I'm bad

  Holy mac! I haven't updated the blog in two months! The house I normally work in is undergoing renovation, so my computer time has been  mostly used for catching up on pretty little liars and gossip girl. (priorities, right? ;))
  I'm taking an as yet undetermined break from facebook. I'm really not digging how it's starting to be integrated into everything. I'm all about sharing, but I'm not interested in everything I do online to be automatically uploaded onto my facebook page, not that I'm doing anything untoward online (unless you count my previous admission).
  Well, Jared is getting ready to head off to Europe again and will be back at the beginning of December. I'm looking at a few days of much needed time off coming up next week as well. I have taken a bit of a break from taking care of myself the way I usually do, and that simply won't do any longer, so I'm getting a jump on the whole new years resolution thing and starting now. I'll be doing a new cleanse that I will definitely blog about, as well as some basic personal maintenance too (haven't had a mani/pedi for almost 3 months!) I will be making some pretty major dietary changes as well, which I look forward to sharing more in depth as it gets underway.
We will also be hanging up our farming hats (so to speak) for a little while too. We have enjoyed learning all that we've learned in the last 4 years, and plan on taking that knowledge with us when we find a place of our own, but our time farming on borrowed land is over now. we will be selling the chickens and ducks and packing up all of our farming equipment into storage. It has been an amazing experience and I can't wait to revisit it once Jared and I decide where in the world we want to live :)
That pretty much brings things up to speed! Halloween is this week, and my sister Nicole's annual Segaloween party will be next weekend, I hope to post pictures, as it will no doubt be a cock-punch filled night!

Husby's home!!

 I'm so glad to have Jared home safe! He was only gone 3 weeks this time, but this last trip was a bit harrowing for him. Most of the time when he's in Europe, I don't hear from him much due to the time change. This time, I'm glad he was keeping me informed, since there were riots in London (the city he flew into, the riots started the day he got there) and the band he works for was scheduled to play at the Pukkelpop festival in Belgium the night that the terrible storm hit. He said the storm hit right as they had finished setting up their gear for sound check around 6pm and it hit like a switch going off. They had to quickly tear all their gear down and get it packed up so that none of it was destroyed (they were successful, due to the fact that Jared is CRAZY and not really afraid of anything physical, which, according to him, included standing in a sideways rainstorm holding an industrial drier in order to dry off the cover for the audio console that they had brought while everyone else was running for their lives) 71 people were injured to varied degrees, and 5 people confirmed dead (3 died at the scene) here's a link  to the news story and some pictures. There's a couple of pictures there that show the trees that were uprooted, the tent where Jared was setting up was directly on the other side of where that happened, and one of their guitar techs was like, 4 feet away from the trees as they came down. cray cray.
So he's home now, and will be for the next 16 days. Fortunately for me, he'll be in the US for the next run, so you will see me at both paramount shows here in Seattle, and at the Austin city limits festival, if they'll have me, of course. :)

*UPDATE: Jared informs me that in addition to it being the CRAZIEST storm he's ever seen, the entire duration of the storm was LESS THAN 2 MINUTES. woah.

us girls 3

My sister and I  recently took our mom on a trip to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands for her 60th b-day. I karaoke'd for the first time, we did a little sight seeing, and had some great food! 

Alice and I at Duck Soup Inn restaurant... so good!!!!

A very inspiring room divider we saw at a gallery shop...

pretty much the coolest sign for a Mexican restaurant I've ever seen...

matching bracelets we found at a really great gallery that specialized in native art

always a good idea...

we love lime kiln state park!!

Abbey came too!!

happy birthday, momma!!

