iLove

here is the sweetest surprise, a gift for no reason in particular: a cute little white MacBook.

thank you, peter. it is going to revolutionize my life. and my blogging? now I can computerize in style.

I'm an eat-whatever-you-want-etarian

as many of you know, I'm a flexitarian. and no, I did not make that term up. see below.

an excerpt of an article from Spark People:

"What do you eat?!” may be the question most often heard by vegetarians, as if meat is the only food group available. Obviously, as the five million thriving vegetarians in America have shown, there’s a lot to eat, without choosing meat—and they’re healthier as a result.

According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, vegetarians have lower rates of cancer, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and asthma. While simple recipes abound for tasty meatless fare, vegetarianism is a leap that many aren’t prepared to take. But you can still have many of the health benefits of a vegetarian diet without trading your turkey for Tofurkey by trying "flexitarianism" on for size. Flexitarians, or semi-vegetarians, are “sometimes" vegetarians, meaning people who reduce some of their meat consumption and fill the gap with other plant-based food groups—eating a mostly vegetarian diet, yet remaining flexible.

I really like being a flexitarian for the pure fact that it sounds cool. and that nobody has ever heard of it. and really it just means that I can pretty much eat whatever the heck I want. I mean, you might be a flexitarian and not even know it!

I really do try to eat more like a vegetarian, I swear. but who can resist burgers?

my peeps

here we are, rockin' harder than bon jovi

club u rock 'n roll music star dress up day

book club readings: ordinary wolves

if I were to have a book club, this would be on the list. seth kantner's novel, ordinary wolves, is a beautifully expansive story of the alaskan wilderness and all those living within. it is a coming of age story; a story of social unjust and racism; a story approaching some of life's toughest questions. in it the land and her people are not romanticized; it is a harsh reality set amongst a harsh landscape. and as kantner grew up in the wilderness of northern alaska himself, some say that ordinary wolves is somewhat autobiographical. I think it is one of the truest depictions of the land, native and non-native peoples, and attitudes between the two.

The sun was warm on my neck. Slowly, I felt like Cutuk again, the little boy in the big wilderness. Before this constant thirst hiding between coffee and alcohol, sugar and sex. I wondered if I had always been afraid. All my life there had been power out there that made the decisions. It hadn't been so apparent when no man owned the land and we could laugh at storms and hunt harder. But no w everything was square and electric and came off airplanes. And we lived here not really knowing what the power looked like, who it listened to, or how it held its fork.

I was tired of it. I didn't believe in it. I stood up and brushed sand off my butt. "I'm not going to be a dog. I'll take the wolf's deal."

seth kantner is a true artist. not only of the written word, but of wildlife photography as well.

the human body after a lifetime of sunshine

kids, this is why you wear sunblock. yikes!

PS this is also why that argument
if I'm going to die, I might as well be tan
does not work for me. trust me,
you don't look good when you
look like a wrinkly, brown elephant!

favorite things

thank you, kelly, for hosting the swap.

thank you, kate, for the fabulous swap items (and putting up with my swap delinquencies).

iced tea
herbal tea
notepad
recipes
fabric and such

hurrah!

scrabble sunday

peter 247 | anna 215

community garden eats

we were partakers of the bounty of the first yielding of our future food tonight. yesterday we harvested: beets, baby carrots, lettuce, green onions, and a zucchini. all hail self sufficiency and sustainable living!

red pine via little cottonwood canyon

destination: upper and lower red pine lakes;
a *scouting trip for the pfeiferhorn

lower red pine

lunch at upper red pine

negotiating the boulders

scenic vista

*scouting in the sense that we couldn't summit the peak that day for many various and sundry reasons, which include, but are not limited to: having minimal hours of sleep the previous night, starting the hike in the mid-day heat, failing to pack enough water, et cetera. we will be better prepared next time.

the proof is in the pudding!

my lil' sis gave me a hot tip the other night: this vanilla pudding tastes like cake batter. and it's true! hurrah!!

now if you know me at all, you know I loves me my cake batter. now I can have all the fun sans the raw eggs!

