Heinz Varieties

Yeah, someone had a birthday. Guess how old he is?
One present was a beard trimmer--so soon he might look less like a prospector!

It's How Many Years?

Happy Anniversary!

My sister has been married for a long time. Long enough to shed the apartment. Long enough for the community garden to be a distant memory. Long enough that the house has changed color, inside and out. Long enough for trees to have come and gone in their yard. Long enough for the family to have increased and grown from baby toys to clarinets.

Here's hoping you shared memories of your wedding day as you celebrated together today.

The Frog Prince

aka Peeping Tom.
Would you like wine with your frog legs, m'sieur? We recommend a nice Bordeaux.

This handsome little guy recently showed up in our pond. Having a pond has turned into an unexpected wildlife adventure.

It started with the peepers who usually live (and peep, loudly) from the irrigation ditch that runs through the greenbelt. Now that they have woken up and smelled the pondwater, they've moved down here. Although our pond is modest going on miniscule, it's apparently big enough for ducks to land in. A mallard couple swings by to check out the water quality and try the buffet. We did have three frogs; only one lonely amphibian remains. The others croaked. It's comforting to think of our dearly departed as incipient ducklings. It's the Circle of Life and we contributed by encouraging Zelda to get acquainted with the ducks, which is why we still have one frog left. She scared those quackers plenty and they haven't been back since.

Our frog prince is singing his heart out right now, hoping to attract some buddies from the greenbelt. We are hoping romance blooms along with the apple tree. We love pollywogs!

Silver State

My brother has been married for twenty-five years. Amazing how quickly the time has gone by!

He's my brother so it's much easier for me to think of the things he's done that drive me nuts..but I have to say that he made no mistake marrying my wonderful sister-in-law! I knew he must have been head-over-heels the first time I saw them together--they were wearing matching Mickey Mouse t-shirts.

They had the smallest wedding I've ever been to--but it was like watching a fairy tale come to life as they posed for their wedding photos. Happily ever after has included two great kids, new homes, life-threatening illnesses, furniture refinishing, losing parents too early, landscaping, gnomes, employment challenges, a few grey hairs and a couple extra pounds.

Twenty-five years later, they still have a twinkle in their eyes when they look at each other.

Opportunity Knocks

What's for dinner when the cupboard's bare? It's cold and blustery out as the storm front moves closer--how about some nice chicken noodle soup? Yummy!

Take three cans of soup, open them up, dump them in the big pot and add water. Listen to the wind howl outside.

Get another big pot, fill it with water, turn the burner on high until it boils. Add some nice whole wheat noodles (because we like lots of noodles in our soup) and cook them until done.

While the two pots are cooking, defrost the very last chicken breast (because you can never have too much chicken in chicken noodle soup). Decide that you'll strain out the cooked noodles when they're done and reuse that nice hot water to boil the poultry. Cut the chicken into five smaller pieces so it will cook faster.

Check the timer--the noodles still have five minutes before they're al dente--that's plenty of time to go upstairs and check my email before the bell starts dinging.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

Go downstairs and transfer the cooked noodles into the simmering canned soup. Turn around to get the chicken. Look blankly at the cutting board. Why is there just a wet juicy circle on the board? Wonder outloud where the chicken went.

Notice that Kharma suddenly has a very guilty look while Zelda just looks hopeful. Put the K-dog in timeout.

Add some curry powder to the soup instead and call the guys for dinner. Try to wipe that half-exasperated, half-proud dogmom smile off your face before they ask why you're grinning.

Naughty dog! (Grin.)

Frozen Lions

Well, it wasn't much of a storm so maybe March came in more like a kitty cat.

Still, the pond (filled to the brim from a day of drenching rains) froze over and the rocks were blanketed by a coat of the fluffy stuff. I love all the colors in the rippled, icy reflections.

And yes, it's a brilliantly sunny blue day. I love Nevada!

Canine Tic Tac Toe

Dog Biscuits!



Flavored with cheddar cheese. Kharma and Zelda prefer to eat them rather than play games.

Birthday Girl

Some people are just nice. Through-and-through nice. Kind and loving and sweet and funny and talented. And I'm lucky enough to be related to a wonderful sister-in-law who's all that and more.

Happy Birthday! Wishing you birthday cake with lots of taste and no calories. Presents that leave you smiling. Family hugs and kisses.

Goodbye, 2008

Puppies, remodeling, fence rebuilding, wide open spaces, friends, family, travel.

I had more photos to include especially JR's trips, I blew a few transitions there at the end and I wanted to add music to provide some ambiance as we looked back over our year. This will just have to do. I plan to be more organized NEXT year, which is almost here!

Snow in the Forecast

Note to self: look up the weather forecast in Labrador.

JR has had some cool and rainy weather, but it actually vacillated between snow and sleet today. Apparently helicopters work well in the weather, but get grounded when the winds blow upwards of thirty knots? mph? kph?

Whatever.

In other news, the fishing is brilliant there and he was able to acquire and cook some fresh cod. My experience in cod lies entirely with fish sticks dipped in catsup as a Friday staple--which means I totally abhor cod in any way, shape or form. He enjoyed his fish dinner and I'm glad I'm several thousand miles away.

