Mr Poopers Day Out

That pretty much sums it up. It’s not 9:18PM PST and though the dossiers were supposed to go out yesterday at noon GBT I (and a great many others) still have not received their target. People say “Oh start knitting & stop bitching since we all have the pattern” well I have, and now I have almost finished socks not knowing where to stop knitting.

This was supposed to be fun and I was seirously excited about it, now I’m contemplating backing out. The fact that more than 1/2 the people have received their target, in my opinion, makes an unfair start for a whole lot of people.

I know people will say that I’m being a whiner and a poor sport, but honestly, this is so messed up & convoluted that it’s not fun. How can it be fun when 1/2 the people are left out I wonder?

Just a poor end to an already poor day.

This year has really been a time of change for me. I started down the long road to rid myself of the weight I have gained in the 5 years I’ve been married, I’ve finally settled back down in California and stopped fighting it and hating it.  Instead I have finally started to embrace this state and way of living again.  I do have to say that this is probably one of the most materialistic states in our union and it’s hard not getting caught up in it, but we are managing well I think.  The Mr and I like things, but we are more about the experiences than the things.

Pictographs from Joshua Tree National Park

I started 2008 with so much gusto, ranting on and on about how this year would be so diffrent. Well in not so obvious ways it is.  Finally once more, life is good, we are getting back into the groove of experiencing life on a daily basis again and notfalling into the trap of "Tomorrow". 

Tomorrow is a pretty harmless looking word right? "Just do it tomorrow", "I’ll take care of that tomorrow", "wait until tomorrow".  But every day is yesterday’s tomorrow, every day is one tick down in our lifes clock and what we don’t do and experience today is wasted.  Why do we really put things off until tomorrow?  Usually it’s because some part of us fears what might happen.

I can tell you that there are very few times in my life that I was not afraid of what might happen. One was when I married the Mr. Not all experiences in our life are so cut and dry though, there are the what if’s that creep in, but we must learn to not let them stop us. We must learn to be unafraid to make our own mark on the world. Not just to be a spectator of our own lives but really jump right in there, get our hands dirty and make it what we want it to be.

To go forward for our own happiness and well being regardless of what anyone else thinks or says.  All ambitious dreams were laughed at.  One point in all of our lives someone has scoffed at what we said we really wanted to do.  Unfortunately these scoffs last a lot longer in our lives than the people who first uttered them.   We remember someone laughing or nay-saying, or telling us it’s stupid and we cary this with us where ever we choose to go.

We must remember that the people who scoff us for giving our dreams and hopes voices are themselves just afraid to do the same.  When do you stop letting them influence you? What is the tipping point that drives us full throttle into the creation of our own happiness?

I will give one of my ambitions voice today, will you follow?
I want in the next year to have some of my photography published.
What do you want?

When Matt and I rolled into Joshua Tree National Park we did have reservations at another campsite, but Matt was determined to cruise through a site called “Jumbo Rocks” because he said, “It’s so COOL!” but usually it is packed to the gills with people. Driving through there it was beyond cool. I love when campsites do not change the topography of the terrain and just mold the campsites into them with out disturbing the natural beauty.   We picked out a campsite (actually I did because I hate being near people) and settled in.

Can you see our little red car? Yeah we are smooshed right in between 40-60 foot boulders. It was beyond fantastic!

The Mr and I did almost everything there was to do in Joshua Tree. We did not hike to Ryan’s Adobe (which was fine because the trails though nicely maintained are soft sand and gravel and it’s very hard for someone with unreliable joints such as I have to do more than 1 trail in one day). We did hit up Key’s View though only briefly because there were mass amounts of people there being incredibly stupid and rude to other photographers.

This view was amazing and it also makes me sad. See the film? Yeah, that’s California Smog. Fresh from LA & the Valley. Nice huh? You have to realize also that we are easily over 2 hours from the Valley and this is still pollution,  pollution in a place that has a population we could easily fit in one bus. Think about that when you are driving your Tahoe’s and Expeditions down the road. If your car is newer than 2000 and you don’t get at least 20MPG you should be ashamed of yourself. (I do exclude pickups needed for work or if you are regularly hauling a load, but if you are just going to raise it & cruise down to Burbank on a Saturday night you don’t count).

