Honesty, part 2 - recompense

The conclusion to the strawberry story from earlier this week...

So I let Brian know EXACTLY what I thought about the little girl who stole the strawberries, and how much I don't want her playing with Luke anymore because she is a bad influence (I've never really liked her and I think she knows it).

Brian encountered the girl's older sister and asked if they really did have a garden "No". So Brian told her what her little sister had done. This was probably Friday, maybe Saturday morning.

Yesterday I was so busy that I never went out during daylight to check my precious strawberries. After church I went out to see if any more were red.Part of the trouble with the strawberries out there (besides theft) is that they get too much sunlight before my sunflowers grow tall and the berries dehydrate before they ripen, so I really won't get many berries from those plants anyways.

I go out there and someone had taken a bunch of store-bought berries and dumped them right on top of my plants. They looked like they would have been great strawberries if they hadn't been sitting in the hot sun for a day or two. Now they are wilted husks of berries.

Our conclusion is that the older sister told the parents. The parents made the younger girl apologize by bringing me replacement berries. Either we weren't home or she was too scared to leave them, so she just dumped them on top of my plants thinking I would find them. I found them, just too late for them to be a replacement.

However, I'm going to take that gesture as it was intended and accept her apology.

I hope the little girl learned her lesson, I'm just bummed that so many fine strawberries gave their life over this little experience.

Honestly? ... Honesty!

Honesty. A simple concept. I may not be perfect at it, but I appreciate honesty when it comes along. Or, if you are dishonest, cover it up a little better...

I was at Laura's today and we were talking about the kids in my neighborhood and how I don't really like the little girls around here playing with Luke because they have not been taught any moral values. Honesty is high on the list of qualities they need to work on...

So when I got home and was taking care of the kids I made my regular rounds of the garden, checked on the progress of my rapidly ripening strawberries (which I am sooo looking forward to) and admiring how dark pink they are getting. Yesterday when I checked AnnaMae accidentally picked a pink one and ate it, green part and all.

You must understand that I am intimately familiar with what I am growing...

So an hour or so later I get a ringing at my doorbell. Two of the neighborhood girls came to my door, each holding a pink strawberry and asked me if I wanted to buy some strawberries. They looked strikingly familiar, those strawberries they were holding. So I queried the two girls "Did those come from MY garden or YOUR garden?"

Innocently they said "Our garden."

To which I answered, "Oh, well, no I'm not interested, I am growing my own strawberries and they should be ripe soon." and I said good bye, then they scampered across my lawn as I closed the door and promptly ate the two berries they were holding. I had my suspicions...

Sure enough, a little while later when I went to check my strawberry plants along my back fence the two strawberries I had been eying earlier that day were the same two strawberries that the girls tried to sell me at my own doorstep!!! (The photo is even the plant they took 'em from, probably the same two big blossoms that you see in the picture)

Can you believe it?? Gaaaahhh!! I know they're only 7 or 8 yrs. old, but 'cmon. show some respect, or at least some intelligence when you do something wrong to cover it up better.

So, to parents everywhere out there, I implore you-
TEACH YOUR KIDS HONESTY.

If you can't teach them that, then at least teach them
COMMON SENSE ABOUT LYING.

Memorial Day Weekend

Wow! What a busy weekend.

Friday I got off work early and we headed over to Florence. The wind was so strong on the North Jetty that we couldn't stay for more than a few minutes. The sand was stinging our bare legs and faces. Poor AnnaMae could barely stand. You can see from this picture how the wind was whipping our hair around and making it hard to see anything.

So we headed someplace more sheltered for our picnic, Heceta Head. It was quiet, and not windy. (And it's my favorite beach).

We ate our snack, Luke and Daddy went for a walk under the bridge, and we stayed near the car to finish eating, clean up, and feed the birds. We didn't really feel like heading up to the lighthouse and it was still windy enough that we didn't want to play on the beach, so we just milled around and enjoyed the sights. After about an hour we got tired, so we headed down to old town to window-shop.

It was a great day for photos, and there really wasn't any wind in town. I always enjoy walking around old town, even though we never really buy anything. It's fun to wander

AnnaMae and Luke were all over everything and they kept trying to run into the shops with the most breakables, of course.

