Goals, Lists, To-Do

I like making lists.

Pen for short-term lists, for lists of things "to-do," for grocery lists, for packing lists, for making sure I don't forget.

Pencil for the longer-term lists - lists which require careful planning and deserve fastidious, elegant handwriting.  I don't write these lists in pencil because it gives me the option of erasing goals or items.  Those goals would never disappear - palimpsests would simply be in their stead.

I write out lists by hand.

Seeing my handwriting makes me believe those things listed on the page more.  They are a part of me, they are what I believe in, they are what I stand for, they are what I must do.  The list is a part of me and I am made up of each of those items.

I am a chronic list-maker. Shit just runs better around here when lists are involved.  The house will not fall apart if there are no lists, but if there are no lists, then it is a sure-fire sign that I might be falling apart.

The lists are not a Partner thing; they are totally all about me and my Type-A personality.  The lists help keep me from frittering away my day, my week, my year.  The lists help me keep track not only of what I need to be doing

fold laundry
call airline re: miles
pick up stamps
order food processor
deal with car registration/inspection
make list of office days/research days for this week
begin working on syllabus for spring
plan diss schedule for Feb.


but also what I want to be doing - what the goals are for this year, this month, this week.  The list helps me keep those goals in sight both literally and metaphorically.

More than making lists, I love crossing things off of those lists when I've accomplished them.

Snow to Slush

The winter weather has been wonderful.  Sadly, it is disappearing before my eyes.

drip, drip, drip

foot traffic outside the post office

Dear USPS

Thank you for doing such a good job of adhering to our request and holding our mail for 20 days while we traveled.





























I was so happy to come home and find it all crammed into our tiny mailbox (and destroying all of my copies of the New Yorker!!!!)

xoxo,
Rachel

Veggie-tales

The snow we have right now is making me so happy.  I know, I know:  I am like one of four people in Seattle who feel that way, but I am a winter-time baby so cut me some slack.

While I am rejoicing in the snow and loving the fact that I am getting to wear my favorite winter boots, I have spring on the brain. Not spring itself, per se -- especially as I've never been through a Seattle spring before -- but spring projects.  Specifically starting a garden.

Last summer when I moved to Seattle I spent the better part of a few days ripping out our yard as I waited for the movers to arrive with my stuff.  Then I spent a few more days in the fall ripping the rest of it out, cleaning everything up, and getting it all ready for winter. Originally I intended on getting in a bit of a garden in last summer, but as overwhelmed as I was with the move, gardening did not happen. This year the garden will happen.  Still, there is a lot that must be done before then.

While we were gone I spent time looking at raised beds and going back through various design blogs to find all of the garden stuff I had run across before and really liked.

Now that we are home I want to concentrate on sketching out and pricing out a raised bed for the yard.  I also want to look into doing a DIY cold-frame.  We have some old wine crates I moved here from my old apartment, and I think one or two of those plus a trip to the Re-Store for an old window, hinges, and other materials and I might be able to pull it together with minimal help or tools beyond our drill.

In addition to the raised bed and cold frame, Partner hung some hooks on our fence so that we can have some hanging-planters of herbs.  I think I may also want some pots of herbs or lettuce on the second-floor balcony for easy access.

Once I have all of the structural things figured out for the garden, then it will be on to planning what we will plant.  I already know that kiwi berries will be on the list!

For the Walls

We are big fans of kiwi in this household.  This year we even discovered the kiwi berry, which totally rocks!!!  Also, dragon-fruit, which we ate tons of while in Thailand (it seemed not to make us sick at all) is like a giant and differently flavored kiwi with 9000x as many seeds.  I happen to like the seeds.

Given our love of kiwi, when I came across this print, it was hard not to fall in love.

I am not sure where I would hang it, but it is still pretty darn cute.

Love in the time of Cholera

Our trip was awesome.  Super-fantastic, amazing awesome.  Partner really went out of his way in the planning department on this one.  Truthfully it has been a bit overwhelmed to think about planning our next trip as he did such an amazing job with this one.  (I am on the next one as we switch off trip planning each year.)

Still there is no reason to get ahead of myself and contemplate the next trip when I still get to glow in the fun that was this one.

Hello, do you see the color of that water?!?!!? AMAZING!!!


The one downside of the trip was picking up some horrible stomach thing somewhere between Thailand and Cambodia.  It has been bad.  Really bad.  The morning after we came home I called our doctor and we've been on antibiotics since then as I had been sick for about 10 days at that point.  Partner too had been ill, but his system held out for a few days longer than mine did because, as he likes to say, I am fragile.

Fragile or not.  My ass was kicked.

Home

I am so happy to be back in my home after an amazing vacation.  Partner planned a phenomenal adventure.  I've never seen such clear, blue water!  Thailand was beautiful.  Cambodia was interesting.  In the end, however, there is no place like home.