Two Miles per Weekend Part 1

I started a private journal during the first three months of Covid, but life got way too busy and I stopped writing. Our family has been trying to get outdoors to keep sane during this strange time. After summer camping, paddle boarding and kayaking, we've been trying walks/hikes we can all enjoy even in the cold rain and mud. We put on our boots, warm clothes and masks to tromp around in the PNW woods if we're able on the weekends. I thought it would be hard to find something three and six year old appropriate, but we've found reasonable trails each weekend during this past month.

This weekend was Hamlin Park about 15-20 minute drive from our house and plenty of trails to make a nice little 2+ mile loop. The pictures show blue sky, but don't let that fool you....

First Trailer Trip!

In case you haven't heard the news.....Emily agreed to let me start researching trailers now that we have our new towing vehicle and I've promised her no more tent camping! As part of this quest I've decided we should start renting a couple trailers to test the waters before buying.

Our first trailer trip started on a high note with Audrey coming down with an ear infection the week before our little trip and then on Friday morning of our trip Emily waking up with Audrey's cold. No matter she was a good sport once she couldn't convince my Mom or sister to take her place in the trailer. So we set out to South Seattle to pick up our little 1975 Bright Blue Boler!

 

This guy rents 4 trailers out of his Columbia City house, but I'm not sure how he stores them all. As you can maybe see there's like 2 inches on either side of his high walled driveway so my first task was to pull the trailer out without scraping it on the side while turning into a busy crowded street. The trailer was oddly clean and smell free considering it had just come back from Burning Man.

Audrey could barely contain her excitement.



















So off we went to Mt. Rainer with our little trailer weighing under 1000 lbs!
















Pretty cozy for 3 of us, but worked great.

Emily's Dad came up for an afternoon from Portland and found us a nice view of Rainier.




















Camping like activities ensued such as hiking,

finding cool trees,




















playing in the sand




eating marshmallows (getting ready for them in this pic),

and being completely exhausted from the toddler fit about putting in her own hair clip I think it was?

Looking forward to the next trip with Mickey, Donald, and my little family :)

Super Awesome Pumpkin Patch Family Photo!

Time for my once a year blog post/update. Really my intent was to show the sequence of less than ideal family photos we tried to take today. Audrey just moved up in daycare to the two's room (from Koala to Kangaroo) and they asked us for a family photo to put on the wall of families in unit two. So for the last week, I've been looking at the other family photos thinking... ok I got this, 1) find a picturesque location, 2) make sure Emily takes sunglasses to avoid her classic eyes shut pose, 3) get Audrey to stay in one position for the 10 seconds the camera timer needs for set up. No problem!

Picture 1 aka Waiting for Emily

Picture 2 aka the grass is the most exciting thing here

Picture 3 aka the grass is definitely more fun than Moms

Picture 4 aka the chair won't stop me from moving

Picture 5 aka not this again

Picture 6 aka put me down dammit!

Picture 7 - untitled
Picture 8 - only way to keep Audrey still....

Here's a couple more from the night before...

Our (Emily's) Attempt at One Month Photos

We've been seeing all these adorable one to three month baby photos posted by our friends on Facebook. You know the ones with the little number in a circle babies hold or have place don their tummy. So Emily thought why not track her monthly progress in comparison with a stuffed animal...This is Audrey's version of the picture taking event for her one month picture:

"Hey! What the H is this?!"

"Not comfortable!"

"I'm not sure I like this..."

"Seriously? We're doing this?"

"You know I can't hold my own neck up right?"

"Is this cute enough?"

"JAZZ HANDS!!!!!"

"Your trunk is hitting me!"

"I want outta here!"

"Take Two"

Stay tuned....

Stay tuned for a new blog Emily and I invented after reading other blogs with significantly more drama-ful and exciting lives...

I think we'll name it: Unbelievable things that happened to me again!

I'm not sure when we'll start writing it, I mean I guess we'll have to wait for something unbelievable, but it's coming so watch for it...

time for a blog update

I just realized that I haven't updated my blog since February! So this update is for the three people that have my blog on rss feed, yes you, you know who you are...

