The extra-textual adventures of a book geek girl

Farm Box: Week 5

2011-02-08T10:04:00.000-08:00

This week's farm box contained:

3 lbs Satsuma Mandarins (Much better quality again than a couple weeks ago)
2 lbs Navel Oranges
1 bu Carrots
1 bu Collards
½ lb Romanesco
1 lb Broccoli
1 bu Scarlet Queen Turnips with greens (these are the small red ones that look like radishes)
3 lbs Assorted Roots (this included parsnips, rutabega, and large white turnips, all without greens)

The romanesco was gorgeous. It tastes like a cross between broccoli and cauliflower, and has this amazing fractal pattern. Like this:

It was a tough week for using up the produce for a few reasons. First, 5 lbs more freakin' oranges! I hadn't even finished last week's oranges! I love getting fruit in the box, but I kind of wish I was getting a mix of citrus or some apples too, instead of all oranges. Also, Josh was out of town for 3 days. And the weather was really warm, which made me not want roasted veggies -- not so great for a week when the box had a ton of root veg.

Wednesday: We had stir-fry, based on this recipe from the Pioneer Woman, using broccoli from the farm box, along with some carrots. The broccoli this week was absolutely delicious. Very fresh and so green tasting. Yum! I ate this stir-fry leftover for lunch the next day, too.

Thursday: I was feeling a little under the weather Thursday, so I made healthy comfort food -- greens and broth. I sauteed thin ribbons of collard and turnip greens, and then tossed in homemade veg broth, cooked white beans, some parm cheese rinds, garlic, and ginger. Let it all simmer for a while and then slurped it up. It was exactly what my body needed.

Friday and Saturday: I confess, I didn't touch stuff from the farm box either of these nights. Friday I was really craving this pasta, which I make with pork sausage rather than the spicy salami. So I made that for dinner Friday night, and ate it as leftovers for Saturday lunch and dinner, with salad on the side. Carbo loading before my big race on Sunday!

Sunday dinner: I ran a half marathon Sunday morning, so I was pretty freakin' exhausted by Sunday night. And since J. wasn't home from Aspen yet, I was on for my dinner. I had roasted romanesco from the box (tossed with olive oil, salt, sumac (which has a lemony flavor), and a touch of chili powder), a Trader Joe's chicken sausage and a salad. It was all I could manage.

Monday dinner: We did roasted lamb sausages with a root veggie gratin (potatoes from a couple weeks ago, turnips, rutabaga, parsnip, all sliced thin, parboiled, then combined with garlic, onions, milk, flour and cheese. Baked at 400 or so for 30 minutes. YUM! ) and also sauteed kale, since J. had it in the fridge already.

Tuesday dinner: Red curry noodles with broccoli and collards along with other veg I had around the house -- mushrooms, shallots, garlic.

This week, we still have a lot left over from the box, unfortunately:

-- Nearly all of the oranges from last week
-- about half of last week's root veggies
-- 1 or 2 scarlet queen turnips
-- nearly a full bunch of carrots
-- That cabbage from a couple weeks ago

Farm Box Week 4, update

2011-02-01T22:39:00.000-08:00

Almost time for our first February farm box to arrive. But first, here's an update of what we've done with the rest of our last January box.

Leftover:

2 potatoes
a few carrots
1 green cabbage from a couple weeks ago
1 lb broccoli
a crapload of mandarins and navel oranges (and I'm getting 5 more lbs tomorrow!)

Saturday Lunch: Leftover risotto from Friday, which had Rapini from the farm box, formed into patties with some bread crumbs and lightly pan-fried.

Saturday dinner: J. was up in Tahoe skiing so HE had In N Out for dinner. I had poached eggs, polenta, and chard. My whole meal turned a lovely pink color from the brightly-colored stems of the chard.

Sunday lunch: More risotto cakes, with a big farmer's market salad.

Sunday Dinner: Roast chicken with potatoes and carrots. These carrots are seriously the best I've ever eaten. They get so sweet and rich when you roast them that I'd just about stab someone with my fork if they tried to snatch one off my plate. Kale on the side for Josh, salad for me (I was craving crunchy greens).

Monday Dinner: Butternut squash soup with parmesan toast. This has become a real staple this winter.

Tuesday Dinner: Scrambled eggs and toast, I'm afraid. I had a late meeting and just didn't have the energy to cook by the time I got home. The eggs were doctored with frozen kale from the freezer and the toast was served with my own home-made marmalade, at least.

We supplemented the farm box this week with 1.5 lbs of salad mix from the farmer's market (we go through a LOT of salad between Josh and I), a bunch of dino kale, mushrooms, onions, and garlic. Oh, and bananas. Those aren't exactly grown locally!

River Dog Farm Box, Week 4

2011-01-29T13:07:00.000-08:00

On week 4 of the farm box experiment, already, and I just re-upped for next month. We've really been enjoying the veggies and I'm amazed each week by the wonderful variety get, even in the dead of winter.

Leftover from last week:

a few carrots
1 delicata squash (from a couple weeks ago)
4-5 mandarins and one navel orange
2-3 parsnips

This week's box contained:

1 bunch carrots

1 lb Broccoli.

It must be hitting good broccoli season here, because the broccoli was just lovely this week. I think it's probably going to go into a broccoli-potato soup, but it looks so lovely, we might just steam it and eat it with a squeeze of lemon and some salt.

1 bunch Rapini

The rapini was also really lovely this week. Very fresh and green, and we got a huge bunch of it. The cold weather a couple weeks ago really sweetened it up, so it was hardly bitter at all.

3 lbs Satsuma Mandarins
2 lbs Navel Oranges

Honestly, I'm getting tired of the mandarins. Last week's were kind of manky -- too big and starting to get really tough membranes and lose their super-sweetness. That meant that I didn't even finish eating last week's and was a little dismayed to see a whole new batch to eat through this week. I might just squeeze them for juice tomorrow morning and have fresh juice with my breakfast.

1 bunch chard

The chard this week was stunning. Just look at it:

Chard is actually not my favorite green. I'd usually much prefer kale. But this particular variety turned out to be just as delicious as it was beautiful. Hurray!

1½ lbs Yellow Creamer Potatoes

1 Butternut Squash

Although I've been really pleased, overall, with the variety we're getting in the box, we still haven't gotten any beets -- none for the entire month -- which is kind of disappointing. I will say, though, that those are really the only thing that I expected to get in my boxes that I haven't yet gotten. And so far, we've only gotten one thing that I didn't really like -- the bok choi a couple weeks ago. I'm just not a huge bok choi fan.

With the CSA I was a member of in Chicago, my pick-up site had a "trade box." Basically, if you got something you weren't especially fond of in your box, you could put it in the trade box and take something that someone else had put there. I wish that my pick-up site for River Dog had this. Mostly, I wouldn't use this option, but I would gladly have traded away that bok choi a couple weeks ago for another bunch of kale.

An overall note on quality. Mostly, I've been very pleased with the quality of what I've gotten in my boxes. It's been very fresh and delicious. There have been a few minor exceptions: As I mentioned above, last week's mandarins were less-than-stellar, and one navel orange was totally rotten the day after I got it -- yuck! Some of my first batch of broccoli had also gone rotten.

Anyway, here's what we've done with this week's veggies so far:

Tuesday dinner: The night before this week's box came, I used up most of what was left of the veggies from last week. I roasted carrots, turnips, and parsnips together with a chopped up lemon, olive oil, and a bunch of spices, then served it over quinoa.

Wednesday dinner: stuffed chicken breasts over polenta, based on this recipe, which has become one of our favorites. We sauteed leek from last week's box along with mushrooms, garlic, and some of that lovely chard, then folded it inside thinly pounded chicken breasts along with some fontina cheese. Yum! We served it over polenta and it was just delicious. This was also Thursday lunch for me, as leftovers.

Thursday dinner: I was on my own for Thursday dinner, since J. was at work late, so I made a simple meal -- leftover polenta, served with some of the rapini, which I blanched in boiling water for just a couple minutes and poached eggs. Super-fast and healthy, yet satisfying.

Friday dinner: Last night we made risotto with delicata squash, mushrooms, leek, and the rest of the rapini. I cut the squash into small cubes, then pre-browned it in butter on the stovetop, and blanched the rapini, before adding both at the very end of the cooking process. (If you add them too early, they just disintegrate before the rice is done. Used my home-made veggie stock, and basically followed Mark Bittman's directions for risotto from How to Cook Everything, which has been my go-to cookbook for years.

As for everything else, I suspect the squash will become soup, and the potatoes and broccoli may, too. Or, the potatoes and carrots might end as roasted veggies alongside our usual Sunday night roast (chicken or pork loin most weeks).

River Dog Farm Box, Week 3

2011-01-19T13:27:00.000-08:00

Week 3, already, of my farm box experiment. Today was lovely because I worked from home, so I actually got to walk down to my pick-up site at lunchtime to get my box. It was was one of those gorgeous Bay Area winter days that feels like May in any place else I've ever lived: 65 degrees, softly sunny, the smell of damp earth in the air. The not-quite-a-mile walk to my pick-up site was just wonderful.

Leftover from last week:

Mostly, we just had odds and ends leftover, with the exception of the delicata. But those will keep forever, so I'm not worried about it. Here's what was left:

1 watermelon radish
A few leaves of Kale
A few broccoli leaves (we ate all the heads, though)
2 delicata squash
A couple red radishes
1 mandarin orange
1 carrot
2-3 parsnips

This week's box contained:

1 very large celery root (also known as celariac)
I've never actually cooked with celery root before, so I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. I've read the flavor is something like celery crossed with parsley, and that it mellows as it cooks. I'm thinking maybe a potato-celery root soup or maybe a gratin with potatoes and leeks?

It's a bit homely looking, no?

1 large bunch collard greens
Again, not something I've ever cooked with before. However, Josh and I both adore dark greens and eat at least one bunch, if not two, of kale every week. Usually, we saute it in a hot pan with a bit of water and salt and then spritz it with lemon juice right before serving. I'm guessing I can cook this in a similar manner and I'm sure we'll enjoy it.

1 bunch Tokyo turnips
These are the small, smooth white turnips that look like overgrown radishes, not the big purplish knobbly ones. I don't dislike turnips, but I don't ever really buy them. I suspect these are destined to be cut up and eaten as snacks, with blue cheese dip. If I make a gratin with the celery root and potatoes, maybe I'll add these. Also, my farm box said you can eat the greens, as well, just like any other dark green.

1 bunch carrots
The carrots from my boxes have been so lovely. Fat and sweet and perfectly formed. I think winter carrots are SO much better than summer ones! These will get snacked on and a few probably roasted, as well.

1 green cabbage
Frankly, I was a little dismayed to see this in my box, as Josh and I currently have a monster-sized batch of sauerkraut fermenting and a huge head of cabbage left over from J's accidental over-buy for the sauerkraut AND half a head of purple cabbage in my fridge. Luckily, cabbage keeps pretty well, so if this sits in the fridge for a few weeks before I use it up, I'm sure it'll be fine. Anyone have any good cabbage recipes?

4 leeks
These are such a staple, I'm sure I won't have a hard time using them up. I use them in eggs, soups, sauces, etc. Also, I save the tough darker green bits to use to make broth. I just keep a baggie in the freezer for odds and ends like this (mushroom stems, leek greens, chicken bones, etc) and when I have a bunch saved up, I make my own stock. So much better than anything you can buy in the store, and practically free, since I make it mostly with scraps.

2 lbs navel oranges AND 3 lbs satsuma mandarins
Glad there are some navels mixed in with the oranges this week. It's nearing the end of peak Satsuma season, I think -- they're starting to look a bit knobbly and faded.

Here's everything from the box, all laid out

I have to say, I'm not as excited about this week's box as I have been about the past two. The food all looks great, it's just that none of my favorites were included this week. I was hoping for a nice bunch of beets and more kale and winter squash. Anyway, here's what I'm thinking (farm box ingredients in italics):

Wednesday Lunch: This lunch was all about using up last week's odds and ends before going to pick up this week's box. Luckily, I worked from home, so I was able to make a more elaborate lunch than usual -- my own version of the Peanut Sesame Noodles from Smitten Kitchen. I discovered this recipe a couple of years ago, and it has become one of my staples. It's easy to whip up fast for a weeknight, it's healthy, and it allows for infinite variation -- I almost always have the ingredients for it in the house. Today's version had: shredded red cabbage, thinly sliced radishes, thinly sliced and blanched broccoli leaves, blanched ribbons of kale and bok Choi, and shredded carrots. All but the cabbage were left from last week's farm box. I also often toss in some tofu (browned in a dry pan) and some frozen peas or Trader Joes frozen "Soycatash."

Wednesday Dinner: Lively Up Yourself Lentil Soup from 101 Cookbooks (a great resource for healthy, veggie-heavy recipes). I used a combination of greens -- the greens from this week's turnips, a couple leaves of this week's collards, and the few leaves that were left from last week's kale. I never would have thought to eat the turnip greens, but the newsletter from Riverdog said you could use 'em like any other green. They were actually milder than I expected -- I guess since turnips have a sharper taste, I was expecting the greens to have the same.

Other plans for the box include some sort of gratin with the celeriac and some potatoes, collard greens as a side dish, and snacking on the turnips. This week will be a bit more of a challenge, so I'll let you know where I end up.

EDT to add:

Here's what we've done with the rest of last week's farm box:

Thursday Dinner: Baked tilapia, served with sauteed collard greens splashed with lemon (it did taste pretty much exactly like kale, only a bit less tender), and mashed potatoes and celery root. This was my first time using celery root. I found that it tastes a bit like very mild celery crossed with artichoke heart (it leaves that same sort of sweet and tangy aftertaste in the back of your throat). It was delicious boiled and mashed with potatoes, butter, sour cream, and a bit of salt and pepper.

Friday: We actually went out for dinner on Friday night, a rare occurrence since I've been trying to save my pennies for a big trip to Alaska this coming summer.

Saturday dinner: One of my favorite quick meals, rice bowls. Locally grown brown rice from Massa Family Organics (the best rice I've ever tasted!), topped with seared ahi tuna marinated in a little soy sauce, fresh ginger and garlic, then sprinkled with sesame seeds, lightly sauteed farm box carrots and turnips, plus some sauteed kale we bought to supplement the farm box.
Sunday lunch: Pasta salad with orzo, farm box carrots and turnips and leeks, kalamata olives and feta. This will also be lunch for a day or two this week.

Sunday dinner: We made our common Sunday night roast pork, this time with a gratin on the side, made with celery root, potatoes, leeks, and delicata squash (from the Week 2 farm box). The gratin was totally amazing -- I could have eaten the whole pan on my own!

What's left: As of right now, Monday mid-day, we have the following left from the boxes:

-- a couple parsnips (from 2 weeks ago)

-- 4 or 5 carrots

-- the entire cabbage

-- 1 delicata squash from a couple weeks ago

-- a few oranges, which will easily be eaten before this Wednesday's box arrives.

-- 2 turnips

-- 2 leeks

The carrots, parsnips, and turnips will get eaten tonight -- we're making sausages, roasted veggies, and eating the first of our home-fermented sauerkraut. God only knows what I'm going to do with that freakin' cabbage!

Other than that, I ended up throwing away what was left of the bok choi from a couple weeks ago, but other than a couple rotten oranges, that's the only thing I've tossed from the farm boxes. This is a HUGE change for me -- I'm notoriously bad about over-buying produce and throwing away half of what I buy. Since I started the farm boxes, the only produce I've bought is a bag of farmer's market salad a week and a couple extra bunches of kale. I've also cut my food spending by 30% (!!!) from my typical expenditures. This isn't just due to the farm box -- I've also been much more aware of my spending in general, but I think the farm box has helped. Anyway, I'd say that so far the farm box has been a resounding success. I've already sent in my check to sign up again for next month.

