For your enjoyment, here is an excerpt from a conversation that The Kid and I had at breakfast today.
Kid: The movie Babe is really sad, huh.
Me: I don’t remember. Why does Babe die?
Kid: No, but his mom does (laughs). Remember she goes in the bacon truck?
Me: Oh yeah… Jeez! Why do the moms always die?!
Kid: I know, right! Its not fair! But… I bet you would make good bacon.
A while back I wrote about giving up the snooze button for Lent this year. Totally successful. The mornings went smoothly, we made it to school and work on time, and I had time to put on mascara before I got to work.
My snooze button free streak has been broken though, and I blame three things:
Puppy. The new puppy is exceptionally cute. So cute, in fact, that the kid’s good night puppy snuggles take much longer than they should. And she still has to pee like every four hours. Middle of the night potty breaks don’t last forever, do they?
Books. Between George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series and other books that I can’t put down, (like this one that I just started) I find it hard to turn off the bedside lamp when it should be time for lights out.
May Gray. I find it very hard to wake up when it looks like this outside all day long. May is my least favorite month. June Gloom comes in a close second.
Here’s hoping the gloom goes away, the puppy’s bladder matures quickly, and I find someone to pay me a million dollars a year to read so I don’t have to wake up early to go to a real job…
Last Saturday was a glorious day to be on the trail! It was the kick-off weekend for hikers going north from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail, and we decided to join the fun by hiking a 10 mile stretch near the southern terminus. We started our hike at Kitchen Creek Road and headed south toward Lake Morena Campground, where the PCT kickoff weekend festivities were being held. We couldn’t have picked a more gorgeous day to spend in the outdoors; flowers were blooming, birds were chirping, and thanks to the recent rain, Kitchen Creek was happily flowing along.
All kinds of wildflowers blooming!
Looking down on Kitchen Creek from the trail.
We took a little side trip down to Kitchen Creek Falls, and decided that we definitely need to go back there to spend the afternoon picnicking and lazing about. The water was clear and beautiful, and it was quite tempting to take a little swim.
Looking down the steep part of Kitchen Creek Falls
Kitchen Creek Falls
Clear pools and green grasses at Kitchen Creek Falls
But our 10 mile goal pushed us onward and we soon found ourselves wandering through beautiful flowery meadows. I don’t know why, but oak trees make me so happy. I can say with confidence that oaks are my favorite tree. Quite possibly because from far away they look like giant broccoli florets, and up close they are the trees of fairy tales with mysterious faces on their trunks and giant arms that will reach out and grab bad children. My dream yard will have a giant oak tree, or a few, with branches perfect for reclining in and reading books.
Look at this cute little sign!
Oaks among the yellow wildflowers.
After wandering through the oaky flowery meadows, we reached our destination. And promptly saw a turkey running down the street near the campground.
Turkey cruising by the campground.
It was the perfect ending to a perfect hike. Actually, the ending was made more perfect by a stop at the Cameron’s Corner Circle K for a Mountain Dew Froster mmm… Someday I will take my own extended trek up the Pacific Crest Trail and thru hike from Mexico to British Columbia, but until then I am happy that I live close enough to the southern portion of the trail to enjoy some beautiful day hikes.
Trailmarkers for the Pacific Crest Trail
View of Lake Morena from the Pacific Crest Trail.
Last month some friends and I went on a mini-backpacking adventure out in the desert at a place called Domelands. You can read about a previous hike there here. I lagged a little writing about it, but I think you’ll enjoy the photos nonetheless. Also, I got a little crazy with a new photo collage app…
We saw beautiful desert flowers
We saw unbelievable fossils of sea life millions of years old when this desert was an ocean. Crazy.
We found a fantastic slot canyon
We found a campsite with a view of the Carrizo Badlands
We saw some beautiful views
We watched an amazing sunrise
We saw pretty plants and pretty skies
I am so lucky to live in a place with amazing beauty all around. I hope you all take the time to get outside and see the beauty where you are too.
This is my friend Seth.
Seth is going to shave off all of his luxurious locks and his beautiful beard a fundraiser for St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to funding research to find cures for childhood cancers. Seth is doing this in honor of Kia, a lovely girl who recently lost her battle with lymphoma. This post is my plea to you, dear readers, to give to Seth’s fundraising effort. You can do it, just skip your latte or your burrito this week. Even a couple of dollars will help him reach his goal. I did my part, and I know that the few bucks that I could afford will be well spent on helping kids beat cancer.
Seth has about 24 hours left to raise $1,000 and then his bald head will happily shine. Lets make it happen! Simply click here to donate to Seth’s fundraising effort.
Want to know more about St. Baldrick’s? Click here.
Week three of the February Photo Challenge has come to a close and I’m now on the home stretch. I’ll admit, I haven’t been perfectly timely in posting the photos on the PGMG Facebook page, but that was only partially my fault and I’m trying to be better about it. In any case, all the photos are ending up here. And now… week three!
February 18 "drink" - Teakettle. For coffee in the morning and tea at night.
February 19 "hate to do" - be indoors on a day like this.