We headed home, and since it was dinner time we stopped at the grocery store and picked up a chicken dinner that we ate at a little playground on Buck St. in Eugene. It's a cute little park that the kids love climbing on. Then we headed home to bed.

Saturday we cleaned in the morning, then just after lunch AnnaMae and I went shopping with Laura and her littlest one, while the boys went hiking with Laura's husband and her two oldest kids. That evening I watched her kids for her and got a little bit of time to myself. What a rare treat!

Sunday we had church, then Sunday evening we went up to Grandma & Grandpa Walker's house. I was showing grandma how to use her new camera with the old iMac that we gave her. Now she can organize her digital photos and play little slide-shows for her friends.

He photography has improved with a digital camera. I think she has a lot more confidence in her camera skills and is not as worried about wasting film. I showed her some basic tools for making her photos better. Now we'll see how much she remembers!





On our way home we stopped at Skinner's Butte playground and let the kids run around a bit. Here is a great shot of AM and daddy. I've been fooling around with some of the settings on our cheap point & click camera and I keep being surprised at what I can come up with. I didn't even have to photoshop this (much).

Here are a couple requisite slide shots. Always cute when a kid is coming down a slide. It's the annoying little boys who keep running UP the slide that ruin things (I'm not naming any names, Luke)


And, of course we got more photos. It's too easy to get cute photos of AnnaMae. Luke, however, just turns his back to the camera and all we seem to get are butt-shots.

We got 72 photos of Luke's backside this weekend! What a kid. here are some of the few photos that show his frontside.

When he was climbing the rocks he was even playing a game of "I bet you can't get a good photo of my face" He thinks it's so funny.

Then he'll wonder when he grows up why we have so many more photos of AM than we do of him.

Monday morning was spent cleaning again, and working in my garden. I went to the Value Village 50% off sale and got some church clothes for Luke. Sunday Luke couldn't fit into his shoes or his pants, so off to the store I went.

Dan came over and brought me my final load of mint compost for my garden, so now my last planter bed is ready to grow. We'll see what sprouts up- I really want my pumpkins and squash to do well. In the evening AM and I went and visited my mom while Luke and Daddy were trying to play Rummikube for FHE. AM just can't leave things alone long enough for them to play a peaceful game, so we went for a walk with my mom.

Memorial Day Memories

This is taken from my Work Blog, which you can enter to win a prize if you post a comment on. However, I want my family to know how much I respect the military. If you have some spare time and like to make greeting cards you can support our troops by helping Cards for Heroes - an organization that sends blank handmade greeting cards to military overseas who don't have places to buy cards to send on special occasions.

Memorial Day- Honor those who served

As I think of all the sacrifices made by servicemen over the years I need to stop and say Thank You!

My father, grandfather, and on back were all in the military. Here is a photo I found of one of my ancestors, Major General Henry W. Halleck. He was the General-in-Chief of all the Union armies before Grant took over during the Civil War.

His face is so similar to my father, it's hard to look at him and not think of all the stories my dad would tell about boot camp and basic training. My father was a teenager during WWII, and entered the service during the Korean War but never went overseas. My grandfather was an electrician for the Navy building the ships during WWII up in the shipyards of NY. All the hours of toil and struggle that these fine men went through so that I could be born in peace and prosperity and enjoy my country.

In February I had a chance to stop and visit the USS Alabama, which was built in 1940. Touring through the ghost of a ship was a sobering experience for both me and my husband. Thinking of all those men, away from their families for months at a time, sailing from the Atlantic to the Pacific, always on alert from weather or enemies... It really helped me appreciate my freedom and peace here in my homeland. I thank every person who has served, does serve, or will serve in defending and upholding their country.

Please do your part this weekend. Make some cards, make some artwork, visit a memorial, or just tell a military person "Thanks!" Don't forget to appreciate their hard work and sacrifices. Have a great holiday weekend!

My Garden

There are a lot of Hispanic people in our neighborhood and one older gentleman who lived across the street from us last year would always comment "You must be a farmer's daughter. You always have such a nice garden."

