wandering sails: 07.2006

7.28.2006

missing the funny.

i think i lost my funny. amy thought it might have fallen between the cushions of my couch, which of course is very possible being that a lot of things fall down there. i'm not exactly sure what funny looks like, though, so if i were to look for it, i'm wondering how i would know if i found it. i suppose it would be the one thing that i wasn't sure about.

it's not a good thing to lose your funny. i used to laugh a lot... people on the road did funny things. i did funny things. i thought of funny things. but i feel like noticing the funny took a vacation. and i want to apologize for that. i know my blogs have been sub-par as of late. you deserve better. i promise i'll try harder. but in the meantime, i have this:

all things golden. isn't it great timing that pirates of the caribbean is out right now? otherwise, you'd never find all gold m&m's. and the roses. they're nice. kathy and halle brought them the other day. they smell fantastic. my uncle brought the candy. they're almost all gone, because i've been sharing.

posted by julie @ 1:52 PM 4 comments

pinwheels.

i'm working on a project that i'm having tons of fun with. maggie hanson's three year portraits are on the docket and they partly involve pinwheels. i have to tell you, i looked everywhere for pinwheels, to no avail. well, i looked at a couple of stores, but i finally decided i was going to have to make them to get what i wanted. martha stewart has been a big help in the process and i love what i've done so far. this is my favorite so far. one thing i've noticed, is that no one fails to be excited about pinwheels. everyone that has come in and seen them gets this look in their eye before asking what they're for. it's that harken back to childhood. simple things. pinwheels. summer days. baseball. lemonade. bike rides. frog catching. swimming. crickets.

i had no idea what i was getting into, but i've missed it.

posted by julie @ 10:58 AM 0 comments

7.26.2006

this is what it looks like.

where or where have i been? i've been working and editing and packing and scrapbooking and driving in my car (which you know i hate). but, i did take a moment out of my busy day on saturday to snap this picture for you guys of the paper i stocked up on before i left for my scrapbooking retreat in red wing. just in case you were wondering what $96 worth of paper looked like. now you know.

posted by julie @ 10:22 AM 5 comments

7.18.2006

josh & lorrae.

last weekend was a crazy weekend. one piece of that crazy weekend was my cousin's wedding up in brainerd. and it's been crazy ever since, so i haven't even had a chance to get the pictures off my camera. here are just a few i pulled out of the masses. oh, yeah... and that little guy in the second picture? that's my darling nephew, jack, who did such an awesome job!

posted by julie @ 9:33 AM 5 comments

7.13.2006

day #2

okay, i promise that not every post for the next six weeks will be about running. but today's is. mostly because it is vastly different than yesterday's post and about a key turning point for me.

on my way home from work, i stopped at the outlet mall to remedy a few issues i experienced on tuesday night. i stopped first and spent a hearty chunk of money on some shoes. then, at the next store, i found a tank top that promised to wick away moisture and keep me cool. and finally, i stopped and bought some running shorts. after the unfortunate incident with the non-breathing umbros, i felt this was a necessity.

then, i got home, ate some dinner and tried to work on some other things but found myself too antsy to concentrate. i put all my new running gear on and did some stretching while i watched a bit of tv. after what seemed like forever, 8:00 came and i headed out. jen's training schedule had lori and i add another set of 5 mins walking/5 mins running to our previous 2.

i kept expecting to feel like i did yesterday when i ran, especially since no matter where i go, i have to run up hills, but it never came. i paced myself a bit slower, and i think that helped, but actually, i think i owe most of my comfort to the shoes and the shorts. it sounds sort of stupid, but i thought i was going to keel over on tuesday night and i finished last night feeling like i could have kept going.

i have to say, this made me feel really good. tuesday, i was thinking, i cannot possibly run 6 miles and yesterday, it really felt like i could do it. which makes me more excited to keep going.

besides, i just plunked down almost a month's worth of groceries on running gear... that alone makes me want to keep going.

posted by julie @ 4:12 PM 4 comments

7.12.2006

day #1.

jen's training schedule required 20 minutes of motion last night. 5 minutes of walking, 5 minutes of running and repeat. the first walk was fine. after two minutes of running, my body started asking questions. what are we doing? we don't do this. why are my muscles moving this way? don't we hate this? having no good answers that wouldn't lead to stopping, i had to leave them hang in the air, unanswered.

five minutes of running doesn't sound that bad. i can bike for hours. i can swim for hours. i can weed my garden for hours. but at three and a half minutes into my first run, i looked down at my watch in shock that it had only been three and a half minutes. four minutes rolled around and i started staring at the seconds tick by, urging it to move faster. thirty seconds left. come on. finally, five minutes were up and i celebrated my own personal victory. i started walking back, hoping to walk fast enough not to have to run up the hill i had come down on the way. no such luck. it was, in fact, almost the first piece of pavement i had to run on. i got halfway up the hill and decided that it wouldn't be the end of the world to walk up the rest of the way. so i did. it took me a little bit to start running again, but i did. and then i stopped right as i got onto my street.

