Tool of the Oracle: Your True Nature

A meme stolen from Sara McGrath and passed along by Frank Maier
Instructions:
1. Delve into your blog archive.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
The 23rd Blogpost on this here blog, is a photograph, no words, from November 2005: 

My True Nature

I believe the Oracle's power is most evident in the 5th sentence of this year's 23rd post: 

I'm a baking maniac with a son on vacation, making said mania guilt-free.

From Spring Sadness May 2010

TP: Flowers (of the Sun)

Just when I'd given up on life in the Dead Zone, these late bloomers have restored my faith in the Sun, The Oregon Sun. Their faces are at last opening to the final rays of our Summer's Shine.

Baby

Bursting (hello mr. bug)

Happy Half Bloom*

*aforementioned FXCam app, Toy Cam

Unconscious Mutterings #395

Hannah, circa 2001

I say ... 
and you think ... ?

Leads :: Connect
Concierge :: Serve
Thousand :: Miles
Engines :: Run
Argument :: WIN
2006 :: Whew. Hannah
Knot :: Tangles
Fuck :: Me
Handsome :: Hero
Ridge :: Runner

TP: (Black-eyed) Flowers

Black-Eyed Susan, three perspectives.

one

two

три*

*used the Russian Camera on the Retro Camera app (droid). Since deleted. I'll stick to FXCam.

TP: Flowers (from ABQ)

We've a very non-traditional (read: Oregonian, not South Dakotan) garden in our backyard.  This year has been a grand experiment, as we learn about our 25 different types of dirt and what it needs to grow what. Flowers are mixed right in with our food crops; some of them even being food (Nasturtiums). In the back of the space, where  most everything has failed to thrive, I spy Morning Glories joyfully embracing my stunted corn ♥ 

Pretty in Pinks

Beautiful in Blues

Not only are Morning Glories my favoritest flower in the garden (something about the fleeting beauty, the fragile-seeming strength), these are especially sacred as they're part of the bounty I've received from Sandra Dodd's backyard. The same flowers grow there, as here. And this comforts me ♥ 

TP: (Still my) Kid

Hayden + Buster = 10 Years!

This here's my Kid and his dog, Buster. He's freshly 12 and still attached after 10 years...

The original Buster was a gift from Tena, just after Mitch died. Hannah got Ginger, whom I now treasure in her stead ♥
This is, in reality, Buster III; an identical twin to Buster I. Buster II was a close approximation for the 4 year old who'd lost forever his sacred pet, until Buster III was found and adopted. For once, I thank the corporate gods for consistency in product: Toys R Us carries identical doggies at all their stores!
Buster mostly hangs out on top of our television, watching the action. Where he's safe from Charle's affections.  This day, Hayden had Buster because he'd just saved him from said affections. (Charlie does not shred babies; he carries them and slobbers them) After a bath, Buster will be just fine!
I'd say good as new but I believe this dog can never again be reduced to good as new.
He gets better-as-old with all this Love.
And moments like this, captured forever, make Buster invaluable to all of us.

Happy Birthday, Hayden!
I'm so glad you were born.
I'm so glad you're my kid ♥

A Decade and a Half

After 3 days in the car and a mad dash to get our marriage license, the thing I wanted most in the world was to be spotted and photographed. Yay! Family Paparazzi caught me like this

Diana Lambert
August 18, 1995

What I really wanted was to curl up with my best friend and do all that girlie wedding stuff - crammed into 24 hours! Someone was listening! In the happiest of mix-ups, the Jenner Wedding block of rooms was in one tower with Mr & Mrs Jenner in the second tower - with Christine and Mark across the hall!! ♥ We got all funked up and watched Pulp Fiction as our bachelor parties. We smoked cigarettes in the hallway & cried. Like this

And once we found the hot-pink brothel chapel,  then I was a bride, like this

The last moment alone...

And Christine was a maid of honor, on her honor, in my dress, like this

That dress is HOT!

