Chance of Snow

I got out just in time.

Tribute

we are spending the weekend
gloriously unplugged
just our little family
and the sea

i took my son down to see
the lord poseidon
in his cold and glorious
foyer

the last time we visited
(on my birthday)
i anointed my blood
with a bit of the lord's
(a pagan-catholic baptism
as it were)

today my blood
holds my hands
walks unsteadily
across the shifting sands
to greet our patron
properly

laugh and shriek
as the foam swirls about his ankles
ancient and newly-born
playing together
beneath an opalescent sun

grains

My Father's Face

So remember how earlier this week I was all, "Blah blah blah when did my brother become my peer blah?"  Well I had a moment today blew that away in terms of freak-outs.

I was going through some old photos with my friend Kayla (I was trying to find a "baby photo" of Kink to show how small he was when I adopted him), and we came across one of my favorites of my dad:

See, the hat is funny because we were living in Alaska at the time.  Holy shit was my dad a proto-hipster?

I was getting all nostalgic and happy, saying, "Oh, he must have been about-" and I flipped it over to check the date, and made a sort of strangled noise, "Thirty two?!"

As in, three years younger than I currently am.  And he had a five year old daughter and six month old son and I look at this photo and see "Daddy, who of course is older than me" but actually he is a dude who is pretty much my age right now.

What the actual fuck.

Time gets extra weird when you involve dead people who can't age.

(side note: I pulled the photo of my brother back up and held them side by side.  Yep, definitely his kid.)

Rolling with Rocks

Tonight we went and saw the Reel Rock Tour 7 at Kiggins, followed by an after-party at the Source.  Good times, good times!  I was so inspired by the lady-climbers in that movie (and so hopped up on adrenaline) that I pretty much sprinted to the top of a 5.10- as soon as we got to the gym.  I'd say my ankle is finally, finally back up to snuff.

Pardon me whilst I do a jig.  Because I can.

And after that I attempted the slackline- attempted and failed, but hey- it was fun!  And afterwards one of the little girls who is a member at the gym (and is a very good climber, actually) came up to me and said, "You did really well!" in an encouraging voice.  It was so sweet.

The other exciting part about tonight was that Nathan's photography is being featured at the Source.  Woo, first public exhibition!  Who knows- we might even get a sale out of it!  Speaking of which, go look at his shiny new site, where you too may buy Nathan-prints of your very own.

All Systems a Lo-Go

...does that title even work?  I don't know... but it works for me!

Nathan's putting together a site from which to sell his photography, and I've been trying to put together some logos for him to choose from.  Here, take a gander at the process:

Click to Embiggen

Independence From Expectations

"You ready?"

Caroline is beaming at me.  I think she is possibly as excited about my first outdoor climbing experience as I am- and I am pretty damned excited.

"Oh yeah," I reply, and step over to where she is standing to tie myself in to the other end of the rope.

"Okay, so it's super important on this route to remember that even tho' you have to stretch for some of the holds, they are there," says Bryan, who has just come back down.  "Just reach out your hand and trust that the handhold will be there, and I promise you it will."

"Right," I say, trying not to think about myself groping helplessly for holds I can neither see nor feel.  This is not the gym, with technicolor holds jutting garishly out from a slate gray background.  There is no difference between the holds and the background, here, and the holds can be quite thoroughly camouflaged.  I comfort myself with the thought that Bryan isn't that much taller than I am, so if he can reach those far-apart, invsible holds, so can I.  Then I take a deep breath and assess the cliff face.  I can do this, I think.

"Climbing," I say.

"Climb on," says Caroline, her hands making the graceful movements that means she is taking in the slack from my rope.  I put one hand on the rock, and then the other.  One foot comes up, and then the next- and I am climbing.  I am climbing outside.