Tis' true. I am a farmer's daughter. Any land that could be growing something edible, should be growing something edible. I'm glad that the Whitmers let me put planter beds all over their property, since it really gives me lots of food each summer. When we first moved here there were no beds and just some big plants along the side of the house. I looked at the lawn along the driveway and I knew it gets perfect sunshine for tomatoes, so my bed-building began.

This Saturday I was finally able to go down to Jerry's and pick up my tomatoes and pepper plants. All the other things I grow from seeds I harvest each year, or from food I find growing in my fridge.

This is my front garden bed. I have 6 different varieties of tomatoes, two potato mounds, Lemon Thyme (come get some if you want it), the purple flowers are chives, onions, cucumbers, two pepper plants, parsley, mint, and the big pot that looks bare has mixed wildflowers. I'll also have a couple sunflowers up front, since it's kind of become our summer landmark.

I put a fence along the driveway side because by August, those tiny tomato plants will be 3 or 4 feet high and consuming my driveway.

My side garden has two beds, only one of which is done right now. I have green onions, carrots, and a beet I planted 3 years ago growing in it, along with a giant onion I should just pull out. If you need carrot seeds I have tons! I let a carrot grow for 2 years and it turned into a tree! I had so many seeds off that monster it was crazy! My other side garden bed has garlic and potatoes. It needs another load of mint compost before it will be presentable. On Thanksgiving I had my nephew go out to the potato bed and dig up potatoes, onions, and garlic and we had sautèed potatoes with garlic, chives, rosemary and onions that I grew all of it from my own garden. It was soooo yummy!

My back fence is lined with sunflowers, like I have growing each year. It's a mix of small, dark-centered sunflowers and large yellow sunflowers. If you need seeds I have plenty, and now is the time to plant.

Those are strawberry plants you see in the foreground. When we moved in here 4 years ago there was one strawberry plant inside our back fence. I let it spread and now I have 3 or 4 inside the fence and 5 or so outside the fence. These are covered in berries.

I hope they taste good- they have in years past, but some people say that you shouldn't let your plants spread like this or else the berries won't taste as good, or something.

My inside back garden is all garlic, sage, rosemary, and a few stray strawberry plants. I was able to dig up a couple hundred garlic starts from cloves I left in the ground this winter and passed them on to people at work, church, and to my mom's neighborhood- all from my little back garden! I still have garlic starts if you need some.

Here is the giant rhodie that is in bloom right now on the front/side corner of our house. I love the color but it always gets in the way as I'm trying to coil up my hose. I put in a small flower-bed along the front walk to the door, and it has day lilies, daffodils, a giant purple iris, and some marigold seedlings that I hope will grow big.

Every year I feel so blessed to live in Oregon, where my garden grows with ease and minimal effort. I enjoy the bounty all year long and I love sharing what I grow with those around me.

Now I can't wait for berry season to start... U-Pick strawberries and blueberries, here I come!

On snails...and possums

When you live in Oregon you have to deal with snails. This is a pile of them I found on my compost heap on sunday morning. This photo only shows a small portion of the seething mass I found.

I was really tempted to throw salt on them to keep them from eating my garden but that seemed too cruel and heartless to do just before church.

When I was in high school I had a paper route for 3 years. What I hated was on damp mornings, in the dark, I'd be walking along and hear a squishy crunch, and then I'd have a gooey mess stuck to my shoe for a block or two. gross!

When we were little, my brother Dan and I had to weed the yard. Whenever we'd find snails we'd chuck them in the road and see how long it would take cars to hit them. Any car that missed, we'd call them a drunk driver. :)

Now I just don't like 'em. They eat my baby sunflowers, strawberries, and potatoes.

Right now I can hear a snuffing/shuffling coming from my compost heap downstairs. I'm not worried because I know it's just our local opossum eating his fill (I'd try to get you a photo but the lighting is bad). I used to think they were disgusting creatures that you would only see dead along the road. Dan once shot one with his BB gun along our back fence during a sleep-over and actually killed it. Then he chucked it over the fence into the old lady's yard behind us. Now I know that possums are not disgusting compared to Nutria (or Nutria-Rat as people in Louisiana call them). Now there's a critter that's gross...

When It's Sunny...

We get to wash the car!

