uno yearo de love

as if three hundred and sixty-five days of wedded bliss aren't enough on their own, pete had to thrown in positively the best anniversary present ever. a secret trip to costa rica! yep, you heard that right. COSTA RICA!!! how long has this girl been dying to surf in god's fertile country? oh, at least a few years now. it had been my dream to live there on a self-sustaining farm. work the land in the mornings and surf in the afternoons. I never made it. {much to my mother's relief, I am sure} until now.

it had all been an elaborate rouse from the start. how about going to the grand canyon with scotty and his girlfriend? sure, I said. okay, we'll be gone from october 6th through the 13th. okay.

it didn't help that his friends kept slipping up. did you hear that scotty and athena are going to costa rica together?! what?!!

and I did overhear jim tell pete, she has no idea does she. . .

the major tip-off, though, was when pete walked into the room and announced that we had to go over to scotty's house right then because he owed him some money for a utility bill from a year ago. when I asked if I could write the check out {hey, a girl just likes to write sometimes. this is not an unusual occurrence.} he almost started laughing and gave me this look. after a few seconds of asking, I made myself slightly unavailable. if he wanted to write the check for the "utility bill," I would let him. inside, my heart was screaming. was I going to costa rica???

the night of our anniversary we went out to dinner at this little mediterranean place on main street before doing a session in the salt lake temple. while sitting outside, waiting for our food to come, we exchanged presents.

I gave him a new wedding band {funny story about his old ring, he broke it. he was so intrigued by trying to break stuff with it. and he did, mind you. he broke his watch. chipped and dented countless other things. but this supposedly tungsten ring would not hold up to the force of pete repeatedly throwing it on the ground to see how high it could bounce. the whole thing broke into fifty pieces. yeah, we're thinking it wasn't so much the strongest metal in the world, but some cheap fake. I guess that's what you get when you buy a ring for twenty bucks off ebay.} and a cute little notebook made from two pictures of us {the front cover is a photo of us in paris from our honeymoon, the back cover is a hammock shot from the engagement photo shoot.} the notebook pages are blank on the front side, and have all our old emails from the beginning of our love. priceless gems. the spine cover is an old airline ticket from our honeymoon.

he gave me a little white envelope with my name on it. inside was a card he had made. this was it, the moment of truth. this confirmed my suspiscions, hopes, and dreams! we weren't going to the grand canyon, we were going on the trip of a lifetime! surfing in costa rica for a week!

now I'm really glad he told me then. his first plan was to tell me when we got to the airport--in las vegas! I would have been none the wiser since we'd be driving that way to the grand canyon anyway. hey, do you mind if we make a stop at the airport? hope you packed a swimsuit!

which reminds me, I need to go find a cute, new swimsuit!

bliss

wednesday, september 27, 2006

three hundred and sixty-five days of wedded bliss. {okay, make that three hundred and sixty-seven} thank you, peter, for the adventure. I have loved every minute of it. you are my confidant, greatest support, and best friend.

here's to uno yearo de love! may there be a lifetime more to come.

ey2k6

a love of all things wild

in wildness is the preservation of the world.

--henry david thoreau

images via mr ansel adams

environmental crafting

remember this post? well, I made a duct-tape bust form so I could do a little experiment in creative recycling. {here is anna II wearing the inspiration for this project. oh yeah, and here are the plans.}

I started out with this: an old, men's long-sleeve button-down shirt.

and ended up with this: a cute, women's shirt!

I think it's pretty impressive because not only was I limited to the fabric that I had, but I had no pattern to follow. I made this whole thing up as I went along, and I haven't really sewed anything substantial (pajama pants don't count) for fifteen years.

I was thinking about going into mass production, but as it turns out you'd have to be the exact same size as me. {or you could just mail me your duct-tape bust form.}

anyone {with kids} in for a road trip?

lovely playground scene via emily {love your life}.

ooh, this park speaks to my soul. I hear if you pick up five bits of trash, ten nails, or one "mr dangerous" (that's a piece of wood with a nail in it) you can trade it in for paint or tools to use! the kids get to paint whatever they want and saw and/or hammer pieces of wood together! I'm sure creativity is just exploding at this place!

why oh why don't they have something this fabulous in salt lake city, utah? I mean, sure, liberty is a pretty rad park, what with the seven canyons fountain and all {it's an itty-bitty salt lake city!} but come on, painting and woodworking?! too cool for school.

so the next time I'm in berkley {and the next time I have kids of playground age} I am certainly making a stop over at the marina for some adventure playground fun!

just say no to driving, at least for tomorrow

oh, and btw everybody, tomorrow is world car-free day. below is a snippet from the website of our favorite friends, the utah transit authority:

UTA Rideshare is also recognizing World Car-free Day, which is an event recognized by over 100 million people in hundreds of cities around the world. This year the event will be celebrated Saturday, September 22nd. We encourage people to leave their vehicle at home and elect to walk, bicycle or take transit o their destination on this day. World Car-free Day also can be used as a day to reflect on what changes you can make to create a safer environment for pedestrians and bicyclists as well as what you can do to help rid our valleys of pollution.

Please participate if possible!