River Dog Farm Box, Week 2

2011-01-12T13:57:00.000-08:00

This is the second in my series of posts about my new membership in River Dog Farms' CSA. The first one can be found here.

Left from last week's box: 1 small head cauliflower, 2 potatoes 1 carrot. Everything else got devoured, and it pretty well lasted me the week. I supplemented with salad greens and a bunch of kale from the farmer's market and also an acorn squash I already had.

This weeks' box contained:

3lbs Satsuma Mandarins
1 lb Watermelon Radishes (3 big ones) (They look like this, for those of you who aren't familiar)
1 lb parsnips
1 huge heads Bok Choi
1 bunch Red Russian Kale
1 bunch Carrots
1 bunch Spinach
1 small bunch Red radishes
1/2 lb broccoli (3 small heads, lots of leaves and stems, small heads)
3 Delicata Squash.

Wednesday: Beef Stir fry with Bok Choi and Broccoli. Based on this recipe from The Pioneer Woman, which is utterly delicious and SO quick. Delicious and easy (I managed to successfully cook it after a wee bit too much wine at happy hour :-) I didn't even use half of the bok choi for it, though - there was so much.

Thursday: Mandarin oranges as snacks, red radishes in my salad at lunch. Dinner will be lamb sausage with roasted potatoes and cauliflower (leftover from last week), plus spinach and mandarin salad with this dressing.

This weekend, we'll probably make a pork roast with Honey-Glazed Roasted Carrots and Parsnips and sauteed kale.

I'm sure the oranges will get eaten, no problem, as I ate every last one from last week's box (other than the two that were rotten inside - ick!) Not quite sure what to do about the watermelon radishes. They'd be good in a cole slaw with red cabbage and maybe pecans, but that's not really very wintery. If I don't use 'em by the end of the week, I'll make them into pickles, maybe with that leftover cauliflower from last week, which I need to use up before it starts to go all spotty.

I'm thrilled, though, to see that it's mid-January and I still have quite a wide variety of produce coming in my box this week. That's pretty wonderful, and one of the joys of living in CA. The boy tells stories of going out with a steel gardening fork to dig out "winter carrots" from the garden as a kid (he grew up in Pennsylvania). I feel very fortunate that we don't have to do that!

********

EDT to add: Here's how we've continued to use up this week's box.

Friday: Roasted squash and cauliflower soup. I peeled, chopped, and roasted half an acorn squash I had in the fridge, along with a delicata from this week's farm box and the last of the cauliflower from last week's box in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes or so, then sauteed some garlic and onions in a stockpot with 1 tbs butter. Added 4 cups home-made veggie broth and the squash / cauliflower. Cooked for a little bit, then blended with an immersion blender. Served topped with crumbled bacon and a swirl of greek yogurt, bread on the side. Delicious, healthy, and super easy!

Saturday: Spaghetti and sausage with farm box kale on the side. We love, love, love kale and it could not be easier to make. Just pull the leaves off the tough stems, and saute in a hot pan with a bit of olive oil and water. It tenderizes quicker if you cover the pan. At the end, sprinkle with salt and lemon juice. YUM!

Sunday: Pork Loin roasted with farm box carrots and parsnips, salad with watermelon radish. We used this recipe, originally from Bon Appetit, which has become my absolute favorite pork recipe. Instead of the baby carrots, we used full-sized carrots and parsnips, cut into long skinny quarters. Also, I usually skip the jalapeno in the carrot part of the recipe, in favor of using extra-spicy chili powder and some smoked paprika. The carrots and parsnips were amazing -- super-flavorful and sweet, a little bit caramelized from the long cooking time. Delicious! Leftovers of this, along with salad from the grocery store, will be my lunch for the next two days.

As of today, Monday, I have left from the box: 1.5 watermelon radish (part of which I'll eat at lunch today), 3 parsnips, 1 or 2 carrots, 1/3 of a bunch of kale, 2 delicata squash, 1/2 bunch bok choi (which probably won't get eaten. I've learned that I strongly prefer baby bok choi -- the big bunches are a little overpowering for me.), a few mandarins, a few broccoli leaves (which will probably go into my next batch of broth).

River Dog Farm Box: Week 1

2011-01-07T13:35:00.000-08:00

For the month of January, I've signed up to get a weekly CSA box from River Dog Farm. For those not in the know, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, small farms sell "shares" in the farm and when you buy one, it entitles you to a large box of produce from the farm each week.

Most places I've lived, this has been a sign-up-by-the season deal. For example, when I lived in Chicago, my roommates and I paid a few hundred bucks in advance for a share in a farm for the whole season. We got a box each week from the start of the season (May, if I'm remembering correctly) through mid-October or so. Here in the Bay Area, however, we are lucky enough to be surrounded by amazing family-run farms, so the options are much more varied and flexible. I found that most CSAs here run year-round and offer much shorter-term options -- anywhere from just needing to request a box the week you want one to committing to a few months at a go. I signed up just for the month of January to give it a test run, and it cost me $20 a week.

Every Wednesday, a box of delicious farm goodies gets delivered to a house in my neighborhood along with boxes for several other people. I just have to pick it up by 7pm on that day each week -- easy as pie. What you get in each box depends entirely on what's in season and ready to be picked, which is perfect for a non-fussy eater like me. That's pretty much what I eat, anyway, although I do give in to the occasional all-the-way-from-Chile indulgence at the Berkeley Bowl.

I picked up my first box a couple of days ago, and it was really lovely. Here it is.

It contained:
1 bunch rapini
2 big leeks
2 lb gold finn potatoes
1 bunch carrots (SO sweet, thanks to the chilly weather lately!)
4 small heads romaine lettuce
2 small heads cauliflower
1 large grey Kabocha squash
3 lbs satsuma mandarins (which is AWESOME, as I am utterly addicted to those babies right now)

I haven't added it up precisely, but that's certainly at least $20 worth of food at the grocery store or farmer's market. Especially since it's all organic. So far, here's what I've done with my produce:

Wednesday dinner: We made pasta with Rapini and white beans. Although the recipe doesn't call for it, I also sauteed one of the leeks and added that. Also, I used my own homemade veggie stock, which I make from various veggie scraps (mushroom stems, the green parts of leeks, parsley stems, etc) that I save in the freezer till I have enough for broth.

Thursday: Mandarins, mandarins, mandarins as snacks. Plus a couple of the carrots and for dinner the leftovers from Wednesday, supplemented with some roasted brussels sprouts that I already had in the fridge . Yum!

Friday: More snacking on the mandarins and carrots, a salad with the romaine for lunch, and roasted squash soup for dinner (I also used the other leek in the soup).

Saturday: Leftover squash soup for lunch and . . . ?

The potatoes will get used, no problem, as Josh and I usually eat potatoes at least once a week with roast pork, chicken, or sausages. Potatoes are also part of one of my key "emergency meals" -- poached eggs over pan-sauteed potatoes and greens with lots of salsa.

As for the cauliflower, my inclination is to use it for an indian-style curry, with chickpeas and carrots. Josh isn't a huge indian curry fan, though, so it may also end up in some kind of soup or just roasted with some spices as a side dish for some meal.

EDT to add:

Saturday: pork chops with my own homemade apple-thyme jam and mashed CSA box potatoes.

Sunday: Chickpea, cauliflower, and carrot curry from this recipe. The original recipe doesn't call for any veg other than onions and chickpeas, but I've discovered that you can pretty easily add other sturdy veggies to the mix. Also, it's way better if you make it with ground cumin and coriander rather than whole.

Monday: Lunch was left-over curry and the last of the romaine from the farm box. Lunch tomorrow will be the same.

Will I use it all? For those of you keeping track, as of midday Monday, I have left 1 small head cauliflower, a couple potatoes, a couple carrots, and some mandarins. I'll eat the potatoes with eggs for dinner tonight, finish the mandarins in the next couple of days, and probably blanch and freeze the cauliflower if I don't eat it tomorrow as a snack (cauliflower and blue cheese onion dip is delicious!). A pretty good use of all those lovely veggies! I supplemented with a $3.00 bag of salad greens from the farmer's market and also gave into the temptation to buy some kale there, which I'll eat tonight with my potatoes and eggs. Can't wait to see what I get in this week's box!

So why did I sign up? Well, I already eat plenty of produce, for the most part. But I tend to WAY over-buy in the produce department at the grocery store, and a lot of what I purchase ends up going to waste. I am hoping that having my veggies delivered to me each week will mostly keep me out of the grocery store. I figure that if I only need to buy staples like eggs, milk, and dried goods, I can probably get away with only going every other week.

Also, I like the challenge of coming up with something to do with the wonderful produce I get. For some people, this might be stressful. But, as I said, I have pretty much never met a vegetable I didn't like if it was cooked properly (other than lima beans and their awful chalky texture - gross!) And I feel like getting surprise veggies each week is sort of like a creative writing prompt -- the parameters make me feel MORE creative rather than less. Like that rapini. I can't remember the last time I bought rapini, but it ended up being the first thing I used from the box. It just looked so vibrant and delicious, and I found a great new recipe that will definitely be added to my regular rotation.

Finally, I really love the idea of supporting a small, relatively local farmer really directly (these guys are in the Capay Valley, maybe 80 miles or so from where I live). I'm lucky enough to get to do most of my shopping already at farm markets and Berkeley Bowl, where many of their suppliers are small and local, anyway, but it's nice to know that my money goes directly to the farmer, no middle man.

Right now, I'm looking at this as an experiment. Some things I'm trying to figure out:

-- Will I be able to use all the produce each week before it goes bad? I suspect that this will be more an issue in the summer, when produce is more perishable, than now. Potatoes and squash and that sort of stuff stores very well. Tomatoes, herbs, lettuce, and that ilk, not so much.

-- Will I still have to supplement with the grocery store or farmer's market? (I'm almost positive that the answer to this is yes -- I'm going to want more salad greens than I'll get most weeks, and lots of extra fruit in the summer especially.) If so, how much? And am I ultimately saving money on groceries by doing this?

-- Is River Dog the right CSA for me? I also looked at several other farms, including Full Belly Farm, Terra Firma (appealing because I actually used to live within a few miles of this farm), and Farm Fresh to You (which is mostly Capay Organic). I chose River Dog because the price was right, they get good reviews on Yelp, and they also raise pigs and chickens. I'd love to also start purchasing sustainably raised meat direct from the rancher at some point, so that seemed like a good reason to start with River Dog for my CSA.

Anyway, I'll keep y'all updated on how it goes, but I think week 1 was a sure success.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #79

2010-12-20T14:10:00.000-08:00

1. Last week, going for a twilight run around Lake Merritt: Candy-colored sky, crisp air, sparkling "necklace of lights" around the lake.

2. The dog running down the street ahead of his owner last night. He was wearing a jingle-bell collar and it totally sounded, in the dark, like a reindeer was trotting down the road toward me.

3. Trivia night!

4. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher. I whipped through it in a day and wish I had more teens and pre-teens in my life to give it to. You'll love it if you like the Suzanne Collins Hunger Games series.

5. Hand-made knit goods winging their way to family and friends across the country.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #78

2010-12-07T11:11:00.000-08:00

1. Random late-breaking brilliant bursts fall color in Northern California (the first year I've been here that there's really been any color at all!)

2. The new (or, rather, beautifully refurbished) swimming pool on my way home from work, the Richmond Plunge.

3. My awesome running partners.

4. 23+ miles of running last week -- the most I've ever run in a week and with no pain!

5. The hundred plus kids' books (publisher's samples) I was able to donate to Children's Hospital Oakland last week. I'm glowing with the idea of sick kids having this huge stack of new books to choose from to keep them occupied in a hard time.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #77

2010-09-14T16:31:00.000-07:00

1. Three backpacking trips in 4 weeks (Desolation Wilderness, Point Reyes, and the Trinity Alps).

2. Planning a trip back east for some real autumn for the first time since 2004.

3. Cupcakes with sprinkles on the icing.

4. This video:

Magic- A Belly Grows from The Panic Room Videos on Vimeo.

5. A life full of really wonderful friends and family.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #76

2010-08-25T08:10:00.001-07:00

1. Finally, a summer night warm enough for a sundress, no sweater (literally the first one all year!)

2. Walking around Berkeley after dark, in a sundress and sandals, eating popsicles.

3. A cool shower before bed to make a hot night more comfortable.

4. Someone else making good, strong coffee for you in the morning.

5. Feeling like all is basically right with the world.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #75

2010-08-24T05:53:00.000-07:00

1. A rope swing out into a lake.

That is obviously not me on the swing -- it's my crazy boyfriend. I was either too wussy or too smart, depending on who you ask, to do it. That swing was HIGH. (For Bay Area folks, it's at Bass Lake in Pt Reyes. Be prepared for lots of skinny gay men in their skivvies hanging around the swing if you head out there :-)

2. Summer in the Bay Area, finally. Last night, I ate dinner on my porch in short sleeves and got to sleep with all the windows open and just a thin blanket for covers for the first time since last September. Seriously.

3. A Saturday afternoon spent canning, which led to a pantry full of delicious homemade pickles (dill and bread-and-butter) plus organic blackberry jam.

4. The glow of sunset on a bluff above the ocean.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #74

2010-08-16T18:11:00.000-07:00

1. Weekend backpacking trips in the mountains (Desolation Wilderness, in this case. Stunning.)

2. Wildflowers

3. Clouds at sunset

4. Icy cold dips in alpine lakes.

5. Finally getting the hang of taking pictures of people:

Daily Dose of Gratitude #73

2010-08-05T14:28:00.001-07:00

1. A first-thing-in-the-morning email that makes you feel all glowy inside.

2. Drinking good wine and chatting while someone makes you a delicious dinner.

3. Black on the outside, red-on-the-inside plums.

4. The glow in my limbs that lasts for hours after a cold swim in the ocean.

5. This song:

Daily Dose of Gratitude #72

2010-08-02T13:55:00.000-07:00

1. A gorgeous 25 mile bike ride in Petaluma, followed by wine tasting at my favorite winery.

2. Wild blackberries at the side of the road, warm in the sun.

3. My "baby" sister, who turns 25 today. I left home for college when she was only 9, so it took me a long time to feel like I really knew her as anything more than a sometimes annoying little kid. But I'm so proud of the wonderful adult she's become.

4. Charlotte's Web, which makes me bawl my eyes out every single time I read it (which is a LOT). And while I'm at it, other books from my childhood that still alternately utterly charm me and make me bawl: Tuck Everlasting, Where the Red Fern Grows, Bridge to Terabithia.

5. Quinoa and summer veggie salad (corn, beets, kale, tons of fresh herbs, local olive oil and vinegar, fresh mozzarella). Yum!

Home on the Range

2010-07-30T10:32:00.000-07:00

I'll admit it. I've got an odd obsession with old buildings. Especially weathered, falling-down barns. To me, they always feel full of potential, like they have an untold story that you can almost hear on the breeze. And if old barns are your obsession, Wyoming isn't a bad place to visit. The wood buildings weather beautifully in the harsh climate, and the buildings look amazing against that huge Western sky.

In Grand Teton, there's an area called Mormon Row that blew me away in this regard. This is the area where a small enclave of Mormons first settled in the 1890s. The barn at the top of this post was part of the the Thomas Murphy Homestead, and was built sometime in the 1920s. I love that the barns were more elaborate and larger than the houses, which were often simple log cabins. Some were even ordered directly from the Sears and Roebuck catalog!