Friday was gorgeous, so out came the buckets and towels and we all helped wash the car. I am not the cleanest person in the car, and our poor little sedan gets packed to the brim very quickly from my bag, the diaper bag, the car seats, emergency kit, and 4 warm bodies. Out came the cookie crumbs, fruit snacks, and other unidentifiable leavings from the back seat.

AnnaMae and Luke were having a great time. Both were a big help, and Luke didn't even soak daddy with the hose when it was his turn to use it. Then they got to play inside the car while we were finishing up. Here they are working so nicely together. Now if only they would work together like this all the time!

Luke does play nicely with AM most of the time, but he still has a lot of jealousy and really doesn't like it when Daddy gives AM attention during the day. He thinks he should get all the attention of his best friend, Dad. Too bad Luke never seems to look at the camera or else I'd have more nice shots of him.

AnnaMae loves her little hats. I get these at the Dollar Tree and she loves wearing them around, looking pretty. When she was a baby you couldn't keep a hat on her for 3 sec. now she'll run around all day with her hat on, or grab any other hat she can find. I think she knows just how cute she is and how much everyone adores her. I like how the sun shines through her little blonde curls in this photo.

Someone in the family needed to be cute, and AnnaMae got the job. What a charmer!


Here she is helping daddy wash the rear of the car. I just liked the angle of this photo. They really worked hard. I worked hard too, but since I had the camera and we didn't want it to get wet there aren't any photos proving that I actually washed the car. Maybe next time...

Sunday, Brian and Luke went up and hiked the Butte. Then Brian took Luke on a tour of his old elementary school, Edgewood, out in South Eugene. Brian also taught Luke to drive while he was there. This was without my knowledge, since AM and I stayed home and enjoyed a relaxing Sunday evening.

Today we went swimming at the wave pool again. It was great! Luke finally got over his fear of the slide and kept demanding that Daddy take him down. AnnaMae kept running out into the waves and trying to climb on inner tubes. She was squealing each time she went down the slide she was so excited. She didn't get to go down too many times because she has n0 patience for a long line and won't hold still so it's hard to make her wait for her turn.

Simplification - make me an offer

I think that many of us set goals for the year, and are trying hard to forget what those goals were so that we don't feel guilty for not achieving them.

One of our goals this year is "simplification". If any of you are aware, Brian and I are packrats. We love free things and we love 2nd hand things. We are starting to feel cluttered however, and need to thin things down. My brother always pushes us to use Craig's List, but I'd rather help people I know or people in the Church first before letting strangers have it. Otherwise, we'll donate it to Value Village or Next Step Computer Recycling.

So, if you need or want any of the following, just lemmie know. Most is free, but I'll make a real bargain on the other stuff. I want it gone in the next few weeks :)

Free
• Mix 'n Match set of dishes and cups
• 19" TV. Only 5 years old, works great, with remote, but the coax input in the back is broken
• CD player, unknown quality
• 3 megapixel camera from Japan (shutter spring is broken)
• Big Stroller (The Ruhnows are borrowing it for a little while, then it's up for grabs if you contact me/them)
• Panasonic 3 phone system. Has a base unit with connected handset, the others 2 are wireless with incredible range and clarity. The two wireless units need to have the "1" button fixed. Originally worth $250
• Pen/Pencil storage cases (I have lots)- 12 x 16 in. great for organizing markers, pens, & pencils so kids can easily see what colors they have. Sits flat or upright. I use them for my markers. good for a classroom
• Seeds for your garden: Onion, Carrots, sunflowers, garlic, & more

CHEAP!
• Bedding for a queen bed (make offer) We got a new, deep mattress so our old bedding, mattress cover, etc. doesn't fit. Just let me know what you need
• Long Flourescent bulbs

And there will probably be more, this is all I can think of right now.

Then, there are the things I would like to have, so if you know of a great deal or have these to give away, please let me know

Want:
• Piano !!!
• Child size desk/chair
• Brian and Luke like old, classic Nintendo games and VHS documentaries/Kids movies
• Area rug or carpet remnants large enough to be an area rug

Swimming

We vowed that this year we would be more active as a family (hence all the hiking and going to parks). Part of this has been a promise to go swimming at least once a month for FHE. Splash also just lowered their price for May, so for swimming from 6:30 to 8pm is only $2 each! Totally worth it. I think we may go a few more times this month if Luke behaves in school.