Someone, somewhen, slipped me some alcohol. Tis the only explanation I have for pictures like this

Me & My Daddy

Someone musta slipped some to Mitch, too, as he's dancing with his wife, like this

I swear

Which is the kind of dance he got in trouble for at Disneyland. They want you to dance like this

Now you know.

We did (our first) wedding cake, like this

And we kissed like this

A Lot! ♥

I've missed Thematic Photographic

I'm taking pictures with Carmi's themes in mind, always...
it's the getting them published is where I find myself delayed.
Here is a small sampling of what I've been hoarding all these weeks, in my phone:

TP 100: Into the Clouds
Our day at the Waterslides in Rapid City, SD

TP 101: Night Light
Katelyn and Elizabeth dancing in the rain.
Sioux Falls, SD

TP 102: Geometric
Screened Bre
Harrisburg, SD

TP 103: Signs of the Times
This sign says: Children Welcome
VooDoo Two Portland, OR

TP 104: Dotty
A very Dotty Sage

TP 105: Family
Ed & Dee
and me ♥

TP 105: Family
Bre & Brayden prepare to roadtrip to Diana's house!

TP 105: Family
My Spawn
I'm so proud!

Read my Blog, Win a Prize

...for the days my words aren't prize enough! 

I made this here bowlish thingie countertop art all.by.myself. And it's one of my personal favorites ♥ 

Chances are you're one of the 50 people who know how hard it was to be in the studio, to quiet many voices before confronting my first grade art failure.  There's even a shot of this piece before completion!

Thanks for checking in on me; I mostly know you've been here, even when you're silent. When I see you, I assume you've been here and all this craziness is common knowledge. Then there are the days when I hope it's not. Which is how I know it's still MY blog ♥

Traaseth Moorhead Location 2004

I am no less a basketcase today than I was in 2004, when I sat down to begin this blog. A freshly widowed unschooler, living the good (albiet isolated) life with her two kids.

NYC 1994

  

I don't mind that you know I was a basketcase back in 1994, too. I got the earthquake as my excuse that time.

I don't much mind that I'm still a basketcase in 2010; unshaken in my nuttiness after my daughter's death and the discovery of my true home.  

The Oregon Beach. Bring your parka.

Now it's your turn to come on out of the woodwork. Leave me a comment before the end of the month and I'll randomly pick a winner! I'll pick a random winner, randomly. A winner shall be chosen at random. Like that.

This 3rd Year's Food

"Something happens around Year 3, living in Oregon," muses my friend Phil, "you just start eating better." As he chops green vegetables (including Kale!) and mushrooms to be consumed by ME, in my own home.  Joyfully, even. 

I do recognize a slow-to-begin-and-suddenly-gaining-stupendous-momentum shift in my food desires.  

It wasn't until the first of my recent trips to South Dakota, that I realized I had been changed forever.  I couldn't even approach the whiter-than-me offerings at the "Salad Bar" that I truly suspected had never quite been alive in the first place.  

Mixed Greens & Salmon at K's in Sioux Falls, SD

When all you're offered in a salad is a mixture of greens, you come to realize this is what a real Salad is: Salad that tastes like Salad, enhanced by some drizzling and sprinkles. And even more enhanced by a chunk o'happy protein. Expensive fishes are handled lightly by a limited number of people, which makes me happy, even eating this far from the ocean. I was in heaven with this meal; and most grateful for the places in my life that make this the standard for Salad. 

The local Bounty

I never imagined I'd be able to go to the Farmers Market and find enough things I like to eat, let alone bring them home to cook, for myself! I picked the mushroom because I'd not tried it before and it didn't freak me out. I think I might actually like this one: Maitake (and it's *surprise* local). Last night's stirfry was purely veggie and purely a vehicle for the new potatoes and baby beets.  Loved it! I have plans for the very happy Lamb parts: the ground shall become a meatball curry and the neck stew meat shall become a lovely french stew, with carrots, peas, turnips, onions and herbs from the garden.  The Happiest Chicken in Oregon shall be roasted this evening with the rest of my beets and new potatoes. And some Kale and mushrooms, because they're here and by-golly, they're good!