my favorite

autumn really is my favorite season, despite the shock (that always hits me around October) of having the years seem to pass more and more quickly the older i become ... where is my life going?

anyway, in honor of the season, and because i haven't posted a Neruda poem in a long time, i give you ....

AUTUMN RETURNS

A day in mourning falls from the bells
like a trembling vague-window cloth,
it is a color, a dream
of cherries buried in the earth,
it is a tail of smoke that restlessly arrives
to change the color of the water and the kisses.

I do not know if I make myself clear:
night approaches, when the solitary poet
at the window hears autumn's steed running
and the leaves of trampled fear rustle in his arteries,
there is something over the sky, like the tongue of a thick
ox, something in the doubt of the sky and the atmosphere.

Things return to their places,
the indispensable lawyer, the hands, the olive oil,
the bottles,
all the traces of life: the beds, above all,
are filled with a bloody liquid,
people deposit their confidences in sordid ears,
assassins go down stairs,
it is not this, however, but the old gallop,
the horse of the old autumn that trembles and endures.

The horse of the old autumn has a red beard
and the foam of fear covers its cheeks
and the air that follows it is shaped like an ocean
and a perfume of vague buried putrefaction.

Every day down from the sky comes an ashen color
that doves must spread over the earth:
the cord that forgetfulness and weeping weave,
time that has slept long years within the bells,
everything,
the old tattered suits, the women who see snow coming,
the black poppies that no one can look at without dying,
everything falls into the hands that I lift
in the midst of the rain.

~ Pablo Neruda, from Residence on Earth

bounty

I've got five pounds of fresh Roma tomatoes, and I'm not afraid to use them! I'm going to make a load of tomato sauce to freeze and put away. Yay! Today I also froze swiss chard and corn. We've also already put away beets, onions and carrots. Ohhhh vegetables. There are more beets, more tomatoes, cabbage and acorn squash still a-brewing in the garden, too. It's all very exciting. Hopefully we will be able to use it all wisely. But if not, it's been a good experience anyway. It really is amazing how much produce you can get out of a very small plot of land.

Oh, and this:

confession

soooo ...
this has been coming on for a while, and it's not like no one (hank) knows about it, but i thought i should just get it out there and off my chest.

i am kind of sick of Brotherhood 2.0.

i still mostly enjoy watching the videos, but all the peripherals (forum, youtube, video responses, comments) are starting to get really annoying. pretty much because of all the idiots watching. who, of course, are the ones who have to comment. i feel like all the cool nerdfighters got buried in an avalanche of wanna-bes with two brain cells. bunch of idiots. i really hate how they look for any tiny way to punish the guys. 'cause that's the freakin' best part about it for them. damn reality tv/fear factor generation. get some class jerkoffs!

anyway, i'm saying this here because i was about to post a really mean, snide comment in the forum, and i figured that would not go down well. but i had to say it somewhere! sonofacock. i don't feel much better, but at least i've preserved this annoyance for posterity. success

another plane of existence

well, it's happened again. yesterday, when i got home from being in the field for work all week, i went to check on my little girl Dingo and say hi, only to find that she had died sometime during the day. i had noticed that she was a little sluggish before i went away, but i figured it was the heat ... i guess she was just getting old and on her way out, finally. after several months of being alone, without her sister Zoot, i can only hope she was content to move along to another plane of existence, and perhaps to rejoin Zoot there. rest in peace little runner. cameo and i will miss you

prepare for randomness

ok ... i was planning on being better about blogging this year! oh, dear. i don't know what happened.

anyway, since Hank is out of town on vacation with his family (minus Mom and grandparents) in the Dominican Republic, i've kinda got buttloads of time to be alone and do stuff by myself. we did have a fun night last night though, hanging out with Anna and Jess and Ben and a few other people we'd never met at the Old Post until around 10:30 (it was still twilight outside!) or so, drinking beer and having chats and an all in all good time. we also hung out with jeff and shoren (who's in town for the weekend ) briefly on our way back from the big dipper, and watched some (amazing!) american gladiators. hilarious. i can't believe people used to do what they did to their hair...

