c'est la vie

"likes. wants. wishes. desires. fancies. longings. cravings. loves. musts. needs. hankerings. end-all be-alls. yens. hopes. crushes. passions. have to haves. can’t live withouts. puppy loves. aspirations. yearnings. soft spots. itches. fascinations. hungers. thirsts. urges… life."


(quote credit unknown; photo of multnomah falls by me)

isn't she lovely

(photo reposted from katemiddeltonlove)

dean & michull are ugly

For the last two years I have inadvertently (ok, totally on purpose) been amassing a collection of terrible photos of Mike and Dean (and the rest of us too, but mostly Lenny and Squiggy here). And I mean terrible. Just horrid. Awful. Gag-reflexes beware, hide your children, close-your-eyes-and-think-of-England hideous.

So I decided to inflict them on the unsuspecting world.

Introducing Reasons Not To Be An Idiot.


Have fun and I'm sorry.

people who

People Who is my new favorite blog. A place to commiserate about how stupid people make the world a more terrible place for human beings of quality and substance? Yes!

This is just what my cynical side needed right now.

royal blue

Since the announcement of the royal wedding, I've paid due attention to the happenings surrounding Will & Kate but it wasn't until this week that I realized just how fascinated I am by all of the hoopla. And, more importantly, just how fascinated I am with Kate. Kind of loving her actually. And not that I want to be anything other than myself (because, even in light of current events, I love my life) but I kind of want to be her when I grow up. Except for the whole royal thing... I don't need that headache. Though it seems like she and William might actually have this whole thing figured out - at least as much as anyone can and still remain realistic. They've known each other for ten years, dated, gone their separate ways and done their own thing, found each other again and waited until they have their own lives somewhat figured out (even though, granted, some things were predetermined) before "settling down". Everyone is calling it a fairytale but I'm inclined to think otherwise, only because these two royals appear to be creating their own rules and have struck a seemingly wonderful balance between the giddiness of love and the understanding of the need for maturity. I'm rootin' for them.

(photo by Mario Testino)

(Also, totally captivated by Kate's sense of style... I want to ransack her closet)

good day sunshine

two-thirds

The Beatles once sang, "I get by with a little help from my friends," and then moved swiftly into a phase of pschyedelics and yellow submarines. Personally, I'm going to stick with staying up late and playing with my friends and skip the drug induced spurts of creativity (I've got more than enough mental anguish to keep me churning out new work to need any further aid).

this pretty much sums up the evening

So Monday night mom and I headed down to San Francisco to fetch Sir Knight for his rapid, 24-hour, talk-and-lovingly-abuse-her-off-her-ledge, whirlwind visit. His flight was delayed so we didn't get back to The Burrow (mom's house, yes, a reference to the Weasley household in Harry Potter, the place where no matter how crappy life is, it's always a little bit better once you're there) until after eleven. A normal person would have gone straight to bed to prepare for a busy following day but we've never been accused of normalcy and we're not about to start now. In lieu of that then, we decided to make margaritas and act like idiots. Idiots how? I took the opportunity to somehow drop the bottom out of the blender thus causing the Great Spill of 2011 (photos of Blake and me slurping beverage off the countertop with straws to follow) and the other two decided to channel other worldly spirits with the damn Ouija board (I took no part in it other than to sit at the table with them because I choose not to mess with things beyond our realm, but that's just me).

mumm napa... bubbles & sun

The next day was a first for me. Growing up in Napa (and in the wine industry for that matter, with Dad's business taking us out to wineries on a daily basis from the time I was seven weeks old, curled up in a little snuggly pack... I was a great mascot) it surprises even me that I have never been wine tasting in the Napa Valley. Sure, I now know the Willamette Valley left, right and sideways but my own hometown? Ha. I was out of here before I turned eighteen and kept far away unless a holiday demanded my return for the better part of the last seven years (I think it's fair that most people stray from their hometowns, at least for a while... I had a certain bitterness about Napa though, another story for another time). But you know what I discovered? This place is lovely! Holy moses, I got to grow up here and I completely took it for granted! Sure, I always knew how beautiful it was and would often request a quick spin up valley on the not-so way home from school, but this was a chance to see it from a new vantage point.

prager port winery - one of my favorites, even as a kid (they had winery cats)

Everywhere we went Dad saw someone he knew (no joke, whether he was sticking his head into a cellar, walking through a crowded restaurant or just entering a tasting room, he knew everyone). The day was just about perfect - even the sun came out to play! After months and months of rain, I had almost forgotten what it looked like (and boy, I must have thrown it for a loop with the blinding quality my alabaster skin has developed this winter!) So we made our rounds - Mumm, Conn Creek (yum!), lunch at Rutherford Grill, Prager and Stag's Leap. Conn Creek and Stag's Leap are both part of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, which owns Erath as well, so it was fun to get to a couple of our "sister wineries". I was really impressed with Conn Creek in particular. The folks in the tasting room reminded me of the people I work with and were so welcoming! And the wine was amazing (I bought a bottle of 2006 Anthology which is a blend of everything Bordeaux and it made me melt). And then a stop at Prager, of course. The family owned winery has been one of my favorites for as long as I can remember (my dad is friends with the family and as a kid I spent a lot of time chasing the old cellar cats, Use and Less, around the barrels) (also, one infamous luau party where they buried and roasted a pig... big fun when you're six). One of founder Jim Prager's sons was in the tasting room along with one of his son-in-laws as well. It's so wonderful to know that as corporate as some of the places in Napa have become, there are still the strongholds. The character of the place is fully in tact and shows no signs of waning... When you're there, you're family. And the port? Leapin' lizards. The ruby, the tawny, the white port! Hell. Nothing tops it. I've actually had the privilege of meeting and tasting with the winemaker of a port winery in Portugal and it didn't touch the quality Prager has harnessed. It was definitely a highlight of the day.

the boy riding the "circus bike"

Nothing helps to take your mind of the more craptabulismic (word origin: Sean) times of life than to be surrounded by family and one of your best friends. Of course my mind wandered many times throughout the day to places beyond my control, but having Blake lurking around corners to pop me on the back of the head or make an inappropriate comment about, er, everything really... Helps.