This home was, if I'm remembering correctly, also a part of the Murphy homestead. In the mid-50s, the homes were abandoned when the land was aquired in order to expand Grand Teton National Park although I'm not sure why. Anyway, they now lie on National Park land, a few remaining barns and homes sinking slowly sinking back into the Wyoming dirt.

The barn below was a part of the Andrew and Ida Chambers Homestead.

And a barn from the Thomas and Lucille Moulton Homestead, built in the 1910s. I suspect that this one may have had some sort of refurbishing done on it, since the wood seems an awfully bright color for something that's been weathering the Wyoming elements for 100 years. But perhaps it's just the type of wood used to build it?

Seeing these old buildings really took my breath away. The sky just seemed so huge over them, and the mountains so towering. I imagine living out here must have been lonely, in some ways, even as the scenery was spectacular. It can't have been anywhere near easy, though, in a time before the modern conveniences we all depend on so much. In any case, only one of the old homes is still occupied by humans (as a bed and breakfast), but animal inhabitants are everywhere. We saw plenty of the ubiquitous bison. Also, pronghorns. This is also where we saw the baby coyote and great horned owls from my last post.

And it's not just in the park that these old houses can be found. After leaving Grand Teton, we saw this amazing old house somewhere in Idaho.

I made my traveling companion pull over so I could take approximately a zillion photos. Apparently, the inside of the place was a wreck from being used as a party house by local teens. I didn't bother to look inside, though. I prefer the romance of the outside.

I mean, seriously, doesn't it just make you feel lonely and breathless from the beauty at the same time? Look at that SKY!

Finally, on a side note, I think part of my old barn obsession comes from spending summers near this barn: DH Day Barn, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake Shore. It's actually not falling-down at all. It's beautifully maintained. But it's certainly the most gorgeous barn I've ever seen. It's like something out of a fairy tale. I secretly kind of want to live in it!

So, what have you seen?

2010-06-29T21:07:00.000-07:00

When you're traveling in Yellowstone, the first question you get asked by fellow travelers is "So, what have you seen?" Don't be fooled; they're not asking about the scenery. In Yellowstone, "What have you seen?" really means "What animals have you seen?" The bigger, the better. The proper response is, of course, to rattle off a list of all the big game you've encountered in the park. Extra points for wolves, grizzlies, or a close encounter while hiking. It reminds me a bit of kids collecting baseball cards -- I have a Mark Maguire, a Johnny Damon, and so on -- with a whiff of both childlike excitement and competition to it.

Anyway, in the spirit of competition, which I never have been able to resist, here's my list. All photos were taken with my Canon Rebel XSi (pretty much the best Christmas / birthday present ever, from my awesome family), mostly with a 300mm zoom lens.

Black Bears. This was the first bear we saw. I spotted it right after Mike bragged that he was going to kick my ass at our who-can-spot-the-big-animals-first contest. (For the record, I totally won.)

ETA: I am told by my father that this bear is, in fact, a grizzly, and not a black bear. Apparently, you can tell by the hump in the shoulder area. So, I guess I saw both black bears AND grizzlies, after all :-)

Bald Eagles nesting! Almost as soon as we drove into the park, but I didn't get any good pictures.

Moose. One male, with a full set of antlers, plus several females, including one feeding with her baby right next to the trail while we were out hiking.

Who knew that baby moose were so darn cute?

Osprey

Also, osprey nests aplenty. Their nests completely crack me up. Look at this:

How is it a good idea to build your nest like this, all exposed to the elements and other birds? Does the Osprey have any natural enemies? Also, this nest is built on top of a platform clearly man-made for this purpose. We think it's to keep them from nesting on top of telephone and electrical poles. Not so good if repair work needs to be done -- ospreys aren't the kindest birds ever.

Ravens, nesting on the side of a cliff

Pronghorn

Elk

Mule Deer

Bison Too freakin' many to count.

(FYI -- this picture was not taken with the zoom lens. They tell you to stay away from the Bison, but the damn bison aren't so great at staying away from you!) Honestly, we were really excited about the bison at first. But after about your 100th bison, they stop being so exciting. Well, except for the ones that walk right through your campsite:

And the ones that hold up traffic for several minutes. Look at that adorable baby! You can't see it in this photo, but he's looking very nervously at a line of about a dozen cars waiting for him to cross the road. Right after I took this picture, daddy came up behind junior and nudged him the rest of the way across the road.

Pika

Yellow Bellied Marmots, which make me laugh every single time I see one. There's something so . . . earnest about them.

Zillions of ground squirrels and chipmunks. I have no pictures of these, although one climbed right up on Mike's lap in an attempt to steal his granola bar one afternoon. Couldn't get my camera out fast enough to capture that Kodak moment.

A couple of garter snakes and a racer or two. Also no pictures. They move too fast. We didn't see any poisonous snakes, though, which is a good thing in my book. Mike has that quintessential boy quality of always wanting to touch things that are squirmy, slimy, and generally icky. And, I gotta say, there's a lot I'd do for my friends, but sucking the venom out of a snake bite is totally not on that list.

Great horned owls

Coyotes

Including a totally coo-worthy baby. Mama was nowhere to be seen with this little guy. Also, he was hanging around right underneath the owls we saw. Perhaps hoping for a baby to fall while it was learning to fly?

Beaver dams (the first I've ever seen). No beaver, sadly, although we stood and watched for a while, hoping to see one poke its head out.

We could also see where the beavers had been hard at work chewing down new trees. Ambitious little guys, huh?

Not pictured is the jumping mouse we found in our tent one night. I was too busy shrieking like the girl that I am to get my camera. I totally made Mike get in the tent and chase the little guy out.

Beyond that, we heard wolves from a distance while we were backpacking near the Lamar Valley, but we didn't see anything other than the entrance to a den. We also didn't see a grizzly. We DID see this, though:

I wanted to bring it home SO bad! I think next to Hawaii, where they threaten you with Pele's curse if you so much as think about taking any lava rock home with you, Yellowstone does the best job of anywhere of keeping people from taking stuff like this home. How is it even possible that this amazing skull is still out there and that no one has snuck it into their car by now?

Also, I'll tell you what. The wildlife certainly has right-of-way in Yellowstone, and they're not afraid to use it. In addition to the "bear jams" when someone spotted a distant animal and pulled over to see it, I saw wildlife crossing the road and stopping traffic many, many times while we were there.

It's sort of funny, though, that I write about the animals first, as they were not at all my favorite part of this trip. I mean, the first few times we saw a big animal, it was kind of exciting. And it would be impossible to go to Yellowstone and not have a lot of animal sightings, unlike other parks I've been in. But the thrill wore off fast for me. Later this week, on to our other adventures!

Yellowstone, last minute

2010-06-27T19:07:00.000-07:00

So I spent the last week in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Totally spur of the moment. My good friend and frequent camping partner, Mike, called me up a couple weekends ago, told me he was taking this trip, and invited me. I said no, initially, thinking there was no way I could get time off work last minute, but it turned out that this was actually a perfect week to take vacation. So off we went.

We left the Bay Area on Friday afternoon and drove straight through. Took us about 17.5 hours. Drovee across the Nevada desert in the dark, taking turns at the wheel while the other drove. Stopped sometime in the middle of the night for coffee at a McDonalds in Lovelock, Nevada (creepy, creepy, creepy), where we went through the drive through behind a couple of meth-head girls getting a huge bag of food, on foot. Had breakfast at 5 AM at a tiny diner with a super-friendly waitress in Twin Falls Idaho. And washed up in West Yellowstone somewhere around 11 AM Saturday. I can't say I recommend the driving straight through thing -- I was pretty beat all day on Saturday. The good thing about is that we didn't actually have to see Nevada because it was so dark. Mike says I'm exaggerating, but I think pretty much the entire state of Nevada is creepy as all hell. It's utterly beyond me why anyone would want to live there (sorry Amy, if you're reading this).

Since the whole thing was very last minute, we didn't do much planning. I was a bit nervous about getting campsites last-minute in the park, and we were prepared to camp on National Forest land outside the park (like Yosemite, Yellowstone is surrounded on all sides by National Forests). But it turns out that we were there just before the busy season, so it wasn't an issue. We camped in either Yellowstone or Grand Teton every night except our last, including one night backpacking in the Yellowstone backcountry. Spent 4 days in Yellowstone, 2.5 in Grand Teton / Jackson Hole. Did lots and lots of hiking, animal-viewing, photo-taking, and, yes, driving. Had a lovely time.

Anyway, over the next couple of weeks, I plan to post pictures of the trip a bit at a time. I took over 2000 photos (!), most with the amazing DSLR camera my very generous family gave me for Christmas last year. But it's gonna take me a while to sort through them. Stay tuned.

Memorial Day: Canyon Creek

2010-06-11T08:29:00.000-07:00

So for Memorial Day, I headed out on my first non-snow camping trip of the year. Usually, I'd have been on several trips at this point, but triathlon training has definitely occupied a lot of my time this spring. Now that summer's here, though, and the snow is finally melting in the Sierras, backpacking and camping are back on my priority agenda.

Anyway, Memorial Day weekend morning, K. and I headed north. We took the back roads to avoid the I-5 misery (a good plan, as I can only amuse myself by identifying the fruit and nut trees in the orchards that line I-5 for so long). We didn't have much of a plan - basically knew we wanted to go somewhere in the Whiskeytown area, since neither of us had been there before, and we figured we'd sort out the camping thing one way or another. The nice thing about California is that there's tons of national forest land here, and it's almost all open for "dispersed camping." Basically, you can pull off the road and pitch a tent almost anywhere. It's my secret for always finding a campsite when I go to Yosemite (Stanislaus National Forest, yay), and it has the added bonus of camp without a single RV, boombox blasting Lady GaGa, or drunken frat boy in sight. Woo!

First stop was Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. Whiskeytown Lake is astonishingly beautiful -- I really had no idea. It's go the same clarity and blue-ness of Tahoe, although it's smaller, nestled in the hills with snow-capped mountains framing it. It looks like something out of a storybook.

The day we were there, we saw dozens of sailboats gliding across the surface of the lake, which is a little surreal when they're framed by snow-capped mountains in the background. We tried to do a hike to one of Whiskeytown's supposedly spectacular waterfalls, but were stymied by overflowing streams (200% of normal, as we later saw on a sign in Trinity National Forest). We hadn't brought hiking poles or water shoes with us, so we ended up having to turn back because we felt that the stream crossing simply wouldn't be safe. And K. has been airlifted out of a hiking once in his life, so no need to risk a repeat. K. did spend a while teaching me how to take great water pics with my Christmas-present DSLR that has been sorely neglected this spring. I now know how to blur water artistically, which is fun.

All the campgrounds at Whiskeytown were full. Unsurprising, since it's one of the biggest camping weekends of the year. But what was surprising was how uncrowded it felt, despite that. I think this area is a bit of a secret. Folks from the Bay area and Sacramento tend to head East or South, to Tahoe and Yosemite and Big Sur, and they forget all about this area. I'd rather be here than Tahoe, though, anytime. No cheezy motels and casinos, no crowds, much more unspoiled beauty.

Anyway, we pressed onward into Trinity National Forest, where they allow dispersed camping (unlike the National Rec Area, which has protections in place closer to what you'd see in a National Park). K. is a bit of a map geek, and had figured out by looking at topo maps that this area was likely to have great river-side places to camp. And boy was he right. After poking around a bit down some dirt 4WD roads, we discovered pretty much the perfect campsite, right next to Canyon Creek. You just won't get a campsite this ideal in a campground.

Before we found this perfect site, we first pitched our tent in a wooded area nearby. It was lovely, but the mosquitos were BAD, and there wasn't a great swimming hole. So when we went out for a walk after setting up camp, we decided to move. . . . but we really didn't want to take down the tent and put it up again . . . leading to this:

Is this the oddest thing you've ever carried on the top of the 4-Runner, K?

Anyway, the tent made it safely to our new campsite, where we spent the next 2 nights relaxing and taking icy cold dips in the creek. I've swum in some cold water in my life (Lake Superior -- brrr. Or San Francisco Bay, anyone?), but nothing could compare to this. I'm pretty sure the water we were swimming in had been snow about 5 minutes earlier. Anyway, swimming might be a bit of an exaggeration. It was more of an ohmygodthisissofreakincold jump in, squealing, go under, and get the hell out kind of thing. No photographic evidence, I'm afraid. I was too busy shrieking like a girl to even think of the camera.

Canyon Creek is a tributary, I believe, of the Trinity River, and it's pretty much gorgeous the whole way along. All weekend, we were surrounded by scenery like this:

Or this:

We hiked in the Trinity Alps, and K. took what might be my favorite picture of myself ever.

Plus the dogwoods were in full bloom up there. Just lovely.

Monday, on our way home, we took a detour in order to drive along the Trinity River. I rafted on the Trinity last year, when the flow was quite low. This year, it was ridiculously high. So high, in fact, that we didn't even see any rafters out there at all, I suspect because the conditions were so fierce. But the river did hold one final surprise for us. As we were driving along 299, we saw 2 bald eagles sunning themselves and fishing from a cliff above the river. With the help of my awesome zoom lens, Ken caught this amazing picture:

Triathlon, Take 2

2010-06-06T19:04:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I ran my second triathlon, the Tri for Fun at Rancho Seco Park in Herald, CA. This was originally meant to be my first race, before I decided to do Napa last month. And a lovely race it turned out to be. Although first I had to get over this:

Why, yes, those ARE the cooling towers for a nuclear power plant. Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station, to be exact. It's actually decommissioned, and has been since 1989, but there's still something more than a little surreal about swimming in the shadow of those towers. In fact, the lake we swam in was actually built (or expanded from a small pond) to act as an emergency water source for the plant, should there ever be a fire. On my way out to the first turn buoy in the swim, I was actually sighting off the towers. So if I have 3-eyed babies someday, y'all know why!

(This and all the other photos included in this post were taken by Ken Emanuel, who played personal photographer to me for this race. He rocks, huh?)

This race was another "sprint" distance triathlon, which is basically anything under "Olympic" distance (1 mile swim, 25 mile bike ride, 10K run). In this case, that meant a half mile swim, 16 mile bike, 3.1 mile run.

I was very, very nervous about the swim. I am still a relative beginner as a swimmer, having only learned freestyle in October, and the swim was mentally brutal during the last race I did -- so cold and crowded and adrenaline-soaked that I completely panicked and nearly got bailed out by the rescue kayakers. This one, by comparison, was a breeze. For starters, the water was so much warmer. Warm enough, even, that my friend Emily and I posed for pictures in the water before the race:

There were plenty of people without wetsuits, but I wore mine, since that's how I'd been training (and it's a nice security blanket to know that your wetsuit will keep you floating even if you completely freak during the swim). Anyway, I felt strong right from the start (I think I'm somewhere in this picture!):

I felt strong in the middle:

And I finished strong, too:

took 5 minutes off my swim time from the last time around, coming in at 23 minutes. I'm certainly not going to be winning any swim races anytime soon with that time, but it's not far off what I would do in the pool, so I'll take it!

Next was the bike. 16 miles, gently rolling hills through farm country. Please notice that I am riding a beastie of a hybrid bike. It weighs an absolute TON. Clearly it wore me out, since in both of the pictures Ken took of me coming in from the bike ride, my mouth is wide open as I gasp for air :-)

And finally, the run. Heading out, and feeling great! (Especially when I saw Ken, cheering and taking pictures!)