In the beginning I am nervous, and so my arms are too flexed, muscles straining; there is something about being on a real-live cliff face that makes a primal part of me cling as tightly to the wall as possible, good climbing form be damned.  As a result I tire quickly, which is embarrassing, but I try to have compassion for myself in this new incarnation of a beloved activity.  It helps that Caroline and Bryan are very vocal in their encouragement of me- and for me to take as many (long) breaks as need be.

Slowly I get used to the feel of it: the texture of the rock and grit sliding beneath my fingertips; the way that I cannot see a hold from below, but that I can certainly feel it; the smell of the sun-warmed stone as my nose comes close to the earth; the strange high-altitude stillness that is cut only by my harsh breathing and the occasional cry of a passing eagle.  I twist to look back over my shoulder and there is the Gorge in all of her glory.  At one point I take a fall, and as I swing serenely back and forth I look down and see that tiny white petals have fallen onto the dark green boughs of a pine tree just below my hips.  I reach out and stroke them before re-starting my climb.

It is strange- never once do I feel that I cannot do this.  I feel tired, I feel a pinch of fear, but I know that if I keep at it, I will finish.  And when I do finish, when I finally get to the top, grinning triumph like a madwoman, I am greeted by the tiny white flowers who had sprinkled their petals down below.  They smell like heaven, and I feel I have ascended.

Photo by Nathan, of course.

Methods for Clearing Your Sinuses

Before I get into today's Crossfit Adventure, I want to over-share with you a bit.   Specifically I want to over-share about the really disgusting thing that occurred with my littlest cat this morning.  This is her:

See that dime?  Remember that.  It's important later

Last night I heard her sneeze.  And then she kept sneezing.  And then she crawled into my bed and laid there all pitifully.  Oh no, I thought. Poor sick Kitty.  She kept having random sneezing fits as I puttered around, getting ready for bed, and she stayed close to me once I got in (helpfully sneezing right in my face and dear stars mucus everywhere gross gross gross).  In fact, she woke me up several times throughout the night with her violent bouts of sneezing, to the point that when I woke up for the day around 0630 I grabbed my phone to google, "cat can't stop sneezing" to see if it was an Emergency or not.  A cursory glance at the webbernets told me that most likely it was a respiratory infection, and that yes, I needed to take her to the vet for it.

And then I looked at my poor sick kitty, still curled up near my chest, and do you know what I saw?

I saw a piece of grass.  Sticking out of her nose.

So I did was any responsible pet-owner would do.  I grabbed her head in the vice-like grip of my left hand (thank you, climbing) and used the other to extract the grass.  Which was way longer than one would think physically possible.  Behold:

See the place on the left where it bends?  From there to the furthest left is how much was sticking out of her nose this morning.

Yes, that came out of my cat's skull.  And no, she hasn't sneezed since.

Anyway.

Do you know what else is good for clearing out your sinuses?  Burpees.  How do I know this?  Because!


WOD:

As a team of two, complete 200 burpees. While one person does burpees, the other does double-unders. Your score is the time, and total number of doubles.

So remember how the other week I was all, "Team mates are great because they inspire me to go harder!"?  Well there is a flip side to that, and it's "Team mates are awful because I end up screwing them over and feeling super bad about it!"  Especially when I team up with someone ridiculously fitter than I am, which is what occurred today.  Although man, thank goodness he was so much better than me at double-unders, because our overall score would have been even more shameful, otherwise- as it was, his ability to rock out 40-50 during each round (we agreed to swap off ever twentieth burpee) meant that we scored better on that part than some of the other teams.  No thanks to me, who got like ten on my best round ever- and not just because he was doing the burpees faster than I was:

Only a slight exaggeration of what happens when I flub double-unders.

And the other teams- oh man, don't even get me started.  Suffice to say that the other ladies were doing 25 burpees to my 20.  It made me want to climb under a rock and send out apologies to my partner for the next month.

But hey- we all start somewhere (::coughcoughbeendoingthisforthreemonthsnowcough::).  And he was really nice about it, even when we were the last ones finishing our WOD while everyone else was walking around outside trying not to puke.  But I would not blame him one bitty bit if he avoids my eye the next time partner workout comes around...