February 20 "handwriting" - this is why I can't help my kid with her cursive.
February 21 "favorite photo of you" - me and my dad, circa 1980.
February 22 "where you work" - trust me, I'm not complaining.
February 23 "shoes" - These are my go-to work shoes. Black and gray, so they go with pretty much everything I own. I'll be so bummed when they are worn to pieces.
February 24 "inside your bathroom cabinet" - I apologize, but unless you have a think for contact lens solution, this photo is probably the least interesting of the bunch. I should note that this is the "hers" side of the cabinet. The "his" side is a little more interesting... contact lens solution AND toothpaste!
Those that know me well know that while I’m a spiritual person, and I identify as a Lutheran, I am not the most religious of Lutherans. How am I not religious? Let me count the ways… child out of wedlock, living in sin with long term boyfriend, occasional tendency toward cursing, has been known to listen to that “devil’s music” your parents warned you about… ok thats enough. Curiously, while I’ve evolved (ack! She said evolved!) into a less traditionally religious person as an adult, there are some traditions that I’ve embraced more fully with age. Lent is one of these.
Christian or not, I think all of us can benefit from pondering our mortality and giving up some of our indulgences. It is only seven weeks, after all. Once those seven weeks are up, we are free to then indulge with ferver on Easter Sunday. Unless, of course, we have learned in those seven weeks that we can, in fact, live without some of our indulgences; in which case we may decide to do away with them altogether.
As I do every year, I will be giving up sweets. This includes soda, desserts of all kinds, and yes, Girl Scout Cookies. Not an easy task when I’ve got a Brownie at home who’s a cookie pusher. In addition, I will be giving up something that has become WAY too much of an indulgence in the last year: the snooze button. The first morning went surprisingly well, I’m less confident that it will be so easy after the time change next month. So, what will you be giving up?
Image from www.fashionablygeek.com
Want more Lent fun with Pretty Girls Make Gravy?
Here it is! The next installment of the February Photo Challenge. Facebook hasn’t been kind to my photo uploads for the last few days. They seem to mysteriously disappear after I post them… So, all the more reason to have a weekly recap on the blog.
February 11 "makes you happy" - taking a bubble bath after a long day of working in the garden. Ahhh...
February 12 "inside my closet" - my favorite shoes.
February 13 "blue" - the blue tupperware cup that was the source of many childhood arguements between my cousin and I. "i want the blue cup." "No I WANT THE BLUE CUP!" Actually, this is a reproduction, not the original. I think she ended up with the original. NO FAIR!!!
February 14 "heart" - a cute little heart shaped rock we found on a hike. This heart photo, and many others, are gathered together on my friend Mri's blog A Heart Day's Night. Check it out: http://aheartdaysnight.blogspot.com
February 15 "phone" - They aren't easy to find, but yes, they do still exist.
February 16 "something new" - Hello brand new baby flower buds! You're going to grow up pretty, just like your mama.
February 17 "time" - The beautiful Sundial Bridge over the Sacramento River in Redding California, designed by Santiago Calatrava. Definitely worth a stop the next time you pass through Redding.
Want to see the photos from week one of the February Photo Challenge? Click Here!
Ok, so I’ve had some requests from readers who are not Facebook users (!) to post the photos for the February photo challenge here. So in order to accommodate all of you social networking resistors, I’m going to do a weekly photo challenge post on Fridays with all of the photos for the week. I already posted the photos from February 1st and 2nd here, so we’ll start with February 3…
February 3 "hands" - Hands in the air at the Wilco show at Los Angeles Theater.
February 4 "stranger" - This stranger was a little freaked out by The Kid's Furr Real Friend puppy. I think he was glad we got our Rubio's to go.
February 5 "10 am" - Coffee break. Someone took the last of the pot and didn't start a new one. That is bad office karma.
February 6 "dinner" - True confession: Sometimes I have cereal for dinner.
February 7 "button" - The Kid learned how to sew buttons at her Girl Scout retreat over the weekend. So proud!
February 8 "sun" - Sun shining on a sail sculpture. Say that five times fast!
February 9 "front door" - Outside the front doors of the beautiful Los Angeles Theater.
February 10 "self portrait" I did Roy Lichtenstein style self portraits with The Kid's class recently. This is mine. Not bad for a 45 minute project, huh?
Stay tuned for next weeks installation! Or click the “like” button at the top right of this page or on the Pretty Girls Make Gravy’s Facebook page to follow along daily.
Inspired by Jamie’s Rabbits, and many others that I’ve seen do this over the past several months, I’m going to post a photo on my Facebook page every day this month. Starting with today. I realize I’m already a day behind, but from here on out, its one a day. If you want to see the photos, I suggest you click the “like” button over there to your right and like Pretty Girls Make Gravy’s Facebook page. And, if you want to join the photography fun, here is the challenge…
Here are the first two photos of the month to get you hooked:
February 1 - Your View Today - My morning walk around the office. Lucky me!
February 2 - Words - 1910 Federal Census of the City of Calexico in Imperial County
What I'm Reading:
