seattle

I am tdy for 2 weeks at Fort Lewis.

When I was a kid we visited my Aunt and Uncle.

Washington state is nice.

Being next to the ocean was a needed change. Moisture in the air and pines.

I really enjoyed reading this book, but it saddened me a bit too. I would love to try to make a stand at my house and do something different for a year, something for a cause, but I know the dynamics just would not work out.

Publisher Comments:
Like many great adventures, the 100-mile diet began with a memorable feast. Stranded in their off-the-grid summer cottage in the Canadian wilderness with unexpected guests, Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon turned to the land around them. They caught a trout, picked mushrooms, and mulled apples from an abandoned orchard with rose hips in wine. The meal was truly satisfying; every ingredient had a story, a direct line they could trace from the soil to their forks. The experience raised a question: Was it possible to eat this way in their everyday lives?
Back in the city, they began to research the origins of the items that stocked the shelves of their local supermarket. They were shocked to discover that a typical ingredient in a North American meal travels roughly the distance between Boulder, Colorado, and New York City before it reaches the plate. Like so many people, Smith and MacKinnon were trying to live more lightly on the planet; meanwhile, their "SUV diet" was producing greenhouse gases and smog at an unparalleled rate. So they decided on an experiment: For one year they would eat only food produced within 100 miles of their Vancouver home.

articles:
article
Grist article

website
100milediet

Blogs:

blog recommendation

light hearted and funny read

book link

Not a Happy Camper chronicles 13-year-old Mindy’s adventures at a rainy, rundown, wildly unsupervised camp in Maine called Kin-A-Hurra, which is nothing like the fun, kosher (!), sun-soaked Eden that owner Saul Rattner advertised when he met with Mindy's parents in their New Jersey home. But Mindy refuses to spend another summer road tripping with her family or returning to her parents' childhood camps, full of mean rich girls and strict rules. So for eight eye-opening and unforgettable weeks, Mindy and her eccentric band of friends—including Autumn Evening Schwartz who claims that she communicates with the dead, and the sleep-dancing, bibliophile Betty Gilbert—keep busy feuding in color war, failing at sports, uncovering the camp's hidden past, and surviving field trips in the carbon monoxide death-trap that doubles as the camp’s van.

flat stanley has arrived

We have a house guest for a few days and we are showing him around - Thanks to my good buddy Daniel.


about the project


One of the many advantages of being flat is that Flat Stanley can visit his friends by travelling in an envelope. The Flat Stanley Project is a group of teachers who want to provide students with a meaningful reason to write. Students' written work goes to other places by conventional mail and e-mail.
Students make paper Flat Stanleys and begin a journal with him for a few days. Then Flat Stanley and the journal are sent to another school where students there treat Flat Stanley as a guest and complete the journal. Flat Stanley and the journal are then returned to the original sender. Students can plot his travels on maps and share the contents of the journal. Often, a Flat Stanley returns with a pin or postcard from his visit. Some teachers prefer to use e-mail only, and this is noted in the List of Participants. Especially creative hosts send the Flat Stanleys back with pictures, souvenirs, stories and reminders of the visit.
The Flat Stanley Project is a penpal activity- but it's far more than that, too. By sending a Flat Stanley it's as if the senders and the recipients have a mutual friend- a little flat guy they can both talk about.

Finally...

I have been wanting to watch this movie since the Summer.

It was just as good as I thought it would be.

Aaron Eckhart reminded me of my old boss. I worked for him twice and this character is like him!

from NYTimes

If you’ve seen the commercials and trailers for “No Reservations,” you’re probably anticipating a glossy, goofy romance between a tightly-wound head chef named Kate (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and her new sous-chef, Nick (Aaron Eckhart), a rugged blond life force. Faithfully adapted from the German filmmaker Sandra Nettelbeck’s 2001 feature “Mostly Martha,” the movie provides these stock elements and many others, including a wisecracking preteenage girl (Abigail Breslin of “Little Miss Sunshine”), lyrical montages and too-cute therapy scenes (with Bob Balaban as the shrink) that play like unsubtle attempts to fill in the taciturn heroine’s past. What’s unexpected and gratifying, though, is the film’s enlightened attitude toward parenthood and work, which the movie’s publicity campaign conspicuously glosses over, even though it’s the story’s driving force. — Matt Zoller Seitz, The New York Times

RIP Chad

Chad will be the 18th burial of day at Arlington National Cemetary
Tuesday, February 19, 2008

18 CHAD A BARRETT, SSG, USA ADMIN BUILDING 2:00

daily schedule

Say a prayer for the all 24 funerals that day.
If we lived closer we would be there.
Our friend Brian is escorting his body, he could use prayer too.

maybe the best book this year...

