17 January, 2009

Long Time no Blog

Well first off the bad news: I am sick. I have been sick off and on for around three weeks although more on now than off. I'm becoming resigned to the fact that my sweet kitty Jason has probably been eaten by the local coyotes as he has now been gone for a full month's time. Work has decided it is better to pay us every other Friday as opposed to the current (and very functional) 1st and 30th/31st. Of course I know that I will be continuing to make the same amount of money, however each check will have one fewer day on it meaning that I will get paid less at a time, which is way less convenient for budgeting the normal month's expenses as each check will be one full day plus ten percent less of what it is now. I'm not worried, just peeved.
On the brighter side of life Keith has finished floor repair, getting our house nearly back to normal. My tax refund has increased this past year instead of decreasing as usual. I'm pretty sure that the state of California's website confirms that I will have to wait half as long for their refund to be plunked into my bank account than for the Fed deposit.
Now that we are up to date, I'm going to sleep.

Hey! Look! Its The Canterbury Tales!

01 December, 2008

I have been meaning to update my blog more often than I have in the past, but busy days have kept me away. I have three new books to share about: Choke, Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant, and Fahrenheit 451.

First, Choke was subtly brilliant. I quickly identified with the main character both child and man, though I have no obvious similarities to their obvious plights. The reality of the younger character's inner-scepticism conflicting with the embedded idea that he cannot possibly be misled by his mother is very real to me. I think children's minds are constantly working to size up and categorize their situations and unmade choices while developing to grown-up status. As we grow, we do however, find that we are not yet experienced enough to feel confident in our every assessment and ignore our parent's influence. The adult character this little boy grows into narrates his portion of this novel internally exposing not only his personal problems and weaknesses, but his every little though about the characters in his life, their settings, purposes and effects on him as a man.
Choke was a very fast read for me -not because it is a piece of fluff about a sex addict (though I feel that presence of sexual addiction in the book is entirely overemphasised by the recent media), but because its excitement was realistic and I could not put it down.

The second book was a collection of emails exchanged between Greg Graffin (front man of punk band Bad Religion) and Preston Jones (Professor and Bad Religion fan). During these exchanges the two men form a personal friendship while discussing their very different religious beliefs. Of course this private communication was never meant to be turned into a book and shared with the world, so it is a bit tiresome to read but I found Graffin's extreme knowledge of his naturalist beliefs very interesting. He is incredibly comfortable in these beliefs and has a lot to share.

Lastly, I have just finished Fahrenheit 451. I was never made to read this in school and for a long time have felt that it was a necessary read. Bradbury's science-fiction manifest of the idea that humans may become so technologically advanced that they begin to ignore and eventually fear thoughts, feelings, and knowledge is as easily understood from today's viewpoint as that of the time it was written in.

READ!

13 October, 2008

Party like Columbus (t-t-totally do)

Today is Columbus Day friends! It is a very important federal holiday commemorated by stopping the the processing of all transactional activity so that we can take the day off from work and school to celebrate a man who got lost on his way to the Indies and began the very popular exploitation of the indigenous peoples found in North America.
That's right! Get out there and celebrate like the guy who found North America -again. Make the most of your Columbus Day by discovering something that others have seen before! And don't forget to take advantage of indigenous peoples; visit your favorite tribal casino for free beverages and tram rides!


(P.S. Today is also Paddington Bear's 50th birthday! I think it is a very important statement that GOOGLE made the [obvious] decision to decorate their logo for today with Paddington Bear instead of Columbus.)

Another Irving Book Done With

So, I have been reading A Son Of The Circus for forever now. I know I take pride in reading slowly so that I can soak it all up, but this novel is anything but a moderately-paced read. I have been toting this book around for a couple of months now, and though I did enjoy it, it was... well... viscous.

