Too many tomatoes!

Our garden is a bit of a late bloomer this year, and we're finding ourselves with excessive produce (mostly tomatoes and zucchini). Anyone want to develop a teleporter and come up here to help us eat them?

P.S.

I'm pretty sure everyone who reads this already has it, but you probably haven't looked at it in a while! So, check it out!

www.vicki-mike.com

Holy Crap.

So, I'm sitting here on a Thursday evening, killing time while I print out my wedding invitations. My parents are safely tucked into their hotel, and Mike is at the airport, fetching his mother. And, I am at home printing out our wedding invitations.

We ordered 100% tree-free DIY invitations from this site. The final wording and design was approved by my parents this afternoon, and I am now printing out my wedding invitations so we can have a fun-filled assembly party tomorrow evening.

I think that this act, more than anything until this point, solidifies and makes very real the fact that I am getting married in less than 3 months.

Good God.

Etc. II

More random thoughts:

-Avenue Q is hilarious -- really, really funny. I saw a traveling version of it last night, and I can honestly say that I haven't laughed that much in a long time. Also, I am in awe of the puppetry skillZ of those performers! I frequently use puppets for work (Wally, Molly, Dina Dinosaur, Tiny Turtle, and Baby Dina), and I thought I was pretty good at using them, but I don't hold a candle to the Avenue Q folks.

-Coconut Bliss is soooooooooo good. Not only is it dairy-free (yay for me!), but it's also soy- and processed sugar-free. And it is delicious. And, it's made right here in Eugene, Oregon -- so a small carbon footprint for me to get some. I sure feel sorry for those of you not living in the Western USA. You are missing out.

-Overly hot weather is a real downer. I have no engergy!

hope.

Hope is the thing with feathers
that perches in the soul
And sings the tune without words,
and never stops at all.
--Emily Dickinson

"When you have hope, you have everything." --fortune from a fortune cookie that I have had taped over my desk at work for the last year



My African Violet is blooming. Isn't it lovely? It was a houswarming gift from my father from when I first moved into my house last year. We had lots of African Violets in my house when I was growing up. The leaves are fuzzy and soft, and I was scolded every time I tried to stroke them.



African Violets were one of my paternal grandmother's favorite plants. Grannie loved them, which is likely why my dad likes them and why we had so many in our house when I was a child. When my dad first gave me the plant, it had several flowers on it. The flowers, of course, died off over time, leaving behind only the tempting green leaves. I admit that I haven't always taken the best care of this plant, but it has remained very near and dear to my heart...a kind of connection to my grandmother. I was very fearful that the plant had perhaps died, since it was taking so long to bloom, and I knew I should have been taking better care of it.



But, look at it now! The flowers are so perfectly purple. It gives me strength to look at it.

Funny how when your life is feeling like shit, a simple thing like a flowering African Violet can offer you some hope.

(Other things that are giving me hope right now: I applied for a new job, I am going to Mexico in one week, my friend is about to have a baby, and I AM GOING TO MEXICO IN ONE WEEK.)

That Toddlin' Town...

Greetings.

I have just returned from a whirlwind weekend in Chicago. It was a grand trip, for numerous reasons. One reason it was NOT grand was the weather. It was 75 degrees and sunny in Portland all weekend long. In Chicago? It was 40 degrees and rainy, the way Portland normally is. In fact, there were some small snow flurries while I was there! No matter, though -- there were many other things that made the weekend enjoyable.

The original reason I went to Chicago was to go see the Edward Hopper exhibit at the Art Institute. He's my favorite artist, so I was elated to find that one of the three cities to house the traveling exhibit of his work was the city where I will always have a free place to stay (thanks, Mom and Dad!). We took the train downtown (something I have not done in YEARS) and WALKED from Union Station to the Art Institute. It's probably only like 3/4 of a mile to get there; however, if you knew my mom, you'd know why I bring up this walk. I was quite excited on the approach to the museum, as these began adorning the lightposts:



And then this miraculous vision appeared in the sunlight:



Of course, if you've ever been to the Art Institute, you know all about the lions. Sometimes I wish I was a lion...



In case you're wondering, the exhibit was PHENOMENAL. Seriously. I saw some works of his that I had never seen before. It was great.

That night, after the exhibit, we went out for dinner so that I might indulge in a Chicago classic -- deep dish pizza. This event was noteworthy for 2 reasons: 1) it's really hard to find genuinely good deep dish out West, and 2) I can't eat dairy. However, I resolved to allow myself one gross dairy indulgence per month. And by "gross," I mean both gross as in "huge" and as in "it's really gross how big my stomach gets when I eat dairy." But, man, was it G-O-O-D. I haven't had pizza (of any kind) since last September.



The next day, I could do nothing but sit on the couch until my brother and his wife and my cousin and her husband arrived. We then proceeded to enjoy merriment into the wee hours of the night.

The following day, my parents and I went to see Les Miserables at the Marriot Lincolnshire Theatre. It was FABULOUS! I was skeptical, but it blew me away. The guy playing Jean Valjean played him on Broadway. It was fabulous. After the show, we met my sister and her family for dinner, where my 12-year-old nephew kicked my butt at tic-tac-toe. Seriously -- I wasn't even trying to let him win. He's just got mad tic-tac-toe skillz, yo.



I flew into Portland this morning and actually went into work for a few hours. THAT was a bad idea. I'm home now and really just trying to keep myself awake at this point...

Does anyone know why, exactly, Chicago is referred to as "that toddlin' town" in that song?

Spring!

Some lovely flowers from my garden, which have survived against all odds in this very strange, cold spring.

The Snowy Day

So, it has been a very unusual spring around the Pacific Northwest. I've had snow falling at my house several times over the past week (none sticking), despite the fact that 1) it almost never snows in Portland and 2) it's almost April, for crying out loud!

However, this has been GREAT for mountain snow. Yesterday, Mike and I went for a very snowy spring adventure on Mt. Hood. We snowshoed up the Glade Trail, which goes from the town of Government Camp up to Timberline Ski Area. (On a side note, we are getting married at Timberline Lodge, a mere stone's throw from the ski area.) The trail itself is about 5.5 miles round-trip, with an approxmiate 1500-foot elevation gain. It was an incredible day! Here are some pictures:


There was an obvious trail that people had used, but we didn't always stay on it.


The snow fell on us most of the day.


It was fun to go off the trail and wade through the deep, deep snow. They have over 200 inches of snow up at Timberline. We sunk down 2 or 3 feet, despite our snowshoes. It was quite a workout!


Mike is a dork. But I love him! :)

When we came home from snowshoeing, we found this in our front yard:


What a nice welcome home!