get 'em while you can, folks

for you dark chocolate lovers out there...


i've seen these at the dollar store - but not the grocery store - perhaps you'll have better luck. snatch them up while supplies last. (indeed, i've gotten a few for myself already).

that's what i should have said!

today at the grocery store a friendly fellow shopper started interacting with Ash and Tom. he said something typical like" how much you pay for 'em?" and stuff like that. then he asked their names and when Ash said hers he said, "Ash, for Ashley?"

Ash is already used to this question and she promptly responded, "just Ash." At that point the guy looked at me and said, "Ash? what a terrible name."

seriously? are you a social idiot or just a jerk (or both)?

i gave a shocked laugh and replied, "what a terrible thing to say. her name is Ash and we happen like it."

"so is it Ash for Ashley?"

"no. just Ash. like the beautiful tree." by now i'm annoyed and done.

then he says, quite genuinely concerned, "but what if some one mispronounces her name and says Ass? that wouldn't be good."

"yep." we start walking away a the guy says to Tom, "don't suck your thumb, it'll make your teeth poke out."

"he's going to be fine." (yeah, definitely both.)

now, i like people in general and i'm used to playing the whole game where the random person interacts with my kids at the store and i stand by as the omniscient narrator. but this guy pushed it too far. so at what point do you say, "alright, well that's enough" or "all done" or "yeah, don't talk to us anymore"? in hindsight it seems like it should have been said early on. i hate that.

oh, yeah! and Merry Christmas everyone!

paint the house

about a month ago i asked our landlord to teach me karate. i just got so tired of people pushing me around, busting up my bike and stuff. anyway, the morning we were to begin training we met on my driveway. he handed me a paint brush and said, "paint the house. side-side." i was so ticked! i thought he was going to teach me karate. crazy old man!

the front: before and after

the back: before and after - and yes, i painted the sides of the house too.

fortunately Ash helped me out with the back - my forearms and wrists were killing me. as we were painting we decided to abandon the karate idea and go in together as luchadores. i think it's a sound decision.

and so, after about a month (with a total of 10 or so working days spread throughout) listening to several hours of This American Life, Radio Lab, and Radio West podcasts, which i really enjoyed, it's done... and just in time for snow to fly.

p.s. please say it's an improvement, even if you don't agree.

glow stick patterns

two kids + glow sticks + crazy tunes + no lights + 20 second exposure =

it's starting to get night time

a couple days ago as Ash, Tom and I were driving home (around 4:30pm) from running some errands Ash said, "Mom! it's getting dark too fast! it's too late." Ash, you are exactly right. i really like daylight savings. Arizona has the right idea.

Oo-de-lolly!

it happens once every five or six years... two days of Halloween fun. hope y'all had a sweet one.


to the trees! (remember that line from Robin Hood, Price of Thieves? | robbing the rich

jack-o-lanterns + sugar skulls (Ash's idea to have the winking one - she's learning how to wink)

Tom goes for a mouthful of M&Ms | Ash savors the Smarties

standing up to the test of time

what is your oldest article of clothing that you still wear on a regular basis?

i bought this shirt at the Salt Lake Greek Festival in 1996. i love this shirt and i still wear it - perfect for those summer months.

this photo was taken in May of 1997
young and in love - that hasn't changed much either

the runner-up is this orange fleece purchased in 2000, pictured here in 2008 at the Krishna Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork (look at little Asha). i wore this fleece a couple weeks ago. love that bright orange.

i also have a couple t-shirts, some button-downs, and a handful of sweaters (several of which are hand-knit by my G'ma Jones) at least a decade old but i can't say i wear them on a regular basis. and yet i don't plan on letting them go. they'll get another chance, if not two or three.

so now, what's your oldest article of clothing that you still wear on a regular basis?

burning the midnight oil

last night while English worked on a midterm i stayed up way too late making these felted wool slippers for Ash. aren't they great? way better than any midterm.



lately Ash has been squeezing into last year's pair to do her slip-slide-spin dance moves and you know it's kind of cramping her style. plus, it's getting chilly around here and when you have no carpet in your house, like us, you need some good slippers. so yesterday evening i did a little research and decided to combine this idea from Martha plus this pattern (pattern II) i found for free. i was pretty excited to try it out. see, i was given a new sewing machine for my birthday (it's so quiet and smooth) and luckily i still had an old yellow ocher (my favorite color) sweater that i accidentally felted and could never part with (the perfect material to work with) and what do you know? my idea actually worked, Ash digs the slippers, i finally got to use my felted sweater, and this new sewing machine is awesome. while i could be better rested, i couldn't be more pleased. ding! (sparkle).

like the Love Boat

hi all. just thought i'd post about my new and improved website here. i'm quite excited about it because it's pretty much everything i want and would have designed in a custom site and it's powered by Blogger, which means it'll be so incredibly easy to update! so now i'll really have to be good about making new work and publishing it. exciting! feel free to drop by and take a look. any feedback is greatly appreciated.



p.s. the old site is still up, but won't be for long. so if you were really in love with it, this is your chance to say your good-byes.

p.p.s. do you have the Love Boat song in your head now? bah-ha-ha-ha!

how 'bout them apples?

ah, the fall. it's arrived. we had a beautiful Indian Summer but i'll admit the 93 degree days during the last week of September were a little, shall we say, much. but now, now it's cider weather. harvest weather. sweater weather. doughnut weather. yes!


we made these beauties to compliment fall conference. care for the recipe? visit the agreeable recipe book.

with fall came the rains... consistent rains for three days now. the last time i was in this much rain was two years ago in La Fortuna, Costa Rica. but we are soaking it up like desert dwellers. however, we did decide to harvest our pumpkins to avoid "the rot".



we got a good variety this year - even one white pumpkin. it was a great surprise.

and today we decided to visit Apple Hill (just over the mountains and down the winding road) with our pals. the last time i went apple picking was at U-Pick Phil's Apples in Massachusetts exactly 10 years ago.


