And now, a clip from the garden.

Last fall, a friend shared a bunch of plants from her garden with me for my new house. For a couple years, I've admired her evening primroses, which open every night at dusk and have blooms that last only one day.

I took a video of the flower blooming and tried to make a movie out of it. Soma has a cameo at the end. Enjoy!

John and Ellie's Big Day!

Congratulations to John and Ellie! I'm happy to have yet another sister-in-law from the great state of Wisconsin.

To see the captions in the slide show below, click on the text bubble in the lower left corner of the pictures. You should only have to click on it once to see the captions for the rest of the pictures.

Montana Road Trip

Ryan and I just got back from a trip to Montana for my little brother's wedding. I will post pictures from the nuptials asap. In the meantime, here are some photos from our road trip and an afternoon float on the Middle Fork of the Flathead River. We learned a few things from our trip: (1) Soma likes the car about as much as Ryan likes the Jonas brothers; (2) Soma likes rafting about as much as he likes the car; and (3) I've reached an age where wearing heels is about as fun as using a cheese grater as an exfoliant.

Soma losing his marbles after only a few hours in the car.
The drive from Seattle to Kalispell is about 9 hours including stops for the dog.

This is how Soma rolls.

The amazing color of a glacial-fed stream.

A beautiful view of the river.

More scenic beauty.
The Middle Fork of the Flathead meanders along the southern border of Glacier National Park.

Looking upstream toward Glacier Park.

Do you feel more relaxed just looking at this river?

As I said earlier, Soma didn't like the raft. He jumped out a couple of times. In this shot, I'm sure he's thinking about jumping again.

Soma may look relaxed but don't be fooled. He's ready to blow this popsicle stand.

Apologies to our blog followers (our parents and about 3 other people)

Clearly, I have not done the best job keeping the blog up-to-date and fresh for our legions of fans. My apologies. If you ever decide to start reading this blog again, I promise -- but don't hold me to it -- to provide more timely updates.

Next week, we head to Montana for my "little" brother's wedding. We should have some great pictures and stories since we plan to spend a day on the river (yes, Soma will be wearing a doggie life jacket), drink excessively, and hang with family that I don't get to see often enough.

Now for a June update. Summer has arrived to Seattle. In fact, we've tied a record for consecutive days without rain. Our garden, which is in its first year and isn't quite established, is looking great and growing like crazy. Here's a peek:

Woodland garden under a cedar in our backyard.
The grass is going to be a multi-year project. Ugh! I hate grass!

I'm sad to say that I don't know what kind of shrub/tree this is, but it's gorgeous and covered sounds like a beehive with all the honey bees flying from flower to flower.

First lily of the season!

Nasturtiums! Ready for salad!

Crocosmias just waiting to bloom!

Front garden with the path we put in last fall. Next year, the garden should be fuller and more established, but it looks pretty good already!

The garden path with mature roses along the house.

One of my favorite plants: Himalayan Honeysuckle

Allium and other plants around the bird bath.
In case you are wondering why the water is dirty, I change it every couple of days but the neighborhood crows keep using it like a toilet. So much for my nice urban habitat.

Allium close up.

Rhododendron bloom in the backyard (this picture was taken about a month ago).

One thing that I've learned about gardening is that vegetable gardening is hard. Unlike perennials and a few annuals, it requires thought and planning and continued maintenance. First Lady Obama makes it look so easy! I guess it is when you have a staff.

Anyway, we grew arugula, kale, and two different types of lettuce but without a ton of success (except for the arugula). Luckily, my tomato plants are doing well and some pepper plants are blooming already. We'll see how it goes, but I'm a little pessimistic about my chances of lowering our grocery bill by growing our own food.

Until next time!

Maui Part 3, Road to Hana and East Maui

We put together a slide show of the second half of our trip to Maui. You should be able to see captions if you click on the word bubble near the bottom of the slide show screen. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Maui Part 2, Snorkel-mania!

Enjoy some photos from our snorkeling adventures in Maui!

Ryan's either waving hello or trying to point to the shark that is coming up from behind me.

Ryan is one with the ocean.

It may be tough to see, but this is one of the many sea turtles we hung out with in the water.

Turtle diving for food or fun.

Ryan acting like a turtle.

Maui Part 1

As you know, Ryan and I just got back from a fabulous Maui vacation. A month or so ago we noticed that airfare and hotels were remarkably discounted. In fact, during our visit we read an article in the local paper about how the economy has reduced tourism and hotel bookings by 15% compared to this time last year. Ever the good Samaritans, we were happy to do our part to help Hawaii's economy at this difficult time.