The Key’s Ranch was amazing! The property was inherited by Joshua Tree National Park right after the Key’s family had all left or passed on and so everything is exactly the way it was left. These people were seriously ingenious! But honestly, who goes out to the desert to farm? & I guess they were actually successful too!  The most fascinating part of the whole thing is how they collected various parts & bits everywhere they could and made anything they needed from them. 

Bolts, bolts everywhere but not a nut in sight. (get your mind out of the gutter!)

How about some other various parts?

One thing you learn about the desert (that I’m sure we all know in the back of our minds but never really think about) is that things don’t fall apart like they do in other climates. Everything left here was at least 30+ years old and though it looked weathered nothing was falling apart.

This is the extent of 30+ years of rust! This would only be a rust STAIN in Minnesota. But this was still smooth to the touch!

Lined up neatly, rusted perfectly.

We had many lizardy friends come visit. Joshua Tree is home to various lizards, birds, the desert tortoise, coyotes, big horn sheep & bugs. Lots of bugs.

Time to shake things up. The old theme was a little distracting I think.

I hate to be a pill, but just to verify, all pictures posted here and on my flickr site are copyright me. Using them with out permission is bad manners of the professional kind. Credit & link or do not post, and asking permission is greatly appreciated.

Matt and I took Friday of last week off and headed to Joshua Tree National Park here in California. I had no prior experience with the high desert before (being a Minnesotan and all) so I was pretty excited. Matt and I are campers. One of the things that brought us together in the first place was our love of nature and how important it is to protect it and experience it before we as a race, destroy it all.  

On the way there we passed the great Wind power generators. The wind flows so rapidly and regularly through this canyon that there is a great wind farm here. Wind turbines as far as the eye can see. We as a country need to get our butt’s in gear a little bit more and develop this kind of power a little more readily.  Wind will never be depleted and never needs to be replaced.  These are things that really come to mind when you are deep in the heart of some untouched lands.

These are just HUGE! And the possibilities with these machines are endless.

Things in the desert sure know how to protect themselves!

Joshua Tree National Park is famous not only for it’s fona but also the huge rock formations. It’s quite a popular spot for rock climbers. The boulders are a very course granite & grip quite well even for non-climbers as Matt and I found out. Scrabbling over rocks is quite fun, but there is a point where you get high enough & know to stop.

Matt takes in the view from a higher perch.

It wasn’t as hard to get up the back of the rock as it looks, but it’s still really high up.

Much Climbing around was done. Though I have to admit that I’m much more of a wuss than he was about it.  Though we were not as stupid as people we watched climbing around after dark with flashlights & no gear. That is just ridiculous!

Much hiking and poking about was done and enjoyed. Joshua Tree has just enough to see in a single weekend. The weather was beautiful, middle 70’s during the day and middle 50’s at night. Just beautiful & SUNNY!  I don’t know how people camp here in the summer. This is the real desert people!  Something in my blood, where it still deep down craves some snow, recoils at the thought of actually living in a place like this. But people did, and do.

I don’t think you could ever get over this view.

For some reason my legs look really short in this picture!

The desert was in full bloom and so were my allergies. Funny that a Minnesota chic with family all from Finland I would be allergic to the desert. Even through stinging eyes and runny noses it was still worth all the effort to hike the trails and enjoy everything I could.

And Because I always seem to see the craziest things (actually Matt first spotted this, way to go Matt!)

World Famous no less.

GOD it’s been a busy month. I’m surprised that I have any sensation left in my fingers at all!

__ Projects completed.
1. Child’s First Sock by Nancy Bush
2. Little Child’s Sock by Nancy Bush
3. Child’s French Sock by Nancy Bush
4. Leyburn Sock by Mintyfresh
5. Kerttu Socks by Paula Paajanen
6. Retro Rib Socks by Evelyn Clark

Project Frogged
1. Media’s Socks (after I had already turned the heel on one too! but it was tiny!)

If you would have asked me at the begining of the month what my favorite color was I would have shouted “RED!” seems that yellow and green take a bit more stock in my life! Two greens & two yellows. I have another skien of yellow in my stash too!