Ash double-fisting her apple cider doughnut (heaven!) | lift, twist, pluck the golden delicious


Tom badgers the scarecrow | classic kids-on-the-rusted-out-machinery-on-the-farm photo

for more apple-picking fun, check out Mr. T picking apples with Conan O'Brien.

what would you do if a clown had a crush on you?

we've been watching this little number for a couple of years now and well, we still can't get enough. no questions, just watch.

so, these are cute

if you have baby girl feet in your life, momo baby footwear. the baby boy shoes are really cute too... but these are just, well the cutest shoes i've see for a while. so cute i couldn't help but post them.

did you say Gragle or Grey Eagle?

well, it's Graeagle but some folks say Gragle, namely the young women in this here ward. we had some swell times on our High Adventure, which is perhaps a misnomer but all the alternative names we thought of were pretty dorky. i know, i know, you'd never expect dorky from a group like this but you win some, lose some. so we're keeping High Adventure. deal.


the chilly cold pool | "Big Booty" with a dance circle addition. who thought that up?

Big Bear Lake

overlooking Long Lake and feeling mighty chipper

Ash spots duckies at Salmon Lake | group rock jumping: for the brave only

some recent graphic design work

this is a hit with everyone in my home-office. i'm getting great feedback.



see, this time of year i think we're all a bit tired of hot dogs and burgers... and that's coming from a genuine hot dog fan. so we decided on a baked potato bar. yeah, just like middle school, baby.

but you know i must be experiencing graphic design withdrawal when i take it upon myself to design a flier (that really only needed to be a map) for our upcoming activity. but hey, that's why they pay me the big bucks. what? you don't get paid for doing your calling? what church are you going to?

buying local

this summer we've been participating in Reno's Great Basin CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. each week we pick up a box of wonderful produce all grown locally. we are really digging it. the last box we got was so inspiring... i had to take a photo.



pretty awesome, right? it's been fun to get creative when fruits and vegetables we're not familiar with (i.e. Armenian cucumber, Japanese eggplant, etc.) show up in the box. and these kids just can't get enough corn.

the epitome of summer

camping at Lake Tahoe with family.


morning at the lake | bathing beauty


sand monster | E&K's underwater adventures with a crayfish


Tom tries his first ever (fire roasted) corn on the cob | and a chipmunk-photo-shout out to Julie Ann

Robin Hood & Little John walking through the forest

when i was a kid my favorite Disney movie was Robin Hood. it still is to this day. so it's easy for me to let Ash indulge. yesterday she was talking about how her fox, who is called Robin these days, needed some clothes. so we made some... quickly... in about 30 minutes (don't ask to inspect my sewing. a C+ at best). we happened to have as stash of green corduroy and some felt and we used the DVD case as our example. Ash kept pointing out the necessary details. i tried to get away with a belt that tied but Ash would have none of it. "look, he's got a buckle, Mom." right you are, Ash!



also, (drum roll) i must take this opportunity to announce that Tom is officially walking. that's bipedal, folks. two weeks ago he decided walking was worth it he had no trouble balancing, turning, side-stepping, etc. he was totally holding out on us. but now he's a walking fiend. he looks so much bigger now that he's standing up a lot of the time (and the summer hair cut adds to that too). i love watching him get a kick out of walking for the sake of walking. what lovely kids.

all is well

Pioneer Trek comes but once every four years. do you have your bonnet sewn?



hey, i'm not joking. this is serious stuff. just look at my face, not to mention Ash's face. get with the program. Tom, knock it off. are you a pioneer or not?

Lazarus

thanks to a generous computer EMT pal of ours the contents of our old hard drive were rescued and restored to us (thank you ever so much)! it may seem silly but on that fateful day when i was told our old computer had crashed i felt like someone had died. it was a rather unsettling way to realize how attached i am to the photos and videos that document my life and that of my family. i'm telling you - get your computer backed up, my friends.

so now that we're complete again i can post a few photos from our San Fransisco trip that we took a month ago. (the post that so sadly got replaced by the double-whammy day). here, at last...


happy with sourdough | Chinatown market

Alcatraz in the distance | demonstrating tall in Muir Woods

hey there, photos... it's so good to have you back!

raging teenage hormones

last night i went with some of my fiends... uh, i mean, friends to see the 12:15 showing of Eclipse (fortunately they still love and accept me even though i haven't read the books). today i have a painful zit in my philtrum (that nice little groove between my nose and upper lip).

can't deny it. that's one powerful movie.



full of action, sweet special effects, and some really great one-liners.

woah! Pyramind Lake!

Pyramid Lake is like Lake Tahoe's red neck cousin and we really like it. English camped there when he came to check out UNR for the first time, we strolled along the lake's windy shores last Thanksgiving, and several of our native Nevadan friends have told us some pretty great (creepy) legends about the lake.



well last weekend we took our first summer venture to the lake and it was beautiful. as we crested the hill and the lake came into view Ash and Tom started yelling, "whoa! Pyramid Lake! whoa!" of course i had to join them. we took a dirt side road into Dago Bay and as we were driving in (at about 30 mph) i noticed a small creature high-tailing it right in front of us and keeping up with our truck. turns out it was a zebra-tailed lizard. these fiends can run five meters per second and at their fastest they become bipedal. certainly, the fastest lizard i've ever seen. we also saw a ladybug moving at a regular pace.



zebra-tailed lizard pic courtesy Wikipedia (i couldn't ever get close enough with my own camera)