procrastiblogging...

tonight was the best night ever. some pals and i went out for some dusk paddling in the multnomah channel. it was lovely. the air temperature was perfect, everything felt quiet and it was so much fun to snoop on all the houseboats. why have i waited this long to organize such a trip? i'm not sure, by i'm glad it finally happened, even though it is mid-august. and now the canoe and kayak live at home and i'm sure that will make me much more likely to use them. yay!

and this is procrastiblogging. it's last and i still have to finish my lab (not to mention all the reading and studying i should do too). at least i made it in front of the computer with the intention of writing my lab, but the e-mail-vanessajean check in-facebook-blogger distractions were just too powerful.

i had ice cream for dinner tonight. i biked over 15 miles to and from class. i got to go to new seasons. could like be any better?

picture of the day:














fierce is so good at lounging...i should take some pointers from her.

the drumming never stops

tonight i went to see some drumming. i've happened to have seen a lot of drumming this summer. tonight it was this neat portland group, the lions of batucada. on the fourth of july i saw one of a kind drum line in vancouver, wa with my family. then there is the group portland group that marches in all the parades, but i don't know their name. anyhow, i've found myself inspired by drumming all summer...and maybe it's just time for me to finally pick up an instrument in my life (ok, other than the two years of piano in middle school!). there is just something magical about the energy lots of drums create when they are all making noise at the same time...i just love it!

no more procrastiblogging...of two write about biology. specifically blood pressure and ekgs. the exciting part about lab yesterday was that i got to be hooked up for an ekg and watch the electricity and my heart beat doing crazy stuff like resting, running up stairs, holding an inhale, holding and exhale and a fake exhale. wow. science is pretty cool.

dog picture of the day:














oh my gosh! she is actually athletic! fierce is the one lunging at the ball. she can fetch (only in competition if there are other dogs around).

the signs are all around!

oh my gosh! are you ever just so full of joy - just brimming over - that it is hard to keep it all contained? that's how i feel right now. i have this theory that the world is full of energy and we are either flowing with it or pushing against it. when we are flowing with it, that's when we are in tune, when life feels easy, like floating down a river in the middle of boise in an inner tube. and it is at precisely those times, when we are just going with the flow, that if we open our ears and our hearts and our minds that we can see the everything and the nothing that exists in the world. it's then we can see that everything, everything serves as a sign, a beacon, an omen, the dial on our compass, and when we feel that energy...there is so much we can intuit!

i love it! it's like when my dad and i have esp. or when there is just enough energy around an issue that you just know something is going to happen. and it does. and maybe it doesn't mean anything...but still something has happened. vague? yes! sometimes it just takes slowing down, floating along, opening up our hearts and feeling the world around us to know, just know.

on my bike ride home tonight (way past my bedtime, ie it was dark out) i was pondering the wonderful conversations i have had with friends (such lovely, lovely friends) in the past few days. i will admit, i have been in a slump, one of those slumps that occurs when your heart feels something icky and then your brain proceeds to nosedive into a pit of despair. anyhow, biking home i starting to feel the joy bubbling up again, and my sense of excitement and peacefulness coming back. and all of the pieces of the puzzle fitting together. and for the first time ever, biking home on the dark streets, portland felt like home. i felt like one with this city that has never quite fit right. oh the joy.

i am feeling peak gratefulness to all the wonderful people in this life who make it what it is.

chicken picture of the day:














the babes a few weeks after hatching. darn they are cutie pies. roosty roo (back left) the bantam araucana is the boy who had to leave our flock because roosters are banned in the city and he was starting to make a lot of noise. don't tell the girls, but he was the prettiest and had the best personality! and don't tell fierce that the chicks get mention and she doesn't.

bio schmio

i did not realize that taking a one-quarter, college-level principles of biology class would kick my butt so hard...and it's only day one. i think mostly i have been in a period of extreme relaxation (laziness?) and it's hard to direct my attention to the things i should be doing (like taking a biology class so i can be qualified for grad school-why didn't i take bio i college?) instead of doing the things i want to do (a two hour catch up phone chat with jessie? looking at darcy's wedding photos, visiting jason and amber's chickens?). you get the point. the next three weeks may be painful...but the upside is lots of procrastiblogging. which is good news for this blog's loyal 1.5 readers.

