A Few Comments...

1. Go Hunger Games! :)

2. I hope you all remembered to make pancakes with rags in them for your loved ones...since it's april fools!! (that's our family tradition :) although today we did rags-in-oatmeal, since we'd had pancakes yesterday and didn't want to overkill it) salt in apple juice is another classic :)

3. i invented the best dessert last week: thin chocolate wafer cookies sandwiching Braums' maple-walnut ice cream. Incr-edible! if you want to try this, let me know and i'll post the chocolate cookie recipe. but you can use any crispy chocolate cookie recipe...

4. i 'mountain' biked...boke?...for 10 miles today!! on a nice trail with very very few rocks. and was two minutes away from being lapped by daniel, who was wonderful and rode with me...oh-so-slowly...for the first lap so i could get used to it. felt good to get out in the sun!! whoo!!!!!!!!!!

alright, i hope you have all had a wonderful weekend, and are ready for the next work week, eh... :)

springspringspring!!!!!!!!!

Good Beautiful Sunday!
after today, i love our neighborhood even more--there are tulips EVERYWHERE! they are like the Riverside floral mascot, i guess. one yard was full of purple, red, and yellow tulips. and so many street corner-triangles are planted with them. i love watching...well, seeing--i don't stick around staring--people outside doing yard work and gardening! today i planted a bay leaf plant! it's already fairly large, which means we've already got enough bayleaves for several pots of soup--i can't ruin it! not that it's soup weather... :)

and guess what? you know that freshly-mowed grass smell? today i was responsible for it! i mowed! for the first time in my life!! (with a gas-powered mower at least). see picture 1 for undeniable proof. of course, the mower shut off before i was finished and i didn't have the heart to restart it (aka 'is this thing going to blow up in my face if i push it too far?!?')

also, found the nearly-neighborhood pottery studio. it looks so promising!

so, picture 2 is the wedding favor from my cousin's beautiful wedding yesterday--wedding cake vodka! so your challenge is to come up with a scrumptious cocktail utilizing this delicious beverage/killer idea. it's reminding me of jim gaffigan's "cake" comedy routine. my dad introduced us to it around Christmas. go find it on youtube, it's classic :)

and finally, picture 3 is of my latest domestic excuse for watching Modern Family and the New Girl-embroidery! not quite as fun as felties, but, hey, it's going to be a pillow case! i'm creating my hope chest! um...after the fact :)

oh wait, another finally: currently listening to Mandisa's CD, 'What If We Were Real'...my cousin is her tour manager/sound engineer. anyway, this is a great CD if you need some empowering, fun, Christian music in your life :) just a head's up...

hope you are all enjoying this beautiful day!

Lagging Computer Saves Roasting Coffee...

...Frustrates Owner! :) that's my headline of the day. in other words, i was going to try to multi-task--blog and roast at the same time, but that probably would've ended in some kind of disaster. poor computer with its poor tender inner-workings successfully nipped that idea in the bud, anyhow. (oh yes, i am re-reading the Prydain Chronicles. yay!)

Pictures!
1. an example of the cutsey-ness adorning our living room wall. Daniel says he doesn't mind that i've incoporated smiling baby dinos into our decor. :)

2. Daniel's pretty new bike! ready to ride!

3. red hair photo for Christi! there it is! there are some significant purple tones going on...

Today is another wedding day for our family! Last week, my cousin Sheree got married, and this week, it's my cousin Star! So exciting! so much fun...and cake! oh, and apparently there is a coffee company in Wichita, Java Villa, that does espresso-catering--because Sheree and her husband, Ben, provided this as a gift to their guests at the reception! They had a beautiful brass, eagle-topped machine and everything fit onto a couple of rolling carts...what a wonderful idea!!!

i guess the time (or rather, my brain) is not yet ripe for poetry. hopefully soon...enjoy your weekends!

Happy 1-month Anniversary of Marriage to US!