so rush out and stock up! make sure it's the sugar free variety of the kroger brand. accept no substitutes.

enjoy!

nuno is uno!

happy birthday, little man!

photo courtesy of eliza c.

the tao of the slackline

focus.
release your inner monkey.
step softly, but step surely.
feel the line beneath you; become one with it.
as in life there is chaos in the peace and peace in the chaos.
embrace both sides.
there will always be distractions, focus.

our babies

with future food comes future juicing love:
beet + carrot

touched with ocean

all that we do
is touched with ocean, yet we remain
on the shore of what we know
--richard wilbur

week one: pirate's of the salt lake valley

well, the first week of camp is over. what a relief! we can finally get into the full swing of things. I'm actually quite excited for the summer ahead. we have an absolutely fabulous staff and a lot of fun stuff planned.

monday: the whole camp went to liberty park, which is always a good time. I did a place-based lesson of the salt lake valley in the seven canyons fountain. it covered such awesome things as local geography, a little history, but it was mostly about watersheds. (too bad the actual fountain was closed for maintenance... no dipping in any "streams" to cool off.)

tuesday: I took a group back to liberty park for my elective. this time it was fred the fish. man how i love fred the fish. it's a great lesson on storm water pollution. some things I learned this go around: the kids are more engaged if they can actually hear and understand what is going on, but dumping yucky things in a jar is always fun. that afternoon I just ran some random sports (boccie ball, frisbee golf, and field hockey/soccer) games for the younger groups, while they weren't making boats to float in the marriott library fountain.

wednesday: it totally rained! all our plans had to be changed since we do everything outside. I took my elective group to the marriott library to read nature stories. that afternoon the whole camp went swimming at steiner (except for the youngest groups because there isn't a zero entry to the pool... they went down to the slc main library instead.) and swam in their indoor pool. we had looked at the wrong shuttle times (the summer schedule runs off the normal afternoon schedule, who knew!) so everyone was a little cold on the way back to campus. overall it was a fun time, though.

thursday: my elective group went swimming at the HPER pool on campus. I got to work in the office instead of swim. I was there pretty much all day. oh, and it was another rainy day. which is always fun for camp.

friday: we went up to rockport reservior, but didn't swim because it was too cold. we also went over to jordanelle state park to check out the nature center. jordanelle was really fun. I pretty much hung out with the littlest group--the five year olds--and had the best time ever. their counselor, lisa, turned everything into a teachable moment. these kids were so engaged! we even got to see an osprey nest! the only bad part about this day was that we were fifteen minutes late getting back to campus. some parents weren't too happy. we would've been on time but three kids refused to hike any faster than they were going. as a result, the rest of the camp was waiting on a bus for twenty minutes...

so the week, even despite the inclement weather, was a total success. it was very reminiscent of the first week of camp two years ago: the rain, it being the first week, having to be in the gym instead of on president's circle, the smaller group sizes... but luckily this year there were no random rainy day gym accidents. no broken femurs, no reason for a totally ridiculous law-suit.

the only real accident we had this week involved a counselor. but he fractured his knee-cap in four different places and won't be able to walk for weeks... yikes! that is pretty major, but at least it didn't involve one of the campers!

fave quote of the week:
"club U rocks harder than bon jovi!"
said by an eight year-old camper

air time

ready. . .

set. . .

jump!

bff's

the living room

last friday some friends and I went on a hike we went to the living room, aka the furniture, aka the couches

you can access the trail via the bonneville shoreline trail,
up behind the research park area

the views of the valley are always amazing

it's called the living room because people have placed these
flat pieces of rock to look like couches, chairs, love seats.
it's really quite amazing.

hurrah for good times and hurrah for hikes!

grandeur peak

oh the grandeur of an early morning memorial day hike

[katie (who is due in six weeks), bj, anna jo]

I *heart* the wasatch mountains

the good life

buy local,
eat slow,

live simple.









join slow food utah and pine restaraunt
in the third annual feast of five senses fundraiser