Now let me just get something out of the way. I hate flying. I know it's "the safest way to travel" blah, blah, blah... but deep down, I'm convinced that something terrible is going to happen when I am on a plane. Ryan scoffs and rolls his eyes in the days leading up to a trip when I say horrible things like, "Wouldn't it be crazy if our plane crashed tomorrow?" and "You wouldn't say that if I died in a horrible plane crash." I know that statements like these are irrational and perhaps a little over-the-top. But after this story, you are not likely to judge me so harshly.

We arrived at SeaTac airport on time and with the sun shining over Puget Sound. Usually, I take this as a good omen for safe travel. We boarded, settled in our seats, and took off but things seemed a little strange. For one thing, I wasn't wearing my watch. I always wear a watch so that I can look at the time when we take off and time out 10 minutes of "freak out time" and after that 10 minutes, I relax a little.

Sure enough, I wasn't wearing my watch and couldn't follow my usual take off ritual. At 10,000 feet, we did a weird turn north as if we were returning to Seattle and not going west toward Hawaii. The captain announced that the cabin pressure thingy wasn't working and that going any higher would be dangerous so we had to return to Seattle. Before we could do that, however, we had to circle Puget Sound and burn (a.k.a. dump) fuel to reduce our weight before landing. Imagine an environmentalist who works on recovering Puget Sound and other water issues and the guilt he or she must have felt about releasing fuel into an already struggling ecosystem.

When we landed, emergency crews followed us down the runway (apparently standard procedure) and we waited for a few hours for the problem to be fixed. I tried to stay cool as a cucumber. I took pictures of Ryan with my iPhone. I called a few people and cracked a few jokes. But inside, I was sure that these were my last few minutes on Earth. That's it - game over. Thanks for coming. Peace out, home skillet.

Eventually we took off for the second time. I was too fired up to read, so I enjoyed a couple of movies on the 6 hour flight to Maui. First it was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. "Not too bad", I thought as I reviewed the free movie selections on the video consoles for each individual passenger. Then about three hours in, problems number 2 and 3 struck two poor defenseless travelers from the mainland.

I was watching Slumdog Millionare and felt sick. I stopped the movie, got Ryan's attention, and told him that something wasn't right. A few seconds later I fainted (problem #2) and Ryan was understandably a little worried. When I came to, I still felt sick (problem #3)and reached for the barf bag and threw up.

Let me just make one thing clear: I am not pregnant. I have fainted in the past (the priests at St. Matthew's used to call me "Thumper" because of the sound my head made when it hit the floor during mass) and sometimes my brain needs to recharge. The vomiting thing was a little weird, but I was very worked up and the extra anti-anxiety pills that I took earlier that day without consulting my doctor probably didn't help.

Finally we got to Maui. I was feeling better but both of us were tired. We went to the rental car check-in only to find out that Ryan's driver's license expired on his birthday back in early March. I rented the car, no problem, but Ryan did have to charm the ticket agent when we were leaving Maui and he didn't have valid photo identification.

After the crazy trip to Maui, we relaxed, snorkeled, hiked, explored, slept, ate, and drank for a week. For the first half of the week we stayed in Kihei, a town in south/central Maui. Kihei (pronounced key-hay) is not a resort-ridden town like other parts of the island but it is a popular tourist spot.

In Kihei, we snorkeled, explored parts of western Maui, hiked over a lava flow from 1790, and sat on the beach. Every morning, we ate breakfast at the Kihei Cafe, which we highly recommend (try the french toast with bananas and macadamia nuts and coconut syrup) before heading out for the day. Kihei is in the sunny and dry part of the island, and a couple of Seattlites had to get used to the intensity of the tropic sun that pounded us for 12 hours everyday.

For me, the highlight from the Kihei portion of our trip had to be seeing more than a handful of turtles swimming in the ocean. I think Ryan would agree because he couldn't get enough! Later in the week, he went snorkeling on his own while I sat on the beach. I almost started calling him Jacques Cousteau. In a past or future life, he is destined to host a nature show. I know it!

Later in the week, we braved the Hana Highway and stayed in the much more remote eastern Maui town of Hana. Look for pictures and accounts of that part of the trip in the next day or two. We'll also post pictures from our snorkeling adventures once we get them from the developer.

In the meantime, here are some images from Kihei. Enjoy!

Day one and we already look relaxed.

On the first day, we saw a full rainbow and Ryan took a picture from the convertible.

View #1 from our condo at the Maui Lu. Pretty sweet, eh?

View #2

I found a great little reading cove in the beach surrounded by lava rocks.

Just one of the many beaches we enjoyed during the trip.

Unbelievably clear water!