(Oh, and afterwards my sinuses, which had been clogged, were super-clear.  Hence the title of today's entry.)

Sometimes I Deliver on My Promises

Behold!  A few of the shots from last week's newborn session:

Keep an eye on your sibling: you never know when they'll try to steal your stuff.

This one is here mostly to prove that Nathan does, sometimes, use color.

Oh right- there were grownups there, too.

TWINS!

 

And now (and far less interesting) here is today's doodle, slapped on the screen before I must dash away to my climbing clinic:

Playing with Painter.  I have Oh. So.  MUCH to learn.

Cocoa Regina (or: Honey-Sweetened Chocolate Ice Cream)

I stayed up a bit late to ensure there was an illustration for today's entry, and not just a whole lotta' jabbering...

I have a problem with sugar, Gentle Readers.  And that problem is that although I like sugar, sugar does not like me.  Specifically it does not like my joints, or my un-inflamed state.  Yep, too much of the deadly white stuff and my joints get all swollen and painful- plus I just generally feel like crap.

Honey, on the other hand, does not seem to have this effect on me.  Don't ask me why- honey is sugar, too, after all- but I'm sure there is some science-y explanation I just haven't stumbled across yet.  Or perhaps it's psychosomatic- who knows!  Anyway the point is that ever since I discovered this strange reality (sugar = pain, but honey does not) I've been turning to honey to sweeten things.  Obviously it's not a one-for-one substitute (honey is sweeter, for one thing, and it's a liquid rather than a solid- although you're supposed to treat sugar as a liquid when you bake, sooo... never mind, ignore my ramble-prone brain) but it does a damn fine job.  Especially since I actually prefer the flavor of a good dark honey to that of plain white sugar.

But.

Oh but, Gentle Readers.  When we got our ice cream maker last month, I dutifully made my beloved Riesling ice cream- and for that I used sugar.  I thought, briefly, of using honey, but there was much I did not understand- for example, would it crystallize differently?  Probably, but would it matter?  According to the interwebs, using honey in ice cream can make it grainy- well that's no good.  So I stuck to the traditional recipe, and vowed I'd do some experimentation later on down the road.

Well last week I came across an article on NPR about the bacon sundae.  What an excellent idea, I thought to myself, bacon and ice cream!- and then recoiled in horror at the photo.  Basically they just threw a couple of limp "bacon" slices into a cup of soft-serve.  Gross.

I can do better than that, I thought indignantly.  But if I was going to make bacon ice cream, I was going to use chocolate.  And if I was going to start experimenting with ice cream, then the time had come for me to muscle down and figure out how to do it with honey.

On a whim I posted to Facebook: "Who has the best recipe for chocolate ice cream? Bonus points if honey is used instead of white sugar..." because sometimes I am lazy and want other people to have already done the work for me.  The only person who responded was my friend Jason, who didn't have a recipe, per se, but offered to tweet at Alton Brown for his opinion.  The response?

"It's not a simple trade out because the honey is quite different from sucrose. And there's the added moisture to calculate."

Which made me say, "Not a SIMPLE trade-out, but DO-ABLE. This shall happen, oh yes..."

And thus began another, more in-depth round of Interwebs Research.  Finally, armed with what I'd gleaned from dozens of sources, as well as Alton's own chocolate ice cream recipe as a jumping-off point, I got started.

Here is what I used, and what I did with what I used:

1 c. cocoa powder
2 pints half and half
1/2 pint heavy whipping cream
8 egg yolks (fresh from the farmer's market, no less!)
1/2 c. local raw honey (I used Garden of Beeden's "Mystery Blend") (Wish I could link to them but darned if I can find their website)
2 tsp vanilla extract

Oh farmer's market, full of delicious things to use to make other delicious things.*

First things first, I put a cup of half and half and the cocoa powder in a sauce pan and whisked the heck out of it until they were well blended.  Then I added the rest of the dairy and turned up the heat to medium, stirring occasionally until it hit a low simmer, at which point I took it off the heat.


