wild seed

We have a small, round garden that surrounds a small kinda round tree. Every year, Ny, Lo and I plant flowers there for the sheer joy of it. This year, we had some seeds so planted those as well. Apparently, some of the seeds are not flowers, in fact, we are not sure just WHAT they are. What we do know is that it is quickly taking over the small, round garden, the small kinda round tree and is now creeping toward the house.

Thinking ahead and behind

Going to London to see Jay and Tina in Sept!!! Makes me happy thinking about it!!!

Been looking at our pix from last trip... random memories:

Every morning R and I got brekkie at Pret - some yogurt parfait and an egg croissant. mmm

Paris

Seeing a lady wearing the same ugly Target shirt..she was sooo busted!!!

Been runnin all week

went to CF today - WOD was...

run 400 m
21 sit ups
21 push ups
21 back extensions
run 400 m
15 sit ups
15 push ups
15 back extensions
run 400 m
9 sit ups
9 push ups
9 back extensions
run 400 m
for time - mine was 21.01 which is not particularly fast which coincidentally describes my running.

gotta say again, it IS good to be back at it.

Back at CF and hitting it hard!!!

I have been away from CF for roughly 4 weeks for one reason or another - travel, sick, etc. I am baaaack.

Monday

200m run

35 deadlifts (I did 66 lbs)

200m run

35 powercleans (33lbs)

200m run

35 snatches (33)

200m run

35 overhead squats (22)

200m run

It took me 31 min.

Tuesday

21 - 15 - 9

jumping pullups

wall balls (8 lbs)

I did that in about 5 min - but it was the warmup that was the kicker....

800 m run

3 rounds of

Sampson stretch/shoulder dislocates/good mornings

10 squats

10 medicine ball slams

10 burpees

I did two days in a row so I could handle what was taking place today - I took my Target team (my boss and peers) to a crossfit team event. We did an obstacle course that Ly and Phil put together.... warmup then...

AMRAP in 20 min

jumping over five low bars

5 burpees

3 box jumps

5 pull ups

5 kettle ball swings

5 sit ups

5 squats

run 100 m

and do it all over again

each team did 30 reps so it was a tie!!!

Here are some pix...

Sunday flying kites

Sunday at Berkeley Marina
with two kites, two daughters, two granddaughters and a dog
took us almost 2 hours to get the kites to stay in the air
but once there, it was sublime.

Fourth of July

At the symphony in the park.....

Then some ice cream, yesssss!

And just fun hanging with my dd.

the things we do....

The group is called Crimson Steel, we play our first (and, god help us) our last gig on Fri 7/17 at a resort by Lake Arrowhead. Our signature song is You Give Love a Bad Name. I play the drums.

thankfully everything has an end...

and the sun does come up and will cast away all darkness bringing with it all that is beautiful and joyful in the world ....

allowing me to get back to my kickass healthy self!!!

thanks for all the cards and letters of concern - you are all the bomb!!!

life lately - warning ... this is not light hearted - is it self serving and quite pitiful

I have lately been sick. It seems like forever, but it has only been about 10 days. It is the flu - not sure if it is the dreaded flu - not sure if I want to know. It brought with it a serious and prolonged sore throat; muscle and bone aches as if I had worked out for 24 hours straight; headaches; fatigue; and on and on and on.

Everyday I wake up hoping to feel better but it seems like the recovery is in small itty bitty increments of improvement. I long to wake up and be able to clearly, not doubt about it, absolutely say that I am better. So far, NOT.

So, I have not been working out consistently for about 3-4 weeks - part because of travel and the rest because of sick. It feels like all of the traction and progress I have made is melting away. I am not happy about that.

I have missed some work days. Not particularly a concern except that there were things I did want to get done.

I am grumpy. I see everything in the most negative light. I don't think I am the most positive fun person anyway - add sick in the mix and I become more closed in and any teeny bits of positivity or funocity disappears. Not happy about that and I am sure that those around me aren't either.

I can't stand laying around and I am not a great napper!! All my life I have been moving around - doing something. Lack of energy forces me to do stuff I do not like - more deposits into the grumpy bank. Not happy.

In short, I do NOT do sick well at all. I don't even want to be around me.

The only thing that might even be a positive is that I weighed myself - down 3 lbs. Cost is too high, tho.

I must say that R has been taking care of me - with the patience of a saint. From my perspective, his actions are truly altruistic as he is getting absolutely no return on his investment of time, solicitation, or servings of chicken soup. I do love him so.

So - now that I have used this opportunity to dump (and hopefully to exorcise) all this toxicity, I thought I would [finally] end this wonderful post with a look forward out of this dark and dank place that I am in to what is possible, to what is worthwhile, to what could be a ray of sunshine...

In September, we are going to London. We are taking a side trip to Florence. To give you a taste of where and what....

Two more quilts...

This quilt (front and back) is from the BOM (block o the month) from my quilt guild last year. I made each month's blocks in three colorways - one for the guild, one batik and the other is black/white with some primary colors thrown in. This batik one was given to my assistant Lisa who is incredible and who has wanted one of my quilts for a while. She was happy. I just love the way the churn dish blocks go together. This was one of my favorite BOM ever.

I don't usually name my quilts but the one below is called Pink Onion - a closer look at the backing fabric reveals some designs that look like an onion when you slice it.