I'm delighted that they have solved their eating dilemna. They return from the field around five each afternoon, however eating establishments and grocery stores close around 6 p.m. (or earlier if business is slow). I'm all in favor of closing up early and going home to the family and a nice dinner, but it's inconvenient for them after a long day in the field. I think they'll find that cooking for themselves actually saves them time and tastes better than the golden arches.

Lunch is totally easy since they are happy taking a sandwich and some crackers with them. Also, blueberry bushes grow as low as grass there and blueberries lie about for the taking and munching upon. Now that I could get jealous about, especially since I just paid seven dollars at Costco for a nice little bunch of them. I'd rather eat blueberries than chocolate!

Well, off to Google his location and find out about extended weather forecasts and other Canadian trivia.

Ike Goes North

Guess Canada is getting some wind, rain and cooler temperatures. I've managed to miss JR's last two nightly calls so I plan to sit on the phone tomorrow evening until it rings.

Whirly Birds

What I know about Labrador:

• The mosquito season is apparently over.
• Their days are longer than ours.
• There is as much water as land, therefore helicopters will be his preferred mode of travel for the next three weeks.

O Canada

You just can't keep a good man home. Yep, JR's off again. This time he's only four hours ahead of us and in the same hemisphere.

The bad news: sitting on the tarmac in New York for three hours before the pilot figured out he was in the wrong line. And missing his connecting flight.

The good news: getting to stay in a house while doing field work. With beds that are long enough. And bathrooms featuring hot and cold running water.

Yet to discover: how many mosquitos are still around. if the heating works. food poisoning or no food poisoning.

He's opting for no, if possible.

I just hope he doesn't come home saying "eh?" at the end of every sentence.

Joe Blow and the Quarter Century

Somebody had a birthday! We celebrated with a dinner at Grammy's house--Erkie-Pie requested her special lamb and potatoes. Yum!
He asked for a bike pump--it's called Joe Blow. I thought it was a cute name although I still couldn't ever remember the brand when I tried to tell Grammy what he wanted. It fits both kinds of bike stems and has an attachment for blowing up rafts and tubes. It's so heavy duty that it'll last forever.


Shopping was easy because he posted a wish list on Amazon--ideas galore. This scale will not only tell him how much he weighs, but also how much body fat he has and if he's well-hydrated. I'm afraid to step on it--ignorance is bliss when it comes to my percent body fat. His smile says he's gonna get me on it anyway. Evil child.

Of course, he asked for some science fiction and fantasy books too. Poor guy, it's in his genes and he can't help it. (He's even named after a sci fi character.) There's no escape.

Memories of birthday parties with watermelons, cakes with little trains, special presents, birthday cash. Seems like just yesterday he went out this door on his way to kindergarten. How'd he ever get so big so quickly?!

Panic

I feel like summer is almost over and I haven't accomplished a tenth of the things I wanted to before school starts again.

Last year carpal tunnel gave me a good excuse to do nothing, but I actually got a lot done because I was too dumb to realize my wrists had a problem. This summer I could feel my wrists regaining strength as I heaved rocks into new landscape and hauled railroad ties out of the way.

I think that I was too ambitious this summer. Re-landscaping the backyard and adding a stream and pond and stripping furniture and either walking or biking with friends daily and leaving town for three weeks and trying to survive endless hot days with no air conditioning and trying to revamp the irrigation system and make new curtains for the family room might have been more of a challenge than I was up for.

I've lowered my sights. So today I managed to plant one rose bush. Yep, one whole rose! It meant working in the heat and taking hose showers to stay cool; it meant removing old used-up soil and mixing the new humus with the compost; it meant finding roots that had to be cut out before the rose went in. But it got done. It's the first thing I've planted since the fence went back up!

Tomorrow's sights are set on maneuvering two more railroad ties back in place and moving some good soil in the raised bed. I've got a few other holes in process; they need to be deeper and root-free, but they're started. I have a feeling that the men in my life might be doing some grunt work for me this weekend.

Kharma's Dream Vacation

This is Quincy (now four months old) and his mom. Isn't he gorgeous? He's a very very very blond golden retriever pup. We call him The Polar Bear. They invited us--"us" being the K-dog and I--up to their lake cabin. It's become a much-loved summer tradition.

It's Kharma's favorite place. She enjoys swimming around the dock, chasing the ducks, geese and seagulls that hang around. She loves swimming as much as any kid and will spend as much time in the lake as allowed. Conservatively, she probably spent six hours in the water. She's currently very clean!
Quincy's mom gave her a new nickname--Air Kharma--because she pogos off the dock to get onto the beach. Any normal dog would use the ramp. Doesn't Air Kharma sound like a great name for an airline? Just imagine the commercials--"Fly Air Kharma and get your just desserts"--showing a girl and her dog lolling on a tropical beach. Okay, maybe I'm a little old for the girl designation, it's a granite shore, and Kharma's legs are filthy--but the delight and relaxation were primo.

Kharma's never been in a kayak before; I wish I had some photos of our struggles.