I'm so glad Alice was able to make it up from Vegas for a visit! I miss my lil sissy!!!!

feminisim

I feel like I've been writing this blog post for weeks, or well, I guess I have, actually.  I was recently reading something on one of my favorite random essay sites about the different types of feminists. While it was written heavy with sarcasm, it made a/some good points. I think that most women now a days are feminists, or think of themselves as such, even if they wouldn't say it out loud (due to the way they look at the word 'feminist'). The part of this particular essay that got me thinking was, when it was referring to a particular type of feminist,  it said that 'they' (being the type of feminist they were referring to) among other things "believe in feminism because women are equal and everyone should love each other" and all though this statement was among other kind of silly funny things, I found myself thinking about this statement a lot. I mean, isn't the true point of subscribing to any sort of 'ism' to highlight something or a group of people who have been marginalized and by lending your voice champion their cause in some way that at least raises awareness to their need? I feel that its in my heart to treat others as equals, no matter their age, gender, or any other thing that distinguishes them from other people. It does seem like kind of a quaint notion to think that people actually live like that, since it's nearly impossible, but its still a nice thought. I like to believe there's a part of me that's (hopefully) growing that feels that it might not be that hard. I believe in potential, and I know that we all have it in us to actually think of others first (and by others, I mean outside of your immediate family or friend group) and not just focus on superficial things all the time, no matter how fun or immediately satisfying it is at the time. Oh, and just so we're clear about how much I love that site that I linked to earlier in this post, here's a GREAT essay on feminism written by a man, that pretty much says what I'm trying to say HERE. (you took the words right out of my mouth AGAIN Ryan O'Connell! I swear we were separated at birth or something...)

Faux-versary

This weekend Jared and I went up the peninsula a bit to Sequim for a weekend away, and to kind of celebrate our anniversary (since Jared will be on the road for our real anniversary). We've been curious about the area for a while, so it was cool to get to do that. We had dinner at one of our favorite dinner spots, Ajax cafe, over in Port Hadlock. It was amazing as usual, but we didn't get to the rental house until late on Friday so we couldn't really see the view, but, holy moly! It was so nice to wake up across the street from the ocean!

this is where Abbey decided to sleep...

We went to breakfast at a great local place then headed out to check out the Sequim Saturday farmers market. Sequim is the 'lavender capital of the world' so we picked up some loose lavender, as well as a few other treasures there. We went out to port Townsend to try and hit up a couple of favorite spots, but ended up 'killing' too much time at the coffee place. We missed our window for lunch and didn't feel like waiting for dinner, so after a little shopping (the fabric store there was having a huge remnant sale!), we went back to Sequim and ate at a great little hole in the wall Mexican place. Not quite as good as Cazadores, but it's hard to hold a candle to our favorite restaurant in Poulsbo!
We finished out the evening at the Dungeness spit, it was a bit windy, but man, what a view! You can literally see Canada! There's a 5 mile walk out to the light house there, but since it was pretty late in the evening, we decided to save that for another day. We couldn't bring the dog out there, so we brought her back to the rental house and played with her on the private beach there, it was pretty heavenly :)

 Dungeness Spit

it was pretty cold

the little sign next to the diaper says biodegradable diapers take a year.

they had this posted, what a great reminder!!

Sunday we had breakfast at the house before we checked out, then headed up to the sol duc hot springs. We soaked for a while up there and took a break for a lunchy snack, but when we got back the tub we had been enjoying was closed for a cleaning cycle, so we headed back to Port Angeles to check out a couple of shops and find a dinner spot, and boy did we! We ate at Michael's Steak house and it has definitely made our top 10 northwest best restaurants. Maybe it was because their menu seemed to be reading my mind (cucumber infused vodka bloody Mary? smoked salmon Alfredo?! chocolate mousse banana parfait??! where has this place been all my life?!?!?!?!!YES PLEASE!!) I don't remember the last time I ate that much or felt that painfully full, but it was SO WORTH IT. Thank you, Olympic Peninsula. once again, you didn't fail us, even though the weather kinda did. (65 and cloudy Sunday. meh.)

thank you oly penn!

