D-Mo's B-Day

Photos by M. Dunham and T. Backer (I played hostess and photo editor).

Well Suited

And. . . More Photos

By Cole (The headlights of the car were shining on this insect on the side of the house. Cole snapped this overexposed photo that came out looking pretty cool).

My So-Called Office

I have been incredibly busy with work lately. With my family and my job competing for attention, it is the family that always wins out. This, however, leaves me feeling drawn and quartered sometimes. This is my converted closet made home office. Sometimes it gets cramped, but it forces me to stay on top of things. Since finding office space in my house was a challenge, I got the general ideal for the "closet turned office" from ReadyMade Magazine (only my second project out of a two year subscription). There were also directions for a "closet turned bar," but I have much less use for that.

I have a four outlet power box, a power strip, a phone line (for the fax machine), and internet connection all fed from various other parts of the house, all running up through a small hole in the floor (thanks for your help Dad!). I found that I could easily find space in other parts of the house for what used to be in the closet. Presto!

My daughter marveled one day: When the door is closed, it's hard to imagine there is a whole other world on the other side. . . It seems like an innocuous closet, until occasionally the fax machine grinds into life when the door is shut and surprises us all.

Just in case I get confused while in the closet and wonder where the coats are at.

I Got All My Sisters and Me

This photo was taken last summer of myself, my three sisters and my second cousin (she is wearing the glasses and I am standing behind her). This is the first time I've seen this photo, so I thought it was worth a posting. . . We always have so much fun when we are together.

More Beautiful Photographs by Beautiful Children

Hannah stopped short on the way out the door one busy morning on our way to school. I saw a leaf and I need to take a picture, she said. We jeopardized being on time because this leaf caught her eye and she went back inside for the camera. I am glad she has learned to "stop and smell the roses," or, photograph the leaves, in this instance. (Click on the picture for an up close and personal view of the water droplettes).

Cole meets Mr. Praying Mantis (or Mrs. Praying Mantis, it looks so elegant).

Last night after dinner, my two older children headed to the gym together (they invited me, but I was tired. I attempted a run in the canyon earlier that evening, but since I felt as weak a newborn calf trying to take its first step, I cut the run short and walked home). Cole decided to spend his time after dinner by heading outside with the camera to see what he could find. Every once in a while, a parent gets time to reflect and appreciate that years spent trying instill good habits are manifesting themselves in actual good habits.

Brent started his first day of college yesterday. Oh my God (or, Oh Your God, as Bender would say on "Futurama." We don't practice ALL good habits), I have a child in college. I couldn't be more proud.

J-E-L-L-0

Last night I caught the last hour of Jello Biafra's four-and-a-half-hour speaking engagement in Grass Valley. (Jello is the former lead singer of The Dead Kennedy's, 80's punk heroes). Jello rails against things like globalization, privatization, mindless wars, government corruption, and encourages awareness and involvement, beginning at a personal and community level. Basically start small and think big.
I was able to shake Mr. Biafra's hand afterward and thank him for "making the eighties more bearable" through his music. He is an affable man, with the same distinct voice (it took me right back to listening to Dead Kenndy's tapes in my Toyota Celica's tape player), but a little pudgier. I almost worked up the nerve to ask for a photo with him, but my camera battery died right as I turned it on -- oh my! So, I downloaded this photo of him wearing a shirt that claims Levi's as Evil. I am glad I wore a skirt instead of my jeans last night. I have owned the same two pairs of Levi's for several years. Each pair cost me around $30 and I love them to death (I was recently at a friend's party where the girls were talking about their $150 pairs of True Religion jeans, they just couldn't get enough. Two pairs of years-old Levi's do me just fine). Jello's issue with the large corporate Levi's is probably the way they underpay their employees and harm the global economy. . . it's a conundrum for sure.

Despite conundrums, the evening was a lot of fun. . . the reason I was late for Jello was because Kate and I went and saw our friend Tom's play, "A Few Good Men." Rich exposure of military misconduct and cover-up to the last drop. I noticed a theme for the evening. . . it did turn out, however, to be one of those few good evenings away from home.

Pure Sadness

This morning there was no happy chatter. In fact, if I recall correctly, I believe I didn't see a single bird this morning. You see, last evening we discovered one of the babies lying lifeless on the patio below the bird's nest. I guess the price of independence is high. And we all know Nature can be harsh, too harsh, sometimes. My heart is very heavy and I can't help but wonder how Moma bird is fairing. . .

