for dad, for christmas.

In an effort to avoid consumer material crap that he won't use (he hasn't opened his present from last year, and I can't say I blame him), and due to the recent demise of the company which once produced the object of his strange foodie ritual, and to enjoy a treat more tasty and real than the original (this is a weird sentence), I've figured out what I'm "giving" my father for Christmas.

Giving = learning how to put the damn things together, and then actually handing him a plate of them on his March 8th birthday.

I wonder what the best way to dye coconut pink is.

trois, douze, merde!

Reading through old blog posts can make one . . . nostalgic.

I am considering taking the time to return to this blog.

In the mean time, let's talk about a movie. Jord, Garett and I saw a clementine of a film last week.

Holy Motors.

I only recommend it if you think life's a little profane, a little absurd, a little heart-wrenching, a little cheesy, a bit queer.

The Tower cat sat on my lap for the first half-hour, then jumped off, then wandered up the aisle meowing loudly.

It fits.

turn one over, put it down.

I had a dream the other night, where I heard a man say, "I make experimental music. My music is off-the-table. It's anti-table, really."

His music, my life?

winter, revised.

i'll go ahead and add "heal a fractured fibula" to my list of winter good times.

there's no quicker way to go crazy than to remove all physical activity from your life.

saltlake-sunvalley-portland-rockaway-hoquiam-seattle-boise-saltlake

the pacific northwest is easy to love.

birds identified on this trip:

red-breasted merganser (first time!)
hooded merganser
barrow's goldeneye (first time!)
bufflehead
mallard
american wigeon
great blue heron
bald eagle
swainson's hawk
red-tailed hawk
northern harrier
american kestrel
raven
eared grebe
fulmar or petrel? (ah, seabirds i don't know! it had a sad petrel eye, and was floating alone)
black-billed magpie
rough-legged hawk
flocks of finches and starlings

also saw a chaos coyote in sun valley on a misty river morning.

i don't think i would have been able to identify half of these animals if it weren't for holiday binoculars from my boy and my copy of sibley's from my parents.

we are Bothwell.

Snoqualmie anymore.

Toppenish morning to you.

gusts of birds.

farmington bay, december 3, 2011

American Kestrel
Pie-billed Grebe
White-faced Ibis
Golden Eagle
Northern Pintail
Northern Harrier
Marsh Wren
California Gull
Canvasback
American Coot
American White Pelican
Willet
Northern Shoveler
Lesser Yellowlegs
American Wigeon

a beautiful day with a dear friend.

sloping.

i downhill skied for the first time today. i fell, i cried, i swore. i had a patient teacher. it was fun and i can't wait to do it again.

that's why you always leave a note.

the last few weeks are blurry whirly. i should write in a journal. or on this blog.

terrariyums.

reading about seasonal affective disorder will cause you to have it. if you are careful, then you didn't read the preceding sentence, out of preventative principle.

whatever, i have a load of a list of things that are going to keep me from getting the wintertime blues.

building a terrarium with caitie is on the list, as is a thanksgiving land art project with amy.

if i posted the whole list here i would be embarrassed. no. i'll do it, for the record.

in no particular order:

watercolors, learn to knit, knit a big blanket, crochet the ongoing blanket, cook soups, quiche, tarts, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, birding, wishes project, thanksgiving art with amy, seattle, yoga, gym, homemade yogurt, honey, movies, madmen, the wire, breaking bad, tim and eric, duck club, the cabin, hot springs--diamond fork and meadow, yurt, lots of yoga, craft niche, cookies!, strength training, terrariums with caitie, succulent garden, cooking class, opera, ballet, telemark skiing (jord's going to teach me!!), hiking up neff's to find moss.

i'll add to this.

happening.

pardon me for seeming sowft.

i found this in the dustbin of blog drafts.

dear miss caitie,

you may not recall my gorgan(zola), but i met you at the snarly cocktail party given by our ripe friend, spencer. we had a hipstery talk about brazen mustachios dot coms, and i was impressed by your arabic conversation and your grasp of the manufactured situation. also, i was very much attracted by your oily eyes, your dusty little chin, and your racy teeth. if you'll pardon me for seeming sowft, i was fascinated by your blue walk and by your gregarious figure.