so after taking Hank to the airport freakin' early this morning (5:30, and the sky was already light, though the sun wasn't up - I love summer here!), then coming back and sleeping until the kitty was so annoying that i had to get up and feed her (around 10 am), Anna came over and we went to the farmer's market and bought lots and lots of pretty flowers (dahlias and pansies for me), tie-dyed onesies for the babies in our lives, and then had a burrito at taco del sol. life without Hank is so far so good, though I do miss him already and have called his cell phone three times since this morning. heheh. Anna and I are going to go the garden later and do some work - she just got back from being away for a couple weeks and her plot is weed haven right now, and I haven't been to ours in a week or so, because it was pretty much rainy and cold all week and there was no need. I hope everything survived the cold.

work has been good, I'm definitely getting the hang of it, I think, though I don't know if I'm going to be able to stand to hang out with the same three people for three more months. every day. for 40 hours a week. they're not the most awesome people in the world, but they could definitely be worse, and so far working outside hasn't been all that bad. there've been a couple of hot days, and one really cold and rainy and windy one, which sucked a TON, but so far, not too bad. yesterday was actually really really nice, so I can't complain about that. the plants are interesting and it's amazing how much a little information about plants can really enhance your enjoyment and experience of a place. everywhere I look now, I see a familiar plant that I can recognize and relate to another plant somehow. I'd really like to learn more, too, so that's nice. being an amateur naturalist is fun.


I have to clean the house this weekend. badly. it's been a looooong time since I swept, or anything. I'm just so tired when I get home from work that usually all I want to do is sit on the couch and maybe eat some dinner and then go to bed. wow, lame. it's too bad, because I really need to get going on the thesis again, and I don't have all that much energy. maybe if I did more t'ai chi, or exercised more in general, I would have more energy. the t'ai chi has been quite fun, and we're getting better and better and getting more out of it now, too. we just need to work on getting our daily practice more regular, because we're not going to get much benefit out of it if we're only doing it once a week ...

Cameo is still the awesomest. I love her, even when she's bad and/or annoying. she still has a gerbil obsession. she also really always wants to eat the plants she's not supposed to eat, even though she's got her own grass, and when I take her outside, she always snacks out there, too. she does really like to go outside though, especially when it's sunny and warm. I've always got my eye out for what I like to call "Cameo's boyfriend" - I'm thinking a big, orange, medium-to-long haired man-cat. wouldn't that just be the preciousest???

well, I should probably do some of that cleaning I spoke of, since it's not going to do itself (sigh!), and it's going to take more than a couple hours, too. hopefully I will update more frequently from now on. we'll see. ;)

anon

i love Flickr! it makes all my photographic life so much easier. thank you Flickr ...
-------

so, updates on my life. i got a job for the summer, surveying plant communities (mostly upper elevation grasslands and some mesic forest). i'll basically be sitting on my ass outside all summer, counting and identifying plants. i'm sure to learn a lot, and will hopefully get a nice tan :) there are definitely worse ways to spend a summer in Montana! that starts May 21 and goes for about three months, 'til the end of August. and i don't get to take vacation, so i'll be here if anyone wants to visit. i'm not going to be able to go back east, or to the Dominican Republic with all of Hank's family. and i won't be able to hang out with Jason and Ashley 24/7 when they come visit in July, but i'm hoping and praying we'll be able to do some good tubing by then anyway, in the afternoons after my job is over. i lov toobing!

my professional paper is still progressing (progressing more now than it really ever has), but i'm not sure i'm going to be able to keep that promise to myself about graduating by May, though i may participate in EVST commencement ceremonies anyway, because i want to and there are some people who did it last year who still haven't graduated, so i don't feel too bad ... they know who they are, i'm not going to rat (though to be fair, they've had full time jobs and i ... have not).

well, my neck hurts from staring down at the computer for so long today, so i'm going to bed.

teh funnies

better than stuffonmycat?? it's possible.

icanhascheezburger

equinox

happy spring. or as we like to call it here in montana, 'mud season.' ok so it's probably called that in other places, too. whatever.
the weather has been quite nice recently. highs in the 60s during the day, sunshine, gentle breezes - very springlike. today though, the clouds rolled in, and it rained and then sleeted/hailed. holla! montana weather is nothing if not perverse.

it's even spring break next week. so all the students and professors will be pretending to catch up on work and mostly just hanging out outside because it's impossible not to want to be in the sunshine after a long missoula winter. cameo is working on her springtime fur coat, shedding out all the fuzzy hairs she built up over the winter. i haven't had to brush her all winter, and now she's leaving clumps everywhere, the cutie.