Learning To Fly

The birds were chattering like crazy this morning, so loud it woke everyone up before the alarm (except Hannah, she gets up at the crack of dawn to get ready for high school). Cole discovered why, Mama bird is teaching her babies to fly today. It takes a village, every bird in the yard was yapping up a storm. I swear I heard Mama bird say at least once, Just pull over and let me fly!

A Cat Caught In Headllights

THIS PHOTO HAS NOT BEEN ALTERED IN ANY WAY. This is the photo downloaded directly from the camera. Cole was following the cats around with the camera one evening and he came in the house laughing hysterically. He had caught the cat at the right moment; she was turning around, she was yawning, and the flash caught her eyes.

This is what the sweetheart normally looks like, when she hasn't been caught in a funky pose and the camera flash's glare. I empathize with her, most of the photos taken of me come out just as bizarre as the top one.

Here is Cloe, just moments before bizarre photo, eating the cat-nip I planted for the cats in the backyard . I wonder if the cat-nip is responsible for her crazy eyes??? (Nod to Steve Zissou.) It's like before and after photos. Maybe she should cut back on the nipping.

Coming Along Nicely

The baby birds in the tree outside our dining window are getting bigger every day. It has become a ritual to watch for mama bird to fly down and feed her hatchlings. Whoever is on the look out at the time, alerts the rest of the family and we gather around to watch the babies reach their beaks up as mama deposits her latest find. They chirp ecstatically. Since my mediocre camera does not take a clear zoomed-in picture, we were only able to snap a photo of mama bird gathering dinner for her little ones.

My daughter has been persistently asking for a new cell phone lately. I called her over the other evening and said, Look, mama bird just dropped a cell phone into one her baby's mouths. She said, Maybe you should take a hint. Ha-ha, daughter, you are so funny.

The baby birds are coming along nicely, and so is my injured leg. I heal while they grow.

Wine Opener

I bought a bottle of dry white wine for a recipe I was making last night. Twist off?? I needed a little help from a fancy "wine bottle opener." It's all about presentation ... the pasta primavera loved it however.

Cole

I like this picture that Cole took of himself on the Mac's icamera.

The Birds and the Bees

While getting an estimate for trimming the trees in the yard, I discovered two things, a bees nest in a dead oak. .

and a robin's nest with baby birds in it in a tree closer to the house. I won't be having the limb with the baby birdies in it cut down until the Fall when they have moved on.
I climbed the tree to try and get a picture of the baby birds, with their mouths wide open . . .

Unfortunately, I fell out of the tree! Ouch, ouch, ouch. . . I ended up on the couch the rest of the afternoon (with a few knots and bumps that formed on my leg about a half hour later) instead of taking that bike ride in the canyon I was planning on. Drats!

The Sounds of . . .

I am listening to my new favorite band Beirut (click on the panio keys to find "sounds") while I am cooking the family breakfast this Saturday morning. Beirut has a lot of sounds in their music besides the usual drums and guitars: horns, accordions, organs, beautiful melodic singing, and probably a lot more than I can readily identify. It is a romantic sound to off-set my highly unromantic single-mom-of-three-teenagers-life (albeit awesome teenagers). Beirut's sound is also passionate, exotic, soothing and energizing. All of which my life can be at times, however.


Now after I cook breakfast I must go out and cut the grass before the tree trimmer guy shows up to give me an estimate. For some reason I feel the yard must look nice in order to get a better estimate. I do all this while my teenagers sleep soundly through the late morning, early afternoon. Breakfast cools unappetizingly on the table. But Beirut plays romantically, exotically in the background. All sounds well.

A Family That Kayaks Together, Kayaks Together

Kayaking is one of my family's favorite activities to do together, even though we only get out a couple times a year.


Cole kicking it while Hannah checks out the areas away from the shoreline.

Not a very clear picture of Brent, but I like the trail of light streaming behind his kayak. It's a manifestation of how magical it is to be waste high gliding through the water!


Again, not a great photo (the back side of Cole), but I was torn between photography and just being lost out on the water with my kids. Kayaking is strangely a group and solo activity all at the same time. (A lot like snorkeling, which we did down the river the day before). I love, love, love living in the foothills and how I was able to take a two day "vacation" (worked in the morning, played in the afternoon) and not even leave the area. Home was base camp for really great adventures so close by. Today we were at a reservoir at Yuba Gap.

I loved seeing my whole crew out in front of me.