The Beatles were right. I do get by.

(more photos to follow, these were the immediately available iPhone shots)

awake my soul

More Mumford... More gospel...


"Awake My Soul" by Mumford & Sons


How fickle my heart and how woozy my eyes
I struggle to find any truth in your lies
And now my heart stumbles on things I don't know
This weakness I feel I must finally show

Lend me your hand and we'll conquer them all
But lend me your heart and I'll just let you fall
Lend me your eyes I can change what you see
But your soul you must keep, totally free

In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die
Where you invest your love, you invest your life
In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die
Where you invest your love, you invest your life

Awake my soul, awake my soul
Awake my soul
You were made to meet your maker
Awake my soul, awake my soul
Awake my soul
You were made to meet your maker
You were made to meet your maker

hoppy

Happy Easter! Remember what the day is all about. But remember that it's fun to play with eggs today, too. Just ask Little Big Ears up there.

sigh no more

Feeling simultaneously that you've had the air taken from your lungs and in return been crushed by a weight heavier than any element yet discovered, I've spent nearly two weeks somewhere between hapless flailing and utter defeat. But to that end, I've been finding solace in a number of things...

My family for one. Somehow always keeping the phone near them when I need the lifeline the most, offering the kind and gentle words they've been whispering in my ear from the day I was born. There is without doubt more constant love in the universe than can ever be imagined and for the last two weeks, I've been blessed to be the recipient of theirs. Well, the last two weeks and the last twenty-four years.

My friends for another. From Brigette's white chocolate cranberry cookies in the mail (which always made things seem less difficult in college - except trimming one's waistline) and ability to make me smile from the other end of the west coast, to Blake's never ending shoulder to cry on as he talks me off yet another ledge (via video chat) and listens to every concern I have, to Laura and Maria enveloping me with hugs and understanding just when I need them. Not to mention Mike's touching words and continual bucking-up from across the country and Dean & Robin offering not only microbrew love, but the love of unconditional friends when you need it most.

My God, most importantly. Yesterday I made some reference to Him and a friend of mine said she didn't believe in God. She believes in something, prays to something, but she's not ready to call it God. I told her He was pretty much what was getting me through this. "Good for you," she said with complete sincerity. She seemed genuinely happy for me, knowing that I had my faith to hold me up (or catch me when I fall, depending on what end of the up-and-down I'm on). Much as I want to stamp my feet around, blaming Him unfairly for what He's done to my life, I must realign myself and understand that it's actually what He's doing for my life that I should be focusing on. He knows my heart and the heart of another in particular. I do not doubt. Only hope. And pray.

And last, but never least, my gospel. By which I mean my music.

The Avett Brothers, Sundowner, Chuck Ragan, Matt Pryor, Frank Turner and... Mumford & Sons, of course, as the title of this post would suggest. These people have been the unwitting participants in my inadvertent therapy (there are no royalties to be collected for this).

The song above (along with most every song I listen to) has been played to my ear with a new tune. A new vantage point. There is meaning where you look for it and whether or not I was looking for something and found it, or it was the other way around, the words of the song have breathed new life and mean more to me than ever before. God speaks to us. We often hear it, but rarely do we listen.

I'm working on listening.

"Sigh No More" by Mumford & Sons


Serve God, love me and mend
This is not the end
Lived unbruised, we are friends
And I'm sorry
I'm sorry

Sigh no more, no more
One foot in sea and one on shore
My heart was never pure
And you know me
You know me

But man is a giddy thing
Oh man is a giddy thing
Oh man is a giddy thing
Oh man is a giddy thing

Love, it will not betray you
Dismay or enslave you, it will set you free
Be more like the man you were made to be
There is a design, an alignment, a cry
Of my heart to see,
The beauty of love as it was made to be.

a truth for your thursday

(via Marvelous Kiddo)

change of pace

"When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight." Kahlil Gibran

meow!

Clare of Tastes Orangey posted and tuned me in to Kip Holm Photography.

After a somewhat "meh" morning of the menacing tedium that is adulthood, this picture totally lifted my spirits!

human planet

Oh! Oh my! Hither & Thither has brought this to my attention and I am now anxiously waiting, right here on the edge of my seat. The BBC has completed the series and from the trailer, I think this could top them all.

Oh, the pure, unadulterated excitement. I might implode.

29 March 2011 (10:02 AM)

There are babies everywhere! Well, here and there anyway.

But what we needed was a little lady to add to the bunch and now... We got one! Introducing Eleanora Violet, Maria's sweet new baby niece!  This is probably the most beautiful newborn (yes, this was taken the day she was born) I've ever seen.

Welcome little girl!

brothers in arms

Just the first of what I'm going to assume will become many more pictures of Jared in someone's arms and/or spooning someone. I completely encourage this.

This particular image was captured during a fit of brotherly love causing him to spontaneously launch himself upon Dakota with little-to-no warning.

God I love these boys.