I'll start with most recent happenings first

1) Today - bus adventures
Another fun bus adventure today. I learned a couple new facts on today's bus ride coming back from campus:

Fact 1) The craziest people ride the 48 on a Saturday afternoon.
Fact 2) The crazy people all sit in the front of the bus right in that area with the three seats facing each other and the two sets of two facing front.
Fact 3) Crazy people recognize crazy and all start talking to each other.
Fact 4) Crazy people own guns at a higher rate than do normal people.
Fact 5) Crazy people lie, really you have 2 ex-wives, three girlfriends and a friend's girlfriend after you?

2) Thursday night 3pm - 4 popular restaurants 2 blocks away from our house burnt down


3) This summer - two old Eugene friends moved back into town




4) This summer - Then one old Eugene friend moved out of town.









5) Emily and I bought a new camera for our honeymoon - it has a smile function that we tried out on all our friends. I think it stopped working...









6) After almost two years of wedding bliss Emily and I decided to go on our honeymoon












7) I switched jobs and now work for the University of Washington.

8) This is taking too long, I've only just reached what happened since July!

9) Feb through July = work + school + work + school

The end

reading, reading, writing, writing, writing, old people

I figure since I have three papers due this week, why not waste a little more time writing. Only this time I can talk about fun mindless things. Forgive me friends, it's been 8 months since I have written....and now you say what have you done in the past 8 months? Well I can't even remember, but I know there was some interesting stuff that happened. I guess I could try and tell you 8 highlights in the last 8 months.....

1) I spent the autumn months learning public policy management frameworks
Framework: a basic conceptual structure used to solve or address complex issues

2) I became fascinated with the Snuggie


3)My band played at an old folks homes for a Valentine's day dance and I was paid with Valentine's pudding and blush wine (that tasted like punch and made my trombone taste funny). I wanted the pink peppermint ice cream instead of the pudding, but sadly they had run out. It was pretty fun, there was a man dressed up as a large heart and a lipstick contest.

4)I discovered Cara Cara oranges, so tasty!

5)I made a song with songsmith

6)I finished the whole season of MTV's A Double Shot At Love (why? I don't know but my mind needed a night off after reading about framework after framework in managing the public policy process, does anyone really think stakeholder analysis is a framework? Isn't it just common sense? I guess I could write a paper about how to efficiently squeeze toothpaste out of a tube and call it a framework...)

7) I made a haiku
black cat stares at me
mind melding will get my food
or i scratch your face
(actually I just made that up now because I need an eight things and I'm coming up short)

8) Emily made a limerick too (she is studying for her generals and needs a break from reading about the medial rostral prefrontal cortex aka nerdular nerdance)
there once was a small stripey beast
who only wanted to feast
he demanded his kibble
but then wouldn't nibble
and my patience was soon decreased

What do gun shows, starting a nonprofit, suprapattellar bursitis, grad school and a Japanese Maple have in common?

ME!!!!!!!

I haven't written in a while so I figure let's get caught up on my life for the two people that regularly read this not so well updated blog (Emily and maybe Eric since he's probably the only person that's commented more than once).

Starting with gun shows....No not the kind that shoot bullets, those I'm not a fan of in any form! Lately Emily has an obsession with gun jokes (you know the guns in your arms) so she's been going around collecting them from anybody who has one to share. Oddly enough a lot of people know different ones, kind of like the aristocrats joke. Here are some good ones she got out of people:

Emily: Do you have tickets yet?
Confused unsuspecting person: Huh? What?
Emily (flexing her muscles): TO THE GUN SHOW!

Greg (my bandmate's hubby and master griller): Do you know of a good vet?
Emily (giggling): No
Greg (flexing his muscles): BECAUSE THESE PYTHONS ARE SICK!

April (soccer pal and soon to be lesbian ska bandmate): Do you have a needle and thread?
Karen (confused): I dunno, I think Emily has that with her craft crap?
April (flexing her muscles): BECAUSE I'M RIPPED!

