12-6-4

Here's some tired morning things...  Just remember I worked a 12 hour shift after 6 hours of sleep and I've ingested 4 cups of coffee, so my body doesn't know whether to shut down or speed up.

Someone called me a free spirit today.  Am I really a free spirit?

Two vendors at the farmers market last night said they saw me at other places around town this week.  One of the vendors is going to start saving me spinach because I get there too late every week and it's always sold out.  Awesome.

Do you ever have something completely wonderful happen that you just want to hold on to the feeling that came from that moment and then bring it back as needed?  I had one of those today.  I'm still smiling about it.

Happy birthday greetings to my sister and brother in law!

For Michelle.  My early morning masterpiece.  I was obviously at work.

The world would be better off if people tried to become better.

And people would become better if they stopped trying to become better off.

~ Peter Maurin

Some Cash for you

Johnny that is.  I've been listening to this song on repeat lately.



I learned that courage was not the absence of fear but the triumph over it.  The brave man is not he who does not feel fear but he who conquers it.
~ Nelson Mandela

The silence

It's moments like these that I can't help but sigh in contentment....sunburnt, sore from 2 hours at the gym, drinking a beer, and listening to my dog snore.  Does it get much better than this?

Our attempt at a self portrait.

To make the right choices in life, you have to get in touch with your soul.  To do this, you need to experience solitude, which most people are afraid of, because in the silence you hear the truth and know the solutions.

~ Deepak Chopra

Sunday events

Started my day off at the Kitsap Pride festival.  It was a great people-watching venue.  I also met my friend Virginia's parents, who were visiting from Alaska.

They invited me out to lunch, where we had Korean BBQ.  I've never eaten Korean before.  Virginia's parents are world travelers, and I was educated on (many things, including) the Korean food experience.

Appetizers.  Dad - I had Kimchi!!  The spinach in the lower right was my favorite.

I can't remember what this was, other than meat served on a hot cow plate.

This evening I went to visit my friend Kristen.  She and her husband just bought an awesome house (20 minutes closer to me than before!) that includes over 5 acres and 150 feet of shoreline. The trek down to the water was a little hairy - the trail was a steep incline and was completely overgrown.  I was also not dressed for the occasion: in shorts and slip-on shoes.  

Anyways, I made acquaintances with the stinging nettle.  It got on both my knees, my left ring finger (random!), and the underside of my right forearm.  I guess it's not so bad - it's like a low-level burning (like when you first scrape your knee on the sidewalk), only it doesn't go away.  Actually, I take that back - I'm on about hour 5 and it's actually really really irritating. Supposedly it'll go away eventually.   

The trek was totally worth it.  Look at this view.  Between the land on the left and right is West Seattle.  It shows up in person, just not in the picture.  

They're planning on clearing out a lot of the brush, improving the trail down, and setting up a place to camp and have campfires on the beach.  I'm excited.  I have no problem inviting myself over.  

We took a walk down the beach.  The neighbors are few and far between.

The freaky looking barnacle encrusted crab shell.  Made me laugh. 

Kristen's neighbor has a mansion and puts on weddings.  We spied on this wedding through the trees.

 

I wish this had turned out.  Mt Rainier was in the distance.  

Not bad for a random Sunday in July.

The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea.
~ Karen von Blixen-Finecke

Grumps

I have been beyond grumpy for the last 12 hours.  I'm burnt out.  

Today me will live in the moment unless its unpleasant in which case me will eat a cookie.

~ Cookie Monster

Gourmet

So I tried some new things, courtesy of my farmers market buys...

Fava beans.  HUGE.  

Peeled, blanched, peeled again, then sauteed in garlic.  A lot of work but they were delicious.

The snobbiest pizza ever.  See below...

For the snobbiest pizza ever, I made a sweet potato crust (see recipe here), then topped with fresh mushrooms and spinach that were sauteed in garlic and olive oil, and then a sprinkling of my special farmers market cheese.  It wasn't bad....I didn't have much time to enjoy it as it took longer than I thought to make and after eating a piece I had to get ready for work.  I think it needs something more - not necessarily sauce....just something else....