While the dairy was heating, I whisked the egg yolks in a medium bowl until the yolks got paler, and then whisked in the honey.  Once the milk mixture was ready, I enlisted Nathan's help to ladle in 1/3 cup at a time while I kept whisking (I know the limits of my own dexterity).  Once he'd ladled in about half of the mixture I had him pour in the rest, then I put it all back in the saucepan and back on the heat.


I kept it on medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until it hit 175 degrees and passed the spoon test, then poured it back into the medium bowl and let it sit at room temp for thirty minutes.  Then I stirred in the vanilla extract and transferred it to the fridge to chill for three hours, until the bottom of the bowl was cold to the touch.  After that it was just ye old "follow ice-cream-maker manufacturer's instructions".


It came out super thick- and amazingly smooth and creamy, which I'd been nervous about.  Honestly, it came out incredible.

Super, super thick.

In my opinion the texture fresh from the ice cream maker was just perfect- after being frozen overnight it became annoyingly hard (not icy: just hard)- but I've read that's par for the course with home-made ice cream (that hasn't been made with alcohol).  Maybe next time I'll just serve it fresh from the 'maker and ensure there isn't any left over for freezing!


Nathan thinks we ought to try using less cocoa next time; he felt it had a weird follow-through that dried his mouth a little.  I didn't get that, but I'm- obviously- always willing to experiment...




*But where's the bacon, you ask?  Well, I decided I'd better make sure I could successfully make the ice cream using honey before I went tossing perfectly good bacon into it.  So next time, Gentle Readers.  Next time.

In Which Isis is a Naughty Puppy

We did our best to sleep in decadently late this morning, and yet we still were wide awake by 0830.  Ah well...  We made up for it by doing the exceptionally decadent deed of ordering room service.  It just about took my breath away to be so damn frivolous- but when we realized that the service charge for room service was actually less than we typically tip, it seemed like a no-brainer.

Once we'd gotten the car loaded and had checked ourselves out of the hotel, we headed back over to the Washington side of the river to Columbia Hills State Park- more specifically for the Catherine Creek hike.  Just about the time we were approaching the turn-off, I happened to glance into the back seat- and there was Isis, merrily chewing on her leash.

"Ack!" was my articulate response, and I leaned in to take it away from her- only to discover she'd already chewed entirely through it.

That's right, Gentle Readers- she managed to ruin her first hike before it even began.  Except that I'm never one to let a little thing like a chewed-leash stop me, and so when we stopped I jury-rigged the hell out of that thing until it passed muster.  It was a very short leash, but at least it worked- and so Isis had her first hike in spite of herself.

I was fortunate that the looped end of the leash also had a D-ring that I could attach to the hook end of the leash- which I in turn attached to the ring on her harness.

The other chewed-upon end, which was thereafter wrapped tightly around my left hand.

The creek in question.

We kept it pretty short- didn't do the whole thing, probably about a mile-and-a-half.  But by the end of it the dog was thoroughly pooped- and that, my friends, is always a good thing.  She passed out in the back of the car almost as soon as we hit the road, waking up only when we made a stop in Camas for our most favorite pizza (I had the brain storm to call ahead and have it waiting for us as we drove through).

Zonked.

 And now we're home again, taking a very chill afternoon to mentally and physically prepare ourselves for tomorrow- and the three church services Nathan will be playing in... early bedtime for all!

Initial Colors?  Check!

Oh Sweet Puppies

First of all, I want you to know that I did not have the inappropriate reaction.  I managed to contain myself, and here is evidence of that:

Look carefully- there are FIVE of 'em in there, and every one of them climbed into our laps- we didn't put them there.