In fact, if you do not already love Irving, don't start here. The quotation from the New York Times Book Review on the cover reads "His [Irving's] most entertainig novel since Garp". There are so many things wrong with statement. I want to clarify: I was entertained by this book and I am glad that I have read it. That being said, this novel is not even a contender for the most entertaining novel he has gifted us since The World According To Garp. Check into A Widow For One Year or Until I Find You. These are entertaining. The value of this work is not in its action, but in its meaning. After everything you have been through and learned from the first word forward is, in the end, simplified to a remarkable and sentimental life lesson -subtle though it may be.
The things that make this book so utterly worth it are the same things that make you compulsively read everything he's put to paper. His amazing a vivid storytelling ability and spin yarns are ever present here. You can't avoid identifying with and investing in his characters. His writing style is so true to life and does not omit the awkwardness that comes with real life situations.
With all the character and development as well as well as an artfully arranged collection of stories that are resolved in a tight little bundle near the end of the novel, you might be expecting more from the ending. If so, you would be missing the forest for the trees.

07 October, 2008

All Thai-ed up!

Tonight we made thai food -and I don't mean from a box. On Sunday I picked up a great thai cook book at Border's and tonight we decided to try it out. Keith made cold spring rolls and shrimps with green beans in chile sauce, while I made peanut sauce, shitake mushrooms and brocoli and pad thai. It turned out quite yummy! I can't wait to try more of the recipes.

(I think perhaps I should have taken a pic *before* we ate some)

Our recipes came from a book called "Simply Thai Cooking" It is a must have if you like thai food. It has a great collection of dishes and a comprehensive glossary of ingredients.

15 August, 2008

Warped Tour 2008

Street Dogs played warped tour this year.

If you know Keith and I, then I have said plenty already. Street Dogs are definitely in my top two bands of all times list and on wednesday we went to warped tour to see them. They played an early set and were worth all of the $96 that Ticketmaster scalped me for (for 2 $31.50 tickets) just to see them. Of course the show was awesome. We were right in front and I managed to snap a few pictures of the show. It was kind of cool that Mike McColgan took a few moments to mention what a great thing Warped Tour was to bring so many great bands to one place at one time. He mentioned some of the bands' names in particular as bands who were doing great work and still carrying a message in the music they make. One of the band he mentioned was Against me! whom we were also there to see.
We had some things autographed which was really a great experience. I will say that there is definitely something very exciting about meeting the creators of what you listen to, especially the music that just feels like home. Not everyone takes the time to look you in the eye or really shake your hand, but they do. They really thank you for being there. I will say that after you finally get to put traits to the people that make the music that truly means something to you, it can be a bit overwhelming when they make eye contact while talking to you and show their appreciation.
We managed to catch some of the Gym Class Heroes set while waiting for the Street Dogs. It was really great to see them, I'm totally interested in what they do, and they definitely have some great songs. It was soo hot out that we definitely had to take some breaks inside to keep from passing out.
We also Got to see Against Me! which was a great show. Seeing them live, you can't help but notice how in to the music they are, which makes tier music even better.
We stuck around through the next couple of hours just to see the Street Dogs acoustic set which was amazing. It was in a small vendor tent, and they invited us all into their space so that we could be closer and out of the sun. By close I mean within arms length. There are just far too many thought and feelings about the experience to share. It could not possibly have been a more perfect end to a perfect day.

08 July, 2008

This is my attempt at being hi-tech. You see, I am blogging from my phone this time and not so sure how its working.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

01 July, 2008

New Frogs

A rather sad string of events has led to both of my vivariums being unoccupied. My Green Tree Frogs, Jay, and Silent Bob vacated first. even though he appeared the more healthy one, Silent Bob stretched out one day and never returned to his leafy pose. Jay carried on for a few weeks but one day while the cage door was open, went for a walk and took his life by crawling into a dry towel. No doubt he was lonely for his life-long friend. Jay and Silent Bob's neighbors, WOW Buddy and Hidey Hole, my two Yellowback Poison Dart Frogs passed later. I noticed that Hidey -named for his tendency to hide in the driftwood holes of his home. had not peeked out for about a week even for a meal and found his body buried in the waterfall rocks under the basin. Taking special care to keep an eye on WOW Buddy's health I noticed that he was fine for about a week and then one day he didn't come out. Unlike Hidey, WOW Buddy was always out and about, and never missed a meal. I found him stretched out in the rocks under the basin, nearly gone. I finally figured out that the waterfall in their home just wasn't enough for them, they needed a dish to soak in. I put him in water and he instantly perked up. He looked even better when I checked on him later. But when Keith came home he was dead.

