Wildflower Season

We went out for a few minutes today to make a dent in the number of wildflowers we need to get pictures of before they all go away. Here are a few to whet your appetite:

I Ran

Okay--don't get confused from the title. I actually run a few times a week, between other workouts like going to the gym and Cardio Dance and Cardio Hip Hop and other interesting things. BUT, recently my workout buddy and I have been trying to up the distance in our runs (and the speed, both a little at a time), and on Friday we accomplished something very big. We think it's big anyway. We ran The Dish! Well...this is the part where I admit that we walked partway up a hill that lasts for more than a mile. But we ran from home all the way to The Dish and went around the path and out the other side and ran all the way home, too, totaling 5.5 miles for the run/walk. We walked less than a mile of it, and that place is HILL-Y! So, we basically think we're the bomb. But the fun doesn't end there. No sirree. We will keep doing it until we don't have to walk any of it AND we'll do it faster eventually too.

Man we're good.

A computing model of pressure distribution from tight underwear

I can't help but find it humorous that this article even exists. It just gives me the funnies. :o)

A computing model of pressure distribution from tight underwear

Even More Pics

I only had 45 minutes, so I wandered out to the community garden and poached some flower views. Someday I hope to have a flower garden of my own when we own a home. Until then, I'll satisfy myself with oohing and aahing over other people's...

More Pics

Well, our trip to Costa Rica interrupted my creative flow (only to be replaced in the meantime by a different flow of tropical pictures), so I've been quite delinquent in my goal of taking a picture every day. Plus the weather has been rainy, which for me means no picture opportunities... BUT, if you want to see my/our best pics from our trip, go to pandalewis.smugmug.com and browse around. My personal best can mostly be found in the Flowers section. Aside from those, I managed to get out on the first nice day earlier this week and got a few good pics, so here they are:

Cauliflower Soup

Tonight I made a delicious cauliflower soup with yummy whole wheat bread so I thought I would write down the soup recipe so it doesn't get lost in the past.

Feeds 4-6 adults

1 head cauliflower
2 carrots
2 tomatoes
a few tablespoons dried onions
a few teaspoons dill weed
8-12 oz of cream (or milk or evaporated milk, etc)
1 bouillon cube

Chop and boil the veggies, dried onions, bouillon cube and dill in a few cups of water until they are soft. Take them off the heat and puree in food processor. Put back in pot and add cream and salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

Tastes great with buttered whole wheat bread fresh out of the oven! Mmmmmmmmmm!

Funny Commercial Spoof

I thought this was hilarious so I figured I'd share.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/10333/saturday-night-live-mom-jeans#s-p2-st-i3

Valentine Thingy

My sisters-in-law and mother-in-law have blog-bullied me into doing this thing, so after you read it, YOU have to do it too!!

♥ How long have you been together?
Dating, 9 1/2 years, married for 4.
♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating?
A few years.
♥ Who asked who out?
It just kinda happened gradually. We couldn't tell ya.
♥ How old are each of you?
I'm 27, he's 26.
♥ Whose siblings do/ did you see the most?
We try to see as many as we can as often as we can. It's hard to say.
♥ Do you have any children together?
Two toddler daughters.
♥ What about pets?
He just brought home two pet salamanders tonight!
♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
Hmmmm.... probably our differences in communication styles. I think in our relationship all bickerings come from misunderstandings.
♥ Did you ever go to the same school?
Same college--University of Arizona.
♥ Are you from the same home town?
Pretty much, though I was born elsewhere.
♥ Who is the smartest?
It depends what the subject is, although as I'm getting older and more domestic my brain seems to be atrophying and he's starting to outdo me at times, even in my own subjects. In general though, we feel like we're on pretty even ground.
♥ Who is the most sensitive?
He is.
♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple?
We don't eat out much, but when we do we rarely eat at the same place twice, although strangely, there's a place here called Hobee's that we've been to more than any other place in town even though it's not our #1 (it IS really good though!).
♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Costa Rica, on the Osa Peninsula. We just got back 2 1/2 weeks ago!
♥ Who has the craziest exes?
Neither of us have any, unless you count his 5th grade "girlfriend".
♥ Who has the worst temper?
Hmmm... we're not really temper sort of people.
♥ Who does the cooking?
We both do. If he's in a busy time, I do, but aside from that we love cooking together and are really into cooking yummy food. But I guess since I do all of the baking you could say I win. :o)
♥ Who is more social?
We're both kinda reserved in public, but he's better at pretending, and we're both really social with people we know well. Our lives really revolve around relationships with other people and we're often the ones to instigate things with friends/family.
♥ Who is the neat freak?
Me. I am becoming a bit insane about neatness, but we still need to conquer the surface clutter.
♥ Who is the more stubborn?
I win! I am so dang stubborn. I know this is not a good thing.
♥ Who hogs the bed?
Depends who's sleeping more deeply at any given moment.
♥ Who wakes up earlier?
Me. We take turns getting up when the kids get up, but on his sleeping in days, he really sleeps in, whereas I sleep only a little bit longer.
♥ Where was your first date?
No clue.
♥ Who has the bigger family?
Me, though we both have large ones.
♥ Do you get flowers often?
Nope, and I'm finally coming to grips with it.
♥ Who is more jealous?
I dunno. It doesn't really factor in.
♥ How long did it take to get serious?
Not nearly long enough! We "knew" we were going to get married as soon as we started dating! It seems so silly now... But I'm glad we did!
♥ Who eats more?
We eat about the same.
♥ Who does/ did the laundry?
Me.
♥ Who’s better with the computer?
Um...neither? But maybe as time goes on I'm getting outdated.
♥ Who drives when you are together?
We used to fight over who got to drive--now we fight over who gets to NOT drive.