Ave (soccer pal and crazy good potter): Have you heard the weather forecast?
Karen (putting her hand out to gauge the weather): eh?
Ave (flexing one bicep, then the other): IT'S GONNA BE THUNDER AND LIGHTENING

Starting a nonprofit... After starting to make a little money in the women's jazz band (http://www.myspace.com/moodswings2) I helped found a couple years ago we figure we better get our finances in order and start a business or nonprofit to protect ourselves from lawsuits, tax stuff, etc. Starting a nonprofit is a TON of paperwork and involves a lot of collaboration with a band that's gotten to be almost 20 people large with a ton of occasional subs. But we're thriving and playing around town quite a bit this summer and that's super fun.

Suprapattellar bursitis...I'm so so careful now when playing soccer, but the other weekend when a dude twice my size came in from the side of me (after me taking control of the ball) and knocked my planted leg (from the inside no less) almost all the way around, it took me out of playing for a couple weeks. Luckily it's nothing too serious, but it makes you wonder if people really are "playing for fun."

Grad School! In the middle of starting a nonprofit, playing in bands, soccer, and my full time job I start grad school at the University of Washington in the fall. I'm super exciting because the program (masters of public administration) lets you choose a focus (policy evaluation is mine) and take classes in other departments as well as their public affairs department. So I can take really nerdy quantitative classes in the econ or math department if I want!



Last but not least in the latest happenings is that my brother and mom came for a visit a couple weekends ago and decided to rip out our tiny garden. Which was a good thing because the tiny plants the builder put in were totally random and ugly.








It's kind of a weird angle, but this is what our tiny yard looks like from our balcony, we need to get some more color but after 9 hedges, a japanese maple, hydrangea, and transplanting our tiny Rhody we were tired. When I say we, I mean my brother because my scrawny arms only dug 3 of the 12 holes...

Knitting can be fun...

Shocking I know, but I may have crossed over to the dark side...After a few years of Emily telling me how fun knitting is and I should try it, I finally picked back up the scarf I started for my mom over two years ago. You wouldn't think knitting is very hard, but man I was so pissed every row I knit had a different number of stitches that I pulled out most of what I had done and left it in the back of Emily's oversized knitting cabinet. Some of the girls on my soccer team wanted to start a knitting group so I volunteered our house for the inaugoural meeting. I thought why not, Emily comes to my soccer games and knits so I should bring my soccer team here and maybe we'd knit while she juggles a soccer ball....Well we couldn't convince her to do that, but it was still fun anyway.


In other exciting news, we got some crazy snow at our house. Sadly, it melted before I had a chance for snowangels. Our poor plants look so sad in the snow.

My big fat gay wedding!

I had to take back my last blog entry title because clearly our wedding was one of the best days of my life! Suffice to say, it far outweighed my excitement at finding cinamon granola bars in their own package.

We haven't gotten our photographer's pictures back yet, but we did have a couple friends take some photos if you want a peek.

http://www.flickr.com/gp/59583776@N00/6cmD02
http://jbarker.net/Gallery/v/Events/Karen_Emily_Wedding/
http://www.tangiblize.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=4208

After careful planning and execution of our best day ever, Emily and I came up with a little advise for those of your out there planning our own gay wedding. As you may notice, a lot of this may apply to straight weddings too...

How to make a gay wedding:

Wedding day preparation advice:
1) Feed your peeps (or "bridal party" in traditional terms) before they help decorate. This will increase their physical strength as well as mental acuity for tasks such as hanging paper lanterns on 10-12 foot high cross beams.

2) If you get your hair done, make sure you do it in the morning and not right before the wedding. You don't want to borrow your soon to be father-in-law's car (because yours has two large kegs to get to the reception site during your scheduled hair appointment) and then park it in front of a fire hydrant because there is nowhere else to park and you're already 15 minutes late to your appointment. Sorry I'm late...do you mind if we sit in the chair that faces that fire hydrant out front while you do my hair? Oh yea and my hair is crazy thick and I only have 30 minutes for you to make me pretty.

3) Do not attempt to completely wash a new dress for your sister less than 2 hours before the wedding in case it won't dry on time. If you must wash the dress, spot clean any mud that may have occurred due to transport issues from the car to the house.

4) If you are the officiant and you haven't changed into your suit, make sure it stays with you until transport to the site.

5) There is a reason for rehearsal dinners besides the food, but if you don't have one the time right before the wedding starts will work too.