mostly, i didn't want my neighbors looking out their windows and muttering to their companion, 'what's wrong with her? is she okay? she sure looks funny.'

posted by julie @ 4:08 PM 2 comments

7.11.2006

big news.

those of you who have been around for a while know that i'm not a runner. i've tried. and while it is possible for me to do, albeit slowly, it's definitely not one of my strengths.

so why on earth would i decide to run in a race? i have no idea. the only thing that's appealing about it is the free t-shirt that says i'm a runner. but for whatever reason, i'm training for a 10K in august. my friend jen, of marathon fame was kind enough to write up a training schedule, so i feel fully prepared. except i have to buy a watch, since i have to run for specific amounts of time. and i might need new shoes. i don't know if mine qualify as running shoes. and i might need some better running clothes. but then i'm prepared.

i'm running with my friend, lori (of st. louis fame), who's a bit nervous. she was concerned about being the last person to finish, so i told her that if we were the last two, i'd let her cross the finish line first. (aaahhhh) oh, stop it. i figure that i'm not going to win it, so i have no concerns about where i'm going to place. i just want to finish. preferably before they start pulling the cones.

posted by julie @ 4:04 PM 2 comments

7.10.2006

sweet little mckenzie.

this is my goddaughter, mckenzie. she's sweet, right? she belongs to my cousin andrea and i sure like her.

i just wanted to show her off.

posted by julie @ 3:54 PM 2 comments

7.07.2006

love, surgery and a bunny.

last night was the big night. we've known it would come for some time now and the situation has steadily gotten worse.

the other day, in fact, halle said to me, 'julie. bunny's hole is getting bigger.' the worry in her voice broke my heart, so the date was set. the grafts had painstakingly been chosen... a purple lilac print for the tail, a pretty floral for the shoulder and a pink for the nose reconstruction.

i arrived last night and was informed that bunny (or bunte, as he is often known) was prepped and halle was prepared. i sat down to a quick, fantastic dinner and then gathered our tiny patient in my hands. halle was present for the surgery, as were kathy and maggie. maggie was a little worried that the needle hurt him and she was very sad for him to have to go through it at all, so i assured her he was under heavy, heavy anethesia. there were no complications to

speak of and in less than an hour, little girl and bunny were reunited just in time for bed.

on the right, you can see a mid-surgery picture. we forgot to document the procedures at first, so we did a before of the nose. on the left, you get the after. this is completely post-surgery. one interesting thing to note is that the color of bunny's nose is really pretty close to the original color of his nose and just a shade darker than bunny's original color. do you see that? it's love. that's what it is. this bunny has been loved.

posted by julie @ 1:29 PM 6 comments

7.05.2006

chuck roast, please.

i have a beef. let me share it with you.

i pride myself on my favorites menu. it's used heavily and i frequently clean it out to make sure it is in excellent working order.

when i first moved into the menu, i deleted all the folders they had as presets. except one. because it wouldn't let me. to this day, it's empty. and it bugs me that it's still in there.

what folder you ask? the links folder.

this is a two-sided beef, by the way. beef number one is that i cannot delete it. who are they to think that i need it? i don't. why? what a wonderful lead-in to beef number two.

everything in my favorites is a link. isn't that what it's for? so a links folder is redundant and completely unnecessary. sure, i could put everything into the links folder, but it adds an extra step to get to the items i want to access quickly.

i tried renaming it once, thinking i could get rid of it that way... you know, call it blogs and use it to access reading material. i moved all the blogs over from the old folder and renamed it. and do you think it renamed it? you'd be silly if you did, because i started this paragraph off letting you know that i tried to rename it. all it did was create a new folder.

so there's my beef. it's small. it won't mess much with the tilt of the earth, but it sure brings up an awfully good point.

posted by julie @ 10:27 AM 2 comments

7.03.2006

the hour before.

this morning, i awoke to a cool breeze blowing on my face. as i drifted in and out of slumber for the next hour, i bundled my body in my quilt and moved so my face could feel the breeze. i could smell the rain coming and in between gusts, my face would get hot. in those moments, i moved closer to the window, hoping to catch the scent of the impending wetness and to feel the coolness again. i remember smiling. i remember thinking, i could stay here forever... i could have been in that moment for a lifetime. to feel what i felt and to be who i was. to have nothing more than the pleasure derived from a moment spent with God alone.

posted by julie @ 2:28 PM 2 comments

wandering sails