i'm looking forward to the next few of weekends. at the end of march, hank and i are driving over to seattle with anna to visit ashley and jason and BFO and to (hopefully) see an improv show with colin mochrie and brad sherwood (from whose line is it anyway). woot! it's gonna be amazing! and then the next weekend, jason and ashley are coming to visit here! yessss. and then hank and i have to work out going to helena with bethany so we can see stu and chelsea sometime soon. it's nice to have fun things to look forward to. lights at the end of tunnels.

good books, cocktail parties

finished another terry pratchett novel today - a hat full of sky - while lying in bed recovering from the cocktail party we hosted here last night. lots of (generally not very high quality) liquor. it was a fun party, though typical of a missoula crowd, the party didn't start until about an hour and a half after it actually started, at 8. we stocked up on vodka and gin, and a couple of other spirits, and put together a cocktail menu and had some nice hors d'oeuvres out: hummus, cilantro bean dip, deviled eggs, vegetables & pita, and brownies. all very tasty. we saw some friends we hadn't seen in a long time, which was nice, and had some great conversation and good drinks. it was fun to make tasty cocktails for people and play bartender. we should do it again sometime.

anyway, a hat full of sky is the next in a series dealing with the character of the young witch, tiffany aching, who is always accompanied by the completely endearing wee free men (or nac mac feegle). pratchett calls the feegles a type of 'pictsy,' which is hilarious because they are sort of tiny scottish caricatures - 3-6 inches tall, red-haired, covered in blue tattoos, living in clans, etc. the first novel was called the wee free men, and it was great too. i appreciate terry pratchett so much, and i'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series about tiffany aching, wintersmith. should be good.

evolution and religion

i really like the new york times. especially when they report on more than just "the news" and really go in depth on topics in their articles. for example, this past week they published an article on the evolution of religion, and why and how that happened to the human species. this series of questions from the article pretty much covers all the issues surrounding this topic.

"Which is the better biological explanation for a belief in God — evolutionary adaptation or neurological accident? Is there something about the cognitive functioning of humans that makes us receptive to belief in a supernatural deity? And if scientists are able to explain God, what then? Is explaining religion the same thing as explaining it away? Are the nonbelievers right, and is religion at its core an empty undertaking, a misdirection, a vestigial artifact of a primitive mind? Or are the believers right, and does the fact that we have the mental capacities for discerning God suggest that it was God who put them there?

"In short, are we hard-wired to believe in God? And if we are, how and why did that happen?"

it's quite a long article, but well worth reading if you're interested in that kind of stuff. which i am, obviously. it's called Darwin's God

enjoy

gone away

the zoot is dead, long live the zoot.

this afternoon, after a very short illness involving some sort of benign tumor, our little black gerbil, zoot, died. she was a good gerbil, and always cleaned her whiskers. i'm glad i had the chance to share some of my life with her.

thanks, zoot. dingo and i will miss you.

it kicks

i made this recipe tonight that i've been wanting to try ever since i saw it in an issue of New York magazine, which we've been receiving mysteriously for the past couple of months. generally a useless magazine for someone who lives in Montana, but this looked good, especially since Hank and I are both large fans of horseradish, "the radish that kicks." hee. get it?

yeah so anyway, here's the recipe, and I highly recommend it if, like me, you enjoy the spicy nose punch that this kickin' radish can deliver. it doesn't take very long, and seems like it would lend itself really well to experimentation, because it's quite simple. for example, you could probably cut the amount of horseradish in half if you didn't want it to be quite so potent!

Orecchiette w/ Horseradish and Parmesan
1 lb box orecchiette pasta
4 oz fresh horseradish
3 oz extra virgin olive oil
4 oz tomato sauce
pinch crushed red pepper
6 oz freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
fresh parsley, for garnish

Cook pasta in salted water. While cooking, grate horseradish. When the pasta is cooked al dente, reserve 4-6 oz. of pasta water, then strain and place pasta in a saute pan over low to medium heat. Add reserved water in stages and then add the olive oil, tomato sauce and crushed red pepper, tossing the pan all the while (the entire process should only take a few minutes). Remove pan from heat and add the horseradish, cheese, and parsley with one last toss.

5th Annual IYSK Survey - at last.