Huddart Park

Banana slug:

A Little Behind

I got behind, so I took lots today to make up for it. Boring subject, but I did the best I could...

Grass

So, I've decided that I'm going to officially post color and non-color (not always exactly B&W) for every picture, just for curiousity's sake. Oh yeah, and also, it's not likely that this will last for long because I'm already going crazy every day trying to find a picture and one of these days (maybe tomorrow even) I'm just going to come up dry. But I'll keep trying. I at least want to take the camera outside every day. As a bonus, I'm getting lots more pictures of the kids, too.

Anyway, here is today's picture, color and black and white:

Everything Looks Fancier Without Color

Which do you prefer?

My New Goal

I have a new goal to work on my hobby of photography and photo editing by taking one picture a day that I'll add to my "portfolio". I don't have a portfolio right now, but this will be a fun and good way to improve and use my mind and enrich my life, so I think it'll be fun! Part of this goal is the fun of looking at ordinary things around me and creating a beautiful image from where you wouldn't normally expect to find one. The picture above is the first, taken yesterday on a new tree that was planted right outside our house.

First Thanksgiving (w/o family)

We celebrated our first Thanksgiving without extended family this year, and it was really nice. We actually ate after the kids were in bed and celebrated with our friends, who were also home without family this year. We all made a few things which combined made an excellent traditional meal. Here are pictures of our centerpiece, which we made from plants we collected with the kids before bed, and the table, set before eating. I guess we were too into the food to remember to get a picture with loaded plates...

QUEEN for a Day

My birthday was last week, and Peter really played his part well! I woke up to the smell of yummy breakfast which was delivered to my bed a little while after he delivered a tray with reading material and a note ordering me not to get out of bed. He had also written on a piece of paper explaining to me that for my birthday, I was QUEEN for the entire day, and he was my slave. He cooked, cleaned, and watched the kids while I got to do whatever I wanted AND order him around. He even brought the phone cradle up to our bed so I could page him with the paging button whenever I needed something. So, for my birthday, I:

*took a relaxing bath
*got a haircut
*went shopping with a friend
*read
*took 2 short naps
*played the piano
*got bored and ordered my slave to let us all be normal until we put the kids to bed (I missed them!)
*went to dinner at a really yummy restaurant that was more expensive than anywhere we've ever been, and was totally worth it (just this once... what does that phrase mean anyway?? It sounds so weird.)
*went to the movies and then left because our movie was sold out

I guess we'll try to go to a movie some other time. We haven't been to a movie in the theater for about 2 1/2 years. We came home from that movie and watched a Netflix movie, but I fell asleep during that, and the wonderful day was over. Lucky for me, my birthday celebrations carried over to the next day, and I got to go shopping with friends the next morning, and then we had cake later that night. So much fun!

I was actually feeling really guilty for leaving that next morning because Peter had worked so hard the day before, but it turned out that even though Little had gone to bed at 6:30pm on my birthday, she didn't wake up until past noon the next day, AFTER I came home. AND, Littler played by herself for an hour while Daddy slept on the couch, and then took a nap so he slept even more, and it was pretty much entirely a non-issue.

THANKS to my wonderful husband for the A++++++++++ birthday!

FOOD

Over the last couple of years, we've been changing the food our family eats and buys, by tending more toward the naturally occurring and organic foods. I really don't think we're too extreme about it, but we definitely try to have as few ingredients as possible in our food. For example, it's been several months since we've purchased bread or tortillas (aside from loaves of "artisan" breads for fun to eat with cheese--and often we'll make that kind of bread, too--it's just fun to buy it pre-made, so it's like our family's version of eating out). We prefer to make our bread because it's cheaper and yummier and healthier, too. We make our own salad dressing with various vinegars and oils, we pressure cook our own beans, and we've even dabbled in cheese a little bit (and plan to really broaden our cheese knowledge soon).