It was the quilt I made for the Party Quilt class at the guild. The back is fabric I bought when one of the local quilt shops closed and it is what I used for the focal fabric. It is hard to see but the colors are pink, brown, a little blue, a little green. It turned out interesting - not like any of the other party quilts but I like it. My daughter, Goldie, loves it and so it is her's.

Project Linus

Project Linus is an organization that provides blankets (knitted, sewn, crocheted, tied, quilted, etc) to children in need through the following five Solano County organizations -- Mission Solano, Safequest Solano, Sutter Solano Emergency Room, Children's Nurturing Project and Solano County Child Welfare Services. To date, 385 blankets have been donated to children in crisis since this chapter started last November.

I have known of Project Linus, a national organization, for a while. I contacted the local chapter through a list of organizations on Target's volunteerism site.

Today, I donated 5 quilts to them.

These are "nap mat" size - it is hard to see but the first two have the alphabet and the middle one has numbers as well.

This one is made of blocks that I won at the quilt guild two years ago (clearly I am speed is life with this stuff). I was missing one block so improvised a bit.

This is the front and back of the last one - because I like the back as well. This is a fun one to make - 10" half square triangles. I used a bunch of brights I had and randomly pieced them.

My goal is to make and donate 2 per month. Will post them as I get them done.

me, arnold, maria and michelle

So yesterday, I had the privilege of hanging out with Arnold (the governator), his lovely and brilliant wife Maria Shriver and the equally lovely and brilliant First Lady Michelle Obama at a National Conference on Volunteering and Service. as they say, the proof is in the pictures....

Michelle as seen by the heads of Arnold and Maria who were seated right in front of me (see above seat reservation signs).

Saturday at the dance festival

The grands, gramps and I went to the SF Ethnic Dance Festival. Amazing! Ny and Lo loved the Chinese dragon and the belly dancer (these were two separate acts). When we got back, they tried to show their respective mom's how to belly dance... apparently, having a belly is a prerequisite. Here are some pix of them with some of the dancers.

Forgot to provide a means to support Shawne

https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=295065&lis=1&kntae295065=9E49A54DECAA4E0F84254F13B1CCA296&supId=245055401

some people are just freaking amazing

I have a friend at work who is just about at the end of a bike across America as a fund raiser and to build awareness for the American Lung Association. His name is Shawne and he suffers from an extremely painful and rare lung disease called spontaneous pneumothorax, which can cause a sudden collapse of the lung. After enduring chest tubes, surgery to essentially glue his right lung to his chest wall and countless hours of pulmonary rehabilitation, Shawne has since made a full recovery.

So, he decided he would take on the country and raise some money for his cause. He started at the Golden Gate Bridge on 5/3 and will arrive in Washington DC on 6/17... simply incredible!!!

weed

weeding can be satisfying.
weed, to the best of my recollection, can too.

when shorts aren't

I wonder...

did basketball shorts go from this:to this:

all of the sudden or was it gradual?

Some previously undiscovered Nyiart

I love to eat eat eat...

food log...Monday
brekkie - turkey, banana, coffee w/creamer
snack - nuts
lunch - turkey, apple, grapes, carrots
dinner - tri tip (and it was the bomb), squash, asparagus, 1/2 slice bread (i know i know)
dessert - funfetti cupcake (i also know)

Nyiart

she calls this abstract art only prettier. I would agree.

running some more.....

Ran the 400 meter this morning... here's the start, middle and finish in which I felt like I was giving it a bit of a kick...clearly does not translate to video. We gave you a bit of grass and shoes at the end for your viewing enjoyment.

When I watch these, it seems like I am going in slo mo. But I did it in 2:18 - fastest yet. Still a ways to go, but making progress.

Squat - not quite perfect, but getting there...

don't correct her please....

Nypie's other grandma bought her a bathing suit.....

Nypie told me she got a zucchini.

Really, California?

I just do not get why it is so important for some people to tell other people how they should live!

My daughter, Goldie, is so very eloquent. She wrote this in her blog yesterday:

california broke my heart

Speaking in stereotypes:
California, you must be a woman.
You sit and look pretty.
You shine with your sun.
You feed me with your produce.
You bear children with your population.
Then you feed those children with your produce and you shine.
Despite being overworked, over-tilled and overpopulated.

Speaking in stereotypes:
California, you must be a woman.
You give me options
(Yes on Prop H8. No on Prop H8.)
And despite what we know is right, you do what’s wrong.
Despite what’s fair, you go the other way.
You fickle, moody woman.
Running on emotions.

California, you must be a woman.
And seeing as you are a woman, even if I wanted to….
I couldn’t marry you.

Even though I’ve been with you all of my life...
I couldn’t marry you.
California. Even though I love you with all of my heart and even though I will never leave...even though I will raise our children here and tell them not to leave either because no one will ever treat them as well…even though I tried by voting NO ON 8.
I can’t marry you.

California. You keep breaking my heart.

babies and bubbles

check it out

Do you see that yellow light at about the 5:00 point? That is the dreaded check engine light.

It is an automatic $175 just to check it out.

Fixing it is on top of that.

For me, for today, the fixing it up part costs upwards of $350 just to get that light to go out.

Doesn't it seem a bit suspect to you?

A light all of the sudden goes on

and money all of the sudden goes out.

I asked them if they had a remote control

that they use

if we don't visit them enough

or if they sense that we just might have some bucks in the pocket.

They said no.

I, for one, am not so sure.