AnnaMae LOVES swimming. We had to wait for them to let us in the pool last night and she ran up to the glass windows hitting them screaming "Slide! Slide!" which is her favorite part of the pool. She giggles the whole way down as we go super fast. Luke is afraid of the slide and will only go down kicking and screaming as slow as we can go, clutching his life jacket. So much for the swim lessons he had last summer.

AM sat on a inner tube out in the deep waves with me and was blowing kisses and waving at everyone. Luke mostly hung out in the baby pool with his life jacket. I did get him out a few times on the inner tube, but he has a huge fear of something, I have no idea what that is all about. Mostly I think we haven't taken him swimming enough.

It also could be that Daddy has never been great in the water, and Luke takes after dad. I used to swim all the time, and was on the swim team in 8/9th grades (I lettered in swimming- can you believe that?) AM would make a great swimmer, especially if she gets my big feet. Luke will need some work.

Anyways, I think swimming is great. I feel bad each time I squeeze into my swimsuit and I look at myself. I ain't what I wuz wen I wuz on the swim team. We'll see if I can work off this baby fat and smooth out those stretch marks. I have a whole closet of great clothes just waiting for me!

Those kids...

when kids are left to their own devices odd things happen...

Saturday morning I was getting up and taking care of AnnaMae. I checked the bunk bed to see what Luke was up to, since sometimes he's awake and just sitting up there. I look on the bed and there's no blanket and no Luke, just a lump where he'd messed up his bottom sheet and mattress pad.

I knew he wasn't downstairs, so I looked again in his room. Then I noticed that Luke was asleep UNDER the mattress pad, bottom sheet, and the foam padding we have on his bed. He was snuggled up with the foam.

About 20 mins. later he gets up and complains that he itched a little. Go figure. Sleeping under your mattress pad and foam is bound to make you itch a little (he's not allergic, don't worry).

So there was a new one for Luke.

We played at Skinner's butte park in the afternoon, along with half of Eugene-Springfield. Gorgeous! I'm surprised we didn't get sunburned.

Then, Sat evening I was out in the front gardening. Luke was swort of helping me and AnnaMae was inside with Daddy cleaning upstairs. I thought.

Luke got bored and went back inside to watch a video. Some time later daddy comes out with AnnaMae. I guess no one had been watching her and she had gotten into markers. Not my markers luckily, but some of Luke's markers from a spirograph. AnnaMae LOVES markers. and she had drawn ALL over herself. Note the beauty mark near her eye as well.

I tried to wash it off as best as I could. The red came off easily and tinted the bathwater pink. I have no idea what will take off the black. I guess she's really into the 80's punk scene. I'll just tell people we're training her for all the tribal tattoos she'll get when she's 16 and marries into the next clan over, or something like that.

This is why we love our kids- Becuase they are creative with their everyday existence.

13.1 miles and two blisters later...

I did it!

I completed the Eugene (Half) Marathon on Sunday. And I beat last year's time by 16 minutes!

Sunday morning, 6:15 am I went down to Hayward Field and lined up with the other 6,000 people who were taking place in the marathon or half-marathon. It was steadily drizzling and about 40º or so outside. There were people from 45 states and 13 different countries at the race. And little local girl Marianne who was going to live up to her last name and be a Walker.

There were about 3,000 people doing the half-marathon. 2,000 girls / 1,000 guys, so I was in good company with lots of other women. You can check out the course map and other stats at www.eugenemarathon.com but basically, we went up towards the base of Hendricks park, down and around to 24th, up Amazon quite a ways, then back down Amazon, past Hayward again, across Franklin Blvd, down by the river, across the footbridge, over behind Autzen, and back across the river to the Millrace Art Studios and across Franklin again to finish at Hayward.

13.1 wet, long, walked miles.

At about mile 5 I developed a blister at the base of my big-toe on the left foot. A few miles later I got a matching blister on my right foot. By the end of the race my feet were throbbing and walking around the house on Sunday was very uncomfortable. Did I mention that I had picked up a cold from the kids? I was coughing and blowing my nose the whole race. Having it drizzle rain for 10 miles also didn't help. Needless to say I felt pretty miserable by the end (except for the free cookies they were passing out at the finish station).

