swine flu

All the hubbub around this has died down, but David and I learned last weekend that one of our direct neighbors had swine flu recently. At first I was shocked, but the swine flu hasn't been that much worse than the regular flu and I haven't been sick, so I just sort of forgot about it. But I figured it makes an interesting story...I mean how many people can say they know someone who had swine flu?

On another note, I planted my vegetable garden. I re-arranged the rows this year, and gave certain veggies more prime spots than others. We'll see how it works out, but i'm hopeful that the crop will be good.

I planted: 3 kinds of tomatoes (1 big, 2 cherry types), zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, buttercrunch lettuce, romaine, spinach, red pepper, yellow pepper, broccoli, basil and cilantro. I plan to plant some pole beans, but I haven't figured out what they will climb on yet, so I haven't planted them. I think that is it....Can anyone tell me how to harvest my lettuces and will they grow back after I harvest or do I just get one head out of each plant?

so much to say

So much has happened since I last wrote. I've been to Google in California for a National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) meeting. Google was cool- they had sand volleyball courts, a ton of different cafes- they grow some of their own food and herbs that are used in the cafes, they have those lap pools that have the current in them for swimming, and everything is google colors. It was a good meeting, although I'm always exhausted after these things.

I swam last monday (first time in a while) and I was so sore all last week. I'm going to swim again today since the doc said I should only be swimming and biking. I've got to get my bike tuned up and everything for the nice weather. It was about 80 degrees here in Seattle yesterday. I couldn't believe it!

Saw Angels & Demons on Sunday. It followed the book pretty closely. Jodi- I think you'll like it. Plan to go see Terminator this weekend. I can't believe there have been so many blockbusters coming out one after the other. Star Trek was awesome too! I remember watching Star Trek as a kid (with Dad?) and the movie really captured the characters well, I thought.

happy mother's day

Here is a little "word cloud" from wordle.net that I created in honor of mother's day (click on it to see it bigger). sorry to post a day late---Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers that I know!

tree pics pt 2

Here are a few pictures of the progression of the new crabapple tree over the past week or so.





Yea for pink flowers!

ankle update

Most of you know I sprained my ankle about 2 months ago. It has still been bothering me, especially after long walks, so I finally went to the sports medicine doctor. The sports med docs here at UW are great--they are the folks who take care of all our varsity athletes, so they really know their stuff.

They took an x-ray and good news- my doc said there were no bone chips or any other abnormal looking things going on in the x-ray.

She gave me some new exercises to do along with the old ones I was doing, and she told me that I need to increase my activity in 3 levels. Level one is non-weight bearing - like swimming and biking- and I should do that for about 2 weeks to see how things feel. If it is feeling okay, I can progress to weight-bearing but non-impact- like ellipticals and stairmaster for another 2 weeks. Assuming that goes well, I can move on finally, to walking for exercise and running. So, I think I should still have plenty of time to get in shape for the running part of the triathlon this summer.

The doctor did say that about 40% of ankle sprains still hurt after 4 months, so I guess I shouldn't have been too worried about it. But I'm glad I know now that there isn't something bad that happened that I ignored.

palouse mountains

I was in Pullman, Washington the past two days. I've never been to Pullman. I was amazed at how beautiful it was. In a very different way than Seattle is beautiful, but beautiful nonetheless. I didn't see many trees in the Pullman area (at least not like Seattle has trees). Pullman is in the Palouse mountains.

You have to fly into Pullman on a pretty small plane, and it was pretty empty so I had plenty of space to look out the window and wonder at the curves and colors in this area. Below are a couple pictures I found online that look very similar or just like what I saw. I was amazed at the contrasts between the green and the brown and the varying shades of browns and greens. Some of the greens were SO vibrant it was amazing.



Isn't it amazing?

tree pics pt 1

Here are 2 photos of our new tree.

It is a "Prairiefire" flowering crabapple. It is a medium growing rounded deciduous broadleaf tree, with dark rosy flowers. Flowers are red in bud stage, and it has persistent (ie. non-dropping) berries.

Here is the view of the tree from a seat at the table and chairs on the patio. Notice how it screens the upper windows of the neighbor's house. Or at least it will when the leaves come in and it gets a bit bushier. But it will do a lot toward making us feel more private on our patio as it is.

I'll post a few up-close shots soon.

cheesy but true

I saw this in one of my magazines yesterday and thought that even though it is a bit cheesy- it is true and we should all try to remember it.

To give proper credit, this comes from the June 2009 issue of Shape magazine and its author is Jared Matthew Weiss.

I CAN CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY

Enjoying your life isn't something that happens while you just sit there; it's the result of small decisions you make all day long. You can choose to add a favorite necklace to your outfit in the morning or to spend the evening with people who make you feel good. This month, remember that while a lot of what happens is beyond your control, your happiness is not. It's your choice; what's it going to be?