Three work days down.  Two to go.  3 1/2 weeks til vacation.  I can do it!?!?

Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really to sleep.  Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell.  And when you get angry, get good and angry.  Try to be alive.  You will be dead soon enough.

~ Ernest Hemingway

This is what happens when I decide to socialize...

Poulsbo farmers market with my friend Tracy.  We shared a vegan pizza for breakfast and I stocked up on more fruit, cheese, and bread.  

More wisdom from my fruit connection:  "Remember, you are what you eat, so wouldn't you rather be a blueberry than a head of cabbage?"

 Beerfest with a bunch of girls.

I tried both raspberry & coffee infused beers.  Ehh.  Think I'll stick with cider.

El Salvadorian for lunch.  YUM.

 Apparently these two  beer bottles go around to all the beerfests to post for pictures.  They don't do it for money.  They do it for beer.

Came home, mowed the lawn, talked on the phone for an hour, then texted another friend til about 1 in the morning.

Now it's Sunday, and I have two twelve hour shifts to start my week.  I call this the new normal.

It simply isn't an adventure worth telling if there aren't any dragons.
J.R.R. Tolkien

This is why I can't have nice things

Atticus was mad after I came home today from the gym and the farmers market that I mowed the lawn instead of playing with him.

My brand new linen shoes.  I wore them 3 times.

*sigh*

"Besides, you are way too attractive to settle for messy."
~ my friend Jermaine to me

Friendship

We're tight like butt cheeks!
~ my friend Jermaine, when describing our friendship

Oh Summer

This summer is so different from summer last year.  Last summer I was doing stuff every weekend, going places, having fun.  I had 3 day weekends.  This summer I'm working 5 days a week on the graveyard shift, working a ton of overtime, so when I finally do have 2 days off I'm so grouchy I want everyone to go away.  Just keeping up on yard work is enough to keep me homebound once a week or so.  I am trying to be out in the sunshine as much as possible, so that means I've had to skip other areas - like the gym, or sleep.  

I am enjoying this summer - enjoying the weather, time with my dog, time alone, etc.  It's just so different.

Despite my weekend hermit-ness, during the week I'm forced to be social.  Yesterday, I reconnected with an old friend.  It was really nice.  Sometimes I really miss talking to people I've known for years who actually "get" me.  Not just think they do.  Oh, and I got an invite to go crabbing this coming weekend.  So, we'll see.  

I literally gained 3 pounds this past weekend.  Not 3 pounds of water weight shed the next day.  3 pounds of stubbornness that came from overindulging.  At the time though, I needed to overindulge and thought it would be worth it.  Oi.  But for me this means loss of sleep and off to the gym so I can get in some cardio before ab class.  

Perhaps I shall rename summer of 2013 "The summer of Atticus".  I know he wouldn't have any complaints.

Surrender to what is.

Let go of what was.

Have faith in what will be.

~ Sonia Ricotti

Bread and Butter

This is how I celebrated the holiday...

Homemade honey beer bread (yeah, I used hard cider) and some cinnamon honey butter.  

Oh yeah, and an 8 hour shift.

I was asked tonight how I got my rhubarb butter to taste like a fruit roll-up.  That would be sugar, my friend.

Do you ever wonder how two people asking the same question of the same person get 2 separate answers?  I experienced that tonight.  So either our questions were different, or we interpreted the same answer a different way. One of those great mysteries that I will never solve.  Too bad this one ended in heartache.

It's my weekend.  I have nothing planned, and hope the weather cooperates with those plans.  Another week in which I'm done with people in all ways and means.  Hope to shut off the world for awhile and regroup.

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.
~ A. Camus

July

I really would like to blame my inability to make decisions on the heat wave we're having.  Is that possible?

My number 1 dude.

If you want to know where your heart is, look to where your mind goes when it wanders.
~ Walt Whitman