But I finished, and I beat my time last year by 16 minutes. Final time: 3 hrs, 30 min, and 36 seconds. Not bad (for walking). The average half-marathon time was 2 hrs, 26 minutes. Those are people who jog a good portion of it, which I didn't. I walked. I jogged a few short bursts, but that was more to use different muscles than to actually try to get somewhere. Still, 16 minutes is pretty good to shave off my final time.

My goal next year is actually jog some of it and finish somewhere between 2hrs, 50 min and 3 hrs. 10 minutes. Since I was walking, I ended up finishing about 150 from the last place which is pretty pathetic, especially when I compared it with my age bracket I finished 307 out of 315. Ouch. Next year I'll have buddies to run with. NO one from work ran with me and no one from church came either. WHERE DID YOU ALL GO??? Back in January there were a lot of people willing to do the race and they all disappeared come May. Since no one was there I don't have any photos of myself in running gear. boo hoo!

Monday I was stiff and sore all day. I forgot how much my lower-back hurts after a workout like that. I needed to keep moving so I wouldn't stiffen up entirely. My blisters felt much better, but my co-workers would laugh at me every time I walked around at work. We got a new person in the front office to help out. She ran the full marathon in 4 hrs and 20 minutes or something. Gaaak! It must be nice to have so much time to devote to training your body to take that kind of cruel and un-wholesome punishment.

Today I'm much better. Still a little stiff, but I think that should work out and not hurt tomorrow. My cold is getting better as well. Still, it was a good race and I look forward to next year (too bad these races are always on Sundays- I feel bad skipping Church). I'll be ready next year, with good training and prepared to jog a bit, not just walk. You who are going to come next year already know who you are...no backing out :)

Dreams- Martha Stewart Saves the USS Enterprise

I occasionally have full-length feature movies as dreams. Complete with scene changes, flashbacks, the whole nine yards. I've had Harry Potter dreams, dreams about some of the other books I read, murder-mystery dreams, but this dream takes the cake so I had to write it down.

Setting:
USS Enterprise NCC 1701-G.
It is a brand new, giant enterprise, more like a space station than the original or last enterprise Enterprise. It's been about 4 1/2 years since the majority of old crew has moved on- they've all been promoted or retired. A few secondary characters from the original Next Generation crew remain, and/or their children.

Opening sequence, we see Data up close. Remember, he's been sorta humanized, so he's acting a lot more fluid. He's bending over a dark console/table in a dark room, suddenly he looks up. His pupils dilate, contract, dilate, contract, and then we see that he is mechanically massaging a corpse in the morgue in rhythm to his pupils. We shift to the corpse and it is becoming re-animated. It wakes up and although it's legs are stumps it regenerates what looks to be a whole, healthy body in a nice, crisp uniform and it leaves the room, a young officer zombie, excited about it's new body and hard to tell that it's not a human crew member.

We see more of these zombies scattered throughout the Enterprise now. The only way we can tell they're not real is when they sit down to eat the food goes right through them and gets re-absorbed by something larger/scarier/hidden (all you see is a hand) that reaches into each stomach and takes the food as it is consumed (it looks a lot like the corpse stomachs from Pirates of the Caribbean). We see signs of a struggle here and there, but otherwise things look like they're running smooth. Business as usual around the Enterprise.

Out of a service chute in a small hallway slides a perfect, nude body in a loose plastic bag. It's still breathing, as there is steam inside the bag. In some secondary bags come a few loose articles of clothing. The person in the bag works her way out and we see that it is a naked Martha Stewart. They have only given her pants and shoes to wear (so that she can be told apart from the Zombies). She defiantly gets up, puts on her clothing and holds a conversation with the "captian" over the Enterprise P.A. system

Basically we find out that she was kept human becuase for some reason this alien Zombie found her much more useful than anyone on the bridge or any other main character and needs her unique talents (which we still haven't figured out yet and in my dream I kept questioning why they saved the interior designer). She screams her defiance at the alien over the computer, makes a mad dash to the bridge, which is only a short ways away, and then proceeds to dodge zombies.