{the uta is also declaring september as curb your car month. so everybody, everywhere let's play along!}

biking is cool!

guess what everybody, biking is cool! not only is it good for your health, but it's good for the world we live in as well. check out no impact man for some more info on the benefits and pure joy of biking instead of driving. so dust off that old cruiser you've had since the 70's. or that mountain bike that's been sitting in the garage, gathering dust. or even your roadie that you mean to ride, but just never get around to and go run {or ride} some errands! if we all band together, it will make the streets safer for everyone. bikers unite!

portrait of myself

sunshine
laughter
shorelines
rain
wilderness
running
natural
family
shakes
sky
travel
adventure
love

tonight's dinner

I was tired of peter only eating veggie burgers and peter burritos (both quite tasty in their own right, but certainly no way to live), so I decided to make something real for him to eat, even in spite of my cleansing. below, for your viewing pleasure, is the spread of our family dinner.
as you can see, peter had some freshly steamed broccoli, with roasted red potatoes and some pepperjack cheesey eggplant. anna had a lovely blend of lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper.

yeah, I wonder who had the tastier dinner.

mountain climbing spy movies

The Eiger Sanction

The peaks of Eiger (the Ogre, 13,026 feet), Mönch (the Monk), and Jungfrau (the Virgin, 13,600 feet)

thanks Oms and Ops for the flick. it brought back so many memories of the jungfrau region. and who doesn't love a little action, intrigue and suspense?

for more amazing photos of the swiss alps by tom dempsey, click here.

the law of ecological tithes

today I was trying to explain to nate, my coworker, the law of ecological tithe, or the ten percent rule. our conversation went a little something like this:

[anna] let me teach you a little something about the law of ecological tithes. basically all our energy comes from the sun. the plants use this energy to make their own food, but they are only able to use ten percent of that energy. when something else eats the plant, they can only use ten percent of that energy. so as you go up the food chain, there's less and less quality energy.

[nate] but isn't energy energy? does one have a higher quality than the other?

we debate back and forth regarding energy and calories and such

[anna] I need to bring in my wildlife ecology book. I have cute little drawings to help explain this a lot better.

[nate] yeah. . .

[anna] so you should eat plants to get the highest quality energy. . .

probably some more stuff was said that I can't remember

[anna] you want to get as close to the source as possible.

[nate] so we should eat the sun?

[anna] yes, we should eat the sun.

here is a slightly more sophisticated explanation:

About 10 percent of the usable food energy in one trophic level* is available as usable food energy for organisms in the next higher level. . . With each energy transfer in a food chain, there is a significant "loss" of useable energy. . .

. . . With the energy transfer at each step in a food chain about 10 percent of the energy available is utilized for weight gain, tissue repair or gamete production and about 90 percent of the energy is lost as heat metabolic by-products, feces, etc.

The lengths of food chains are limited by the decreasing amount of energy available as one moves up the food chain. The Second Law of Thermodynamics** helps explain why big, fierce animals are rare.
Fred Montague, WaMakaSkan, 2003.

see, you really do want to eat as close to the source as possible. if you think about it, this really does make a good case for being vegetarian (or at least flexetarian). get the most out of your higher quality, useable energy!

*trophic structure: the different roles organisms play in using energy as it flows through ecosystems. the position an organism occupies in a food chain. producers (green plants) - primary consumers (herbivores) - secondary consumers ( carnivores) - tertiary consumers (carnivores) - quaternary consumers (top carnivores)
**Second Law of Thermodynamics: no energy transformation is ever one-hundred percent efficient. (with each energy transformation a significant amount of concentrated, "high quality" usable energy is "lost" as a less-concentrated, low quality, less usable heat energy.)

the chicken dance collection

thanks, miggs, for posting this via your blog. I just love it so much. during the summer my coworkers and I would often try to do a chicken dance or two. but nobody can do it quite like the bluth's.

seasonal observation

have you noticed how the sun slants differently
how the afternoon light is softer
the air cooler
how dusk sneaks up on you so quickly, the day no longer endless
it is change in motion: summer to autumn

the cleanse

I want to rid my body of the unnecessary waste in my life.

tomorrow I start day one of the cleanse. {the master cleanse aka the lemonade diet}

check here for more info; updated daily.

the pfeiferhorn: a siren's song

the pfeiferhorn is an elusive peak. tried many times by many people, she is still left to be conquered. {okay, so people have summitted the pfeiferhorn before. just not me and pete. or scotty.} but even in our defeat, we find ourselves coming back again and again.

poor planning foiled our first attempt together. fowl weather ruined our second before we even set foot on the mountain. this weekend's fate wasn't much better, it seems.

we set out late in the evening on friday. hiking in the cool mountain air and the slanted sunlight was pure delight compared to the heat of the summer sun of our last trip. we arrived at lower red pine lake at dusk, ready to set up camp and jet boil our dinner before going to bed.

