A world of gardens and baby jungle animals

So far this spring break I've been sick so I haven't done much. I finally started to feel a little better yesterday and went to a nursery with Christie. We drove all the way out to Woodburn to go to Garden World (how can you resist a world of gardens?) only to find that they close the world on Mondays and Tuesdays. Bummer. That'll teach me to look at hours of operation. We considered going to RV World but figured they'd be closed too so we didn't bother. We did go to Portland Nursery once we got back into town. We both bought a lot of seeds and a little green house seed starter kits. Hopefully our gardens will be filled with lots of fruits and veggies this year! The world of Gardens is gettin' a visit from me though. I will enter that world, just not on a Monday or a Tuesday.

Today I decided to finish the baby blanket I've been working on. It came out pretty cute. The fabric is adorable. Thank you very much Bolt! I want some other ladies to find themselves in the family way so I have a reason to make more. In other words, please get pregnant just to please me and my desire to make baby blankest! Ha!

Whole blanket

Close-up

Look at du baby jungle animals

This blanket is for a baby girl but bolt has so many cute prints and so many that can be totally gender neutral.

I don't understand goodreads but I'm totally recommending these books

I just finished reading this book.

It was so completely fabulous there are no words. Completely fabulous ARE words of course but they just don't cut it as far as describing exactly how good I felt it was and I can't think of any words that would "cut it". Or "wood" cut it. Now I'm just playing around and really no longer making much sense, but you laughed. I heard you! Well, so off I go now to this book.

He really needs to write more. There are very few writers that I just adore and they never seem to write as much as I would like them too (no, see here I won't make a joke about "would vs. wood" because I didn't use the idiom "cut it", pay attention!). However, before I let myself enjoy this novella I am finally going to read this book.

I have become increasingly interested in cooking with and eating natural foods grown on sustainable organic farms. It's hard to eat only food created under these conditions. Time and money are the major barriers but, you do what you can and when you can do more you do. Right now my focus is on unrefined sugar. I have seen t in regular granulated sugar form but have not, until now, found it in brown sugar and powdered sugar. Now if I can only find chocolate made with unrefined sugar my cookies will be increasingly better.

A Valentine's Day at home

How Obama changed my refrigerator

This poster has been hanging on my refrigerator since September of 2004. At the time I thought it would only need to stay up for a little while longer.

Unfortunately I was wrong. This poster was made by a 7-year-old girl and is titled "Thumbs down". I kept it on my refridgerator until we were finally rid of "president stinkhead" a term I find to be far to civil to describe our 43rd president. The poster was a daily reminder that the president did not care about the middle class. He did not care about children learning in schools that were falling apart. He did not care about the victims of hurricane Katrina. He did not care for the environment. He did not care that people were having to file bankruptcy because they couldn't pay medical bills. He cared about making money for himself and his friends. He cared about maintaining a facade of social conservatism in order to keep his "base" satisfied. Those are not priorities I share. Every time the poster would slide, scrunch and need to be readjusted I was reminded that I had to stay vigilant of things happening around me and try to change them even if only at a local level. Now we are in a state of a near financial collapse (yes I totally blame him!) and it gets closer and closer to home everyday. I am confident in our 44th president and that things will eventually change for the better. We need to be patient though and be prepared to work hard. I am so glad that my refrigerator now is only covered with pictures of my loved ones. That makes me smile every time I walk into the kitchen.

Getting to know me, getting to know all about me

I've had a realization about myself and it only took 34 and-a-half years. Well, better half way through my life than never! I've been told that hanging out with me is like hanging out with someone you just met, no matter how many times you hang out with me. I can see how this would be very true. I am a closed off person. I didn't realize this, meaning that it's never been my intention to be closed off. This is how I get to know people. It has not been the ideal way to go about it in the least. Each time I hang out with someone new I learn a little more about them and the more I learn about them the more I can reveal about myself, the more I can be myself. I observe sense of humor, opinions, speaking styles, non-verbal communication and anything else that will tell me about my new acquaintance. I've been married to my husband for 6 and-a-half years and I am just now beginning to become comfortable around some of his family (even though I only see them on holidays and visits home). I see that they may appreciate or even enjoy my sense of humor. I take a risk and say things I wouldn't have 6 years ago. It feels good. 

This is why I am so close to my family. I can trust them. They know my idiosyncrasies and do not judge me or if they do they present it in a way that I can hear. 

It has occurred to me that my close friends, the ones who I can count on, the ones I trust and love the ones who feel more like my family, they have stuck with me. I am not an easy person to get to know but these people saw something in me that they thought was worth getting to know, no matter how long it took. My friends are some of the most important people to me in my life. This is one of the many reasons why. I appreciate you and you and you and you and you and you and you! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Walk 19 Albina to hilltop loop

Today Amanda and I went on a chilly walk in her neighborhood. It was neat to see things as I walked past them instead of as I sped past them in my car. I had no idea there was a middle school across from Emanuel hospital. It overlooks the freeway and seems like such a strange place to put a school. I suppose the school was there before the free way was though.

At the bottom of the hill was this little info plaque about the history of Albina. It was once it's own town founded by scandinavians and russians. It was incorporated in the early part of the 20th century.

Amanda enjoys learning. The picture shows Union ave (now MLK)  in the 1930's. At that time it had a streetcar running down it that led all the way downtown.

This was also where the Widmer brothers set up shop way back in 1987. They've expanded a good deal since then. The entire block on both sides of Russel is theirs now.

We wandered under the Fremont bridge and up to Mississippi where we strolled and looked in shops. We had to go into Flutter. It's just so irresistible! Even though I've been to the Mississippi area many times this walk had us meandering down streets and alleys I would otherwise not walk down. We saw beautiful houses and more historic sights. The views were once again spectacular which, I guess, is the difference between the hill walks and the regular neighborhood walks. 

Sometimes you encounter legs on some steps. It is Mississippi. There's even a sign when leaving the area that says "Goodbye Hipsters". That made us laugh.

It was another enjoyable walk even though it began snowing and was very cold. It's nice to get outside every once in awhile as I wait for summer.

You're Stoooooooopid!

Why, as a society, do we care more about who sticks their dick into whom than we do about a man stealing millions of dollars in a pyramid scheme? There are actual white collar criminals out there swindling people out of their money, placing these people in difficult financial positions and basically ruining the remainder of their lives. These swindlers are people who actually seem to enjoy hurting others in order to get what they want. Not a big issue in our society though. If it were it wouldn't happen so often. Meanwhile we have politicians fulfilling natural urges in their private lives with consensual partners and they feel like they need to cover up that fact, they decide to lie about it and then ultimately they get caught for the lie and suddenly the act is "wrong" somehow. 

Bottom line: I don't care what people are doing in their private lives behind closed doors if it doesn't hurt anyone. I DON"T CARE! Are we really gonna spend tax payer money to see if Beau was 17 or 18 when he slept with Sam? Really? We already know that Beau consented so if he was 17 at the time the likelihood that he will press charges is very very low. So in a time of horrible recession, war and unemployment we're gonna focus our money and our energy on this? Is it really that important? It really isn't.  We have more pressing issues to deal with here people. If you're really concerned about this "issue" then you either need to get a job, actually do your job or volunteer somewhere because you are waaaaaaay too bored.