spring is a season, not an emotion.

one of the many reasons we love denver is the sun. some say it is sunny 300 days a year here. some also say it was foggy 300 days a year at our last home. that crap takes a toll, you know.

one of the many reasons our dogs love us is that we keep our tomatoes in the fruit basket. this makes them easily accessible for snacking in our absence. seriously, i need to hide tomatoes from Moose these days.

Spring in SF was literally just a couple of warm days. the whole "season" was lumped into daylight savings and single people feeling a bit frisky for a bit. here, it is approximately 1/4 of the year, which makes sense since there are approximately 4 seasons and such. duh.

So, a love of tomatoes combined with abundant sunshine clearly calls for something pretty specific....a fenced in veg garden. (i say "veg" because Jamie Oliver says "veg". now i am awesome.)

BEFORE:
see how there is a seam? Previous owners had implanted some kind of Only Child Amusement Device....a huge structure on a bed of tan bark, with a huge curb to delineate the "child" area from the "adult" space. weird.

first we got to building raised beds. some of the beds will be constructed of wood.
this week, i will be getting rocks delivered to build more raised beds. it is hard for me....rectangle plots of land on rectangle blocks of land. so many 9o degree angles. i am hoping my rock plan will counter that a bit.

but don't forget who we live with. tomato stealing low fence jumpers. so we do more. neil creates an outdoor workshop:

and fences are built.




i help:
but that shit is loud so sometimes i need to close my eyes and wince.
and the cool thing is that we still have the bulk of the yard, plus the side yard to play fetch with the dogs in.
i am still not smoking and am still exercising. i have lost a few pounds, but mostly it is inches i have lost and muscle i am gaining. i have set a goal that i am afraid to call a goal. it is more of a "if i ever do this i will be awesome" reference point. i would like to be able to jog round Sloan's Lake without stopping. It is only like 2 or 3 miles, so it should be able to happen soon-ish. Unfortunately, i forgot that Moose hasn't been going to the gym with me. Our little jog/walk around the lake kind of kicked his butt today. at least he was tired enough that i was finally able to really catch his toe-fro on camera. people think his paws are big but it is all fur.



so this week i build my rock beds and Neil will build the gate next weekend. we can't plant warm weather stuff until mother's day but we might be able to sneak some carrots, lettuce, radishes, and beets in there a bit earlier. if you don't like beets, roast them. roast them and realize how wrong you were about beets and then send me a check for $20 for saving your liver. you will not find a cheaper liver anywhere else, i promise.

happy spring, mofos!

not okay

i am a creature of habit. i go to the gym every day. and i am pretty much always there at the same time of day. if i am by myself, i tend to lean towards the elliptical machines. i love them, but they are just far away enough from the 4 televisions that i can't read the closed captioning. it is frustrating, but i have found a solution.

you see, i tend to go to the gym during the most boringly televised time of day. one tv is espn. one is msnbc or some other news channel that has so many "windows" open that you can't even understand what they are reporting if you are two feet in front of the screen. then there is the one that shows Inside Edition, the lowest of all the low television. once, when i was on a closer exercise machine, they were "reporting" on a grandma that was beat up by some teenagers. i don't like looking at beat up grandmas. then there is the last television....my savior. it shows some kind of today show-ish show. i think it is al roker? i don't know. but they are always cooking! i don't need to be able to read the words below....i just watch the pretty food happen. it's perfect.

until today. some rat bastard changed the channel to the Rachel Ray show. She was interviewing the cast from The Watchmen. I felt bad for Billy Crudup, which is weird because i am normally not one to pick the side of the dude who leaves his 8 month pregnant girlfriend to be with this chick who he isn't even together with anymore (was it worth it, Billy?) and now she is marrying this dude , who apparently is famous but i never heard of him until the happy engagement was announced. yay!