we went to sleep as soon as it got dark, which meant it was around nine o'clock. which also meant we initially woke up pretty early. I won't complain, though, if I'm waking up to this scene outside my tent. it was a beautiful morning. and very leisure. {I loves me my jet boil oatmeal in the morning, eaten right out of the packet}

from our last experience, we thought we knew exactly what to do. hike to upper red pine lake and then scramble up the steep, rocky slope on the left to the ridge. follow the ridge, go across the saddle that connects you to the pfeiferhorn, summit the peak and call it a day. it turns out this route is not the best idea. we went the hard way. we went the long way. we went the more unsafe way. {we saw others out hiking it, going up another smaller ridge that bypasses the long ridge we had to traverse. it looked much quicker and easier.} you see, this ridge we were hiking scrambling across wasn't solid ground. it was a mountain of boulders. loose rock piled on top of eachother, some more stable than others. it wasn't until a large boulder slightly crushed my leg as it came loose and tumbled down the mountain that I really started to get sketched out. {I have some scrapes and light bruise to prove it} but we kept pushing forward. slowly but surely. we stopped about halfway through the ridge. what lay ahead didn't look too promising. a steeper slope of what looked like pretty loose rock. {that photo does not do it justice} we didn't want to tempt the fate this mountain had to offer. we accepted defeat. we sat ourselves down and ate lunch, taking full advantage of the view we had before us.

we had spent four hours hiking up there round trip. boulder field after boulder field. it was hard work, and very slow going. we didn't go back down the exact way we had gone up. after the requisite lunch-time stop, we did not want to hike back over the ridge we had climbed. {it looked scarier going back the other direction} so we traversed down the rocky slope face instead. once we weren't on the steep incline of boulders I felt safer, though this is when pete chimes in with, "be careful. people die in boulder fields like this all the time." yeah, very comforting. at least the boulder fields down below were more stable and secure. you still had to be leery of the wiggly ones, though. finally we got through the boulder fields and back to our camp for a very much needed nap.

after packing up camp, we headed down the trail. another pfeiferhorn trip come and gone. the peak still out of reach. but we walked away with all that the mountain had taught us and a plan for our next trip.

* * *

in mountain climbing even the most prepared suffer defeat. it is ultimately up to the mountain. she will let you know if she wants you there. she will allow you to pass through or remain with your dreams just out of reach. it is up to you to listen to her soft whisperings and learn the lessons she has to teach. the wise listen and will remain to try another day.

the pfeiferhorn: the tallest peak in the photo

what is defeat? nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better. --wendell phillips

portrait from inside a tent

the life of man is the true romance, which when it is valiantly conduced, will yield the imagination a higher joy than any fiction. --ralph waldo emerson

the state of the kitchen. . . and living room. . .

when my housewife world and my working woman world collide, the whole house suffers. I need a maid.

finding yourself

I used to be a journaler. writing about life. there were long stretches where I would write every day. and, as always, long stretches of absence. I am in a long stretch of absence right now. {though it has been said that my blog is like a journal. I still feel deep regret that my real journal doesn't even know I'm married!} it has been over a year. the last entry dates Sunday, July 9, 2006. {at least she knows about pete} this is saddening; I have not had the joy of putting pen to paper to record my thoughts for so long. I can't even begin to think about the small things of life that have been lost forever. memories cannot be trusted. it is the action of writing that preserves.

without my journal, posts such as this could not be what they are. how truly sad.

my original intent of this post was to highlight some fabulous quote from a favorite author (most likely terry tempest williams or edward abbey), but then I got thinking about the act of writing itself. writing as a preservation of who we are. so now I find myself just quoting myself; exposed and for all to see:

Sunday, November 7, 2004
courage. bravery in facing the world. facing the unknown with boldness and confidence. acknowledging fear and stepping beyond. changing darkness into light. strength.

I really want to live boldly. live deliberately. live within the rythms of the earth. am I able to do this now? am I making the most of every opportunity? do I let fear hold me back?

I do.

I can be more.

my life right now is in a good place. but I feel I should be doing more. I feel that with school there is no time for the things I really want to be doing. I want to give of myself. of my time. of my talents. I want to volunteer in the community gardens. feel the earth. learn to live more closely with her systems. I want to help others. humanitarian work. it's so easy to look beyond what is close to us and find the bigger troubles of the world. but perhaps what we must focus on is not so far away. there are needy people right here in salt lake city who need the charity of others.

but are my motivations pure? I want to be this better person. but is this desire for the right reasons? do I want to do good so I will look better in the eyes of another? I do want to learn to live sustainably for myself. for the earth. I want to be more conscious of the my effects on the landscape.

{I then go on to say, "I wish I could find someone with the same ideals. with a strong land ethic. someone I could learn from and gather strength." I'm so grateful I found peter. he is this person.}

this entry embodies the person I was, am, and am becoming. it is the courage in living that we must learn to embrace. these acts must not be forgotten.

so with that I urge you all to write. and I will finally let my journal know that yes, I did end up marrying pete. (I know she's been wondering.)

hip hip hooray!

you've come along way, baby.



















and there's a long way yet to go, together.















happy birthday.
I love you infinity times ten. (plus one)

NOTICE:

the birthday pfeiferhorn trip has been postponed due to severe weather conditions. it has been rescheduled for friday, september seventh.

pete was pretty excited about the prospect of being hit by lightning while standing on the peak on his birthday. that didn't sound too exciting to me.