I just finished reading Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home by Kim Sunée

It was fantastic.
read a small excerpt

From the publisher
Already hailed as 'brave, emotional, and gorgeously written' by Frances Mayes and 'like a piece of dark chocolate—bittersweet, satisfying, and finished all too soon' by Laura Fraser, author of An Italian Affair, this is a unique memoir about the search for identity through love, hunger, and food. Jim Harrison says, 'TRAIL OF CRUMBS reminds me of what heavily costumed and concealed waifs we all are.
Kim Sunée tells us so much about the French that I never learned in 25 trips to Paris, but mostly about the terrors and pleasure of that infinite octopus, love. A fine book.' When Kim Sunée was three years old, her mother took her to a marketplace, deposited her on a bench with a fistful of food, and promised she'd be right back. Three days later a policeman took the little girl, clutching what was now only a fistful of crumbs, to a police station and told her that she'd been abandoned by her mother. Fast-forward almost 20 years and Kim's life is unrecognizable.
Adopted by a young New Orleans couple, she spends her youth as one of only two Asian children in her entire community. At the age of 21, she becomes involved with a famous French businessman and suddenly finds herself living in France, mistress over his houses in Provence and Paris, and stepmother to his eight year-old daughter. Kim takes readers on a lyrical journey from Korea to New Orleans to Paris and Provence, along the way serving forth her favorite recipes. A love story at heart, this memoir is about the search for identity and a book that will appeal to anyone who is passionate about love, food, travel, and the ultimate search for self.

She is the food editor for Cottage Living

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Real Conversations

Mom, I need gas money.

Why? I know you had two gift cards for Safeway.

I know bought an $18.00 can of hairspray.

I just looked at her.
I do not spend $18 on hair products during 6 months.

Last week the Caucus in our little Precinct was very interesting, unorganized and upbeat.
We had about 50 adults in one classroom.
I helped out the senior woman checking in and verifying IDs.
The chairperson was completely overwhelmed and at one point I suggested that I read from the script that was given to us for the explanation of a delegate.
We have a 15 people interested in 7 delegate positions.
I am torn at what has happened to the party's landscape.
Personally, I love and respect John McCain and I like Mike Huckabee. BUT we need some that can take a strong stance on economics and is competitive against the other side.
I know some have compared Obama to JFK - I call BS. He might be a great orator, but his experience is dismal and his moral ideas are questionable. And Hilary, I cannot even go there.
I think what strikes me a bit differently than others, when we elect a President or a Governor we are electing my new boss!

Spinach Casserole
Ingredients
1 (10 oz) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
½ cup sour cream
1 tablespoon flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon minced onion
Dash of salt and pepper
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Squeeze excess moisture from thawed spinach and set aside.
Stir all remaining ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Add spinach.
Turn mixture into 2-quart casserole dish and bake uncovered for 30 minutes, or until knife inserted off center comes out clean.

Women comprise approximately 15 percent of the U.S. Army today

These facts involving women in combat are: Women comprise approximately 15 percent of the U.S. Army today, and as of September 2007, 70 Army women have been killed and a significantly larger number wounded; the American public is vaguely aware of this state of affairs and has raised no outcry. The nature of the current battlefield makes it impossible to apply the existing rules for excluding women from combat without serious reduction in combat capabilities, degrading the professional development and thus status of women, and producing a potentially serious reduction in overall readiness. Two major conclusions are reached: (1) the nature of combat for the U.S. Army has changed, and the existing rules governing the employment of women do not fit this new situation; and (2) there is not the slightest doubt that women can perform their assigned duties in the combat zone, including engaging in combat actions essential to their personal and unit’s self-defense, with skill and valor equal to their male comrades.

READ ON
http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?PubID=830

The kids thought the beaded curtain was a playground and the aunts were on duty!


WE basically occupied the entire restaurant!

It is not very often we can get the entire family and friends all together for an event. But this year we made it! Everyone had a great time for her birthday on Thursday. The local Vietnamese restaurant is wonderful and the family that owns it is so nice.

She had a few of her friends, family and neighbors. The next day I took 4 teens agers up to Denver to shop and drop them off at a concert. I did not get home till 1 am. We were all exhausted. But had fun. The cake was wonderful and the homemade rice pudding was amazing. Thanks all!

Happy Birthday

Baby Girl.
Yep - she turns 17 today.
WOW.
Somedays I am in shock. But it is here.
I will post pics from tonight.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
No. 0092-08February 04, 2008
DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Staff Sgt. Chad A. Barrett, 35, of Saltville, Va., died Feb. 2 in Mosul, Iraq, as a result of a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 64th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo. The incident is under investigation.

For more information media may contact the Fort Carson public affairs office.

Busy few weeks.
Drill weekend is done for the month. I may have an extra event out of state, but details are grey at this point.
My daughter turns 17 this week. Her real license showed up in the mail this week. She is liscensed and has her car. We are celebrating at a local Vietnamese restaurant and I have to pick up the cake on Thursday.
We have a pending memorial service and the Department of Defense will probably release the press release today.
I am driving the girls to the a concert on Friday night in Denver and my husband has drill this weekend.
I am traveling for work on Valentines Day.
and those are just the major highlights.
I have a concert on the 21st which will be alot of fun.

Pray -

A friend and neighbor died in Iraq today.
Just a year ago the guys were doing this together.

Please pray for his wife and family.
More details to follow.