Instead of sending this to everyone's emails, I'm posting it here (and also on my livejournal). I'm thinking of also doing a video version, in the B2.0 vein, but ...
We'll see if I can manage it. I'm not very ambitious these days (hence the delay on actually even filling this out in textual form).
----------------------------

***The Survey
7) How long have you known Hank and Katherine?
I'm not sure I know myself, even now. What does it even mean to 'know someone'? Are we talkin' the biblical sense here? 'Cause if that's the case, I cannot answer this question in such a public-type forum. But I've been acquainted with Hank since August of 1998. He was a little bit thinner, his glasses were a little less hip, and he was wearing this horrible hat which I later found out had been given to him by a friend, after she found it lying in a ditch on the side of the road in Orlando. I hated that hat. I think he still has it though, the sentimental bastard.

8 What do you want from us?
I want a nickname like, but not, 'the Yeti' for B2.0. Also, a little more structure in our daily lives. And for me to finish my g.d. masters degree, before my self-loathing develops into some full-scale depression.

9 What have you been up to this past year (please be as detailed as possible, because we actually want to know)?
Oh 2006. The insanity - planning my own wedding while attending the weddings of brothers Jon (mine) and John (Hank's); traveling to and from said weddings (NH and Alabama); fostering and then adopting Cameo; volunteering at the Humane Society; saying goodbye to too many friends; getting in shape with a personal trainer; getting married in September and having the time of my life; going to Italy on the awesomest honeymoon ever; coming home and promptly getting out of shape and back in to my well-worn rut of do-nothing. Ah.

10 How much longer do you think you'll be doing what you're doing?
It's really hard to answer this-type question in a way that is humorous. Therefore I boycott this question.

11 Why are you doing it?
Because despite it all, I still like the idea of living, and because I love my friends and families.

12 What do you want to be doing?
Something meaningful and fun, which is also potentially lucrative, so I wouldn't feel like such a leech. Getting and staying in shape in fun ways (running does not count as fun - I'm thinking more like tap dance). Singing, dancing, and making art.

13 What's next in your life?
Graduating. Married life. Moving back east? A new job? My life is very much one big question mark at the moment.

14 How You Doin'?
Sigh.

15 What's the best book you read this year?
I may have read over a hundred books this year (I'm not sure if that's a lot, or if that number is accurate or not). Not all of them have been good, for sure, but my point is I can't really remember, because I don't make a list. But I think that the book I enjoyed reading the most (I'm not saying it's the best, because it didn't really change my life or anything) was Going Postal by Terry Prachett, and the book that made the biggest impression on me (I cried the most while reading it) was The Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd. Stupid patriarchy.

16 Describe a perfect day.
The day after I successfully defend my masters thesis. As long as no one I love or care about in any way dies that day, I'm pretty sure it'll be the best day of my life so far. Looking forward to it.

17 Assuming that all things come to an end...how do you think humans will go extinct?
I really think it could be in a Dr. Strangelove kinda way. Otherwise, most of us will be killed off by massive famines and cancer and suchlike and those left over will (eventually) evolve into something else.

18 How are you feeling about kids these days?
I like my nephew quite a lot and I wish I could spend more time with him. I am completely ambivalent about other people's kids, unless they are screaming or whining and then I want to hurt them (not really, but I have very little patience). I really, really don't want any of my own right now. But maybe someday.

19 My own question: What is your favorite flower? I like different flowers in different seasons, but I really love bearded iris. Especially the yellow ones and the brown ones. Reminds me of my mom's gardens growing up in CT.

20 Ambrozzo tastes better than anything else, what does ambrozzo taste like?
Fresh baked baguette from Le Petit (still slightly warm) with Lifeline butter (free range/organic/local - yum!). Hells yes! Or cardamom ice cream from The Big Dipper. Oh, the cardamom. Hmm, good thing I'm not lactose intolerant, eh?

21 If you were a cliché, what cliché would you be?
"At the end of my rope" or "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

22 What is your least favorite part of any given day?
The end of the day, when I realize that, once again, I have not made a damn bit of progress on finishing my degree. I really hate myself sometimes.

23 Do you enjoy science fiction?
Quite a bit, but I think I like fantasy better. Probably has something to do with my whole escapism problem.

24 Cheese or Chocolate?
While I really, really do enjoy cheese (esp. with wine), and pretty much any form it comes in, if I were presented with cheese and chocolate on the same plate (as long as it was dark chocolate, not really a fan of milk or white) and told to pick one or the other, I would definitely pick the chocolate every time. Sorry, Tillamook. (Aside: Tillamook would be a great name for a cat! My Cameo loves cheese, esp. Tillamook vintage white cheddar.)