Having two empty vivariums was just too sad. So I have started looking for new tenants, beginning with the arboreal habitat. I settled on two White's Dumpy tree frogs. I have avoided them in the past because the only ones I had seen were plump and flabby -think Jabba the Hut. Recently however, I have seen some full grown Dumpies that were at a healthy weight and found that they can be really beautiful frogs if not not over fed.

These are my two new frogs, who have yet to be named. They are not yet old enough to tell if they are male or female so whatever their names will be have to be good either way. If you have any fun ideas send them my way!
An action shot of the larger one who is seafoam green color...

He is posing for this one...

Back in his new home, on a leaf...

This one is a bit smaller. and he is olive green...

They are hard to see in the photo, but he has cream colored spots on either side of his back.

In The Rearview

The past week has been a bit overwhelming. In fact, if I had to guess its theme, I would pick "disaster". The following is dedicated to getting it off my chest (so to speak) and redirecting my focus toward the good things.
It all started on Wednesday. I had a bad ten hours at work, and came home to find that my friend Mickey was in the emergency room with pain and swelling (soon to be diagnosed as Lyme's disease), and having taken it easy the night before the whole house was torn apart. Of course I can't possibly just clean things up, I have to be upset that there are things to do in the first place. Meanwhile, Keith has gone through the trouble to make a dinner to enjoy while we watch our favorite shows and relax, which the intentions of are entirely ruined by mood. We managed to recover the evening, but it would have been great if I cold just have relaxed about everything in the first place. I'm kind of nocturnal so I didn't really get any sleep until three or four.
On Thursday I was still stressing over work and one of my friends was needing some company. I went over after work and ended up staying until 2:30. I was definitely out later than I should have been and when I got home I discover it was shortly after a tree had fallen, blocking the entrance to the park we live in. I turned around and parked outside so that I could at least hike in. By the time I made all I wanted to do was sleep but I didn't manage to until around four again.
Friday was not so bad. I did have a raging headache, but sometimes that just happens. Keith and Brett were playing WOW when I got home, and overall it was really nice to just enjoy being home and relaxing. I only had to do laundry and since I had been working so much overtime I really didn't feel like doing much else. I still didn't manage any sleep until two, which was bad cause I had to be up at six.
On Saturday, my phone froze after I hit my first snooze. Seriously? I was in a sleepy, confused state of disbelief when I woke up thirteen minutes before work. I managed to cut to the necessities of my AM routine and got to work about twenty minutes late. Later in the evening my teammates and I had planned on spending some time at Friday's our team is being split up and we all wanted to hang out together away from work. On the way there Stefanie called to tell me that Mickey was in the emergency room again, with different swelling and pain and that it sounded like an allergic reaction to the antibiotics for the the Lyme's disease. I left immediately to go to Madera, to help with what I could. I didn't get home till after one in the morning. I did sleep immediately, having to be up early for wok again. I was pretty sure at this point that all I had to do was get through the work day and I'd bee home free. I'm off on Mondays and all this craziness had to be over. I had plans to pick out new frogs and go to Coldstone with my friends.
I'm not sure why, but I decided to go home on my lunch. When I got there, I heard water falling, like a shower. I recognised this sound immediately. This is the sound made by the water supply line to the water heater. This has broken a few times before but we were pretty confident we had fixed it. When this happens, our closet gets sprayed with water and everything pretty much sucks. I had been gone since 8:15 and had no way of knowing how long it had been going. It was long enough to flood the bathroom, and make its way to the office under the walls. No Ice cream for me.
On the brighter side of everything: I have Keith, who deals with me when I'm crazy and helps me with everything. The kind of friends who understand when I have to miss plans, who want my company when they need support, and who are there for me even when it's two in Colorado because I need to vent about my crazy, crazy week. I have a family who will drop what they are doing to help me-even if it didn't go as planned. and I got to pick out two new frogs. I am leaving the events of this week behind, and taking with me only the lessons learned. Here's to the coming week!
-Fin-

20 May, 2008

Five AM

I must say- if I do have and internal clock, it is most certainly set to five AM.