Colorado, Colorado, Colora-a-a-a-doooo

I just returned from a trip to, you guessed it, Colorado this last weekend. I was there Wednesday-Saturday last week, and it was so much fun! I got there Wednesday night, met up with Jared on Thursday in Denver, who was in town with the band, had a delish brunch all by my self like a big girl,

 best eggs Benedict ever, sorry aunt Vicky

then was able to bring my cousins, and a few of their friends to the show Thursday night at the Fillmore auditorium (it was wonderful, obvi)

 fleet foxes, sold out

Friday I met up with my cousin at the Boulder Bookstore in downtown Boulder (where she works) and we went to an amazing local brewery, introducing me to some fabulous new beers, and simultaneously changing my mind about 'hoppy' beers forever! Now to find it in Washington somewhere...

 enjoyed since 1979, just like me!! 

Saturday we hit the Boulder farmers market, which was great, but it was mother hot, so I ended up only getting a lemonade. We went hiking later that day and I managed to not die, even though it was almost 100 degrees (something my Lily white skin hasn't experienced live in at least 2 years)

 stop frowning! you're going to have wrinkles!

 the top of that mountain is just behind that tree on the left...

Later that night, we went to see on of my favorite bad movies, Point Break, at the outdoor cinema they have in  Boulder.
I had to leave super early to try to catch the first flight out, Sunday, which didn't happen, but i did manage to get on to the next one (4 hours later) since some of the people ahead of me bailed (thankyouverymuch) but we still sat on the plane at the gate for over an hour while they ran some computer diagnostic crap (which is fine, except there was a devil child on board who would not stop shrieking at an unworldly decibel) but finally we were off, and I had a double bloody Mary to celebrate!
A super big thank you to my cousin Christine and her BF Dan for letting me crash on their couch, and taking me to see the sights, and also to my other cousin Bradley who took time out from grad school and being 'the other Bradley Cooper' to hang out with me/us, and his GF Erin, who came hiking and put up with this grandma having to stop every 2 seconds because she's old and lives at sea level ;)

skinny bitch

I've never been the cutest/prettiest/coolest/smartest in any group of average girls, but I have been the skinniest. I'm really not saying this to be braggy, and it's really not that great by comparison (no guy outside of Los Angeles or the Fashion/entertainment industry has ever been heard saying, 'I really dig skinny chicks, I don't care how pretty they are' not that I've heard anyway) and it doesn't matter if you're being made fun of because your too fat or too skinny, it hurts either way, trust me.
Anyway, as ubiquitous as the quest for skinny is in the life of the American female, I have to say, I was given a good foundation. We always ate pretty healthy growing up, and I have the physical tendency toward skinniness, even though it doesn't necessarily run in the family. I was(am) never(not) particularly athletic, and not into sports, but always active (and now with the farm, i mean...) and never really gained weight until I was in my mid 20s. At my most unhealthy though, it wouldn't have mattered if I weighed 100 or 1000 lbs, I felt like shit. I was tired all the time, my skin sucked and all of my clothes made me feel like sausage. To contrast that, when we first started farming and getting into more holistic body care(?)(using less chemical stuff, etc) I was doing physical labor most of the day, eating extremely close to the ground (so to speak) and had a killer tan. I may have been dirt poor, but I felt amazing.
I'm currently surfing the space between. I eat more meat than I did a few years ago, and don't always have time to prepare every meal from scratch. I use oil of olay and sometimes even eat (gasp) fast food. I try really hard not to be a totalitarian about any of this stuff, and as strongly as I feel about being healthy, I hate the sound of my own voice and cringe at the memory of the times I've gotten super preachy about it. So, if I ever got on your nerves with my 'down with monsanto' ethos, sorry about that. love ya!
At this point I feel balance is king, all the rest is clanging gongs, ya know?

my 1st lunch today (I usually have 2 small breakfasts and 2 small lunches)

 remains of the yummiest breakfast I ever made

 tuna noodle casserole from (sort of) scratch

before and after