In this sequence we manage to see a computer roster of the commanding crew. We see a few names on the roster that denote them as children of the past generation, but 75% of the important officers are considered deceased. Some of those remaining alive are like Martha except they have been brainwashed and wholeheartedly support the zombies (they act like the zombies but are actually alive). Rememeber, the Enterprise is a city unto itself, so although the main officers are all zombies there are still hordes of regular people behind the scenes- families, children, teachers, etc. that make up a working space station. Martha figures out that when she "woke up" out of the plastic bag she hadn't been totally brainwashed yet so now the zombies can't utilize whatever latent talent they saw in Martha beyond her ability to arrange flowers.

Martha curses at the computer, (I never realized how sleek her body was, how athletic she is, and how she can curse like a sailor in her neat accent when she wants to), works her way into a storage bay where there are lots of shuttle-craft and steals a sleek black number that looks like the Star Trek team hawked from the Star Wars reject pile (Definitely un-trekkish- it's armed totally wrong as well). Anyways, harrowing chase scene inside hangar ensues, she's dodging little flying computer drones, fighting off everything that the zombies can send her way. She narrowly escapes crashing through a gorgeous wall of windows into outer space and having the vacuum of space suck the entire hangar contents out the window. The shuttle she stole has awesome shields- it must be the private spacecraft of the captain or something because it is NOT starfleet regulation.

At this point in my movie, the young family in the seat in front of me got up , the mom wanted to use the restroom and she was concerned that all the shooting was getting her young son riled up. I was thinking- lady, why did you bring small kids to a Star Trek movie? The son wanted to go play video games (this was much better than a video game, kid) Her husband stayed put- probably still mesmerized by the scantily clad Martha (who by now at least had a loose fitting jacket on that she found in the shuttle- you can still see cleavage though). The family gets re-settled with some sandwiches, and we see that Martha has managed to evade all the computer drones. She hid the suttlecraft behind some storage and is proceeding to escape on foot down a hallway.

After some intense struggles with a few zombies- we find out that the zombies don't seem to be all there mentally, but still enough that it's hard to tell who is a zombie and who is normal- she is suspicious of everyone she meets. Breathlessly running, Martha manages to make it into an old AV closet- the type you see in school libraries, you know, with a couple of TV monitors on carts, and walls of media that are hand-labeled. For some reason this door has a manual lock- not computerized at all and she thinks that this will trick the zombies.

She is hotly pursued by a slightly portly man in a tan, different uniform and a nervous-looking woman. They don't seem to be the main officers that the zombies have so far inhabited. Martha peeks out and they start talking to her, trying to lure her out. What convinces her is that the portly man is trying to catch his breath. Martha timidly steps out and we find the woman to be just an average, secondary support level person- like a minor operations lady. The man however is wearing a uniform because he is a local cub-scout leader. Woo Hoo for the 24th century! The Cub Scouts survive. Way to go! Anyways, they thought that Martha was a zombie and they were trying to kill her. Now that we find that all 3 are not zombies you can tell that we've reached a turning point of the movie.

The 3 start filling in Martha on how much of the ship has been zombified and how the few of them have found to deal with the zombies. Plot wise we're starting to get somewhere.

At this point Anna Mae wakes up and comes in my bedroom crying. Aaaaagggh!! I tried to go right back to sleep to finish the movie but it didn't work (sometimes it does). So I figured I need to write it down somewhere. Sorry to all my readers. I'm sure this was NOT what you were expecting from my usual blog posts, but I have very vivid dreams. Usually I am in control of my dreams (called Lucid Dreaming). Even with these movie dreams I know it's a dream movie so I can throw my two rational cents in as I'm watching the movie. I'm bummed that I couldn't see the end because it was bound to be good-

As I was waking up my mind was throwing spoiler/hints my way about what was going to happen next. It involved somehow getting a message to Starfleet headquarters in San Francisco, collecting up the old crew (Picard and everyone) and they somehow sneak onboard, team up with Martha and her now large band of secondary characters. Somehow they manage to get Data away from the zombies which is the key to winning.

I'm bummed that I couldn't see it in it's full glory though, and my mental hints didn't include any Klingons or Vulcans (double bummer!). This must be my brain's subliminal way of celebrating Star Wars day (FYI Monday was Star Wars Day- May the 4th be with you). I have always been more of a trekkie than a Star Wars fan so I must have mentally retaliated with a Trek Movie. Speaking of which, I probably should go see the latest spin-off and see if it's worth the digital film they printed it on. Ok, back to bed or on to a real post.