Ahhhh hello again!
Didn't really intend to take a few-month hiatus, but...it happened!
A few "catching-up" photos:
1. Our beautiful coffee roaster, and 8-pound green coffee sampler! This week, we get to roast 1.5 lbs of coffee for a cousin's wedding rehearsal dinner. yay! If you are interested in buying coffee from Share the Roast, it is $7.00/half-pound (plus shipping if you're out of state), and we are currently offering a Guatemalan, Costa Rican (crowd-pleaser), and Ethiopian. it's sad, but we haven't cupped any of the coffees...things are still moving-chaotic, plus...eh, i forget. but we've been drinking french presses, americanos, and lattes and i haven't tasted anything i don't like yet! (nothing that's come close to Doubleshot's Sidamo, though, either :( )
2. our new living room! looking quite a bit cleaner than it does at the mo'. but part of that is Daniel being wonderful and cleaning my bike in the middle of it all, so no worries!
3. my zombie-themed Red Velvet groom's cake. it says, "I love you more than Braaaaaaains!"
4. having too much fun at the wichita zoo :)
3. having too much fun taking "artistic" photos in a coffee cup :)

wait...1-2-3-4-3?? i have forgotten how to count, yeeikes!

just wanted to mention that if you love baking and reading blogs, you should check out friendsandcookies.com! it's my dad's new blog, and i love it! all the recipes are spot-on and delicious, as i know from experience, being the lucky recipient of many cookies.

in other news, being married is incredible, and i just dyed my hair reddish today! still adjusting to new jobs, new living arrangements, etc, but mostly things are good. and we'll have a new niece of nephew in about a month, hooray!! babies!! :)

hopefully i will write a poem again someday for here...that's part of the 'adjusting', finding a quiet time for writing and, let's be honest, a spot of free time when i'm not already too far gone into a good book ;)

Jellyfish Ballad

1. I just found out I could get micodermabrasion (sp?) for $50! so tempting...
2. Participated in my first pilates class today! It was...not bad, barring the "extend your legs straight up...preferably keeping them straight." I just don't have those muscles, yet! :( But I would recommend it, if you're curious!
3. I was trying to find some decent pictures of myself to send into a Wichita-based modelling agency...mainly just found alot of stupid ones, have to learn not to smile so cheesily ;)
4. PEOPLE LIKE OUR COFFEE!!!! :) :) going to get to roast a couple more batches today!
5. A further addition to the Maritime Romance Album!:

I. Jellyfish
I'm watching you drift
Gelatinous
Close to the shore
But you are not an innocent
Or an island
You have your own defense
Though you may try to hide it
Jellyfish

II. Jellyfish
Catching the light
Delicate
Until you collide
How can beauty be
Cold and cruel
Draw you in just to
Call you a fool?
Jellyfish

III. Jellyfish
Caught in the sand
Withering
Sun beating, and
Now you wonder why
All this mattered
You'd trade it all to
Return to the water
Jellyfish

And Finally...

...some new poetry, written at Mead's Corner--a lovely coffeehouse in downtown Wichita (unfortunately, the latte i had there a couple days ago was far superior to the one today :( too much foam, too little espresso)

But first, I am very excited to tell you about this new icecream! Which I haven't tried yet, making myself wait for daniel :) I speak of *drumroll* Ben and Jerry's Bonaroo Buzz, "coffee and malt icecreams with whiskey caramel swirls and english toffee pieces"! Whoa! (For all you Tulsa people, Dillons has a far better selection of Ben and Jerry's than Reasors)

And now, the poems:

I.
I am blind
Beyond ten feet

(Where self-absorbed
Stagnation
Preys on dreams)

But here,
Beyond the dam,

That same stuff
Flows crystal
Over river pebbles.

This is what I see.

II.
World,
Wasting winsome waves,
Betraying battle scars;
Neglecting nothing but the prayers
To alter who you are.

Old World,
Brittle barricades
Built up to box you in--
Creation is a laughing stock
And beautifying, sin.

Oh World,
I know you're not to blame,
Just waiting in your shell
For one whole-hearted overthrow
That looks, at first, like hell.

But rubble will give way to rest
And all our wrongs will burn,
And we, instead of lording it,
Will worship, love, and learn.

short, sweet

*have sold $21 of coffee! (1.5 pounds-worth)
*tried on my complete wedding attire, whoo! all set!
*quote of the day: "My back wouldn't have popped if you hadn't been kissing my armpit!" (identities of the quoter and quotee will remain anonymous...certainly nobody I know...
*have applied to be a coffee roaster, a chocolatier, a bookseller, and a wine demonstrater...still waiting...but all of those sound lovely! :(
*time for movie night with austin and daniel!