Look at the spring in my step here:

This is actually kind of bad running form, so don't tell my coach, okay? I'm supposed to be working on NOT being so springy when I run! Anyway, this was about 20 seconds in, when I was still really psyched to be on the run. In reality, though the run ended up being the hardest part of this race (unusual for me, as a life-long soccer player). It was HOT by the time I got out on the run, which followed a red dirt road out into the hills for 3.1 miles. I was pretty much dying the whole time. Even had to walk up a couple of the bigger hills, which frustrated me.

I was SO happy when I saw that finish line, I totally sprinted to the end.

And I finished! Again! I guess this means the first time wasn't just a fluke, huh? I'm a real, live triathlete. Go me! (BTW, my actually time was closer to 2 hours, since I started the swim in the 5th wave, so the clock had already been running for 20-25 minutes).

Anyway, in closing, this little girl's sign is awesome. And true, true, true. This triathlon thing has definitely not been easy, but I'm so, so, so glad I jumped in and decided to do it.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #71: Trinity National Forest Edition

2010-06-01T15:35:00.001-07:00

1. Whiskeytown Lake. Just as gorgeous as Lake Tahoe, and with the added bonus of no casinos, cheesy motels, or massive vacation homes on its shores. How have I never been there before?

2. The perfect campsite: secluded, right on a gorgeous river so you can fall asleep to the sound of water rushing by, the scent of pine trees and clover.

3. And while I'm at it, the most comfortable camp bed I've ever slept in. (Don't tell anyone, but I maybe dragged my down comforter and my feather pillow out to the woods with me. And I didn't regret it for a minute, either!)

4. Washing off the sweat and grime with icy dips in a river flowing with water that was literally snow less than 24 hours ago.

5. Seeing neither hide nor hair of whatever left this beastie of a footprint a little up the river from our campsite. (It's hard to see scale in this picture, but the print was bigger than the palm of my hand. Don't worry, though, Mom, I'm pretty sure it's coyote, not mountain lion -- you can't see the claws in a mountain lion footprint. Well, unless they're really, really angry ;-)

Daily Dose of Gratitude #70

2010-05-26T20:42:00.000-07:00

1. Making someone's day.

2. Drinks with an old friend, with whom you've recently reconnected, and discovering you still laugh together just as much as you used to.

3. Wildflowers in a vase by the window.

4. A man who can fix things

5. The thrill of anticipation before a much-needed weekend away.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #69

2010-05-14T09:37:00.001-07:00

1. A sprig of fresh mint in my water bottle. Yum!

2. A beautiful after-work bike ride yesterday -- sunshine, eucalyptus-scented air, and Tiburon's bazillion dollar views, all for the price of some muscle power and sweat.

3. Beating the top team in the league at soccer last night. (Really, really nice after a full season of getting our asses kicked on my other team!)

4. The fact that on my running route, I see the following fruit trees/vines: fig, apple, orange, strawberry, lemon, lime, grapefruit, tangerine, buddha's hand, banana (!), guava, plum, avocado, blackberry, grape, apricot, passion fruit, persimmon, blueberry, and pomegranate. Basically, I live in paradise, except with more traffic. :-)

5. Josh Ritter's new album, So Runs the World Away. You must, must, must go listen to it immediately because it is utterly awesome. Especially the song "Long Shadows"

Daily Dose of Gratitude #68: Morcom Rose Garden edition

2010-05-07T20:32:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things about moving to a new neighborhood is discovering its secrets. A few weeks ago, I stumbled across a beautiful rose garden in my neighborhood. It's nestled down in a ravine, hidden among houses and condos, and you never even know it's there until you're right on top of it.

Tonight, I finally made it back there with my camera, and I am grateful for roses. Lots and lots of roses. (And yes, it does smell like heaven there, too!)

Bonus points to anyone who can tell me why my images look so faded on blogger compared to how they look in iphoto.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #67

2010-05-05T20:40:00.000-07:00

1. Strong legs, strong lungs, and a strong heart.

2. Finally having reached the point where running 6+ miles isn't really that big of a deal. I'm not gasping for breath, my calves aren't painfully tight, and I can mostly just GO. (Now if only I could figure out how to prevent the hot spots and blisters!)

3. Grilled chicken with home-made Tzatziki sauce and quinoa for dinner. Yum!

4. Lake Merritt. This is where I've been doing my runs lately. Gorgeous. It's about a 1.5 mile run from my house, then exactly 5K (3.1 miles or so) around the lake, and another 1.5 miles home. Great after work loop. If I'm only up for a short run, I drive or ride my bike over there and just do the around-the-lake part.

5. The pride I still feel when I look at my race number from last weekend pinned on my bulletin board. :-)

Holy cow, I just did a TRIATHLON!!!

2010-05-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

Y'all! I just did a triathlon. I'm still a little in shock. But there's totally photographic evidence. See:

That's ME. With a race number pinned on my shirt and a medal around my neck! Did I mention that I still can't quite believe I actually did it?

I've actually been training for a couple months now, but just never got around to writing about it. I have to say, this is something I never, ever thought I'd do. I've always loved soccer and hiking and being active, but racing? Not really my thing. I didn't even learn to swim for real until the past October, and I think I took driver's ed and learned to ride a bike right around the same time!

Anyway, I actually started training on a whim -- couldn't find a gym I really liked in my new neighborhood, was tired of sitting on the sidelines at my ex's triathlons (I'm not really a sit-on-the-sidelines kinda girl, in case you haven't noticed), and happened to stumble across this 13-week triathlon training program being offered by a local running store, See Jane Run. We have three team workouts a week -- a pool workout, a track workout, and a long workout on the weekend (bike rides, open-water swim, longer runs, or some combo). It's been SO, SO, SO motivating to have set workouts -- I push myself so much harder when I'm with a group than I ever could on my own -- it's part of what I've always loved about playing soccer.

Anyway, we're actually only in week 8 of training now, but my awesome workout partner, Emily, convinced me that I was ready for a race now, and she was totally right. Today, I swam a half mile in open water, rode 11 hilly miles, and then ran a hilly 5K. All in a ROW! And ohmygosh was it HARD. I mean, physically, it was challenging, but mentally, it went well beyond challenging. Have you ever tried to swim a half a mile in 60 degree water, with other swimmers flailing all around you? It literally takes your breath away. I had a few bad minutes early in the swim, in which I had to talk myself out of a panic attack a quarter mile from shore (it didn't help that they mis-set the course so that the swim was longer than it was supposed to be -- SERIOUSLY???). But I toughed it out and made it through the swim, the bike, and the run. And, look, I only bled just a little! ;-)

(Bike mishap -- chain slipped off the gears midway up a hill, I wiped out -- oops).

Anyway, now that I've done my first race, I've been sitting here all afternoon glowing with pride, and thinking about how full of awesome "first times" this whole training experience has been. It's not just the race -- It's all the ways I've pushed myself and succeeded along the way. Among the firsts:

-- running 3 miles straight and thinking it was totally easy.

-- running 6 miles straight, ever.

-- running while chatting with my running-mates and actually enjoying it (maybe because I now have the lung strength to talk and run at the same time!) Turns out, running is much more fun when you're hearing about so-and-so's boyfriend drama while you go. Who knew?

-- running and actually enjoying it. It might help that I've been doing my running in stunning venus. Our regular workout track is high in the Berkeley hills, with an amazing view of San Francisco at sunset across the bay, our weekend workouts are in places like Tiburon, and I've been doing my independent runs around Oakland's Lake Merritt or in Frederick Law Olmstead-designed Mountain View Cemetery.

-- putting on running tights and thinking, huh, my butt actually looks kinda cute in these. :-)

-- wearing a wetsuit. Someone should really video tape us trying to get in and out of those things. It's comedy gold! I get the giggles every time. Me, halfway into my wetsuit before the race today:

-- having to douse myself in body glide to keep said wetsuit from chafing

-- swimming in the San Francisco Bay (!)

-- swimming in the SF Bay and enjoying it -- seriously, y'all, there's nothing like being out on Treasure Island early on a Saturday morning, watching the sun turn San Francisco all rosy and knowing that you're doing something that very few people would even think about doing. Yesterday, I had to do a quick swim to save myself for today's race, and I was actually SAD to get out of the water!

-- Riding my bike more than 15 miles at a go. And then more than 20 and more than 30 . . .

-- Wearing cycling shoes

-- Riding with clipless pedals on my bike. Despite what the name might indicate, clipless pedals are actually pedals that you clip your foot into while you're riding, kind of like a ski binding. I think perhaps the bike dude who named these pedals didn't know the meaning of the suffix "-less."

-- wiping out horribly on clipless pedals while learning to use them, giving myself the nastiest bruise I've ever had. (Mom, avert your eyes) See:

Actually, that first picture doesn't really do it justice. How 'bout this one?

The good news is, triathlon training is apparently turning me into a superhero, because that baby was almost completely GONE only 9 days later. My bruises never heal that fast!

-- and then, after a few tears, getting back on my bike and keeping on going to finish the hardest ride of the season (3 Bears Loop in Orinda. The "bears" in the ride name are the 3 big-ass hills, papa, mama, and baby).

-- not being terrified of riding uphill anymore. Or downhill for that matter -- I don't ride the brakes nearly as much as I used to!

-- swimming at the public pool. Which, as it turns out, is actually quite nice if you can ignore the skanky locker room. It's a heated outdoor pool, open year-round, with nice long lanes so you can get a good rhythm going.

-- sharing a swimming pool lane with someone else (actually 5 someone elses at my regular team workouts!) I only learned to swim in October, by thrashing about in the pool at the very swanky gym in my old neighborhood. I never had to share a lane there -- the pool was always practically empty. Which is good when you look like an injured seal as you try to learn freestyle.

-- doing swimming drills (I kind of love fingertip drag. Catch-up still gives me water-snarf syndrome, though)

-- swimming a mile straight, no stopping (just two days ago!)

-- Swimming butterfly stroke (yesterday!)

-- Swimming fly kick on my back -- fun!

-- Doing "brick" workouts (where you go straight from one workout to the next --e.g. biking to running. Called a brick because your legs feel like bricks at first when you switch events, supposedly, although that has not been my experience at all)

-- thinking that it's no big deal to ride my bike 25 miles and then run immediately afterward

I think when I started this whole thing, I just thought it'd be a good way to motivate myself to work out. But as it turns out, I've gotten SO much more out of it than that. I mean, first of all, I thought I would just do the easiest version of each of the workouts (they often give us a beginner option and an intermediate/advanced version) -- those looked hard enough. But as it turns out, I almost always do the longer version of the workout, and both enjoy it and find myself completely capable of it. There has been a time in almost every workout when I thought I maybe couldn't finish, or when I wanted to just stop because this or that was hurting or I was tired or whatever. But I've finished all of them. And now, today, I finished a race.

You'll have to excuse me while I go glow with pride some more:

Daily Dose of Gratitude #66

2010-04-30T14:39:00.001-07:00

1. The smell of tomato plants and marigolds.

2. A fresh washed bedspread, dried in the sun (the cat is grateful for this, too!)

3. Working from home. (Please don't ask me what time I changed out of my PJs this morning. I'd rather not confess to that little gem :-)

4. Strong legs and gorgeous scenery -- Had an absolutely lovely 9 mile bike ride in Tiburon followed by a 4 mile run in the Berkeley hills last night. Views of the sun setting in San Francisco, so very grateful that I was out in the open air rather than stuck in one of the thousands of cars I could see crawling across the Bay Bridge.

5. Wonderful, amazing, happy friends (new and old)

Daily Dose of Gratitude #65

2010-04-27T21:51:00.000-07:00

1. Swimming a mile straight, no stopping. The longest I've ever done.

2. A new handmade dress (terrible pic -- sorry! I promise it's adorable, though :-)

3. Fizzy pink drinks. (This pic is actually from February, when all I wanted to do for my birthday was to drink something pink and fizzy and play skee-ball. Skee-ball didn't happen, but I did get my pink and fizzy. Must get back up to wine country soon!)

4. Trivia night victory. Free beer, yeah!

5. The kind of incredibly satisfying kind of tired you feel only after a really amazing workout.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #64

2010-04-26T16:53:00.001-07:00

1. An abundance of my favorite flowers at the farmer's market (and cheap, too!)

I am utterly charmed, by the way, by the misspelled sign.

2. Hiking with a good friend and seeing her old-school happy after several very tough months:

3. Starry night, wonderful conversation, live bluegrass in the background.

4. Dogs riding shotgun, tongues lolling, ears flapping back in the wind.

5. Yellow shoes.

Daily Dose of Gratitude

2010-04-21T21:32:00.000-07:00

1. Tide low enough on my way across the bridge in the morning that I can see seals sunning themselves on shelves of exposed rock.

2. An awesome after work swim with women from my triathlon team. The longest I've ever swum in one work-out, in fact (nearly a mile and a half!)

3. And realizing that I'm strong enough right now to do a triathlon, even though I've still got 6 weeks before my scheduled race.

(Is there anyone who doesn't look a little silly in neoprene?)

4. The fact that I work out with a bunch of women who are impressed rather than horrified by the truly fabulous bruise I gave myself on Saturday, when I had a, shall we say, "unplanned exit" from my bike. (Sorry, no picture. My mom reads this blog, and I fear if she saw the bruise, she'd come out to California and let all the air out of my bike tires to keep me from ever getting on the confounded machine again.) (Love you, Mom!)

5. A chicken gyro with extra tzatziki sauce.

6. $3 bunches of brilliantly orange farmer's market ranunculus brightening my bedroom.

(An aside -- I just googled ranunculus to make sure I was spelling it right and learned that the gorgeous, ruffly ranunculuses (ranunculi?) that I get at the farmer's market are a type of buttercup. I had no idea - they look so different! )

Please hold . . .

2009-10-07T22:24:00.000-07:00

Things are wicked stressful around here at the moment. We're in the "oh shit" phase of a huge project at work, I owe so many people emails and phone calls and coffee dates that I'm starting to feel like I'm never going to catch up. And, as usual, I'm finding myself dreaming of my favorite outdoorsy places. Always seems to happen when life is such that I am barely outside my office in daylight. And, of course, it doesn't help that I've been watching a little chunk of the Ken Burns National Parks special each night when I get home from work. Amazing, amazing stuff. I never, ever buy DVDs, but I think this one is going to have to be an exception!

Anyway, until I have time again for a real post, and until I have time to actually get back outdoors (still hoping for one last camping trip before the snow really sets in in the Sierras), here are a couple more of my favorite pics from this summer's wanderings:

High Sierras, somewhere near the Tioga Pass:

And on the North Dome Trail, Half Dome behind me. (Why is it that the sight of Half Dome in the distance still takes my breath away, even though I've seen it dozens of times? Seriously --every. single. time.)

Missing Autumn

2009-09-26T12:56:00.001-07:00

For the past several days, I've been dreaming of fall. Apple-picking and pumpkin patches and of hills covered in red-garbed maples. Dreams of bundling up in a warm sweater and corduroy pants and getting lost in a good old fashioned corn maze. The midwesterner in me always comes out with a vengeance in the fall, because as much as I love California, fall never feels like autumn to me here. This is my 4th fall living here, and this is the closest I've ever found to the midwestern autumn colors in my heart:

This was taken last year in Lake Tahoe, somewhere near Emerald Bay. It's lovely -- the yellow aspens against the brilliant blue of the sky. In fact, I'm planning a trip to the Sierras in a couple weeks to enjoy the lovely weather again. (Anyone want to recommend where's best in October -- Tahoe, Yosemite, or Sequoia / Kings Canyon?) But, still, I'm lonely right now for home and the paintbox autumns of my childhood.