One of the puppies in one of our laps is our girl- I won't tell you which one, because you'll find out soon enough.  All you need to know is that she already has an awesome name all picked out for her, and that she will hopefully be coming to live with us by the end of the week (she needs to be spayed first).  I did a lot of doodles of her when I got home, but since I don't want to give it away I will just show you a light sketch that I started but did not finish- it captures my "I am definitely not getting too excited over puppies!" expression fairly well.

So...difficult...not...to squee...

Detox: Day Fifteen (Hyper Halloween Edition)

Breakfast: roasted pears sprinkled with Jamaican allspice
Snack: three mandarin oranges
Lunch: 5 oz tuna, one mackintosh
Snack: a few pieces of chicken breast, a handful of blueberries
Dinner: roasted butternut squash, onion, and carrots tossed with olive oil, salt, and pepper (ridiculously delicious and autumnal)

Happy Halloween!

(of course, for some of you it's already All Hallow's.  Sorry about that mom...)

Ah yes, once again we return to my Mostest Favoritest Holiday.  Not being able to surreptitiously snack on candy had cast a bit of a pall on the day, but that pall was completely blown away once evening came.  And why is that, you might wonder?  Trick-or-treaters!  At long last, I had actual trick-or-treaters come to my door, and I got to give out candy, and it made me so happy I was making joyful squee-y noises every time I closed the door behind them.  Seriously, every time the doorbell rang I opened it with my heart in my throat until I heard the magic words-

"Trick or treat!"

-and spied the bevy of adorable little faces just waiting to get enough sugar to turn into little demons that I wouldn't have to deal with.  And my heart melted into a dribbly smile all over my face.  Awesome.

In fact, I made so many happy noises that Nathan said, "You like Halloween way too much."

"Pish tosh!" said I.  "It is impossible to like Halloween 'too much'," and then I went back to watching The Vampire Diaries.

What was particularly amusing to me was that not a single kid knew what I was, something that hadn't even occurred to me.  (My favorite response was from a little girl about six or so saying, "You're pretty!" pause "What are you?")  Quite a few parents got it,  however, so I was soothed by that.  Well, okay, to be completely honest they "got" that I was from Star Trek.  They did not get who I was, because I was missing my most important accessory:

Bold.

Yes, the Riker to my Troi had secluded himself on the holodeck, as it were.  But the man had already hosted a five+-hour HalloWarming party for me, so I gave him a buy for the Actual Evening.

And now for some of those promised photos of me carving the pumpkins:

Gutting "Nathan's" pumpking

Little did these seeds realize the horrible, non-edible fate that awaited them!

Why yes, I DO glow with a holy light during Creative Moments.

And the pumpkins themselves!

Also I learned that it doesn't matter WHERE you put the pumpkin- some kid WILL trip over it.

Hard to tell from this photo, but that leaf in the middle glowed, too.

Seeking out new civilizations!

 I also tried to get a shot of the paper mache pumpkins I set up in the window all lit up (they got a lot of, "Oh wow!  Look at all those pumpkins!" from the kids, which was pretty gratifying after all the time and effort I put into the damnable things) but my poor little phone just couldn't handle the dark, and so you must extrapolate from the Daytime Photo:

There are like twelve paper mache pumpkins in that window, and I ASSURE YOU, they looked awesome at night.

And finally?  Tribbles.

The sign we had up during the party.

Are Trouble.

And sassy.

Especially when they mutate into four-limbed critters.

"I'm sensing... great confusion!"

Detox: Day Four (or: Damn I Want Some Baklava)

It started last night.

Honey, whispered my taste buds.  We want honey.

"No, taste buds.  Honey is very specifically on the NO list."

Ooo, yeah, honey!  Piped up my teeth and jaw.  But more specifically we want it in the form of baklava, with all its tender flaky squooshie goodness.

"Seriously, you guys?  It's day three.  Waaaay too early for this cravings business."

