Bike to Work Day May 15th Friday

Get out and ride people!

Remember us?

It's been a long time friends. I'm hoping you haven't completely given up on us. Levi & I are still here, doing fine, just haven't really been a part of the blogging world for a few months. As usual, I've been meaning to post for a few weeks now & I'm finally getting around to it. Rather than overload you with our happenings since March, I'll share with you some of my highlights, with a little update at the end.

Some recent favorites:

• A trip to Minnesota for the wedding of close friends & out to the Penick family farm in Ohio. This included a hilarious evening of mustache drawing, an epic midnight dodgeball tournament, & play with cows
• The Portland Heifer volunteers (I head down there again on Friday!)

• Climbing my first 5.10b at Vantage

• Climbing in general: the challenge, the peace it brings me, the views, the friends new & old
• New life at my friend Gretchen's farm in Monroe
• Levi's excitement over a new baseball season, especially listening to him & Chris discuss the minute details of their fantasy team while on a bike ride
• More time & fun with Joy
• Continuing a great tradition of spending Mother's Day weekend with both my family & Levi's family at an ocean cabin--this year was Long Beach
• The Round at the Fremont Abbey (monthly collaborative live arts event with musicians, slam poets & painters). I've been going for a couple months & hope to continue. Last night was exceptional. The music, especially Shelby Earl, was incredible, but what really got to me was the painter, Danae' Clark. Seated next to the stage, her canvas was a checkerboard of small, separate square pieces. Audience members were encouraged to come up, one at a time, select a square & sit with Danae' while she paints to the sound of the person's heartbeat with the help of a stethoscope. I had the privilege of sitting with Danae' & it was incredibly moving. I sat motionless, extremely aware of my own heartbeat, the music & memories & the woman next to me painting by the beat of my heart. My heartbeat painting is tucked away--perhaps someday soon I will scan it to share.

And now for the update...
Yet again, I am facing an uncertain time of waiting in my life. Like business everywhere, Heifer is suffering & the announcement was recently made that Heifer will be laying off 20% of their staff. No one knows yet who will be affected, but it's certainly a possibility that I could lose my job. It's a strange situation to find myself in, only 20 short months after being hired for the job I waited four years for. I have mixed feelings about it all but can assure you that if I do lose my job Levi & I will be fine. At times I feel anxious & restless, other times resigned, & sometimes even excited.

We hope you are doing well--our love & best to all!

Bloggers Unite!

Unite For Hunger And Hope

http://www.heifer.org/site/c.slI3IdNVJuE/b.4861851…

April 29, 2009

Objective:
All you have to do to help end world hunger is to join thousands of others bloggers on April 29 and write a post about world hunger.

BlogCatalog members and Heifer International are partnering to call for the end of world hunger and start of hope on April 29. All we ask is that you join thousands of other bloggers and write a post about world hunger on April 29. You can make a difference.

• Right now, more than 500 million people are living in "absolute poverty" and more than 15 million children die of hunger every year.

• World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the population is underfed and another third is starving.

• Even in the United States, 46 percent of African-American children and 49 percent of Latino children are considered chronically hungry.

Organizations like Heifer International are the solution. Every day in April, Heifer International is lifting people out of poverty by providing communities with livestock and agricultural training to improve lives and inspire hope. What can you do?

• Join this event and add a badge to your blog by April 29.

• Watch for upcoming news releases and topic backgrounders.

• Visit Heifer International to learn more about Pass On The Gift.

• Make a small donation or take some other action to end world hunger.

• Post about world hunger on April 29 with links to solutions all over the world.

Retro Weekend 2009

We have friends, well family really who started a retro ski weekend last year. Since Liza and started skiing this year we thought hey lets go retro.

Enjoy

Climbing

Anybody remember this post from August 2006? I enjoyed rock climbing then, but it didn't quite stick. Last weekend I spent 3 days climbing in Joshua Tree National Park & I am hooked. Check out some of the photos:

King Dome--just one spot in an 800,000 acre park filled with cool rocks & funky plants.

Climbing Buckets to Burbank, a 5.8 rated climb.

Sunset over the San Andreas fault line.

Cool cloud formations rolling in at the end of a full day of climbing.

Justin soloing Flies on the Wound, a 5.7 climb.

Justin up top, cleaning up the route.

Me.

Learning how to climb using a crack.

Ten year-old Tipton giving it a go.

Me on Morituri te Salutamus, my first 5.9 climb.

After learning a lot from Justin in Joshua, I came home & promptly bought a book on rock climbing & spent this afternoon at Stone Gardens, the climbing gym down by the locks. I am excited to have that gym so close to my work, as I can go there & boulder on my own & they have self-belaying devices so I can even climb on my own. Climbing seems to be a very good stress reliever for me & I am really in need of that these days. I'm hoping to find more people who want to climb (they are all too far away--Justin in CA & Whitney in Oak Harbor) so let me know if you're interested!
For the rest of our neglected blog update...we've been road biking often & Levi went on the first mountain ride of the year up at St. Ed's this week & found the trails to be in great condition. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we'll be riding the Chilly Hilly, the year's first organized ride of about 35 miles on Bainbridge Island. And we're looking forward to fresh snow in the mountains & night skiing on Thursday. We're having fun with old sports & new alike. :)
We hope you are doing well!

Special Birthday

On Sunday we had a lovely party at Boo's house to celebrate Alan's birthday. My camera leaves something to be desired for indoor photos, but I got some fun ones...

Momma wearing Tanta Kathy's wedding rings (she left us just over a year ago).

Graceful Gmaw.

Goofiness.

Levi relaxing by the fire.

The wonderful hosts.

My special folks.

Levi & sweet Momma.

Aunt Kathy & Momma.

Birthday boy & his mother.

We've taken up a new sport

And we're having fun (it just needs to snow again in the mountains)!

We know the answer

After getting home tonight and examining the stream the problem became clear. Somewhere around 10:30 last night the top of a tree broke off (a neighbor heard the crack). The stream splits in two and the tree landed on the left fork. This caused the water to back up and flow over the berm.

We were able to clear out the tree top with an axe and some lifting. Hopefully the problem is gone for this year.

The stream broke at 12 AM

Two hours, two Fire trucks, 30 sand bags, our annual come out and meet the neighbors party later we got to go back to bed. Looks like I will be back at repairing the stream this afternoon.

On the plus side it didn't go into the parking lot, the new storm water drop put in last year really helped, and most importantly no-one took on water.

So much better then last year.

For Mom Lois

Dad jumping off the roof...