What I did on my summer vacation, Part 5

2009-09-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

Enjoyed a lot of sunsets:

San Francisco, Land's End, June:

At an Oakland A's Game, June: (Fun game, lousy baseball stadium)

May Lake, Yosemite, July:

On the Trinity River, July: (My first time whitewater rafting!):

Lower Sunrise Lake, Yosemite, August:

Cathedral Lake, Yosemite, August:

Glen Arbor, Michigan. August: (The view from the porch of my parent's Lake Michigan beach house)

Lake Michigan, Glen Arbor, September:

(Don't know the guy fishing, but he sure does add to the picture, huh?)

Oh yeah, and lest you think I'm never home (Ken, I'm totally looking at you!), Right outside my own front door.

What I did on my summer vacation, part 4

2009-09-15T17:59:00.000-07:00

Went hiking and in love all over again with the brilliant sunlit green of midwestern woods. Don't get me wrong, I love love love the California out doors, but we just don't have the same kind of gorgeous hardwood forests here.

I only wish I hadn't been too early for fall colors. The brilliant red orange yellow against deep blue sky of a Michigan October day has always and will always take my breath away.

Also, remembered just how gorgeous Lake Michigan is.

Especially seen from the top of a crazy steep sand dune in the middle of the woods.

What I did on my summer vacation, Part 3

2009-09-15T17:55:00.001-07:00

Oh, and did I mention the jumping?

What I did on my summer vacation, Part 2

2009-09-14T12:36:00.000-07:00

Made other people jump, too.

My sister, Dana:

My dad (jumping for apples):

Dorian:

(Aren't they all good sports, indulging my new-found joy in jumping pictures?)

What I did on my summer vacation, Part 1:

2009-09-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

Jumped.

Molten Lake

2009-09-07T10:52:00.001-07:00

On vacation with the family in Northern Michigan right now. I've been spending a lot of time NOT at my computer, looking at scenery like this. Just lovely.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #61

2009-08-28T10:40:00.001-07:00

1. An awesome, challenging soccer practice last night. And dinner waiting for me when I got home.

2. Kiss My Face Ginger Mango lip balm (and Vanilla Honey, too).

3. D. packing up a lunch for me before sending me off to work this morning -- half a leftover veggie burrito from last night, with a few carrots tucked in the bag, too, since he knows I'm always craving more veggies.

4. An upcoming weekend with nothing, nothing, nothing planned. (Thanks to a canceled camping trip, followed by me very zealously protecting my down time).

5. It's Friday, yay!

Daily Dose of Gratitude #60

2009-08-24T11:19:00.001-07:00

1. A lovely weekend backpacking the high Sierras.

2. Bedtime bourbon and hot chocolate by the edge of Sunrise Lake.

3. The purple of a post-storm sunset, reflecting in a cold mountain lake.

4. A good tent and rain gear, which kept us (mostly) dry in the deluge we were caught in Saturday night and most of Sunday.

5. A backpacking partner who was very, very patient with me even in the midst of a wee meltdown on the final stretch of our trip. (Soaking wet gear, slick and muddy trails, no hot breakfast or morning coffee). There might have been a little bit of bitching and moaning and few tears. I might have been the one doing the bitching and bawling. :-)

Pictures as soon as I find the damn camera cable.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #59

2009-08-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

1. I am in a brilliantly happy mood today, for no particular reason that I can discern. It's lovely, though. I love those moments when you're just driving along, maybe with the windows down and a great song on the radio, and suddenly you're struck with this glowing feeling of pure happiness. That was my drive to work this morning :-)

2. A great soccer game last night. We won 4-1, and I had a goal and 2 assists. And it was fun, fun, fun - not always the case lately, since my team is a wee bit flaky.

3. My "emergency" curry -- chickpeas and whatever veggies I have around sauteed with tons of madras curry powder, chicken broth, and a big scoop of plain yogurt. Serve over quinoa. Healthy, yummy, and make-able in less than 20 minutes!

4. Passion fruit lip balm. (Though I think everyone should call passion fruit by its Hawaiian name, lillikoi. It's just so much prettier!)

5. An adorable shirt for just 3 bucks. Dear Gap, I LOVE your wicked cheap clearance prices -- 5 items of adorable summer clothing for, like, $30 :-)

Daily Dose of Gratitude #58 -- Special Baseball Themed Edition!

2009-08-12T09:27:00.000-07:00

1. A baseball game on a foggy San Francisco summer night. I love watching the fog swirl around the lights.

2. A very generous friend who gave us his rather awesome tickets, since he was chillin' in a VIP box and not using them anyway. I LOVE being close to the action at a baseball game.

3. Ballpark hot-dogs with lots of spicy mustard, relish, and onions.

4. Taking BART to the game. I miss taking trains on a daily basis!

5. The person blowing soap bubbles from the upper deck at the baseball stadium.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #57

2009-08-10T13:46:00.001-07:00

1. Berry picking with an old friend, at a beautiful coastal farm.

2. A fridge full of home-made jam -- yum!

3. A lazy Sunday morning spent drinking coffee slowly and sharing the paper with someone who doesn't fight me for the crossword.

4. Hot summer days, at last, and nights warm enough to sleep with all the windows open.

5. Vacation planning (now if I could only decide which vacation to take!)

Daily Dose of Gratitude #56

2009-08-05T16:58:00.000-07:00

1. Words I am grateful for today: Miniature, indubitably, Umber

2. The productive afternoon that followed my far-less-than-productive morning.

3. Watching a character I conceptualized come to life on video.

4. Baseball tickets for next week (Giants vs. Dodgers -- I don't much care about either team, but I'm told that it's a big rivalry and will be a fun fun fun game)

5. Giving myself permission to do the thing that is right for me tonight (go to the gym, read bad vampire novel, wash underwear in the sink so I don't have to go commando for the rest of the week) instead of going to a party that would involve a 3+ hour round-trip drive with traffic. Even though I feel horribly guilty (sorry Moose and Kristin) and a little disappointed over missing the party (Free! Gap! Jeans!)

Daily Dose of Gratitude #55

2009-08-03T14:01:00.000-07:00

1. Watching Pretty in Pink from a blanket in Dolores Park . . .

2. . . . behind a group of very large gay men wearing sparkly pink prom dresses . . .

3. . . . after running into an old college friend, whom I haven't seen in probably 10 years . . .

4. . . . with the whole crowd cheering every time Duckie came on screen . . .

5. . . . and realizing that I'm so very glad I don't go for the pretty-but-jerky boys anymore -- as a teenager, I was thrilled that Andie ends up with Blaine. But I watch the movie now and all I can think is, wow, Blaine is really a dick. Andie should have gone for Duckie! :-) . . .

Daily Dose of Gratitude #54

2009-07-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

1. This song:

I've seriously had it on repeat for two days now. Lovely.

2. Seared tuna with fingerling potatoes, doused in olive oil and chili powder, then grilled.

3. Talking excitedly to someone who loves books just as much as I do, but in a totally different way.

4. A house full of books upon books upon books, crammed into every possible corner.

5. A Soy Latte after a night of too-little sleep.

May Lake

2009-07-26T23:02:00.000-07:00

(Okay, so this is long overdue, but I've figured out a workaround for the photo uploading issues I've been having, finally)

My second night in Yosemite on my trip a few weeks ago, I spent the night out at May Lake, in the high country near Tuolumne Meadows. It's about 8 miles from Glen Aulin, with a trailhead off the Tioga Road, so you could easily do the two together on a weekend.

Anyway, May Lake is a great beginner's backpack. I've been told it can be difficult to get a backcountry permit for there, especially at peak times, but I had no trouble -- perhaps because I was heading in on a Thursday night, relatively early in the season. Early enough, in fact, that there was still snow on the ground. A LOT of snow, actually.

It's only about 1.2 miles up to May Lake from the parking area. It is an all-uphill hike, at about 9000 feet altitude, but because it's so short, I think pretty much anyone could do it, even with no backpacking experience at all. And there are some lovely views from the trail.

Just like at Glen Aulin, there's a High Sierra Camp at May Lake and a backpacker's campground. The campground is right on the shore of May Lake. How 'bout this site:

That's the lake behind my tent there, a stone's throw away. Oh, and San Francisco friends, if you've ever wondered where your water comes from, here's one answer:

I feel like I sound like a broken record whenever I talk about Yosemite, but like everything else up there, May Lake is absolutely gorgeous. In the evening, it gets all glassy, sheltered as it is down in a swale of rock, and the reflection of those amazing Sierra clouds that Ansel Adams made so famous is striking. I probably took well over 100 pictures there (thank goodness for digital!).

Apparently the bugs can get bad around the lake, but I had no problems in late June. Perhaps because it was still pretty chilly. I'd guess it got down close to 30 degrees overnight, and I already mentioned the snow. The High Sierra Camp didn't look anywhere near ready to open for the season, in fact. In terms of other wildlife, a deer wandered right through my camp while I was setting up, and there were a TON of yellow-bellied marmots about, particularly in the morning. I watched them for quite a while Friday morning, as I made my coffee and breakfast. They're interesting creatures -- left one on guard as the rest were running about getting water, searching for food, etc.

They're nicknamed "picket pins," which you understand once you see one standing up on its hind legs. And, man, they're bigger than I thought. I always imagined marmots to be sort of squirrel sized, but these are more like the size of a beaver. I'd guess they easily weigh 20 lbs. Maybe more. I've heard that they can be scavengers and try to get into your food, even when you're standing right there, but I didn't have any problems. And, of course, my food was all locked up in a bear cannister overnight. Oh yeah, bears are apparently also an in this area, but I certainly didn't see one. I think they tend to follow the dumb tourists, so they're more likely to be seen during the high season, when there are lots of folks out there and not everyone is following good back-country food storage principles.

The only thing I didn't like about May Lake is the fact that you can't swim there. Not that I really wanted to swim in a high sierra lake that was still surrounded by snow. But, generally, it seems like it really just BEGS to be swum in, but since it is a domestic water source, you're not allowed. (Hey, question -- why is that the rule? I mean, you can swim in the Great Lakes and those are also domestic water sources. Doesn't the water get treated in various ways before becoming drinking water, anyway? Does it have something to do with the size of the body of water? Or just California paranoia? Yes, I googled it. No answer.)

Anyway, I'm planning another trip to May Lake soon. I'm thinking I'll take some friends who are new to backpacking and break 'em in easy. Think morning coffee with this laid out before them will convince them that it's not so bad to carry everything you need on your back, sleep on the ground, and pee in the woods?

Daily Dose of Gratitude # who-the-hell-knows

2009-07-26T22:16:00.000-07:00

1. My first whitewater rafting trip. (Can't promise any pictures -- I didn't have a good dry bag for my camera, so I'm waiting for my trip-mates to maybe send me some of theirs).

2. Randomly pulling off the side of the road on the long, hot drive home for a dunk in the river.

3. Precocious 4-year-olds.

4. Parents who don't let kids stop them from doing all the same cool outdoorsy stuff they did pre-kids.

5. A million stars sprinkled overhead and no responsibilities other than to lay back and look at them for as long as I want.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #52

2009-06-25T10:17:00.001-07:00

1. That this accident wasn't way worse. Feel better soon, K.

2. Pizzeria Picco. Especially the Strauss Organic soft serve ice cream with dark caramel and sea salt. Yum, yum, yum.

3. Peanut butter toast with homemade raspberry-peach jam.

4. Reading Pride and Prejudice by headlamp while bundled up in my warm sleeping bag in the Yosemite backcountry.

5. After years of resisting, finally reading Pride and Prejudice and discovering that I actually really like Jane Austen. Who knew?!?

Glen Aulin

2009-06-23T08:44:00.000-07:00

Last week, I escaped to Yosemite for a few days. I was in dire need of a break, after a few stressful weeks at work. One of the things I really adore about living in the Bay area (and one of the things that will make it incredibly difficult for me to ever live anywhere else again) is that I can hop in my car and be in some of the most beautiful places on earth in less than 4 hours. And, really, it's hard to be stressed when you're miles from anywhere with no responsibilities other than hiking and setting up your tent each night. Oh, and make lovely steamy cups of bourbon and hot chocolate before bed. :-)

Anyway, my first night out on this trip, I decided to head out into the back country up near Tuolumne. I did an overnight to Glen Aulin.

One of the things I really love about Yosemite is that there are a lot of "backpackers campgrounds." Basically, at really popular locations, they've set up back-country campgrounds, with pit toilets, water, and bear lockers to store your food. I especially like them when I'm backpacking alone, because that way I know that there will be other folks around me in case there's some sort of emergency. In fact, it's really the only way I'll backpack alone. So there's one of these backpackers campgrounds at Glen Aulin, next to the High Sierra tent camp, and that's where I spent Wednesday night.

The High Sierra Camps are 6 camps set up in the Yosemite High Country. Each is a collection of canvas "tent cabins" in a beautiful setting. They're about a 7-10 mile hike apart from each other, and you can hike them in a loop, staying in the cabins each night and being fed dinner and breakfast. It's nice for people who want the feeling of backpacking but don't want to have to carry all their gear -- all you need to carry is your clothes. Some of the camps even have hot water and showers. I've personally never stayed at them, partly because they're quite expensive, but I'd love to someday. For now, though, I'll content myself with carrying my full pack and staying at the backpackers' campgrounds in the same places.

So, Glen Aulin is a little more than a 6 mile hike down from Tuolumne Meadows. It's a fairly easy 6 miles, especially on the way there, since it's nearly all flat or downhill. It's a nice way to acclimate to the altitude (7000-9000 feet), which can make exercise feel more difficult, but is only high enough to have made me sick once, when there was also really poor air quality because of a severe fire. (On that trip, we woke up each morning to a tent covered in ash blown in from the fires).

Basically, you follow the trail down from the Lembert Dome parking lot, near Soda Springs (which is a tiny little spring that bubbles up out of the ground already carbonated -- something to do with the chemicals in the earth there I think). The trail is lovely, weaving its way through High Sierra grassland and pine trees at first. Oh, and those blue, blue, blue Sierra skies.

For much of the hike, the river is tumbling over that famous Yosemite granite just off to the side of the trail.

There are also gorgeous views of snow-capped sierra mountains in the distance. Breathtaking.
Once you get down to the camp, there are a couple bridges and a lovely waterfall, where I drank my morning coffee the next morning, getting damp from the waterfall's mist.

There are 30 or so sites in the backpacker's campground. The first batch are literally right next door to the tent cabins, in a wooded dell. There's a pit toilet, bear lockers, and a water spigot there, which is convenient. However, I chose to continue up the hill about another 2/10 of a mile to the higher campsites, perched on a rocky outcropping above the river. Not only do I think these campsites are nicer, but it let me escape from the bustle of the boy scout troop that happened to be there the same night I was.

I camped in a lovely cove of rock, with the river rushing practically right underneath my tent. Lovely to fall asleep to. I think this is the best site in the whole area, and it got wonderful light as the sun was coming up in the morning. You really only could have fit one tent in the spot I chose, but there were plenty of areas nearby, where you could spread out several tents if you were with a big group.

And though I was a bit worried about how challenging the hike out the next day would be, since it was quite a lot of uphill, at altitude, it was actually quite easy. I didn't even get winded. Anyway, if I was going to do it again this trip again, I'd start out for Glen Aulin in the morning, drop my pack at a site, and then continue hiking down to Waterwheel Falls (another 3 miles beyond Glen Aulin). Then, I'd come back up to Glen Aulin to camp for the night. I think it would also be lovely to start Friday night hiking up to May Lake (only 1.2 miles -- pictures of that tomorrow), then hike Saturday from May Lake to Glen Aulin, and Sunday from Glen Aulin back to the parking lot. You'd have to find a shuttle or other ride back to your car, but that's apparently not too difficult up there.

