June Pie Month Survived

Flickr photo credit: thepriapisticpress

As my regular readers know, I have a little issue with pie. I really like pie. A lot. In fact, I lied. I flat-out love pie.

So, it's no small feat that Kevin and I have survived this Marie Calendar's pie month by eating only two pies: razzleberry and lemon cream cheese.

Of course, we've had strawberry shortcake, strawberry crepes, and I bought a million of these cute little Haagen Dazs containers of strawberry ice cream. Because they were on sale. Yes, just because of a sale. Hmmm. Strawberries sound good right now... on something. Like strawberry ice cream.

Maybe I should make a post label for pie. That's definitely more common, on my blog anyway, than the Blogger suggested "scooters, vacation, fall." Scooters don't have nothin' on pie here at Bristlecone Pine.

Recipe for a Nearly Perfect (Rainy) Evening

• Being with my #1 guy
• Up!
• A full rainbow from Big Cottonwood Canyon to Corner Canyon
• Tomato soup with basil and ciabatta with basalmic vinigar and extra virgin olive oil
• Topping it off with a couple of episodes of The Critic

Buffy brought me the best five minutes of my day

Caprese

Every summer, I become absolutely convinced I could eat this salad every day for dinner.

Flickr photo credit: StormySleep

• Tomatoes
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt
• Freshly-ground pepper
• Mozzarella cheese

And were're going to have a lot of tomatoes, both traditional and heirloom, this year. Thank you, rainy June, for making them grow like crazy.

A little xeric gardening

Kevin and I have his and hers flowerbeds. I don't know how it worked out the way it did, but one of us would come up with a plan for a particular spot in the yard, and the other one would be OK with that.

This is Kevin's water-wise and native plant bed, chosen around our lamppost where he ripped out the lawn because the sprinklers never hit there. Beautiful, if you ask me. And I didn't even pull up any weedy-looking early penstemons or poppies this year.

Embarrassing Personal Confession

Jessica does Embarrassing Personal Confession features on her blog, which are always fun to get the juicy tidbits of her life (gray hair!). I'm not saying I would make this a repeat feature on my blog, but seriously, I've got something embarrassing to confess. But it's probably not very juicy.

It's not enough that in our marriage we've had two hamsters, two cats, a frog (that came into the marriage from my sophomore year in college), and a beta fish. The fact is, I love pets. And I love to look at all the pets on Craigslist. If it doesn't have a picture, I won't look at it. Also, I won't look at it if it's not a local listing - even though I don't really want another pet!

I just think animals are so cute. Look at this baby chinchilla, now available for adoption here in Utah:

I bet it's even cuter when it spins around in a tub of ashes to clean itself off. Early in their marriage, Jessica and Mark used to have a chinchilla, and an ash bath was one of the funniest things I ever saw. *Sigh.*

Where are all the Pixar girls?

Today at lunch with some coworkers, I mentioned how much I love Pixar movies, and how I'm looking forward to seeing Up! However, I lamented that Pixar has yet to release a movie with a central female character, and only two of the movies, A Bug's Life and The Incredibles pass the female character test devised by my Internet friend Starfoxy.

Her test has two requirements:

1. There must be at least two female characters
2. At some point, the female characters need to have a conversation with each other about something other than a man

Of course, the test doesn't even mandate a central female character. It looks like Pixar's next film is going to feature a central female lead, but it's advertised as the "frirst Pixar fairytale," and of course that female lead is a princess.

As Linda Holmes so aptly said on NPR:

Of the ten movies [Pixar has] released so far, ten of them have central characters who are boys or men, or who are anthropomorphized animals or robots or bugs who are voiced by and imagined as boys or men. These movies feature women and girls to varying degrees -- The Incredibles, in particular -- but the story is never "a girl and the things that happen to her," the way it's "a boy and what happens to him."

So here's hoping Pixar can give us a movie about Dory the forgetful, spontaneous tang fish. For a similar commentary, click here.

For MaeLynn, My Friend

I had a post scheduled for today on Disney Pixar movies, but it just doesn't seem appropriate in light of some news I received this hour. My dear, wonderful friend MaeLynn has been diagnosed with terminal neuroendocrine cancer. I don't know the details yet, but I think that the cancer is slow growing, even though I understand she's in stage 4. Unfortunately, she's been in pain since October, and only now do they realize the cause.

MaeLynn and I learned to tie our shoelaces together. We attended the same preschool. I taught her how to make forts out of blankets in her basement, and she taught me about being in tune with people's emotions and sensitivities. Just a few weeks ago, she called me to ask about my dad's terminal cancer, and she was so supportive, which she always is.

MaeLynn rejoices in life. She had five kids in five years, and her oldest is just about seven now. Although she struggled physically with severe scoliosis and pediatric back surgery, she shows amazing strength, giving birth naturally to her babies. When we last spoke, she told me how comfortable she now feels in her body.

I'd just like to take a moment to pause to pray for MaeLynn and give her and her large family the support they need. You can see her cousin's blog about Mae's cancer here.

Le Fermes de Papillions (Butterly Farm)

A fun St. Martin attraction is the Butterfly Farm, a tropical plant refuge where they have imported butterflies from all over the world.

Our tour guide, Peter, was an amazing storyteller. From chrysalis to adult, we saw butterflies in each stage. And they flew in abundance.

I can't believe that a caterpillar (larva) actually completely dissolves into a liquid before making itself back up into a butterfly. Talk about rebirth and transformation! This chrysalis is showing the making of the head and wings through the shell.

This means Kevin was lucky for 24 hours (but unfortunately, we didn't have the desire to go to the casinos on the Dutch side).

I loved these little ones with a wide wingspan.

Butterflies are hard to capture on camera, and even moreso on video.

Heavenly Sand on St. Martin

There's nothing like literally getting away from it all. With no phone or Internet access, I realize how liberating it is to be tied only to the ocean, to a refreshing beverage, and to good conversations or good beach reads on the cool Caribbean sand (yes, the sand doesn't get hot there!).

What we've been up to:

Enjoying our balcony view of the ocean (free room upgrade - I love the off season!)

Eating delicious French and Italian cuisine oceanside (real pizza and crepes) with friendly Frenchies for Kevin to talk to

Kayaking, snorkeling (sea turtle and barracuda), and water games, followed by pina coladas served right on the beach

Breathtaking cacti views on our hike to the secluded beach (which several tourists made into a "very French" beach - until 20 jet skis and a party boat showed up)

A hike through the rain forest in flip flops and beach clothes (fortunately, with herbal bug repellent)

View of the French side from Chewbacca Rock

Kevin's massive order at a French bakery (shot taken about halfway through lunch - the foot long panini didn't last more than a few minutes)

Ode to the Iris

What is the iris?

The pillowy, tissuey petals

The rich and faded colors

The wrinkles like elephant skin

The feeling that the semi-wilted bloom should crinkle at the touch

The self-propelled bloom, unafraid to droop or cover as it meets noonday

First Blooms

And they will never cease to take my breath away.