This article really stresses to me PART of WHY we decided to do this in the first place. Health, safety, money, taste are probably most of the reasons.

Someday, we'd really like to be eating all of our food from the most basic ingredients. The cool thing, you don't have to sacrifice taste! It's great! In fact, when you've been eating more natural foods, a lot of the other foods that are artificially flavored and synthesized really end up tasting pretty gross. (Not all, unfortunately for all of us...)

For Me, To Remember

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/us/politics/05campaign.html?scp=5&sq="november%204"&st=cse

http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/title/?em

High Fructose Corn Syrup = Bad For You!!

While thumbing through my new FamilyFun magazine today, I was appalled to come across this ad. Basically, the Corn Refiner's Association has decided that they aren't making enough money now that many people are aware of the health risks and detriments of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), and has decided to go on an 18 month long ad campaign letting the American public know the "facts" about HFCS. They say that HFCS is "nutritionally the same as table sugar and honey" and spout off a bunch of other mistruths on their website, conveniently leaving out a lot of important information (such as the fact that fructose [like high fructose corn syrup] is converted into fat after reaching the liver instead of being broken down before like glucose [table sugar is half glucose and half fructose]).

So, sure, I eat HFCS sometimes, like most people, although it's not a regular part of our diet. But I definitely DON'T fall for the idea that HFCS is "natural" as the Corn Refiner's Association asserts in their commercials. That's just a bunch of bull honkey.

Handy Dandy Tax Graphs

[from mandamommy and trogonpete]

Here is a fantastic unbiased [facts are unbiased], nonpartisan evaluation of Obama's and McCain's income tax policies [we won't get into child tax credits and other stuff].

We've noticed that there are a lot of people who don't know that there is complete objective, verifiable information about the two major candidate's tax policies online [and other policies as well]. The figures shown on the link display this information in instructive ways. Here's what we took from it:

[The current tax code is already progressive [the bottom bracket pays ~10% and the top bracket pays ~35%]. What is displayed in the linked page is the change in the amount of income after taxes if the candidate's plan replaced the current code.]

1. From the first graph there's a big philosophical distinction between the two plans. McCain is for cutting taxes; more so if you're rich. Obama's for cutting taxes especially if you're poor, except if you're rich, in which case your taxes will rise [above $600,000 post-tax salary]. If you think the economic stimulation provided by a wealthier upper class is more important than society's obligation to assist the poor, then McCain's plan is the plan for you. You might be tempted to make further generalizations about income redistribution and other issues but the other figures crush a lot of the old cliches.

2. The second graph shows the total number of people [represented by the height of each bar] getting each tax change. McCain's plan gives a tax break of 1% or higher to 39% of the population, and Obama's gives 1% or higher to 90% of the population. Additionally, the area of each box represents the product of the number of people in that bracket times the tax change for that bracket. So a bigger box on the negative side of the scale means more people are getting more money. Since Obama's total area is significantly more "negative" than McCain's, the conclusion would be that Obama's plan provides a greater overall tax relief to the whole population than McCain's.

3. The third graph shows the total amount of money generated for the government for each tax bracket. This time the area of the box shows the total change in revenue for each bracket, positive or negative. So a bigger box on the positive side means the government gets more money. McCain's plan--since it calls for no tax increases--results in a net loss for the government compared to the current tax code. Obama's plan will generate a large amount of extra revenue. The amount of money given back to the poorest brackets in Obama's plan is miniscule compared to the extra revenue generated by taxing the very wealthy [compare the size of the boxes on the positive side to the boxes on the negative side]. So Obama's plan is not income redistribution; it is revenue generation.

In short, Obama's income tax plan calls for very little income redistribution and a large revenue increase by selectively taxing the wealthiest 1% of Americans--people who make significantly more than half a million dollars a year after tax. Obama's plan also calls for significant tax relief for the poorest Americans. McCain calls for reducing taxes for everybody, but especially for the wealthy. We believe that the cumulative benefit to the 99% of Americans who will see no change or an increase in tax relief from Obama's plan outweighs the extra "burden" on the wealthy. Furthermore, McCain's tax plan reduces government revenue which will increase the national debt--a debt our children will bear through higher taxes and decreased government expenditure on programs such as social security and education.

From one of McCain's many ads:

Obama will "raise taxes on the middle class... I'm John McCain and I approve this message."

Many people are believing this, but it's just plain not true.

We haven't been able to find an Obama fib about McCain's tax plan, but if any of you can find one, by all means share it.

Uh-Oh

Remember this game? And this one? I've kind of lost my touch, but it's still in there somewhere, I can feel it!