Camping near American River

In late October my parents and I decided to go out and enjoy the fall weather. And it was beautiful and clear.... and COLD! We met up near American River just east of Mt. Rainer National Park




This is a lake we wandered around.
















This is Mt. Rainer. Really. Just trust me.









It was actually too cold for me to sleep in a tent, so I thought I'd try out my new (to me) Forester as a camper. Lucky me, I was short enough to fit comfortably inside... even sharing the space with a big furry puppy dog.

Here the intrepid campers are. After it warmed up enough for us to move around (it was in the 20's that night. brr).

Rainy Hike

Leo, Anna and I went on a hike to a nearby State Park. We had checked the weather forecast, it was the fall after all. The weather said that the chance of rain was rather small. So we thought, "Great, let's go!"

We had, however, neglected to specify where we wanted to know what the chance of rain was. While in Seattle, the outlook was good, near North Bend (Cascade foothills) it rained and rained and rained. Leo just kept looking at us like we were crazy. But we kept going.


Despite our weather-mania fathers' careful coaching, it looks like Anna and I have a ways to go with maximizing optimal weather and location events.


Well, the waterfall was nice, despite the weather.... and Leo's long sighs.

I just got ridiculously excited about receiving my new Dirt Devil Breeze Bagless Canister Vac (with attachments- 12 amp) in the mail today.

I'm not sure what to think about this.

Lawn Care

Um, since I've been home alone a lot this week (don't detect ANY complaint here) I've found myself noticing and doing... a variety of things that one doesn't do when one is busy working. This morning as I was watering my back lawn I noticed just how sparse it was. It has been likened to a balding man's head. Now, in my defense, it's hard to find the balance between wanting the place you live in to look nice and not wanting to spend lots of money on rental property. Anyways, as I was noticing my sparse lawn I also noticed very lush, abundant grass growing in the flower garden area, so I decided to try implants. Grass implants. You know, to help the bald lawn look better. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Introducing my new partner...

in crime, that is. Here's Leo:

He's a German Shepherd- Golden Retriever mix. I think he has something like Newfoundland or St. Bernard in there too. He is big (77 pounds!!) and has a really wide head.

I definitely wasn't planning on getting such a big dog. But he has this quiet, sweet personality and at the shelter he just sort of leaned against my leg and said, "pet me" so I was hooked.

So far he hasn't barked. He does like to shred paper though. So, we learned to keep books out of the backyard (what kind of a place is that to keep books anyway?).

What I know about Leo is that he LOVES to be petted, cuddled and get his belly scratched. He loves people and dogs and to sleep. He's not so sure about traveling in the car, but is willing to keep giving it a try. He sometimes comes when he's called and he loves to go on walks. He's about 2 years old and I can't believe that nobody else wanted him. He's such a sweet dog!

He's been a lot of fun and is doing a good job of keeping me company and entertained so far.

Summer Vacation!!

I have officially (and finally!) completed my first year teaching 3rd grade. Phew! I do think that it is the right grade for me right now since the kids are at the age where they love you when they begin... and they still love ya as they leave (miracle!!). It was kind of a bitter-sweet end of the year... hard to imagine that I don't have to show up for work for 2 months (yes, I am rubbing it in) and that when I do it'll be COMPLETELY different.... Well, teaching does keep a person on their toes, that's for sure. I do like how my career is always changing.... keeps me from getting bored.

Mom does know best

Yesterday I wore my mom's navy blue clogs from 1979 to work. I received more compliments on them than I have on anything else in my wardrobe. This goes to prove that my mom is infinitely more stylish than I am.

February in Hood Canal

Who says blogs have to be sequential?

Last month I escaped for a weekend to Hood Canal. Despite having grown up on an island in the Pacific Northwest, somehow I'd never been there. Come to think of it, I've never been to Tofino, Oroville or Ritzville but we'll have to leave those deficiencies for another time.


Oysters lying around on the beach. Like rocks, kind of, but they're not.

So, now I've spent some time in the fabled Oyster Heaven Hood Canal. And, yes, it was oyster heaven. In fact, it took you about 3 minutes to get all the oyster's you needed for a meal. No searching required, they were just lying around on the beach. I'd like to take this moment to mention that while I have absolutely no qualms about gathering, say, berries that are growing wild, or even apples lying around under an apple tree, there is something definitely weird about just picking up a rock-like object, steaming it open and eating the gooey stuff inside. It's just weird, that's all.

It is good though, if you don't think about it too much.

This is my friend and I gathering our oyster meal. That bucket was full fast (in 3 minutes -as I said before). The tide is out and those little oysters had nowhere to go (they're not known for their speedy evasiveness).