This was my first time in a long time backpacking alone, and it was lovely, if a bit lonely. But clearly I wasn't miserable.

P.S. Since I was traveling alone, many of the pictures of me from this trip were taken with my favorite new camera accessory -- the GorillaPod. Have you guys seen these things? They're amazing! It's basically a go-anywhere tripod. They're made up of a bunch of ball-and-socket joints, so they're completely bendable. You screw it into the bottom of your camera and then you can set it up anywhere to take a picture -- I put mine on totally uneven ground, around a tree branch, etc, and got some GREAT pictures. Completely worth the $25 bucks I paid on sale at REI a few weeks ago.

Just Like Heaven

2009-06-21T22:13:00.000-07:00

This is where I spent Wednesday night.

This is where I had my coffee Thursday morning.

This is where I spent Thursday night.

Friday and Saturday were similarly spectacular.

Some days, I just completely and totally love my life. Many, many more pictures to follow.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #51

2009-06-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

1. The fact that the National Park Service Web Site for Big Bend National Park has a page called "How NOT to Die in the Desert."

2. Today, Tuesday, is Friday for me this week. . .

3. . . . because I'm going camping for a long, glorious 5 days.

4. A lovely, laughter-filled dinner last night with an ex-boyfriend whom I hope will become a current friend.

5. Fixing my non-burning campstove all by myself, while neither causing said stove to explode nor setting myself or anything else on fire.

Dear Dude

2009-06-10T17:46:00.001-07:00

Dear Dude,

Perhaps including several pictures of yourself with a dead deer on your online dating profile is not the best way to pick up chicks. I'm just sayin' is all.

xoxo,

Chris

Daily Photo

2009-06-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

Daily Photo

2009-06-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

Campfire in the mountains, May '09

Daily Dose of Gratitude #50

2009-06-08T22:27:00.000-07:00

1. Wuthering Heights

2. Cold Soba Noodles with Peanut-Sesame sauce and tons of green veggies.

3. My shiny, wonderful, lovely new macbook. (My first new computer in 7 years!) I think I'm in love.

4. Being able to do push-ups for the first time in my life. I can do 20+ girl-style ones at a go, now!

5. A phone message from my "baby" sister, who never calls me :-) She's not technically a baby at all, since she turns 24 (!!!) in a couple months, but she'll always be my baby sister!

6. The tropical smell in the air around my office lately. I think it might be the honeysuckle growing on the fence in our parking lot, but it's like being in Hawaii :-)

Daily Dose of Gratitude #49

2009-05-27T18:12:00.000-07:00

1. Scoring several awesome vintage sheets at the thrift store -- perfect fabric for making cute summer dresses.

2. Deciding to take some time off from dating all the freakin' time to get myself sorted. (And the fact that this leaves me more time for other things I love -- sewing, knitting, cooking, reading :-)

(Sorry folks, that means no more "Dear Dude" posts for a while. Which is probably better, anyway, since at least one of the dudes in question discovered this blog. Ooops.)

3. A really productive afternoon at work.

4. Watermelon

5. Walking into my boss's office eating said watermelon and having him ask me if I was eating it because it matched my outfit today (green and white skirt, pink shirt :-)

Daily Dose of Gratitude #48

2009-05-18T12:26:00.001-07:00

1. Seeing The Avett Brothers live. What a fantastic show! And they played my favorite song:

2. That they were playing at the Fillmore. I used to go to tons of concerts, back when I ran a record store, but I rarely go anymore. Mostly because I have very little tolerance at this point for being packed in like sardines with hundreds of stupid drunk frat boys, drowning in clouds of pot smoke. But this show was AWESOME-- small, historic venue, a very excited but mellow crowd, and we snagged a prime viewing spot on the balcony. And you get a free poster after the show at the Fillmore. And apples! (I could do without the $12 beers, though. What a rip-off!)

3. 30 degrees cooler today than yesterday. Thank goodness!

4. A really good friend, in town now for the whole summer :-)

5. Fresh, cool sheets and sleeping with all the windows open and the hum of the ceiling fan.

How I spent my Saturday night

2009-05-11T11:16:00.001-07:00

I spent Saturday night in the mountains, sitting in front of this:

Do I look happy or what? It was so exactly what I needed.

Dear Dude #5

2009-04-22T12:48:00.000-07:00

Dear Dude,

I know that getting dumped sucks. Really, I do. I've BEEN there. It's hard. It hurts your feelings. It makes you feel less-than-worthy. I GET it. That being said, there are graceful and not-so-graceful ways to handle a break-up. You, my friend, went decidedly toward the ungraceful when I broke things off with you last week. With that in mind, here is some friendly advice for next time some lovely lady decides she doesn't want to see you anymore:

1. We have only been dating for 3 weeks. It is WAY too soon for you to be (and I quote) "devastated" about us not seeing each other anymore. Seriously, dude, I have a carton of eggs in my fridge that is older than our relationship!

2. Begging me to reconsider won't work. No one looks good when they beg. And, in fact, it really just confirms my decision to dump your overly-sensitive and dramatic butt.

3. Asking me "Did one of your friends tell you to do this?" in an accusatory tone? Really, really, really lame. SUPER lame. I am a grown-ass woman. I don't need my friends to tell me when I need to get the hell out of a bad relationship, thankyouverymuch. Also, see #2 above and add "paranoid" to the list of reasons I dumped you.

4. IM'ing me multiple times to tell me you miss me in the week after I tell you I don't want to see you anymore? Please see #2 above. Forcing me to block you on Google chat, un-friend you on Facebook, and put your phone # into my "don't even let the phone ring" category is NOT the way to win back my heart. I 'm just sayin'

5. Oh yeah, and a bonus piece of advice, just 'cos I'm feeling generous: lying about your age, height, or both on your online dating profile = DUMB. Hint -- I'm going to figure it out sooner or later. I mean, maybe you can manage to hide your driver's license from me for a lifetime, but ain't no way in hell I'm gonna believe you're 5 foot 8 when you're wearing running shoes and I, in all my 5 foot 6 glory, STILL tower over you. In my bare feet.

XOXO,

Chris

Daily Does of Gratitude #47

2009-04-21T12:56:00.000-07:00

1. The fact that people from Saskatchewan called hooded sweatshirts "bunny hugs."

2. A long walk around my neighborhood in last night's unseasonably warm, pink-lemonade colored dusk.

3. Avocado on sandwiches.

4. Breakfast burritos.

5. T. gets home today.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #46

2009-04-20T12:54:00.000-07:00

1. A lovely afternoon at the beach with a good friend.

2. It actually being WARM enough on a San Francisco beach to lay around in a bikini for the whole afternoon.

3. The satisfying pop when you open English pea pods to get at the peas inside.

4. A rare night -- warm enough to sleep with every window in the house open without getting cold (It was still 66 in my house when I woke up this morning -- warmer than I usually have the heat set for overnight!)

5. This song by Lisa Hannigan:

In fact, this might be my favorite music video EVER.

This might be my favorite picture I've ever taken

2009-04-15T07:33:00.000-07:00

San Francisco's Ocean Beach, Dusk, April 2009

You change your mind like a girl changes clothes

2009-04-12T21:51:00.000-07:00

This weekend has been kind of emotionally ridiculous. I can't even begin to put it together into any kind of coherent narrative. (I just quoted Katy Perry in my subject line -- THAT'S the kind of weekend I've had).

Stupid things:

1. Completely frying my face in the sun 2 days before I have to be on camera for videos that will go out to thousands of kids. Lovely.

2. Boys. Especially ones who are hot and then cold all of a sudden. And, while I'm at it, ones who don't get the hint that I broke things off for a good reason and I ain't gonna change my mind.

Good things:

1. I did at least have one of those lovely days where you just go where the spirit takes you. I went to the Marin Headlands for the first time:

Ocean Beach, too:

And Land's End at Sunset. Gorgeous!

EDT 5/12/09 to eliminate some content I decided I really didn't want out there.

Dear Dude #4

2009-04-09T19:19:00.000-07:00

Dear Dude,

There is so much wrong with this email I don't even know where to begin.

From: Crazy dude who I am kind enough to not name

To: Me

Date received: April 9, 2009

Subject: what it do !! :)

Welcome to match. Com my name is XXXXX and I'd like to know if I
match you be cause are a hotly

xoxo,

Chris

Daily Dose of Gratitude #45

2009-04-09T10:35:00.000-07:00

1. An after-work walk through the Presidio.

2. Southern manners.

3. The view of the city at night, rows of sparkling lights running up and down the hills.

4. A really good Americano to start my day.

5. Making connections to finally get my crafty business off the ground. (Anyone want to buy a handmade yoga bag, coffee cup cozy, etc?)

Daily Dose of Gratitude #44

2009-03-31T16:08:00.000-07:00

1. Fire-colored poppies, springing up all along the side of the road.

2. Yoga class NOT getting moved to 6am from 6:30.

3. I love the new color of my bedroom, even if the trim did end up a little wonky.

4. A vase full of unruly lilacs, the smell wafting through my entire house.

5. February gas bill, which includes heat: $36. (The Midwesterner in me is astonished that this is even possible!)

6. Tarragon.

Dear Dude #3

2009-03-30T12:50:00.001-07:00

Dear Dude,

I am a friendly kinda girl. Really, I am. And I'm doing this whole online dating thing because I want to meet people. But, honestly, you're kinda freaking me out with this whole over-eagerness thing.

Emailing me once and then responding to any emails I send you = perfectly appropriate. Emailing me 7 times to my one email to you = woah -- back off, buddy! Also, if I don't respond 3 times in a row when you try to chat request me on Match, and then follow-up by actually turning off chat, so that you can't request me anymore, that is NOT an invitation for you to email me with your yahoo chat address, phone number, and facebook name at least 3 times.

So, to review: some excitement about my profile and eagerness to meet me = charming. A 12-1 ratio of your attempts to contact me to my responses = stalker.

xoxoxo,

Chris

(And, BTW, the folks at Match really need to get on this issue. I've set it so that this guy can't contact me at all through Match, which is easy enough, and he doesn't have my personal email or phone number or anything. But there's no way to set it on Match so that he can't see my profile anymore. And, honestly, it kinda creeps me out that he continues to look at my profile often enough that he's usually near the top of the first page of "whose viewed me" when I log in. Ewww. )

Daily dose of gratitude #43

2009-03-25T09:32:00.000-07:00

1. Hiking plus beer plus cupcakes plus excellent company on a sunshiny California day.

2. That slightly swoony feeling you get when you're excited about someone new in your life.

3. Finishing painting the bedroom, finally, even if I can't put the room back together yet, since one set of bookshelves died a horrible death during the painting process.

4. Getting to read young adult lit for work.

5. My lovely new mid-century modern fabric cabinet, just $10 at the thrift store. (Pictures soon)

5 Surefire Ways to Make a Girl Uncomfortable on Your First Date

2009-03-24T14:33:00.001-07:00

1. Ask her to meet you in a hotel. There's just something a little "pretty woman" about meeting a stranger in a hotel lobby.

2. Order an frou-frou girly drink from the bar and actually call it a "cocktail." Also, have a fluffy little dog, talk about how you almost wore a pink shirt today, and tell your date about how this older european man once cruised you and then tried to pick you up at a museum. Because every girl wants to worry that her date just might be batting for the other team.

3. Take her to a ridiculously expensive restaurant for dinner. Write this down: taking a girl you've never met to a place where she can't even offer to pay half the bill -- not cool. Because, well, a $40 entree is a crapload of money for those of us who work in education. (Or am I the only girl in the world who actually offers to pay on the first date?)

4. Lunge across the table in the middle of dinner at very fancy restaurant and try to shove your tongue down your date's throat. Yes, I know you are buying me a very nice dinner, but can I at least eat it before you expect me to make out with you?

5. When your date drops you off at home afterwards, introduce her to the above-mentioned little fluffy dog and then try to kiss her, again, with the dog in your arms trying to lick her face. Mmm. Dog slobber. Sexy.

(I should say that this guy was actually very nice, despite the awkwardness. But, c'mon, what's the fun in online dating if you can't make poke a little good-natured fun at your dates for the whole internet to read? :-P )

Dear Dude #2

2009-03-18T10:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Dude,

I would like you better if you didn't come from the same (very small) town as my ex-boyfriend. I know YOU can't help that, but WTF, universe -- are you trying to mess with my head?

xoxoxo

Chris

Dear Dude

2009-03-17T16:56:00.000-07:00

Dear Dude,

If you don't want to date women who live outside of the city limits of San Francisco because "it's like a whole other world up there," don't put in your online dating profile that you are looking for women who live within 55 miles of San Francisco. mmmmkay? All of us lovely ladies who live in that "whole other world" thank you for not wasting our time. (And, BTW, you seem kinda full of yourself, anyway).

xoxoxo

Chris

On Diving Back Into the Dating Pool

2009-03-16T09:02:00.000-07:00

So last week I decided that it was time for me to dive back into the dating pool. And since I'm beyond the point of believing that Mr. Right is just suddenly going to show up on my doorstep one day (though wouldn't it be lovely if he did), I'm doing online dating.

Now, I've done this whole online dating thing before. I was really reluctant to try it, but my friend Laura finally convinced me a couple years ago that the worst thing that could happen was that I'd have some funny stories with which to amuse my office mates. (Isn't it odd how the non-single folks are always looking to laugh at their single friends' dating foibles?) And she was mostly right. I haven't ended up on any dates with major assholes or crazy dudes. Mostly, the men I've met have been perfectly nice guys, even when there was obviously no chemistry. Some of them have been blindingly boring, but that particular trait certainly isn't restricted to men you meet online. And, in fact, last time I did online dating, my first date was actually with my ex, D, who I ended up dating for well over a year. Beginners luck? Maybe.

Anyway, I think getting back into dating is a lot like getting into an icy cold swimming pool. If you try to ease yourself in, it only prolongs the agony. You're better off just diving in all at once. So that's what I've been trying to do. I signed up for Match again last week, and I've been emailing with WAY too many people. (I think I need get better at being not-so-nice - unless someone is blatantly out of the range of what I'm looking for, I feel this pressure to respond even if my initial reaction is . . . eh). Had 2 dates this weekend, one of which was a dud, one of which was second-date worthy, I think. We'll see if he calls. The whole thing is a little overwhelming, frankly. There's like this whole other language you have to learn-- winking and daily matches and (argh) even instant messaging when you're logged into the site now (because it's not awkward enough to have to ignore an email from someone who's a lousy match, now you have to ALSO ignore his IMs). I have a hard time keeping up with it all. So, a big I'm sorry to all the men whose emails I've ignored in the past week -- it's not you, it's me. Well, actually, in some cases, it totally IS you -- you're creepy. And with that in mind, here are some tidbits of advice for the men on online dating sites, confidential from me to you. You can thank me later:

1. If you are my father's age, I am NOT going to date you. Do you see where 40 is my top-end cutoff? Yeah, I mean it. I am sure you are a very nice man, but I don't have any daddy issues, thank you very much. Plus, shouldn't you really be looking for someone far blonder and bustier than me to take along on your cruise through midlife crisis-ville?