i hope i made a demonstrative impression, and that we can get together for a nice arbiter next week.

mysteriously yours,

tyler

to love the west

i've created another internet diversion!

this time, it highlights things to be loved about the west, especially my home state, utah.

here it is:

heartwest

no more pharting around.

most of last week sucked. i was too busy to be happy.

points of brightness, of course, were my boy, my family, my friends and zim.

pharts.

lest i only write when i'm happy, today sucks.

you win some, you don't win some.

i just got an empty, sealed classic series wrapper.

the new natural history museum of utah

you will learn. you will have fun. you will find something new to love about utah.

i am thrilled to be involved in the opening phase of nhmu. we're creating some kick-butt programs for y'all.

dust bunnies and pollen pee-wees

allergies are killing me.

fortunately i can go to intermountain allergy to see what is driving my histamines crazy.

unfortunately i can't do anything about it, except surrender more of my sense of smell to 6-hour (24-hour? yeah right?) allergy relief medication.

all is full of.

one thing i love about salt lake is that there is a sort of urgency that comes at the end of summer.



after yoga, jord and I headed to the avenues street fair. so many friends at the fair! alex p. was there with healutah, andrea s. was selling handmade rugs, nhmu people were spreading the news about the new museum, meaghan was manning the utah clean energy booth, and brittany and marcus, gavin, aaron and whitney were selling terrariums (the purple thumb), collages, papercrafts, buttons, magnets and cassette tapes (with walkmens). i bought black rose post earrings and a dinosaur bib from vintagefern. jord congratulated me for wearing 3-d earrings. we snacked on kettle corn and i got a porcelain peace magnet because i saved the magnets from crashing to the ground.

we headed to the grateful tomato garden (wasatch community garden) before our 12pm volunteering commitment. jord and i volunteered on the garden winter staff and it was nice to see how the garden has grown. the line for crumb-brothers-bread-fresh-garden-pesto-uber-fresh-heirloom-tomato sandwiches was long but moving quickly.

so many tomatoes of all sorts. i ate so many tomatoes. i was a slicer, so i noshed quite a bit. my favorites were the yellowy-pink-orangey ones. we went home with two bags of tomatoes and about a pound of sliced ones. jord bought some honey off a local dude. also, in between the plant sale and the free plants for volunteers, we ended up with sage, arugula and a mystery plant (dun dun DUN).

we got back to the apartment just as a big storm was rolling in. it was lovely. i put my honey in the honey jar and tried it with peanut butter and a cracker. so yum.

when the rain dissipated we went back to the street fair, where i bought a cross-stitch of (gasp!) an owl from whitney. jord bought several pieces of paper art (including a righteous eagle with fish prey), a couple buttons and a cassette tape from gav. we bolth wanted to buy a terrarium, but we're going to wait and make one with brit. down the street, there was a house filled with estate-sale items. i bought a small wooden jewelry box and a ladybug clip. tricia and her kids were there, and we talked about amy and todd.

when we got home, i pulled out the pastry dough i had made friday and beat the hell out of it. i used julia child's recipe. (i was going to make a "quick and easy" crust, but then decided if i was going to do it, i was going to do it right). i partially baked the crust and then poured the quiche lorraine (with added mushrooms) filling into the crust. it smelled like heaven was baking in the oven.

we ate the quiche for dinner. it was SO GOOD. i thought i was going to screw up julia's recipe, but i channeled her life force and BOOM. deliriously good quiche. also deliriously fattening and rich quiche. grum a yum.

thusly, we took zig for a night hike up in the foothills. we saw several ghostly nighthawks on the way up. the temperature was perfect and the city below was glimmering. on the way down we spotted a big buck and a doe. zig phreeked out and flew after them. it's a strange dog that's scared of a breeze but will charge animals five times his size.

then, this morning, we went to city creek for a run. we saw a hairy woodpecker. the end.

i don't know why i felt i needed to outline this weekend. it was just perfect. and now i'm sitting with the brlack cat. he makes me so happy.

what makes the classic series so classic?

courage. it doesn't get better than this. it just doesn't.

i got two classic series nobjules in one wrapper!!

buy them here:
http://www.southeastmarket.com/

(such a great little market. the grocers are friendly and helpful.)

ciruela

hard word to say, or hardest word to say?