And yet.  Baklava has remained on my brain for the twenty-three hours between then and now. I even googled "gluten-free phyllo" at work (I was more than a little terrified that it would be one of those non-duplicate-able items, but I found a few recipes that I'll try out in two-and-a-half-weeks).

So I'm pretty sure that the first thing I'll be letting back into my diet will be honey.

One of the other things I was trying to figure out today was how to deal with the absolutely disgusting experience that is my consumption of the RepairVite supplement.  I mean it is foul.  Most especially so because it's supposedly "latte flavored" and I cannot stand the taste of coffee.  It's my own personal torture every morning and evening, and I hold my breath and repeat to myself (through gritted teeth):

"I can do anything for three weeks."

Anyway I searched "RepairVite is disgusting", and although I didn't find any solutions, I did find a new blog to read: Life Without Bread and Butter.  Very good stuff (her writing, I mean), and she went through this detox, too (she has way more sensitivities to deal with than I do, so it helps to shut up my whiny, baklava-craving taste buds) and she also reported on what she ate each day, which means lots of exciting new inspiration for me.  Huzzay!

Speaking of exciting food...

Breakfast:  Four strips of peppered bacon
Lunch:  Four tiny mackintosh apples and four mandarin oranges (I forgot my "real" lunch, so I had to make due with my office fruit)
Dinner:  Roasted butternut squash and garlic soup

When I was making up my meal plan over the weekend, I knew  I would want some sort of butternut squash dish (they are in season and delicious).  Trader Joe's didn't have any when we made our grocery run on Saturday, so last night I went out and bought some, and then today I scoured the internet for an appropriate jumping-off-recipe.  I found one over at The Picky Vegan, but we made some modifications.  Here's what we did:

Ingredients

1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed
1.5 heads of garlic, intact but with the top sliced off
several handfuls of baby carrots (probably around 3 cups?)
olive oil
 1/2 sweet onion, diced
1.5 tbsp fresh grated ginger
5 cups water
2 tsp curry powder
salt
pepper

Instructions

Heat oven to 400
add squash and olive oil to one pan, toss
create foil packet to put in another pan, add carrots and toss with olive oil, seal packet
create foil packet for garlic, drizzle with olive oil, seal
put all in oven, check at 30 min (garlic may be done)

Are you done, garlic??

stir squash chunks, leave in an additional 30 min or until tender, remove all

Nathan checking for tenderness

 spray dutch oven (we used our  new coconut cooking spray- so good!) over heat, saute onion until fragrant
add ginger and saute additional 15 seconds
add water
add roasted items and curry (note: we really like curry, so you may  not want to use as much as we did), salt, and pepper to taste
bring back to boil and simmer 15 min, stirring ocassionally

A moment of not-stirring

remove from heat, carefully add small amounts to blender and blend a little bit at a time, transferring to serving bowl as you go.

We are not kidding about the "careful" part

Serve and enjoy!

I might like it even better chilled...

Nathan wished he had some bread for his, and I wished I had some sour cream to dollop on top, but all in all it was a fantastic hit.  Of course, it did occur to me that possibly curry is on the NO list due to the presence of red pepper aka cayenne (I assume), so next time we make it (for our upcoming HalloWarming party) I will probably just go with turmeric or saffron...

Detox: Day One

When my doctor first recommended the whole RepairVite thing to me she warned me that it was really hard, that she herself had done it and knew whereof she spoke.  And when I initially looked the literature over,  I agreed.  And in the following days as I combed the internet for info I came away frustrated and agreeing even further.  But then I sat down to try and make a meal plan (because I always feel better with a plan, even if I don't follow it) and I suddenly realized that it's not actually as hard as it could be.  Not for an omnivore-who-likes-to-cook-from-scratch, anyway.  And so I'm going to chronicle what I eat each day for the next three weeks (thrilling you loyal readers, I'm sure) in an attempt to provide some inspiration for anyone else out there going through the RepairVite Detox.