here's a little dog and chicken story of the day. there isn't really any background to this yet, so i will say this...fierce likes the chickens. she likes them so much that she can't take her eyes off them and if they weren't fenced in she would like to snuggle them to death. and although fierce is generally a wonderful dog, she gets pretty excited about things that squawk and meow and move quickly and she stops paying attention to anything i ask of her.

today i got home very sweaty after (finally) getting to ride my bike home. the girls were chillin' on the sofa and i let them out in the backyard. i assumed (to assume is to...) the hens were in the coop, but the coop door was open and the two big hens had hopped the fence and were unprotected from the dogs wandering around the back yard. and i realized this as the dogs were charging out the back door! cleo, the most responsive and wonderful dog headed back in the house at the commotion i made. my immediate fear was the fierce was going to charge a chicken and grab it by the neck and bad things would ensue. instead...she curiously followed them for a couple seconds (probably stunned beyond belief that they were free) and then she stopped and sat down when i asked her! she followed my instructions instead of the dog voice inside her head that was saying "get the chickens". it was glorious! the dog might have manners! she might not want to eat chickens after all! it was glorious and i felt like my dog training was victorious! so many exclamation points!

ok, so that might not be as exciting to you all, kind reading audience, but it was a victory for me. i'm just waiting for the day when i look out in the yard and there is a chicken snuggled next to fierce and they are napping in the sun. ok, a girl can dream.

dog photo for the day:














she is so sleek.

mr. obama as mr. darcy?

ok, if you didn't know that i have an undying love of pride and prejudice (not to mention anything jane austin or colin firth). i just reread and rewatched the bbc version so it's fresh in my mind. someone (aka green pants) sent me a ny times link to a maureen dowd article implying mr. obama in the role of mr darcy. it's a little bit of a stretch, but it connects all my favorite things together. read it here.

...and it wasn't until last night that i realized i haven't watched all of arrested development in this world. oh my god! how i thought my life was complete and there was no more happiness to be had...but there is...oh how there is...oh how i love season three. i will savor each and every mole destroying a small city, every time michael gets clobbered by a puppet and anything george michael says or does. god bless america.

dog photo of the day...



















cleo has fallen in love with fierce's dungeon. it takes a lot to get them both in there.














and this is my favorite classroom picture from this year. because of the nature of a garden classroom, there are a lot of funny things written on the board and the kids ask for help spelling lots of funny words. so we end up with lots of very funny things on the board.

the joys of snoring dogs

ok, ok, i know. it's been a really long time since i have posted to this blog...and a really long time since i have even thought about it. but you know what? i think it's time to bring back some vanessa jean blogging action. and i will give you two really, really good reasons: 1) dogs and 2) chickens. i will forgo the thought that this blog even has anything to do with duct tape anymore. i think it will be all dog and all chicken all the time. get used to it and quit your whining.

no, really. tonight i sat down to update vanessajean.com because, let's face it, the fact that the index page still referred to christmas '07 was a pretty big sign of neglect. and oh what a process! i have a new hard drive and no dreamweaver...so it took a while to actually get to the point of having the software to change anything. but i got there and spent a lovely night watching charlie bartlett and editing vanessajean. it was great fun to actually look at the site and some of the old press, like this clip from wtnh news in new haven. that was so long ago and so much has changed since then! and this blog, that started about FIVE years ago...and actually used to be full of meaningful things...just to think how much has happened between then and now...and now i am here, on the dogs' sofa, enjoying the gentle snoring of two exhausted black dogs.

buy really, let's get on to the good stuff...pictures of dogs and chickens. who cares about what i have to say, it's about the animals...















fierce herbott, just relaxing















fierce, on coop installation & chicken release day, before she knew how her life would change forever.















enter...the girls. ok, there was one boy too. he lasted for about a week, until his early morning pre-pubescent crowing got so loud that i had to find him a new home. it was sad, but it seems like he has a nice life in scapoose now. the rooster was a beautiful bantam araucana...oh how i loved him! anyhow, after spending the first two months of their lives in a melon box in a classroom full of loud kids, the girls didn't know how to react to this 'natural' environment.















one big happy family...until the chickens started moving...and the dogs got excited...and we had to put up a second fence.