2. If you don't post a picture, I assume that you are married, and I don't do married men. Oh, and if you really ARE married, SAYING in your profile that you are looking for a "woman on the side" because your marriage sucks? Probably NOT a good way to pick up chicks. I'm just sayin' is all.

3. Do not fill your add with pictures of you 10 years ago and 15 pounds lighter. If we ever do meet, I'm going to FIGURE OUT that you don't actually look like your photos. And then I'll just be pissed. Dishonesty falls near the bottom of my list of traits I look for in a guy - somewhere between reeking of B.O. and spending the whole date talking about your ex and how great she was.

4. Also don't post pictures in your profile of you with girls hanging all over you. I get it, you're popular. And I'm sure that some of these ladies are just friends. But I'm equally sure that you have TOTALLY made out with some of them. And when I'm just beginning to date someone, I'd prefer to blithely pretend that he's never swapped spit with anyone else, ever, in his life.

5. Finally, when you email me, don't say "Hi, how are you?" and nothing else. My profile is full of things I like to do, pictures of me in cool places, and interesting tidbits about my life. Ask me about one of them. Or tell me something interesting about you. It's this thing people do called con-ver-sa-tion. Y'heard of it? Seriously, boys, if you can't manage that basic human interaction over email, it makes me fear that a coffee date with you would end with me excusing myself to the ladies room halfway through and never returning.

Occasional Dose of Gratitude #42

2009-03-10T10:03:00.000-07:00

Ah, yes. Slackin' on the gratitude over here. Actually, I'm not slacking on the gratitude at all, just on the posting of it.

1. Making a commitment to myself and keeping it.

2. The physical and emotional high I get after yoga class. (I seriously feel like I could fly! Who needs drugs?)

3. Letting myself have an occasional soy latte from Starbucks, even though I kind of think they're the devil (Starbucks, not soy lattes).

4. The steam room at the gym.

5. Light outside till 7pm! (Even if it means that it is middle-of-the-night-black when I wake up in the mornings right now)

Daily Dose of Gratitude #41

2009-03-06T20:30:00.000-08:00

1. Girl Scout Cookies. I might be a little bit in love with Samoas. Especially after they've lived in the freezer for a few hours. Yum!

2. Finishing my handmade yoga bag. So pretty!

3. The yummy scent of fabric softener sheets.

4. This mash-up of NIN's Closer and 50-cents "In The Club"

5. Springing forward (even if it does mean that getting up in the mornings is going to be harder for a week or so, I'm SO EXCITED to have more light at the end of the day -- plenty for me to go back to my after-work bike rides)

Daily Dose of Gratitude #40

2009-03-06T09:52:00.001-08:00

1. Overcoming your fear and doing something you never thought you'd be able to do.

2. Being able to do a couple real push-ups and more than 10 on my knees, after not being able to do even a single one just 3 weeks ago.

3. The Salsa bar at Mi Pueblo.

4. I'm done with the huge proofreading project I've been working on. D-O-N-E, done!

5. A neon-pink sunrise on my way to work.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #39

2009-03-04T22:30:00.000-08:00

1. Tonight's episode of Lost. Oooooh, was it good. I heart Sawyer and Juliet together, and Kate better not mess it up!

2. Sunshine peeking out after days and days and days of rain.

3. Strawberry gelato.

4. Warm cat, asleep on my feet.

5. My favorite neighborhood cat greeting me at the door when I got home. I think she belongs to someone a few houses down, but she is always outside. I have no idea what her real name is, but I call her Sophie. I secretly want her to be mine, all mine.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #38

2009-03-03T21:15:00.000-08:00

1. Another awesome yoga class this morning. I almost did a headstand all on my own. I got up, but could only hold it for about half a second. But still, getting closer.

2. Learning how to fall properly when I fail at headstands in yoga, so that I don't end up with a repeat of the badly bruised knee I got yesterday (seriously, my whole kneecap? Bright purple. Actually it's kind of cool :-)

3. Playing hooky from the laundromat because of the rain and spending that time sewing myself a new yoga bag, instead. (Of course, this means that I STILL have no clean laundry. It's a good thing I own a lot of pairs of underwear!)

4. Craving veggies and making myself a huge rice bowl full of veggie goodness for dinner.

5. A phone call from home.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #37

2009-03-02T19:46:00.001-08:00

1. The fact that I have been to the gym 9 times in the past 10 days. Go me!

2. The fact that my go-to coping mechanism for severe stress is going to the gym, at this point in my life, rather than the far more destructive behaviors I would have turned to in the past.

3. The steam room at my new gym. I think I might be addicted. The only thing that would make it better is if it were a eucalyptus steam room, like they have at the spa at the Fairmont Sonoma.

4. Wearing bright colors on a gloomy winter day.

5. My desk at work being cleaner than it has been in months, thanks to an organizing spree I went on this afternoon.

Where I Wish I Was Right Now

2009-03-02T10:08:00.001-08:00

Catching snowflakes, Lake Tahoe, February 2009.

A couple weeks ago, I was lucky enough to get to spend a weekend with these lovely ladies (and two of their equally lovely, but blog-less significant others) in Lake Tahoe. I've been terribly remiss in writing about it (surprise, surprise), but what a blast. We ate excessive amounts of fantastic food, drank lots of Bourbon and wine, knitted, watched a zillion episodes of How I Met Your Mother and, oh yeah, played in the snow.

Don't Kristin and Moose look all snazzy and experienced-like in their snow gear? This was the first time snowshoeing for both of them, yet somehow I was the only one who ended up falling on my ass (I'll spare you that picture). Alas, I have many talents, but graceful I ain't. (Oh, and I love that the dog actually seems to be catching some air in the above picture. A rare galumph-free moment?)

Oh yeah, and did I mention that there was a LOT of snow. Like, a lot a lot?

That's the view out the sliding glass door of the house we stayed in. See those big, fluffy snowflakes? Pretty. Of course, they're much nicer when you're inside in your flannel PJs, knitting in hand, sitting in front of a fragrantly smoking fireplace than they are when you're stuck in the car for 7 hours on the drive up. 7 hours! To drive 180 miles! That's an average speed of just 25 mph. And keep in mind, the first 100 miles of the trip were before I had even hit any snow. In October, the same trip took me barely 3. Anyway, see that grayish smudge behind the house below ours? That's Lake Tahoe. It's, like, less than a mile away but you can't even see a hint of it in this picture. So, yeah, lots of snow. Yay, snow!

This trip was, for me, also another lesson in being brave and diving into the things that scare me. I'd made it to Tahoe a couple times in warmer months, but this was my first time going in the winter. It's shameful, really, that I waited until my third winter here to get up there. But I was terrified of having to put chains on my tires. I grew up in Michigan, so I am no stranger to snow. In fact, I secretly kind of like driving in the snow. But out here, there are chain requirements in the winter. Basically, you always have to carry tire chains, and whenever it starts snowing heavily, you have to put them on unless you drive a 4 wheel drive vehicle with special traction tires. I think this is, at least in part, an over-reaction on California's part. Even in the worst of the snow, I never really felt like I needed the chains, though they did help a bit. But on another level, it makes perfect sense to require them, since most Californians didn't learn to drive in the snow, as I did, at 15. I think the chains are meant more to counter the stupidity of people who just don't know how to drive in the snow. When you have chains on your car, you CAN'T drive fast, even if you want to. The max speed with those puppies on is maybe 30-35 mph.

So anyway, I'd never put chains on my car before. I didn't even own chains. I was terrified of putting the damn things on wrong and completely screwing up my car. (You hear horror stories all the time of people improperly installing chains and ending up with thousands of dollars in damage when they come loose and wrap around the axle, etc.) But I've also been desperately missing snow -- playing in the powder on Mt. Hood over Christmas gave me a real taste for it.

And then I got this very generous last-minute invite to Tahoe for the weekend. And how much would I regret it if I didn't dive in and take advantage of a great chance? So it was really, really, REALLY time to just suck it up and deal with the tire chains.

And, as so often happens, all that anxiety was basically for naught. First, the chains only cost me $35, half of what I expected, and it was remarkably easy to get the right ones. I just wrote down all the numbers printed on my tires and the guy at Kragen Auto Parts gave me exactly what I needed. Second, I got the cable-style chains, since the wheels on my car are too close to the wheel wells for big fat chains. And as it turns out, cables are not actually all that hard to install. I practiced in the Trader Joes Parking lot before I ever got on the road. You basically just drape the cables over your front tires, tucking one end under the back of the tire, then drive a few inches in reverse to get them under the tires. Then you hook both ends together with a fairly simple hook-and-eye mechanism. It was a bit trickier installing them on the side of the road in the dark, with sleet pouring down. But still do-able. Next time I'll make sure I've packed my camping headlamp so I can see better.

Anyway, I got the chains installed properly, and made it to Tahoe safely. Though did I mention that it took me 7 hours? 7 hours ! Ugh. But you know what, 7 hours doesn't seem like so long when you finally arrive, to a beautiful house on the lake to a crackling fire, a big bowl of hot soup, and huge glass of wine waiting for you. Not to mention some lovely friends.

Anyway, I think Tahoe in winter suits me just fine and I can't wait to get back up there.

Lesson learned, universe. Being brave and diving in can lead to some pretty damn cool stuff.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #36

2009-03-01T20:05:00.000-08:00

1. An amazing 90-minute yoga class this morning that has left me feeling spectacular all day.

2. The fantastic new fleece I got at the Nike outlet today for only $20, thanks to fortuitous timing. (It had been in the hold bin for weeks, apparently, as the price dropped lower and lower, and I got there just as they put it back out on the shelves.)

3. Long-sleeve workout shirts with thumbholes so you can keep the sleeves from riding up in the cold.

4. Buffalo Chicken Chili with blue cheese sprinkled over the top. (Rachael Ray annoys me, and I often find her recipes too cutesy, but this one is dee-licious).

5. All my laundry, sorted and ready to go to the laundromat tomorrow.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #35

2009-02-28T22:18:00.000-08:00

1. Full-to-the-brim and then some waterfalls, thanks to all the rain we've had lately (finally!)

2. New sheets

3. Popcorn with chili-lime butter.

4. Shiny almost-new bike shoes, handed down from a friend.

5. Making plans for tomorrow for some much-needed down time. I plan on not leaving the house other than for yoga at 11. I'm going to catch up on a lot of sewing/knitting (birthday gifts for my niece, a much overdue xmas gift for my very patient brother-in-law, a yoga bag for myself). (And for right now, we'll pretend that I don't also have to get some work done tomorrow for, y'know, the job that pays the bills).

Daily Dose of Gratitude #34

2009-02-27T08:59:00.001-08:00

Back after a brief hiatus. It's been a rough week, in ways that I think it's best not to write about here in any detail. Suffice it to say that my parents' visit did not go well. I hadn't really planned on doing the gratitude thing beyond a month, but frankly, I'm feeling pretty emotionally destroyed at the moment, and anything that helps me stay positive is probably a good thing.

1. The spam email I got this morning with the header: Do you feel like a giant with a midget in your pants. How can you not be grateful for a header like that? :-)

2. The killer yoga classes at my new gym. Oh my goodness, do I ever hurt. But in a good way. And I did a headstand today! (With help, but still -- a headstand!)

3. Buying the yarn to knit my first sweater. I'm making this one, the Loppem sweater by Norah Gaughan. Isn't it lovely?

4. Coffee with Silk Vanilla Soymilk.

5. A good hair day.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #33

2009-02-19T15:06:00.000-08:00

1. A birthday mix cd from a friend. (I love, love, love mix CDs!)

2. Avocado on sandwiches. (Though the very first time I had avocado, in college, I didn't like it. Kara L. showed me how to eat it straight from the shell with a spoon and it was just . . . weird. Now I know that it just needed salt and lime :-)

3. Parents who love me enough (and whom I get along with well enough) for them to fly across the country for a visit.

4. Chicken Piccata.

5. Google Reader.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #32

2009-02-18T20:30:00.000-08:00

1. A super clean house, with freshly vacuumed floors.

2. Sleeping on freshly washed sheets.

3. A chilled out birthday -- pizza, beer, and episodes of Freaks and Geeks.

4. The public library book sale -- books for a dollar an inch! (They just stack 'em all up and measure the height of the stack)

5. String cheese.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #31

2009-02-17T21:58:00.000-08:00

1. A birthday lunch with a friend who always makes me laugh.

2. Spending the day reading (and getting paid for it).

3. Perfect weather for wearing my polka dot wellies, at last.

4. A really good pilates class at my new gym.

5. Not having to pay for lunch or dinner on my birthday :-)

Daily Dose of Gratitude #s 28-30

2009-02-16T08:05:00.000-08:00

1. Lovely, generous friends who invite you on a fun-filled snow getaway at the last minute :-)

2. Being away from my computer for a whole weekend.

3. Successfully putting on tire chains for the first time, without having to pay the dudes in yellow jumpsuits $30 to do it. (That might be the hugest rip-off EVER, by the way. Seriously. I had never done the tire chain thing before, so it took me 20-30 minutes the first time. But once you've got it figured out, it takes less than 10 minutes)

4. Sitting in a hot-tub in the mountains, snowflakes tickling my nose.

5. Baileys and hot chocolate.

6. Valentines day dinner with fabulous food, friends, and laughter (and none of the usual valentines bullshit)

7. A cuddly gray cat who is oh-so-happy you're home.

8. Catching snowflakes on your tongue.

9. Stopping at Ikea on the way home from Tahoe. (And, better yet, only spending $20)

10. The space heater that keeps my poor toes warm in my chilly office.

11. That the fancy-pants new gym near my house has been added to the gym discounts I get through my health insurance.

12. Okay, screw it, I was grateful all weekend, but listing 15 things all at once is killing me. So, my final bit of gratitude for the weekend is giving myself a pass on having to stick to this daily gratitude thing too closely :-)

Daily Dose of Gratitude #27

2009-02-12T19:41:00.001-08:00

1. Dancing around my living room to happy, poppy music (For the first time in weeks. Could this be the start of the light at the end of the tunnel?)

2. The runner's high you get after a really good workout.

3. Tortellini (The word itself AND the food :-) )

4. Seeing something you worked really, really hard on (and that you're very proud of) finally coming to fruition.

5. The word bamboozle.

Hee

2009-02-12T11:59:00.000-08:00

This totally almost made me snort hot tea out of my nose. Look at the the fuzzy little baby piggie!

more animals

Daily Dose of Gratitude #26

2009-02-11T20:34:00.000-08:00

1. Driving to work on a foggy morning, the trees ghostly skeletons in the mist.

2. Book club with good friends, a good book, good wine, and good food.

3. The way the cat runs away in a panic when I sneeze really loudly. (Wait, is it mean to find that totally amusing?)

4. Free internet, even if it's sometimes flaky.

5. A fresh pair of contact lenses. (They never feel quite as nice again as on the first day).

Daily Dose of Gratitude #25

2009-02-10T15:39:00.001-08:00

1. A lunch hour spent playing with the doggies at the Humane Society across the street from my office. I think I'm in love . . . (Follow that link and look at Adelaide. Is she not just the sweetest thing EVER?)

2. My contact lenses coming in at the eye doctor overnight, when they told me it could be a week or two. Hurray for no longer having to wear my scratched up glasses all the time because I've run out of contacts!