At Five AM I am most awake
but worn from the length of the day

All ready to go when the world's locked up shop.

Brimming with thoughts that will pass as I sleep.

Ready to take on a day that I will rather postpone in the light.

Eight hours short.

Good night.

13 April, 2008

Yard: Acomplished!

SO, for a long time now, we have been meaning to do something about our back fence. There is a tree that grew straight through it all kind of huge rose bushes that have been around long enough to intertwine with the fence and then continue growing out, leaving brush behind. Also I have been threatening for a year to get outside and separate the daffodils so they could bloom. Well, a harebrained idea I had to plant some flowers turned into yard makeover day. well . two days to be exact.

We ended up removing all the small bushes and trees from the fence (and marking the biggest tree for a upcoming meeting with its executioner), removing said plant parts, raking leaves I've been avoiding since last year, clearing the grass out from the park trail behind our fence, separating four small patches of daffodils into (I'm guesstimating) somewhere around 100 bubs, re-planting them, and finally planting the things that originally led us into this fiasco. Also I saw a gynormous wolf spider for the first time which was a little scary, but not as bad as the fronky lizards who live in the shed -to their credit they stayed out of sight during this project. It seems they learned their lesson that time we were emptying out the shed.

Now it is all done, and we're super excited that we won't have to this stuff anywhere in the near future again. I wish I had been thinking to get the before pics, it didn't occur to me to blog about it until we were well into it. And I tried to take a picture of the big scary wolf spider, but he took a hike while I was getting the camera. I did however take some "after" pics today so everyone can see.

23 March, 2008

Thistle Louise Cecilia Johnson



















Today my neice Thistle was born. Just a hair under eight pounds and twenty inches long. She has a ton of hair and eventhough she's not supposed to be able to yet, she smiles. She Is beatiful and perfect.












Stefanie is doing fine and both she and Mic are happy baby is finally here. She knows her big brother and is making quick work of stealing his heart. Whenever she looks at him it's like she talking to him.


I'm so excited that she is finally here, and now I can learn everything about her as she grows!

22 March, 2008

St. Patrick's Day: A Short History and Until Next Year

St. Patrick’s Day- In my oppinion one of the very most important holidays of the year. Yes I feel grateful on thanksgiving and I get the spirit of Christmas and Easter (despite their misplacements on the calnedar). But in the long run I think that these holidays are more about reflection and appreciation than celebrating. This is in no way intended to undermine the history that brings us to celebrate St. Pat’s (witholding prodestant commetary here), and is certainly not meant to take advantage of the fact that "everybody’s Irish on St. Patrick’s day" but I am a little Irish, and my honey’s VERY Irish and well, we’re proud. All in all St. Patrick’s Day is the one day of the year where I truley feel like celebrating. Just feeling great.
The first photograph of Keith and I together was taken on St. Patrick’s Day 2005. Flash back to the day before: McCann and I needed something green to wear, and of course we did everything together so finding ourselves some green duds would be no exception. Well we did and we found a couple of beers afterword and I found myself back from where I had been gone for years. Flash forward again:




Veronica Pepper took this first photo of us and and suddenly everyone that cared about us knew. So, in some ways, St. Pat’s is an aniversary of sorts. (Thank You to Veronica, photpgrapher extraordinaire, this pic is one of my favorite things in the whole world!)
Since then, each year, we look forward to celbrating St Patrick’s Day. Great friends, great food, great beer. We especially look forward to celbrating with the Peppers. This time around we had a whole year of great plans, but life kicked in. John and Veronica and I all had to work on 3/17 and 3/18. More importantly they work early and I work late, so no amount of toughing out was gonna make our plan possible.
Keith had planned on cooking his traditional Irish spread for he and I anyway. Corned Beef and Cabbage, Colecanon, Guinness Lamb Stew and Soda Bread. Long story short, some of our friends were able to join our late meal, and we were grateful for it.
Next year, things will go as planned. Old traditions and new one’s will be combined. The gang will ALL be there. And we will all celebrate.