San Diego

I spent the first part of this week with goatymom, showing her around our new town and having a great time together. We got up early every day, made coffee, and went for long walks. I always enjoy spending time with her, but this time it was even better.

Thursday morning, mom and Randy and I all went to the airport. Mom went back to Minnesota, and Randy & I flew to San Diego for a few days of exploring, dining, and relaxing. This is the first trip we've taken together, just the two of us, since we went to Guatemala in 2005.

On the way to dinner last night I stepped off a curb, caught a rough lip of concrete, and turned my ankle (much like ec's ankle turn in Mexico, but much less severe). I'm hobbling a little, but I don't think it's sprained.

I look at this as reinforced relaxation.

Also? We discovered that Trader Joe's in California sells Trader Joe label 12 year Aberlour scotch. Almost makes me want to move here.

The rains have returned!

This means a return to embroidery, reading, and painting!

And, of course, sensible waterproof shoes.

Dream

Last night, I dreamt that a M*A*S*H era Alan Alda climbed into bed with me,and we snuggled and ate popcorn. He was wearing an army drab tee shirt, andthose pants from the fifties with the high waist and the baggy ass.

What, pray tell, does this mean?

On the importance of speaking clearly:

Dear interpreter who called to make an appointment for your client:

There is a vast difference between a "non-English-speaking person" and a "non-speaking English person".

While I do not doubt that both categories of people would require your assistance, only one would continually interrupt you with loud exclamations in Russian, making it nearly impossible for me to hear you.

Love,goatygoat

It just keeps getting better.

I spent today with Mandy and Carb, taking some photos of them around Seattle for use in their wedding announcement and thank-you cards. We lucked out with fantastic weather, and afterwards we returned to Issaquah to pick up Randy for dinner.

At the Mexican joint up the street, the one with the great black and white oil paintings of classic Mexican cinema stills, Randy pointed out the window during the appetizer: “look, honey!”

It was a sheep, grazing happily about fifty yards away.

Fifteen minutes later he pointed again: “Look!”

It was a sheep and a baby sheep!

A few more minutes passed: “LOOK!”

A tiny white goat!

And a few minutes later there was a rooster!

It’s like someone knew my day just needed some farm animals to take me deliriously over the top.

That’s been the drill lately, with things getting better and better. We moved into our new little rental house on September 1st, and managed to get the place mostly in order by the time the Turkletons arrived last weekend. That was a super fun trip! We went to the Pike Place Market, hiked up Tiger Mountain, ate a LOT of cheese (still feeling the effects of that, btw), and just generally had a great time being together.

This weekend, while I had to work on Saturday, Randy sold the shed and watched as it was lifted and moved to its new location overlooking Lake Washington. The new owners really appreciate the amount of work that went into its construction, and while we’re sad to see it go we know how we’ll build it better next time.

We also hired a guy to tow our trailer to the place we’ll be storing it. I have been so wrapped up in the new place that I hadn’t really taken the time to examine how I felt about the old place. At least, not until I was standing in the trailer park driveway, nuzzling the neighbor’s cat, and watched four years of memories be dragged out of space #7. I got a little weepy, which freaked out the cat and made Randy look at me a little funny.

But really…in those four years, I’ve had four jobs, spent one year on crutches, ran a half marathon, learned how to embroider, got engaged, got married, learned how to be married, and countless other milestones big and small…all within the aluminum skin of that trailer.

I’ll always remember our time living there with a fond smile, and as the years pass I’m sure the memories will be even better in hindsight.

We've got slugs. At least they're not roaches!

So, our new apartment is really a 400 square foot house, all full of awesomeness.

Its foundation has settled somewhat, which explains the two slugs I found slugging across the floor yesterday.

Tonight’s project: slugproofing our apartment before the Turkletons arrive tomorrow!

It's a good thing I can't be fired from this.

Hi! Remember me? The daily blogger who hasn’t posed a damn thing for two weeks?

I’m still here, and I have very limited internet access at the moment. Somehow in the move, we have no connectivity at the new house, but I’m told that should be fixed very soon. It’s killing me!

The basics: we have a man who’s interested in the trailer (yay!), we have sold the shed to a very awesome couple who appreciate all the hard work and design that we put into building it, and the new apartment is quieter and more of a home already than the trailer ever was.

Don’t get me wrong…I’ll miss the trailer. It is, after all, the only place that Randy and I have ever lived together. Somehow we made it four years together in the tin can…it has its share of memories.

But, dudes…a floor that doesn’t move when we walk? A roof that actually SHEDS RAIN? Can’t beat it.

Trailer for Sale

We’re selling the trailer. We’re going to miss it, but our lives have progressed beyond what this little tin can is able to handle.

If you know anyone who is in the market for a beautiful Avion travel trailer, please direct them to the trailer’s very own blog!

All caught up!

Hi folks,

Thanks for your patience (or at least, restrained impatience) with me this week. I spent last weekend traveling, and the intervening week packing, moving, and generally being dawg-tired.

But! Go check out 3D photos from the past few weeks. I think I’m either getting better at using the camera, or at least better at choosing subjects.

Goatygoat has published an Instructable!

Ikea Lamps make old lamp bases new again! - More DIY How To Projects

Oh, this is one tired goatygoat.

I spent the past weekend in Minnesota and Iowa, visiting my best friend for a couple of nights, visiting my parents for three hours, and trekking down to Iowa for the wedding of ec + sb, which turned out to be one of the best weddings I’ve ever experienced. I had been a little bit nervous, as most of the people I’d be staying with had been close friends in college, but I hadn’t had much contact since that time. 