3. The smell of made-from-scratch lemon bars baking in the kitchen.

4. An enormous vase of eucalyptus branches wafting their spicy-mint smell throughout my house.

5. Living just 30 minutes from here:

And a bonus thing I am grateful for today:

6. The robins-egg blue kitchen timer I bought on impulse at Anthropologie in December. It's magnetic, so it sticks to the fridge, and it trills merrily when time's up. It's one of the small things in life that totally makes me happy (and at $12, it's about the only thing I can afford at Anthro :-)

Daily Dose of Gratitude #24

2009-02-09T16:38:00.001-08:00

1. A sleepy kitty in the afternoon sun.

2. Paperclips.

3. Half Sour pickles. (Both for the brilliant green color and the delicious taste).

4. Spending the afternoon alternately dozing and editing work stuff in bed. Somehow work just seems less like work when you're doing it in your fuzzy flannel PJs. (Though the reason for being home all afternoon, not so good -- nasty migraine from the combo of the uber-bright lights the eye doctor uses to examine your eyes and then driving after my eyes had been dilated.)

5. Forcing myself to be grateful for the world around me, even when it's not easy.

Is it weird to be grateful for gratitude? I've started to post a few times about my thoughts about the experience of posting things I'm grateful for every day, but I can't quite figure out what it is I want to say. I guess just that going through a breakup is TOUGH and I've been crying a lot lately. A LOT. I miss D. far more than I ever expected to, since our breakup felt in the days and weeks leading up to it like such the right thing. But forcing myself to slow down and look for the good in every day has actually given me at least a few moments of reprieve on even the worst days. And for that, I am grateful. (I'd also be grateful if someone would please tell me that I'm cute, smart, funny, and generally a fabulous catch. And that, better yet, you know JUST the guy for me and you're gonna send him my way. :-) (uh, have I just guaranteed that lots of crazy dudes are going to come out of the woodwork and send me creepy emails?)

Daily Dose of Gratitude #23

2009-02-08T18:52:00.001-08:00

1. Tree climbing on a blustery afternoon.

2. A produce drawer full of lovely, healthy veggies.

3. My new knitting needle case.

4. That the neighbor who got taken away in an ambulance last night is going to be okay.

5. Bright green olives that taste mild and buttery, like the canned black olives I used to stick on my fingertips as a kid, only better.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #22

2009-02-07T12:50:00.000-08:00

1. Spending the entire morning curled up in bed, lost in a great book.

2. Narrowly missing running over a orange-footed salamander not once but twice on my bike today.

3. The way the hills around here turn a green so verdant it almost hurts your eyes after even a day's rain.

4. Mud puddles.

5. Arm warmers.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #21

2009-02-06T20:15:00.000-08:00

1. The brilliant green of the moss on the oak trees outside my office, after a nice hard rain.

2. Fast-drying socks and pants (since I managed to step in a lake disguised as a puddle this morning on my way to work. I was DRENCHED. Like, pouring a cup of water out of my shoes drenched).

3. Sunshine breaking through the clouds in the afternoon.

4. Oh hell. I'm really, really trying to be non-hatey toward my hippie neighbors and their very loud noodly music tonight, but it's just not working. Ummmmm . . . I'm grateful, at least, that it's not really bad R & B that they're playing at top volume.

5. The salsa bar at Mi Pueblo. :-)

Salt Point State Park

2009-02-06T06:45:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was in dire need of some nature. So I got on Highway 1 and drove the hour and a half up to Salt Point State Park.

Salt Point is on CA Highway 1, 15 or 20 miles north of Jenner, and it's a pretty amazing place. The drive there is a bit nerve-wracking -- lots of intense curves, with drops of hundreds of feet down to some very violent looking waves. I've driven up there twice now, and twice I've seen nasty accidents along the way. The first time, I actually watched a motorcyclist take a curve too fast and crash into the stone wall on the inside of the curve (damn lucky he didn't go over the cliff's edge). His bike was totalled like I've never seen before, bleeding green and black goo all over the road, but the biker somehow walked away from the crash unscathed. And then this last time, I drove past a minivan literally on its side in the road, also from what looked like a curve taken too fast.

Also, they're not kidding with the cow crossing signs. This is not the best picture, but that cow is literally just a couple feet from the road (with a huge drop off to its left, btw). And there were several actually in the road on my most recent drive up. And let me tell you, they're NOT afraid of you -- they just lollygag along until they damn well feel like getting out of your way!

Salt Point is home to a massive kelp forest, and is designated as an underwater park. From the surface, this doesn't look like much -- mostly the water just seems to have an inordinate amount of seaweed floating around the surface. But that's actually the top of the kelp strands, which grow all the way to the surface of the water. If you're lucky, you might see some sea otters floating around in the kelp, chowing down on the abundant shellfish. Apparently, from underwater, the view is quite amazing, and you'll often see SCUBA divers there. Also, folks diving for abalone, which is considered to be a delicacy by many. (I've never had it -- California law places strict limits on how much you can forage and I believe even prohibits the selling of it.)

Even without exploring underwater, though, you can enjoy the benefits of this amazing underwater park. Tide-pooling is fantastic here -- with candy-colored anenomes, starfish, tons of mussels, etc. I usually try to bring a tide chart with me, so I can be sure to hit one of the mostly-deserted pocket coves around low tide. Fisk Mill Cove is a personal favorite, but there are many unnamed coves, as well. You often have to pick your way down a very steep path to get to the beaches, but I think it's worth it. I could literally spend hours hopping from rock to rock, checking out what the receding tide has uncovered.

As for hiking, well the trails are poorly marked, to say the least, and definitely not well-maintained. You do a lot of skidding down hills slick with fallen pine needles and leaping over damp gullies like a not-so-graceful mountain goat. So, if you're a nervous hiker or prone to twisted ankles, you might want to skip the hiking. If not, just keep the ocean on your left on the way out, right on the way back (or vice versa), and you'll be fine. You're never far from the water on any of the many trails that wind through the woods, and anyway, you won't want to be out of sight of the spectacular coastline here for long.

The rocks on the cliffs bear more than a passing resemblance to swiss cheese. This is called Tufa Rock, and Wikipedia tells me that it's created by deposits of calcium carbonate from water with high calcium content. I've seen similar rock down along the coast near Santa Cruz, but not on most of the Sonoma and Marin coastline.

There was also a time when this was a fairly active shipping hub (mostly lumber, I think). Hiking along the tops of the cliffs near Fisk Mill Cove, you can see old, rusted metal hooks protruding from the rock, which boats would use to tie up when they got near the shore. Here's an old survey marker from the tops of the cliffs, as well:

Also, at one point in the distant past, there were farmers that lived on this land. There's still an old abandoned shed (perhaps an outhouse?) at one point along the trail, and tiny little graveyard, perched on a bluff above the ocean. Not a one of my pictures of the gravestones turned out, but here's the view from the burial area:

Not a bad place to spend eternity, eh?

On this visit, I also saw a lot of fishermen, taking advantage of the low tide to walk out far onto the rocks and get a prime fishing spot. I did a little bit of wandering about out there, but I have to say, it felt really dangerous. The surf is definitely not mild in this area, and where the fishermen in the picture are standing is often underwater. Even at low tide, they were being splashed with the spray of waves hitting the rocks, hard. And if a particularly big wave sweeps you off the rocks around here, you're pretty well screwed. There's a reason folks don't swim in this area, y'know?

I don't know what Salt Point is like in the summer, but this time of year it was mostly abandoned. I saw only one other hiker in the several hours I was there. Oh, and if you time it so you're driving home around sunset, the sunset view of the beach near Jenner is spectacular:

Daily Dose of Gratitude #20

2009-02-05T12:20:00.000-08:00

1. Rain, finally. Especially super-fine rain that looks like snow as it's coming down.

2. Tall boots with thick cabled knee socks and a blue dress with tiny white polka dots. I feel very prairie-girl chic today.

3. The vibrant green smell of a florist's shop.

4. Making new years resolutions for the first time in many years and actually doing a pretty good job with them so far this year (Work harder at making new friends so that nearly everyone I know locally isn't someone I work with -- check. Get into the city more -- check. Do a better job of keeping in touch with old friends -- check (thank you, Facebook))

5. The giddy glow of a newly-in-love friend.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #19

2009-02-04T15:34:00.000-08:00

1. Lost. Tonight's episode was fantastic. Yay!

2. Bourbon blondies (tonight's batch was with chocolate chips, crystallized ginger, and walnuts. Yum)

3. Homemade lasagna

4. Bourbon and Gingerale with a lemon wedge.

5. Cuddly cats.

25 Things About Me

2009-02-03T08:33:00.000-08:00

So, I finally got pressured into doing the whole 25 random things about me meme on Facebook. And since I went to all the trouble to actually think of 25 things and write 'em up, I figure I might as well get double mileage out of them. (Those of you who also know me on Facebook can think of this as an encore, since I know you enjoyed these so much the first time!)

1. I grew up next door to a monastery -- in Michigan!

2. I carry a book (or two) with me everywhere I go, just in case. A notebook and pen, too.

3. Nicknames I have been called: Spaz, Sunshine, Mouse, Bunny, Wiggleworm, Raspberry Badass. (How can one person be nicknamed both Mouse and Spaz, I ask you?)

4. When I lived in Chicago, I was an extra for the Will Ferrell movie Stranger Than Fiction. You can't see me in the final cut, though. Also, another movie was filmed on my block that same summer, and John Goodman's trailer was set up in front of my living room window. He is a big, big man.

5. I am completely incapable of putting on make-up. Well, I can kind of do mascara. I've reached a point in my life where I'd love to actually learn how, but it's sort of embarrassing to admit that you are almost 33 and can't apply lipstick properly.

6. My favorite childhood stuffed animal, Doggy, is still on my bed now. He was given to me by my friend Bethany for my birthday in Kindergarten. And yes, I was an extremely uncreative stuffed animal namer at 5.

7. Speaking of stuffed animals, when I was a kid, I had a zillion of them. So many that they couldn't all fit in my bed at once. So I created a chart and checked off each time one of them shared my bed so that they would all get equal time and not feel left out.

8. I am much more a dog person than a cat person, but right now my only pet is a cat. Her name's Violet, and I've had her since just a couple months after I graduated from college.

9. Since college, I have lived in 13 different houses/apartments.

10. Over the past few years, I have learned several old-fashioned domestic skills that I never thought I would: sewing, knitting, making jam and other preserves, making homemade chicken stock, etc. This year, I gave handmade holiday gifts to nearly everyone on my list.

11. I am a major procrastinator. I get my best and fastest work done under pressure of an immediate deadline. In college, I once wrote 10 papers in a week at the end of a semester. I drank a lot of Mountain Dew and ate a lot of potato chips to make it through that week. I have NOT, however, ever pulled an all-nighter.

12. I really love hiking. The hike to the top of Half Dome from Yosemite Valley is my favorite ever -- it's 17 miles round trip, 10,000 feet total elevation change (5000 up and 5000 back down) and it took me 12 hours to do it -- pretty much from dawn till dusk. You also have to pull yourself up a sheer rock face on cables at the end of the hike. People die there every year. That part was really scary, but I can't wait to do it again.

13. I almost always name my pets after characters from books: Violet is named after Violet Beauregard from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (and also because she was very shy -- a shrinking violet -- when she was a kitten). I have also had pets named Holden, Scout, Duncan (from Macbeth -- this was a family pet and my mom wouldn't let me name him Macbeth), Rowsby Wolf (from Watership Down).

14. I was engaged once. We broke up a few months before the wedding, and the planning we did was such hell that I've pretty much decided that when I do get married, I'll elope and say my vows on the top of a mountain somewhere -- maybe at Taft Point in Yosemite. I still want to be dressed like a princess, though.

15. I ran a record store for 4 years after college, before returning to grad school. It's definitely not like Empire Records or High Fidelity, but I loved it. Also, the free CDs and concert tickets I got were great perks. Oh, and I secretly really enjoyed busting shoplifting teenagers and making them cry.

16. I arrange my books on my bookshelves by color -- all the red books together, then all the orange, etc. I just think they're prettier that way.

17. From 2002 to 2007, I lived in 5 different states -- Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois, Maryland, and California. (7 if you include the two states I lived in for only a month each -- Texas and Pennsylvania.) I hated Maryland and liked Texas a lot more than I expected to. If I could live anywhere in the country other than where I live right now, it would be Austin.

18. Some of my favorite things I've ever eaten are: Blueberry-Thyme gelato from Capigiro Gelato in Philly (and the Pineapple-Cilantro was pretty amazing, too), Polenta from Volpi's in Petaluma, Pizza at the Point Reyes Station Cafe, the seared duck at The Girl and The Fig in Sonoma, the hamburger at Lovely Hula Hands in Portland. Also, wild strawberries, black raspberries, and mulberries from the woods by my parents' house.

19. I was supposed to be born on Groundhog Day in 1976. I was over 2 weeks late. I pretty much haven't been late in the 33 years since -- lateness is one of my biggest pet peeves.

20. I am completely non-functional on less than 7-9 hours of sleep a night. I can survive for one night with less, but after that, I get weepy and irrational and I am basically useless. Same thing happens if I don't eat at least every 3-4 hours.

21. As a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. I have been to Space Camp. Twice.

22. I despise talking to strangers on the telephone. I'll do everything I can to avoid calling to make appointments, order carryout, or otherwise speak to someone I don't know on the phone. In fact, I chose both my dentist and my mechanic in large part because they allow me to make appointments online. I don't even really like calling people I KNOW on the phone, unless I'm super-comfortable with them.

23. I am much more of a morning person than a night owl, and I always have been. I have clear memories of going to sleep in the summer while it was still hours till sunset when I was a kid. Even after I was old enough to stay up much later. One of my favorite apartments was one in Boston where the morning sun would come in my window and wake me up at about 5am in the summer. Now, I am often in bed by 9:15 at night.

24. I believe that Las Vegas is the living incarnation of hell on earth. I spent a grand total of about 15 hours there last year and I couldn't wait to leave. I cannot understand why anyone would want to get married there.

25. Even though I love living in California, I really, really miss fall and spring in Michigan. Nothing can compare to brilliant leaves against deep blue skies in October and the apple-blossom orgy that is May in Michigan. And even though I don't miss the looooooong wait for spring, I do believe that it made me appreciate nice weather more than I do now, when I get it nearly all of the time.

Daily Dose of Gratitude #18

2009-02-03T07:40:00.000-08:00

1. Having a job that is flexible enough that I can come in a little later on those mornings when I just cannot drag my ass out of bed or when I really just need to sit down for breakfast at home for once.

2. Magnolia blossoms.

3. And while we're talking about flowers, also those brilliant yellow flowering trees that are all along the highway in CA starting about this time of year. I posted about this a year or so ago and someone told me what they were called, but I've already forgotten . . .

4. Winning something cool -- A few weeks ago, I won this glove mold from Bluebell Bazaar on Etsy, thanks to Liz at A Giveaway a Day. I'm using it to store rings, necklaces, etc at the moment. It makes me smile. I kind of want a whole herd of them on my dresser, like in the picture.

5. People's 25 things lists on Facebook. I'm learning such fun things about my friends!

Daily Dose of Gratitude #17

2009-02-02T19:55:00.000-08:00

I have been doing this daily gratitude thing for well over two weeks now. I have to say, some days it's easy, and some days it's just . . . not. Today is a not day. I used to think that Sunday nights were the loneliest time of the week, but lately, Mondays have been even harder. Anyway, forcing myself to be grateful, dammit!

1. Low-maintenance hair. (I didn't realize just how completely sick and tired I was of my long hair until I cut it all off!)

2. home cooked risotto with scallops, fennel, and shitake mushrooms. Yum

(This is really, really, really hard today. I kind of feel like either crying or pitching a fit more than being grateful today . . .)

3. My red fleece jacket.

4. Pine cones bigger than my head, found on my adventures.

5. Tank-top weather in February.