25 Where would you live if you could live anywhere?
Here (Missoula), if all my friends and family were in accessible distance, not across the freakin' country. Or southern France, if I didn't care about family and friends. Oh, to be Provencal.

26 What was your first concert?
I think it's funny that everyone assumes this means concert they went to go see, because I think about concerts I performed in, which were happening long before I ever went to see someone else in concert. I did a lot of singing when I was younger. I also went to Broadway shows before I ever went to Radio 104 Fest, which was, I think my first Ticketmaster-type concert, and which featured The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, among other now obscure '90s artists.

27 If you could start a business that would be instantly successful, what kind of business would it be?
A punk rock diner? As long as I don't have to actually run it after it gets started up.

28 Invisibility or Time Travel?
I guess time travel, but neither really appeals to me. I'd rather have more practical magical talents.

29 What's wrong with the world?
Patriarchy, and father gods.




Yeee haw!

food junk

michael pollan is one of the most accessible people writing about food these days. he's just published an article in the ny times about the downfalls of 'nutritionism' and how focusing on nutrients instead of eating sensibly has not helped us get any healthier. and what to do instead, obviously. it's long, but very good.

a quote: "Nutritionism by and large takes the Western diet as a given, seeking to moderate its most deleterious effects by isolating the bad nutrients in it — things like fat, sugar, salt — and encouraging the public and the food industry to limit them. But after several decades of nutrient-based health advice, rates of cancer and heart disease in the U.S. have declined only slightly (mortality from heart disease is down since the ’50s, but this is mainly because of improved treatment), and rates of obesity and diabetes have soared."

it's fascinating how much advertising and industry impact what we eat! and horrible, too. it's also rediculous how obsessed Americans are with diet and 'being healthy' when we're one of the least healthy cultures in the world. strange times.

rubber life

one week into our annual tour of the southeast 'vacation' - i'm writing this from jesslyn and bryan's couch in athens, georgia. not only do they have internet, but it is wirelessly routing itself to my very own laptop. i love civilization.

north carolina was great. it was somewhat cold and windy, but beautiful. we got to spend some quality time in downtown asheville, and with mike and sydney and ben colvin. i like it there - it's very artsy, but also pretty diverse. it's one of those places in the south that don't necessarily feel like the south, until you encounter someone with an accent, or look closely at the foliage. finding a place to live could be a search, though. as with any desirable location, real estate prices are on the rise, and you're often paying as much for where the property is as for what the property is. i guess that's just common sense, but it seems like a bit of a screwy situation to me.

athens is nice too, though it feels like the community is divided into two more distinct sectors - the real college-y types (this is the home of the university of georgia), and the more music-y, indie types. it's interesting. so many fraternities and sororities. but the food is good. very enjoyable restaurants. hank had a tofu reuben at a restaurant called 'the grit' last night (he kept calling it 'grits' heehee) which was excellent. i mean, tofu reuben? amazing

so, i think we could be happy living in either of these places, if that were ever to happen. it's good to know there are other nice cities in the world. they're not as beautiful as missoula, maybe, and we'd probably never find a nicer apartment than the one we're living in now. but it's still comforting to know that missoula's not the end of the world.

lovely evening last night - hank and i got together with stu, bethany, and bethany's new beau, john, who we've never met before. we went to dollar sushi night at nara, which was great - hank and i both tried unagi for the first time. it was actually quite delicious. i'm usually averse to the fishy types of sushi (sushi actually isn't really my favorite thing to begin with), but the unagi looked really good, and it was. sort of buttery, almost.

then we went to the red bird wine bar, which is new, and awesome. red bird is practically the best restaurant in town, and it's in this great building, the florence hotel, but hadn't really utilized the space it had there to great advantage. now, it's perfect. i wish it had been open when everyone was here for our wedding. we split a great bottle of wine, some sort of cabernet, and had enjoyable chats.

then bethany and john went home, and hank and i went to hang out with stu a little bit more. we watched some awful tv and drank some pretty bad wine. then it was time for stu to go to bed, so we left. it was great to hang out with him again. we're going to go visit he and chelsea in helena with bethany sometime, probably in march. looking forward to it.