Also, you would think that i would be all "oh, she loves animals and i love animals so we are total BFFs". she makes a dog food. it is called "nutrish" and it is crap. Her food is rated 2 stars out of 6. what i feed my dogs is rated 5. if i made dog food, i would actually make one that is good for dogs. and i would not give it such a lame and misleading name, either. that is how i love animals.
She may donate the proceeds of her slop, but she is not Paul Newman (~~*le sigh*~~). Let me be very clear about that. "nutrish?" puke.

and really, how many shows can be just about burgers? according to rachel ray, 42 is the correct answer to that question. i know this because i actually did a search and counted them myself. Next time you want to make a fancy burger, save yourself the annoyance of her mug and email me. greek? add feta. mexican? add salsa and feel free to garnish with cilantro. Indian? throw some raita on there and you are good to go.

do you see what i am saying, people? it's not rocket science. it is clever marketing. don't fall for her 30 minute undercooked meals. admit that things can take 45 minutes and open up your resources to other celebrichefs and books. your kids will still love you. You will not be 15 minutes late to work the next day. you can still consider yourself on the pulse of America. just quit giving Ms. Ray your money. she's got enough and she isn't earning it.

also, i would like to announce to the triscuit people that i will specifically not buy your product if rachel ray is on the box. that goes for all marketed packaging. rachel ray = no dollars for you.

daylight savings has got nothing on rachel ray. i will be waking up an hour earlier tomorrow to get to the gym an hour earlier and be home an hour earlier, safe from this madness. i will use that extra hour to make a 90 minute meal. i will abbreviate nothing. And nothing will be served on a bun.

5 years

Did you know that Rosemary...

• referred to herself as "The Imelda Marcos of Birkenstocks"
• Loved t-shirts that had a message, all dogs (but preferred the big ones), buying bath products that she would never use, stale Peeps, the Muppets, and tomato and onion sandwiches
• was in the color guard in high school and carried the American flag. She also graduated 3rd in her class from Hacketstown High School in Hacketstown, New Jersey
• Graduated from Bucknell with a major in Spanish. She was in a sorority. She was originally going to major in math, but her grades in that subject (and child psychology and American Government) were lacking. She proceeded to be a 3rd grade teacher and then to work for the government and have a child.
• had a thing for Sam Elliot. Her favorite movies were Wuthering Heights and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
• introduced her younger siblings to Joan Baez, Peter Paul and Mary, Leontyne Price, Africa and more.
• as a teenager rescued her first animal...a goose she named Henrietta. At an early age, her and her cousin Diane conspired to become veterinarians, although women were not encouraged to do that sort of thing back then.
• was a pretty good bowler, and considered it a family sport.
  
• enjoyed jigsaw puzzles, researching her Polish ancestry, going to Reno to play the slots with her mother (they always won), using the "f" word, and fresh cut flowers
• called her brother John, "Juano" and her daughter Bec "Kidlet". She also enjoyed naming her foster puppies after people she knew.
• hated peas and hated flying. she would fly, but only for special occasions. she would not eat peas, ever.
• would make cioppino every year for her family at Christmas.
  
• Cried when wacthing ice skating on TV.
• Thrived at party planning. For birthdays she would make pinatas. she would make pins, stickers or even t-shirts with embarrassing pictures of the honoree on them. every easter she wore bunny ears. she made bec's childhood halloween costumes by hand.
• went to Baja to pet baby gray whales from a zodiac boat.
• always left an open invitation for any of Bec's friends who might not have a place to spend the holidays, whether she knew them or not. eventually, she knew them all.
• had reall REALLY great legs.

The above was written by family for mom's memorial service. i just did quite a bit of digging through our storage to find it. it stays hidden in the "sad box", or at least it has for the last 4 and a half years.
tomorrow it will be 5 years ago that she died. i could write about it for days and in the end have no more insight than i did when i started. i miss her. i thank her. i am pissed at her for dying. but mostly, i miss and thank.









and here is a postcard from the nugget in Reno. we had taken our pics on one of those photo sticker booths and put our heads on the bathingsuit models. and i think my head is on a dude. we laughed so hard that it hurt. that is truly what i miss the most about my mom. she made me. she made my sense of humor. and she knew the most efficient ways to induce tears through joy. ugh, the missing and the thanking. it never stops.

oops!

it has been brought to my attention that i have not updated this here blog for quite a while. one of the people doing such attention bringing is Neil, my husband, who lives here with me, and who is the primary receptacle for most of the words that come out of my mouth. he must really like my words.

there is a theory that my number of blog posts is directly proportionate to the number of cigarettes i am smoking, which is zero. well, now that is all effed up cos i am sitting here typing. not to worry, i am not about to go make up for the math and smoke.

i am not sure why i haven't posted. maybe it is just that i am so wrapped up in my physical state lately, and not my mental state. my mental state can be pretty shaky at times, so it is quite a relief to know that i have this ability.