Muggy Hiking

It's not usually humid and sticky outside in Oregon, but yesterday afternoon there was a storm front coming in, the weather was dry, warm, humid, and not a breeze was blowing. So of course we decide to go hiking Mt. Pisgah.

I got off work early and picked up my Marathon Packet and Race information and a new jogging outfit from the Marathon vendor fair, then went and got Luke from Grandma Hallock. She recently had shoulder surgery and can't lift the baby, but she still can have her little buddy hang out at her place during the day. Luke loves helping Grandma and playing with his friend Marcos next door.

Then we were off to get Daddy and AnnaMae so we could go hiking.

Whenever I've hiked Mt. Pisgah I usually start on the far trail and go the long way because it's not very steep (Trail 3). Granted, it is a long hike, but from memory it's pretty easy. Brian checked it out online and he wanted to take the shortest path. "Only 1.4 miles each way if we take trail 1!"

Oooooh boy. 1.4 miles of pretty steep trails, with me and the baby back-pack. Granted, I'm doing this as training for the marathon, but I don't want to kill myself before I go on Sunday. Let's just say that I got my workout. Luke says he prefers Spencer's Butte since it's easier. Here are the two resting on a bench just above the 1 mile mark. Luke thought he was so cool to take off his shirt. AnnaMae was just happy to be alive the whole time. She got tired of the carrier about 2/3 of the way up and just wanted to run from there, or have Daddy carry her (which was fine by me).

Anyways, we had a great time, the top has a better view than Spencer's, and it's been years since we hiked it. The trip down was greusome on my knees, but we all made it intact, little-boy potty breaks and all. AnnaMae insisted on running for about half a mile up and half a mile down. At the top she just kept running in circles. She had a blast! This was the first time she's done one of the local hills with us, and I think she wants to do it again.

If anyone wants to do the hike, they recently added gravel to long stretches of it, so it won't be too muddy. Just be aware that you DO NOT step off that path. The poison Oak is everywhere. We warned Luke and he got the gist. He was so good about not leaving the path for an instant. Here he is trying to keep AnnaMae from eating the new rocks. Why she wanted to eat them is beyond me.

It would have been nice to walk down around the Arboretum as well, but by the time we were done we needed to get dinner. It's been years since we did the lower garden walk. It looked like most weekends they have bir-watching hikes, mushroom hikes, and all sorts of neat guided events.

Then we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Walker's house where the boys hit the hot tub and we girls hung out with the grandparents. They recently had a plumbing nightmare at their house. The upshot is that they got a new kitchen floor and will be getting all-new carpet. The downside is that their home has been a wreck for at least a month. They were pretty happy that we stopped in, though.

Finally we headed home. AnnaMae was asleep before we passed downtown, and Luke was pretty tired too. It was a great hike and we definitely want to do it again, though next time, I think we'll try Trail 3.

Check out my new Summer stamps!

It's time for the Summer Releases for the company I illustrate for, Our Craft Lounge. I only drew 17 of their 24 new-release sets this time. You can check out all their new sets here. This box and tag are just one example I made from the set "Let Freedom Ring".

I love illustrating for a company that makes people's lives happier. Our sets are made in the USA, and many of the sets I design come from old artwork I made years ago that is just sitting in my sketchbooks wasting away. One of the sets this time, "the Tribe" is from artwork I drew about 5 years ago that was sitting unloved in a box. This is now one of the favorites for our Design Team. It makes the crafty ladies very happy to have unusual stamps to color and when they're happy, I'm happy.

I wish we had one of the stores nearby that carries my stamps. It will be a while before we even want to get into Michaels or Jo-Anns, but we are in a chain called "Archivers" which is a very trendy scrapbooking boutique. They have over 40 locations in large cities across the country. It's neat to think that people across the land are playing with my artwork.

I have been accused of drawing this old granny based on my mom. For those of you who know her I don't see too much of a resemblance, do you?

Anyways, I gotta catch up on my rest. The half-marathon is on Sunday and I need to be ready. No more lazy Marianne!