Superstar

thy breath be rude!!

happy first snow boston

giveaway update--Aims

(yes, it is made with authentic packing string from Mike's Pastry shop in the North End, thank you for asking)

the Good Earth

toms and herberts fresh from our garden.

and...check this out

giveaway update--jeff (again..)

Okay I already posted this giveaway, but the pics I got back from jeff et al were too wondrous to keep to myself. best day ever!

hope

this morning I cut the heads and tails off my celery and washed what was left and the green smell on my hands was fresh and wonderful. Then I smeared them with my favorite peanut butter ever--which is the fresh made-in-front-of-your-eyes kind from Whole Foods, made with honey roasted peanuts, that is grainy and crystally crunchy from the sugar. Then I got out the big marshmallows (because we don't have any little ones right now) and got out the kitchen shears and clipped the marshmellows into little bite sizes and laid them on the logs. I love using scissors in the kitchen and cutting mellows is the second best thing I love to do with them (second only to cutting long lengths of kimchi). Last but not least I put raisins in between the marshmellows and saran wrapped the bundle of celeries and packed them into my and leslie's lunch sack.
and now that lunch sack is waiting for me in the nutrition department refrigerator. and that's how I know it's going to be a good day.

Signs of the times

sometimes I enjoy cheesy staged pictures of cute animals.
sometimes I get the urge to forward them on to you.



(I have resisted, so far...)

giveaway update--Jenny, Gma, and tang

(and these guys didn't even sign up...)

giveaway update--Jeff

happy birthday jeffy-pie

Happy Birthday old Beck,
I love you the heck.

More holiness give me, more strivings within.
More patience in suffering, more sorrow for sin.
More faith in my Savior, more sense of His care.
More joy in His service, more purpose in prayer.

More gratitude give me, more trust in the Lord.
More zeal for His glory, more hope in His Word.
More tears for His sorrows, more pain at His grief.
More meekness in trial, more praise for relief.

More purity give me, more strength to o'ercome,
More freedom from earth-stains, more longings for home.
More fit for the kingdom, more used would be,
More blessed and holy, more, Savior, like Thee.

"I Can See Obama Right Now!"

(quoted from a little girl looking out from the top of the lincoln memorial)


my work sent me to DC. yahoo.

my bob's getting hitched

Congratulations Andrew and Ashley. A blessing on both your houses!!

WORK

yes, that is the kraken on my desktop

Disappointment

complete.utter.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY E

you great goose!

I had a vision

flying home from california.
I looked out the window to the sea . I saw one wave form out of the water. Pick itself up into a violent, pointed peak. then resolve itself back
into flat ocean.
my eyes opened and I saw a million waves. form and rage and die.
the sea looked to me like a battle ground. like passion.
the plane lifted.
out my window
the waves lost something
the higher I went.
they grew squatter.
and less menacing.
Rounded hills.
to ripples.
to nothing.
until the ocean turned to smooth blue glass.
and I thought about my prayers. and passions.
and God, looking down. from his jet plane in the sky.

giveaway update--Moflo

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