We did not eat this. There is some kind of clear delineation between what one finds and eats and what one finds and says is "cute" and puts back down. This is an example of the latter. Note its claw. He wasn't afraid to use it either. I, like a true scientist, let him have a go at me to "see if it would hurt". This technique is not advisable for all scientific inquiries. In this case, the answer was no, it doesn't hurt.

One of the great things about the area is that it is on the Olympic Peninsula which has some pretty fine mountains (thus the picture). It also has this incredibly long canal (named Hood) that connects all the way out to the Puget Sound and then to the Pacific. You get all the sea life in what looks like a lake or a river. It's kind of interesting. The tides come in and out, since it's connected to the ocean but it doesn't really feel like you're on the ocean. It's kind of hard to explain. It even felt different from being on one of the islands in the sound.

This place wasn't far at all from Seattle, just a ferry ride across the sound, a drive across Bainbridge and then a bridge to the peninsula. We got to see things that are relatively difficult to spot in the city, like seals, eagles, deer, funky jelly fish and of course, the oyster.

My last comment about the weekend was that it was sunny. This is remarkable since we're talking about the winter in the Northwest. It was splendiferous.

The sweater on its namesake

Here's Leif in his sweater-talk about a cute kid! (I'm not biased at all!) The sweater fit pretty well. I had made the sleeves a little long, and the torso a bit long too- but I was paranoid that it wouldn't be big enough. In this picture the sweater is slightly askew since he'd been playing in the snow. The panel of knit goes straight down the front with equal pearl panels on either side.

You can see how the twisted tree pattern runs up the sides, splits at the sleeve and then meets on both the front and the back at the neck.

The top of the sleeves also has a knit panel that runs down the sleeve. The sweater isn't designed to cuff at the sleeves, but I had knit them too long (oops). I'm thinking he'll grow into it perhaps?

This photo shows better how the front is when it's not all wrapped around him from playing. It looks like he's enjoying modeling here, but believe me, the moods change quickly so I had to fire off a ton of shots while he was still willing!

Here Leif is doing what he likes to do best-romping around outside.


Thanks again to Sarah who did such a fabulous job designing this! http://www.bluegarter.org/category/patterns/

Introducing Leif's Twisted Tree Pullover

I finally finished it! 2 months late for Christmas, but at least it'll be delivered before the winter is over. Here's hoping it'll fit Leif, who apparently just doesn't stop growing.

Complements to my friend, Sarah, who designed this and don't judge her design on my knitting ability!

More photos of the sweater will be forthcoming...

Washington State Caucus

Yesterday I attended my local precinct's caucus to elect delegates for a presidential candidate. I'd never been to a caucus before, or even really paid that much attention to the process of narrowing down the candidates to the final two. But this year was different, for whatever reason I'm a lot more interested and I decided that I should go and just see what it meant to caucus.

The first word that comes to mind regarding my first caucus ever is LONG!! I'm quite sure the process could have been seriously streamlined. For example, the 30 minutes of listening to a lady say nothing at all.

But other than that, there were some cool things. The first is the act of walking to the local public school and watching my neighbors stream there as well, then standing in a room with a bunch of the people from my neighborhood, chatting and getting to know each other. One thing I totally miss about living in Seattle is the sense of community, and for once I felt it a bit yesterday.

I also like the feeling of trully having a say. When you go into the caucus you sign in and write down your initial candidate (or you can be undecided), then you go to your local precinct's room and they take a first round tally. After that people are allowed to stand up and talk for 1 minute about their support for this or that candidate. There were some really strong opinions in the room, but people were really polite about it. Everyone got a round of applause at the end of their speech, no matter how wacky they sounded. It was a good thing that the speech's were timed to one minute, however, because I'm sure some of those people could have spoken for a very, very long time. The 1 minute maximum kept this part moving right along, and it was by far my favorite part of the experience. It's cool to hear what people have to say and to feel like you can stand up at any moment and share your own views.

After the speeches, we all wrote down our candidate preference again and then the tally person tallied it up again. The results were quite different from the first round, so several people had been moved by the speeches. Next delegates were assigned in proportion to the tallies. My precinct has 5 delegates, and we voted as a neighborhood who they would be. It was pretty cool to see ordinary people have the chance to go to the next round (County Caucus) and represent our neighborhood. It really did feel like the government was by the people at this stage in the elections.

In all, the caucus was the most intimate feeling of voting that I've ever experienced. I felt that my vote really counted, and that my opinions mattered, as did those of my neighbors. Once the process leaves this neighborhood level of elections that feeling of intimacy leaves. Big numbers take over and my vote gets mixed in with the multitude. But, I'm glad for the experience and the ability to participate in this American tradition of elections. I like sitting with my neighbors and chatting about houses, pets and jobs as well as having a sense of common purpose. I think we all need more opportunities to experience this.

Did anyone else go to a caucus?