• Plan A was just have her jump in with me;
• Plan B was just to get her to sit;
• Plan C was to let her jump overboard and swim;
• Plan D was hauling her out of the lake and letting her stand on the kayak's stern;
• Plan E was letting her walk all over the kayak's deck until she fell off;
• Plan F was to give up and put her in her crate;
• Plan G was to give up kayaking and return to a howling dog;
• Plan H is to have her get completely comfortable jumping in and out of and sitting in the kayak on shore before repeating the same steps in the shallows before ever letting her in with me again.

Sigh, I should have taken it slowly from the beginning but I'm determined to succeed in getting her on-board and calm!

The K-dog was much happier hiking around the lake--pushing through ferns, leaping creeks, dashing down into the lake, meeting other vacationing pups, keeping our beach free from marauding ducks, playing with Quincy and occasionally checking to see if I was napping or awake.

I had a very pooped puppy dog; she napped in her crate during the two hour trip and nothing, but nothing, that Zelda did could get her to play when we got home.

As usual, Kharma has let me know that if Quincy's mom wants to adopt another dog she'll happily change homes. (No worries, it's just her way of telling me she had a good time.) She'll have to settle for me, the frisbee in the pasture and hikes up the creek until next summer rolls around and another trip to the lake is on the calendar!

Just Great

I was thinking about the new little guy and reminiscing about how cute his mom was when she was little. And then it hit me--I'm a Great-Aunt! Then it occurred to me that I'm a Great-Aunt four times over.

Boy, am I slow! My apologies to all my great-nephews for my very tardy brain.

Newbie

We have a new family member as of yesterday morning! We're pretty excited--but after the three days of contractions needed to push out her 9 lb. 4 oz son I'm sure our niece is ecstatic as well as exhausted. Ouch!

Equally momentous, somebody became The Big Brother. That's an important job for a four-and-a-half year old but Jay will do it beautifully!

On our family birthdays the Queen Mother always tells us about our birth day--I get to hear about the fog, my sister gets to hear about her red rash and I'm sure my brother has a yearly story as well.

This little guy will get to hear about how Big Brother Jay cut the umbilical cord with Dad, Gramma and Grampa all in attendance. How different is that from the "old days" when fathers-to-be paced the waiting room alone!?!

Welcome, little fisherman! May you always catch your limit. And if you get tired of the ocean, we have some nice mountains and a big lake here for you to explore.

Pure Magic

For all of us dog-lovers!

In other news, JR's home from the boonies, seems to be over the food poisoning and is readjusting his internal clock. He's so busy finalizing his report that we haven't even seen his photos yet!

Slightly Out of Touch

There have been no emails from JR for the past couple days until we received a very crackly phone message yesterday. It took two of us to figure out most of the message. Fortunately he managed to find an internet connection on the road:

Yesterday we drove to Altai to catch the charter flight, which was bringing in the change of crew from UB. But when it got halfway, they reported iced up wings, so were obliged to turn back. So we had to stay in Altai an unexpected night; terrible hotel conditions, but at least there was a toilet down the hall. Meanwhile, around lunchtime when we were still awaiting the plane that wouldn’t come at the airport, I started getting chilly. Didn’t think much about it until we reached Altai, but when we were finally arrived at a camp we thought we could stay for the night, I was freezing, and then became nauseous. I did finally vomit, which is rare for me, so I knew something was wrong. I then became feverish and still could not get warm. Luckily we had the camp doctor with us and he advised it might be food poisoning, so gave me some things to settle it. He decided it was best to get me to a hotel in town since the camp gers are not heated, and it was obviously going to get cold (freezing) and typically they give you nothing more for bed clothes than a sheet and light blanket. So we searched Altai for a motel room. When we had just about run out of options for motels, we learned by phone the rest of our crew had returned to town and found a hotel, so we joined them, and shared 3 rooms between the lot of us (14). I ate almost nothing for 30 hours. Finally, the plane arrived around noon today, we exchanged greetings with the new crew, and loaded up the prop for the 3 ½ hour flight to UB. But first we had to weigh in; the pilot, a very friendly lady with English accent, asked us each our weight in kilos and then weighed our bags, and naturally we were overweight. The doctor volunteered to remain in Altai as most of the rest of us had international connections to make and he is Mongolian; but besides, he grew up in Altai, so hopefully it is no hardship for him to remain there an extra night. We landed in UB about 5pm today, and went to eat at an Indian restaurant. The food was very good, mild but nicely flavored, but I could eat little since my stomach is still tender. Hopefully I will recover better tonight. It was absolute luxury to have a warm shower, especially after having been sick and sweating in the same clothes.

Don’t know if I am up to it, but the others want to get up to watch the final football match at 3:00am. I would like to but, probably need my rest, even if I will be mostly sleeping long hours on the remaining flights. Hopefully the trials are mostly behind us, but we were counting on a day in the UB office to do some clean-up work, so are now further behind. Guess we will have to collaborate on the flight. Time is running by, so wish us well on our connections so we return on schedule. Guess that it about all for now. I’m glad this hotel in UB is modern enough to have wireless connection! See you soon.

We are hoping he has a smooth flight and flawless connections on his trip back home. We can't wait to see his photos.