Yarn: I Dream In Color “Smooshy” colorway Happy Forest
Needles: US 2 DPN’s
Mods: None. Knit to pattern exactly.
Verdict: Love the socks. They weren’t the most fun to knit but I see them getting a lot of use in my daily life & they have a great texture. I don’t think I will be twisting another stitch for a while though O_O

I don’t know how I really feel about the yarn though. In the skein it’s, well, smooshy but when you are knitting it seems a little bit scratchy and stringy but in the actual sock it’s smooshy again. It was weird. The color on all three of these pictures is pretty accruate. A very good green in my honest opinion

I’m trying to make these the last pair of socks before the start date of Sock Wars, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen.  I do have some knit pick’s felici at home that is begging to become stripped plain knit socks. 

These were my Media’s Socks before I frogged them for being tiny!

Also, what do you all do with your bits & bobs of left over sock yarn? I was thinking mitered squares but does anyone else have any good ideas? I’d love to hear them!

Also, for love Thursday here are some things I love.

Silly Stallions. (I didn’t notice he had his tounge out till I loaded the picture onto my computer)
I really miss having horses.

Mmmm hand spun yarn!

And I love time warps on the 101.  I also love that my husband swerved in & our of traffic & gunned our little 4 cylinder engine to catch up to this guy so I could take a picture. He’s such an understanding man!

Have a happy weekend everyone! I’m off to Joshua Tree today for some camping time with the husband. The Mr assures me that he read that the Joshua Trees were blooming so I might have some really great pictures when I get back

Also, we have decided to hit up the Grand Canyon for our Anniversary this year. There is so much to do and my SIL is going to bring the Baba up for a visit. So deffinately a no brainer there.

Becky randomly stated to me that she was reading the Submissive Wife forum on Ravelry & being nosey I had to poke around. I guess being a UU I don’t quite understand that, but it’s ok. It makes me glad that I have the choice not to be submissive, and it makes me also glad that they have the right to.  It’s not how I would choose to live my life, but I’m thankful I have the right to choose.   I am thankful every day that I don’t have to live a certain way, or think a certain way and be prosicuted for it.

Faith is always a hard subject. My mother always taught me that there were two things that we do not ever talk about with people we don’t know all that well.  Politics and religion.  We all believe diffrent things, even as people of the same faith.  We are all human with vast imaginations, views, thoughts and ideas.  It is hard when there are people who like to tell you how wrong you are, but as long as they are living a good life, doing harm to none then I will gladly let them tell me how wrong I am.  I don’t have to agree with it.  That is the beauty of life, and of our freedoms.

This year the Mr and I will be celebrating our 5th anniversary. (I think we may have been suckers to fate because not only is this the Mr’s 30th year of life, it’s also his parents 35th year of marriage too.  So many big events in one year, and we are guaranteed that every 5 years it’s going to be a big deal all around, in the next 5 years, it will be our 10th and his parents 40th!)

The Mr and I don’t really celebrate our anniversary.  We are not an uber romantic couple to begin with (he “proposed” over the phone when he was living in CA & I was in MN, and I received my ring in the parking lot of a Home Depot after picking him up from the airport) maybe it’s because we had a super short (ie 4 months) courtship, maybe it’s because we worked together for 4 years of our marriage, or it means more to me that he cleans out the cat box without me asking than it does to ever receive flowers? I don’t know. We love each other unconditionally & feverishly, but I guess we try to express it every day rather than in grand gestures.  Maybe because we were soooo broke the first year of our marriage?

The point is that we have cruised quite easily and quickly through almost 5 years of marriage.  Now that we work at different companies we are able to take a full week off work and go on vacation. This year we have planned it around our anniversary.  But where to go?

We have been thinking about Sanibel Island FL, but since we now again live every day in a temperate beautiful climate, would it be as wonderful to go to Florida?  Then we thought about Flagstaff AZ because I have never as an adult experienced the Grand Canyon.  I kinda thought Santa Fe NM would be fun.  I’ve always wanted to go to Boston (but maybe not for a full 10 days).

I just don’t know. Any ideas? We are definitely not tropical people. We enjoy crisp much more than any other weather.