Behold, a wild life summary appears!

I've attempted to post several times, and canned each attempt after getting frustrated with every post.  Nothing felt right.  Everything was disorganized and jumbled.  I have so much to say and yet none of it seemed important.

So, here we are, 6 months since my last post.   Let's summarize all the good/bad/whatever stuff!

THE BOAT

Rio The Boat (buildingasailboat.com) is currently being neglected.  I pushed pretty hard on the build over the summer, and ended up getting burned out by how much of life I was missing by focusing on a hunk of plywood that doesn't quite float yet.  The build is SUPPOSED to be fun, and when you're outside in 90F weather with high humidity, wearing long sleeves, jeans, and a respirator, it really, really sucks.  And when you're being accosted by spiders (this year, the spiders are everywhere, you can't walk 20 feet outside without getting tangled in a web), you can't help but get a little frustrated.   This is coupled by the joy of forgetting that you have epoxy on your hands and you, reflexively, try to get a spider/beetle/wasp off of your head, and instead smear epoxy all over your hair.  GOOD TIMES.  No, I haven't given up.  Yes, I still am proud and happy that I'm building a boat.  This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, so why rush it?!

THE FAMILY

I'm a three-time aunt now.  My brother and his wife had a little boy on March 14th.   He's pretty cute!

My mom was married in Reno to her sweetheart of five years last month.

My husband's Aunt Bev entrusted us with her 1987 VW Westfalia, Casa Rodante, which we drove down to the aforementioned wedding.  It was amazing.  It's such a cool bus that I want to dedicate a post to it.  In the meantime, though, have a photo of its awesomeness:

Yup, custom plates in honor of Bev. 

THE HOUSE(S)

Casa Crustante is serving us well.  BUT, there are things we need.   1.  Privacy from the nosy neighbors.  2. A Garage  3.  A big fence.  We don't like the area enough to invest in it.  In summary, we'll be moving in a few years.  More on that later.

Remember the property I grew up on?  Well, the land that raised three generations of my family was sold to the S'Klallam tribe for a paltry $285k.  I have, since moving out to the Seattle area, have wanted to move back.  It's where I thought I'd raise my own kids and grow old.  Now that it's no longer in the family, I had spiraled out a bit and have been struggling to figure out where I am supposed to be.   I know this may sound foreign to those of you without a long family history of staying in one spot, but that land was very important to my brother and me. 

The Condo:  We're renting it out right now to some friends, but will be placing it on the market on January 1, 2014.

Aaaand.. there's a bunch of other crap.  But that's it for now.  The weather is shining, the pull to make sawdust is strong, and I've got couches to build.  Yes, I'll be posting about that, too! Look, I've got three things to follow up on, now.  So stay tuned.

The Ultimate DIY

My brother wins the prize for ultimate DIY project this weekend:

He built himself a foundry. For smelting aluminum. Why? Because he's going to use the aluminum to build himself a lathe.

And to think I was proud of assembling my cedar raised beds from a kit.

Baby plants!

My seeds from seedsavers.org arrived on Friday, and they were tucked into soil by the end of the evening. While some of my peers were off partying the night away, we were hunkered around our dining room table sorting through the seeds.

By Sunday, we had little bumps of green pushing through the soil. I have never ever had anything grow so fast.. I pulled out my seed packets and read through them- the majority of the plants shouldn't have germinated for another week!


Behold, my baby Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage. It even has a fuzzy little hula skirt! Welcome to the world, little cabbage!

Looks like these little buggers are just as eager as I am to get started on this gardening adventure. So far, I have cabbage, pumpkins, cucumbers, dahlias, moss rose, paprika peppers, and broccoli sprouts, all eager to get their lives started.

This little guy will hopefully be a dahlia. My late Great Aunt Pearl kept dahlias- she grew up to 250 varieties at one time- and I thought having them in the garden would be an nice way to celebrate her memory. I'm especially excited to see this one grow.

Perhaps she'll lend me 1/10 of the green thumb she had in her day. Miss you, my dear Great Aunt Pearl!

Damn Reflections, Getting in the Way

I promise I won't flood this blog with baby photos. Cross my heart. As I was going through them I discovered something.


Wait... what's that?



I try not to mar family photos with my presence. But, as it turns out, I'm not a vampire, and my reflection still can get in the way.


I guess I really was there.

Welcome, Nephew

Meet my nephew, now 6 days old. More images here.

Round Trip Flight to California: $800
Hotel: $110
Heatstroke: 3 hours of husband's projectile vomit.
Meeting Grant: Priceless.

Preparing for a Baby

I'm going to become an aunt today.

We don't know if it's going to be a boy or a girl.

These are the last few moments before meeting the new generation of our family.

I'm nervous, but more than anything I am so excited.

And I can't think of much else, except for "is the baby here yet? Is the mother okay? Is it a boy or a girl?"

So here. Have some pictures of the baby blankets I've made.

================= Update ================

It's a boy!!! 7.5 pounds.
Mom + baby are doing great!

Six Pounds of Bees

Want to know what six pounds of 3-banded Italian honey bees look like?


Now you know.

And because my brother is a machine with no capacity to feel fear (or pain), he put each box into its respective hive. With his bare hands. Did I mention he's allergic?

He plays it safe, he has an EpiPen on hand. He's fearless, not stupid.

I'm so proud right now.

A Dog's Day

My brother and his wife have a pug named Dexter.

He just turned one.

He's a doll. In a wrinkly pug-ish sort of way.

He loves our toy fox terrier, Abby. However, I'm not sure she feels the same way.

Happy 71st Birthday, Dadeo!

So my father would have been 71 today! As a leap year baby, we always celebrated his birthday on the last day of the month.

To celebrate this occasion, I found a neat little website that is used to honor the memories of a deceased loved one- it's called 1000memories. I started a page for my father and sent out the links to the family members I keep in touch with. Hopefully it'll start fleshing out!

Check it out here. Happy birthday, old man!

Family Ties

Every single day for the last week has been a bit insane. We were blessed to have my husband's father in town, so it has been a lot of driving and adventuring and eating. I gained three pounds in a week. Seriously. In other words, it has been awesome.

We attended a Belgian beer festival on Saturday- and we couldn't have had a better time. My brother came up to visit (his second time in the four years we've lived here), so the four of us ventured off to try all sorts of delicious brews. I took one for the team and decided on being the designated driver- and it was a blast, even sober. The few beers I did try were phenomenal - Rogue's Menage-a-Frog was a favorite, as well as Georgetown Brewing Co's Braggot.

On Sunday we drove down to a gun show. Honestly I was a little apprehensive, as I had never been to one of these events.. and I was hesitant to walk in the door as a female non-conservative... but I was pleasantly surprised by how nice everyone was to me. I was a bit blown away by how many people tried to sell me a pink gun though. Just because I am a woman does not make me prone to buy a crappy pepto-bismal colored firearm, just so you know.

While the hubs was away working his crazy hours, we also took a drive to my hometown (We drove by your house, Mrs. M, and I waved for memory's sake!). I sometimes miss living in Sequim, I really do.. but I don't know if I could live so far away from Seattle. I'm starting to get attached to the niceties that we have here.

So it's been a very full and wonderful week.. and I'm so sad that my father-in-law is back down in Vancouver. I am thrilled that we have him in Washington at all though. I think it's especially good for my husband to spend as much time with his father as possible. We all know how short life is, and you never know how long we have with the ones we love.

Dad.

Today marks the third year anniversary of my father's death.

I'll never forget waking up at 7am on Monday, rolling over and seeing the three missed calls. I called my voicemail, and hearing my mother's voice tell me "Julie, I think your father is gone..". I swear that my heart stopped that moment from shock. I turned off my phone, turned to Val and told him "Dad is gone.". And that's when my heart rebooted, and the tears couldn't stop.

My father had suffered the majority of his life from a collection of illnesses that were associated with the onset of his juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. His body was crippled by his autoimmune system.

And while he suffered for the majority of his life, his pain was not his identity. His joyful spirit shone through. He loved to laugh and make others do the same - his sense of humor was one of my favorite things about my father. He also had a thirst for knowledge - he loved history, fishing, sailing, construction, automobiles and DIY. When someone had a question, they could ask my dad. He could usually point them in the right direction. Have you ever read or flipped through the book "Back to Basics"? He was basically a human resource for that book.

He was and remains my greatest inspiration. He makes me want to be a better and more productive person, to get out there and see the things that he never had a chance to see.

The world lost an asset three years ago. I lost my father, one of my best friends, and my guidance counselor. The values he shared and the joy he brought to our lives will never be forgotten.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has always been a difficult holiday. This year, it falls the day before the third anniversary of my father's death. Black Friday, huh? That's a bit ironic.

Ever since my father's passing, my family has evolved and changed. It's not a bad thing, it's just.. well, different. So this year, we're mixing things up a bit. While we were invited to visit my mom's, we have decided to run down to Vancouver, WA. The hub's father is now in the state, and this will be his first Thanksgiving with his dad in seven years. Seven years!

As if one day celebrating Thanksgiving wasn't enough, we're also flying down to Sacramento this weekend for a dinner at his aunt and uncle's home. It'll be nice to see everyone- his family is so lovely and welcoming. It'll be nice to get to know them better. Plus, it'll be super exciting to see what all the hype is about regarding the new body scanners and frisking procedures.

Meet the Dianas!

Remember my internal struggle regarding the Diana F+ and/or the Diana Mini? I now have both. I have yet to master the F+, as I've been having entirely too much fun with the Mini.

Things I've learned so far:

1. Processing film is expensive. Even run of the mill 35mm color film.
   
2. Take your film to a specialty processing lab.
3. Black and white film is incredible. The tonal range is gorgeous.
4. ISO 400 film is my friend.
5. I like life more through a plastic lens.

B&W ISO 400:

Color ISO 400, split exposures:


Color ISO 800:

I got my favorite picture out of my photo experiments, too. Here's my family, all in one 4x6. Something about a plastic lens makes the photos turn out more relaxed and lovely... People don't get all weird about getting their picture taken if the camera is incapable of capturing every tiny flaw.


And the best part about this photo? It was taken the same day. At the same table. The first time my family has had a meal together in at least two years. It was a great day!

Speechless..

Officially debt free.
Climbed into another financial bracket.
Found out I'm going to be an aunt.

I'm speechless. And thrilled. September 1, 2010, you've been a wonderful, delightful day.

Hard Decisions..

..are hard.

It was a decision kind of day. It was the kind of decision that you make because the alternative ending will inevitably mean more pain in the long run.

Lack of sleep is fogging my brain. More tomorrow.

Ninja Eggs

It has come to my attention that I do not like ninja eggs- eggs in baked goods that aren't predominately eggy, if that makes sense.

I love eggs. We rarely ate them growing up, as they were a forbidden food in our household (due to allergies in the family). And when we did get them (my grandmother next door would make them for us on occasion) they were divine.

My mom was (is!) the master of the baked goods, even with the egg allergy. Her pies and cakes are to die for. She's made wedding cakes, won ribbons for her pies, and understands the joy that a beautifully crafted dessert can create. I never felt like we missed anything- we even had eggless carob cakes for birthdays that were divinely decorated. I still don't know how she found the time.

Things that are egg-based I have no problem with. They're honest with their eggfulness- frittatas, quiches, omelettes, etc. They're delicious and savory and lovely. But when you put more than two eggs in a baked good, I get a little wary. That yolk taste can get a bit overwhelming and often ruins the flavor for me.

An egg-xample of eggs behaving properly. No surprises, all egg!

I made German Puff pancakes for brunch today. They were beautiful, but had three eggs in them. I was so excited, but when I took a big bite the egg taste was a bit too strong. Next time I'll do a Bisquick-type-based batter and see how that turns out.

My Mom Will Be So Proud

I think I might have inherited my mom's legendary pie gene.

Behold, my very first ever strawberry-rhubarb pie.



We were wandering through the farmer's market when I discovered some beautiful looking rhubarb. I convinced the hubby that I needed it to fatten him up with pie. "Do you know how to make pie..? That sounds like a lot of work.."

"I should learn, don't you think?"

So I spent the afternoon pouring over an old pie cookbook (Farm Journal's Complete Pie Cookbook) my mom gave to me. The book is old and the pages are yellow- they even crack when you turn them.

I modified the recipe (only to substitute flour with cornstarch- I had no flour!), and it still turned out divine.

The pie didn't even last 12 hours. I served it for dinner, and the next morning the husband dished it up for breakfast. I guess it was a hit.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

• Pastry for two crust pie
• 3 cups cut rhubarb (1lb)
• 2 cups halved strawberries (8oz)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 Tbls cornstarch
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 Tbls butter

40 minutes @ 400°F

Pictures!

Mt. Rainier is such a beautiful place in the world. We'll be back next weekend.

Monday, Monday

I have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that it's still Monday. Time has been a bit weird for us- we've been so busy and life has been so good that everything has been a bit jumbled.

We camped at Mt. Rainier this weekend. Incredible.
I made my first strawberry rhubarb pie. I think I inherited my mom's pie gene. Score!
Office is populated by electronics and is almost ready to roll.
Lovely bicycle ride today- our bikes turn 25 this month.

Pictures tomorrow. But for now there is a bubble bath that calls my name.

Val Learns to Ride

For the 4th of July Val learned how to learn a motorcycle, I started my own business, and we made pasties for dinner. Might have been the best 4th ever!