The Paddling Group

This trip, we went with Grandma Lorri's "paddling group," consisting mostly of seniors. One woman brought her dog along, he loved it. I was surprised by his doggy life vest. I suppose his legs aren't long enough to effectively dog paddle. . .


Dave was the most senior of the group, he is eighty-years-old. He couldn't walk very well (he has one prosthetic leg), but he was one heck of a paddler. Lorri's nick-name for him is "arch" for Patriarch. Way to go Dave. . .

31 Flavors

Doing some research on the "suet" I had just bought for my birdfeeder, I found a web-site that explains what to feed birds. It stated that suet is the fat around a cow's kidneys, used in feeding certain wild birds because of the protein and energy it provides. The fat is processed in a "cake" with a variety of traditional bird fixin's blended throughout. Mmmmm. . .

The web-site had this helpful suggestion for which type of suet to purchase: "Start with a suet that is most appealing to you. Ingredients vary from peanuts to papaya, hot pepper to almond, berry to cherry, and raisin to insect." While reading I wondered, would the almond and insect fatty suet be the most appealing to me. . ?

The Girls Are Back in Town

Hiking in the Heat

Amy and I went on a sweltering hike in the heat of a Saturday afternoon. With the sun blazing down on us and the powdery trail kicking up dust in our dry throats (some one forgot their water) the cool river tempted us below. We skipped taking an extra route to make it down to the river in order to get home and gulp ice water like fiends.

We did come across a beautiful little water fall, however as thirsty as we were, we were not excited about getting giardia, so we merely wetted our faces and pulse points instead of indulging in a much needed drink.

Hannah's Feat

Newport Beach, CA - self portrait Hannah's feet

You Do Make A Difference

I recently read a great article in "National Geographic" about Swarm Intelligence. The basic model based on studying species that swarm (birds, bees, ants, fish, etc.) states that the simple actions of an individual adds up to the complex behavior of a group. How? By countless interactions between each (responsible) individual in the swarm. Based on local information, swarm species pay close attention to the bird, insect next to them and the response creates a collective whole.

I sometimes ponder, does my little dent in this ginormous world really make a difference -- is my treading lightly (and teaching my children to do the same) really going to benefit any of the larger issues we need to change in society? Well, using my friends Molly and George as an example, and based on Swarm Intelligence, the solar panels on the roof of their house and their biodeisel cars in their driveway are, unwittingly, communicating to others around them, who are in turn communicating to those nearby. Self, family, community, world.

Whether humans are pack animals, swarm species, herds (probably a mixture of all types), management at large corporations study swarm intelligence applying it to organization and decision making. Luckily, us non-corporate types don't have to study it, we can just live it.

The Boys Are Back In Town

Brent and his friends while away the hours: three on the same website on lap tops and one playing a Wii game. Got to keep your eye on those wiley boys.

Sick Day

My Sis

My talented sister, Stephanie, showed up on Friday night, not only with purple carnations, but three different shades of purple carnations. She promptly emptied all my kitchen utensils out of a Le Creuset utensil holder that my friend Molly had given me and created an instant center piece. Fabulous!

Shi Haung-Di

This picture of Cole was taken during last few weeks of school while performing in his "Wax Museum" project. Cole makes a very cute Emporer of China during a government run by Legalism.

Summertime

Today was 103 degrees, hot, hot, hot. When the sprinklers came on this evening to give the plants a much needed drink of water, an amazing amount of tiny birds came in flocks to have a drink themselves. My attention was first caught, while I was inside the house passing a window, by what looked like confetti being thrown in the backyard. But what I actually saw was the confetti of small birds fluttering around the besprinkled yard. I grabbed my camera and tried to capture them on film, but the birds would take off the second I flinched. I decided I did not want to interrupt the thirsty birds any longer and instead just hang out motionlessly and enjoy their noisy, happy chatter as they drenched themselves.


Try as a might, I could only capture a slight glimpse of them through the camera; if you feel like looking very closely, you can see a few tail feathers coming from the branches of the lemon tree.

The birds were very sensitive to my movement, and having the cat nearbye eyeing them probably did not help.

The daylillie's colors are a perfect representation of the heat the day.

Unfortunately, I languished so long in the evening heat that I did not make dinner for the family (we ordered Vietnamese take-out, mmmm Bobo's), or finish the two reports I had due for work. But I did feed the birds.

Amen

Running in the canyon. Making cinamony French Toast. Playing a couple games of Boggle. Listening to "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" on the radio. Having the perfect Sunday morning.