As it turns out, there was no need for butterflies in the tummy…everyone has evolved into even lovelier people than they were when I knew them way back when, and a great time was had by all.

The feeling that I was left with after the weekend was over was (and I know this sounds a little bit woo-woo-third-eye, sorry about that) a feeling of being deeply loved.

There will be a longer recap, but seriously, internet, first there will be some sleep.

John Hughes: Icon, Director, Pen Pal

This blog post written by a woman whose teenage pen pal was John Hughes may be one of the best tributes to a passed-away friend that I’ve ever read.

The end of an era?

Well, kids, we’ve lived in the trailer park for four years now. We’ve gone from living in the quiet, child-free corner of the park to being surrounded by multitudes of little bilingual kids, all about age five and younger, who were only glimmers in their parents’ eyes when we moved in.

We have plants! We have yard flamingos! We have routines! We kind of love our trailer…in the summer.

But it’s not summer all the time here in Seattle. Lord knows, summer is all too brief here.

So…it’s not written in stone yet…but we’re pretty sure we’re moving in September. Like, three weeks from now. Tiny little apartment, which is still 150 square feet larger than what we’ve lived in together for these four years, in the town that has been our goal all along. It has a real shower that Randy won’t have to bend his knees in so he won’t bang his head on the ceiling! It has a real hot water tank, and a real refrigerator, and OH MY GOD, floors that don’t sway.

I’ll keep you posted!

Update on Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 09:55PM by LJ

It’s official! We’ll begin moving on September 1st, and will hopefully find a buyer for the trailer and the pottery studio shortly thereafter. If anyone wants to buy a sturdy silver Avion trailer, I’ve got one for sale!

Yes, yes. The saints. They go marching in.

So within the past two weeks, some guy with an ice cream truck has discovered the quarter billion children that live in our trailer park. He drives his creepy kidnapper van emblazoned with ice cream logos into the park at 6pm every night, cheery electronic version of “When the Saints go Marching In” blaring from his speakers.

And he’s apparently not very efficient at the making of change, because he sits there, parked, music jingling, for about fifteen minutes at a stretch while the kids buy their ice cream.

Today, something’s up with his sound system. It sounds like the batteries are running down, because the saints are marching in muuuuuch more slowly than they were yesterday. It’s more like “When the Saints Come Dragging In”.

*******

Update at 8:22 pm on 8/3/2009:

Down below in the comments, ec said:

I like the NYC ice cream truck song. I’d sing it for you, but these things don’t translate well in the comment section of blogs.

I love imagining her at work, at her desk, singing the NYC ice cream truck song. Also, I love the idea of her colleagues popping up from their desks like prairie dogs, all with a sudden craving for a Klondike Bar.

And lo, through the miracle of internet-based voicemail, here it is:

NYC Ice Cream Truck Song

Message from home

Yet another reason my mother kicks ass:

***
Hey....I was watching the weather channel this morning and I see there
is a tropical storm named LANA heading toward Hawaii.

I know you have been feeling a little bit turbulant lately, but I
didn't realize it was this bad!

Love you!
Mom

Oh, Onion. How I love you.

Making fun of dieting and abstinence-only sex education, all in one fell swoop.

All right, it looks like I really hosed this up.

The “switching the order of things”, I mean. If anyone was subscribed to feeds on any of these pages, please re-subscribe. The restructuring changed some of the extensions, thereby rendering the RSS a little impotent.

Love,

goatygoat

Update on Monday, July 27, 2009 at 08:56PM by LJ

Just like magic, most of the RSS feeds are now back on track.

Squeee!

Bob Dylan said it first, and he said it best:

“The times, they are a-changin’”.

And it’s true!

As it turns out, I spent all last year putting together the Thirtieth Year Project, only to find out that some regular readers didn’t even know it existed until last month (you know who you are).

In an effort to make my new daily project more visible, I’m planning to set A Year in 3D as the front page. It’ll be the first thing you see when you navigate over here to goatygoat!

And to make sure you’re seeing my photos in 3D, if you want a pair of 3D specs, send me a self-addresed stamped envelope & one dollar. Email me for details. Easy as pie.

Also, you may notice that the “Daily Haiku” section has been renamed to “Haiku Invitational”. And in keeping with the invitational part of the title, I’m inviting you. I want your haiku! Send an email to post.goatygoat.haiku@squarespace.com, putting the title of the haiku in the subject line, and the 5-7-5 syllable haiku in the body.

Make sure it’s how you want it, include your name at the end, and then hit send. Please note, there will be no way for you to edit it after you hit send, so make sure you want to share it with the world.

And just like that, we’ve got a haiku group project.

So you got all that, right?

1. The front page content will change, but the blog will still be accessible from the sidebar.
2. The haiku is now a group project, and you’re part of the group! Contribute!

Love,

goatygoat!

Separation of Church and State

Over on Salon, there’s an article about a growing movement among clergy, who are refusing to perform marriages between heterosexual couples until homosexual couples are granted the same basic right. Essentially, the clergy involved in this movement are saying “hey, why is the State granting me power to do its discrimination? What the H-E-double-hockeysticks is up with that?”

It’s a good read if you have a minute.

It's my birthday!

Mom and I tried to get some cheesecake from Calico Cheesecake Company, but the bastards were closed for vacation. Therefore, my birthday cake was wild-rice pancakes with an air freshener candle, as you can see in the photo.

And you know what? It’s one of the best birthday cakes I can remember.

And in other birthday-related news, the new daily segment of this site has been revealed…A Year in 3D. We’ve been learning how to take three-dimensional photographs, and over the course of this year we’ll see if I make any progress in my technique.

Check out Day 1 here!