Before I lay it out, here is an abbreviated list of my NOs:

sugar (including honey)
alcohol
grains (including wheat, oats, and corn, amongst others)
high-glycemic fruits (most of them without a pit)
nightshade vegetables (think peppers)
mushrooms
potatoes
dairy (a category which, for some reason, includes eggs)
soy
lectins (ie any and every nut you can think of)
coffee
processed food
canned food

So there's that.  And here's this!

Breakfast:  Three pieces of bacon.  Not sissy bacon, either: thick-cut, peppered bacon the way nature (and our butcher) intended
Lunch:  Three more pieces of bacon and half a honey crisp apple (not what I'd intended, but I unexpectedly was home for lunch, so why  not) (more on that in a later, non-food-related post)
Snack: The other half of the apple
Dinner:  Steak, salad, and mashed cauliflower.  Oh but wait there's more detailed awesome...

The steak was Nathan's domain (as always) and he went the classic route of olive oil, salt, and pepper.  In the meantime I was getting creative with the cauliflower.  I put it to steam it for about ten minutes, and while that was going on I sauteed just shy of a full bulb of garlic with olive oil and fresh rosemary from the garden.  Once that was all done I dumped it all into the food processor with plenty of salt and pepper, some olive oil, and a little hot water for good measure (turned out I did not need that water- next time I'll know).  Pulsed for a bit, then left it whirring it's little head off while I made a salad from butter lettuce with a vinaigrette dressing.  I have a particular vinegar I normally use for this, and in the past I used canola oil, but since the vinegar has brown sugar in it and the canola is on my long-term no-no list from the doctor, I got out of my little box and used olive oil and apple cider vinegar (plus salt, pepper, and fresh scallions, of course).  All in all it was highly satisfying, and not for a single moment today have I felt deprived (although maybe a little jealous as Nathan added a dollop of butter to his cauliflower...)

So as far as food goes I'm in a pretty good and optimistic mood, and damn grateful that herbs and spices are on the "YES" list.

Carnivores and Their Habit(at)s

Nathan took the day off from work today, and our friend Todd helped him move all the furniture into the new place.  When I got home Nathan looked more or less like this:

(That's where the couch used to be.)

It was exhausting just looking at him, so I took a nice half-hour long break to recover.

Once I was feeling refreshed, we hauled over a few more bins, and did a bit of furniture arranging (and I managed to take a chunk out of the wall, so I guess I can't stop worrying about when I'll do that) and then Nathan grilled us our very first meal at Timaru: a couple of petite sirloins.

Aaaaand then we realized that while we had thought to bring over the plates, we somehow didn't think to grab the silverware.  But if you're going to be eating meat you may as well be a barbarian about it, right?  Right.  So we tore in with our bare fingers and teeth, sitting in the backyard and enjoying the breeze from the west.

It was delicious.

And now?  Now we get to spend our first night in our new home.  Huzzay!

Pemberly, Tara, Ashgrove... and Timaru

That is a Smooch of Ownership.

The last two evenings have been spent in a whirlwind of dusting and scrubbing and vacuuming, but now at last our new home is at the super-ultra-clean Starting Point I wanted it to be.  Nathan, game fellow that he is, went along with the madness in spite of his firmly stated opinion that the house was already clean.  (And it was, but not by my inner-German-grandmother standards...)

Which means that now we can start moving stuff in- which we did, actually.  Mostly just a few (of the many) boxes of books, but it's deeply satisfying to see some of our stuff in our house.  Which, as you may have gathered, I have christened "Timaru".  I came across the word in a poem and thought, "Oh what a lovely sound- that would be a perfect name for our new house!"  And then I thought, "Hmm, I'd better make sure it doesn't mean something like 'dung beetle'," so I looked it up and lo-and-behold, it's a city in New Zealand that takes its name from the Māori phrase Te Maru, meaning 'place of shelter'.  Which means that "Timaru" is, in fact, the perfect name for our new house.