the pop

"if the coal does not seek to know the flame, can either fulfill its destiny?" the wisdom of the tao is inscrutable. especially as portrayed by the actors in the 1970's drama "kung fu." damn, i love that show. i mean, it's just brilliant. don't give me your petty critiques about the choice of david carradine to play a half-chinese man, or the bad acting, or the strange plots - it is quality. shhhh!
and now you can watch episodes from all three seasons on AOL with their high-quality video player. you can't see the whole season, but the episodes aren't really dependent on one another so you don't have to watch them all in order. granted, you also have to see annoying advertisements about 4 times a show, but it's better than tv. more flexible, too.
thank goodness for the internet.

i tried to do a more serious post yesterday, about the doomsday clock and all, but then my computer froze and i lost it. so i gave up on that.

cold sunlight

my friend emily started a new blog today, a chronicle of her weight loss efforts. it's inspiring, and i'm really proud of her for committing to her goals.

anyway, her ambition got me thinking about my goals and how to achieve them - that's always been kind of my problem. i have these ideas about how i want things to be, but i can never seem to go through with the things that make the future as i want it to be come about. badly written sentences aside, i think i need some sort of detailed daily plan or something that will let me know what i need to accomplish each day in order to achieve the goal i'm setting out to acheive. y'know? but then again, one of my other weaknesses is getting too caught up in thinking about EVERYthing i have to do, getting overwhelmed, and not doing anything as a result. hmm.

but i feel like i should have some specific sub-goals to my aforementioned major goals/"resolutions," if only just to have something to work towards every day. for example, for goal #1 i should either work on my masters project for a specific number of hours a day, or write a specific number of pages a day. for goal #2, i should limit myself to a specific amount of calories (even though i hate calorie counting), and commit to a specific amount of exercise/day or week. i guess these might seem like obvious things to be thinking about, but i need some motivation. i am the least self-motivated person i know. right now i can't even get myself to finish playing a freaking video game because i'm worried it might be too hard at the end. things are desperate! desperate i tell you. my lazy kitty does not help matters. it is very difficult to not want to cuddle with her when she's sleeping in the bed, dammit.

moving on ...
it's a sunny and frigid friday here in western montana, and it makes me wish i had a dog so i could take it for walkies. hank has a cold, so i can't take him, and i get lonely walking by myself. but i should probably try it more often. or maybe i could call one of the friends who are still in town and see what they are up to. i'm sure other people like to go for walks, too. it's only 4ish, and yet the sun already has that "feelin' old" look to it, when you know it's on it's way down, and the daylight is nearly over. i hate how early the sun goes down here in the winter. it makes me all confused, especially since i never get up until 9:30 or 10 in the morning. i need to start getting up earlier. ack. but first i should probably put my clothes away.

gosh i'm boring.

excellent article

from 'the atlantic' magazine - "Is God an Accident?"

i'm very interested in all this new research in neuroscience (well, new to me anyway), and the way the brain works and how we experience things that we may or may not actually be experiencing.

i am also currently reading "stumbling on happiness" by daniel gilbert, a psychology professor from Harvard. fascinating stuff, highly recommended.

perhaps i should get my next degree in neuroscience. haha! there i go again, looking into the future ...

dedication, determination, perseverance and purposefulness

because i'm not a fan of the word 'resolution' ...

but, my life has been somewhat lacking in those title qualities of late, and perhaps, if i write something down, i'll think about it more frequently and maybe even actually do something about it.

so, this year, i promise to myself to:

1. Graduate from EVST (my graduate program in environmental studies) by May;
2. Lose 15 pounds (or more, up to 25 lbs) in a healthy and productive way, and generally be more physically active; and
3. Write at least one personal letter, email, card, etc. to a different important person in my life every week (can write more, obviously).

there are a lot of other things i want to work on improving in my life in the way i live it, but i figured i should get something concrete written down, and i think these three are a good start. especially that first one. oi.

on the upside, i thought i should maybe count a few blessings while i'm thinking about what i don't like about my life. so here's a list of those.

#1 - Hank and everything that he does and is.
#2 - My family, and all the awesome additions to it that have occurred this year (I gained two sisters, a brother, a new mom and dad, a nephew, and a whole ton of cousins!)
#3 - Another year in Missoula, the greatest little city I have ever had the pleasure of living in.
#4 - Finding and adopting Cameo, the best kitty in the world. I am so grateful that she found her way to us, and that Hank loves her, too.
#5 - Comedy in all its many incarnations (god bless Eddie Izzard and Scrubs)
#6 - New spiritual awakenings, as tough as they may be.