People tend to gain weight when they quit smoking. it is not necessarily a "replace the cigarette with food" thing. it is really just that your metabolism slows down. according to some internets, you need to burn an extra 100 calories a day to not gain weight. oh that is nice, since i am heavier now than ever before. perfect timing.

so i have been going to the gym. a lot. yesterday neil wondered if maybe i was being a bit fanatical about it. but for me, once this whole basement remodel crap is done, i will either be pregnant or working or both. this is my only chance to get back on track. so i am in it to win it.
and i have lost 5 pounds since i quit smoking. take that, 100 calories a day!

So it's gym, house, pets, healthy eating, more pets, and then maybe some house stuff and probably a puke related pet issue. that is my life right now. not terribly blog worthy, i will admit. but i am having fun being the boss of my own self. don't expect me to post pics of my abs any time soon, though. i am not a crazy person.

day 9

when we were in high school, molly quit smoking. she quit smoking for 500 and something days. and if you asked her how many days it had been at any point in her adventure, she would give you an accurate count.

quitting smoking is hard. but it is also kind of fun, when it isn't beating you over the head with angst.

when you move to another state, you get to be whoever you want to be. for some, this could be something as simple as learning to say no to people. like this: no, i will not help you paint your garage. what? why aren't you murdering me? it's a simple exercise in testing your own boundaries and learning that you will not die if you betray your own shitty habits.

so, with patch on arm, i joined a gym. since i have been smoking for 22 years and i just got over the flu and we are in some high altitude, i struggle. but i am not struggling because i smoked a cigarette 4 minutes ago and i know this, so therefor i am strong and shameless. i will walk on my treadmill whilst Miss Tan and Skinny runs her 5 miles a day right next to me and i don't care. for her, it is easy. for me, it is hard. and that makes me tougher than her in some ways. so there.

yesterday, We walked around Sloans Lake. this was a big "We". 6 adults, a three year old, a 4 month old, and 2 (very special and cute) dogs. This is what you do on a Saturday morning when you live in Denver. Then you go to brunch and maybe there is a Bloody Mary bar but that is a totally besides the point. you walked 3 miles with your loved ones. nice.

The reinventing is the fun part. The giving of the finger to my past. The promise of a stronger me. It's not too shabby, really.

i am quitting smoking tomorrow

you would think that, since i am so effing wordy, i would have a lot to say about this. not really, though. i just have the flu and i want to be nice to my body.

feel free to desert the reading of my blog for this one. as sticky put it, "this guy wins the internet".

"booze, a zamboni, and a railing"

"THINGS REBECCA NEEDS WITHIN REACH TO BE ABLE TO SKATE ON ICE?!!??!!?!" yes! you are the winner of my personal $25,000 pyramid.

Today is Noelle's birthday so we had a weekend of events. most were centered around food but one was centered around ice skating on Evergreen Lake. I can ice skate. i have a long history of it. we used to go to Raydine's in Corte Madera. then, as an adult, i'd to to yerba buena skating rink. i would go fast, i would go backwards, and i would stop suddenly, kicking up ice In Yer Face, thank you very much. AND, Neil had never skated before so, yeah, he can show me how to install wood floors and i would kick his ass at, i mean...teach him how to...ice skate.

i am a fool of ginormous magnitude.

standing in ice skates on a lake is hard. moving whilst in those skates on a lake is virtually impossible. It is extra bumpy and slippery at the same time and i am way less bouncy than when i was younger and/or drunker. and we were with Buffalo folks....folks who wish they were in the NHL, folks who have been skating for as long as they have been walking. and i told them i knew how to skate fairly well. now they would think i am a liar except Shane, bless his solid memory, remembered that we had skated together once like 10 years ago and he *thought* i was pretty good back then. thank GOD! And Neil....he struggled, but by the end of our outing i had managed to just scramble around the lake twice. he went for round three and he had totally surpassed my lake skating skills by the end. and just to put these skills into perspective, here is some video evidence of some awesomeness:



It was fun, though. The whole weekend was fun, actually. Noelle and i start going to the gym tomorrow, which is appropriate because my entire body is sore from the sheer will involved with just not falling for two lake laps. Baby Camille is acting like a tooth might be appearing. The holidays are over and the men are already bitching about work (whilst being thankful to even have jobs). and greta has totally mastered her ABC's. it's a quiet music video, but a good music video, nonetheless. I am the scratcher and Neee-oh (how greta says Neil) is the videographer:





J, Noelle, Tiana, Camille and a lot of clothing, Me, Greta, Neil, and Shane. Good times.