6) Make sure you have a friend good with hair and make-up help you get ready.

7) Taking pictures in the sand looks super cool, but = sand in your shoes so you might want to take those off...

Advice for the cocktail hour

1) Having a cocktail hour before the wedding ceremony = awesome squared!

2) Drinking wine before the ceremony helps with the nerves

3) Drinking wine before the ceremony may cause inadvertent admissions of tipsiness to co-workers, supervisors, and/or new in laws that aren't accustom to drinking with you and your friends

The ceremony

1) Practice vows the night before to avoid crying or laughing during your partner's turn. It seriously works; that and after I told Emily my vows rhymed she needed to approve them first. I don't know why, I always write things in good taste.

2) Think long and hard about the promises you make in your vows because you'll have to live by them the REST of your LIFE. I really wrestled with the promises of shoes and expensive yarn in my vows, but I figure we're pretty even because she promised not call me Kare-bear in front of my athlete friends. And in my opinion, one "Kare-bear" in front of my friends = 1 less pair of shoes or yarn.

Reception
1) Stop talking and eat

2) Practice dancing in your new shoes before buying them. This may be a bit embarrassing and you might get weird stares as your partner quickly hides behind a rack of gray warm wool sweaters. If you can't dance in 6 inch heels, don't buy them no matter how sexy they look.









3) Use forks for the traditional "first bite" of cake (or cupcake in our case). Your partner can't safely jam a fork with cake up your nose so they won't try it. No matter how sweet and innocent your new bride may look, they still might have the thirst for a cake smashing (even after being advised by her father against it). You wouldn't believe how bad snickerdoodle frosting tastes up your nose...










4) When a large number of your prankster friends all disappear at the same time, be suspicious they are up to no good with your car.

2nd best day of my frickin' life

Sometimes good things happen to good people after all!The background
I guess I'll have to fill you in on a little background to start with. You know those nature valley granola bars you always see at the store? You can usually buy them in a pack of plain or variety and occasionally peanut butter. Recently they've come out with some new flavors and variations on their original like maple and brown sugar. Well anyway, I've always been in love with with cinnamon kind so for the past few years I'll buy the variety pack that has cinnamon, peanut butter and oats 'N honey. I gobble up the ever so tasty cinnamon and leave the others for Emily, which I might add doesn't work so well. She sometimes eats the peanut butter ones, but she's just not a huge fan. For maybe 5 years now I have searched in vain at every grocery story store (and targets I might add) to find a box of only cinnamon ones. Poor Emily is a little bored with my whining when I find only peanut butter and oats N' honey with their own boxes. What I want to know is who is their statistician that decided people prefer peanut butter over cinnamon, it's just ludicrous! I'll run a focus group, survey, whatever they need to show them the error of their granola bar ways for Free.

Maple and Brown Sugar Pushes out Cinnamon
Over the last couple of years there's this new flavor on the block, maple brown sugar, and they've been substituting it for the cinnamon in the variety packs, much to my chagrin. To add insult to injury they even started selling this new kind in its own box. Outrageous right?! Just think how upsetting this is after years of having to buy stupid peanut butter and oats N' honey to get to my cinnamon.

A Breakthrough
On Monday, labor day, Emily and I stop at a grocery store, one of theses indy stores, not a Safeway or Whole Foods, after some marathon outlet clothes shopping trip (another story in and of itself). So I'm hungry, tired, and delusional from the screaming of children and trying to help Emily pick out grown up clothes for her new practicum at the hospital. The first day she violated every dress code with long hair, dangly earrings, open toed shoes and who knows what else. I guess they don't want you wearing things people can grab? But I digress, so in this very random store I notice a sale on the Nature Valley variety pack (2 for 5 dollars), so I happily pick it up only to notice that once again maple brown sugar has squeezed out cinnamon. As usual I start to complain to Emily about the unfairness of my cinnamon granola bar free life. As I'm going into my usual tirade, with other shoppers looking on, Emily shuts me up by pointing at the box of cinnamon only granola bars sitting right next to the variety pack. I took every pack left they had (only 4, damn it). Best day of my frickin' life!